Secrets of the Green God

Secrets of the Green God

by Andrew May

First published in Nuketown, June 2000

The creature had four arms and three eyes, and it was green. Surrounded by the relics of past centuries, it stood motionless, frozen in its cosmic dance of creation and destruction. Arthur leaned forward for a closer look. Inside the glass display case, there was a faded paper label: "Shiva Nataraja, copper alloy, India, 20th century. $1000.00". Expensive, but irresistible. Arthur beckoned the sales assistant.

"That Indian figurine," he said. "I'll take it."

"A fine choice," the assistant said, unlocking the display case. "You're a collector?"

"No, not really," Arthur said. "But it reminds me of home. It reminds me of Earth."

Arthur paid the assistant and left the antiques store, clutching his new acquisition. He made his way through the crowded shopping area to the transport ship's docking bay, and the connecting tunnel leading back to the space station.

Rita Sanchez, head of security on DSD 2, was on duty in the station's reception area. Given the sensitive nature of Dynamic System Design's business, it paid to keep close track of all personnel and goods entering or leaving the space station.

"Hello, Mr Krim -- bought anything interesting?"

"Just an ornament," Arthur said, handing over the six-limbed figurine. "A hundred years old, or so -- not a real antique, but it'll brighten up my living quarters. The Indian god Shiva, the Lord of the Dance. It's quite attractive, don't you think?"

"Elegant," Rita said, passing the statuette through her scanner. The machine beeped. "And bugged," she added. "But that's not surprising, considering the business we're in. Half the stuff that comes on board has got a hot link back to some competitor or other. Still, not to worry. It's easily dealt with."

Rita scraped a small sliver of metal from the base of the statuette and dropped the bug into the disintegrator. "Looked like the work of LeGrand Corp," she said. "They never stop trying." She passed the figurine back to Arthur. "But then neither do we, I guess. Enjoy."

Arthur turned toward the elevator, only to be intercepted almost immediately by a tall young man. Arthur vaguely recognised him as another of the thousand-odd employees on the DSD 2 station. A scientist, he thought -- someone from the research labs.

"Excuse me," the young man said. "I couldn't help overhearing." He looked distinctly excited. "That copper statuette -- it is copper, isn't it? It had a LeGrand bug? I'm Peter van Houten, by the way. DSD Industrial Intelligence Division, advanced research group."

"Pleased to meet you," Arthur said, somewhat taken aback. "Arthur Krim, project librarian." He passed the verdigris-coated figurine to van Houten, trying to remember what the label had said. "Yes, it's copper, I think -- copper alloy."

"Terrific!" van Houten said. "Can you spare a few minutes? This little statuette could be of considerable value to the company, if my guess is right."

Van Houten moved off towards the research labs, taking Arthur's figurine with him. Seeing no alternative, Arthur followed. "Yes, it is quite valuable," he said. "A thousand dollars, I paid for it. Still, it's a lot cheaper than an original. And it's an investment. Twentieth century reproductions are rising in price all the time. They're becoming collectible."

Van Houten didn't appear to be listening. He glanced back at Arthur and asked: "Do you know anything about the BSR research project?"

"No -- I'm just an archives man," Arthur said. "I know a bit about DSD's history and current products, but the research side is a closed book."

"It's a new breakthrough in industrial espionage," van Houten said. "And as far as we know, none of our competitors are anywhere near us. It does away with the need for active devices altogether -- it's a completely passive system. This statuette, for example -- if it's been at a LeGrand site, it can tell us more about them than their bug would ever have told them about us."

They reached the lab, and van Houten made towards one particularly complicated piece of apparatus involving several computer monitors, keyboards, and assorted boxes and wires. It was all way beyond Arthur. Van Houten ushered Arthur to a seat.

"The important thing about this statuette is that it's copper," van Houten said, busily connecting the Shiva figurine into the apparatus. "That means it's a good conductor -- the outer electrons can move freely throughout the crystal lattice."

"Yes," Arthur said, totally out of his depth.

"And it's an ornament -- the sort of thing that might be left in the same place for long stretches of time. On a quantum level, the object has time to come into equilibrium with its environment... at least, those parts of the environment that remain constant during that time. The lattice-wide wave functions of the conduction electrons adapt to reflect the surroundings. And the memory of past configurations remains intact. But it's encoded in a horrendously non-linear way -- and with so many degrees of freedom -- that for all practical purposes it's inaccessible."

"Until now?" Arthur hazarded.

"That's right," van Houten said. "Until now!" He flicked a few switches. "In the BSR method -- Bloch state reconstruction -- we make a large number of simultaneous measurements, typically several billion... the conductivity tensor, and other macroscopic properties... and combine them with real-time computer predictions to create a virtual-reality model of the past environment. Of course, the model has statistical validity only -- it's not a true image of any particular instant in the past, and it doesn't contain any transient information like the coming and going of individuals. But we've performed several impressive tests of the method."

Van Houten typed rapidly at a keyboard, and a blurred image appeared on one of the computer screens. "But your statuette offers greater possibilities than any of our previous test objects. It's considerably bigger for one thing, and..."

"What's that, there on the screen?" Arthur asked. The view had been shifting as van Houten made adjustments, but now it had steadied. It showed the interior of a small gray room with rough stucco walls and stone floor.

"Damn," van Houten said. "That's not what I was expecting. I'll try and widen the field of view."

"Can you do that?" Arthur asked. "If the statuette was inside that tiny room..."

"You're forgetting," van Houten said. "This isn't a simple image -- not like you'd get on a photographic film. The collective wave-function contains information on the location of all fixed objects within a radius of... well, of several meters, or tens of meters, or hundreds of meters depending on how long the object was in place. A complete three-dimensional map, irrespective of intervening walls or whatever. The computer uses the 3D map to reconstruct a pseudo-image from a particular viewpoint at a particular time."

The view on the screen scrambled chaotically, and van Houten suddenly snapped his fingers. He was looking at some numbers on another screen. "Okay -- I think I know what's wrong," he said. He fiddled with the machine again, and another image formed. This time it was clearer -- a modern office lobby, with potted palms and a receptionist's desk, an elevator bank, and a corridor running off to one side. Over the desk, a large "LeGrand Corp" logo was clearly visible.

"Bingo!" shouted van Houten. "Obviously one of LeGrand's big offices on Earth -- possibly even their HQ in Montrouge. And the image is so clear... the statue must have been there for years. We'll get a complete site plan out of this!"

"Uh -- but my statuette..." Arthur said.

"Oh, don't worry, Mr Krim. It'll only take a few hours to download the information we need. Then you can have it back, safe and sound. And I'm sure the company will recognize your contribution to the project, and reimburse you accordingly."

"Right, thanks," Arthur said. He thought for a moment. "But what was that first image we saw?"

"Oh that," van Houten said. "I thought you said the object was a twentieth century reproduction, so I set the machine to display its surroundings some hundred years after manufacture. Then I checked the diagnostics and realized we were looking at the middle of the twelfth century. It's a genuine antique, isn't it?"