“We hope,” Ramsey added. He’d downloaded enough data on the Ahannu and on the Builders to know something of current xenohistorical theory. “From what I’ve DLed, galactic civilization comes and goes in waves. Things are just starting to tick along smoothly, then along comes a predator race—like the Hunters—who follow the notion that the best survival strategy is to eliminate the competition. All of the competition. Then they destroy themselves, and the stage is set for the next turn of the wheel. Is that right, Dr. Hanson?”
“That’s the idea. It’s called the Predatory Survivors Hypothesis, and it’s the best answer we’ve come up with yet for Fermi’s Paradox.”
“Fermi’s Paradox?” Norris said. “What’s that?”
“Look it up on the net,” Hanson told him.
“‘Where are they?’ was the question supposedly asked by a physicist named Enrico Fermi, back a couple of hundred years ago,” Cassius explained. “Basically, it notes that even if faster-than-light travel is impossible, a single technic race could spread out and colonize the entire galaxy in a few hundred thousand years.”
“Right,” Ramsey said. “Back in Fermi’s day there was no sign of alien colonists, none that we recognized at the time, anyway. So the question was…where are they? Why aren’t they here? If they’re not here, what happened to them?”
“It was actually pretty strong evidence that we were alone,” Hanson said. “That we were the only technic civilization in the galaxy or one of a very, very few. Since then, of course, we’ve found out that habitable planets are common…and intelligence must be fairly common too. We know of at least three now and possibly four sentient species besides ourselves—the Ahannu, the Builders, and either one or two groups of Hunters…all, apparently, in the same corner of a very large galaxy.”
“The Predatory Survivors Hypothesis suggests that many sentient species arise and develop technology at roughly the same time,” Cassius said. “However, in each cycle there is certain to be at least one species that survives by killing off all the competition.”
“Yeah,” Ramsey said. “Maybe it’s something hardwired into certain species by evolution, with the idea that survival-of-the-fittest means survival-of-the-meanest. Or maybe it’s more random than that. What we seem to see, though, is that every so often a predator species explodes across the galaxy, wiping out every other species in its path. And civilization has to start all over again.”
“A pretty grim scenario,” Norris said.
“It is,” Hanson agreed. “But it’s the only theory we’ve found that explains how intelligence can appear as a matter of evolutionary routine, if given even half a chance, and yet also explains why someone hasn’t already snapped up and colonized every habitable world in sight.”
“It would also explain why the Ahannu built something like that giant relativistic cannon down there,” Ramsey said. “They were scared. Scared the Hunters were going to find them. They must’ve known the Hunters were looking for them, and they couldn’t trust that they wouldn’t find them.”
They were passing over Ishtar’s day side now. Marduk hung in the sky almost directly overhead, a vast, golden-rimmed crescent, along with a half dozen of the nearer, larger moons threaded like pearls on the silver thread of the gas giant’s rings. The ruby gleam of Llalande 21185 touched the giant’s horizon, then swiftly faded out. Stars reappeared as Derna and the two transports swept into Marduk’s planetary shadow.
Below, night reigned once more. Vast fields of molten lava glowed with sullen, scarlet anger, as volcanoes and lightning illuminated the cloud deck from beneath with eerily shadowed glows and shimmers.
A world of storms, fire, and ice, Ramsey thought. Not a bad analog of Hell.
Closer at hand, TAL-S landers deployed for deceleration. They were due to deorbit in another…fifteen minutes. Worker pods unloaded the transports, readying canisters of supplies for guided reentry.
“Colonel Ramsey?” It was General King, entering the noumenon. The discussion between Ramsey and the two civilians was tagged private over the net, but a general’s personal security key overrode most encryption lockouts.
“Aye, sir.”
“Any change on the situation at Krakatoa?”
“No, sir.”
“Mr. Norris? I still don’t see why your people are so interested in that damned mountain. It is a menace to this operation so long as it remains intact.”
“General, that mountain represents the single piece of useful technology we’ve seen on Ishtar, not counting the Pyramid of the Eye, of course. That may be the only thing that made this whole jaunt out here worthwhile.”