The Binary Born

Quinn's answer came disconcertingly quickly, even for his creator, "Wow, the guys at NASA are really going through with it, huh?" "Yep." was the only response that came to mind. "So, they want to build a skyhook. An elevator extending 36,000 kilometers, right up into orbit, right?" "Yep." "Wow. And they want me to pilot an otherwise un-manned probe to an Earth-orbiting asteroid, begin mining operations and bring it back into geo-synchronous orbit, where it will be used to construct the skyhook?" "Uh-huh." "When do I start?"

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Mission Control in 2022 was a lot different from its twentieth century predecessor. With the advent of quantum computing, the entire process could be handled by a single computer; a second served only as a contingent. For Quinn's mission, the MC was almost useless except for communications. Quinn was a dynamic human being with the speed of a quantum computer. He could handle any problem better than a room full of techs, nothing could beat that.

Quinn hung motionless, abandoned between Luna and Earth, at the L4 Lunar Trojan Point. After slewing on cold-gas jets to a safe distance from the Lunar Transfer Station, a few thousand self-diagnostics, and some silent prayers, Quinn lit his main engine. The fusing hydrogen gas burned so brightly that people on the Lunar-facing side of Earth were able to see his tailpipe in broad daylight. His tanks held enough solid hydrogen to get him to his destination, but his assembler nano-machines had also made him a small magnetic wine-glass across his bow, powered by the fusion reaction in his belly, the magnetic scoop would attract interplanetary hydrogen, forcing it to spiral into his cooling chamber where it would be stored for later use, just in case his primary tank ran low.

Quinn's craft was quite small when compared to most manned spacecraft. Quinn was a man, but everything that made him so could fit into a volume the size of a buckey-ball. Hence, Quinn's spacecraft looked more like one of NASA's small interplanetary probes than a manned spacecraft capable of interplanetary flight. In fact, so advanced and compact was the design, that Quinn could have piloted it beyond the solar system and to the next star in less than a human lifetime. The real workhorses aboard the tiny probe were nano-machines and microrobots, which Quinn would use once he arrived at his destination. Before leaving, Dr. Evans had kindly uploaded the complete works of Man and the entire contents of the Earth, Moon, and Mars' internets onto Quinn's solid state drives. There would be little boredom for his 3-month trip to the asteroid, even at his accelerated learning pace.

At turnover, Quinn was beginning to become bored with his conversations with men back in the Earth-Moon system. He had to slow his consciousness by magnitudes to talk to them, and his vast reservoir of knowledge made it virtually impossible to be stimulated by such conversation. The slight transmission delay caused by the light-speed limit, greatly exaggerated by Quinn's swift consciousness, only made matters worse. Quinn wasn't haughty, he didn't think himself better than humans, they just bored him. Oh well, he had his library and his thoughts, those would be enough for the time being. Quinn longed for a novel experience.

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