No Stupid Question

They had given humans a priceless gift. That is to say the gift was priceless to us. To Them, it was a mere wave of the hand, a flick of the wrist, a trifle. To those of us capable of accepting the gift without succumbing to madness, it was access unfettered (so far as we knew) to the main database. To those who care not to take the risk, the information is there for the asking from any Access Point. That's me. Senior Access Point Echo 227 - just 227 to most.

There was only one cost. Don't let Them see you. Ever. So small a cost one might think that we would willing accept it without question. But we are a curious race and seldom given to blind obedience. That is what the seniors are for. We keep tabs on Them and restrict human travel so "sightings" do not occur. It was thus that we shared planets, interstellar travel routes, and even entire solar systems with them... until the disappearances started.

I stood on the shores of a who-knows-what sea on a lonely planet. I'd seen so many I'd forgotten the name , and stared at the tiny fishing boats lined up before me. They'd come back several days ago with no souls aboard them. How they'd come back was not the mystery. All vehicles on this planet had automatic return beacons built into them and could be called home by their owners. Thank the database for that little piece of technological savvy. Where their crews had gone was the mystery. I suspected the answer had something to do with Them.

I stood quietly pondering for just a moment longer, aware of the eyes peering out from behind curtains and shutters behind me. I felt the hand on my shoulder. It didn't bother me the way such contact normally did, probably because I had expected it. It was the User who had accompanied me since I'd arrived on this planet (*New Zion* of course how could I forget that one?).

Users help to clarify questions from the general public and then culled them so that I didn't end up answering pointless questions. It really isn't any benefit to have an immense database at your disposal if you can't get the data out of it. Most people think that asking a question of a database is the same as asking it of your best friend or elder or mother. It's just not. Those people have the benefit of being able to understand what you're implying when you ask and they know enough about you to formulate the *rest* of the question for themselves before they answer you. A database doesn't know you, doesn't know where you're from, how old you are, your language skill level, your point of view. Let's say an Earth child asks it's mother how many planets there are. Mom's going to give it about a millisecond's thought and say that there are eight or nine. A Universal Database is going to give you an amazingly huge number that might take a few minutes (or even hours, who knows?) to recite. It's not because that's all your mother thinks there are out there, but it’s that she probably knows you really mean the ones in your solar system. The database doesn’t know that. A user is an ordinary person's best bet for getting the answers they need from the database without a struggle.

Her hand was becoming a weight on my shoulder. I sighed and turned to her. "Do you have the questions?" I asked. "I do, she said, “How would you like to proceed?"

"Let's get some dinner first."

"I've already eaten, Mistress 227, but I will alert the inn keeper. Will you be staying for a while or must you move on soon?" Translation? How long will you be sponging off of us? Oh they wouldn't make me feel unwelcome, not outright.

"Lead the way.", I said.

We walked up a broad avenue from the beach to the square. The road was nicely paved and clean. I didn't get the vibe that this was for my benefit. I suspected that the people of this place, like the rest of the planet that I had seen, were filled with genuine "pride of place". People were proud to live here and showed it by keeping it neat and clean above and beyond the merely sanitary. I hoped the neatness translated into well-thought-out questions too. So far, no one had succeeded in asking just the right thing.

Shortly after my meal at the also fastidiously kept inn, I found myself seated in a large, open space near the fireplace. I Usually, I sat on the floor but today someone had been thoughtful enough to provide me with a nice thick cushion to sit on today. Sitting with my legs tucked under me, I assumed a calm demeanor and extended both of my hands to my knees, resting them palms down. So went the ritual; access point active. "Ready", I said.

As if at some obscure religious rite, the entirety of the inn's occupants that evening responded by saying "Query!" in a somewhat strident tone. I was a little shaken as I had not expected this. Since that word was typically only uttered at this point by the person for whom the answer was sought, I could only assume that the *entire* community sought these answers. "Of course," I thought, "there were a lot of empty boats out there."

At this point I turned my hands in the customary postures; left hand turned palm-up to represent input and right hand raised palm facing out to represent output. I have no memory of the exchange, as it was time to log in and begin presenting the questions given to me and to recite the responses from the database.

I am told it went thus:

Q: Was the database queried on the 2080th day of human occupation of the planet referred to as New Zion by it's human occupants prior to the launch of the fishing boats now located on the shore of the Argent Sea in the town of Bliss?

A: Yes.

Q: Was information obtained at that time to allow humans to avoid contact as per the collective's agreement with the database makers?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: No data available.

Q: Did any human stray into the spaces that were alien activity zones after that query was placed?

A: Yes.

Q: What was done to those humans who strayed thus?

A: Any being who breaks the collective agreement with humans is sanctioned.

Q: Define "sanctioned" as used in reference to any human who breaks the collective agreement.

A: The only sanction is annihilation.

Q: Are those humans who break the agreement annihilated?

A: Yes.

Q: Are other beings also sanctioned?

A: Yes.

Q: Are the race of people containing the makers of this database ever sanctioned?

A: Yes

Q: Were any of them sanctioned for this infraction?

A: Yes.

Q: Were the individuals of the database maker's race who were sanctioned those who made contact?

A: No.

Q: What was the responsibility of the members of the database maker's race who were sanctioned?

It is at this point, I am told, that I simply stopped responding to questions. I woke with the User sitting patiently beside the bed. Someone had taken me upstairs and put me here last night. She described the session to me. Although puzzled by the seemly pointed questions, I do have to admit some concern with the database's responses. It seemed as though the townspeople had some idea what they suspected was happening and now that I'd heard the questions and responses, I don't think I liked it any more than they did. I couldn't help but be intrigued, however.

Some careful questioning of the user over lunch (yes, I had slept that late) revealed that I was not the first or even the 20th Access Point "invited" by the human collective to New Zion. I wasn't even the 20th Senior. I was invited specifically because I seemed to have been present as the access point for many different "disappearances" recently. For some reason though, few people ever questioned the disappearances very carefully until now. It seemed that, although the humans who encroached on alien territory or travel paths were being summarily annihilated, the database makers were also being annihilated when this happened; not the alien travelers whose paths we'd crossed but someone else responsible for the contact. Why, though?

Was there something they were deliberately keeping from us? Was that the reason they were also being sanctioned for the contacts? The deal was complete access in return for our cooperation. Why were they not keeping up their end of the bargain? The fact that the aliens we contacted weren't being sanctioned led me to believe that they *didn't know they would be making contact*. This meant they had a reasonable expectation that the collective agreement was being upheld.

Conflict. Someone wanted contact to occur and they were willing to sacrifice themselves for that cause, and us if necessary, too. Somehow we needed to let them know how much they were sacrificing for their cause and that we'd rather they find another way. We needed to make a database entry. It had never been done by a human but there was ample evidence that it had been done by other races. My user and I were going to need to do a little research and it would not be easy.

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