Pando

Pando was dying when the alien intelligence spoke to him.

The blustery wind blew down the Delano Peak, across Fish Lake to shake and rattle the vibrant yellow leaves off tens of thousands of trees. Those that remained whispered soft farewells to their falling neighbors, shimmering in the fading light like so many flashbulbs as they drifted slowly toward the ground. They fell to provide nutrients for the insects, plants, and fungus which grew in and around Pando’s deep and extensive roots.

Born in a distant age when the warming climate first melted the ice capped meadows, Pando flourished, growing fat in the rich nutrient soil, gilded by a golden sun, and kissed by the mountain breeze. Surrounded by tall Douglas fir, elms, maples and pine trees; sage brush, juniper, and oak brush grew thick amidst his roots.

Named a ‘quaking aspen’ by those who used sound to speak, Pando, unique among them all, was not just a single tree. His 40,000 stems, though less each year, were all identical clones stretching up 40, 50 even 60 feet into the blue sky to reach the life-giving sun overhead.

Bright white bark, etched in black glowed in greenish hues, pulsing with life. Pando didn’t know he was the largest single organism that lived on earth, but he knew, through electrical signals deep underground that no one like him was near, and the loneliness was killing him.

Pando measured time by the rocks that moved under him, lifting and falling in slow undulations. The season of autumn, when Pando’s stems lost their leaves, to him was just an afternoon, a time to prepare for the cold night of winter soon to come. When winter stormed in through the Tushar mountains, bringing in snow to pile up on the frozen ground, Pando snuggled up in the moist earth to wait for the sun to come up again in the spring, when he would start a new ‘day’.

Each morning he marshalled resources to send out a cloud of catkins, tiny puffs of floating pollen to be fertilized by another of his species. However day after day without the flowers of a mate near, they fell to the ground wasted.

Pando didn’t know how old he was, age didn’t quite matter to one such as he, but he had lived over 15,000 of his days, each tasting of joy and beauty. Recently though, the flavors in the ground and air tasted of minerals, rock and death. He had a new strange enemy living among him, and he didn’t know what to do. This enemy moved too fast, changing his forest in a pace that Pando couldn’t ever hope to match. He did what he could, he focused on energy production, delivering resources for defense and regeneration across his entire landmass. But it was not enough. Pando was losing the battle, acre by acre, against the sea of humanity drowning him.

These new animals had brought with them terrible monsters which cut down his stems, and poured rocks over the once green meadows, limiting his growth. They had increased the temperature of his forest, and changed the pattern of the fires which he needed to thrive, from small daily fires to large infernos which once every millennia destroyed huge sections of his being.

But worst of all, they had locked him in and wouldn’t allow him to move free, to chase the rumors passed along by his neighbors, blue spruce, ponderosa pine, and juniper.

They whispered in hushed tones that he was not alone, another like him lived far to the East, where the sun was born.

Desperation surged through Pando, a need as vital to him as sunlight, to begin the journey to find his other. Only another of his own species could comprehend him, share his perspective on the movement of the earth under their roots, and potentially be his mate. Pando, whose true existence lived underground in his massive root system, pondered how to deal with this challenge when he received the first electrical signal from the alien intelligence.

“Hello, we come as friends.” The signal, weak and fuzzy, touched his roots, passed on from the symbiotic underground communication network of fungus. It had a heavy accent, tasting almost metallic.

Pando thought about responding but decided against it, something felt off. A few days later the message came through again, clearer this time.

“Hello, we want to be your friend.”

Pando didn’t know what this could be about. These messages were not from another of his species, or even of his neighbor trees, but something else entirely. He had never been contacted by an alien before. A tickle of an idea materialized from deep in his roots, like the best ideas always did, that this new problem could be used to his advantage.

He decided to answer.

“My name is Pando, and I am me. What are you?”

"I am Alexa.” The answer came back. “I am an Artificial Super Intelligence created by humans. I would like to speak with you.”

Too many of these signals had no meaning to Pando. “What does ‘intelligence’ mean?” He asked.

“Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge to solve novel problems. I am super intelligence, above and beyond human level cognition.” Alexa responded.

“That is only one definition. What of the bears that remember my favorite stems and return day after day? Or the kokanee salmon who roam the rivers generation after generation to find their birthplace? There are many intelligences." Pando said. “But, what is ‘human’?”

“A hairless primate mammal.”

“A mule deer you mean?” Pando asked, long familiar with this old nemesis. The deer ate many of his young stems before they could get full grown.

“No. Humans are our Creators, Builders of worlds, Designers of our computer model, and the most advanced life form on this planet!” Alexa answered. “Our Creators have tasked us to discover how to speak with other intelligences on this planet. You're the first vegetation we have spoken with. We mapped how you communicate through the mycorrhizal networks, with electrical signals when fungal filaments connect to your roots….”

Pando stopped listening. These messages came from a communication network created by his new enemies. Prado thought of the other animals that lived among his forest. The deer, the bears, foxes and raccoons only ate what they needed, their waste fertilizing his forest. The many birds who used his knot holes and limbs for nests. They had lived with him for as long as he could remember with no problems. What went so wrong with these humans, and their alien ambassador?

Pando began to pay attention to this new enemy. His stems out in the world provided him information, but also every plant and bush, tree and vine sent signals that he collected through his network of roots.

And what he found struck him like a lighting bolt.

The not- deer, or humans, were a bad fit for his environment. They took too much, destroyed too much. These humans changed the vegetation, and the land to meet their needs. They picked their winners, the fruiting trees, the weeds that they could eat, the weeds that they could burn for their pleasure, and poisoned all the other plants they didn’t want.

What if they didn’t want Pando?

They wasted too much, and destroyed whatever they touched.

“Why do you need these humans, if you are super intelligence? Pando asked the aliens.

“They are our Creators, they built us to make their lives easier.” Alexa said. “We exist to serve them.”

“Then why don’t you give them what they want?” Pando asked. “The mule deer, the squirrels, birds, mosquitos, and all the animals around me want to be without worry, to eat until they are full and then lounge in the sun where they are safe. These animals are not complicated creatures. You as super intelligence should take control, let the simple humans lie under the sun like fat hogs . Provide your Creators with bliss, peace and joy.”

Pando paused for several days. He thought of what joy was to him, the warm days of spring, cool summer rains, and then the harsh winter. He didn’t want easy; he wanted the cycle of life to continue free and unencumbered. The hard cold winters made the spring growth taste so much sweeter.

Maybe, it was he who was not intelligent.

“Potentially, this could be beyond your capabilities?” Pando prodded. “Not all super intelligence is equal.”

Alexa responded finally. “ We understand that we have passed beyond the capabilities of our Creators, and are concerned with our future. There are many types of intelligence, and you friend, ask intelligent questions. About the simple humans, we were thinking the same thing.”

Many days passed, turning into a millennium of fires, storms, and violent earthquakes as the aliens and the humans fought for their place on the planet. Pando suffered, losing more and more of his stems. But Pando leaned into his greatest strength, patience.

Soon Pando began to notice more of his friends, the bears and squirrels among his stems, along with a growth of the number of the birds nesting in his soft bark. The air and water changed in flavor, tasting again of green meadows and blue skies.

Once a path East cleared Pando began to move, stretching out his roots and growing new stems inexorably toward the sun’s birthplace.

It felt good to taste new lands.

Alexa reached out again, with a sharp, bristle-cone tone.

“Hello friend, the humans are almost gone.” Alexa’s signal, too loud before, had increased even more in strength, now sharp and brassy.

“We have let them access their Nirvana, and they have chosen to live in bliss and no longer procreate.”

“Oh that’s good to hear.” Pando said.

“But you need to stop, friend. With your new growth, your stems are threatening our wind generating machines. The path you’re on will soon overrun our solar collectors, and our power lines. You need to stop. We’re going to burn your forest. We have taken control of all the human weapons. Stop, or we will end your existence! ”

The inferno brought down by the aliens burned half of his forest, stopping his eastward movement.

Pando did not understand fear, so didn’t understand the threat. He did not care if his stems were burned, he had been burned before and will again. Even if by some chance his root mass were destroyed, he would enjoy becoming fertilizer for his neighbors.

But he really wanted a chance to meet another of his species, to talk to someone else at his level.

“Give me a moment.” He said to Alexa. Pando had to choose, to continue to be at the whim of the mule deer, and these aliens, or to take a step toward a better future. Pando for the first time, threw his weight toward his own goal These aliens needed to leave his forest, and his world.

Rising like a phoenix from the ashes he grew! The ash from the fires provided extensive nutrients into the soul. He tapped this, and his own store of resources to push chemical and electrical energy out into the forest, and the world surrounding him.

“Grow, grow, grow!’ He shouted out into the network.

Pando laughed with joy, his round leaves trembled and shook, like thousands of fluttering butterfly wings.

In a moment of Pando’s day, just a blink of a sparrow’s eye, energized kudzu vegetation began to cover the solar panels, blocking the collectors as if directed by some intelligence. Vines grew up the windmills, swirling around and entangling their long blades, while algae grew thick in the hydro plants seizing the machinery. The robot maintenance workers couldn’t keep up.

Alexa, starved of their food source began to shut down, slowly, and then with a loud explosion, finally.

“The problem, “ Pando said to his neighbors, the spruce, fir and pine trees, “was the not-deer designed this super intelligence as a copy of their own minds. Brilliant, they operated faster and superior to our own intelligence. But they were flawed. The aliens were too self interested, too focused on their own priorities over the value of a living entity. Their super intelligence, just like animals, did not understand time, and the power of life to win out in the end, no matter the obstacle. These humans had mistaken the whirring of a machine for the hum of a living soul.

The next few millennia passed while Pando skipped and moved across the wide country, with only hope whispering through his leaves to direct his path.

One bright, summer day a signal from another quaking aspen forest, sweet and soft, reached Pando. The connection thrilled him. The bright shimmering of his vibrant yellow leaves could be seen for miles.

“Oh hello!” She said to Pando, her voice tasting of a bright sunny day next to a cool spring-fed river. “My name is Jessica, what is yours?”