Utopia War

Chapter 16 - Cautious Optimism

HandsomeNose awoke.

All around him were indistinct shapes he could barely make out from one another. His panoply of sensors were all feeding him inconsistent data. HandsomeNose couldn't even tell the ceiling from the floor.

He signaled for assistance and received no reply. He certainly wasn't in Consensus space, or any Consensus-affiliated simulation.

HandsomeNose's last memory was of dying. All available evidence would seem to indicate at the very least his mind-state had been successfully retrieved, if not by his own people. He was prepared to be cautiously optimistic about this outcome.

HandsomeNose quickly referenced all his sensors. He still wasn't prepared to make a call vis-a-vis the ceiling or the floor.

<Hello?> he wagered signaling.

HandomseNose's incomprehensible surroundings began to dissolve and rearrange into something new. Suddenly everything made sense again. Above him a bright yellow sun shone down through pristine clear waters. HandsomeNose was struck by a wave of nostalgia; these waters were almost identical to those of the simulation where he was born and raised.

He was no longer alone. There were two dolphins here, swimming alongside him. One had a sharpness to it, particularly the nose and fins. The other was long and delicate. He was swimming, HandsomeNose now realized, or as close to the act as one could approximate when one was a sphere. It was almost like being in a dream.

He couldn't be dreaming, however. HandsomeNose didn't sleep and he didn't dream. He had no such comforting hopes to cling to.

<Hello?> HandsomeNose asked <I don't suppose either of you are uplifted?>

<We are not as we appear,> responded the sharp dolphin <We have taken on the shape of your own species. We seek to render our reality in a manner you can comprehend.>

<You're the aliens from the U.F.O.> said HandsomeNose.

<We do not share this perspective but your words point to the correct thoughts to describe us,> replied the dolphin.

<Where am I?> asked HandsomeNose <This must be some kind of a simulation.>

<Your constitutions information is housed within our reality,> confirmed the dolphin.

<You would choose the inadequate words 'mind-state' and 'simulation' to express these concepts,> said the delicate dolphin, speaking for the first time.

<Am I to presume you know all these things about me because you took the liberty of reading my mind once you transferred it here?>

<We catalogued the totality of your constituent information before we resumed the production of your consciousness,> said the sharp dolphin.

<Why am I here then?> asked HandsomeNose.

<We have learned all that is relevant from your mind-state, and we have assessed that you present no personal threat,> said the delicate dolphin <Therefore you will be allowed to exist in our reality on the third lowest rung of permissions.>

<Could I return to re- to my reality? If you can transfer my 'constituent information' in a form my people can read they're capable of incarnating me into a new body,> said HandsomeNose.

<No,> said the delicate dolphin, with a troubling finality <Collectively your civilization represents a threat to us. It will be dismantled to the point where it is no longer capable of posing such a threat. When we finish what humanoids remain will not possess the technological capacity to incarnate you.>