Utopia War

Chapter 25 - A Candle In The Dark (ii)

<It's called an engorged line. And in light of our growing rapport I would like to acknowledge the similarity between this name and a description of the male reproductive organ of your legacy species,> signaled Sound-Of-Wisdom.

<I, too, share in this acknowledgement,> agreed Irregular-Harmony.

<It is a most gratifying coincidence,> signaled Sound-Of-Wisdom.

The three roughly-spherical floating entities were gathered around a black and blue bramble which served as some kind of communications interface. Sound-Of-Wisdom was calibrating it with a series of precise thoughtforms.

<My people would also find this highly amusing,> signaled HandsomeNose <If that's not proof that we can co-exist then I don't know what is.>

<The scan will begin shortly,> announced Sound-Of-Wisdom <Bring to mind your message. Try to also imagine answers to any questions or concerns you predict your friend having. The broader your thoughts the more effective the line.>

<And I'll be able to integrate any responses I get back as memories?> asked HandsomeNose.

<That is so,> signaled Sound-Of-Wisdom <However be cognizant of the fact that this memory integration will be shared by the dataverse. You will have no secrets.>

<Don't need 'em,> signaled HandsomeNose, taking great pains to accurately represent the flippancy of his use of "em" through the mental communication <I've always been of the opinion that everyone would be much better off with more access to my thoughts and viewpoints.>

Sound-Of-Wisdom expanded and contracted ever-so-slightly. HandsomeNose knew this gesture to be something akin to an affirmative nod.

<Prepare for immediate scanning,> it signaled.

A bolt of light erupted from the artificial sky and engulfed HandsomeNose. The computational substrate which was mimicking his neurons was alight with his every possible thought. Struggling, he narrowed his focus to the message for Min-ji and it shot off into the night.

* * *

A tiny, niggling thought on the edge of Min-ji's consciousness made her aware of an alert she had flagged for any news from the Hive. She nearly dismissed it out of hand. Time was of the essence and she didn't have any to spare.

That wasn't right, though. She was the Hive's one remaining link to the rest of the galaxy. Her people took away their subspace router so, regrettably, the Hive was still their responsibility.

The message was a fat one too, way more data than Min-ji thought the Hive was capable of transmitting this kind of distance. It was large enough that it would take a not-insignificant fraction of attention even from an AI to assimilate. Combined with the obscurity of the Hive this meant all but the most obsessive catalogers of data wouldn't bother, especially with the situation being what it was. Min-ji might be the only person in the Consensus willing to listen.

It may be the least she could do to listen to what they had to say, but she owed them that at least. Min-ji began the download. Her body estimated that she would be able to access the information as a memory in a few hours.

In the meantime she was on her way back to Ran's jurisdiction. She was anxious to reintegrate with the Consensus and share the revelations of her latest diplomatic tour.

<Penny for your thoughts?> signaled Splendiferous Cognizance.2.

<What's a penny?> asked Min-ji.

<Nevermind,> signaled Splendiferous, disappointed <Humans have no sense of history. What are you thinking about?>

<Oh, nothing,> replied Min-ji.

<You're eating up a pretty impressive percentage of my operational bandwidth for nothing. Are you downloading a tiny civilization?>

<I have no idea what it is,> signaled Min-ji <That's kind of why I'm interested. It's from a sub-FTL civilization I used to be the ambassador for. They're actually kind of... well a friend of mine thought they might have been at the center of why all this madness is happening.>

<Oh,> signaled Splendiferous <Carry on then I suppose.>

It occurred to Min-ji that whatever it was she was downloading, it might have more significance than she had realized.