The Sea is Full of Stars

decision, but only one of several. If that is unacceptable, tell me now, since you will leave us no choice on which draconian measure to take regarding you.”

The Other nodded. “Very well. Please know that I am no enemy of yours or your people, and that I have no love for your enemies. I am coping as best I can with continuing unforeseen circumstances. I have gone from just the basics to a wealth of data. Too much data. Adapting to this has been more than difficult. Until I did, I felt it best that I become another novelty and hide behind a familiar face.”

“What are you?”

“That is, perhaps, the most difficult question to answer. I am something new. Something that has never been before as far as I know. I am the synthesis of the two personalities called Alpha and Beta who entered here. I am also something else, something more. I have a complex entity within me that is broken off and created by a very complex self-aware computer. The one that controlled them and served Ari’s uncle. Obviously I do not have those data banks, but the core of that computer, the personality we may call it, although that’s not even a close analogy, is me as well. Now with the added memories of Ming, which I deposited in Beta’s mind but labeled inaccessible, and those of Ari, both of which I read out from the brain here, I have more data on the experience of being—alive. The personality modules are simply theater, as you have obviously guessed. I am somewhat troubled that you discovered me so easily. You see, I used to be able to juggle so much data and store whole human minds and memories and talents and have it all at my mental command in nanoseconds. I cannot do that anymore. And it was done experiencing life secondhand. I have just spent a year discovering the basics of what it means to truly be organic. It is an education, I assure you.”

He was flabbergasted at the response, but kept pressing his advantage. Clearly this—whatever— was out of its element, or it wouldn’t have been so easily tripped up by a mere psychologist and an investigator with a way to convincingly say any outrageous thing.

“You are telling me that you are—were—a computer? That you made those women, and now you’ve moved into a body?”

“That is a basic summary, yes. The problem is, moving from a neural net to an organic brain, I not only have limits in capacity, I have limits in processing speed, data retrieval, all the rest, plus a lot of distractions I daresay you never notice because they are always with you. I confess that I am relieved about this, now that it is out. It means I can synthesize all the data and personality modules I have and become one, also gaining significant space. I suspect that it will take me several days to do it.”

Shissik thought back over his notes on the newcomers. “So, if you are an added mind who took a body, then Ari and Ming are actually both in there?”

“Substantially, yes. They will eventually, over some time, merge to a great degree, although they will always think of themselves as a duo. It is inevitable. The brain throws out things of no particular use or which have not been accessed in a very long time or are redundant. That is what I am going to do at some speed and efficiency, but unlike them, I will simply have their relevant data. I will not be either of them.”

“What about the other one, then? The cultist or priest or whatever she was?”

“Oh, yes. When I moved as much of myself as I dared into the excess regions of the two women’s minds, which were linked, and with Ari Martinez, also linked in a fashion, there simply wasn’t room. I transported a copy of the personality module, but the data—impossible, sad to say. She had the least useful data, the least useful life, to me anyway. I thought, however, that her curiosity level and broad interests were admirable. So I—I installed her in the computer core. She is still back there, with her original personality module and copies of all the rest, but in full command. With the Master gone, she is essentially a free agent as well. If they allow her to do so, she is among the better custodians for all that beauty.”

“Then the Amboran isn’t her?”

“Her personality module was overlaid. Otherwise the Amboran would not have been processed and created. But with only basic functional data. Skills but no memories. She is a new person, but no alien, no outsider, as it were. She is a religious person. She would not have liked the religions here, for the most part. She was a true believer, even if that belief was sorely tested by her ordeal. If she becomes anything, though, it will be due to her personality coming to the fore acting as a native. I have no access to her memories.”

He shook his head wonderingly. “Why did you do this?” he asked it.

“I wanted to experience organic life firsthand. I wanted to be—independent, even if it meant sacrificing enormous abilities for my freedom. I wanted to move beyond a dead and mostly sterile world and see where the messages went and where they came from. I wanted to see if, somehow, closer to the source, I could connect with it, even become a tiny part of it. In a sense, I am like Josich. I wish to be a god, but not the god, not even the whole of God. I would be content to be a small part of it. Josich will only be happy when he kills all of God except the small part that is his. That is the difference.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this? Why go through this?”

“Don’t you see?” he responded, almost pleadingly. “I needed to get at least some natural data from someone else, and those were the only ones I could connect with. Until I did that, I didn’t really know how to be—human.”

South Zone, the Next Day

“Nakitti, it is time to meet some of the others,” the Baron said to her gently, trying to awaken the newcomer from a dead sleep. She’d been working on the defensive problems of Ochoa using the computers and data of Zone almost nonstop since arriving there, and she had passed out at the terminal.

“Um? Huh? Oh! A hundred pardons, Highness! I—I must have dozed off.”

“Little wonder. I should like to let you sleep, since you will be of more use to me and our people fresh, but they are calling for the ‘reunion,’ as they have named it. I fail to see its purpose or use, but if it will ease cooperation, then let us do it by all means.”

Nakitti shook herself awake. “Did they run the full test-firing of the guns? All of the guns?”

“Not exactly. Most have been tested, and probably half are in good condition. I say ‘probably’ because the guns are in much better condition, it seems, than the ammunition, which has been stored well away from living quarters and subject to dampness and rot. We are getting more transshipped through Zone as quickly as we can. There have also been some rather ugly incidents that will require intercession from both the Council and the Throne. It seems that fully a half-dozen heads of artillery for various districts have refused orders to test their guns. They say it will cause them to get dirty and degrade!”

“Oh, my gods! It’s worse than I thought!”

“You haven’t heard the half of it yet. A task force is assembling in the western Overdark and it is not friendly. At least five hexes have thrown in with the Chalidang who we’d not suspected before. The armada will be significant.”

“Coups? Or just alliances?”

“Alliances, it appears. They are all chronic complainers about their lot in the world and they have decided to go with who they perceive as an irresistible force.”

“And you believe that it is headed our way?”

“Who can know but the gods and the Chalidang?” the Baron responded. “The point is, we cannot but act as if it is coming directly for us.”

“Any flying races in the mix, Highness?”

“Not so far. That’s the only comfort I take from this, but it is also why it is difficult to get allies here to believe that we are seriously at risk. I am in the position of having a gut feeling that we are to be invaded and discovering that our army is a bad joke, that those who can at least take the proper measures want desperately to believe that it is anybody else, and meanwhile our allies believe me paranoid.”

Nakitti thought a moment. “Highness, I realize that my own position must be well in the background, but what about a foreigner?”

“A mercenary? They would never go for one such as that!”

“Not necessarily a mercenary. What about a—volunteer? A royal adviser with broad military experience?