Surtr considered all of them. “I do not recognize these places or beings.”
“But are they familiar? I mean, the style of them, the mechanisms and body forms?”
“All of them give me a sensation that I find hard to identify. Perhaps … pleasure? Reassurance?”
“You feel some connection to them.”
“I think I must.”
“The core intelligence of our ship once mentioned a being it referred to simply as First. Do you know who or what that is?”
“I do not.”
She considered, tried again. “Does gender form a part of your identity? Do you have … any capacity for the exchange of developmental instructions with another entity like you?”
“So far as I know I have no such capacity. But, sex and gender: these are other concepts that are central to you, which colour so many of your ideas, but which I am having trouble understanding. You must select another individual to share DNA with in order for your self, or at least your species, to survive?”
“That's generally how it works, yes.”
“It is no surprise that the effort consumes so much of your thought patterns. The choice must be a difficult one to make.”
“Yeah, it can be a challenge.”
Ondo continued his brain-to-brain communication. “I don't believe there has to be a large, multi-individual species for long-term survival to occur. I've theorized before that an organism with a sufficiently fluid structure might be able to benefit from a form of evolution, if it were able to divide itself into parts and reap the benefits of what you might call internal sexual reproduction. As it were, trialling and comparing multiple mutations to see which performs best. It would take time, yes, but perhaps not aeons if a rapid generational cycle could be engineered.”
“That is pure speculation,” said Selene. “We have no way of knowing if this creature has such a structure.”
“True, yes,” said Ondo, “although it might be a good way to create an entity that needed to adapt to unknown environmental changes over a long period of time while remaining isolated. I have, in fact, attempted to design such a creature myself, but only at a very simplistic level. That's why I think this entity is more likely to be an artificial construct: this internal evolution would be much easier to sustain via software. It could set aside multiple versions of itself, try out random mutations in program code rather than DNA, and then see which, if any, produce more useful behaviours. If its body form is mutable, it could then experience something like true evolution.”
Ondo looked up at the entity. “Are you able to alter the form of your body? Adapt it to an evolving environment?”
“Yes,” said the entity, “although my form hasn't changed for a long time. It has had no reason to change, as it is well-suited to its current task. Are you not able to do this?”
“No,” said Ondo, “at least, not without performing highly invasive surgery.”
“I don't like it,” said Selene. “If this internal evolution is possible, what's to stop it adopting an inviable form that immediately dies? The advantage of multiple individuals is that the species survives if one mutation is a dead end.”
“Which is why such an approach to the problem of survival is unlikely to evolve naturally, but I believe software could do it. It would have to be intelligent enough to avoid dead-ends, I agree. It could only relinquish control to a more highly-evolved version of itself with a great deal of caution.”
“Do you believe that I am artificial rather than organic in nature?” Surtr asked.
“On balance, yes,” said Ondo. “Although that might be an oversimplification. At some deep level the distinction might be meaningless.”
“The distinction seems pretty meaningless at a superficial level to me,” said Selene. “The line between them blurs too easily; I'm proof of that. Any advanced organic life is unable to survive without tool-use, even if it's something as simple as fire. Without being able to cook food, you expend too much biological resource on digestion to run a big brain.”
Ondo was still studying Surtr's hand, turning it over and over to study how its joints flexed. Selene knew well the look of hunger in Ondo's eyes. As with the dead star remnants, he could happily spend the next decade examining the being, speculating about what it was and where it came from. It was time they didn't have. These philosophical discussions were fascinating, but they did nothing to destroy Concordance.
She turned her attention back to Surtr. “Let's try a different approach. You say you are watching this system; what are you watching it for?”
“For life. The presence of a lifeform.”
“And now you've found us. Are we the first?”
“Yes.”
“So, what are you supposed to do now that we're here?”
The triple blink pattern repeated four times over as the entity considered. “I do not believe you are the beings I was set to watch for.”
“Surely you know what you are looking out for?”
Was there distress in its round eyes as it replied? “I do not. It is a fact which has often puzzled me, but I assume I would instinctively know the creature should I encounter it. As it is, my conscious mind can only create confused and alarming images, almost as if the truth is being buried to protect me.”
“Can you explain that?” asked Ondo.
“I am often aware of an instinct within me that surfaces as anxiety intruding upon my conscious thoughts. There is a visceral sense of revulsion, a horror and a disgust at the lifeform that I am watching for. I do not feel any of that with you.”
“Well, that's good to know,” said Selene.
“It is why I assumed you had been sent here carrying a new set of commands for me.”
“What would you have done if we had triggered this response?” asked Selene.
“I do not know, even though I have often searched my thoughts for an answer. I conclude, however, that
