Some of them with regicide and revolution on their minds. She saw Kenelm three rows back, hir disapproval unconstrained as sie scrutinized the hall’s gently domed ceiling.
‘If I may, I will start with a brief history,’ Immanueel said. ‘We initiated our transition up from baseline human form five years after we were birthed out of the seedship biologic initiators, some fifty-five years ago in Earth standard years – normal spacetime existence. Yet we are not a monoculture. Many of us chose neural expansion in tandem with corpus elaboration; others did not. Some, like myself, decided to wait here and meet you for the sole purpose of travelling together to the Olyix enclave and instigating FinalStrike.’
Yirella shot Alexandre a surprised glance, which seemed to be mirrored on hir expression.
‘As such,’ Immanueel continued, ‘we have devoted ourselves to developing what Ainsley insists on calling weapons hardware.’
‘So you are going to help take on the Olyix enclave?’ Alexandre asked.
‘Indeed, yes. I hold the view that the Olyix cannot go unchallenged – especially in view of their impact on human history.’ Behind Immanueel, the pillar underwent a burst of shimmering colours.
‘Can I ask how many of you hold that view?’ Wim queried. ‘In fact, how many of you are there?’
‘That last question is now unanswerable,’ Immanueel said. ‘Many of us have already left; they have already begun to expand and populate their own domains.’
‘Who left?’
‘They are called the egress faction; they refute the notion of interspecies conflict. They rightly regarded it as immature and irrelevant to high-scale evolutionites such as ourselves. We do not need to fight; we are able simply to rise above such animal-origin situations. It is our belief the Olyix do not have the ability to capture and cocoon us. However, since we began to change this star’s rotation speed, the Olyix will inevitably arrive here at some point. Therefore the egress faction departed, travelling to other stars where they will establish themselves in new spacetime-extrinsic domains.’
‘You mean enclaves?’ Yirella said.
‘I expect some egressor domains will incorporate alternative time-speeds relative to universal spacetime, yes.’
‘Sanctuary,’ Dellian exclaimed.
‘New sanctuaries,’ Immanueel corrected. ‘We have no knowledge of the Sanctuary that Factory humans and the Katos went on to establish.’
‘How many of this egress faction left?’ Yirella asked.
‘Fifty-seven thousand eight hundred and thirty-two,’ Immanueel replied. ‘Each of them established a squadron of powerful battle cruisers in case they encountered a Resolution ship before they could inaugurate their domain.’
‘I’m sorry? Each of them?’ Yirella’s question kicked off a lot of murmuring in the audience behind her.
‘Yes.’
‘You mean they all went their individual way?’ she asked incredulously.
‘Of course. We are all individuals. That is the freedom you gave us. Everybody here is independent, and nobody is answerable to another. It is the final liberation. Thanks to you, genesis human.’
She could well imagine the expression on Kenelm’s face.
‘Wait,’ Tilliana said. ‘You told us all these egress people are now expanding their population?’
‘Correct. Although individual, we retain our social nature. Everyone who left here has or will found their own society.’
‘At fifty-seven thousand different stars?’
‘Yes. To begin with, anyway. Stars are needed as a power source for spacetime-extrinsic domains. I expect they will simply take gas giants out of orbit and convert their mass to energy once they have constructed the appropriate structures.’
Like everyone in the hall, Yirella was silent for a moment as she tried to appreciate the implication of what Immanueel had just told them. ‘So who remained?’ she finally asked. ‘Apart from yourself.’
‘We call ourselves the history faction.’
‘Okay. So how many of you are there in this history faction?’
‘Three thousand five hundred and seventeen.’ Their hand waved leisurely at the crystal pillar, which briefly flared a twilight amber.
The hall was silent again. ‘Three and a half thousand?’
‘Yes. That number troubles you? You consider it to be low? Do not worry, I assure you we have the ability to destroy the Olyix enclave.’
Yirella couldn’t make herself look at the Ainsley android. Her body had chilled too much to do anything but stare at Immanueel on their not-throne. Very carefully, she said: ‘The seedships were tasked with growing a base population of a hundred thousand humans in biologic initiators. You have been here for sixty years now. I’d like to know what happened to everyone who isn’t egress or history.’
‘I see you are concerned,’ Immanueel said. ‘Not all of the original hundred thousand elected to a corpus elaboration. Call them naturalists. They remained in their original bodyform. Many even refused neurological enhancement.’
‘People like us, then?’ Dellian said.
‘Indeed.’
‘So where are they now?’ Yirella asked.
‘Those who were birthed here are now dead.’
‘What?’
‘Do not be alarmed. They all died from old age. Many underwent multiple cellular replacement treatments – rejuvenation, if you like – during their life. The eldest was just short of four thousand years old when she finally passed. It was a moving ceremony. Every corpus who was here at the time attended in a biophysical body to honour her.’
Yirella let the air out of her body in a long breath. I need time to adapt to the possibilities that are open here, to make them part of my instincts.
‘The naturalists must have had children,’ Wim said.
‘They did,’ Immanueel said enthusiastically. ‘There were eighteen separate domains built to house them, each with a slightly different social structure. Some more . . . successful than others.’ For once, Immanueel’s serene composure flickered. ‘George Santayana was correct: those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. But all who were birthed here eventually adapted and prospered. The domains containing their societies were taken away by the egress faction, where they will be protected and nurtured once time is restarted within them.’
‘Four thousand years,’ Wim mused. ‘What were their populations when they left?’
‘Uncertain. Those of us who are corpus don’t like to interfere with naturalists. But it would be several million in each domain. Some had started to develop sub-domains.’
‘What sort of lives did they have? What did they do?’
‘There are recordings of their existence available for you to review should you
