A data cache?
No, an actual signal. On our riftband channel. A signal from a sentient entity who must, at some point, have become quantum-entangled with our atoms. This is someone we have met, or who has met us.
That’s impossible.
The signal has gone. No, it’s back; listen to the message, Jak:
“This is Sai-ias, can you hear me? Is anyone there?”
The Riftband Link
Sai-ias: This is Sai-ias, can you hear me? Is there anyone there?
Explorer 410: Your signal is received. Please confirm identity and give location.
Sai-ias: I can hear you!
Explorer 410: Identify your vessel and planet of origin, and your intentions.
Sai-ias: I can hear you. This is astonishing.
Explorer 410: Identify your vessel and planet of origin, and your intentions.
Sai-ias: Who are you?
Explorer 410: Identify yourself please.
Sai-ias: Who are you? How do I know I can trust you?
Explorer 410: Our intentions are peaceful. Identify yourself please.
Sai-ias: My name is Sai-ias. I have stolen a Ka’un communication device, to send a message to their enemies. And your voice is the first thing I heard.
Explorer 410: Please give me your coordinates.
Sai-ias: I don’t know my coordinates. I don’t know what a coordinate is. I have been serving the Ka’un for some time now, they have come to trust me. I live in the ship’s outer hull, in a hangar where-no matter, it’s a long story: this is a miracle!
Explorer 410: It’s an interstellar riftband radio, there’s nothing miraculous about it.
Sai-ias: There’s a delay between the machine receiving the signal, and me hearing these words. Why is that?
Explorer 410: Identify your ship and planet of origin.
Sai-ias: Answer my question please, strange voice. Is it a delay because we’re in different places? Where are you? How far away are you?
Explorer 410: The delay is caused by the translator. Your language is already in our archive, along with many others; but it takes a while to translate. We have very many languages in our archive, from those civilisations destroyed by the Death Ship. And we wish to learn how you have survived. But be patient please. Do not reply until you have fully assimilated my message. The delay is not Sai-ias: You know my language? How?
Explorer 410: You’re doing it again; you are overlapping my message. You must not speak until the full signal has been received. The protocol is Sai-ias: “I must not speak”?! Who tells me not to speak? I have lived as a slave for many Explorer 410: This is not the correct protocol, repeat, this is not the correct protocol. Be patient, observe the protocol, for this communication could be interrupted at any moment. I now need to explain my mission. I am from another world. A world far from yours, in every respect. My people, or rather our people, for I am part of-long story, not necessary to recount it-have technologies which Sai-ias: You talk but you do not listen. I am not sure that I like you greatly, strange voice from far away.
Explorer 410: -are far in excess of yours, but you should not regard us as a threat. What do you mean you do not like me?
Sai-ias: You are ill-mannered.
Explorer 410: As you see, I have paused for sufficient time to allow your last message to be heard in full, and to prove to you that I am not ill-mannered. That is the correct protocol. I apologise if I have offended you, please take into account the fact I come from a different culture and there may be differences between us in terms of our definition of good manners.
Sai-ias: Not so. I have befriended creatures from a thousand thousand thousand different cultures, and all of them would consider YOU to be rude.
Explorer 410: Forgive me.
Sai-ias: You are forgiven.
Explorer 410: My name is Explorer 410. I am an amalgam organic/non-organic entity of a kind I would imagine is unfamiliar to your culture and I am honoured to make contact with you. I am privileged to be conversing with you and I freely concede that you have every right to be heard and not interrupted all the time. Our kind are Traders, and the organic part of me prides himself on his courtesy and diplomacy, but it has been many years since he engaged with a fellow organic entity and he is therefore leaving all the talking to me. I now shall pause, to allow you to respond in the style that best befits your social etiquette.
Sai-ias: Your words are a jumble of nonsense. How can you be two entities in one?
Jak: Ha! Good question. I sometimes think that Sai-ias: Are you Explorer 410: Property of the Olaran Trading Fleet?
Explorer 410: That is correct.
Jak: Hey! How did she Explorer 410: Let me handle this please and do not Jak: “Do not interrupt, for that is not the correct protocol.”
Explorer 410: Indeed. Sai-ias, how did you know I am part of the Olaran Trading Fleet?
Sai-ias: What are you-sorry. I saw you.
Explorer 410: How? When? Do you have a phantom control display on your vessel with access to camera images of our ship?
Sai-ias: Perhaps they do, the Ka’un. But I do not. Nor do I comprehend-I saw you. With my own eyes.
Explorer 410: Please clarify; this comment bewilders me.
Sai-ias: I saw you attack our ship. The hull burst open, many of us fell out into cold space. I alone survived. And I saw you; a large ugly vessel with a central striped part with EXPLORER 410 and all the rest written on the top of the hull. You fought the Hell Ship and were duped and you lost.
Jak: You actually saw that?
Sai-ias: I did.
Jak: What kind of creature are you, to survive in empty space?
Sai-ias: I am a once-amphibious metamorphosing giant sentient who can breathe energy instead of air. And you?
Explorer 410: I am an artificially wrought machine-mind in the form of a spaceship in symbiosis with the organic mind of an Olaran.
Jak: And I am-or rather used to be-an Olaran. In those days I was, so I’m told, rather cute.
Sai-ias: And there are two of you talking to me?
Jak: We’re two halves of a whole.
Sai-ias: Ah. Like the Sakashala. They have two heads, two brains, one body. Or Quipu, a five-brained organism. Once we had a creature-no matter. Those days are gone.
I know a great deal about you, Explorer 410. You engaged the Hell Ship in battle on two occasions. The first when your universe was being destroyed, and the second time was the occasion we spoke about, that I witnessed myself. Half a Hell Ship year ago by my tally, which corresponds to one-twentieth of my years. You come from a universe full of marvels and rich civilisations who created beauteous artefacts of all kinds. Yet everywhere the Hell Ship went in that universe, they found planets trapped behind what they call “improbability barriers” and inside those barriers were species of unbelievable rapacity and ignorance and vileness, all of whom the Hell Ship’s Ka’un destroyed in valiant battle. And the Ka’un decided that you were responsible; you were the gaoler of the evil species, and they admired you for that.
Even so they fought and destroyed you, though your people put up the bravest of fights. And your vessel in particular was heroic and skilful beyond belief, and Minos and Lyraii themselves were in awe of you. They were unable to defeat you and so fled into another universe, but somehow-this is what truly amazes them-you tracked them down and tried a second time to destroy their vessel. You are, for Minos and his Ka’un, a legend; they call you the Nemesis, which is a term that means Inevitable Doom. I know you, warrior ship; I know you, and I salute you, Explorer 410.
Hello? Did you hear all that?
