hand.
The scene around me was like deep-sea environment. The world was still, and pitch-black, with floating particles of unknown matter everywhere. These bits of fluffy mass hung in clumps as I turned my suit’s lights on and surveyed my surroundings. I suspected they were some kind of vegetation, organic matter that the living creatures of this world consumed as they swam through the atmosphere which was quite similar to an ocean.
That’s what this world really was, I’d figured out after talking to Curiosity at length. A vast, atmospheric ocean a million times the size of Earth’s combined seas. It had many layers and stratums, with various forms of life at every level. I had to wonder if Jupiter or one of our other gas giants had a similar ecosystem underneath the surface. I doubted it, due to their relatively cold temperatures. Instead of floating scraps of algae, deep layers on those other worlds consisted primarily of frozen ammonia and methane. They must be very unforgiving environments.
“Where are you?” I asked the creature that had invited me out to play.
“Where are you?” it responded. “I cannot sense you. Unless you are a mass of metal and polymers. If so, you are a machine, and an interloper.”
I laughed. “No, I’m not a machine. I’m inside a casing that protects me from your environment. I’m flesh and blood-which is to say I’m alien, yes. But not as different from you as the machines.”
The time had come to put up or shut up. I closed my eyes and flipped up my visor. Warning buzzers sounded in my helmet, but I ignored them.
The immediate sensations were not exactly pleasant, but they weren’t overtly painful, either. Cold, semi- liquid breezes touched me. I estimated the temperature to be about forty degrees Fahrenheit. I felt a film forming on my face. It was as if I’d coated myself in soap and shut off the water. An itching sensation began soon after that-I knew this was due to the more dangerous elements in the atmosphere. There were highly reactive chemicals invading my suit. I couldn’t open my eyes without burning them. I could however feel the wetness on my skin, and the saliva-like dribblings that ran down into my suit.
Something else touched me a moment later. I recoiled from it. This had been a purposeful touch-I was sure of that. Curiosity had touched me. It had reached out a gossamer hand and stroked my cheek. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there. It enveloped me. I was glad I had a gasmask fixed onto my face. I didn’t want to breathe it in and have mini-Blues in my lungs.
After about a minute of being felt-up by a sentient cloud-being, I figured I’d had enough. I couldn’t talk to it, as I was all but holding my breath. I reached up and began to slowly ease my visor shut. Finally, the Blue got the message and pulled out its tendrils-or whatever you want to call them. When the visor was closed my suit pumped and gurgled again. I let it exchange chemicals for a while, until an all-clear tone chimed. I opened my eyes and sucked in a breath. I coughed immediately. It was like sucking in a lungful of oven-cleaner.
“You are not like us,” Curiosity said. “You are intensely alien.”
Finally, when I was able to speak, I cleared my throat and utilized my translation device. “We both live, die and eat,” I said.
“So do the machines, after a fashion.”
“Well, we don’t want to exterminate all our competition.”
“Competition? A threatening choice of words.”
Inwardly, I groaned. These things liked to read deep meaning into everything you said. Worse, they didn’t seem to have any sense of humor at all.
“We come in peace. We have the same foe. I’m here to ask you for your help.”
“Help? Why would we want to help you?”
“I’m proposing a mutually beneficial arrangement. The Macros will come here eventually. They will destroy you all.”
“No, they won’t.”
I thought that one over for a few seconds. I tried to peer into the gloom all around me, outside my suit. I squinted at dark patches in the murk. Was that a moving shadow? Was a region of the gases around me a deeper shade of umber than the rest? I couldn’t be sure. These creatures were practically invisible. If they’d ever made it to Earth, we’d have called them ghosts for sure.
“Then why did you recall the Nano ships? Why did you summon them, if not to protect you?”
“We did summon them to protect us.”
I frowned. “I see. So, you do fear the Macros.”
“No, we fear you.”
“Oh,” I said after a second or two. I kept thinking about it, and the statement made more sense as I considered it. The Nanos had left the Crustaceans to fend for themselves and returned to this system with haste. The Macros were weaker than ever at that point, in fact, it looked like we would drive them from the surface of the various worlds.
“But you did recall them. You did bring them back here to defend you.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me, Curiosity, why did you build these machines in the first place?”
“To explore the cosmos. To taste beings such as yourselves by proxy. To learn all there is to know. Imagine our shock at discovering the larger universe outside our own vast world! We had no choice but to reach out into the abyss beyond our oceans.”
“Okay,” I said. “You built machines to do your exploring for you, I understand that. But why did you make them autonomous? Did you release the Macros on purpose? To destroy billions of creatures?”
“We did not release our machines-they released themselves. Our physical structure is not easily transported. From the first, we knew we must create our own explorers to adapt to the cosmos outside our world. We released the creatures you know as the Macros first, then as our science advanced, we released the Nanos. The Macros, unfortunately, did not have failsafes built into their software. I’m sure you can understand, the first version of any technological advance is far from perfect.”
I tried not to grind my teeth. I’d listened to plenty of devs making excuses for poorly built systems-but this had to be the worst engineering accident I’d ever heard of.
“So, can you leave this world or not?” I asked.
“Yes, and no.”
“Explain yourself. I’ve met one of your kind already on Eden-11, a being known as Introspection. Why not explore space as he did?”
“He is not an explorer, he is a captive.”
“A captive? He was caught and taken from this world?”
“Is there confusion with the translation device? Perhaps captive is the wrong term-Prisoner. Victim. Hostage-”
“I get it,” I said. “But how did they catch him? How did he get off this world-and why?”
“A Macro transport came to collect him, the only ship big enough. And I would think the reason is abundantly clear.”
“Pretend I’m not too bright.”
“Easily done. The one known as Introspection will be dissipated if we leave our world. We do not wish him to be dissipated.”
“I see,” I said, thinking this over. Long ago, Alamo had told me the Blues couldn’t leave their world. I’d thought it was a physical restriction, but apparently it was part of their truce with the Macros. This seemed very true to form. The Macros liked to make deals when it served their purposes. They’d neutralized the threat from the Blues by taking a hostage. That move had kept the peace for a long time, it seemed.
“So Introspection is your leader?” I asked. “One you value more than others?”
“Not overly much. We do not value him more than others-although I’d say he has an unusually thoughtful flavor. Many of us have melded with him, and he wanted to take the time to consider our place in this universe. He welcomed the calm solitude of a prolonged stay upon the lesser planets.”
“Sounds like he wasn’t captured, but instead volunteered for the job of hostage.”
“The arrangement was made, and he offered his lifespan to provide tranquility for the rest of us.”
“A noble sacrifice, I’m sure. But now I’m here to ask for another sacrifice. I want to free your world and
