“And you would find this offensive if it was happening?” asked the fungus.
“Oh it’s happening. Not offensive. It’s just the constant messages I get telling me it’s happening are getting bloody annoying.”
I let just a hint of anger creep into my voice. Serena smiled at me briefly, and then resumed looking stern. It wasn’t lost on anyone in the room. Either of our reactions.
“And you have made no such attempts yourselves on our systems?”
“I’m a warrior. My people are warriors. We make war when pushed to do so. What do I need to hack a computer for, when I can land troops and take it? If such was what I wanted. I have no need here. I understand why you might be trying to hack ours. I don’t like it, but I do understand it.”
And now it had stopped.
“Thank you,” I finished up.
“What for?” asked a beetle.
“For stopping.”
“No-one started,” said the fungus. “So no-one stopped. Is this how the Imperium conducts diplomacy?”
“How would I know? I’m a warrior. How do the Trixone conduct diplomacy?”
“Badly,” said one with an orange flower. “But those you know as Trixone are just a warrior sub-species with the need to expand and propagate programmed into them.”
“Interesting choice of words,” said someone, in my ear.
“So your warriors are bad at diplomacy?” I said in the direction of the plants. “Why would ours be any better? I can see there are diplomats here in this gathering, but I am not one of them. However, it was one of my objectives to determine if diplomacy should commence. And for now, I’m not sure it should.”
I’d been told to get this in as well.
“And why shouldn’t it?” asked the fungus.
“You are concealing what you are. I see a plant before me, covering a lot of the room. I cannot tell if this is one being, or a multitude. I hear a voice, but not the mechanism of how I hear a voice. You conceal much. You concede little. Is how you communicate a secret you must conceal at all costs?”
The fire ant started laughing so hard, his head wobbled around.
“Got you there,” it said, looking directly at the cart.
“If you must know,” said the higher voice from the cart, coming through its speakers this time, “we are a group being. One is part of the many, and the many are one, and no animal based life form has so far been able to tell where one individual among us begins or ends.”
“I don’t doubt that,” I said, this time actually smiling.
“We communicate by a form of telepathy. When the first off-world species came to our homeworld, we found the mind speak we use among ourselves could reach their technology, and through it we could communicate. Do you not have some form of mind to mind communication as we do?”
“None that we know of. Some have claimed it over time, but none have proved it to a satisfactory degree. We use our computers to communicate, when not talking face to face. It is slower, but works for us. We have certainly never heard of a form of telepathy which can interface with technology.”
“Neither had we until the first of us achieved it. And it has served all of the species in this area of space well. What you determined was hacking, was some of our minds seeking your communications technology. For us, communications proceed better when we can use the technology of others directly. We apologize if this offended you.”
“Not asking offends us. Had we known this is what you preferred, we could have found a way to do this safely. We may still be able to. Assuming you still wish diplomacy with the Imperium?”
“We do.”
“Then I will communicate that to my superiors, and recommend they send a diplomatic team.”
“That is all we wish. If you will let us know when to expect their arrival, and have them arrive at the same place you did in this system, then this meeting is ended.”
The fire ant motioned towards the door, and two of its soldiers led the way back to the dock. The other four followed along behind our six.
Once back in the airlock, Leanne closed it, and I jumped us back to the bridge, leaving the combat droids in the airlock for next time.
We were clapped back into the conference room, which now had twice the number of people in it as before I’d left. And around the wall were the flat faces of my team and the squadron leaders.
“That went well,” said Eagle.
Forty One
“Ah, no sir, it didn’t.”
The clapping stopped. No-one said anything as Serena and I sat, and drank what a butler put in front of us. The last few hours had been draining for me, and I could see fatigue on her face, now she was able to drop the diplomatic mask. She hadn't said much, but everything about that place was fatigue inducing.
“Explain,” said Eagle, when I’d drained my glass, and indicated to the butler to bring another one.
“The fungus appear to be some sort of gestalt creature. Millions, probably billions of individuals all joined together to collectively form something greater.”
“Neurons theory?” suggested someone.
“What’s that when it’s at home?” asked someone else.
“Our brains contain neurons. Enough for consciousness and intelligence. The theory suggests if you get enough together in any form, the same thing as our brains happens. So if each tiny plant frond contained a single neuron, and they were all connected, or enough of them, it would be a living intelligent creature.”
“And if they are in any way magic,” I added, “they become telepathic, and are able to influence other beings into accepting their preposterous idea of telepathy with technology.”
“You think they lied about that?” asked Tollin.
“Most of what they said was a lie.”
“You know that for a fact?”
“Yes.”
The room was silent as that little bombshell settled on them.
“What wasn’t a lie?” asked Eagle.
“They want their space blocked so the warrior Trixone won’t keep attacking them all the time.”
“Were they lying about the so called warrior Trixone?” asked a woman up the other end of the table.
“No. The plants with different coloured flowers didn’t lie at all. They want trade. In fact, I think they’re desperate for a trading partner which will earn them enough to pay off their debts with the fungus. The problem is, the whole debts things is a lie as well. I suspect that’s how the fungus keep them in line, by making them believe they still have huge debts to service.”
“What else wasn’t a lie,” asked Tollin.
“The rats also want trade. And the fire ants don’t care who they fight.”
“None of that was said outright,” said a Lufafluf, next to the woman at the end of the table.
“No, but it was implied. Some of them were being very careful to tell me things they didn’t want the fungus to realize they’d said. If we could get them away from the fungus, the discussions might be very different.”
“Anything else to offer?” asked Tollin.
“The rest was varying degrees of bullshit, designed to convince me to recommend we send in a diplomatic team.”
“Obviously,” said someone.
“Your recommendation?” asked Eagle.
“We get the fuck out of here, sir. Maybe even give the fungus what they really want, and seal them away from the rest of the galaxy.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Tollin.
“Because the only protection I had was magic. I had to keep a low level shield around us both to keep them out enough they didn’t start to influence our thinking. When they didn’t get through to us, that’s when they started a brute force attack on our tech. And that wasn’t telepathy, just good old fashion computer viruses. That’s stuff I learned as part of my police training.”
“Leanne, can you confirm that?” asked Eagle.
“Yes. All six combat droids were attacked by various forms of computer
virus.”
“Do they know they were AI controlled?” asked someone.
“No,” I said. “They were unable to influence Serena and I, or the droids, nor crack the protections on our PC’s or the droids computers. So for now, they think we have minds which can resist them better than the locals can. That will change if you send diplomats in there. I suspect they are trying to devise ways of upping their influence as we speak.”
“Any other reasons for leaving?” asked Eagle.
“The ants want our super weapon,” said Serena. “They don’t know what it is, but they want it desperately.”
“If they can’t get it diplomatically,” I added, “I think they’ll try to take it. Small ships might have been a wrong choice for this mission. They were intimidated by what they’ve heard about Rogue, and our dreadnaught squadrons, but small ships with a super weapon are just something to take.”
“But there is no super weapon,” said Woof.
“Exactly, but that won’t stop them trying. And to stop them, we’d have to use magic and reveal we can wield it.”
“Is that a bad thing?” asked Gitte.
“Yes, it would be,” said a squadron leader I’d seen, but not met.
“Explain,” ordered Eagle.
“Sir, they think we have strong ships. If they instead come to believe we have ordinary ships with strong mages, they’ll stop trying to take the ships, and either start trying to take a mage, or start targeting the bridge of ships to kill the mage. If the Trixone found out, they’d change their tactics to do the same thing.”
“None of them know how few people are on our ships,” said Jill. “Effectively to take a ship, all they need to do is put a hole in a shield long enough to put a hole in the bridge hull. It would be like they targeted all their IR missiles on a single spot until they achieved a breakthrough. With the crew dead, they can take the ship largely intact.”
“And there’s another problem,” I said.
“Of course there is,” said Tollin.
“If they manage to get any fungus on our ships, they might subvert the thinking of the crews enough that they join them willingly.”
“You think that’s possible?” asked Eagle.
“Yes.”
“So you think we should just undock and jump out of here now?” asked Tollin.
“It might be best. But there are some opportunities to grasp, if we can turn things to our advantage.”
“What might they be?” asked someone.
“We know from Rogue that the civilian Trixone are not interested in war,” said Tollin. “Nor are the brown rats. We don’t know about the white.”
“So,” I broke in, “if we can establish some actual trade with them, they may eventually spread the news of how good the Imperium is to trade with right across their space. Once we have some sort of relationship with the civilians, they might be able to convince the warriors to stop fighting.”
“Or they might even take steps to remove the sub-species entirely, themselves,” added Norden.
“I can see the potential benefits, but how can we safeguard a diplomatic team under these conditions?” asked Tollin.
There was silence.
“Anyone?”
I found all eyes looking at me. It was getting annoying when they did that. Some of what I’d heard about the Imperator was starting to make sense. Still…
“We bring in a ship like a support cruiser, outfitted with accommodation for the diplomatic team, and instead of a cargo bay, it’s fitted with a full diplomatic suite. Enough separate conference rooms so we can talk with each species separately, in completely isolated conditions. Each trading species is going to want food and drink tastings, so we do them separately, so each can also bring what they wish to trade that is unique to them. The thing being we limit the amount of fungus which comes on board, and we open the deck to space every day so any fungus left behind cannot hide.”
I paused for a breath.
“We keep several battalions of combat droids hidden,” added Woof, “but ready if the ants or any other species decide they want to take the ship. And the rest of us get in some training with the old tech heavy weapons.”
“Any meeting with the fungus present,” said Haynes, “is designed so our people can be easily shielded by a master mage, without the fungus knowing it is occurring. And we shield the fungus room specifically to keep them from influencing anyone. With none happening, we can hope the delegates of other species wake up enough to believe they’re being duped.”
“And we use volunteer diplomats,” said Tollin, “who are experienced with opponents who are very persuasive.”
“Does anyone care,” said Serena, “that if all that works, we may be setting off a civil war in this region?”
No-one spoke up. It seemed no-one cared. I did, but I wasn’t going to say it out loud with this group.
“Now that sounds like a plan,” said Jill.
Forty Two
The only plan I wanted was a lie down.
I didn’t get one. Not until later anyway. Details consumed the next few hours, before all the day trippers left the ship. I had to up the amount of energy I was drawing from the dark sun to keep me awake and functional.
Once everyone had left, the team all came aboard, and we first ate dinner together, talking about other things than the mission, and after a jog around the still single ship running track, we lounged in the hot water of the new spa.
This was an interesting diversion, because for the first time, all of our AIs joined us in getting naked. While they were all mainly the same height as their captain, physical characteristics varied a lot. I stored away names for each avatar in my PC, and after a short time soaking, you completely forgot they were not flesh and blood. They varied a lot in terms of conversational skills as well, and said conversation flowed across many topics.
After showering, we all moved into the new living room, but a short time later, I told them I was heading for bed. Serena did the same, and no-one seemed surprised given the afternoon we’d had. Just the change back to a normal temperature without humidity had been a blessing.
Instead of going back to her rooms, she followed me into mine. Neither of us said anything, and I continued into the bedroom, and shifted to a belt. She did the same. Neither of us had bothered putting underwear back on after our shower. I found her looking at me with a smile on her face.
“I’m just here to sleep,” she said. “I’m way too tired for anything else.”
“Me too.”
I started pulling the top sheet back, but stopped as she was still looking at me.
“What?”
“Did you see Mel this evening?”
“What about her?”
“She was first in the spa, and last out.”
“So?”
“I’m pretty sure she was storing naked images of everyone in her PC.”
I blinked a few times, before it sank in.
“You sure it was everyone?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Why would she take images of you girls? Or the AIs? Or for that matter, the cats?”
“What makes you think she’s only into men?”
I looked at her. Granted, I had assumed Mel was only into men, but then, there was no evidence of who she preferred at all. Jane probably knew, but that wasn’t a question which could be asked. And she wasn’t around to ask it.
“Why AIs?”
“Could you tell they were avatars just by seeing them naked?”
“No. You think Mel might fancy a few of them?”
“I think it’s possible. Either that or she just likes images of naked people.”
“Isn’t there a regulation about making a porn collection from your squadron mates?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Leanne?”
“Yes, Bud?”
“Any such regulation?”
“No. You think there should be one?”
I shook my head, and climbed
into bed. Serena climbed in next to me, but left a wide gap between us.
“Is that a no?” asked Leanne.
“Good night, Leanne.”
“Good night, Bud.”
Sleep was immediate, but disturbed. I had some unsettling dreams I didn’t recall afterwards, and woke after sleeping the night all the way through, feeling tired and listless. Serena was still asleep, so I left her there face down on the bed, and put myself under the shower. It didn’t improve how I felt, so I donned underwear and shifted into the flight suit.
The pilots were already running the track when I started in it, and it took me a number of laps to catch up. Staying behind the last person made me concentrate on my running much more, and when they finally left to go back to Haven to start heavy weapon training, I kept running, and really started ramping up the speed.
When I finally stopped, I found Serena was still asleep. I had another shower, and she still hadn’t woken.
Starting to become a little alarmed now, I tried to wake her up.
I couldn’t.
“Leanne?”
“Bud?”
“Did Serena wake up at any time during the night?”
“Neither of you did.”
“Get a care unit ready. I can’t wake her.”
“Confirmed.”
I rolled her over, picked her up, and walked her as fast as I could to the medical bay. A care unit was open near the door, and the doc droid was waiting. I placed her inside, and the lid slid closed.
“Send the results to Colonel Carter, as soon as the scans are done.”
“Any idea what to look for?”
“Fungus.”
“Oh. What are you doing?”
“I’m coming to the bridge. Find Eagle and Tollin for me.”
“They’ll be waiting.”
Forty Three
They were waiting for me, as hollos on the console.
“Problem?” asked Eagle.
“I can’t wake Serena up. I think the fungus did something to her, or their influence is a lot stronger than I thought. She’s in a care unit, and Colonel Carter should be getting some data shortly.”
“That’s worrying,” said Tollin.
Lieutenant Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 3) Page 17