Chương 83: Nova Wars - Chapter 72

Doing diplomatic work on Terra is like waking up drunk on the floor of a flat you have never seen before, wearing someone else's pants, with only one shoe, missing your shirt, with a half empty bottle of narcobrew in your hand and your datalink telling you that you have an incoming vid-call for a job. - Dreams of Something More, Mantid Diplomat, Second Precursor War Ensuring that he was expressing pleasure, Violet Flowers Line Paths to Peace straightened up and nodded to the technician.

The gold Mantid, Finds Peace in the Maelstrom, who was Violet's lead assistant, looked a bit worried but kept it to herself. The technician nodded back, his face invisible behind a featureless white mask of a Terran face, and pressed the button. There was a chime and the large holotank in front of Violet powered up. The holofield was blue, easily large enough for a ground car to be parked in, with silver and red text down the side displaying resolution, power, bandwidth, and contents.

The tank sat silent for a moment. Violet waited patiently. A figure rezzed into being. A Terran made entirely out of code, whose face looked slightly stubborn, careworn lines around their eyes and the corners of their mouths. Slightly behind him and to the right a figure appeared, mostly in shadow. It had the head of a tesem, a Terran body, and was clad in a knee length skirt-like garment that had gold and copper and bronze plates and decorations.

The canine-headed being has a necklace that covered most of the upper chest and featured two discs representing the sun.

"Honorable Gestalt," Violet said, expressing humility and pleasure.

"And?"

"Anpu the tpy-djuf," the man of code said. His voice was flat, expressionless. Violet knew that the Terran's voice was flat to hide anger, not out of an inability to express emotion.

"I greet you, Anpu," Violet said. The canine headed Terran merely nodded.

"You requested to see me," the Terran Gestalt said slowly.

"Why?"

"You are the amalgamation of the consensus of humanity. Not just Terrans, but Earthlings, Humans, and more. From the digital to the artificial biologic, you are the consensus. They trust you with their thoughts, feelings, and opinions," Violet said.

"I have talked to diplomats, researchers, and others. I've been on talk shows and interviews," Violet motioned at Finds Peace in the Maelstrom, "My assistant has also been touring the talk shows and news opinion and interview shows." The Terran just nodded, his face still expressionless.

"However, anything I say to the population of Terra, the population of the Sol System, undergoes who knows how many editors and censors," Violet said.

"Several times interviews have been edited so that it appeared that I made a statement diametrically opposed to my true statement." The Terran nodded.

"Yeah, that happens," he gave a short, rough chuckle.

"You think you hate journalists enough, but you really don't." Violet nodded. The Terran made of code stared at him for a long moment.

"And?" Violet put up an emoji of a thoughtful face between his antenna.

"I wished to speak with you, to the human overall conscious gestalt." The Terran of code frowned.

"Instead, you're just going to stare at me?" Violet carefully waved one bladearm in negation.

"No. I am merely taking stock of you. In your appearance, in how your code flows, in your expression and body language, as well as tone and word choice." The Terran lifted the side of one lip in a sneer.

"And what have you learned?" Violet expressed pleasure and put up an emoji of a greenie in a graduation cap.

"You are rightfully angry, having expected me to immediately demand that you turn over the afterlife records of all non-Terran sentients to their respective species governments. You brought along a representative of the dead to hear my validations and justifications of why those people should have to be turned over to their species." Violet combed one antenna.

"You were ready to be belligerent, as you are still angry that the other gestalt's first thought was not 'wow, thank you for extending such a literal miracle achieved through technology to us, so that we know that we continue once our allotted lifespan has empty, but rather they demanded that you return the deceased in order to use them to make the lives of the living easier."

"Yes," the Terran said.

"You history, like every other sentient being, is replete with slavery. From basic 'Ugg spare you now you do work Ugg no want to' to the Corporate Town to the Company Store to debt slavery, every species has bloody appendages where this subject is concerned," Violet stated.

"Only, it wasn't that long ago for you."

"No," the Terran said.

"The Fourth Biological Sentience War happened after the founding of the Confederacy. The Mithril Nebula and Clownface Nebula Conflicts are within living memory for us." Violet nodded again, cleaning his other antenna.

"Your own potential for such things makes you all the more sensitive to it." Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The Terran nodded.

"Perhaps."

"It is the official policy of "We Live Here Now and Enjoy This Place as a Bastion of Goodness", my homeworld, that such a thing is to be avoided at all costs," Violet allowed himself to show slight embarassment.

"Forty-thousands years ago, the Omniqueen came and enslaved us all. Because my people's Speakers are not externally psionic, the Omniqueen sent her own Speakers to us." Violet combed his antenna.

"Enslaving us all. I do not remember, I am too young, but I have tasted memory crystals of that time," he said.

"How did you get out of it?" the Terran asked.

"Stellar geometry more than anything, but also armed resistance," Violet said.

"Another reason it was good of the Confederate Diplomatic Corps to send me." The Terran nodded.

"Senior species representatives have spoken with me, assured me that they too view the return of those who have lived a full natural lifespan to serve 'the Needs of the People' to be little more than slavery," Violet stated.

"Even death would be no respite," the Terran said. He stared for a long moment.

"Perhaps, just perhaps, allowing you to experience the system, to see the system, will help you understand. Help you explain it to everyone." Violet managed to keep from showing shock only due to decades of sensitive diplomacy. Still, it was an opening.

"Would you be willing to rejoin the Gestalt channels if I agree?" The Terran thought for a moment.

"Yes, although I reserve the right to revoke consent at any time."

"Of course," Violet said.

"Uh, I won't need to die, will I?" The Terran shook his head.

"No. That's why I brought Anpu with me. Just grant him access to your datalink. That will be enough." Violet was nervous, but agreed, accepting the incoming maintenance request. He closed his eyes when instructed. He appeared in the holotank. Both the Terrans in the holotank and Violet vanished. For nearly an hour he stood there, unmoving, while technicians monitored him. Other diplomats shifted nervously as the massive Mantid just stood still, breathing slowly and deeply. Finally, Violet opened his eyes.

"I..." he stated. He rubbed his bladearms together.

"I have seen eternity." He slumped down in a faint. 0-0-0-0-0 HAT WEARING AUNTIE The Mar-gite are still moving into the spur by the thousands of constructs. We're trying to form a defensive line, but we're getting overwhelmed. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS The time to form a defensive line was fifty years ago. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- CHANSERV>TERRASOL HAS LOGGED ON TERRASOL Don't. Just... don't. ///////// LANKY LANKY YOUR NAME IS FRANKY Welcome back. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- HAT WEARING AUNTIE How are you?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL Not sure if I want to punch all of you out. I'm gone and you let everything turn into a shitshow. The first thing you demand when I get back is I turn over what is a profound duty to all of you when you don't even comprehend the first thing about it aside from the fact I have something you want. I'm still pissed at all of you. You older ones especially. You know better than to let it get like this. Now I'm back and everything is on fire. So, I'm still pissed.

///////// RIGEL We figured if we let everything catch on fire until the fire was big enough maybe you'd notice us again. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL <snerk> OK. I've looked it over. It's pretty bad. Not hopeless, but pretty bad. It has the potential to be a lot lot worse. We can win this war and end up with an even larger problem that will tear apart everything and everyone. The Mar-gite. Whoever is kicking the crap out of the Ornislap. Whoever is building the fence. They're the Enemy.

They just exist to be destroyed. We'll find them, rip them apart, and finish this fight. It's afterwards that is the big problem. You older ones should know. ///////// TELKAN FORGE WORLDS What big problem? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- RIGEL Once the war is over, if you use the rebirth system the way the Terrans do, what are you going to do with everyone you consigned to lifetimes of warfare, where not even death would be a respite from the horrors of interstellar warfare? Put them back?

Ahem, sorry, 'return them to their previous existence' as one of you put it? That's just a fancy way of saying "War is over. Please face wall now." You'll have civil wars within seconds. How will you handle people that were killed over and over again in order to win just one battle. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS Terra does it. Why can't we? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL Because you're not me. Tell me, how many of your people have volunteered and then qualified to go Clone War Lyfe?

How many of your people have qualified to be Monster Class Infantry? How many of your people can even comprehend the kind of mindset you need to have to crawl over your own dead body to fight the enemy? Tell me. If any of you have, raise your hands. /////////......... TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS To add on to what TerraSol is saying: How would your societies handle having the dead return to life? The Worker Caste who was killed in an industrial accident is one of the biggest celebrities we have right now.

The Telkana who returned is the exact same. Or at least, she was, before she died in that car accident. Which, to be honest, with the other news we're getting, we're a little suspicious of. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TELKAN FORGE WORLDS It was investigated pretty thoroughly, it was an accident. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- RIGEL Yeah. I'm sure it was. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- SAURIAN COMPACT Totally not suspicious. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- GREAT GALLOPING GESTALT OF GREATNESS So, are you back?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL Unless you guys insult the shit out of me or try to force me to do something again. I don't take well to people trying to force me to do anything. Just ask Lanky there. //////// GESTALT OF GREAT THOUGHTS BY A GREAT PEOPLE WHO THINK AND DO GREAT THINGS True story. Hey, it's kind of funny to see Ba'ahnya'ahrd. He's a Senator in the Hamburger Kingdom now, huh? That's pretty funny. I'm sure he'll figure out a way to defeat you any second now. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL Hey, now.

Senator Ya'ahrd was instrumental in the Galloping Plains Cease Fire agreements. Who would have thought that Lanaktallan would bring back mounted cavalry, in a way, to do warfare? ///////// AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS Wait, has Ba'ahnya'ard or any other Lanaktallan ever been killed and brought back? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL That's covered under Private Medical Information. You'd have to ask him directly. ///////// HAT WEARING AUNTIE Aside from all of this.

What are the chances you'll be able to help with everything happening? It's looking back. We've got thousands of Mar-gite clusters coming in still. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS Estimations say that in less than 20 years approximately two thousand Giga-Clusters will hit Fortress Sol. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL Yeah. We're going to stop them before that. ///////// TUKNA'RN GESTALT How will we do that? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TERRASOL You won't like the answer.