Utopia War

Chapter 14 - Exigency (i)

A hologram of Proxima's avatar snapped into existence in the co-pilot's chamber of TheBestAtJumping. The dolphin starship did not like the look of that.

"Uh oh," said the ship "You only ever bother with a hologram when you have bad news."

"That's not entirely accurate," said the avatar "However, before we continue this interaction further I feel duty bound to point out that I am not an avatar of the complete Proxima Concensus."

"Is that so?" asked Mac, from the co-pilot's chair. His mouth moved but his body remained slumped like a corpse.

"This should be good," said TheBestAtJumping, materializing a screen so it could grin at everyone.

"I am an autonomous shard of that whole. The complete Consensus has determined that it should only retain memory of my task under specific circumstances. I will reintegrate if those circumstances arise. All memory of creating me has been isolate into myself so the true consensus remains unaware of my existence."

"Didn't you just blow your cover revealing yourself to us then?" asked Mac "We're both Consensus. So..."

"I'm currently blocking all new memories you're forming from being integrated into the Consensus. I can maintain this state of affairs indefinitely."

"What if I don't want that?" asked TheBestAtJumping.

"You're fine with it," said the avatar "You want to know what I have to say."

"There's no sense trying to bluff her," said Mac.

"Okay you caught me," said TheBestAtJumping "So what's the big secret?"

"I'm certain you're aware of the threat posed by the approaching alien object. We've already had several citizens suffer permanent mind-state loss. My task is to assemble a team-"

"Nope. No. Stop you right there," said TheBestAtJumping "I knew this was all a bad idea. I said back then it was a bad idea. You wreck one space station and so now every time they need something wrecked who do they come looking for? Forget it. We're out of the wrecking business. We've been very successful racing. If you want to come back with a starship and race me I'd be thrilled but, as I have said before, I am no soldier.

"I'm not looking for soldiers. How can we have soldiers without an army or police without laws? Our people have moved past such institutions. However, we find ourselves in exigent circumstances and I am putting together a group of people whose unique skillsets may prove useful in the time to come."

"In this case, our unique skill would be wrecking space stations?" asked TheBestAtJumping

"Among many others," admitted the avatar "I know one of you is quite good at jumping."

"This isn't funny," said Mac.

"That last one was a little funny," said TheBestAtJumping.

"So if you're a shard of Proxima there really isn't any point in arguing with you is there?" asked Mac "Theoretically, if you wanted to, you could say the exact combination of words that would make us willingly join this thing you're building couldn't you?"

"Of course," said the avatar.

"So I don't have a choice do I?" asked Mac.

"That's somewhat fatalistic, isn't it?" said the avatar "You always have a choice. The universe is chaos, my ability to successfully manipulate you to within a margin of error that is statistically insignificant notwithstanding."

"Is that what you're going to do then?" asked Mac "Say this perfectly tailored thing that will affect my neurons in just such a way that I will want to join?"

"I have reason to believe I have already."

"I guess you're right," said Mac.

"Don't fight it," chimed in TheBestAtJumping "She's always right. Even just a shard of her."

"You adorable little sycophant," cooed the Proxima Shard.

"Hey," said TheBestAtJumping "I'm gigantic."