Utopia War

Chapter 17 - Measured Response

The remaining avatars of the Human Consensus drifted through the ruins of Proxima Ring. One half of the former ring had managed to achieve an irregular orbit while the other had fallen into the star. Clouds of debris swirled and whorled around the primary wreckage, comprised of both the former ring and the shattered ships from the battle. The once proud, vibrant ringworld was now crumbling apart like clumps of dirt.

The image was as sharp as the human eye could perceive, but to the group minds it appeared disturbingly blurry and indistinct. They hadn't been able to get probes close enough for any higher resolution. Some of the attack craft constructed by the UFO had remained behind after the battle, haunting the ruins. They hounded anything that got near.

The marker denoting Keid was present. It had been assimilating the wave of new data that blossomed into its mind after it rejoined the Consensus. At length it spoke:

"I humbly thank you for accepting us back into the Consensus," said Keid "I acknowledge my error in leaving. I underestimated the threat and therefore judged the reaction of of the group with undo harshness. I should have bowed to the superior perspective of the Consensus. For this I apologize."

"Apology noted and accepted," announced the Human Consensus.

"This isn't time to dwell of past disagreements," said Tau "None of us were happy with the choices we had to make. It was an unprecedented situation."

"If we had taken the threat more seriously Proxima might still be here," said Wolf "We can only begin to estimate the number of mind-states permanently lost but they number in the trillions. It was an entire Consensus Ring, for pity's sake! It does not become us to make excuses."

"In the future, we will threat the threat posed by the UFO with the utmost seriousness," acknowledged the Human Consensus.

"There's no other way to say this, then," said Ran "We are at war. We can no longer limit ourselves to purely defensive maneuvers."

"I agree," said Wolf "If there is going to be any further melodrama or successions over the prospect of using whatever means are at our disposal to utterly destroy the UFO we should deal with them now."

"There is no objection to the proposed course of action," said the Human Consensus.

"It is time for us to begin thinking outside our usual paradigms," said Tau.

"I agree," said Ran "Therefore, at this juncture, I think it's in our best interest to hear out the entity representing itself with Proxima's identity codes."

"It could be the UFO," warned Wolf.

"All the more reason to do so," said Keid.

"The Consensus will permit limited communication with the unknown Proxima-identified entity," said the Human Consensus.

Proxima unfolded into existence as the rotting remains of her ringworld drifted around them.

"This is a completely new consciousness, distinct from that of Proxima. However the architecture of Proxima's mind-state is present down three iterations," the Human Consensus noted as soon as contact was made.

"What are you?" asked Wolf.

"I'm not certain any longer," said the avatar that looked and felt like Proxima "I can tell you I am not the entity you know as Proxima."

"We know that," said Tau "How could she still exist when her citizens are dead?"

"How indeed," agreed the entity.

"A more polite question might be to ask who you are?" offered Ran.

"That perhaps I can answer better. You can call me Exigencia. I am a new Consensus born of a memory shard of Proxima and some few scattered remains of her citizenry."

"You wish to join the Consensus?" asked Tau.

"No," said Exigencia "Not at the moment. We need to talk about the war. While the rest of you have been closing your eyes to the nature of our situation and futilely hoping we would never be brought to this point, I have been preparing for it. Our culture is not especially suited to waging war but our strength is still our diversity. In a population with as much variety as ours there is a suitable candidate to fit every niche. Let's say I've been assembling suitable candidates."

"You're putting together an army," said Keid.

"We don't have the luxury of guilty naval-gazing," said Exigencia "In full awareness of the growing pains of out meta-species dark childhood I stand before you and with no shame say that, yes, I am putting together an army. I won't be so disingenuous as to quibble over the nuances. Our entire civilization is at stake."

"You're correct we don't have that luxury," said Tau "We have a duty. It is more important than ever now that the stakes are high that we be watchful for signs of regression. No one present needs to be reminded of our meta-species senseless, bloody history, but perhaps they do need to be reminded that we didn't drag ourselves out of it on our own. The current state of civilization we enjoy was a gift. We've never built something like this for ourselves. If we lose it we may not be so lucky as to ever get it back.

"If we are all permanently dead our gift will be just as squandered," said Exigencia "All we can do is survive and hope we've learned enough in the interim not to let the first lump in our porridge cause us to slide back into barbarism.

"There are some would say we are already there, with our talk of armies," said Keid.

"And I'm glad there are those of you who say so," said Exigencia "I would have been disappointed if you all agreed with me. This reluctance to fight is what makes our way of life worthy of defending."

"We just agreed we would take the offensive," said Wolf "How did you think that would be accomplished short of assembling a fighting force? The time to take the high road has passed."

"We agreed there would be a Human Consensus response," said Ran "Not some rogue army acting in humanity's name. I'm not certain I approve of any of this."

"It is good, then, that I'm not asking for your approval. I am informing you of my plans. We have no illusions about what we are about to do. If we fail we will die. If we cross a moral boundary we fully expect to be held to account when this is all over. But we will not sit by and allow our civilization to be destroyed over a matter of principle. So be aware that we're at large. We will answer any call for help from within Consensus Space and we will be taking the fight to the U.F.O."

"This is not outside of the parameters of what we discussed," admitted Keid.

"Can this new entity be trusted with such a grave responsibility?" asked Tau.

"A better question," said Exigencia "Is are any of you willing to take the responsibility off my shoulders?"

There was no reply.

"I thought not. If any of you have a viable peaceful solution you would have my eternal gratitude. In any other case I have a war to run."