Utopia War

Chapter 29 - Best Friends Forever (Reprise)

Several hundred holograms of Exigencia suddenly zoned out at once as her complete attention was diverted elsewhere. The UFO was attempting to communicate.

It must be able to detect their war games, she reasoned. It's scared. It should be scared.

Exigencia was able to assimilate the data in just shy of a second by dedicating to it an absurd percentage of her total computational power. It was a primitive mind-theory construct of Min-ji Cerulean. Only a few conversations worth. It was exactly what she had predicted it would be: a trick. An attempt to gain a withdrawal based on the lie of a potential peace.

She wouldn't share it with the others. It would have a sub-optimal impact on morale. She made sure to archive it, however, for historical purposes.

* * *

While most of the ships had docked for repairs or recalibrations after the war games, Xiaolongnu remained at large. The sleek black ovoid danced up and down the dimensions, getting in as much practice as she could.

<Don't freak out but I just disconnected us from Exigencia,> signaled Xiaolongnu.

<Why would you do that? Won't she notice?> asked Sparkle, her body still lying comatose in the co-pilot's seat.

<Eventually,> admitted Xiaolongnu <She's pretty busy, though, so I can simulate us well enough to trick her for now.>

<Why would you do any of this?> asked Sparkle.

<There's a message being beamed directly at this region of space that she's trying to block from our minds.,> explained Xiaolongnu <I don't like being told what to think so on principle I had to intercept it. The only way to do that without her noticing was to dummy up my mind and the only way to tell you about it without the same thing happening is to dummy you too. So right now I'm using a completely uncomfortable amount of processing power pretending to be both you and me.>

<What message? If Exigencia is blocking it it could be dangerous,> signaled Sparkle.

<It's from someone called Min-ji Cerulean,> signaled Xiaolongnu.

<Min-ji?> asked Sparkle, elated.

<I think you might have mentioned her one or two million times so I recognized the name. So do you still think it's too dangerous?>

<I want to hear the message!> signaled Sparkle.

<I thought so. I'm sharing it now. Once you've processed it all you'll remember a conversation with this Ms. Cerulean. You should know it might be a trick by the UFO. We'll know more once you've simulated a conversation.>

* * *

The dummy mind-states were still fooling the extremely distracted Exigencia by the time Sparkle could remember the conversation.

"Sparkle," said Min-ji "I'm about to tell you something that will sound completely unbelievable. I know I don't deserve it but I need... I need you to trust me."

"Don't be ridiculous, Min-ji," scoffed Sparkle "Of course I trust you."

"Just like that?" asked Min-ji.

"You're surprised?" asked Sparkle.

"You don't even need to hear what I have to say?"

"I'd like to, sure, but that doesn't impact whether I trust you or not. You don't have to worry about me, I've got your back! Best friends!"

Sparkle remembered Min-ji tearing up a little. That was sweet.

"The UFO is the most advanced computer in the galaxy. It contains the mind-states an entire alien civilization, an entire simulated universe. If you destroy it, you'll be committing genocide!"

"Um..." Sparkle started.

"You don't understand, they've agreed to make peace!" said Min-ji "They read my mind and I was able to get through to them. They'll call off their attack if we call off ours."

"What about Proxima?" asked Sparkle, darkening.

"What about all the lives that will be permanently lost if this fight continues? There is always an outrage to justify continuing the cycle of violence. That's why it's so insidious."

"Okay, I believe that you believe what you're saying," said Sparkle "But how do you know the aliens aren't tricking you? Because if I was a tricky alien that would be my first trick to get us to call off our attack."

"I can't. There's no way of knowing if they're lying to me or not. This is the best I can do. This is the way I can have the highest possible likelihood of averting further death. If that's only a 1% chance I'll take it."

"I guess a tricky alien would never admit that. If that's your plan, though, you have my support 100%."

"Thank you," said Min-ji.

"That said, I hope there's more to your plan. I don't think Exigencia would call off the attack just for me even if I asked nicely. She's a Concensus made up exclusively of people who want to fight the alien. So she's really excited about fighting the alien."

"If I were to send you another message via these same means, would you be able to rebroadcast it to the Exigency fleet?" asked Min-ji.

"I think so," replied Sparkle "My new friend Xiaolongnu is really smart and really grumpy about how she's not being given sufficient opportunities to demonstrate how smart she is."

"I'm going to contact you again," said Min-ji "Make sure to do that when I do."

"Wait!" yelled Sparkle.

But the conversation was already over.

* * *

<So,> asked Sparkle <Can you do it?>

<I could,> signaled Xiaolongnu <I think the real question is 'should I? I'm all for information wanting to be free but what if this is a trick? We could be compromising the entire fleet. This is a shade more treasonous than I usually like in my palette.>

<It's not a trick,> signaled Sparkle <Min-ji wouldn't lie to me.>

<That wasn't really Min-ji you remember talking to. It was a simulation of her mind-state as it relates to a few specific topics.>

<It was a message from her,> said Sparkle.

<That is merely one possibility,> signaled Xiaolongnu.

<I know it was her!> insisted Sparkle.

<Except you don't,> signaled Xiaolongnu <I don't even believe you know what the word 'know' means anymore.>

The two sat in silence for a moment, to a given value of 'sit'.

<Intercepting the signal and rebroadcasting it would be hard, right?> asked Sparkle.

<What are you implying?> demanded Xiaolongnu, in spite of herself.

<I'm just wondering out loud what percentage of people could even do something like that,> replied Sparkle <Top I'd guess. The top percentage.>

<I know what you're doing,> signaled Xiaolongnu <Don't think that just because it's working I'm not completely on to you.>

<So you'll help me, right? Because you need everyone to know you're the best?> asked Sparkle.

<No, I simply prefer for everyone to know I'm the best,> replied Xiaolongnu <I can get along just fine without it. I have done so many times.>

<To be clear though,> signaled Sparkle <It would be hard?>