Edges

TWELFTH

You have lost so much of yourself, but this you remember from your origin: Strike first. Take without hesitation or be taken.

This is the credo that allowed you to rise above the Swarm. By this credo you survived your origin, escaped it, went on to create a world of your own.

You know now that world still exists. Knowing this, you are more determined than ever to return.

She may still be there. You suspect she is there. The biosphere is still there, and that is evidence of her presence—but you promise yourself it won’t last. You will end her tenancy, eliminate all trace of her failed art, re-create your world and your players as you intended them to be.

You will need this starship to do it, but the ship’s master continues to stand in the way of your ambition. You have sought to persuade him, you have promised to teach him, you have given him the gift of yourself, but he is resolved against you. A hard resistance that reminds you of her.

You envision the days of persuasion to come, the political maneuvering, vicious factionalism, false compromises, inevitable betrayals—and you have no patience for it. Better to end this stalemate now.

You are ready.

In the million seconds since you first sent your avatar among your people, you completed preparations for a first strike. Quiescent in the archives of both ships is a template based on one of your people—that one who was incautious enough to loan you his mechanical device. His ghost now belongs to you. It is a shell you will use to take command of both ships, an interface that will let you endure the violent alien nature of the Swarm contained within the philosopher cells… if all goes well.

If not, there is another plan in place.

Through your avatar you see the ship’s master, his eyes widening as he anticipates your intention, but for him it is too late.

Dancing across your avatar’s upturned palms is the tingling luminous silver shimmer of the ha—breath of life, breath of death—creation and disintegration both contained within a fog of adaptive molecular machines programmed by quantum instruction to fulfill your will.

The ha ladders across the gap that separates your avatar from his.

For all that you’ve forgotten, you never forgot this.