But Thomas Aiken Is Dead - Part I (2 page)

Atia:

I
was
conducting historiks research.

The Interlokutor:

This has become a semantic debate already, something which could have been avoided had you not insisted on the investigation being carried out in ningen-ersatz capacity.

Atia:

One of my little eccentricities.

The Interlokutor:

According to our preliminary inspection you exhibit a number of eccentricities.

Atia:

Such as?

The Interlokutor:

You have been ningen for over an au now.

Atia:

Century.

The Interlokutor:

Au. We prefer the standard metric for-

Atia:

I’m sure you do.

The Interlokutor:

Very well. You have been ningen for over a century now, apparently by choice.

Atia:

What of it? It is my right to do so.

The Interlokutor:

Naturally, though it is just something of an unusual choice. Do you ever return to generik mode denizen eksist?

Atia:

No. It’s vile.

The Interlokutor:

What if communication becomes a problem with another denizen?

Atia:

Then I use words.

The Interlokutor:

And commit yourself to ambiguity?

Atia:

Sometimes blunt tools construct beautiful objects.

The Interlokutor:

Moreover, you are socially reclusive and highly sporadic in your interests. Recurrent research topics include late 22nd century literature, noteable historik Luddite sympathisers, semiotics -

Atia:

I know what my interests are.

The Interlokutor:

You must admit they are anomalous.

Atia:

Not particularly.

The Breacher:

She is perfectly aware that her behaviour is unusual.

Atia:

There is nothing anti-Cadence about exotic research interests.

The Interlokutor:

I am confident that they share some kind of commonality, and that commonality relates to the motives behind your transgression. Your academik research interests were even more exotic. We would like you to expound on them.

Atia:

You know all of this, surely.

The Interlokutor:

I am curious to hear your rendition of events.

Atia:

Why?

The Interlokutor:

It may help to identify vital flaws in your apprehendment of reality. Please begin at an appropriate point in your chronology.

Atia:

Gnesha’s teeth.
When the horologiks faculty had me excised, I was assigned as part of the anti-mergerment effort by Tsun Uri.

The Interlokutor:

He was an associate?

Atia:

Yes. I met him an au or so ago.

The Interlokutor:

When, exactly?

Atia:

I can’t recall.

The Interlokutor:

Is this the truth?

The Breacher:

It is.

Atia:

Ningen-ersatz have their memories modelled in the ningen fashion. Details fade over time in our minds just as they would have in the standard ningen brain.

The Interlokutor:

Another testament to ningen inefficiency, wouldn’t you agree?

Atia:

That was the nature of their minds. I doubt even you, Interlokutor, with your strange powers could change the biology of a dead race. I first learned of the mergerment from some acquaintances on Orange Tier. They explained that if it continued at its current pace it would consume the entire Cadence in half a century. Possibly faster. I believed them.

The Interlokutor:

Did the Orange Tier denizens understand what the mergerment was?

Atia:

We’re ningen-ersatz, not barbarians.

The Interlokutor:

Very well.

Atia:

Tsun Uri contacted me shortly after asking if I might have an interest in joining the anti-mergerment effort. He had me travel to a small research enclave on Tier Orange. The place was already inhabited by a number of scholars, all there by Tsun Uri’s request. Tsun Uri believed historiks research may provide vital clues to halting the mergerment, maybe even reversing it. There I met a number of specialists, also ningen-ersatzes. It was bliss. We behaved in the old ways – drank, slept, made love with one another. If we were mad then we were mad together. I came to consider them my family almost immediately.

The Interlokutor:

Did any of the denizens there hold anti-Cadence sentiments?

Atia:

No, none. All of us were there for the good of the Cadence, not for subversive purposes. Whatever has been said about us, we were not conspirators. We only wanted to halt the mergerment.

The Interlokutor:

There was a plan then?

Atia:

A number of them. A few of the denizens at the research enclave had migrated from Tier Indigo. They had witnessed the mergerment when it first appeared. They told me of how it began to expand at an unfathomable speed, swallowing the nodes around it, then gorging itself on other denizens whether they consented or not. As it absorbed more selfsenses, it accumulated more knowledge about the Cadence’s substructures and operations. This made it easier to infiltrate the other tiers too. Those who had joined us were there to stop it, as was I. We agreed it was,
is
, the greatest malevolence our kommunity has faced.

The Interlokutor:

And they were ningen-ersatz? All of them?

Atia:

Yes.

The Interlokutor:

You must have a theory about this choice. Most generik denizens consider it a kind of pathology.

Atia:

Well, it’s no coincidence they were all historiks scholars too. They probably had a passion for ningen history. They all took designations also, and genders.

The Interlokutor:

A kind of nostalgia.

Atia:

I don’t know. Perhaps.

The Interlokutor:

You have taken a gender yourself. What is the meaning of this?

Atia:

I am a woman.

The Interlokutor:

You are a denizen.

Atia:

Denizens can be women.

The Interlokutor:

Nothing forbids it, no. Equally well, a planet could be a billiard ball but it would still be impractical. What kind of historiks research were you asked to conduct?

Atia:

That is sensitive information.

The Interlokutor:

We have been commissioned by the Cadence Major itself. No particulars are too sensitive.

Atia:

My research varied.

The Interlokutor:

How?

Atia:

Tsun Uri believed all selfsenses, biological and cadential, have an inherent predisposition to mergerment. If that was true then the ningens would have had the weakness too, long before the Cadence. Most of the researchers were interested in group dynamics of former ningen populations and how they interacted. I was assigned to particular lives in the hope that individual studies might yield some insights. Tsun Uri’s group granted me full access to all records and left me alone with my work for the most part.

The Interlokutor:

And what did you find?

Atia:

That Tsun Uri was correct. All instances of civilisation in ningen history had tended towards closer and closer cohesion. Before the Neuro Years this was impossible, but greater degrees of freedom were granted with more advanced technology. It was only a matter of time before the Cadence was built, and only a matter of time before the denizens would begin to merge with one another inside the Cadence.

The Interlokutor:

Reasonable premise. Did Tsun Uri believe there to be an end point to this?

Atia:

Of course. No divisions between denizens, ningens, or any creature in any mode of eksist. A single mind.

The Interlokutor:

And if that single mind is the result of a natural process then why try to combat it?

Atia:

Nature has a wild imagination but little compassion to accompany it. Assessments of ningen historiks up to the early years of the Cadence were enough to confirm the hypothesis. Even before the Cadence, the ningens had begun to experiment with merging their selfsenses, though the outcome was crude and often debilitating for the participants. Spoken language is a sort of attempt to merge. Fornication too.