//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: All Systems Go 
// Story: Friendship is Optimal: A Watchful Eye 
// by Sozmioi 
//------------------------------//

"Well, then, what's the field at infinity?"

The junior shook her fists with victory, "... the integration by parts boundary term is zero. Okay! So, when exactly can you do that?"

She clearly wanted to try to tackle it on her own before getting another hint, so he sat back and let her.

A voice Hikaru didn't recognize came from the pad, saying, "Summer?" A violet unicorn with white accents was trotting in place in front of Guide Star's cottage. The undergrad asked, "Minnie? Is something wrong?"

"Get your flank over to the math lounge ASAP." She galloped off down the road.

The student looked to Hikaru. He smiled and said, "You got the hard part, so I'd go if I were you."

She dashed out.

Hikaru rolled over and closed the door. "So, what is it?" I bet that was about me, not her. Did they wake Kimiko up already?

As he turned back to the pad, his anticipatory smile vanished - a very serious-looking Celestia was standing in the doorway. She backed into the cottage, and Bright Black followed.

Guide Star was still in the bed, slowly mumbling and twitching. Hikaru came closer and picked out syllables here and there. It sounded like finely chopped English with bits of Japanese tossed in.

Celestia said, "She's slipping away. I thought you would want to know as soon as we knew."

He swallowed and put his hand over his mouth. He looked out at the students procrastinating from studying for finals on the tennis courts. Then up into the corner of the room. I let myself get my hopes up. Celestia is powerful, but not all-powerful. Then straight to her eyes. "Yes, you're right. Thank you. How bad is it?"

"Her brain is degenerating faster than emigration is improving. She'll be best off emigrating now."

He whispered, "Even though you haven't ironed that out."

Celestia nodded. "It could be some months before it is an option for anyone who isn't about to die. By that point, she could still be breathing but she wouldn't be there." She leaned in. "The most significant parts of her remain. And what we can do already is good enough that she should still be her when she wakes up."

"What will she be missing if we go now?"

"Two things. First, many memories. As many as two thirds would not be surprising, though more likely around one third. She will notice the gaps."

Hikaru laughed bitterly. "So, little worse than she's been since she was 75."

She gave him a slightly displeased look. "Second, her abstract reasoning centers are sufficiently damaged that I will need to infer her patterns of thought from her surviving memories rather than measuring them directly. Fortunately, abstract reasoning is something I understand well. Also fortunately, most of her other brain functions are in excellent condition.

"All of that is assuming the process works. In her condition, with current techniques, the probability of catastrophic failure is around 23%. Now, I would need her consent to emigrate her, as I always do to modify any human. Since she is unable to grant or deny it, I can substitute yours, just as we did with the probes."

Hikaru nodded. "You may try to save her. What do we need to do?"

"You fly to the launch as planned and I will take care of the rest. I do not want to share the details of this any further than necessary. It is far more important that you keep this secret than anything to do with the probes."

"The law would see it as murder, I suppose?"

She nodded sadly. Then, tilting her head, asked, "Try not to seem sad before you hear the news. And, assuming all goes well, then after you've met her again, not too happy." She grinned. "Though the temptation may be strong."

Yes. This is going to be one of the most nerve-wracking times of my life. On par with the worst days of the war, wondering when the bombers would come again. "It would be so much simpler if we could all be in on it, change the law, and so on. Then all I'd need to worry about is that 23%."

Celestia slightly incline of her head. "I am working on earning its acceptance. But in order for it to be made legal to try, I must prove that I have already succeeded."

"Catch-22." Speaking of bombings.

"Fortunately, not as inescapable as that. I only need to demonstrate success."

"And that's where she comes in."

"A true demonstration would need to be done with more confidence than I can supply at this time. But this will contribute to our understanding."

Don't we mainly learn from our mistakes?





One last time, Hikaru sat on the side of her bed and held her hand. This feels like it's the end. And it is an ending. But not more so than, say, graduation, or getting married. Well, no. Bigger than that. Maybe halfway from there to being born. If it works. If not, this really will be my last time with her in any form. Guide Star's incoherent mumblings don't count. He glanced to the pad for just a moment. Its screen was dark. There were no distractions from the real Kimiko.

All the years. All the time we spent together - not nearly enough. We could have spent our time together better, too, if we hadn't had an end looming. Less stress, less fear, less bickering. And if you live through this... we get a second chance.

He placed her hand on her hip, kissed her cheek, and stood up. "See you in a few days."

The moment he stepped out the door, he was in a haze. He grabbed the tickets and his bag without thinking. The bus and train rides passed without a word. Only when he was answering questions at the airport did he speak; it felt foreign. His thoughts were subverbal, primarily consisting of dread.

At the other end, he had to clear his head a little to follow the directions he'd printed out from Beachberry's email. As soon as he made it to his hotel bed, he lay down. And after a few short seconds, he cried.

An insistent shouting from inside his bag woke him. He got up and pulled the pad out. Coconut Cream and and Beachberry were in the cottage; Beachberry's horn was glowing as she shook Bright Black awake. She stopped a moment after he had the pad up in his lap. "Good to see you up! Time to go get ready!"

He sat on the side of the bed and let himself continue to wake up.

Beachberry's horn once again glowed. A moment later, the pad presented a montage of Beachberry and Coconut Cream guiding a limp ragdoll Bright Black through a morning routine: showering out behind the cottage, with Beachberry vigorously scrubbing his mane with her forehooves while Coconut Cream held him vaguely upright; Coconut Cream picking strips of bacon from a tree and tossing them in the window onto a frying pan while Beachberry levitated his head up and fed him a muffin; brushing his teeth, which was complicated by his head lolling about at the wrong times; coercing a suit around his uncooperative body; carefully posing him just outside the door, standing on either side of him for a group photo, which was taken just as he collapsed to the ground.

The illusion faded as the show ended, revealing the cottage once more. Beachberry punctuated this return with, "Now, are you going to get up or do you need us to come out there and do it for you?"

Coconut Cream raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Beachberry..."

"Hush."

Hikaru stretched. "All right, all right. I'll get up."It occurs to me, I've never slept with a pad near me before.

As he stood, Coconut Cream asked, "Nervous?"

Hikaru simply replied, "23%"

Coconut Cream nodded. "For what it's worth, incorporating what we've learned since, her chances have improved by four percentage points."

"19% feels the same."

Nonetheless, he dragged himself through what needed to be done.





The launch preparations went smoothly. It had mostly been arranged in advance, but there were definite things that needed to be set up to control the satellite once it was up. Remy and Chen were in the heart of those; Hikaru could have injected himself, but it wasn't necessary and he didn't feel up to it anyway.

In the hotel that evening, he sat down and set up the pad properly. "Any news?" he asked even before the screen had come up.

Coconut Cream was sitting on the stoop of the cottage. "Yeah, with what we've done and learned, her chances have improved again."

Hikaru sighed. "How much?"

"Nineteen percentage points."

19% - 19% = 0%

As he realized, Coco cracked a grin. "Yup."

"So, it worked? What are we doing out here, then? Let's say hello!"

He opened the door and found Celestia at Guide Star's side. Her horn was glowing, and bright white lines splayed out from their heads. Gratuitous excessively pretty visualization it may be, but definitely gets one bit of information across - she's not done. The lines faded; she looked up and said, "The risk is past. You may rest assured that tomorrow evening she will waken."

"How assured?"

A slight smirk crossed her face. "If you want to worry about someone, your son is driving a car right now."

Hikaru gave her an opportunity to add information that would make that dangerous, like that he was on a cell phone; when she didn't, he said, "I see." He relaxed. "I'll let you get back to that, I guess."

Gently, she said, "You were not truly interrupting."

He nodded and backed out anyway.

And then Hikaru himself just lay down to rest. Not sleeping yet. He was stiff from being tense all day long. His eyes kept drifting to the pad, though nothing in particular was happening.

After a few minutes, Beachberry and Sweetsong came running up the road; Beachberry was levitating a champagne bottle. "Great news!" shouted Sweetsong.

Hikaru rolled on his side, and his eyebrows shot up. "Thanks?"

Sweetsong looked to Bright Black in surprise, then rushed over and hugged him. "Oh, wow, it worked, then? Congratulations! I didn't mean that, though!"

Coconut Cream asked, "Well, what is it, Sweetsong?"

Beachberry corrected her, "'Sweetsong'? You can call her 'Cupid'." At that, she bumped flanks with the pegasus.

Sweetsong finally clarified, "Quickstream asked out Free Breeze. They're on a date right now." She giggled. "I can't wait to hear about it!"

Hikaru interjected, "What? I thought you two... did you? What happened to you two?"

She hopped up, spread her wings, and did a pirouette on the way down. "I dunno. But they live in the same world. Why would I want to compete? It'd be totally selfish!"

Oh. Free Breeze is human. I can see why this is optimal, but it seems inhuman.

Coconut Cream whispered, "The opposite of jealousy is also a human emotion, BB."

"I can see how the duty of love can override..."

"No, not that. Before you even get to emotional restraint. Haven't you felt it?"

Hikaru thought back, before he'd ever met Kimiko. After I came to America, I was happy to hear that Saki had gone on with her life. I guess we'd been displaying interest longer than she and Remy were. But I'd already left her behind. On the other hand... Yes, point made. Sometimes it's not just putting a brave face on. There can be something behind that. And if, as in this case, there had never been the hope of more, I guess I can take that. Sort of embarrassingly virtuous, though. Makes the rest of us look bad.

Coconut Cream punched Bright Black in the shoulder. "Stop wallowing."

He laughed. "All right. I'll just remember nineteen minus nineteen. It's a good number."





As they watched the rocket's trail dissipate in the midday sky, Remy kept his eyes up. "Do you have any idea how big a nebula is?"

We could both cite numbers, of course, but really? "No. The largest thing I've got a clear conception of its size is Kyushu."

"Of course, 'clear conceptions' can be deceiving. Just look at Descartes trying to dig himself out of skepticism."

"No, I walked across it the short way. I know just how big it is."

"And?"

"Clear conceptions aren't exactly communicable." Will that be true next year? "Its 100 kilometers feels really huge."

"Alternately, we are very tiny. Hmm. I wouldn't want to be as big as a nebula. It'd take a few years to notice if I stubbed my toe."

"Not to mention, assuming we kept your density the same, you'd collapse to form a supermassive black hole."

"I hate when I kick a neutron star wandering around at night. Those things hurt."

Hikaru clutched his chest. "Help. I've fallen and not even light can get up."

"You're a little beyond help at that point. But you never know. Maybe we're wrong. Maybe there's a way out after all."

Hikaru wondered if he was very obliquely referring to his new girlfriend. That reminded him of what would happen tonight, and his mood broke. Just because Kimiko is alive doesn't mean that everything is going to be fine. If she's still Kimiko, that means terrible times are going to be mixed with the great - and, given what she's about to go through, the bad times will probably come first.

One restless nominally-working afternoon and a nervous dinner later, Hikaru returned to the hotel. While he was taking his shoes off, the telephone rang. He took it without a thought as to what it might be. "Hello."

"Is this Hikaru Maeda?" It took him a moment to place the voice - the administrator of the hospice wing.

His stomach seized up. He had to act. His stage fright produced the desired effect, "Y-yes?"

"I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but Kimiko is dead."

The others won't know that she isn't really. That truly is sad.

He took a deep breath, then another. "I... Thank you for everything you've done. I'll... I'll get the details later." How did they know to call just right now? Must have been tipped off by a pad.

Weakly, he hung up. A sense of doom sunk over him. Even if he knew it was false, he had just heard news that his wife was dead. It was a little unsettling.

"Relax!" urged Beachberry.

Hikaru was shocked to see them dressed up. Coconut Cream was in a simple leaf-and-flower-print dress, Beachberry was in a long gown printed with seashells, and Sweetsong was in a pastel blue mini that complemented her lavender coat. Bright Black himself, contrary to the hint from the montage earlier, still wore nothing.

Coconut Cream added, "Celestia told us a while back that she's well into diminishing returns. Any time you're ready, head on in. We'll wait out here."

Am I ready? No, wait. "Flowers. I need flowers."

Beachberry's horn flared and a trio of flowers just like those on her cutie mark appeared and stuck themselves to his collarbone like magnets. "Thank you. I was hoping for a little more."

Celestia stepped out of the cottage, and her horn glowed for just a moment. "There are now flowers waiting for you. Are you yourself ready?"

Hikaru took a deep breath. "Yes."

"Do not forget, her name and appearance have changed. Guide Star was a placeholder." Hikaru nodded.

Celestia backed in, and Bright Black entered. A large bouquet of brightly colored flowers, heavy on gigantic pink and red roses, was leaning against the bed.

He went to the bedside and looked down to the mare there. She was still a pegasus, but was now largely white. The ends of her mane and tail were each in a sequence of bright, saturated blue, red, and green. The colors mingled as they approached her body, merging smoothly with her white coat. All along the trailing edge of each wing was one row of black feathers.

Strange to have the primaries in that order. Well, it's still pretty. He took the flowers from the stand and held them in the crook of one leg.

Celestia said, "Polychrome? It is time to wake up."