Return to Sender

by Starscribe

Chapter 35

The room was crowded, as much with people as objects. There were projection screens, bits of twisted metal, tanks filled with green growth. Despite the music and the smells, this was not the same space Felicity had visited for the fleet admiral’s tea ceremony.

His clothes hadn't changed, at least. That strangely thin body with too many limbs still dressed in flowing silks, its shape not clearly suggesting one sex over another. He raised one delicate hand as Felicity entered, waving her over. When he spoke, his voice too confused her expectations of sexual dimorphism. You'd think I would get used to this after living around functional hermaphrodites for years.

"She survives," he said. "Despite everything, you return. There are many of my marines who could learn from your resilience."

She nodded politely, though she wasn't quite sure even that gesture meant the same thing to the Varch'nai. There was no place for her to sit this time, though the admiral and many of the scientists were already reclining. That was its own message, just as clearly sent and received: she wasn't coming as a friendly visitor this time.

"You sounded like this decision was urgent," she said, looking briefly around the room at the others with them. Scientists, equally as difficult to impress as the admiral himself. Maybe more so.

"Yes, yes." He waved one hand decisively, flicking it towards one side of the room. There several of the scientists gathered, whispering to each other. Their robes were far less elaborate than the admiral, favoring bright blues instead of deep reds.

The space before them was filled with a glowing model of the “custodian ship”. Only thanks to the several nearby Varch’nai ships could she tell just how huge it was. Not quite at the continental megastructure level, like Equus—but a younger cousin.

"The ship is disabled for now. We stopped short of fully dismantling it, thanks to an unusually dense alloy used in this central section, one we haven't encountered before. We could probably penetrate it, but doing so would destroy whatever was inside. This would mean an end to the possibility of recovering the survivors of the last expedition."

"Unacceptable mission failure," Manny said flatly. "It is wise that you waited."

"Waiting becomes increasingly ill-advised,” Gant said. "I have sent marines, but they were not successful. I believe most of the internal structure is simply not large enough to accommodate them. The sections we sliced open did not seem as particularly useful either."

He gestured, and one of the scientists rolled over a tank. It contained chopped up lengths of leafy vine, in enough subtle shades that Felicity could tell it was multiple people. "Explain this, Ada."

The scientist shifted nervously under his attention, then spoke. A feminine voice, though the differences were subtle. "Understand this is just a representation. These plants do not do well at greater than cryogenic temperatures. Nor have we found any 'mind' to interface with, as such. There is some sign of complexity in various signaling mechanisms, but nothing approaching sapience."

"I can tell you from experience, they're intelligent." She walked over to the tank, which might've seemed no more disturbing than a basket of lawn-clippings to her before. Now it caused a wave of nausea through her stomach. Those limbs, the sap seeping into the otherwise clear medium of the tank, might as well be blood. I have to get rid of this before Delta gets here.

"They don't have a single processing center, no brain. Their intelligence comes from a distributed network in each of their arms. Each plant is a single mind—this is many corpses, not one individual."

She focused her magic, and the tank vanished from before her. Technically this wasn't magic, she just used her will, manifesting something from her mind as she deleted something else.

She formed a new tank, full of the proper “water” for one of the growing people to live. She put bright lights on the bottom, and in the water, she imagined Delta. The difference would not be visible to any of these people, who hadn't even realized they had a tank of severed arms. But it was easier to imagine one person, with the subtle patterns on their leaves and the scents she was used to.

She levitated it onto the pushcart to replace the tank she had banished. "This is what they look like. And they move like this..."

She imagined Delta swimming through the tank, finding a comfortable place where she could soak in the sunlight. That didn't mean right against the light, since that would get uncomfortably warm. She floated into the middle of the tank, limbs spreading to maximize area and hold her in place.

"This is how they act." She explained various other things—their level of dexterity, how they could work many tools at once, or use scents to communicate so well they could combine their muscles by wrapping together.

She spoke with such confidence that the scientists along the wall never interrupted her. Or maybe that was Manny, sending recordings of her observations from her time among them. Either way, she was grateful.

She explained their cities, and the intelligence of the many beings who lived along the ocean floor, unable to move or participate such that they were forced to watch helplessly as they were eaten alive by grazers.

Time was strange in that mental space, such that it never felt like too much. No one's mental stamina would deplete, because they weren't reliant on limited supplies of neurotransmitters to induce plasticity and attention. So she could explain the whole thing, even if it took a day's worth of time.

"This is the species you're up against," she finished. "And it explains why they built their ship that way. They're small, and flexible. They only need a few inches to pass through into any new space. It's better to build small, since that means less space to heat, and the light is more concentrated. There are probably large areas for storing cargo or prisoners, but finding them would be tricky."

"I don't understand why there would be such a... divide," said another scientist, Paulso. She took him for their leader, though maybe he was just the bravest of their number. "Why live in a dangerous ocean where you need to keep soldiers patrolling for threats or have your citizens get eaten? Why not build more ships, or orbital platforms? They would be far easier to temperature regulate as well."

"I don't know," she admitted. "I was one of those soldiers, and I only had limited access to their technology."

"They did not know how to replace any of it," Manny said helpfully. "They are endlessly resourceful at disassembling machines, repurposing their parts for other functions. But I never saw them construct anything new. It is possible they never knew how, or the machinery to do so has run down."

"What I'm getting from all this is that they aren't a threat," Gant said. "Their race is already dying. Our best solution here would have been simple attrition. With no new 'saplings', they will go extinct, eliminating any danger to colonization."

"That is not relevant," Manny said. "My citizens, should they survive, cannot wait. We must enter that ship, discover their location, or confirm that their cortical recorders were destroyed. If this is the case, you will have to destroy this vessel and leave their planet to rot."

They don’t deserve that, Felicity thought. Her tail whipped nervously back and forth, as she considered and rejected several different arguments. Harmony was her greatest ally in all this, but that also meant she needed to appear unified with him.

"I think we can reason with them," she said. "Maybe even figure out why they attacked us in the first place. I do have... suspicions."

"Does it matter?" Paulso asked. "They attacked our vessels and yours. They killed our people and yours. They are our enemy, and yours."

Even their scientists? Felicity opened and closed her wings once, counting up slowly in her head. "Yes, they did. And right now yes, they are. But I don't think they have to be. The galaxy is empty now, with plenty of space for all of us. The worlds that would serve them for colonization are useless to us."

"Worlds, colonization," one of the scientists muttered, to muffled snickers from the other. "Live at the bottom of a gravity well? Why?"

She ignored them. "I still think this might be a... misunderstanding. They do not have space in their cultural context for non-plants that are also friendly. We are either dangerous, or useful but ultimately still entirely... animal. They have a much better view of carnivores than herbivores, but..."

She gestured towards the hallway behind her. "I brought one of them with me, one of their soldiers. Her name is Delta, and she protected me faithfully during our time together. You should talk to her, and see."

"See what?" Gant asked. "I understand how much you ponies rely on words for solving your problems. But sooner or later even you must admit when they have failed you. Nothing will be accomplished in that conversation. We cannot enter the ship to examine it, and they will not speak to us to negotiate the release of your VIPs. Maybe they understand once they do, we will obliterate them."

Felicity tried to keep calm, she really did! But she could only take so much Varch'nai thinking during a short period. She spent all that time explaining their society, all the ways the plants could be human. But it felt like they weren't even listening.

"I can talk to them!" she yelled, loudly enough that the whole room fell silent, staring in shock. For all that the Varch'nai could be militaristic, they took a simple display of impoliteness as unbelievably barbaric.

She wasn't going to stop now. "I can talk to them. With enough biomass, I'm sure Manny could make me a new body. You don't have to send more marines in to waste bodies, I'll go. Delta and I will mediate a peace. You don't need to keep dismantling their ship, and they don't need a warship to keep attacking travelers. We can resolve this."

She slumped forward, wings folding weakly to either side. It didn't matter how big or powerful she felt as an Alicorn—these people wouldn't be impressed. It was probably a great effort for them to recognize her as more than an animal.

"You said you brought one of them with you," Gant said. "I do not want to lose another of Harmony's children on a doomed expedition. I would like to speak with her, and judge what you're saying. If they're more than mechanical, maybe I will allow you to try."

She wanted to argue—but even Manny was silent. Apparently he thought that was a fair requirement. She walked past him, over to the doorway. She levitated it open, then shouted down the hall. "Delta! Could you come out here, please? There are some people who would like to speak with you."

The alien was slow to respond, poking a few feelers out through the edge of the door before emerging clearly into the light. She was still pony-shaped, despite the intervening time. Probably because she wouldn't grow tired in here, or need to feed on light. Her real body trapped on the wreck of that ship, on the other hand... they would still need to get her to eat somehow.

But that was a problem for later. She made her slow way forward, not exactly walking. The movements were similar, but there were clearly no bones underneath, or muscles. She didn't walk so much as stretch and undulate, before the rest of her body snapped forward like a pulled elastic band.

"Are you sure about this?"

"No," she said, as the creature approached. "But if we don't convince them, they'll probably destroy the... sky temple. If you want to save it, and the people growing inside, I need your help."

"Right." The pony-shape did not make facial expressions, but she could smell her resolve. "I wish you had someone better."

"I don't." She walked out, then urged the creature into the room. Dumbfounded silence followed.

One of the scientists dropped his beaker. Even Gant's grip on his teacup grew shaky.

"I know you can do it."

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Their robes were far less elaborate than the admiral, favoring bright blues instead of deep reds.

Countless millennia later, and the uniforms are still drawing inspiration from Star Trek.

"I wish you had someone better."
"I don't."

Could've been phrased a touch better in English, but for all I know, the scent translation of that sentence removes the ambiguity.

In any case, looking forward to having the Varch'nai's assumptions thrown back at them. It's almost like trying to determine sapience from a pile of severed limbs and organs is a bad idea.

[Booster Spice]

Distributed intelligence among limbs in the plants is like measutring sapience of humans due to the neural density of the intestinal tract?

[Raistlin]

I once considered how much sympathy Varch'nai deserve, given their situation.
Now I'm firmly in the "screw those jerks" territory.

[minibox]

Seems like a losing battle for Felicity and Delta. Gant's concern is with accomplishing the mission. Manny's and Harmony's concerns lie with recovering the crew. The fate of the plants regardless of the outcome doesn't look bright.

[whyudothis]

I can never see an update without humming the Elvis song a little bit.

[KMCA]

11327438
You can be in both camps. I don't like them but they also didn't ask for what's happened. They were basically captured by Harmony and then revived to be used as it's stick when the carrot failed. They're a slave army.

[Turquoise pony]

Delta, speaker-to-animals. Chmee, she is not.