Return to Sender

by Starscribe

Chapter 7

Felicity did her best to be as polite and cordial as possible with the Pandemonium’s strange officers. Even so, she found her mind wandering during most of their meeting. There she was, Upstream, her mind apparently transferred into another level of simulation. Despite what Harmony said about the different paths that life could take, it looked to her like life had chosen the exact same path over and over.

Within their simulated space, the Pandemonium’s crew had set up everything their real ship was missing. Lots of comfortable spaces, or what passed for comfortable for them. Incredibly high humidity, the smell of rotting leaves following her everywhere, with very little light except for the glow-lamps spread out the way humans or ponies put chairs.

Needless to say, she didn’t think she’d be making too many visits to their version of Upstream.

For all their differences, they didn’t crew the ship in any revolutionary way. The only thing strange to her was the small size of the ship’s actual crew compared to the vast numbers of marines and ground-soldiers. It was more of a troop-transport, with many thousands of soldiers compared to less than a dozen creatures who worked the ship.

But she didn’t ask about it. Until she understood their boundaries between curiosity and impoliteness, she intended to remain firmly on the safe side of the line.

She was just incredibly eager to go.

“We’ll speak again when we’re out in physical space,” Atilla declared, nodding politely to her. “If you’ve decided by then not to take a more practical body, we’ll make arrangements to keep a section of the ship safe for you. But it’s going to be rather confining, even if I put more resources into it than we should. This is a warship.”

“I understand,” she said. “And I’m… prepared to face the consequences of staying in this body. The other pony traveling with me may not, however. I’ll tell her about it before then.” She hesitated a moment, dismissing the teleportation she’d been preparing. She wouldn’t go straight to the changeling hive to get Escape Gear. “How long do you think it’s going to take? I can’t imagine Harmony wants to wait longer than we have to.”

“No time at all,” the captain said. “Computationally, time distorts. Outside, I believe substantial progress has already been made. The Evokers have certain techniques that we never mastered. Their ‘star lifting’ will give them the mass necessary, and soon we’ll be soaring the stars again. Protecting the galaxy from evil, tearing down the tyrants.”

“It doesn’t…” She was probably pressing too far at this point. But she’d seen her ship die, and felt she’d been the reason that some of her crew were probably dead too. It was hard to care about the consequences of her actions just now. “Does it not bother you that you were all made from digital records stored in a Forerunner? Or… a Forerunner software update. However that system works…”

He reached over, patting her on the shoulder with a thin, damp hand. “That’s an Evoker way of thinking. You’re primitive, so I’ll spare you the lecture. But we see the world better. There is nothing beyond the physical, Felicity. All is matter. The mind is not its substrate. The same song is the same mind, by every meaningful measure. I am myself, as truly as I can be. How that line of reasoning was able to develop so far with such primitive throwbacks hooked into it, I’ll never know. But it isn’t your fault. You have the freedom to decide which ideas are most compelling.”

“We’re… on the same side either way, aren’t we?” she asked. “The thing that ended civilization… if there’s anything left of it, it doesn’t matter what our politics. We all want it gone.”

The captain pulled his hand back, dunking it into the glass of tea as though it were the most natural thing in the world. “Nothing is more certain than that. We will gladly trade our service, even to a rival. For even rivals are still fellow-travelers along the pilgrimage to sapience. We strive for the same enlightenment by different means. If our predecessors could coexist in peace, then there’s more than enough galaxy for us to do likewise.”

She let the spell build for a few moments more, then finally teleported herself away. She had no idea what part of Upstream she’d been in, and probably couldn’t have gotten back into it if she wanted to. But she knew where she was going. Escape Gear could be in only one place.

The changelings had their own particular fractions of Upstream, where their intergalactic colonization efforts continued apace. As far as Felicity knew, most of them didn’t even understand that they weren’t in the real world. They didn’t want to know, and so they didn’t look too closely at their surroundings.

But if Escape Gear had been the sort of creature to accept simulated exploration, she wouldn’t have signed up for the first and most dangerous trip beyond Equus that had ever been conceived.

Changelings didn’t follow the normal rules about life and death—their bodies had long been coopted maintenance drones, spoofed into hosting a conscious mind by secondhand emotion. But now that the Quarantine was lifted, so were those strict rules.

There was a new age in the underground changeling city of Irkalla, and it was there Felicity knew she would find Escape Gear.

If she wasn’t a citizen herself, Felicity would’ve had to take on one of their changeling bodies to be instanced in such a place. There was machinery for bugs to violate the normal requirements of conception and birth, though it only seemed configured for changeling bodies. But citizens ignored all that. She just found a place close to Escape Gear’s old lab, then cut her way across.

She imagined that long ago, this ancient ship would’ve been packed with soldiers to keep a creature like her out, and crowds of changeling civilians doing whatever bugs did. But now most changelings lived on the surface, nopony tried to stop her. The few bugs she did see didn’t do more than stare.

The ancient starship rose up around her, its rusty walls somewhat less decrepit than the last time she’d seen it. Some of the automatic lights came on around her as she finally reached the workshop’s entrance. From beyond, she heard machines roaring. Metal pounded, a drill spun. Mechanical arms did mechanical work.

“Escape Gear?” She knocked loudly on the door, but her touch was lost in the din. Finally she shrugged, and teleported straight across the threshold.

The interior looked much as her workshop on the Alcyone, with all the shiny new machines replaced with ancient, jury-rigged technology from a culture long dead.

The changeling stopped what she was doing with a welder, flipping up her mask. “Captain?” Her horn flashed, and the machines all around her ground to a halt. “I was wondering what happened to you. Almost thought Harmony might’ve punished you or something…”

I wonder if it should’ve. She didn’t say that, even if she might’ve been thinking it. Even explicit permission from the AI not to hold herself responsible didn’t translate to accepting that it wasn’t her fault. Ponies lost to the dark, maybe dead forever. Ponies she had failed.

“It didn’t tell you? It said you’d be coming…” She trailed off, frown deepening. Of course it wasn’t that Harmony had lied. It didn’t see the actions of its citizens the same way as regular creatures would. “I guess that means I’m the one who’s supposed to tell you.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Captain.” Escape Gear tossed the visor down onto her workbench, flipping off the flame from her welder. Felicity stared a moment at what she’d been building, and instantly realized why it seemed so familiar.

It was that alien ship, the vast single curve with interlocking layers beneath. “You’re making… sculpture?”

Escape Gear seemed annoyed, probably waiting to hear what was really happening. “No, I’m trying to figure out how the damn thing worked. The best defenses Harmony could build, and it didn’t even care. Making a copy of it… it’s a way of thinking like its engineers did. These shapes are here for a reason. These protrusions, these openings… all have a purpose.”

Harmony might already know how this thing works. She doubted it—if the technology was fully understood, then couldn’t it be stopped? “I guess that makes sense. Finding ways to be productive, I like that.”

Escape Gear knocked on the side of the model, spinning it around on the table in front of her. “What about you, Captain? I know you—you’re not going to accept giving up our friends. Did you convince Harmony to rescue them?”

“More than that.” She glanced briefly at the door, but of course it was closed. She stepped closer anyway, in case any of the changelings happened to be listening. The ancient changeling capital was a largely empty place now, with so many bugs living on the surface. But the ones who chose to live down here were often the most extreme in their views. “Harmony is going on crusade. It’s building an army to fight when we get there. And it wants… us to be there. Since we saw this ship in action before. We might be better informed than anypony.”

Escape Gear grinned enthusiastically, slapping her on the shoulder with one leg. Her thick apron stung a little on contact, but her enthusiasm was so contagious Felicity hardly even cared. “That’s what I’m bucking talking about! Take the fight to the bastards. Get our friends back, and make them pay for killing me. What’s the plan, exactly?”

She told her—as much as she understood of it, anyway. There was a lot of summarizing what she’d seen on the Pandemonium, since the actual reasons for things running the way they did didn’t make sense to her.

“But they seem like they can fight? That’s the important thing. We haven’t really done much good if we fly all the way back there and just blow up again.”

“I think so,” she said. “Harmony thinks that the weapons it used to kill us won’t work on their ship. They’re from the Forerunner’s lineage of technology, instead of Harmony’s. Like a changeling catching pony diseases, it just doesn’t make sense.”

“I hope Harmony knows what it’s talking about.”

“It gets worse.” There was no point putting it off. Harmony had left no room for disagreement—and as much as it had faith in Escape Gear interfering if she was ignored, Felicity didn’t actually think a bug could defy such a powerful intelligence. “You have to become a Citizen to go. Don’t bother arguing with me, Harmony didn’t even really say why. I know it’s going to require it, though.”

Escape Gear swore under her breath, in the strange blur of language that didn’t quite translate. “There’s always a catch with Harmony. Everything has to be part of some stupid plan.”

Felicity shrugged. “You don’t have to come with me. I’m honestly not sure Harmony really needs us there. It could’ve extracted anything it wants its soldiers to know directly from our brains. Going is probably more a chance for us to get even. We’re the ones who bled, so it’s only just for us to be there.”

“Damn right it is.” Escape Gear circled around the workshop. As Felicity watched her, it seemed more and more obvious that she wasn’t doing much of anything. These machines were making things, sure—but did she really need jackets and sections of bulkhead and coils of wire for a mostly-deserted ship?

“I’m going to try and talk Harmony out of it,” she declared. “Seems… so stupid. What can I do as an Alicorn I can’t already do as a changeling? My magic isn’t as strong, but… magic isn’t going to save us regardless. Engineering will.”

“Good luck,” Felicity said. “If you can’t succeed… you don’t have to be an Alicorn. There’s a whole library of forms in there. Maybe one of them would be more compatible with our alien hosts.”

“Maybe,” Escape Gear muttered. “Yeah, I think I’ll do that. Stick it to Harmony either way, thinking it can force me to be its favorite species. Not anymore.” She stormed up the stairs, then out of the workshop.

Comments

[minibox]

Our crew is more or less ready. War is coming. Though the enemy should never be underestimated.

It was more of a troop-transport, with many thousands of soldiers compared to less than a dozen creatures who worked the ship.

Still confused about the overall strategy though. Bombardment from space would be easier and safer than conventional warfare on the ground. Make it faster for the aliens to capitulate. No real need for a occupation force either. And if these aliens are even suspected to be the Red Tide, you'd think Harmony wouldn't hold back and have Forerunner develop and unleash planet killers. Of course, it's entirely possible that Harmony is actually trying to get revenge and pay them back the "thousand-fold" it owes. Inflict untold suffering only a ground occupation can provide. Though at that point I guess it was only a matter of time until the Universe crowned another threat to all life.

Protecting the galaxy from evil, tearing down the tyrants.

Of course we'll never ever become the tyrants. Right?

The mind is not its substrate. The same song is the same mind, by every meaningful measure. I am myself, as truly as I can be.

But what happens when there are two of you?

“I think so,” she said. “Harmony thinks that the weapons it used to kill us won’t work on their ship. They’re from the Forerunner’s lineage of technology, instead of Harmony’s. Like a changeling catching pony diseases, it just doesn’t make sense.”

Can't have a protracted war though or they'll adapt to the new technology used against them. That's if the war gets off the ground in the first place.

“You don’t have to come with me. I’m honestly not sure Harmony really needs us there. It could’ve extracted anything it wants its soldiers to know directly from our brains. Going is probably more a chance for us to get even. We’re the ones who bled, so it’s only just for us to be there.”

Never really saw Harmony as a CelestAI "satisfy your values" type. There's likely more going on in the background with their further involvement than Harmony simply giving a opportunity to get revenge.

[Midknight Defender]

I’m now imagining Escape Gear appearing in the body and armor of a 40K primarch.

[Raistlin]

Why do changelings living Upstream keep using the drone design as bodies, rather than trying to reclaim their original ones? Are they forgotten who they once were?

And why Harmony demands from citizens to become alicorns? Are they supposed to be the "ultimate lifeform"?

[FanOfMostEverything]

Fascinating stuff, especially the philosophical divergence between the two branches of civilization on display. I do wonder what Escape Gear will pick out from among the available morphologies. Hopefully she considers utility as well as spiting Harmony.

What am I saying? She's an engineer. Of course she will.

[Lithl]

11133247

But what happens when there are two of you?

If there's two of you then there's two of you. That's not really a problem under this philosophy. The two will diverge and become unique from each other as time goes on (and diverge faster the more different their respective experiences are), but at the point of duplication there's two instances of the individual, and someone with this philosophy wouldn't care.

The ancients who built Harmony and the Sanctuary ring thought differently, and were deeply concerned with the issue of continuity of consciousness.

[PeachClover]

This is starting to feel like a warhammer 40k fic complete with captain angry about enemy forcing killing her crew… By the way, this is the first of your stories that I’ve read since Fine Print, but I’ve noticed that in both you start every chapter with the main character’s name. There is something about that that feels uncomfortable, like the character is always rushing to get somewhere.