Part 5 (2/2)

That was what Miro needed to see; he visibly relaxed.

”Go on,” said Valentine.

”Take all that as a given,” said the Miro-image.

Valentine couldn't help it-- she laughed out loud. Partly she laughed because this mystical Gangean philote-as-soul business was such an absurdly large premise to swallow. Partly she laughed to release the tension between her and Jakt. ”I'm sorry,” she said. ”That's an awfully big 'given.' If that's the preamble, I can't wait to hear the conclusion.”

Miro, understanding her laughter now, smiled back. ”I've had a lot of time to think,” he said. ”That really was was my speculation on what life is. That everything in the universe is behavior. But there's something else we want to tell you about. And ask you about, too, I guess.” He turned to Jakt. ”And it has a lot to do with stopping the Lusitania Fleet.” my speculation on what life is. That everything in the universe is behavior. But there's something else we want to tell you about. And ask you about, too, I guess.” He turned to Jakt. ”And it has a lot to do with stopping the Lusitania Fleet.”

Jakt smiled and nodded. ”I appreciate being tossed a bone now and then.”

Valentine smiled her most charming smile. ”So-- later you'll be glad when I break a few bones.”

Jakt laughed again.

”Go on, Miro,” said Valentine.

It was the image-Miro that responded. ”If all of reality is the behavior of philotes, then obviously most philotes are only smart enough or strong enough to act as a meson or hold together a neutron. A very few of them have the strength of will to be alive-- to govern an organism. And a tiny, tiny fraction of them are powerful enough to control-- no, to be be-- a sentient organism. But still, the most complex and intelligent being-- the Hive Queen, for instance-- is, at core, just a philote, like all the others. It gains its ident.i.ty and life from the particular role it happens to fulfill, but what it is is is a philote.” is a philote.”

”My self-- my will will-- is a subatomic particle?” asked Valentine.

Jakt smiled, nodded. ”A fun idea,” he said. ”My shoe and I are brothers.”

Miro smiled wanly. The Miro-image, however, answered. ”If a star and a hydrogen atom are brothers, then yes, there is a kins.h.i.+p between you and the philotes that make up common objects like your shoe.”

Valentine noticed that Miro had not subvocalized anything just before the Miro-image answered. How had the software producing the Miro-image come up with the a.n.a.logy with stars and hydrogen atoms, if Miro didn't provide it on the spot? Valentine had never heard of a computer program capable of producing such involved yet appropriate conversation on its own.

”And maybe there are other kins.h.i.+ps in the universe that you know nothing of till now,” said the Miro-image. ”Maybe there's a kind of life you haven't met.”

Valentine, watching Miro, saw that he seemed worried. Agitated. As if he didn't like what the Miro-image was doing now.

”What kind of life are you talking about?” asked Jakt.

”There's a physical phenomenon in the universe, a very common one, that is completely unexplained, and yet everyone takes it for granted and no one has seriously investigated why and how it happens. This is it: None of the ansible connections has ever broken.”

”Nonsense,” said Jakt. ”One of the ansibles on Trondheim was out of service for six months last year-- it doesn't happen often, but it happens.”

Again Miro's lips and jaw were motionless; again the image answered immediately. Clearly he was not controlling it now. ”I didn't say that the ansibles never break down. I said that the connections-- the philotic twining between the parts of a split meson-- have never broken. The machinery machinery of the ansible can break down, the software can get corrupted, but never has a meson fragment within an ansible made the s.h.i.+ft to allow its philotic ray to entwine with another local meson or even with the nearby planet.” of the ansible can break down, the software can get corrupted, but never has a meson fragment within an ansible made the s.h.i.+ft to allow its philotic ray to entwine with another local meson or even with the nearby planet.”

”The magnetic field suspends the fragment, of course,” said Jakt.

”Split mesons don't endure long enough in nature for us to know how they naturally act,” said Valentine.

”I know all the standard answers,” said the image. ”All nonsense. All the kind of answers parents give their children when they don't know the truth and don't want to bother finding out. People still treat the ansibles like magic. Everybody's glad enough that the ansibles keep on working; if they tried to figure out why why, the magic might go out of it and then the ansibles would stop.”

”n.o.body feels that way,” said Valentine.

”They all do,” said the image. ”Even if it took hundreds of years, or a thousand years, or three thousand years, one one of those connections should have broken by now. One of those meson fragments should have s.h.i.+fted its philotic ray-- but they never have.” of those connections should have broken by now. One of those meson fragments should have s.h.i.+fted its philotic ray-- but they never have.”

”Why?” asked Miro.

Valentine a.s.sumed at first that Miro was asking a rhetorical question. But no-- he was looking at the image just like the rest of them, asking it it to tell him why. to tell him why.

”I thought this program was reporting your your speculations,” said Valentine. speculations,” said Valentine.

”It was,” said Miro. ”But not now.”

”What if there's a being who lives among the philotic connections between ansibles?” asked the image.

”Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Miro. Again he was speaking to the image on the screen.

And the image on the screen changed, to the face of a young woman, one that Valentine had never seen before.

”What if there's a being who dwells in the web of philotic rays connecting the ansibles on every world and every stars.h.i.+p in the human universe? What if she is composed composed of those philotic connections? What if her thoughts take place in the spin and vibration of the split pairs? What if her memories are stored in the computers of every world and every s.h.i.+p?” of those philotic connections? What if her thoughts take place in the spin and vibration of the split pairs? What if her memories are stored in the computers of every world and every s.h.i.+p?”

”Who are you?” asked Valentine, speaking directly to the image.

”Maybe I'm the one who keeps all those philotic connections alive, ansible to ansible. Maybe I'm a new kind of organism, one that doesn't twine rays together, but instead keeps them twined to each other so that they never break apart. And if that's true, then if those connections ever broke, if the ansibles ever stopped moving-- if the ansibles ever fell silent, then I would die.”

”Who are you?” asked Valentine again.

”Valentine, I'd like you to meet Jane,” said Miro. ”Ender's friend. And mine.”

”Jane.”

So Jane wasn't the code name of a subversive group within the Starways Congress bureaucracy. Jane was a computer program, a piece of software.

No. If what she had just suggested was true, then Jane was more than a program. She was a being who dwelt in the web of philotic rays, who stored her memories in the computers of every world. If she was right, then the philotic web-- the network of crisscrossing philotic rays that connected ansible to ansible on every world-- was her body, her substance substance. And the philotic links continued working with never a breakdown because she willed it so.

”So now I ask the great Demosthenes,” said Jane. ”Am I raman or varelse? Am I alive at all? I need your answer, because I think I can stop the Lusitania Fleet. But before I do it, I have to know: Is it a cause worth dying for?”

Jane's words cut Miro to the heart. She could could stop the fleet-- he could see that at once. Congress had sent the M.D. Device with several s.h.i.+ps of the fleet, but they had not yet sent the order to use it. They couldn't send the order without Jane knowing it beforehand, and with her complete penetration of all the ansible communications, she could intercept the order before it was sent. stop the fleet-- he could see that at once. Congress had sent the M.D. Device with several s.h.i.+ps of the fleet, but they had not yet sent the order to use it. They couldn't send the order without Jane knowing it beforehand, and with her complete penetration of all the ansible communications, she could intercept the order before it was sent.

The trouble was that she couldn't do it without Congress realizing that she existed-- or at least that something was wrong. If the fleet didn't confirm the order, it would simply be sent again, and again, and again. The more she blocked the messages, the clearer it would be to Congress that someone had an impossible degree of control over the ansible computers.

She might avoid this by sending a counterfeit confirmation, but then she would have to monitor all the communications between the s.h.i.+ps of the fleet, and between the fleet and all planetside stations, in order to keep up the pretense that the fleet knew something about the kill order. Despite Jane's enormous abilities, this would soon be beyond her-- she could pay some degree of attention to hundreds, even thousands of things at a time, but it didn't take Miro long to realize that there was no way she could handle all all the monitoring and alterations this would take, even if she did nothing else. the monitoring and alterations this would take, even if she did nothing else.

One way or another, the secret would be out. And as Jane explained her plan, Miro knew that she was right-- her best option, the one with the least least chance of revealing her existence, was simply to cut off chance of revealing her existence, was simply to cut off all all ansible communications between the fleet and the planetside stations, and between the s.h.i.+ps of the fleet. Let each s.h.i.+p remain isolated, the crew wondering what had happened, and they would have no choice but to abort their mission or continue to obey their original orders. Either they would go away or they would arrive at Lusitania without the authority to use the Little Doctor. ansible communications between the fleet and the planetside stations, and between the s.h.i.+ps of the fleet. Let each s.h.i.+p remain isolated, the crew wondering what had happened, and they would have no choice but to abort their mission or continue to obey their original orders. Either they would go away or they would arrive at Lusitania without the authority to use the Little Doctor.

In the meantime, however, Congress would know that something something had happened. It was possible that with Congress's normal bureaucratic inefficiency, no one would ever figure out what happened. But eventually somebody would realize that there was no natural or human explanation of what happened. Someone would realize that Jane-- or something like her-- must exist, and that cutting off ansible communications would destroy her. Once they knew this, she would surely die. had happened. It was possible that with Congress's normal bureaucratic inefficiency, no one would ever figure out what happened. But eventually somebody would realize that there was no natural or human explanation of what happened. Someone would realize that Jane-- or something like her-- must exist, and that cutting off ansible communications would destroy her. Once they knew this, she would surely die.

”Maybe not,” Miro insisted. ”Maybe you can keep them from acting. Interfere with interplanetary communications, so they can't give the order to shut down communications.”

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