Chapter 239: (Dreams) (2/2)
”I think I may need to move out of my room,” Dreams said softly.
”You may want to,” Fights whispered, pointing at where one green mantid was going over the deck plating with a energy resonance detector and finding swirls and patterns in the electron valence patterns of the various atoms, tracing how electrons and subatomic particles had moved through the deck plating and adding the patterns and data to the mass of data hovering in the room.
Dreams clicked her tongue and Mr. Rings dropped from the branches and into her arms.
”Mommy's going to take you to a new place to live, yes she is, yes she is,” Dreams crooned to her pet. Behind her Rack picked up the ceramic nesting tree, moving it carefully.
”The words weren't important. Well, they were, but that datasqueal,” Fights mused, tapping her bladearms together thoughtfully. She glanced at it again as she left the room with Dreams, noting the way even more green mantids had arrived so that the entire hologram was circled by greenies, so that no viewpoint went unnoticed.
”We can't return to Terra,” Dreams said, heading toward the visiting VIP quarters. ”I'm loathe to even return to Confederate Space, to be honest.”
Fights shook her head. ”I don't think we're heading to Confed Space, to be honest,” she stopped and tapped her bladearm against the warsteel wall of the modified heavy cruiser. ”The fact that the Precursors struck this deep into Unified Council Space concerns me.”
”The message torpedo should reach Confederate Space in two weeks, the Telkan System in four days,” Dreams added. ”That will let them know that Tnvaru is gone.”
”Do you think there's enough left to keep their species going?” Fights said sadly.
”I hope so,” Dreams answered, petting Mr. Rings to soothe the ache that the thought of an entire species having been wiped out caused in her soul.
”Maybe the Terrans can help. They've pulled other races out of the maw of entropy,” Fights said.
Dreams nodded, making a sound of bitter amusement. ”Even enemies. Terrans seem to hate death almost as much as those in your profession.”
The two mantids moved to one of the vacant VIP suites, opening the door and stepping aside for Pinion and Rack to situate Mr. Ring's bole nest. Once it was done Dreams sighed and used a local copy of her contemplation glade from a datacube in her purse rather than pull the one from ship's memory when she saw that there was an engineering lockout on her shipboard version.
”They'll pull apart the veining on the leaves,” Fights chuckled as she watched a greenie peek in, look at the newly restored glade, and duck back apart.
”Do you ever wonder what it is like for them?” Dreams asked. ”To see the world as a whirling and churning mass of theorems, formula, and proofs?”
”No. I believe it is like what I see when I look at people. I'm exquisitely aware of everything from their pupil reflex time to their heartrate to their aspiration uptake,” Fights said, signalling amusement.
Dream's implant pinged and she held up a bladearm to stop Fights. ”Ambassador Dreams here.”
”This is Captain Awgwark, my navigator just received an astrogation file from your diplomatic team's engineer. My navigator says it's doable, but I want confirmation that's your intended next stop,” the Captain said.
”Yes. You may receive some strange requests,” Dreams started.
”Like shutting down the temporal stabilizers in Sees That Which May or May Not Be's room?” the Captain asked.
”Yes, Captain,” Dreams said.
”Very well, madame ambassador. We'll follow the astrogration instructions. We'll be putting the data into a message torpedo and launching it, while in hyperspace, to Terra. Do you want to add anything to it?” The Captain asked.
Dreams thought a moment. ”No. Only put in the message buffer what 117 authorizes. No other data.”
”Yes, ma'am. Captain out,” the datalink pinged as the officer signed off.
”She sounds upset,” Fights observed.
”117 is messing with her ship. She has good reason to be,” Dreams chuckled.
”Where do you think we're going?” Fights asked.
Dreams thought for a long moment. She didn't know why the quote surged up in her mind, but it did and she blurted it out rather than go over and dissect it.
”Someplace terrible, I'm sure.”
The small flotilla of ships, the ambassadorial vessel and its military escorts, fired up their engines, using the profiles passed on by their engineers, and began heading toward the Oort Cloud.
Behind them, Tnvaru sullenly burned.