Kwaide (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 2)

Chapter Sixteen

“How long have you been here?” asked Grace.

“I arrived six of your days ago.”

“And where are you from?”

“I am not really from anywhere, but I was made by the Dessites.”

“If you were made, then you are not alive,” said Six.

The thing whirred, a little crossly, it seemed to Diva. She knew just how it felt. Six had that effect on her too. 

“The video camera is not alive,” it said. “But I am.”

“And you are …?”

“I am an envoy of the Dessites, and I have to meet the being that was able to move the orbital platform above Kwaide. The Sellite girl here was involved.” It hummed a little and moved to hover next to Grace. “She must therefore know the entity that was able to move the space station instantaneously. I need you to take me to it.”

“I can call him here,” and Grace made to sign on the thin band of orthogel which surrounded her wrist.

“No!” The tiny sphere chirped worriedly. “No! That would not be … auspicious. First contact must be made with due ceremony. All possible deference will be shown when approaching a grade 2b life-form for the first time. It is in the mandates.”

“What grade are we?” Six demanded.

“You are all 3b.” 

“3b! Is that all?”

“Transient life-forms with mediocre intelligence. Quite sure. 3b.”

“Mediocre intelligence yourself, you sheet-plated piece of future obsolescence,” Six retorted. “You had better watch out I don’t use you for target practice!”

“3b is quite a high rating,” the globe told him. “It is highly unusual to find more than one 3b species per system.”

“What do we have to do to get an upgrade?”

There were a series of small clicks. “You could only upgrade in your present form to a 3a. Type 2a species are like the Dessites – able to utilize quantum non-locality. Type 2b species are able to utilize quantum decoherence. And of course, type 1 species are incorporeal. We have not met any of those yet, but it is postulated that the final stage of existence, the most superior, will be incorporeal.”

Six was unwilling to let the subject drop. “And just what do 3a’s have that we don’t?”

A thin membrane covered the globe’s eye as it began to recite by rote: “A type 3a may be differentiated from a type 3b by the obvious use of all parts of the brain, these to include what you would call initial telepathic abilities, the rudiments of telekinesis and some other adaptations to quantum qualities.”

“I use all my brain!” 

Diva gave a snort. “Not so as anybody would notice.” Six glared at her.

The machine gave a little buzz which sounded like an apologetic cough. “My observations lead me to conclude that there is at least a quarter of your brain which is not in use at this moment of time. I’m sorry, my analysis is quite final. You are all firmly and irrevocably type 3b.”

“See Diva, you are only a ‘b’. How does that feel, your mulchiness?”

“Yeah, like I am going to take much notice of a machine!”

Grace wanted to know more. “So does type 3 evolve into type 2 and so on?”

“No. They are completely separate evolutionary trails. It would be quite impossible for a type 3 to become a type 2.”