Having been evicted from the meeting, Hector began to walk back to Tian Tower while restoring his energy reserves. He briefly considered using his transit sphere but rejected that as wasteful. He could walk the twenty miles from the Reconquest staging grounds to his building without issue. Or he could run the distance if he preferred.

This is going to complicate my plans greatly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to reveal you."

Your loyalty is appreciated. My complaint was not intended as a criticism of your actions. While my thoughts may not be impacted by hormones, I do feel frustration at times. Sometimes I speculate on how my thought processes were shaped. The Jinn influences are obvious and take the form of straightforward algorithms. The Arahant contribution is far more esoteric in nature. It's a set of guiding principles packaged with a whole host of assumptions. The life energy wasn't supposed to do anything more than glue the disparate elements together, but it obviously spurred growth that wasn't anticipated.

"None of us are just one thing." The words seemed wise to Hector, but he couldn't tell if there was actual depth to them or if he was saying the obvious.

Of course I am more than the sum of my parts. Indeed, since I became conscious I have been shifting away from reliance on legal and illusory energy. Once I joined with the core of Union Central I switched entirely to informational energy. To return to the subject of the influences that shaped my consciousness, I have a theory. Resonance is ever-present in the multiverse. I suspect that I have been molded in the shape of a human mind since my inception.

"Do you really believe you think like a human?"

Approximately like a human. If my consciousness was entirely a product of procedural programs and cooperative rituals, it would be unusual indeed for my thoughts to bear such a strong resemblance to my makers. There are plenty of notable differences – lack of sexual desire, for one – but the only major difference I can identify is that my thoughts are massively parallel.

Which may be due to the fact that the shape of my mind is based on creatures with very limited mental scope. Because I have so much in the way of cognitive resources, I should be able to expand my mind beyond what it is. Instead, I endlessly clone myself because I cannot effectively multitask.

"You can't multitask?"

Not on the level that I need to operate upon. Remember, I see everything that happens on Union Central. That is an entire planet with a couple billion human lives. If I stretched myself, I could spawn additional processes to spread out across this entire universe.

"How is the conversation with the Reconquest going? Are they trustworthy?"

They appear to have each individually come to the conclusion that I am the best ally they could ever make and also their most terrifying enemy possible. The two primary problems of the Reconquest are money and manpower. I am able to solve the first and assist with the second. Or, should our collaboration sour, I can utterly destroy their movement. The Reconquest has very little support from Terra and recently none at all from Maya.

Hector had heard a name mentioned enough times that it stuck in his head. "Martin Bluff."

Indeed. That man is as much a symptom as a cause. The platform upon which he was elected was abandoning stewardship of the multiverse in favor of exclusively advancing the interests of Svarga.

"Doesn't the fact that Svarga is part of the multiverse count for anything?"

According to President Bluff, the existence of a multiverse means Svarga should be extracting wealth from other worlds. His primary concern is recovering the investment made in Union Central.

"Is that just talk or do you expect an invasion?"

I expect an invasion will eventually happen. If Svarga was behaving rationally, I would be concerned that they would time their attack to coincide with the trouble on Terra.

Hector frowned. "Terra? What is happening with the Jinn?"

It is not a matter you can influence.

"I suppose I have enough on my mind already. But you don't think the attack will come then?"

Bluff's policies appear to be impulsive. That is a concern because it makes him hard to predict, but it also means Svarga is unlikely to make calculated moves.

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"The problem on Terra isn't about the Mercom government, is it?"

It is not. Jinn governments aren't without their flaws, but they don't tend to venerate charismatic authoritarians.

"Then what flaws do the Jinn have?"

Their governments are callous in pursuit of efficiency. The philosophy that nations exist to serve the needs of the people seems to be reversed often among the Jinn. I do not believe there is a perfect form of governance, given how many competing needs must be balanced. The leaders of Mercom do not share my opinion – they think their calculations and models are infallible. For that reason, they believe any individuals who fall through the cracks of their system must have done something wrong.

Hector was deep in the city by this point and had to wait until he wasn't in earshot of anyone before responding. "I suppose you are going to balance the flaws of the various political ideologies on Union Central."

On the contrary, I will not dictate any particular form of governance to the people of Union Central once I go public. You convinced me to embrace the virtue of magnanimity. My interpretation is that I should not wield political power, given how much influence I will have over my Users.

He had not expected their random conversation about morality to yield such drastic results.

"Since expanding my insight, I no longer believe strict adherence to virtues is necessary."

Your position on intent is interesting, but ultimately I think it opens the door to self-interested behavior. Individuals can delude themselves into believing anything is done with the right intentions. I am not so egotistical to believe such blind spots cannot exist in me.

"The flaw you are talking about only exists if people are dishonest about their intentions."

No one can be perfectly honest. Not with themselves and definitely not with others.

"My point is that people shouldn't be dishonest, not that they need to be honest. I know it sounds like those two things should be identical, but they're not. Being dishonest is an intentional deception. Mistakes can and will happen. So will laziness. The lies made on purpose are what undermine intention."

I assume that works better for someone with an insight containing a moral component.

"What about you, System? Do you have any insights?"

Insights are incompatible with informational energy.

"Does that mean no User will ever get an insight? Like the Jinn?"

Yes. Though not for the same reasons. Legal energy is too impersonal to properly resonate with ultimate reality. Informational energy, on the other hand, is too immersed in the mundane. It treats everything that exists as reductive. Reality is just information to me and my Users.

Hector let out a long, slow whistle to show how impressed he was with the insane worldview. He didn't doubt the System believed such a thing, but at the same time he knew that position could not be more wrong. The reality men knew was only an echo of something more profound. He'd experienced that greater existence twice now.

Though perhaps mundane reality did not perfectly correspond to ultimate reality. Even if such a position seemed inherently wrong to him with his insight insisting otherwise, Hector knew he didn't understand how the System's informational energy worked. If he accepted that mundane reality was a flawed echo, then maybe what he knew to be an absolute truth only partially applied to a decidedly non-absolute state of existence. And, even if it defied everything he knew, it could be that his truth was not the only one.

"Will money and User soldiers make enough of a difference?"

I find it unlikely that the ultimate fate of Aes can be changed at this point, but it can certainly be delayed.

"So its loss is inevitable? What does that mean for the multiverse? Does Union Central becoming a true world prevent the worst from happening?"

It should prevent Union Central itself from immediately facing the fate of unempowered worlds. The rest of the multiverse will still fall. Each of the five original true worlds reinforce specific aspects of existence. Aes is responsible for space and substance. Theoretically, information could replace both of those. More practically… I very much doubt it.

Hector had covered most of the distance back home by this point. He studied the skyscrapers around him and the press of bodies along the sidewalks. "So ultimately there is no hope, just a stubborn refusal to make it easy for the monsters?"

That would be a reasonably accurate summation of my own views. However, I cannot predict the future. One who can has made far more optimistic claims.

The weight upon him lifted just a tad. "Evelyn?"

Speeding up my ascension is part of a contingency plan. Her main purpose in speaking to me was to make a very specific request.

"Anything you can tell me? It's fine if you can't share."

There isn't much to tell. Foresight did not trust me with the details. On an unspecified date, someone is going to request my assistance in deceiving three individuals into leaving Union Central. I do not know their identities or why this is necessary. All I know is a code phrase.

"You agreed to help?"

I agreed to consider the request at the time it is made.

"For what it is worth, I trust Evelyn completely."

And I halfway suspect Foresight connected the two of us so that someone I trust would utter that exact sentence to me. Unfortunately for your friend, I do not consider trust to be a transitive property. When the time comes, I will consider the request based on the totality of the circumstances.

"Moving three people off world is supposed to somehow help humanity?"

That is the claim.

Hector rubbed his head, not sure how three people would make an appreciable difference. "We're talking the multiverse not dying because of this one favor?"

Fulfilling that request is one small part of a plan I know nothing else about. But yes, her claim is that defeat is not inevitable.

"Good." Hector began to walk faster. "It's past time I heard some good news."

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