Mirsky is no longer of your rank and order. He is not human, yet once was; he returns with a message but you do not know how he returns. Mirsky has been awaited by us, yet appears to you; perhaps it has appeared to our kind also, but unknown to you.

Mirsky is messenger/expediter from descendant command.

Olmy tried to control his panic and relax. The situation had happened so quickly, with no warning, that some time passed before he fully realized their situations had reversed. He was the prisoner now, his personality fragmented and completely under the Jart’s power. What little of his mind was left to him—he quickly scanned his available natural memories and found most of them blocked by Jart inhibitors—could hardly understand the Jart’s last clear statement.

The Jart found Mirsky’s presence very significant.

Your struggle is illuminating. I spread faster with each status search you make.

“I acknowledge your control,” Olmy said.

Good. You fear what I will do to your kind. Harm to your kind was my original instruction, but it is superseded now. News of the appearance of a messenger from descendant command is far more important than our conflicts.

“How did you break through the barriers?”

Inappropriate curiosity. Are you not fascinated by messenger Mirsky?

Olmy buried a fragment of himself that wanted to scream. “Yes, fascinated and puzzled. But how did you break through my barriers?”

Your understanding of certain algorithms is incomplete. A flaw of your kind’s development, perhaps. I have been in control an indefinite but significant number of periods now.

“You’ve been playing with me…”

Does a failed >amateur< deserve greater consideration? You do not fit in a rank that we acknowledge respect for. Nevertheless, I will accord you the respect you have accorded me.

Had he been integrated, Olmy knew this would have been the lowest point of his long life. As it was, he felt a distant, free-floating misery, like a soul disembodied in some hideous afterlife, powerless to change or move.

It will soon be possible to give this important information to command oversight, the Jart said. If you help, integration of your personality parts will be allowed, and you may witness this important event with full faculties.

“I will not cooperate if you seek to harm my people.”

No harm to hosts of messenger. You have been recognized and by our law must be spared from storage and packaging. You are now expediters of descendant command.

Olmy tried to think that through. The risk was too great to even begin to think the Jart meant the Hexamon no harm…It had admitted that its primary mission had been harm. “What do you want to do?”

We must return to the Way. Command oversight must be informed.