As the Librarian informed her and Bash, there were somewhere in the region of three to four hundred million of the components. Each one was a single node in a distributed network that together made up a single, vast machine intelligence.

And yet, thought Dakota, they still didnt know why the Swarms had been set their task of laying traps for intelligent life. And, until they knew, nothing would change; for there would always be Swarms, and other forms of life would always be threatened by them. What little Bash had gleaned from the Wanderer concerning the Swarm was, she felt sure, only one small part of a far larger picture.

You have no idea how much being here terrifies me, said Dakota. They were inside a shared datascape, flying through a real-time simulation of the red dwarf system and amidst the Swarm components in their millions. The last time I got anywhere near this Swarm, I wound up dead.

I dont think it even knows were here, said Bash, his mood sombre now that he had seen exactly what they were up against.

Rather than being randomly scattered throughout the system, the greatest number of components were gathered around the star itself. They were arranged in distinct clusters, linked by rivers and channels composed of others of their kind, streaming back and forth.

Dont be fooled, she said with a shiver. It knows were here.

When Dakota first died before waking in the Demarchy, prior to her escape and finding a new identity she had gone in search of this very same Swarm. She had made the mistake of bringing one of its components on board, only to discover too late how it had infiltrated the Magi ship she had then been piloting. In the last moments of that life, a copy of her complete mind-state had been transmitted to other Magi ships one of which had resurrected her.

And now she was back to confront the same Swarm a second time. She had, she realized, come full circle.

I wonder sometimes how many of me there are, she said quietly.

She felt rather than saw Bashs frown. What?

Other versions of me, she said. Other Dakotas.

I dont follow.

Remember what I told you: the Magi ships all have copies of my mind stored deep in their memory banks. There could be other Dakotas wandering around right now, and Id never know.

Ill admit, said Bash, Id feel pretty strange if there were other versions of me out there, somewhere. But why on earth would it ever make more than one of you? Hell, having to deal with just the one seems bad enough.

She swiped him with a ghostly virtual limb, and then remembered the Librarian discussing how it had simulated ways of dealing with the Swarm. She found herself wondering if a simulated Dakota had taken part in any of them, and if that other her had known . . .