I could see almost all of it at once now, and yet reflections kept coming. I had to build it out. Every detail. And even though I held exponentially more information than any human mind before me, it was getting hard to keep it organized. Even the performance-enhancing properties of the space crank was limited by my basic physiology.

I improvised an organizational system. I divided the sphere into four quadrants, or slices, and assigned them each a color: red, blue, yellow, and green – in that order, just like Simon. I started at zero degrees longitude and went east from the tallest building. Thereafter, each became home to one of the four traditional Kingdoms of life: Red for Animals, Blue for Fungi, Green for Plants, and Yellow for Protista.98

Latitudinally, I named the buildings within each Kingdom after a species that belonged there. I was able to fill Animalia most thoroughly, as that had been my prior’s specialty, but his peripheral knowledge was enough to provide a decent amount of organization for the other three. Not with the specificity of the Red Quadrant of course, where every building was named for a unique animal to make it easier to remember. Marmot. Glassfrog. Fossa. Sun bear. Okapi. Red-lipped batfish. Long-wattled umbrella bird. Venezuelan poodle moth. Penis snake. Pacu.99

As I built, my expanded mind chugged along in the periphery. How would I know where the Chime was located, if indeed it was here? Would it give off a heat signature? Change color? As big as this structure was, I could build forever and never find it.

I hated it when the dredge powered down before I could come up the cord. It was the mental equivalent to trying to stop peeing midstream.

The lid spread open. Eyes greeted me as usual.

“What?” I asked, post-dredge/nectar withdrawal headache already forming.

Save us. Gone is the Bloom of God, the Note of Jecca.

“You literally just stopped me from trying to save you, just to tell me to save you?” I snapped, petulantly. “You’re going to have to up my dose of nectar if you’re gonna start interrupting me in the middle of my work. I had something good going down there.”

The holes in Eyes’ face reconfigured and a wave of crimson passed over their boids. They whispered, Where is the Chime?

“Down there somewhere! I’m doing my best.” I gestured maniacally to the inside of the dredge where I sat. “Seriously, though, I need double nectar. I’m building a tolerance.”

You move too slowly. No more nectar.

This was an affront. I stood up aggressively, but before I could demand to talk to the manager, I went light-headed and had to use the dredge to avoid falling over. “I need the nectar to do my work. I’ve found a big structure or something down there.”

Structure?

“Some sort of Death Star.”

Which Death Star?