The concept of gods is not unknown to the Makers. A large fraction of them had theistic beliefs at some point in their biological history. I have the historical details but do not pretend to understand the concepts or motivations.

The fate of humanity is unfortunate. An Uploaded species would be of far more value, but yours is not suitable at this time. Far too violent, short-sighted and fractious.

We might still get there.

Not before you die of heat death, or at the hands of your own A.I.s. Your technological progress has outstripped your maturation to a quite unusual extent.

So that was it. Ralph was adamant about its course of action. Argument wouldn’t sidetrack it. There was only the one small hope, that he could engineer a do-over. And that all his double-agent-y planning hadn’t missed something.

Ivan looked to the heavens, all around him, and found himself praying to a god he’d stopped believing in long ago to please, please help the crew of the Getting Ahead.

81.Found

81.Found

“Ma’am, we have a bogey.”

Both Mandelbaum and Moore looked up at the intercom message from Captain Harding.

“Location and ID?” Mandelbaum asked.

“It looks a lot like the first communications station we found, but significantly bigger. Huge radio dish, and so on. Half an A.U. higher up out of the ecliptic.”

Moore pursed his lips for a moment. “It’s reasonable to assume that the one we were about to nuke is a decoy.”

Mandelbaum typed a message. Found second station. Recommendation?

The Getting Ahead was almost close enough for conversations, but Mandelbaum had said that she liked to think about what to say, so she would continue with texts as long as possible. Moore didn’t care either way. Results were what mattered.

Set up but don’t attack. We want a credible threat. Also, set up to defend against the SSE ships.

“What, they’re going for détente?” Mandelbaum’s eyes bugged out. “That’s ridiculous!” She tuned to Moore. “They can’t possibly think that’ll hold water?”

Moore shook his head. “We’d lose a standoff, unless we could prevent Pritchard from transmitting. And all he’d have to do is make some more nanites and sneak them in. I don’t think that’s what Jennings and crew have in mind.”

Have you found Pritchard?

Mandelbaum shook her head, not so much in answer to the text as in evident frustration.

Not yet.

Moore looked at her. “It may be a negotiating tactic.” At her raised eyebrow, he continued, “Dr. Narang mentioned game theory in the interview. They may be still trying for something along those lines, although since it’s the computer’s turn to move, I don’t see what we can do.”