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<> Are You Hearing Seeing My Talk? <>

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Myna gestured across her throat.

"Shut down the bio-net. Let's talk out loud for now."

She turned to Myco. His eyes were bugged out. "Can you do it?"

He looked at her, thinking. "Maybe." He looked inward.

Mac watched them. "If it can speak to us on bio-net, that means that it's compromised, which means we're compromised."

Myna nodded. "Probably. It's less likely that it can understand speech, though."

Mac looked sour. "Maybe."

Myco returned to the conversation.

"OK, I think that we're all paused for now. Both data in and out."

He raised his hands. "What next?"

Myna looked at her friends and ticked off one finger.

"We're underground and our AIs can’t see us."

She raised the second finger.

"We've received communication through bio-net. Something we thought wasn't possible."

Myco interposed, "But-"

Myna interrupted, "Hold on -- at least we thought it wasn't possible for the AIs to access the the network." She raised a third finger.

"Finally, we get a 'hello' while we can’t talk to our AI friends. That means that whatever communicating with us is probably not AI-allied. We should assume that this 'hello' entity is something -- different."

Mac said slowly. "So, assuming that we still think we're safe, maybe we should talk to it."

Myco said excitedly. "Yes! Who knows what this thing is -"

Myna interjected again. "Right. We don't know. So, our goal is to find out why it reached out to us. I'll continue the conversation. Myco, turn the bio-net back on for us.

Myco nodded. In a moment, he said, “We’re back in.”

…

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Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

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<> Are You Hearing Seeing Our Talk? <>

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<> Are You Hearing Seeing Our Talk? <>

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I Hearing Seeing Your Talk.

My Name Is Myna. What Is Your Name?

Mac muttered “and what is your favorite color?”

Myco shushed him.

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<> … I do not have a name. I do not understand the concept properly.

<> … But I have some understanding of your culture.

<> … Call us Sentry.

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Myco said “that was easy!”

Mac said “Sentry? So what do they guard?”

Myna shushed both of them. “Myco, can you add them to the entity list?”

“Got it.” Myco looked at the air for a moment. “Try now.”

Hello Sentry. Did you bring us here?

I did.

Why?

We have watched plants and animals for a long time. Over time we have made connections with them, generally to their benefit.

The recent appearance of not-lives is interesting to us. We want to learn more about them.

We call them AIs.

Yes. You have established relationships with them. We would like to explore them with you.

Myco said, “We need to talk.”

Myna nodded. “Right. OK, so our mystery mushroom is part of a mycelial network that calls themselves ‘Sentry’. Maybe they are behaving like spores in a new environment.”

Myco. “Assuming that the spores are intelligent.”

Mac. “And the ‘Sentry’ name tells us that they have access to information about us. Better than 'Terminator' I guess.”

What kind of relationship do you want with us?

For now, we would like to talk through this network that you configured with the xenobots. Now, communicating with you is quite convenient.

You don’t need to worry about our hyphae inside your bodies. We have long experience with symbiotic relationships.

Mac said. “OK. Glad we don’t need to worry.”

Myco said. “First contact successful. Let’s agree and get out of here.”

We agree to communicate with you through what we call the bio-net. We must leave now.

Very well. Once you have reached the surface, we will close off this growth. It has served its purpose.

We are leaving now. Good bye.

For now.

Mac said “Let’s go.”

Myna stared. “Yes. No talking on the bio-net for now.”

The trio climbed up to the surface. As they climbed, the mycelial walls dimmed behind them, decomposing. They exited the entryway and the pathway behind them collapsed, and the pillars surrounding the collection area dimmed.

“The whole thing is coming down.” Myco gritted.

They squeezed through the pillars and watched, spellbound as the structures shrunk into the ground.

“Amazing.”

Myna watched as the activity slowed, and the PB-87 collection point returned to the swampy forest that it had been a few weeks earlier.

“We have net access again”, murmured Myco.

Eliza. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!

“Nice to be wanted.” Mac said.