Elijah Duilim sighed deeply as he awoke.

The grey ceiling and walls greeted his gaze as they had for the last month. He sat up then hung his legs from the white slab of sturdy polymer that served as a bed. The room was a small apartment, meant to accommodate him as the representatives of the Government of Earth and Guilds of Sol deliberated. In actuality it was a cell to hold him.

It had been six months since the incident with the Tharg, Silghen Morseg, and the Guo'Saphyrn, Rass Misiun, in the Glint star system. Two years since he'd initiated contact with the Glint, and five years since he had first been told to survey that system. He himself had been a mind in a ship at that point, self sufficient and wanting for nothing. Now he was a copy of a copy trapped in a repair bot made to look like a cosmonaut.

Now he was under investigation for how he handled the events and his illegal act of self duplication. If he was lucky he would only spend a century doing community service. Maybe he would be drafted into the military. He didn't know, and it didn't bother him whatever was decided.

Duilim stood from the slab that served as a bed for him. As a digital mind he didn't need sleep for rest but his mind needed it. Without a few hours of downtime every eighteen hours, his mind would start to seize like an engine after years without an oil change. Even though he was digital, he was still a human, and so was his mind. He even still had trouble keeping himself focused, like he had three hundred years ago, when he was flesh and blood. The doctors and programmers had explained it to him then, and he still had trouble wrapping his head around it.

Uploading a mind to a digital form was not as simple as plugging in a port and copying a file over. Rather a framework had to be constructed to resemble the physical brain but in the digital space. Then it had to be started, by a seed code. That was all Duilim could remember. He hated thinking about it, the thoughts made him uncomfortable in his own mind, and itch despite not being able to itch.

In those six months Elijah Duilim had seen many legal representatives and counselors, all aiming to help him finagle his way out of a duplication conviction. Today he was meeting his guild psychiatrist, Tensfeldt Browning. Elijah sighed and started mentally preparing himself for a long, emotional talk.

———*An hour later*———

Tensfeldt sat across from Elijah in the room, he'd brought a small stool with him when he came in. He'd been going over Elijah's decision making and the reasons he did what he did. Today it was finally time for when Elijah had copied himself into the suit. The two of them had been building up to it for several minutes, and Tensfeldt had decided it was time.

"Eli, what happened would have shaken up anyone. What you're feeling is perfectly valid, the fear of death is one of the most powerful influences to happen to a person," said Tensfeldt as he tried to reason with Elijah, "Anyone would have thought the same thing as you."

Tensfeldt opened his arms wide, as if he was pleading with Elijah to see reason. But Elijah didn't seem to notice as the face in the helmet stared at some point on the featureless wall. Then Elijah turned to Tensfeldt with anguish in his face.

"But I actually did it! Knowing that I had myself saved, I acted recklessly and got myself killed!" stated Elijah as he stood, emotion thick in his voice, "What if I hadn't done that? Would I still be me, in my old hull, still able to fly? Instead I was a fool and tried to be a hero and a coward at the same time."

As Elijah finished that thought, Tensfeldt replied, "And who can blame you? No other person, human, uploaded, or AI has ever been in that situation. Your black box booted up almost immediately after your data core was destroyed. Who's to say that your mind didn't just take a walk along the same circuits and become you now?"

"I don't know either way, and that is what I dread. If I'm just a zombie of a dead mind." Elijah said mournfully as he then paced back and forth before he sat again. He looked Tensfeldt in the eyes and continued, "There is no way to prove that I am conscious, have a soul, or am a zombie."

Tensfeldt verbally leaped at Elijah at that, "Then why not start fresh? Be someone new, not Elijah Duilim but what Elijah Duilim could have been. Why does it matter if you're the same as you were? The you that was flesh didn't make it into being uploaded, so why should it matter if the old version of you, the one tied to a ship, isn't you? You are a different person each moment that passes. Be that new person and let this anxiety and dread ebb away."

Elijah stopped mid-step, one boot halfway raised, "I think I could learn to be someone new."

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———Plinth, Homeworld of the Glint, orbiting the star Torc———

The last six months would be remembered for a long time to come for the Glint. Not only had they begun their space age, but they had their origin revealed to them. Revealed that they were engineered by a member of a narcissistic alien race aeons old. That their primary religion had been a tool for it to eventually usurp their governments and control them.

That wasn't all. That race of narcissists had an enemy, a race as long lived as they were. The Tharg, sworn to eradicate the Guo'Saphyrn wherever they were. A Tharg named Silghen had made a plan to reveal the Guo'Saphyrn in the Torc system by holding the entire planet of Plinth hostage. Guo'Saphyrn took great pride in their creations, thinking themselves great artists of the galaxy.

It worked but the Humans, who had previously made contact with the Glint and formed a relationship of respectful distance with, appeared with a fleet of ships to protect the Glint. Who they thought to be the only other beings in a lonely galaxy. So the Human's engaged the Tharg, who then wemt after the Guo'Saphyrn. Both were then taken into the Human's custody. The Tharg's ship, and the building the Guo'Saphyrn had hidden on the planet Hirst, were left to the Glint.

These events have left the three governments of the Glint scrambling to get ahead of the news and prepare. The leaders of the Pan Oceanic Islands, United Platueas of Garl, and the Yjantai Coalition had all traveled to the space station OSP-FRLS/1, or as it was becoming known as, The Ladder.

It had been chosen for safety and security, not just of the delegates but also of the information they were discussing. Most of the Glint already knew something had happened; amatuer and professional Astronomers had seen the flashes in the sky. Seen the strange dark spots around the gas giant Gri'oux. So far it had been explained that the Human fleet had appeared to stop an asteroid on course to impact Plinth, and had been instead diverted into Hirst.

Today, they were to decide what to do with the wreckage and ruined facilities on Hirst. As well as what these developments meant for their policy of isolation. So they met on the station, with a view of Plinth hanging below them.

The first to speak was the Yjantai delegate, a distinguished, elderly Glint with greying brown fur. "It's clear our plan of isolation while we finished the competition to determine leadership of the race was a plan on the beach. We of the Yjantai believe that we must work as a joint effort instead of determining a leader. Individually each nation doesn't have the resources to make a concerted push into the galactic scene, but together we could."

"The P.O.I. agrees but there must be a moderator between us. It is too easy to be locked into a stalemate with three entities. We will need an adjudicator," added the P.O.I. delegate, a slim tawny furred Glint.

The delegate from the U.P.G. interjected, "Garl disagrees. Too many coaches will lead to friction and endless debate when a singular authority would be able to enact quick changes, fast enough to react to this new league we find ourselves in."

The gruff black furred Glint met the eyes of the other two, his steady orange lit eyes made sure the two didn't speak before he finished, "We agree that there isn't going to be a chance in the near future to determine a leader for our planet. However, we can make a cycle of power, each nation having a period of time in the lead while the others listen and advise."

The other delegates both looked at each other, and said, "We will need to speak with our councils about that possibility."

Over several days the three delegates debated, and at times argued about the future for Plinth. After the fifth day a decision was made. The three nations would share power, in a cycle of leadership that was checked and balanced by a group of Glint composed of all three nations. That group would then be no longer of their original nation but be the seed of the future government of the Glint, a unified one.

With that plan arranged, the three nations needed to figure out what to do with the detritus of the Tharg and Guo'Saphyrn, and the diplomatic relationship with the Humans.

The old Yjantai delegate started the talks again, "We must have the humans as an ally, with that wormhole technology, they will be huge competition for colonization, even great enemies."

"But they were barely able to slow down the Tharg when it attacked them; it took their entire fleet to stalemate it. Do we really need them? We're already advancing our own sciences exponentially faster than before. Think of what the Glint will learn from that wrecked ship and facility," replied the P.O.I. speaker.

The delegate from the U.P.G. growled, and spoke, "Exactly, if the humans could barely stop one Tharg, what chance do we have against potentially an entire galactic arm of Tharg. We need humanity as an ally."

"Agreed, but we know hardly anything about them. Apart from what they've told us, we need to send a diplomatic ship to Sol," replied the Yjantai speaker.

"That actually brings up another problem. With the loss of the Mad Dash, we currently don't have a ship ready to travel that distance," said the P.O.I. delegate, "I've been informed that we could recover the Mad Dash, but refitting it and repairing it would take as long as making a new ship, or even longer."

The older Yjantai Glint frowned and smoothed out some fur around his ear then said, "We could make a ship with the humans, a joint effort to show our willingness to be allies?"

"That could work. We could use the crew from the Mad Dash as well, they have experience with that robot human Elijah too. But it'd be a waste to have them run diplomatic trips between Sol and Plinth. Perhaps a joint effort to find other civilizations. It's apparent that there are more than the Humans thought," mused the U.P.G. delegate.

"Lets send the proposal to our governments then and send a joint message to the Human Fleet to transmit. It's still in the system, yes?"

"Yes, They're stationed around Hirst."

"Let's send them a message, asking them for a representative to accompany our new exploration vessel, and ask if there is any technology they would be amenable to share with us."