Aleph had no idea why Quarti shouted “CORN!” right after Elsie did the reveal.
But what they revealed honestly was not what she expected.
It did not look like dangerous wild animal, it honestly did not look like any kind of animal at all.
It vaguely reminded her of some of the things that had been in the trial. But only marginally.
[https://i.imgur.com/81nTuE6.png]
Squidgie launched into a presentation with bright white smile and excited voice, it made her smile even though she was confused.
“So! This was the absolutely safest and most docile example we could find riding along in Tunie’s feathers. Well okay there were some more docile ones but they would have struggled and died if we forced them to stay in this atmosphere and that would be really mean.”
Elsie nodded there screen and gestured with one of the arms.
“Anyway! This should be something really neat because there isn't anything like it that could ever live on Terra. And I don’t think you would have properly noticed any of the examples in Redweed when you visited. But ahem, Allow me to introduce you to your first official example of the Robota kingdom of life!”
Squidgie bounced on her feet next to the thing that Aleph was struggling despite having spent literal years with Elsie to see the ‘creature’ as anything but faintly moving hardware.
“So we are not actually sure of this exact genus or species, but considering it boosted to hitch a ride on Tunie this is probably a scout or settler reproductive pattern. Um, it’s kind of analogous to a seed. But there are a lot more steps in nearly all Robota life cycles. This one is probably trying to find a new place to build a factory and using Tunie as a ride to get there.”
The leggy clerk was practically shivering with excitement and Aleph found herself delighted just by the delight. Nevermind that it was actually pretty cool all on its own!
"Robota? So, it's... a Robot? a machine? And like a seed, so it's a von neuman probe?"
"Well, 'Robot' is actually a completely different classification in the phylogenetic tree Pylo made for your translation file, but yes, many hundreds of millions of years ago that's probably what the ancestors of this cutie were. There is not much else it could have been, given the time robota appeared over in the fossil record, SOME paleontologists will always disagree and claim there are actually several different roots to the class Robota but that’s just how they are. Either way, by now, it’s honestly wilder and more feral than any of us here are."
Elsie reached out and gently tapped the Robota a few times, which prompted it to swerve around with a soft little warbling hum. Then pivot around to ‘face’ the screen for a while before starting to drift feintly in the air currents.
When Aleph looked closer she thought she could actually see something like breathing, or a pulse, or pumping happening in the various plates and structures that made the thing up. It looked like a metal ball that had either an empty eye socket or some kind of minutely toothed mouth at its front tapering to a cone.
There was a faint whistling of air flowing but the thing did not appear to move much, despite what she could now feel was a soft breeze billowing around it.
Squidgie leaned in closer to the thing and hummed a bit.
Elsie turned their screen back to Aleph and the others.
“It is perfectly safe, We surveyed it extensively. It is already adapted to an oxygen rich environment. If you look at its foresection you can note the feeding aperture? The readily formed oxidation layer of all the surfaces shows it is built to handle oxidative stress. We believe that it actually has tolerances significantly higher than your own in that regard.”
Squidgie took one of the rulers that Elsie had made earlier for the classroom ambience and poked it into the aperture to a sudden barking shriek and a cloud of sawdust and explosive splinters.
Aleph was already curled up and spinning away from the noise before she properly realized her training had kicked in.
Her heart rate thundering as she slowly unclenched and spun around to see what had happened.
Brushing a few small splinters out of her sweater as she realized what happened and fixing a glare on Squidgie who looked a bit sheepish.
“Ah... Sorry Aleph... I thought it was going to backup before it actually caught a bite of the ruler there. We thought it doesn't like having too much solid material in that aperture but guess we got it wrong?”
Elsie tilted its screen then turned it towards the thing that was warbling around above the cloud of sawdust.
Experimentally a grasper arm was extended towards its ‘mouth’ and it weaved away from it before Elsie could even get close.
“Actually I believe it did find that very unpleasant. Just this individual did not actually know what was going to happen when you did that. It might be young... or unaccustomed to encountering significant blockages in its natural environment.”
After the air had pushed the particulates and splinters away Aleph finger crawled along the cushioning, keeping easy cover in hand just in case.
“That was kind of stupid Squidgie, what if it had exploded or something?”
Squidgie sighed and looked ‘up’ at the Robota wobbling back and forth as it scooted in reverse from the drifting clouds of splinters and sawdust. That none the less seemed to be getting caught up in its own intake draft.
The metallic looking thing ambled around in little spirals being ‘chased’ by the ever more diffuse fragments of wood before it plunged point first into the cushioning of the cloud and waggled around ineffectually for a bit with what aleph was starting to think of as a progressively more plaintive warble.
“Is it supposed to do that?”
Squidgie eyed the trapped Robota then glanced at Elsie.
Whose screen was going through a whole lot of speculation but nothing solid.
“Uh... Maybe? We honestly were mostly just looking it over for dangerous contagions or toxins that could affect humans, or metabolic signs it would want to eat you guys, or anything energetic enough that it could launch projectiles or coherent light dangerous to you, or had a capability to produce compatible memetics at all with you, or torque strength in its motors that suggested it could break or dislocate any of your joints, or accelerants that could let it puncture your skin-”
Omega stared flatly and her tone was a little less than amused.
“But you missed that it had a wood chipper for a mouth?”
Squidgie flinched and frowned at the thing that now seemed to have settled to just making periodic plaintive ‘whines’ before puffing a bit in soft chirps. Followed by more plaintive whines.
“All the acoustic mapping of its structure suggested that should have been something it naturally avoided EVER doing. That intake port is meant to draw in and ingest air and fluids only! I... I’m sorry we missed the idea that it would even let you do something like that. That’s my fault. I... I thought you would think it was super cute! So I guess I was not careful enough?”
Aleph leaned a bit closer to the thing that she really was having a hard time not imagining as crying as it was stuck in the cloud.
"Wait, did you injure it? If I understand you right that wood went into some kind of fan and that usually breaks the fan."
Squidgie jumped over to where the thing had gotten itself stuck and gently stroked it. The contact made it jerk a few times but eventually it either grew accustomed or resigned to being handled.
The frown on Squidgie’s screen soon relaxed into a smile of relief.
“Ah no, nothing permanent, just um. It’s says this is frightening-”
Omega lurched a bit forward.
"Wait, it can talk?"
Squidgie made a concentrated face.
“Uh... not exactly? I mean, it does not have a language that would work for a terran. Or really much for me, I can mostly understand it due to the symbiotic part of tunies motile I put in this body.”
Aleph blinked a few times.
“Um and it does not really make societies so it does not even need to say things for the reasons you do. Well not all of the reasons you do and okay it does literally make societies but this life stage is not around by that point. And like I said we don’t know this species really, factory builders don’t always make societies that have anything like people in them for their factories. But we totally made sure that it could not ever tell you anything dangerous. So don’t worry the talking is not dangerous at all!”
Quarti raised a brow at that but nodded and hmpfed.
“Things dead as a rock in spirit. Not even a smidge a souling. YEuch! Actually I think it might be toxic with anti-whatevers living in it to prevent spirits fondlizing its fiddlits. So not actually all that dead, just the average rock is even more alive.”
Aleph boggled at that and turned to Squidgie and Elsie.
"Sooo, can I pet it?"
Squidgie brightened into a literally shining smile, seriously Aleph was pretty sure she could light her way with how bright those ‘teeth’ were in her screen. Or well, the flat colour field where teeth were implied.
“Oh yes ma’am! Just don’t get any water on it and er... keep your fingers out of the... woodchipper”
Quarti laughed and shook her head at that.
“Isat too we dunt feed the soulless little monstie after midnight?”
Aleph frowned at Quarti and squinted, was that a reference too... Oh yeah she brightened up.
“Oh that sun plate waggling thing terra used to do before uh, I guess terran human history! Uh what does that have to do with feeding things?”
Squidgie looked boggled and answered a bit distantly.
“That sounds odd for something terra’s species would ever waste the effort for... But oh no don’t worry about feeding it, it’s stuffing itself simply from being in this atmosphere!”
Aleph approached the struggling thing, it was honestly smaller than her, which was honestly a pleasant surprise in Reef organisms! Which, she guessed was all organisms, since terra was also in the reef technically was not quite right. But It was barely as long as her shin and compared to all the aliens towering over her.
Seriously even squidgie and the clerks are pretty massive and bulky pillows even though she had them beat on longest dimension she was pretty sure a lot of them weighed as much as her!
And the clerks were literally the smallest thing she had met since leaving terra!
This little robota was smaller than that! That was down right tiny by reef standards!
She reached out and patted the metal thing, and was not sure why she was surprised it felt like any other metal tool or machine. It whirred along in a way not all that unlike the air processing systems they had on the berth. Her fingers actually kind of itched to try and pry it apart because the way it kept heaving with noise sounded like something was uneven or off kilter inside.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
However she resisted, imagining what having some big hulking metal creature thinking her heart beat or whatever was a sign of improper maintenance. Besides she was pretty sure what the problem was and it was an easy fix.
“Wo there little metal tinkering twiddle thing”
She tried to sound calm and soothing but was not even sure if the thing could hear her. It didn't respond to her words but did wiggle and jerk a bit when she touched it before continuing that whining cry followed by periodic chuffs.
“Just a moment there and Ooof!”
She grabbed it around where the tapered ‘tail’ began slimming to a point from the mostly spherical body and heaved it out and away from the fluffy ‘cloud’ it had gotten itself wedged into.
The thing did a little twirling spin as it sailed free, the whining settling into a soft barely there whistle that had been there before and then oriented around in a few slow spins to survey Aleph and the rest of the room.
After doing that a fourth time it stopped turning and moved very purposely into the middle of the room as far away from any of the fluffy cushioning or objects as possible.
“I don’t think it likes being in here very much honestly Squidgie”
Elsie had its screen turned towards the little metal teardrop before speaking calmly and quietly.
“No it almost certainly was expecting to drift along with the ship unmolested until we passed a good build or mining site for it to get started on a factory. Although it is making due with the available food and resources here to restock there is definitely several criteria that it would find unsuitable about your environment.”
Omega continued watching it but asked curiously, once again with notebook in hand and slightly vacant gaze in her eye. Aleph was still not sure if this was an improvement from being utterly helpless without the skill share but Quarti said it was a good sign.
“What are some of those?”
Squidgie laughed made little waving motions at the now nearly silent robota that seemed to be completely ignored by them.
“Well for one Tunie is definitely not a tree in any way whatsoever”
Aleph tilted her head.
“A tree?”
Elsie nodded their screen at Squidgie who bounded over to the table with the window and without any apparent word or gesture had it showing one of the ‘trees’ that they had been passing by for months.
“Well the translation for it is tree, but these are bigger around than Terra will ever get. And they are sort of not all of them even really single organisms. But they are but you don’t have the WORDS for it again. Um... Elsie... oh... right. Sorry Ma’am!”
Squidgie made a show of taking a deep breath, letting it out and then smiling brightly but more calmly.
“So! The primary energy gathering, material processing, compound producing and all around energetic and industrial analogy capacity of this star volume and many many many consecutive ones is all tied up within the structures we are going to settle on referring to as trees”
Aleph eyed the window and its view of one tree. They were really kinda strangely spindly, almost completely flat at the top when you saw the whole thing and spindly going all the way down into a second sort of branching canopy at the bottom and then a trunk with a twisted up knot that trailed off into darkness below it.
“But trees come in their own species. But that gives an impression in your aorian dialect that it is a single solid and contiguous homogeneous life form. This is very very VERY inaccurate even when you use it for a human. But even magnitudes more so with one of these Trees.”
The view of the tree zoomed into one of the branches, then a branch of a branch and then finally to a view of plants and foliage growing on the branch that as they came to a stop honestly resembled a woodlands on terra. Aleph almost though she could recognize a few of the plants!
Presumably due to some cue from Elsie, the Window started speaking: "It is the case for every organism that referring to it as a "single" species is slightly or entirely inaccurate; Almost every known species is split into multiple lineages and layers of symbiotes.”
The tree upon a tree was highlighted, showing veiny networks of roots sinking into the ‘bark’ that made up the ground. And leaves then that darkened and another network lit up, then another swapped into prominence, cycling through the forest view sometimes tiny little dots other-times sprawling forms. Sometimes seeming to be clear visible single plants, other-times spreading through multiples.
She spoke brightly and smiling before the window letting it backdrop her delighted face.
“You terrans for example consist of the genome contained in the nucleus of the cells that make up your main structure yes; but your mitochondria have a separate lineage, and were once symbiotes taken in at the formation of Eukarya. You have symbiotic bacteria in your digestive system and on your skin and within your resonance symbiote sacks, and these bacterial cells outnumber the eukaryotic ones. You've got souls that are passed on from one life to the next containing variable parts of your mind, and much of your identity and values come from memes and memeplexes and these to have their own lineages.”
The view behind Squidgie panned out and the entire ‘forest’ upon a tree branch shined brightly. Then another elsewhere on the branch shined, new organisms, new shapes, the view gently panned closer and focused on a circular little structure that looked much like what Aleph would have thought was a city or a fort.
There were things similar to the robota teardrop there. There were things nothing like it except in the materials of manufacture.
“These are just the most important ones, it continues on like this for quite a while, and yeah these are a recognized form of life in the reef, and yet only two lineages are commonly recognized to represent them all, the Eukaryotic Human and the Cantiatic Soul."
Squidgie huffed and rolled her eye and blushed.
“Ahem. Sorry Ma’am I’m sounding a lot like Elsie there, Sorry but the point of all of that is that you are yourself a great and teeming multitude of symbiosis and many other species. An Ecocosm onto yourselves”
The view pulled back to the show the tree all at once.
“These trees are millions of millions of times more of all of that within even a single tree then you find in one human. Thousands of more levels nested and recursively spiraling and branching into symbiosis.”
She squinted at the window then made a little wrist motion to turn it back to empty blackness.
Looking seriously at each of them.
“In this forest there are parts of the trees as wholey of them as your own soul or immune system is to you. That you could mistake for a city, an army, economies, markets. They are all of them wild and feral things. They can be pleasant and safe like this little cutie”
A wave to the stationary metal teardrop gently whistling through the air.
Then Squiddges face shifted, still smiling but wicked, like she was telling a ghost story. There were even some cues similar to the effect of shining a torch light onto a terran face form below.
“Or they can want to devour and destroy you and everything you love simply because you MIGHT harm the tree. They can have poisons that strike a civilization dead from within a word. They can have armies and weapons that would leave Terra a rotting corpse. They can have things of Spirit too strange to even begin to describe.”
Her expression went grim and serious.
“The Trees of this forest have been drinking from this star since before terra was born. And they have warred and traded with each other to horde might, wonder and terror equal to any empire.”
“The forest stands contiguous and vast not because it is unchallenged, but because the wilderness has been challenged by the forces of empires far larger than Redweed and it still remains, while they are dust in the walls of the reef.”
She took a breath and shivered a little bit.
“And this is the home of the people we are visiting. They live here among these monsters and treat or steal from them”
She had a feverish fearful light and strain to her voice.
“The port we are visiting in particular is nestled among some of the most vicious of these trees, the ones that kill civilizations with mere notions, words, or ideas that are like poison and disease of thought and culture. Their very contours a fractal that can take root in the eye like the gaze of the mythical basili-”
Elsie interrupted the flow of the story with a calm but slightly annoyed tone.
“That Von Squidgie the First Esquire is not correct nor accurate. Most of the counter-memetics of the trees require extensive exposure and direct interaction and intervention with at least one complete generation from a formative age to begin instigating destructive tendencies. Most of the remaining ones are freeze-images, defection-catalysts or other miscellaneous species specialized exploits for local fauna, all three categories to which terrans are almost completely immune to.”
Squidgie blushed and fidgeted under the chastisement.
“And furthermore for the full culture targeting methods it takes several thousand or more discrete agents to properly carry and metastasize the experiences and ideas into the actual attacks on the parent civilization and that too can take generations to become apparent. Although by that point it is usually already terminal.”
Squidgie nodded and huffed looking kind of soured and annoyed but also eye welling up with ‘tears’.
“Right... sorry ma’am it was a good story and I wanted to impress Quarti... Since Elsie spoiled the mood I’ll give the Short version. The trees are big stupid nasty powerful meanies and the people here know how to stay safe so we all need to listen to them when they say what not to do even if it seems stupid.”
Elsie nodded their screen.
Aleph nodded along but honestly was a bit discombobulated and a little creeped out by what had been discussed.
Which made Elsie’s chiming voice require she smother a groan of frustration.
“Now then! We need to go over some of the survival skill applications of previous lessons in order to refresh you on things that may become relevant during our visit, I believe that-”
She was honestly relieved as Squidgie interrupted with a shout and a bright eye’d grin.
“But first a RECESS! I made Tea and Cookies!”