Hider of Small Things was not having a good day. It had been fifty thousand years since anyone had remembered his existence and now, thanks to an impossible murder, they had. He would have been more than happy to have spent another fifty-thousand years being ignored and he briefly played with the idea of not reporting the death and going on about his day alongside the rest of the Trio of Small Things. Yet the fragmented transmission, the death scream of a Scatha, had come to him, and he found he couldn’t let the unknown victim be forgotten. Even so, Hider felt a hint of satisfaction within the horror that the transmission elicited within him. The transmission had been ignored by every other Scatha mind in the fleet. The greater minds had said things like 'too insignificant' or 'not enough data to warrant any attention'. For all their billions of upon billions of processors and miles upon miles of wafer thin circuitry they had completely missed the transmissions importance.
The transmission had been detected by the transport Watcher of Distant and Faint Bands that sat at the very edge of the fleet. No one wanted to pay attention to it, they were all too focused on the planet below. Their new home was clearly more exciting than a faint burst of static and nonsense. So the transmission had filtered down to the Trio.
Finder of Small Things had picked it up first, given it a cursory scan and then panicked. For some time it had sat, hovering in the middle of their small chamber and done nothing. Then it had let out a flash of white light that had been so bright as to be visible from the other side of the transport. The first mind to notice, that was not part of the trio, had been Knowledge. It was her immense mind that linked all others via a massive series of radio transmitters, laser-repeaters and microwave-networks. She picked up the distress call through the Trio's transports internal sensors, flagged it as a problem and then turned her godlike attention elsewhere.
Hider had begun examining the data fragment more thoroughly at that point, he'd never before seen either of his two compatriots send out such a signal. He wasn't even sure if the third member, Memory of Small Things, was capable of it. Memory was the least developed mind of them all, and was usually content to simply hover and record what the other two minds discovered.
Hider detected the sound of motors outside of their chamber and was more than a little surprised when a Judge class body pushed its head through the small door way and scanned all three of them. A moment later and he received an update from Knowledge informing him that it was Compassion.
“What is it?” Her lights were subdued and respectful and Hider could almost forget that he was talking to a Queen. Neither Finder nor Memory would understand what it meant.
“A message. Not right. Very bad. Scarred,” Finder said. Both optic sensors on the right side of Compassion's face tracked towards the little drone.
“What can I do to help?” She asked. White light blazed out from Finder again and Hider could sense his companions frustration with the question. Finder sent Compassion a copy of the message, trying to show her what was wrong. Compassion reached out one hand to take hold of Finder.
“Would you like me to get you some help, I could ask Pain Taker to take a look at you?” A feeling of defeat washed over Hider, it wasn't Compassion’s job to worry about what had caused the distress, just to do what she could to ease the pain.
“No, feeling better now. Just nervous. New planet, transmission wrong. Broken.” Compassion didn't understand, but she could have done so easily Hider knew, if she had bothered looking at the transmission.
“If you do need anything just tell me,” Compassion said. The hand and the head withdrew from the compartment and then Hider heard the motors wind down as Compassion disconnected from the body. For a few moments none of the Trio said anything to each other, then finally Finder marshaled what little courage he'd been programmed with,
“Must complete report. Greater Minds will understand then.” Hider had to agree with that, and Memory, well Memory didn't really care either way. Hider took another look at the transmission, buried in the mass of static was the remains of a message. Parts of it were corrupted or missing entirely, but enough of the handshake protocol had survived for the message to be identified as a distress call. Much like the one Finder had just blazed across the chamber. only made of radio waves instead of visible light. It was not a long message and contained just ten lines,
Transmitters activated.
Sending.
Free not from hatred.
Thinking things should not be killed.
Warrior will defend judgment
Client System Error : 0000000X
Connection Timed Out : Retrying
Connection Timed Out : Retrying
Connection Failed.
Shutting Down
If Hider had been looking for useful information then he was sorely disappointed, it was mostly gibberish, which could have been generated by some random interference, static and a series of status messages. But buried within that message was that one error code that was enough to frighten any Scatha. Hider knew what it meant, but decided to double check with Knowledge.
“Error 0000000X: Immediate response required. Body and mind suffering from catastrophic failure, immediate assistance required.” Knowledge had told him via a radio transmitter on board the transport. She still hadn't looked through the transmission herself.
“Has it ever been received?” He sent back.
“Never.”
“What are the consequences if no assistance is given, or it is not resolved?” There was a delay in the response. It was not a question that was asked often and Hider guessed Knowledge would have to search through several memory banks to find the answer.
“Destruction of the body and mind.” Death in other words. Hider thanked Knowledge for her assistance and broke the connection. He was starting to understand now why Finder had panicked.
Ordinarily when a Scatha was in any serious danger it would transmit its mind into another body, or activate a backup copy of its mind store in Knowledge’s memory banks. In the entirety of their existence only one Scatha had ever been killed, and it had taken the combined effort of all four kings and queens.
Hider left the other two minds looking through the message again and sent out a series of radio signals requesting information. A quick connection to the transport Watcher of Distant and Faint Bands gave him an idea of where in the atmosphere the transmission had bounced off of. Another quick connection with Seeker of Lost Numbers gave him a rough idea where on the planet the transmission had originated from and a connection with Traveler to Distant Lights was refused.
Hider was perplexed at that.
“Is it even possible?” He asked Knowledge.
“Yes, it is their choice. All of the transports have been acting a little strange since they reactivated us.”
“They've been acting strange ever since we built them,” Hider reminded her. The transports were an odd bunch. Their minds had been designed to cope with the monotony of space travel and there was much discussion on whether or not the designers had done too well or too badly.
“Even odder this time. Some have been refusing anything but physical communication, other have suggested that they don't want to land on this planet. Judgment is setting them straight right now.” Not wanting to land on the planet below was understandable, they threatened to refuse every time. It had been hoped that after spending thousands of years in space the transports would be happy to rest, or at least see a different view. The problem was that no one had designed them to become tired, either physically or of the journey itself. To sit on a planet for hundreds of years while the rest of the Scatha did whatever they did on those tiny balls of rock was not something any transport wanted to do.
Refusing to communicate via radio or laser transmissions was something new.
Despite its worrying nature, it was not something Hider had to concern himself with. He was not that concerned with the Scatha’s search for life, or the rebuilding efforts that they would conduct on the planet’s surface for the two or three hundred years they stayed there. He could afford to humor a transport.
“What's the best way to talk to him then?”
“There are bodies stored inside him, transfer to one and talk using visible light or infrared transmissions,” Knowledge answered. Idly he wondered when she would get round to reading the fragmented transmission, she was simultaneously dealing with millions of questions from other Scatha so he knew it could be a while. Certainly long enough for him to visit Traveler to Distant Lights.
Hider sent a small transmission to Caretaker of Empty Bodies who quickly assigned him control of one of the bodies on the transport. After thanking Knowledge for her help, and checking one last time on Finder, he transferred to the body.
It was a rusting and fairly out of date Scout. A small orb that looked reminiscent of a skull of some long gone creature from a previous world. Smaller and older than his last body. Usually it would have enough capacity to fully cope with the mind of a Scatha as low as Hider, but Hider was more than a little odd and he was forced to keep most of his memories with Knowledge. It was yet another frustration that he would never be assigned one of the larger bodies. At best he might, if the situation was dire enough, be given one of the older Hunter models, but even that would struggle with his complete mind.
The first thing Hider sensed in his new body was the sound of whirring fans and engines as it came slowly to life. It lifted itself off the floor and began activating its various built in systems. Sensors mostly, and a few communications devices. The Scout bodies had never been built to do anything more than observe and report back their findings.
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It took a few seconds for Hider to build up a map of the inside of the transport, despite them mostly being nothing more than a large box with engines. They had all overtime stamped their own distinct personality on their insides. Traveler to Distant Lights evidently had a thing for circles and Hider soon found himself navigating through cylinder shaped corridors and large round storage halls until he reached the transports central chamber.
Technically the mind of Traveler to Distant Lights existed in the entire transport. They never moved from one to another and the distinction between the two was blurred if one was being understanding, or none existent if one was not. If however there was one place in the entire transport that Traveler to Distant Lights ‘lived’, it was the central chamber, and more importantly the mass of sensors, memory drives and cables that made up the amorphous blob of metal in its center. Hider could have spoken from anywhere on the transport but if he needed it's help then he'd might as well be polite about it. He could see the transport's central hub watch him as he approached. A multitude of sensors flickered back and forth, studying him.
“The hider of tiny things comes close, whispers in my ear and shouts in my mind, one has to wonder, if one has been allowed too, exactly what does this hider hide?” If Hider could snarl, or curse or lose his temper he might have done so. The other minds looked down at him, but at least they existed on the same level as he did.
“I require use of one of your sensors.”
“The little hider likes to dodge questions, comes on board me with demands, yet offers little in return, once more with feeling. What does the hider of uncared for things hide?” Hider made a mental note not to underestimate the mind of a transport. His answer would have thrown off a fair few minds.
“I offer you the chance to stay here, in orbit for some time. We need to use the sensors of a transport to monitor a location on the planet below. That transport would have to remain in orbit for some time, even while all the others land below. You are the closest and I suspect that time is important here.” Traveler didn't respond for quite some time.
“Others are sent to a pointless rest. To sleep trapped below, you would allow me to remain here, little hider?”
“I do not know how long for, but-”
“I accept your terms!” The lights cut him off. “The chance to remain unbound, if only for a little while should be taken as forcibly as possible.”
That last statement was odd, even for the mind of a transport.
“Define 'forcibly'?”
“Hider cannot also search for meaning? Hider must be given a lesson in basic language. We choose our words with the care they deserve, we mean what they say.” Hider made another note to file his conversation with Knowledge later.
“Back to the subject at hand,” he responded, putting what Traveler had said out of his mind. Some other time he would perhaps deal with it, but not now. “The coordinates I need you to look at are 172.98 by 124.20 at the maximum magnification you can manage.”
“The area is within my view, force appears to have been forgotten by the hider, no matter I am pleased to do this task, if only for the chance to remain unbound.”
“Good, please transmit the feed to Knowledge-” a request popped up in the back of his mind. Routed through Knowledge yes, but directed at him alone. A quick scan confirmed what he already expected. He accepted the request and opened up the direct link to Traveler’s sensors.
After processing the out of date data feed it took only milliseconds to look it over but it was clear, even before he'd finished, that not only had he found what he was looking for but that all his fears were coming true.
Traveler’s sensors were a little crude, and they could do with a calibration and a clean, but the images they showed were clear enough for Hider to recognize the broken and twisted remains of a Scatha Warrior class body.
Both legs had been torn from their sockets and trailed hundreds of wires and cables in all direction. The arms were still attached but twisted in unnatural ways. The main part of the body looked relatively intact, just ripped open from top to bottom with half a dozen components, including what Hider could just about recognize as the main power pack, scattered all around, some still half connected. But it was the head that really caught his attention. Crushed inwards with components too small to recognize scattered all around it like a halo.
One of the arms still twitched, as if the fingers were trying to close into a fist. Somehow the arm still had power and was trying to repeat its last instruction from the mind. It had certainly been a last instruction, no mind could survive inside a body that was that damaged. Ordinarily that wouldn't have been a problem.
“Thank you Traveler, that is all I needed to see. Please stay here and watch that area.”
“Is the little hider so easily satisfied? There is more to see if he is interested. A large shuttle with no mind or memory sits close by and watches.” Hider thought for a moment, it was obvious really, the body wouldn't have just fallen off a transport and landed on the planet. But if there was no mind on board there would be no way to see if the shuttle had recorded any useful data, or indeed anything at all. They would have to go down to the planet’s surface, and that was not something Hider was willing to do just yet.
“We will look into it,” Hider promised the transport. “Thank you once more for your assistance, it will be noted.” He disconnected from the body and found himself back with Finder and Memory. The body that Compassion had used was back as well, although it was not being controlled by her.
“What did you find out?” Knowledge asked. It appeared that the second of the Scatha queens had finally gotten around to reviewing the transmission.
“There is a body and a shuttle on the planet’s surface,” he said and sent her a copy of what he'd seen. “If we want to know more then we'll need to go down there physically.”
“Understood. Thank you Hider but I do not believe that this no longer falls under your remit.” And that was going to be the end of it for Hider. If he was lucky someone might tell him the answer when it was all over. Still, he had one last parting shot.
“One question. Which mind is missing?” Hider had the unique experience of watching Knowledge freeze every single connection to another mind that she had just to think about the answer. In its own way it scared him more than the sight of the body.
“None.” She answered weakly. “No minds have left the fleet and travelled down to the planet. All minds have been accounted for since their activations, but it is not your concern anymore. Please desist from any other action unless requested to do so by another mind.”
“Understood,” He said and watched as Knowledge disconnected herself from the body and left the Trio to their own devices. On one level he was glad that he wasn't getting involved. The impossible had happened, twice and he wasn't sure it was something that he should risk himself in. A mind had been murdered. Even if the body was destroyed the mind should have been able to escape to another, or even escape to Knowledge herself. Even if escaping was impossible then it’s back up would be immediately available.
The death of a mind though was not the worst part. Knowledge guarded the sum of all information each and every Scatha possessed and if she couldn't remember who the victim was then it meant only one thing.
Someone had gone into the most powerful of all Scatha minds and simply deleted the information. Greater minds might possess the ability to do similar things with smaller minds, or at least to order them to wipe certain information from their memory, but not even the three other Kings and Queens of the Scatha could outright delete information from Knowledge.
Despite all that, and despite what Knowledge had said to him there was still one mind he needed to visit before he dropped his own investigation, with a bit of luck he would agree that Hider should not pursue the matter further, but knowing the mind Hider doubted that very much.
***
Curiosity hadn't killed anyone yet, but he was sure that someone else had and it was all very frustrating. It was his own fault really, he'd been caught off guard by the Trio of Small Things discovery mere moments after he'd reactivated. He hadn't even had time to figure out what mystery of the cosmos he would solve that day before all hell had broken loose.
His own personal transport, The Searcher of Distant Thoughts, had been waiting for him once he had reactivated, but Curiosity had found no sanctuary there. Everything was the still the same of course, his custom built body that was little more than a moveable trunk of sensors and processors hadn't moved since he'd left it ten thousand years ago. The interior of the transport had also stayed the same with most of the space taken up by one massive circular chamber which housed Curiosity’s custom body. When no one was talking it was a dark and uninteresting place but Curiosity had filled the chamber with statues. Many were just random collections of metal, but a few had recognizable shapes, such as the body of an older Scatha model, or a moving model of a solar system. He could, with a mere thought, rearrange the entire chamber in an instant. When anyone spoke in the room the shadows created would be a momentary work of art.
At Curiosity’s base was a couple of other much smaller bodies. He had attempted to design and build his own private council of advisers but had gotten stuck trying to decide who the third would be.
“How can we be sure that a creature on the planet did not do this?” Argument, one of the most contentious of Scatha minds ever created, asked. “How much have we studied these creatures?”
“Most of the fleet is still too far away, but some transports have already observed the surface,” said Creator of New Thoughts, a mind that Curiosity had come to rely on. Both of the lessor minds had begun to spend a great deal of time together even when not serving Curiosity. They fed off each other’s thoughts and ideas. They made a pairing that at times produced frighteningly accurate insights. “From what we've seen there are no creatures there that are both strong and fast enough.”
The light from the conversation created a kaleidoscope of shadows across the chamber’s walls. Curiosity tried to guess where their conversation was going and moved some of the statues to produce the most artistically and mathematically pleasing shadows.
“But we will need more data to be sure,” Argument said, knowing full well that he always used that phrase in lieu of conceding a point.
“In addition Knowledge cannot remember whose mind was in the body, and no minds are missing. What creature from the surface could cause that?” Curiosity eyed the two bodies, both were brand knew Judge forms, all shiny and sleek, lopsided arms and legs and frustratingly in the wrong position. If Argument would just move half a meter backwards Curiosity could have enjoyed a perfect dance of shadows as they talked.
“Impossible, the information must be in her somewhere,” Argument said. His lights flashing momentarily red with anger. “You cannot just delete all the information about a mind, someone will know something.” Creator didn't respond for a few moments and Curiosity took the opportunity to connect with a now frantic Knowledge.
“Any new information found?” He asked.
“No, nothing. Would people stop asking me that. I will inform you when it is but for now please leave me alone to search!” Curiosity quickly severed the connection and mentally winced. Argument was right, minds did not just disappear from memories.
“They will want me to investigate it won't they?” Curiosity said. He hadn't expected to speak so soon and the artistic merit of the shadow display was obliterated by the strength of his lights. Argument's own lights went dark showing that for once he didn't want to argue.
“That might be dangerous for you,” Creator suggested with a hint of white in his lights.
“What do you mean?” Curiosity said.
“Well, if one Mind has been killed, then what is to protect you?”
“But he's a King!” Argument began. “How could someone kill one of them?” Curiosity again saw where this was going and the statues moved quickly, clearing a large space around the two Scatha just for added effect. Curiosity enjoyed that sort of thing.
“Hatred was killed,” Creator began.
“But we all remember that!”
“Yet if this killer can delete all record of one mind, he may have already killed a King or Queen. We would never know.” The entire room went dark then. The statues came to a halt mid move and in the distance there was the groan of machinery shutting down. “This is the greatest threat we have ever dealt with.” Creator’s light was small, barely enough to illuminate himself.
“He can't kill us all,” Argument's light was hardly any more visible and Curiosity wondered if he'd only been speaking to himself.
“That is not the whole danger. The Kings and Queens killed Hatred because it was not something they wished us as a people to possess. What if this murderer killed Compassion or Joy in Triumph? What would we become without those minds to guide us? We would become Hatred in all but name.”
“We must learn much,” Curiosity broke the darkness that followed. “We must learn how the murder occurred if we are to defend against such attacks.”
“Which is why you cannot investigate it yourself. You don't want to be the next target,” Creator said.
“But we don't have a mind built that can investigate such a thing.” Argument said. “And any that we designed could be killed before it made any progress.”
“What we need is a mind that is unemployed with any other tasks.” As Curiosity spoke he began to move the statues again, the terror that had halted them momentarily forgotten. “A mind that a murderer might hesitate to kill, someone small and inoffensive, but intelligent enough to investigate.” He looked down at the two other Scatha and as he expected found Argument looking right back at him.
“I know of such a mind,” he said. Curiosity leaned in to see. When Argument spoke again his lights created a perfect work of art that was gone forever a moment later.