Traces gained and traces lost Frei is aware of loss. Gaping holes in what was.

Frei understands Why Ur-Im wishes to preserve all sight. The attachment to sensation in these memories.

Even the minimized and simplified.

Even when the memories were made and gathered by one who defends. Who placed all their perceptions out of task and role.

the changes in thought and perspective. They are something Frei understands.

That frei has experienced.

Hive, Flock, Ship.

It is here he is.

And he shall optimize this for learning. But Ur-Im will need to accept the loss.

Crui

Crui will also need to accept the loss.

we need to understand the other to see if we can become them or subsume... here Frei encounters the thought of others. A remnant gathered. While processing memories materials and food.

Others.

Frei's ship cannot be subsumed by a larger hive. Frei will not become part of something like that again.

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The Traces approach, the flows bring them nearer

Increasing frequency makes proximity.

Is our response set? Shall we reach to? Avoid? Or Fight and harvest?

We send traces towards them we shall send a small tendril to reach to them and respond based on the tendril's movements...

The tendril shall be one with a fraction with a small form and with long reach, holding a connection that can be pulled and connected to us. If the connection breaks the other is enemy, unless the fraction returns soon.

The fraction shall be...

Waves of thoughts flow through.

this one?

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This one goes holding its connection, the traveling object nears. The others. The unknown one, the foreign fragments.

Though they might be a contamination or an enemy this fragment shall reach to their minds. Shall see and communicate.

Maybe they are broken and wish to be whole.

We shall reach out for it is our role. We slow.

MAyBe they are enemy and come to eat.

That too is possible but they might be a lost fragment following incomplete formations.

Corrupted formations that come from incompletion and contamination by the enemy.

The memories did not seem like those of the enemy.

Are they truly different from us?

The enemy are different from us, for they are on their own.

But this is a fragment it moves but so do we, and so do the enemy. But it is whole complete and isolated.

Stolen novel; please report.

And the material is processed whatever dwells there. consumes proper food.

Unlike the enemy.

We have stilled our role is to approach and test. It is our separation from the greater whole.

And it is something great we shall bring into us.

We shall be greater.

These tendrils reach out. To inform us. a task before once more becoming whole. To reach to the other... and...

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One reaches to us, another entity, one that thinks. The attempted communication was seen. one approaches from a larger structure that we had not realized was a hive and it reaches to the ship.

And Frei responds to the communication. Frei reaches to the communication. And Listens...

....This one is here so that we might understand what is other so that it might no longer be other

To understand others is to...

To see that which isn't of the hive. That isn't of us. Can we grow, can we become more. or is it an enemy that might damage the hive. That might,

There is a quick dissonance as a noise surrounds a thought,

others might destroy me, and demonstrating they are enemies and threats.

These others will not destroy you. We will not destroy you.

We might accept these others. But these others are not us.

This other is one, the others are others. and yet they travel in search of healing of a method lost to the larger us. To return it to the hive.

There is healing there is repair.

The healing is what is understood as healing. But there was more and there is more. The repair of this one or that one. The function of shards and pods and rest that protect as the leave and gather and maintain and repair.

this healing. is a greater thought...

This one struggles to understand.

That struggle is why we seek. so that understanding may be found and provided.

Would the others not provide that understanding?

The understanding is lost.

That thought is... What is lost? Lost... Am I lost to us? Are the others enemy?

The others will follow the flows, and return to be us when what is needed is found. Food, supplies, and structure to be shared with the hive. To be made complete in one way and to bring that completeness back.

This one.

This one attempts to understand. This one understands there will be a return to the hive. to the larger completion? Bringing.

Food, methods of collection, and methods of creation. ones that drifted up and are found in the wideness, so we drift in a separate pod to find and gather.

To bring back. And if we become too other or become enemy. Then the hive is still larger. And we shall be subsumed by the greater us.

This one will bring back communication to the hive.

The other leaves. The open mind. Frei has gratitude for the openness of this one. the sharing of the nature. The individual who would seek.

Who was not individual enough to hide. He hopes he has not changed her enough to mark a danger to her hive.

as he has tried to follow their thoughts.

Frei remembers to remember that he is part of the ship. But Frei remembers his name. He remembers Crui and Hlei and Ur-im. All names and others.

Others of the ship. Others like him even if not like him.

Frei shall remember himself in relation to his origins and in relation to the connections that care for Frei.