So it is in their ship?
Apparently, but not all of it. Encased in matter somehow. The Legacies, they term it. But the vessel of containment is not clear.
This clarifies matters. We must vaporize their craft.
Not all the needed information is there.
Where is the rest of it?
We do not know.
Is this why they speak to the magnetic Phylum?
To lodge their secrets there? That would make our task difficult.
You might be able to force compliance from that Phylum.
To do so entails moving enough mass to interrupt their field lines massively. The energetics are daunting.
Let you hope that is not called for.
Perhaps it is best to probe further, despite the dangerous warp of the quasi-mechanicals’ hoop-discontinuity.
With the same energies, directed into the heart of their craft, they would be vapor now.
Be mindful: The electrical discharges we devised infested their very innermost intelligences. Their own electrominds—of limited breadth, but useful—now listen for us.
Can they find these Legacies?
They already have some of them.
Excellent! What are they?
A guide to the location of their own genetic heritage.
A genome map?
Apparently.
That is of no danger to us.
Apparently.
You seem uncertain.
There are odd traces of data woven into the code. Useless, it would seem.
Errors, probably.
I wish we could be sure.
One must live with such ambiguities. It is of our and your nature to tolerate them.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
There are no clear signs that any primates have reached the Wedge in a long time.
Some surely have gotten through.
Many of us dislike talk of the Wedge.
Now who is uncomfortable with ambiguity?
The decision to assault the Wedge long ago came from all of us.
No—it was mostly yours.
That is oversimplified! I knew this division into two selves would vex me! See? It leads to blame—self-blame. Surely you must admit that the idea, to carve the Wedge to pieces with a hoop-discontinuity, was a good one.
Except that the Wedge swallowed the hoops.
We need not dwell on memories. The Wedge will yield to us in time.
Exactly, though not the way you mean. The Wedge is in time—which is why we cannot reach it.
Our science will master it eventually. We have surpassed all else that ventured here. What matters this, if they enter the Wedge?
We have deployed a relay point. It will perch at the lip of the Wedge, picking up signals from their craft, sending them to us.
