You know them best.
But I have never been to the Wedge.
I do not wonder, with your time spent on the beauties of underlife.
The Wedge is treacherous.
Indeed. But we/you have breached it with minor forms. Even now the tiny informants have filtered into their portal city. They are keeping close watch on the primates of the ship—those we allowed to enter.
A move you/I opposed.
It gained us valuable information. This Legacy of theirs—it hints at much we do not know.
We/I would not need to know it if we had expunged the primates.
No! You should not think this way. The primates are a valuable form, approaching extinction. Protect such beings for their last moments.
That is a luxury.
We command you to follow close upon the important primate members which their own Legacy has identified.
The Wedge is perilous. I cannot even be sure, entering it, where I shall be. Or when.
We/I shall give you/I resources.
I could become lost in the chaotics.
A risk we/you must take.
I have heard that there are agencies in the Wedge which can harm even higher systems such as ourselves.
True. We do not know what they are.
But I am in single-consciousness mode! If I perish, the “I-form” shall vanish!
I\We cannot help that.
You/We elected this state.
Though of course we will archive your present state. A copy of you will carry on.
To venture into such turmoil—I am not qualified.
You/We seem reluctant. Yet you\we have trained in the most important skill—you have dealt with primates. You moved them to their intersection with the quasi-mechanicals. Very adroit.
And we/you have other motivations.
What motivations? To risk so much—
Think of beauty. Of art.
PART FOUR
Gravity’s Gullet
ONE
The Esty Wind
The city of the dwarves slipped away behind them.
Toby and Quath moved quickly, using scattered buildings for cover and then a dense grove of curious spindly trees. These rose to greater and greater heights as they fled into a gorge of arched and tangled rock. Toby’s attention fled as well, veering away from the confrontation with his father, taking refuge in the pure bliss of flight. He ran hard.
<I believe we are taking a dangerous path.>
“More dangerous to stay back there.”
Dangerous? Toby asked himself. To whom? The word was wrong but he was not going to inspect his inner feelings now. Time to act.
<In the descriptions of this place, which I attended and you regrettably did not, there were severe warnings. I do not quite understand the nature of these prohibitions but they seem to reflect the inherent [untranslatable].>
“Great help, those [untranslatable]s.”
<You are still troubled,> Quath sent.
“Hey, leave me alone, yeasay?”
<I do not know how to explain how Killeen has changed.>
