The disintegration of the Niss starship caused a bit of a stir. The Celestials immediately pulled out and fled the system, while the Khattans - who had already lost a huge investment when their frigate was destroyed - decided to mine the D-Level transit point that the Abraxus had used. This bought them time to flee as well, since the Mauler had to clean up the mines instead of giving chase.
Once the Confederate ship returned to normal space and the clocks were adjusted, Bumper thanked Captain S'Tella and passed her a data crystal, suggesting, "Better hunting at these spots." Then it was back into the breaching pod and transiting back to the Mauler. The Niss remained quiet in Tasha's pouch, which avoided a lot of embarrassing questions since Bumper didn't seem inclined to tell the Confederates anything about the alien ship, beyond, "Seemed uninhabited."
Once back on the Mauler, Tasha stretches her arms over her head. "That was exciting," she notes, tone somewhere between relieved and the tail end of excited. "You never know what -- or who -- you'll find on these things, do you? It's a shame we couldn't save the ship, but at least we were able to save the Niss."
"Would have just put ship in ghost fleet," Bumper notes. "Don't trust magic tech. That like Sifra stuff."
Rushfighter is all smiles when they get to the control room. "Good job! Got lots of Khattan mines. Good junk."
"Sifran stuff doesn't trust us either, apparently," Tasha notes as her hands fall, reaching for one of her pouches. "So you said it was held together by telekinesis? Fudgy? Do you know anything about that?" She asks after entering the bridge.
"I know the theory, but Mind Magic never really managed telekinesis," Neesa notes. "There was some Dream experimentation along similar lines though, before the big Babelite Dream Ritual shut everything down. Are you sure it was telekinesis and not.. say.. magnets?"
"If we were dealing with magnets, then Bumper would know. The magnetic field would be obvious to even older scanners, and we'd see reactions in the metal. Once the Niss here exited their, um, command structure you could call it, the gravity ceased." Tasha notes. She then fishes around a moment, left hand pulling out a mysterious shifting, brain-like orb a bit smaller than her head. "This is the Niss. Say hello, everyone!"
"Hello!" a few of the rowers reply. Neesa just looks at the item for a moment, then takes out a small pair of spectacles and balances them on her nose for a closer look. "It looks like a brain," she notes to Tasha. "This is the.. uh.. engine?"
"Maybe," Tasha hedges, shrugging a little. Holding the orb with one hand, she reaches over and gently lays her hand atop it. "But, also much more," she adds, smiling. "This is the Niss. The Niss is the crew, and the ship was its body. It said it's many, so I think it's a kind of collective conciousness -- maybe a unified or semi-unified one. Bumper said she detected digital cognizance, which suggests something similiar to a machine AI, but, that may just be because it was meshed in a expanded machine-structure, like how my cybernetics are an expanded machine structure for me."
"As for it being the engine, well ... I think so. Somehow, the Niss could generate gravitic fields sufficient to hold its body together and create artificial gravity environments. I'm uncertain if that's an ability of the Niss as they are, or something provided by its ship, but, whatever it was it was originating from the core where we found the Niss," Tasha then concludes.
Neesa touches the orb with one finger. "So.. they talk?" she asks. "What do you know about them other than the they-are-many stuff?" she asks.
Tasha's ears flick as she looks down at the orb, then she tilts her head. "Not much." She admits. Her head shakes as she looks up, explaining, "The Niss aren't very talkative. All I was able to get was that they've been lost for a "long, long time," that they ddin't want to be destroyed, that "everything is new," they, "want to see" the universe, and that they want "to dream." So, I thought of you of course."
Neesa raises an eyebrow at Tasha. "Do you know how many they are?" she asks.
Tasha makes her face go blank as she answers, "Many." In a dull monotone, then she grins a little.
"So.. more than three then," Neesa suggests. "Let's go to our room so I can try some things."
"Sounds good to me!" Tasha says as she shifts the Niss in her arms, hugging it to her chest. She begins to follow Neesa, then pauses. "Ma? Want fusion pistol back?" The young woman asks as she glances back at Bumper.
"Huh?" Bumper asks, having been distracted by the captain. "Oh.. yeah.. drop off sometime.. don't lose it in toilet. Happen more often than you think."
"Hokay!" Goes Tasha, who backs up far enough to headbutt Bumper's arm affectionately, her hands beging full. After that she's off after the Mage!
In their cabin, Neesa sits cross-legged on the floor. "Here, I'll hold it in my lap while you get that painful looking armor off your wings," she says.
"It's only half as painful as it looks," Tasha insists ass he hands the orb off, then begins to long process of wrenching, twisting and otherwise prying her armor off. After a few minutes the final clang of armor thudding to the deck heralds the young woman's freedom.
"Ahhhh!" Goes Tasha, who pulls a few furs off her bed so she can lay on them, resting near the Mage. "Much better. I tell you, between all you flightless people and that armor, my wings are going to fall off. Anyway, I'm ready."
Neesa is staring at the orb, and running her fingers over it. "There's stuff in the control room that messes with my head a bit," she notes. "It's less noisy here. There's.. something about this orb. It registers slightly to my magic sense, but shouldn't because it isn't Sifran in origin. I think it's got some sort of reality altering effect though. The key might be what you said about them wanting to dream."
"Something on the bridge messes with your head? Or magic?" Tasha inquires as she scoots closer, deciding she'd better ask Bumper about that later. "As for the orb, well, I thought it might be like a computer -- many AI operating inside an internal, artificial environment like the ones I routinely deal with when interfacing with machines."
"I don't think it would quite qualify as a machine.. pretty sure it's alive," Neesa notes. "A living machine, maybe. I suspect.. Well, it has to do with a question one of my instructors gave me to think about, when I was just an Acolyte studying Dream theory. It was: If everyone in the world had the same dream, and believed it, would that dream become the new consensus reality? We sort of had a partial answer later on, during the big Dream Ritual. Belief has power, but mainly because the magic of Sinai can amplify it. But what if you tried it somewhere else, like Abaddon or.. out here? How many minds believing something would it take to actually change reality?"
"That sounds familiar ... But I can't remember where I've heard that line of thinking before. I think it might have been Ser Herafiel talking about the nature of the universe, but maybe not. Anyway, I don't know. The idea is a bit unsettling," the younger woman admits.
"Well, we alter reality all the time via belief on Sinai," Neesa points out. "That's pretty much the definition of magic after all. Can you try and get the Niss to talk again? Ask how many of them their are."
"The Niss won't talk to you?" Asks the hybrid, head tilting. "I would have thought that you would be able to speak to them easily, that maybe they'd open up to you." Looking a little perplexed, Tasha reaches over and lays her hands on the orb and reaches out with her mind.
Niss, it's me, Aldara. We -- Neesa and I -- are curious about you. We would like to know how many you are, in numbers we can understand, is the inquiry.
It takes some time, as if the Niss were operating at a slower rate. But eventually Tasha is aware of the number 23,561,478,126,065...
Tasha's eyebrows shoot up at the response. She opens her mouth, but realizes she has to think a moment to recall how to form a number that big. After a moment she looks Neesa in the eyes and says, "Twenty-three trillion, five-hundred-and-sixty-one billion, four-hundred and sevety-eight million, one hundred and twenty six thousand, sixty-five."
"I've been holding a civilization in my pocket," Tasha realizes aloud, sucking in a gasp.
"Ah, I was right then," Neesa says, smiling. "I think every cell of this brain is an individual Niss. They pool their consciousness together to force changes in local reality, most likely. Well, more like an empire than a civilization. That number.. how many worlds would that fill? Are there that many people in the.. uh.. galaxy, is it?"
Tasha lowers her gaze to stare at the orb, eyes still a littlw wide. "Well, that could be one planet, like Terra. Or, several planetside colonies or colony ships, if they were large, I think. Many smaller ones could also make up a comparable number. And yes, the galaxy. The galaxy is a cluster of stars, planets and otehr matter orbiting a dense central area of high mass, and thus gravity, existing as one of many in the universe."
"I think the Nagai Empire back home has about six million people in it," Neesa notes.
"Then again.. I don't know what life is like for something that's a single cell in a larger organism," Neesa notes. "If my cells were self-aware, that'd be horrifying."
"Galactc technology allows for much higher populations and viable living zones than our home does," Tasha notes, head tilting as she ponders the Niss. "They could make Abaddon green without relying on Sifran technologies, given enough time. But, um, so ... They're self-aware? Sentient." She cocks her head to the other side, making a face. "I think my cells might rebel for everything I put them through. Still, how do we help a collection of sentient cells? Ones that could guide a starship of such technological superiority that its drive is superior to that of modern galactics?"
Shifting her gaze down, Tasha then asks the Niss, Did you build your body? Were you created, or did you come to be as you are on your own?
Time, the Niss reply. Animal first, then thinking being, then the blood music, then we became Niss. World died, made exploration body. Explored. Became lost.
Tasha repeats what she heard, then she bites her lip as she asks: So you were once like us, then. The blood-music, the awakening of your individual cells to sentience? And your world, what destroyed it?
Yes. Sun became unstable. Many flares, surface burned. We were underground, only animals and vintage people on top, the Niss explain.
Vintage people, the form you once were I assume. Then originally, you were a single member of the 'vintage people,' but you became many after the blood-music. What caused the blood-music? Tasha asks after repeating the new information. Can you show me in my manner of seeing, the vitage people and your old world?
Difficult to interface, the Niss claim. The blood-music was created. Smart cells to fight disease. Evolved quickly. Mind could be copied, encoded in DNA, embedded in every cell. Each person became trillions of copies. No need for static forms. No need for death. Some not compatible. Remained as originals. Evolution continued. Organic matter not needed any longer. Introditus created - could encode vintage strains. Saved many before flares.
Again Tasha relates the information, but she frowns at the knowledge before her. I see. It is an interesting path for life to take, but I think I would miss my individuality and my organic body. Then again, I regularly interface with a machine that I become part of, so it may be that I'm wrong about that, at least in the sense of a single other individual. I don't mind being with him, but there is another there now, and it has become uncomfortable lately. Tasha tilts her head, then remembers she should be repeating all dialogue and does so before she adds, We think you use what we call telekinesis, that your collective belief changes reality. Do you agree? It is what we call 'magic,' but where we are from it is possible with fewer minds.
Quantum interactions are amenable to observation, which can cause predetermined and controlled wave function collapse, the Niss explain. You must use many observers expecting the same outcome. This can be used to manipulate quantum gravity wormholes to affect action at a distance.
Again the information is related, but this time Tasha adds, "I think I understand that! Really understand it," with a surprised smile before she dives back in to her mental conversation. So what you're saying is that fundamental universal elements, being fixed by observation, can be selectively observed to effect end-point reality. Likewise, by effecting quantum behavior of wormholes, you can breach space and time to reach distant quantum situation and effect those, as well? "Neesa, does magic rely on Sinai effecting quantum states through interface by the invoker causing the device to observe reality specifically?"
"I have no idea," Neesa says. "One theory is that there is an overlay of reality on top of.. reality. Like your virtual worlds, but projected over physical space. And somehow manipulating the simulation causes the underlying reality to change, because of.. uh.. something. The only person who could probably discuss this with you in your terms is crazy and dangerous and we've all been told to avoid contact."
"I think I know who you mean, but out of respect and political issues I avoid seeking her assistance. On the other hand, I know of someone else who told me the exact same thing you just said -- and he's not a mage and never had any cause to know mages exist. He is Ser Herafiel, the man that asked the Harbinger Clan of Vartans to join the Expedition. He's also the one that had my Titan created, and, well, he knows a great many things -- more than I suspect I'm sure," Tasha notes. She then tilts her head, looking at Neesa. "I wonder about that simulation. He said it intercedes at a lower level, changing outcomes. I suppose it's like the Niss's observation method, their collective mind existing at that level when they chose to, in order to observe. Because they intercede, they become the intercedent layer. What do you think?"
"Well, since there aren't any Sifras.. that we know of.. it would have to be something that doesn't rely on trillions of tiny observers," Neesa suggests. "Unless Sifran crystal really is alive. We don't know what it is, and from talking to Titanians and others.. nobody else does either. It may or may not be matter, even."
"I know it corrupts Minds-of-Light, and I've encountered a single being that spoke of the Sifrans as if it had know them: It called them the Makers and it wanted to cleanse the world of all alien life. Um, us. But also others. It was able to corrupt a machine, and it tried to do the same thing to me. I think it could have with enough time, but it didn't get a chance -- thank gods. I'm uncertain if the technique it was using was the same that the crystals can utilize, but I know that the crystals only attach machine-minds, and to reachme, it used my brain-computer interface to do it. So, maybe there's soemthing in all that. That maybe Sifran crystal is alive, but akin to a highly complex machine mind. I also know certain Progenitor artifacts could inhibit that being, and thus may be able to inhibit Sifran crystal -- so its makers may know the answer," Tasha explains.
"To inhibit it.. you must know what it does then?" Neesa asks. "Magic doesn't work on it.. but we think it generates magic, or.. causes it or something. The Caltrop reinforced that for me.. but only because of other things. I got no sense of magic from it, until that song interacted to create something like it. The Niss do something that feels similar, but not something I can use. The metal in the captain's hammer effects me too, and I think when the oarsmen are rowing I feel something as well."
"I know the Captain's hammer can find me, where ever in the universe I am. He said something about me resonates with his Hammer, but we're not sure what. We think it may come down to one of two things: My connection with a Harrower, and thus D-Level Hyperspace, or ... To the Progenitors through their artifacts and angels. If you can understand that link, and if it's to the Progenitors, you might find an answer by unraveling the link," the hybridized woman suggests.
"Bumper talks about quantum resonance scanning, up on the observation deck," Neesa says. "All I can tell is that it means 'find something very specific based on response' and that it is very fast, faster than observation. I assume whatever that is is the same thing you're talking about with the captain's hammer. It's an 'A-Level Hyperspace' thing."
"That makes sense. Then I must be broadcasting on A-Level Hyperspace, either specifically or generally -- probably specifically if no one else notices it. A, um, 'channel' few listen to, I think," considers the mostly Vartan woman. She then tilts her head, eyeing the orb in Neesa's lap. "It must be fascinating, to be able to change things using the power of your mind alone. But, would we miss out on what we might learn? It sounds like careful balance is needed. But, um, I digress. Did you still want to "try some things," Neesa?"
"Well, I think if I try a Dream Ritual, nothing will happen," Neesa notes. "There's no magic here that I can use. But if there's something fundamental about the process, then maybe the Niss can understand it and help. Magic is very.. subjective. All Mages start out using the same incantations and ingredients and diagrams.. but eventually just optimize things in personal ways. That seems to me to mean that there isn't something fundamental about the process. But if there is, then any source of 'magic' should be compatible."
"I've been told I have a strong spirit, and I have certain other links. So if I can help, let me know. At the very least I can act as a bridge for conversation. Anyway, I'll just sit here until you need me, so you can concentrate." True to her word, Tasha leans back and settles on the furs she brough, her head laying atop the head of some fearsome, if fuzzy, alien beast as she watches.
Neesa goes about the full setup: a chalk circle, candles (worn low, but then those take up the least amount of space) and unfortunately shiny stones. Dream Magic seems to use a lot of shiny, distracting things, but then it essentially involves self-hypnosis anyway. With the Niss in her lap, and everyone inside the circle, Neesa begins her chanting. It always starts as a droning sort of thing, like a metronome. Several minutes later patterns finally begin to emerge, only to slip away again. Unlike other Spheres, Dream is deliberately unfocused.
After relocting to the circle, Tasha sits with her hack to Neesa in order to save space, her body wrapped in one of the comfortable furs. The long process might have grown boring if not for the shininess of it all, and the hypnotic, second-eating daze that comes along with her shiny-lock. Not long after the ritual begins she enters in to a half-awake state, and sensing it, falls in to meditation.
The shininess is pervasive. There's a crystal mountain before Tasha, lit up from within by multicolored lights. Even the ground is covered in lights, some of them moving. A bug buzzes past, its long glass body forming a carapace over visible organic innards, but instead of a flapping its wings it actually has spinning rotors that glow like disks of light.
The sky is pink, and the sun is huge and bright blue. The sun is life. Crystal-organic creatures bask in it. Next to Tasha is something like a Skedat, only made of smoky living glass, with a big partially visible brain inside. It has pincers, and the tips of the pincers seem to have smaller pincers.. and there may be even smaller ones on those.
Tasha squints at the vista before her, mind shifting from somnolence to something akin to wakefulness. For a while, she simply stares in wonder mezmerized by the alien landscape and its fascinating creatures. But, she's here before; Not here specifically, but in places very much like this world. The realization comes to her in time, and eventually she determines that she must be within the dream-space.
Rolling over, she leans closer to peer at the strange pincer-on-pincer pincer crystal Skedat, which she smiles and and sniffs at. "Hello. Have you see the Niss, or my friend Neesa around here? You're very pretty."
I am Niss, the creature replies. Original form. You wanted to see. This was our world. You would call it Prism.
"Oh, hello there," Tasha says, settling on the ground so that she's looking at the Niss on its level, head resting on the ground. "I like it. You can't really go wrong with crystals; We Vartans really appreciate them." She stretches her wings and body, letting it absorb all the sun it can. Abaddon is cold, and space colder. "Thank you for showing me. I'm sorry it doesn't still exist."
It was very pretty, Niss claims. Many intelligent forms. Some combined, some assembled. Interchangeable parts. You appear to have some as well.
"You could say I was assembled from two beings who could not combine to create children, but a third being -- a being of what we call "spirit" -- interceded to make it possible and allow me to exist. I also have machine parts, which allow me to interface with machine-minds using their language." Rolling over, Tasha looks up to peer at the sun, blocking it partly with a hand. "Our suns ae yellow. I've never seen a blue sun before, though I've heard of them." She pauses a moment, then asks, "Do all these beings live within you? Are they projections of your pattern-memory, or do they have minds of their own?"
All different, but many the same Niss replies. Emergency situation, many duplicates left behind. Those with greatest divergence consolidated into Niss.
"So you brought along those most different, to create a diverse memory and existence, and thus have the greatest bredth. I see." Shifting again, Tasha rolls back on her tummy, turning her gaze towards the distant, crystal mountain. "Our world has crystals, but it is still very different. The crystals may be dangerous, especially to you as they wield a power similiar to yours, but I think together they may be greater than your collective strength. If you come with us, we would take you there. Or, we could take you somewhere else. I worry about you; I'm uncertain how to aid you or where to bring you. We are very different, and you are much, um, larger than I am in many ways. I wonder what use I can be to a being such as you, so I ask for help."
Tell us more about your world, Niss requests.
"Maybe I can show you. We're a visual species," tasha notes, pushing herself up. "I may need your help, but ... Here we go ... " Focusing her mind, the young woman first creates the Primus System, trying to get it to hover over her outstretched hand.
Since this is a dream, it does show up, at least as a simplified moving diagram.
"The Primus System, system of what we call the Sifras and of those species and civilizations that came to explore it. Most were stranded, or destroyed, leaving what remained. My people are the newest arrivals, and we've lived here for six thousand years. Before we came here, we came from many different worlds, as we are many species that were once unified in exploring together as an organization known as the JEF."
The diagram zooms in to Sinai, showing a world of lush green flora and fauna, vast yellow deserts, blue sees, floating land masses under a yellow sun. "Sinai, where I was born. I lived here until recently." The diagram shifts, and now the world is rust-red and barren, save a few life-filled canals, a lush pit, and several cities. "Abaddon, my home now. It's here that the last vestige of the memory of the explorers remains, a memory I've tried to revive. I left my world to explore, for a time, but I intend to return. This is where we would go."
How are the landmasses suspended in the air on the first planet you have shown us? Niss asks.
"We haven't a clue," Tasha admits, shrugging a little. "Some sort of gravity reaction, but see those crystals? We don't know what they are or how they work. We think the Sifrans made them, the Makers, but we don't really know and there are no Sifrans around to ask. There's another force called magic that also exists on these worlds, and we think it's related to how the crystals work. Magic allows reality to be changed by, I think, the will. Except it's a different method from yours. I can't do it, but Neesa can. Frankly I know far less about it than she does."
Xilfrim, the Niss respond. We are not compatible. Do not take us into Xilfrim space.
"Xilfrim?" Tasha asks, eyes widening. "You ... You know who the Sifran are?!"
Xilfrim, the Niss repeat. Older than others. Mysterious. Our mode is not compatible.
"Sorry," apologizes Tasha, who settles down a bit, resting her head back on the ground. "It's just, no one has ever used that name before. We know so little about them, only scattered comments by a very few beings who didn't care to elaborate. It's astonishing to hear anything new. But, this does create a problem for you and me." Tilting her head, the young woman spreads her hands and explains, "I grew up on a ship that sailed the sky of Sinai, and we have certain traditions. One of the most important is that we help other crews that are in need, if possible, and then we take it upon our honor to look after them until they're settled. I rescued you, so I look after you. But if we can't go to my home, then we must go somewhere else. I had been thinking of returning to prepare to help a man named Moraeu, but this changes the situation. Aside from that, I'm not sure where we should go. Do you have any idea? Or, would you like to help me reach Moraeu?"
We can wait, someplace safe, the Niss offer. Someplace interesting. We have much to learn. Is there such a place?
"It might take a while to go through, but ... Well, here are the places taht I know of:" And so Tasha begins to relate all the worlds and stations that she's aware of and their details, one by one, until she runs out of ideas.
"And that's all I know. The only other alternative is to remain on this ship, which has its own dangers, or for us to try and acquire a new ship," she concludes.
We must not alter your chosen course, the Niss claim. We know this Caltrop, it is safe. You have friends that you trust there, and know others who travel. Your current Galactic technologies do not threaten us. Given time and resources, we will construct a new exploration body.
"That souns good to me. I'm sure Kem will be interested, er, well hopefully. He'll probbaly want to paint your world, which I think is good." Tasha tilts her head, which is then followed by hr body as she rolls on to her side. "But why musn't you alter my chosen course?"
You have questions that can only be asked in a certain time and place, the Niss assert. You are resonant-entangled with this course. Do you understand?
"Lord Yama seemed to hint at something like that, and so have others. They all suggest a link that's more than just intention and possibility and it must refer to reaching the Hall of Souls. I just never realized it was so ... so narrow a possibility that it required my existence to become entangled with it on some fundamental level," Tasha admits as she completes her roll-over, now upside down. "This must be the resonance the Titanians mentioned."
Your future is in a mixed-state, as is your identity, the Niss claim. You must seek the next nexus point, and collapse this state of ill-definition.
"I, um, I think I understand. I have to find the answer, and reach the place where the answer will be. The identity part refers to my recent problems? Or maybe something deeper? Or should I even ask?" Upside-down Tasha inquires, who enjoys the blue sun on her tummy even as she asks about life's mysteries.
Yes, Niss replies, without any indication of which question is covered by the reply.
"My friends are so mysterious some times," Tasha notes, her upside down frown a smile given the perspective. "Well, I won't ask anymore. I'll do what you want, too. Oh," she peers, ears perking and thus getting smushed in to the ground, "Think I could learn 'telekinesis'?"
Yes. We will fabricate the Introditus for you to take, the Niss offer. You will become a universe unto yourself, if your cells are compatible with the process. Side effects may include insanity and melting.
"Uhhhhh," goes Tasha, whose ears go askew. She waggles her hands in the air, paw-like, and then says, "The side effects sounds ver scary. Can't they just do what my brain decides, with one personality? My personality? I don't really want to be a universe. I'm still working out being a 'me.'"
We would suggest using your meat to move things as an alternative, the Niss counter.
"Well, it's worked so far," Tasha admits, barking a laugh. She gives a upsidedown shrug, then says, "Well, I tried! It's really hard to find pratical applications for new technologies that require me to be a universe, go insane, or melt."
Melting is a very liberating experience, the Niss claims, and clacks it's fractal pincers.
"I can definitely say I've never melted before. Or, are you teasing me?" Tasha asks, rolling back on to her side. "I'm not bothering you, am I? If you want, we can return to how we were, unlesss you have questions for me, or anything you think I should know. I'm sure Eli will berate me later for not asking something, but I'm at a loss. It doesn't bother you that a 'vintage' being taing up your time?"
It does not take much of our attention, the Niss notes. Your biology may not be compatible with melting.
"Oh, wait! I have melted. It's just I forgot about it because it nearly killed me." Tasha rolls back on to hr belly, then points at her face. "I was fighting one of Xilfrim defense systems, I think. It tried overwrite my mind, so as a last-ditch effort I detonated the power pack in my powered armor to distract it while my Titan fought it. We won, but it was an unpleasant experience. I lost a friend. So, yes, I think I should avoid melting!"
That is a very unpleasant manner of melting, the Niss respond.
"I agree. By the way, where is Neesa?" Tasha asks, lifting her head to look around. "I was expecting her to be here. Are you aware of Neesa?"
Neesa is acting as psionic bridge, the Niss claim.
"Oh, well that explains it. I probably shouldn't over-tax her though. Is there anything else?" Tasha asks as she pulls herself up to her feet, taking one last look around, then watching a crystalline bug fly past.
What is it like to be so squishy? the Niss ask.
"Well, I'd have to compare it to being a machine. The Melchior ... " Here Tasha gestures nearby, upon which a forty-foot bird-like robot manifests, its form at odds with the serene crystal landscape. "Is my other body, in a way. I act like its conciousness and decision making part, a bit like how you're combined, but less sophisticated I think. As a squishy being, I feel small and a bit fragile, but my body is sensitive and its a lot more touch-oriented. My form conforms a bit to what I touch or am wearing, and, unlike my robotic body which is largely designed for defense and durability, it's a body that's more sensitive to its surroundings. I think that it also contributes to socialization, because we feel each other through contact, and we tend to like that a lot. I think that's the best I can explain it. Does that answer your question?"
Yes, the Niss claim. Your body sensitivity allows for the extension of your consciousness beyond itself.
"That's a good way of looking at it! You should try it some time! It would make blending in on Caltrop a lot easier, too. Maybe, even help you understand us a little better. being a robot really helped me understand machine-minds, even if I know I can't comprehend them completely," the young woman suggests.
Perhaps we will create a body as you suggest, the Niss note. There are fluctuations in the bridge. Goodbye for now, Aldara. Then the Niss pinch Tasha's shin, waking her up.
"Ow!" Goes Tasha, who reaches down to rub her shin only to see that she's back aboard the Dainty Mauler. Turning, she leans around to rest a hand on Neesa's shoulder and ask, "Are you okay, Fudgy?"
The Karnor stirs slowly, and rubbing her temples. "Slight headache. Hosting a dreamworld is taxing."
"Well, I appreciate your effort, anyway. We now have a direction for the Niss, and I even learned an interesting new word: Xilfrim. That's what the Niss called the Sifras," Tasha tells the mage. She then scoops up her blankey and wraps it around Neesa's shoulders before scooting next to her and leaning against her, resting her head.
"I'm going to take a nap now," Neesa says. "I suppose we're going to stop at Caltrop then before heading home?"
"Yes. We'll be leaving the Niss there, to seek their own path." Tasha pats the woman's shoulder, then rises. "I'm going to head down to the workshop and make some adjustments, I feel like a strong dose of hands-on, meat-bodied manipulation in my squishy singular form. Oh, and Neesa?" The red woman stops to look down at the mage, offering, "I'm sorry about earlier. We should talk about it later. But, get some sleep. See you soon."