approximately two-hundred and thirty humans in Rigellian Saurian Compact Space, not including LARP worlds, primitive therapy worlds, and those who are, for lack of a better word, anarcho-primitivists.

Those worlds seem to be arming after suffering a casualty rate of 45-80%, but when you're talking about hundreds of millions or even billions of humans, or those crazy bastards from the therapy worlds, you're talking about a whole galaxy of hurt.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Any word on The Bag?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

It's a serious problem.

See, the whole thing is maintained by a set of artificially generated singularities in a complex interwoven orbit around each other.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Right.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Now, to prevent them from being accessed by an enemy, they are then, well, gravitationally 'inverted' so to speak, so they exist in a second extra-dimensional non-euclidean space. The space fills up with 'white matter' protomatter, and the singularities orbit through that, as the white matter isn't effected by gravity force.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

Wait. What?

How does that work?

That's not how it works. That's not how singularities work! How do you 'invert gravity'? That's not how gravity works! And that's not how white matter, which has never been proven to exist, works!

That's not how any of it works!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

>Rigel snickers

MANTID FREE WORLDS

It's pretty simple.

The Terrans figured out how to make it work like that, so it works like that.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS

That's not how physics works!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

>Rigel snickers louder

>Pubvia hides a smile

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Well, according to scientific research done by Terran Descent Humanity, you can make it work like that.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA CYBERBURROW

That's not right! You can't just TELL the universe how fundamental laws work because you decided they work that way!

Reality doesn't work that way!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

BEHOLD! HUMANITY!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

ALL>Laugh

>Hesstla grumbles

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Anyway, the system is designed so that it can't be opened from the outside without certain steps being taken. It's also designed so that the system can't be just dropped from the inside by a stray EM pulse or by enemy troops gaining access to a few critical systems.

Terran Descent Humanity paranoia in action.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

But now it's turned back around and bitten them on the ass.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Not necessarily.

Observational data suggests that some kind of temporal energy cascade, the same one that seems to have strengthened the evolutionary reversion attack, is currently washing over the TerraSol System's space.

But, the chronotron energy, once it enters the bag, is exposed to white matter filled space, which means the chronotrons begin to vibrate at a different frequency and begin to get expelled from the 'Drawstring' in a geometrically increased rate.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA CYBERBURROW

OK... I'm lost.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Do you know what an orange is? Not the color, the Terran fruit.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Man, I could go for some orange creme ice cream.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

That sounds good.

Ooh, I hear an ice cream truck.

Be right back, gonna get the puffies some orange creme sticks.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA CYBERBURROW

Yes. We were growing a hybrid here before the

CASE OMAHA CASE OMAHA CASE OMAHA

attack upon our system.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

OK, picture a flat piece of black silk. Now, picture the TerraSol system in the middle. Now, pick up the silk that the edges, so now you have the TerraSol system in a bag. Take an orange and put it in the 'mouth' of the 'bag' you've made.

Now, put a string around the orange, tying the bag to it.

Now, invert the orange peel so the string is on the inside of the orange.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS

Screw this. I'm going to get ice cream.

PUBVIA! WAIT FOR ME!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

:SYSTEM ALERT: NINE URGENT MESSAGE THREADS TO BE PROCESSED :SYSTEM ALERT:

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

BAH!

Dammit, those alerts scare the crap out of me every time.

I mean, it's not like the messages are for us. It just yells at us like some psychopath getting a cellphone and screaming at the other passengers on the bus that he's going to be talking on the phone.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

No, the pulp of the orange is the white matter. Moving slowly through the white matter pulp are some artificially generated singularities, generated by the string you used to close the bag, moving in a Klemperer rosette orbiting the outside of the orange according to gravitational effects.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

What?

I mean, I understand those are words, and you put them in some kind of order, but I have no idea what you just said!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Ice cream?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

Thanks.

Ooh, root beer vanilla creme.

Thanks.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Trust me, kid. When you're dealing with human 'super-science', ice cream is about all that makes it bearable.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Anyway. Now you can see how it can only be opened from the inside, but that means it can only be opened from the outside.

With the chronotron cascade coming from Lanaktallan Space, thanks to Task Force Reaper, and the chrono-reversion attack on Terran Descent Humanity, the system won't drop the bag because technically TerraSol is still under heavy extinction level assault.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA CYBERBURROW

OK, I understand.

I think.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Lemur people broke space and fell in the hole.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

HESSTLA CYBERBURROW

OK, see, that I understand.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Trust us, kid, after a while, this becomes just a normal thing when dealing with

FIRST CONTACT ALERT

XENOSPECIES: POSITIVE

TERRAN: NEGATIVE

SPECIES INITIAL DESIGNATION: H'KEK'NTH

FIRST CONTACT ALERT ON [TIME/DATE ERROR]

FIRST CONTACT ALERT

Terrans and...

Wait, what?

QUERY>LOCATION OF FIRST CONTACT

SYSTEM REPLY> COVERTHIC CLUSTER

Uh, does anyone know where the coverthic cluster is?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

No clue.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Nope.

That looks like a saurian name though.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

Never even heard of it.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Damn, the timestamp is corrupted. So's the rest of the data.

Wonder what

SYSTEM ALERT

H'KEK'NTH AGGRESSION ALERT!

SIX (6) PLANETARY ASSAULTS

ALERT LEVEL RAISED TO MAGENTA

it was all about?

Oooh, that doesn't look good.

What do you think

SYSTEM ALERT

H'KEK'NTH 1% LINE ACHIEVED

happened?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Apparently, that.

Do you suppose they got

SYSTEM ALERT! ENGAGEMENT OF HOSTILITIES BY 1% LINE SPECIES

SPECIES DESIGNATION: BREPTILUK

ENGAGING IN XENOCRUSADE

XENOCRUSADE ACCOMPLISHED

MOVING DATA FOR SPECIES: BREPTILUK TO COLD STORAGE

DNA, CULTURAL, SOCIAL, HISTORICAL DATA IS NOW IN COLD STORAGE

END SYSTEM ALERT

Wow, they got their

SYSTEM ALERT! ENGAGEMENT OF HOSTILITIES BY 1% LINE SPECIES

SPECIES DESIGNATION: H'KEK'NTH

SECOND VIOLATION

PLANET CRACKER USE DETECTED

XENOCRUSADE AUTHORIZED

XENOCRUSADE ACCOMPLISHED

MOVING DATA FOR SPECIES: H'KEK'NTH TO COLD STORAGE

DNA, CULTURAL, SOCIAL, HISTORICAL DATA IN NOW IN COLD STORAGE

END SYSTEM ALERT

ass kicked.

OK. When/Where is this happening?

QUERY> LOCATION OF LAST TWO 1% LINES

SYSTEM> INVALID GALACTIC LOCATION. Z, Q^3 COORDINATE ERROR

Great, the system's still borked.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Borked enough it can't give us any data, not borked enough that it isn't running around shouting at us.

SYSTEM ALERT

DIG SETS SYSALER TO +M

Thanks.

Someone keep on eye on the dataflow see what this is all about.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

I'll do it. I've still got old access keys that are authorized.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS

Wow, these H'Kek'Nth were some real assholes.

They owned about 200 systems. Looks like they made incursions into systems labeled "Human Occupied Space". Lots of glassing, planet crackers, stuff like that.

Real xenophobes.

Looks like the war took almost thirty years before they got 1%'d.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Got a map?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS

Here.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Let's see if we can get this to line up...

Um... WTF?

What. The. Fuck?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

What? What is it?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

This map makes no sense. I'm comparing it to Milky Way Galaxy cartography and astrography, and it doesn't match up.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Let me try.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS

Wow. These guys xenocided thirty species before they ran into humans. During the war they tried to xenocide two more.

The universe is a better place with those guys gone.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

I think I found it.

Maybe.

You're not going to like it.

--NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Oh, come on.

Where is it?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

The mid-section of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

What?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

You heard me.

Sis, you OK, you look like you're frothing at the mouth.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

HOW? How did they get out THERE?

WHEN? When did they get there?

WHO? Who is out there? And don't say Terrans or I swear I'll scream.

WHAT? What reason did they have to go there?

WHERE? Where are they located now?

WHY DIDN'T ANY OF US KNOW THIS?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

DIGITAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Don't stroke out, sis. Breathe. Breathe.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Behold! Humanity!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Eat me.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

The two glittering figures stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down. Below them a vast river of glittering data surged and roared through the canyon it had carved in the infrastructure as more and more resources had been added just to handle the dataflow.

Suspended in the glittering 'water' were shapes, forms, likenesses of sleeping humans that swept along the current, surrounded by glittering data.

The two stared for a long moment, then began to move slowly down the steps that had been hewed from solid EPROM bedrock. They were careful, the EPROM steps were slick with .dll fragments and JPG artifacts. Moss of TCP/IP routing addresses, ancient and forgotten codes, coated the walls of the canyon and trickles of ultralinks dripped along the EPROM rock.

Finally they reached the bottom. The dock was worn, ancient, with the pier pilings carved with strange runes and images. On top of each a Terran male sternly stared at the duo with judging eyes, visible only from the neck up.

The frog one moved up, using a thumb to smear away the coating of video compression artifacts from the dataplate beneath one of the busts.

"Vint Cerf ForMemRS," the frog read out loud. He turned to the fox. "Recognize the name?"

The fox shook his head, limping slightly, using his sword to help him along. "No. Impressive facial hair though."

They moved to the end of the 'dock' and looked down.

The water was roaring, surging, foam splashing the dock.

"What do you think it is?" the frog asked.

The fox shook his head, sitting down. "No clue," he answered.

He looked up, into the darkness. He could see 'fireflies' moving around. Code packets, data requests, minor status reports, some cookies.

"Is it just me, or did they expend as much effort to the art of this place as they did to build it?" the frog asked, sitting next to the fox.

"As with function comes form," the fox quoted. He looked around. "This is an ancient, dark, and terrible place."

The frog nodded.

A human hand reached up, over the edge of the dock, slapping onto the 'stone' wetly. A human pulled himself out of the water.

"I..." the human growled, spitting 'water' and the red code of blood. "Will..."

The fox and the frog scooted back slightly from the human.

"Not..." the human heaved itself from the water. It stood up, the code making up its body swirling.

"Die," the human snarled. It slumped slightly, shook its head as if to dispel thoughts, and looked behind the fox and the frog.

"I ain't stayin'," the Terran said. It moved past the duo, without acknowledging their existence, walking toward a second set of steps that moved up the 'cliff' and into the dark. "You can't kill this motherfucker."

The frog and the fox looked at each other, then at the human, was climbing the narrow steps, using hands and feet to slowly ascend the wall.

"Can't... kill... me..." the human growled as it crawled.

The duo looked into the water. Foam swirled around in the water, shapes suggested by the flowing foam.

The duo looked at each other and spoke at the same time.

"It's a SUDS line!"