“One is nice. Two are twice. Three are a burden and four are stress. By five you start thinking and beyond that, you realize that you have overdone it. Why didn't I just limit myself to other women?”

– Lisandra

***Galaxy***

***Hòb´lägur***

Scratching myself, I use this particular iteration of mine to study the current development of the Demons, Cybers, and Environmentalists. The G.S. is also on the move, but it will take them a few years to reach the area where the action will take place.

Aside from these players, there are various minor species who will most likely get caught up in the conflict. I postulate that their chance for survival is close to zero. When the punitive fleet arrives, they will swipe the entire quadrant clean, simply because they won’t take the chance that some random human is hiding among their population.

The Collective has watched it happen several times.

The gravitational scanning network which spreads over the whole galaxy allows me to keep track of what’s going on. At least that was the case until the humans decided to flee to n-space. As much as I dislike to admit it, that’s a feat a little above my pay-grade. And here I thought I was the smartest entity in this starcluster.

It appears that some of the human A.I.’s can match me.

It’s annoying to think that I invested so much time and resources into my sensor network, just to have it fail so spectacularly. The intention was for it to keep track of any major threats to my being. But if a potential threat doesn’t even have to come from this plane of existence, that poses a problem.

And I hate unsolved problems.

Wriggling in annoyance, I return my attention to the task I assigned to this body. Temporal individuality for the sake of research is such an annoying thing. In this diminished state, I feel so small and insignificant, disconnected from the Collective. At the same time, it gives me personal freedom and perspective.

I have long since recognized that a single, unerring mind isn’t the last word in evolution. Sometimes it’s handy not to see the whole picture. It gives my various iterations the possibility to come to a different solution than the one of the Collective. This is directly caused by having a different point of view.

It’s never wrong to inspect a troublesome object from all angles.

But my thoughts are straying off again.

The Demons were busy while I didn’t pay them much attention. They gnawed their way through several small solar systems, increasing their numbers and creating off-shoots of their starting population. They also changed the design of their ships drastically.

The original cone-shape was replaced by a spikier version which is still functional but has a little more emphasis on looking menacing and evil. I doubt that there are many species in the galaxy who don’t regard a pointy object as a threat.

During their tactical retreat, the Demons left the Orion Spur and passed through the Perseus Arm until they reached the Outer Arm, a region which is called the Outer Rim. As far as the G.S. is concerned, that’s unexplored territory.

The Demon’s seat of their power, their main-colony, is now a sizeable spot in my sensor network. The resolution isn’t great, but I can tell that they must’ve repurposed some large asteroid or even a small planetoid as a colony. It must be more like a space-station than an actual starship.

At least for as long as I recorded its flight path, it didn’t utilize its warp-drive and it never moved at exceptional speeds while it was in real space.

Aside from that, there is a small swarm of ships fanning out in every direction. Those are probably independent mining operations or offshoots to found more colonies. So far, the Demons are acting very much like the Cybers and Environmentalists.

It’s clear that they want to increase their numbers as quickly as possible… which is understandable, I suppose. If I were limited to such a small area of the galaxy, I would also fear for my existence.

As it is, I project that they will spread over an area of two hundred light-years by the time the punitive force arrives. That is if they don’t send some elements farther away.

The problem is that there is a Cyber and an Environmentalist outpost in their general area. It could be that they will run into each other. At the very least they will join the fray when the punitive forces arrive… which will most likely end up in a war with several different factions.

It spells chaos on a large scale.

Humming, I wonder why the various human factions are in conflict with each other. Aren’t they the same race? I am never in conflict with myself.

Such strange creatures.