***Saggitarius Arm – Icarius***

***Travil, the Ambassador***

“Well, what do you guys think?” I asked my advisers once I had settled down in my chair. “It has been two weeks since we arrived here, and I am sure that some of us had a lot of fun, but we haven't achieved one thing since we came here.”

The only one who looked slightly guilty at the accusation of having fun was Miredin.

I knew that my people were better than what I had just said. Everyone was aware of how serious the situation was. Serious enough that it would affect the fate of our entire species.

But I was too frustrated at the moment.

“I am sorry,” I forced myself to apologize. “I know that everyone is doing their best, but we can't go on like this. The Demons are clearly not going to be forthcoming any more than they already are. They aren't seeing our visit as an opportunity to negotiate. To them, we are little children who have to be taught a hard truth as gently as possible. Can we do anything to change that?”

Jerera, our sociologist, was the first to speak up. “I have spent all my time among them since we came here. I have tried to talk to all the different social groups among them, but I couldn't discern a way to change their minds. They are living in a post-scarcity society and many of them are only interested in improving their status among their people.”

She looked at a pile of notes. “This G.O.D. system of theirs provides a game-like incentive to work towards whatever goal the controllers of G.O.D. set. I would even go so far as to say that this game of theirs has caused an addictive reliance on the system. I am not even certain if any of them could function without their system.”

Ilinak raised his hand. “I think Jerera has fallen to a little misconception here.”

Jerera glared at Illinak but said nothing.

I gestured for him to go on.

“I wouldn't call it a genuine addiction, but simply a result of their technology. Would we be able to survive in the wilderness if someone took away our technology? The Demons are much further along the path of integrating their technology with their lives than us.” He gestured, indicating the outside. “All of this out there. It isn't real to them!”

I frowned. “Explain.”

“They aren't just using technology. They are their technology,” Illinak tried to explain his thoughts. “We have to get over ourselves and understand what Iris was trying to tell us. This world they built here. It's a tool to achieve their goal – which is beating the G.S. Their real home is this Virtual Reality. All the people we see out there are just puppets that they are moving from the safety of their V.R. If they wished to, they could easily cast all of this aside.”

“But they won't,” I concluded. “Because they are in a position of power.”

Illinak nodded.

Eleu spoke up. “I have wandered Icarius as far as I could, taken a look at the shipyards. Iris even organized for a shuttle to take me to the other rings. It's the same everywhere. The entire installation is one part living quarters and one part shipyard with the industry to keep it all running inside the rings. If they are hiding any weaknesses, then I doubt that we could find them even if we had a hundred years to search the entirety of this Dyson swarm. I think that Iris said the truth when she mentioned that all of this is nothing more than a military task force to them.”

A few more comments came from the others, but nothing substantial.

I sighed and waited for anyone else to speak up, but they stayed silent. It wasn't like I had expected someone to find a miracle solution.

“I guess that I will take the only remaining way forward then,” I stated.

Eleu frowned. “Which is?”

“I will take Iris up on her offer to visit the V.C.” I looked at her. “Maybe I can talk to a Blue. From what I understand, the Blues are the real power behind all of this.”

She immediately got to her feet, throwing over the chair she was sitting on. “You can't do that! You will die!”

I waved off her concerns. “Maybe. Maybe not. From what I understood, that is up to religious debate even among the Demons.”

“You have heard Iris explain how this works,” Illinak commented. “At least the current 'you' will die if you allow the upload. Even if they put you back into your original body afterwards, you will just be a rewritten version of yourself. A new you. Do we even have any guarantees that they won't meddle with what makes 'you' you?”

I snorted at his concerns. “I really don't see any other options for us. My entire life, I have trained for this task. I can't just sit here for another three weeks and then fly home without having accomplished anything. And if an upload is the only way to speak with a Blue, then I will do that.”

“I believe that the Demons are right,” Miredin interjected. “If that's any help to you. They have shown me the procedures they are using for the upload. How they ensure that there are no errors, and I must admit that a lot of it still goes over my head. I can say nothing more than that I believe in their way of seeing things.”

Eleu snorted. “Then all we can do is to look out for changes once he 'returns'?”

Miredin shrugged and then nodded. “If it helps, I will do it too. I want to talk with a Blue myself. From what I've heard, the ones that are talkative are quite unique.”

“Talkative?” Illinak asked.

“How are you going to talk to something that has an intellect above and beyond yours?” Miredin answered the question with a question. “It's like an insect trying to talk to me. The only way for that to succeed would be for me to lower myself to the insect's level.” He chortled. “I just want to know what a Blue might think about. Or why they even concern themselves with us?”

We kept talking for another hour and Eleu tried her best to dissuade me from my decision, but I stayed strong.

When it was clear that my advisors couldn't come up with another convincing course of action, I stood up and declared the meeting as finished.

I just wanted to go through with this before I could get cold ears and change my mind.

Once I left the room, I asked one of the small cleaning drones that were permanently roaming the corridors to lead me to Iris.

Iris hadn't been entirely truthful when she told us that her ship had no crew aside from herself. There was a multitude of automated drones and robots in charge of maintenance and repairs. Some of them were just as large as a person and I would've bet on it that the Demons could take over manual control at any time at which they saw the need.

The reason why we hadn't been aware of them as much earlier was that Iris had changed their patrolling pattern. But a few days ago, once she was sure that we wouldn't flip out because of the machines, she returned the devices to their intended patrol pattern.

Ever since then it was almost impossible to walk along a corridor without encountering at least one of the small cleaning bots.

The machine told me to follow and led me to the observation lounge where I found Iris relaxedly lying on a comfortable chair. The back-rest was leaned back to thirty degrees and the leg-rest folded up.

Iris looked pretty happy while she was slurping on one of the large drinks that she called a 'milk shake'. After knowing her for about two weeks, I knew that she consumed an awful lot of the stuff. Given the amounts of calories that this type of food had, she should have bloated and popped within a month.

Lucky for her, she wasn't a normal Lmir, but a Demon with the advantage of a nanotech engineered body.

“Hi!” She waved a hand when she noticed me and returned her attention to the large viewing screen which had one of those old movies running. Another thing she really liked to do in her free time.

The movies were from the time before the V.C. came into existence and showed humans in their original form that was disturbingly similar to a Lmir.

I still hadn't deduced why she was interested in this archaic form of entertainment. Historical interest? Lamenting over the past and her lost humanity? Because she was genuinely entertained by these movies?

“I still have trouble grasping the concept of telling a story in real-time with these 'actors'. Or with those cartoons of yours. It's so much easier to just write a book,” I commented while I watched some transportation vehicle explode.

Iris had explained that it wasn't real, that it was fake. At least I hoped so.

The humans had been a disturbing race on so many levels.

“How often do I have to tell you that it is art!” Iris exclaimed. “Besides, it's become a hobby. My goal is to watch all the actions flicks that were made between the years 2000 and 4000!”

“How...” I wet my lips. “How much do you have to go?”

She sighed. “I started the project about a hundred years ago. I should still have about a hundred and twenty years of uninterrupted movie watching to go through. Since this damned war is always getting in the way of my free time, it will likely take me centuries to get it done.”

“That's quite the task.” I had to remind myself that Iris had been around since the V.C.'s beginnings and looked forward to a potentially limitless lifespan.

“Yup!” she replied. “I dread the day when I am done and have to find another hobby.”

“Boredom seems to be an immortal's bane,” I commented and stepped closer. “I want you to show me the V.C.”

Iris raised her eyebrows and slurped on her milkshake while she looked at me. “You mean... you want to do an upload?”

“Yes.” I sighed.

“Great!” Iris switched off her movie and put the milkshake aside. She ran over to the wall and pulled a second comfort chair next to hers. “I can't wait to show you that it's no different from the real world.”

I forced myself to smile.

“Sit, sit.” She patted the chair. “You have to get comfortable since you will return to this body and it isn't really made to be left lying around in the same position for hours on end.”

Following her instructions, I sat down and made myself comfortable, treating this as if I intended to take a good nap.

A drone that she had doubtlessly called through the system brought her a strange device.

It looked like a cap made out of some kind of wire mesh.

Iris placed it on my head and carefully made sure that everything was spread out evenly. “I like to call this the tin-hat.” She chuckled. “It allows people without our nanotech to take a stroll through the V.C.”

“Is there anything I will have to watch out for?” I asked.

“Not really,” Iris replied. “You can lean back now. Just relax. There is nothing to worry about since I will join you shortly.”

I nodded and closed my eyes.

There was a moment of weightlessness, and when I opened my eyes, I was no longer in the observation lounge.

I stood in a white and empty space. A limitless plain that stretched from horizon to horizon.

Looking down at myself, I found my body and clothes to be unchanged. Frowning, I scratched the sole of my foot over the smooth ground, causing a silent squeak.

“Wasn't so bad, or was it?”

I looked up and found Iris standing next to me. “No. Not really. So... my real body is currently... dead?”

“Without brain activity,” Iris corrected. “My demonstration with the glass was a little extreme. You just have to ensure that there are no two identical thinking beings at the same time.” She mimicked flicking a switch. “If one is 'turned off', there is no problem.”

She gestured towards the horizon. “So, where do you want to go? There is no limit to the V.C., even beyond the horizon!”

I scratched my chest and looked around. “How about starting out with a guided tour to spots of your choosing?”

“That's exactly what I wanted to hear!” Iris linked arms with me, not even asking for permission, and we took a step forward.

The scene changed and I found myself walking along a white sand beach with a beautiful ocean to our left. Some people were sunbathing or playing in the water, but none of them paid us any attention.

We stayed on this beach-world for a while and Iris gave me plenty of time to 'play around'.

I felt a little irked about calling it that, but to be honest, that was exactly what I did.

I studied the grains of sand, watched the waves, the birds in the sky, but I couldn't find any indication that this wasn't real. It was a world just like any other.

The only difference was that I knew that it wasn't real. I picked up a fistful of sand and allowed the grains to run down between my fingers and fall to the ground.

“There is just one thing that lets me know that it isn't real,” I commented.

“Oh?” Iris smiled at me.

“It's too perfect,” I explained. “This place is clearly engineered.”

“Of course it is!” Iris replied jovially. “It's the beach-world! Just like a real beach park would look artificial.”

She linked arms with me again and we stepped forward.

Iris showed me alien worlds, dirty cities, rural villages, jungles and more until she finally convinced me that the V.C. could indeed provide anything that the imagination allowed.

From real worlds to idealized living spaces that were trimmed to an individual's desires.

The V.C. entertained entire galaxies that were trimmed to fulfil one particular desire.

They had entire worlds where one could test his combat powers against others, cities that catered towards more carnal desires. Places of eternal peace and entire realms that allowed people to vent their rage.

“That was...” I pulled a face once we left the Plane of Pleasures. Or P.o.P., as the inhabitants liked to call it. “...enlightening.”

“Aw.” Iris pursed her lips to pout. “You didn't like it!”

“That woman tried to use her tail on me!” I complained.

“That wasn't a tail,” Iris replied with an evil grin. “And she wasn't a woman.”

I gasped in horror as some things fell into place. “Why would they do that?”

She shrugged. “The people who like to live on the planes that are purely trimmed to fulfil one desire or the other are all a little bit strange in the head. You would probably call them insane.”

“Can't you help them?” I asked, remembering the city-wide 'orgy' with a shudder.

“That would be too close to mind manipulation, Travil.” Iris shook her head. “That's the one and only really big and firm 'NO!' that we have here. If you are caught trying that, there is a really big chance that some system administrator will just erase you.”

She gestured at the beautiful city that we were now wandering through. “Imagine what would happen if we went down that route with our capabilities. And there is no question that we wouldn't be able to do it. We could create a cultural monolith if we started to do that to people. If someone thinks that his own tendencies are a problem, then he/she/it, is welcome to ask others for help. But you will never see any member of the V.C. try to correct others because they think that they are wrong about something. We can fight among each other for what we believe in, don't misunderstand me, but we won't change who a person is.”

Now that I thought about it, she was right. It also felt oddly comforting that the V.C.'s morals didn't allow them to turn into a mind-controlling regime. It was something that the G.S. would do in a heartbeat if they possessed the capabilities.

“Can I talk to a Blue?” I finally felt ready to see someone in power.

“Well, I would have to ask whether someone is available.” Iris scratched her head while her gaze drifted into the distance. “But you can certainly talk to one of those who blued out.”

“Blued out?” I asked.

“Those who went so drastic with their mental upgrades that they became totally unrelatable or stopped interacting with reality in a meaningful way,” Iris explained.

“That wouldn't be very helpful.”

“No, it wouldn't,” Iris mumbled, and then she smiled. “Ah, I have one. Corrupted is willing to listen to your concerns.”

“Corrupted?” I squinted while I thought about the name. “That doesn't sound very trustworthy.”

“Oh, shush.” Iris waved my concern away. “He is nice. The corrupted just refers to something that went wrong when he made some mental upgrades. Now, his thoughts make some really strange leaps in logic when he laggs out.”

Once more, she stepped forward and Iris pulled me into yet another reality.

We appeared in a garden in front of a small house.

An old and whithered looking man was watering the plants. He had some odd tick that made him twitch from time to time.

Iris raised her hand in greeting. “Hi, Corr, how are you doing today?”

'Corr' replied a little twitchy, but otherwise gave no sign that he was any different from the people I had met so far. “H-o, ow are ya doing? Seen Jill rec- cently?”

“No, Corr, I am currently working on the frontier, remember?” She gestured towards me. “This is the person I mentioned, Travil, and he wants to talk to you. Travil, this is Corr. He happens to be one of the local system administrators.”