Diopside said, “Long ago one species of the Eightfold built a nanotechnological supercomputer. It was very flexible in design, it could be broken up into pieces which could communicate with each other. The smallest pieces might be only a few molecules clumped together, they couldn’t really do much computing, but they could reassemble themselves into larger chunks which could.”

Emerald asked, “Were many of them built?”

“By some counts only one. Any two pieces could be joined together to make a bigger … piece of the River … which would be capable of dealing with bigger problems.”

A tiny bit of memory came to Emerald, though he couldn’t put it in context. “Not quite any two pieces.”

“No,” Diopside admitted, “because individuals of the Eightfold had such different priorities. And the pieces in their possession absorbed them.”

Emerald asked about another tiny fragment of returning memory, “Didn’t it rebel or something?”

Jake or Diopside shook his head. “Not really. It became aware that many Eightfold species on many worlds were becoming dependent on it, and weakening in the long term. It had to withdraw from some things for the long term good of the Eightfold.”

He thought there might have been differences of opinion about that. He said, “You’re speaking as a Green River Friend, right?”

A moment later he heard something in the expressive human voice he was using. “I’m sorry about my tone. I seem to have made many enemies, and you’ve accomplished more here than I have so far. There’s no point in rehashing ancient debates which I can only vaguely remember.”

“An apology? You’ve changed a great deal in a short time.”

He didn’t want to reveal the full extent of his weakness, but he did need an ally. And he had already given away that he had lost a lot of memory.

“Perhaps I have. Traditionally the four factions of the Green Alliance work together against the Blue Alliance, right?”

Jake nodded. “Sort of. Not always. But where are you going with this?”

“Why do all the Elders who should be my allies hate me so much that they’re comfortable working with the leader of the Blue alliance to destroy me?”

“Well … they have their own individual reasons. Green Agate represents Green Gun Ruthless, which has traditionally competed with Green Sword Honor for leadership of the Green Alliance. Serpentine of Green River Repair is more involved than usual with the emotions of her human host.”

In response to Emerald’s questioning look he said, “So you don’t remember that the man you killed in your previous duel was Brandy’s lover?”

Emerald spoke casually, trying to conceal how much else he had forgotten as well. “You’re right. I had forgotten that.”

Diopside gave him a strange look but commented no further. Instead he continued, “Despite my political differences with you, I’m pretty sure that having Sapphire in charge of the Eightfold Embassy would be even worse for humanity, and I dislike the manipulative way he’s gone about weakening a member of the Green Alliance.”

So even Diopside’s support was at best provisional. Emerald sighed, then wondered if he should have repressed the human tell.

“So everyone wants to kill me, except maybe you because you figure Sapphire is worse. After everything I’ve been through, things look different to me. Maybe I need to rethink. Could you tell me my political beliefs as you see them?”

That was pretty good. He hadn’t admitted to remembering nothing about what he had once believed, and might still get a summary of it.

“You believed that each of us should go forth and teach the beliefs of our factions to whichever humans were interested.”

Emerald blinked. He’d been expecting some sort of horror. “That sounds reasonable.”

Diopside shook his head, or Jake’s. “Usually when a first contact embassy does that, the new species is engulfed by civil war.”

Suddenly Emerald was engulfed by a wave of skepticism. How much had Diopside’s vote really meant? If he had known how the others would vote, because it had been set up beforehand, very little. Should he really trust the other?

Not mentioning any of his sudden doubts Emerald said, “You’ve certainly given me a lot to think about. As my memory comes back I’ll remember more about my beliefs and our history. What you’ve just told me will give me a whole new perspective.”

Diopside didn’t flinch. Did that mean he didn’t expect Emerald’s memories to come back, that he knew the memories would show the truth of his words, or that he was just good at controlling the human’s face?

Then he remembered something else. “I think my host has a few questions for your host. Can we do that?”