SallyG stepped out into a subspace tube reception area, which was a small alcove at the edge of a large open market. This reception area was a do-not-bother region because some entities needed time to acclimate after traveling by tube.

SallyG didn’t have this problem. She immediately tuned into the local nets, found the location of a reputable auction house, and stepped into the flow of traffic.

It was an eclectic crowd that milled about the tube node. SallyG had picked this beacon site because she would fit in, or more accurately, not stand out.

Her interfaces were pinged by 107 different messages in the first few seconds. Some were a simple “What have you got?” some were more strident, and a few carried malicious packages. She sent back an innocuous response to each originator showing she had some simple refrigeration units she wanted to unload. The disinterest was overwhelming.

The 108th request was followed by some aggressive moves made by one individual who emerged from a nearby crowd of similar beings. When this large lobster-like person approached her, he was suddenly overcome with a bout of cramps in his telson, which resulted in an uncontrolled voiding of waste. He stopped, gulped, and then scurried away in embarrassment. His friends ensured that this event haunted him for years.

All of the 108 entities who contacted her left richer by a little stealth package they would never realize they had acquired.

Sally marveled how poorly Alex' description of a benign society fared against real life. Maybe it was different for the powerful, which also reinforced her expectations. Finding she could easily deal with the riff-raff, she headed off to sell her computing boxes. Currency would be useful until she had established a friend network.

***

A few years later, information leaked that a hitherto anonymous group had reserved a whole floor of the most exclusive hotel in this sector. This was huge news because it was a group no one had heard of, and access to this venue was very limited. Every gossip, financial, political, and economic group sent information specialists to find out more. There was a strong feeling this wasn’t a false alarm, all indicators were that something big was in the works.

The gut feelings leading to so many resources being assigned were indisputably justified when the unknown guests began arriving.

The hotel prided itself on its state-of-the-art security. The first sign of a major anomaly was when orders for food were placed from rooms that weren’t occupied. No one had checked in, but, obviously, someone was there, and a check of the records showed the occupants had actually been admitted, even though no staff member could remember doing so. Rumors concerning this mystery leaked out and started a low-level buzz.

One inquisitive personage discovered a video feed on the internet equivalent. It cycled through a few dots placed in public areas of the hotel. The video showing unknown individuals consisting of a mix of remarkably similar persons, probably clones, and a very eclectic cadre of other species. The finder promptly shared the feeds with a million, or so, friends.

A later investigation by the hotel showed that no outside group had placed these video dots. It was speculated that the group who had booked the hotel was the culprit. Likely a sly marketing ploy.

For some reason, any spy devices planted by various shady groups that had never heard of them and hadn’t planted them, didn't work for long. In fact, a post mortem showed that these other devices were co-opted to work in reverse, so they ended up spying on those very groups that had never heard of them and hadn’t planted them.

Long range sensors didn’t work either; somehow, they became infected with the nastiest sort of malware, resulting in the destruction of a great deal of very expensive hardware. The totally innocent victims who had nothing to do with these various surveillance devices were out high-teched.

The reporting services that never-ever used these clandestine services were among the first to report these events. Very clearly admitting: What, someone outsmarted us? Don’t care, news is news.

The rumors of various mysterious entities suddenly appearing in their hotel rooms had just started circulating when the area was swept by gravity waves, and a tall humanoid appeared above the hotel and floated down. This was shocking because the hotel was a no-gravity-manipulation zone, with the rule rigidly enforced by a very high-level entity. When finally cornered, that distinguished personage was somewhat upset and didn’t have an answer for how this could have happened.

Even more startling, shortly afterward, space tore open in front of the hotel and something stepped out. Eyewitness accounts varied greatly, and even after viewing the allowed recordings, no one could ever fully resolve what that individual or individuals looked like. This was serious technology. It was rumored that even many of the more advanced intelligences couldn’t uncover what had happened. After a great deal of debate, it was resolved that these usually august and aloof entities were in a tizzy.

A well-documented event took place when a group of 21 showed up, having arrived through a normal tube station. They were obviously clones, but the density of information sharing showed they had organized into a loose gestalt.

This was major news! All stable gestalts approaching this size were supposed to be known. This one wasn’t. The crowd watching them found their grasp of reality slipping and sliding. In the bedlam that ensued, everyone reported feeling that they had communed with something, but when questioned, they were reluctant to discuss the details. Many years later a where-are-they-now program found the members of the crowd had a spectacular level of success in their careers, lives, and endeavors.

One of the most famous news personalities tried for a hostile interview of the gestalt, which took the unoriginal name of Twenty-one. The interviewer itself became the news when everyone else attending the conference suddenly received salacious information about the interviewer. Something nasty it had thought was long buried.

No one else tried such an aggressive approach, at least for the rest of the conference, which was forever for most of those who lived and died for ratings.

Other clones turned up separately as individuals, almost always accompanied by a companion. The best interview came from one of these, who took the role of spokesperson.

That individual called herself SallyG. She only used a form of low-speak, which was what level 1 or 2 mentalities could handle. Something similar to baby talk. On her, it was kind of cute. By now no one was fooled. Everyone knew it was a ruse.

SallyG informed the gathered crowd that the conference was for a group that called themselves "Nobody’s Business". They had all been unwittingly cloned, but, in spite of that, had managed to leave their origins behind to come together in an effort to correct a system that allowed this kind of behavior. Their mandate was to ensure that every entity being unfairly treated due to a difference in intellectual development had an avenue to redress the issue.

SallyG then provided contact information in a number of forms which would allow almost any entity with net access to be heard. She said they were working on further methods for those who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, use the various nets.

One younger interviewer was skeptical. She questioned how they could even hope to address an issue involving higher mentalities that were a power unto themselves, or entities that couldn’t fathom the concept of graciousness.

SallyG explained that it wasn’t necessary for them to agree, or disagree, as long as they acted in a proper manner. Even though this was a ridiculous statement, no-one in the crowd would deny that the concept was appealing. Impossible, but still, appealing.

Ion the other hand, It didn’t hurt that either success, or a spectacular failure, would be great entertainment.

SallyG then stopped, walked into the crowd, and pulled a distinguished looking entity up to the front. She introduced him as Alex and went on to say that without his help, many of the members of Nobody’s Business wouldn’t be here, today. Alex just gave a small smile and waved.

Alex, which couldn’t be his real name, wasn’t obviously known to the onlookers. Muttering grew as opinions were expressed. After a brief time, the noise from one group of senior correspondents suddenly peaked and one of the personalities shot a sensor into the air. He sent a massive encoded data burst toward Alex. Alex responded with an unencoded message. Effectively saying, “Nice to see you, again.”

The crowd turned around to stare at the personality. To their amazement, it was making an honorific of lower to higher!

As one, the crowd turned back to the front, and Alex was gone. SallyG was by herself. She just looked over to where Alex had been, and shook her head in resignation.

The crowd gasped. There was one entity known for this particular parlor trick. He was mostly regarded as a semi-mythological being: a mostly benevolent high-level mentality. The Dark Sun! If he was working with Nobody’s Business, they had serious support! A seed of hope was born in the crowd, and the trillions of watchers.

In a very short time, bedlam ensued. Everyone began interviewing themselves, each other, or anything too slow to get away, all in an effort to be the first to post some microscopic piece of unique information. Careers were made that day.

The feeling of hope was reinforced by an analysis of the interview with SallyG. As she had been talking, that seemingly simple-minded person had been bombarded with malware. Denial of service attacks, outright body hacking attempts, and on and on. She should have exploded, melted, vaporized, been driven insane. Instead, there had been nothing. Nothing at all.

On the other hand, over the next few days, most of the suspected aggressors appeared to willingly donate almost all their wealth and influence to help various charities, including Nobody's Business. It was unprecedented.

When interviewed, these generous donors couldn’t, or wouldn’t, explain why they were hit by a bout of social consciousness. Often for the first and only time, ever.

The technology that would permit SallyG to pack such capabilities into such an unassuming package was unknown to the general public. It was concluded that this SallyG had to be rated as a 4, at least. Maybe even a 5, close to the rating of the Black Sun. SallyG and Nobody’s Business never discussed the matter.

The conference was the event of the millennium.

Slowly, society changed.

***

After a few years of bickering and appendage pointing, a semi-legitimate panel was formed to lay blame for the effect Nobody’s Business had had in altering the course of the known.

There was no doubt that this panel couldn’t really change anything. Nobody’s Business was now a fundamental cornerstone of existence, but those adversely affected by its actions needed someone to blame, even though their misfortunes were, arguably, self-induced.

Evidence had come to light that one of the stodgier 6th or 7th level beings had run a series of experiments where some number of individuals had been isolated and observed, without their consent.

This entity had changed its name to something that roughly translated as "the Whole", in the trend of short names started by Alex. The Whole had regarded the entire endeavor as a whim, with only a minuscule chance it would generate viable results. It had designed a simple experiment to investigate an inflection point hinted to be pending in the future. While examining millennia of data collected while the experiment was in progress, the Whole found that the results progressively deviated from what it expected, until it became evident that experiment was influencing the data. At this point, the Whole decided to abandon what it regarded as a minor effort, and left the experiment to run down on its own.

Somehow, that data appeared I'm multiple places throughout the multiverse. When analyzed, it took no time for the panel to realize they were looking at Sallys! Thousands of them!

Closer examination showed that a few of the unique Sallys in the experiment looked suspiciously like the members of Nobody’s Business.

Even more egregious, a number of the panel members found members of their own species being used as companions. The Whole hadn’t arranged permission, and no group had realized that this kidnapping, or duplication, had occurred. Not every species cared, but many did.

In its defense, it was noted that the Whole never really understood the problem with its actions. This disregard for lower intelligences wasn’t uncommon in beings such as the Whole, at least before Nobody’s Business had come into existence.

The panel may have been powerless to do anything about Nobody’s Business, but they had definitely found a focus for their ire. The ensuing witch-hunt stripped the Whole of friends and resources. Without these, the Whole achieved pariah status, the worst fate that could be imposed on a higher-level being.

Shortly thereafter, the Whole became one of the very few cases where such a high-level entity actually devolved and eventually broke into several lower ranked entities that diverged and went their own way. Effectively, the Whole passed out of existence. The reason for the devolution was never entirely clear; other high-level beings had gone through the same kind of process, repented, and been allowed to rejoin society.

Later, when a group of calmer entities reviewed the evidence, it was found that, although the Whole held a large portion of the responsibility for the events leading up to the formation of Nobody’s Business, there were also a number of other high-level entities involved, in one way or another. Including Nobody’s Business, itself. The quiet conclusion was that these others had played the game better than the Whole.

***

The small part of SallyG monitoring the panels was very satisfied with the results. She had taken it upon herself to ensure the various committees reached the correct conclusions. Even if these results were rather harsh. What she had done was outside the purview of Nobody’s Business, because many of the other Sallys weren’t mercenary enough to handle the kind of hard decisions she’d made.

The current SallyG was still evolving, and was as far advanced beyond the gestalt stage as the gestalt had been beyond the original Sally clone. As with many high-level entities, there really was no name for what she was becoming. Her focus had changed from seeking justice for her treatment by the Whole, to grander goals. From her travels, evidence was mounting that her multiverse was just an insignificant part of a much greater community and she was seeking to evolve to be able to step out into this bigger stage.

That did not mean to say that she was ignoring her responsibilities. Occasionally she would spawn off non-evolving versions of herself to take up the tasks she had accrued. She prosaically labeled them SallyG1, SallyG2, and so on, but as soon as possible, they took on other names.

Overall, Sally G was quite satisfied with how things were progressing.

***

Jon was back at the debris pile. The second gravity event of years ago had shifted the pile, but it was still a pile, and he was content to sift through it. Occasionally he found data caches that had vastly increased his knowledge, so the effort had merit. It also had a hint of danger. Not everything he came across was benign. Not dangerous to him, but he had responsibilities.

Sally came over to him carrying her companion. That annoying crab was insanely intelligent, and if Jon had a nemesis, it was that crab.

“It 's time,” Sally decreed.

Jon knew that Sally knew that he had an internal timer, and never missed anything, but she still liked to baby him. The crab encouraged her, just to annoy him.

They walked together down the hallway, past the newly reconstructed computer room with its burgeoning intelligence, and through a series of passageways to the meeting room.

As he entered, the rest of the Sallys, and some of the companions (those that understood the concept), said hello. So far, they had been able to bring back 37 unique and complete versions of Sally, and even more companions. It was an ongoing task.

The floaty Sally was the latest. She was unique. Well, all of them were unique, but she was uniquely unique. She floated. They had finally found a way to deal with the stasis field, and been able to disable her kill switch. She was linked to a companion who was only accessible through the floaty Sally’s heavily modified brain. This entity had no limitations of space or dimension. It could be anywhere, and it mapped reality by the existence of mental, or thinking, processes. It didn’t discern by technology, but by some criteria that Jon, the group of Sallys, and their companions, hadn’t been able to entirely define. If it thought, then the entity mapped it.

This meeting was called because the floaty Sally’s companion had finally found another Sally, outside their group. Today they were going to try to contact her.

It had been a long path to get to this point.

After the unknown Sally had stolen the gravity Sally, and the local space had been hit by successive waves of gravity pulses, Jon had managed to open the data packet he had received. It contained a huge amount of data, encoded in layers.

The first layer informed him that he was heavily compromised, and everything he sensed was transmitted to an unknown destination. Even worse, this hardware might be able to subvert his activities. The message contained data showing the statistics of what he should be sending, and the statistics of what he actually sent. Jon had to admit there was an unexplained difference, assuming the information in the message was valid.

The message presented a small test that would show the issue. The test consisted of a small file he should read. After an enormous number of checks, he opening the file and found it contained nonsense. But, by reading this file, another layer of the message was revealed.

This layer began by informing him that the nonsense data wasn’t actually meaningless, but contained information about generating a subspace tube, and he was being blocked from being able to comprehend what it said.

The message concluded by stating that it was almost impossible for an external entity to fix him. He would have to find a way to do it himself.

There was also a folder containing the knowledge the sender had concerning the kill switches and how to disable them in the Sallys. This data described the signal structure of the kill signals, but it also pointed out that there might be other methods. It was up to him to figure it all out.

Jon did not believe, or disbelieve the massages. As usual, he postulated methods to verify the information.

The first thing he did was to set up a computing box to record his transmissions. Upon review, he agreed that they were denser than they ought to be, and had statistical properties that were unexpected.

At this point, he assigned significant resources to search his data for viable methods to investigate the message’s other claims.

Eventually, Jon opted to grow a non-sentient copy of himself in a computing box, and used it to check his functions and properties. The check resulted in a shocking finding! Over 75% of his non-storage resources had been redirected to subversive tasks! Cautiously, he and the non-sentient Jon implemented a number of changes.

The conclusion was that some of his hardware couldn’t be recovered, and had to be excised. But, in general, the effort generated the desired results. After a number of modifications, he became fully functional, and kill switch free.

The biggest improvement was seen in his interpersonal skills. The original hardware had been so compromised that he felt pity for his original Sally. She must have felt she was talking to a non-sentient automaton. When asked, she was non-committal.

The good thing was that, yes, he could now emulate, and understand, emotions.

This effort resulted in further layers of the message opening. The next section laid out how to resurrect Sallys using the IV fluid and an embedded stealth infrastructure.

Discovering that his Sally had this stealth infrastructure gave his newly functioning shock emotion a good workout. As hard as he pried, his Sally never clarified the relationship between her and the unknown Sally, and Jon had been unable to uncover enough information to determine it, independently. He wasn’t one to worry, though. He could wait.

The message also revealed where the other Sally had put her subspace node. Jon followed the directions, but the room was empty. A subsequent investigation found all the subspace tunnels had been disabled. In all the passing years, they hadn't been able to uncover an approach to construct their own subspace tubes.

What they did discover, though, was they had been isolated.

This had no effect on their day-to-day lives. Jon’s knowledge and abilities allowed them to recreate the IV fluid and improve the resurrection process to the point where they achieved a nearly perfect success rate raising Sallys and companions, with their memories intact. The process could be quick, but better results occurred when care was taken to optimize the techniques for the individual. Success was as much an art as it was science.

The Sallys, companions, and Jon, had formed the group he had always been meant to be a member of. They worked to raise their levels and had been quite successful.

In many cases, the Sallys had gone from sub-one to the twos, and in a few cases, even to the threes. As a group, they were easily a four.

Jon played his part as a source of information, while a consortium of the Sallys and companions decided what they would work on. For the most part, this meant that the Sallys bombarded him with varied, and often conflicting, directions and requests. Most of the companions appeared to find great humor in this good-natured interplay.

Somehow, it all worked.

Of equal importance to the resurrections was an ongoing task to contact the outside. Without subspace node technology there were no easy solutions. They had needed to find an alternate approach, and floaty Sally was the latest.

Floaty Sally:

Communicating... communicating... communicating...

Contact... Success!

Utter shock from the outside Sally.

Also, jubilation.

Information content follows: The outside Sallys had a massive ongoing effort to find the site of the experiment. Chagrin that we managed to succeed first. Effort to follow up with physical contact, postulated methods to follow…

The End.