Half way around the galaxy," they say,
复件 (29) air max, and deep in the Slow Zone. Even their proximate origin, Nyjora, is conveniently in the Slowness. We see an alternative theory: Sometime, maybe further back than the last consistent archives, there was a battle between Powers. The blueprint for this "human race" was written, complete with communication interfaces. Long after the original contestants and their stories had vanished, this race happened to get in position where it could Transcend. And that Transcending was tailor-made, too, re-establishing the Power that had set the trap to begin with. We're not sure of the details, but a scenario such as this is inevitable. What we must do is also clear. Straumli Realm is at the heart of the Blight, obviously beyond all attack. But there are other human colonies. We ask the Net to help in identifying all of them. We ourselves are not a large civilization,
复件 (94) air max2, but we would be happy to coordinate the information gathering, and the military action that is required to prevent the Blight's spread in the Middle Beyond. For nearly seventeen weeks, we've been calling for action. Had you listened in the beginning, a concerted strike might have been sufficient to destroy the Straumli Realm. Isn't the Fall of Relay enough to wake you up? Friends, if we act together we still have a chance. Death to vermin. The bastards even played on humanity's foundling nature. Foundling races were rare, but scarcely unknown. Now these Death-to-Vermin creatures were turning the Miracle of Nyjora into something deadly evil. Death to Vermin were the only ones to call for pogroms, but even respected posters were saying things that indirectly might support such action: Crypto: 0 As received by: OOB shipboard ad hoc Language path: Triskweline, SjK units From: Sandor Arbitration Intelligence at the Zoo [A known military corporation of the High Beyond. If this is a masquerade, somebody is living dangerously.] Subject: Blighter Video thread,
Just Beats? Solo? On-ear Headphones with ControlTalk?, Hanse subthread Key phrases: limits on the Blight; the Blight is searching something Distribution: Threat of the Blight, Close-coupled Automation Interest Group,
复件 (70) air max1, War Trackers Interest Group Date: 11.94 days since Fall of Relay Text of message: The Blight admits that it is a Power that tele-operates sophonts in the Beyond. But consider how difficult it is to have a close- coupled automation with time lags of more than a few milliseconds. The Known Net is a perfect illustration of this: Lags range between five milliseconds for systems that are a couple of light-years apart -- to (at least) several hundred seconds when messages must pass through intermediate nodes. This, combined with the low bandwidth available across interstellar distances,
复件 (6) 复件 air max1, makes the Known Net a loose forum for the exchange of information and lies. And these restrictions are inherent in the nature of the Beyond,
复件 (30) air max2, part of the same restrictions that make it impossible for the Powers to exist down here. We conclude that even the Blight can't attain close-coupled control except in the High Beyond. At the Top, the Blight's sophont agents are literally its limbs. In the Middle Beyond, we believe mental "possession" is possible but that considerable preprocessing must be done in the controlled mind. Furthermore, considerable external equipment (the bulky items characteristic of those depths) is needed to support the communication. Direct, millisecond-by-millisecond, control is normally impractical in the Middle Beyond. Combat at this level would involve hierarchical control. Long-term operations would also use intimidation, fraud, and traitors.