A period of turbulent storms and glorious aurorae sweep around Chit as he arranges the troposphere to interfere with outbound messages from the Nest, except those bounced toward Puck. With advice from Fanion, Chit sets up a delayed-action relay system on the moon. No messages from the Nest will get anywhere this Pulse. Chit can rewrite or pass along messages meant to the star system. Fanion expresses some skepticism that the Nest can be prevented from all unwanted communications — if they discover what Chit is doing, they may construct more powerful communications devices that he cannot cheaply intercept. It is only their lack of awareness that enables the current scheme to succeed.
The destination of Nest messages is the adjacent star system, Etro. Messages are addressed to the Goddess Yeb. Chit ponders on the strange events it has witnessed, and reflects upon its own colonization of Snowfall: A storm that contains multitudes sends out smaller storms to expand itself to other planets. It sends minions magnitudes smaller than itself to investigate Pleasant Winds.
What if the Goddess Yeb is the true name of the enormous ship that blazed past when the Gate reopened? What if the Credo is one of its badaal; the Nest its Samoohik, and these creatures within the Nest its own version of Ke Kan?
The idea of fragmented and subdivided solid creatures is one that Chit has only a little familiarity with, but it is listening to Fanion explain the repairs of the Pleasant Winds. Basic to Fanion’s assumptions, the very structure of his speech and syntax is the notion that the smaller units are the seat of consciousness; that the large ship encompassing them is directed by their will, not the reverse.
From this, Yeb feels a jolt like lightning. What if the Goddess Yeb is not the ship, but the small one whose will directs it?? Behind this flash like rolling thunder comes another series of insights. Such persons will look to solid beings as the seat of minds. They would conclude that a samoohik carrying Ke Kan keeps its mind in the beetles. There is safety in this thought and also, a form of dread. For how can Chit be certain, in itself, that the Ke Kan do not shape its will and influence its thoughts?
Next Week: Brave New Umwelt