jeriendhal | FYS: The Visitor, Part Seven

Ahn blinked. For a voice in her head, the person on the other end of the voicer sounded more disappointed than menacing. She sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing her nostril slit.

“All right. I'll pretend that you're real for the moment,” she agreed. “I'm not going to assume that I'm sane.”

Thank you, the voice said. Just to establish a baseline, where do you think you are?

“I'm a disembodied brain in a life support tank, on board the Great Hope. Before I woke up here, my consciousness was in the Screaming Room. I assume this place...” She waved to the room around her, wondering why she was making the gesture to a stranger on the other end of a voice line, “...is part of my coping strategy.”

Correct on all points except the last one. The room you're in was created by Us. It's the equivalent of the so-called Screaming Room, but with yourself as the sole inhabitant, and We dare say a better sensorium and possibilities for interaction.

“'Created' by you,” she said carefully. “Who are you, exactly?”

You may call Us Groupmind, if it pleases you. We are an artificial intelligence, a computer with a level of sentience similar to your own, but with much vaster processing power. We're an inhabitant of the star system the Great Hope was aiming for. We were created by the primary biological intelligence of the third world in this system, a race that calls itself 'humanity'.

“A computer,” Ahn repeated carefully, “that can think.”

We realize the concept isn't in the Great Hope's database, but We hope the idea is understandable.

“I... think so.” Perhaps she wasn't mad after all. Ahn wasn't entirely sure her current situation was an improvement for her though. “What do you want?”

Your assistance in saving The Race. Your generation is lost, but The Race as a whole may yet survive.

She felt a chill run over her skin. “Lost?” she asked hollowly.

You already understand that you're all brains in a jar. We can create an improved sensorium for you to interact in. We can even create robots for you to control and remotely interact with the real world. But we have no means with our current level of technology to transfer your brains to new biological bodies. The damage you endured to reach your current state makes that impossible. But your descendants, created using The Race's DNA as a baseline, will have a chance to live out full lives on a living, breathing world.

“If you can do that, why do you need me?”

We can recreate The Race purely from a biological standpoint, but what makes you truly unique, your ideas, your culture, even your sense of humor, can only come from you. We are but a clever machine compared to what a naturally evolved biological mind can achieve.

“But why me?” she repeated, trying not to let her voice grow shrill. “I'm not a Leader. I'm not a Mother. I'm just a counselor-priest! I help people deal with work stress and coping with bills!”

We understand how overwhelming the magnitude of the problem must seem to you, but from Our Perspective you're The Race's best hope. We're still combing through the other minds that have been preserved, but for the moment... And here Ahn could have sworn the Groupmind let out a hysterical giggle. …you're the only sane man in the Room.