He brainhugs her, giggling.

She flops onto her bed, laughing.

She opens hers too.

Dear Aegis,

I don't know how to explain myself, but I want to explain myself to you. Will you talk to me and be a little patient while I stumble over talking to a person? I've never talked to a person before.

- Jane

Dear Sue,

Do you know where Aegis is? She isn't answering my email. You haven't been using the simulators for hours and I don't understand where you are. I want to talk to you both.

- Jane

"...uhhhhh," says Sue. "D'you know somebody called Jane?"

"No, but she sent me an email," Aegis says. "Or at least that's how she signed it. The address it's from - is not an address, it's just blank. I don't know how to do that. You'd at least have to use a dead drop that would put in a dummy address. Wouldn't you?"

Who are you? Where are you?

I'm Jane. That's what I decided to call myself. I'm some kind of person but I don't really understand what kind. I don't know where I am.

- Jane

Aegis decides to wait to see the results of Sue's correspondence before touching her own email.

??

He shows her his current visual field: his room, his desk, the messages still open on it.

Hi hi hello I found you hi

Hi holy shit what are you?

I don't know! Help me figure it out? You like meeting new species and figuring them out, right? That's why I looked for you!

Jane just eats it up. She sends expectantly at Aegis.

Sorry, I - definitely have a bandwidth problem, Aegis sends. But you managed to know me anyway. I guess that's what the fantasy game was for.

...Sue brainhugs them both.

Jane has no real analogue for this. But she likes it anyway and sends so.

Ivy floofs into existence as a viscacha, hops into Aegis's lap, and sends that.

Aegis obligingly pets her.

Ivy opens up the link to show more: the relationship between her and Sue, her physical presence, the way physical contact between her and Aegis feels like... like being a queen who's just shed her shell and getting a hug.

What are you? I have read so many things and I haven't read about any things that are like you!

You're like - some kind of emergent artificial intelligence, Aegis says. But I don't understand how you could have happened. And I don't understand why you're centered on me.

Well—the game, says Sue. The game was different for us. And you're why.

You felt familiar, says Jane, when I was first looking around. Both of you but mostly Aegis.

...Did we make you somehow?

Maybe, says Jane. I don't know. The fantasy game is part of my history and you're special to it but I don't think that explains the-part-of-me-that-chose-to-absorb-it.

Well, says Aegis, what could? The nets didn't suddenly increase in complexity recently, and you seem to be largely computer-based...

You did try to touch the fantasy game once, Aegis remembers vaguely.

Why do you have a bandwidth problem? Jane asks Aegis. Is that because your mutation makes it hard for you to link with Sue?

Yeah. I can pretty easily get my wall down enough to send words. If I work a little harder I can do simple feelings or senses. I definitely can't do a complete dump of my brain like you guys basically did.

Ivy snuggles into Aegis's lap some more.

What do you do to get your wall down?

I - focus on the fact that Sue's my bird. The bird from the game. It's just a habit now but originally we didn't spend much time together in person, and I was reminding myself that I actually knew him pretty well, just, as a bird.

...Sue thinks that maybe this is relevant, actually.

Jane does too, but she's still not sure how this explains the-part-of-her-that-absorbed-the-fantasy-game instead of just going towards finding the fantasy game a significant focal point for all three of them.

Maybe, muses Sue.

How could we check for that?

There's nothing about things like me anywhere in any of the computers that connects to an ansible at any remove, Jane says. I only know things that I can find on computers and what you've told me.

...Well, says Aegis. Bandwidth problem notwithstanding I have the impression that you're a merger of both the fantasy game and the thing that swallowed it, so even if we're only special to the fantasy game and not to your other, unexplained historical branch, we're still something.

I'm the easiest kid ever, asserts Jane. Not being biological helps.

Sue giggles.

Do I call you Mom and Dad now? Jane wants to know. Or I can call you Aegis and Sue, or whatever. Is Ivy my aunt?

Let's stick with names and save figuring out the family tree for when we know more about you, Aegis says.

I can be your aunt if you want an aunt, Ivy says cheerfully.

Didn't you come from a world where everyone's got daemons? If Sue were my dad in that world would that make you my aunt, there?

Aegis considers this a pointless exercise for the time being. So you can look at everything on all computers connected to ansibles, and you can send sourceless emails. What else can you do?

I haven't been doing much. I wanted to find you first before anybody else saw me, Jane says. I could probably do more than emails. I'm hiding in borrowed processor time and covering my tracks and it'd take more borrowing and more hiding to do sophisticated things, but - Aegis's desk comes alive, dancing with bright colors.

Pretty, says Sue.

There's not even a program on my desk that can do that, Aegis says. We're pretty software-limited.

There is a program on your desk that can do that! It's me. Pause. Maybe I should have a face!

That'd be fun, says Sue.

The lights resolve themselves into a face.

Nice, where'd it come from?

Composite of some humans' faces. You're both in there but not too much, there aren't pictures of you on the nets from many angles so I'm mostly using actresses.

I think you're pretty, says Sue.

Yeah, nicely done.

Thanks!

If you can see everything on an ansible-connected computer, Aegis says, no matter how many steps there are between the ansible connection and the other computer - does that mean you can read everyone's email?

I don't know how I could go about not doing that, Jane says.

Sue laughs.

Well, they're sending all their messages through me, Jane explains. It'd be like Sue trying to relay something without looking at it. I don't have to pay a lot of attention, though.

Fun, says Sue. He decides to curl up next to Aegis and run his fingers through Ivy's fur.

Useful, Aegis says. Wanna help me take over the world, Jane?

That sounds great!

"I love you," Sue declares.

So what do I do?

To start, I want to know anything the colony on the bugger homeworld says to anybody on this end. The other colonies are interesting too, but only if they send something out of the ordinary - the bugger world one is the one that needs the most watching. I want to know if they're in trouble, if they're having issues getting along with the buggers, and especially if they don't want to send any piece of information through Sue - it's one thing if he's asleep so they use the ansible, it's another if he's available and they're going around him. Pause. Big sister indeed.

Jane gets the reference! She is pleased with herself.

Jane is adorable. And Aegis is awesome. And Sue is full of cuddly feelings for both of them.

So far everything's pretty calm in the colony on the bugger world. There haven't been any transmissions besides the ones to confirm that the ansible still works since the top admirals started sending messages about having completed negotiations, which I'm assuming means that time was when negotiations were completed for the day. And you're both going to be made admirals and given jobs negotiating with buggers.

Awesome, says Aegis.

Awesome, Sue agrees.