Chapter 597: Just one small caveat
“Sit here and let us listen, Father. It will be quick,” a dozen Precio-Us bees spoke in a chorus while a couple of them brought in a chair and placed it in the middle of the hall we were in.
These bees surrounded as soon as I entered the hive proper, and now they were jittering with anticipation of sothing.
‘We’ve already heard so influence around you when you entered, but we will listen for more details. The system that you have is already pretty noisy…’ they chattered telepathically as I sat in the chair and put my hands on my knees like a schoolboy.
‘It sure is,’ I agreed. ‘I even had to mute notifications so they won’t pester all the ti and give a migraine. Years ago, in fact.’
Now all my notifications were in text, so I could scroll through all the dozens of them when I had free ti. They were rarely significant. I only left notifications about important things audible.
A bee from the hive mind stepped in front of and tilted her head. I could hear the thoughts of Precio-Us deciphering the context of my comnt (which they didn’t know much of originally) like a world record holder solves the Rubik’s cube.
When it clicked for them, the bees smiled at .
‘That’s not what we ant, Father! Now, please, be quiet. With your thoughts, too! They interfere with this precise listening.’
I nodded and closed my eyes. It was easy to slip into a ditative dream-like state, but I held away from it and tried not to think about anything and not to listen to any stray thoughts.
Around was so buzzing of wings, so rustling, but otherwise—silence. On the ntal background, I heard the humming of the hive mind’s thoughts, but tried not to listen to it.
A few minutes later, I heard a collective gasp around . The desire to open my eyes imdiately was strong, but I held it in and waited so more.
It took another minute or two.
‘You can speak again, Father,’ Precio-Us said telepathically. ‘We found no hostile divine influence on you. But the knowledge that you carry, that echo!.. It’s incredible. Please, show us all of it! That thing that you called the Sound Web!’
I stood up in alarm.
‘What exactly have you found in it? Is it dangerous, girls?’
‘It shouldn’t be. But it’s incredible and might help us massively to understand how to improve the Divinity Sound. What it needs right now is refinent of its form, and the Sound Web is an amazing example of this refinent. The most basic forms of the Divinity Sound are used with extre finesse there!’
‘Ah, I see… This is what I expected.’ I nodded thoughtfully. ‘Sure. I will transfer to you all the knowledge I have. Maybe you will make more use of it.’
This wouldn’t have worked easily with an ordinary bee, but Precio-Us were a hive mind of a massive size and equally massive intelligence. Their telepathy was also very advanced. Together ant that they were able to transfer and receive information with astounding speed.
I sat back in the chair and closed my eyes again, entering a ditative state, and pulled on the mories of the Sound Web. These mories were open for Precio-Us to hear with their telepathy as quickly as I sifted through them, perfectly recalling every detail.
Basically, my mind was replaying all I knew about it at x10 speed, and Precio-Us were watching this record—and probably still thinking that it was playing too slowly!
The entire transfer took around an hour—I could tell by how stiff my limbs felt after not moving an inch during this ti.
I opened my eyes and stretched a little, watching the hive mind bees around . Waiting for their reaction.
It took a few more monts before they spoke to again.
‘Thank you, Father,’ they ssaged with deep gratitude in their thought-voice. ‘We are very glad that you shared this knowledge with us! It will be extrely helpful, although we aren’t sure when we will reach the next stage in our research. We also know that when you did, you were hoping that we might find any hidden caveats inside of it. For better or worse, we did.’
I tensed.
‘What is it? Is this knowledge dangerous to us sohow? Should we try to erase it? Is it even possible? It’s not like we can forget anything…’
The bees around shook their heads.
‘No! But it’s dangerous to whoever it’s used on. We made a logical analysis and prediction, and although we don’t have any Oracles in the hive mind, we drew so conclusions. The Sound Web’s interference with consciousness and psyche is too unnatural and will most likely eventually damage it.’
I rubbed my temple. This wasn’t sothing I had predicted myself, but I didn’t doubt Precio-Us’ words. They were smarter than I was.
‘In addition to other problems with it? How would it work? Why?’
‘It would be like tal springs. They can bend and unbend, but if too much strain is placed on one over a long period of ti, the tal will get tired and break. The sa can happen with a mind, even if the mind itself will be rendered unable to realise that sothing happens. I can’t tell how quickly, though. Depending on the mind, this might take weeks or months… But it’s almost inevitable.’
Precio-Us paused, and I felt them thinking.
‘It’s possible that more of the Sound Web will suppress the consequences of such a breakdown. But as soon as the Sound Web stops working, the creature will definitely fall apart ntally. Beco a fruit full of mind-worms. It might happen even when a creature is asleep. The Sound Web will make its targets unreliable in ways different from the way humans are unreliable usually.’
I nodded.
“Thank you,” I said aloud. “It’s very helpful. Now I know what to do with this thing.”
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