"We tried to travel circumspectly."
"You succeeded. This encounter is private."
"Are we on the same side?"
The column laughed. "The enemy of my enemy? Perhaps."
"You are alive," she said.
"You also," he agreed.
"The machines are not."
"Agreement."
"They will destroy us all, if we do not stop them."
"Agreement."
"This is not a sufficient basis for an alliance."
"Agreement."
Fifth kept silent, but wondered. What was happening here? Why were they engaging in simplistic dialogue, instead of serious strategy?
Voila glanced his way. "We are feeling each other out. We need to know our relative power, and commitment to the cause."
"We are the two most powerful Glamors in the galaxy," Rafal said via his columns. "If one of us is in league with the enemy, the other must be wary."
"I am checking his future paths," Voila said.
"I am checking her alternate presents," Rafal said.
"Confusion," Fifth said. All three laughed.
"Demonstration," Voila said. "Game theory."
The tentacle swept across the flat sand adjacent to the pool, making it featureless. Then it drew a four line cross hatch, forming nine chambers. Along one side it drew the letters A B C. Along the top, the numbers 1 2 3. Inside the chambers it drew plus signs and minus signs, with a 0 in the center. It was a standard game theory grid. Fifth realized that Rafal must be translating his designations to theirs, for Fifth's benefit.
1 2 3
A + + -
B + 0 -
C - - +
"Fifth, choose a side."
"The letters."
"Choose a sign."
"Plus."
Two tentacles held a slate tablet and a marker. One made a mark and passed the slate to Voila, its mark hidden from Fifth. "Choose a location," Rafal said.
Fifth considered. The odds in such a game were even, and random playing was as good as selective playing.
Only if a player had a bias the other could strategically exploit could any advantage be gained.
"A," he said. His chances were 2-1 there.
Voila turned the tablet around. There was the number 3. Rafal had anticipated his move and won.
Rafal took back the tablet and made a new mark, returning it to Voila.
"C," Fifth said, selecting the one that would have won before, though the odds were against him.
Voila turned the tablet. 1.
They played a dozen times. Rafal always won, despite making his marks before Fifth chose his spots.
"Explanation," Rafal said. "It is my special ability to set up a nexus and retroactively select alternates. Specifically, I chose the one or one of two realities of the nine alternates in which my selection prevailed."
"You knew my moves before I made them?"
"Negation. You made them, then I selected my preferred reality. The effect is similar to what it would be if you announced your moves before I announced mine."
"I can see future paths, and thus affect them," Voila said. "He can change the present paths."
"But I was aware of no such changes," Fifth protested.
"Your prior paths were canceled," Voila said. "Rendered null. You are not aware of them because they no longer happened. He changed your reality. Several times."
Fifth was awed. "This is phenomenal power!"
Voila nodded. "Parallel to mine. Rafal is the second choice for recruitment only because the machines were able to nullify him, so he remains no threat to them. They have not yet nullified me."
"Question: how did they nullify him, if he can change whatever they do?"
"They see the far future paths," Rafal said. "They arranged to trap me here on an isolated planet in an isolated system, operating on such a long time scale that I had no awareness of it until too late. I can change only recent local reality. Had I had Voila's ability I might have avoided it."
"They saw him coming centuries before he existed," Voila said. "They will free him if he joins them, for his talent could be extremely useful to them."
"Affirmation," Fifth agreed. "Just as yours could be."
"But acting together, we might represent a significant menace to the machines," Voila said. "That is why I came here."
"Confusion," Fifth said. "Surely the machines have spaceships guarding this sector of space. If any approach, to take him away, they will strike."
"Affirmation," Rafal said. "I am unable to free myself."
"But if we linked mentally, and he lent his power to me," Voila said, "I might travel to a key nexus and defeat the machines. Then I could free him, and the rest of the galaxy, from their depredations."
"Awe. Will you do this?"
"We do not know. If he is in secret league with the machines, this is a honeypot to lure me into their power. If I am in league with them, he will betray himself and be doomed. Before we ally, we must trust."
"But you would never betray us, Voila!"
"The machines offer to spare the entire human culture, in exchange for my commitment," she said. "It is an excellent personal deal. I can not afford to ignore that."
Fifth nodded. "And they will make a similar deal with Rafal, sparing his culture, if he joins them."
"If one of us joins them," Rafal said, "they would probably dispense with the other. The one who deals will save his own culture and destroy the other."
"Prisoner's dilemma," she said. "It pays to betray."
"Another game theory grid," Rafal agreed.
Fifth blew air out through his cheeks. "I appreciate the dilemma."
"What would you do?" Voila asked.
He pondered briefly. "I have learned that situations are seldom two-faceted. When they seem to be yes versus no, or one versus the other, that may be deceptive. There is normally a third choice, or an entire continuum of choices. I would search for that continuum."
A tentacle waved. "I like your ikon-bearer," Rafal said.
"He is a nexus."
"And not an insignificant one," Rafal agreed. "But his application eludes me."
"It also eludes me. I am studying him."
"Some nexii are hard to fathom."
This discussion made Fifth nervous. "Maybe I just happen to be on the cusp of some important event, rather than being a true nexus."
"Negation," Voila and Rafal said together.
That made him more nervous. "If either of you decide to join the machines, I will be your enemy.
You will have to destroy me."
"Negation," they said together again.
"There would be extreme danger in that course," Rafal added. "Sufficient to add significantly to the advantage of the machines."
"But I am nothing!"
"You are a nexus," Voila repeated. That seemed to cover it.
"You two seem to be united against the machines," Fifth said. "I will retreat and let you work out your relationship in your own manner." He walked to a mossy rock and sat on it. He had likened his relationship to Voila as like orbiting Void; he felt the same about Rafal.
They got to it. "We must establish trust," Voila said.
"This may be complicated."
"In my culture, there is a thing called the Oath of Friendship. It is sacrosanct, and never violated.
Oath friends can trust each other."
"Similar exists in ours. But we do not make it carelessly."
"How may we come to know each other well enough to make such an oath feasible?"
"There is an avenue. But this too is complicated."
"Open your mind to me," Voila said impatiently.
Fifth realized that both were telepathic, but guarding their minds so they were opaque. That was why they were speaking verbally instead of more efficiently sharing minds. Only Fifth himself was mentally permeable.