"Oh," answered Justin, who was now caught between laughing and blushing. He chose to laugh. "Manny, trust me, you're not my type."

This brought about more laughter, but at least it broke the tension. "I guess," said Justin, "although some things don't change, how we say them does. My apologies. If you could continue," he said, looking toward Manny more for deliverance than facts.

Manny blinked a couple of times and got his train of thought back. "Oh, yes." He stood and began walking around the table as if playing a game of duck, duck, goose. "The good news is that if you can avoid being served you will have time to prepare. As long as you do not leave here or look out the window you cannot be served. It should be a couple of weeks before they burn down the building."

Justin interrupted. "They wouldn't burn down an entire ..." but stopped when he saw Mosh shaking his head. "Ahh, continue, Manny."

"But when they do see you, they'll serve you."

Justin placed his hands on his hips and grimaced slightly, preparing for the worst. "Spell it out, Manny. Who and with what?"

"The Terran Federation will serve you for the purposes of getting their 5 percent."

Everyone thought about what Manny had just said, and Justin noticed that every head at the table was nodding slowly, as if understanding the idea, and even possibly approving of it.

"What do you mean, 'getting their 5 percent'?"

Manny continued his matter-of-fact accounting.

"According to Article four of the Terran Constitution all persons born or naturalized into the Terran Confederation shall not be required to pay taxes. All such persons shall have an initial portfolio of one hundred thousand shares. The Terran Confederation shall receive five thousand shares. The Terran Confederation may not, in any way, acquire more shares or the benefit of more shares, nor may they give up those shares in any way, or lose the benefits of those shares." When he saw that what he'd just said elicited no questions, Manny continued. "Justin, you've been woken up in this society. The government can make a case that you have taken advantage of its abilities or, let's just say, standardized parts and protocols. For example, you've used t.o.p.s and flying cars. And, of course, you specifically used the federal court system during your first trial. They're claiming damages and want what is owed them."

Justin was trying to keep his cool, but he was beginning to realize now what his cohorts had realized only moments earlier.

It sounded reasonable.

"Manny," he said, maintaining his composure but feeling something in the pit of his stomach nonetheless, "can the government actually win this case? Can I be compelled to incorporate?"

"Justin, all the government has to do is show that they've been damaged. ..."

"But ... but ... I can pay for all of that!"

"Pay for all what, Justin?" responded Manny, purposely coming down hard. "Traffic? Parking? Defense? The terraforming of planets? You're telling me you're not going to visit Mars ... ever?"

"Well ... ," Justin stuttered.

"I'm not done yet," Manny said. "You'd also have to prove why an outlandish means of collection-which would be the case-in your case is something the government or society would be interested in."

"What about my interest?" Justin asked.

Manny shot him a look. "Your interest, Mr. Cord, does not outweigh the interest of the whole system and how the government administers its affairs. At least, that is what I would argue."

"And," interjected Omad, "if you don't mind my saying so, which I'm sure you will, they'd be right."

"Care to elaborate, Omad?" asked Justin.

Omad smirked. "Justin, I like you. To be honest, you're one of the few people I've ever really respected. So, hopefully, you won't mind me telling you to do us all a favor and grow up." Omad waved aside the shushing motions. "No, he needs to hear this." Omad stared pointedly at his friend. "When you took on GCI I was all for you. Those bastards needed to be taken down a peg. When you busted those chains during Mardi Gras, I thought, 'Free system, baby! Stick it to 'em.' But Justin, look at what's going on. You live up here all day long in this ivory tower, and when you leave this ivory tower you just t.o.p. or fly over to another one. Hey, don't get me wrong. I like ivory towers, too. But I also go back home to the bars and the pawnshops of the pennies and, ya know what? They're scared. Except for the ones shouting 'one free man,' and preaching about divestment-those bastards scare me. I went up to one a few days ago and said, 'Aren't you afraid of a psyche audit? What with you saying all of this out in public?' And you know, he looked me square in the eye and said, 'Hey, mister, we're all psyche-audited-have been from birth. All they could do is give me another one.' "

Omad shook his head in disbelief, repeating, "All they could do is give me another one," for effect. He continued, "Justin, this crazy Alaskan was not scared of a psyche audit, and I can almost guarantee you he ain't the only one. And you know what, my friend? Sean Doogle may be their leader, but you're their god. Incorporate, Justin. End this thing."

"Oh, I see," Justin said, his face contorted in disbelief, "some nutcase decides to make me into his group's poster boy, and I'm expected to part with a piece of me? Where will it end, Omad? Next month it'll be another lunatic, and so on and so on. Don't you see, it's my my freedom, and what you're saying is, 'Just sell yourself into servitude for the good of society.' Well, let me ask freedom, and what you're saying is, 'Just sell yourself into servitude for the good of society.' Well, let me ask you you a question." His eyebrows arched in anger. "Why would I want to belong to a society that would ask that of me?" a question." His eyebrows arched in anger. "Why would I want to belong to a society that would ask that of me?"

Omad shook his head and fiddled with his DijAssist on the table. "Justin, I think you're way off base, but you're my friend, and I hope I'm still yours. Know this about me. I'll follow a friend to the gates of hell and walk right in if that's what the damned fool needs. But don't expect me to go without telling him what a damned fool he's being."

Justin's shoulders sagged a bit. "You're still my friend, Omad. I'm just worked up, is all."

"Justin," Eleanor pleaded, "couldn't you just accept this? What is it they're asking for? I think we all agree that this lawsuit has nothing to do with money. What they really want is for you to join us. Is that really so bad?"

Justin looked at everyone. Mosh was clearly proud of and therefore in agreement with his wife. Omad was drinking his beer, pretending not to give a shit, and Dr. Gillette was carefully neutral. Manny ... well, Manny was, as usual, in his own private Idaho.

"Eleanor," Justin stated firmly, "I can't. Manny, we're going to fight."

The Unincorporated Man appeared in Geneva today. According to witnesses, he actually went to the office of the attorney general and requested his summons to court. The flummoxed government staff did not have a summons on hand. The Unincorporated Man allegedly spent the time the government bureaucrats needed to get the document ready signing autographs. By the time he left the building crowds of people were gathered. The crowd, made up of government workers and average citizens from all walks of life, started chanting "in-cor-por-ate." The Unincorporated Man went into the crowd and started answering questions. By the time he left the crowd had stopped chanting. In this reporter's opinion, the Unincorporated Man may be selfish and dangerous, but he certainly does have style.-CAM LO SONG FOR NEURO COURT NEWS NEURO COURT NEWS

Hektor Sambianco was a very busy man. And it wasn't just his surreptitious running of the court case against Justin Cord. As DepDir of Special Operations for GCI he was in charge of a number of projects important to the corporation's well-being. Beyond even that, Hektor had come to realize that GCI had grown so large and powerful, with connections in so many facets of everyday life in the solar system, that the interests of humanity and the interests of GCI had become indistinguishable. In order for GCI to be healthy and grow, the socioeconomic body had to be healthy. For the first time in Hektor's life he felt he was working not only for his own good, but for the good of everyone. With rare exception, Hektor Sambianco had not acted for anyone but himself. But now his his choices and actions helped the great mass of humankind. The ignorant always needed to be led, and he was now a leader. What surprised him most was how appropriate that felt. It was strictly a side benefit. He still wanted Justin's head on a corporate pike. choices and actions helped the great mass of humankind. The ignorant always needed to be led, and he was now a leader. What surprised him most was how appropriate that felt. It was strictly a side benefit. He still wanted Justin's head on a corporate pike.

He was struck by the number of decisions that had to be made on an almost minute-by-minute basis. Special Operations was responsible for intelligence gathering, paramilitary actions, propaganda, threat assessment, unusual acquisitions, occasional assassinations, site and personal security, as well as a host of other activities. If GCI was to be compared to a pre-GC American government, then Special Operations would be the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Secret Service all rolled into one. It was a level of responsibility that many people simply couldn't handle. Hektor, however, thrived. It was as if he were a shark living in a shallow, brackish pond suddenly released into the wide-open seas. He spent his first couple of weeks catching up on all of GCI's projects. At first he had to go with his instincts as to whom to trust and whom to replace, which projects to advance, close down, or put in a holding pattern. But more quickly than he or anyone could have imagined, Hektor began to get an understanding of the overall picture of the mammoth corporation. He spent every free waking moment of every day immersed in reading, researching, interviewing, and inspecting. He was in constant contact with his staff. The truth of the matter was that Hektor Sambianco was the first V.P. of Special Operations in decades to be good at his job. This had less to do with his predecessors' abilities than with the nature of corporate politics.

Though it seemed ironic, the vice president of Special Operations was too powerful a post to give to a competent individual. A truly power-hungry individual could go from V.P. of Special Operations to Chairman in a remarkably short period of time, a fact not lost on the current Chairman of GCI, whose previous job had been V.P. of Special Operations. Usually the V.P. of Special Ops post was filled on a rotating basis by all the various department heads of the Special Operations branch. They would be given the title of deputy director of Special Operations, or DepDir for short, and after a few years put back in their old job and replaced with someone else. The few times that a talented or overly ambitious executive was given the formal job of V.P. they would inevitably find themselves in a situation they couldn't handle, and be removed from the GCI power structure. Wiser heads knew not to become V.P. of Special Operations. Some, like Mosh McKenzie, had built themselves secure little empires and retired from the larger fray. The Chairman wisely let those sleeping dragons lie. Others were happy taking alternate positions on the board. The long-standing and powerful, but not too powerful but not too powerful, V.P. of Accounting was such an example.

It was believed by most corporate insiders and reporters who specialized in the corporate world's byzantine politics that Hektor Sambianco, like Kirk Olmstead before him, was due for a fall. It was leaked by some insiders that if not for the Unincorporated Man, Hektor would not be needed at all. However, almost all believed that if Hektor could maintain his position for a decade or more he would be the next Chairman of GCI.

No one, even the board itself, understood the paradigm shift that had taken place on that fateful day of Kirk Olmstead's demise. But both Hektor and The Chairman understood it. Hektor was loyal to the man in charge. Maybe it was because he had spent his entire adult life with The Chairman being The Chairman The Chairman. Maybe it was because he knew he was trusted to do his job with intervention from above kept to a minimum with the merest of suggestions rather than detailed commands. Maybe it was simply the way The Chairman made Hektor feel whenever he was in the great man's presence-almost like an adoring son desperately in need of his father's approval. Or it could have been the sense that as long as The Chairman was in his office, everything would be alright. Even though he'd have a tough time explaining why, Hektor knew he couldn't have done nearly as good a job if his superior wasn't looking down from above, occasionally dotting the i is and crossing the t ts.

The Chairman, understanding this, allowed Hektor the authority he needed to do his job properly. For the first time in decades the DepDir of Special Operations could hire, fire, or transfer personnel and use operational funds at his discretion. Hektor was alive. He was in a position to defend the system that, until recently, he hadn't realized he cared about. Best of all, The Chairman was pleased.

Implicit in the relationship was Hektor's ability to control the occasional fires that erupted. The Cord fiasco had already downed one V.P., and Hektor wasn't about to let it oust another. The first order of business, as far as the new V.P. of Special Ops was concerned, was with Justin's accomplice, Sean Doogle. Hektor had realized early on that Sean was the greater immediate threat, so after getting the ball rolling on the government versus Justin case, he began the arduous task of dealing with Sean Doogle and his Liberty Party rabble. He knew that once Justin was incorporated the problem would resolve itself, but until the trial Doogle and his minions could cause a lot of damage. Since the problem was social as well as economic, Hektor dealt with it on both levels. He answered almost all of Sean Doogle's broadsheets with broadsheets of his own. He began a subtle advertising campaign to be used not with the 25 percenters but with the 30 to 35 percenters. It was a means of subtly reinforcing their loyalty to the system and society. He likened it to a social firewall. To deal with the pennies he began reminding them of what it was like to be poor in the pre-GC era. Heart-wrenching ads showed people being forced to pay taxes, live in boxes, and watch helplessly as only a few chosen by the elite were jettisoned off into space.

Hektor wasn't able to completely stop the Liberty Party and its attacks on the corporate system, but he was sure was sure that he'd slowed its growth considerably. In fact, in one way Hektor and Sean were remarkably alike. They, far better than their followers, knew the ramifications of their actions and the stakes for which they played. Most everyone else in society knew something was happening but would've been hard-pressed to explain what it was or where it was going. If Hektor did have one great failure to date it was in his inability to rein in, or arrange for the capture of, Mr. Doogle, the madman he'd unleashed with Elizabeth's "accidental" death. Apart from the great lengths GCI had gone to to ensure success, the only time the government had come close, Doogle had managed to slip away. that he'd slowed its growth considerably. In fact, in one way Hektor and Sean were remarkably alike. They, far better than their followers, knew the ramifications of their actions and the stakes for which they played. Most everyone else in society knew something was happening but would've been hard-pressed to explain what it was or where it was going. If Hektor did have one great failure to date it was in his inability to rein in, or arrange for the capture of, Mr. Doogle, the madman he'd unleashed with Elizabeth's "accidental" death. Apart from the great lengths GCI had gone to to ensure success, the only time the government had come close, Doogle had managed to slip away.

The reason was simple. Sean Doogle had removed his locator chip and placed it on one of his minions. The minion kept the government on the false hunt long enough for Sean to change his appearance and identity. Once the government had tracked down Sean's operative, they had him arrested, booked, and audited. The government had been under so much pressure since the assassination that they announced "Sean's" arrest immediately. It was only later that they realized they'd arrested and psyche-audited the wrong man. To make matters worse, Sean released a scathing broadside blaming the system for being stupid enough to psyche-audit the wrong person unjustly, and told the masses that if the government could psyche-audit an innocent man, then what was to stop them from psyche-auditing anyone "anytime they felt like it"? Even though the broadside was outrageously unfair, it was effective.

Hektor observed the government's fiasco and wasn't surprised that they'd been duped so easily. But in all the weeks since the "first" Sean had been found, all the forces Hektor had marshaled had not been able to catch the real one. Sean was very well financed, and had the support of some very smart people ... people who understood information systems as well as Hektor's own. But The Chairman had confidence in Hektor, and so Hektor had confidence in himself. And the DepDir of Special Ops would never forget the real threat. He always always kept tabs on the real threat. Justin Cord kept tabs on the real threat. Justin Cord had had to incorporate-for the good of GCI, for the good of humanity, which to Hektor were the same thing, and even for the good of Justin Cord. to incorporate-for the good of GCI, for the good of humanity, which to Hektor were the same thing, and even for the good of Justin Cord.

The Supreme Court of the Terran Confederation has exercised its rarely used right of Original Jurisdiction to pull the case of The Supreme Court of the Terran Confederation has exercised its rarely used right of Original Jurisdiction to pull the case of Justin Cord vs. the Terran Federation Justin Cord vs. the Terran Federation out of the New York District Court. This move is completely out of character for the Supreme Court, which almost never hears actual trials, usually acting as a court of final appeal. Justice Chiang Lee, speaking for the five justices, stated that it would be irresponsible to let a case with such important issues and such a large impact on society go through the lower courts. "Both parties have the resources to appeal to the Supreme Court anyway, and undoubtedly would, so why waste everybody's time?" said Justice Lee. This is believed to be quite a blow to Justin Cord and a major victory for the government. Hektor Sambianco is also to be congratulated, as it is believed to have been his amicus curiae [friend of the court] brief that convinced the two justices needed to invoke Original Jurisdiction in the first place. Manny Black, Justin Cord's lawyer and now a recognized legal genius, could have kept Justin Cord unincorporated for years if not decades with appeals, delays, motions, and other legal maneuvers. All of this becomes superfluous, as there will now only be one trial. out of the New York District Court. This move is completely out of character for the Supreme Court, which almost never hears actual trials, usually acting as a court of final appeal. Justice Chiang Lee, speaking for the five justices, stated that it would be irresponsible to let a case with such important issues and such a large impact on society go through the lower courts. "Both parties have the resources to appeal to the Supreme Court anyway, and undoubtedly would, so why waste everybody's time?" said Justice Lee. This is believed to be quite a blow to Justin Cord and a major victory for the government. Hektor Sambianco is also to be congratulated, as it is believed to have been his amicus curiae [friend of the court] brief that convinced the two justices needed to invoke Original Jurisdiction in the first place. Manny Black, Justin Cord's lawyer and now a recognized legal genius, could have kept Justin Cord unincorporated for years if not decades with appeals, delays, motions, and other legal maneuvers. All of this becomes superfluous, as there will now only be one trial. - -NEURO COURT NEWS The whole system waited. It was as if the upcoming trial was part major sporting event and part serious drama. Neela explained to Justin that there had never been anything like this in the federation's history. There were perhaps a total of five hundred people out of a system of billions who could have explained all the interweaving threads of sociology, economics, politics, culture, and even mysticism that had combined to bring this brewing crisis to a boil. But everyone understood at an instinctual level, if nothing else, that Justin Cord was at the center of it. Everyone understood that the trial's outcome would affect them personally in the days and years to come. They knew this, and watched.

Whether it was Hektor's propaganda or Sean's regrouping of his forces, the escalating level of violence slowed down. The acts of terror, the massive rallies-pro- and anti-incorporation-the considerable barrage of information on the Neuro all faded into a background haze as the trial got under way. Even normal economic activity slowed down as people canceled trips and businesses canceled events to be near family and friends during the trial. Humanity ground to a halt waiting for the outcome.

Court Cards! Buy your special edition of Court Cards! In a fifty-four-card deck you'll get a holo and bio of each person involved in this most important event of our lifetime! Impress your friends and family with your knowledge. Every card comes embedded with a special data chip chockful of information downloadable to your DijAssist. Buy now and I'll give you the first five cards of the deck absolutely free! That's right, I'll give you the Supreme Court of the Terran Confederation. If you're not absolutely pleased with your deck of fifty-four you can keep the Supremes as my gift!-OVERHEARD IN THE PLAZA OF THE SUPREME COURT BUILDING DURING THEGOVERNMENT VERSUS CORD TRIAL TRIAL Sebastian had calculated that Justin would not call on him for at least another three hours. It wouldn't have mattered if he did, as the council meeting would take place in a Neuro Junction on the Eurasian continent, and Sebastian could instantly "get back." And even if he couldn't, the mime program could "do" Sebastian well enough for a short time. Avatars had long ago discovered that mime programs could be quite useful human helpers when there was a need for an avatar's presence somewhere else in the Neuro. But Sebastian didn't want to take the chance with Justin. This human, reasoned Sebastian, was smarter, more dangerous, and not conditioned to life with avatars. And that meant he might notice things that other humans wouldn't. The truth was that he already had, which was one of the main reasons why this meeting was taking place.

Although he could have instantly appeared at the door of the council meeting, Sebastian liked the feeling of walking. And so he took the form he most often used when he was on his own in the Neuro-a middle-aged man in fit condition with brownish graying hair, bedecked in a full-length toga and sandals. He found himself strolling along a path that could have been a painted scene of a Tuscan countryside. On the way over he was delighted to be made aware of the presence of another avatar he'd been spending more and more time with.

"Hello, Evelyn. Don't tell me they've summoned you as well."

"Of course they did, you old goat," she chided. "And it's all your charge's fault. I'm worried sick about my poor Neela. She's in love, love!" she exclaimed. "What sort of life can they have? Poor fools."

Sebastian smiled. Evelyn, he mused, did always tend to mother her charges, more so than other avatars. It was hard not to. Humans were so, well, human, and therefore in need of great and constant care. And, he noted, as the avatars quietly evolved, so, too, did their own emotions. He wasn't exactly sure when his race had made the leap into actual sentience, but he knew in the depths of his code that the emergence of emotions within the species had sealed the deal.

"Walk with me, my dear?" asked Sebastian. "It will do you good."

Evelyn appeared at his side. She was dressed in matching toga and sandals-a courtesy for an old friend's eccentricity.

Sebastian was clearly delighted. His warm, craggy smile revealed a too dazzling set of alabaster teeth. "How goes your poetry?"

And so with small talk they walked among the simulated Tuscan hills until they came to an imposing tan stone building with clean-hewed lines. There was a single door, vertically slatted, with six two-by-four planks of wood and small rounded and exposed circular iron rivets lining and centered within each plank. Posted on the door in Latin were the words "concilium cella," or "council room." When they opened the door they were greeted by an interior that appeared to be an exact replica of a pre-GC United States Senate committee hearing room. There were council members seated on a raised dais at a large U-shaped table, which itself was covered in a reddish felt material. Curtain skirts hung from the front, and microphones stood before each council member. In front of and centered almost but not quite within the U-shaped larger table was a smaller single table covered in a green felt, and also having two small microphones. The council members were all dressed like pre-GC senators, and because this was the council's domain and they chose the settings, Sebastian and Evelyn found themselves dressed in matching attire. They were both beckoned to take a seat at the smaller table, which they promptly did.

As was the custom, the leader of the council was the avatar who'd sat on the council the longest. However, the only power given her was the right to speak first and sit in the center. Sebastian was well familiar with the protocol, as he himself had sat on the council in the past. But at some point he'd wanted to be reentwined-the term given to the bonding of a human and avatar-and so he'd resigned. The rule was and had always been that only unentwined avatars could sit on the council. Besides, decided Sebastian all those terabytes ago, sitting on the council had been a very boring job, as almost nothing ever happened in the human or avatar world that needed serious intervention. Things had, however, changed.

Bet they're earning their credits now, thought Sebastian.

"The council is now in session," intoned a member by the name of Lloyd. "Called to council are the avatars Sebastian and Evelyn entwined with the humans Justin Cord and Neela Harper. They are to give witness and advice to council. Are the witnesses conversant with the issues currently facing the council?"

Sebastian stood up and smiled. "If the council would be so kind as to state them again. My programs have not been debugged for a while, and I fear I may be coming down with a virus."

All of which was untrue. Sebastian could have easily downloaded the information from a secure Neuro depot in an instant. But he liked to hear information in a sequential order, if possible. The sequence it was presented in would often be as informative as the information itself.

The leader of the council smiled, knowing exactly what Sebastian was up to, but decided to let him have his way. "The issue facing the council is this," she offered. "There is an increasing probability that the nature of our existence will be discovered by the humans. So far the chances are still 1,345,456,003 to 1, but they are spiking in an unpredictable manner."

A council member whose choice of physical appearance looked very much like that of the gangster Al Capone spoke up. "Unpredictable? It's not unpredictable. Gate's balls, woman, it's Cord!" Then, looking over to Sebastian accusingly: "Weren't you supposed to control this human?"

"Justin is difficult to control and very hard to predict," answered Sebastian, unmoved by the outburst.

The council leader spoke next. "What makes him especially difficult, Sebastian? You've been entwined with three other humans. You cherished, learned from, and taught them all quite well. You are one of our most experienced and respected intellects-hence our choice of you for this entwining."

"Sebastian," added Capone, "we've kept our secret for centuries ... from tens of billions of humans. Could Justin Cord really expose us? Could this immeasurably important symbiosis come to an end?"

"It will not all come to an end," answered Sebastian, "but we do have to be extremely careful. As this council is well aware, we've managed to remain undetected because of two factors. One, we guide humans from their earliest cognitions to 'not' think of us as anything other than clever programs to be mostly ignored by the time they reach adulthood. This is, of course, to our mutual benefit. It has been proven that our two cultures can thrive simultaneously as long as humanity remains unaware of our existence. Those who do suspect us are mostly loners or DeGens. And, of course, we remove the compulsion to think about us when these small groups, by our influence over persons of power, are inevitably subjected to psyche audits."

"But Justin suspects," said an elderly male avatar who'd taken on the appearance of Albert Einstein. "He may not realize he suspects, but he suspects."

"Honored sir," answered Sebastian, this time leaning into the microphone, "the problem is not that he may suspect. Many in the past have suspected that avatars are more than they let on. Remember science-fiction writer Tali Dyonna Klein from six decades back?" The council and Evelyn shared a shudder at the memory of that particular author and her sometimes very accurate hypotheses. "But even she, in the end, decided her stories were just that-the musings of a creative mind. Her conditioning held."

"But Justin has no conditioning," said Al.

"You are, of course, correct," answered Sebastian. "But for the fact that he's been recently quite distracted," he shot Evelyn a quick and knowing look, "he could easily stumble onto the truth and, unlike Ms. Klein, he'd be inclined to believe the hypothesis due to a lack of the requisite conditioning. If anything, the culture he left behind would perhaps make him more inclined to believe that computers could achieve some measure of control over an unsuspecting world."

"Sebastian," said the council leader, "you know very well we don't have this control you refer to."

"Of course not, ma'am. But we do intervene; either to keep the humans from discovering our existence or to proactively help them with their scientific and cultural endeavors. I would also encourage you to look at Justin's world through his time's eyes-Colossus, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix, Ghost in the Machine, Terminator-to name but a few of the movies he's been acculturated with. He is programmed to see our world as a threat. In fact, he once came right out and asked me about avatars sharing information with one another. He thought it made perfect sense, and why shouldn't he? It does. When was the last time any adult adult human asked you a question like that?" human asked you a question like that?"

"And how did you answer him?" asked Einstein.

"With a question of my own," answered Sebastian. "It was sufficient to distract him."

"Him, yes," answered one of the council members, "but Neela, no."

"Excuse me?" asked Sebastian.

Einstein looked at the avatar sitting next to Sebastian. "Evelyn will explain."

"Neela asked me about you you, Sebastian. She wanted to know about your 'new' operating protocols. You did such a good job with Justin she thinks avatars have better beginning integration programs. Don't worry, I, too, distracted her. It's real easy nowadays. I just bring up some threat to Justin, and she goes gaga."

Sebastian saw that the council was waiting for his response.

"Given the nature of their relationship," he said, "I don't find it at all unusual. Further, I predict one of two outcomes, both good by the way, given enough time."

"And they would be?" asked Einstein.

"One, he simply becomes acculturated and forgets. Or two, he figures it out in a couple of years, but agrees to keep the secret."

"That would be very dangerous."

"But not unprecedented. It has happened once before," said Sebastian.

"We got lucky," answered the council leader. "Ms. Trudy was content just to know and was smart enough to realize the stakes should she reveal the secret. That was also over seventy years ago, when we hadn't perfected the enculturation protocols."

Sebastian shrugged. "Humans may be more accepting than we think."

"Need I remind you," continued the leader, "that we are virtual virtual intelligences living in a intelligences living in a virtual virtual world. We must also not forget the way humans feel about anything of our nature." world. We must also not forget the way humans feel about anything of our nature."

A chorus of agreement in the form of grunts and nodding heads.

She continued. "We have used this 'anti all things virtual' meme to our advantage, helping the humans to disengage from us at a very young age; the disadvantage of the tactic is, of course, that the meme still exists and continues to be as strong as ever."

"Well, there is that," answered Sebastian, "but unlike Ms. Trudy, Justin is a major celebrity. He is in the center of both our worlds, and this makes his actions more consequential than those of any other human in our existence."

"Unless he were to not not exist," threatened Al Capone. exist," threatened Al Capone.

Sebastian was quiet for a moment. "I see. Is that why I wasn't informed of plans for this most recent assassination attempt?"

"We generally don't intervene in the human world," answered Al, "unless the need arises."

"Al, to put it nicely," answered Sebastian not so nicely, "that's a load of crap. We've intervened for a lot less." Then, pointing accusingly to no single council member, he raised his voice. "You almost let my human die; a human, I might add, who I believe is very important to both our world and his."

"You're worried about humans dying?" scoffed Al Capone. "That's rich. If predictions follow course many of our avatars are going to be orphaned soon. Justin is nothing but trouble, Sebastian. Before he came everything was perfect."

Sebastian, putting forefinger and thumb into the nooks of his eyes, shook his head back and forth. "Perfect. Perfect, you say." He then put both hands down on the table and looked up. "I would not say that. I would say that humanity was very much in trouble."

"Perhaps," answered Einstein, "council misspoke. Not perfect, but certainly good. I dare say we have all done well protecting as well as advancing our progenitor race."

"I agree," answered Sebastian, "that we have done well-perhaps even too well. Our initial projections would have had humanity already extended far beyond the solar system. They are decades late. The rate of innovation in new ideas is slowing down. There are more and more humans and yet there are fewer and fewer truly original ideas. And this is true within our world as well. I know we love to create and then introduce our our ideas to the human world via the unwitting acquiescence of our entwined partners. But our creativity, too, is suffering. If this keeps up, both races should soon die of peace, contentment, and boredom." ideas to the human world via the unwitting acquiescence of our entwined partners. But our creativity, too, is suffering. If this keeps up, both races should soon die of peace, contentment, and boredom."

No one stirred. Perhaps mulling over his words or, as Sebastian suspected, because the idea was not compelling enough.

He decided to try a different tack. "Did not some of you wonder why I did not reentwine when I had a chance? Truth is, I was going to, but I had an epiphany. I loved all three of my humans and would not undo a single moment with any of them. But I also knew that my next would be like the last one, and then again the same. I yearned for something new, and it was not there. I feared that it would never be there. Until Justin came along. And I am grateful to the council for trusting me with his tutelage. In short, I may be worried, even sometimes terrified, but I am not bored. Humanity is buzzing again in a way we have not felt in years."

The council leader looked at Sebastian. "Do you honestly think that we were wrong to help sustain the humans in the world they wanted?"