SiSU: - Accelerando

Accelerando
Hyundai +4904 / -56 they'd understood that they could end up anywhere
or nowhere. But the idea that she's still within the light cone
of her departure strikes her as dubious. The original SETI broadcast
strongly implied that the router is part of a network of selfreplicating
instantaneous communicators, spawning and spreading
between the cold brown dwarf stars that litter the galaxy. She'd
somehow expected to be much farther from home by now.
Somewhat more disturbing is the ghost's assertion that the human 1518
genotype has rendered itself extinct at least twice, that its home
planet is unknown, and that Amber is nearly the only human left
in the public archives. At this point, she interrupts. “I hardly see
what this has to do with me!” Then she blows across her coffee
glass, trying to cool the contents. “I'm dead,” she explains, with an
undertone of knowing sarcasm in her voice. “Remember? I just
got here. A thousand seconds ago, subjective time, I was in the
control node of a starship, discussing what to do with the router
we were in orbit around. We agreed to send ourselves through
it, as a trade mission. Then I woke up in bed here in the umptyzillionth
century, wherever and whatever here is. Without access
to any reality ackles or augmentation, I can't even tell whether this
is real or an embedded simulation. You're going to have to explain
why you need an old version of me before I can make sense of my
situation - and I can tell you, I'm not going to help you until I know
who you are. And speaking of that, what about the others? Where
are they? I wasn't the only one, you know?”
The ghost freezes in place for a moment, and Amber feels a watery 1519
rush of terror: Have I gone too far? she wonders.
“There has been an unfortunate accident,” the ghost announces 1520
portentously. It morphs from a translucent copy of Amber's own
body into the outline of a human skeleton, elaborate bony extensions
simulating an osteosarcoma of more-than-lethal proportions.
“Consensus-we believe that you are best positioned to remediate
the situation. This applies within the demilitarized zone.”
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