CU: Gridlock

"That was anti-climactic," Stigel said.

There had been no attack. The swarm of drones, precisely one million of them, had taken up a fixed position halfway between the artifact and the CU vessel, arranging themselves in a stationary grid, one hundred tall, deep, and wide. The crescent wings closed into perfect, silver spheres.

Once the matrix was fully formed, red and blue patterns fanned out from positions on opposing sides and moved pixel-wise across it. Some patterns were linear and simple. Others branched, corkscrewed, or scattered like fireworks, leaving a static arrangement of red, blue, and silver points in their wake.

"It's clearly a communication protocol," MeiWei said.

"I'm not so sure," Sanjay countered. "The color patterns are progressive rather than made of discreet units like what you would expect for symbolic language. They originate from either side in pairs and propagate through the grid for a certain distance until the next pair of patterns kicks in. Then there are the residuals, the leftover blues and reds. They interact with the new color pattern, changing how it propagates. Each pattern builds on the last."

"Look, the grid reset, and now the sequence is starting over," Stigel said. "What do you make of that?"

"Maybe it's the end of the message," MeiWei speculated. "Or it could be a training sequence. Maybe it's teaching us the ABCs before it starts in on War and Peace."

"Did you see the way it flashed blue at the end? At that point, there was a numerical advantage of blue dots."

"Maybe it's not communication in the usual sense," Misuni spoke up. "It could be putting on a display for us."

MeiWei shot her a disparaging look, but it was Arjun that said, "What, like a peacock flashing its tail feathers to get some action?"

"I doubt us meatbags have what it takes to light this thing's torch," replied Misuni. "Maybe it's some kind of ritual greeting or—oh, now I get it! A grid-space with a fixed number of coordinates, a turn-based progression, patterns that behave according to a predictable set of rules and always occur in pairs. It's obvious!"

"You think it's a puzzle?" Sanjay asked.

"As in a kind of two-player puzzle where one-side is declared the winner and the other side slinks off to sulk in a corner—also known as?"

"A contest of logic."

"Bingo!" Misuni crowed. "It's a board game. It wants to brain tango!"

Xemesh: Fragmentation

Badly mangled, the surviving Xemesh fragments were reduced to a dumb network of metallic pathways. Most disintegrated away, their Xant population too few, their resources too scarce, or their new environment too precarious to support a resurgent colony. But three fragments, working under very different conditions, managed to overcome the long odds. Shaped by their local environment, their evolution took divergent paths.

One fragment took hold in a primordial swamp with much of its structure remaining beneath the surface. Over successive generations, these Xants adapted with hairless, torpedo-shaped bodies, micro-suction feet, and primitive gills; they also developed the ability to swim. The mesh became globular and compact so as to withstand swift currents and avoid tangling in debris. Its many crannies and holes allowed it to trap small, underwater prey that mistakenly perceived it as a safe place to shelter.

Taking hold in a forest, a second Xemesh discovered the advantages of building in three dimensions. Using trees as ready-made trellises, it enmeshed the trunks and limbs in flexible webs with suspension-wires connecting to their nearest neighbors. Treeborn Xants became excellent climbers and jumpers; in place of grooves, the mesh trails developed spicules that served as climbing rungs. The forest was not without its challenges, however. Trees were inherently unstable, prone to infestation, fire, drought, and the continual growing and shedding of branches. The Xemesh preferred long-lived varieties and did its part to keep them free from parasites. When a tree did fall, the Xants were excellent recyclers; mineral resources were too precious to waste.

The stone Xemesh had no such problem. The last of the surviving fragments, it came to rest on an igneous hillside where it fused to the exposed stone. With flat terrain and ready access to raw minerals, it spread far and wide though at low density. The biggest threat to the stone Xemesh was the elements. Fully exposed, it bore the brunt of the blazing sun, scouring wind, and occasional lightning strike. Stone Xants developed a number of coping adaptations. During a heat wave, they stuck water droplets to their backs to provide evaporative cooling. They developed barbed feet that were equally good at gripping on ice and minimizing contact with searing mesh. They created water traps and reservoirs, which they not only consumed but used as enticements to draw birds, whose droppings provided a rich source of nutrients.

While the land-based Xemesh were only able to move in a glacial sideways creep, this was not true of the swamp-Xemesh, who faced the seasonal challenge of rising and falling water levels. Its globular construction made it possible to pull up its anchoring tethers and relocate. With all of its Xants paddling in tandem, a ten-mile journey could be started in the morning and completed by sundown. Longer voyagers were conducted in a series of shorter trips. It was just a matter of time before the swamp-Xemesh, which preferred the fecund hunting grounds of flooded root systems, put down anchor within the territory of their forest cousin.