UausuaU.”
“Ben fights the Uau?” Saru said. She squirmed, feeling the hatred of the creature again, the memory of the hate still enough to make her skin crawl.
“In a way. Ben adds biodiversity to Earth’s depleted ecosystem. A robust ecosystem is a natural defense against the UausuaU.”
“You’re talking biology now? You said the margin had to do with physics.”
“Chemistry and biology are outgrowths of physics. The physical similarity in the rule set creates similarity in the biology between two universes. It is the biology of a universe that broadcasts the information, and the biology that receives that information. The Gaespora accept the information of their allies, and allow it to seed and grow. They fight the information projected by the UausuaU. This information is malicious; it repurposes the biology of the target universe.
“In our universe, some planets develop with no life tainted by the UausuaU, the malicious information finding nothing to exploit. Other planets have many species that are corrupted. A healthy ecosystem has countermeasures. A virus becomes an exploit of the UausuaU, but it is contained by the virophages of the ecosystem. A neuron becomes an exploit and is contained by the immune system of the host; or, the host is killed before it reproduces and spreads the corruption. An entire species becomes an exploit and spreads throughout the ecosystem, but is contained by diseases and predators that naturally reduce overpopulation. Across our universe is waged this constant battle. The UausuaU seeks biology to exploit, and the biology of our universe fights back. From amoebas to empires, swords to starships, puddles to galaxies.”
“‘No fight is too small’ could be your motto.”
“You jest but speak truth. A human lifetime is short, and thus our temporal myopia. A small corruption on the scale of a thousand human lives can evolve into catastrophe. Once a corrupted ecosystem develops to a technological level beyond that of the host life, it is nearly impossible to arrest the corruption.”
“And the other Gods? The living ones? The Blue God and the Slow God? Where do they come in?”
“The Gaespora neither welcome them nor fight their presence. The Gaespora allow their chimeras to grow and claim what biology they must. The Gaespora spare them molestation whenever possible.”
“Of course you do. You want them to do your fighting for you.”
“The Blue God and the Slow God are ancient and powerful beings. They share a common enemy. Gains they make against the UausuaU benefit the Gaespora.”
“But they don’t want to join your club?”
John fell quiet, distracted again, only now Saru guessed this was the distraction of introspection. She welcomed it. Her own head was spinning with his words, memories of her recent actions flashing by, arranging themselves in a narrative based on what she now knew. She read between the lines of what John had said, matching his generalities with her own experiences in Philadelphia, with the feasters who seemed to be everywhere and nowhere, with the elzi somehow connected to the Uau, with Friar who had transformed from friend to foe, and the monsters built of human flesh. It was clear John’s candidness had hit a roadblock. He was keeping something from her, intimating something he didn’t dare to say aloud.
“The margin of similarity isn’t one set thing,” Saru said, half to herself. “There’s not one margin. It’s in everything—everything has a margin. It’s a question of scale. In a cell the margin is chemicals and molecules and shit. And in a person it’s their cells and their DNA. And if you scale it up further, to the whole planet, then it’s the animals on the planet that make up the planet’s margin. And there aren’t any animals on Earth except for rats and cockroaches and us.”
The revelation struck Saru like a blow.
“It’s us,” she said, softly. “We are a margin. Our bodies. Our cities. We’re the
“Ben fights the Uau?” Saru said. She squirmed, feeling the hatred of the creature again, the memory of the hate still enough to make her skin crawl.
“In a way. Ben adds biodiversity to Earth’s depleted ecosystem. A robust ecosystem is a natural defense against the UausuaU.”
“You’re talking biology now? You said the margin had to do with physics.”
“Chemistry and biology are outgrowths of physics. The physical similarity in the rule set creates similarity in the biology between two universes. It is the biology of a universe that broadcasts the information, and the biology that receives that information. The Gaespora accept the information of their allies, and allow it to seed and grow. They fight the information projected by the UausuaU. This information is malicious; it repurposes the biology of the target universe.
“In our universe, some planets develop with no life tainted by the UausuaU, the malicious information finding nothing to exploit. Other planets have many species that are corrupted. A healthy ecosystem has countermeasures. A virus becomes an exploit of the UausuaU, but it is contained by the virophages of the ecosystem. A neuron becomes an exploit and is contained by the immune system of the host; or, the host is killed before it reproduces and spreads the corruption. An entire species becomes an exploit and spreads throughout the ecosystem, but is contained by diseases and predators that naturally reduce overpopulation. Across our universe is waged this constant battle. The UausuaU seeks biology to exploit, and the biology of our universe fights back. From amoebas to empires, swords to starships, puddles to galaxies.”
“‘No fight is too small’ could be your motto.”
“You jest but speak truth. A human lifetime is short, and thus our temporal myopia. A small corruption on the scale of a thousand human lives can evolve into catastrophe. Once a corrupted ecosystem develops to a technological level beyond that of the host life, it is nearly impossible to arrest the corruption.”
“And the other Gods? The living ones? The Blue God and the Slow God? Where do they come in?”
“The Gaespora neither welcome them nor fight their presence. The Gaespora allow their chimeras to grow and claim what biology they must. The Gaespora spare them molestation whenever possible.”
“Of course you do. You want them to do your fighting for you.”
“The Blue God and the Slow God are ancient and powerful beings. They share a common enemy. Gains they make against the UausuaU benefit the Gaespora.”
“But they don’t want to join your club?”
John fell quiet, distracted again, only now Saru guessed this was the distraction of introspection. She welcomed it. Her own head was spinning with his words, memories of her recent actions flashing by, arranging themselves in a narrative based on what she now knew. She read between the lines of what John had said, matching his generalities with her own experiences in Philadelphia, with the feasters who seemed to be everywhere and nowhere, with the elzi somehow connected to the Uau, with Friar who had transformed from friend to foe, and the monsters built of human flesh. It was clear John’s candidness had hit a roadblock. He was keeping something from her, intimating something he didn’t dare to say aloud.
“The margin of similarity isn’t one set thing,” Saru said, half to herself. “There’s not one margin. It’s in everything—everything has a margin. It’s a question of scale. In a cell the margin is chemicals and molecules and shit. And in a person it’s their cells and their DNA. And if you scale it up further, to the whole planet, then it’s the animals on the planet that make up the planet’s margin. And there aren’t any animals on Earth except for rats and cockroaches and us.”
The revelation struck Saru like a blow.
“It’s us,” she said, softly. “We are a margin. Our bodies. Our cities. We’re the
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