Milky Way, Trocade System, Qisud, July 25 - 31, 2096 NGE
In the Trocade system, which is located in the territory of the Topsiders, on July 25, 2096 NGE, the head of the IEME Institute for the Study of Metaintelligent Entities Bna Vachut and his assistant Xenia Biefang in the DOMO SOCRAT IV are looking for ES fragments. The League of Free Terrans has developed so-called superintelligence or SI trackers. Since these devices only work when there is as little consciousness as possible nearby, the League has installed them primarily in Halutic ships, because Haluters are usually always alone in their ships.
In the Trocade system, the SI sniffer erupted in the ship GERBIN of the ancient Haluter Oboloff Guntar. However, the old man is a bit senile and does not respond to the radio calls of the Topsidian guard fleet, which wants to prevent the GERBIN from flying too close to the black hole, which the Topsiders of the Qisud colony call Tomuun (Stareater). Instead of an answer, all that is heard from Guntar is a melancholic song. The Topsiders threaten to shoot down the ship. When Bna Vachut tries to interfere, the GERBIN suddenly disappears. At the same time, the SI detector of the DOMO SOCRAT IV also picks up a signal that the IEME manager is eager to get to the bottom of.
Because the Topsid Guard Fleet is led by the reactionary Commander-in-Chief Crkt-Ahrm, there is almost a diplomatic scandal. Topsid is in principle well-disposed towards the League, it even has an advisor status in parliament. Nevertheless, the use of the SI sniffers is kept secret from them, because an ES fragment would represent a considerable power potential. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the Topsiders from inspecting Bna Vachut’s DOMO SOCRAT IV and encountering the SI sniffer.
On Terra, Gucky, who has just returned from another mission, is disappointed that Perry Rhodan flew to Gruelfin without him. He teams up with Icho Tolot to investigate the report from the Trocade system. They are to use the HALUTA VII to find out where the GERBIN has gone, while Achill Maccao, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Solar Fleet, flies along on a diplomatic mission with his ship PERSEPHONE to distract the Topsiders.
The signals picked up by the SI detector come from the planet Qisud. That's why HALUTA VII lands on the planet after announcing a visit that even Crkt-Ahrm can't refuse. During a tour of the capital of the colony, they want to look around unobtrusively for the ES fragment. However, Gucky quickly realizes that something is wrong with Bna Vachut. Xenia Biefang has also already noticed that her colleague is not quite on the ball and injects something into his arm from time to time. Bna Vachut is on the verge of entering an urge wash, which is why he takes a sedative. He is in fact facing a Kodro-Gash, a particularly violent form of urge washing caused by extreme physical stress or psychological trauma. This trauma was triggered when he battled the Ylant earlier that month, who devastated the IEME on behalf of the 'Club of Light Bearers'.
Icho Tolot is able to calm him down for a short time during the visit, which escalates because of Vachut's behavior, but this does not last for long. The visitors are forced to return to their ships and are isolated by an energy screen. Nevertheless, a bat-like creature suddenly appears in front of the DOMO SOCRAT IV, as if it wants to make contact. The insides of its snow-white wings are decorated with red symbols. The patrolling Topsiders don't seem to be able to perceive it. Gucky tries in vain to establish a telepathic connection. A short time later, the creature disappears again, causing another eruption in the SI sniffer. This burst was not only registered on board the DOMO SOKRAT, but also on the HALUTA VII and the PERSEPHONE. In this way, a point can be triangulated where the bat being seems to come from.
Gucky teleports with Biefang, Icho and Bna Vachut into a desert where they want to sneak up on the creature standing on a dune ridge and turning its back on them. However, a battle then ensues between the Haluters because Vachut's urge wash breaks through. The creature flies away and is chased by Gucky and Biefang. When Gucky catches up with it and speaks to it, it teleports back to the ground and stands in the way of the raging Haluter, whom Icho Tolot had not been able to tame. It points an instrument form its tool belt at him and can thus make him stop. When it vibrates its wings rapidly, it produces a humming sound through which it communicates.
Gucky wants to know from it if it is an envoy of ES, but it does not want to give its real name. In the end, it reveals that it is a Myrnjad and that it should be called Hruam. ES is familiar to it, calling ES the all-unity. She was ES’ stewardess. Xenia Biefang suspects that the Myrnjades were once an auxiliary people of ES. She takes over further communication and learns that a little bit of the all-unity is here. Hruam protects it from unauthorized persons like them.
But when Gucky refers to the Cosmocrat Mu Sargai, on whose behalf they had come to recover the ES fragments, Hruam becomes more accessible and wants to bring them into the ‘almost nothingness’. The fragment of ES is supposedly in a space below reality - on Qisud and yet again not. The star-eater's daughter could take them there. As soon as she opens her mouth, she opens up the hiding place. Biefang translates this as that Hruam uses a small black hole to get to the fragment's hiding place. However, measurable ÜBSEF radiation penetrates through each time.
Suddenly, Gucky, Biefang, Tolot and Vachut find themselves in a completely different environment, in a Kato Synapse. However, they have to find their way to the mental architecture processor on their own. Somewhere on the horizon, Gucky spots a tiny dot and heads out towards it. The four make good progress. Gravity seems to be diminished, because the Haluters can make huge jumps. And so they approach the targeted point, which turns out to be the GERBIN. At least we are talking about the wreck of the ship, which lies next to a - cube. Oboloff Guntar lies in the shadow of the wreck and sings his melancholic song.
The 300-meter-tall cube is made of poles and looks like nested cubes. It is surrounded by a white wall on which countless burning sculptures stand. Ash flakes detach from them and blow away in a non-existent wind. Bna Vachut finally loses his temper again and pounces on one of the sculptures, all of which stand on cube-shaped pedestals. The giraffe-like creature suddenly moves and confronts the frenzied Haluter. A fight ensues. Gucky is so horrified that he turns away. In the Kato Synapse, his para-gifts fail, so he cannot intervene. He hears bones breaking and the splashing sound that comes from a heavy body falling into a pool of blood. Bna Vachut killed the creature.
Suddenly, all the other statues position themselves synchronously against the frenzied Haluter. He has no chance against them and dies under the concentrated onslaught of blazing beings who return to their posts after his death. Hruam, who is suddenly back, acknowledges the events with Homeric laughter, much to the displeasure of Biefang, who is deeply shaken. The stewardess of ES informs that the visitors have passed the test, the sacrifice has been made. She is now authorized to hand over the ES fragment to them. The cube is the mental architecture processor, which has now absorbed one more consciousness. This means that Bna Vachut didn't just die, but was picked up by the processor. For a scientist who has dedicated his life to researching superintelligences, this is basically a crowning achievement, Biefang consoles himself with.
Hruam suddenly readily explains what the mental architecture processor does: the absorption of a consciousness requires a conversion in which the consciousness undergoes a certain adaptation without losing the personality. Otherwise, it could lead to trauma for the superintelligence, which is what happens to some of them. Bringing billions of consciousnesses to a coherent and aligned way of thinking is a millennium task.
The processor could become the crystallization nucleus for all the ES fragments - but not in the Kato Space where it is currently stationed. They would have to put it in normal space somehow, which is not so easy, because the Kato Space is smaller than a proton and so is everything that is in it. In normal space, it would need a protective cover - a Sextadim membrane, which takes over the function of a data carrier. Since ÜBSEF constants are also located in the Sextadim range, consciousness is an option.
Gucky and Icho Tolot make themselves available for this, but are rejected by Hruam. Their cell activators are an obstacle. All that remains is Xenia Biefang, who, after a short hesitation, agrees - she also does it for Bna Vachut, whom she does not want to leave behind in the Kato Space. Hruam touches the lattice construction of the Mental Architecture Processor with two pieces of equipment hanging from her belt, whereupon everything dissolves into dazzling light and everyone suddenly finds themselves aboard the DOMO SOCRAT on the spaceport of Qisud. Three days have passed, during which Achilles Maccao, with increasing apprehension, has tried to establish contact with them and at the same time appease Crkt-Ahrm. Now they can finally do the Topsiders the favor of disappearing.
After Hruam Xenia examines Biefang's brain and finds that it has not been damaged, the bat creature freezes and has been dragged along like a doll ever since.
Icho Tolot has set up an area for Oboloff Guntar, whose mind is becoming more and more confused, on the HALUTA VII where he can stay. Bna Vachut's body has been buried by Icho Tolot in the Stareater's event horizon. Xenia Biefang returns to IEME with Hruam, where they - and thus also the processor - are placed under special protection. And Gucky gets in touch with Alaska Saedelaere, who has just returned from the globular cluster