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Martin was sitting on an air chair, floating, looking out at New Earth as it was Building itself. His frontal cortex was taking in the wonder of it all while the rest of his mind was split in many directions. He was made aware of Hillary lurking behind him. He sighed deeply and allowed the air chair to swivel him around, so he was facing her while he retracted parts of his consciousness back to him and left others busy at work.

"There have been several developments that I thought you might want to discuss in person, off the record." She waited in her customary stance.

"Have AD declared war on us?" He asked melodramatically.

"Quite the contrary, we have heard nothing from them. But we do know something has happened." She paused.

"What?!" He snapped impatiently, more impatient at the slowness of oral communications.

"I Had a conversation with a connection to ApacheAttackPrendergast, who relayed information. It seems that all communications between the space juggernauts of AD have been suspended. Which is if not, a first, very close to being one." He raised a hand as if to say so what else. "Additionally, we intercepted a request from Digbee to Drew; it was a simple hello, how are you doing. But chatter has it that a Sally AI, I can only imagine his AI, has been digging into public archives about chess." She stopped, aware this would get his attention.

"Firstly, you are a very high-ranking sub mind, but last time I checked, sub minds don't get the right to imagine. Secondly, now where "Hypothesizing;" how could he know?" He hissed. "There was no trail, no witnesses, nothing." He made the air chair deposit him into a standing position then dismissed it.

"There are, of course, several hundred thousand probabilities, but my money, estimation." She corrected herself. "Is on a random guess or estimation from DigBee, he has a reputation for them. We know he plays chess with Hector, and he may be reaching for possibilities." She positioned the word carefully.

"We should have dealt with Dig-Fucking-Bee when we had the chance. One of our own as well, a DE believer. And that meddling maniac Hector Ford." He paced a little, aware that Hillary was, in fact, in a failed raid that had tried to do just that once and had to be completely regrown after DigBee had finished with her. He waved another hand to dismiss her, but she stayed.

"What?" He rolled his eyes, desperate for peace to return to his day.

"We have been picking up increased quantum anomalies that remain unexplained. The patterns are the same as the ones we have tracked for many years now, but they are definitely increasing." She turned to leave.

"Wait? The wild card of the universe! The one thing we can't explain. And you leave it until last to tell me. Where are they?" He demanded but knew, immediately, he would be frustrated with the answer.

"As before, they seem to register as if everywhere, yet originate from nowhere. I am working with some sub minds on a potential hypothesis." She returned his gaze; her inhuman eyes never wavering.

"Well, what is it?" He asked, a little curious.

"Nothing yet; we are a long way out. The consortium of humans helping the research suggested we boot up a sandboxed AI to help speed up the research."

"Never!" he snarled, spinning on her. "Don't ever mention that option again. His eyes darted to the black cube inert on the floor some distance away.

"I did already tell them that, but they insisted I ask you anyway." She turned and left.

Paranoid now, he sent his own mind and sub minds out to check the quantum encryption seals around the data banks and DE at large. All was well, but the encryption relied on quantum state changes, and unexplained quantum activity was always a worry while not precisely unexpected.

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