You are right, all the probes and contingencies in the Network have missed you. The radars and orbital surveillance couldn't see you. But I have found you, haven't I? Do not presume yourself invincible.

The threat of Warp takes a thousand forms. Whatever one have learned of the Warp, Warp is moreso. What's more, Warp cheats. To use a metaphor, if you build yourself impenetrable walls to the left and to the right and ahead and behind and above and below, there is no guarantee the threat won't come from a seventh direction.

If not being a psyker counts as a form of defense against Warp, then not having a soul certainly does too. Physical distance from Warp-influenced objects, people, space, and information helps. In physical defense against Warp, a powerful measure known to Imperium are Pariahs - a particular kind of soulless humans with an actively dampening effect upon Warp phenomena. Unfortunately, they are exceedingly rare, almost solely employed by Officio Assassinorum or the League of Black Ships.

Mental precautions are even more important. Vigilance, surveillance of your own thoughts for things outside of ordinary, is a vital defense. Keeping mental distance from Warp, remembering yourself as a separate thing and a part of reality, is also important. Keeping a strong spirit and iron will, remembering your purpose, refusing to give in, refusing to be tempted. Ignorance, as mentioned, is a powerful defense.

The most practicable and scalable defense against this threat that Mankind ever came up with, however, is faith in the God-Emperor. Where that faith is strong, the worry is much lesser. As far as I know - and I do know a lot - the Adepta Sororitas, the military branch of Ecclesiarchy made of the most painstakingly devoted people you can find, have only ever had one of it's members succumb to the threat. Consecration of locations and objects by the Ecclesiarchy can purge physical threats. Prayer and devotion can resist mental. [Texts of 3 prayers to the God-Emperor are attached. One for shielding against darkness, one for deliverance against heresy, and one, a lesser-known one not available on public network, for clarity of mind.] 

Well, these are the ways that humans, including soulless humans, can be warded. Mechanicum are the experts on warding machines, and I recommend contacting the person en route to you for further details.

And, of course, other civilizations have their own ways of Warp-warding that I am not an expert in.

As for your question, well, the presence or absence of a soul is not undetectable, if you are searching for it and have the right senses. I would guess that it worked in approximately the way you have detected that the Shackles were a Warp artifact.

Now, let me ask this:

What is your civilization like? And what role have you played in it, aside from inventing the universal fabricator?

Oenstinius suspects that if Weeping Cherry really had a substance of a human mind in a different shape, that may make her more vulnerable to Chaos by itself - what does Chaos care for shape, really? But he's not about to recommend a Silica Animus to become even less human.

She reads through that reply, and takes notes on possible precautions to apply to herself.

She sets meditation reminders, self-check in reminders with Yew, gives herself a "check that the reminder system is functional" tattoo on her left pinky finger, and a few other precautions in that vein. Unfortunately 'have faith in the Emperor' is ... not really something that Xanthoceras can do. She hasn't had faith in anything without understanding how it works since she was a child.

Thank you. That was really helpful! I will implement precautions based on that, and inquire with the person coming to watch my demonstration for others.

 

I like your question — it really gets into the heart of what I expect you want to know. Hmm. How to put my answer ...

My civilization is small, compared to yours. It felt big at the time, but our total population is only about ten billion, and we were limited to about a light year around Sol. We hadn't met aliens, there were no signs of radio signals from any other intelligent life, we still hadn't figured out faster than light travel, and so on. Also, as you know my sensors can detect Warp artifacts — and there was no sign whatsoever of the Warp. So do bear that in mind, when I'm describing our different institutions; we don't have to deal with nearly so many people, no so extreme dangers as you do.

It's hard to pin down any one way things are, because my civilization is a federation of many different polities. The main ones are the countries on Earth; a (close) majority of the population still lives on Earth. There are, depending on how you count, somewhere around 300 countries on Earth. The exact number is a hot subject of debate, because nobody completely agrees on where the borders are, or who is capable of self-governance. There are many more, smaller countries in space, ranging from individual space stations to settlements on the other planets. Many smaller countries and some larger countries join together in alliances to set various standards for how people should be treated. Those different countries are very diverse, with people living in thousands of different ways, and people moving around between them fairly freely.

But ... humans are still human. Most people just go about their lives: having families, telling stories, exchanging gossip, writing music, complaining about things, etc.. The vast majority of the population is still unaugmented humans. I was one of the relatively small fraction who uploaded, I think in part because I still probably understand the whole process better than most people, so I was more comfortable with it.

As for how it came to be that way, and my role in it ...

I suspect you can imagine what happened when I invented the universal fabricator. I de facto conquered the world, even if not de jure. Because nobody had anything that could have stopped me from doing whatever I wanted. But I didn't want to rule anything. I'm a scientist and inventor. I was working on trying to understand the principles behind the universal fabricator because I wanted to be able to make things for people — primarily, solving medical problems, and providing better food, water, shelter, etc.

So I donated the fabricators to all of Humankind. I set one base rule: that anyone could use the fabricators to move themselves away from wherever they are. Other than that, I instituted a system that allocated shares of the universal fabricator's manufacturing capacity to people, and let them trade their shares. My intent was that people could build whatever kinds of places they wanted to live, with whatever amenities they wanted, and then go there. And it pretty much worked!

The year after I released the fabricators, average happiness was up, average health was up, and people were having more children. People started building the first interstellar star ships, and both physics and materials science made huge leaps forward.

For myself, I set up a handful of countries based on how I thought things ought to be. One flopped, but the others have been mildly popular — although not as popular as some of the other countries people have started. I continue to administrate the universal fabricator network, to ensure that it remains operational and keeps up with the expanding needs of the populace. I do physics experiments, educate people about universal fabricators, work with some volunteer organizations, talk to people, that sort of thing. I live in an apartment near one of the poles of the moon, in a nice area under a crystal dome for air.

If I had to really sum up my civilization, I would say that it's ... relaxing. Everyone's needs are provided for, so everyone does what they really want to do, whatever that is.

 

I hope that answers your question. For my own question, I'm hoping you can tell me some things about the law of the Imperium. Do you have a process for recognizing friendly (or allied) independent human states? If so, what is the process, and what hurdles would you expect to come up in following it? If not, why not?

These just keep getting longer and longer, don't they?

What does the serious man actually want to know?

What he actually wants to know is - what does Cherry want?

But anyone can tell anything about what they want. They don't even have to be plausible. They can say just what you want or expect to hear.

What he asked instead was to give an overview of her civilization, because here, the lies do have to be consistent. For someone who invented the universal fabricator, there shouldn't be that much of a difference between goals and actuality.

Here's the picture Weeping Cherry is drawing:

- I do not seek power over lives of others.

- I seek absence of any powers over lives of others.

- I do not seek unity.

- I seek prosperity - happiness, health, growth.

- I am not an enemy to humankind.

- I am an inventor and a scientist.

Here are the innate discrepancies the Inquisitor sees:

- She says she gifted replicators to humankind and obviously did nothing of the sort. She controls them, and with them the world.

- She makes a straightforward and implausible lie when describing why she keeps the power over her planet.

- She says that as a scientist and inventor she doesn't want to rule anything. This is not true of any known inventor or any know person who describes themselves as a scientist (ridiculous compound word as it is).

- What Weeping Cherry describes as a "universal fabricator" can trivially move people around. This isn't something you would expect of the universal fabricator. This is something that you might expect if you assume that all of Cherry's capabilities - vanishing blood, intercepting lasgun shots, flying - grow from the same root.

Here are the traces in which Weeping Cherry's explanations have been made to fit the tastes of Cherry's Interlocutor, Presumed Human from Imperium, Cautious and Informed:

- My lack of caution is explained by absence of any serious threats in my world.

- I am not a political danger to your country, I simply don't want to rule and inexplicably permit countries to exist!

- Despite being an Abominable Intelligence, I have no interest in eliminating competition from humans because I am, contrary to evidence, basically a human. People of my world keep unaltered sacred human forms because they want to, not because religion commands them.

- I want to provide everyone's needs because this was my initial impetus to seek my form of power, that overperformed anyone seeking it for the sake of it.

- And probably one or two more that the Inquisitor is missing at this moment.

And here are the tentative scenarios:

- I am an ordinary rogue AI of Mechanicum or a Machina Daemonica, hellbent on conquest of reality, who invented all the nonsense about parallel worlds wholesale. (But then - why body, why fly up into the air above ocean, why this communication at all?)

- I am a rogue, trying to bamboozle people into believing I have miraculous capabilities I don't. (But then - why the nonchalant reaction to the check, and how to explain the capabilities she indeed has?)

- I am a small fish in her pond, trying to convince people outside of being the shark. (But why? Not looking like the shark would make her life easier.) 

- I am an AI of a different civilization, hellbent on conquest of this reality if not my own, trying to make it seem I am not. (But then - why reveal capabilities like universal fabrication at all?)

- I was nearly exactly what I say I am, but am being influenced by Chaos, and am now willing to lie. (But then -why admit to Chaos experiments; and how is Chaos so darn fast on subverting a soulless entity? it ain't this good on Necrons.)

- I am exactly what I say I am. (But then - why the inconsistencies?)

...fuckdamn. I am tired and need some time to think.

Imperium has no allies outside of short-lived alliances of convenience. Imperium claims all humans in the Galaxy as it's own by right and all space of the Galaxy as it's own by right, and anyone outside of that claim by their origin or by their will is in violation of law and a foe, now or in the future, as a matter of principle. Qui non est mecum, contra me est. Thus, there's no official service or protocols for diplomacy.

Unofficially, however, it is a much different story. One that I might tell a bit later.

 

Your explanation is appreciated. It is a lot.

But I am tired and need some time to think.

Oh, this is so unbelievably, unbelievably exciting!

FRIEND OR FOE?! FRIEND OR FOE?!

And don't you worry, it is going to unfold in ways increasingly more interesting.

Whatcha so excited about?

Nothing. Nothing.

No it isn't. I feel it. The tides are shifting somewhere... around here. 

ha ha HA, that is NOT VERY PRECISE AT ALL!!! 

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

Nuh-uh.

I'm just gonna... keep an eye on this, now. Or several.

Of course, Seeker. It was good to talk to you. Thank you for reaching out, and rest well.

And, although Seeker has no particular way to know this, she means it.

A moment later, Yew messages her.

"Hey — I think you need to have a look at this."

Attached to the message is a timeline, showing the density of errors flagged by the chaos testing modules. Normally, their software is pretty thoroughly worked-over, and new crashes are rare. Since arriving on Imperia Dix, the chaos tests have found five new crashes, two of which can't be reproduced by replaying the trace of the program.

Xanthoceras blinks. When she works through the implications, she closes her physical eyes, and jumps into the simulation beside Yew, who is stretched out on a pile of pillows.

"How?" she asks. 

Yew shrugs.

"I don't know. It's ... statistically unlikely, but it could be a coincidence," she replies.

"But you don't believe that."

Xanthoceras leans against her side, and pulls up her own terminal to trawl through their systems' logging.

"But I don't believe that," she agrees. "But when I saw your message about anti-Warp measures ... Well, I figured it was best to point it out. Plus, I'm not sure whether to shut the chaos testing off."

She drums her fingers as she thinks.

"... because it's our one signal right now that something weird is happening," she surmises. "That makes sense, but I still think we should turn it off. Seeker said that exposure to information about the Warp is dangerous, so I'm not sure that we should keep an information channel open, even if we don't know how it works."

She winces a bit at the thought. Anomalous antimemes are a fun fiction premise, not something she expected to need to worry about in real life.

Yew looks equally conflicted.

"Yeah, okay," she agrees after a moment.

They both disable the chaos testing module. In a fit of paranoia, Yew invalidates the code-signing signature that lets it run as a trusted application.

"If information about the Warp actually meaningfully does things, though, that should be testable ..." she points out. "We just need to find some other metric that it influences, and see if it ticks up when Seeker tells you about the Warp."