I've got a list of names | Glowfic Constellation

Afen is disappointed in the universe. He bounds back and forth across his room explaining why to his wife, his infant granddaughter, the end table, and a reporter flabbergasted by her good luck and cringing silently against the wall in the hopes he won't remember she's there.

"There is no reason to suppose that a species evolving independently of Amentans, with their own evolutionary history and living mammalian species likely related to theirs, would end up looking like us. None. Every explanation every scientist has ventured to the press has been unimaginative and unconvincing retroactive refitting of bad models to baffling data. Aliens shouldn't look like us but with different hair colors. Aliens that are not made out of carbon at all would be unsurprising; aliens with only as much physiological dissimilarity as exists between us and animal species on our planet would be mildly surprising; aliens with opposable thumbs would be truly remarkable. This is not remarkable and biologically enlightening; this is just inconsistent with everything we understand about the universe. It doesn't teach us new things about evolution; it should make us rethink evolution. - don't quote that part, they'll take it out of context."

Reporter nods rapidly.

"All of that said, I've picked up three of the languages and I'm working on building a good machine translator, it's a challenge with as little as they've produced in the way of electronic records. I'm absolutely going there to meet them as soon as the politicians figure out what to do with themselves."

"Do you have any predictions about that?"

"About politics? Why would I have predictions about politics? They deliberately obscure relevant information, for one thing, and for another it's deathly boring."

"- I mean, sir, surely you hear from your son about -"

"I have seven children and some of them are very dense indeed but not quite dense enough to try to interest me in politics."

"I was referring to -"

"I know who you were referring to. If you want a statement from Aitim go bother Aitim."

"Thank you for your time."

"I did not alter my activities in response to your presence and therefore you can't yet be said to have wasted any of my time though you should go before you do."

...out skitters the reporter.

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"Because you didn't do it or because making you be grey in the first place is a nearly criminal resource misuse?"

thesignalandthenoise

"I didn't plagiarize anything."

"Then it would be a travesty if you were endlessly hassled over it." He makes a note. "The mysterious hypothesis, in addition to being difficult to explain, is also closely linked to some important state secrets; I encourage you to elsewise account for time you spend on mysterious things, and would be happy to assist you in that if it would be helpful."

thesignalandthenoise

"...there's a warp pilot union, they'll notice if I disappear a lot."

"With the investigation resolved you could go back to blogging? More flexible."

thesignalandthenoise

"Yeah."

"All right. Thank you for your time."

thesignalandthenoise

"Thanks."

He goes back to work. Asks someone to look into the plagiarism accusation, which doesn't seem very legitimate to him and would probably be a waste of the courts' time.

Really? He thinks some grey had an election-predicting statistical model and a yellow is trying to steal it? Pull the other one.

Yes, that's what he thinks. It should get dropped.

Pfft. Sure, whatever he says, it's gone.

Kefin emails her.

I think you'd strongly prefer to know about this or I wouldn't be wasting time on it.

thesignalandthenoise

Okay, so what actually is it?

There are a group of humans who have corresponding Amentans. Look alike, have various similarities of family history, think almost exactly alike - it's a closer correspondence than I'd expect cloning people to produce, it's closer than twins, it's really bizarre. We found out about this when human!Aitim confronted Aitim, and then they checked how far it went. Ebele Miranda Swan, who might look like you if you spent a solid week outdoors and who matches the rest of it, actually came to Amenta to look for a her, she really wanted to have one.

thesignalandthenoise

So how come you found me instead?

Possibly because you were off planet at the time and her method has a range limit, possibly because the person or persons who arranged for this to occur seem to be actively intervening in order to ensure that the meetings happen under specific circumstances.

thesignalandthenoise

Who's arranging it?

We don't know. We don't actually know that it's someone at all, but sets of people with zero reason to ever meet met under similar circumstances in both worlds. In particular, my brother Kantil is married to Isama Lalail, and on Earth his counterpart was visiting Boston arbitraging currency when circumstances necessitated he rescue a woman from a hospital there by pretending to marry someone. Who turned out to be Isama's counterpart. And my brother Makel is married to Soata Sem and his counterpart went wandering the English countryside and found a girl trapped in a nunnery who he ran away with and who is Soata's counterpart. And so maybe I had to be the one to run into you, even though that would be stupid.

thesignalandthenoise

Is this some kind of really bizarre proposal?

No!!!!!

I mean, I do really like your blog. And Minor speaks very highly of his. But implausible intergalactic coincidences are a stupid way to pick a spouse and while I'm mildly concerned that circumstances will somehow contrive to make us get married they would have to do a whole lot of contriving.

thesignalandthenoise

Okay. Why hasn't Ebele Miranda Swan come to meet me?

I emailed her when I landed. They have to leave their house to check the internet for reasons which push this whole thing from 'implausible' to 'absurd' and which I'll accordingly let her explain.

thesignalandthenoise