An unusually small door in the bar opens, and a coconut crab the size of a dog stands outside the threshold. It pauses, then disappears behind the door for a minute on its side (one claw still latched onto the edge of the door). Through the doorframe, a gray-blue sky looms hangs above a beach of pink sand, with a strip of blue ocean behind it.
Then the crab reappears, and crawls into Milliways. Its antennae and eyestalks wave furiously in all directions.
...
The 108 stay still and silent for a while. In all of their memory, they have never seen a structure such as this. It rebels against their intuitions. Why rectangles?
I see. That is very interesting. I am fortunate beyond measure to be, to my knowledge, the first of my world to be in such a place.
It is good to meet you, Franklyn Grayward. My name is Landfarmer Cooperation Blueviolet-108. Although, given present circumstances, I am no longer a Landfarmer and may now be more of a Voyager.
...That does seem lengthy, though. And as there seem to be no others from my world here, it may be convenient for you to call me Blueviolet-108 or 108.
Oh yes. It is a fanciful role. In ancient times, before the world was mapped, voyagers set out to discover new places and bring back knowledge of them. Or did so by accident. But the world has long been mapped and there is little voyaging of substance anymore.
...But perhaps not none, anymore.
We have something like it, however.... ...Please do forgive my prurient curiosity. There has been much scholarly speculation on the possibility of a sapient singleton, and whether such a thing could evolve. You are the first that I or anyone from my world have ever encountered. I have much to learn.
Certainly. I tend to gain or lose a few every time I return to the capitol, although one hundred and eight is a good working number for my profession. Do hiveminds on your world come in strict numbers, or is it possible that are no hiveminds there?
Oh, no, that's rather rare. It's more of a swap - I tend most often, for instance, to do knowledge exchanges with other landfarmers - or to send some to the Emperor for accounting and management purposes. A few come with the crab. The like.
No hiveminds at all? Strange! We had assumed that the evolution of telepathy would certainly lead to the development of some hiveminds. And yet here you are, telepathic and no hiveminds in your tree of life.
"Oh. My species is not naturally telepathic. Milliways is handling that through translation. Some of us are telepathic, or sort of telepathic, but that isn't a result of evolution. How much information each brain holds? Can you put specific information in specific brains?"
Truly! Dear me, I thought that as you moved your mouth and produced sound, this was facilitating your telepathy, but I understand now it must be the language itself. Forgive my assumption - my singletons also vocalize and I should have considered this. Quite resourceful, if I may say.
How do telepaths come about on your world, then?
Each brain holds... well, a rather scant amount, I'm not sure how to quantify it objectively. One star on its own is capable of little and can remember little. A group of 4 or so can do basic figures and reasoning. And the memory and processing available with telepathy in play scales up scales up greater than linearly, if you follow, so even a hundred and eight like me can do more than a few tricks.