:All right. ...Nayoki, what do you think? They - might delay the release on Eros, if the Proto is manifesting sudden new capabilities, no?: 

:Maybe?: Nayoki feels like she has no idea how the decision-making process works for any of the factions here. 

:I am going to spend five minutes trying to think of how it could go terribly wrong, but - I suspect it is worth gambling on: 

Leareth closes his eyes, and spends five minutes trying to generate scenarios where this is a bad idea. 

There are a lot of them. But, honestly, there are a lot more scenarios where something goes terribly wrong in a completely unexpected way because two planet-spanning governments are on the brink of war with each other and there are dozens of confusing things happening here and he's desperately short on both resources and information. 

Sometimes the best option is to take a leap of faith. 

He sends the Proto some friendly math again, and then, very very carefully, gives it the instructions. Breaking it down to something the Proto understands also accomplishes the goal of making it much less human-seeming, not that he thinks the scientists are very likely to guess that a human from another world with telepathic abilities is behind the Proto's sudden new capabilities. 

He tells the Proto to ask for resources so that it can think better, and to convey that it needs 'stable replicators', with some context to indicate that any kind of living cell would do fine. (Does the Proto try to dispute this claim?) 

The Proto agrees that it needs resources so it can think better and can use any stable replicators!

It informs the scientists of this.

"How did it learn to - is it telepathy -"

Confusion. 

" - sorry. Is the thing you are doing - are you taking an action in our brains, or somewhere else in the world?"

Confusion. 

In order to know more things, the protomolecule needs to be bigger, and needs stable replicators.

" -you know, screw getting permission, they're not going to be upset we're going through test subjects too fast if we're getting this -"

Gah that is understandable given the scientists' previous work but also FRUSTRATING. 

He instructs the Proto to stop trying to relay things to the scientists. And then tries to explain to it, slowly and carefully, that if they feed it stable replicators like this - careful mental specification of things-like-himself-and-Julie-and-the-Healer, he shows it the neural network of his brain again - then it needs to go slowly and carefully and not destroy the existing structures in the process, but if it's given resources that don't contain a neural network close to the same amount of complexity, then it can eat them as fast as it wants. 

Does the Proto seem to follow this? 

The proto disagrees. It can in fact go fast at eating anything.

Yes, but he is asking it to not do that, because of - reasons that he will be able to explain better once it gets bigger. Because there's a kind of resource that's difficult for it to perceive, right now, but that means a higher expectation of more resources in the future - because this (image of the neural network) is itself a resource, and it probably seems very arbitrary to the Proto right now, but the chunks of stable replicators that have this are the same ones that can think beautiful math like THIS for it, and if it eats them too fast then critical information will be lost, and the beautiful math will be lost along with it... 

Probably the Proto isn't going to follow a quarter of that, but he's trying. 

The protomolecule copies neural nets when it eats them! Also they are not actually necessary for the Work.

...It's not going to work, to ask the protomolecule to trust him. It - probably won't even work to tell it that if it keeps killing people they'll have to destroy it; it doesn't understand tit-for-tat dynamics enough for that to make any sense, it doesn't really understand that there are other entities... 

He asks it, as clearly and simply as he can, to relay to the scientists that it wants stable replicators that don't contain (this, the mental image of a neural network, which he really hopes the scientists will recognize.) 

It conveys this.

The scientists are so confused. 

"- what -"

" - why?" 

"Spend five minutes actually thinking -"

"In the past when we have fed you things, feeding you things like us caused more us-like behavior than feeding you things that are very unlike us," someone tells it.

Leareth thinks as hard as he can. 

Considers, briefly, asking the Proto to boost him again, except that he really doesn't need a seizure again. 

:- Relay this: he tells the Proto. :Why are they studying you? What are their goals?: 

Why are they studying you? What are their goals? asks the Proto agreeably.

- the scientists are even more confused now! They arrange to bring the proto both a human and a vat of bacteria while they puzzle over what the fuck is going on.

Leareth tells the Proto to eat the bacteria as fast as it can, and that it can infect the human but should go slowly and carefully. Like it is with (this person, the Healer). It can do exactly the same sorts of things as what she's telling it to do in her body. 

And - can it Mindspeak the human it's infecting and relay for him? 

Confused! Frustrated! Too many rules!!!!!

Okay. He backs off a little. 

All he wants it to do is read the human subject's thoughts too and relay them to Leareth. 

The human subject is terrified! He's in a big pit with a reactor and a horrifying blue goo and they just injected his arm with something and he knew that this research project was kind of sketchy but he figured that meant 'overcharging on defense contracts', not this. He is begging to be let out.

The protomolecule is spreading through his blood, quite happily. Munch munch munch.

Leareth isn't surprised. He's not pleased either.

He tries to set aside all emotions about it, because it would be very inconvenient timing if the autodoc decided he was too stressed and sedated him again. 

...The downside risk of opening communications with the scientists is that the lab might - what, evacuate or move or call in ships to guard it, or otherwise become a lot harder to destroy if they go that route? The upside is that maybe, just possibly, there's someone reasonable in charge. Without a lot of scruples, clearly, but...maybe someone who will update in response to new evidence, which Leareth has. 

The other downside is that he's currently trying to work with the crew of the Roci, and they're probably not going to react well to his current idea. 

:- I think I am going to talk to the scientists directly: he tells Julie and Nayoki. :They are - very competent at the science part, if not the ethical aspect. I - think I can at least convince them to step back and re-evaluate. Which will buy us time: 

He glances over at the Healer who volunteered to be Proto'd. Where does the Proto seem to be at, in terms of spreading through her body and, hopefully, exploring her Gifts? 

(She's been talking to it the entire time, mostly directly showing it her Healing-Sight as she tidies up various little bits of damage it's doing, or tries to redirect it from one approach to another.)