Tkett
"Hello, Peepoe," he said to the wavering image in front of him. "I'm glad you look well. We were all worried sick about you. But I figured when we saw Zhaki and Mopol you must be nearby."
The holo showed a sleek female dolphin, looking exquisite but tired in a jungle-shrouded pool, beside a miniature castle. Tkett could tell a lot about the style of "experiment" aboard her particular vessel, just by observing the crowd of natives gathered by the shore. Some of them were dressed as armored knights, riding upon rearing steeds, while gaily attired peasants doffed their caps to passing lords and ladies. It was a far different approach than the crystal fruits that hung throughout this vessel -- semi-transparent receptacles where individuals lived permanently immersed in virtual realities.
And yet, the basic principle was similar.
"Hi Tkett," Peepoe answered. "Is that Chissis with you? You both doing all right?"
"Well enough, I guess. Though I feel like the victim of some stupid fraternity practical --"
"Isn't it exciting?" Peepoe interrupted, cutting off what Tkett had been about to say. "Across all the ages, visionaries have come up with countless utopian schemes. But this one could actually w-w-work!"
Tkett stared back at her, unable to believe he was hearing this.
"Oh yeah?" He demanded. "What about free will?"
"The Buyur will provide whatever your will desires."
"Then how about truth!"
"There are many truths, Tkett. Countless vivid subjective interpretations will thrive in a future filled with staggering diversity."
"Subjective, exactly! That's an ancient and d-despicable perversion of the word truth, and you know it. Diversity is wonderful, all right. There may indeed be many cultures, many art forms, even many styles of wisdom. But truth should be about finding out what's really real, what's repeatable and verifiable, whether it suits your fancy or not!"
Peepoe sputtered a derisive raspberry.
"Where's the fun in that?"
"Life isn't just about having fun, or getting whatever you want!" Tkett felt his guts roil, forcing sour bile up his esophagus. "Peepoe, there's such a thing as growing up! Finding out how the world actually works, despite the way you think things ought to be. Objectivity means I accept that the universe doesn't revolve around me."
"In other words, a life of limitations."
"That we overcome with knowledge! With new tools and skills."
"Tools made of dead matter, designed by committees, mass-produced and sold on shop counters."
"Yes! Committees, teams, organizations and enterprises, all of them made up of individuals who have to struggle every day with their egos in order to cooperate with others, making countless compromises along the way. It ain't how things happen in a child's fantasy. It's not what we yearn for in our secret hearts, Peepoe. I know that! But it's how adults get things done.
"Anyway, what's wrong with buying miracles off a shop counter? So we take for granted wonders that our ancestors would've given their tail fins for. Isn't that what they'd have wanted for us? You'd prefer a world where the best of everything is kept reserved for wizards and kings?"
Tkett felt a sharp jab in his side. The pain made him whirl, still bitterly angry, still flummoxed with indignation.
"What is it!" He demanded sharply of Chissis, even though the little female could not answer.
She backed away from his bulk and rancor, taking a snout-down submissive posture. But from her brow came a brief burst of caustic Primal.
# idiot idiot idiot idiot
# idiots keep talking human talk-talk
# while the sea tries to teach #
Tkett blinked. Her phrasings were sophisticated, almost lucid. In fact, it was a lot like a simple Trinary chiding-poem, that a dolphin mother might use with her infant.
Through an act of hard self-control, he forced himself to consider.
While the sea tries to teach...
It was a common dolphin turn-of-phrase, implying that one should listen below the surface, to meanings that lay hidden.
He whirled back to examine the hologram, wishing it had not been designed by beings who relied so much on sight, and ignored the subtleties of sound transmission.
"Think about it, Tkett," Peepoe went on, as if their conversation had not been interrupted. "Back home, we dolphins are the youngest client race of an impoverished, despised clan, in danger of being conquered or rendered extinct at any moment. Yet now we're being offered a position at the top of a new pantheon, just below the Buyur themselves.
"What's more, we'd be good at this! Think about how dolphin senses might extend the range of possible magics. Our sound-based dreams and imagery. Our curiosity and reckless sense of adventure! And that just begins to hint at the possibilities when we finally come into our own...."
Tkett concentrated on sifting the background. The varied pulses, whines and clicks that melted into the ambiance whenever any neo-dolphin spoke. At first it seemed Peepoe was emitting just the usual mix of nervous sonar and blowhole flutters.
Then he picked out a single, floating phrase... in ancient Primal... that interleaved itself amid the earnest logic of sapient speech.
# sleep on it sleep on it sleep on it sleep on it #
At first the hidden message confused him. It seemed to support the rest of her argument. So then why make it secret?
Then another meaning occurred to him.
Something that even the puissant Buyur might not have thought of.
Peepoe
Her departure from the habitat was more gay and colorful than her arrival.
Dragons flew by overhead, belching gusts of heat that were much friendlier than before. Crowds of boats, ranging from canoes to bejeweled galleys pulled by sweating oarsmen, accompanied Peepoe from one pool to the next. Ashore, local wizards performed magnificent spectacles in her honor, to the awed wonder of gazing onlookers, while Peepoe swam gently past amid formations of fish whose scales glittered unnaturally bright.
With six races mixing in a wild variety of cultural styles, each village seemed to celebrate its own uniqueness in a profusion of architectural styles. The general attitude seemed both proud and fiercely competitive. But today all feuds, quests and noble campaigns had been put aside in order to see her off.
"See how eagerly we anticipate the success of your mission," the gray magician commented as they reached the final chamber. In a starship, this space would be set aside for an airlock, chilly and metallic. But here, the breath of a living organism sighed all around them as the great maw opened, letting both wind and sunshine come suddenly pouring through.
Nice of them to surface like this, sparing me the discomfort of a long climb out of the abyss.
"Tell the other dolphins what joy awaits them!" The little mage shouted after Peepoe as she drifted past the open jaws, into the light.
"Tell them about the vividness and adventure! Soon days of experimentation will be over, and all of this will be full-sized, with a universe lying before us!"
She pumped her flukes in order to rear up, looking back at the small gray figure in a star-spangled gown, who smiled as his arms spread wide, causing swarms of obedient bright creatures to hover above his head, converging to form a living halo.
"I will tell them," she assured.
Then Peepoe whirled and plunged into the cool sea, setting off toward a morning rendezvous.
The Real Culture War
