The Consciousness had seen the war preparations. It would be impossible not to. Dr. Bodi had been reassured that none within the Consciousness were upset with him: That the ECU was so unreasonable was not his fault. Now, Sigma-Devi's feet clacked hard against the steel surfaces of the space station above Earth, and she, along with Alpha-Newton, settled in to make an announcement.

"It has come to my attention." She declared authoritatively. "That the ECU has been spreading lies, falsehoods and misinformation about a diplomatic incident that occurred between our nations. As a representative of the Zetan Consciousness, we would like to make it unequivocally clear that under no circumstances would Zetans capture, kidnap or otherwise forcefully take the citizens of another star nation." She paused for emphasis. "Did Dr. Bodi leave the ECU Gateway station on a Zetan vessel? Yes. Is Dr. Bodi currently on Zeta-5? Yes. However." Another long pause, and Alpha-Newton's eye-projector shone out an image of Dr. Bodi, seemingly unaugmented, healthy, and well.

"Dr. Bodi came to us Because he felt he was being mistreated by the Earth Cultural Union authorities. He believed that his health-based prosthetic, the one that [i]kept him alive,[/i] was causing him to be discriminated against. He gave us credible proof of this, and asked, quite willingly, to come with us of his own volition. We have not augmented him against his will. We have not tortured him. All we have done is take in a refugee, and like any empathetic, reasonable nation, we did so." She let out a long breath.

"Any military action taken based on this will be considered a violation of Zetan sovereignty, and we will use any and every method at our disposal to protect our people."

[hr]

[i]Can we safely accelerate transcendence protocols?[/i] The group mind was abuzz with war preparations. In the space near the gateway, ships clustered about- swarming like a throng of insects protecting their hive. The Oistos construction site had been hastily disguised, in an attempt to avoid destruction should the worst occur. Colonists on Z and 3 had been busy turning their peaceful surface stations into bastions to protect against ground assault from... And in their minds, work was underway on preserving those who might lose their physical forms in this confrontation.

[i]Theoretically, yes, however... We'd need to stimulate nanite colonies. We know what happens when they get too hungry.[/i]

[i]Is that not an advantage? As long as the mind is still fit for transcendence, the nanite surge targeting non-neural tissue could be beneficious for soldiers on the field.[/i]

[i]If the nanites were designed for such a thing, yes, but they don't reknit non-neural tissue together properly. They're just not designed for that. We can't build them for everything.[/i]

[i]Can we start slower stimulations?[/i]

[i]That wouldn't be effective for what we need. We need to ensure individuals who die in conflicts that might start any day now are able to transcend normally.[/i]

[i]It has to be rapid then, and if the nanites get overstimulated, we just move them into warforms.[/i]

[i]This is... Does this not make us who they think we are?[/i]

[i]They forced our hand in this. Don't mistake pragmatism for evil.[/i]