“Exactly. So unlike us, they evolved quantum senses—out of necessity. While the quantum realm is anything but intuitive to us, it is to them. We’re a blind species trying to calculate instances of the color red. They’re a sighted species who recognize this color at a glance.”
I paused to gather my thoughts. “Finally, even though the hive-mind is a single entity, its consciousness and attention are splintered in millions of different directions. Only a tiny fraction of its total mental power is devoted to any one endeavor, as it sorts through sensory information and other data collected by its many billions of individual drones.”
I strained to remember if there was anything more in my novel that my comrades might find noteworthy, but I came up empty. “And that’s about it,” I added. “At least the main highlights.”
The colonel turned to Nari with a troubled expression. “The Galactics have to know more than that, right?”
Nari frowned. “A little,” the alien replied. “But not much. Our intelligence is woefully deficient.”
There was a long silence in the room as everyone gathered their thoughts.
“What about what Jason said earlier,” said Tessa finally. “Can the Swarm influence human minds? Even from thousands of light years away?”
“They can,” said the alien wearily. “But it takes a lot of their collective consciousness working in concert to do so. It’s complicated. In some ways immense distance doesn’t matter at all. In some ways it matters a lot.
“It has to do with the number of possible four-dimensional positions a quantum particle can take between two locations. As your own mathematicians have learned, some infinities are larger than others. Fortunately, distance does limit what the Swarm can accomplish in the human influencing department. It requires such a herculean effort on their part they do it sparingly.”
“Sparingly!” snapped Brad. “Are you kidding? Is that supposed to make us feel better? You could have wiped humanity out at any time, but haven’t. Instead, you’ve been helping us. So learning that you can implant a thought or two into our brains is one thing. Learning that a species that makes the one from Aliens look soft and cuddly is quite another.”
“Believe me,” said Nari. “I understand your concern. But there is more good news than bad.”
“How so?” said the colonel.
“First, they can’t control anyone. They can do more sophisticated things than we can, but they are still quite limited. Second, tampering is imperfect, so it leaves a distinct quantum signature. Their tampering is more robust than ours, and therefore harder to detect, but it still sticks out like a sore thumb.”
“Do you scan for such signals?” I said.
“We do. We can’t scan everyone on the planet, but we keep track of everyone on Brad’s team, and millions of others in positions of power. Whoever our AI believes could be a threat, or a security risk, if compromised.”
“Including me and Tessa?” I said.
“Especially you and Tessa. But there is a difference. We scan these others I spoke of constantly. We’d be alerted the instant the Swarm penetrated their minds. We stopped monitoring you two when you were injected with nanites, which won’t allow you to be compromised in this way. Even so, we still scan you on occasion—just to be sure. In your case, Jason, your mind still retains the quantum signature of our intrusions. But the Swarm would leave a distinctly different one.”
“Just how protective are the nanites?” I asked.
“One hundred percent. They’ve been programmed to prevent any mental tampering, even by us. Every citizen of every species in the Federation is equipped with them.”
“How nice for the Galactics,” said Tessa. “But how about extending this immunity to all of humanity.”
“We could do that,” said Nari. “We could issue nanites to your entire population. But we’ve already described the dangers of providing such tech globally. We weighed the pros and cons and concluded that leaving you susceptible to mostly feeble tampering, which we can detect, is the less risky option.”
“Is this just an academic discussion?” said Brad, “or have you actually detected tampering by the Swarm?”
“We’ve detected it, yes. Since the early 1950s. We actually find it encouraging.”
“Encouraging?” repeated Tessa in disbelief.
“Yes. It’s true that their tampering has put us in an awkward position, which I’ll explain. Has made our relationship with you more problematic. But the fact that they’re going to this kind of trouble to disrupt our efforts here is heartening.”
The colonel nodded thoughtfully. “Because it indicates they’re at least somewhat worried we might advance enough to stop them. That we might be a possible threat.”
“That’s right. However they’ve gained their intel, they’re showing you respect. In our view, the timing of their attempts at intervention are a clue. We believe they got intel on your Second World War and decided you were too ruthless and bloodthirsty to ignore.”
“Great,” said Brad, rolling his eyes. “I couldn’t be prouder.”
“We believe it isn’t just your dark side that has them worried,” said Nari. “Humans may be ruthless, selfish, violent, and malevolent. This is true. And these are traits to be feared.
“But what has them just as worried, we believe, is that you are equally passionate when it comes to positive traits. Individual humans are capable of astoundingly powerful displays of love, loyalty, self-sacrifice, and heroism. And a creativity when your backs are against the wall that likely exceeds the Swarm’s.”
“What makes you think that?” I asked.
“Because we doubt the Swarm’s back has ever been against the wall,” replied Nari. “Not since they developed intelligence. Humanity thrives on competition, which is why professional and recreational sports are such a huge part of your culture. The Swarm, on the other hand, hasn’t had a real contest for as far back as they can remember. They might beat humanity—probably will—but you won’t just roll over for them.”