Nanomachines, Kid. (2)
And it wasn’t only the fact that one of our own species had appeared without a spacesuit that left us stunned.
“Good God—is that even a person?”
Just as the explorer’s voice, thick with horror, suggested, the form of the newly arrived “something” was grotesquely wrong.
If it had merely been without a suit, we might have shrugged off an odd appearance. But this…
Its body shared the same hue as the nanomachines blanketing the surroundings, with tentacles and crystalline growths sprouting in chaotic disorder from every surface. And above all, though it roughly held the silhouette one associated with a Sevelian, its features were crushed and smeared beyond recognition.
Anyone looking would have thought it a mimic-type monster wearing a human shape.
—Whoosh!
One of the Purge Squad members, already out as escort just in case, kicked off hard and charged straight at the “something.”
“Oh dear.”
“Whatever that is, it better get ready to lose a few limbs, yeah.”
“If this goes wrong, we might have a diplomatic incident on our hands.”
But a moment later—
“···!”
Watching the feed, we witnessed a scene that made us doubt our own eyes.
—Crrrk…
“Wow, it’s been ages since I last saw the Purge Squad get pinned and captured, yeah.”
Except for a single unmanned drone hanging back at a safe distance for situational awareness, every other drone, every explorer, and every escort—including the Purge Squad—had been seized by silver tentacles and crystals erupting from the ground and every surface around them. The whole spectacle was being live-streamed to us.
The Purge Squad member, in particular, dangled helplessly in midair, snared by glittering silver tentacles.
And that was not the end of it.
—Crrrk… scree, shhhhssss…
—“Eh?”
—“Nooo, my Slowpoke Unit!!!!”
The unmanned drones caught in the silver tentacles were being absorbed, crumbling into powder as if dissolving into the tendrils themselves.
No—it wasn’t just the drones.
—“Ah—no, the spacesuit’s being absorbed!”
—“Help me!”
The crystals and tentacles wrapping the explorers began to devour their suits the same way, eating them away. Suddenly facing the prospect of tumbling naked through an environment that could not support life, the exploration team flooded the channel with nothing but panicked screams.
“Th-that’s going to end badly, isn’t it?”
“Haaah…”
“Accidents with new space beasts do happen during colonization, but something like this…”
—“Dangerous situation confirmed on the surface!”
—“Prepare additional assault craft for launch! And hurry the orbital bombardment preparations just in case!”
Those of us watching the screen, and the research battleship as well, were scrambling in open shock to extract the people on the ground.
Yet the moment the explorers’ suits—including the Purge Squad member’s—finished disintegrating and their bare faces were exposed—
—Shhhk!
—“Nngh… hhk?”
For reasons none of us could grasp, the “something” began gently stroking their faces with its tentacles.
“What the hell is that?”
“Beats me, yeah. Doesn’t look like it’s trying to absorb them the way it did the suits and drones…”
Before long the “something” on the screen drew its tentacles back from the bare faces.
—Wriggle-wriggle-wriggle… gurgle!
Spacesuits regenerated around the explorers even as the “something’s” own face began to resolve into far more complete features.
“What in the world…?”
And that face bore a striking resemblance to our own Purge Squad member’s.
In an instant the “something” finished its “transformation.” It seized the sole surviving unmanned drone—the one feeding us the image—and dragged the camera right up to itself…
—“^^@&&#&%”
“···?”
It spoke toward us in a string of sounds no human mouth should have been able to produce.
—“A brand-new alien language!”
—“No data in the translators! This is thesis material!”
The research staff aboard the battleship handling the relay immediately erupted into frenzy at the sound.
But that was hardly the important part. The “something” kept pouring out that unpronounceable language, accompanying it with frantic hand gestures, foot gestures, and tentacle gestures that defied comprehension.
—“A first-contact species is demanding dialogue with us!”
—“It’s trying to talk to us!”
Researchers both on the ship and among the still-bound explorers seemed seized by pure excitement.
Yet after several minutes of addressing the camera, the “something” abruptly fell silent.
“Why’d it stop?”
“Dunno, yeah? Not sure, but it feels like it just figured something out.”
And as if to prove Riel right, the “something” kneaded at its “throat” with its hands…
Then, in fluent Sevelian Imperial speech utterly unlike the gibberish of a moment before, it greeted us.
—“Ah, ah, ah—hello! I don’t really have a name, but it’s nice to meet you all!”
The voice was bright, cheerful, almost sunny.
—“Oh, right—I should free you first.”
Finished with its greeting, the “something” released the explorers’ restraints and spoke with what sounded like genuine apology.
—“I’m sorry. It looked like you were about to attack me, so I thought I should calm you down a little first.”
Perhaps because the contrast with the incomprehensible horror of moments earlier was so absolute, everyone except the researchers—who had cast off their boredom and were now blazing with pure scientific hunger—felt the same thing.
“Ugh, isn’t that thing kinda dangerous, yeah?”
Just as Riel muttered beside me, fear and suspicion rose unbidden.
But unlike the others…
Jackpot.
From the instant the “something” offered a greeting and showed friendly intent, I was thoroughly enjoying myself.
It wasn’t merely the satisfaction of collecting a new species.
I had simply realized, a little late, exactly what the creature standing there truly was.
And as if to confirm that realization, an event message bloomed before my eyes.
[PAUSED]
Event: Dream
The universe you happened to reach through the gate was a so-called nanomachine cosmos, packed with countless Gray Goo worlds.
Yet you pressed the exploration onward through that barren, nearly barren expanse.
And at last, at its end, you came face to face with a vast collective consciousness that rules and commands every nanomachine in this universe.
Contact with the nanomachines that once drove an entire cosmos to ruin was meant to proceed with the utmost caution…
But contrary to expectations, the entity has begun mimicking our appearance and offering greetings—revealing itself to be remarkably amicable—and confusion is spreading through the front lines.
Linked follow-up event in progress…
So this is the event that spawns in a Grey Nightmare universe when the Nightmare itself never shows up.
Reading the message, I felt a quiet thrill at how thoroughly the event gacha had paid off.
After all, the “something” still cheerfully filming tentacle content over there—no, the main body of the Grey Nightmare—was, unless a special mode was active, the single strongest individual entity in the entire game.
And unlike Alina, it was only borderline abhorrent intelligence at worst, so folding it into the Empire should be relatively easy.
Absolute jackpot!!!
I opened a channel to Vermouth and the research staff—still bickering among themselves—and ordered them to establish a hyperspace link through the unmanned drone on the planet’s surface.
They whined that a survey drone didn’t have that capability, of course.
“I heard you. Just get it done.”
“Yes, sir.”
Graduate-student researchers have no human rights. Once I crushed them under sheer authority…
Within minutes a drone fitted with the functions I wanted was dropped from the ship to the surface.
After a bit of maneuvering it finally reached the sector where the Grey Nightmare waited.
I activated the hologram through the drone and spoke naturally to the “thing” that now seemed to stand right before my eyes.
“I am Arto Virtorius Sevelian, Duke and Minister of the Foreign Executive Ministry of the Holy Sevelian Empire, charged with its diplomatic affairs.”
“Uh… hello? You’re the highest-ranking one here, aren’t you?”
The moment my hologram appeared, the creature saw straight through to who I was.
“…How did you know?”
“Well, of course. The people I restrained all snapped into perfect manners the second you showed up, didn’t they?”
“….”
Thinking about it, the answer was obvious. I felt a private flush of embarrassment for having asked such a pointless question.