Chapter 2,
State 13 O'Sheno was the voice of reason and caution.
Although he had the go-ahead from the Council for universe-wide distribution,
He felt strongly that sending a test batch would be a good idea.
Councillor 12 agreed with him and obtained the rest of the Council's backing for the alternative plan.
This was as frustrating to the Seers as it was for the Doers.
The Seers had imaged and sensed over one billion sentient civilizations.
Their imaging capabilities allowed them to resolve surface detail on target planets orbiting stars in far-off galaxies.
Once they identified each galaxy's candidates,
They used their sensing powers to tune in to sentience.
This was no mean feat when there was only one planet orbiting one star of tens of billions in each galaxy to look for.
This exhaustive search had been their sole task for the whole of Epoch 6.
It was no wonder they were keen for the mass teleport to begin for the billion-plus Duodexes that the Doers had fabricated.
The Duodexes ranged in size immensely.
Some were just millimetres across and some hundreds of metres from edge to edge.
The target sentiences ranged from being the size of termites to beings that were as colossal as a blue whale.
The sense and capability of sentiences were wide varied and sometimes just weird.
Some would read the sides of a Duodex like a book.
Some would watch it like a multi-sided TV.
Others would listen to it as if it was a 12-sided loudspeaker.
A few would just sense it telepathically and some by a range of fields.
Some Duodexes were electric,
Others magnetic and diamagnetic.
Some operated by emitting gamma rays and others ultra-long-wave radio.
Each had to be programmed bearing in mind the language capabilities of the target beings.
The scribes like Cusheno probably had the most complex task.
It wasn't just a case of encoding all wisdom onto the surface of each dodecahedron.
Each side contained a multi-layered puzzle that had to be decoded before the next level of message was revealed.
Some messages were coded across diametrically opposite sides.
As each opposite pair of sides totaled the number 13,
It was the overstanding of the message from which real understanding could be gleaned.
For some species who liked the puzzle,
The real gems of wisdom were embedded at the centre.
So,
Cusheno pulled rank as the chief scriber and only 12 Duodexes from over a billion were to be sent out.
He among the scribers was the only one to have a direct line of contact to the Council.
The others just thought he was a genius and knew not of their existence.
It was decided that their neighbouring planet Aquanine would be skipped out on this batch.
Its companion planet,
Maia,
On the other side of the galaxy,
Would receive Duodex number 7.
Duodexes 1 to 4 were sent to the surfaces of solid planets,
Duodexes 5 to 8 to worlds with sentience in the seas and oceans,
And the remaining 4 would materialise in the clouds of gas giants.
None of the recipients would be given any notice,
Any clue as to what had come their way,
Or any guidance of what to do with it.
That was part of the trial.
The presence of a counsellor would not be detected either.
The very centre of each Duodex consisted of a 13 state of matter,
Just one atom in size.
In fact,
It was much a part of the void as it was the density.
It was here that one of the counsellors would reside for the trial period.
In Maia's case,
None other than Septima was about to be inserted.
