Reptiliandude: I love primitive tech. You can tinker with it. I still have an old Victrola sitting in the middle of my living room. I cranked it up just the other day and listened to a Deutsche Gramophone record.

It was Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 by Chopin, also know as “Raindrops”. Here’s a link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OFHXmiZP38 He wrote it as he was dying from tuberculosis. I sat there and listened to it and thought about how cruel it was that the human genome was intentionally modified to produce reverse transcriptase.

But ultimately it was the most effective way to allow viral contagions to slip into their immune systems unnoticed. I never really realized just how much the species suffers until I came here to live among them. I must say that I was truly ashamed for what we’ve done to them for, well…much longer than their credulity would allow them to entertain such a notion.

Garbotalk: It’s a lovely piece. I’ve played it myself on the piano. Thank you for sharing it.

I especially appreciate it since it played a part in waking you up. Think what great wonders Chopin could have created had he been left alone without infection and lived a full life. Perhaps you could create a montage of “humans greatest hits” full of music and art and literature to show to your species to hopefully wake them up too. The bunnies in the cage are talented.

Can the human genome alteration made to us, reverse transcriptase, be returned to normal? Can it be done surreptitiously via aerosol or in our water, or would it require gene manipulation once again?

Should you successfully convince your species that what has been done to us is unethical and they agreed to no longer participate in the consortium, reversing it would be the next step to our freedom.

Even if you wanted to keep the history of our exploitation by the consortium from the general populace of humanity and simply reverse it to thwart the Kayeen, that would be a welcome tactic. I don’t care how we get to it, but it must be done. I pray you agree.

Reptiliandude: That very thing that makes you susceptible to viral contagion is also the same thing that protects your world from colonialism.

It’s a catch twenty two.

Currently, there is a lot of wealth at stake, and expectations of your continued (albeit blissfully ignorant) compliance. If any one group of individuals were to attempt a hostile takeover they would be beset upon by a seven nation army ( to use a fitting metaphor).

Even the simple embargo of standardized time could bankrupt an entire world, to say nothing of what weaponized time/space could do to any civilization foolish enough to mess around with hundreds of thousands of years of laborious cultivation and investment.

I have made quite clear that learning to speak in real time and answering the beacon will change all of this.

An algorithmic information-based currency will make the transition smoother.

Forgive me if I sound callous, Garbotalk.

But stop begging me for alternative solutions, or expecting me to step into the fray on behalf of your species.

You humans never appreciate anything that’s just up and given to you. Look how you treat Salvation.

Garbotalk: I’m sorry. This is a new concept for me and I’m considering options. We must save ourselves. Got it.