“Is there anything else we need to address?” said Nari.
“I’m afraid so,” I replied. “Humanity has been sitting at the children’s table, and not without reason. But things have gotten far too real for that. The Swarm is worse than any of us have imagined, and I’ve just had the smallest taste of their memories. When you have access for yourselves, you’ll see what I mean. So, bottom line, it’s time for the wolves to have a seat at the adult table. Time for us to become actively involved in Federation decision-making.”
I stared at Nari. “You said yourself we were being groomed to lead the Federation. I’m not saying we’re ready to do that, but we need to have more of a voice.”
Nari nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll need to consult with the rest of the Federation’s governing body. But I can’t imagine your request being denied.”
“Good,” I said. “For starters, I think the three of us in this room should be part of your inner leadership circle. And possibly Nick Nicola. We’ll add more as we go.”
“Solid choices,” said Nari.
“Thank you,” I said. “And we’ll want to spend some quality time on that asteroid of yours, to meet with representatives of all Federation species. I assume you can provide suits that will allow us to mingle despite varied atmospheres and environments.”
Nari nodded. “I can.”
“Good,” I said simply. “I also want to visit asteroid Ohio.”
“Asteroid Ohio?” repeated Nari in confusion. “That’s a strange request.”
“Not at all,” I replied. “Assuming Tessa answers yes to an important question I plan to pose to her, I’ll want to meet my future father-and mother-in-law.”
Tessa’s eyes widened. “Wow, Jason,” she said, trying to sound cross but beaming instead, “I can’t believe you just tipped your hand like that. I thought marriage proposals were supposed to be a surprise.”
I smiled. “I think we’ve all had enough surprises for a while. Besides, you had to know this was coming.”
“Well, yeah, once you forgave me for lying to you, yes. I could see it in your eyes. You know, as you were lowering me into a smelly storage trunk. You gave me a look that said, ‘if we get out of this alive, I really need to marry this woman.’”
“You always could read me like a book.”
“Are you sure that I’m going to say yes?” said Tessa with an impish smile.
“Positive.”
“Good. Maybe you’re starting to read me like a book too.”
“Well, I did cheat. Remember, I saw you being interrogated by Kenneth Kussmann. I was really touched by what you said about me. I won’t ever forget it.”
“To be fair,” said Tessa. “Given your nanites, you won’t ever forget anything again.”
“But I especially won’t forget that,” I replied happily. “Although there is one part of the interrogation I’d like to erase from my mind. It was distressing to learn that even the Swarm knows you’re out of my league. Yet another reason to tie you up in marriage before you come to your senses.”
Tessa laughed. “Come on, Jason. The Swarm knows absolutely nothing about love.”
“No doubt about that,” I said with a smile.
I paused, becoming serious once again. “And as corny as it sounds,” I added, “that’s why love was our secret weapon. Something that became clearer as events unfolded, and I gained more and more insight into the icy, passionless evil that is the Swarm. The Federation AI knew it also, at some level, somewhere within its inscrutable, incomprehensibly dense calculations.”
“Actually,” said Nari, “we programmed our AI to place a high value on human love and passion in its calculations. Federation members don’t understand this passion much better than the Swarm. The Swarm doesn’t understand it because they’re utterly cold. We don’t because we’re on the passive and lethargic side. But just because we don’t understand it, doesn’t mean we can’t try to harness it.”
The gray alien paused. “Like us, the Swarm won’t allow its AI to achieve sentience or runaway evolution,” he continued. “So both of our AIs are stalled at the same level, with virtually identical powers of prediction. But we played a hunch.”
I nodded my understanding. “You reasoned that if your AI placed a much higher value on love in its predictive algorithms than did the Swarm’s AI, it would have the advantage.”
“We hoped so, yes. We reasoned that this would at least introduce an irrationality, an incalculable variable into the mix. Enough randomness to possibly allow us to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.”
“Which is why the AI went to such great lengths to play matchmaker,” said Tessa. “To introduce this potentially winning randomness into Jason’s life, the man prophesized to be pivotal to our collective futures.”
“The AI’s reasoning is unknowable,” said Nari. “But I believe that to be the case.”
I shook my head in dismay. “And it worked,” I said. “Love played a huge role every step of the way. A decisive role.”
I never thought I’d be so corny, so mawkishly sentimental, as I had repeatedly been on this day, but as corny as what I was saying might be, it was also accurate.