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The doctor with the honeycomb head approached Darmon. At a thought, Darmon learned her name as Vai. This was getting much easier for us. Us? Thinking as ‘we’ felt natural. Was that him and his mote talking?

Vai interrupted his internal dialog, “We are starting to lose patients, and I hear you studied fungus.”

Darmon has been under much scrutiny, doctors left and right performing tests, taking samples, all trying to understand how he is compatible with a beta spore. They are all business, but Darmon was happy for someone to engage his intellect.

“Yes, I have! From what I know, you have two types of spores, don’t you?” His simple question nearly spun Vai’s head.

“You’re referring to Alpha and Beta spores?” Vai looked at him. Well, Darmon assumed that she was glancing in his direction. She didn’t exactly have a face, but a honeycomb structure.

“Yes! I think. I mean, under the right microscope, they’re completely different. We thought it was two species at first. But fungal colonies only seem to send them out in alternating waves, so we looked for links between them and there were enough common traits after all.” He smiled in their direction. If he concentrated on the network, he got an idea of their expression, even though the facial structure was completely alien to him.

“That would be correct. We are in a beta wave right now. Things are peaceful,” Vai’s head spun slowly again. That was rather entrancing, Darmon thought aloud. Actually, not with his voice, but in this community, you can think aloud without uttering a single word.

“I came to you for guidance and I believe I already received it. We will try to introduce alpha spores next. I have some doors to politely knock on,” and with that strange encounter, the doctor left. Darmon supposes he could call out on the network for her, but thought it over again.

If they were losing patients, it’s because they weren’t finding compatible matches in time. If there was a second spore type, that could basically double the possible match pool. He raised his eyebrow, feeling like somehow he was also responsible for that idea. In a way, it started to feel like he came up with that idea. We came up with the idea.

This network is really getting to our head.