Chapter Forty-Three: Learning Curve

Icarus spends a week learning to communicate with Gunther, an alien ship from a centaur civilization on the opposite side of the empire. After establishing basic translation protocols and learning about Gunther's origin and tech level, the crew agrees to help Gunther return home. They travel through the gate system to survey Gunther's target system, finding a sixteenth alien civilization (with unusual purple, retinal-based photosynthesis) that has been abandoned like all others. A second wormhole is discovered in the system, but exploration through it yields no answers about what happened to the civilizations.

The chapter opens with the crew's efforts to teach Gunther—named after its own designation—their languages. Initial struggles arise because Gunther, functioning more as an AI than a biological replicant, lacks physical life experience to contextualize language concepts. Progress is made by simplifying graphics to basic levels until a passable translation routine is established. Gunther proves cooperative but unmotivated in conversation. Through star charts, the crew learns Gunther originated from a budding civilization near the opposite end of the empire from their location. The builders were centaur-like beings—dachshund-proportioned with four legs and two arms—from a planet dubbed Centaurvania. Gunther was once biological and became a true replicant; the centaur civilization had three sexes, with "workers" being disposable individuals volunteered (or conscripted) for space missions. The centaurs had discovered SURGE drives and SUDDAR but not SCUT communications, following a familiar tech progression. Gunther had explored similarly to Dae and the narrator, hopping between systems before capture by sentries. Unlike them, Gunther never deciphered gate IDs. The crew convinces Gunther they pose no threat and agree to escort it home. After three hub hops and one leaf-node hop, they reach Gunther's original target system and survey it. They find the sixteenth catalogued alien civilization, notable for retinal-based photosynthesis producing purple plants instead of green. The system shows the same signs of abandonment as all others: no heat signatures, radio traffic, or activity. Gunther reveals it was abandoned upon its arrival. When questioned, Gunther explains its civilization sent it based on detecting anomalous microwave sources—the wormhole radiation. A second wormhole is discovered at minus ninety degrees; Gunther never explored it. A drone sent through the second wormhole returns after surveying a system fifteen light-years away in an unfavorable direction with no wormholes or active civilizations. The crew decides to proceed to Gunther's home system with hopes of finding answers there.