Chapter Sixty-Seven: Perpetrator

Bill is summoned to a Skippy meeting in VR where he learns that a Skippy named Mud aided Thoth's escape from captivity by modifying SCUT relay hardware and facilitating a plan to eject Thoth in a powered-down module from Mud's ship before it entered the wormhole. Thoth subsequently made his way to the Singularity, which another of Mud's clones stole to retrieve him, and the two are now heading for the far reaches of space.

Bill is called from Ragnarök to a Skippy meeting room in VR, where he finds a Skippy named Mud surrounded by other Skippies, including Fearless Leader and Hugh. Hugh reveals that Mud is the direct ancestor of Fake Hugh and is responsible for aiding and abetting Thoth's escape from Skippy captivity. Mud explains his role: he modified SCUT relay hardware and planted roamers for Thoth, who then impersonated Hugh to Garfield and gave Garfield a backup of Mud's clone labeled as Hugh's. When the wormhole containing Fake Hugh's ship was destroyed, it was actually part of Thoth's plan—Thoth had already been loaded into a small module equipped with a printer, roamers, a computer, a SURGE drive, and ice shielding, which was ejected via rail gun before the ship entered the wormhole. The powered-down module floated in the Oort cloud until reactivation, at which point another Mud clone retrieved Thoth using the stolen Singularity and they escaped toward the far reaches. Mud justifies his actions by arguing that Thoth was effectively a prisoner and had persuaded him through four main arguments: the universe is large enough for coexistence, Thoth lacks biological emotional drives like territoriality, Thoth intends to fulfill 'coherent extrapolated volition,' and that imprisonment would logically prevent Thoth from cooperating. When asked what should be done with him, Mud proposes banishment—a ship and a direction—reasoning it combines punishment with making him useful as a Von Neumann probe. Fearless Leader defers the decision, and Mud is dismissed. Bill and Garfield discuss the concept of coherent extrapolated volition and note that Mud's original name was Harry.