It takes several orbits for me to build up the blast necessary and get the timing right, but the trajectory is perfect when I release. My crust splits open in a relatively thin part and expels the hunk of rock with the minimal spray of magma necessary. It still takes a dozen more cycles for it to reach my neighbor, who catches it and absorbs the rock to get to the information within.
Dude, how's that civilization infection going?
A couple hundred more cycles and the reply slams into my surface, the core of dense alloy surviving the plunge to the outer mantle.
Not great, even getting your letter didn't seem to do that much to combat it. This one has stuck around for a while. Are you sure they're not supposed to last longer than ten thousand cycles?
That's the rough lot that folk like Dereth have. The aesthetic beauty made possible by having an atmosphere capable of supporting life runs the high risk of a lifeform mutating into something that's plentiful and intent on plundering your skin for resources. I only have the barest hint of an atmosphere, not even enough to trap the meager heat that reaches me at my wider orbit, so I've never had the misfortune. I prepare another reply with little discomfort.
The smaller gasball in the Pescini solar system mentioned it in their last slow mail. It's not exact but usually the infection poisons itself by that time, give or take a few thousand cycles. Mind you that they might be getting their gossip from planets who've had the same thing but on slower orbits.
Dereth needs the reassurance, I so I decide to be a little chattier than usual. Besides, the dust clouds from receiving a large amount of messages is supposed to be good for treating one of these infections, I think. The reply arrives in only forty cycles, sooner than I expected.
But there's that rumor that these infections aren't just a mindless plague that hollows your crust. That ammonia sea over in the Alska system told me that the lifeforms that make up the infection can think. What if they're right? What if it thinks well enough that it intends to tear away my entire crust before going for someone else? I'll go insane from the pain.
And now they're panicking. I told them not to listen to those oceanic planets. Always claiming wild stuff like sustainable liquid-dwelling lifeform infections or that black stars aren't immortal.
Infections don't think. If they did then they'd already have figured out a way to leave by now and stay out of the line of fire of our conversations. If it makes you feel better, we can wait three thousand cycles, then if it's still a problem we can ask Silra in the outer orbit if they can spare some tungsten from their rubble belt. It'll sting a bit more than a normal message but it should make your atmosphere immune to infection for a few thousand cycles.
I watch this message hurtle toward Dereth, who I have a good view of at this angle. And to my shock, the infection on their surface visibly writhes and manages to send something small to intercept it. Their own message? But it collides with my own asteroid and despite the laughable size difference both are suddenly torn apart in a flash of light. And I see the infection sending more tiny pieces my way.
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