All was darkness.

It was almost akin to the womb - floating in a sea of darkness - yet no physical stimuli was apparent. Then came a soft glow into the apparent darkness.

Calm, child. Rest for a moment, and I will explain. When you jumped, evading the Conflux, your jumpdrive was damaged. To add to it, it was an anomaly you jumped through, not a jumpgate. The effects of gravitic anomalies from drive damage and it's interaction with the inherent instability of a raw anomaly with no controlling mechanism can producec a shock wave of ... unforseen ... consequences. You, and your ship, are physically intact - but you are not... quite ... intact mentally. Wait... let me explain just how. By the way - you may call me Aelagi. I would be considered "ancestor" of who you call "Amananthii". But more about that later. Your short term memory center, as well as your visual recognition paths inside your mind, are gone. They were burned out by the misjump. You have heard of Jim Meran? Good. You may have some knowledge of why I am helping you, then. I have rebuilt those portions of your brain, by "using" your limited psychic ability to control the remnant of our nanomachines in this physical area of space. Every living creature has some physic talent, whether latent or controlled. Yours is latent, yet usable. No matter. To make this more cogent, here is what I have done. Your mind is now linked to a nano-computer inside your mind. It helps both replace those areas damaged by your accident, and enhance your connection both with current Amananth technology and your standard technology, so that you may "interface" with computers to keep your "programming" current. My knowledge is advanced in some areas, but may be behind in others. I left this option to you, knowing that I am fallible, if ancient in your reckoning of time. So I saved your life, yet may have complicated it. The side effects of this technology are two-fold. On one hand, you can sense the "Conflux" to a degree, as well as interface with computers directly. The downside is that telepaths can sense you much more clearly, due to your constant psychic link with your nanomachines that maintain your new computer, and you now have an input for malicious persons to perhaps gain access. Take a minute to digest all of this, then ask what you like.

He thought it over for a moment, weighing it carefully. Attempting to grasp the implications and the changes.
"Okay. So now I'm computer-enhanced, in a limited way, and able to interface with computers, and sense mild telepathic phenomena. My sensory inputs and memory are now accessed first by a computer, then stored in my brain for retrieval, rather than all processed through my brain. So, I probably have a photographic memory, at least in the short term, with the ability to dump it immediately into computer storage, like a reconsat. Wow. Hey, I could be braindead and dead in space... Seems like I got a bargain. I hate to sound ungrateful, oh benefactor mine. But what's in it for you? A lot of work. Unless... you're like GrimFalcon's "Pulse", aren't you?"

Similar, yes. Same phenomena caused both of us. But we are of different ancestry. Different backgrounds. He did not... adjust ... as well as I did. We are both side effects of the Great Collapse. Those who were in "null space" at the precise moment of the Cataclysm were not annihilated. We exist still, but in a limbic state - there was no canceling return effect for the nullspace energy wave in which we were traveling. Amananth buffered that side of the wave, somehow. I don't understand it, entirely. Here's a simple way to explain it. In physics, there is a reaction for every action, correct? What if, for example, though, the constant for gravity, or say, the speed of light, changed suddenly? Just think that through for a bit. Not enough to change the basic state of matter in the universe, but with a big enough energy release to cause an infinitesimal change in a "universal" constant such as that, science would cease to exist, at least for a while.

Do you understand why the pre-collapse technology had problems after the Collapse? I am stuck, physically, in that small variance between the two constants, yet not in either. Personally, I don't think I physically exist at all, really. Just mentally, as an "embedded consciousness" in the energy stratum. My specialty was artificial intelligence, I suppose you'd call it. As you'd call it, here's the "catch". I want to merge with Amananth, the current Amananth. I'm pure thought, now, with a part of me embedded in your new computer. Both a physic and data link that enables my full self to both communicate directly to your mind, or through it, to others. Or to a computer system with the capacity of Amananth, which I could easily exist in.

He thought for several moments, slack-jawed. Then, slowly, he began to assimilate it all. Very slowly. "So what you're asking is to hitch a ride in my mind, isn't it."

More or less. I saved your life, you return mine. So to speak

So I can think at you, and you can answer, huh?

Yes. You can do it to a limited degree to other telepathic beings as well. But not like you can with me. I can enhance it while I'm on this "carrier wave", but once I'm gone, you're on your own.

So the Assimilator sentient flux, when telepathic, may be able to not just move me around...

Also invade your mind, yes. Perhaps. Mostly on your strength of will and psi-potential, to be honest. I doubt they'll be able to do much to you, in my opinion. But I'm not all there... as you know. I may be wrong.
I have no physical way to prove or disprove it.

Any telekinetic ability like the Amananth 20 seem to have?

Ha! They were Amananth's examples of "perfect" human genetics, married to Amananthii racial geno-memories, which they will discover over time, as they grow. Telekinetics is a very rare gift anywhere. Those 20 children have almost no genetic limit to what they can do, theoretically. Technically, it's an experiment. One without any precedent. Then in reality, as we all know, there are always limits. Some are just farther outside what you'd consider "normal" than others.

I worry about h.. er, them. They're so vulnerable, and so powerful, all at once.

You need to rest, a bit more. Then you need to train this computer to do what you want it to do, when you want it done. That will take time.

Yeah, I bet. Thank you, Aelagi. We'll talk more when I wake up.

Sleep well, Child.

Do you sleep?