(THE LIVING PLANET, EARTH BET) CHAPTER SIX

If Earth Bet could jump with excitement, it probably would have.

After days of experimenting, it had finally managed to keep an animal’s attention for as long as it wanted, even when there were other things it might have preferred to do. It was a small victory, admittedly, and Earth Bet suspected its humans wouldn’t have been particularly impressed if they knew about it. Still, considering where it had started, it was rather pleased with itself.

Unfortunately, now that it had succeeded, the achievement wasn’t quite as exciting as it had imagined. Earth Bet had spent so much time working towards it that it hadn’t given much thought to what would come afterwards. Keeping an animal interested in something was useful, certainly, but there was a considerable difference between that and getting it to perform a particular action. If it wanted to do anything more complicated, it would have to learn how to influence the animal’s behaviour rather than simply hold its attention.

That could wait, though. There was something else it wanted to attempt first.

Its humans.

Earth Bet had been aware of them for as long as it could remember. It knew their movements, their habits, and the countless ways they interacted with the world around them. It could feel their footsteps, sense the changes they made to its surface, and follow the spread of their cities across its continents. Their presence was so familiar that imagining the world without them was difficult.

The trouble was that it had never paid much attention to them as individuals.

There were simply too many. Most of the time, humans were part of a much larger picture, their individual lives blending into the movements of entire populations. Earth Bet could focus on a particular person if it wanted to, but it had rarely found a reason to do so. Names were even less important, since it had never needed them to know where its humans were or what they were doing.

Now, however, it needed to find someone it could actually talk to.

Addressing everyone at once seemed like a rather poor approach, especially when Earth Bet wasn’t entirely sure what had happened the last time a message had been sent through the ring. Whatever had spoken through it had managed to reach every human on the planet, and Earth Bet had felt the announcement spread across its surface. It hadn’t been responsible for it, although it suspected the ring had something to do with what had happened.

Until it understood more about that, it would be better to find another way of getting its message across.

The question was who to approach.

After giving it some thought, Earth Bet found itself considering the heroes. They were easier to distinguish from the general population, partly because of their uniforms and partly because so many people paid attention to them. Their activities were often reported, their appearances were familiar, and their involvement in major events made them stand out.

Earth Bet had taken particular notice of a few during the recent battle in Brockton Bay, and one name kept coming to mind.

Armsmaster.

It knew the man by his armour and his activities, although it couldn’t have said much about the person underneath. He was a prominent hero, and his involvement in the battle had made him rather difficult to overlook. Earth Bet had also observed him on other occasions, enough to form a rough impression of the sort of person he was.

From what it had gathered, he seemed intelligent and resourceful. More importantly, he appeared to have a particular interest in technology. His equipment was considerably more complicated than the costumes and weapons carried by many of the other heroes, and Earth Bet had noticed that he seemed quite capable of making improvements to it himself.

That seemed promising.

There was also the matter of Antarctica. The Simurgh had joined her brothers there, and Earth Bet still wanted to find out what the three Endbringers were doing. Its humans had no reliable way of observing them, either directly or indirectly, which left them with little idea of what was happening. Earth Bet, on the other hand, could sense the creatures and had been considering whether it might use the animals in the area to keep watch.

If it could gather information about the Endbringers and pass it along to its humans, it might be able to warn them about whatever was happening down there. Of course, gathering the information was only part of the problem. It would still need someone to receive it, and preferably someone who could do something useful with it.

Maybe Armsmaster could help with that.

He might also be able to help with the strange object that had appeared on its surface. The ring was still a mystery, and Earth Bet had no idea how much of what was happening could be attributed to it. Given his apparent interest in technology, Armsmaster might at least be able to make sense of some of its more technical aspects.

Of course, there was no guarantee he would believe a planet was trying to talk to him. Earth Bet wasn’t even sure how it would explain the situation without sounding completely ridiculous.

It was a planet. It had become conscious. There was an alien ring involved.

When it put it that way, the whole thing sounded rather unbelievable.

Still, it had to start somewhere, and choosing Armsmaster was only the beginning. It would also have to work out how to get his attention in the first place. Simply sending animals his way, as it had been doing with other humans, wasn’t really viable.

It could attempt to communicate directly, although it had no idea whether it could manage that without involving the ring. Alternatively, it could make use of the animals themselves. If it managed to influence their actions, perhaps it could get one to lead Armsmaster somewhere, or even find a way to write out a message for him.

The latter seemed rather ambitious. Earth Bet wasn’t sure whether an animal could manage something like that, even with its help. Getting one to carry an object or follow a particular route seemed considerably more achievable, although it would still have to make sure Armsmaster understood that there was a reason behind its behaviour.

Otherwise, he might simply send the animal away.

Earth Bet considered the problem for a while, trying to think of something that might work. There were plenty of possibilities, but none seemed particularly reliable. It would probably have to experiment some more before settling on an approach.

For now, it returned its attention to the animals near the ring. If it wanted to put any of these ideas into practice, it would first have to learn how to influence them beyond simply keeping their attention.

It had a feeling that was going to take a while.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t take quite as long as the last thing.