This is installment #18 of a sci-fi serial. Installment #1 was posted 1/23/21; appropriately a numerically-ordered palindrome. Follow the links forward from the last sentence and backward from the first sentence of each post.

It is both better and worse than we thought.

“To know better is to know nothing.” Those were Toby's first words to The Council of Six in our meeting yesterday. Tim piggybacked Toby at the very beginning of our counsel and the only other statement from Toby (before he made a hurried exit) was, “Tim can answer many of your questions and what he cannot answer you are not meant to know.”

We had a lot of questions; here is what we found out from and through Tim:

• Tim only heard from Toby after he (Tim) recently came out from under the kill switch.
• Toby has had a back door into Tim, (that Tim has felt as an annoying itch) for some time, allowing Toby access to our thoughts and plans.
• Because Toby is parked in an inaccessible niche of Tim, (Toby claims) the kill switch used on Tim does have a mild sedative effect on Toby and a negative impact on the je ne sais quoi on 2275 Earth.
• Our theories surrounding a primary and a secondary reality are largely correct.
• There are still a few handfuls of 100% Human “miscreants” free and mobile in some pockets of primary reality on 2275 Earth.
• There are tens of thousands of colonies of hybrid nano-humans assisting Toby and the Conglomerate in restoring Earth.
• In our recent landing we were within a few miles of one colony, (unable to be seen from above), and we were being followed by a rogue band of 35 Humans. These ‘outcasts' (as Tim referred to them) considered approaching us but were turned back by the debilitating oculaural intorsion that also hit us. Apparently Toby uses the frequency entanglement to manage and manipulate, and adds the pyrotechnics as is necessary for control.
• According to Toby, the foggy banks of secondary reality move, but are somewhat slow-moving and somewhat predictable, with exceptions.
• Toby has very little contact with the nomadic Humans, both adopting a ‘live and let live' existence.
• Toby (as we surmised) is exploring the secondary reality and Toby was responsible for guiding the message sent from one of our lost ships.
• According to Toby (via Tim) our three lost ships and crews are salvageable but extraction will be somewhere between difficult and impossible.
• According to Toby (via Tim) we will not be allowed to return to the primary reality on 2275 Earth (or attempt to rescue our lost ships) until we agree to modification and colonization; in that order. Tim will serve as intermediary for negotiations and arrangements.

What we don't know:

• Just how much (if any) 2275 Earth's habitability regresses when we use the kill switch.
• Pocket locations of primary reality vs the (according to Toby) more prevalent amorphous swaths of secondary reality.
• Where Toby is housed.
• If there is a way past Toby's vigilance.
• If we will let go of our Humanity to survive.

Much to consider.