Hylozoic by Rudy Rucker

night—when I climbed a subdimensional beanstalk and the Pekklet locked onto me. I see visions of her as—a sexy woman in feathers.”
    â€œ
Oooh-la-la
,” said Kittie.
    â€œThe Pekklet gives me little pieces of quantum computer code,” continued Jayjay doggedly. “She calls them runes. And I’ve been teeking the runes onto atoms over and over.”
    â€œHe’s completely spun!” exclaimed Jil. “Slushed!”
    â€œI teeped Jayjay while it was happening just now,” said Thuy loyally. “He really was teeking little jolts to atom after atom. I think he reprogrammed the whole hundred kilometer cube of Earth’s crust that’s under San Francisco.”
    â€œI was like an orchestra conductor,” said Jayjay, a little proud of his abilities. “Playing a pitch pipe for ten tridecillion musicians—one at a time.”
    â€œTen—what?” said Kittie, grasping for something solid to understand.
    â€œA big number,” said Jayjay, taking comfort in the math. “You write ten tridecillion as a one followed by forty-three zeroes.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œAnd the squawky feather-woman Pekklet made you do this—why?” said Jil, really doubting him.
    â€œWell—the Pekklet is working for an alien planetary mind called Pekka. And maybe Pekka wants Earth to be an old-school data center, like when they used to keep all those microchipboxes in one building. Maybe Pekka is skimming off Earth’s gnarl to run, I don’t know, a corporate market-prediction engine for the feather boa industry of the Magellanic Clouds!”
    Neither Jil nor Kittie laughed.
    â€œCan’t you feel the difference?” Thuy asked the other women again. “Can’t you feel that your gnarl is missing?”
    Jil shrugged. The conversation had trailed off. The thing was, thanks to the gnarl reduction, they didn’t have enough mental focus to be properly alarmed. It was like—everything’s fucked, but so what?
    Â 

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    â€œI’m just coming off a horrible catfight with Nektar and Lureen,” said Kittie, willfully retreating into neighborhood gossip. “The three of us had sex together last night, but then this morning, I’m the odd woman out. They both think they’re prettier than me. Old slags. I just hope Nektar lets me keep using her garage after what I said to her and Lureen. I went a little too far.”
    â€œI’m impressed you brought them together,” said Jil, content with the conversation’s familiar turn. “They used to hate each other.”
    â€œIsn’t anyone worried about Pekka and the missing gnarl?” demanded Jayjay.
    â€œMaybe we women are sick of you always trying to be the center of attention,” snapped Thuy, turning away from the apocalypse, too. “What did you say to them, Kittie?”
    â€œI called them rutting rhinos,” said Kittie allowing herself a slight smile.
    â€œ
That
goes in my next metanovel,” said Thuy.
    â€œI hear you’re calling it
Hive Mind
?” said Jil.
    â€œYeah,” said Thuy. “I’m merging with society. I’m thinkingthat instead of me writing
Hive Mind, Hive Mind
will write me.”
    â€œMy best murals are like that,” said Kittie. “They paint me.” She was scrolling through images in her interactive blook. “I bet that’s how it was for Hieronymus Bosch. I have his pictures here.”
    â€œOh, before I forget, can you pick up that cup you broke, Jayjay?” said Jil. “I don’t want the kids to cut themselves.”
    â€œAll right,” said Jayjay, squatting to pick up the shards. “Is it okay if I raid your kitchen? Maybe if I eat something, I can focus on what we have to do. This low gnarl is turning me into a pinhead.”
    â€œFine,” said Jil. “Ond’s in there napping on a couch.”
    Like someone hiding from the day by pulling