An offer of help from a seventy-million-year-old, super-intelligent, pointy space-rock was not something to be taken lightly. The Syllogist's proposal to team up and take down the now-artsy and very annoying Gardener was, on the surface, a great deal. The Syllogist was powerful, logical, and it probably had some very big, very effective weapons.
But Emma's gut was still screaming that something was wrong. So, she agreed to a meeting.
The negotiations were held on a secure, holographic channel. On one side was Emma, representing the messy, emotional, and unpredictable Bastion Alliance. On the other side was a perfect, shimmering, holographic image of the Syllogist's rotating crystal form. It was a meeting between the universe's best poker player and a computer that could calculate the odds of every possible hand.
The Syllogist was a master of logic. Its arguments were flawless, seductive, and completely, utterly reasonable.
