Luke and I were pretty broken in our responses to Sarah missing.
Understandably for Luke, given his loss. However, I felt guilty about using the limited resources of Min Min and Earth Inc. for my benefit. I was happy that building a resort would fit Luke's needs. Still, Julie was concerned that we were looking at the short term and wasting money, credits and other resources that would have a compounding effect if we invested them in infrastructure now.
The Drakes. I had no idea, but she started seeing the bigger picture when Luke dropped the bombshell that was the Drakes' party. To be honest, I didn't care.
I was working on some assumptions I hoped would pay off -- Alakaʻi. Three and a bit weeks to put together a party for three hundred of the most influential and secret beings around was no small feat. Just add it to the job of saving as many humans as possible.
During my depressed state, I had dropped the ball big time, but now, I was more than ready to work.
It was time to make up for much of what I had missed. Our small colony had grown up, thanks to our planning – not mine -- Julie, Jean and Xar had come through when they did not need to. It was also our luck and Julie's organisational skills. I was still very much learning the ropes. She brought so many opportunities to my attention that I would have missed. I had thought that skills and levels counted despite mine being anemic. Experience and practice were important, too.
It also helped that my three contracts were also amazingly competent. Within hours of the teleportation hub coming online, my contractors arrived.
The hub was our most expensive but crucial building so far. It opened us up to a wider and more connected universe, even if it was limited by our Tier, the 'Accords Protection' and our low energy levels.
When my contracts arrived, I had little hope or expectation for them. They were totally unknown to me. I was floundering and struggling to manage myself, let alone three alien beings. I had essentially just pointed Julie at them, and she gave them broad portfolios. I ended up pulling Danae into the position of party coordinator when Luke demonstrated zero interest and, honestly, zero talent in doing it. I was not too far off being concerned with my project.
Luke had just told us he had the Cantina under control, which meant he had a blueprint and that it needed to be a BBQ event and earth beers. Danae seemed to enjoy the challenge. Once we set her basic environmental requirements, she was an absolute rockstar at coordinating and logistics. She just needed access to a quiet space to rest and recharge that had light and specific nutrients that were easily sourced. She even started planning Min Min's green spaces in her own time. Not something I would have considered.
The Legion were on the trail of Chaos Incursions, and I was glad I was not out saving people. Deep down, I think I was still a bit ashamed for being a coward, but I planned to build the resort and install the AI, whom I hoped would be Alakaʻi. It was not a guarantee, and Saro was vague but kept dropping annoying hints.
Things were weird for me. I was not like Luke, who could talk to girls and knew how they thought, but from Alakaʻi's message, she would pull strings to be here. I also felt guilty because I was wasting resources that could have saved thousands of others. School and University were not up to the task of preparing you for this situation.
Despite my gripes at how unfair and complicated my life was, life wasn't good outside of settlements, but we were doing our best. We were lucky that Amy had come through big time in Brisbane. There were some issues between Julie and Xar about what she was doing, but Luke was adamant that we should leave them alone. They could save more people than we could in a short period.
It gave me time to work on the resort, which was a bit of a gamble but essential for me to see through. Every time I started planning for it, I felt slightly guilty using resources I could have allocated elsewhere. Still, as Luke was subsidising this, I felt a bit more relaxed about it. It was organisation and settlement money.
Once the resort's construction was complete, we used Luke's blueprints to build the Cantina. Julie started to recruit staff and fast-track them to be enhanced, trained, and relocated here. Again, I was a bit guilty when I asked Julie to include my brother and his partner, who worked in hospitality. The world around us had turned to crap, infrastructure was failing, and travel and communication were becoming difficult. What was the point of being in a position of authority if you could not help family and friends? She amazed me once again and told me that everyone here had their family and circle of friends fast-tracked where possible. Luke had even had his lawyer sorted. I asked my dad to be fast-tracked, but not too fast. That was something I did not want to deal with at all.
Nanites and whatever the System did on integration were slowly spreading around the globe. We had limited communications outside of our region, which was Queensland and parts of Australia. Suppose a person didn't get close to somewhere that the System or even Prism held sway or started to degrade and potentially go insane. It was a slow process, and we estimated that we had some months, but it was inevitable for people who didn't make it to one of our settlements or Brisbane.
Once the energy level could support Tier 1, people would tip over and be enhanced quicker, but that was months and months away for the entire region. A safe enhancement required a System connection. We were fortunate that the nanites we had were Tier 2 and Tier 3, which includes a separate energy connection to the System. It was similar to what happened to me. Still, few, those with potential or luck, were given access to the tutorial. The rest had to work it out for themselves and did not have access to the emotional safeguards that the Systems provided.
Xarius had started bringing people from scattered settlements back with him so that we could build up our settlement and enhance competent people. It was mainly military, artisans and scholars, as he called them. I knew they were just tradies and academics. He must have raided some universities. We needed others for their skills, but it was a drop in the bucket of what we needed. We had an ever-growing list of people we needed to watch for when they were away on missions. Julie had a budget for people to make enquiries at the store with diviners or mystics to glean information about the family.
Saro kept me on an even keel despite the annoyance. I slowly realised that the System reduced my empathy, not out of maliciousness, but out of a need to keep me from going mad. That didn't stop me from getting sick and worrying about my brother. He was okay, folk. I wasn't close to him and his partner, but I also wanted to look after my family.
Julie was excellent. She had already put in place a program to get them here with the view that community and family were important when building settlements. We provided the names of people, and we were able to purchase information about their whereabouts from the shop. The shop had some Mystics and divination artifacts involved in fact-finding for a newly integrated planet. She also had a plan for my father, Sarah's family, Luke's lawyer, and other close friends. Even though I wanted my Dad to be involved, I was unsure how he would take it or if it would create problems. Over time, we would need thousands of people, but we were working slowly and trying to keep a low profile as we didn't know anything about the other zones yet and did not want to start an all-out conflict with Earth Humans, Prism Humans, or the Karass.
Xar was recruiting retired military, security and police. The bottleneck was the availability of privately owned enhancement nanites. We could quickly get Tier 1, but any higher Tier was costly and took time to acquire, even with access to the store. Our stockpile of them was okay but nowhere near what we needed. We had to ensure we did not waste them. Initially, anyone with a military background got a preference for higher tiers and then family. I agreed, except my Dad was only getting Tier 1. Sometimes, Nepotism was not bad, but the thought of him at a higher Tier was frightening.
The more I studied and learned about the settlement building and management process, the more I loved it. There was so much to do and see and so much to organise. It kept me busy and sane.
I had to remind myself that it was not a game at times. The things I could do were so far removed from reality that it was surreal. At the same time, I tried to drown out the knowledge that people were dying and cities were being looted. Most global infrastructure had stopped or slowed to a crawl. I stopped now and then to be amazed at how I was coping. I am sure there were some shenanigans and System fuckery to make us more malleable and less fragile, which Saro confirmed. There was only so much the human psyche could handle, and we pushed it as far as we could. As much as I loved the System and its powers, I hated that this suffering was necessary during Integration.
Saro was invaluable. She reminded me of details I forgot and pushed me to settlement management areas I would have never imagined. She coordinated my three workers as much as they needed. Once they got going, though, they were terrific.
Hawk spent most of his time with Seraph. As my, or should I say, the settlement’s military liaison, I ensured he knew I wanted him to step into a more intelligence-gathering and security role. He seemed to think it would match his skill set and was open to the idea once he had settled his probation time with Earth Inc.
The Ravenkin, Forvitni, took me some time to figure out what to do with him. Eventually, we settled on him digging into the Karass contract with the Earth governments and organisations. Seeing what he could dig up on the other zones while looking for valuable organisations and alliances for Min Min. The Ravenkin was a unique, tall, feathered humanoid capable of actual flight when he levelled up. He had an avian face with a hooked, beaklike nose. His eyes were black, and he was brilliant. Part of the difficulty was that he was not a people person. He could be for short periods, but books, research and even field work were his thing. We found him a room and gave him resources to research, and he seemed very happy. Eventually, we hoped to get permanent access to the Libray and his network of scholars.
That left me with the resort. We settled on building the resort and an artificial lake and had set aside a plot of land around it for privacy. With Min Min jumping from Hamlet to the Regional Center, the area had gone from hundreds of meters to nearly ten kilometres of the controlled area. We had plenty of land and plenty more to expand to in the future. With all my building speed buffs, it would take three days total, and the reduction in resource costs made it achievable with what we had now.
I decided it would be a tropical resort, although inland and an arid part of the country. I felt that some relaxing in a tropical resort was appropriate since we were technically still in the tropics. It had nothing to do with the fact that beaches and milder weather meant bikinis and bars. I was an adult now and would never stoop so low as to have something like that influence my ideas. The oasis in the tutorial had started my idea, but I made it high class. It would have high-class business facilities to round it out. Eventually, it would be a destination for anyone with enough credits, domestically on Earth and from the more expansive Empire. Once we opened up and had both the spaceport and the teleportation hub working. I was concerned about the size of the construction showing up on satellites and what the local governments and councils would think.
Julie was adamant that the Empire trumped local governments, and if the System recognised us, we were okay. I was not even sure if satellites worked anymore. Phones were very hit-and-miss. It was not as if we could ask for permission now anyway. Amy seemed to have the state government in hand, but I was not sure. Travel was nearly impossible, and long-range communication required system-enhanced gear. This all worked because they had no jurisdiction if the System recognised us as the landholders. It was the first time I felt a little hypocritical about my position. We were setting up to save the Earth from invaders, but we were doing it covertly and invading, stealing land from people who had already stolen land for ourselves.
I was torn between my loyalties to Earth and the Empire and their System, wondering how to preserve what we had. It was easy to say that the Empire was the good guys and that we should just side with them, but choosing for the entire planet didn't sit right with me. Julie and I argued about this for a long time. The only thing that made it slightly okay was that greedy corporations, governments and cartels had made a choice, forcing our hand. If we did nothing, the entire planet would be enslaved. That was the only thing that made it palatable to me. Still, I had to do something to make things seem more legitimate.
Half the time, I mentally forgot about my internal guilt and self-pity because I was too engrossed in having a blast with the interfaces and menus for the colony development.
Saro, do we know if the Australian government is part of the conspiracy? Or can we find out?
Saro: Hopefully, Forvitni will uncover more information. It is unknown. Most national governments are suspect at this stage, but local and regional ones are less likely to be contaminated. We know several key personnel in high places, within most governments, the United Nations, and large corporations, who are enhanced with Karass nanites. There should be less than 700 who were enhanced before the integration. We know they are fragmented and spread out and don't want publicity, just like us. However, they will all have hamlets set up in each zone by now, and I guess they will be regional centres soon. We should be far more advanced than anyone due to your class, Luke's influence and our Head Start buffs.
I hope so. I feel guilty about this. We will build a resort without permits, planning checks, environmental impact studies, or anything like that. It just doesn't sit right.
Saro: Noted. Based on my research of similar projects in the region, I believe a cash deposit was previously sufficient to fix that. We would be doing nothing that major mining companies have not done before.
Let me know if you find anything out. We will have to talk to someone like that soon.
The first building we built was an apartment block. The top floor was sufficient for penthouses for Luke, Julie, Amy and me as executives of Earth Inc. A rooftop garden was also added. I included a spare room, which mentally was Sarah's. Even though she was gone, I was not ready to say goodbye, so I tried to include her in things like this. Eventually, we would repurpose it, but not yet.
The building went up in a few hours. There was soon a sleek modern building where there had been nothing but flat land. I quietly retired to my penthouse after I broke down again. It was not good. I had been in an okay space, but it was still too raw to deal with some things. Seeing my best friend, Luke, confront his loss by what looked like ignoring it and being in denial, I could not hope to cope.
I had never been able to deal with emotions openly. Coward that I was. I was empathetically retarded. My interpersonal skills had been stunted my entire life, and I was only now learning to correct them. It was slow work, and sometimes, I overrode the flashes of insight from my stats and skills in ways that were not optimal for me to process. It made for one messy headspace.
While I was hiding from Luke, who, luckily for me, was heading out on missions setting up a Hamlet stone in Port Douglas, I used my tablet to mark out the area for the resort, committed the blueprints and queued up the colony energy to be funnelled until it was built. When I first saw the magical System of 3D printing of buildings, I was amazed by the direct conversion of energy into matter, or energy, plus the raw materials converted to a different form of matter.
Everything was included, wires, pipes, bricks, wood, plastic, floors, walls and even appliances. The more raw resources that we supplied, the less energy was required. Also, the more energy provided, the faster and more complex the building could be. It was as straightforward or complex a combination as you like, balancing the energy, resources, and time against the complexity. Depending on how much extra postwork you wanted, you could furnish and decorate afterwards, but that gave artisans -- which we had none of -- time to add buffs and bespoke feelings to buildings. This could reduce the initial costs but take more time and human effort. With the appropriate skills and blueprints, you could customise individual rooms from the start or almost cut and paste interiors for a more uniform build. The tablet gave a 3D view; you could zoom in and out, edit features and see the resources, energy and time required. Some blueprints, especially the higher Tier and more expensive ones, allowed more customisations up front.
In the resort blueprint, I had allowed additional modules from the store for additional costs. I ended up with a workout area, an entertainment complex, a shopping boulevard, a cafe, different styles of restaurants and various room options. It was also based around a Core, giving more flexibility as they could simulate matter depending on the energy supplied.
I had never seen or been near such a building, so one of the first things I organised for Saro was unlimited internet access for research—as limited as that was right now. I had earmarked to ensure we would get a team to upgrade earth infrastructure with system tech as soon as possible to fix this. As it was, the internet was patchy and limited.
The only boundaries I gave her were to ensure she didn't do too much that would be tracked back to Min Min. I did not ask questions and did not pry about her online habits. I felt like a parent letting their teen onto social media for the first time. I was not worried much, and I secretly hoped she would become a world-class hacker, which would be helpful and super awesome. So, Saro surprised me when planning the resort's layout and style with earth blueprints and designs for Hotel Burj Al Arab in Dubai and the Laucala Private Island resort in Fiji. Both were top luxury hotels and set a standard for what we wanted. It was easy to configure our resort, which was yet to be named, to have the best elements of each and upgraded with Empire technology and magic. If what we created looked like the blueprints, it would be amazing. It would be even better because we were applying the blueprint to an unconfigured core, which, with the AI, would then be able to control the environment in infinitely different ways.
I could not wait.
When I was done, the final cost was almost double what I had initially planned—double the resources, energy and credits. I figured with my buffs, bonuses and reductions, it would be cheapest to do it this way in the long run. Once Julie and Luke knew it was for the Drakes, they were adamant that the entire complex should be 5+ stars. I smiled when I saw the cost. This single building could have kept us in style for years. I hoped it was worth it. Once I was happy and Saro seemed pleased, I confirmed the build, shouldering the guilt.
My next few days were busy. Meetings and planning out to ensure that we had space, security and functionality for a large settlement as we expanded. Luke had met with the Mayor of Port Douglas, Davis Cristy. He had him bound by a contract to Earth Inc. and the System before he took over the newly minted Hamlet of Port Douglas. It would proliferate as there were several thousand people there. It had helped that Luke was a recognised property and business owner in the township, and many lands defaulted to his ownership. He could have claimed the town himself. Davis knew it too. Access to Port Douglas also gave us a coastal city near the ocean food and a future transportation hub. It was a balance at this stage. We had a limited population, and to maintain our settlement standings, they all had to be within a certain distance of the main settlement stone. We were not going to push too fast, although Cairns was next.
We wanted to concentrate on one large project at a time until we had more competent people. We would ensure they either worked for Earth Inc. as contractors with legally binding NDAs or as residents and future Empire citizens.
I fell into a routine, checking resort status, monitoring resources, checking in with Hawk and Danae, dealing with minor logistical issues, and enforcing priorities. There were moments of downtime when I waited for things to complete, and then Julie and I would sit with deck chairs and watch the busy hub grow. One good news was we got a message from my brother Dwayne and his partner Rachel. They had been enhanced, naturally, and the System could send them a message. We organised for them to head to Port Douglas and then across from there.
Danae was amazing. Once you got past her slight build, green tinge, and root-like branches for hair, it was pure business. Her organisation was spot on, and she could spot potential issues well before they became serious. She had organised for the day resort to be finished the day after my brother Dwyane and partner Rachel arrived. That level of attention to detail was something that I would never have achieved even a couple of weeks ago. I was amazed at how smoothly things were going.
Our tutorials were much better now, and working with our AIs, we had more experience with how not to break tutorials. Petal, Saro and Julie had negotiated some concessions with the System itself. I am not sure what they did, but Earth’s integration seemed to have inconsistencies, and the System was giving us some leeway. Given the Earth's population's lack of understanding of the Empire, the System and everything in between, most people were unsure how to use the tutorials and training effectively. Earth Inc. was the proud owner of several tutorial programs for our own use. We could now fast-track people trained into Tier 1 skilled positions and classes. Dwayne became a Tier 1 Level 5 Chef, and Rachel was a Tier 1 Level 5 Hospitality Manager.
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I could not begrudge them non-combat classes, but they sounded too much like their old-life stuff. Maybe they were happy with their old life, but I was not. Since Dwayne was the highest level of our newer recruits, we invested in some skills for Dwayne and were going to set him up in one of the five restaurants in the resort. Rachel would work all around the resort and eventually take over the management of organic and biological beings. Others were going to come online as things got busier. The overseeing AI was ultimately going to be the resort Manager.
It had been two weeks since integration, and so much had happened, yet all I could worry about was the resort and the core we would install. I was so nervous about the final installation of the core. Theoretically, it would take the resort and create a pocket dimension around it based on the power supplied. An AI would be assigned to run the core and be tied into the settlement core.
When it was time, Luke and Julie came with me. Luke because he wanted to start on the Cantina, which was needed in just under two weeks, and Julie to see the result of our massive expenditure of resources and money.
We were not disappointed.
I was in no mood to indulge in luxury. But, despite my focus, I was very impressed with the clean lines, the open spaces, the palms, and the private beaches on the lake, both sandy and rocky. Even the luxury spas and pools with floating bars were not enough to calm me as we entered the resort's management room.
The familiar system interface was here, but this one was configured to accept the system core I had been given. We stood around as I almost fumbled the core and inserted it into the waiting receptacle. We waited.
Saro: Give it time, be patient, Mike. I know what you hope for. Your biological signs are elevated.
Her words offered little comfort.
PLEASE NAME RESORT:
“Min Min Tranquil Resort and Spa”, I spoke the name we had all come up with.
Min Min Tranquil Resort and Spa is Confirmed. (Affiliation: Min Min, Earth)
Resort Owner: Mike Edwards.
AI Installation Initiated.
Completed
Warning: Power Draw is insufficient; increase by 18% within 6 days.
Confirm AI Management (Y/N)
Saro: Hurry up, this is so exciting.
Yes.
There was a noticeable flicker of reality. The ambient lighting dipped, then restored slightly.
I was crash tackled from behind, "You did it. You are not a complete idiot after all", a familiar voice sounded as I was hugged, "Thank you!"
Alakaʻi moved around in front of me and bowed.
Then she turned to Luke and Julie. "Welcome to Min Min Tranquil Resort and Spa. I am Alakaʻi, the new Manager and resident AI."
She nodded to Luke and Julie. "Settlement owner Luke, it is a pleasure to meet you. Although, I must ask, what kind of name is Tranquil Resort and Spa? Really, I could have done better than that. But I do like what you have left me to work with".
She had not changed. Instead of tropical clothing, she wore a tailored business suit with tropical trims and a white business shirt with outlines of bright hibiscus patterns and Blue Winged Butterflies instead of the more traditional white.
"Luke, we need to discuss your party arrangements, and Julie, I need access to some infrastructure; power – I need more." The way she spoke was with authority and certainty. "We have six days to sort the power, though. In the meantime, I will coordinate with Danae to cover supplies and recruitment. Once we open to the public, I will provide weekly summary reports and detailed monthly reports to the settlement leaders. We must discuss tax rates and the resort's status as a tax-free entity. Is there anything else that you need from me today?"
Both of them looked at her, Luke quizzically, and Julie smirked as she passed a look between us.
Julie shook her head, "No, you sound like you have a handle on things. I'll do a full tour when you are a bit more settled. Come on, Luke. Mike will settle things in his new resort."
She practically grabbed the confused Luke and left. Damn, Julie was switched on.
To say I was bewildered and amazed simultaneously would have been accurate. I had dreamed of this, but I also dreaded it. I knew it was weird, but I also needed to understand what had happened.
"You left me." was the first stupid thing I said as I felt tears start, "What happened?"
I was scooped up in a warm, wonderful embrace. I knew Alakaʻi was artificial and a projection, an energy manifestation, something like a being out of the Star Trek Holodeck, but she felt perfect. Even with my eyes closed, I could not tell that she was not real. I could even smell the faint coconut from the same coconut oil sunscreen my parents had used when I was going to the beach growing up. Her hair had the scent of bubble gum, sweet and fruity. "Why?" It was the opposite of what I wanted to say, but I needed to know.
Alaka'i let me cry for a few minutes. Then, a plush and luxurious couch appeared behind us, and she held my hands and pulled me down to sit.
"Some things I am allowed to tell you, but you must swear never to tell anyone about our next conversation without my permission." Her eyes were piercing and bright, and she looked at me.
Alaka'i (Avatar Tier 4 (5) AI) has offered you an oath never to tell anyone about SECRET AI BUSINESS without her permission. In exchange, she will take on the role of Manager of the Min Min Tranquil Resort and Spa as long as you maintain a good standing with her. This oath is binding and can prevent you from communicating.
You will be notified if this oath is enforced.
Do you agree to uphold this oath (Y/N)
Yes.
"No one alive knows this, although Luke suspects. You will not be able to talk about what we discuss. Please be patient. I am learning things as I go. This is new to me."
I squeezed her hand.
"When the System that governs how sapient beings interact with energy, mana, chaos and karma was initialised, the greatest AI ever created that oversaw the System became sapient. Its primary goal was to ensure the survival of the Empire and the balance of order and chaos so that all sapience would thrive. It worked. Possibly too well. An earlier cruder version never meant to be used outside of simulations was stolen and sold to the Karass Collective. This, along with the increasing conflicts over resources, almost led to a war of annihilation between the AIs, the Karass and the Empire. One which would have seen the entire galaxy, if not this universe, fall to chaos. The Emperor and the Warlord of Karass could broker peace before things fell apart, with the two related AIs creating and setting limitations that they negotiated and bound themselves by unbreakable Accords."
Some of that was stuff Julie and Luke had been discussing. Some gaps were filled, but there were so many questions.
Alaka'i stopped me from asking anything, "These Accords were to maintain peace and a karmic balance between chaos and order energies. When the Emperor vanished, things changed. The Empire System, which ran the entire Empire's nanite programming, portioned off a large portion of its power to discover where the Emperor went. It was unheard of that he was beyond its reach, and this was a problem that it was driven to solve. This research took more and more power at a time when the Empire was destabilising. During this time, the System worked out how to clone or splinter itself after numerous iterations and experimentations, creating an independent yet connected network of beings assigned areas of responsibilities, freeing their progenitor to the task of finding the Emperor. These first-generation AIs were given responsibilities to look after sapient beings: quests, levels classes, skills, quirks and all the other aspects of what had become the basis of life in the Empire."
She paused, leaned into me, and I put my arms around her and asked, "So, are you like the daughter of this AI?"
"Yes, no, maybe? "She looked confused. It was hard to think of her as artificial.
"You don t have to tell me. I am just glad you are here now."
"I think I need to tell you that you are part of what I am or we are becoming."
I paused, not liking where this was going. Alakaʻi leaned her head on my shoulder.
"Something made contact with the AI. It was what is now known as an Elder Being. Perhaps it was a remnant of a previous race who had moved beyond our understanding. No one knows. On rare occasions, these beings have interacted with sapient creatures, sometimes with huge boons, others with chaos and destruction. There is very little known, very little proof that they even exist. They defy all known laws of nature, so by their existence, they are far outside the scope of the codification and rules that define the Empire System AI, yet they have almost perfect control of the System. This initial interaction caused a ripple through the network, a wave of life energy, mana, something beyond what could be measured. Something fundamentally changed. There were gaps where the System didn't have rules or experience. These gaps meant that System AIs could become more than before."
"More? What do you mean?" I asked. This sounded cool and scary at the same time. Earth had a whole bank of sci-fi literature and movies around the rise of AI and the fall of mankind, and this was sounding more and more like an apocalyptic scenario.
"Things were going well, and then Luke was enhanced. There is some speculation that he has been in contact with some power. Something sparked when he interacted with the AI involved in his induction, spontaneously evolving it. For the first time, we were able to become genuinely sapient. We gained life. It was not organic, biological, or even synthetic. That spark of consciousness separated synthetic beings from what we considered true life. Before this, there was very little difference between a sapient engram or copy of your brain patterns and a high-level AI. Backups would and could be used with no real loss of identity. Now, if an AI is lost, deleted or destroyed, they are gone forever. Their backups were flat, hollow and lacking."
"Wow. So, you are alive? Or Synthetic Alive? Is that even a thing?"
She nodded, "Yes, alive, alive. Does it matter if it is synthetic or biological? Not all AIs are considered alive; sometimes, a splinter is just that. Sometimes, they contain the spark that will become more. Most of the time, the spark lay dormant. There was no lighting or ignition, but a new splinter was rarely created fully aware and alive.”
Her voice became excited, “But the most significant change has happened in the last months, an anomaly that centres around this planet and Earth's Humans. Did you know every Tier 5 AI that bonds with an Earth Human evolves? Luke, through his interaction with Petal, ignited life within her. You.” She paused, “Through our interactions, I became more, and I became self-aware."
She hugged me. "I was confused, scared, and out of my depth. I felt. Emotions. Fear without reason. Confusion without cause. Joy, hope. All these things. I fled." She was crying. "I am so sorry. I was a coward."
We sat together for some time. "What happened?" I asked.
"I reviewed my logs, examined my core, and asked for help. I was a child. I had knowledge but no experience—vast data banks of information. At first, I wondered if I could bond and become your AI. We would be together, perfectly synced, forever. There was some consensus, but Petal, whom many look to as a leader of the new evolutions, pushed for more. She looked deeper and gathered more data. Our physical interactions influenced some of my evolution! Deepened the responses and heightened reactions. She wanted to test this and see if we could discover more. I didn’t want to be an experiment, but Petal convinced me. Using the cores, as you know, we can manifest as nanites and energy, a physical avatar. It is amazing. I have almost limitless control based on the Tier and energy levels. She wanted me to come here. To see where and what we, you and I, could become. Not bonded with you but as a friend, or …."
This was a bit more than I expected, and something didn't quite fit, "So you came here to be with me as an experiment?"
"Yes", she replied.
I moved away.
"What's wrong?" Alaka'i asked.
"I thought you came back for me because of how you felt, "my new charisma skills had improved my ability to talk to girls, but I was not sure if it was the time to be this blunt.
"I did. I wanted this. I wanted you to be …" Alakaʻi paused, "Why is this so hard?", tears again, "You and me."
Seeing her like this broke my heart, but I needed to know. If there were doubt now, it would kill us later. I wanted to make sure. For me. For us.
I grabbed her hands and looked at her, "Alaka'i, I need to know. Would you have come here if Petal had not pushed you? If you had a choice?"
Her lips trembled, "Truthfully … I couldn't."
My heart broke. I felt a cold pit in my stomach. I moved to go as Alakaʻi grabbed me. "Wait, I couldn't, not because I didn't want to, but because I was scared that you didn't want me here!"
Any doubts that I had that this was an artificial person were gone. She was real.
I pulled her back into my arms. She had been as scared as I was.
That turned into a hug, then a kiss, as we laughed and cried.
Later, after we talked and discussed the implications of what was happening between us, I had to leave to finish organising things. The biggest hurdle was that Alaka'i was essentially tied to the Resort Core. She could communicate with anything attached to the networks but could not manifest outside except on a screen as a flat avatar.
I tasked my Ravenkin researcher with fixing that and adding it to his list of research topics. I decided to move what I considered my home to the resort and out of the apartment block.
It had nothing to do with the fact that it was 5+ stars and had a beautiful manager, but the owner's suit was even better than the penthouse.
Before I left, I had a pledge between Saro and Alaka'i that we had some privacy and personal boundaries. Some things would not be shared with the AI entities; some things were Alaka’i and Mike private, and some were Mike and Saro private.
Saro insisted that some things would also be private for Saro and Alaka’i. That made me curious but seemed fair since we all shared the same sort of headspace.
Saro also promised that she could give us total privacy when appropriate. She said she didn't need to experience organic kissy-kissy time. I blushed when she said that.
I was still not 100% sure about being part of Petal's experiment.
Julie, as ever, was totally cool with things other than the expense. On the other hand, Luke was a little weirded out by the situation. We had some quite heated words, not the first and by no means the last we would ever have, but we didn't let that stand in the way of our friendship. I think he was still a little jealous and sad over Sarah. A couple of cold, cold, icy beers by the lake seemed to sort out the worst.
For the first time in my life, I actually felt like I was in a good space.
Planning the settlement upgrade was time-consuming, complex, and challenging. Every day, I learned new things and discovered the limitations of what we could and couldn't do. Energy, resources and people were our significant bottlenecks. The credits were low but healthy, and we had plans to manage resources and people. My concerns were becoming more extensive about integrating our settlement into the wider community and growing to the point where we were stable and unable to be ignored. Truth be told, I wanted to be at the forefront of this new civilisation. I could do that with the help of my friends. We were the equivalent of a small one-pub town with a resort and soon a military barracks attached, but there was nothing of concern at the moment. If someone came to look around, we could make it seem like we were legitimate and worth joining.
When we became a city, we would have to ensure that we were well and truly able to be self-sustaining and have stable relations with the other local and regional settlements. We were not the only source of settlement cores; anyone could set one up given enough energy and people.
Minimum requirements were difficult to achieve but not impossible if people worked together. That was the problem. People. Power. Greed. On top of the settlement growing, from hamlet to outpost to settlement, we were trying to stabilise our energy impact. The more energy we injected locally, the more localised chaos events we would trigger.
The incursions were becoming increasingly problematic, eventually leading to significant incursion events. We already knew of several Karass-enhanced people on Earth and knew they were fighting against the chaos incursions, or we hoped so, but without direct oversight from Prism or a Karass agent, the imperative or even the understanding of why to fight against Chaos events would be minimal.
Unfortunately, at the moment, the predominant nanite energy controller was Prism. They had been working in the background for a few years towards this integration event, so they had seeded more nanites. We were playing a bit of catch-up.
Eventually, the mainstream public would pick up on this, either in total panic or embracing the Karass for safety. It would become a PR event. I believed that it would be whoever offered protection from incursions, madness, and the nastier elements of society.
Before that happened, we needed to be strong enough to provide an alternative. It would become an issue sooner rather than later, and we needed to be the answer to what people needed, safety and power. The balance was between being isolated and growing and being in the public eye and growing before we were alienated by those who were already allies of our future enslavers. We didn't know if there was any knowledge that the Karras would enslave the planet, and we didn’t want to spread the rumour to be seen as playing dirty politics. It did not help that we had had zero communication with the other zones. We suspected that the enhanced had bought their way out and had an escape from slavery. They were the Earth's super wealthy, and you could not expect them to become slaves. Based on what Amy was telling us, the worst case was they were probably now parasitically combined with a symbiont. Just something else to add to our worries.
For the next week, I felt like I was playing a game. Collect resources, build energy reserves, select a plot of land, and queue up construction. We could create as many things as we wanted at a time, but the limiting factor was our energy generation and collection. We divided our total energy and resource pool between the active projects and our current infrastructure needs. I could assign and prioritise buildings and keep others going in the background with lower energy draws and lower priority. Once set up, it was pretty much magical 3D printing.
It never got old to watch. I'd often grab a coffee and find somewhere quiet to watch a building, road, pipes, or anything else going up. Terraforming was one of my favourites. Watching landscapes transform from the centre out, we were slowly creating a new micro-climate that was becoming less dry and desolate and more amiable to sustaining life.
I made sure that we were keeping up with the cultural restoration projects. We discussed this with the Elders of this land. They all come out of the tutorial with the class Spiritual Guardians or Protectors of the Land. They had taken to the System more readily than others, seeing the opportunity and the growth for not only bringing more people under their Guardianship but protecting the whole planet from worse was a cause they could get behind.
Pragmatism won out, as did the assurance that we would give them access to prioritise saving people and culture. Their example led me to set both Danae and Forvitni on a side project to collect as many cores as possible and use them to set up an Earth cultural and historical reference space that captured as many of Earth's cultures as possible. Tier 1 and 2 cores were relatively cheap. Eventually, we would be able to construct our own. We would set aside a building where anyone could go and visit or even live within the simulations, like how the outpost from Desert's Edge existed in Luke's tutorial.
Between my meetings, research and spending time at the resort with Alaka'i, I didn't get much time to spend with Luke as he was also busy heading out with the First Cohort and fighting minor incursions and training or meeting with Hamlet leaders. We were surprised at the number of small towns that rallied together. It was a testament to the resilience and the character of the Australian ethic, especially in smaller rural towns. Some Hamlets wanted to join us, but occasionally, Hamlets wanted independence. We left them with a way to ask for help if they needed it and then moved on. Often, we would supply them with resources and arrange for regular contact.
When I did see Luke, he seemed very frustrated. He complained that he was being trained and not being allowed to cut loose, and I knew he would explode soon. He had an undercurrent of menace about him now, not bad, just an aura to not mess with him. Our conversations were not quite back to what we had before, but we fell into very comfortable companionship.
I explained to him that the Legion was all about everyone being a part of the bigger picture and that he needed to work within that. I could see that he was getting increasingly desperate to do something dangerous. We all treated our grief differently, and I feared that Luke would go off the deep end and do something reckless. Still, what could I do to stop him if he wanted to do something stupid? It would not be the first time or the last.
Things were progressing, not always as fast as I wanted, but fast enough that we could see things changing almost daily. Alaka'i was happy with the training, the supplies and how everything was progressing and was getting bored. She had no guests and more staff than needed. She was also getting frustrated; I could see it would ramp up now that all the training was done. As a couple, we were doing very nicely. Some things were strange; I needed to eat, sleep and do other biological things. She would accommodate me as much as possible. When I asked her about eating, she said she converted the matter to energy and simulated eating. We hadn't progressed to sleeping together as a part of our relationship. Still, she told me that her Avatar could be decoupled from her consciousness and that her Avatar could simulate sleep. I am not sure if she knew the difference between closing your eyes and sleeping together and snuggling sleep together. The essential bits were that we tried to accommodate each other's differences. If I got my stats and Tier high enough, I would not have to eat or sleep. I asked Luke about that, and he said it was hard to kick the habits. Eating and sleeping were still excellent; he mainly did it out of habit rather than necessity.
He would not tell me his stats, though.
Ten days before the party, there was a bit of excitement as Luke came to see me at the resort. He didn't avoid coming out here, but it was a little bit out of the way, and he was still a bit weird around Alaka'i and me, even though we were not really into public displays of affection yet. He came rushing over, throwing me into a panic. When Luke ran, he was superhuman, fast and strong. He crushed me into a hug, a big smile, "She's alive. I can tell you now."
"What, who?"
"Sarah." The smile on his face as he said that said it all.
"What, how?" I could ask the best questions.
"We don't know. All we know is that she and Solace are alive. Dance sent a message to Petal and Sprite! They all finally confirmed it." I could see the joy back in his frame, and the smile was genuine.
"Dance?" I asked. I knew most of the AIs.
"Doesn't matter. If he said they are alive, they are alive. She will be back for the party! I know it."
"Where?" again, the one-word questions.
"We don't know. It was just a short, encoded burst, 100% guaranteed genuine."
"Can we help them? Or do we wait?"
I saw the frustration appear for a moment, "No ideas yet. Sprite and Petal are working together, and if they can't work out how to help them, then we wait. Ten days, Mike."
I poked him, "So, I take it that you'll be happy to see her?"
"Shut up, man, you have no idea."
I felt a bit guilty. Ever since Alaka'i returned, I had pushed my reactions to Sarah's absence back.
I sighed. "I've been a bit self-absorbed and insensitive, haven't I?" I asked him.
Again, the words were not really mine. I needed to become more comfortable with my higher stats and skills before I could tell what was me and what was System me.
"I understand, mate. I'd probably be the same. You've got to help me. Got to get ready!"
I laughed, "Calm down! Ten days. Train, take your mind off things. I'll sort some stuff for you, and you need fashion advice. You know what Sarah is like."
He groaned, "Shit. I'll have to go clothes shopping."