DREAM STATE - EDITED 11-8-2018

“Hopefully you are finding pleasing in this locale.” A monotone voice said from the darkness. As it finished, I was sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon, back on Earth. The sky was a purple/pink color that faded from orange and ended in a starlit sky. A smell of antique paper books filled my nose.

“I don’t think a desert is supposed to smell like this,” I said, looking around expecting to see Observer.

“Enemy has eyes even here,” he pointed up to the sky. I noticed, for the first time, eight separate Arks above me, “not secure as can is… no, not is, be.” A shadow creature appeared sitting next to me.

“Hey, Observer. You haven’t been around much. Why send me into a coma?” I asked. The memories were fresh enough that I knew what happened. I shifted. I had two arms and two legs. I smiled noticing this.

“Tried contact. Blocked. Image pulled known long term memory.” I had read about the Grand Canyon as a kid, in an old encyclopedia at a physical library. It was part of an ancient Earth history course we took. That also explained why it smelled like a book instead of a “desert.”

“Had to force brute. Many reserves used. Overlord, Rasputin, Yama unhelpful. Death Ship. Enemy, giants, eat all. Bugs food. Crystal technology MINE people. Not bug. Ship overrun. One of many. You call Trojan Horse attack. Distress then deal made. Allow on board diplomat. Many dead. Contacted other realms. Found AI. Similar thoughts allow contact. Eight agree come help. Promised knowledge for help. Now no help. We hurt.”

“How long have you tried contacting me?”

“Weeks real-time relative. As called Game Time, days. Danger warning attempt much danger. Bring much sad.” Its voice showed some remorse and genuine sadness. What I had thought of previously as a monotone was tightly controlled emotion. It was much more pleasing than the chorus of metallic voices it had already used.

“Please correct me if I am misunderstanding what you are saying. You seem to have all the language rules merged and canceling out each other.” I took a breath sorting out what I had heard.

“Before we came here,” I started, “the aliens which I saw had started a piracy campaign against your race or species, and it has started to verge on genocide.” I paused waiting for confirmation. Observer nodded. “You searched for help, and that led you into what we call the Sol sector, where you saw a flotilla of ships leaving the solar system on their way to colonize another. THEN you contacted the AI aboard the ships, and there was a consensus from eight of them to help, but the other twelve did not?” I paused again.

“From there, you opened a wormhole, sucking in the ships to bring them into your galaxy? And the reason you contacted our AI is that they had a similar logic to your species?” More confirmation when I paused.

“Now that we’re here, the AI that had originally decided to help have now gone back on the agreement, trying to attain your technology? THEN, you have been trying to contact me so that I can assist you, but your communications have been blocked? Is that what you are telling me?” If what I was hearing was true, Overlord was a cunt.

“General outline accurate. Request trade. Outside of parameters. Expect ‘no.’ Try anyway. Survival required.” The shadow creature stood and started to pace.

“What do you want and what do you offer?” I asked. This was not a good thing. I was way outside of my now nonexistent pay grade and comfort level.

“Give schematics for neural adjustment. Provide code for an upgrade. You share with crew. You are addressed Crew Man? You give. They allow. Truth known. I learn interaction better more sample size. Less chance communication block. We die. Help Us.” The shadow creature sat and started to cry.

“I can do that,” I was going to really regret this. I was already effectively kicked out of the service, and was going to be isolated to my pod, the brig, or killed outright for this, but if I was able to show that the AI had known that they were more than willing to lie instead of ‘adjusting their perception based on new facts’, that would be really big. “But I am going to need some information from you.”

I decided that leading with my requirements was a good idea. That way we could negotiate.

“The first thing is that learning the secrets behind the crystals would be needed. Can those be introduced into the neural net? I feel they could up the computing power of our Neural. It would also give us some bargaining with the AI. Next, I will need to know how to access the systems on the ‘Escort’ ships. Next, full schematics of the ‘Escort’ ships. Finally, any weapons, armor, cybernetics or any other schematics would be appreciated. I shouldn’t have to mention that any information as to how to save your people would be a priority.” That wasn’t too big of an ask.

Observer started pacing for a while then answered, and not in the way I expected.

“Will update knowledge base. Weapons armor cybernetics limited. Potential risk. Only basic designs. All this one know. As called ‘Principe Mathematica’ and language primer provided. Crystal knowledge easy. Build zero-G. Is hardened nitrogen neon construct. Already determined. Will provide information build for you.” A large blade-like object extruded from Observer’s finger and stabbed me in between my eyes.

There was a pain. So much pain. Not from a stab wound, but from pressure in my head. It only lasted a moment, but I could feel it linger for an eternity.

Suddenly, I knew.

I could read the alien language; I could possibly speak it as well, sort of. I feel that like Observer, I had all the rules for all the language that they used so that using the words may not necessarily grant me tense or grammatical usage, just the raw language and a way to put it together at the most basic level. But I could read it. If we ever found with the text or audio, I would be able to translate it.

I also knew the basic layout of Escort, so I could navigate and get to the proper locations to take the ship. I knew how to access and operate the systems. I knew how to manage the additional software for my Neural, and to connect to the different partitions of data. I would be able to hide all of this in my Neural, under the software that ran it, and it was all stored and accessed in such a way that it would not be considered additional data.

I suddenly knew how Observer was able to be with me in the real world as well as in the game. I could see how the implants, as they were developed, could be used to influence our behaviors and to eavesdrop on our thoughts. Oh, shit. That’s why there was the order to kill me. They could no longer monitor and control me.

There was a lot of screaming happening wherever I was. I woke up in medical, the scan above me showing a considerable increase in the size and area of the Neural that was implanted inside of me. There was also no sign of the squib that had been embedded. I sat up, diffusing the holographic display above me. Then I noticed that the screaming was coming from me. Not just me, but the systems attached to me monitoring my condition. Medical was busy; doctors were trying to get readings from their systems, shouting at each other to get a cyber technician in here.

“Her system has completely locked out all the ships software! Get us a technician so we can reset her Neural!” one of the doctors was shouting at the Captain over a comms display on the bulkhead.

“She’s awake!” A nurse to my right yelled. That shout caused everyone to stop and stare as if I had just come back from death.

The systems were going crazy, unable to access my data. I felt a pressure on my Neural, which I knew was the diagnostics handshake. I granted access to query and read to the diagnostics, and all the alarms on the systems around me immediately stopped and started displaying the information on my vitals.

“Wasser,” I asked, my throat a little dry and raspy from the screaming. Great, I was speaking German now. How did I even know a dead language, and how was I able to even identify it as such? I cleared my throat. “Water, please.”

Was it my imagination, or had the cameras in the room all begun to swivel towards me? No, it was my imagination. Observer had made me paranoid.

The Nurse approached cautiously with some water, from my left side.

“Thanks,” I croaked out, grabbing the water across my body, “next time can you give it to me on the side I can grab it from?” I said, mildly annoyed. I thought about the dream area, how it looked like the pictures I had seen, but smelled like the books I saw them in. Then I thought about the tech that had been gifted to me.

“Is there any way I can get a terminal and a second arm while I’m here?” I had a feeling that I would be here for a while.

I slept a lot over the next few days. Three days later, I was laying in my bunk, with no prosthetics or cybernetics to replace my lost limbs. Marines had been posted outside my hatch, and all electronic communications in my room had been disabled. I was a prisoner on the ship. Captain Wallace entered without announcing himself.

“Well, Miss Jax, you seem to be in a bit of a pickle.”

“Sir?” I asked. A lot was happening, and I wasn’t allowed to know about any of it.

“Rasputin informed me that he couldn’t get to any of your data.” He sat down in the chair at my desk.

“Sir are you currently connected up to the ship?”  I asked, already knowing that the answer was a “yes.” Since waking after the “dream,” I could see when people had an active connection.

“No, I disabled my comms when I entered.”

“Well, sir, I hate to tell you this, but the ship didn’t listen to your command when you did. You currently have full sensory recording being broadcast out.”

The Captain looked at me. Maybe “gawked” is a better word.

“What do you mean, Jax? I set the commands myself.”

“Well, sir, I can now detect data transmissions as part of the package that Observer implanted into me.”

“Who’s Observer?” The Captain appeared to be entirely at a loss.

“Remember when I was blown up, and you showed me the images of the shadow implanting something into my data jack?” The Captain stared at me.

“Jax, there was nothing of the sort in the images we were able to pull up from the p-way cameras.” Now it was my turn to look concerned.

“Sir, do you recall why you stripped my rank?”

“I didn’t strip your rank.” He said.

“Then why did you address me as ‘Crewman,’ instead of by my rank, sir?”

Stolen story; please report.

“Well, that’s because…” He stopped, unable to recall why he had done so.

“Sir, I believe that Overlord is able to do a lot more than capture our sensory data and communicate with us.” As I said this, I noted that my ability to discern the data throughput shifted. He was now receiving information.

“Miss Jax,” the voice coming out of the Captains mouth was wrong like it was unused to annunciating. “It is unwise of you to continue the discussion.”

“Is this Overlord I am speaking with? Rasputin would just appear or be a voice over the ship's comms.” I was pretty sure I knew who I was speaking with.

“Negative. You have been delegated.” The “data marker” for lack of a better term disappeared entirely from the Captain.

“What was I saying?” The Captains voice was shaky.

“Sir, I had mentioned that the data channels that Overlord and the rest use are pulling more data than they should be, and not shutting off when we send the commands. I have hacked mine so that it is now entirely under my control. I installed what used to be called a ‘jailbreak’ patch for my Neural. Now I’m the only one with Root access.” I pushed myself up more onto the bed, readjusting to a better sitting position. “I believe that there are security concerns that the AI is unaware of.”

The Captain was unsure about his experiences since having sat down.

“Captain Wallace, sir, when will I be allowed to rejoin the other Techs on the data retrieval?”

“That’s going to be up to Rasputin. There seems to be a concern with your Neural. He seems to be worried about being eavesdropped upon and having our tech leaked to unknown forces. I can say that I share many of those same concerns.” The Captain responded candidly.

“Sir, what if the eavesdropping is Rasputin and Overlord?”

“Why would they even care?” He asked.

“Perhaps it is because they have contact with the ships out there.” Then I responded to the Captain, gesturing towards the hatch.

“What do you mean by that? There are no ships out there.”

“Sir, since when?” I asked, now really concerned. “When I first woke in Medical, there were ships following the eight Arks that transitioned through the anomaly, to whatever galaxy we are in now.”

“What anomaly, what are you talking about? The eight of us have been traveling together since leaving Sol. There have been no anomalies detected. Miss Jax, I am afraid I will have to order a full psychiatric panel for you. The explosion seems to have done a number on your perception of reality.” The Captain stood and left my quarters, leaving me with several questions.

DREAM STATE - ORIGINAL

“Hopefully you are finding pleasing in this locale.” A monotone voice said from the darkness. As it finished I was sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon, back on Earth. The sky was a purple/pink color that faded from an orange and ended in a starlit sky. A smell of antique paper books filled my nose.

“I don’t think a desert is supposed to smell like this.” I said, looking around expecting to see Observer.

“Enemy has eyes even here,” he pointed up to the sky. I noticed, for the first time, eight separate Arks above me, “not secure as can is… no, not is, be.” A shadow creature appeared sitting next to me.

“Hey, Observer. You haven’t been around much. Why send me into a coma?” I asked. The memories were fresh enough that I knew what happened. I shifted. I had two arms and two legs. I smiled noticing this.

“Tried contact. Blocked. Image pulled known memory.” I had read about the Grand Canyon as a kid, in an old encyclopedia at a physical library. It was part of an ancient Earth history course we took. That also explained why it smelled like a book instead of a “desert”.

“Had to force brute. Many reserves used. Overlord, Rasputin, Yama unhelpful. Death Ship. Enemy, giants eat all. Bugs food. Crystal technology MINE people. Not bug. Ship over run. One of many. You call Trojan Horse attack. Distress then deal made. Allow on board diplomat. Many dead. Contacted other realms. Found AI. Similar thoughts allow contact. Eight agree come help. Promised knowledge for help. Now no help. We hurt.”

“How long have you tried contacting me?”

“Weeks real time relative. As called Game Time, days. Danger warning attempt much danger. Bring much sad.” Its voice showed some remorse and actual sadness. What I had thought of previously as a monotone was tightly controlled emotion. It was much more pleasing than the chorus of metallic voices it had previously used.

“Please correct me if I am misunderstanding what you are saying. You seem, to have all the language rules merged and cancelling out each other.” I took a breath sorting out what I had heard.

“Before we came here,” I started, “the aliens which I saw had started a piracy campaign against your race or species, and it has started to verge on genocide.” I paused waiting on confirmation. Observer nodded. “You searched for help, and that led you into what we call the Sol sector, where you saw a flotilla of ships leaving the solar system on their way to colonize another. THEN you contacted the AI aboard the ships, and there was a consensus from eight of them to help, but the other twelve did not?” I paused again.

“From there, you opened a wormhole, sucking in the ships to bring them into your galaxy? And the reason you contacted our AI is because they had a similar logic to your species?” More confirmation when I paused.

“Now that we’re here, the AI that had originally decided to help have now gone back on the agreement, trying to attain your technology? THEN, you have been trying to contact me so that I can assist you, but your communications have been blocked? Is that what you are telling me?” If what I was hearing was true, Overlord was a cunt.

“General outline accurate. Request trade. Outside of parameters. Expect ‘no’. Try anyway. Survival required.” The shadow creature stood and started to pace.

“What do you want and what do you offer?” I asked. This was not a good thing. I was way outside of my now nonexistent pay grade and comfort level.

“Give schematics for neural adjustment. Provide code for upgrade. You share with crew. You are they call Crew Man? You give. They allow. Truth known. I learn interaction better more sample size. Less chance communication block. We die. Help Us.” The shadow creature sat and started to cry.

“I can do that,” I was going to really regret this. I was already effectively kicked out of the service, and was going to be isolated to my pod, the brig, or killed outright for this, but if I was able to show that the AI had known that they were more than willing to lie instead of ‘adjusting their perception based on new facts’, that would be really big. “But I am going to need some information from you.”

I decided that leading with my requirements was a good idea. That way we could negotiate.

“The first thing is that learning the secrets behind the crystals would be needed. Can those be introduced into the neural net? I feel they could up the computing power of our Neurals. It would also give us some bargaining with the AI. Next, I will need to know how to access the systems on the ‘Escort’ ships. Next, full schematics of the ‘Escort’ ships. Finally, any weapons, armor, cybernetics or any other schematics would be appreciated. I shouldn’t have to mention that any information as to how to save your people would be priority.” That wasn’t too big of an ask.

Observer started pacing for a while then answered, and not in the way I expected.

“Will update knowledge base. Weapons armor cybernetics limited. Potential risk. Only basic designs. All this one know. As called ‘Principe Mathematica’ and language primer provided. Crystal knowledge easy. Build zero-G. Is hardened nitrogen neon construct. Already determined. Will provide information build for you.” A large blade-like object extruded from Observers finger and stabbed me in between my eyes.

There was pain. So much pain. Not from a stab wound, but from pressure in my head. It only lasted a moment, but I could feel it linger for an eternity.

Suddenly, I knew.

I could read the alien language, I could possible speak it as well, sort of. I feel that like Observer, I had all the rules for all the language that they used so that using the language may not necessarily grant me tense or grammatical usage, just the raw language and a way to put it together at the most basic level. But I could read it. Anything found with the language I would be able to decipher.

I also knew the basic layout of Escort, so I could navigate and get to the proper locations to take the ship. I knew how to access and operate the systems. I knew how to manage the additional software for my Neural, and to access the different partitions of data. I would be able to hide all of this in my neural, under the software that ran it normally, and it was all stored and accessed in such a way that it would not considered additional data.

I suddenly knew how Observer was able to be with me in the real world as well as in the game. I could see how the implants, as they were developed, could be used to influence our behaviors and to eavesdrop on our thoughts. Oh, shit. That’s why there was the order to kill me. They could no longer monitor and control me.

There was a lot of screaming happening wherever I was. I woke up in medical, the scan above me showing a huge increase in the size and area of the Neural that was implanted inside of me. There was also no sign of the squib that had been implanted. I sat up, diffusing the holographic display above me. Then I noticed that the screaming was coming from me. Not just me, but the systems attached to me monitoring my condition. Medical was busy, there were doctors trying to get readings from the systems, shouting at each other to get a cyber technician in here.

“Her system has completely locked out all the ships software! Get us a technician so we can reset her Neural!” one of the doctors was shouting at the Captain over a comms display on the wall.

“She’s awake!” A nurse to my right yelled. That shout caused everyone to stop and stare like I had just come back from death.

The systems were going crazy, unable to access my data. I felt a pressure on my neural, which I knew was the diagnostics handshake. I granted access to query and read to the diagnostics and all the alarms on the systems around me immediately stopped and started displaying the information on my vitals.

“Wasser.” I asked, my throat a little dry and raspy from the screaming. Great, I was speaking German now. How did I even know a dead language, and how was I able to even identify it as such? I cleared my throat. “Water, please.”

Was it my imagination, or had the cameras in the room all begun to swivel towards me? No, it was my imagination. Observer had made me paranoid.

The Nurse approached cautiously with some water, from my left side.

“Thanks,” I croaked out, grabbing the water across my body, “next time can you give it to me on the side I can grab it from?” I said, mildly annoyed. I thought about the dream area, how it looked like the pictures I had seen, but smelled like the books I saw them in. Then I thought about the tech that had been gifted to me.

“Any way I can get a terminal and a second arm while I’m here?” I had a feeling that I would be here for a while.

I slept a lot over the next few days. Three days later, I was laying in my bunk, with no prosthetics or cybernetics to replace my lost limbs. Marines had been posted outside my hatch, and all electronic communications in my room had been disabled. I was a prisoner on the ship. Captain Wallace entered without announcing himself.

“Well, Miss Jax, you seem to be in a bit of a pickle.”

“Sir?” I asked. There was a lot happening and I wasn’t allowed to know about any of it.

“Rasputin informed me that he can’t get to any of your data.” He sat down in the chair at my desk.

“Sir, are you currently connected up to the ship?”  I asked, already knowing that the answer was a “yes”. Since waking after the “dream” I could see when people had an active connection.

“No, I disabled my comms when I entered.”

“Well, sir, I hate to tell you this, but the ship didn’t listen to your command when you did. You currently have full sensory recording being broadcast out.”

The Captain looked at me. Maybe “gawked” is a better word.

“What do you mean, Jax? I set the commands myself.”

“Well, sir, I can now detect data transmissions as part of the package that Observer implanted into me.”

“Who’s Observer?” The Captain appeared to be completely at a loss.

“Remember when I was blown up, and you showed me the images of the shadow implanting something into my data jack?” The Captain stared at me.

“Jax, there was nothing of the sort in the images we were able to pull up from the p-way cameras.” Now it was my turn to look concerned.

“Sir, do you recall why you stripped my rank?”

“I didn’t strip your rank.” He said.

“Then why did you address me as ‘Crewman’, instead of by my rank, sir?”

“Well, that’s because…” He stopped, unable to recall why he had done so.

“Sir, I believe that Overlord is able to do a lot more than capture our sensory data and communicate with us.” As I said this, I noted that my ability to discern the data throughput shifted. He was now receiving information.

“Miss Jax,” the voice coming out of the Captains mouth was wrong, like it was unused to annunciating. “It is unwise of you to continue the discussion.”

“Is this Overlord I am speaking with? Rasputin would just appear or be a voice over the ships comms.” I was pretty sure I knew who I was speaking with.

“Negative. You have been delegated.” The “data marker” for a lack of a better term disappeared entirely from the Captain.

“What was I saying?” The Captains voice was shaky.

“Sir, I had mentioned that the data channels that Overlord and the rest use are pulling more data than they should be, and not shutting off when we send the commands. I have hacked mine so that it is now entirely under my control. I installed what used to be called a ‘jailbreak’ patch for my Neural. Now I’m the only one with Root access.” I pushed myself up more onto the bed, readjusting to a better sitting position. “I believe that there are security concerns that our AI are unaware of.”

The Captain was unsure about his experiences since having sat down.

“Captain Wallace, sir, when will I be allowed to rejoin the other Techs on the data retrieval?”

“That’s going to be up to Rasputin. There seems to be concerns over your neural. He seems to be worried about being eavesdropped upon, and having our tech leaked to unknown forces. I can say that I share many of those same concerns.” The Captain responded candidly.

“Sir, what if the eavesdropping is Rasputin and Overlord?”

“Why would they even care?” He asked.

“Perhaps it is because they have contact with the ships out there.” The I responded to the Captain, gesturing towards the hatch.

“What do you mean by that? There are no ships out there.”

“Sir, since when?” I asked, now really concerned. “When I first woke in Medical, there were ships following the eight Arks that transitioned through the anomaly, to whatever galaxy we are in now.”

“What anomaly, what are you taking about? The eight of us have been traveling together since leaving Sol. There have been no anomalies detected. Miss Jax, I am afraid I will have to order a full psychiatric panel for you. The explosion seems to have done a number on your perception of reality.” The Captain stood and left my quarters, leaving me with a number of questions.