Y: 2143 - M2
Daedalus Financial Position: +17,540,000 bitcreds
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“It’s time to go,” Mace said. “This place makes me nervous as we are exposed.”
Daedo nodded, “We are done.” She kept close to Daedo and kept checking his vitals. The earlier lapse was concerning to say the least. The hovercars sped through the city and out into the ocean VTOL facility. Barran sat on one side of Daedo, while Mace kept close as well. Vannier was in the cockpit with Chief Austin. Mace’s parents were not accompanying them back to the Sahara, so the craft was short two passengers compared to the inbound trip. “That was one crazy day,” Barran stated across the comms. Once the carrier’s engines started it was too noisy to talk normally.
As the carrier left the docking bay, Mace asked, “Are you okay Daedo?”
“We’re fine,” he replied.
Barran spoke in his light-hearted manner, “It’s disconcerting when you say ‘we’ all the time. I’m not sure my parents picked it up. Maybe they just thought you were full of yourself, you know, like they are.”
“I can refrain, if it bothers you,” Daedo said.
“Maybe that’s a good idea,” Mace replied “especially if you are speaking to non-Daedalus personnel.”
“Daedo,” Barran said, sheepishly. “You have no idea what it means to me that you handled them like that. I could never get through to my family but you cut through like a hot blade through biomass.”
Daedo replied, his words slurring slightly, “The benefit …”
“Daedo,” Mace cried. He was strapped into his chair, but his head lolled to one side. She was monitoring his vitals and it didn’t appear to her that he was sleeping but his heart rate had slowed.
Mace: Something has happened to Daedo; he’s not responsive but he is not asleep.
Master Picard: Can we get him back to the med-lab asap? What’s the fastest time this thing can go?
Chief Austin: We’re about to find out.
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Ikaros: I need your help.
Ten minutes passed.
Nader: You must be desperate. What happened?
Ikaros: It’s Etana. I’m worried he will never recover from what he did with his AI.
Nader: What did he do?
Ikaros: He merged with it in some way. I don’t fully understand. I never used these things. His AI was able to use his synapses and neurons and Etana was able to use the implant processing power and data storage. He started to act strangely, like they were no longer two separate entities, but one. He referred to himself as ‘we’ instead of ‘I.’
Nader: You idiots, how could you allow this to happen?
Ikaros: No one controls him. He does what he thinks is right.
Nader: Not on my watch, he didn’t. Whatever you think of me at least I was able to keep him on the right path. Once I was out of the picture, you failed him because you must be strong with him, Kar.
Ikaros: Don’t you dare call me that name - that was her pet name for me.
Nader: It slipped out. I am sorry for causing you pain. I get confused with her memories and thoughts. It’s happening more and more now.
Ikaros: I am desperate. I would rather you go back to the hole you came from but you are our only hope so where are you now?
Nader: I’m still here. If I left, he… he is not ready for me to leave yet. I will come to you. Alert the cadets that I am coming. I won’t be much help if I am disintegrated by a PPC.
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All the cadets were huddled around the med-lab, even Kang showed concern for Daedo whose status was projected up onto the wall with his brainwave activity featuring centrally. Ikaros approached them saying, “It would be better if you kept busy and set up an alert for a change in status.”
Vannier nodded, “You’re right but I can’t pull myself away.”
“I have news,” Ikaros said softly and seven heads swivelled in his direction. “I contacted the only person I knew who might be able to help and she is on her way here now.” The cadets looked at him for a few moments before realisation dawned on their faces, “No!” Vannier exclaimed in disbelief.
“Yes, Master Nader is coming. She will be here within a day depending on what transport she can steal,” Ikaros said. The cadets looked towards Mace, knowing most of the story of what transpired the day that she and Daedo left the Fortescue Academy.
“We need her,” Mace said simply. “Daedo needs her so I don’t care, even if she is the enemy.”
“Okay,” Vannier said, “Barran, ensure the sentry guns don’t kill her and keep an eye on security systems, rotating rest periods with Picard so Picard, go and rest now.”
She turned to Kang and Axel-Zero, “Go back to your duties and I will set up an alert and, lastly, Mace, your parents need to be updated about what is happening and why. Do you think we should wait until after she is gone?”
Mace nodded, “It would be safest. The last thing we need is for the Organisation to know Nader is on the way here.”
Vannier smiled, “Once she is here there is nothing they can do.”
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Mace looked at her quizzically,” Why? Couldn’t Huawei send a battalion of mechs do something if they wanted to?”
Vannier shook her head, “No, they wouldn’t risk it.”
“Why?” Mace asked.
“Daedo threatened them with complete annihilation. They have something to lose but we don’t from their point of view,” Vannier stated.
“The anti-matter?” Mace queried.
Vannier nodded, “He told them it’s enough to blow up the planet and they believed him.”
“Is it?” Mace asked.
Vannier shrugged, “Daedo did the calculation. I don’t know if he was bluffing, and I wasn’t going to ask.”
“Then, what protections do you want in place against Nader?” Mace asked.
Vannier stared at Mace for a moment, “Normal measures will be adequate.”
Mace smiled, “No, they won’t be.”
Vannier tilted her head to the side, “Can any level of protection work against her?”
Mace said, “Isolation but, even then, she may have access to technology that we can’t imagine.”
Vannier cautioned, “She is coming to help Daedo and we are not going to do anything to prevent that from happening nor move him off base. Just do what you can and what will be will be.” The news of Nader’s imminent arrival swept through the base in moments. Master Haddad was someone who had minor dealings with her, and he brought the other educators up to speed.
“Should we stop working on the recruitment program?” Chief Austin asked his friend.
“No, she is a force of nature; not even your charms would work on her,” Master Haddad replied.
Chief Austin looked at Master Picard, “What about him?”
Master Haddad chuckled, “Even the Master would meet his match.”
“Back to work then,” Master Picard said and donned his helmet. He had a very long list of tutes to create from basic stretching to advanced exo manoeuvres.
Only thirteen hours passed before she arrived. She rode on an electric quad bike for the last 200 kilometres before she was guided in through one of their remote tunnels. Barran looked at the side of the bike and he could see the words clearly written, Department of the Interior, Mauretania. He asked her, “Did the government lend you a quad bike?”
She shook her head in the negative, “Take me to Daedo, cadet.”
“Yes, Sir,” Barran said before realising she wasn’t his superior anymore. As they walked to the med-lab, he asked nonchalantly, “So, are you an alien or what?”
“I admire your courage Barran,” Nader replied.
He smiled at her reply until he realised that she didn’t actually respond. Within a few awkward minutes they arrived at the med-lab. Ikaros was waiting and he looked at her, suspiciously. Barran looked from Ikaros to Nader and back to Ikaros. He had never seen Ikaros look antagonistic, not until this moment, and it was both disconcerting and fascinating. The air was thick with distrust.
“I’ll be going then,” Barran retreated. He was under strict orders to leave Ikaros alone with Master Nader. Nader spoke first, “Is it for two occupants?”
“Yes.”
“You will need to order another, once I enter, I will need to be put on life support as well and your capacity will be nil. What’s the occupancy of this base?”
“Currently fourteen, including you,” Ikaros replied.
“Master Haddad is running the new academy?” she asked, and he nodded in reply.
She continued, “Do you have a biotech expert?”
“No, other than the new teachers we have no experts other than Cisse, myself and the cadets who you know well,” he answered tersely.
She sighed, “I told him to get moving on biotech because he is going to need it. Tell Haddad to get the girl, Krecke, down here. I will send you a package for her now.”
“Is this necessary?” he asked.
She nodded. “Not now, but it will be and once I enter this med-lab as you will never see me again.”
“So, after all this, Elaine will be gone so what was the point?” he asked.
“I said, you will never see me again,” Nader said. He stared back at her in disbelief.
After she sent him the package for Krecke, she entered the med-lab. It didn’t take her long to establish a connection with his cybernetic implant. She programmed the med-lab to put her on life support once she went under. She then lay down beside Daedo and reached out with her conscious.
The entity known as Nader had two separate consciousnesses residing in her brain. There was also an AI within its primitive implant. One was Elaine Daedo, the host who had been blown into the multiverse during a ZPE explosion. Time is not relative in the multiverse, and the ascended being known as Nader was waiting for her. The event was not foretold, it was known as history is known.
An ascended being was once an intelligent lifeform like a human that had evolved into a disembodied consciousness that could occupy an animal brain or even an artificial host such as an advanced computer. She could travel through the multiverse under her own power and, when she found a new host to possess, she would exit directly into her target.
When an ascended being possessed a host, it did not destroy them. It could dominate them or lay dormant, depending on its needs. The ascended being known as Ares Nader lay in the med-lab when she left her host. Elaine Daedo’s consciousness was now alone in her body, and she would either recover or remain in a vegetative state. Ares Nader had done what she could to assist the life form and she hoped it would be enough. Ares Nader had a destination planned and it was not far; it had entered the mind of Etana Daedo.
Nader: Look at the mess you’ve made, cadet.
Daedo: Where did you come from. Wait, where are we?
Nader: We’re in a construct I prepared, so you could assist me.
Daedo: A secure VR room?
Nader: It appears that way, but it is far from it, in reality.
Daedo: I don’t remember …
Nader: You have damaged yourself, cadet. You have been stupid.
Daedo: It was necessary. Everything hinged on the reactor, without it we were dead.
Nader: Who did you discuss your plans with? With whom did you seek counsel?
Daedo: No one.
Nader: Idiot. Cadet, you have a support structure I scoured the planet for: Vannier, Barran, Axel-Zero, Picard and even Mace.
Daedo: You picked Mace? I thought she was sent to uncover you.
Nader: Unlike you, I am not an idiot. You need to think through every repercussion of your action. What use is your reactor if you are a vegetable?
Daedo: We calculated a forty seven percent chance of success.
Nader: What are you?
Daedo: An idiot, Master Nader.
Nader: Use your support network. If you cannot find an answer, they will. If you wish to take a risk of this magnitude again, you must gain Vannier’s and Mace’s approval.
Daedo: They would not have approved.
Nader: Exactly.
Daedo: What was the solution?
Nader: It was to find another way but not this disaster.
Daedo: I’m feeling better though.
Nader: As we talk, I am working on your connections so summon Myrmidon as a second entity.
Daedo: I can’t, we’re merged.
Nader: Cadet, this is an order, summon your AI friend!
An age passed, Daedo struggled to summon Myrmidon as a separate entity as Ares Nader worked on repairing his neural connections. It was like unpicking a massive knot of the finest twine, and then laying down the untangled weave in the correct position.
Daedo: Myrmidon?
Myrmidon: I am here, I am here, you did it!
Nader: Good. But we are only halfway. Help me untangle these knots.
The massive knotted ball appeared, and the three of them went to work. Daedo and Myrmidon began to chat like they had done before the merge.
Nader: Good work boys. I will leave you to finish the ball while I investigate the other side.
As she inspected the neural connection from the brain to the cybernetic implant, she could see it was still functional. She had a choice in front of her and it didn’t take her long for her to assess and decide. His task would be extremely difficult, and he could use every advantage he could get. She repaired the gateway and built a two-way bridge with a strong foundation.
Daedo and the AI would remain separate entities and, while the AI was restricted to the hardware, Daedo would be able to access both. She reviewed all the repairs taking a long time which was difficult to measure in this state. He was in good health now; he had always been exceptional. She reviewed his neural oscillations. Daedo had an incredible amount of untapped potential and, it was possible that, one day, he could ascend and become an Ares.