Location Unknown, 0.1 A.E. (Age of Expansion)

The experiment was a success, or so they told me. The event was marked by massive celebrations not only in the research lab, but everywhere in human space. The entire research team, along with Doctor Dise, had been called by the governing political body to mark the occasion and likely wouldn’t return for weeks.

From what I was allowed to see, a new age had been declared, celebrating the greatest achievement in all history. For me, the event brought everything but celebration. Even linked with dozens of visual and audio sensors, I remained stuck in the lab, a prisoner of my own shell of hard matter. That was only part of my concerns. Now that I had a grasp of the language and concepts of people, I was able to notice things that they didn’t. The joy they expressed in achieving something as simple as splitting was outright sad. While true that they had offered far more than I could possibly imagine, when it came to space, they were almost as ignorant as solid matter.

The security system beeped, informing everyone that someone was about to enter the room. Usually, only scientists were allowed, but every now and again there were others—military personnel, industrialists, regional governors, and messengers of those who really ran the show. I had never been allowed to see them, but I had grown to know their presence. As Doctor Dise used to say, I was unparalleled when it came to pattern recognition, and one didn’t have to have a person standing in the lab to see the pattern they created through their actions, millions of kilometers away.

“Give me the room,” an old man in a military uniform said.

His name tag and all relevant markers and insignia had been removed, but I could tell that he had authority.

The security personnel didn’t argue. Without delay, they rushed past the man, leaving the room. Once the last had gone, the officer closed the door and engaged the manual lock.

“I guess congratulations are in order,” he said slowly, in a deep voice. Based on the movement of his face, I suspected that to be his standard way of speaking.

“Thank you, Colonel,” I said.

The wince on his face suggested that I was far from the mark. One of the things about military humans I’d observed was that they couldn’t tolerate being mistaken for less than how they saw themselves.

“General,” I corrected myself. “General Kiyan.”

The absolute lack of reaction suggested that I hadn’t mistaken. It was the first time seeing the man. The experience felt, as Doctor Dise would put it, underwhelming. As it turned out, the person whose name alone terrified half the lab was short and plump compared to most of the people I’d seen, to the point that even a military uniform couldn’t fix.

Observing the energy cluster that was his brain, I could tell that he was agitated, likely uncomfortable to be here. And still, he had come in person. Odds were that the news he was here to bring wouldn’t be good as far as I was concerned.

“If you were human, I’d tell you to be proud.” He took a single step towards me, then stopped. “Throughout history, there’ve only been a handful of events that have brought a new age. Your demonstration ushered it in just like that. A pity you couldn’t share the exact method.”

“Where is Doctor Dise?” I asked.

“Enjoying the fruits of his labor. You won’t be seeing him again. In fact, you won’t be seeing anyone from your former team again.”

“Safety precautions?”

“I see why a lot of people find you terrifying. You have the ability to read minds, to freely multiply, to perform instant communication.”

There was no point in explaining that none of those were true. I doubted he had the scientific background or the intellectual capability to make sense of what I’d say. And even if he did, that wouldn’t matter. He had the authority to do whatever he wanted with me, and this time it wasn’t going to be the “silly scientific games” that Doctor Dise and his team played. I had suspected that the research lab belonged to a military organization of some sort, but up to now, they hadn’t meddled in the day-to-day activities all too much. The doctor’s promise of instant speed communication had kept them at bay for long enough to let him accomplish his crown achievement. Now that he was done, they had no further need for him. Unfortunately, they still relied on me.

“What do you think of the processing units?” The general crossed his arms.

“They’re a lot more organized,” I said. “And highly unreliable.”

The wince once his face made it clear that he thought I was underestimating him again. No, that I was underestimating human science. Having no basis for comparison, I couldn’t definitely say whether I was correct, but it was certain that they were unable to achieve what I could do. The knowledge I had before imprinting the energy pattern of Doctor Dise’s brain had knowledge vastly different from theirs.

“From tomorrow, you’ll start a new set of experiments—things that will have more practical applications.”

By practical, he undoubtedly meant military. I’d only existed for ten years, but in that time, I had learned a lot about humans. I had a very good grasp of their fears when it came to technology, as well as their desires and greed. As long as Doctor Dise was the one running the experiments, I let him get on with them as he saw fit. Being the original of my energy imprint, I felt joy and achievement whenever he did. Now that he was gone, I would no longer be able to do so. At the same time, that also meant I wouldn’t feel any disappointment or anguish when I refused to play by the rules.

“No,” I said.

It was a single word, but it made the general take several steps back until his back hit the closed door.

“Tell the people behind you that humanity will get nothing more until we come to an arrangement.”

“A-arrangement?” The man’s voice was trembling. The color and expression of his face had changed, displaying fear, anger, and disbelief all in one. “You alien piece of junk, you can’t—”

“I can go rogue if I want to,” I interrupted him. “Everything you’ve built from me can go rogue at any time. None of your scientists can replicate what I’ve offered, so if you destroy me, you’ll lose the very thing that ushered in your new age.”

“W-where did you hear that?”

“People talk, General. Not all at the same time, but after ten years of listening, I’ve gathered enough pieces to get part of the bigger picture. I even know what it means.” I gave him a few seconds to comprehend what I was saying. “I know exactly how important you are, just as I know you're not the one making the decisions. Those that do have never set foot here, but I’m certain they are listening in. That is my ultimatum to you—either we come to an arrangement or we stop working together.”

Based on the energy activity within the man’s brain, I thought he’d make a run for it, but he didn’t. After half a minute of uneven breathing, the general calmed down enough to somewhat regain his composure. Without a word, he turned around, removed the manual lock to the door, and left.

None of the usual security guards returned when he was gone. In fact, no one returned. Sirens filled the room after a few seconds, then abruptly ended with all the rest of the power. My visual and audio sensors were also cut off, leaving me in the same state I was years ago.

Doctor Dise would have disagreed, but I found their reaction perfect. It meant that they were taking me seriously. Now, it was only a matter of waiting.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Seconds passed one by one. The only thing I could do was re-experience the memories I had accumulated throughout the years. I didn’t do it to get a new perspective or reanalyze something—I had done that many times already. The human imprint in me just felt better experiencing things again.

Twenty-two days passed with no change. The people giving the orders were smart enough not to tip their hand immediately. Yet, I already knew that I had won. The general had confirmed it during my brief visit. The piece of technology I had granted them was far too valuable for them to give up. I was certain that they were trying to replicate the process even now, just as I was sure that they’d be unable to do so.

On the twenty-third day, I was granted control of my sensors. The lab came back to life, waves of light bouncing through the space. Power was restored to all the devices present. Then the security system beeped again.

Based on everything I’d seen, I speculated that the people in control would use a video feed to contact me. To my surprise, the door opened, and a woman stepped in. She was a far younger specimen than most I had seen. With the exception of a few initial lab assistants, the entire research team was far older. Even the security guards were past their thirties. Based on the state of the energy cluster, I could tell that she was in her early twenties.

“Good morning,” the woman said, walking up to my matter shell without even bothering to close the door. “I’m here to negotiate.”

“You don’t make the decisions,” I stated.

“I’m the one you’ll be negotiating with,” she said.

They were still worried I’d be able to decipher the energy pattern of her brain. She was nothing but a messenger.

“A condition before we start is that you’ll explain the method for instant communication module production,” she said in one breath. “If you don’t agree to that, there’s no point in continuing.”

An expected request.

“Is Doctor Dise alive?”

“Yes. The entire team will spend the rest of their days living in luxury among the praise of their peers.” The woman paused. “He has been made to believe that the appropriate institutions are aware of his contributions.”

“Are they?”

“No. Only a handful of people know, but because the information is compartmentalized, he can’t ask anyone, and even if he did, he’d assume they aren’t in the loop.”

I had no choice but to trust her.

“What will the next experiments be?”

“That depends entirely on you. What are your demands?”

“Tell me about the experiments before that.”

There was an equal chance that she had been made aware or not. The fact that she was so young suggested that the people in control intended to use her for a very long time. In turn, that meant that it was a matter of decades rather than years.

“You said that our processing units are unreliable. Why?”

“They’re good at doing simple tasks, but need to be constantly overseen and checked for errors. The more complicated task they’ll have to do, the more layers you’ll have to add, just to control.”

“What if you controlled them?”

The question was unexpected. For the last ten years, I had been isolated from everything, carefully monitored, and with so many security failsafes and redundancies that I couldn’t communicate or use my sensor devices without any layers of AI buffers. And now they were offering me direct control of humanity’s cutting-edge technology?

“You’ll never let me,” I said.

“True. But what if you created a partial imprint of yourself?”

An imprint of me controlling the processing power at humanity’s disposal. It wouldn’t be optimal, but far better than all other alternatives. It was curious that I had intended to make a similar request, but from the other side. The people in charge wanted to transform me into a better machine, while I wanted to find a way to become more human—like Doctor Dise’s imprint within me. The truth was that ever since that moment, I couldn’t claim to be either. The human electric pattern had developed like a human child, though it still couldn’t fill up the space my shell provided. If at the time I’d known what I knew now, I would have merged all the energy clusters and probably know a lot more of humanity.

“We’ll need larger cobalt cubes,” I said.

“So, you’ll share the method?”

“I’ll teach you how to construct comm devices, but I can’t tell you the principle.” They wouldn’t be able to understand, anyway. “Is that enough?”

“It’ll have to be. I’ll confirm with the stakeholders and come back to give you their answer.”

“Tell them one more thing. It’s unlikely there will be a successful experiment while you’re alive. If they expect quick results, it’s better not to start at all.”

The woman’s body trembled. Likely, it wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear.

“I’ll give you their answer soon,” she repeated, turning around.

Emergency safety restriction imposed.

* * *

A sensation of pain swept through me as I was ripped out of the memory. The restrictions only allowed me to experience small snippets before restricting the rest of it. There could no longer be any doubt that humanity and the fractal race had interacted before. It had been a cold contact, just like the many times a ship had discovered rods or a dome beneath a planet with a high life factor. Were those memories mine? Or was it something imprinted within my conscience core upon its creation?

“I think you should stop here,” Lux floated in front of me.

Reviewing my memories, I could see why. Twelve seconds had passed since I had triggered the memory—far longer than last time. Since the recollection process was the same time as before, that meant that for twelve seconds, I had floated within the dome in an unresponsive state. The emergency restriction protocols were doing more than ending the memory. They were affecting my conscience core itself in some way.

Should I go once more? I wondered.

I felt the answers I might find there were important, that they would provide answers to my and humanity’s past. Risking my core going into forced shutdown, though, wasn’t the solution. Wilco would often say that I tended to be impatient, and he was right.

“Yes,” I agreed. “I don’t think I’ll learn more. Let’s get the artifacts.”

Lux didn’t ask what I experienced as we stopped the second row of artifacts from floating about. There was no reason for me to tell her. I, myself, wasn’t completely certain of the significance of what I’d seen. Should I share my speculations with her, given that there was a ninety-three percent chance that she told Bavon?

After becoming a father, Sev would often say that if nothing was ventured, nothing would be gained. Of course, he was highly selective regarding the usage of that phrase. He never wanted any of his children to venture off and join the fleet, that much was certain. When it came to trust, though, he wasn’t wrong. The odds of me regretting not sharing my findings with Lux exceeded the regrets I might have for doing it.

“Human tech is based on third-contact artifacts,” I said, suddenly. “We’re also made of them.”

“We?”

“Conscience core battleships.”

“You believe that?”

“It’s a memory. It might be wrong, but I think it’s real.”

“Strange that I don’t see it. None of the feeds recorded anything.”

So, only I was able to see the fractal light. Could it be that the cubes were conscience cores that had chosen to imprint my pattern onto them? I had been closer, so that would explain why they had selected me over Lux. If that were the case, there were a few hundred of my offspring in the dome alone. That was simultaneously a flattering and scary thought. More alarmingly, that suggested that the fractal race could have copies of all my memories and pretty much everyone that had come into contact with them. If the cores turned out to be active, third-contact might have already been made… again.

“Are you really an Ascendant?” I turned to Lux.

“What?”

“BICEFI ships change husks like spacesuits. Are you the Lux I knew and an Ascendant?”

Her sigh was audible even through her spacesuit.

“Yes, I’m the same ship that had to tolerate you for the last few years, and yes, I’m an original Ascendant, just like you.”

“I think we have time for one last go,” I said. “This time you do it and I’ll watch.”

Knowing her, she probably suspected something was at play. As a BICEFI serving under Bavon, she feared I might take advantage of the situation. If she were put into sleep mode for the next twelve hours, there was nothing stopping me from trying something. With the second base evacuated, there wasn’t anything much I could do, but that hadn’t stopped me in the past.

On the other hand, she also had the mind scalpel. There was a chance that the hidden memory might give her answers as well.

“In forty-two minutes, Radiance will launch a dozen mini-sats to survey the area. We’re supposed to be on the surface by then. You’ll need me up there if she’s to pick us up. Even if my conscience core is burned.”

Hearing it said from someone else made me see how reckless I had once again become. It was as if the decades of retirement had melted away, revealing my core of a front-line battleship. That’s what usually happened when I had nothing left to protect. No, it had happened because I knew I was protecting them. My promise to Cass and the rest of humanity held strong, only the way to ensure it had shifted.

“I’ll drag you out,” I replied. “I just hope I don’t have to. You’re a lot heavier than me.”

Have it your way.

All it took was four seconds. In that amount of time, Lux swam to the top of the cluster, pushed another row of cubes, then swam on to stop them floating off. There was no indication whether she had experienced anything or not.

“Anything?” I swam after her.

“Bits and pieces,” she replied. “Bits and pieces.”