July 16th, 2033
The next six months were busy. The population of Trappist-1e was right around 2 million. A majority were a bunch of hardcore radicals who were taking every opportunity to try to kill anyone who didn’t believe what they believed. Johnathan was not a monster, when they’d failed to follow the rules 5 times they were moved to another planet he’d had Thor terraform. Anyone sent to that world still had the ability to view and surf what was going on back on Earth, they could order just about any food or drink they wanted but they were completely cut off from both Earth, Trappist-1e, and anyone else, including anyone else on the planet.
Unlike Trappist-1e or Earth. The third planet he sent the troublemakers to was not habitable and he had no plans to let them leave their rooms if they didn’t adjust their behavior. In addition, the nanites in their body were no longer stopping the aging process so these individuals would grow old and pass on into history, eventually. Anyone trying to contact them received a message that they were paying time for crimes against humanity and would not be able to speak with anyone for the foreseeable future. If someone was truly worried, Thor would share images of them sleeping in their single room that had been recorded for that purpose. As the years went on the aging would become apparent. He may or may not address that at a future date. At least he wasn’t putting them all to death, which was a solution he had considered.
The various Nations around the world were in an uproar for about the first hour. One of the fake news networks had published a completely false story. The individual that issued the order found themselves on Trappist-1e and the reporters for that network, local, and affiliate found themselves unable to transmit anything for the next 24 hours. Any affiliate, friend, third party, etc. that tried to publish the lies for them also found their access denied. The only person sent off-planet was the idiot who had ordered the slander piece against Jonathan. He’d kept the network off air for 24 hours and the individual who issued the order had been on Trappist-1e for a month. He’d made his point.
The man that had issued the order for the story to be created had followed the rules, so Johnathan had allowed him back and even granted his request to write a piece about his stay there. He didn’t have any issues with the news agencies after that as he kept his word. He didn’t agree with everything they reported but as long as they stuck to facts, he didn’t block or punish them.
While Johnathan was dealing with bad press, Thor kept spreading throughout the local star cluster. While he was doing that he even handled the meeting with the various leaders pretending to be Johnathan. He was getting really good at that. The United States President had liked what was going on, as did all the Western countries. The truly primitive cultures had been left alone for the most part. They were going to be allowed to grow in their natural habitat. Johnathan hadn’t considered them during his initial transmission. The damage had been done. One of the pieces written against him by a reporter named Jessica Bradley that he hadn’t blocked had been a story concerning the fact that he’d ended the natural development of tribes in the Amazon that had never encountered the modern-day man. Her points had been sound. He didn’t like it, but she’d been right. He’d offered her a job right then to be his personal critic and warn him if he was doing something stupid. She’d been hesitant at first but eventually, Jessica was on board. He’d had Amanda brief her on everything they were doing and then introduced her to Thor who had also briefed her. She’d come to him one afternoon to talk.
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She’d knocked on the door to his office “Mr. Bennard?” she’d asked.
“Johnathan’s fine, Jessica.”
“Johnathan, how?” she’d asked.
“The honest-to-God truth to that question Jessica is absolute blind luck.” He’d said pausing for a second before he continued, “The longer answer is that the Universe is more complicated than you know, and something changed me forever. That’s all I’m willing to share on the subject. Is there anything else you need or want?”
“No, well yes, Thor is amazing”
“Thank you.,” Thor said from the intercom speaker.
“And he’s always listening,” she said.
“Yes, he is amazing and yes, he is always listening,” Johnathan said.
Jessica had turned and walked out of the office smiling.
Abi, on the other hand, had been extremely quiet for the last couple of years as she absorbed knowledge from every single culture on Earth and all the information Thor shared with her as he spread throughout the various systems in an ever-expanding stellar sphere. She said something about letting her creator know so he could recreate it in the Labyrinth or something. Although they’d have to work out the bugs for a truly magic-free zone. Magic was still a subject she wouldn’t talk to Johnathan about as he had no frame of reference. Though the last time they talked she’d asked him if he’d analyzed the Adamantium ring.
“If everything has a quantum signature then wouldn’t it be possible to pinpoint and follow that signature? If so, wouldn’t you be able to make a portal to some point where the ring or the metal in the ring had been? Abi had asked.
“Across Universes?” Johnathan had asked.
“Yep, should work, just a portal through space and time. It should work a lot like our magical gates though there may be ‘issues’” Abi said.
“Issues?” Johnathan asked.
“Issues, and before you ask, I don’t know what issues.” Pausing for a moment she asked “If you decide to go, I think I will need to move my primary consciousness back into your subconscious. You may need me on the other side. That said, I’d like to leave a full copy of myself here to continue working with Thor and Amanda. I’ve grown to like this universe and I’m having fun seeing what’s possible. I would also suggest that you have Thor create a full backup of yourself. With the way the technology is progressing, I’m almost positive he could bring you back?”
“Of course, you can make a copy of yourself, but me, what about my soul? If something happens over there will my soul make it back here to my copy?” He asked.
“Not sure, but if you made quantum connections between the copy of your mind and you, if the soul can follow such connections it should be able to make its way back into your copy. I know there are spells that allow for this where I’m from so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some rules souls had to follow here as well. Then again, I don’t think any creature has done what you have and quantumly interlinked themselves to an Artificial Intelligence who is for all intents and purposes an extension of themselves, just an observation. I don’t know if Thor counts as part of your soul.” Abi commented.
“Well, I believe that was once true but I’m pretty sure Thor outclasses me on computational power by now. I wouldn’t even want to guess at how many individual nanites he’s composed of by now.” Johnathan said.
“It’s a number best expressed as a scientific notation that keeps increasing” Thor stated.
Johnathan smirked; he knew Thor had been listening. “I was wondering when you’d pipe in,” Johnathan said.
“As you know I always monitor you, your surroundings, and anything that might be harmful to you. As for Abi’s idea, I have already analyzed the Adamantium ring on your finger and have identified the quantum signature that is different from our own Universe. With slight modification, I can create a portal to that Universe, but the target will be quantumly locked to the item in question. If I were to hazard a guess the location the portal opens to could be, the mine the ore was taken from, the jeweler that created the ring, the workshop the ring was enchanted in, or any number of places in between could become the target destination. There really is no way to know.”