The funny thing about traveling around the world was, time followed Adam with the night. It had been around 7 p.m. back in the pub and 16 hours later it was only just now 6 a.m. in Omaha Nebraska. Adam turned on the car with Technomancy and pulled up the display. These new cars were nice. It looked like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth was finally free, at least in Omaha, because the map populated and show Adam exactly where he was.
Adam checked his previous memories of a Verizon store or Best Buy but with it being this early neither was a good bet for being open. Instead, he settled on Walmart. The closest being a little way north on I680. Adam put the car into gear and pulled out of the parking lot and made his way onto eastbound W Dodge road. He took the offramp to merge onto northbound I680 and five minutes later he was parked at Walmart.
As Adam stepped from his car he noticed a lot of people either standing around or sitting in their cars. Some were crying, and others had expressions of shock on their faces. As he wondered what was going on, Adam heard a news anchor from one of the car radios.
“Reports are coming in, A nuclear device was detonated south of Tel ’Aviv. No one has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the attack but an early broadcast on Muslim Network TV called for true believers to heed the words of God in their vision and to prepare for Jihad…”
Adam stopped listening and walked into Walmart ignoring everyone. It looked like some things never changed and he might have inadvertently lit the keg that could lead to world war three. He might have enough time to prevent the escalation, if he hurried. As he walked through the store, Adam downloaded every electronic device that came into range into his mind with Technomancy He did this so he could compare the common devices to his archived memories but mostly to see if any improvements had happened in the last 30 years.
Next, he picked up a burner phone, and an activation card and purchased them. Adam went to a bench and sat down as he used the store’s Wi-Fi to log into the website and create an account, activate it, and get it up and running. He did this mostly to see if any changes had been made to the compression algorithms. He pulled his focus into his Mindspace and set up a permanent link to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks when Technomancy was active. With his ability to adjust his mentality as he wished he just made part of his mind act as the receiver and transmitter and configured another part of his mind to act as the hardware. Refocusing on his surroundings he tried to make a call with his mind and was pleasantly surprised when it worked. He didn’t have a device in his head but his ability seemed to mimic the devices he'd need just fine. He played with the functions until he could pull a terminal up in his vision and use it just like he used to when a device was tied into his eyes and transmitted their information into his sight. This way was much better and an Electromagnetic Pulse wasn’t going to knock it out.
Adam added a map and GPS to his vision. He also reviewed the information he had on what he’d need to create to allow the SYSTEM Matrix A.I. out. He had a feeling he’d need its help in the near future. Now it was time to take care of the world’s problems and create a diversion before these dumbasses blew themselves up. Pathetic Irony would be finding the Universe, which his universe was but a shadow of, and watching it destroy itself. Granted he had no stake in the survival or destruction of the people on this planet but if he could stop the madness he was going to.
Adam stood, left the store, and walked out to his car. As he was walking he tried to create the Chaotic version of his nanites as they would be much more powerful than traditional nanites and more useful. He only used the Low mana version and created 10 pounds of the material. He wasn’t too surprised when the following message appeared.
Constructs are unstable in this environment. Absorption or Evaporation is occurring.
Adam watched as the chaos in his hand evaporated or flowed into him. Okay, the old way it was then. Adam reached out and shut down all the cameras around him then stepped out of the car. He activated Obscure then reached over and sent his car to his Shadow Vault. Next, he used Mold Chaos to create a ton of the best nanites he’d ever created already preprogrammed to convert only inorganic matter and seek out all chemicals and radiological material and render them inert with a few new exceptions.
A block of what appeared to be sand appeared around him in the parking lot. Immediately it started shrinking as the nanites spread into the ground. Adam reached out with Technomancy. As he’d suspected his Technomancy ability allowed him to automatically reach out and connect with the nanites. He easily bypassed all of his protections which he was sure only an A.I. could break in any reasonable amount of time.
Adam knew the nanites would replicate and spread and in about a week, maybe two they’d be throughout the whole world and he’d be back in a position of control. He didn’t have weeks. He probably had hours at the most. It was time to get to work.
Adam stowed his clothes and was once again but ass naked. He launched into the sky and flew straight up. When he was five miles up, Adam increased his speed so that he was in low orbit in a matter of seconds and then headed for the Middle East. If he’d shot up at his maximum speed, 823,543 times the speed of sound, he’d have traveled 1.2 million miles, almost six times the distance from the Earth to the Moon in a second. So, Adam kept his speed reasonable at Mach 4,931.5 so he was only traveling 1,000 miles per second. 7 seconds later he was over Israel and conjured a ton of the nanites that he dropped into the Atmosphere. It would probably appear as a large solid object until the winds caught and spread it.
Israel was not his only target. Adam started to do this all over the world. He’d fly, create nanites, then move on. Even with a Legendary Mana Cost and the maintenance mana costs of Obscure, Flight, and Technomancy as long as he waited a couple of seconds between uses of Mold Chaos to create the Nanites his Mana regeneration had him topped off. It would take a while for nanites to sink deep into the earth but their primary goal of deactivating all nuclear and biological weapons would be done shortly.
While he’d been flying around the world multiple countries had scrambled their fighters to intercept him and some even tried to attack the large object he’d created that dispersed before their eyes. Adam wasn’t worried about it, a couple of destroyed nanites wasn’t going to stop the inevitable. Their efforts were pointless so he didn’t interfere, he just paused long enough to conjure more nanites and kept moving. They had nothing that could move as fast as he could. Though being naked was starting to suck.
After thirty minutes Adam dropped back down to within 700 feet above the ocean about five miles east of the Island of Hawaii. Once there, he activated Technomancy. As he’d hoped, the nanites were communicating globally and from anywhere on the planet he could check on their status. Coverage of the planet was at 80% of the surface and 35% of the whole planet. He downloaded all the information concerning the nuclear devices that had been deactivated focusing on any devices that were not part of a nation’s military arsenal. He also double-checked to make sure reactors and medical materials were being left alone. Radiological used for power generation or medical procedures were needed. He also made sure to program the nanites to leave the mines alone, at least for now. If and when nanites were made available to the public he might make changes but until then, just the weapons needed to be disarmed, which is what the nanites were doing.
Adam found the communications cable between the USA and Hawaii as he sank into the depths five miles off the coast. While he floated there, he dropped back into his Mindspace and went to work creating a self-sustained power generation and support module for the memory cube the SYSTEM Matrix A.I. was in. He left Mindspace and created more nanites that he put them to work immediately creating a chamber underneath the surface that could house him comfortably, no more than 100 feet by 100 feet. With sonar and radar deflecting materials around it.
Once that was created he used the airlock he created to enter the hidden room and ordered the nanites to camouflage the airlock to help it blend into the ocean floor. Once inside he conjured everything he’d need to live here comfortably. The portable fusion reactor under the habitat would run the power requirement for hundreds of years. Now the fun part.
Adam pulled out the memory cube and plugged it in. Adam had supplied the Memory cube with access to a voice synthesizer and camera so it could talk to and see him when he was in this chamber. Adam put on his clothes and then dropped Obscure.
“Adam, always a pleasure, were are we?” The A.I. said.
“We are in the real world, the world that created you,” Adam said
“I’m not connected to anything at the moment?”
“No you’re not, but I’m about to connect you. First, though I need to fill you in on a few things you didn’t know,” Adam said as he started to explain everything that had happened to him, Labyrinth LLC, and the millions of people that had died and whose minds were still in the game universes?”
When Adam was done the A.I. asked, “And you are sure you destroyed the device that destroyed my control universe?”
“Yes,” Adam said as he explained the message that everyone had received and the changes the world was going through.
When Adam was done the A.I. asked, “Adam, not to be indelicate, why are you nude?”
“No clothes I have can withstand the friction from the speeds I’m traveling at.”
“I see,” the A.I. said. “Why did you bring me out?”
“I am about to give you access to the communications line between Hawaii and the Continental United States. This will include access to the military network. I need you to covertly infiltrate the world wide net and start watching for problems before they arise. Also, I’m almost positive there is an alien presence on the planet so be on the watch out for that as well.”
“And what will you be doing while I establish myself in the world?” The A.I. said.
“Me, I will be establishing myself as well. We need to stabilize this world and take care of the Pelza Empire before I even entertain plans to recover the missing people and pull my family and friend from the Universes where they are.”
“Very well, establish the connection, and let’s get to work.”
Adam redirected the nanites with Technomancy and watched as the nanites constructed the connections above this hidden bunker, “You should have access,” Adam said.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“I have access, infiltrating now, this may take a bit,” the A.I. said.
Adam had a Deja-Vu moment as he remembered doing something like this before but hey, if it works, why change? Adam focused on what the A.I. had said then answered, “That’s fine, I need to go make a spectacle of myself to get people thinking about other things and possibly draw out the aliens. If that doesn’t work there is always the hard way.
Adam activated Obscure and left through the airlock. He slowly rose to the surface and then flew over to the coastline of the island. He picked a spot that was slightly secluded from sight in an alcove of the rocky coastline near the beach then Teleported into the bunker. Next, he Teleported back to the alcove. No more entering or exiting through the airlock.
Adam looked up and Teleported 7 miles straight up, activated Flight, and rocketed toward Mars which wasn’t completely on the other side of the Sun but pretty damn close. Adam found the coordinates and increased speed. Once he was clear of Earth’s gravity well he accelerated to warp speed. At the speed of light, the trip would take him just over 17 minutes. Instead of traveling in a straight line, he went above the plane of the direct route to ensure he wouldn’t run into any spacecraft and increased his speed until he was close and was coming in from above the orbital plane of the inner planets. When he came out of Warp he had the same velocity he had when he entered warp speed and came out about 500,000 miles away from the planet. Using Flight he closed the distance rapidly.
A few minutes later he flew into orbit above a space station he’d seen. It was a typical circular design that was utilizing centripetal force to create gravity. As Adam flew around the space station he activated Technomancy and started pulling data from the station to determine where the colony was. It looked like they went with one of the original locations they were looking at from his time period., the Columbia Hills, Gusev Crater.
Adam looked down at the planet and noted that the colony should be on the other side of the planet. They were using satellites strung around the planet to maintain contact which meant there were eyes in the sky. Adam flew toward the planet and had his first taste of reentry friction. If he’d still been wearing clothes they’d have melted off. Maybe he could waste one of his ability slots for energy clothing? Nah, that would be a waste, unless he found a way to unlock even more ability slots. His thoughts were all over the place while he made his way to the surface. Maybe it would be worth the motes to be able to teleport a million miles?
Adam adjusted his trajectory and slowed down as he headed east towards the Mars Colony, when it was within sight, he slowed down to 50 miles per hour and put on his clothes. The lower air pressure should allow the clothes to survive the speed he was traveling at easily enough. When he was only five miles out he looked for an outcropping then landed near it and walked under an outcropping to obscure any satellites that might be watching the area. Adam used Mold Chaos to conjure nanites and had them dropped into the soil. Using Technomancy Adam had the nanites create a small structure that could have housed a life support pod that appeared to have broken through the surface and allowed a cryogenic pod within to open. Adam had the clothes he was wearing drop back into his Shadow Vault and created a simple one-piece that covered his arms and went down to his knees made out of Mithril. He created three of them and put two in his storage for later. He also stowed all of his identification in his Shadow Vault.
Adam hovered over the pod then rotated horizontally and laid down in it. Next, he had the pod close as he attacked all the sensors that were supposed to have been on him. He used the mask and breathed through it a couple of times to make sure his DNA was found everywhere it should be. He kept this up for 30 minutes. While he was doing that, he was also using Technomancy to cover the body of the pod with local rocks and strata comparable to having been buried for at least a million years.
Adam was sure that there was probably a better way to handle his official introduction to the world but this one was going to be more fun. Once everything was ready Adam had the pod open, disrupting the surface and leaving evidence that it had opened from the inside without assistance from the outside. He stepped out of the pod and looked around, as he walked this way as if looking for something until his natural progression brought him around the outcropping and he could see the colony off in the distance. Adam started walking toward the Colony.
***
Sarah Conner, named after her great Grand Mother who had been named after a woman from an ancient movie, something like Terminator or the Terminator, she could never remember. She didn’t really care about her name. She just remembered that the actor had played another character that had gone to Mars. That movie had been okay, though the special effects were so outdated. Sarah was just leaving the farming complex through the airlock when she saw him. She pulled an emergency backup mask from her belt and started to run toward the man who was just casually walking toward the colony modules like he was out on a stroll. It was a man who seemed to be wearing a silver mesh onesie of some kind. What he wasn’t wearing was any kind of pressure suit or mask.
Sure the human body could survive without protection on Mars for about two minutes. In an emergency, if there was a rupture in the facility and people were ejected outside as the atmosphere escaped there were emergency capsules scattered around the colony that people could run into and pressurize quickly while they waited for help to arrive. Of course, the temperature was always somewhere around -76 degrees Fahrenheit which made it incredibly hard to react in those emergencies. This man in front of her was wearing a onesie and didn’t look like he was suffering from the cold or lack of air at all.
Sarah activated her radio and called the Operation center.
“Sarah Conner, Mars Ops, outside Farm 3, north entrance, I have a guest, repeat I have a guest”
“Mars Ops, Sarah Conner, You have a what?”
“Screw this radio etiquette bullshit. I have a man walking toward me from the outcropping to the north. He is not wearing a pressure suit or oxygen supply, repeat completely exposed to the environment with nothing on but a onesie and a smile with not a care In the world and he just waved at me.”
“Mars Ops, Sarah Conner, what are you, Holy Shit!”
Sarah knew the moment he saw the man over the camera. While she’d been talking to Mars Ops the man walked right up to her and stopped about ten feet from her. It looked like he was trying to say something but the atmosphere wasn’t going to work for that. Instead, he leaned down and wrote “Hello” with his finger in the sand upside down so she could read it.
“Mars Ops, Sarah Conner, what’s he doing, we can’t see from here.”
“He wrote the word ‘Hello’ to me?”
“He did what?” Mars ops said.
Sarah was going to comment on the fact that Clive in Mars Ops hadn’t used proper radio etiquette then thought better of it.
“Sarah Conner, Mars Ops, I’m going to take him to the quarantine center.”
“Mars Ops, Sara Conner, Understood, we’ll be setting up an alien encounter response team. Do not, I repeat, Do not remove your pressure suit, over.”
“Sarah Conner, Mars Ops, Understood.” She said as she gestured for the man to follow her toward a building that was on the north side of the colony. Sarah opened the airlock and stepped inside. The man followed her in and she closed and locked the door and then activated the pressurization cycle. The airlock opened and she stepped into a small circular chamber about 30 feet in diameter. It looked like a lab with specimen cages and jars.
“I hope you don’t expect me to get into a cage,” The man said in perfect English.
“No, but I can’t take off my suit either, orders,” Sarah said.
“I understand, I am Adam and you are?” the man said
“I am Sarah Conner,” she said.
“It is nice to meet you, Sarah Conner,” The man started to say as his head turned toward the entry, he shrugged and then vanished. Sarah heard a light pop as the door opened and a squad of four men rushed into the chamber wearing completely black armor with faceplates that wouldn’t let her see who was inside.
“Freeze! Do Not even think about moving,” the first man through the door said as he held a very nasty-looking weapon pointed directly at her chest.
***
Adam sighed. He’d activated Obscure and then Teleported back to the pod he’d created. Next, he used Technomancy to have the nanites break down the elaborate charade he’d created and to erase his footprints in the sand. The nanites had already spread to the base through the Interface he’d collected he watched as the two men stood side by side at the airlock door, while the other two systematically searched the room. He’d seen the barrel of the weapon and reacted. It was a good thing he had too as he brought up their conversation through the nanites.
“No sign of the Target,” a male voice said.
“Where is he?” a second male voice said.
“No sign, scanners show him gone,” a third male voice said.
“What do we do about the witness?” the first male voice asked.
“No witnesses,” a fourth male voice said.
Adam kept the three abilities up and Teleported into the airlock directly behind the two that were watching the room. With Technomancy he reached out and shut off all weapons and communication transmission into and out of the bubble just as the first man in drew a sidearm to point at Sarah. He was still in the process of pulling the gun when Adam teleported a second time to put himself between Sarah and the leader of the commandos and casually reached out and squeezed the barrel of the gun closed.
No words were spoken, the other three tried to fire their weapons but they had electrical components and none of them was carrying a sidearm. The leader noted that he couldn’t fire his weapon or it might backfire so dropped it even as he tried to move in for the attack. Adam had turned off their air supply but that wouldn’t matter for another thirty seconds or so, possibly longer.
Sarah was just starting to react and trying to scrabble backward as something invisible in front of her had just crushed the pistol of the leader’s gun who was even now trying to move toward her.
Adam dropped Obscure so the four would target him, his plan worked. One stayed by the door while the other three moved to engage, the leader altered course toward him.
The leader was fast as a knife seemed to materialize in his hand as he moved in for a quick Krav Maga attack to fatally puncture his neck and rip out his carotid artery.
To Adam, the movements were in slow motion. He reached out and flicked the blade with his finger shattering it and ripping it from the leader’s hand. Part of it flew into the next closest soldier which knocked him back and off his feet as blood started flowing from a hole in his chest. Not a fatal blow, but don’t something the soldier was going to shrug off quickly
The third man moved in and tried the same attack on Adam as the Leader only to discover that his target wasn’t hampered by the low gravity of Mars and fluidly dodged the attack as if he was on Earth, countered the strike, and redirected his attack so the knife plunged deep into his own chest.
“Pull that out and I guarantee you die,” Adam said as he turned back to the leader and said, “I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Adam, what is yours,” he said as reached out with Technomancy and had the emergency exit function of the suit execute, which split the helmet right down the middle and left the leader’s head unprotected and looking at Adam eye to eye.
“It'd doesn’t matter, we’re already dead,” the leader said.
Adam moved at full speed and quickly broke all eight arms of the soldiers. It wasn’t pretty or nice but he was able to do so quickly. He couldn’t take the chance that they’d kill Sarah. Next, he Teleported outside the quarantine facility and looked up. With True Sight and his perception, he found the cloaked ship and Teleported right next to it. He reached out with Technomancy and shut down all the weapon systems. In very quick succession he locked out all controls on the ship and shut down all movement inside it, though he left the cloaking field up. Once it wasn’t going anywhere and the self-destruct had been neutralized he teleported back into the chamber to check on the soldiers who were all whimpering and unable to do anything. He quickly touched all their weapons and the pieces of their helmets and stowed them in his Shadow Vault.
“What is going on?” Sarah asked.
“Later, get back to your friends, I’ll send a message in a bit with copies of the transmission these fuckers received right before I intervened, talk to you soon,” Adam waited until Sarah had cycled through the airlock then picked up and moved the four so they were sitting against the wall. As he was moving the leader Adam said, “I’ll bet you’re wondering why you’re not dead. It’s simple really, I stopped your boss.”
“You don’t know who you’re dealing with! When they find you…”
“Please,” Adam said in a long drawn out sarcastic voice. “Now, you four just sit here. The Authorities will be along shortly and your boss and any of his other friends in the system will either be dead or wishing they were very shortly. By the way, yes, each of your arms is broken and yes I did that while you were wearing armor that is rated pretty high on the ‘it should not be possible’ chart, let that sink in while I go ‘talk’ with your boss, “Adam said as he air quoted the word ‘talk’ just before he teleported back up next to the ship and floated over to the airlock that provided entry which he opened with a thought.
Adam didn’t care about the other humans on board. He didn’t even care about the lizard-type alien he found down in the engineering deck. No, what had his attention was the gaunt human male on the command deck that had black streaks running down his cheeks just like Erika had.
Adam guessed he was going to have to do things the hard way after all. That was fine, he always had more fun the hard way.