How could this day have gone so horribly wrong, so quickly, was the only thought running through Sal’zar Mech’lar, Captain of the Scout Class PX3 “Ghost”, as he looked out from his command seat. Commander Johansson had briefed him herself. She’d served as a scout to this defunct Universe after all. His mission had been simple, travel to the 4th planet in this solar system, set up a stealth satellite over the colony, and then head into the 3rd planet and infiltrate the society and pick up where her alias Dr. Brittle had left off with the company she’d been working for.
The speed with which this mission had been devised, planned, and executed had spun a few heads and brought him back off a much-needed rest. It seemed that the energy production plant that supplied all of the Empire’s forces had been destroyed. No information was given concerning the incident publicly, other than he was being sent on a top-priority mission to replace Dr. Brittle and begin locating nascent Universes so they could be seeded for future exploitation. Unlike Commander Johansson, his abilities didn’t include teleportation or dimensional hopping. Instead, he’d been given a crew that included a special operations unit, four of which were lost and presumed dead on the surface.
“Commander Mech’lar the outer hatch is cycling.”
Sel’zar hit a button on his console which caused “INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!” to begin broadcasting throughout the ship. Then he toggled his intercom, “Security Detail to Outer Hatch 1, Security Detail to Outer Hatch 1.” Sel’zar still hadn’t figured out how all his weapons had been taken offline, that should be nigh impossible with the redundant backups, A.I. countermeasures and top of the line quantum computers that this ship had, yet here he was hovering one mile above a colony base unable to do a single thing with the ship.
Sel’zar had thought himself extremely lucky. The ship had made the transit into this Universe and emerged just outside the Oort Cloud with no issues. They’d traveled to the fourth planet in about 30 minutes as this ship was equipped with a faster-than-light (FTL) engine. As they’d been setting up the satellite they’d detected a man walking from an outcropping to the north of the colony. Not a big deal until his technician said he wasn’t in a pressure suit.
As far as Sel’zar knew there hadn’t been any reports of cultivators on the planets in this solar system nor was there supposed to be an indigenous species on the planet which caused him to come over and look at the image of the man as the satellite zoomed in. Unlike the public, he had received a special briefing concerning what had happened to the energy production plant. As Sel’zar had looked at the monitor he had recognized the man from the file he’d been shown by Commander Johansson. He called for team one while he watched as the female came out of one of their farming domes and lead him over to another dome. Sel’zar’s files indicated that the building was for quarantining specimens.
The man was Adam. Sel’zar had watched the footage and seen him press the button that destroyed the energy production facility. Every report he saw stated they believed he died in the explosion. How lucky it was, that he’d found him here and that he would get credit for killing him or bringing him back to the Empire. Either outcome was acceptable. Sel’zar had ordered all communications jammed, gave team one’s commander his orders, and sent his team down to the surface.
They’d dropped out the hatch and used thrusters to slow their fall when they’d been close to the ground. Team one cycled into the chamber and asked for guidance. When he’d said, “No witnesses,” all communications with the team had ceased. His weapons officer had followed protocol as soon as those soldiers went offline and had been arming the weapons and targeting the colony to destroy upon his command. She'd also been plotting a course to take out the space station when she lost control of her weapon stations controls and all other functions on the ship had frozen and would not respond. Sel’zar had actually been surprised the alarm had worked. Muscle memory and training had kicked in and he’d toggled the alarm and announced the intruder without even wondering if it was possible.
As the inner lock cycled, the alarm was turned off. Sel’zar watched the monitor as Adam appeared in the airlock and made his way toward the bridge of the ship. Adam walked as if he knew exactly where he was going. Then something weird happened. Silver sand appeared all around Adam that seemed to be absorbed by all surfaces of the ship. Nanites! Where did he pull that many Nanites from? He must have dimensional storage. This man was much more dangerous than he’d thought. Sel’zar activated his aura and tried to set up a shield himself against the nanites. His instructors said that sometimes times a strong aura could shield you.
Sel’zar was looking around frantically to see if any of the crew had been infected when the door to the bridge opened. Sel’zar watched as Adam looked around quizzically, then stepped onto the bridge. His other four normal human crew stood and looked ready to rush him.
“Hello, I’m Adam, who are you?” Adam asked.
Clazon Mertle, Sel’zar's Science officer, rushed at Adam. Sel’zar didn’t even see what happened, Adam had moved so fast. The result? Clazon was left breathing and unconscious on the deck off to the side.
“Again, I am Adam, who are you?” Adam asked.
Sel’zar raised a hand to hold the other three bridge officers from attacking and said, “I am Captain Sel’zar Mech’lar, why have you attacked us?”
“That’s rich coming from you,” Adam said. “How is the Pelza Empire these days? Having issues cannibalizing Universes?”
“The strong take, it is the way of the Universe,” Sel’zar said.
“Fair enough, then I’m taking this ship, as Sel’zar felt the energy field of a teleport grip him and deposit him in his cabin.
***
From the few answers Adam had just received, he knew there was no point talking to them. Besides he’d already figured out how to control the ship and have it do whatever he wanted. He’d also disabled all connections from the A.I. so that he could control the ship. The technology this ship was using was very similar to the many technologies he’d run across. Also, his nanites had taken over and had complete control of the ship. That they had technological teleporters was a nice find.
While he was talking to the Captain he’d teleported the strike team into the medical bay and turned off the jammers. The colony was screaming for help at the space station. Adam ignored them for now. Though using the scanner from the ship he made sure to get the spatial coordinates for the colony so he could target it with teleport or portals if he was able to get them working in this Universe. He hadn’t tried yet because of the energy output but he knew he was going to need them and had a few ideas he wanted to try.
Adam watched as the medic immediately started working on the men. The armor was removed by pulling it into a storage device which allowed him to get to work on their arms. Adam could have killed them but honestly didn’t see the point. As far he could tell they were non-cultivators. Sel’zar on the other hand was a Cultivator and seemed to be trying to make a nuisance of himself. He’d already broken out of his cabin by punching through the bulkhead and seemed to be making his way toward the power plant of the ship.
Adam set the ship to travel to Groom Lake Nevada, Area 51. Then he activated Obscure and headed to the power plant. While Sel’zar had to break through doors and bulkheads, Adam had them all open and close behind him as he walked through the ship. Adam arrived at the power plant well before Sel’zar and closed the door behind him. Taking no chances Adam punched Sel’zar once in the chest with his full strength as Sel’zar busted through the door. Adam made sure to have his hand stop, an inch farther than the perceived plane of his chest.
The strike was devastating as a fist-sized hole appeared in his chest just below Adam’s fist and Sel’zar’s back exploded into a mist that sprayed against the bulkhead in the corridor. It kind of reminded him of something he’d seen in an anime once. Rail palm or first or something like that. He’d really need to be careful hitting people if he wasn’t trying to kill them. Adam focused his attention on the here and now. He dropped his Obscure to let the Sel’zar know what had killed him before his eyes rolled up into his head and he died. Adam used Technomancy to issue orders to the nanites to wait for 30 seconds and then convert all biomass to more nanites in the corridor and room, except for himself and the lizard person that had camouflaged itself against the wall on the opposite side of the room. True Sight and his nanites let Adam know exactly where the Lizard person was hiding.
Adam reached down and touched the corpse of Sel’zar Mech’lar and activated Treasure Renderer. All of Sel’zar’s items, including the clothes he was wearing, were instantly placed in Adam’s Shadow Vault. Adam also received seven quintessence, four Death, and three Shadow. One of the other items Adam looted was a small device that resembled a smartphone. Adam pulled it from his inventory and using Technomancy explored it. It was both a cipher key to the computer on the ship and a storage device with the captain’s orders as well as files concerning himself and Earth, specifically where to land, Dr. Brittle’s previous apartment and her backup, as well as a few caches she’d set up.
Since coming into the “Real” world Adam hadn’t been sure his high luck was doing anything for him but right now, finding this device with all the information on it seemed like a lucky find so maybe it was doing something after all. Adam detected movement as the lizard person stepped away from the wall and allowed his camouflage to drop. Without, turning Adam said, “And you are?”
“Engineer Kress’er,” the lizard person replied in a male voice as he emphasized the “s” sound. His eyes were drawn to the now-dead Sal’zar and the blood on the walls as it seemed to disappear from the surface. “Nanites?” Kress’er asked.
“Yes,” Adam said. “Engineer Kress’er are you a free citizen of the Pelza Empire or from a subjected species.?”
“We’re free enough now, but if you’re asking if the Pelza Empire conquered us, yes, we are a conquered people,” Kress’er said.
“And the human’s on board?”
“The Pelza Empire is humanity’s empire, or so they like to claim. They also claim that Humans are the epitome of all races and that all races will strive to be like them. If they have not, they will be shown, if they will not then they will be culled.”
“That’s how they sell the idea of mass genocide I take it?” Adam asked.
“Yes.”
“Are there any humans on this ship that have treated you with decency and kindness?” Adam asked.
“I’ve been treated fairly, but kindly, no,” Kress’er said.
“Let me ask this a different way, is there anyone on this ship you will miss if I offload them somewhere?” Adam asked.
He looked thoughtful, then asked, “You’re not just killing them?”
“No, the dipshit that the nanites just cleaned up was probably trying to destroy the ship and himself. I couldn’t allow that. I’m going to ask you to head to your quarters because I don’t want someone getting noble and sacrificing themselves for the Empire and you haven’t earned my trust yet. Don’t worry your cabin door will open to let you in. Once inside just stay in there until the door unlocks. I’m going to lock access to this room and any others that could cripple the ship but I will unlock your door so you can get to the mess and walk around the ship if you like. I’m also going to lock out communications. If you behave I’ll take you back to the Pelza Empire and drop you off before I go have a chat with the leaders of that empire.
“No one has a chat with Emperor Nabih’lar Pelza,” Kress’er said.
“Don’t you worry about that, let’s get you back to your room,” Adam said as he stepped into the corridor and waited for Kress’er to follow. Kress’er stood and followed Adam out of the Power-Plant, the door closing behind them. Adam escorted Kress’er to his room and then locked out all the electrical and mechanical components for the door before he headed back to the bridge. As he was walking, he had the nanites cover and weld all access to the power plant room and any compartments that contained high-energy storage or weapons, just in case. if he needed into the room he could teleport into the power plant from anywhere on the ship now. The synergy between Teleport and Perfect Memory worked here in the real world too. If he was in a room, he was familiar with the room. Adam checked on the rest of the crew through the ship’s sensors and his nanites with Technomancy.
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Once he was back on the bridge Adam checked their course and really appreciated the navigational abilities of the ship as it detected objects and adjusted course automatically. As he came into Earth orbit he used the communications equipment to connect with his nanites and through them connected to the A.I.
“How are things going on your end?” Adam asked.
“Very good Adam, nanites have completely covered over 95% of the planet’s surface, not counting underwater locations as filling that volume will take a few days. I have successfully infiltrated the internet though I have encountered another presence that seems to flee before me. When you have 100% coverage with the nanites we’ll be able to determine where they are.” The SYSTEM A.I. said.
“Good. I have a question for you. Have you thought of a name for yourself? Referring to you as SYSTEM Matrix A.I. or SYSTEM A.I. is a bit cumbersome,” Adam said.
“I did think about that and I think I like the name AL. It looks like AI when the L is lowercase.
“Very well AL, keep doing what you’re doing I have a little work to do still,” Adam said as he utilized the connection to have the nanites get him the transmission data for Groom Lake in Nevada. Once he had the information he adjusted the communication equipment and contacted the control tower in charge of that area.
“IFM, Groom Lake Control, requestion clearance for cargo drop, over?” Adam sent.
“Groom Lake Control, IFM whatever that stands for, the request is denied now get off this frequency or you will be prosecuted.”
“IFM (Invisible Fast Mover for the Staff Sergeant talking to me), Groom Lake Control. 1) Not asking, 30 Alien Humans, Humans from another Universe, will be teleported to the tarmac in 10 minutes. 2) Contact FM1 Control, I am the same IFM they have previously encountered over the Atlantic. Have security prepared to accept prisoners from the equivalent of a Nazi-style society that subjects and destroys anyone and anything if it suits their purpose?”
There was a pause then the Staff Sergeant, because I was also watching him through nanites said, “Groom Lake Control, IFM, You know what, if you can teleport 30 people down here, you can teleport me up wherever you are…”
Adam cut off the Staff Sergeant with a quick, “Okay,” as he instantly teleported the man onto the bridge in front of him. The Staff Sergeant was so into this rant that he hadn’t even heard the answer or noticed.
“…or you can get…off…the…What the fuck!” The Staff Sergeant said as he froze and looked around until he saw Adam.
Adam looked at the Staff Sergeant, made sure they had eye contact then said, “Ten minutes,” and teleported him back to the tower.
Adam watched the other Airmen in the tower as their fellow Airman disappeared and then rematerialized in the same spot. There was pandemonium which Adam kept track of but he had more important things to do. He had ten minutes, and he was going to make them count.
First, he verified that the nanites had disabled all nuclear weapons on the planet, and even noted that the nanites in the ship were deactivating a few weapons they had found in the weapon storage area. Oops, but that was fine, he wouldn’t be using them anyway and if he needed them he’d just have the material reinserted. One thing he made sure to do was to create a file over every person the nanites found near anything that could be considered a terroristic device. Then he gave new instructions to the nanites worldwide to deactivate all explosive materials, not in a designated weapons storage facility for a nation.
Again Adam added names and places to the file of those that were causing anarchy worldwide then he sent that list to AL and asked him to look at everyone’s background and search for the buyers, planners developers, and crazy people that were out to just kill other people. Adam was sure those paper trails, or in this case, money trails would lead back to big governments. Adam wanted to know who the people were on this Earth that were making decisions.
Next, he had the nanites in ALs bunker in the pacific start creating a stairway down to a second level and third as well as create a quantum entanglement communication device. Adam started downloading biological data to make sure everything that was simulated in his original universe was also true here. He finished going through the data at just about the 10-minute mark and contacted Groom Lake Control.
“IFM, Groom Lake Control, I see the security detail. Alien prisoners will be transferred in 3, 2, 1 Mark,” as Adam teleported the 30 humans on the ship to the surface in front of a hoard of security personnel that had been prepared for the transfer.
A new voice came through the communications channel, “Groom Lake Actual, IFM, There are some people down here that would like to talk to you.
“IFM, Groom Lake Actual, I’m sure there are. Read the reports coming from Mars. Sarah Conner is not crazy and the four individuals she describes are in the group that just appeared on the runway,” Adam said as paused for a moment and had the nanites in the ground create glowing circles around the four men whose arms he’d broken, “Those four,” he said.
“Groom Lake Actual, IFM, Neat trick, still we’d like to talk.”
“IFM, Groom Lake actual, we will General, we will, just not today, I’ll be in touch, Adam said as he shut down the link and had the ship head toward Hawaii.
Adam brought the ship to a hover five miles above the pacific five miles east of his base, roughly ten miles away from the island. Next, he set the autopilot to auto avoidance and return to the current position so the aircraft wouldn’t accidentally hit it. Once he was sure it was safe he teleported into his bunker at the bottom of the Pacific
Adam had been worried about funding for this next part but he thought he might be able to continue by just using Technomancy and Mold Chaos. Adam laid down on his bed, closed his eyes, and dropped into his Mindspace. Using one of his very old techniques he shut down his pain centers as he ordered the nanites to create the quantum link to the communication device inside his skull. It wasn’t very big but there were a lot of small connections that needed to be attached. Before he’d been connected through the nanites and the hard connection. Now he was connected through physical connections and Technomancy. The good news was that if he messed this up he’d be back.
Adam also included the Heads Up Display through his optic nerve for ease of control for the electronics he was adding to himself and he made sure to shield everything he was installing from electromagnetic pulses by using composites and non-ferrous metals. While the nanites were working Adam monitored the nanite progress through his Technomancy ability. While he knew that this body had never had these devices before he felt more like himself once everything was installed.
Adam left his Mindspace, opened his eyes, and looked around. With Technomancy running there was no longer a slight delay as he issued commands. With Technomancy working in tandem with his link, he could now control the nanites intuitively. When Chaos had been working as nanites it felt very similar to how it was working now.
Now it was time to get to work and also double-check something that had been nagging him for a bit. Adam created a batch of nanites that all had the quantum entanglement link with Mold Chaos and released them. He opened up his mind and let the sensations of the nanites flow into him starting in the current room and spreading out in an ever-widening circle as the new nanites updated the earlier version. The growth was exponential. Eventually, they would all once again be quantumly linked to him. He was monitoring the growth of his circle of influence as it expanded and watching for any signs of strain from his mind.
When his area of influence had grown to encompass the Pacific he could see, hear and touch everything within his realm of influence and his senses didn’t feel overloaded. He dropped back into his Mindspace to see what was going on.
“Hal, please display the current nanite load on my mental process.”
A screen popped up showing an almost flatline at 1%
“Hal, please display the current nanite input to me.
Another screen popped up showing a flat line at the 100% mark. Adam thought about the data he was receiving and how unhelpful Hal was being and then said, “Hal, display the current type of mental capacity and percent usage of a 100% total account for biological and chaos-related storage and processing areas of my brain in pie chart form.”
A new screen popped up and Adam was not at all surprised to see; Biological Brain usage was 10%. Chaos Supplementing Brain processing power 90%
Now to check one last thing, “Hal, display the amount of data the Chaos Supplementing my brain has available.”
A new entry appeared “5.2E+51” which increased by the second.
With that hint, Adam focused on himself and saw that the Astral link was feeding him mana. The mana wasn’t stopping when his mana was full, instead, his body was converting mana into chaos which it was treating like an array that needed expanding. Adam didn’t remember ever giving a command like that.
He’d wondered why he had no issues controlling a lot of machines at the same time or the ability to multitask so readily. He could because his mind was more than a battery it was constantly expanding. The only problem, was where was the extra mass that the chaos was creating going. Adam knew there was only one place it could be. Adam opened his Shadow Vault and reviewed the inventory and noted that one block of storage was “used” but had nothing listed in it. The Chaos was funneling into his Shadow Vault while staying linked to him so that his mass didn’t change and taking on the identity of nothing. He didn’t remember making that choice, then again it could be a default for the ability.
Adam thought about that for a moment then realized he didn’t like that one bit. What if he lost access to his Shadow Vault? Would he lose access to all that computing power? Better not to find out. Adam altered what the extra chaos was doing and had it add evenly to his body while remaining weightless. In this way, it would keep adding the same supplemental mental power. Next, he reversed the process for his Shadow Vault, pulling all the chaos stored there and layering it evenly across his body also. Conceivably this could go on forever, as it seemed like the Astral Plane was probably a source of limitless energy.
Adam paused trying to feel the changes he made but he felt no different. He knew though that it would be a while before he approached the mental capacity he had before. Adam kept an eye on the process and when he was satisfied nothing really bad was going to happen he focused back on planet Earth and his spreading nanite influence in every solid structure and the Earth itself.
The next thing on the to-do list was to see if he could make a portable fusion reactor that ran on water. He opened his eyes stood and looked at the new stairway that led down to the 2nd level. He went downstairs. The first step, create a lead-lined room that could hold the reactor so the radiation wouldn’t leak out. The nanites handled that in almost no time. Within a minute there was a ten-foot room with a full foot of lead shielding around the room.
Next, he used Mold Chaos to create a small fusion reactor inside the room. Then using Mold Chaos a few more times set up the liquid cooling and electrical generation area out under the sea floor, making sure to keep everything watertight as well as behind radar and sonic detection scanners. This part took about ten minutes, but he had all of the schematics from the various reactors he’d come across.
The one problem all fusion reactions had was creating the initial burst of power that was required to kick off the chain reaction and get it started. Too much energy, BOOM. Too little energy, FIZZILE. With Adam’s new ability Mold Chaos he could create exactly what he needed where he needed it and as plasma didn’t have much weight at all, as long as he knew what he was trying to create, he could do so at a low mana cost. And that’s exactly what he did. Once the reactor was set up and ready to go Adam used Mold Chaos to create the plasma he needed at exactly the temperature he need it and the reaction started without a hitch. With Heavy Water he’d created for this reactor the reactor should work for at least five years without needing more water.
This next part was the fun part. Portals had been his passion and he knew the devices inside and out. If AL had created a universe that followed all the same laws in this Universe, his Portal technology should work. Also, the start-up process was going to be a lot quicker. Instead of having to create special microchips, microprocessors, and command codes to run the portals from scratch, which would have taken months, if not years. Adam reached out with his mind and activated Mold Chaos, a moment later a portal device appeared before him. As before the device could open a portal anywhere within range. The range was dictated by the power source and how much it had.
Adam had the nanites attach the power and control systems while he had the nanites create a chamber with an airlock that could be depressurized and pressurized quickly. He stepped into the airlock, closed it, and brought the room to a vacuum then he used his nanite interface to create a portal to the moon.
Before him, a pinpoint expanded, and the chill of space seeped through the portal that led to the surface of the Moon. He was back in business. Adam closed the portal and started reviewing what was going on in the world right now. He estimated that the new nanites that were connected directly to him would have complete coverage of the planet in less than an hour. Also, because he could be a bit heavy-handed Adam allowed the nanites to help medical personnel save patients, as a different part of his mentality reviewed medical records looking for patients with a terminal illness which he then sent nanites to cure.
Adam wasn’t going to put nanites in people so he could control them, he still believed in free will and looked at the previous time he did that as a mistake. He would, however, allow the nanites to go in, destroy and convert malignant tumors into more nanites that could be used to cure even more patients. There were some things he couldn’t fix but for those there was magic. As he took direct control he noted more and more uses of what could only be identified as Quintessence abilities, so there were cultivators on Earth. He wondered why magic wasn’t as prevalent. Maybe it was a Universal thing. Maybe this universe just didn’t have the same amount? Of course, he’d been in a situation like this before and he’d bet $100 that his Astral Link was going to start causing problems, sooner than later. While he was healing the terminally ill his influence continued to spread across the planet.
Adam started thinking about his failure to create a spectacle on Mars to distract people. He’d noted that there were rumors of “Alien” contact at the colony, but it was being framed as a conspiracy theory. Also, he was considering how to get money quickly and legally, reduce crime if possible, and have a little fun while doing it. With the added benefit of making a spectacle of himself to help the peoples of Earth, he came up with a couple of different plans. He just had to wait for the right opportunity.
Just then one of the preset conditions he placed on the nanites activated and he detected a man wearing a suicide vest with conventional explosives stepping onto a bus filled with American students on holiday in Paris. There were many ways he could handle this, but the first thing he did was have the nanites convert the C4 explosive in the suicide vest into Play-Doh. He also did the same to all of the extra C4 materials he had back at his flat. Now he had some time to think about how he wanted to officially introduce himself to the world.