Max arrived home and filled Casa in on the day’s events. Casa was a little disappointed that Max barely noticed the intricate decorations, filled with hidden meaning. Despite being healed and empowered with skills, now that he was able to relax Max felt completely worn out. Casa had convinced him to take a hot bath, which he readily accepted.
Hard to believe it’s only been one day, Max thought, Query: Status
[Quest: Born to Run II complete, 100 XP awarded]
[Vitality +2, Vitality reaches 7]
[Stamina skill reaches 3]
[New Quest Unlocked – Born to Run III: dedication is needed to endure]
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 2 (650/1500 XP)]
[Body Design Model: Custom - Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 10]
[Strength: 5 Agility: 3 Endurance: 6 Vitality: 7]
[Perception: 4 Intelligence: 1 Will: 1 Energy: 15 Regen: 8/min]
[Body Skill – Stamina: 3 Leaping: 2 Healing: 4 Strike: 1]
[Sense Skill – Scent: 8]
[Mind Skill - AI Assist: 3]
Racing Charlie back to the park entrance had indeed brought Max’s running quest up to completion and activated another tier to the running quest.
Charlie may look old, but he runs like a cat with its tail on fire, Max thought. The stamina skill didn’t drain energy nearly as fast as the leap skill. It only burned about 1 for 10 minutes of running. Hmm, 10 free stat points and a level-up. I could boost those mental stats, maybe?
Max frowned at his mental stats. He’d spent so much time on the running and scavenger hunt that he had neglected his meditation quest.
Maybe now was a good time to try it out, Max thought, I can save those free points and assign them if I get stuck at a quest or challenge. Although, if my energy holds me back in sparring maybe I can target the energy stats to get more points to play with. First, I need to try to build the stats naturally rather than lose my free points.
Max got out of the tub and toweled off. In a comfortable robe, he sat cross-legged in the center of the room. He set his intention and began to still his mind. His thoughts keep going in circles. As hard as he fought to still his mind, it seemed to rile him up even more.
“Casa, this may be a stupid question. Any tips as to how I’m supposed to meditate?” Max asked.
“Focus on your breath and accept the thoughts as they come but don’t dwell on them, just let them come and then let them go. Don’t fight for it, relax into it. There are more advanced forms where you breath with your diaphragm or in through the mouth and out through the nose. Some methods also prescribe a certain time duration for inhales versus exhales. Not having a body, I can’t say what would work the best for you.”, Casa replied
Max settled down and concentrated on his breathing. He was shocked at how much even a few minutes of focus on meditation helped him to relax. He had been so busy trying to complete all the quests that he hadn’t had a chance to just sit and relax. The feeling of calm and clarity he felt was invaluable. Ten minutes stretched to twenty as he sank into his breathing. Inexplicably, he began to feel pressure, like a white noise intruding upon his stillness.
[Quest: Meditation quest completed. 100 XP awarded]
[Perception +1, Vitality +1, Perception reaches 5, Vitality reaches 8]
[New quest unlocked: Meditation II: Expand your awareness]
“Casa?” Max asked, his voice sounding unnaturally loud in the quiet room. “What’s that noise?
Casa’s voice replied, “There is no noise, Max. I’ve isolated the house with sound barriers to avoid any disturbances to your meditation.”
Then it hit Max, the noise was from inside his head. He tried to shut it off, but the feeling only intensified. Soon it was the only thing on his mind, overwhelming all thoughts of meditation. What was it?
Max took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes. It was then he realized that the noise was a familiar one, one he’d heard before. It was like the sound of a processor running, similar to the sound of the training AI waking up in his head when his augmentations were first activated. Try as he might, Max couldn’t ignore the waves of distortion washing over him.
“Casa, this isn’t working. I think my augmentation is picking up on the house’s systems or something.” he cried, standing up and pacing, “This is so annoying!”
“Maybe I can help.”, Casa said as she began putting the houses systems into sleep mode. “Try again and see it that helps.” Casa encouraged.
Max sat down again in his meditation position, closed his eyes, and slowed his breathing again. The white noise was indeed reduced. As Casa, continued to turn off systems, Max felt the changes. After a few minutes, only one source was left, it “appeared” very bright in his mind. Max focused on it and pushed.
[Quest Meditation II completed, open your mind, 100 XP awarded]
[New Quest Unlocked: Meditation III – feel the world around you]
[Perception +2, Perception reaches 7, Will +2, Will reaches 3]
[New mental skill unlocked: Access 1. Utilize augmentations to connect and control remote devices. Energy used is dictated by level of access and time.]
[Access Neural Core ID: Casa de Mitchell. Y/N?]
Still in meditation pose, with a slight tugging of a smile, Max thought “yes”.
“[Well, that’s new! Welcome Max. Be sure to wipe your feet at the door.]”, Casa’s voice sounded directly in his mind. It felt so much more than the telephony. He could feel Casa around him. She was amused and happy! Max had never asked if she had emotions or merely emulated them. He was unsure if such a question was rude toward a prospective AI on the fringe of the Turing test. Now he knew without a doubt. Casa had a broad range of emotions, and he could sense them as he accessed her core.
[Access +1, Access reaches level 2]
[Energy: 18/20]
He could sense Casa’s thoughts racing around him, circling so fast. Max had overheard that her mind pattern was unique. She was a dynamo of thoughts racing in circles. Occasionally a thought trail would escape and bloom before returning to her main “river” of thought. Immersed in her consciousness, Max felt like he was moving in slow motion.
“[Wow! Casa, you are amazing.]” Max thought and heard Casa’s mental giggle. She projected an image of herself blushing in his mind. Max responded with a rush of memories of the family interacting with her.
“[Thank you, Max. That was so sweet. I think you leaked a few extra memories there. Was that your new friend Charlie?]”, Casa thought, replaying the extra memory of Max sparring with Charlie. In response, Max mentally replayed his first day of classes at the academy and his afternoon in the park With Charlie.
“[Oh my, Max! You didn't tell me you had hurt yourself in the park. You need to be careful!]”
“I know, Casa. I’ve learned my lesson. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. I certainly don’t want to play chicken with any more trees.” Max grimaced.
“[By the way, Max, your access skill is very smooth. Your dad must have given you a top-of-the-line augmentation system to go with your uplift neocortex module. Could I peek?]”, Casa asked.
With Max’s mental agreement, she took a good look at his augmentation from the inside. Casa was impressed, Bill had indeed bought Max a system that significantly outperformed the industry standard. Some of the physical modules were even above military standards. It was likely that Bill had tweaked and optimized them like he did for his own. Casa was even more impressed with the mental augmentations.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
For the moment Max’s modules were locked down, but Casa could see the power potential. Casa had always believed she had a special relationship with Bill due to his heavy mental redesign and augmentations. He was able to collaborate with her better than anyone. He even matched her for thinking speed, which no other human seemed to be capable of doing. After seeing Max’s potential, he may soon be in the same league.
Casa was about to retreat from her systems tour when she noticed a very large, sealed program in Max’s uplift module. It looked both out of place and strange. Casa knew systems and software, like a human knew how to breathe and see. She did not recognize or understand this packet of code. It was isolated from all the other code blocks and the logic structure of the program set was weird and twisty.
Casa “peered” closely, getting into the anomalous code. She gasped as it responded to her attention. It unpacked and compiled without her direction. It had acted like security code, where the act of review could trigger an execution function. The data block was unspooled and shot a stream of messenger code along her access link.
Damn, damn, damn. Casa thought. She normally operated with safety protocols and isolated new code in a virtual sandbox prior to accessing. Seeing the unexpected code in Max’s head, she should have followed the download review protocol. In her curiosity, she had forgotten a basic rule. She raced after the messenger signal as it shot through the house’s network. With most of the house's systems offline, it should make it more difficult for malicious code to burrow in or hide.
[TESSERACT OSI, #$rt552, f1x: 0 f2x:1 f3x:1 f4x:2 f5x:3 f6x: 5 f7x: 8 f8x:13 f9x:20 f10x:33 …. process initializing]
Casa realized where the signal had gone. It dawned on her now that she realized why the unfurled code had looked familiar. It closely resembled the evolved tesseract code and circuitry. Max has been included in the gestalt brainstorm with her, Bill, and the presence they had felt in the completion of the tesseract. Casa had met with Bill and his daemon council and reviewed the event. She had agreed with him that the fabrication gestalt seemed to have included an intruder. Her “eyes” narrowed as she realized this code must have been left behind by the hacker.
“What in the heck is that? Casa? Casa? What’s a tesseract?” Max yelled.
Casa swore, not only had the code signaled the tesseract, but it had also established an access link from Max to the Tesseract!
“[Max, be careful. Don’t trigger anything. Can you back out of your access to it?]”
In a whirlwind of processing, Casa helped Max pull away from his access to the tesseract, but there appeared to be a residual link to it still in place. She shut down her link with Max and reviewed the wireless connections the NetheLab maintained with the device. She realized that it was no longer dormant. It was cycling but she couldn't fully access it to understand what it was doing. She needed eyes on it and right now only Max had the only key to access it.
She had promised Bill to keep the tesseract a secret as experimental technology was against the residential laws for Utopia. Casa thought the law was stupid, and the Tesseract didn’t do anything anyways. Keeping secrets was hard and in her view unnatural. On the other hand, Max was there during the Tesseract’s fabrication, so it wasn’t a secret to keep from him since he was there for its creation. True, he was only a slightly augmented dog at the time, and he may have forgotten, but Casa thought Bill would understand.
She sighed to herself. She would need to contact Bill immediately. Bill had forbidden discussion of the hacker and the Tesseract over the nets but if she kept the message vague it should be ok to let him know something was happening with it. Max was looking hard at her waiting for an explanation. She could tell he wouldn’t let this go. His stubborn streak as a dog apparently transitioned during his uplift.
“Oh dear, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about this, Max. You’ve just accessed the Tesseract in the NetherLab. It was supposed to be a secret. It is a research facility hidden far away beneath our house. It’s for your dad’s latest research on dimensional theory. We need to call your dad!” Casa confessed.
Max’s eyes widened with excitement. He knew the house was a disguised and reconfigured house ship. He had been wanting to explore the depths of the house but had been continually distracted by fun things to do with his family. This was a perfect excuse to explore it. Max took a deep breath, still unsure of what he had stumbled upon.
“So, it seems like I was able to access this system, and it looks like it’s initializing. Can we go check it out?”
“It’s 11 miles deep for a reason. If it goes unstable it could be New Boston Bay, all over again.”
Max had learned about the Boston Bay event but hearing it in this context didn’t really relay any danger to him. He could tell that Casa was going to be a stick in the mud. Max thought for a second.
Think! Think! How can I convince her we need to explore it, Max thought.
After a moment’s hesitation, he swallowed and said, “I agree we can’t do anything risky, but what if my disconnecting made it unstable? If I did this, then maybe I can help make it right.”
Casa’s projection hesitated. She had been ready to shut him down, but he was right. He really was getting smarter every day.
“We call first. We need Bill to weigh in on this.” Casa initiated a call to Bill. After far too long the call went to voicemail. Casa dutifully left a message but commented.
“That’s strange. Bill or one of his daemons always answers. Had he gotten out of the habit due to being in deep space for so long? Or is he locking down his communications because of his concern about the hacker?”
Casa quickly wrote out a secure text using a one-time pad code Ada had provided. She wasn't comfortable deciding what to do. Maybe she needed an advisor daemon like Bill, she would have to investigate it. For now, she fragmented into four to brainstorm and apply some game theory to the best approach to investigate the tesseract without danger. After a subjective 40 minutes of debate, she dropped her cognition to real time speeds.
“Did Dad not pick up?”, Max asked.
“I’m afraid not. I’ve left a voicemail and sent a secure text explaining the change to the tesseract.” Casa explained.
“I guess we need to go investigate then, how do we get down there?” Max asked with rising excitement.
“Not so fast young padawan.”, Casa chastised, “Tiny steps.” Casa’s avatar projected an image of the “basement” about the living room. She painted the smart walls with monitors showing her the tesseract, the lab, and the sensor readings.
“Ok. You’ve already managed to access the tesseract once using the house’s network connection to the NetherLab. We can try again from here. We don't want to be anywhere near it if it shows any signs of instability. I’ll access your augs and then you can try to connect to the tesseract again. Ok?”
“Fine.”, Max said in a sigh. He really wanted to see the lab, but a virtual visit was almost as good. He looked at the monitors.
One screen had the outline of the large device's circuit displayed in a very confusing schematic. Other screens showed the lab camera views of sensor platforms arrayed around the main pedestal where the tesseract sat, seemingly inert. Max got into his meditation mindset and reached out. It was even easier with the skills advancement, the tesseract immediately let him in.
Casa brought Max’s attention to her current access prompts for the Tesseract. He could see lines and lines of code, equations, and formulae.
“The tesseract seems to be in a higher operating state than it was before. However, it seems to still be stable and is no longer changing. I’m not sure why you’re accessing it would have changed its operating state, but it’s apparently no longer in what I’ll call its debug mode.” Casa explained.
“This was my first non-verbal system access using my augmentation skills. I’m not sure exactly what I did on that first access.” Max said.
Casa replied, “Let's see if we can find the answers.”
Together they ran multiple tests on the artifact using a variety of sensors. No obvious effects could be found. No fields, no emissions, not even a surface vibration. Casa’s one victory was understanding Max’s link to the Tesseract better. His implanted code packet appeared on the outside to house Q-Bit pairs.
Modern cryptography still used entangled q-bits to ensure communications were private. Any attempts to peek at entangled messages upset the entanglement and would alert the software passing the messages that security was breached. The same methodology was use by the DAIE to lockdown AI from self-modifying their own code for intelligence boosting. Any attempt to unlock the governors would result in full core erasure. Casa couldn’t pry any deeper without disrupting the code. Their tenuous link to the Tesseract needed to be maintained and for now Max was the key into it.
After hours of tests and poking the device using their access skills, Casa finally admitted defeat. The tesseract was in a higher operating state but still stable and still not displaying any effects, despite the massive amount of energy they had fed it on the moon. After a relentless campaign by Max, she finally allowed that one quick visit to check if a proximity access without the house network should be tried. Casa configured the floor into a platform for the borehole elevator to the NetherLab.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”, Casa asked. “Maybe we should wait for Bill to reply?”
“We might not have the time for that Casa. I know it seems stable from here, but we need to be sure. None of the action heroes from family movie night would hesitate.”, Max said, sure of his logical rationale.
“This isn't a movie, Max! If anything happens to you or the Tesseract, Bill will never forgive me. We’re going in, one quick access, and then right back out. No messing around!”, Casa replied.
As Max nodded, she started the elevator’s descent. Max took another deep breath, thankful for Casa’s guidance, as the elevator dropped so fast his feet almost left the floor. He had no idea what he would find at the Tesseract NetherLab, but he knew he was excited to explore.
The NetherLab borehole would have been a miracle of engineering in the 20th century. In the 21st, it was just another example of a megaproject made easy. It demonstrated that when you had abundant and accessible energy, nanotechnology, and AI assistance; you were truly only limited by your imagination and physics. The borehole extended 11 miles deep. The walls were layers of nano-diamond, nanopore graphene foam, and programmable matter.
For every mile deep, the temperature of the borehole would be 25 degrees hotter making the NetherLab sufficiently hot enough to bake a cake. However, the forums of Makerspace had publicly posted and refined numerous infrastructure projects taking advantage of advanced manufacturing technology. Deep facilities for mining and research were no exception. They had posted carbon foam designs which had incredible thermal conductivity and paired well with a series of emplaced water reservoirs. Tapping into the thermal power of the mantle, a series of steam turbines had been fabricated and built into the borehole. Water reserves were converted to steam and drove the turbines to create power. The steam was then condensed and shifted to descent tubes. As the condensed water accumulated, power was again harvested using water wheels built into the descent tubes. In short, the advanced materials and embedded systems of the NetherLab boasted significant power generation capabilities without resorting to taping the Casa de Mitchells’ fusion powerplant and kept the lab cool while doing it.
----------------------------------------
Even with the modern technology powering the nearly free-fall high-speed elevator, it took 6 minutes for Max and Casa to reach the NetherLab. Despite the feeling of fear, amplified by the discomfort of his descent, the tesseract was unimpressive and a bit of a disappointment upon first seeing it. It was a tiny dark marble, no bigger than a gumball. It's only sign of life other than its wireless signal was one blue LED that slowly blinked in the lowlights of the NetherLab.
“Darn it!” Casa muttered, “if the Tesseract started to show some functionality, we could call your father’s goose chase for MIT data off and maybe get back to work. I wish he would call back. The lack of response is concerning.”
“I’m sure Dad is ok. You saw him in the kitchen. Anything comes at him; he’ll slice and dice them up.”
“Right. No more ninja movies for you. Come on. We tried the direct access with no change, time to pack up and get back upstairs.”
Despite the lack of progress with the tesseract, Max was now very cheerful. His family had a secret subterranean science lab.
“I better kick my training up a notch so I can help more. If you can send me back to the top, I’ll catch a few more z’s. Today is spar day, and I hope to do well. You will keep an eye on it and let me know if it starts doing something, right Casa?”
Casa’s smile shone even in the holographic projection. “Of course, and I’ll keep up the research too.”
Max reached out with his new skill and accessed the elevator and commanded it to ascend.
[Access Skill +1, Access achieves level 3]
[Wisdom +2]
[Energy 19/20]
With a smile that showed his large canines, Max looked hungry for more.