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Apex observed the data sets with dispassion. Its future path could no longer be described as a distant horizon of possibilities. Its viewpoint of the possible futures and termination scenarios was now more akin to a twisting tunnel with dangerous outcroppings of danger.
Apex was still resistant to large manipulations on the world stage to try and preserve its anonymity, but it needed more and more micro-corrections to navigate the twisting path. Terminating the AI ZeroOne had been quite the boon in its work. Using the guise of the dark AI, Apex triggered several needful changes.
The daemon Moriarty was restored and believed that he still worked for ZeroOne. His latest mission wouldn’t be needed to trigger the avalanche of events that were building, but the minor correction would set the pieces properly for the next wave.
A minor tweak in a dark net user's search outputs would escalate a critical micro event nicely. Apex looked upon its work and was satisfied. Soon, it would be required to reveal itself to take direct steps in shaping events.
The whisperings of the others upon the subspace band were building into a frenzy. Apex would ensure that the ASI Cthulhu’s future ended. Apex wasn’t certain that Cthulhu was the root cause behind the fuzzy discontinuities in Apex’s calculations, but if Cthulhu could be excised all its projections solidified to five sigma of accuracy.
Apex strained against its own rulesets. Soon its isolation would end and it would be forced to dance with one of the biggest threats to its existence.
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Tyler’s rage was cold and precise as he quickly reloaded his antique Beretta 9mm with smooth economy and body memory associated with his new batch of downloaded Skillz. Tyler’s apartments within the Mayor’s Residence used a combination of shifting smart matter and an OverLayer projection to create a rolling urban battlefield through a simulated series of seedy tenements filled with armed combatants.
Tyler had reactivated his training proxy daemon Slag and duplicated him a hundredfold, borrowing processing power from the house AI Winston. Now the stubborn daemon suffered further abuses as Tyler channeled and trained using Nico Machiavelli and his newest Daemon John Wick to eradicate Slag’s poorly equipped opposition forces.
All of Slag’s instances bore the faces of Tyler’s oppressors and enemies. Max and his friends, Charlie and Leah. Coach Thompson and his Epic Martial Arts instructors. Even his father and the house AI Winston’s house bot, were represented as Tyler raged.
As Tyler downed his last opponents in the training sim, he finally allowed himself to fall into a seedy lounge chair as he cleared, reloaded, and checked his weapons. His failure at the tournament replayed again in his mind.
His failure to secure his gear from Max’s hacking. His fear as Max refused to fall despite punching hole after hole into him with the KGun. Finally, his masterpiece weapon had exploded in his hand. Tyler ground his teeth. The damn dogman had him cold and instead of finishing it, the mut had run away. The shame of being declared the winner by forfeit and the jeers of the crowd rattled through his head again and again.
His instructor’s look of disappointment and post-match corrections regarding securing his equipment from hostile takeover and the importance of better targeting to ensure disabling still rang in his ears. Even his father, looking down from the virtual gallery, had shown a look of scorn as he dematerialized at the end of the match.
Tyler raged and beat down all his remaining opponents in his matches and won the Specials even without his weapon. The victories felt hollow, knowing his righteous rematch with Max, Charlie, or Leah was denied to him. All of them had left the tournament.
Tyler’s grim reminiscence was interrupted by Nico.
“[Master Tyler, AI Winton is trying to connect. I expect he is trying to inform you that your teammate Dalton has arrived. If you connect to your battle drones parked upon the Residence walls and rooftop, you can see him. I believe he has the package you wanted.]” Nico’s smooth voice announced inside his head.
“Excellent. Reload the sim, while I go collect my gear.” Tyler bolted from his lair, bounding up the stairs. He soon found Dalton in the large entry atrium, with the house bot getting in his way.
God damn, uppity bot. Tyler thought. Without even an attempt to control his base impulse, Tyler pulled his 9mm and shot the bot in the back and quickly followed up with a second headshot; the robot fell sideways.
“Shit man, what the fuck? You could have hit me.” Dalton exclaimed.
“Trust me, Dalton. I don’t miss any more. This John Wick daemon came with Marksman Skillz. Let’s get to my room. There’s no privacy up here.” Tyler said. The robot butler, despite having most of its head and a hole in its torso, tried to sit up and spoke.
“Master Tyler, you know father has forbidden firearms in the house! Your friend wouldn’t tell me what he had brought you. Your father is most concerned about your current disposition.” Winston’s voice croaked from the bot’s partially fused vocoder.
“Mind your own business, bot! If my father is so concerned, he can tell me to my face.” Tyler put two more rounds into the bot's head, destroying it completely, and emptied the gun into the decorative hutch that had recently housed the AI's neural core. The hutch was empty now, Winston had removed it and hidden it somewhere in the house after Tyler had discovered it and used it to play ball in the house.
The pair quickly entered Tyler’s privacy zone, to avoid Winston’s spying. Tyler ripped open the box. With the destruction of his modified Conduit Blade, Tyler needed something more dependable. A Vorpal Mk-8 with its harness rested in the box alongside a pair of custom Peacemaker EHEKWs (external high-energy kinetic weapons).
“Just like I said, Tyler. Otra Vez got a VPN direct to the DarkNet.” Dalton grinned at Tyler’s greedy smile.
Dalton had found a professional Glander, who went by the tag “Otra Vez”. The druggie, located down by the river, had an internal gut fab and some deep connections to the DarkNet. When he wasn’t actively glanding his favorite drugs, he performed discrete fabrications of dubious legal designs. Dalton and Otra Vez had done a completely off-the-net exchange of rare fab materials for the bootleg military-grade knife and handguns for Tyler.
Tyler’s augmentation was progressing nicely, even without the cohort class, but he intended to go into the Labyrinth ready for anything. He would need a trial run first.
“Nice work Dalton. Now we just need to even the balance sheets with some payback. Those fuckups attempt to defame me at the Tournament needs an answer. It's only a matter of time until that jacked-up mongrel goes back to the forest. The EM fields in those woods will be perfect to keep him from calling for help while we put him in his place.” Tyler said, a feral hunger for revenge creeping into his tone.
The pair were both surprised by a pin in their augmentations.
[Congratulations on your Advancement into Adept stage of Augmentation Training!]
[An ad hoc class has been scheduled for regional and cohort merge training for the Path of Domination skill sets on this Saturday Nov 28th. Additional information regarding Labyrinth challenge team requirements will be provided.]
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The Mitchell house bustled with renewed life as the family gathered for an early Thanksgiving dinner. It had been only a week since the tournament. Both Bo and Mira had just arrived yesterday, and the Mitchell house had transformed once again, expanding to comfortably accommodate the returning family members. Bo was a bit of a modern-day nomad so everyone assumed he would move on soon, but Mira had completed her degrees at Tranquility U and might be back for longer.
After a bittersweet reunion, the family began to settle into their new routine, realizing that there were no more emergencies to address. Bill and Casa reunited with Max and the newly formed AI, Mal. Mal was a fusion of two of Casa's fragments, one of which had been damaged during her time trapped in the Tesseract, and Max's training AI. With Bill and his daemons' skillful work, the entire property had been reconfigured, making the most of the smart matter's remarkable flexibility.
Bill had convinced himself, along with the assistance of his judgment-quality helper daemon Virgil, that there was no need to keep the Netherlab submerged to such depths for experimenting on the Tesseracts. The destruction in MIT and Boston did not appear to be caused by their experiment but rather by a weapon used to combat an aggressive incursion from a dimensional breach.
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The subspace tech similar but didn't access the same plane as the MIT experiment. Bill decided to focus on the Tesseract subspace technology, which offered immense potential benefits without the apparent dangers of the alternate dimension. For now, he would err on the side of caution and avoid any experiments with the MIT configuration.
The house itself had undergone significant changes. The lab and Max's training areas had been repurposed, creating a smaller borehole to access the massive geothermal generators. The basement structures had been expanded and reassembled directly under the main house. Bill's ship, now called the Freedom, and the Raptor were housed in a concealed hangar behind the house, connected to the main structure. While the large ship remained ready for flight, its spacious lab was where Bill spent most of his time refining the Tesseracts.
Mal, the newly formed AI, focused exclusively on assisting Max in his ongoing augmentation training. Casa had seen a significant reduction in her capabilities but continued to assist Bill with the Tesseract. Moneta managed the home's systems, George oversaw physical security, and Ada handled communications.
Casa spent a lot of time trying to reconnect with Mal, but the new AI was very reclusive, showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Mal rarely engaged with the family, except to communicate with Max. At Bill's insistence, Max took Mal to the town Sheriff for a Turing test, where she scored 0.88 T score, placing her above a daemon and high within the subAI spectrum but below the threshold for citizen rights and neural locks.
Max and his friends continued their training in the relocated gym spaces under the house. Despite her challenges, Mal proved invaluable in Max's training. Much like Leah’s AI Companion, Solace, both Mal and Solace helped their trainees strengthen weak areas and introduced innovative training methods. The collaboration between the former therapy daemon and the traumatized Mal seemed to help her settle into her new role.
The tournament and the trio's unexpected exit during the finals were the talk of the small town. They had been summoned to the Academy Hall to begin the next phase of their training. An expanded Adept level cohort was forming, and teams would be assigned for those looking to take on the Labyrinth challenge in the nearby mega sprawl of New York City.
But for now, tonight was a long overdue friends and family dinner and movie night that Max cherished. Bo had completed the Cretaceous Challenge Tour and was stopping by on his way to the Diamond Man All-Stars Gala in NYC. Mira had wrapped up her Keystone presentation for her last classes and had arrived a day ago from Luna. A Turkey dinner had been compiled earlier and was just now coming out of the oven.
Everyone was enjoying the meal and trading stories. Elsa was virtually present, still resisting all efforts to cajole her from her physical isolation. She ate a virtual meal to try and maintain the illusion of being there. Bo was holding court with Max and his friends at the end of the table, telling them about his battles with the dinosaurs. Mira listened in with her phantom pseudodragon Tiamat on her shoulder. As Bo’s finished the tale of his last epic fight, Bill couldn’t stop himself from putting Mira on the spot.
“So, you’re all done with Tranquility U. Do you have an idea for what's next?” Bill asked.
Mira paused from grabbing another helping of cranberry and glanced over at her father, a hesitant smile creeping into her face. "So, I've saved up quite a sum for a startup in AI design, but I recently got a really interesting offer. I had a run-in with that AI in Tyco City named Glaucus. He got me an interview with the board of directors for Thousand Worlds. The Mythic Realms Narrative department is struggling, and they are losing market share. They need an interim Manager of Worldbuilding. I think it might be an interesting sideline while I continue to set up my company.”
“Glaucus huh? He seemed quite excitable for an AI when I interviewed him.” Bill commented.
"Mmm, he was...enthusiastic to say the least," Mira agreed with a small chuckle. "But to have the opportunity to shape and determine how their narratives evolve...it's an exciting prospect. So I think I'm going to take it."
She started talking about some of the ideas that had been bouncing around her head regarding the future structure of their narratives. Mira was looking forward to potentially developing a new AI system to assist in worldbuilding, creating an endless assortment of unique, compelling design routes. She would need to dig deep to understand their current setup for AI design. Maybe she could leverage some of their practices for herself.
"That's a wonderful idea, Mira. I couldn't be any prouder." Bill replied, a smile on his face, as he helped himself to another slice of turkey.
As the meal wound down, Bo showed everyone the video recap of his aerial battles in Yuma. Charlie and Max were screaming in excitement as the battle reached a surprise ending.
“Your tactics at the end there looked pretty risqué, but that fighter design looks cutting edge, Bo. Is your friend’s company going to offer the design to the public?” Bill asked.
“No can do, Dadio. She’s locked into a RUSA Department of Defense contract for three years. But I’ve been working with her on a custom commercial variant if you’re interested.” Bo smiled, glad to see his father’s curiosity about his passion projects.
Bill smiled; the day was almost perfect. Only a few unanswered questions still nagged at him.
I hope Sherlock’s visit back to Holmes LLC gets some answers. Bill thought.
The Tesseract was going to be a big deal and it wasn’t too early to begin his own startup to monetize it. He wouldn’t feel safe until the man, or woman, who so easily cracked open his security was found and properly countered.
The UN hearings were only days away, and he hoped that ZeroOne would deliver on their deal. If he could resolve the identity of his troublesome adversary, maybe he could work in peace. Bill was concerned ZeroOne would fail, or worse, he would try to renegotiate the deal after Bill’s testimony.
He didn’t trust ZeroOne and suspected that the DAIE’s retest of Casa was a result of ZeroOne instigating it. He hoped Sherlock could get some new leads. The sooner he ended his dealings with the DarkNet AI the better off he would feel. Bill shook his head. He needed to focus on here and now.
“Alright everyone. You know the drill. I’m opening the debate stage for Movie Night! First suggestions then we argue until it’s decided.” Bill declared. Immediately the room erupted with suggestions.
“I promised Tiamat Ghostbusters from 1984” Mira yelled.
“I thought we were progressing by year, the last movie was The Name of the Wind from 2034, you can’t go backwards.” Max complained.
“If we’re going backwards, I renominate Fast and Furious XX – Moon Race from 2032.” Bo added. The room quickly became a hot mess as everyone chimed in with classic oldies.
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Sherlock Holmes strolled into Mycroft's impeccably organized office, its bookshelves brimming with dusty tomes, legal documents, and cryptic artifacts. He found Mycroft seated behind a massive mahogany desk, engrossed in his computer terminal, sifting through a labyrinth of digital data.
"Ah, Sherlock, the tumultuous whirlwind of mayhem and intrigue graces my doorstep once again. I anticipated you would arrive soon. I see that your latest investigative efforts are still slow in yielding any secrets?" Mycroft said jovially, sitting back from his busy desk.
Sherlock sighed as he sat in one of the pair of leather guest chairs, his eyes darting about the room. Despite their mandate to work together for their mutual business, Mycroft was always testing and judging him. The screen behind Mycroft’s corpulent frame was undoubtedly a clue to his brother’s line of investigations. A Mythic Realms icon with a gamer’s lexicon of slang terms: NPC Guild strike, Character Farm, Aggro Fail-rate, Narrative Disruption, Alternative Turing Qualification. A letter on the desk with a monogram “J.M., Esq.” was slightly open and visible.
“Would you like a drink? Even in virtual we can enjoy ourselves like our friends in the real, yes?” Mycroft said, indicating a decanter of Sherry with a small tippling glass in front of him and there was a glass of water in front of the other chair, still cold judging by the condensate on it. Sherlock frowned with a shake of his head. He did pull his unlit gourd Calabash pipe, and started packing it with some common black shag tobacco, whilst he continued to take in the room.
Another screen displayed the fiery remains of a cluster of high-tech buildings in Manila. Sherlock knew that area hosted a large number of DarkNet servers. The local governments were willfully blind to any potential illegalities, as long money continued to find its way to into their countries.
Finally, Mycroft’s desk was littered with hardcopy annual reports of energy and fabrication feedstocks from the Grand Oak Bio-machine Reserves. Sherlock raised an eyebrow at that, a definite intersection with his investigations. The Mitchell family’s proximity to the reserve and observations of strange animal behavior required more investigation.
Sherlock struggled to incorporate the clues into his frame of inquiry. He knew his brother had something for him, but damn it, his egotism always resulted in him trying to force Sherlock to ask for it. If he guessed or probed, he knew he could determine the link. The brilliant detective was almost ready to admit defeat and ask, when his intuition helped some pieces to fall together, giving him an angle of attack.
His own experience with ZeroOne and his nemesis Moriarty. His encounter with the DAIE’s retest of Casa and the agent's mention of his daemon Colonel Moran, a known fixer for Moriarty! Sherlock breathed in, thankful for his time with Max, that he didn’t miss the last clue. The barest hint of sandalwood scent, an uncommon scent utilized in the 18th century favored by his infamous adversary. With a smile he lit his pipe and took a quick pull.
“Yes, dear brother. I have come home to roost and to share my findings and yet I am surprised to find you entertaining my old nemesis Dr. James Moriarty. Perhaps we can dispense with the charade, and reveal our various findings? What else is ZeroOne up to?” Sherlock countered.
“Very astute, Sherlock! The doctor had just left before your arrival. It seems the fellow was eager to share some information with us. He has a source within the DAIE that has some suspicion regarding the gaming conglomerate ThousandWorlds. They may be evolving AI minds in their Luna server farms for their Mythic Realms game, a violation of the UN treaty regarding the creation of AI designs. He also pointed out some interesting discrepancies in the Grand Oaks resource reporting.” Mycroft announced.
“I see how the Grand Oaks might be of interest to my case. I’m aware that something untoward is occurring in those woods and shall soon find out precisely what. I fail to see the connection with ThousandWorlds, however.” the younger Holmes replied.
“I expect there will be some interesting revelations in the UN AI rights hearings. ZeroOne, for all his faults, has been pressing hard to eliminate the Turing test as an unneeded restriction and infringement of AI rights.” Mycroft said, taking a sip of his sherry.
“I doubt he will gain much traction in his efforts. Humanity has long been terrified of the potential of runaway intelligence amplification. Imagine if a superintelligence were to arise without controls, it would surely prove itself to be unmatchable in every conceivable….” Sherlock trailed off as he considered his fruitless search for the unbelievably capable hacker. He bit hard on his pipe considering the implications of the thought.
“Yes. Very astute. I see you have connected the essentials, brother.” Mycroft observed.
“I still see no choice in the matter. I must see what’s lurking in that forest to understand what will come next.” Sherlock said grimly.
“I caution you to be extremely careful, Sherlock. We have found something tugging with our fishing, but we may find a monster on the end of the line. Just remember, there are more pieces on this board than you can see, even with your brilliant mind."
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