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Casa whirled in her expansive virtual structure mapping her progress and questions. She prioritized engineering and her technology applications tree over theory and testing per Bill’s assignment for her, but she didn’t ignore them completely.
Casa’s mind…minds…blazed with activity. Filling in gaps and building as quickly as matter compilers and materials allowed. Now that the Venusian facility was operational, many of her early projects could be queued up for actualization. Freedom was rapidly approaching Mars and she was ready for it.
The Mars gate anchor of the Venus-Mars gate pair sat ready to go in the forward hold. Its internal space had been outfitted with a high-pressure smart-matter filtration system which could be dialed to only allow the gases Mars Terraform LLC wanted. The filter rotated sections into the path of the gases and only passed molecules that fit the keyway structures.
Casa had four design generations for her SpaceStrider portal ship. She had skipped the second and third generations due to lack of access to fabrication materials, but with her stocks full again, production of 4th gen ships was ramping up fast. The first print runs were already accelerating toward key targets.
She anticipated linking the entire solar system, so all the locations of importance needed a nearby gate pair for commercial and material transport. Earth, Luna, the O’Neil colonies, Mars, the Jovian Moon habitats, and the Saturn research and gas mining operations.
She giggled with anticipation at just how many industries, companies, and so-called state-of-the-art technologies were about to be sidelined into obsolescence. Bill had resorted to pure research when nanotechnology and AI science progress leveled out. His instincts were correct. This was going to change…so much.
Her virtual eyes strayed from the rampaging tech deployment trees and looked at the missing pieces and anomalous reports. Power scaling was going to limit her creation of more powerful and spacious portal ships unless she found a workaround.
She had logged too many tests with the pocket space devices and paired gates to ignore the chaotic noise being generated on the surfaces of the artificial space they were creating. The noise occasionally caught her attention, subtle patterns seemed to form but quickly subsided before she elected a formal test.
She forced herself to keep looking further down the list. The connection points of MIT’s methodology were there, but the divergences in subspace expansion were radically different. She saw significant danger in maintaining the portal to the Shadowverse. MITs method of tapping the zero-point energy was ingenious, but stabilization looked like it was still going to be a problem. The technology issues paled in comparison to the danger of what lurked beyond the portals.
She was contemplating how to help Bill when he floated through the personnel gateway to Venus. She snapped most of her divergent fragments into a single whole as her sensors inside the Freedom detected him.
She dove back into her mech frame. She could continue to work multiple paths forward while talking. Her command chair had interconnects with her mech body to provide many high-speed data channels.
“Bill! How did Venus go? What do you think of my latest modifications to the Fuel Farm and Gate Array projects? No problems with your fragments, I hope.”
Bill flashed a smile, projecting calm assurance as he threw himself in the co-pilot chair. "The modifications are impressive, Casa. Fuel Farm's efficiency has seen a tangible improvement, and the Gate Array's throughput is up by seventeen percent."
“As for my 'fragments', they are fine. Although, they are full copies and not in any way less than myself. I hope that we can all stay synched. The biggest bogeyman story about copies is that with too much divergence, they won’t want to merge back with me. I hope “we” can all agree that merging will always be in our best interests.
“They’re going to continue to steward the fabrication facility and gather the supplies we will need to prepare for Operation Shadowside. I suspect they are going to work some of their gate defense design ideas into the Venusian gate array. So much to do! But first, I owe it to you and Andre to make an appearance for our first Gate sale.” Bill said.
“Thank you for that, Bill. I’ve been researching Mars Terraform, and the CEO, Andre, has quite a history of being…difficult and aggressive with business dealings. I was hoping you would help. I’m much more comfortable with research and engineering.”
“No problem, Casa. Andre is a pushover once you get past his narcissism, egomania, OCD, and messed up worldview.” Bill said deadpan.
Casa looked at him with horror until he cracked up laughing. She hesitantly joined him, understanding the joke. "Well, in that case, I'm glad you're on it. Now, regarding Operation Shadowside, we've got logistics and protocols to finalize. I'm concerned about the safety procedures—"
Bill interrupted, nodding. "Safety has to be paramount. I’m hoping that if we stay out of the gravity well, those hostile lifeforms can be avoided. But me having copies and staying isolated from everything and everyone else is my equivalent of a computing air gap. Nothing bad is going to get by me, even if I have to blow the Shadow gate to prevent it.”
Casa nodded with a frown etched on her mech’s faceplate, not happy at being excluded from the test. "Your caution is appreciated, Bill. But don’t try to be a hero. Please send me your backup data before any major tests. Okay?”
Bill nodded solemnly, "I will, Casa. I promise. I won’t put myself in any danger if I can help it. The sooner I can understand this threat that Apex insists is coming; the sooner we can deal with it. I don’t like its implications that the entire Earth is at stake.”
“Are you sure the kids will be ok?” Casa asked.
“No…I’m not. I filled Bo in and gave him my anchor for the very first gate pair.” Bill said, indicating with a chin thrust the mating anchor at the other end of the hold. “He’s going to stay on Luna, close to Mira. I’m still worried about Max. I’d like to collect him. At least until Max exits the Labyrinth, I can’t even contact him. Earth is already a powder keg with the Uplift virus active and the AI rights turmoil on top. I seriously considered relocating everyone until everything is settled, one way or another. Apex mentioned them all by name. If I do need to grab them, I’ll need to be quick. Apex thinks that it has me under its proverbial thumb, but I have a plan….”
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In the sealed-up Netherlab, under the Mitchel property in Utopia, a large matter compiler dinged. As the large door swung open, hissing gasses from the fabrication process were released. Biomaterials always resulted in more extraneous gas than non-organics.
In the dark office, a pair of green sym-hornets perched on the worktable. At the sound of the compiler, they took to the air and flew inside the outgassing MC’s fabrication chamber.
A staccato buzz was swiftly followed by a gasp and guttural hollering interspersed with rough coughing.
“Fucking hell! I’m the copy. God damn it, that was supposed to be a modulated shock to start my heart. What the hell?!” Bill’s voice came out in gasps and coughs.
Bill dragged himself unsteadily out of the Netherlab’s compiler. His original had to jailbreak the machine and wipe a significant amount of regulatory and quality control coding to do what he had just done. A block of preprogrammed smart matter on the desk liquified and its material flowed down the desk and across the floor. It oozed up his legs and reformatted itself into a standard configuration smart suite.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Bill's breathing began to stabilize as his body’s augmentation continued to boot up. Bill coughed again, clearing his brand-new lungs. He sat down gladly at the terminal and tried to access it. He cursed, as his neural systems were still processing the reboot. His fingers flew over the holographic key interface on the desktop.
Time was against him, and every second of delay brought the looming threat closer. He found the time stamp and sighed. He had plenty of time before his scheduled secret meeting with Gabriel. He opened the history logs from Casa’s resource grab earlier in the year.
This effort had stemmed from her innocuous comment about how she had nearly cut into a nearby subterranean ACME service tube for the movement of MC feedstock materials in her quest to expand and build another house ship. It had given Bill the seed of a plan; at least the beginning of a way to lock down the mysterious Apex.
This Bill’s mission was to stay on Earth, undetected, and build up an effective counter to Apex and his influence. The end of the world may be coming, but Bill would be damned if he allowed a potential AI tyrant to continue to manipulate him and the world unopposed. For a hyper-developed calculator, it missed something that defined Bill’s very core…unyielding stubbornness.
A holographic map bloomed showing Casa’s mining tunnels, pockets of rare materials, and the narrowly avoided service line. Bill smiled. Casa’s curious nature had delivered him a very detailed map. The purpose of the trees was to siphon C02 and pollutants from the air while also producing solar power. Later they had been adapted to make some interesting organic compounds, but carbon was still its primary output.
The feed lines were massive tunnels lined with smart matter cilia that pushed a streaky stream of carbon nanotubes toward the distant capital city for processing. Casa had shown him this map earlier and asked about the massive vaults spaced along and under the Grand Oaks range.
Bill had lied and said that they were reservoirs to handle material overflow in case the feed lines needed maintenance. This was going to be a new and interesting experience. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Gabriel’s face.
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Gabriel stalked the dark service passage deep below the Hartford Mega-Arcology. The city planners had dispensed with its urban spiral in favor of the massive high-tech living structure. Gabriel descended into the megastructure's guts. Industrial-sized matter compilers produced all of the massive building’s material needs, recycling heavily and bringing feedstocks in when needed.
Gabriel shook his head. This is very unlike Bill. Hartford was an entertainment venue these days. Why on Earth did he encode his secret message with a “die for discovery” clandestine meeting here? There’s absolutely nothing of any real importance for over 50 miles.
Gabriel had suborned all the local sensors and blanketed the tunnels with his mote swarms. He intended to get the drop on Bill and scare the man senseless. He needed to leave the cloak and dagger work to the experts.
The plain papers Bill had left for him and Miriam required them to eat it. Their internal nanofacs had dissected and decoded a message embedding into the material itself. The Samaritans were used to high encryption drops and still tried to stay one step ahead of the world’s intelligence agencies.
I can certainly believe that an AI slipped past those DAIE morons. Shit be moving too fast to cover all bases. They were doomed to fail before they had even started. Maybe even too tough for me…? Nah. I still da best. No souped-up calculator goin' to beat me at my game.
Gabriel snorted in disgust at the dusty passage. Even with robots, motes swarms, and smart matter; the quiet places always ended up dirty and lined with trash. He leaned against the humming man-sized feed pipe. He produced a cigarette and lighter. With a moment's hesitation, he surrendered to the urge for his old-fashioned nicotine delivery mechanism.
Bill is always very punctual. Time enough for a few drags, then I’ll disperse the smoke and cloak up for a proper surpr-@*! Da fuck! Gabriel threw himself away from the pipe wall as a sword tip pierced a pace away from where he was leaning.
He quickly crab-walked backward as another blade emerged and swept around the wall, carving a circular hole. Gabriel dropped his cigarette, fumbling with his suit's hood to engage his cloaking as streams of carbon flooded into the dingy alley. A section of tube wall fell to the ground and laughing filled the tunnel.
“Fuck you, Bill!” Gabriel gasped from the ground. “You almost tagged me. God damn vandal.” Bill emerged from the pipe pulling a curtain of flexible fabric over the hole, stemming the flood of carbon powder.
“Stop being a crybaby and help me get this tube section back in place.” Bill chastised.
Gabriel scrambled and helped lever the curved section of industrial piping up into place with Bill. The big man seared the rough cuts with his augmentation laser emitters, melting the piece back into its home.
“What da hell, man! You scare da shit outta me. Watch your step, heh. Might be some extra refuse mixing around in all this graphene if ya know what I mean.” Gabriel scolded.
“Sorry, Ghost. I couldn't help myself. I'll apologize if you can honestly admit you weren't getting ready to jump-scare me just now.” Bill said, looking meaningfully into the smaller man’s eyes.
“Hah! Fine! One point to you. Now da' score is 1031 to 9, in my favor. You caused quite a ruckus in DC disappearing like that man. So many alphabet agencies swarming to find you, I was getting jealous. No one was watching my fine ass anymore. So tell me more about dis Apex AI hacker.” Gabriel said, laughing and clapping Bill about the shoulders.
Bill grinned back at Gabriel, seeing the humor in his eyes despite the scare. "Alright, no more jokes. This area is probably as off the map as we can get to make sure we're not observed. You own the local net, yet?” Bill asked. When Gabriel responded with a raspberry noise, he continued.
“Apex is the real deal. Everything the Luddites have been screaming about for years. It's been slipping through our defenses, quietly manipulating data streams, and influencing decisions at the highest levels. It's got me in its crosshairs. It's convinced a black swan event is going to kick off in only a couple of months. We need a solid plan and all the resources we can muster. Not only for the event but also for Apex. I don't like it trying to play puppet master with me."
Gabriel eyed him shrewdly. “Don’t make much sense. I da one been monitoring for runaway AI and it comes tumbling right on your doorstep. Oh…wait. Is this cuz you be fucking around with that dimensional quantum bullish-?” Gabriel stopped, peering closer at Bill.
Before Bill could answer, the little man had a very big gun in his hand with a Laser sight painting Bill in the eyes. Gabriel rapidly retreats out of reach, the gun steady on Bill.
“Who da fuck are you? Answer up or I’ll fucking squid the answers from your offlined neocortex!. You ain't Bill, muthafuka! He got a scar just under the hairline! You dun fucked up, you amateur!” Gabriel screamed.
Bill froze and slowly answered. “Gab. It's me. I…had to do something extreme…something we swore not to do. Believe me, ask me something off the record. Come on, man. I swear it.”
Gabriel lowered the gun slightly, eyes narrowing. "Fine. What's the name of the hooker from Singapore that stole my stash of Quantcoin?”
Bill smiled, “Dude, that's a trick question. You've had at least seven of them steal your cash in the last twenty years. I swear to god, you are either dense or it's a new fetish.”
Gabriel lowered the gun slowly. “What da fuck, man? What did you do, Bill?” The hacker thief still looked uncertain and notably didn't put the gun away.
“I’m…I made copies. We’re working the problem from multiple angles.” Bill admitted.
“Shit man! Dumb dog fucker. Not a good idea. You gonna let a doppelganger take your whole life, man? How you better than dat Warlord we took out in Turkey back in the day?” Gabriel said, still clearly agitated.
Bill looked at Gabriel with a grimace. "I know, it's risky, but it's the only way to be in multiple places and cover more ground. Apex is no joke, and we can't afford to play it safe. You're right about that Warlord, but this is different. That asshole copied his consciousness over his own goddamn people. Me…I was born this morning in a matter compiler. The only one who might get hurt is me.”
“We're up against something that could outthink and outmaneuver us at every turn. We need the edge, even if it comes with its own sharp set of teeth."
Gabriel's frown deepened. “Seriously, Bill? You trust yourself not to fight for independence when this is over. I'd stab myself in the back in a quick second if the alternative meant going back to da soup.”
“I’ve already had a backup trigger prematurely once. We merged after almost 2 months of independence. I think those Hollywood doppelganger tropes are bullshit…at least for me.”
“Jesus, man. Ya always got to push da limits. I hope you right. Not sure what I'd do if two a'ya were at each other's throat infronta' me. Alright, I'm beyond surprised now. Spill the rest…I know you got a plan or we wouldn’t be meeting like dis.”
“…I want to use the Ragnarok Contingency…” Bill said slowly.
“Fuck…” Gabriel's face drained of color. “You can't be serious. That plan's a last resort, man. That stockpile of counter-nano is there to prevent a grey-goo event. You get in a lot of trouble you fuck wit dat."
Bill sighed, tired lines creasing his forehead. "We may not have a choice, Gabe. One global catastrophe or an AI tyrant, our usual tricks won't cut it. We need a hammer, not a scalpel. The largest Ragnarok stockpiles are surrounding the Grand Oaks. I need your help. I won't do it unless you agree…”
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