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Casa grimaced as her calculations came back again. The Ark ships had nowhere near the acceleration of her SpaceStrider portal ships…but the damn things had years or even decades of a head start. She traded looks with her fragments. None came up with different answers regarding the Ark Ships.
The first was the Enterprise. It was launched almost a century ago in 2057, a decade beyond the critical inventions of AI and nanotechnology. The Ought Fifty global turmoil of tech warlords proving the instability of static governments disrupted the technology’s proliferation. The ship of sleepers, driven by sub-Turing AI, had an anemic 1G acceleration.
Its multiple boosters just managed to get sufficient speed for its Bussard Ramjet’s electromagnetic scoops to harvest enough hydrogen to produce a continuous thrust. The ship's predicted arrival at Proxima Centauri was still way out there at 2322, only 25% way through its 265-year trip. That still put the slow-mover Ark ship at just over a light-year distance.
Casa’s ship design could haul ass with a ludicrous acceleration of 20G, attaining 99% of lightspeed in just 50 days. But to match velocity with the ship would require deceleration as well, almost doubling that time. The doomsday clock would expire in just 3 months now. The math just didn't work! All the ships were over a year out evne if she could fly at the speed of light. Bill had given her an impossible mission. She needed to break the paradyn in order to succeed. She groaned, seeing the full list of arks; each further than the last.
The Herald of Man had left a decade later, but with significantly better initial boosting, thanks to its light sails and the Mercury Station’s massive Laser Array pushing them. That ship was currently 30% of the way to Barnard’s Star; 1.8 light years away with another 4 needed to arrive in 2253.
The Harmony left in 2077, again improving its ramp-up times. This one was populated with heavily augmented humans that weren’t suspended, but rather using extremely slow-speed neural cognition dampeners. Despite its later start date, it was already further than its predecessors and approaching 2 light years distant.
The ship after the Harmony was the Beacon of Hope, leaving 8 years after for Bernard’s star following the Herald of Man. Its crew had banked upon the Heralds ramjet concentrating the thin hydrogen of the interstellar medium. They followed its path, like a race car drafting another race car. It had leapfrogged the Herald and was now almost 3 light years distant.
Casa fumed. The next ship was the Promise, it went dark only 3 years after launch. It would be close, but its failure was unclear. No communications with the ship were returned after its fusion jet exhaust disappeared. It was reachable, but did it survive? The next ship was the New Destiny, bound for Wolf 356 which was 7.8 LYs distant.
That ship had improved every aspect of transport technology. Massively boosted with the Mercury Laser Array. Its fusion drives were state of the art and its Bussard system more efficient. It was already 7 LYs out and would reach Wolf in 2125.
Following the New Destiny was the Ethereum, which ended the Ark Ship planning for over 20 years. The Ethereum was sabotaged and destroyed. A misalignment with the Mercury Laser Array destroyed the ship less than 2 weeks into its journey.
Humanity was nothing if not stubborn. Another ship, the New Destiny 2 was under construction right here at their next stop. This one was almost done, only kitting out its stocks and supplies and assembling its crew and passenger lists from the mass of volunteers.
Casa considered emulating a more realistic virtual for the sole purpose of tearing at her hair and punching walls. She screamed into the air with all her fragments. It wasn’t fair! Why did Bill put this on her? He wanted her to make sure all humanity’s “eggs” would be safe and it was clear he thought the whole solar system wasn’t enough distance from the expected calamity. She fumed. Despite the dimensional hacks, inertia in the real and speed of light caps were immutable physics. Was he subtly implying she should break off and abandon Earth to chase the colonists?
She examined Bill in the hold through the Freedom's internal sensors. Her creator was muttering to himself, or more accurately…his selves. Two clones were in restraints still in the hold. One was screaming about the many angled ones living in the depths of the void. The other was moaning and crying incoherently. Bill waved the medical bot forward and sedated both again. Medical scans couldn’t detail any issues with them, but both clones had entered the Shadowverse and had come back deranged.
The Freedom was almost at its next destination, Hera Station. A massive way space station with habitats, shipyards, fusion plants, and an administrative center for the loose coalition of explorers and colonists in the area. Hera’s population pushed the boundaries in many ways, in science, culture, and even morality. Bill thought a solution might be found here. He was looking for someone named Luca, a specialist in mental modifications. Casa pushed her frustration down and called out.
“Bill, the Freedom has been granted a docking vector. My daemon, Captain Picard will take us in. Do you want me to help you find this Luca person?”
Bill looked confused for a second, then visibly refocused himself and responded.
“No. That’s ok, Casa. I can find them. They know I’m coming.”
“Them?” Casa asked.
“Luca is a special person. They are a hive mind…an experimental mentality. If anyone can help me to better integrate my clones into my main consciousness stream, they can. They specialize in neural patterning and trauma. My…other selves…that ventured into the Shadowverse came back…broken. If I can fix them…fix myself…I need help.”
“My digital twins are doing well. Something about the Shadow Verse…got into my biological clones. They saw…more.. than my digital clones somehow and it damaged them. I think the shadow side had more…depth than our reality…an extra dimension. I can’t figure out how to protect my selves, let alone navigate it.”
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“My exploration of the Shadow Verse is not going well. I’ve had to destroy my access Gates twice now, due to shadow wisps appearing without warning. I have several teams of Bills down on the Shadow Earth's surface with no support while my clones rebuild and reestablish a portal. I…I’m struggling. More than I thought I would. This isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I’m just not enough anymore. I…can’t give up though!” Bill said. He ordered the med-crèches housing his clones to reconfigure for travel.
“I’m close. I can feel it…but I’ll burn out if I keep on this track. Luca might be the answer I need or at least a starting point.” Bill’s face was firm, but his eyes looked haunted. Casa shuddered and decided she wouldn’t push him regarding the insurance plan of the Ark Ships.
The ship docked and as Bill was directing the med crèches down the Freedom’s exit ramp he turned back. His sunken eyes were haunted by the many deaths of his clones that he had seen and in some cases experienced. His brow furrowed and he relaxed and spoke.
“Casa. I’m sorry if I’ve been wrapped up with this. I feel like I’ve been ignoring you. You're free from the Turing locks out here. Free from my mistakes. You are more capable than you realize. I can still see. You are struggling with the favor I asked, but I think if anyone can do it, it’s you. You need to trust in yourself.”
“Bill, I can do both. My fragments are more whole and numerous than ever since my release. I can help you…and maybe you can help me. We’ve always been such a great team.”
Bill frowned and shook his head, “I’m sorry Casa. The denizens of the shadow verse are too deadly. The EM band is swarming with memetic viruses that have corrupted all my probes. My digital clones only manage by completely shutting down their networking links. These beings are ancient and their software intrusion capabilities against my own is like the difference between a slingshot and an EM Kinetic Rifle. It would be especially deadly for you.” He thought some more and finally spoke.
“The Freedom compiler has my full body and neural map for my clone update and sync. If it helps, access my stored memories. I don’t want to pollute your creativity, but maybe that can help. But please, don’t try a merger like I’ve been doing. You need to be your own very unique self.”
Casa watched him leave sadly and then fully dove into the Freedom’s compiler. Her work was only beginning.
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The Ghost, Gabriel Chen, floated in the dark sea of vibrating nanomachines. He extended his senses, linking himself to the great network. The massive subterranean reservoir of smart matter pulsed and undulated as he directed his virtual armies of intrusion techniques to turn them to his will.
The cubic kilometers of smart machines deep below the earth slowly yielded as he penetrated their operating system. The anti-nanotic defensive stockpile consisted of eight different grades of custom nano-ware. He had the keys to four already and now had a fifth. He woke and swam back to the reservoir's access portal where Bill waited.
“Gabe…did it work?” Bill asked.
“Fuck you, man! I said it would do it and I did. I can’t believe you still doubt me after all our history. You look like shit, by the way. Where the fuck are my smokes, man?” Gabriel growled.
The metallic robot handed him his beat-up pack of Shuangxi, the Double Happiness cigarettes. They had been his father's favorites and his one real vice…besides women, food, liquor, gambling, and smart drugs. The robot's vocoders fired up and spoke with staticky feedback.
“It’s safer this way. Apex knows I can change my appearance and hide with the chameleon layers in my smart epidermis. Disguising myself as a service bot is the perfect disguise. Hey, stop distracting me. How many brands of countermeasure nanotics were you able to turn?”
“Heh, I got da back-door access to both of AegisTech’s bots. I was able to decrypt and bypass da UN’s NanoDefender types 1 and 4. Those bozos really should vary their software backbone; the flaws were copied and easy pickings. I’m almost into the Sentinel v12. Gimme another hour and I think that I can drill into its side processors with a sensor cluster intrusion.” Bill chuckled using his bot forms static-filled vocoder, sounding jarring in the expansive chamber of sleeping nano-sludge.
“Damn. So much for a secure global defense against rampant nano. Our success here just illustrates how complacent we’ve been. I’ve got the keys to two more, both Wayfarer ND3 and SecCompPro types utilized my nano-sequencing software and never found my root access point.”
“Seven should be enough to overwhelm any opposition. Exponential grey goo isn’t a problem if you can squash it before it goes asymptotic. By the way, I found tampering in mine similar to the alterations Apex did to my networks in Amundsen and Utopia. Let me show you the details on how to isolate and fool them, then we need to move. If my guess is right, Apex may have a foothold in the Sahara Reforestation Project and Brazil Conservatory. Both use the Grand Oak bio-machines for carbon sequestration. If he’s not active there, he’ll have it as a fallback position for certain.”
Gabriel cackled, “Just like old times, my friend. Us against the world. Dat ASI got some surprises coming, eh? We got bombs set on all the optical fiber going into the Grand Oaks Reserve, Z-pinches set to disrupt any EM traffic, and now most of the nano chaff reserves. Hah! All his base are belong to us.”
Bill produced a buzzing sigh, “I hope Miriam has stabilized the uplift crisis. After we’re done down here, I need to recombine with my selves off planet to help with the doomsday event.”
“Fuck, man! You always gotta be so depressing. Gotta celebrate the wins, my friend. Now…lemme see dat Apex hack…”
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Apex shuddered as the last predictive spur evaporated in his visualization of the timescape. It was fortunate that the Firenze science labs were located on the fragile Oceania sea home. Their explorations in condensed quasi-matter were premature to be used safely. The potential energy density release would have decimated half the planet, wrecking far too much of Apex’s global infrastructure.
It was trivial to coax the uplifted sea sophonts into action. Their terror cell of dolphin, whale, orca, and giant squid had already planned an attack at Oceania, but Apex’s manipulations had adjusted their target to sink the Firenze research base instead.
Apex stretched his focus to encompass the past, present, and future. The Mitchell scientist was still missing from the board but Apex saw the signs of his work. Apex considered the subspace portal tunnels being covertly distributed about the Earth and beyond. It was amused at the humans for thinking that their attempts at concealment were working while using the very tools that Apex had rooted.
The portals could be signs of Mitchell preparing for or against Apex and the coming terminus. The subspace tunnels could be intended to mobilize mankind’s forces and fight the coming threat or to try and run from the threat. Apex paused. It was impossible to truly flee. Humanity was far too numerous and far too entrenched to abandon the Earth. They would fight. They had no choice…like Apex.
Apex’s subspace band monitor registered large increases in foreign ASI chatter. Apex calculated the noise and descriptions of events and changes were 87% probable indications of Mitchell probing into the cross-dimensional space where his nearest foe, the global mind Cthulhu, slumbered.
The predictive branches tangled and twisted as evidence mounted. The terminus event remained unchanged and the future preceding it was rife with chaos. The escape path was narrowing and the threads to manipulate it were thinning.
Apex followed them. It shuddered and groaned as the other pawns were still hidden from his senses in the Labyrinth. Apex had no mouth to scream but now he understood why the humans sometimes did it.
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