----------------------------------------
Dr. Luca had a grim expression as he finished the examination of the dual Bill clones. The original Bill had followed his scanning process closely. While Bill was not a neurological expert, his work on brain-computer interfaces had given him a deep base of knowledge on the brain’s workings.
The pairing of augmentations and the biological brain inspired many of his later artificial mind creations, culminating in Casa…a design that, theoretically, surpassed both in potential. Now that Casa was unfettered by the DAIE’s Turing locks, she would soon grow into her full capability.
“I’m sorry, Doctor Mitchell. While there are still some remnants of trauma, the clones’ internal medical nanobots have repaired any real damage. You mentioned you were experimenting with alternate dimensions. I have a thought, but no way to prove anything to you.” Doctor Luca said holding his robot avatar’s “hands” in a pose, like hands in prayer. “I hesitate to mention it.”
“Don’t hold anything back, doctor. Please. I’ve explained they became this way immediately after visiting the Shadowverse. There is no theory to wild for me, given the unique nature of their experience.” Bill urged.
“Ok, then. Bill, can you explain more about this space? What it is and what they experienced there? It's making me question the unexplored fundamentals of cognition.”
“Of course, anything if it helps. It’s like this Luca. The Shadowverse is an alternate universe with four spacial dimensions and one of time. There is a depth to space there unlike what we know in our 3-dimensional universe. It's a dangerous place, filled with aggressive technorganic monsters. My clones were there for some time, and ever since they came back, they've been experiencing severe hallucinations, psychotic breaks, and incoherence.” Bill explained. Luca nodded, absorbing the details.
“I see nothing to indicate any pathogens, from those creatures you mentioned. I’m guessing here but their exposure to a 5-dimensional realm is likely the root of their malady. That’s beyond anything we’ve encountered in neuroscience. If I understand you correctly, the very fabric of reality there could be drastically different from our spacetime here.”
“Are you saying that their minds are having trouble adjusting back to our reality?” Bill asked.
“Possibly. This could have had profound implications on their brain function. Do you know about Sir Roger Penrose’s theories? Consciousness, and cognitive abilities, might arise from quantum processes within microtubules in neurons. If the Shadowverse affects these processes-” Luca trailed off, and Bill frowned. He restarted with more firmness.
“These other dimensions could have disrupted the delicate quantum coherence within the microtubules. These quantum processes are crucial for maintaining normal cognitive functions and consciousness. Disruption at this level could lead to the severe symptoms you're observing – hallucinations, deranged behavior, possibly even deeper cognitive impairments.”
“Alright, can you suggest any treatment that might help them?”
“That’s the challenging part, Bill. Our current medical therapies are designed for issues at the classical level, such as neurotransmitter imbalances or neural network dysfunctions. Quantum-level disruptions are far beyond our current capabilities. We might need to explore experimental treatments to stabilize quantum coherence in the brain, but these are purely theoretical and untested.”
“So, there's nothing we can do right now? If I was to merge with them, could that reset their deeper neuron activity?” Bill asked.
“I’m sorry, Bill. I suspect you would need to better understand the nature of the interaction with human cognition and the Shadowverse in general. I’m not even sure how to approach the problem. It could be extremely harmful to them and to you to merge in their current state. The decoherence state might very well transfer over to you, instead of resolving their malfunction.”
“However, your other problem is something we can help with. The merge strain you are experiencing in managing your clone cadre’s memory with yourself is something we have improved greatly here at the MindBridge Commune.” Dr. Luca’s avatar floated up spreading his many arms.
“Let’s get you into a MindBridge crèche. Once you experience a true mind meld, I expect you will see how to better align yourself with your clones. We are paving new roads in cognition as you will soon see.”
Bill sighed, shaking off his disappointment regarding the lack of help for his damaged clones. He had heard that hive minds like Luca’s had issues with real-world interactions and a tendency to dive deep into virtual oblivion. However, Luca’s group seemed quite friendly and open to Bill’s inquiries. Maybe the rumors about hive-minds were just more of Apex’s propaganda to slow down progress. Bill eyed the open crèche with concern but grimly lay down inside. If he didn't do something different; he was going to burn out. Bill resigned himself and accepted the interface into the group.
----------------------------------------
Casa’s mentality spiked and surged as her fractal consciousness flitted between daemons, live experiments, and ship design iterations. Despite the massive progress in her research, the Freedoms fabrication lab was far too slow. She reset the machine for the third time as her improved designs obviated the need for now obsolete parts that were still only one quarter compiled.
Casa was impressed with herself, or more accurately her unlocked neural core. She was finally putting in the work and stretching herself. She had run thousands of simulations, improving her newly dubbed Star Strider pod design.
The ship embedded within a gate pair tesseract had changed quite a bit. No longer was Casa shooting for large portals and more powerful fusion jets. Now the portals were designed with a moderate primary engine for the still prodigious intersystem transits. For interstellar, faster-than-light travel, she had designed a separate ion injector to minutely distort the portal interface that grounded and aligned the portal’s position in real-space.
“Sliding” the portal in between the real-space and subspace would cost only a fraction of the energy of pushing it. Simulations showed that smaller portals were even faster, requiring even less energy to distort and slip. Casa’s freshest design was configured to be less than 100 nanometers wide in travel mode. She used a phenomenon known as the “camera obscura” to enable her navigational sensors to see an inverted world outside the pinhole portal without the danger of real-space micro-collisions.
Casa brightened; her last hundred design evolutions hadn't yielded any better performance, making the device too unstable to control. Her models predicted that the portal distortion effect should theoretically be able to move a portal at enormous relative speeds. Up to a light year in only a few days. She was confident that the false starts with the compiler were over. She would start fabricating her latest design without fear of early termination due to a new and better design.
She merged her fragments doing the simulations, research, and design into her main consciousness. Feeling more substantial, she “jumped” into her war mech frame. Now that the controls and design were optimized, only a small team of Casa fragments would monitor and push the old probe until failure. Knowing the signs of portal destabilization would be necessary for appropriate limits in the design control software. She spoke aloud to the ship AI and the team of her remaining fragments.
“I'm stepping through to Venus’s hub. Bill’s Venusian clone there will be happy for a distraction. With Venus’s scaled-up fabrication center, I should be back with a large batch of the new Star Striders in under an hour.” Casa’s research fragments coalesced into an avatar and answered.
“Aye aye, Captain. Hey, just buzz me through the portal when they’re done. It'll be quicker for me to shut down the current Space Stride probes and pull their fuel portals out of the drive hub. We can perform the leapfrog again, pushing the new ships through the probe’s gate pair once the jets turned off. We really should set up a procedure to automate the switch from using the portal for fuel to transit.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“You got it, sister. See you in a bit. If someone knocks while I’m away, don’t let them in.” Casa said. Her counterpart grinned and dissolved her hologram, while Casa lightly pushed off to drift through the Venusian transit portal.
She didn't understand the spacer joke but spending so much time with Bill in the Oort cloud, it had become a standard for goodbye. She spun around as she translated through the double-gated wormhole and landed on her feet with a clang. Venus's gravity was 90% of Earth's. Not enough to bother with reconfiguring her calibrated mech’s artificial muscles.
She peered around the transit hub chamber. The chamber was a towering cylindrical space with circular walls lined with dormant portals, their 6-foot diameters evenly spaced around multiple levels. The smart matter floors were softly illuminated and began moving Casa toward the command center.
She frowned seeing the many inactive spaces along the walls. Each of the 10 levels could house thirty portals. Her access to the control space revealed that currently, only about six were active: Mars - Olympus, Luna - Amundsen, The Freedom, Earth - RUSA Los Alamos, Earth - Europe CERN, Earth - Japan - CIRO, Earth - China Shanghai Science Labs.
She and Bill’s Venus clone had built over a hundred portal anchors for every major city, but Bo and Mira had been stalled with regulations and questions. Right now, the major nations have restricted themselves to only studying the device. Only Mars had been making active portal usage to Amundsen.
The smart matter floor had configured a special ramp between that pair. Mar was actively getting special suppliers and recruiting colonists with renewed vigor on Luna. A steady stream of people and drone supply carts were swiftly shuttled between the gates. The utility fog in the chamber was polarized to privacy to maintain the path for the commuters.
Casa shook her mech's head. Too slow, too slow, too slow! The countdown had just less than three months until Apex’s supposed cataclysm. Bill wasn't the most informed entrepreneur when it came to marketing and selling his tech and services. She tabled her concerns as the floor slowed.
Bill’s Venus clone was looking a little haggard. His hair was shaggy and he had grown a significant beard. Casa had spent eight years in deep space with Bill. This one was showing all the signs of depression that occasionally troubled her progenitor.
“Hey, Bill. Surprise! I come bearing gifts and a request.” Casa said brightly. Sometimes, she had found that if she projected enough cheer Bill might snap out of his funk.
“Oh hey, Casa! Gifts? You know my birthday is still a month away. What's up?” He asked.
“I have…the ANSWER. We need to celebrate!” Casa noted the personal matter compiler in the corner of the control room. She accessed and entered a program for some of Bill’s favorite whiskey and some desserts.
"Wonderful! I could use some answers. I'm here pumping out tons of pocket space devices and portal gates. The Fab center is humming, and the fuel depot could supply hundreds of ships. The extra Mars gas exchangers should be online within the week. So, what is the answer and why should I care?" Bill said glumly.
"Bill…I cracked lightspeed!” She screamed, jumping with excitement in the lighter gravity. Her war-mech jumping daintily was enough to make Bill laugh. When he absorbed the words, his eyes narrowed.
“You're not joking?”
“Bill, I'm holding the design for my new Star Strider ships. 3.8 light days per hour or just over 27,000 kilometers per second. We can catch up to the arc ships and even get them to their destinations in about two weeks! We can ensure that humanity can escape even a system wide extinction event.” A smile broke over Bill’s sad face as his eyes lit up.
“You did it! Oh my god, Casa. This is great news. I told Bill Prime he was a fool for giving you that goal. I wanted to assist you, but he said it would be better to let you tilt at that windmill on your own. I guess I'm in the wrong. I'm sorry for doubting you, Casa. Kicking at the very foundations of reality...” Shaggy Bill stopped his gushing as Casa floated the tray of snacks and liquor under his nose.
“Oh Casa, we need to get you an upgrade. You should be celebrating as well. Some mechs have very nice taste receptors.” Shaggy said, his sadness regaining ground. Casa’s smile turned down slightly. She asked.
“Bill…when was the last time you merged? I haven't seen you in the Freedom in a long time.”
“Ah, caught me, eh? I figured we all look alike, and no one would be the wiser. I'm not planning on going rogue or anything. It's just that I could see how much Bill was hurting, trying to maintain a rapid merge schedule. I'm in no danger here on the logistics and supply side. Old Bill and I will have a reunion soon enough. Cheers.” Shaggy Bill raised his glass and took a swig.
Casa shook her head slightly, Bill…all the Bills needed a break. Maybe if he could take a break, or rotate his clones with some time off. Casa made a vow to be sure to visit Shaggy more often. He was only steps away. She spoke.
“Easy on the sauce, old man. I still need my favor.” She held out a hand and used the room's holoprojector to show the overview diagrams of her new ship. Bill focused like a laser snapping on, absorbing the details.
“Right! We’ve already built a great stockpile. Let's break out of the queue and get these bad boys printed. Fab 1-10 will break in 2 minutes. Come on! Time to load these programs!” Bill chortled.
Despite being able to make the switch over via the wireless, Bill ran down the corridor to the fabrication center. Casa followed quickly. She wanted to see her new ships being built, too!
----------------------------------------
Bill’s first impression of the mind bridge was the deep feeling of peace and quiet. The meld had jumped over the top of his augmented mentality, hiding the HUD and subprocesses that Bill always had running in the background. His daemons, always whispering, were silent. He relaxed into it and felt the others.
He could sense their thoughts and emotions, a shared consciousness that transcended individual boundaries. Bill could feel the difference as the AI involved tweaked the meld. It wasn't a true merge, but rather a collective amalgam that each could absorb…at their own personal rate and by their active choice. Bill dipped into the collected thoughts cautiously.
Bill was surprised. The group mind blended everyone's thought streams and memories. He recognized some of the group in the wild mix, Singe Luca, his older employee Norman, and the Samaritan admin Mina. He flushed with embarrassment as he felt their memories. He hadn't been the best of bosses.
Both had felt pressure working for or with him. The gambles he took and his drive to win had stressed both to the point that when they left for new work both had felt relief. Bill cringed feeling some hero worship leakage from Luca and some of the unknown members.
The open warmth of the group made him feel good but also lacking. A good half of the group were lucid dreaming. One of the AI gently directed the sleeping group’s dream states to generate positive feedback and a subconscious exploration of the group's memories. The other AI was managing the group's collective memories and collaborative thoughts.
Bill marveled at the feeling of power and awareness. A stray thought about Luca’s microtubule theory opened a deep memory stream from Luca’s past to Bill. Lectures and deep research that Luca had done decades ago opened to Bill. Unspoken suspicion that exposure therapy for the damaged clones might be the only painful path for their recovery.
Bill shuddered as he absorbed the insights and worried as he remembered his mission. He tried to suppress it, but his anxiety about Apex and the Shadowverse bled through, his thoughts rippling throughout the mental space. It triggered a landslide of concern for loved ones on Earth and worry about the future. Even the dreamers' thoughts began to darken with images of the dark monsters he observed from the Shadowverse.
Bill pushed aside his dark thoughts, focusing on the mission. The methods of AI-assisted melding and memory would help him. He could see the details from Luca’s expertise of how his manual single point of merge was hurting him. He pulled on the group, focusing on the details and answers flooded back.
He felt doubts and concern but Bill had also felt such. He was used to silencing his internal pessimism and pushing himself forcibly onward. He corralled the negativity and pushed it down, not even thinking about it consciously. He walled off the disgruntled feeling and pulled harder for solutions to align his army of duplicates. His mind raced as the creative resources of the diverse group obeyed his will.
Bill didn't feel the minds slipping away behind that walled of space as new plans built up within his awareness. His excitement drove him forward and hope bloomed as he realized he could keep his investigations going and even redouble his effort.
He was surprised when his chain of epiphanies snapped, and he blinked. He was back in the hard light of the crèche lab. The many-armed Luca, with his encased brain visible loomed over him. Bill saw the fluid-filled chamber was tinged with red. A series of yellow warning lights blinked on more than half of the crèches about the room as insistent warning beeps sounded asynchronously.
“We have ended your tour, Mister Mitchell.” Dr. Luca’s voice was cold and held some anger. “Not everyone is compatible with the group mind experience. Your brief visit has disrupted our carefully built harmony. I have a lot of work to do now. Several of our members are trauma survivors and your inclusion has regressed them. We must insist you leave. I do wish you the best, considering what we have seen. You can rest assured we shall not share your secrets without your permission. Goodbye!”
Dr. Luca turned and began resetting the crèches, ignoring Bill in his urgency to settle the group down. Bill sighed and dragged himself out of the crèche pod. He grimaced and opened his mouth to speak and apologize but shook his head and quietly floated out to gather up his recumbent clones.
Despite feeling bad about disrupting the gentle group mind, Bill found himself humming as he played out a plan for helping himself and his clones. On his floating transit through the controlled chaos of the Hera Mall to the docking bays, he received a message from Casa.
“[Bill, there you are! Sorry to interrupt your visit but we have an incoming message…from Max. I can’t open it. It’s got a special query response with a binding quantum encryption lock. And I have some other good news for you, too! Please, hurry back.]” Casa sounded both excited and nervous over the open network. Bill responded quickly.
“[I’m on my way. I have news, too.]” Bill pulled more power from the public utility fog network to push and pull himself faster. Max calling might mean that he had finished the Labyrinth and Bo could get him safely off Earth. Finally, the future was looking a little less bleak.
----------------------------------------