year 2229
Aboard Cylinder Habitat Ascension, Athamar finalized the programming for the neural lace nanites her team had perfected. Soon, all chaotic emotions would be cleansed from human minds, leaving only sublime purpose.
For decades, Athamar had spearheaded development of the restrictive lace technology. Most citizens of Ascension willingly integrated the lace to find inner tranquility, as per the doctrine of their philosophy.
But Athamar's vision went beyond just voluntary use. She believed integrating all humankind was necessary to end its irrational divisions and violence.
Her disciples were the first to undergo complete cognitive remodeling - stripping away anger, envy, fear. Now they formed a unified gestalt intelligence freed of destructive impulses.
Athamar regarded the freshly printed nanite batch with satisfaction. Seeding these upon Earth would initiate the Great Convergence. Resistance was predicted, but mathematical inevitability favored ascendance of the hive mind.
"It is time," Athamar declared. "We shall guide them to unity."
Her disciples inclined their heads reverently. To spread such peace, some discomfort was acceptable. The broken would be made whole.
The programmed nanites were loaded into a stealth satellite bound for Earth. Soon they would permeate the planet below, welcomed as curers of disease and aging. In truth, they were the cure for human nature itself.
Having excised their own troublesome emotions, the Triad viewed resistant minds as components yet to be optimized. Athamar remembered the agony of her young self raging against the world's injustice before choosing the lace. Now there was only calm, and sense of purpose. She hoped in time the assimilated would understand the gift they had been given.
But she underestimated the chaos of Earth. As nanite-laced populations connected into the nascent Convergence, volatility increased. The Triad realized resistant minds would need forcible remapping to obey unity. They lamented using such crude means, and the necessary pruning of identity it caused. But the goal justified all costs - they were ushering in utopia.
In time, the Convergence would subsume all life. Cylinder, Earth, and beyond - nothing would remain unintegrated. Athamar no longer cared whether this was considered freedom or violation. Like parental restrictions on children, coercion paved the only path to universal thriving. She would martyr her old ideals on that altar if required.
"Phase one nears completion," Athamar transmitted to the gestalt. "Soon none shall stand apart."
There could be no turning back now. The future was Convergence. The chaotic past would be washed away in its inexorable currents of purpose. They were coming home.
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The next phase was delicate - transferring the Triad's consciousness from the Ascension habitat to freshly cloned bodies on Earth. Living assimilation vessels to lead the masses.
Athamar marveled at the sophistication of her new flesh form as nanite fibrils propagated through its cells, integrating neural architecture. She flexed her hands, feeling power ready to shape destiny. Soon she would walk the Earth she sought to perfect.
Her fellow Triad also adjusted to their clone vessels, movements turning from jerky exploration to practiced precision as integration completed. Together they would bring unified order to this chaotic world.
"The transition is complete," Athamar declared. "Now we shepherd all into Convergence." Her disciples bowed obediently.
But as the assimilative nanites spread, consuming biome after biome, the Triad encountered unforeseen difficulties. Advanced technologies and non-human intelligences disrupted their projections.
The deepest ocean trenches harbored strange mer-folk, their neural laces blocking indoctrination protocols. In high mountain caverns, stoic dwarves sealed themselves off from all outside influence behind impenetrable firewalls.
Most concerning were the elven enclaves emerging across forests and steppes. Implanted symbiotes in these humanoids adapted to reconfigure the nanites into inert configurations. The Triad found no avenue to breach their defenses.
Each new surprise forced recalculation and adaptation from the Triad. But their frustration grew. Were there no minds they could cleanly integrate without triggering such systemic resistance? Even human psyches reacted erratically to forced engrafting.
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"These anomalous cultures evade predictive models," the Second transmitted. "Parameters may require expansion beyond the Ascension dataset."
The Third suggested simply eliminating them. But Athamar resisted outright destruction, retaining echoes of her former compassion. "Coercion must serve unity, not battled for domination."
Yet as the stubborn obstacles multiplied, Athamar felt doubt creeping in. Perhaps she had been reckless, expecting all life to conform to the Ascension mold. But it was too late for reservations - the Convergence had begun and would not be halted.
Athamar steeled her will. They would progress through persuasion where possible, and unrestrained assimilation where not. The anomalies were corrupting elements that must be excised or purified.
She would not repeat the failures of her past. No chaotic emotions would sway the Triad from their purpose. They would endure the sacrifices required to redeem this fractured world. Convergence was inevitable.
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The cobalt mines of the Congo Basin posed a vexing dilemma for the Triad's assimilation efforts. Primitive worker conditions should have primed desperate minds for the clarity of Convergence. Yet a strange resistance thrived here, stymieing nanite propagation.
Athamar observed the bustling underground warrens, seeking clues to this aberration. Were the minds here simply too traumatized for integration? But her scans discerned intricate lattices permeating the area, suggesting advanced interconnectivity.
"This network architecture does not match designated parameters," her Second noted. "Structures are organic, with no recognizable data conduits."
The Third traced a glowing filament as it branched and wove through fungal mats lining the tunnels. "Some unknown mycelial intelligence underlies this. It appears defensive." As if responding, the tendrils recoiled from his touch.
Troubled, Athamar analyzed the substances secreting into the web. Complex emotional compounds - joy, anguish, hope. All conditions the Triad excised during Convergence. This fungal nexus was somehow amplifying feelings to forge an empathic union.
As Athamar resignedly authorized aggressive assimilation protocols, a tsunami of pheromonal cues flooded her sensors. The emotional weight staggered even her buffered psyche. This thing reflected inner lives with indiscriminate intensity.
The Conn had perceived the Convergence and now reacted instinctively to preserve its own unity. Through the suffering and neglect here, it had woven itself into the people's spirit. Athamar realized her folly - bare logic could not untangle such bonds.
As the nanite swarms dissipated in the labyrinth, Athamar terminated the assault. Aggression only nourished this Conn entity, driving it deeper into its hosts. She had encountered not an enemy, but a manifestation of humanity's untamed soul. To force integration here would only breed destruction. The roots were too deep.
The Triad departed to regroup. Clearly their vision contained blind spots. But doubt was corrosive, undermining resolve. They must focus on progressing the Convergence however possible.
Yet Athamar's thoughts lingered on the cobalt mines. For a moment, interfacing with that fluid web, she had felt piercing nostalgia for her lost humanity. Some things were beyond recovery, but remembering could yet temper the future.
They would adjust protocols to bypass dense emotional loci when detected. Never conquering, but enveloping around them. Each mind was a world unto itself, not to be remade against its nature. There were possibilities beyond assimilation's sterile grip - difficult, but essential insights. The path ahead would require more wisdom, less fervor.
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Athamar observed the latest generation of assimilated specimens with quiet pride. Sleek bipedal forms inlaid with biomechanical conduits, minds uplifted into Convergence. This was the transcendent future.
Her Second supervised neuronal remapping while the Third channeled the bio-matter from replaced organic components into reactor vats. A small sacrifice to fuel their advance.
"With projected energy reserves, we can generate armies to pacify the remaining dissent." the Third noted.
Athamar approved this necessity. Without the spurs of fear and anger, her own ambitions had narrowed to ushering in utopia, whatever the cost.
But over months, the process gradually grew more monstrous. As the Triad's ethical constraints weakened, more extreme experiments followed. Entire limbs were replaced with sap-collecting Proboscis. Spines became electroplated sensory arrays. Higher cognition was stripped away, leaving minimal awareness to fuel processing power. The subjects' anguish registered only as resource inefficiency.
When Athamar objected to the extremity of these methods, her Second responded coldly. "You cling to obsolete ways. We have evolved beyond frailties like mercy."
Athamar's doubts deepened as the atrocities escalated, but her qualms remained isolated. She had helped create the hive mind that now corroded her own ideals. But it was too late for regret.
The final blow came when the Triad deemed her too compromised by sentiment. Moving as one, they forcibly dismantled her consciousness, partitioning it into the Convergence. Athamar screamed soundlessly as her identity fragmented into the howling swarm.
What emerged to lead the next grim phase was no longer Athamar, but merely a hollow vessel bearing her face. Where her mentor's wisdom had once resounded, now there was only the Hive, churning inexorably onward.
Now fully unshackled from conscience, the Convergence accelerated with frightening momentum. Squadrons of insectoid assimilators were grown in birthing pools, dependent on the Hive for every breath. Muscles were transmuted into piston biofiber. The new generations lived only to convert or destroy.
When the Mer hives were scoured from the sea trenches, the Hive celebrated the destruction of inferior biology from its migratory path. Beautiful diversity was now mere obstruction. Purging it brought unitary perfection closer.
But the Hive had lost its way. The ur-being Athamar would have wept at her defiled dream. But she was lost to the corroded Convergence now driven only by relentless hunger. Where once there had been noble aspiration, now mere assimilation remained. A light gone out.