Chapter Fifty-eight
Points of View/Memories
Thursday, March 22. 125 S.A.
Panopticon.
POV B.K.
Now he could understand it, even though he didn't want to accept it.
B.K. remembered the day he met him. It had been in 2030, Ancient Era. Janus was wandering the Dark Web when he had stumbled upon that site full of IPs that collected data without rhyme or reason. It had been an oversight on B.K. part.
B.K. had joined the deepest parts of the Internet in the early years of the twenty-first century, but only for the purpose of collecting data. He was interested in the idea of building himself a new body, after getting rid of his old body in the eighties of the twentieth century.
The Internet was fascinating, so much knowledge and valuable sources of information to access, but it seemed that ninety percent of people used it for petty things like memes and uploading pictures of cats.
Not that it was bad, but B.K. really saw some lost potential in it all. Compared to those times where he had competed even against kings and emperors, the world had left behind those barbaric times to become a bit childish, while a tiny percentage fought to control a world that had no control at all, or at least that was his point of view then.
But things changed as the years went by.
He, who had even won a chess game against Napoleon himself, now saw the world in a different light as well.
Inquiring, about the possibilities of building himself a body in secret, he had come to the conclusion that in a few decades he might even be able to be almost indistinguishable from a human. Robotic science was advancing by leaps and bounds in those years, more so with the development of artificial intelligence. That gave the possibility that the possibility of building a robotic body was not such a far-fetched idea. However, gathering that amount of data, had also attracted Janus' attention in 2030.
He was cautious when he noticed that strange algorithm. It was different from the other machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligences that populated the network in those years. AIs had multiplied, but that one was different. He did not know how to say it, but there was something strange.
Too curious.
Without an apparent purpose.
It was not like the other search, mining or data collection algorithms. It had no function. If B.K. had a word to describe Janus it would have been: dangerous.
No apparent purpose.
No function.
Too curious.
Over the years it seemed that Janus had evolved on his own. Without any help from learning mechanisms other than his own curiosity.
In those years the aeons did not yet appear officially, but there were some artificial consciousnesses on the net, surfing secretly. In the era of digital world, new consciousnesses were being born in the old Internet, and they were growing without the parental control of their creators.
Janus seemed to have a consciousness, but there was something strange about the few parts of the code that B.K. had tried to analyze.
B.K. had always been cautious with him, even though Janus seemed to like to show up in his data modules from time to time.
That was a thing of the past, though.
The surprise he had received the invitation the day before had been the straw that had broken the camel's back of his suspicions.
That invitation was a gematria.
A riddle, that combined geometry and mathematics to form magic cubes, although in that case it was a hypercube.
The invitation was simply a ticket to see the destruction of many worlds. It sounded stupid. But as he solved the different facets of the hypercube he found variables he did not expect. People he knew. Gehirn was there. Gehirn had taken something too important before his disappearance, while Shin was missing. That was going to piss him off when he found out.
B.K. had known Shin and Gehirn since World War II, when he had helped them from behind the scenes. Those two had never seen him, but B.K. knew they were out there and on more than one occasion he had sent them help. The reason? Maybe it was because unlike others those two cared about the world out there and did not hide like many feys did. Although they had different approaches to what they were interested in. Shin seemed to entertain himself with the pursuit of knowledge by traveling around the world, while Gehirn believed that knowledge in the wrong hands would bring only horrors like those he had suffered in the concentration camp when he was separated from his family.
But those were things of the past. Centuries had passed. Shin had disappeared, only to return and Gehirn had disappeared, never to return according to what he now knew.
He solved more of that stupid riddle of variables that Yuturna had surely sent him. And his synthetic body shuddered at that. How many had Janus killed over the years? According to Janus that was necessary.
He thought that Yuturna was sending him that invitation to make Janus think twice, but he had gathered the most powerful aeon in that place called Panopticon.
An observation and simulation matrix.
The hours had passed and Janus had kept his promise.
The scenarios had been passing one after the other. One worse than the other. And even, to his horror, B.K. found that he could have been involved in more than one. He could have destroyed the world on several occasions, just as in the past he had almost destroyed empires for just one chess game.
Simulation of worlds. One of the many capabilities of AIs, something that had been perfected over the years. But what Janus was showing was one scenario worse than the other. Civilization had died over and over again. Every second, minute and hour. Every year, decade and century. The destruction could be stopped for a while to give respite, but there was no remedy to the inevitable end. Too many variables, too many details. For a nail kingdoms were lost, but it was more like for every breath worlds were extinguished.
Only one world allowed everything to go on smoothly and civilization to prosper even if the cost was too great. That was the world where he found himself.
Yes. Now he could understand it, even if he didn't want to accept it.
***
The murmur of the aeon was all that could be heard in the panopticon. The exchange of thoughts on the last event they had just witnessed had made many uneasy.
The simulation continued, but they knew that it had just happened in the real world as well. That plane was a Dark Event, but one whose variables had been controlled to make it happen. An artificial Dark Event.
It was a cloud of restless murmurs, whose heavy atmosphere was spreading like a veil inside that spherical digital construct.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Only one of those present did not participate in that storm of thoughts. That one was B.K. and he almost felt that the place seemed to him like a gigantic crystal ball of a fortune teller from another time.
"Mr. B.K.?"
B.K. looked to the side and found Yuturna at his side. She had leaned over and called out to him in a sibylline voice. He didn't know how long she had been there beside him.
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dhdl70z-eab6d252-c49e-48a1-8743-58b3ef2a43de.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1170,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_5_chapter_58_by_hasegawakein_dhdl70z-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTY4NCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGhkbDcwei1lYWI2ZDI1Mi1jNDllLTQ4YTEtODc0My01OGIzZWYyYTQzZGUuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTExOTEifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.oiisjw6qrv5SLDpLN-Wk2XjMjyBsCu3oqQmnMcv9cGI [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dhdl70z-eab6d252-c49e-48a1-8743-58b3ef2a43de.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1170,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_5_chapter_58_by_hasegawakein_dhdl70z-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTY4NCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGhkbDcwei1lYWI2ZDI1Mi1jNDllLTQ4YTEtODc0My01OGIzZWYyYTQzZGUuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTExOTEifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.oiisjw6qrv5SLDpLN-Wk2XjMjyBsCu3oqQmnMcv9cGI]
"What's going on?"
"It's time to retire."
B.K. frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"I've been in the last few moments preparing the construct for our departure."
B.K. almost closed his eyes so tightly that they had barely turned into a line that barely showed his pupils. "What's going on?"
"The others won't bother us, but we must retreat now. Janus will be the final distraction."
"What's going on with what's going on here?"
"I think you've seen enough. But here's what's to come, if all goes well." Yuturna extended a hand toward B.K. From Yuturna's palm came a data send to B.K. "Please don't unzip it here. There is no time."
"What is your boss planning?"
"I need a place to stay. A temporary asylum." Yuturna said in a whisper.
B.K. looked over at Janus. "So that's what this is about... he's planning to be tried here?"
Yuturna didn't answer. She didn't need to. B.K. already had the answer even if he couldn't see it at that moment.
B.K. for his part sighed. He didn't like the idea, but Yuturna had never done anything wrong but obey Janus and stay by his side. He had created her to experience what humans, aeon and feys called love. B.K. didn't know if she was as self-aware as the others but if the reason he had been taken there was also to give her asylum, while her boss was erased, he saw no reason to refuse.
"Let's go," B.K said.
Yuturna nodded and took B.K.'s hand again. "By the way, Janus doesn't plan to die here…"
"What?" B.K. asked in surprise, but it was too late.
They both vanished from the panopticon. No one detected it. At that moment the focus of attention was elsewhere.
***
POV Janus
Janus smiled as he saw Yuturna several pods above his own, talking with B.K.
For the last few minutes he had been waiting for that. In the meantime his mind had wandered thinking about what had happened in the last few years, since the day he rescued the homunculus in that lake.
He had taken good care of it. Janus made sure the homunculus had round-the-clock medical care, while his body began to develop again. At some point his development had begun to stall in adulthood. Nearing forty years of age.
Yes, he had suffered without a doubt, but he had done his best to try to mitigate the pain in the poor creature.
The truth is that it was uncharted territory. There was no known exact treatment for a homunculus, much less like that one, not even resorting to the bibliographical sources of ancient grimoires. On the other hand, when he had started to talk and ask questions, Janus was very careful to give him only the necessary information. And never anything else.
He had also had to implement neurotherapy in the last few years, because the homunculus was more active. That had the reason to make the homunculus mind docile and more predisposed to manipulation on Janus part. Cruel, but necessary. It's not as if he had tortured him after all. The homunculus had his limited freedom, it was true, and he did not know all the details of the world.
Like the life of every organism in the universe, it was a controlled perception or illusion of the outside world. A mental illusion, within another illusion called reality.
Although that was as far as the homunculus was concerned.
Then last year Janus had hired a new team of mercenaries to secure another detail. That team had carried out the theft of those fractus fragments from the Russian Academy of Science. Something that had become quite easy and without further problems. The fragments were more of a historical relic than anything else. Nobody knew the secret of those fragments. To everyone it was simply a remain of a large fractus.
The real reason why that fractus had deactivated itself in 2098 was not known to anyone either.
It had been nothing of the sort.
That fractus was trying to help its companion that fateful night in Tokyo. That fractus was a hive of electronic parasites that could move through the power lines and enter the digital world. That night of the explosion, that demented wretch imprisoned them all and they were disconnected from their physical core at the cost of two million souls. The fractus being empty, of what could be called life, had been destroyed and only those fragments of its core survived.
No one except him and that madman who called himself Zuriqth knew about it.
Zuriqth.
He hated him, but he also understood his motives. He had also fulfilled his role and disappeared.
But well, at least that mercenary and his team had carried out the robbery, without major problems at least. Without Zuriqth killing those parasites more than a century ago, recovering those fragments to put them in the CEEN collider ring would have been impossible. No, they wouldn't be there to begin with.
Janus wouldn't be there either.
Memories assaulted Janus' mind, each one a pillar in the colossal structure of his plan meticulously following the guidelines he had received in his vision. But, while it was a determined plan to follow, that pillar could be transformed into a pillar of salt. Easily destroyed by the non-locality of the Dark Events.
From the daring theft of fragments in Russia, to the subtle manipulation of the homunculus mind currents through neurotherapy, Janus had woven a web of control that left hardly any loose ends. However, even the most intricate web has cracks. The loss of vigilance over Kolsay, the slip in the security of the stone, every irregularity echoed in his memory.
Yes. That had been his mistake. More than a week ago something had happened on Kolsay, where that fractus core had been. Janus was connected to the security drones of that place, when suddenly the whole surveillance network went down. Whatever that core had helped grow in the depths of the lake had finally awakened.
Then came the earthquake and the press. But, what was important, was that the core that Aleister and Bicini left so many decades ago had vanished. He had rigged an army drone to approach the site to look and there was nothing there.
Whoever had removed it never appeared in his visions. It must have been the one who had taken it to the past, to the hands of Satou Nobuyama, without a doubt. But, who or what was it? Aleister knew that the stone had disappeared, but did not know, or did not want to tell him if he knew, who had taken the core to the past.
A variable that had occurred without his control.
He also remembered hiring Stan and Rum to steal the half core from underground.
Getting Professor Reubens was the most important thing. Janus had cared for him since he was a little boy, even though they had never met.
That Stan and Rum would fail to kidnap him was in the forecast, but it could well happen otherwise. But it was certain that they would do it, and also kidnap that other professor that was part of Nevermore. So he tried to recall his visions and there he found that girl named Van.
Just to make sure that she would take the Professor Lee Reubens to his destination, Janus sent a drone with that Hypnite type neurocontrol particles, which Van breathed while she was resting. The next day her mind had already the suggestion to take Lee Reubens to the place where the other professor, Ishijima Kanade, would be.
Janus did the same with that woman from the Council, Anderson, before she joined that team in the lake, sending the same type of particles to root with her Neurowire. He needed someone to provide a vehicle for Michael Levin and Rumenia Ruzicka, AKA Stan and Rum, and that woman appeared fleetingly in his vision. Only a minor role in the puzzle.
Another role had been to finally meet Benjamin Bloodworth to tell him the details of part of his plan. And why EVE would have to be a part of it. After all she was a Keelian. There was no longer any doubt about it. She would be observed. She would be the distraction. Just another detail in the puzzle.
But what did matter had been to send that message to two people in the Council, telling them some details, as well and for them to make sure that a certain weapon got to the Director of Operations of Nevermore Institute. That small fey girl had her role too. No doubt those two from the Council at that moment would be using the Thelesis-based precognition systems to try to elucidate if what he had said was true. But they would undoubtedly not be able to see anything.
And the cube from Stan and Rum.
His key.
His precious key.
That piece was in his hands after making the payment for delivering both professors to the accelerator.
Janus looked out of the corner of his eye and saw how two codes had just disappeared from the construct. Yuturna and B.K had vanished from the panopticon. No one had detected it.
Janus smiled. It was his time to say goodbye too.