“You look like a fish gasping for air out of water.” Nurse said after several seconds of me just standing there staring at her.
I quickly closed my mouth, still unable to formulate words to express what was going on inside me.
Was this good? Heck if I knew. I couldn’t get past the fact that I just almost burned out my entire swarm and lost everything all in one fell swoop. As far as I understood it, my swarm bridged critical parts of the innards of the Tela technology that kept their environment and digital selves running. My swarm acted as a safety check for me, making sure that nothing got in or out of the Tela-based system without the oversight of Nurse. Had my swarm all died, then I might as well have tucked my head between my knees and kissed my butt goodbye. The fact that I hadn’t noticed any interruption in VR was a testament to just how dedicated my swarm was at serving me.
“After you set a boundary around Meditati, I had to quickly move your AIs into remote storage inside your old Personal Live Matrix, lest they get deleted by the foreign mess that you were extracting. Since it is something manifest, almost like data in a way, the Personal Live Matrix tries to store it, as though it was simply a part of you even though it can’t make heads or tails of it. As far as I can tell, it might be science on a whole new level. Tela technology might not be able to fully handle whatever it is.” Nurse said as she read my mind, keeping up with my inner dialog without forcing me to blurt it all vocally.
“So, is Jenna, ok?” I asked, remembering about the little girl who was currently being doctored by one of my Nurse.
“Yes, we were in VR time so her mind wouldn’t have felt a change. The swarm inside her body and mind is working at helping the body heal, not replacing her body with itself. If we had been, then she would have had some serious issues.”
“Whew, good,” I said as I blinked at the young woman in front of me.
“Oh? Are you still thinking about this?” She said as she spun in place, seeming more alive and human than I had ever found Nurse to be. Her dress floated up a little to show her legs and knees. She was barefoot and had a ready sparkle in her eye as she watched me.
“Yeah, sorry, it is too soon to fully get that image out of my mind.”
“No, I wouldn’t think so with all those changes you just endured as well as having a drone’s permanent memory.” She said with her head tilted to the side as she looked at me.
Her hair was dark, nearly black with little hints of lighter browns mixed in. Her face looked vaguely Middle Eastern to me. Just something about the asymmetrical features set with a prominent, yet still cute nose and two very lovely and large doe eyes. Her eye color could have been hazel, if not for the flecks of little colors that I had never witnessed in human eyes. Flecks of gold, blue crystal shards, and tiny reflections of reds.
“Are you cheating with your eyes?” I asked as I stepped forward in mesmerization. “They look like fire opals.”
She simply let me look, her pouty lips slightly smiling as she kept her eyes wide for me.
“Does it matter?” She said softly as she watched me.
“No. They just look amazing, like I can get lost in them.”
“Okay.”
Her vision shifted to the left for just a second and a soft sigh left her lips. It was a quick thing, but I caught it and knew that something was trying to get her attention.
“What is it?”
“Oh, just that two of your AI are experiencing rising levels of stress the longer they are separate from you. It seems that there was another unforeseen result to whatever you just did.”
“What now?” I asked in exasperation as I willed all of my AI back their freedom, including Meditati. They all appeared a moment later in the space around us.
“Kevin, something terrible has happened!” Tutor started to say as my four AI’s eyes landed on Nurse standing next to me.
“Wha-?” Tutor and Meditati said nearly at the same time as they both requested access to Nurse, thinking that she was a new AI. George simply reached up his hand to get ready to contain Invicta but I shook my head a little as I caught his eye. Instead, I reached out my hand to the little lightning girl in an invitation to come to sit on my shoulder.
She came, her eyes wide as she tried to watch everyone’s expressions and to sift through the background data passing through the air.
“Is… is that Nurse?” She asked as she landed on my hand, debating whether or not to turn into a bracelet. I took the choice from her and set her up on my shoulder as my clothes flowed to form the same outfit I was wearing in the physical world. I had been standing there in the same clothes that I had ended my simulation session in. Not the suit of the President, but rather the sweats that I had worn as I begged by the roadside.
“Yes, things change, yet still stay the same,” I said as I watched her expressions on my shoulder. She stared me in the eye for a second before answering, throwing her hands in the air. “You mean they stay the same by being all messed up?”
“Exactly! It is the best that I seem to be able to do. Just don’t go off and fight her again just yet, ok?”
“Ok, but you still owe me those thousand dates!” She said with a small smile as she kicked her little legs.
“A thousand dates?” I asked, unsure what she was going on about. The immediate sad look on her face made me quickly add, “Just a thousand?” To that question, she immediately turned a little rosy shade of pink and got a faraway glazed look on her face as she grinned.
“So, what is happening?” I asked Tutor as all the other AI walked closer. I could tell that something was off about Meditati. She looked like she was waiting in line for the gallows. Besides that, they were all looking at Nurse with odd expressions. Reading the background data I got a sense that George was feeling curious and fearful. Tutor was worried and Meditati was feeling defeated.
All of these feelings were concerning the figure of Nurse standing next to me. Tutor was worried about something else as well, but I could feel the divide in the coding related to Nurse. Invicta couldn’t care less about Nurse as long as I kept her close and adored her.
“Kevin,” Tutor began as her eyes left Nurse and focused solely on me. “The Void seedling has let loose a burst right after your transformation ended. It appears as light to the naked eye but upon closer inspection, it might be strands of the seedling itself. It doesn’t have any effect on anything that it touches and can pass through everything in its path, even full barriers of cr.” Tutor said as she began to modify the empty surroundings to match what was outside of VR.
Between us all, my body outside of VR appeared along with everyone standing around. She had brought us back to the moment right before we had all entered VR.
“Watch,” she said. I got to watch as my manifested body slowly lost cohesion and my face and skin became mottled and discolored. I had already figured that that was what had happened to me from watching Nurse’s transformation, but it was still startling to watch it happen to my body.
Even though my face was solid outside of VR, Tutor peeled back the cr so that we could all see inside my head and watch the little drone body that I was existing inside as it went through the same metamorphosis. No wonder I had felt pain increase with each attribute that I had added, it was ripping through my little drone body at the same time and with the same savagery. There was a small dividing line, a sphere, around my little drone body which was evidence of where exactly the Void seedling’s shell existed.
Just as my drone body became a blob of mixed colors a bright spike of light shone out from my head. It burst outwards rapidly like someone had set off a small bomb.
“Was that shown in normal time?” I asked Tutor.
“Ah, yes. Sorry about that. We returned to normal time for a bit while I was trying to recover. That is how the explosion is already so far away.” Nurse answered instead of Tutor.
After the light passed it moved outwards like an ever-growing sphere expanding around and away from me. It looked just like I had seen blast waves moving in movies, except this wave didn’t touch or disturb anything, it just passed through whatever was in its path without resistance.
“The good news, if there is any, is that the more the sphere expands, the less intensely it will shine. Look, it is made up of countless long strands of all compact and bunched together wiggling fibers.” Meditati commented as she showed us all what she had been focusing on. She brought up several displays around us to replay her observations at different rates of speed and from different angles.
“How is that good news? They look like they are alive.”
“Well, since we can’t stop them, it means that they will not be so apparent the farther away they fly. If each strand’s trajectory doesn’t change, which I am watching, they might fly in a straight line forever. The bad news is, that any alien race that can detect and track its trajectory, regardless of not being able to influence or capture it, will immediately know from which exact direction it originated albeit just not the distance that it already traveled.” Meditati said before she corrected herself. “Unless they have a vast enough array and are able to track more than one…”
“Ok, back up. This is going to pass through the entire world and continue forever?” I asked aloud as we watched the glowing ripple in the air race away.
“Yes. Most people won’t notice a thing, but the most observant will see the wave as it passes quickly across the sky. What I fear the most is what will happen when the Barron’s notice it. An anomaly of this magnitude, blasting out into space in a perfect sphere, will only draw their focus. They will want to know where it came from and who had the power to create such a unique… weapon.”
“Weapon? They would jump straight to it being a new form of weapon?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Well, who of advanced enough capabilities wouldn’t? This thing can pass through everything! Anyone would want to weaponize something like this if it was possible.”
Dread started to creep into my mind as I tried to imagine what its purpose had been. I wasn’t the smartest man in the room, but I decided to voice my thoughts anyways, lest it help my AI even in the slightest.
“This happened right after a burst of stimulation, mental and physical torture really, from trillions of my swarm being affected by the Attributes of the seven. Almost as though it was trying to broadcast that a feast was available...” I muttered, knowing that my AI were listening regardless of what they were doing.
George and Tutor were both staring off into space as they each took part in searching through the world and the connected Tela network for disturbances in the news. If something was to happen the Tela Planet Barons would be the first to take notice.
Invicta was doing something as well. She had little screens up around her person and she seemed to be intent on scanning outwards from several unique locations. It took me a second to spy little nameplates above each of her open screens. She was keeping tabs on my friends and family for me, searching hundreds of miles around each of their locations for any threats! I couldn’t help but smile and pat her legs.
“Thanks, Invicta,” I whispered as she beamed at me for a second in acknowledgment before going back to her searches.
Everyone around me seemed to have a plan and something to do. I felt a bit left out.
No… there was something that I could do that no one else could, least of all my AI.
I closed my eyes and felt my swarm, trying to get a sense of what had changed.
“Kevin?” I heard a voice interrupt me as Nurse’s hands encircled my arm.
“Hmm? Yes, Nurse?” I answered softly as I peered at her out of the corner of one of my eyes.
“No, keep your eyes closed, please. I just wanted to ask you if you would let me teach you what I learned during your, um… our, change.”
“Sure. As long as we can do it quickly. I don’t think that Tutor and the rest will need much more time to finish all of whatever they are doing.”
“Oh, don’t worry about time Kevin. We still don’t understand it fully, but I think we have more capabilities than even the Tela’s stolen AI can fathom.” Nurse answered as it suddenly felt like my eyes opened even though I had them tightly shut.
“What just happened?” I asked as I looked around. Everything was hazy and seemed slightly unreal. I was definitely in a new location, and I could tell right away that we had somehow left VR. I was standing atop a sharp peak or point of stone that had four sides like a pyramid structure peeking above the hazy clouds. I could see for a vast distance in every direction and found, worryingly, that I was all alone at the top of this empty expanse. The haze, clouds, and seemingly infinite distance were still, calm, and peaceful.
Too still.
It almost seemed as though, with my wish for motion, the clouds began to gently stir and bring soft sounds of wind to my ears.
“Hmm… it is as I had hoped. One moment Kevin, I will come up and join you in a second.” I heard a voice call from below the clouds.” It was definitely Nurse’s new voice, she was easy to hear, just impossible to see at the moment.
“What is as you had hoped? What is all of this?” I asked as I spied a break in the clouds and a glimmer of Nurse’s new sparkling eyes peeking from just within the thick mist. She spied me and quickly made her way up to stand in front of me. The perfectly smooth side of the pyramid seemed to create steps for her just as fast as her feet could speed her up toward me.
That is until I noticed it and then everything started to get a little weird.
Nurse tripped and fell against the side of the pyramid, catching herself as the stairs that she had been walking up suddenly disappeared. She started to slide back down towards the clouds below as she held herself up with her hands.
“Kevin, please imagine me stopping.” She said, which I did, and immediately noticed her descent stopping.
“I believe that this open space above is your sanctuary. I don’t know where it is actually, but I believe that you borrowed it from the seven. Something like how they communicate with each other. You have complete control here and with your entire… um, everything.” She said oddly.
“So, just like in VR, I can will you to be able to fly?” I asked and watched as Nurse was able to pick herself up and float upwards towards me. She had a big smile on her face and seemed pleased with me.
“Yes, just so. You can keep everyone out and rule from a distance if you like. I believe that this place is only barren because it is brand new, and you haven’t taken the time to mold it to how you wish your private domain to be.”
“So, what is all of this? What is beyond the clouds below? Also, why isn’t it pitch black like when I was in the company of the seven?”
“Well, the answers might shock you a little. What is down there is… more of you.”
“You mean like my swarm?”
“No, and yes. Kevin, your swarm doesn’t exist anymore. It is just you now. As for why it isn’t dark, you have the Hive Mother’s ability to remember everything which means that you can manifest physical places that will stay in existence. The others didn’t have that ability and didn’t need sight to communicate with each other.”
“I destroyed my swarm?” I asked. The clouds in the distance started to form into disturbed cumulonimbus storm clouds.
“Relax Kevin, I believe it is all for the best. Remember when I told you that your swarm could be whatever you wanted it to be? I meant that it could try to be whatever you wished it could be, whether that meant something that destroyed or created. When you left, or rather, accidentally sent yourself away I learned just how flawed my thinking was.”
I listened, as she floated up close to me. I could feel her emotions the closer she got, it was like she was an open book to me, filled with sadness at her perceived earlier failure.
“I felt lost while you were gone, having to rely on your AI to try to understand the finer details of your existence and what you would have desired of your swarm.”
“So, what has changed?”
“Oh, everything and nothing. Remember how Meditati has a key that allows her to split herself into as many copies as she desires while still being able to return herself to a single form? Well, even I thought that that was interesting at the time. That is until you shouted Hunger’s Attribute. Hunger’s attribute puts Meditati’s cloning technique to shame. All of your swarm are now completely you.”
“Even you?” I asked in horror.
“Ha ha, no, not me silly. Out of all of your swarm, you held me aside and let me choose who I wanted to become. You called to me and singled me out, not putting any designs on what you imagined me becoming. You even watched every step as I designed and picked who I wanted to be.”
“But you are female.”
“Yes.” She said with a smile on her pretty lips.
“Wait… you sequenced yourself, or rather the design of your mind and body from Jenna’s DNA and makeup?”
“Yes, and so did Maya as well. She just picked different physical and personality traits than I did. We are unique.”
“That explains the Middle Eastern accents of your features,” I commented softly as the clouds in the distance smoothed out and started to pulse and sway softly. Her eyes really were enchantingly beautiful.
“Permission to teach you something about yourself.” She asked softly as she floated closer.
“Sure,” I replied as I tried to read her emotions that surged toward me.
Oh my. Was that affection and anticipation?
“Why do you keep looking at my lips?” She asked softly.
“Because they look so amazingly kissable,” I replied as she floated even closer to me, right into my personal space.
“So?” She asked, barely moving her lips as she tilted her head to the side while her dazzling eyes watched me, leaving the unspoken question hanging in the air. After a second she closed her eyes and puckered her lips a little.
So, I kissed them.
The kiss lasted for quite a while. It was the headiest kiss that I had ever experienced. I think partly, it was due to the fact that I could feel her emotions changing the longer we kissed, becoming stronger and more desiring.
I had to pull away after it went on long enough, remembering myself and the goings on that were taking place in the real world outside.
Before I could say anything or voice my concerns at letting my head get so clouded Nurse cut through my thoughts with four words.
“Stop! Reverse and separate.”
Immediately my head felt clear again as I found Nurse hovering at the same distance that she had been before when she first floated upwards to continue talking to me.
“What just happened?” I asked as I felt my lips, expecting to feel the heat from our kiss still on my skin. Nothing, it was as though it didn’t happen.
“Well, I only have the power to demonstrate your powers, not to make them real. What happened was, we kissed, and then I rewound us to the moment before it all happened. This way, we can leave without our minds being overcome by our emotions. Well, at least we can if you make it so.” She said before reality changed again and suddenly, she was back within my personal space with her eyes closed in front of me.
She had a dreamy smile on her soft lips, and she was gently clinging to my arms.
We had returned right to the moment when I pulled back from kissing her.
“No, I don’t want to undo this moment,” I said as I leaned forward again to softly kiss her once more, this time just for a brief moment.
“You don’t understand.” She said as she smiled at me. Her eyes were dreamy, and she seemed like she was a little melty.
“It was just a demonstration of what sort of power you hold within your domain. Since it is just you and me here it is only my memories and experiences that you can change and undo if you so desire.”
“Just us? No AI?”
“No. This is not VR or even digital space. This place is entirely yours, your mind, and your will. If I may be so bold as to say that in VR you never had your privacy. Here, you have it all back.”
“But later there might be more in here?”
“If you decide to make more of yourself so that you can live out every life that you want, or to let others into your domain, you will be able to control and return things to however you want them to be.”
“Does this extend into reality as well?”
“In your home dimension? Sadly, I don’t think so. At least, I haven’t been able to manifest any changes. In the dimension that I came from though, it can be grown into a powerful ability.”
“I have my doubts about that, from what I had seen, the Skii being that used the Attribute Time seemed like a walking cadaver.”
“That is just because it has never had a moment of peace or a place that it could consider a sanctuary. It has been always on the move and has been forced to sacrifice parts of itself to monster attacks. Only Time has kept it alive and continues to keep it alive as it foresees paths to continue.”
“Really? That existence sounds just as bad as the Leva King’s.”
“Yeah, it does.”
“Well, let's deal with this Arbiter issue first and then see about helping them all out as fast as we can,” I said as I thought of all the things that I held dear, my family, this planet, all the people living oblivious to the deadly realities around them.
“We share your concerns and will carry out your will.” Nurse said with steel in her voice and causing the red flecks in her eyes to flare briefly. I could feel a power grow behind her, my transformed swarm flexing in anticipation of carrying out my will.
Leaving my pocket mind space was easy, almost like it was second nature and it brought us both back to the very instant that we left. Not even a tick of VR time had transpired between my leaving and coming back.
Nurse released her hands from around my arm and stepped back a little. Everything appeared exactly as it had been except for the slight blush on Nurse’s cheeks that Meditati’s eyes narrowed at. If ever there was an AI that would notice the finest of details, happening from one instant to the next without any apparent reason, she would be the one to take note.
A couple of moments passed before Tutor refocused on us all.
“Kevin! We need to get to the Arbiter now! The Planet Barons will see this and will act, we have to cut them off before they can do anything.” Tutor yelled.
“Sure, let’s do it!” I said, ready to claim earth back from the alien force that had claimed it as a tourist resort.
“I already have enough swarm in place for us to connect to the Arbiter hub with.” Nurse said as Tutor nodded. The VR space around us pulsed as we were suddenly transported to a massive volcanic hall. Hundreds of staggered gigantic pillars held up a ceiling well off in the distance above our heads. The space was lit by rings of light around the base of each pillar, leading the way off toward what appeared to be a medieval meeting hall. Meditati had displays open and continued to monitor the expanding ripple of threads that the Void seedling had let loose.
“I wonder what caused it to do that. Was it a feast signal or a fear pulse... or something else?” She muttered as we all took in the surrounding virtual arrival hall inside the fake planet Mercury. The whole thing was made from cr and housed hundreds of thousands of mostly vacant Personal Live Matrixes for Tela tourists to upload themselves into while they were visiting. I didn’t have a chance to ask what she meant before we all heard a voice that I would never forget speaking clearly from afar.
“Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up. I have been waiting for you, Kevin.” Magus the deposed Second said from where he was sitting in the meeting hall.