As my other self, Heartening, and Delphi make their way to the ancient spaceport of the city they live in, I reach the edge of the “Emperor’s Dreadnaught”. I touch the thing using my bare knuckles since my hands are full and I feel cool metal begin to slowly climb in temperature. Beneath me the thronemaidens and Thalace are standing in front of a small door and waiting for me.
As I descend I make use of metacreativity to create a sheath in which I store my blade. The instant I do this, I attach the sheath to my hip, doing so with a thought and nanokinesis. This simple action causes Thalace’s eyes to widen in delight and surprise, and the second I reach the floor she darts towards me.
“Your Majesty, you are a metacreative?!” She asks, excited. I smile at her excitement and nod.
“The first ether ability I ever demonstrated was metacreativity.” I remark, causing her to almost hop in delight.
“Same here! What did you make?!” She asks. I look away when she asks this, as the first object I made was a plain white ball. She waits for me to answer, even as the thronemaidens step past us and into the dreadnought, stepping through a door that Velvet opens by pressing her hand to the side of the gargantuan vehicle.
“I made a plain white ball.” I eventually mutter, and that makes Thalace smile at me sheepishly.
“Hey, that’s great! My first creation was a stick.” She says, reassuringly. I don’t sense a touch of pity in her tone and it takes me a second to realize she’s being sincere. I am stunned for a moment before I begin to smile at her.
“Nice! Is metacreativity your specialty?” I ask, which stuns her for a second. And then she begins to laugh.
“Oh, I didn’t know you didn’t know me, your highness. Yes, I am a metacreative specialist, my creations are popular both in Etherscape and beyond it.” She explains, after she stops laughing.
“I apologize for laughing, I just thought that you’d probably have heard of me, but you’ve only just got here. I really should have known better than to think you recognized me.” She adds, smiling all the while. If nothing else I seem to have a talent for amusing her. We reach the thronemaidens just inside the door and as we do the door shuts behind us.
“So this is the interior of the dreadnought huh?” I ask, as I study the sleek white hallway I find myself just inside of. We are at the end of a long, fantastical hallway, pockmarked with doors on both sides of the white, angular walls that surround us.
At the end of the hallway, I can see a distant door that looks curiously normal compared to the rest of the ship’s doors. My maidens smile at me and admire the scabbard I fashioned from ambient ether now that I’m close to them again. Eventually, Binah speaks to me.
“Yes, sire. This artifact was the creation of a gifted inventor emperor who had it equipped with cutting edge, for the time, ethertech. It was immensely powerful, especially for the time that it saw the most action.” Binah explains, as she begins to guide our group into the belly of the vessel.
“During the chaos of the interregnum raiders saw opportunities to seize important artifacts sometimes accidentally damaging a select few such as this one in their attempts to steal imperial property. We’ve recovered some such artifacts and repaired others, such as this one. Having learned from the actions, and mistakes, of our predecessors we knew to keep which artifacts we’ve recovered and or fixed a secret. Many believed the dreadnought was taken by raiders, or otherwise so damaged that we destroyed it. We spread false rumors leading people to believe that on purpose.” Binah tells the rest of us, quite proudly.
“We’ve kept the artifact a potent imperial secret, since some of us such as Aerji, Mirvel, and Sif, knew that we’d eventually find you. So from time to time we would maintain the vessel and outfit it with the newest, most cutting edge ethertech supplied to us by allies or liberated from the vaults of less loyal hegemonies.” Binah says, as she guides us deep into the vessel. We are quite close to the normal-looking door, beyond which I can hear the sounds of both feet and hover technology.
When we reach the front of the door I place my hand on it and the thing begins to automatically slide open. As it does I am surprised to see a figure begin to form from it on the other side, in a manner that reminds me of the digital, hard-light-like bodies of Delphi and Star before I gave the two of them the ability to manifest corporeally. My companions and I allow the figure to form and as it goes from being shaped light to taking on a more humanoid form I recognize the emotions in its eyes.
“Your Highness! It is so nice to meet you, my emperor.” The figure proclaims, her synthetic voice coming not from her mouth but from all around the thronemaidens and me, projected by the very walls themselves. The figure continues to form, taking on a more defined shape and acquiring more features at a breakneck pace.
“I am the artificial intelligence which pilots the ‘Emperor’s Dreadnought’. I have no formal name, beyond the name of the vehicle I pilot, but I am loyal to you, and I am, at heart, a loyalist. Both by design and by choice I am a servant of the emperor.” She states, regally. Her words are honest, filled with sincere, heartfelt loyalty to me and to what I represent. I approach her and smile, grateful for opportunities like this.
I am surrounded by fervent servants. Out in the broader realm of Etherscape, I have both allies and non-allies, but for now, I’ve been kept safe and secure and my initial contacts with various groups have been policed and kept strictly in the friendliest of circumstances. It’s good for allowing me to dip my toes into political and social waters, but I am firmly aware that keeping it up forever will undoubtedly be tough. If nothing else it makes my adventures out at the End of Time a lot more meaningful, since out there it’s just my servitors, Delphi, and myself.
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“It is remarkable to meet you. I would love to sit down and converse about the technology inside of you.” I reply, smiling as I offer my hand to the artificial intelligence. She steps forward and takes it, and I am pleasantly delighted when she begins to attempt to shake it and even more delighted when she succeeds. I hide my surprise but this was a fun way for me to learn that the avatar before me is solid to the touch. The avatar then moves out of the way, and in doing so allows me to see past her without using any of my unusual senses.
Behind the figure is a huge command deck, one comparable in size to one of the sprawling courtyards I saw when I was heading here. Numerous scientists, men and women alike, along with countless robots, are busy at work at various parts of the deck and they are all wearing headsets that seem to connect them to both each other and undoubtedly other people as well since they immediately turn in unison and spot me. We’re all quiet for a second before they welcome me, greeting me in unison and waving at me, before getting back to work.
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“A godsphere is an ancient machine constructed by the most technologically advanced ascendants in the multiverse. These primordial machines are capable of editing reality on galactic scales, at least when operating at their default states with working internal energy generators.” Delphi tells Heartening and me as we travel down a long road in the western half of the city. We are escorted by a group of armed servitors, some of whom have powers beyond the default abilities of my servitors.
“Many people believed that omega lords were the original creators of godspheres but your ancestors did not make these machines. It is unknown who first invented the machines, and the actual process of making them remains a secret unknown to many. Including ourselves.” Delphi tells me, and I can hear a note of sadness in her voice.
“That said, we do know a decent amount about their internal composition. Hypothetically. I suppose we’ll get to change just how much of that knowledge is actually hypothetical.” She says, smiling brightly as we make our way down the road.
The streets here are solid but not hard which is nice. I know now that I am immune to harm of all sorts beneath a certain level of damage, but I can still feel things so sensing the relative gentleness of the road is easily possible for me. The streets are also surrounded by various buildings, and I wonder at the purposes of each of them as we move swiftly by.
Off in the distance, if I look up at the sky, I can see the top of a massive building that is made from differently-hued materials and has an opening that is angled upwards. As we move closer and closer to it I begin to realize that it is a logical candidate to be the spaceport.
“So how do godspheres… warp entire galaxies?” I ask, looking at both Delphi and Heartening. The machine shrugs, clearly not remembering it since her internal archives are damaged, and Delphi ponders my question for a few moments. I appreciate the look on her face, as it is one of serious contemplation.
“I’m genuinely not sure of the precise mechanics behind it. I do know it is not through omega lord science, as using the technology behind the transporter I’ve been able to peer through space and time and I have seen godspheres using their reality-warping abilities. It’s not how you or your ancestors warp reality, nor is it how your technology does it.” Delphi explains, speaking with a level of confidence that is a bit rare for her. I trust her, and so I decide that for the moment it’s fine if I take this judgment at face value and operate under the assumption that it’s correct, so long as I am open to the idea that it might not be.
“This one’s few undamaged, accessible archives do not provide any elaboration on the topic at hand.” Heartening adds, which makes Delphi’s smile falter for a moment. I am also disappointed by this revelation, since it means that we won’t gain any knowledge that is relevant here directly from Heartening’s own current knowledge. Still, it’s understandable given what she’s gone through.
We move in silence as we approach the distant building. Eventually, after perhaps fifteen minutes of walking, we reach the front of the massive building and step through a pair of automated doors that slide open for us. We are in a huge lobby that vaguely reminds me of the entrance to an airport. The space is as large as an airport check-in space but lacks some of the same furniture and the same massive counter that receptionists stand behind. The space is empty, at least as far as furniture goes, and several servitors dart forward and begin to sweep the place.
I watch the training that has been built into them come to the fore as they spread out in teams and inspect the space. Heartening Glimmer studies them with curious fascination, and I smile as she keeps her eyes on the warriors. A pair of warriors darts all the way to the end of the lobby, and disappear as they step behind a wall that obscures part of the view of the place.
Delphi, Heartening, and I walk in the direction of the vanished warriors, all of our eyes peeled and our minds keen and focused. Now that I am armed with the knowledge that it is still actively possible for someone to appear in the city of their own volition and without asking for permission that means that we actually need to secure the city and we are in a part of the city far from the region I have previously visited. I almost wish I was armed with some of the same weaponry as the servitors, but I am a living weapon and I have only just defeated a small squadron of spaceships so we should be fine. Although… any creatures here, should be assumed to be unique, potentially dangerous examples of their kind.
The area behind the massive lobby space we were just in is an office space similar to the complex I have been in for much of my short stint as an adventuring monarch. Various omegatech devices, as well as less advanced but more commonly operational technology, liter the cluttered space. Doors leading elsewhere also line the far wall and I can see the servitors head down one of the doors, ready to scout and do more mapping, one of their secondary assignments relative to our journey here.
Delphi tells Heartening to follow her and the pair of them walk towards a large machine at the far end of the space. I watch them curiously while I turn and walk in the direction of the servitors. They are continuing their exploration of the area, and since I am connected to Delphi a part of me wants to go ahead and explore.
“Hey, run the diagnostics check on Heartening. I am going to go and explore the area with the servitors. I’ll call some of the other empowered ones to come and guard you.” I inform Delphi, before doing as I have decided to do and using my telepathy to command some of the servitors to come and guard Delphi and Heartening. I watch as a pair of my servants appear in the space between Delphi and myself, and begin to do their parts in securing the area before I fully turn around and head in the same direction as the other servitors.
I head through the doors which the servitors vanished through and I find myself in the same room as them. We are standing in what must be a parking deck for spaceships, a huge area with individual stations for massive objects, ones only sometimes and only somewhat smaller than Heartening in her other form.
The space is currently empty, but as I study it I can imagine it filled with all sorts of vehicles each of which would be tended by countless robots. My servitors are methodically checking every individual docking station, even as I take a broad view and begin to imagine what this place could become. I quickly and curiously use my powers to give myself the ability to glimpse the past, and activate the new ability.
My vision becomes overlaid with something akin to a filter like someone might find on a mundane Earth phone and as I focus on the filter details begin to come into view. I watch as ships begin to materialize, ships of various makes and models that are physically distinct and different enough for me to recognize both differences and some commonalities between them.
I also watch people, including non-human people, step in and out of the ships. I don’t recognize any type of vessel yet, but I don’t doubt that as my knowledge increases I will come to recognize some of the ships and maybe even some of the people in the days, months, and years to come. The scene unfolding before me is fascinating, as it is a montage of events happening at hyper-accelerated speeds, allowing me to visualize this part of the city in its heyday.