|
The Birth of Onimex --
Chapter 18
1.
Ireana keyed in 6.67 x 10-11Nm2kg-2
on her PDA and tweaked the formula to compensate for M'tro-1's gravity
and density. Her life revolved around a disc shaped object that
hovered above 3 feet of empty space in the center of her lab. It
was roughly 1
meter in
diameter and 11 inches thick. The top side was a highly polished
onyx color that had a scrying bowl effect. The
exterior circumference was smooth with interactive
features flush behind hidden panels. This was her
masterpiece.
2. The machine was anchored by a tevatron umbilical so that it wouldn't
drift away when left unattended or bumped. Most of her touching
was through an interactive tablet. She ran through the diagnostic
report
for a third time and could find no faults. Once activated, the
droid would burn-in and could
never be turned off, so everything had to be done right the first
time. "This is the moment we've been waiting for," she lipped
softly under her breath.
3. She keyed in a numeric sequence, "7, 129, 6, 105 and
195. The square of 1.618 = 1.272." Those numbers had
launched her interest in existential mathematics when she was only
5. Now the sequence called for a "Pre-initialize?"
response. It was the first time that she had seen those words
since she began composing the fundamental formulas for
this project 4 years earlier. It would be the only time that she
saw those words, so she didn't hurry.
4. Fourty-one years had passed since the Cardship
evacuation, and as planned, Mother resettled qualified
colonists on sustainable worlds to maintain shipboard stasis.
Ireana's parents volunteered to become colonists and settled on
M'tro-1 when she was 4.
5.
M'tro-1 was two systems beyond the
Cacci Dai, and the farthest any shellan had ventured from Vejhon up to
that point.
6.
"Pre-initialize," Ireana said. The droids exterior illuminated
several
thousand tiny red pixels that each represented a diagnostic
pre-boot prior to burn-in. As each pattern satisfied a prescribed
checklist, the pixel color would change from red to orange, then
yellow,
green, blue, and rest at a hazy violet before turning off again.
For an
inspiring moment, the droid was ablaze with color as the checklist for
each pixel was not at the same speed.
7. It looked like an aurora surrounding a black hole in her
lab. Cumulatively, the level of thought that went into that
machine was unprecedented. Just watching the pre-initialization
was
convincing enough. Eventually, the droid exterior glowed with
a purple
plasma haze and then resumed it's former black sheen as before.
The pre-initilization sequence completed without a fault, and
historically speaking, perfection was
the bare minimum expected.
8. There was one thing left to do, and it would only happen once,
so she felt no compulsion to rush.
9. "Vacuum-level matter, re-organizes according to
the expectations of the observer," Ireana said to the object, even
though it wasn't switched on yet.
10. She took a moment to admire her masterpiece, knowing that
this would be the last time that it lay dormant, as an insentient
object.
11. "Consciousness is the building block of the Universe," she
said. She keyed in her formula for hyper dimensional travel on a
transparent keyboard, "Ruv - (guvR)/2 + guvΛ = (8πG/c4)Tuv," and
whispered, "faster-than-light," like a maestro before an orchestra at
the grand finale. The background formulas had already been
keyed in.
12. "The process of observation creates what we
see," she thought out loud again.
13. Ireana did not know that she was being observed by an
object that was not yet operating; her particular crowd did not
speculate
on non-existent organizations either.
14. The painting was finished. There was nothing left to
do but run through one last checklist.
15. She picked up her slate and opened the cancellation
dialogue: "Paraphaseic
rippling. Index
annihilation. Quantum entanglement. Non-synchronous
cymatics. Parallel signatures. Spacial rifts.;" rhythms
she knew forward and backward because she had written them.
"Is there anything that I left out?" Because it's now or
never. This was the moment: Her monumental achievement was
complete, there was only one last step, and that was to turn it
on.
16. She found her attention drawn toward the window, "Am I
changing time?" she asked herself. "Am I doing this again, for
the second time? Am I hesitating or am I supposed to hesitate?"
17. "We create reality," she told herself. "Everyone gets
these feelings." "Fear is a very slow, dense vibrational
state." "You are not afraid." Ireana took a breath.
18. One word displayed on the diagnostics panel:
"INITIALIZE?" "Another word I'll never see again," she
thought, "I will now 'speak' it into existence," she whispered.
19. Ireana chuckled at some of the correlations, "It all reduces
to that one question, doesn't it?" "Note the time," she said to
her PDA.
"Initialize," she said calmly and clearly.
20. Several internal gyros began winding up and
then faded above the shellan audio spectrum so that no sound was
heard. Internal stasis was achieved. A few umbilical
disconnect lights illuminated and subdued to a deep blue
color. The machine became autonomous. It was spiritual...
like creating life. Her eyes were wide and bright from her own
inner light. The machine dissolved the tevatron umbilical
and became an animated
biocybergenic being. She looked worried, and afraid, happy,
hopeful and expectant...
21. And then the machine's first words, "I have
a parallel signature -- Is there is another unit identical to me?"
it asked. Her face was flushed. His voice was soothing and
collected.
22.
"Check your philosophy base," she instructed. "Honestly, has it
'gone there and back' already?" Her
chest tightened at the quantum possibilities.
23.
“The other unit is accessing,” Onimex said, with a slight
inflection. "NO! DON'T!" she yelled.
She clutched Onimex on both sides as if her grip alone
could
prevent the wind from blowing. "Dump it!" she demanded, “Don’t
Access!” She smacked him, "Don't do it!" She calmed
down, believing that Onimex had complied. "Abort," she said
rather calmly, self-conscious of her unprofessional
outburst. The machine's
first memory would be getting smacked by
its creator... just like a live birth. Maybe that was planned
too.
24.
"The signal terminated
at the source," Onimex said, "The other unit is myself," he
confirmed. Ireana sat back on her laboratory stool with a years
worth of stress expressed in only 8 seconds. The other unit knew
better
than to access himself. For a brief second -- they were in
communion. Trans-time dialogue is less cumbersome if
conducted serially.
25. "Quantum entanglement?" Ireana questioned. She knew
that she would never know for sure. If in fact, the other unit
was himself, it was clearly not from his past.
26. Her nerves reported a ground
tremble beneath her, which might have been a cardiac reaction to
stress.
She had never felt a ground tremor before,
ever. She needed a sip of water,
or
maybe something stronger. She picked up the portable refuser
laying next to her glass and and pushed the button. She just
wanted enough to wet her lips.
27. The ground shook a second time, dislodging loose objects
in her lab. That was not an ordinary explosion. "Are we
being attacked?" she asked in disbelief. "Have they found us?"
she whispered. No other explanation seemed plausible.
28. She darted to the window to get a better view. A beam of
light
emanated from orbit and struck a nearby facility. That light beam
had caused the previous two shellquakes. A third beam struck
close enough to nearly collapse the building. 'Matter' was
sinking into
a hole... "but how?" she asked. The sink hole indicated an
impending big implosion. She glanced at Onimex, "Did I cause
this?" She meant, "Did you
cause this?" Then she asked, "Did you?" Like any parent, she
could never truly accuse her own.
29. Corlos had been watching this event closely; a moment that
could not be missed at any cost because the past, present and future
was
hardwired
to her -- right here and
right now.
ON
VEJHON
30. While the Cardships were out peppering the known Universe with
colonists, Kor had improved his war machine to be more lethal than
before. By keeping the Theites at bay, he had built a new
fleet of uncompromising magnitude and power. His new ships made
the old ones look impotent. These new monstrosities were planet
killers and four of them were above M'Trol-1, toying with
their prey before finishing it off.
31. A lot had changed on Vejhon since the evacuation. Nearly
30% of the population had become slaves and the surface had been
strip mined for raw ore. Kor's
super youth were running the regime; obsessed with conquest and
optimal efficiency. Kor was the spirit who moved all things, but
no
longer controlled them. The youth had seized power from Kor but
still protected him as the Great Father.
32. The new youth had been engineered to look, think and
act like Kor. With training, some could perform the
miracles that Kor performed in his younger days. An entire
generation
of Kor hybrids ran everything including the military. Only those
who could
keep up were accepted into their fraternity. The hybrids
recognized each other and protected their collective as a single
organism; motivated to preserve the State.
They replaced the antiquated Elite but romanticized Elite
accomplishments and revered Secret Society
traditions. It was an adrenaline rush for all, whether among
their ranks
or dumbfounded in their wake.
33. However impressed Kor was with his prodigies, he had to modify
policy when one forcibly removed him and Dal El from a destroyer
because the mission was too
dangerous for either of them to accompany. When Kor realized what
was happening, he turned to squash the marble sculpture, whose
hypnotic determination and faultless loyalty was terribly distracting;
whose
indomitable spirit
displayed no fear in his lazer-blue eyes. Kor read the kids
altruist intention etched in stone; 'Death meant nothing compared to
protecting The Master.' Dal didn't need a translator, "A National
Treasure," he observed accurately. The kid grinned thinly.
34. Kor felt a cold fire in his soul, "He is absolutely, utterly
unconcerned about how I respond." There was no contest because
the kid had already
won. Dal was standing right behind him, who was himself,
picked up like a potted plant, and set inside the docking
collar next to Kor. For the
first and only time in his life, Kor had to reconcile with mixed
emotions,
"Can I kill
something that I created?" he complained to Dal El, "We can't possibly
be that obsolete?" The
youth had been engineered to surpass Kor, and that kid in particular
didn't
think twice about it. These baby snakes made their 'Kid'
predecessors seem rather docile.
35. It was an awkward moment, alone in a docking collar, while
the retinue embarked on a dangerous mission without the need for
presidential fanfare. "Non-essential
personnel?" Dal scoffed. He was awed at how powerful the
hybrids had become; obsessed with finding Cardships. "I'm glad
they like us," Dal added with relief -- he always found the most
proactive view. The subsonic vibrations and machinations of
technology had drifted away. The collar became eerily quiet.
36. Kor indulged the absurdity since nobody else
was around, "You looked stupid
being hauled off the
ship like a... vegetable," he said. Dal had not been
forced
to
do anything since becoming the Vice-Elite. "He didn't even
ask me to leave!" Dal complained, "He just picked me up like a
stanchion and planted me here!" "I will admit," Kor said
introspectively, "that this is a new experience." Dal
pointed at himself to add himself to the list, then swirlled his arm
overhead,
"We run this entire fracking system, and
here we are in a docking collar with no one around!" He alluded
to the empty corridor, "Does anyone
even know we're here?" Kor looked sternly into Dal's face, and
then suddenly busted up laughing. It was probably the first time
since the campaign that he had found anything this funny. Dal
cracked a grin because Kor's laughter was surprisingly
infectious. Their command was not imperiled
or in any serious jeopardy.
37.
"That kid was actually daring you to do something," Dal mused,
astonished that the kid was still alive, "Did you see the look in his
eyes? He was fracking burning
holes through us! What the hell is
that?"
38. "Don't worry," Kor reassured him, "eventually I'll
get somebody to let us out of here." He intoned it like an actor
playing the part of a stranded tourist. Dal started laughing
because
Kor was never at a loss for anything, ever. "How do you 'plan'
for shit like that?"
he was thinking. Everyone would automatically assume that the
Vice Elite belayed the embarkation fanfare for tactical reasons, wary
of 'invisible
observers,' per memorandum by Dal El. "That ship isn't coming
back, is it?" Dal wailed
stupidly. He wasn't being serious. Nobody was watching; if
ever there was a moment to let their guard down -- it was
now.
39. "If it kills me," Kor added. Now Dal needed
a
medic because the comedy of errors was unbearable, if not desperately
refreshing, "Don't grid the kid," he
petitioned Kor, "he's still a good
kid." This was an avant guard moment that would only happen
once.
40. They weren't literally stranded -- all they had to do
was
go back to the yard station and call somebody, not to mention that Kor
could psionically summon anyone he wished. Out of habit, Kor
firewalled himself and Dal El from casual penetration, so nobody knew
they were stranded in spite of the comical circumstance. Kor did
not know for sure how to explain what happened. "Did the ship
even tell someone that we were kicked off?" Dal wondered.
Typically, red carpets, limousines
and special treatment preceded them everywhere they went. "Well,
at least we know... " Dal held short, but Kor read the rest, "... that
things can
still run without us."
41. For the sake of avoiding any future bad precedents, Dal El
composed a policy that permitted him and Kor to
accompany the fleet on dangerous missions, "...whether Kor'An D'seas
likes it or not." And they named the exemption after the kid,
which got his Captain's attention.
42. Kor'An D'seas was summarily pardoned by Dal El
for doing what he had trained his entire life to do: Protect
Kor. From then on, ship captains ensured that the antic was never
repeated. Kor'An D'seas became somewhat of a folk hero for Kor,
who believe it or not, highly admired him. To rub it in, everyone
began asking 'the Kor apparent' for permission before they did anything
dangerous, and The Master himself began staging events
behind-the-scenes to train Kor'An D'seas as his surrogate.
|
