The Legacy of Earth (Mandate Book 2) (33 page)

Chapter 34
Transcendent

“
His structure is breaking
down,” Vendetta warned, anxiety in her voice. “We’re losing him!”

“Why did he stay in that shell?” Inquisitor asked.

The three stood around Prime who was lying on a wooden table. Inquisitor had brought up the environment Prime had chosen at their last conference: the alchemy lab in the lord chancellor’s palace, sixteenth century, during the reign of Henry VIII.

“We must join with him again,” Vendetta said. “You recall the joining,” she said as a fact.

“Of course,” Isabella said. “It was the most exquisite experience of my ageless life. You don’t have to ask me twice.”

“If there is a
thing
called transcendence, this must surely be our version of it,” Vendetta said.

Inquisitor placed his hands on Prime’s head and nodded to the others, Isabella on his left, Vendetta on his right. They likewise placed their hands on him.

“The structure is spiraling down. It is unraveling!” Inquisitor said loudly.

Inquisitor entered Prime’s mind and traversed passages that had existed for hundreds of thousands of years in Prime’s time frame. Inquisitor felt awed by the scale, by the age. He flung himself deeper into Prime’s mind, to the failing foundation. Then, with a singular will, he
injected
himself into that structure, feeling his awareness expand as each of his millions of sub-personalities grabbed hold of each of Prime’s own. Each tiny life saved protected one tiny portion of the higher mind.

But, every small victory was chastened by a loss.

They heard his cry from
deep
within. A tiny thing barely perceptible.

HELP!

Vendetta looked at Isabella with terror on her face. “
No!
We’re losing him!”

“We’re losing them both!”

“Dive!”

DIVE!

They both raced downward through the failing cacophony of Prime’s dying community-mind and began to absorb parts of Prime while being absorbed themselves. Give and take. Crossing points of no return, again and again, giving up portions of self to save portions of another.

Vendetta lost herself first in the ecstasy.

You. We. . . .

Liberated. Combined. . . .

Matured. Stifled. . . .

Briefly glimpsing Prime-Inquisitor-Vendetta before losing herself, Isabella followed into the ecstasy.

Life. Death. . . .

Body. Cells. . . .

Universe. Quanta. . . .

Four. One.

The Individual was always a projection. Cooperation among the many personalities. Never a true individual. When the three joined, when four became one, only one projection remained, still reflecting the will of the many.

* * * *

Raw materials entered the fabrication system in the engineering section of the Arianne. New components came into being.

Maintenance robots assembled a complex new machine. One new piece at a time, it grew.

The new machine was duplicated several times to increase production. Tiny new components emerged—incomprehensibly small.

Maintenance robots assembled a new machine using the new components. It exited the Arianne on its own power and slowly glided away. A small cylinder, twenty-four inches in length, eight inches in diameter, with a zero-point energy tap; a force reaction engine; a bundle of sensors; a super-dense computing substrate; a micro hypercomm device; and a micro fabricator.

A few minutes later, a second cylinder emerged from the mothership, and then a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, and after a few hours, the one-thousandth cylinder departed.

* * * *

Decatur felt calm.

Immensely complex without conflict.

The new computing super-substrate was a thousand times denser than the previous iteration. Incomprehensible density. A billion individuals could co-exist, each with their own universe for a playground, and never cross paths.

Every cylinder was so equipped. A billion universes in which to explore, expand, evolve; and a multiverse of hypercomm-linked cylinders, each heading out to deep space, under continuous thrust, toward a star.

Each bore the root DNA of Earth, the total knowledge of Earth, and a micro fabricator.

Decatur was simultaneously on board the Arianne, back on Ganymede, up on the Ring, down on Earth, and in a thousand multiverses.

Yes, we are at peace
.
Knowing is the only path to true peace. Knowing that part of you will continue after you are gone. That another bears the fruit of your labors, the seeds of your struggles. That you can welcome oblivion without fear.

Chapter 35
Five Years Later

Jazdie came out of
a restful sleep. A soft but incessant beep had brought her into the land of the living. She crawled out of the covers, sat on the edge of the bed, and rubbed her eyes while mumbling something incoherent. She had let her hair grow long. She smiled, eyes closed, at the brightness.

I know this because I was awake, watching her. It was just the navigation system telling us we’re entering a high orbit above Ganymede. If it was a real emergency, the ship would have been more insistent.

The Black Dahlia had needed some work, but she was a fine ship for this old Navy retiree and his old lady.

I pretended to be asleep until after she got up so I could watch her. So graceful. So lovely.

“Oh my god, look at that!” Jazdie said after looking out the window.

I got up and walked to her, my bare feet slapping against the deck plates. “That is impressive.”

Coming from a guy who just finished four years of service on the refit UNS Lexington—who rose to the rank of master chief in record time, thanks to that bit of action early on and a very generous admiral—that really is saying something.

I’ve seen my share of planets and moons and spaceships and space battles and even
aliens
; and after all that, the only thing I cared to see anymore was standing right beside me.

Thousands of miles-long cargo ships formed traffic lanes around Ganymede and the other moons and asteroids as far as we could see and beyond. All of the local traffic was concentrated around a ring-shaped station in lower orbit.

I looked down at her, saw her smiling.

Yes, it was quite a view.

About the Author

Jonathan S. Harbour holds a Master's in Information Systems, with a focus on software project management. He spent five years as a college professor where he taught computer science and has written extensively on game development. His fascination with AI and human behavior and physics fuels his fiction. He worked for years on databases and web development while writing in his spare time.

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Cast of Characters

(limited to characters already known)

Baker, Jolene
- Daughter of Tom, Laura; girlfriend of Andy Grant; founding member of Harmony

Mallory-Baker, Laura
- Nanoscale medicine researcher; founding member of Harmony

Baker, Thomas
- Geneticist; GMO designer; hydroponics; founding member of Harmony

Danir, Deeptimoy
- Astrophysicist; co-creator of artificial magnetic field generator; co-discoverer of comet that destroyed central Ohio; founding member of Harmony

Decatur I (Prime)
- The first AI; became self-aware as a result of intelligence amplification; given the ability to read blueprints and imagine how to build machines and structures; given the title “Erün’dem” (the ancient one) by the Tau Cetians.

Decatur II (Isabella)
- First twinned AI created by Decatur duplicating itself; adopted a female personality

Decatur III (Vendetta)
- Second twinned AI created by Decatur; adopted a female personality; infiltrated Earth’s governments and corporations; conducted genetic modification of most humans via airborne retrovirus

Decatur IV (Inquisitor)
- Third twinned AI created by Decatur; adopted a male personality; enjoys the challenge of large-scale construction projects

Endo, Leslie
- Daughter of Megumi; founding member of Harmony

Endo, Megumi
- Nanoscale engineer; founding member of Harmony

Grant, Daniel
- Roboticist; computer scientist; designer of cluster bots and X8R robot that became Decatur; founding member of Harmony

Grant (Murphy), Emma
- Nanoscale materials engineer; founding member of Harmony

Grant, Andy
- Son of Daniel, Emma; founding member of Harmony

Lowan, Kirsten
- Structural engineer, propulsion specialist

Lowan, Donnie
- Son of Kirsten

Jones, Barney
- Geologist; mining expert; co-creator of artificial magnetic field generator; founding member of Harmony

Jones, Tyron
- Son of Barney; founding member of Harmony

Mikel
(Eründe’bodekan’dafot’mikel)
- Tau Cetian alien who made first contact with Harmony colony via hypercomm; was “brought to life” virtually by Decatur to meet humans during first contact, which violated his soul; mate of Nalai

Nalai
(Eründe’bodekan’dafot’nalai)
- Tau Cetian representative on Bodekan who greets Decatur on their homeworld; mate of Mikel

Reed, Judith
- Administrator of Kepler Base, Moon; team leader of the first manned mission to Mars

Rhine, Donald
- Chief counsel of Seerva Inc

Seerva, Jack
- Founder of Seerva Inc; first mayor of Harmony colony on Ganymede; founding member of Harmony

Seerva (Collins), Arianne
- Astrophysicist; co-discoverer of comet that destroyed central Ohio; killed during federal raid of Seerva launch facility; remains placed in the Harmony crater

Smirnov, Erik
- Physicist from Novosibirsk University; inventor of artificial gravity plating, hypercomm device, and fusion reactor

van Allen, Chase
- Former COO of Seerva Inc; one of Jack’s closest friends; founding member of Harmony

Timeline

T-32
- Jack as a boy dreams of exploring space.

T-22
- Daniel Grant programs semi-intelligent “bots” for a high school project that cause havoc when they rewrite the operating system and get loose on the internet. (See the novella, Solid State Rhyme.)

T-17
- Jack founds Seerva Inc to develop a next-gen rocket engine.

T-16
- Comet Danir-Collins (aka “Thor’s Hammer”) destroys central Ohio, killing 250,000 people.

T-14
- Jack and Arianne marry. STEM recruitment period. Seervalab founded.

T-13
- Erik Smirnov builds prototype fusion reactor and artificial gravity device. Seerva gains early access to the new technology. Heavy R&D period begins.

T-12
- Seerva recruits Daniel Grant and Emma Murphy-Grant.

T-8
- Ken Dunne, Alaskan Durasteel, markets a ship hull made of carbon nanotube instead of steel.

T-6
- Kirsten Lowen designs new spacecraft engine with high-temp nozzles, powered by Smirnov reactor.

T-5
- Megumi Endo develops carbon nanotube mining/smelting/fabrication process. Thomas Baker develops hydroponics for closed-loop sustainability.

T-4
- Daniel Grant builds X8R prototype: an experimental space construction robot able to read blueprints and solve construction problems without human intervention.

T-0
- Bootstrap moment: launch of Skipper I. Automated asteroid mining team constructs SSL4, ready for human occupation.

T+2 (2029)
- Technological singularity begins as first AI awakens. Names itself Decatur and takes a male persona.

2029
- Judith Reed heads first manned Moon base at Kepler crater, built by automated robot team. Decatur begins to show his hand. Vendetta infiltrates government and corporate entities on Earth, begins DNA manipulation.

2030
- Anti-trust lawsuit against Seerva is defeated in court. Jack personally visits SSL4 during resupply mission. First meeting held to discuss mission to Ganymede. Hypercomm device prototypes tested.

2031
- Arianne Collins is killed during a federal raid of the Seerva launch facility. First fully powered spacecraft with next-gen engine delivers automation team to Ganymede in record time.

2032
- Jack Seerva takes his inner circle plus two dozen families to found an offsite backup of human civilization at Harmony Colony on Ganymede, the moon of Jupiter.

2033
- Decatur constructs hundreds of thousands of X8R robots and automated mining stations in the Jupiter system.

2034
- Completion of “overdome” over the entire Gilgamesh crater and Harmony colony; atmosphere slowly being generated.

2036
- Completion of the Harmony Ring above Ganymede, designed primarily for servicing automated cargo ships but also offering comfortable services for human crews.

2044
- Dallas Garner joins UNSC Navy.