by Paul Anlee
Stralasi slumped. He understood at some level, but would need to review the entire argument at his own pace some time later.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this—me, an Alumita monk—but could we just go back to discussing war strategies? No disrespect, Darian. It’s riveting, it really is, but I feel like I need some time to process it.”
“And I’m not sure how this is relevant to fighting Alum,” Mary added.
Darya had to agree. “Me, either. We can only fight Alum wherever we are. Quantum property propagation may see the universe as miniscule, but I can’t.”
Darian raised a triumphant index finger. “Aha! But I did say it’s all relative. That would include the size of Alum’s distributed mind, as well as His location. I may have a way we can shrink His relative size back to a manageable level and attack Alum everywhere at once,” he said.
“How?” Darak asked.
“As my quark-spin lattice invaded the remaining biological parts of Trillian’s brain, they uncovered some interesting memories.”
Darian played nervously with his fingers; his discomfort at being reminded he was a guest in another’s body was evident.
“I think Trillian altered his DNA so these memories would remain intact in future clones. The DNA more or less hardwired neural connection development to maintain the integrity of the memories.”
Darak leaned in.
“Is there anything there that threatens your personal self? Anything you need me to look at?”
“How would I know?” Darian replied. “If I am compromised, I can only presume that would make me blind as to how.”
Darak gave him time to reflect.
“But I don’t think so,” Darian said. “The memories are distant; they’re dim and don’t involve Trillian directly. They’re more about Alum. Let me show you.”
He moved to a spot between the two benches and waved his hands over the ground. A schematic of an electronic circuit unfolded in the air above the ground.
“What’s that?” Crissea asked.
“A QUEECH encrypt-decrypt device,” Darak answered. “It looks like an old design.”
“Yes, it’s the original,” Darian added. “John Trillian designed it, but I have access to his memories of that time.”
The others stared at him expectantly.
“In later years, Alum improved the basic design many times, improving the speed and enhancing security. His newer installations were retrofitted back to the older parts of His distributed CPPUs.”
Darian walked around the holographic projection.
“Later, Alum would use slaved Cybrids that He controlled directly to do the upgrades, but in the earliest days He asked His most trusted advisor, the original inventor, to oversee the new installations. And that was John Trillian. I have some of Trillian’s memories of the time.”
“How does that help us now?” Darya asked impatiently. “If the components are all upgraded, they must incorporate Alum’s newest centralized, sub-AI supervised virus protection.”
Darian stopped fidgeting and answered, “Trillian cheated.”
Darak laughed. “Of course he did. Never trust a hacker!”
Darian looked up and grinned sheepishly.
“Hackers like to leave back doors, wherever they can. It’s a precautionary measure. They never know when, where, or how it might be needed.”
He held up his hands, palms out, in a sign of surrender. “Or so I understand, never having been drawn to that aspect of things, myself.
“Anyway, Alum’s new designs removed potential back door hacks. He studied every electronics engineering book ever written and vastly improved on Trillian’s original design.”
“So Trillian faked the replacement of one of the earliest encrypt-decrypt devices. He made an improved model that still had some of the old vulnerabilities.”
Darian’s smile broadened in appreciation of the Shard’s—the original Shard’s—shrewdness.
“Alum noticed the performance discrepancies—of course, He would—but Trillian managed to explain them away. You know, old secondary circuits, unstable power supplies, that sort of thing. I don’t think Alum ever suspected any devious intent. He thought their relationship had long surpassed that stage. He was wrong.”
“So there’s still one or more vulnerable QUEECH interfaces out there. How does that help us?” Darya asked.
Darian leaned forward. “For starters, the back door appears to be completely unprotected; we could introduce any kind of concepta disruption virus we wish into Alum’s distributed CPPU network. Maybe even a worm to eat His persona.”
His gaze sought each of the others’ eyes in turn, ending at Darak.
He was met with stunned silence all around.
“We can hack God,” he said, confirming their thoughts.
“Now? You’re just casually mentioning this critical bit of information now? Seems like a pretty fatal weakness, doesn’t it? Anyone want to tell me why we’re still lounging around here just talking about it?” Mary asked.
“In Darian’s defense,” Darak answered, “we’ve been a little busy sweeping Eso-La.”
“Where can we find this back door, Darian?” asked Darya.
“On Vesta,” Darian replied.
“Oh,” Darak said, as if that finished the discussion.
“What?” asked Stralasi. “Where’s Vesta?”
“You know it by a different name,” Darak answered. “The Alumitum.”
“Oh, I see,” Stralasi said. “That is difficult.”
Timothy couldn’t stand their exchange of knowing looks. “What is the Alumitum?” he demanded. “Isn’t that the word for the churches where Alum is worshipped? Why can’t we shift to one of them and finish this?”
“The Alumitum,” Darak explained, emphasizing the “um” of the last syllable, “is special. It’s the educational center of the Alumita. It’s filled with monks like Brother Stralasi. It’s also the spiritual center for Shards and Angels.”
Stralasi sighed. “Besides Alum’s Hall, I can’t imagine a more difficult place to infiltrate.”
Darak rolled up his sleeves.
“Clearly, we’ll need a plan.”
31
“A plan would be helpful, yes,” Darian agreed, continuing the inworld discussion on the spacecraft Darak had positioned light years from Eso-La. He picked a virtual flower from a nearby trellis. Darya, Mary, and Timothy hadn’t stirred from their curved stone benches set among the Grecian columns. Brother Stralasi intertwined his fingers with Crissea’s.
“That back door into Alum’s mind could be the key to bringing Him down. If we can penetrate His QUEECH comm network, we can get a virus in there and shut down or modify every node of His distributed being. That’s where we need to focus,” Darak urged. “If this works, we could end the battle without any further loss of life.”
“Not so fast!” Darya objected. “It’s way too risky. We need to keep hitting the Deplosion Array. Now that all three of us have enhanced capabilities, Alum’s Archangels won’t be a problem.”
“Wait,” Stralasi said. “What about Darak’s earlier idea, confronting Alum with judges from around the Realm? We can’t just drop that. We’ve done so much preparation. Besides, shouldn’t the people have a voice in this decision?”
Darak raised an eyebrow at the Good Brother.
“When did you convert to democracy?” Darak asked.
“What do you mean?”
“After holding a paternalistic leadership post for hundreds of years deep within the autocracy that held Alum at the pinnacle, you suddenly see the wisdom in more than one opinion?”
Stralasi shrugged off Darak’s jibe. “Well, you’re a God, and yet you ask others to contribute ideas. Maybe some of that rubbed off on me.” He shook his head. “When you mentioned democracy in our meeting with the Gods, I didn’t recognize it immediately. It’s been a long time since I studied ancient history. I have to admit, I like this idea of building consensus through discuss
ion, the way we’ve been doing here.”
He held up a hand to ward off the man-God’s anticipated retort, “Yes, yes, even though my entire life has been centered on the assumed wisdom of Alum, the Alumit, and the Head Brother as local representative.
“I’m sure you can appreciate that the pressures of responsibility can be overwhelming from time to time. I admit I’ve made some mistakes while I was in charge. I’ve suppressed discussion in the communities I’ve administered. We were taught this was a necessary part of being a leader. I can see, now, how untrue that was. It would be a relief, sometimes, to be able to talk over various options and share in the responsibility.”
He looked at Darak. “You lead well enough without forcing agreement or compliance. Perhaps, you are my new model.” He bowed his head, a little embarrassed by his own outpouring.
“Thank you, Brother. I can only hope to live up to your kind assessment.” Darak replied.
“So what will it be, then?” Darya asked into the silence that followed. “Hack, attack, or talk? What should we prepare for?”
“I think we need to do all three,” Darak answered. “All three at once. Alum is distributed across galaxies. No single approach is likely to defeat Him.”
He nodded his head toward Darian and Darya. “We can emulate Alum’s distributed nature. We’ll need to split up and each take on one of the three approaches.”
“Hack, attack, and talk, it is,” Darya confirmed. “You do the talking,” she said to Darak. “I can lead the attack on the Deplosion Array with Mary and Timothy’s help. And Darian can hack into Alum’s comms. Does that work for everyone?”
“I’ll go with Darian,” Stralasi said.
“You will? You do continue to surprise me, monk,” Darya said. “I thought for sure you’d stick with Darak. As a former member of the Alumit, aren’t you itching to confront Alum directly? You must have a lot you’d like to say to Him.”
“Actually, I’d like to do both,” Stralasi admitted, “but, unlike Alum, I’m only one person. Darian will be trying to infiltrate a world he’s never experienced. He’ll need one of the Alumit’s own with him, someone who knows them intimately. I spent decades in school there, between my basic degree and my Master of Foundation. I know them well.”
“Your experience there would be helpful,” Darian acknowledged.
Darak lowered his voice and addressed Stralasi. “You know, Darian’s only going to need your assistance up to a point. Once you two reach the comm devices, you’ll have nothing to do but wait around. I could shift you to join me and the citizen judges once you’re done with Darian, if you’d like.”
Stralasi fidgeted with the folds of his robe. “I don’t imagine your citizen-judges are going to have a physical presence there, are they? Why would mine be needed? I could just observe, like all the others,” he suggested.
Darya laughed. “Democracy isn’t always easy, is it?” she said. “Sometimes, it’s a nice chat in a beautiful garden like this.” She waved her hands at the surrounding flowers and trees. “Sometimes, it’s confronting a threat or an adversary, where decisions are unpleasant, agreement is impossible, and words can quickly turn to violence.”
Stralasi’s sheepish look made her laugh again.
“Cheer up, Brother Stralasi,” she said. “Recognizing the danger and admitting to fear is the first step to victory. Only those destined to defeat ever rush into battle with complete confidence.”
“We’d be utter fools if we didn’t recognize how unlikely it is that we’ll succeed,” Darak agreed. “I mean, the best strategy we could come up with was to carry out three different plans—none of which is likely to succeed on its own—and cross our fingers that the combination will magically overwhelm Alum.”
He kicked at the ground. “Let’s face it. Victory in any one of our efforts would be a miracle, never mind in all three.”
“Ughh, a pity party,” Mary growled. “Well, at least you might survive. I assume the three of you, as Gods, will be able to avoid disruption from the Deplosion Array. The rest of us mere mortals don’t have that option as a fallback plan.”
Darak bristled on hearing the resentment in her voice.
“Personally,” he replied, “I have no confidence at all that I might survive the collapse of the cosmos. The deplosion is going to kill everyone and everything, Gods, humans, and Cybrids alike.”
Mary averted her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I assumed you’d have access to alternative universes.”
“No, we won’t,” Darak replied. “Not as safe havens, in any case. The Deplosion Array will make a single thing out of everything. The real universe, the one we know, every other possible universe, and even the base virtual particles that comprise all the rest—including the Chaos—it’ll all go into forming Alum’s Heaven. Nothing will escape. Nothing at all. That’s the whole point.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Darak nodded. “We three will be nearly as helpless as everyone else in the deplosion field. If it comes to that, I’ll fight to maintain my personal integrity. I’ll fight hard. I’ll flee into the Chaos. I’ll make a microverse. I’ll look for any stability I can. But I have no expectations of surviving that battle at all if we don’t win this one.”
“I didn’t realize,” Mary said softly.
“Don’t worry about it,” Darya consoled her friend of ages. “I would have thought the same. I don’t completely understand how Alum intends to take everything back to a single, primordial state. I’m not sure even Darak understands.”
Darya allowed her gaze to settle on the man her Kathy Liang counterpart had once loved.
“Alum’s had a long time to plan the deplosion,” she continued, breaking the awkward silence. “He’s had time to calculate the complex fields needed to undo all of the existing and the alternate physical laws. I imagine we’d have to work about as long to figure out how to protect any universe, or any part of any universe, from that field. That’s why we need to stop His Divine Plan.”
“Maybe we can help. Timothy and I have been analyzing battle tactics and capabilities,” Mary said, switching the topic to something less uncomfortable. “Taking Alum’s new type of Archangel into account, we think we can improve our effectiveness.”
“What did you come up with?” Darya asked.
Mary stood and moved to the center of terraced area, beside Darian’s QUEECH hologram that still hovered in the clearing between the benches. She lifted her hand and cleared away the projection. In its place, she pulled up an image of an asteroid Deplosion Array element against the starry background at the middle of the Milky Way.
“Space battle tactics when attacking or defending a single station haven’t changed much in millions of years,” she began. “That’s because space doesn’t provide a lot of opportunity for strategy and tactics. Without landmarks, without the limitations of geography and climate to contend with, it’s our own maneuvers that define the battlefield.”
She waved a hand and tens of thousands of tiny colored dots appeared at opposite edges of the display.
“There’s only one stationary component in a scenario like this: the asteroid. Standard strategy sets a minimum one-thousand-klick shift-blocking field around that target and employs active radar to detect anything trying to approach using propulsion in real space.
“Our earliest attacks with the Cybrid suicide missions succeeded because Alum had grown complacent. He saw no threats anywhere near Sagittarius A* so He didn’t think extra security on the Deplosion Array was necessary. He figured His Angels would be protection enough. He didn’t foresee an internal attack. We destroyed about a million Deplosion Array elements, some five percent of the total array, before He could react.
“Since then, He’s rebuilt everything we destroyed and more. Our latest reconnaissance, right before our last attack, showed the array has almost doubled in size. Darak calculates that Alum will be ready to activate it once this latest round of construction is completed. That’ll be in abou
t one Standard month.
“Our last attack also demonstrated that the Deplosion Array defenses have been upgraded to the Realm standard for all stations near the frontier or close to potentially hostile territory. We’ll be unable to shift within ten thousand kilometers of any array element. Trying to sneak in at anything less than near-luminal speeds isn’t going to work, either.”
“She’s right,” Darya confirmed. “Especially given that our newer model battle-Cybrids don’t have large MAM drives. They’d need to use external sleds or large booster rockets to move at any great speed. Either way, the exhausts would light up the sky, which would be trivial to detect and Angels would be sent to intercept.”
“Exactly,” Mary continued. “So, following Timothy’s study of battle history, Darya asked us to model alternative strategies and tactics. We started fairly conservatively, with minor improvements on well-known approaches. We simulated over three hundred historical battles, giving Alum’s adversaries—the Aelu in ninety-nine percent of those cases—different combinations of shifting strategies, jump-blocking field projections, energy beams, defensive capabilities, kinetic weapons, antimatter mines, and so on. In total, we modeled over fifteen thousand modifications to the most modern tactics we have on record.”
Mary looked directly at Darya. “Nothing changed the outcomes, not significantly. There were minor differences in the numbers of casualties on each side, and many of the battles became more protracted but the results were basically the same as previous ones. Where one side or the other had a clear numerical advantage, they still emerged victorious. Whenever they were fairly evenly matched, either Alum or the Aelu withdrew.”
Her eyes shifted to Timothy. “Then, we got creative.”
Timothy laughed. “We got very creative,” he emphasized. “We challenged every piece of established doctrine, bent parameters all over the place, invented weapons that don’t yet exist, created new defense systems, whatever we could think of.”
Mary animated the display. The tiny points of light, each representing a battle-Cybrid or an Angel, flew at each other in jumps of ten klicks at a time. They looked like fast-moving rockets as they joined battle, only their flight paths were more erratic than any propulsion system could ever match.
