The Reality Assertion

by Paul Anlee

  “And how is Brother Tyrell, today?” the Angel asked.

  Darian raised his head and met the Angel’s seemingly innocent countenance.

  “As you must know, my Lord, Brother Tyrell is away on other matters this week. Brother Regis handled our inquiry with grace and experience.”

  The Angel smiled in return, a smile as cold as it was beautiful.

  “Ah, yes,” he replied. “I am happy to hear all was resolved.”

  “By Alum’s Grace, my Lord,” Darian said, and bowed his head again.

  “By Alum’s Grace, in all things,” the Angel said. “Now, I’m sure you have other business to attend to.”

  Darian stood up and extended a helpful hand to Brother Stralasi.

  “Indeed, my Lord. We have classes this week and need to prepare.”

  He nodded to both guardian Angels.

  “By your leave, my Lords,” he said and gently touched the Good Brother’s elbow, cuing him to follow suit and resume their unhurried departure from the Administration tower.

  Stunned, Stralasi gave a low bow and muttered a customary, “By your leave, my Lords.” He allowed his elbow to stay connected to Darian’s gentle touch and be guided away. His knees felt weak.

  Darian linked one arm amicably under Stralasi’s and pretended to point out something with the other.

  “Steady, Brother. We’re safe now,” he reassured him.

  Darian lowered his arm and pointed off to one side.

  In a more confident, cheerful voice, he added, “I’m glad that’s all cleared up. Why don’t we stop for a treat before we return to the residences?”

  He steered an unsteady Stralasi down the nearest side street to the small, outdoor café, eased him into a seat at an empty table at the edge of the ringed-off patio, and ordered for them both.

  “Breathe deeply, Brother,” he said. “Let it go.”

  Stralasi exhaled fully to the count of four, paused for two seconds, and let his lungs refill of their own accord. He counted to two, and emptied his lungs again. He repeated the time-honored re-set exercise a few more times, and looked around.

  The café was quiet. The early morning rush already over, and only a few patrons—students, judging by their youth—remained. They sat several tables away, in the shade of a building that towered twenty stories overhead. Pedestrians strode along the adjacent street on their way to appointments or scheduled tasks. A few monks tended the trees and flowers along the boulevard, and a worker swept tiny bits of stray litter into a dustpan.

  It was a stunningly normal street scene, one that was playing out identically, simultaneously, in countless cities throughout the Realm.

  No intruder alarms sounded in the Alumitum Administration. No vengeful Angels descended on them. No angry God ripped them out of this universe to eternal damnation.

  A young server placed a colorful fruit-covered dessert and a foamy cappuccino on the table in front of Stralasi.

  “Sweetener?” he asked.

  Stralasi stared at the server, blank-faced, barely comprehending the question.

  “Yes, please,” Darian answered on the monk’s behalf. “One packet will be enough.”

  The server dropped a small packet next to Stralasi’s cup, gave the Brothers a smile, and disappeared back inside the café.

  Stralasi stared at the package a moment. His hands remained limp at his side. His breath was ragged, his face was blanched, and his body trembled.

  I may faint—he realized, surprised at the thought. Where’s Darak? Can I withdraw my offer to accompany Darian Leigh and just leave this place?

  A warmth passed through him. It began in the core of his body and radiated outward. Where it passed, the tension melted away and it was replaced by a feeling of peace and comfort. Trembling muscles let go, circulation increased. He took a deep breath and a somewhat more normal color returned to his face. He picked up the packet of sweetener, opened one end, and dumped half the contents into his cup.

  “That’s better,” Darian said. His eyes met Stralasi’s and he smiled reassuringly.

  “You...adjusted me?”

  Darian shrugged. “You were in shock. You needed something. I just tweaked your brain biochemistry a little. You’ll be okay now.”

  “Hah!” the monk laughed, weakly, “I’m not sure I’ll ever be okay again.”

  Darian tilted his head to one side.

  “I’m a little surprised, Brother. I mean, you’ve faced far worse situations than this. You’ve faced new and unfamiliar worlds. You’ve faced Angels—on more than one occasion. You’ve seen Darak kill them by the thousands. What’s so different here?”

  Stralasi stared at him for several seconds before answering.

  “I’m sorry to have caused you concern. You’re right, of course, I have faced terrifying trials and tribulations, and Angels. The only thing I can think of is that here, up close, in the only place conceptually closer to Alum than His Hall, the danger seemed greater.”

  “That, and Darak wasn’t here,” Darian suggested.

  “Maybe. I guess. It’s just that, well, I’ve seen Darak in action and I have some idea of his capabilities. I was starting to feel confident in any situation with him. And, no offense, but I don’t know you.”

  “Should I feel offended?” Darian asked. “I see what you’re saying. I’m inexperienced at being a God. You don’t know my limits. Heck, I don’t even know my own limits.”

  He took a sip and replaced the cup thoughtfully.

  “We were never in danger, today, I assure you. I’m being careful. The Angels were no more trouble than the receptionist. I could have altered their thoughts just as easily, if needed.”

  “Without alerting Alum?”

  “I think so.”

  “You think so?” Stralasi echoed and leaned forward. “That’s not as reassuring as you might believe.”

  “Okay, I’m almost certain Alum wouldn’t have noticed anything. If He did, I’d have been able to shift us out of there. He wouldn’t have been able to hurt us. I’m as confidant of that as I can be of anything.”

  “I guess that’ll have to do. I hope you’re right.”

  Stralasi sat back in his chair.

  “Did you find the QUEECH device?”

  Darian frowned. “I did.”

  “Then, why don’t you look happier?”

  “I don’t see any way to get to it without alerting Alum. There’s only one approach onto the floor. It’s by an unused stairwell but He monitors it directly so I don’t dare try to tamper with it.

  “I might be able to shift in without being detected, but that would require delicate balancing of airflow and heat exchange. I’m not familiar with His detector sensitivity and tolerance levels, so I’m not sure what we’d be able to get away with.”

  “He must allow maintenance workers onto the floor.”

  “Only nanotech and Cybrids. Well, Cybrid drones at any rate; I don’t think they contain Full personas.”

  “Can you access them?”

  Darian considered the idea.

  “Same problem. I could hack them; that’s no problem. A little stray EM transmission in other parts of the building is one thing, but I’m fairly certain Alum would pay more attention to a transmission originating so close to His own CPPU.”

  “What? Alum is up there? In person?”

  “A node of Him, for sure,” Darian replied. “Quite a significant one, too.”

  Stralasi felt faint again.

  “So, we were meters away from the Living God?”

  “We remained outside His interest. We’re safe.”

  “But we could have drawn His attention.”

  Darian nodded. “There’s always that danger, Brother, anywhere in the Realm.”

  Stralasi cupped his coffee in both hands and took a long drink. He held the liquid in his mouth, letting the soothing warmth permeate. He swallowed and felt the warmth spread.

  “I suppose that’s true,” he said, “although it’s not exactly comfor
ting.”

  “Anyway, I couldn’t see any easy way in,” Darian said. “I’ll have to think about it some more.” He swirled his cup and admired the interaction of foam and crema.

  Bam!

  Stralasi’s hand had shot out and smashed something crawling across the heavy mosaic table.

  Darian looked up at the monk, suppressing his natural startle reflex.

  “Did you have to do that?” he asked in a level tone.

  “What? It was just a spider,” Stralasi answered. “They’re everywhere. I know they’re part of the ecosystem but that doesn’t mean we have to share our table with them.”

  “What did you say?” Darian sat rigidly upright, suddenly alert.

  “Uhh…that we don’t have to share our table with them?”

  “You said, spiders are everywhere.”

  “They are,” Stralasi confirmed. “We had a saying that you’re never more than a meter or two from a spider in the Alumitum. We leave them alone and they leave us alone. Nobody pays attention to them. Unless they bite you or crawl across your table, in which case, they’re fair game.”

  “That’s it!” Darian said with obvious excitement. “Spyders!”

  “Spiders, what?” Stralasi asked.

  “Not spiders,” Darian answered. “Spyders. With a ‘y’. Specially altered arachnids, outfitted as spies. If spiders are everywhere, we can use them without being noticed.”

  Stralasi was confused.

  “How can we use spiders? Or even spyders, with a ‘y’. They’re just bugs.”

  Darian beamed. “I developed the technology as a teen. I guess, like so many other things here, it’s been lost. Or maybe banned. Either way, Darak tells me they’re not used anywhere in the Realm. The Esu rediscovered them, and now they use the basic tech everywhere on Eso-La. They’ll know what I’m talking about. They’ll be able to give us what we need.”

  “What do you mean, they use it everywhere on Eso-La?” Stralasi was a little annoyed. “I never noticed bugs being used as spies.”

  “You never noticed that wherever you went on Eso-La, the bugs left you alone? No spider bites, no mosquito bites, and no wild animals stalking you, even though you and Crissea spent so much time out in the forest?”

  Stralasi thought back. “Huh. Not especially. I guess I assumed Eso-La was an unusually civilized ringworld. No biting insects or predatory animals around to threaten the inhabitants.”

  “No, there don’t appear to be any. But think about it, a world without insects or predators would be a dead world,” Darian said, “or a sick one. But the Esu live in nature. Everywhere on Eso-La is natural. The wild is everywhere. Did you really think it was just one large, well-tended artificial park?”

  “No, I guess not.”

  “I guess not,” Darian agreed. “That’s because the Esu developed technology to tame the wild. Every organism bigger than a mite is connected to the world wide lattice network. They’re all part of a centrally-controlled, carefully balanced ecosystem, one that’s designed for human convenience as much as for the ecological stability of their world. On Eso-La, the spiders never bite people.”

  The Good Brother looked so astonished that Darian had to laugh.

  “Don’t believe me? Check with your Familiar part,” he said. “The information on lattice technology and its use in managed ecologies should all be there.”

  Stralasi synchronized his human and Familiar consciousness. Schematics, images, videos, and concepts leaped into his mind. Darian was right. Mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and, yes, insects. All manner of living organisms had had their behavior altered through an integrated micro-lattice.

  The various animals lived almost as if humans didn’t exist in their world. They ignored the Esu except to skirt around them or skitter into hiding when their paths crossed. Otherwise, they went about their lives separately and in peace, occasionally cleaning up some unsightly plant or cropping grass in a certain pattern, and mating only when directed.

  To Stralasi, Eso-La was a kind of Eden, an idyllic world where people lived in synchrony with the rest of nature. He’d never imagined that kind of engineered harmony.

  “Oh,” he said.

  “Definitely, oh,” Darian replied. “Adding QUEECH comms to their lattices will allow me to direct them in infiltrating Alum’s device. If they can carry a few basic components with them, they should be able to construct an on-site splice of the interface. Alum won’t detect a thing and we’ll be inside.”

  “In that case, what are we waiting here for?” Stralasi asked. He pushed his chair back.

  “Relax, Brother,” Darian said. “The instructions have already been sent, along with shipping directions. We can finish our coffees. It’ll take a few days to get what we need.”

  “Days?”

  “Yes, a few days. Patience, my friend. Magic may appear instant, but technology still takes time. The Esu have the required capability, but there’s some complex virus vector synthesis involved. A few delicate electronic parts need to be manufactured and tested, the Spyders need to be hatched, and they have to set up the proper transportation.”

  Stralasi paused. “Can’t they just shift everything to us?”

  Darian shook his head. “No. Same problem we had getting here. A shipment has to take advantage of official routes. Starstep shifts to the Alumitum become much less frequent once classes start. It’ll probably be Friday before the next scheduled jump from Darbiness.”

  “Friday?” The realization struck Stralasi like a crashing wave, “But we have our first seminar scheduled for Thursday morning!”

  “Well, in that case, it looks like your dream has come true,” Darian laughed. “You, my friend, are going to teach at the Alumitum!”

  A tiny bead of sweat broke out on the Good Brother’s forehead.

  36

  Darak caught up to Darya near S0-2, the large bright star that circled the massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. He watched her work for a few seconds, shifting battle-Cybrids out of the central muster zone. Over the brief time he observed, several thousand attack-groups were randomly selected, deployed, collected, and redeployed.

  “You’re getting good at this,” he said.

  “Thanks,” Darya replied. “I’m in secondary deployment right now.”

  She stopped shifting in and out of the region for half a second while they exchanged entangled particles. She used them to open a QUEECH comm channel so she could resume her work and continue talking.

  “We’ve got a little over a million attack teams to disperse within a few dozen light years of Sagittarius A*,” she said. “I’m trying to get my time down to a few minutes for a complete dispersal.”

  “S0-2 has been a great staging and training center for that. I’ve been able to shift entire attack groups in one jump. As soon as they hit their respective battlegrounds, the armies deploy outward, enact the first formation in the pseudorandom sequence, and shoot at the Angel-like drones I set out for them. While one group targets the drones, another maneuvers into position and blasts the simulated array elements. They’re doing really well. Most of the practice battles are over within half an hour.”

  “That’s pretty good,” Darak admitted. “Anything I can help with?”

  ”I think we have it mostly under control,” she replied. “But I have to say, it has been a little unnerving, carrying out Deplosion Array attack drills right here in the Living God’s backyard,” she said.

  “Yeah, no doubt,” Darak commiserated, “but no need to worry. The nearest array element is light years away, and a lot of space lies between here and the nearest detectors. You’re as undetectable as if you were still in ESO 461-36. Your blasts won’t be visible to any of the detectors for years.”

  “Logically, I know that. And yet…”

  “Yeah, I can almost feel His eyes on us, too.” Darak stared out toward the Origin system and Alum’s Hall. “Anyway, there’s been no Deplosion Array activity and nobody in this locale for ages. They mined
this whole system of everything useful long ago and haven’t been back.”

  “I guess practicing so close to the intended battlefield has allowed us to get more familiar with this region,” Darya admitted. “Hopefully, the payoff will be worth the risk of detection and the risk from S0-2 going nova,” she said.

  S0-2 happened to be nearing periapsis, its closest approach to SagA* in its eccentric sixteen-year orbit, making this a precarious time to be working near the star. This year was particularly dangerous in that the closest star to the black hole, S0-102, was coincidentally in its own periapsis, as well.

  The two stars had been interacting with each other gravitationally for billions of years. Every time they simultaneously approached closest to SagA*, they ripped great torrents of energetic ejecta from one another, and filled the local sky with dramatic fireworks. Most of the cooling plasma, instead of shrouding or settling on the stars, would eventually be gobbled up by the massive black hole a few light hours away. This activity created an extremely unpleasant neighborhood for several Standard months.

  It also suited the rebellion’s purposes perfectly.

  Had any of Alum’s crews still been working in the area, they would have evacuated the neighborhood near both stars by now. But once Alum ramped up construction on the Deplosion Array, nobody bothered to monitor the two roaming stars anymore.

  “How’s it going? Will you be able to get out of here soon, before things get too dicey?”

  “I think we’ll be ready to attack the Deplosion Array soon, for sure, long before the stars make it too risky to be near. Just to be safe, we’ve been monitoring them closely and keeping our visits to the region brief, no more than a few hours at a time. How about you?”

  ”I’ve been building a model of the region near SagA* and its two closest companion stars, and overlaying the positions of the simulated array elements. Everything looks good so far.”

  Darak monitored the distribution until Darya was able to break away, after which they jumped to a few of the simulated battlefields and watched the different approaches play out. They ran in-depth analyses of the various scenarios and Darak offered his suggestions.