The Reality Incursion (Deplosion Book 2)

by Paul Anlee

  He turned to the Brother seated beside Crissea, “This includes you as well, my friend,” he said.

  “Alum has made a decision that affects the entire universe. He has made this decision without consultation because He believes it to be the correct one. Alum is ancient and wise. His Realm has brought peace, prosperity, and happiness to humanity, Cybrid, and Angels, alike.

  “But that has come at a price, as the Aelu well know. That price has been extreme stability in the Realm, a rejection of other possibilities and other civilizations that may have developed in different ways besides the Standard Way.

  “Alum has decided to alter the universe so that only His Standard, and His alone, will rule. His vision is beautiful; it is the perfection we all claim to seek. It is also the end of change, of uncertainty, of challenge.

  “I want to give those who will be affected by His choice a say in the future. I will travel a significant part of the Realm and, where I go, people and Cybrids will be given the ability to come together so that their voices may be heard.

  “I will converse with Alum directly and debate the merits of His Divine Plan. The worlds I visit will receive the opportunity to listen to that debate and to vote. I will invite them to enhance their intelligence through a lattice mechanism so they can fully understand the issues. Their vote will determine whether Alum’s Dream is permitted.

  “If the majority votes ‘yes’ for Alum’s Divine Plan, I will depart this universe for the Chaos. If the majority votes ‘no’ I will push for Alum to depart.”

  He turned to Stralasi. “Brother, as Head of the Alumit on Gargus 718.5, I have given you the ability to represent your world. Your lattice has already been suitably enhanced. You only need to accept the burden of judgment, and I will load your memory with the requisite knowledge and evidence. All you need to do—each and every one of you—is to take back the right to determine your future.”

  26

  “You two look like hell.”

  Greg peered up from his second bite of pain au chocolat to see the grinning face of Reverend LaMontagne. “Thanks. I feel even worse,” he replied. It was the morning of the second day of the international G26 meeting.

  “We’ve been up all night working on the economic and political plan,” Kathy explained.

  “Mm.” The Reverend nodded in sympathy. “Convincing the world’s leaders your Vesta Project is feasible in the human sense, as well as in a technological sense, is not going to be easy.”

  To anyone watching them last night, Greg and Kathy would have appeared to have been sleeping peacefully. The reality was quite the opposite. While their biological systems rested, their lattice brains worked feverishly.

  “That’s why we spent the night accessing the internet for books on political, psychological, economic, and sociological theory,” Greg replied. “We were trying to find some basis on which to build a good predictive model.”

  “Yeah, but the social sciences aren’t like the physical sciences,” said Kathy. “They’re not even like engineering. There are too many poorly understood variables and complex relationships, even for us.”

  “Well, I don’t pretend to understand these things.” LaMontagne smiled and held his empty hands open before them. “After all, I’m just a simple man of God.”

  Greg pinged her—Don’t be too friendly. Let’s not forget his unexplained lattice. Much as we could use support inside the meeting, I don’t think we should mention our other problem.

  Darian’s memories—Kathy replied and her lips tightened. Last night wouldn’t have been so exhausting if it weren’t for those little conceptual bits of our mentor lying in wait all over the internet.

  His interests in the humanities preceded their own. Wherever they searched, they activated associations and segments of his conceptual network that rushed at them in an attempt to rebuild or reintegrate his shattered personality within their lattices. Everything they referenced needed to be scoured for residues of Darian and filtered to protect their own personas from being overwhelmed.

  Their mentor had built an enormous number of cross-references in the world’s greatest social sciences libraries. Flashes of topics related to the Great Schism, the revolution that resulted in the modern configuration of nations in North America and Europe, kept leaping to the forefront.

  The references were enormously distracting. They threatened to pull Greg and Kathy down unintended side avenues of thought, where they’d get lost for many minutes at a time.

  After a few such episodes, they set internal timers to check in on each other every ten minutes. Despite their precautions, around two in the morning both of them had simultaneously been drawn into a lengthy diversion on the roles of religious beliefs in creating new nations. It took them a precious hour to fight their way back onto the essential topics of the night.

  All in all, something that should have required no more than an hour took them nine. At last, they arrived at a proposal they were confident could work. Equally important, they felt the proposal was defensible and had huge lists of references to back up their arguments.

  By the time their alarm woke them the next morning, they were exhausted and starving. The energy required to fuel their lattice calculations throughout the long night had taken its toll on their bodies. They showered, dressed, and went down to eat before the meeting. Only an hour after breakfast, they were already hungry again.

  LaMontagne noted Kathy’s grimace and misinterpreted the source. “Ah, yes, that. You are no doubt wondering why I am also in possession of the same kind of dendy lattice that is responsible for your greatly enhanced intelligence.”

  “And why you didn’t offer to help us,” Kathy added.

  The Reverend chuckled. “Well, I thought you would appreciate working on this project on your own. In any case, I did lend some small assistance yesterday, no?”

  Both scientists were chastised. Greg said, “Yes. Thank you for your intervention yesterday, Reverend. It wasn’t an approach we would have employed, but it helped.”

  “You’re welcome. If you align with Dr. Leigh’s thinking, I don’t imagine you have much room for the Creator in your philosophies. I was happy to help as much as I could in this regard. Unlike many here, I think I can say that I do understand much of the science, and I agree that humanity requires an escape plan.”

  “Yes, about that,” said Kathy.

  “You’re curious as to how I came to be in possession of the advanced lattice virus.”

  “That, and why you would incorporate it. It doesn’t seem consistent with your belief system.”

  “As to how, well, I met your colleague Dr. Rusalov at the conference when Dr. Leigh was so tragically wounded.”

  “We remember your line of questioning.”

  “Yes, I’m sure you do, and probably not with any great affection.”

  Greg and Kathy held their tongues, though they exchanged a glance.

  LaMontagne laughed aloud, causing a few startled faces in the crowded foyer outside the conference room to look their way.

  The Reverend continued, “Dr. Rusalov was troubled by what I had to say and by Dr. Leigh’s cavalier responses. Some days later, an envelope appeared at my office in Austin.” LaMontagne’s face showed no signs that he was lying. “It contained a rather small capsule and a letter.”

  “Wait,” Greg interrupted. “Have you given the letter to the police? Are you saying you know where Larry is?”

  “I have spoken to the police but, sadly, no,” replied the Reverend. “I never heard from him again. The letter he sent me explained that the pill contained a dendy virus designed by Darian Leigh to build a lattice like his own, like your own. It described how such a lattice would give the recipient’s brain direct access to the entire internet, perfect memory, and enhanced intelligence.

  “Dr. Rusalov thought that such cheating, I believe he called it, was contrary to the wishes of our Lord. As a man of God, he pleaded with me to pray to our Heavenly Father and seek His guidance.”


  His voice grew more serious. “At first, my only thought was to destroy the damned thing, but I didn’t want to presume to know God’s Will. I spent many days praying on this, seeking His Divine Guidance on the matter.

  “The Church of Yeshua’s True Guard is not so blind to science and technology as many of our Evangelical relatives. After all, did not the Lord tell us to have dominion over the Earth? Don’t get me wrong, we do believe the Bible is God’s Living Word. The Scripture is perfect in every way; it is our interpretation of God’s Word that is at fault.

  “So I prayed for new understanding in the light of this thing before me. Why would God lead man, or allow him to be led, to develop such a capability? Could this be Satan’s work, the ultimate enhancement to make ourselves more like God?

  “Genesis tells us, ‘So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him.’ How, then, could anything that altered that image be other than a sin against the Lord?

  “Then I found my answer, right there in 1 Corinthians 3:16, where it asks, ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’

  “I realized I’d been looking at it all wrong. Our Original Sin, when Satan tricked Eve into eating of the fruit, separated us from God. We were made in the image of God and the Spirit of God dwells within us. We no longer hear that Spirit because Satan has tricked us into ignoring that which we carry inside.

  “This came as a Divine revelation. I swear I heard the Lord himself say to me, ‘My son, take this gift I have brought to you, and let My light be revealed within you.’

  “As you can imagine, I was terrified to hear His almighty voice and fearful of what effects an IQ-enhancing lattice might have on my soul. But my Faith demanded that I obey, so I took the pill and washed it down my throat.

  “You understand the process one’s brain goes through as the lattice grows within you better than anyone, aside from the missing Dr. Leigh, of course. Those first few months were incredible. New talents and capabilities awoke within me every day. Clearly, the Lord saw fit to wrest this gift out of the hands of Humanist scientists and into the hands of one of His own.” He almost spat “Humanist scientists.” “My Faith and the Church is so much stronger for His gift. I am humbled before Him.”

  “How much of the science do you understand?” asked Greg.

  “I’m sure my lack of background hampers me somewhat. I’ve made every effort to catch up as best I can. I’ve read Dr. Leigh’s papers and the required background math and physics, and I can understand their basic correctness. I don’t claim to follow all of the nuances. Without a functioning RAF generator like the one you demonstrated yesterday, there are a number of unanswered questions. Still, I think I get it well enough for the purposes of this discussion.” He waved his hands, indicating the waiting conference room.

  “I am drawn more to the practical human applications, as you may have surmised from my calling. It is in this area, I believe I can be of most help to your Project Vesta.

  “I was serious in saying that our Lord Yeshua has a plan for humanity and it does not end with the destruction of our planet. Sometimes we humans become too comfortable, too complacent in our sinful lives, and Yeshua needs to shake us up a bit. Cull the herd, so to speak.

  “Our Lord has cleansed His people before. Clearly, He sees we are in need of another cleansing. This time, we will not be permitted to remain near the Paradise He gave us on Earth. We are to move onward, to seek His Word in outer space, and to move closer to Him in His Heaven.”

  Wow. How is it possible to have this level of intelligence and still believe that kind of gibberish?—Kathy sent in a quick spurt to Greg.

  Apparently, strong enough Faith is not easily altered by evidence or reason—Greg replied. Knowing all the data and understanding the science isn’t enough. As scientists, we follow what nature is telling us, no matter if we like it or not. Faith requires you to rationalize why the evidence must be wrong when it contradicts what you already believe. In the True Believer, having a higher intelligence simply facilitates that rationalization.

  “Reverend,” Greg said aloud, “even though we might not agree with your interpretation of events, we agree that doing nothing means the end of humanity. We will be grateful for any help you can provide.”

  A bell chimed, calling the leaders and advisors back into the conference room. “I believe, that’s your cue,” said the Reverend.

  Greg straightened up and took a deep breath.

  “Ready as we’ll ever be,” Kathy said, and braced herself for what was sure to be a challenging meeting.

  Greg shook the Reverend’s hand. “Pray for us to succeed,” he requested, as much to his own surprise as Kathy’s.

  The Reverend smiled benignly. “I will. I think Yeshua is smiling upon you today. His light will guarantee your success. Our success. Shall we?” He extended his hand in invitation for them to lead the way inside.

  27

  PM Hudson called the next session of the G26 meeting to order and turned the floor over to Greg and Kathy.

  “Thank you, Prime Minister Hudson,” Kathy acknowledged with a gracious nod.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, if everyone could please turn to the proposal before you, I’ll begin walking you through.

  “As you can see, we have developed a relatively accurate predictive model of the economic and sociopolitical ramifications of the Vesta Project, given the short timeline and the rather poor state of relevant socioeconomic theory.” This elicited a few chuckles around the room.

  “You will, no doubt, wish to submit the details of this proposal to your own experts for analysis. Let me boil it down to what’s important to you. I’m sure you’re all wondering, ‘How can we possibly maintain twenty years of extreme effort in the face of our opposition parties and uncontrollable political opinion? How do we get re-elected?’ Perhaps your economic advisors in attendance today are asking themselves, as President Chu did yesterday, ‘How can the global economy manage such an effort?’

  “Let us address the latter, first. We all know that modern money, whether fiat money or credit money, has no real value beyond the opinion that people hold about it. If a currency loses the confidence of people who use it, it loses value. So, while there really is no physical barrier to simply creating more money, there is a psychological one.

  “You will recall that, in 2008, central banks rushed to save the global financial system and they did so again less than a decade later. They implemented concerted quantitative easing by flooding the banks with new currency. Essentially, they saved the value of all of their currencies by all devaluing at the same time.

  “Speculators who bet against any single currency or against any single economy learned a harsh lesson. When it comes to preserving the value of fiat money, no one is big enough to take on all the central banks. The central banks are the only ones with a license to print, and they can print as much as they deem necessary.

  “With that in mind, the first part of our proposal is to coordinate our actions so as not to give a new trade advantage to any one country over others. This may mean central bankers lose some of their autonomy and are brought under the umbrella of political will.

  “As for getting re-elected, that is a non-issue. The Vesta Project will outlive almost all of your political careers. In all honesty, we are not as concerned about your personal futures as we are about the continued support of your nations to the Project, and about surviving this crisis. There is no personal, familial, or political party advantage that will survive the destruction of the planet. As of today, they are all irrelevant. Survival of humanity is our only priority.”

  She and Greg had worried about being so straightforward but agreed that boldness would play better than humility at this point. Looking around the table, she felt they had judged correctly. The politicians bristled at her dismissal of their personal interests, but quickly realized the larger truth of her vision and settled back, listening attentively.
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br />   “The only way to ensure continued support through a long period that will likely see many political changes is to make sure everyone benefits.

  “We will work extensively, in an internationally coordinated manner, to manage public opinion in favor of the Project. As far as possible, the proposal before you distributes the economic and employment benefits across countries according to your relative populations.

  “Unlike past programs, no one will receive disproportionate advantages. As far as possible, rich nations will not benefit more than poor ones.” A number of the representatives looked at the North American and European leaders who, for the most part, kept their gazes stoically fixed on Kathy or on the table in front of them.

  “Part of managing public opinion will be emphasizing the economic growth benefits of this project. The asteroid belt, the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, and the Kuiper belt at the edge of the solar system are rich in resources, metals, minerals, water, oil, and other organic compounds. In a world where resources are increasingly more difficult to find and more expensive to extract, the easy mining of resources in space will pay back the investment we make in developing the required technologies.

  “We will increase the economic benefit of the Project by making those same technologies available on Earth immediately. This will lead to the development of practically limitless, clean, cheap energy, and many other spinoff benefits. Were it not for the fact that the Earth is about to be destroyed, these technologies alone would usher in a new Golden Age. We’ll sell it as that.

  “Finally, we’ll sell the new frontier. For the first time in history, humanity as a whole will have the opportunity to expand into space. In addition to new resources, it will open up new territory. We’ll have room to grow again.

  “Throughout history, a major key to economic development has been the ability to open new frontiers or rebuild zones that were destroyed in wars and disasters. Construction leads to demand, which leads to employment, income and consumption.”