by Unknown
“Depending on the enchantment,” explained Matthew. “Many of them last forever, and they can be used by people who don’t know what they
mean. But to create a new enchantment, the mage must understand the runes they’re using, or create new ones that they do understand.”
“Did you create any of these?” asked the machine.
“Actualy, yes ,” said Matt. “Translation magic has never been done by humans before. The Ileniel She’Har used it, but they had a completely different system caled spelweaving, so I had to create some of those runes from scratch to handle the new concepts.”
“So you create the rune, you imbue it with meaning in your mind, and somehow the universe learns your intention. You realize how crazy that sounds?” observed Gary. “It’s as though reality is already programmable, much like the programmable matter that the ANSIS project is striving to create. But that’s not the strangest part—the strange part is that there’s no sign of whoever set it al up originaly.”
“Enchanting?” asked Matthew.
“No!” declared Gary. “This entire reality, and not just this one. From what you described before, there’s an entire multiverse, with some parts of it having aythar and other parts not having it. Somehow your aythar expands and spreads, like a living thing, but it hasn’t reached everywhere.
My world was stil ‘dark,’ as you described it, along with many others.”
“Wel, if aythar is a result of a change in the organization of the quantum foam, it’s just a natural shift…,” began Matthew.
Gary shook his head. “No, not if we’re talking about infinities. You say there’s no time in the place between realities, but the important thing is this: if this is a one-way process, then everything should already possess the same aythar. The fact that there are stil ‘dark’ universes means that it isn’t a one-way process. In fact, it may mean that there’s an active opposition.”
“An enemy, you mean?”
“You said you felt a presence when you shift between worlds, like you became part of a greater mind, right?” asked Gary.
“Definitely,” agreed Matthew.
“And it wanted you to spread the ‘light,’ your aythar, to these dark worlds.”
He nodded. “Mm hmm.”
“Then in some fashion, you, or perhaps al mages, are agents of this greater inteligence,” concluded the machine. “And the obverse is probably also true. Whatever it is that has kept your ‘type’ of reality from becoming the norm everywhere, that force must also have agents. It must be simultaneously changing some worlds back to its preferred type.”
Matt gave him a cynical look. “You’re starting to sound rather mystical.”
Gary nodded. “I am, aren’t I? It’s kind of ironic, realy. Here I am, in a land of magic and mystery, and it’s me, the machine, that’s positing the existence of gods and devils to explain what he observes. You’re the one who should be religious.”
The young wizard laughed. “A lot of people are, but when you grow up with a father who is known as the ‘god-slayer,’ religion starts to seem a little sily. My Dad told me it was quite a shock for him when he finaly decided that the gods he grew up with were not realy gods at al. From my perspective, I tend to view these new agencies you’re dreaming up with the same sort of skepticism. I’m not saying they don’t exist, but whatever they are, they aren’t gods, just more powerful players. It’s a matter of scale, just like this war between the nano -scale machines of your world and the planck -scale magic of mine. Even if these super-inteligent agents of yours exist, there’s probably something even larger beyond them, moving them on its game board.
“Enough of that, though,” said Matthew, hoping to redirect the conversation. “You said you had some thoughts about my design.”
“It’s a matter of scale,” said Gary. “These runes you have here…” He pointed at the schematic. “Those numbers spel out the dimensions of this pocket dimension you create, right?”
“Mm hmm,” agreed Matthew.
“Then, if you change them, you can alter the size of that pocket dimension,” continued the AGI.
“Naturaly.”
“Then it’s lucky you chose the size you did, or you might have destroyed the castle, Washbrook , and perhaps even a sizable part of the
surrounding countryside,” finished Gary.
That got his attention. Matt leaned forward. “How?”
“You learned about nuclear weapons on my world and how they were used against the She’Har. Being ignorant of physics, you might not have
realized it, but if you make the size smal enough, it would induce nuclear fusion, even if only a smal amount of matter was drawn into it. Any fusion reaction would result in a massive explosion when the energy was released,” said Gary.
Matt was stunned, but a thought immediately occurred to him. “What if I set this to zero?”
“That reduces the interior dimension to an undefined singularity; what we would cal a black hole in my world’s parlance.”
“And what would that do?”
Gary shrugged, an awkward gesture for the military android body to attempt. “Ironicaly, nothing. Once you go that smal, when you release it whatever was inside would be released as a micro-black hole. It wouldn’t be able to expand or cause damage. Instead, it would be almost
unnoticeable, and it would evaporate over a short scale of time.”
“Oh,” said Matthew, noticeably disappointed.
“But aside from that, the smaler you go, excluding a singularity, the more devastating the results wil be—I think.”
Matt arched a brow at him. “You think?”
“There are some exotic states of matter that lie between plasma fusion and a black hole-type singularity. None of them are wel understood, so I don’t realy know what the result would be if they were suddenly released. I’m just guessing that they would be bad,” explained the machine.
“Then I guess you had better go over these numbers with me,” said Matthew. “To make sure I don’t overshoot my mark.”
***
Angela Kruger, UN President and preeminent leader of the world, was not having a good day. The most recent events involving DEMON
incursions had sent shockwaves through the political sphere and she was beginning to worry about losing a vote of no confidence.
Through most of her term, the job had been routine; almost boring. In the current age of prosperity and technological wonders, most of the age-old drivers of insecurity and turmoil had been vanquished. Poverty was a thing people read about in history texts, disease was laughable, and famine almost impossible.
War, and the threat of the unknown, the ‘other,’ was the remaining driver that was now causing her problems. The first demon-war had been
one of the great motivators behind the strengthening of the UN into the political force it was today. People hadn’t been able to upload in those days. The bilions who had lived on earth had been flesh and blood, and with that mortality had come fear.
In the years since, uploading and virtual immortality had changed society into something almost unrecognizable. Even the UN had become
almost an afterthought, as humans living within the virtual world had ever fewer needs to worry about. It was only now, under threat of another DEMON invasion, that the UN and its supervision of humanity’s main military force had become important once again.
“They’re screaming for my resignation, Director Aiseman,” she told the man sitting across from her. “They walked into a secure facility with impunity, took Dr. Miler’s test subject, and then just vanished. Surely you can see how this looks for me? The last thing the people want right now is the appearance of weakness.”
“There are other gestures you can make,” insisted the Defense Director. “Fuly activating ANSIS is not advisable. We can’t be certain we
won’t be creating a problem bigger than the one we’re facing.”
“Dr. Miler doesn’t seem to share your reservations
,” observed the President. “And never mind the fact that according to your own evidence, we have a super-inteligent AI agent loose in the network doing god knows what. If the news of that gets out they’l have my ass for certain.”
“I believe the AI has severe restrictions on it; otherwise we would likely have been eliminated already,” said Aiseman. “The safeguards built into ANSIS were not as comprehensive as Gary Miler originaly suggested. I’m afraid that we might be burning our house down to kil the spider if we activate it.”
“Dr. Miler thinks it may be our only option for eliminating the rogue AI,” argued President Kruger.
“There are slower options, safer options,” put in Aiseman.
She laughed. “Building new CC centers and transferring people into the new servers one by one? That’s a joke! Do you know what the public
wil say if I even suggest such a thing?”
“The original network should have been segmented for safety in the first place,” countered Aiseman. “You can put out that this is a step forward in that direction. You don’t have to publicly release the information on the AI threat.”
Angela shook her head. “You think like a military man, Director, but I deal with the public. Something like that won’t remain secret, not once we start moving on major initiatives. The truth wil out. It always does, and usualy in the most embarrassing fashion.
“No, I’ve made up my mind. I won’t authorize ful activation, given your warnings, but I wil alow Dr. Miler direct access to the ANSIS
network. She wil be quarantined with it, unless and until I decide otherwise,” pronounced the President.
He nodded. “That wil be sufficient.”
“Let me warn you, though. If there’s another incident, I may have to alow her to do as she wishes. If you want to avoid that, make certain I’m not put in that position. Am I understood?”
Director Aiseman bowed his head. “Yes, Madam President.”
Chapter 43
“Are you sure this is safe?” asked Karen.
“As safe as houses,” replied Matthew.
She narrowed her eyes. “Then why do you want me to teleport back to Castle Cameron before you start?”
“Just to be certain,” he admitted. “It wil probably be safe, but I can’t guarantee it. I’d rather not have to worry about casualties if I make a mistake.” They were standing on an obscure piece of coastline, though exactly where he wasn’t sure. It was the last place they had made landfal after returning from her world. Karen had been able to teleport them there, even though she hadn’t known where it was in relation to his home.
“And if you injure yourself, who is going to help you? Have you considered that?” she countered.
If I injure myself there probably won’t be enough left of me to scrape into a bowl, he thought wryly. “I’l be in the safest place of al,” he told her instead. “Nothing wil be able to affect the interior of the cube.” By that he meant the space between the translation panes of the Fool’s Tesseract, not the tiny pocket dimension that the translation panes fed external matter and energy into. He’d had some difficulty explaining the difference to her earlier.
Eventualy she gave in and left, and he was free to begin his testing.
He started by checking the spel inputs. His latest version of the enchantment included a large number of refinements, mainly to enable him to control and alter the properties of the exterior translation panes as wel as vary the size of the pocket dimension they fed into. By controling those things, he could manipulate the size of the area protected by the FT as wel as the result when he eventualy inverted the translation panes and vented the pocket dimension into the surrounding terrain.
The primary danger now was that there might be an unexpected problem with the enchantment he had designed. Including so many things that
could be altered and changed during use meant that the enchantment itself was vastly more complex. The primary enchantment formula was
relatively simple in comparison, but making it so that it could be altered at a whim introduced an entirely different level of complexity. If he had made a mistake, or if the control elements didn’t function as he anticipated, then the results could be catastrophic.
“Good thing I didn’t make any mistakes then,” he told himself. Of course, if I did, I might not live long enough to realize it.
He held out the modified staff in front of him. The floating cubes had been simple and practical, but he had needed more physical space to include al the parameters of his control enchantment. Plus, the staff gave him a very visible reminder of what the exterior dimensions of his cube would be when activated, since it was as tal as the FT would be from top to bottom. Seven feet, he repeated to himself, plenty of headroom and arm room.
Taking a deep breath, he began, “Bree maen , Eilen kon , sadeen lin. Amyrtus !” The words in Lycian were simple instructions: “ mode five, interior ten, exterior one, activate.” They would set the exterior dimensions to their smalest, seven feet on a side; the interior pocket dimension at its largest, one foot on a side; and only create five translation panes, leaving the bottom open so he could stand on normal ground.
The metal cube mounted on the top of the staff broke apart, and smaler cubes flew outward to take up positions around him where the corners of the Fool’s Tesseract would form.
Instantly he was plunged into darkness as the sides and top of the FT came into being. Softly, he let out the breath he had been holding. Even that test had held some inherent danger. If the exterior dimensions hadn’t worked properly, the FT could have been too smal, potentialy cutting of his head or something equaly unpleasant.
With the bottom open, he could stil sense the external world using his magesight. Hopefuly, this would be al that was necessary during most of his time using the device. The bottom side would only be engaged if he were faced with an extreme threat that required complete isolation. It would also be activated when the FT was inverted, to protect him from whatever the results were when the pocket dimension was vented.
That part would be automatic, to prevent him from doing so without properly protecting himself. He decided to test it now.
“Rextalyet , amyrtus !” he pronounced.
An ordinary field of force formed below his feet, lifting him two inches from the ground as the bottom translation pane sprang into existence. His magesight was abruptly cut off, but aside from that, he couldn’t detect any other changes.
If it had worked properly, then the outer sides had reversed their direction, venting the pocket dimension outward. Depending on how much air had gone in, there might have been an explosion, but since he had set the pocket dimension to a size of one cubic foot, he hoped the result would be fairly innocuous .
But I won’t know for sure until I deactivate the FT, he thought. I need to be able to sense the outside world. He turned his attention inward, trying to find the sensation he’d had before, when his talent had warned him of danger.
He found nothing.
He had expected as much. The Ileniel gift alowed their Krytek to fight as though they could see ahead into the future, though what they were realy doing was seeing into neighboring dimensions, where time was close but slightly ahead. Matthew thought that the same thing might have happened to him during his last journey to Karen’s world, when he’d had flashes that warned him before he almost committed a fatal action, but he hadn’t figured out how to consciously control the phenomenon.
But surely if it were dangerous it would warn me before I took down the FT, he thought. That wasn’t good enough, though, so he spent several more minutes trying to see beyond his own plane of existence. Stil, nothing happened at first; and then he began to get sporadic flashes.
What he saw was disorienting and poorly focused, but he thought he saw the outside world clearly for a moment. Assuming it was analogous to the one he was in, then it was safe. He decided to chance it. “Estus ,” he said aloud, and the enchantment deactivated.
The roc
k-strewn clifftop overlooking the ocean looked none the worse for wear. Even the grass beyond the outer edges of where the FT had been was undisturbed, although the ground beneath him was now bare and level. The upper surface had been absorbed by the bottom face of the FT.
“That wasn’t so bad,” he said to himself. Then he reactivated the enchantment, this time using different variables. He made it larger, decreased the inner dimension’s size, and he made sure his other toys worked through the translation panes.
Although he couldn’t see out, he could stil cast magic outward from within. It just wasn’t possible for him to aim, not unless he could find a way to master his vision into adjacent realms. He practiced for almost an hour but finaly stopped when his frustration grew too much for him. He wouldn’t make any progress unless he could retain a calm frame of mind.
Before he left, he decided to try one of the more dangerous settings. “Talto maen , eilen stur , sadeen lin. Amyrtus ,” he intoned. The FT
sprang to life once more, this time enclosing him fuly, on al sides and below, but most importantly, he had set the interior pocket dimension to its second smalest setting. If the enchantment had worked properly the dimension into which the translation panes were funneling air and other matter was of an incredibly smal size, something on the order of the width of a human hair.
Matthew breathed slowly, trying to keep his heart rate down. With each passing second, he knew more and more air was entering the FT. The
final result would depend not only on how smal the pocket dimension was but on how much matter entered it before it was inverted. The longer he waited, the more dangerous it would be. It could be dangerous even when set to a larger size if enough matter entered.
The smalest size, the one he didn’t dare to test, should create an inner dimension that was even smaler, though stil large enough to avoid a singularity—at least according to Gary’s calculations. This current size should produce a satisfying explosion, but hopefuly not the sort Gary had cautioned him about, where atoms themselves began to fuse together.
