Sufficiently Advanced Technology (Inverse Shadows)

by Nuttall, Christopher

  Dacron found himself caught between two conflicting beliefs. The AIs desperately wanted to understand the quantum foam – and how it could be manipulated. They would want the children of Darius to be taken to an isolated world, where they could be loved, brought up and studied. But the Confederation as a whole might move to destroy Darius, exterminating the population before their genes could spread into the rest of the human race. The Thule had believed themselves superior to all other forms of human life and they’d come far too close to destroying the Confederation. Would Darius go the same way?

  Absently, he scanned further, trying to understand who had built the Darius Machine. It was very definitely not human, or descended from the first AIs that humanity had created. He would have been inclined to believe that it had evolved accidentally, if it hadn’t been for the limiters built into its mind. In fact, it struck him that the creators had been very cruel. They’d created a machine that was likely to go mad, eventually, without ever truly realising what was wrong.

  And there was nothing about its creators in its memory banks. The machine didn’t even have the imagination to realise that there had been creators. As far as it was concerned, it had come into existence seven thousand years ago – well after the First Expansion Era, which was interesting – and it had been doing its job ever since. Dacron mentally shook his head in disbelief. Darius had maintained its social structure for seven thousand years. Very few other human worlds had remained so stagnant for so long. He was still probing through the network when he realised that he wasn’t alone.

  It was Elyria, he saw, and Joshua... and she was pregnant. The Darius Machine seemed to find it very exciting – insofar as it could feel excitement – which made a certain amount of sense. It had to find it... frustrating that its ultimate purpose was so often thwarted, particularly seeing that it didn’t really understand why. There were so many limitations to its ability to guide its human charges that it had never been able to break the taboo.

  And the machine was on the verge of killing her.

  Dacron acted with the speed of thought, grabbing her mentality and shoving it out of the computer network. A Confederation AI would have had safety precautions to prevent mental damage, if something went wrong with the link, but Dacron rather doubted that the Darius Machine even realised that there was a possibility that humans might be damaged through direct contact. The number of magicians who went insane suggested otherwise. A moment later, he threw Joshua out as well, noting absently that the machine had managed to influence him too. Dacron scowled mentally, even as the machine finally realised it had an intruder. Like early computers, it had no imagination, but that didn’t stop it being hellishly good at playing chess.

  If the machine had been a true AI, Dacron knew he would have been destroyed right there and then. A real AI would have had enough awareness to detect an intruder long before he got into a position to do some real harm. Instead, the machine seemed to be searching for him, as if it wasn’t quite capable of hunting inside its own mentality. Absently, Dacron wondered if the machine had been damaged – or sabotaged – in the years since its creation. If it was really designed to create children with the ability to influence the quantum foam, why would it be so incapable of protecting them?

  He threw himself forward, into the attack. The machine lay open in front of him, a strange mass of slow thoughts and captured human impressions. Dacron slashed through them, looking for the machine’s vitals. It struck back by flailing around, deleting sections of its own memories in the hopes of eliminating his mentality. If it had been human, Dacron would have thought that it was panicking, instead of having real problems adapting to the new situation. It had never even considered the possibility that it would link to another AI, even an AI pattern that had been embodied in a human mind.

  Dacron’s mind expanded as he took over more and more of the machine, reformatting chunks of its programming to serve as his soldiers. The machine drew on the power from the black holes to fiddle with the magic field, only to boost Dacron’s own abilities. It really didn’t comprehend his true nature, he realised, as he used magic against the machine’s servants, and then froze the booksellers. They’d be at risk from being overwhelmed and controlled themselves.

  The war raged onwards as Dacron thrust right into the machine’s thoughts. It was steadier than he’d realised; ironically, its weaknesses were also strengths. He had to slow his own thoughts to touch its core, which weakened his grip on its outer systems. Instead, he flanked the machine, trying to study the gravity pulses that kept the black holes under control. There was nothing beyond his understanding about them, apart from why the designers would want such a dangerous power source in the first place. A black hole might eventually start devouring the entire planet, or simply evaporate. Seven of them was insane.

  Or was it? Looking at the strange threads of energy, Dacron realised that there was more to the system than he’d anticipated. The normal laws of space-time broke down inside a black hole, just as they seemed to break down near Ancient worlds – or Darius itself. Each of the singularities helped the Darius Machine to tamper with the quantum foam – altering the laws of space-time to the point where normal technology glitched and then refused to function. Studying black holes – and mastering the internal singularity – was the key to manipulating the quantum foam. Vast concepts floated through his mind as he pulled back, and then started to attack the systems keeping the black holes under control. The Darius Machine responded quickly, but not quickly enough. Five of the black holes evaporated before the machine regained control. There was a sudden loss of power all over the planet.

  Dacron wondered, absently, just what would be happening outside, even as he moved in for the kill. The Darius Machine seemed to be falling back in disarray... no, it was triggering a self-destruct system. Dacron lanced his own thoughts forward, trying to disarm it, but it was already too late. Reversing course, he threw himself out of the neural link before the entire network collapsed into dust. Opening his eyes, he discovered the crystalline lattice that had linked him to the Darius Machine was falling apart. His implants and nanotech came back to life a second later, warning of possible brain damage caused by the lattice. If he’d been human, breaking the link so brutally would have been lethal.

  The bookseller let out a cry of shock. “I can’t feel my magic!”

  Dacron tested a spell himself and discovered that it no longer worked. The boosted quantum foam field had vanished, along with the singularities. And yet he could still feel something... a vague awareness of the quantum foam lurking at the back of his mind. There was a key to unlocking the greatest scientific mystery in human history...

  “I think the magic is gone,” he said, gently. Darius’s entire social structure, as ramshackle and artificial as it had been, was doomed. What would happen when the rule of the strong replaced the rule of magic? The Confederation would have to intervene openly, he decided, at least partly because they’d caused the disaster. And besides, Darius was a genetic treasure trove. “We’ll have to make our way out of the ship.”

  He activated his implants and contacted Hamilton. “The Dead Zones should be gone now,” he subvocalised. “Is there any chance of a shuttle picking us up?”

  As soon as Captain Thor confirmed, Dacron switched channels and contacted Elyria. “Are you all right?”

  “I think so,” Elyria said, finally. She didn’t sound all right. “I think we’re trapped. Can you come get us?”

  “Snoops are already on the way,” Dacron assured her. Her location had been easily pinpointed by the orbiting satellites. Once the snoops had established a chain of custody, they would simply teleport Elyria and Joshua back to orbit. “And then we can start sorting out the mess.”

  ***

  “So,” Joshua said. “You’re pregnant.”

  Elyria nodded. Neither of them had had the energy to move away from the cracked and broken crystal chairs, even if they had been able to see their way. Her eyes, as enhanced as t
hey were, hadn’t been able to pull much from the oppressive darkness that had replaced the brilliant light. The two stunned guards were still out of it; they were lying on the ground, helpless.

  “I thought that was dangerous,” Joshua said, after a moment. “If it is my child...”

  He shook his head. “It is my child, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Elyria confirmed. Darius did consider paternity important. “And I don’t think there’s much danger of magical madness any longer.”

  “I can marry you,” Joshua said. Elyria almost laughed at him, but managed to stop herself in time. “I do have prospects...”

  “You don’t have to marry me,” Elyria assured him. The Confederation didn’t really have marriage as a concept, although there were couples who remained together for decades, even centuries. “If you don’t want to have anything to do with the child, I will understand.”

  Joshua swallowed. He was old enough to have children, but hardly mature enough to make life-changing decisions. Elyria felt a flicker of sympathy; Joshua’s world had just turned upside down. And his magic was gone. Anyone would have problems coming to terms with the new reality.

  “I can still feel the magic,” Joshua said, after a long silent moment. “I just can’t access it.”

  Elyria nodded. “I think we will have to wait until they teleport us out,” she said. “There won’t be any magic anywhere else on the planet.”

  Her implants were already picking up a chain of snoops as they scouted out the colony ship and found their way down to the chamber. The remaining magicians in the colony ship had collapsed when the alien machine self-destructed, but they were being teleported out anyway. They would receive medical attention on the space station, before starting the long path to integration into the Confederation. And then the entire planetary population would follow them.

  She clung to that vision as the world span around her. Now that the magic was gone, there would be no problem breaking down the remainder of the previous social structure and inviting the citizens to enjoy a far better life. The Pillars would be powerless; the Scions, it was possible, would be torn apart by their former slaves. Once the Confederation had revealed what it could offer, there would be very few objections. And besides, even the most conservative heart would melt when they realised they no longer needed to die so young, after a backbreaking life.

  “The teleporter is about to snatch us out,” she said, as her implants warned her. “It won’t hurt...”

  The darkened chamber faded away in shimmering golden light, to be replaced by the Hamilton’s medical bay. Captain Thor had evidently overcome his fears long enough to allow them to be brought directly to the ship. The medical staff and the AI drones helped them onto beds while scanners rolled down, preparing to check their bodies for damage. Elyria almost laughed out loud. The real damage was beyond their ability to detect.

  “Take care of the child,” she said, out loud. The AI drones buzzed nearer, as if they were suddenly very interested in her womb. “I think she’s the hope of the future.”

  And then the world fell away into darkness.

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-FIVE

  “You do not wish to return to us?”

  Dacron stepped away from the niche where his memories had just been uploaded into the AI Gestalt. “I do not feel like an AI any longer,” he said. “I have become something more.”

  “You no longer have access to magic,” the AIs said. “We have tested the spells on Ancient worlds. They do not work.”

  “That is understood,” Dacron said. They might not have him, but they’d have his memories. It might help them discover the key to unlocking the quantum foam. “However, I would prefer to remain in human form for the moment.”

  “Your wishes will be honoured,” the AIs said, after a pause so slight that a normal human would have missed it. Dacron knew that it was a precisely modulated act. The AIs, capable of predicting vast tracts of the future, would have hardly needed to think for more than a nanosecond before speaking. “And we will wait for your return.”

  “Enjoy my memories,” Dacron said, as he strode out of the chamber. “And don’t forget that you have other people to study now too.”

  He smiled. Hamilton had been joined by Hope, Faith and Charity, three cityships that dwarfed the survey ship. Right now, most of the population of Darius was being invited onboard, where they would start the long process of adapting to Confederation life. The AIs – and the rest of the Confederation – would be studying them intensely, particularly their genetics. Now that the boosted quantum foam field was gone, who knew what their children would be able to grow into?

  “You destroyed the Darius Machine,” the AIs said, flatly. “There is little left for us to study.”

  “There was no choice,” Dacron reminded them. They had all of his memories, after all. “And besides, the alternative was letting it prey on the planet.”

  He stepped into the transport tube and was whisked through the ship, emerging near the conference room. Inside, Elyria, Joshua and Captain Thor were waiting for him, along with holographic representations from the Confederation Security Council. The large compartment was almost empty, a stark reminder of how many people had died on the planet’s surface. At least a handful of bodies had been recovered and consigned to the heart of the local star. Their brain-patterns would be downloaded into clone bodies and allowed to resume their lives.

  “Thank you for coming,” Captain Thor said. Dacron nodded. His memories would already have been scanned and analysed by the AIs, after which they would be entered into the record for the post-mission debriefing. “Admiral?”

  The Grand Admiral smiled, humourlessly. “The real question is simple,” he said. “What did we learn from this mission?”

  ***

  Elyria placed one hand on her chest at his tone, even though it would be months before her body showed a bulge. She’d considered having the baby transferred to an external womb, but careful analysis had suggested that it might be dangerous, at least for the child. The baby was linked to her body in a way that made it very difficult to transfer her without complications. Like so much else about Darius, it was inexplicable.

  She frowned, thoughtfully. “The most important thing we learned, I think, is that our procedures need to be revised,” she admitted. The Interventionists had already suspended two other operations, at least until they digested the condensed report from Darius. On the other hand, it was unlikely that any mundane world would pose the same problem. “We also learned a great deal about the Darius Machine.”

  “Although we have learned nothing about its builders,” Dacron added. “It was very definitely not the product of human technology. Other than that...”

  He shrugged. “There are too many unanswered questions,” he said. “Why did they want to breed humans with a link to the quantum foam? Why didn’t they give it the intelligence to prevent said humans from going insane and being butchered? Why did it keep knocking down civilisation on Darius? Why didn’t it find a more effective response to our arrival?”

  The Admiral leaned forward. “You cannot pull those answers from the rubble?”

  “We have analysed every single component of the remains,” the AIs said. “We believe that most of the device was composed of crystal lattice, programmed to serve as a repository for the machine’s thoughts and datafiles, but we have been unable to be more specific. The machine’s storage cells were wiped and then disintegrated. We may locate a surviving component elsewhere on the planet...”

  “We can’t rely on that,” Dacron said. “It didn’t have the imagination to try to outwit its own self-destruct system.”

  “Leaving the planet in chaos,” Elyria said. At least the Confederation had been able to help. Darius would fall back into the wild – apart from the teams crawling all over the Clarke and the remains of the Darius Machine – and would eventually be resettled, or start producing an intelligent race of its own. “I don’t think we can assume that
the device’s makers were friendly.”

  It had stored human mental patterns in its crystal lattice, she knew. What if it had also stored mental patterns from its own creators? One theory suggested that the creators had intended to transfer their mental patterns into the magical children, once there were enough of them, and that was why the machine had been working towards their creation. With the machine’s destruction, there was no way to know for certain. The researchers would just have to speculate wildly.

  “We believe that we are working towards a comparable understanding of the quantum foam,” the AIs said, after a long moment. “Our research always suggested that hyperspace would provide the key to advancing into the Sixth Age. Instead, the Darius Machine relied upon tiny black holes – and the singularities within. It may be possible for us to duplicate its success and gain control over a limited section of the quantum foam.”

  “We were told that by the Elders,” the Admiral said, calmly. “Are you suggesting that they mislead us?”

  “That wasn’t exactly what they told us,” the AIs countered. “We feel that we heard what we wished to hear.”

  Elyria gave the Admiral a sharp look. What was he talking about?

  “Classified,” the Admiral said, and ignored her glare. “How much more do you think we can learn from Darius?”

  “We are unsure,” the AIs admitted. “We will continue researching the planet, now that the Dead Zones are gone. It may be possible to learn more about the magic – the manipulation of the quantum foam – through their books, and we may locate more of the Darius Machine.”