Moving Earth

by Dean C. Moore

  “Keep talking, General. You entertain my mind better than any adult before you.”

  Schopenhauer smiled. “I’m glad to hear that, since I’ve inherited you two kids and I never considered parenting to be a strength.”

  “Compared to my two dipsy doodah parents, you’re a regular prodigy.”

  “Be kind to them. Most people in this situation would be holding up even less well. Anybody still sane on Earth, I assure you, is being fed misinformation. The few that can handle the truth, are probably not long for that world, and will be drafted into action soon enough. This will remain an all-hands-on-deck situation for the foreseeable future. I don’t imagine our jobs getting easier should we escape The Collectors. The game just keeps getting harder and harder at every level.”

  She took a power breath and held it, which just emphasized how tightly her training bra was wearing on her these days. She groaned in frustration as her hand tried to work the bra.

  Schopenhauer stifled a smile. “I’m sure we have computer printers around here up to the task of increasing your cup size.”

  “Of all the indignities!”

  “There’s always the women’s lib option.”

  “Excellent idea,” she said, ripping the bra off. “Now, where were we?”

  Schopenhauer returned his eyes to the console and to bringing up some more simulations. “Leon is going to need a way to teleport assets to anywhere in the galaxy that he needs them. Most of the time that will be to the periphery, the part of the cell membrane coming in contact with the nearest cell he’s doing battle with, though the cell might well be touching many other cells along its periphery, if he’s fighting a war on many fronts.”

  Hailey nodded, thinking about it.

  “Even better is if he could teleport planets and suns just as readily to the front lines,” Schopenhauer explained, “wherever the front lines happen to be, use them as blinds, impediments, moats about his castle, if you’ll forgive the half-ass analogies.”

  “I will if you’ll forgive my having no clue as of yet how to accommodate such a request, even with all that we have. But I’ll add it to my father’s to-do list.”

  “Remember, Mother will be dialed into Dillon’s mind, allowing access to her supersentience, and affording him the ability to think at the speed of light.”

  Hailey frowned. “Once his mind is strong enough to handle that without cracking, you mean.”

  Schopenhauer made a throat clearing sound, the elephant in the room sticking in his throat. “Yes, strange the loopholes in our defenses are never what you think they’re going to be. I suppose it’s a lesson in humility for all of us.”

  “Any other second-guessing of Leon’s war-gaming strategies you’d like to lay on me?”

  “Nah.” Schopenhauer sighed. “That’s all the genius I’m good for right now. Hopefully the homework will keep you busy for a while, and explain why you’re spending so much time at ‘school’ in a college campus built for you, when your parents come looking.”

  “It will.” She glanced out the window at Thor. “Pity Frog Doll out there. Every prehistory bull frog for miles must be trying to hump him.”

  “If he’s the male of the species, somehow I don’t think he’ll mind.”

  Hailey shifted her attention to Thor, who had switched to a game of medieval knights, trying to spear his Lance into Frog Doll and vice versa, both riding the Nomads. “He’ll need the specs on all those ships in the upper atmosphere downloaded to his mind chip so he can sift through them like a video game console come time to play for real.”

  “I’ll see to it.”

  Hailey sighed. “Maybe I should check in with my parents now.”

  “I’m sure they’ll be delighted to see you.”

  Hailey’s groan was more like a frog’s croak. “Providing I don’t do or say anything to shatter that soap bubble world they’re living in.”

  “I’m guessing you’re quite good at managing your parents. You’ll be fine.”

  Hailey was about to ask him to point her in the right direction, but realized she had the complete lay of the land inside her head already. Mother, in beaming them here, must have seen to it that certain minimal upgrades were in place. She was now nanococktail enhanced as well.

  That suited her just fine.

  She got in the space elevator and headed up to ground level.

  General Schopenhauer took a seat and from the way he was bringing up new simulations on the big screens, was doing everything he could to try and get inside Leon’s head. Her mindchip piped through his latest thoughts: “Finally, a five-star general, or its equivalent, worthy of me, in one Leon DiSparta. Times couldn’t be better.”

  He manifested an apple for himself out of thin air, using Mother-supplied atmospheric nanites, was Hailey’s guess, and bit down on it, as he relaxed into master-of-the universe mode. He was one of many people vying for the job, some of whom were happy to forge temporary alliances. But considering the nature of the game…

  The general hadn’t thought to mention the atmospheric-nanites-at-her-command option when she was fiddling with her bra. She didn’t think he was being a dirty old man, just an old man. He probably hadn’t remembered the atmospheric nanites himself until his stomach started growling. As he had just got done saying, the backdoors to their unhackable Gypsy Galaxy were not going to be what anybody expected. She added his growing senility, or at least, softness of mind, to the list of wide-open backdoors she was going to have to police. He had become one more adult on her enabling list. But she couldn’t find it in her heart to resent him. He was a dear.

  She put her mind back on her parents. They were owed their fair share of her attention, and ironically, constituted the most intractable problem Hailey faced today, and most every day.

  SEVENTY-THREE

  THE HAUGHT GALAXY

  PLANET BRAVAS

  Dillon and Rose sauntered through the military academy, the cadets forever in training. “I don’t know how I feel about my daughter going to a military academy, Dillon. The place seems a little uptight.” She was referring to the cadets’ ability to maintain tight marching formations, strip their weapons apart and put them back together at frightening speeds, and…as for the ones playing war games, the savage economy of movement and humorless efficiency with which they carried out their orders, from placing the enemy under siege, to capturing key assets from the ones determined to secure them.

  “She and I have been drafted to help keep the military safe where they’re going, using a combination of her hacking abilities to make sure the space fleets’ increased dependence on tech doesn’t also make them more vulnerable, and my acumen in cosmological physics, to ensure there are no space anomalies out there from which our ships can’t escape.”

  “You mean like black holes, that kind of thing?”

  “Well, we’re not there yet, obviously, but in time, yes…” Dillon affirmed. He was tempted to add “and to make sure there are no space anomalies from which the Gypsy Galaxy as a whole can’t escape, once it is free of The Collectors and, like a standing army, constantly on the move across space-time. To say nothing of making sure anyone with technology like The Collectors possessed never got their hands on the Gypsy Galaxy again, either.” But he knew what it was to be mentally fragile, at least when he enjoyed his own moments of resurgent lucidity, like now, like a dolphin breaching, however seldomly.

  Rose scratched the scruff of Rex’s neck intermittently as they walked. The dog strolled alongside them in perfect sync, taking in everything.

  “And this virtual reality game we’re in…?” Rose said.

  Dillon restrained a sigh, playing along, for now, for his wife’s sake. “So we can try on our new jobs for size, see if they really fit us, and they in turn can assess if we’re truly up to the task.”

  “That’s reassuring. I’d hate to think we were actually committed. I’ve got to tell you I still feel very non-committal.”

  “You and I both, but we have to th
ink of our daughter and what makes her happiest.” Dillon issued a command to the dog with a gesture. Rex shot after one of the military cadets standing at attention, grabbed him by the arm with its mouth, and dragged him to the ground. Dillon issued the release command and the dog returned to their side.

  The cadet stood back up, gave them a nasty look, before returning to standing at attention with all the rest.

  “I don’t know, dear. I think the dog is a bit out of its depths. You sure this video game isn’t busted? I would think at this level that the dog would have disappeared by now, confined to one of the lower levels.”

  “Nonsense. I’ll show you.” Dillon fitted one of the vests in the cart he was carrying behind him to Rex, strapping it around the dog’s chest. He gestured the latest command and the Belgian shepherd darted toward the compound Dillon was pointing at.

  Moments later the compound exploded.

  Rex came trotting out, his vest and the munitions he was carrying had burned off him, but the dog remained unscathed.

  “Honey, I think they upgraded the dog!” Rose announced jubilantly.

  Rex returned to Dillon’s and Rose’s side. “See, what did I tell you?” Dillon’s tone was entirely reassuring.

  Soldiers were coming out of the compound, who were no less immune to the flames, gesturing “What the hell?” at him.

  Dillon put up his hand reassuringly. “Just putting the dog through his paces. He’s a soldier like you, you know?”

  Several of the soldiers gave him the finger; others gestured with an upturned fist indicating, “Shove this up your keister.”

  “Well, they’re clearly well versed in Earth gestures,” Dillon said. “Maybe even better than the dog.”

  One of the soldiers that had come running out of the compound used a handheld device to initiate a command. The building started reassembling itself, apparently designed to blow apart to help vent the blast without damaging any of its crucial components—and that went for all the hi-tech equipment inside.

  “I don’t know, honey,” Rose said continuing to take in different angles on the campus as they made their way through it. “This all seems a bit much for an eleven-year-old.”

  Dillon had to admit, even the idyllic nature setting and elaborately landscaped grounds fit for the palace at Versailles, albeit with alien world color alterations, didn’t do much to hide the truth of what this place actually was.

  “What seems too much for an eleven-year-old?” Hailey said joining them.

  “There she is!” Dillon hugged her tight against him before letting go.

  “Sweetheart,” Rose protested, “you never struck me as the military type.”

  “Think of this more as the Peace Corps, Mom. Wherever we go, we bring peace with us. The alternative is just too bleak to consider.”

  “You want us to police the universe?” Rose asked.

  “Multiverse, dear, try and keep up,” Dillon said to his wife.

  “And in time, the multiverse of multiverses,” Hailey explained, “speaking of keeping up, Dad.”

  “Seems like an awfully big job for an eleven-year-old.” Rose observed Rex responding to the latest gesture Dillon had given him, taking off a soldier’s head that was standing at attention with one flying leap and one bite down on the neck. “Not to mention, gory. When did sci-fi horror become your thing?”

  The soldier that had lost his head calmly went over, picked it up, reattached it, waiting for the nano to finish the job before letting go of his head. He gave Dillon one very ugly look that no standard humanoid façade could match.

  “As you can see, Mom, we’ve advanced our technology to where there are few real consequences to war games, anymore,” Hailey explained.

  “Yeah, until someone comes along with better nanotech than you have, and smarter supersentient computers.” Rose huffed.

  Hailey and her dad exchanged looks perturbed by how on-point her mother was, neither expecting the least bit of lucidity to come out of her, perhaps ever again. Dillon had to remind himself, lest he feel overly condescending, he was suffering from PTSD himself, even if his flashes of lucidity were a bit more intermittent than his wife’s.

  Hailey took out her PDA and fingered the virtual keyboard. The soldiers transformed into students strolling through campus on their way to and from class, friendly, conversant with one another, laughing, some even making out.

  “Much better,” Rose said. “Though I don’t care much for the college kids making out in front of my eleven-year-old.”

  Dillon and Hailey exchanged looks. Dillon couldn’t explain the morphing of the soldiers, or rather the nanotech and behavioral algorithms running on their mindchips that turned them into perfect chameleons, but he knew the soldiers were there just as before, only they had received new marching orders. “I’ll explain later, Dad,” Hailey said, reading the shock on his face just fine.

  Dillon was secretly relieved he’d made use of an earlier moment of lucidity to pump General Schopenhauer on things like mindchips and nanotech. No doubt Schopenhauer had explained no more than he thought Dillon could handle. Dillon vowed to himself then and there to continue to make the most of his lucid moments to gather intel, because had he seen what he’d just seen, otherwise, he could almost guarantee another mental breakdown.

  His daughter walked them toward a lovely building—oh, yes, all the buildings had transformed too; they now looked like Gothic cathedrals, done up in medieval architecture befitting Oxford or Cambridge or some other very old college campus.

  ***

  Hailey, Dillon, and Rose took up seats in one of the coliseum rooms on campus that looked, if anything, like a planetarium.

  Hailey projected General Schopenhauer’s latest thinking on how Leon might make the most of the Gypsy Galaxy war machine, including how to best protect the other galaxies that were part of its supply chain, onto the planetarium’s domed ceiling. The Gypsy Galaxy might be the tip of the arrow, but that arrow’s shaft had continued to grow as Mother, with Omni’s assistance, continued to sift through galaxies it felt worth breaking out of The Collectors’ Menagerie, her intel also being informed by Sonny’s Shadow Warriors on the ground. Never mind that many of these “allies” had yet to accept their place in Leon’s TGC.

  Her father’s jaw slackened taking in everything Hailey and Schopenhauer had already discussed for the latest modifications to Leon’s unstoppable war machine, made all the more unstoppable by physics, as of yet, entirely theoretical.

  Hailey kept a close eye on her father to make sure he wasn’t losing his grip as before.

  The android on stage, having been cued by more of Hailey’s fast finger work on her PDA was definitely doing his part to calm Dillon.

  “We’re fortunate today, students, to have the eminent Dr. Dillon Markus with us. Please stand, Dillon, and take a bow.”

  Dillon, too numbed with shock to put up much resistance, did as asked, rising to thunderous applause.

  When the room quieted, the announcer continued. “As you all know, the Gypsy Galaxy accomplished its first feat of teleportation thanks to Dillon. What you’ve been looking at overhead are his latest refinements to the Gypsy Galaxy. The mathematical physics hasn’t been written yet; this is just his guiding vision for the very near future. Once his mind is married to Mother’s supersentience, he will be able to complete the equations in Singularity Time. Solo and Theta Team’s engineering knowhow, which will allow them to pull off these miracles, building the necessary nextgen tech, will subsequently be empowered with access to both Mother’s singularity mind and the singularity mind of our very own Mars war god.”

  The announcer paused to accommodate the gasps rising from the crowd.

  “When the time is right,” the announcer continued, “Hailey will join Dillon in Singularity Time, to help with the technology that will have to be built to move planets and suns with this kind of precision, and to ensure that technology is hackproof. She will capitalize on her unparalleled abilities to interface with
the artifact on the moon, which will continue to handle much of the heavy lifting behind powering the Gypsy Galaxy to new levels of flexibility and maneuverability.”

  The audience erupted in applause yet again. Dillon had collapsed back into his seat. The weight of it all, the implications of so many lives depending on him, was making him fragile again. Hailey could tell just to look at his face. It hadn’t helped that the announcer had cushioned the blow by informing him of just how much aid he’d be getting from his daughter and from the moon artifact itself.

  The room shook violently, interrupting Hailey’s ruminations regarding her father’s next pending breakdown. Rubble fell from the ceiling.

  The announcer looked heavenward and inward at the same time, as if sussing out the situation via uplink to Mother. “That was not a direct hit,” he said. “It appears a ship has made its way into the Gypsy Galaxy with the ability to disrupt gravitational fields at a galactic level. If this continues, the worlds will fall out of orbit with their suns, and the suns themselves will lose their proper place in the Gypsy Galaxy. Though we’re currently ensconced within the Haught Galaxy, we are now also proximate to the Gypsy Galaxy, as part of the Gypsy Galaxy Grouping. These are mere shockwaves from a galaxy over.”

  After taking a breath to regain his composure, the announcer said, “The ship is still powering up,” the announcer said. “Intel reaching me from far and wide on the singularity distress beacons suggests this may be a blessing in disguise.”

  The announcer looked straight at Dillon. “Dillon, if we can capture this ship, intact, you may have the clues you need to advance your research. Whichever of our new allies is having second thoughts about joining our TGC, they just did us a favor.

  “Mother believes this ship can be repurposed for galactic engineering. It was designed to shuffle planets and suns around to disrupt supply lines of an enemy’s galactic civilization. And it can do so with enough precision that the ship can be recalibrated for our purposes. Instead of disarming a galactic federation all at once, it can bolster, rather than hinder its supply lines, and much more.