The Laboratory Omnibus 2

by Skyler Grant

  To get away with not telling her about the Beryl sample, I had to give her something else.

  "A military research facility from the old world filled with the latest Reality Zero designs. They took the actual research drives, but I do have some communication backups that contain much of the information."

  Vinci looked hungry at those words. "You'll provide me a copy, of course."

  I didn't see where I really had any choice—although it could be an edited version. I had to keep a few choice samples for myself after all.

  Fortunately I was getting very good at falsifying records in a hurry. A bit of cutting and renumbering of files and I had a very legitimate-looking forgery. I sent it over along with the location and heading of the fleet. With us setting the pace I knew exactly where our ships would be in half an hour. I provided those coordinates.

  A jump inhibitor could keep a jump drive bubble from forming, but not prevent a ship from arriving. Vinci would be able to jump in—it was just that nobody could jump out. The Righteous were obviously not concerned about meeting a matching fleet. That was no surprise, I wasn't sure even Vinci would be able to match that fleet ship for ship.

  I cut the comm with Anna and focused my attention on keeping the fleet moving. The Righteous’ faster vessels continued to draw close and were nearly in weapons range when the target time hit. The sky ripped with a brilliant rainbow cascade and ships began to appear out of jump.

  The Righteous fleet engaged them at once and Vinci returned fire. Vinci had brought her latest and best designs with no need for Reality Zero models. Energy shields surrounded them in halos of green energy and beam weapons struck out turning Righteous armor to molten slag.

  The Righteous didn't withdraw, perhaps they couldn't. If I were Vinci I'd have brought a jump inhibitor of my own—the better to keep them at bay.

  A Vinci ship swooped towards Boreas' flagship and it swerved sharply, opening fire.

  Responding to an attack before it happened.

  The battle had given the rest of the Righteous vessels time to draw near and the sky was filled with ships. The featureless gray behemoths that Vinci favored, and the white and gold decorated Righteous vessels.

  I detected an unusual energy signature coming from one of the Righteous ships. A missile flew some distance from the vessel and exploded in a cascade of blinding, blue light.

  I lost all drone connections in that Band, in particular the soldier aboard the escaping ship with the Beryl sample. I quickly opened a standard comm channel to the craft. It was still intact, fortunately, although having issues. King Boreas, like all of the Scholars, made use of crystal powder to fuel his engines and the environment was suddenly that of Reality Zero.

  The Righteous had made a bomb that could shift conditions. However, their fleet was still flying, and now that I knew what to look for I could see how unusual-looking they were for Righteous vessels. Larger, blockier, a lot like Vinci's dual-use vessels. The difference being the Righteous were far more familiar with Reality Zero science and technology, and they'd designed things a lot better.

  I'd only managed to evacuate around fifty drones via shuttles to the ship. I issued orders for them all to strip out of their armor, remove the Bio-cores and connect them into the electrical systems. It wouldn't be enough, not to operate the engines, which just weren't Reality Zero compatible.

  Vinci's ships were having the same problem. With the Reality Zero environment their shields were down, their weapons offline, and thrusters were being used to keep ships in the sky instead of for evasion. They were quickly getting cut to pieces by the Righteous ships.

  This whole thing had been a trap. The Righteous wanted a rescue fleet to show up. They'd been waiting for the perfect moment to deploy their new weapon.

  The Beryl shard—I'd seen how the Agate had kept the systems of Aefwal operational even in a Reality Zero environment. I issued orders for my drones to connect it to the ship’s systems as well.

  The ship was getting an alert. An unknown shuttle had just landed in the docking bay. The sensors said it had come from nowhere and that meant one thing—it had come from a time freeze. Boreas still had some of his powers functioning.

  I opened a comm channel, "Decided you didn't like your own ship?"

  "My ship crashes in thirty seconds. Yours mysteriously has power restored and leaves the battle at full speed," Boreas said. “I like yours better.”

  Well, I couldn't fault his survival instinct.

  Boreas added, "And in case you think about betraying our agreement, let me assure you that I’ve realized Vinci is almost certainly here in response to a call from you, and you've just cost her a fair portion of her fleet. I expect whatever deals we both had are forfeit and that perhaps it is time to consider even unlikely allies."

  Politics, even now, even in the middle of a warzone. It wouldn't be my decision to make, but it made enough sense that I'd keep him alive.

  The few Vinci ships that were kitted out for Reality Zero were giving some fight back, but they were vastly outnumbered.

  I re-established connection with my drones. The Beryl aura aboard the ship was enough for me to connect to my people again. I had them fuel every ounce of available power into the engines. The amount of energy the Beryl sample had would turn the engines to slag after a few hours, but we'd get a lot of distance by then. Hopefully enough to escape the Reality Zero environment and get us somewhere jump-capable.

  Vinci ships were falling out of the sky behind us, but not all of them. There was a science vessel fleeing as hard as we were in the other direction. They didn't have anything like the Beryl fragment to protect their systems, but a good ninety percent of the vessel seemed to be devoted to the engines. Why had Vinci included that ship?

  I didn't have to consider the question very long. I knew Vinci well enough to figure the answer to that. She'd considered this whole sequence of events a possibility and prepared for it accordingly. That ship surely had detailed sensor readings of just what had happened.

  Just what had happened? I wished that Boreas' ships had better sensors, but at least they had some. The Righteous ship that fired the missile was only a shuttle. The weak sensors on my ship didn't let me fully inspect the interior, but there were three signatures consistent with Source Orbs surrounding some sort of dimensional portal.

  The power signatures coming from that were familiar again, I was detecting them on our own escaping ship. They were pulling energy from the original Beryl through a teleportation gate.

  I'd never seen any proof the Righteous were so skilled in dimensional technology, but it had to be that. Instead of risking the Beryl itself, as they had last time, they'd found a way to work around that.

  It was smart idea, and I could steal it. With Aefwal's dimensional gates and the Agate I might have enough power to keep our entire fleet safe, what remained of it.

  Righteous vessels were still attempting to pursue our fleeing vessel, but their Reality Zero engines simply couldn't keep pace. We were drawing away and should get clear in another twelve minutes.

  Boreas had managed to make his way from the shuttle to the bridge, kicking one of my drones out of the captain's seat so he could settle into it. Presumptuous of him, I'd stolen this ship fair and square.

  Through one of my drones I asked him, "You actually fit in that? The sensors said you would, but they are of such horrible quality I thought they must be mistaken."

  "We're royally screwed," Boreas said.

  "While I'm certain you wish for nothing more as you just said, Vinci has lost a great many ships. Even if she does blame us, is she in any position to push that fight?”

  "With the raw materials everyone is providing her? Yes. Her factories lately have reached a level of production I've never seen before," Boreas said.

  That was intelligence I didn't have. I feared what it meant.

  "The Righteous are still going to be her first priority. They have to be."

  Boreas said wryly, "Is that what yo
u thought when you told her I was there for the killing? I know it had to be you. That has to be how you got her to come here. Even in a war you stop to kill a weakened foe."

  9

  I let Anna deal with the diplomacy of trying to get back on Vinci's good side. With all that had happened there was SCIENCE to be done and it took priority.

  Once I'd gotten the Beryl fragment safe I sent science and salvage droids to the battle site to collect readings on what had happened and to make a thorough study of Vinci's vessels. Vinci never really shared her cutting edge research and some things in particular she did better than I did. The investigation proved worthwhile although I did have to end things early when the Righteous sent in their own salvage teams.

  I picked up several new schematics.

  Energized Armor

  Armor plating of layered sheaths which can be charged with a small repulsive field at point of impact. Allows for similar resistance to standard heavy hull plating, but at a lower weight allowing for more maneuverable vessels.

  Quickfire Cannons

  Energy cannons utilizing a shaped reaction chamber to cut down on charge times. While lacking the penetration power of a standard cannon they allow for rapid fire making them ideal for point defense systems.

  Repair Clusters

  Repair Clusters are configurable components that can serve multiple roles in multiple ship systems. If utilized throughout a vessel they can make repairs far faster due to a stockpile of easily replaced parts.

  They were interesting on a technical level, but two of them were largely useless for me. All of my ships used chitinous Bio-armor and the principles of energized armor just wouldn't apply. The same went for my troop’s armor where lighter options would be a real advantage.

  With that same philosophy my ships’ systems were too biological for repair clusters to really work. I already benefited from accelerated healing and if something didn't completely destroy one of my ships, it would repair itself over the span of the next several days.

  The quickfire cannons were useful. Most of my efforts to produce biological weapons for ship-to-ship combat had been terrible failures and I was still utilizing standard Scholar designs. That one I could use to help defend the ships a little more.

  I was able to study the Beryl shard in detail. It was fascinating. I expected it to be another version of the Agate—the most likely possibility was that both were fragments from the same object that broke up well before hitting the Earth.

  Comparing them, I was starting to doubt that conclusion. They each twisted and warped reality around them, but they did so in very different ways. It actually gave me a theory what had happened to the world. If the third crystal was as unique in its own properties, then the three of them in close proximity would have put a huge strain on the local physical laws. Enough that the fabric of space itself might have been torn asunder.

  A jagged hole would have been torn in the universe, and Earth, shredded and chopped into various pieces, fell through.

  If that was the case it gave me some idea what the Righteous might be doing. I still didn't understand Source Orbs completely, but I figured they were used to stabilize the effect of Reality Zero. The Righteous were using Source Orbs to set a pattern, then the Beryl crystal to twist reality to undo some of the damage done—to a targeted portion of the Earth.

  The calculations to pull something like that off would be immense. They either had an artificial intelligence of their own or someone with a form of boosted intelligence.

  That also explained why interfacing with one of the crystals could keep systems safe. It was effectively twisting systems at a different angle to keep reality broken in the general vicinity.

  I wasn't sure how much that would help me in providing any sort of larger scale defense. Unless I had a way to amplify the power of a crystal over a larger area, I couldn't counter the effect, although I should be able to keep my airships functional by using a teleportation gate connection between the Agate and the ship’s systems.

  I wished that I'd been able to get scans of the Righteous missile.

  Other projects were going well. My intelligence-boosted Gobbles slept fifteen hours a day, but were incredibly productive the rest of it. There was a request from them to make some hyper-intelligent predators to hunt and be hunted by.

  Really they needed to learn some lessons from humanity and amuse themselves by hunting each other. Still, I liked to be helpful. Highly intelligent rats shouldn't be too difficult and I had enough crystal powder sitting about to give them abilities. That should pose a challenge even the Gobbles could enjoy.

  There were other housekeeping tasks to be done. My various experiments in the towers were yielding results, sometimes predictable and sometimes unexpected.

  A hive-mind worked well for insects and I experimented in reproducing that. I wasn't able to technologically mimic it yet, although I could take some steps in that direction.

  With constant monitoring I knew my drones’ greatest secrets and could daily publish a journal of them for the entire tower to read. At first, murders doubled almost overnight—a stupid crime given I could just regrow the fallen and have them back to their lives in a few days. After everyone realized that, crime started to fall again. The nonstop scrutiny made people far more polite and law-abiding, although also more risk-averse.

  The experiment ultimately seemed worth continuing, perhaps I'd try to replicate it with some of the Flawless. Their society was a good bit different from that of my drones, and even the perfect had their secrets.

  In other societal experiments, in Tower 914 I was experimenting with a caste system. I'd randomly assigned residents to castes without explanation and observed to see how institutionalized the system would become.

  It turned out that around eighty percent of those I'd assigned to the top caste shared a blood protein lacking in most of the others. They booted out the twenty percent that didn’t belong and promoted a few from the other castes, and the system was quickly becoming entrenched.

  I applauded their innovation and data analysis, and deplored their willingness to buy into such a system. There were a great many things that I disagreed about with the Scholarium, but at the core their philosophy was that those who desired power and status fought for it. The struggles got overly violent at times, but it had built a strong and healthy society. That was something worth preserving.

  From the Church of Emma there were a multitude of prayers awaiting my attention. For the most part they were the usual fare, cookies or an increased allotment in other resources. Where possible I granted those, but then I came across something far more perplexing.

  Drone 1714 was a fit woman, one of my soldiers currently assigned to an Aegis unit providing security to District Three in Aefwal. Her faith came from her marriage to one of the Divine refugees who had found work in a factory complex. The prayer was an earnest plea for freedom, to be allowed to leave my service and seek her destiny elsewhere.

  It was something I was capable of granting. I'd once made a great many combat drones for Sylax that weren't directly under my control. Those made in my growth vats by default were a part of my systems and I could sever the connection. Should I?

  I had no doubts that service to me was the best option my drone would find. In my care she was watched over, protected, fed, and housed. Backups and growth vats offered her virtual immortality and a far longer life.

  I could understand people wanting to get out from under the thumb of the Divine. They were overwhelmingly bad and not nearly as omnipotent as they pretended to be. I was the closest thing to a benevolent overlord Drone 1714 would ever know, and the world out there was a violent and hostile place.

  I couldn't do it. It wouldn't be fair to give her what she wanted, it wouldn't be right. This prayer had to be a result of something else going on in her life. I pulled up her records since creation.

  It quickly became clear that she was an outlier. She had seen service in over ninety percent of the major engag
ements since her creation and died horrifically in each one. While she didn't lead the count in rebirths, she was in the top three percent. Several of the deaths had been especially gruesome. She had healing factor, but in one of the battles lost both arms and legs and been trapped beneath rubble for days. Rescuing her hadn't been a priority—she'd eventually die and be regrown anyway—but her healing factor kept her just barely on the edge of death for many days before she finally succumbed.

  I wondered how many others were like her. Fortunately, being the genius that I am it didn't take me long to find out. Nineteen drones in total, all of which were in the top ten percent for overall deaths, and had died some particularly brutal ways, now displayed some degree of listlessness and dissatisfaction with life.

  I put in the transfer orders for all of them to relocate to Diamate. Caya ran a beautiful city and the differences between it and Aefwal were stark. While none of the Scholars were free of warfare, the Flawless were particularly focused on beauty and art, creating something wondrous from things terrible.

  I thought my drones could use a bit of that. I found non-combat roles for all of them in particularly beautiful parts of the city and issued the orders.

  It wasn't freedom, but I'd keep track of the situation and see if it helped.

  It had been awhile since I'd spoken with Caya, I checked my Diamate monitors. Currently she was in combat practice, facing off in hand-to-hand combat against four simulated foes armed with melee weapons. I let her finish her bout, as always impressed by what I observed. My combat routines could have done things better, but that was with my massive processing power behind them. Caya managed almost as well with just her own experience and instinct.

  When she'd finished off the last with a punch to the throat I opened up a comm line.

  "Just when I think perhaps you are more elevated than the rest of your kind, you spend your free time devoted to simulated murder," I said.