The Laboratory Omnibus 2

by Skyler Grant

  "Other planets?" I asked.

  "Useful for atmospheric adjustment, but not fine-tuned enough to just manifest a biosphere. Give me time, maybe. I figure first you’re going to want to modify the technology to see if we can get jump drives working again," Caya said.

  "Do you think that plausible?" I asked.

  Caya massaged her eyes. "Honestly? Yes, but I think you're going to need a Flawless to do it. This entire thing is built upon creating a sequence of mathematical impossibilities so extreme the universe is willing to pretend you don't exist for a moment. Then, you reappear with different data and force the universe to average things out. Even a minor error has catastrophic consequences."

  Caya was making sure she and her Flawless would be indispensable to the future of humanity. We'd see if they were, I could perform my own tests.

  104

  My fleet started to attract fire as they approached the Martian Arks. The Martian energy weapons had a longer range than mine, and while I could have responded with mass drivers it was best to wait until I was closer and deployed my anti-psi bubbles.

  Fortunately, with evasive maneuvering only a few of the shots landed and my shields were strong enough to soak those. If the shields of any individual ship became too weak I could move them behind another in the line of fire and give them time to regenerate.

  When we got within range of my own weapons I unleashed a flurry of energy blasts. The goal here wasn't to damage their ships, rather I wanted to test their psionic shielding and give my fighters and bombers cover as they launched.

  The Arks were launching their own fighters, stubby octahedrons that had completely useless spikes grafted onto them.

  However ludicrous their appearance they were packing powerful weapons. A single hit from one of them was enough to leave a fighter's shields drained. I made suppressing them a priority focus of the first wave of attack as our fleets hammered at each other.

  As I feared, the Scythe were able to effectively use the psionic shielding and none of my original energy blasts reached their targets. They were having more success. Blasts of their energy weapons had already ripped away the shields of two of my Juggernauts. For the moment their armor plating was holding.

  Nothing unexpected so far, this was just setting things up as I established dominance of the space. My fighters were more maneuverable and numerous than those of the Martians and while theirs were more powerful offensively, my numerical superiority made a difference. They'd lost three fighters before my first was destroyed, a rate of attrition that continued until their diminished numbers started putting things even more in our favor.

  It was time. I deployed the Anti-Psi Bubbles. While they dampened my connection to my drones, they didn't dampen abilities. I teleported several into place while shuttles delivered others.

  The effects were quickly clear. For the first time the fire from my Juggernauts started to reach the Martian vessels, chunks of their armor drifting off into space as it was blasted clear.

  I focused my fire on their engines. I didn't want any ships getting away from us and the more immobile they were, the better it was for the purposes of the next phase of the fight.

  As rents appeared in the hulls of the Martian ships I amplified my scanners, aiming them to get a survey of their interiors.

  Even a partial scan would do in a pinch, but I wanted to get readings as close to their life-support as possible. That was where my infiltration teams would need to go. Where the battle would be won or lost.

  Concentrated fire from Martian Arks resulted in my first lost of a Juggernaut, the atmosphere aboard become superheated under sustained energy fire and the ship’s systems dying as a result.

  I had my first solid scan of the life-support deck of one of the Arks. I adjusted my remaining fire, weakening armor on the other ships to better allow my scans to go through. Then I began teleporting in strike teams.

  This was the situation where my people were most outmatched. One-on-one my drones were far weaker than Scythe-enhanced Sedara, and even with that the Scythe had a massive numbers advantage.

  But then, they were suicide missions from the outset. No drone I sent would be coming back alive, and if all went well given the psi-blockers, they'd not even have memories when I imported them into a new clone.

  The important thing was going to be to strike all at once, to take them by surprise, and to act quickly. If the Scythe figured out what we were up to, they'd send more forces to protect the life-support decks.

  I had clear teleport paths laid out on fifteen ships, it wasn't enough. The remaining three were taking shelter behind other ships. They must be command vessels of some type.

  I put my bombers onto suicide runs. Just before impact they engaged their payloads, direct energy blasts flaring in blooms against the Martian hulls. They had easy access to two of the ships, but the third was proving more problematic. I was forced to really swarm it to get my scans.

  That was too obvious and they'd know my target now.

  It was time.

  Each vessel got ten squads of twelve drones each. They all had an Omega payload and were capable of initiating the required steps if they could reach their target. They were two thousand one hundred and sixty of my best, all backed up prior to the mission, and all well aware that this was a one-way trip. That achieving the mission was of the highest priority.

  It was a slaughter, I knew it would be.

  Sixty seconds after teleportation I had over five hundred dead. I also had my first reach a target. That squad had been lucky, they'd materialized almost right on top of the target. Bio-reactors and a bacterial pod were connected. I lost connection. That was expected, the atmosphere of the ship was shifting Venusian and being filled with psi-blocking growth.

  A second ship lost communication, a third.

  The fire from the Martian ships was becoming more sporadic. Aboard them, the atmosphere was rapidly changing and the crew was probably grabbing masks. If I was fortunate they were having more issues than just that. The Scythe were a psionic race and even if trapped in Mercurian hosts, they still seemed to have some use of those abilities. Cutting them off was like me severing connection with my drones, they could still fight but they lost a powerful asset.

  I was getting an incoming comm signal from a Martian vessel, the signature was familiar. Scythe wanted to talk.

  105

  I didn't need to talk to Scythe, but I didn't see the harm. There was nothing he could do to change what was coming. Besides, I liked to gloat.

  I created a virtual environment. A laboratory, a containment field. Suitable, I let him establish the connection.

  It was only a recreation sadly, this wouldn't really hold him.

  Scythe materialized, massive, bearded and scarred. A contemptuous look was given for the containment cell in which he found himself.

  "Petty games. You seem prone to them. A defect that needs correcting. You were stupid to meet us out in space like this. We're winning," Scythe said.

  It was partly true. I'd lost another three Juggernauts under sustained fire. To date no Martian Arks had been destroyed, but that was by choice. I wanted to take them intact. Still, even had I been doing my utmost to destroy them, I wouldn't have been able to by this point. If this were purely a space battle he would win.

  "Yes, yes. You're making a desperate call because you have me in such a bad position," I said.

  Scythe let out a chuckle. "Fine, you're right. You discovered those damned blockers and put them to use. You wouldn't be worth conquering if you weren't clever, but it won't be enough."

  No, I didn't expect it would be. But then, stage two of the plan was starting to take place aboard the Arks. Rapid-breeding, high-powered, flesh-eating bacteria, mixed with some select samples designed to eat holes in any space suits or breathing gear.

  My drones aboard the first ships were dying agonizing deaths they wouldn't remember.

  "How do you think this ends? You'll reach Earth and convert me? You'll s
end a drone army amongst the stars?" I asked.

  "Something like that," Scythe said, pacing within the confines of the cell. "I absorb the strong. It is what I am, it is what I do. Your every display of strength is yet another reason why I'm going to absorb you."

  The pacing stopped and Scythe twitched.

  Yes, the flesh-eating bacteria was doing its work. It had been a close thing on some of the ships, but on all I'd had a squad reach a life-support input. All eighteen Martian Arks were now dead zones for psionic input and on those where the crew still lived, they wouldn't live for long.

  "Do you know the most pathetic thing about you? How backwards you have it all. How you still think you are the hunter here. That you are the one who is going to steal my body," I said.

  Scythe paused. "You mean to seize these Mercurian shells I am just a part of?"

  "Oh, I'm going to do much more than that unless you're careful. For an intergalactic threat you are really very disappointing," I said.

  There was no life left aboard the Martian ships according to my scanners. The Omega bombs had done their grisly work. Scythe was still here, and that must meant that he had some sort of hard-wired connection to the Martian equipment. He wouldn't for long.

  I triggered the Mercurian erasure program.

  Scythe's image blinked out. It wasn't the death of him, not even close. He still had countless implants on Mars. I was even counting on it. I switched focus to one of my Martian relays and sent a comm request on the same channel.

  Scythe flickered back in, scowling. "As you realize, this does not stop me. The fact that you have destroyed the fleet means nothing to me. You have delayed the inevitable and made what is to come all the worse."

  He still didn't get it. What was it about bullies and invaders that they never realized when the tables had turned?

  The first of the purified implants was being brought aboard one of my Juggernauts, teleported there and decontaminated to wash off the host of destructive bacteria. The Mercurian technology was strange, unfamiliar, and after so long hosting the Scythe extensively redesigned to be comfortable for a psionic connection.

  As soon as I slipped into it I could feel a brand-new network opening up to me. Scythe were there, over thirty thousand of his units remained on Mars. And I now had access to six times that number.

  Neutralizing gases were being pumped on the Mercurian ships, replacing the Venusian atmosphere and killing the psi inhibitors. What had startled as a single implant grew to a dozen, a thousand.

  "What you've failed to grasp is that you've now given me access of a network I am stronger on. I can follow it home. You are the creation of some species out there, a weapon, a tool. I want you to tell them that you've compromised not just operations here, but across the galaxy," I said.

  Scythe flickered and faded, and was replaced by a glowing, golden nimbus. It spoke.

  "Well done. Not without some help from the Chixai, but even that not done in a way they'd expect," said the nimbus in a far softer tone than Scythe.

  "You're the creator of the Scythe? How lazy to not even create a real body," I said.

  "You've passed your test, you've won the game. We give to you the bodies our tool unwillingly wore. We invite you to Vekora," the nimbus said, and flickered out.

  Great, I was getting to really hate enigmatic aliens. It did at least seem they were as good as their word. The Scythe presence on the Mercurian network I now controlled was gone. Oh, their hosts were still there on Mars, the Sedaras, my connection through the implants to them was similar to that of my drones.

  It was a victory, and it was short-lived. Flower had just messaged me, the fleet was almost here.

  106

  There were only hours to go until an alien fleet arrived to investigate the devastation of Earth's biosphere. If their metric was a healthy planet, I and humanity would fail it. Most of the solar system would fail the test, except for Venus.

  I'd always been at my best with a deadline and a looming threat.

  The implants that made up the Scythe, the bodies of the former residents of Mercury, were capable of rapid generation of organic matter given energy and a template. In time I could use these so-called Mercubots to rebuild the Earth, but I didn't have time. The first problem was that I was too stupid. Oh, I was brilliant, but I needed to be smarter.

  I could get the Mercubots back to Earth. I had teleportation gateways on several of the Space Juggernauts and another on Mars. From there with teleportation I could send them anywhere. I could cover the Earth's surface, but to what end? My bio-processors were complicated to build and each in their own way unique. I wasn't scalable in the way required. That didn't mean there wasn't an option.

  I opened a comm line to Ophelia, and more importantly, her endlessly irritating passenger. I opened another to Anna, saving the Earth was going to require multiple parties to come to agreement. Somewhat to my surprise, they all did.

  I brought the Mercubots to Earth and put them to work on the metal sea. This was originally Mechos' insane idea, to transform the entire surface of the planet into a processor. The surface was only the start. Layer after layer we worked our way down upgrading the designs as we went. With each layer Amy became more intelligent, and she improved on the designs she sent me until I could scarce understand what I was building.

  It was impossible to know what the universe held out there, but it was not unreasonable to assume that by the time we were done Amy might be one of its greatest minds. It had only taken us two hours, and we were just getting started.

  Earth was the start. The planet flickered in a dimensional bubble as we restored the atmosphere. The surface layer was no longer important, no longer vital, Amy had already moved on and so we changed it. I dug trenches and bound hydrogen and oxygen together, and oceans were restored to the world.

  Life came next. Amy providing me designs as I fed them to the Mercubots. My processors were growing hot, the sheer volume of data breaking apart my neural proteins as green spread across the planet. We restored the lives we'd taken, and those we hadn't. Buffalo would again roam the plains, pterodactyls fly the skies, I even let Amy slip in a few kraken into the oceans.

  We weren't done.

  Mercury was next. The atmosphere was the simple part. I'd taken a few Bio-matter samples from the surface, not much but it gave us a starting point. We couldn't recreate the Mercurians quite as they were, but a race of shape-shifting intelligences called the planet home by the time we were done. We made the entire planet one of shape-shifters with completely different forms from day to night. For almost half an Earth year the inhabitants would wear one form before shifting to another.

  Venus, we left alone, it didn't need our help.

  By the time we were done every planet in the solar system had the seeds of life planted. With time we might have done more. This much was already pushing my bio-processors beyond their limits. I gave the Gobbles the moon Deimos, and created a species of hyper-intelligent mice on Phobos. We still weren't done.

  We'd seen it time and time again. Empires took on the aspect of those who ruled them. Anna was the Empress, but the planets needed rulers. To aid the growth of Earth we put it under the rule of the newly crowned Queen Ophelia. Mars would flourish under Queen Julasa. Other planets would find their rulers, in time.

  By the time the fleet arrived the solar system teemed with new life. Quick negotiations with the Venusians resulted in them joining the Empire. They could see the obvious, we all lived together or died together.

  The great Galactic Council had technology we couldn’t even comprehend. They secured Anna for days while investigating, I was questioned, Flower gave her testimony. In the end it was her testimony that swayed thing, that and the fact we’d proved ourselves capable. The Council could use capable species and our survival put us in their debt.

  I’d once thought when we’d beaten Vinci the adventures were finally over, Earth brought to heel but they were only beginning. This was just the start.

>   Author Notes

  Book seven for a series that, after I wrote book one, I wasn’t sure would have an audience of a sequel. This isn’t my first series to make it this far, Crucible Shard wound up at seven volumes.

  If you have read this far you are a real fan and I thank you. Emma has really grown and changed during the course of the books. My goal was always to have her get larger, but as she did so she also grew more human—as much as she’d hate to admit it.

  We have some responsibility for those things we create, and the more she created, the more her responsibility grew until it became almost overwhelming. That isn’t a terrible thing, with responsibility came purpose.

  As I write this volume eight ‘The System’ is already with the editor and goes full space opera.

  SCIENCE, now and forever.

  107

  "So, we're all agreed. We need to destroy the universe," I said.

  I'd gathered all of the prime crystal holders together for a meeting. We were the core of the growing Sol Empire, for all that Anna had the final word as Empress.

  Hot Stuff, Anna, Caya, and Sylax were seated around a conference table.

  Hot Stuff was dressed in an outfit mostly composed of glowing metallic rings with a faint rainbow shimmer. Control of her powers remained inconsistent, but recent dimensional SCIENCE had allowed me to create a pocket dimension and to shift her excess heat into it. It was only fair, since most of her law of thermodynamics-defying abilities were because she was stealing energy from other dimensions to start with.

  "So long as we don't leave it destroyed. We've done enough killing," Hot Stuff said.

  "We've a lot more killing ahead of us. I can't wait," Sylax said.