Eternity's Number
Mote in the Eye of Eternity part 10
This fic is set 100 years after Bubblegum Crisis, which have been
slightly altered. It contains mature language, content and (hopefully)
sentence structure; don't fear the semicolon.
"Man is the most highly endowed of all creatures, and all things
culminate in man."
-Yamaga Sokoo, The Way of the Samurai
The darkened briefing room smelled of Smith's cigarette, the drifting
smoke visible as it danced on the meager air currents of the room.
Patricia wrinkled her nose, slightly unhappy with their newest guest,
who appeared to have Isis's ear recently. Ingrid reported sighting the
two late one evening, discussing something in the observation bubble,
and since then Isis had made only short, cordial visits with each of the
Sabers.
While Patricia didn't buy into Chiriko's mutterings about Isis's
motives, the historian couldn't help but wonder what her boss had in
mind. After South America and Farpoint, Patricia thought fondly of the
old boring days on Mars, when there was nothing to occupy her except the
academic discussion of the old days. Terrorism was much harder than
criticizing, and the scars across her chest and shoulders proved it.
Smith brought the meeting to order with a cough, resting the cigarette
on a makeshift ashtray as he activated the flat screen. Isis was
standing in the corner, politely paying attention to Smith, now dressed
in the same ship suit the rest of them wore, slightly adjusted for his
frame.
Somehow he managed to look more haggard and crafty in the ship suit
than he had in the beaten trench coat and fedora.
"As you may or may not know, I used to work for Genom," Smith began,
nodding to both Isis and Ingrid as an image of a massive colony appeared
on the screen behind him. Pointing at the station he continued: "This
was where my office was."
Patricia heard Ingrid gasp slightly, then followed the small bright
light highlighting a small growth on the outside of the habitat's
central ring. "Kei and Yuri labs," the former executive muttered under
her breath.
"Central Research Labs controlled most of the AI research Genom
conducted, except the Destiny program, and during my time there I was
a�well, troubleshooter is the best job description I can give. While
working there I stumbled across some data regarding a project called
Aether." He shot Isis a look that Patricia couldn't decipher, then
manipulated the image on the screen until the view had closed on the CRL
building.
"What I found about Aether fascinated me enough that I did a little
more looking into the subject. To make a long story short I ended up
taking off with some research data and I've been running from Chaos for
the last ten years."
"Chaos?" Patricia asked.
"The other AI Genom's come up with," Andrea said from her seat, still
bleary-eyed from the surgery and drugs. Her shoulder was wrapped in
medical packages, softly glowing indicators casting a green light on the
girl's face. "She popped up in one of Genom's weather programs about
fifty years ago and the Chairman adopted her as Destiny's sister."
"Popped up?" Chiriko asked, casting an irritated look at the hacker as
she put her coffee down. "How does an AI 'pop up?'"
"Chaos was an emergent AI," Isis answered suddenly from her corner.
"Unlike her brother she evolved on her own, randomly 'popping up' in six
of Genom's central research computers at once."
Ingrid shared a look with Andrea that said 'I didn't know that'. Isis
motioned for Smith to continue.
"Your fearless leader here," he indicated Isis with a shrug, "has
decided to find out more about Aether with a bump and grab operation. As
there are six thousand boomers of various configurations on that ring
alone, she's provided us with a considerable bump."
The image of Genom's HQ faded, to be replaced by a spinning
construction rendered in clear computer graphics. Oddly shaped rods
interconnected in a strangely sinister fashion, producing a malevolent
ball of geometric figures on a blank screen.
"This is R. Batty," Isis intoned, moving forward. "The modern
descendent of a nanovore designed and released by a splinter group of
Genom in the days of Mega-Tokyo."
Patricia's eyes went wide, the image resulting in a cascade of
memories. Old video clips of berserk boomers, rampaging through civilian
and police alike. Her voice cracked as she tried to raise an objection.
"But stopping rouge boomers were the primary concern of the original
Knight Sabers! You want to release that terror all over again?"
"The purpose of the Knight Sabers was never centered on stopping the
boomer rampages," Isis responded quickly.
"Then what was it?" Chiriko asked suddenly, raising her chin defiantly.
"Stopping Genom," the apparition responded. "In three days we are going
to release R. Batty into Genom's HQ. In the resulting chaos we'll sneak
off with the data and the location of Aether."
"What's so important about Aether?" Andrea asked, looking up from her
data pad. Her attention had wavered after the briefing proper had began,
but the repeated mention of the obscure project perked her interest.
"Why is it worth releasing a dangerous nanovore to get it?"
"Aether is Chairman Quincy's final project, initiated almost a hundred
years ago," Isis began. "It involves the use of some very, very advanced
technology to provide an individual with an infinite life span."
There was a moment of shocked silence as the news unfolded on the
room's inhabitants. Patricia could feel the pressure of Ingrid's
curiosity and the doubt from Chiriko. She could see Andrea's impressed
look and Smith's look of incompletely hidden surprise. He didn't know
she already found out, Patricia thought, oddly proud of her boss's
abilities.
Of the pronouncement itself she felt more confused than anything else.
"Infinite life span?" she asked. "He's already practically immortal, I
mean he's got enough money for all the nanotech treatments he needs."
"Not immortality," Isis replied. "Infinite life span. Aether is a
project for making a mind eternal."
"How could it possibly do that?" Ingrid asked, her voice thick with
disbelief.
"Mr. Smith, would you care to field that?" Isis said, a small smile on
her face. The man shot her a look back, irritation and frustration
showing on his normally neutral face.
"I found data on Aether which makes me believe it requires a radically
new technology as a central facet. Genom's been developing this
technology onboard some research vessels, but since they lost one the
data's been too well protected for me to access it. As a result I'm
stuck with a bunch of research data that, for all intents and purposes,
I can't make heads or tails of."
"Aether involves manipulating the spacetime continuum to form regions
of self regulating space which could be encoded with data. Quincy hopes
to imprint his data on these regions and become something that will
exist, literally, forever."
" 'They gave the name Aether for the uppermost region, choosing the
title for the fact that it 'runs away' and eternally," Patricia
muttered.
"Exactly," Isis replied. "Who figured Quincy for a philosopher?"
"So what exactly does this have to do with us?" Chiriko asked, looking
up from her lap. She brushed a few strands of hair from her face and
continued: "Why should we care if old man Quincy gets his shot at god
hood?"
"His elevation will have a profound effect on this solar system. For
Aether to stabilize would require a serious perturbation in the local
spacetime manifold, one potentially catastrophic to continued
habitation."
"How so?" Ingrid asked, rising to her feet. Patricia could see her
excitement, the answer's Ingrid had been quietly asking spoken aloud by
Isis. "The energy necessary for such a dramatic change in spacetime is
enormous, even for Genom. They'd be producing energy at a rate never
even considered�"
"The Boundless's data," Patricia completed, remembering the experiments
taking place onboard the research ship. Massive discharges of energy
coursing through the center of the vessel with the boomers simply
observing. "That wasn't a malfunction, it was the experiment."
Isis nodded. "I wasn't sure when I went over your reports, but the data
Smith provided cleared it up for me. Genom has the capability to control
the energy, they simply have no source. That's what Aether is working on
at Genom HQ. And we're going to take it."
"What do you make of that?" Chiriko asked Andrea a few minutes after
the briefing. Andrea blinked a few times, thinking slowly through the
bath of artificial neurotransmitters running through her brain.
"The whole Aether thing?" Andrea replied, watching Chiriko nod. "I've
never heard anything about it before. Seems a little convoluted for a
company that already rules the solar system."
"That's what I think," Chiriko said, watching as Ingrid got food from
one of the mess hall's dispensers. "What is she really hiding from us?"
"What makes you think she's hiding anything?" Patricia responded,
settling next to Andrea at the small table reserved for eating. She
pushed her mashed potatoes around for a moment.
"This whole set up stinks," Chiriko responded. "I don't believe in Old
Man Quincy's god complex anymore than I believe this whole operation is
altruistic. What does Isis get out of all this?"
"What kind of score does an AI have to settle with Genom?" Andrea
countered. "I've never been able to figure out what kind of emotions an
AI can feel, never mind probe motives."
"What do we really know about her, anyway?" Patricia asked, making an
obscure pattern with her green peas. "I've known her for more than a
decade and I couldn't tell you anything about her."
"It." Chiriko corrected. "Andrea here thinks she's an AI, and I can't
think of anything that fits better. We know she had connections with the
Consortium, she's really rich if this ship is any indication and she's
been around since the original Sabers."
Ingrid sat opposite Chiriko, her plate loaded with the soy steak that
was today's meal. "Only if she's telling the truth about any of these
things. Isis was a rumor inside Genom for as long as I worked there.
There are more stories about her than about the Sabers themselves."
Ingrid sent a placating look to Chiriko.
"She's definitely from their time period. She knew things about
Mega-Tokyo that I couldn't find out after looking for ten years. She
knows questions about them that I can't even form, for Mason's sake."
"This isn't going to get us anywhere," Andrea said, exhaustion filling
her. The package wrapped around her shoulder beeped once, green lights
replaced by a dull amber color. "Shit," she muttered, lifting her tray
as she stood. "I've got to replace the package."
The ship's intercom chimed once. "Would everyone report to the training
room, please?" Isis's soft voice said. "You can come after you switch
the medical package, Andrea."
The four Sabers exchanged a look in silence then the other three joined
Andrea as they filed out of the mess hall.
Isis gave up on separating herself from the Tonobu a long time ago, the
ship functioning as something of a body for her. She had spread the
essential pieces of her code through out the entire ship, a subassembly
housing a memory or two, a door CPU holding a plan or image. The entire
ship was permeated by Isis's persona, making eavesdropping
extraordinarily easy. The conversation between her Sabers didn't alarm
her; they were natural reactions and well within her behavioral
predictions for each member.
If they didn't believe Aether it was their own fault. Truth was Quincy
was never interested in ruling the planet, not from the very beginning.
When Stingray developed the boomer, Quincy saw his salvation from the
inevitable struggle with death that had haunted his species for its
existence. Permanence was Quincy's goal, and Genom a tool towards that
end.
Isis tweaked the Pendelton bubble a little, speeding the ship on its
course towards Genom's orbital HQ. Oh Sylia, she asked herself, why
didn't you figure it out back then? Then she banished the self pity and
concentrated on running the training exercises for her soldiers,
remembering the original Four.
Author's Notes:
I think there was too much exposition in this part, but it couldn't be
helped. I needed to the get the ball rolling for the finale (still
probably two parts away) and this was the best I could manage. C&C is
embraced with open arms, and I'm interested in hearing what people think
about my interpretation of Quincy's motives. They've always bothered me,
seeming a little on the 'just plain evil' side, with Mason getting all
the credit for the grandiose schemes of evolving man/uplifting boomers.
Oh yeah, they'll be action galore in the next part.
Thanks for reading,
Jerico Mele
Fnord!
www.brandeis.edu/~jmele
jmele@brandeis.edu