Chapter 243: (The Black Box) (2/2)
”Tell me, Herod, do you know how type nineteen dark matter can be inverse phased and then inverted to provide a stable barrier through the subatomic foam to the area known as Dimension-Fifteen and what the radiation emitted from the type nineteen dark matter appears as in the human visual range?” the bearded one asked, leaning back in the chair.
”Inverted?” Herod said.
”Yes, inverting the particles making up the matter,” the bearded one said.
”You can't invert particles,” Herod said. ”You can change their relative state, even their spin, and their charge, but you can't turn them inside out.”
The bearded one glanced at the desk then scooped data out of the hologram in front of him, tossing it Herod.
”There. That's how it's done,” he said. ”Knowledge from over fifteen hundred years prior to the diaspora of Terra, before even actual superluminal travel was confirmed to be possible and utilized,” the bearded one said.
Herod physically staggered with the weight of the datapacket.
”Put that in your secure memory. Now, Mister 'Expert', can you describe the particle interaction between dark-matter and what was initially mis-categorized as 'pocket dimensions' and how that interaction relates to inverted quark pairing?” the bearded one asked, although several of the other men in the room stated a few words from each sentence.
”Um,” Herod said.
”Here,” the bearded one tossed him another data-file. ”Look at those. Return to me when you fully understand those theories and proofs.”
The man waved his hand and Herod found himself back in his lab.
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It took Herod nearly two weeks of working before he had the theories interlocked with the information that he had known since his digital adolescence. Some of the theories looked positively insane, but were solid and he was able to replicate them repeatedly in the one lab he had access to in the physical world.
It was somewhat humiliating to find himself called in front of the bearded human, who was always surrounded by over a dozen of what Herod had deduced were clones of himself. Every time he was questioned about information and data beyond the data he had been given, and it had taken a week before he had been able to give a single answer.
Now he had been called out of his lab again. When he materialized he found himself with the rest of the Digital Sentiences, eight Confederate Scientific Intelligence Agency agents, two dozen clones, and the bearded man at the front of the room.
No time was wasted as the last Digital Sentience rezzed into being behind their desk.
”You are all mostly caught up,” the bearded man said. ”Roughly where the initial research, development, and fabrication teams were when they proved their project not only was feasible but worked at interstellar distances.”
He stared at them. ”At first I thought I was going to end up working with the equivalent of Lanaktallans and had resigned myself to deleting all of you and starting over.”
That got signs of anxiety and distress.
”You will all be working together at this time. The teams will shake out based on who works well with who for each practical field we will have to research,” the bearded one said. ”Before you ask, no, there isn't any other bio's in this facility.”
All of the DS's looked around at the clones.
”What about him?” Blaster asked, pointing at one of the clones.
”That's me,” the bearded man said.
”Him?” San Diego Sunrise 42743 asked, pointing at another clone.
”That's also me,” the first clone said.
That got silence.
”Take two days off. Defrag, run memory scans, but specifically, I want you to do bias weighing table purges. Make sure that your bias tables are all blank two days from now,” the bearded human said. ”Dismissed.”
With that, the clones, and the bearded man, all got up and filed out the door.
Herod was surprised to find he hadn't been pulled back into his room. While he wasn't normally a sociable creature, he found himself joining in the conversations where everyone introduced themselves and their specialty. Neural network scientists, hypercom engineers, stellar cartographers, the list made no sense to Herod.
Still, he found it refreshing to have someone to talk to aside from the bearded human, which all of the DS's agreed was somewhat, to use an ancient phrase, an arrogant dick.
Try as they might, none of them had any clue what kind of Black Box Project they might be working on.
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Two days later found him being shown the various physical labs, the AeVR labs that connected them, how there was no 'jumping' between labs, either a DS had use the holo-emitters to 'walk' down the hallways, or go through the AeVR labs.
At the end of the tour the bearded man, who had a dozen or more clones in each lab and at least a half dozen presences in each AeVR lab, brought them all into a large room that sat empty except for a single nano-forge that normally would be found in a larger colony creation setup.
”This is where we will be creating the physical proof to rebuild what we are researching,” the bearded man said. He looked over the gathered DS. ”Do any of you know what we are working on?”
All of the DS shook their heads.
The man sighed. ”All of this intelligence and not one of you have figured it out, even after I let you intermingle and compare professions and areas of expertise.”
”How about a clue?” Vanish asked.
”Terran Descent Humanity's greatest advantage to large scale warfare,” the bearded one said.
”Planet crackers?” Trifold Carthage-38572 said, recoiling slightly.
”While this research was used in early planet-crackers primarily used during the Mantid War and the Combine and Imperium Eras, no, we aren't working on planet crackers,” the bearded on said. ”Good guess.”
”Cloning?” System Duplicate-736721asked.
”If it just involved cloning, all we would need is me,” the man stated, curling his lip in a sneer.
”What is it?” Herod asked, sighing.
The man pointed at the empty room. ”We will be examining the SUDS network and the Gestalt Cohesion Backbone and determine how and why there is leakage between the two systems, manifesting in the appearance of data from a sentient race's quasi-sentient sex in their tri-sex biological system.”
”Wait, we're working on the SUDS and Gestalts?” Flowerpatch asked.
”Yes,” the man said.
”Nobody even knows where the hardware for those systems are actually located, much less how it all works. That's why no new races have been added to the system,” Herod blurted out.
”Your premise is based on the information you have available, but it is flawed due to missing critical information,” the human said.
”What information? Every researcher has done at least basic examination of the SUDS system. While we understand and can even upgrade the 'subject' side of the SUDS system, the primary system itself is completely lost,” Carthage said.
”Not completely,” one of the clones said.
”lost to everyone,” another one said.
”who still exists,” a third said.
”even in this room,” the bearded one said.
”OK, how are you doing that? None of them have comlinks, there is no data-connection between all of you, how are you doing that?” Flowerpatch asked.
”How is directly related, although that information is actually lost on what went into enabling me to do it,” the bearded one said.
”OK, who are you?” Violet Fields-663219 asked, standing up. ”You've provided me with data you claim is thousands of years old that I've never even seen or even heard hints of. Who are you?”
The bearded man smiled. ”All of you are wondering if maybe you've seen my name on scientific papers, all of you are wondering why I am the Overproject Manager of Overproject Eagle Beak and you are not,” he said. He looked at one of the Confed Agents. ”Are they cleared to know?”
She nodded slowly, almost imperceptibly.
”You want to know who I am?” all of the clones asked, turning and facing the DS's. All of them made it plain they were moving their hands differently, shifting their weight differently, or just breathing different from the others.
”Yes?” Torture asked, flinching slightly.
”I am Legion.”