Chapter 271: (The Black Box) (2/2)
”Weird Science,” Dhruv said.
Dhruv waved away the hologram and replaced it with another block of swirling electrical activity, highlighting a section. ”That's another 'don't touch' section. It was added after the Great Glassing to surpress psychic abilities in humans.”
”Really? I've never seen it described,” Nexus said. He leaned forward. ”Beautiful coding. Smooth, elegant.”
”If we do, some idiot removes it then the person becomes Enraged within a few days of the first psychic ability manifestation,” Dhruv said.
”How do your brains still work?” Nexus asked, leaning forward again to look at the code. ”My God, I can see dozens of what look like software patches applied directly to every SUDS template.”
”Biological stubborness,” Flowerpatch giggled, knowing it would annoy Nexus.
”Terran Descent Humanity is, from basic protein building blocks to mental engrams to waste products, is one big 'don't fucking touch me' from the ground up. Hell, even the various parts of their own bodies don't like each other,” Dhruv said. ”That's why, even with all our technology, immuno cascade diseases still occur, tissue rejection of cloned parts still happens, and cancer still pops back up even with genetic modification to the genome.”
”The Universe's answer to everything,” Nexus mused. He shrugged. ”I don't believe in any mysticism, I prefer science.”
Dhruv laughed. ”As do I.”
That made Flowerpatch giggle. ”He said, his eyes having seen the Digital Omnimessiah himself.”
”Did you have something to ask, Flowerpatch, or are you here just to annoy us?” Nexus asked.
”Either is fine,” Dhruv chuckled.
”Sam gave me a blown out piece of circuitry, something called a 'video card', and as I'm a materials science engineer, I wanted to ask you something,” Flowerpatch said.
”I thought you wanted to talk to me about the fact I can clone myself into Digital Space too,” Dhruv said, stroking his beard.
”Not really, I just wanted your attention for this part,” she said.
”All right, what?” Dhruv asked.
”Sam thinks you just had ultra-specific versions run off via creation engine,” Flowerpatch said. She snapped her fingers and made a moue of disappointment when nothing came up. ”Anyway, I examined it closely and he's wrong.”
”He is?” Nexus frowned.
”Oh, yes,” Flowerpatch said. She giggled out of nervous stress. ”It's an actual piece of Pre-Glassing hardware that still functions as if it was manufactured yesterday. I want to know where he got it.”
”Because if I'm using temporal science then why don't I simply ask the engineers who built the system?” Dhruv asked.
”Yes,” Flowerpatch nodded.
”Because it was just in storage. Deep storage, true, but still storage,” Dhruv said.
”Stasis field?” Flowerpatch asked.
”Yes,” Dhruv said, nodding.
Flowerpatch pouted for a second. ”I was hoping that you had temporal access.”
Dhruv shook his head. ”No. Temporal access fails when it comes to Terra.”
”Yeah, weird that,” Nexus said. He looked at Flowerpatch. ”Temporal access gets more... disturbed... the closer you get to Terra.”
Flowerpatch hummed. ”The fabled TerraSol Defense Systems put in place by the Vodka Czar and other Terran rulers of the time.”
Dhruv laughed. ”Yeah. That's what caused it. The Vodka Czar and the Hamburger King putting a clone of the Ee-Youtube Fairy in orbit, that's what did it.”
”Is that true?” Flowerpatch asked.
Dhruv nodded. ”Actually, the fact that Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter, which is something everyone knows is what prevents temporal mechanics from working on Earth to an extent.”
”I fail to see how an ancient Hamburger Kingdom leader and vampires stop temporal systems,” Nexus said.
”So does everyone else,” Dhruv grinned.
”I'm going to get back to work,” Nexus said. He nodded, got up and walked to the pad. He touched it and dissolved.
Dhruv waited a moment, then looked at Flowerpatch. ”Do you have work to do?”
Flowerpatch nodded. ”Yes. I wanted to ask you something.”
Dhruv smiled. ”You always seem to have more questions than the others.”
”They interact with mass reality, I live in it,” Flowerpatch said.
Dhruv nodded. ”That makes sense. Go ahead, ask.”
”First, an aside,” Flowerpatch said.
”All right,” Dhruv looked a bit worried.
”Materials science is an exacting discipline, a difficult one, and it was not my first choice. My first choice, and my profession for my first thirty years of existence, was,” she started.
”Clinical psychologist,” Dhruv nodded. ”I know. I know everything.”
”You are under a great deal of stress. I wish to know why,” Flowerpatch said.
Dhruv sighed. ”Because I know where I need to start with the Friend Plague, what experiments must be done to begin my research.”
”But you don't want to?” Flowerpatch said.
Dhruv shook his head. ”No.”
”Why not? Restoring the canines and felines would be worth almost anything,” Flowerpatch said, feeling a stir of excitement.
”Because to identify the problem, not the virus, that's been identified, but the actual problem, I'll have to kill dozens, maybe hundreds, of mankinds first and closest friends.”