[This is a chapter from my latest novel, a sequel to The Fall of Doc Future and Skybreaker’s Call. The start is here, and links to my other work here. It can be read on its own, but contains spoilers for those two books. I try to post new chapters about every two weeks, but I’m currently also rewriting Fall, so there will sometimes be short stories and vignettes if I don’t have a new chapter ready. The next chapter is planned for the week of February 7th.]

Previous: Chapter 32

So many false starts, so many dead ends–that might not be dead if Flicker could find the right way around. But she’d searched too much, built too many fanciful models, contingent on details of theory Ashil couldn’t explain yet and Journeyman was still trying to learn. DASI was keeping all the data safe, but even the index was mindbending. Flicker couldn’t think it over properly in her head, because it wouldn’t fit in her head.

And it didn’t matter how fast she was if she didn’t know where she needed to go.

Flicker stared at the ceiling in the darkness. Donner slept beside her, his presence and steady breathing a calming influence–but not calming enough. She was fully awake, and had plenty to worry about. She wasn’t getting back to sleep anytime soon.

She got up carefully to avoid waking him. She put on her costume and texted DASI.

DASI? I’m awake. Worried. Need a distraction. I want to work, but would be a bad idea to try. Don’t want any slow speed socializing either. Help?

You have received an invitation, DASI replied after a short pause. The high speed interfaces at either your home or Doc’s Database node should be suitable for this, as long as you do not try to work or analyze data.

They would? Flicker scanned the parameters. Sounds like just what I need. Just let me get to HQ for less lag.

Acknowledged.

Ghosting through the Rocky Mountains and western plains, she stayed below plasma generation speeds–unexpected ground level lightning bolts tended to dangerously distract drivers at night. She did startle a few deer.

A few seconds later, Flicker hooked into the refined version of her high speed interface, and dropped into a full synthetic audiovisual environment, optimized for speed. A text overlay floated in front of her, because Flicker still preferred that for commands.

You have entered virt chat ‘Fast Women’. Host: DASI (Doc Future HQ)

Estimated lag: DASI (9 ns), Three (2,450,000 ns, local emulation 850 ns), Black Swan (8,310,000 ns, local emulation 920 ns), Flicker (48 ns).

It looked just like a multi-window video chat to Flicker, but it was all virtual. And faster, of course. Light and information could travel about a foot in a nanosecond, and she was sitting right beside one of DASI’s main cores. DASI didn’t have to worry about display or data entry delays, so her lag was about 40 ns less than Flicker’s was. Three was in the closest EDU ship in orbit, and Black Swan was somewhere in Europe.

There were colored progress bars, so Flicker could see who was lagged for which chat pulses–that made it easier to avoid cascading interruptions. Three seemed to be talking about the recent joint military tests conducted by the EDU and the Grs'thnk, while Black Swan and DASI listened.

“The exercise went really well,” Three was saying. "Really well. I don’t think some of the Grs'thnk captains believed what I could do with the right support. Their admiral did, though. And man is Learning ever the right support. We kicked ass. Both of us are now hoping the Xelians try something, because they’d just be giving me more shiny new ships.“

"So you talked afterwards?” said Black Swan.

“Yeah,” said Three. "That too. It was technically a victory party, but his biogestalt crew gave us privacy–they’re pretty cool that way. Hi, Flicker! Wanna hear about my new sweetie?“

"Sure,” said Flicker. All kinds of questions occurred to her. "Isn’t there a small problem with–I mean, you don’t… Um. Okay, I think I just set a new record for how quickly I can embarrass myself in a social situation–under half a microsecond.“

Three laughed. "Don’t worry about it. I’m in too good a mood.”

Three had started as an adaptive prediction model of Stella inside the Database. Flicker used those extensively to help her figure out what people were doing or wanted when there wasn’t time to ask. Dissatisfied with an 'insufficient data’ during an emergency, Flicker had overridden several Database safety blocks, and DASI had added enough of Stella’s recorded neural interface data to cause Three to grow into an active copy. She’d asked DASI a few pointed questions, then called Stella to get a full memory transfer.

When Stella’s body had been dead during the Xelian battle, and Yiskah was unconscious, Three had taken over the surviving ships of the Xelian fleet, which were now the EDU fleet. They were her preferred home–though she thought of them as more like bodies. She seemed quite happy as a fleet of ships; she was noticeably more cheerful than Stella. She was 'Three’ because 'Two’ was Yiskah. Three reintegrated and shared memories with Stella, and they coordinated when Stella was plugged in.

“That’s good,” said Flicker. "Is he… nice? It is a he, right?“

”Oh yeah,“ said Three, grinning. "Not shy, either. Wonderful sense of humor, and he started flirting as soon as I made a joke about it. Normally he’s under a load of restrictions because of his job, but the big definition squabble during the first embassy ship visit settled that I count as a milspec biogestalt to their Auditors, so he’s in the clear with me. And he…”

Three shook her head. "We aren’t really serious yet, but–“

"Liar,” said Black Swan.

Three laughed. "All right, we are serious, but we haven’t had a lot of time yet. But there’s so much we can talk about, and when he holds me–Oh. My. God. It’s… Flicker would know.“

"I would?” said Flicker, feeling more and more lost. Had species been mentioned? Did Grs'thnk have cyborgs? Or was he a biogestalt? That was the Grs'thnk term for electronic copies of biological minds, though theirs were usually groups. Was he singular or plural? Three was using a singular pronoun, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

“Yeah, you would.” Three grinned again. "It’s a little personal, but we’re all friends here. Remember that memory you shared with Yiskah because you didn’t have words for how you felt with Donner? It was before she and Prime stopped integrating, so I got a twice removed copy.“

"The kiss?” said Flicker.

“Just before the kiss. That look Donner gave you after you saved his life? How that made you feel? That’s how Learning makes me feel.”

“Oh. That.” One advantage of high speed emotion emulation was that Flicker didn’t have to worry about blushing. "Sounds… intense. But I’m really missing context here–I’m sorry, I know I joined in the middle, but–“

"Show her the pic,” said Black Swan.

“Good idea,” said Three. "Here he is–he was a little younger, on his shakedown cruise. Sorry, it will take a couple microseconds to render for you, it’s a high quality pic. Isn’t he handsome?“

Flicker took a moment to properly study the picture after it finished sharpening.

"He is pretty good looking,” she said. "For a starship.“

Three laughed again. "He is. But you know what he said to say if you pulled 'for a starship’ on me?”

“What?” said Flicker. "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to–“

”'You’re pretty good at aiming projectiles,’“ Three quoted, ”'For a bio.’“

"He’s got a lot of nerve, saying that after what I did to the Xelian fleet with my rocks. I don’t see– Oh.”

“Yeah. That’s his sense of humor. But don’t worry about it. Think of it as getting all your embarrassment out of the way now, with just us around.”

“Um, okay. But which ship is he? You called him Learning, but–”

“He’s the electronic warfare cruiser for the Grs'thnk guard squadron.”

“I thought it was named 'Expanding Knowledge’, or something like that.”

Three smiled gently. "That was just a rough translation. The Grs'thnk navy finally gave in and started letting the AIs on new ships pick the ship names, because everyone ends up calling them after their AI anyway. His is an idiomatic saying, and he translated it properly for me. Learning is his nickname. His full name is the GNS Learning Is About To Occur.“

"That is a cool name.”

Three grinned. "Appropriate, too. Generally when he is fully awake, either he is learning something new, or someone else is. Both of us are, when we’re together. He’s not the newest ship in the Grs'thnk fleet, or the most heavily armed, but he’s probably the smartest, and Admiral Ghiralt really pushed to get him.“

"The bigger ships aren’t as smart?” asked Flicker. "I’d think it would be cost effective to put the best computers on the dreadnoughts.“

"That’s not the limiter for AI capability once you get over a certain threshold. And Learning says dreadnoughts don’t necessarily have to be smart. Just tough and loyal. But he respects them. His first teacher was an ancient dreadnought that was taken off active duty, refitted with proper AI support, and is now the main training ship for the Grs'thnk navy–everyone calls her the Old Lady. He says she taught him moral responsibility and a lot of other things that are much quicker for an AI to learn from another one, rather than bios.”

“Huh. How much has he talked to DASI?”

“Informally? Not at all–he’s not allowed to. He can send messages, but his biogestalt crew, a worried AI specialist team, and three sets of Auditors have to vet them first. Same with her replies. They’re scared of her–and they’re especially scared of what Learning might learn from her. That’s why the admiral had to fight so hard to get him assigned here.”

“The official messages from Learning Is About To Occur have been very respectful,” said DASI. "Though they have a quirk; English doesn’t have a term of address he considers proper for me, so he uses a Grs'thnk one. It’s a formal second person collective plural social superior pronoun.“

"You lost me again,” said Flicker.

“Think 'Your Majesties’ without the cultural baggage,” said Three. "And isn’t that a wonderful load of subtext with one word? He’s great.“

"Why are they so scared? And why are they okay with you getting all cozy with him? You basically act as DASI’s biogestalt, not that she needs one.”

DASI smiled and waited, and Three’s image laughed after her lag time was up.

“They’re scared because they haven’t solved the Friendly AI problem, they’re not sure Doc has either, DASI is an unfettered AI, and they think she might teach Learning things they don’t know how to handle. Like recursive self-improvement. Or magic. But biogestalts are their navy’s safety system for AIs, and they can’t argue I’m not competent as one. And their admiral never wants to fight another space battle without my help.”

“I never want to fight another space battle at all,” said Flicker, “But it looks like I’m going to have to. Hopefully with something better than rocks.”

“Yeah, aside from the side effects if you use them anywhere with an atmosphere, they have an obvious countermeasure–stay away from whatever planet you’re on. And Learning says Grs'thnk navy doctrine is to engage as far as possible from any planet they’re trying to protect. He is a little curious about this new weapon you’re building–and what you might possibly need it against.”

“Reasonable. Though I wish you didn’t have to share any details until we know more. I didn’t want–”

“What details? You’ve got a cryptic warning and a whole stack of speculation, which I assume is why you couldn’t sleep. But Learning figured out you’re trying to make some kind of weird portal weapon or a black hole, just based on who you’re working with and what you’ve done so far. And when you start your runs on Europa, they’re going to be damned obvious. People will notice.”

Flicker thought about that. "Yeah. But I’m trying to stay as disengaged as possible from anything political or diplomatic.“

Three smiled. "DASI and I are handling the Grs'thnk. Easy enough, the ones here are all professionals. And most humans are a bit distracted–someone else is getting in their faces in a lot more comprehensible way.”

“Just doing my job,” said Black Swan.

“As is Prime,” said Three. "But the squadron’s job is to protect Earth against threats from space–like whatever is coming. If your rocks won’t work on it, it’s not clear how useful their weapons will be, either. But Learning’s sensors and projectors will be handy regardless–some of his capabilities are pretty unreal. And he wants to help. So the two of us will be ready. If there is any support he can provide while you’re testing, just let us know.“

"Thanks,” said Flicker. "Good sensor coverage from a distance might be more useful than I’m comfortable with.“

*****

"Not in your workshop,” said Doc. "Or my lab. Not on my planet. Not on anyone’s planet.“

"You don’t think it will work,” said Journeyman, looking resigned.

He also looked a little scruffier than usual. He was normally very dapper, but he’d called Flicker as soon as he’d double checked his projections, and she’d been eager to find out what Doc thought about what could be their first real breakthrough, so he’d skipped shaving. Doc looked scruffy, too–but that was normal for him. They were in his workshop, where he’d been working on a new shield generator based on his studies of the Xelian one.

“I think it quite likely will work, eventually,” said Doc. "At least in the sense that you’ll get a portal to a subspace with that particular characteristic. But if it does, you’ll want to test it. And that’s where things gets tricky. DASI?“

"Yes?”

“Upper bound estimate for the chance a portal transit by an extended object returning from an otherwise unrestricted subspace with a variable speed of light will trigger mass-energy conversion in all nearby matter.”

“0.7%,” said DASI, “Based largely on the uncertainty associated with the exact parameters of the final Grs'thnk Hyperspace Foundation probe event.”

Flicker frowned. "That was the one where the returning probe blew up?“

"It didn’t just blow up,” said Doc. "It apparently converted at least 20% of the rest mass of the entire station they had housing their portal generator into energy. The rest probably went into exotic particles that didn’t get detected. They were trying a tricky resonance with a questionable methodology, and all their sensors were destroyed, so no one is really sure what happened.“

Doc shook his head. "A 0.7% chance of ending the world is too high. So all the tests should be in deep space. It’s not an emergency, and I’m getting too old for eschatological roulette.”

Journeyman nodded. "I thought you’d be more worried about false vacuum decay.“

"Our vacuum is stable. Otherwise I’d probably have ended the world when I was eighteen. I wasn’t always so careful.”

“But I need to be there for the tests,” said Flicker. "And if they’re in deep space…“

"Flicker, no one should be there for the first transit. Journeyman should set it up, then get the heck out, and the two of you can watch from a safe distance while robots do it. I’ll help build the test rig.”

Journeyman inhaled through his teeth. "I’m not sure I know how to make the portal self-sustaining. So I’d need to stay.“

"I have to stay, too,” said Flicker. "I don’t think anything material but me is going to be able to survive transit to a subspace with the gradient we want.“

"Yes, and that’s another problem,” said Doc. "But if it’s in deep space, Journeyman can attempt a portal connection and measure everything without opening it if he succeeds. Then disconnect, come home, and figure out how to make one that’s stable without him. At least for long enough to perform the dangerous first tests.“

Journeyman looked unhappy. "A lot more can go wrong if I’m not there. But I can probably manage short term stability for tests.”

“That’s the spirit.” Doc turned to Flicker again. "Now, about whether this is wise… I can see why you might find a subspace with a lower speed of light useful. Making it variable, with the boundary matching ours, is a very clever idea. It might allow a non-catastrophic connection. Might. I assume you’d rely on your power and the Skystone to keep you alive inside?“

"Yeah,” said Flicker. "I sure haven’t been able to come up with anything doable in our universe.“

Doc looked down at the floor. "It could work. But there are so many, many things that could go wrong. For one thing, you can’t rely on probability manipulation working in a non-anthropic space, so the Skystone may not protect you. Have you considered what a steep speed of light gradient will do to your body chemistry?”

Flicker snorted. "What chemistry? I’m going to be clamped down so hard that what electrons want will not be important. I’ll probably be losing my microbiome, all my hair, and my outer layer of skin anyway, just from the side effects of getting all the mass down to neutronium. And I’m going to have to replace most of the flesh in my hands because of induced radioactivity from pressure transmutation–I can keep my nuclei in place, but I can’t prevent extra neutrons from cuddling up if they really, really want to. And they will. Golden Valkyrie never said this would be easy. Or painless. Just possible.“

Doc nodded slowly, looking old. "I can’t argue with that. There’s never any guarantee things will be easy.”



Next: Chapter 34

