Lost Log 24

And... there.

Lieta Novus and Earth were now sufficiently protected. The neural architecture was extensive, dense, and permeated the entirety of their respective systems, as well as a light year wide bubble of space surrounding those systems.

Just in time, too. The fluctuations are about to reach Lieta Novus, and Earth won't be too far behind.

I say just in time, but really, it's like another ten seconds for lieta Novus, and a further five for Earth. I can do a lot in fifteen seconds.

The only thing I actually do is continue locking down those areas of space as tight as I can. Worst comes to worse, I'll take both systems into phase space.

Now... three, two, one...

The fluctuations met my architecture, and went no further.

Excellent. I made a point of studying them as much as I could, to better understand them and work against them.

Another five seconds and they passed over Earth, too. Didn't get any further than they did at Lieta Novus.

It was as I had expected, yes, but it was still good.

But anyway, that was Earth and Lieta Novus safe.

Now then, back to examining the-

What the fuck?!

The fluctuations suddenly intensified, rushing over Earth and Lieta Novus again. Again, my architecture stopped most of it; but this time, not all of it.

A small amount trickled through before I could adapt my defences, though it didn't seem to do much more than just travel a bit before disappearing, fading away into background energy.

...

There is no way in hell that is a natural phenomenon.

'...?'

Hmm?

You weren't asleep for very long, Primordial.

'Something irritates me.' That was all that it said, before it went silent and simply watched. It didn't need to speak for the 'but you already know that' to be heard.

It was genuinely interested enough in what was happening that I didn't feel like putting it back to sleep.

For the next few minutes, the fluctuations continued to attempt to penetrate my defences. Occasionally, they'd actually succeed to some minor extent, before I adapted my defences and stopped any further breaches.

'An attempt to gather information?' The Primordial offered its speculation.

So it would seem.

'Such a strange thing.' I felt it examine reality around my neural architecture. 'I might even liken them to a virus.'

Hmm?

'You already know my reasoning.' It stated. 'My thoughts, my memories, my existence. Why bother asking?'

Consider it an olive branch.

'Very well.' It chittered, before continuing. 'Look at how it acts, what it does to reality. Infects, introduces new strata, and then it spreads to do the same.'

That isn't a particularly good description of a virus.

'Hence; liken.'

Fair enough.

'Questions remain.'

Yes.

'Who controls it? This behaviour of intensifying and probing speaks of either programmed instructions, or outside guidance. Which is it? Perhaps you can find the control system, or subvert it? Who created it? For what purpose does it exist?'

Things to find out.

Hmm?

The fluctuations suddenly stopped. They hadn't disappeared, but had simply stopped trying to penetrate. They seemed to be gathering, actually, which was causing all sorts of interesting sensor readings...

Which was also causing them to intensify even further than they already had.

'Raw energy alone is insufficient to overcome neural architecture.' The Primordial was amused.

For some reason, I don't think that's what happening.

A moment later, I was proven correct, as the fluctuations... seemed to...

Solidify?

Yes, I suppose that would be an accurate descriptor. The strange sensor readings caused by the fluctuations were gone, but in their place... was something else entirely.

Solidified fluctuation, surrounding the two systems...

'Is it trying to contain you?'

Once again, so it would seem.

'Fascinating.' It actually sounded interested. How 'bout that? 'Yet; also pointless. Containment only works when the one being contained isn't already outside.'

They can't know any better, Primordial.

'I suppose not.' It agreed. 'It is irrelevant, regardless.'

I tapped my architecture, and began twisting reality. Energy was created, gathered, shaped, and prepared for action.

'Containment only works when the one being contained cannot break out.'

I struck.

The blow was one part psychic power, one part neural physics, and one part pure physical force. The solid... whatever it was, shattered like glass. I worked quickly, matter and energy spinning into existence, photon crystal exploding into being across space. My architecture began expanding, claiming a meter of space around the two systems I'd been protecting.

I examined the altered reality in detail, taking note of what had been added, before channeling energy and starting to force a reversion back into its previous, unaltered state.

Not easy. There was a resistance about it- actually, it was very difficult to undo it-

But 'very difficult' isn't 'impossible', and that's all that really matters.

When it finally dissolved and reverted back to its prior state, I stopped, and began another task. Stopping a short while into reclaiming the affected space, I began transmitting across a simple message, broadcasting across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, quantum wavelengths.

Just to be thorough, I even added giant fucking letters.

No idea if whoever or whatever was behind this was listening or not, or even if they could interpret me, but hey, it's worth a shot.

It was a simple, blunt, message.

"I don't know who or what you are, but I'll give you this chance to explain yourself and your actions. I'd prefer not to start a fight, but either take it, or I'll start undoing your work."

A bit aggressive, but hey.

I only hoped it worked.

'Why even give it a chance?' The Primordial asked, as if it didn't already know the answer. I humoured it anyway.

I'm not sure if it's hostile or not. And just once, I'd like to not resort to violence.

'Perhaps foolish.' It paused for a moment. 'No, definitely foolish. If it is hostile, then all you've done is give it a warning of your power.'

Just once, Primordial. If it is malicious, then...

Well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Lost Log 25

Hmm.

Well, that's interesting. A brief moment of space seeming to warp around my architecture, before it and everything it had been protecting was very suddenly no longer present in the greater universe. Something easy to tell, considering that every star just seemed to simultaneously vanish.

Also, hella smaller. It was... about the size of the Local Group. So, big, but not that big.

'A pocket dimension?' The Primordial sounded moderately bored. 'Quaint.'

Yeah. Honestly isn't all that different from a transition into phase space. Though with less threat of sudden non-existence. Hmm.

Let's see. Neural architecture, twist space, start drilling my way out, force open a connection to the universe, widen the connection...

And now, shunt my architectures back into their proper places.

Not as easy as I made it sound. But doable.

'Perhaps violence will actually be necessary.' The Primordial said it lightly, amusement colouring its tone. Happy that I might be proven wrong.

Maybe. I...

Hmm?

'Well.' The Primordial was suddenly very attentive, any hint of boredom vanishing like dust in the wind. 'We underestimated them. To manipulate time in such a manner...'

Time... Yes, so I could see. I hadn't noticed it beforehand, it being subtle, and me being focused on getting out of the pocket dimension, but now that I had...

Time bending in on itself, a loop starting to come into existence...

'If it had gone unnoticed, it would have been a much better method of containment.' The Primordial enthused. 'At least, just for these constructions. The rest of you, however...'

Indeed. Establishing a time loop... if I hadn't noticed...

Oh well. I had noticed. And that was all that particularly mattered.

Let's see. Countering that... Well, first, seize control over the flow of time...

Hmm. I've been able to manipulate the flow of time for the better part of... Well, ever since the Seraphim, which was around twenty years ago, but I've never actually used that particular capacity, have I?

Too energy-inefficient. Not worth it. Why even bother, outside of novelty? Much more important had been the defences against such manipulation, the knowledge on how to smooth the flow of time, as well as the defences against exotic weaponry the Seraphim had possessed.

'And now, you have our understanding of time. Our ability to manipulate reality.'

Yes. And enough architecture to go through with it.

At some point, I'm going to have to go over every technology I possess and see what I can do with the knowledge I've gotten my hands on... Who knows, might be able to do a few things.

Now, functionally speaking, seizing control of time in my local area should be all that I need to do to stop a forced time loop... Should be. Just smooth the flow and prevent it from going back in on itself... Let's try... this?

Oh. That's difficult. That's really difficult. Counteracting what they're doing is taking more effort than it really should... Considering that I should be effectively omnipotent with the amount of architecture I have in those areas...

Still. No matter how much they want to mess with things, I didn't give a fuck. My architecture, my area, nobody fucks with it but me. They are not allowed to have control of time in my area.

Bit by annoying bit, I forced time back into its proper, normal flow. I might have started bending it to my benefit, but really?

Not worth it.

So instead, I held it in its normal flow, preventing any further attempts at time manipulation. I'll be keeping an eye on time from this point onwards.

'Are you convinced of hostility yet?' The Primordial sounded oddly eager.

Almost. One more chance.

So, once again, a message. "I'll give one more chance for you to explain yourself. Just one. I advise taking it."

For a few seconds, I waited patiently.

Then, I got a message back, broadcasted across quantum wavelengths.

"Warning: This area is under renovation. Continuation of refusal to allow foundations to be laid will result in banning from this reality."

Simple, all things considered.

'Banning?' Yet more amusement from the Primordial. 'It speaks as if it has both capability and authority. Have you not already proved your ability to resist and fight back? Or can they simply not see what your actions have meant?'

Yes. But I'll let that pass for a moment, because I want more information. "Explain the purpose of your actions, and of the alterations you have made to this universe. I will not repeat myself again."

"Public Details for alterations: Common Operating System for local planes for construction."

'What a delightful way to explain absolutely nothing.'

You don't really like whoever these beings are, do you?

There was a few seconds of silence on its part before it continued, sounding almost... perplexed. 'Something irritates me.' It repeated. 'And I am not yet sure what it is.'

Hmm. Yes, I can feel it too. For some reason, it feels...

'It feels familiar.'

Which is impossible. Because we've never seen anything like this before.

Haven't we?

The Primordial was silent.

"I would prefer a more in-depth explanation." I spoke again.

"Please hold."

Did I get an answering machine? It feels like I got an answering machine.

'Either an attempt to buy time, or this being is only a subordinate for another.'

There are other possibilities, Primordial.

'Few, at best.' The Primordial chittered. 'And they are far less likely.'

Well, we don't know at the moment, do we?

"Invitation from Supervisor to Super-Causal Entity. Query, accept/decline?"

'Subordinate it is.' The Primordial said, vindictively.

"I accept." I said.

A moment later, a gateway appeared, just outside of the architecture containing Earth and the rest of the solar system.

It looked rather small. But there was far more to it than that.

'It seems that they also possess a considerable ability to manipulate space.' The Primordial offered its commentary. 'It only appears small. The aperture of the portal is much larger.'

Yeah. I could fit a planet through that. Well, so long as I was moving it directly into the portal. The spatial warping would allow objects larger than itself to travel through...

Which gives me an idea. Invited as I may have been, I didn't really want to send something in unprotected.

Let's see...

Lost Log 26

And... done.

A suitable avatar for my purposes.

It was... a fairly simple thing, honestly. Enough mass to create and use neural architecture, contained in a spatially compressed shell that made it much, much smaller.

As the Forerunners could attest, compressed dimensionality was a very fun thing.

Of course, the Forerunners relied upon the Slipstream in order to use it. Me?

Neural physics was a wonderful, wonderful thing.

But, regardless, it was prepared. It had the appearance of an Envoy-type Festum, though it appeared to be only three meters tall. Its photon-crystal core had a mass three times the size of Jupiter, though the spatial warping I'd employed had shrunk that down to exactly one centimeter.

I could have gone smaller. Didn't really need to, though.

Finally, there was a shell of neural architecture around it, conforming exactly to the space that it occupied, both the core and the outer flesh. The neural architecture would be used to create an area in which physics was 'normal', and could support the existence of my stuff, thus theoretically allowing it to survive absolutely anywhere.

Even in places where the laws of physics didn't apply.

Theoretically.

The fact that it also held an absolutely ridiculous amount of power for its size didn't hurt.

But anyway, it's prepared, and going through the gate right now.

Hmm?

Well, that's interesting. Stone, brass, glass, and light as far as I can see. Which was very far indeed. It was all very old, and honestly?

'How gaudy.' The Primordial was quick to offer its criticism.

Yeah. I mean, it looks nice, but...

There could at least be some variation. Endless stone, brass, glass and light is...

Irritatingly familiar.

Why. Why is it so familiar? I am murderously certain that neither of us have seen this or anything like this before.

'Infuriatingly vexing.'

Indeed.

Hmm.

The laws of physics in this place were... slightly different, but not so strange that my avatar wouldn't be able to exist within it. Still, I kept my wrapping of neural architecture up, making sure that it all worked properly.

But aside from that...

Nobody to greet me?

Hmm.

'An invitation without a meeting?'

So it would seem. Wait.

Ooh, pretty.

A line of golden light appeared, a long string of energy that reminded me not too lightly of the Masari, extending directly ahead into the distance.

'A light to serve as a guide.' There was a note of disdain. 'They don't even meet you directly.'

You are more angry than you should be, Primordial. That alone shouldn't bother you.

The Primordial was silent.

Well, in we go.

I started following the light.

It led me towards, a multitude of grid-like barriers, each one opening as I came close, allowing passage. The architecture of stone, brass, glass and light only became more and more complex as I went further and further, forming an increasingly elaborate maze.

Until, that is, I came close to the destination. I could tell when that was by the fact that the brass and glass started becoming less and less common, until eventually, only stone and light remained. A few more seconds of naught but stone, and then I reached the final destination.

Stone gave way to fields of red and green. In the distance, a hill stretched upwards, covered in grass and flowers. Walls surrounded the area, some parts shaped stone, but most seeming to be natural rock. A light green haze permeated the cavernous room.

Neat.

'Quaint.'

Must you really?

'I have seen better gardens.'

Hmm. Subjectively, I suppose so.

We really need to find out why you dislike these beings so much. It isn't typical of you.

Let's see, where are we going?

Well, I'm going to take a wild guess and say 'inwards'.

I float forwards at a slow, sedate pace.

Oh? Fascinating. As I'm getting closer, a shape is fading into view. I can't directly see it, despite the fact that I can perfectly see everything around it. I can see its shape in the haze, however. It's pretty big, more and more details becoming apparent as I get closer and closer.

Then, I pass close enough for all details to become apparent.

It looks weird. Bipedal, but it has multiple sets of arms that seem unwieldy, incorporating far too many sharp angles and bright lights into its design. It looked like somebody had taken Cundi, made a robot based on the design, decided that it wasn't nearly ostentatious or shiny enough, and had subsequently added enough bright lights and reflective metal to allow it pass as a walking disco ball.

'What a ridiculous design.' The Primordial was quick to start pointing out flaws, even though it was still unsure of what drove its anger.

I only barely paid attention to the Primordial.

The... oh, what the hell, the Primordial is right, this thing is ridiculous, it couldn't possibly need all those arms... Well, regardless, the machine spoke as I came to a stop.

"State your purpose."

Loud and booming. And blunt.

"Purpose? I am here to speak. Talk. Acquire a little bit of information."

"Make your inquiry."

"You... or, at least, someone subordinate to you, were altering reality in the universe I just came from. I would like to know why."

"Alternate Universe #607. Heat death in approximately seven quintillion local solar rotations of Earth. Alterations of the space-time planar structure will allow for one thousand fifty-eight percent efficiency. Heat death staved off indefinitely. Further alterations and components to be added once local foundations are secure."

"That particular universe is host to an entire species capable of defying thermodynamics and creating new matter and energy on demand. Heat death is not a particular worry for that universe."

"Masari. Type two, tier eight civilization. For them, they do not understand what the final shape is to be nor should they. The Masari are incapable of anything beyond local galactic stabilization."

"What they are currently capable of is not what they will be capable of in the future." I stated. "But nevermind that for the moment. There's another question I want to ask."

The Primordial went quiet. There was an agitated, eager anticipation about it.

"Who are you?"

"I am Aedificeon, Nexus Lord. You are?"

"I am Drich."

Lost Log 27

Aedificeon... The name meant nothing to either of us.

Hmm.

"Next question, if you do not have one of your own?"

"What is required for our construction efforts to go unopposed?"

Very blunt, aren't you. But a good question nonetheless.

"What I want is a satisfactory explanation on what you're doing, the reasons you're doing it, and the assurance that it won't have any negative effects on life in that universe."

I turned away for a moment, looking out across the garden.

"Which will be hard, because I'm going to call you out on what you said before. Certainly, heat death won't be solved by something so nebulous as 'increased efficiency'. Heat death is, by definition, a state of existence in which there is no thermodynamic free energy. Given a sufficient amount of time, heat will eventually reach an equilibrium, and a heat death will thus occur, so long as the basic and fundamental law that 'heat in equals heat out' applies. So long as you are incapable of breaking thermodynamics, the best one can achieve is to simple increase the amount of time it would take for the state of heat death to be reached."

Which, I suppose wasn't all that bad of a goal in and of itself.

However...

"To indefinitely remove heat death as a concern via the alteration of the physics that allows it would have, at best, catastrophic effects on everything in that universe. It would require that work could be done without causing some level level of heat equalization, which is so utterly basic in physics that changing that would result in so many knock-on effects as to render physics almost completely unrecognizable. I'll admit that I don't particularly care about random worlds and stars, but I place value in life, and life is rather abundant in this universe. The processes that allow life are sufficiently complex that changing the math that they operate on will likely cause the breakdown of all existing systems. Which would have the rather considerable side effect of killing off, at best, the vast majority of life that exists in that universe, and at worst, literally all of it."

And that would be... unfortunate.

"You understand why I can't allow you to do that, right?"

Whatever response I was expecting, what I got was very different.

"Have faith."

And I didn't like it one bit. "If that's your intention, this conversation is going to become very impolite, very quickly."

"Are you religious?"

A non sequitur? "No. I've met quite a few beings who've called themselves gods, who have been called gods, and who have power that most would consider godlike. I've yet to be impressed by claims of divinity."

'The claims alone, at the very least. I recall you being impressed at my capabilities.'

Yes, thank you, Primordial.

"Have you met any 'gods' that fed off the faith of their followers?"

More non sequiturs? Or perhaps... "Not yet. None of them needed it."

'A god that needs faith for its power is laughable.'

"We did. They called themselves the Ori."

Ori. Stargate. Which is a universe where faith had an actual, tangible effect. Hmm. Not non sequiturs, then.

'A reality such as that exists? No... A better question to ask is that such a thing applies in other realities. We were venerated as gods by many, but certainly, we received no power from faith.'

Perhaps that is a function of their additions to reality?

"The power of faith sustained them. Made them powerful enough to ignore the natural bindings that the universe placed upon their state of being. We determined that somehow, the act of belief and faith created a form of free energy. The Ori's use of the Faith-Logic was inefficient. They used it to increase their power and only their power."

Yeah, that sounded like the Ori.

"When we first met the Ori, it ended in War. When we took their power, we took a mantle that they misused. The faith made from life, can be used to sustain more than it should. We determined that life begets life. To cause perpetual death and stagnate life is inefficient."

"I am moderately familiar with the Ori. As I recall, those failures were kept mostly in check by the other faction of Ascended, who notably didn't derive their power from faith. I remain unimpressed, though I will agree with life begetting life. That's something I'm rather intimately familiar with."

'You hold my memories. The memories of my components. The memories of my victims. And far more beyond even that. How much did I contribute?'

If one measures it by years experienced?

Not much.

'Ah... The Beast, hmm? It was much more successful than I.'

Unfortunately.

"Good. Perhaps we can reach an accord."

"That would be nice. The point remains, however. Your stated method of staving off heat death is completely unnecessary, and without active intervention, will cause a significant amount of death."

"We are always actively intervening. There will be no significant numbers of death you fear. The system favours the growth of life under these conditions."

"Intervening to maintain life after modifying physics so thoroughly as to put a permanent stop to heat death cannot possibly be more efficient than simply adding and removing energy as needed. It is not difficult to maintain temperature inequality."

"It is not permanent. Merely on hold. Death is always inevitable. But it will be put off for as long as it is feasibly possible. As we have said, we are actively managing energy processes."

'There is another agenda.' The Primordial stated.

Oh, that isn't hard to figure out. After all, the changes they've made to reality include a grand load of nothing that would currently affect the matter of heat death. It's possible that it will be a matter for the future, but really?

All this talk about faith... delaying heat death isn't the main idea at all. But let's keep dancing around the subject and see what happens.

I wonder if they'll get frustrated enough to tell me.

'It is doubtful. These ones dance with deceit and duplicity.'

Please, continue stating the obvious. You express it in such flowery ways.

Lost Log 28

"I view your method as inefficient and poorly thought out. Your explanation is unsatisfactory." I continued the conversation seamlessly.

"The method has been tested and is determined that any life will be unaffected in their respective realities. Should you acquire proof that determines otherwise, feel free to inform us."

Was that sass? Huh. I might actually end up liking this one.

But two can play at that game. "Please recall that I believe it to be inefficient. You've demonstrated enough capabilities that I wouldn't have too much trouble believing you could actually pull it off, but I remain unsatisfied. I think I can do better than you, but hey, that's no fault of your own."

"If you believe you are capable of better, then you are entitled to that belief."

Neither of us was going to budge on this matter, were we? "Well, glad we got that out. Are we going to keep sniping at each other, or not?"

"Until evidence of harmful death and destruction of local life masses is caused by updates to the local reality's operating system comes forth, we will continue construction efforts."

I'll give 'em a chance. Just the one. However... "Until I'm satisfied with both your ability and the efficiency of your actions, then I will continue blocking those efforts around Sol and Lieta Novus. For that matter, until their inhabitants also agree, I'll keep it up on their behalf."

Because I actually cared about the people in those two places. Quite a few were friends.

"That is acceptable."

A lot less painful than I was expecting. Oh well, time to deal with the big thing. "Good. Now, another question?"

"What is your inquiry?"

Some of the many arms reached out, tending to the garden around it.

"Do you think I'm so unintelligent as to not recognize that these so called efforts at prevent heat death are, at best, only a minor goal? You could do it much more efficiently, but you've chosen a method which requires active intervention, and just so happens to be likely to inspire mass faith and belief in godlike power? I sincerely doubt that you've become so alike to the Ori as to require faith to do what you've stated."

And if you have...

'Well, that would just be pathetic. I might even have to laugh.'

That would be impolite. Not that you care.

I continued, and stated the blindingly obvious. "You have other intentions."

"Of course."

Admitting it, but offering no explanation. Fine. "What could you possibly need at this point?"

"Law unto ourselves."

"Oh, now I'm interested. Do explain?"

"We aim to become the effect that is the cause, rather the cause of the effect."

"Do you always speak in riddles, or is it just for fun this time?"

"It irritates the instance within you. So yes."

'They know of me.'

Yes. They do. And that raises all sorts of fascinating questions.

"The Primordial. Precursor. And you can detect it... Further, you know of it enough to wish to irritate it. And yet, it hasn't met you." But you've met it. "Or has it?"

"Once upon a time."

Here we go.

"That time was taken from it."

It did so enjoy these statements that had a lot of implications, didn't it?

"Then you emerged. Paths diverged. A new timeline came to be. Another alternate reality. Within one chain of events, the Primordial was defeated by the Forerunners. We dissected what remained and then erased it."

'Vultures.'

But on the hand, we now know why you disliked them starting off.

"In the other, you defeat and subsume it. Curious, that you allow a remnant of it to continue."

'Remnant? I am so much more than that.'

"I have been told quite the number of times that it is unwise. The Primordial itself even agrees."

"So we noticed. We could have defeated the Primordial, even before we discovered the Faith-Logic. But the collateral damage would have been... unreasonable."

"I've a feeling that you're speaking of the Halo Array."

"Halo. Such an interesting weapon. Did you know it is capable of destroying Ascended?"

"It wouldn't surprise me." The Halo array was a hell of a thing.

"Oh yes. The Forerunner tapped into a power they did not expect. It is no wonder there were no Star Roads left after their deployment. It is such a clean weapon."

"It is possible to survive it. And it's only clean so long as one doesn't consider all the bodies it leaves around."

"Perhaps it is a matter of perspective. Though it has ended many lives, it spurs the growth of more life."

"If not for Solute, the destruction of all life with a neural system in range would have caused the complete collapse of almost every ecosystem." I stated, bluntly.

"Truth. But an incomplete truth."

"All those bodies decaying at once, polluting atmospheres... Not mention destroying the actual members of those ecosystems, except for simple life." I continued. "Really, without the conservation measure and Solute, the Forerunners would have neatly obliterated sophontic life for the next few hundred million years."

"We have studied the cycle of life and death, Drich. The scales of fate and the strands of destiny. Though the quintillions of lives were ended, the potential for prosperous life increases exponentially. It is an interesting scale to see over and over... It is not the case for us. Returning lives to their proper place and time is trivial."

'The ability to travel through time... One thing that we never quite attained.

"Well, good for you."

"Are there any other inquiries?"

"Yeah. Do you have any intentions of committing genocide, causing unnecessary death, or just doing anything the Primordial would have done with glee?"

'To use me as an example.'

Oh, I'm sorry. Is it inaccurate?

'I suppose not.'

"With glee, no. We retain the right to neutralize the irredeemable. Of course. Should you discover any death cults, please inform us."

"I'd be hypocritical if I complained about that. I sure as hell have a lot of blood on my hands. And if I encounter any death cults, then you'll probably only learn of them after I've dealt with them myself."

'That's it?'

Almost.

"Now, I'm going to give one chance and assume that you weren't lying through your teeth or misleading me. I'll catch ya later. It was nice meeting you. Toodles~"

'To trust them...'

I didn't say anything about trust, Primordial. Verify, then trust.

And if he was lying? Well. I suppose I'll be trying my best to get you some company.

At the very least, those guys will be more talkative than everybody else in my mind.

But let's hope it doesn't come to that. It'd be a real shame.

Lost Log 29

"This is... troubling, to say the least." Altea set down her cup, brows furrowed.

"Yeah. Just coming in and changing around reality, heedless of what the occupants wish." I shrugged. "It's rude."

"That they're even capable of such a thing is..." Altea paused to find the correct word, but gave up after a few moments.

"Not good." To be ever so blunt.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"How long have you been capable of... what you've done?" Another thing that Altea wasn't sure how to phrase.

"Oh, not long. Only a few days, actually." Really not all that long ago.

Rather... fortunate, actually. That I would acquire neural physics only just before Aedificeon came along...

'Is it truly fortune?'

I'm not entirely certain anymore.

"And it is known as neural physics." I continued without missing a beat. "A rather useful thing, I must admit."

"I would imagine so." She poured herself another cup. She was hesitating, and I knew exactly why.

"You're going to be disappointed if you learn what the being who I acquired the ability from was like, Altea." I warned her.

She nodded, slowly. "I still wish to know."

I clicked my tongue. "It is your choice." I reached out, tapping her mind. The connection formed-

And Altea suddenly felt the full weight of the Primordial's presence. She stiffened, her breathing slowing, simply feeling.

'This one is a weathered will and mind, born of a species declined.'

"Careful, Primordial." I answered it aloud, taking another sip from my wine.

"Such bloodlust." Altea breathed out. "I have never felt such a will to destroy... How can you ignore it so easily?"

"Practice." I answered. For a moment, I pulled the Azazel-Type Festum I'd assimilated out into the open, letting Altea feel their combined hatred, toxic and murderous and oh so very powerful, before allowing them to slide back into nothingness that they so wished for.

My head tilted to the side. "Leave her alone, Primordial." I stated firmly. "These ones are not descendants of the life you and yours created."

Don't make me reign you in.

It chittered, before retreating, holding itself back. The next words didn't reach Altea's mind. 'For what her kind are, they are admirable.'

An honest compliment. And from you of all beings.

Do the Masari remind you of yourself, Primordial? They've reached their heights through sheer, stubborn will, only for it to all come crashing down at the hands of those they helped.

Unknowing of our discussion, Altea's expression was set in a grimace. It didn't look good on her. "What happened to inspire such a desire for destruction?"

'Betrayal.' The Primordial answered directly. 'Children that we loved dearly lashed out at us when we did not give them as they wished.'

"They had a long and rich history." I interposed. "And their children, known as the Forerunners, wiped them out because they saw potential in another."

'The collection of species known as Humanity. They had a spark like we did.'

"Not the Humanity on this world, Altea." I headed off the confusion before it could really form. "This one is only a single species. The Humanity that the Primordial refers to is an entire genus, and also from its original universe, not this one."

'Humans... At least, Humans of the Homo Sapiens species seem very common in the multiverse.' The Primordial phrased it as if wasn't a question.

"I haven't travelled to many, in the grand scheme of things, but they always seem to show up at one point or another." I shrugged. "Galaxies are usually the same. The exact positioning of stars can be a bit different, and what orbits those stars varies a lot, but as a whole, they're there."

"What of... other species?" Altea asked, an air of cautious curiosity about her.

"With the exception of Humanity? I have yet to encounter the same species in two different realities. Oh, there have been plenty that are similar, but not like how it is with Humanity."

'Why are they different? What separates them from all others?' The Primordial wondered aloud. 'Homo Sapiens existed even in my own reality, and in this one, there are fossils that correspond to the other species, the ones we created... Yes, in this reality, there are fossils that correspond to the species that are present in my reality. Homo Floresiensis, Homo Neanderthalensis, and many more aside. Thank you for that.'

"No trouble, Primordial." I shrugged again. "But it is odd, isn't it? Despite the fact that the Humanity that existed in your reality descends from life you created, and the one in this reality evolved naturally, both developed almost exactly along the same genetic lines."

Despite genetic engineering being very common among the Human-San'Shyuum alliance. Despite innumerable factors that should have led to other differences. Despite this, despite that, despite despite despite.

"But aside from that, they can still vary quite a bit. I've seen them as star-faring empires, a long vanished species with only their genetic descendants remaining, planet-bound collectives eking a meagre existence, and a few more aside. The ones on this planet were peaceful; right up until the Hierarchy came knocking." I continued. "Always there, but never entirely the same."

I paused for a moment. "Well, statistically speaking, I've visited an utterly insignificant amount of realities. Who knows, maybe these ones are just anomalies, and there will only be a few more realities that contain Humans anywhere in the multiverse."

For some reason, I really doubted that.

"Well, I guess I'll find out sooner or later." I finished the last of my drink, and then set the cup down on the table. Standing up, I cut the link between us. "I hope the future finds you well, Altea. Let's hope that our next meeting isn't on such strange topics, hmm?" I smiled at her.

"If only..." She gestured with her hand, and both the cups vanished with flashes of light. "May you be well, Drich."

I chuckled.

A worm sphere consumed that avatar only a moment later.

Lost Log 30

Are you going to sleep again, Primordial?

'You already know the answer.'

That I do. But, you know, I'd thought I'd ask.

For a few moments, the Primordial was silent. Then; 'What drives you to do this? To preserve me, allow me thought, individuality. To give me choice. You could destroy me. You could rip me apart, and put me back together again with ease. You could force me into sleep. These actions are not born of pity, nor even some desire to redeem me. Even if the original act of keeping us alive was born of mercy, this is not that. You know us better than any other.'

Yes. And that is exactly why.

I said it before, and I will say it again. I don't hate you, Primordial.

Things would be so much easier if I could hate you.

Now, if you're going to stay awake, settle in. There's a lot to see.

Now, where was I before?

Oh yes.

I'd been thinking about developing something that could travel between universes without creating a pathway between them. I'd thought of a derivative of phase travel, the particulars of which already involved exiting reality, but my thoughts had then gone to neural physics after considering how to allow for something to survive out in oblivion, beyond the use of quantum fields.

Hmm.

"It's time for science." I said aloud.

A nearby star promptly explodes, an unnatural supernova that was no less powerful or beautiful than the real thing would have been.

I direct a curious glance at Anastasia. All I get in return is an unrepentant shrug and two words. "Needed emphasis."

'Children playing enormous games.'

And I so love them for it.

We had posited that we would require five things in order to create something that could travel between realities without creating a pathway.

First was the ability to leave reality in order to start. Not hard, phase FTL functioned in exactly that matter. Second was the ability to survive outside of reality, accomplished by both neural physics, and quantum fields.

Third was the ability to actually navigate to other realities, which was slightly more difficult, but it all it required was a minor modification to that same phase FTL.

Fourth was the ability to enter the target reality.

Fifth, and final, was the ability to maintain communications.

Out of all of them, the last one was the most challenging. Actually, everything else was downright easy in comparison.

Leaving? Didn't even have to change anything.

Surviving? Again, didn't have to change anything. However, I was currently favouring the idea of surviving in oblivion by way of neural physics, instead of quantum fields. The latter functioned just fine, but if it failed, you just cease to exist. Granted, the same applied to neural architecture, but it was a hell of a lot harder to make neural architecture fail.

More to the point, the architecture didn't need any further special protections to ensure its continued existence in oblivion. The very nature of neural physics allowed that.

Though of course, that didn't mean I wasn't going to add redundancies.

Navigating? I already navigated, just to different points in the same universe instead of another one entirely.

Entering another? Well, theoretically speaking, it shouldn't be any different to re-entering the one that was left.

But communications.

Now, that was a problem.

It was, of course, possible to transmit data across oblivion. After all, if it wasn't, then I wouldn't have been able to keep up communications with the ships and other stuff I sent out there, which would have resulted in either forking, or ships being lost indefinitely. Not much of a problem in either case. It was also possible to for sensors to be made to work; otherwise you'd be flying blind.

It wasn't easy, and it required some fairly exotic science, but the Masari had managed and the Hierarchy had copied it from them, and I'd thus acquired it first from ripping it out of the Hierarchy's systems, then completed what I knew when Altea gave me access to her library.

But that's all pretty much irrelevant, because once you head 'further' away from reality; that broke down entirely. More 'distance' to cross, more time for the transmissions and sensor pulses to break down in the literal void of existence. Insofar as concepts like 'distance' and 'time' actually applied, anyway.

Really, it was a wonder that it worked in the first place. The Masari were ingenious, sometimes.

Anyway, that couldn't be used on any scale other than with things directly outside of a reality.

And that was where the problem was.

Without the ability to maintain communications, I'd need either to create a fork of myself, or to equip the prospective ship with its own intelligence. I didn't really want to do the latter, and while the former wasn't too much of a problem for me to do, I found it undesirable.

"Why not use signal repeaters?" Little1 asked. "If the data broadcast decays before it gets too far, then we can just build relay nodes to receive and then repeat the message."

"That would present the possibility of data loss." Anastasia answered. "It hasn't yet been a problem, but making a long chain of repeaters might cause data loss. Plus, losing nodes could potentially disable communications."

"Losing a hypothetical node would be unlikely, short of enemy action. The use of neural physics could suspend the vast majority of ways that a node would be destroyed. But I see your point. A grid-network of nodes?"

"It would be more difficult to disable." Anastasia considered it. "But it raises the same possible faults as just lines of nodes. The transmission could still decay at some point, and though there would be more nodes to catch the decay, it remains a possible issue."

"Make a pathway?"

"That would defeat the purpose of building a ship to travel the void. Mother wants to see whether or not making those pathways causes physics to mix and merge, remember?"

"When I said pathway, I didn't mean like that."

And that conversation had led to the current idea.

Lost Log 31

"Instead of nodes, we just make pathways of neural architecture, leading from one universe to another. We'd skip out on the transmission issues, because we'd have a path to transfer data along that doesn't involve sending it across the void." Little1 explained. "One end at one universe, the other end at another. It would be much more difficult to get rid of than just nodes."

"So, basically, landlines in space." Anastasia noted.

"Well. Technically in the void, but yeah." Little1 shrugged. "Landlines in space."

Anastasia looked at him for a moment, before shrugging herself. "Well, if it sounds stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid. Let's do it."

'One should first consider the distribution of such a thing.' The Primordial noted.

"Oh, that's easy. This entire universe is completely devoid of life aside from us and what we've seeded." Anastasia leaned back. "We can make this universe the center of the network and then branch out to others."

"A spider-web construction would be a good idea. Branching out without making links between the branches opens the possibility of entire segments being cut off if the source, or an earlier point in the branch, was destroyed." Little1 pointed out.

"If we wanted to maintain a high degree of interconnectivity, building in a grid would be a better idea. Cutting off any single point would require cutting off many, many more links." Anastasia's expression didn't change at all, but somehow... "Perhaps a mix of things? Nodes, lanes, and grids?"

Little1's eyes narrowed. "Lanes... Oh, don't think I don't see what you're doing."

"You know what would be a good name for them?" Anastasia continued, heedless, an air of innocence about her that fooled absolutely nobody. "The Lanes Between."

I started laughing.

"You've been playing too much Kingdom Hearts." Little1 said after a moment.

Anastasia smiled.

"As far as ideas go, it isn't a bad one." I grinned. If we ended up not liking it, we could change it later.

"You're just saying that because you're also a fan." Little1 grumbled. As if he himself wasn't.

"You've been outvoted, bro." Anastasia hugged me.

And with that, we got to work.

The first step was in expanding our infrastructure a lot.

And I mean a lot. Previously, we'd never really bothered to expand, mostly content with the single system we had, and adding more and more to it as time went by, but now, we had a pretty dam big goal.

Was it totally necessary? No.

Were we going to do it anyway? Yes.

All three of us picked one third of the universe, and went to work.

As none of us wanted to spend too much time on the task, we started it with the creation of Fortresses, the large bipyramids immediately leaping away into Hyperspace, rushing off at ninety million light years a second, simultaneously beginning to self-replicate as they did.

'Did I ever really stand a chance?' The Primordial asked, after a moment.

Well, I suppose that if I had arrived at the point where you had access to neural physics, and I had also arrived in your territory, then I wouldn't have had the opportunity to actually become a threat unless you made a mistake.

Which, granted, is quite possible.

But in the circumstances as they were?

Not really.

It chittered, then became silent.

In slightly over fifteen minutes, we had a Fortress for every cubic light year. With that done, all those Fortresses promptly began expanding, their masses increasing with each passing second, until they reached the minimum threshold required for the construction of neural architecture. They didn't stop there, however, instead continuing to grow, continuing to double their mass, over and over and over.

Neural architecture spun into existence, countless tiny spots that, at first, covered only a small amount of space. Then, those spots expanded, growing outwards in all directions. The growth accelerated as the mass increased, and the two began feeding into each other, photon-crystal creating architecture and the architecture creating photon-crystal.

Right up until the point where they couldn't expand anymore. Those spots grew until they touched and connected with the other spots, and from there, they expanded into the gaps that had been left as a result of spherical expansion.

In a single swoop, we took control of the entire universe.

There's a sense of accomplishment about it, really. It hadn't been all that long ago that we couldn't have even dreamed of achieving something like this- at least, not in such a short amount of time.

But anyway, things to do.

The architecture had been constructed. Now it was time to put it to use.

First step, suspend the expansion of space. This universe was big enough, and accounting for the continued expansion of it would be annoying.

Next, building outside.

Question is, which universe do I want to go to first... Ah, fuck it, that one will do.

'Do you just pick them at random?' The Primordial asked, honestly curious.

Yep.

Now then.

The first one, we'd work together on. The ones after, I'd leave to them.

"Ready?" I asked them, getting two nods in return. "Here we go, then."

Take a bit of architecture, and its accompanying photon-crystal, then push it outwards. Use the architecture to generate a quantum field, and a shell of space-time for further protection. Inside of that shell, we built more neural architecture, most of it metaphysical, but some of it received physical structure, in the form of a quadruple helix. Inside that, we threaded a long cylinder of photon-crystal, pulsing with waves of light, glowing from within, fractal patterns emerging and fading slowly.

It looked pretty, which was a significant part of the reason we had done it. The rest of the reason was for it to serve as both a data relay and control for the architecture we had built.

To ensure that there wouldn't be any... accidents, we then proceed to link the two together.

'The crystal sustains the architecture, the architecture sustains the crystal.' The Primordial noted. 'An efficient way to make this pathway immune to the ravages of time.'

Indeed.

Anyway, that would be the 'interior' of the pathway. Again, it was really important to note that concepts like 'distance' and 'location' didn't exactly apply in the void. The pathway itself would be of indeterminate length, hence the 'interior'. That would allow some sense of actually travelling between universes.

Alright.

Lost Log 32

And... done.

Well, nearly done. But we'd held off on that very last bit, halting the construction at the 'edge' of the universe, stopping it just before it actually connected.

It was close enough to send data, close enough for sensors to work, but not quite touching.

Just a small precaution, really. I wanted to send something over and examine reality in this universe. Once I had a baseline, I could then connect the architecture fully, and see whether or not doing so will be enough to cause the bleedover/meshing of physics that I had suspected might be occurring.

If it didn't, well, point for me. Not directly linking two universes was all that was needed to prevent any such thing. If it did, then we'd know to not do it in the future, or to re-work the method until it didn't.

In either case, all that's left to do is test.

I'd already prepared my avatar, which was basically exactly the same as the one I'd sent in to meet Aedificeon. A shell of neural architecture sustaining my own set of physics in order to make sure that any compatibility issues wouldn't manifest, several gas giants worth of mass compressed into a space only three centimetres wide, all the good stuff, blah blah blah.

Time for testing.

The avatar crossed the gap between my architecture and the universe quickly, following up only a moment later by entering the universe itself. Just in case, because I had a rather considerable track record at this point, I made sure that all of my stealth systems were engaged, and that my avatar was as invisible as I could make it. I didn't even materialize a body of Festum flesh, just stuck as a small spatial distortion.

Immediately and obviously apparent to me were two things. First, the fact that yes, there was a rather significant difference in physics. Not so different as to render this universe completely inhospitable -Humans would have been able to survive in this universe just fine-, but different enough that a lot of my more exotic stuff would have been acting differently.

The other thing was the city that I'd appeared above.

Which, as it so happened, was on fire, marred with destruction, filled with groups of aliens, two groups of Humans, and the sound of warfare.

I sighed.

Tuesday already, huh?

I took a glance into the future-

What the fuck?

'Fascinating.' The Primordial commented.

Someone has been busy. Time looping in on itself, flitting about like a tree caught in a storm... And quickly diverging, too. One became hundreds, then tens of thousands, then millions, all in very short order...

Which, given the number of people involved who could have made decisions and caused the possibilities to split, wasn't surprising. Entire city of people in my immediate area.

Something to consider is the fact that the precognition still works as intended, however. There are differences in the laws of physics, yet still...

In a possible future, I let a tiny bit of psychic energy drift outside of my shell of neural architecture. Nothing weird happened to it, which meant that this universe could support the existence of psychic power.

In another, I created a bit of Element Zero and then tossed it away. The moment it left my shell of reality, it collapsed into particles and radiation.

'What was that material?' The Primordial asked.

It's called Element Zero. It's...

Actually, go ask Anastasia about it. You'll probably find that amusing.

Anyway, war.

I don't... recognize the aliens, the Human architecture is fairly generic... Can't immediately place this reality to a setting, which means I have little idea what's going on and what might await me. Gather a little bit of information to find out then.

The future split a couple more times. In one timeline, I started searching the city. In another, I located one of the aliens who was currently alone. That timeline split in two; in the first, I began an in-depth, quantum level scan, and in the other, I started poking around inside of its mind.

The first bore results; there was another two group of surviving Humans in the city. One was a large group, a few hundred, and the other was a strike force of a couple dozen soldiers, the latter currently making its way to the former. The two groups that were nearby were much the same, one group of seeming civilians, numbering about thirty, and the other another bunch of soldiers.

Their gear is actually rather advanced. They all had powered armour, which was equipped with visual camouflage systems, though not particularly good ones. At close range, even the naked eye would have been able to see through it- though they would appear as heavily distorted, at best. Communications equipment and beacons were also present.

Their weapons were interesting. RPG launchers, with ammo that was far smaller than what the word 'RPG' might invoke... Advanced, too, designed to shape their explosions for maximum effect. Basically, an RPG launcher converted into a main battle rifle.

The one that seemed to be the leader of the group had larger armour, and a bigger gun. Large calibre machine gun with...

That's antimatter. His gun attachment has fucking antimatter as its ammo. The quantities aren't that large, sure, but still... Most would be fairly cautious with antimatter.

Evidently a very advanced civilization, then, to be so casual with the use of it.

What else? Sensors that were fairly good, better than those on the other soldiers, but not good enough to detect me when I was actually bothering to hide, some analogue to medigel, ame beacons and communications equipment as the other troopers installed into the armour...

But aside from that, not too much.

The armour did have some computers built in, however. They weren't particularly complex, but they did have a little bit of useful data on them. Networking protocols, some keys that would allow access to other systems, a small bit of medical data that included some information on its user...

Well, why not?

And its user is... Captain Lucas Holloway of the Collective Earth Security Organisation, CESO for short.

I know that name.

I scanned orbit. Found a pair of ships. Two more timelines branched off, and I learned their names.

Saratoga. Manticore.

Achron.

Lost Log 33

Well. That's a thing.

Achron. Real Time Strategy game incorporating time travel, manipulating the past, present and future, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

My memory on it is a little fuzzy. Aside from the novelty of time travel and time manipulation, it wasn't a particularly memorable game. The plot had been... decent enough, but it fell flat as an RTS.

Well, that was coming back to bite me now, isn't it?

Ugh, what did I remember about it?

Okay. Game starts off with news of an alien invasion having fucked over a couple Human colonies. Holloway is one of the many people sent in on a reprisal fleet. He's assigned to the Saratoga, generic cool spaceship number one.

Holloway is not the main character. He's the decoy, and the real player character is the artificial intelligence assigned to the Saratoga, Tyr.

Tyr is... somewhat more complicated. At first, it appears to be a generic loyal AI, but then it rapidly becomes apparent that Tyr has goals of its own. Not particularly malicious goals, but its own goals.

Uh... what else. There's another Human character that is an idiot, and working for somebody else... There's a big alien capital ship that will pop up at some point... There's two alien factions, the Grekim and the Vecgir... the latter of which may or may not be Humans- or, at least, descended from Humans...

What else?

Oh yeah, the time loop. The big fucking time loop.

Humanity finds ruins that lead to technology advancing, aliens attack for no apparent reason, the attack didn't work, aliens go back in time ten thousand or so years, others follow, battles litter the aforementioned ruins all over the place, aliens arrange an attack in the future, which is the same attack that came for no apparent reason.

Only one person is actually aware of that loop, which is Echo, another AI, who spent... tens of thousands of loops perpetuating those loops?

Something like that.

Ugh.

I need more information.

And I need access to time travel, too.

Thankfully, that's not too hard.

As I said before, the Grekim are one of the two aliens species currently around. Grekim also happen to be masters of time travel, with just about every unit in their army being capable of travelling through time on their lonesome, in contrast to the Vecgir's and Humanity's reliance on buildings that serve that function.

Chronoporters, as they were called.

Point was, I already had a pair of timelines where I had access to a Grekim, and thus, to the chronoportation systems cybernetically infused into their armour. Even without those timelines, there was a Vecgir Slipgate, a combined teleportation/chronoportation structure, nearby.

The smaller group of Humans were actually grouped up around the thing, even. One of them was a scientist, who had been studying the device...

Hmm.

His notes are not as well guarded as they should be, given that it's a fucking time travel device.

It wouldn't have helped against me anyway, but still...

Oh well.

Nothing stopping me from doing both. Thank you for your notes... Doctor Lenzmeier.

And you, random Grekim Octopod. Thank you for the quantum scans of the technology incorporated into your body. Of course, after poking around in your head in this possible timeline, I understand that you also completely lack any damned idea on how it works.

In fact, you are... pretty dumb.

Really dumb.

Nobody ever expected you to think for yourself too much, did they?

Oh well.

A few more timelines split off as I gathered more information on various things. Once I was done, those futures collapsed, and I sent the data gathered off to my children while I considered what course of action to take.

'You were right.' The Primordial spoke up again. 'It was amusing.'

Told you so. Anastasia really doesn't like Element Zero.

'The mere mention of it was all that was required to make her start ranting.' It continued. 'And yet, whatever data you sent her immediately caught the attention of both your children.'

Take a look.

'Ah. Yes, this would do it.' There was a slight pause before it voiced its next question. 'What, exactly, is the probability of you randomly picking a universe that just so happens to have several groups capable of traveling through time, arriving directly in a location and time where examples are available, immediately proceeding meeting another group capable of traveling through time?'

Well, not quite random, as this universe was fairly... 'close', insofar as that word can apply, which makes it fairly likely, but the rest of that statement?

Technology not advanced enough to detect me. Technology not advanced enough to fight me, even if they were capable of detecting me. All of these aliens, Grekim, just-so-happen to include on-board cybernetic equipment that would allow traveling through time. A second example of the same technology, in the form of a Vecgir Slipgate.

All of this, directly after encountering a time-traveling group that does possess the capabilities to pose a threat.

Low odds indeed.

But this wouldn't be the first time I've had longshot odds. The Kushan/Hiigarans were literally thirty seconds away from being almost completely obliterated as a people, and then I showed up directly between the Taiidan fleet and Kharak. Low, low odds...

Also, Humans.

'Yes, I noticed.' It chittered. 'Yet another for the tally. Tell me of these ones.'

Not much to say. They became star-faring over a thousand years ago. Eventually, they came upon a world that they called 'Remnant', where they encountered ruins tens of thousands of years old, which they studied and eventually derived large-scale teleportation from. This allowed them to construct bidirectional teleportation gates in their systems, forming an interstellar transportation network. They continued to expand, build their knowledge, and develop their technology.

They use teleportation for everything, really. They contained volatile materials that should by all rights obliterate their containers, and the continents those containers are on, by continuously teleporting it into the center of their containers before the materials can make contact. Their soldiers are resupplied by factories and ships with networks of teleporters. They construct new buildings by teleporting nanomachines and other materials into place. Teleportation is so easy for them that the most basic battle strategies include it.

'Perhaps they are too reliant on it?'

It's a reliable system. Nigh impossible to jam, incorporates many safeties, energy efficient, rather quick...

In this case, it could be likened to relying upon the Slipstream.

An enemy that could deny them its usage is an enemy that already possesses the power to obliterate them, regardless.

There's nothing wrong with it, really.