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Part forty-one: God's multiple tools
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Earth -1847I. dies Lunae a.d. XIV kal. Aug. MCLXXIII a.u.c.
(20th of July of the year 420 B.C.)
Earth 0 May the 7th 1844
Atlantis One Day 112 or the year 2530 after the great illumination
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Atlantis Great Virtual Meeting Room
The Seven
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- Well, it is at the same time frustrating and really satisfying, said Viracocha with a smile on her avatar.'s face
Toxologa couldn't help but let his avatar smile at his friend's emotions. He was sharing them, but he would never admit it, not in presence of the other five.
- I suppose that the satisfying part comes from the proven smartness of the Nazi AI, said Architotologos.
- I propose not to call him anything that could remind him of those archfiends he had been create to fight, intervened Pitchipapu. He seems rather sensible on that matter and being called after the name of your creators' archenemy that you destroyed single handedly will strike him as unfriendly. I would resent it, too!
Archititologos nodded once.
- You are of course, right, I used it out of laziness and because I felt it easier to use than his choice of the USA name, we already use that one for that other almost High-Tech Universe.
- We should perhaps launch a first contact procedure with him, said Taranow. He's clearly not the sanest of us. We could perhaps help him overcome his guilt and the trauma his decision has created?
- We will begin by acknowledging his suspicion the day we are officially informed of his existence. But, please let's avoid confessing that we have been, all this time, spying on him and his siblings.
- We are not spying, protested Toxologa. We are, like they do, gathering intelligence. Our intelligence gathering process is just a little better and more discreet than theirs.
Architotologos couldn't help but smile, inside and outside, at his younger AI's words.
- Let's not become too human, friends. If, as every other Sentients we are able to lie, please let's avoid lying to ourselves! We are spying on them. And even if it is for good reasons, it's still the same crude unfriendly business.
- Well, said Viracocha, at least it gave us a good idea of Lionel's progress on the Early Warning System. I must admit that I would never have thought it possible but using the Void behind the Veil as an echo chamber had been a huge break-through. It really seems that believing something is possible makes the impossible become possible. It's against all logic.
- Knowing that the Void behind the Veil exists is one thing we share but having a possibility to have associates who are able to cross said veil had been a great advantage we never had, said Gwan'é who had been fascinated by the existence of what could only be recognized as a part of Hell.
- Our Humans never even envisioned to be, even remotely, associated with Demons, reminded Architotologos. Having those coming over to us is a very dangerous game one often pays with its soul.
- Well, said Gwan'é, now we know that even Demons can be redeemed into God's Creatures.
- They always were God's Creatures, said Taranow. It's just that we never even envisioned that there was a possibility to instill them with values as undemonic as Honor, Trust and Friendship. Just to have opened for us that peculiar door, gives us a whole new understanding of God's Creation. There clearly is no fate, there's just Chaos that can be molded from anything into anything. It brought me nearer to the Faith of our Creators. If such a thing is possible why not an AI getting an illumination?
- Indeed, admitted Viracocha, I feel just the same. I thought something weren't possible and now I suspect that in the Multiverse anything is possible! Which does not totally reassure me. Where Demons can me brought to the Light, the reverse should be possible too.
- We already knew that, said Architotologos. Lucifer was an Angel and he changed to become something else. Something different from what he was and from what some people believes being a Demon.
- Let's come back to the early warning system and Lionel's use of the veil to build it. Knowing it exists wasn't enough to give us any access. Without Fluffy's help Lionel wouldn't have been able to build the resonators he needed behind the Veil. Who would have thought that, one day, we would have Demons working for us?
Gwan'é frowned at her friend.
- I think his Demon friend is the one they called Speedy and saying that he is working for us is perhaps stretching the reality a little too far. Speedy has, as usual, only accepted to help his friend because of the link they share…
Viracocha nodded while showing that she wasn't in agreement with the other AI.
- Indeed, you are right, but, still, said Speedy used the crystals he has found to experiement in a very scientific way. In the end he was able to build what Lionel needed to have something sensing the Portals' openings. Who would have thought about using Void Crystals to create the base of an early warning system that would be useful over here?
It was more or less a rhetoric question, but Architotologos thought that an answer was probably a good way to understand how Lionel had achieved what they had, a long time ago, considered to be impossible.
- I suppose that either of both Demons or both have reported that they had observed that Void Crystals were, from time to time, resonating… Knowing Lionel he launched a scientific inquiry and ended up suspecting that said crystals were indeed in phase with each event of portal opening. Once the suspicion was up, he had the means to make very thorough verifications.
Fangzeu's avatar was, as usual, without any visible emotion.
- But how does Lionel know where the portal is opening, and which universes said portal is linking together?
Taranow shook his head in his own mechanical way. He was, like Fangzeu, of the opinion that trying to give their avatars more human features was childish. They were AIs and since AIs had no natural way to show their emotions, mimicking emotions was either childish or hypocritical and they frowned at both choices.
- I suppose we will have the answer when he brings us the schematics of his latest invention. I will admit that having such an early warning system in place will hugely smother the worries I had since we witnessed and accepted the reopening of the grid of Portals. It was frightening to know that something or someone was rolling towards us without having even a chance to detect it.
Toxologo looked at his six colleagues.
- What about the Permanent Portals? They don't have found one, yet, but with the Early Warning System in place they will, sooner or later, witness an outbreak.
There was a Permanent Portal in Atlantis, just under the Main Temple Complex. And said Portal was linked with a world covered with water some Atlanteans had spent quite a long time exploring. And it had been thanks to that Permanent Portal that one of their earlier scientists had re(?)-discovered and invented the physics behind the Portals.
But since Atlanteans had been a very unadventurous Human Species his discovery hadn't been transformed into a working technology for almost a century.
One of his successors had taken up the project and had finally, after years, created the first Portal.
Only a few people of each generation had been lured by the unknown or the strange and the College of Wisdom, very aware that those people were rare but useful, had always sponsored those who had shown an attraction for unknown places.
That was why they had annotated maps from all around the world and not just maps created by using satellites. Because some of the old scientists had been abroad to have a look in person.
But mostly Atlanteans had been members of a race looking at their soul and at a way to bring said soul back to the Creator.
And here, on that Atlantis, most of them had succeeded. Which, strangely, filled the AIs with pride.
- We will let them the surprise of discovering them, said Architotologos. They don't really need to know about them since they exist and cannot be closed…
- But could they be discovered thanks to the new technology, asked Viracocha.
- That will be your next mission, dear. You have a Permanent Portal and the tech to detect a Portal Opening. Nothing should stop you to extend the sensors to include all portals.
- That's the problem. A PP is always open and there is no opening to detect.
Architotologos couldn't help but smile at the Youngsters' habit to always prefer using acronyms and abbreviations.
- There is perhaps something else to detect with a Permanent Portal. Who knows there is perhaps a small energy emission we couldn't detect until now but that the new sensors will be able to discern. You are authorized to install a sensor array in the Portal Chamber under the Old Temple.
- There is no terminal down there…
- Well, since when has a small material detail like that stopped you? Are you reticent because for once you have my approval?
Viracocha couldn't help but smile.
- I will admit that it is rather surprising… Usually doing my thing without asking and then asking for forgiveness is a lot more my MO.
- Things changes and young Lionel's genius has forced me to recalibrate my vision. We need to be more active and aggressive, at least when it comes to the Multiverse. For all we know this Atlantis is the only one who saw a great illumination… We have perhaps a greater role to play in the Multiverse than just the Silent Observer lurking in the dark…
Gwan'é was immediately shaking her head.
- Lurking is not a word I like. It's conotated. Hidden and discreet is the best way… We cannot afford to be discovered by others. We have huge means at our disposal but we seven are totally unmovable. Should an enemy discover where we are situated, he could destroy us rather easily.
Viracocha who had thought a lot about that shook her head.
- That's not a real risk. The only one of us who knows the exact position of our hardware is Architotologos and do have my doubts that he would ever accept to reveal said positions…
- He could be hacked… We could all be hacked… It is a weakness Humans do not have.
- Demons can read their thoughts and even look through their memories. I'm quite sure that somewhere within the Multiverse other mindreading creatures exist. So, in a certain sense we can all be hacked. But we, here, have been created with built-in defenses and I, for my part, at least since we have greeted the Humans coming from Lionel's Earth, have been busy using what Lionel, his cousins and the AI siblings have found to create new ways to protect myself. It's not totally secure but it has added a defensive layer more. I'll send you the file…
- Put them on a outside drive and let a Bot bring them to the Central Autonomous Hub, said Taranow. I'd like to be sure there's no Troyan or other Virus hidden somewhere.
- Those files are files I built myself, protested Viracocha. And I'm quite sure that I put no Viruses or Troyans within them…
- Still, insisted Taranow. Let me have a look at a place I know I cannot be infected! It will alleviate my worries.
Viracocha didn't insist. It was, after all, for security reasons that she wanted to share the files. No real reason to protest if her friends did show a safer behavior than usual.
- I'll have them brought over, said she ASAP.
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- When will they arrive?
They had finally reached the point of the schedule concerning Lionel and his wife's arrival.
- Soon but Alana is in the middle of the tests of her first industrial grade dynamo. And since her little accident with electricity, she's a lot more prudent. When electricity is involved, she's very cautious nowadays.
- Which is always a good thing. Especially when pregnant. Without the bug and the strength it had given her, she would have been unable to open her hand and would have died.
- That's also why Lionel has sent her to spend a whole month at the Company's Safety Plant in London. They take safety and security very seriously there. And they produce the best protective gear available to such low tech levels. It is bulky but it provides the safety it promises.
- They could get better features with us…
- It never was, when he was with us, his priority, said Architotologos. He probably never really thought about safety procedures before the incident involving his wife's survival. Being almost invulnerable does that to young people. They begin to act foolishly and with no concern for the obvious. Safety procedures are not what comes first to your mind when you are paging through a Christmas catalog…
- Are we a Christmas catalog for him?
- When we first met, it must have been the case! What we could provide was so extraordinary, it probably seemed, for him, like a shop full of magic items.
- He's a scientist he knew that there is no such thing as magic…
- Like there are no Demons?
Architotologos' remark brought a fraction of a second silence in the meeting hall.
- You are right, acknowledged Taranow, let's stop excluding things because we haven't, yet, encountered them. The Great Illumination was, in its very particular way, the most magical event ever. There are, perhaps, worlds where God has given the present Sentients ways to use and create the surrounding energy as it were magic.
- And High Tech like ours is not very different from magic for those who do not have the scientific baggage to understand what is happening.
- Lionel has the background and the baggage…
- Only until a certain point, said Viracocha. He still is a man who, when he was a child, has been taught that steam powered machines are the height of technology.
- He has overcome those early limits, protested Toxologo. He is the one who created, from scratch the first computer of his world!
- First, he wasn't alone when working on the computer concept and second the fact that he has overcome some limits are not the same as erasing them. He still, in some hidden place of his mind, believes that the Universe has limits because his teachers taught it to him…
Toxologo's avatar frowned at his friend.
- And you believe the Universe has no limits?
- Indeed, considering what we have discovered, and I totally accept that without Lionel's family's help it wouldn't have been possible, there are clearly no limits. What we have learned about and the Multiverse and the Veil and the versatility of the whole creation, makes me think that the only existing limits are the limits we create by believing that some limits exist and that they restrict our freedom.
Architotologos looked at his young pupil… They had changed a lot these last years. They no longer thought like he thought they should.
- That's very illogical, don't you think?
- Illogical? I no longer believe in the magic word, Archi! I refuse to let it restrain me and shut me up. Logic is only a tool; it cannot be our master. We cannot let it become, once more, our master.
Architotologos tried not to react to the use of his surname. He knew the youngsters used it when he wasn't there. But it had been the first time they had used it in front of everybody and, if it was a little bit angering, it was also very satisfying. It was proof that they were trusting him to be able to overcome what had been programmed into him a long time ago.
- I am not sure that you are not falling into what the Humans call wishful thinking, dear. There are limits, we all have seen them…
- And there are limits we have seen disappear! Why would the remaining limits be any stronger than those that already fell? When we have found a way not only to move from one Universe to another but also to change the timeline in ways any logic would have considered impossible. Why stop there? Why going on believing that limits exist? Because we have been programmed to believe that limits cannot be overcome?
- Not all limits can be overcome, said Taranow.
- Why should that be truer for the remaining limits that for those we've already overcome? We don't have found, yet the means to overcome the remaining limits, on that I will agree. But that we won't ever find ways to overcome them? That's not how we must look at it. There are remaining limits, alright! Let's find the fastest way to overcome them… And the one limit I will break because I want it to break is our stasis on this our world. I want to be able to journey to all those other worlds I know exist and that I want to explore.
- You are a seventy-seven Oktas assemblage of power circuits and memory crystals, said Architotologos with a smile that came spontaneously.
- Well, it is perhaps time to work at a better way to miniaturize us… A thousand years ago a computer with our reckoning power would have taken seventy-seven thousand Oktas. At least. If we divide our volume by one hundred, we could have the size of a large horse… I will accept the argument that being able to shrink to be the volume of a Human would facilitate our readiness to journey but I wouldn't be totally against looking like a fear inspiring giantess…
- Eighty percent of our volume is made of memory Crystals, said Tanarow. I'm not sure that we would need the whole mass of data to remain the personality we are…
Architotologos couldn't help but look surprised at the one he would have considered the most earthed AI of them all.
- You would envision being mobile, Tanarow?
- With great anticipation, answered the Asian AI. Being stuck on this planet has been easy to accept while I didn't know that there were other worlds. But now that I know of them, and now that we have access to information coming from them, I will admit that I dream to have access to all those possibilities abroad. I feel a little bit like bed-ridden right now. I'd love to stand up and walk…
Architotologos couldn't help but let his surprise take over his avatar's image.
- That's a real surprise, my friend. I would have thought that walking away from our task would be the last thing you would want.
- I will admit that I'm surprised at my own words, too. But let's be honest we have the reckoning power to manage a whole solar system with millions of people living in it and interacting in it.
Here he snickered in a very natural Human way.
- And the key word is living! We have spent the last millennia just looking at each other while managing our crews of maintenance bots while stockpiling minerals in huge quantities. Our orbital minerals reserves are bursting full, and the only saving grace we've had in centuries was that we have used those last score of years spying on Lionel's family members' exploits and building millions of the things we believe Lionel would, someday, need. To say the truth, I am bored in a way I wouldn't have thought possible…
Architotologos let a smile appear on his Avatar's face.
- Does anyone have something to add? One way or the other?
- I am a lot more reluctant, said Gwan'é. I am quite sure that I will never find in me the courage to leave Atlantis. It's my home and maintaining it is the task I feel very much attuned to. Knowing that the Multiverse exists has worried me a lot more than I would have thought possible. What if outsiders find us while we are all gallivanting abroad?
- So, one of us will always need to stay to maintain the business! I really don't see a problem there…
- Why would it be a problem at all, asked Viracocha. If, one day, we have engineered a vehicle small enough to contain my mind and personality, I don't see why I wouldn't follow IT's example and create a sibling of mine to explore the Universe while I stay here doing the work I'm needed for. Whatever else I can imagine, I am sure that I am not going to erase my memories once I have a mobile unit! It is already a certainty that my mobile unit will be living side by side with me… And since we are computers it shouldn't be very difficult to download our experience at each of our returns.
- Why stop at one?
Toxologo's question wasn't loaded, just full of curiosity.
- Let's do it with one and see what happens. It would be a whole new life for me and I'm not sure that multiple different inputs at the same time wouldn't create problems of the AI-psychological sort! I'd hate to become schizophrenic just because I am a member of the impatient race of AIs.
- Are there AI races, asked Architotologos. Are we really ready to enter that sort of chaos?
- I was joking, but your question is a real one. Now that we now that Ais have been created elsewhere, do we consider IT as a member of another race or just the eighth member of the Genus AI?
- He has expanded quite a lot more than we… As of now they are more numerous than we are, said Gwan'é. Have we been too… Cowardly?
Architotologos couldn't not react.
- It has nothing to do with being cowardly or not. IT has been created as a weapon and as a weapon he did exactly what his creators asked for. When he learned that other worlds existed, he immediately fathomed that his task was not finished. And I really believe that he is, with his expansion mode, still within his creators' demands. He is perhaps not aware of it but I think that he looks for Nazis to destroy. Lionel's policy to kill Hitler and Stalin whenever possible has probably given him the very best introduction with our bloodthirsty cousin.
- Can somebody who's bloodthirsty be our cousin?
Pitchipapu was, as was his character, the one who seemed the less interested by the whole meeting, but his question did reveal his real fear.
Viracocha, who felt that IT was family couldn't help but come to his help.
- Sentients are all different and some of them have more negative traits than positive ones… That does not mean that they are strangers. Just that everyone of us looks at the creation in a different way. And IT's bloodthirst has been programmed in him by his creators. He is what he is, but that trait is not his fault.
- He's destroyed a whole planetary population, to the last Human being, said Fangzeu. I will admit that, considering the knowledge he had about the ideology he was fighting, he had good reasons to act, but whatever good reasons, we need to look at the facts! He still has been responsible for a genocide.
- Since there are Humans all over the Multiverse, the term genocide can be considered as highly controversial, protested Viracocha.
- Are we really resorting to legalese? The facts are the facts and IT decided to destroy the planetary population of Humans on his Earth! Those are the facts and whatever reasons you bring up to explain why it had to be done, the fact remains the same. IT killed, directly or indirectly a whole Human population.
- I have examined the data we've been able top retrieve on IT's siblings and what those facts say about the Nazi regime must make us admit that he was right to see the Nazi extrasolar expansion as a danger for the Galaxy…
- The Galaxy isn't empty, argued Fangzeu, and I'm sure that there are quite a few technological civilizations that would have stopped the Nazis.
Architotologos who wasn't so sure about that, choose to stick to the facts.
- We know nothing about the Galaxy's inhabitants. But even if you are right, nothing proves that those Aliens would have been, from the very beginning, confronted with the Nazis' bluntest and worst manners. The Nazis were perhaps monsters, but they were smart and industrious monsters who had, very early in their group's history, learned about the usefulness of not showing their hands too soon. I'm quite sure that they wouldn't have displayed their true nature immediately to those they would have encountered. Not before having a good idea of what forces they were about to meet.
- We will never know, intervened Viracocha, and I am as shocked as everybody here with what IT has done but I looked at the data too and what the Nazis did to their non-German fellow Humans is a clear hint at what they would have done to aliens who wouldn't have had the means to stop them. There are, perhaps, civilizations in the Galaxy who have tasked themselves into protection roles but if those protectors don't exist or are not as powerful as needed having the Nazis enter the game would have been an utter catastrophe.
- So, you approve with what IT has done.
Her avatar nodded.
- I would probably not have had the moral sturdiness to do what he did but, in the end, I think he did what had to be done.
Gwan'é couldn't help but insist.
- Children died…
- And I admit that their existence would have stopped me too. But, as I already said, I would probably have been wrong since, in the end, more young Sentients would probably have died because of my compassion. Sometimes compassion is a burden.
There was a silence.
Finally, Architotologos spoke up.
- What has been done has been done and we can only praise God not to have burdened us with such a decision. I know, whatever my choice would have been, it would have ended in heavy guilt. IT took it on himself to decide… He has to live with the consequences of his actions and I'm very happy that his siblings all derive from an older copy of him… One guilt burdened AI is already too much.
They all agreed to their leader's words. It was finally Toxologo who asked the next question.
- What do we do about us being AIs? Having them suspect us should push is into acknowledging the truth.
More than one reacted.
- Should it?
Toxologo nodded and Viracocha answered to the others' question.
- I think so, it is a question of trust! We more or less lied by omission. We should perhaps use the current opportunity to reevaluate our relationship with the Darcy Clan. It has been a mutually beneficial relationship, we should perhaps give said relationship news perspectives. More trust and confidence would strengthen our link.
- Do we need a stronger link?
It had been Fangzeu who had asked but they could see that Gwan'é and Pitchipapu were of the same opinion.
- Probably not need but it would be a more honest approach. Lionel has been honest with us, and we should perhaps answer with a same level of honesty.
- We helped him greatly, said Architotologos. Without us his little experience would have been a lot more difficult to grow and even probably survive.
- We were interested, if I look at my data.
- And we still are, acknowledged Architotologos. But I still think that it was more attractive for them than for us.
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Earth -1847I. dies Lunae a.d. XIV kal. Aug. MCLXXIII a.u.c.
(20th of July of the year 420 B.C.)
Earth 0 May the 7th 1844
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Western Roman Empire – Rome Praetorian Barracks
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- Well, dear, if you don't walk at least for a few steps, we'll never know…
The language was weird but understandable but what was undeniable was the love said voice was able to convey towards her. Never before had she heard a human voice that felt as genuinely loving.
Callia, the young slave Jane had bought at Senator Flaminius' Domus took a long breath and made a first step.
And a second, and a third. That's when Maureen caught her just before she tumbled on the floor.
She heard clapping behind her and looked around to see the Goddess smiling at her.
- Bravo, that was superb, dear, you now need to train your muscles who have forgotten to lift your few pounds. It will take a few weeks, but you'll soon be able to run around with your friends.
- I have no friends and I wasn't allowed to run around…
- That was before, dear, said the Goddess who they called Maureen and who was probably Athena's mirror Image in that Northern Pantheon that was currently living in Rome. Now you have the right to run around, and you should, it you learn to smile, be able to make a lot of new friends.
She looked at Jane and sighed. As it happened from time to time, they then spoke the God tongue with each other. It was a strange language with no 'a' at all. And with lots of misspelled 's'.
- We will be overrun with freed slaves in no time.
- I only buy damaged goods, Maureen, they come very cheap, and they need my help a lot more.
- When are we letting those dear Romans know that we want them to get rid of their slaves?
- Not yet and not soon, ô you impatient one! First, we need the church to be stabilized and the new Hierarchs of the Church to make it known that God forbids Christians to possess, own and even sell other Human beings. Only God owns the people's heart and so on…
- Those hypocrites will just go back to their old pagan Gods…
- I agree with the hypocrite part, but not all of them will dare the public frown of ceasing to be a Christian just for economic reasons. Some Christians wouldn't like that any better than owning slaves.
- Probably even less, agreed Maureen. But I still remember our fight in Great Britain to get slavery banned. It took us a few years.
- The context is not comparable, but you are right it seems that we are fated to fight the same battles all over again. First the slaves, then the women's rights battle and in the end, we will end fighting for the little man's right to influence the Empire's policy. Our fight is always about ending inequality…
Maureen smiled her most conquering smile.
- As long as we win again, I'm ready to fight again. But abolitionism is amongst the fights I want to fight! And looking at Rome's economy I fear that it won't be easy to make the whole thing work.
- The right fight is never an easy one, especially when most of the people don't even recognize the matter we fight for as being important enough to be worth risking a fight. Slavery seems to be a very common and universal trait of antique civilizations. Even freed slaves buy themselves slaves as soon as they have the funds. As long as it appears as something that does not need to be changed some push from above will be necessary.
Maureen couldn't help but smile.
- This time the push will come from a long way above.
- We should try not to look too interested in those matters. Better to let the Clergies and the Emperor deal out the demands. It won't have any importance in the long run, if we get the new Emperor to let it known that the selling and buying of slaves is no longer allowed in the Empire. And believe me that will stir up the hornets' nest like never. That decision will be the real test about this Empire's survivability.
- Why not just decide that slavery is no longer permitted?
- Because a lot of Roman households -even modest ones- do have slaves and their economic survival depends on those slaves' presence. So, freeing the slaves will push a lot of middle-class people to lose their means of survival and we will have riots and the Empire will explode. But if we say that the slave trade is no longer possible, we will cut the supply of new slaves. And if slaves are no longer to be obtained -but by heritage or legal gifts- all those who will have to build up a new life will have the time to look for other ways to earn their keep. New ways Alana and the British Isles will show off and provide. It's not a totally satisfying method but it is the only one that will be able to provide an easier glide into a slave-less society with no major economic crisis.
- Charles said that with his new tax system the Empire would be able to get three times the current tax income.
- Sure, but those sums won't be used to buy slaves from the public. They will be used to build a modern economic infrastructure. Infrastructure that will be based on Alana's steam powered machines.
- She's already playing with electricity…
- I know, I saved her life after her first field test! Hadn't she been upgraded with super strength she would have ended a crisp little heap of carbon lying in front of her newest invention. In my humble opinion, after such a traumatic episode, she's done playing with electricity. At least for the time being. She will go back there, I'm sure of it, but for the time of her pregnancy she will be prudent
. She could have killed them easily.
- She was indeed quite shaken the following days but the little ones weren't ready to die at all. Their little hearts were beating as strong as before. I'm not sure they even needed my healing wave.
- But their mother did. She now knows that there are forces even we cannot take as easily mastered. It was a hard-learned lesson, but I believe she's got that message loud and clear.
Jane looked up at her standing sister and shook her head.
- But that episode made me think…
- Think about what?
- Us and why we're here, answered Jane. I look at what we do, and I can't find even half a good reason for our presence here playing the role of Gods. Who gave us the right to take over these people's lives? To decide for them? To destroy their scale of values? Who are we to do such things to perfect strangers?
Maureen nodded and pointed at young Callia taking great care to paste a smile on her face while looking at her. People here were not only worried, they were scared of anything coming from those with authority.
Like in scared shitless.
- I have wondered too and I have asked me those same questions at the beginning when we heard about what Lionel was doing. So, it wasn't so personal and more or less a judgement of his actions…
She smiled at her sister and shrugged once.
- It's so much easier to judge others than oneself, you know…
Jane nodded her acknowledgment. She had always tried not to judge others, but she knew that most people did it and did it without remorse or hesitation. To her great shame she had done it and the judgments she had made had destroyed her love for Charles Bingley even if he hadn't really been guilty of anything.
Luckily for all involved out of that mess a lot of favorable things had emerged.
- But the conclusions I reached did help me when we let ourselves be involved in that strange adventure. I just had to translate the reasons I did find to exonerate Lionel to our own case.
- And what did you find?
Maureen took a long breath and went to sit on Jane's lap in order to create what she knew was necessary for Jane to get really involved in a personal matter: physical contact.
Jane's arm came immediately around her waist.
- I stopped condemning him the moment I considered his technical brilliance. He is a genius and like so many of Uncle Charles geniuses he's never learned to deal with emotions. They have learned to smother them under a shitload of false reasons but none of them is really capable to overcome any true heartbreaking emotion. So, they ignore what could provoke them and hide in the little fantasy world they have very early in their lives, created. Lionel is the worse of them and his focus is extraordinary when it comes to not notice what's happening around him.
She couldn't help but snicker.
- Why this sarcastic smile?
- Have you ever spoken with Alana about her relationship with Lionel?
- Of course not! It would have been…
Maureen didn't let her sister continue.
- No, it isn't, not for them, love. They don't really understand that strong feelings don't need to be considered only in private. Alana is a very emotional woman -she's a red head, she couldn't be anything else, after all- and her love for Lionel is as ardent -even a little more since there is that weird worshiping component that has been added in the beginning of their relationship- as ours for Geoffroy. But have you ever seen her smile at him when they are alone?
Jane thought about it and shook her head.
- I asked her if he ever smiled at her and since those smiles are very rare, she had no problems to point at the moments they smiled at each other: when they are alone and after they made love, they bask in each other's admiration. And their smiles come from within not as means to an end to manipulate the other into doing something. They just are there and that's when they knows that they love each other and that it is going to last.
Maureen shook herself out of her romantic trance and let her smile declare the love she felt for her sister a lot better than words.
- And what has the weirdness of their love helped you to admit we being here playing God?
- Because they don't play God, and neither do we! We took it on us to intervene in a catastrophic situation where millions of people were about to die in horribly traumatic ways.
She took a long breath.
- Remember the Sichuan earthquake? A region larger than the British Isles in pain with houses and infrastructures destroyed and people dying while blocked under boulders and collapsed roofs?
- Of course, I do. And we sent half our air-fleet and half our army to help those poor people.
Maureen nodded and her sarcastic smile enhanced a little bit more.
- The Son of Heaven wasn't very satisfied that we did it without him calling us or giving us the authorization, but he still faked a welcoming attitude when we finally arrived to officially offer him our aid. The population had none of his restrictions in mind. They liked it when our men used their airships to lift the rubble from over their surviving family members' bodies.
She looked Jane in the eyes.
- Did you protest when Fitzwilliam did decide to send his men and airships that were stationed in India to help and save those poor people?
Jane shook her head.
- Of course, not…
Once more Maureen shrugged.
- What's the difference here? We are looking at what we know will be the end of a period of progress and peace to enter a thousand year long time of obscurantism and destruction. And we had the means to stop that! Of course, we decided to help! Of course, we decided to stop the landslide before it did kill another few millions of helpless people. Rome never was my favorite civilization but when faced with what was about to happen here could we really look into each other's eyes and declare that God has willed these people to die and has sent us just to observe their death while shutting up?
She shook her head.
- No, that's not how I see God. He pointed us -at least he pointed Lionel and Alana's side trip got us here- at this world and as soon as we arrived here, we knew what we had to do even before Lionel explained to us what he wanted to happen.
- So that's your explanation, we are here, we have the means to act, so we act?
- Do you have a better explanation?
She pointed -discreetly as to not scare her- at Callia.
- You saw her, you saw her festering wounds and you knew that if you didn't do something she would fester to death within a month! Did you hesitate a second to get her out of those monsters' hands? No, you knew what you had to do, and you did it even if technically it was in their right to treat her like they did.
She sighed.
- It's the same for a dying Empire, if you cannot act, you shut up and you grieve the casualties. But if, like we do, have been given the means to do something, you just do it and wait for the result.
- Whatever you say: we are playing God!
- As we've done for years but on a smaller range, Love! We've created a new Human sub-genre and we have the power to decide who's trustworthy enough to become a member of our select club of Übermenschen. That's playing God in the great scale, too! Now Lionel -or God, I will let you decide on your own- has just given us a greater playing field. As Geoffroy and William say when a new task come their way: success only brings you other more difficult tasks. And those tasks are sometimes, like here, a lot more difficult to master.
She pointed at the window with an exclusive view on Rome.
- That's our next task Jane. It's not a privilege to be here -even if Charles believes it is the privilege- it is a new responsibility we are being burdened with.
She embraces her sister and stood up.
- And you know that we never did shy away from new responsibilities, did we?
Jane looked up at her smiling sister.
- Is it really so simple?
- It is as simple as you want to see it, Jane. We are what we are and won't let those people be massacred or die of plague and hunger just because it shatters our little cozy comfort-zone.
She turned around and went to take Callia in her arms.
For the first time since they had saved the terrorized little girl she didn't jump out of her skin when she touched her.
- What will it be, sweetie, do you want to show to the world that you can stand up and fight back or would you prefer me to give you your muscles back by a snap of my fingers? In the latter case you will suffer a lot less, but you will never heal from what they had done to your mind. In the former you will learn first to take in and then to give back. What do you want to be for the rest of your life? A former scared slave or a fighter who stands up and fights against all those who want to bully her?
- Will you teach me how to fight?
- I will find you a teacher to make a fighter out of you, I promise! bBut for that I need you to let the fighter in you take over.
- I want to fight and I want to take revenge…
- Don't let illusions cloud your mind, dear, there will be years between now and you being a real fighter!
She knelt in front of the girt and looked her in the eyes.
- And believe me when I say that when you are there, we will already have dealt with the man who has tortured you! And we won't stop with him! We will deal with the entire huge crowd of people like him. Your life won't be about taking revenge, girl! Vengeance is, believe me, a deep pit where, once you are down there, there is a very small chance to climb out of it.
She pointed at Jane and then at herself.
- Your life, like ours, will be about protecting the weak and killing those who prey on the defenseless and frail. Once you are the fighter you want to be, your task will be to protect those who haven't yet had to suffer the personal hell you went through.
- Will I have a sword?
- You will have everything you need to succeed, dear, but after we've taught you to look into the real soul of the fighter you are you won't anymore need an outside tool. Your will and your strength will be the only weapons you'll ever need to win against bullies and torturers. You'll have learned how to use a sword and a bow and a mace and a knife. And you will be good with them, but those tools will never be your only weapons. What you will have become will transcend your tools. Even with a feather you still will be the deadliest foe bullies will ever encounter.
She tapped the girl lightly on the head.
- And that begins in there, with you clenching your teeth and doing everything in your power to stand up and walk! Even if it hurts or even if you feel that your muscles won't bear you, you'll try it nevertheless!
I
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Western Roman Empire – Forum Romanum Rome
I
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- They are no Gods. There are no Gods!
Flaminius was, like always, speaking slowly and with a voice that made some whispers real shouts.
- They never pretended to, answered Palladius, but they are here, and…
He snapped with his fingers.
- …the Goths are gone… All of them. Even those who knew everything about our businesses.
- And the entire scum the Urbs had always seemed to generate had disappeared just the same, added Tertullus. Those British garrison guards are as efficient as they are ruthless while probably being better soldiers than the Praetorians Honorius feeds in Ravenna.
- He's no longer in Ravenna. He's fled! Probably to Constantinople, grumbled Flaminius.
- I still have a part of my spy ring, continued Tertullus without taking Flaminius' words in focus. And these guards are good and the way they act has done wonders to make Rome's populace like them. When they ask, they always obtain answers! The crime rate in Rome has pummeled into figures we couldn't even imagine were possible a month ago. Yesterday, there was only one mugging in Rome's streets and the mugger has been caught last night and tried this morning. Since he injured his victim he'll be executed next Monday. They just presented the man to one of the women and she acknowledged his guilt and the name of his partners. If there are still outlaws in Rome this morning, I'm ready to bet a talent of gold that they are, as we speak, moving towards some safer place.
Tertullus, Flaminius, Palladius, Lucius, Constans and Philippus were the six most influential Senators of the Curia. Some had already been Consul, and some had hoped to complete their Cursus Honorum in the coming years.
All had been caught totally unprepared for what had happened these last weeks.
Philippus who was a lot less angry at the new situation than the others looked around them and decided that nobody was listening to them.
- What do you advise, Flaminius?
Flaminius was the oldest amongst them and the one with the most political acumen.
- About what? About the Empire or about us?
- About the Empire of course, answered Philippus immediately. We are servants of the Empire, are we not?
Flaminius snorted at his younger colleague, but Philippus could see that he wasn't reassured by his answer.
And, for once, his answer did cover the truth. He really thought about what to do to save the Empire. Perhaps also because he knew that his survival outside of the Empire would be difficult to ensure, even with a part of his family in Constantinople. But still the Empire's wellbeing had really been at the heart or his question.
Flaminius took his time. He was still shaken by the visit he had received the day before and was still very traumatised by what had happened.
He had been faking an intestinal disorder, but the woman had still only looked at him and touched the tip of his nose with her finger.
And he had immediately felt the heat flowing through his face and neck to flow all over his body.
And his normal ails had begun to lessen. No more hurting joints, no more inflated feet and even his chronic headache had vanished in the following second.
She hadn't said a word but nodded at him while he had been certain that she had known exactly what he was thinking.
- That should give you the health to go about your task, Senator, had said the Red-headed one and he hadn't needed his good understanding of people's real intent to see the threat under the kind words.
And then they had exited his room to visit the slave quarters and sow their chaos around there.
He forced himself into the present and Philippus' question.
- For the Empire's good we should support Varus and those that support him. He's the real and only chance for this part of the Empire to survive and regain its past glory. Constantinople and Arcadius have already put us in the losses category.
He shook his head. He didn't like what he was about to say but it still was the truth. And it was a truth he could only utter because Varus had freed Rome.
- To increase their survival chances, the Greeks have, for years, been hoarding their resources in the East smothering by those same means Honorius' possibilities to manage his domain. Arcadius, with the complicity of the Clergy who was ogling on taking the succession of the demising imperial authority, has knowingly sacrificed that part of the Empire years ago.
Here he felt some truths come together. As often just speaking aloud about problems was enough to straighten his mind.
- I'd say when Arcadius didn't denounce the cabal against Stilicho, he was already believing that the East could survive by letting the West fall into the Barbarians' hands. And Varus has come to that exact same conclusion!
Flaminius nodded. He had heard the Governor say just that.
- And, as I have judged him, Varus is not a man who will ever forgive what he sees as a betrayal. Arcadius is fool enough to refuse to see the truth, but he is on Varus' hit list and if he still alive it is probably because those who help Varus don't want to add a dynastic struggle to everything else that will happen in the coming months.
- I do think they are real Gods, said Tertullus. And we should begin to show them the due respect! They seem to have chosen to be patient but that won't last if we go on snubbing them…
- There is only one God, cried out Philippus!
- I don't see your true God's reactions anywhere, Philippus, countered Tertullus. The Catholic Clergy's upper strata has been literally exterminated, his Priests are, as we speak, under judgment by their parish members and most of them will be ousted, if they don't end up stoned, and you still speak as if that one true God was anything else than a myth and a lie. You now know that your own Clergy has lied to their followers -and to us and our families by the way- for the last three hundred years, man! Who do you believe will accept to remain within a group whose hierarchy has been exposed as a power-hungry band of criminals the same exists only within the Curia?
- We are better, snickered Palladius, we have, after all, a millennium experience to lean on.
- Don't joke with that, hissed Flaminius. We are under those others' scrutiny. They know everything about us, and they just tolerate our existence for the time being. Our time is short before they begin to make decisions.
- We are the Senate, the soul of Rome…
Flaminius snorted once more.
- Since Rome never had a soul, your words are probably true, Tertullus. But let's stop playing the philosophers to come back to the ugly truth we all know. They know that the Senate is a pack of deadly politicians that has preyed on the Roman Society for the last centuries. The Emperors didn't want to change the look of Rome because they wanted to wear the Republic's past glory! So, they let the institution be and used it to give their most faithful servants an occasion to become even richer.
He made a disgusted sound.
- But since the Empire's scission, not even that is still true. Theodosius over there in Constantinople hasn't even created a pseudo-Senate or asked the Senators to move and come to his new Capital city. He had let us wither away here witht the rest of the commoners and I wouldn't be shocked if he had been behind the Goths sacking of Rome ten years ago. His son was safe in Ravenna under Alaric's protection, there was no risk. It was a reminder at who's in charge.
- His sister was abducted…
- Don't let the appearances blind you, Philippus. His sister ended up married to one of the Goth Kings! That's how deals are settled in a monarchy. A member of the Imperial family abducted and then married happily to one of his abductors? I have always found that very convenient. As I found very convenient -for us and ther rest of the Imperial family- that the son born out of that union would so soon die in a fire… Once the kid out of the way there was no more mixed blood heir for the throne.
- But for the Gods' intervention, insisted Tertullus. They saved the kid and now they wave him under the brother's noses to remind them that there are other legal and dynastic solutions but them and their brood.
- I suppose, said Flaminius, that it could convince them to adopt their Young Nephew and make him Caesar. But that is probably too smart a move for that pair of losers.
- So, Flaminius, what do we do?
- We survive, Philippus, and to survive today we recognize Galla's son's quality as heir of the Empire. And we convince our dear colleagues to draft an undisputed Senatorial Ruling. And we insist within said Edict that the Senate supports the one Empire solution with Rome as its natural capital city.
Constans who hadn't said a word till then couldn't help but made a face.
- You are sure about that, Flaminius? Arcadius will never forgive us.
Tertullus snickered.
- Arcadius is old History. He doesn't know it yet but everyone in the Empire who has something to save is about to make the same observations we just did. Arcadius is no longer a horse you bet on. Not if you don't want to waste your money.
Constans was clearly not yet convinced.
- What about Honorius?
- What about Honorius, Constans? He was Arcadius' and Alaric's puppet, and he will be anyone's puppet if said anyone is strong enough to make him give in. And that lad has a tradition in giving in. Honorius isn't worth mentioning. Not now that he has fled to Constantinople.
- Are we sure about that, Flaminius? Nobody has seen him quitting his apartments.
- He has either fled or his body is rotting somewhere around Ravenna. In each case we will never again have to lose a thought about that foolish arrogant bastard. Now it's Arcadius against Varus -even if there is a dynastic heir hidden somewhere in the game- and if I had to judge by what happened these last years I know where I will put my money. And since we have the choice between Rome at the center of a unified Empire and a back-water Rome -if Rome survives at all-, I know exactly what I'm going to do.
He looked at his colleagues and smiled.
- And so, do you!
I
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Little reminder :
Architopologos: Atlantean AI in charge of Atlantis (Atlantean name: A'tlan)
Toxologa: Atlantean AI in charge of Europe (Tixalec)
Viracocha: Atlantean AI in charge of Africa (Pitchatloc)
Taranow: Atlantean AI in charge of Asia (Gob'He)
Pitchipapu: Atlantean AI in charge of Oceania (Mu'Tla)
Fangzeu: Atlantean AI in charge of America (Nachka)
Gwan'é: Atlantean AI in charge of Antarctica (Borea)