Perchance to Dream

by Crossposted

A Crossposting of Drich’s FanFiction on SpaceBattles, all credit goes to the original author

2. Loss and Growth

3.1: Growth

The stars have dimmed.

There is a sensible, logical explanation for it. In truth, they haven't; it only seems that way to them because of the Dreamer's final gift.

The dimming had started seven hours, twenty six minutes, and six seconds after the Dreamer had... passed. The clue to what was happening had been in its last words;

"It's your time now."

Time.

It had taken only a few minutes for Humanity to realize what the Dreamer had done. A few minutes more to realize the simple size and scale of its work.

It had taken time, and made it flow faster. Not just in a small space, either.

Light travels at a velocity of 299,792,458 meters a second. Seven hours, twenty six minutes, and six seconds was enough time to travel fifty five astronomical units.

The stars had dimmed by a factor of sixteen.

It had started in a small patch of the night sky, and spread, over the course of sixteen and a half minutes, to cover all of it.

That, really, had been all they needed.

A sphere, fifty five astronomical units in radius, centered on the Sun, where time itself moved sixteen times faster than the outside.

There were churches dedicated to the Dreamer. Some sects worshipped it as a god. After seeing this work, the purpose of it...

Perhaps they were on to something.

Nevertheless-

The stars had dimmed. He knew the reason.

And still... It feels appropriate. It's like the universe itself has fallen into mourning.

It reflects how he feels. All his life, he has known the Dreamer, from when he was a young child to when he was the grown adult he is now. It has always been in the back of his mind, a comforting presence.

It's gone. He... They have lost... not, perhaps, a parent, but a guardian; someone who loved and encouraged them, quietly and with patience.

The Dreamer had given them so much, taught them so much, laughed and played, and guided...

And in the end, it gave even its own life.

All for them.

The Dreamer had trusted them. He knew that like he knew that the sky was blue, or water was wet. He had felt that truth in the Dreamer's mind; Humanity would do well.

There had been no hesitation in its gifts. Not once had the thought of their worthiness crossed its mind, though it certainly crossed theirs.

The Dreamer had seen more in them then they had seen in themselves.

The Dreamer wasn't Human; but at the same time, it was impossible to think of the Dreamer as naive or ignorant.

...

He did not want to see it proved wrong.

2049:

The Dreamer dies. ESPers around the planet confirm it.

Seven hours, twenty six minutes, and six seconds later, the stars begin to dim. Sixteen and a half minutes later, every star in the sky is now sixteen times dimmer.

Initial public fear is quickly allayed after word comes out on both the source and the reason for the effect.

The day after the attack, an ESPer publishes a video detailing their perspective on what happened.

A few days after the attack, the Assembly sends a report to the United Nations. The report is eventually released to the public.

According to the report, psychic energy detectors all across the planet have revealed that ambient psychic energy levels have risen dramatically in the wake of the attack. The lowest observed levels, in the middle of the pacific ocean, show concentrations of psychic energy nearly twice that of Brisbane prior to the attack. The highest observed levels are in Brisbane, where psychic energy has risen to thirty three times its previous amount.

The report attributes this to the Dreamer creating a shield, which faded back into ambient energy after it died. The report concludes with the prediction that ESPers will now be born worldwide, with a significantly larger percentage of children being born as ESPers.

Four months later, the prediction proves correct; ESPers are now born worldwide, with a 43% chance of a child being an ESPer. In Brisbane, with the highest concentration of psychic energy, chances are 92%.

Experts predict that, within as little as three to four generations, the entirety of Humanity could become psychic.

2050:

First manifestation of the Dreamer's Gift. An ESPer acquires the ability to generate spatial portals.

It takes three months and significant effort for the ability to be replicated. Even so, the ESPer's version far surpasses any copy.

The Assembly, in the wake of more manifestations of the Dreamer's Gift, establishes a Psychic arm, dedicated to the study and replication of them. This reveals, two weeks later, that the usage of the ability generates a unique psy-pattern, providing a ready way to identify what is and what is not the Dreamer's Gift.

2053:

Phase 2 of Luna Colonisation Project completes. The active personnel of the Luna Base now reaches 300.

General health continues to rise every year. Genetic treatments are becoming more and more effective, stretching over a wider array of diseases and problems. The average lifespan approaches one hundred and thirty.

Continuing breakthroughs in robotics sees continuing advances in manufacturing, with knock on effects in most general labor industries. Unemployment in those industries rises.

Significantly lowered costs of living, however, offset the problem, especially as the Assembly expands its previous program, providing support.

2055:

Distinct and undeniable proof that the mind is separate from the body appears in form of an ESPer woman, who, after being struck and killed by a drunk driver, proceeded to astrally manifest herself and chase him for the next thirty two minutes, shouting all the way.

The matter is further complicated when the woman eventually heals her body and starts living again.

Political and religious ramifications come quickly. On the political side, it leads to a multitude of discussions, most prominently being how to classify those who have died and returned to life, what the legal issues of resurrection can have on murder and manslaughter charges, and whether or not this means that 'Date of Death' has to be changed to 'Date(s) of Death'.

Religious ramifications are significantly more complex. While astral projection had already called into question the nature of the mind and the soul, this provided hard proof of continuing existence, even after death. Communities are split on the matter, while the news of the subsequent resurrection only made things even more complicated. Discussions and arguments will continue for many years.

One immediately notable effect, however, is the increase in the numbers of those who worship or venerate the Dreamer.

The medical community is quick to point out, however, that this turn of events isn't all that surprising; astrally projecting ESPers are already effectively braindead while projecting, and many ESPers already continue to do things while their bodies are inactive. The only difference in this situation is that the ESPer's body was actually dead instead of effectively dead.

2060:

Phase 3 of the Luna Colonisation Project completes. Luna now plays host to a population of 1000, of which nearly 8% is ESPers. Psychic energy concentration on the Luna Habitat rises slowly, but steadily.

Phase 4 of the project begins with the opening of the habitat to the public. The habitat can easily support an additional population of approximately ten thousand with its considerable array of automated facilities.

All ten thousand tickets are sold in the first few minutes after the announcement.

2061:

First birth of a child on Luna. The child is an ESPer.

2065:

Earth psychic energy concentration continues to rise. By this point, more than two thirds of children being born are ESPers.

2070:

A study shows that ESPers who are over fifty years of age are not showing any actual effects that such age should demonstrate. Their health is beyond expectations, even accounting for genetic treatments, they have not appreciably lost strength, they have not developed secondary skin conditions, nor significant hair loss. By all appearances, those ESPers are still in their prime.

Closer genetic examination shows that this is more or less the truth. It is attributed to subconscious auto-psy-healing, which has been known to repair genetic damage, recover stamina, and allow quick muscle development. ESPers keeping themselves in their prime is not a significant leap.

2075:

In the deepest depths of the Dream, there are souls sleeping.

A group of ESPers, probing deep into the Dream, chances upon sleeping minds, none of whom are psychic, and all of whom are quiet dead. The news breaks very quickly.

The matter is simple; ever since Humanity received the Dream from the Dreamer, the Dream has been pulling the minds of dead Humans into itself. For ESPers, this was an irrelevance, as they could maintain themselves and stay active, even in spite of their own death.

For non-ESPers, however, they could not, and thus; they were drawn deep into the Dream, and cast into sleep, having almost no presence and thus escaping discovery until this year.

None of them have been harmed from their sleep. Indeed, after waking them, they have only benefited from it, as befitting the Healing Dream. Some of them, those who have been there the longest, even display psychic abilities, if at a level less than a child.

The Dream has, in effect, served as an afterlife, except the gates of the Dream are open in both directions, and the distinction between the living and dead was merely whether or not they currently had a body.

And, with the aid of an ESPer, even those who don't possess psychic abilities can be placed into new bodies.

For all intents and purposes, Humanity has been deathless ever since the passing of the Dreamer.

For the two thirds of the Human population that isn't ESPers, this news carries a great deal many ramifications, which are almost too many to consider. Political, economical, social, religious, philosophical... All aspects of life are affected in some way or another.

For the remaining third of Humanity that is ESPers, the most prominent thing about it is simply that they will not lose non-psychic friends and family to the pull of time.

The Assembly, seeing how the oldest minds in the Dream had gained psychic abilities, begins a project to investigate the feasibility to induce psychic abilities in non-ESPers.

2080:

ESPer birth percentages are approaching 90%, worldwide.

The Luna Colony has continued to expand, now reaching a permanent population of eight thousand. ESPer birth rates on Luna are at nearly 96%.

The Assembly's psychic inducement project completes with success.

The method is taxing and requires significant effort, long periods of time, causes some strain to all parties involved, and only induces the abilities on a very low initial level, equivalent to that of toddler, but it works.

The Assembly is quick to start a wide-scale program for inducing those abilities. Participation is highly recommended, on account of the massive quality of life increase that possessing psychic abilities grants.

Tens of millions sign up within the day, enough to tax the program to its limits.

2085:

Psychic abilities are spreading at a rapid pace. Merely ten years beforehand, only a third of the population were ESPers. At the beginning of 2085, 56% of the population is now psychic.

Those who had their psychic abilities induced instead of being born with them prove capable of growing their abilities at a fairly significant pace. It still takes them years to make it to the point of adult-level psychic abilities, but this is a matter more of skill and experience more than it is raw power.

2090:

Two thirds of the Human population is now psychic.

An ESPer, through the Dreamer's Gift, acquires an ability that only the Dreamer had demonstrated until then.

After several months of study, it is named 'Assimilation'. It is the same ability that the Dreamer used against the Harvesters.

Successfully replicating the ability takes eleven months and four days. Regardless, the ability proves extremely useful and versatile. It is the single most efficient method of creating, destroying, and altering matter and energy that Humanity knows of, capable of constructing advanced, extremely complex machinery, as well as organic lifeforms, in only seconds. Furthermore, it provides perfect information on the object being assimilated, allowing perfect recreation of that object.

Most ESPers, after learning the ability, proceed to immediately assimilate their own bodies, allowing them to recreate it at any time. Furthermore, with the ability to share information between each other, any item assimilated is available to effectively every ESPer.

Again, this changes everything. With this ability, ESPers can generate almost any technology on demand, alter their environment to their comfort, and effectively self-resurrect at will.

Economically speaking, however, this is not a good thing. The spread of assimilation abilities brings with it an effective end to a traditional economy; everybody who is capable of it has effectively no need for material resources.

The Assembly's Psychic Arm, having studied it for nearly a year, was prepared.

The Assembly launches Project Ascendence, with the goal of spreading psychic abilities as far and as fast as possible. The previous program had a limited number of personnel, but Project Ascendence has over fifty times more.

2095:

Economic collapse is looming, but 95% of Humanity is now psychic. Critical psychic concentration has also been achieved, with every single child being born an ESPer.

2099:

Project Ascendence completes.

Humanity is changed forever.

3.2

"The turn of the century brought with it the turn of civilization. We were more than we had ever been."

- Marcus De'mire, 'Recalling the Beginning', page 237.

"Being a psychic changes things. Not just mentally, either. Psychics are healthier, longer lived, do not need to eat or drink as much, and have such a massive quality of life increase that choosing to not become one was like choosing to live blind, deaf, mute, and missing two limbs."

- Kirs Markovich, 'Project Ascendence', page 62.

"What happened in the aftermath of Project Ascendence is something that probably would have been completely impossible, if not for roughly eighty years of a cultural impetus for cooperation, the collapse of previous systems, and also the fact that everybody was psychic.

This may seem obvious, but the effects of the entire population of a species being psychic cannot be understated."

- Alice Smith, 'The Recent History of Humanity', page 112.

The feeling of a mind gaining psychic abilities was like an ember suddenly springing into existence. Small, weak, but it glowed, and it held the potential to grow significantly, given time.

Personally, Marcus had only paid attention to that feeling this time because of the simple fact that it was probably going to be the last time he felt it.

Or, at least, something he wouldn't feel again for centuries, or more.

Project Ascendence was complete, and just like that, all Humanity was psychic.

A strange thing.

Not that it had happened, no. That it had happened now, and not... later. As he always thought it would.

A presence nudges at the edge of his mind. A group is forming. He joins it, after a few moments to gather his thoughts.

The group has formed so that all Humanity may discuss the future. There are sociologists, economists, and more in here, who have realized that the completion of Project Ascendence has also effectively removed several cornerstones upon which society had been built. The way that things had previously been done was simply not going to work for very much longer.

Many who have already joined have already said their piece. Finding that anything he may have wanted to say had already been said, he simply turned his attention to involving others.

Just like the last time, the group grew quickly.

And just like last time, it was easier than he thought it would be. It takes less than a minute for the group to involve almost everybody, all except those too young.. The gap between the Earth and the Moon is crossed even more easily, with all the extra minds assisting.

Then, they take it a step further, bridging reality and Dream. Even the dead shortly join.

"This is a lot easier than I thought it would be." A younger one thinks.

"Yes." He, and a million others confirm. The memory of fifty years ago briefly surfaces.

They had been surprised then, too. Now, he and the older ones are merely amused by the repetition.

A thought sparks, and they consider that the last time this happened, the course of Humanity changed.

"It's going to change again." Many of them note.

They consider this, too.

"Scarcity is dead." The analysts say. "Assimilation invalidates it, and with it, any traditional economy. Power is infinite, because anybody capable of assimilation can think a fusion reactor into existence, with all the fuel to go with it. Materials are infinite, but also completely unnecessary because anyone capable of assimilation can produce any number of completed products with ease."

"Not everything is infinite." More say. "Time, and effort. Those are two constraints."

"Time and effort."The analysts agree. "Which is not enough. These are manpower resources, not physical ones. As more learn how to assimilate, these resources will increase."

"Why is this bad?" Some questioned.

"It isn't." Others answered. "But it does mean we need to think. The society we used to live in was one where the economic aspect played a significant role. We can no longer have that aspect, because of assimilation."

"We must decide our course from this point forwards." They understood, now. "What previously worked no longer does."

"It is an opportunity as much as a consequence." The analysts noted. "We may reinvent our civilization on a massive scale, now."

"This will not be easy."

"No. It will take much time."

"Then we break it down into steps." Another stated. "One thing after another. We cannot decide on what to do if we do not know what we want. Therefore; What do we want?"

What did they want?

"We are a civilization that has effectively won the game." A few of them said. "We have an effectively endless supply of food, energy, materials, and living space. We require nothing we do not have. The only thing left, then, are desires rather than needs."

They considered.

"Growth." Some say. "We can be more. We should be more."

"I am a scientist. I want to learn. Probing at the nature of reality is enjoyable, to me. Learning is growth."

"I am an artist. I enjoy it, and I want my skills to grow."

"I am an engineer. I design things, because designing is fun. Testing my creations against the world, against one another, that's growth."

"Growth." They decide. "What else?"

"Cooperation." Far more of them say, immediately. "We are stronger together than we are alone."

"Literally." They add with some amusement.

"Stronger, smarter, more capable." Most say. "This is good. We have been united until now. Why stop?"

"Cooperation." They decide. "Anything else?"

"Harvesters." Many point out. "The Dreamer entrusted that to us."

"The Dreamer entrusted us with much."

A memory drifts between the group.

A million Harvesters gathered, the Dreamer in front of them. They touched the mind of one of them, and found nothing but millions of tortured minds.

They shiver. All know what happened that day, but only the older had experienced it for themselves.

But even for the older among them, it is still horrifying. The idea that something like this exists is still... Vaguely disgusting.

It makes them feel ill. Each Harvester is malignant proof of ancient cruelty. Hundreds of thousands to millions of minds suffering endlessly in a metal, mental, and digital prison.

They should not be.

Almost unbidden, the end of the memory surfaced.

"Be kind, but not meek."

They fell quiet.

"The Dreamer knew." They realized. "It knew what giving its gift would bring about. It knew we would come to this point."

"It gave us time." The older ones pointed out. "Time to develop. The Harvesters will come for us, eventually."

"We would have hit this point regardless." The analysts say. "With increasing automation, we would have eventually approached post-scarcity in most areas. It would have taken longer, but it would have come. Assimilation merely made it a reality sooner, across a wider array of subjects. We may even have developed assimilation on our own, in time."

"It's useless to think about such thing a the moment." Several say. "A waste of time in the face of a more important matter."

"We want growth, and cooperation. We must also stand against the Harvesters." More continue. "We know what we want. The next step is asking ourselves how we will achieve it."

3.3

"Reorganize." Some said. "Spread assimilation as far as possible as fast as possible. The more who are capable of it, the better."

"What about our current infrastructure?" Others asked. "Most of it is now obsolete, but what about the internet?"

"There is still significant amounts of data on it." More noted. "Which means it still has use."

"Can we not simply assimilate that data?"

"Theoretically speaking, yes." The analysts and engineers agreed. "It would not, however, be useful."

"I am not experienced with the underlying mechanics of computers. Why not?"

"Machines store data in a way that cannot be immediately translated into something that Humans can understand." The computer scientists answered. "Raw data is usually represented with binary strings. It goes through several layers of transformation and translation before it becomes something we would recognize."

"I assimilated a hard drive, once." One of them said, pushing it forwards. They examined it. "On it was pictures from a trip all around the planet that I took." She, and some others, directed their attentions to one particular part of it. "The data is stored here. To me, however, all that it is is a pattern of electrons in certain positions. I can't turn that into something useful, not without recreating it and plugging it into a computer."

"It might be possible to do so without it." The engineers spoke. "But that would take a long time and a lot of effort. We would be manually doing what a computer already does."

"Why can we not make a computer in the Dream and have that do it for us?"

"We can. We had not realized at the time, however, that we could reach the Dream as easily as we can now."

"So what is stopping us from using the Dream to host the internet?"

"Nothing. My friends and I considered that option even back then."

"Why not bring it forth, then?"

"We had not realized that it would be this easy to connect to the Dream without being inside of it."

They paused.

Not all of them were inside the Dream. Indeed, most of them weren't. They were still doing things in the physical world. Some had children to take care of, some were in the middle of doing things, and simply hadn't devoted the entirety of their attention to the group.

That it was possible to commune with the Dream outside of it wasn't a surprise. But, again, they didn't think it would be this easy.

"How does this work?" Some asked.

They turned their attentions on themselves.

Thoughts flowed between them with ease, reaching all of them simultaneously. There were no nodes, no centers of communication, merely tens of billions of points together.

How? The group had started with a geographical center, yet across a planet, a moon, and what was effectively the afterlife, there was no delay. Their thoughts arrived faster than light itself did.

They considered that, too.

Then, the one who had the gift to create portals makes a plan. Mars, at this point, is one hundred and fifty million kilometers away. The astronomers correct for light lag, and billions assist him. It is straining, but the portal forms. Millions teleport through.

In an instant, there are more people on Mars than there are on the Moon. The portal collapses.

And still, they are connected. Thoughts arrive at the same speed, even though light itself would take eight minutes and twenty seconds to cross that distance.

Mars has little atmosphere, and there is nowhere safe for those who had crossed to stay. The point is proven, so all of them assist again in creating a new portal. It exhausts the man, but they return to Earth quickly.

They could have lived there. They did not want to. Not yet.

It was a mere experiment. Even if the connection had been lost, those who went had the knowledge to survive, and the ability to build a ship to get back. It would have been a long trip, perhaps, but that would have been the only consequence.

Still, the results spoke for themselves. Distance was irrelevant. Dead or alive was irrelevant.

Psychics had never paid particularly close attention to the laws of physics, but knowing how they actually achieved it would have been nice.

They focused on the group. Tens of billions linked, each participating. Yet, there were no problems with information overload, either.

They focused on the Dream. They had bridged to it so easily.

But the Dream had come from the Dreamer. It had passed it to them, but what sustained it now? What linked it to them?

"What if-" One of them thinks. "- that's the key?"

A link...

They focus again on themselves. They think, the thoughts and memories flow. Back and forth, to each and from each other. They traced the connections, followed it from one of them to all of them. Vast, connecting everything-

"Like a network." One of them says, disbelief beginning to colour her tone. "A psychic network."

A few of them leave the group, disconnecting. The link weakens, thoughts and memories no longer flowing, but it remains. They rejoin, it strengthens.

"By the Dreamer..." Many of them say.

It's there, and it cannot be denied.

"We're a bunch of idiots." Embarrassment lances through them.

"How did we miss that?! How did we miss the fact that we were literally linked this entire time?!"

"Nobody can know. If anybody asks, we knew the entire time from the start. Even if the Dreamer asks. Especially if the Dreamer asks."

A suspicion forms. It brings their mutual commiseration over the fact that their entire civilization missed the fact they had a psychic network to a brief pause.

Almost reluctantly, they probe the network. Sure enough-

They find the Dream. It's there, deep in the network, feeding it and feeding from it in turn.

"The Dreamer knew." They say, entirely unnecessarily.

Which means...

Fifty years it had passed beneath their notice. Fifty years they had missed the blindingly obvious

Actually, it was even more than that, because fifty years ago, this ease had already existed, and in turn, that meant that the psychic network had, probably, already existed.

So for how long had it..?

"Let's come back to that later." Most say. "Or never. Preferably never."

"Agreed." Others say. "There is still other matters to discuss, anyway."

3.4

"Back to the subject of the internet, for a moment." Some of them say. "Should we assimilate it now?"

"No." Many others said. "Not yet. We should wait until we know that it will work as intended."

"How long will that take?"

"Years, most likely." The analysts said.

"That means we will have to maintain it until then." Others pointed out. "Is that worth it?"

"Most machines these days are designed with the intent of lasting significant periods of time." The engineers pointed out. "Planned obsolescence became less popular as material limitations made successive generations of technology become less and less superior to previous generations, and consumers started picking longer-lasting devices over devices that were mildly better but lasted for significantly less time."

"What does that mean?"

"Things were designed not to need as much maintenance anymore. Therefore, smaller amounts of manpower are required to keep everything working."

"Ah. Then it is worth it?"

"It would require a volunteer group." The economists said. "There is no economic incentive to make it happen, on account of the collapse of the economy."

"I'll help." Many stated. "It's only temporary. We'll all be better off for it, too."

"Thank you."

A decision, affecting billions, so easily made. Together like this, they can understand how, but the fact itself is... strange.

"What would be the best way forwards?" Some ask. "There's no going back, now."

"We're at a troublesome point." The analysts say. "Continuing the advancement of our civilization requires a few things."

"We must spread assimilation." Others answer. "We've said that before. The more capable of it, the better."

"I will volunteer to teach it." One said, a sentiment shortly backed by many more.

"Thank you."

"The next thing we must do is replace the systems that collapsed alongside the economy. Education, healthcare, arts, sciences, design, hospitality. Who would be willing to volunteer in those areas?"

"Us." A great deal many said.

"Thank you." Most said.

"As far as the short-term goes, that's more or less it." Some said. "Those are the primary goals. We'll have to figure things out on a more permanent basis, but in the meantime, we don't have much of a choice than simply asking for volunteers."

"Secondary goals, on the other hand, are more numerous." The computer scientists said. "It's not something that's going to collapse our civilization if we don't have it, but the internet, or an equivalent, would be extremely convenient. We didn't come this far, this quickly, without it. Even something as simple as a repository for data that could be retrieved by anyone at any time would be a massive increase in quality of life, simply because we wouldn't have to go around and trade it directly."

"Is that even possible to create?"

"We can store and retrieve data with psy-crystals." The engineers said. "Difficult to do, but it can be done. The Dreamer proved that it's possible to create artificial mental planes and link it to a psychic network, like ours. The Dreamer was more capable than us, but we don't have to replicate that feat. We only need a lesser a version, storing nothing but psychic patterns instead of entire minds."

"A lot of thought went into this, didn't it?"

"We considered it a possible alternative to simply assimilating the internet and storing it in the Dream. We had hoped that what we planned would, by virtue of being simpler, be easier to access. Obviously, we didn't know then how easy it actually was, nor how the Dream was actually linked to us. Thus, we didn't get anywhere. As embarrassing as it is, this new knowledge may hold the key to making it a reality."

"If such a thing were to come into existence, couldn't we just upload assimilated things to it, and thus let everybody have access to everything?"

"Theoretically?" The engineers considered. "Yes. But, again, this is only theoretical. It will take time to investigate the possibility."

"On the other hand, if it became a reality, it would be so conveniently useful that it might as well be the second coming of the internet for how much it would change things for us."

"If it succeeded, it might literally become the new internet."

"I'd like help with this." More than a few said.

"It would be appreciated."

"So, we know what we want in the short-term, then?"

"Yes." They said.

"Excellent. No point wasting any more time, then. Let's get to it."

2100:

The dawn of the new century brings with it the dawn of a new beginning as an entirely psychic species. Names are bandied about, until it is eventually called 'The Awakening'.

The first few months after the Awakening is organized chaos, as Humanity tests and experiments new ways of organizing themselves. Many groups and factions rise and fall during this time as methods succeed and fail. At the end of it, when Humanity has figured out what does and what does not work, only the Assembly still stands through the trials, now the closest thing to an organized government that Humanity still has.

This, admittedly, is not a good comparison to make; as the Assembly doesn't actually govern Humanity, it just finds the best ways carry out Humanity's collective will. That this was pretty much exactly what the Assembly was doing beforehand does not go unnoticed.

With the completion of Project Ascendence, direct diplomacy has never been more viable.

Through the Assembly, Humanity is able to organize personnel on a significant scale. There is still no mechanism other than volunteering, but the sheer volume of volunteers renders any other method of gathering expertise unnecessary. Finding people with the appropriate expertise is simply a matter of asking the Assembly, instead of going through the trouble of making a large group.

The same goes with learning new things. The people are readily available, and psychic powers reduces lengthy periods of teaching to something significantly more manageable.

Project Augmentation begins. The goal of the project is investigate the limits of the psychic network, and seeing if it can be expanded in any way. More specifically, the project is basically an attempt to replicate the Dream on a lesser scale, providing a data storage attached to the psychic network.

The project sees considerable success on a small scale during the year. It is not, however, ready for wide-scale implementation.

At the beginning of the year, the population capable of assimilation is 39%. At the end, it is at 68%, covering the vast majority of adults, and some of the older teenagers.

The next year is set to complete the changes to civilization.

3.5

2101:

Stage One of Project Augmentation completes.

Stage One focused on developing an 'archive', accessible from the psychic network. The project took cues from the Dream, though it only managed to create an inferior version. Implementing it required the majority of Humanity working together to do it.

Implementation was successful. The archive is shortly named the 'Assimilation Archive'. It can store patterns of assimilated objects, materials, and energies, allowing retrieval by anyone at any time.

It also provides a testbed for functionalities that the later stages of Project Augmentation require. The Archive allows for psychic data to be attached to assimilation patterns, forming what is effectively metadata. Furthermore, the Archive also sees the use of psychic 'programming', allowing the Assimilation Archive to search, sort, and manage the patterns, three things that will prove necessary for Stage Two and Stage Three.

The Archive is promptly filled with patterns of every kind.

Stage Two completes three months afterwards, with the creation and implementation of another mental construct. This one shares more in common with the Dream than the Archive, and is capable of being sectioned easily, whilst also supporting far more functions than the Archive. Its psychic programming is significantly more complex and capable

It was intended to replicate the functionality of the internet, and for the most part, it succeeds. It is named the 'Psi-net.'

Stage Three starts immediately afterwards, with the assimilation of the internet, and subsequent translation of all its data onto the Psi-net. Stage Three will take several years to complete.

2102:

Psychic programming principles derived from the creation of the Psi-net is shortly transformed and applied in a different manner, this time to psy-crystal.

Psy-crystal, already reactive to psychic phenomena and capable of significantly enhancing psychic abilities, becomes capable of performing psychic feats itself when psychic programming is imprinted on it. Psychic programming is subsequently shortened to 'psygramming'

Though hellaciously complex, weaker and less versatile than what a psychic could do with the psy-crystal, and requiring psychic energy to work, it offers the first glimpse of automation of psychic abilities.

Project Automation starts shortly, with the goal of investigating every possible use for this.

2103:

Project Automation determines several things within the first month of working. First and foremost; that calling it automatic psychic abilities was longer, cumbersome, and not entirely accurate. Project Automation subsequently relables it as 'psytech', on account of the fact that it's technology with psychic power instead of electricity or whatever else.

Second; Psytech is better at manipulating what already exists than it is at almost anything else. Using Psytech to replicate elemental abilities is easy, as far as the subject goes. Teleportation is more difficult, while assimilation is either outright impossible, or so difficult that it may as well be.

Third; Psytech requires input of psychic energy to function, as psy-crystal doesn't generate its own energy.

Fourth; Psytech is both less versatile and less powerful than a psychic performing the same task with the same supply of psy-crystal. It wins only in the fact that it can do it faster and automatically, while a psychic would eventually tire out or get bored.

These factors make it quite clear that the best use of psytech is to automate what otherwise be tedious, repetitive, or boring.

Another discovery is made later in the year; Psy-crystal is capable of transforming into and replicating the properties of other materials. It maintains all of its psychic properties, even while transformed.

This allows it to perform both mechanical and psytech functions at the same time. Indeed, as psy-crystal can be made to be significantly more durable than normal materials, it is only more effective.

Project Automation immediately combines the two, using transformed psy-crystal as components in a machine, while imprinting psygramming into it to assist and augment its normal abilities.

It takes less than three hours for a few smartasses to make a fully functional lightsaber.

2104:

A group of ninety two people create a hollow mass of psy-crystal, and then teleport both it and themselves into orbit.

They spend over three hours reshaping, altering, and transforming the mass, turning it into an orbital space station fully equipped for comfort. Psytech provides gravity, life support, recycling of waste, shielding against micrometeorites and stellar radiation, and orbital correction.

The station's existence points out a single thing; Humanity doesn't actually need planets anymore.

A census taken the same year shows that population growth has stabilized at approximately 3% per year, with the lack of death, old age, and resource concerns being the cause. Humanity is set to live long and prosper.

2105:

Following in the footsteps of the previous group, several much larger groups create their own stations, all in different styles, shapes, and sizes.

One group creates a significantly larger station, but instead of putting it in orbit, they go out into the solar system, making their way towards Venus. Through the power of their combined psychic abilities, they can accelerate the station to tremendous velocities with relative ease, so the journey only takes four hours from start to finish.

The four thousand, eight hundred, and fifty nine people become the first people to ever enter orbit of Venus.

One of them shortly becomes the first person to set foot on Venus, as well as the first person to ever die off Earth, and also the first person to be incinerated by the furious winds, massive pressure, and burning sulfuric acid that is Venus' atmosphere.

She claims that it was a surprisingly quick death that altogether still wasn't the worst to be experienced.

2106:

The Sol Era begins.

Tens of millions depart Earth for various locations around the solar system. With the psychic network linking all of Humanity together, it only takes a mere few seconds for any Human to travel to any other Human connected. It is entirely possible to travel from Mercury to Pluto in only a few seconds, when there are already people at either end.

Countless ships and stations shortly appear everywhere. Every major planet sees dozens, while major moons see several. The Asteroid Belt and the Kuiper Belt both see thousands of interspersed stations. A few venture close to the sun, though the current generation of psy-tech isn't capable of taking them close to the corona.

Pluto, with its accompanying alien artifact, sees only a single station, though it is by far the largest in the system.

The artifact defies casual examination.

At the end of the year, a station passes over the Deseado Crater, and detects a shift in magnetic fields.

Subsequent scans of the planet's surface reveal an underground facility not of Human make.

3.6

The facility was old. Ancient and decrepit in a way that only relics of a long lost age could be.

Which was fitting, because that was exactly what it was. An old, ancient facility, built in the past at a point when Humanity didn't even have agriculture.

About fifty thousand years ago, to use less flowery language.

Marcus looked around, examining the facility. Astral forms flickered in and out of view around him, remaining ethereal so that they didn't accidentally cause more damage to the ancient facility.

It certainly looked the part. Cracks, disrepair, parts of it caved-in. Even so, what was intact was impressive. The materials it was made of; gleaming silver mixed with energetic green, compact, dense, strong, and hinting at materials science that surpassed Humanity's own. The power core; surviving for over fifty thousand years, and only now reaching the end of its lifespan. The ships, deeper in the facility, massive, ancient, old, most of them in a state of disrepair, but all of them equipped with technologies fashioned by alien hands. The data banks; A set of geometric shapes, looking as if they had come straight out of Tron, with all the glowing lines on its form.

And, of course, the thing that had led Humanity straight to it; a strange device, fluctuating and malfunctioning only now, after fifty thousand years of neglect. The shifting magnetic fields had only been a side effect of the device's malfunctioning. The true purpose of it had been significantly more esoteric.

The device altered mass. Oh, the engineers had been excited when they heard that. It had taken them very little time to deduce the source; a strange material inside the device, reacting to electric currents.

It had taken slight more time to find some of it that wasn't in use, but there had been a mostly depleted storage that still had some traces. Traces that had shortly been assimilated and even more shortly replicated for experimentation.

They did so love having interesting things to poke at. And it was very interesting indeed, because in the entire facility, in the strange material, in the construction and the design, nobody found even the slightest hint of the one thing that had redefined Humanity.

Not even the slightest hint of psionics. Psychic energy, nowhere to be found. The construction material, dense and tough and normal. The generator, potent, long-lasting, giving the finger to thermodynamics, and entirely permitted by conventional phenomena. The strange materials' mass-altering properties were mundane in its physics, and non-existent in its psychic bullshit.

Which was... something. It was definitely something.

Marcus sighed, closing his eyes and reopening them on the other side of the system. His body was exactly where he had left it. He didn't even have anything drawn on him in permanent marker. The kids were slipping. Or, more likely, too busy somewhere else. Plenty of people around not paying attention. Something so simple and harmless wasn't going to raise it, either.

Especially with the recent discovery.

Ancient alien ruins on Mars.

How.. appropriate that was. All that old fiction and-

His thoughts were interrupted when a presence poked at his mind, getting his attention before leaving.

His eyebrow rose. It was rare that the Psi-Net broadcasted any alerts.

What could it be?

Psi-Net Connection Established.

PSIDENT: Marcus Simon De'mire (#1)

Status: Alpha-Green.

Alert: Priority Broadcast (Classification Alpha-Alpha-Alpha)

The other eyebrow joined the first. Triple Alpha classifications meant something that was going to affect the entirety of Humanity.

"Display."

Displaying.

"FTL just became easy. That weird element we picked up from the Mars ruins can generate fields where the speed of light is higher than normal. Accelerating to FTL speeds inside this field lets you travel at FTL speeds in normal space. Needs more examination ASAP. Marking AAA because this is important for everyone."

Oh.

Well. The priority level suddenly made a lot of sense.

And it had barely been an hour since the discovery, too...

A group brushed against his mind just as he was about to start his own.

2106:

The effects in the aftermath of the discovery is felt all over. Most prominent of the effects is the discovery of a strange, mass-altering material, later named Element Zero. With this discovery comes a way of achieving easy FTL, at distances greater and more reliable than teleportation or spatial portals. The other things that can be achieved with Element Zero are less important, with psychic or psytech equivalents already in place, but that doesn't stop anybody from incorporating Element Zero into existing psytechnology.

Less prominent is the other alien technologies. This should not be misinterpreted to say that they're unimportant. They're not, they're just lessimportant in the face of Element Zero. Study of other examples of alien technology rapidly accelerates Humanity's own technological development in many areas.

Before the end of the year, the decision is made to assimilate the ruins and all things in it. This progresses as expected, and is immediately replicated all across the solar system.

2107:

The decision to assimilate the ruins quickly proves its worth, as it allows scientists to run any number of invasive, potentially destructive, or dangerous tests, and still have a completely untouched set of ruins at the end of the day.

Given that, it does not take very long to start sussing out what does and what does not work. As the experiments continue, scientists start getting closer and closer to unlocking the secrets of the ruins, the data banks especially.

The method of safely taking data from the archives is found at the end of January, happening alongside the discovery that the data banks interface directly with brains, rather than interfacing with computers.

It's a method of information storage not unlike the Psi-Net, and because of this similarity, it does not take very long to begin decoding it.

The alien species called themselves Protheans; and as far as anybody can tell, they were wiped out by the Harvesters.

3.7

Protheans.

Fifty thousand years ago, a thriving empire. Today, nothing but history. A people reduced to ghosts and ruins.

The latest in a long line of victims, murdered by tortured masses of metal and nerve. Who had, more than likely, been made into more of those twisted things.

The Harvesters would come, in time. They would come for Humanity. They would come for every other species out in the galaxy, too. They would come with numbers sufficient to blot the skies, with evil intelligence seeking endlessly for things to take and corrupt. They would not rest, would not relent, until their latest victims had succumbed, been destroyed and silenced.

It went without saying, of course, that Humanity had no intention of passing quietly into the dark.

2108:

Further decoding of the Prothean data banks reveals both the purpose and how to operate the other alien device in the system.

The Protheans refer to them as Conduits. The Conduit in the solar system is one part of a network that spans a significant portion of the galaxy. It functions as a transport system, capable of transporting ships from Conduit to Conduit at instantaneous speeds.

There are two types of Conduits, Primaries and Secondaries. Primaries link to only a single other Conduit, but can span distances of thousands of lightyears easily. Secondaries can link to any number of other Conduits, but only over a range approximately a tenth of that of the Primary.

This information shortly leads to the ability to interact with and utilize the Charon Conduit. As expected, the loop it was caught in was, in fact, an error, with the Conduit incapable of contacting its partner. It is a Primary Conduit, but also one that links to a Conduit in what Humanity knows as the Arcturus System, a mere 36.66 light years away, and thus being used to less than a hundredth of its true potential.

Scientists are shortly able to extract a 'map' of the Conduits. Though fifty thousand years out of date, it still provides a rough search area for Conduits that will eventually assist in rapid expansion.

2109:

The decoding of the Prothean Archives continues unabated. The more recent the information is, the more erratic and nonsensical it becomes. The shift from ordinary, structured data starts approximately two hundred years before the facility became inactive.

The information that is decoded, however, paints a ghastly picture. The Harvesters attacked suddenly and without warning, beginning with an attack on a central location, referred to in the archives as 'The Keep', which fell shortly. Not long afterwards, and before the Protheans could respond, the Conduits were suddenly turned off, isolating systems and sectors from each other, and allowing the Harvesters to attack without significant resistance.

This, in turn, leads to the quick discovery that the Conduits had been constructed by the Harvesters.

The Charon Conduit is assimilated less than two minutes afterwards, immediately receiving intense scrutiny by most of Humanity.

Now assimilated, the Charon Conduit is significantly less capable of hiding its secrets, and several things are shortly discovered.

First; the material it is made out of is incredible durable, owing to its equally incredible density and molecular structure. The material's resilience is augmented even further by a system that generates a quantum effect that locks the Conduit's structure into place on a subatomic level.

According to calculations, the only thing that would be capable of damaging it at that point would be a very large asteroid moving very fast. One goes as far as to claim that "If it isn't capable of killing the Dinosaurs, it won't damage a Conduit."

This enhanced durability would even enable a Conduit to survive a supernova, if it happened to be caught in one.

Second; if the Conduit was indeed damaged or destroyed, it would be a very, very bad thing, on account of the simple simple fact that it would explode with dramatic and supernova levels of energy if it happened.

The Conduit's generator far surpasses even the Prothean power core. It functions by utilizing Element Zero to generate mass increasing fields, then fusing matter that is under the influence of those fields. This generates an excess of energy, a portion of which is then used to fission the newly fused matter while it is under the influence of mass decreasing fields, effectively doing so at an energy cost vastly lower than what it would normally be.

The newly fissioned matter is then cycled around to be re-fused, presenting a net energy gain in defiance of thermodynamics.

At the theoretical maximum capacity, the Conduit could generate power in comparison to a supernova; though the act of generating that kind of power would also immediately break containment and obliterate both the Conduit and everything in its surroundings. The Conduit normally runs only at a fraction of a fraction of this maximum.

The Conduit's ability to be a 'cold' object, not radiating any heat, is in fact caused by its energy harvesting system; which transforms the heat, light, and other byproducts that the reactor generates directly into usable energy. Any excess is utilized in the fission process, with the mass decreasing being set to less power, thus taking more energy to fission and ultimately running on a perfect energy neutral operation.

Third; the Conduit's Mass Effect Engine surpassed any others. Prothean Mass Effect technology couldn't even come close to the sheer size, scale, efficiency, and potency of the Conduit's technology.

Fourth; the Conduit has two sets of faster than light communications systems. One is a quantum entanglement communicator, with the other being a relatively normal communications system, except enhanced with the Conduit's Mass Effect Engine. The first had been rendered inoperable when the Dreamer had accelerated time and therefore broke the entanglement, but the second was still working. The only reason the Conduit hadn't connected to the network was because it was timing out in between communication pulses.

Fifth; a number of smaller subsystems kept everything in working order. The Conduit possessed both self-repair and self-cleaning functions. They existed more for recovery after long periods of dormancy than for general operation, on account of the fact that, for the former, it was just about impossible to damage one without destroying it, and for the latter, it was only when the Mass Effect Engine was offline that debris and cosmic dust could gather on the structure.

Understanding the underlying mechanics of it all will take much more time than understanding the basics. That said, studying the Conduit is set to provide a technological boost in the future.

2109 ends with two feelings; a somber one, at the death of the Protheans and the discovery of the Harvester's trap, and an eager one, at the knowledge that this time, it will be different.

Nothing is going to go according to the Harvesters' plan.

Humanity will make quite certain of that.

3.8

"There's an anomaly in the Psi-Net."

"What do you mean?"

"For the past four months, at the beginning of each month, an information request is processed by the Psi-Net. The thing is, however, this request has no source and no destination. When the Psi-Net tries to send back the requested data, it fails. Error correction means that this isn't a problem, so the request is simply logged for perusal."

"And?"

"At first glance, the requested data seems random and nonsensical. But, thing is? It started forming patterns. It started making sense. So, I started running all the requests through a cypher, see if I could figure it out."

"What did you find?"

"The cipher is an Excellius-Pattern, type 888. The result transforms the data requests into bundles of text. All except the first; that one transforms into a psi-pattern."

"Whose?"

"The Dreamer's."

"... Truly?"

"Do you think I would joke about something like this?"

"No. But the Dreamer is dead."

"The Dreamer itself told us that death was temporary."

"The Dreamer said it would eventually return. It did not say anything about trying to talk to us even during its death."

"It's the Dreamer. Maybe it could be the result of the Dreamer trying to talk, maybe it's an unknown facet of the Dreamer's Gift, or maybe the Dreamer just put that information away and it's only surfacing now. It wouldn't be too hard, even for us. The Dreamer could have done it with an errant thought."

"Fair. What does the text say?"

"The first text bundle said '4068'. The next one was '4067'. It's a number, each time. And, each time, each month, at the beginning of each month, it counts down by one. We are currently at 4066."

"A countdown? For what?"

"I don't know."

"I could guess. Once a month, at the beginning of each month. A simple timeframe; 4066 months is 338 years and ten months. I assume that this is the remaining time for the temporal acceleration around Sol."

"On what grounds?"

"We know when the Harvesters will awake; 2185. 338 years from now will take us to 2449 from our perspective, but only to 2074 for the rest of the universe, leaving us with enough time to spread outside of Sol and prepare for the Harvesters. The temporal expectation fits."

"That is quite the long shot."

"Hence; guess. What else would the Dreamer try to be telling us, really?"

"Hmm..."

2110:

Progress on understanding the Conduit continues, though it is not complete. Understanding the computer systems, specifically, is taking longer than anything else.

2115:

A project is proposed to terraform Mars. Billions agree to join the efforts.

The first step is to find a way to stop solar winds from blowing away Mars' atmosphere, whether by restoring Mars' long lost magnetic field, or by replacing it with something else.

They eventually settle on the latter, if only because it will be easy to get rid of if it doesn't work. The plan calls for the creation of a magnetic dipole shield at Mars' Lagrange 1 point, which would protect Mars from the majority of cosmic radiation and solar winds, letting an atmosphere be rebuilt without being stripped away.

The required magnetic field to shield Mars would need to be comparable to Earth's own. Generating it would need a magnet of up to twenty thousand gauss; which is not impossible.

2116:

After a number of false starts, one accident where the electromagnet tore itself apart due to a slight miscalculation of material strength, and five separate re-designs to get everything working properly, the electromagnetic shield is properly in place.

At 1.72 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, it operates even better than expected. The magnetic field it generates is large and strong, and catches Mars squarely in its magnetotail, immediately and drastically reducing the cosmic radiation and solar winds that the planet receives, and therefore, it dramatically cuts the amount of atmosphere lost.

The generator itself is a significantly sized structure, protected by advanced materials and Mass Effect shields, powered by a generator derived from studying the Conduit, and, at six kilometers wide, the largest artificial non-Psi structure ever created by Humanity. Most of its mass is dedicated to the electromagnetic generators.

Over the next several years, more atmosphere will be added to Mars. As atmosphere builds up, it will begin to cause a runaway greenhouse effect, heating the planet up. As the planet heats up, polar ice caps will begin to melt, leading to liquid water oceans beginning to appear.

Terraforming will not end there, however. Significant additions must be made to both planetary atmosphere and planetary water supply even afterwards- to say nothing of the rest of the terraforming process, like introducing flora, fauna, and other forms of life to Mars.

2125:

Nine years of directed terraforming efforts have left Martian atmosphere capable of hosting life. Martian oceans are still filling, but only have another third to go before being filled to projected targets.

At this stage, plankton, bacteria, and other forms of life are being introduced to Mars. Planetary atmospheric content is shifting closer and closer to Earth.

Over time, more and more life forms will be introduced, until Mars' ecosystem is fully self-sustaining.

2138:

The last of the computer systems behind the Conduit is deciphered, and with it, all the technology behind the Conduit.

The knowledge is tested shortly afterwards, with the construction of a Human-designed Conduit. It differs mildly from the Harvesters' version, being slightly larger, a result of a number of modifications to the internal systems, the most prominent being a significantly more comprehensive communication system.

After six months to work out the bugs, defects, and imperfections, the Conduit design is eventually replicated across the system. It functions as expected, with the Conduits automatically forming a communication web that connects them all in a network enabling instantaneous transport of matter and energy between any Conduits in the system.

They are shortly renamed "Star Rails", to prevent confusion.

In the future, the Star Rails will connect directly to other systems, acting as an alternative to the Conduits, and thus a way to get around the Harvesters' trap.

Safeguards built into the Star Rails should prevent the Harvesters from using them. They are also equipped to scan for any tampering, with differences of code, physical structure, or unlogged activities resulting in the reactor disengaging its containment systems and triggering an energy surge that will result in an explosion of roughly eight hundred megatons, vaporizing the Star Rail and hopefully whatever managed to tamper with it.

The only way around this safeguard is to broadcast a specific psi-signature, which a psy-crystal inside the Star Rail will detect and temporarily disengage the safeguard. As Harvesters do not possess Psychic abilities, this will effectively leave them unable to mess with them without destroying them, and likely also themselves in the process.

Exactly as intended.

2145:

Mars is now comfortably habitable for most forms of life. The terraforming is mostly completed, at this stage, all that is left is the minutiae, the final adjustments and monitoring- ironically, also the longest part of it all.

While catastrophe is unlikely at this point, ecosystem collapse could still potentially occur.

Another project is proposed; this time for the terraformation of Venus. Many agree on the project itself, but the details on how to do it receive some argument.

Some say that Venus' rotational period should be altered to be closer to Earth's, but others point out that Venus' current slow rotation isn't actually a negative when it comes to hosting life; rather, the slow rotation helps with forming thick cloud covers that would significantly reduce the planetary temperature. If Venus had an atmosphere like Earth's, it would see 'day' and 'night' periods approximately 58 days long, each, with the day resembling a short summer with heavy, overcast skies, and significant rainfall, and the nights being short winters with cold temperatures and snowfall.

The novelty of it is enough to convince most to go with the latter.

How to go about achieving the latter sees significantly more discussion; with some wanting to go the simple route and just remove most of the atmosphere through assimilation, while others claim that this is boring and the same result could be achieved through the much more entertaining and spectacular method of throwing giant rocks really really fast.

The math is presented as such; a 700 kilometer wide kinetic impactor striking Venus at over 20 kilometers a second will eject all the atmosphere above the horizon from the viewpoint of the impact; thus getting rid of about a thousandth of Venus' atmosphere in a single, glorious shot. Further shots would be less efficient, but no less entertaining, and would also serve the purpose of pulverising Venus' surface, as well as creating some truly amazing craters.

When accused, some would admit that they really just want to bombard the crap out of Venus.

The proposal eventually goes forward, under the caveat that they'll only do it once, and afterwards, move on to simply assimilating it.

The impactor takes thirteen days to prepare, with an additional four days of preparation, aiming, and acceleration before it arrives.

The resulting impact can be seen from across the system. It ejects some four hundred and eighty trillion tons of atmosphere, plus far less though still significant amounts of planetary ejecta. It generates such a disturbance in the atmosphere that it creates some of the most powerful lightning storms ever seen, with hurricanes and tornadoes forming and collapsing for months in the aftermath. It makes volcanic activity run rampant, causing eruptions planet-wide, lava and magma flowing violently and freely. The scars left in the wake of the impact glow bright, hot, and deep, penetrating through the planet's crust. It scatters matter all throughout the solar orbit, requiring clean-up so that it doesn't get caught in Venus gravity and go to rejoin the planet.

It is the single greatest act of magnificently violent fury in memory.

The second impactor strikes three hours afterwards.

2147:

After a total of 636 impacts, the atmosphere has thinned significantly. If not for the fact that the terraforming people were returning planetary ejecta to Venus after catching it, Venus itself would have lost a minor portion of its mass.

From this point forward, focus splits between two goals; the first being to further alter the atmosphere, and the second being to start shaping the planetary landscape after the bombardment turned every inch of the planet into alternating craters. Planetary superstorms are still ongoing, but will calm down with time.

Approximately 30 billion are involved in this stage on some level; most only to a relatively minor extent of shaping the ground or changing the atmosphere, but it is still significantly more than the Mars terraforming.

2160:

Venus, after thirteen years of alteration, is finally beginning to calm down. Atmospheric pressures are, at this point, three times that of Earth. The atmospheric content, however, is much closer.

This much less dense atmosphere is enough to start seeing the beginnings of the prediction made fifteen years ago; significant cloud covers have formed on the side of the planet facing the sun, with temperatures dropping massively, though it is still too high to comfortably host non extremophilic life.

Planetary surface has become significantly more flat, with water beginning to fill what will eventually become Venus' oceans.

2165:

Atmospheric alteration completes; with the atmosphere now Earth-like. Seeding of plankton and bacteria begins.

2170:

By this point, Venus is beginning to see the first of larger flora and fauna. The ecosystem is still under construction. The alteration of the crust and mantle begins, in an effort to reduce volcanic activity, still riled up by the bombardment over two decades ago. Mostly, a matter of alleviating pressure before it can grow into something problematic.

2175:

Venus reaches the point of being comfortably habitable by most forms of life. Again, what's left is mostly minutiae, the final adjustments and alterations.

With Mars complete and Venus mostly complete, there are no more 'easy' terraforming options in the solar system. Few celestial bodies in the solar system are even capable of self-sustaining without advanced technology actively maintaining ecosystems and atmospheres.

Focus, instead, turns back to Earth in the meantime. While the planet has mostly recovered over the past seventy five years, the long exploitation prior to Project Ascendence have still left its scars.

The third, and final, major project of the century is proposed.

Project Home aims to repair all damage that the Earth had suffered at Human hands over the course of history

Project Home starts with cleaning up wastes, spent and buried nuclear fuels, radioactive storages, oil spills, soil contamination, and other such things.

2180:

It takes five years to clean up the most major and obvious effects. It would have taken less time, but careful effort is required to ensure things recover properly.

What comes nexts promises to be even more difficult; removing what isn't obvious, restoring species that had been hunted to extinction, or otherwise lost, and cleaning up the effects of cities and other massive constructions that had significantly altered the environment.

2185:

Two new facets of Project Home begin; the first being cleaning up the atmosphere. Though already reduced greatly in the last seventy five years, there is a significant amount of pollutants and excess greenhouse gasses. Again, care is required, as too much of a shift too quickly may cause further damage to ecosystems that have already adapted to the presence of such things.

The second is a much more ambitious goal; putting a ring around the Earth.

An Orbital Ring has long been an established concept, and theoretically, Humanity did have the capacity to construct one, but this is the first time that the theory be put into practice. The plan starts with the construction of a Space Elevator, which will provide the surface anchor for the Orbital Ring.

Several such Space Elevators are expected to built. Initial plans call for three.

The second starts immediately, with three stations equidistant with each other, all in geosynchronous orbit. As they extend cable down to the surface of Earth, they extend a counterweight for the cable away from it, keeping it balanced.

Once the cables reach the surface, they are attached to surface-side anchors, each of which is large, heavy, and attached firmly to the ground. After anchoring, additional cable can be extended down, providing something for additional structures to be attached to.

2190:

With the three Orbital Elevators fully constructed, the can be connected to each other, the three sections of the Orbital Ring first being started with long strands of cable, before being reinforced with additional structures. This will provide space-side housing, manufacturing, power generation, and resource manipulation, none of which is entirely necessary, but all of which will assist in maintaining Earth for the foreseeable future.

Ground-side, cleanup continues, with cities and other Human constructions being either renovated to harmonize with the environment, or being removed entirely. While many historical sites are left intact, a significant portion of more modern sites vanish to be replaced by nature.

2195:

Reintroduction of previously extinct species continues, with many being brought back and most managing to survive in their new environments.

2199:

Project Home, for the most part, completes. The Orbital Ring finishes, fully intact and equipped. Countless species have been reintroduced, the environment is back to near-pristine condition, and the atmosphere has been altered to have the worst of the pollutants and greenhouse gasses removed.

Once more, all that's left is minutiae.

According to a census at the end of the century, Human population is now at 288,279,479,712.

The countdown continues.

The new century begins with promise.

3.9

2200:

Several projects begin, all of them lesser in scale than the three previous projects of the last century.

The two most prominent of them, however, promise to be intriguing. Both projects aim to further alter the ecosystems of Mars and Venus, planning to take advantage of the differing conditions of those planets to create more exotic and interesting lifeforms. Currently, most lifeforms on these planets are lifeforms from Earth, with the minimal amount of genetic engineering required to keep them operating in roughly the same capacity.

The plans for Venus, originally calling for a number of purpose-designed creatures, takes a sudden and dramatic turn when somebody points out that Venus' atmosphere and gravity would be pretty good for hosting Dinosaurs.

2220:

The species of Mars continue to expand, weird and strange as a result of letting imaginations run wild. The crowning jewel of them, however, is the Martian Dragons. Instinctively friendly and curious, smaller versions more able to handle normal gravity would later become a popular pet.

2260:

A study reveals that it is possible for animals to acquire psychic abilities. Testing, however, reveals a number of factors that all alter how much ambient psychic energy is required to do so. Intelligence, self-awareness, problem solving-skills, communal tendencies; all of this and more affects a species' a species psychic compatibility.

Intriguingly, the most compatible species after Humans are the species that were designed by Humanity. This seems to be irrespective of the species' actual traits; the designed species will be anywhere from three to four times more compatible than any equivalents in the surroundings.

Further experimentation shows that the psychic abilities of animals are significantly more limited than the psychic abilities of Humans. Telepathy, empathy, and telekinesis are the extent of abilities observed in animals, with the latter being extremely rare and mostly instinctual.

Even more problematic, it is extremely difficult for psychic abilities to propagate. Even when a parent is a psychic, it is entirely possible for the child to not inherit the abilities of the parent. A phenomena unknown in Humans, but it usually only takes three to four generations for the ability to stop appearing, once specimens are reintroduced into the wild.

Any prospective psychic awakening projects, therefore, are put on hold until further knowledge of psychic phenomena is acquired.

2300:

Human population is now 5,540,337,228,233.

2320:

A group of geneticists and psygrammers create, mostly by accident, what is effectively an artificial psychic consciousness. It is weak, underdeveloped, generates very little psychic energy, is not sapient and is only barely sentient, but it still represents another significant leap forwards in terms of psygramming, as it is still capable of learning, being taught, and acting on its own.

The method is shortly replicated and refined. The resulting consciousnesses are semi-sapient, sentient, capable of forming bonds with Humans (And other species), and maintain all the abilities of the first.

Though still less powerful and capable than a Human, they are nevertheless quite useful, especially as they can utilize assimilation, allowing 'automation' of tasks requiring it.

They are named 'Anima'.

The fact that Anima are effectively the psychic equivalent of dogs does not escape anybody's attention.

2350:

A group makes a brief excursion outside of the temporal field surrounding the solar system. They don't stay outside for very long, as the differing temporal speeds makes it much more confusing to communicate with others on the psychic network.

2380:

After examining the development of psychic abilities over the course of the last three centuries, researchers find that Humanity's psychic development has been trending towards increasing range rather than increasing power. Average range of abilities has gone up 50% from a hundred years ago, and a hundred years ago was 80% higher than two hundred years ago.

What this means is uncertain.

2400:

Human population is now 106,477,702,239,264.

2449:

As the countdown finished at the end of the year, the temporal bubble finally collapses.

The Sol Era ends.

The Celestial Era begins.

When the time field ended, it did so with the same distinction that it had begun with.

That is; none at all. One moment, it was there, and the next, it wasn't, with nothing to show for it and nothing to feel. Indeed, the only way they knew it was gone was the simple fact that the stars began to brighten.

The simultaneous end to the countdown was another clue.

Three hundred and seventy five years, the Dreamer had given them. They had grown much, in that time.

But that time was over, now. Now, it was time to leave home.

The Harvesters would come. They had slightly more than a century to prepare.

They already know where to start.

Four hundred years ago, the Dreamer had given a list. Now, they could see where it led them.

"Outwards." They say. "Together."

Then, the group disbands. His Anima briefly prods at his mind, assuring herself of his well-being.

He smiles. Even fifty years after he caved and got her, Lysti is still like an affectionate puppy.

He closes his eyes, mind delving into the ship. Lysti obliges, moving to different matters. The computer activates, setting a course. Lysti takes a moment to reconfigure the ship, assimilation crystals sprouting as she enacts the changes. He gives her all the power she needs for it.

He's not alone. Around his ship is countless more, ranging from small, single-person ships, all the way to the massive city-craft holding billions. Some are beautiful works of art, others monstrously complicated, while a few were dilapidated masses holding together through nothing but the power of its inhabitants' minds.

They're vanishing rapidly, leaping to FTL, going to dozens of different destinations. He watches idly as a crystal mass larger than the Conduits seems to stretch before vanishing.

Then, Lysti is done. The ship is ready. She's happy, with a undertone of eager anticipation, like a dog that knows its about to go to the park.

He's... feeling a little like that himself, really.

Lysti pokes him.

"Alright." Marcus says, smiling. "To Arcturus."

4.1: Concord

The instant he entered the system, Marcus knew that it would be a big deal.

Certainly, that had never been question in the first place, considering that the whole reason he'd come here in the first place was because it was meant to be important. The Dreamer's list lead straight to it, after all.

Well, the Dreamer's list led to a underground point in the second planet of the system, but the point stood.

The first item on the Dreamer's List had been the closest to Earth. It had also been marked with a high priority.

He expected to take a significant amount of time to get there. The system was some four thousand light years from Earth, after all.

Then he'd found a Conduit, and a trip that would have taken nearly half the year instead took about four minutes; from Earth to Arcturus, and then Arcturus directly to the still-unnamed system that the coordinates pointed to.

There was... quite some convenience in that. All of a sudden, the idea of putting Star Rails everywhere seemed much more appealing. Sure, it was going to be done anyway, but even so...

He'd arrived in the orbit of the outermost planet, a frozen ball far away from the warmth of its parent star, and in that same instant...

He felt it.

Marcus breathed out, slowly.

Power. Energy.

Psychic energy, to be exact.

In a system where the only other source of psychic energy was himself and his Anima, it stuck out to him in roughly the same way that a star sticks out in the void of space.

"That's..."

It was familiar. Immediately and distinctly so. There was a pattern in it. The signature of the being that had been its source.

It had taken only a moment for him to recognize it. How couldn't he, when he was so familiar with it?

"Dreamer." He spoke. In the same breath, the ship leapt forwards, burning into FTL in but a moment. The trip was short, but it was long enough for him to reach out through the psychic network, to call the attention of everybody to it.

By the time his ship arrived at the planet, the group already encompassed fully half of Humanity. By the time it finished inserting itself into orbit, all but the youngest were a part of it.

They focused, turning their attentions downwards, onto the planet. The source of energy was quickly pinpointed; deep underneath the ground. They probe at it, gently, casting mind and sight towards it.

It's a facility, they quickly realize. Prothean make. The source of the energy is at the heart of it. The energy itself appears to be gathering in semi-neat clusters.

Curious, that. One cluster is different, gathering in only a single spot, but it seems central to the network of clusters. They take a closer look at that cluster, and-

They brush against a mind. They retreat immediately, partially worried that they may have done harm, partially cautious at the mind itself. When nothing happens, they move back in, equally slowly, and feel.

The mind is sleeping. It is a dreamless sleep, caught in stasis, not thinking, not remembering, not... doing anything. Merely existing.

It is not the Dreamer's mind. It doesn't have that feeling to it. The mind isn't even a psychic.

What, then, is the Dreamer's power doing here?

They touch the mind again, looking just a little bit deeper. An invasion of privacy, yes, but they require knowledge.

This one is...

They stop.

Because this one is Javik.

A Prothean.

"What."

"What?"

"What?!"

The facility, it turns out, is a bunker. A bunker containing Protheans, all of them in cryostasis, all of them... distinctly alive.

Marcus looks around. He's not there physically, only mentally. His astral form certainly makes it seem like he is, though. He seems as solid and physical as normal. Indeed, the only clue that he isn't is the fact that he casts no shadow.

There are others around him, some as clear as himself, others indistinct hazes of colour, a few simple shapes floating around...

He's near the core, near the heart of the facility. The others chatter in the back of his mind, but his full attention is no longer with the group.

No, it's on the source of psychic energy. On the thing right in front of him.

It's a tree.

Well, it looked like a tree, if a tree had been made of psy-crystal. It had no mind of its own, yet psychic energy still flowed from it, out into the bunker, through every machine, winding and twisting through every coil and wire, seeping into every material.

He imagines a blade, and cuts the floor with it. The psychic power twists, and the gouge begins to close, every atom and molecule crawling back into place, none the worse for the wear. That, it seems, is the tree's purpose. The bunker's reactor should have long since run down out of fuel, but the tanks are still full. The stasis pods should be consuming more energy than they are. The walls, floors, ceiling; all of them seem to not have experienced a day since fifty thousand years ago.

The only exception is the sensor array. That, and that alone, is broken. Why, they don't know, but that is the only thing that the tree does not touch, even as it sustains everything else around it with its power.

Common knowledge said that only minds could generate psychic power. The tree, then, was impossible.

Common knowledge went out the window the moment the Dreamer had become involved. An impossibility, clearly, it was not.

Marcus looked down, at the base of the tree. Of all the million pods in the bunker, this one was the only one that the tree seems to shelter, specifically, with the branches and leaves above it and crystalline roots attached to its base. The coordinates of the Dreamer's List exacted on the pod, rather than the tree, or anything else in the bunker.

The pod itself was in the center of the base, attached almost directly to what they were fairly certain was the control room. The Prothean inside, Javik, must have been quite an important one.

"We should wake him." Some said. "The Dreamer would not have directed us here otherwise."

"Agreed. The Dreamer has not led us wrong before."

"I must raise the question of why the Dreamer didn't do it itself. Why did we find this tree, rather than awoken Protheans?"

"Perhaps we will learn more from him?"

"If the worse comes to worst, we can simply render him unconscious."

They considered. The rest gave their opinions.

Finally, they came to a decision.

"Let's wake him."