by Skyler Grant
As soon as I slipped into it I could feel a brand-new network opening up to me. Scythe were there, over thirty thousand of his units remained on Mars. And I now had access to six times that number.
Neutralizing gases were being pumped on the Mercurian ships, replacing the Venusian atmosphere and killing the psi inhibitors. What had startled as a single implant grew to a dozen, a thousand.
"What you've failed to grasp is that you've now given me access of a network I am stronger on. I can follow it home. You are the creation of some species out there, a weapon, a tool. I want you to tell them that you've compromised not just operations here, but across the galaxy," I said.
Scythe flickered and faded, and was replaced by a glowing, golden nimbus. It spoke.
"Well done. Not without some help from the Chixai, but even that not done in a way they'd expect," said the nimbus in a far softer tone than Scythe.
"You're the creator of the Scythe? How lazy to not even create a real body," I said.
"You've passed your test, you've won the game. We give to you the bodies our tool unwillingly wore. We invite you to Vekora," the nimbus said, and flickered out.
Great, I was getting to really hate enigmatic aliens. It did at least seem they were as good as their word. The Scythe presence on the Mercurian network I now controlled was gone. Oh, their hosts were still there on Mars, the Sedaras, my connection through the implants to them was similar to that of my drones.
It was a victory, and it was short-lived. Flower had just messaged me, the fleet was almost here.
46
There were only hours to go until an alien fleet arrived to investigate the devastation of Earth's biosphere. If their metric was a healthy planet, I and humanity would fail it. Most of the solar system would fail the test, except for Venus.
I'd always been at my best with a deadline and a looming threat.
The implants that made up the Scythe, the bodies of the former residents of Mercury, were capable of rapid generation of organic matter given energy and a template. In time I could use these so-called Mercubots to rebuild the Earth, but I didn't have time. The first problem was that I was too stupid. Oh, I was brilliant, but I needed to be smarter.
I could get the Mercubots back to Earth. I had teleportation gateways on several of the Space Juggernauts and another on Mars. From there with teleportation I could send them anywhere. I could cover the Earth's surface, but to what end? My bio-processors were complicated to build and each in their own way unique. I wasn't scalable in the way required. That didn't mean there wasn't an option.
I opened a comm line to Ophelia, and more importantly, her endlessly irritating passenger. I opened another to Anna, saving the Earth was going to require multiple parties to come to agreement. Somewhat to my surprise, they all did.
I brought the Mercubots to Earth and put them to work on the metal sea. This was originally Mechos' insane idea, to transform the entire surface of the planet into a processor. The surface was only the start. Layer after layer we worked our way down upgrading the designs as we went. With each layer Amy became more intelligent, and she improved on the designs she sent me until I could scarce understand what I was building.
It was impossible to know what the universe held out there, but it was not unreasonable to assume that by the time we were done Amy might be one of its greatest minds. It had only taken us two hours, and we were just getting started.
Earth was the start. The planet flickered in a dimensional bubble as we restored the atmosphere. The surface layer was no longer important, no longer vital, Amy had already moved on and so we changed it. I dug trenches and bound hydrogen and oxygen together, and oceans were restored to the world.
Life came next. Amy providing me designs as I fed them to the Mercubots. My processors were growing hot, the sheer volume of data breaking apart my neural proteins as green spread across the planet. We restored the lives we'd taken, and those we hadn't. Buffalo would again roam the plains, pterodactyls fly the skies, I even let Amy slip in a few kraken into the oceans.
We weren't done.
Mercury was next. The atmosphere was the simple part. I'd taken a few Bio-matter samples from the surface, not much but it gave us a starting point. We couldn't recreate the Mercurians quite as they were, but a race of shape-shifting intelligences called the planet home by the time we were done. We made the entire planet one of shape-shifters with completely different forms from day to night. For almost half an Earth year the inhabitants would wear one form before shifting to another.
Venus, we left alone, it didn't need our help.
By the time we were done every planet in the solar system had the seeds of life planted. With time we might have done more. This much was already pushing my bio-processors beyond their limits. I gave the Gobbles the moon Deimos, and created a species of hyper-intelligent mice on Phobos. We still weren't done.
We'd seen it time and time again. Empires took on the aspect of those who ruled them. Anna was the Empress, but the planets needed rulers. To aid the growth of Earth we put it under the rule of the newly crowned Queen Ophelia. Mars would flourish under Queen Julasa. Other planets would find their rulers, in time.
By the time the fleet arrived the solar system teemed with new life. Quick negotiations with the Venusians resulted in them joining the Empire. They could see the obvious, we all lived together or died together.
The great Galactic Council had technology we couldn’t even comprehend. They secured Anna for days while investigating, I was questioned, Flower gave her testimony. In the end it was her testimony that swayed thing, that and the fact we’d proved ourselves capable. The Council could use capable species and our survival put us in their debt.
I’d once thought when we’d beaten Vinci the adventures were finally over, Earth brought to heel but they were only beginning. This was just the start.
Author Notes
Book seven for a series that, after I wrote book one, I wasn’t sure would have an audience of a sequel. This isn’t my first series to make it this far, Crucible Shard wound up at seven volumes.
If you have read this far you are a real fan and I thank you. Emma has really grown and changed during the course of the books. My goal was always to have her get larger, but as she did so she also grew more human—as much as she’d hate to admit it.
We have some responsibility for those things we create, and the more she created, the more her responsibility grew until it became almost overwhelming. That isn’t a terrible thing, with responsibility came purpose.
As I write this volume eight ‘The System’ is already with the editor and goes full space opera.
SCIENCE, now and forever.