by Zen, Raeden
On the recommendation of Chancellor Masimovian (and against my opinion), the board approved a western expansion into a new territory called Angeles. It took three years to complete construction of the downward-sloping coolant piping from Angeles City on the coast to Livelle City deep beneath Antelope Canyon. We built the commonwealth’s first coolant station at the border of the continent in Angeles City, burrowing through the bedrock into the Pacific Ocean. Tests of the salt water at a depth of 2,000 meters suggested it wasn’t contaminated by Reassortment. Even so, we treated the salt water entering the piping with liquid ethanol and radiation, then let it flow down to Livelle City at its depth of about 2,500 meters.
With renewed hope and momentum, Chancellor Masimovian pushed for expansion in the West and South. He requested Vastar Alalia to allow his strike teams to participate in the construction and Vastar agreed. The chancellor also modified the existing system of transhuman development, instituting a round of testing (that would later be called the Harpoon Exams), followed by an auction (that would later be called the Harpoon Auction). Formal competition among the houses of development led to exponential advancement in genomic enhancement and transhuman evolution, which, in turn, led to new scientific breakthroughs.
The commonwealth rapidly expanded from Livelle City in Natura Territory to Luxor City (Luxor Territory), Zanclea City (Reanaearo Territory), Wenlock City (Jurinar Territory), Piscator City (Piscator Territory), and Yeuron City (Yeuron Territory) in the South, concurrent with expansion in the West, including Gaia City (Gaia Territory), Silkscape City (Lovereal Territory), and Dunamis City (Dunamis Territory). (The southernmost cities of Port Newland and Huatervian City in Haurachesa Territory would not be formed until 217 AR and 227 AR, respectively, while the collapse of Angeles City in 214 AR halted further construction in the designated Western Inaccessible Region of highly seismic earth. Angeles City was renamed the City of Eternal Darkness, and Angeles Territory was renamed Nyx Territory after the collapse.)
Decades before the collapse of Angeles City, I’d convinced Chancellor Masimovian to create coolant piping that would ensure his expansion plan succeeded—the pipelines to the arctic bay. I worked closely with Vastar Alalia to design primary pipelines from the 55th parallel on the western side of the arctic bay (in what would later be called Area 55) and from the 51st parallel on the southern side (in what would later be called Area 51), down to proposed cities in Underground North, including Boreas City (Boreas Territory), Nurino City (Zereaux Territory), and Arrowhead City (Columbia Territory).
Secondary pipelines (with multiple redundancies) were designed to run from these cities to existing cities in Underground West and South, and proposed cities in Underground North including Xerean City (Xerean Territory), Farino City (Farino Territory), and Kiplorea City (Kiplorea Territory); Underground Central including Beimeni City (Phanes Territory, which became the capital city and territory of the Great Commonwealth in 197 AR), Cineris City (Cineris Territory), Ope City (Ope Territory), Portage City (Portage Territory), Vivo City (Vivo Territory), and Nexirenna City (Nexirenna Territory); and Underground Northeast including Gubertiana City (Gubertiana Territory), Northport (Gallia Territory), Palaestra City (Palaestra Territory), and Volano City (Volano Territory).
From the Northeastern cities, more pipelines would be built to the newly constructed Research & Development Department (RDD) east of Palaestra City, along with proposed cities in Underground East, including Peanowera City (Peanowera Territory), Navita City (Navita Territory), and Alpinia City (Marshlands Territory). Finally we built a smaller coolant station where the man-made Hillenthara River met the Atlantic Ocean; the pipelines from this station would serve cities and villages along the river and provide a redundancy for Gubertiana City in Underground Northeast.
From 168 AR to 227 AR, the RDD scientists, the strike teams, (and beginning around 220 AR, the Janzers), completed the most aggressive engineering project in human history. We’d burrowed through tens of thousands of kilometers of earth and built carbyne piping to release the pressure of the Beimeni zone and to transport cool salt water and freshwater to stations in cities and villages around which civilizations of transhumans would form. In all the cities and villages along the man-made rivers (which served as runoffs for the coolant system), we built carbyne pillars to fortify the structure of the newly formed Beimeni zone of the underground. We also built synbio vats to provide electricity, breathable air, food, and water, with the understanding that the ultimate responsibility for raw material production was in the RDD. (Note: following the synthesis of biostars in the early 200s, the carbyne support pillars were replaced with compressed diamond support pillars at the insistence of Chancellor Masimovian.)
During this time, advances in genomic enhancement would enable me to see the project complete, not as an old man, but transformed into my younger self, owing to breakthroughs in aging research conducted by Turi Seaborne and Eulalie Lachaize (who would later become Turi Thuddan and Eulalie Variscan when their eternal partners formed houses of development). The Seaborne lab constructed E. fountain, a synism designed to adapt the genetic characteristics of the Turritopsis nutricula (jellyfish; age reversal) to transhuman DNA. Likewise, the Lachaize lab adapted plant DNA to transhuman DNA within Bacillus subtilis. These synisms were refined into the athanasia vapors released throughout Fountain Square, giving transhumans of the Great Commonwealth our theoretically infinite lifespan.
Well, it looks like I’m out of time. I hope you found the Beimeni terraforming story as exciting as I did living through it all. I wish you all much success during development and the Harpoon Exams, and afterward in the Great Commonwealth.
Appendix 3
Interstellar and Time Travel
All matter is interconnected by waves spread through space and time; the past, present, and future are equally real; and the zeropoint field permeates the entire universe. The implication is that there must be a way to manipulate the quantum processes within to achieve interstellar and time travel unprecedented in the history of humanity.
—Atticus Masimovian, 168 AR
The following is a selected portion of the transcript from the conclave called for Supreme Scientist Heywood Querice in 333 AR. Its central topics included a discussion of the latest methodologies and theories in interstellar and time travel. The discussion at the conclave is stored in Marstone’s Database and is considered classified government property.
Masimovian: Your z-disk contains comprehensive explanations, data, and equations, but I’d like to keep this discussion at a high level so that we can best determine whether or not your theories reach the level of significant conversion.
Querice: Where would you like me to start?
Masimovian: The basics, what is superluminal travel? What are Lagrange points? What is exotic matter? Why is it relevant to this discussion?
Querice: Lagrange points represent positions of gravitational stability. For instance, in the Sun-Earth-Moon system, an object placed at one of five Lagrange points would orbit the sun and maintain the same relative position with respect to the Earth-Moon system. Superluminal travel requires v > c, where v denotes speed and c denotes the speed of light. Exotic matter is negative energy.
Masimovian: Negative energy exists?
Querice: Yes! The laws of physics, specifically quantum field theory, allow it, if that’s what you mean. We were able to generate it within a unique particle accelerator at our laboratories in Area 55. This accelerator pulls the exotic matter out of the lowest vacuum pressures achieved by transhumankind. The exotic matter literally “pops” into existence, removing energy from the vacuum, and is then accelerated into specially designed magnetic storage capsules.
Masimovian: How do all of these terms relate to interstellar travel as you’ve devised it?
Querice: My team has designed a small space shuttle capable of traveling to the Lagrange points in the Sun-Earth gravitational system; for our purposes let’s assume the mission protocols require a rendezvous
at Lagrange point one. The shuttle will approach the point and move into a stable orbit. A small rocket (10 centimeters (cm) long and 15 cm diameter) carrying exotic matter is launched at the most stable gravitational position possible at the Lagrange point. The shuttle needs to be at least 1,000 kilometers (km) away to avoid damage from the explosion that will form the portal. A small amount of exotic matter (only a few grams are needed) is inside a tiny shaped charge, similar to how a nuclear weapon functions. The force of the explosion must be applied to the exotic matter so that it is forced into a dense pellet. At a high enough density the exotic matter changes state, like liquid water changing to ice. In this new state, the exotic particles have new quantum numbers that, when having the correct values, can connect to another particle in the nearby universe and form a bond to that particle. This is the critical moment when the pilot uses her control of the ZPF to change the quantum numbers of the dense exotic matter. The pilot must have the destination in the universe fixed firmly in her mind; through her manipulation of the ZPF she adjusts the quantum numbers of the dense exotic matter so that each particle is connected to a particle at her destination by the ZPF. In a split second the dense exotic matter opens the portal in space. If the pilot has correctly manipulated the ZPF, the portal will take her to her destination.
Masimovian: What happens if the pilot is wrong?
Querice: The shuttle could go to any random place in the galaxy.
Masimovian: What does the portal look like?
Querice: The portal is the complete absence of light, as though one were staring directly into a black hole. It truly forms a 3-dimensional hole in space.
Masimovian: So the portal will be invisible to the transhuman eye?
Querice: No! The edge of the portal is clearly seen. Where the dense exotic matter of the portal ends and the mixture of space and normal matter begins, there’s a dark purple circle marking the boundary. The circular boundary is not a thin line but a shimmering band radiating away from the center of the portal, changing from purple to dark blue at its outermost edge.
Masimovian: How far can the pilot take the shuttle with each jump through space?
Querice: Even the best pilot has only limited ability to travel a distance with accuracy. The farther a pilot wishes to travel, the less accurate she can be.
Masimovian: Why is that?
Querice: It’s due to the quantum uncertainty principle. The best pilot might be able to travel to another star system 100 light years away but not be able to accurately determine where they’ll emerge in that system. If the same pilot attempted to jump only 10 years away, maybe she could put her crew in orbit around the star at a known radius or even around a planet in the system. In other words, when jumping long distances, the jumps must be split into smaller segments, and then the craft must travel within a system to another Lagrange point before making a new portal and initiating the next segment of the trip.
Masimovian: There’s a trade-off between resources and time.
Querice: Yes! Based on our ability to procure exotic matter and store it within the shuttle, we believe we can travel as far as 20,000 light years round trip.
Masimovian: How does this relate to time travel?
Querice: The implementation of the time travel system is similar to that of the interstellar travel system. The portal must also be formed at a point of sufficient gravitational stability, the nearest to Earth being Lagrange points one or two. The system will be the exact same until the point where the shaped exotic matter explosion happens. When the exotic matter explodes, there must be a beam of tachyons passing through the middle of the dense exotic matter pellet. As the exotic matter state change happens, the tachyons connect and produce a different effect on the new particles. Continuing the liquid and ice example, think of an icicle; the tachyons change the quantum number properties of the exotic particles so they connect to particles in other times instead of other points in space. Similar to interstellar travel, during the explosion is the critical moment when the pilot must fix the time they wish to travel in mind; they must use the ZPF to manipulate the quantum numbers of the dense exotic matter so that the portal will open in the correct time. When returning through this two-way portal, it is crucial that the portal be stable, as changes to the quantum numbers of the exotic matter could take the traveler to a different time.
Masimovian: What happens if the quantum numbers change?
Querice: For most manipulators of the ZPF, it would not be possible to change them again and find the path back to their original time. However, a sufficiently skilled transhuman could focus intently and make the changes. It is not physically impossible, just challenging. A transhuman particularly skilled in manipulating the ZPF should also be able to change the time and space destination of an exotic/tachyon portal. The portal destination is controlled by two separate quantum numbers: spin of the exotic particle controls time, and angular momentum controls space. However, it takes unusual concentration to be able to manipulate both numbers in the time required.
Appendix 4
Dictations and Songs of the Underground
Pledge to Beimeni
We pledge ourselves to the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni, the underground paradise of humanity, the place where everything we can imagine is real, where service is rewarded with immortality, where freedom and justice are supreme, and where proper and significant conversions are a sign of our commitment to excellence.
We reject hatred and malice, the equivalent to disorder and disarray, for these traitorous temptations could lead to our ruin. We understand that the common goal of the commonwealth is to return to the surface from where a new Beimeni may be born, though we will never forget the seeds that allowed us to avert extinction.
Reassortment is the plague in the paradise upon the surface, the great bane of our time, and as cruel as it can be to humanity atop, it chisels at our psyche below, unleashing forbidden emotions. But we will not allow the depression and envy distributed by the plague to enter our minds, for these feelings often lead to hatred and malice and disorder and disarray.
The Dark Age has ended. The Great Commonwealth and its thirty territories are the light. Long live Beimeni and its eternal populace, and may we accept endless expansion, endless conversion, endless peace, and endless prosperity for all, and may we serve Beimeni and live forever!
Strike Team Strategist/Striker/Aera Oath of Enlistment
I, _____, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Formation Document of the Underground against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will protect transhumankind from Reassortment and structural breaches in the phantom Earth; and that I will obey the orders of the Strategic Expedition (Strike) Team Captain over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Strike Team Justice. So help me gods.
Strike Team Captain Oath of Enlistment
I, _____, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Formation Document of the Underground against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will protect transhumankind from Reassortment and structural breaches in the phantom Earth; and that I will obey the orders of the Supreme Commander of the Strategic Expedition (Strike) Teams, or other officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Strike Team Justice. So help me gods.
Polemon Proclamation
From the fifty-first day of the year 308, After Reassortment,
We renounce the thirty precepts that govern the thirty territories of the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni;
We renounce the Marstone artificial intelligence and its omnipresence in our thoughts, dreams, speech, and actions;
We renounce the required registration of citizens in Marstone’s Database;
We renounce the central government in Phanes;
We renounce any leader of the thirty territories who follows the thirty precepts;
We renounce the bygone strike
teams, which no longer act as the protectors of the people they once were;
We renounce the Harpoon Exams and Harpoon Auction adhered to by the thirty territories;
We renounce the Lower Level and anyone who perpetuates its existence;
And we renounce the Fountain of Youth.
From the fifty-first day of the year 308, After Reassortment,
We recognize that the members of the Liberation Front are in rebellion against the Great Commonwealth;
We recognize our duty to fellow members and friends of the movement, to provide them bread, shelter, and safe passage throughout any territory inside the Earth that adheres to the thirty precepts;
We recognize the Formation of the Underground and the liberties it ensures;
We recognize allies and safe havens of the Liberation Front and will protect them against all agents of the Great Commonwealth;