“I believe the AI has severe restrictions on it; otherwise we would likely have been eliminated already,” said Aiseman. “The safeguards built into ANSIS were not as comprehensive as Gary Miller originally suggested. I’m afraid that we might be burning our house down to kill the spider if we activate it.”
“Dr. Miller thinks it may be our only option for eliminating the rogue AI,” argued President Kruger.
“There are slower options, safer options,” put in Aiseman.
She laughed. “Building new CC centers and transferring people into the new servers one by one? That’s a joke! Do you know what the public will say if I even suggest such a thing?”
“The original network should have been segmented for safety in the first place,” countered Aiseman. “You can put out that this is a step forward in that direction. You don’t have to publicly release the information on the AI threat.”
Angela shook her head. “You think like a military man, Director, but I deal with the public. Something like that won’t remain secret, not once we start moving on major initiatives. The truth will out. It always does, and usually in the most embarrassing fashion.
“No, I’ve made up my mind. I won’t authorize full activation, given your warnings, but I will allow Dr. Miller direct access to the ANSIS network. She will be quarantined with it, unless and until I decide otherwise,” pronounced the President.
He nodded. “That will be sufficient.”
“Let me warn you, though. If there’s another incident, I may have to allow her to do as she wishes. If you want to avoid that, make certain I’m not put in that position. Am I understood?”
Director Aiseman bowed his head. “Yes, Madam President.”
Chapter 43
“Are you sure this is safe?” asked Karen.
“As safe as houses,” replied Matthew.
She narrowed her eyes. “Then why do you want me to teleport back to Castle Cameron before you start?”
“Just to be certain,” he admitted. “It will probably be safe, but I can’t guarantee it. I’d rather not have to worry about casualties if I make a mistake.” They were standing on an obscure piece of coastline, though exactly where he wasn’t sure. It was the last place they had made landfall after returning from her world. Karen had been able to teleport them there, even though she hadn’t known where it was in relation to his home.
“And if you injure yourself, who is going to help you? Have you considered that?” she countered.
If I injure myself there probably won’t be enough left of me to scrape into a bowl, he thought wryly. “I’ll be in the safest place of all,” he told her instead. “Nothing will be able to affect the interior of the cube.” By that he meant the space between the translation panes of the Fool’s Tesseract, not the tiny pocket dimension that the translation panes fed external matter and energy into. He’d had some difficulty explaining the difference to her earlier.
Eventually she gave in and left, and he was free to begin his testing.
He started by checking the spell inputs. His latest version of the enchantment included a large number of refinements, mainly to enable him to control and alter the properties of the exterior translation panes as well as vary the size of the pocket dimension they fed into. By controlling those things, he could manipulate the size of the area protected by the FT as well as the result when he eventually inverted the translation panes and vented the pocket dimension into the surrounding terrain.
The primary danger now was that there might be an unexpected problem with the enchantment he had designed. Including so many things that could be altered and changed during use meant that the enchantment itself was vastly more complex. The primary enchantment formula was relatively simple in comparison, but making it so that it could be altered at a whim introduced an entirely different level of complexity. If he had made a mistake, or if the control elements didn’t function as he anticipated, then the results could be catastrophic.
“Good thing I didn’t make any mistakes then,” he told himself. Of course, if I did, I might not live long enough to realize it.
He held out the modified staff in front of him. The floating cubes had been simple and practical, but he had needed more physical space to include all the parameters of his control enchantment. Plus, the staff gave him a very visible reminder of what the exterior dimensions of his cube would be when activated, since it was as tall as the FT would be from top to bottom. Seven feet, he repeated to himself, plenty of headroom and arm room.
Taking a deep breath, he began, “Bree maen, Eilen kon, sadeen lin. Amyrtus!” The words in Lycian were simple instructions: “mode five, interior ten, exterior one, activate.” They would set the exterior dimensions to their smallest, seven feet on a side; the interior pocket dimension at its largest, one foot on a side; and only create five translation panes, leaving the bottom open so he could stand on normal ground.
The metal cube mounted on the top of the staff broke apart, and smaller cubes flew outward to take up positions around him where the corners of the Fool’s Tesseract would form.
Instantly he was plunged into darkness as the sides and top of the FT came into being. Softly, he let out the breath he had been holding. Even that test had held some inherent danger. If the exterior dimensions hadn’t worked properly, the FT could have been too small, potentially cutting of his head or something equally unpleasant.
With the bottom open, he could still sense the external world using his magesight. Hopefully, this would be all that was necessary during most of his time using the device. The bottom side would only be engaged if he were faced with an extreme threat that required complete isolation. It would also be activated when the FT was inverted, to protect him from whatever the results were when the pocket dimension was vented.
That part would be automatic, to prevent him from doing so without properly protecting himself. He decided to test it now.
“Rextalyet, amyrtus!” he pronounced.
An ordinary field of force formed below his feet, lifting him two inches from the ground as the bottom translation pane sprang into existence. His magesight was abruptly cut off, but aside from that, he couldn’t detect any other changes.
If it had worked properly, then the outer sides had reversed their direction, venting the pocket dimension outward. Depending on how much air had gone in, there might have been an explosion, but since he had set the pocket dimension to a size of one cubic foot, he hoped the result would be fairly innocuous.
But I won’t know for sure until I deactivate the FT, he thought. I need to be able to sense the outside world. He turned his attention inward, trying to find the sensation he’d had before, when his talent had warned him of danger.
He found nothing.
He had expected as much. The Illeniel gift allowed their Krytek to fight as though they could see ahead into the future, though what they were really doing was seeing into neighboring dimensions, where time was close but slightly ahead. Matthew thought that the same thing might have happened to him during his last journey to Karen’s world, when he’d had flashes that warned him before he almost committed a fatal action, but he hadn’t figured out how to consciously control the phenomenon.
But surely if it were dangerous it would warn me before I took down the FT, he thought. That wasn’t good enough, though, so he spent several more minutes trying to see beyond his own plane of existence. Still, nothing happened at first; and then he began to get sporadic flashes.
What he saw was disorienting and poorly focused, but he thought he saw the outside world clearly for a moment. Assuming it was analogous to the one he was in, then it was safe. He decided to chance it. “Estus,” he said aloud, and the enchantment deactivated.
The rock-strewn clifftop overlooking the ocean looked none the worse for wear. Even the grass beyond the outer edges of where the FT had been was undisturbed, although the ground beneath him was now bare and level. The upper surface had been absorbed by the bottom face of the FT.
Although he couldn’t see out, he could still cast magic outward from within. It just wasn’t possible for him to aim, not unless he could find a way to master his vision into adjacent realms. He practiced for almost an hour but finally stopped when his frustration grew too much for him. He wouldn’t make any progress unless he could retain a calm frame of mind.
Before he left, he decided to try one of the more dangerous settings. “Talto maen, eilen stur, sadeen lin. Amyrtus,” he intoned. The FT sprang to life once more, this time enclosing him fully, on all sides and below, but most importantly, he had set the interior pocket dimension to its second smallest setting. If the enchantment had worked properly the dimension into which the translation panes were funneling air and other matter was of an incredibly small size, something on the order of the width of a human hair.
Matthew breathed slowly, trying to keep his heart rate down. With each passing second, he knew more and more air was entering the FT. The final result would depend not only on how small the pocket dimension was but on how much matter entered it before it was inverted. The longer he waited, the more dangerous it would be. It could be dangerous even when set to a larger size if enough matter entered.
The smallest size, the one he didn’t dare to test, should create an inner dimension that was even smaller, though still large enough to avoid a singularity—at least according to Gary’s calculations. This current size should produce a satisfying explosion, but hopefully not the sort Gary had cautioned him about, where atoms themselves began to fuse together.
When he thought roughly ten seconds had passed, he inverted the enchantment: Rextalyet, amyrtus.”
He felt nothing within the cube’s enchanted boundaries. The question was, what had happened outside it? Again, he tried to focus his gift, to see into the adjacent dimensions and get a glimpse of what the world beyond his protective enchantment probably looked like. Visions flickered in his head, and after a few seconds of confusion, he decided he must be seeing smoke, or perhaps dust. Something had happened, but he couldn’t judge how severe it had been.
His ears felt strange, and he worked his jaw to make them pop. The air pressure is dropping, he realized.
In fact, the air was already getting dangerously thin. It’s exiting quickly, driven by the unopposed pressure inside. The only reason he hadn’t noticed before was because he had used the FT primarily with only five sides activated. I need to add a filter shield to the interior to prevent air from escaping, he thought, making a mental note. Assuming I don’t die before then.
He created an impromptu shield using a spell to do just that. Then he waited.
After what he thought was nearly a quarter of an hour, he checked again, but still he could detect nothing but smoke or some sort of cloud. He began to wish he had crafted something that would clear the air around the FT to enable him to get a better view sooner. For a moment, he considered using a simple spell to try to drive the air away, but he stopped before trying it. If he did anything that drove air from within his protected space outward, he would wind up starving for air, since nothing could enter.
Matthew found himself panting. He should have created the air-shield at the very beginning. Because of his delay, a large portion of the air had left the FT, leaving him with little air to breath, air he was quickly exhausting.
He would have to deactivate the enchantment or he would suffocate, yet he could still detect nothing but smoke outside. Depending on how bad it was, he might kill himself trying to breathe the air beyond his enchantment when he opened it. He could already imagine what Moira would be saying if she could see his predicament. If he had let Karen accompany him for his testing, she could have easily teleported them somewhere safe.
Stupid never dies. That’s was what his father always said, but it was small comfort, since he usually meant his stupidity would live on whether his actions got him killed or not.
His heart was beating rapidly, and he felt as though he had run a mile. He couldn’t catch his breath. He was out of time.
Matthew created a firm shield around himself, one that would keep out whatever air was outside, and then gave the command that would deactivate the FT: “Estus.”
The outside world reappeared and he began falling. The ground had vanished. Flailing his arms, he landed after a drop of nearly fifteen feet. His shield turned out to be important for more than just keeping smoke out, for he landed on a very jagged layer of bedrock.
Still panting rapidly, he focused his will and drew on the air, moving it and creating a gust of wind to clear the smoke around him.
Nothing happened.
Well, that wasn’t precise. His spell was working, but the air he was moving was also filled with smoke or dust or whatever it was. Matthew drew on his reserves and pushed harder, moving ever vaster quantities of air. He was beginning to see spots in front of his eyes.
Seconds passed, and he began to wonder if he should try shifting to Karen’s world. It was either that or learn to breathe dust. Then, just as he had almost given up hope, sunlight appeared and the air cleared.
Desperate, he dropped his shield and drew a lungful—and promptly began to cough. The air still wasn’t quite clear enough, but he would survive. He kept up his spell and soon he began to smell the sea.
Hacking and retching as he tried to clear his lungs, he surveyed the landscape around him. It was a humbling sight.
The ground he was standing on had been blasted into a crater that stretched some forty feet across. He clambered up the side and looked out—the ground beyond had been blackened and scoured free of soil and grass for as far as he could see in every direction. The forest on the inland side of him, at least half a mile distant, was on fire, and many of the closest trees appeared to have been knocked over.
“Shit,” he muttered inanely. Then he began to laugh.
To an outside observer, he would have looked like a madman, but even as he giggled he was mentally taking notes. The air problem had been serious, but he could solve that.
He carefully began inscribing a circle on the ground. It was time to go home.
Chapter 44
Karen was standing outside the transfer house when he arrived. “You weren’t waiting here for me this entire time, were you?” he asked.
She smirked. “Would you feel guilty if I was?”
He might, but he wasn’t about to admit it. “You already know the answer to that.”
She shook her head. “You’re incorrigible. No, I was in the keep. I sensed your arrival and teleported over as soon as you got here.” She gave him a thorough once-over with her eyes. “What do you have all over you?” Drawing closer, she touched him with one finger and then promptly sneezed. “Dust?”
“It worked even better than I expected,” he told her proudly.
“If it had gone the way you described, there wouldn’t be dust all over you,” she remarked. “You realize I’m coming with you when you go to my world, don’t you?”
He winced inwardly. He didn’t want to bring anyone this time, but he couldn’t find a way around bringing her. Karen’s gift was just too valuable, especially since he would arrive at some random location.
She frowned at his hesitation. “Don’t you?” It was technically a question, but her tone made it clear there was only one acceptable answer.
Matthew sighed, “I do. Although I won’t lie. If there was any way to do it without you, I would, no matter how angry you became.”
That statement was enough to aggravate her, and it showed on her features. He was still filled with adrenaline from his recent brush with death, though. On impulse he reached out, sliding his hand behind her neck, and pulled her in for a firm but sudden kiss. His action surprised him almost as much as it did her.
; Eyes wide, she stepped back. “What was that?”
He fumbled for an answer he didn’t have before finally sputtering, “For luck.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “Luck, huh? You’re the one who’s going to need it, not me. I think you got the custom backward.”
They each scanned the yard with both their eyes and magesight, wondering if anyone had noticed. Being daytime, there were a number of people about, but no one seemed to be staring. Neither of them said anything else about it.
Karen was the first to restart their conversation. “You had best be sure that contraption you’ve created works properly. If we come back from your next rescue mission and I’m covered in dirt, I’ll have a lot of explaining to do to your sister.”
He missed her point. “Huh? Why?”
“Most of the clothes I’ve been wearing were hers,” she explained.
He still didn’t get it. “But they’re yours now.”
She sighed, “It would be rude if I ruined…, oh, never mind.” There were somethings he would simply never understand.
They walked back to the keep together. The distance between them was minimal, and for a moment, they almost linked arms, but after an awkward glance or two, they decided not to. Karen’s mind was still replaying what had just happened, trying to discern whether there was any meaning to it, but when she looked at his features they revealed nothing.
Matthew, for his part, was planning another enchantment. I may have to bring her, but I don’t have to keep her there. Whether she likes it or not.
***
Director Aiseman was trying to enjoy a quiet dinner with his wife when the ANSIS alert lit up, ruining his peace of mind. The next half hour was a tense one. Interceptors and drones were scrambled, missiles launched, and a short while later, another small piece of terrain was bombed into oblivion.
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