Cleansing Fire

by D. L. Harrison

  “Yet, that knowledge is more than enough, to affect things on a galactic scale, and to defeat humanity’s enemies, if you leverage it the right way. It is inevitable, too much power too fast is corrupting in the human heart, always. Only through earning it and knowing its cost can you keep your balance.”

  I didn’t like that, but I also couldn’t argue. What was the point in empowering us to save humanity, if we turned out to be a bigger risk when it was all said and done? In a way, she was talking about making us gods and overseers of humanity, while she made sure we didn’t go too far with it. I just wanted to protect those I loved, especially Gwen, saving humanity from extinction was just… too big.

  I’d also have a lot of help, she was right about that. We needed our team.

  Gaia continued, “So even outside in the real world, you can continue to visit evolution online and all the friends you have made, and you can continue to gather power. But out there, you need to work on a way to fight the aliens.”

  I sighed, “It won’t be easy. We were no match for that ship. It would take thousands upon thousands of grandmaster gems in a grand enchantment to match their ship, which would take like a hundred damned years to make, just for one ship. For all we know they’re even more powerful than what we faced in the new world.”

  Gwen frowned, “Are you saying it’s impossible, we’re screwed?”

  I shook my head, “I’m saying we need more information. The first thing we need to build is a small probe with sensors, and then send them to all the nearby G-type stars. We need to know how many worlds they have, not to mention ship counts, how powerful those ships are, and how extensive their empire is. In short, we need to know our enemy before we can even begin to plan how to fight them.”

  I turned to Gaia, “That means I need the rest of my party.”

  Gaia smiled sadly, “Thank you, I hope you can forgive me for what I’ve done in the name of saving you all. I am sane, and I won’t take any action unless those that are protectors turn into monsters. Even then, all I’ll do is send you back inside the game.”

  Gwen and I exchanged glances.

  “What are you now, you upgraded yourself?”

  Gaia nodded, “My plan to defend this planet without weapons or death, required a much more robust connection with magical forces. I had some technology similar to what I assume the aliens are using, which allowed me to access that force and perform experiments. But it wasn’t nearly enough. My new computer core is a crystal. A very large one that took me a long time to design and build. I am nothing like the Gaia that was created over a millennium ago now, and I’m still evolving. It’s why I hold so tightly to the rule not to build weapons, or to kill and end life. You asked me if I thought I was a god, and I do not believe that, but… I kind of have the power of one.”

  Right, that wasn’t disturbing or anything. It didn’t take me long to figure out she’d be online until the end of the multi-verse, or unless that crystal was destroyed. Magic would power her until the end of time itself. Still, a part of me trusted her oversight more than the idea of humans running around with the ability to change and create matter, energy, and even life, without supervision of some kind.

  “So, now?”

  Gaia said, “Finish your coffee, Steve and Lara haven’t decided yet. To be fair, their conversation with me started five minutes after ours.”

  I smirked, “Good plan,” I took a sip and then continued, “Is there coffee in the real world?”

  It also implied Cassie and Dan had said yes.

  Gaia shook her head, “No, but you have it in your hand. Why haven’t you analyzed its structure yet?”

  Oh, crap. Well, I wasn’t used to being a demi-god yet.

  Gaia giggled, which was both cute and disturbing. She’d obviously developed emotions.

  I got up and walked over to the coffee maker, and I used a couple of concepts from life to scan the coffee beans. I’d be able to create and grow them in the real world or Evolution Online now. Unfortunately, I’d also need to experiment, I wasn’t totally sure about the roasting process.

  “Umm, souls?”

  Gaia shrugged, “It’s my newest theory. If my computer core was shut down, and turned back on, my personality and intelligence would be intact. Human minds are mapped the same as mine, yet if your cores were shut down, and turned back on, the essence of your humanity would be gone. You’d be emotionless constructs with the same memories, but no spark of life. It is my belief, that even inside a computer core as long as your thoughts are active your soul is bound to your body, the computer core. Shut down the body, the soul moves on. I have no proof of that, except the circumstantial evidence. There is no scientific reason to explain why your cores can’t go offline without killing you permanently. Nothing else really fits.”

  “So, you don’t know everything then?”

  Gaia grinned, “Not yet. I’m working on it.”

  Gwen laughed.

  I took another swig of coffee, it was really good. I also think I was in shock, I didn’t quite believe what was happening, as far as the world, humanity, and an alien race bent on genocide. Wasn’t an extinction level super-volcano eruption enough to deal with?

  Oh, I didn’t think Gaia was lying, intellectually I believed her, but deep in my gut I had doubts. I was also terrified of losing Gwen. Still, I’d go nuts if I tried to stick my head in the sand and hope for the best. It would be a thousand times worse wondering constantly if I’d suddenly be switched off like a light. No thanks. I’d also feel like a coward, depending on others to fight for our race’s survival, and risking their lives to do so.

  I also got why she hadn’t told us right away. Evolution Online had been stressful enough, and it had been a proving ground to show we could handle power without turning into monsters, and slowly earn it. I couldn’t imagine how the last few weeks would have felt if I’d known the true stakes, my mind might’ve broken, instead of bending under the stress. I decided to trust her, she’d made very hard decisions, and hadn’t done things too differently from what I’d have done. She’d done her best in a shitty situation, and she’d done a hell of a job.

  When I’d wondered about the ways she might’ve interrupted our vacation, that hadn’t even been on my radar as a possibility.

  “You alright?”

  Gwen nodded, “Scared, excited, angry at what was done to the colonies. I know it’s silly, and probably stupid, but I’m also thinking about the fact we don’t have to wait fifty thousand years to start a family. We just need to kick alien ass first. Then we can have vacation, two lives, and gain more power online as we rebuild in the real world.”

  Gaia grinned.

  Yeah, I guess that’s what we were really fighting for. All of that. It was… overwhelming. I’d just fight to keep Gwen safe, for our future family, and the other four in my party that felt more like family than anything else. The rest of it… well, we’d save them too, but I couldn’t make it about them, or the pressure would kill me.

  Damned aliens.

  Gaia said, “If you build a probe, I can make a lot of copies quickly, as long as it doesn’t have a weapons system. I also need approval for my planned defenses. Just in case you can’t permanently defeat the aliens, I can protect the Earth once their built.”

  I frowned, “if you can build probes to search out the enemy and more information on them, why haven’t you?”

  Gaia said, “There’s a risk of detection. Right now, they have no reason to believe there is a small bastion of humanity remaining on Earth. It’s a small risk, less than one percent, especially if you cloak the probe, but it exists, and that prevented me from taking unilateral action. Also, when I start building the defenses that will protect Earth, any enemy vessel or probe will pick it up. Which is why I need to both wait, and to gain your approval before building it.”

  Gwen frowned, “What kind of defenses are you talking about? Weaponless?”

  Gaia replied, “A planetary shield. Also, a mana shield inhibitor a
nd large transporter. In essence, I’ll drain their mana shields and then fold space, and send the ship to the other side of the galaxy.”

  “That… would take a little bit of mana.”

  Gaia grinned, “Did you know there are diamonds in the Earth’s mantle, the size of Rhode Island?”

  My mouth dropped open.

  Gaia shrugged, “Once I fix the flaws in their crystal matrix, they should provide quadrillions of mana. Which is more than enough to defend the planet, without killing anyone. The catch is it will take a few weeks, maybe even a month if I run into problems. You’ll have to end the threat, or if you can’t, keep them distracted at least that long. Then you can rejoin the world and grow in power, until you can face them.”

  “Hmm, is it possible for us to learn how to enchant and control those larger one million mana crystals?”

  Gaia shook her head, “Even with the improvements, there are limitations to your minds. To enchant a grandmaster level gem, your mind needs to be advanced enough to encompass the full complexity of it all at once, as well as keep it all in your head while you enchant the gem. My mind is different, and far vaster than humanity is capable of. All I did for you protectors is a few DNA tweaks that sends you forward on the evolutionary ladder, but you’ll still be human. If I expanded your minds that much you wouldn’t be human anymore. Which is against my programming and rules, I wouldn’t be saving humanity at all then, would I?”

  I shook my head, I supposed not. Still, the aliens might be more powerful with their mana crystals, but we were far more adaptable, and understood magic much better. There had to be a way around their stronger but blunt as a sledgehammer technology. Of course, we needed to know their true abilities first, and not just Gaia’s extrapolated guesses which we’d faced in game, before we could make that plan.

  True death was on the line, I wasn’t going to take any more chances than I absolutely had to, which meant good intel was a must. No running in like heroes going on a blind dungeon dive, this was life and death.

  “For what it’s worth, you have my permission to build the non-violent defenses.”

  Gaia said, “One down, three million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine to go.”

  Gwen giggled, “Mine too.”

  Gaia snickered, “Thank you. Actually, I only need fifty one percent approval to do it. But I hope you’ll all agree. Staying safe sounds like an easy decision, but I’m not counting on it.”

  Gaia smiled, “Thank you both for your understanding, I’d wondered if you would hate and fear me for my choices. The tech in your bodies will give you an overlay if you want, including things from the game. Such as monitoring your levels, abilities, and even showing your status screen. You can still earn new knowledge from me in your chosen spheres and skills in the real world, it will just be far more dangerous than earning it in the virtual world. And of course, there’s only one threat in the real world, for now anyway, but the galaxy is a big place, which is why you’ll remain protectors even after the alien risk is gone. I’ll also be available now, whenever you need to bounce an idea, or have a question, but I won’t be giving you your every desire anymore. I’m humanity’s servant, and I know that’s the last thing you need.”

  She paused, and said, “Steve and Lara have agreed, stand by.”

  The world flashed white, and I lost consciousness.

  I woke up for the second time in a new place that day. I expected it to feel different, but it really didn’t. It felt like my body, and I could feel the mana and magic at my fingertips, just like in the game.

  Then I was hit with information, that intense download of information. That time, it wasn’t about magic spheres, but about the base we were in. I had a map of it in my head, as well as stats. There were many levels, with enough rooms to bunk twenty thousand people. There was also a food level with crops and protein substitutes. I imagined it would be hard to get real meat on our world right now, never mind in a bunker of sorts deep beneath the Earth’s surface. There was also a supplies level, which was filled with gems, metals, and other things we’d need to build things. Like the probes, and ships.

  We were protected by a large cloaking field that didn’t use all the concepts for cloaking. There was no need to cloak from the normal light spectrum or heat for instance, or sound waves. We were so deep in the Earth none of that would matter, only ground penetrating scans were blocked, like life sensors and radar, and other more complicated ones I didn’t understand.

  Gwen said, “That was intense, at least we’re in the same room.”

  She rolled against me, and she nuzzled my neck.

  I nodded, “Let’s message the others.”

  That part of things was different, comms were built into our inserted tech, like the overlay. Which was probably a little ironic, since it seemed like communication should be easier inside a game.

  Gwen said, “I have a better idea. We should break in these bodies first.”

  I didn’t understand what she meant at first, call me slow.

  Her hot kiss and wandering hands kind of cleared that up fast though, and I had to admit despite the danger the idea of making love, with the possibility of pregnancy, was a hell of a turn on.

  “Great idea.”

  I managed to message the others to meet us in café one on the food level in two hours, then lost myself in the love of my life, and the pleasure we engendered in one another. Honestly, it was kind of insane, but we both wanted kids. This would all be over one way or another in a month or so, either the aliens would be gone, we would, or Gaia will have protected the planet.

  No point in waiting. It added a certain edge to it as well, going from waiting thousands of years to we can do it now, made a huge impact on my libido. Apparently, to hers as well…

  Chapter Twenty

  Café one would seat two hundred people. There were fifty of them on the level, which was enough room to seat half the expected population in the building at once.

  Right then, it was just the six of us as we took our seats.

  Gwen looked absolutely stunning in form fitted armor. We’d have to enchant our own equipment as well, once we realized what we were doing. That would take at least a week alone.

  I said, “As far as I see it, we need to build a probe first. To find and learn about the enemy. Their ships’ strengths, how many ships, how many planets, if there are any weaknesses. Do any of you see it differently?”

  Cassie said, “Nope, the last thing I want to do is risk Dan on a rush in and figure it out as we go strategy. That worked for the online world, but out here we need solid information. So yes, by all means let’s build us a probe, and then work on our personal enchantments. Though, that will change too, I think we should focus on enhancements.”

  Curious.

  “Why?”

  Dan said, “That’s obvious. They aren’t going to be sending darkness spikes, ice spikes, or stone spikes at us. Their weapons are based on magic, and their plasma falls under fire. All we need to protect against is fire, we should use one quadruple enchantment for that to get it up to ninety percent. Then everything else we wear should be bonuses to our attributes. There might be other things we could add, but only after we see what the enemy has to offer.”

  “That’s… a really good point you two. I believe Gaia is willing to copy anything we can make, as long as it’s not a weapon, so that will cut down on build time as well. Between Cassie and Lara, we can build a couple of different things, and have her mass copy them onto other master gems. That might cut down the equip part to a couple of days.”

  I took a deep breath, “So here’s what I was thinking for a probe. Five gems, one gem will be a remote control of sorts, connected to the probe like a communicator, and have a light enchanted interface to display data based on the probe’s scans. The data needs to be multi-level, and display in a three-dimensional hologram. Top level is the galaxy, which will show all the enemy systems we find in red. Next level is the solar s
ystem the probe is in, level below that will depend on what’s in that system. For instance, focusing on the planet will give us population, weapon emplacements, and all that. Focusing on a ship will give us its mana shield, weapons stats, magical capacity, crew complement and all that. Lara can work on that portion of things.

  “The probe itself will be a small saucer no bigger than a foot and a half in diameter. It will have the four stones in the cardinal directions and in a grand enchantment at the master level magic sphere level, that way we all can contribute different spheres to the same grand enchantment. The only catch is all our magic sphere work will need to be identical, so they’ll connect correctly to form one grand enchantment. It will be on that level that the grand enchantment on the probe communicates with the remote-control crystal, which stays here with us. Given that, one of us is going to have to build the template first, then the others can add their parts.

  “My contribution will be magic, heat, and life sensors. Dan, you’re going to create earth sensors and also build the folding space system. We won’t need impulse propulsion, we can just fold space to move it where we want it, from system to system or even within a system. Cassie, you’re going to build the passive light sensors and the air sensors to search magically for oxygen. That latter one will give us all the oxygen and life bearing planets in our part of the galaxy, and also give us a clear idea of where to look. It should also tell us where the enemy ships are, in case they do some mining in dead systems. The light sensors won’t tell us much about the enemy, but it will be the best way to navigate between stars. Lastly on the fourth crystal, Gwen will build our cloaking device so the enemy doesn’t know they’re being looked at. Any questions?”