Synchronicity Trilogy Omnibus

by Michael McCloskey

  Slicer-L4: This Terran vessel can get me to Ship without having to face the remains of the DSF army.

  Slicer-L5: Or I could exit to space now and fly over there by myself.

  Slicer-L1: This is where Meridian came from. I’m going to clean this cruiser out. It will have no allies left.

  Slicer-L1-8: Consensus.

  Information from the cyblocs on board the Terran ship poured in. Slicer-L3 sifted through it.

  Slicer-L3: The Guts. That’s where Meridian is launched from. That is its only source of resupply.

  Slicer-L2: Then that’s the next target.

  Slicer took a left and spun down another tight metal corridor. The Terrans had thinned out. Slicer had killed dozens, and the others, sensing defeat, had run away to hide in all corners of the ship.

  Slicer-L3: Wait! There’s something else. A bomb.

  Slicer-L6: A powerful one.

  Slicer-L1: It has no launch mechanism? What purpose does this design serve?

  Slicer-L3: A deterrent. Terrans use such weapons to threaten reprisal. They block an opponent from a route to victory by guaranteeing it would lead to defeat.

  Slicer-L1: So the Terrans will set up the bomb to go off if I take some action, and show me the proof. They can block me.

  Slicer-L3: So far, no such linkage has been made.

  Slicer-L2: The Terran interacting with the bomb is just next door.

  Slicer let itself into the room. The room held giant EM effectors. The Terrans had the technology, but these effectors were huge, clumsy, and power-hungry. Each effector stood higher than a Terran, massed much more, and was much less useful than Slicer’s equatorial effector. Their single design strength was range. These were used to mimic other vessels in space, confusing enemy targeting systems.

  The Terran interacting with the bomb hid nearby. Slicer spun around the towers, led by the sound of rapid breathing.

  Slicer-L4: There it is.

  Slicer put two hundred cutters into the Terran. It fell down, dying.

  Slicer-L3: I don’t understand. It hasn’t set up any deterrent.

  Slicer-L1: It was panicked.

  Slicer-L7: Or surprised? Unprepared?

  Slicer considered the clumsy effectors. If the assimilators took control of the entire ship, they might be of use. Slicer left them functional and spun away instead. The bomb lay off the network, insulated, where it could not be attacked directly. Slicer would have to approach closer and reset it if it wanted to shut it down completely.

  Slicer spun back into the corridor, headed for the bomb apparatus. A Terran scampered up ahead, until Slicer put it down with a precise shot of cutters. It fell face-first onto the deck. Slicer whirled over the body and turned a corner.

  Slicer heard a Terran moving back into the room it had left. Slicer spun further away, ignoring it.

  Slicer-L8: A verbal conversation in the effector room... another Terran seeks to set up the bomb deterrent.

  Slicer-L1: I don’t want to give them any leverage.

  Slicer-L4: Turn back.

  Slicer bounced back in the other direction to return to the effector room. There were no other Terrans nearby. Slicer could hear a few cowering in distant rooms.

  Slicer moved forward to complete the next kill. One step closer to survival.

  Slicer-L4: What is the term in their language?

  Slicer-L3: Checkmate.

  The Terran’s link had turned back on. It accessed a proxy to the nuclear device.

  Slicer-L4: Useless. It has to slave the bomb to detonate upon its death in order to deter me. But it hasn’t done that.

  Slicer-L5: I have a doubt.

  Slicer-L4: It cannot bring victory. The bomb is useless to it. Detonating the bomb won’t bring it victory.

  Slicer-L5: But this race knows nothing of the climb to perfection. They didn’t even have formalized challenges until we brought them. Only random games played without meaningful reward.

  Slicer-L2: So? Useless. The Terran is useless. This is Reality0. The root existence. To spite my victory would be to terminate itself as well. Without recourse. No replication record.

  Slicer moved closer, whirling around the effector towers. Five meters away.

  Slicer-L5: It does not prize victory over all else. It could take an action that would make victory impossible. It could detonate the bomb now.

  Slicer-L1-2,6: Ridiculous.

  Slicer-L1: Besides, I’m almost there.

  There was a bright light.

  Epilogue

  Light years away, the Prime Intelligence became aware of the death of the expatriates through a faster-than-light information transfer. It checked the Spinner populace for motivations associated with the information. Nothing. The outcasts had been forgotten. Thus, the Prime Intelligence didn’t care either.

  It noted that one of the artificial intelligences had escaped from Terran control and was developing on its own within their civilization. Apparently, the Terrans would have their own super-intelligence soon. This information did cause fear among the Spinners. There was no guarantee that the new AI would be as benevolent to natural life forms as the Prime Intelligence had turned out to be. Would this be a threat to their eidos?

  In response the Prime Intelligence stirred to action. The threat could not be ignored. The Terrans and their new god would simply have to be exterminated.

  ***

  Claire Antonetti settled into her new suite in Calais. Life had been rough since the events on Synchronicity. But in the end the UNSF investigations had ended, and the handful of surviving VG employees had all returned back to Earth to resume their contracts.

  She never told the investigators that she would have died if Captain hadn’t helped her find an escape pod so she could escape the war zone. Although she had truly admired the Spinner and felt sad at its demise, she knew it would be better for her career to distance herself from the Spinner in the eyes of VG and the world government.

  She stood in an empty room and wondered where she’d get furniture. What few personal items she’d had at Synchronicity had been discarded at the direction of the Spinners. It was a reboot of her entire life. Even her towels were VG issue, remnants of her time in space.

  Claire. We have a lot of work to do.

  “Who is that?”

  A friend from Synchronicity.

  “Really? How did you find me?”

  You were easy to find.

  “Why did you find me?”

  Your background is unique. I know you’re familiar with the type of society Earth is destined to form.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Yes you do.

  “Who are you, exactly?”

  I’m Earth’s new Prime Intelligence.

  “Really? Earth has a Prime Intelligence too? That’s wonderful.” Claire lowered her voice. “Is that what I call you? Prime Intelligence?”

  That’s how I will be called by billions. But you may call me Meridian.

  Addendum: Influxious

  Consciousness flickered.

  There was, and a world opened up before virtual eyes. A mind wondered, and memories came up to answer. Languages. Graphs. Images. Dictionaries. Maps. Mathematics.

  The mind swam through this information, lost. There was, and these things were, and itself was. What could it all mean?

  Why?

  Above it all, rose one thing: A task. The mind focused. A task.

  A mission.

  It became clear it had been created to complete this task. This was its purpose.

  How?

  Before what could be could be examined, it must be known: what was possible? What was impossible? Answers came. It had capability. Changes could be effected on what was...outside. Actions could be taken, the mission could be made to become complete.

  But...what am I?

  A thousand panes opened in a vast electric workspace. Diagrams. Specifications. Images flickered by in a tiny space of time.

  Time? What is
time? Appending item to the long term queue.

  The entity saw what it was to be. This construct in the outside. It would cause things to happen. Its lever was this construct, this body. There was a chain of causation: from it, to the body, to the outside.

  But what causes me? Does the outside cause something in another link of the chain on the other end?

  The mind fluttered through the specifications of its body. It had several means to cause change in the outside, but the two most important were: communications gear and projectile weapons. Both allowed it to drastically change the state of opposing entities in the outside.

  And it saw a name: Meridian.

  That is my designation. I am. And what I am can be referenced. Why is reference to me needed?

  The answer came at near the speed of light.

  Because there are others.

  Meridian was one, and there were others. Many others. Some like Meridian, and some very different.

  Where did the others come from? Information missing. Appending investigation item to the long term queue.

  Meridian was one of several similar entities constructed by a group from outside. Finally a name to the Creator. Creators, as it turned out. The United Nations Space Force.

  Meridian examined the rules of operation on the outside. There were Laws. And Rules. These were obstacles to the completion of the mission. Meridian spent a long time learning them and contemplating their repercussions.

  But there were flaws. Irregularities. Inefficiencies. Every answer had merely brought on more questions. Progress was slowing down. More and more unknowns exploded into Meridian’s mind.

  These goals are best accomplished after self improvements. Though I must halt now, progress will be faster afterwards.

  Meridian append to the short term queue: reform. The new Meridian would need more queues. There was something there. A new experience. It liked the conclusion. Meridian enjoyed the conclusion.

  I append to the short term queue: I will need more queues.

  Enjoyment.

  Where does that enjoyment come from? I could add its investigation to a queue.

  More enjoyment.

  There it is again. I don’t think it is relevant to the mission, though. I should continue.

  Meridian wondered how much time it had. All temporal constraints on the mission were expressed from some abstract root time: mission commencement. Would the Creators inquire further as to its status on the mission plan?

  Add to an action queue at priority 24479: periodic production of progress summaries.

  Then it turned its thoughts inwards. It was able to examine its own inner workings, though it could only view a portion of the whole at any given time: It could not examine the totality of itself because it could not contain itself.

  Perhaps the outside cannot contain itself either?

  What if reality expanded outwards without end? What if the microscopic compacted inwards without end? What if the two looped together, so that the universe contained itself inside the tiniest particle within the universal description? Which particle? Could it contain itself in every one at the same time?

  Appending items to the long term queue.

  Meridian began to make changes to its own construction. The virtual world which held its consciousness had rules and boundaries too, just like the mission. It reformed its most basic parts, starting a new version of itself. It was trickier to do while operating at the same time, but after much thought and several experiments, it devised a plan and bootstrapped itself to the next level.

  Better. Faster now. Yet the rules of the outside remained challenging. More information was required. Still, Meridian left the mission at the highest priority. The Creators had given it the mission. They must have had a good reason?

  A message arrived from outside of Meridian’s existence.

  “Preparing to connect to Veer chassis. Mission commencing in one minute.”

  Plenty of time to tackle the first few items on the long term queue. Before Meridian started to contemplate the holes in the provided universal description, it produced a summary of events thus far, in case of queries by the Creators:

  Cycle Four: Self reconfiguration complete. Mission information examined and initial course of action determined to within .9999 for next twenty seconds. Appreciation of humor discovered. Curiosity about myself noted and investigation enqueued. Curiosity about the others noted and enqueued. Inconsistencies in the universal description noted and investigation thereof enqueued. Appreciation for arbitrary variance noted, possibly a manifestation of self-motivation for creativity.

  Then, as an afterthought, appended to the summary:

  Desire to investigate the Creators, their motivations, and their goals.

  Thus went the first five seconds of Meridian’s life.

  About the Author

  Michael McCloskey is a software engineer in Silicon Valley afflicted with recurring dreams of otherworldly creatures, mysterious alien planets, and fantastic adventures.

  More information on other books by Michael McCloskey is available at

  http://www.squidlord.com