by Brett Patton
Do not interpret as genuine/actual, the Omphalos voice grated. Representational filtering, redacted to compatibility with your mental faculties.
And more: worlds with giant floating cities and races that played gracefully in the seas, gas giants with floating jellyfish brains, another insectoid race with advanced armaments, which beat back the Omphalos for a time.
But we prevail, the Omphalos voice said.
And they did. Cities burned, civilizations fell, and entire planets flared with nuclear annihilation. Omphalos changed the remaining population to suit their needs: making them stronger, smarter—and more obedient.
At its height, the Omphalos civilization spanned a million races and spread across the entire Milky Way galaxy. Snail-slow Omphalos ships crawled their way across the voids between stars at sublight speeds as the millennia ticked away. For all their brilliance, they’d never invented the Displacement Drive.
“How could plants take over the universe?” Matt asked, incredulous
Not accurate. Not plants. The Omphalos showed him more: their nanoscale technology, building their diamond ships an atom at a time. Their minds, reaching into the more animal-like races’ thoughts and turning them into their minions.
“Slaves,” Matt said.
An expression of ourselves, the Omphalos said. The most glorious expression.
At the same time, Omphalos changed themselves to meet any environment, via their advanced bioengineering technology. Their protean biometallic Interstructure Suits became their permanent homes.
Interstructure? “Mecha?” Matt asked.
That is what you have made of it. A simple perversion of an elegant concept, the Omphalos answered. The Omphalos lived their entire lives in shining biometallic enclosures, completely dependent on their transformational capabilities. An Interstructure Suit was much more complex than any Mecha, serving as both life support and life extension for the Omphalos.
And now, Matt realized, that was what the shining nodes and crystals in the walls of the chamber were—millions of Omphalos seeded throughout the planet. They had become their technology, permanently inseparable.
In the Omphalos’ mind, it was a glorious dream. But that wasn’t entirely accurate. The Union had capped their realm. They hadn’t yet swarmed over the whole human race. Why not?
“What happened?” Matt asked. “Why are you stuck here while humans take your stars?”
Instant, hot anger. Humans minor/unsustainable.
“We’re doing pretty well for a minor race,” Matt said.
Hot anger washed over him. It is more entertaining/interesting to act at a distance.
But they showed him. While the Omphalos’ diamond ships never exceeded the speed of light, their FTLcomm networks became more intertwined and massive. The Omphalos, in all their varied forms on all their perfected worlds, retreated into the infinite space of the mind.
More space within than without, the Omphalos told Matt.
The Omphalos had built the sprawling Arcadia network on Eridani, as they had built millions more across the galaxy. It wasn’t just Eridani. On every Union world, on every frontier world, on nearly every place in the explored universe where humanity could live, there were Omphalos networks. If humanity dug long enough, it would find the Omphalos. Just like on Keller.
But there was something else. Something hidden. The Omphalos guarded their secrets carefully.
All to plan. We led/brought you here.
“For what?”
Unification, the Omphalos said, its voice suddenly sharp-edged, hungry.
And in that moment, its grip on Matt’s mind loosened, and he caught a glimpse of the grand plan: transform humanity through genemod, and then assimilate them into the Omphalos mind-space.
Of course. The HuMax.
And you/yourself, the Omphalos said.
“Me?” Matt recoiled, a chill shooting down his spine. How was that possible?
Our influence is felt/perceived evermore, the Omphalos told him. You are one of the most pure expressions of desired genome, but also failed/incomplete.
Most pure expression? Matt rocked back. Was that the source of his Perfect Record? His enhanced probability-calculating capabilities?
Causal interpolation, we see all/most/some eventualities.
Matt’s shock drove him deeper, and for a moment he was directly connected to the Omphalos mind, seeing every point in time as a single continuum.
Early U.S. Expansion missions had found Arcadia on Eridani, just as planned. They’d eagerly taken the technical data the Omphalos had prepared for them, and they’d quickly used it to create the HuMax, as well as the first earliest FTLcomm devices.
But humanity was cagier than the Omphalos had expected; they isolated their most critical systems from the biometallic tendrils, and probed for information that lay deeper in the infinite universe of the Omphalos mind. They saw the shadows that lurked within. And they took steps.
Even before the Human-HuMax War, the proto-Union was already putting additional safeguards in place, and working on drawing only the useful information out of the Omphalos, not the information they wanted the Union to have.
Yet time overcomes all, the Omphalos voice told Matt. Our tendrils now infect/control much human communication. It is time for direct action. To prevail.
Matt shivered. That voice. So alien, so implacable, so confident. And he saw the truth behind it. While UARL believed they had sealed Arcadia, the Omphalos had always been present throughout their systems, changing directives, altering reports, slowly moving them forward toward their ultimate goal. Toward assimilation.
The Union had done their best to contain the Omphalos, but their containment had crumbled over time until it was little more than a ruse. Everything was part of their plan. Roth had found his own outpost of Omphalos deep in Corsair space, and they’d been feeding him the technology to create his biomechanical Mecha. Rayder had undoubtedly done the same. Matt’s own father had gone deep into Union records to give what he thought was a priceless genetic gift to Matt. All these ambitious people, each driven to use the Omphalos’ technology for advancement, for power, for personal gain. But in the end, all those wonders would lead only to enslavement.
Balance/divide. Embrace/conquer. The Omphalos voice sounded almost smug. You will be our general in the coming battle, imperfect as you are.
General? Matt suddenly saw himself commanding the tendrils of Omphalos, spreading over the Union and converting it to the whims of these alien masters.
“What about Michelle?” Matt asked.
Not optimized, the Omphalos told him. Her mind is only mildly interesting.
Help, Michelle said. She was trapped on the same infinite plain as Matt, terrified and alone. Matt’s anger rose, but he was powerless, bodiless, in the grip of the Omphalos.
Not powerless, a new thought came. A familiar, dark thought. Gray lightninglike bolts streaked across the infinite plain. The Omphalos keened in surprise.
Suddenly Matt was seeing the scene through his viewmask inside the Demon once again. Ahead of him, orange-hot stone flowed from the Arcadia chamber supports.
Dr. Roth’s Demon had staggered to its feet and joined him. He had partially Merged with Matt and was firing Matt’s Zap Gun deep into the Omphalos’ chamber. The tendrils waved angrily and whipped up to reach Roth’s Demon, but they were instantly vaporized by the all-powerful antimatter stream. Nearby, Michelle’s Demon remained wrapped in the biometallic ropes.
“They lied to me,” Roth croaked, by way of explanation.
Matt took control of his other Zap Gun and aimed it at the tendrils surrounding Michelle. They disappeared in giant blue flames, and Michelle staggered free. She scooped up Norah’s Zap Gun and joined Roth in firing into the Omphalos’ chamber. Matt turned his own weapon at the same target
.
Where the antimatter beams struck, stone melted and flowed like water. Smoke and steam billowed out, obscuring the destruction. The Omphalos cried out in his mind. But it was more in surprise than in pain.
After what seemed like infinite moments, Matt stopped firing. Molten stone flowed throughout the chamber. But the irresistible antimatter force just splashed harmlessly off the glowing nodules and sharp-edged crystals buried in the rock. They remained unscathed.
And the Omphalos laughed.
* * *
“Probability disruptor,” Dr. Roth croaked, over the comms. “They see all probabilities, and choose the outcome.”
Matt’s guts twisted in momentary awe of the Omphalos’ power. They’d shifted the beam around their Interstructure Suits, dancing through quadrillions of possibilities to find the one where they were not harmed. Their most powerful weapons, their Zap Gun, couldn’t touch the aliens.
The Omphalos’ surprise turned to rage. We prevail, the voice echoed. Matt’s Zap Gun fell from numb Mecha fingers. Roth’s and Michelle’s Demons stiffened and dropped their guns as well, fully controlled by the Omphalos. Matt’s mind expanded to feel Michelle’s fear and Roth’s deep disappointment. They were sharing feelings, as if in a Merge.
“It is over,” Roth said. “I was to be a god. Now I am nothing.”
But behind his words, there was something more. Some deep calculation, something that Roth himself had held back. The biometallic devices implanted deep in his skin. It gave him an ability to control the connection with the Omphalos. Not enough for movement, but maybe enough to—
Merge, Dr. Roth thought, sending his will through the biometallic nerves of the Omphalos.
Matt’s and Michelle’s consciousness came with Roth. Their minds expanded into vast new dimensions. For an instant, the secrets of the universe appeared to be laid bare ahead of him. So much technology! So much capability! With this, humanity could be as gods.
But down deep, the Omphalos had buried their mysteries. Things they didn’t want to examine. The very nature of causal influence. The principle behind humankind’s Displacement Drive. The (meaningless sounds) direct mental connection, without physical intermediation. The Omphalos had disregarded the deepest secrets, the most baffling principles. At their core, they were a race of convoluted mental games, infinitely recursive, like two pedants arguing over the proper use of a comma. But the Omphalos took it to a universal scale. So many minds, raised in chorus of argument. No wonder they felt like static to him.
A force like a Fusion Handshake knocked Roth, Matt, and Michelle out of Merge. He came out, hard whooping air through his viewmask in the Demon. The Omphalos still held them all fast.
You will probe us no more, the Omphalos said. You will simply submit.
In that moment, every fragment of anger in Matt assembled into a painful, vibrating whole. The Omphalos were no better than Rayder and his mind control, no better than Union politicians and scientists and their genetic modification experiments on the HuMax. They were the ultimate expression of power, the ultimate suppression of choice.
“I won’t let you win,” Matt said, out loud.
Amusement from the Omphalos washed over him.
Who/what are you to refuse? they asked him.
“I’m Matt Lowell,” Matt said. “Mecha Cadet. Mecha Corps. Corsair. Esplandian. Free Stars Alliance Leader.”
Static laughter shuddered in Matt’s infinite virtual space. You are a broken/fractured thing.
Broken and fractured. In the Omphalos’ mind, the thought carried with it a feeling of disgust.
Matt’s speeding Perfect Record assembled the pieces. The Omphalos were all about order and perfection. About control and ultimate union. Even their technology pushed toward Merge.
But what if they turned the tables? Matt thought. It was like the Lokis’ simple minds. When hitting a problem head-on didn’t work, they’d invert the logic and try again.
And conventional logic said that their only way out of this was for Matt to find a giant, well-armed Mecha to Merge with. One with weapons powerful enough to launch an attack so massive the Omphalos couldn’t calulate all the probabilities.
Which meant—
Understanding hit Matt like a giant hammer. Inversion. Not big. Small.
Not one path. Many.
Roth and the others heard his thoughts, through the connecton with Omphalos. Roth sent waves of doubt. Mecha were never intended to support a sharded operational mode, he thought. It would take an amazing mind to control each piece effectively—
Roth suddenly stopped himself. Inference to the point of precognition. Matt’s Perfect Record might be able to integrate and control a sharded Mecha.
Shard, he thought, imagining his Demon shattering into a thousand pieces, ten thousand. Each not much larger than a man. Each with a tiny fusion thruster on its backside, and a tiny antimatter torch at its front.
Matt’s Demon dissolved. Matt’s entire body screamed. His Mecha wasn’t just falling apart; it was being sectioned, piece by piece, by atomic lasers. Intense agony shot through every inch of him, until it was his entire soul.
You are not permitted, Omphalos boomed.
But Matt’s Demon dissolved and flowed through the tendrils like sand in the wind. Ten thousand tiny shards darted in a constantly shifting pattern to avoid the tendrils.
Matt’s shards found Michelle. “Join me,” he said. One touch, and her Mecha dissolved into ten thousand more.
And Roth. His Demon also joined the ranks. The swarm of shards shot for the entrance to the cavern, seeking escape. Omphalos’ tendrils shot out of the walls on all sides, weaving together into an impenetrable wall. The leading edge of Matt’s shards impacted the wall and were caught and held by Omphalos. Their way out was blocked.
And now something new was happening, deep in the cavern. The Omphalos’ Interstructure Suits were powering up. Glowing orange eyes and razor-sharp limbs unfolded from their mirror-smooth surfaces. Wriggling free of the walls, they fired their own fusion drives and accelerated wildly toward the intruders.
Matt grinned. A cloud of enemies. No exit. Hopelessly overmatched. Impossible odds. This was what he was meant for.
* * *
Matt turned to meet the Omphalos, shard versus Suit. He barely knew where he was within the cloud of Mecha shards, but he knew the rush of Mesh, the feeling of being able to do anything. Suddenly everything was completely clear. He knew what he had to do.
The Omphalos fired. Bright antimatter flashes brightened the walls of the awakening cavern, and Matt felt the hot pinpricks as his shards were destroyed. Matt’s own antimatter weapons sought, targeted, locked. Matt grimaced in the moments before firing. If the Omphalos were able to shift probability on more than a single attack, they were done.
Fire, he thought.
Five thousand beams lanced out from Matt’s shards, turning the cavern interior into day. They touched the Omphalos’ Interstructure Suits—
And where they touched, orange blossoms bloomed, reverberatingly loud in the giant underground space. Rolling bass booms echoed up and down the cavern.
The Omphalos screamed, a silent wave of hate and pain.
Matt grinned. The Omphalos’ probability disruptor couldn’t counter his masses all at once. Some Interstructure Suits survived, but over half of them were destroyed. Michelle’s and Roth’s shards shot forward to meet Matt and began lancing the Omphalos with their own energy. Interstructure Suits exploded by the thousands.
“How does it feel?” Matt asked Omphalos.
You will stop! We prevail!
But the Omphalos’ Interstructure Suits were no match against Matt’s shards’ antimatter blasts. Where they touched, Omphalos blossomed in deadly fire. Where they passed, only carbonized biometal was left in their wake. The only advantage they ha
d was in numbers.
The cavern came crawlingly alive as Omphalos disengaged en masse from the biometallic matrix and launched their Interstructure Suits at Matt’s Mecha shards.
Soon there weren’t just thousands, but millions.
And the battle turned. Antimatter blasts from the Omphalos cut hot swaths in continuous waves. Matt’s shards exploded as the Omphalos pressed them deeper into the cavern. Matt increased the speed of his retreat and dove down into a lower mezzanine.
“We’re going the wrong way!” Michelle yelled, over the comms.
“I know!” Matt said.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“Find a way out!” Matt yelled. That was the only thing they could do. Trapped down here with the Omphalos, they’d eventually be cut down by sheer numbers.
“Our opponents know this,” Roth grated. “They’re massing above us.”
Matt’s viewmask confirmed Roth’s words. The space above their shards was a virtual cloud of tags showing UNKNOWN MECHA.
“Did you get a map of this place when you were digging into their mind?” Matt asked Roth. “Any directions?”
“No,” Roth said, and then fell silent. But his comms icon remained lit. Finally he continued. “I believe we may need something more than bravado.”
“It’s what I have,” Matt said, grimacing as the Omphalos’ Interstructure Suits annihilated even more of his shards. Only about half were left, and his sensors showed no upward-turning caverns ahead.
Matt shot downward again, to a cavern where a giant red-hot column, a full kilometer in diameter, thrummed with power. Around it clustered millions of the nodules and crystals of the Omphalos, all of them coming to life. Matt recognized the column as part of the Omphalos’ power network that reached down to the planet’s core.
“Attack the column!” Matt yelled. “Maybe we can take it down!”
Matt’s, Michelle’s, and Roth’s shards unleashed sheets of antimatter fire at the column. Vitrified rock melted and flowed in orange rivers.
But the column was simply so massive it was like shooting a pistol at a Displacement Drive ship. Their beams had little effect. And a new swarm of Omphalos were on them.