Chapter 045: Secrets

The Truthseekers Corporation was a major transnational corporation originally established within the Free State in the year 2475. It’s stated goal was climbing the Wall of Reason, making the R&D its prime focus. Unlike many similar groups, however, the Corporation began to quickly amass successes and new discoveries.

Its significance rose quickly with every subsequent achievement. During the Machine Wars it reached the status of Confederation of Mankind-sponsored prime research organization of Mankind, operating side by side with the Explorers Guild.

This lasted until 2543, when a newly created - and extremely illegal - AI/ARACHNE rebelled against the Corporation, bringing its numerous crimes to light. Illegal (often human) experimentation, deals with Discord, violations of every single tenet of the Icarus Accord, and involvement in numerous other crimes against Mankind, political assassinations, blackmail and even things as mundane as tax evasion.

The Corporation was blacklisted by the Supreme Tribunal of Mankind. The exact numbers are unknown, but it is estimated that at least 85% of the approximately thirty millions members of the Corporation were executed, mindwiped or ended up in prisons during the subsequent Confederation-wide purge.

Today, the Truthseekers Corporation no longer exists.

Encyclopedia Galactica

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***

EGS Echo, Command Deck

07:01 09.08.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

She was having a nice if quiet shift on the bridge. Watching the Cutlass icon next to the Pontifex-II symbol on the system map, occasionally replying to some routine comms from the few exploratory teams that were still searching through the Truthseeker wreckage. Nothing really interesting.

That’s when Lith Athalia entered the bridge. She actually failed to notice him until she suddenly saw him standing two meters away from her, staring at the system display, well within her isolation bubble.

He disabled her early warning system. She tried to make the system warn her when he was anywhere close to her. Folly, considering his programming skills, but she still had to try. At least he didn’t try to insult her, and instead was just staring at the display.

After a few seconds of thinking it over, she decided to do it.

“So, what brings you here?” She could as well find out what he came for. Perhaps it was just a brief warning that such an early warning system is way beneath his skill level and she shouldn’t bother? It was a possibility that he would leave once she acknowledged his existence.

“Nostalgia, mostly.” Athalia replied. “I’ve actually hoped that you wouldn’t notice me. I’m not here for you, if that’s what you are afraid of.” She breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t comment on that. “Not only is it a bit of an anniversary for me, but I also haven’t gotten to see a Hyperspace Planet in a while.” She wondered if the two things were connected.

“I never visited one.” She decided to admit. “The articles I read are mostly contradictory, and the videogames where you have to face some eldritch armies of monsters from such worlds aren’t a good source of knowledge.” He nodded, with an absentminded look on his face.

“No armies of such monsters as far as I am aware.” He replied. “But everything around you makes absolutely no sense, you can expect to go insane quickly or slowly depending on your equipment and willpower, and… well.” He shrugged. “The real problem is when some extradimensional entity starts shaping it for lols. I once saw a thousand kilometer long hall with blood and spinal fluids of humans and several organic aliens falling like rain from the ceiling. Another time the planet in question was actually flat, and I heard of one time when it was twisted into a fractal, which might have been done by a cousin or dad of the one extradimensional that we’ve run into. Pretty surreal.”

This explained censorship and why no one was allowed to explore such places save for the Guild. You could explain it being trippy, but when something shaped it into some regular, semi-sensible forms? She saw religions born from less than that.

This didn’t explain why he told her so much without a single insult. Maybe he was so weird because he overdosed on hyperspace planets, and seeing one has shook him back into sanity through some weird mental association?

She wouldn’t contain the giggle if she wasn’t afraid that he was going to shoot her for it.

“By the way.” He turned his face to look at her. Their eyes met. “If we manage to find our way back home, are you going to try to bring the stuff we find here to the Vanguard of Progress?”

His face was calm, but she understood immediately that the wrong answer here meant death. At least her body was a robotic one, so she wasn’t going to sweat profusely and feel her heartbeat like crazy. Her panic was a calm one.

“There are less than fifty transhumans throughout this fleet. If you exclude the techtrian destroyer.” She replied. The destroyer really didn’t matter. “So while I would very much like to do that, I consider that a lost cause. If we start shooting, stabbing and blowing up each other over the discovery, I’m going to either stay neutral or throw my lots with the RPC.”

He stared at her for a few seconds, before chuckling loudly.

“Good answer.” He added. “I wouldn’t believe in a straight no, despite your religious inclination. But the RPC part does add a certain degree of trustworthiness to your words. Especially considering the past and the general politics.”

If there was a single faction that was neither hostile nor ignored VoP, it was the RPC. After agreeing (with only a single major schism) that aliens and even AIs have souls and can attain salvation, excluding transhumans would be hypocrisy of the highest level.

Silverweaved Flame - and other VoP members - were ready to suffer missionaries and the like if it meant that there was a faction out there whose representatives didn’t leave the room in silence when one of theirs entered it. And that was alright with trading - and even with joint military operations against Discord or local crazies.

In all honesty, the fact that the Church chose the most creative gamedev programmers to be missionaries to the Flame probably helped a lot too. There was also the part when the majority of the ancestors of said Church participated in the campaign for forgiveness towards the Unforgiven after the War of Purity ended, though today only rethanis and similarly old-schooled groups considered that important.

“So, you are not going to kill me today.” She replied. “How merciful. And how reassuring.” This failed to elicit any reaction, save for Lith’s head turning back towards the display. “I happen to notice that Captain Keller is awkwardly silent and enigmatic concerning you. And your past.”

“I sense the question incoming.” Lith replied coldly. “But I heard none.”

In all honesty, she had no idea why she decided to go that road. Was she secretly suicidal?

“Anything you want to share?” With her? Unlikely to say the least. “I’m incredibly curious about you. But all I know is that the Solar Republic considers you a terrorist.”

“You really want to die, don’t you?” He replied. But something on his face did make him look like he was amused more than anything else. She still expected that to be a feint, but he didn’t suddenly shoot her in the face right after it. “Keller’s evasive on the subject because he doesn’t like to admit that there was a time when he was running errands for me. And by’ running errands’ I mean the ‘go brew me a coffee’ type of errands.”

She stared at the medic for a few seconds. She wasn’t sure what surprised her more. The fact that Keller was doing stuff like that, or the fact that Lith might have been older than Keller.

“When did that happen?” She asked.

“Hmm… that was… around 2540, I think?” The medic replied. “It was during the purge of Fimbulvinter Protectorate. I was taking part in the conference concerning the Protectorate’s fate, and Keller was among the assistants. I made the mistake of ordering a coffee through him only once. It was atrocious.”

Lena broke.

Not literally, but she was pretty close. First of all, she just heard something incredibly hilarious about Captain Keller. Then, she heard something about the Fimbulvinter’s fate - and all she knew thus far was that the country was sanctioned and exterminated due to dealing with the extradimensionals. And thirdly, she just found out that Lith Athalia was at least seventy years old.

Well, unless he had popped fully grown up from some cloning vat, he was way older than that. A century? Slightly more? Average two-zeroes lived for about one hundred fifty years - further technological improvements seem to mostly improve the quality of life until then, but without significant changes in length. At least not without going transformationism or transhuman - Lena, for example, was de facto immortal.

And who knew how long Lith Athalia could live? She wasn’t even sure how much of the body she saw in front of her was his own, and how much was bioware implants.

“So… you were a part of the Guild?” She asked. “Someone from the Confederation's leadership? Supreme Tribunal?”

“I was from the Truthseekers Corporation actually.” He replied casually. “Used to be one of the board directors, back in the day.”

She just stared at him. If that was an introductory moment to a sudden betrayal in a ‘and I’m still part of it, by the way’ moment, she would be an easy victim.

“What, you didn’t even try to warn Nowak or Keller?” He replied, while looking at her again. “What are they teaching you? What if I was a theatrics-loving traitor that liked to shock people with stuff like that before murdering them? Tsk.” She still stared at him. “For the record, Keller knows. So, does that satisfy your curiosity about my past?” He smiled wryly at her. “Tin Can?”

Lena suddenly remembered how Tiaa told her that Lith had the morals of a ‘senior Truthseeker’. The catwoman was way more on-point than she thought.

“Alright, I didn’t expect that.” Lena replied finally. “How are you even alive? Does the Guild know?”

“The Guild as a whole? Not really.” Lith said while shrugging. “Their higher ranks are just as cultish and dogmatic as the Seekers. If not more. They would have me killed merely due to that. Trying to explain to them how the Corporation got so into secrecy that despite being its board director I had no idea about most of the things that it was sanctioned for would probably work, but I don’t think they would give me time to do that.”

“So you didn’t know about all the violations of the Icarus Accord?” She asked him. He shook his head.

“No, I did know about that. And wholeheartedly supported it.” He added, admitting to committing a crime against Mankind with a wry smile on his face. “What I didn’t know about was our dealings with Discord and the involuntary part about human experimentation. Also I absolutely hate what the Corporation eventually turned into.” He added and sighed loudly. “So many years of saying that we want to perfect Mankind only to turn sideways and start redefining it again, like some damn transhumans.” He looked at her again. “If you expect me to add something like ‘no offense’ here, then you can give up on that. It was supposed to be offensive.”

She didn’t expect the ‘no offense’ to happen. So she avoided being negatively surprised by that statement.

“Still, are you sure that the Corporation or the Guild won’t find out?” She asked. “I mean, you are pretty… noticeable.”

He laughed loudly.

“And you’re back to stupidity mode.” He said. “You think I looked like that back then? Here, this is my old picture.” He showed her that ‘smartphone’ of his.

If she was of flesh and blood, she would start rolling on the floor while laughing loudly. It was beyond ridiculous. He quickly had her computer assistant search through Echo’s cultural database and find a list of similar looking characters from various old works of culture. She found one who fit very well, and decided to make fun of Lith through that.

“Really?” She finally commented. “Did you start every fight by saying ‘By the power of Grayskull, I have power!” He was pissed off, and she loved that.

The person in the picture looked almost exactly like sthe character called “He-Man'' that her assistant found. Even the clothes - or lack of those - were similar. The amount of exposed muscles - bulging, of course - was staggering.

She decided to watch everything she could about that character. There had to be something in the vast entertainment databases of Echo, or at least she hoped. Alternatively she was going to ask Christopher Hall, since he apparently was from the right times to know something. This was going to be such a treasure trove of ways to mess up with the medic!

“It was supposed to portray the sheer beauty of human form and… oh, you know what, fuck that.” He hid the smartphone. “It’s not like I expected you metal puppets to understand.”

She immediately knew that going anyway further than that would be dangerous. He needed some time to cool down.

“Alright, so…” It was time to move the subject elsewhere. “... why have you come here? Just be honest with me. You aren’t one to sightsee. At least not only sightsee.” She added. He stayed silent for a while.

“Looks like your mental faculties weren’t entirely wilted down when you were turned into a cybernetic ghost.” He finally replied. “I've been anxious ever since we arrived here. Something’s not right.” Now that sounded worrying.

“Is it the ‘some spooky space horror is about to grab and destroy us all’ time of ‘something’s not right’?” She asked.

“No.” Lith replied. “I know more about spooky space horrors than you, and I assure you that they don’t cause sudden premonitions like that. One or two do cause a growing feeling of malady before they fully manifest themselves, but if it was them you would already hear reports about said malady from ninety percent of the crew. I’m worried about the Seekers.”

“What about them?” He clearly wanted to vent out, and however she disliked him, she was an exec. In a situation like this, hearing out what is bothering him like that was her job. Especially when it concerned the opposing forces.

“The amount of resources they invested in this operation is staggering.” He replied. “I checked briefly what we found on Deadweight, and it seems like they managed to climb further on the Wall than we previously thought.” He started playing around with one of his twintails while staring at the display. “Even without the Deadweight trip, there is still stuff like that invasive nanoware. Compared to that, the infiltrator’s technology was almost conventional.”

“Wait, you think that it was a decoy?” She asked him, with her eyes wide-opened. “Despite it almost destroying Echo?”

“It’s the Seekers, Lena.” He replied in an obviously irritated tone. “Sure, it might be due to my past, but I have a high opinion on their infiltration abilities and technological knowledge. Extremely high. People tend to summarize them as ‘yeah, smart guys’ and then get sabotaged by the feeling of relief and some subconscious self-aggrandizing ‘oh look I beat those smart guys at their own game’ when they untangle one of their plots or foil one of their operations. Even seventy years ago, when I was still a board director, the Corporation excelled at making decoy operations and other forms of operational trickery like that.”

Lena disliked that fact, but Lith did speak rationally. Besides, if their eventual job was to destroy the Echo - after, if possible, delivering the data to Corporation beforehand - it was a suicide mission. What sort of problem was it to place one more infiltrator? Not having to extract them before the blow lowered down the costs significantly.

“Another infiltrator AI?” She asked.

“Unlikely.” Lith replied. “The AI was told to act in certain situations, such as the angels’ intervention. This means that the Corporation knew that there was a chance that it would be uncovered. And what if we started looking for it, and through some abysmally rare coincidence we ended up finding them both at the same time? I’m almost certain that the other spy, if there is such a thing even, is of completely different nature. But that’s the problem.” He sighed.

“We don’t know how far they climbed on the Wall when no one was looking.” She replied. “And because of that we don’t know what they are capable of. So we have no way of predicting the nature of the spy.” This time he actually looked surprised.

“Well, yes.” He finally admitted. “Not bad for a tin can.” She decided to make a nasty, Lith-looking boss in her own GoI dungeon. Simply so she could amass dozens of hours of recordings of people beating him up. She would also make a compilation of best moments to show it to Tiaa.

“For example, we do know how to recognize clones from genuine articles.” Lith continued his reply. “And how to spot the mental tampering. In other words, the indoctrination process that is required for them to blend in. The former through medical examinations, the latter through overpowered meta-empaths like Innocent. But what if they found a way to fool that? It’s a tactical advantage that won’t last for long once first used, but since the Pontifex system is so important to them, is it possible that they used it here?”

“I don’t like the implications of that.” She replied. “Ideas?” She finally felt like an exec. Sure, she was one for a while, but there was a crucial point missing. She felt inferior to most of the officers that were technically under her in the hierarchy. Now she had Lith Athalia of all people coming to her to have such a talk, and she felt at peace. Well, aside from being terrified of potential Seekers’ infiltrators.

“One, but you probably won’t like it.” Lith replied. “I need to have everyone come for a very detailed check-up to look for any anomalies that we’ve missed earlier. But we don’t know if the hypothetical agent is an active one. What if it’s a crew member who was mentally conditioned to perform certain acts in certain situations? It would be pretty bad if we suddenly ordered everyone to have an unexplained check-up only to have someone like Tiaa Sistonen, Lieutenant Commander Taim or some random crew member storm the reactor room and start blowing things up.”

“In other words, you require a suitable explanation for the check-up.” She replied. “And you say that I won’t like it.” She quickly made the connection. “Let me guess. You want Focquet to unleash a nanovirus upon the crew, one causing dangerous-looking symptoms like bloody cough but without being actually dangerous. And you want my authorization for that, because you either do not trust the current Keller or you don’t want to hear this opinion on your idea.” In other words, he just asked her to authorize deployment of a biological weapon. On her own crew.

“Spending a lot of time in my company did wonders for your mental faculties, you know that?” Lith replied. Lena disagreed - all she did was to somewhat figure out how the crazy medic’s mind worked. “But yes, that’s why I came here. I can pull one of my standard ‘crazy stunts’ and start giving everyone some unnecessarily detailed check-ups for no apparent reason. This should allow me to exclude anyone biological aboard the ship as potential spies, at least if I inform Innocent about my suspicions and have him make super detailed mental checks under the guise of ‘ascertaining potential brain damages caused by the virus’ or some other bullshit reason. Will be an awful lot of work, but we could go through the entire fleet even within two-three months”.

“I see.” She remained silent for a few seconds. “You were testing me earlier, didn’t you?” This time his smile was borderline proud.

“Yes, and you passed it.” He replied. “As far as I know, Seekers want the original me dead. And I happened to hack your external coding earlier, enough to give me a look into your mental and emotional processes, but without being able to change anything there. Seeing my old face and hearing my confession about the past should have elicited some reaction if you were the infiltrator.” She was about to scream at him, but he was faster. “I’ll give you some proper coding lessons and I’ll patch up the few vulnerabilities I spotted in your code if you happen to ignore what I did.”

It wasn’t easy. What he did was the Virtual equivalent of sexual harassment. It turned to straight rape when you changed anything instead of ‘simply’ violating Virtual’s deepest form of privacy imagineable.

He did have a serious reason to do that. She had to admit that much. But the glee he was showing right now made her pissed off beyond imagination.

“Fine.” She was going to take revenge in time. Not the funny payback one, something that would actually hurt him. She already started making preparations for that. “What about Innocent?” Lith shook his head.

“Corporation would never work with him.” He replied. “Nor vice versa. Not after he butchered their Divine. Sure, the Corporation isn't a group to be angry at someone, it generally isn’t very emotional at this point. But they want to vivisect him to understand how he managed to do it. They wouldn’t bother using him for anything else.”

“Now I’m curious how he did it.” She replied. “For them to be this interested in him? Despite already making a Divine of their own? Can’t they just make another one?”

“I have a video recording.” Lith announced. “The most crucial bit is cut out, though.” She stared at him for a few seconds, once more shocked out of her words. “I’ll send it to you, if you want. Consider this another part of recompense for the hacking.”

***

EGS Echo, Command Deck

07:34 09.08.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

She sent Lith out with her blessing. She could only hope that the court would be favourable for her considering the circumstances. Then, when she finally had time to open the file sent to her by the medic.

It was a recording from a security camera in some spacious hall. Looked like some form of a bridge, although a circular one. With a large throne-like chair in the middle. Sitting on it was a man (caucasian, 25-30 years old) with extensive cybernetic augments, including what looked like a very large neuroamplifier in his back.

He was surrounded by five people of various ethnic backgrounds (including one cathuman variant) with similar neuroamps. And fifteen slightly more primitive looking Perfects scattered behind him.

There was also Innocent. Standing confidently between the man on the throne and the only visible exit. He didn’t change much.

“Oh my.” The throne-man said. “So you finally come. I was about to leave and deal with the Society’s feeble boarding attempt, but it seems that you have come to me on your own.”

“Joking Reference: I can’t beat the shit out of you without coming close enough.” Innocent replied. “The Society for the Eradication of False Beliefs have found you guilty of dozens counts of sins crying to Heaven for vengeance. Including murder, rape, enslavement, tortures of the innocent, and other violations of dignity of soul-bearing entities. You have the right to remain silent, but I don’t think that you’ll be kind enough to exercise it.”

“Of course not.” The man laughed. The sorcerers surrounding him were much more emotionally scarce. “I murdered people whose very existence chained Mankind’s potential down. And rape? Pfff.” He seemed to be having the time of his life. “Those women should be happy that I chose them. Every pregnancy was just one more step towards figuring out how to make Divine sorcery level inheritable. And the rest… I have strength. I have power. I have a goal that I want to achieve. Why would I bother about the ‘dignity’ of those who stand against the goals of the Corporation?”

“Commentary: I think there is some hidden school for villains in this Galaxy. I lost count of how many people used identical ‘might makes right’ arguments. Typically next to ‘morality doesn’t exist’ nihilistic drivel. Must be all its graduates.” Innocent replied, actually citing Lena’s opinion on what she was watching. “I tend to reply to them in an identical way. You want to prove the strength of your moral argument of, well, strength? Let’s duel then. Divine versus Divine. Obviously you do not fear such a feeble do-gooder as me, am I right?”

The Corporation’s Divine laughed. Loudly. Then he stood up from the throne.

“Very well.” He announced. “Let’s duel then.” The Perfects stopped pointing their weapons towards Innocent. But if Lena had any knowledge about how villains worked, it was going to last only until their champion started losing the fight.

“Announcement: Please wait for a second.” Innocent turned his back on the entire group, to their (and Lena’s) complete surprise. He walked to the door, pulled out something from a hidden pocket and put it down on the floor. A music player, as it turned out after a few seconds.

“Really?” Corporation’s Divine asked. “A soundtrack for the battle?”

“Reply: I am a berserk of culture.” Innocent replied. “What sort of final boss fight lacks an ominous and fast latin choir as a soundtrack?” Lena had to agree that she was watching something incredibly hilarious. Enough to make it hard to stop laughing.

“So, at least you agree that I’m the final boss.” The human Divine replied. “It’s good to be respected properly, you know?”

“Question: What sort of final boss has a numerical superiority over the protagonist?” Innocent replied while turning towards the Divine.

The recording jumped forward. She had no idea how much time passed in the meantime… but the room changed.

Massacred bodies of the Perfects and the lesser sorcerers were lying down everywhere. Torn into pieces, slammed into the wall with power to partially liquify them - and make large holes in said walls. Blood was everywhere. If not for massive cracks in the floor draining it, it would probably reach up the ankles.

Save for Innocent. Not a single bloodstain on his robes. He was standing in front of levitating remains of the human Divine. That man lacked arms, his left leg was a stump torn off in the middle of the thighs, while the right knee was broken to the point when everything beneath it was pretty much hanging on what looked like a tendon.

Every bit of his exposed skin carried third degree burns. Face included. She only recognized him through the unburned parts of the clothes.

“Announcement: You lost.” Innocent was standing there calmly, as if nothing had happened. Somehow he sustained no damages, and looked like he was in the middle of the mass and not in the crazed butcher’s workshop. “I crushed you in telekinesis. In pyrokinesis. In meta-empathy. Even in technopathy. I destroyed the minions that you called to help you. Anything else to say? No more ‘I’m strong therefore I’m right’ drivel? Maybe you’ll at least act on that ‘ideology’, admit that I’m stronger and thus more right than you, and announce your will to repent for your sins and become a priest like me? Or perhaps accept your death as justified due to your own weakness?”

There was some faint gurgling from the human Divine. Lena had no idea how he was still alive. Sure, Innocent was probably stopping him from bleeding out with telekinesis, but the shock and burns should have been lethal at this point. Perhaps his cybernetic augments were keeping him alive?

“Answer: Mercy?” Innocent probably read it from his emotions. “I’d offer it to you, you know. Despite all the things that you did. Despite you ignoring such pleas from your victim. But there is one problem. I’m not an omniscient judge like God, but I do know your current thoughts and emotions. You do not regret your past choices. You do not regret the atrocities you committed. You only regret fighting me. Even if I saved your life now, you would merely commit the same sins again. And we can’t have that.”

The last thing she saw between the recording ended was the human Divine suddenly pulled in opposite directions through some monstrously powerful telekinesis, his body splitting in half - vertically.

What the fuck did I just watch?