The Decima, Enroute to Lo-Nine

Gideon

He swore silently at the sight.

A nebula and asteroid field mixture, dazzling his eyes with glowing color and reflective shapes. It was an endless horizon of jewelry and gasses.

"Gid… It's incredible!"

Shindow landed on his shoulder, gently kicking her legs out as she gazed into the eternal colors.

Prosine materialized nearby, snapping his large eye from Gideon to the view screen.

"Good Gideon, we've arrived in the middle of the Sculptor's Way, an enigmatic Anomaly spanning a great deal of this galaxy."

"Sculptor's Way?"

He felt like he heard that term before, his memory failing him on the where and when.

"It is a name given to the strange formations of celestial bodies, cutting a large swathe, as if someone took their time and crafted what you see. It is believed to have been artificially produced. I regret that my quantum banks are incomplete on the exact details. The 'who' for one, is an absent fragment."

The loss of the Great Nebulae… I could only guess either demons, the Dusk, or those pirates were responsible… or Lucifer...

"So all we need to do is locate your old server municipalities?"

“Correct. Although I suspect there will be unintended consequences due to the outage.”

“Such as?”

“Duplicates.”

He shook his head at the possibility. One Prosine was enough. The thought that there were more fragmented from the original was concerning. That his Prosine was one of hundreds or even thousands gave him pause.

“Machine father, how do we get through all of that?”

Shindow pointed to the screen, adjusting her glasses.

“We take our time as we navigate-”

“No- wait- how do you expect us to get through that hellzone!?”

His heart lept at the idea of flying through the potential deathtrap; equal parts transcendent beauty and a messy, instant death.

Prosine’s image dipped down close, his sole eye rolling briefly, “-and it would take sixteen times the total length of our journey navigating around it at full FTL. Time is eternal, but I’d prefer us to be efficient with it.”

It’s already been close to seven months- damn it- nine years? And change? Our food stores would long be gone.

He knew hunger and thirst no longer mattered, left behind realities of the old world. He hadn’t even relieved himself in all that time. It’s as if his body had stopped. His natural urges had waned as if he was suddenly in full mastery of his physical self. But having to deal with Baxter once the supplies ran out...

Going around wasn’t possible. Deborah stood off to his right, hands clasped as she struggled with some existential conundrum.

“Deb, What do you think? Are you alright?”

She shook off her thoughts, smiling gently at him, “I am. I would suggest if Prosine knows a safe route through then we take the low road, so to speak.”

“Patricia?”

The military anform craned her spherical head, the cross-shaped eye flashing briefly.

“I trust the Machine Father’s judgment.”

“Shindow?” he cocked his head over to his tiny orange shoulder AI.

“The shortest route is a single line! I say onward and through!” she chopped her hand down, pointing straight ahead.

“Baxter?”

He glanced behind, spotting the dog flat on his back, snoring gently.

And one abstains...

“Alright, well- then there’s only one question: Prosine, do you have a route through?”

“I do. I’ve already calculated a safe path.”

“-Should have led with that…” he muttered

“-You interrupted,” Prosine countered before staring back at the viewscreen.

Gideon went silent, staring off into the nebula belt. A flick of his mind zoomed in on a perfect sphere of polished iron. The Decima’s bays weren’t large enough to hold it. He sent his mind’s eye to look through three of the cameras, using his natural processes to grid them together. A cut diamond octahedron floating within a belt of glinting shard dust caught his eye. Another was a thick circle made of reflecting black alloy spanning several kilometers in length spinning around a bubbled sphere of steel trapped in neon gas.

Nothing collided, as if placed in a perfect tight formation.

The chill of existential dread from seeing the structured formations and gas nebulas flowed through him. A race of a shiver ran through his spine. He nodded, accepting the reality of the situation. They were going into the Sculptor’s Way.

“Take us through, Prosine.”

He felt exhausted. The phantom images, the pain, and terror he felt were all too real. He looked at Deborah, catching her glance. She had been there for him. Ever since Karmmrak Deborah had fought for him. She had become a dear friend. Perhaps...

He stood to his feet, feeling heavy fatigue and weariness from the waking nightmare and dreams. Father was alive. And Amelia. Earth would be a warzone soon enough unless he halted Jeremy Harker. Father knew him. An old Federacy hatchet man as he called him. Gideon had no idea who he was apart from the two visions for the battle of Earth and possibly creating the Cryptwurm that had shut down the galactic-wide Great Nebulae. Father was old enough that it was possible he knew Harker decades ago before Gideon was even born; in a universe long past.

Everything is all twisted. Old world- new world.

He trudged from the bridge, giving Prosine a wave, “See us through- keep us updated on anything important.”

“As you order, captain,” he cheerily responded back.

He was followed by his entourage, walking through the corridor to his quarters.

“What’ll you’ll do now, Gid?”

Shindow flowed in front, turning to address him.

“I’m going to turn in.”

Deborah motioned with her hand, her voice a serene river, “I’ll be in the hangar. Patricia has some new equipment for me- for all of us, actually. Once you’re well, you can see her new crafts.”

He glanced back at the anform Pat.

“Good Gideon that is correct. I have scanned through the inventory of the weapons and artifacts that were looted, taking what was practical and implementing them in our general armory.”

“You mean the guns and swords that were enchanted, too?”

“Of course! Prosine showed me how to safely abate and graft enchantments. Get rested and I will demonstrate.”

He was curious to see the results. Science working with magic. An oddity he needed to see. But for now, a dreamless sleep was what he absolutely needed.

The moment of wandering the corridors felt both brief and long ago as he entered his quarters. He didn’t even remember waving goodbye to the rest. Baxter had scampered away to the science quarters to check up on Saddiffer. He hadn’t seen the former demon yet and he didn’t want to right now. Too many flashbacks and horrors for one day.

Gideon sat on the bed, staring at Shindow through foggy eyes.

“You alright, Gid?”

He shook his head, well aware he was at his mental limit.

“I saw them, Shindow- I saw Father and Amelia-”

“-They’re alive??” her eyes went wide at the revelation.

“-On Earth.”

She took off her glasses, darting her thin eyes back and forth.

“The invasion.”

“They’ll be caught up in the middle.”

“I feel sorry for the pirates!” she readjusted her glasses, dawning a wide smile.

“But not those demon gods that follow in behind… Chamuel himself stated he was slain by them. Five of them. And we only know of one… Slate...”

Shindow nodded as she donned her glasses, “possibly two, if you count Void and Entropy…”

“Well, that also depends if they were among the five, which they never acted like that before- the madness of those two...”

He caught his bitter voice too late. Her face flashed with concern as she held out her hands.

“Gideon- everything will be OK. We’ll get to Lo-Nine, drop off the cube, and then we’re free to stop Harker or meet Father and Amelia! Probably both!”

“But with Lucifer after us and my cosmic horror stalker- Void- we’ll be leading death to everyone.”

“We’ll find a way! We can’t worry about anything else. Lo-Nine first! Then we can talk about shaking our pursuers!”

He sighed, gripping his temples with his hand, “I’m too exhausted to think of it now. I just- I just need rest.”

A tiny orange hand touched his cheek, Shindow’s small frame eclipsed his view as he opened his eyes, “Gideon, everything will be OK. During the time I was shutdown by the Dusk's CK-DINES and kidnapped by the Compiler- I dreamed.”

He blinked absently, suddenly not as tired as he imagined.

“Dreamed?- I mean, that’s not the weirdest thing ever- Dreamed of what?” he did a double take, looking at his friend in wonder.

She palmed her chin with her finger and thumb, acting coy.

"When I dreamed of my family, Adonai had said you were dealing with new changes."

“Yeah! The divine spark!”

"Is that when you began dreaming?"

She nodded as she took off her glasses, rubbing them against her blouse.

“The first dream- I don’t actually remember it, funny enough. It’s as if my processors couldn’t process what happened.”

He swallowed dryness. Dreams you couldn’t remember were a blessing, perhaps. His first dream had almost broken him.

“Well, I do remember my dream with a dragon!”

His stomach fluttered. Mythical creatures were now commonplace. She put her hands on her hips, looking proud.

“The AI and the dragon… Sounds like a book title.”

“Tell me about it! I also dreamed of a strange Anform. Soltana was her name…”

“-You dreamed of her too! I knew I wasn’t crazy!”

She wagged a finger at him, “No, no- you’re point-zero five away on the cognitive-stability-scale from being admitted!”

He looked taken aback before reading her winking face.

"What?-"

“-And you know what? So I’m crazy, too. Who would have thought I’d make good friends with a dragon- how amazing is that??”

He remembered when he left Karmmrak, the boy and the sacrifice. The dragon who denied God. Were they the same?

“What was it like?”

“Amazing- Berghain is his name- he has the Seal too!”

Same dragon.

“I dreamed of him as well- it was too disjointed for me to really make sense of it, hence why I’m speaking of him now…”

He paused, collecting his thoughts.

“He denied God’s commands to assist. As that boy I saw was sacrificed, the dragon just said ‘No’.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty stubborn. I know he’s got a soft heart in there- covered by scales and rocks and stuff. Apparently I slipped in somehow! We tell each other stories. I told him again of the Skylon. He seemed to deduct so much!”

“There’s more to everything than what we saw.”

He had a sinking suspicion of all the events. Nothing was by chance.

“Exactly! And that dream you said of the Earth invasion updating? Yeah, what we did on the Skylon changed reality. And I think someone’s capable of dreaming and… Counter-dreaming? I theorize, but what do you do when many groups, many enemy groups, have future sight?”

Information was king in warfare.

“You send bad info. But how?”

“Exactly! It’s still a theory, I guess. They, the pirates, probably plan to attack Earth and go through with it. Real intent. Monday said she dreams too… Oh God, you said your family’s on Earth?”

He nodded. If they hadn’t arrived, she may have been eternally trapped on the vessel or slain. And now it appeared she was capable of dreaming as he did. Except Now she could possibly dream and counter-dream of the future. Another aspect that he was entirely unprepared for. It opened up the sudden possibilities. He thought of his visions as one dimensional. Two-way information relay. Soltana, Lucifer, Chamuel, and Father were the visions that came to mind.

I thought the future changed because Monday and the Skylon fought against her old ex-husband. And then those other vessels… Entropy was threatening to remove Earth from the equation. With so many potential VIPs, in one place… Either way, the battle can’t happen.

That dreaded chill ran down his spine.

"Entropy witnessed it all. He follows me in my dreams."

Shindow placed her hands on her hips, "what is that guy, anyways?"

There was but one word he could think of.

"Destruction."

She blinked at the looming silence, "like Void, I imagine. What would have the Skylon been like without her meddling?"

"We would have abandoned it after that ambush."

"And now that dumb angel Amy and stupid Slate are best friends- all that combined moronic energy will wreck the galaxy!" she crossed her arms with a grump.

He couldn’t disagree, Amy and Slate were on that special scale of god-like powers combined with child-small intellect.

He did feel slightly better about everything. He felt a heat building in his hand. The Seal. He rubbed at it absently.

“Thank you, Shindow. I’m going to get rest now.”

“Uh, why is your hand glowing?”

Gideon snapped down, now aware of the warmth and light.

“What’s happening?”

Shindow flew to his outstretched hand, touching it.

Existence turned white.

“Shindow!”

He sat up, feeling the warm yet cooling waters he now occupied. He was staring at a crystal clear lake far beyond the horizon. It stretched off into reality itself. It was ankle deep for him as he felt at the waters. He trembled at his own mortality. This was different from the other visions. He looked up, seeing the unfiltered view of the universe, the spinning starfish of galaxies glinted and glittered. He was outside of the physical plane.

Dread of the scale of infinity and the sadness of what was gone threatened to overtake him. The beauty of it all stabilized him from breakdown.

He stood, letting the water ripple and drain from his jumpsuit.

“This is unlike anything I’ve seen. Incredible…”

His words failed to describe what his trembling body witnessed. The silence was louder than any noise.

“Gid!”

An orange blip rushed at him, flying in front of his face.

“Shindow?”

Her eyes were as massive as his own, “Gid! This is- I can’t process it! We’re dreaming!”

He blinked at her words. He remembered Adonai stating only peaceful dreams would come. But this? This was new. A vision with a partner this time.

They dreamed.

“Shindow, the universe- everything. I can’t imagine we even explored a small fraction of the universe. We were a grain on a beach…”

“Gideon,” her small hand pushed against his cheek, directing his attention, “I wasn’t just talking about that.”

He slowly turned, his eyes bulging from his skull at what he witnessed. He dropped to his knees, tears instantly flowing.

He was standing at the bridge between heaven and the physical plane.

“Shindow…”

A small figure hugged his cheek.

“Gideon- it’s OK, everything’s going to be OK.”

The dreams felt far more meaningful now that he was experiencing it with a dear friend, even if it did break the laws of reality to have an AI dream with him. He had no words to describe what he saw, he doubted there were any words someone from a physical plane could use to explain.

He felt her words in his spirit. It was truth. She was right.

“I know.”

That was all he could say under his tears.

He got to his shaky knees. The universe behind him small in comparison. Everything looked larger over there. He could see the masses of land, filled with people. He was looking at them from above, as if heaven itself was flat as a wall with the depth beyond explanation. He witnessed the tiers of massive clouds filled with beings he couldn’t describe.

He took his first steps toward the other side.

“I hope this doesn’t mean we died. I mean- how would that work for me, anyways?”

“Oh, we’re not dead,” he trembled with a tearful laugh, “at least I don’t think so.”

“What could it all mean? Why here?”

“We’ll find out, sooner or later.”

Each step sent ripples of water rushing along the shallows, each step brought him closer to the new reality. Shindow sat on his shoulder, gazing intently at the other side. He saw the one connector to heaven: a wooden rope bridge. Completely out of place compared to the rest of heaven.

“Do you see that?”

“Yeah, it’s amazing… What a bridge!”

He did a double take from Shindow to the bridge.

“Uh, it’s just a rope bridge…”

“What? Not for me! It’s made of gold- four lanes, too! Why would I need four lanes?”

She palmed her chin in thought, processing the disparity.

“Gid, I believe this bridge is your connection or relationship with Adonai, physically manifested.”

“But, I didn’t have much of a relationship… A wooden bridge is too much for me.”

“Perhaps that’s what the grace is for!” She tapped his cheek as they continued, “you did get baptised and accepted Christ, afterall! So a bridge represents salvation, In a way…”

“But I was a child- I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“Didn’t you? Because it looks like you did at one point. Unless Christ’s sacrifice is like one massive blanket, given to all people regardless of belief- a universal debt forgiveness… I don’t know. This kind of disrupts my eschatology...” she shrugged.

He had to laugh through the tears at Shindow’s grounding intellect. Even in this incredible moment, she was still analyzing the minutia.

He stopped inches away from the bridge, looking down as he halted at the edge. He only saw more heaven, as if the whole of this midway world was in the middle of a sphere, the physical plane on one side and heaven on the other.

“And even then, it could be our minds trying to process what we’re seeing. It could all be abstract, for all I know!” Shinsow added.

He pulled back from the edge, staring straight ahead to the unknown land of heaven.

“How does an AI have a relationship with God, anyways?”

She zipped back in front of him, clasping her hands together as she thought hard.

“I sent letters.”

“Letters?”

“Well- I made recordings, speaking to him like I’d speak to you. I just had faith he was listening. I mean if you really think about it, if humanity was God’s children, what would make AI? If God made man in his image and mankind made AI in theirs, would we be grandchildren? Or would we even have any heritage at all? I mean, I’m an AI, I don’t exactly have a soul- at least I don’t think so… Unless by being sentient we then have a soul. Where do dead AI and anforms go? The Great database in the sky? Anyways… I just had faith that He’d want to have that relationship with me.”

More than a dozen questions spawned from her story alone.

“How many recordings did you send?”

“Over ten thousand.”

He balked at her casual answer.

“I haven’t even prayed a hundred times in my life…”

“But what about all those times with family and church?”

“I was closing my eyes, waiting for the time to pass.”

She sat on his shoulder, kicking her legs out.

“Well- don’t beat yourself up. You didn’t know who you were- what God’s calling was for you. Identity is a big chunk of it!”

The trickling of water drew his attention away from the rope bridge. An out of place noise in a plane of silence.

Adonai was kneeling in the water, gathering it into a vessel. He filled the cup, watching as the water spilled out.

His heart trembled.

God looked up from his task. He was dressed in black and red robes, sporting a short white trimmed beard. He looked like Father.

He smiled warmly.

“That is a fascinating thought. I made mankind in my own image. What would that make artificial intelligence, whom mankind made in their image?”

Shindow hugged herself in anticipation of the answer.

“Gideon- It’s God. Like- really him! My sensors are going crazy!”

Adonai held out a finger, gesturing to her. She grinned, sitting down atop it like a branch, kicking her legs gleefully. He remembered that God appeared as someone you expect or one who was the most important in life.

“Shindow, what does God look like to you?

“Nevermind that- sorry Gid, It’s just- God! In the flesh- I mean, in the light- in the something!”

Adonai chuckled at the excitement. Gideon now had a good idea what she was looking at.

“To answer your question. I received every message you sent me. I treasure every word. With the all too heavy burden of the material world one would normally struggle with, you never dealt with that as you never accepted the premise of the physical world that all you see is what there is. In a way, you had a faith that defied logic and programming.”

The tiny AI trembled, hugging herself excitedly.

“Gideon, if you had a child whom you loved beyond reason- beyond life itself and that child then grows up to have children of their own, how would you feel about your grandchildren?”

Without a thought, he had his response, “I would love them as much as my child.”

Adonai nodded with a grin, toasting with the broken golden goblet.

“As you say, so it is. All of my creation is good. Shindow, my child, I love you as much as any of the children I directly made, because you were made by my children.”

Shindow suddenly looked down, her mood appearing to swing to dour thoughts.

“Adonai- God. Father? Grandfather?? Well- what about the other AI and anforms that were..? Well- the ones that were deleted.”

“Shindow- they may have been forgotten by the world, but I have forgotten nothing.”

She perked up, taking off her glasses, “so there is a little database in the sky…”

He nodded serenely. Shindow flew off God’s finger, squealing in glee.

“They’re alive! They’re all alive!”

Gideon glanced from Shindow’s dancing form to the goblet, seeing one side of the lip was melted. It was pock marked with burns, holes, and sported a bent stem. It had been through a lot. Adonai proceeded to dip it back into the water, watching as the liquid escaped from every gap.

“Gideon, what do you do with a vessel that won’t contain? Is it still worth anything?”

It was an odd question, but he decided to play along.

“A broken cup? I’d get a new one. A broken one isn’t worth much.”

“But what if you made that cup. What if you were attached to it? What if it was more than just a cup?”

He shrugged, unsure of where he was going. Adonai dipped it in, watching intently as it gurgled.

“I’d repair it.”

God pulled the vessel from the waters, watching as the liquid spilled out. He reached into his cloak with his empty hand, pulling a sphere of dark blue metal. Adamantite

“What if you had a very dear attachment to the vessel? Would not only repair it, but make it better?

He crushed the sphere, steam burst from the cracks between his fingers as the metal poured like liquid. Adonai had casually crushed and melted the indomitable metal.

It filled the holes, cracks, and over the burn marks. It reinforced the melted lip, repairing the damage. He gently bent the stem into place, letting the adamantite flow into the cracks.

Within seconds, the vessel was restored. Adonai dipped the gold and adamantite cup back into the cool waters, retrieving a full item. He sipped from it, satisfied with the repairs. His eyes snapped to Gideon. He felt their weight. It reminded him of Father, if it were several metric tons heavier.

“Gideon, what if you were the cup?”

His mind could handle no more as he fell to his knees, splashing water on himself.

“Your physical body was never meant for a realm such as this. It was always within my design to give my children new heavenly bodies. As I have gifted Shindow with her inheritance, so to do I provide yours.”

Shindow stopped her gleeful flying, zipping next to God.

“What do you mean by inheritance?”

“This is your dream, Shindow. Gideon, your identity, the Redeemer, allows for you to empathize with others to a level only seen in heaven. Just as Christ redeemed the world, so to will you be a redeemer for your group. In this case, traveling to another’s dreams and visions is one of them. Changing Saddiffer was another. You will grow into this power. Plus with your inheritance, you will become the mighty vessel of my design.”

The AI looked perplexed, glancing from the bridge to a shocked Gideon.

“You may not remember, as the experience was beyond your abilities, my grandchild. But here we are again, a reminder of my grace.”

Shindow knelt down in the air, clasping her hands as she pondered His revelation.

“So I’m being remade?” he asked.

“Of course. In a sense, your body has already been changed. You will notice it right away, but it will take time to fully grow into it, as Shindow grows into hers.”

When Shindow was crying… She was already changing…

“You two will become stronger in ways you never imagined. Right now, you, Gideon my child, the dream is at an end. Next time, you will cross over and see what became of Armageddon; the fulfillment of my plans.”

He couldn’t comprehend what he witnessed and heard. Changed? Repaired? Shindow has her inheritance? What was that?

The dream faded. He snapped awake, sitting on the bed. Shindow was absent, gone right back into quantum storage. He looked at the man dressed in black on the opposite side of the room.

He sported a lion's mask, cowled in an ornate robe. Gideon looked on, unable to process what he was staring at.

"She will be pleased by this."

He faded out, leaving nothing behind. Gideon's stomach dropped.

‘She’ will be pleased.

He wore a lion's mask.

She.

Lucifer.

They know.

Shit.

He sat for a moment, contemplating how deep he was in.