July 16th, 2033

The next six months were busy. The population of Trappist-1e was right around 2 million. A majority were a bunch of hardcore radicals that were taking every opportunity to try to kill anyone that didn’t do what they told them or believe what they believed. This included your religious terrorist, militaries that didn’t believe the announcement I’d made, idiots from extreme political parties, and even some national leaders. I was not a monster. After they were first identified they were moved to Trappist-1e. When they’d failed to follow the rules two times they were moved to Trappist-1d. Anyone sent to that world still had the ability to view and surf what was going on back on Earth, they could order any food or drink they wanted but they were completely cut off from both Earth, Trappist-1e, and anyone else, including anyone else on the planet they were on.

Each prisoner was in their own space. Each room had no entrances or exits. With the ability to create portals and control the nanites through quantum entanglement they didn’t need them. Thor created an underground structure deep in the planet that looked something like a Lego construction. Each prisoner block was about twenty feet square. Each block was quantum locked to those blocks that would touch it leaving a gap. The gap was a vacuum. Thor had designed it so that no matter how long they banged on a wall, no one would hear them. This was explained to them when they arrived and videos on the technology and how objects could be quantumly locked together using superconductors were provided. Some still tried though. I ordered Thor to let them wear themselves out. Eventually, they’d figure it out.

Unlike Trappist-1e or Earth. The planet they were on was not habitable and I had no plans to let them leave their rooms if they didn’t adjust their behavior. In addition, the nanites in their body were no longer stopping the aging process so these individuals would grow old and pass on into history, eventually. Anyone trying to contact them received a message that they were paying time for crimes against humanity and would not be able to speak with anyone until they changed their ways. I knew that would be a long process. They had the ability to watch anything they wanted. Could dive into any single-player virtual games they wanted to and could even ask about the technology trapping them and then study to improve themselves. I made sure they had access to any information they wanted. They just couldn’t influence or talk to others, except for Thor or myself, though I kept my interactions to an absolute minimum or go anywhere. If someone was truly worried, Thor would share images of them sleeping in their single room that had been recorded for that purpose. As the years went on the aging would become apparent. I might address their fates at a future date but for now, I let Thor handle their upkeep. At least I wasn’t putting them all to death, which was a solution I had considered.

When I’d made the announcement, the various nations around the world were in an uproar for about the first hour. One of the fake news networks was told to publish lies about me, trying to sell everything that had just happened to them as a hoax. I almost let them try to do it but I was tired of the news networks and their obvious lies. Report facts or make sure to label opinions as opinions but no more lies or false experts making claims without proof. Besides, no one on the planet was more expert on anything that Thor and I had done. So I intervened. The individual that issued the order found themselves on Trappist-1e and the reporters for that network, local, and affiliate found themselves unable to transmit anything for the next 24 hours. Any affiliate, friend, third party, etc… that tried to publish the lie for them also found their access denied. If they were stupid enough to try to contact someone else they lost control of their body, walked back to their home, explained to anyone that asked that they felt sick, and then went and laid down for twelve hours, wide awake, while Thor replayed my initial announcement followed by this little gem that I created for them to listen to while they laid there.

“Obviously there is a learning curve. I’ll repeat this for those of you that need it. Thor is everywhere. I have set some very basic rules. Follow them or face the consequences. This is your 1st and only warning, next time instead of a twelve-hour time-out I will place you in a room on another planet for one month. The idiot that tried to order all of you to spread lies is there now and will not be coming back for a while. To clarify one more time for the slow kids. As long as you label your smear campaigns against me as opinion pieces, you can print, write or show whatever you want. The moment you make a claim of fact without the ability to cite sources or provide actual experts to make comments Thor will shut you down. So enjoy your time-out and I hope to see some actual journalistic integrity going forward. Seriously as long as what you share is true get it into the world, which includes exactly what just happened to you, how violated you feel right now, and the fact that you can do absolutely nothing about it. Write that story, it’s true, therefore I won’t stop it. But the lies are done, or you are.

“The only person I sent off-planet was the idiot that had ordered the slander piece on me. I kept the network off the air for 24 hours and the individual who issued the order was kept on Trappist-1e for a month, though I did allow him to make contact with his news network after 24 hours had passed. He’d followed the rules, so I’d allowed him back and even granted his request to write a piece about his stay there, it was true journalism after all. I didn’t have any issues with any of the news agencies after that display of power. I kept my word. I might not agree with everything being reported but as long as they stuck to facts, or identified their smear pieces as opinions I didn’t punish them.

Thor kept spreading throughout the local star cluster. While he was doing that he even handled the meeting with the various leaders pretending to be me. He was getting really good at that. The United States President had liked what was going on, as did all the western nations. The truly primitive cultures had been left alone for the most part. They were going to be allowed to grow in their natural habitat. I hadn’t considered them during my initial transmission. The damage had been done. One of the pieces written against me by a reporter named Jessica Bradley had been completely based on facts. I hadn’t blocked her story concerning the fact that I’d effectively ended the natural development of tribes in the Amazon that had never encountered modern-day man before. Her facts had been sourced, references cited and the points she made had been sound. I even agreed with her that “I had not taken them into consideration when elevating everyone on Earth,” her words. I didn’t like it, but she’d been right. I’d offered her a job right then to be my personal critic and warn me if I was doing something that stupid again. She’d been hesitant at first but eventually, she’d joined the team. I’d had Amanda brief her on everything, and I do mean everything, we were doing and then introduced her to Thor who had also briefed her. I told her the first thing I wanted her to do was write a story that would be presented to the world leaders concerning what I was really doing, and how far humanity had expanded into the cosmos. I also wanted her to write a version that would go out to the general public a week later. Nothing hidden, everything available for all to see. That story should help anyone trying to get information from Thor to ask the right questions. I figured this would get the scientific community energized like never before concerning all the areas they’d wanted to explore.

One week later she’d come to me to talk. Jessica had knocked on the door to my office “Mr. Bennard?” she’d asked.

“Johnathan’s fine, Jessica.”

“Johnathan, how?” she’d asked.

“The honest to God truth to that question Jessica is absolute blind Luck.” I’d said pausing for a second before I continued, “The longer answer is that the Universe is more complicated than we know, and something changed me forever. That’s all I’m willing to share on the subject. Is there anything else you need or want?”

“No, Thor is amazing”

“Thank you.,” Thor said from the intercom speaker.

“And he’s always listening,” she said

“He always is,” I answered.

Jessica had turned and walked out of the office smiling.

Abi, on the other hand, had been extremely quiet for the last couple of years as she absorbed knowledge from every single culture on Earth and all the information Thor shared with her as he spread throughout the various systems in an ever-expanding sphere. She said something about letting her creator know so he could recreate it in the Labyrinth or something. Although they’d have to work out the bugs for a truly magic-free zone. Magic was still a subject she wouldn’t talk to me about as I had no frame of reference to compare it to. Though the last time we’d talked she’d asked me if he’d analyzed the Adamantium ring.

“If everything has a quantum signature then wouldn’t it be possible to pinpoint and follow that signature. If so, wouldn’t you be able to make a portal to some point where the ring or the metal in the ring had been? Abi had asked.

“Across Universes?” I’d asked

“Yep, should work, just a portal through space and time. It should work a lot like our magical portals though there may be ‘issues’” Abi said.

“Issues?” I asked.

“Issues, and before you ask, I don’t know what issues.” Pausing for a moment she asked “If you decide to go, I think I will need to move my primary consciousness back into your subconscious. You may need me on the other side. That said, I’d like to leave a full copy of myself here to continue working with Thor and Amanda. I’ve grown to like this universe and I’m having fun seeing what’s possible. I would also suggest that you have Thor create a full backup of yourself. With the way the technology is progressing, I’m almost positive he could bring you back?”

“Of course, you can make a copy of yourself, but me, what about my soul? If something happens over there will my soul make it back here to my copy?” I asked

“Not sure, but if you made quantum connections between the copy of your mind and you, if the soul can follow such connections it should be able to make its way back into your copy. I know there are spells that allow for this where I’m from so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some rules souls had to follow here as well. Then again, I don’t think any creature has done what you have and quantumly interlinked themselves to an Artificial Intelligence that is for all intents and purposes an extension of themselves, just an observation. I don’t know if Thor counts as part of your soul.” Abi commented

“Well, I believe that was once true but I’m pretty sure Thor outclasses me on computational power by now. I wouldn’t even want to guess at how many individual nanites he’s composed of by now.” Johnathan said.

“It’s a number best expressed as a scientific notation that keeps increasing” Thor stated.

I smirked; I knew Thor had been listening. “I was wondering when you’d pipe in,” I said.

“As you know I always monitor you, your surroundings, and anything that might be harmful to you. As for Abi’s idea, I have already analyzed the Adamantium ring on your finger and have identified the quantum signature that is unique to the ring and not found anywhere else that I have explored in this Universe. With slight modification, I can create a portal to that Universe, but the target will be quantumly locked to the item in question. If I was to hazard a guess the location the portal opens to could be, the mine the ore was taken from, the jeweler that created the ring, the workshop the ring was enchanted in, or any number of places in between could become the target destination. There really is no way to know.”