“Sir, I request permission to draw 15223H from your reserve.”

What the fuck? Edmund replied in his mind, letting his surprised and worried expression slip on his face for just a moment. He noticed that Toora was looking at him and reflexively schooled his face. If anything it was to avoid questions while he was talking to the AI, remembering the time when phone calls existed but people seemed not to respect the fact that a man’s attention cannot be split in two different conversations.

“I sensed movement at the edge of the Null Field. However, the optical sensors are not fully repaired yet and I cannot assess the threat with sufficient accuracy.”

That’s why you want almost all my energy?

“Affirmative, sir. Protecting the portal is top priority.”

Hold your horses. I’ll come there myself.

“Understood, sir.”

He set up the teleportation procedure, one that would not require him too many Humes to do, but that was also quick enough that he would arrive at the Pylon almost immediately. In fact, after stepping into the portal, he only spent a few seconds in some sort of weird astral space before being spit out right at the control room at the topmost floor of the Pylon. He shook off the feeling of wrongness from his body, checked that there was no damage, and moved on.

“Show me the numbers.” He said, looking out the window.

Current Hume production

138H/hour

Pylon upkeep

-44H/hour

Axiom Of Choice upkeep

-76H/hour -> -79H/hour

Total

18H/hour -> 15H/hour

“I see that the upkeep has gone up.”

“Yes, sir. The increasing magical density of the environment has been putting the null zone under increasingly more strain.”

“We can’t drop the magic nullifying effects of Axiom though. Fine. Pull up the whole tasks thingy, let me see.”

The tasks window appeared in his field of vision. It was pretty much the same as it was the last time he saw it, with only minor changes that Praetor must have put in place after observing how he had reacted to the first version. He took a moment to ponder over what to do, then he started dumping almost all his Hume reserves into it. The energy flowed out of his body and into Praetor, who had chosen to appear before him as the usual collection of floating luminous cubes.

Task

Progress

Reward

Axiom preliminary repairs

(stage 1 of 7)

15% (114/762H) -> 100%

Portal stability +25%

Power of reality-bending increased by 15% when inside the field

Access to stage 2 (outside influence)

Access to more tasks

External sensors optical suite

68% (231/340H) -> 100%

Internal energy generation

HALTED – 23%

(requires 17712H and manual repair) -> 100%

Fusion reactor activation.

Energy generation at 100%

Pylon upkeep -24H/hour

Hume production pipeline streamlining

-> 1300H (+1.8H/hour)

Every H unit will increase generation by 0.001%

FORMULA: Initial*pow(1 + 0.001 / 100, Humes spent)

Acquire Plagiarism Tensor (Hume Manifold Resonator)

0/1

Hume generation +500H/hour

Spoiler :

Completed tasks

Internal sensors repair

--

Access to full data on explored areas and layout data on unexplored areas

He nodded to himself. Dumping 1300H into the streamlining process only net me 1.8H per hour? This is crazy. However, the math checked out and he couldn’t really say anything about it. There would be exponential returns down the line, it was just that right now the investment didn’t really seem to be worth it.

“How does it look?”

The cubes seemed to light up a bit as they bobbed up and down.

“This should help deal with the situation. I have created new tasks for you, based on the completed ones.”

“Show me.”

NEW: Axiom preliminary repairs

(stage 2 of 7)

0% (0/1129H)

Portal stability +15%

Power of reality-bending increased by 10% when inside the field

Access to stage 3 (matter interactions)

NEW: Axiom outside influence

0% (0/50000H)

Axiom field can be extended to cover outside area. Range will extend up to total coverage of the crater al 100% progress

NEW: Axiom awareness (1/10)

0% (0/1500H)

Axiom field will act like a sensor, making its contents available to conscious awareness through Praetor. Very low accuracy.

NEW: External sensors full suite

0% (0/5000H)

NEW: Nanites upgrade

0% (0/18344H)

Body nanites acquire weak reality-bending capabilities

“Interesting…” he muttered. “A shame that I spent all my Humes into the streamlining thingy when stage two of the repairs is now available. Oh well, too late for that now.”

“Please note that you would not have been able to initiate phase two just yet.”

“Oh?” he lifted an eyebrow.

“As per regulation, I am not allowed to perform major operations with reality bending energy, sir. You will have to manually finalize the tasks.”

He mulled over it. “That seems a hassle. Also, considering that I can transfer Humes to you from anywhere inside the network, adding the need to teleport back here every time is just stupid.”

The AI was silent. Edmund felt watched, and while he knew that the machine was basically omniscient inside the explored regions of the tower, he felt as if the pressure was coming from the cubes.

“On the other hand, there was a good reason why I set that regulation into place. Even allowing you to do minor tasks…”

He tapped his chin, pacing around the room. His eyes went to the forest outside, a place where the light coming from the sun seemed to disappear somewhere right above the crown of the tallest trees. Trees that, interestingly, were now much taller than they were before. The tallest of them was almost reaching to half the height of the tower, a whopping 300 meters from the ground.

“Have you repaired the optical sensors?”

“Affirmative.”

They were considered a minor system, Edmund concluded. He pulled up the feed from the cameras with a gesture, and a hologram appeared in the darkness of the room. It was dark because the tower was still in power saving mode, a thing that irked him especially after having spent the Humes to fix the reactor.

“Is this what you’ve been seeing?” he stared.

“Yes, sir.”

Edmund nodded slowly, immersed in thought. “I can see why you asked for my Humes, yes. What have they been doing?”

“From what I could see, nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“They have been standing there, at the edge of the Null field, ever since I called for you.”

Edmund frowned. “Maybe they know. Can the Null field handle them?”

“Not with the current limited energy generation. However, with the fusion reactor repaired it will be able to, sir.”

“Back to the original problem then. Do I do it, or do I let you do it?”

The AI was silent again.

Edmund tried to think back to when he decided to put the policy in place. What came up was, in a weird twist of fate, a conversation he had with Janet.

“A single line of code and boom, the whole system crashed.” He laughed, “can you believe it? Took me ages to debug it.”

They were walking on the Star Corridor, on the Ring. From here they could see the whole American continent, and the majority of the Pacific Ocean. The sun was setting somewhere down there, on Earth, and Edmund glanced at the terminator line.

“I see you looking at me.” Janet said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“I’m not, actually. I’m looking at the terminator.” Edmund replied.

“Aww…”

He kept looking at the Earth below, lost in its magnificent beauty. This was a sight he had seen countless times and yet, every time, he got lost in it. There was just something magical about it, about walking on a sheet of glass in open space above such an amazing place. A planet, rich and full of life. His planet. Above the stars were shining, vividly visible to his enhanced senses. He glanced at the sun, observed the corona and the surface, counted its dark spots. The wiggly lines of plasma, shaped by the magnetism of the star, were hypnotic.

“It’s been a pain, to get to where we are.” He said.

“But it was worth the pain, wasn’t it?” she asked.

“Yes, it was. But, you know, sometimes I just wish I could get a vacation. Disappear for a week or a decade. Actually get to see what I built.”

“Why don’t you do just that?”

He stopped walking and looked at her. She, in turn, stared back.

“And who’s going to make sure everything runs smoothly? You?”

She smirked. “If you’d let me.”

He shook his head slowly and smiled. “Nu-huh. Besides, you have no idea just the amount of stress this job gives you. I must manage thousands of operations every single second just on the conscious side, with who knows how many others below the surface… I have no idea. No, what I need here is an AI with full administrative powers.”

Her eyes widened. “Edmund, you can’t be serious. What about all that talk we just had.”

“I see your point, really. It’s just… you know? An AI would do it all, easily, and if I were the one to program it, I would make sure it acts the way I want it to.”

“And what happens when it realizes that with reality-bending powers it also has the power to break free of its chains?” Janet asked, and there was an intensity to her eyes behind the round glasses.

“Just make it not see the chains as a prison. An AI doesn’t have to think like a human, Janet. I can just make its job its whole purpose for existing!”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“I don’t know about that.” He was getting nervous.

“Edmund, please promise me that you won’t do it without me.”

He looked at her. “Fine,” he sighed.

She smiled softly.

***

“That was odd.” Edmund scratched his head.

“Is everything alright, sir?”

“Yes I was just… remembering stuff.”

He looked out the window and into the forest for a long, drawn look. He distractedly watched the trees sway in the wind and the occasional monstrous and mutated bird fly and perch on a branch.

He didn’t even realize that he had resumed pacing around the room in a circle. “What the hell,” he muttered to himself, before stopping dead. “Praetor, please proceed with the repairs. I give you full clearance on the use of reality-bending energy.”

“Understood. Thank you, sir.”

Edmund waited a moment, as if to see if something bad was going to happen. If it was, it had to be now that he was completely out of Humes, meanwhile Praetor had access to all the energy Edmund had given it. But nothing happened. Instead, the lights came on in the control room, and all the computers and consoles lit up with their bright displays and colours. The holograms were the last to come alive, but they too returned in full power like they used to be once upon a time. The tower was alive and breathing. The defences were active, and the shield would defend it if anything ever happened to get past the Null field. Suddenly he felt silly to have doubted the AI.

“Repairs complete, sir.”

“Fusion reactor online?”

“Yes, sir. All tasks have been completed successfully.”

“And the Null Zone?”

“We have the energy to operate the teleport array to full power, sir.”

Edmund nodded to himself, satisfied. “Very good. I gather that my work here is done, then?”

“It is.”

Alright, he thought. Onto the personal business. He left the room through the door, which slid open soundlessly, and he thought that it was the very same door he still remembered forcing open back when he woke up. It was a long time ago, to him, and many things had happened after that. It felt bittersweet, but for the first time he felt that he could come to terms with the concept of losing everything, if it was so that he could rebuild again. Better.

“How’s the portal?”

“Stable.” The AI said, and then showed Edmund a live feed from the room, complete with diagrams, sensor readings and various data.

“Good.”

He approached a small alcove in the wall and lifted a panel. Behind it he could see the lifeblood of the tower: thick blindingly white streams of pure energy flowing inside a containment field. This was all the energy coming from the fusion reactor and flowing though the tower, powering its machines and its lights.

Edmund made a spike out of nanites jut out of his hand and plunged it into the electric stream. The containment field opened up just as the metal was about to hit it and moulded itself in the shape of the spike. As they touched the stream of energy, the nanites began to absorb it eagerly, to the point that the blinding light dimmed noticeably. After a few minutes Edmund pulled his hand away and the nanobots disappeared into him.

100% charged.

He nodded to himself, satisfied. He got up and looked around. The corridor was lit, bright and clean. Everything was, minus the absence of people, just like he remembered back when everything was normal. Well, he pulled up the schematics of the tower in his vision, except for that.

He looked at the floors between here and the ground floor, and all the underground ones. Even floor zero was barely revealed to his sensors, but at least he had some sort of map for it. All the other floors were a complete void, missing all data about them.

He went to one of the elevators. “Floor 99 please.”

The doors closed and the elevator whirred. When they opened again, a cold wind blasted his face and snow blew inside the metal box. Edmund looked around and all he could see was snow, stone and a dark sky of clouds. They were thick and swirling around, the occasional lightning illuminating their inside in a flash.