Chapter 036

Avi wiped a tear away as she watched Xiora’s dam burst. She didn’t know why she was reacting to that, but then dismissed it as yet another “meat bag” issue to sort out later.

She then set the scrying orb to record what was said so that she could later fill Joram in on what was said. She was tempted to just let him muddle through explaining why he didn’t remember what she’d said while opening her heart to him, but threw him a metaphorical bone as, in this case, he hadn’t willingly “checked out”.

Avi looked over at another set of monitors and grinned. That project was coming along nicely.

She continued going over information on the wall of monitors she had set up, finding it easier to just look at them instead of having a setup where she would need to flip through tabs or something equally tedious. Some projects were taking longer than she would have liked, while others were practically flying off the line. For those, she set work crews to start construction on new facilities to specifically produce the parts she would need. So on and so forth.

Another glance, another set of readings. She was getting very close, she felt, to completing the new [Genesis]. When that finished, well, she would up her game. It would allow for greater expansions of the Realm, greater control over what was created, and greater control over the Realm itself, and what happened/was allowed to happen inside it. Especially who was allowed to enter it.

“No more uninvited guests,” she murmurs and then snorts a very cute snort, not even realizing the effect it would have on roughly half the population of the planet.

* * * * *

Joram woke with a surprising lack of pain. True, it still hurt, but it wasn’t near as bad as it had been the first few times he’d been knocked out due to sensory overload.

Not that that was of much comfort as he’d rate his current headache as a migraine. One where, before coming to this world, he’d likely be laid-up for the next day or two. Now? Almost routine.

The other thing he noticed was that he was once again alone. Xiora must have taken off after having her moment. He didn’t blame her, nor did he blame her for KO’ing him as she didn’t know the extent of his injuries and all. Or would it be more accurate to call it a “condition”?

He shrugged mentally before closing his eyes again and slipping into his mind.

His office was as it had always been; bookish with heavy geek elements to it. Models of this character or that, replicas of various swords and other weapons from some of his favourite media. It wasn’t a fancy room, but it was comfortable.

He sat behind his desk then reached out and turned on his “computer”. It was one of the newer models they had made. This one just required him to press a button on the keyboard for it to turn on and bring up the holographic display embedded in his desktop. It was a nice upgrade, albeit a purely mental one. It made his multi-tasking that much easier when you had layers upon layers of screens that could be displayed and brought to the fore with a thought.

Looking at his “desktop”, he chose the [Schism] power and then ran the “program”, or power.

Another screen immediately popped up, displaying the name of the second mind, M2 in this case. He watched, and felt, as M2 loaded up his psicrystal with his personality, then loaded it up with [Holographic Image] and all its augments. Several programs/powers later and it was all done.

Joram smiled as the connection held stable, then proceeded to activate his third mind, M3.

At a rather unexpected note from M2, he now wanted to be referred to as Kinkade.

Mental note: M2 is now Kinkade…

After that, things went rather predictably; nice and smooth. M3 made the same preparations, though decided to go with the more outsider side for how he looked. Sure, he hadn’t come up with a name for himself, which was altogether odd for Joram- not that M3 didn’t have a name selected, but that M2 preferred to be called Kinkade.

After a brief bit of thought on that, Joram decided that that wasn’t entirely odd seeing as how M2 was just another Him, another Self. That being said, Joram was pretty sure that he’d get annoyed being called something so generic after a while, so it made sense; especially when Joram considered that each mind was using a modified psicrystal as its anchor. Meaning: each one would have a slightly different personality from the original. Well, a more… reduced, condensed, refined… Bah, he wasn’t good with words right now. Suffice it so say, each additional Mind that came from [Schism] and was anchored in a psicrystal would have a particular flair to them that was unique to that Mind.

Joram shook the image of his head, clearing away the distractions.

M3 hadn’t said anything about a name yet, so he’d leave that for another day; and he even got a mental nod from M3 once that thought had passed through his head.

This was getting weird.

Kinkade: Yup!

M3: You’re telling me!

Joram face-palmed, finally realizing just how bad he was to have around when he was apparently bored….

With another shake of the head, he started up the sub-process researching [Schism]. He paused for a moment, briefly wondering how much of a headache having yet another Mind going would be, but then just shrugged it off. He- they!- were ultimately introverts and generally quiet by nature. Sure, he was generally hard on himself and having a few extra Minds around to play off each other might not be the best idea but in the end, he knew himself best. And he wouldn’t take things too far. Well, too-too far, anyway.

With that done, he looked over to where Avi was now sitting in a comfy chair on the other side of his desk.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he said with a grin.

Avi rolled her eyes, but didn’t lose her smile. “I’m glad you’re able to get here again,” she said, making a show of looking around.

“Me too,” he chuckled. “I’m sure that I’m way behind in my share of the projects and would very much like to get back to work again.”

Avi gave him a disbelieving look before sitting a bit straighter in her chair.

“Well, the omni-tool is fully functional and stable. I’ve also been working on a few other things…” she explained, then went into greater detail.

Joram’s jaw slowly dropped as he heard just how much infrastructure she’d added to his realm. If they were back on Earth, he was fairly sure that he could take over a not-so-small country with the number of droids that she’d built, never mind how many more were rolling off the assembly lines every hour.

He was very pleased that she hadn’t been idle these past two years, far from it. She let him in on her research to improve upon [Genesis], and he was even more thrilled. After a bit of discussion, M3 was assigned to that project. If they could improve his “Mind Space”, as his buddies had called it way back when, then things would change!

What things? Well, not too many in his everyday life, but having the realm expand at a ridiculous rate would be of fantastic use when considering how much more room he needed for the various projects on the table, not to mention expanding the growing area needed to keep up production of Avi’s Booze Empire and his endless need of medicinal herbs for alchemy.

Yes, he’d need to get back to practicing his alchemy, but he also really wanted to practice his smithing/ artifact refining/whatever you wanted to call it. At heart, he was a crafter, through and through. He loved making things, loved experimenting and seeing what went with what.

“Avi?”

“Yes, Joram”

“I’ll need you to set a server cluster to work on [Schism],” he said, nodding to himself.

“I’ll get one built up and going in a few days,” Avi replied with her own nod. They both knew just how important extra heads were with what they were doing, so it was no surprise that she’d agreed so readily.

“That said, I’ll need you and Kinkade to head back out to the auction houses to sell more of the [Mend Body] gems.”

Avi nodded again. “I would have kept up production of them, but I wasn’t sure when you’d be back up and running again,” she said with a wink, which confused him slightly. Then she spoke again and it all became clear. “I’m sure that Miss Layla would be happy to have you there as well.”

“Har. Har.” Joram said with not only a deadpan look, but also a perfectly flat voice. “I’m sure you just got distracted by your projects.”

Avi nodded, not a sliver of shame to be found. “I’m glad that I did. I’m pretty close to completing one particular project that I’m sure you’ll love,” she said, then held up a hand when he was about to ask what it was. “Nope, it’ll be a surprise. And don’t think that you can sneak in and steal a peek, I’ve already dropped your permissions to get into that particular facility and its systems.”

Joram pouted.

“Well, anything else I should know?”

The next while was spent with Avi going over a few more projects, some mundane, like building increasingly better facilities to build increasingly more complicated components that were needed for their other projects, which gave him pause.

“Avi?”

“Yes, Joram?”

“Why don’t you just make a ‘replicator’?”

He was treated to the wonderful sight of her jaw dropping as she realized that she had made things somewhat more complicated than they had needed to be. Then is slowly closed as more thoughts flew through her head.

“Well,” she started, clearing her throat before continuing. “Here’s the thing: you’re better with atomic restructuring and [Fabricate]ing than I am, not to mention [Delve]ing.”

“Oh.”

Joram paused, then face-palmed. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t think of that.”

Avi waved it off. “Don’t be. But with you back, I’ll be using that keen mind of yours as much as I can!”

Joram gave a weak grin in response, then sent a message to Kinkade (redundantly) letting him know what he’d be doing for the foreseeable future.

- - - - -

He was interrupted in his meeting with Avi by a pulse of emotions and sensations from his mother.

“What’s up?” Avi asked, now sitting on the edge of her chair.

“I think mom is labour.”

“Want me there?”

Joram thought for a moment before shaking his head. “If I’m not reading it wrong, I don’t think Grammy likes you very much, so better to avoid any potential disturbances during labour.”

Avi nodded, then spoke the question they were both thinking.

“Are you going to help?”

Again, that made him think for a moment before he shook his head. “No, but I do want to see if I can add the baby to the Network.”

“Before or after birth?”

Joram shrugged. He was reasonably sure that he could add the baby to his Network through his connection to his mother, much like how he’d added her to the Network without needing to send an invite to her. That said, that just might have been the precursor to the ability to force someone into the Network, but that also came with limitations to their membership in the Network.

“Well, maybe get an eye in there so that I can add the baby once it’s born…” he finally said, drawing it out as though tasting the idea.

“I’ll drop M3 in a corner so that you can keep an eye on things,” Avi said, standing up. Why she bothered, he really didn’t know, probably just habit. “While Kinkade is working on the replicator, I won’t worry about heading out for auction houses. I really am pretty busy with the other projects.”

“That’s OK,” he said, nodding along. “I, too, would really like to have a replicator up and running- preferably dozens of them. I’ll also work out a way for them to connect with a central database so that each one doesn’t need to be programmed separately.”

“Good call,” she said, then stopped when she noticed another Look on Joram’s face.

“Yup, labour,” he said, nodding to himself. “I’ll keep tabs on her vitals from here. If you could please drop Kinkade over there, that would also reassure me,” he said with a slightly worried look.

He didn’t know why he was so anxious. He’d had two daughters back on Earth, had been there for both their births, and yet hadn’t been this on edge for either of them. Maybe it was a subconscious thing where he realized that his mother wasn’t in a modern hospital with the convenience of modern medical technology to help should anything go wrong during labour?

That thought gave him pause, as it was a rather illogical though. But that’s what fears were, weren’t they? Illogical thoughts that refused to go away. He had every ability to help and heal not only his mother should anything go wrong in labour, but could also help the baby. Tied umbilical cord? Easy. Baby turned the wrong way? Simple. Hemorrhaging? Barely a thought needed.

Upon further reflection, it could have been residual psychological trauma from his own rebirth affecting his thoughts. He was, after all, pretty sure that Sulia’s original fetus had perished in the attack on his parents; his arrival not only “saving the day” but allowing him to inhabit the empty vessel in her womb.

That made him pause for a moment, considering. Was it really a coincidence that his soul happened to find refuge there, or had something put him there? Had it been planned by someone? Altaea? If so, where was she?

He shook his head again, not really wanting to go through that mental box of tangled yarn again. Que sera, sera.

He was, thankfully, brought out of his ruminations by another part of his mind that was M3. The visual feed was a bit weird at first, then he realized that M3 must be perched on the ceiling and looking down.

OK, nothing to worry about at the moment, he thought with relief before focussing on his connection to his mother.

Her heartrate had risen again, likely due to another contraction. He ignored that, focussing further on her body, searching for the ball of life that was his new sibling.

And there they were. Well, “they” being the gender neutral way to describe the baby. He still wasn’t sure if it was female or male, but he’d found the baby. A soft invitation, a warming thought of six, and the baby was in the Network.

Joram smiled as he then [Delved] his sibling, smiling at her good health. Yes, her. He would have a little sister!

Joram coughed into his closed hand, bringing himself back from the verge of a full-on Tangent. Yes, capital “T” and all.

He refused on their well-being, keeping an eye on their vitals and stress levels. He didn’t want to interfere with the birthing process, knowing full-well how important it actually was to the proper development of the baby and mother. Yes, both. The necessary release of endorphins during the birthing process integral to the mother and child bonding, nevermind the other physical benefits.

So it was that he spent the next half-day monitoring their progress while in his “office”.

It was a rather… unique experience. He was invested in the whole thing because it was his mother and his soon-to-be sister. As mentioned before, he’d been there for the birth of each of his daughters. So, on the one side, he was as nervous as could be. While on the other, well, he was calmer. He knew, deep down, that he could handle anything that came up, complication-wise. But, again, those fears lingered.

All that said, he was in a weird… fugue. Part of his mind was on the research he was conducting, while another- not a [Schism] or anything- was focussed on the links to his mother and sister.

Soon enough, though, a pair of signals shot through the Network that pulled him out of his almost-trance. From what he was getting, his sister was on her way out to the wider world.

He, metaphorically, bit his nails as the seconds ticked by, turning into minutes. Not many, though. Sooner than he’d expected, his sister was out and taking her first breaths while his mother was beginning to relax.

Things went quickly after that. His sister was towelled-off, his mother’s after birth was cleaned up, a minor healing pill administered by Shael Ulanan began the slow reparation of the after effects of a vaginal birth. Though, this pill seemed to focus on first stopping the bleeding then on healing the soft tissues involved.

Joram shook his head again, not wanting to focus on that, but on his new sister.

She was healthy and breathing; warming up now that she was well insulated between his mother’s chest and a very soft towel.

He knew that they were in good hands, which only meant that it still took a titanic effort of willpower to keep himself from pulsing some healing through the Network to help speed up their recovery.

‘Avi?’ He sent, taking the path of wisdom and distracting himself.

‘Yes, Joram?’

‘Can you send me a list of any projects you’re working on?’ He asked, then paused as he got the distinct impression of… unwillingness.

‘Yeeeees…’ She sent, drawing out the word longer than it needed to be.

‘Are you up to something?’

‘Why would you ask that?’

He let her stew for a few minutes. ‘Didn’t you mention that you had a few projects on the go?’

‘I don’t recall,’ she sent back airily, then continued. ‘But if you’d like to help me work on a more efficient [Genesis], that would speed things along.’

Joram gave his mental consent for her to send along the work done so far, then directed her to link up with his omni-tool so that he could check in on her stuff as their progress diverged. Who knew when one or the other would have a brilliant idea that would slingshot the others’ work along?

Joram immersed himself quickly in the work. Avi, or maybe the program that Avi had set to working on [Genesis], had gone for improved efficiency. More bang for your buck, as it were.

He now wondered if that would be the best path forward for them. With the new energy he now had access to, he was sure that efficiency of power would no longer be the bottleneck they would need to worry about. Sure, it was always good to keep efficiency in mind, especially in this world where you could find yourself in a fight for your life at any time when you were out and about.

That said, if he could push more power through, then he could accelerate the growth of a new pocket/horizon realm.

Then another thought occurred to him. If he had more power, would he be able to program in the ability to synthesize, or create, heavier elements in his realm? Currently, only common materials could be created. Nothing so fancy as gold or silver, though copper was available, though sparsely found. Even iron was only available in limited quantities.

He then began running the numbers, so to speak. It was beyond difficult, as he hadn’t quite gotten a firm grasp, or even a tenuous one, on what this new energy was capable of, but he was still able to get a rough idea of what kind of power he’d need. It was a bit ridiculous, even if he’d erred on the side of pessimism.

If the power only took about eleven units of power to activate its base function, then this would take a good thirty-seven points, if not more, to get going. That said, that would have been standard psionic units. He wasn’t quite sure how the new power stacked up to psionic power, but he was guessing that it was at least four times more potent. Again, he lowballed it, but that was still impressive.

With those preliminary calculations done, he then put himself to the next, arguably, more difficult task.

The base power was set to create a demi-plane. Key word: plane. It grew, more or less, how flat-earthers imagined the world to be. Looking at the base structure of the power, he realized that maybe he’d need to make a whole new power, and not just augment the current one.

So, his goal was a spherical demi-plane. He’d need to think of something else to call it, as “plane” would no longer be an accurate description of what it created.

Getting back on track, the started working on the models needed to start a spherical creation. Something as taken for granted as gravity was going to be an issue. In the previous power, gravity was more or less laced throughout the demi-plane’s foundation. Quite literally the foundation; the bedrock of the “world”.

He laughed then as the memory of him playing Minecraft and getting to bedrock replayed through his head. It was a very apt simile.

For this, though, he’d need to make an adapting algorithm to make sure that gravity was doing what it should. As the world grew, the demi-plane would need to create less and less of its own gravity due to more mass being added to the creation. As more mass was added, it would generate more and more of its own gravity.

That said, he made allowance for the default gravity to be set as an adjustable modifier; visions of King Kai’s little ball floating around his head….

Back on track, he was sure to keep much of the original power’s… programming to be sure that he didn’t forget something like the appropriate oxygen ratio to have in the atmosphere….

Joram rubbed his temples, more out of habit than expecting it to do anything in his head-space. Soul-space? Astral body? Meh.

Then he got to wondering what might happen to a demi-plane already in existence if this new power was used on it.

Images of a shattering plate filled his mind.

He shook his head, then got to work.

He would have to make it so that anything already in the demi-plane wouldn’t be hurt by the use of the new power. Many thoughts on that flew through his mind, from letting it break and having the new mass fill in the breaks and solidify the whole thing, to breaking up the original plane into hexagons and slowly, methodically, adjusting the angle they all connected as more mass was added to the underside of the plane, eventually having them form up together not unlike the patched on a soccer ball.

Wait, weren’t those a mix of pentagons and hexagons…?

Suffice it to say, he would need to set up a terminal to run the models for the best conversion process.

Then another thought occurred to him.

‘Avi? How many subterranean structures do we have now?’

There was another pause, more hesitation coming across their link. ‘About *cough*ninety*cough*two*cough*.’

Joram blinked, parsed that last sending, then laughed out loud.

‘Why so hesitant? You’re not a rogue AI bent on world conquest, are you?’ He sent jokingly.

‘No….’

Joram nearly fell out of the astral projection of his comfy chair. ‘What’s going on?’ He sent, absolute seriousness flooding across the Network.

After a small pause, Avi elaborated.

‘Well, I’ve got a bunch of small factories set up to make many of the electronic components that we need,’ she sent, the continued when she felt the mental nudge from Joram to keep going. ‘I’ve also got droid factories, a few dozen server farms going, and another few things on the go.’

‘… Like?’

‘Well, you see,’ she sent hesitantly, ‘I’ve kind of got a lot of the technology that Altaea left behind understood, and I was thinking that having a remote base where we could sometimes go and have a good view would be nice.’

Scenario after scenario flew through his head, scene after scene of what she could possibly mean. He’d written Altaea into many of his favourite fictional/science-fictional/fantasy stories he’d read over the decades, from Mass Effect to Star Wars, the Who-verse, Star Trek (every iteration he’d seen, but not Discovery, as he’d been waiting to get more than one season to start watching it), to The Wheel of Time, Dragon Ball, and even the MCU and DCEU.

There was more than enough there to have thousands of combinations of various technologies that could very well end in the world being blown to smithereens.

Then he calmed himself. Then calmed himself more.

If she’d gone rogue, she would not likely have told him any of this. As a matter of a fact, she’d not have gone to such extreme lengths to help him recover, as she could very well have just done all those things while having stabilized him into a coma. With him out of the picture she’d have free reign to do what she wanted to.

So, another line of thought was necessary.

She was not only based off Altaea, who was still borderline Dangerously Curious*, but also based off his own psyche, having been born of his original psicrystal. The fact that she gained near legendary levels of patience was such an anomaly that he couldn’t even calculate how miniscule the chances of her developing that trait was. That said, he, himself, had a very active imagination. He’d always wondered what it would be like to explore those worlds he’d read about growing up and throughout his adult life.

So, it should have been no surprise that she’d gone and started making all those things, exploring the knowledge left to her by Altaea.

He then had another thought, and hoped that it was just something that fluttered into his train of thought. Because if it wasn’t, then things would get almost infinitely more complicated.

The thought?

Had Altaea included any genetic information along with the ludicrous amounts of technological information?

*See the Pathfinder Trait: Dangerously Curious

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/magic-traits/dangerously-curious/

Side note: they changed the flavour text. It used to be more along the lines of: “I see the big, shiny, red button. I must press this button” (while inside of a deadly dungeon).