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Chapter 3: Realization

Chase’s shocked cry echoed through the auditorium as he woke from his extended hibernation. A needle-prick of pain flared in his mind as a few molecules of his interface disintegrated in another universe. But his cry wasn’t from the pain of the Geneva collider obliterating a fraction of his matter. His distress was from the realization of what the sting portended. Thousands of assembled minds poured soothing emotion toward the distraught entity. Had the bonding with the human been so traumatic? Was his mind damaged by the interaction?

With his demeanour calmed Chase assured the assembly his mind was unbroken. His fear was spawned from a new projection he had begun to form of the human’s event web in their universe. “We have made a catastrophic mistake. Our early model of the human’s future history was flawed.” Chase presented the audience with his new understanding of future history. A vast fractal web-work of links and pearl-drops spread around the assembled minds. Instinctively each mind understood the interplay of actions and consequences. At the centre of the filigree where all the threads converged a great purple stain grew. “This is where humans end.” The assembled minds collectively gasped in shock. Witnessing the future annihilation of any minds was traumatic. Humans and their accompanying species could have had great potential as collaborators across the bridgehead. Losing the new world would be a sad event.

“It’s worse than just losing the humans.” Chase spread the lace-work wider, showing consequences on a stellar scale. The bruise of catastrophe was so large it absorbed the event threads of the entire planet. Further out and the system’s star, Sol, was likewise annihilated.

Every species of Earth, every possible refuge for humanity, all would be erased by a catastrophic event.

Chase shifted the web-work through additional dimensions until it became an almost impossibly complex interplay of threads and pearls. Part of the structure defined the events for the universe inhabited by the minds in the auditorium. Where threads from the human world touched the mind’s structure a purple stain encroached and grew. “The catastrophe leaks across the dimensions,” said Chase. “Many of our minds will be ended by the conflagration.” He highlighted a strand adorned with large and small pearls. “Fewer than two thousand keystone events related to Earth remain until disaster.”

Millions of minds recoiled in horror. Across their reality the unthinkable scale of the calamity leapt from mind to mind.

Again Chase shifted the web-work until pearl droplets appeared and threaded onto the web-work. Past events uncoiled, drivers of now and future arranged and laid bare for inspection. A large pearl coalesced intersecting both universes. “This is where we established the bridgehead to the human world.” He indicated the attached thread. “It was the first keystone event in the thread toward cataclysm.” Chase turned toward the assembled minds. “Our actions in establishing the bridgehead have brought about the annihilation of a star system of alien minds and the loss of thousands of our own minds.”

Many of the assembled minds immediately lapsed into hibernation, stunned by the scale of the horror. In their sleep they became part of a collective machine processing and verifying Chase’s calculations. Their hope was that some calculation was flawed, or a simple path could be found around the conflagration.

Other minds examined Earth’s event list on the thread toward the purple bruise. “It’s not through war, or through natural causes. Some aspect of the bridgehead itself leads to the catastrophe, although the chain is currently too indistinct to see precisely.”

Panicked minds demanded the bridgehead immediately be dismantled. If the interface is the cause then removing the connection point should prevent the catastrophe. But other minds pointed out destroying the bridgehead would snuff out Chase’s mind. Deliberately causing any mind to cease was unthinkable. And it could be that the path toward the apocalypse was already cemented. Disabling the interface may save their minds but the human world’s demise could already be inevitable. Or the intensity of the destruction may cross into their universe irrespective of whether the bridgehead is maintained or terminated. The assembly would wait for the hibernating minds to verify the scale of the calamity before any action could be considered. Acting in haste may be the catalyst that triggers the apocalypse. Wise minds should wait for more information and verification of the data.

In the meantime humans used Chase’s orb for benign uses. A super-strong, invincible person could perform miraculous rescues in unsurvivable conditions. Endless possibilities for utilizing the Diamond Suit were available to anyone who didn’t mind working naked, sexually aroused, and completely hairless. Corporations paid a premium to the military scientific establishment which had taken over responsibilities for the suit.

The thinking machine disassembled and split into its original constituent minds. Sadly they verified Chase’s initial calculation – without major intervention trillions of minds in thousands of species of Earth would be lost. And the disaster would bleed across dimensional boundaries, destroying minds in this universe as well.

Attempting to avert the catastrophe would require the use of a Master Architect.

The ability to perceive the future, to understand the minutiae of consequences for their actions gave the minds opportunities to re-shape their destinies. Shaping the course of a society is a subtle art. Actions can have unintended consequences; change a major keystone event and the web of interconnected events spanning thousands or millions of consequences can ripple outward to infinity. Master Architects were gifted vast amounts of computational resources to test how changing events cascaded and to nudge society toward a desirable outcome.

Chase was nominated to be Master Architect. He was in the unique position of interfacing with the causal universe. His bridgehead would provide a means to assess how proposed event changes would affect the denizens of the flat universe. Thousands of layered minds descended into deep hibernation – they formed the thinking machine responsible for processing the vast multi-dimensional ripples of consequence. Other minds became a conduit between the processing machine and Chase’s mind.

It was a humbling responsibility – to be the designer of a plan to save trillions of minds. But with the conduit to the thinking machine Chase’s mind shone like a nova with the combined abilities of thousands of minds.

His link to the human world also gave Chase ample opportunity to formulate strategies. When his interface idled, unused he designed potential approaches to the problem. While the humans were encased he gained appreciation for their values and insight to their likely reactions. In the five-day hibernation stages his link to the processing machine became most active – testing and rejecting event manipulations.

After three decades of consideration Chase presented his proposal to the assembly. Minds which had formed the basis of the calculating machine joined the arrayed intelligences to assess and discuss his strategy.

The Master Architect drew forth two colossal webs of threads with pearl-drop events. One of the webs represented his native universe. The other web encapsulated events happening in the paper universe. At a tangled knot the two webs intersected and a dark purple bruise leaked from the flat universe through to the larger web. “This is how events now stand. Annihilation in two hundred keystone events is inevitable.” With deft skill Chase manipulated the pearls along thousands of threads. In places he moved pearls closer to each other. In others he lengthened the thread between pearls, moving them father apart. At each manipulation filaments of threads spawned or faded. Knotted tangles formed indicating more intersections between the two universes. The purple bruise spread faster and deeper along the newly spawned connections as the cataclysm grew larger.

Sceptical minds murmured in nervousness as the scale of the horror grew. Unperturbed Chase refined his changes to the filigree of events, proving his mastery. A feather-touch here, a brush of influence there – bright pearls of major events began to pop through the bruised stain. Chase worked with an artist’s skill. Invasive threads of cataclysm retreated from the larger universe through the knotted interfaces. A final large pearl slipped through the cataract and the purple bruise faded away. Trillions of threads flowed from where the cataclysm had dominated the structure.

A mind admonished Chase, “Coercion and compulsion are forbidden. Only amplification and encouragement are permitted. Do not adopt the base ways of lesser creatures.”

“Of course! I cannot go against my nature.” Chase was surprised at the chiding. “Perversion is impossible!”

For one of the observers to suggest Chase could force his will on the aliens verged on insulting. “Here, in these times, my actions cause a sequence of convergences.” Chase drew the attention of the assembly a section of events. Alongside he presented an alternative event list. “The convergences would have occurred over a much longer span of the aliens’ existence.” Chase again presented the flow of events which had become inevitable. “My actions compress the frequency of necessary convergences for reproduction. Intervention is necessitated. This future is achieved solely through uplifting and inspiration. Free determination of the aliens is unaffected.”

Consensus of minds determined Chase’s design was appropriate and they approved. Annihilation of trillions could be averted. In addition rather than Chase needing to sacrifice himself to break the interface, another universe of minds would collaborate with their own. Incredibly the new structure showed the creation of additional minds – there would be reproductive events.

It was a good plan.