Reality's Plaything 5: The Infinity Annihilator Read online

  “Yes.”

  “Good.”

  “Where do I put the big box?” Desiray asked.

  Octavia walked over to Desiray. “Please place it next to the steps leading down. That will give the converter line-of-sight to the build location.”

  The white haired woman nodded, and walked over to the spot. She raised her arms and the cloak fluttered, strands reaching out like tentacles. Touching the floor, the fingers danced and spiraled up. With a thrumming sound, Octavia’s host box slowly appeared as though painted into reality.

  The red-haired physician bowed to Desiray. “Thank you.”

  Dulcere and Marna stepped up and the three of them began working. Much the way he and Sarai had seen Mercedes work in Malan, Octavia appeared to summon items out of thin air and assemble them around the box. Dulcere and her Mother plugged glowing cords between the items, and secured them.

  “You are not in a hurry are you, Gaea?” Marna said as she worked. “It won’t take long, but it will take some time.”

  “Bannor, when last did you have one of those attacks?” Gaea asked in that booming echo.

  “Two days ago,” he answered. “Before that it was a day, and then a few hours before that.”

  “The periods are getting further apart,” Gaea mused. “Those in possession of it may not know its function.”

  “Let’s bloody hope so,” Corim said.

  “I think it is safe to take time to do this correctly,” the goddess determined.

  “While they are fiddling with those artifices, is there anything you want the rest of us to do, Mother?”

  “Come sit in the circle so I may look at you,” Gaea’s voice answered, echoing through the room. “Though it may not make sense, I can see you better through my communing eyes than I can when you are in my realm.” Bannor felt her focus shift. “Hyperion, close and lock the portal gate and stand guard until given further instructions.”

  Bannor looked back to see the ancient turn back to the mammoth door, and hit something on a panel beside it. The valve shut and locked with a final-sounding boom. The creature stepped to the middle, braced himself and folded his arms, glowing green eyes pulsing.

  Stand guard? Was Gaea planning to keep something out or keep them in? Hyperion was on the inside.

  His mind kept coming back to what Marna had said. Your children have been programmed to obey you, have they not? Where Gaea was concerned, did he have no free will?

  Sarai squeezed his arm. “My One, are you okay?” Her violet eyes searched his face.

  He looked down at her. Damn, she was beautiful. He almost had no free will when it came to Sarai, especially now that they would be parents soon. He swallowed. Bannor knelt down, put his arms around her, and pulled her close, pressing his face against the warmth of her body.

  “Mmmm, my One,” she murmured, stroking his hair. “What’s wrong?”

  “I just want to keep you safe,” he murmured. “It just keeps getting crazier and crazier. What can I do if the whole universe collapses?”

  “Shhh.” She kissed the top of his head. “It’ll be all right, it won’t come to that. I have faith in all of you—and I’ll be there to help you.”

  He sighed, drawing strength from her certainty and confidence. He pushed himself to his feet and tilted her head back. She pulled him down and they kissed. She tasted sweet. It made his whole body tremble. It took a moment to pull away. “I love you,” he muttered.

  She rubbed his chest with her palm. “For some reason, I never get tired of hearing you say that. I love you too, my One. Come, let’s join the others.” She pulled him toward the audience circle where the rest of the group had gathered on the padded tiers.

  In the time of his brief interlude with Sarai, Marna, Dulcere and Octavia had created a replica of the back of Wysteri’s treatment area, with a counter and the lighted crystals Wysteri called ‘consoles’. They had made chairs and other devices which meant nothing to him.

  As the two of them sat on the bleachers next to Daena and Janai, a brilliant beam of grayish light struck out from Octavia’s host, etching a pattern in the air of the platform in the center of the audience circle. In a matter of heartbeats, a cylinder identical to the one in Wysteri’s treatment area took shape.

  “I don’t care how many times I see it,” Daena said. “That stuff is wizard; making something out of nothing.”

  It reminded Bannor of Cassandra’s diatribe against the Kriar. When you could make anything out of nothing, everything of value became worthless. Of course, such a thing was a view from a higher perspective. To an impoverished village in the middle of nowhere, where food or clothing came from and how it came to be were afterthoughts at best.

  “I am glad you all made the trek here,” Gaea said. “I only wish more of my children could have been adopted before this trial came to pass. So, what do you all think of the legacy of your forebears?”

  “I think its wizard an all,” Daena said, brushing at her auburn hair. “Do we get to find out what it was all for?”

  “To be honest,” Gaea said. “The generation that built Starholme, communed with me only to ask for boons of the subpaths. They did not accept my advice nor consult with me on the building of this place. They felt they had outgrown their mother. So, while I have a presence here, and some small influence, I know little of this place beyond the broad strokes.”

  “You never wandered around as an avatar?”

  Gaea sighed. “As I said, my children didn’t have much regard for me. The access I was given here was more to patronize me than anything else. My ability to manifest was very limited and quite expensive. My avatars lasted only a very short time in the border space created by this chamber.”

  “That confuses me,” Ziedra said raising a hand. “It sounds like they were arseholes, yet you talk as though we are the same ones from the ancient times.”

  “You are. They weren’t all arses. I had my favorites—the ones who regarded me. They were the ones whose taos I assisted so they might be reborn.”

  “You’ll pardon,” Sarai said. “Mazerak was the worst kind of arse.”

  Gaea sighed. “Even a basically good tao can grow up twisted. Each of you have been reborn hundreds of times, and some of those incarnations were less desirable than others.” Bannor heard a smile in Gaea’s voice. “Ziedra my dear child, the line of Istar’nolas has many stinkers in it. Your power is one far more easily abused than the others, and it has been—many times.”

  “Well, I don’t mind being the exception to the stinker rule,” the dark-haired savant said with a toss of her head.

  Wren leaned toward the woman. “Are you sure you are?”

  Ziedra scowled at her.

  Octavia walked down the steps and stepped up on the dais and checked the chamber. She looked up to the dark sphere over head. “All preparations are complete. How will we exchange the design data?”

  “You can analyze a sample to give you the template, can you not?” Gaea asked.

  “I can.”

  “One moment,” Gaea said. Bannor felt the room grow warm around him. The gems on the walls flickered and crackled, and the motes dancing around them changed their patterns. “I need a sterile container to deposit the template.”

  Octavia gestured and what looked like a small glass cylinder about the size of Bannor’s thumb appeared in her hand. “Will this suffice?”

  “It will. Hold it out in front of you.”

  Octavia looked up to the dark sphere and held out the container. A green light stabbed out from the globe and into the enclosure and a bluish fluid built up inside it until it was half filled.

  “I trust that is sufficient.”

  “Adequate,” Octavia acknowledged with a furrowed brow. “This is a locked sequence, do you wish it replicated in a locked state?”

  “My dear, if you can figure out how to unlock it, you are welcome to do so.”

  “I see,” Octavia replied. “I will take this back to analyzer and give you my synthesis
shortly.”

  “Thank you, Octavia,” Gaea responded.

  The mecha physician retreated back up the steps to her host where she placed the container inside something she slid out of device’s side. She went to one of the consoles and studied something there with Marna and Dulcere.

  “Ziedra,” Gaea said. “Please come down to the platform.”

  The ascendant of magic frowned. She touched her husband on the shoulder and walked down the steps to the central dais.

  “This will not hurt,” Gaea said. “Please do not move.”

  Ziedra nodded.

  A green light bathed the savant, and she rocked her head back. Wren saw her taking deep breaths, hands clenched at her side.

  “I know what that feels like,” Desiray murmured.

  “Will she be all right?” Radian asked.

  “She’ll be in good mood, trust me.”

  Bannor watched as a complex web of threads formed between Ziedra and the sphere containing Gaea’s essence. As he watched the threads, some appearing, others disappearing, he realized that they were communicating. Gaea was using the primal threads of the universe as a means of sending information. He frowned—to use such dense threads it would have to be a great deal of knowledge.

  The light winked out and Ziedra staggered. She put a hand to her chest. “Whew.” She drew a breath and shuddered. Looking up to the sphere overhead she said, “I understand.”

  “Good,” Gaea rumbled.

  Radian walked down to greet his wife. “Are you okay?”

  Ziedra didn’t answer, she simply put her arms around him and put her head on his shoulder.

  “Loric,” Gaea said.

  “Yes, Gaea,” he answered.

  “I have one task for you and it is a simple one. Hopefully, you will oblige me.”

  “I have to hear what it is first.”

  “It’s nothing complicated. When the body is ready, I will have to transfer my essence to it. While I can do that after a fact, this system has a rather tight grip on me. I want you to use Mon’istiaga to cut open the sphere that contains me. I would have one of my children do it, but being that close to my pure essence might prove harmful to them. I know you can protect yourself.”

  Loric stared up at the globe. Bannor saw suspicion in the gray-haired man’s eyes. “Isn’t there a less destructive way to do it?”

  “If you can think of one, I am open to suggestions. The material of this sphere is quite durable, and it is a rather solid object. My children did not want me getting out.”

  Bannor felt a little twist in his stomach. Why might that be? Had the first ones been afraid of their mother? She said they didn’t regard her or listen to her counsel. He suspected that their mother told the truth, but was selective with what things she revealed.

  “All right,” Loric finally said. “I will do as you ask.”

  “Good.”

  “Gaea,” Marna said from the top of the stairs.

  “Yes, Marna?” the goddess responded.

  “We’re looking at this template,”

  “Yes?”

  “Isn’t it a bit—young?”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “Oh, it could be done—but…”

  “Marna, I thought you liked them young…”

  The Kriar Vatraena frowned.

  “Mother, what’s she talking about?” Wren asked.

  “The reference template is actually that of a child.”

  “A child?”

  “Yes, don’t you think it would be quaint? The mother of the universe in the body of a pre-pubescent girl.”

  Wren stared.

  All the rest of savants stared as well.

  Gaea sighed. “Nobody has a sense of humor anymore. Of course I don’t want to be in the body of a child, Marna. The template was easier to create that way, please maturate it appropriately. You can do that, right?”

  “Of course,” Marna answered.

  “Please.” Bannor felt Gaea’s attention sweep over everyone. “Isn’t your mother allowed a jest once in a while? You’re all so serious.”

  “Well, maybe the universe getting blown up might have one or two of us on edge,” Cassandra said with a frown.

  “Marna is working as fast as she can. I will expedite matters to the best of my ability once I can move about.”

  “Do we have a plan?” Damay asked.

  “We will have one once I have time to assess things with eyes that can truly see your world. Much of my interpretation of real space is through your eyes and your perceptions and not my own. Even my ability to express myself is really a reflection of all of you here. It’s somewhat complicated.”

  “Lady Gaea,” Octavia said from the stairs. “I have some concerns. Do you wish to hear them?”

  “Of course.”

  “I have done my initial analysis of your reference template. I believe I understand the key requirements in terms of compatibility with your essence and specialized communicating requirements. However, there are elements that are suspect. Is this design entirely your own or did you borrow it?”

  Gaea’s answer was not immediate. The chamber was silent for a time, everyone staring up to the spot where her voice issued. After half a breath, Gaea responded. “Unfortunately, it is mostly borrowed. As one can imagine, I am not an expert in this sort of thing. So, what is your recommendation?”

  “I suggest a redesign based around the core requirements indicated in your reference. It will eliminate suspect controls and locks inherent in the other build.”

  “And integrate your controls and locks, correct?”

  Octavia simply stared at the sphere she was addressing. She brushed at her red hair. “My design will be stable, safe, and adequately provide for your needs.”

  “I see,” Gaea said. Bannor felt the goddess’ attention studying the mecha. “Octavia, were you designed by a Kriar or did another of your kind make you?”

  The physician frowned. “My mother, Eladrazelle, created me.”

  “How do you feel about that?”

  The mecha’s brow furrowed. “How am I supposed to feel about it? She is my mother.”

  Where was Gaea going with that? Sometimes Bannor didn’t understand her. Of course, that was probably to be expected.

  “Octavia, proceed as you deem necessary. I am certain the design will be excellent.”

  The mecha bowed. “I should have something ready shortly.” She turned back to where she was consulting with Marna and Dulcere.

  “I am fascinated,” Gaea remarked to the audience, “with creations that exceed the capabilities of their creators. I suppose that is the nature of evolution. A mother likes to think that her children will be more prosperous than she…”

  The group continued to converse with Gaea. She informed the savants and their mates that the governing intelligence of Starholme had been updated with their identities so that they could move about the complex without risk. In the intervening time, the all-mother asked some strange questions. She asked how each of them felt about their parents and siblings and the nature of emotions like jealousy and envy. The way she reflected their responses showed that she understood the concepts herself, but was more interested in their own interpretations.

  “The design is complete and double checked,” Octavia reported. “Do you wish to review it?”

  “No,” Gaea answered. “I trust your work. Proceed to the creation process and I will examine the product.”

  “As you wish.”

  Marna and Octavia worked together at their counter for a few moments. The cylinder on the dais began to glow and a strange whining sound came from it.

  “This really is rather exciting,” Cassandra remarked. “We’re watching the creating of a goddess.”

  “While the creation is indeed fascinating,” Idun said. “What concerns me more is the Kriar’s ability to do this. What is to stop them from creating dozens or hundreds of creatures like ourselves?”

  “I don’t think there is anything,
” Wren said. “But if they did that kind of thing, wouldn’t Homeworld be flooded with trillions of creatures—including copies of themselves?”

  “I did find that aspect of Homeworld troubling,” Damay remarked. “Especially when one reflects on their ability to create new forms of life at will.”

  “I believe the Kriar have a much firmer grasp of the natural order of things than any of you realize,” Gaea said to them all. “There were those of them who did not care about order which took them into conflict with the Jyril. However, others like our Marna seem to respect life.”

  A body had taken shape in the cylinder. It was too far away to make out details, but there was definitely something solid there. He stood up, curious to go down and look. The others seemed to have the same idea as they all went down the steps to gather around the form of the goddess.

  Sarai held his arm as they stepped up to look in the case.

  Green.

  Bannor guessed that was going to stay the same, although the tone seemed lighter than it had when they saw her incarnation in the other realm. The proportions of this shape were not nearly so exaggerated. Despite the overstated fertility traits, the body had a sleek symmetry that suggested strength and solidity. Despite being slimmer and less distorted, it was definitely Gaea’s face. Though it didn’t seem like a face that should affect him that way, he found that face extremely attractive. Perhaps that was part of the control Marna had mentioned. Perhaps he simply couldn’t see the goddess as anything other than beautiful.

  A bluish light played over the body from the sphere above them.

  “Hmmm,” Gaea hummed. “Do you like it daughter Wren?”

  “It’s, ummm, really healthy,” the blonde savant remarked. “But believable.”

  “Believable?” Gaea remarked. “You did not think my other avatars were believable?”

  “Uhhh, they were good for hugs.”

  “Will I still give good hugs?” Gaea asked with a smile in her voice.

  “Always.”

  “Vatraena,” Gaea said. “From what I can see, this will work. Before we can do the joining, however, Ziedra must perform some rituals for me.”

  “Rituals?” Marna repeated, coming down the steps with Dulcere and Octavia in tow.

  “Yes. Children please give Zee some space. Are you ready, Zee?”