Chapter 3: Back in the Spotlight

Uxe had arrived at the virtual forum ahead of me and was standing near the balcony watching the crowds of humanity materializing into their places in the staggered tiers on the opposite side of the great venue. I said hello and approached to give her a hug. She responded without noticeable delay which must have been due to the controller AI anticipating her reactions.

“Thank you for inviting me to accompany you here in tier one, John,” she said.

I just nodded. She would normally have attended as a tier-two member with the other research project heads. I invited her to join me in the prime-tier as she was my long-time friend and partner. Also, after our recent stunt at the Forbin complex, we were still linked in the minds of most. There was nothing I could do about that, but having her with me in tier one at least demonstrated that I valued her opinions.

The prime tier was reserved for the various directors of humanity. These were quasi-political positions that wielded authority over various areas of our society. Back in the early years of our new civilization, I had grudgingly accepted the necessity of these positions after realizing how many decisions needed to be made on a daily basis that were beyond the simple logical decision trees of the AIs.

Together, I and the early leaders in the template colonies had developed the role of the director. They would be elected to ten-year terms by the various divisions of humanity under their control. They would be under the oversight of each other and the AI advisory council.

We had tried to make the positions less desirable for power seekers by requiring the long-term period of public service before one could be installed as a director. The holder also had to forever forfeit various personal rights and excessive property holdings. There was also a firm term limit of thirty years, after which the director had to retire from public service for a period of no less then a century.

The process of impeachment was by anonymous vote after an impartial review by Iudex. It had only been used twice in over a century. The system had worked well and required little refinement over the years. I had never served as a director despite a great many attempts to draft me into the role. A few of my offspring had served, however, with my grandson Ben being the most recent to pursue the service.

Although I was not a director and had never been one, I was still permitted to join them in the prime lower and frontmost tier. Officially, it was assumed that this was as a courtesy. But in truth, it was because of the authority, via my control of all AIs, that I maintained over them all. Despite my trying to keep that knowledge hidden, some directors became aware of it soon after taking power, if not before.

I took my place beside Uxe at the front of our balcony overlooking the virtual assembly arena. We did not speak, as we had recently talked extensively after my meeting with the new Picket. While she surveyed the gathering I clandestinely inspected her virtual appearance. It was an interesting hybrid of her current shell and that of the older body she’d had back when we were together as man and wife.

One difference that was apparent with this digital version was that it lacked the enlarged cranium and visible mind-link data ports of her current modified “Genius” shell. I was used to her specialized shell but it was very noticeable. It was no surprise that she had made her virtual appearance more human and without the augments.

Ohmu joined us in the virtual balcony but remained standing towards the rear. We stood, as there were no chairs. There was no need to sit as fatigue from standing was simply not simulated in this virtuality.

In front of us were the warped amphitheater-like meeting galleries. There were five ascending levels or tiers with the lower and closer tiers being reserved for humans who wielded power or possessed extraordinary knowledge or skills. These lower tiers were also permitted more interaction with the testimony of the forum. For example, as tier one, I could interrupt or ask questions at will during the ongoing proceedings.

When I say warped it was because all other attendees appeared to be in front of our prime-tier balcony as if we were the focus of the meeting. In reality, everyone present had a view similar to ours. To each of them, they would also appear to be the focus of the forum with all others standing in opposition.

Between our balcony and the others was a presentation dais. Meeting information would be projected above the dais or beings could give testimony on it. From our viewpoint, they would be facing us but everyone would share this viewpoint.

The main benefit of the bizarre perspective was that we could see every single being present here with us. From the directors in their similar smaller, exclusive prime-tier galleries just opposite the dais to all of the other larger tiers and their mass group galleries rising behind and above.

I could make out individual faces up to tier three. Above that, the groups became too large and were blurred out unless I triggered a magnified view. Tier five, the farthest tier, was just a colorful mass of vague shapes. This tier represented the bulk of humanity in this day and age.

It dawned on me as I studied those far massings that I had never attended a global virtual meeting as a member of their lofty viewpoint. I’d always been down close to the action in tier one or two. I’d have to attend a global meeting from tier five once, just to see what it was like.

I shifted my attention closer and just across the dais to the semicircular cluster of prime-tier director’s galleries. Most of the occupants had their heads down indicating that they were off in private meetings or viewing other data streams. A few were actively viewing the other attendees just as I was.

When our eyes would meet we nodded in greeting. Some did so with smiles and respect while others kept a more neutral expression betraying nothing. There were plenty who thought me a pariah from either my inherent power or my recent actions at Forbin, or both.

Above and behind the directors were the tier-two group members. These were the heads of the major research projects and other critical infrastructure groups. There were also a few individual galleries in tier two. These were humans who were heroes for some reason or other or who had other notable achievements deserving recognition.

As I scanned across the groups and individuals in tier two, I caught the eye of someone I recognized. It was M. Sabal, the hermaphrodite administrator of the Forbin complex. ‘It’ (I cringed as I recalled its preferred use of that offensive pronoun) raised its hand in greeting when it saw that I had noticed it. I saw the herm make the conversation gesture towards me and noticed an accept box appear in my vision overlay. I clicked on affirmative wondering what the herm wanted.

“Hello, John. I wanted to thank you personally for how you handled the aftermath of your unauthorized use of the Forbin facility two years ago. Covering the cost of all damages which occurred at the facility including the overtime spent performing repairs was appreciated,” the administrator said.

I noted that it had politely not reminded me that the damage had been my and Uxe’s fault.

“No problem at all, Administrator Sabal. Again, I apologize for any mental anguish or additional work our experiment caused to you or your staff. I hope the additional items added to the compensation package are proving beneficial?”

“Yes, the vacation packages are proving very popular with the general staff. Thank you for those,” the administrator replied.

On top of the substantial monetary payments made to the Forbin group, I’d offered other benefits. One of these was the use of some of my properties by Forbin personnel for rest and relaxation purposes. The property most in demand was my island retreat Heels in the Sand.

I had offered to provide travel and accommodation for up to seven guests at a time on the island for three years. It had been going better than I had expected, and I would probably extend a more limited invitation to other groups after the current three-year offer was up. Those would be for profit, as I was already beginning to get offers that included payment.

To accommodate these guests, I’d constructed a series of small beachside bungalows. I also procured the use of an electro-jet to cover transportation to and from the island. The vacations were proving very popular and were quickly helping to improve my reputation, at least with the technical staff who worked at the data center and who had been most affected by our actions there.

Iudex appeared on his simple throne set off to the side of the central dais. This meant the forum was about to begin. Administrator Sabal and I concluded our private conversation and I focused my attention on the dais. Iudex’s virtual appearance was in the form of a hooded humanoid figure dressed in black robes.

Its deep cowl hood mostly hid the AI’s features although you could see two small star fire points of brightness where its eyes would have been. It was here to judge any legal matters and monitor the protocols of the forum. In effect, it served as the meeting room’s moderator.

With a tooth rattling thrum, Iudex tapped his crystalline gavel bringing the forum to an active broadcast state. A shimmer passed over the throngs of humans and I heard a clear tone announcing that the forum was open. Minervus AI appeared on the dais in its typical virtual image of a hovering large gray stone obelisk. The immobile and apparently solid symbol was perfect to demonstrate the unending resolution for the AI in charge of the defense of the solar system.

It spoke in an authoritative gender-neutral voice and described the current state of our solar system’s defenses and the circumstances around the recent detection of the enemy transmission. I had reviewed summaries of this technical data already so I mostly ignored the words spoken by the AI. Instead, I watched the reactions of the masses of humanity. It was clear many were learning the details of the transmission for the first time.

I used the unlimited magnification allowed in virtual to zoom in close to various segments of humans in the more distant, higher tiers. There was an endless variety of figures. Some were realistic and human-like in appearance while others were fantastic caricatures of cartoonish or historical figures. Most were focused on the words being spoken by the AI, as all were aware that this was a pivotal point for our species.

“Ohmu, how many are attending this forum?” I asked quietly after making sure my words were set to local. As a tier-one member, I had the ability to override and interrupt any current ongoing testimony and I did not want to make a faux pas by having my question heard by the entirety of humanity.

“Two million, four hundred sixty-three thousand, one hundred and fourteen living or active humans John,” Ohmu answered. “This represents over ninety-eight percent of the current near-Earth population. Also present in the form of proxy-bearing simulations are three hundred fourteen thousand and sixty-three humans who are elsewhere in the solar system, outside of the mandated thirty-second communications lag limit.”

Just shy of three million humans. Our current civilization. Much smaller than the almost eight billion I had shared the planet with back before the reset. Despite the current population being just a fraction of that of the past, it was clear that ours was much more intimately connected with each other and the world around us.

I thought back over the past two centuries, where we’d grown humanity from just a few thousand to this current number. The goal of the first century had been to actively push human growth and rapidly expand the population. The last eighty years we had slowed such aggressive expansion and just let humans reproduce as they wished. Growth was now much slower and more balanced.

The latest forecast showed we were adding less than a hundred thousand a decade. The new growth was also being spread across the entire planet and the space stations and colonies of the solar system. This meant that with the anti-urban laws still in effect to keep our population decentralized and less vulnerable, we still lacked permanent large cities. I was just fine with that as I still had memories of the congestion and chaos of the cities of my youth.

Ohmu ignored my musings and continued, “Many of the far-flung proxies have already attended local forums where much of this information was presented and considered. Any conclusions reached in those gatherings will be integrated into the decisions made during and after this forum.”

Minervus soon finished its summary. Other AIs and a few of the directors gave quick progress reports on their areas as they related to the enemy transmission. Finally, humanity was ready to learn the actual contents of the enemy’s transmission. Iudex briefly explained the background of the near-parity iteration in the SRP and the level of current knowledge which the enemy agent had been allowed. This set the stage for Picket’s testimony and my old neighbor appeared on the dais.

Picket bowed to the masses, introduced himself, and began his sales pitch, for lack of a better term. Again, since I already knew the contents of his message, I instead watched the crowd as he made his case. I saw expressions of wonder and amazement as he explained the need for humanity to shift all of its efforts towards building a new ark to continue spreading the Assemblage across the galaxy. I was a bit surprised and concerned at the low levels of open hostility or doubt which I observed.

When he had wrapped up his main points, various individuals or groups began asking the enemy operative many of the same questions I and my companions had broached during our private meeting a few days ago. He answered in a similar way, adding little to what we had previously covered.

Occasionally someone would ask a question that contained references to our new wormhole technology. The virtual Picket would look confused, as it had not been allowed any knowledge of the new technology as its response would only be speculation. Iudex would reset Picket’s awareness back to before the question was asked and the question skipped.

Eventually, the theme of the questioning shifted to why humanity must join forces against the greater Hemru threat. Suddenly there was an interruption. Off in the fourth tier about a dozen humans stood and began shouting. Their interruption was quickly moderated by Iudex and the group became frozen as they were placed under suspension.

“Who are they?” I asked Ohmu.

“It was one of the more prominent Doubter groups, John,” the android replied.

The Doubters were this day and age’s version of the ‘flat Earthers’ of my old era. They were conspiracy theorists who believed that the Assemblage did not exist and that their attack had never happened. Beyond that, various Doubter splinter factions broke down around even more bizarre theories.

One even claimed that I was the only real alien and this world was my experiment and slave breeding colony. Fifty years ago, members of that group had been detected planning a physical attack on my person. Naomi had disbursed the group and tightened its security watch on me ever since. It also increased the monitoring of other potential adversarial groups.

With the interruption handled, the back-and-forth discourse with Picket resumed. I split my attention between following the questioning and watching the reactions of the crowd. It continued to be mixed. I was surprised at how many of the forum’s attendees were currently watching me instead of Picket. Most were smiling or had neutral expressions but more than a few were clearly unhappy. It seemed I had no shortage of enemies.

“Naomi, how many here do you suspect of currently wishing me harm?” I subvocalized, not wanting to alarm Uxe by posing the question openly to Ohmu.

Instead of answering verbally, Naomi did something more dramatic. Columns of colored light appeared all around the forum extending skyward from various individuals and small groups. There were tens of thousands of shafts of light, all red in various shades and brightnesses.

I did not need a legend to understand that the brightest crimson shafts were those that hated me the most. Luckily these numbered around a hundred but of these, there were over two dozen that were a pulsating bright crimson that caught my attention. The majority of the indications were a fixed dull red with many barely visible. I reasoned that these indicated only mild annoyance and were lesser threats.

“Jesus! Nothing like a wake-up display like this to set a guy in his place,” I exclaimed subvocally.

—Yes. Note that the peak high number of hostile humans occurred two months ago directly after your exploits at the Forbin installation. The numbers have declined by eleven percent since.—

If Naomi intended this to soothe me it failed. There were still a lot of people here who hated me. I used the zoom function to look at some of those who had pulsating crimson indicators. I flinched when the second person I inspected was staring back at me with naked loathing in her eyes. The person’s virtual appearance was that of a middle-aged woman.

She must have noticed that I was focused on her as her eyes tightened even further. She was not alone. Her companion appeared to be a similar-aged male and she must have signaled to him somehow because he also turned to look at me. His expression of naked hatred matched hers. They must have shared some unknown signal as both simultaneously turned away from me and resumed watching the questioning of Picket.

“Who the hell are those two?” I asked Naomi, again subvocally.

—The two humans are Lilith and Sigmund Modesto, John.—

Naomi didn’t say anything further. The AI knew that I was all too familiar with the Modestos. We had crossed paths almost ten years ago when their children had been killed in an accident during a historical learning expedition which I had guided. I knew their hatred stemmed not only from the loss of their kids, but also from the brief, follow-on legal battle that had ensued. You see, the Modesto’s were followers of Amor Fati.

“I assume from their visceral open hatred, that they are still avid followers of Amor Fati?” I asked the AI.

—Yes. It appears they have also become aware of your recent policy changes regarding the dependents of all followers of Amor Fati. This has clearly incensed them.—

“Do I have to worry?”

—I think not John. I have doubled the routine patrols of all waters around your island. The airspace coverage has been similarly increased. In low and medium orbital space, I have altered the trajectories of the overwatch fast-response launchers and directed energy weapon platforms. Beyond that, the lunar defense perimeter under Minervus control is also under my direct oversight. You should be fine.—

I did not respond as the information Naomi had just revealed to me sank in. I wanted to think the information I had just heard was some form of joke but I knew the AI had been serious. I’d realized that she had always kept a close watch on my safety but I had no idea of the extent of those measures. That I had never noticed was a testament to how stealthily the AI could operate.

I decided to take advantage of the near-complete gathering to do something I generally shied away from over the centuries.

“Naomi, please show my clones if they are in attendance.”

The red-hued columns faded away and were replaced by light green columns spread across the higher tiers of the gathering. I counted twenty-eight of them. There were originally forty-six clones in existence but over the past century and a half, twelve had chosen to die a permanent and final death without being reshelled, and I knew that two were gone from Sol system after having volunteered to be part of the crews of the early interstellar ships. Their fate remained unknown, as those ships were still in transit.

I felt the familiar awkwardness as I gazed upon my closest kin. I thought of them as my clones but time and circumstances had rendered that less accurate. I activated the identify function and scanned their projected names. The one I was hoping to find was not present which wasn’t completely unexpected.

I had generally made a habit of avoiding my copies as they were different enough that the strangeness in our interactions was overwhelming. The differences were originally caused by their mental editing after they were created and before they were installed into the template colonies. This editing occurred to make them comfortable with their surroundings and their imposed mates.

When I had freed the Earth from the control of the Master AI, Uxe and I had visited these colonies. I had quickly learned to interact with my clones just like I interacted with the other eight cloned humans in each colony. On the rare times since, when I had encountered one of my clones, this had remained the norm.