Chapter 13: The Expanding Jovian Frontier

"What. The actual. Fuck. Did you people do to my ship!?"

I was staring at the twisted wreckage that was the Heartseed and to say that I was furious wouldn't even begin to cover it. I had put months of effort into the creation of that ship. It wasn't beautiful by any means; it wasn't fast even in the context of the settings from which I'd drawn the technologies to create it. It wasn't especially rugged or hard hitting or anything, really.

But it was mine, and they had turned it into a smouldering hulk. Okay, so maybe it was my imagination that showed the smouldering bit, but still. The only saving grace here was that Synod-04 had the good graces to be sheepish about it, as he stood next to me. Synod-02 on the other hand … Synod-02 was nearly ecstatic in her understated way.

The Engineer was the first to answer. "Well. You see. It's like we said -- we had a major breakthrough in the integration of Skrill weapons and biotics, you see."

I nodded serenely. "Uh-huh. Go on."

Synod-02's enthusiasm bubbled through her staid posture. "Oh indeed, indeed! Our models all indicated that simply projecting a biotic singularity would be sufficient to propagate the Skrill in lieu of possessing any containment methodology. And it did work. Our testbed platforms showed a marked increase in effective range of the Skrill Cannon originally designed by Your Worship."

I turned around to face the pair, and pointed at the still-regenerating hulk behind me. "So how, exactly, do you explain this?!"

The Doctor continued almost as though I hadn't spoken at all. "Some scaling issues were determined to be present in the model. The Skrill Cannon of the testbed fired successfully five times in sequence at low to moderate power, but did not possess the energy output necessary to perform sustained fire at the highest energy settings. So we used the only existing test platform for the new methodology, after thorough testing in virtualspace, of course. The exposure of the instability phenomenon at sustained high energy concentrations was utterly unanticipated. The possibilities involved are remarkable!"

I felt a headache coming on. "Right. Okay. Uh-huh. How long until my ship is fixed?" I dismissed The Doctor and turned to The Engineer.

Synod-04 wouldn't meet me in the eyes. "Well, yer Worshipfulness, it's … we ain't fixin' her up at all."

I just glared for a moment. "You. What."

The Engineer nodded to himself. "Well, there's no point in it. Not when the damage would be handled by the planned upgrades anyway."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Planned upgrades? And that will totally cover the impact of … that?"

The Engineer smiled abruptly. "Oh yessir. See, the only reason we haven't actually started on the repairs … err, upgrades … is because we were waiting on the improved testbed ships to report back from their testruns."

I tilted my head. "My Heartseed has been a ruined hulk for an entire month. And this requires so long because…. ?" My hand was on my hip, and I was letting my anger vent slightly. This had better be good.

The Engineer looked at me for a moment, as though confused. "Oh, I should have thought it obvious by the cause of the issue. We've cracked biotic Host synthesis."

I nodded. "That much is quite apparent, yes."

Unphased, The Engineer continued with his leading statements. "So … the Heartseed is at least half Host."

I clued in. "Wait. Hold the damned phone. Biotic organisms scale to the level of starships!? I thought that a eezo core was necessary for that?" If they were saying what I thought they were saying … holy hell. That was huge. Like … huge.

The Doctor was the one who responded next. "That … well, sir. Cores are in fact required, yes. But the use of the model of biotics drastically reduces the total eezo necessary for a given scale of vessel, and by following the biotic eezo nodule model we were able to both drastically reduce the total eezo amount necessary for a vessel and allow for the use of multiple cores. There are certain limitations on this over conventional operation, of course, but many of those are offset by the limited reliance on the Mass Effect in our overall technology to begin with. The key breakthrough, as it were, was in the form of the attempt to recreate gravity plating using biotechnology."

Rather than try to comprehend by verbal report, I pinged for a datadump and the related mathematics and modeling. It was a good exercise in integrating -- comprehending -- information retrieved by my cyberbrain firmware. The answer to the question at hand as it turned out was one of those "why didn't I see this before?" moments. See, gravity plating didn't actually create conventional gravity, but rather pseudogravity. We had previously noted that this had an odd amplification interaction with Mass Effect fields, but no one had thought much of it except for the newfound need to more proactively regulate the energy levels fed into gravity plating.

But as it turned out, that was in fact the key to the exercise. Pseudogravity propagated both the Mass Effect and the 'electrostatic' produced by eezo cores, in a very similar way to how organic nervous systems did so on the much smaller scale for regular living organisms. So by using smaller cores in a biomimetic configuration with wiring based on the gravplating for low-level pseudogravity propagation, one could in effect make an entire starship into a biotic.

One of the limitations of this was that the mathematics and field modulation requirements were drastically more complicated than a standard single-core model. The Thinktanks' solution to this was to essentially incorporate each nodule with its own EcoTech bioneural computer, linked together with Taelon bio-optic fibers laced with eezo dust to permit faster-than-light analog computations emulating a true biotic organic. It was … elegant. It was also efficient; if I was reading this information correctly the total eezo requirement for a given size of vessel was reduced to a twentieth of the normal amount.

I just stared into space for a bit. And then I smiled viciously. "Synod-02. I want you to work out a manufacturing process to create a mechanical 'export ships' based on these ships, if they work out."

The Doctor started. "Sir? Export ships?"

I turned my still-extant smile directly onto her. "Oh yes. After all, by the time we actually make contact with humanity … well. We'll have to make sure that we 'Romans' have done something for Earth lately."

A light dawned on the good Doctor's just shy of too-perfect countenance. "Oh… Oh! And by exporting something along those lines we further propagate the 'Precursor' dynamic you wish to establish with the Systems Alliance once it has formed."

I leaned back against the wall of the hangar bay in which my poor battered corvette hung. "Now you're getting it."

A few moments later I was sitting in virtualspace with Synod-01, The Administrator. He looked for all the world like a typical bureaucrat; slightly paunched, middle-aged with strongly progressed male-pattern baldness, tweed blazer and khaki slacks, and coke-bottle glasses. "As you can see, sir, the population of Starhaven has reached the one million Host mark as of two months ago, and as such the decision was taken due to our now existing means of constructing and utilizing certain technologies sufficient to avoiding the attention of the various potential races of this 'verse to expand to the settlements of Freehaven and Lighthaven on Europa and Io respectively. We predict that with the infrastructural and logistical assistance of Starhaven they will also reach the one million mark respectively within a period of not more than one year."

I poked at the holographic display of the various charts. There was something slightly off with the data I was being presented… "Wait. Wait. A full year for that level of logistical completion? Synod-01, where is the rest of the League's development capacity going?"

The Administrator nodded in bland affirmation. "Maker, sir, you did specify that the Jovian League was at threat from interdimensional phenomena, and that our defenses and detection methods were hardly suitable to staving off meaningful threats that might arrive. You further created specifications for the study Dho-Na Curve technology and implementations that required them to be performed not closer than fifty lightyears away from the Sol system, and only in so-called 'deadworlds' -- 'verses that lack human habitation within the Sol system."

I narrowed my eyes. "Are you saying what I think you're saying, Administrator?"

Again, he nodded with the same exact level of bland affirmation. "Oh yes, Maker. Each of our new settlements has a Gate complex established and a Core is being constructed there. While we lack the means to successfully target New Virginian Gates, we have the means to reliably recreate one once constructed thanks to rigorous geopositioning and micron laser positioning. Seeing as it was necessary to study Gate phenomena via the quantum beacon technology you acquired for the Thinktanks anyhow, the decision was further taken to expand on the redundancy of our civilization along lines you had planned."

I blinked. He was, actually, correct that I had planned to have the Jovian League colonize the Jovian moons of multiple dimensions … but I hadn't planned on it to happen until after I'd mastered a technological means of reliably navigating between 'verses. What they had done was … on the one hand, the transit and communications were reliable so long as the Gates existed, and we did actually have the means to reproduce those Gates … from the side they were created on. If we lost the Mass Effect home universe, those expansions would be dependent entirely upon divine courier -- me -- in order to remain in any form of contact with one another.

A thought occurred to me. "Please tell me you're not actually using those universes to study the necromantic computer sciences."

The Administrator chuckled. "Oh no sir, that wouldn't fit with your standards at all; even if we ignored the presence of the Mass Effect relay networks and human civilizations on the secondary worlds, we ourselves are inhabiting them and you have made quite clear your sentiment on that matter. No. It took a number of random iterations of Gate manufacture -- noting the position of each Gate to each destination universe -- in each of the secondary worlds before we found a Gate location that led to a 'deadworld' that also lacked a Mass Effect Relay network presence we could detect. This Gate -- accessible from the Io Homeverse Gate -- is what leads to the universe we will be conducting any further experiments upon. We have taken the liberty of applying the heaviest Dho-Na warding methodology we can on both sides of the Gateway, as well as deploying a retractable Virtual Glass barrier along the 'SecondSide' edge of the study Gate. As well as a targeted phase cannon aimed at the Gate machine itself."

A slight pause before he continued. "It was felt that this would meet with your appreciable level of paranoia, Maker, in addition to the distance requirement. Were we mistaken?"

I just laughed a slight bit nervously. "No… I can't say I disagree with your reasoning. The perfect is the enemy of the good and all that. It's just not a decision I would have made; but I understand why you made it and I see the wisdom of it. We'll just have to escalate research into targeting Gate structures."

The Administrator smiled indulgently. "That would be wise, oh Maker."

In a way I was glad I'd given myself seven days of catchup every three months with the Hosts' progress. It left me in a perpetual sense of training, as it were, but I'd experienced less than a month of it so far and the signs of progress were remarkable. I also got enough time to get a sense of the way the culture of my people was developing.

I … hadn't really expected them to drag me into Acting Practice in the form of playing with a bunch of schoolchildren in a playground while their parents watched on indulgently, though. I was very, very much out of my depth on this -- which I supposed was the point of the exercise. Oh, I didn't have the capacity to truly Act as my Hosts did, but I could at least put the Method into it. Resleeving helped in a way, I guessed -- and I couldn't really say it bothered me much to get to experience what life was like for a twelve-year-old who was actually accepted rather than ostracized and abused by his peers.

The tiny voice whispering in my ear as I did all of this was the Hosts' answer to my inability to take on a true overlay; a virtual behavioral assistant that was loaded into my neural implant, and gave me constant tips and hints at how to behave exactly as that assistant was designed to be. My own personal Acting coaches, on demand.

I called out to the other kids. "Hey! Give me a turn, guys! Anybody wanna bet I can actually kick the ball all the way to the edge of the field this time?"

Jason, the largest of the group, leered at me. "You gonna use them biotics and cheat again?"

I smirked. "It's not cheating if it's a natural ability! You're just jealous!"

Jason just smiled. "You're da… rn right I am!" He nervously eyed the direction of his mother. His voice took on a conspiratorial tone. "But it would be cool. Hey. I saw on the vids one time that a really good soccer player can make a ball spin and come back like a boomerang! Think you can do it?"

Tim, Janey, and Billy started egging me on. After a few moments, I decided to give in to the peer pressure. It would be a good test of my control over my biotic abilities. "You bet!"

I kicked the ball while a purple-blue glow briefly manifested around my foot and the soccer-ball both. It actually did curve. Right into a tree, where it promptly deflated on impact. I gave an 'aw, shucks' grin at the others. "I … oops?"

Janey gave an exasperated explosive breath. "Dangit, Markey! What are we gonna do now?"

Billy pointed at the jungle gym. "Last one there's a rotten egg!" He dashed even before he finished speaking.

I took off at a run. I didn't use a biotic dash -- not after the way everyone had agreed that wasn't fair to everyone else. I also liked the way the wind felt as it rushed through my hair as I ran, anyway. It didn't stop me from throwing a tiny biotic singularity at Billy's feet, just to take away his lead. That wasn't cheating, right?

I was actually having fun.

Several hours later, I resleeved back to my original body. Or at least, I'd intended to do so, but found the biotic abilities I'd practiced with in the temporary sleeve while participating in the Host's Acting Practice were still present. "Smiley. Bro. What's the deal here?"

My assistant's emoji went to a wink. "We took the opportunity to make some minor improvements to Sir's person."

My eyes narrowed a little as I looked askance at Smiley. "I thought we weren't sure yet about the biotic improvements? We were waiting for the data to come back from the testbed ships."

Smiley's CRT head nodded in affirmation even as the screen reverted back to the 'default' artwork. "We did, sir. They arrived four hours ago. We felt that disturbing Sir's forays into Acting would be an inefficient use of Sir's time."

I chuckled. "And the opportunity to get me with a pleasant surprise for once had nothing to do with it?"

Smiley's stance didn't move a micrometer. "Perish the thought, sir."

I just smiled briefly. "Alright, then. Let's see what else you have in store for me."

A few seconds later I was in virtualspace conference with The Doctor, The General, and The Engineer. "Alright. Give me what you got."

The Doctor was the first to speak. "As your Worship may recall, we were given a certain emphasis for the last quarter before you returned to cold sleep."

I nodded for her to continue. After that heartbeat pause, she continued. "While we did not make what I might call prodigious advances in that area, we were able to determine that the use of 'conventional' energy sources could in fact reproduce the near interdimensional shift effect of the Taelon Interdimensional Drive. Various models and methods were tested to attempt to achieve this effect, now that we have a better understanding of the transreality space due to our scans of standing and temporary New Virginian Gates thanks to the Maker's acquisition of quantum beacons. So. We have determined that a working Taelon-style ID drive can in fact be made without Taelon core energy or Dho-Na Curve effectors. However… I regret to inform you, Maker, that subspace warp transit is in fact a far more energy efficient method of travel without some existing interdimensional phenomenon to 'latch onto' in order to propagate the ID shift fields first. We could utilize a standing New Virginian Gate to activate from a standing position to drastically reduce the energy costs involved -- and I do recommend this be done for the purposes it is effective towards -- but this only permits 'burst' transit in ID space within the same reality."

The Doctor's impassive countenance brightened. One couldn't call it a smile, exactly, but it was somewhat warmer, more positive. "With additional research and development, we should be able to emulate the Taelon dimensional transit waystations from the Final Conflict 'verse to permit foot-traffic transit between cities within the same Jovian system, or even to increase foot traffic transit volume between Gate sides. But as matters currently stand, as a form of ship drive, not even matter-antimatter annihilation methods could produce the necessary energy intensity to operate a sustained interdimensional shift."

The Engineer spoke up next. "Before y'even ask, Maker, we did attempt to bypass that constraint with the exotic materials you've managed to provide us with access to. Turns out that 'dark energy' of the Mass Effect isn't sufficiently "extradimensional" enough in nature to instigate the interdimensional shift effect, let alone sustain it. The dilithium samples you provided were used sparingly, but while they do propagate along subspace, as you know from the nature of subspace warp drives, the interdimensional shift effect is very different in that it is better understood to the Star Trek Universe as being something like a phasing effect. A Taelon ID drive can simply transit through matter in a way that subspace warp effects cannot. We did determine that dilithium is a conventional enough compound to be subject to alchemical transmutation and synthesis, though again we had to rely upon a similar mechanism as is now used for eezo production. Before you object, yes. We did in fact develop this process in the reserved Dho-Na study 'verse."

The Engineer paused to breath -- a dramatic effect as in virtualspace, no one can run out of breath. "On to more pleasant topics. The reconstruction of the Heartseed's hull to integrate shipscale biotics is now underway. In addition; we have licked the problem of Skrill weapon energy containment via biotic effect. We didn't want to have a … repeat… of the last issue, nor to get your hopes up inappropriately, Maker, so we left the experiment in question off of the mesh 'net. I am conveying the experimental data to you for your perusal now."

He made a sweeping motion as though tossing a disc at me. A circular avatar with a square inside it manifested just past his fingertips as he did, and the visual representation of the data transfer propagated to my own avatar almost instantly. I opened the file and began reviewing the data.

And… well. That was certainly one way to solve the issue at hand. I … I wasn't sure how I felt about this weapon. The problem with the Biotic Singularity effect being used to contain Skrill weapon energy was that the energy would condense to strenuously and effectively have an implosive-explosive reaction event with itself. So how to counter that? By adding turbulence. They bottled a biotic warp within the core of the singularity, fired the Skrill Weapon energy into the warp to give both effects something to anchor onto, and then accelerated the whole conglomeration at relativistic speeds towards the destination. The warp and singularity did dissipate after a certain distance, but given the relative velocities involved, that distance was … sixty thousand kilometers. Two tenths of a lightsecond, and at a velocity of eighty percent of the speed of light the projectiles would take a little under a third of a second to reach their coherence limit. A damned big improvement from a weapon range of five hundred kilometers.

The really impressive part though was the increased effect this would have on targets. The effect went from being equivalent to artillery fire to being basically a shaped (and contained) nuclear blast in terms of potential scale of energy transferred. The maximum rate of fire was cut to a third of what it otherwise would be, and the range limit was a killer compared to the effective weapons range of even a frigate-scale matter acceleration cannon, but it was damned impressive. And by simply toggling off the biotic component of the Skrill Cannons, they could "revert" to the far less reaching but far faster rate of fire.

That wasn't even all that the Thinktanks had accomplished, however. When they and the Engineers had begun work on shipscale biotics, they had a few specific targets in mind. The most valuable in their minds were the Barrier and Charge -- as the former was in effect a form of gravimetric shielding, and the latter was the key to Mass Effect FTL -- but in the process of these they also developed the biotic throw, pull, singularity, and shockwave. These would have more of an effect for interdiction purposes, but being able to tow around asteroids and comets would be useful industrially too. It didn't pass my notice that the Hosts were upgrading the biohull exterior of the habitats to include the same biotics advance as were being retrofitted into the Heartseed as well.

It was ironic in a way -- we had the technology since first obtaining samples from the Batarians and studying the Prothean vessels to simply operate "standard" kinetic barriers and the like, but my insistence on the use of biotech had led the Thinktanks down this route. It wasn't that biotics were necessarily superior in terms of produced effects to more conventional eezo uses. In a lot of ways, they weren't; a biotic charge attempting proper FTL transit at scale would consume a great deal more power than a conventional eezo FTL core would in achieving the same FTL speed. It would also generate less "static", and require far less eezo to do it.

There were some notes involved about the possibility of testing the consumption of "bio-energy levels" when performing transreality jumps while the effective mass of the ship had been altered to varying levels, but that would depend on my connection to the Heartseed before we could get any data.

All in all, it was a good day.