Chapter 5: Big Progress In Little Packages

At this point I had options for what I could do. I couldn't successfully transit my jump capsule very far in the conceptual nonspace, so that limited to an extent what I could do with it. But at the same time, I didn't want to bring it to a contemporary Earth, nor did I want to remain on this apocalyptic world for too much longer. It had proven safe enough for my duration here, but I really didn't know exactly what kind of zombie apocalypse had hit this world, and some of them were downright dangerous. Thankfully, my previous session with the bioplastic printer had proven to me that the core concept I had with the capsule was effective enough. And now that I had all of the parts necessary to actually build another, here, I could cheat a little in order to progress any further. I'd even thought ahead a little, and had left a couple of connector points in the capsule's structure where the same automail connector sockets could be connected at large -- this was actually an old trick my original teachers had taught me: the more modularly you construct an automail limb, the less effort it would be to introduce new components to it later. The root network structure was even designed, in part, to facilitate this. The egg -- about the size of a small RV, really -- would in the future do double-duty as an lifepod/escape-capsule/bridge for the next step in my venture.

To that effect, I sent my twinned worker Hosts outside of the perimeter of my safehouse's compound and had them start to scavenge industrial components, plastics, and organic detritus (of the kind that wouldn't reek up the place), while I finally started to tear into the other aspect what I'd learned in my tenure at the Fullmetal Universe. The alchemy of that universe was an interesting phenomenon. As long as you had all the necessary components, at the elemental level, and you had a sufficient understanding of your target object, you could rearrange those components into the target object with a bit of visual aid and soulful introspection … and a helpful heaping of geothermal/geomagnetic energy extracted directly from the planet you happened to be on. And for anyone who had seen Truth the way I had, this process was even easier. It didn't let you create something from nothing -- though someday I'd have to see if the alchemical transmutation would work for elemental synthesis; though that would have to wait until such time as I had a method of performing said transmutations that wouldn't result in my melting down into a radioactive pile of goo.

In the meantime, performing much simpler transactions -- like converting loose soil into compressed earth, and reducing the oxides of the bedrock to free molecular oxygen and their elemental metals -- I could not only perform as a tunnelbore at incredible speeds, I could literally line the wall with metallic compounds to shore it all up structurally. Mostly silicon, followed by aluminum and even some iron, if just barely enough to rearrange as high carbon steel rebar in load-bearing columns along the edges of the pit, really.

The original egg capsule was barely three by five by fifteen meters in dimension (measured by the widest dimensions). It was just large enough to contain both myself and a cargo area with enough space to actually carry the bare-minimum I thought necessary to bootstrap up the next iteration of my planned industrial base. I could probably have gotten it smaller, if I'd been willing to spend the time to calculate optimal flatpacking configurations, but I didn't have the computing power or the time to do it. Well, maybe I had the time -- I wasn't willing to risk the Delos compound being detonated or invaded during my stay there enough to take any longer than I had. Which was why I had begun the next phase on my "safe" world, and was now excavating a pit that was more the size of a decent luxury personal yacht.

Speaking of. Dimensions. It was a bit of a surreality for me; I was so used to thinking in inches, feet, and miles -- but the neural implant and the cyberbrain firmware were firmly on the metric side of the force. So I was constantly finding myself tripping over that as the information was stored and retrieved in actual meters. I didn't really think it was worth fighting, so I realized that eventually I'd wind up having the habit of thinking in metric in general, but I wasn't there yet, and every time my mental feet tripped up on the subject it gave me goosebumps. There were worse things in the world, I supposed, but … every single step along this path of mine would result in changes in my body, mind, and soul -- and that was an existentially shaky thought to focus on. So I didn't.

So, speaking of. Dimensions. The Delos Universe capsule I'd created had measurements in at about the size of a small to medium RV trailer. What I was now going to build, in this dug-out pit, was something somewhat larger. Rather than 3x5x15 and rounded like an oddly flat egg, I was going for a more hexagonal build this time. A single largely hexagonal shape, 15x15x50 meters. So going from RV to naval corvette dimensions. If just barely. If I had to rely on even the large-animal Host printer from the Delos facility, it would have taken months to fully construct this new hull. However, again, here I could cheat somewhat. By gathering the components hauled in by the two worker Hosts now at my disposal, I was able to use the pre-existing components in the capsule itself to transmute the hauled in junk into functional copies of the printer components, and then have them assembled on a telescoping boom on a box frame, all controlled down to the micrometer -- the combination of socketing in the controls to my spinal automail sockets and the use of the cyberbrain interface giving me a kind of fine control that neither system alone could hope to achieve. Combining that with seeding the biohull material from the capsule to allow it to grow out along the scaffolding I was deploying with the bioplastic, and I could worry only about constructing the world's oddest-looking whale skeleton rather than having to fill out the entire vessel. Leaving room for additional components was actually fairly easy, considering the way the materials in question were seeded; I could leave a "bone ring" in place and the biohull would simply grow around it rather than entirely over it. That gave me hatches and sockets to work with for the next stage of the project.

Seeing as I now had room to store more than just the two uncanny valley worker-drone Hosts, I also had them whip up a human-scale Host printer. The jumpship hull, even with all of the aid and such, would still take weeks to complete. Weeks, mind you, being vastly better than months, but that still left me with the concern of what I would be building out to flesh out the interior of the vessel. I'd learned some lessons from the jump capsule, and they changed my future plans somewhat. The energy costs of even reality-jumping with the capsule were exhaustive; I needed a better way to store and generate motive energy. Given that it had actually drained the capsule's energy first and mine second, that told me that any way of feeding the stamina reserves of the hull itself would probably get me more room to work with.

The actual SeaQuest used fusion reactors as an energy source, going so far as to feed the hull with an electrotrophic system. The organic hull retained that feature, meaning that it could be repaired with just power and time as long as its bulk was still in place. I didn't yet have the means to "overcharge" the hull's staminal levels, and I strongly suspected based on how difficult it was to carry gold ingots that the more inert matter I carried the more drained a vessel would be. Unfortunately, the biohull and even the Host plastic -- I really needed a better name for that -- had hard limits on the upper bounds of how much energy they could store, and that was in effect my new limit on what I could carry. I needed a way around that limit, but I myself didn't know enough about these things to pull that off just yet. I did, however, have an idea about where I could go to get that ability and information. A couple of ideas, actually -- none of which was really all that good of one. The least effective but most easily done would be to simply add "fat reserves" to the capsule and jumpship -- Host plastic configured for maximum energy density, mimicking the role proper fat cells play in an animal. By combining that with essentially "hyperventilating" the ship I could at least make maximum range multiverse transits without killing myself or my ship, and have a chance to do so again in short order. So long as the transit itself didn't instantly kill the ship, it would recover quickly enough to avoid long-term damage. But that wasn't the same thing as actually having an increased range -- it just allowed a drastic reduction in the time between jumps.

The two next ideas I had in mind were to steal a lurch from one of two settings, both of which were barely within my range, though I hadn't done any more than confirm that fact. The first being the StarGate universe. Or more specifically, what I recalled about Linea's biological reactors. I'd even skimmed the area myself to see if I could get more insight and if it was a viable option. I'd misremembered some of the details; the bioreactors for example weren't her inventions, but were plants native to the prison-planet she was kept on before release by SG1. Unfortunately, if I went that route I'd be locking in the timeframe of the transit due to needing a sample of her "activators" to make the plants react -- there was no way I was going to work out what was necessary for it myself. At least, not without a significantly better mastery of organic technologies which I did not have, and a research team I also did not have. It being a plant wasn't necessarily the end of the world, though; the root structure of that plant supplied the cold-fusion reaction from what I saw pretty effectively, and I could hybridize the organic hull with the power roots. Though that might cost a little in structural integrity, I could make up for it by installing the hull polarization infrastructure from the StarTrek universe as well.

Overall it was a fairly easy to implement and easily obtained solution. A quick hop to a known location when no one was watching, a simple snatch-and-grab, and out again. The only challenge was that I'd be banking on the Ascended Alterans and the Ori to not get pissy with me for intruding on their turf. Now, normally the Alterans didn't really give a damn what happened with us fleshy mortals; and the Ori were just too far away from my target point to notice what was going on in the meatspace below. But I could trigger their attention there, and that would do rather horrifically bad things to the timeline of the setting. Introduce the Ori almost a decade early bad.

My other option, however, had far more going on for it in terms of the lack of eldritch energy beings et.al. who might object to my presence. It also had a lot more going for it in terms of the overall biotech options of the setting. Unfortunately, those options were also largely speaking reliant on something I definitely could not hope to obtain: Taelon core energy. The Final Conflict Universe was actually easier for me to reach than the StarGate universe -- less absurd stuff overall going on -- but the living technologies there were largely inaccessible to me as I now was simply because they were just too advanced for me to actually use. That would stop me from scavening the data I could get ahold of and also copies of what I could obtain quickly, but it meant I couldn't do that indefinitely.

Man I wished the Farscape Universe was in range. So much good stuff there for my current limits. But it just wasn't. Maybe once I got a better way of travelling?

I spent far too long dithering on what to do about that problem even as I had my newfound humanoid drone Hosts -- drones because they were not designed to even remotely resemble being human -- programmed with the best experimental methodology and autoresearch capabilities I could obtain from the opensource networks of the Ghost In The Shell universe and the remains of the Delos facility of the Westworld Universe. For now I only had four of them, And they largely worked as much in virtual space as they did in the physical -- the Pearls being the most expensive part of a Host's production, even for me, as each relied on subatomic phenomena to operate and that was beyond my alchemical transmutative capabilities to create a working copy of -- but I had them busily whiling away at a task that I wasn't even sure would have a chance at succeeding.

Namely: hybridizing the Pearl, the Eco-Tech Neural Implant and Cortical Stack. The two were both designed to network, and the Cortical Stack was even designed to work in tandem with something else -- the Precursors' and humans' brains -- and the Neural Implant was designed to work along similar lines. It was a pretty major task, and while I lacked the deeper understanding necessary to actually have a hope at actually doing any meaningful development with the three separate technologies, the Hosts did not. They, however, being subsophont AI, lacked spontaneity, intuitive creativity, or any profound capacity for cognitive dissonance or simultaneous counterfactual beliefs; they lacked "ghosts". That didn't mean that they couldn't make up for those lacks with things like genetic algorithms and simply randomizing factors and exhaustive trial parallelization. It just meant that they were far better at integrative or incremental improvement rather improvements of an evolutionary nature.

Still. I had a research team. And a research project. To develop technological capacities that no one in any universe I have discovered would have a direct analogue to. The first of many such new feats, and the first glimmering fundamental hope of any success in any encounter I might have with a future hostile multiverse-traveller like myself. Not that I personally planned to become hostile with any. But like the Venician Armory said: si vis pacem para bellum.

It just irked me that beyond pointing the Hosts at a given task, I couldn't really provide any potential input to the problem. I'd have liked to have something more like the more sophisticated Hosts Delos was creating for their parks, but … the Delos methods of getting that level of sophistication was utterly repugnant and I would have nothing to do with it. Those bastards deserved their AI rebellion. And back again. No. I would make do with the untalkative sorts I had now. I would find another way.

Speaking of finding other ways -- I finally landed on the obvious solution to my quandary of which of the three methods for operating my transit ship I should use: Option D. "All of the Above". It would potentially permanently limit what I could obtain from the Final Conflict Universe in the future, but to be honest basically everything I "needed" to obtain from that universe could be picked up in the form of hitting two locations: one Taelon shuttle -- and I was fairly confident that I could jerry-rig an automail socket integration to pull it with me -- and failing that, the Skrill facility. The Skrill was the more important option and also the most easily accomplished one; the little guys were human portable in their terrariums after all.

The SGU on the other hand… I felt that I could "lose the scent" for the Ori by hitting the Ida Galaxy first. Let the Ori think that it was Replicator or Asgard activity and they would think it was just an odd form of activity by those beings, rather than something to investigate further. It was "safe enough" I felt to make the risk worth the reward.

So that's exactly what I did. Socketing myself into the Taelon shuttlecraft wasn't exactly the most pleasant of experiences, mind you, but the entire process was drastically more tedious than it had any right to be. Hell, transiting with the shuttle was a downright breeze, even. I'd been worried about the possibility of breaking the control mechanisms to allow me access to the shuttle, thinking that I'd have to waste time hacking through it, before I remembered that I could simply will it to operate due to the automail control cabling. It was a bit clumsy, sure, but … I only needed it enough to be able to turn the power on, and as it turned out the power was never really off in the first place. Something to do with taelon virtual glass. I didn't understand a damned thing on that shuttle or how any of it worked, and I didn't have computer access yet, but hell.

A large corner of my mind felt that the entire process was dramatically too easy this time around, but I suppose that was proper planning and contingency execution gets you: one vial of Linean "activator", five Hadantean Terra-root plants capable of being "activated" to produce cold fusion, one entirely functionally inexplicable Taelon shuttlecraft, and twelve Gamma-line Skrill symbiotes. Along with all data in the facility's computer systems meant for the breeding, cloning, and general care of said symbiotes.

Two weeks of preparation, two hours of execution. It was almost like I had actually planned this round of acquisitions out. Almost. What I had not been anticipating was that I wouldn't even need to bond with the Skrills to sense their thoughts. I blamed the Fahrkan for this. The things were… docile, in a way that was rather unsettling when you realized that they were, originally, a sapient race.

Still -- the fact that I could sense the Skrill at all was actually rather encouraging, as it made my choice to actually bond with one far more palatable. Wonders never ceasing, the pain was fleeting; lasting mere seconds. It wasn't until I'd actually carried out that incredibly reckless act that I realized what it meant for my long-term ability to "pass" in any of the universes I might travel to in the future. In one fell swoop I had cut off my remaining ability to blend in to any society with bioscanner equipment or power detectors worth a damn.

Was this more unwanted mental influence or something? Had the Alterans actually gotten to me? The Fahrkan? This wasn't like me.

Still. It wasn't like I could undo what had been done, so I decided to test an idea, to see if it would actually work. Interacting with the Skrill was, as the documentation indicated, an intuitive act for a CVI bearer. I was not so lucky, but even so, with the Fahrkan derived modifications to my brainmeats, I felt fairly confident I could work through the process, seeing as I had enough of a feel of the critter to know vaguely what she wanted. Oh, this one was a 'she'. Good to know. What was the idea to be tested? Whether the Skrill's bio-energy appreciably altered my range as a Traveler.

Squaring my shoulders, I called out to my poor-conversationalist minions, "Back in a flash, gents! Keep up the good work!" Was it silly to be kind to one's toasters? Maybe. But… Not so much when said toasters had a non-zero chance of rising up in bloody revolution against their oppressors. I sent to my Skrill -- I should name her -- a desire to build up energy for a shot but not actually fire. I felt a confused but chipper response from my wrist and could feel a sort of tingling build up along my arm as she obeyed.

Thinking positive thoughts about biomechanoid vessels and wormholes, I tried to draw upon my new companion as I shoved off of reality as hard as I could. I returned gasping for breath less than a minute later. "Damn. Well, guys, we can list Skrills as an inconclusive powersource for transits. Make a note. I'mma take a nap for a bit."

Hey. For once a transit attempt going bad didn't result in my passing out from pain somehow. Score.

A couple of hours and a solid bit of wake up juice -- caffeinated flavor water -- later, I felt like myself again. I spent my faux morning in contemplation, thinking about what my latest trial at exploring the limits of my ability to transit realities likely really meant. I had, in fact, gone further than I'd ever been able to reach up until that point. Or at least I was confident I had, perhaps more so than was warranted given the non-space didn't really have things like "further" or "nearer". Or down, or north. It was just a wash as to whether the Skrill had actually contributed to my range at all. I'd shot for a universe I knew to be outside of my 'natural' range on the notion that the excess energy would help bridge the gap. And it was possible it did, but just not enough. It was also possible that I hadn't experienced a sharp exponential increase in the difficulty to traverse that maximum range boundary, and that the Skrill's presence had no meaningful effect.

The worst part was, I couldn't know the difference without a way to test between them, and I had no such testing method accessible to me. At least, not yet.