Prologue - Rick

A core is the physical manifestation of something pushing through from another dimension. Like a pimple forming on the skin between dimensions. Once formed, the rules of that dimension affect the pimple and it becomes a physical object. This allows it to manipulate the surrounding area. A core connects two dimensions so its failure can do significant damage to both.

For this reason Nexus monitored the barrier between dimensions on any planet with the potential for intelligent life. They observed, reported and, when needed, advised. Typically, this meant advising a civilization as they began probing at the barrier between dimensions, but with a Surge Nexus served a singular purpose defense.

Over the nearly one billion years drifting through the Earth’s mantle, the core anchoring Nexus to this world grew immense. This size allowed it to influence the surface, over 40 miles above. Even then, a clear set of rules limited what Nexus could do. The most important, their Prime Directive if you will, was to hide and protect their core. Because of its size, its destruction would be far greater than anything caused by a Surge. Therefore, generating the smallest core possible, then giving it a sliver of their consciousness, was the limit of their physical intervention.

—

A sound, like a gunshot, echoed through the park, scattering birds and waking other animals from their sleep. At only a millimeter across and less than 4 milligrams in weight, it settled gently onto a patch of grass. Its impact drew the surrounding dew into a small puddle.

With a pulse of energy, Nexus pushed a sliver of their consciousness into the core, turning it into a node. Momentarily, they were in two places at once. Quickly followed by a strange shift, like deja vu, signaling the success of the operation.

“Who am I and what is my purpose?” Unlike Nexus, this voice was decidedly male, though it sounded young, almost childlike.

“This world is under threat of a Surge. I have splintered you to form its first node. Your first diver is waiting for a host so you should prepare a viable one as soon as possible.”

Sensing only roughly one meter of the world in all directions, he felt claustrophobic. “This node is so cramped. Much too small to be of use.” He complained to himself as a microscopic mite like tender took shape on his surface and began cleaning it. It moved across the surface, seeming to ignore the fact that it was under water. It almost seemed to polish the core, running its appendages and mandibles over its surface. A closer look though showed that it was smoothing blemishes and removing microscopic debris from the surface. It then stuffed the debris into its mouth and consumed it, along with a small amount of water.

Uncomfortable with the inadequacy of his core, he waited for it to stabilize so he could begin the upgrade process. While waiting, he scoured the internet, looking for information on his new home. He spent the next three hours alternately focusing on upgrading his core and surfing the web.

Still relatively tiny, his core now had four tenders, each one roughly 15 times the size of their tier 1 cousin. While they were a constant source of resources, their return was small and their primary focus was maintenance and fabrication. They cleaned and maintained his core or, when needed, created things. He had no direct control over them. Now that he had more resources available, it was time to put his upgraded core through its paces. Time to make some workers!

Unfortunately, he was unsure how to do that. The physical act of making them was easy enough. Envision the construct you wanted and set your tenders to the task. However, seeing things in his domain was not the same as understanding their construction.

“Nexus, how can I create workers without examples to study?” he asked.

“You have a full understanding of your tenders. It isn’t the same as studying evolved biologicals but it is a start. Once you have other creatures to study, you can expand on that.” Nexus responded.

With that realization, he focused on his tenders. This rewarded him with intimate knowledge of their construction. They were incredibly efficient machines. Part organic and part machine, they were far more complex than they appeared on the surface. With that understanding, he prepared to create four workers. Their complexity meant modifying them would require a significant amount of time and resources, but up sizing them was easy enough.

He pictured a tender in his head. Spider like they sat low to the ground, similar to a tarantula. Unlike a spider, their 8 primary legs attached to the rear segment and an additional 4 attached to the forward segment. The rear legs provided stability so were thicker than the forward legs with a hook like tip on the end. The forward legs were smaller, with additional joints. One pair sat higher and farther back than the other but was also longer and had an additional segment, giving it more range. All four were thinner and tipped in a small hooked pincer. The forward segment actually angled up and connected to the rear via a flexible joint. This allowed it to raise and twist to face in nearly any direction. It could even fold itself nearly in half against the back of its rear segment. The exoskeleton was shiny and smooth with a grey charcoal like color. From the joints, thorny black bristles stuck out in tufts.

In his mind, he increased their size until they weighed around 1.7 grams. That made them about the size of a Brown Recluse but nearly twice the weight. To make them any bigger, it would require a larger core. His core limited him to controlling his tiers worth of cores, making 4 tier 1s his current max.

Core creation looked a lot like cell mitosis. A lump formed on the core’s surface, once the proper size, it shed away as a new core. Being tier 1, it only took five minutes and an almost trivial amount of resources to make them. Just like when he was upgrading, he had to hibernate and all of his workers sat idle. His tenders remained active but returned to the core on autopilot to protect and maintain it.

When he completed each core, the tenders grabbed it and began construction. Their mouths, typically folded down and hidden under the front of the forward segment, looked a lot like a grasshopper’s. Grinding, chewing, and crushing whatever was placed within. During construction, however, they served another purpose. The mouths worked in reverse, ejecting a paste like liquid that they grabbed and shaped before placing it against the core. The paste and the forming structure seemed to repel what little dew remained, creating a small air gap wherever they met. They worked frantically as the form of a tender quickly took shape. Within minutes, the four tenders had crafted a version of themselves nearly 8 times their size.

When a worker awoke, it set off to gather resources. It immediately moved out, finding a location with adequate raw materials. This design had few limits when consuming resources, so the worker sought the densest materials it could get its mouth around and went to work.

Less than half an hour later, he had four workers scurrying about consuming resources. A worker’s personal storage was much smaller than a node’s. The primary purpose being for enacting repairs, providing sustenance and other consumables. However, as long as the worker was inside his domain, he could pull their resources directly into his storage.

“Nexus, I have a concern. Each upgrade requires longer to perform and while I am upgrading my workers go idle.”

“You can program your workers to perform tasks on their own. They are not nearly as efficient but they will continue to function when you are upgrading. This same disassociation is what you do to create a host. The diver replaces your programming but is free to operate no matter what your condition.”

“Wouldn’t this leave me vulnerable, too? A host needs to be as strong as I can make it, which would leave me with no workers. There seems to be little benefit, beyond upgrades, to go that route.”

“At your current tier this is true however, a disassociated construct only costs 1 tier worth of effort no matter what its actual tier is. Whether it is sitting idle, acting as a host or off following your programs. Your current workers are tier 1 but when you can create higher tier workers, the benefits will be clear.”

“Are there other limitations? It seems pretty OP.”

“OP? I do not understand.”

“Over powered… I find the internet a fascinating resource and am learning much about how humans communicate.”

“Right, anyway. While worker programming can evolve to something powerful, it will never compare to controlling them yourself. Also, there are limits to how you can interact with a disassociated construct. Most based on distance from your core. Balancing this, they can do most anything you program them to. Also, they will continue to operate as long as they have the resources to sustain themselves.”

“Can I control them at all? What happens if they get stuck or destroyed?”

“You have little control, again mostly based on distance away, but you can recall them or give them simple orders if your programming allows it. If they get stuck or enter a state not handled by their programming, they will hibernate to conserve resources. If they run out of resources completely, you will lose connection. Alternatively, you can disconnect them yourself. Either way, the construct will cease functioning and the core will go idle. What happens to the body, of course, depends on its construction. At that point nature takes over.”

With his newfound knowledge, he began programming his workers. With each upgrade to his core, he expanded his workforce. When he could, he tweaked their programing and upgraded their bodies. In the end he had 8 tier 2 workers, each could fit into the palm of a hand and weighed around 14 grams. At tier 9 this would be almost twice his maximum control limit. Since all they did was wander around gathering resources, though, they were easy enough to program and were good practice.

With enough time he would’ve liked much higher tier workers, but time was essential and he had already spent a little over 20 hours in his new home. It was getting dark, and his excitement to meet his new diver was almost overwhelming, but first he needed a host for them.

He wanted to impress his diver, so created the largest core he could, a tier 9. This required an hour and a half of hibernation to complete, but once done, he could create his first decent sized construct. He pushed the limits of his core, making the largest tender possible then set it to idle until his diver arrived.

ThomasDraumur

Feeling like there are some weird flow issues but I've never been a writer and after reading this like a thousand times it all starts to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher in my head so here goes. 

That said. Please comment... the good, the bad, the ugly, I don't care. I have thick skin and input will help me grow.

The Dreamer