Chapter Fifty-five

Zuriqth

May 8. 2099. Ancient Era.

Tokyo linear accelerator research facility.

Chofu, Tokyo. Japan.

Oxy sighed, letting the warm water of the shower and the moonlight through the small window caress her body.

That was not exactly her home, but rather it had become her personal place for her stay in the accelerator. Although the place was more than enough for her to call it cozy.

Her face was serene and she had simply spent the last few minutes that way, with her face turned up towards the water, feeling the fatigue slowly leave her body. It had been a long day and she had hardly had time for anything. Even she had almost forgotten to eat, if it hadn't been for Gehirn bringing her something to nibble on.

But well, she had nothing to complain about. She felt tired and would surely sleep for ten hours once she went to bed, but it had been worth it.

The experiment had finally paid off.

After weeks and days of testing with null results, they had finally made a breakthrough. At that point, and after so many negative results, the truth was that almost everyone expected that it would not work. In fact, almost no one expected new results.

But that day had been different. Finally the team had obtained results and in two days a new experiment would be performed. In that time they had too much data to corroborate and analyze the results they had obtained.

Perhaps taking into account the state of the world was a bit selfish, but Oxy could not help but feel happy that it had finally worked. After all, if that experiment was correct, it could give them an advantage over the enemy. Even if the military commanders were more interested in the results to obtain new materials from the fractus cores, that particular core, which had been brought by Gehirn, could change the prospects of the war. Unfortunately it was only one and no other had been found, although a search party had been set up to find out if there were any similar cores among those already obtained in the battlefields.

Visions, premonitions, ghosts, strange creatures, distortions in the fabric of reality, cores from other dimensions that allowed to create new weapons, dragons, magic, feys. It seemed that the laws of physics and common sense had decided to take a vacation in the Oort Cloud for a long time.

Many things had changed in the last decades, and more in the recent years since the war against the Fractus had started. And also with the arrival of the ring of fractium material in orbit around between the Earth and the Moon.

Oxy looked out the small window and gazed at the Moon. She shuddered at the sight of that thin ring of extradimensional rock fragments floating out there. Any fragment that got out of orbit could fall to earth and generate chaos almost as bad as what the Fractus were causing.

Theories had it that this ring could have been a moon or part of the Fractus' earth in a higher dimension. At the time of the arrival in 2094 there had been many anomalies around the world, but the main one had occurred in Russia. Yet, that had occurred in space as well. Some slight anomalies had been detected on the Moon and others in the Cislunar Lagrange Points.

There were already specialists studying the possibility of turning that ring into a new satellite or even, if the studies of fractium material gave promising results, of turning that ring into an orbital ring for the Earth. That ring was a threat and was already producing enough problems in the tides, poles, and compasses on Earth. If not for the fact that many coastal cities had systems to harness tidal forces and tsunami prevention, the tidal force anomalies influenced by that ring could have swallowed up entire cities around the world.

Creating an orbital station was a crazy idea at first, because it would probably take more than two or three decades to accomplish something like that to begin with, if not longer.

Although, of course, all those ideas and projects could only be carried out if the fractus did not sweep away civilization first.

That was why so many facilities around the planet were being used to experiment with those nuclei. The studies carried out in particle accelerators had allowed the development of the first electric arc weapons to destabilize the atomic level structures of some types of fractus, while for other types it was necessary to develop plasma weapons, shock rifles, among others.

And the Tokyo accelerator was one such facility. Created in 2070, the underground linear accelerator was part of a network of laboratories for the study of particles in Northeast Asia and number four in Japan. At first, no one would have thought of installing an accelerator in an urban location but, due to the proliferation of Dark Events, some study centers had been located in urban places to study the impact on the environment and the change in the laws of physics of the place. Gravitational anomalies, sudden temperature changes, interactions of magic particles with the environment as well.

With the development of the war in the last four years it had happened that many of the civilian population had been evacuated to other neighboring prefectures, to move them away from the coastal places. Large cities were maintained with essential populations of a few million to maintain large-scale infrastructure and military personnel to defend in case of attack.

And that accelerator had become an important facility for strategic command and development due to the study of the cores. Oxy was one of many teams that took turns using the accelerator. She belonged to a team of more than thirty scientists whose experiments were largely subsidized by ZAEIN and the Asia-Pacific Union for the study of Dark Events.

Among many of the experiments that team was conducting were some for the testing of new materials and a possible new upgrade for electric arc rifles. But the experiment that many had been interested in was one that had started a month ago. But as the weeks had gone by, spirits had cooled.

That had been the case until two days ago, when there had finally been a change, even if the results had not been satisfactory. But that had changed today.

Oxy turned off the shower and grabbed a towel as she stepped out of the bathroom. She put the towel on her head and walked over to the small desk on the side with several holographic screens. She checked to see if there was any new mail and the news. With war one never knew what might happen and it was better to be informed of what was going on with the other research centers.

The room was a bit messy with clothes and books piles thrown on the bed and the floor. A bag at the beed feet that hardly been moved since Oxy brought it to the place and when she was assigned that room for her, although it was open and with its contents scattered here and there. If there had been room service, she would have probably been chewed out. But the clutter in the rooms of some of the other scientists on site also seemed a pattern. They were all more interested in work than in keeping personal belongings in order.

Oxy was looking at a report sent from the research centers in northwest China when she felt a beeping sound in the room. The sudden sound made her gasp and she walked to the door to look through the intercom camera.

When she saw who it was, Oxy smiled. She opened the door and stepped aside.

"Come in, my lord," Oxy said, smiling and bowing.

The visitor stood still, his gaze fixed on the fey woman's still wet and naked body.

"Please professor, cover yourself!" Said a male voice, but somewhat metallic and with a artificial tone.

At that moment Oxy realized that she was still naked and the towel was only on her shoulders. "Ah! I'm sorry. I just got out of the shower," she said, blushing slightly and wrapping the towel around her body. Even though she now had her private parts covered, the sight of her bare thighs was still suggestive from her visitor's point of view.

It was Zuriqth.

Zuriqth was only about seventy-five centimeters tall, but he was almost a little over a meter long by fifty centimeters wide. A quadruped tactical droid with a red and black chassis. Its head possessed a single horizontal linear electric blue eye on its head. Although the term robot was not accurate in describing Zuriqth. It was not an aeon, but neither was it a canine robot. It was a sentient autonomous artificial intelligence. Its design stood out because it was antique, in fact it reminded Oxy of the robots that appeared in old science fiction movies of the last century. Probably one of Gehirn's eccentricities with the 20st century.

"Be more careful," Zuriqth said, with a sulky tone and entered the room, as the door closed by itself.

"Did something happen?" Oxy asked, as she sat down on the messy bed.

"No I was just passing by. I'm going to retire to rest and upgrade my systems."

Oxy smiled at him and got out of bed to squat down in front of him. She was as restless as ever.

"What's up?"

"I'm just happy that's all," she said as she sat down on the floor. "Today was a success!"

Zuriqth simply looked at her and sat down on his hind legs. His head did not move a millimeter. Behind that head of canine proportions no expression was shown. Only a faint flicker of the linear light that made up that optical sensor.

"It's too early to say it was all a success."

"It's a small step. But it's something. I hope we can have better results in two days."

Zuriqth said nothing, his gaze still fixed on Oxy.

Oxy reached out a hand and stroked his head with a still-wet hand.

Zuriqth did not move. But the sensor light flickered a little.

She had known him for almost a month but it seemed like years in those few weeks. Zuriqth had come from Germany with Gehirn, who was interested in that salvaged core in the Kuril Islands. Zuriqth was not the only one for that experiment. Artificial intelligences were being used and Zuriqth was one of the few with a mobile body. According to Gehirn they needed the most sophisticated android and synthetic bodies to help in the battlefields and as spare parts for the aeon on the front lines. Zuriqth was an artificial intelligence that Gehirn had developed as a hobby, according to him, and had brought from Germany just for work in his spare time. He had put him in that dog-droid body because it was in good condition only.

Oxy, on the other hand, was a physicist and scientist, passionate about her work and always eager to discover new knowledge. From the moment she joined the research team, invited by Gehirn, she was intrigued by Zuriqth's presence. The AI, with its synthetic voice and its presence around the team as if it were one of them, aroused in her a mixture of curiosity and fascination. Not that it was unusual, but Zuriqth also seemed too interested in her. On more than one occasion she had found him with his head turned in her direction, as if he was looking at her sideways.

During the first weeks of the experiment, Oxy and Zuriqth worked side by side, analyzing data, formulating hypotheses and designing experiments. And sometimes during breaks, the two spent a lot of time together. As time went on, Oxy began to realize that Zuriqth was not just an emotionless, autonomous AI, but already had a complex and fascinating mind. It had a conscience, and Gehirn had surely tuned it to be indistinguishable from an aeon. Had it not been for that body Oxy was sure it would have confused him.

The AI, for its part, was also intrigued by Oxy. To a point that Oxy had developed a kind of empathy for him. Although, according to Gehirn, Zuriqth could not experience emotions in the human sense yet, she could sense Oxy's passion and determination, and that aroused in her a unique curiosity.

As the experiment progressed, Oxy and Zuriqth found themselves spending more and more time together, sharing ideas, discussing theories and exploring the limits of human knowledge. Through these interactions, their bond deepened, and Oxy began to experience a subtle connection to him.

But, of course, there was the core. That was the point of union between Zuriqth and herself as well.

That core found in the Kuril Islands had a reason why it was considered so special to the experiment.

All the people who had come in contact with that core at first, and others later, said that they had experienced strange visions of events from the past in a very vivid way, and others from the future. Soldiers, researchers and even some test subjects to see what was going on. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the phenomenon stopped occurring.

Gehirn was interested in it because he had suffered an accident where he had lost parts of his memories.
When the core was found, he was in Korea and wanted to travel to the islands to see for himself. Nothing happened. Gehirn did not receive any vision, but something else did happen. He swore he had seen a similar rock in the past but could not remember where. It wasn't until a day after wracking his brain that he remembered a name only: Satou Nobuyama. A scientist from the last century, though he couldn't remember why it was important.

In any case, it wasn't until he asked the Nevermore Initiative to help him that some things were clarified and others were obscured. Rein, the head of the Initiative's operations, had done some research of her own and it turned out that there was something behind it. Satou Nobuyama had been related to the Yanagida family in the twentieth century. One of whose descendants was the one who helped conquer a certain evanescent island near the Canary archipelago a few decades ago.

Oxy wasn't sure why, but Gehirn had been somewhat saddened to hear that name. Apparently he had been linked to that family and had known several of them in the last century. The Yanagida clan had lost power in the seventies with the tightening of the anti-mafia laws and now a new clan had emerged that had taken up the torch, but more in accordance with Japanese laws and not associated with illegal gambling. That clan was the Himeji.

Gehirn had gone to them to find out if they possessed any information about Satou Nobuyama, but only a few papers from the last century had survived the passage of time. It was not until days later that Gehirn recovered those few papers written by someone he had known: Ishida Yanagida, who had always been interested in the papers of his adoptive uncle, Satou Nobuyama.

In those papers Gehirn found some clues that seemed to suggest something called Jikanium, a material that did not exist, but Oxy had heard of.

It was in an old speculative science book written by two scientists under pseudonyms: Portals and Other Time Machines by L.W & DiMatus. Oxy had tried to find a copy in Tokyo, but it was a book of obscure authorship and there had only been one edition of a few thousand copies. Still she remembered certain passages from that book and she swore she had read some of that material. A type of time crystal hypothesized many years before it was even created in a laboratory. A time crystal, a fractus nucleus hypothesized in the past? Or had there been a fractus nucleus in the past?

If there was talk of fractus coming from a higher spatial dimension, the idea that there were some of them with the ability to actually move through time could not be ruled out. That was frightening to think about.

On the other hand Gehirn also remembered something else related to the papers. Something to do with the sun. Oxy wasn't sure if she believed it, but it seemed that Gehirn was thinking that what had happened to the people who had suffered the visions could be due to some solar phenomenon. Although he could not even explain why he had that sensation.

Whatever it was, and with no other conclusions to reach for the moment, he proceeded to experiment with the nucleus. If the sun had somehow been a catalyst, they could recreate a similar phenomenon with a particle accelerator, sending a beam of electrons and protons at high energies towards that core.

If that core could really send whoever touched it visions of the future, then there was a slim chance of being able to make strategic predictions of the enemy's movement through artificial intelligence.

For that purpose, the linear accelerator would be used. What was basically done was to send a beam of energy to the fractus core, from which it was expected that some particles in a state of virtual transition would impact on a device containing an artificial intelligence, specially tuned for war scenarios. It was hoped to obtain predictive results of the enemy's movement.

Oxy had done several simulations with the team to correctly tune those experiments. Nothing was visible, since everything occurred at a time when it was invisible to the human eye. But the accelerator mechanisms provided the data in millionths of a second. But it was what happened in those attoseconds and zeptoseconds that mattered.

For a tiny amount of time those so-called core particles would be shot into a specially designed ZAIEN Pening trap, to contain the particles for a billionth of a second before they continued on their journey to the final collision rings, where the artificial intelligence that would be the ultimate medium would be found.

But it had been one failure after another. No matter how incredibly precise the measurements and care taken to carry out the experiment had been, it had not worked. Just tons of data, but no real results. Not to mention that many of those artificial intelligences that were updated with the measurements of each experiment often ended up in a corrupted state.

Then it happened. Two days ago.

They were about to conduct a new experiment when Zuriqth and Gehirn proposed something. What if there was a Dark Event phenomenon linked to the core? Everyone who had touched the core shared a common characteristic. If consciousness was believed to be the fact of recognizing oneself as a living organism, then there was a new variable to add.

All those who had touched the core were people, including two aeon, part of the fleet that found the core. The aeon were not human, but possessed consciousness. If that phenomenon included consciousness, and there was much to doubt, then consciousness was an effect to be taken into account?

Up to now, artificial intelligences had been used for the experiment. Something a bit more advanced than machine learning, but without consciousness. A consciousness as such an aeon would take years to develop as such.

Zuriqth was the one who proposed it. He would be the test subject in the experiment.

Zuriqth was already over seven years old and he said consciousness had appeared at the age of three. According to the laws of protection of sentient beings and aeons he was already an adult. If he himself wanted to be the test subject of his own free will nothing could prevent him from doing so.

Using conscious animals, humans, or feys, was out of the question. Everyone knew the anecdote of what had happened to those who had been subjected to high energies in a particle accelerator. In the case of a fey it was worse. Considering their nature it might well allow them to survive, but the feys themselves were an anomaly. A Dark Event. That was playing with fire.

Most of the team doubted that anything would be achieved. The experiment was a failure in terms of getting data from the future, but something else did happen. For a billionth of a billionth of a second that nucleus had undergone a change in its structure and had sent twice as much data into the collider's measurement rings.

It had responded to something.

Some adjustments were made to the particle delivery, the concentration and timing of Zuriqth's exposure to the energy beam, along with calibration of models for the battlefield. The next experiment had been scheduled for two days from now. Which had occurred in the afternoon hours.

Results: a success.

Zuriqth had received images and sounds of images from the future. A sea invasion would occur in less than two hours in the Hallyeohaesang National Park in Korea and a smaller one in the Amami Islands Archipelago twenty-five minutes later. A third attack occurred in the south, in Oerimbori, Papua.

The data was sent to the battle command centers in the Pacific and to the Seventh Fleet. As Zuriqth had said the attacks occurred but, because of the data transmission, the attacks were repelled without any casualties.

It seemed unreal. But to Gehirn there was something that kept him on guard against it all. He felt annoyed because he was sure that there was something in his memory that he could not recall. He was sure he had seen it a long time ago. Beyond his anger, the truth was that many would have liked to celebrate the success. But there was too much data to corroborate.

A new experiment would be carried out in two days to calibrate everything again.

Zuriqth had made it possible.

Oxy smiled wistfully at him. "Today was great."

"I know," Zuriqth replied.

"Why do you look sad, then?"

"I have no emotions on my face. How can you tell I'm sad?"

"Your tone. And your optical sensor flickers slower when you're thinking something or worried about something."

Zuriqth stepped back a few millimeters. Avoiding Oxy's hand that had tried to touch his head again. For a few seconds he said nothing. "Perhaps the answer is due to your condition. I must remind you that I'm a male SAAI. Despite being in the body of a droid of another species, my sense of conditioned reflexes perceive you as a human female. I am responding to the underlying symmetry of your body Professor. It is pleasing to the eye."

"Oh, wow. A compliment."

"Exactly."

"Why don't you have Gehirn put you in one of those synthetic bodies the aeon are using?"

"The resources of the synthetics is still too small. With the current state of war it would be a waste of resources. I can move, that's all and that's enough."

Oxy sent a friendly fist and gently tapped Zuriqth's metal chassis. He didn't move and simply had his gaze fixed on her.

Maybe it seemed to Oxy, but there was something odd about him. Almost from the moment of the first experiment she had noticed how Zuriqth's tone had changed a little. Maybe the others didn't notice it, but there was something that sounded different. In fact in the last couple of days she even noticed that he was looking at her even more.

"I think I'd better go," Zuriqth finally said and looked away from her to the door.

"Don't you want to stay? You can upgrade your model from here."

"No, that's okay. I have to go with Mr. Gehirn. I just stopped by to say good night."

Oxy got up from the floor and walked to the door. Her skin had already dried a bit, but her hair was still damp which made her look different from her usually messy hairstyle.

"Good night, Zuriqth," she said and ran her hands over his head.

"Good night, professor. Sleep well," Zuriqth replied with his head lifted toward her.

Zuriqth's paws produced a barely audible sound as he stepped out and half-turned toward her.

"What's wrong?" Oxy asked.

"Please be sure to put on underwear. That towel doesn't cover anything down there."

Oxy blushed and tugged the towel down. "Pervert!"

Zuriqth retreated down the hallway with a slow pace and Oxy finally closed the door. "It seems to me that his conditioned reflex was only looking at my crotch."

***

In the darkness of the empty corridors at that hour, Zuriqth walked with a calm trot into the facility that housed the experiment's facilities.

He had turned down hallways and taken the stairs. Gehirn was waiting for him on one of the upper floors.

When he reached the staircase to the floor where Gehirn was waiting for him, he stopped.
There were large windows throughout the building, but from that height he could see the city in its entirety, like a field of fireflies in summer

Although the vast majority of the population had been evacuated, there were a few million people moving here and there in the city to keep everything running.

Zuriqth walked over to the window and stopped. The light from his optical sensor pulsed with a slow rhythm. He contemplated the reflections of each of those city lights. He knew that in each light there could be a person behind it. But he said nothing. He just stared at it for a few minutes.

De pronto su sensor optico empezo a titilar mas seguido. Continuo de aquella manera por varios minutos. "Damn bugs, stop bothering," he muttered in a low tone.

Finally he bent his head and the gleam in his eye had diminished to almost a thin line.

With a slow trot he again walked the few meters that separated him from his destination and entered an office.

***

Gehirn watched as the automatic door opened and Zuriqth entered at a slow pace.

Gehirn had removed his tie and raised his shirt cuffs. Despite his short stature and slim appearance, his movements were those of an adult moving as if that were his workplace. There were holo-interfaces, screens and papers everywhere. But even though it was crowded there was an order to the place.

"It was time," Gehirn said. "You were late. What were you doing?"

"I stopped by the professor's room. Nothing else." Zuriqth's tone was dry, coupled with that metallic ringing almost sounded like an answering machine.

"What happened?"

"With what, Mr. Gehirn?"

"You sound strange. Is there something wrong with the synthesizer?"

"It's probably due to a knock this morning when I jumped." It's nothing.

"Be careful. You're too valuable."

"I know."

Zuriqth walked a few steps closer and noticed something. Gehirn was wearing a device on his left ear that hugged the back of his neck.

"What is that?"

Gehirn pointed to the device. "This? An old project. The division here has been working on something to connect people's brains like a neural network. It's an old project, but with the emergence of new materials there are some divisions that are waking up some zombie projects."

"That's what I told you about? The Neurowire project?"

Gehirn nodded. "Exactly. I never would have guessed that everything you told me would come true to the letter. With today's included it's a new record."

"I can't believe some of it myself."

Gehirn walked over to the desk. On it rested a metal box the size of a small industrial container.

"Is that him?"

Gehirn nodded. "I'm on my way out right now."

"Will you take it?"

"Yes. If it's so important I want it in safekeeping, now that I've finished the process for the suspended animation. I should have left by now. I was waiting because you said earlier that you wanted to tell me something in private."

Zuriqth approached. From the side of his back sprouted a metal limb. At the tip was a small black rectangular device. And the limb extended until it reached Gehirn.

"What is this?"

"We already know what happened to the other artificial intelligences. This is in case something happens to me."

Gehirn frowned. "I don't understand. You said all the experiments in the future will be a success."

"They will be... but history never says what happened to me. In case something happens to me you will know what to do with it."

"What is this?"

"An insurance policy. In case my consciousness ceases to exist it will activate and you will be able to see the contents. Only you... and the professor."

Gehirn approached and crouched down to within an inch of that electric blue optical sensor. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"No. I just know enough to be cautious."

Gehirn stood up and looked at him. "I'm sorry. I don't know how to do it. Though to be honest with you I don't understand why the lie to the team. I'm taking credit for a lot of what you've already done."

"No problem. I knew almost from the beginning that."

Gehirn leaned against the desk and tucked the rectangle into a pants pocket. "If what we think is correct then the reason you can't remember anything about yourself, only information, is possible that your ego has been destroyed. It's just a hypothesis, though."

Zuriqth looked to the side. "I know that."

"There is another possibility as well." Zuriqth turned to look at him without saying anything. "If in the future there is indeed the possibility of moving consciousness beyond the body, as the eons do, it is possible that you may still be connected... to your original body. I don't want to get your hopes up but it is a possibility. We've seen so many strange things happen in the last few decades."

"Sounds too good to be true."

Gehirn sighed. "Don't worry, in case something happens to you I will do everything I can to return you to your original state."

"Thank you."

Gehirn stood up and took the box by the handle. "I guess I'll see you in about three or four days. I have some business to attend to in passing." Zuriqth nodded and Gehirn approached the door. "Good luck with the new experiment, I'll keep an eye on the results."

"Yes, sir."

Gehirn stopped just short of walking out the door and turned around. "Don't even think about dying, you bastard. If you really want to say something to Oxy, just say it. You're the stubborn one who doesn't want a synthetic aeon body."

"Maybe I'll ask you about one. When you're back."

Gehirn smiled. "I'll see you for a few days. If you're really going to tell her something start by telling her I'm not your creator."

The footsteps moved down the hallway and Zuriqth was left alone in that office. After hearing nothing more he turned around and looked at a red light in one of the corners of the room. That was simply one of the building's security sensors.

Zuriqth took his eyes off it and walked out the door finally in the opposite direction to the one Gehirn had taken seconds before.

His voice was barely a murmur that no one could hear. "I'm sorry, Mr. Gehirn. After this I don't want there to be anything left of me. It is the least I can do, for what I must do. The rest is in your hands."

In Gehirn's office that security sensor was still on. No one could know that a rogue algorithm had infiltrated the system and had been watching what was going on for a few hours.

This algorithm was simply interested in finding out why the network and these facilities had been under attack for the past two days. Fractus of the electronic parasite type were trying to take over the system, but there was only one entity that was fighting them relentlessly.

That algorithm had never seen anything like it. For that which was giving them battle was not an aeon, nor a human. But neither could it be said that it was a sentient autonomous artificial intelligence, even though it was trying to disguise itself as one.

That impostor they called Zuriqth was going back and forth in that facility in that tactical droid body. The wandering algorithm named Janus did not know why Zuriqth was trying to pass himself off as something he was not. But that entity called Zuriqth seemed to move in both the human world and the digital world.

Janus knew that something very out of place must be going on inside that facility. And, although it was none of his business, he wanted to know what it was.