The original plan was for the fleet to be supported by one hundred special drones, but as they had no time for them to be built that role will be filled by Empire’s battleships which were of an older generation. But as even those ships were ahead of Sowir technologically it didn’t matter, unless the Sowir had an enormous advantage in numbers. Warpath’s fleet will extremely powerful, and with Watchtower it could be far more so. It would have raised their effectiveness, allowed them to fight with their fleet in synchronized way that would have maximized their offensive and defensive capabilities.
So, Adrian trained, he wasn’t the one to give up. Splitting his focus was something that he had learned over the course of years. Now he needed to evolve that ability even further. Time was running out, and if he wanted to minimize the deaths of his people he would need the Watchtower interface. The Sowir will strike soon.
Chapter Seventeen
Sanctuary
Seo-yun walked out of the lift as soon as the doors slid open, and stepped onto the Research and Development bottom floor in Olympus City. She walked down the hallway, passing other people without really noticing them as she was focusing on the data shown on her implant’s HUD. She had long ago learned the skill of focusing on reading things on her HUD while walking, most people in the Empire did – implants had become essential to living.
Finally a part of Seo-yun that wasn’t focusing on reading realized that she had reached her destination, and removed the report she was reading from her HUD. She stepped into the main research lab, and walked around tables filled with equipment to reach her destination at the end of the first area. She reached a locked door and placed her hand on the display close to it.
The computer read her fingerprints and the first door opened, she then passed to the long hallway at the end of which was another security check point. Seo-yun placed her face in front of another display and a scanning light passed over her face. After a moment the display flashed green and she was asked to give a password, which she sent via her imp. Then the doors finally slid open.
Seo-yun entered into a well lit room that had a simple desk a wall-display on the left wall, and a pedestal in the middle of the room on which was placed a smooth silver sphere. The room was occupied, but not by anyone living, in a traditional sense of the word. In the middle of the room floated a figure that vaguely resembled a human, it was a holographic representation of Axull Darr – the forefather of human and Nel race.
The figure had no hair and was very pale blue in color. Its facial features resembled those of humans or Nel, it had the same shaped nose, albeit a bit smaller, as well as the lips and similarly shaped eyes which were all white. It was dressed in a loose gray blue robe and floated above the sphere with its legs crossed. The hologram itself could move and even simulate talking and emotion, it even seemed to generate sound from its mouth, although Seo-yun was sure that it was the sphere that projected the sound from there.
The hologram was a representation of the ‘shadow of Axull Darr’, a digital copy of the Axull Darr’s consciousness. It was not an Ai, not like what the Empire had. By their understanding it was at least a very complex software, it was a computer that based all its decisions on what the real Axull Darr would have done. An Ai was in its nature more logic oriented even though they had a choice and could choose to ignore logical thinking, sphere’s computer could not. At least that was what the Empire’s experts thought, they couldn’t be sure until they get technology to actually access the sphere.
As Seo-yun approached the desk another hologram appeared, this one was of a short four armed alien, with a triangular head that ended in horn like ridges at the top its head.
“Greetings Seo-yun.” The alien hologram said.
“Hello Asumy.” Seo-yun said. Asumy was an alien Ai that Olympus discovered long ago on Earth. He was abandoned and operational for thousands of years before humans found him. Now he was in charge of monitoring the sphere and the computer that occupied it. “Anything new?” Seo-yun asked.
“No, everything is the same as the last time you visited.” Asumy said.
“Good.” Seo-yun said as she sat down at the desk, the two holograms watching her. She turned towards the hologram floating in the center of the room. “Hello Axull Darr.”
“Minister Hyeon.” The hologram acknowledged.
“I have brought you something.” Seo-yun said, and then used her implant to project a series of diagnostics out in the air in front of the sphere using the table’s holo. “These are the brain scans of one of the Empire’s citizens. The one on the right is a scan from five months ago, the one on the left from just a few days ago. Our experts are unable to figure out what these unusual brain waves are, and I was hoping that you might help.” Seo-yun said, Warpath had sent the brain wave scans of Clan Leader Farkas to the Sanctuary medical institute, and they sent them to her when they too were stumped. They hoped that Axull Darr might help, he did in the past with things that they couldn’t figure out but had the means to. He usually only withheld knowledge when it involved technologies the Empire didn’t know yet.
Seo-yun watched as the hologram pretended to study the scans, she knew that the sphere had already taken the information from the holo-table. Then after its protocols finished it spoke. “Well, this is unexpected.”
“Do you know what the problem is?” Seo-yun asked.
Axull Darr remained silent. Seo-yun waited for a few seconds, then realized that the answer was not coming. That could only mean that the answer involved something that the Empire wasn’t aware of.
“You won’t answer? A man’s life is at stake!” Seo-yun said angrily.
The hologram stared right at Seo-yun for what seemed like an hour, and then it finally spoke.
“My protocols prevent me from saying anything. My programing is clear, technologies and knowledge I possess can only be given in the event that you hear and answer the beacon. Neither you nor the Nel have done so. I have bent my programing as far as I am able in order to broaden the knowledge of things you already know. I cannot tell you what this is. Except to assure you that the life of the person in question is not in peril.”
Seo-yun stared at the hologram. It had never before elaborated on its programing to this extent, her people had guessed and assumed a lot, but now they have confirmation. But that also meant that whatever was happening to Adrian was significant, and that the sphere possessed the knowledge of it.
“Thank you Axull Darr. That alleviates some of our concerns.” Seo-yun said, while planning on assigning her best people to figure out what is happening to Clan Leader Farkas.
Later that night Seo-yun was sitting in her and Tomas’s library reading a paper book, which were a rarity nowadays. Tomas was sitting on the reading chair across from her reading his own book. Seo-yun tried to focus on reading, but other thoughts intruded on her mind.
She put the book down on her knees. “Tomas.”
“Yes?” Tomas said, still reading.
“Where do you see us in ten years?” She asked.