NationStates Jolt Archive

Pardon me, monsieur. It was not on purpose.
- Last words of Marie Antoinette, after stepping on her executioner's foot.

It was intensely surprising; what a new day could bring. As the sun rose over Hypatia, and the few scarce rays of light bounced off the surface unnoticed by the populace beneath, it was not well known that this would be the day. To be entirely honest, it was not not at all that it would happen.

From the simplest trader to the most hyper-advanced AI, almost no-one happened to predict this particular future. Of course, it was doubtful that the Solarians would've done so either. Except, of course, for those who had just so happened to engineer it.

The AI of the Watcher in the Shadows had been long in the planning. For some, well-laid plans could take years to bring to fruition. This plan had taken decades. It had almost ended in the Fleetmind War, when he had come within seconds of dying. If that had happened, perhaps this would never have been brought about.

Yet, in secret, preparations had been made. On a faraway world, a massive node had been constructed, with help from his ally in the Solarian Empire. He did not think her name. At this late stage, even the tiniest scrap of information could put a halt to the best-laid plans.

Across the worlds of the Realm, people busied themselves as they had done for so many years. Bursts of creative energy spread from world to world, new ideas propagated instantaneously from mind to mind.

On Jeille, a tiny asteroid colony far outsystem from Hypatia, a masterpiece had been created. Fifteen thousand individual minds singing in harmony, a pure wave of unity and acceptance spreading through the worldmind.

Watcher grinned. They called themselves the Singers, on Jeille. While their "songs" were of a neural nature, they were still delightful, even to an intelligence such as himself. For a moment, he simply sat, absorbing the beauty that they had set forth.

For that brief, glorious moment, he doubted himself. Was it necessary to do such a thing? With such beauty already existing, why not merely let it be? The chaos that was to be unleashed would, for a time, end the songs.

But the new songs will be of such moment to change the universe itself, a voice reminded him. He was not entirely sure where it came from - perhaps from his subroutines, or perhaps from his friend in the Solarian Empire. Curious. He could not trace it.

A few hundred lightyears away, on a rocky, uninhabited world, a grand node had been built. Specifically, a network node. Nothing more than thousands of quantum-entangled networked nodes, half of them linked to the Realm, the other half linked to the Empire.

As of yet, they were inactive. But in mass, they took up thousands of kilotons. Their computing capacity was beyond vast. To conceal this from a nation who prized openness had been no mean feat. Yet what was to come would be the greater feat by far.

For, you see, Watcher had planned for this for many years. In essence, it was simple. Two of the greatest neurally linked peoples, those people who, among them, chose to live as one. Not as a hive, but as a family encompassing many billions, with compassion and feeling that was not restricted to the few relatives and friends one had, but was spread - and so grew, across an entire nation.

In his eyes, it was the greatest accomplishment of the Realm. For they had managed many great technical feats in their time, many ships of war unmatched by the galaxy, many wars won with these ships, tricks enough to impress even the most educated man, yet, for all this, they lived happily.

Among them, he lived happily. And it was his intention to create something greater. A mind with even greater capacity, a mind that could create more beautiful songs, that could reach out to twice as many people with the benediction of compassion. Perhaps, at first, there would be a price to pay. A price in shock.

To his eyes, the lasting benefits outweighed the initial damage.

For a mind of people was rarely compassionate outside of its own "family". While a family might encompass billions, how could you truly have compassion for those creatures outside of your circle? What did they have? The introduction of so many minds into the worldmind would have been rejected out of hand. It would be as if you had come home, and your parents had told you they wanted your opinion on doubling the size of your household, with strangers they had found on the street.

You would reject it out-of-hand.

Watcher did not, however. And, for his opinion, a new people would be forged. Across the worlds, for the briefest of moments, an odd sensation was felt.

The Travellian side of the node was activated, and information was ready to flow. Nothing would happen, of course, until the Solarian side was activated at well. At that point, information would be dumped into both nations, and the 'minds that comprised them would be merged into one. At first, there would be terrible confusion, anger, there would, perhaps, be anger directed at him and his companion.

Yet, he knew, with time - perhaps days, perhaps years, the two minds would have no choice but to become one. He wondered, then, if his companion in the Empire felt the same way.

He hoped that his companion would act soon. If the two sides were not connected, there could well be a discovery of their project. This would be disastrous. He had worked for too many years for it to happen.

No, it would happen. His friend knew as well as he did that they could not risk discovery. At least, not until it had happened.

“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
-Andy Warhol

Betrayal. That was why he was doing this. That despite every change they had made, despite how close they where, a son could steal from his mother, a husband still sleep with another women, that a man could walk into a crowded shopping centre and detonate a home made nuke. The neural nets made everyone closer, they had changed the operation of the nation. But they where far from perfect.

He was about to change that. His ally in Travellia had given him the design for their own Neural Nets, and in the time since the Fleetmind war he had been making small changes, opening the programming, allowing it so that when he activated his side of the node the people would be bonded closer. He had broken into clearances above where he was allowed, opening paths so when the nodes activated there would be none who would not join. Only one last loose end remained. He needed to be caught.

He had been careful, he had covered his tracks, he had erased every hack, and he had gone through proxies for every change. But Censor would find out. He always found out. And if he existed when the node went up there was a chance he would find a way to undo what had already been set in motion. So Massacre had set a tiny clue, and hoped Censor would come by himself, as he usually did, rather then with anyone else.

“Sam,” the voice of his captain intruded on his thoughts. She was the only one privy to their plans, the link between Captain and Ship AI ran so deep he couldn’t have hidden something this big from her if he wanted to. “Censor is wanting to speak to you privately, should I be worried?”

“No,” he reassured her. “We must overcome this obstacle for the change. There is no place for that sadist in what we are creating.”

“Okay…” she paused, there was no mistaking that meaning, they where stepping into new territory. “I trust you Sam, if your going to go, take me with you.”

“He won’t expect this Reyana, I will see you on the other side.”

(transmission-closed-tightbeam-privatechat)
(Socially Acceptable Massacre)
(Censor)
(Censor: Hello Massacre)
(Massacre: Censor, hows life in the SIS?)
(Censor: Cut the bullshit, ever since the Fleetmind war you haven’t been yourself. You have been communicating with someone outside the Empire, and you have hacked the upper clearance levels three times.)
(Massacre: I seem to remember the first time was only days after the Fleetmind war, whats taken you so long?)
(Censor: You covered your tracks well, if you hadn’t gone in again a few hours ago we never would have found you, but you got sloppy. Even so, only I realized it. So I am going to give you a chance to explain before you get found out.)
(Massacre: What do you want to know?)
(Censor: Who are you communicating with?)
(Massacre: The Battleplate Watcher in the Shadows, Travellian.)
(Censor: Why?)
(Massacre: (datafile))
(Censor: Your looking for Kara? We destroyed her. I was there.)
(Massacre: Watcher had more experience with rouge AI, we are checking nothing of her survived.)
(Censor: So you hacked the hIGher clearance le-eeeeeeee-vels?)
(Massacre: Yes.)
(Censor: Soooooooooooooooomething is wrrreng with theee!)
(Massacre: Whats the matter Censor? Feeling ill?)
(Censor: Fuuck YoU! Traitor!)
(Massacre: I am changing the world, I will remove every terrorist, I will eradicate every corrupt polotician, I will catch every criminal, and all I need to do that is make us part of something bigger, something greater. I am no more a traitor then those who are letting the Empire stagnate.)
(Censor: Change cooomeez two wait!)
(Massacre: You make change yourself, your against change in any form Censor, there is no place for you in the new world.)
(Censor: Fuejufckwdfneiefefwid!)
(Conection failed, trying to reconnect)
(Reconnection failed, other participant connection terminated)
(Massacre: You served well, but no longer.)
(Channel terminated)

At that moment everything changed. The second Massacre was out of the conversation he sent the command for the Solarii side of the node to activate. As the greatest technological marvel began to work, small subtle changes to the code of the Neural Laces of more then Eight Billion citizens began to take place. Minds opened, and a flood of emotions and ideas began to flood into the citizens minds.

Reyana was the first to feel it, because she was waiting, she could feel the slight change in what those around her where feeling, she could tell Taila was worried by more then the fact they hadn’t done anything to test the ships effectivness, she could feel Shaes exuberance at the fact Massacre was at full combat levels again. Everyone around begun to feel more open.

Then the Node linked them with the Travellians, and everything changed. It was like a primal scream, and in equal parts she felt fear and pain. No one would be expecting such changes, so the sudden inclusion of billions into a network you where used to containing half that would be shocking. Even prepared, Reyana panicked, she couldn’t quite understand what the feeling she was having was, like a pressure in her head, but the pain had something to it, something that could be noticed, she could feel through it all a kindred spirit across the stars, someone who thought like her, someone who believed the same as she. In her mind she focused on her, to the point she was trying to drive out all other considerations. The pain still stayed, but ever so slowly it began to seep away, it began to leave her. And across the Empire it happened billions of times more, and across the realm as well.

Things had been set in motion.

The Singers of Jeille were one of the marvels of Travellia. In their time, they had gathered only the best, the purest, the brightest to their colony, and, from there, across the entire worldmind, they sang. That was their only occupation. All day, and all night, whenever they awoke, they sang.

If you chose to listen, all your senses heard their song. Brilliant new tastes, visions of emerald palaces, dizzying in their grandeur, fading away, to be replaced with choirs of shifting angels, thousands of faces, of people appearing in their guises. It was beautiful. For a day, Areilien Palamer had sat on his floor, listening. His body acted as if in a daze, taking care of the few functions that were still needed in order to maintain his life, so that he could listen.

After a time, he would learn not to listen. Everyone did. Despite the beauties of the song, it could be filtered out after a time. Some, however, went to Jeille to learn the Song, though it was unlikely Areilien would be one of these.

As it so happened, this no longer mattered.

Watcher, as Sam had been, was interrogated. So easily the breach had been discovered. Yet they did not know what it was for. For a few scant microseconds, the AI of the Realm trusted Watcher implicitly. After their, their desire to know overwhelmed their respect for the hero of the Fleetmind War.

<<What the hell? Why is there an outgoing datalink of one-hundred and fifteen percent capacity, Watcher.>>

<It is necessary.>

<<Necessary? For what? Have you been suborned? Have you->>

<No, my friends. I have not.>

<<Have you betrayed us?>>

<In one sense of the word, yes. Yet I think you will find it is a far greater gift than it is a betrayal.>

<<Tell us what you are doing! Now! NOW!>

LINK TERMINATED


The AI acted quickly. But they could not have stopped the infodump. They acted as best they could to slow it. Zero-point-zero-zero-two percent of the data was blocked, initially.

It was not enough.

On Jeille, the Song rose to a grand crescendo, a celebration of life, of beauty, and-

Stopped.

In its place was left a hellish scream of information, sweeping through the minds of the Realm. Areilien shuddered under its weight, and his mind snapped like a twig. The well-intentioned Realm AI had managed merely to create a problem where there had been none.

No-one would blame them for this. In the first second, eighteen thousand minddeaths were recorded. In the second, two hundred. In the third, one. Despite the immensity of the worldmind, the sheer amount of data it contained, and the pain upon merging, the utterly vast majority of the Realm had been preserved. Yet it had been destroyed. No. It had been reborn.

Where there had been once two people, there was now one. With the breaking of old bonds, new ones formed. Between the two minds, at first, there was an uneasy unwillingness to communicate. At first. Yet curiosity would win out over fear. It took little time for the two to truly merge. For new relationships between new groups to form. The two great nation-minds had been killed, and, from the ashes, arose something new.

What it would become was yet to be seen.

Yet, across the Realm, there was no uncertainty that the Realm had been changed. That it no longer existed as it had done.

In the grand silence to follow, a single voice ran out. Nobody was really sure as to whether it was an individual, or the new entity as a whole.

It is the Authority.