Chapter 147: Super condense universe stuff

James followed their guide out of the audience chamber. The Zorathians in the stands had stood and begun to file out in their customary silence. Crimson Hydra was silent as well. Gvathua’s words still rung loud in James’s mind, and, no doubt, that of his friends.

James barely tracked where they were led. If these aliens who’d absorbed three cubes couldn’t defeat the Eluthaarii, then what hope had humanity? If hundreds of demigods had given up on the 25th floor, what hope had nine mere Lords of the Increate?

His hands opened and clenched. He chewed on his lower lip. His gaze darted from side to side, never settling, seeing nothing. His breathing was shallow, and his heart fluttered in his chest like a small bird battering at a window.

There had to be a way to win. To not bend knee. To not give the Eluthaarii what they desired, to not allow the System to defeat humanity and extract its best in the service of some distant and unintelligible war.

But how?

Their guide led them along a white stone path that hugged the rust-colored cliff. The sparsity of the Zorathians within the fortress now took on new import. Raising his gaze, James watched them moving about their business. As inscrutable as they’d initially been, he thought they now betrayed a dejection, a resignation, that spoke to a breaking of the spirit.

Gvathua might paint their surrender as a means to achieve patronage and a golden future, but around him James saw only the pain of loss.

But what could they do?

Their guide paused beside the entrance to another tunnel. “Before you depart for your home we will teach you how to crack nodes. It is nowhere written that we may not do this; we shall instruct you as a gesture of good will/benevolence.”

“Thank you,” croaked James. “Mighty kind.”

The Zorathian led them inside once more. This tunnel was narrower than the first, similarly illuminated by the gemstone bands along the walls, and sloped gently downward. They passed numerous caverns, most empty, until they finally emerged into a connected series of chambers in which a dozen or so Zorathians worked.

It was a tech hub, James realized, but like nothing he’d seen before. Nowhere was there the shiny gloss of steel, the straight lines of manufactured machines, the whir of drones or thick cables connecting devices.

Instead everything appeared as natural as possible. The rock walls were contoured and shaped in pleasing manner, so that each Zorathian stood in an alcove surrounded by glowing fields of light whose function James couldn’t divine. Plants and ferns grew from numerous outcroppings, and the air was just as humid as everywhere else - a humidity that would have wrecked machinery back home.

One of the Zorathians emerged from their alcove. He was smaller than their guide, more slender, though his armor and appearance was otherwise exactly the same. For a moment they stood in silence, and then their guide departed without a word.

“Greetings, James Kelly and clutchmates.” This Zorathian’s tone was more brisk, more present, as if he were focusing completely on the humans and not half-tuned into something other conversation. “I am Mavthua of the Iron Wave Clan, and chief diviner/technology officer/orchestrator of the waves. Be welcome.”

“Hey Mavthua.” James felt exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to lie down and drape his arm over his eyes. To let his reeling mind still and to think of nothing at all. “Thanks for having us.” And with that he ran out of steam.

Kerim stepped up beside him. “I am Kerim Alakuşoğlu of Earth, and a member of the Crimson Hydra clutch. We were told by Gvathua that you could teach us how to crack svaghuathua nodes?”

“Correct. Please enter the divination chamber fully and be comfortable. Walk forward/approach with me.”

Mavthua backed away, gesturing with his arm, and the center of the first and largest cavern changed; the stone moved as if made of malleable clay as armchairs were extruded from the ground. Their surface changed even as they formed, forming into padded, fibrous surfaces.

“Your bodies are soft/unarmored,” said Mavthua. “You must appreciate/desire soft surfaces to rest on.”

A second Zorathian approached. This one was just as slender and a fraction taller than Mavthua. “Soft surfaces like clutch mother nests.”

Mavthua turned slowly to stare at this new arrival.

Who, after a beat, took a step back. “No insult was meant.”

“OK,” said Serenity, her tone exaggerated. She moved to one of the armchairs and flopped into it, crossing her feet and the ankles and wiggling about till she got comfortable. “Hey, not bad, actually.”

Mavthua gestured. “Be comfortable.”

James wanted nothing more, but he was afraid of getting too comfortable. The urge to pass out into a deep and dreamless sleep was overwhelming. Instead, he sat on the armchair’s arm as his companions sat, and burned an Aeviternum.

Energy and alertness washed through him, banishing the fatigue and mental weariness. He inhaled deeply, held the breath, then exhaled slowly. “So what have you got for us?”

Mavthua spread his arms in a gesture James couldn’t quite read. Supplication? Surrender? “We have much to discuss. You came here by means of a portal key? May I see/hold it?”

Kimmie glanced at James, and when he nodded extended it to Mavthua. “Here you go.”

The Zorathian took it gingerly. His buddy crowded in. They examined it from all angles, and then a column of pearlescent light arose from the blank stone floor to waist height. Mavthua placed the Bifrost atop this column and a curved panel of gradated pools of light appeared before him, the colors running and oozing in a manner that was fascinating to the Zorathians.

“Yes, correct/affirming/potential realizing,” said Mavthua distractedly. “Great scope. It has artificial limits/constraints imposed upon it, but those can be removed.”

His buddy summoned his own screen. “Fascinating/improbable/exciting. There is a permanent portal open within connecting the key to an ever collapse. Attenuations can be opened across two points by extending the collapse’s reach through the substrate.”

“Correct.” Mavthua ran his fingers over his screen, causing colors to gyre and flow. “Range is incredible. There are hundreds of pre-configured destinations embedded within the key system, but that is another artificial overlay. Beneath the controls can be directly apprehended/manipulated.”

“Correct,” said his buddy.

“Correct,” said Mavthua, tone excited.

“Very correct,” said his buddy.

Kerim rose from his seat to approach the pair. “Can you share what’s got you so excited?”

Mavthua dismissed his screen and turned to face the humans. “This Eluthaarii tool is typical. Potent but constrained/castrated. Tailored for suboptimal usage by servants. But it can be deconstructed so as to open portals at any location within the limits of our galaxy.”

“Great,” said Yadriel. “I mean, sight seeing Star Trek-style sounds grand and all, but we kinda just need to go home and crack us some demon nodes, you know what I’m saying?”

Mavthua and his buddy stood still, but the other ten Zorathians who’d been working in their alcoves turned to face them as one.

“What’s going on?” whispered Serenity.

“They’re talking on their substrate,” whispered James. “I’m guessing.”

“Correct,” said Mavthua. “Even though we have grown greatly limited in range and texture, it is still ideal/efficient/pleasing for our kind to emote/bond/communicate in such manner. This portal key is very exciting.”

“Sure,” said James. “But… you guys have already throw in the towel, haven’t you? Why you so excited?”

“They’re geeking out,” said Serenity tiredly. “Haven’t you hung out with Star Boy enough?”

“James Kelly.” Mavthua paused as if searching for the right words. “I am Mavthua from the Iron Wave Clan, but our lineage Elder is deceased.”

James glanced at Kerim, who shrugged. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

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Mavthua waved his hand impatiently. “Our lineage is fragmented.”

James raised his eyebrows.

“Fragmentation leads to a loss of substrate coherence, which results in fragmentation of thoughts,” said his buddy helpfully.

“OK.” James hesitated. “But I don’t get what you’re trying to say.”

“Substrate coherence is a variable state that has been instrumental to our success/survival,” said Mavthua. “When Zorathians have optimal numbers, we cohere on the substrate and act in accordance to the Elder’s intentions/leadership. Best practices are assumed and all are in accord/ordered.”

Kerim blinked rapidly. “But when you lose your Elder and enough numbers…? Your kind - or lineage grows fragmented? Capable of independent thought?”

“Correct,” said Mavthua. “The more coherent the substrate, the more a lineage’s members/clutches are submerged in the Elder’s spiritual dream. But our lineage is fragmented, and the Zorathians in this room are highly individuated/self-actualized.”

James sat up. “And you don’t agree with Gvathua’s desire to give in to the Eluthaarii?”

“Gvathua is but one Honored Elder Prime; this is not his decision/resolve alone. He and the other remaining Primes are all in accordance, which is as it should be; being alive, they are coherent, and their lineages are coherent. The oscillation and amplitude of their substrate waves are maximal, and they think only of what is generally best for Zorathians.”

“But?” prompted James.

Mavthua slowly picked up the Bifrost from its column of light. “But.”

“We risk extinguishment/egg breakage for considering this,” said his taller buddy. “But all fragmented lineages are expected to act in deviant manners so as to exploit/explore opportunities/possibilities that coherent lineages cannot countenance. We believe/extrapolate/hypothesize that with the portal key there is a way to contest/defeat the Eluthaarii.”

“Gentlemen,” said James, rising to his feet as a feeling of warmth washed over him, banishing the numbness and resignation. “You have my undivided attention.”

Mavthua raised his hand. As one, every Zorathian bobbed and then shivered.

“We have severely curtailed substrate access amongst our number,” said Mavthua. “We cannot remain isolated/bereft for long, for it shall be noted. But now we may converse/explicate freely. You are aware of Reservoir Cubes?”

James nodded. The other Crimson Hydra members rose to their feet.

“You are aware of where Reservoir Cubes originate/are manufactured?”

“Uh… no,” said James. “We were just happy to get our hands on some.”

“When we cracked svaghuathua nodes, we discovered Reservoir Cubes within. But every instantiation demanded an explication. We discovered how to travel along channels between nodes, and thus attacked the svaghuathua Oversighters from within. That is when the tide turned/receded; we acquired all extant Reservoir Cubes and distributed them according to individual Zorathian capability/talent/connection/coherence. But the network/channel system was circumscribed. No channels led outside of the network, so we could not acquire more Cubes.”

“Fascinating,” said Kerim. “We got a node for every 250,000 humans in close proximity. I think that meant there were some 3,000 nodes or the like around the world. How many appeared in Arkhos?”

Mavthua shivered. “3,000 nodes?!”

“I’m guessing you had fewer,” said Serenity dryly.

“Your species is profligate/sand grains,” said Mavthua, tone awed. “There are 750,000,000 humans?”

“Oh honey,” said Serenity. “There were eight billion of us before this all went down. We just didn’t all live together.”

The Zorathians went still. Each member in the room shivered at random intervals till at last Mavthua spoke again, his deep voice tinged with incredulity. “Your species/humanity is very different from Zorathians. We numbered almost a million individuals before the incursion/System. One svaghuathua node appeared for every clutch/nursery/fortress, about two hundred in all.”

Now it was the human’s turn to stare at the aliens in surprise.

“There were only a million of you guys, all told?” asked Denzel.

“One node for every two thousand,” said Kerim. “Were there ten cubes in each node?”

“Five,” said Mavthua. “And in yours?”

“Ten,” said James.

“Different strokes for different folks,” said Yadriel from the back. “Get him back on track.”

Mavthua shivered one last time and then his voice grew firm again. “The svaghuathua nodal network was limited. We could not acquire more cubes. But we studied the cubes we acquired/captured, and learned their provenance. They are formed in facilities hidden in the heart of ever-collapses/black holes.”

“But the gravitational pull of a black hole is irresistible,” said Kerim. “Not even light can escape its event horizon. Are you saying that the Eluthaarii can enter black holes and…?”

“Reservoir Cubes are composed of highly compacted branes,” said Mavthua. “The fundamental/essential building block of existence are not particles but one-dimensional strings that vibrate/sing at different frequencies. These strings are either open or closed, and interact with each other through the exchange of other, lower-dimensional objects known as branes. You know that there are 11 dimensions, correct?”

James looked helpless at Kerim, who pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. “We’ve some speculation about that back on Earth, yes, but this is still a developing field and many of our theories have yet to be tested.”

“Space-time exists in 11-dimensions,” said Mavthua firmly. “Strings/branes exist across those dimensions in different vacuum/void states. Branes exist in different void states of this 11-dimensional space-time - except when compacted in ever-collapses. There they coalesce/egg hatch into 1 single dimension, known as the Void state. Near infinite amounts of space-time is compacted into the Void state which cannot be sensed/apprehended. The energetic potential of the Void state is incalculable. The Eluthaarii, however, can extract Void state branes and embed them in Reservoir Cubes.”

“Hold up,” said James. “So you’re saying Reservoir Cubes are… like… super condense universe stuff?”

“Incorrect,” said Mavthua. “Reservoir Cubes are the delivery mechanism/vector for the energy contained within a Void-state brane extracted from the heart of an ever-collapse.”

“Oh,” said Serenity. “You should have just said so.”

“But what does this all mean?” asked James. “What are you getting at?”

“We Zorathians have been limited/constrained by the closed-network nature of the svaghuathua nodal network. But with this portal key we can break free of that limitation.”

“Ya khuda,” breathed Kerim. “You want to go to steal more Cubes.”

“Correct,” said Mavthua.

“But how?” James rubbed his face vigorously. “I mean, OK, that sounds great, but we - I mean, at least, not we humans - we can’t survive inside a black hole.” He looked to Kerim. “Can we?”

Mavthua shivered. “Nor could Zorathians. Not until we discovered how to break/hack the System. We shall create our own powers that will allow us to survive. Elder Prime Gvathua is correct: heroes cannot defeat/kill gods. But other gods can.”

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