Halcyon System Chapter Thirty-Five

Before she was into architecture, Sora wanted to be a marine biologist.

On my trip to Ucluelet, I bought her this plastic orca, about as long as my arm. She loved that stupid killer whale, even though the pieces were all chipped after just a few weeks. So did I, but I didn’t love it because it was a whale, or because it was cute, or anything like that.

No. I loved it because it was a puzzle. A three-dimensional puzzle. A funny-looking frame for its back, and a few dozen pieces that clicked together one after the other. Odd shapes. Ls and Cs and even a few Es. And as you put the orca together, its form gradually appeared, hanging from gaps in the whale’s back, or from other pieces.

The whale was fragile until you slotted in the trapezoid-shaped piece right behind its fins. It’d come apart if you looked at it wrong.

But as long as the keystone was in, it’d hold up against anything.

◄▼►

SHOCKS Olympia Administrative Wing, Washington, USA  - June 24, 2043, 1:32 PM

- - - - -

“Sidney, give me everything you can on…” Alice trailed off, crimson eyes blazing. She pulled up the Inquiries her sister had given her.

They were so…simple.

She’d already consumed three of them—ripped the information out of SHOCKS Olympia’s database in front of horrified researchers too terrified to ask her to stop. Li Mei, or at least the fragment of her that still existed inside of Alice, was in the driver’s seat. Fully in control. And Alice was happy to wear that mask right now.

She and Claire’s entire mission to bomb Merge Prime’s origin reality had been a waste. More than a waste, it had been devastating. After, she’d felt…nothing. Nothing but pain from being so close to saving her mom, but so far. But now? Now, she had purpose. She sat in front of the one computer in the office cubicles that Sidney hadn’t co-opted for his project, sweating as he overclocked hundreds of processors. The temperature in the room was approaching ninety degrees, even with the cooling system redlining.

Alice took a deep breath and focused. They were in stoppage time, and they needed a goal. Bad. It was all up to her—just like it should be.

“Reality 389, the incomprehensibles, and what happened to Coach Roberts. I need to know how that reality’s, um, reality levels and specific physics rules interact with Reality Zero’s.”

[Are you sure?] Sidney asked. [Destroying that information could result in Claire being unable to learn something she needs. She has an Inquiry for West End High, and what the potential merge was doing there to begin with. In fact, she’s researching it right now.]

For a moment, anger flared inside of Alice. No, not anger. Rage. She pushed it down, but it was getting harder and harder to keep hold of it.

Alice didn’t want to be rational about this. She wanted to feast and grow, to learn and consume. Her very nature—and the nature of the Li Mei infovampire mask—urged her to feed.

“No, I’m not sure. Actually, give me everything I can consume first, then start feeding me the stuff that might affect Claire. Do it fast. We’re low on time.”

[On it,] Sidney said, and the computer’s screen flared to life. So did Alice’s augment. She found herself momentarily overwhelmed by the sheer variety of the information offered to her. Then she licked her lips.

It was all so delicious.

◄▼►

SHOCKS Black Sector, Location Unknown - June 24, 2043, 1:35 PM

- - - - -

I’m completely locked in on the equation when someone interrupts me.

It’s Sora.

“Claire! Claire!” she yells in my ear, and the dry erase marker skitters across the whiteboard. It leaves a trail of red across the center of my equation.

I try not to scowl. But I don’t succeed. “What, Sora?”

“Sorry. I was thinking about architecture and cathedrals, and I realized something. Your problem is solvable.”

“What problem?” I ask. I was only half-listening. Most of me is focused on scribbling out the wobbly line that’s marring my perfect math. I was so close to getting it. I’m sure of it. The keystone.

I know it has something to do with the merge at West End High. According to SHOCKS—and Sidney—it’s the epicenter of everything. The absolute first merge in Merge Prime. But I need to understand why. Why was the Truth Club’s circle the keystone that let a thousand realities enter ours when it fell? What was so special about Albert Head? None of it makes sense. And until I get this math figured out, none of it will.

Worse, I need to figure out how to destroy it.

But everything I can think of—Absolution, the mergekiller rounds for the Revolver, Truthseeker…it’s not enough. The math doesn’t work out; even if I destroy the West End merge, it won’t fix the problem. I can’t break the keystone. Not here.

But what Sora says pulls me out of my fugue state. Mostly.

[The one about the keystone,] Sidney says.

Oh, right. That problem. The only one that matters. “You told her about it?”

“Yes, your not-AI friend told me about it,” Sora says quickly, “But I wasn’t researching skyscrapers and cathedrals because I was trying to help. I was thinking about arches and domes, because as cool as the Empire State Building or Burj Khalifa are, they’re all engineered with modern—or modern-ish—math. The people who built Notre Dame or the Hagia Sophia—or the Pantheon in Rome—they didn’t have the same modeling and mathematical know-how we do, but their massive domes and spires stay up.”

“Okay? And?”

“When Sidney interrupted me, he was looking for an answer to a problem you were having. Why did it happen at our high school? And I got to thinking about it, and about flying buttresses and domes and arches. They’re all supporting structures, and they’re all capable of holding up way more than they should be.”

[But they all have weaknesses,] Sidney adds. [I’m shifting the System from Alice to you. She just solved the Mr. Roberts Inquiry. It was never him. He died instantly—the R-389 merge just occupied the space he was in with something, and Reality Zero attempted to manifest that as him, but couldn’t do it. System coming online.]

I relax slightly as the System boots up. It’s slow. Even with Sidney in every computer he can find, it’s still not enough processing power to truly operate the fragment of the Halcyon System he’s ‘able’ to run. Not at full efficiency. But it’s enough to solve Inquiries and learn from them. “So, flying buttresses?”

“Yeah, they’re the sticky-outy arches on the sides of cathedrals. They push in, and let the building be taller than it should be able to be. People don’t use them anymore, because they take up a lot of space horizontally and modern construction materials are more efficient. But if you look at that rusting monstrosity in Pyongyang, you can still see the shape. It’s triangular. A lot of the really tall ones are. That’s because as you go up, you need more surface area below to distribute the weight,” Sora says breathlessly.

“So, how does that…” I trail off. “You think Merge Prime is structured like a cathedral? And the West End High merge is a buttress?”

“No. I think all the other merges are buttresses, and walls and pillars and bricks in the dome overhead. But the merge at West End High is the last brick in the arch. It’s the one that holds it all together. And if you—“

“The orca,” I say.

“Yep. Exactly.” Sora nods. “As long as that keystone is there, it’s—“

“We had the same thought,” I interrupt Sora. She looks a little frustrated, but lets me talk. “The problem is the math. It doesn’t work. Not the way it should. The Truth isn’t that it’s the keystone. It’s just another portal.”

“How do you know? Have you tried shutting it down?”

“No.”

“Then you can’t know for sure.”

I glare at her. She glares back. Then I turn to the whiteboard and start erasing. All my beautiful, perfect equation is gone. Worthless. Because she’s right. I can’t know for sure—not without trying. But I can’t try, because we only get one shot at this. The tank’s disconnected, but the Knights of the Apocalypse group is still slowly moving toward the boss. This is the point where, if anything else goes wrong, we won’t recover.

So, I work the math.

And in the end, I’m right, and Sora’s wrong. Just like I knew she would be. It’s not her fault. She’s operating with incomplete information. “So, see right here? If we shut down the keystone merge, it’s going to cause feedback across all the other merges—“

“Which is what you want, right?” Sora asks.

I shake my head. “—which is not what we want. That feedback’s going to throw Reality Zero into chaos. Physics will go nuts, reality levels will spike and crash—it’ll probably tear Earth apart.”

“And you know this…how?”

“The math says so, and the math never lies.”

Sora nods. Then she quietly asks, “But what if you made a mistake?”

◄▼►

What if I made a mistake?

I spend an hour I don’t have pondering the equation. Sidney takes the System back for Alice; she’s consuming SHOCKS’s database at an alarming rate, and she’s on her last Inquiry. I don’t need to worry about her part in all of this. She’ll be plenty strong for what she needs to do.

But no matter which variables I change, the answer stays the same. Destroying that merge will cause Reality Zero to fail.

I’m not any closer to answering my Inquiries, either, and we’re running out of time.

So, here’s what I know:

One: The West End, Truth Club merge is the keystone for Merge Prime.

Two: I can’t destroy it, and it’s a good thing I didn’t try to earlier.

Three: My weapons aren’t enough to deal with all the merges in Reality Zero.

“Sidney, I need the System,” I say suddenly.

[Full System or Inquiries? How long?]

“One minute. Inquiries are fine,” I answer. My hand’s stained red from whiteboard marker, and my wrist’s sore. I put the marker down and pull up my four questions.

          ►Inquiries (4/5)

                   ► Why West End High?

                   ► How do I kill a trillion merges?

                   ► Why is there a thinling at SHOCKS Olympia?

                   ► What is Sidney?

                   ►

I finally read the last page of that file.

[Update - Class Three Clearance Required]

SHOCKS Olympia is of the belief that the destruction of the Reality-389 merge will not result in a meaningful change in Merge Prime’s expansion. An alternative arrangement is necessary. Communications with SHOCKS Victoria and Vancouver Island are being attempted to prevent the Reality-389 merge’s destruction.

That’s it. That’s all there is. But it’s enough—the truth is right there. Something in SHOCKS Olympia’s research into thinlings pointed to this merge’s importance. It can’t be destroyed—or more accurately, its destruction wouldn’t matter.

But I see the answer now.

[Truth Learned: The Incomprehensible]

[Active Skill Learned:…]

“Sidney, what do you have for me?” I ask after a minute.

[Working on it. This takes a lot of processing power. Petabytes per second.]

[Active Skill Learned: Absolution 3]

“Perfect,” I say. Then I start laughing.

I’ve tried changing all the variables in my equation, but I haven’t tried changing any constants. What if…what if the West End High merge wasn’t the keystone?  I mean, it is right now, but what if we…not changed that, exactly, but changed the conditions it operates under? What if the West End High merge wasn’t in our reality at all, but still existed?

“I need Doctor Twitchy,” I say after a minute.

He’s there less than two minutes later. I point at the equation, where I’ve scribbled something in blue marker. “Would this work?”

“You want to…” he goes quiet for a second. Two second. Three. “Yes. You could conceivably do it. From a possible standpoint, you’d need to trap the merge in something, then transfer it to the black sector—or another reality. I’d prefer another reality. There’s too much data here to risk losing.”

“I’m not doing this to another reality. Not if I don’t have to,” I say. “Do you have access to 1092-V-12/S and 723-RP-V-1/RP? And can we just call them the merge gate?”

“No. The containment for them was at SHOCKS VVI.”

[There are copies. They’re in the Geren wing. We can train them over to here,] Sidney says.

“Great. Here’s the plan,” I say. It’s an audacious, ridiculous plan—and I can only tell Doctor Twitchy about half of it. The rest of it’s between Sora, Alice, and me. And Sidney, too, because even though three is a number of power, sometimes, you need four.

◄▼►

Claire’s solution was stupid.

Paul Ramirez didn’t want to do it.

It wouldn’t work. It couldn’t work.

But he didn’t have a choice. There wasn’t time for anything else. So, he yelled at the assembled researchers, Daley, and the handful of agents who were available—plus a dozen teachers who’d been voluntold. “Team One, you’re on assembling the merge gate. Here’s the blueprint. Don’t worry about the last component. When the time comes, she’ll be ready. Just get the gate operational—but don’t turn it on.

“Team Two, you’re dealing with the bomb. We’re building an identical one to the two we sent with Claire and Alice, but it doesn’t need to be mobile. Built it in place, wherever you can—but not the black sector. Make it a big one—every bit of firepower you can muster. Either this works…or we won’t need another shot.”

He paused. “And Team Three…you’re with me. We’re trying to figure out how to move the merge once we have the portal up and running.”

“I keep telling you, you won’t need to,” Claire said from the door. “I can take care of that.”

“It’s a contingency,” Paul responded.

“It’s a bad contingency. There’s no time to drive it all the way there, then drive it all the way back, and it has to end here,” Claire said. She launched into an explanation of the physics of inter-reality Mergewalking. Paul tried not to roll his eyes. What she was suggesting was…stupid beyond belief. Putting a merge in a merge portal? That was one thing. He was pretty confident that he could do it—and he’d been ready to risk the world with or without Claire just a week or so ago, on their trek across Olympic National Park.

No, it was the other half of her plan that was unfeasible. Once she had the gate around the merge and both anomalies were active to sustain it, she wanted to…grab the whole gate and drag it to another location. Through the space between realities. Multiple anomalies and a portal that was, according to Claire, the keystone to all of Merge Prime—and she wanted to rip it out of reality and place it somewhere else?

Director Paul Ramirez had no idea what would happen if she did that.

But he had no choice but to try it.

◄▼►

It’s going to be my biggest Mergewalk yet.

Me, of course.

Alice—but she’s only going halfway. She’s got the hardest job out of everyone, and I can only hope that in the last few hours, she’s grown enough to do what she needs to do. I don’t want to drop her off and leave her, but I don’t have a choice. The math says it’s the only way.

A dozen researchers, Daley, and Doctor Twitchy. They’re needed for my quarter of the equation, or I’d leave them behind.

Two anomalies, both of which have to make it through intact and unaltered. That shouldn’t be an issue—I’ve done it before, after all, dragged the voiceless singer through a Mergewalk. Two non-hostile anomalies should be easy.

And a single bomb.

That’s only going halfway, too. It’s a distraction, not a threat. The real bomb’s back at SHOCKS Olympia, and it’s a doozy.

Everyone links up, and I Mergewalk.

We land in front of the Halcyon System. Just like last time, I have an overwhelming urge to touch it. To reach out and feel my enemy. To show it that our reality isn’t doomed—not yet.

Instead, Alice lets go of my shoulder and nods. “See you on the other side.” The bomb in her backpack drops to the floor, and she shifts to a patch of black smoke. Two burning red eyes stare at the yellow-orange polygon, and she throws herself at it.

I don’t see her hit. I’m already Mergewalking back to Reality Zero. To the place where it all began, and where it’s going to end.

West End High. The soccer field.

◄▼►

Albert Head, Victoria, British Columbia - June 24, 2043, 7:32 PM

- - - - -

The researchers were all in biohazard suits, even Ramirez. Claire had dumped them here on the rain-slicked, spore-covered grass outside of West End High. It was too dangerous for them to be out of their suits—according to Claire, a Fungal Lord was nearby, and it was making a mess of everything. So, the team worked around Ramirez in full Level Four suits. It was hot, sweaty work, even with the British Columbia evening cooling rapidly and the ocean breeze rolling in.

Miraculously, neither of SHOCKS Olympia’s copies of 1092-V-12/S and 723-V-1/RP had escaped or gone haywire during the Mergewalk. But every single one of them had witnessed the enemy for the first time—except for Daley and Paul himself.

He stood off to the side, watching his researchers. They worked in silence. Every single one of them had seen, for a fraction of a second, the gigantic yellow-orange orb looming overhead. They’d seen its faces, edges, and points constantly changing—just like Claire had told them they would.

They’d seen the faces of their enemy, and they were just as silent as they’d been a day ago, at what they’d thought was the end of the world. But this time, they weren’t quiet because they didn’t have any ideas. They were quiet because the time for discussion was over and the time for action was upon them. They were quiet because their only job now was to build a device that, according to a fifteen-year-old girl, would save the world.

Paul sighed and joined them. The sooner the gate was built, the sooner this would be over, one way or another.

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