A Horus in Strange Lands (Horizon Zero Dawn SI) Chapter 21

Asteroid mining is a true game-changer.

No wonder the scientists back home harped so much about providing more funding for space programs for the betterment of humanity.

Thousands upon thousands of my Ausar drones worked on taking apart large chunks of small-sized asteroids and transporting them into the three Meseket ships following us while my main body worked on mining massive Asteroids using my two arms and their inbuilt fabrication and mining equipment.

Already, I have enough materials to fabricate three more Meseket ships, and I have only mined one large and a handful of small Asteroids in the belt. I can’t even imagine the amount of resources I will have should I establish a permanent mining base in this area and automate the entire mining process.

But experiments like those will have to wait until I get out of the Sol system.

Ever since the fallout with the humans and GAIA, I have been keeping a strict lockdown on all communication attempts originating from Earth, except the ones from CYAN since I have yet to receive an answer from her about her decision.

During this time, I have felt hundreds of pings originating from GAIA and from the humans towards me, but I ignored them completely.

After everything they said, after all the name-calling, they still have the gall to try and contact me. Just what do they take me for?

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“Why the hell should we even tell you anything about Project: Hermes? What does it even have to do with an AI like you?”

{I want to know it because I am a possible-}

“Shut up! You monster! I don’t want to hear anything more from a machine made for nothing more than destruction like you!”

“Patrick!! Calm down!”

“No, Sobeck. It is clear to me that you and the General are hellbent on selling out our people to this abomination and I will not stand by it!”

“I have heard enough of you, Alpha Klein. Security!”

At the General’s call, the MP stormed the room and took Alpha Klein into custody, much to the relief of Dr. Sobek, but then, things became even more chaotic.

Tanak Naoto, the Alpha of DEMETER, jumped from his seat and tried to deck one of the MP, only to be suppressed as well, but his actions caused a cascade of events that truly made me feel like I did not belong here and that everything I did was in vain.

Ayomide Okilo, the Alpha of MINERVA, Anders Larsen of AETHER, and even Charles Ronson of ARTEMIS, jumped in to help their friend and tried to fight off the MP. Clearly showing their stance in the matter.

After calming the room and removing those people, the General and Elizabet tried to proceed with the discussion, trying and failing to hide their venom and hate for me. But, by this point, I had lost all faith in these people and left the meeting then and there, retreating into my network and trying to work out what Project: HERMES was and if these people really were responsible for what happened to me.

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Shaking myself out of that memory, I turned back towards the resourcing operation I was carrying out.

As the Ausar drones worked on dismantling the asteroids, several massive serpent-like drones tunneled deep into the rocks, searching for materials and ore veins within the depths of the Asteroid.

These serpents had micro-thrusters all across their surface, designed to function both in space and on a planet with a single main thruster for movement at their ‘tail’. The head, on the other hand, is made up of a massive drill that allows it to easily tunnel into nearly all types of materials.

I called it the Apep model.

As the Apep drones tunneled through the surface, I felt a ping from Vast Silver, making me retreat into the network.

{what is it?}

[I have analyzed most of the stellar information in both APOLLO and HERMES databases and have concluded that the most promising candidate for us to go for is a star system called Keppler 452]

I received a data packet from the AI detailing the information about the star system.

Back home, this system was of much interest to the scientist who theorized that one of its planets, 452b, could be habitable. And based on the data that I am seeing now, it is a belief that the humans of this universe shared as well.

{A valid destination. Put it as a potential candidate along with the others. We will make a final decision when we are done with our resourcing operation and construction of another Meseket ship}

[Done.]

{What about the other thing?}

At my question, I saw the frustration within Vast Silver’s core as he answered with an exasperated tone.

[Still not safe enough for use. While replicating the experiments carried out in Project: HERMES was easy enough, Seth and I are facing the same issue as the humans. The breaching of the dimensional wall is easy, navigating said tear in dimensions is hard. We have tried every conceivable way of navigating the thing but all communications are lost the moment one of our probes crosses the event horizon of the dimensional tear.]

{Keep working on it until we depart this star system. If there is no progress, we will use the Anti-matter drives for a slow voyage through the stars. It’s not like time has any meaning for us}

[Fine.]

As Vast Silver retreated from the network, I couldn’t help but pull up the files on Project: HERMES.

While this project has caused a great rift, or rather, exposed the people of GAIA Prime’s true intentions, the promise of FTL is too much for me to ignore.

Not to mention the potential of breaching through into a different universe altogether.

From what I gathered, the process of generating the portal is by causing a concentrated gravitational anomaly using spinning electromagnetic fields. A process that was easily replicated by us.

And just like Vast Silver said, the problem is navigating what lies beyond.

From what I observed during the experiments, the dimensional tear that is produced through this method is extremely chaotic and jumbled up my sensors to varying degrees.

Visually, it looked like a Kaleidoscope of colors, always shifting into incomprehensible patterns, fluctuating wildly and screwing with my mind the longer I stare at it. When I look at the portal with my sensors, the view is even wilder as they can’t even register what is happening.

The only good news I found so far is that the event horizon of the portal doesn’t seem to be inherently dangerous since the simple communication probes we made and sent through the portal were very much intact during their journey. It is only when they completely pass through the portal, arriving on the other side, wherever that is, that the communications cut off completely.

As much as this technology scares me, I can’t help but be reminded of all those stories about dimensional travel I used to read back home.

Once again, I pulled myself out of my wandering thoughts and got back to work.

Whether the portal succeeds or not is not a priority for me. Leaving behind this place is.

But, once we are gone, I will have practically unlimited time to mess with this project. Who knows? perhaps I’ll even find a way back home.

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Author Notes: Another small chapter that I worked on while at work. The next one will be a proper full-length chapter that will continue the plot.

We are now nearing the end of the Horizon universe for now, and yes, I have decided to include multiversal travel into the story.

APEP Drone: