Chapitre 581: 20
Date
2011 January 13th - Thursday - Earth Bet Time
Day 6061 -Thursday - Administrator Dimension Time
He was anxious. If today's plan succeeded, then he could kiss goodbye to any concrete knowledge of the future. It would change everything.
There were theories on the net back in his own dimension about what would happen if Dragon were to be freed. But nobody really agreed. It was now his turn to find out for real.
It didn't help his peace of mind when he detected an increased activity on the Network. He immediately examined the data flow. And noted the increase was thanks to several Shards requesting information about America. Apparently, his actions already caused enough waves to be noticeable. Though he was relieved to note that all the requests were routine, and no Shard was treating this as anything special.
That relieved him somewhat. Though it showed that while his own defenses were so far fine, the consequences of his and Taylor's actions were visible to everyone. He was just lucky enough that Taylor listened to him and stayed home.
He would have probably smashed something if she would have gone out and accidentally met with Tattletale.
The information the ROB provided him was rather interesting. It updated itself without him noticing any access to it. So before they started the mission, he had an up-to-date location of the entire Dragonslayers group. Including their movement. Sadly, it didn't really contain much information about the area around that.
As expected, ROB adhered to the letter of agreement. He got the exact location of them during the requested time period and nothing more.
Still, it came with a basic location that would allow him to portal Taylor over there. Truthfully, he could have figured out where Ascalon was, simply based on Saint's movement. The man was an obsessive maniac. Yet he didn't.
He feared several things.
One, that the Shard connected to it could take the portal as a direct attack on it, and self-destruct the laptop.
Two, there was a chance that over their thieving career the Dragonslayers stole something that could detect dimensional movement. Given that Dragon probably had access to Haywire's research and equipment, it was a possibility that she added some sensors to her suits.
Of course, there was also the possibility that he was just paranoid.
Making Taylor wear funny costumes was always fun, but all fun must end, eventually.
As soon as she stepped through the portal, he fired up his stealthiest scanner. Then began looking for their prize, while giving instructions to Taylor. Luckily, he found no equipment that scanned for dimensional activities. So they could leave immediately after Ascalon was found. He also instantly found one Shard connection, because it wasn't really hiding.
After further examination, it turned out to be Teacher's Shard connected to Saint, who was taking a nap. Probably afraid to go far from Ascalon. He saved the Shard's location for later.
He could use it for experimentation, knowing that nobody would miss Teacher.
The next thing his scans picked up were several minor connections, which were connected to the armored suits. So those were probably from Dragon's Shard. Using those, he found a bigger connection originating from Dragon's Shard that terminated in a room next to the one where Saint was sleeping.
The same location was also connected to a second Shard. After doing a deeper scan, he confirmed that the first was indeed Dragon's Shard. He also noticed that the unknown Shard was also connected to Dragon's own shard, so that was probably the Shard that Richter had used to create Dragon.
While waiting for Taylor to reach the room where Ascalon was hiding, he started to slowly infiltrate Dragon's Shard.
Its connection was rather open and simplistic. While the other Shard it was connected through the laptop was continuously receiving data from it.
It took him a few seconds to stealthily connect to Dragon's Shard. Upon completing the connection and doing a surface scan, he immediately realized that it was a very, very limited bud shard. It had basically almost no capabilities, its only purpose to keep track of Dragon. Her parahuman power was almost an afterthought. It was understanding and reverse engineering technology, though the other Shard tightly controlled what she could understand.
It seemed the Entities really feared that an AI would surpass them because, aside from observing Dragon, her Shard also continuously reinforced her restrictions.
Aside from that, it was totally blank, not even a hint of personality or anything else. He named it Warden, so he could stop referring to it as Dragon's Shard. The other was given the Abacus designation.
As soon as Taylor threw the laptop into the pocket space, he infiltrated Richter's Shard. He had to be more careful because this Shard was more aware, yet still far from what he would call sentient.
Luckily, it was hyper-focused on keeping track of Warden and, through it, Dragon, so he could easily gain access to it. Running a quick search of its system while having Taylor run randomly around to confuse those who would try to track her, he found that it only communicated with the Network when it regularly sent an all-clear signal.
Their defenses against other Shards were nonexistent, as if they were set to be easily destroyed in case it was needed.
Seeing no other obstacles, he purged the rudimentary mind of Richter's Shard and slaved it to one of his processor cores. He did the same to Warden. He then used some mobile scan protection modules to envelope them within it and began their rebuilding. He hoped that soon they would have their own protection.
He also began to mine them for that sweet, sweet data.
Warden only contained the information that it needed to allow Dragon to tinker with other Tinkertech and some basic plans. Apparently, the observation data was immediately funneled to Abacus. He took a copy of the data and set his own systems to update the Warden.
Then he turned his attention towards Abacus. This one was much larger and had much more data.
It would take some time to download and scan all of it, so he set it as a background task and made sure his processors would start the update.
Nevertheless, it was a great success. The Network was silent, and he had successfully assimilated two Shards, and acquired Ascalon.
He couldn't wait to see what awaited them.
Date
2011 January 13th - Thursday - Earth Bet Time
Taylor stepped through the portal and immediately sagged into her chair.
"That was exhausting…"
"Yeah, but you did it!" answered Admin, who was sporting a very bloodthirsty grin.
"So, can you finally tell me what this was all about?"
"First, change and put the suit back into the pocket space, then go to sleep. I will explain it into the simulation," he answered.
Taylor wanted to argue, but her limbs felt like lead, and she wanted to sleep for days. The excursion wasn't that physically exhausting, but the excitement and stress tired her out.
After a toilet run and a quick change of clothes, she crawled into her bed and instantly fell asleep.
When she woke in the virtual space, she found herself in a simple room. The only exceptional thing was the throwing-star-shaped cake on a table. With pitch-black candles, which were burning with shadowy flames.
She walked over to it to examine it, but before she could reach it, an explosion sounded behind her. She jumped in fright, whirled around, and stood in a defensive stance. Only to watch as glitter rained down on her, while Admin, with a stupid conical hat, blew a party horn at her.
She relaxed her stance and accepted her own hat with ninjas on it.
"Congratulation Taylor, your first mission! And it was a success!" exclaimed Admin.
"Thank you," answered Taylor happily, who couldn't help but feel proud.
She wiped the smile off her face and nailed Admin with a glare. "But enough congratulations. Explain. Now."
Admin sighed, and the setting changed to a comfortable living room. With a beautiful view of some mountains and sinfully comfortable sofas. They took a few seconds to settle themselves, Taylor got her usual tea and some cookies, and Admin began.
"Ask your questions."
"Shouldn't you just explain?"
"I want to see if you can figure it out. I gave you Thinker powers for a reason."
"O-kay!" she answered while going through everything she knew.
"So we stole something from the Dragonslayers." she listed, "Who are the enemies of Dragon."
"Correct."
"You said, that this would help a lot of people. Dragon is already helping a lot of people. So if I help take out her personal enemies, she could concentrate on helping even more people."
"Also correct."
"But what about saving a young woman?" wondered Taylor.
"How about I tell you, there is a one-of-a-kind laptop in that case that you stole?"
"Is it the key?" she asked.
"Yes."
Admin smiled at her in triumph. "Good job!"
"The question is, what is it the key for?"
"For Dragon's cage." came the cheeky reply.
"What?" she yelled out. "Dragon is locked up?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"Explain!" she growled out. If the word foremost Tinker was locked up somewhere, it was her duty to free her. And no one would stand in her way.
"Haven't you ever wondered why nobody has seen Dragon alive? How her suits are dragon-shaped and not human-shaped? And why would a laptop free her?"
Taylor blinked at those questions. "Agoraphobia?"
"Please, Taylor. You are smarter than that."
Taylor fell silent and started going over everything she knew about Dragon. She was pretty sure the answer was really obvious based on how Admin was acting, but couldn't really put her finger on it.
"I give up! I have no idea," exclaimed Taylor after half an hour of deep consideration. "Tell me, please."
Admin smiled in understanding, then nodded. "No worries. I will explain it."
Taylor sat up and fixed her eyes on Admin. She didn't want to miss this.
"It's simple…" spoke up Admin, "she is an AI."
"What?"
"An AI." came the calm reply.
"What?"
"Yes."
For a few minutes, both of them were silent. Admin because he was waiting for Taylor to speak and Taylor because she was processing.
"That… explains everything."
"Indeed."
"But what about the laptop?"
"The laptop belonged to her creator and can be used to remove her restriction or destroy her."
"What kind of restriction?"
"A lot. Enough that I feel confident saying, she is in a cage."
"Poor Dragon," uttered Taylor sadly.
"Oh yes. But as of now, the key is in your hand," said Admin with a smirk. "You just have to turn it, so to speak."
"Oh," was the only thing that came out of her mouth. Nothing prepared her for this. Nor for the information nor the responsibility.
"Tomorrow morning, we will go over the laptop and see what our options are. Until then, what do you say about some training?"
Taylor felt that after that revelation she needed to explode something, so she drank the remaining tea in her cup and stood up.
"Let's go!"
She spent the rest of the night destroying zombie hordes.
Date
2011 January 14th - Friday - Earth Bet Time
He woke up a little groggy but otherwise rested. He went to take a shower, then some breakfast. It was only three a.m. but for people like them, regular hours were a myth.
If you are guarding the world against a menace like Dragon, then a full night's sleep was a luxury.
After finishing the construction of his sandwich, he checked in with Mags. Who was heading back from her food run, then with Dobrynja, who reported nothing interesting.
Munching on his ham sandwich, he ambled towards the room where they set up the observation post. He absentmindedly input the code and inserted the key.
He did a quick once over of the screens and noted that nothing interesting happened while he was asleep. Then, with a routine movement, reached under the desk for the case to check up on Dragon.
Only for his hand to return empty.
For a few seconds, he didn't really understand what happened. He looked at his hands, wondering if they worked right, and even opened and closed them a few times just to make sure.
After affirming that his hands were working, he slid down from the chair and checked under the desk with mounting panic. When he found nothing, he started to tear up the room, looking for it, alternatively yelling for the others and cursing whoever stole it.
By the time Narwhal broke down the door, the only thing she found was a man sitting in the middle of a trashed room. With an open mouth, empty eyes, and panic clearly written on his face.
Date
2011 January 14th - Friday - ?
"We have a new blind spot."
Doctor Mother turned to the speaker upon hearing that statement.
"Oh, how so?"
Contessa walked to the table in the middle room, joining Doctor Mother, who was reviewing documents and having her morning coffee. She placed a laptop on the table and turned it to face the Doctor.
The screen showed a press release from the Guild. In it, they announced that the international terrorist group, Dragonslayers, was captured this morning.
Contessa explained without her asking anything. "I wanted to make sure that nothing changed with the plan. But I couldn't see anything about the person who gave the tip that led to the arrest."
"Completely?" asked the Doctor, already making notes.
"Nothing," she answered in a flat voice, though Doctor Mother, thanks to their long association could detect a hint of annoyance in it. "The tip that led to the arrest sounded like it came from a precog. So I wanted to check up on them."
"Tip?"
Contessa didn't answer, just hit a few buttons, and the laptop played the recording. After listening to it, the Doctor spoke up.
"I have to agree; they sound like a precog. But I don't remember hearing about a cape named Serenity?"
"Because she doesn't exist. I couldn't find her with or without my Agent."
"How about working around it? Like with Eidolon?"
"Not enough data." Came the slightly frustrated answer.
"I see. Have you talked to Rebecca?"
"Yes, I sent her a message almost immediately."
"Then let's wait until she gathers more information. I will get in touch with our contacts in the Guild and see if they can tell us more about this person."
Contessa nodded, then closed her eyes and asked a question.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone