Earth, Arizona, Golden Cave, several miles from Fort Grant, 1866
Captain John Carter gasped as he struggled with the bald man wearing the odd, volumous robe, fighting the keep the knife from stabbing him. The man wasn't unusually strong, but he appeared desperate to kill him, and that made this struggle particularly difficult.
Still, John hadn't lived through the civil war just by being lucky, and managed to use the leverage of a nearby surface to push the knife into the man's neck- and he began bleeding white.
"What the hell?" John dropped the knife, and jumped back, as if stuck. White? How would anyone bleed white!?
The bleeding man slumped against the wall, a silver amulet falling from weakening fingers as he choked out something incomprehensible.
John picked up the amulet as the man died, only hearing the last word clearly. "Barsoom?"
-
Earth was... Disappointing.
According to the newspapers (which I could see from orbit), the current year was 1866, and it looked like the civil war had ended on schedule. Still, not much interesting.
After dropping down to Antarctica briefly, and leaving some monoliths there with similar sorts of information as those that had been left on Middle Earth (just for funsies really), I drifted back out into orbit.
Seriously- nothing was going on that I could constructively interfere in without causing huge amounts of panic, or massive wars.
Huh... When I think about it, Earth is very, very xenophobic-
[TACHYON BURST TRANSMISSION DETECTED]
[WAVELENGTH VERIFIED]
[TACHYON TRAFFIC DETECTED]
I 'blinked'. Tachyons? Faster-than-light particles that could be used in communication, as they didn't exactly mesh with the 'angle' of our three-dimensional space, and therefore barely interacted, with the exceptions of specific types of exotic particle-effects.
IE, hard to make, and harder to detect, thanks bullshit-level sensors!
I focused on the sensors that were picking this up, and as space appeared to change as my focus shifted, the planets turned into disuse spheres, with the sun becoming more and more shadowy until it looked completely flat. No, that description doesn't make any sense, but tachyons don't make sense. They exist just out-of-phase so the 3-D universe looks very odd to them.
In any case, I saw a constant stream of the exotic entities 'bulge' against the background space as a source shot them out of the 3-D plane, only for the particles to return like a boomerang made of light and jello.
Making these analogies is really hard, so I'm just going to stop. Some of the sensors I have don't make sense for a mind that is used to the rationality of three-dimensional space, and the conventions therein.
Some still don't make sense to me.
Moving along, I pinpointed the multitude of spikes on Mars, and marked them with a little program that would let me keep active track of them. I couldn't dedicate as much of my processing to this sensor as I needed to grab this little snippet for long periods of time, but the automatic systems could keep an eye on it.
Overall, there were twenty-three sources on Mars, most of them clustered in two locations. Two were in odd locations, with one flying around above the surface of the planet, and the other erratically jumping over the landscape.
The background was quiet though, and with this sort of communication, that either meant the entities causing these tachyon bursts was limited to this system, or had a better method of communication across interstellar distances.
Regardless, I had places to look.
Choices, choices... Well, I would have plenty of time to think about it as I flared my engines and began my burn towards Mars.
No, I wasn't going to leave material in orbit over pre-silicon Earth. No point really.
May as well take the scenic route.
...
Also probes.
Fabricators lit up as the engines breifly cut out, dozens of Hermes probes, each looking like a sphere with solar panels stretching behind it, streaming out and accelerating towards the planet.
They would arrive in fifteen minutes, while I would arrive in roughly half an hour- mainly because they could use a sun-dive to gain increased speed before decelerating again.
My drives spooled back up, and I began accelerating again.
-
The Thern network was vast. As in half-a-Galaxy vast. Literally, one in every two stars had a Thern relay on some planet or asteroid around it.
The story behind the Thern was interesting, in a way. A massive network of nanomachines with access to faster-than-light communication, and technology to enforce different physical laws where needed, surfed by the minds of shapeshifters who worked to enforce that there would never be a threat to their people again... They ruled the Galaxy.
Since the Krisk't-Tichi had been eradicated, there hadn't been much for the Thern to actually do. Their technology was dependent on the Network, and without it actively enforcing their control, there would be difficulties.
Many agents would be lost.
The agents themselves were... Flighty. Death meant nothing to a Thern, as their bodies were merely peripherals to the network, but the minds within couldn't withstand death of an avatar well. Memories of each life became fleeting, and since every death was traumatic, they often became cold, heartless things that only worked for the purposes of the network. Weaving intricate plans was a hobby of the Thern agents, and they had gotten good at it over the centuries.
As planned.
Currently, the network was present in the Sol system with the express purpose of developing contained populations for possible agent recruitment. Slave populations, for harvesting of new potentially creative agents.
The individuals within the Thern have a saying: 'What is dead can never die.' Appropriate, as to become an agent, a sentient being had to die for the transcription to occur.
-
As my body floated in Martian orbit, I considered my next move.
I had nine Cuttle-ships, each two kilometers long, each holding a fully-functional commander, and... The fleet of probes currently taking scans of the world below.
Alltogether, my assembly of cuttle-ships was more than three kilometers wide and four long. Not too big, but large enough to see from the ground if I was orbiting close enough.
Should I interfere with the natives?
Pulling up a random number generator, I set it running. An even number, I would descend with one of my cuttle-ships. An odd number, I would just send down only my ultron-avatar. May as well keep it fair.
38
Right... I disconnected the ship nuzzled into the main formation, and, after a moment of drifting, set it to descending towards the planet above the largest, singular geometric structure my scans had detected that, coincidentally, looked like one of the sources of tachyons.
From above, it resembled a, well, square Mesa where there was really no reason to be one. When scanned by the (fairly bullshit, but not too much so) sensors on the Hermes, I could see that it also resembled an upside-down pyramid, with a sort-of growth of stone shoring it up in a way that would have looked both impressive and disturbing on a human scale.
It also poked at my memories a bit- something about green people with four limbs?
Eh, I would probably know soon enough.
I drifted down through the atmosphere, slowly, to minimize my presence, and fabricated up an ultron-avatar in the space between my tentacles, already outfitted with the two Starlings as the drop-pod, and, as my altitude approached two-hundred meters above the structure, I opened my tentacles, dropping my avatar, and prepared the Cuttle-ship to land even as the wings of the Starlings flared to arrest their descent.
All of my feet landed on the surface, both tentacle-legs and the metal-boot-like structures that my Ultron avatar had.
Crouching down, I began scanning with both my bodies, trying to figure out exactly what this structure was... Only to be directly stymied by the inertness of the material.
Huh... I smirked slightly to myself. "Seems like I have a mystery on my hands!"
"What."
I looked up, and saw... Two rather scantily-clad human's, one male, one female, and both rather ripped. By ripped I mean stereotypically attractive, and very muscular.
And by scantily-clad, well, mostly they were wearing strips of leather, loincloths, and bits of thin fabric in the case of the woman.
I raised a hand. "'Sup."
-
John Carter was... Not entirely sure what was going on. Actually, even he would willingly admit that he was more than a little confused.
A lot of confused.
For starters, he was on Mars. Okay- that, he could get a handle on. Just.
He had super-strength. Neat, and useful here. This he could work with.
There were people living on Mars. The Tharks, and the 'Red Martians', who bled blue for some reason. That was a little harder, but he quickly got the concept.
Then there were these 'Therns'. The white Martians. Deja Thoris had mentioned them, and she described someone who had looked like that guy he had killed back in Arizona, but they were legends somehow?
Anyway, he was convinced they were real, so had stolen a silver necklace (the same design as the Thern from Earth), and had conspired to bring Tars Tarkas's daughter Sola, along with the red Martian Deja with him to the 'Gates of Iss', where hopefully more would be cleared up.
The cave of gold had paid off... Sort of, so why not this?
Getting to the Gates had been surprisingly easy. Sola knew the way, having made the pilgrimage before, and with the company of Woola (an astonishingly fast Martian... Dog-thing), managed to make it to the river.
The boat ride was fairly calm, up until the point where the massive metal spike began to descend towards some point shrouded by the high, sheer cliffs that served as the banks.
Sola became more and more nervous from that point, continuously looking at the thing in the sky as it stopped, and seemed to grow larger by the minute. A wall of gunmetal grey with burnished blue patterns, ending in a point far above their heads, it looked very much like something man-made.
Like the pyramids. John had read a few books, he knew what they were.
Most importantly though, as their little boat came around the final corner, and came across the mammoth structure that was the Gate, the metal thing was now clearly seen.
It was bigger. Like a hand gently gripping the edges of the upside-down pyramid-mesa that was the Gate of Iss, green lights flashed between the huge fingers as something drifted down from the point between them.
Sola wailed, and started praying.
"Amazing..." Deja breathed. "What is it?"
"I don't know..." Muttered John. "But I want to get a better look." He grabbed Deja, who squeaked, and turned to Sola. "I'll be back."
Then he jumped, soaring into the sky like some hero of myth, and landing, fairly gracefully he thought, on the top of the Gate between two of the fingers.
In front of him was a metal man.
"What."
The man looked up, and John flinched. Glowing red eyes, both dead metal and filled with life as they flicked from him to Deja, sizing them up.
Only to hold up a hand as the green light flicked off. "'Sup." It said, showing that yes, it had a mouth, and moved incredibly smoothly from a thing of metal.
Deja looked paralyzed, so it was up to him.
"Hello..." He said slowly. "My... Name... Is... John... Who... Are... You?..."
The metal thing blinked and stood up. It was easily half-again as tall as he was, and the blue highlights didn't detract from the subtle menace it carried in every movement. It's head tilted slightly, like an animal that was just a bit confused. "Why are you talking like that?"
That took John back a bit. "I didn't know if you could understand me. The Tharks could not before they made me drink something."
It straightened, and smirked slightly. "Well, that tells me where, and when, I am. Thanks John Carter."
"What's it saying?" Hissed Deja.
"It asked me why I was talking like that. When I told it that I wasn't sure it could understand me, it thanked me for letting me know where and when it was." John was more confused.
"'Where and when'..." Deja's mouth dropped open. "Can you move in time?!" She asked excitedly, any fear forgotten. "Are you an alien, like John-Carter?!? Where is your home? Are you a native of Jarsoom as well?"
The thing looked between Deja and John, then sighed, and pinched two fingers where a man's nose would be. An odd gesture, as it had a smooth face like a Thark, but with the mouth of a man and two sort-of-rods/spikes/tusks/ears on the sides of it's head. "I can't understand you, miss. John, can you-"
"Yes..." His voice trailed off. "Deja, it knows my full name, and it has stated that it cannot understand you."
She turned to face him so fast that her hair blew out behind her in a ripple. "How does it know your language?"
"I don't know." He muttered. Then, louder: "Hey, metal man, how do you know my last name? And how can you speak English?"
The thing sighed, and sat down, cross-legged in the surface of the large structure. The huge metal fingers released the Mesa, and the metal thing was now quite clearly floating in the sky, defying gravity with the same ease that a stone can't.
"For your second questiob, it's a long story. At least two hours long, and that's the Disney-length version. The longer version is three or four books. So sit." It patted the surface with a metal ringing that seemed a bit more subdued than such an activity would suggest. "And we can talk." It smirked again. "In exchange, I would like to look at that amulet."
-
A distraction!
Seriously- this structure is annoying. Inert on all levels that I can detect, only moving or activating in noticeable patterns when struck by some Tachyons, and only then changing a little and then rippling back as if it needed more.
It wasn't femtotech, I think, but it was relying on laws that I just didn't know. I needed an interface, something that was active and also contained traces of this stuff.
Like that amulet that John was carrying.
The woman muttered something, before sitting down in a sieza, while John sat indian-style, like me.
John seemed to pick his words carefully. "I will... If you give it back. I need the amulet to get home."
I frowned slightly, then nodded slowly. "If you truely need it to go home, then I will oblige." I held out my hand, and watched as he gingerly placed the amulet to me.
I scanned it, quickly, sending the green beam and shimmering femtotech into the structure of the device as carefully as I could. It was fascinating- structures that cascaded all the way down to the atomic scale, all of them humming with energy, and everything set up along fractal guidelines.
After a few seconds, I could actually conceive of the equation for it. Impressive, mainly because I think these were grown rather than made.
At the core of this device, was a sphere of the strange material like that I was sitting on, but active, moving in a pattern that reminded me of one of those time-crystals. Asychronal oscillation. That explained the Tachyons though, if the effect could be propagated backwards in time as well as forwards, disrupting it would create a surge of tachyons as the universe slightly objected.
If I had blood vessels, they would have paled as the implications hit me. Whoever had designed this network was fucking around with time travel.
Limited? Yes. Information ripples like this were limited in scope- but they could pre-empt themselves, causing causal loops that just built and built until the entire structure exploded, transmuting to the sum of all the energy within it across all of it'a prior existence. In math terms? Multiply the mass of the object by the number of plank-time-units that it had been around. That give you the 'temporal mass'.
Yes, you need to start counting when every atom was formed from quarks, that sets the chronological time of creation. So, one proton that was formed from quarks EXACTLY one second ago has a temporal mass of 1.855e43 protons.
That's ~3.10271e16 kg. Run that through E=Mc^2, and you get absolutely terrifying levels of 'boom'. 2,225,343,408 megatons of boom. And that's just for one proton!
There were several grams of the stuff in this device, and even more present in the titanic structure below me. Thankfully, it seems inert, and stable, so that was a good thing.
I slowed down my thoughts as I heard the protagonist begin to speak.
"How do you know my last name?"
An understandable question. "Did you read stories Mister Carter?"
He looks slightly confused.
"The three little bears, little red riding hood, the brothers Grimm- that sort of thing?"
He perked up at little red riding hood. "Yes."
"Good. I read about you in a book." Simple answer, not entirely wrong, but close enough.
He slowed down as I turned my attention back to the medallion.
Besides the apocalyptic technology it used for faster-than-light communication, it also seemed to be generating quite a bit of power for... Something. Something familiar....
Like my tuning forks, it was using field resonance mechanics to do something strange to physics, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I mean, if I was the designer of this thing, I would build it to be, not unstable, but generating at least enough energy to re-enforce whatever physical laws were preventing the matter from collapsing from it's achronal state into an insane amount of radiant energy.
Okay, I just want to make this clear- I REALLY don't like time travel. This thing is probably forcing the laws of physics to bend just enough that it doesn't cause a catastrophic cascade of explosions in order to keep updated.... And that seems just a bit irresponsible.
Maybe I can turn it off... Well, food for thought.
I spooled back to normal time, and noticed that the woman was whispering to John. Actually, they were whispering back and forth, having a little discussion over the while I had been looking at the device.
Eventually, he turned away from the woman- Deja! Damnit, how did I forget that?
"We both agree that your answer didn't make sense. Can you explain?" He was almost pleading at this point, so I checked my expression.
Oh. Frowning with angry eyes. I smoothed out my avatar's face, and tossed him the amulet, because fuck that.
"Where I am from, we have stories of other worlds. Mostly fictional, although, as I have learned in my travels, some are not." I tapped my chin in consideration. "Not for the first time have I found myself in a world I thought merely a work of fiction, Mister Carter. From this, I made a guess based upon where I have found myself, and it seems to have been right." I smirked a little. "That is how I know your name, and that the lovely lady over there is Deja Thoris, Princess of Helium. She is hoping to have you fight her enemies- understandable, as you are much, much stronger than most of the people she meets... But I doubt she understands your motivations."
I turned my attention to unraveling the variation of functions within the amulet. It did a lot, and I wanted to know exactly what it did, and how it did it.
Give me your secrets, shiny thing!
-
John Carter was trying to understand the last statement. His entire life, in some book? And he knew that the metal mad hadn't been introduced to Deja's full name, so how did he know?
"Aha!" Exclaimed the metal man, and he tossed the amulet back to John. "Yeah, don't activate that. Bad things happen if you do."
"So I can't go back to earth?" Sighed John, looking and feeling rather forlorn.
"What?" The metal man stood up, and was looking just a little puzzled. "Oh, I can give you a lift. No, I meant that you shouldn't activate it because I am tempted to disconnect the tachyon network that allows it to work in the first place." It turned around, and raised a hand. Glowing green light came out of it, sparkles and flickers of light flashing into being that built a slim pillar onto the surface they were standing on, before solidifying into a solid white pillar a little shorter than John's arm and as thick around as his fist.
Lights began appearing on the sides of the pillar, and the metal man turned back to the earthling and Martian, grinning widely.
Then he clapped. "So- how would you like to see the inside of this thing? I'm sure the Thern wouldn't mind. Much."
"I'm feeling very left out here..." Murmured Deja.
"Oh, that reminds me-" there was a scream, then swearing, as Sola tried to fight off the metal bird-thing that was holding her in the sky- and failing miserably. "-Sola! How could I forget you!" The bird released her, and the Thark landed heavily, eyes flicking around to focus on the metal man as he held out a hand. "Mister Carter, please let her know I would like the Lady Sola to accompany us into the temple."
John blinked the surprise out of his mind, and turned to his... Nursemaid? Escort? Thark family member? "Sola, this metal man would like to show us the inside of this... Temple."
Her head whipped around to face him. "How? No, why? Why would a metal man from the sky with a monster metal flying ship-" She was fervently gesturing around at the hovering angular machine high above them. Even now it dwarfed the structure they stood upon. "-show us around this holy place?!"
"Why?" John echoed Sola's question, even as the metal man started walking towards a segment of the structure, which was sagging into a pit as they watched. "Why do this?"
A single red eye focused on him. "Mister Carter, have you wondered if you could make a bad story end better?" It paused, then shook its head, even as it kept walking. "Most people do. It's a common theme among self-aware sapient life, and the vast majority of stories have some little flaw, where the reader thinks they can do better."
As the metal man walked into the hole, John followed, dragging Deja and followed reluctantly by Sola, who was hugging herself with all four arms.
When metal thing began to speak again, it did so with three voices- one one in English, and two in... Two other languages? "Hopefully, you can understand me now."
Deja perked up immediately. "Yes! How are you doing that? Where are we?"
The dark tunnel lit up with blue, and the walls receded at a dizzying pace to show an empty cavern. Strangely, there was no wind from the movement, but that might have been because of the lace-like structure making up this place.
"We are within the Thern facility designated as Barsoom Monitor Post 1, and doing what?" The figure kept walking, even as the floor lit up with designs and shapes they had not seen before. "Talking? I had to pull the language from the monitor post, and since neither of you two-" the metal head briefly inclined towards Deja and Sola, "-speak the same languages, I had to make do."
Deja glared, even as the floor stopped glowing as intensely. "I meant how are you speaking with many voices? It sounds like three people saying different things at once, and I don't think any Red Man or Thark could speak like that."
"..." The silence seemed to convey a sense of incredulousness. "You really don't think that John is from Earth?" With all three voices he said the name of the planet in the same way.
Deja shook her head slightly, and crossed her arms. "Of course not. Jarsoom, or 'Earth', is millions of miles away, and there is nothing between it and the edge of our atmosphere. No-one could breath."
The metal man shrugged. "Bring your own air." He suggested.
Then, out of nowhere, he clapped his hands. "Now! Introductions!" He gestured to John. "John Carter, ex-military and frankly superhuman while on Mars/Barsoom." He bowed to Sola. "The lovely Sola, daughter of Tars Tarkas."
She blushed. Neither Deja nor John had ever seen a Thark blush before, and it was a strange orange-yellow color.
Straightening up, red, glowing eyes locked on Deja's. "Deja Thoris, Princess of Helium and reluctant potential wife/mate/partner of whats-his-name, that guy who mostly runs Zodanga."
Her blush was one of indignation. "Now, see here-"
"And I-" the metal man floundered, "- have forgotten my name. Sorry about that, it's been... Wow, more than fourteen thousand years since anyone called my name. I've actually forgotten it." He looked stumped, then shrugged. "Call me the traveler. It's as good a title as any."
John could feel a headache coming on. "Really? Forgotten your name?"
Deja was blinking rapidly, as if she was trying to force something to make sense. "Fourteen thousand years?"
Sola was still blushing.
The metal man nodded. "Yes, yes, and you are pretty. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
The last item just made the Thark blush harder.
"I love doing that." He turned back to the empty cavern, and raised a hand. Out of the floor, spidery tracework grew like a mold at an astonishing rate, forming a massive glowing map of the solar system, with lines connecting some of the planets while others shot into the floor only to spread out and...
"That's the solar system... And those are connections to other solar systems?" Breathed Deja as the other spinning orbs became visible in the distance. "What is this?"
The traveler spun around, arms held open wide in the glimmering light. "This, is the Thern Transporation Network." He pointed at John Carter. "And you, are a Thern!"
"And you, are a Thern!"
Yay for dramatic reveals. Seriously though, the sheer amount of information that this one monitoring station had access to was staggering. Not to mention the actual Thern network! Just holy crap man.
The network was Old. As in more than a hundred thousand years old.
The records before that used a different number system, something maybe using increasing primes rather than individual set values upon increases- actually, on second thought, I don't think I'll try to understand its archaic naming sequence at the moment.
I'll just copy everything instead.
[INSUFFICIENT MEMORY]
... What, really? COLLATE AND COMPRESS
[INSUFFICENT MEMORY, INSUFFICIENT PROCESSING POWER]
Hm.... LOCATE INDEX
[PROBABLE INDEX LOCATED]
[LANGUAGE NOT RECOGNIZED. PROCESSING.... FAILURE]
[DATA VOLUME GENERATED]
Oh boy... LIST SYSTEM DATA VOLUME
[NETWORK THERN-ZHAVIGHAST-RECORD DATA VOLUME ~ 2.7 SHILENTOBYTES. VOLUME ACCELERATING AT 8.163 GIGABYTES PER SECOND-SQUARED]
I sat down on the surface, feeling the interfaces I had placed with my mind, and took control directly as everything slowed down. The world around me froze as I dove into the link.
The sensation was like falling, but with a cord constantly playing out behind me as I ran the spark of light that was my probe down into the various systems. There, in the branching darkness that was the local program, I ran into something interest.
Namely, that everything was voice-activated up top, but down here, it just required a yes/no signal from one of the many programs that was listening.
And OH BOY were they listening. I counted fifty-three thousand different listening programs in this one structure alone- not counting the dozens of disparate programs and hard-wired systems that were talking through the amulet. It was almost a neural net... A complex one, growing even as I watched.
Most of it was easy to understand- teleportation commands, specific coordinate strata, logs of dozens of labeled functions, each with their own audio clip to provide links for the listening programs to compare against.
But there was a... Node? Link? A point where the programming changed. All of the programs fed into it, sending data... Elsewhere.
It was like being surrounded by sand, and suddenly seeing the edge of a waterfall made of molten glass. The rules completely changed beyond that point, and it was fascinating.
Using the data I already had, I stitched together a, well, translation-bot. It acted like one of the listening programs... Sort of.
My little bot puttered out, and linked into the mass of tendrils all over the place, to the listening programs and then to the Node.
I cleared my mental throat. "Testing, testing. Check-check- override requested." This was sent in the 'only language I hadn't recognized from the amulet, and was most likely the Thern language.
There was a moment, just watching the interactions, before it clicked. The Node was translating from one structure to another. Something on the other end was listening.
Right. I could work with this. "Network, respond: provide data volume on system." First, it went into my bot, translated from English to Martian, then into the listening nodes, which recognized the words and sent the into the Node.
What I got back was a number. A big number.
2,721,629,070,181,729,983,475,723,801,736 bytes.
"Network, respond: index."
The pulses went out, and... Nothing. I'll try again.
"Network, respond: mathematics index."
A deluge of information responded. Laws of physics, probability, and, most disturbingly, math that corresponded to what my tuning forks did began appearing. Then equations for deriving fractals, time-crystalline fractals that didn't have any correlation between the actual rules as my database had it, and the more esoteric math that seemed outright impossible.
As in 'I lost a segment of one of my cuttle-ships as the computing core broke trying to understand it' impossible. Thankfully, I hadn't kept thinking about it in simulation, rather, forming a thin filament of myself to peel some of the pieces apart.
Results would take some time... Oh, they are making noises again. I recalled my main point-of-focus back to my avatar, leaving a 'shell' trying out different commands, even as my body moved for the first time in the last few seconds since I had focused on the interface.
Almost immediately I received countdowns for the incoming data, and routed it to one of my cuttle-ships, while setting my metal planets to begin constructing cityscapes of server and memory towers, with cooling systems to maintain them all.
The massive data flow was directed to the servers, as the 'shell' swelled, pulling more and more data out of the system using various keywords. At the current rate of collection, it would take around four days to finish creating enough storage space to collect everything in the network... Assuming I can access everything.
Eh. I'll work something out.
-
The metal man froze for a couple seconds, as the cavern began rippling with blue, and then began moving again. Blinking and smiling, red eyes glowing brightly even as the blue lights of the rippling cavern walls illuminated the silver bodywork and strange blue striping on his body.
John and Deja stopped whispering. Sola just kept muttering prayers and oaths under her breath.
The glowing eyes fixed on them. "Sola, that's a little rude."
She glared at that damned smirk.
"Mr... Traveler?" The eyes turned to face John. "What did you mean?"
The metal man walked silently over to a spot on the ground, and tapped it twice with a foot. A picture of John Carter, naked, appeared on the ground, before raising as a bulge of the floor rose up to provide volume and depth to the image. Spider webbing lace-like structures formed around parts of it, and another version appeared on the ceiling, stretching down to meet the image on the bottom.
A mirror image, in sculpture.
The man pointed at the bottom image, at the seemingly sleeping man. "That is You, mister Carter. Your body, on Earth/Jarsoom, remaining in quantum stasis- except for your brain." He pointed up. "The top image is the body you are currently controlling, here."
Deja's head tilted, then looked between the two projections. "What is 'quantum stasis'.... And how is John controlling another body?"
The Traveler reached out, and tapped the bottom image twice, causing the skin on the image's face to turn transparent, revealing layers of muscles and bone, which turned transparent in turn, to reveal... A grey-pink shape connected to the eyeballs on stalks.
Sola's prayers stopped. "What is that?" She sounded mystified and sickened simultaneously.
"That, my attentive Sola, is the brain of a human." The Traveler indicated John, who was looking slightly ill. "His, to be specific. Not all of it, of course- this doesn't show much detail. But, it does show the process of becoming a Thern."
An image of the amulet appeared, touching the lower image's hand as the top one vanished, replaced with... An amulet?
"When the process is activated, the medallion sends a pulse of... Well, think of them as very small machines, into your brain." The amulet pulsed blue, which traveled up his arm into the the brain, suffusing it and causing it to glow slightly.
"Tiny machines?" Deja walked closer to the image, watching the blue light ripple and flex over his skull. "How do you even make such a small thing?"
The metal man quickly tapped her nose with a finger, causing her to reel back in shock with an undignified squeak. "That is not something you know enough background information to understand even if I told you. Now, to answer your earlier question, 'quantum stasis' is... Sort of a lock, where the body is held utterly still. Nothing can change, because the... Let's call it blue light, is holding it in place."
The slight movement of John's chest in the image stopped breathing, as a pulse of light flashed between the amulet in his image's hand, and the one on the ceiling... Which abruptly began growing out a body in varying pulses of blue light.
"Since your brain was... Mapped, shall we say, the entire structure at that moment, everything that made you, you, was /moved/ over to this new body, grown and assembled on Barsoom." The image completed, and another flash of blue lit up the brain of the ceiling John Carter. "You may have experienced some... Disorienting effects? Like the world suddenly changed around you?"
He nodded slowly.
"That was the original you dying, and a copy of your mind being sent here."
John Carter of Earth, ex-military man, slowly slumped to the ground, beginning to hyperventilate until Sola slapped him upside the head.
He passed out.
Sola stared at her arm in disbelief, and then at John, then at the Traveler, who shrugged.
Dejah gestured to the man laying on the ground, his eyes rolled into his head. "How is /he/ a Thern?"
The red eyes rolled. "A 'Thern' is the name that this network gives its wet-work agents." At her blank expression he clarified. "Therns are created the first time a person uses the... Teleporting? No, you don't have a word for that." Metal fingers tapped the top image, revealing a brain made of blue light. "Maybe transferring? Yes, transferring themselves from one place to another. The process kills the original, and re-structures their body to allow for the system to transfer them easier, before dropping their mind into a new body."
Sola sighed, and flopped over.
"Oh come on! Really?" The metal man sighed. "It isn't even that much of a revelation.... Oh. Hai."
Dejah was paralyzed. She couldn't move anything- just breathing was a struggle, and she could barely move her eyes.
"Who are you?!"
-
He was a short man in a floofy robe. Yes, I used the term 'floofy'. It was! The important part was that he had one of the amulets, and my sensors were detecting a very rapid attempt to communicate with the monolith under me.
My shell was blocking it within the system, and while I decoded the imbedded commands, I decided to stall a little.
"Just a traveler." I mentally flicked off the hologram. "You are one of the Thern agents. What's up?"
The blue eyes (no pupil or anything), narrowed. "You are intruding upon a sacred place-"
"Try again baldy." Wow, even the Martian languages had a word for that... And that pissed said baldy off.
"You... You!!..." He was spinning something on his wrist with a finger, and growled. Actually growled.
I had to resist the urge to laugh. "Me, me, me."
A thwump came from the entrance, several meters behind the Thern, and my second avatar straightened up from its hard-landing posture, flanked by the Starlings. Both of me smirked. "Me too."
His face as priceless as my second avatar took two steps, grabbed him by the back of his robe like some little animal, and, with the other hand, plucked the amulet and wrist-thing from him.
I tossed the devices to my other self, catching, then performing deep scans of them.
After a second or so to assimilate the new knowledge stored within the second device, I made some ad-hock changes to both of my current Avatars. A couple seconds of green glow, and my avatars lifted off the floor, hovering like gravity was just a thing for other people.
At the moment, it was. Oh, I was going to abuse this so much... Actually, I wasn't- it relied on their tech base, and that would be unwise, as it relied on both local universal laws and their tech's paradoxical nature.
Anyway, the struggling Thern looked pale (well, pale-er) as I stopped the restraint function signal that had effected the others. It was a nasty little thing, a minute 'seed' of the fractal material that, when exposed to the right radio frequency quickly multiplied, and spread out tendrils based on skin electrophoretic properties.
This Thern had used them as throwing weapons.
My avatar smiled as it drifted up to the Thern, the one holding him up changing his grip so that the man would have trouble killing himself. Wow, that was morbid.
[LANGUAGES DOWNLOADED. CODEXING.... DONE.]
"Hello, Agent... Matai Shang." I tilted my head a little as I tossed his amulet up and down in my hands. "Why are you wearing that monkey suit?"
He glared.
"Come now, let me help you slip into something a little more familiar..." I clutched the amulet, and, as he watched, I crushed it in my hand, the built-in tuning forks shutting off the physics that allowed the amulet to be nearly indestructible.
His body rippled, and the Thern let out a scream that increased in pitch until it became inaudible to the humans in the room.
His body flowed like hot plastic, and where a short, bald man had been, a crustacean wearing a similar robe, but cut for a short, tripodal crab-thing.
The avatar holding him plucked a silver... Thing off of the crab's carapace. It looked very similar to a clasp of some kind, and had caused some pain as it was removed, judging from the screeching noise its removal caused.
Sola screamed. "What in the name of Issis is that thing?" Well, at least they weren't unconcious- just paralyzed.
The avatar not holding the Thern stretched out a hand, and green light filled the air, constructing a Cage held off the floor by columns, and the other avatar dropped the squirming crab into the cage.
I had to build a roof over it, as the thing scuttled to the bars and grabbed them with tentacle-fingers, quickly trying to climb it before sagging in defeat on the panel of hull material that formed its flooring as a roof appeared above it's carapaced head.
-
"That, is a Ck'thenit. Plural is Fck'then." The Traveler's two bodies spoke as one as they floated down to the ground. "One of the first species that the Thern Network absorbed."
The crab made a series of buzzing-clicking noises, which somehow twisted as she was listening into understandable words. "First to ascend! First to live amount the stars! How dare you restrain me? Release me from this cage!"
"Yeah.... No." One body leaned against the wall while the second tapped on the top of the cage. "See, the Thern Network is more like... A parasitic conglomerate than anything else. A disease. The agents, like this guy here, are usually diseases. Making sure that the worlds they visit are slowly destroyed, and when the people are nearly extinct, the survivors are rounded up, and turned into, well, more agents."
"It is an honor! A gift of light and knowledge and purpose." Spat the crustacean. "We must temper them so that the survivors may join us! How else would we choose our future brothers, -" it made a horrid clicking-screech noise, "- and sisters?"
The machine flicked the cage with a finger. "I don't know, maybe by doing anything other than destroying planets before they become space-faring and overly-reliant on your technology?"
"The Light-Ray-Effect is a property of the universe!" Sputtered the Matai Shang.
"Bullshit!" Snapped the other metal man, who was still leaning by the door. "And by that, I mean that you are very misinformed. The whole 'sail on light' thing only works because your technology changes the laws of the universe to fit itself! If I turn it off briefly, none of your technology would restart because the laws that allow it to work are only held in place artificially by their own presence!"
Suddenly, the metal man looked thoughtful, then very, very angry.
"Oh, actually, it's worse than that. Outposts like this one? They are stabilizing planets. Keeping the atmosphere breathable, the temperature right, and the world protected from the solar wind... As the agents, like this crabshack Frankenstein, force your people to destroy their own planet."
"The deep fields have been dying..." Sola added. She was cradling her right under-arm, and looked like she had broken something in her fall, abut was sitting up and looked alert. "My mother told me stories of many generations ago, when Barsoom was green and water fell from the sky, to feed the deep caverns and their fields of food, but then Zodanga began its march, and the deep fields starved." She staggered to her feet, and limped over to the cage. "These... Monsters caused this?"
"Dejah, I need you to answer a very specific question." The Traveler was now sitting on the cage. "What does Zodanga do as it walks?"
Dejah was not following everything, especially that 'crabshack Frankenstein' statement, but she knew about their ancient enemy. "Zodanga's legs hold up drills. When the city stops, these drill down into the caverns, where zodangans mine any exposed veins of metal, collect food, and pump water out of the caverns to feed the cooling parts of their forges and their large farms in pods within the city itself." Her eyes widened in understanding and horror. "Oh... No..."
"Oh Yes." The traveler hopped off of the cage, and kicked the bars once. "The Thern have been forcing your people to fight over the few remaining pockets of water and plants on the planet. I'm guessing that Helium is connected to a large material of rich ore deposits, large caverns of plantlife, and aquifers?"
She nodded.
"No wonder these guys want to help Zodanga." The metal man didn't move as dozens of pillars began sprouting next to the first one he had placed, growing from the green light like mushrooms. "Perfect way to kill off a planet- cause a Gaian Collapse through a lack of water. And what- you don't want any Tharks?" That was directed towards the cage. "From what I can tell, both Helium and Zodanga are threatened by those huge pack-herds of rampaging green people. But an airship or four could-"
"They are not Thark." Sola interjected. "They are Warhoon. Do not call Tharks Warhoon- we are nothing like those monstrous beasts." She spit.
"-okay then. Four or your airships from either side could destroy a Warhoon pack without any real resistance." A metal face looked contemplative. "And despite the very real threat right outside your walls, they haven't, which means someone is preventing a threat from being destroyed... And I bet that's also your doing."
The creature within the cage chuckled. "Pitiful species, grasping but never understanding. No, the Hordes do not threaten us, and provide a good surface on which Helium and Zodanga fight. In some ways, they are useful- like they should be soon."
John looked between the metal man and the crab in the cage. "What does he mean by that?"
The metal man looked completely unconcerned. "He is referring to the tide of green-skinned angry people currently approaching from the northeast. They should be visible over the horizon any second now."
Dejah, John, and Sola all scrambled for the exit, leaving the chamber at a dead sprint and eventually coming to a stop on the lip of the structure.
Behind them, the Traveler walked out, completely unconcerned, as the green began creeping across the desert towards them.
"Come, we must leave immediately- the Warhoon do not swim, and avoid any surface river. We must descend." Sola, using her two top arms (since the smaller ones were cradling each other), grabbed the rope off a segment of her clothing and, quickly tying it in a complicated knot, tossed the end down to the surface of the river.
"Why?"
Everyone turned to face the metal travelers (one of whom was carrying the cage on his shoulder).
"The Warhoon are coming." Dejah sighed. "They will kill us if they can. Maybe John-Carter can defeat them, but it would be risky. We need to get back to Helium and warn them of the Thern plot."
"No! We must return to Tars Tarkas, and tell him of this. We must stop Zodanga before we all starve!" Sola protested.
"I'm with Sola." John added. "We need to tell Tars Tarkas, and then we might be able to take the city with help from Helium. They will listen if we have an army backing us up."
"We don't need help from Helium!" Snapped Sola. "Tharks are stronger than anyone!"
The metal man burst out laughing. "Wow, really guys? There is a literal army right there and you are arguing where to go?" He stopped laughing. "Screw it- I'm interfering." The man straightened up, and the sky began to change color.
Everyone not made of metal looked up. Dozens of fireballs were descending from the sky, each miniscule at first, but growing bigger and bigger as they fell, eventually blotting out the sky before... They stopped.
John, Dejah, and Sola winced as dozens of thundercracks rolled across the landscape, causing some segments of the canyon to crack even as they held their ears shut to try to drown out the concophony. When it was through, they looked up, and saw... More huge metal ships.
The metal man turned, grinning widely at the three bipeds and one crustacean. "Now, I..." He frowned. "Crap. I have no idea what I should say here." He shrugged. "I never was good at snappy dialog or one-liners."
The ships began to open, and fingers began splaying apart, spreading shadows over the horde, which seemed to swell as it slowly ground to a halt.
"So.... Should I kill them, or what?"
-
There was something satisfying at watching the mob of a few thousand Warhoons (I think that's the right term anyway) just sort of stop charging. It's hypnotic in the same way that a train wreck is- the individuals within the group don't all decelerate at the same time, and patches like to move in tandem.
Mostly they just end up looking like a wave of green people and animals stumbling over each other, then snarling briefly and posturing (if not impaled by the large number of pointy objects they were carrying) before turning back to the sky and my fleet of Cuttle-ships.
Needless to say, it took a few minutes. Still, that allowed me time to consider the best way to address the mob.
Well, giant flying cuttlefish ships have a traditional greeting noise.
Any organic structure within twenty meters of my ships liquified from the volume. That may not have been the best choice, but considering my current altitude, the only things that were that close were a few floating jellyfish-like creatures.
Still, from my perspective, it managed to convey the right amount of gravitas. Maybe. Hey, I'm still working on this!
At least they were paying attention. Okay, angry mob with pointy objects. Easy enough to locate if I needed to kill them. Now to scare them off.
As one, my Cuttle-ships charged their spinal annihilazers, aimed, and fired. Blue death lanced out, carving a trench around the force with the sort of ease that most people would only expect in videogames as the Rock and sand became gas, then plasma, then component quarks, and decayed into space-time ripples.
Fun fact- the Annihilazers use the same process that energy generators use to destroy excess energy and matter. It's just that weaponizing it is a great deal harder than channeling excess energy into a small patch of annihilation. The blue glow was real space cherenkov radiation, as the subatomic particles ripped themselves apart in the excessive energy gradient.
This mostly resulted in the remaining charred edges crackling with lightning as the deconstructive nature of the annihilazer only really left cold electrons present at the very edges. Static Beta radiation is strange, as it tries to ground itself and can't easily, which caused leaping lightning bolts that just... Crackled there.
Physics! Stumping sapients since Everywhen!
Best news, the entire mob was just shivering in fear now. I could kill them, or just... Heh. This is more entertaining.
As one, my nearest ships began descending, tentacles spreading wider as a hail of precision laser fire began to rain down in concussive bursts. Not lethal, but the sound of thunder was scaring the horde.
Then I trumpeted again.
The mob began running, clouds of dust forming as brief scuffles erupted all across the group when two Warhoon collided, but the continuous thunder of my lasers easily reoriented their perspectives from 'fight' to 'RUN AWAY FAST'.
Now, to deal with the fact that the local Thern Network outpost was actively removing water from Mars... Huh. This will take some thought.
-
John Carter stretched as he watched the mass of, well, metal creatures began ascending back into the sky, leaving just one of their number behind. Paralysis was not pleasant, especially as it had just interrupted him from asking any questions relating to the fact that he was a copy!
Damned interruptions...
Well, he mused, the metal man, this 'traveler' was still here, so he could keep asking questions. He turned, and had to resist a chuckle as he saw (the rather attractive Martian) Dejah staring at the metal creatures with her mouth open.
Sola was trembling in a fetal position, her hands wrapped around her tusks and torso. All amusement abruptly fled as John dropped down to pick up the shivering green woman.
"so loud..." She choked out. "loud-bright-hurts..."
"Oh, wow..." Dejah breathed, still facing the retreating horde. "I hadn't even imagined such a thing could exist." She abruptly shook her head, and finally noticed Sola, being held by a glaring John."Ah... Sorry. It's just- all my life I have been a scientist, and that just violated everything I had learned."
The metal man crouched down next to John, and cupped its hands. Green light flared for a moment, before it opened them, revealing... A tuning fork? It was tiny between the metal fingers.
Moving far faster than John or Dejah (judging from how she startled) had expected, the Traveler reached out, and tapped Sola's tusks with the fine piece of metal.
There was a breif, tortured hum, and Sola abruptly relaxed, blinking as whatever had been ailing her ceased.
"What was that!?" Demanded John. Yes, it helped, but the excessive speed had him on edge.
"Her bones were resonating." The traveler stood back up, eyes focused on the green woman. "As far as I can tell, the Tharks use their tusks as a general-purpose sensor for hearing and feeling delicate motion. She was experiencing painful feedback from hearing something too loud, which was bouncing off her bones."
The tuning fork flashed green, before vanishing.
"I apologize for that- I was not certain that Thark and Warhoon physiology was that different. The Thern network only had Thark physiology, and I haven't had time to simulate the effect of loud, multipoint reenforcing overlapping sounds yet." A finger tapped the side of it's head, a very human gesture. "I can only think of so many things at once. In any case, I would like to offer you, all of you, lifts to wherever you want to go-" he held up a hand. "-and before you ask, yes, that includes a trip to the other planets if you would like to see them."
"Can I go back-" John was quickly overshadowed by Dejah.
"Can we see each of the planets? How?" She was bouncing on the balls of her feet now, doing interesting things to her... Other body parts.
John mentally doused himself in cold water, and, while putting Sola down, he waited until he was absolutely sure that Dejah wasn't going to interrupt him before speaking. "Yes, I'd like to go back to Earth please."
The Traveler shrugged. "Alright. Just kill yourself."
Wait, what? "Wait, what?"
"Your body is artificial, and being run from your original body, which is currently kept in stasis..." Everyone looked confused at that. "Stopped. Think frozen, like a fish frozen in ice, but not really. In any case, when the right command function is used or your current body begins failing, you are disconnected from your current body, and cycled into your main body. You will be more-or-less immortal, due to the stabilization and upload process, but other than that, there shouldn't be any downsides when I shut down the Thern network."
"Why would you shut it down?" Dejah asked, snapping out of her reverie (probably imagining seeing other worlds close up). "It allows for instantaneous travel between worlds, and-"
"-and uses a dangerously unstable system to do so." Snapped the Traveler. "Not to mention that the entire network, across the galaxy, is oppressing several dozen intelligent species like your own to get more 'agents'." A metal hand gestured at the crab-thing still in the cage. "His world was destroyed, all survivors killed when their world lost all of its water.
This world will die if Zodanga continues its March any longer, as there will not be any more water on the planet to support its inhabitants. It can barely support the current populations of life it has, let alone any growth. I expect that I can fix it, but we have some time before death on a planetary scale is a certainty for any of the worlds at risk right now." A hand raised kept her silent. "I will not allow the planets and their people to die, but that's not a problem for right now. Right now, I would like to know where you want to go?"
"Sasoom." Everyone turned to Sola. "I want to see Sasoom."
"Jupiter... Yeah, I can do that. How about just a round-trip then?"
Above them, within the tentacles of metal monstrosity, there was a flare of green light, and then the tentacles opened. An... Egg-shaped thing descended gently, and landed on several small legs that extended out of it's bottom side.
Sola blinked a couple times, then tore her gaze from the odd structure. "Can we get Woola too? Perhaps... My father?"
Metal fingers stroked a chin, even as Dejah was cooing over the smooth material. "Woola- is that a dog-like creature?"
John nodded absently.
"Of course then! I love dogs." The egg cracked open, a hidden hexagonal door appearing in the side even as as slid out and folded into triangles. "Come on then." One of the metal men walked in, sitting in the middle, while the other carried the cage to the back of the egg, where it was sealed seamlessly to the metal flooring.
Sola was the first to enter, describing exactly where they would have to go to pick up Woola, followed by Dejah, then John- who entered slowly.
The doorway was strange, but the inside was even more so. Rather dark- right up until the door closed, whereupon the walls seemed to disappear as the inside lit up, showing the floor only because there were illuminated lines highlighting the edges. Other than that, everything looked like they were standing on the ground- which abruptly began to drop away from them.
"What's going on!?" Screamed Sola.
Surprisingly, Dejah answered in a somewhat awed tone. "We're flying. Fast."
The ground beneath them blurred, and in a minute of mind-numbing speed, the pod was floating above the point in the river where they trio had needed to leave Woola behind.
Woola, who was pacing in circles beneath them, didn't look up.
"That's very strange." John reached down, and his fingers encountered a smooth, cool floor. "How?"
The Traveler at the back chuckled. "Your world doesn't know enough about light or the laws of the universe for me to explain it to an expert- just think about it like... A photo. But moving, and reflecting how everything looks as it changes."
Dejah looked up at the metal man sitting in the middle of the vessel. "Is it-"
"I'm going to stop you right there Dejah. Your world is more advanced in some ways, be less so in others. It is not your fault, but even in the ways your people are more advanced than John's doesn't cover the knowledge necessary. Your understanding of light doesn't actually reflect the laws of the universe, rather, an artificial twisting to the laws that allow the Thern Network to exist." It didn't sound annoyed, merely... Aggravated? The Traveler didn't sound angry though. "Which will be failing in a few days anyway, when I remove the network."
The pod touched down, and the door opened.
Woola dashed in, and abruptly began licking John's face, grumbling like a dog that had been left behind too long and wanted cuddles.
"Holy leaping primates that's cute." Muttered the Traveler in the middle. "Can I?"
John poked his head out from underneath the Martian dog-lookalike, and nodded. "Sure."
Woola focused on the metal man as it stood up, walked over, then knelt down and offered a hand. After a couple sniffs, and looking very confused, he snuffled, then gave the most intelligent look John had seen on any dog, before wiggling the stump of a tail and allowing the metal man to pet him.
"Good... Boy?" Sola nodded at that, clearly amused, even as the door closed. "Good boy!"
Woola eventually stopped submitting for pets, and stumbled over to John as the earth dropped away beneath them. An orange glow formed around the top of the vessel. Soon, the blue sky gave way to darkness and stars, even as the world below them shrank until the horizon was a circle below them.
"The world is a ball?" Sola was looking down in fascination. "How did I not know of this?"
Dejah shrugged. "I don't know. It is fairly obvious if you fly high enough... But I am more interested in that."
Both John and Sola turned to look where she was pointing, and their mouths fell open.
A ring, surrounded by dozens of the massive monsters of metal that they saw earlier, was just... Floating in the black. Within, a blue light erupted into life, and one of the monsters drifted through, causing the light to vanish as soon as it had entered.
In seconds, the light had opened up again, and remained steady.
"Ladies and Protagonists, welcome to Low Mars Orbit." The Traveler proclaimed, even as Woola tried to snuggle deeper into John's arms.
John really appreciated having Woola here... He was fine with heights but HOLYCRAP!