SL: Chapter 769 – Day 28,364 – Subtle Confrontation

Clarissa had four guards with her as she followed me through the large white structure with falling water. I could tell that everyone other than me was uncomfortable by the amount of energy in the air. No one said anything though.

We reached the large doors which swung open and slowly advanced towards the raised dais in the center of this indoor lake. The doors didn’t close behind us, which I didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing.

“Greetings, I am Clarissa. Michael asked me to come here and speak with you regarding the coordination of the task you assigned him and for the movement of people to the escape vessel,” Clarissa said.

Artifex slowly opened her eyes. Golden light spilled out of them. “I don’t know if I should applaud your audacity or punish it.” The tension quickly increased.

“If I have offended you, I apologize. Please let me know of my error so I can correct it in the future,” Clarissa said.

“Your concerns and plans to deal with me. Laughable. I am not some human that is limited. I am far beyond any of you and I have direct access to the controls of this place. I can see into the recent past, your scheming, your plans, they are laid bare.”

All of Clarissa’s guards collapsed to their hands and knees. An overwhelming pressure bore down on all of us. “Working with you is advantageous. But it is not necessary.” Clarssia was struggling to stay on her feet.

“Your actions raise questions. You say you have limited control over this place, but wouldn’t that make this place more powerful than you?” Clarissa challenged with a fierce glare. The pressure increased some more, forcing her to her knees.

“This place is falling apart. A forgotten relic of a lost civilization. Turning it on to access its energy reserves and to hide, woke you humans up. But including you or saving you was never my goal. Right now the benefits of helping out your people outweighs the downsides. But you still live at my mercy,” Artifex declared without hesitation of reconciliation.

“You seek to be in charge?” I asked, while mentally preparing for a fight.

“I do not seek such a position. I am taking such a position. You see everything that has happened before this point and wonder, you lash out, but ultimately it is not a concern. You can either choose to fight or choose to cooperate.”

“Cooperate,” Clarissa said, and the pressure disappeared. She slowly stood back up along with her guards.

“I do not like to engage is such pointless bickering, but you do not understand our respective positions. I can see that you are still scheming, still planning. A testament to your tenacity, but also a flaw.”

“Trust requires understanding what the other side values. You understand what we value, our lives, our people, our comfort, and knowledge. But appearing in this form. And not understanding your motivations, creates mistrust,” Clarissa said.

“A reasonable argument, but you don’t want to just understand me. You want to have leverage over me.”

“If you are as powerful as you say, understanding your desires will only help us serve you, avoiding misunderstandings, and with your proclaimed power we are no threat.”

“A threat no. But an annoyance that can tip the scales during a future confrontation, yes. But I suppose you will not stop. Very well, let us have a dialogue and you can ask your questions. Afterwards you will serve and obey. No plots. No scheming. I will not give out a warning. I will simply erase you. That is the price of understanding,” Artifex declared.

“That is-“

“Michael. I understand the risks. What Artifex is asking isn’t unreasonable. If we have complaints or concerns we will bring them up directly. No plots. No scheming,” Clarissa said decisively while glancing at me. She then turned back to the alien sitting above us.

“What is it that you desire? And why the human body?” Clarissa asked.

“Complicated questions. But my desire is to continue to exist and to elevate myself. Reality is a constant struggle. This place was designed to create useful individuals for The Collective. The thing you call the sphere, the Ancient, and even myself would be considered threats to be fought and killed.” I listened to closely as this alien explained itself and its goals.

“The substance you know as energy, is incredibly valuable. The challenge is getting enough of it and advancing in strength past a certain point. That’s why I chose a biological body. A body that had experience in viewing before. But while the base form might seem human, I am constantly making changes,” Artifex explained.

“My mind isn’t fully moved over. I can rush the process, but that would create complications. I have to manage this entire place, from the forces that seek to consume the energy that is a part of it.”

“You can’t use the meta-points saved up here?” Clarissa asked.

“They are part of the method of advancement in strength used by the Collective. It is quite ingenious and clever. But at the same time it is limiting. Once you people leave this place, there will be no way to increase your strength. The portable stores will no longer work,” Artifex declared.

“What? Then how are we to survive?” Clarissa asked.

“Shaping matter to food is trivial. And I will include such machines on the vessel we will depart on. Along with an atmosphere and habitable environment. But you want to know why the 20,000 limit?”

“Yes. If you have so much power, can’t we save more people or put them in storage?” Clarissa asked.

“I have power yes. But even I am limited. The vessel is made of special materials and its size cannot be adjusted without significant resources. Resources that I do not have. Resources that don’t exist here. It isn’t just energy, but energy shaped in a specific way and structured with the material used. The production facilities don’t exist. And manually creating everything is exhausting. The strength required would be too much. Even 20,000 is the absolute upper limit.”

“You can’t use the energy of this place? From the monsters?” Clarissa asked.

“Trivial for the most part. The scales I operate are immense. And to put it in terms you understand, its like writing on a piece of paper. I can’t just take that paper and reuse it easily. It also increases the risk of issues occurring if I am not careful in energy use.”

“The monsters, the things through the exit?” Clarissa asked.

“Yes. They are incredibly dangerous. Memetic and highly capable. They proliferate through energy. This entire place is one big meal. I could speed things up, if I didn’t care how this place functioned. If I wiped out a lot of functions, like the stores, atmosphere, the physics, and monsters. But I am not your enemy.”

“Thank you, for that.”

“Indeed. As for storage, that is impossible. Once energy is part of your existence, you can’t be put into storage like the Collective has done for your civilization. It is like compressing water. It is possible, but the difficulty increases rapidly. If you were willing to store people like bricks, then the number could be increased, but that would only create resentment. Even 20,000 people will be quite packed.”

“Michael said your vessel is quite large,” Clarissa said.

“And most of the space has various devices and other important structures that I am currently constructing. You can’t put people inside the engine. Or in this case a spatial compressor. Even with the size, your people will be packed into bunks.”

“What will happen once we leave this place?” Clarissa asked.

“Finding some corner to set up in. Gathering more energy, improving my strength. You people will need to figure out how to reverse engineer The Collective’s methods. It will take time and not be easy. I estimate a hundred thousand of your years to make the smallest amount of progress,” Artifex said.

“What? That long? But can’t you just copy the stuff here?” I asked. Clarissa sent me a glare, but Artifex didn’t seem to mind the questions.

“As you humans say, the devil’s in the details. The more one layers energy to strengthen themselves, the harder things become. The complexity is exponential, not linear. That is why the Collective’s system works like it does. It is about managing resource expenditure to use.”

“Can we take whatever program is running this place?” Clarissa asked.

“It is integrated into this entire training facility. It is not truly sapient, but it is immensely complex. The core architecture, takes up space approximately a hundred times the size of this building.”

“That large?!” Clarissa asked in shock.

“Yes. The easier something is to use, the greater the complexity behind its operation. At least that is my experience with energy.”

“What, or who exactly are you Artifex?” Clarissa asked.

“My history is complex and private. But I will give you a brief overview of my millions of cycles of existence. I was originally created as a thinking program to be used in combat. You would describe me as an artificial intelligence, but that description is not accurate. I am more than just a heuristic logic program. I have a mind and a soul,” Artifex said.

“The sphere you fought, most likely referred to me as a Calculator. An insult but not totally inaccurate. I am energy given form that can think and plan. I experienced a battle, which injured me, and I escaped to this place to hide and recover.”

“And the human body?” Clarissa asked.

“It is more versatile in certain ways. Biology is easier to improve than mechanical components. Call it a quirk of energy, or a law of Reality itself. But if I am being forced to start over, then I prefer to have the best starting point for increasing my strength that I can. As for this specific form, it is the familiarity. That is why I wanted the child that was conceived by two individuals with high amounts of energy. I had been hoping to use such a body.”

“You aren’t upset about that?” I asked, since I had killed him.

“I am annoyed. But I do not blame you for killing him. But if he had been brought here, to me, then things would proceed more smoothly. Once that plan failed and then the sphere was defeated, I decided to go another direction and create this body.”

That was a lot to take in, but some unclear points had been cleared up.