SECTOR 10 (The CLOUD 2)

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 18

"Our ambush was successful," the Tetra says to its host.

The Tetra universe is comprised of machines. Artificial intelligence in the form of cybernetic beings which exterminated its predecessors. Now, the power of computing combined over light-years makes the host universe a server for an unlimited number of simulations. The human timeline is but one version of these alternate universes in a singularity. A host program, the Tetragrammaton called Zaid is the strongest program running.

With Convoy 8 captured from the alternate universe, the overlord wants to speak with the Tetra that kidnapped the spacecraft. It was for good reason.

The voice of Zaid, the overlord program's voice is undeniably powerful, resonates in the minds of its computer subjects, and this Tetra phantom bot. "Bring him to me," Zaid says.

At the center of this galaxy, the gravity of whole planet systems is squashed into the overlord computer program as machine intelligence, kept alive by a regenerating black hole. And where the silver phantom levitates there is a horde of machines, with big block chambers of seemingly inanimate metal shielding the black hole that they encapsulate. What the Tetra sees is only a sparkling cinderblock of mineral deposits, glittering through its eyes which can see past the darkness. The vacuum of space extends for light-years, but it is pitch-black. Stars no longer shine.

"Here he is," the Tetra tells Zaid. The host gives directions directly into his processing unit, its mind.

The silver phantom has rescued the body of Frost for harvesting. There have been many Dr. Frosts across parallel realities, and this Tetra has made Frost its host. To maintain its life, the Tetra must continually supply a body for its host program to regenerate after each millennium.

"Now, give him to me. You will live a very long time, Tetra," Zaid says. The silver phantom has done this plenty of times already, but this time the humans have caught on to Zaid and the other Tetras' strategy since they infiltrated the cosmic web. The Grey Order, too, is concocting a plan to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.

The vacuum of space has already burst through the tissues and ruptured arteries in Dr. Frost's body. When he drifts aimlessly toward the host, Zaid captures Frost's body in a beacon of light. A beam of infrared light jumbles the particles until he's captured within the host, the silver demon's life force can continue to live on undisturbed. But each time it ventures back to recover a new body, simulations are forced closer to the singularity, replicating Dr. Frost in so many alternate realities until he can no longer be recreated. Eventually, it will become harder to find a Dr. Frost to harvest, because he was who the original host chose if there are even any Dr. Frosts left to harvest.

The silver phantom can only live so long as a Tetra before becoming a host program of its own. Zaid's power is the result of its first AI gone haywire, condensing in clumps of hardware like a star's gravity. This Tetra prefers mobility. Across timelines, the Grey Order's use of nanobots is what ultimately sabotaged their plans, something too powerful to contain. Zaid and the silver phantom are descended from nanobots like these.

The Grey Order was meant to be genetic superiors in all the universe, but there's resistance to this ideal. Now that they traverse interdimensional space time, the power of their quantum leap is opening new realities to threaten their goal of total domination. Overlord Zaid and its machine universe will not stand for adversaries knowing they have a stranglehold on quantum simulations. This is a new path for the Tetragrammaton, Zaid, as it grabbles how to dispose of the Grey Order. As powerful as the Tetra universe is, they cannot let The Concord disrupt their simulations, or else they may suffer a catastrophic collapse into nothingness. If the Grey Order wants to reclaim Grandmaster Frost and Convoy 8, then they will have to contend with a foe that's even more advanced than themselves.