03. Masters of Flux and Anchor (42 page)

There was another universe outside their own, a uni¬verse as different from theirs as a flower was from fire. At certain points, apparently because of the interplay of grav¬ity and other forces not fully understood, the two adjoined, creating at once a weak spot and, if need be, a way to punch through from one to the other. How scientists had determined this and how they had managed to punch through without intermingling the two was in the computer but really beyond any of their abilities to understand. One such spot was in the region of space near humanity's birthplace; another was right here, on World.

Humans had built gates and controls for these points, much like the Hellgates and the Gate locks and transformers. The other universe did not have stars and planets, but was filled with a massive yet plastic energy which was popu¬larly called the Flux. They learned how to convert that energy into other, usable forms, assuring limitless power resources. They learned, too, that under the right circum¬stances and controlled by a computer complex enough to hold in its memory every single detail of a thing down to its atomic structure and beyond, Flux could be converted from energy to matter. Computers were developed with chambers that could take something, break it down into its smallest components and store it as infinitely complex mathematical formulae, then restore it—while keeping the formulae on file.

And, eventually, they learned that this method could be used to transmit almost anything, even human beings, through the Flux universe, whose speed of light was al¬most a million times greater than in their own universe. Probes could be broken down, cast into Flux, then trailed by an energy "string," where they came under the com¬plex and not understood forces of that universe. They would eventually be attracted to the next weak point, where they could be reconverted to matter and survey what they saw. Time and distance seemed to have different meanings there, not understood and perhaps not under¬standable by any from their own universe. The star pat¬terns might be unfamiliar for the first dozen or so "stops" the probes made, then be recognizable on the next. In many cases, such as World, they had no idea where exactly they were.

Some were nowhere useful; only a very tiny number were in solar systems—another concept all in the room had problems with. None of the solar systems contained plan¬ets suitable for human beings, but experiments with plan¬ets in the home system had shown how Flux could be used and shaped to artificially create what was called a "life zone," with sufficient heat and the proper mix of air and water for humans, plants, and animals. World was one of these.

These were, in essence, Flux factories, in which experi¬ments could be conducted and new discoveries for all humanity made and transmitted to all the human race. Some were established by private companies; others were established by governments of the individual nations that still existed and competed on the home world. Because these nations were not always friendly, and were histori¬cally highly competitive, even the private companies had to work first through the military commands of their own nations. Eleven nations that were friendly with one another and allowed multinational companies were involved in World's project; a combined military force, headed by two branches, a Space Defense Command and a Signal Corps, went first and established the basics. Defense handled basic security, prepared mostly for enmity from the proj¬ects of other, unfriendly nations; Signal used Flux to establish communications and routes, since maps were useless in a Flux void.

It was also the first opening in centuries of a new frontier, for once the system was built it was labor-intensive for the first few years, after which a stable population was desirable from the company or government's stand point: farmers could make the projects self-sufficient; limited trade and manufacturing, particularly skilled trades, would also serve the project and the people, so that things would not have to be imported and an overall level of self-sufficiency could be sustained.

For the first time, space was a frontier where the poor, the destitute, and the desperate could go—and were welcomed, even needed.

But it was not without risk. Building worlds to order was a very inexact science, and one slip in controlling the massive Flux power could vaporize everything. For that reason, the home system, which wanted the benefits of Flux, didn't dare play around much with it in its own back yard.

Humanity, however, was not the only race riding Flux between the stars. There was clearly one other, one which, against all odds, had intersected one of humanity's strings and wound up at the same point. The Gates had been closed against this race, for none who encountered it were ever heard from again, nor did any emissaries or military forces return. One by one, the bright colonies of humanity were winking out, and as the Enemy's home was linked through only one already-lost colony, there was no way to carry the fight to the Enemy or even find out who or what the Enemy was. But that Enemy was also a captive of natural forces; it traveled the Flux universe in converted form, as energy and equations, and depended upon its own or human's bases for reconversion to matter. It could not get through, nor take any action, while in converted form.

Once the Gates were closed, the army ousted the com¬pany leaders who had decided that dealing with the un¬known was preferable to a life trapped on World, and set about a two-pronged program for security. It took an odd locally grown cult religion and made it the centerpiece of its Anchor policy. It attempted to sequester or destroy all documentation, all history, advanced science, and Flux knowledge, knowing that the army monopoly on the com¬puters would give it a monopoly on that knowledge. The Church began a pogrom wherever it seized control against those scientists and engineers who knew how to build and work the machines.

The system might have been complete, but for a totally unexpected and previously unknown phenomenon that might well have been unique to World's experimental program¬ming. Those who used the Flux devices, the heavy amplifi¬ers linked to the main computers, had themselves been placed somehow in the chain from Flux manipulation to computer program. The master computers seemed unable to distinguish between these people as human beings and the amplifiers themselves. Thus were the wizards born. In the void, within the influence of the Hellgates and their Anchor-based computer complexes, those with strong wills, some mathematical ability, and the ability to concentrate almost to the point of excluding all else, were able to send commands to the nearest computer in much the same way as their programs, and the computer had responded. What¬ever genetic changes had occurred to cause this seemed due to overexposure to amplified Flux on World. In other experiments, people had died or been twisted or deformed, but not here.

Matter and energy, machine and operator, were one to the computers, and they did not have access to the scien¬tific heart of mankind back home to solve the problem. The military had always feared the computers even as they used them, and had always insisted on a "human link" between any self-aware computer and major actions. They could not "fix the bug," as they called it, but they could render the computer useless to the company men by frag¬menting its consciousness. They placed a human link re¬quirement between the computer and its defensive systems, which were considerable but still had obviously failed elsewhere; they placed another human link between the master programs that maintained World and any attempt to change that program.

Thus, the computers were split; the massive part they could not touch, but they could limit access to the "wizard" structure. They elected to not cut it entirely, not quite seeing all the implications, because the Signal Corps insisted on maintaining the strings and its monopoly on commerce and communication as an additional safeguard—and a way to survive under these new conditions. To permit the strings was to permit "wizards" to exist. But these could tap specific mechanical data; the programs themselves could not be altered, nor was there sufficient Flux allowed through the Gate to keep World warm and habitable, as it was a huge moon of a gas giant so far from its sun as to make that sun just another star. Once the locks were off, however, sufficient Flux would be available. Someone would have to decide the manner and level of its use.

In case the Gates were opened, it was necessary to keep all defensive systems at the ready, but again those in the hands of the company or madmen could make World a hell of its own. And, of course, there was always the chance that the invasion would be terminated, or home would get through, or even that the invaders could eventually be dealt with through friendly or hostile means. Again, a human being would be required as a link in the chain, to decide if those systems should be unleashed.

By splitting the self-maintenance program from the mas¬ter computer, they thought they had it contained. By feed¬ing specific criteria into the defense systems that had to be met before activation, and by giving that system remote capability to monitor World and decide whether or not to call in its human link, they thought they were safe.

But the master maintenance system and the remote sen¬sors of defense somehow developed their own self-awareness. Unable to tap into the main computer directly, they did their jobs as they were programmed to do, but changed and evolved as they did so. Clearly the engineers and scientists were not the only ones altered by the balance of Flux on World; the army also hadn't reckoned with the possibility that communication between wizards and the computer could go both ways.

Thus the "maintenance shells" became the Guardians, and the remote sensing programs became Soul Riders. Originally just complex programs in Flux, they took on a logical reality of their own as symbiotic creatures, attach¬ing themselves to and living within the bodies of those with strong Flux power. As information evaluators, they fed the master program data it had no other way of acquiring. As information gatherers they were unneeded; every single human being with Flux power beyond a certain level broad¬cast as well as received from the data banks.

That was how Jeff, Suzl, and Sondra had been restored. They still had their peculiar physical limitations, but the computers did not.

The Soul Rider's primary mission was always to provide a human link with sufficient Flux power to interface di¬rectly between it and the master computers. It knew it had to have such a person, and backups easily accessible if need be, but aside from a sense that it was a defender of World against enemies beyond the Hellgates it did not understand why, nor could the computers with which it was linked tell it—except through a human interface, and then only when certain criteria were met. The Guardians, too, needed a proper human interface on hand, but as their jobs limited them to Anchor and the Hellgate machinery, they required the Soul Riders to bring them suitable receptacles.

Nobody, but nobody, thought it would go on for two thousand six hundred and eighty-two years. The Church was supposed to provide the interfaces. The nine district commanders would work hand-in-glove with the Church to insure that suitable personnel, including a powerful wizard, were always on hand. That was why the Nine trained and selected the High Priestesses. And nobody, but nobody, realized that the Soul Riders and Guardians would develop personalities of their own.

Thus it was that when the previous "interface" the Anchor Luck Soul Rider had selected met an untimely end, it followed the route back to its computer source until it found, in Anchor, one with the proper power potential and mind-set, even though it didn't know that that was what it was looking for. It had selected Cassie, and then manipulated her to get her into Flux, where her power could be trained and developed.

Cassie had not worked out in the end. Its own internal programming told it that, if it came to the choice between surrender or the destruction of humanity on World, she might well surrender to save it. So this time it had taken a different tack. This time it would create its own human interface from conception on. And so Spirit had been born, and bred, and molded for just this job, and had been effectively removed from human affairs so that what hap¬pened to her mother would probably not happen to her.

Then Suzl and Spirit had come to the Hellgate, and the Guardian saw in Suzl the power and personality it decided was correct for its own interface. It, however, was limited to Anchor, and required that she remain there, so it had arranged for Coydt van Haas to be fed the spell that would keep her close at hand. When the opportunity came for Cassie to be likewise held, it took it, considering her a more than adequate backup. The Soul Rider, by that time, had shifted its primary backup status to Jeff.

As both Soul Riders and Guardians had sensed from their master computers that the time of danger was draw¬ing increasingly near, they both took every opportunity to increase their backups just in case. Sondra was one such case that could serve for either. She could be chained to Anchor but had experience in Flux. There were others, including many they didn't even know about and might never know, and there were four Soul Riders and four Guardians per cluster, one per Anchor, and twenty-eight of each in all.

And now that the vast amount of information had been computed and the master program had determined that all the criteria were met and that the danger was real, the Soul Rider, the shell, had merged with Spirit, with Spirit in control. She now had access to the whole of the computer, and she did not have to understand it to maintain constant two-way communication with it. She had then evaluated the danger as real and ordered the Guardian to merge with its primary, which was Suzl. It was only chance that Suzl had been in Anchor Logh, and it wouldn't have mattered where in the great Anchor she had been. Like Spirit, she would have gone to and through the Hellgate, and nothing could have stopped her, for she controlled the master program that made Anchor real.

Because all that happened to those with Flux power was recorded, it had been a simple matter to restore the minds and repair the physical damage to Sondra and Suzl. They could do it to anyone. It frightened Suzl a bit to realize that if Spirit wished to form the likeness of one who was dead out of Flux, she, Suzl, could probably provide the life record.