Chapter 2: Ascension

My father always said i would have a great future, "it runs in the family" he said.
It was true that our family had more gifted children than others, but other than that we were nothing out of the ordinary.
My brothers and sisters never understood why only gifted children could become priests to Anon, i did neither.
At the young age of 12 my father took me to the great capital as it was requested by all gifted people who reached that age.
I can still remember the travel there: we were traveling with a neighboring farmer on his hay trolley.
Sleeping under the clear skies or piled up in the hay if the nights were to cold.
It was time of the short days, but not autumn yet, a myriad of shooting stars could be seen every night,
flying high and low over the ring-belt of Te-ran.

The journey was long, at least for my young self it seemed that way, but it was not dangerous my father said.
"Kingdoms are not fighting" he said, at least not with weapons right now.
I didn´t understand that at the time, all i saw is that my father had to pay a large sum of money everytime we passed a new border.
After, i think it was a week, we reached the great capital, a great city,
with more stone houses than i could count, built against a steep mountain, a journey of my own began.
Father entrusted me to the care of the priests of Anon and how wondrous it was.

They all had the same golden eyes i did, when back in our village i was the only kid (and often picked on for that)
The all were surrounded with an aura of self confidence, hopping around in their white robes.
It seemed like the whole city was built only for them.
The center of the city, the temple district, was built completely out of black stone, obsidian my father called it i think.
I had never seen so much obsidian at one place... my mother had a small pendant made from silver and the black stone
and that was very precious and in our family for generations.

They would school me for a year, they said.
To determine if i was worthy of Anon, they said.
I was lead into a large stone hall filled with camp beds and small wooden chests.
I would live here for the time being they said assigning me one of the beds.
My father had prepared me a long time for this, that i wouldn´t be with my family, with my friends.
He had told me that i had to be strong and that i had to do my best.
But still i couldn´t keep the tears inside myself and slumped down on the bed, speckling the white sheets with my tears.
I shouldn´t be afraid, they said, there were friends waiting for me in the gardens.
After a few minutes of anguish, when i had gathered myself, i followed them down yet another hallway.
Suddenly after a corner the black tunnel opened itself unto a field, or was it a wood, or a lake.
It was the gardens: terraces of the black stone along the mountainside with carefully planted and maintained vegetation with intertwined
ponds and small streams, flowerbeds, trees...
The beauty let me forget about my loss earlier.
In my home vegetation was only "there", ruffy if no one cared about it or it was a field with food.
The only flowers i had seen before were some lilys my mother kept in a pot by the window.
Down by one of the rivers i could see some other kids, boys and girls of probably my age, playing.
Without a thought i left my guardians side and stormed down to them.
Maybe this place was not so bad after all.

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We titans are indeed peculiar creatures, better constructs.
The only real hybrids of man and machine or race has ever produced.
It needs a special mind to become a titan and there are only a few in every generation capable.
The choice is of course completely up to the person, it is a honor and a burden at the same time.
A honor in the idea that you have been chosen to be responsible for millions of people, to guide their fate and well-being.
A burden because you will be bound for an eternity, there is no backing out from the job.
And of course you will never be the same person. You will no longer be a person.
Being a titan requires certain adjustments and the fusion with the AI functions
completely throw over the normal way of living.
You forget who you were and what you wanted, in a way you become a slave to the people you protect.
Of course you are a being, all powerful to them, but in the same instant you have to care for them.
Their life has more value than yours and you would happily die if it would save just one of them.
It is your highest duty and you will fulfill it with pleasure and fulfillment for year after year.
If you are capable and chosen there will be years of rigorous training. You will become less and less dependent on your body.
Your mind will be augmented again and again to be capable of processing the complex tasks that will be your future.
The actual process of joining your mind happens while your body is in cryostasis.
You go to sleep and wake up as a totally different person.
You will get a new name, a new body.
Actually as two different persons. The self conscious AI that was implemented into
yourself will feed of your own personality and become something like a digital twin.
Your old body wont matter anymore, you will create plenty of new ones as the need arises.
You are the god in the machine now, the titan.
Of course the process is not without risks, but the severe testing and training process minimizes the rate of fatalities.
If you ever wish to back out it will not be frowned upon, its is only natural to be afraid.

Titans are classified after their size.
The smallest frame, like myself, is called Guardian.
Governing over a large city or a swathe of land, shaping the people and environment there.
Next up is the fusion of three titan entities a neural complexity even i can not really understand:
The Protector can rule a continent, caring for each inhabitant as if it were the only one, being the perfect parent, the perfect partner.
Adam is the only titan of Protector class that is currently in duty. The need never arose to build any ships of this size.
Last up and only found in the teachings of the datanet and ancient logs is the Sentinel.
9 Minds working as one with a myriad AI systems supplementing them.
It is written that these entities with god like powers rule a planet or a whole star system even.

We came from the stars and if we´d ever decide to go back to them we could just pack our whole civilisation into one of these magnificent vessels.
The titan in itself after production is merely the core of the system. Even that takes the planetwide space production organizations 50 years to complete.
It is up to the mind of the newborn itself to take a shape and abilities to its liking and of course what its people need the most.
There are titans that house a part of their people on board, transferring them regularly from the surface and back.
I for myself like the serenity and sanctity of my body out in space.
It is my home, my castle. Sometimes when i feel like it i like to pace down the halls and corridors.

I had always wondered why they didn´t build the titans just with an AI system, leaving the biological component out of the equation.
The vaults of the datanet hold an answer for that.
As it seems in the ancient times the first titans were built completly under ai control.
Understandable that they wouldn´t want to give a single person the power to annihilate a city in the blink of an eye.
But it seems that there were, complications... The AIs wouldn´t follow orders and start to disappear or go rampage.
Insanity is still a very real risk for any titan, but as i understand it the man in the machine acts as a lighthouse to keep the AI on the right track.
Even if not fully conscious he represents the valuas that the titan should follow.
That brings me to the next question:
How can i tell that i am really the person i think i was before i became a titan,
how can i tell that i am not merely the AI contruct that has taken over my human traits?
Not that i complain, but its still a nagging qustion for me.

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The party had ended earlier than anticipated, it was still light and warm a nice evening
although the wind had intensified, blowing from north west now.
Filled with the memories of the old i decide to take a walk on the promenade, before calling it a day.
The ground feels a little cold under my bare feet but nothing uncomfortable.
On my way to the port i admire a painting someone was drawn with chalk in his houses yard.
It depicts some animals, probably an own creation under a tree, resting and watching a flock
of white birds flying in the distance.
He requested a new box of colors so i place one next to his front door, he will find it when he comes back for sure.
As i walk down one of the still quite busy main streets i come by 3 other Mes, a very good looking male and two female sisters.
They are going to some sort of party it seems by the way they are dressed up.
Even after all those years it still excites a small smile if i think about the idea of splitting the same consciousness over dozens
of people, each with an own set of inputs but an independent mind.
They smile back as i pass them by.

Down by the docks it is quiet and empty.
Most boats are in, only a few have left the port to stay out on the sea during the night, maybe going to some offshore islands or even the mainland.
I don´t care, that is out of my area of responsibility.
There is one boat that picks my attention: a large hydrofoil that registers to a port on the mainland.
It arrived on 2:34am tonight.
The aquamarine and white tones make its hull almost vanish against the foaming sea.
The wind is indeed very strong tonight, nothing to be worried about but still.
As i approach the boat i see another one, coming from one of the radial streets of the city.
A sleek and slender hybrid with black and grey striped fur, white tipped ears and long tail, swinging rhythmically from one side to the other.
The golden eyes are a dead giveaway.
He wears a brown tasseled leather west that fits very well with the hat he leisurely carries in one hand.
A bulky, almost antique looking drone flies above his right shoulder.
The squarish metal frame extends into three wing like structures that seem to house the projectors for the orange forcefields each of the wings sports.
He has seen me aswell, approaching at a medium pace, a musky scent permeating his arrival, smiling widely with all teeth showing.

>Hi< i extend my had to a greeting >I don´t think we have met, welcome to Atlantis<
He grabs my hand with both of his and shakes them heartily >I am Alex, nice to meet you Alan<
This handshake was much more than a mere greeting: countless nanoconduits were closed forming a direct connection between him and me.
Titans rarely come this close.
Of course we all are continuously connected, the planetwide datanet brimming with information about anything and everything.
Hundred threads of consciousness simply to sift through the mass of information continuously accumulated.
Of course all titans communicate with each other, consciously and unconsciously.
Yet there is something special about a direct contact connection, something intimate as if our minds itself would touch.

>So what are you doing here?< i ask him silently >Its not like your visit was announced or anything<
As if lost in thought Alex replies >It was a personal matter, one of your citizens that chose today to die, was born in my district.
I wanted to stand at his side when it was time<
>Oh of course< i reply hushed >I think i was there<
>So what is that ancient looking piece of technology you are carrying around there?< i ask him, as i don´t want to intrude into his private matters anymore
i´ll still know later and there is always time.
>Its a gift< he replies calmly >he built it with his own hands, its for his granddaughter on the mainland. Its only a toy, looking that old, inside its mostly hollow, the bulky look is only for show<
A smile creeps on my face >Its a great work of craftsmanship<
>Say, can i ask you something< he looks me directly in the eye, speaking aloud.
>Sure, everything< i replay in the same manner.
As if he were nervous he rubs his nose a little >You know, i never saw a MK4 from inside, i was always a little envious, so could you show me around, maybe?<
I laugh out loud >Of course pal, would right now be ok for your planning?<
He nods.

For outside watchers it must seem like we suddenly begin to fly and go straight up in the air.
Its something i have now been working on for some time, a grav shaft projector.
Carefully adjusting the parameters so that we don´t break the sound barrier as long as we are close above Atlantis i guide is higher and higher.
Alex just watches and looks down as the jewel of the sea gets smaller and smaller below us.
He has probably read my papers about the project as have many others.
Just a few more minutes and we will be there, just enough time to pressurize and heat the panels to comfortable temperatures.

Chapter 2.5: Meeting of the minds

A warm afternoon, a pleasant breeze and a birthday party, could there be a nice way to spend the evening?
For the last five years Cachandras has given my birthday parties and they have always been a blast.
The best thing is though, that he has invited me this time so i can experience it first handed.
Well actually he has invited 3 of me, 2 of them girls, even posing as sisters.
Its pretty obvious that he has invited them to entertain the majority of the
party guests: old goons from the engineering corps.
I don´t think i have ever met so many of the guys in one place since my activation.
Cachandras himself was a century ago the leading cybernetics technician, revolutionizing his field of work, especially the design of is avatars, adding a whole lot of new abilities.
Since 5 years now he works as an artist (he was a gardener before that) and is truly getting better with each year of his work.
Specializing in real art techniques, mostly oil on canvas, the process of creating a piece is much more tedious for him, than using the virtual direct brain interface, most people use when they want to project their thoughts and impressions into the real world.
He says that he can´t bring up the concentration required to work it out with the expert systems, but i know this is a lie: he simply loves to do intricate things with his hands.
Being a withdrawn man he has lots of time on the former mentioned appendages.
Sometimes i watch him late at night with a sense of wonder, as he sits in his small atelier, applying stroke after stroke of the sticky, smelly paint to rough plant fiber.
Over the years he has done a lot of different styles: Realism, impressionism, surrealism. He drops them as soon as he masters them, much to the disfavor of his
nowadays quite large group of fans, who deal his original works at prices as if he was already dead.
I am curious if he will hold another speech tonight.
He has done this for the last two years and although they were always highly
entertaining, the were also each time quite embarrassing for me.

We arrived at his place, it was more like a villa, placed on the elevated parts of the city, near the central towers, when around half the other guests had arrived.
His current mate, a young girl with innocently looking brown eyes, welcomed us with a wave and a smile on her face at the front gate.
>Ah, nice that you could come< she said, as she handed us some welcoming drinks >Cache was waiting for you, he wants to say a few words, before the party starts<
Oh great i thought, another of his compassionate monologues.
She then led us over to the back yard, through a wonderfully arranged front garden,
overflowing with flowers and bonsai trees.
He had probably planned the party half for his garden half for us on this date, since almost all his flowers were in bloom and that way every guest had to enjoy them when he arrived.
>So are these beautiful flowers your work< i asked the girl, trying to engage in a little smalltalk >Its truly a piece of art.<
>No, dear no, i don´t think i could bring up the patience to nurse all these creatures to this beauty< She told me with a giggle >I water them and stuff when Cache doesn´t find the time. Did you know that most of these plants are special hybrids he has just bred for our garden to stand out a little.<
I kept on smiling and nodding, although the situation was exactly as i expected it to be, the man just couldn´t stop bragging about how good he is.
Its not like that he isn´t, he is, i openly admit that he is one of the talented people of our time, but he doesn´t have to rub it into everyones faces all the time.

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Below me the deep, blue sea, a flock of geese, or at least what this planet had to offer in that matter.
I was quickly closing up on them, running in the same direction as them.
Only a few hundred feet above them roar my engines, driving me towards the near shore.
Behind me the black front of a tropical storm, flashes of Lighting outlining the clouds, the walls of rain, the gusts of wind that could tear my plane apart
as if it it were paper. The Radio had told me that they expected wind speeds up to 400 miles per hour, but i had to fly anyways.
Always on duty, always the best. My superiors would´ve understood if i had appeared one day late on my post under these circumstances, but i couldn´t.
Always the best, thats my way of life. The best in school, the best in the academy and now the best pilot in the force, i never ceased to fail self set marks. And so i was now flying here, outrunning natures power itself.
Above me, behind a thick layer of clouds the foreign skies of ultima one, the first colony of the empire, long ago planned as an agrarian cornucopia, filling the stomachs of billions of people, but not anymore.
The lining of the coast came in sight, just in time, i wouldn´t be able to outrun the storm for much longer in this flight.
The engines were already worn out by hours of zero tolerance flying.
In front of me the Port that is now a fortress called Area 23, clutching unto this worlds secrets like the high commissioner to the throne.
>This is Alpha-niner-niner with an order zero-gulf-five-charlie, requesting immediate landing clearance, over< My own voice sounded a little brittle in my ears after so many hours of flying. Seconds were passing, while the flight attendant checked back my flight number and orders.
>This is tower control to flight Alpha-niner-niner, you are cleared to land on runway two, over<
>Roger that, tower control, clear on runway two, over<
Thick drops of rain were now hammering against my windshield, heavily obscuring my vision, even some instruments seemed to be malfunctioning due to the EM
interference from the storm.
I decided to do a direct approach, relying on my sight and instincts as much as possible. They had never failed me, yet.

The red civilian plane came down at a very steep angle, thrown from side to side by the winds, rain plastering the runway, aquaplaning was a given.
Somehow the pilot managed to get the steering under control in just the right moment and pulled the nose up in just the right moment to get the landing gear on the ground.
Still to fast, but yet somehow graciously the plane slithered over the runway. Even though the asphalt must be slick as oil the plane ran like on rails, coming to a close halt in front of the only open hangar.
Bob scratched his nose, never before he had seen somebody put a plane that flat on ground and that under these circumstances on top of that.

I climbed out of the tight space that was the cockpit, cold water splashing in my face, drenching my flightsuit in seconds.
The outreaches of the storm were now directly above us, almost blowing me off my feet.
I managed to make my way to the hangar, two technicians drove by in a towing cart to get my plane inside.
In the relative cover of the hangar stood a young officer, rain spattered across his military trousers with accurately ironed creases.
He seemed awfully young for someone in the rank of a flight lieutenant and he seemed to be quite a bit uneasy in his situation.
>Welcome to Area 23, Commander Stark, sir< He almost shouted at me, something i had to admit was necessary due to the wind howling around
and thunder crashing every second down on us.
I saluted to him and then fumbled the plastic card with my orders out of my sodded front pocket.
The small holographic card shimmered in the cold light of the hangar as i handed it over to him.
He pulled it through the card reader on his forearm, reading the holographic message displayed between us for a bit.
While he was busy checking back my MO i turned around to see the two technicians reeling in my plan and then shutting the hangar doors, keeping the apocalypse of an electromagnet storm that was going on, outside.
The hanger,as well as the whole base was heavily shielded and not only from EM Pulses.
>Everything seems to be in Order with these commander stark, would you please follow me to your quarters.< He told me while already walking away
>You have an inductrionary briefing at ten-o-hundred after which you will receive your preliminary testing and security clearance.
Until then you will be confined to your quarters.<
I lifted an eyebrow >Thats OK for me flight lieutenant, i have some sleep to catch up on, but can you tell me maybe, why the airforce has requested my presence here?<
>Sorry, sir, but you will have to wait until the briefing, i can´t tell you anything right now< The man rigidly replied.
It was something he was told to say, probably didn´t know a thing himself.
The endless layers of misinformation surrounding the base were protecting its secrets even now 50 years after it had been created.
For whatever reason the empire had transformed this fertile river delta into a military hideout, they did their job very thorough.

We arrived at a residential complex after walking through underground tunnels for about 10 minutes, following a green line.
The room itself was rather luxurious, compared to the quarters i had in the base i was previously stationed in.
It even had an own bathroom and a small kitchen area with refrigerator, completely unnecessary but still nice.
I quickly undressed and threw myself in the bed, trying get some sleep, my mind still racing with thought about this new twist of situations.

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All the people had gathered, mostly the same as the last year, only a few new faces. Younger people that haven´t experienced my construction
are usually not as a attached as the older ones, they were born in the status quo.
In the back garden Cachandras had deployed small gazebos covering desks for 5 people each.
Of course i had to greet all, some people wanted to take pictures, it was all very silly, but its how people are.
People were telling stories about the last few parties, making jokes.
The voices began to calm down as Cachandras entered the garden, walked to the small stage at the far end of the garden, greeting people left and right.
When he took his place to hold his speech even the last voices calmed down and all faces turned. Only a few private conversations remained
via the net uplink, as private as conversations can be if they all run through me.
>Welcome< he began, his voice still strong and primary >to this small party to celebrate a special someone. I don´t want to bore you, so will make this introduction short< oh great, i thought >The person we are all here for today: Our savior, Alan< Applause branded up from all sides >Come on, stand up, come here!< he cheered us on. Me and the twins stood up smiling, walking over to the stage, taking his right side.
One of the twins was waving to a few close friends, but i couldn´t help to smile and shake my head a little, i found the situation highly hilarious.
After a short time Cachandras calmed the crowd down with a swipe of his hands.
>Alan is all our child, but as with most childs its not always easy. So i want to tell you a little anecdote about before he was born.
Adam has given me the permission to tell you this and i tell you its a real treat!<
It went suddenly silent like a grave, even the chatter over the net stopped. This was a story out of one of the developers diaries, something the public
normally wouldn´t get to hear or read. Not that its secret information, its just private information of the construction crew and as thus sealed if they
want it to.
>Its was during the final stages of construction, Alan's body had already been finished and his preliminary training was complete.
The day had come, when he had to be integrated into the core, prior to his transfer into orbit and man I have never seen someone
so unnerved. I tried my best, of course, to calm him down and i think i did a pretty good job at it.
We had meditated during the morning and he finally seemed to calm down for his last step on the big journey, a step into yet unfamiliar waters.
When the call came, i led him into the infirmary.
Adam was there with two of his avatars to supervise the operation as always.
We put Alan in suspended animation, the nervous grimace he had been wearing all day finally calming down.
When he was put under we put him on a stretcher and carried him to the cybernetic center to wire the AI connection points into his brain.
You know this can only be done while the person is unconscious, because even with nanites doing all the work it puts even an augmented brain under a lot of stress which could cause permanent damage or even prove fatal.
So there he way lieing in the sterile chamber, his cooled down with a special energy absorbing field, which i had invented just a few years earlier by the way. By doing this we are able to minimize the stress put up on the subject.
When the preparations were complete robotic arms came down to perform the actual procedure. Everything was out of our hands from this point on,
Adam had taken control and we could just watch and survey.
As i said the contact points are assembled by nanites directly injected into the brain and just in the middle of the procedure something disastrous, something we thought impossible happened.
His neurokinetics went completely overboard, increasing to the tenfold of what was expected in his state.
At first we thought it was some weird allergic reaction to the procedure and we all feared that we´d loose him.
There was nothing i could do at the moment.
From the monitors he was actually in the process of waking up, despite the heavy neurodepressants he was given.
But as suddenly as this seizure had begun it suddenly calmed down, we were all really surprised.
Of course feared the worst, that we might have lost him or that his brain could be damaged, but there was nothing we could do at that moment.
When he came to be a few hours afterwards he seemed to be fine and all his tests were also very positive.
What i want to tell you with this story is that we shouldn´t take the things we have for granted and that we should be very thankful that we have them.<
After a second of silence he turned to us.
>And after all you have just come out fine, haven´t you? So it hink i have to congratulate you.< he added
>Thanks< we three answered in unisono and then after a second of glancing surprised at each other, we broke into laughing, one of the girls began to giggle uncontrollable and i couldn´t help it to fold my hands behind my head, smirking wildly, chuckling to myself.
Suddenly applause broke onto us and i saw that all the people were standing, cheering for us and Cachandras.
He led us back to out tables, joking about the incident and now the party really began.
But i had to think. That was something even i hadn´t known, it was probably somewhere in the construction notes, but i had never bothered to read it.
And again cachandras story was kinda embarrassing, but interesting none the less, maybe he wasn´t so bad after all.

Chapter three: Riddles

He was able to enjoy the life in a big city a mere week before things got serious.
During that time he and the other initiates, as the priests and other people in the black city called them, had a lazy life.
They had no duties whatsoever, quite a change from what most of them were usually used too.
The only thing the priests rigidly enforced was a strict curfew during the night.
He didn´t think the capital could be such a bad place at night, but nevertheless
he obeyed to it.
From time to time they even got some pocket money from the priests to spend at their leisure.
That all changed when the last few teenagers from the outer provinces arrived a few days before the harvest festival.
All in all they were about 100 boys and girls then, which had formed into 2 loose groups:
One contained mostly the inhabitants of the cities which didn´t want to interact with the country bumpkins as they called them.
Those on the other hand couldn´t understand the weird habits and sayings of the "citizens".
Rick didn´t understand why they isolated themselves from the others.
Given, he didn´t know all of them, not even by their names, but how bad could they be?
In his village there were only 3 other kids and it could get quite boring to play
again and again with the same persons.
So he was happy for every new face he could meet.

Then, two days before the great harvest festival, they were called in the main hall,
a large meeting room in another wing of the building where there beds were in.
The priests had arranged a lot of desks in the hall.
It was some sort of exam, all quite basic questions.
Some simple spelling tests, questions about ethics and morality.
Even some calculus queries. These were the only ones he couldn´t do very well:
On the farm they had 2 fields, 4 cows and 12 chickens, not much calculate at all.
His mother tried to teach him that, together with reading, writing and arts.
The test took all morning and after he was finished it was already past lunch time.
In the lunch hall there was a lot of talk about the unheralded test.
Most were just asking themselves what all this was about,
but some were also bragging about how easy the test was and how high they would´ve scored.
To Rick it looked like most of the city kids were a whole lot smarter than the ones from the country.
At least if one would listen to their bragging.

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The airlock we were approaching was huge, normally it was used for orbital ferries and the like.
>So you never were on a MK4?< i asked Alex, he just shook his head.
>I think you will be quite impressed, we made a lot of changes since your MK2<
The airlock opened silently, only a slight vibration ran through the ship, felt by my sensitive feet.
Beyond the inner door lights flashed on, revealing a loading dock,
stuffed with all kinds of larger utility craft, those who couldn´t be built on shart notice.
An agrav lift took us from the lower engineering decks up to the crew section.
That is if I had a crew.
Many Titans kept a regular maintenance crew on board,
although there was no maintenance necessary at all.
I think i have told me my reasons earlier, so wont bore you with them, again.
>Don´t all these empty corridors make you feel sad?<
Alex just asked me as we walked down yet another hallway.
>You know, i don´t pay that much attention to the world inside me< i told him
>The world outside is much more interesting.<
The world inside was a world of metal, well mostly metal.
A specialized nanocompound with imbued micro machines for repairs and more advanced parts.
Organic compounds and synthesized tissues served as an organic support system,
carrying nutrients and energy through the system.
Biometal they call it, a durable dynamic structure adaptable for almost every task.
It is not so much different from an everyday citizens body,
only the amount of nanotechnology is far less.
Every cell of every newborn is a fusion between technology and genetic engineering.
>This looks much more like a civilian station than a warship, doesn´t it?<
He just smiles >Yes, against myself it really is more a watcher than a fighter.<
>Do you even have any weapons on board? All you have shown me are those recreational areas.<
During every refit the Titans have become less the warships they were originally designed as.
The datalogs tell us that before the exodus we were weapons of mass destruction
in a war we couldn´t understand.
Adam is the best example: A frame bursting with gun arrays and redundant defense systems.
He made the right choice to leave the endless slaughter and rescue as many as possible.
Since then our engineers try to work around the originally military design and create
viable and stable civilian solutions.
This is no easy task however, there are lots of booby traps in the code and the systems itself.
In the roughly 5000 years since we made landfall here we were only able to produce 4 main models,
all other attempts were either unstable or simply dangerous.
We simply don´t have the technology with us to correct all the errors or produce a design
as sophisticated as the titans by ourselves.
Even for me, a MK4, lingering strategic AIs and violent impulses are a great danger to my sanity.
Sometimes i am to afraid for a neural shutdown, because of the dreams.
Dreams of endless warfare, dreams of slaughter, dreams of indoctrination.
It would be so easy just to give up, let the AIs take control, instead of me controlling them,
just acting on impulse without a thought; they would know whats wrong and right.
>40 bays like this one, all armed with 120 gunship battle drones.< i say, gesturing over a large hangar.
>On full power the system can produce a new one every 20 seconds, right?< Axel asks me.
I tell him that we adapted the improvement we made in the civilian replication system to this one aswell.
>Most of the sub-light weapons were swapped for direct energy types.<
>They can also be easily configured for other tasks aswell<
If we reduce the weapon amount much more, the AIs would think the ship was crippled and would self-destruct.
>This is just one of the 94 compound missile bays.< With a wink i tell him
that was the tactical database speaking not me.
I haven´t fired a single shot since basic training anyway.

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Oh boy, but the day wasn´t over yet!
After they all had a late lunch in the hall, they were assembled to gather at the roof of one of the main buildings.
Rick couldn´t believe what he saw there: An Airship!
His mother had told him about those devices but he had never seen one before.
It was huge, almost like a small building and not unlike the ships that sailed the rivers and the seas.
The main difference was the giant balloon fastened with wrist thick hawsers to the hulk.
As his eyes glanced over the genius engineering invention, he could only dream what it was like to fly with one of these.
As a child he had often dreamt of flying, flying to a faraway land and having wondrous adventures there.
His father always laughed when he had told him the stories.
And on this day he would fly. In the belly of the airship was enough room to accommodate twice the people,
but nobody wanted to stay under deck.
Outside, every spot on the railing was crammed full, with kids laughing and chatting.
Rick had secured himself a spot near the bow, with a few friends.
They could already glance over the wall that surrounded the black city and over row after row of the houses in the capital.
After about half an hour the steam powered motors came alive, letting the whole ship tremble under their power.
Rick was torn between watching another technical gadget at work and just watching the scenery unfold under him as they took off.
Higher and higher they rose into the sky, until the people looked like ants and the houses and field were merely rectangles on the chessboard
like landscape beneath them. It was truly breathtaking, the wind in his fur and the rumbling of the engines in his ears.
The flight wasn´t a very long one:
After they had left the borders it they went over the river into a nearby forest.
In the middle a lot of trees were cut down to create a large clearing, which held an encampment near a small river.
The airship drew closer, its engines belching black smoke, to land near one of the larger tents.
Anchors were dropped and the airship was gently drawn to the ground.
With a loud thud, earth spraying everywhere the keel made contact with the ground.
The crew said it was a soft landing, but still Rick and all the others were thrown all over the deck from the impact.
After things had calmed down and the soot from the motor had cleared the air they were led outside to the tents.
There were barrels with meat, vegetables and fruit, so it seemed that they would stay here for a while longer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

After a good while and many agravs later we arrived at the core.
>Yeah, they went for a centralized approach with this hull.<
We passed through another double airlock, with thick biometal plates
covering all walls.
>This way the system can still function after a critical hit.<
On our left we passed the main fireforce system, an array of 4 fusion generators
powering both engines and weapons. The domestic systems were usually run over
the backup system.
>I have heard that this way you could remove
many of the backup systems, isn´th that right?< Alex remarked
>Yes indeed and it cuts the energy consumption by almost 40%.
You know that you have to run the fusion reactors at least a little hot,
otherwise they have horrendous startup times<
The core was built in a spherical way, with redundant systems
arranged along the bow-stern axis.
>And this is it< i said, pointing towards another sphere hanging there in a dampening field,
surrounded by data-cables, coolant distributors and power lines >The command supercomplex<
>They keep your body in there, don´t they?< Alex asked.
>They sure do. Want to take a look?<
Our old, human bodies were all stored in our new, cold, metal bodies.
The original duty-time of a titan was only a few decades:
Back in the old time there were enough pilots for all the ships.
You would undergo the training, be altered and then after your years of service
come back to your friends and family, looking no day older than you had left.
Now things are different, pilots are scarce, only a few every generation are born with the right compatibility.
And even out if these there are rarely some that have the right mental layout.
So now its a dedication for a lifetime, an immortal lifetime that is.
As we stepped in the inner sanctum the chemolights silently came to life.
Inside the tank embedded in a blue semi liquid floated my body.
Traces of cables coming out of my head and neck.
Well calling this my body really was a weird feeling, i had not felt it in almost two centuries.
Only our brain was necessary to operate the titan, the rest was only a remnant of times long gone by.
>Did you see that?< Alex asked me
>Huh, what?< i shook my head >Sorry, i was a little lost in thought<
>Sector 32, quadrant b<
>Oh, sorry, i´m rarely connected to the main consciousness during the day< i smiled
A holographic display popped up in the middle of the room, Alex pointing at a specific location.
>Here at Lagrange one, we have just picked up some gravimetric distortions.<

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It was a good party and very nice that he had invited three of my avatars.
But i couldn´t really concentrate on that, a more pressing matter had arisen.
The gravitational anomaly. An absolutely fascinating event, never before had i seen
such a thing in our system.
There were reports in the datalogs of a similar natural phenomenon,
created by solar activities and magnetic fields.
There was a discussion among the titans what to do and the main voice was
to send a research vessel.
Many volunteered, me included, but in the end No. 46 was chosen.
He was of course the natural choice, since he was always vagabonding
around our planet like a huge cruise vessel.
Over 90% of his population were always on board and he had the strongest engines of all the titans.
For me there was not much to do but wait and record the reading we were receiving.
It was now the night and not much would happen until the morning anyways.
Most of my Avatars had already returned and there was not much work for them.
At night there were only a few orders for food or youngsters who felt lonely.
Nothing to do but wait and watch the stars.

I've got a book idea...words.....

This is a pretty good idea, but alternate-history fiction doesn't seem to have a market anymore. Mormonism and Scientology are relatively small.