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When the Elusian AIs had finished cleaning up the last of their makers, they would turn to destroying our alliance. I just knew it in my soul, the more times I passed through the portals. They’d noticed that humanity was immune to their weapon, so they’d pick off those around us and then find a new method to hit Earth with. I spent a lot of my time hopping between portals in Caelum to supercharge myself, checking on our friends’ safety as best as I could.

From my vantage point at the new Space Gate, I was able to walk between two adjacent portals; the one on the left spit me out back on the right, to loop through several times. The jolts hit my brain, spots dancing in my vision as I looked into the light. My concentration scraped at the mirage’s edges, holding them together like one would squeeze grains of sand. The readings of 5D contamination humanity had taken allowed us to build particle sensors, which Mikri lent the Vascar’s factories to—mass producing millions to be scattered around our allied worlds. I remembered that much without farsight.

General Kollig, a biological Vascar who was less than thrilled with the new alliance, scoffed. “Are we sure about letting the network oversee the only sensors that’ll give us advanced warning?”

“We built these sensors to help you. I will keep the others in line, and am monitoring these personally,” Mikri said diplomatically. “We are the obvious choice to handle this. We do not tire, we are immune to 5D effects, and we can constantly process background data.”

“Evil AI is the reason we’re scouring for attacks in the first place!”

“And nice AI will be your best hope at surviving. Of all the times to continue your war with us, do you think this is it?”

I paused my walking, satisfied with Mikri in charge of the advanced detection system. Capal had entered the room with a helmet that had a rudimentary lens and what looked like two giant bamboo sticks on them; it was supposed to be a portable 5D probe. Over the past few weeks, as the scientists worked to study and boost my abilities, I’d hopped into tens of thousands of universes looking for the AI’s hideout. Throughout my travels, I’d witnessed all kinds of universes that vied for mental space. 

There were new dimensions that had just begun to cool from their inceptions, species where conjoined twins were the norm, and all kinds of technological feats of varying levels. It took my breath away: all of these universes would fall if we failed. My search had given juicy readings and neural mapping of precog to Meganerd the Brown, but I’d realized it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I had to analyze every universe at once, and that meant I needed a hand directing 5D energy straight into my being: the way the AIs’ beam and Colban’s probe had let me access the singularity.

“You have one job,” Capal said. “Find where the AIs are hiding out—it could be multiple places. Dig up as many details about the locations and their capabilities as possible.”

I grinned at the organic Vascar. “Do you remember when you first taught me to use precog? I wouldn’t have developed my abilities without you.”

“Please. I didn’t teach you how to use farsight. I’m just a helper—you’re a hero.”

“The helpers are the heroes where I’m from, Cappy. Quit being modest and accept a goddamn compliment.”

The fluffy dweeb lowered his eyes. “Well, it is nice to be appreciated for a change.”

“Oh, so melodramatic! Everyone appreciates you. You’ve been kidnapped by two people wanting you to build superweapons. You’re overappreciated, like mayonnaise. Sandwiches don’t need sad milk shaving cream.”

“I’m…sad milk shaving cream?” Capal moved the helmet back out of my reach, curling his lip with a throaty growl. “The fact that you hominids remove perfectly good hair when you could also have a mane is deeply upsetting.”

“We don’t like appearing like we just crawled out of the woods. Your face looks like a smoke ring that got blown out of a logcabin’s ass.”

“I can’t believe I’m putting energy into giving you more power,” the Asscar grumbled. “Our greatest asset, everyone. Here to save the day.”

“My precog found you in Jakov’s hidey-hole. You were sure happy when my raisers stopped those bullets a few inches from your face.”

“And then you yelled in my head about having an Elusian girlfriend, like it was another day at the office. I about…I owe you nothing.” Capal slapped the helmet over my head, a lot rougher than he had when putting the brain bucket on that would record my neural activity. If anyone could build a portable 5D enhancer from the Elusian specs, I trusted this nerd to have done it. “Go find those bastards. I’ll message Corai to have a mayo-filled burrito waiting for you when you get home.”

“Now c’mon. That instadivorce would really hurt her.” I waved goodbye to Capal, walking over to the waiting ship launch tube. I was going to fly through the portal back to Sol, and I hoped that lingering in 5D would clear the mysteries around our enemies. “Later, Meganerd. Have a good time sitting on your ass while I do all the work!”

“And what work did you do while I researched?”

“Whataboutism. Lalalalala!”

I ducked into the spacecraft with a coy grin, chuckling to myself. With Mikri watching over Caelum, I knew this dimension was in good hands in my absence. The brute force methodology wasn’t going to root out these AIs, so I had to gaze into the eye of infinity and wrestle it to the ground once again. The singularity was often inconclusive and vague with the answers it provided, but given that it had guided me to save Corai’s life, I was on good terms with it. Thinking that my happily-married existence could’ve never happened…

Nobody is taking Corai away or getting the chance to come after Earth; I remember what it felt like when I thought Sol was lost. I have to get this done before anyone else falls victim to an AI attack. One planet covered in bodies is enough. Maybe if I can fix this anyway, it’ll make Corai feel better—give her some closure to soothe her guilt and grief. 

Inputting the trajectory course for the portal home’s coordinates, the ship glided into the higher dimension, beyond space and time. My senses were inundated by the brain-bursting deluge of what was outside the windshield, but at this point, it was like a stimulant that was trying to burst the vein out of my temples. It writhed for release, clamored for me to succumb to its pull; I was ready to suppress it, and brought the ship to a halt with little more than a sharp gasp of pain. I had an AI to find.

“You’re always so brave, my Preston. You know that you never failed the people you love, don’t you?” Corai had mentally transmitted to me as I stepped through the portal out from our quarters; she’d known what my mission would be today. “If you want to talk about me doing more than anyone else, you should give yourself the same grace. You dedicate every part of yourself to those you care for.”

I had smiled to myself in my workspace. “My appendix is all yours.”

“That doesn’t sound very useful. Did you want me to dissect you?”

“Well, first, let’s wait until I have another body I want to move into. Do you miss Estai, by any chance?” 

There had been a long pause before she sent another response. “Yes. I miss the innocence of our first kiss and the beauty you saw in the Shifting City very much. Our AIs have done a terrible thing…and you must stop them.”

“I will. I’m sorry.”

My memories were given extra life when I revisited them in the fifth dimension; it would’ve been easy to get sucked in, to forget that they weren’t here and now. I lingered just long enough to remember why it was so important to acquire these answers, before staring out into the void to retrieve them. The less of a coherent form 5D terrain had, the more sense it made. I adjusted the helmet with a hand and pointed the weird, bamboo-binocular-tube-things toward the windshield. As light poured into them, I’d be ready to hurl my essence into its grasp.

“What universe are the Elusian AIs hiding in?” I asked the void.

There was an emptiness in response, before it became clear to me that that was the answer. None of them. How could their presence not be found in any dimension, when they needed to have had somewhere to develop their attack plan? I scrunched my nose as the light tugged at my pupils, Capal’s peery-sticks holding for now. As usual with this blasted thing, it provided the bare minimum response; I would need a lot more information than that.

“Right then.” My brain felt like a floating bubble, trying to capture a thought without popping. It was in my skull and outside of it. “Where can I find the Elusian AIs?”

I snatched the vision out of my subconscious, seeing a multi-platform installation that was bathed in 5D energy; molten fire-lined basins on its sides, used to smelt their special mirrors for that damn beam. The outpost would be invisible to me in real life, yet I could see its form here, the same as I would if I was standing right in its midst. A tether seemed to form between me and that place, tugging me toward their headquarters. Of course! They were hiding here in the fifth dimension, where the Elusians couldn’t find them. The location was in constant flux, as if it was omnipresent and not there at all at the same time. 

You can’t traditionally punch in coordinates and navigate there. How are we supposed to fly there?

A pulse rippled through the helmet, and I knew I couldn’t get much more out of the contraption under these primordial forces. I clung to the sighted installation, as its shadow tried to pull away, and concentrated my energy on this one part of the fifth dimension. What I needed was to see more about the AIs and their capabilities, so we could draft some kind of plan on how to take them out. It was obvious weapons targeting systems weren’t going to work, so we couldn’t blow up their workshops. 

We’d have to make physical contact…but how did we get there? That was for my smarter peers to figure out. I just needed to get Takahashi the information she’d asked me to find, so that the ESU could go on the offensive before they arrived at Earth. Preferably before they hit any of our allied worlds, since they’d take out the easiest targets first.

“How many of the Elusian AIs are there…and why, and are they all in the same place?” I hurried out the question, knowing I had to try to fit as many parts in there as possible. 

The lens on Capal’s helmet cracked, a lightning pattern running through it, but not before the last supercharged ray rocketed straight into my retinae. Knowledge diffused into my mind with quiet surety, seeing it from their perspective. The number of AI units who’d avoided self-terminating and slumbered to enact this plan: there were only three individuals I involved here. The rest of their forces were simple drones built to hold the portals open and aim their mirrors, watching with prejudice for Elusian activity.

While I supposed the automatons could constitute an army, taking out three units—who I knew were holed up in the same place—seemed a feasible task. Machines without a basic intelligence weren’t on the same power level as their overseers. It chafed at me to know a trio had done such damage; I couldn’t help but imagine what would happen if a handful of Ficrae-like Vascar individuals ever got such a plan in mind. It was an unsettling prospect. Though I’d never dare give this voice to Mikri, this showed that AI were dangerous.

Good thing that tin can is content just to ruin my wedding and chase Capal around in wheelchairs. Let’s hope Mikrito can wrangle the rest of his people in line. Maybe he could figure out a way to ensure rogue Vascar never can cause such damage; I know he wants to protect us.

Removing the ruined helmet, before I got any glass in my eyes, I pressed a hand on the ship’s throttle. My farsight had achieved enough to at least figure out where they were and what we’d be facing. It was up to the ESU and our allies to figure out how on Earth we were supposed to reach that destination, when all navigational rhyme or reason went out the window here.

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