Jessica hesitantly entered the main room… "So, I've heard we are about ready to go?"
Thankfully her brother seemed FAR more upbeat and positive than earlier. "Yep! We've set up a collection for what energies I'm releasing that we can recapture, and diffused the rest of the output so it won't be so trivial to locate me directly."
He was working on something with glee, the glowing screens and holographic keyboard clicking away. "It doesn't really count like normal stealth, where no one ever realizes you are in the area… Instead of hiding that I arrive, I flood the area with a general sense of 'somewhere around here'-ism. If that makes sense."
Hmm. "Well, it's a better design choice than the more lethal option of 'Everyone else is dead, therefore I am now stealthy'." Worked in the short term, but ethical issues aside it had TONS of long term consequences. "So what are you doing now? Still picking out the next Node for our trip?"
John hummed as he typed away. "Well, since we are going for the 'safe' option for this next Transfer, to test out all the security stuff we've set up…" Heh, he spat out the word 'safe' like it was the lamest thing in the world. Wait till you hit HER age, brat… Safe is a win condition at this point…
The screen was shifted for her to better view it. "I am making a present!"
Hmm? "Design schematics, attached notes for specific books, corrections to various databases…"
John grinned! "Yep! See, even if I'm not… I mean, even if new stuff isn't exactly trusted here or whatever, I came up with a great idea!" He pointed at the data. "Instead of offering new materials and technology and stuff, I can just help out a little bit with what they already have access to!"
He hummed as more and more data was displayed. "I've been checking over all the publicly available stuff your agents have been gathering, or at least a little of it, and been testing all sorts of stuff and gathering the results, documenting odd stuff I find along the way, and more!"
Oh? She glanced at the girls and… Grace seemed subdued for some reason? Not like Temptation, who was busy frowning to herself and digitally modifying something as quickly as she could. Which was a tad concerning, but a later issue. "Can you give me some examples?"
John nodded with happiness! "Yep! I've found mixtures and alloys of metal and other components that happen to work better with Morphy and local Concepts, helped to document whole chunks of her that someone had designed in the future… or maybe in the past but after they got erased and stuff, time gets odd in the Morphin Grid and she isn't advanced enough yet to fully understand how we perceive time exactly…"
She began paging through the very large data package her brother was putting together as he continued to brag about his hard work. There were breakthroughs in mathematical sciences, code examples so impressive that at least half of it had been designed from the ground up for efficiency and effectiveness, suggested testing to discover more stuff and all sorts of smaller gadgets and programs and material generation methods and recycling ideas and even odder things…
Like recipes and short stories that he wrote about how cool it would be to have a Morphin Zord that wasn't focused on combat, but on first aid or construction or disaster recovery. Tangents scribbled here and there, where he accidentally wrote down imaginary people he could have met or friends he could have made, bits and pieces of lost chances hidden in pages after pages of world altering gifts and benefits.
It hurt to read those, but she kept a smile on her face. "So are you going to upload all this into the Morphin Grid before we leave?"
John seemed to slump slightly. "Ah, I uh… That might not be a good idea. I'm pretty sure that might cause some issues, people here are really cautious about m… About risks and stuff and all that, so I had to come up with other solutions."
He tapped a usb thumbdrive, or the equivalent hardware that was used here. "See, that's why my NEW idea is going to work out so well! I'm not going to just leave finished stuff or whatever, everything is going to be information about HOW to do it themselves! They can use their own factories and scientists and mathematicians and all that, and just reference my notes here and there if they have any issues along the way!"
Her brother absently gestured behind him. "I've even got a hardcopy filling up our bedrooms since we won't need them after we leave. Made out of a fake paper with a local version of plastic too, so they won't degrade or be easily damaged… You know, if something happens to this or the other duplicate data sticks I'll be leaving behind. Better safe than sorry, right?"
That was kind of amazing. "How long until we're ready to go, then?"
John hummed happily. "Technically I finished this a few hours ago, I'm just editing a few things and fixing some grammatical issues here and there… And look at this!"
He held up a letter? "What is it?"
Her brother grinned! "I found a way for people here to become my penpal! You know, without using one of my mail boxes or other stuff that they might be concerned about."
John absently formed one of those dangerously powerful 'candies' and tossed it up into the air where it vanished. "See, Morphy has bits and pieces that were designed a long time ago and way off from now, and at some point managed to redirect letters with VERY specific addresses to my Mailing modules!"
He pulled up a different screen which showed several impossible things, frowning at it. "Not sure HOW she did that, mind you. Although… Well, she IS a distributed intelligence, and part of her has joined up with my Pocket Pals in the Royal Soul Swamp, so maybe she set up shop somewhere in our [[Home]] at some point?"
The boy shrugged. "Either way, it doesn't matter! Point is, this letter will tell them the format needed to contact us in the future! It also explains what is going on with the plastic documents and the data sticks, in case the people spying on us right now are too terrified to report all this accurately to their supervisors."
Jessica glanced at Grace's unusual lack of enthusiasm before making sure her brother saw how impressed she was. "Well I'm sure you're going to be making a lot of people really impressed when they finish going over it all."
John waved that off as he did some frantic last minute edits. "Eventually, maybe. I figure it will all get locked up and carefully examined for weeks or longer first for safety reasons, but that won't matter TOO much, because I planned for that!"
He proudly patted the data stick. "This baby is DECADES ahead of local science and advancement and stuff! Even if they take a couple of YEARS to make sure it's all safe, it will eventually get out and I bet I'll have a TON of new people to write to! Plus, you know, they'll have cheaper power and stronger materials and better giant robots and all that stuff."
Heh. She ruffled his hair and grinned. "I'm proud of you, bro. Now! Where are we aiming to go next to 'test' the new Deployment and Security modules?"
John grinned as a map came up! "To one of these green ones, since they tend to be more stable. And for this bit, it will have to be just me… Both for more accurate data collection and to hopefully detect OTHER energy leaks or material fractures that are obscured due to so many of us being deployed at the same time. Aside from Pocket interaction, I'll be doing this next bit fully solo."
That… That didn't seem great. "Can't we at least communicate through the Pocket channels?"
His grin fell as he winced. "AFTER this next Realm, yeah… But those channels of communication were built when I was still very, VERY broken. We need to shut them down and make sure they are safe and secure to use, and that they aren't being FORCED to exist and operate just because I am currently using them."
John pulled up some configuration files. "Plus, this is going to test the [[Incarnation]] method of Deployment this time. Instead of just inserting a copy of my Body, Soul, and Mind when we show up, I'll be becoming a local instead depending on who is available."
He tapped the options. "These people have to be: VERY recently deceased; someone the local Realm considers to be an 'Acceptable Target' (which you have to do some REAL evil shit to accomplish pissing off the fundamental concept of your entire everything); or local people who could have been me and are willing to merge with me to reunite ourselves."
John saw her expression and grinned. "Yeah, the last one is a bit odd, but I think if someone is in dire enough straights and is compatible with me on a fundamental level, then we can reconnect or… Something? There is some very odd time related stuff with that one though, because I think they end up always having been me or something before we met or… I'm going to try and avoid that one."
He absently shoved the screen away. "There are even MORE options too, but I'm keeping them off the table for now. I don't want to kill someone when I arrive, or create an entire new species retroactively, or spawn a new family tree of people just to justify my existence or any of that. And some Realms will only have certain options available depending on when I show up and what's going on locally, that sort of thing… So I'm not sure what I'll get when we arrive."
Jessica shivered at those examples. "Please and thank you for avoiding those other options, John." Hmm. "Will your new Body be coming along with us when we leave from there?"
Her brother blinked. "Huh? Nah. Just like the holographic and duck versions of us, he'll stay behind and keep an eye on the place when we move on most likely. It makes me feel better knowing that there is one of me around to keep our precious ones safe even after we travel away. I won't spawn a billion clones of myself to use as tools or whatever, but if one of me is created along the way and wants to stay behind, why not?"
Well, fair enough. "So a green node using [[Incarnation]] then… What kind of place is it?"
Grace softly spoke up, still seeming down for some reason. "We can't check, not until we gather MUCH more information and do many more Realm visits. Doing otherwise might set off warnings or prophecies or something, at least until we can verify that the Security Modules are operating as well as we hope."
John pointed at her while he organized the small pile of data sticks on his new desk next to his letter. "Yep! After all, we aren't exactly sure HOW my attempts to 'preview' a new location interacts with stuff, because I've never BEEN there when I externally contact somewhere. And this next trip is all about subtly and laying low, as it were… Best to not risk it."
He stood up with hands on hip, proud of his now neatly ordered pile of data… And then hesitated. "Maybe I should rewrite the letter again? What about when I asked them to write to me, did I come off as too needy? I could change that… Maybe I should change it, just leave it as a formal thing, like 'For questions, you can write me at…' instead of actually asking them to let me know how they like it?"
Jessica noticed Grace wince as John rewrote the paper for what was clearly not the first time. "Then are we ready to go? I've made sure all our agents and your citizens have returned already."
John touched the new letter again… Hesitated… And nodded. "Yeah, let's do this. System, initiate [[Transfer]]! Let's get this party started!"
[[Pocket.]]
The girls and John vanished from the room.
[[Transfer.]]
And from the Realm entirely.
~~~Pocket System~~~
The lead observer followed policy, and thirty two minutes passed as required before he connected to the third number on an unwritten list. "Displaced Case 8290001 has vacated the facility, ma'am. Sensor 33.b detected some form of displacement event echo, though at the lower edge of the spectrum. Displaced group is projected to have left the Hub entirely."
Though without all this new custom hardware, they'd have never realized it most likely… But that was probably why all the recent new changes and equipment had been required in the first place.
He then hung up without waiting for a response (as required), knowing an entire chain of codes and counter phrases and decontamination procedures and such were being run through as the submitted communication carefully worked its way indirectly up to those managing this case.
Then Case Manager Samantha Melkins would begin the closing procedures, the debriefing process, comprehensive analysis of all the teams during this most recent case, and all the paperwork required to ensure everything had been done to the highest levels of professionalism, as required of any competent organization.
…Or at least that was how this was supposed to go.
Instead, near instantly, a higher up number contacted his observation post. One that was NOT following protocol, but also had the authority to bypass such when required. "Yes sir?"
Orders were given.
Impactful ones.
For once in his career, he hesitated. He'd been working on this case since the beginning as the lead observer, and… This didn't feel right. "Are you sure, sir? According to procedure…"
Confirmation. "Very well, sir."
Trying to feel nothing, the Lead Observer hung up the phone. Called back his deployed team for an 'undocumented shift change', without waiting for the replacements that would not be arriving at those suddenly empty work stations.
He unlocked the small reinforced container on his control board, opening the lid and exposing the nondescript button within.
And pressed it.
The lead observer followed orders instead of policy.
He watched the now abandoned building burn.
