3.3
+++
A year since the day, and Timaeus looked closer to six. He was fit and tall, his body just beginning to show the signs of the physique he would gain as he grew older.
He was smart, too. Gifted with incredible intelligence, a brain closer to a supercomputer than something of mere flesh. Every subject that was thrown his way, he mastered quickly.
Singleton ensured he possessed something even more important.
Wisdom.
At ten thousand years old, Singleton had seen Humanity at its best and worst. His lessons were careful, conveying the experience he himself had picked up. He passed on his views, the careful attitude, and the creed he lived by. He made sure he was diligent in his teachings, drawing forth the best of the boy's abilities.
The first word Timaeus had spoken was 'dad'. If I hadn't known Singleton as well as I did, I don't think I would have picked up just how happy he was about it.
The second had been 'aunt'. Lucy had been over the moon in her delight.
Then he gave me a hug and I'd been over the moon in mine.
+++
A year, and Sanctuary was experiencing a baby boom. It was going to be like that for a good long while. The preparations to handle it had been made, preparations which had proven adequate.
Preparations that had then been pushed to the limit when certain breakthroughs had occurred. I'd mentioned it before, but to repeat, the people of Sanctuary had been running a genetic engineering program. It had been going fairly steadily, progress iteratively marching forwards, expected to return full results in a few decades.
'Had' being the keyword, because nobody accounted for the presence of what was basically a psychic demigod in the form of Timaeus.
'Inspired' was a bit of a weak word, when it came to the attitudes of Sanctuary's scientists.
They had not been able to replicate his full augmentations, but frankly, that wasn't a mark against them.
The program leaped forwards decades in months, Humanity's genetic code optimized over and over and over again with fervour, all in the purpose of producing an even better Human. Stronger, faster, smarter, tougher, more powerful Psykers, yet still maintaining the emotional and mental stability that current augmentations possessed. That was then coupled with nano-scale cybernetic augmentation, producing an even greater result.
The program as it had existed beforehand had been extensive. As it was now?
It was ridiculous.
It took years to test, to refine. Working out all the little kinks was a careful task, done with hawk-eyed precision. It couldn't do too much on the psychic side of things for the current generation, but the future generation was more powerful still, near universally Psykers. The average Warp Connection would be five times more powerful.
But when it was finished, implemented? Estimates had to be revised. Fifty billion to sustain my larger bodies dropped to ten. Two hundred and fifty years dropped to just two hundred.
The final, perfected augmentations received a name. 'Man of Platinum'.
It was only the beginning.
+++
By the time Timaeus was two, he looked ten. He was a little charmer, really, with easy charisma and a skill at talking to people that was just quite incredible.
That he also had a tendency towards exuberance, and physical overreaction for the sheer amusement of it...
Well, everybody had their quirks.
By that point, he'd gone through and absorbed a significant portion of Sanctuary's technological knowledge. Mikah took him to the scientific sectors, showing him firsthand the research that was always underway. A month later, and Timaeus had been submitting a fairly constant stream of upgrades and optimisations to various technologies, whatever had caught his interests lately.
Singleton started teaching him battle, after that. Tactics, strategy, how to fight, how to use his body to greatest advantage.
To no surprise, he was great at it.
Lucy, around the same time, had started taking him to meetings, letting him learn the governance side of things.
To no surprise, he was great at that, too.
As for me...
Well...
+++
I raised my arm, light and energy gathering. It was slow, careful, the wave of scintillating power as perfect a shot as possible.
The breaker-wave hit a rock, and shattered it, marring the surface with cracks and weakness.
I gestured forwards.
Timaeus nodded, then held his arm up with his hand splayed. He breathed in.
A beam of power lanced out, punching through the rock in front of him.
And the rock behind that.
And the wall behind that.
And the Void Shield behind that.
And the Void Shield generator behind that.
Slowly, I turned, facing my Clasher-self to him. He held still, for a moment, before his entire demeanour changed into happiness. He flicked his arm up, splaying his hand in a ridiculously over-exaggerated 'what can you do' gesture, closing his eyes as he turned his head to the side.
"A little too much power." He said, smiling magnificently. It might have worked, except I could feel his burning embarrassment.
+++
We practiced above ground, after that. Lucy's unimpressed and yet also unsurprised stare had made even him shift.
It took a surprisingly long time for him to figure out how to scale down the amount of energy he could draw to something that wasn't so... Let's be generous and call it focused.
On the other hand, I got a few new shapes out of it, so that was nice.
+++
Seven years, and he was a young adult, larger than everybody around him, though still not quite done growing. His eyes had settled into a bright blue, just on the edge of natural colours. He was handsome, now, previous boyish cuteness having given way to a manly attractiveness.
He joined the military, where he quickly distinguished himself. Better than all of his peers, he earned the opportunity to join the top group, the Alpha Program.
Formed entirely of particularly powerful Psykers, he distinguished himself there, too. He and his Symbiont were simply on another level entirely.
He graduated faster than any other in history, going through a training program that normally took five years in just six months, which brought him to the trial by fire.
He, alongside the rest of the graduates, were sent to the mainland, away from the Silence, on the night of the Daemontide.
Their task?
Kill every Daemon they saw. Bring upon them the same suffering they had brought upon Humanity. If they reached at least a hundred kills, they were Alphas. If they didn't, they did it again next month, and the one after that, until they'd reached a hundred.
The batch this year had been particularly promising. Timaeus, of course, had been the head of the class. More surprising had been Juliana, who took second. She'd grown finely, a young woman now, who had started angling herself towards the Alpha program the moment she knew it existed, enticed by the prospect of being able to give back to Sanctuary while also being put in a position where she would get to kill Daemons. She'd worked very hard to make it happen.
Four others, too, all of them among the most powerful of the current generation.
That had been such a fun day. I remembered it so well...
retire