"Are you sure you don't know what's in here?" You asked Vision again, distantly aware that this was at least the fourth time. It had been a question in your head ever since the exploration teams reported the Reliquary, but sadly no such luck.
"As I said the first time, Amanda," the AI's hologlyph beside you flared in time with her words. "If I could dedicate my primary focus to untangling the mess that the Vault database appears to have become, then I'm certain I would. Unfortunately, my primary focus has been needed elsewhere since my consciousness was reactivated." She paused, a conversational routine mimicking the human need to take a breath, then chuckled. "I will give you points for persistence, however."
"Well that has to be worth something," you smiled faintly, but the amusement only barely reached your eyes. After the revelations of Vision's discovery, not least the failure of the system to fully apply your permissions as Inheritor, the flaws in the vault's database had become another of the low level concerns that you simply couldn't find the time to focus on around everything else you had to do. The research teams did their best, but there was a limit to how much they could do without proper support. Which left you…where you were now.
"My access package is detecting the first security systems," Vision's voice cut through your thoughts, coming half a second ahead of Sidra's own notification. A moment later, their systems linked, and the voice of your Unison Platform took over the data relay. It was just so much faster than verbal, and given what Vision had told you about the Reliquary security systems, speed could be highly important.
The codes that the Elder's Door had woven into your soul whispered out ahead of you, sliding into place in almost invisible links embedded in the Reliquary's outer shell. Protocols flickered behind those connections, working to verify the codes you'd given, before falling away from your ability to detect on the other side of the firewalls. The moments of silence were torturous, even knowing that your Aegis could survive anything that the security systems could throw at you, and with the link to Vision and Sidra fully open, your perception of time had been extended.
A high intensity scan washed over the hallway, and you tensed despite yourself, preparing for immediate withdrawal if necessary. You'd lowered the same sections of your Aegis as you'd had to when Vision had scanned you to verify your Right of Access, and a similar feeling brushed against your soul now. Yet where Vision's scan had been gentle, this one had none of her finesse; a spotlight to Vision's sunlight. It didn't hurt, but it wasn't exactly pleasant.
But it passed quickly, even for you as you were then, and the lack of contact abruptly ceased.
:Right of Access confirmed. Identify verified. Local permissions and access list updated.: The door at the far end of the corridor split apart with the same flare of light that you remembered from Vision's Reliquary, and relief surged through you. Succ-
:Query: cannot source Project files from distributed server. Restore data from Reliquary backup?:
You stopped short.
: Vision?: You asked carefully,
:what are we talking to here?:
:Replicant program, no actual intelligence.: The AI replied, but you could tell that her primary focus wasn't on you.
:If my database is correct, each Reliquary held a backup of their project data, in the event of the Vault's own database being purged. I was meant to as well, but as you know my own records have holes. It would be interesting to see if the Elder First felt it necessary to modify the records of all the Reliquaries, but finding out what's in here is far more important.:
:Agreed: Sidra chimed in.
:We came here to find out what the Elder First left behind, it would be foolish not to take advantage of their notes.:
:Restore project files.: You sent back to the Reliquary caretaker, floating forward towards the doors of the chamber as they yawned wide.
:Command recognised. Restoring Project Achilles and Adamant files from backups.:
Vision, monitor the upload.: You said, switching mental channels.
:If it's old data, it might-:
:Sweet heavens.: Sidra's voice cut you off, the shock blazing at the core of their voice slicing through your own thoughts like an axe.
:Amanda, the project files, look at them.:
Information streamed into your mind as you set down on the floor of the Reliquary, and looked out across it, trying to process what the restored files were telling you. Something hung in the space before you, a vessel that burned at the edge of your sight as you stared at it, Practice woven into every atom of its creation.
It was a sleek craft, and you had to wonder if you'd stepped somewhere between the dimensional lines as you took in its size, stretching down through what might once have been meant to be a launch tube. It was at least two hundred meters long and possessed of the same lethal elegance of the Practice Hybrid craft of the FSN, but what was it for? Why had so much Practice been poured into its construction?
Then you found it, Sidra lifting the relevant sections out of the data, and you felt their awe feed into your own.
***
"Our work in the field of matter reinforcement led us to the unfortunate conclusion that there was a complex ratio involved in the creation of Inviolate Matter, one that could not be extended beyond certain limitations even through further application of Practice. Multiple attempts were made to bypass this limitation, and the experimental teams went so far as to create multiple maximal size sections and try to piece them together. Unfortunately, when bringing the pieces together, the energy matrixes present inside of them disrupted each other to the point that the material was rendered little more effective at resisting energy discharge than normal reinforced matter.
Given the time cost of Inviolate Matter creation, and the results of the War Office Arms Committee report on Shiplord tactics and weaponry, further study of this subfield was judged to be inefficient. With the failure of Prologue, however, some of those on Project Achilles made the decision to pursue what they believed was the final destination of the field. The result was the
Adamant.
With the greater knowledge of Material Inviolacy attained through Project Achilles, the follow-up attempted to decipher certain of the more complex properties of the phenomenon. Inviolate Matter had shown some ability to be shaped even after it had been solidified, and the construction of a full hull from it confirmed that Potentials were capable of altering its structure without destabilising the energy matrix. This allowed for the running of sensor and communications channels throughout the hull, although they remain unfilled due to the final obstacle to the Project's completion.
Although functionally similar in size to the auxiliary class vessels theorised by Gentry and his Solar Defence Corps, the
Adamant would require a highly advanced reactionless drive to function as part of a fleet core, and would be inevitably limited by her size. Although the nature of her hull makes her impossible to destroy by all known conventional means, the lack of space for armaments and the mass-based component of ramming attacks extensively limits the offensive use of the hull."
Lina's eyes flicked up at you, away from the tablet she was reading. "And it's performing as advertised?"
"It is," you nodded. "The
Adamant…I'm not quite sure why they built her in the end. A statement maybe, or example?"
"Neither, I think." Lina said, scrolling through to the technical specifications of the craft. "It's an elegant design, I'll give them that, but they've outlined the major combat application problems. It's just too small to mount truly effective weaponry, and fitting a First Secret drive would mean pulling just about everything else that would make her a ship out. Maybe the Elder First were hoping we'd find solutions to that, and we have in some places, but they're all smaller things."
"That said," she sighed, tapping a finger to her lips, "she's not useless. The mass limitations are far too harsh to make use of Inviolate Matter viable for capital ship construction, but it might be possible to use it to armour sections of them instead and the interaction ratio means we probably can't use it for fighters. At the same time, if we can get the kinks out of the production process, most of our auxiliaries are about the same size as her. We'll need to see the range on the destabilisation, and make absolutely sure that operating in close line of battle won't impact on integrity, but it's a definite possibility." She chuckled. "I'm almost glad that we haven't done the next-gen redesigns, we'd have to go through the process all over again."
"It's going to take time for us to work out how to do this, Amanda, but with all the information they left behind on it, I think we can find a way to apply it swiftly. Completely rebuilding the auxiliary fleet is going to take at least half a decade, even if we can improve on the production rates, but it's going to be a lot of manual work if their notes are to be believed."
"Mary's run a few tests," you said glumly, "and it's the energy matrix. The new Sixth Secret models can replicate most of the molecular structure, but we've no idea how to form the matrix, let alone alter the structure around it without breaking integrity. Not without Practice, at least."
"Something to work on, then," Lina's reply was unruffled, "but even if we can't use the Sixth Secret to help, the models the Elder First made were built off of the Second and First Awakening numbers. We've got a lot more Potentials than that now, even with the losses suffered during the Second Battle of Sol, and that'll matter."
"That's true."
"Well then," Lina's dark eyes lifted away from the tablet again, their intensity the same that had made some wonder if she'd had been a 'stealth' Awakening. "How do you want to present this to Congress?"
(Inviolate Matter research recovered, Adamant
hull recovered, actions unlocked)
ision?:
