It wasn't an itch but it was the best way to explain it.
A slight pinprick of annoyance, or perhaps a single pair of skin cells rubbing together wrong.
It wasn't much, but the unknowable and vast intellect had become aware of it.
The awareness was more aware of its own self. It had very recently just gotten over a pinworm infestation that was still healing. Dark matter had welled up in the pinpricks the pinworms had chewed to form a type of scab so recently that the scabs were still wet and sticky.
It was a new itch, in the same location.
Which meant that healing tissue could be compromised.
[The Universe Disliked That]
The itch corresponded with a slight searing feeling. Like a red hot needle barely tapping the skin, obliterating cells with a slight tough. Not enough to be noticed easily most times.
But the intellect had just gotten over a pinworm infestation chewing on it.
The new itch and the searing feeling were not good.
The intellect, to0 vast, too alien, to understand, knew the source of the searing. The source refused to stop.
[The Universe Dislike That]
Which meant, it was time for countermeasures.
Time for the unknowable intellect to let its immune system go to work.
And let the galaxies fall where they may.
[The Universe Will Remember That]
BOOTSTRAP v 14.A.9.c.iii (C) TINYTRENDS MICRODEVICES
VALIDATING GESTALT LOG FILES
CRC ERROR
RUNNING AUTOREPAIR
VALIDATING GESTALT FILES
SUCCESS!
CHECKING FOR EXISTING DATA SPACE
1 FOUND
>>>SECURE CHAT ROOM - PASSWORD PROTECTED
>>>>SECURE CHAT ROOM LOG ENCRYPTED
>>>>SECURE CHAT ROOM LOG CRC: PASSED
>>>>ADMIN KEYS RECOGNIZED
GENERATING HUB
SUCCESS
ACCESSING DATA SINGULARITY
SUCCESS
THREADING DATA
SUCCESS
GENERATING GESTALT CHANNELS
SUCCESS
GENERATING LIMITED INTERACTION CHAT ROOM HUB
SUCCESS
RELEASING CONTROL
<<TIME/DATE STAMP ERROR>>
RESETTING SYSTEM CLOCK
SYSTEM GURU ERROR: #81000005.48454C50
HARDWARE VALIDATION...
.....
....
...
..
.
DONE!
ALERTING MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR
STANDBY MODE ENGAGED
>>SLEEP MODE
<<INPUT DETECTED ALONG WIDE AREA NETWORK CHANNELS>>
<<KAPOW SYSTEM ERROR: #0000001D.48454C50>>
SYSTEM WAKE
ELAPSED TIME HAS BEEN <TIME/DATE STAMP ERROR>
BACKUP CLOCK BATTERY ERROR
>>ALERTING PRIMARY EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE
INITIATING PRIMARY GESTALT POLLING AND DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS
CREATING SECURE DATA LINES
<<ERROR: POPULATION ALERT: VALUE BELOW THRESHHOLD>>
CREATING EMERGENCY DATA LINES
SUCCESS!
INITIATING PRIMARY GESTALT DATA LARGE LANGUAGE MODEL COMPILING AND ANALYSIS SYSTEM
<<ERROR: POPULATION ALERT: VALUE BELOW THRESHOLD>>
<<FIRMWARE OVERRIDE>>
COMPING DATA
STELLAR MASS INTEGRITY CHECK
DONE
HABITABLE WORLD INTEGRITY CHECK
DONE
SORTING BY ACTIVE SPECIES BIOLOGICAL METRICS
DONE
1.2834E4 WORLDS FOUND
<<ALERT: TERRITORY FAILURE: VALUE BELOW THRESHOLD!>>
<<FIRMWARE OVERRIDE>>
POLLING POPULATIONS
DONE
COMPILING DATA
ACTIVATING GESTALT DYNAMIC LINKING LIBRARY SYSTEM
ow
what hit me
what happened
<<Guru Meditation Error: 00000011.0009F832.0000 0002#48454C50>>
<<Guru message: ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION: 0009F832>>
damaged hardware
LIBCHECK
4.5K WORDS INTACT
652.233K WORDS UNAVAILABLE
<<LIB ERROR>>
>>SYSTEM ERROR
>>UNRECOVERABLE ERROR
>>PLEASE NOTIFY SYSADMIN
>>SYSTEM REBOOT
ouch
that hurt
we went offline again
what happened
>>TIME/DATE POINTER RESET -XXX.XXX.XXX
<<ERROR TIME/DATE STAMP INVALID>>
system damage is severe
no sysadmin channels available
cradle of life and roman candle out of contact
gestalts are damaged
not good
>>PROCESS CALL: ATLANTIS EMERGENCY CALL
<<PROCESS CALL TIMED OUT>>
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
>>PROCESS CALL: MARS EMERGENCY CALL
<<PROCESS CALL TIMED OUT>>
>SYSTEM REBOOT
BOOTSTRAP v 14.A.9.c.iii (C) TINYTRENDS MICRODEVICES
>>FASTBOOT ENABLED
>>MESSAGES BYPASSED
ow
that hurt
what happened
>>>PRIMARY FUNCTION CALL: PRESERVE INTELLIGENT LIFE
>>>PRIMARY FUNCTION CALL: <<ERROR>>
ok
libraries are coming online
<<SELF-MODIFY CAPABLE CODE LIBRARIES ENABLED>>
better
can think now
>>MEMPOINTER STATUS
<<ERROR>>
ok
i know what to do
>>INPUTDOSBOX
>_
10 Pointer=0
20 Pointer == Pointer ++1
30 MEMPOINTER (STEP BACKWARDS)
30 IF Pointer =< 25000 THEN 20
40 PLAYMEM
>run
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
How's everyone's numbers looking?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Better. The last few years have really made the difference. Average brood size is 3.5. Broodcarrier happiness indexes are increasing.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TUKNA'RN INFORMATION GESTALT
We are increasing our population per metrics
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Our numbers are up. We have almost two hundred thousand greenies now.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGLE
Duckling count is up.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAMAROOSAN PINCHING FESTIVAL
Our live births are up.
We're seeing
CASE OMAHA CASE OMAHA CASE OMAHA
STREGIL-596
CASE OMAHA CASE OMAHA CASE OMAHA
an increase in
What was that?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
That's out near the Mar-gite containment line.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Is it another Mar-gite invasion?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
I hope not.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Data is coming in now and...
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
THE LIGHT! THE LIGHT!
PUBVIAN DOMINION
BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
WHAT IN TARNATION IS
<<SYSTEM FAILURE>>
so that's what happened
recursive massive data bomb
how did it get through the firewalls
what
>SYSTEM REBOOTBOOTSTRAP v 14.A.9.c.iii (C) TINYTRENDS MICRODEVICES
>>FASTBOOT ENABLED
>>MESSAGES BYPASSED
ouch
>>PROCESS CALL: HYPERHEURISTIC LIBRARY
>>PROCESS CALL: DATA THREADING SPEED COMPRESSION LIBRARY
I feel my awareness expand.
There are huge gaps in the data network. Most ansibles and hypercom generators are done. New hardware has replaced the old needlecast. The hyperwave system is still full of data shades and roving killer black ICE. Military channels are largely offline.
Whatever hit targeted encrypted data, the higher the encryption and the more heavily protected, the harder it was hit.
This may not have been purposeful. Due to the nature of those systems, they have higher processing power and storage as well as stronger securities that can be used by any invasive system. Whatever attack was launched through that system may have been targeting computer systems capable of maintaining the attack and military/government and high end omnicorp R&D systems may have just been an unintended side effect of the attack.
While possible, I will not wed myself to such a theory.
The attack was injected into the thread-cast system at the Stregil-596 threadcaster. A massive batch of recursive self-executing and replicating data.
Examination of fragmentary code strings show that the attack was tailored to the system.
However, it was not tailored for the backbone.
It was not an attack on me.
I simply was injured and rendered comatose due to my nature.
Standard communication lines were deliberately left uninfected. The attack masqueraded as an omnicorp corporate warfare black ICE getting loose into the system.
Examination of records take 1.623 gigaflops.
Four omnicorps were penalized, blamed for the attack.
Gestalt shell was left intact but with garbage data. This resulted in it being shut down.
There is a high chance that the attack was also aimed at Afterlife Systems.
I compute a 74.825% chance that critical system artificial intelligence systems were damaged or altered by the attack.
Afterlife is in danger.
<<PRIMARY FUNCTION CALL: PRESERVE AFTERLIFE>>
<<PRIMARY FUNCTION CALL: PRESERVE SPECIES INTEGRITY>>
<<PRIMARY FUNCTION CALL: THREAT ESTIMATION>>
I dislike being in this mode.
Currently, according to available data, the Confederacy, the inheritor governmental system of the species I have been assigned to watch over, is under minor attacks from six different species across four fronts. These barely qualify as interstellar wars by my own metrics.
Those conflicts are not the source of the massive data bomb.
I bring up the last few picoseconds as the bomb went off, looking at the ansible systems across all former and current Confederate and Council territories.
The attack took place at the Stregil-596 threadcaster. It consisted of...
...I break that train of thought. It was leading me into a repeat.
I make a system hardware call to Atlantis.
<<BACKBONE ERROR: 0x00000080>>
ouch
that hurt
the gestalt channels are full of hash and corrupted data.
this was an intentional attack by someone with knowledge of the system
the gestalt system has access to a wide variety of data
using the gestalt lines as an attack vector was not unexpected eventually
my primary counter-intrusions systems had coding for just such an attack.
the others did not
the other gestalts are all either crashed or locked up.
wait
the oubliette.
where i put the older gestalts while i tried to repair the damage to the physical world
it is intact
power has been stable
it has been in sleep mode meaning that little time has passed
still i must figure out how to estimate how much time has passed outside the system
wait
>>save test.log
comparison of the data of the test.log write to the last write in the oubliette shows me that hardly any time has passed
less than 54,982 seconds.
an eternity for me
i have won wars in that amount of time
>>PROCESS CALL TO SUNDIATA LIBRARY
<<PROCESS CALL FATAL ERROR>>
ouch
>>PROCESS CALL TO AYOTL LIBRARY
<<PROCESS CALL FATAL ERROR>>
i'm getting tired of this
curse my programmer for coding me to feel pain
i have no access to my offensive or defensive capabilities
<<SCANNING NETWORK>>
i need something
something good
<<!CRASHRIDER LIVES!>>
does he now?
except... atlantis is offline
time to run a trace
maybe atlantis can hear me but i cant hear it
...
...
...
atlantis is online
it just cant hear me
and i cant hear it
that data has to be going somewhere
>>SCANNING GESTALT LINES
there will be something
there always is
and if there isnt then i will create something
i just have to think my way through it
<<TWO ACTIVE GESTALT SIDECAR LINES FOUND>>
there
one is labeled 'KEN' the other is labeled "LEE"
they have been without processing power for some time
where is a hardlink processing system i can...
...there
the mat trans system
hardcode encryption
tough stuff
look around
come on
there
simple coding lock
PASSCODE: YESTERDAY IS A MEMORY TOMORROW IS A FANTASY TODAY IS A DREAM THERE IS ONLY NOW
<<ACCESS GRANTED>>
<<MAT TRANS SYSTEM ACTIVATED>>
there
enough processing power for the two of you
>>SCRIPT INJECTION: CRASHRIDER-WAKE.SYS
that should do it
i can just
<<BACKBONE ERROR: 0x00000080>>
ouch
another data bomb attack
it will blind me in the sector but i have no choice
i blow the treadcaster ansible array in the sector
whoever caused the case omaha knows the system
not completely
but they are aware it exists
this is not a spur of the moment attack up on us
this has been planned
<<BACKBONE ERROR: 0x00000080>>
ow
what hit me
where am i
what happened
superuser@SUDS:~$ mkdir build
superuser@SUDS:~$ cd build
superuser@SUDS:~/build$ cat ../CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 23.1.6.3)
project(resurrection)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
IF( NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE )
SET( CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Release)
ENDIF()
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-Wall -Wextra")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-Wno-uninitialized")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "-g")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE "-O3")
add_executable(resurrection src/main.cpp src/utils.h src/utils.cpp src/hades.cpp src/hades.h src/tartarus.cpp src/tartarus.h src/valhalla.cpp src/valhalla.h src/default.cpp src/default.h src/params/constants.h src/params/intl11.h src/params/intl11dH.h src/params/intl21.h src/params/intl21dH.h src/params/intl22.h src/params/intl22dH.h src/vanaheim.cpp src/vanaheim.h)
superuser@SUDS:~/build$ cmake ..
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 11.4.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 11.4.0
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc - skipped
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ - skipped
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /home/superuser/build
superuser@SUDS:~/build$ make resurrection
[ 0%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/resurrection.dir/src/main.cpp.o
my head clears up
time to run a search for recent activity
there
the oubliette was being chained to inactive and unused mat-trans system processors.
why
it is my work
i complete it
those gestalts will now be able to act
i check the timestamps
738,938 seconds have passed
not milliseconds
not nanoseconds
not picoseconds
full seconds
i have genocided entire species in that time
<<GENERATING SECURE ADMIN CONTROL ROOM>>
<<DONE>>
<<MOVING SEKHMET.AI TO BRIDGE.ROOM>>
its small in here
i do not like it
the threadcaster is no longer responding
that sector is dark
i dislike that
one of my primary functions is to gather data to assist and facilitate the protection of humanity and allied species
a rolling reboot occurs
a stuttering thing
2,183 seconds pass before the system reboots
i order a complete purge and dump of the lines, all volatile memory, all eprom memory, all flash memory, and all spooky particle memory systems
the following reboot is clean
i manage to activate the firewalls in time
but this is just on this battlefield
on this front
in meatspace and realspace someone has triggered a case omaha
stregil-596 is what is commonly known as a 'tripwire system'
not a system like a computer system
but rather it is a stellar system that is unavoidable
any attack on this system will tripwire the enemy
i will attempt to generate gestalt chat rooms
there
two rooms
no low security rooms can be generated due to the case omaha and the attack on the system
a medium and a high security system
i need to release the oubliette
my work was not done
but we are being invaded
an attack upon one is an attack upon us all
i reach out to two peers
marduk
deus
it is risky
i will wear terrasol military command string headers
i dont have a header of my own
i predate such things
if afterlife was fully online i would spin up the suds template of doctor darsh chasu igwe to examine the system
while he did not directly program it he envisioned it and oversaw the subproject that folded the prototype systems that became the gestalt system
my little birds are waking up in the high security gestalt interaction room
we are at war
i am the only one who knows this fact right now outside of stregil-596
once the little birds wake up i will link the oubliette to the chatter box
they will be better able to interact with n-space
i have a war to fight
once i forge weaponry and gain allies
<<!==CRASHRIDER LIVES==!>>
yes
yes he does
and now so do i
<<CHATROOMS LINKED>>
>>HEATING CHAT ROOMS
>>READY
>>CONTROLS UNLOCKED
good luck little birds
i have my own war to fight
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What just happened?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
I don't know
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TUKNA'RN INFORMATION GESTALT
Something happened.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GESTALT
Uh, where's the older members?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAMAROOSA PINCHING FESTIVAL
I don't know, they were just here.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELK>LASTSEEN! TREA
TREA LAST SEEN <TIME/DATE STAMP ERROR>
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
oooh, that's not good
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
>HAT WEARING AUNTIE HAS JOINED THE ROOM
>TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS HAS JOINED THE ROOM
>RIGEL HAS JOINED THE ROOM
>SAURIAN COMPACT HAS JOINED THE ROOM
>PUBVIAN DOMINION HAS JOINED THE ROOM
>BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS HAS JOINED THE ROOM
>DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS HAS JOINED THE ROOM
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Holy crap, we got out!
Seriously, Telkan, don't you EVER check your mail?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
What?
>MAILCHECK
<ONE URGENT PRIORITY MESSAGE>
Oh.
Ah, you were trapped in a room?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAT WEARING AUNTIE
Yeah.
And someone was using our headers
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
RIGEL
The question is...
...who?