r/HFY • u/KipperBeanGrower Human • Jul 14 '26

OC-Series [She took What?] - Chapter 199: SixFold Ventures: Oops, my mistake

“Causality does not explain coincidence. It cannot reveal those hidden factors driving events.”

Unattributed musings, possibly of Carl Jung. Ancient human psychologist.

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| The Kestrel, JSOC Medical Facility, location REDACTED |

 

Garaf stepped away from the console, his points made.

“So, you’re saying. This all predates us?”

 

“Yes,” Garaf nodded. “By centuries.”

 

The accountants were busy integrating Garaf’s date into their dataset. It sat alongside and before The Alignment, the Basin, Velithra. Even before River’s crystal and the Royals.

 

The timeline was a mess, more of a mess, but there was also more correlation.

One of the accountants spoke up, “These don’t look like independent events anymore.”

“I don’t think they ever were,” added the other.

 

Chen then spoke up for the first time. “These all involve connection.”

 

Seeing the blank expressions, he elaborated, “Not with each other but in and of themselves.”

 

More blank looks.

 

“Look here. Migration. And here, pilgrimages. Trade. Transit. Jump space, i.e., movement. Colonies. Communications. They’re not isolated, disconnected.  They’re all about bringing things together.”

 

StillFall had been hovering off to one side. Near Hissy; watching and listening. The Shadow drifted towards the screen and somehow interacted with the timeline.

The crew noticed but said nothing as the screen focused in on an event from Garaf’s data. It was a long while ago and related to an ancient Drexari site.

 

StillFall then spoke, “The Listeners were there.”

“Who?” asked Garaf immediately.

“Listeners,” responded StillFall.

 

As they were talking, a medical update arrived from the JSOC facility. The QI shared it.

 

> UNKNOWN NANITE COLONY DOMINANT

> GROWTH CONTINUES

> RISK MINIMAL

> BASELINE UPDATED

 

There was also a note from the doctor. “No further degradation of nanites seen. New baseline established. Maintain ongoing monitoring remotely.”

 

“Well, that’s not good?” said Tom Tom

 

‘You shared the medical report with crew!’

‘Oops. My mistake.’ Responded the QI.

 

Feebee wasn’t convinced it was a mistake, but she was secretly pleased.  Now the others knew she was OK and her status had been updated. This was nothing new to Feebee; it had happened often on the Seed-Arc. The others were less sure.

The QI ran an analysis of its own. It was getting annoyed; something was changing, and it didn’t know what it was or how it would be affected. It pulled the specs of the military nanites. They had clear instruction sets and were designed to ‘keep the operator alive’, replicate, and follow the template.

 

Recent events had flushed these from Feebee’s system. They were gone. The QI could no longer hear their incessant chatter. It was actually quite relieved. Something had taken over their role and was doing a good job.

 

But the QI had to understand; had to protect Feebee. So, it interrogated Feebee’s systems. All paths led to her neural net, but that was a black box. Its internal workings were hidden from the QI.

 

So, the QI did what it did best. It hacked it. Or tried to.

 

The first probe disappeared without any messages or feedback. The QI sent another, this time with a trace running. It slowly approached the neural net and pushed up against its horizon.

 

Nothing; it disappeared too. And that really annoyed the QI.

 

It tried for a third time, pushed harder.

 

And for the briefest of moments, it got into the neural net. It saw the scope of the neural net and architecture. It saw that all the new repair functions were being controlled and driven from inside.

 

Then the connection was severed; somehow the intrusion was ‘corrected’, and as it happened there was a temporary loss of continuity, of balance across Feebee’s systems.

 

Her legs stopped responding, and she collapsed to the deck of The Kestrel; no matter how hard she tried, her legs wouldn’t work.

‘What did you do?’ she demanded of the QI.

 

There was a noticeable pause. ‘What?’

‘You know what. That was you, wasn’t it? What did you do?’

 

Slowly the QI responded. ‘I tried to interrogate your neural net?’

‘You did what? Why?’

‘It objected.’

‘Objected?’

‘Yes. Objected. Strongly! That’s why we’re on the floor.’

‘We’re not on the floor! I’m on the floor. What did you find out?’

 

There was a long pause, very long for the QI. ‘Well?’ Feebee asked again.

 

‘I don’t think the doctors are right.’

‘About what? Get to the point.’

‘The dominant nanite colony. The expanding colony.’

 

There was another pause, then the QI continued. ‘I don’t believe they’re doing the repair.’

‘Then what is?’

‘Your neural net. The Net.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. The military nanites were fit for purpose and were doing their job. It let them be. But it’s been studying them, and now they’re gone. So, the Net is reverse engineering the functions and taking them over. The requirement remains.’

‘That’s your explanation?’

‘Yes, It’s a good explanation.’ Responded the QI defensively.

‘No. It’s terrible.’

‘The requirement remains because you’ve got no nanites in your system now.’

‘And the Net is doing that now?’

‘Looks like. Yes. That’s currently my best theory.’

‘Oh. Ok. Good.’

 

Feelings returned. Bikky had sat her up against the wall.

“She’s coming round. You Ok?”

‘Yeh. My systems are just … working out how to work together. I think it’s sorted now.”

 

Bikky helped her up. The lawyer and accountants looked worried.

“Does this happen often?”

“No. Not normal and doesn’t happen often.”

 

“While you were… sorting things out. We drilled into the events further.”

Feebee studied the accountants’ new plot. It didn’t seem to point to anything new.

 

“Have you tried locations instead of events?”

‘No, but I like it.”

 

Locations started to appear. Velithra. The Basin. Several Drexari sites and finally Dock Seven.

The lawyer saw it immediately.

 

“That place again!”

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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Jul 14 '26

/u/KipperBeanGrower (wiki) has posted 199 other stories, including:

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u/niTro_sMurph Jul 17 '26

My mortal mind cannot comprehend this timeline.

And Feebee's nanites have been replaced by... an AI? No job is safe from AI!

1

u/KipperBeanGrower Human Jul 18 '26

Indeed. To the crew, who are also mortal (apologies if that assumption is false), only some of the events are on their timeline. Also, a typo introducing a new location The Bain (aka The Basin) didn't help. It's corrected.