Variance Read online

  His objective was to predict, through memory, the termination square if the red square emitted a beam of light. There were only four plates, so he figured this exercise should be easy. He mentally selected one of the orange squares, and the red square emitted a beam. The beam contacted the hidden plates and terminated at a plate adjacent to his selected plate.

  He slapped his forehead. Total miss. Was his defect that bad? Toddlers easily dominated puzzle games like these. Lily probably could have handled fifty plates.

  After hours of practice, he reached a point where he could handle no more than seventeen plates. He comforted himself, believing that this practice run was just a warm-up. Maybe he should try something else. He saved his progress and attempted another exercise: target identification.

  The cube disappeared around him, and several unique polygons surrounded him. Immediately, he noticed that only one object was unique, while the others had duplicates, so he selected the singular object. A new set of objects appeared, and within a few seconds, he targeted the unique object.

  Bam. This should not be too bad. Statice could probably handle a hundred objects.

  Several rounds passed, and he dashed through objects in search of the one with a unique shape, color, axial rotation, travel path, or orbit. Thirty-six objects flew around him within a fixed five-meter-diameter dome. He could not find the object and had a headache. He was sure Statice had tackled harder levels when she was Lily’s age.

  He did survive multiple times. Maybe stress was affecting his performance. His training was a warm-up after all, right? Where is everybody?

  A door at the near end of the bay opened. His family entered and rushed to him as he approached them and ended his exercise. A convoy of delivery drones followed behind and stored polymer containers. Kaiser entered, and the bay sealed shut. Paul had felt alone for a long time. They must have successfully obtained the necessary equipment.

  Amaryllis gave him a warm hug and spoke through Audials. “Kaiser got everything. We have what we need to design and create the suit.”

  Lily clapped and hopped in place. “I even found my intelligence brain. I’m so excited to start working on it.”

  Statice maintained a firm appearance. Paul knew she was engineering the suit on her Visuals. They were accomplishing so much, yet he could not pass simple brain-testing exercises designed for children.

  At first, Paul had a heavy heart. His defect overwhelmed him with new and negative emotions. Yet he was able to brush aside his pity and smile. Without his family, life would have been different. The alignment of their goal with Kaiser’s would have never formed. Maybe there was another Utopian in the solar system with the same defect. But then again, what were the chances of a whole family sharing a defect?

  Maybe it’s a miracle.

  He placed his hand on Lily’s head. “We have many blessings to be thankful for.”

  Kaiser approached them and spoke. “The drones are assemblers. They will remain until the engineering drawings are finished for them to assemble the machines. I see that you started working on the tutorial I sent you. Are you doing well?”

  Paul stepped closer and shouted, “Yes, I’m doing excellent! Thank you. It’s probably better if you use Audials. I can barely hear you.”

  Kaiser switched to Audials. “Keep exercising. My colleague will continue to send whatever he can to train you while you’re here. Crimson scouts remain distant, but the number of attacks is increasing. Observers can’t identify whether or not they arrived from Crimson or secretly remained within Azure. There’s no history of them entering the atmosphere ever.”

  Kaiser’s eyes scanned the bay. “We’re safe here. If they attack this tree, we can easily depart from here through my ship. That’s why I chose a large bay. Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.”

  Statice tapped Kaiser on the shoulder. “Are you equipped with an engineering function like the rest of your Utopians?” Paul knew a master plan was erupting in her mind.

  Kaiser shrugged. “Not to Azurian standards but enough to help. What do you need?”

  Statice and Kaiser walked and pointed at the drones in the distance as they talked. Amaryllis and Lily focused on something through their shared Visuals. No one had a place to sit. If they were going to stay there for three days, they might as well make some accommodations.

  “Kaiser?” Paul gathered an inventory of furniture and shared the information with Amaryllis.

  “One second, Statice. Yes?” Kaiser turned around.

  “I would get this myself, but if training has priority, is it possible for you to task some drones with providing us furniture and accommodations to stay here full-time until departure? Amaryllis can help with identifying the necessities.”

  “Absolutely.” Kaiser hummed with approval at Paul’s selections. “Good thinking. For a while, I wasn’t sure how we would sustain running back and forth to the lobby restrooms.”

  “Thank you, Kaiser.” It was amazing to have the founder on their side. The situation had turned out better than what Paul had anticipated with Leader Kynast.

  Hot potato.

  That evening, with the bay dimly lit from the overhead lights, Paul and Amaryllis watched several drones assemble their temporary bedroom. Equipped with a bathroom, cabinets, and a bed, they had everything they needed to work nonstop. Amaryllis leaned her head on Paul’s shoulder and hugged him.

  “I can’t believe we’re doing this. This is all happening, isn’t it?” Amaryllis sounded disheartened. Paul knew she did not want to separate, and he didn’t either.

  Paul embraced her. “You know, about this whole non-Utopian situation that we’re in, it feels wrong in a way. But you feel alive more than ever, right?”

  “I do. I appreciate our Utopian beliefs more than I did before the attacks. I feel like we took them for granted. I thought our lives would never change until the day Azure reached its maximum capacity for space exploration. What could be better than eternal peace and happiness across the galaxy and time spent together as a family? That’s why we have to defend it.”

  He loved Amaryllis. He had grown up with her. She was his other half. He wanted to see another galaxy with her, but Crimson and Shadow had eradicated their dreams.

  She continued. “I can’t believe people out there think of us as demonic. It’s not like we’re oblivious to anything negative; we just choose not to live with it. How does that make us demonic?”

  The drones completed the roof and hovered away to work on other tasks. Paul led Amaryllis to the room, and they sat on the bed. He patted the soft bed as she nodded with a smile. Through a window, they stared at Lily, who sat on a chair and moved her hands in front of her.

  Life was good. Even with the current situation, life was still good.

  Amaryllis hunched over with her hands at the edge of the bed. “I don’t know. Immortality was meant for God. Our genetic mutations are manipulated to benefit our existence. Our hormones and chemicals prohibit us from all things negative. I guess people feel those traits should be reserved for God.”

  “But Kaiser created it to prevent mankind’s extinction. What good is an extinct human race?”

  “Why can’t they let us be? We are productive. We spread love and joy in all that we do. We’ve advanced science to the point that we can populate alien worlds. And now we’re the bad people? Look at Lily. Who would want to harm a precious girl like that?”

  Lily yawned, stretched, and continued working.

  Paul knew that people like Shadow would. He could not imagine Lily suffering. “I hope to learn more about why the Kazats hate us so much. Xameeshee must be a strange world to live in.”

  She clasped his hand in hers. “I want to go with you. I tried to convince Kaiser to let all of us go, but he insisted that we stay here. He thinks his moon is on the brink of war and that Shadow would harm us to his advantage while
you’re in Divine Might.”

  “I don’t like going anywhere without you. It doesn’t feel right, but we have to trust his advice.”

  She kissed him. “Please be safe over there. Do what is right when all is wrong. Even though we have a non-Utopian trait, hold on to all that is good with our beliefs. Follow your heart, and I’m sure God will bring us together again.”

  He would miss her softness and wisdom. He kissed her hand. “I will. I love you very much, Amy.”

  “I love you very much.”

  On the second day, small, enclosed rooms lined a far corner of the bay, while partially assembled machines covered the other half of the bay. Drones welded metallic joints together, laser-cut custom sheets of metal, and used xenopolymer to form common objects and fasteners. Kaiser and Statice sat behind a large yet simple control station, finalizing the engineering data of the suit. Amaryllis and Lily sat at separate substations, developing the artificial intelligence and communications systems.

  Paul worked on his spatial orientation in an open area by himself. A translucent cube with an internal maze floated before him. A diamond icon positioned itself on the maze’s entrance. A small sphere floated close to his hands, allowing him to control the sphere’s orientation. An orange arrow marked the forward end of the sphere.

  He took a deep breath. I can do this.

  A timer activated. The icon entered the maze as he rotated the sphere to control its travel. The arrow on the sphere rotated to his right side, making right his new forward. He maintained his orientation and adjusted his sphere’s movement. He navigated through the maze and reached the final stretch to the finish line.

  The arrow changed, and for a moment, he lost his orientation. The icon fell away from the finish line because of gravity, and he accidentally guided it based on the old orientation. The exercise ended.

  This is ridiculous. He waved his arms in frustration.

  “Nice dance, Dad.” Statice waved in the distance as she laughed.

  Lily walked up to him. “Dad, do you have a moment?”

  He needed a break. “Sure. What is it?” he said as Lily led him to her station. “I’m guessing Mom went to get lunch?”

  “Yes, which is why I wanted to talk to you. The brain was preprogrammed with intelligence. Mom and I created separate code to supplement whatever is in the brain. Father Kaiser said that it was fabricated for signal control with satellites, so he thought it was the best match to what I needed instead of using an empty shell. But because such a brain doesn’t exist in any of the databases and I have no information on it, to prevent losing more time searching for another one, I added the fundamental safety code for protection.”

  Paul failed to understand Lily’s concern. “So it sounds like everything’s in order and under control. But you sound bothered.”

  She looked away from him. “I didn’t want to fail on my part. Your safety is at risk, and to me, that’s all that matters. I know this may sound selfish. I don’t want you to leave. But since I don’t have a choice, I want you to return home safely—if there still is a home by then.”

  He knelt down and gave her a hug. “Home is here.” He placed a hand over his heart. “I will always be with you. Once Divine Might is over, we will be together again, wherever that may be.” He hated the thought of leaving her.

  “Hot potato?” She put her small fist in front of her with a closed smile.

  He had to come back to her. He bumped her fist with his. “Hot potato.”

  On the morning of the third day, Paul ran on a treadmill with health monitors measuring his current baseline physical capabilities. Approaching fifty kilometers in two and a half hours, he slowed to a halt. His heart rate of 167 beats per minute was not his norm. Cellular Infinity degradation showed in his performance.

  He calculated the linear rate of change over the course of five Azurian days to represent the fifteen Xameeshee days. He determined that he should be able to handle the cellular regeneration of small wounds lasting thirty seconds versus twenty seconds. He would sweat more, which proved to be more of an annoyance than a problem. He hoped his muscular physique would last throughout Divine Might.

  But then again, how would he know what the exponential degradation rate should look like? Xameeshee and Divine Might could completely change him for the worse, since Cellular Infinity only worked on a stable Utopian person. He was not stable anymore.

  Something tickled his nose and made him shut his eyes. He placed his hands in front of his face and sneezed. Clear, pasty snot ejected onto his hands. His Visuals scanned and analyzed the specimen. He was having a mild allergic reaction to dust, which was uncommon.

  Sweat, an allergic reaction, slower sprint times—what was next?

  In addition, where could he wipe his snot? His suit always kept his skin clean. He rolled his hand on his suit, and the surface sanitized his hand. Hopefully, he would not continue to soak his suit in snot.

  Statice walked up to the health monitors and leaned on one of the machines. She smiled with a hand on her hip. “Are you ready to try out Variance?”

  Since Paul had recorded the baseline study for the first time in his life, a natural death date appeared on his interface. He had 160 years to live. He brushed aside the info and turned toward Statice.

  He knew that her work on Variance had to be impressive based on her smile and pose. At least it would be better information than knowing when his life would expire. “Let’s do this.”

  Everyone stood before a large, cylindrical three-dimensional printer. Statice shared her Visuals. The cylinder blossomed as white smoke that smelled of burned plastic and metal dissipated into the air. Technical data appeared around the glossy white suit.

  Statice’s smile turned into awe the moment the suit came into view. “We built the Variance platform to counter common warfare technology to include vehicular hacking capabilities. It is designed to defend against conventional explosions and projectiles and critical frequencies and energy beams for long durations. It can also defend against high radiation levels for a short duration before freezing.”

  As fast as Paul blinked, curved sheets of material shrouded the suit in a dome. Like liquid, the sheets positioned themselves across various depths and flowed through each other while maintaining and changing shape. Everything appeared complex and random.

  Statice waved her hand in a smooth and gentle path, directing the flow of the sheets. “The platform uses nanoelectro engines and nanomagnetic engines. Light, force, and heat recharge the lattice superconductors. The suit can be used infinitely unless subjected to a high radiation field or heavy usage. When the power source is exhausted, that’s when the suit also freezes.”

  The dome and the suit disappeared. Amaryllis stepped forward in Statice’s place. “The shape-shifting microstructures prevent target lock and provide stealth and invisibility when the suit is undisturbed, even with the flowing protective dome. It uses the same multispectral cameras from our tree’s thermal protective windows, which regenerate the image on all perspectives. The cameras allow target identification in most weather conditions up to one hundred kilometers for complete battlefield awareness.

  “On the contrary, the only device that can identify the suit is a mass spectrometer, which none of the other platforms carry. When the suit is in contact, for example, with a projectile, the lattices form a ripple effect, and the area of visibility is proportionate to the impact force.”

  Amaryllis handed Paul a metal plate. “Throw it at the suit.”

  “Really?” Paul would have never expected her to say that. It amazed him that she permitted him to throw a metal plate. He held the plate at one corner and flung it to where the suit once stood. The plate contacted the suit, creating a hollow thud before jangling on the floor. A small area the size of Lily’s hand appeared and then disappeared.

  He hugged his wife. “It’s beautiful.”

/>   The suit appeared, while the dome remained invisible. A bird’s wing appeared on one side, and a turbine appeared on the opposite side. The suit can fly. How superb is that? He squeezed his family in a big hug.

  Statice continued despite his embrace. “For mobility, we’ve installed several options. From wings to turbines, Variance can take you anywhere at moderate speeds. And for weapons, we’ve used Siren, Lily’s AI, to calculate and execute disarming attacks on all types of battle suits, vehicles, machinery, and anything electronic in our database, making it a highly effective, nonlethal platform. Just don’t disable someone flying in the air, or else they’ll fall to their death. On the other hand, don’t disable someone over a body of water, or else they’ll drown to death. The only suits that we don’t have information on are those of Crimson and Kalliro.”

  “What’s a Kalliro suit?” Paul looked at Kaiser.

  Kaiser brought up a new image next to Variance. It was a gold suit covered with a jagged texture of metallic liquid. “My contact on Xameeshee created my defensive magnetic drive to protect me from Crimson forces. Apparently, the Kalliro suit supersedes Crimson technology.”

  Statice opened several blocks of code. “That’s where you and Siren come in for engineering. Contact with the suit allows Siren to identify weaknesses and to calculate an opening to create a disarming attack. Then she can send the data to us, and we will update all the Variance suits. This will provide us the advantage to overcome Crimson.”

  The suit sounded too good to be true. Paul said, “Speaking about weaknesses, are there any other weaknesses besides exposure to sources of high radiation?”

  “With Cellular Infinity, you are able to handle the radiation emitted from the suit. However, if your mutated human cells continue to degrade, your window for using the suit effectively shrinks. According to your baseline, you should be able to handle the trip without worry.” Statice’s confidence reassured him.