While Aron was assimilating the new knowledges and deep in Nova’s medically induced coma, the top minds in the imperial space agency were in a meeting with Styx, the AI that headed up both the TSF and their agency.“How reliable is this?” Dr. Musa Aminu, the head of the ISA, asked as he blinked the holographic file displayed in his glasses closed.“We’re 95% confident, sir. Some time within the next week, another Carrington event is expected to take place. And based on the sunspots we observed along with the increase in solar winds, we believe it’ll absolutely dwarf the event from 1869. The most damning piece of evidence we have is that it’s happening off season.“Normally, the Sun acts up on a predictable eleven-year cycle, and the last solar maximum was only five years ago, so—”“It wasn’t 1869,” Agency Head Aminu calmly said. “It was -149 BE.”“I’m not sure that’s relevant, sir,” the researcher said. “A change in calendar doesn’t mea—”“It means exactly what it means, Doctor Yao. I
John turned to Nyx and said, “Continue. What’re you trying to say?”{I’m saying we should keep the shield in its passive mode and allow the Carrington event to happen,} she said in her trademark disinterested tone.“Why should we do that?” Dr. Aminu said, a look of shock still lingering on his face. Was he on the ground floor of an AI apocalypse? A bead of cold sweat dripped down from his temple as he fruitlessly tried to rein in his emotions.{A few reasons, actually,} Nyx said. She paused and looked around the room before continuing, {Other than the people in this room and His Imperial Majesty, no one knows that the planetary defense shield even exists in the first place. It’s always been in its passive mode, making it invisible to everyone. Bringing it to full strength will reveal it, making its existence a matter of public record.{That wouldn’t be a problem, but there’s no need to reveal our trump card like that. After all, a trump card our enemies know about isn’t very useful, n
“For god’s sake, I just woke up!” Aron grumbled. He hadn’t even been awake for an hour before Gaia and Nova had dragged him back into the simulation for a briefing on the upcoming Carrington event.{The situation is critical, Your Majesty. So there’s no time to waste, since we’ll need to respond to the situation as early as possible, depending on your approval,} Gaia said. She knew that Aron was still feeling lethargic after coming out of his induced coma, especially since he was still dedicating a portion of his mind to sorting the new knowledge that had been downloaded into him.“What is it with shit always happening when I’m out of commission? What kind of bullshit is that?” Aron continued grumbling as Nova massaged his headache away. Still, his briefing had been thorough and included the options presented to him by the people in the earlier meeting.{It’s the opposite, sir. Things are always happening, but while you’re ‘in commission’, they immediately get dealt with. It’s only wh
“Just can’t catch a fucking break,” a man sighed, looking at the sky. His sentiments were shared by almost everyone on Earth; Minister Rogers’ staff had released news of the incoming celestial catastrophe mere minutes before.The current populace of Earth, both imperial citizens and noncitizens alike, were becoming numb to world-ending situations. The emergency broadcast notification sound had been heard so often that most people considered it no more important than the beeping of an alarm clock that woke them for work in the morning.That was partly due to the frequency with which it sounded, but the greater reason for peoples’ eerie calm was that the empire would either have long been prepared for the emergencies, or there would be time for them to prepare a solution. Thus, they took the announcements in stride, confident that the empire would solve all of their problems before they became problems at all.......As everything urgent had been dealt with, Aron had returned to his lab
Aron had advantages that made all of the problems the early pioneers of runic computing encountered complete nonissues. He was the perfect, or perhaps worst, person to have ever gotten their hands on that technology; it only depended on whether you were friends or foes in his eyes.For the mana requirements, he had an adapter that would convert electricity into mana, even if the ratio was steep. For material needs, he had atomic printers. And for the issues the original creators had run into regarding mass production of runic computers, he’d upgraded his atomic printers with the capability of printing runic constructs. All he would have to do is gather up the pre-printed materials and channel his mana into them for a while.And even that would cease to be a problem as soon as he worked out a way of automating the process of imprinting intent into runic constructs that were created by his atomic printers.Aron laughed out loud after he finished explaining his plans. He was quite excite
Aron watched as the atomic printer in his lab whirred to life, printing the base materials he would require to build his runic computer. Block after block of pure minerals slid onto a waiting tray, beneath which he had already carved a mana condensing runic construct linked to a fusion reactor the size of a golden retriever.“Nova, increase the time dilation around the condenser as high as it can go,” he ordered.Nova nodded and waved her hand; the condenser construct was immediately increased to a time dilation factor of 1100:1. In reality, they could do the same thing by increasing the size and output of the runic construct and fusion reactor, but that wouldn’t fit in Aron’s personal lab, virtual or not.“While that’s working, let’s see what the system has for programming languages that’re compatible with runic and biological computers,” he muttered to himself, bringing up his system shop window and giving Nova access to his senses with a blink.“Hmm... you,” he began, “and... you.”
Aron, still giddy with excitement, ran to his seat at lightning speed. He couldn't wait any longer to test the computer and see if it met the standards outlined in the knowledge he had purchased from the system. He plugged it in and powered it on, allowing the computer to draw electricity from the wall through its power brick, which converted it to mana to power the components, thus completing the bootup processes.The operating system he had written into it came to life, lighting up the screen with the GAIA Technologies logo, something he was careful to never leave out of his innovations.“Let’s see how it holds up,” he said as he pulled up the benchmarking program he had written alongside the runic OS.But after fiddling with the program for a while, he was left less than impressed by the runic computer’s speed of operations. It was fine for single operations, but didn’t even include the ability to hyperthread to at least emulate the ability to multitask. Perhaps starting with quant
Meanwhile, around the Sun.The detectors launched by the imperial space agency that had first discovered the signs of the impending disaster finally let out an alert as the sunspot stretched to the verge of breaking. Shortly after, with a flash of light, all of the detectors vanished as the eruption began.A mass of nearly liquid hydrogen and helium the size of Earth was ejected from the sun in a 120 degree arc. Its velocity was such that it would reach Earth in just over twelve hours, and Mars about two and a half hours after that.And all of it was being broadcast live to everyone in the solar system, courtesy of the imperial space agency.......Some people believed that, if something beyond their control was about to happen to them, it would be better if they were caught off guard by it. That way they wouldn’t spend the time leading up to the event in anxiety and panic. “Ignorance is bliss,” they claimed, and in a sense it was the absolute truth, because the moment one was notifie