Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework Read online

  THE SPINWARD FRINGE SERIES

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 1 and 2: Resurrection and Awakening

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 3: Triton

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 4: Frontline

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 5: Fracture

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 6: Fragments

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework

  For other books by Randolph Lalonde visit:

  www.RandolphLalonde.com

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7

  FRAMEWORK

  Book 3 of the Rogue Element Trilogy

  Randolph Lalonde

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright (c) 2012 by Randolph Lalonde

  Spinward Fringe is a Trademark of Randolph Lalonde

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Randolph Lalonde.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Images licensed by iStockphoto and used with permission.

  Titling and other design by Randolph Lalonde.

  Print ISBN: 978-0-9865942-8-1

  EBook ISBN: 978-0-9865942-9-8

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Epilogue

  To science fiction fans around the world, especially the few who have been waiting for this book.

  I hope you find an ending. I hope you find a beginning

  Chapter 1

  Beast Of Burden

  The glare of the sun streaming through the window to Roman's left was so bright it was almost blinding. The golden rays were a welcome sight even though they carried no warmth with them. He and his hostess were on one side of a rectangular room with rounded corners. He sat across from her at a small wrought iron table. A piping hot pot of black tea, two cups, and a plate of blueberry biscuits had been placed on the transparent top.

  His finger traced the edge of the fine porcelain cup in front of him as he muttered, "I can't believe the new configuration of events brought me here. Since I took guardianship of the Victory Machine and began seeing, I’ve noticed you from afar. But not once was there an indication that you were anything but a secondary influence on the future. I've watched you help the main influencers since Pandem, alter the course of lives without realizing it, and I've seen you die five times after Ayan the First sighed her last. None of that made a lasting difference to humanity's collective fate."

  "You've seen me die?" an older Ayan the Second said with an upraised eyebrow. Her manner was lighter in her current iteration, and her British accent thicker.

  "Your worst fate came as you were about to leave Pandem." He only allowed himself to glance at her, but it was enough to take in the image of the woman she'd become. The first dozen times he’d seen her in the future she appeared wildly different, but that started to change. In the last few versions of the future, he couldn’t help noticing that Ayan the Second’s appearance and demeanour were becoming more and more consistent.

  He allowed himself to take in the image of her as she existed in the future he was visiting. Long curly red hair trickled down the front of a long overcoat of thin synthetic material. It was marked with a skull on the left and a many-pointed star on the right. Her clothing wasn't the style he'd expected, either. Her vacsuit was layered, with loosened sleeves and a skirted waist. "Valance saved you with framework regeneration after you were shot in the back. He still doesn't know how, but he was able to take direct control of the technology. I should have known you would be his inspiration for becoming a true model two. The future you create by surviving is the most unlikely one, but it’s the one I’m living in.“

  "I was supposed to stay dead, then," she said.

  "The likelihood of Valance discovering that the limitations on his framework body were all in his mind were small. He was supposed to fail and retreat into darkness until the beginning of the Fifth Era," Roman said.

  "And then?"

  "Go on a rampage across the stars. His name was to be listed with Attila, Cortez, Napoleon, and Riz-Tain in history."

  "He's not far from that now," Ayan said.

  "But your existence, your actions since your arrival on Tamber in this new timeline, have changed him. What you have watched come to pass over the past nine years is vastly different from the timeline I've been watching all this time." Roman tried to pick up the teacup with a trembling hand, but gave up as it rattled against the saucer.

  "The Machine is nearly critical, your vision is fading. What is it you're here to ask me? How can I help you understand the situation in this future?" Ayan the Second asked quietly. There was great sympathy in her manner.

  It gave him pause and he stared at her openly. "I've been dealing with the last rogue element, Valance, for so long that I had forgotten these visions can be a refuge."

  "Only of the mind," she said.

  "Yes, and I think that is why I've dreamed you up using the Machine and all the history it remembers. If I approach you in this timeline to try to stop the destruction of Pandem, will it change everything I've seen here? Will Haven Shore still exist? Will the darkness still stop at the gate?"

  Ayan the Second paused a moment, staring at him with kind blue eyes.

  Roman knew the pause was a result of the Victory Machine calculating. It was considering the actions of billions of individuals over the nine years that were yet to pass. A violent tremor seized him and he wrapped his arms around himself tightly to try and suppress it.

  As the calculations completed, Ayan the Second smiled. “The likelihood of anyone saving the new populace of Pandem is minimal, in the thousandths of a percent. The key to causing a brighter future is in another place. You came here, to this time, to this version of Ayan because showing her what she can become early in the Fifth Era will only affect positive change. As far as the darkness you used to whisper to Hampon about, well, your efforts to set him on a path to save what’s i
mportant have borne too much fruit. His course, and that of Pandem, are irreversible – but that could be for the best."

  "What about Valance? What if I approach him instead of Ayan the Second? If I approach him on his ship to warn him about the days ahead, will he still kill Hampon and Eve then save Pandem?"

  "That was always a precarious future, Roman. Unlikely. Besides, you could ruin everyone surrounding him if you force him in an unnatural direction. He was made for desperate times, you’ll see."

  "But it was more certain when he was the rogue element, when Hampon, Meunez, and Wheeler were watching him from afar."

  "I am the primary rogue element now. The path on which you see Valance is as certain as any part of the shifting future can be. Consider carefully which prescient instant you show Ayan the Second. She is at a crossroads. One set of choices will ensure the destruction of everything around her. It would be the kind of wildfire that could make way for a period of growth. Another will lead to a war that could last a century, but there would be recovery in some areas while it rages on. The third and riskiest path will cut the Fifth Era War short. Few lives lost, much higher risks taken, and great sacrifices that will leave jagged scars on the future."

  "What information will she need the most? How can I assure she takes the right path?" Roman asked.

  Ayan the Second fixed him with a knowing smile. “You already know the answer. Every version of Ayan has a need to improve her environment and protect the people she cares for. You only have to convince her to continue to apply those instincts on a large scale. The burden you place on her is not only something she is capable of carrying, but it’s the only way she’ll have a truly fulfilling life. It’s what she’s waiting for and what she resists at the same time.”

  It was difficult for Roman to collect his thoughts through his increasing tremors and the pressure building in his chest. The Victory Machine's wormhole originating from the future generated temporal radiation, and it could only store so much as energy before it had to be released. It was almost at capacity. “Then it’s as simple as providing her with the right purpose.”

  Roman looked directly into the golden sunlight, still marveling at the simplicity and elegance of his realization. For the first time, the light warmed him and he had a moment of peace as he watched the new future reconfigure itself towards a more positive balance. A tremor shook him hard enough to rattle the tea set on the table, reminding him that what he was only a directed dream informed by his companion, the Victory Machine.

  "It was good meeting you," Ayan said with a wink.

  It was the last thing he saw before abruptly waking in the wasted alley he'd taken refuge in the night before. No one bothered to so much as glance at a man in a filthy old hazard suit, especially when he was lying in a pile of garbage. The readings from the Victory Machine indicated that it couldn't contain any more of the byproduct energy from the microscopic high compression wormhole at its centre. The cables attaching him to it were getting warm, the temperature in his suit was rising, there wasn't much time left.

  He struggled to his feet and shambled down the alley into the busy walkway of Caine, a Regent Galactic sponsored city just outside the edge of their conquered space. The people going about their daily lives gave him plenty of room. To them, he was an emaciated man in a dirty old hazard suit carrying a battered case. A group of people dressed in business attire - colourful blouses, pressed square-cut suits and clean casual wear - stared at him from across the street.

  Roman stared back as he pictured the interior of the Triton, concentrating on it as his only desired destination. There was more than enough power collected for the Victory Machine to open a secondary wormhole that would take him there in one-one-hundredth the time it would for the most highly powered generator. He only had to direct it properly.

  He felt the Victory Machine confirm his destination through the neural link and the case opened. Roman closed his eyes and raised the device up in front of him.

  "What’s that? Some kinda old camping lantern?" he heard one passerby ask.

  "Someone should tell him to turn it down," another winced.

  Before anyone could get too close, Roman felt the familiar crushing force embrace him. The instant before he lost consciousness, he found himself growing eager. It felt like he was once again on the right path. All the previous choices he’d made while influencing events seemed to fall neatly in place behind the new direction he was taking. Seeking out Ayan the Second and gifting her with purpose, setting her up in the centre of the human struggle would be a fitting final act.

  Chapter 2

  Gabriel Meunez

  To the surprise of the hundreds of people on Aegis Street that morning, a surge of light brought about the disappearance of the man in the old hazard suit. Some thought he was vaporized by some kind of localized explosion, others assumed he was some kind of street performer, while even more still forgot about the incident by noon.

  One onlooker knew exactly what it was. Gabriel Meunez watched playback of the incident minutes later from the Regent Galactic central control room. His mind was flooded with energy readings and his wasted mouth stretched in a broad grin. The Victory Machine was hiding on one of our own worlds, he thought to himself. Citadel was right to entrust Roman with guardianship over it all this time. He must be near death if he's exposing himself now, though. Hampon had been frantically searching for him ever since the transmission frequency changed. If I hurry, I might be able to obtain the Victory Machine for myself.

  An irrational lust rose in Meunez as he considered the thought of being connected to a machine that could not only see into the future, but calculate how to change it. Ever since they discovered the Machine's frequency when they were working with Vindyne, it had been an obsession of Hampon's, and Meunez never had to ask why. The power that came with such a device was obvious.

  If he hadn't been distracted by his brush with Alice on the Overlord II, he suspected he would have shared Hampon's obsession. As he sat in the control chair, connected to the entire Regent Galactic network through numerous cables affixed to the cybernetic portion of his brain, he weighed the advantages and disadvantages of going after the device personally.

  All the while, he focused the computing power at his command, entire planets worth of networked processors, on discovering the destination of the crush gate style wormhole Roman had taken. Even with all that power, he was unable to determine the wasted man's destination with a great deal of accuracy, but the general directionality determined without a doubt that Roman was headed in Pandem's general direction.

  "So he goes to see either Hampon, Eve, or the enemy settling in the Rega Gain system. I'm going to find you, Roman. I'm going to find you myself, so no one can get between me and the Victory Machine." He took a deep, painful, shuddering breath in preparation for what would come next.

  One hundred and five worlds were within the scope of his vision, with all their recruitment centres, shopping complexes, temples, concourses, and trillions of points of access. The nirvana of direct contact, instant access to information was coming to an end. He would have access, but without the nest of cables surrounding him, it wouldn't be certain or as quick. He would have to settle for limited, wireless contact, but he vowed to make the most of it.

  His work in Regent Galactic space was complete. Eve would be more than satisfied. He had even managed to tame the virus she'd implanted in his mind. Gabriel Meunez re-tasked the thing and sent it out into the Regent Galactic network with a pure purpose, one that it served brilliantly.

  It assisted him in directing the general policies of over a hundred worlds, driving trillions of people to embrace the Order of Eden and invest their currency and themselves in the advancement towards Eden itself. The Holocaust Virus had struck every world under Meunez's control, only this time he orchestrated the destruction with the help of Eve's version of the virus.

  A halftime machine-versus-machine derby at a Crush League Rugby tournament turned into a blood
bath when every mechanised being turned on the audience. Thousands were killed, none of whom had purchased their membership with the Order of Eden. In Yimporo Square, automated vendors and security androids suddenly began an all out assault on the crowd during the Morrison Music Festival. Only one Order of Eden believer was superficially injured, but thousands who hadn't paid their hundred thousand credits were slain.

  His most recent demonstration of Eve's updated Holocaust Virus was seen across all of his worlds, as sky transports carrying non-Eden registrants simply fell out of the sky, killing most of their passengers when they hurtled towards other unregistered civilians like guided missiles. It was clear to those who didn't ponder the reasons behind the attacks for too long that you had to raise the funds required to register with the Order of Eden and join the Enlightenment Program or be killed by the Holocaust Virus.

  In Eden the people found protection, peace, and enlightenment while they travelled the path to paradise. Actors were promised great advancement to appear and publicly offer testimony. Several citizens actually recorded a journey to Eden Prime for all to see. They were perfect examples of good followers who spent incredible amounts of time and currency on progressing down the path to paradise. Each was sure evidence that it was possible to reach paradise during their lifetime using the tools provided. The world they were delivered to was a terraformed jewel in the Axet solar system. No one would ever know that their entire Ascension to Eden experience was an elaborate show.

  The protesters made it interesting. They gathered in places they thought machines couldn’t go or see. There was no such place. They claimed to use electrical tools that couldn’t contain an artificial intelligence, but they were moronic to think that even simple tools were out of reach. Either he, or Eve's Holocaust Virus, would reach out and orchestrate their destruction by finding ways to assume control. While the bulk of the resistance tried to live out of his sight, others endeavoured to get their message out to the people. He’d twist their words, turning one well-known expression - Hate Fate - into Fate Hates and place it on wanted posters. The rewards for turning in those individuals who fought the Order would go towards a follower’s Ascension, a valuable step forward for anyone who yearned to enter paradise. The protestors were foolish to remain on Regent Galactic worlds; anywhere else would have been safer, but they believed that Regent Galactic had to be convinced as well. Little did they know that the board of directors were dead, that one man and the virus itself had complete control. The Order of Eden had infected the Regent Galactic worlds, and there was no curing them.