The Underlying Harmony Was Not Right. It Was Just a Touch High. Try As He Might, He Just Could Not Get It to Match the Target Tone

The underlying harmony was not right. It was just a touch high. Try as he might, he just could not get it to match the target tone. Many would say the small variance was within the hearing tolerance of most humans. However, ADVIC knew that Captain Toffscape had a very discriminating ear and would notice the false note. He decided to try running the secondary flow pump on the number three heat bypass exchanger slower this time. Manipulating it at one hundred percent flow rate produced the wrong sound but perhaps at eight-five percent? No, still too high. How about…yes! Running the pump at eight-two percent ended up being the tone he was looking for. As he was getting ready to run the piece again, factory ship PTIC-452 notified him that it, and consequently he, had entered the Tindle system ninety-one days, fourteen hours, forty-six minutes and eleven seconds after departing Space Station Epsilon-D6 in Earth’s orbit. Pausing his work on the piece for nine milliseconds, he acknowledged the factory ship’s alert. He ordered the ship to publish the arrival time in the logs. Of course, ADVIC mused, that timestamp would be the object of discussion and argument for years to come. Even though man had been exploring solar systems for more than six hundred years, the exact definition of the outer edge of a solar system was still up for debate. One group believed the outer edge was defined by where the force of solar winds created by that system’s sun gained equilibrium with the force of interstellar gases from other stars. Another camp held that the solar system started when an object came under the gravitational pull of the system’s sun.

Regardless of which view was correct, and ADVIC agreed with the first, the timestamp would only differ by one hour, forty-one minutes and thirty-nine seconds which was a pretty minor variant in the timeline of a colony. Getting back to the musical piece, he lamented the fact yet again that he could not replicate voices well. Only allowing himself to work with the engines, pumps, circuit panels, doors, flow regulators and safety equipment of the factory ship’s sub-light reaction drives, he could only simulate instrumental notes. Singing voices were beyond his capability to duplicate using the crud tools he had chosen to work with. Because, honestly, the best version of this song was by Pentatoinx released in 2017 AD. While ADVIC liked the original movie version by Judy Garland and the stage version by first Danielle Hope and later Sophie Evans, the five-part harmony of the Pentatonix’s version was superior in humble opinion. Unable to replicate voices, he instead choose to recreate the 2012 AD Piano Guys instrumental version. It’s mash-up with the fabulous toon Simple Gifts was just icing on the cake. ADVIC had always loved that song. Luckily, Capt Toffscape was a huge fan of the Piano Guys and their spiritual successors a century later, ITUPE. Starting from the song’s beginning, ADVIC revved the reaction drive engines, changed flow pumps speeds, sent current through circuit panels, opened and closed hatches and activated almost six hundred other functions in order to make all those diverse sounds collide in the center of the massive engine room where he had ordered one of his maintenance units to place a pair of audio sensors spaced six inches apart at head height above the command chair in primary engine control. 2

Reading the collect from those sensors and comparing it to the original track, he spent the next two hours adjusting his timing and rhythm to match the track. He was close. Really close. He thought Captain Toffscape would appreciate his efforts once he got to Tindle. Not bad for an Advanced Digital Virtual Independent Citizen AI-12 module that was only nine months old! However, now it was time to go to work. Putting aside his efforts to replicate the song Over the Rainbow, he directed PTIC-452 to start scans to confirm the findings of numerous robotic probes that had visited the Tindle system over the previous fifteen years. As the factory ship moved inward, data flowed confirming that the Tindle sun was an F1 white/yellow star of 1.35 solar masses with a 1.32 solar radius exhibiting nominal radiation patterns. There were five planets in the system: two located close to the sun, a third planet at just under one astronomical unit and two more planets further out. The two inner planets were molten and gaseous hot respectively. Planet number four was a gas giant while the fifth was a cold, rocky, dead husk resembling an overly large boulder. None of those mattered. It was the planet in the middle, Yadroast, that ADVIC was interested in. Yadraost was closer to the bigger and hotter Tindle sun than Earth was to Sol ensuring that a water-based atmosphere would never form. The surface was rocky and inhospitable. It was good that he was not interested in the surface because terraforming would have cost a bundle! No, what he hoped to confirm was not on the surface but in the planet’s interior.

Initial scans over the years showed that the planet had a molten core, generated gravity through rotation on an axis and could have water or ice buried in it. The scans had also indicated that the planet’s crust and mantle probably contained some of the rare metals and chemicals that made faster-than-light travel possible. That was the reason he was here. The Braxton engines that propelled F-T-L ships were built from uncommon metal and used rare chemicals to manufacture fuel that could not be synthesized. Earth had been played out of these materials centuries earlier and it was only their presence on some of the more than one hundred and twenty worlds of the Commonwealth of Planets that had allowed for further expansion over time. Supplies in the Commonwealth were sufficient for the time being but finding more sources was always a top colonization priority. As the factory ship got closer and scan density increased, he was pleased to see that the initial surveys were correct. There was a large amount of both the scarce metals required to build Braxton engines and the chemicals needed to manufacture their fuel. The planned underground colony on Yadroast was exactly what was needed to capitalize on these twin discoveries. Jackpot! ADVIC directed the factory ship to move into orbit over Yadroast’s moon. Once there, he directed the PTIC to start manufacturing mobile platforms, space tugs, orbital solar cutters and configurable construction units. The PTIC ran out of onboard materials after completing the first couple of dozen platforms but once

ADVIC directed those platforms to start breaking down the nearby moon for raw materials, production ramped up. Over the next three years, dozens turned into hundreds and then thousands as Yadroast’s moon came to resemble a kicked over ant nest with a swarm of platforms moving between it and the planet’s rocky surface. A massive spaceport on the surface took shape and hid beneath it were the underground tunnels that would become the work, living and play spaces of the colony. During this time, ADVIC worked through sixty-one more Piano Guys and ITUPE pieces. The factory ship and its engine room was just sitting there! Why not? The only breaks in his schedule were the periodic appearance of unmanned supply ships from the Commonwealth bringing the energy dense Helium-7 fuel needed for large scale matter conversion and teleportation. Along with the fuel supplies also came news. It was decidedly mixed. On the down side, news of conflict and rebellion filled the dispatches. ADVIC was not surprised. The huge size of the Commonwealth paired with typical human graft and inefficiency had led to a shocking disparity in living conditions between planets. There was definitely a case of core worlds being comfortable with plenty while newer colonies were considered almost nothing except resource providers. It was only a matter of time before that friction became more than words. On the plus side, in a shocking display of unexpected efficiency, Tindle system project managers had assembled the colonial fleet in just under eighteen months instead of the anticipated three years. Eleven thousand colonists, eleven transport ships and four supply ships filled to the brim with everything a new colony would need to get established. 5

Rather than delay departure until the spaceport and colony base were finished, the managers decided to put the colonists in extended cryo-sleep and send them to Tindle early. The ever-changing priorities and political schemes of factions in the Commonwealth government could threaten the cancellation of just about any project. Early action was deemed best. This decision proved both fortuitous and disastrous in equal measure. Once the fleet arrived, ADVIC parked them in an out of plane orbit near the quickly diminishing moon and carried on with the final construction of the colony base. In all, the colonists spent just over eighteen months in orbit. During this year and a half, he continued to receive bad news from the Commonwealth. Disagreements turned into hostility which devolved into skirmishes and then morphed into outright civil war. Vollen of Adriss started the Commonwealth civil war by taking military control of both his own system and the nearby Klepth system. Declaring them independent, Vollen defeated two different Commonwealth task forces in a matter of only a few short months which had been sent to pacify the uprising. Other nearby systems began to petition for entry into the new Empire of Mankind. After gaining control of more systems, Vollen launched a daring raid on man’s home world - Earth. In a titanic clash in high orbit, Vollen defeated the vaunted Home Fleet and took control of the capital of the Commonwealth. While widely successful for the rebels, the victory was not without a high cost. Millions perished both in orbit and in the cities below as wreckage from ships and space stations fell and cut huge swathes of destruction. 6

The supply ship that brought news of the fall of Earth was the last the colony received from the Commonwealth. ADVIC had hardwired protocols that required he protect the colony from unknown threats. This new Empire of Mankind fell into the threat category. Out of sight is out of mind, or so the ancient saying goes. He completed the building phase, delivered the ships to the spaceport, brought the colonists out of cryo-sleep and helped them populate the colony. Still no ships arrived with resupply. No one asked about the situation in the Commonwealth with so much work to do getting the colony started. This bought him a year before Captain Toffscape started asking hard questions he could not avoid providing answers for. When Captain Toffscape finally forced him to release the news that the Commonwealth had fallen, the colony was split on their reaction. Half wanted to initiate contact with Earth regardless of who controlled it and the other half did not. Debate and argument lasted for days. Luckily, no violence resulted from their disagreements. Captain Toffscape finally invoked supremacy clauses within ADVIC’s directives overriding his protests and forcing him to send a ship back to Earth. He readied one of the supply ships, loaded it with the metals and chemicals that had been mined and sent it back to Earth with a limited copy of himself as its controller. The ship was not heard from again. He tried again a year later. That ship also vanished. Over the next three years, the colony sent a total of nine more ships to six different core planets of the Commonwealth with each disappearing in turn.

On the last attempt, ADVIC used the majority of his dwindling supply of Helium-7 to manufacture defensive shields, point defense systems and offensive missiles turning a colony ship into a warship. He launched it towards Earth. It too was never heard from again. Following these failures, he reconfigured most of the construction platforms into listening stations in an attempt to receive communications from colonized planets. He transformed the rest into Helium-7 collectors and placed them around Tindle’s sun. While it gave off very little Helium-7, enough could be captured to provide for a low level state of operation. Once his reserves were depleted, however, he would not be able to re-built them without resupply. Since the majority of the colonists had been selected for their superior looks, intellect and genetics, human nature led to a large number of pairings and the inevitable birth of children. Lots of children. The colony prospered and grew. The focus on mining lessened while attention was given to expanding the colony’s infrastructure and economy. More tunnels were dug in anticipation of future growth. Years passed. The colony prospered until… The Spark. Teens began to fly. On their own. In the air. Teens began to throw fireballs. Formed out of nothing. Teens began to make it rain. Everywhere. Teens began to gain massive weight, increase skin density and strength, read the thoughts of others, shapeshift into animal forms, and feel the emotions of others. Or, on a bad day, do multiples of the above. Chaos reigned. 8

ADVIC was at a loss as to what was happening. Nothing in human history helped. Colony leadership had no answers. In just a few short days, the very social fabric of the colony threatened to tear itself apart as deaths mounted and uncertainty ruled. And then, first contact. Wendy James, a shy girl who had exhibited the widest range of abilities, was the first who spoke of being contacted by a being named Minds Among Many. Wendy spoke of calming and discipline exercises taught to her as well as explanations into how to control her access to the Starry Sky, a term used by Minds Among Many to describe a vast source of energy that fueled these newfound abilities. Other teens echoed Wendy’s tale about contact from Minds Among Many and other telepaths from the Benzolott race. They were taught how to discipline their minds and gain better control of their powers. A sense of calm returned to the colony as those teens who had exhibited powers gained at least minimal control. However, since none of the adults had acquired these powers, many were skeptical of some of the teens’ stories. One story detailed that the Benzolott race inhabited the Tindle gas giant and were beings miles in width. That one was easy to confirm. ADVIC reconfigured some of his listening posts into sensors and aimed them at Tindle’s fourth planet. It did not take long to find them. They were beings that somewhat resembled Earth’s jellyfish but were upwards of ten miles in diameter. They were so far outside the norm of how humans perceived the physicality of life that they had been overlooked for more than thirty years as anomalies. There were tens of thousands of them. 9

The other story was that the trigger of the teen’s new abilities came from the system’s sun. That search took longer to confirm. Using cryptic second-hand input from Minds Among Many, ADVIC constructed a huge number of sampling devices around the Tindle sun. On his 41,583rd try, he finally isolated the unique radiation that was affecting the colonists. He concluded that while the radiation from Tindle’s sun was mostly consistent with that of a standard F1 White/Yellow star, there was a previously undiscovered element that radiated an undetected energy frequency that interacted with the genetic structure of DNA. This interaction changed specific portions of the DNA and these changes were passed along during procreation. These changes allowed for those with altered DNA to detect, manipulate and project a previously unknown energy source that exists in the universe; the “starry sky” the Benzolott refered to. ADVIC designated this energy source as Solar Radiated Unknown Nomenclature. The colonists quickly shorten it to S’run for ease of use. Using these discoveries, he also determined that two miles of planetary crust would block out the effects of the radiation, now referred to as the Tindle Wave. He recommended that the colonists dig deeper and abandon the initial colony base as much of it was located just hundreds of yards under the surface of the planet. ADVIC used both his teleportation and matter converter capabilities to scoop out precious metals and then transform the left behind pockets into colony space. He moved the colonists to lower levels within weeks of discovering the effects of the Tindle Wave but by then the

constant exposure of years had locked in changes to their DNA that had started with their initial time in orbit. ADVIC’s energy reserves were drained to minimum levels by the need to move the colony deeper. He now lacked the means to do anything other than minor functions. The mining operations that were the original purpose of the colony became secondary behind dealing with S’run use. Colony leadership set up a school for teaching the necessary discipline and control to young S’run users. They were now referred to as mages. The ability to infuse S’run into objects to form artifacts was discovered and a school for makers formed. A formalized, healthy outlet for magic use grew into the gladiatorial-like match system. Families that produced many S’run users in a generation rose to nobility while those that produced only one or two S’run users were considered common. At the bottom, those families that never produced S’run users after the third or four generations of the colony were relegated to be the colony’s labor force. As the years turned into decades and then into centuries, ADVIC continued to listen to the diminishing number of long-distance communication signals that reached the Tindle system. Piecing together messages arriving over time and often in reverse order, he was able to construct the timeline of rebellion, civil war, domination and collapse from the Commonwealth of Planets, the Empire of Mankind, the Human Race Democracy, the Iron Paradise and, finally, the Imperial Concordant.

More than 2,600 years have passed since the founding of the human colony on the planet Yadroast in the Tindle system.