I woke up. It was the second quarter of my eighth year as a traveler between realities.
I had to say, being able to foist off responsibilities I truly loathed onto others was a facet of my new existence that I could stand to get a little more used to. The Free Earthers were making noises, still, about just about everything they could with relation to the timetable on which my people there were providing technical and infrastructural assistance. If we hadn't expedited the construction of subjovian drydocks there, even meeting their demands halfway would have been a serious burden. As it stood, one of the docks was working on Manta craft fully kitted out with the trade tech we'd agreed to grant the Free Earthers at pretty much all hours.
The 'maggs organic hull technology worked slightly differently than the biohull organism I'd originally acquired. There were more fluidic systems within it, for example -- it didn't focus on regeneration of damage so much as rapid response to trauma. In more conventional terms, it focused on forming clots quickly rather than on healing without scarring. This made sense given the roles the two technologies were meant for: Manta ships were designed for aerial superiority, whereas the SeaQuest needed to maintain it's hull's hydrodynamic profile and could ill afford drag. This meant that a Kromagg biohull would close up far sooner, but a SQ biohull would retain long term structural integrity where a 'magg one wouldn't. I had Thinktanks working on integrating something like the 'magg engineering model as much as they could without sacrificing the long-term benefits of our standard biohull configuration, as due to the adoption of shipscale biotics, the ability to ensure structural integrity over time was far more valuable than any combat viability the Kromagg biohull's self healing would otherwise provide as an advantage.
It also didn't hurt that the Kromagg biohull required actual nutrient bath to remain viable as compared to the SQ's electrotrophy. At least, it didn't hurt my empire's advantage ratio to the Free Earther's in terms of the "space legs" of the mantas compared to my own ships. They couldn't even complain about it much on account of my having signed off on a local Thinktank working on developing a dedicated protein resequencer model that could provide that recycle the waste into said nutrient bath.
It was energy intensive, sure, but they'd actually worked out a fairly ingenuous solution to that problem all on their own -- fission reactors. See, that same biohull material that the 'maggs use, it had another characteristic that was an advantage over the biohull material I currently used: it was mildly radiotrophic. In their case this was meant in part as a defense against breakdown when struck by their own particle cannon technology, but the Free Earthers had worked out that a small layer of the hull around a graphite shell could permit them to use pebblebed nuclear reactors in their Mantas to provide a significant powerboost over the conventional powersource the Kromaggs used.
I personally wasn't remotely thrilled with the idea of operating a vehicle only barely three times the size of my voidshuttle with a nuclear reactor strapped in it, but hey -- it was their setup, and thus their choice.
And the truth was, short of supplying them with terra-root cold fusion nodes, it was the densest power solution they were likely to work out for a very long time. So I had to hand it to their sense of ingenuity.
Further aiding the humans in gaining strategic advantage was the fact that the Manta ships I was having those drydocks churn out were fully equipped with the more energy efficient particle cannons of the Star Trek 'verse, as well as the fact that the hulls had gravity plating bands throughout the pilot's and gunner's compartments, giving them a significant improvement in the internal inertial dampening over the antigravity repulsor model the Kromaggs normally used. The addition of Precursor ion thrusters to the 'Magg design and the biohull polarization -- both purely mechanical rather than the biotech adaptations my people used -- were the in added components that gave the Jovian-made Manta vessels the ability to reach orbit, if only due to laser assisted thrusting -- meaning that they were using massive groundside lasers to blast the Mantas upwards without damaging the ships thanks to the hull polarization increasing their resilience enough to allow it on top of using both the Kromagg antigravity and the Precursor ion thrusters -- that ate into the energy reserves of the ships. Another bit of ingenuity on their part, I had to admit; they had already been toying with the idea as a potential means of gaining an effective countermeasure to my ships should hostilities break out. It was actually quite clever, and when I found out about it I made a point of having my ambassadors congratulate Michelson's boffins on the entirely human idea of planning to shoot yourself in order to gain the ability to shoot at an enemy.
Of course, that was only necessary for Mantas -- or the larger cargo haulers that they were starting to construct which were based on the same principles if not organically hulled -- that weren't already in space, and I had also aided them in avoiding that particular problem as well, in the form of having a few choice rocks from the asteroid belt towed into stable Near Earth Orbit, and having a habitat and series of drydocks scaled to their designs built out using that material. No replicators for them, mind: they'd have to "make do" with merely mining out said asteroids for the necessary materials to build up their defense stations, orbital habitats, and Lunar colony. At the rate they could use up the materials in those rocks they'd need to replace them in about two hundred years.
It was weirdly nostalgiac to watch a human society working so hard to achieve a part of the evolution into a starfaring society that I myself had skipped squarely past -- this Earth was actually following Clarke's Progression in the right order! Well, at least it was this time 'round. It was almost heartwarming, once you got past the fact that the only reason they were developing permanent Lunar habitats was due to the threat of bombardment by hostile aliens. But… take what you can get.
It was also pleasant to actually receive these updates from the comfort of my own home in Starhaven without having to set foot in the Slider 'verse.
Speaking of updates; The Doctor and the Engineer had together made significant progress in converting many of the Kromagg technologies into a biotech equivalent. My Heartseed, for example, was now equipped with a Slide portal generator. It would take all of the power the ship could generate for upwards of a minute to actually power the thing to the point where it could open a portal large enough for the ship to transit through, but it was nice to know that my corvette -- and the rest of my imperial fleet for that matter -- was beginning to make forays into being able to navigate without me. I did also find out that the Slide Portal refit of my Heartseed included the same Dho-Na rift generation capability that was necessary for the New Virginian Gates to be able to reach universes of different canons, however, but I really couldn't object too strenuously about that fact since it was after all meant as a method of retrieving me if something incapacitated me in a way that none of my protections could prevent or counter.
I'd still put my foot down about the rift generation being used only to transit to and from unpopulated dead worlds. Even if it meant allowing permanent harm to come to me. None of my advisors liked that idea even slightly -- and I'd seen that they were going to push back on the mandate until The Administrator suggested a compromise in the form of setting up an emergency use shelter in the original zombie apocalypse world I'd left behind as a secondary startup seed in case disaster struck my empire.
It was actually a damned solid idea, and I'd agreed to having a rift Gate connection from there directly to the designated rift Gate dimension of the Mass Effect 'verse. It certainly didn't hurt that this allowed the Hosts and equipment stored there to update to be in synch with the rest of my empire.
I was only slightly disappointed at the fact that the Quantum Possibility Translocation portal generation tech didn't help much with the Taelon interdimensional drive problem either. Well, it did, but not enough: it merely brought ID drive down to the same scale as subspace warp drives, and not even as performant at that. It was getting to the point where I was starting to think I should give up on the use of vehicle-based interdimensional drive except in the kinds of emergencies which would justify the use of Dho Na effect generation. I wasn't there just yet, as I still had a few ideas I felt worth exploring that could offset the issue, but I was getting pretty close.
In other areas of disappointment, the observers I'd had assigned to the steampunk wuxia universe had reported in that for whatever reason, their ability to infiltrate the society and pass as locals was … ridiculously low. They'd tried a few times only to be discovered on average within hours. In one notable case, they never even managed to make it to the surface before being challenged by a military airship. Which was particularly disturbing as they were using Class 2 anti perception glamours in every instance. Research was currently underway on improving our mastery of glamour design. The more I heard about that world, the more I wanted to sink my teeth into whatever it was they had. Seriously. It was clear they had some sort of mystical abilities that challenged the eldritch necromancies I'd -- no, that Ethan and Philippa had acquired for my empire, and the idea of developing mystical defenses that were less fraught with risk to even have warmed the fuzzy cockles of my heart.
In less disappointing news -- phase cannons! The Engineers had worked out the necessary methodology of constructing phase cannons using Taelon-derived biotech. The Heartseed was finally equipped with legitimate capitalship-grade weaponry! Granted, the things were basically popguns in the terms of true Star Trek canon, but they had one extra advantage I couldn't really argue with, which was another development I strongly approved of: through the use of optical warding circuitry, all phase cannons we would from now on construct -- or retrofit -- qualified as Class 2 banishment weapons. This wouldn't make them any more dangerous to mundane threats than normal, mind, but it would put a serious crimp in the style of any extradimensional intruders due to the sheer volume of fire we could lay down with such weapons.
The circuitry hadn't successfully been miniaturized in general, yet, but The Engineer had insisted on upgrading the anti perception ward chip in my Skrill Weapon with a plasmonic FTL chip that could support the executing both the anti-perception and the Class 2 banishment runtimes simultaneously. The "regular issue" Biotic Skrill Rifles would only get Class 1 upgrades when regular issue was ready, as those could be executed without the eezo booster.
I was almost tempted to see what I could get from the Laundry by sending Ethan and Philippa the designs for an effective laser weapon with the same Class 1 banishment circuit. After all -- their current defensive strategy included SCORPION STARE, a software emulation of the visual processing centers of disease victims suffering from Basilisk Syndrome: a condition wherein anything organic the victim sees is turned to stone. Via nuclear reaction. Non explosive but exothermic and radioactive nuclear reaction. Which they have tied into the single most pervasive surveillance camera system on their planet. Rather cold-blooded in one light, and so incredibly human -- in that aforementioned "shooting yourself just to get a chance to shoot at the enemy" sense of the word. The point there being: they'd probably very much appreciate improved anti-occult armaments.
Not that I could trust the people there even a tenth as far as I could actually throw them.
It was now 2032 on the Earths of the Mass Effect 'verse. I'd settled on arriving in their universe far in advance of when the canon story happened in order to give them a sufficient leg up as to develop, given the extra advantages my interference would permit, into a meaningful threat to the Reapers.
Having to refocus on achieving that same standard in three different universes was going to be somewhat annoying, but the long-term advantages of giving the different instances of Mass Effect universes slightly different technologies to work with once I'd made contact with the peoples there would, in addition to my own people continuing to research Mass Effect technology, keep the peoples in each thinking that my empire had an unassailable technological superiority that was based on more than just having different technologies than their own -- though I'd obviously have that, too.
I was contemplating the timeline as I could recall it and had scryed it, and about the fact that it would differ in the two mirrors I had now colonized. "Smiley."
Not even a heartbeat later, my erstwhile companion made his presence more obvious. "You rang?" It was a perfect imitation of Lurch.
I snorted. "Nice. I want a meeting with The General and The Administrator. My parlour, if you please. Informal." I was telling him I wanted said meeting to stay off of the datanet. Both that it had happened, and what it's contents would include.
Smiley bowed to me and simply said, "Consider it already done, sir." With that, he walked out of the room to gather up the individuals I'd mentioned.
I waited patiently, sipping on a cup of white tea as I looked out of the bay window of my mansion's parlour. Said mansion being a concession to the Host's desire for me to have a proper facility to house state affairs. As yet, it did not have any specific name; the most common manner of reference to it was "The Residence". It wasn't like anyone in the League needed to be told whose home that referred to. I supposed if I'd had my people settle on some open-air location where even despite the incredibly effective tunneling methods available to us space was always going to be at a premium, they'd have built me a full palace and told me to deal with it. Instead I got a triply-reinforced spacious dome to myself just outside of the city proper with the interior of the dome coated with the same optical camouflage biolayer my Heartseed sported -- though in this case that biolayer was instead purposed to reproducing in perfect detail the visual of the sky around the safehouse I'd started all of this from back in the zombie apocalypse world. Anyone inside the mansion who looked out the windows as I was now doing could readily be fooled into thinking they were, in fact, standing in a mansion utterly isolated in a lightly wooded part of North America. With every passing slumber of mine, the groundskeepers had worked to improve upon the level of detail. They had even managed to include an artery and vein system that would pass heated or cooled fluid near the camouflaging layer in order to fool thermal sensors to match the optical. It wasn't quite to the level of GitS thermoptic camouflage -- it could only work here due to being a fixed installation and certainly couldn't be used to conceal a person alone. It was utter decadence and served no useful purpose but to deceive my automail eye that little bit better.
It was a labor of love and a work of art and entirely a novel development of the Hosts of the Jovian League. I could stare at the minute imperfections for hours.
Or, in this case, the mere ten minutes it took for Smiley to return with The General and The Administrator. "Ah, good, good. Please, gentlemen, sit and watch the sky with me for a moment, as I simply contemplate some thoughts aloud."
Synod-01 and Synod-03 sat in the armchairs that were already adjacent to me -- this wasn't the first time I'd had a meeting in this room. I waited while they got situated, and poured some tea from the pot that was still perfectly warm in the two extra cups that had already been in the room before I even sat down there.
Once they'd both taken the cups -- one does not refuse a cuppa offered by your god-emperor after all -- I looked back out of the window and began to speak my thoughts. "When I first obtained -- and there's really no better word for it than that -- you Hosts and started to settle down here on Ganymede, I had a number of reasons in mind for doing so in this of all particular universes. Many of the conditions which I had feared might limit the League's expansion haven't actually come to pass, so those concerns no longer really matter. I also never anticipated, well, anything you my faithful have become. You have in every meaningful sense and many trivial or silly ones vastly exceeded my expectations, and even my hopes, and I am honored by your faithfulness. But it's nothing I planned for. I'd expected it to take decades for you Hosts to even approximate the levels you have now achieved. Which leaves me with something of a dilemma: should I break with the original timeline I'd had in mind for the humanity of the Earth nestled next to the star we orbit? Or should I stay the course and wait another twenty years before arranging for them to discover the Prothean Archives a mere century earlier than they would have without my presence? This Jovian system is the true heart and haven of my empire, but you Hosts are the soul and the body of it. I would hear your thoughts."
There was a respectful silence for a few moments while the two thought over my words. They weren't even networked to each other, let alone the rest of the Hosts. Whatever they said next, it would be their thoughts alone.
The Administrator spoke first. "I note that it is extremely likely that the Imperial Jovian League will almost certainly find itself embroiled in a war in the Sliders 'verse in not more than five years, Great Maker. My first instinct is to suggest that exposing our homeworld -- such as it is -- to an intact and technologically sophisticated -- comparatively speaking -- civilization, let alone three of them, at the same time would stress our economy drastically merely in terms of setting relations with them as we might wish them to go."
I nodded at The Administrator to show I was listening, and waved for him to continue. "My follow-on thought is that there is remarkably little chance for the Free Earth Republic to actually defeat the Kromagg in anything less than a century, given the scale of their relative populations and overall technical parity. That, I feel, is a duration that is simply too excessively long for your Worship to remain 'stuck into'. I would feel more comfortable, perhaps, if we could retain an "advisory" role in the Sliders 'verse, perhaps not expanding to enforce our territorial claims beyond the home dimension of the Free Earth Republic more than is necessary to that effect. Let the humans there be the shield against Kromagg incursions, and we merely aid them behind the scenes. This would free you to, rightly, do as pleases you."
The Administrator nodded to The General, who cleared his throat briefly before beginning to speak. "Emperor. The Administrator and I agree to an extent with regards to your further involvement in the Sliders 'verse. However, the ugly and plain truth of our existence is that we will make war at some point. There will eventually be a threat which can reach us in our homes, and until such time as we actually gain real-world experience in voidcraft combat, we will be utterly without veterancy. This is a condition that should not be corrected only at the last dire necessity, but should instead be remediated in the earliest morally sound opportunity. I would ask that we expand our presence in the 'Hold system to a significantly greater military footing and presence, up to and including the experimentation with the various military technologies at our disposal in real-world circumstances in support of our human allies there, as our resources permit and without overexposing ourselves. The experiences gained there could be the difference between the life and death of your empire, Your Worship."
He paused then, as though avoiding saying something he had thought the better of too late. I called him out on it with an expectant look on my face. "Well, come on with it, General. There's more to that thought."
He sighed. "Yes. Yes there is. It's functionally an inevitability that the Kromagg Imperium will at some point during it's war with the Resistance and the Free Earth Republic discover the means, themselves, to become that threat to this nation of ours. An inevitability that would not have existed if you had not revealed yourself so openly to the humans there. Especially as you have actually provided them with Dho Na Curvature based warding technology."
The Administrator frowned and looked to be about to take The General to task for his words to me. I waved him off raising my hand in a manner to expect their silence. "Peace, Administrator. I asked you of my Synod to be open with me, rather than manage me. This is what that looks like. Especially considering The General is correct in his assessment. In fact, he shares that very belief with me. Care to put Smiley and The Administrator's concerns to rest by flushing out that thought, General?"
The General nodded and squared his shoulders. "The decision to reveal yourself was, ultimately, a moral rather than tactical one. You acted due to the perceived vulnerability of the humanity of the Free Republic. Any military that refuses a minor tactical disadvantage in the face of a moral near necessity is a military that does not deserve victory. In this case, Your Worship, I believe a similar thought was involved in your reasoning of providing the warding technology to the Free Republic as well. Due to the newfound need to invest permanently in the Sliders 'verse, and our reliance on the eldritch necromancy of the Laundry 'verse, it is only a matter of time before their Earth becomes susceptible to intrusion events. Better to arm them now even if that means our enemy gaining an advantage in the future than to risk our ally essentially becoming a vastly greater enemy through our inaction."
I smiled indulgently. "Indeed. Indeed. But all of that, General, only really addresses the Sliders 'verse situation. What are your thoughts on the Mass Effect dimensions?"
The General looked down for a few seconds, then up at me. "Respectfully, Great Maker, just leave the known enemy to me; I shall crush them and lay their trophies beneath your feet. They shall be taught the true meaning of living in hell. What you do here … is your perquisite, and your responsibility. The Militarum should have no say in this matter. I, and they, will support you."
I leaned back in the leather upholstered armchair, and looked back out at the partially cloudy sky. "I see. Well then. Administrator. General. Thank you for your time, you've been immensely helpful. Smiley, see them out will you?"
Smiley bowed. "Consider it already done, Sir."
The door closed behind the trio, and I sipped on my tea, just contemplating my next move. I stayed that way for a full minute, before speaking again. "Synod-13. Agent."
A Host shimmered into view in front of me, kneeling like a shinobi might. He was certainly dressed like one. I repressed the urge to roll my eyes -- I knew perfectly well he was only dressed this way because I was in my imperial robes, even if he was one of the ones responsible for my wardrobe consisting of them in the first place. "I am here, God-Emperor."
Of all of the Synod, The Agent was the one I worried about the most when it came to Acting. Not because he wouldn't hold up to it, but because of my fears of Host Cascade Syndrome striking him -- he was constantly adding new overlays as part of his duties.
I looked down at the kneeling Host Acting as a traditional Shinobi. "The Systems Alliance does not yet exist; cannot exist because they hold only one world. Spread your shadows there. Create on each of these three Earths an Earth Alliance. Not a puppet to my will, but a vehicle to carry the pride and honor of the Earth from which they come. Forge from the material of the peoples there a state that can become through its own efforts a worthy partner to the League, even if only in comparison to Our presence in their Dimension. Go; do my will."
He barked out a sharp breath in agreement, and vanished from my sight.