Chapter 253

The cryo-sleep pods on the Ghost Ship were a dead ringer for the ones they’d found on Eden. Between that technical overlap and whatever the hell Coleman had been trying to achieve, Taro couldn't shake the feeling that he and the late researcher weren’t exactly strangers.

Sure, it could be a total fluke. It’s not like Coleman owned the patent on brain-bending science. With the BISHOP system acting as the galaxy’s backbone, any nerd with a lab coat and a dream could be doing the same thing.

And yet, it was becoming blindingly obvious that no one had pushed the envelope quite as hard as Coleman.

Koume’s dump of research and experimental data included profiles that almost certainly pointed to Marl, Bella, and—without a doubt—Phantom and Etta. Setting the "Boosted Man" stuff aside, the idea that a "Gifted" could be mass-produced was news to everyone. Even the legendary Dr. Arzimof hadn't managed that particular brand of madness.

[REGARDING MISS MARL, MISS BELLA, MISS ETTA, AND MR. PHANTOM. THERE IS LIKELY NO MISTAKE,] Koume announced, her voice as flat and emotionless as a dial tone.

Marl’s brow twitched for a fraction of a second, but that was it. Taro shot her a worried look, but she just gave a quick shake of her head.

"I'm fine, really," Marl said. "Genetic screening is basically a galactic hobby at this point. And an Override after birth? Well, they used some funky hardware here, but every Imperial Citizen gets poked and prodded eventually. It’d be weirder if I wasn't bothered by it."

She gave a casual shrug as if she were talking about a bad haircut. Taro nodded with a noncommittal "I see," deciding to drop the subject. Even if she was just putting on a brave face, he knew better than to poke the bear.

Instead, Taro noticed her hand was doing a nervous little dance. He reached out and gently took it, keeping their joined hands out of sight from Ryza and Koume.

"................"

Marl shot him a look that said a thousand words, most of them probably unprintable. Taro started to pull away, wondering if he’d overstepped, but she suddenly gripped his hand back with the strength of a hydraulic press.

"So..." Taro managed, facing the metallic orb on the table. "If they’re on the list, does that mean I’m not one of his science projects?"

[AFFIRMATIVE,] Koume’s lamp flickered in a rhythmic pulse. [HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS STRICTLY KOUME’S CONJECTURE, MR. TEIRO. SINCE COLEMAN HAS CEASED VITAL FUNCTIONS, I MUST RELY ON THE SCRAPS OF DATA HE LEFT BEHIND—]

"Wait, wait! Hold the phone!" Ryza’s voice cut in, sharp and frantic. "Look, I get that as the head of Rising Sun, I’m supposed to hear this. But maybe we could, I don’t know, filter this first? Just the stuff that isn't... how do I put this... soul-crushingly private?"

Ryza looked like she was swallowing a lemon. Taro could relate, so he waited for Koume to explain why they were airily discussing everyone's secret origin stories.

[UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES, I WOULD HAVE COMPLIED WITH YOUR REQUEST THREE DAYS AGO. HOWEVER, THE SITUATION HAS EVOLVED, MISS RYZA. YOU ARE CURRENTLY THE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY WITHIN RISING SUN.]

Koume’s lamp flashed with absolute certainty. Taro, the actual President and Chairman, let out a confused "Eh?" before the lightbulb finally clicked. "Oh, right."

"Dean officially got bumped up to General and took over the Area Army, didn't he?" Taro remembered aloud.

Marl and Ryza both let out synchronized sighs of realization.

"The younger sister of an Imperial General..." Marl muttered, sounding deeply impressed. "Yeah, that’s 'highest authority' territory for sure."

Taro nodded along, then paused. "Wait. How much juice does a General actually have? I know it sounds impressive, but it doesn't really register. Dean said there are Generals all over the place."

Living out in the lawless fringes meant Taro didn't have much experience with the Imperial Military’s pecking order. To him, a General was just a guy in a fancy suit who happened to be his friend.

[THEY ARE THE PEAK OF THE MILITARY’S OPERATIONAL COMMAND, MR. TEIRO. EXCLUDING HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR, THE HIGHEST RANK IS FIELD MARSHAL, BUT THEY MOSTLY SIT IN MEETINGS AND DECIDE POLICY. FOR ACTUALLY BLOWING STUFF UP WITH FLEETS, A GENERAL IS THE TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN. WHILE THE RANKS OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL AND FULL GENERAL EXIST, THOSE ARE TEMPORARY TITLES. IN PEACETIME, EVERYONE IN A GENERAL POST IS TECHNICALLY A MAJOR GENERAL.]

"Whoa, seriously? So the guy actually made it to the big leagues."

[INDEED. TO PUT IT IN TERMS A CIVILIAN CAN GRASP: HE CAN NOW PERSONALLY COMMAND OVER TEN THOUSAND SHIPS OF THE ALPHA-EPSILON AREA SPACE FORCE AT HIS WHIM. WHILE MILITARY LAW EXISTS, HE IS LITERALLY EXEMPT FROM IMPERIAL LAW. HE HAS FREE REIGN OVER ALL PUBLIC PROPERTY IN THIS SECTOR. HE IS, FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, THE PRIME MINISTER, THE SUPREME COURT, AND THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE. THE ONLY REASON THERE ARE 'MANY' GENERALS IS BECAUSE THE GALAXY IS FRIGHTENINGLY LARGE. UNLESS YOU ARE GIGANTECH OR MATERIAL CORP, EVEN THE BIGGEST CORPORATIONS ARE ANTS BENEATH HIS BOOT.]

"Holy crap... He’s always been so chill, but hearing that, he’s basically a god... Hey, Ryza! Maybe I should take you out to—AAAGH! NOTHING! I SAID NOTHING!"

Marl was currently trying to pulverize the bones in Taro’s hand. He writhed in his seat while Ryza gave him a look of pure suspicion before shrugging.

"If that’s the case, I understand," Ryza said. "But let’s be real—this 'authority' talk is just a cover. The truth is that the military is probably neck-deep in this mess, isn't it? You don't need me to know; you need my brother to know."

It wasn't a question; it was a statement of fact. Koume spun 360 degrees on the table. [A BULLSEYE, MISS RYZA.]

[COLEMAN MAINTAINED A DEEP, LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH THE IMPERIAL MILITARY. GIVEN THAT HIS CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH NEVER LEAKED TO THE PUBLIC, IT IS UNLIKELY HE WAS CHASING FAME OR A PROMOTION.]

"He was chasing the bag," Taro interrupted. "Even at Rising Sun, our biggest money pit is R&D. Coleman needed serious funding, and the only people with a printer for galactic credits are the Imperial Military Government."

Koume tilted forward in a digital nod. [I CONCUR, MR. TEIRO. THE REASONS ARE LIKELY EXACTLY AS YOU DESCRIBED. BEYOND FUNDING, THE MILITARY COULD PROVIDE MATERIALS AND CLASSIFIED INTEL THAT NO CIVILIAN COULD TOUCH. I HAVE SEVERAL INQUIRIES FOR MR. DEAN REGARDING THIS. HOWEVER—]

The orb swiveled back to Taro.

[THAT IS FOR LATER. FIRST, WE MUST FINISH THE TOPIC OF WHY MR. TEIRO WAS ALMOST CERTAINLY NOT CREATED BY COLEMAN. REASON ONE: COLEMAN’S TECHNOLOGY WAS SIMPLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH.]

Taro blinked. "Wait, what? Dean said the guy was a genius. He was light-years ahead of everyone in this field. No offense to anyone else, but I can't imagine there’s someone out there better than Marl or Phantom. Is there some super-genius hiding in a closet somewhere?"

[NO,] Koume flashed. [WHILE I DO NOT HAVE A DIRECTORY OF EVERY BRAIN IN THE GALAXY, MISS MARL AND MR. PHANTOM ARE UNDOUBTEDLY TOP-TIER SPECIMENS. HOWEVER, MY POINT IS NOT WHETHER COLEMAN WAS SMART; IT IS WHETHER HE WAS SMART ENOUGH TO CREATE YOU. PLEASE ACCESS DATA FILE: DETAILED ITEM 2421.]

Taro pressed his terminal to his forehead again. Next to him, Marl and Ryza did the same.

[AS THE DATA SHOWS, COLEMAN SUCCESSFULLY CREATED MULTITASKING GIFTED AND BOOSTED MEN. THAT IS A FACT. SEVENTY-TWO YEARS AGO—LIKELY UNDER THE PREVIOUS GENERATION COLEMAN—A FINAL REPORT ON MULTITASKER DEVELOPMENT WAS FILED. THE EXPERIMENTS WERE DEEMED A SUCCESS WITH DEFINITIVE CONCLUSIONS.]

Taro skimmed the documents. It was all there, exactly as Koume described. The actual report was a wall of text so dense it made his eyes bleed, so he gave up halfway through the first page.

"...I see. Yeah, okay. If this is the limit, then there's no way he made Teiro," Marl said, pulling her terminal away.

Taro looked at her, confused. Marl sighed with the patience of a saint dealing with a particularly slow toddler. "Read the fine print, dummy."

"The report mentions their 'Ultimate Subject.' The poor guy died in the end, but before he kicked the bucket, he produced 'outstanding' results. He was exactly twenty times faster than the average person. Now, for us, twenty times is a freakish, record-breaking anomaly. But you?" She shot Taro a pointed look. "You’re in a completely different dimension, aren't you?"

Taro gave a weak, awkward shrug. "Ah... yeah."

It was true. If he actually pushed it, he could hit over four thousand times the average speed. If twenty times was an "anomaly," Taro was pretty sure he was a cosmic horror story.

[CORRECT. THAT IS POINT ONE,] Koume added, swaying slightly as her lamp flickered. [POINT TWO CONCERNS MR. TEIRO’S MEMORIES. WHILE OVERRIDE TECHNOLOGY CAN STUFF DATA AND MEMORIES INTO A BRAIN TO MAKE THEM FEEL REAL, YOU NEED A DATA BANK TO HOLD THAT INFORMATION IN THE FIRST PLACE.]

"That’s true," Marl agreed. "And judging by Koume's tone, there wasn't a Data Bank big enough. Human memory is messy and complicated. We still can't fully digitize it. Trying to store a whole person’s personality and life would take more than just a Data Bank; it would take..."

Marl trailed off, her hand resting on her cheek. She suddenly went quiet, her expression shifting into deep thought. Taro spent a moment distracted by the "miraculous excess flesh" of her cheek being squished by her arm, but when the silence dragged on, he looked up at her face.

"Marl?"

No answer. She was staring at a single point on the table. Taro followed her gaze and found himself looking at the steel sphere sitting there.

"Koume? Did something happen?"

Taro looked back and forth between the girl and the AI. But the answer didn't come from Marl.

[MR. TEIRO. KOUME IS AWARE OF EXACTLY ONE CASE WHERE THE DIGITIZATION OF A PERSONALITY WAS SUCCESSFUL.]

Koume’s voice was the same as always, but she tilted herself upward to look Taro right in the eye.

[THAT CASE IS KOUME HERSELF, MR. TEIRO. IN TERMS OF BEING A COMPLETELY UNIQUE, IMPOSSIBLE EXISTENCE... YOU AND I ARE OF THE SAME KIND.]