Part 773: Best of Intentions

January 29th, 2021. Aevum.

A full week passed inside Aevum after Jason spoke to his daughter and Farrah, amounting to slightly less than four minutes in Realspace.

During that time, Jason was not idly sitting around. He worked with Harold to develop a training program for each of Aevum’s teenagers, and, at the same time, he put the final touches on the v4 MindCores.

Each iteration of MindCore had become noticeably more compact, energy efficient, and easier to install on top of a person’s Mind Realm. Even though they had reached v4, the true quality upgrade of a v1 to a v4 MindCore was about 2x, sometimes 2.5x. This meant that if Jason updated his v1 GenesisFrame to a v4, it would perform a bit better than twice as well in all categories.

His thinking speed would double, his intangible ‘creative ability’ would double, his inventiveness, and so on.

Those were extreme benefits, but aside from the qualitative improvements, what Jason truly valued the most in each new iteration were the reduction in installation requirements. He still shuddered when he thought of how he’d had to install his v1 GenesisFrame into his own mind. The agony of that day, the length of the procedure, and the fact that he had nearly died, and many times had wished he’d died, had carved an indelible trauma onto his heart.

Jason smacked his lips with dissatisfaction. Even though the v2 and v3 MindCores had been huge improvements over v1, he’d still traumatized Nadia and Catherine both, and also caused them to weirdly… ‘fixate’ on him. Jason wasn’t stupid. He could tell both women had looked at him very differently before and after the procedures.

Naturally, he couldn’t reciprocate their interest. In his heart, he was still a married man, and the guilt he carried regarding Phoebe’s death had not faded in the slightest. He still thought about her every day, especially now that he actually saw her younger self walking around Aevum.

…

Today was the day.

One week after talking to Daisy and Farrah, after finishing the last touches on his v4 MindCores, he decided it was time for him to start upgrading all the teenagers to the newest iterations.

Jason had spent the entirety of his development time between v3 and v4 working on reducing the pain of installation, broadening the the safety parameters, and making them function on other species as well. Now if he wanted to install a MindCore on a non-human-based Sentient, it was possible for him to do so. Unfortunately, even the v4 MindCore could not be installed inside someone with a Mind Realm already unless their Mind Realm was destroyed first, like he’d done with Catherine.

Maybe someday he’d come up with a solution for this problem, but that day was not today.

Jason chewed his fingernails nervously. He pored over his schematics ten times, scrutinizing them over and over to try and find any problems. Only after he was fully satisfied did he finally step out of his secret Inner Sanctum to appear at the entrance to Nadia’s room. He knocked on it, and a minute later, the door opened.

Nadia looked at Jason with the same ordinary level of attentiveness she always did. Her emotions were always subdued, but her eyes did sparkle ever so slightly when she looked at him. Today she was wearing a casual blue dress with an ankle-length skirt. She’d let her bob-cut hair grow out a bit, and now it fell down to her neck.

Privately, Jason mused to himself that she was dressing more like a proper older woman. She didn’t have the immaturity and inexperience of a teenage girl anymore, and she carried herself with a certain assertiveness that spoke of inner self-confidence. Many teenagers and young adults were unsure about their capabilities, their place in the world, and what they could accomplish. This often made it difficult for them to walk with confidence, and that limited mindset was noticeable to adults who’d been around longer.

But mentally, Nadia was not eighteen anymore. She had lived 72 years inside her RealitySim, plus who-knew how much extra time after Jason granted her administrative control. That meant mentally she was in her 90’s, if not older.

"Yes?" Nadia asked.

"Today’s the day." Jason said, his tone serious. "I finished the v4’s. I need you to look them over."

"Okay." Nadia answered.

Nadia had never been much of a talker in her youth. Now that she was mentally a grandmother, she kept her sentences even more concise. She didn’t seem to like expending her breath needlessly. Was that her ‘old person trait’? Or was it just what she had matured into naturally over the years? Jason wasn’t sure.

A moment later, Jason teleported Nadia into a small facility on the northern edge of Aevum. Inside, he had set up five different exhibits that detailed all his notes and progress on v4 of the MindCores.

It didn’t take long to catch Nadia up to speed. She casually downloaded the notes into her RealitySim and listened while Jason talked, explaining his various design decisions.

"Right there, you said you reduced the transfer speed between Conduits R33 and S15 by 3%." Nadia said, pointing at one of the diagrams. "This is going to cause a slowdown of 7% further down the line due to inefficiencies here, here, and here. This isn’t a problem for most of the MindCores, but it’s going to affect the OmniRecord the most. Since it’s the most general-purpose MindCore, focusing especially on improving thinking speed, memory, and memory recall, this is going to cause a 15% deviation in memory recall speeds related to emotion."

Jason scrunched up his face. "I don’t know… I mean, you’re not wrong, but it’s only affecting emotional memories, not logical ones, so in terms of pure utility it won’t hurt a general purpose user. Also, the lower transfer speed might be bad, but it reduces the installation pain by about three or four Mental-Joules."

"Installation pain only happens one time." Nadia said, shaking her head. "I understand wanting to cut down on installation pain and friction as much as possible, but if you cut too many corners and sacrifice performance here and there, you’ll drastically reduce the effectiveness of the MindCore itself, defeating the purpose."

She gave him a knowing look. "Even with the pain and trauma I faced, I wouldn’t be as happy with my MindCore if it meant a reduction in my final capabilities. I’ve gained far more than I lost."

Jason’s expression fell. "Can you really say that? After what happened?"

"I can." Nadia answered. "It was torturous. It was painful. But in the end, I think the process was worth it. What hurt the most was the uncertainty. Not knowing whether all my friends were dying of old age while I was trapped inside my own mind. But after I got out and found only a few minutes had passed, that pain faded. In the end, I gained decades of knowledge, wisdom, and experience within just a few minutes. This will make me a more effective savior of humanity and the people I love."

Her eyes seemed to linger on Jason’s when she mentioned that last part. Jason looked away and pretended not to notice.

"I guess I see your point." Jason muttered. "Alright, I’ll adjust that relay point. Anything else?"

"Yes." Nadia said, immediately returning to the task at hand without addressing the strange atmosphere between herself and the Wordsmith. "Over here, and here, you’ll notice…"

Several hours passed. Jason’s v4 MindCores were ever so slightly tweaked and adjusted based on Nadia’s words. Every so often, she would close her eyes and fall silent. Jason realized she was running simulations of the MindCores inside her RealitySim, which was in itself a bit of a mindfuck. How accurately could her RealitySim emulate the improvements of a more advanced RealitySim? Was that even possible? Jason wasn’t sure. Without a RealitySim of his own, he genuinely didn’t know just how formidable hers was.

It definitely helped that her Lowborn power granted her incredible comprehension powers. Nadia’s RealitySim became far more capable than Catherine’s as a result.

"I think we’re good to go." Jason said, as he finalized the v4 designs. His heart jumped slightly as he realized the time to drag his feet was over. "I’m going to… finally do it."

"Who goes first?" Nadia asked. "Personally, I think you should give Daisy the first upgrade."

"Daisy…" Jason said, lowering his head. "I… I don’t know. What if something goes wrong?"

"Afraid daddy’s little girl will develop a genuine daddy complex?" Nadia teased. "If I were you, I’d definitely be worried about corrupting her pure and innocent youthful thoughts too."

Jason facepalmed. "Yes, that is a big thing holding me back. I already fucked up the minds of two women… no offense. I don’t want to twist my daughter’s brain. I would never live it down."

"No offense taken." Nadia said with a faint smile. "Jason, Catherine and I both knew it wasn’t intentional. It wasn’t your fault. I guarantee you won’t give your daughter a daddy complex. These new MindCores no longer have the same side effects as… mine did."

Jason shuddered. He really didn’t want to think of Daisy looking at him with the same gaze Catherine did after her surgery. Phoebe would probably come back from the dead and beat him to a pulp for being so irresponsible.

"You’re sure it will work out okay, then?" Jason asked, uncertainty in his voice.

"From v4 onward, the side effects will be minimized." Nadia assured him. "There will still be pain, but only about as much as a particularly unenjoyable dentist visit."

"Eugh." Jason grimaced, pulling his hand off his face. "You know that still sounds awful, right?"

"Sure." Nadia acknowledged. "But if going to the dentist was extremely painful, yet it also made you a million times smarter, I think most people would take that trade."

Jason mulled her words over. "Fair point."

A moment passed. Jason started to speak, to tell Nadia he’d be right back to fetch Daisy, but she raised her hand to silence him.

"Before you go, I need something from you." Nadia said. "I want to be there during Daisy’s soul surgery, but I won’t be able to contribute meaningfully without seeing what’s going on."

Jason blinked. "Yes, I was going to ask if you could assist me. I was planning to jury-rig something up so you could see what was going on."

"No need." Nadia said. "I’ve already developed a prototype. Please take a look at this schematic."

She lifted her index finger and pointed it toward Jason. Jason nodded slowly, then raised his own index finger and touched it to hers. This allowed the two of them to transmit their thoughts directly into each other’s minds; a recent improvement Jason had made for all MindCore users. Their left and right index fingers were capable of coupling to transmit information instantly, and only consensually, of course. One’s thoughts could not be stolen without the owner’s knowledge while they were asleep or something.

A moment later, Nadia transmitted the schematic into Jason’s mind. He fell silent as he rapidly analyzed it with his GenesisFrame.

"This…" Jason said slowly. "It’s a… scanning device that attaches to a MindCore? Like a real-world augment?"

"That’s right." Nadia said. "I made it primarily for myself, but it has many other potential applications. Its primary purpose is to allow me to scan the thoughts, memories, physical composition, and spiritual information of other entities from a distance. It has an effective range of only about twenty meters, and the information quality will rapidly degrade past that range… but it’s useful for my needs."

Jason scratched his chin. "This device hooks onto the side of your head, covers one of your eyes, and allows you to learn a lot about a person with a single scan. It won’t be very effective against powerful entities like Demon Dukes, Psions, and so on. Anyone with a MindCore will passively resist the scan, anyone with a Mind Realm, even just people with strong spiritual energy…"

"That’s right. It’s the limit of what I could accomplish for now." Nadia said with a shrug. "It’ll help me monitor Daisy’s condition during the surgery without having to invasively ‘hook in’ to her MindCore during construction. Beyond that, this device has a few other practical uses that primarily benefit me."

Jason’s eyes flicked away from the schematic to meet Nadia’s gaze.

"This device is… dangerous, you know. It violates people’s privacy without them knowing."

"A lot like your Spynet." Nadia immediately countered crossing her arms.

Jason flinched. "How do you…?"

He didn’t finish the sentence. She’d spent 72 years with a perfect replica of himself. Naturally, she’d learned all his secrets, even regarding things like the Spynet, the Star-net he used to defeat Hope, and so on.

"You know, Jason, for someone worried about ‘invading’ other people’s privacy, you sure seem to do it a lot." Nadia said, meeting his gaze with a stare of her own. "I’m not judging you for your Spynet. I get it. I really do. But it’s a dangerous thing to invent. Even the Volgrim don’t have a direct equivalent that can peek into the private living spaces of their citizens. My device is invasive, but its purpose will strengthen Aevum, which is what you should care about most."

Jason softly sighed. He looked away.

"Let me guess. You will use this to download knowledge from Earth’s smartest people, convert it into usable data to improve your simulations, and rapidly scale up the capabilities of your MindCore."

"That’s right." Nadia said. "I can’t build it without your help, though. Several internal parts rely on ‘Imagi-Tech’ that only a Wordsmith can build. This also means that even if it falls off my head and gets lost, nobody can replicate the device except another Wordsmith."

That satisfied Jason. He looked at the device and chuckled. "It’s pretty useful. Might even make one for myself. What should we call it. A Scouter?"

"No. It has nothing to do with scouting." Nadia said, raising an eyebrow. "It’s obviously a scanning device. Let’s call it a PepScan."

"Well, I was thinking we could call it a Scouter because it kinda looks like… eh, never mind." Jason said, tossing the idea aside when he saw Nadia roll her eyes. "It’s your invention anyway, so you get to name it. PepScan it is."

Jason rapidly configured the schematics in his mind, then he began to utter Words of Power, one after the other.

"Materialize. Augment. Manifest. Circuits. Integrate. Meld. Mold. Observe. Rewire. Circuits. Observe…"

It took him several long minutes, but eventually, he finished. The completed PepScan was held in his grasp. He stuck it to the side of his head, and it magically adhered without actually touching his skin or hair. He couldn’t feel the weight of it at all. It was as if the PepScan was magnetically attached to his skull, but with a cushion of air in-between.

Jason looked at Nadia. He tapped the side of the PepScan, causing a stream of data to flow into his mind. Immediately, he was able to get a readout on her physical attributes, including her height, weight, genetic ancestry, and all sorts of other biological information. However, all scans of her brain provided garbled static. Since she had a MindCore, her brain and Mind Realm were shielded by an invisible fortress of spirituality.

Jason disappeared from the spot, taking himself and Nadia into his SpyNet. This was the first time he’d ever brought anyone inside, but since she already knew, there wasn’t much point in keeping it hidden from her. Either he trusted her, or he didn’t. He decided to lean further into their relationship, rather than holding up a pretentious barrier that held only symbolic meaning.

Like this, Jason casually picked a random old lady in Iowa. He scanned her, and all sorts of information came up. He captured all of her surface level knowledge, he downloaded her wisdom and insights, and even obtained all the information he needed on how to become a fairly solid and reputable sweater-knitter. Unfortunately, unless he practiced, that knowledge wouldn’t prove much use.

Additionally, due to the fact he was remotely viewing her, rather than observing her from less than twenty meters away, a massive amount of the data came back garbled. Anything taken from her thoughts and soul ended up being corrupted to the point he wasn’t sure if the information was reliable at all. Only physical details about her body appeared reliable.

"This PepScanner is… worrying." Jason said. "It’s already bad enough to be spying on people without their knowledge. But to even extract their most secret memories and desires…?"

"I really do need it." Nadia said. "Not only to help you with Daisy, but to become the best brainiac possible for Aevum. This tool will improve my mental progress by a minimum factor of ten, and possibly up to fifty in some areas."

"Tell me the truth." Jason said, as he directed a wary look at her. "Are you planning to use this for any illicit reasons? Spying on old boyfriends? Taking revenge on people who’ve harmed you?"

"Old boyfriends?" Nadia scoffed. "Jason, you’re the only…"

She paused, swallowing the words involuntarily. She looked away, her expression inscrutable. "No. I’m not going to use it to harm you, humanity, or anyone else. You can use your Wordsmithing to bind me to that promise if you like. It’s probably for the best that you do."

A long moment passed as Jason considered doing just that. Nadia was already capable of vastly exceeding him when it came to intelligence. The PepScan would increase that level even further. A true superintelligence could not be limited by someone or something less intelligent. It just wasn’t possible. Any restrictions Jason could think of, she could eventually break.

A thought came to him in that moment. This was the last chance he had to put a limiter on Nadia. Once he handed her the PepScan, he would be handing over total faith in her intentions. If she ever turned against him it would be a catastrophe.

It was clear that Nadia knew this. Even she feared what she could become. Right now he was 100% certain she was on his side. But what about a year from now, or ten years, or a thousand, or a million?

Would the state of today exist forever? Jason seriously doubted it.

"Nadia." Jason said, his tone solemn. "Did you delete that internal copy of me? The mental clone made from my memories?"

Nadia winced. She didn’t meet his gaze.

"…No. I didn’t." Nadia said quietly.

"I thought not." Jason said. "This PepScan has several hallmarks that indicate I myself must have designed it, not you. It even looks like something from an anime I used to watch. Why didn’t you delete my mental copy?"

This time, a long, uncomfortable silence followed.

Nadia still couldn’t look Jason in the eye. She rubbed her arms and turned her head even further away.

"I couldn’t bring myself to kill him." Nadia eventually said. "I love you. I love him. I know you’ll never love me. Your heart will always belong to Phoebe. If I killed him, I’d be killing the man I love."

Jason licked his lips. He sighed through his teeth.

"Did you tamper with my mental clone?" Jason asked.

Nadia finally looked at him. Her expression was one of awe at his guessing-ability. "Yes… I erased his memories of your family. I made him love me the way you love Phoebe."

"That’s really fucked up." Jason said. "How can I trust you to do the right thing with this PepScanner if you’re already doing questionable things like that?"

"I don’t know." Nadia answered. "Maybe you shouldn’t. Maybe I shouldn’t have such a power. But this? All of this? Everything that’s happened to me? This is on you."

Jason turned his whole body to face her. "Me? You’re blaming me?"

"I was content to keep my powers hidden. I couldn’t even use them without slowly dying a painful death of hollowed-out bones and a broken body." Nadia said, firming her resolve as she turned and faced him. "But you came back in time and changed the trajectory of my life. Before I met you, I was likely going to die from using my powers, or wallow in mediocrity with a broken body. You gave me a new lease on life and asked me to be your ‘right hand assistant.’"

But Nadia was not done there. "You gave me my MindCore. You locked me in that mental prison and changed the trajectory of my life even further. I’m not the person I was before I came to Aevum, and that Nadia is never coming back. After filling me with all these feelings, even if you did it accidentally, you asked me to kill the only person who I was able to bond with over seven long decades in a mental prison."

Nadia shrugged her shoulders. "If not you, then who is responsible?"

"I understand what I’ve done to you. And I’m sorry." Jason said. "But you chose to rewrite that… that fake-me in your mind. Turn him into someone he’s not. I didn’t do that to you."

"No… but you are being a huge hypocrite right now, Jason." Nadia shot back. "First you build a SpyNet, then you worry I’ll use the PepScan to invade people’s privacy while ignoring that you’re doing the same thing. Now you’re concerned with what I did to my Mind Jason, but aren’t you forgetting something? Or rather, someone? Namely… Fiona?"

Jason winced. He immediately lowered his eyes. Her retort came so smoothly that he hadn’t seen it coming. And now that she mentioned it…

"I… I didn’t rewrite Fiona’s thoughts to turn her into a love slave." Jason muttered.

It was a feeble argument, and he knew it.

"No, you didn’t do that." Nadia acknowledged. "But you did make a clone of your wife without her knowledge, then you put that clone in your head. In a way, you cheated on Phoebe, even if only mentally, with Fiona. Worse yet, while Fiona loved you just as much as the real Phoebe did, you ultimately split her off and locked her inside Chrona. In a way, her situation mirrors mine. You got to return home to a loving wife, but what about Fiona? You tore her from a life with you and left her alone, trapped in a dimension of your making."

After half a second of silence, Nadia took a figurative step back. "I’ll admit that altering the memories of my beloved is certainly fucked up. But what were the alternatives? Erase him from existence? Let him remember the family who would never treat him as their beloved? That would be the same as what you did to Fiona."

Jason’s expression was one of gloominess. Now it was him who couldn’t meet Nadia’s eyes.

Her words were not spoken with hostility, but merely the plain facts as she saw them. She did not call Jason a hypocrite merely to force him into giving her what she wanted, but to enlighten him and make him see the error in his ways.

This time, a full minute passed before Jason answered.

"Those are all… good points." Jason muttered. "I hadn’t given these matters as much thought as I should have. I’m sorry."

"I’m sorry, too." Nadia said, as she fidgeted uncomfortably. "I didn’t even want to say all that. I’d have preferred we just shoved everything under the table."

"No. You were right to say what you did." Jason asserted. He met her gaze. "I’ve been a hypocrite. It doesn’t mean my criticisms are wrong. It doesn’t mean that misusing this tool is okay, simply because I’ve misused a similar tool. But it’s given me food for thought."

Jason gestured around himself broadly. "I made the Spynet to keep an eye on my enemies. But I don’t know if it’s right to have invented it in the first place. If humanity were not facing multiple existential threats, I would never have considered it. Even so, is giving up privacy for the sake of security the right decision? I don’t know. I definitely wouldn’t want this tool falling into the wrong hands."

"I agree." Nadia said. "The question is, are any hands the ‘right’ ones? Is it okay for you, of all people, to possess such power? Or me? Are we inherently more moral and virtuous than others?"

Jason snorted. "I’m certainly not. God. I don’t know. This is making my head hurt. Here, just take the PepScan."

The Wordsmith pulled the PepScan off his head and tossed it toward her. Nadia caught it with a quick snap of her wrist. She didn’t immediately put it on, but instead stared at it for a long while, feeling the weight of it in her hands.

"It’s a shame we live in such interesting times." Nadia remarked. "I wanted to be an ordinary girl. Go to a university. Meet a nice young man. Raise a family. Live in a big house, and die of old age with my husband and children at my side."

"I don’t know. That sounds awfully boring." Jason chuckled. "A lot of things have sucked since I got my Wordsmithing, but I’ve never once gotten tired of wielding godlike powers at the whisper of a word. Being superhuman is pretty badass."

"Yes. It is." Nadia smiled.

She put on the PepScan, allowing it to adhere to the side of her head.

"I meant what I said, Jason. I won’t break my promise." Nadia vowed. "Everything I do will be for the good of humanity, for you, and for everyone we care about. I’m not going to betray you."

"I believe you." Jason said with a smile.

And he did. At least for now.

But he couldn’t help quietly worrying about the future and whether he’d made yet another terrible mistake in this moment.

Only time would tell.