Chapter 18: Generating Money

“Kareg, I brought along the prototype of the generator. It picks up broadcast power and runs a paraflux columetrix, and produces blue energy, the one you are using. You do realize if we build one for each color, you will add an order of magnitude of computing power for each one. I applied for a patent for the magic generator. I assume you patented your AI augmenter? We can add one more power stream and a virtual dimension every few years and make more money. It would be best to start planning a whole AI using the new energy. That will add even more power. Then we add more colors, and we keep going. I will eventually find someone to make the chips for us.”

Kareg smiled. “If it works today, we are in business. I applied for a series of patents covering every future development in this area. It doesn’t concern me who copies us as long as they pay for the privilege.”

“Kareg, you have an excellent laboratory. Are you a professor?”

“Horti, I am a general in intelligence. I am seconded as a professor to the university.”

“Thank you for helping me,” said Horti fervently.

“Orma Chatzke authorized me to help you and to use my full resources. She asked if we could use my machine to find the controls General Eusmil Varshtein has put in the Dinnion AI to block supply. She wants me to be ready to go in two weeks. When we go for them, they will probably launch a counter-offensive. Did you get to see Porquenta?”

“No, we canceled our proposed visit as Orma Chatzke arranged something else that was a higher priority for us,” said Horti.

“I will call him and see if we can see him together. It is usually easy, but since the Gazronnaas, we must get guards and an escort,” said Kareg as he connected to Porquenta and spoke to him.

“Porquenta wants to meet you today. We will go through a secure portal on the military base directly to him. We will spend half an hour with him and come back. He wants to meet you in person. He wishes to play a role in the operation in three weeks. Porquenta has high-level clearance into the Dinnion military AIs and will help us block and delay the defensive security.”

“Fine, Kareg, I would love to meet him. If he agrees to help us, who else will help us?” Horti asked.

“The intelligence guys are forming a team that spans the civilizations. It will include your friends helping you and the team of two Dinnion. We will hack into the general’s office AIs, find the Naturalista servers, and acquire their information. We want you to be here out of harm’s way. Orma Chatzke told me to tell you Merken said you must be in Charassa.”

“I hate to hide while others do my dirty work,” said Horti.

“Horti, this is not your dirty work. It belongs to all of us. Your project was the point of the claw. These people are a threat to the entire Empire. You were the catalyst that exposed them. You took a major risk in the general’s office. You found the inefficiencies in the AI, and you and Craig produced a valid hypothesis about the General’s intentions and how she would cripple the Dinnion. You have done your bit. Now we need the heavies to follow up.”

“You are acting sooner than I expected,” said Horti.

“Porquenta spoke to Queen Basarab and Orma Chatzke. He said the clock has been ticking ever since you installed the taps. There is no time to waste.”

“You will barely have time to test your machine,” said Horti.

“Every day you will be there in the next two weeks, you will be in danger. You cannot change your behavior, or we may alert them. They may have picked up our preliminary probes. Please be careful; we have a lot of wonderful work to do together,” said Kareg.

“I don’t feel ready,” said Horti.

Kareg laughed. “You will fight your most important fights before you are ready. No one is ever truly ready for a fight. You martial your resources and act before the enemy acts against you. I will hide my AI at the university. You and I will work from here. My AI will do the extraction and preliminary processing of the data and will send it here. I will be part of the hacking team but located here. The Dinnion will give me last-minute system access. I will hack in via the Dinnion military.”

“Kareg, what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to look over my shoulder, and if you see a promising avenue to pursue, tell me. Your instincts are good, and you know more than you think.”

“I know little to nothing about hacking, but I am happy to help seek opportunities and vulnerabilities,” said Horti.

“Now, let’s move on to the good stuff. If we get the AI going today, I will confirm the visit of several interesting people who will come and see this AI tomorrow. I will say no more as I want to keep you and them in suspense.”

Kareg and Horti ate breakfast together at the university before they headed to his office. Kareg checked all the connections once again before his guests arrived. Kareg introduced Horti to Ladovaz Überschär, professor of mathematics, Iswara Lehner, Chief Physicist, and Annika Nathanaëlle, Professor of Physics, all from the Azayal Kingdom.

“Horti, Ladovaz, and Annie worked with the Emperor when he derived the theory I used to create my AI augmenter. Our work is the first working implementation of the theories. They would like to see what we have done,” said Kareg.

“I am honored to meet you. After Kareg has demonstrated his machine, I will happily answer any of your questions related to my simple generator,” said Horti.

Ladovaz looked at Annika.

“Kareg, go ahead and show us what your machine can do. I have brought a model for you to load. I know how long it takes on the best Dinnion AI, the best new-generation Uzliumbax AI, Destroyer AI, and even an Azloc AI,” said Iswara.

“Kareg, please tell us about your machine while the data loads,” said Annika.

“I can’t,” said Kareg and grinned.

“Kareg, don’t play the fool; what is the problem?” Annika asked.

“I can’t tell you about the machine while it loads the data nor while it works,” said Kareg grinning even more broadly.

“Why not?” Iswara asked.

“Because it is not loading the data, nor is it working on the problem,” said Kareg.

“Annika, it loaded and created the model already,” said Ladovaz. “Kareg, you scoundrel, you caught us all; we will have our revenge.”

“The fastest machine took half a day,” said Iswara, then asked, “How long did yours take?”

“Kareg pulled up the figures on the hologram. It took two minutes to load the model, one ten-thousandth of a second to populate it, and a peta second to build the animated picture you see. From your smiles, you like what you see?”

“Kareg, when you began the process and spoke to us, you thought it would be sixteen times faster than the best machines; what made the difference?”

“Horti made the difference. I couldn’t harvest enough energy to make it work properly.”

Horti smiled. “Now we will work on adding one extra power stream every year or two.”

“Kareg, the final machine will outperform every AI working together in the Empire,” said Iswara.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” said Kareg.

“I would,” said Ladovaz. “We now know how dangerous these Gazronnaas might become if they adapt here.”

“Horti, if I may ask, how did you design and construct your generator to make level three power?” Ladovaz asked. “Kareg tells me you built it from scratch without referencing the mathematical and physics theory of the Emperor, and you also created unique alloys.”

“We have been battling for a year and a half to build a generator, and you built it in a week,” said Annika. “Ours is the size of a sumptuous dwelling, and yours you carried across in a small box.”

“Horti, they have the highest security clearance in the Empire. You can tell them what you did,” said Kareg.

“I know, it is small, but I had my studies and only a few hours in the evenings. It wasn’t tough, but I am only generating one of sixteen power streams. I can build a generator to do all the streams, but Kareg only needed one. It wasn’t difficult. I worked it out in my head. I went to see the metallurgists for the alloys, but they couldn’t make the alloys I needed, so I used the powers you call level three to make them myself. It would be as big as this room if I used existing alloys. I wanted a small one, so I made the alloys. It only took half an hour, and I have enough alloy left over in the metallurgy department for another ten generators. I went overboard making so much alloy as I didn’t know if the prototype would work; it is the first one I built.”

“How did you do the calculations you required,” Asked Ladovaz.

“I only required a few calculations to determine the generator size and how to use our existing power to create the stream,” said Horti.

“Can you show us the calculations?” Annika asked, “And the theory on which your generator is based?”

“Certainly,” said Horti. “I had to spend half an hour thinking about it, but you will see it is all fairly simple. You could easily make one yourself. My patent gives both options, the best and available alloys.”

Horti started her hologram and rapidly wrote down the theory using the runes. “Sorry, guys, it takes longer to put down than it takes to think about it.”

She worked steadily for several hours. Her visitors watched, fascinated.

“Can you explain the mathematics?” Ladovaz asked.

Horti went through the theory step by step. She showed how she did her calculations for each part of the machine.

“As you can see, it is not difficult stuff. I haven’t written it down because I work it out mentally. Any of my friends can do the same.”

“Kareg, now I understand why you wanted us to visit. She is like a supercharged version of the Emperor. Her mathematics and physics are simple and elegant. Her engineering is brilliant.”

“Thank you, Horti. We can now build what we need,” said Annika. “Can you give me a copy of what you did?”

“I will send you a copy each. My patent shows how to make the generator but doesn’t have its theory.”

“Jason will be so impressed; I am sure he would love to meet you,” said Ladovaz.

“No, we cannot meet for a year,” said Horti.

“Horti, Orma Chatzke says she knows them all, and you can trust them fully. Tell them the whole story. They will be important contacts for you later.”

“It is a long story,” said Horti. “I have prepared a summary presentation and a much longer one.”

Ladovaz, Annika, and Iswara laughed hysterically.

Horti was distressed and frowned.

“Are my theories ludicrous? Is there something wrong?”

“No, Horti, before you tell your long story, as that is the one we want to see, I will tell you a short story,” said Ladovaz.

“Jason, before he was Emperor spent time at our university,” said Ladovaz.

“He solved unsolvable problems for Annika and me and derived pioneering work in both areas. When they wanted to know about him, Jason offered a presentation extracted from his crystal by his AI of his story, a summary, and a long version.”

“Yes, he, like me went through the manual of the crystals and discovered how to do it,” said Horti. “Few ever did.”

The trio smiled at Horti.

“I got on with him well, as did we all. I found we are related. You have the same feel as he does, and you work as he does. You are unpretentious but produce advanced work and theory in your head as if it is nothing. We are laughing because you are so alike. We are working with Azloc mathematics and physics, which uses the same runes as you, but your work is beyond ours and different from Jason’s.”

Horti showed her life on Earth, the predictions about her, and the events in Dinnio’s prime, including the Naturalista shenanigans.

“You are like the Emperor, a magnet for trouble,” said Annika.

“If the doctors are convinced you are from a different multiverse, and you are to travel there this year, I wonder how you will travel there,” said Annika. “Ladovaz worked with the Uzliumbax to make engines to travel between universes. I was also involved but have never grappled with the idea of travel between multiverses. You must have started using your bigger brain to do the work you showed us today. Not even Jason could hope to do in his head what you did. You derived the theory, kept it in your head, and did calculations that need city-sized AIs.”

Horti smiled. “I was worried I wasn’t using my brain. Now I know I am. I might have to grapple with the travel between multiverses problem. I have no idea about any of that sort of stuff. I am learning different things.”

“Please keep in touch with us,” said Annika. “I cannot imagine traveling to another multiverse.”

“I hope when I go back, I will find out how to move my people across,” said Horti, “but I have more immediate problems to handle.”

“We heard what is happening. Some of our Azloc intelligence people will be on your team.”

“Incidentally, can we try the same exercise with the model but using a different AI language?” Horti asked.

“Horti, that was the best database language for mathematical modeling,” said Kareg.

“My good friend Aubrey has built a language he says will work better with the magical AI segment using the level 3 power. He thinks it could be faster on your machine even if it didn’t use the new chip. Could we try it?” Horti asked. “Before I left, I asked him to create both an operating system and a language to make optimal use of magical systems. He had already been looking at a language using magic to bypass conventional security. After rechecking it, he completed the language yesterday and sent it to me this morning. He does not yet have a dedicated operating system.”

“Send it to me from your slate, and I will sort out the rest. We will do the same exercise again, including loading the data. If he can shave one percent off, he is doing well.”

Horti raised her eyebrows and sent the language to Kareg. Seconds later, he nodded.

“All done, the language is in, and we start again!”

“It is done; the loading is half a percent faster, the program operation and other components ten times more quickly. Horti, this is impressive work!”

Kareg put up a graph. “Aubrey’s language sends much more work through the new part. That is what makes the difference.”