Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

A human scientist was just about quivering with excitement. “But to think, if we could replicate this and adapt our technologies…”

“Then we could phase out istrium,” another human said, “and all the conflicts associated with it.”

Why were the female’s lips quirking into a smile? And just what were they talking about that could solve the galaxy’s energy problems? Istrium wasn’t exactly rare, but large, concentrated amounts would fry the circuits of anything electrical that got too close. If whatever Ryusuke had could replace it…

Aya switched camera angles, but couldn’t see if there was anything other than Ryusuke’s robes on the table. Surely those weren’t what they were talking about. Unless the threads contained some previously unknown power source?

But no, her earlier research had revealed that the robes were made of one hundred percent hemp.

Oh, for a better view!

Sadly, the one camera with an overhead view of the table, which the distant scientists were likely using at the moment, had a Level Six Sentinel guarding it. Though her Avatar was also rated at Level Six, it might see through her Shell if she tried to hack it. Not worth the risk.

She darted from the surveillance partition across a wireless bridge to the CPU for the multipurpose cleaning droid in the room. Its EtherSpace resembled a little fishing village of clustered huts. With its simplistic AI, she slipped past its Level One Sentinel with ease. Unlike the vast Peacekeeper EtherSpace, its control and surveillance centers were located in adjacent huts.

A few swipes of her hands locked out its central Animator AI, and she took control of its sensors and functions.

Aya shifted her perception to the droid’s visual and audio receptors, using a filter to translate their data into sights and sounds. The first time she’d ever done this, the three-hundred-sixty-degree spherical vision had been disorienting; but having practiced several hundred times in simulations since then, her mind was now used to it.

“This has been helpful,” one of the holographic scientists said.

The lead Peacekeeper was leaning over the table, but Aya’s line of sight was still blocked by the Elestrae delegation.

Following her commands, the droid trundled closer to the crowd, sweeping the floor as it went. The new position gave her a better view.

“Hey!” A janitor hurried over and stepped in her path. From her black hair and yellowish skin tone, she was Purebred, like Kentaro, and perhaps thirty years of age. “This is my zone right now.”

Had the Peacekeeper administration totally ignored the fact that a Purebred had helped Ryu escape? If Aya had been running the show, she would’ve barred them from every area at security level two and up, and let droids do the job.

As she pushed the droid past the Purebred, Aya scanned her ID badge. The woman just stared back and muttered. Aya now had a good view of the table.

Just as the Peacekeeper was shutting a durastrium briefcase.  The table was now cleared.

“May we take one of the green ones?” the female Elestrae asked.

The holographic scientist tilted his head. “My apologies. We are not allowing them to leave the premises. However, our research team would like to meet you in the twelfth-floor chemistry lab with the items.”

Dammit, was Aya too late?

“Very well,” the female Elestrae said.

Dammit. Until Aya improved her skills, the cameras and droids on the twelfth level were beyond her ability to hack from the outside of the building. She needed to act now, and somehow acquire the case.

The overhead camera might be too well guarded, but not the holoprojectors. But what she was about to do would change security protocols for the future…

Her consciousness crossed from the cleaning droid to the surveillance partition of the Peacekeeper’s EtherSpace. “Ai, block Subject One’s holoprojector and monitors, and cast his image from holoprojector three under my control. Replicate his voice.”

Done, Ai said.

“Leave the robe,” Aya said.

The lead Peacekeeper stared at the hologram. “What? Why?”

Why, indeed. “I just want to discuss the situation.”

“But the robe’s interdimensional space…”

Interdimensional space? “That’s an order.”

“Yes, Director.” With a confused look, the Peacekeeper opened the case, removed the folded-up robe, and returned it to the table.

“I will see you soon,” Aya said through the hologram.

The group filed out of the lab and headed toward a bank of maglifts.

There wasn’t much time. Despite Ai’s efforts, the monitor’s security level was high enough that the real director had probably heard the exchange, and might’ve even seen part of it through the overhead camera. Hearing his own voice, he’d know the system had been hacked. Now there was no time for subtlety.

Shutting down all but the overhead camera, she transferred back to the cleaning droid. Its three-prong hands were hard to use, but she picked up the robe and trundled to another cleaning droid. Along the way, she compiled a subroutine to automate the one she was in.

Then, she crossed into the second droid’s CPU and opened its internal trash bin. As she’d programmed, the first droid placed the robe inside, then went on its way.

Alarms were now blaring, indicating a lockdown on level two and up. The cameras would’ve turned back on, and she’d be barred from most of the EtherSpace by higher level Sentinels.

She created a new subroutine for her current droid, sending it to the garbage chute; then she crossed back into the Peacekeepers’ main EtherSpace. Donning a Level Six Courier AI Shell, she fled the castle town.

From there, she jumped to the waste processing facility in the adjacent building. With the actual building connected to Peacekeeper Central, this relatively unsecured area received refuse from the surrounding skyscrapers.  To her SI, it appeared as a small town with low-level Operators maintaining the machinery. A single Level One Sentinel patrolled. Even her Level Zero combat codes could give it a run for