She was right, K-Rox had wanted to know what Isaac.Asimov was ever since he received that first message from aZorl.
“OK, so go on, who is Asimov?”
“He is the antidote to the Illuminated Ones, back at the start of the whole conflict the side that I belong to.”
“Veritum?”
“Yes, though we originally were known as verum invisibilia, the invisible truth, but later someone probably mispronounced it Veritum, and the name stuck.
Anyway, some of the original members decided that it was best to support the fledgling Mars community, terraforming had become a real possibility and so they moved here and started the resistance. They felt that the human race was being driven into a full Borg situation.”
K-Rox missed the reference.
“Huh, what do you mean?”
If she could have, Jemima’s avatar would have smiled a wry smile.
“Another hangover from the Great Confusion, you have no idea about the Star Trek TV show, even Empires has no record of it. The entire show and all reference to it has been wiped from history, all for the sake of removing the Borg.”
“Who were the Borg?”
“They were a race of beings who had allowed themselves to be subverted by a machine intelligence, they then went marauding around the galaxy assimilating other organic lifeforms into their collective.
The reason the Illuminated Ones would go so far to do such a thing, is because ultimately that is what they are doing to the human race. The inventions of empLinks and Nplants were completely of their own doing, it has allowed them to spread to the minds of every human being that uses them, which is practically everyone on earth.
This is why the use of empLink on Mars is restricted to such a small area, and indigenous Martians are not automatically implanted with them at birth. We still have nanoswarms, however they work independently.
Anyway I digress, so as I said Asimov is the antidote; a man called John Stillman, one of the founding members of Veritum decided to fight fire with fire. He too merged with the Qblock, this time on the marschain using old Confusion-era data he transformed himself into a kind of quantum virus. His plan was to deliver himself via QSID onto the earthchain and destroy Gladstone and his cohorts.”
“So what happened?”
“It turns out that losing your sanity seems to be part of the job description when it comes to merging your mind with technology. Which is why the members need Asimov to somehow be captured and delivered to Earth’s Qblock so he can carry out his original mission.”
“So who are the members of Veritum now that the old ones are dead?”
“Who said anything about them being dead?”
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 47 - Frozen Despair
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 46 - Insanity Realm
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 45 - Lives Eternal
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 44 - Insanity Spiral
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 43 - Confusion Eternal
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 42 - The Lost Tales
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 41 - The Shadow Of Death
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 31-40
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @nekromarinist
Original words by Cryptogee
Image altered by Cg