Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 29 - Fragmented Reality Lost Histories

The version of herself that had talked to K-Rox on the QSID relay station prepared to enter Krusher9; as she waited she thought back to their meeting. It had been a dangerous move, it was the equivalent of trying to hook onto a passing jetliner with a tube, a suction cup, and a bit of rope.

If it had gone wrong her mind would have been smeared out across an impressively large region of space, represented as entangled photons, whizzing through the cosmos, she wondered briefly if she would still somehow be conscious.

The procedure had been dangerous for K-Rox as well, QSID mindstates where particularly fragile in transit, and of course had been Q-EC’d with some pretty beefy entanglement coding. Even with the stolen key she used to temporarily divert his transfer, she could have caused portions of K-Rox’s mind to be lost forever, or maybe even pushed to a point from which it couldn’t have been reassembled.

Her original version was probably getting some kind of dressing down, she sniffed loudly to herself at the idea. Those guys were always admonishing her for her actions, but they only saw it from a planning point of view, it was the multiple versions of her and the other field agents that were taking the risks.

Thinking about her original self often got her in a philosophical mood, it was a strange thing to be a clone of oneself, and that strangeness only grew the more time you spent apart from your original. Naturally there had been many d-clones before her, and each time they had been reabsorbed into the original, adding their experiences to hers.

In that sense, this version of Jemima, could feel all of the previous d-clones that had gone before her, the sense of them being her, but also having their own personalities lingered within her.

If, she thought to herself, that feeling lingered in her, then it must do in the original, why then does she keep on doing it? She must know that at some point, one, or maybe more, of the d-clones is not going to want to reabsorb, preferring instead to live her own life; then where would she be?

Her attention was snapped back to the game link by a soft internal chime, she had hacked her way into the version that K-Rox was currently playing. That had been one of the only plusses that had arisen from their encounter, they had managed to get enough mission details to make her life a lot easier.

She knew what version of the game he was in, and at what time he was due to enter, which would at least narrow down what sector he was in. Another unexpected bonus was aZorl’s biotracer had been very easy to locate and subvert, now it wouldn’t work properly within Krusher9, though as far as aZorl was concerned, everything would be just fine.

Jemima looked at the range of characters available to her, of course being who she was, she had access to a part of the game that was not available to normal players, especially ones from Earth. Unlike them, she was able to play as an indigenous character, one of the so-called evil AIs that the invading force are warring against.

The indigenous characters were all vaguely humanoid in shape, technically, with the codes she possessed, she didn’t have to stick to any of the preset characters; then in a flash of what could have been brilliance, or sheer stupidity, she chose a character, and used her hack codes to alter its appearance.

“There, that’ll do it… well done you, on yet another reckless decision, I guess I’ll just have to square it with myself later, I’m sure I’ll be fine with it.”

Jemima activated the Krusher9 login and entered the game, the settlement in which she was transported to, was around forty-five kilometres east of a fast-moving, six-man squad of exoskeletons, containing a Rapid Response Spy Unit, named JG-012, within which was the frozen QSID-state mind of the human formerly known as K-Rox.

Previous Chapters

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 28 - Clones - A Lasting Morality

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 27 - Primal Loss

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 26 - Shadows Past

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 25 - Mind Loss

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 24 - The Immorality Of Krusher9

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 23 - Descent On Krusher9

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 22 - The Mars Problem

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 21 - Thought Patterns

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 20 - Reality Dysfunction

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 19 - The Lost Scream

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 18 - The empLink Story

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 17 - A Problem With Time

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 16 - Neither Here Nor There

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 15 - At The Edge Of Madness

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 14 - A Sense Of The Real

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 13 - The Search For Truth

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 12 - Empires

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 11 - Jemima's Gambit

Asimov's Ghost Summary & Chapters 1-10

Original artwork by @nekromarinist

Original words by Cryptogee