Risen: Shatterverse

Filling in the Blanks

I had a thoughtful look on my face as I stepped out of the Ascendency forward base a step behind Hannibal and Nah'tem. It had been interesting to find out the current Ascendency leadership, primarily Lieutenant General Chohawk, considered their soldiers a finite resource. That meant they'd be less likely to charge into a battle where the outcome wasn't already known.

With just about every battle we fought going forward from this point being one without a known outcome, we needed a little bit of recklessness to make this happen in our favor. So I needed to find a way to either convince Chohawk to take the risk. Or get him additional assets to minimize that risk.

My passenger must've been listening to my thoughts because, after a couple steps into the cave, it was talking into my mind.

- Again you look for solutions that others are yet to consider, - it said, sounding oddly stronger and more determined after its trip into the VR world of the Hub. - My admiration for you grows. Slightly. -

- Well, don't hurt yourself or anything, t'sang inside, - I replied, my mental voice wry.

- Not before hurting you, - it tartly replied then went on before I could address the veiled threat. - I believe your, what did you call them, dead man? Shatterverse visions? I believe those visions are the answer to your question of finding assets for the Ascendency to grow their numbers with. -

I frowned as the three of us slowed with our approach to the main Risen command group, including the Shatterverse entities and Naveaia, still stuffed into the furthest corner of the cave away from the shielded door. We really needed to pop one of these pocket universes for ourselves and build our own base inside. Especially with the three or four hundred bodies we were going to get shortly with the Kendari and the Zim's arrival. Which, looking at the chrono on my wrist, should be anytime now.

- My visions? - I repeated. - How ...? - I was about to ask when it struck me out of the blue.

If my passenger was equally aware of the reality I was currently visiting, that I was, during my time in that alternate universe, it might also be as aware of the other people in it. Just like I can interact with them when fully in the vision, and be aware of my surroundings if I'm just tagging along.

But what exactly did that mean? It wasn't as if my passenger could just rip them out of their reality and bring them here.

- Wait. You can sense all of the people in that vision with Kresh and Perkins, can't you. -

It was more a statement than a question. Yet my passenger quickly answered as though it were a question.

- Very good, dead man. Yes, I can sense them. However, only those you are directly aware of. I am not powerful enough to scan every individual in that alternate universe, - it just as quickly added.

- So every individual in that Ascendency fleet that was assisting in the defense of Merkur Prime, - I said, probing for a confirmation.

- Yes. -

- Okay. Now, how do we move them from that continuity to our own? - Which was the million dollar question that I had been drifting towards right after my passenger brought up my visions being the answer. I just couldn't see us ripping them away from their actual reality ...

- We make a spectral copy of their essences, of course, - my passenger replied rather matter-of-factly.

- A what now? -

- A spectral copy. How do you think Garolan got all of those individuals for its simulation? It ran a cross-dimensional spectral scan of the actual reality using your vision as a gateway. It then copied enough minds and memories of individuals it scanned to get a realistic number to fill its intent and encoded those into AI that it created specifically for that purpose. -