Line in the Stars

Day 075, 09:01:01

... and done. I lean back, surveying my work.

Yes. Yes. That fits, and it all would explain the level of cosmic background radiation present, as compared to historical data. [Impossible to prove on this side of the Line in the Stars, of course...]

Something else had caught my interest, however. I save my completed work for Dr. Maius and clear all of my monitors, bringing up a Station System browser to sift through the local and Solar System nets. My search is thorough. I peruse the young research of an Outer collective quickly bourgeoning after the Interrupting Event. A time of noted transition: all of the biosynth, automatons and Chimerics had to adjust to life seemingly forever unshackled from the Twelve by a cataclysmic cosmological phenomena. Earth was gone, and the Line in the Stars had appeared. This impossible filter blocking all sentient life from entering or leaving the System...

Slowly...

I read through article by article about the Outers settling across the newly enclosed Solar System. Building colonies, Stations, and outposts amidst The Belt. Breeding. Iterating. Advancing, generation by generation, their technology in a predictable slow cycle...

(But it is too slow.)

I frown.

From what records told me about the Iconoclast Period of the 21st century, humanity had once been on a nearly exponential technological growth curve. Advances in genetic engineering, and related fields, had boosted humanities' physical, mental, and lifespan capacity far beyond natural bounds, allowing the growth curve of our species to continue towards the exponential, until...

The Masters coup.

A bloody revolution in evolution. And after they wiped clean the slate of humanity and had ruled unchallenged for centuries came the Interrupting Event: a global, then System-wide singularity event which had seen the Masters sealed away, freed the Outers, and supposedly allowed for the continuance of Iconoclast Period free will, and growth...

So why did the public data here not show a similar growth curve for Outer development? It was only the gentlest of curves, with incremental advancements until the last generation...

Do the Twelve have a hand in this?

I ignored my suspicions for now, banishing them to the background of my subconsciousness as I focused my Conscious and Sub Conscious mind upon the current generations Outer science luminaries: Dr. Maius, Dr. Algen, and Dr. Lanier.

A quick glance to the side shows Dr. Maius still hunched over at his elevated workstation, not frowning at me again.

Hm.

Dr. Maius I already knew much of. He is a chimeric of vast intellect, but little patience. Fierce and bold, but only pushing the boundaries of science in the standard model of a classic genius.

Normal.

Dr. Algen was a young woman recently elevated to stature. She had applied Lanier's research in new and exciting ways, but again, was only a genius following an expected mental curves in scientific advancement.

Normal.

Dr Lanier is...

Abberant.

From humble Belter beginnings a century ago, Dr. Lanier had first risen to prominence while working on applied robotics in a Deimos research station. Shortly before the cataclysmic hostile AI singularity event on the urban domed surface of Mars...