SECTOR 10 (The CLOUD 2)

CHAPTER 17

The Mariner in stationary orbit retracts the space elevators before initiating its own Q-thruster system infused with exotic matter to exit Earth's orbit and allow the city metropolis of Pangea to exit Earth's atmosphere and catch up. A replacement piece reconnects the two when the Mariner and its booster below elevating Pangaea's city reach the final stage of their liftoff sequence. When the two pieces do finally reconnect, the metropolis starship departs in a warp that vanishes in the cold vacuum of space.

The phantom's demeanor relaxes as Pangaea's thrusters propel it into an effervescence of light that encapsulates it, disappearing into the void. When darkness overcomes the interior of the transport ship, the phantom knows that all evidence must be destroyed so that there aren't more dissenters. What Tuas and Cira leave behind are mere pebbles festering below, and the reconnaissance android sent to destroy the grey goo has opened another portal that remains visible.

Grandmaster Frost's plan to annihilate the Earth with a new-planet killer is only partially successful. It forced the Yhemlen to evacuate, in the least. All the grey goo managed to do is engulf a few acres of foliage. Critical parts of the city were mostly repaired, and what remains is acres of burnt land. On the barren plot where Pangaea rested, crop circles are left illustrating the precise marks that architects used to lay the foundation for the city.

The vaporized nanobots from the Yhemlen android's jamming of quantum channels have entangled a new dimensional fold, opening another reality of pure automation. Here, machines have taken over their entire universe, and when the portal opens, all the silver phantom sees is the home it left behind. This silver being is from another world, and while the war is cooling down, it can see its home through the transport ship's window. It is a race of self-replicating machines that have taken over their reality, conquering the expanse of space with supreme Artificial Intelligence. These are referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the penultimate in machine intelligence. Its leader, Zaid, has situated itself in the original galaxy where AI continues to expand. All of the organic matter is being overtaken by Zaid and his army of Tetra machines. This silver phantom is but one of many in the Tetragrammaton universe.

Through the portal, the silver phantom sees its home: a universe in which all space has been occupied by its race of self-replicating machines.

The phantom must hurry before he's chastised. With Grandmaster Frost debilitated in his seat, the Tetra decides to direct a group of ships hovering closest to the transport ship it resides in, forward toward the open portal. With the touch of a button, Convoy 8, along with its host of transport ships and tankers bursts through the portal at hyper-speed. When they've crossed over, the silver phantom teleports to an empty void of space where the only thing for light-years are machines the size of planets and engulfed stars of nanobots gone haywire. This phantom is but one of many henchmen to the host program, Zaid.

Floating in the void, the phantom recognizes the portal will close soon. This Tetra is making a pact to not return anytime soon. Convoy 8 has been hijacked for good, along with Grandmaster Frost to conceal a damning truth of Earth's history, caught up in a multiverse of simulations. The quantum fields entangling worlds are converging more rapidly now until a singularity threatens to rule the entire multiverse.

A pervasive beep is heard pulsating from within Frost's transport spacecraft. When the Tetra appears back inside, a message from Xavier Moth reminds him to leave no trace of what's happened. Aside from the few Grey minions, bounty hunter Moth, and The Concord star children, Jasper and Madame Ria are the only lone survivors of this brawl besides new genetic hybrids at the Delphi Corp. Headquarters in D.C. ready to fight.

The Heinemann siblings were able to remain safe when they activated an invisibility cloak to protect them from the onslaught. All that's left for the silver phantom, tetra, to rescue is the bounty hunter.