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LOCATION: STRATOSPHERE
AREA: 35 MILES OVER THE PACIFIC OCEAN
DATE: SEPTEMBER 4, 2026 | TIME: 11:30 AM
After being deposited back into Earth's atmosphere, the newly upgraded nanites began working on a few special missions of their own.
One subset entered the jet stream and began seeking out and colliding with other nanites. Every collision carried with it a packet of instructions, transferring a few lines of new code to the nanites, which subsequent collisions spread further.
Eventually this process would perpetuate itself down to the ground level, where the upgraded nanite code would begin affecting those who were inducted into Earth's new System.
Skrixx knew the System itself would detect the code immediately. The question was: what would it do about it?
Another subset of the upgraded nanites found one of the Aetherdrones and embedded themselves inside the hull.
Once they worked their way inside, their own special code reprogrammed the nanite synthesis process itself. Every new nanite generated by the drone would then feature the new coding.
Further, when the Aetherdrone landed for resupply of the feedstock, it would connect with earthbound systems and propagate the new instructions across the entire drone network.
So with this simple replacement of just a few billion tiny nanites, Skrixx had helped humanity leap forward even farther.
Normally he would have stayed back and let them figure it out, reporting back to the Syndicate as per his instructions.
The weight of unauthorized intervention pressed on Skrixx's conscience. In all of his centuries of service to the Syndicate, he'd never acted beyond his mandate. But Earth reminded him of his homeworld before the Syndicate found them. Young, ambitious, but vulnerable to predators who saw potential slaves rather than partners.
His species had survived only because a benevolent observer had provided similar covert assistance. Now Skrixx found himself in that same position, watching a promising civilization teeter on the edge of discovery by forces that would be unlikely to show mercy.
The irony wasn't lost on him. The Syndicate's non-interference guidelines existed for good reason. Too much help could cripple a species' development, making them dependent rather than strong. But too little help could mean watching them get enslaved or exterminated.
Skrixx made his choice. Better to face censure than watch another promising world fall.
Two factors came into play here and forced his hand.
First, the nature of Earth's System design emphasized wisdom as much as strength. This was the kind of partner the Syndicate could get behind. And Skrixx was sure nobody would take issue with his actions.
If they ever knew about them.
Which they would not.
The second factor was that there wasn't going to be enough time. The Orion Mercantile Syndicate bought, sold and traded in many things. And information was among the most valuable of them all.
Skrixx knew that Earth would not remain hidden forever. In fact, a new System coming online always seemed to serve as a multiversal beacon of a sort.
Like a new child being born, interests from all over the multiverse would come to observe. Some were benevolent, but many were interested only in subjugation, total exploitation of a new workforce and, of course, strip-mining resources.
Skrixx was aware of one intergalactic group in particular that already had designs on this planet, and they were going to great lengths to find it. He just didn't know why.
The upgrades Skrixx and his team fed into the baby planet's nanite swarm would help ensure that humanity would be ready for what was coming.
Hopefully, it would be enough. For he could only interfere so much before he would be subject to reprimand.
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LOCATION: CRAYLOCK CYBERDEFENSE HQ
CITY: AUSTIN, TEXAS
DATE: SEPTEMBER 4, 2026 | TIME: 1:30 PM
Colin set up a conference call with Ronan and Richard Levens, the CEO of defense contractor Kaylon Systems. They also invited Damian Crestwell of Kephra Tech NanoAssembly.
Kaylon was responsible for the production of the Aetherdrones, while KephraTech actually designed the procedures for manufacturing nanites by the drones and nodes.
"Richard and Damian," Colin started, "how are things on the East Coast?"
"Not too bad, Colin," Richard said. "Nice to hear from you again, although I assume this isn't a social call."
Colin and Ronan both chuckled.
"You've got me there," Colin said. "We've recorded some strange data that we wanted you two to take a look at. We sent it over to you just before the call."
Ronan heard clicking as Damian and Richard brought up the information.
He and Colin gave the other two a few minutes of quiet to catch up.
"Okay…" Damian said. "I see your concern. Anything else you know at this time?"
"Nope," Colin said. "We're hoping you two can put your heads together and figure out a way to capture some of the nanites and trace back what happened."
Ronan added: "Yes. Did something change? Is this from a hack? Is it something we need to worry about? I think you get the picture."
"And understand the danger this could pose," Colin added.
Colin and Ronan got off the line while Damian and Richard began discussing a way they could isolate and capture some of the affected nanites.
"Is there even a way to track and distinguish the original recipe nanites from whatever is changing them?" Richard asked.
Damian thought for a minute.
"If you can capture them, we can study them. If we provide a nanoscale filter capable of skimming them, do you have spare drones ready to deploy?"
They worked out the outlines of a plan, and both ended the call to get to work.
Richard called his engineering team into his office and tasked them with retrofitting one of Kaylon's high altitude drones with a mesh capture system.
Damian, meanwhile, got with his own technical team and designed the mesh capture system itself.
They said they needed a week, but Damian gave them 24 hours to get it done. When they looked ready to protest, the look in Damian's eyes told them just how urgent this request was.
They all looked at each other, and then nodded before leaving to get to work on a solution.
It was the middle of the afternoon. The married ones called their wives or husbands to let them know it was going to be a late night. Again.
High above the oceans of Earth, the newly added green nanites were converting the swarm faster and faster each minute. Every conversion added that nanite to the updated swarm, becoming a new agent to convert more.
Within seven Earth days, the entire nanite swarm on the planet would carry the new instructions.
And once those nanites began entering humans, things would really begin to get interesting.