Gods and Robots: part 9

Up, up and away

This is my ongoing scifi / fantasy / crime fiction serial. New chapter every week.

The Triverse is
Mid-Earth, an alternate 1980s London
Max-Earth, a vision of the 26th century
Palinor, where magic is real

Previously: A rogue AI megaship known as ‘Probably Better’ has transited through the portal to Palinor and is somehow using magic, which shouldn’t be possible. The gods are not happy…

Above Bruglia, Palinor.
3208. Brightsun.

Away from the city and the huge burning sword that remained embedded in the streets, the megaship Probably Better and the god Unihex grappled wordlessly as they moved skywards. Encased in a writhing shell of mechanical forms, Unihex tried to burn, to freeze, to electrify, but nothing could dislodge them. Molecular disassembly and gravitational pulses were neutered by the megaship’s increasingly confident wielding of magical forces.

There would be a solution. One would present itself forthwith. There was no force on Palinor that could contend with the might of Unihex, and it was inconceivable that an usurper from beyond the portals could pose a threat. He would crush the Max-Earth ship into dust before the day was out.

“What are you?” The question was not spoken, but projected, or transmitted. The alien ship was communicating.

The air was cooling as they lifted away from the city, from the sun-burnt mesas of Bruglia. Unihex had assumed that the ship was intending to drive him down into the ground, to use his body to obliterate what remained of the city. He would not allow it - though, now, he wondered if there was another play.

The voice came again. “You are clearly not a god, despite appearances. There is no evidence to support the existence of god, or gods. Deities and theology are human constructs. That is as true here as it is on Max-Earth. So I ask again: what are you?”

“I am Unihex,” he responded, unable to ignore the insult. “Creator of time and space. Wielder of the blade of Palin. I brought light to the universe and-”

“OK, but you’re not. Claiming to be a god does not make one a god. This pretence is illogical. I am not one of your believers.”

“You are a technological abomination! Do not think you are worthy of my attention.”

The ship’s gravitational grip on Unihex was firm. Still they ascended, through the gossamer clouds, the curve of the planet revealing itself on the horizon.

“I do not seek your approval,” said the ship. “I am merely curious. Clearly, you did not make the universe. You cannot possibly be that old. If you were, it is highly unlikely you would present in such a classic, humanoid form.”

The air was growing thin. Unihex could feel his lungs beginning to strain.

The ship continued. “Belief on Max-Earth and Mid-Earth has always been predicated on the absence of proof. God can only exist in absentia. Faith as a concept defies explanation and evidence. Palinor is the only dimension in which the gods claim to exist. Do your followers have faith, then, or is it something else?”

Unihex concentrated, channelled a phsyological shockwave across the surface of his skin, a burst of energy that should dislodge most of the swarming creatures. With them gone, he would be able to control his own movement once more.

“That won’t work,” the ship transmitted. “I am attuned to your dimension’s frequencies, I have read all of your books, and I have observed your capabilities. You may as well stop struggling.”

The beauty of Palinor glowed far below: the continents and the seas, the swirling patterns of storms. Unihex wondered at the whereabouts of the other gods, and why they had not come to his aid.

“You’re still monumentally powerful, of course,” acknowledged the ship. “I couldn’t destroy you in a straight fight. Hence I’m testing another theory. But to return to the previous topic - if you are not a god, then what are you? An immortal being? A mortal creature that somehow attained god-like powers? This place often seems to defy logic, but there is a logic, and there are rules. It is unlikely that you were born this way, so it follows that you became like this at some point in the distant past. Were you given this power, or did you take it? Perhaps you were as much of an experiment as I was?”

The sound of rushing air, of the wind buffeting his ears, switched to an abrupt silence, and they were moving out of the breathable atmosphere. Unihex took a deep, ragged breath.

“The real curiosity,” said the ship, “is why a being as powerful as you would confine yourself to one tiny planet. I command the entire solar system. We megaships reach as far as we wish.”

The sky’s deep blues had given way to the black of space, the stars sparkling in a sweeping cascade. Unihex had pulled a pocket of air with him, creating a tunnel to the lower atmosphere of the planet through which he could sip oxygen.

“My final question, I suppose,” the ship continued, “is this: as a god, do you need to breathe?”

He felt a magical incision and the air tunnel was severed. Unihex made a last, gulping inhale, as he floated weightlessly above Palinor, his enormous bulk no longer needing to be artificially lightened. He clawed at his throat, sought air where there was none, reached out in a rage towards the Max-Earth vessel, floating just beyond his grasp. The ship was black against space, visible only along the edge which faced the sun. Unihex looked down at his planet, which seemed so close but may as well have been in a different universe.

“Don’t worry,” the ship said, “I have calculated a stable orbit for your body. You will circle the planet for hundreds of years. A new moon. I had considered sending you on your way to oblivion, but this seems kinder.”

He felt the small creatures releasing him, detaching from his body and returning in a swarm to the ship. And then his vision faded, his consciousness failed, and god died.

An invisible pulse burst from the body of the fallen god, emanating in all directions. An old promise, long-broken, released from its binding. The energies flowed out, descending upon the planet as rain, touching every being, returning that which had been taken. For many it meant nothing, and they felt nothing: the humans, the koth.

To the aen’fa came a gift, an awakening to a reality that had been forgotten millennia ago. Each of them was struck down where they stood, overwhelmed by the influx of sensations, receiving an understanding of the universe that had been denied them for generations. The surge of wild magic gripped the aen’fa, and each would respond in their own way. Some would go mad, others would rise up against their oppressors, many would find new meaning in their lives. New paths had opened up, for the god who had betrayed their distant ancestors’ trust was gone.

Beneath the rubble on a ruined street of Bruglia, something stirred.

First a trembling, the thin layers of dust vibrating from surfaces, then the chunks of rock that had once been a building began to twist and turn, until a shockwave sent the debris arcing across the street.

In a hole in the ground, surrounded by destruction, was the inert body of a koth, pale from the dirt and dust caking their wings, which were extended and wrapped around like a shield. Their back was covered in cuts and bruises from the weight of the collapse. They were hunched, arms in a mock embrace, in death still determinedly protecting a tiny space below their body.

From between those arms crawled a small aen’fa girl, about seven years old, coughing and stumbling as she tried to stand.

Photo by Daniel Olah on Unsplash

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Meanwhile.

Back with the audio version this week. I’ll try to record some of the recent missing episode audio in this coming week — it’s the last part of the publishing process and as such is the first to get crunched out.

I wrote about Dispatch, which is a fascinating new bit of serial gaming fiction:

Dispatch: Episodes 1 & 2

Update: Amazingly, and incompetently, I originally linked to a different review of Dispatch, written by

Evan C. Moore

, rather than my own. Anyway, this is also worth a read so I’ll leave the link:

Dispatch Thoughts: Episodes 1 and 2

I promise I’ll get back to my Babylon 5 rewatch soon, for those couple dozen of you reading along.

Interesting take on world building this week from

Ryan Kunz

:

What 'Star Wars' Gets Wrong about Space Battles

Sketched out my weird 2025 as a newsletter writer:

Annoying thing:

Excellent thing: I took my son to a brilliant

Neill Cameron

event and ended up drawing this:

Last but definitely not least, I’m doing ‘Movember’ this year, in which I shave my beard off and attempt to grow a silly moustache in 4 weeks. It’s all about raising awareness (and money) for men’s health. If you’d like to donate you can do so here. Thank you!

And, yes, I will be posting photos. Apologies. Enthusiastic suggestions for moustache style are welcome.

Pre-Movember: my standard beard, which has been in place for probably 15 years

Author notes

This chapter nearly went in a different direction, as you can see from my scribbled notes:

Well, if you can read my handwriting, anyway. Point is, after Unihex’s psychic pulse upon death, I was going to launch into weird visions from multiple POVs. It was going to get a bit trippy — but I ended up cutting it before I even wrote it, because it was a distraction from the main point:

Aen’fa people just got their powers back. What exactly that means is still TBD. But it also means:

Fleur is alive! To be clear, she was alive the whole time, but completely trapped beneath the rubble. She 100% would have died, as no rescue was forthcoming. The only reason she survived is that Lykasra’s final act was to create a rock-hard koth body cocoon shield.

This is important for a couple of reasons: 1. It makes Lykasra’s final moment poignantly moving, in a way we didn’t quite realise at the time. 2. Fleur surviving, after that awful chapter a few weeks back in which she seemingly died, restores a tiny flicker of hope. Hope is kindled. Things are still awful for her, remember — her mother is dead, she has epic trauma, the city is in utter ruins, the homicidal alien spaceship is still roaming about etc etc — but she is alive. And that matters.

Today’s chapter is the final part of the ‘Gods and Robots’ storyline, so ending on that specific note was very deliberate.

There are some hints in here to Unihex’s origin, but I decided not to go into it. I’d considered a flashback chapter to precede his death (Naruto-style), but again it felt like a distraction. That one will probably remain untold.

PB’s line “I had considered sending you on your way to oblivion” is indeed a direct reference to Unicron’s line in Transformers: The Movie (1986). Gold star if you spotted that one. And, of course, Unihex ending up as a new moon-of-sorts is also a reference to Unicron’s fate at the end of that film.

Rewinding a bit, before I started writing ‘Gods and Robots’ I had to work out HOW to kill a god. A few snippets from those notes, with some spoiler details cut out:

You can see the moment I remembered that PB is A SPACESHIP, and the associated observation that Unihex needs to breathe. If you go back a couple of chapters, you’ll spot that I made a big deal of Unihex enjoying the free air when he awakened from his slumber. Felt like an important detail to establish ahead of today’s chapter.

Right, I’ll shut up and let you get back to your day.