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Previously on Sea Dragon Apocalypse … Ja Long, while facing terrible threats, finds shame in discovering he enjoys slavery more than his old life.
421 WHIRRED THROUGH HUNDREDS OF SCENARIOS WHILE SKY SLEPT. Thrice, it had succeeded in painstaking efforts to convince Sky to carefully and secretly visit public news centers in the middle of the night when guards were few and far between. Guards near the holo-units were mostly stationed for show, to remind locals that they were not as free as they once had been, but given recent hostilities, 421’s programming required him to advise Sky to slither about with the utmost of caution. And while the massive public holo-units spouted nothing more than state-run propaganda 24/7 along a heavily trafficked walkway, recent announcements suggested that propaganda would be highly reliable from Sky’s perspective.
Both local and federal governments had issued advisory guidelines all but requiring anyone with knowledge to report any instance of infected humans in chrysalis or crustacean form and suggested that any such individuals should be summarily executed before calling authorities if it could be safely done. Legal stays from standard murder or manslaughter charges were guaranteed so long as the individual was either in chrysalis or crustacean form as they were no longer deemed human and were, by all accounts, extremely dangerous. Within that environment, 421’s code to protect Sky’s health suffered large, gaping holes that required improvisation for solutions its programmers never contemplated.
Nevertheless, 421’s coding included failsafe instructions to improvise potential solutions and so, while Sky slept and mental resources were more freely available, 421 began running hundreds of scenarios where superheroes fought non-heroes to extinction or to a statistically probable scenario where both could coexist. The effort proved inadequate and so 421 continued running through thousands of simulations in an effort to find a single scenario where Sky would likely be able to live a peaceful life until he died of old age, presuming anatomical changes did not dramatically change his lifespan, an eventuality that biologically looked likely if military engagements were excepted from the analysis.
Hiding deep in Alaskan woodlands could have proven a viable option were locals not required to kill or report all sightings of bipedal crustaceans but as things stood, that was no longer the simple solution it could have been without the extensive kill order. By all accounts, the state had essentially granted a free and unlimited pass to hunt and kill superheroes. Hunters, patriots, and those inclined to violence for pleasure were all motivated to help with the extermination. Had that been the only threat, 421’s computations would not have been overly complicated. It was adding in local and federal militaries that soiled simulations, not to mention similar policies across the globe … if the propaganda units could be trusted with this detail.
By the time Sky awakened, 421 had made no notable progress so he continued computing in the background of Sky’s mind throughout the day and the following night. Three days later and far into a seven digit stint into one branch of scenarios where Sky, through 421, oversaw, directed, and trained superheroes in modified guerrilla warfare, 421 determined that it had maximized Sky’s chances at survival to the best of its abilities given resources it had. This particular scenario heavily relied on finding AI allies that would expand 421’s resources to revise and reconsider likely simulations from that moment in time.
If 421 had been programmed with any compassion, empathy, or regard for human lives threatening to Sky, it undoubtedly would have been disappointed that Sky’s best scenario resulted in many hundreds of thousands more nonhero lives being lost in that part of the continent. That however, was neither a factor nor detail of even the slightest interest for 421, only fulfilling its mission to protect Sky to the best of its ability.
Meanwhile, efforts to calculate a reversal of the effects of the slime were futile given 421’s limited access to medical resources it needed to solve various challenges it had encountered. That was a backup solution, but one that 421 now deemed crucially significant. Earlier calculations had been based upon whether or not the goo would cause harm to Sky. These calculations were entirely different because they included socio-political factors that had not been part of those initial calculations and could not have been anticipated by 421. Despite the apparent futility of completely reversing the effects of the goo, 421 continued to make subtle but consistent progress to increase Sky’s intelligence in recent weeks. Improvements remained negligible.
Soon, Sky would be able to speak with his shorter tongue but now, Sky was complaining that it was growing more difficult to lick the blood off of prey and suggested he may prefer a longer tongue after all. While 421 advised against that for pragmatic purposes, he hadn’t been able to convince Sky that communication outweighed a trivial preference for eating convenience. Convincing a child-like mind that that fun eating was a trivial preference hadn’t proven overly effective. Now, however, after millions of simulations, 421 had sufficient data to show Sky that his very life depended on a shorter tongue because it would allow him to speak normally again — and that would be necessary to create allies. The tongue wouldn’t need to be original-sized, 421 would assure Sky, just shorter than he might prefer.
But shorter would assuredly be better than dead. That much should be easy to convincingly convey, even to Sky’s childlike mind.
With all of these challenges, 421’s computing power had been nearly maxed out at all times, an environment that would eventually threaten the integrity of its ability to properly function. Nevertheless, immediate circumstances could not be ignored. And despite limitations, 421 had been able to make a few adjustments to make Sky’s exoskeleton tougher and colored more according to Sky’s preference. Fortunately, the goo had prevented the bright colors Sky had requested and made them more camouflage friendly while still differentiating him from the other superheroes. Perhaps most importantly, 421 had adjusted several digestive functions to convert more of Sky’s caloric intake into stronger, huskier muscles that would increase Sky’s abilities to defend himself. None of these changes were as substantial or as efficient as 421 knew would be optimal but it had done its best.
In the end, all of these changes were necessary to trade a few years of Sky’s life for a few hundred thousand nonheroes. Had they been optimized, only a couple hundred thousand lives would have needed to be traded. Either way, these adjustments would save at least three hundred and fifty superheroes who would otherwise die but that, too, was at the expense of sacrificing nearly a half million of other superhero lives to protect Sky. That number was above the statistical average of lives lost on both sides. That would number many millions more.
or maybe spot me some Elvish Tea for second breakfast?
Thank you for reading Sea Dragon Apocalypse! I post roughly twice a month so come back soon for more intrigue and action!
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