Heterodyning

by Ars Thaumatica

Rating: everyone
Tags: Random, Human, Romance
Length: 1285

Deep underground, in a long-sealed bunker, a scientist displaced out of his time must survive long enough to escape his world, as the end of days came, and the last vestiges of humanity were dying. He would discover a world quite unlike his own.

After a rogue scientist interfered with the orders of nanomachines in orbit, they still lived, attempting to execute their incomplete orders. Thought to have been destroyed by a meteor headed towards them, they were still there, attempting to fulfill their incomplete order, exterminate, return to life, and reproduce. They eventually fell from orbit, designing themselves to become a virus. They succeeded. The virus, newly christened as the 'zombie' virus, continued. Their zombies were strong, fast, had quick reaction times, and thermal vision. They were designed for combat. When flesh was lost during the changing, it was to make more nanites.

But, forty floors beneath the Stass Industries lobby, those many years in the future, there was a scientist who had been brought from suspended animation. Over time, he did many things, but his crowning achievement was dimensional heterodyning. He might not be able to save anyone else, but humanity's achievements would be known.

Note: I'm kind of suspicious if I should put the romance tag in. It isn't a central element, but it is relevant.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-03-27 11:50:01 UTC

Prologue

Underneath what used to be the most prosperous company in the world, a scientist and his mechanical creations can be found. Through his technology he has created a nigh-infinite source of energy, and uses it for many purposes. He found a stream of energy running through the universe, forming complex patterns. He called this raw energy without even a particle to carry it, Aether. It was what made his energy source.

Using it, he could and did create a true AI and a perfect replica of a human body aged around twenty. The whole structure was about forty-five kilos, was one-hundred sixty-two centimeters tall, and was created to appear as Megurine Luka. Same pink hair, same blue eyes, same 03 marking, same brown-and-brass headset with blue lights, same black-and-brass belts, every detail was perfect. The voice was exactly the same, and the AI contained knowledge on how to speak every language ever spoken on earth that was known by humans, and with the computational power of an aetherical computer could translate any language that was found in a few minutes.

The scientist himself was paler than his white-boards, had black messy hair, hazel eyes, sharp features, and could be found wearing a pair of black leather gloves and boots, black pants, a white shirt, a brown trench coat, brass goggles with dark blue protective lenses and filters, allowing him to see thermal images, have night vision, high-speed vision, though that only worked when you froze the image, and it was all controlled via his right arm. He had lost his arm while attempting to create a super-sharp plasma blade. It succeeded. On him. In multiple places. Including his arm and voicebox.

"Luka, I've think I've got it. Unfortunately, I can't come up with a name. This is going to take the longest, I know it." I said with a grin.

Luka rolled her eyes. "How does it achieve our goal?"

"Well, this ring-" I was revering to the silvery begeared ring I just made -"is essentially a device which by latching onto the streams of aether between two universes, and draws them together, so they can be used as a road and path by the rest of the equipment inside of the ring. It's even capable of interfacing with my arm and showing me what the destination universe's prime areas would look like, so I can find one with life. It might be able to enable teleportation or time travel eventually." I explained.

Luka waited a moment before her face lit up- not literally -and responded, saying "We should call it the Heterodyner."

"Why?" I asked.

"A heterodyne is a radio frequency made by mixing two others." she explained.

"Ah."

"I like it!"

She smiled.

"Thanks Luka, now I don't have to go through the torture of making a good name!" I jumped over to her and hugged her.

She looked a little stunned for a moment, then asked me a question I'd been waiting to hear. "What are we going to do now?"

"Why, we're going to take a copy of everything on the database, and we'll go to the first planet with sapient life we find that isn't hostile. After all, our goal is to preserve human history, who says we can't live while we do it?" I replied jauntily.

She smiled a bit. "Okay."

We had spent the last three hours copying all of our database. THREE HOURS. This is with all the technology of made. I shake my head sadly, on the floor. I go back to groaning in an annoyed manner.

"I really need to design a more efficient way to transfer data..."

I got up, and looked around the chaos. To try and increase the speed that we drew in data, we hooked Luka up to as many access points as we could. The information was copied to her successfully, but she had to shut down any higher thought processes.

I lifted her up, and placed her on her bed.

I went back to my bench, and started packing all my equipment and materials, even the workbench itself. Aether's space bending properties made for an excellent brown and briefcase.

I opened it, and manipulated the pieces inside it with my arm. It's opening widened, and I packed an entire forge. I gathered everything I could, furniture, gadgetry, everything we had. i facepalmed and groaned when I realized I could have just packed the archives.

"Well, as they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty..."

I get to Luka's room just as she wakes.

"Where is everything?" she asks, startled.

"I've packed everything. Your bed is the only thing not in yet." I told her.

She stood up, accepting my left hand. I finish packing the bed. I focus. The gears on my ring began spinning into new positions.

Too hot. We don't live on stars like those guys.

Completely barren of life. Nope.

Colder than Pluto. Definitely not.

Enough radiation to kill a mutant. I'd die for one. Her systems would break down.

No oxygen. Luka would be fine, I wouldn't.

Ah, here we go, one in the so-called 'goldilocks zone', water, oxygen, normal radiation amounts, normal electromagnetic levels, no excess of heat-trapping gases, unusually high amounts of aether, thoug- Sapient life!? I'm going there, it fits all parameters.

The gears lock in place.

I glance at Luka.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

I aligned the aether streams. The boosted energy quickly enables the machine. A wormhole forms suing the space-bending properties of aether. Due to the aether streams of crossing, It was linked to an identical one that just formed on the target planet.

We jumped, together.

We had landed in a green area, with trees disturbingly Earth-like. There was even a rabbit there in the bushes.

I looked around for the town that is supposed to be nearby.

"Luka, I think we should get to the town near here, see the locals. You know. First contact stuff." I said to Luka.

"Look to your left..." she was breathing very quietly, I noted.

I turned and I saw a pastel pony. It was a nice lavender, with a blue-violet mane and tail, containing fuschia highlights. It- a shook my head. She, based on the muzzle shape and other details, had both wings and a horn, was four feet tall, and had a starburst symbol on both flanks. Around were five other stars, though much smaller and white. She was wearing a saddlebag made of a leather-looking substance, though she had no saddle.

She said something in her native language, looking at me while waving, then stopping. She sat still, expecting reciprocation.

I waved. "Hello. We come and peace and all that."

The pony started muttering something under it's breath quickly, and started scribbling on a notepad. I saw Luka in deep concentration.

A few minutes of mutterings later and things were very awkward.

She realized what she was doing, blushed, and turned towards us. She held out her right hoof and began to say something, when the translator kicked in.

"-ello, I am Twilight Sparkle. Who are you? What are you? Tell me everything!" during the process, her body had navigated from the other side of the clearing to right in front of us.

"I am Victor Fleming. I am a human. This is Megurine Luka, an AI and gynoid, but she prefers to be called Luka. We have come from a dying world, one of technology. We bring all our knowledge and history to share." I replied.

Her eyebrows- ponies have those -scrunched up. "You weren't speaking Equuish before, but you are now. What were you speaking, and how do you know Equuish?"

And so the questions continued.