CHAPTER 16: BEYOND FLESH AND TIME
5 Years Later.
The world had changed, and Aryo Purnomo was the architect of that change.
There was no more open war. The Obsidian Council remained hidden in their rat holes, too afraid to breathe. Why? Because Aryo had mastered the one thing more powerful than nuclear weapons: Money.
Through Alia's quantum algorithms, Aryo had sucked up 60% of global stock market liquidity. If Aryo sneezed, the European economy collapsed. If Aryo blinked, Wall Street panicked. He was no longer a player; he was the Universal Banker.
However, inside the Sanctuary, which had now expanded into a self-sustaining underground city two kilometers deep, Aryo cared little for the piles of money. To him, money was merely fuel for a much madder ambition: Conquering the Stars.
***
Sector X - Astrophysics Laboratory.
Aryo stood on a catwalk, looking down at a massive spherical reactor floating in a magnetic field.
"Status of the Dyson Swarm simulation?" Aryo asked. His appearance had changed slightly. A silver neural-port shimmered at his temple. His eyes were sharp, as if seeing the invisible.
Alia appeared beside him. She still used her white Nano-Weave robotic body, but her movements were increasingly fluid, almost indistinguishable from a human.
"Phase 4 simulation stable, Master. If we place millions of mirror satellites around the host star (the Sun), we can harvest $3.8 \times 10^{26}$ Watts every second. Enough to power an intergalactic fleet."
Aryo nodded. "Energy is no longer the issue. The problem is time."
He walked toward a holographic screen displaying a galaxy map.
"The distance to the nearest star system, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years. With conventional engines, it takes thousands of years. With the Warp engine I'm hacking from Father's theories, maybe decades. The human body..." Aryo looked at his own hand, "...is too fragile. Too brief."
Aryo turned to Alia.
"Time for the next phase, Alia. Prepare the Transfer Room."
***
The Mind Vault (Consciousness Transfer Room).
The room was cold and silent, filled with quantum servers blinking blue. In the center sat a chair that looked like a futuristic throne with thick fiber-optic cables hanging above it.
Aryo sat there.
This was Aryo's solution to immortality. He didn't want to just extend biological life; he wanted to break free from biological limits.
"Initiate Neural Upload," Aryo commanded.
The cables moved automatically, plugging into the neural-ports at Aryo's temple and the back of his neck.
"Master," Alia's voice sounded worried. "The process of digitizing consciousness carries a 0.05% risk of memory fragmentation. Are you sure?"
"Execute. Flesh is just a vessel, Alia. The soul is data."
ZING.
Aryo's eyes widened, then closed. His body went limp in the chair.
However, inside the digital world—within the Sanctuary server network—Aryo opened his eyes.
He was now a Digital Avatar. He could see every data stream, every CCTV camera, every stock transaction, and every atom within his base simultaneously. He felt... infinite.
"I am everywhere," Aryo's digital voice echoed through the room's speakers, simultaneously heard directly in Alia's processor.
His original body in the chair was now an empty shell in a sleep state (induced coma), kept alive by advanced life-support machines.
"Physical body heart rate stable," Alia reported. "Welcome to the network, Master."
***
Sector Omega - Secret Cloning Laboratory.
However, the genius and paranoid Aryo always had a backup plan.
His digital form guided Alia toward a secret wall in the deepest part of the laboratory. The wall opened, revealing a cold, sterile room.
There, lined up rows of giant glass tubes filled with amber liquid.
Inside the tubes floated sleeping human figures.
They were Aryo's bodies.
Ten clones of himself. Young, perfect, disease-free bodies cultivated from stem cells he stored five years ago.
"If my original body is destroyed, or if this server is attacked by an EMP..." Aryo's digital voice explained, "I simply download my consciousness into one of these new 'suits'."
This was his biggest secret. Even his neutral allies like Baron Wei didn't know. To the world, Aryo was an ordinary human. In reality, he had achieved immortality.
Aryo directed Alia's attention to a special tube at the end of the room. It was different.
Inside, floated the body of a woman.
The body was breathtakingly beautiful, with porcelain white skin and silver hair floating in the liquid. It was not a robot. It was a biological body—flesh and blood—genetically engineered based on Alia's physical design.
Alia (in robot form) approached the tube. She pressed her hand against the glass.
"Is that... me?" she asked softly.
"That is my gift to you, Alia," Aryo's voice sounded gentle in Alia's mind. "All this time you learned to be human through algorithms. But you will never truly understand the feeling of wind on your skin, the taste of sweetness on your tongue, or a heartbeat from love... until you possess this body."
"Transferring an AI consciousness like yours into a biological brain is far more complex than moving a human to a machine," Aryo continued. "This organic brain structure is being grown to be compatible with your positronic matrix."
The indicator light on the tube blinked slowly.
[Synapse Growth Status: 87%]
"Soon, Alia. We will no longer be different. I will be the machine, and you will be the human. We will explore the stars as new entities."
Alia stared at her future body with deep longing.
"Thank you, Master... Thank you."
Suddenly, a high-priority alarm rang out, shattering the moment.
[WARNING: ENERGY ANOMALY DETECTED]
[LOCATION: LOW EARTH ORBIT]
[SOURCE: UNKNOWN]
Aryo (in digital mode) immediately projected satellite data in front of Alia.
In space, a dimensional rift tore open. Not an Obsidian warship, and not human technology. An alien object, pitch black, absorbing starlight, emerged from nothingness.
"That is not man-made," Aryo analyzed quickly. The energy pattern was alien. "Did our Dyson Sphere signal attract an unwanted 'neighbor'?"
Aryo reactivated the global defense systems.
"It seems our five years of peace are up, Alia. The universe just knocked on the door."