Within his wide-range operating program, the newly installed Giedi Prime– Omnius studied a three-dimensional map of the known universe. An accurate model based upon extensive compilations of archival surveys and sensor data, coupled with probability-based projections and analyses.
Endless possibilities.
With insatiable curiosity, the new Omnius copy scanned swirling nebulas, giant suns, and planet after planet. Given time and sustained effort, all of them would become part of the network of Synchronized Worlds.
Soon, the next update ship would arrive, bringing him to near-parity with other planetary everminds. He had not been able to synchronize himself since his activation here on Giedi Prime. The Giedi Prime– Omnius could copy his exciting new thoughts and share them among the evermind clones. Expansion, efficiency . . . so much to be done! The conquest of Giedi Prime was a building block in the cosmic empire of machines. The process had begun, and soon would accelerate.
Nestled inside his cybernetic core within the former Magnus’s citadel, Omnius uploaded images taken by his watcheyes: flaming ruins, human children on torture racks, immense bonfires made of surplus members of the population. He objectively studied each image, absorbing information, processing it. Long ago, Barbarossa’s modified programming had taught the thinking machines how to savor victory.
Many of the multitiered factories on Giedi Prime were now being put to good use, as well as mining hoverships and other facilities. Barbarossa had made a bold effort to adapt the humans’manufacturing centers to the uses of the thinking machines. And in those factories, the new evermind had discovered something that created interesting connections, extraordinary possibilities.
The humans had designed and begun to assemble a new model of long-distance space probe, an explorer of far-off planets. Such probes could be adapted as emissaries for the thinking machines, new substations for the computer evermind.
On the galactic map Omnius noted the travel times required by even a high-acceleration machine probe. He scanned territory designated as “Unallied Planets,” not yet claimed by machines or human vermin. So many star systems for him to explore, conquer, and develop, and these prototype Giedi Prime probes would make that possible. The new evermind saw this as an opportunity— and so would his allied computers on all Synchronized Worlds.
If he could propagate seeds from his evermind, self-supporting factories capable of using local resources to construct automated infrastructures, he could establish thinking-machine beachheads on innumerable inhabited worlds. It would be like a shower of sparks cast upon tinder, and the hrethgir would never be able to stop the spread of Omnius. That was part of his basic nature.
A team of support robots stood just outside his shielded core, prepared to give technical assistance. Acting on his innovative idea, the new evermind sent a signal pulse to one of them. Its systems activated; it powered up, ready to serve.
FOR WEEKS, AS Barbarossa continued to subjugate and rebuild Giedi Prime, Omnius guided his support machines in the creation of sophisticated, long-range probes, each one containing a core copy of his mind and aggressive personality.
Upon landing, the probes would extend automated systems, establishing self-contained factories on each planet, units that in turn would build additional support robots . . . mechanized colonies that would take root far from the main Synchronized Worlds, far from the League of Nobles. Though machines could settle and exploit virtually any planet, the cymeks insisted on focusing on human-compatible worlds. Though barren worlds seemed to be less trouble, the evermind understood the desirability of both.
When the work had been completed, Omnius used his watcheyes to observe the flurry of launches— five thousand probes simultaneously taking flight, programmed to scatter to the farthest corners of the galaxy, even if such flights took millennia. Timescales did not matter.
Compact units shaped like bubbles, the soaring probes filled the sky with sparkling lights and green exhaust plumes. At appropriate future times, Omnius would reconnect with each of those mechanisms, one by one.
Thinking machines were capable of making long-term plans— and living to see them carried out. By the time humans expanded into those distant star systems, Omnius would already be there.
Waiting.