Justin Kemppainen - The Legend of Ivan

People of any stature will go to great lengths to preserve secrets, and so at the risk of our health and safety, we go to greater lengths.

So unwavering are we in our desire for any manner of information that it causes what should be a near immortal existence to snuff out within decades, sometimes only a few years. Those who survive climb into an endless process of data collection and sale to finance more and more. Personal upgrades and defenses are bought to be capable of garnering more intriguing, sensitive information. Our existence is bound within this cycle, and we could hardly be more pleased.

The entirety of Old Earth French military history blazed across my synthetic processors as I finally dragged out of the tiny moment of nostalgia. A pique of curiosity whispered in my thoughts, and I began cataloguing psychological profiles of the most famous military and political leaders, searching for key signifiers. Napoleon, Hannibal, Alexander, Churchill, Sun Tzu, Dekyr-Pryce, Saladin, Cherynijhan, Bastille, Xerxes I, II, even the millennia-later poser Xerxes III, and so on. In no historical order, dozens of individuals flitted by.

Considering personality as a subject of nature versus nurture, I slipped into genetics research, digging for materials that could suggest a gene sequence responsible for military success. Thousands of studies and journals written over the course of hundreds of years pointed to several possible markers in genetic code related to conquest and political ambition:

Restrained but focused aggression, intense charm, sadistic or sociopathic tendencies, tactical brilliance, ability to calculate abstract spatial concepts, and empathic insight without being emotionally involved. Many more potential traits found in genetic code and subjected to a varied mix of nurture.

Genetics moved into the evolutionary path of humans, halted for thousands of years while limited to one planet of exploration. Mechanical adaptation to new worlds led to minor physical changes, varying temperature tolerances, lessened bone and muscle density for ship or station bound individuals. A suggestion of increased skin respiration for the carbon dioxide dense environments of a few worlds, as well as freak mutations across the ages.

Mutation moved into details regarding the varied effects of radiation. Radiation gave way to fission as a primitive means of producing electricity. Ancient energy production in other means, specifically geothermal, spun out of control towards planetary core and composition, then terraforming procedures. Mining operations. Industry accidents and miraculous survivals through the years. Phineas Gage and Piper Welkin. Brain tissue grafts, augmentation, Archivist creation-

My mind pulled into control of itself as I reasserted a rational, personal control and recalled a sense of self in the infinite immersion of data. I mentally logged the time. Ten minutes of my hour had gone by. Not a bad loss by any means.

The inevitable byproduct of net-diving for an Archivist is being dragged along by curiosity. Something sparks interest in something else, and before we know it, our inquiry is twelve degrees removed from the original intent. The process draws us so far away that the initial data no longer has much applicability, so usually few useful conclusions can be drawn.

Carefully shutting out all but the most direct inquiry, squelching every stray or curious thought, I set about my search regarding Traverian Grey:

Conjecture, very little confirmed details. Wanted for questioning on a dozen worlds but nature of offense classified. No military record to speak of. Suspected corporate ties to Soma, Keritas, ISCG, Berlioz, Seryia Hakar, and more. Criminal ties to Phoenix Organization, Dathan Reynolds…

More names, places.

Voux Hanatar. Familiar: logged as important. Marqyni mentioned it.

With so many current-day criminals sliding by, I hardly noticed when my inquiries dropped into deep history of infamous outlaws. Archaic metal repeaters hid in musician cases. Famous orchestral performances. Conductors, batons, redwood forests, environmentalism, the toxification and flight of civilization from Old Earth and expansion into the galaxy, starship innovation, alloy production, mining operations, industry accidents and miraculous survivals. Phineas Gage and Piper Welkin. Brain tissue grafts, augmentation, Archivist creation-

Warmth blazed inside my skull, and I could feel an electrical tingle behind my eyes as the processors lodged in my brain tissue overtaxed. Isolating myself, I ceased all inquiry, imagining deep, calming breaths as my whirling brain relaxed. Slowly, I peeled back sensory blocks, letting bytes of data pass through. Twenty minutes on valid inquiry, another sixteen lost.

Some Archivists more keen on self-preservation utilized contacts and proxies to complete net-searching. I spend much of my time speaking with sources displaying a wide variety of unreliability, so I prefer to gather direct information when I can. I have a system, and it has functioned quite well for me.

A gentle notion, the eternal and simple interest in my own creation and existence has allowed me to survive and focus my inquiries through nearing two hundred net-diving attempts. Every tangled web of queries will eventually end at the creation of Archivists, which will remind me where I am, giving me the tiniest moment to reassert self-control.

Marqyni himself suggested the idea to me, swearing it was no different than a normal person discovering how to dream in lucidity, reining control over the actions of their subconscious. He told me of a mental image he crafted of the starry night sky. Every time he looks out a window and sees the inky void, a tiny thought passes where he wonders if he is asleep. What began as a conscious effort to think about a dreaming state turned into a conditioned response which he says has followed him into his slumber.

Indeed, it was his suggestion to try it myself when attempting net searches that created our friendship and my great respect for him. Prior to this, my net experiences yielded about ten minutes of useful searching for each hour spent.

Fourteen minutes before Marqyni was set to cut me off. More on Voux Hanatar or Traverian Grey?

Useful Traverian Grey information exhausted. Voux Hanatar. Famous with massive criminal organization. Compartmentalized; many years without concrete evidence to convict. Reputation for paranoia and ruthlessness. Sudden change. Headlines for weeks about crumbling organization. Hanatar arrested with difficult trial. Convicted, sentenced to life imprisonment in maximum security. Failed escape attempts.

Still alive.

My mind became lost again with inquiries on health conditions and life expectancies of individuals, followed by a half-dozen tangential searches. I was entrenched within a mire of data regarding New Earth avian species when the connection was severed.

The highest risk involves an Archivist without a dedicated internal kill-switch to net inquiry. The individual will almost certainly become lost in the unending stream of data, burning out processors or starving to death without knowing or caring. To be safe, I also set Marqyni to disconnect me in case my undying hunger to eternally bask in the reservoirs of information caused my subconscious to override the redundant fail safes.

Even so, after being cut off, my mind continued to dredge through the recent data, stored for analysis and cross-examination: the secondary danger of net-diving. In rare instances, enough information is stored to provide a long, cyclical search pattern. Even disconnected from the nets, the Archivist continues the unending stream of searches within the confines of his or her own mind.

This didn’t happen to me. After a few moments of disorientation, I discarded the data related to accretion disk artwork and realized that Marqyni had cut me off three minutes early.