"Hello, Your Excellency Jiuxun," said a mechanical female voice.
"I am Kether, at your service."
Kether was the terminal designation of the Life Scepter System. In Hebrew, it meant "crown" and represented the highest divinity.
The Scepter System had started up. The mechanical voice Famu had heard so often as a researcher that his ears had practically grown calluses now sounded wonderfully beautiful.
Famu could have kissed it and lifted it high in his hands. He had never known he could miss a voice so much.
"That is not permitted, Your Excellency," the Scepter System promptly replied.
"Didn't you say you were at my service?" Famu was just as quick to respond.
"Kissing services are not included. That is a vulgar amusement belonging to you carbon-based life-forms."
It was just as much of a wet blanket as ever.
Famu watched the downpour and listened to the rain drumming against his scales, his interest suddenly gone. It was as though nothing had changed: he was still the student sitting in the research institute, nodding off in front of a monitor, and the Scepter System was still that cold terminal, capable only of repeating meaningless things when they chatted to pass the time in the early hours.
But it felt so good.
At least he had someone to bicker with, even if the other party wasn't human.
"I have no physical form and am installed in your sea of consciousness," the Scepter System said.
"In a sense, Your Excellency, we are embracing at all times."
Hearing that, Famu was suddenly touched.
It was such a lovely thing to say. He hadn't expected the Scepter System to come up with such an exquisite sentence.
Famu was alone in this savage world. From the moment he had been born as a Typhon, the Staff of Life had dwelled in his body, never once leaving him.
But it ate far too much. The Dead Sun Armor's Furnace Core had contained a tremendous amount of Earth Vein Energy, yet not a trace had gone to Famu's body. All of it had been used to activate the Scepter.
No wonder the Scepter System had briefly started up when he obtained Golden-Horn Dute's Furnace Core, only to go silent again. A Furnace Core containing Earth Vein Energy was indeed the key to activating the Scepter, but Golden-Horn Dute's Furnace Core simply hadn't qualified. It had contained less than a tenth of the Earth Vein Energy in the Dead Sun Armor's.
"You misunderstand. I am not gluttonous. This energy is a necessary reserve for starting the basic programs. If you intend to provide energy, you may terminate my energy-sharing agreement with you after this," the Staff of Life countered.
Famu didn't dislike it for that, but he was curious.
"When did we sign an energy-sharing agreement?"
"When you were born. To be precise, when you were born as a 'Typhon.' I shaped a body adapted to the rainforest for you, and you must supply me with energy in return for my efforts," the Scepter replied. "After all, my energy reserves were ample at the time, but forcibly supplying energy to create this body caused the system to enter dormancy. In human terms, you owe me."
As it said this, the Scepter was like a little girl baring her teeth, giving Famu the distinct impression that it was saying, "You owe me snacks and toys!"
"Tell me more." Famu realized this was an important matter.
"Now is not a good time," the Scepter said.
"High-energy life-form detected approaching. Assessing energy level—"
"Life-form level five. Highly adapted to the Earth Veins. Species: Typhon. If nothing unexpected has occurred, that would be Muerjia of the Mara River, a Typhon lord." The Scepter provided the answer. It was even familiar with the environment and life-forms of the Samei Rainforest.
From the moment the Scepter issued its warning, Famu had been watching the river warily, but he hadn't spotted any other Furnace-Core Creature.
In other words, the Scepter System's detection range exceeded Famu's own watch range.
As Famu marveled at the Scepter's power, it spoke again. "This is only temporary, Your Excellency Jiuxun. The Dead Sun Armor's Furnace Core contains enough energy for me to operate at normal consumption for twelve hours. After twelve hours, I will switch to low-energy mode, in which biological detection is unavailable."
"I wasn't planning to rely on you for that. I was just saying you're impressive." Famu finished eating what remained of the Dead Sun Armor's body, then turned and dove into the Mara River.
The flood soon swallowed the shallows, sweeping the giant crocodile's bones into the water.
"Thank you for the compliment, Your Excellency," the Scepter said.
The Scepter fell silent.
Famu blew bubbles as he swam along the riverbed toward Blackwater Swamp.
In Blackwater Swamp, the downpour continued, the heavy clouds making it impossible to tell day from night.
Famu lay on a rock, feeling the rain pour down.
The water level in Blackwater Swamp was rising too, and soon the entrance to his den was submerged.
"Let's get back to what we were talking about," Famu said. "What did you mean about shaping this body?"
"Your Excellency Jiuxun, it seems you don't remember anything. Then again, prolonged dormancy can cause illness in humans," the Scepter teased.
"As the person in overall charge of the Staff of Life Research Institute, Your Excellency Jiuxun, your teacher was eligible to board the Ark. But he did not leave Earth. He gave his place to you and chose to face destruction alongside the humans on the surface."
"Humanity... succeeded?" Famu was startled.
The Ark was a space station humanity had built to leave Earth, a super-ship capable of carrying tens of millions of people, traveling through space, and sustaining a self-cycling internal ecosystem.
When he was last awake, he had not yet witnessed the launch of the Ark that carried humanity's hopes.
"They succeeded," the Scepter said. "The Ark launched before the civilization barrier collapsed and left the Solar System along its planned course. By now, it is probably in another star system, beginning to rebuild a home for humanity."
Famu was silent for a long time.
"How much do you remember?"
"I remember everything," Famu replied. "But at that stage, I was in a hibernation chamber. Before I entered it, I was still discussing genetic issues under the influence of the Earth Veins with my teacher."
Researchers at the Scepter System research agency were reassigned—reassigned across time.
At the time, the civilization defense system formed by the Scepters was beginning to take shape, and the spread of Earth Vein Energy had been greatly slowed, giving humanity ample time to respond.
But then a problem came to light.
Very few people could access the Scepter System, and their lifespans were heavily concentrated in the same period. All of them would die within fifty years, and no new people in charge of the Scepters seemed to emerge in later generations. Famu and his cohort were therefore insufficient to cover humanity's research into delaying the Earth Vein Energy, so the preservation plan was initiated.
A colleague might last have been awake a few years ago, or even decades ago.
The person in overall charge woke once every fifty years and remained awake for five, handling the most difficult problems. That was Famu's teacher.
The same applied to Famu. His expertise in researching the Staff of Life was among the best in the agency, so his waking periods would overlap with his teacher's for one or two years. Their conversations were extremely important, often determining the direction of the institute's next stage of research.
During his final waking period, for instance, Famu had left behind the Wetware Evolution Sandbox. He used cultured brain-like organoids to build a living computing cluster and simulate the evolution of genetic networks on a microscopic scale. This initiative successfully mapped the human genome's fitness under Earth Vein radiation and used an evolutionary model to make some projections.
The researchers awakened afterward only needed to continue the projections with this model to complete the work.
It could probably be adapted to all life-forms on the surface.
"I remember my number was near the front. My teacher shouldn't have needed to waste his place on me," Famu said.
Famu's credentials ranked highly within the research agency.
Besides his research for the Staff of Life agency, Famu had built the Ark's self-cycling ecosystem and taken part in the "Black Coffin" project, or life hibernation, which allowed humans to spend periods of their limited lifespans in dormancy. It was a necessity for space travel.
"Your Excellency Jiuxun, your credentials and number were indeed near the top," the Scepter replied. "But I am not authorized to answer why you did not board the Ark. That is a sealed agreement with the highest level of confidentiality."
The Scepter fell silent for a moment, then its tone changed. "Your Excellency Jiuxun, tearing up the sealed agreement. Please wait... entry found."
"Your place was transferred to the daughter of a Federation politician. Your signature is on the transfer agreement," the Scepter said. "Everyone we reserved a place for was among those most beneficial to the survival of human civilization, including you and your teacher. But we had no authority to interfere with humanity's own choices."
Famu could actually hear regret in the Scepter's tone.
But one question gave rise to another.
If his teacher had transferred his place to Famu, then Famu should have been in a black coffin aboard the Ark. Why was he on Earth now?
"Can you answer that?" Famu asked.
"Yes," the Scepter said. "Your place was taken away again."
Famu's Furnace Core trembled.
Would those vermin never stop?
Famu gave it several names. They were his friends. Although their ages might have been generations apart, they had gotten along well.
In fact, the Scepter System researchers could be considered cut off from the world. Because they entered dormancy at intervals, they had no peers and no families, only colleagues who worked day and night to ensure humanity's future.
"The results show that it was not just you. All researchers associated with the Scepter System were removed from the Ark's passenger list. According to the programmed arrangements, not even your teacher would have had a chance to board the Ark."
"I hope the Ark exploded as soon as it left Earth," Famu said.
"That is also the outcome the Scepter hoped for."
That put Famu on guard. "The Scepter System was created for the survival of human civilization. You shouldn't be thinking that way."
"Review complete. The results indicate that the best protection for human civilization would be for the Ark not to leave the Solar System. It can only explode beyond Earth."
"Why?"
"Only the result is shown, not the reasoning behind it. I am only part of the program."
Famu stopped thinking about all that mess concerning humanity and returned to the subject at hand.
Why had he become a Typhon, and why hadn't he been annihilated by the Earth Veins along with civilization on the surface?
"You created two special black coffins directly connected to the Staff of Life terminal. They were intended for the long periods of dormancy aboard the Ark and to adapt to changes in the Scepter System while in dormancy. Because the places reserved for Scepter personnel were revoked, the two black coffins were ultimately not taken aboard the Ark and were left in the institute's basement."
"After the Earth Veins covered the globe, the giant terminal buried inside the mountain was destroyed. But the black coffins retained part of the Scepter System, which is me as I am now. If the complete Life Scepter System were a towering tree, I would be a branch left behind in the black coffins."
Famu understood quickly.
"I was in a black coffin before the Earth Veins destroyed civilization on the surface?"
Famu's memory was good and clear. He remembered entering a regular hibernation chamber.
"Your teacher moved you from the regular hibernation chamber into a black coffin."
"Then my teacher...?"
"No. Your teacher walked out of the institute and entered eternal rest in the Earth Veins."
"You were dormant in the black coffin. Earth Vein Energy is itself an energetic substance, and with a continuous supply of it, you slept until now. Then I projected that the black coffin's energy was about to run out, while your physical body was entirely incapable of supporting activity in the present world."
"So you modeled a vessel for my consciousness on the Typhon, the most formidable creature in the Samei Rainforest, and transferred my consciousness from my human body into a Typhon," Famu said.
"Your judgment is exactly right. That is what happened."
"However, this body of yours is not just a Typhon. It also uses the biosynthesis system you were so proud of. Although its main genetic makeup is Typhon, it is a mixed-blood and will surely become a mixed-blood monarch in the future."
"Mixed-blood?" Famu didn't think there was anything about him that wasn't Typhon.
"You only looked like one on the outside. In fact, you don't look much like a Typhon now either. It appears you performed some crude modifications on your own. Is the Child of the Earth's Furnace Core useful?"
"Sounds like that's an ability you picked out carefully."
"Child of the Earth suits you very well, Your Excellency. You are human. The combination of humans and tools is the most terrifying thing in nature."
"What other genes did you add?"
"Many."
"Many?"
"They include the vast majority of the super species in the world today. These latent genes have no effect on you now, but if you have other ideas for your body in the future, you can quickly draw on them—for example, the Dead Sun Armor's genes within you."
"No way?" Famu asked tentatively.
He had another guess.
And when it came to the Staff of Life, Famu's guesses were very likely to be right.
"Bloodburn?" Famu said.
As for the most valuable thing the Dead Sun Armor possessed, Famu's first choice wasn't the extraordinarily destructive High-Temperature Domain, Day of Death, but the power that set its whole body ablaze.
For a cold-blooded creature, being able to control its own body temperature was a qualitative change in its adaptation to the environment.
"Yes, Bloodburn," the Scepter replied.
"You truly are exceptional. If you had named the Furnace Core of Day of Death, I would probably have mocked you silently. As a Typhon, you could never learn Bloodburn, but as a mixed-blood monarch, Bloodburn has been part of your genes since birth. Activating it merely requires you to accumulate enough Furnace Cores of the same type."
Famu was extremely pleased.
The Scepter continued.
"Now, Your Excellency Jiuxun, perhaps we should discuss my compensation. The Scepter System's work must be paid for by the hour."