The Third Collapse

By Ed Tanks

The Third Collapse is a sci-fi novel set sometime during the ‘Dark Era’, over 1e100 years in the future, where the inhabitants of the artificial planet called Jovnia --
both real and virtual 'quantum states' -- relentlessly fight entropy and prepare for the possible Third and the last Collapse of the Universe, as they themselves are on the brink of absolute technological singularity.

A surrealistic nightmare at times, it is most often an adventure, with touches of humor and cyberpunk-like hacker references. The story revolves around the unique Processor -- a symbol, and perhaps a tool, for achieving technological singularity. Some believe it can be used to fight the dark Decay -- something the very old Universe has a lot of.

The Third Collapse can be called as a post-apocalyptic dystopia, yet it does not necessarily feel like a dystopia; it feels like an old movie from the 2001: Space Odyssey era, with long picturesque scenes, but also touches of hard science fiction told via dialogue, and at times, rash decisions by characters.

The text of this book uses the gender-neutral singular pronoun ‘they’ (and ‘themself’ in the reflexive form). It is done with the sole purpose of leaving it to the reader to imagine the genders of characters, if the reader feels the need to do it at all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ed Tanks
• Release date: Nov 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370036219

Book preview

THE THIRD COLLAPSE

ED TANKS

First edition

Copyright © 2017 Ed Tanks

Cover art by @kurjanik

First print by the author on October 28, 2017. Tallinn, Estonia.

Principal writing: August 30 - December 25, 2016

Important modifications: April 30, May 10-11, October 19-27, 2017

Synopsis

A sci-fi novel set sometime during the ‘Dark Era’ over 1e100 years in the future, where the inhabitants of the artificial planet called Jovnia relentlessly fight entropy and prepare for the possible Third and the last Collapse of the Universe, as they themselves are on the brink of absolute technological singularity.

Gender-neutral pronouns

The text of this book uses a gender-neutral singular pronoun ‘they’ (and ‘themself’ in the reflexive form). It is done with the sole purpose of leaving it to the reader to imagine the genders of characters, if the reader feels the need to do it at all.

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

To my firefly

PROLOGUE

It is planet Jovnia, an artificial desert world with a significant population of sentient beings who are often referred to as ‘quantum states’. The planet is circling an artificially created yellow sun, and a distant, enigmatic red star. These are only a few known material places left in this old Universe, which is past its Stelliferous Age, and somewhere in the middle of the Dark Age. The laws of physics – governing these last few manufactured stars and planets and their inhabitants – seem to have become dull, weak, and failing.

For a very long time, the technologically advanced Jovnians and their less fortunate neighbors Chronians used feeble sparks of power to gather, from the emptiness of space, scraps of the last dark stars, rogue planets, asteroid fields, space dust, and other matter – any matter and energy they could find – in a successful attempt to create two solar systems where they could live and develop further.

In the very recent recorded, recovered and rediscovered history, there have been two Collapses – global quantum events involving rips in the dark energy continuum, characterized by high decay and radioactivity levels, which accelerated the entropy of the known Universe towards what is presumed to be the ultimate big rip and heat death of the Universe – predicted destruction and disappearance of everything.

Chronians – those living near the distant red star – perished in the First Collapse, and multiple expeditions tried to rescue them, to no avail. Jovnians, seeing that even the space all around their planet had become unsafe, focused their efforts on saving their own world, and developing ways to stop the Universe from decaying into oblivion.

The Second Collapse struck the Jovnians during a very unfortunate time, as they were on the brink of creating something revolutionary the history now remembers as the ‘white hole’, which they intended to use to reconstruct the Universe and stop the decay. The Second Collapse brings to the minds of survivors only thoughts of destruction, loss, and extreme suffering. Reconstruction has been hasty and scrupulous; many Jovnians fear the next Collapse will be the last, and any irresponsible deed will be punished with another cataclysm.

It has been seventeen Jovnian years since the Second Collapse.

1: DECAY

Spiral towers of the heavily protected city of Jovnia can be seen on the horizon through a blurry beige haze. The oval-shaped city of Jovnia, within its tall and weathered perimeter wall, houses most of the creatures on the planet, and it is the most technologically advanced community.

What might strike a casual observer would be population scarcity. On this day – a quite average, fuliginous day – the city seems to be compact relative the size of the planet, and one would assume that while there are a couple of hundred humanoids on the streets, there cannot be more than a couple of hundred thousand living in the town, and therefore on the planet, total. This assumption might even be correct, as an eye would catch some holo-screens on the street showing the present status of the Jovnian Virtual Network – the JVN – showing an immensely higher, and rising, population of quantum states, with their total number having some twenty or even more digits.

In this light, to a casual observer, the city suddenly appears very functional, with most buildings probably serving as data centers, power plants, and as top-level government and residential buildings, such as the tallest, luxurious and infamous skyscraper – the Jovnian First Plaza – or the very classically built Ministry Building, housing the parliament of real, or using local judicial terms, ‘temporarily un-virtualized’ people.

Remnants of former civilizations, though, are very much visible and lie completely welded together in the desert around Jovnia, stretching outward as far as the eye can see – all this a result of an immense quark implosion which affected the Universe everywhere during the Second Collapse. There are pieces of walls, posts, vehicles and other machinery, signs, all monolithically forming a very solid ground, though still here and there worn down with time. It is hard to notice them at first, and it could appear like a normal, arid desert of rock and some sand, but the eerie ruins are almost everywhere.

A few clicks out from Jovnia lies a landfill which appears more recent to the invisible eye. A similar image of deeply rooted and alien entropy could be seen and felt by an invisible observer. The dump appears abandoned at first glance, yet of all places in this vast desert, this one has a definite presence. A good ear would catch a high-pitched tone playing and resonating over the desert, and one would notice the wind forming turbulent patterns unlike anywhere else.

Close to the evening, the wind blows in a peculiar way over parts of this long-forgotten landfill. Temporary shining sculptures of trees and people start forming from garbage, metamorphosing, first with gentle nudges, then acting with definite force, as if every piece of matter was heavily magnetized and stimulated. After a minute, the process halts, as if running out of energy, and pieces fall down and clutter on the ground. These pieces still want to form a sculpture, lacking perhaps only a slight push. They keep weakly rolling around, fighting even the frictional resistance. Very soon, the energy is gone for good, and only the wind is restless.

The wind is getting stronger by the minute. Tips of the towers situated on the perimeter of the city retract and shoot elastic chains into the clouds, catching lightning strikes – several huge blasts at once. Once the power has been collected over a matter of seconds, these elastic chains are automatically cut off and fall on the ground by the towers. The wind turns into a small moving tornado, finally breaking some already weathered remains of the last civilization, and mixing them with the waste of the current one; the resulting fine dust can be seen slowly flying towards the city.

More lightning strikes shoot into the chains of the power stations, and precious energy is transferred to the city. With each strike, the desert around Jovnia seems to become darker and darker, and irregular shadows emanate from the ground for a short while before disappearing into nothingness.

After the storm, it is finally quiet.

*

The enigmatic night is replaced by quite a mundane, sooty day on the streets of Jovnia.

A figure in a blue haz-suit lands on their feet in an empty alley outside a large rustic industrial building, their jetpack making a loud pop and running out of energy at quite the right time. They run downstairs to the only small metal door in the building, and wait. Streaks of straight, blond hair can be seen through a darkened visor of their helmet, and part of a worried young face. They knock a couple of times on the door just to be sure they have been noticed.

Harmé! It’s Kelegan! Come on! Do you have the powder? the person says in a soft, high voice, after a couple of wake-up blows on the basement window. The one inside – Harmé – of the same height, with a purple tunic and coal black hair, and a protective mask covering their mouth and chin, shouts, Yes, I’m here. Just wait, turns off their holo-terminal – a small personal tag attached to their index finger controlled partly with mind, and partly with gestures, when necessary – and searches their collection of various rusty containers. After a couple of tedious minutes, they find what appears to be an old tin can of organic sustenance, filled however with a noticeably heavy pink metallic powder.

Don’t you want to get inside so we can talk? Harmé replies in a curiously unusual, beautiful accent, and clean diction, after handing them the can through a hatch opening in the door.

We don’t have much time. This is the last thing the Group A needs, and it’s better to bring the powder to them now. Kelegan says in a hurry.  This is a very rare thing, this material, or so they say. Where’d you get it?

The basement addict looks visibly worried. They open the door and let Kelegan in. Well, I can’t talk about this much, you know. Harmé hesitates for a second. But, I got the stuff from the Ministry, just as requested.

"So, it was government property; you didn’t get that from a rival faction, did you?"

No, I arranged a drone to bring a pound for me from one of the Ministry’s warehouses. And of course, I scanned the other ones, including military facilities. Turns out the powder was hidden in the most unlikely of places – these were medical waste processing facilities. They have a whole room filled with boxes of this, Harmé explains.

But it’s not medical waste, right? Kelegan asks, gets an immediate nod, and continues, Group A only needs a spoonful. And with our help, the group may be able to avert the coming Third Collapse, since it appears the Ministry is ignoring all the signs, Kelegan says worryingly.

Are you safe yourself? Harmé asks then. I’ve heard rumors the military has started getting involved in prosecuting alternative groups such as ours. Well, I’ve put it mildly. They are eliminating them. They are definitely on to mentalists, and they know of the Group A we’re in, but fortunately they are unsure about who is involved in it. At least that’s what I found out. I felt like a black hat digging this after executing a ‘middle-person’ on the old clunky terahertz wireless between two frequently communicating Ministry buildings; but if we find out they’re truly crooked, I’ll be feeling no shame in having done this.

Yes, of course, I’ve took precautions. I’m so glad to see you again! I think we’re on the same wave, and I feel we’ve chosen the right group to join, Kelegan says cheerfully.

I’ve gained insight into everything. In the time you’ve been away, I’ve read every material about the Collapse, and sniffed here and there on the JVN for clues and friends. It appears Group A is truly the one to stick to right now, that’s why I took the mission, Harmé explains. They’re anti-government, but are definitely not terrorists, and are passively sabotaging many of the crazier Ministerial projects. And they’re open-minded, they allow both believers in Masters and non-believers in; of course, after subjecting recruits to tests, such as this one.

Group A saved eleven people last week from being erased from JVN, by sniffing their quantum states from JVN and actually giving them new bodies using government resources. I think these two are part of the group now.

I’ve heard about it. This is amazing, even though the… regarding JVN… I wouldn’t myself want to be resurrected like that, but, it’s beside the point; I just… Harmé wants to add something, but then curiously changes their mind. Who is this Unknown who we are supposed to bring the oxide to?

Kelegan then says, The Unknown – U25 – seems to be their current leader, and they await us under silo B7-C09. It’s just a quarter of a click away from the Jovnia First Plaza, but way down on the ground. I’ll leave my jetpack here, it’s out of juice anyway; I think we’ll have to go on foot.

And so, the hackers run nimbly through dark downtown alleys, where some oily robots work on installing pipework. They run on the ledge of residential buildings until they reach the city square where more biological, human-like creatures are gathered; they choose to ignore the square, and jump down onto a backstreet, try to avoid a large crowd of high-class, mostly biological nobles eating the rarest foods in the open restaurants; they run to side streets, then rush under a high-speed maglev track, run over smoke blowing out of each and every venting hole between the stones in the ground below. One of the weathered walls has a large white text painted on it, saying "THE FLOW IS WITHIN US."

They try to avoid new popular places using Kelegan’s jailbroken holo-terminal, tracking almost every creature and vehicle around them within half a click. They reach a lower place, with quite a muddy ground below, and a large, cylindrical silo, perhaps fifty feet tall, standing on the ground on just three massive posts. They do not have to look around under the designated storage silo for too long; a figure with a turned off transponder jumps down from the rails and startles them.

I see you’re one of the newest Group A recruits, the stranger says in a slightly metallic voice, but with a touch of a very real, even biological, concern and urgency. The person seems to even breathe on their own – or so it seems. They have a slightly faded number printed on their neck: ‘U-25’, perhaps standing for just Unknown-twenty-five, but perhaps it is something else.

U25 continues, We’re going to need your oxide sooner than expected, and… they look into their terminal worryingly and exclaim, wait… we’ve got fifteen seconds… jump up now!

Seeing that the stranger’s holo-terminal starts flashing randomly, they climb up one of the silo posts and hide on the lowest floor of the huge cylindrical silo, and keep quiet. A guard drone – a bird-like airplane – swooshes under the silo, makes a couple of turns, stops for a second, and starts scrupulously scanning the surroundings.

Tension builds up in the group as the drone refuses to fly further on their patrol route; instead, it circles in one place, and sometimes changes its position and latitude, as if waiting for something. Seeing this, and fearing more deadly drones, U-25 closes their eyes and points their finger (with a holo-terminal attached to it) in the general direction of the drone. Show me your circuits, little bird, they whisper, and in a couple of seconds, the drone accelerates quickly towards the metal post, and crashes into it with a loud