One Hour Later
“Then we will take an hour-long break for him to update you on his findings,” Masimbi announced, pausing the eting just as Cravath logged out. Without hesitation, he and the other human representatives stood up and left the room, granting the others privacy to discuss without fear of prying eyes.
The mont the doors closed behind them, Cravath wasted no ti.
Without a word, he pulled every representative into his ntal network, no warning, no request for permission.
Yet, not a single one resisted.
They all understood the urgency. Whatever he had discovered was significant enough that he deed it necessary to share imdiately and without interference.
Curiosity and unease filled the air as they waited for his findings.
………….
“The two hours I spent there told everything I needed to know about it. And if anything, they’re underrepresenting what this technology can do,” Cravath said the mont everyone took a seat at the rudintary round table he had constructed.
As he looked around at his ntal network, he felt a deep sense of sha creeping in. Compared to what the Empire had built, his own abilities felt crude, no different from a child’s drawings placed beside the work of a master artist. If not for the necessity of debriefing the others, he would have avoided using his ntal network altogether for the next few days, needing ti to process, to co to terms with what he had just experienced. But he wasn’t afforded that luxury.
“What do you an, two hours?” the Valthorin representative asked, frowning. “Was the network that bad at allowing you to perceive ti? Because from our perspective, you only spent one hour inside.”
Cravath blinked. “No, I spent two hou—” He cut himself off, his mind stalling as a chilling realization hit him. His heart pounded in his chest. “Wait… what do you an I only spent an hour in there?”
“You were in for exactly one hour,” the Valthorin representative reiterated. “No more, no less.” His gaze darkened with suspicion. “Are you sure this network didn’t tamper with your mind?”
Cravath’s expression froze as his mind raced to process what he had just heard.
“No… That’s impossible,” he muttered, more to himself than to the others.
“You’re saying I only spent an hour in there?” he repeated, his voice strained.
“Yes,” the Valthorin representative confird, his gaze narrowing with concern. “You entered, and exactly one hour later, you logged out. No more, no less.”
Cravath’s fingers curled into a fist as he struggled to reconcile the information. Two hours. He was absolutely certain. He had spent two whole hours inside that virtual reality, exploring, analyzing, and testing its limits. And yet… only an hour had passed here?
His mind imdiately jumped to the only possibility.
Ti dilation.
His breath hitched. They had cracked ti dilation in a virtual environnt?
His gut twisted. If the Empire had truly perfected such an advanced temporal compression system not just crude acceleration, like what so ntal networks could achieve through distributed consciousness, but a seamless, imperceptible extension of ti itself within their virtual reality, so flawlessly that even he, an expert in ntal networks, hadn’t noticed the discrepancy until it was pointed out, then…
Then everything had just changed.
“Is everything fine?” asked the Valthorin representative.
Instead of responding, Cravath remained utterly still, his eyes vacant, devoid of their usual sharpness. His ntal network trembled—a brief but violent shudder that sent a wave of unease through everyone present.
A silence fell over the group. They all knew what that ant. A ntal network only destabilized like that when its creator was in despair—or had been hit with such a profound shock that their subconscious montarily failed to sustain it.
Sothing had happened.
Sothing about ti.
Most of the representatives, sensing the gravity of the situation, chose to wait, giving Cravath the space to recollect himself. But the Xor’Vak representative had no such patience.
“Are you going to tell us, or are you just wasting our ti?” he snapped, unimpressed by Cravath’s silence.
Still, Cravath said nothing. Instead, he raised a hand, and the space around them shifted.
A mory walk.
Without a word, he pulled everyone into the experience, imrsing them in his firsthand perspective. If they wanted to understand, if they truly wanted to grasp what he had just gone through, then they would have to live it.
And, in the process, it would buy him the ti he needed to process what he had just learned.
………….
An hour later, Masimbi and his entourage made their way back to the eting room as planned. However, the mont they stepped inside, they were t with the sight of all the representatives sitting silently with their eyes shut. Without a word, they turned on their heels and left, realizing that the representatives were far from finished.
“I told you they’d need more than an hour to process everything,” Masimbi remarked, glancing at Lanesra as they walked back toward the canteen.
“Can’t argue with that,” Lanesra admitted. “If it were , I’d have asked for an official postponent of the remaining agenda items. Sothing like this warrants an in-depth discussion, not just a rushed attempt to rehash everything in the mont.”
Ti passed as they continued their conversation. An hour turned into two, then three. Yet, no one called them back. By the fourth hour, Masimbi made the call himself.
A formal notice was sent to all representatives: the eting was postponed until tomorrow, giving them the ti they needed to fully digest the implications of what they had learned.
Before leaving, Masimbi ensured that each representative was provided with a headgear unit, allowing them to personally experience the VR during the break if they so wished. With that, he and his entourage departed, heading back to their accommodations in the diplomatic wing of the Trade Hub.
………..
Unconcerned with the outside world, Carvath’s ntal network was in complete chaos.
Having experienced everything firsthand, the representatives were now fully aware of the empire’s staggering achievent. Not only had they created what could only be described as a perfect virtual world, sothing previously deed impossible, but they had gone even further. They had successfully implented ti dilation within their public ntal network, allowing for a 2:1 ti ratio accessible to anyone.
This was sothing that neither of the two known ntal network-capable civilizations had ever achieved at this advanced level. That ant the empire had developed it on their own.
A collective chill ran through them. It reinforced their growing realization that this seemingly young and underdeveloped civilization was far smarter and more innovative than any they had ever encountered. Despite gaining free access to space only a few decades ago, the mont they broke free from their planetary constraints, it was as if an invisible barrier had been lifted. They had imdiately started creating mind-shattering technology, such as the black hole bomb, a feat that even the Conclave civilization had yet to accomplish.
The implications were staggering.
Even more concerning was the empire’s statent that the knowledge they had acquired from others had allowed them to perfect this technology. That ant they already had it in so form before, just in an imperfect state. This, in turn, led to another disturbing hypothesis, one that had long been debated among them.
Could it be that the robotic soldiers they had fought in the war weren’t actually robots at all? The machines had acted far too intelligently, unlike any AI-driven units they had encountered before. But if the empire had this tech on their hands then the answer beca clear: those “robots” were being controlled by soldiers in real-ti.
“Ti dilation… fuck, we need this,” the Yrral Coalition representative muttered, voicing what everyone was already thinking.
The potential applications were world-breaking.
In his two hours inside the VR, Carvath had perford nurous tests, searching for any discrepancies between it and reality. He had found none. Of course, as a politician rather than a scientist, his observations were far from conclusive. However, they were more than enough to warrant serious investigation. If they could obtain this technology, the benefits would be imasurable.
“They postponed the eting until tomorrow and left devices for you all to test,” Carvath inford them, delivering the ssage he had received.
With that, he disbanded the ntal network, removing everyone. He needed a mont of peace, ti to process everything he had learned and prepare his report back ho.
The mont the others returned to reality, they imdiately reached for the boxes in front of them. No one spoke. No small talk. No discussions.
They simply left, eager to test the device and report this monuntal revelation to their respective governnts.
Reviews
All reviews (0)