Read Online Sufficiently Advanced Technology (Inverse Shadows) by Christopher Nuttall - Free Book Online

breathable?”
    “Even when two different races share the world,” Adam agreed. “As for how they did it, we don’t have a clue.”
    It was impossible, Elyria knew. The Confederation had pushed baseline humanity to the point where an unsuitable atmosphere wouldn’t poison them, but there was no way that it could allow two radically different races to share the same atmosphere. They could give them life support fields to wear, something that would ensure the local atmosphere was reprocessed into something breathable, yet the Ancients seemed to have done the impossible and made their worlds habitable for everyone.
    “The word impossible is simply a reflection of the unknown,” Jorlem said, into the silence. He hadn’t said much about the Prometheus Project to the others, although he hadn’t asked Elyria to remain silent about it. “How much of what we do would be impossible to a pre-singularity society?”
    That started another debate. Elyria listened with some interest, paying close attention to the attempts to compare various different societies with computer simulations, or altered realities created within AI cores. Quite a few humans had uploaded themselves and then taken refuge in fantasy universes created by the Confederation’s designers, some operating according to laws that bore no resemblance to reality. Many of the Uploaded had slipped so far into their private worlds that they no longer remembered the Confederation outside. It would have been easy to believe that someone had designed a world like Darius for a game, if it hadn’t been real. But then, the pre-singularity societies they were discussing would have considered the Confederation no less extraordinary.
    She looked over at the embodied AI and saw him listening with equal interest, one hand tapping away at a portable terminal. Quite why he wasn’t allowed a neural link was beyond her, but it hardly mattered. He had already proved himself when it came to analysing the vast amount of data gathered by the first survey ship, and – more importantly – highlighting sensor records that might have been disrupted by glitches. In the end, they’d reluctantly concluded that they’d have to wait until they reached Darius and then start gathering information. It was probable that more primitive technology would help them to stay in contact with Hamilton .
    The party finally started to break up several hours later, the various team members going to bed or heading back to their research labs. A couple seemed to have formed attachments already, which wasn’t a major surprise; others were simply too dedicated to their research to try to form any relationships, either with their fellow team members or the starship’s crew. Elyria had no time herself; besides, she was meant to be the team leader. She should be setting an example of dedication to the mission.
    She walked through the starship’s interior until she reached the observation chamber, where she could almost imagine that she was standing on the hull, utterly unprotected from the raging storms of hyperspace. Outside, she could see flickers of energy dancing through the higher dimension, each one vastly more powerful than a supernova in normal space. Learning to navigate hyperspace had taken centuries, ever since the human race had realised that there was an FTL method quicker than warp drive, but it had been worthwhile. The Confederation’s starships could now cross the entire galaxy in a matter of months. Other ships, she knew, had already set out for nearby galaxies. They would reach M33 in a few decades, whereupon they would start building up a new Confederation. Human wanderlust drove them onwards...
    No one had yet figured out which colony ship had founded Darius, if indeed there had been a colony ship. It wasn’t unknown for a society that wanted to return to pre-technological times to destroy the colony ship, simply by dispatching it into the local star. Later, they might discover their