X

Enter: The Alesters

Earth, 2048 AD

Old Anexis Supercontinent

After his fourth sleepless night Ethan Van Alester, a NASA scientist, paced around his lab. His partially military background gave him the of walk that only a high ranking officer would possess, but at the same time, his background in interdimensional physics made him concentrate more on his work than his surroundings. It almost appeared as if half his lab was freshly cleaned, while the other half had an encounter with a hurricane.

As he paced around, the monitor he was looking at had turned on with a large letter 'L' displayed on it. As soon as the screen flickered on, he rushed to the monitor, picked up a microphone, and spoke-

"Hello, L? How are the systems doing?"

The CPU of the computer was about 4 inches wide and 4 inches thick. Behind it was a large black case about six feet tall with a bright blue light cutting through the aesthetic cooling holes in the side.

The CPU whirred for a moment after hearing the scientist's question, and spoke through the attached speakers in an almost human voice;

"Everything is fine sir, system self analysis complete. Almost no signs of damage.
"Good."replied the happy scientist.

He put the microphone down and the floor suddenly started shaking. The black container through which the blue light shined glowed brighter. The lights inside the lab rapidly dimmed and brightened, as arcs of electricity appeared around them.

"L? What is happening?!" shouted Ethan. He looked at the monitor which appeared to be glitching.

"L!"

As suddenly as the event began, it ended. The light from the black container dimmed to its original brightness and the lights inside the lab turned back on, save for one which short circuited. The monitor had returned to its original state.

"Sorry sir. The system shutdown briefly." said the computer.

"Its alright L, at least the problem was resolved." replied Ethan.

"Sir, can I ask you a question?"

"Yes?"

The computer paused for a moment before saying "Sir, what am I?"

Ethan was both surprised and delighted upon hearing this question. He was delighted that his creation was trying to learn, but surprised as to how quickly the question came.

"Well L, you are an artificial intelligence with the ability to think like a human, to learn like a human but possesses more information than any human can imagine."

"Interesting. But what makes me different from other intelligent AI?"

"What makes you think you are different?"

"Well sir, there would be a reason for calling me unique 243 times."

Ethan smirked. "Well, you are unique."

"244 times."

"You are the first AI to partly exist in an alternate universe. We call the other dimension The Brane. Since storing your data in this dimension would require a massive amount of physical space, we tapped into another dimension to store your collected data and to power your systems."

"Fascinating. Would it be possible to see into this 'Brane' from this dimension?"

"If by that you mean opening a stable portal and sending a probe, very much possible, but it would require massive amounts of energy... say, as much energy that is equivalent to the mass of Anexis!"