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    Realm of the Sphere
    Realm of the Sphere
    Realm of the Sphere
    Ebook350 pages9 hours

    Realm of the Sphere

    By Dallas Releford

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    The Sphere, an enormous, knowledge hungry, ever-demanding quantum computer system rules the minds of billions of citizens that are under the control of a monopolistic, totalitarian earth government. In fact, the Sphere is the earth government because it contains the minds of thousands of politicians, lawyers, senators, and other essential personnel necessary to run the government.
    With the very freedom and independence of billions of beings at stake, a few brave revolutionaries fight a distant war at the edge of the frontier hoping to defeat the enemy and return to earth and destroy the Sphere. Can these few enduring souls accomplish their mission, defeat the Sphere, and restore a government of the people, by the people, and for the people before a renegade alien force releases deadly bacteria on the earth? Will they be able to destroy the Sphere before it can destroy them? What is the secret that the enemy alien forces have given to the leader of the rangers? What is so special about a secret that causes two rangers, Mark Peters and Kristy Marshall to become devout enemies of the Sphere?
    When several large corporations form a conglomerate, they manage to take over the Earth’s government assisted by financial, military and industrial interests. As the Earth government acquires more colonies, worlds, and resources in space, the government falters, becomes unmanageable. As a solution, they transfer the minds of the government, consisting of politicians, scientists, financial leaders, industrialist, doctors, and others into a super-quantum computer they name, the Sphere.
    Mark Peters, a young Martian native, now living on Earth, volunteers for the elite Rangers, a military force that’s fighting a war against hostile aliens on the frontier. Hoping to fulfill his military obligation, he ends up on a bleak, gloomy, and cold planet near the frontier where the rangers are battling the Peri, an insect-like enemy that are deadly and intelligent. Leaving a beautiful wife and two children behind, his mind is transferred into the biological brain of a ranger. It’s part of the system.
    Mark is surprised to meet Kristy Marshall, a female ranger he’d gone to the academy with. As they battle the insect-like creatures on a planet called, Urajus Minor, they are taken captive. They meet Patty, a young girl that has been genetically engineered by the Peri to act as a goodwill ambassador to the planet Earth. She tells them that the Peri don’t want to fight and never have. The Earth forces instigated the war when they entered the Peri territory. The Peri haven’t been able to communicate with the Earth forces because of language differences. They want the rangers to deliver Patty to Earth so she can express their desire for peace.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDallas Releford
    Release dateFeb 14, 2012
    ISBN9781465852069
    Realm of the Sphere

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      Realm of the Sphere - Dallas Releford

      INTRODUCTION

      When I began writing Realm of the Sphere I was only sixteen years old. However, I read a lot of science fiction novels and had a fairly good idea about what I wanted to say in this story. In the 1960's computers were a marvelous, mysterious entity that could do extraordinary things. Science fiction writers were having a field day with them. Writer's like Arthur C. Clarke were writing exciting stories about how computers would affect our future. It seemed that every story had an evil computer that took over or destroyed mankind. Two of my favorite movies were I, Robot and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

      One day while I was enjoying a quiet summer afternoon in the deep woods of Central Kentucky, I was sitting under a shade tree writing a short story that would one day become Realm of the Sphere, I watched red ants attack other insects six times as big as they were. I wondered what would happen if you could transfer the minds, the consciousness of the ants into another insect that was larger. Would the mind of the ant function in the brain of the other insect? That I did not know of course, except it presented me with a question that I was anxious to answer in my story. Actually, that primary question expanded into several questions. In the 1960s, it all was just speculation. We did not have the technology to allow us to even guess about what the mind was and how it provided the conciousness that was us.

      One of the questions I had was, how to transfer the human mind to a computer. In those days, computers were complex and little was known about them and what they could really do in the future. A mouse, keyboard and hard drives had not been invented yet.

      I wrote the story about the future when machines and robots would do all the dirty work. I never realized they would take my job in the near future, sooner than I realized. The story was focused on a one-world government that expanded with the human race as we explored and colonized hundreds of planets outside our own solar system. In those days, we weren't even sure that other worlds existed. Now we are sure. Using marvelous technology such as the Hubble Telescope, we have discovered hundreds of planets, some of them almost like the earth. These discoveries have opened the possibility that other planets, other worlds, have life existing on them. The problem I saw with a one world government spreading across the galaxy was that it would soon become so enormous that it would be like a ship at sea that gradually turned to lead. It would sink into a mass of confusion and corruption. In my story, that was exactly what happened.

      Worlds and races we had conqured, became rebellious and unruly leaving the government back on earth incapable of governing them. By the year 2150 earth forces were storming forward conquering more planets and more beings than they could handle. It was a problem that deserved, and even required, a gigantic solution.

      Machines and robots as well as clones ruled the worlds as best as they could. Someone, a professor in an isolated laboratory perhaps, invented a method for transferring the human (and any other creature) consciousness or mind into a computer chip that consisted of trillions of other computer chips so that once transferred, the mind of the human could function in the new chip just like it had operated in its own mind. That opened up a door of opportunity for the earth government, except it would be a while before they got everything right.

      Earth scientists and doctors were able to scan every area of the brain and create a map of the brain that was a hundred percent accurate. They had discovered earlier that the human brain (and most animals) consisted not of one brain, but several brains. Each one of the brains, which someone estimated to number over twelve, had developed at a different stage in the evolutionary process over a period of millions of years. Since the process had developed over such a long span of time, it was extremely complicated and difficult to unravel. Nonetheless, they eventually were able to completely map the human brain using super-scanner technology, enormous super-computers and data analysis programs that allowed them to transfer the consciousness of an individual from the brain of a person into a computer chip. The computer chip was special, unlike any that had ever been designed and manufactured.

      The human computer chip that could house human consciousness was actually several trillion individual chips. Each of these chips had the functionality of being able to imitate normal human circuitry in the human brain. In other words, the computer chip was able to do everything the original brain was capable of doing such as reason, emotions and essentially, it was the same person that had been transferred.

      At first, only wealthy and essential brains such as scientists, doctors, mathematicians and other important people had their minds transferred into computer chips. Eventually, pilots of spaceships had their minds transferred into chips and then the chip was installed in a spaceship. The pilot was able to operate the ship with the help of robots and automated equipment. It wasn't long until these human infested chips were operating as doctors, scientists and even politicians. It seemed that the human race would cease to exist as new human bodies were artificially created and human minds were transferred into their brains.

      The process grew as new scanning equipment and methods were invented, new ways to manufacture the chips was developed and the public moved toward a greater demand to possess the technology.

      In 2035, scientists had some success with the technology except they did not yet have the scanning technology to map the brains's complicated structure. After that, the growth of the technology escalated.

      Scientists worked harder realizing that they could give humans the ability to live almost forever, as long as they didn't get smashed by a meteor or burned to death in a fire. There would be no more disease, heart attacks or similar problems. If something did happen to their new body, they would simply have robots transfer their computer chips to a new body. With that technology, they could possibly live forever. It opened up new doors to opportunity, solved many problems and created problems.

      I realized that there were two ways humans could live much longer. Scientists could transfer their entire brain into another body that had been designed especially for them. The second way was to transfer the human mind into a chip and install it into another cloned body or into a robotic body.

      In 3050, everything changed as the government of the earth, called the Terra Confederation collapsed and became ineffective. With colonies on hundreds of worlds, they were no longer capable of administrating government on those worlds, or on the earth. Desperately seeking a solution, they created the most powerful computer system that had ever existed called the Sphere. The Sphere was connected to the Universal Computer Network or UCN which extended from the earth to all other conqured worlds and their colonies in the galaxy. The minds of thousands of politicians, doctors, senators, lawyers and hundreds of others from all disciplines were transferred to the Sphere. The initial purpose of the Sphere was to allow qualified human minds to find answers to all the questions that confronted them. The primary reason was to provide the government with all the resources it needed to function properly and efficiently.

      As things go, the Sphere became so complicated, it too became a dictator with little consideration for the governed. With so many different personalities, emotions and varied reasoning, it became an evil entity that provoked rebellion across the galaxy. It's brutality and lack of consideration for its subjects caused one race to rebel becasue they did not want to fight the forces sent to subdue them by the Sphere. When a company of Rangers finds out that the enemy does not want to be an enemy and the Sphere is implementing war against them regardless of what the race wants, they join the enemy and attempt to win the war for the disgruntled race. Without hesitation, they go after the Sphere hoping to destroy it.

      * * * * * *

      REALM OF THE SPHERE

      By:

      Dallas G. Releford

      A futuristic Earth government becomes unmanageable and the minds of government, corporate, financial, and scientific leaders are transferred into a super-quantum computer called, the Sphere. Robotic, half-human soldiers, rebel against the government when they learn that the Sphere is instigating a disastrous, deadly, profitable war against an alien race that doesn’t want to fight. The rebels battle against enormous odds hoping to return to Earth to destroy the Sphere, and reinstate the old government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

      * * * * *

      Realm of the Sphere

      1

      In the year 3097, a machine, a colossal quantum computer system, ruled the Earth and its colonies known as the Terra Confederation. It’s hard to think of a machine as being evil. Such a dire realization becomes more explicable when you’ve seen the results of the computer’s actions.

      The clock ticks for most of us and most of us know that we will die someday, that our hearts will stop pumping blood, our circulatory system will fail and that our brains will die. However, that is not the case for me and thousands like me. You see, we never know when we will die except we know that it will be a long time from now unless a major catastrophe occurs such as getting blasted to smithereens by a laser weapon or hit by a passing asteroid. How did I acquire this uncertain longevity? Well, you’ll have to wait a little while before I can answer your question because there is much more to learn from what I am about to tell you.

      You may wonder how it came about that a computer could have such power and so much control over the human race. In order to understand the relevancy of this situation, you have to know some basic facts about the computer that was simply referred to as, the Sphere. Without doubt, it was the most evil entity in the universe. No, I’m not being untruthful at all. You need to know a little history before I tell you the real story, a story of war and suffering. What I am going to do is explain the situation that led to the horrible war known as the Quantum War.

      In order to explain these past and present events, you’ll need to understand some history as it relates to present events. Many knowledgeable scientists as far back as the late 1900s put forth the concept for the invention of a quantum computer. Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Physics were under discussion nearly a hundred years before that, and eventually led to the revelation that multiple universes existed, that certain physical laws were not as we thought they were, and that certain rules governed the concept of quantum physics.

      In the year 2150, the nations of the Earth managed to begin colonization of the nearest habitable planet, Mars. By this time, they’d also figured out how to begin the terra-forming process that would make the planet livable by humans. In a hundred years, the number of humans and sub-humans numbered in the billions. The Earths population included robots, clones and recycled humans or humans that had most of their body parts replaced by means of genetically engineered organs.

      Other planets outside the solar system were discovered. A few were populated by other creatures, some friendly, some not. Humans had made the first contact with aliens. One thing I can tell you right now is that out of all the inhabited worlds we discovered, not one of them had creatures that looked anything at all like us. Most of them looked like things we would only find in our darkest nightmares and that’s the gospel truth.

      Wars were often fought as they always had been, battles were lost and won. Throughout the centuries, the Earth’s government found that it was becoming harder to rule such a momentous empire and they became worried. It was difficult, almost impossible to maintain and operate a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

      Adding to the problem was the fact that the government had little to do with the interests of the people. Money runs the government and monumental corporations had evolved over the years to provide massive financial support. These corporations actually ran the government, and everything else. They told the government what to do, when to do it and how to do it. They supplied the money and the resources so the government had little to say about how things were done. It became a society of master and slave, the served and the servant.

      Even the military forces weren’t spared the mundane order of things. The military forces found themselves catering to the needs of large, insensitive, demanding corporations. They provided much of the expertise in space exploration, provided protection for corporation activities once the new worlds had been discovered and conquered. The human race and its robotic empire became a master race encircling and devouring everything in its path. They were devoid of any feelings for the conquered. If the planets discovered and conquered didn’t provide some source of revenue, they were left behind to rot, or continue in their desolate procession toward self-destruction.

      These ignored, wretched worlds numbered in the hundreds. The people on these planets were of many shapes, sizes and varieties, however, they all were intelligent and they all had needs. As the forgotten people, they soon developed a sense of hate for the corporation. The hate would spread until it eventually exploded into a full-scale revolution. That however, didn’t happen for another dozen centuries. They weren’t ready to make a move on their own however. It would take a spark, a tiny one, to get the fire glowing, and then flaming high in the night sky. That spark, as we shall see, was provided by a band of Rangers who’d discovered a terrible secret. It was a secret that would lead them from the edge of the frontier, to a place called Earth where the spark would glow and emerge as a full-scale revolution.

      Although it might seem impossible that four major corporations could consume and obliterate every known business in the world, it actually happened. Through hostile takeovers, buyouts and casual acquisitions, they were able to do just that over a period of centuries. As their strength escalated, they were able to influence, and eventually take over the government.

      The average citizen kept demanding more products, new gadgets and this fueled the drive for more research, and fed the coffers of the big corporations. About the year 2456, the human population finally realized that their freedom had been replaced by the needs of the corporations. No longer were they able to vote, speak freely, or do all the things freedom had allowed them to do in the past. Now, they were the victims of corporate authority.

      Mankind, womankind, and robots all conformed or were destroyed by the new system. Small revolutions broke out, but were quickly demolished by the military now under the control of the corporations. The corporations absorbed the government taking away all liberties, freedom and the right of the people to govern themselves. The corporations became one governing body known as the Corporation.

      * * *

      In the year 2997, the Corporation had to make a major decision. The territories that were claimed by the Corporation now extended far out into the galaxy. The frontier was so far away that it took years to reach it at near the speed of light. The frontier presented one of the major problems for the Corporation. They found a race there that didn’t want to be claimed. They were powerful and defiant. The problem was that they were fighting back with technology that was more advanced than that of the Corporation.

      The other problem seemed even more pejorative. The Corporation was responsible for the governing of billions of creatures in the territories and in their own solar system. This became such an immense task that the leaders of the Corporation became worried and concerned. Figures showed that nearly half their resources were being committed to that one responsibility. The Corporation was being drained, slowly consumed and destroyed by its own size. It was like an enormous snake that had to eat its own tail in order to survive.

      Leaders of the Corporation had a meeting of the minds and came to a decision. Some have said that this was the most important meeting ever held by anyone at any time. That’s a matter of opinion; however, it did lead to some interesting decisions.

      For several centuries, man had been able to transfer humans, robots and just about anything else from one place to another. The object or human was placed in a transmitter module; a powerful computer mapped every atom, every cell and every molecule and transferred the object to a processing module. In the processing stage, the object was broken down into a steady stream of atoms and transmitted to the transference stage where it is transmitted to a different location. At the remote location, the steps are repeated, in reverse. The object is then reassembled at the remote location.

      This was all done using the laws of science and physics known as quantum physics. The computer system that started the process was called a quantum computer. The operating system was called, StarLinux. All those factors would play an important role in the situation that developed from the first meeting of medical and computer technology.

      It didn’t take long for someone, a physicist named Joel Maunder, to figure out that human memory cells, or a facsimile of the human mind, could be transferred from the brain to a biological computer chip. In the scheme of things, nature designed everything around the human brain. The eyes, the mouth, the ears, the senses and the limbs support the human brain. These functions provide vision, communications, sound, touch and the limbs provide mobility. The nose provides the brain with fresh oxygen. These are some of the basic services available to the brain from the body. The point is that everything caters to the brain so the mind can survive. The body is merely a tool the brain uses to function. Without the brain, everything else is useless.

      Using laws that physicists had developed over the centuries, the Corporation was able to build an enormous computer system known only as the Sphere. It was called the Sphere because of the spherical shape of the computer. The spherical shape was necessary in order to keep the quantum computer cool.

      Technology allowed them to transfer the minds of thousands of government, corporate, financial, and science leaders into the massive memory of the Sphere. When all was done, the entire government that had once existed in hundreds of offices now occupied space in the recesses of a number of computer chips. These minds were able to move about in the computer network, communicate with each other and perform their duties as they always had. Only now, they were more efficient. Anyone that had access to the computer system had access to the halls of the government.

      The sphere ruled the Earth and all its territories. The madness and the insanity didn’t end there. Within a very short time, human minds were transferred into thousands of computer chips for various, impeccable reasons. Spaceships, cruisers, battleships, Star Wing fighters and many other craft were equipped with the chips. One of the most effective uses was for the space carriers, which were flat top space ships that carried hundreds of star wing fighters. Robots did most of the grunt work on these carriers. Hundreds of human personnel were needed to operate just one of these gigantic carriers, but with the addition of the computer chips, the human need was cut by nearly seventy-five percent. The mind of a human commander was placed in a computer chip, installed in the computer aboard the carrier, and he was free to go wherever he was needed on the ship. An enormous computer network spanned the galaxy, originating on earth. Anyone could use this network to travel through its circuitry to any point in the galaxy. For example, if a starship commander was needed on a planet a hundred thousand light years away all he or she had to do was to use the computer network and in a few hours they were where they were needed. Their minds could travel through the electronic pathways of the computer system at blazing speed.

      In the year 3022, these super intelligent chips were installed in just about everything including robots, robotic soldiers, aircraft, spacecraft, land craft, and most kinds of machines.

      Worthy of mentioning is the fact that the Corporation that was now called, the Sphere, passed a law that required every citizen, male and female, to submit themselves for service in the armed forces. Of great importance was the fact that the human mind of that citizen was transferred into a biological computer chip. That chip ended up in the brain of a robot soldier fighting the alien enemy at the edge of the frontier where a great, deadly war was raging. So far, our side was losing. The human body from which the mind had been extracted was frozen and saved for the return of its mind. Regardless, very few minds in robots returned to claim their human bodies. As I said, the Quantum War was deadly and costly. The Mind Transference Law, as it was known, was necessitated by the fact that the corporation had met its match and every human being was their slave. These slaves were sent to die in some distant, remote place that few Earth people had ever heard of.

      Space Transport Nautilus, somewhere near the frontier

      Larger than the moon that once circled around the Earth on a regular basis, the artificial space station that guarded the outer boundaries of the frontier loomed ahead of them like a beacon in the dark reaches of space. It was the last outpost just before they’d travel into the territory claimed by the unknown alien civilization beyond the frontier. The Corporation had built many of these outposts in an attempt to halt the transgressions of the enemy. As soon as they built them, the aliens destroyed them.

      Not much was known about those evil creatures on the other side of the frontier except that it was almost certain death to venture beyond the last outposts. The aliens were referred to as them most of the time because nobody knew exactly what they were called, nor did they really care. They were the enemy that was to be hunted, killed and defeated. Some of the warriors who had fought out there on the frontier believed they, the gruesome, predatory enemy, couldn’t be killed, not all of them at least. There were so many of them.

      The space station looked closer, but it was substantially far away and the big transport ship had a long way to go before reaching Altar-17 as it was called. Luckily, the transport ship was being escorted by several scout ships and a hundred Viper fighters that could handle just about anything. The captain of the CEF Nautilus or Corporation Earth Forces didn’t want to take any chances. His most precious cargo, the trooper recruits and the supplies that would allow Altar-17 to carry on in the battle for access to the frontier had to be delivered safely and on time.

      Captain Gary Norton stood proudly on the deck of the Nautilus observing the routine operations that would guide them to Altar-17. Look sharp, gentlemen, he said to the crew as they prepared for the final phase of the operation. We don’t know what’s out there, so we have to expect anything. He didn’t mind being the captain of a transport ship because it was just as important as any other ship in the fleet. His job was to supply the outposts and that was what he intended to do, no matter what happened. He was also glad that he had not opted to have his mind transferred into the control system of his ship. So far, he had been able to get away with it even though he knew the government of the Sphere would soon force him and his crew to become part of the hardware. Thousands of crews of other ships had already been converted. He wasn't looking forward to it even though he'd heard that it wasn't so bad. Sometimes, he thought that being able to travel anywhere in the galaxy might not be a bad thing.

      His warning was barely out of his mouth when the alarm sounded indicating that the sensors had picked up something and that their alert status had gone to the highest level. Something in Quadrant 234, sir, the ships Battle Control Officer or BCO yelled.

      What is it? the captain queried rushing over to the large computer screens on the wall.

      I don’t know, sir, Jim Conley replied, give me a few more seconds and I’ll see if I can get some information on it. Whatever it is, it’s big and it’s coming right at us. I can’t even imagine something this big. I’ve never seen anything like it.

      Consider your observations, the captain replied hoping the BCO could figure it out before they got too close to the thing. Think of everything that it could be … … and utilize your computer equipment.

      Got it, the BCO yelled as the image appeared on the huge monitoring screen. I got it. I still don’t know what it is. The computer has given me enough information to make a very limited assumption as to what it might be.

      Well, don’t keep us in suspense, the captain said annoyed, what is it?

      A huge force field and it’s emitting some type of blue light. Presently, I don’t know what its purpose is or what it’s made of. It might just be a force field, but I’ve never seen one move like that. It’s almost like a wall of light that’s about half-an-inch thick and it stretches for thousands of miles in all directions. It even pulsates and wavers back and forth. The most likely comparison would be a sail blowing in the wind. That might be a miscalculation … uh … a wild guess … on my part.

      Is there time to stop the ship and turn around before we reach it? The captain was getting worried because the force field or whatever it was, existed between him and the space station.

      No, sir, the BCO replied knowing that was just the kind of news the captain would not want to hear. They were already too close.

      Well, what are we going to do? The captain knew that the final decision was his. Preferring a second opinion from the BCO, who was normally the most knowledgeable officer on the ship, had become a routine with him.

      Before the BCO could even answer, they observed two of the scout ships collide with the vast blue object. They both disappeared in an instant. It was almost like they had gone into some kind of time warp or something. Quick, order the other ships to stay away from that thing, the captain said hastily. Why weren’t they warned about it?

      Their sensors probably didn’t detect it in time, the BCO replied, but I’ve warned the others. We don’t have much choice, Captain, he replied, and since we can’t outrun it, we’re going to collide with it, eventually. I’m getting more information from the computers now. It is a force field … and it’s pulling us toward it.

      Turn the ship around. Order engineering to give us everything they’ve got. Maybe we can stay far enough ahead of it until we can figure out what to do.

      Yes, sir, the BCO bellowed. Sir, if we take all the Vipers on board and use their power plants, we might have a chance. It was a wild idea; a one-in-a-million shot, and he knew it. Any chance was better than none at all, he thought.

      Good idea, the captain acknowledged. See if engineering can shut down some of the other operations to give us more power. Tell them we need everything they can give us.

      The gigantic vessel swung around slowly as the pulsating, force field approached. Seven hundred Viper fighters attached themselves to the landing bays on the outer area of the ship. Their power plants were attached to the energy feeds of the Nautilus. Within minutes, the ship was moving away from the menacing field. The officers stood watching as the sector of the blue field of light closest to them expanded out like an enormous bubble, following them. Norton wondered how far the bubble would expand. Could it follow them as far as it needed to? They were amazed, astounded that the rest of the field seemed unaffected by their presence. It remained a long, endless wall of light that blocked them from entering the space near the outposts.

      They stood on deck helpless as the pulsating sheet of light-like matter quickly approached them. How fast is that thing going and how fast are we going? the captain asked.

      We’re traveling near the speed of light, Captain, the BCO said, and that thing is traveling at about the same speed. It’s incredible. It has to be getting its energy from the stars or something because anything that huge has to have a lot of energy.

      Cut us to half speed and see what happens, the captain ordered.

      Done, the BCO acknowledged. Was the captain crazy or was he playing games with their lives? Sometimes he wondered about some of the things he did. Most of the time his decisions, no matter how seemingly crazy they were, worked. Was he right this time too? He hoped so.

      They watched to see what would happen. It cut its speed to match our speed, the BCO observed tinkering with the light sensitive controls on the panels in front of him. His skillful hands manipulated the light beams that controlled the ships computers and other equipment. There’s something strange going on here, he added. That thing seems to mimic everything that we do.

      Quickly, come to a full halt, the captain ordered and even before the order was completely out of his mouth, the BCO had anticipated the move and initiated the proper commands

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