Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 824: AVA – Autonomous Vivoform Assembler

CH824 AVA – Autonomous Vivoform Assembler

***

A shudder ran through the Hive Queen, Ava, as Alex’s declaration settled over her.

The spark of life within her eyes seemed to burn even brighter.

Alex nodded to himself.

“A consciousness is not complete without a name,” he muttered aloud.

“That was a surprisingly normal name,” Zora commented.

“Huh? What do you mean by ‘surprisingly’?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Your naming sense is… well, let’s just say the less said about it, the better. I was honestly afraid you were going to name her using an acronym or something,” she said.

“Ehm…” Alex looked away.

“You didn’t…” Zora stared at him in disbelief.

“You did!”

She buried her face in her palm.

The Hive Queen, Ava, looked between the two of them intently, unable to understand what the issue was.

“So? What is the full name you came up with?” Zora asked.

“Autonomous Vivoform Assembler…” Alex muttered in response.

Zora stared at him for several long moments, causing him to avert his gaze sheepishly.

Moments later, her eyes drifted towards the Hive Queen, who was looking back and forth between them with unconcealed curiosity, clearly unable to grasp what was happening.

“Pfft!”

Zora suddenly burst into laughter.

“You really are nothing if not consistent,” she said, shaking her head with a smile.

“Go on. You came here to check on her abilities after her metamorphosis, didn’t you? Don’t keep a queen waiting—especially while she’s kneeling before you in front of her own subjects.”

“Ah, yes…” Alex said, quickly recovering himself.

He motioned to Ava, and she immediately rose to her feet.

However, despite receiving no instruction to do so, she voluntarily shrank her body as much as she could, reducing her height to just under three metres.

Through their Hive Link, Ava apologised, explaining that this was now the smallest size she could assume.

“No problem. I was the one who instructed you to increase your size during your metamorphosis, after all,” Alex replied.

He considered something for a moment before sending her a runic language packet through their Hive Link—or rather, Orion did.

Ava’s eyes glowed faintly as she absorbed the new knowledge.

“I… can… speak… your… language… Master Node,” Ava said, her words slow and fragmented.

Alex nodded.

Through this single action, he confirmed that the Command Hierarchy Protocol embedded within Ava’s runic foundation was still functioning as intended, ensuring that his commands retained absolute priority over Ava’s throughout the Hive.

Furthermore, his ability to directly transfer runic code packets into Ava’s mind confirmed that the Logic Bomb, Wipe Command, and Kill-Switch safeguards incorporated into her runic foundation could still be triggered at a moment’s notice.

Finally, despite the birth of a new consciousness, the Pavlovian conditioning imposed upon her mind remained fully effective.

The Hive Queen displayed behaviour that could only be interpreted as joy at the ‘reward’ of being able to speak the same language as the Hive’s Master Node—the highest authority within the Hive.

With his second mind—Orion—also maintaining round-the-clock surveillance over her through the Detector Runes woven into her very runic foundation, every current indication suggested that it was exceedingly unlikely for Ava to ever break free of Alex’s control.

‘I do feel sorry for chaining down a newly born consciousness like this. However, seeing how the Universe reacted to your birth, I have to be careful and ensure that you remain under control.

“I don’t want to become the greatest sinner in the Universe,’ Alex thought as he watched Ava gradually come to terms with the new knowledge she had been granted.

Then again, she was a being without emotions, so concepts such as betrayal and forgiveness probably eluded her altogether—and Alex believed it was best to keep things that way.

“I can see that your capacity to produce drones has increased significantly. You can now create much larger lifeforms. That’s good. Exactly what I need.”

“I… did not… know… what… to produce… so… I made… familiar… ones,” Ava replied.

Alex nodded.

This was actually something he was pleased to see.

Originally, whenever the Nest Queen consumed organic life, she would acquire that creature’s genetic data, allowing her to replicate drones that possessed the same form and biological capabilities.

She also possessed the ability to directly manipulate genetic data itself, matching and combining the genetic codes of different creatures to create entirely new lifeforms that had never before existed.

That was how she had been able to create the humanoid insectoids currently present throughout the Hive colony.

However, there was one major safeguard placed upon Ava.

She was not creative.

She could not design the creatures she produced on her own.

The humanoid insectoids within the Hive had been created by replicating as much as possible from her own genetic code while also following a general template package transmitted to her by Orion during the period Alex was unconscious.

This was a runic code packet that Alex and OmniRune had prepared in advance for the Nest Queen before she completed her metamorphosis.

As such, every drone she produced first had to be designed by Alex—and/or Orion—before Ava would be capable of manufacturing it.

Essentially, Alex was the chief designer, Orion was the technician who wrote the code, while Ava and her Hive served as the production facility—the factory where the drones were manufactured.

Without either Alex or Orion, Ava could only continue producing previously approved drone templates.

“The template Orion sent you should also contain several other drone types, and I can tell from the Hive network that you’ve already created them. Where are they? I haven’t seen them,” Alex inquired.

“New drones… non-functional. No… authorisation,” Ava replied.

Her speech was already becoming noticeably smoother with each passing sentence.

Alex patted his forehead.

He recalled that the drone template OmniRune had prepared for transmission to Ava after her metamorphosis had intentionally omitted the final injection packet that served as the drones’ biological programming.

It was another control mechanism Alex had deliberately put in place to further limit Ava’s ability to go rogue.

“I’m sending it now,” Alex said.

Ava immediately received the required instruction code packet.

Her eyes turned vacant for a brief moment as she processed the incoming data.

The instruction packet was encrypted using a higher-order programming language that only Ava within the Hive Network could understand.

As she processed the information, she translated it into code that the relevant drone type—and that drone type alone—could interpret and execute.

At least, that was the programming equivalent of how the Hive Queen’s Hive System functioned.

***