The Oracle Paths

"Mirror Universe? Currency?" Jake's mind was completely transfixed on these two notions.

Using the Aether in the form of currency he could understand it. The problem was, it only worked in the form of a "wire transfer". On a galactic scale, the Aether didn't seem to have a cash version.

[You're wrong, there is.] Xi countered, reading his mind.

[Any crystal structure can contain a fixed amount of Aether if properly processed. Usually processed diamond is used to contain pure or encoded Aether. Diamond on a cosmic scale is not a rare commodity, since any advanced civilization can make it from carbon, which is extremely abundant.]

[The crystals are then charged and uniformly cut to produce a standardized currency. These Aether coins can be used for all kinds of transactions, used directly or fed to the Oracle device to recharge its batteries.]

"What is the value of conventional resources, such as metals, food or gems compared to Aether?"

[It depends, it's very contextual.] Answered Xi, seeming to think about the question for once...

[The Mirror Universe works differently than the Dark Universe your planet is in. But when it comes to economics, the same rules apply everywhere, namely supply and demand.]

[However, the Aether is the resource and currency with the highest purchasing power. After all, Aether gives power to whoever possesses it. With power, you can obtain most basic resources on your own.]

[It is also the only currency recognized by the Oracle's System Stores. You'll understand better then why the prices are relative.]

Jake didn't like Xi's intentional teasing, but made do with the explanation as best he could. However, there were still a lot of things that needed to be clarified.

" So what's this Mirror Universe you're talking about? A parallel universe?" Jake queried impatiently.

[The Mirror Universe is complicated to explain in detail with your level of authority. It is not a parallel world or a copy of your actual world as the name suggests.]

[Simply put, it is another place, a larger place. The classical Universe born out of the Big Bang that you're in, we call it a Seed World. These worlds are many and are part of what we call the Dark Universe in reference to their low concentration of Aether.]

[Compared to the Mirror Universe these Seed worlds are insignificant. When one of them develops sufficiently, they are integrated into the Mirror Universe.]

[ This is a very lengthy process where the density of Aether will gradually increase until it reaches such a high concentration that the life forms making up these worlds will sometimes have discovered the Mirror Universe or the existence of Aether on their own.]

[The Universe from the Oracle's point of view is a Mirror Universe plus all these Seed Worlds. Remember that, it's very important.]

"Since Earth is being absorbed wheras the Aether hasn't been discovered yet... I guess we're screwed." Jake sighed, demotivated to the core as never before.

[The invasion or contamination of a Seed World by Digestors is indeed an exceptional situation, resulting in the immediate assimilation of those worlds into the Mirror Universe.] Xi confirmed with her customary detachment.

"In this case, can we hope to find our Earth identically on the other side? After all, seen like that, it's just an unexpected move, the Digestors on top of it."

[Regretfully, no. Your planet was invaded by the Digestors for its Aether and life forms, but again I repeat, there weren't enough Aether on Earth for you to get their attention.] Xi clarified.

[This means that there is probably at least one alien species in your Seed World that is advanced enough to channel and utilize the Aether. Naturally, the concentration of Aether will be higher in the solar systems where they live.]

[The sad reality is that the Oracle doesn't go into detail. The moment a Digestor opens a rift, it means they have the coordinates of this Seed World. Digestors rarely attack the more evolved species that lured them there in the first place.]

[These monsters usually attack the more primitive species, which gives them the ability to rapidly increase their strength and ensures their rapid growth away from the Oracle's gaze. Consider that thousands of planets at the very least have been attacked at the same time as the Earth.]

[The bottom line is that a contaminated Seed World is considered a single entity. When it is absorbed it is usually reformed in the Mirror Universe into one gigantic planet, sometimes more. Gravity there remains normal, despite the enormous mass, by a process that even I don't know.]

[There are probably very few races that know how these planets are put together. It's a technology that only a few chosen ones have access to.]

Jake didn't believe it himself when he asked that question. Sucking the Earth into small pieces and in an anarchic way, in the middle of other unknown places arbitrarily cut up, didn't make much sense if it was to find their blue planet in perfect condition again.

Jake remained silent for a long time after that. It was a lot of shocking information to digest all at once. His conception of the Universe and many of his beliefs had just been shattered. And when he discovered that what little he thought he knew was in fact insignificant, it made him feel dizzy, overwhelmed, powerless.

At that moment, Jake felt like a man overboard in the middle of a storm, trying in vain to cling to a mouldy plank of wood so as not to be swallowed up by the waves.

To take his mind off it, he remembered that there were still two functions he hadn't been interested in: Mapping and Logging.

Compared to Compress, Encode or Aether Storage their role was much more intuitive and obvious to understand. The only thing that bothered him was why the Oracle needed such features.

Mapping kept track of all the places he had visited since he owned the Oracle, as well as those he knew about. If you've ever played a strategic warfare game, the dark map at the beginning of a game, which reveals itself as you explore it, was very similar.

In a sense, it was a very useful feature, since until proven otherwise, the Oracle's memory was infallible. Testing the function with his mind, he enjoyed observing his apartment in the smallest details, which were fully modeled.

The roads he used to take, the sports center, his former workplace, his uncle Kalen's house; all these places could be mentally revisited as if he was there.

Conversely, all the cities, places and towns that the Oracle only knew by name or via the internet were filled in much more summarily.

Indeed, the Oracle could connect to any online technology to download the information it needed. And considering the existence of Oracle Overseers, some of these devices might be able to retrieve the information obtained by other Oracles of lower rank.

The last 'Logging' function was also obvious. There was now a 'Logbook' section among the Oracle features. Everything he experienced second by second was logged there in multiple ways.

On the one hand, he could see the movie of his life from the present moment until the Oracle device had merged with his right arm to form a bracelet that could not be removed. On the other hand, the Oracle did a remarkable job of record-keeping on its own, like a master of archives. Jake could see many subsections ranging from the history of his current 'Missions', completed or failed, to what he had eaten lately.

It all formed a kind of library of his experiences. This was not necessarily knowledge he possessed, since the Oracle recorded absolutely everything, even what he had not paid any attention to.

The future of the Earthlings looked bleak. Now all Jake had to do was figure out how to get more Aether and how much time he had left to prepare for the impossible before the true apocalypse would forever change his existence.