After debrief, Freya and the rest of the team went back to their universe.
Well, it wasn’t all of their universe, but this one certainly wasn’t home
for any of them. Not anymore. Had they stayed, the leadership at Bellevue
would have wanted to keep apologizing every five minutes until heat death
destroyed everything trillions of years later, and that wasn’t helping
anything. Zek could not be saved but for time travel, and that was against
policy on their world. Sure, Limerick could ultimately punch a portal, and
deliver them back to Zek’s universe in a moment before the first time they
showed up, but all that would do was create a copy of everyone. This version
of Zek would still be a diamond, and that would still be irreversible. The
remaining team members were silent and aimless when they returned to the
hangar underneath their newly retrofitted Sharice Davids. There was a
suggestion that they change the name, and everything else about its
appearance, in order to prevent anyone from ever realizing what ship it
truly was, but they hadn’t gotten around to that yet.
It took them a hot minute before they realized a stranger stood among them.
She was just standing there patiently, waiting to be addressed. “Um...who
are you?” Freya questioned.
“My name is Eliana Prime,” the stranger replied.
“Is that your real last name?” Limerick asked, fully aware that wasn’t
really the most pressing question here.
“It is a surname blend,” Eliana answered. “My parents were...complicated. I
didn't want to take either name, but also didn’t want to make up something
random.”
“What are you doing here?” Freya was in no mood to be polite.
“Now, hold on,” Khuweka warned. “She could very well have every right to be
here. We too are squatters.”
“I have no right to be here.” Eliana was quiet, even-tempered, and
presumably quite understanding. She seemed like the type of person who was
always open and honest, but never volunteered information, instead generally
only speaking when spoken to.
“Then why are you here?” Landis asked.
“Bellevue sent me as operational replacement for your original teleporter,
Zektene Cormanu. The keyword here is operational. I shall make no attempt to
instantiate myself into the social role she filled within the group. I am
only here to transport you where you need to go, and will do everything I
can to ease any thoughts you might have that I might have the expectation to
be accepted, or treated as one of you.”
Limerick stared at her blankly, nearly drooling on the floor as he did so.
“Did anyone else follow that? Because I did, I know what she said. I just
wanna make sure you’re all on our level.”
Khuweka sighed. “She wants to be our teleporter, but she understands she
cannot replace Zek as our friend.”
“How did you even get to this universe?” Carbrey asked her. “I went through
the portal last, and it closed right behind me. I would have seen you.”
“I can teleport through portals,” Eliana explained. “It’s a little like
jumping out of a train on a bridge, and landing on a plane as it’s taking
off below, but it can be done. Bellevue disapproved of the secrecy, but I
decided it would be best if we had this conversation here, rather than
there. If you would prefer to send me back, I will not argue, or try to
convince you otherwise. But now that I’m already here anyway, it might be
easier for you to justify my recruitment to your respective selves.”
“Again. Totally understand what you said,” Limerick claimed, fooling no one.
“Better to ask for forgiveness later than for permission now, and be told
no,” Andraste translated.
“Oh,” Limerick realized. “That’s my excuse for everything I do.”
“I don’t think we need to vote,” Khuweka determined. “If you reject her
nomination, then just speak up. I will say this, we need a teleporter. That
booster platform doesn’t work on me, but it def will on her.”
Landis handed the Zek-diamond to Carbrey. “Zek greatly appreciates that
she’s here, and challenges anyone to come up with a good reason not to
accept her...in every capacity as a member of this team.” He stepped
forward, and offered Eliana his hand. “Can you jump blind?”
“I can,” Eliana replied. “I can even let a passenger be navigator through a
mild and temporary psychic link.”
“Then let us go up to The Sharice, and find you some quarters.”
Eliana looked to the rest of the group, still waiting for anyone to speak
now, or forever hold their peace. Once she was made rightly confident by the
silence, the two of them disappeared together.
“Now that that’s done,” Khuweka began, “we should run mission simulations.”
“We need to come up with a new name for the ship first,” Carbrey said. “My
simulations will rely upon this. Or rather, they might falter to the
ambiguity or uncertainty.”
Freya stepped over and took Zek from his arms. “It already has a new name.”
She started to walk away with her friend. “It’s The Cormanu.”
Two years later, they were ready for mission launch. Whether she meant to or
not, Eliana was able to integrate nicely into the team. She became fast
friends with Zek, and even coached her through her new life as a gemstone.
Making physical contact with Zek was only necessary at first to start
forming a psychic bond. As time went on, these bonds grew stronger, until
they discovered that she was capable of maintaining a persistent connection
to her crew all the way on the other side of the planet. She was still just
as much part of the team as she was before, and continued to participate in
their training. They had to learn how to work together, and how to overcome
obstacles and complications.
They fell into job roles that went beyond the responsibilities for which
they were originally recruited. Andraste was a great cook, and Landis
adopted the responsibility of overseeing the general maintenance of the
vessel. His life as a healer had been so dull. To maximize his abilities, he
sat in a chair for literally half the day as the terminally ill stood in
line, and came up to him one by one. He couldn’t watch TV, or read, or learn
something new. He lost all sense of wonder, and was not used to being around
people who didn’t worship him. He was happy to be busy now. It helped him
find himself again, and enjoy the company. Limerick was an entertainer at
heart, which helped keep the team from getting lost in the mission, and not
taking time out for themselves. Two years was a long time to do nothing but
work. Khuweka taught them all the Maramon language, which wasn’t probably
ever going to come up, but it was nice to have a way to communicate with
each other that most others wouldn’t be able to decipher. They had their
psychic connections with Zek to take care of that in most cases, but you
never know.
Carbrey was pretty much only the engineer, and that was absolutely enough.
His was the most important job, and they banded together to alleviate the
burden as much as possible. They all learned some basic mechanics, so it
wouldn’t just be on him. Freya took this the most seriously. The others
watched some tutorials, and hung around while Carbrey did his work. Freya
actually transported to the Kansas City Arcology, and entered an accelerated
engineering education program. It wasn’t enough to make her an expert in the
time allotted—and she still didn’t feel comfortable calling herself an
engineer—but it made her competent in the field, and perfectly suited to
serve as Carbrey’s assistant. It reminded her of working as a nurse with Dr.
Sarka. Neither was a profession she ever intended to be part of, but both
opportunities were important when they arrived, and she ultimately found
them to be very rewarding.
On launch day, Eliana strapped herself into the chair on the booster
platform, and used it to interface with the rest of the ship. Carbrey was in
charge of running the whole ship, so it became Freya’s duty to make sure
Eliana was both effective, and safe. They ran a final systems check, crossed
their fingers, and jumped away.
There was a bit of confusion as the teleportation interlocker of The Cormanu
started to power down to high idle. The navigation systems were evidently
not perfectly calibrated for the jump, which meant it was going to take a
minute to figure out exactly where they were. And that was a literal measure
of time. It was only going to take around sixty seconds, and then they would
be fine, but Carbrey was freaking out, because it felt like an eternity to
him. As Freya was confirming Eliana’s vital signs, she could hear him on the
shipwide comms, barking orders at people, trying to expedite this process.
He didn’t have zero reason to be worried, as the whole purpose of this
exercise was to clear present-day Earthan detection space, so that no one
would know they existed. Still, there was no way to get the computer to make
the necessary calculations faster, and panicking wasn’t helping anything.
A minute later, the computer confirmed their highest of hopes. One light
year. They were exactly one light year from Earth. “Is that possible?”
Carbrey asked. “I was to understand we would barely pass the plutinos.”
“Different universe, different interpretation of the physical laws,” Khuweka guessed. “Bellevue’s prediction of our maximum jump distance was based on
their understanding of these laws, not ours.”
“What does this mean,” Landis asked, “in practical terms?” He was leaning
against the wall of the booster compartment, ready to heal Eliana, should
she need it. It was looking like she wouldn’t. She reported feeling as good
as she ever did after a jump.
“It means we can go a lot faster, right?” Limerick figured. “A jump takes
about a second. Eighty-seven light years equals eighty-seven seconds. That’s
under two minutes on my world.”
“She’s not going to do that,” Freya said as she was needlessly dabbing
Eliana’s forehead with a warm washcloth.
“She won’t have to,” Khuweka promised. “We wouldn’t do this through burst
mode, even if there weren’t a biological consideration. It will take us
forty-five days to get to Worlon at maximum reframe. I want us to get there
in forty-five days. Not forty-six, not forty-four. This is the schedule, and
we’re sticking to it. Miss Prime did her job, and now it’s done.”
Freya curved her index finger and thumb towards each other, and twisted them
once, gesturing to Landis that he should mute his comm badge. They were very
sensitive, and while the humans would not have been able to hear her talking
from across the room, the ship’s sensors would pick it up, and log it. “You
want to say something, Eliana. What is it?”
“It wasn’t just me,” Eliana told her quietly. “I didn’t jump us this far out
alone.”
“Who else could have done this?” Freya asked, the answer came to her
quickly. “Zektene.”
Eliana nodded. “She still has her anomaly ability. She may even be stronger
now. You never needed me.”
Freya ran her fingers through Eliana’s hair. “I’m glad you’re here anyway.”
While their end of the comms was muted, they could still hear outgoing
messages. “Boot up the reframe engine, Mr. Genovese,” Khuweka ordered.
“Let’s take this show on the road.”
The doors to the booster compartment opened, and Kivi walked in, holding
Diamond Zek in her arms. It didn’t look comfortable for her. Landis held out
his own arms, not to commandeer the diamond, but be passively available,
should Kivi want to have a rest.
“We should put her on a cart, or something,” Freya suggested. “I can rig
something up quite nice. I’ll make it look like a throne.”
“We’ve been talking privately,” Kivi said. “Zek is not sure if she wants to
inform the rest of the crew about what happened.”
“She added a second boost to the jump?” Freya asked. “We already know.”
“No, not that,” Kivi said. “We’ll tell everyone about that. No, she saw
something on the way. Or, I guess it was more of a feeling?” She hesitated.
“What is it, Kivi?”
“She believes we are being followed.”
Landis stepped forward. “Who would have such capabilities?”
Freya shook her head, not to answer in the negative, but because there was
no answer. “You have to understand something about my universe. Time travel
is all but ubiquitous. It’s not that everyone has it, but anyone may have
it. If something exists at any point, it exists in all points. Everyone is
dead, everyone is alive. Almost nothing can’t be undone. Who else can shadow
the fastest ship in the stellar neighborhood? Someone from the future, or
one that’s piloted by a man named The Trotter...or maybe his son, I don’t
know. They would have to interface with their vessel in some way, but that’s
not too difficult when you have all of time and space to figure it out. If
you want to know who specifically possesses comparable speeds, I’ve never
heard of it, but that in no way means this person or persons don’t exist.”
Kivi finally handed Diamond Zek to Landis. “Due to this uncertainty, I feel
it is best we inform the crew, so that we may prepare for any eventuality. I
do not want to use the weapons systems, but we may have no other choice.”
She turned to walk away.
Freya stopped her. “Wait. Do you know who our shadow could be? You’re from
this universe too.”
Kivi chuckled once. “I was literally born yesterday. Don’t you remember?”
On that bizarre note, Kivi left, and Eliana took this opportunity to get
herself out of the booster seat before Freya could stop her. “I don’t need
rest, I’m fine.” She demanded that Freya give her some space, so she could
move about the cabin upon her own agency. As she passed Landis, she patted
Diamond Zek like she was a loyal dog. “Thanks for the assist, cuz.” They
weren’t really cousins, but seeing as they were both descended from the
original Composite Universe astral teleporter—a man by the name of Nur—they
were technically related, albeit across two timelines.
As they were discussing the possibilities, and their options, as a group
later, Freya noticed that Kivi insisted on holding Diamond Zek in her lap,
which was weird. That was no longer necessary, as they should have all been
fully capable of communicating with Zek through a permanent psychic
connection.
Andraste interrupted her thought process as she was questioning Kivi’s very
existence. “What do you think? Do we prepare for war?”
“I’m sorry?” Freya hadn’t really been paying attention.
“As per usual,” Andraste started over, “Khuweka, Limerick, and Carbrey are
ready to fight. They’ve all done it before. Landis and I disagree, as does
Zek. Kivi is abstaining from voting.”
“She is, is she?” Freya questioned, still suspicious of the ninth
crewmember. “I mean...okay. Wait, am I the tie-breaker?” She started
checking people off.
“No,” Andraste said, “there are eight voters. Both you and Eliana have yet
to respond.”
Freya couldn’t help but continue to leer at Kivi, who seemed unsurprised by
this. She broke herself out of the trance so she could address the crowd. “I
think we’re all on our way to commit time genocide.” She stood up from the
table. “Having scruples about a hypothetical space battle with an invisible
enemy is a bit like washing down your entire large pizza with a diet cola.
We may be well-intentioned, but we are still extremists. Everybody needs to
find a way to embrace their dark side, and get on board, because it’s too
late to get off.” She walked down the table, and placed her hand on Diamond
Zek, but looked into Kivi’s eyes. “We need to talk.” All three of them
teleported to the other side of the ship.
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