The team dropped Miapaktem and Padera off in the Croatian arcology, right
where the scientists had been for the first transition window. Their job
done, they went back to The Imzadi, and hung out for the rest of the day. A
transition alarm woke them all up from having been sleeping in the next day.
They were a little out of sorts, but well-rested. The window was opening up
in Lebanon, Kansas in two minutes, and they were still in Croatia, so the
new AI teleported them there, evidently underground.
A woman appeared on the bottom level. She looked around, curious but not
scared. “Does anyone need any help?” she asked.
“Us?” Leona questioned as she was sliding down the steps. “I believe you are
here so that we may help you.”
“I think I’m all right,” the woman said. “Helping people is generally my
job.”
“As it is ours. My name is Jeremy Bearimy. These are my friends, Missus
Leona and Mateo Matic, Angela Walton, and two people you can’t see named
Kallias Bran, and Aeolia Sarai.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Jodie Konsten, substitute Savior of Earth.” She
smiled proudly.
“Substitute?” Leona asked. “You step in when Xearea needs a break.”
“Indeed,” Jodie confirmed. “It is a tough job, and mine is easy. She gets
the occasional vacation, and I get the occasional un-vacation. The rest of
the time, I wait in The Constant.”
“Konsten in the Constant,” Angela noted.
“The powers that be do like their puns,” Jodie acknowledged. “If you don’t
have a job for me, though...”
“Why weren’t you called up in 2109?” Leona asked, though more to herself.
“That’s when Xearea went out of commission, because she was trapped on
Tribulation Island. If you existed, you should have been able to fill in for
her the whole time.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jodie apologized.
“It’s Arcadia,” Mateo began to explain. “She trapped a bunch of people on
another planet. Younger versions of the two of us are there right now.” He
pointed to himself and his wife. “We were later assigned to fill in for her
ourselves. I was responsible for 2121, 2122, and 2123. She had 2118, 2119,
and 2120.”
Leona stepped forward. “That’s right. She must have planned that all along,
and arranged for Jodie here to not be called to action.”
Jodie was upset. “That is my entire purpose in this world. Had I know that
there was a gap in service, I would have found a way to close it.”
“It’s okay,” Mateo assured her. “We took care of it.”
“But not forever,” Leona reminded him. “Lincoln is doing it right now. “He
got last year, this year, and next year. After that, Arcadia runs out of
people. I talked to her about it once, she said that all the years until
2159 are shit out of luck.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Jodie said, determined.
“This must be why we’re here,” Jeremy figured. “Arcadia managed to keep
Jodie in the Constant so she couldn’t do what she does, but we’re a
loophole. She doesn’t know this team exists, or I mean, she doesn’t know
what we do.”
Mateo nodded. “We’ll get you back to your reality, so that you may take the
baton from Lincoln.”
“What do you mean?” Jodie asked. “Are we in a different reality?”
“That’s how we got you out,” Leona told her, “or rather, how our boss did.
You won’t be needed for another year and a half, though. I’m not sure why
you’re here now.”
“We think we might have an idea.” Bran looked forlorn, as did Aeolia next to
him.
“What do you know?”
“I don’t know anything,” Jodie said. “You’re the one who said I’m too early.
“No, I wasn’t talking to you,” Leona tried to explain.
“Not me, what?”
“It’s too confusing,” Mateo said. “Give her a cuff, so she can see Bran and
Aeolia.”
“Who are Bran and Aeolia?” Jodie asked. She couldn’t even remember Jeremy
mentioning them earlier.
Angela took a cuff out of the drawer, and handed it to Jodie. “If you put
this on, you’ll start to share their patterns and temporal conditions.
I’m a human, so you’ll get nothing from me, and we recently parted ways with
our resident choosing one. We will also be able to use your abilities,
though I’m not sure what that looks like when it comes to the Savior. This
has to be your choice, mind you, but you can absolutely take it off whenever
you want.”
“Okay,” Jodie said with no more thought. She put on the cuff. “Oh! Kallias
and Aeolia! I know who you’re talking about. Hey, guys.”
“Hey,” Aeolia said with a laugh, but the smile faded from her face quite
quickly.
“Why did we have to transition Jodie this year?” Leona asked her. “What do
you know of the future?”
Aeolia sighed sadly. “The Constant. It’s been, well...constant, for billions
of years. It was designed to last forever, but everything has a weakness. I
couldn’t tell you what that weakness is, because I’m not the one who
destroyed it. All I know is that it was, or rather, will be. It happens
sometimes next year. I would imagine Nerakali is aware of this as well, and
has extracted Jodie early, to both save her life, and prepare her to take a
more active role in her job.”
“What?” Mateo had been pretty good for the last few days. He came back from
his multiversal ordeal a changed man. He was no longer so agitated and
anxious, but calm and forgiving. The bliss wore off over time, or at least
lessened in intensity, but his sense of completeness remained. The constant
carefree attitude would have gotten on people’s nerves, so this was a good
balance. Now, all of it was—hopefully only temporarily—gone. He was back to
being pissed off and overwhelmingly worried. Family was clearly his trigger.
“What does that mean for Danica?”
“We don’t know,” Bran said. “We saw the aftermath in 2151, and eavesdropped
on a few people who had some more details, but no one seems to know where
The Concierge went.”
“Well, we have to stop it.” Mateo was growing frantic. “What did it look
like?” Was it an explosion? Implosion? Tell me everything.”
“It was...” Aeolia hesitated.
“Spit it out,” Mateo demanded.
“Mateo, relax. It’s not happening today, give them time.”
“It was pretty bare,” Aeolia went on. There was some debris; pieces of the
walls, it looked like. The rest was gone, and what little remained was,
like, pulled toward the center.”
“A portal,” Leona guessed. “A portal that sucks things in, rather than
allowing you to walk through it.”
“Is this a person?” Mateo wasn’t feeling any better. “Who do we know that
can do that?”
“I don’t know of anyone specifically,” Leona said. “We’ve never seen it
before, it’s just...possible. It would have to be a time power, or a time
device, because human technology doesn’t do that. From what they describe,
there’s too little left behind to be anything but temporal. I suppose the
portal itself wouldn’t have to be capable of it. Maybe they simply opened
the portal to a location of intense gravity, like a black hole, or a neutron
star.”
Mateo sort of stepped away from the group, and spoke into his cuff.
“Nerakali. You better be listening in realtime, or somehow get to us. I need
you to open a transition window. We need to go to the Constant and stop
whatever this is. Or we at least need to be able to save Danica. We gave you
this job, you owe us.” In response, all of their cuffs beeped. A time
appeared in the corner, counting down. “What is this? What does that mean?
Nerakali, just use your words.” The timer grew to a larger font for
emphasis, but that was it. “Goddammit.”
“It’s counting down to next year, Mateo,” Leona said. “It’s a transition
window. Today is about Jodie. Tomorrow, the Constant. Presumably, there’s
nothing we can do until we’re given that mission.”
“I can think of a whole hell of a lot we can do. First, we can just sneak
Danica out of there, so it doesn’t matter what happens. We can leave a guard
topside, and we can find a psychic, and a seer, and call in every favor we
have coming to us.”
“Nerakali knows more than us,” Leona continued to try to get him to
understand. “Respect and accept that.” She cleared her throat. “Of course,
this doesn’t mean we can’t prepare. I don’t want Jodie involved in this, as
she’s too important. So Jeremy, please escort her to the Kansas City
arcology, and get her set up with a unit, where she can rest, and learn
about this world. I don’t know if you’ve kept up on current events while
down here, Jodie.”
“Not really. It would be nice to familiarize myself with this world.”
“Angela and Bran, we haven’t really asked you to use your powers yet. I’m
going to be making a list of tech that could help us, and I want you to
steal it from the Parallel natives. We don’t have time for diplomacy.
Angela, the way I understand it, you taught a medication class in the
afterlife sim before you became a counselor?”
“I did, yes.”
“Please help my husband get through whatever it is he’s going through. God
knows I’m useless in that respect.”
“What will you do instead?” Mateo asked. He wasn’t upset about her talking
about him like he wasn’t here, because he knew she was right.
“I’m gonna go call in some favors.” Leona lifted her head, and spoke to the
AI. “Computer, please teleport me to the surface. I can transition from
there.”
“Wait, what?” Mateo questioned. “You can?”
It was too late, Leona was gone.
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