Due to having been living on another planet for the last three years, and
not paying any attention to Leona’s special time watch, the group didn’t
know how close to midnight central they were when they went back to the main
sequence. Before the AOC was able to scan the surface for the location of
the Nexus inside a crater, it was already three years later. There was no
sign of Anatol, so hopefully that meant he was on their pattern, and not
that he was already in the Gatewood Collective. This was the most likely
reason, as Nerakali and Jupiter had to deliberately program the primary
Cassidy cuff to keep them from being bound to the Bearimy-Matic pattern. It
wasn’t set that way automatically, so he would have needed time to figure it
out.
They found what they were looking for, and between the two of them, Leona
and Angela were able to get their ship hooked up to the Nexus. There was no
space next to the Gatewood Nexus, so they had to program their exit to
appear in the middle of interplanetary space. Kestral and Ishida knew what
the AOC was, so after confirming the crew’s identities, they let them dock
at the nearest airlock. They recommended the Nexus technician to place
anyone else who came through in a hock that was fitted with temporal
dampeners. It wasn’t necessarily going to be Anatol, but it probably was, so
it was best to be prepared. Team Keshida was busy with something, so the
debrief would have to wait until later. Until then, the crew of the AOC
decided to take a rest in a family-owned lounge in the main centrifugal
cylinder. It was set up like a bar, but this was a dry cylinder. The owner
was massaging a glass, and watching them from across the room. Mateo went
over to see if he needed anything.
“I know who you are,” the owner said.
“I can’t tell if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.”
“You saved us.”
“It was a team effort.” That wasn’t modesty, it really was mostly other
people’s doing.
“I got somethin’ for ya...if you want it.” He reached under the bar, and
Mateo could hear the beeping of a safe. He pulled out a bottle of bourbon,
and set it down.
“Heh. That was never my drink, and I don’t drink anymore. Thanks, though.
Better put that away.”
“I don’t drink either. I keep it for preferred customers.”
A young boy came in from the back room. “Dad?”
The owner looked back. “Yes, son?”
“A ship came in. I saw it outside. Do you know who it is?”
He smirked and looked back at Mateo. “He loves ships. Wants to grow up to be
a captain.”
“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that,” Mateo said.
The boy regarded him for a moment, then widened his eyes. He furiously
started typing onto his handheld device. “You’re Mateo Matic.”
“I’m one of them, yes,” Mateo confirmed, knowing there was some other Mateo
running around out there, somewhere.
The boy turned his head down abashedly. “Wait, it was you, in the ship.”
“Yeah,” Mateo said. “My crew and I are here to take a rest.” He gestured
towards his friends, still sitting in the corner.
“Whoa,” the boy said, staring over at them.
“What’s your name?”
“Halan,” the boy answered. “Halan Yenant.”
“Well, Captain Yenant. I’ll have Crewmember Walton give you a tour of our
ship, if you want.” Mateo moved his eyes back up to the father. “That okay?”
The father nodded. “Of course. Just go tell your mother first.”
“Thanks!”
While Halan went back to the back, Mateo went over to make sure Angela was
cool with this. She was the best candidate, since next to Leona, she was the
most knowledgeable about the ship, and also had experience counseling
people. She was more than happy to do it, so once he came back, they joined
hands, and left. Mateo started thinking about this interaction. He was no
starship captain himself, but he was technically a member of a crew, which
was just insane. He was a ridesource driver back before all this time travel
began, no hope of going into space. It didn’t even cross his mind back then
that such a thing was an option. Now it was just his life. Until
Flindekeldan, he probably spent more time in space than on the surface of a
planet, non-Earth worlds included. It wasn’t bad, or good, just different;
the only problems now were all these people coming after him and his
friends. Without them, he might even be able to enjoy himself again.
Mateo sat back down with the group. A few other people came in, and
recognized them, so they got to talking. As it turned out, there were others
who wanted to fly in spaceships. Apparently, space travel as a real concept
was taught to children living in Ansutah. But this was kind of annoying,
because they knew it would never be possible for them. Not only was there
very little space to explore, but humans weren’t allowed to so much as leave
their continent, or it would place the entire species at risk against the
Maramon, who dominated the world. Now that they were actually living in what
was technically a spaceship, some were frustrated that they still didn’t go
anywhere. After more discussion, Mateo realized that it was no coincidence
that so many such people frequented the same lounge. They deliberately
formed a community for this reason. They wanted to be close to the Nexus,
and the main docking sections. No one traveled to Gatewood, except for those
who knew it was populated by aliens, and those few always came through here.
Other docks on this cylinder, and in the other cylinders, would be out of
use if not for the ferries.
After a while, Angela came back with Halan. They were soon followed by a man
that Mateo recognized. It wasn’t Saxon, though, and it definitely wasn’t
Julius. His name was Omega Parker, and he was a clone of Saxon’s, who chose
to become independent, and ignore his duties. He was now evidently working
closely with Team Keshida, and everyone in this lounge knew who he was. They
didn’t seem to hate him, but they weren’t in love with him either. He took
off sunglasses that didn’t make him look as cool as he probably thought.
“I’m glad that most of you are here,” he said with a grin. “I have a
proposal for—what the hell are you people doing here?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Mateo said coolly. “What’s your proposal, I’d like
to here it.”
Omega was nervous.
“Go on, Omega,” Mr. Yenant echoed.
He decided to continue. “My associate came up with an idea. I thought we
should move forward with it, but they have chosen not to. I’ve been trying
to convince them for a week, but they’re occupying themselves with other
projects, and I’ve determined it’s useless to keep trying. Still, I think
it’s a good idea, and if you want to do it for yourselves, I doubt they’ll
do anything to stop you.”
“What is it?” someone in the crowd asked.
“They call it Project Extremus. The idea is to send a ship full of people to
the other side of the galaxy. You’ve been looking for an excuse to get in a
ship, and this is that. You tell ‘em you want a new home, I don’t think the
bosses will say no to it.”
“How long will it take to get there?” someone in the crowd asked.
“About two hundred years,” Omega answered, “with this technology.” He held
up a virtual storage device. A woman stepped forward with the air of
authority. She reached for the device, but Omega pulled it away. He lowered
his voice to speak directly to her, but everyone else could still hear. “I
need verbal confirmation that you’ll fight against any sort of punishment
that Keshida tries to dole out for me for giving you this.”
“I promise to defend you,” the woman said after snatching away the device.
“As I have always done.” Strangely, she handed it right to Halan, the only
kid in the room. “You know what to do.” As the boy was running off, she
turned back to Omega. “Thank you. You can go now.”
Omega nodded. “Yeah.” He left.
Now the leader stepped back to address the crowd. “We’ll convene a full
roster meeting in three days, after we’ve had time to look over the data,
and discuss the proposal formally. Everyone here think that’s a good idea?”
The crowd nodded and agreed.
“All right,” Mr. Yenant said to break the silence. “Drinks on the house,” he
joked.
“Mateo Matic to the throne room, please,” came Ishida’s voice on the
intercom. “Mateo and friends to the throne room.”
They all walked down to where Team Keshida operated. The two of them were
waiting in front of the strategy table. An android was next to them, holding
Anatol Klugman in custody. He had a muzzle over his face, like some kind of
cannibal.
“Why did you come here with him?” Captain McBride asked.
“Gatewood was the only destination from the Nexus where we came from,” Leona
explained.
Kestral started shaking her head mildly. “Someone needs to figure out how to
make those more programmable. Can you imagine buying a phone that only calls
one number?”
“I think that’s the point,” Leona continued. “We didn’t buy the Nexa.
They’re gifts, and we can only use them however we get them.”
Lieutenant Caldwell sighed. “We don’t want him in our star system. We don’t
want him within ten light years of our people.”
“We don’t want him here either,” Leona agreed. “Now that he’s arrived, we
can all leave.”
“You have two options,” the Captain said. “You can step through the Nexus,
and go to whatever other Nexus you want, or you can take your ship there. We
don’t care which. You just have to be out within the half hour.”
“If we connect the ship to the Nexus from the outside—” Leona tried to
begin.
“We won’t let you butcher our machine,” Ishida said dismissively. “You have
your two options.”
“We need our ship,” Leona said to the group. “If we use the reframe engine,
it will only take us three days.”
Anatol muffled something that no one could understand.
Kestral made eye contact with the android guard. She closed her eyes, and
nodded once, prompting the guard to removed the mouthpiece from Anatol’s
muzzle.
“Thank you,” Anatol said. “What I said was that I’m not taking off your
cuffs. I’m still wearing the primary, and nothing can be done about that.”
“We could have his arm surgically removed,” Kestral suggested.
“Don’t worry about it, but thanks for the offer.” Leona took a moment to
think through a plan. “We’ll all take the reframe engine back to Sol. I’ll
program the AOC to land on an icy planetesimal that has not yet been
colonized for Project Oort Shield. It will be waiting for us...” She
stopped. “Can we at least suppress Jeremy’s pattern, so we’ll return in
2257?”
“No,” Anatol replied simply.
She didn’t want to fight in front of company. “In that case, the AOC will be
waiting for us in 2275, at which point we can teleport to Earth, and deal
with whatever is going on here. Keshida, if you could give us access to Oort
Shield plans, it will help me choose a celestial body that won’t come online
sometime in the next nineteen years.”
“We have access to that schedule,” Ishida confirmed. “We’ll give you an
extra half hour to look them over before you have to leave.”
Kestral gave her a look, which Ishida could see, but she was unfazed by it.
Mateo gave Leona his own look, hoping the magical psychic message came
across correctly. She appeared to understand when she shook her head
slightly to indicate that no, they would not be telling Team Keshida about
what Omega told the residents at the lounge. Perhaps if they weren’t being
kicked out so quickly, they would have considered being honest with Keshida.
“Very well,” Kestral said. “While you’re finding those plans, I’ll help the
android escort Mr. Klugman to the AOC. I know you don’t have a holding
cell—”
“I know what to do with him,” Leona promised. “Thank you for hosting us, if
only briefly.”
Kestral bowed her head a little.
They executed the plan. Leona found a pretty random icy rock orbiting the
Earth’s solar system near interstellar space. An outpost wasn’t destined to
be built there for another hundred and fifty years, which would give them
plenty of time to get out of there, and plan their next move. Something had
to be done about Anatol, and it had to be done before he gained some kind of
advantage over this stalemate. Without the Cassidy cuffs themselves, only so
much could be done to suppress a choosing one’s time powers. He would break
free at some point, and become another antagonist for the team to defeat.
For now, they locked him in grave chamber four.
As soon as they entered reframe time, they were suddenly struck by the next
midnight central, which instantly jumped them all to the year 2275. The AOC
had landed long ago, and was waiting for them at the destination. They
expected to just be sitting on the surface of IOO-TH-2-44-256-83, completely
alone, but they appeared to be inside a hangar.
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