Leona and Zacarias exchange a look. This is not what they expected to
happen, but they didn’t really have any expectations in the first place.
They didn’t have time, because neither of them knew that the first possible
address on the dialer would work. Come to think of it, though, it makes a
little bit of sense. If this person is in charge of the Nexus network, then
it’s only natural that reaching them means pressing zero. After all, in
Leona’s universe, that’s how you contact the switchboard operator.
“I can see that you’re confused,” Senona says. “That’s okay. If you have
never experienced space travel, it can be a bit of a trip.”
“Wait,” Leona stops, “space travel? Are we still in salmonverse?”
Senona tilts their head, the confused one now. “No, I was just trying to
simplify things. You’re cognizant of other universes?”
“I’ve been to several,” Leona answers like it ain’t no thang.
They’re moderately impressed. Zacarias, on the other hand, is quite
impressed, and still confused. “You can grant any wish?”
“Yes, two of them. But don’t worry, you don’t have to agree upon them. You
can choose two for the both of you, or one each. It’s up to you.”
“Anything?” Zacarias presses.
“Anything within my power,” Senona clarifies.
“How do we know what is in your power?” Leona asks.
They laugh. “Why don’t you ask me what you want, and I’ll tell you whether I
can do it. Don’t worry, it can take as long as it takes. I’m not a genie,
I’m not going to try to trick you into wording it the wrong way. We’ll work
together to figure it out.”
Leona looks to Zacarias to start. “We don’t know each other well, so we’ll
ask for separate things. You can go first.”
“I would like to end all war and wanting in the world,” he decides
confidently.
Senona smiles. “As would I. Unfortunately, that is not within my power. This
is more of a single act thing. I could probably lift your civilization up,
but it would require too much time, and though I am immortal, I have other
interests.”
Zacarias looks away to think about it. He feels like the steward of his
whole planet. “Hold on, if I tell others—”
“One wish per traveler per Nexus,” Senona interrupts. “If you want another
one, you will have to come to me from elsewhere.”
Zacarias nods. He was asking for clarity, not to be greedy with a loophole.
He clearly wants to help people, and has no plans to ask for a zillion
dollars in space cash.
“We can come back to it if you want a few days to consider your options.”
Senona steps over to the dialing terminal. “In the meantime, if you’re
hungry or thirsty, we can summon literally anything. I love a certain
sandwich from Adamsverse.
“I’m ready,” Leona announces. She’s been thinking about her own options the
entire time. There are so many things she could ask for. She could transport
her and her friends to the main sequence. She could undo any mistake from
the future, or the past. She could remove the powers that be and
Superintendent from the equation. She doesn’t know if Senona could wield any
control over such things, but all of them potentially leave her husband with
his midan curse. Had they come here before the timonite, or in a timeline
where it simply never happened, it wouldn’t be a problem. Then again, the
only reason she went to Antarctica was to help him, and the butterfly wings
that carried her led to this moment with Coronel Zacarias. Had they shown up
under different circumstances, would he have come to the conclusion that
they could try to contact this operator? This is a boon for them. Now that
they know this place exists, when they get to another Nexus, they could ask
for more things. Or perhaps that’s unethical. Is that really what this place
is for? Or does Senona want to teach the a lesson of some kind? What does
their title, Intentioner even really mean?
Senona smirks. “I can see that you’re struggling. It’s okay if you changed
your mind about what you were gonna ask. This really is not a trick. My
associates have their own lives and responsibilities, leaving me with
nothing to do, so I decided to stay on Origin, and help people. The address
you dialed is too poetic to not go somewhere special. Any rando planet would
be anticlimactic. Still, not many think to try.”
“Do all possible addresses go somewhere?”
Senona narrows their eyes. “That’s a hard question to answer. As you know
now, if you didn’t know before, they are technically capable of interversal travel, but
they’re not really designed that way. They’re meant for local brane travel.
If you have already experienced interversal travel yourself, then you
probably already know that each universe has its own spacetime. So is every
single possible permutation used up? Yes, at some point in time, because the
bulk is the true definition of eternity. We will one day run out of numbers,
but I haven’t even seen that happen in my personal timeline, so I couldn’t
tell you what that day looks like. The fact is that most universes will
never even hear of the Nexus network.”
“I’ve been to a reality where they built their own Nexa. How does one get on
the network if one didn’t create it oneself? How do they have an address of
their own?”
Senona nods. “If you build your own to satisfactory specifications, a new
address will automatically be assigned to it. Most of the time, when your
Nexus doesn’t work, it’s because one or more of these specifications have
been corrupted, be it self-made, or one of ours. We did it that way so that
people can’t modify them into weapons, or something else that we did not
intend. To be the fairest, it’s an all or nothing deal, so even if the
corruption was accidental or unintentional, it needs to be fixed before
it’ll work again.”
“I wish for a detailed manual of these specifications, written in my native
language,” Coronel Zacarias declares, jumping back in. “Yeah, that makes
sense, right? If we can always fix it ourselves, we can use it as it should
be used.”
“Is that your final answer?” Senona asks.
Zacarias thinks on it a little more. “Yes.”
Senona presses a button on the terminal, and releases a small device. “The
manual is now accessible on your primary Nexus computer, but you will need
this to copy it.” They prepare to hand it off, but wait. “You must recognize
that this does not entitle you to travel to any particular place. You are
still limited to your local network.”
“Understood.” Zacarias smiles proudly.
“And you?” they ask Leona. “Are you ready? No pressure, I literally don’t
age.”
She takes in a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. “My husband, Mateo
Matic, is cursed to banish any object he touches with his hands to an
unknown location. I wish for him to be able to control when he does that,
and when he doesn’t, and also to control where he sends things.”
Senona looks like they’re debating the request in their head. “Let me make a
call.”
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