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The attack is happening today. Parallel!Ramses, and his layers of
bureaucracy, can no longer hold off the bloodthirsty military force.
Fortunately, it was not a total waste of time. The fleet heading towards the
Third Rail is much smaller than they originally wanted. There are a lot of
people in favor of this act of aggression, but so many more that are not.
The general public, for instance, which has no use for the weapons that
Aldona and Alyssa stole, is in complete opposition to it. Still, it can’t be
stopped. All they can do is hope that Kyra Torosia is indeed capable of
transitioning the entire planet to the Fourth Quadrant. It’s an insane
proposition, but then again, the Reconvergence itself is an even harder pill
to swallow.
She’s all ready to go. She needs to be at a place of immense power in order
to make the transition smoothly, and The Great Pyramid of Giza qualifies. It
may not hold the same significance as it does in the main sequence, but it
still focuses temporal energy. Bulk travel is not so different from regular
space travel. That’s how Kyra has to do it. She’s going to pull the world
out of the universe for a few seconds, and then put it right back, but
instead of returning it to where it is, she’ll just choose a different
parallel reality. She’ll even be able to bring all satellites along with
them, including the moon, Luna. The rest of the planets will be staying
where they are.
“What about an interplanetary ship?” Leona asks at the eleventh hour. How
could she have forgotten about the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Marie, Angela,
Angela’s doctor, and the kids are still on their way. They’re slated to
return tomorrow. Kyra has to bring them in at the same time.
“Well, how far away are they right now?”
Leona looks at her watch, but it’s not like she can pinpoint the arrival to
the minute. While maximum reframe speeds places a vessel at 99.9999% the
speed of light, there are still minor fluctuations that produce a margin of
error of several hours. “About 170 AU at the moment. They won’t be here any
earlier than tomorrow.”
Kyra shakes her head. “Can’t do it. If I knew exactly where it was, I could
bring it through with us, but the location of something that small will be
impossible for me to just randomly intuit, even though that’s not too far
away. Now, you want another planet that’s 170 light years away, we can talk.
But a tiny little ship? I’m sorry.”
“We have to wait then,” Leona says even though she knows that’s not
possible.
Kyra shakes her head again, and frowns at her.
“No, we can’t lose them. Not after all this. We’ve been through so much to
save Marie’s life, and protect Cedar.” That is not an acceptable sacrifice.
The AOC is not likely in too much danger of being detected by the attack
drones, but Angela and Marie still can’t be left behind. They’ll probably
have to abandon ship. That’s okay, they’ll revert to an older copy.
“Wait, Cedar is with them?” Kyra questions.
“Yeah, you didn’t know that?”
“We were specifically not told his location,” she explains. “Leona, he’s the
Sixth Key, which is the most important one. If one of the other keys
couldn’t do it, only the reality they were responsible for would be lost,
but without Cedar, they’ll all be lost. Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?”
“You just said you were specifically not told where he was,” Leona aruges.
“Okay.” Kyra thinks. “Can’t you just go get them? Use your little device
thingy. Jump to another reality, then jump back here, but on that ship.”
“I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t have a lot of experience with this
thing, and there are limitations to consider.” She holds up her transition
device, which Mateo thinks should be called the Helm of Reality.
“Yeah, I know,” Kyra acknowledges, “but...it has to be done. Like I said, we
need him. So if you can only save one—”
“That’s not the problem. “The ship is moving at near light speed. That’s
always tricky for time travel, teleportation, and the like. I can transition
everyone on the ship all at once, but I have to hit the bullseye first.”
Kyra nods. “Please try. They could be here any minute.”
“Bridget!” Leona calls out.
Bridget Morton and her father were in another chamber of the pyramid,
enjoying the rare gift they’ve been given. They come back in now. “Is
everything okay?”
“You have the communicator?” Leona asks.
“Right here.” Bridget holds it up.
“Stay with Kyra, and keep in touch with the others. I have something else to
do.”
“Understood,” Senator Morton replies. “We’ll protect her as if she were our
own Key.” He’s taking his responsibilities quite seriously. The way he
figures it, if this works, he’ll be revered as a hero forever. A few dozen
people are involved in saving the lives of quadrillions of people. That’s
gotta amount to multiple historical text books on each member alone, if not
more.
Leona takes the tip off of the dial, and places it on spoke pointing to the
Third Rail. Then she turns it to the main sequence to find her husband
trying to teach Labhrás how to play RPS-101 Plus.
“Lee-Lee.”
She takes him into a warm embrace, and plants a kiss on his lips. “I love
you.”
“Were I you,” he replies.
“No. Say the real words.”
“I love you,” he amends.
“See you on the other side.” She gives him another peck, then makes her jump
back to the Third Rail, but this time aiming for a spaceship traveling at
supersublightspeed. She’s no longer protected by Ramses’ transhumanistic
upgrades. If she misses, she’ll be in the middle of the black, and will
probably pass out and die before she even has the chance to jump to safety.
Leona opens her eyes. She is floating in the black. She can’t even see any
stars. She doesn’t feel like she’s dying, though. One thing about Alyssa’s
illusion powers is that it has numerous applications. She doesn’t have to
make herself look like another person, or like there’s a tiger in the room.
Light is light, and light illuminates. She begins to glow like a
bioluminescent organism, increasing brightness until she can see something
other than herself. It’s the metal of a wall. This room alone is too big for
this to be the AOC, though. She’s jumped to the wrong place, but at least
she’s not dead.
The sound of a door opening comes from behind her, but she’s finding it
difficult to turn around to see who’s opened it in zero gravity. The light
from the hallway shines through first, and when she does get turned, all she
sees is a silhouette. That silhouette walks towards her, ominous and quiet.
“How do you keep showing up here?”
“Who is that?” Leona asks. The voice sounds familiar to her.
“Lights to twenty-four percent. Gravity to Earth gradual.” The lights turn
on, revealing it to be Danica Matic’s face. Leona is hovering over the pool,
which has been drained, possibly in an attempt to prevent more people from
suddenly appearing in the Constant, as if that were the cause. She walks
along the edge of the empty pool, towards the ladder, while Leona heads for
it from below. “How did you make yourself glow?”
“Do you really not know that?” Leona asks her.
“I really don’t.”
“I’m stealing light from other sources, possibly the bulb in the hallway.”
“The hallway lights don’t use bulbs.”
Leona climbs up the ladder. “Yeah, like that’s the issue right now.” She
takes a breath. “Where are my friends?”
“The master sitting room, as per usual.”
“Are they safe, healthy, and happy?”
“They’re safe and healthy.”
“Are you gonna let me see them, or are you gonna shove me into a stasis
pod?”
“No more stasis pods. The Reconvergence will be here in another year.”
“You got that wrong,” Leona contends. “It’s in a matter of days.”
“It’s not,” Danica claims. “It’s the Reality Wars that are starting. The
Parallel is preparing for the first battle. We’re on our way back to protect
our asset.”
“You mean the Omega Gyroscope. That’s all you care about?” Leona asks.
Danica sighs. “I’ve learned a lot since we last saw each other. I
was...wrong in how I handled this whole situation. Well, I shouldn’t use
that word. I’ll just say that I made some mistakes. Emphasis on the some
part.”
Leona nods. “Well, you seem to be slightly misinformed in this regard as
well. The Parallel is not preparing for the attack. They’re almost here.
They’re coming today.”
Danica narrows her eyes. “That’s not supposed to happen. My seer was quite
specific about the date.”
“Your seer’s information is outdated.”
“Son of a mother—!” Danica takes Leona by the arms, and teleports them both
to the sitting room. The whole gang’s here, including Angela, Marie, and the
kids.
“Leona!” Marie exclaims.
“Help me with these!” Danica demands. She starts to pull the books off the
shelves, and set them on the tables.
Leona starts to remove some as well.
“We don’t understand what happened,” Angela says to Leona. “Danica found us
right after Mateo and Ramses dropped off Cedar. I’ve been awake this whole
time. I’ve peed out all the immortality waters. I...” She looks back at her
alternate self. “I don’t know why Marie is still alive.”
“I don’t either.” Leona continues to remove the books, and replace them
backwards so they can open the secret room behind the bookcase. “But if
she’s still alive, then there’s still time. I had Alyssa procure the rest of
the waters you need.”
Danica, still swapping books, gives Leona an odd look. What does she know
about this situation? They can’t talk about it right now. The books are in
place. Danica activates the lamp, but it doesn’t do anything. “What’s wrong
with this?”
Leona scans the books to make sure they’re all facing backwards.
“Cedar,” Danica begins, “when did you take that book off the shelf?”
“A few minutes ago,” he answers.
She kind of scoffs, but isn’t too upset. She goes over to retrieve it. “The
case doesn’t have to be full, but if you’ve removed one too recently, it
thinks it should be part of the code.” She puts the book in place, and
activates the lamp again. Now the shelves swivel, and carry Leona and Danica
into the other room. She does something in the dark, and swivels the
bookcase halfway back, so people can walk freely back and forth, and also
turns on the light. She walks over to the opposite corner, and slides and
taps a special code on the wall, which looks totally unremarkable. This
engages all sorts of controls that appear out of the walls, floor, and
ceiling. This looks like the bridge of a spaceship now. That’s probably what
it is. “How long before the Parallelers get here exactly?” she asks as she
begins to work on her computer.
“I don’t know. Inter-reality communication is difficult. Someone else is
using the one for the Third Rail, so I can’t call and ask the other Ramses
for another update.”
Danica keeps working. “Well, I was going to return to Danica Lake, but I
don’t have time to aim. We just have to get there, don’t we?” After a few
seconds, she stops, and looks directly at Leona. “Don’t we?” she repeats.
“Uh, yeah. If we don’t get Cedar Duvall back to Earth, everyone in five
realities is going to die. The time for secrecy is over. Everyone knows
about time powers now.”
“Everyone?” Danica asks, going back to the computer.
“Pretty much. Some of the other islands in the Fourth Quadrant may still be
in the dark, but once they see a second Earth in the night sky, it’s going
to become impossible to deny that people like us exist.”
Danica sighs again. “Everyone find a seat, and brace. It’s about to get
rough.”
As everyone is getting strapped in, she asks Leona for help confirming the
calculations. Leona peers at them. “What color is the Constant, from the
outside?”
“I mean...it’s black. The hull is black metallic alloy-polycarbonate
composite. Tamerlane knows more about it than I do. Why?”
“A Dark Citadel will fall from the heavens, and make its mark in the Center
of World Power. The Watchers who come out of it will change the world
forever, and the people shall know the Life of God,” Leona recites. “Dalton
was right.”
“Oh, that asshole?” Danica triple checks her work, then sits down herself.
“I hope you don’t pay him too much mind. He loves the attention. Sit down
Leona.”
“I was right too. We’re going to Kansas.”
“Sit down, Leona.” Danica reiterates.
“I need a radio.”
Danica reaches over, and pulls a small device out of its dock. “Safety
first.”
“Okay, fine.” She sits down next to Danica, and accepts the communicator.
Danica wasn’t lying. Even though the jump only last a few seconds, it feels
like a roller coaster, and their bodies are still reeling from the ordeal
minutes afterwards. Leona has trouble setting the frequency, her vision
blurry, and her head in a daze. She manages to find it, though, and make the
call. “Kyra, come in. Are you there, Kyra? It’s Leona.”
“Go ahead,” Kyra responds.
“Everyone’s back on Earth. Go. Go now.”
“Transitioning now.”
Danica pulls a view of space on the screen. Dozens of drones have appeared
next to Jupiter, with more likely off screen. “I hope this doesn’t take too
long. They’re here.”
The room fills with technicolors.
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