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Azura of Ansutah ran towards the crowd that was forming to overwhelm her
ward, Treasure, Treasure’s bodyguard, Quino, and the native historian whose
name she couldn’t recall at the moment. Before she could get close enough to
help, Treasure screamed, and disappeared. She was a natural-born bulk
traveler, who could travel to any nearby parallel universe, and as the only
one here who was able to power the Transit, her disappearance came as a
great loss. Azura looked around in case Treasure came back. Bulk travel
inherently meant time travel, and there was no reason why she couldn’t spend
countless years elsewhere, and still return to this very moment. But she
didn’t, and she might never. Azura and her new makeshift crew might have to
get out of this predicament on their own. Before the bewildered mob found
her too, she ran off, and ran back to her spacetrain.
The man who was quickly becoming her second in command greeted her at the
entrance. “Where are they?” Kaolin questioned.
“They’re gone. She screamed,” Azura answered.
“We thought we heard that.”
“Yeah.” She walked past him, and headed down the car.
“Well, is she coming back?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” she answered.
“How the hell are we gonna get out of here?”
They had power, they just had no way to escape this brane, and travel to
another. This thing was built with the ability to process the bulk energy
required to perform the operation, but it was intentionally stripped of some
vital components, by someone who didn’t want the machine to fall into the
wrong hands. It was not yet clear whether theirs were the right hands, but
they were the only ones here at the moment. Azura reached for the nearest
intercom. “Harbinger crew of the Transit, and founding members of the
Transit Army, we are trapped in this brane. Our power source was forced to
flee a potentially deadly situation without us. We have to move on under the
assumption that she will never return. Her destiny is taking her on a
different vector. But all is not lost. The engineers have been working on a
contingency. They’ll need a little time to complete diagnostics, I believe,
but we will get out of here...eventually. For now, please pilot us off of
this planet. I at least want to get away from the natives. Once we’re in
space, I’ll lead an official briefing for details. Thank you.” She hung up.
“What’s the contingency?” Kaolin asked.
Azura took a breath. “Time,” was all she said.
As explained, the Transit wasn’t designed to need Treasure Hawthorne in
order to work. But without all those missing parts, it was not capable of
accumulating enough energy to make even one trip in any reasonable amount of
time. Fortunately, time was relative, and they had untold amounts of it, as
long as they took precautions. The crew was placed in stasis while the ship
wandered through space. Bulk energy was constantly popping into existence
out of nowhere. This was, in fact, what explained the persistent expansion
of the universe. With the right equipment, the energy released during these
infinitesimally small events could be harnessed and stored.
After thousands of years of waiting, which only felt like seconds to
everyone who was asleep, they finally had enough to make one jump. They had
to make it count. Unfortunately, they had already exhausted their two best
prospects for some real sustainable power. She was going to have to resort
to the third. She got back on the horn to make another announcement. Most of
the crew was in the same car as her already. “As you’ve already learned, I
am a hybrid, made of human DNA, as well as Maramon. It explains why my skin
is so pale, but real Maramon aren’t just pale, they’re white. They’re
very white. The majority of my traits from that side of the
experiment are internal, such as my physical resilience, and virtual
immortality. The only Maramon I’ve personally met already knew what I was,
for they were part of the program that genetically engineered me and my
brothers and sisters. So I’m not sure whether a regular Maramon would
recognize what I am, nor what that would mean for their impression of me.
They may treat me as one of their own, or an abomination, or anything in
between.
“My creators provided me with certain data regarding my world’s history, as
well as their adventures throughout the bulkverse, but I don’t have the
coordinates for every single brane they’ve ever recorded. I really only have
one left, and it’s populated by Maramon. Their mission was to log new
worlds, and move on, so the best one could be chosen for future settlement,
but they decided to just take it for themselves. This is a last ditch
resort. Our one fusion reactor that we stole has helped, but it is not
enough. The time we spent on stasis will help us at least escape this
universe, but we won’t be able to go anywhere else. Providence might not
help us, and they may take the Transit for themselves. Unfortunately, it’s
our only option. Anyone who wants to take their chances where we already are
may leave in one of the pump shuttles that we discovered. For those of you
who don’t know, they run on bulk energy too. It’s not enough to pierce the
membrane, but it can jump to just about anywhere in the universe
near-instantaneously. We’ll be crossing over to Providenciaverse soon, so if
you’re leaving, let me know now.”
No one left, so Azura ordered that they use the last of their main power
reserves to cycle up to lightspeed and pierce the membrane. The way the
Transit was designed, it should be able to refuel while in the outer bulk by
absorbing bulk energy through specialized ramscoops. Unfortunately, most of
these were removed by the man who originally stole the machine. They either
needed to be replaced eventually, or they would keep having to find other
sources of power from the likes of the people they were on the way to see
now. The journey this time took two weeks to reach their destination. To
avoid being detected—at least right away—they entered the brane far from
where Azura predicted the Maramon would have settled the solar system. She
planned on going the rest of the way on one of the pump shuttles. These were
large enough for a passenger load of around 24 people, but that number would
shrink with gear, and other equipment, depending on the mission. The
interior could be reconfigured as needed. She was intending to go on the
away mission herself, but that was not possible. They found themselves
coming through right next to a local ship. It was only about 40,000
kilometers away; more than close enough to be picked up on sensors.
They reached out immediately. “Unidentified operator of the Transit, this is the Providence Mining
Explorer Denojuge, please respond.”
Azura cleared her throat. “PME Denojuge, this is Azura of the First Transit
Army. We’ve come seeking power sources. Our siphon array was removed, so we
require alternatives. Anything you have would be quite helpful. We’re not
here to cause trouble. I was genetically engineered and raised by a secret
sect of Maramon who were originally formed to protect your location from the
general population, and the government. Whether you help us or not, we will
not betray that directive.”
“Relax, half-breed, we’re not worried about being discovered anymore.” Half-breed. They knew who she was. “Prepare to be boarded peaceably.”
“Do we do that?” Kaolin questioned. “Do we accept them?”
“We’re stuck here,” Azura began. “Waiting in stasis for thousands of years
isn’t going to work this time. They know how to find us, and they will find
us eventually if we try to run. Yes, we do this peaceably, like she said.”
They synced flight paths, then the Denojuge connected to the docking car. It
was no surprise that they used compatible technologies, since the
Providentials originally came here through the Crossover, which was designed
by the same team as the Transit. Captain Ouheliydi led a boarding party in,
and down the cars to meet Azura and her people halfway. She nodded at them
respectfully. “We hear great things of the Transit Army. I must say, there
are fewer of you than we imagined.”
“This marks the beginning of it,” Azura explained. “We’ve not yet
recruited.”
“We guessed as much,” Ouheliydi said. “Obviously, you find some way to
repair this thing, or you would not become multiversal legends in your
future.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Azura agreed.
Ouheliydi sized up the first members of the army. “Verteans. The records do
not explicitly state that they were the first, but the implication is that
they were from the Biverse. I suppose it’s half true. Anyway, we have what
you need.” She snapped her fingers at a masked soldier behind her. He handed
Azura a metallic cylinder.
It proved to be heavier than Azura expected. She was stronger than the
average human, but since her outside had to appear fully human in order to
blend in, she couldn’t be as strong as a full Maramon. She had not seen
anyone on that side of her ancestry in a long time, and forgot how much
stronger they were.
“Apologies,” Ouheliydi said. “We forget how much weaker you are.”
“I understand,” Azura said as Kaolin was helping her stand up straight. She
was capable of holding it on her own, but she had him open it for her.
Inside was one of the longest coils in the multiverse. It had to be in order
to taper down from a millimeter to an angstrom. “An atomic lance.”
Ouheliydi smiled. “You’re welcome.”
“We appreciate the sentiment,” Azura replied, “however most of our lances
are functioning within normal parameters. It’s our aether siphon array that
is missing.”
“Yes, well,” Ouheliydi began, “my people are strong, but not that strong. We
have that for you as well, but automators will have to affix it to the front
for us. It’s being couriered from the inner system as we speak.”
Azura narrowed her eyes, and looked down at the lance coil. “How much is
this going to cost us?”
Ouheliydi smiled again. “Three cars.”
“We can’t remove three cars from the Transit,” Azura contended. “We need
them. As you know, this machine is paramount in the war against the
Ochivari.”
“You misunderstand,” Ouheliydi said. “We’re not asking for you to remove
them. We’re asking for you to integrate a team of elites into the three
cars. We’re asking to join the war as your first recruits.”
Azura was surprised by this. Obviously the whole point was to recruit for
the impending war, but she had spent all this time just trying to get the
Transit to work in the first place that she hadn’t been able to devote any
bandwidth to that aspect. Who would she ask to join, how would she know who
might agree to it, and how was she going to find them? She was able to
travel to the last few universes because she had specifically memorized
their locations. She wasn’t even supposed to do this, but every day while
growing up, once she was finished with her studies, she would take it upon
herself to conduct some unauthorized independent research. She could also
get to the other universes that her brothers and sisters were dispatched to,
but only one other beyond that. Probably her first stop once this machine
was fully operational would be to Treasure’s universe, where a woman lived
who could help them. She was not planning to recruit anyone until then. But
if this was the price, could she say no? “I don’t know about this. Yes, I’ll
need an army, but... Hold on, I need to ask, do you know who Thack Natalie
Collins is?”
“No,” Ouheliydi answered.
“She’s a psychic who can witness events throughout the bulk. She could be
listening to this conversation right now. If I’m going to do this; if I’m
going to build this army, I need to be in her good graces, and she may have
her own recruitment plans, which may or may not include you. I honestly
don’t know, but I don’t want to upset her before I even meet her. You
understand.”
Ouheliydi nodded. “No recruitment, no aether siphons. That’s the deal. This
is not a negotiation. Why do you think we have this technology? We chose to
stay in this universe, and let our brethren take the Crossover back on
mission. We’ve never seen the Transit before. We don’t use bulk energy to
power our ships. So why did we build them? For you. We didn’t know that you
would be coming. We didn’t know that it would be you specifically. But we
hoped, and we’ve been preparing for decades. The Ochivari already came here,
and we fought them off, but we suffered losses. The only thing we regret now
is not getting a single Providential out of here during the Ochivari’s
retreat, who could have sought further retaliation for us. We probably want
blood more than you. We’re not letting you go without us, so you have to
decide whether this Thack lady is more important to you than skilled
fighters. I may not know much about what’s out there, but I know that she’s
not the only person who can help you recruit. Statistics don’t allow it. But
there is no one like our elites. No one. They have been training for this
for their whole lives, I don’t know if you know this, but we’re not immortal
here. The proper physics forced our ancestors to give it up. We die of old
age, just like humans. So time is valuable, and we’re not going to waste it
like our ancestors’ ancestors did.”
Azura sighed and looked back at her own crew. None of them appeared to be
against this idea, though to be fair, the only Maramon they had ever
encountered before was herself, and she was only half. The Ochivari were the
true bulkverse enemies, but make no mistake, Maramon could not be trusted
either. That was why she ignored her initial mission, and tried to live her
best life in Universum Originalis. Still, this was an impenetrable
ultimatum. They were at these people’s mercy. But maybe she had one card to
play. Maybe this was a negotiation. “One car.”
“Two.”
Azura nodded with a sigh. “Two.” She reached out for a handshake to seal the
deal. “Welcome to the Transit Army.”
Ouheliydi reached back and shook it as she laughed. “No.
You...welcome to the Transit Army.”
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