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| Generated by Google Gemini Advanced text-to-image AI software, powered by Imagen 3, and by Pixlr AI image editor |
Tinaya and Aristotle are stuck in the past, but they are not in a new
timeline. Their other selves are still in their midst, but they’re unable to
interact with them. It’s like a parallel dimension, but with some bizarre
rules. Fruits and vegetables are available here, as if they straddle the
dimensional border. But people and animals are practically invisible. They
can still detect them under certain conditions, and they’ve pieced the
puzzle together enough to determine that the strongest appearances come
during moments of temporal energy use. When Past!Tinaya passes through a
wall using her mirror powers, Future!Tinaya and everyone else can see her
shadow, as well as that of the wall. When Past!Aristotle trots to another
celestial body in the solar system, the people in the parallel can witness
his disappearance, as well as the surge of power that emanates from the
event.
The two of them are not alone here. Vaska made it through, as did a bunch of
survivors of the settlement explosion seven years ago. Future!Tinaya saved
them with her weird mirror abilities. How exactly that worked, though,
she’ll never know. Her glass skin is gone, having apparently been
transferred all the way into the big showdown with the explosion. It still
happened, just in the main dimension. Now their only concern is finding a
way to get there themselves, but they’ve not had any ideas in the last seven
years. None of the people on the settlement is an expert in a pertinent
field. Not all of them even feel that they should be worried about it at
all.
“This is our home now.” Bartel Ateren was assigned the Verdemus mission in
the capacity of a botanist. His job was not originally meant to require that
he do any actual work on the ship on a regular basis. The people who first
set foot on Extremus were never going to be the ones to land on the
destination planet. In fact, most of the people who lived there would never
see the future world at all. Or so they have always been led to believe.
Tinaya knows better, but she’s not supposed to, and she’s not allowed to
talk about it. Most people are not aware of the truth, yet they continue to
study fields of research that will only be particularly useful on the new
homeworld.
Theoretically, the information that their descendants will need to survive
and thrive can just be pulled from the central archives, which exist as many
copies on multiple servers. Still, it only seemed right that the knowledge
be passed down through teachers instead. Again, the majority of students
will never get any opportunity to use what they learned, but they do it
anyway. Bartel, on the other hand, was not actually a teacher. He was more
like an emergency teacher, there to be available should anything happen to
the regular teacher before they could pass the knowledge on to the next
generation. He was able to move to Verdemus in secret, because he had no
living relatives, nor many friends, and the next generation has successfully
grasped the necessary concepts, meaning his original job is done. He has
since become a reliable leader for the survivors.
“But we’re not really here,” Tinaya argues. “On the other side of the
planet, they built a megablock to house the soldiers that are being deployed
in the Ex Wars. We have no way of getting there, and even if we did, we
probably couldn’t live there, even though there would be plenty of room.
It’s inaccessible from this dimension.”
“I don’t need the megablock,” Bartel reasons. “The huts we’ve built here are
more than enough for us to be happy.”
“What about your children, and your children’s children? You don’t want more
for them? You want them to live their lives with no hope of even contacting
the rest of the galaxy, or the ship? If you’re digging in, then you ought to
do it right.”
“That’s exactly why I wouldn’t want us to try to live in the megablock. I
want them to make their own way, to build a new society from the ground
up...literally. This is what they had in mind for the Extremus mission in
the first place. Well, not exactly this, but you know what I mean. The
self-reliance, and the journey of development. That’s the point. We’re just
doing it here and now, instead of out there, and in the future. And anyway,
who cares which version of Verdemus we’re on? We can’t leave the planet
either way. Sorry, I know Totle’s your friend, but he’s not had any success
with his powers.”
That’s fair, they never expected to be able to leave Verdemus in the first
place. So they’re stuck on a different Verdemus, so what? What’s the
difference, in the end? Well, family; that’s the difference. So maybe this
isn’t that great of an argument. “He deserves to go back to his mother and
Niobe, and I want to see Spirit again. And Belahkay, and even Omega. Ilias,
I could do without, and Eagan is whatever.”
“I can understand that,” Bartel concedes. “But I’m worried that if we
succeed in crossing back over to the main dimension, they actually will find
a way to return us to Extremus. I was never the kind of person who was angry
to be born on a ship that I would never leave, but I didn’t know what I was
missing. This place is paradise. The people still on that hunk of
metal...they should be so lucky.”
Tinaya smiles at him, and nods. “That’s exactly why we have an obligation to
go back; back to the real Verdemus, and then to Extremus. If you feel so
strongly about it, you should try to tell others about it who may feel the
same. I can’t guarantee that the council will give you the chance. They may
decide to shut you up so you don’t ruin their plans. But one thing’s for
sure, if we stay here, trapped in this parallel on this planet, there’s no
hope at all of spreading the message.”
He tries to take a breath, but a yawn comes over instead, and he finds
himself opening and closing his eyes one at a time. “Sorry. Yes. I,
uhh...yeah. You’re right. But that doesn’t change the fact that we have no
idea how to get back.”
“Vaska has a theory about that.”
“Yes, she mentioned that.” The two of them work closely together, studying
the ecosystem to figure out exactly where they are, cosmically speaking, and
how they can touch the plants, but not the people or the artificial
structures. “It had something to do with a particular plant we discovered,
and the other you?”
“She can explain it better,” Tinaya decides. “She’ll be here any minute.”
When the bomb went off, besides the people who she saved, only the mess hall
remained standing, and only in this parallel dimension. It’s not a very cozy
place to live, which is why they’ve built new structures on this side, but
they still use this as a communal area. On its own, it’s a temporal anomaly,
which is why it’s the only place on the whole planet where other-siders are
perfectly visible. When one happens to wander within its walls, which are
invisible to them, they can see them. It doesn’t occur often, though.
“I’m here! I’m here,” Vaska says. “Whoops.” She instinctively avoids running
into Eagan, who just so happens to be in her path. He’s here a lot. Since
they’re in different dimensions, they would simply pass through each other
without feeling a thing, but she’s forgotten that for a second. “I can’t
remember, how many people are with us?”
“There are thirty-one,” Tinaya reminds her. “Twenty-eight survivors, plus
you, me, and Aristotle.”
Vaska nods as she’s inspecting the walls of the mess hall. “I believe that
will work.” She peeks through one of the windows. “That corner is slightly
closer.”
“You said something about the two Tinayas making contact with each other?”
Bartel says. “What does this building have to do with anything?”
Vaska faces Tinaya. “When you told me where you and Aristotle were standing
when he tried to trot you off the planet, and you ended up in the Gatewood
Collective, were you accurate? I mean, were you precise?”
“Yeah,” Tinaya confirms. It was right over there. Or it will be, rather,
later today.” This is the day that they accidentally travel through time.
She’s about to close her loop.
Vaska holds up a grassy plant. There’s nothing special about it in
appearance. It really just looks like prairie grass, or something else
equally mundane. “We can touch the plantlife, but this? This is different.
This is special. When we take hold of any other plant, we pull it into our
dimension, stealing it from theirs. For some reason, this stuff maintains
its connection to the others. I’ve tickled Ilias’ nose with it. He couldn’t
see it anymore, and he didn’t know what was going on, but it happened.”
“What does that mean for us?” Bartel asks her.
“This building is a temporal anomaly. The moment Tinaya and Aristotle go
back in time is also a temporal anomaly. We need to connect them to each
other.” Vaska cups her hands together. “We do that with this plant. I
propose we build a chain with our own bodies, linking the corner of the mess
hall to Past!Tinaya. She’ll anchor us to the main dimension, and unwittingly
pull us through whatever barrier separates us.”
Future!Tinaya and Bartel just stare at her. “That’s...a contrivance.”
“No, it’s not. It’ll work.”
“How do you know? You just made it up.”
“I’ve been studying this plant. It’s a keystone species. Scratch that; it’s
the keystone species. The other plants; they can’t communicate with each
other without it. It’s like a telephone wire.”
“What’s a telephone wire?” Bartel questions.
“I’m telling you, this will work. We need a chain. But to reach all the way
over there, which I’ve calculated to be forty-two meters away, it will
require all thirty-one of us. We got a lot of shorties.”
Tinaya looks at her sadly. “Vaska, I know you want this to work, but
Bartel’s right. You’re just guessing.”
Vaska huffs a bit, and shakes her head. “The explosion that destroyed the
settlement was larger than it should have been. The explosion that destroyed
the time mirror, and imbued you with its glass power, was more focused than
it should have been. Aristotle’s jumps; Tinaya, your creation of this
parallel dimension in the first place—all of these things have been affected
by this. It’s all about the grass!” She urgently shakes the sample she has
in her hand. “I’m gonna call it timogramen,” she says matter-of-factly, like
anyone has any interest in arguing against it. “It explains everything. The
way you tell it, dumbasses wasted their time finding suitable trees to make
paper, when they really should have been studying this instead. It is unlike
anything I have ever heard of before. I don’t know how it evolved, or what
else it can do, but I do know that it can send us back to where we need to
be. And besides, what’s the worst that can happen if it doesn’t work?”
Both Tinaya and Bartel think it over. It does sound rather random and silly,
but she’s right, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. It’s not like they
have some other option which this could interfere with. “Okay,” Tinaya
finally says. “We’ll bring it to the group. Hopefully they all agree. Like
you said, we need everybody.”
“I’ll help too,” Eagan says. “I believe that you are overestimating the arm
span of everyone here.”
The three of them are flabbergasted. “Y—you can see and hear us?” Bartel
asks.
“Yes,” Eagan replies.
Tinaya throws her hands up. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You’re from the future; I didn’t want to disrupt the timeline,” Eagan
answers. Oh, that’s actually good logic.
“Well, I suppose that makes sense,” Tinaya admits. “Still, you could have
communicated with us.”
“I was gathering information. Why did you think that I was always standing
over here? The mess hall doesn’t exist on my side. It’s just ash and ruins.”
“You’re just weird, Eagan; you’re weird,” Tinaya reiterates.
“Fair enough,” he says.
“Are we gonna do this thing, or what?” Vaska asks impatiently. “Time is
running out. Past!Aristotle and Past!Tinaya are about to disappear.”
“Wait, can’t we just have them get closer to the building?” Bartel suggests.
“Or even in the building? We don’t need a human chain if Eagan helps.”
“No, he’s right,” Tinaya contends. “That would disrupt the timeline, which
places all of your lives at risk. If Totle and I never end up on Gatewood,
we never find any help getting back here, let alone with Vaska, who we
needed to study the—what did you call it?—timogramen? Things have to play
out exactly as they did until I finally close my loop. The human chain it
is.”
They take Vaska’s proposal to the rest of the group. They have some
questions, and they’re just as skeptical about the efficacy of the plan, but
they too recognize that the downsides are minimal. One of the biggest issues
is just convincing them that they should indeed return to the main
dimension. Some of them were brought into this project specifically because
their absence from Extremus would not be noticed, like Bartel. Others left
families on board, who signed confidentiality agreements. They want to get
back to them, which they were promised would be done regularly with the time
mirror. So their side of the argument eventually won out.
Vaska takes a team out to harvest more of the timogramen. They crush the
grass up, and lather everyone’s arms with it. It’s apparently meant to act
as some sort of natural conduit of temporal energy, which will pass from
Past!Tinaya and Past!Aristotle, all the way to the mess hall. Eagan was
right. After they all line up, Future!Aristotle on one end, and
Future!Tinaya on the other, they do find themselves short. Eagan adds
himself as an extra link between Aristotle and Chef Webster. They complete
the chain just in time for the special event. Tinaya places her hand on the
shadow of her younger self just as she and Aristotle make the jump, which
will ultimately send them to Gatewood. The power surges through her, and
then down the line of survivors until it reaches the mess hall. Then it
passes back again. It goes back and forth a few times before bursting out in
a blinding light. When it recedes, the chain has been broken as most of them
have fallen to the ground, but it is not yet clear whether it worked.
“Tinaya?” Spirit asks. “That was fast. Did it work? Hold on, did you end up
going to Extremus after all? Are all these people from there?”
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