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| Generated by Google Gemini Advanced text-to-image AI software, powered by Imagen 3, and by Pixlr AI image editor |
Angela was on the observation floor of The Waycar, resting her elbows on the
railing. That was what this section of The Transit that they managed to this
universe with was apparently called. In all the fuss, they weren’t able to
do a very thorough sweep of the thing before, but now they were going all
over it. Of course Ramses was spending a lot of time in the engineering
sections. There were two of them. The front end had a very low ceiling; too
low when you remember that the average Maramon stood at around 200
centimeters. They must have considered it more of a crawlspace. It housed
the machinery that kept it running, while all the interfacing happened near
the back, underneath the briefing theatre. The rest of the levels had
everything that a good squadron needed to live while they were training for
war. Personal quarters, lavatories, mess hall, other communal areas.
Training rooms, armory, command center. Despite it only being one car of 56,
it was clearly always designed to be self-sufficient. They had seen
everything by now, but didn’t know everything about it. Case in
point, a weird remote floor that Angela was staring at right now.
Her sister, Marie walked up from behind her. “They’re almost ready for us.”
“Okay,” Angela replied solemnly.
“What are you doing up here?”
She was facing the back of the car, towards the smaller window. But she
wasn’t looking through the window. To the left of it was a platform of some
kind, a little bit higher than the floor they were standing on. She pointed
to it. “Look around, Mar-Mar. There’s no way to get to that. No ladder, no
elevator. It’s too far away to leap to. What the hell is it for? Is it just
decoration? It does vaguely look like a giant sconce.”
“Well, I mean, we could just teleport to it.”
“Yeah, we could, but...this wasn’t engineered for teleporters.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I guess not.”
Marie smiled at her alternate self with her eyes, but not her lips, as she
offered a hand. “Let’s go together.”
They took hands, and cleared the nine or ten meter gap with ease. Only now
could they look down to see what was here. The floor was flat, but there was
a seam running all the way across, and a handle. They exchanged a brief
look, then Angela reached down, and opened the trapdoor. They looked
apprehensively at what was there. “Get Leona,” Marie said.
Angela didn’t go anywhere. She just tapped her neck to activate her comm
disc. “Boss, better get up here. Just you, though. Not much space on this.”
“On what?”
“Let’s call it the perch,” Angela replied.
Leona quickly figured out what she was referring to. She too looked down at
the stasis pod. “Either o’ you recognize this guy?”
They shook their heads. “Nope.”
“Should we wake him up?” Leona asked.
“You’re asking us?”
“I want your opinion.”
Marie consulted her watch. “We have to get to the negotiations.”
“You go,” Angela suggested.
“What?”
“They don’t need both of us. Go facilitate. I’m curious.”
“So, is that a yes from you?” Leona pressed.
“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?”
Leona chuckled. “Fair enough.”
“Go,” Angela encouraged her sister. “I love you.”
“Mateo,” Leona asked through her comm.
“Yeah?” Both Mateos answered simultaneously.
“Who gave him a comm?” she questioned.
“I did,” Ramses answered. “It seems like he’s gonna be with us for longer than we presumed.”
“I want it out of his neck,” Leona ordered. “He doesn’t have one in the
past, and we have no idea when he’ll end up going back. Carlin could find a
reason to relapse him any second now.”
“Understood,” Ramses replied.
“You had a question?” Future!Mateo asked.
“Is that Stoutverse doctor still helping us with inventory in the
infirmary?”
“Sure is,” Future!Mateo replied.
“Tell her she may have a patient on the way.”
“Understood,” he echoed.
Leona cleared her throat, and got down on her knees to start tapping on the
stasis pod interface screen. “Cassius Hoffmann. Is he on our known list?”
Angela tapped on her arm to access their personal files. “No. Only a
Cassidy.”
Leona tilted her head. “Maybe they’re related.” And with that, she released
the hatch, and lifted it open. There were two kinds of stasis technologies;
one which used magical powers to slow down time, and another which Earth
developed. Induced cryptobiosis didn’t manipulate time, but slowed the
subject’s metabolism down to almost nothing. There were complications with
this technology, such as a build-up of radiation in the body, which had to
be periodically purged, and a limited operational timeframe. To avoid these
pitfalls, true stasis was one of the technologies that the Shortlist agreed
to provide for the stellar neighborhood to make their lives easier, under
the condition that it would only be used for long-term space travel, not for
any other reason. It could scale into a weapon if harnessed by an abusive or
nefarious party.
This Cassius guy was just in a tun state, like a tardigrade. It was more
difficult to maintain, and required more maintenance, but he could have been
in here for centuries. One of the downsides of cryptobiotic stasis was the
length of time it took to revive the subject. Water filled the pod to
rehydrate him, and an electrical charge was delivered to revitalize his
nervous system. They waited there for minutes before he finally opened his
eyes, and looked at them. “Can you speak?” Angela asked.
Cassius blinked twice.
“Does twice mean no?”
He blinked once.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
He blinked yes again. Then he struggled to adjust his gaze towards his feet.
His eyelids fluttered. When they expressed concern, he stopped, suggesting
that it was a voluntary gesture.
“Are you trying to point to something?” Angela asked him.
Yes.
“They screen?”
Yes.
“Can it expedite your recovery?”
No.
“What does it do? I mean...ugh.” She thought about what binary question that
she could ask. There was none. “A, B, C, E, E, F...” She kept going until he
blinked yes at M, then she started the alphabet all over again
until she got to I.
She only ended up having to elicit M-I-N-D-R-E before Leona decided to guess
mindreader, and realized what he was going for. “Oh my God, of
course. He wasn’t just asleep. His mind was probably in a virtual
environment.” She tapped on the screen some more until she found what they
needed.
A tiny hologram of Cassius appeared on the glass. The physical Cassius
looked at it for a second before closing his eyes to continue his recovery.
“Hey, folks!”
“Cassius Hoffmann?” Leona asked.
“That’s me!”
“What are you doing here?”
“How long has the Transit been active?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” Leona replied. “Maybe a few weeks? We’re no longer
connected. The Waycar is now free and independent.”
“I see. Who’s on the Transit?”
Leona didn’t know who he was, or whether he could be trusted, but he
appeared to have been in some control of this machine before anyone they
knew was, so there were probably some things he knew about it without their
help. “The beginnings of the Transit Army.”
“Good,” Cassius decided. “They don’t need us. I was only placed here to make
sure that they were the ones who found it, instead of just any rando
astronaut who happened to land on Hyperion.”
Leona shook her head tightly.
“It’s one of Saturn’s moons,” Cassius explained. “That’s where the Transit
was.” Now he was getting suspicious of them. Who are you?”
“Captain Leona Matic of the Vellani Ambassador.”
“Oh, okay. Whew.” He was relieved. “Yes, my name is Cassius Hoffmann, Second
Lieutenant to Nereus Jolourvedin, Thief of the Transit Bulk Traveling Ship.
Together, we and a group of other humans escaped Ansutah, and made our way
back to Salmonverse. Most of them went off to live their own lives in peace.
Nereus and his First Lieutenant claimed their destinies. I was left here
with only the one job, and I didn’t even have to do it.”
“Something must have gone wrong at any rate,” Leona imagined. “You should
have been awakened either way.”
“Nah, the machine has a mind of its own. If Freya or Azura stepped foot on
board, it would have recognized them, and left me alone. I’m not surprised
it’s taken weeks for you to find me. This car was invisible. You see, this
was more of a punishment than anything. Don’t worry, I’m not a killer or
anything. I just didn’t always know my place as Second L-T. I was a bit of a
nuisance.”
“Nereus Jolourvedin now serves as The Repairman,” Leona told him, not
knowing whether he knew that or not. “He doesn’t seem like the type to hold
a grudge.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t wanna see me again.”
“Then he’s in luck,” Angela clarified. “We’re not even in Salmonverse
anymore.”
“I see.” Cassius placed his hands on his hips, and looked around as he was
nodding. “Do you lay claim to the Waycar?”
“We need to verify your story,” Leona began. “If it checks out, then this
here vessel is yourn. We have our own.”
“I need to get to the negotiations,” Angela suddenly decided.
“Okay. Thanks, Angie,” Leona said.
“Thanks, Angie!” Cassius echoed before adding after Angela left, “she
single?”
“She only dates corporal people,” Leona joked.
“Touché.” After a beat, he added, “I only need another hour.”
An hour and a half later, Cassius was able to return his consciousness fully
to his body, and go see the doctor for an examination. By then, the
diplomatic discussions were over. They turned out to be a lot more
complicated than anyone could have guessed. It wasn’t only about letting
Kineret leave with her daughter. It all had to do with the Waycar, the
consolidator, and a new crew. “They want this?” Leona asked.
“No, they want to create a crew for the Waycar. Any of us would be welcome
to stay and lead them,” Angela explained.
“I see. I have no intention of leaving the Ambassador.”
“Neither do I,” Angela replied. “But someone who knows a little about this
stuff should become part of the executive crew. I don’t think the
Stoutversians could handle it on their own. Do you know how many people can
fit comfortably?”
“Maybe almost a hundred by our calculations,” Ramses answered.
“I’m sure that Cassius will be staying, no matter who else comes aboard,”
Leona clarified. “He can lead them, I guess. He knows this thing better than
any of us. We brought them the quintessence consolidator. I suppose our job
is done.”
“We still need them,” Future!Mateo reasoned. “If we want to get to Verdemus
to find the timonite for my past self, Carlin can’t do that.”
“True,” Leona realized. “It will take weeks at best to form the crew of this
new ship. We can’t leave until then.”
“They’ve already agreed to take us back to Salmonverse,” Marie revealed.
“But we won’t be able to call upon them if we end up needing something else
later.”
“That should be fine,” Leona decided. “But Carlin, we will need you in the
future. Past!Mateo has to get back to his time in the Third Rail. I can see
your eyes, though; you wanna stay here on the Waycar.”
“I do,” Carlin admitted, “but I’ll help you in any way I can.”
Leona looked at the Walton sisters. “We gave them the consolidator, and in a
way, we’re also giving them the Waycar. Did we happen to get anything
out of these talks?”
“The new crew,” Angela began. “It won’t be as hard to form as you might
believe. They don’t have a very large pool to pick from. Our one condition
was that no one who leaves this universe is allowed to be a carrier for the
deadly dragonfly flu. They made their choice in exposing the majority of
their population to it, but they can only use it to protect their world.
They’re never allowed to leave.”
“I guess that’s something,” Leona figured.
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