Microstory 1490: Birth of a Big Problem

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One of the first things that the people of Durus voted on for the Solar Democratic Republic was what to do about the Time Crevice that Escher Bradley was trapped in for a hundred and eighty years. It was too dangerous to leave lying around, even with guards protecting people from it. There was no reason for something like that to exist, so it was vital that they find some way of getting rid of it. Of course, any attempt at destroying it could have devastating consequences, and completely backfire on whoever was unlucky enough to be assigned the task. If they were going to do this, it would have to be by fighting fire with fire, using paramount powers against it, once and for all. The first thing they needed to do was study it, not only to understand its properties, but also to know its range. Obviously, anyone who walked through it would start experiencing time at a much slower rate, but where exactly did that start, and where did it end? If they dug a tunnel from five meters away, when would it start happening for them too? Was it the rock? Some kind of temporal gas inside the crevice. An invisible man in there who was just controlling the whole thing for kicks and giggles? After all this research, they came up with a few options. There were some paramounts who had the ability to control the flow of time, and could potentially alter it for the Time Crevice. Unfortunately, none of them was successful. They could hold a time lock for a period of realtime, but unless they actively remained there, it would always snap back to the way it was, so that wasn’t a long-term solution. Perhaps they could simply bury it, so that no one could accidentally end up in there anyway. Well, that would take quite a long time, because remember that one second for the crevice was one day everywhere else. It took weeks to make any noticeable progress, and years until completion. Then someone had a bright idea to rid themselves of the problem forever.

A former president of the Democratic Republic suggested that they remove the crevice altogether. There were definitely paramounts powerful enough to rip it out of the ground, and banish it from the surface of the planet, at least when working in tandem. To be safe, they could even remove a kilometer diameter of land along with it, and hey, free crater. The risk was great, but if they could jettison the entire thing into space, they wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. Fixing the time discrepancy or burying the crevice would have been fine to do once they covered the logistics. Something like this, however, couldn’t be decided by just the people involved. All Durune had to have a say in the matter, so they put it on the ballot for the 2205 elections, to make sure everyone had a voice. The great thing about this, which was one of many this democracy enjoyed, was that no one was fighting too hard one way or the other. Everyone could agree that they wanted to do what was best for Durus, and if that meant going back to the drawing board, then that was what they would do. Earthan governments experienced a lot of infighting, but not Durus; not anymore. There was only one side now. The ballot measure passed, not with unanimous votes, but not by a small margin either. The necessary paramounts started working together immediately, to make sure they could perform this amazing feat in one go. They had never apported anything quite this large before, so it was important that they took their time, and got it right. Once they were ready and confident, they got into position, took out the huge chunk of land, and sent it into outerspace, in a fairly random direction. They didn’t come out of it unscathed. A lot of them ended up with psychic nosebleeds, and one developed a chronic migraine condition. She was okay with it, though, because she felt they had saved a lot of lives, or at least a major hassle that might have been. Sadly, they didn’t consider all of the angles, and that chunk of rock would one day come back to bite them in the ass. It wouldn’t be for decades, but it would ultimately change everything about how Durus operated, and potentially destroy all they had worked for since the beginning.

Microstory 1477: Reconstruction

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For the 2175 elections, the people of Durus were not only voting for the people they wanted to lead them. There were certains laws and projects the current administration wanted everyone to decide on. One of these projects proposed that the city start rebuilding all of the towns that they lost during the final battles of the war against the monsters, and afterwards, when the remaining structures were all pulled together into the city of Aljabara. By this time, there were already several outposts built away from the city. Before powerful builder Andromeda retired, and later died, she agreed to help people spread out into new communities. There was nothing wrong with these towns, but some thought it might be nice if they went back to their roots, and honored their history. They weren’t intending to break Aljabara apart, but construct new buildings where they were once standing. It wasn’t necessary, but it could be kind of cool. This would be yet another symbolic gesture, to signify the rejection of the former Republic, and a return to the glory of the Mage Protectorate, though with more democracy. Polls suggested that it would be a tight race, because not everyone was convinced. Sure, these towns were part of their history, but their downfall was no less part of that, and some were worried people would forget that. If they just ignored the last eighty plus years of their past, and made it look like it would if it had not happened, were they doomed to repeat their mistakes? No one was really worried about who their next elected leaders would be. The incumbents were fine, and their competition was fine. They weren’t going to end up in some kind of fascist state because of them, so the 2175 elections were more about debating the reconstruction issue. People from both sides made arguments in the streets, and in more organized forums. The news was dominated by the topic, and everybody had their own opinion. The more people talked about it, the more they realized that this was far more complex than just a single yes or no response. Some of the original town sites were already being used for other things. Ladytown was already built on top of Hidden Depths, and even though that had a history of its own, it was still standing and still going. The original Springfield was already being revitalized, the Earthan refugee camp that came up after the Deathspring was built right next to where Shieldon used to be, and they were already starting construction near Watershed. In reaction to these arguments, the vote was scrapped, in favor of a more long-term approach. They would still consider doing this, but they weren’t going to be able to figure it all out by the time election day rolled around, so the next administration would be in charge of solidifying whatever plans they were going to go through with. One thing was for sure, they weren’t going to remain exactly as they were. They were absolutely going to build new outposts, so it was just a matter of what and where, and whether they would have anything to do with the old towns. This didn’t mean they wouldn’t make any decisions at all when it came to the reconstruction effort. Everyone agreed that they wanted to move forward with the completion of Town Sixteen, which was famously unfinished by the time the war ravaged the lands. They just needed to know what to call it. The people chose Gimura.

Microstory 1438: The Penultimate Towns

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Shieldon was the last town they built on Durus that had any special characteristic that could be used to describe it, in contrast to all others. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth towns, which were named Milton, Bristol, and, Tidsdel, respectively, were built in 2084, 2086, and 2088, respectively. These three only had a few years in them before the Mage Protectorate fell—not to the war with the monsters—but the end of the war; the final battle. After Shieldon put up their protective barrier, everyone sort of agreed that there were no more new ideas. Except for Astau, there really weren’t any towns that actually followed the standard model. The source mages envisioned a world where they created a town’s mages, and those mages would protect that town’s borders. The unique ideas to add an extra layer for safety and security all came later, during the planning stages of each. Milton, Bristol, and Tidsdel were made to be simple. They were just places that people could live, and be happy, as they would have on Earth. It would ultimately be a relief that they didn’t waste energy trying to figure out how to make these towns special. Society collapsed into chaos shortly thereafter. Of course, they didn’t know this. They just thought that the world was becoming more normal. If they could make Durus look more like Earth, then that could only be a good thing. This desire spoke to the innate goodness in the Earthan way of life, at least when it was at its best. Almost none of the people alive in the 2080s were also around early enough to recall their world of origin. Only Ecrin was old enough to have been there, but she was very young at the time, so she didn’t know too terribly much about it. Still, they read about it in the books that made it through the Deathfall portal, and even though few were conscious about it, that always seemed like their goal. These three towns were finally it. In fact, people were now starting to believe that these would be some of the last towns ever. Back on Earth, that was how a civilization began. Settlements started out small, and expanded from there. At some point in the future, Durus would probably have a city of its own. Some even believed it was only a matter of time before they figured out how to contact Earth, so people could come and go as they pleased. That would turn humanity into a real interstellar species. Sadly, this was not in the cards for them, or rather, it would not be for a very, very long time.

Void: The Next Generation (Part XII)

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At the end of the day, Leona and Serif disappeared from the timeline, and would return in one year’s time. Until then, the rest of her friends were going to spend every one of their waking minutes trying to convince Saga to return to Earth with them. Apparently they had been on a mission for the last several years, by orders of the powers that be, to retrieve Étude, who was purportedly the new and last Savior. A Savior was a special kind of salmon who teleported around the planet, helping people, generally by literally saving their lives. Saga had been through too much in her life to question the veracity of their claims, or the fact that Étude was physically incapable of being sent back to the homeworld through more instantaneous means. Still, when she left Earth all those years ago, it was doing okay on its own. A lot of the dangers that plagued earlier generations were no longer an issue. All forms of transportation were completely automated, and safer. Drones and surveillance were so universally ubiquitous, murder was laughable, at best. There were just too many ways to get caught that it was rarely worth it. Terrorists still existed, of course, but with all the safeguards, it was not usually logical to target human lives. Instead, they usually just destroyed infrastructure to make their points, which continued to go unheard.

The point was that surely this generation of Earthans didn’t need a Savior if the next generation wouldn’t. If Étude was destined to be the last anyway, then why couldn’t they just skip it? Camden’s sister, Xearea did a lot of good while she was in the position, but she will have been dead for years by the time Étude came of age anyway, so it wasn’t like there always had to be one.

“Unfortunately,” Paige began, “that doesn’t matter.” She was the captain of the small ship that brought them all here, and had seemingly been hardened from decades of immortality, and years of leadership.

They were sitting at Camden’s bedside, which was where Saga spent a great deal of her time. Now that the secret was out, and Étude was no longer safe from the world, she might as well honor her commitment to her partner. “Why?”

“The powers that be want your daughter, and they’ll have her,” she explained. “We encountered a trailing ship on our way here. Which means there could be a third ship, full of people who are not so nice. An entire fleet could be on their way to make sure you do what you’re told.”

“Plus,” Dar’cy said, “there’s no way to contact the powers, even if we thought we would be in a position to negotiate.”

“There’s a way,” Camden eked out.

“Cammy! You’re awake!” Saga carefully handed her daughter, who was still her usual patient and quiet self, to the ship’s pilot, Brooke’s arms. She placed her hands on Camden’s shoulders, and massaged them with her thumbs. “You’re finally awake.”

“How long has it been?”

“Two and a half years,” Saga answered him. “Did it feel like yesterday?”

He laughed and struggled to sit up a little. “Absolutely not. It was slower. Feels like centuries.”

Paige nodded. “Your brain would have been operating closer to computational speeds. Our programming prevents that from being an issue, but you’re new to transhumanism.”

“It’s like I could see the code behind the data I downloaded into my brain,” Camden described. “They were layers of blankets piled on top of me that I couldn’t get off.”

“Missy took those away two months ago,” Brooke explained, “so we could find Saga.”

“I remember that.” He nodded. “I still couldn’t wake up. I could hear you all, though. I’ve been here this whole time.”

“And you know how to contact the powers that be?” Paige pressed.

“We can worry about that later,” Saga said. “You should speak with a doctor first.”

He sat up some more. “I’m fine. Have you ever woken up after sleeping in all day, but it doesn’t feel like a waste of time, and it’s like you were making up for all the stress of the week? I feel great.”

“Your muscles have still atrophied,” Saga warned, calling upon her years of experience as a nurse.

“That’s true, but my brain is on point. Yes, I know how to reach the powers that be. Have you ever heard of The Emissary?”

“Yeah, he’s a bridge from the powers to the choosers,” Saga remembered.

“If you want to get your daughter excused from her duties, he’s the guy you talk to.”

“She’s your daughter too,” Saga realized. She took Étude back from Brooke, and handed her over to Camden. “I’m gonna need a lot of help from you...now that Andromeda’s gone.”

“Hi,” he said in his best impression of a bubbly voice. “I’m Camden.”

Étude just looked at him and smiled.

“She’s still not talking, huh?” he asked, having heard Saga discuss it with the others sometime in the last couple months.

Saga shook her head solemnly.

“And she’s not deaf?”

Saga shook her head again, and almost thought maybe Étude was shaking her own in agreement. “She’s physiologically totally fine,” Saga said. “She just...doesn’t talk.”

Étude acted like she knew her parents were talking about her, and even understood what they were saying, but was unmoved by it. She always had this, almost unsettling, old soul demeanor, like the reincarnation of someone who had lived many lives.

They sat in respectful silence for a while, then Saga looked around. “Obviously you all want to continue with this conversation about the Emissary. I know you’re all dying to get back home. What I want you to understand is that I am home. Everything here reminds me of her, because she had a hand in building everything, if not the only hand. I don’t wanna lose that. And I want Étude to see what her mother did, what she created. If I let you take her away, she’ll never see this world. She needs to see all of it, to grow up here, to live in a house that Andromeda made for her. She didn’t think I knew, but she constructed a place just for us in secret, deep in the high thickets. It was meant to be our home. I’ve not been able to go there yet, but Étude deserves to live there. Camden, how do we contact him?”

“We’re gonna need her.” He pointed to Dar’cy, who was one of only two choosing ones in this world.

“I mean...” Dar’cy stammered. “He contacted me specifically about this mission, but that doesn’t mean I know how to get ahold of him.”

“Have you ever meditated?” Camden asked.

Dar’cy burst out laughing, then stopped herself in embarrassment. “Sorry, it’s just, if you met my mother, you would know how funny that question is. Yes. Yes, I meditate every day.”

Camden smiled. “That’s great. It takes years to learn how to communicate with the Emissary, but if you’re as experienced as you sound, it should go pretty quick.”

“That’s all you do?” Dar’cy asked.

“It can’t be that easy,” Paige argued.

“Most choosers who have a way to contact them make it easy, because why would it be difficult? His method is the hardest, because he doesn’t want a bunch of salmon running around asking him to get them off their pattern. Like I said, though, Darcy shouldn’t have a problem.”

“It’s Dar’cy,” Brooke aggressively corrected.

“It’s fine,” Dar’cy said. “Do I seem like the kind of person who gets bothered by that?” She switched gears back to the conversation. “Tell me how the meditation works,” she requested of Camden.

“It’s best done by a large body of water.”

“That is not going to happen.” Dar’cy’s lakeside meditation worked. In only a few days, the Emissary had arrived to ask them what they wanted. He was not being particularly accommodating, or understanding, though.

“You mean the powers that be won’t agree to that, or you won’t talk with them about it?” Saga asked to clarify.

“Both,” the Emissary replied bluntly.

“Why not?”

“I think you misunderstand my purpose. I’m not a diplomat. It’s not by job to nurture relations between powers and choosers. I am here on their behalf. I only do anything on their behalf. I don’t come to them with requests, or news, or help. I just tell choosing ones what the powers that be want them to know, much in the same way The Delegator does with salmon. This is the one thing that everyone has trouble figuring out. Regardless of what power you have—what you can do with time, or how many people you can control—they control everything. And everyone. Your needs are completely irrelevant, as are everyone’s in the universe, at all times.”

“What, they think they’re gods?” Dar’cy questioned.

“Aren’t they?” the Emissary asked rhetorically.

“The Superintendent might have something to say about that,” she noted.

“Do not speak his name.” He was supremely offended by the mention.

“That’s not his name,” Saga assumed.

“If you do everything on behalf of the powers, then why did you come when I called?” Dar’cy asked. “Why is it even possible to contact you?”

“I came at their command.” He smirked. “You didn’t summon me. I got your message, and they told me to respond, but only to remind you that this is not a voluntary mission. You know what you need to do, and you’re going to do it. I’m not sure if I said this before, but you’ve been told to extract The Last Savior. Saga’s participation is completely optional. If you have to take that child from her, then do it. Oh, and as for why there’s a way to contact me, what you did, you can do with anyone. You’ll only get an answer from those who have a way of replying, but anyone with your patience and experience can see anyone at any point in time. I can’t stop that.”

“Which means that I could see the powers that be using the same technique.”

“You would have to know what to look for.” He turned to leave, “and trust me, you don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

“Wait.”

“When Leona and Serif return to the timeline, two people need to be on that ship: Leona, and Étude. Everyone else can space themselves, for all we care.”

“Saga, I’m sorry,” Paige said after the Emissary was gone.

She started on some breathing exercises. “It’s okay. I don’t know why we thought that would work. Come on, I want to see what Andromeda’s house looks like. There’s plenty of room for everyone.”

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Microstory 698: Quantum Darkness Declines

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We’ve been fighting a war on two primary fronts, and have been doing this for years. Some battles are fought against people; with weaponry, blood, and loss. Others are fought against the quantum darkness, which has proven itself to be stronger than we previously believed. Every star in every galaxy in the cluster has been shrouded from sight, destroying most life. Entire planets in Fostea, for instance, have been abandoned, for they are no longer capable of sustaining life in any meaningful way. There’s a reason why humans don’t live permanently in the blackness of interstellar space. Well now, all star systems basically exist under these same conditions. The only thing characteristic they retain from before is their orbits, for the stars are still there, just covered. Those living in places with fewer resources were relocated to the central worlds, and other, more wealthy, civilizations. This process was supported by the Ring of Migration, a powerful tool wielded by new eido, Agantai Bauriter. The economy has suffered immensely from this, especially since a great deal of our collective resources have been redirected to the traditional war battles. It has forced us to adapt our ways to something more restrictive, and less free. Though we still adhere to capitalism, we have developed regulations that to make sure our resources are allocated to the appropriate places. No longer can we survive with anyone accumulating whatever they work hard enough for. Though we are nowhere near the level of mainstream parity of the dirty communists, we now live more like Earthans. Nations on Earth are primarily labor-based, with strong emphasis on the correlation between hard work and fortune. There are programs, however, that provide for people who are less capable, so that the market remains somewhat stable. We’ve learned a lot from the Earthans these last few years that has saved us from complete annihilation. The most faithful of us still believe we will return to a culture of freedom, but for now, the Earthan method will have to do. We have studied the problem of the quantum darkness, with experts sharing knowledge at an unprecedented level. Together, they have figured out how to begin defeating this evil. As a gift to Earth, and out of obligation, we have used this new information to begin turning the lights back on, to be metaphorical. We’ve started with the ones closest to Earth so they won’t notice that anything was ever wrong.

Microstory 697: The Great Earthquake

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Despite making no mention of the Thuriamen, or the fact that the twisted Amadesis faith might have survived in any form, Sacred Savior Sotiren Zahir predicted a great earthquake. For those of you who can’t discern this from the language, an earthquake is a seismic event exclusive to the planet Earth. Though the Earthans are fully aware that tremors can occur on other orbitals, they have a long history of geocentrism, making it difficult for them to truly fathom how things happen outside their sheltered bubble. Rather, they have difficulty relating to things that are too far away to have any observed effect on them. Earthquakes occur all the time. In fact, it’s considered to be a natural phenomenon, with the world’s humans nearly totally helpless to predict one, let alone reduce its damage. This would not be just any tremor, however, in that it was foretold to happen soon after the declaration of the new war, and would somehow be caused by it. For the last several centuries, as we were waiting for the taikon to come to pass, academics couldn’t understand how this would be possible. Quantum Entanglement is one thing, but we know of no region of Fostea that has any connection to Earth, nor do we know of such a region anywhere else in the universe, for that matter. It does have a connection to one at least one other planet, but that’s located in the other universe, and we never thought we would ever have to return there save for our secret trips using the bar catel. Now, with the sudden discovery or our new enemies in the Thuriamen, we have a reason to engage in battle near Earth. We made every attempt to limit this first battle to the Thuriamen dimensions, but were forced to employ the aid of some unlikely allies who used their capabilities to keep the Earthan humans veiled. During the lead up to the Battle Between Two Earths, scholars postulated that the Great Earthquake wasn’t literal. While kept secret from the Earthan natives, it could still be one of the most profound events in Earthan history, having a lasting general effect on their future. They were wrong about this, and really, we were just lying to ourselves about this. The battle itself was so powerful that it ended up creating one of the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history, especially as followed by a series of deadly tsunamis. This catastrophe opened the eyes of our military leaders, and even also those of our new enemies, who were never before worried about illegally deveiling the Earthans. Later battles in the Light Wars would be fought elsewhere in an attempt to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

Microstory 672: Find the Ring of Migration

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Over the course of these taikon, a few bits of information have come to light. Previously, we believed Eido Feivel to have very little to do with founding of our galaxy. As it turns out, he had everything to do with it. Much like the First Ring, the Ring of Migration was a powerful piece of technology that scientists have never been able to study. We had heard of it as Sacred Savior, Sotiren Zahir wrote on it in the Book of Light. He never did say, however, who wore the Ring. He, in fact, never once mentioned that anyone wore it at all. It was always just assumed that he was the one, though no one had any recollection of seeing him with it, in addition to the First Ring. Through the discovery of historical documents we did not know existed, we learned that it was Eido Feivel who wore the Ring of Migration. It was an immense source of power, capable of summoning hordes of people without them realizing it. After we fled from our communist ancestors, we were waylaid on Earth. There we built secret hidden cities so that we would not disturb the development of native Earthans. This is a literally universal law that even we are bound to follow. Though we were all searching for a home, some of our population at the time had decided that Earth was good enough. There was already a secret immigrant civilization that had been established centuries ago. Some of our people figured that, if the Atlantians could do it, why couldn’t we? Our numbers were far too high to remain out of view of the Earthans forever, so we had to go. But still…they resisted. What Feivel was able to do while wielding his ring was attract all soon-to-be Fosteans onto the exodus ships, bring them through the red simplex dimension, and land them on the staging worlds. We had no idea he had done this, instead assuming that true believers had somehow managed to convince everyone that they all needed to leave. In retrospect, this made more logical sense, because as mentioned, so many of people were on Earth. The logistics of this endeavor could only be surrendered to the strength of the Light. In modern day, researchers learned that Feivel had grown ashamed of his hand in essentially mind-controlling unwillful migrants. Out of defiance, he threw the ring into the water of a then completely random planet. It would later be settled as Jerebelle, with one of its oceans named Eylon. When the new continent rose from the sea, it brought up with it Feivel’s ring. One of the seagoers who had managed to survival the upheaval happened it upon it as he was searching for his emergency provisions. He contacted Greenleaf, the luxury liner, and requested transport to Narvali. The Ring of Migration now belonged to new eido, Agantai Bauriter, who was still in the middle of negotiations with the Dodulkori.

Microstory 609: Destruction of an Infidel Place of Worship

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This may come as a surprise to some Lightseers in the galaxy, but there are those who not only don’t believe in the Book of Light, but actually believe in some other thing. There are, in fact, a number of religions in Fostea that conflict with Lightseed teachings. Some have adopted belief systems from foreign worlds, others are holdouts from the religions of old, and a few even take their cues from Earthan traditions. What is strongly considered the worst of these religions is called Pantheonistry. It is also probably the strangest. Pantheonistry teaches that there is only one person in the entire universe. This single entity has been, and will be, reincarnated quadrillions of quadrillions of times, throughout history. This means that every person you encounter is actually you, either earlier in your total history...or your future. You are supposedly just one life of the multitude. The entity—which goes by many names, including Panthos—will never be able to find peace until it experiences literally every single person’s life. Pantheonistry was retained from the old worlds, but has been altered to better fit in with Fostean culture. Yet it is still very much unlike Lightseed. Fostean Pantheonistry rejects the idea that there is one entity, but instead that there are at least two, and as many as thousands. These entities are constantly clashing with each other, which is meant to explain anything from war to personal opposition. This version of Pantheonistry encourages people to find something called a “tribe” which hopefully only includes other individuals that are reincarnations of their particular primary entity. Of course, in our great galaxy, we do not discourage anyone from finding like-minded friends, but most non-Pantheonists would agree that this theoretical connection is not enough. The fact of the matter is that these Pantheonists are helping people for irrational reasons, under the belief that they are somehow the same, when really it’s just a clever disguise for charity, A few dozen tribes have been formed so far, and unfortunately, the faith is growing, which means that the number of them will only increase. The good news is that we have at least one fewer of them to deal with than we did before. The meeting house of one tribe (its name unimportant) was effectively destroyed, which excellently fulfilled the requirements for achieving the ninth taikon.

Microstory 514: Martian Law Enforcement Approves ‘Culmination’ Coven

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For centuries, refugees and immigrants have been living in the great city of Atlantis on planet Earth. Some of us have even been here since the island was resting safely on the ocean’s surface. During that time, the Earthan population at the time was not only scarce, but also technologically primitive. Certain Earthans were aware of our existence, but you could count on an Amaigaben’s hands the number who understood exactly what we were. To most, we were just a small and barely consequential island that exported nothing. We were forced to sink our home into the depths of the waters to protect both us, and the Earthans. Martian Law forbade us from revealing ourselves to any veiled Earthan, which was a law most of us were happy to comply with. We’ve historically adopted an isolationistic position from the outside world, but many believe this to be a product of necessity, rather than true philosophical perspective. Recently, however, these thoughts have shift amongst a certain fraction of the population. The witches, due to their deep connection with the universe itself, are naturally inclined to ignore such trivial constraints as geographical boundaries. One coven in particular, which only now calls itself the Caretaker Coven, last year proposed to the Martians something that no one thought would be accepted, but it has.

Martian Law dictates that no one aware of the existence of society beyond their one planet may reveal this truth to any Earthan human. It’s pretty simple, really. If you’re talking to an Earthan, you can’t discuss what you know of outerspace and the likes, and if you’re talking to anyone else, you can say whatever you want. Some say this flies in the face as other laws, such as Priority Two, which turns the concept of sharing technology into a morally obligatory maxim. However your feelings regarding the moratorium on Earthan deveilment, the fact of the matter is that no Earthan may know that we exist. There are certain exceptions, like if the transgressor revealed truths accidentally, and while still themselves ignorant about the truth, to a certain degree. There are also a few Earthan world leaders who are aware of us, but only in order to cement our secrecy from everyone else. This new Martian approval changes all that on the highest scale since the Croatoan Expedition centuries ago. The Caretakers would like to bring certain Earthan humans into the fold in order to educate them in Craft. Covert studies have reportedly revealed that a select few Earthan children exhibit a special predilection towards the adoption of Craft engagements. Apparently, the evidence towards this fact is so strong, that the Martians have agreed to let the Caretaker coven remove more than one thousand Earthan children from their homes, and into Atlantis. Right now, it is not known how the Caretakers plan to explain to the parents where their children are going, but we will update you when we know. Some believe the witches will use memory erasing engagements to account for the disappearances, however, it is hard to believe the Martians would agree to that type of violation. The children have already been chosen, and some have been contacted. They are from all over the globe, and the first group is said to be arriving sometime next year.

Microstory 508: Landslide Vote in Favor of Rename to ‘Martian’

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A few standard decades ago, Mascoli visitors to Earth were completing their regular rounds when they learned that our planet had been discovered by the humans. A little disclaimer ahead of time, astronomical observations were completed entirely by the Earthan humans. They received no help from the Arsenic suiters. Secrecy protection protocols have, in no way, been violated. Since that time, the word Mars has been established as the conventional name for our planet on Earth, and recently, it was determined by the Masco network government that this convention was unlikely to change. Because of this, it was proposed that we change our naming conventions in order to match Earth’s perceptions of us. Should we one day connect with our brethren on the third planet, many believe they would be more comfortable using their own terms. Indeed, the Earthan language of Latin is already being learned in schools across the Masco network for similar reasons. Not everyone believes this to be the best course of action, however, and their arguments are not without their merits. Some think this plan could have negative effects following first contact. If we already speak Latin, and we already know what they named our planet, they will know that we’ve been able to reach out to them for however long before. Others refuted this position, saying that admitting our practice of secretly visiting Earth is something that we’ll have to do anyway, so we might as well tell them this truth in their language.

Even amidst the protests, a vote was held network-wide, asking one simple question: should we, or should we not, alter our planet’s name to Mars and our people’s name to Martian. As you may have gathered from the headline, the vote was a landslide. A higher percentage of now-Martians agreed to change our name than have agreed on any vote in history. Exact number of votes are still being verified, but present figures put the vote at around 94.87%. For our Amaigaben readers, that’s the equivalent of 114.7927 perunviginticenti. The vote itself is impressive on its own, but even more impressive is the hope it presents the Martian network. This indicates that Martians can agree on something, and even though most of us no longer live on our homeworld, we have something that really brings us together. It’s one thing to call yourself a Masco because that’s what millions of years of history tells us, it’s another thing to call yourself Martian even though you don’t have to. The network government does not see this as an opportunity to bring back our colonists, but as a chance to solidify our unity, and repair any hostile relationships amongst factions. In fact, it is becoming more and more likely that our home planet will be abandoned almost completely, in order to further protect Earthans once they inevitably invent observational technology capable of reading Martian surface details. Such a vote would still be centuries off, however, so don’t pack your bags just yet. This article will be updated with the exact vote count, broken down by colony.

Microstory 375: Luxury

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Guilty Pleasures

Ahh, luxury, isn’t it the best? We all like it. We all want to be able to go to the store, find something good, and not worry about how much it’s going to cost us. Some people live like that, ya know? They have so much money, they literally don’t know what to do with it. In my recursive stories, at a more recent point in history, money is abolished. Everyone is given a proper education, after which, they are given the responsibility of a job. With artificial intelligence, and other automation, all the crappy jobs organics don’t want to do are taken care of. The only jobs available either require creative thought, or are incredibly easy. There are more people in the star system than necessary to run it, so if you’re given a boring job, chances are not super low that you won’t have to do much of anything. If you do, you take it in stride, because in exchange, you get decades of sabbaticals in between work stints, you’re immortal, and you don’t really have any problems. But that story begins at the end of paradise. Either way, we don’t live in that world. In reality, Earthans have decided to honor the intrinsic value of work itself. However, work has no value. The only reason we work is so that people who are benefitting from that work give us money, so we can spend that money on business that benefit us. And so goes the cycle of the economy. But that doesn’t mean the work itself is important. Kids these days are maximizing their free time while simultaneously minimizing their effort. Good for them. This sounds obnoxious, but it’s not; they’re right to do that. The 40-hour workweek is an arbitrary number that arose out of a series of compromises between workers and business owners who would rather just enslave you. We should be working to modify these labor practices in preparation for future advancements. If we don’t, a whole lot of people are just going to be unemployed. The only way to avoid it is to spread the wealth. Hobbies and other luxuries are THE ENTIRE POINT OF LIVING. Work is but a means to that end. Thank you for playing.

Calm

Microstory 92: Manifest Infinity (2 of 2)

Several years ago, the prototype of what was deemed to be The Perfect Race was discovered by a group of Fostean invaders. They kidnapped this individual and took it back to their galaxy. After much debate, they paired it with a second scientific endeavor. They were learning how to tap into the souls of living people and interact with the universes that lie inside. The inhabitants of any given universe is made in the image of its god, which meant that the godlings of the perfect creature were even more perfect than it, because they developed—from their perspective—by way of natural evolution. The Fosteans continued to hinder the intelligence of the prototype, but were unable to change the genetics of the people within its universe. These people were inescapably dependent on the original genetic arrangement of their god. One day, the laboratory was attacked by a group of insurgents, one of which was actually an Earthan human. In this man’s attempt to retrieve his friend’s daughter, they were both transported to the universe that was inside of the perfect prototype. Since time moves at a different rate in different universe, they spent over a thousand years there, while still tied to the timestream of our universe, where less than a minute had passed. This turned out to be a blessing, for this man and his ward lived adventures in the lower universe, and altered the course of their behavior. They instilled in them a sense of right and wrong so that they would choose neither to be soldiers for the Fosteans, nor exterminators for the rouge Lactean scientist faction. Instead, once they were all brought into our universe, they were found to be the most generous and loving race ever encountered.

Microstory 84: Telekinesis

When a citizen of The Core reaches 16 standard years (a little over 18 in our terms) they are eligible to receive some kind of telekinesis. They are born without it so that they may grow up learning problem-solving skills, and how to do things for themselves, rather than relying on the easy way out. There are two major types: enfixed and germ. Germ TK utilizes a completely natural genetic component already within each and every one of us. It cannot be enhanced, undone, or otherwise modified. If you choose the germ route, your telekinetic abilities are limitless, but they require practice. You are only as powerful as your own understanding of that power. Enfixed TK is far more common. Unless your profession requires superstrength (such as construction work) you'll only be marginally stronger than you are without TK. For instance, you won't be able to lift a car, but you can open the door without having to touch it. There are variants of enfixed TK that depend of what you need it for. Surgeons, chefs, and law enforcement authorities have an untraceability variant, to prevent cross-contamination, since regular enfixed TK leaves behind a harmless but detectable residue. But this is not needed for pilots. Instead, as you might expect, they are particularly exceptional at flying.

Enfixed TK can be taken away and replaced, and everyone with the same variant will be on equal footing. In order to surpass the norm, you're going to need the germ. The danger with that is that if you're just not any good, telekinesis may simply not be very useful to you. Unfortunately, however, you will be biologically incapable of switching to enfixed. Some of the variants may be quite obvious. There is a way to lock a door telekinetically, so that only certain people can open it, even without actually using TK (so that children may enter their own homes but remain safe from strangers). Authorities are of course capable of bypassing these restrictions, for health and safety reasons. Some variants may not be so obvious, though. Chefs only allow themselves something called “literal telekinesis” that responds only to the movements of their hands and fingers. This maintains the artistic nature of cooking, while allowing a higher level of sanitation. Only one Earthan human has ever received any form of telekinesis. He's turned out to be one of the most powerful people in the universe; even rivaling the witches. It is academically assumed that Earthans adapt more dramatically to the change, and that is one reason you've not heard any of this before.

Microstory 67: The Typhon Lie

The Typhons were a fabricated race of aliens from another galaxy. They were imagined by a task force as part of the Ceresian-Eridani Interstellar Unity Initiative. They are said to resemble giant snakes with the head in the shape of a large skull. The Eridani claimed that the Typhons invaded and warred with them for almost a thousand years (which is equivalent to about 1,019 Earthan years). In that time they supposedly inadvertently taught the Eridani all they needed to know about military strategy and execution. In truth, with help from Ceresian refugees, the Eridani procured historical documents and other literature regarding the wars on other planets to gain their military knowledge. The Eridani used the Typhon lie and what they had learned, not to fight, but to assert themselves as the dominant military race, discouraging others from fighting each other. This elaborate and convoluted plan ultimately proved successful. There was a modern movement to uncover the truth about the Typhons. Several skeptics came together and started to question whether they ever existed. The movement, however, was quashed following the 25th Century Typhon Infestation. It was only a recent development that the Core revealed that the Typhons were, in fact, originally not real. All evidence points to a rogue group of scientists from Fostea that genetically engineered these new Typhons in retaliation for the Light Wars.

Microstory 66: Business Review

The other day, I was invited to tour the Fostean Galaxy. They were trying to assure me that they had changed their ways. And I admit, they had...to an extent. The following is a review I wrote of a business on a planet called Dikaio that gave me trouble when I tried to buy something:

I walked in here with no intention of buying anything, and I think the vendor could sense that. According to him, “browsing” is taboo in the entire galaxy, which is ridiculous, because I spent hours in the Great Mall of Poreia and didn’t buy a single thing. Just to get him to stop bothering me, I grabbed a pack of gravity gum. That seemed to insult him quite a bit. I told him that I couldn’t buy anything too advanced because I live on Earth, and the Martians would confiscate it anyway. He was perturbed by that, but he finally rang me up. I gave him my visitor card to pay and he acted like he had no idea what to do with that. He insisted that I pay with my skincode. Again, I’m from Earth. I don’t have one of those. The Core has a deal with Fostea that allows Lacteans to purchase items with visitor cards, and in return, the Core shares technology, supplies, and military training. The vendor pointed out that that’s because most Lacteans live in a moneyless society. And that’s true, but there is no conversion rate from Earthan money to Fostean indexa. He said he would take “one of those thousand dollar bills” for it. I explained that the gravity gum is nowhere near worth so much. He pulled a weapon on me, so I was forced to shoot him. The government gave me permission to eliminate any threat I perceive. Don’t go to this store. It has been permanently closed.

Microstory 55*: Excerpt from [Redacted]

What interested [Redacted] the most was the fact that humans of different breeds were functionally incapable of conceiving children together. Two Earthans could make an Earthan. Two Universals could make a Universal. Two Legitimates could make a Legitimate. But they were unable to crossbreed with each other. By far, the most common breed was the Universal. No other species, subspecies, tangent species, or superspecies could compare to their magnitude. And she had met no one who knew where the Legitimates were, or if they were presently on hiatus. This meant that incompatibility was statistically rare, and usually just something couples dealt with on their own. But now, because of a death she wasn’t yet sure she believed, she was incompatible with the one man in the entire universe that she was predestined to conceive a child with. She was literally born for this, and it was impossible to follow through. It felt like God had reached down and flicked her in the face.

Microstory 48: Halo

The Halo is a multipurpose device used by all adults in the Core. It is a ring of Amber color, though it can be shaped into other forms by means of stretching. It is typically worn, in ring form, a few inches above the head of its user. It maintains its position via the user’s own telekinetic field but, unlike most objects, does not require constant concentration in order to stay aloft.

The Halo includes many functions, primarily as a computer and as a storage locker. Most people wear bionic conduits that are linked up to the system-wide data network that are fully capable of processing as much information as an external computer. There are times, however, such as when watching an Earthan television show, that a single screen that can be viewed by many people at once is desirable.

Perhaps a Halo’s most used component, though, is the cache. It creates and bridges a connection between the user’s current dimension and a portable and artificial dimension. Because it is artificial, objects inside do not suffer from the radiation of most simplex dimensions. However, Haloes are specifically designed to not allow the storage of still-living organic entities. Any attempt to tamper with a Halo and allow this function is illegal. These laws and safety guards are to prevent people from being able to trap each other in a Halo.

Obviously, it is illegal to use Haloes in the presence of veiled citizens. In one incident in Earth year 1709, a criminal of a mischievous temperament, referred to as a Loki (also based on Earthan mythology, specifically Norse) snuck onto Earth. Having no real knowledge of the planet’s geography, he found himself in a remote area of Romania. Wearing blue and white robes, he walked around a small village, Halo hovering above his head. The villagers worshipped him as the second coming of Jesus Christ, and lavished him with gifts. He was eventually reprimanded by Martian police. They were able to convince the villagers that the man was actually a false prophet who was using witchcraft to mimic the properties of the Lord, and also that they were servants of God, particularly vessels of angels, come to cast out the demon. The villagers wanted to burn him at the stake, however the police were able to remove him with no trouble. Before leaving, the police proclaimed that the village was thereby protected from other such witchcraft and that no witch would be able cross its borders. This was to prevent further witch trials, as were common in those days.Though the village was from then on left to its own devices (as most Earthans are), not one more crime was committed there for the nearly hundred years it survived before its population diminished to nothingness and it vanished into obscurity.

Microstory 11: Immortal Danger

I came to this planet when I was 271 years old. The first person I met was a child named Ilarion Simeonov. What I discovered upon learning the custom of "shaking hands" was that I could turn any human immortal by nothing more than a touch. Ilarion immediately stopped aging, and is unable to be killed. It's not that he heals, or that he is impervious to injury. It's more that he is invisible to death. He has never been in danger.

Over the course of several centuries, I have incidentally immortalized fourteen more people. Occasionally, they can use their ability to protect others. There was actually a domestic terrorist plot against the TCL Chinese Theatre back in 1994. The instigators were caught trying to lift the duffle bags containing the bombs. An unseen force was weighing them down, simply because two of my immortals were spending the entire day seeing the same film over and over again. A suicidal immortal jumped out of an airplane over the Atlantic Ocean in 1974. He's been hovering about 20 feet over the water ever since. He refuses to let us retrieve him.

Today, I am dying. You see, where I'm from, our scientists have mastered genetic aging. Due to overpopulation concerns, they decided to cap everyone's lifespan to a certain number of years. Despite advances that rendered resources limitless, the richer still live longer. Some of the more impoverished live the equivalent of 22 Earthan years. And we always know when it's coming. I was born into one of the wealthiest families in our solar system. I am not due for death for another few centuries. It is my guess that I expedited my time limit each time I immortalized another person.

I am writing these, my final words, not so that you will know my story. But so that you will know yours. Before coming to Earth, I encountered many fallen civilizations. They had one thing in common. An inevitable and unstoppable disease spread throughout every population that mastered genetic aging, destroying it completely in a matter of months. And Earth is on the brink of the very same discovery. But I have also discovered that the disease can be avoided, by altering the method of genetic engineering. All you have to do is