Microstory 2781: Oh, He’s Gonna Take the Job

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The atmospheric black hole definitely could have happened at a worse time. The busy season is now over, and many of the crops aren’t growing anyway. The eyren are a year-round event, however. The uquira and uquirapods adapt well to the changing climate, and in fact, as it cools down, there are more chances to plant eyren. The trick is being able to find the clumps amidst the fallen leaves, and later, the precipitation. That takes manpower, or technology, which sort of goes against the community’s practices.

Everyone is struggling. Jande’s story is not unique as many farms suffer attrition. There are tens of billions of organic people in this galaxy, so it’s not hard to find someone willing to take a century out of their lives to farm on Bida, but it’s hard to keep them. Quiratan has shrunk in recent years because of it, mostly with smaller farms being absorbed by neighbors, but a few have shut down entirely. The AKBH, along with the ongoing threat of future singularities, has only expedited the downfall.

Jande has to recruit more people if he wants to keep his culture alive, and not only by finding partners for himself, but also for others. This is the best time to do it. Last season’s dead crops have been tilled back into the land to replenish the nitrogen content, which is best done early so the microbes have time to complete the process before next planting season. It was hard work, but he’s all caught up now, so he can sit down and find more people. But first, his parents want to talk with him.

He’s sitting in front of them now, bouncing his knee impatiently while they half-smile and sip their tea. They have always been like this. Even when there’s a ton of work to do, they drag out the conversation, especially the beginning of it. They come from an era where a legal lifetime was literally about the maximum amount of time a human would live, yet they’re always wasting the minutes on...dramatic effect. “Could we be quite quick?” Jande asks. “I need to get back to the boards.”

“Your father is retired,” his mother begins. “It was unexpected, but it can’t be undone. His body is younger than yours now. How do you feel about that?”

“This is how things are done,” Jande replies. “I knew this was gonna happen one day, I just didn’t know it would be now. He’s been taking it in stride. I mean it, Father, you have accepted your new life admirably. I hope to mimic you when it is my time.”

Mother nods as she’s listening to Jande. “When the shed came down, you were trapped under the entrance. Your body could not move, so you transferred to a bot.”

“You don’t have to recap, we all know what happened,” Jande contends.

“What you don’t know,” Father goes on, “is that we had a forensics expert survey the scene and confirm which of us died first. As I was under a heavy beam in the barn, my body expired instantly. Your body survived long enough for you to induce suicide. For a few seconds, you had inherited the role of Head of Household.”

Jande narrows his eyes, at the both of them, but particularly at his father. “What are you saying, that because of a technicality, I retired immediately after you, and I have no right to continue farming the land? This body is weak. It is not an upgrade. It is not a retirement model, and I have been toiling for the last couple of weeks.”

“Have you noticed the outsider who patrols our perimeter?” Mother asks him.

“You mean the one from the giant metal shuttle, which can be seen even from here?” Jande asks rhetorically. “Yes, I think I did notice him. Why?”

“He’s here to protect us from the Eyrenlanders,” Mother continues. “They want to come in and farm these lands themselves. Meanwhile, you are perusing the network, looking for a spouse or two at a time to fill only a few slots to reach the bare minimum.”

“This is our way,” Jande reminds her. “Quiratan is not an interstellar business. We are family farmers. To work, you must be part of a family. Scale is not the goal.”

“That’s true,” Father agrees. “If the Eyrenlanders were allowed in unconditionally, they would likely expand within the next decade until they reached the same size that Eyrenland was before the black hole showed up and destroyed it.”

Mother places a hand upon her husband’s knee to take the floor. “Perhaps, son, it is time for that. The Eyrenlanders left us alone when they had everything they needed. They were able to provide the eggs for the galaxy’s demand. Now things are different. Now Quiratan has become the single source of authentic eyren. I mentioned the forensics report to give you an easy way out. You retain the honor of not retiring intentionally, but benefit from the accident by accepting it as retirement. No one would blame you for it. We’ll tell them it was your father’s insistence. In his last act as Head of Household, he declared the end of the bloodline, and the end of the farm.”

Jande balls both of his hands into fists and trembles in seething anger, holding himself back from exploding. “You want me to quit, and you have found a bad loophole that, if our ways had been codified into law, would never hold up in court. And you think, after years of raising me to take over your legacy, that I would take this offer?” He stands abruptly. “You do not know me at all, Mother. This farm is mine now. I was going to farm it with you next season, but it is clear that you are planning to retire soon too. So why don’t you just do it and leave? Follow Suki to Castlebourne, or Evers to Varkas Reflex. I will take five, six, seven husbands and wives if that’s what it takes! I’ll not abandon my birthright, and I cannot believe that you of all people would suggest I do!”

His parents stay calm. His father clears his throat. “We were not suggesting that you retire offworld. There is a way for you to gain control over, not only the farm, but all of Quiratan. There is an ancient rank known as the Superintendent. If you reinstitute this role, it would be you who decides who works what farms. Eminent domain, easements, and the like; you would have power over all of it. You would be able to transition Eyrenlanders into more traditional Quiratan obsolescent practices. And once the positions are filled to your satisfaction, you could turn away the excess.”

Jande sits back down. He has spent his whole life learning about this world. He has mostly focused on agriculture, but he studied history as well, and he has never heard of a superintendent. If it’s true, that would be an interesting development. “How would I go about this? Would I walk down main street with the biggest gun, and announce that I’m in charge now, or is there some kind of ceremony or election, or what?” This doesn’t mean he’s gonna do it; he’s just asking questions. There is no harm in asking questions.

Mother smiles, pleased with herself and Father for managing to get through to him. “Superintendents are in charge of elections, placing them above the bureaucracy. There are no guns, and no election. But there is a series of tribulations. It would not be easy, and we would need to find someone to moderate and judge.”

“But, son,” Father begins. “Once you open the floodgates, you will not be able to control what else flows through. Others will surely challenge you for the job.”

Jande nods and relaxes a little in his chair. “Tell me more.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 30, 2574

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Deflinus was Olimpia’s older brother, not younger. The fact that she was the only person in the family to have an echo, even after a decade and a half, strongly suggested to all of them that there was only something wrong with her. They didn’t realize she heard these fights, but her father regularly accused her mother of having an affair, which would explain Olimpia’s unusual condition. They didn’t understand it, but it just felt like something that would be passed down the bloodline. They conducted periodic DNA tests to prove him wrong because he kept bringing it up again every few years, thinking if he could have been duped for the conception, earlier tests could have been faked too.

Olimpia’s echo was very isolating. She never grew close to her siblings. They didn’t exclude her maliciously. It really came down to their parents. They raised her differently than they raised the others, which taught them to treat her differently too. They actually got a little better when they were older, but it was too late. She was too scarred to want to stick around, and didn’t really take their feelings into account as she left home.

“You’re not still using the body that you were born in, right?” Olimpia asked.

“Delfinus lost count of how many bodies he has used since his sister abandoned him to their abusive parents. He changed substrates multiple times in an attempt to correct his curse. Nothing has worked, but he keeps trying every once in a while.”

“You can’t turn it off, what you’re doing?” Olimpia asked, pretty sure of the answer.

“He obviously can’t, or he would never. Delfinus stopped speaking for years because of it. Knowing sign language has not helped. He simply signs his narrations, instead of the actual words he wants to say. The deaf community cast him out for signing so literally, and ignoring conventional sign grammar rules. Had his sister remained, they could have at least struggled together. She should have stayed.”

Olimpia sighed and shook her head. “There was no way I could have known. You were older! It doesn’t make any sense that it should have presented itself so late in life.” When Mateo and Leona’s kids from another timeline showed up, she actually questioned whether time powers ran in the family. She was told they only did sometimes. Being that Olimpia’s parents had no apparent patterns of their own, she was likely unique. She should not have taken that as gospel, however, seeing as how she didn’t have a power or a pattern, but an affliction, and those were probably handled differently.

Olimpia’s watch beeped. “There is more to me than there once was. There’s more to the world than you know. You have only scratched the surface. In under a minute, I will quite literally disappear, and you will not see me for another year, at the earliest.”

Delfinus nodded, and didn’t act surprised at all as he looked through his bag. “Del knows of time travel. He has not been sitting idly by doing nothing. He has done his research.” He removed a pocket tent and tossed it on the ground, which exploded. “He has learned to be a patient man. He will wait a year until his sister returns.”

Exactly a year later, everything was almost exactly as it was before. The tent was still open, and Delfinus was right where he was standing when Olimpia left.

“Okay. Now we have twenty-four hours to figure this out,” she began. “If we don’t we’ll have to wait another year. I assume you have met with doctors over the years?”

“Delfinus hates doctors. They always call what he does a psychological concern, probably built around the trauma of having a sister with her own medical issues.”

Olimpia sighs. “Well, this one will be different. Doctor Mallory Hammer will actually listen to what you have to say, and will believe you.”

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 24, 2415

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The great thing about life on Dardius was that Mateo and Karla had no responsibilities beyond caring for their child. They didn’t have to get up and go to work in the morning. They didn’t have to mow the lawn, or go out for groceries. Everything they did revolved around little Romana. They slept when she slept, and they played when she was up for it. A lot of experts will recommend not sharing a room with one’s infant, and especially not a bed, but the two of them didn’t agree. They were in little danger of accidentally harming their girl. She slept in a bassinet that was situated between the two of them in the center of a gigantic bed. Even if something happened overnight, alarms would go off, because all three of them were being monitored by medical equipment. If she woke up to cough once, the computer would log it, and if the cough kept going, and the parents didn’t wake up on their own, that alarm would go off. Karla was born to a long line of roomsharers, and this didn’t change when the Neimans made the move from Durus to Dardius. And Mateo? He wanted to give his new blended family everything they wanted or needed, so he was flexible.

Most of the rest of the team didn’t have any responsibilities either, but they were keeping themselves busy. Ramses and Leona spent a lot of time in the lab, inventing new things, and even retrofitting the shuttle. Angela and Marie wanted to learn more about the planet, its culture, and particularly the global government. They were currently in the tower next door, shadowing the owners, and sitting in on meetings. Even Constance had something to do. She decided to become Romana’s fulltime doctor. Dardius had prepared a medical team for them, but it wasn’t necessary. She possessed the knowledge and skills of four and a half billion years. She could do just about anything. After all, her prime directive was nurture and care. As for Olimpia, there was nothing. She wasn’t smart enough to work in the lab on the Dante, and she wasn’t interested in any of the boring sociopolitical stuff. She felt like a fifth wheel with the baby, so she just sat in her room, and started watching Dardieti TV. She found it a little odd. They were speaking English, and they were talking about things she had decent experience with, but it was like they were on a slightly different wavelength. Plus, she was growing bored with it too. What she needed was a native to tell her what historical programs to watch, and which ones to skip. But who has time for that?

This was a big world, and while everyone else was limiting themselves to one tiny sliver of it, she decided to go explore. They had all been able to teleport for a long time now, but hadn’t really used this power for personal reasons. There was always some specific place they needed to be, and some urgent matter to attend to there. She was just going to be a tourist. In a single day, she hiked the Mountains of Opalia, canoed on Azuria Lake, and walked the streets of Quasar City. Now, for no reason at all, she decided to return to Tribulation Island, and take a dip in the completely unpolluted ocean. But when she arrived, she was overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle.

A man in military uniform was barking orders at his soldiers, who were running around, then taking formation around the Nexus. Two helicopters were flying overhead. A fleet of ships sat at various distances in the water. Olimpia thought about just leaving, since this wasn’t her business, but her curiosity got the better of her. She noticed one soldier standing separately from the others, staring out over the sea, instead of towards the Nexus building. “Forgive me. Is it all right if I ask what’s going on here?”

“How did you—oh, Miss Sangster. It’s an honor, but you should leave. It’s not safe here.” She lifted her binoculars back up to scan the horizon.

“What’s happening?”

“There’s been an incursion in the Nexus. And unauthorized visitor has come through. Don’t ask me who were why, because it’s not my job to know. I’m here to keep a lookout, in case the true threat is coming from out there, and the Nexus arrival was nothing more than a distraction.”

Olimpia looked over to see that others like her were staring up at the sky, a few of them with telescopes. “I’ve seen in movies, distractions like that. You’re smart to be concerned with other points of entry.”

“It’s unlikely anyone will come by sea, in such a sparsely populated remote galaxy, but it’s not impossible for someone to have secretly landed in deeper waters, and are now making their way here. We always keep an eye on the vastness, but we’re on high alert right now.”

Olimpia looked behind them. “My team and I just arrived through the Nexus.”

“I am aware.”

“How many visitors do you receive on average?”

“Almost none these days. We don’t make many rescues anymore.”

“So, it’s probably not a coincidence,” Olimpia guessed.

The soldier lowered the binoculars. “That’s why it’s not safe. They could be coming for you. I do not believe your team has been informed of the development, or you would not be the only one here.”

“I teleported here on a whim. I don’t know what the others are doing.”

“I urge you to go find out, to tell no one of what’s happening here, and to never return to the island unless a trusted authority has assured you that it is no longer a risk.”

No. There was no such thing as a coincidence when it came to time travelers. She may have thought that she came to this island just to feel the waves tickle her ankles, but she was here for a reason. It was her job to represent the interests of Team Matic. It was her job to keep the others safe from whatever was going on here. They all had important things to deal with. As the only free agent, it was the least she could do. “Thanks, soldier.” She stepped away and walked up to the General. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes, Miss Sangster.”

She waited a beat. “Report.”

“A group of six people came through the Nexus. We have safeguards in place that prevent anyone from doing that unless they call ahead.”

“We didn’t call ahead.”

“Unless they call ahead, or it was prearranged,” the General clarified.

She nodded. “What are their names?”

“They’ve not said. They claim to be representatives of a multireality advocacy group working towards a cooperative future in the Sixth Key. I don’t know exactly what that means, but we’ve quarantined them in there until we can figure out how they breached our security, and why we’ve been locked out of the controls.”

“Did they say anything else?”

“They would like to establish diplomatic relations with Dardius.”

She nodded again. “I’m going in.”

The General sighed. “I can’t stop you, but I can advise you to not.”

“Noted,” she said simply. She turned to face the building, and prepared herself. Then she teleported in.

The six strangers were standing in a circle in the Nexus cavity, talking amongst themselves. When one of them noticed Olimpia’s arrival, she indicated as much with her eyes, prompting the others to turn. “Hello.” An apparent leader took one step forward, but stayed in the pit. “My name is Heath Walton of the Third Rail. Do you represent Dardian interests?”

“Dardieti,” she corrected.

He closed his eyelids softly, and nodded. “Apologies.”

“And no, I don’t.” She pulled out her handheld device, and ran a search. Heath Walton did not appear on her list of people she had met. But he was on everyone else’s. “The name of your wife.”

“Marie. Angela Marie Walton.”

“What happened to her?”

“It’s complicated. Do you know her?”

“Why are you here?”

“To establish—”

“Diplomatic relations with Darius,” she interrupted. “Yes, I’ve heard.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “You do not have diplomatic experience yourself, yet they sent you?”

“Nobody sends me anywhere. I do as I please.”

“Ah. So you’re one of the elite travelers; someone so powerful that smart people know that it’s safer to just let you make your own choices than to try to get in your way, and risk turning you into an enemy. Yes, Marie is like that as well.”

“There is a Fifth Divisioner; his name, we’ve never known,” Olimpia began.

Heath’s face fell. He knew where she was going with this.

“He imprisoned Team Matic. What do you know of this?”

Heath nodded. “He was one of the few of us who happened to be in the main sequence during the Reconvergence. A copy of him materialized in the Sixth Key, and he established contact with his alternate self. He joined our group, and we asked him to find and secure Team Matic so they could return to our new universe. I wanted to see my wife again, and to offer them all to join us. They are a source of inspiration for many, and we were hoping they— wait, you’re Olimpia Sangster.”

“And if I am?”

He didn’t really answer the question. “What happened to you was wrong. We charged that man with getting you back to us. He thought that we wanted him to hurt you. He is an idiot, and an asshole, and both versions of him have since been removed from our organization. I apologize for the trouble, and the trauma. That is not what we are about. We are aware of the impending war between realities, and we are doing everything we can to stop it. We came to ask Dardius for its guidance, but since you are here as well, we ask the same of you.”

She scanned the representatives. “Do any of you have powers; temporal, psychic, or otherwise?”

“No, not even the one from the Parallel.” Heath answered, shaking his head.

Olimpia teleported out and returned a minute later with zip ties. “Let the military take you in for questioning. I’ll speak with my friends. We’ll get back to you next year.”

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 23, 2414

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Mateo was the one to donate his blood to Karla, so she could start skipping time, and remain on the same pattern as their daughter. This was intentionally a temporary fix, just in case she changed her mind later. It made sense on paper to stay this way forever, but she may decide that it would be best for her to always be waiting for little Romana to return to the timestream. She had about a week to decide, and if she still wasn’t sure, they could always give her a second dose of the temporary pattern-sharing serum, instead of the permanent one. Perhaps they would just keep doing it like that. Neither Cassidy nor Mateo had a problem with this eventuality.

She was a very special little baby. Generally speaking, the first time a person travels through time—and usually to a lesser degree for every subsequent trip—it’s a jarring experience. It can come with sometimes very nasty side effects, such as nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, or diarrhea, among other possibilities. These symptoms can come on in the moments leading up to the jump, and last for minutes or hours afterwards. For Romana, she seemed to have no issue at all. As midnight central approached, she giggled, as if it were a pleasurable experience for her. It probably was. It wasn’t the first time she did it; just the first time after she was born. The truth was that it had happened to her about 270 times before this. It was part of who she was, in a deeper sense than most time travelers, including her own father. Meliora Rutherford, the daughter of this building’s namescape, was likely the only person with some understanding of what Romana’s is going through right now. They couldn’t wait until she was verbal.

It was April 23, 2414 on Dardius right now. The Dardieti toyed with their own calendar for a while before deciding to conform to that of Earth’s. A dying man was sent back in time about two millennia to let his final act alive be setting the flag of Dardius in the North Pole. His remains were discovered beside the now-buried remnants of that flag in recent days. His fusion-powered solar watch was still ticking, allowing them to accept the calendar as real. Of course, this was but a symbolic gesture. There was no real reason why they couldn’t simply deliberately have declared what year it was without technically starting at zero, but it made it a little easier to believe in.

Leona was sitting on the huge penthouse balcony, watching the sun rise. The arch that the Isaac Skybridge created was facing north and south, so the sun came up over Lincoln Tower, and set over Rutherford Tower. It was beautiful up here. There was no rule that LIR Towers had to be the tallest structure in the city, but it was. In fact, it remained the tallest one in the world. They were pretty lucky to live here now, and hopefully it would last. Leona being the cynic of the group, was not so convinced, but she wasn’t about to let that on to anyone else. It wasn’t helpful. So she was regarding the sky, and appreciating the time that they did have in this wondrous place. As she sat there, she started to feel a pull behind her. It was Ramses, calling to her from the Dante using their empathetic bond. She stood up, and teleported to the shuttle.

Ramses was in his laboratory pocket dimension, hunched over his table, studying something with his ocular loupes. “I’m hoping not to have disturbed you. It did not feel as if you were asleep.”

“I did not sleep,” Leona clarified. “None of us but Mateo did. Did you see the bed they designed for him and Karla?”

Ramses looks up from his work. “No? This sounds juicy.”

She laughed. “It’s a giant king-plus sized bed with a bassinet installed in the center, so co-parents can sleep on either side of the baby.”

He chuckled. “Cute.”

“I should say, I don’t think the concept was inspired by them. I believe it’s a normal product that anyone can order, but this one was custom-made as a gift from a friend of the family, or maybe just a fan.”

“Who knows, this planet is weird.”

“What are you working on there?”

“The rosary.” He lifted it up with a pair of tweezers. “I’ve been trying to get it to work. So far, I’ve been able to guess at its function, but not actually trigger its power.”

She looked upon it. “I forgot about this thing. It definitely works. I’ve seen it used. You, or someone who looks very much like you, used it at The Edge meeting. And someone who looked very much like you popped in and out of the timeline while I was gone to take things from the team.” It could be that the real version of him was never destined to use it. Ramses was in possession of it now, and Future!Leona will have it at some point later. It pretty much had to be in that order, because Ramses took it directly from Arcadia in another brane, but that was the extent of their understanding of the thing. It didn’t mean he would ever figure out how to operate it. “What does it do?”

“I think...it counteracts time.”

“In what way?”

“Well, you said that this other Ramses—maybe Future!Me, maybe always Future!Leona—would squeeze it and disappear. That sounds like your average time travel or teleportation. But if that’s the case, why is it so coveted? Why does it matter? Plenty of people can do that on their own, there’s no real reason for anyone else to want it, especially not Future!Leona. She can do a ton of things. My best guess is that when someone uses it, they separate themselves from whatever time is doing to them in that moment. If they’re moving forward in time at typical speed, maybe they move backwards, or maybe just slower. If true, it could be reapplied to other temporal manipulations, such as breaking out of a time bubble, or undoing illusions, like invisibility.”

Leona looked away to think. “Or time jump patterns.”

He nodded solemnly. “It could...cure us. That is, if you look at it as a disease, which I personally don’t. After all, I did this to myself on purpose.”

She nodded back, just as solemnly. “But it could cure Romana. She could be a normal little girl.”

“That’s not my call, and like I said, I can’t turn it on.” He stood up, and walked over to a locker. “But that’s not all I wanted to show you this morning. Unlike the rosary, Dante 2.0 is complete.”

“Two-point-oh?” Leona questioned.

He smiled as he took what looked like a parachute pack out, and held it open. “Well, come on and put it on.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“What, you don’t trust me?”

“Not as far as I can throw you.”

He shook the pack, and then started helping her arms through the straps. “We’re five hundred meters up in the air, my dear. You could throw me quite far.” He came around and closed the waist buckle and chest buckle for her. “Looks good on ya.

“A parachute’s not gonna fit in here.”

He laughed. “It’s not a parachute.” He turned around so they were facing the same direction, and shook his hands accordingly. “Left is open, right is closed. I’m working on a special function that happens when you pull them at the same time, but that’s not ready yet. For now, that will just do nothing.”

“You’ve still not yet said what either one of the other cords does.”

He smiled knowingly, and pulled the right cord for her. Everything around them started to collapse in on itself, and become sucked into the pack as it shrank. In seconds, the whole Dante was gone, and they were standing in the open air on the top of the Isaac Skybridge.

“Oh. That makes sense. It’s just like the Phoenix.”

“It was already designed to potentially be collapsed into an uninhabitable pocket dimension of its own. All I had to do was reprogram it to collapse into this thing, instead of the suitcase that the rest of the capital ship goes into. The only thing is, if this shuttle were ever to be reunited with the Phoenix, I’m not sure whether it would function correctly or safely. It may go ahead and fall into the suitcase along with everything else, or it’ll be vaporized.” He grimaced at the thought.

She shook her head. “We’re never getting the Phoenix back. The people from the afterlife simulation need it more than we ever could.”

Suddenly, guardsmen from both towers rushed onto the bridge, and pointed their weapons in strategic directions. “Is everything okay, sirs?” one of them asked. “Your shuttle disappeared!”

“Everything’s fine!” Leona assured them. I just...put it in my bag!”

They were still on high alert. “Are you quite certain? We can protect you from anything!” the leader from Rutherford Tower added.

“Really, it’s fine! We didn’t mean to alarm you. Um...” She switched to false bravado. “Return to your posts, please. I think I’m going to..take it out of the bag again!”

The guardsmen retreated into their respective towers, except for one. He was just a kid, surely no older than nineteen. He held his gun at the low ready position. He was trying to avoid eye contact like he was really trying to avoid being noticed.

“You may go, soldier!” Ramses encouraged.

“I was actually hoping to, um...see it?”

“From outside, or in?” Ramses asked him.

The young man thought about it. “Both!”

Leona removed the Dante pack, and handed it to Ramses. She approached the soldier. “What’s your name, son?”

“Mercari, sir. Officer Mercari. This is my first week.”

“Are you related to Andromeda Mercari?”

“Distantly, sir. I...I can’t remember the family tree.”

“You don’t have to call me sir. I’m just a person. Why don’t you set that gun down? I don’t like weapons.”

Officer Mercari switched the safety on, and set the rifle down against the wall.

“We’ll start out here. Go ahead and do it!” she called over to Ramses.

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 22, 2413

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Mateo and Leona stayed with Karla for the rest of the day, as did the rest of the family. For the last several generations, it was important to make sure that another womb-bearing child was born to the bloodline to maintain Mateo and Saffira’s child. Nothing inherent about this unprecedented situation prevented them from birthing only anatomical boys, so the family tree was quite large, and consisted mostly of men. In this case, Karla was an only child, but she could easily have been the only daughter of many. But this was not their only concern. It takes two to tango, and while partnership was generally a shared agreement, the Niemans occasionally had to take steps to avoid the premature end to the family lineage. Arranged marriage was a contentious term, but it was sometimes necessary in order to ensure the future of the baby. Though it would have been extremely unlikely for Karla to not be the one to ultimately birth Romana, there was a remote chance that she too would have to pass on the responsibility. To make that even possible, she needed a mate.

A young man by the name of Silenus Koolen was chosen to play this role. The two of them did not hate each other. By all accounts, they got along just fine, but there was no spark between them. There was no love. There was also very little pressure to make any sort of relationship work, because again, there was nearly no chance of their coupling being at all necessary. They never married, and did not have a child together, and now that Romana was here in the world, it was clearly no longer necessary. Still, he made one appearance to show his support for Karla, and reportedly continued to do so on a daily basis until the day of birth. This occurred at 12:01 central time, just after Mateo and the others returned to the timestream. The Matics were in the room where it happened, assisting with water, towels, and words of encouragement.

It was an extremely busy day, April 22, 2413. No one really knew exactly what was going to happen to Romana once she was born. Was Team Matic going to take her away? Would they never see her again for the rest of their lives? Everyone took their turns holding her, in case they would never get another chance. Traditionally, this was too much for one baby, and the doctors were not happy with this decision, but Neimans were a tough clan, and little Romana handled it with grace. But tomorrow, she will be monitored appropriately for the entire day. There was still so little they knew about her medical condition. What toll would daily time travel take on such a tiny, fragile body? In the meantime, the world government stepped in. They had spent the year remodeling the roof of the LIR Towers. It was built exclusively for Mateo and his people, but had undergone changes over the last two centuries. One of the towers was in full use, but the other stood empty, waiting for Mateo’s return.

The top floor of Lincoln Tower was still a penthouse, but was upgraded and kept up to date since the last time the Matics were here. The skybridge in between the towers was the biggest difference, having been adjusted to allow the docking of the Dante. Anyone in the penthouse could be evacuated in a matter of minutes, assuming they didn’t just teleport up there on their own. There were several units, depending on the viable size of Mateo’s team, a nursery for the young one, and other amenities. Below that, there was a restaurant, an indoor park and arboretum, and a library. These were all private, and for the center levels, there was pretty much nothing. Below that, however, was a military base, and a law enforcement station. There were other police and military buildings in the surrounding area. It was said that this was the most protected structure in the world, and that was probably true. Romana Saffira would be safe here, assuming that this was what the family wanted.

“So we’re moving to Darius permanently?” Angela asked. They were in the penthouse now, only a few hours before midnight, to get a look around at where they might live.

Leona scratched her chin. “Is there any reason why we shouldn’t?”

“I have to be wherever my daughter is,” Mateo declared. “I don’t want her to be raised without me, like the others were. So it’s up to Karla. Karla, I will go where you want to be.”

“This is a nice-ass place,” Karla admitted. “There’s even already a place for me to...sit down.” She just gave birth. They really shouldn’t have to worry about this right now, but she was the one who was going to be living here for an extended period of time. Everyone else would be gone.

Marie helped her get down to the couch, and spread out to a comfortable position. “I don’t see why we should leave. What else is there? The way I see it, we deal with one emergency call at a time, so if we receive another, we’ll have to put it off, because we’re still in the middle of this one.”

Leona laughed. “We’ll technically be in the middle of it for the next seven thousand realtime years.”

While Mateo believed that this was Karla’s decision, Dardius was the obvious best choice. Besides the tribulations and expiations on Tribulation Island, this world had been pretty good to them. Well, there was a war, but that was so long ago. This was only not the most peaceful planet they had been to when not accounting for its population. It was ten times better than Earth easily, and comparably advanced. It was clearly a great place to raise a child, yet that was no one else’s problem. “This is...this is a me thing,” he reiterated. “And a Karla thing. I love you guys, but really, if something else comes up, I don’t want you to stay just for me.”

“You’re my husband,” Leona insisted.

“You’re my best friend,” Ramses said for himself.

“You’re like a brother,” Angela said.

“Or a cousin, at worst,” Marie added, smirking.

“Hold on,” Olimpia began, “there’s not much left. “Boyfriend?” She was now speaking normally. They were never able to retrieve the Cassidy cuff that suppressed her power, but Dardieti scientists already had something for her. It didn’t stop her voice from echoing into the future, but it muted the sound, which was good enough for practical use.

Constance stepped forward. “And to me, you are like also a baby.” She patted him on the head. “There, there, you little dum-dum baby.”

Mateo smiled. “Okay. Are you okay with this...suddenly even bigger family?”

“Yes, yes, very good, thank you.” Karla immediately dozed off, one hand placed gently upon little Saffira’s chest, who was sleeping soundly in her bassinet.

There was a knock at the door. They all looked over to make sure it had not awoken mother and baby. The knock was tempered, suggesting that the knocker was cognizant and cautious. Still, Leona teleported over there to make sure it didn’t happen again. She opened it to find an old friend.

Saga Einarsson frowned at her kindly, and started to tear up. She reached out to hug her estranged friend. “I didn’t think I’d cry. I didn’t even promise myself I wouldn’t. It didn’t cross my mind.”

Leona was crying too. “I’ve missed you.” Now she could see that Vearden, Étude, and Cassidy were also in the antechamber. She started to cry even harder. These were the four owners of the entire planet. Well, Vearden didn’t technically own it, but he was a de facto co-owner, and the citizens treated him as such. The three true owners inherited it from Mateo, who wasn’t around enough to make much of a difference. They were apparently hands-on here, operating separately from the government, but working with it in the capitol building of Rutherford Tower, which was right next door. Vearden, on the other hand, was an elected official, serving as the current Mediator. He didn’t make the decisions, but he supervised the two who did.

Constance carefully carried Karla into the private hospital room down the hall that was designed specifically for her, while Olimpia wheeled Romana in with her. A nurse and a doctor were meant to be stationed here at all times, but there was evidently a mix-up in scheduling, so Constance took on the responsibility. She sure had the knowledge.

Meanwhile, the old friends reconnected with each other, and made introductions to the ones who had not yet met each other. Out of the four, Cassidy was the only official former member of Team Matic, but the other three were just as important. There was a lot of catching up to do until midnight hit in a few hours. “Please tell me you’re not here to report a problem,” Mateo said, feeling anxious about it now that the pleasantries were done, and the conversation was in a bit of a lull.

“We came here for two reasons,” Étude began.” She indicated the group before saying, “for this...and for this.” She pulled a half-full vial of red fluid from her pocket. It looked a little like blood, but if that was what it was, other things were mixed in with it to alter the color.

“That was once mine,” Cassidy said.

Mateo stared at the vial. “Oh.” Cassidy could absorb other people’s time powers, patterns, and afflictions. She was pursued by time travelers while under Mateo’s protection, but that didn’t always work out, and they never did figure out who specifically was behind all that.

“This is temporary,” Étude went on, “but we can make a concoction that is permanent. We have provided the Nieman family with counseling since they arrived on Dardius. One of these people has always been personal and private. Their conversations were just as privileged as one would expect out of a civilized society. The other reported back to us, and this was completely above board. The mothers consented to it, and they said whatever they wanted to this person, leaving out whatever they wanted to keep to themselves. Karla has gone through this as well, and based on their relatively limited interactions with her, it has become apparent to us that...” She trailed off to look back in the direction of the hospital room. “Karla will suffer from profound postpartum depression if that baby is taken from her. She has asked us to place her on your pattern to prevent this from happening. We can’t take blood from an infant for such a procedure. It would be illegal, unethical, and unnecessary. We are here to ask one of you to donate blood to finish the serum. Who’s up for it?”

All six of them held out their arms, and pulled their sleeves up, if necessary.

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 21, 2412

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Finding the Nexus, and getting the hell out of this galaxy, while dangerous and full of many unknowns, was their best and safest course of action. The angry Fifth Divisioner was one of apparently many who wanted to see the whole team dead, probably for not completely unreasonable reasons. They always had pretty good luck on Dardius, at least when it came to civilization. Of course, that was the location of Tribulation Island, which was arguably the source of every problem that still haunted them today, but other than that, it’s been great.

“What’s your idea, Constance?” Leona asked.

“Well, the three-word coordinate system is an interesting thing,” Constance began. “They’re meant to be random, but then I started thinking about how time travelers affect history in tiny little ways that a normal person wouldn’t notice. There are phrases that I’ve heard two people utter independently of each other, centuries apart, without them having ever crossed paths. Now, maybe that can be explained by a long chain of meetings, like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but based on other things I know about how time works...not necessarily. The Nexa are incredibly advanced, complex machines that can do a whole hell of a lot more than just send you from Point A to Point B. The people who came up with them cross the multiversal void like it’s nothing more than a tiny stream they can hop over with a modicum of momentum. They’re sometimes called gods. If anyone is capable of secretly impacting the algorithm of a natural language global coordinate system, it’s them.”

“Where are you going with this?” Mateo pressed, not impatiently.

Constance nodded, and turned a screen that hung down from the ceiling between the passenger section and the helm. She zoomed into the ocean. “Nexus.space.machine,” she said dramatically. “Middle of the Pacific Ocean, just as we suspected.

Leona peered at it. “Could it really be that...on the nose?”

“Might as well see what’s up,” Constance determined. “The nearest major land mass is three thousand kilometers away. There’s little risk in checking it out. I mean, except, of course, that guy who’s trying to kill you. But he could be anywhere.” She shrugged. “I doubt he’s there. If he is, it’s because I’m right.”

“Yeah,” Leona agreed. She looked back up at the screen, and took a breath. “Dante. Activate the cloak, plot a course back to Earth, and once we’re within teleportation range, jump us straight to—”

“Wait,” Olimpia piped up. “If there’s something there, we don’t wanna land right on top of it, or inside of it.”

“Good point.” Leona tapped on a different square on the map. “Jump to arise.until.converges instead.”

“Understood. Cloak activated. Jumping now.”

They were floating in the middle of the ocean. Around them was more ocean. There was no land in sight, no aircraft in the skies; they were totally alone. And there was no Nexus space machine to transport them to Dardius. But of course, it was never going to be that easy, or a satellite would have picked it up in the late 19th century. Angela started removing her clothes.

“Whaaat are you doing?” Ramses asked

“Don’t question her,” Olimpia scolded playfully, enjoying the show.

“I’m going for a swim. My guess is that it’s at the bottom of the ocean. I don’t know how deep it is here, but—”

“Three thousand, six hundred, and eighty-three meters,” Dante answered, unprompted.

“You can’t go down that far,” Ramses explained, “but...” He widened his eyes, and lifted his hand towards the ceiling.

“I can,” Dante volunteered.

“Let’s do it,” Leona said. “Run a grid sweep, centering on Nexus.space.machine.”

They didn’t have to do much of a sweep. As soon as they dove right under the surface, and pointed the headlights where they wanted to go, the Nexus building appeared within view. It wasn’t giving off any energy readings to speak of, and was undetectable via sonar, but it was visible to the naked eye. It was just under the water, and maintaining neutral buoyancy. The waves went up, it went up. The waves went down, it went down. It was possible to stand on top of it, and not get wet above the ankles, if not for the splashes. They dove the Dante deeper, and magnetically attached it to the exterior wall. Then they all seven teleported into the Nexus building.

“Venus, are you there?”

“I’m here, Leona.”

“I’m always worried that you won’t respond.”

“I can’t promise that I always will.”

“Thanks for being honest. We were hoping to be transported to Dardius?”

“Certainly.” The machine began to power up.

“Wait, let’s think about this,” Mateo said. Despite the fact that Mateo did not have anywhere near the relationship with this Venus Opsocor, the machine actually started to power down a little bit, apparently in response to his hesitation. “I’m a little tired. Aren’t you a little tired?”

“I guess,” Leona replied.

“I’m not,” Ramses said. “But if you worked half as hard as I imagine you would have had to in the stairwell, your bodies could be spent right now. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a rest.”

“If we wait one more day,” Leona began to reason, “everyone else is waiting a year. They’re expecting us.”

“They knew what they were getting into when they sent for us,” Marie reasoned right back. “They are under no illusions that our lives are quick and easy. You should sleep. It could be that they would rather us be late and energized than early and useless.”

Leona thought about it some more. All right. Venus, we’re going back to the Dante to sleep. Is it okay if we postpone this for a year?”

“Why go back when you have everything you need right here?” The Nexus went back to powering up. A light flashed, and when it receded, they found an undecagonal bed that fit perfectly within the undecagonal Nexus cavity. Someone designed it to be used for such an occasion, and it was just sitting on another world, waiting to be transported here when needed. Did they need it, though? Did anyone need a bed that was larger than most bedrooms?

“Orgy, party of seven!” Olimpia joked. She jumped into the bed, and started logrolling around.

“That’s my sister,” Angela argued, pointing to Marie.

Olimpia just shrugged.

“You definitely need some sleep, which is all that’s going to be happening in this bed. Thank you, Venus,” Leona said.

“I live to serve.”

Everyone slept through the night, including the four of them who didn’t expend a ton of energy in an underground monkey bar prison. Constance found it to be an eye-opening experience, because while she had obviously placed herself in dormant mode before, she had never slept as an organic being. It made her appreciate the human struggle more in several hours than she had accrued in the prior four and a half billion years of her life. That was probably a tiny exaggeration, though. Once everyone was up and ready, Venus made the gargantuan bed disappear. She then loaded the coordinates to the Nexus on Tribulation Island, and sent them all away.

“You have arrived,” she announced at their destination. Because she was everywhere all at once.

The two Nexus technicians greeted them, of course knowing exactly who they were, and having been expecting their visit. They made no indication that the team was late. They contacted someone to come and explain why they were asked to come here, and told them that they were free to wait inside, or get some fresh air. This planet never had any air pollution, which was something that all Vonearthan colonies shared, but this one held a population of billions, so it was particularly astonishing.

When they stepped outside, they found the Dante sitting on the sand next to the Nexus building. “Venus. How did you bring it here?” Leona asked her.

“The cavity is more of what you would call a guideline than an actual rule. I am the Nexus. I am the network.” Hm. Interesting.

They wandered around, and did enjoy the fresh air until a woman arrived an hour later from an airshuttle. She stepped out, and looked directly at Mateo, rather than the group as a whole. “Mateo Matic. My name is Tyra Nieman, Generation Ten. I am here to take you to my daughter, Karla Nieman, Generation Eleven.”

“Do we have business with her?” Mateo asked. “I don’t believe we’ve met, though I do recognize the surname. I think it’s in my notebook.”

“It ought to be,” Tyra said. “You had sex with our ancestor nearly three hundred years ago.” She turned to head back towards the shuttle. “Come. Your daughter will be born soon.”

They followed her into the shuttle, and rode with her to the mainland. Mateo started flipping through his notes, but he already remembered what Tyra was referring to. Two hundred and seventy-nine years ago, Mateo and Leona found themselves on the rogue planet of Durus. A settlement called Ladytown was attacked by the government, which resulted in all of the males living there contracting a deadly disease. They asked Mateo to donate sperm so they could repopulate and rebuild. They did not have the technology to do this medically, so he had to perform the old fashioned way. He paired with several women, but after returning to the timestream a year later, he learned that none of the pregnancies took. According to this woman, that was apparently untrue, or the truth was at least complicated. In their world, complicated was the resting state. Their best guess was that Saffira Nieman was placed in stasis, or jumped forward in time, and it was just that no one mentioned it. But if Saffira was finally about to have the baby, what did her descendent, Karla have to do with anything?

Tyra declined to clarify the situation, insisting that, as the current mother—which she said as if the word were more of a title than a relationship—Karla was responsible for speaking for herself. So they waited until they were in the house in Sutvindr, where the Niemans lived. There they were taken into a bedroom, where a pregnant woman was lying in bed. Mateo wasn’t the best with faces, but this was definitely not Saffira.

A man was sitting on a chair next to the bed. “It’s all right, father. I would like to speak with him alone.”

“What if you need something?” her father asks.

“Then I am sure that Mister Matic is more than capable of helping. If his reputation is accurate, he will be more than willing as well.”

“Of course,” Mateo concurred. “She is safe with me.”

The father grunted, and left the room. Leona had stepped in as well, and was reluctant to leave.

“It’s okay, Madam Delaney. You may stay as well,” the woman said with a smile, though it appeared to be difficult for her to change the expression on her face. With all due respect, she looked very tired. “I’m sure you have lots of questions,” she began as she was trying to sit up. She accepted Mateo’s help with the pillows. “Or maybe you just have the one: what the fuck is going on? Bear with me, and I promise, everything will make sense.” She cleared her throat, and reached over for some water. “My name is Karla Nieman, Generation Eleven: the final mother. Now, what does that mean? Well, hundreds of years ago, you impregnated Saffira Nieman. She lived and died with no idea that she was pregnant for years on end. She actually had her own kid—two kids, I believe; a girl and a boy. The girl, when she came of age, became pregnant as well. She lived and died also without knowing the truth. It was actually not until the fourth generation that people started to suspect that something was weird.”

“Oh my God.”

“Leona’s getting it,” Karla said with a bigger smile, and a laugh. “That’s when she started to feel symptoms, because for the baby, the pregnancy has been going on for the last several weeks.”

Mateo lost his breath. He turned away to get it back. He was hyperventilating. Leona tried to place her hands upon his shoulders to comfort him, but it only made it worse. After a couple of minutes, he composed himself, and turned back around. “I’m terribly sorry about that. I just...now I understand that... I’m sorry.”

“Yes, it’s a lot to take in. We can only imagine how difficult it must have been for Generations Four and Five. They had to figure it out with limited medical technology, and a cursory understanding of time travel studies. You’re famous, Mateo, and the Nieman bloodline knows more about you than anyone else in the universe, but that’s only because we made a point to know. We had to. But the early mothers had no reason to research your life yet.”

“So you’ve been pregnant your whole life? The baby just keeps going down the generations?” Mateo asked.

“No,” Karla responded with a shake of her head. “It doesn’t happen until after puberty. Until then, the previous mother holds onto it. But remember, it’s a once a year thing. It’s just like your life—” She interrupted herself to stare into space with a look of immense pain. Her sigh turned into a whimper, which turned into a scream, though it wasn’t too loud. Mateo just let her squeeze his hand until the contraction was over two minutes later. She breathed heavily, and drank some more water. “Forgive me.”

“That is nothing that needs to be forgiven,” Leona insisted.

“Thank you. As I was saying, the way it worked is that once the next mother in line goes through puberty, the baby will transport itself to her. The doctors called it Spontaneous Uterine Transplantation. Actually, they originally called it Spontaneous Matrilineal Uterine Transplantation, but someone pointed out that it spelled out Smut, so they changed it. But it’s still matrilineal. To my knowledge, a daughter was never a guarantee. I only have three brothers, but previous mothers have had many more, because they needed to make sure that there was an impregnable person to carry the torch. Ha! That’s not the right word, is it? It seems like it should be. If you can be impregnated, you’re impregnable! Right? Am I right? I’m right!” She laughed heartily.

They laughed with her.

“Anyway, as we’ve said, there have been eleven generations of this for the last three hundred years. The baby exists for one day out of the year, just like you. It jumps forward in time at the end of that day, but the funny thing is, every fun component of pregnancy sticks around. Bloating, cramps, wonky hormones: I’ve had them since I was a teen. And now...”

“Now you’ve been in labor for, what, a week?” Leona guessed.

“A month,” Karla corrected. “I’ve been having contractions for a month. And unless this baby comes today, I’m going to be having them for a whole other year. The final mother has always been a revered figure in our family history. But they never thought about the downsides. And I’m the only one who has to go through them.” She leaned over to the side, and glanced at the door as if she could see through it. “Between you and me, my mom has always resented me. My grandmother—God bless her—she was scared to death that she would birth a premature baby. But her husband was always, like, Telma—her name was Telma—he was like, Telma, this is Mateo Matic’s child. It magically disappears every year, and then comes back to the same womb. Then it moves to a different womb! It’s not gonna be premature! It’s gonna come out perfect! My grandfather, he was a laugh riot. But my mom! My mom. She thought she was the one. Lots of babies are born at thirty weeks, she’d say. She never let me forget it. But she was wrong. It’s me. I’m the birth mother. And she doesn’t resent me anymore.” She indicated herself in the bed. “Not after seeing me like this, and being pretty sure that the baby’s birthdate is April 22, 2413. Ain’t nobody wants to be me no more, I’ll tell ya that much. Sorry, I got a bit of an accent that comes out when I’m riled up. I know I’m in trouble, but you’re here now, and I can’t help but be excited.”

“We understand,” Leona said. “But you really should get some rest. We will indeed get you anything you need. We can try to...” she started to say uncomfortably.

“Induce?” Karla assumed. “I’m not allowed to. It’s this whole spiritual thing. I gotta go through it all the way. We’re on the baby’s timetable. We always have been. Everybody’s afraid that something’ll go wrong if we interfere in any way.”

Leona frowned at her, as did Mateo.

“It’ll be all right, Sugar,” Karla said. “I’m a tough chick. I’ll get through this, and then I’ll be the only mother that matters. And my mother will hate me for it.” She seemed quite pleased with this eventuality.

They stayed with her for the rest of the day, learning more of the family history, and of Karla’s personal life. She hadn’t come up with a name for the baby yet, but the past mothers always thought that it would be a good idea to choose a Croatian name. A year later, Romana Saffira Nieman took her first breath in the fresh Dardieti air.

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