Microstory 2340: Vacuus, March 4, 2179

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Dear Condor,

It’s okay that Pascal won’t be able to write for a while. Honestly—and you don’t need to tell him this—it’s a little awkward. These are just letters, but I still felt like I was on a blind double date, which I know is a weird way to look at it. I suppose we could always speak through you if we really needed to. That’s great news about reaching your rendezvous point. How long will/did it take? By the time you read this letter, you may be well on your way back out into sea. Make sure you choose the right path, though. It sounds like the weather is pretty dangerous out there. I never thought about that, about how the toxins in the atmosphere could make things even more dangerous. We learned about climate breakdown in school. Things were already not as safe as they were a couple hundred years prior. Humans were evidently damaging Earth before they started to do it intentionally to harm each other! I just hope your leaders always exercise caution. Vacuus does have weather. It’s not nearly as bad as it is for you guys, it’s just different. We experience infrequent, and rather weak, dust storms. These can still damage our instrumentation, though, and our permanently outdoors equipment needs constant cleaning. Or rather, they don’t. We’ve incorporated state-of-the-art onboard self-cleaning technology into nearly everything. You have windshield wipers on your cars with wiper fluid? We do too, but for cameras and other sensors. Instead of going out to clean every day, our field maintenance workers go out periodically to refill the fluid, or maybe repair or replace a blade. It’s much easier, and the infrequency of the task lowers the risk of something happening to them while they’re exposed like that. They’re also at risk of running into electrical storms. These things happen all the time. Our habitats are riddled with lightning rods. They both protect us from the strikes, and help power our habitats. That’s something else we’ve developed out of necessity, ultracapacitors which capture the short, energetic burst of raw power, and store it safely for future use. I keep using words like we, but I obviously had no hand in any of this. As I’ve said, I’m not cut out for field work, and I have no interest in it. I didn’t choose where to break ground on our settlement either, which was not chosen at random. Other parts of the planet experience volcanic activity. Some of these are even cryovolcanoes, which release nasty chemicals like ammonia and methane. Thankfully, we’re really far from those things, but I have a friend who operates a drone array which studies the nearest spots. So yeah, it’s dangerous here, but not worse than Earth. At least no one did it on purpose.

Again, stay safe,

Corinthia

Microstory 1632: Second Chance

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It is not often that the Ochivari give second chances. In fact, in all the universes that I’ve witnessed, I have only seen it happen the one time. This version of Earth was about where Earth Prime ends up by the end of the first quarter of the 21st century. The environment is not doing well, and it’s not looking good. There is some hope, but progress won’t be realized without a drastic shift in behavior, and for leadership to follow scientific consensus. On this other Earth, before the Ochivari arrived, most people were convinced that climate breakdown was a real existential threat. They were working very hard to alter their policies by removing those from office who denied the truth, or otherwise acted against global prosperity. Unfortunately, the human infiltrators did not see it this way. When they ran their report for the Ochivari to analyze, they left out a lot of pertinent information, leading them to believe that this planet was hopeless. There was even evidence that their mere presence was holding back progress, and contaminating the data. Luckily, some of the Ochivari representatives were not so convinced. Perhaps their human confederates were too hasty, and maybe a little too interested in wiping out an entire planet? They looked back over the results, and determined that this Earth was indeed worth leaving alone. The problem was that the sterility virus was already dispatched by the time this appeal went through, and the only reason it hadn’t spread all over the world was because one Ochivar blew the whistle, and warned the Earthans what they had done. If not for this renegade, the Earthans would not have had enough time to place all those already infected in isolation, and quarantine people who might have come into contact with them.

This is the only known case where the virus was stopped in this manner, at least as far as I’ve ever seen. It’s airborne, and as long as even one host remains alive, they can infect someone else. It won’t die out until everyone dies out. It’s otherwise impossible to stop, and the recovery rate is zero. The world was given a second chance, but they would have to take care of it themselves. The Ochivari wanted no part of it, but promised to return if they didn’t wise up. It didn’t make them wonder if there was a better way. They only figured that all they had to do was tweak the investigative aspect. They just needed to better understand how and when people can change. They didn’t consider helping them change, though. They simply left that universe, and then reentered it at a later date to check on their progress. Once they did, they found that they had done more damage than if they had just left these damn people alone. The environment was fine. They invested in renewables, and worked really hard to clean up their mess. They planted trees, and filtered their polluted waterways. Socially, however, there were many problems that weren’t there before. Huge debates raged about what to do with the infected people. Should they keep their small nation in isolation? Should they try to relocate them to a remote island? Should they provide resources, or not? Should they just euthanize them, and get it over with? This raised other related issues, and threw the whole world into chaos. War covered the lands, and at some point, the sterility virus escaped, and made its way into the general population, dooming the few surface survivors to being the last generation, no matter what they did now.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Tuesday, October 12, 2219

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Mateo and Leona returned to salmonverse on Tuesday, October 12, 2219. They didn’t know how it happened, or who had done it for them. One minute they were somewhere else, and the next they were back. Serif was still around, which was great, along with the rest of the current transition team. They got them up to speed on what happened during their absence, but the two of them didn’t talk about what had transpired in the other universe, because of copyright reasons, or some other legal something-or-other.

Now that everyone was where they were meant to be, hopefully things would stay the way they were. They kept meeting great new people, yes, but they also kept losing them, and that was becoming exhausting, if not heartbreaking. It really needed to stay consistent. Unfortunately, Mateo had a bad feeling about that. He was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen. It had never been like that before, even long before the transitions. Nearly everyone from his past was still alive, having been young enough to reach the longevity escape velocity, or through some other means. Even dead people could return through the afterlife simulation. They mostly hadn’t, though. As the two of them pushed forward to the future, they kept leaving people behind. Most didn’t die like Mateo assumed they would in the beginning; they just went off to their own adventures, but they were still gone. Would that ever end? Would they ever find more people like them? Or were they fated to be the only constant in an ever-changing landscape of characters?

It wasn’t time to think about that right now. Their Cassidy cuffs were directing them to their next mission in Antarctica. At first, Mateo figured a researcher was going to be trapped in a blizzard, or a crevasse, but then he remembered that the continent became more temperate over time, thanks to climate breakdown. There were people living there, and calling it home, so any number of reasons could lead the team here. The AOC powered up, and teleported them there, where they waited for the window to open. As they watched the augmented reality flickering, they saw something they recognized. It was a Nexus machine. They had encountered many of these before, but it only occurred to Mateo now that he never knew where the Earth Nexus was. They had always gone off-world via other methods.

A middle-aged man was standing next to it, not really doing anything. Once the transition was complete, he looked around at his new environment, and shivered. Antarctica was still just as cold as it was meant to be in this reality.

Jeremy took off his jacket, and gave it to the man. “Thank you,” he said. “Where am I?”

“The Parallel,” Leona answered. “It’s a concurrent alternate reality. Did you just come through the Nexus?”

“I did,” the man confirmed. “I was on Durus.”

“You got the Durus Nexus working?” Leona was interested.

“Just for me,” he said. “I have the ability to absorb and release temporal energy. I guess it responded to my presence, and sent me back to Earth. Why would I end up here afterwards, though?”

“That we don’t know,” Angela replied. “Before we get too deep in the conversation, I’m Angela Walton. This is Jeremy Bearimy, Leona and Mateo Matic, Serif, and Olimpia Sangster.”

“I’m Escher Bradley.”

“Oh, we know you,” Leona realized. “The Escher Knob and Escher Card are named after you.”

“I don’t know what those are,” Escher said. “I do remember there being some kind of weird door knob when I was first getting trapped on Durus. Is that what you’re talking about?”

“Yes,” Leona said. “You imbued it with power.”

“Oh, cool.”

“Were you on Durus in the year 2219?” Leona pressed.

“Yeah, I think that was the year,” Escher imagined.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” She thought about it, trying to understand how this was possible. “You escaped Durus back in 2021. You and Rothko.”

“Nah, that wasn’t me,” Escher insisted. “You were probably seeing Effigy. She was the one who trapped me in the time crevice, and she can make herself look like anyone.”

“I see.” She understood now. “Well, I’m sorry you went through that. Let’s get you to our ship where it’s warm.”

The seven of them made the short trek to the AOC, and climbed inside.

“Was your life in danger?” Jeremy asked. “We usually receive people who need to get out of wherever they are.”

Escher yawned. “I don’t know that I was in any immediate danger, but I couldn’t leave. No one was operating the Earth Nexus, so I found myself just out here alone. Perhaps all I could ask from you is to transport me back to civilization?”

“That’s easy,” Olimpia said. “Is it possible for the mission to be so simple?”

“Definitely,” Mateo said. “Sometimes that’s all people need. Antarctica is more populated than ever, but I would think they put the Nexus in a very remote region of the continent, so no rando could stumble upon it.”

“Well, I would much appreciate it. I don’t suppose you can get me back to my time period? It’s not a big deal if you can’t,” Escher assured them. “I wouldn’t mind catching up with my friends, but I’m sure they did fine without me.”

“I don’t have the timeline memorized,” Leona began, “so I don’t know what you know, but Savitri is gone. She was transported to a different universe, and went on to become a very powerful immortal.”

“Yes, I suspected she survived. That’s quite interesting,” Escher said. “And Rothko?”

“Rothko...” she started, but couldn’t finish it.

“He became evil, didn’t he?” Escher guessed. “I’m not surprised. I could see the sickness in him as we were trying to survive on pre-civilization Durus. I ignored it, because...I didn’t want to be alone.”

“It’s okay,” Leona assured him. “He didn’t get a chance to hurt anyone permanently, and they put him where he belonged.” Mateo didn’t know all this about history, and of course, no one else did either. Why did she know so much? “He died a long time ago,” Leona went on. “We could ask Nerakali to send you back, so you could speak with him once more, if you want.”

“That’s okay,” Escher said, shaking his head. “I just want to start over, where no one knows who I am. Earth in 2219 seems like as good of a place as any. Will it be difficult to conjure a new identity for me?”

“We know a few people who can do that,” Leona promised. “It won’t be a problem.”

“I appreciate it,” he said gratefully. Olimpia was right, this was an easy transition. It was nice, though, after everything they had been through. They teleported to Kansas City, where a transition window would be waiting to deliver him back to the main sequence. They gave him the tools and instructions he would need to summon help from The Forger, Duane Blackwood. He thanked them again, and went on through.

Mateo’s bad feeling worsened, compelling him to look over at Serif. “You’re leaving too, aren’t you?”

“I have to,” Serif said. “My baby...our baby is special. She can help a lot of people, and I have a responsibility to let her do that.”

“Where will you go?” Leona asked.

“Wherever they take me,” Serif decided.

“Wherever who takes you?” Mateo asked.

“Me.” Thack Natalie Collins was behind them with another young woman. Serif recognized her, but never caught her name. “We know where she can do the most good. It’s not as easy as it seems. The baby is a vaccine, not a cure.”

Big surprise, Serif was leaving yet again. It would seem that the universe was working against them, always coming up with new ways to keep them apart. It wasn’t the universe, though, it was something else. It was someone else, and he was unbeatable. “Serif, was this your decision?” Mateo asked. “Or was it someone else’s?”

“I know what you’re asking,” Serif said, “and I don’t believe it to be the case. Dubra has a destiny. She was born with the ability to heal that was given to me, which makes her stronger. We can’t just not do something with that.”

“She is only a baby,” Leona argued. “Not even that, she hasn’t been born yet. You could stay with us for a very long time before you would have to leave.”

“I don’t wanna skip time anymore,” Serif contended. “I want to raise my child in realtime. I want to teach her to believe in tomorrow. You can come too; all of you. Nothing is forcing you to remain in this universe. The powers that be can’t stop you.”

“I think we all know that it’s not the powers that be that we’re worried about anymore,” Mateo clarified.

Serif nodded. “I know. I’m going just the same. I love you.” She hugged Leona, and then Mateo. “You’ll see us again, and I don’t just mean our alternates. I, myself, will return one day, or we will meet up somewhere else. We keep being pulled apart, but we also keep being pushed back together.”

Regression towards the mean,” Leona added.

“I assure you that she will be in good hands,” Thack claimed as she was leading Serif away.

“Who are you?” Leona questioned. “You can see things happening in other universes. Why have you not helped us before?”

Thack smiled. “Who says I haven’t?” Without another word, she left, along with the other woman, and Serif.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” Olimpia comforted.

Mateo turned away from the group. “She was more than a friend.”

“Mateo.” Leona could tell that an anger was bubbling up in his soul. “You make bad choices when you’re mad. Think about you and Cassidy.”

“He can’t get away with this,” Mateo complained.

“He most certainly can,” Leona said. “He’s more powerful than anyone else we’ve ever met. Arcadia, Nerakali, The Rogue, even The Cleanser. Everything that happened to them happened because he decided it would. They have powers because he wanted them to, and those powers work and don’t work, according to his whims. Likewise, our pattern has changed because of him. Our missions have changed because of him. If we try to go after him, he’ll just write a story where we fail. This isn’t like Supernatural, where a nephilim will show up as a loophole. The Superintendent didn’t create us, he dreamed us. And dreaming people always wake up. We can’t exist if he doesn’t.”

Mateo wouldn’t hear it. “There’s a way. He’s not invincible. He may be our God, but who is his God?”

“Someone none of us will ever meet,” Leona reasoned.

“We’ll see...”

Yes, we will.

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Microstory 1565: The Snow in Texas

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Prompt

It’s been snowing for two weeks straight, which is strange for Texas. I’m starting to think my great aunt is right, and God really is angry with us.

Botner

I hope he gives us a good snowfall to make up for it. In case you haven’t heard, Today’s Church of Christ has put out a press release announcing the “end of days”. The holy-rollers are taking over the white wood chairs. Arguably the biggest “Christian” publication on the planet, Christianity Today, had a front page story yesterday saying that the world is at “the end of days”. In fact, they suggested that it is already here. Well, get a load of this guy: If the Bible is accurate, these are the end times and, if so, Jesus is the only one who can save us from all the evil in the world. The question is, if there are some who don’t believe it, what do they believe? What a perfect way to answer that question: Saint Peter, shut the door. I told you so. I love the idea that God would get that upset with us for going around unregenerate people. But it seems kind of random that the desire for knowledge is a sin? It seems to me that the more involved in the Word of God you are, the...

Conclusion

...less likely you are to accept the diversity in others. There’s a lot of intolerance in organized religion, and I have no interest in being part of it. The snow in Texas has nothing to do with God, or the “end of days”. It’s the climate, and the climate is because of us. People don’t want to admit it; not because they’re stupid, but because doing so would force them to acknowledge that we have not done enough to fix it. We’re leaving lights on, and driving too much, and using too many straws. Things won’t magically get better on their own, but if you lie to yourself, and pretend like there’s nothing you can do about it—that the climate is the way it is exclusively due to natural patterns—then you’re off the hook. You can keep doing whatever it is you’re doing without changing any of your behavior, or making more work for yourself. It’s true that there are a lot of greedy people out there who have no stake in the future. They’re old, and they’ll die soon, and they don’t think they’ll have to worry about the consequences. By helping destroy the environment, they’ve not only doomed the rest of us, but they’ve also built up enough wealth for themselves so that, should the consequences appear while they’re still around, they’re better equipped to deal with them. Ted Cruz is a senator from Texas who rejects the idea of climate breakdown, and he’s made a lot of money upon that platform. Funny enough, he’s completely free from the snow storms ravaging his state. He literally left, and took a nice vacation in sunny Cancún. I wrote the prompt for this installment weeks ago, long before this happened to Texas, which doesn’t prove that I’m prescient, but that this was inevitable, because unlike Cruz, I accept scientific facts as they are. These rich people in power aren’t going to do anything about the environment, because it doesn’t matter to them. This means that it is up to us. We have to remove them from their roles, and elect decent leaders, who believe in the facts, and willingly work towards the greater good, rather than their selfish, unsustainable, despicable priorities.

Microstory 1173: Isabeau Tribaldos

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As the mid-21st century approached, the world began to truly wake up. While the majority of Earthans recognized both that climate breakdown was real, and that humans were the cause of it, politics prevented the fight against it from starting. The people did not hold the power to elect their representatives. Instead, the few wealthiest individuals and companies were the only ones whose voices mattered, because they were the ones donating the most money to their selected campaigns. A few things fixed this problem, in no particular order. First, those wealthy people just straight up died. Second, their children tended to be more liberal. Third, legislation started passing that limited donor power. Fourth, politicians stopped being as concerned with pleasing their donors, and more concerned with supporting the electorate—and non-electorate, for that matter. Any major donors that had a problem with this were free to choose a different candidate, but would be faced with the fifth reason, which was that democracy was prevailing anyway, and their backwards ideals were no longer welcome by anyone. Now, politicians were free to express their concerns over the environment, and a plethora of other social issues; some related, others not as much. All of this combined to form a whole, and a whole new world. Materialism gave way to efficiency and technological progress. It’s stupid to own a giant house when you can jack into a virtual world of limitless scope. Your living unit really only needs to be big enough to fit your bed, your clothes, a bathroom, and a kitchen. Entire cities were totally demolished, and replaced by plantlife. Trillions of trees were planted, and the world turned green again. People started living vertically, hundreds of meters up in the air, ultimately taking up a fraction of a fraction of an unfathomably small fraction of the land originally used by civilization. The climate was slowly starting to recover. Everything became more compact in these arcologies, and humans were never happier. Politics changed more, to accommodate the new way people were living in these megastructures. A lot of problems that would arise yesterday were completely irrelevant now, so the government was able to streamline its bureaucracy. A representative will be responsible for a single floor in one of the towers, while a senator represents the whole tower. A group of thirty-six towers in one city will be led by a governor, and if there aren’t enough towers to reach that minimum, the senators fill this role in a council. A commissioner will be in charge of six of these arcities, while the Moderator, Facilitator, Mediator, and Assistant Mediator govern the world as a whole. Of course, this jurisdictional structure is modified when taking into account other ways of living, such as seasteads and primitivist communities, but everyone is still represented. Isabeau Tribaldos was elected the Governor-Councilor for the Panama Arcstate. The population of Panama was high enough to justify two separate arcities, but not large enough to justify a full county, and a leading commissioner. So she was in charge of an entire city of towers, and was ultimately responsible for over three million people. She was a great leader, and Panama was a prosperous region.

Microstory 971: Robotics/Artificial Intelligence

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There’s something very odd and inconsistent in futuristic fiction. No matter what humanity does; how advanced we become, we always have jobs. Even Star Trek, which is based on a completely moneyless economy is about a group of people working on a ship. One thing I have to do when I’m writing my stories is figure out what the world around my characters looks like. If they’re traveling on a ship, like in Star Trek, I need to know the different jobs the crew would have. That makes sense, right? Except it doesn’t really. As I was trying to come up with the minimum number of crew members, I discovered that that number did not need to be any higher than zero. There was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where everyone on the ship starts disappearing, until only two are left. The central character in that episode poses to the other one that it’s weird that in a giant ship like that, there would be only two crewmen. He doesn’t seem to think it is, which does make sense, because a real Enterprise would have been designed to operate in full with no human or alien intervention. It can power up its own warp core, and it can shoot it’s lasers on its own. The possibility that it would require any living organism to control these systems is absurd. In a few years, I’m going to have a phone that answers itself for me. An artificial intelligence is going to pick up the call, disclose to the speaker what she is, and ask me whether I want to speak with them myself. A few years from then, she’ll be virtually indistinguishable from a human receptionist, and will be able to hang up on people on my behalf. I’ll have taught her that I don’t ever want to talk to anyone about sports, but I always want to answer my mother, so when she calls, I can just answer it myself.

The evening before this story posts, I was eating a dish made by said mother. She told me there was polenta in it, but I didn’t know what that was, so I asked my Google Home speaker. She gave me the definition, which involved grains. I jokingly said, “brains!?” She didn’t understand the question, and had no way of connecting it to what she had already said, but it won’t be long before that’s not true. What she should have said was, “no, grains, as in g-r-”. Robots and artificial intelligence are going to collectively take over the world, and that’s a good thing. I don’t want to work anymore. I read a study on automated labor. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but a great deal of people believed robots would be capable of doing most jobs sometime in the future, but even more people believed their jobs to be safe. It’s hard for neurotypicals to admit how utterly replaceable they are, but you will one day be faced with that. Robots are delivering pizzas, and building cars. They’re driving cargo, and shooting terrorists. But they’re also doing more complex things, like playing tabletop games, and delivering news broadcasts. The future will be a difficult pill to swallow. It’ll come with side effects, like massive unemployment, crashed economies, and civil unrest. But we’ll eat some soup, take a bath, and go to bed early. When we wake up in the morning, it’ll all be over. We won’t need the jobs we were fighting over, climate change solutions will be underway, interstellar ships will be built, and we’ll all be immortal. So do not fear the AI uprising. We’ve been working for a long time. Let’s take a break, and let the robots do the rest for us. The stage that comes after the singularity phase is even better.

Microstory 970: Seasons

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Seasons are probably more important than you think, and you likely don’t consciously realize what good the seasonal cycle has done for humanity. Seasons are caused by the Earth’s tilt, and the gravitational pull of the moon, both of which were believed to be caused by the same major impact event during the planet’s relative infancy. Lots of people know that the reason our world supports life is because it’s located within a habitability zone. Our perfect distance from the sun makes this place neither too hot, nor too cold. But this is not the only reason, because if it were, life—or at least more evident life—should easily exist on Mars and Venus as well. The gas giants also protected us from incurring too many impact events, which is yet another example of a happy medium. Scientists believe our solar system’s distance from the center of the galaxy may have contributed to habitability as well, though that is still up for debate. I tell you all this so you appreciate how impossible it is that we even exist, and how close we were to not. It may seem like winter is just an inconvenience, or detrimental to life, but that’s not the case. Many crops, including wheat, cannot grow without a cool environment, which would be bad, because a lack of winter would also prevent the advancement of technology beyond small agricultural pockets in only certain regions. But even then, life would be difficult. Just because there’s no winter, doesn’t mean there’s no cold. We would be relegated to tropical regions near the equator, which would be inundated by unchecked pathogens, and their rampant carrier pests. Rain and other weather would constantly beat down any settlements, forcing populations that survived those diseases to at least be partially nomadic. Every civilization began by founding a permanent home, and died out when that home was threatened. An interesting other side effect of winter is technological progress. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. If we didn’t need to find ways to keep warm, we wouldn’t have come up with the most basic forms of energy production, so it wouldn’t have even occurred to us to try to invent computers. It’s okay that there are parts of the world untouched by most seasons, but for the most part, the world needs its tilt, and the people on it should be grateful. Today, our home is being threatened by climate change, which at the most optimistic estimates, won’t be fixed until the middle of this century; that is assuming we immediately cease all pollution overnight. I would tell you to #votethemout if you want something done about climate change, but in all honesty, I know of few politicians and political candidates who are even willing take the necessary action to alleviate this situation. Let’s hope that changes. I may not love you, winter, but I need you, so please...stay frosty.

Microstory 965: Renewable Energy

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I’ve spoken so much about renewable energy, in this series, and in others, that I’m almost not sure I need to go over it again. It’s frustrating that so many people believe in clean energy, but apparently not the right people. I wasn’t aware until recently that the official political stance on climate change, for democrats and republicans alike, is tha—next question, please. Seriously, if they don’t outright deny climate change, then they still won’t explicitly admit that it’s real, or at least not that humans are the main drivers for it. I remember talking about this years ago with a conservative “friend”. He said that electric vehicles, for instance, require charging from the grid, which are powered by coal, natural gas, and other not-so-renewable sources. His reasoning was that they couldn’t help the environment as long as this true, so we might as well not try, and “hey, look at my gas guzzler, the hubcaps keep spinning!” And he’s not entirely wrong. The energy grid is a terribly inefficient system, and all but the worst way of accomplishing our energy requirements. Instead of building a giant central plant, and piping it all over a massive area, why don’t we build a bunch of tiny ones? In fact, why don’t we just let each household supply its own energy? The libertarians should be jumping all over this one, because instead of relying on the only power option available to me, solar and wind power companies can all vie for my business, no matter where they’re based. If I place solar panels and miniature wind turbines on my roof, and store excess in a wall battery, I can be energy self-sufficient. If I collect and filter my own rainwater, farm my own small garden, and print my own clothes using additive manufacturing, then I don’t need nobody but me. Some would call that a dream. Last year, power went out all over the city. I don’t even know how bad it was, but for some, it lasted for days. My parents and sister had to stay at a hotel one night, and at my place for another. I nearly slept in my downstairs twin bed, of all places. A twin bed! It was horrific. And it only happened because we’re all connected, so one thing goes wrong, and we all get screwed. So let’s fix these problems before they even happen, by investing in microgrids. The more people who start buying renewable solutions, the cheaper it becomes, and the more affordable it will be for people like me. In the end, isn’t that what really matters; what’s best for me?

Microstory 955: Bees

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A keystone species is one that is vital to the ecosystem in a way that their absence would gravely impact other species. Beavers are one example of this. In parts where beavers have died out, soil erosion has been caused by a lack of their dams. Certain species of fish have suffered, for they evolved to utilize the slow-moving areas of rivers that these mighty mammals created for them. I even named the prison in my stories Beaver Haven for its analogy to house time travelers, some of which are known as salmon. Bees are also a keystone species, and possibly the most important. Since plants can’t move around, they can’t reproduce the same way animals do. They can’t go out, find mates, and bear offspring. If they want to spread their seeds over distances beyond their immediate area, they rely on others, or other phenomena. Some encapsulate their seeds into a cotton-like structure called a pappus, which floats on the air before landing kilometers away. Others attach themselves to the fur of a creature, which is meant to walk away, and drop it off somewhere else. Yet others choose to attract insects to their flowers, which pick up the pollen like dust, and spread it around as they fly back home to use what they managed to hold onto for their colony’s honey. You eat a lot of the fruits and vegetables that come from these plants, and if you’re more into meat, you still benefit, because the animals you eat are also eating those fruits and vegetables. There are many possible answers to the question of what’s happening to the bees—the most likely culprit being pesticides that prevent these pollinators from navigating back home—but the clear truth is that it’s our fault. So, what can we do? We need bees to spread the agriculture, but we need pesticides to protect it from, well...pests. The solution is—you guessed it—vertical farming. If you bring most of the crops inside to a controlled environment, you can produce a greater volume in a smaller space, and you won’t need pest control, since most bugs don’t know how to open doors. By removing our reliance on bees, we would allow them to restore themselves to sustainable numbers, and get back to the business of supporting the planet as a whole. Bees are so important, and so innocent. Save the bees!

Microstory 954: Stem Cell Research

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As a human being who cares about this world, the people on it, and everything that happens to us, I believe in science. I believe in science that can help make the world a better place, for all living creatures. I possess a spirituality, differentiated from religion by the fact that I absolutely do not let my beliefs get in the way of progress. Organized religion has done some good in the world in the the way of charity and good will, but that doesn’t get them off the hook. Besides the fact that hope for heaven—or fear of hell, as it were—are terrible reasons to do the right thing, their good does not outweigh their bad. All religions are based on the primary sins, even the ones who claim to be virtuous. They’re all about greed, envy, wrath, selfishness, and more. Through these sins comes many of the planet’s woes; war, crime, and even natural disasters (the intensity of these recent hurricanes are the result of climate change, which is undoubtedly being caused by humans). Nearly everything that happens can be traced back to a misguided religious belief that prevents individuals from caring for their fellow man. Stem cell research is a good example of this issue. Now, I’m not saying there’s no such thing as ethics, or that we can do whatever we want as long as it helps us in the end. Problems arise, however, when ignorant people argue against research, or an advancement. The simple fact is that the average person does not know enough about the subject to form a valid opinion. Sure, it sounds bad when a Christian stands on a college campus with pictures of dead babies, claiming that stem cell research is responsible for the horrific images. But that’s not really what happened, and these arguments are not helping anything. I recognize there is a debate as to when exactly human life begins, and can’t realistically give a hard number for this, even though my canon does have an answer. The point of this research is not to stay right where we are with it. Scientists need to understand how this works, so we can engage in a responsible and safe way. That requires study and debate, but only amongst those who know what they’re doing. I’m not one of those people, and most likely, neither of you. Having read the bible cover to cover is not the kind of credentials we’re looking for. Regardless of your circular reasoning, there’s no way to prove the bible was written by God. Just saying it was means nothing to me. Therefore, it holds no more or less merit than any other work of fiction. Stem cells have the potential to save lives, and we can’t dismiss that just because it also has the potential to harm. If we lived by that mentality, we would still be living in caves.

Microstory 949: Dropping Murder Rates

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I know things seem really bad right now, and I’m not going to claim you have no reason to feel uneasy, or unsafe, but believe it or not, we are making some progress. Things like King Dumpster, Brexit, and intensifying hurricanes can make the world look like a much worse place than it once was. A number of experts are actually going so far as to predict the actual real life apocalypse within our lifetimes. Sadly, in recent years, the murder rate in the United States is starting to trend upwards, but it doesn’t have to stay like that, and I predict it will swiftly drop once more. Starting in the 1990s, murder and other violent crimes began to trend downwards all over the world, and continued to do so for decades. This was caused by a number of factors, including more sophisticated means to investigation, but also possibly because of the fact that ill-prepared parents now had more options. So, what changed? Well, it’s too early to understand it, but one theory is that certain seemingly isolated incidents of corruption, like the Ferguson shooting, can increase a distrust in law enforcement. This snowballs into more and more people feeling slighted by the establishment. The election of the current administration only reinforces this division, leading to more uprisings that get out of hand. But this is not an eternal condition, and we do have a chance to make things better. First of all, we need to #votethemout when we get the chance this November, and do it again in two years. We need policymakers who care about all of their constituents, and the greater good, and aren’t just satiating their few extremely wealthy donors. We also need to invest heavily in technology. In the time travel film Looper—which is set in Kansas City, by the way—the whole reason people are sending their enemies to be executed in the past is because it’s nearly impossible to get away with murder in the future. Everyone is walking around with nanites in their systems, which alert the authorities once the body dies. Though this might not be the primary reason we use nanotechnology, it would be a nice bonus. We’ll want to have them anyway, to heal our wounds, fight off disease, and even connect us to virtual worlds. Emergency services currently relies on a victim being capable of contacting them, and do so with enough time to spare, which is not always the case, but if we had an automated system, this would not be a problem. Things can get better, but we have to work at it. We have to stop thinking of crime as something that needs to be solved, but instead of something needs to be prevented.

Microstory 922: The Spread of Truth

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A part of me was surprised by King Dumpster’s upset victory in the presidential race, while the cynical part of me was not surprised at all. I had lived 29 years of my life by then, and had already met a lot of assholes. Sure, the election was a wakeup call for how bad it really is, but I could always see it. Here’s the deal, though. We’re on the cusp of great change; not just a blue wave, or even a simple revolution, but of a sudden jump in progress, and an actual dawn of justice. While politicians cater to lobbyists, and hicks who don’t even vote for their own self-interests count the broken down cars on their lawns, bunches of smart people are solving all our problems. They’re developing artificial intelligence, coming up with responses to climate change, formulating life-saving medicines, and much more. Soon, everyone will have enough food to eat, and a sturdy shelter in which to eat it. We won’t have to work as much anymore, and the topic of war will be limited to history discussions. But none of this can happen without the support of the rest of us. You see, at the same time that Ferguson, Charlottesville, Brexit, and Donald Trump illuminated what we’re fighting against, it equally showed us who we can trust. These shockingly divisive issues created a naughty and nice list for most of us. I know who of my social media friends voted for the wrong candidate, but I also know who made the right choice. These debacles forced everyone to take a stand, on whichever side that may be. It’s easier to fight an enemy when you know who they are. So we’re going to take up our Captain America shields, and defend the truth, without sacrificing our integrity. And we’re going to win. They may think they have God on their side, but their God is also an asshole, and his power relies on our belief in, and submission to, his wrath. I’ve looked into the future, and I don’t see any red hats. I just see love and truth.

Microstory 902: Animals and Wildlife

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The other day, I overheard people on the street talking about the weather, which is something I’ve grown accustomed to neurotypicals doing, like how it no longer freaks you out when your dog licks itself. They expressed denial to climate change, but were in the same breath questioning why the weather is so different now than it once was. I don’t know whether to be outraged by their audacity, or discouraged by their stupidity. It’s like they’re completely blind to reality, it’s baffling. The climate, the weather, the environment; it’s all connected. The real circle of life has more to do with water and air than it does zebras and baby lions. If you’re caught up on my Sunday series, The Advancement of Leona Matic, or even if you’re a year behind, you may have noticed I describe the future of Earth a little differently than other stories set in the future. A lot of science fiction tries to extrapolate population growth, if only abstractly, determining that we will one day live in gargantuan cities, and barely have enough room to sit down. They’re not entirely wrong per se, but they are going the wrong direction. The correct answer is up. Improvements in materials science will allow us to construct extraordinarily tall megastructures. This will allow us to pack millions of people into a tiny sliver of land. We’ll build these all over the world as a way to prevent ourselves from putting all our eggs in one basket, which is the same reason we’ll start living on Luna, Mars, and nearby exoplanets. We won’t be living in megacities, like one might find in a Judge Dredd comic book, because that would be a waste of space. But what does it matter, you ask. If we have the room, why would we not use it? Well, because we don’t have the room. Humans have only been settling for the last few thousand years. Before this, we were nomadic, and before that, we didn’t even exist. Sorry, Christians, the story of Adam and Eve is just a straight up fabrication. What does this all mean? It means that this world belongs to the plants and animals. So in the future, when technology progresses enough, we need to give it back. But don’t wait until the 22nd century; not even if you think you won’t be alive then—which you may be, believe it or not (but we’ll get to that later). Wildlife needs your help now. Recycle, invest in clean energy as possible, and try a more vegetarian diet. I still eat some meat, because I can’t afford alternative sources of protein, but I recently realized just because I’m not a herbivore, doesn’t mean I have to be a carnivore. In a hundred years, when food synthesis has long been possible, people will look back and note how absurd it is that we once killed animals for food. But we’ll get to that later too. Either way, why not start now? Yes, I’m aware of how preachy I’m being, and no, you working towards vegetarianism is not presently as important to me as, say, voting Russia out of this country. I’m just saying that this world doesn’t really belong to us, and it never did.

Fervor: April Fools (Part I)

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Nine months ago, my adoptive fathers were in hot pursuit of a madman who was threatening the safety of everyone in the Kansas City Metropolitan area. They actually seemed to think he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, but was trying to help the world, and didn’t think through the consequences of his actions. He has a special temporal power, as do many other people throughout time and space. He can open microscopic tears in the spacetime continuum, which are mostly only large enough to allow tiny particles, and waves, through. With this, he can alter his environment, by sharing it with some other environment, from some other time. He created a summer snow that the city was not prepared for. As far as I know, no one died from this, and even if they had, their deaths would have been erased from history, but that doesn’t make it any less wrong. My fathers ended his reign of terror in the city, by somehow going back in time and preventing it from ever happening at all. Ace hasn’t given me the details, saying only that I would understand when I was older. I usually hate when adults say this, but the way he says it, it’s not dismissive. I think he literally means only Future!Me will have all the facts.

Unfortunately, in retaliation for what my dads did to his little global warming experiment, the madman enlisted the help of some friend of his, and created an exact duplicate of the entire metro. There is a second version of nearly everyone within the blast radius, running around some nearly inescapable pocket dimension. Only a few people were spared duplication, but that doesn’t mean they have it easy. My other dad, Serkan remains the one and only, but he is now stuck over on the other side, and I’ve been worried this whole time that we would never get him back. Ace was with him when they finally caught up to their enemy, who in one last desperate attempt to prevent our collective happiness, set off a powerful explosion. There were two magical jackets capable of crossing the dimensional barrier, each of which can only carry two passengers at a time. One of them caused the explosion that sent Ace, a new friend of his, and the friend’s son, I guess, back to our side. The problem is that, not only did Serkan not make it through—and may even be dead—but the other jacket was damaged.

The man with them apparently imbued the jackets with their power, but was not able to fix the surviving one right away. He claims to have been working on the issue since Ace hired him to get Serkan back, but it has been so long, and still nothing. I know I should be patient and compassionate. After all, he’s raising two versions of the same baby, pretty much on his own. Yet I can’t help but think that, with each passing day, week, month, my father gets one step closer to being lost forever. Time is not kind to people in our world. It jerks us around, moving us through the stream in the wrong direction, and forcing us to places we don’t want to be. The longer he stays there, the less time we can spend together, and that’s not fair. I wish I could do something to help, but I’m just a dumb teenage anachronism. I was born in 1959, but Serkan and Ace accidentally brought me with them when they tried to get home a couple of years ago. Like I said, time moves differently for people like us. But my coming here was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I will always be in those men’s debt for taking me out of a horrible life in the 1970s. I have to have both of them. I don’t know what I would do if we never find Serkan. I just don’t know.

Ace is knocking on my door, even though he knows he’s not supposed to. We had to start going to family therapy right away. Here I was in the future, surrounded by technology, cultural norms, and topic references that I didn’t get. The only people who could take care of me were willing to do that, but it was a complex situation. They had only just met each other—as sort of a love at first sight, brought together by time travel, kind of thing—so I was just another complication. Anyway, of course we couldn’t tell the therapist absolutely everything, and I think she picked up on that, but she gave us some good advice. She said that I need to adjust to living in a new country, which was what we claimed had happened. In order to feel comfortable here, I need to be able to spend time alone, and not bombarded by constant attention. Together, we decided on a rule. For one hour after school, I am to remain alone in my room. I’m meant to sit quietly and reflect, or even meditate, but I usually just put on my headphones, and catch up on a half century of movies and television. We’ve come a long way since Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Hawaii Five-O, and Ironside. Now we have Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Hawaii Five-0, and Ironside.

Ace is still knocking. It’s not loud, but it’s persistent, and annoying. It’s his way of being cute. “What!” I finally yell through the door. “This is Paige’s Hour!”

“I have a surprise for you,” he says, fairly quietly.

“Let me guess...you’re gay.”

“Ha-ha. I’m pan, you know that. No, it’s an actual surprise. I think you’ll be happy.”

“I’m never happy.”

“You once were.”

“For, like, a second, when Serkan was here,” I argue.

“That’s the surprise,” he barely says before I’m one more arm day from tearing the door of its hinges.

“Really?” I look over his shoulder. “He’s back?”

“I...guess I should have worded it more carefully. He’s not back, but I am going to get him. The jacket is fixed. Jupiter sent it via courier, and it will be here soon.”

What the hell? “He’s having a one-of-a-kind interdimensional portal opening piece of highly volatile equipment sent via courier?”

“It’s someone from the tracer gang,” Ace says in a reassuring voice. “It’ll get here.”

“If that’s true, then I don’t doubt it, but why isn’t Jupiter going to take the jacket himself? He’s the one who built it. He’s the one who destroyed it, and he’s the one who fixed it. This is his mess. He owes us.”

“He has to stay for his son.”

“You have to stay for your daughter.”

“I promise, I’ll be back. And I will be with Serkan.”

“Why don’t you promise that Jupiter will be back instead?” I suggest. “If you’re that confident.” I think I have him now.

He sighs at my rebellious attitude. “I’m confident in my ability to complete this mission, not his.”

That...is sound logic, and I can’t argue against it. I switch to my mature face. “You get him back. You find him, you come back, and you bring him with you.” He doesn’t say anything as I’m trying to muster my courage. “But if you can’t find him, or if there’s nothing to find, you still better come back.”

The doorbell rings.

“I promise.”

We head down the stairs together, and open the door to find none other than the infamous Slipstream herself. She was not just any member of the tracer gang, but its founder. She was instrumental in the creation of the New Gangs of Kansas City by protecting the original Gunbenders, and starting a movement of anti-gun violence by promoting a form of martial arts that emphasizes the well-being of everyone, including one’s enemies or attackers. She did more for aikido than The Walking Dead ever could have hoped for. She’s pretty much my hero, and she’s standing at my door.

“Hi,” Slipstream says.

Oh my God, she just spoke.

“I’m Bozhena, and I’ve been sent to deliver this.” She hands Ace a package, wrapped in that ol’ timey brown paper, tied up with twine.

“You introduced yourself with your real name?” I ask.

Slipstream smiles. “That ain’t my real name; not anymore. I’m just trying it out. A friend got me wondering whether I should hate it as much as I always have.”

I’m speechless.

“That was what you were looking for, right?” Slipstream-slash-Bozhena asks.

Ace opens it up, and reveals the special jacket. “This is it,” he confirms. “Thank you so much.”

“Do you wanna stay for tea?” I offer as she’s trying to leave. I’m such an idiot. Why would I ask that? Dear God, send me back through that Stonehenge portal. I’ll take my abusive birthparents over this humiliation.

“Uhh...sure,” my idol says. She actually said yes. I wanna go live and announce that she said yes to all my friends online, of which I have none since my birth certificate is fake news, and they don’t allow that sort of thing anymore. “If it’s all right with your dad, that is.”

“Fine with me, I trust you. I do have to go. He starts whispering to Slipstream, but isn’t really trying to keep me from hearing. “You can leave anytime, though. She can spend a little time alone, and the babysitter will be coming soon.”

“Da-a-ad,” I groan. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

“But you love Mireille.”

I try to play it cool with Slipstream. “She’s not my babysitter, we’re friends. She’s only, like, three years older than me.”

Slipstream doesn’t make me feel like a child. She smiles genuinely. What a cool chick.

“All right, play nice,” Ace says, determined to embarass me. “I’m going to grab a few provisions, then be gone. I’ll be back by end-of-day tomorrow.” He kisses me on the forehead. “I love you.”

“Love you!” I call up to him as he’s walking upstairs. “Leave a note in the usual spot if you get trapped in the past!”

“Will do,” he says. We actually have that. It’s an old tree stump that we check regularly for messages from ourselves, or each other. We’ve not seen any yet, but all three of us know the protocol, and only us three.

I realize that a stranger just heard me casually mention time travel to my father, but instead of covering, I act like it’s totally normal. I don’t mind being a mystery to her.

She stays longer than I ever thought she would, and when Mireille shows up that evening, we decide to throw an old-school slumber party. We watch movies and eat popcorn. That’s really it. We don’t braid each other’s hair, or talk about cute boys, which is good, because I’m not interested in boys. I keep expecting they’ll offer to give me a makeover, but actually make me look ugly, then take pictures and shout, April Fools, but it never happens. We just laugh about how I’ve never seen the Captain Marvel trilogy, then we fall asleep on the couches. We wake up the next morning to an explosion from the other room. Mireille cowers in fear, while Slipstream tries to protect me from whatever that was. But I know it’s my fathers, back from the other dimension. I slip under her arm, and race around the corner, but I don’t see Serkan, or Ace. Instead, it’s two random women. This feels like the beginning of something that’s not perfectly great.

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The Advancement of Leona Matic: September 7, 2184

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In the 20th century, scientists began researching global climate change, partially in order to understand mankind’s impact on their environment. They discovered that industrialization, while a boon to the economy, was significantly detrimental to life on Earth. Research persisted for decades, with a correlation of consensus from legitimate experts, who increasingly urged the public to recognize the problem. Denial of these issues continued simultaneously, as the average citizen limited their beliefs to whatever echo chamber supported their suppositions. The truth was replaced with alternative facts, and inequality reigned. Things began to change as the middle of the 21st century approached, however. New generations of activists and voters demanded change on scales never before seen. Rich rulers of the old world finally died so they could no longer make things worse. A great deal of damage had been done to the planet by then, but despite many claims, it could be reversed. It would be a massive undertaking, but it was possible, and it was what happened.

As technology progressed, our ancestors’ ways of doing things no longer made any sense. Clean meat, harmlessly grown from cells extracted from a still living specimen seriously lowered the amount of farmland required to sustain the entire human population of the world. Likewise, vertical indoor farming allowed for controlled environments to support fruits and vegetables without the need for pesticides, or wasteful irrigation. Food scarcity had become a thing of the past, easily being grown in practically any location. Nanotechnology, and advances in material sciences allowed gargantuan structures to be built in a matter of days, aided by the direction of artificial intelligence, which was in charge of supporting nearly all other technologies as well. Additive manufacturing and drone delivery provided everything the average consumer would need to live healthy and happy lives, and universal basic income kept most people from needing to work. Immersive virtual reality enabled escape to literally anywhere they wanted to go. It was suddenly no longer chic to live in the largest and most luxurious houses. All most individuals needed was a bed, a bathroom, a closet, and a couple of 3-D printers.

This minimalist mentality gave rise to an entirely new way of living. No more would we live in sprawling cities, which destroyed the wilderness. Megastructures were constructed in strategic former population centers around the world. Tens of millions of people could live in a space of only fifteen square kilometers, raised above the ground to allow wildlife to thrive once again, as it was always meant to. Some were larger than others, each one falling into a logical class, according to standard populations. China and India housed Class A arcities, since their respective populations were so great. The first one of these kinds of habitats was built in Kansas City, leaving it to be in a class of its own. The rest of the United States and Indonesia belonged to Class C, along with more than fifty other nations. The more of these that were built, though, the less important archaic borders mattered. The only reason they were built on an international baseline was to serve preexisting geographic population clusters.

When Ulinthra was thrown unwillingly to the future, she found herself in a world she didn’t understand. She had no reasonable objection to the way things had turned out. She just saw her unique perspective as an opportunity to amass the power that she always dreamt of having. The smallest nations needed the least amount of housing, with many island countries being relegated to Class H, which meant if they wanted to change the way they lived, they would have to do it themselves. She decided to prey on the people still living in these places, using their own insecurities against them. Once they were on her side, she formed a union, predicated on preserving the cultures she convinced the smaller classes were being threatened by the larger states. The greater governments ignored her at first, thinking her power would die out when her constituents wised up to how much she was lying to them. But it never did. It only increased. She systematically gathered more and more support, and she was soon taking over the Class G nations as well, which only held tens of thousands of people.

Finally seeing the Arianation as a significant threat, the Class F arcities prepared for an attack. Knowing they would assume this to be her next move, Ulinthra started war with the Class Es instead, catching the whole world off guard. She used more advanced technology than anyone knew she had. Since a grand peace had resulted from all this progress, the majority of the population was not at all prepared for war, with even many adults not having seen so much as a minor skirmish in their entire lifetimes. Only the Arianation had pursued more and more deadly weaponry, since they were the only ones who felt they needed it. They began a monumental attack on all Class Es at the exact same time, which included Panama. When the leadership of these arcities tried to defend themselves, it was like their new enemies knew exactly what they were going to do. No one but Ulinthra’s most loyal followers knew that she lived through every single day twice, allowing her to learn from mistakes that would be irreversible for most, and change strategies during the second time around. She was practically unstoppable, and in less than a week, she and her people were in charge of over two hundred arcities. This was the hardest part. Now she could make demands. Now the world would have to answer to her. Soon she would have everything. But first, she needed to reunite with a few old friends.

While Ulinthra had people to deal with each individual arcity on her behalf, The Panama Report was given to her directly so she could hear about the prisoner of war who was placed in confinement, then disappeared at the strike of midnight. She immediately moved her base of operations to that location, and waited patiently for a year, so she could be ready to see Leona Matic once more.

“Cool story, bro,” Leona said dismissively after Ulinthra was finished explaining this all to her. “Tell me, have you never seen a movie in your life? When the evil megalomaniac tells the protagonist about their dastardly plans, it always comes back to bite them in the ass.”

“I told you nothing of my plans,” Ulinthra countered. “I spoke only of what I’ve done.”

“You told me how this was all part of the plan; that you tricked all those Class H countries.”

Ulinthra shrugged. “I didn’t need to tell you that, you already know who I really am, including my real name, so you would be able to use it against me either way.”

“That’s true,” Leona had to admit.

“What is this thing?” Ulinthra held up the ardusite dagger.

“Family heirloom.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s just a work of art. A friend gave it to me a few days ago,” Leona lied.

“You mean a few years?”

“Yes.”

“What does it do?” Ulinthra asked.

“It’s decoration. It doesn’t do anything.”

Ulinthra pursed her lips and studied Leona’s face. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I break it?”

“No, I would mind, because it has sentimental value. Like you said, it was years ago. My friend is dead now. You can keep it while I’m locked up here, but I would like it back when I get out.”

“What makes you think you’ll get out?” Ulinthra laughed.

Leona waited to answer to foster the anticipation. “I always get out.”

She smiled. “I believe that.” She paused as well. “Harrison,” she called over her shoulder. “Would you come in here?”

“Harrison?” Leona asked. Harrison was an android with artificial intelligence who worked for a different version of Ulinthra in an alternate timeline. He never really liked it, and ended up getting out from under her thumb when he had the opportunity. If an android named Harrison existed in this reality, then it couldn’t be the same one. There was no way an AI shared any similarity to an alternate counterpart. The differences in programming between the two of them would be so much larger than the personality of an organic lifeform under the same circumstances. Right?

A man walked into the room that Leona didn’t recognize. That didn’t mean anything, as it could just be a different model he was using. Ulinthra handed him the dagger. “Break this, please.”

“No, don’t,” Leona begged.

Harrison took the the dagger in both hands, and slammed it against his robot knee. It didn’t break.

“You still tryna tell me this thing doesn’t do anything?” Ulinthra asked.

Shit. The fact that a superstrong android couldn’t break it meant that it couldn’t just be some random artifact. On the other hand, at least it wasn’t destroyed. Leona exercised her right to remain silent.

“I know Paige and Brooke,” Ulinthra said, switching gears. “Who is that other woman with you?”

“It’s been a year, you didn’t just ask her yourself?”

“I felt like it would be better to speak with you before doing anything. I’ve not said a word to them. Far as I know, they don’t know I’m involved.”

“Brooke and Paige are superintelligences. They know.”

Ulinthra seemed to agree to this. “Who is she?”

“Just a friend.”

“Who is she?”

“She’s your daughter.”

“Leona.”

“Okay, fine, she’s your mother.”

“Leona!”

“My mother?”

“Goddammit, Leelee.”

“She’s from another planet!” Leona finally admitted, not thinking Ulinthra knowing this would have any impact on their situation. “That’s where we’ve been since we last saw you. We had pick up a passenger from a rogue planet, and bring her back here. We met Ecrin there, and she came with us. There’s no big conspiracy. I had no clue what had come of you until a half hour ago.”

“I was just wondering,” Ulinthra said, feigning offense, “gahh.”

Leona sighed.

Ulinthra sighed.

“I’m just wondering what you think you’re accomplishing by taking over the world.”

“You just answered your own question. I’m taking over the world. What more could one want?”

“World peace?”

“War is necessary. For now,” Ulinthra opined.

“I heard the guards talking before you arrived,” Leona said. “Israel is fighting back.”

She shrugged. “Israel always fights back. It’s just one battle, and sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.”

“Jesus Fucking Christ, Ulinthra, a fucking Nazi first said that quote.”

“What can I say? He was my favorite president.”

What the hell did that mean? “What are you talking about? Trump wasn’t president in this timeline. He didn’t even run.”

Ulinthra acted coy, and didn’t say anything.

“You had your brain blended,” Leona hypothesized.

“The Warrior owed me a favor.”

“Son of a bitch.”

Ulinthra made a grimace. “Yes, this is going to be a lot harder for you, isn’t it? You thought you had an advantage having known my alternates. Well, I know them too, and I know the other yous.” She stood up and opened the door. Harrison left, but Ulinthra waited there for a moment. “You’re free to go. You can meet your friends back on the beach where we found you.”

Leona was, of course, reticent about the offer. “Why? What’s your angle?”

She snickered. “I love games.” She took a beat. “Catch me if you can.”

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