Microstory 2779: Nearly Everyone Dies

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Jande Ter Avest wakes up and yawns, louder than he wanted to, which serves to wake up his wives. They were going to have to wake up soon enough anyway, though, so it’s fine. He rolls over and gives Evers a kiss, then lifts himself up and over her to kiss Suki. Second Autumn is coming to a close, so it’s the first morning that it’s still dark out when it’s time to get to work. He starts to leave the house as he is, as he normally does.

“Jan,” Evers says. It doesn’t even look like her eyes are open. “You need clothes.”

“It’s not cold enough, I’ll be fine,” Jande assures her.

“Put on clothes,” Evers reiterates. She’s still drowsy and annoyed.

“Put on clothes,” Suki echoes.

“Put on clothes, put on clothes, put on clothes.” They know he hates chanting.

“Fine, fine. I’m putting on my clothes,” Jande reluctantly agrees. “God.”

“Yay,” Suki replies as she buries her face in her pillow.

“Yay,” Evers concurs, just as exhausted and grumpy.

Jande does as they ask, then goes outside. He can never admit that they were right. It is unseasonably cold already. He didn’t bother to check the forecast, but they must have. He ends up stepping back inside real quick to grab a coat too.

He shivers as he’s walking towards the barn. Across the way, he sees his sister walking towards it from her own house. Her pet uquirapod is waddling alongside her. They wave to each other and smile, but don’t speak. It’s too early to speak. He doesn’t hate his life, but he doesn’t love it either. One day, when his parents’ bodies are old enough, they’ll retire, and it will be up to him and Laise to carry on the legacy.

As long as Laise doesn’t run off to find her own way, Jande’s workload will only double, and if he doesn’t have kids eventually, it could last indefinitely. He doesn’t mind doing it for the duration of a legal lifetime if it makes his family happy. He has his whole immortality ahead of him, which he can spend doing whatever he wants. It’s not that hard of a job anyway, it’s just kind of silly to him. One day he’ll look back, and this will only be a blip. His mind lives in that future. He thinks Laise’s mind does too.

She holds the door open for him, and they both walk in. Their father is leaning back in his chair, fast asleep. If he’s not careful, he’ll tip over and fall on his head.

When Laise clears her throat, Father is startled awake. He instantly looks up at the two of them, and says, “you’re late!” like he had the complaint in the chamber.

Laise gets on her knees and rests her hand on Father’s knee. “It’s time, Father. It’s time for you to leave this body behind, and move on.”

Father winces and looks down at himself. “I’m still young enough to beat you.”

“Beat me in what?” Laise asks him with a chortle.

“Name a challenge. A foot race, a milking race; whatever you want,” Father urges.

Laise smiles at him. “You’ve been doing this for a hundred and ten years. You suffered through a lot of harsh winters, and if we’re being honest, your body wasn’t designed perfectly. There is no shame in retiring early. You’ll head west and start a new life. We can take it from here, we promise. Mother wants to be done too, I know it.”

Father shakes his head. “Neither of you married invested workers. You underestimate how hard this job is. You will not be able to handle it just between the two of you. Our way of life must be upheld. You both need to find new partners.”

“We married for love, Father,” Jande explains. “They still help, they just also do other things with their lives. That’s what I love about Evers and Suki.”

“That’s why I love Adora,” Laise agrees. “Our generation doesn’t believe in hard work simply for the sake of it, but that doesn’t mean we’re not committed. It’s no secret that we plan on integrating slightly more technology into the processes. Father, you have not tried to dissuade us from this. We’ll still be farmers, just more modern ones. Holding on for ten more years will not preserve tradition, it will just make your joints achy.” She gently removes the tablet from his hands. “Why don’t you let me handle assignments today? You go take a nap to sleep on it.” She looks down at the device. “Jande, you’re on eyren duty. I’m doing carrots and parbread.”

“Oh, I thought I was gonna do carrots,” Jande says. “Evers was asking to learn more about eyren harvesting, but I told her she could sleep in today.”

“Go ahead and prep the harvesters,” Laise decides. “I’ll get Evers for you.” She looks back at Father again. “Is this okay with you, that I supervise the workers? It’s late in the season, there’s no need for you to get worked up. It’s okay to take a break.”

“Yeah, maybe I’ll take it slow today,” Father relents as he’s yawning.

While Laise is walking across the lawn to Jande’s house, Jande walks over to the shed to retrieve the equipment for harvesting eyren. As he’s loading the supplies on the cart, he sees both of his wives following Laise to the barn. They’re in the middle of a conversation, so he doesn’t interrupt them. He would later wish he had stopped them.

As soon as they step foot inside, the whole barn collapses. Jande does too. He lands on his hands and knees as the gravity pulls him down harder than usual. This happened a couple decades ago, but it was more gradual, and most buildings were reinforced in case it happened again, but they left the barn alone, because it’s just a barn. The shed buckles too and crashes down on top of Jande, pinning him against the soil. It lets up a little bit, but then the ground begins to shake. Jande tries to get up, but his spine has presumably been severed. He tries to crawl out, but he can’t move.

This body is wasted, it’s not going to heal; certainly not in enough time. It hasn’t killed him, so he’s going to have to do it himself. He doesn’t want to transfer his consciousness to a normal backup, though, because they’re too far away. Without telling anyone, Jande programmed a failsafe in his brain, which allows him to jump to the neighbor’s service bot. They are also farmers, but they use more advanced tech to make their lives easier, allowing them to focus more on the crops. Jande closes his eyes and triggers the suicide protocol. Everything goes dark for a few seconds. He’s not sure how long this is going to take, though, because he never tested it.

He doesn’t have to open his eyes again. The image simply renders in front of him. He finds himself carrying two little children in his metallic arms. It’s the neighbor kids. The four parents are running alongside him, trying to get out in the open space while the bidaquakes continue to stir up the ground. Jande looks around. This area is as good as any. The surface is solid, and nothing can fall upon them. Jande sets the kids down. “I must check on the Ter Avests too,” he requests.

“Yes, we’ll be fine, bot,” one of the mothers says. “Go help the community.”

It’s a kilometer away, but this substrate gets him back home in no time. He races into the barn, and starts carefully pulling debris away. Other than his mother, everyone he loves turns up dead, but his sister is the only one who never comes back to life.

Microstory 2573: Successful Panacea Test Subject

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This is a happy story, so don’t worry about it. Unlike most of the test subjects that my former company used to see if the panacea could cure a host of diseases all at once, I was a part of the system the whole time. I’m one of the researchers, and I volunteered myself for the experiment, because I was finally one hundred percent confident in its effectiveness. I helped develop it, so I watched the predictive estimate numbers go up and up and up. That doesn’t mean they were low before. I mean, we weren’t testing on live specimens when the model only showed 10% confidence. By the time I strapped into the chair, we were at 96%. I all but demanded that we do it outside the presence of Mr. Tipton, but they wouldn’t allow it, and I get it. Science isn’t always careful, but people should be. I didn’t need him, though. They injected me with a number of pathogens, which immediately started trying to destroy me. Then they gave me the cure. It worked nearly instantaneously. I felt better, I could breathe again, and my energy was restored. I even felt better than I ever had before. I admit, part of the reason I asked to do it was because I also wanted the money. If the panacea fails, but the subject lives, they get the money. If it fails, and the subject dies, their family is given the money instead. That only happened once, but we obviously don’t like to talk about it. If the procedure succeeds, in addition to the cure itself, you also get three million dollars. I left the program after that, because, well...I had three million dollars, so I’m not sure how many tests they ran afterwards, but I’m guessing they spent a couple hundred million dollars on successes alone. We didn’t have many failures, though, because we were so cautious. I loved my job, but I could see the writing on the wall. It wasn’t going to last forever, so I might as well cash out, and set myself up to be successful in a world that might not have such a great economy anymore. I don’t know if the panacea is going to cause the collapse of civilization, but I know that I’ll be all right either way. I’m buying gold, I’m buying land, I’m buying food. I never thought of myself as a survivalist, but it would be pretty foolish not to. I just wish I could have snagged a few boxes of the prototype cure to keep for myself in case it all does hit the fan. Nah, that would have been too selfish anyway. I’m sure it will all be fine. Let us rejoice! The first lot of the cure ships out next week. Thank you, Landis Tipton, for everything you’ve done for us. You’re done now. You can rest. And hey, if you like underground bunkers and MREs, maybe look me up. You don’t need all those consorts any more.

Microstory 2495: Kingdom of Aksum

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I won’t get into too many historical details, because if you’re interested in such information, you would probably prefer to hear it on the tour, and if this stuff bores you, I doubt there’s anything I could say to change your mind. The Kingdom of Aksum existed between the first and seventh centuries in the common era. It was a powerful and meaningful region of international trade at the time. In fact, they relied so heavily on being in the center of everything that, when power shifted to other cultures, Aksum couldn’t keep up. Spoiler alert, they ultimately collapsed over the course of many years due to emigration to more fertile lands, war, and plague. All the usual suspects. Unlike other civilizations, however, you can’t really point to a single event, or even a short period of time, which served as the turning point. It just gradually declined in importance. Its ancestors are still alive today, whether or not they are aware of, or place any significant emphasis, on this long-forgotten heritage. There is a lot that we don’t know about life in the Kingdom, and of course, it changed over the centuries. The lands where it once stood are still there, and I believe there are a few arcologies in the region still. The memory of it, however, has unfortunately faded, and that’s thanks to a much stronger focus on European culture and history. For many of our ancestors, the nations of Africa were backwards, uncultured, and irrelevant. How many were there who didn’t know—or couldn’t admit—that various regions of Africa served as both the seed of human life, and the heart of civilization? We’re all from there, and so I would argue that the Kingdom of Aksum is everyone’s story. In the spirit of this reality, I urge you to educate yourself on its history, even if it doesn’t mean going to visit this dome. I still definitely recommend coming here. It’s a great replica of what the region would have looked like back then. You can’t find it in the simulations. Trust me, I checked the virtual stacks. It’s not that it wouldn’t be possible, but people are more concerned with replicating the Firefly / Serenity star system, and The Flying Forest, which is just a regular forest where you feel intoxicated. I shouldn’t judge. I should just be grateful that it exists in any form. I learned so much here, and I know you will too if you just give it a chance.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 31, 2399

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An interesting thing that Aldona and Erlendr learned is that they are capable of traversing the boundary between the domed over Kansas City, and the rest of the Fourth Quadrant. The only thing is that they have to do it together. They have to be touching each other in order to pass through the dimensional barrier. It’s sort of weird, after all this time, with so many people working on the problem, that the barrier remains. The man who built it is pretty powerful, and maybe only he can one day bring it down. He’s reportedly not been involved in any of this since he did it as a favor for a friend, and they don’t have time to try to find him now. It’s great that Aldona and Erlendr can do it, but that doesn’t help Leona. They can’t take anyone else through with them.

Leona originally assumed that the reality dial that Trina gave her would always jump her to the alternate version of wherever she happened to be at the time, but it seems that she can go wherever she wants...as long as it’s not the Kansas City bubble in the Fourth Quadrant. Anywhere in the galaxy but there. She may even be able to travel anywhere in the universe, but there has been no need for it so far. What she really needs is a way for her new task force to be able to reach out to her, and maybe even to each other. She wishes she had asked Trina about that, though she probably would have said that Leona is just meant to hop between realities regularly so nothing falls through the cracks. Team Keshida doesn’t have a solution for this either. The special bi-fold and tri-fold mirrors can do it, but that’s not enough to go around.

“Talk to my son.” Erlendr is on the other side of the barrier, while Aldona is discussing matters with the presidents. He can’t come back through to Leona’s side, but they can communicate using the interdimensional radios that Ramses designed. They only work between the Third Rail and Fourth Quadrant since they’re so close together.

“Zeferino? Do you know where he is in the main sequence?”

Erlendr shakes his head slowly. “Not him. My other son, I know you met him.”

“You mean Jupiter? You can’t call him your son.”

“No.” He sighs. “The other, other one.”

“Mithridates.” Leona didn’t want to say anything that she wasn’t supposed to.

“He has a way to reach across realities. I don’t know how, but he knows things.”

“Yeah. He can reach further than that.” Leona takes her reality transitioner out.

“One more thing,” Erlendr says when he sees her prepare to leave. “I know that you and I don’t get along, but we’re on the same page here. I wanted to create a perfect reality, and now it’s happening.”

“The Sixth Key is not perfect,” she argues. “Even if I knew absolutely nothing about it other than that it existed, I would know that. There is no such thing. You should understand that better than anyone. Either way, do your job.” She turns the dial.

She thought it was going to take some time to find the long-lost Preston, but Mithri happens to be hanging out with Winona and the Fifth Divisioner by Earth’s one oasis. They’re enjoying each other’s company. Well, the two of them are. Winona looks uncomfortable as hell, but she’s trying not to rock the boat.

“Thank god,” she mutters under her breath. She stands up, and places her lips against Leona’s ear as they hug. “Can you get me out of here?”

“I really can’t. I think it’ll be a lot worse if you try to leave. I may be able to bring someone else here to sort of...make this easier to deal with, however.”

“Enough hugging!” Mithri exclaims. “Come have a drink with me and Hamilton!”

“Hamilton?” Leona questions. “Your name is Hamilton? Surname, or given?”

The man who tried to kill her not two months ago stands up, and presents his hand to shake. “Hamilton Burr, Madame. What are your orders?”

“Oh my God, this reality is so weird.” She shakes off the bit of silly trivia. “I don’t need to talk to you. I need him.” She points to Mithri.

“What can I do for ya?”

“Number one...what is your stake in this? Do you know what’s happening?”

Mithri smiles, and looks around behind him as if there’s something to see but barren desert. “Why do you think I was building that Hyperalpha Collapsis?”

“I don’t think you can take it with you into the Sixth Key.”

Mithri smirks at her. “Yeah, I can.”

“Bottom line it for me. Are you going to help us, or hurt us?”

“Oh, I’ll definitely help,” he assures her.

“Great. Then I need inter-reality communication technology. Your father thinks you have it, and you’ve mentioned things you know regarding other universes.”

Mithri scowls now. “Don’t ever listen to what my father tries to tell you.”

“Answer the question,” Leona demands.

He sighs. “In this case, he’s right. I do have such technology, but it’s not what you think. You can’t chat with whomever you want. They need their own devices, or it’s only one way. And unfortunately, I only have the one. I can spy on anyone, but they can’t talk back. I’ve never needed them to.”

“Give it to me. I’ll make it work,” she tells him.

“I believe it.” Mithri turns around, and enters his little hut.

Leona looks over at Winona, then at Hamilton Burr. “You there. I also need to communicate across vast distances within this reality as well.”

Hamilton pulls a device out of his pocket, and tosses it to her. “Call the operator, and tell it who you want to talk to, and which habitat they’re on.”

“I know how this works, thank you.”

“Leona!” Mithri calls out from inside. “You might wanna come look at this!”

Leona steps into the hut, and crosses to the other corner. She’s never been in here, but she would have expected this place to be bigger on the outside. He doesn’t live luxuriously, which is odd for a Preston. He’s got his hand on top of a box television set with all sorts of funky dials and buttons on the side. It’s retro-futuristic, and it seems to be showing the news. The reporter on it is discussing a mysterious bubble that spread all over the globe, and started making people disappear. “Which reality is this?”

“It’s the Third Rail,” Mithri says. “I think we’ve figured out the true purpose of that ship that someone built for you in New York.”

“How do you know about that? Ya know what, never mind. I can’t do anything to help with this. I’m meant to focus on the Keys, and nothing else.”

He smiles knowingly at her, but doesn’t speak.

His face says everything, though, and he’s right. Who decides what pertains to the Reconvergence, and what doesn’t? Trina and her band of Keys and Keyholders took people from her that she needs to help her get shit done. Then she remembers that she’s never followed the rules before, so why start now? She tosses him Hamilton’s communicator. “Ask Dilara Cassano to come here. I have to go.” She picks up the TV.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 12, 2398

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Kivi enters the lab to find Ramses at his desk, listlessly scraping the blade of a pocket knife back and forth along the back of his hand as if trying to sharpen it. He doesn’t stop when she approaches, he’s just staring at the screensaver on his computer. Half a container of fruit is teetering on the edge. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“What? How?” He doesn’t look at her. He’s following the pattern on the screen.

She uses her eyes to indicate the knife, but has to say it out loud, “the blade.”

“Oh, it’s incredibly dull. It’s just self-soothing behavior.”

“Mateo and Leona are gonna be fine. They checked in with us, they’ll be back through the portal later.”

“I know, but it’s my fault they’re there.”

“We didn’t get much information,” Kivi begins, “but it sounds like they would not have been able to get through the bubble without going on that detour first. Sounds to me like it was fate.”

“I don’t believe in fate. You can’t once you’ve been through what we have. We’ve seen the people in charge of reality. They’re just men. Some are even children.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that they’re going to be okay. They’re even bringing back Erlendr, a.k.a. your real body. You’re gonna be back to your old self.”

Ramses just nods.

“Talk to me, Ram.”

“What are we doing here? What are we trying to accomplish?”

“I dunno, what were you working on?”

“Before we found out where Mateo and Leona had gone off to? I was trying to track their location.”

“Is there anything else that needs to be done?”

“That’s my point. We’ve been so focused on getting ourselves back to the main sequence, and reuniting with temporal energy, that we haven’t asked ourselves why. Why bother? Trina was born in this reality. Then she went to another, and had a full life. She lived, she died, and by all accounts, she was happy. The Matics have gotten themselves away from the powers that be. Now that that’s all over, any mess we get ourselves into is our own fault. The harder we push, the harder time pushes back. So let’s give up. Let’s just...be. Sounds easier.”

Kivi sighs. “You can’t do that, Ramses. You have to get out of this reality.”

“Why? What does it matter?”

She sighs again, harder this time. She’s wondered whether she should say anything about this since she first came into existence, and now she may have no choice. Like he said, they were focused on escaping, maybe they would never have to know, but if he’s doubting that objective... “I am the Third Rail Kivi. I can exist in this reality, and this reality alone. I can feel the day that I die, because it is the same day that this reality collapses. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but I know that it’s coming up. And I’m afraid that if you’re still here when that happens, you’ll die too.”

Only now does Ramses look away from his computer, and into Kivi’s eyes, which he studies. He’s not trying to see if she’s lying, but gauging how sure she is, in case she may be wrong about her assumptions. “Okay, then. I better get back to work.”