Microstory 2460: Shmupdome

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This is a violent dome, which is why it has those restrictions where you’re not allowed to even step foot under the dome without a temporary substrate. You have some leeway when it comes to the characteristics of your body, but at any rate, your mind has to be able to be uploaded upon death. Even if you choose a body that is all but invincible, they make you take these precautions. I don’t know why I said all that. I guess I just know that some people ignore the prospectus info, and go straight to the reviews, so I want to do my part to make the rules clear. This is a shoot-em-up game, but in real life. There are different scenarios that you can play, and each has its own pros and cons. You might go in there totally unarmed in a sort of if I need a gun, I’ll take one situation. You might have weapons, but no ammunition. Hell, you could go in there with a bow and arrow if you find that an interesting challenge. There are limitations, but the guides will go over all that when you show up. Everyone gets a tap out button in case things get too intense. Some of the guns may look ancient, but they’re fully programmable. If someone in your area taps out, the system-controlled androids will freeze entirely, and everyone else’s gun will stop functioning. Even though you can’t really die permanently, you can allow yourself to feel pain, and you can’t turn that trait off at will. It may also just become overwhelming for someone, and they want it to stop. I didn’t actually see any issues, but I did hear some anecdotes, and I would like to take a second to urge you to respect other people’s needs. Everyone is unique, and you don’t know what others have been through. And it really doesn’t matter. If someone has to leave in the middle of the fight, just accept that, and don’t make them feel bad about themselves. This is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be fun for all involved, and if even one person is struggling to enjoy it, they should be able to get out of it without any ridicule or whispers. As I said, this is violent. And it’s something that you could never get away with on Earth, even though it has all the same quasi-immortality technology. Nearly all of the death that the human race and the vonearthans have experienced has happened on Earth. That’s just too much history. If you wanna know what it’s like to shoot your way out of a clothing factory, or a jungle, this is the place for you. I won’t list all the environments or scenarios that you can select, but obviously, if you’re done with one, you can choose another. If this is your thing, you’re not gonna get bored. Even if you exhaust all of the various locations, you won’t have done them all with the same weapons or vehicles, or at the same difficulty level, or with the same allies, or against the same opponents. Don’t come here if you don’t think you can take it, but if you do, and it turns out to be harder than you thought, don’t be afraid to tap out. That’s what the button is there for.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 25, 2399

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While Alyssa teleported rather randomly around the area, Mateo and Tarboda started hunting for the secrets of Daltomism the old fashioned way. They looked for hidden ruins, secret hatches, visible temporal anomalies, and anything else out of the ordinary. This is one of the remotest regions of Madagascar, known as Tsingy De Bemaraha National Park. The terrain is rough and unapologetic. It would be a great place to hide a real life god, and they’re pretty convinced that someone is here, or there wouldn’t be a tractor beam under that lake. They also don’t think that whatever they’re looking for is located too close to the lake. The tractor beam is trying to keep away from it. They’re focusing their efforts on the part of the jungle where Vearden first suggested they try. When they didn’t find anything by nightfall, they decided to make camp there. Alyssa offered to just take them back to civilization, but what if Dalton showed up overnight? What if his most devout followers build a ritualistic bonfire to worship the lunar demons, or whatever the hell else they believe in? They didn’t want to miss it.

The next morning, they go back to work. They’ve found it. It’s a half hut, but not the half you’re thinking of. The bed is part way on the wood floor, then hovers over the missing floor at the foot. The roof is over the missing part of the floor, and not over the actual floor. The window ought to have four quadrants, but the only two quadrants visible are diagonal to each other. The wall that it’s been placed on works the same way, but exists only by the missing quadrants. The nightstand is missing its legs, and the lamp is missing every other slice of its shade, as well as the entire bulb, though the light emanating from it shines as if it were there. A man steps in through a door, which only has a top half.  If this weren’t a transdimensional structure, or something else crazy and weird like that, they would have seen him walk up from the side. He came from another place. This...is a permanent portal.

The man starts to set his belongings down on the bed, and then finally notices Mateo and Tarboda. He stares at them and blinks like he’s never seen another human being before. “Crap.” He looks back at the door, likely weighing the pros and cons of running. He doesn’t budge, which suggests that anyone can walk right on through, without a key, or some time power form of it.

“It’s okay,” Mateo says, dropping his pack to the ground, and holding his hands up to show that he’s unarmed. “We’re not here to hurt you.”

“I don’t suppose any of you are one of the keys,” he asks.

“No, but we know two of them. Are we allowed to mention their names, or is there some sort of compartmentalization rule against it?”

He narrows his eyes. “Which ones do you know?”

“Iris Blume and Summit Ebora.”

He perks up. “My wife and child.”

“Does that make you a key?”

“Hm. We’re called keyholders...the co-parents.”

“Do you know who the other keys are? We might know where they are.”

Cheyenne comes through the portal door, and places a hand on the stranger’s shoulder. It’s okay, Rino. They’re friends.”

“Are we?” Mateo questions.

“What my husband did was reckless, but necessary. And what I did was meant to protect him, and therefore also necessary.”

“We understand, we just...don’t know who you are.”

“I’m the Fifth Key.”

“What does that mean?” Tarboda presses. “What are the keys? “What do you do?”

Cheyenne ignores his question. “Did you find The Arc yet?”

“If you mean the weird building thing that’s actually a ship, then yes.”

“Good, you’re on schedule.”

“We’re using it to house refugees,” Tarboda explains. “If you have plans for some other group of—”

“No,” Cheyenne interrupts, “that’s who it’s for. Whoever needs it can live there.”

“What happens to those who don’t get on it? Does everyone on this world die?”

“Heavens, no. It’s a...bellwether. They built it for the Third Railers to show them what wonders are possible, to give them a technological boost.”

“Against the other realities in the war,” Mateo guesses.

“That’s Aldona’s job,” she says. “The Arc is a message of peace.”

“From who?”

Cheyenne smiles. “From you.”

Mateo sighs. “Don’t say anything else about my future, please.”

She keeps smiling, and nods in agreement.

Mateo takes a beat. “What about Dalton Hawk?”

She looks somewhat uncomfortable. “What about him?”

He eyes the magic door. “Is he in there somewhere?”

“I don’t know where he is now. He and we came to an understanding. We get to live here with no risk of running out of temporal energy, safe until it’s time to come back out. In exchange, we don’t interfere with his plans.”

“Are his plans...”

“Noble? Good?” Cheyenne thinks about it. “They’re not bad. They’re also irrelevant. If I were you, I wouldn’t waste your time with him. The Reconvergence is coming, the Keys will be turned, and the Reality Wars will begin. They can’t be stopped, and nothing he’s tried to do with his little religion is gonna make one goddamn bit of difference. Eight billion people live on this planet, and even less in the Fourth Quadrant. That is a rounding error compared to the vast populations of the other three parallel realities. People will one day know who he truly is, and they’ll stop following him, because others will show their own power, and they won’t be dicks about it. He only has so many followers because he’s the only one on stage right now.”

“You know a hell of a lot more about this than you let on before. When Danica and I first happened upon you—”

“That was not a coincidence. I was told to find my future there. I’ve learned a lot more about it since then, but the only lies I ever told were to protect everyone’s future.”

“Okay. Just tell me, who are the other keys?”

She frowns at the lost puppy. “Very well. Iris Blume of the Parallel, Summit Ebora of the Fifth Division, Kyra Torosia of the Fourth Quadrant, Cheyenne Duvall of the Third Rail.” She bows gracefully, then pauses. “Cedar Duvall of the Sixth Key.”

Cedar is not surprising. “Wait, you skipped one. Who’s from the main sequence?”

Cheyenne hesitates, but is preparing to answer. “Vearden Haywood.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: March 24, 2399

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During World War VI, Captain Tarboda Hobson was an active member of the air force, serving by dropping supplies into quarantine camps so no one would actually have to go inside. When a new vaccine was released, he would drop that in too. Of course, a new strain—or an entirely new pathogen—was coming into power seemingly every day back then, so he never took any time off. Even that seems like nothing compared to what he’s doing now. He’s taking advantage of his new chance on life, and trying to help as many people as possible. What he’s been doing is technically against global law, but it’s a gray area when it comes to Leona’s nation. Of course, he’s utilizing resources from the U.S. government, but he’s just pretending that that’s not really happening. It’s not his job to be concerned with the politics anyway. He and his new team have one objective, which is to rescue people who are being trafficked all over the world, and to relocate them to Leona’s magical new building. He forgot how much he loved doing this, not worrying about making the decisions. He flies, that’s what he does. It’s all he does. Well, he sometimes pilots in boat mode.

Today is different. He’s being temporarily reassigned to a new mission. While Leona does whatever it is she’es doing stateside, he’s on his way to the Island of Madagascar. The religion of Daltomism supposedly originated here. According to Mateo, who’s here with him, this might not be completely random. If you drew a line from Kansas straight through the center of the Earth, and came out the other side, Madagascar would be the nearest landmass. These are called antipodes, though the place where they’re going is not the exact opposite point. The exact opposite would be in the middle of the ocean, as it usually is, since the Earth is mostly water. This was close enough, and it is Leona’s belief that Dalton chose this region because it was the farthest from The Constant in what is now Kansas. That’s where all the mysterious immortal people live that Tarboda hasn’t dealt with directly yet.

“Don’t we think this is all happening a little too quick? Word around the government water cooler is that Leona’s about to announce something big.”

“It has to happen fast,” Mateo explains. “The Reality Wars are starting early next month. Dalton Hawke is the last piece of the puzzle. If this is where he founded his religion, we have to know about it.”

“How did you find this place specifically?”

“Our new friend, Imani gave us a copy of Word of Dalton, Book II, which she can evidently get in a lot of trouble for. Vearden was researching it for us before his...” Mateo trails off. “He thinks it describes this part of the jungle.”

“What do we think, there’s a hidden temple somewhere around here?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, we may find out soon.” Tarboda slows down, and shifts into hover mode. “We’re at the coordinates you gave me.”

“Is there, like, a camera on the bottom of this thing?” Mateo asks, looking at the floor. “I would like to see what’s directly below us.”

“Is there a camera?” Tarboda echoes with a laugh. “Ha!” He engages erasure mode, removing the floor entirely, showing them what it would look like if it didn’t exist, and they could just float in the air.

“Whoa. I’ve seen stuff like this before. I have an idea of how it works, but it’s still trippy to stand here. Can you scan for structures, or whatever?”

“Uhhh...” Tarboda taps through the manual on the built-in screen. “Scan. Here we go.” He presses the button. Nothing happens that they can see, but the computer says that it’s scanning. “It didn’t find anything. No ruins.”

“That’s not surprising, or someone would have found it a long time ago. I’ve always wanted to do that thing where we—”

“Wait.” He looks at the screen. It’s detecting radiation from that body of water.”

“Bad radiation?”

“Slight radiation.”

Mateo has to duck his head down to see the lake through the floor. “Does that mean we can’t do the thing?”

“What thing?”

“Sliding down to the ground on ropes hanging from the helicopter.”

“No, we definitely can’t do that.”

Mateo hangs his head.

Tarboda smirks. “Because this is not a helicopter. I’ll get the gear. That button over there will open the center floor hatch.”

Mateo goes over to open it. The floor reappears, but only in that spot. The hatch drops a little, then slides under like a pocket door. Tarboda drops the lines, and starts to get himself fitted with the climbing gear. He looks over the edge to see that the lake is closer than it was before. “What the hell? The jet has been moving on its own.”

“It has? You didn’t move it?”

Tarboda drops the gear, and runs back over to the cockpit and looks at the screen. The scanner didn’t find much before, but it’s found something now. All sorts of debris and wreckage is down in that water. It’s much deeper than it looks from a distance. “Close the hatch!”

Mateo slams on the button again. The floor starts closing back up. Just as it does, the jet tips over, sending him slamming against the back wall.

“You okay?” He asks.

“I’m all right!”

“I’m tryin’ to get us out of here!”

“Something’s pulling us down?”

“Yeah,” Tarboda calls back. “Hold on, we’re gonna start pullin’ some Gs!” He engages the thrusters, but whatever invisible force is tugging at them is reacting in kind. It won’t let them go, and it’s stronger than his beautiful new plane is. They gave this to him to please the team. They’re not going to give him a second one. “Try to climb back up here! I can’t get us out!”

“No! Jump, Tarboda!”

“What!”

“Jump down here! Trust me!”

These people brought him back to life; he has to do whatever they say. He undoes his belt, hangs between the seats, then lets go. They’re not perfectly vertical, so he slides on the floor, heading right for Mateo, who has his wrist up to his face. Suddenly, the jet is gone, and he’s tumbling on the ground. He gets himself to his feet and looks up to see the jet being sucked into the water, but not before it implodes.

Alyssa’s here with them. “Crushed it.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 22, 2399

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Leona has begun to split her time between the isolation building in Crown Center where Vearden is being treated, and the government hospital where Arcadia is being treated. He asked her to spend time with his baby mama, so she can be reminded of how much people love her. She may not be able to hear people’s voices, but she may, and it’s worth the try. While in either place, Leona continues to work on the global defense project with Ramses and Aldona. It is coming along nicely. They should reach their goal by the start of this war. She also receives updates from Kivi’s team in Brazil. They’re experiencing a lot less good luck. The Harlows have evidently caught on to the fact that they are being pursued, and are actively evading capture. They’re fast, though they’re not teleporting, which is kind of one more strike against their hope that the young woman is Alyssa.

The SD6 team is closing in on the targets now, however, and the chances of escape are low. Leona is in the isolation building, monitoring the mission progress via their helmet and drone feeds. Kivi is approaching a shack in the middle of the jungle that was probably originally built to study the wildlife. The rest of the team is hanging back while she spots. “I see a window. Getting closer for a better look,” she whispers. She keeps going. “I have eyes on Target One.” It’s Roeland, so at least they’ve been chasing after the right people, instead of two random other time travelers. “I think I see the top of someone else’s head.”

“Lift your helmet, Spotter,” Alserda orders. “Skipper will confirm visual.”

“Am I Skipper?” Leona asks.

“Yes,” Kivi replies as she removes her helmet to get the camera at a better angle.

Leona doesn’t know when that happened, but okay. She shakes her head, even though no one can see her. “A long-haired individual is sitting on the floor at Target One’s feet. Their back is to the window.” She pauses. “You’ll have to breach.”

“What tactic do we use?” Kivi asks.

“Fall back and hold,” Leona orders. She is by no means the team’s leader, but she has an idea, and she hopes Alserda does not take offense.

They each back up a few meters, and duck behind trees and brush.

“I’m going to try to come to you,” Leona explains. “Muting now.” She mutes her transceiver, and dials her phone. “Ram, has the shipment come in?”

“Yes,” Ramses confirms. “Not very much of it, though.”

“Then I’ll only ask you to make two jumps.”

“Where do you want me to go?”

“Come here, and then take me to our operatives in Minas Gerais.”

“Give me five minutes to finish extracting the temporal energy,” he requests.

Leona hangs up.

“You’re leaving?” Vearden asks through the protective barrier.

“I wasn’t going to worry, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve decided that mine is the best face for them to see. Roeland knows me, Alyssa definitely knows me. Even if it’s not her, she’ll probably react to me dressed like this than eight soldiers in heavy tactical gear. I would not have let them go out like that if I had been in charge.”

“I understand,” he says. “Just be careful. Maybe you should wear something, though, like a bulletproof vest?”

“I’ll be fine. He didn’t seem like the violent type. He’s been running from us, remember? His go-to stress response is flight.”

“Yeah.” Vearden and the other patients are still alive. Their conditions have not gotten worse, but they’ve not gotten better, really. The doctors have been able to alleviate some of their symptoms, but they still don’t know exactly what’s causing them, or how to fight it. They have ruled out a parasite, because the pathogen would have to be airborne to spread in the way that it did, especially at the speed that it did so. A fungus should be causing external changes to the patients by now. A prion would not be expected to cause the apparent symptoms. That leaves a bacterial or viral infection, with the latter being the most likely, since bacteria are not known to damage blood vessels.

Ramses suddenly appears in the room, but he’s on the wrong side of the plastic partition. Alarms begin to blare. Sensitive sensors have been installed in the room that can detect the presence of a second body heat signature. Actually, they’re designed to alert the caretakers to a tear in personal protective equipment, and this is much more than that. He isn’t even wearing a mask.

Leona starts to massage her temples. “Oh my God. Don’t go anywhere. I know you can leave, and your upgraded body may be immune, but don’t go anywhere. You could still be a carrier.”

“I’m an engineer, but I took health class too,” Ramses replies. “I just...didn’t know the layout of the room.” He looks over at Vearden. “I’m sorry, man.”

Vearden shrugs. “Doesn’t change anything for me. I’m still dying.”

“You’re not dying,” Leona argues. She grabs her tablet, to access the government retrofit systems. They were so concerned with quick deployment that they had to sacrifice security. Hacking into them was as easy as using binoculars to spot the WiFi password written on the blackboard at the bottom of the menu in the bakery across the courtyard. She switches off the alarm, but just the sound; the alert has still been sent.

“Thank you,” Vearden says.

Leona turns back to the monitors, and unmutes her radio. “I won’t be able to make it. But I still would prefer a restrained approach. You don’t have to take off your gear, but maybe one person can approach alone with no weapon in hand?”

“We made contact,” Alserda responds. “He’d like to talk to you.”

Roeland starts to speak after a beat, “I told you that I don’t know where your friend is. Last I saw her, she was dying in a cave in the stone age. This is my daughter. She was a little boy who was living there when a group of humans attacked. She’s half-human, half-primacean, and we think they didn’t like that.”

“You never told me that you knew Alyssa at all!” Leona shouted back.

“I forgot her name! It was decades ago! I’m sorry! We crossed paths briefly!”

“I suppose you don’t remember what she looks like either!”

“I remember now. I assume she’s your twin sister?”

“Argh!” She throws the radio against the wall. “This has all been for nothing! I just want my people back. Is that so much to ask?” She kicks her chair over, but holds herself back from committing any more property damage. So that’s it, huh? Either they figure out how to go back in time tens of thousands of years in a reality specifically designed to prevent time travel, or they figure out how to let her go. If they choose the former, they will need help. Danica’s help. She dials her phone again. “Aldona? I need a ship...one of the ones with the reframe engine I designed for you.”

Microstory 1743: Water Snake

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I went hiking yesterday afternoon, in the jungle. It was only meant to last a few hours, but it ended up being an overnight affair when I ran into a sea serpent. I thought she might try to attack me, but instead, I led her back to the ocean, where she could swim and be happy. I might even call her my friend. I slept on the little beach that night, just out in the open, content that the experience turned into so much more than just getting a few extra steps for my fitness app. I’ve just woken up, and I’m hungry. I ate all of my snacks last night before my sandy slumber. I almost feel like I’m on a remote island, somewhere far from civilization, and have no choice but to figure out how to fish with my bare hands, or hunt rabbits with a flexible stick and some string. I can actually hear a truck driving on the mountain side above me, so I’m not too far from other people. My sea serpent and I just used the most direct route yesterday, so I take a few minutes to find the actual trail. I do not want to have to crawl through the vegetation again, even if it would possibly be quicker. It’s a struggle, walking down the path, the hunger growing worse by the second. Mother always says to pack twice as much as I think I’ll need. Father always said I’ll only ever need half, so don’t suffer the weight. I always split the difference, and go with my gut. Now my gut has turned against me, screaming across the abyss. I have to find something worth eating somewhere around here. I’m not liable to find a diner in the middle of nowhere. If I do see a diner, I’ll know the hunger overpowered me, and it’s nothing more than a manifestation of my desires, carried over to limbo from the living realm. Just when I think I can’t be too far from help, the trail ends. It just stops at the shore of a lake. Oh no, I am dead, but this isn’t limbo. I just went straight to hell. I could keep walking, or turn around, or learn to fly, but it wouldn’t matter. I’m never getting out of here, and I’m never getting food.

I stand there for a moment, ready to surrender to my fate, when a familiar sight appears before me. A snake slithers out of the water, and stops a meter away from my feet. He watches me carefully, but does not seem concerned. Like last time, I don’t move. The sea serpent never hurt me, but that doesn’t mean this one won’t. He looks a little more dangerous to me. Perhaps I should try to run this time. Before I can, he begins to slither off into the grass. I take that opportunity to walk in the other direction, but he quickly darts back, and gets in front of me. We regard each other a little more. When he’s satisfied with whatever he thinks he was accomplishing, he slithers away again. I try to leave once more, but he does not like that. He starts to circle me, and I know he’ll bite if I try to go in the wrong direction. Seeing no other choice then, I head in the direction he was going. This prompts him to stop circling, and slither beside me. After several more steps, I realize that he’s leading me somewhere. Is he that smart? Could he really know where the city is, and that I need to get there? Well, his saltwater cousin seemed to possess a shocking level of intelligence, so what do I know about what animals can really do? He keeps slithering next to me, but a little ahead, and I keep following him. If he ends up taking me to a giant Indiana Jones-style pit of hungry serpentine brethren, I guess I’ll just deal with it. Before too long, I see straight lines through the trees up ahead, suggesting some kind of man-made structure. The water snake leads me right into the clearing where I finally see where we are. My God, it is a diner.

Microstory 1711: Giorgia Giraffe

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Dear City Council,

I have a pet giraffe. Well, I’m pretty sure it’s a cousin to the giraffe, but it just looks like a baby giraffe. It’s even smaller than a dwarf giraffe—closer to the size of a large dog—and as far as I know, it’s the only one of its kind. I don’t know where she came from. She just wandered into my backyard one day and started drinking out of the birdbath. I thought about contacting the authorities about her, but I grew too attached in only the few short hours since we met. She seemed to grow attached to me too. She kept following me around the yard. I tried to look up what kind of leaves giraffes eat, but the internet listed all these trees I had never heard of, and they didn’t appear to be native to North America. She took a liking to bamboo leaves, so that’s what I’ve been feeding her all this time. I have a little naturally grown ceilingless hut up against the fence. All I did was plant bamboo in the shape of four walls, and it gives me this private little area where I can go to enjoy nature. I have an outdoor television in there, and a minifridge for snacks and water. I even buried the extension cord inside some PVC pipe to protect it from damage. It’s a pretty sweet setup, and I spend most of my time there, especially since the pandemic allowed me to work from home. It wasn’t originally designed to accommodate a tiny giraffe, so I cut down some of the bamboo, and planted more to make it bigger. This is where Giorgia sleeps. I bought a smartspeaker so she can listen to sounds of the jungle all night long, and she loves it. She loves me, and I love her.

The neighborhood kids like to come over and play with her, but she has a tough time with crowds, so I limit visits with a schedule so it doesn’t stress her out. Most people are overjoyed to see her, but not everyone is happy that I have a mini giraffe. Five blocks down—which no one in their right mind would call part of the same neighborhood—lives a middle-aged grump who stopped working when he started to receive disability checks, along with a settlement he won in civil court. He has nothing better to do with his time than complain about his neighbors. If the people on his street don’t have each blade of grass cut to an untenable range of length, he puts up a stink. I’m sure you have all noticed how annoying he is. I was able to keep Giorgia off of his radar for a good long while, but he’s recently learned of her, and now he can’t let go. Animal control came by last week to investigate, and a few days later, a decision was made to remove the animal from my property, and lock her up in a cold and heartless cage. I always knew it was illegal to keep a wild animal at my house, but I don’t think she qualifies. She’s gentle, trained, and not doing anyone any harm. I beg you to return Giorgia to me. The city had no right to take her from her loving home. There must be better things that you can be doing with your time than harassing a law-abiding citizen, and traumatizing an innocent creature. Attached is a petition to #BringGiorgiaHome, signed by over 300 of my closest friends, who all believe that she is better off with me than in some laboratory.

Thank you,

Sir Niall Muller Jr.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Tuesday, July 10, 2125

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The pain disappeared in an instant, but Mateo was still lying face down in the dirt. He stood himself up, and looked around. He wasn’t extremely familiar with the topography of Tribulation Island—it wasn’t like he had a favorite leaf—but he could tell that he wasn’t there anymore. It was a lush jungle, though not one he had been to before, as far as he knew. He could see smoke coming from the bottom of the mountain, so with no other options, he started climbing down towards it. Just as he stepped into the clearing, dozens of other people did too. They nearly all looked confused, but were possibly more confused by the fact that Mateo didn’t seem to be. He confidently walked forward, and approached the outdoor amphitheatre they had set up. This wasn’t the first time he was suddenly thrust into a place he didn’t understand, so he needn’t fret. He sat front and center, right before the stage.

Seeing him do this made everyone else feel more comfortable doing the same. With no idea where they were, or what they were doing here, they began to find their own seats, and wait patiently. A woman stuck her head out of the curtain, and kept it tightly around her neck. “Oh, wow,” she said as she was looking them over. Mateo was only able to hear because he was close enough. “You guys are quick.” She watched until everyone had a place to sit. All but one. One man was left standing. “That isn’t right.” She slipped a clipboard through the curtains. “A hundred and forty-seven exactly. Is someone here who shouldn’t be?”

Mateo stood up. “I believe that would be me.”

“Name?” she prompted.

“Mateo Matic.”

She scanned her list. “Date of—of...” she trailed off.

That was fine, Mateo knew what she was asking. He was sure she wouldn’t want to say it out loud until she could go through her whole delicate spiel. “July 9, 2124.”

“Yep, that’s today.”

“I’ll come to you,” he decided. He climbed up on stairs, and followed her backstage. “There’s a reason I’m not on your list. I am a time traveler. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of us.”

“Oh! I thought they were joking. They went over it in training, but...”

He nodded. “It’s okay. My death started millions of years ago, but then a fffffrrr—someone I know pulled me through a portal so I could do die in present day.” Well, he wasn’t a friend.

“I see.” She gritted her teeth, and looked back down at her clipboard, hoping to remember the procedures. “I believe we’re meant to send people like you somewhere else. The Designers will want to speak with you directly. But I don’t know how to...”

“Again, it’s fine. Go ahead and run through your presentation. Those people out there need to know what’s happened to them. We can deal with me later.”

“Are you sure? The orientation process is quite long. People need time to adjust.”

“Really, I’m all right. Go do your thing. I’m here if you need help.”

“You’re very kind.” She took a deep breath, and prepared herself. Then she stepped all the way through the curtain to tell a crowd of people that they were dead.

“He’s dead?”

“I don’t see how he could have survived,” J.B. reported. “It was...it was bad. I’m sorry, this is all my fault.”

Leona stared at the ground a moment. “No, it’s fine. You saw a body, which means he’s still alive. He can’t die. The powers that be won’t let him. I’m sure his consciousness has been transferred back to the lab on Thālith al Naʽāmāt Bida, just like it was last time. He’ll be back any minute.”

Sanaa was staring at Ellie. “No, he won’t.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Leona questioned.

“You gonna tell her, or shall I?” Sanaa asked.

“You can read minds again, can’t you?” Ellie hypothesized.

“Answer the goddamn question.”

“There were two clone bodies,” Ellie explained. “The first one that Mateo used was after his fall from the cliff. The second was after his fall from the hospital. We didn’t grow a third. If his mind was transferred to some other substrate, then we had nothing to do with it.”

“Why didn’t you make more?” Leona questioned. “Why didn’t you make an army of Mateos?”

“Humans aren’t cylons. I’m surprised the powers let us do it even once.”

Leona didn’t cry, or fume. She just kind of looked tired. The truth was she didn’t know what to feel. Mateo had died so many times already, it was a trend. He had always come back, and there was no reason to believe he wouldn’t do it an upteenth time. Anyway, they had a mission to complete, and now it was up to Leona to fulfill their promise to save Vearden. If nothing else, she would see Mateo again after it was over. This was probably the best outcome, because now they’ll be together. “Let’s go. Our window is closing.” She walked off.

They found Vearden alone in the woods. He freely gave them a sample of his blood without asking a single question, because he trusted that they needed it for something important. They returned to The Parallel with it, where a technician was waiting to produce a clone for them. They asked him to program it to grow to maturity after a year, and no sooner. There were ways to expedite the cloning process, but generally speaking, the closer you get to realtime, the more stable the substrate will be, and the longer it will last. They didn’t need this Vearden clone to last very long, but they did need it to be able to bleed and break, so it was just better if they took their time. They wouldn’t be able to use it for another year anyway.

On July 10, 2125, the team returned to the timstream. Leona half-expected Mateo to be waiting for them just outside the AOC, but no such luck. Maybe he really was dead, and it was nearly time to join him. “Are you ready, Ellie?”

“Are you sure about this?” Ellie asked diligently. “A life for a life is...a terrible trade.”

“Mateo had faith in you, and he died before he could prove it. I’ll die proving it for myself.”

“I can’t guarantee that there’s anything on the other side.”

Leona sat down in the chair. “You’re closer to a guarantee than anyone else has ever been able to give. Do it.”

“Anyone else want to object?” Ellie asked the other two.

“They don’t get a vote,” Leona argued.

“Yes, we do. It’s not just about you,” Sanaa fought back. “And no, no objections. We do this together, as long you’re capable of that.”

“I am.”

“What do you mean, together?” Leona questioned.

Without responding, Ellie placed her hands at the Vearden clone’s temples. She concentrated a moment, and then worked her magic, teleporting Leona’s consciousness into its brain. But she wasn’t alone. She woke up in a darkened room, with a facsimile of the hexagonoid table from the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ellie was sitting next to her, with J.B. next to her, and Sanaa next to him.

“Oh my God,” Leona said. “What are you doing here?”

“We’ve all been asked to save Vearden. We’re all here to do just that,” Sanaa explained.

“There was only meant to be one sacrifice,” Leona contended. “It can’t be Mateo, since he already did that, so it has to be me. And J.B., if you’re here, his death will be meaningless.”

“I was told that it was not,” J.B. replied plainly.

“I’m the one with the power,” Ellie told her, “so there’s nothing you can do to stop us.”

“I have your power now too.”

Ellie lifted her hand, palm up. A viewscreen for each of them appeared in the middle of the table, showing them the perspective of the lab from the Vearden clone’s perspective. They could see their respective former bodies, strewn about the floor. “No, you don’t. Nobody’s wearing a Cassidy cuff. Whether he was ready for it or not, Jupiter can’t control us anymore.”

Like always, as if he knew exactly when they were talking about him—which shouldn’t have been possible in this case, because they weren’t talking at all, but communicating telepathically to each other using the same brain—Jupiter appeared. He examined the death and destruction around him for a second before dragging the bodies up to more dignified positions on the couch. He removed their cuffs, and dropped them into his bag. Once he had all of them stored, he took out what appeared to be a bracelet. He held it up in front of the clone’s face. “This was made from Ariadna’s hair. It won’t let you cross any dimensional boundary you want, but it’ll get ya past the merge barrier on Tribulation Island. Give it to the real Vearden when you swap places with him, and tell him how to get back here. I’ll make sure he makes a good life for himself in the Parallel.” He wrapped the bracelet around Clone!Vearden’s wrist. “Godspeed.” He knew. He knew what Mateo was planning to do the whole time.

After Jupiter disappeared, the inhabitants of the clone body took a few hours to learn how to navigate. They were all capable of assuming control over its movements, but it was obviously better if they selected one person for that role. Leona was going to take care of that, while Ellie would be doing the talking. J.B. and Sanaa could therefore just be there for the ride. And the death. When they felt like they were comfortable with this new body, and ready to go, they transitioned back to the main sequence once more, crossed the merge border, and went off in search of the real Vearden Haywood. It didn’t take too terribly long to find him.

He was meant to be out hunting for Lita, who was busy taking care of her daughter, Brooke. Instead, he was wandering the Colosseum replica he built with his partner, Saga a long time ago. He wasn’t particularly surprised to see an alternate version of himself, as he had been through this before. “Why, hello. How are you today?”

“We’re okay,” Ellie said through Clone!Vearden’s mouth. “I mean...I’m okay.” First words, already a mistake.

“Good goin’, genius,” Sanaa snarked telepathically.

Vearden stood there with a dumb smile on his face for a moment. “Well, bye.”

“Wait.” Clone!Vearden grabbed him by the arm.

Vearden looked down at it. “Careful. Time doesn’t like it when you rearrange her furniture.”

Clone!Vearden chuckled. That wasn’t how time worked.

Before they could say anything else, the entrance to the Colosseum replica opened up. A third Vearden walked through it, and closed the door behind him. He looked between the first two. “This is not how I was told it would happen.”

“Vearden!Three, what are you doing here?” Vearden!Two asked. He was from an alternate reality, where he and Saga jumped around in time, changing history, and the future, for the better.

This third Vearden was from this timeline, and he had his own adventures, mostly separate from Saga, of which there were also two versions. “I’m here to take your place, and rescue you.”

“From what? This island? I have to be here. I can’t go until Saga gets back.” At this point, Saga!Two had been removed from the timestream, and what Leona and her friends recently learned was that she was hanging out in the Parallel.

“You’re fated to die,” Clone!Vearden explained. “I’m going to take your place. The both of you are going to leave.”

“Why do I need to be saved?” Vearden!Two questioned. “Why does it matter which one of us dies? I’m not more important than you.”

“You are,” Clone!Vearden insisted. “Look. I’m not really an alternate version of you. I’m a completely different person who is using a clone body, so I can die in your stead. I can do this, because after that, my consciousness will transfer back to my real body, and we will all survive. You’re not more important, you’re just more fragile.”

Vearden!Two looked to Vearden!Three for confirmation, but Vearden!Three didn’t know anything about this either.

Clone!Vearden removed the Traversa Bracelet, and handed it to Vearden!Two, along with a hand drawn map, which J.B. was artistic enough to make for them. It used the campsite as a reference point. “Take these, and go. A friend of ours will help you over there.”

“No,” Vearden!Three said. “I already told Saga that I was coming here to save him.” He took the bracelet, and the map. “I’ll go meet your friend. He’ll go meet his. Is that a problem?”

“If that’s what happened in the original timeline, then...okay,” Clone!Vearden determined. “You have to complete your cycle, close your loop.”

“Great,” Vearden!Two declared, “as long as you’re not lying about being able to survive this.”

“I’m not lying,” Clone!Vearden lied.

“After a few more glances, hoping to suss out any hidden truths about this plan, Vearden!Two relented, and headed through the magical door, presumably back to wherever Vearden!Three had just come from.

Vearden!Three installed the Traversa Bracelet onto his own wrist. “Until we meet again...in the red forest.” He walked off.

Leona then walked off as well, looking for death. She found it.

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Sunday, July 9, 2124

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Mateo, Leona, Ellie, Sanaa, and Jeremy Bearimy were on Tribulation Island, geared up and ready to go. They picked an unpopulated area, to make sure they avoided running into their alternate selves, or even their friends, in the main sequence. They didn’t want to disturb the timeline any more than they had to. They just had to get in, procure what they needed, and then get back. Unfortunately for them, that was going to be a little more difficult than they thought. They should have tried this mission earlier, but Ellie conscripted them to save the Fourth Quadrant, and now they didn’t know if they had the tools to get to Vearden. Their last chance might have already passed, and that wasn’t okay. They weren’t just trying to save him from death because Jupiter asked them to, but because they legitimately wanted to. Vearden didn’t deserve this, and perhaps Mateo did, after everything.

The window opened up, swept them into it, and dropped them back in the main sequence. They stood prepared, not for a firefight, but to run off and avoid violating the proverbial prime directive. Luckily, no one was around, just as it was planned. Leona pulled up a satnav on her tablet, courtesy of the satellite that the Dardieti was wise enough to place in orbit around this planet. It took a moment for it to sync up, mostly because it was just a minute ago connected to the Parallel network, which followed a wholly different evolution of technology. It was kind of a wonder a single device was capable of connecting to more than one at all.

“What are you doing right now?” J.B. asked as they were waiting. “The other you, I mean?”

“I’m out cold,” Mateo explained. “The expiation before the one my friends are in right now involved us all teleporting all over Earth, saving people’s lives. The others were given breaks, but I basically did it nonstop, so once it was over, I crashed. I’m sleeping in the little cabin thing they built on the edge of camp.”

“Which is right this way,” Leona said, gesturing forwards. “The merge barrier is going to be erected in about an hour. We have to get to Vearden, and take a sample of his blood without anyone else noticing, all before he has to cross to the other side. If he gets across that merge point, we’ll lose him forever.” She started walking, expecting everyone to follow her, which they did. “Arcadia will not allow us to cross the border ourselves.”

“Well, she might,” Mateo contended, “but the price will be too high.”

“She’ll probably ask for another date,” Leona figured.

“What’s this?” J.B. asked.

“That’s not for another two years,” Mateo reminded her, not that that was the point of her remark. Arcadia wouldn’t do anything for him, but he was her pet, and if he asked nicely, she might indeed agree to help. But he had to be the one to ask. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. They had returned to this time period far too often, and encountered her too often too. After saving Vearden, it would be great if they could put all this Tribulation Island nonsense behind them. At least that was what Mateo would be doing, because he’ll be dead anyway. “And it technically never happened.”

“Guys, I have to see a man about a horse.” J.B. started veering off from the group.

“There’s no alcohol here,” Leona said.

“Not that horse,” J.B. clarified.

“We can’t stop,” Leona urged him.

“Don’t worry about it,” J.B. assured her. “I feel like running anyway.”

She was not assured.

“Seriously.” He shook his cuff at her. “I can track you with this. I’ll catch up.”

“All right,” Mateo said. “We’re going in a pretty straight line. Keep shakin’ that bush.”

“I do not understand that reference.” J.B. kept walking, and disappeared into the jungle.

The rest of them kept walking too, but a little slower than before, subconsciously worried about getting too far ahead of their friend. Ten minutes later, Sanaa perked up, like a dog to a high-pitched whistle. “Something’s wrong.”

“Huh?”

“Ellie, call out to J.B.”

They saw Ellie mouth J.B.’s name, but didn’t hear anything. She was speaking directly to him. After calling out his name a few times, she stopped and listened. “This way,” she said out loud. She ran off, and everyone followed.

When they found J.B., he was just standing there, staring at them, not making any attempt to meet them halfway.

“Oh, no,” Leona let out with her breath. She increased speed, and made it to him. She reached out to touch his hand, but was unable to. He was on the other side of the merge border. “I don’t understand.” She looked at her watch again. “I know what time it is. The barrier shouldn’t be up yet.”

Ellie placed her own hand on the invisible wall. “It’s moving. Like a snake, it’s moving.”

It dawned on Leona. “The border wall doesn’t come up all at once. It starts on the other side of the island, and makes its way forwards. He must have made his latrine on the other side, but then the wall came up behind him.”

“So, we should be able to catch up with it,” Sanaa guessed. “We’re on track to get to camp by the time Vearden crosses over anyway, right? This changes nothing.”

Leona considered this, and nodded slightly. “We stick to the plan, but we go faster. We absolutely have to get to Vearden.”

“What about him?”

Leona looked back up at J.B. “You wanted to run, right? So run.”

They all took off running. Soon, though, the largest creature any of them had ever seen appeared from behind the trees. It looked like one of those monkeys with the funny noses, except that it was the size of a one-story cottage, and it looked mad. Its fur was purple and white, and almost...glowing. It was on the other side of the merge border, snarling at J.B. He stopped short, and started backing up slowly, but it matched every step.

“J.B.!” Mateo cried.

“Come on!” Leona yelled at him. “We can get to him, but we have to find the edge of this growing wall first!” She pulled at his shirt.

“No.”

Panicking, J.B. turned and took off, back in the direction he had come from, and the creature was pursuing him. There would be no time to find the edge, cross over, and then backtrack to catch up with J.B. and the monster. Their lead was growing wider by the second. Mateo looked at his cuff interface screen, spending a few seconds to gather knowledge on them. Ellie could transmit sound across time and space, but couldn’t teleport there. Sanaa may or may not have gotten her psychic powers back, but that wouldn’t help them either. Dammit, if Jupiter had let Ariadna stay in their group, their problems would be solved. Perhaps that was why he removed her from their team, because he knew this would happen. Maybe he wasn’t such a great guy after all. July 9, 2124 was the date according to the people on this side of the island, and also the Cassidy cuffs. But they needed to travel back in time nearly three million years, which was something that they couldn’t do right now, with or without the cuffs. Or could they? More specifically, could he? His past self was going to wake up tomorrow on this side of the border, and after stumbling around like a drunkard, he would slip over to the other side. He wouldn’t be able to come back, but Arcadia wanted him over there, so he could help Vearden. It was possible this exception started today. It couldn’t hurt to try.

While Leona, Ellie, and Sanaa were continuing on, hoping to find the entrance, Mateo took his chances. He stepped forward, and crossed into the past. It was as if Leona sensed this. She stopped, and looked back. “Go!” he ordered. “Go save Vearden! I’ll save Jeremy!”

She didn’t move.

“Rule X!” he cried.

“You already used that!” she argued.

“I’m not using it again, I’m just still using it! This is all part of the plan! Go!” It definitely wasn’t part of the plan, but it was a necessary detour. Losing J.B. in their attempt to save Vearden would be heartbreaking. He had to save them both. He turned around, and started chasing after the monster, not knowing what he was going to do when he caught up with it. He hoped Leona would continue the mission without him, but there was no way to confirm. He raced through the jungle faster than ever before. He was quite proud of himself, never tripping on any roots, or colliding with any trees, as he pushed through, like a professional cross country runner. Pretty soon, he could see the monkey monster, and it was still running as well, which strongly suggested that it had not caught up to J.B.

Mateo started screaming and taunting it. “Hey, you! Do you know what the only natural predator of the monkey is? It’s the hyena. I’m a hyena!” Then he growled and whooped. It wasn’t paying attention, so he had to step up his game. He grabbed the nearest stick he could find, and flung it at the monster’s back. This made it stop, but not turn around yet. He found a rock, and chucked that at it as well. Now this was enough.

“Oh, shit.”

The monster hollered back. It’s breath was almost hot enough to melt the skin off his face. He could have sworn his hair started smoldering. Now that the thing had forgotten about J.B., it was time to lure it away. Mateo turned to run the other direction, adjacent to the border wall, hoping his streak of suddenly being a great runner continued. He didn’t get far, though. He could hear a single pounding behind him, then a sort of whistle in the air, and then a truck came down on top of him. Apparently the monster monkey could jump. Who knew? It rolled off of Mateo’s back, and examined the strange human, lying mangled and bloody and unmoving. Satisfied with the results, it walked off.

A moment later, J.B. found Mateo’s dying body, and knelt down beside it. “Oh my God, you shouldn’t have done that.”

“I was gonna die anyway,” Mateo said. “It’s all part of the plan.”

J.B. just teared up, and shook his head.

“You have to get back to the other side. Don’t let anything stop you this time.”

“I can’t leave you.”

“It’s okay. This wasn’t gonna last forever.” Mateo struggled to lift his hand a few centimeters off the ground. Blood dripped from his fingers, and soaked the recently fallen leaves below. “Everything’s changing...green to red.”

“Mateo.”

“Go, or I died for nothing. It’s probably going to retrieve its big monkey monster friends, so they can feast on my body together.”

J.B. stood up and composed himself. “Thank you.”

“Tell her were I you!”

“Of course.” J.B. ran off, leaving his friend to die alone.

But he wasn’t alone. Another figure approached, and stood there for a moment. Then it reached down, and started dragging Mateo by the ankles. “I’ve been told, you can’t die in the past,” he said. Was that his frenemy, Kayetan Glaston? Whoever it was pulled him several meters, presumably to the other side of the merge border.

“Why not?” Mateo tried to ask, but he received no answer. Had he imagined Kayetan’s arrival? Or had he just imagined speaking? Was he just too far gone to make any sounds? The last thing he saw was the hundemarke dropping to the ground in front of his face. Then he dove soulfirst into the darkness, and transferred his consciousness to the afterlife.

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