The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 3, 2399

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Leona asked Alyssa for help with a new special project, and told her about how someone had stolen every weapon from the Parallel, at which point Alyssa admitted that she was involved in the major heist, at the behest of Aldona, who was apparently trying to prevent the devastating Reality Wars of the future. She evidently didn’t think that the Parallel would be able to retaliate against this clear act of aggression, but she was wrong. There is no such thing as a ship without any weapons, for the ship itself is a weapon. At high enough speeds, any object can wreak havoc on another, and according to Parallel!Ramses, that is precisely what an army of angry militants are intending to do. They will be here tomorrow.

“I’m sorry,” Aldona says. “We had it all planned out. This was supposed to save us. There’s more than one reason it took me as long as it did to carry out that mission. We didn’t think they would be able to find me, and even if they did, we didn’t think they could amass a contingency that fast, and even if they did, they’re aware of the Reconvergence as well, and we assumed they would be too busy preparing for that.”

“Who is we?” Leona asks. “Who are you working with?”

Aldona shakes her head. “You don’t know them. They weren’t originally in the time traveling world. We got together because we thought we could change things.”

“Change things, you did,” Leona notes. “Our orbital defense grid. How close is it to being finished?”

“It’s finished, as is the one here in the Fourth Quadrant” Aldona says. “But neither would be enough. It can’t handle the onslaught that Mister Abdulrashid is claiming to be headed to the Third Rail. I really am sorry.” She means it.

“However big their fleet is, we’ll just have to be twice as big,” Leona says, looking at Alyssa as if she can do anything to help this situation.

Alyssa nods, but only because she’s listening intently, and expecting Leona to elaborate on her plan. She doesn’t actually know how they’ll accomplish such a thing. “Wait, me? Am I meant to do something? Oh, I have no idea. Where do you get an army on such short notice? Can the main sequence help us?”

“No, the two of us can,” Leona tells her, just as vague about it as before.

“I don’t understand.”

“We don’t have an army, but we can make it look like we do. We’ll make it seem as though all of their efforts will be futile. I’ve seen it done on TV before.”

Long pause. Alyssa is half-grimacing. “We don't have enough power between us to pull that off.”

“'We don’t draw temporal energy from ourselves; we draw it from other sources, and what does this world happen to have a whole hell of a lot of right now?” Leona poses. They may even be able to siphon the temporal energy from all the new people.

“That’s a crazy idea,” Aldona says, hoping this doesn’t make Leona more mad.

The truth is, Leona isn’t all that mad. They did what they thought they had to do to make the universe safer. They didn’t have all the variables. No one but someone like Bhulan Cargill can see the timeline branches like that, and she’s had every chance to use her powers for good, but she’s wasted most of them. Leona also wants the Reality Wars to be stopped before they begin. They’ll get through this. Leona’s plan is crazy, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work.

“It won’t work.” A young woman is approaching from inside the Kansas City bubble. Voices don’t normally pass through the dimensional barrier, but for her, it’s like it’s not even there. She proves as much when she steps through it without issue. “Hello, all, my name is Kyra Torosia. I’m glad to finally be meeting you, Mrs. Matic. You and your husband played a significant role in the history of my planet.”

“Durus,” Leona acknowledges. “How did you get it changed?”

Kyra laughs. “Most of the residents escaped to Dardius when Durus was finally deemed uninhabitable. Time powers were gone, and there seemed to be no hope. But a few of us stayed. A Nexus explosion imbued me with a great and terrible power. I have been fighting many wars on many fronts ever since. This is only my latest. Your plan is very creative, and I commend you on that, but I have a better one.”

“I sure hope so,” Aldona begins, “because if we can’t find a way to save every single Third Railer, I won’t be able to live with myself.”

Kyra nods. She’s very regal for her age, probably as the result of being treated like a god by whoever renamed a whole planet after her. Not that she doesn’t deserve it; what does Leona know about it? Kyra smiles at the small group. “How would you feel about initiating a little convergence of our own?”

“How would we do that?” Alyssa questions.

Kyra breathes in. “You’ve heard that I belong to a bloodline of Keys, but have you ever considered why the bloodline has anything to do with anything? Sure, any child of a  Preston is going to be immensely powerful, but Arcadia is not even a Key; she’s the Keyholder. Curtis is a Keyholder too. So why? Why us?”

“Is it because of you?” Leona guesses.

“I can move planets,” Kyra explains. “I can move them through the bulk, and by extension, across realities within a single braine. The Reconvergence will be difficult, and my biggest feat ever, what with the trillions of worlds I’ll be expected to move, but it’s doable, thanks to my family. Transporting your one planet to another reality ahead of schedule is practically nothing compared to that. If there weren’t already another version of Earth here, the residents of Earth!Three wouldn’t even notice.”

“Are we really talking about doing this?” Aldona asks. “Are we going to move the planet? What will the other Keys and Keyholders say about that?”

“They’ll say, thank you...more please,” Kyra replies.

Just then, they hear a rustle in the bushes. A man rounds the bend. Kyra reaches out to help him through the barrier. “Ah, Ansel. Come meet my new friends. Leona, Aldona, Alyssa, this is Ansel Haywood.” Vearden’s father.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, sir.”

“Likewise,” he replies. He seems rather shy.

Another rustle, and then a woman about Kyra’s age appears. “And this is our daughter, Allison. Don’t let our similar ages fool you, she’s my little baby.”

“Mo-om,” Allison complains.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Leona says, “though I’m not sure how accurate Vearden’s stories are, since I’ve known multiple versions of him.”

“Speaking of which,” Kyra goes on, we were all hoping to meet our granddaughter-slash niece. Could you transition us to the Third Rail? I could technically do it myself, but I think I ought to save my energy.”

“Certainly!” Leona agrees. She takes out her device. “Everyone take an arm.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: July 22, 2398

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No waiting, no getting sidetracked. They decide to get to Utah quickly, and start formulating a plan to get Alt!Mateo out of prison. Does he deserve to get out, or will he turn out to be a psychopathic killer? Hard to say, none of them knows him all that well, but they can’t just leave him there either. Most of the team has stayed in Kansas City. Leona and Ramses have a lab to finish, and Angela has her own thing going down on the first floor. Heath managed to convince Marie to stay out of it, for the sake of their marriage, so it’s just Mateo, Kivi, Alt!Leona, and Andile. They don’t know what they’re going to do, but they don’t want to waste time. It’s a two day trip from Kansas City to Provo, Utah, with a stop in the middle in Aurora, Colorado. They can’t take The Olimpia, because it’s still in need of some repair, which Ramses is doing during his free time. He never takes any actual free time. The workload will catch up with him later. It’s mid-afternoon now, and they have made it to their resting place, the McIver house. It looks a lot like their farmhouse in Kansas. Family aesthetics.

“Welcome, welcome,” Alyssa says sincerely, ushering them in.

The eldest boy, Moray begins to help them with their bags, deaf to the protests.

“Thank you for letting us stay with you again,” Mateo says graciously.

“Do you really have business out here,” Alyssa asks, “or are you just making sure we haven’t told anyone about all that stuff in Lebanon.”

“We really do have business. We just needed a place to stay for the night,” Alt!Leona explains. We’ll be out of your hair in the morning.”

“You can stay as long as you need, there’s plenty of room,” Alyssa promises.

“Where are you aunt and uncle?”

“Strawberry Cemetery,” Alyssa answers.

“Oh my God,” Mateo gasps, “what happened?”

“They died,” Alyssa says with a shrug. “It was about sixteen years ago.”

“That timeline doesn’t make much sense,” Kivi argues. “We gave you some money to help you make your way here to live with them much less than sixteen years ago.”

Alyssa shrugs again. “We lied. We were worried that you would try to take us in, or call social services.”

“So whose house is this?”

“It was theirs,” Alyssa claims. “I don’t know how they handle things in the future, where you’re from—”

“Not the future,” Mateo interrupts.

Alyssa just keeps going, “but for us, when the owner of property dies, it passes on to their next of kin, and they’re free to do whatever it is they want with it. We chose to ignore it until a couple of months ago. We have a secret mountain cabin down near Bryce that our grandparents left us too.”

Alt!Leona perks up when she hears that. “How much?”

“How much what?” Alyssa asks.

“How much for the secret cabin?”

“If you wanna use that too,” Alyssa begins, “you can do so for free. We’re not allowed to sell it. I signed a secret will when I was a child.”

“Who asked you to sign this will? Your grandparents?” Alt!Leona asks.

“Yeah,” Alyssa replies.

“Did your parents sign one too?”

“No, they didn’t even know about the cabin.”

“Someone knew a long time ago that we would be coming.” Alt!Leona realizes.

“What makes you say that?” Mateo asks. “Did a seer tell you to look for a mountain cabin, or something?”

“No, it’s not the cabin itself, but where it’s located,” Alt!Leona explains. “Bryce Canyon is where Maqsud Al-amin created the cosmic sextant.”

“How would you know that if you pretty much came straight here after the surgery?” Kivi asks.

“It wasn’t immediately after. I spent a year trying to gather every bit of evidence I could find, in case there was a way to bring him back,” Alt!Leona says, referring to a different Alt!Mateo. “What I found was a book called Hotspots.”

“A Look into Places of Great Power on Earth, and Beyond?” Alyssa asks.

“Where did you hear that title,” Alt!Leona asks her.

Alyssa goes to an old-timey cabinet thing that’s not built into the wall. She unlocks a drawer, and pulls out the book that they’re talking about.

“Where did you find that?” Mateo asks.

“Carlin found it in the cabin,” Alyssa responds. “It...literally doesn’t open.”

Alt!Leona reaches over, and opens it anyway. There must be a special lock on it that only allows time travelers to access it. “This can help us.”

“That’s not all we found,” little Trina exclaims. She takes a rock out of her pocket, and smiles as she shows it to them. It’s a homestone.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: July 21, 2398

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There is something that Andile didn’t even tell Alt!Leona. When the latter first came to this reality, they were surprised to see each other again. Two women out of time, there under different circumstances, and having already known each other. Upon hearing Andile’s new story, Alt!Leona realized how focused on herself she had been this whole time. She hadn’t asked Andile much about what she had gone through. She only knew the basics of the event; not the details. And she hadn’t made much effort to change that. But that doesn’t mean Andile didn’t lie. She could have volunteered the information, back then, or at any point over the course of the last year.

“How do you feel about this?” Leona asks her husband when they wake up the next day.

He’s had time to sleep on it. “It won’t be the first time. It’s not even the first time meeting this version.”

“You don’t know that it’s the same one from Dardius,” Leona says, not believing it herself.

“Let’s be real. He told Andile that he just came from what he called a Death Race. It’s the same guy.” Back in 2251, Mateo and a handful of his friends were living on Tribulation Island. There were once more people, but their then-enemy, Arcadia Preston was tormenting them with expiation challenges. Every three years, she would remove another person from the timestream. Only Mateo and Lincoln could remember that they even existed in the first place; the former quite intentionally, and the latter because knowing everything is his whole thing. One of these challenges involved Mateo street racing a different version of himself. This other Mateo lived in what was once known as Reality One, and has been commonly blamed for Leona Reaver’s death. Mateo’s niece, Dar’cy sacrificed herself by sending both her and Alt!Mateo back to Reality One, just before his death at the hands of Horace Reaver. Dar’cy had a hard time returning home, but once she did, she never mentioned that anything special had happened to Alt!Mateo, so everybody just assumed he died like he was meant to. Apparently, he survived.

Leona and Mateo left the safehouse after the news to let Andile and Alt!Leona discuss the secret in private, but now it’s time to get back to the matter. They have to find this other Mateo, and figure out what makes him so damn special. Marie wants them to hold off, and maybe get back to their other issues, but that sounds like a mistake. They’ve had so many missions since they’ve come here. Most of them were impromptu, and most of the rest were sidetracked…sometimes by one of the impromptu missions. They really need to stick to the plan for this one, and follow through. It’s important. The other stuff is important too, but there is no point in going to Easter Island if the other Mateo gives them all the answers they were looking for.

As the two of them are getting dressed, there is a knock at the door. Angela is already up, so she answers it. To everyone’s surprise, it’s Andile and Alt!Leona. They explain that they’ve decided to abandon the safehouse, mostly because a covert branch of the government set them up with it, which sort of pretty much negates the whole safe aspect of it. The condo isn’t safe either, but at least it’s more comfortable. There’s not exactly room for everyone there, but Ramses woke up hours ago, as he has been for the last few days, to continue working on their space issue.

“You know where he is?”

“I do,” Andile answers, not elaborating.

“Go ahead and tell them,” Alt!Leona urges.

Andile still hesitates.

“Where?” Mateo asks, not understanding the hold up. “Topeka? Croatia?”

“Utah.”

“A prison in Utah,” Alt!Leona adds.

“Lemme guess,” the other Leona begins, “this nice little place outside of Vernon.”

Andile pulls out her device, and checks her map. “Uh...yeah, that’s the closest town. You’ve been?”

“We’ve broken people out of there,” Mateo explains.

“Could you do it again?” Alt!Leona questions.

Leona shrugs. “Probably not. We had a certain time advantage back then, and access to detailed plans. I doubt we could get any of that here. Does the government know he’s in there?”

“No, he’s using a fake name,” Andile tells them. “The government knows one of his aliases, but not the one he was using when he was arrested.”

“What’s the alias that the government recognizes?” Leona asks her.

“Leon Delaney,” Andile replies.

They can’t help but laugh. This other version of Mateo knew the other version of Leona, of course but they weren’t together. She was with Horace. Perhaps this suggests that maybe he was in love with her even then, though?

“And the other one?” Mateo asks. “What’s the one that he’s using in jail?”

Andile smirks. “Andy Dufresne.”

Extremus: Year 47

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Kaiora Leithe isn’t usually nervous. It’s unbecoming of a captain. She has to be strong, confident, and prepared for everything. But there are powers at play here that even she can’t overtake. Yes, she’s in charge of the crew, and the entire ship, but what most people don’t know is that there are, in fact, two ships. She’s sitting at the entrance of what’s called The Bridge. Yes, it’s confusing, or at least it would be for any normal person. But the only people who know this thing exists are completely comfortable with the ambiguity. This is more of a bridge than the bridge that helps them navigate space. It’s where the two vessels connect to one another, and I’m not talking about something physical. It’s a portal that can transport a user to the maximum range of one light year.

The receptionist looks up from her work. “You may proceed now.”

“Thank you,” Kaiora responds. She stands up, takes a deep breath, and crosses over.

Her key contact is standing on the other side. Avelino Bridger is regarding her with his best poker face, as he always is. He’s completely unreadable. And yeah, the Bridger Section was named after him. It’s this whole thing. “Thank you for coming.”

“Well, I’m the one who requested this, so...thank you for having me.”

“I wanted to accept your request earlier, but this is not a dictatorship.”

“Isn’t it?” she asks, one-fourth jokingly, three-fourths yeah, it’s a dictatorship. It’s the most efficient way to run a ship, and the only reason they don’t do it on the Extremus Proper is because the passengers outnumber them by orders of magnitude.

“This meeting will be exclusively between you and me,” he tells her as they’re walking towards the meeting room. “Nothing we say today will make it beyond that relationship. No one else on the board, no one else on the crew, no one else in the civilian government, will know what we discuss. Is this acceptable? I expect you to remain as confidential as I’m promising to be.”

“I accept,” she responds as he’s letting her in the room first. “I assume it’s clean?”

“It’s timelocked,” he answers. “We’ve taken all the necessary precautions to make sure no one can intrude in the present, but also from the future, or the past, or any other dimension.” He reaches up to the sconce by the door, flipping it upside down to engage the special lock. He sits down on the couch after she situates herself on the chair.

“Someone I care very deeply about has...uncovered information regarding Operation Plan Z.”

“I gathered. That’s not why we’re here, though.”

“Not entirely.”

“You just want me to promise to leave her out of it, and to not go after her?”

“See, now I’m worried, since it sounds like you know who it is.”

He nods gently. “I know who it is. We traced her.”

“We?”

“Captain, this is an ongoing, massive issue. She’s not the only one we’re tracking. Nor is she of the most concern?”

“It’s worse than what my niece did? She downloaded consciousnesses from your database.”

“We’re aware. But...”

“But what?”

He was scanning the floor, but now he looks back up. “As she is a future Captain of Extremus, we are letting it go, because we don’t see time linearly. She would have been read into the situation anyway.”

“I see. So it’s true. You have the whole future mapped out.”

“Again, you’re thinking linearly. Mapping time is not as simple as just seeing what happens, and writing it down.”

“I bet.”

He clears his throat. “I assure you, as long as Miss Leithe reveals no secrets to anyone else, we’ll leave her alone.”

“But you already know whether she does or not.”

“Once more, it’s not that simple.”

Kaiora looks away and nods. “How bad is it?”

“We don’t know.”

“Ya know, from what I remember from Halan’s era, all the breaches have come from your side. He didn’t break protocol, and neither have I.”

“You’re right. We have leaks, and when we plug one up, another pops open.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“We’re killing the civilian program.”

“You are?” That’s a big step.

“It is no longer a viable option. Ovan Teleres got too close to us, and what little we divulge to the government has put this mission at too much risk. So from now on, the captain will be our only connection to Extremus Proper. Your successors will carry that burden amongst yourselves, as you will for the rest of your life.”

“Oaksent was not a member of the government. How did he find out anything?”

“That is a temporal problem; one which our map does not account for.”

“I see. So you can timelock this room, but not the Bridger Section as a whole.”

“Correct.”

“Who was Fake!Rita Suárez?”

“That is above your clearance.”

“So, you know who she was?”

He takes a long time to reply. “It’s above your clearance to know that we have no fucking idea who she was, or where she came from.”

She nods understandingly.

“Nor do we know whether the Yitro Moralez that your alternate self saw is the real deal, or another impostor.”

“I didn’t know that you were cognizant of him.”

He clears his throat again. “Dr. Malone works for us.”

“Dammit! I worked so hard to find the most random, inconsequential, ineffectual professionals Extremus had to offer. How did you manage to get him into my personal secret section?”

Avelino breaks his poker face to reveal a smirk, but it barely lasts a decisecond. “Honestly, it was a happy coincidence. We picked him for the same reason you did, because no one would suspect someone like that would matter much. People still share secrets with him, though, and more importantly, other therapists do it. We don’t know why, but we are using it to our advantage. He has no idea who he’s channeling information to. He could become a liability, actually.”

“Is that why he keeps trying to get a meeting with me?”

“Yeah, we think he wants to spill the beans about what he’s done.”

“What’s going to happen to him?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to kill him?”

“Why would we do that?”

“Are you going to kill the members of the civilian government who are already aware of the nature of the Bridger section, and its true purpose?”

“Why would we do that?” he repeats.

“Bridger. Start talkin’. I need to know if there are going to be any deaths under suspicious circumstances on my ship.”

He shakes his head. “The circumstances will not be suspicious.”

Kaiora sighs.

“It’ll be fine,” Avelino tries to assure her. He might be a sociopath, so his words are not very convincing. “You’re fine, your niece is fine, and anyone else who has been granted access to the hidden partition of the database is fine. We’re only going to go after the people who deliberately exposed our secrets. We have to find that leak. Speaking of which, I ought to be getting back to it, and you need to be getting to MedHock.”

“Medhock?” she questions. She wasn’t expecting that to be brought up. “Why?”

“According to our map...your Captain dies today.”

“How, uh...?”

“How mutable is this eventuality?” he figures. “Not at all. It’s over.”

She gestures to the ceiling, indicating the Bridger Section in general. “No, it’s not. He’ll survive this. We already know what his answer will be.”

“We know what his answer will be. You don’t.”

“What are you talking about? He said yes the last time, he came back.”

“When he died the first time, he asked to come back because he had more work to do as the Captain, and more importantly, as Admiral. We’ve plugged that leak already. Old Man’s loophole is not going to be resurrecting anyone on your side of the bridge again. Admiral Yenant told us that he was only saying yes because of that loophole. He has no intention of being a permanent upload.”

Kaiora looks away in sadness.

“Hey. There’s a reason we give people a choice. “You’ll have to make the same decision when you die.”

“You’re right, I will. And truthfully, I don’t know what I’m going to say yet. It’s not even that long off for me, and I still haven’t figured out my answer. Halan has had a lot of time to change his mind.”

“Well. As long as you timelock MedHock, you can ask him yourself.”

“How would I go about doing that?”

Avelino stands up, and turns the timelock sconce back around. He then removes the artificial candle from its holder. He twists the bulb off of it, and hands the rest to her. “Light it. It will timelock an area for the duration of the burn. And I mean that. If you blow it out before it gets to the bottom of the wick, the timelocking power will burn out with it, and you’ll never be able to use it again. It’s a one-time use whether you maximize your productive time, or not.” So maybe not so artificial.

“Thank you for the opportunity.”

He nods once, then opens the door to let her out. She leaves the Bridger Section, and teleports to her mentor. The Hock Watcher lets her in. She finds the MedHock doctor at a desk. “Is he stable?”

“For now,” he answers.

“Out.”

“He’s stable, but that doesn’t mean—”

“Get! Out!”

He leaves with a protesting attitude.

“Final lesson, don’t treat people like that,” Halan advises.

Kaiora places the naked candle on the table, and holds it up between a tablet, and a keyboard. It’s a fire hazard, but whatever. She lights it, then turns back to Halan. “I’ve just come from the Bridger Section.”

He turns his shoulders away as much as he can. “I don’t wanna know about it.”

“You have to, because I have to talk to you, and it’s my last—”

I don’t...want to know,” he maintains.

“You’re going to listen to me, because I’m the Captain, and you’re just a prisoner.”

He twists his neck, but keeps his shoulders pointed away. “That’s cold, Kaiora.”

“That’s cold—?” She holds there with her mouth open, waiting for him.

“That’s cold, Captain,” he amends.

“Thank you. Now...get back into a comfortable position.”

He readjusts.

“Avelino told me that you plan to say no to The Question.”

“What do I have to look forward to?”

“Once you die, since no one knows you’ll still be alive, I can set in motion a series of events that will lead to your posthumous pardon.”

“That’s dirty pool, Captain.”

“It’s necessary, and it won’t be political suicide anymore. The people will be overwhelmingly in favor of it since there won’t be any consequences; at least they won’t think so. I’m going to do it whether you like it or not. You won’t be able to stop me, because of the whole being dead and dormant thing.”

“Also cold.”

“Please. Say yes. Stay alive.”

“I’ve never agreed with The Question. I was young, and ambitious, and I wanted the job, so I didn’t argue, but I wish I had. I wish I hadn’t let them create the Bridger Section at all. It goes against everything this mission stands for.”

“Don’t you see, that’s what The Question is for? Anyone who wants to hold onto their principles has every right to do so. All they have to do is say no.”

“Then let me say no.”

“You’re an exception.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you!”

“Everyone is loved by someone. Death is a part of life. I accept it, as should you.”

“No, I’m not going to let you just—”

“The candle’s burned out,” he interrupts to point out.

She looks over at it incredulously. That was far too fast. Avelino did that on purpose. He knew the conversation couldn’t last long. “God! Dammit!”

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Extremus: Year 46

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Exactly twenty-four years ago, then-Admiral Halan Yenant introduced then-Interim Captain Olindse Belo to then-Future Captain Kaiora Leithe. A lot has happened since that day. They were so young back then, so naïve, and none of them could have predicted how much they would go through—together—but later so, so very apart. Halan is still in hock. Their dream of getting him out never materialized. Olindse is in the future, but Kaiora doesn’t know when, which is for the best. In honor of both of them, Kaiora has decided to choose her own successor on the anniversary of her own official appointment. Of course, she knew it was coming, as does Future Captain Trudie Haynes. Today was meant to be the day they made the announcement, and had a party. Unfortunately, Kaiora isn’t in much of a festive mood, so it will have to be postponed. Still, she needs to explain it in person.

The door opens upon command. Kaiora can see Trudie through it now. She’s sitting on her couch, legs propped up on the ottoman, watching something on her main screen. She’s stuffing her face with civilian grade bagged food. She jumps up, and brushes crumbs off of her sweatshirt. “Captain, I wasn’t expecting you. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” Kaiora answers. “Why aren’t you dressed?”

Trudie consults her watch. “Well, since the party’s cancelled, my day should be free. I don’t have class, or any meetings.”

“Who told you that the party is cancelled?” Kaiora questions.

“The logic ball.”

“The what?”

Trudie steps over, and removes a ball from its stand. It’s barely small enough for her to cup one hand around it. “You input data points with your voice, giving it as much context as possible, and it returns the probability of a given outcome, or a selected outcome. For instance..logic ball, what are the odds that Captain Leithe drops dead within the next five minutes?”

After she shakes it, the ball responds, “the chances are three to one hundred.”

“That can’t be right, that’s far too high.”

Kaiora points at the thing. “That has access to private medical records. Who gave you that?”

“It’s just a novelty item; anyone can get one. Why? What’s wrong with you?”

“Never mind. So you just guessed that I was going to cancel it?”

“Not guessing. Logic.”

Kaiora lets out her signature sigh. “If you’re going to become the next captain, you’re going to have to destroy that thing, and hope that no one ever finds out you once owned it.”

Trudie tilts her chin up to look at her Captain at a slightly altered angle. “Logic ball, what are the chances of someone discovering that—”

“No,” Kaiora interrupts. “No more questions. I came here to talk. I mean, I suppose that’s no longer necessary. I expected to find you here in full dress, perhaps hovering by the door.”

“Sorry, sir. I’ll try not to anticipate next time.”

“No, that’s...that’s a good characteristic in a leader. I’m just...I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Trudie assures her, “you’ve been through a lot. Do you...want to talk about it? I know we don’t know each other that well, but sometimes that’s what you need; someone whose opinion you don’t care about.”

“I care about your opinion. You’re the future captain of this ship. It’s time to stop underestimating yourself.”

“I understand, sir.” She widens her eyes to open up the floor for further discussion.

Kaiora realizes this. “No, I don’t need to talk. Really, I’m fine. She was old; old people die.”

Trudie nods silently.

“Well, I’ll let you carry on. I have to go be with my family.”

“Would I be able to attend the service?” Trudie asks more than offers. “That is...do you want me there.”

“That would be great. She would have liked you.”

Trudie nods again. “Logic ball, what are the chances I vaporize the ship if I destroy you by setting you on fire?” she jokes as Kaiora is leaving.

It’s not great that this logic ball device has access to private medical data, but she doesn’t want to worry about it right now. She just wants to focus on her family. She has a right to climb out of the captain’s chair every now and then. Still, she can’t just let it go, so she sends a quick message to Lars to look into it for her. Then she takes the long way around to her destination. She retained teleportation rights after she blocked them shipwide, but she doesn’t use it.

Her brother opens the door by hand wave. He shrugs his shoulders, and stares at her a moment. Then they hug each other warmly. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Kaiora echoes. “How’s Tinaya?”

“Ask her.” He steps aside, letting Kaiora into the unit. “She won’t talk to us.”

She goes into Tinaya’s room to find her sitting on her couch, staring at her screen, much in the same way Trudie was. She’s playing Quantum Colony. While it’s more common to engage in it using virtual reality, a user has the option of interfacing using any number of means, even simply by text commands typed out on a keyboard. Her avatar is currently floating aimlessly in the vacuum. The image of the asteroid where her homebase is located is getting smaller and smaller. Life support readings indicate that her character is running desperately low on oxygen. “Are you going to do something about that?”

The controller is technically in her hand, but as her fingers are open, and she’s resting them on the cushion, she doesn’t have any real control over it. “I don’t see why I would.”

Kaiora has to resist the urge to snatch the controller from her, and jetpack back to safety. It’s her character, she can do whatever she wants with it. Instead, she just sits down next to her, and mimics the physical slump her niece is in.

“Don’t mock me.”

“I’m not. This is comfortable. That looks comfortable too.” The game is hyperrealistic, so the avatar is actually suffocating to death before their eyes...and ears. “You know, that’s not how she died.”

“Yes, she did,” Tinaya contends. “Everyone who dies of being an old fuck chokes on their own spit in their final hours.”

“Don’t call her that.”

Tinaya folds her arms, and mutters an apology, but it’s too uncomfortable with the controller digging into her underarm, so she opens back up, and hurls it against the far wall. Kaiora takes this opportunity to pull Tinaya into a hug. “No! No!” she fights, but it’s not really what she wants. She gives up quickly, and accepts the embrace. She begins to cry upon her aunt’s shoulder. “Goddammit. She was so old. Why am I so upset?”

“Because you were close,” Kaiora answers. “Because you loved her.”

“People like us, we’re not allowed to cry.”

“Why do you say that?” Kaiora asks, releasing from the hug only so they can speak face to face. “People like us?”

Tinaya tries to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Captains.”

Kaiora tears up, but smiles. “Captains are allowed to cry.”

“No, you’re not.” In private, Kaiora is right, but in public, Tinaya is.

“Well, my mother just died, so—” Kaiora interrupts herself with her own tears. “So I think they’ll understand.”

Tinaya returns the favor from before by initiating a second hug. They hold there for a while before Tinaya speaks again. “Do you...”

They separate. “Do I what?”

“Do you wish you could talk to her again? Would that make you feel better, or worse?”

Kaiora looks for answers on the floor. “I honestly don’t know. I guess...if I had to choose between seeing her one more time, and never again, I would choose the former.”

Tinaya studies her face to see if she’s telling the truth.

Kaiora squints her eyes, confused. This doesn’t sound like a hypothetical. “Why? Do you have a—you couldn’t. You don’t have a time mirror, or something, do you?”

“No, no,” Tinaya promises. “It’s nothing like that.”

“What are we talking about, Ti-ti?” That’s her pet name for her niece.

“Just don’t freak out, Titi.” That’s her pet name for her aunt. Tinaya prepares herself emotionally, and then retrieves a tiny box from her desk. It opens to reveal something called a visitor’s pass.

For the most part, the people on this ship are just normal biological humans. They’re almost completely organic, with no upgrades or enhancements. Some exceptions to this aren’t even really exceptions. Their organs are stronger, and more resistant to disease. Their bodies age slower, and their chemicals generally stay better balanced. But this is part of genetic engineering that started before the ship took off to combat the couple thousand years of isolated evolutionary divergence that shortened human lifespans. No one here has been too drastically altered. Except that they have, because that’s what medicine is. And nanochips definitely qualify, because they provide everyone with the ability to interface with technology directly with their brains. Some use this more than others. Why, it’s what allows Kaiora to summon or banish people using teleportation. She doesn’t have to select on a screen who she wants to transport, or where she wants them to go. She just thinks it. This still requires a physical component, but it wouldn’t really work without the chip. Regardless, chip or no chip, people have a right to private computer processing. The visitor’s pass will allow Kaiora to access Tinaya’s personal data, and then Tinaya will revoke it simply by taking the pass back.

It’s a little gray transcranial electrode that attaches to the temple to minimal pain. Within seconds of attaching it, Kaiora has been transported to a quantum terminal. In the game, this is where access to each new star system begins. Players generally do not travel via ships, because they would be limited to sublight speeds. To get around, they quantum cast their consciousnesses from one terminal to a distant one, assuming they’ve been granted access. This must be Tinaya’s world.

“I’m on my way back,” Tinaya says through the comms. She must have connected with her avatar, and is trying to return to base.

“Do you need me to come get you?” Kaiora asks.

“No, it’s fine,” Tinaya replies. “I keep a drone nearby with extra oxygen. I just...didn’t use it. I’m using it now.”

“Why don’t your characters have short-range teleportation capabilities?”

“That’s not part of the game,” she explains.

Once Tinaya gets back, she has to inject herself with a stabilizer because of the amount of time her body went without oxygen. Apparently, players have the option of building themselves wholly organic substrates, wholly mechanical, or something in between. “That’s what I wanted to show you,” Tinaya says.

It’s only then that Kaiora catches herself in a mirror. She’s wearing her own face, rather than a temporary android’s. It’s not her regular face, though. It’s about half the age she actually is now. She gently places her hand on her cheek. “How did you do this?”

“DNA can be digitized,” Tinaya answers like it’s no big deal.

“Still, I didn’t...give you permission, or anything.”

“Yikes. Then you’re really not gonna like this.” Tinaya raises the transparency of a cryopod, and reveals another human figure.

The face is hard to make out, but then becomes clearer. It’s her mother—Tinaya’s grandmother. It’s a violation to create the likeness of someone without their permission, but Kaiora can’t help but be grateful for the opportunity to see her. She too is younger than she was when she passed a few days ago. This was how she looked when Kaiora was growing up. She snaps back to reality. “Why did you do this?”

“I was hoping you old people would join me one day. I have one for all of us. Mom, dad, even grandpa.”

“Why would you make one for grandpa?” Kaiora questions. “He was gone before you were old enough to play this game.”

“That’s what I’m actually showing you,” Tinaya says. “These are not just statues.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re dormant now, of course, but...they’re copies. I downloaded their consciousnesses from the database.”

“What database are you even talking about?”

“The database,” Tinaya repeats. “Of all the minds of all the people who live, or once lived, on Extremus.”

“Where did you find this database?”

Tinaya shrugs. “I dunno, I just linked with the ship.”

“Did you tell anyone else about this?”

“You said you wanted to talk to your mom again. Now you can. It’s actually her.”

Kaiora’s patience ran thin quite quickly. “Did you tell anyone about the database?” she asks once more.

“No.”

“Good.” Kaiora sighs. “You weren’t meant to find that. I’m going to have to do everything I can to protect you from them.”

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