Extremus: Year 130

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As angry as Audrey is at Silveon for forcing her through the Nexus, she lets go of it pretty quickly when she meets her daughter. Silvia Husk is 28 years old now, and she feels so grateful for this incredible opportunity. Her alternate self has done a great job of raising a productive and well-rounded individual. One thing that Extremus!Audrey—as they have decided to call her to distinguish her from Green!Audrey—was worried about, was how Silvia would handle this situation. Audrey herself would be a little freaked out in her shoes. It would be weird for her to suddenly have two mothers, but Silvia hasn’t been struggling at all. It sounds like she had quite the happy childhood, and has grown up into a beautiful, confident young woman. Extremus!Audrey is sad that she missed it all. But at least they have this time now.

Today, Silvia wants to show Extremus!Audrey something. Green!Audrey isn’t coming. It’s unclear if that’s because she’s already seen it, or if it’s something that will only be between the two of them. “This is only between us,” Silvia says, answering the question right away. She unlocks a safe under her bed and pulls out a teleporter band. “This is off the grid. It’s scary to use, because it relies on line-of-sight, and where we’re going, we can’t see it from here. We’re gonna have to jump to the sky a few times before landing where we wanna be, but I promise, it will be worth it.”

Audrey smiles at her precious daughter. “I trust you.” She’s never been in the sky before. She’s hardly spent any time outside her whole life. She sleeps under the stars nearly every night, even if that means teleporting to the other side of Verdemus for the right weather conditions. The immersion holograms really don’t do it justice. Nothing beats true nature. And that must be where they’re going now, because if it’s off the grid, it’s not going to be a clone factory, or a space elevator station. Plus, she said to wear her swimsuit underneath her clothes. She lets Audrey bound their wrists with a tether so if they die, they die together, and then they jump away.

They immediately start to fall. Audrey doesn’t know where to look, but that’s not her job. She smiles over at her girl, who is enjoying herself a little too much. Before they get anywhere close to Splat City, though, she looks over and jumps them back up to a higher altitude, but at a different longitude. They do that a couple more times before reaching their real target, and man is it a close call. They’re standing at the very edge of an island cliff. If Audrey were to take one step back, she would pull them over. And they could really get hurt before Silvia managed to jump them to safety again. She steps forward a few meters, then undoes the tether herself. “This is beautiful.”

“It’s an island. Pretty small, comparatively speaking. It’s basically just a tall-ass rock in the middle of the ocean. The satellites have mapped it, of course, but it’s entirely untouched. As far as I know, I’m the only person who has ever been here. I actually love to freefall. It’s one of my favorite things to do. That’s how I ended up finding this place, just from flying all over the world.

“That’s really cool, Silvy,” Audrey says sincerely. “I’m so thankful for our time together. I wish I had been able to raise you.”

Silvia begins to tear up. “There’s something else I never told my mother. And I wouldn’t tell you, but I think you have the right to know.”

“You can tell me anything,” Audrey promises. “And you can tell her too.”

Silvia fights through the tears. “I’m more like my father than I would like to admit. I’m not a tyrant, or anything, but I inherited something from him.”

“You’re psychic.”

“Only in one very weird sort of way,” Silvia goes on. “I can’t...read people’s thoughts like grandma, or feel their emotions like dad. It’s more like I see the timeline of their thoughts. I can see where their consciousness began, and...” She trails off.

“You can see where it is.”

“Yes. I know when people are going to die.”

Audrey nods somberly. “I was gonna potentially live forever. There’s this thing we have on the Extremus—”

“The Question, I know it. Mother has trusted me with a lot of secret information. She said she never considered not telling me the truth. It must have been hard for you, having to stay with my father for so long. Mother thought he might get worse over time.”

“He did, but I still hold out hope. I think maybe this was the best thing for him, and the ship. I think maybe my presence was just getting in the way, or really, that it was no longer helping. My chapter there is over, and from the way you’re sobbing, I’m guessing that this isn’t the start of a new chapter, but more of an epilogue.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry you won’t get to see the Extremus planet.”

Audrey looks back out at the grandeur. “I did. This is what the mission was for. It doesn’t matter how far from the Core Worlds we traveled. That was never what we were truly looking for. I have no regrets, not even your father. He gave me you, if only for a year.”

“If it helps, I’m not sure if this truly spells the end. There’s something weird about the consciousness stream. It does end, but then... Then there’s something else. Like, a locked door that I can’t see past. Maybe there’s an afterlife. A true one, beyond the buffer.”

“Maybe,” Audrey agrees.

“Well.” Silvia wipes the tears from her face. “The good news is, you’re not in any danger. You literally can’t die today. If you want, I can tell you exactly when—”

“No, I’m fine with a little bit of mystery. I don’t need to know everything, but it’s nice to know we at least have the day.”

“Yeah. So. How about it?”

“How about what?” Audrey asks.

Silvia shakes her eyes towards the edge of the cliff. “Let’s go. I’ve done it many times myself. I assure you, it’s perfectly safe, as long as you clear about a meter from the edge.”

“Oh, is that it?” What a ridiculous suggestion.

“I told you, you can’t die.”

“And what about you? Can you see the end of your own stream?”

“No, but I don’t want to live my life cowering in the corner.”

Audrey considers the proposition. She definitely believes Silvia when she says that she won’t die, but that won’t make it any easier. It won’t make it any less scary. But she doesn’t want to be fearful either. She frowns, trying to make it seem like she’s gonna say no, but then she turns it upside down and pulls her shirt off. “Well, come on! If we’re gonna do it, let’s not waste time!”

Mother and daughter hold each other by the waist, and stand on the very edge again, but this time overlooking the water, smiling at each other. Without counting down or speaking, they turn towards the unknown, and jump off.

Audrey dies about a year later, just in time to make it to the big afterlife simulation in the sky before it apparently collapses.

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Microstory 2689: Full Circle

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Resi is back on the beach. He doesn’t know if he’s truly going to end up on Castlebourne at some point, or if his vision is pointing him to some other direction. The futures he sees can clearly be changed, or he wouldn’t be lounging here right now. This whole area would be covered in ash and lava. He just wants to relax and be happy. He hasn’t been able to do that for a very long time, and when you think about it, maybe not ever. When he exiled himself to the border, he was indeed lounging all day, but he was also always really tense. Now he doesn’t have to think about anything, or worry about what’s gonna happen. It’s just him, the sand, the sun, and the sea. This is a nude beach, making it all the more freeing. He feels a presence, so he opens his eyes.

The sun is at her back, so he can’t see who it is at first. “Back on Earth, when I was a kid, we called people like you slackers!” she yells, joking. He knew her voice. It was Brooke Prieto. She taught him how to see the future. That was a hundred years ago.

“I’ve earned a vacation,” he tells her, dropping the shades back over his eyes.

“I can’t disagree.” She sits down on the sand next to him. She looks ridiculous in her spaceman outfit. The opposite of a relaxed vibe, and it can’t be comfortable.

“A bit overdressed?” he muses.

“I can change,” she replies as they’re looking out over the water.

He hears a noise. When he looks back at her, she’s suddenly in a pink bikini. “Neat trick. Still overdressed, though.” He can be funny too.

She laughs.

“How has your life been?” he asks. “A hundred years is quite a long time.”

“Has it been that long?” Brooke questions. “Wow, the decades just fly by. You’ll see when you’re older. Speaking of which, are you considering getting all of your memories back? I don’t know if you’re worried about no longer being Resi anymore, but you shouldn’t be. You won’t stop being you. You’ll just be...more you.”

“I don’t know. I’m pretty happy with who I am right now. I finally feel like I am finally who I’m meant to be. Now, God forbid, if another volcano erupts, and I see it in my dreams, I won’t write it off or freak out. I’ll be more confident. I won’t necessarily know what to do right away, but I’ll manage to work through it. Hopefully it won’t kill me again.” He nudges her shoulder with his own.

She nods, but not understandingly, more just patiently. She continues to watch the waves crash onto the shore. “I had a friend a long time ago who you remind me of. Belahkay. Ludicrous name. He was easygoing at heart, but not a waste of space. His people were facing a dangerous task, and none of us could do it for him. It had to be a regular human, and he could have genuinely died from it. This was actually here on Bungula...very early days. The earliest.” She takes a breath. “It was when we were terraforming it. He was very brave, and he survived. He was the first true Bungulan, if you use the right definition. We went on some adventures together; ended up thrown clear across the galaxy, where we were forced to destroy a planet for some not-so-great people. He always wanted to do the right thing, though. I’ve not seen him in a long time. He had to volunteer for another mission, and he had to do it alone. And we let him, because we had other things to work on at the same time.

When we went back for him, he couldn’t remember us anymore. He had become someone else, and didn’t wanna leave. So we tried to move on. But. Then he called. Out of the blue. I mean, it wasn’t him, but word got back to me that he needed our help. He still couldn’t remember me, mind you, but he was still the same person, deep down. So I flew back to his planet, and helped him through some stuff. And wouldn’t you know it? I lost him again. He made the ultimate sacrifice. Again. I thought he was gone forever, but then I get another call, and I’m told that his consciousness was being stored on an off-site server that people just forgot about. The laws on this planet, they’re tricky. We weren’t allowed to just plug him back in. We figured it out, though. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t remember me, except for the short window where I helped him understand how to see the future. That was new. He couldn’t ever do that before. I think he was exposed to temporal energy, or something, and...it changed him.”

Resi is no idiot. He knows who she’s talking about, but now he can’t bring himself to look over at her. He just keeps watching the water.

She has one more thing to try. “You may not want him back. But I need him. Resi, I need my friend. It’s been centuries, and I don’t care how old we end up getting, that kind of time apart will always be excruciating.”

He breathes, and finally works up the courage to look over at her again. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

Microstory 2685: We Have More Time Than We Thought

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Resi flies through the tunnel in his mind, searching for the vision that he’s meant to see. He spends more time in here than usual. So much passes him by, but it’s too quick for him to have any time to tell what other events he’s missing. He just keeps going and going and going until he sees it. Central Mountain. Framed in a circle like a painting on the wall. It’s terrifying. Smoke is billowing up into the air. Lava is rolling down the sides. People are dying. He can’t see that much detail yet, but he’s getting the feeling. It’s at the end of the line. This is the last thing that will ever happen to anyone on Yana. The painting grows larger as he draws near, and then he passes through the portal. Now he’s flying through the air. Unlike his other vision of this tragic fate, he’s not composed of the elements. He’s just a regular guy. A regular guy who can fly.

The still image begins to move in slow-motion, making it even more horrifying than it already was. Now he really can see the people dying on the ground as the ash overwhelms them. Bungulan aircraft are frantically flying in, trying to save as many as they can, but they won’t get anywhere near everyone. Catastrophe has struck, and the question is, is this what happens if Resi doesn’t report the truth to the island, or is it inevitable? Will people simply not believe him, or will he not even get the message out in time? He remembers Kartica in the caldera with him. She has that satellite phone. He has to make that call, or tell her so she can make it. That is, if he can trust her.

Resi doesn’t have enough information, but he can feel himself waking up. His body is stirring where it lies on the ground. He’s melting into the rock. He really will die, so he has to get this done before he takes that last breath. What he really needs is the date. He needs specific information when he makes that call. There’s a boat on the coast, taking evacuees in. Surely there’s a date there somewhere. He dives down towards the surface, and lands on the deck. No one can see him, because he’s not really here. They’re frantically scattered about, some using devices, but no one keeps still long enough for him to see a date. Don’t they know that he needs this? Don’t they know he can stop it?

He has to get to the bridge. It will have computers there. He dashes up and passes right through the wall like a ghost. As the vision is beginning to collapse, he gets only one decent look in the upper right corner of the nearest screen, but it doesn’t make much sense. The day and month are both fine. It’s the year that doesn’t make the least bit of sense. The number is weird and wrong; it can’t be right. He has to look around for something else. Maybe there was an EMP, and it screwed up all of the electronics?

He wakes with a start, not having had the chance to find any more clues to understand what it means. Still, it’s all he has to go on. He feels like he’s moments from death. “Pho—phone,” he ekes out, reaching his hand up aimlessly. He turns his head to find Kartica lying on her stomach next to him, probably as close to death as he is.

She fights to open her eyes. She reaches behind her back and pulls the phone off of the clip. She lifts it into the air, and starts swinging it around, delirious and confused, maybe seeing double vision. Their hands dance around each other for several seconds before they finally make contact.

Resi selects Caprice’s contact card, and tells the system to call her in whatever way will work. If point-to-point communication is best, do that. She answers, demanding to know where he and Kartica are, but there’s no time. “August 7, 0045.” She’s flummoxed. “That’s the date of the eruption. August 7, 0045.” He dies.

Microstory 2684: Whoops

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Resi is walking across the jagged rock at the bottom of the caldera now, dodging these scary vents in the ground. He did not pay attention in school when they discussed this stuff. Again, it wasn’t important for his future, and the teachers didn’t think so either, so they didn’t get mad when students didn’t do great on science assignments. It is freezing cold, though, except for those gases. They make him cough, and gave him a huge headache. The center. He has to reach the absolute center. It’s poetic, right? That makes the most sense. So he just keeps moving forward. He kind of has to. Whenever he tries to stop, the rubber soles of his shoes begin to melt. It doesn’t feel too hot here, except when he touches the ground with his hand. God, it’s so weird. This place is weird.

Being this close, it certainly feels like the thing could explode at any moment. The air is still, but there’s a vibration all around. To be fair, he could be imagining it. If all these gases are toxic, it would explain the headaches, and the little bit of giggling that he thinks he’s doing. He can’t remember. He just keeps walking, heading for that big dream vision in the sky. Maybe he should walk faster, lest he die before he gets there.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” a voice asks from behind him.

“The time gods?” Resi asks, looking up. “Is that you?”

“It’s Kartica, you idiot!” she scolds, catching up to him. She is hard to hear with that banana over her face. Banana? Bandana. It’s either really smart, or totally useless.

“What’s the big deal? What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” she fires back at him. “You’re going to get yourself killed. You don’t have any protection whatsoever.”

“Yeah, I do. I have a coat on.” He tries to show her. “Oh. Well, it was on a minute ago.” Oh, that’s right. It was too green, so he took it off. “And anyway, I’m still on the hunt for that vision. This is the one place we’ve not yet tried.”

“How did you expect to get back if it kills you first?” Kartica presses.

“I was going to call you guys and tell you what I saw. I had it all planned out. I was going to detail my vision to you, and then at the very last second, with my dying breath, I would start my final sentence, and then not be able to finish it.”

“You planned on failing?”

“It was gonna bring you three together, and together, you would figure out what the last few words were gonna be, and save the day at the very last second.”

“Quite a few very last seconds you have there, Res. And, um, tell me. How were you going to call us without a phone?” She holds up Caprice’s satellite phone.

He pats his chest and hips. “Oh. Whoops.”

“Whoops?” she echoes. “Just the fate of our island on the line, and whoops? Resi, you’re already sick on top of the toxic fumes this place has to offer. And that’s on top of you just not being that bright of a person in the first place. You are the worst person to do this job, you’re just all we got. So please, lean on your friends.”

“Are you my friend?” Resi asks. “Because I seem to recall you infiltrating my House, trying to make us look bad, and then trying to frame me for your murder.”

“That was the old me,” she insists.

“Wait, shut up!”

“What?”

“Shut up, shut up!” he urges. “I’m getting a vision.” He falls to the ground.

Microstory 2682: Seeing The Whole Thing

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Resi can see the future, there is no longer any doubt in his heart about that. The problem is that, no matter how hard he tries, he has been unable to return to the vision he twice had of the eruption of Central Mountain. Brooke has her special techy spaceship, which she used to study the volcano, which said that nothing about it suggests it’s going to become active anytime soon. That is more worrisome than anything, because if Brooke is right, and Resi is also right, then something insane and unpredictable is going to happen that changes the equation. The trick is determining what that might be, and Resi thinks he may know why the answer isn’t coming to him. As of now, all of his predictions are sourced from past and present data. They’re still supernatural, for lack of a better term, but he’s not just randomly pulling information that doesn’t exist yet. He has to anchor it to something that is real. He doesn’t have to be physically touching an object to know what’s going to become of it, but it sure helps.

The fact is, Resi has nothing been very close to the mountain before. It just hasn’t been a meaningful aspect of his life. The higher you go, the less arable the land is. He’s not one for backpacking. Some class projects have involved hiking it, or even climbing all the way to the summit, but he never ended up doing that. That seems to be something that has to happen now. Brooke offered him a ride to the top, but that might not be enough. What if the problem happens lower down, and just causes the eruption up top? What if there are clues along the way? She pointed out that there is too much acreage to cover, and he agreed, but he has to start somewhere, and it can’t be at the end. That’s what’s blocking his understanding of this terrible future. He keeps trying to skip to the end. Of course, that’s what it sounds like fortune-telling is, but again, he doesn’t think he can just tap a future date, and jump to it. He thinks he has to fast-forward. He doesn’t have to sit through it all in real time, but he does have to see it all. So he’s going on a trek. He’s finally going to see what all the fuss is about.

Brooke is gone now. She has other things to do with her life outside of Yana, and outside of Bungula. She charges him to keep quiet about what he learned about her, which will not be hard, because she hardly told him anything. He’s not going to be alone, though. Caprice and Chaya are both coming. They don’t think that they’re going to have any apocalyptic visions, too, but they want to help, and it’s safer for him to not be alone. If something bad happens, someone may need to call for rescue. They’re only a few kilometers into the journey. They’ve not even reached the switchbacks yet when Chaya informs them that someone has been following them the whole time.

“Okay!” Resi says quite loudly. “Spread out! Shoot anyone but each other!”

“No! Don’t do that!” Kartica comes out with her arms up.

“I was never going to. Don’t you know me yet?” Resi questions.

“I dunno, you may have changed, man,” Kartica points out.

“Why are you here?” Resi presses. “You weren’t invited.

“I know, but you need me. You’re going the wrong way.”

Caprice looks up. “I think we can see where the mountain is.”

“Yes, you’re going towards the mountain, and you’ll even be on a trail, but it won’t be the right trail,” Kartica insists. “The mountain...is basically a cone. If you’re trying to see the whole thing, the switchbacks will only keep you to one side of it.”

“What makes you think we’re trying to see the whole thing?” Resi asks her.

“Please.” Kartica is offended. “I’ve not taken my eye off of you since we met. I can show you where to go. It will give you a clearer picture. I want this more than anyone. I want it more than you. You were hesitant before, when I begged you to tell me what was going to happen. Don’t leave me out of it. Please.”

Resi stands there thinking about it. He takes a swig of his special medicine. It still isn’t curing him, but it’s treating his symptoms. It’s keeping him vertical. Unfortunately, he believes he may be experiencing diminishing returns, and it will stop doing anything at all, probably sooner than later. “Fine, you can help. But try not to commit suicide on the way, okay?”

“I couldn’t if I wanted to,” Kartica claimed. “They locked me out of the respawn system. If I die, that’s it for me.”

Foreshadowing.

Microstory 2681: Final Exam

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Brooke will not tell Resi Brooks anything about the rescue that she and her friends pulled off centuries ago. She doesn’t even admit that she’s a time traveler. She says that she can help Resi get a handle on his visions, and that is what she does. They work together for weeks. She doesn’t give him a cure for what ails him, but she provides him with treatments that are better than what Yana has to offer on its own. It’s actually better that he not be too active in the world while he’s working on his mental ability. There are too many distractions, and he has to focus. She first teaches him how to meditate. That’s really all the Kidjum elixir does. It drops a person into a relaxed, unconscious state so it can access deeper truths about the dreamer’s psyche. The drug is an easy shortcut, and its side effects might actually be detrimental to the process.

Brooke asks Resi to start with small things. He’s meant to predict things that will probably happen anyway, like the outside temperature that the forecast already predicted, and always predicts with accuracy. This will reinforce his knowledge of the world, and reward his brain for saying something correct. Over time, she asks for more and more uncertain predictions, like the daily harvest yield in the south fields, or the results of an ancient singing competition show which Resi had never seen before. He gets them right too, but it’s still not too surprising, because yields are fairly steady, and we all knew Miki was gonna win season eleven. So far, though, Brooke has only asked him questions about specific things. She has driven him towards a prediction. The hardest part will be when she simply tells him to come up with something new.

He doesn’t think he’s ready for that yet. He’s still not entirely sure that he really has this ability. But she convinces him to try because if the first time he proves it is when the Central Mountain volcano explodes, then they’re all going to have a bad time. He has to start with something that’s still small, but impossible for him to have known just by recognizing past patterns, or relying on other systems. It has to be so isolated and bizarre that it can’t be true until it is. She sits him down, and has him close his eyes. She tells him to focus on the future, and forget everything he knows about everything else. The past does not exist, and it never will. The only thing that matters is what is to come. He’s also supposed to breathe. In, out. In, out. Her voice fades away as she continues the usual instructions. He keeps following them, trying to see something which does not exist, but is inevitable. He sees a tunnel, but it’s not real. It’s only a conduit to a higher plane of reality. It’s his way to seeing the future. He propels himself forwards, becoming one with the tunnel, and preparing himself for the other side, when an image he has never seen before finally comes to light.

He reaches the end. It’s small, and it looks like it’s moving fast, but to him, it’s in slow motion. It’s kind of grayish, or maybe even gold? It’s hard to tell with the light from the visionscape itself. He tries to look at it from a different angle, but a second image slips into view behind it. This one is also metal, but of a more complex design. It’s still covered in shadow, and hard to make out. So he moves closer. Closer, closer, closer. It’s...it’s a gun. Resi wakes up from the vision, and dives to the side just as he hears the shot. He feels the rush of wind as the bullet passes him within centimeters at most. “What the hell was that?” he asks, trying to put his heart back in his chest.

Brooke puts the gun into her jacket. “That was the final exam. In case you didn’t notice, you passed.”

Extremus: Year 96

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People keep telling Tinaya their secrets, and including her in them. She knows about The Question, and the questionable course corrections. She knows about Thistle’s true nature, and their persistent connection to Verdemus, as well as a satellite Nexus. She’s aware of the war against the Exin Empire, a ton of what the Bridger Section is all about, the fact that her son is a time traveler, and even a few tidbits about what’s to come in the future. Now there’s this whole thing with her husband that she has had to add to the pile. Over the last year, the Chief Medical Officer and the Head Temporal Engineer have been working with him to understand his new powers. He is not, as they suspected, a retroverter, which are those who can de-age others, or themselves. What he does has nothing to do with health and vitality, in fact. He’s an old man, and no matter what he does to his outward appearance, he’s not gonna manage to generate extra years to his lifespan.

He’s a chameleon, which is a term that Dr. Cernak had to come up with himself, because this power is not anywhere in the database. There are some people who have time travel abilities so powerful and precise that they can actually transport individual photons of light from one point in time to another. Or maybe it’s more like they’re copying the photons. Tinaya doesn’t know all that much about it, but these are simply illusions. Behind the holograms, the true person still remains. This is not what Arqut is doing. He is modifying the substructure of his skin and skeletal system in order to make himself look different. He can look like himself at a different age, or someone else, at any age. With enough time and focus, he can modify only his face, or his whole body. This is decidedly not a time power, and the experts are at a complete loss as to where the power might come from.

There’s a lot out there that no one on the ship understands. Not even Omega and Valencia have all the answers. There is something of interest in this matter, however, and it involves a fundamental truth about the universe that the database only touches upon. Despite the fact that everyone here is descended from a population of ancestors who lived in a different universe, they actually don’t know much about how the multiverse works. There are more than two; this much is known, and not because Ansutah makes it impossible for there not to be, but because of vague and unrelated reports that various researchers have collected over the centuries. And there is a theory, based on this limited data, that the physics of these other universes might range from a little bit different to unrecognizably so. They may allow for the existence of a person who can shapeshift into others on a purely organic level, as opposed to a workaround via nanite technology, which the experts were able unequivocally to rule out as an explanation for Arqut.

The reality is that they have exhausted all avenues of information gathering that they have at their disposal. If they want answers, they’re going to have to look for them somewhere else. And Tinaya doesn’t have the ability to do that with him. So now they have to make a choice, and it might lead to a premature end of their lifelong commitment to each other.

It’s the Nexus that can potentially and theoretically transport Arqut to another brane, as it’s called by the researchers. The technology apparently comes from one of these other branes, and while they’ve not been able to figure out how to return to that weird waterworld they were sent to as soon as the Nexa were activated, Valencia believes that she has discovered the term sequence to somewhere else that might be of help. She calls it The Nucleus. If anywhere in this universe has the ability to access the full network, it’s there. But if Arqut does go in search of answers, he’ll have to go alone, or at least Tinaya can’t go with him. She has to stay here to complete her duties as a captain, and later an admiral. More importantly, she has to stay for Silveon. He’s getting bigger, but he still needs a mother, if only for appearances. It would be hard to explain where both of his parents went, and why they left him behind. Even if they could claim that there’s some secret mission off the ship that would benefit the Extremus, why would they send both parents of a young child? No, they either have to separate, and possibly never see each other again, or scrap the whole thing. Arqut is leaning towards the latter.

“Don’t you wanna know?” Tinaya asks.

“Where my new powers come from?” he guesses. “Yeah, but...I don’t want to leave Silveon at all, even though you’ll still be here. I may never come back. I may die out there. It’s not worth the risk. It seemed like a decent idea when Valencia brought it up, but there are too many variables that we can’t account for. Yeah, I can feel myself talking myself out of it in real time. This is a dumb idea. Who cares? Salmon go their entire lives not knowing who’s pulling the strings with their patterns. The idea that I could die under a similar looming mystery isn’t as big of a deal as it sounds. I don’t think I need to know any more than I do now.”

Tinaya was secretly hoping that he would say that, but she can’t let on. “Are you sure? I mean...it has to be from somewhere else. Organic shapeshifting isn’t a thing.”

He shrugs. “What good is it? I’m too old to be a spy, and I don’t know that anyone should have this kind of power anyway. What I should do is die, and have my body cremated, so no one has the chance to reverse engineer it, or something. Going out there, I lose control over my own postmortem directives. You can protect me. You can keep this power out of the wrong hands.”

“That’s a good point,” Tinaya agrees, sincerely and gratefully. She’s about to elaborate on her thoughts, but her watch beeps. “Oh. I have to go meet the new captain. Wanna come?”

“Am I allowed?”

“It’s a partially public affair,” she explains. “We don’t want it to look like we’re making some backroom deal. It’s actually better if you’re there...if you’re up to it.”

“Yeah, sure.”

They walk over to the port side together. Niobe meets up with them in the corridor with little Silveon, who’s not so little anymore. He’s currently eight, going on eighty. He’s loosening up a little bit around others, creating a narrative that he’s so subdued and unexcitable because of his precociousness. He still has to remember to laugh at childish jokes, and not at jokes that should go over the head of someone his age. He’s considering adding a third friend for him and Waldemar, who is now about to turn sixteen. Their age gap is starting to get noticed, so the idea would be to split the difference, and find a twelve-year-old to bridge the gap. Zefbiri is evidently searching for the right candidate, which is a crazy way to make a friend, but this being an important mission to the future, it might be their only reasonable option.

Lataran was right that the new captain would be a boy. Oceanus Jennings is only 28, having graduated from the captain’s track a few years ago at the very top of his class. He’s bright, professional, approachable, and frankly, attractive. Most importantly, he’s young, which the people have been wanting to see in the chair again, even if they aren’t willing to say the quiet part out loud. He is the kind of candidate that should always have been the only ones considered for the job. Again, he’s the appropriate age, and there’s nothing political about the appointment. Well, that’s not true; it always involves at least some politics, but it wasn’t done as some kind of favor, or with a deep agenda in mind. He’s great on paper, and he’s great in person. He became a natural leader of his peers in his youth, and is expected to do quite well next year. He didn’t campaign, or step on people’s heads to advance his career. He simply put in the work, and now he’s receiving his just rewards.

“Captain-in-waiting,” Tinaya says to him, shaking his hand. There’s no official deadline for when a new captain must be appointed—as long as it’s before the previous captain’s promotion—so captain-in-waiting isn’t an official term, but it’s there if anyone needs it.

“Admiral-in-waiting,” Oceanus replies respectfully with a smile as wide as the breadth of the whole ship. That’s not a term at all, since she has a real rank, but it’s fine. “I look forward to your advisement in the coming years.”

“We’ll see how long I last,” she jokes, self-deprecatingly acknowledging her own advanced age.

He holds that professional smile. “I would like to introduce you to my First and Second Lieutenants, Marlowe and Altin Gibson.”

Boys club. Okay. “Brothers?” she guesses.

“That’s right, Captain,” Marlowe confirms, shaking her hand.

“I feel like I’ve heard that name before too; Gibson.”

“Our grandfather, Hardy was an engineer back in the day,” Altin explains. “He was a pretty big deal.”

Tinaya nods as if she recalls who he’s talking about, but that would have been a long time ago. “Yeah, he was great. I’m sure you’ll do well too.” A boys club, and brothers. Well, hopefully it works out. The ship won’t survive another scandal like Tamm. “Oh, there they are,” she says, one arm open to receive her husband as he’s walking up with Silveon. “May I introduce you to Superintendent Arqut Grieves, and our amazing son, Silveon. Say hi, Silveon.”

Silveon has his whole body pressed up against his dad’s hip, like he’s nervous. He’s not saying anything, but staring at the new Captain and his posse. Hopefully, he’s only playing the part, and doesn’t actually have an issue with Oceanus. Tinaya doesn’t know what she could do with a warning about his future.

“He’s just a little shy,” Tinaya lies.

“Aww.” Oceanus bends forward to get closer to Silveon’s eye level. “Wadya think? Are you gonna follow in your mother’s footsteps, and become a captain too one day? “Silveon Grieves, Eighth of Eleven; how does that sound?”

Silveon just looks away, still shyly.

They go through the motions with this meet and greet, then leave as soon as it’s socially appropriate to do so. “What was that?” Tinaya asks once the door to their stateroom is closed. She’s grown accustomed to speaking to her little one as an adult. It no longer feels quite as weird and disturbing. “What does Oceanus end up doing?”

“He’s not the captain where I’m from,” Silveon answers. “I’ve never even heard of the man. That’s kind of what scares me.”

“Is that why you were acting so childish?” Arqut asks him, not at all meaning that as an insult. He literally has to act childish all the time.

“I don’t know how to be around him. I was thrown off since you didn’t tell me who was succeeding you, mom. I’ve been so focused on Waldemar, and now I’m realizing that we truly are in a new timeline, which I can’t predict anymore. That’s all I was thinking about. What if Waldemar just never becomes captain either? I wasn’t trying to stop him, only change him, but who knows what other changes I’ve made without realizing it? Things could end up worse.”

“I believe that Waldemar will still take the seat after Jennings,” Tinaya contends. “You’re not the only one with future knowledge. The Bridger section was quite convinced that there was nothing they could do to stop it. Of course, they never gave me a name, or even a shift, but based on what little you’ve divulged, I’m confident that you and they were talking about the same man.”

“All you can do is stay on mission, son,” Arqut tries to advise.

“That’s not necessarily true,” Silveon argues. “I knew the man who was supposed to serve between mother and Waldemar. I knew how to control his future too. I don’t know Jennings. I don’t trust him; not because I don’t think he deserves it, but genuinely because I don’t know. I hate the uncertainty. No one told me how much I would hate that from being a time traveler.”

“Well, I’ll be an Admiral, at least for a good few years. Lataran is younger than me, so she can keep Jennings in line after that. We’ll make it work. You’re not alone in this. I think you forget that since you weren’t planning on having so much support.”

“That’s true,” Silveon agrees. “And mom?” He steps over, and takes one of her hands in both of his. “You’re gonna last the whole next shift. You’re healthier than you were in the other timeline, and she made it through.”

“Thanks,” she responds. “Probably shouldn’t say any more.” Tinaya takes a breath, and turns away to walk towards the viewscreen, which is faking an image of outer space.

“What are you thinking about?” Arqut asks.

She turns back and smiles at him, and then down at Silvy. “How lucky I am, to be here, with the two of you.” She stares at the screen again, for a pretty long time. “Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but I feel like you have a right to know. And even though, Sil, you said I was going to live for another two dozen years, you can’t promise that. So let me give you time to prepare yourselves.” She spins around. “When I die, and they ask me The Question...I’m going to answer no.”

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 26 2417

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Generated by Google Workspace Labs text-to-image AI software

The representatives from the Sixth Key were sent back home through the Nexus, and locked back out of a return trip unless invited. It was still possible to communicate from there, though only if Venus deemed it allowed from her end. The majority of Nexus functions were handed out at her discretion, using whatever parameters she had come up with while the network was being put in place. Generally speaking, interactions between universes was strictly forbidden, but Hogarth’s brane was directly attached to Salmonverse, making this more of a biverse, which was a notable  exception to this rule. Though she could change the rules at any moment, and not worry about suffering any consequences. She was a god in any meaningful use of the term. It wasn’t clear where she even was, if she wasn’t just somehow everywhere all at once. Either way, Team Matic wasn’t going to worry about Heath or the others anymore. They were only in charge of protecting Romana Nieman, and her family, and they had to trust that the Dardieti would do their part too. They had not let them down yet.

Now that all the drama was over, they were all back at the penthouse, with nothing that they absolutely had to do. Leona and Ramses went back to working on their projects. Angela and Marie were learning more about government and society. Olimpia was getting ready for another trip. Mateo and Karla were playing with their girl. The two of them had not been able to leave the room this whole time. It was very important to Durune culture for the parents to stay with their child pretty much non-stop to ensure a healthy and successful familial imprint. The doctor, which in this case was Constance, was expected to be involved as little as possible in order to avoid confusion during this crucial period. Today was day four, which meant that they could probably take short breaks, but this was a months-long process. Short was the keyword here.

“You should go,” Karla encouraged. “Spend time with your wife.”

“It’s okay, I can stay. I want to stay.”

“If you don’t go, I won’t feel okay to go later.”

“What do you mean? Do you want to take a break?”

“I don’t want to take a break. I...”

“Karla, you’re not a bad mother if you spend a few hours away from your baby. I promise, she is not going to forget you. You’ve known her for years. Let me catch up a little. She and I need to share some secrets anyway.”

Karla chuckled voicelessly. She didn’t budge though.

“Go on. Get some sun, or some soda, or whatever you need.”

Karla nodded, internally trying to convince herself that it really was okay. “All right, I think I’ll go to my family’s Wednesday lunch. You have my number.”

“Yes.”

Karla stood up, and headed for the door. Before she reached it, she turned back around. “It’s not a cultural thing, and it’s certainly not a family thing. In fact, I think most of the mothers in our bloodline have not loved the man who helped them pass along the responsibility.” She waited a moment to continue. “It’s just me. It’s important to me. That I...that we...learn to care about each other.”

Mateo smiled at her. “It’s called love, Karla. It doesn’t have to be sexual or romantic. One day, we’ll fall in love. I would know by now if we couldn’t ever. At least one of us would have to be an asshole.”

Karla slowly lifted her chin to absorb his words. Then she nodded once with her eyes closed, and left the room gracefully.

Mateo turned his head to look down at Romana in her bassinet. He expected her to be asleep, but she was awake now, and watching him intently while sucking three of her fingers. “I already love you.”

Karla returned. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

“Did you forget something? Wait, are you okay?”

She kept staring into empty space for a moment. “I think I just met a seer.”

Mateo hopped out of the bed. “Really? Those are...elusive.”

“Yeah. She was old. She was really old.”

“What did she say? Can you tell me?”

Karla was lost in her thoughts. “What? Oh. Um. Maybe?”

“Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. We always do. You’ll learn that about Team Matic. You’re one of us now.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I am. I think you’re gonna leave. I think you’ll have no choice. I don’t think you’re gonna raise her.”

He pursed his lips in frustration. “Seers see a possible future. That’s the whole point. Knowing of a future you cannot change would be useless, and anyone with such inactionable knowledge has an obligation to keep it to themselves.”

She shook her head again. “I think that’s what she was trying to tell me. You have to go...to protect her.”

“Was she in the hallway? Did she break into this penthouse?”

“I spoke with her for five minutes. Was I gone that long?”

He sighed. “No, you weren’t. I don’t like that either.”

“This building has the best security in two galaxies. It’s not foolproof. There’s some very powerful people out there. I believe that she’s working for someone who is trying to help, and I got the sense that they are working against someone who’s not.”

“I’ve made powerful enemies,” Mateo reasoned. “We’ve been looking at this all wrong. Dardius may only be the safest place for her if I’m not here.”

“We’re never gonna fall in love if you leave, and you may never see her again.”

Now he shook his head. “In my experience, I don’t never see anyone again.” He frowned, and pulled his head back. That didn’t make any sense.

She laughed. “I understand what you mean.”

Mateo looked back over at his precious child. “If I wait to leave until a threat actually rears its ugly head...”

“Then leaving may not do any good,” Karla finished his sentence for him.

“Those Sixth Key people. I don’t think they threaten her directly, but they may have just been the first domino to fall.”

“The seer spoke in riddles, as they are legend to do, so we can’t be sure of anything. We’re on the verge of deciding that you should leave your family behind, but that could be a grand mistake.”

“I won’t leave you alone, and I don’t just mean the cops and soldiers downstairs.”

“Now you really do need to go talk to your wife.”

Mateo did go speak with Leona, along with the rest of the team, including Constance. She was key to the new plan. She was an intelligence apart, and would not feel the sting of being separated from the group like anyone else would. She was a genius, strong, and incredibly difficult to kill. And she was on Romana’s temporal pattern already. She would continue to serve as her doctor, but also probably her nanny, and maybe later her teacher, and eventually her cool aunt. But she couldn’t do it alone, because knowing someone off the pattern was just as important as having someone who was on it. That was where Silenus Koolen came into the picture. He was still heavily invested in the Nieman family, and had expressed his dedication for the last four years. If he agreed to it, he could move into the penthouse, and make sure that things remained safe while the ladies were away. Hopefully he would agree to it.

“Yes. Oh my God, yes. Please!” Silenus cried. “I’m so in. You don’t have to ask me twice. You didn’t have to ask me the first time! I’m ready. I can move in today.”

“Are you sure about this?” Karla asked. “I know it seems like us being gone for an entire year sounds like an easy job, but you can’t really leave the penthouse. Wherever we are when we leave the timestream, you’ll need to protect it. Constance and I will be fine, but Romana can’t take care of herself in any sense. You’ll be long dead before she even learns to walk. This will consume your entire life. You’ll be the guy who lives here.”

“You hear me, girl? I’m all about it. Let’s do it, but one thing, I have a better idea.”

“Oh, no, here we go.” Karla was worried.

“This baby, before she was born, your ancestors had to keep finding mates so they could make an extra baby who would grow up, and take care of this baby, right?”

“Yeah, that’s how it worked,” Karla confirms. “Not in those specific words.”

“Well. What’s changed?”

“Huh?”

“Baby still needs taken care of, right? Just because she’s born, that hasn’t changed. It’s just, instead of being transferred to, like, a new womb, she needs to be fed and stuff.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“So I’m there to help with that, right?”

“Well, not that, but that’s what we’ve been asking. Have you not been listening?”

“Oh, I’ve been listening, and I’ve been thinking. You just said it, when I die, she’ll be a few months old. Who’s gonna help ya then?”

“I suppose we’ll have to find someone else,” Karla reasoned.

Silenus nodded coolly. “Why don’t we make someone else?”

“Excuse me?”

“Restart the bloodline. Make Romana some siblings. That way, when I die, they take over my job. And then they have kids, who take it over for them. And so on, and so forth, and ad infinity.”

“I’m not sure what benefit that would have. I mean anyone we trust could do it.”

“Who better to trust than someone who was literally born already invested in their family member’s life?”

“So let me get this straight,” Karla began. “You want to have sex with me to make a baby, raise it by yourself, since I only live one day a year, and then just hope they turn out right for the job when it’s their time?”

“Well, you’re not officially on the pattern, right. You could take a break from it for eighteen or so years. That’s only a few weeks for Romana, and it’s not like you won’t actually be with her. She’ll still see you every day of her life.”

Karla just sighed.

“Karls, if all I wanted was sex, I could have anybody. I’m famous. I’m not as famous as you or your baby daddy, but I’m famous enough. You know how many I turned down just this week. I’m just sayin’. I’m here for it. I’m here for you. I’m here for Romana. I’m thinkin’ about her future. Aren’t you?”

Karla cleared her throat, and turned to Mateo. He had been quietly listening to the conversation with the rest of the group. It felt very much like none of their damn business. “What do you think?”

“I think...you should do..what...you think you should do.”

“Thanks. Helpful.” She rolled her eyes. “Love it.”

“Uh. I have an idea,” Ramses jumped in unexpectedly. “It’s more of an inevitability, though. I think it was destined to always happen.”

“Rambo, maybe we just stay out of this,” Leona suggested.

“Maybe I should just show you.” He stood up, and took a step away from them. “Yeah, I’ll show you.” He teleported away, then returned a few minutes later with a cloning-slash-stasis pod.”

“Which one of us is in there?” Mateo asked.

“Do you remember when we were leaving Scorpius station, and everyone had all of their backup bodies on the Dante, and then I went back, because I was all, I forgot something?” Ramses asked.

“Yeah, I figured you left a tool.”

“Right, after I got my tool,” Ramses began with airquotes, “I first snuck back into my lab, and hid it in there.”

Leona cracked the case. “That’s the mysterious eighth active pod. We couldn’t see who was in it, but you stole it?”

“Yes, of course I did, because it would be stupid to just leave it there. We thought the whole place was gonna get blown up. Don’t worry, I think I was meant to take it, because right before you came to us with the new plan, the pod’s partition mysteriously opened on its own. Now we can see who’s in it.” He turned it around for the big reveal. It was none other than Silenus Koolen.

“Holy shit!” Olimpia shouted.

“That’s...for me?” the real Silenus asked.

“No one else has the right to it,” Ramses said to him. “If it’s built like ours were, you shouldn’t have to worry much about dying in a hundred years.”

Silenus started crying. “This is the best birthday present anyone’s ever given me.”

“It’s your birthday?” Karla questioned.

“Yeah, girl, I thought you were throwing me a surprise party, because it luckily matched up with your pattern. This is better than that, though.”

“Happy birthday,” Mateo said. “You wanna be born again? None of our transfers was that poetic.”

“Hell yeah, let’s do this! It’s not against the law when the Matics are involved.

“Wait, consciousness transference is against the law here?” Mateo asked.

“Yes,” Angela and Marie answered simultaneously. “So is cloning,” Angela added on her own. Due to this new information, they first made sure that Silenus was right that Team Matic could trigger an exception to the relevant laws. He was, and so...he was reborn. The procedure went smoothly, but it was already too late in the day, so they decided to wait to leave Dardius until next year. Besides, Mateo needed time to say goodbye to his new family. He was confident that he would indeed see Romana again one day, but it could still be a long time.

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: July 7, 2398

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Mateo, Angela, and Ramses can’t wait any longer. Angela had the bright idea to crack open the LIR Map, and see if it could give them any answers. They were all shocked that they hadn’t thought of it before, and not just for this situation. It could have been really helpful before they got into this mess, and might even help them find Danica Matic, or other answers. As Leona described it, the map worked like a comic book strip. Future or present events could be seen illustrated on the page, allowing the viewer to make certain decisions with an advantage. That’s not what is happening here. Each of them sees something different when they look at it.

Angela is seeing moving compasses with numbers on them. Some of these numbers are going down, and some are going up. As she turns her body around, the compasses rotate, and are not always pointing North. Interim deadlines, she presupposes. These are the places that she’ll be going, and when she’s going to get to each one, or maybe how long she has before time runs out. It’s annoyingly cryptic with the details.

When Ramses is in charge of the map, he sees an actual map. There is no legend, so it takes him a minute to decipher, but he realizes that some of the points of interest are places that he’s been, and some of them are probably places that he has yet to go. A couple of them have both kinds of markings, suggesting that he’ll return to those places. A few really important places that they frequent, such as the loft, the lab, and the tasty taco restaurant down the street have their own special markers.

Mateo doesn’t see anything at all when he tries to look at it, which he’s choosing to believe is because he just so happened to try it last, and the other two have the plan covered, so he would have only seen what’s already been seen anyway. Yeah, that’s probably it. “Why do you think it stops here, though?” he asks. Somehow, Ramses and Angela managed to take possession of the LIR Map at the same time, which combined what they were seeing into one image, which Mateo actually can see, and so could likely anyone else in the room.

“What do you mean? That’s our goal,” Ramses decides.

“No, our goal is to get our friends back, and come home safely. This stops at the Dead Sea. What do we do after that?”

“Maybe the map doesn’t know what happens after that,” Angela suggests.

“The map knows literally everything,” Mateo argues. “I once saw Lincoln flip out when he went to another universe, because he was suddenly seeing an entirely different timestream than the one he normally does.”

“What are you saying?” Ramses questions.

“The map doesn’t show us what it knows. It shows us what we’re allowed to know. It’s psychic.”

Angela stands up straighter, and looks away from the console of The Olimpia. “Or it shows us decisions.” She pauses, but the other two don’t bother asking for more information, because they know she’ll go on. “We know to go to the Dead Sea, instead of the colony blocks, because our friends have already chosen to go there. Yeah, they’ll arrive in the future, but it’ll be part of the plan. They’ve not come up with a plan beyond that, and neither have we, so we can’t see it. It’s like The Oracle in The Matrix films.”

“That’s not how Lincoln’s power worked,” Mateo contends. “He could see everything, including alternate paths. He saw all timelines, even ones that hadn’t been created yet.”

“Well, it’s like you said,” Angela continues, “we’re not allowed to see all that. It’s restricted. I don’t know why, but I can make an educated guess.” It seems unlikely that the limitation would be built into the document when it was created. It probably has more to do with it presently being in this reality, which they know handles time and time travel in weird ways. Still, this should help enough. They know where they need to go at this very moment, and that’s more than most people get.

“So it can never tell us the future unless someone has already decided upon it,” Ramses laments. “Who has to decide? Obviously not just the map user, because we didn’t know we needed to go to Birket until today.”

“Didn’t we?” Mateo poses. “We all wanted to go to Birket. The map didn’t tell us that, it just proved that we got some follow-through. This reality; it’s different. Nothing and no one is all-knowing...or someone is, and they always squash their competitors.”

“It doesn’t matter what we don’t know,” Angela determines. “We have to go to Birket, we’re going to Birket. We spend most of our time understanding the future, but not knowing too many details. I’m sure we’ll get through this too, even with the limitations.”

Angela was right, but barely. They make it all the way to the Dead Sea, just in time to find Leona, Marie, Kivi, and Heath by water’s edge, along with another guy. As soon as they land, sirens go off, and a squadron of fighter jets starts heading their way. Leona throws a jug of Energy Water through the hatchway, but she doesn’t step in herself. She orders them to take off vertically, and teleport under the cover of clouds. Mateo frowns at her, but she doesn’t explain any further. Ramses reluctantly agrees, and takes off again, leaving the team on the ground. Angela monitors the computers so Ramses can inject the temporal hydroxide into the engine. After they successfully escape without the air force firing a single shot, they find a stranger in their midst.