The Advancement of Mateo Matic: June 13, 2465

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Angela was on the observation floor of The Waycar, resting her elbows on the railing. That was what this section of The Transit that they managed to this universe with was apparently called. In all the fuss, they weren’t able to do a very thorough sweep of the thing before, but now they were going all over it. Of course Ramses was spending a lot of time in the engineering sections. There were two of them. The front end had a very low ceiling; too low when you remember that the average Maramon stood at around 200 centimeters. They must have considered it more of a crawlspace. It housed the machinery that kept it running, while all the interfacing happened near the back, underneath the briefing theatre. The rest of the levels had everything that a good squadron needed to live while they were training for war. Personal quarters, lavatories, mess hall, other communal areas. Training rooms, armory, command center. Despite it only being one car of 56, it was clearly always designed to be self-sufficient. They had seen everything by now, but didn’t know everything about it. Case in point, a weird remote floor that Angela was staring at right now.

Her sister, Marie walked up from behind her. “They’re almost ready for us.”

“Okay,” Angela replied solemnly.

“What are you doing up here?”

She was facing the back of the car, towards the smaller window. But she wasn’t looking through the window. To the left of it was a platform of some kind, a little bit higher than the floor they were standing on. She pointed to it. “Look around, Mar-Mar. There’s no way to get to that. No ladder, no elevator. It’s too far away to leap to. What the hell is it for? Is it just decoration? It does vaguely look like a giant sconce.”

“Well, I mean, we could just teleport to it.”

“Yeah, we could, but...this wasn’t engineered for teleporters.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I guess not.”

Marie smiled at her alternate self with her eyes, but not her lips, as she offered a hand. “Let’s go together.”

They took hands, and cleared the nine or ten meter gap with ease. Only now could they look down to see what was here. The floor was flat, but there was a seam running all the way across, and a handle. They exchanged a brief look, then Angela reached down, and opened the trapdoor. They looked apprehensively at what was there. “Get Leona,” Marie said.

Angela didn’t go anywhere. She just tapped her neck to activate her comm disc. “Boss, better get up here. Just you, though. Not much space on this.”

“On what?”

“Let’s call it the perch,” Angela replied.

Leona quickly figured out what she was referring to. She too looked down at the stasis pod. “Either o’ you recognize this guy?”

They shook their heads. “Nope.”

“Should we wake him up?” Leona asked.

“You’re asking us?”

“I want your opinion.”

Marie consulted her watch. “We have to get to the negotiations.”

“You go,” Angela suggested.

“What?”

“They don’t need both of us. Go facilitate. I’m curious.”

“So, is that a yes from you?” Leona pressed.

“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?”

Leona chuckled. “Fair enough.”

“Go,” Angela encouraged her sister. “I love you.”

“Mateo,” Leona asked through her comm.

“Yeah?” Both Mateos answered simultaneously.

“Who gave him a comm?” she questioned.

“I did,” Ramses answered. “It seems like he’s gonna be with us for longer than we presumed.”

“I want it out of his neck,” Leona ordered. “He doesn’t have one in the past, and we have no idea when he’ll end up going back. Carlin could find a reason to relapse him any second now.”

“Understood,” Ramses replied.

“You had a question?” Future!Mateo asked.

“Is that Stoutverse doctor still helping us with inventory in the infirmary?”

“Sure is,” Future!Mateo replied.

“Tell her she may have a patient on the way.”

“Understood,” he echoed.

Leona cleared her throat, and got down on her knees to start tapping on the stasis pod interface screen. “Cassius Hoffmann. Is he on our known list?”

Angela tapped on her arm to access their personal files. “No. Only a Cassidy.”

Leona tilted her head. “Maybe they’re related.” And with that, she released the hatch, and lifted it open. There were two kinds of stasis technologies; one which used magical powers to slow down time, and another which Earth developed. Induced cryptobiosis didn’t manipulate time, but slowed the subject’s metabolism down to almost nothing. There were complications with this technology, such as a build-up of radiation in the body, which had to be periodically purged, and a limited operational timeframe. To avoid these pitfalls, true stasis was one of the technologies that the Shortlist agreed to provide for the stellar neighborhood to make their lives easier, under the condition that it would only be used for long-term space travel, not for any other reason. It could scale into a weapon if harnessed by an abusive or nefarious party.

This Cassius guy was just in a tun state, like a tardigrade. It was more difficult to maintain, and required more maintenance, but he could have been in here for centuries. One of the downsides of cryptobiotic stasis was the length of time it took to revive the subject. Water filled the pod to rehydrate him, and an electrical charge was delivered to revitalize his nervous system. They waited there for minutes before he finally opened his eyes, and looked at them. “Can you speak?” Angela asked.

Cassius blinked twice.

“Does twice mean no?”

He blinked once.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

He blinked yes again. Then he struggled to adjust his gaze towards his feet. His eyelids fluttered. When they expressed concern, he stopped, suggesting that it was a voluntary gesture.

“Are you trying to point to something?” Angela asked him.

Yes.

“They screen?”

Yes.

“Can it expedite your recovery?”

No.

“What does it do? I mean...ugh.” She thought about what binary question that she could ask. There was none. “A, B, C, E, E, F...” She kept going until he blinked yes at M, then she started the alphabet all over again until she got to I.

She only ended up having to elicit M-I-N-D-R-E before Leona decided to guess mindreader, and realized what he was going for. “Oh my God, of course. He wasn’t just asleep. His mind was probably in a virtual environment.” She tapped on the screen some more until she found what they needed.

A tiny hologram of Cassius appeared on the glass. The physical Cassius looked at it for a second before closing his eyes to continue his recovery. “Hey, folks!”

“Cassius Hoffmann?” Leona asked.

“That’s me!”

“What are you doing here?”

“How long has the Transit been active?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” Leona replied. “Maybe a few weeks? We’re no longer connected. The Waycar is now free and independent.”

“I see. Who’s on the Transit?”

Leona didn’t know who he was, or whether he could be trusted, but he appeared to have been in some control of this machine before anyone they knew was, so there were probably some things he knew about it without their help. “The beginnings of the Transit Army.”

“Good,” Cassius decided. “They don’t need us. I was only placed here to make sure that they were the ones who found it, instead of just any rando astronaut who happened to land on Hyperion.”

Leona shook her head tightly.

“It’s one of Saturn’s moons,” Cassius explained. “That’s where the Transit was.” Now he was getting suspicious of them. Who are you?”

“Captain Leona Matic of the Vellani Ambassador.”

“Oh, okay. Whew.” He was relieved. “Yes, my name is Cassius Hoffmann, Second Lieutenant to Nereus Jolourvedin, Thief of the Transit Bulk Traveling Ship. Together, we and a group of other humans escaped Ansutah, and made our way back to Salmonverse. Most of them went off to live their own lives in peace. Nereus and his First Lieutenant claimed their destinies. I was left here with only the one job, and I didn’t even have to do it.”

“Something must have gone wrong at any rate,” Leona imagined. “You should have been awakened either way.”

“Nah, the machine has a mind of its own. If Freya or Azura stepped foot on board, it would have recognized them, and left me alone. I’m not surprised it’s taken weeks for you to find me. This car was invisible. You see, this was more of a punishment than anything. Don’t worry, I’m not a killer or anything. I just didn’t always know my place as Second L-T. I was a bit of a nuisance.”

“Nereus Jolourvedin now serves as The Repairman,” Leona told him, not knowing whether he knew that or not. “He doesn’t seem like the type to hold a grudge.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t wanna see me again.”

“Then he’s in luck,” Angela clarified. “We’re not even in Salmonverse anymore.”

“I see.” Cassius placed his hands on his hips, and looked around as he was nodding. “Do you lay claim to the Waycar?”

“We need to verify your story,” Leona began. “If it checks out, then this here vessel is yourn. We have our own.”

“I need to get to the negotiations,” Angela suddenly decided.

“Okay. Thanks, Angie,” Leona said.

“Thanks, Angie!” Cassius echoed before adding after Angela left, “she single?”

“She only dates corporal people,” Leona joked.

“Touché.” After a beat, he added, “I only need another hour.”

An hour and a half later, Cassius was able to return his consciousness fully to his body, and go see the doctor for an examination. By then, the diplomatic discussions were over. They turned out to be a lot more complicated than anyone could have guessed. It wasn’t only about letting Kineret leave with her daughter. It all had to do with the Waycar, the consolidator, and a new crew. “They want this?” Leona asked.

“No, they want to create a crew for the Waycar. Any of us would be welcome to stay and lead them,” Angela explained.

“I see. I have no intention of leaving the Ambassador.”

“Neither do I,” Angela replied. “But someone who knows a little about this stuff should become part of the executive crew. I don’t think the Stoutversians could handle it on their own. Do you know how many people can fit comfortably?”

“Maybe almost a hundred by our calculations,” Ramses answered.

“I’m sure that Cassius will be staying, no matter who else comes aboard,” Leona clarified. “He can lead them, I guess. He knows this thing better than any of us. We brought them the quintessence consolidator. I suppose our job is done.”

“We still need them,” Future!Mateo reasoned. “If we want to get to Verdemus to find the timonite for my past self, Carlin can’t do that.”

“True,” Leona realized. “It will take weeks at best to form the crew of this new ship. We can’t leave until then.”

“They’ve already agreed to take us back to Salmonverse,” Marie revealed. “But we won’t be able to call upon them if we end up needing something else later.”

“That should be fine,” Leona decided. “But Carlin, we will need you in the future. Past!Mateo has to get back to his time in the Third Rail. I can see your eyes, though; you wanna stay here on the Waycar.”

“I do,” Carlin admitted, “but I’ll help you in any way I can.”

Leona looked at the Walton sisters. “We gave them the consolidator, and in a way, we’re also giving them the Waycar. Did we happen to get anything out of these talks?”

“The new crew,” Angela began. “It won’t be as hard to form as you might believe. They don’t have a very large pool to pick from. Our one condition was that no one who leaves this universe is allowed to be a carrier for the deadly dragonfly flu. They made their choice in exposing the majority of their population to it, but they can only use it to protect their world. They’re never allowed to leave.”

“I guess that’s something,” Leona figured.

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Orthogradient: Azura and the Transit Army (Part I)

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Azura of Ansutah ran towards the crowd that was forming to overwhelm her ward, Treasure, Treasure’s bodyguard, Quino, and the native historian whose name she couldn’t recall at the moment. Before she could get close enough to help, Treasure screamed, and disappeared. She was a natural-born bulk traveler, who could travel to any nearby parallel universe, and as the only one here who was able to power the Transit, her disappearance came as a great loss. Azura looked around in case Treasure came back. Bulk travel inherently meant time travel, and there was no reason why she couldn’t spend countless years elsewhere, and still return to this very moment. But she didn’t, and she might never. Azura and her new makeshift crew might have to get out of this predicament on their own. Before the bewildered mob found her too, she ran off, and ran back to her spacetrain.

The man who was quickly becoming her second in command greeted her at the entrance. “Where are they?” Kaolin questioned.

“They’re gone. She screamed,” Azura answered.

“We thought we heard that.”

“Yeah.” She walked past him, and headed down the car.

“Well, is she coming back?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” she answered.

“How the hell are we gonna get out of here?”

They had power, they just had no way to escape this brane, and travel to another. This thing was built with the ability to process the bulk energy required to perform the operation, but it was intentionally stripped of some vital components, by someone who didn’t want the machine to fall into the wrong hands. It was not yet clear whether theirs were the right hands, but they were the only ones here at the moment. Azura reached for the nearest intercom. “Harbinger crew of the Transit, and founding members of the Transit Army, we are trapped in this brane. Our power source was forced to flee a potentially deadly situation without us. We have to move on under the assumption that she will never return. Her destiny is taking her on a different vector. But all is not lost. The engineers have been working on a contingency. They’ll need a little time to complete diagnostics, I believe, but we will get out of here...eventually. For now, please pilot us off of this planet. I at least want to get away from the natives. Once we’re in space, I’ll lead an official briefing for details. Thank you.” She hung up.

“What’s the contingency?” Kaolin asked.

Azura took a breath. “Time,” was all she said.

As explained, the Transit wasn’t designed to need Treasure Hawthorne in order to work. But without all those missing parts, it was not capable of accumulating enough energy to make even one trip in any reasonable amount of time. Fortunately, time was relative, and they had untold amounts of it, as long as they took precautions. The crew was placed in stasis while the ship wandered through space. Bulk energy was constantly popping into existence out of nowhere. This was, in fact, what explained the persistent expansion of the universe. With the right equipment, the energy released during these infinitesimally small events could be harnessed and stored.

After thousands of years of waiting, which only felt like seconds to everyone who was asleep, they finally had enough to make one jump. They had to make it count. Unfortunately, they had already exhausted their two best prospects for some real sustainable power. She was going to have to resort to the third. She got back on the horn to make another announcement. Most of the crew was in the same car as her already. “As you’ve already learned, I am a hybrid, made of human DNA, as well as Maramon. It explains why my skin is so pale, but real Maramon aren’t just pale, they’re white. They’re very white. The majority of my traits from that side of the experiment are internal, such as my physical resilience, and virtual immortality. The only Maramon I’ve personally met already knew what I was, for they were part of the program that genetically engineered me and my brothers and sisters. So I’m not sure whether a regular Maramon would recognize what I am, nor what that would mean for their impression of me. They may treat me as one of their own, or an abomination, or anything in between.

“My creators provided me with certain data regarding my world’s history, as well as their adventures throughout the bulkverse, but I don’t have the coordinates for every single brane they’ve ever recorded. I really only have one left, and it’s populated by Maramon. Their mission was to log new worlds, and move on, so the best one could be chosen for future settlement, but they decided to just take it for themselves. This is a last ditch resort. Our one fusion reactor that we stole has helped, but it is not enough. The time we spent on stasis will help us at least escape this universe, but we won’t be able to go anywhere else. Providence might not help us, and they may take the Transit for themselves. Unfortunately, it’s our only option. Anyone who wants to take their chances where we already are may leave in one of the pump shuttles that we discovered. For those of you who don’t know, they run on bulk energy too. It’s not enough to pierce the membrane, but it can jump to just about anywhere in the universe near-instantaneously. We’ll be crossing over to Providenciaverse soon, so if you’re leaving, let me know now.”

No one left, so Azura ordered that they use the last of their main power reserves to cycle up to lightspeed and pierce the membrane. The way the Transit was designed, it should be able to refuel while in the outer bulk by absorbing bulk energy through specialized ramscoops. Unfortunately, most of these were removed by the man who originally stole the machine. They either needed to be replaced eventually, or they would keep having to find other sources of power from the likes of the people they were on the way to see now. The journey this time took two weeks to reach their destination. To avoid being detected—at least right away—they entered the brane far from where Azura predicted the Maramon would have settled the solar system. She planned on going the rest of the way on one of the pump shuttles. These were large enough for a passenger load of around 24 people, but that number would shrink with gear, and other equipment, depending on the mission. The interior could be reconfigured as needed. She was intending to go on the away mission herself, but that was not possible. They found themselves coming through right next to a local ship. It was only about 40,000 kilometers away; more than close enough to be picked up on sensors.

They reached out immediately. “Unidentified operator of the Transit, this is the Providence Mining Explorer Denojuge, please respond.”

Azura cleared her throat. “PME Denojuge, this is Azura of the First Transit Army. We’ve come seeking power sources. Our siphon array was removed, so we require alternatives. Anything you have would be quite helpful. We’re not here to cause trouble. I was genetically engineered and raised by a secret sect of Maramon who were originally formed to protect your location from the general population, and the government. Whether you help us or not, we will not betray that directive.”

“Relax, half-breed, we’re not worried about being discovered anymore.” Half-breed. They knew who she was. “Prepare to be boarded peaceably.”

“Do we do that?” Kaolin questioned. “Do we accept them?”

“We’re stuck here,” Azura began. “Waiting in stasis for thousands of years isn’t going to work this time. They know how to find us, and they will find us eventually if we try to run. Yes, we do this peaceably, like she said.”

They synced flight paths, then the Denojuge connected to the docking car. It was no surprise that they used compatible technologies, since the Providentials originally came here through the Crossover, which was designed by the same team as the Transit. Captain Ouheliydi led a boarding party in, and down the cars to meet Azura and her people halfway. She nodded at them respectfully. “We hear great things of the Transit Army. I must say, there are fewer of you than we imagined.”

“This marks the beginning of it,” Azura explained. “We’ve not yet recruited.”

“We guessed as much,” Ouheliydi said. “Obviously, you find some way to repair this thing, or you would not become multiversal legends in your future.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Azura agreed.

Ouheliydi sized up the first members of the army. “Verteans. The records do not explicitly state that they were the first, but the implication is that they were from the Biverse. I suppose it’s half true. Anyway, we have what you need.” She snapped her fingers at a masked soldier behind her. He handed Azura a metallic cylinder.

It proved to be heavier than Azura expected. She was stronger than the average human, but since her outside had to appear fully human in order to blend in, she couldn’t be as strong as a full Maramon. She had not seen anyone on that side of her ancestry in a long time, and forgot how much stronger they were.

“Apologies,” Ouheliydi said. “We forget how much weaker you are.”

“I understand,” Azura said as Kaolin was helping her stand up straight. She was capable of holding it on her own, but she had him open it for her. Inside was one of the longest coils in the multiverse. It had to be in order to taper down from a millimeter to an angstrom. “An atomic lance.”

Ouheliydi smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“We appreciate the sentiment,” Azura replied, “however most of our lances are functioning within normal parameters. It’s our aether siphon array that is missing.”

“Yes, well,” Ouheliydi began, “my people are strong, but not that strong. We have that for you as well, but automators will have to affix it to the front for us. It’s being couriered from the inner system as we speak.”

Azura narrowed her eyes, and looked down at the lance coil. “How much is this going to cost us?”

Ouheliydi smiled again. “Three cars.”

“We can’t remove three cars from the Transit,” Azura contended. “We need them. As you know, this machine is paramount in the war against the Ochivari.”

“You misunderstand,” Ouheliydi said. “We’re not asking for you to remove them. We’re asking for you to integrate a team of elites into the three cars. We’re asking to join the war as your first recruits.”

Azura was surprised by this. Obviously the whole point was to recruit for the impending war, but she had spent all this time just trying to get the Transit to work in the first place that she hadn’t been able to devote any bandwidth to that aspect. Who would she ask to join, how would she know who might agree to it, and how was she going to find them? She was able to travel to the last few universes because she had specifically memorized their locations. She wasn’t even supposed to do this, but every day while growing up, once she was finished with her studies, she would take it upon herself to conduct some unauthorized independent research. She could also get to the other universes that her brothers and sisters were dispatched to, but only one other beyond that. Probably her first stop once this machine was fully operational would be to Treasure’s universe, where a woman lived who could help them. She was not planning to recruit anyone until then. But if this was the price, could she say no? “I don’t know about this. Yes, I’ll need an army, but... Hold on, I need to ask, do you know who Thack Natalie Collins is?”

“No,” Ouheliydi answered.

“She’s a psychic who can witness events throughout the bulk. She could be listening to this conversation right now. If I’m going to do this; if I’m going to build this army, I need to be in her good graces, and she may have her own recruitment plans, which may or may not include you. I honestly don’t know, but I don’t want to upset her before I even meet her. You understand.”

Ouheliydi nodded. “No recruitment, no aether siphons. That’s the deal. This is not a negotiation. Why do you think we have this technology? We chose to stay in this universe, and let our brethren take the Crossover back on mission. We’ve never seen the Transit before. We don’t use bulk energy to power our ships. So why did we build them? For you. We didn’t know that you would be coming. We didn’t know that it would be you specifically. But we hoped, and we’ve been preparing for decades. The Ochivari already came here, and we fought them off, but we suffered losses. The only thing we regret now is not getting a single Providential out of here during the Ochivari’s retreat, who could have sought further retaliation for us. We probably want blood more than you. We’re not letting you go without us, so you have to decide whether this Thack lady is more important to you than skilled fighters. I may not know much about what’s out there, but I know that she’s not the only person who can help you recruit. Statistics don’t allow it. But there is no one like our elites. No one. They have been training for this for their whole lives, I don’t know if you know this, but we’re not immortal here. The proper physics forced our ancestors to give it up. We die of old age, just like humans. So time is valuable, and we’re not going to waste it like our ancestors’ ancestors did.”

Azura sighed and looked back at her own crew. None of them appeared to be against this idea, though to be fair, the only Maramon they had ever encountered before was herself, and she was only half. The Ochivari were the true bulkverse enemies, but make no mistake, Maramon could not be trusted either. That was why she ignored her initial mission, and tried to live her best life in Universum Originalis. Still, this was an impenetrable ultimatum. They were at these people’s mercy. But maybe she had one card to play. Maybe this was a negotiation. “One car.”

“Two.”

Azura nodded with a sigh. “Two.” She reached out for a handshake to seal the deal. “Welcome to the Transit Army.”

Ouheliydi reached back and shook it as she laughed. “No. You...welcome to the Transit Army.”

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: May 23, 2444

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Now that they had tested the refurbished reframe engine from a safe distance, it was time to test it while on board. They would continue to monitor the machine to make sure it held up, but that was something that they did every time they used it. They were just paying extra close attention in case there was a temporal component to the repairs. Perhaps ongoing stress would cause the nanofractures to reopen. They would never be completely safe, but then again, they never were at all in this line of business.

The speed of a ship equipped with this kind of technology was limited to roughly 707 times the speed of light, which means that they would always be able to travel a distance of 707 light years during their interim year. Making it back to the stellar neighborhood would take them 23 years, which for the team, was about three weeks. That was doable, but they were too busy for that. For one, they had to find a place to drop off Korali, and the rest of the staff of Ex-467, who nearly died due to their interference, and would have without their intervention. They needed a new place to live. It had to be nice and safe, but also had the chance of returning them to whatever worlds they originally came from, or just wanted to go to now. Korali said that the space station had a manifest, but she didn’t have a copy of it, because why would she? Perhaps someone in the Subdimensional Crucible happened to have it on them, but they could not interact with those people yet. Not until they were released would that be possible.

“Well, I’m not sure if I should say,” Korali began cryptically.

“Why wouldn’t you say it?”

“It’s dangerous,” Korali answered. “Well, I don’t mean there are monsters running around, or something, but as enemies of the state, you would not be welcomed there.”

“They don’t know who we are,” Ramses reminded them. He transformed himself into the likeness of 20th and 21st century actor, Misha Collins.

“That’s true,” Korali admitted, but she was still reluctant.

“It’s just an idea,” Leona said encouragingly. “We don’t have to take it, but we need to know what it is, so we have our options.”

“It’s Ex-18118,” Korali said.

“That’s not on my list,” Ramses said, pulling his handheld device out to check. “Plus, it breaks the three-digit convention.”

“You probably don’t have Ex-403 or Ex-404 on your list either,” Korali explained. “Wherever you got your intel it was probably from an ordinary citizen. Loyalists like I was have special knowledge. Ex-18118 is for Rest and Relaxation. On the occasion that we’re given leave from our duties, like between assignments, we can take it on Ex-18118. Regular people live there to support our needs, like vendors and sex workers, but the majority of the population are people like me who need a little time off to recharge.”

“So everyone there would hate us if they found out who we were,” Mateo figured.

“Then it’s the perfect place,” Leona decided. “No one will be looking for us. Everyone will literally have their guards down, and if it’s a hub for loyalists, they probably come from all over the Corridor, which means that we shouldn’t have to worry about people wondering why they don’t recognize us.”

“They still may ask you where you’re from,” Korali clarified. “You’ll need to know how to answer that question.” She sighed. “I would recommend Ex-420 or Ex-69. No one will ask any more questions if you say that, not even people who have worked at either of those places. It’s just not something you talk about. You’ll need to know what to wear, and how to act, though.”

Korali showed Ramses where Ex-18118 was. It actually wasn’t too far from Ex-42, which again, no longer mattered. They could cross the span of the entire Goldilocks Corridor in a day from their perspective. Still, they were considering going there next. Before they engaged reframe speeds, she described the Ex-420 uniforms, which literally had an image of a marijuana leaf on them, so that was fun to program into the industrial synthesizers. While those were working, she taught them how 420 staff members behaved, which was odd, to say the least. They were hardened and imposing, but also high all the time, because they were around so much smoke? It was confusing to learn, but it sounded easier than figuring out how to pretend to be Ex-69ers, who were also overserious, but at the same time, too horny to be professional.

While the smart people were discussing the plan with the dimensional box, Mateo pulled Korali aside for a personal conversation. “How do you feel?”

“I’m okay,” Korali answered. “I don’t have any problems with stasis. Some people do, but you use better technology anyway.”

“I don’t mean that, though that is nice to hear. I mean, you’ve been behind enemy lines for a while now. Going down to this planet is your chance to return to your life, but it’s also a chance to...screw us over. If you were planning on doing that, I wouldn’t expect you to warn me, but I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t attempt to ask.”

She smiled softly, and kept looking forward. “In December of 1943, during what your people refer to as World War II, two enemy pilots named Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler encountered each other on the battlefield. Brown’s aircraft was too damaged to continue fighting, but instead of destroying him, Stigler escorted him to safety. Decades later, long after the animosities from the war had passed, the two of them reunited, and became true friends. I don’t know if you and I are going to reunite in 47 years, but I know that I’m going to show you compassion now. You saved those people on the space station when you didn’t have to. I still believe that the Oaksent is a good man, but I no longer believe that you’re not. For now, that’s just going to have to be enough.”

Mateo smiled back. “I understand, and appreciate it.”

Leona came up to them. “We’re ready. Korali, you need to get in your stasis pod. It’s going to be longer than half a day for you this time, and you won’t be allowed out until we let you.”

“I get it,” Korali replied respectfully.

Once the Vellani Ambassador arrived at the outer edge of the system, it turned invisible, and parked itself on a long-period comet. Ramses had programmed the exterior hologram to make them look like a standard recreational shuttle from Ex-420, but they didn’t want anyone to find it during their interim year, regardless of what it looked like. When they returned to the timestream in 2444, they released Korali from her stasis pod to go over the plan one more time, and then they got dressed, and began to cover the rest of the distance at subfractional speeds.

Their reputation preceded them, even though no one knew who they were. Just dropping down to the surface of the planet with those three big numbers on the side of their hull practically parted the sea for them. No one asked them for verification, or to register with an intake officer. They could presumably do whatever they wanted here, and no one would try to stop them. One thing they apparently weren’t allowed to do, however, was land in a remote area of the planet. There were satellites and ground stations positioned all around the globe. This was to ensure that no one tried to stay here for the rest of the lives when they were supposed to go back to their work eventually. Besides, that wouldn’t do them any good, because the whole point was to help the survivors of Ex-467 return to those lives. The team was just going to be really far away when that happened. So they did need to be away from the population centers, just not too far away. They couldn’t teleport, though, because that could be tracked.

They stopped at the hotel to check in, which basically involved them showing those three special numbers on the shoulders of their uniforms, and providing the clerk with false names. They spent a couple hours in their suite before claiming to be going on a leisurely stroll in the arboretum. That’s exactly what they did, except that there was nothing leisurely about it. They walked as fast as they could, and even ran a little, though Korali found it difficult to keep up, since her body was not enhanced. Mateo actually carried her part of the way, because they wanted to get really far from anyone else. The survivors would eventually make their way back, but not too quickly.

Several hours later, they were roughly forty kilometers away. They were far enough away, in fact, that no one who suddenly woke up here would have any particular reason to suspect that their best hope of finding civilization lay in the east. This was a good place to drop them off, even though they could have gone farther. The weather was calm here, and the environment felt safe. A beautiful clear pond provided them with a source of freshwater, and Korali said that a lot of these plants were edible. They were looking for a cave to sort of maybe encourage the survivors to dig in for the night, but they were liable to do that either way, which was why they chose to land the Vellani on this side of the planet, because night was falling soon anyway.

“Do you have your story straight?” Leona asked Korali.

“Yes. I managed to get into an escape pod as soon as I heard the alarm go off in the warehouse. I left so quickly that I didn’t even hear the announcement to head for the mess hall. The blastwave of a secondary explosion that the Lucius bomb triggered struck my pod, and knocked me unconscious. I’ve been surviving in stasis ever since until the Oaksent dispatched a rescue team to search for survivors. They ordered me to come here to Ex-18118 to give the survivors one year to rest and recuperate. I then decided that it was best to let them out of the Subdimensional Crucible away from the nearest hotel to avoid inundating them with questions right after they were released.”

“Are you okay with lying?” Marie asked.

“It won’t be my first time,” Korali acknowledged, obviously never intending to elaborate. She carefully took the Crucible from Ramses. It was still in the giant suitcase that they used to conceal it from others. She set it on the ground and opened it up to use the microscope. “They’re all right. They’ll be all right.” She stood back up. “Who knows what’s happened to them, though? They’ve had years to form a new society. Your supply drops have surely helped, but they could be anybody.”

“You know how to contact us,” Leona reminded her.

Korali tapped the comms device secretly implanted behind her ear.

“We’ll see each other again, Mateo said confidently.” He took her in a hug. “Hopefully we won’t have to wait a whole 47 years for it.”

“Agreed. I’ll probably be dead by then.”

They left her alone, and made their way towards the hotel. Running at full speed this time, they were back in less than four hours. They relaunched just before midnight.

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: May 21, 2442

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Half a day into the trip that the Vellani Ambassador was programmed to go on, getaway driver Mateo returned to the timestream in 2441 to find the guard who recognized their charade awake, and sitting patiently in hock. “Report,” she said.

“We’ve been on a relativistic journey,” Mateo explained. “It’s been about twelve hours for us, but a whole year for everyone else.”

“Why?”

“It’s all part of the plan,” he answered cryptically.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

Mateo nodded, and prepared himself for the role of a couple lifetimes. He was still wearing his disguise, and hoping that she wouldn’t recognize him as the famous Mateo Matic of Team Matic. Some of the intel that Vitalie!613 gathered was paramount to their mission, while some of it was just anecdotal. She wasn’t interrogating the people on the resort world. She was simply getting to know them, and secretly logging everything that they said in case the team needed it later. One vacationer had a story to tell about how lucky she felt to end up at the resort after everything that happened to the rest of her family. Mateo recalled this story, and reworked it for this lie, embellishing certain parts for dramatic effect. “When I was a very young child, my parents were taken by the Empire. They wore uniforms much like yours. I remember the smell. I think they had just been involved in a fire, because they were sort of woody and rusty. I don’t know how else to explain it. I still don’t know what my parents did to deserve that, because no one will tell me. No one cares.

“For a long time, it was just me and my brother. We took care of each other. Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you which one of us was older. We didn’t really keep track of those kinds of things on my planet. Our cousin was around too, but he had all these responsibilities, so we rarely saw him. When my brother was still pretty young, he was killed in a factory accident. This could have been prevented if again, anyone cared about such petty worries as working conditions. If there’s one thing I’ve learned living under the loving Exin Empire it’s that life is profoundly undervalued. I grew angry. I stopped going to my own job, and started to steal what I needed; never from people who didn’t deserve it. I mean people like you. For years, they couldn’t catch me, until they did. I ended up 666, and that’s when my eyes were opened. I was a criminal. I broke society’s rules; the ones that ought to indeed be rules. For most people there, though, their only crime was disagreeing with the state. Your messiah, Bronach Oaksent, he’s a liar. Everything he’s ever said is just a misdirect. If he says he loves you, he hates you. If he says he wants to help people, he wants to hurt them. I don’t know what made him like this, but his reign of terror is over. Ex-666 has been freed...and we’re comin’ for him.”

The guard stood up from her bunk, and approached the bars. She wrapped her fingers around two of them, two at a time, like it was an intimidating dance. “How will you ever hope to defeat him, sir,” she began before a long pause for her own dramatic effect that ended with, “when you only exist for one day every year?”

Goddammit, that whole speech was a waste of time. Maybe he could save it? “What are you talking about?”

“Drop the act, Mister Delaney. I figured out who you were while I was knocked unconscious. Thanks for that, by the way. I was just telling my partner the other day how I wished for a little more brain damage.”

“There will be no permanent damage. We have medical treatment here.”

She stuck her face between the bars now, as far as she could go, stretching the skin on her face like a botched cosmetic surgery patient. “I’m going to be alone in here for the rest of my life. You’ve killed people, but you don’t execute them. You can’t let me go, because I know who you are, and I’ll tell anyone I meet that you have illusion powers now. A lifetime for me will be a couple of months for you.”

“If you knew that we might do that,” Mateo began, “why didn’t you lean into the lie? Why did you admit that you recognized me?”

“Because unlike you, I don’t like to lie. Maybe you and my messiah aren’t so different after all?”

Mateo wrapped his own hands around the same bars, just above hers, and placed his face a centimeter away from hers. “Maybe we’re not. The difference is that I only live for one day a year, and he’s been around for thousands of years. My ability to rule over you would be severely limited. So which is the lesser of two evils? And if immortality is possible, why are you so scared of death?”

She pulled her head back a little, so she could move her eyelids enough to narrow them at him. “What would society look like if no one ever died?”

“Why don’t you ask Earth? They figured it out, as did everyone in The Parallel.”

“Mateo, we’re gonna have to teleport!” Leona cried through comms. “Stop darklurking, and spark a flare! Don’t dock with the station! Just stay within range!”

He tilted his head away, and tapped his comms disc to indicate that he wasn’t talking to the guard anymore. “Understood.” He reached over to the button that would drop the blast door over the bars so no one else would know that he abducted a hostage.

“Wait,” she said. “The Oaksent isn’t the only one who can be immortal?”

A year later, after the whole team, and nearly everyone else, was rescued from the now completely vaporized Ex-467, the Vellani Ambassador was in the middle of another bottle episode. The next planet was within a light year away, but they were holding off on it so that Leona and Ramses could see if they could fix the reframe engine with something that they stole from the tech warehouse. “How come you don’t already have something like this?” Olimpia asked. She was twirling the topological modulating umbrella. “No offense.”

While Ramses ran simulations, Leona was scanning the nanofractures in the reframe engine, making sure that she had them all cataloged, so they didn’t miss a one. She didn’t want to apply the sealant until she knew exactly where it needed to go. The machine was built out of a metal-metamaterial composite that was practically indestructible. Obviously it wasn’t actually indestructible, though, or they wouldn’t be in this mess. This was always a possibility, however unlikely. And this antintropic nanosealant was going to help them fix it, as long as every spot was addressed. Missing even one could spell disaster for them. She didn’t pry her eyes from her work. “We never anticipated it, and until now, I had never heard of a solution to a problem such as this. The nanosealant, as long as it’s not a hoax, shouldn’t just fill in the fractures. A regular nanosealant would mimic the molecular structure of the target material to fill in the gaps that formed, but that would come with risk, because of possible imperfections that develop during the process, as well as impurities. The original molecules have since been lost when the structure was first damaged. What this sealant apparently does is summon those molecules from wherever they are in spacetime, and place them back where they belong. A normal human scientist would call that impossible, but of course we know better.”

“Well, why wouldn’t you at least have had the regular sealant?” Olimpia pressed.

“I don’t know. It’s not my ship, we took it from someone else. We had something useful in the AOC, but we ran out of it a long time ago. The reframe engine is one of the strongest objects out there so it can survive the stress of full operation. It was obviously well ahead of time when Hokusai designed it. It can also be protected by the overlying structure of its vessel, because it’s not a propulsive drive, so it requires minimal contact with the exterior. What this all means is that if the reframe engine is damaged, so is probably everything else, rendering repairs essentially pointless to attempt. It’s also important to note that I’m not in love with the design of this ship. It’s not as protected as it should be, which we might be able to fix given enough time. I think that Mirage just wanted to create more living space for its passengers, which is not a problem for us, since we prefer to live in pocket dimensions anyway.”

“You think that you can actually rebuild this thing with a new design?”

“Maybe,” Leona said. This was when she took a break, and looked at her conversation partner. “Are you playing with that?”

“It’s fine, it’s not even open,” Olimpia defended.

“Are you sure that that’s how it works, it has to be open? Rather, are you sure that it doesn’t do anything while it’s closed?”

Olimpia cautiously set the umbrella on the table. “Yeah, you’re right. Ram should study it first. I don’t even know what I’m still doing with it.”

“Well, it’s yours,” Leona reasoned.

“How do you figure? I stole it from the vault.”

“Yeah, that makes it yours,” Leona insisted. “We’re certainly not going to try to give it back any more than I’m gonna give this sealant back.”

“I know we weren’t going to do that, but...mine? Really?”

“Absolutely! We’ll even name it after you. Let me think on that.”

Ramses walked into the room. “I already have. It’s the Sangster Canopy.”

“You can’t name it after me,” Olimpia contended. “Like I said, I just stole it. You’re acting like it’s the HG Goggles, or the Rothko Torch.”

“Not all temporal objects are named after the people who created them,” Ramses explained. “Jayde Novak stole the Jayde Spyglass too.”

Olimpia frowned just a little, embarrassed at the thought of being happy that her name and reputation may one day precede her. She didn’t want to seem so egotistical. “I dunno...”

Ramses shrugged. “I’m thinking about calling the thing that I stole the Motherbox.”

“No,” Leona and Olimpia rejected in unison, as did Marie who happened to be passing by in the hallway.

He smirked, having hoped to get a rise out of them for that. “I came in here for a reason. Take a break, there’s something you should see.

Leona followed him to the security room, and then went to find Mateo, who just so happened to be exactly where she needed to talk to him. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“Um. Your hair looks nice. Did you go to the salon this morning?”

“Matty.”

“You were right, I was wrong, I’m sorry,” he recited.

“Matt. Say it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She pursed her lips, deciding that she was going to have to drive the conversation. “Why are the hock blast doors down?” She looked over at them.

“These are doors? Huh, interesting. And we have a hock?”

“This is a diplomatic detachment, originally designed to serve the needs of two competing parties. Yes, there’s a hock. You know that, and you put someone in there. And you thought I wouldn’t find out, because of the blast doors, and because I don’t have much reason to come back here. But you forgot one thing...do you know what it is, Mateo?”

“Did Ramses figure out how to make us psychic?”

“The security cameras still run.”

“Oh. Right.”

“It’s been a year, and we weren’t traveling at relativistic speeds. I hope you programmed a stasis pod for her, or she’s gonna be dead when we open it. I didn’t watch enough of the footage to find out.”

“I’m not a total idiot,” Mateo replied. “Yes, she was in stasis for the year.”

“Why did you put her in there?” Leona questioned.

“Well, I couldn’t hide her on the station, could I?” Mateo argued. “She would be found by the time we finished the heist, and the whole plan would fall apart.”

“It wouldn’t have,” she contended. “They could have spent months looking for us, and would never find anything, because we weren’t in the timestream anymore. A year later, we would have come back, but they would not have expected anything. Their guard would be lowered.”

“Not true. She knows who we are. She knows that we are Team Matic. She’s really smart, you’d like her.”

“Well, I didn’t know that she would figure that part out.”

“I think you meant to say, thank you, husband. You made the right call.”

Leona rolled her eyes, and walked past him to punch in the code for the blast doors. The guard was sitting on her bunk, leaning against the wall behind her, and staring at the one in front of her. “Report.”

“May 21, 2442,” Leona answered. How are you feeling?”

“Physically fine, socially unstimulated, emotionally scattered, and psychologically disturbed. How are you?”

Leona took a couple beats. “I’m fine.”

“Great,” the guard sarcasticated.

“I’m sorry this happened to you. This was not our intention. We didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I don’t think I’ll ever convince you that Oaksent is not the savior that you’ve been indoctrinated to believe him to be. I could try to tell you my side of the story, like how he destroyed a gas giant from light years away just so he could kill everyone living on the moon orbiting it, but I’m sure you would just argue that they were heathens who deserved it. I could show you footage from the world that kept people as slaves, or the one whose only purpose it is to suffer countless attacks from the military outpost. I could show you the numbers from Ex-811, where all food is grown and raised, which proves that resources are being distributed unfairly, and according to Bronach’s own personal whims. He starves people on purpose to keep them dependent on him. But none of this is going to resonate with you, because he’s taught you that he knows the way, and there is no other. There are, of course; many other ways, but you’ll never see them, because they don’t match your impression of reality as he has forced you to trust without question.”

“Prove it,” the guard spit.

“I’ll try,” Leona agreed. “I’ll get you a tablet with a copy of the central archives, so you can start learning what he’s been lying to you about. But first, what’s your name?”

“Korali.”

“It was nice to meet you, Korali.”

“Was it?”

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: May 18, 2439

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It took a little time, but Olimpia managed to find where Vitalie!811’s stasis pod was buried. It wasn’t hard to convince her to play the role of a new executive hire for this world. Before she started sending her alternate selves to all the inhabited planets in the universe, she underwent extensive training to learn how to blend in with any culture. She could become whatever type of person she needed to be to complete the mission, like a foreign spy on Earth. She even knew how to make disguises to keep from blowing her cover, which was good, because no one on the team knew how to give their illusion powers to others through new temporal objects. It was a thing, they knew this much, but it was a skill that they would have to learn later, and find someone to practice on.

In the meantime, Ramses figured out how to reverse engineer the comms discs, so they could give one to Vitalie!811. They were probably going to keep doing this on each world. The network was as complex as any, and far more secure. The various Vitalies could stay in contact with each other too if they wanted, leaving the team out of it altogether. If they met other people in the future who could be trusted, they could join the network as well. They would have to be kept separate, though. Members of the team should always be able to tap into their respective conversations, without these hypothetical people being able to do it to the team. The team network, the Vitalie network, and the trusted outsider network: same same, but different. Ramses would have to work on that, along with the million other projects he had on his plate right now.

Today, they were on a break. The nearest system to Ex-811 was nearly two light years away, which meant their relativistic ship had not yet arrived. They were just flying through space, with not much to do yet. It was going to be a bottle episode.

“That’s not true,” Angela contended. “We know where we’re going; we know what’s there, so let’s prepare for it. Let’s make a real plan for once.”

“Or we could stop,” Marie countered.

“If we were to stop,” Angela replied, “we would still have time to do what I said, because we’re still in the middle of nowhere.”

“There’s something else that needs to be done,” Marie insisted, which we may be able to assist with. Leona?”

Leona was preoccupied with something, and not paying them any attention. “Huh? What’s that?”

“What was that thing we were talking about this morning, which needed to be fixed, but we can’t do it while we’re at fractional speeds?” Marie pressed.

“Oh, the reframe engine, yeah, it’s cracked.” Leona held up her tablet, but didn’t bother showing them the screen. “I’m running simulations on it now.”

“So maybe we can stop and do that?” Marie suggested.

“Oh, no, not here,” Leona clarified. “No, we don’t have what we need. Besides, that’s not what requires being at drifting speeds or lower. The testing is what demands it, but we can’t test it unless we seal that crack, or just replace the whole engine.”

“Can we replace the engine?” Olimpia questioned. “Do they have one here?”

Leona did the Indian head bobble. “They have reframe tech, yes. Do they have one that specifically fits the Vellani Ambassador? I sure as hell hope not, because I don’t want them to know anything about it. It would just be easier to fabricate it if we had access to parts and equipment that’s used to make them.”

“Where can we find that?” Marie asked. “The dockyard, Ex-741 was destroyed.”

“Well, we know that they build some ships on Ex-182 too, according to Vitalie!324’s intel, as well as the rebels on Ex-666. In fact, we believe that some more advanced tech is kept there, since it’s so heavily protected. We specifically avoided it because it’s probably the absolute most dangerous one, and we decided that Niobe and the Ex-666ers would be responsible for it. If we wanted to go there instead, it would be a pretty long detour. We kind of sidestepped it.”

“No, I don’t think we should do that,” Olimpia reasoned. “You’re right, that sounds entirely too dangerous to so much as approach, even with my ability to turn invisible.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Angela decided. “We’re already on our way to Ex-467. That should be all we’re thinking about right now.”

“What’s there to think about?” Marie poses. “It’s a warehouse that holds secrets.” She threw up airquotes. “The person from there who Vitalie!324 spoke to barely told her anything about it. He either doesn’t know, or didn’t wanna say. There’s no way for us to prepare for that. All we can do is wait until we get there to see what’s what.”

“I think we’re going to have to break into it,” Angela posited. “Between the six of us, we have lots of experience breaking in and out of places, so let’s formulate some strategies ahead of time. They probably have one of those teleportation dampening field things, or whatever they were called. We need to be prepared for that. How does this ship do with surface landings? Do we have a shuttle? Escape pods?”

“We know all the answers to these things,” Leona said.

“Great,” Angela retorted. “Who’s we? You and Ramses? I’m saying that we all need to talk about it, so everyone understands what we have at our disposal. If we’re about to do a heist, I want to be as prepared as possible, so when we finally do get there, we’ll already know what tools are in our toolbag.”

“Okay, okay, okay. That’s fair,” Leona recognized. “And you’re right that it’s more pressing. I’ll stop what I’m doing, and give you the grand tour. We probably should have been more focused on that before, we just had so much going on. Once we’ve done that, we can talk about the techniques we have to get in and out of places. We can’t rest on our laurels with our special powers, because they may not work everywhere, especially not in a place that’s designed to be off-limits.”

“Let’s start with the reframe engine,” Marie recommended.

And so Leona started to show the majority of the team around, including a disgruntled Mateo, who was desperately trying to practice his illusion skills. He never thought he would be as good as any of the others, but he needed to be good enough to fool an enemy. Ramses wasn’t there, of course, because he already knew all of this stuff, and he had plenty of work to do in his lab. They spent hours on this, but it wasn’t boring for most. Leona was so articulate and informative with her lessons, it was as if she had known that this would be requested, and had rehearsed it. But that was a sign of being a true authority on something. She knew it so well, talking about it was an effortless task.

She went over the basic specifications of this reframe engine, which was more fuel efficient than any they had used until now. She also explained why it couldn’t be used, even though the crack running down the side was almost imperceptible to the human eye. She showed them the multipurpose pods, which could be used for stasis, virtual reality uplink, emergency escape, or even just sleeping. She took them to the bridge, where there were hidden compartments that Mirage had to give them access to. There were a few weapons here, but the vessel itself was not armed for space combat. Nor did anyone ever want it to be. As decided, that was the Ex-666 rebellion’s job. They had come full circle now, back to the Delegation Hall. This was modular, able to be modified to different sizes and configurations, but at full size, it took up the majority of the space on the vessel. After all, that was why it was called the Vellani Ambassador in the first place. This was all part of a larger vessel. Mirage thought that it had the potential to be used for diplomatic discussions and heated arguments between warring parties, and she wanted to be able to have it separate from everything else. The Mediator Stateroom was the only one fit for personal living here, designated for a peacemaker to be able to separate themselves from the factions while remaining close by. The team still needed the dimensional generator for their own living quarters, affixed to a door what was otherwise a storage closet.

“You may have noticed that we can walk all the way through on either side of this room, as well as above and below. It’s in the exact center of the Ambassador, and there are no viewports. This was done for strategic reasons as much as for symmetry, in order to protect parties from an external attack from one side or the other. These windows you see here are not real, but displaying the feed from exterior cameras. They can just as easily be changed to display an ocean view...” She hit a button on the remote to prove it. “...or a TV show, if you wanted.” She hit another button to reveal an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which was famous for its many, many diplomatic storylines. “So if you’re bored, you—”

Before Leona could finish her sentence, four people appeared out of nowhere. She recognized them, as did Mateo, but Angela, Marie, and Olimpia did not. It was Goswin Montagne, Holly ‘Weaver’ Blue, Eight Point Seven, and Briar de Vries. The last time they saw this group, an older roster of Team Matic was leaving Thālith al Naʽāmāt Bida in the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the same time that these four were going in the opposite direction in the X González. Goswin held his hands up, almost defensively, but more so confusedly. “What year is it? I mean...report! I keep forgetting to say report!”

“It’s 2439,” Leona replied. “May 18,” she added.

“How the hell is that man alive?” Briar asked accusingly, pointing at Mateo.

“Don’t worry about it,” Mateo replied. Briar was the one who killed Mateo the first time. Well, technically Horace Reaver killed Mateo in a completely different timeline, but that didn’t count, because any number of others could have done it in any other of the infinite timelines that came before, of which they were not cognizant.

Briar’s volume increased by the syllable. “No, I am going to worry about it, because if you’re alive, then that means I didn’t kill you, which means I’m exonerated!”

“I suppose that’s true,” Mateo admitted.

Briar was fuming now, back to a lowered volume, but still intensely threatening. “Oh my God, you have been alive this entire time? You understand how they have been treating me? You need to tell them to leave me alone. I don’t have to power The Nucleus anymore. I don’t have to stop the Reality Wars, because I don’t care! I am free! I’m free!” He paused for half a moment. “And I’m out of here!”

“No, wait!” Goswin cried, but it was too late. All four of them disappeared just as quickly as they had arrived.

Leona winced. “That was weird.”

“Hold on,” Marie said, looking around fearfully. “Where’s my sister?” She was right. Angela was gone too now.

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