Microstory 2492: Mythodome

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This is a very complex dome, and it’s due to the interconnectedness of world mythology. As I’m sure you’re aware, Earth is home to many a myth, which people once believed, or at least found value in the stories that described them. Since there have been so many cultures in our history, these myths often contradict each other. Lots of them, for instance, came up with a god of the sun, but they could never all be true. That’s where this dome takes liberties, because they are all “true” insomuch as they coexist here. There are indeed multiple sun gods, and they operate as a sort of council. Don’t ask me what they do, though, because as I’m sure you’re also aware, this is all made up. In real life, God doesn’t exist, elves don’t exist, trolls don’t exist. This is an immersive world where such creatures and beings have been engineered out of the specifications presented in the various source materials. It can be hard to track. Some myths even contradict themselves, as told by different authors, and diverging translations. So, Mythodome does its best, but the interesting result—which I’ve been trying to drive at this whole time—is that it is more than the sum of its parts. It has spawned a new mythology, which includes that sun-god council I mentioned, and various factional alliances that never existed in the original stories, because they weren’t culturally related. Part of the experience is learning the new story that has come out of this, which could have hypothetically been its own franchise in traditional media, if someone had thought to be quite this comprehensive before. There are different kinds of elves, for instance, because there have been different interpretations in the stories, and these elves are aware of each other, and have developed complicated relationships with each other naturally. That’s my understanding anyway, which is that their dynamics have taken on a life of their own to form this fresh society, and I think they were doing it before any Earthans came to visit. That alone is interesting enough, not just that these mythical creatures can be genetically engineered, but that we end up with unpredictable consequences as a result of so many variables. I’m rambling now, but suffice it to say that it would not be difficult to spend years here. You could even spend an entire lifetime, making your own way, and finding your purpose. Because very little about this place was prewritten. It’s all been developing on its own, and who knows where it will take us next?

Microstory 2201: Understanding of the Data

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I came back into the office today. Actually, I got in really early, before the sun came up, but I just watched a nature show on the gargantuan TV until it was time to “clock in”. What happened was I woke up at the end of a cycle, and couldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t find myself drifting away during the day, though, so I think it will be okay. Sometimes, fighting insomnia is worse, and it’s best just to accept what your body is trying to tell you, even if you’re better at math, and you know that it’s wrong. I won’t be making a habit of it. After everyone else came in, we put a meeting on the books. My Data Analyst wanted to put the finishing touches on his presentation. He gave us his initial findings. He now understands how jail guests are currently scheduled, and as we suspected, it really doesn’t have anything to do with group dynamics. There is so much data, and so many variables to deal with, this is going to be a difficult task, but I know that my people are up to it. The majority of the rest of the team will begin next week. They’ll be spending time on their training, and getting to know each other, so it won’t be until about mid-August before we start making progress, but that progress will happen. The presentation was interactive, with the other team members asking questions, and already contributing to the understanding of the data. He actually rewrote some of the slides while we were all there together. Right now, I’m consolidating and organizing the information that I’ve received in my brain, and thinking about ways that we can tackle this issue in the future, and I’ll continue to do that after I fall asleep tonight.

Microstory 2197: What Needs to Change

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My new Data Analyst started today. One could argue that his is the most important job of all. Of course, this will be a group effort, and everyone’s contribution will be valued and vital, but they are all already working in their respective fields. The lawyers have been lawyering, and the counselors have been counseling. The Data Analyst has worked a few jobs in his industry, but never anything like this before. The whole point of this project is to figure out how to organize the jail guests according to a set of psychological and social variables which we have yet to figure out. Without him, this would be nothing. The lawyers would still be working with their clients to provide them with the best defense possible, while the therapists would be helping them work through their psychoemotional issues. In order to make change, we have to do something that no one else is doing, at least not at scale. We don’t want there to be a fight between two cellmates, for instance, and have the warden be forced to separate them after the fact. We want to prevent the fight from occurring in the first place, and the Analyst will be coming to the conclusions for how we could make that happen, using the parameters that the collective comes up with over the course of our work. As the others did yesterday, the Analyst went on a tour of the facility, but I ran it this time, because I now know enough about this place to do it, for my people anyway. He met some of the guests too, and it turned out that he already knew one of them from way back, which was a funny coincidence. He was anxious to get to work, and I decided to let him. He obviously thrives on data, so in order for him to understand what needs to change, he first needs to see how things are right now. There are plenty of files for him to scour in these early days. I’m excited to hear his initial thoughts, which he promises to have by the end of the week. No rush, though. The rest of our team won’t be starting for another couple of weeks anyway. This is a long-term endeavor, not a race.

Exemption Act: The Constant Variable (Part VII)

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Freya separated herself from Diamond Zek and Kivi, and stepped away to pace the room. The both waited for her patiently, while she figured out what she wanted to say. She didn’t want to be mean, but she had to get answers. “Who are you?”

“My name is Kivi Bristol.”

“What are you?”

“I am a chosen one, having been created by an unknown chooser.”

“Why do you seem familiar, but I also get the feeling that we’ve never met?”

“I am bound by a phenomenon called spontaneous quantum reemergence. I come into existence at seemingly random points in spacetime, and disappear just as quickly. Sometimes the people around me are aware of it, and sometimes not. Sometimes I am aware of it, and sometimes I’m not. It’s unclear whether there are multiple versions of me running around the timeline, or if I am one person, being shunted throughout the timeline in a nonlinear order. Someone once called me the constant variable.”

“I have memories of you being a part of this team for two years,” Freya argued.

“Do you, though?”

“Well, yeah, because you...”

Kivi smiled. “My ability does sometimes fabricate memories, but most of the time, it just forces your brain into ignoring the fact that you don’t have memories. I actually didn’t join the team until shortly before we launched.”

“Are you good, or bad?”

“Good. That’s one thing that’s consistent about me. I’m always good.”

“How do we know?”

“Zek is immune to the psychic intrusion.” She held up the diamond a little. “But I am not immune to hers. She would know.”

“Give her to me.” Freya took Diamond Zek from Kivi. She didn’t need to hold her to have a private conversation, but this made it easier to be sure Kivi wasn’t somehow listening in. Is she telling the truth?

She is, Zek confirmed.

Would you know if she weren’t?

I believe so.

Can we trust her?

Can we trust Khuweka, and Landis? Can you trust me?

I would like to think so.

Then that settles it, Zek decided. We will trust Kivi as much as we have anyone else on the team. Do not tell the others what we know. We need to be able to work together, and as far as they are aware, they’ve been learning to do that with Kivi for the past two years. Revealing the truth would undermine the mission.

“Well, we wouldn’t want that,” Freya said out loud.

No, we would not.

Freya handed Diamond Zek back to Kivi. “Like I did, people will start to notice that you’re not capable of communing with Zek without physical contact. I suggest you speed up the psychic bond as much as possible.”

“Very well,” Kivi said graciously. “Thank you.”

Freya took a moment. “What, do you suppose, you’re here for? What are your skills?”

Kivi cleared her throat.

“Be honest,” Freya said, growing suspicious again.

“I’m a lawyer.”

“What?”

“I’ve practiced law on multiple planets,” Kivi answered, worried how she would be received. “I’m not an engineer, or a fighter, or anything else you would expect to find on a battleship.”

“Have you practiced on an alternate future version of Worlon?”

“If I have, I have no memory of it,” Kivi said. “I doubt it, though. They sound pretty universally spiteful of humans.”

“Perhaps you argued against them.” Freya really was trying.

“They would have to have gone up against a pretty formidable enemy for it to lead to nonviolent legal proceedings, rather than some kind of deadly conflict.”

“True.”

“I may have one trick up my sleeve, though.”

“Oh?” Freya was interested.

“I’m romantically linked to Lincoln Rutherford. I don’t have a way to contact him from where I sit, but...that’s something?”

“It certainly is,” Freya agreed. “He knows literally everything, which means he knows where you are right now, which means he could send help if we need it. You may be our backup.”

“So are we cool?” Kivi asked.

“We’re okay...for now.”

A month and a half later, they were finally approaching their destination. It was Freya’s job at this point to read off the specifications for the planet, so everyone knew what they were getting into. A project called Topdown decades ago sent giant telescopes into the intergalactic voids, so they could take measurements of the entire galaxy, but there were some details that were best left to upclose sensors. “It scores a point-nine-two-one on the Terrestrial Habitability Similarity Index, which may sound great, but ninety-five percent is the bare minimum that Operation Starseed will accept when deciding which worlds to plant life on, and which to ignore. Oxygen saturation is one-point-eight times as it is on Earth. I’m not sure if that’s why Ochivari are related to dragonflies, or what, but it certainly tracks. Surface gravity is one-point-four-gee, so we’re all fat now.”

“Signs of intelligent life?” Khuweka posed.

“None that the ship can detect,” Freya responded.

“Mr. Genovese, have you been able to locate a seed plate, or an interstellar ship?”

“Working...” Carbrey said.

“Which are we expecting?” Andraste asked.

“Once he hacks into Project Stargate, we’ll know,” Khuweka explained. “Each plate is responsible for establishing a presence in seven to twenty-eight star systems. There’s no way to know whether Worlon will get the plate, or a ship that the plate builds somewhere else. If it’s a secondary ship, it won’t be here for awhile. Arrival dates are estimates.”

Carbrey nodded his head. “I’m in the system. An automated interstellar probe is scheduled to arrive here in six years.”

“What do we do until then?” Eliana asked.

“We’re not waiting until it shows up,” Khuweka said. “We’re going to meet it head on, and destroy it. Then we’ll take it’s job, and start sending measurements back to Earth ourselves, but they’ll be false.”

“Do we really want to do that?” Diamond Zek asked. “Shouldn’t we just destroy the probe, and keep away from this planet?”

“We need to stop Operation Starseed from coming here with human DNA samples. If we don’t falsify the data, the system will eventually send those samples, whether they come from the nearest seed plate, or the next nearest. This is prime real estate. If we don’t do something to make it think this world is worthless, they’ll just keep sending backups. This whole project is destined to last tens of thousands of years. They’re patient enough to deal with failures, and fully prepared to correct them. Even if that takes thousands of years, they’re still well within their deadline.

“Furthermore, seed plates are the things they built on Gatewood, and dispatched with the gargantuan modular carrier at the start of the project. They’re powered by microfusion reactors, which are incredibly small, and only designed for short bursts of momentum, and maneuverability. A plate only exists to drop down on one orbital or satellite in one solar system. The branching network probe ships, however, are part of the inventory that this seed plate will make once it lands, using the raw material that it finds there. They can be much larger, and thusly support larger reactors. They can afford to spend power on other things, like long-range sensors, and a constant data connection with Earth and Gatewood. If we let that thing get close enough to Worlon to codify its habitability, all will be lost. We have to intercept it.”

Throughout Khuweka’s explanation, Carbrey kept working on the computer. He already understood all of this and knew that he needed to plot an intercept course. According to Freya’s education, finding something in the middle of interstellar space wasn’t as easy to do as fictional representations made it seem. On TV, they just pulled up a screen, and barring any invisibility cloak, every single object within a sufficient range would just be automatically visible. Still, it wasn’t impossible to find something either. Like Khuweka said, the probe was constantly sending data back to the stellar neighborhood, including its own location, relative to nearby celestial objects. He just needed to access that datastream. “I got it.”

“How far away is it?” Khuweka asked

“Roughly six light years. It’s going at maximum relativistic.”

Khuweka just looked over at Eliana.

“She doesn’t need to,” Freya said.

“No, she doesn’t,” Diamond Zek agreed. “We’ve been working on something.” Without even touching them, she was able to teleport everyone to the booster room. They weren’t aware she could do this, but they weren’t shocked either. Her power was growing every week. She would probably reach a limit at some point, and never become a god, or anything, but the light year limit was a thing of the past. “Simulations suggest that I’m up to a parsec,” she announced proudly. “Freya?”

Freya took Diamond Zek from Andraste’s arms, and took her to the back of the booster seat. There, she had engineered a special case for her to be locked in. It connected her to the platform, and kept her secure. Only the eight people in this room would be capable of removing her from her spot, but there wouldn’t likely be much reason to do so anymore. The case also integrated Zek’s consciousness with the ship’s systems, effectively making her the ship itself. Everything was working. All that needed to happen now was a consensus that she be allowed to do this, and a test of the new FTL jump limitation.

They all looked to Khuweka, who looked back at them. “Her superconscious crystalline carbonaceous substrate, her choice.”

Limerick watched as Freya locked Diamond Zek into her new home. “On my world, we have these things called wedding rings. They look like that.”

“Hmm,” Freya noted. “The ring here exists to concentrate Zek’s temporal energy. It does kind of look like a giant wedding ring, though, doesn’t it?”

“Mr. Genovese,” Khuweka said simply, once Zek was fully in place.

Carbrey started tapping on his tablet. “Plotting a lateral course. We’ll still be six light years from the probe, but a parsec from Worlon.”

The engines started up, made their connection with Diamond Zek, and jumped away. Carbrey was notably less panicky than he was the last time. He patiently waited for his tablet to calculate their location. They were exactly where they wanted to be.

Diamond Zek was quite pleased with herself. “I could have gone farther. I probably could have gone twice as far.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Khuweka told her. “For now, a parsec will suffice.” She looked at Freya and Carbrey. “The three of you need to work out how we’re going to do this. I know you already have a plan in mind?”

“Yes.” Freya nodded. “With a precision jump, we can essentially surround the probe, and match its speed. If all goes well, it should be hovering inside a quantum Faraday cage, where it can no longer send a signal back to Earth.”

“Well, actually,” Carbrey began to correct, “it will send its signal, but will do so about five million years in the past. With no quantum receiver on the other end, it will just...disappear.”

“Very well,” Khuweka said. “If you’re sure this will work, make the necessary preparations, thank you.”

Freya and Carbrey did make the necessary preparations, while the other six members of the crew went off to do their own thing. They started building the quantum Faraday cage when they arrived in the Worlon system, but before it could be used, they needed to make sure it was completely ready. There was no room for error here. To that end, they also needed to work out the calculations. The probe ship was traveling towards Worlon at 0.999999c, which was the fastest possible without time powers. The Cormanu was fully capable of reaching this velocity, and in fact would need to already be there when they made their jump. The probe ship would basically suddenly appear inside the Cormanu, and once it did, they would be able to disable it manually, but getting to that point would take a lot of finesse. And extremely high level math.

Within the day, they felt they were ready, and prepared for any eventuality, so it was time to just go for it. Zek first made a jump to about 50,000 astronomical units away from the probe, just to make the final jump easier on her. That was well outside of the probe’s known sensor range for an object of the Cormanu’s mass. They accelerated themselves to max relativistic speed. Early vessels needed time to accelerate, and just as much time to decelerate, but even the humans managed to conceive a workaround that allowed them to reach target velocities almost instantly without turning passengers into mush against the back wall.

The two of them chose to stand just outside the cage when it happened, so they could watch it. They built it a lot larger than they needed to, so there should be no danger from this distance. When Carbrey had just activated the final step for the jump, Limerick walked into the shuttle bay, wanting to see it as well.

“Lim, get over here! It’s dangerous on that side.”

“What?”

Freya ran over to retrieve him. Their calculations were right, but there was always a chance they were off by a meter or two. The probe could theoretically end up on the wrong side of the cage. The signal would still be blocked for long enough to allow them to fix the error, but you wouldn’t want to be standing there when it happened.

“Jumping away,” Zek announced.

“No!”

Something turned out to be massively wrong with their calculations, or something. Freya didn’t have time to form a hypothesis. She and Limerick were being pressed up against the cage. The probe was nowhere to be seen, and the fence was threatening to buckle under the pressure. They couldn’t get off, but perhaps that was the only thing keeping them from being sucked out into the interstellar void. The fence gave way, and sent them hurtling towards the back. The fence on the other side held for a moment, but it too would lose hold.

She fell forward, and landed on her face. On the ground. She was on land. Somehow. In a breathable atmosphere. Limerick was next to her, recovering from his own tumble. What the hell just happened?

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Source Variant: Dandavo Dali Dali (Part II)

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Right now, Saga!Three is on vacation for an indefinite amount of time. Also right now—but in a different universe entirely—Vearden!Two is trying to heal from his injuries. Like his alternate reality counterpart, Vearden was operating The Crossover, but from the machine’s perspective, at a much earlier time. After some crazy adventures, he recently found himself in a universe called the Composite, fighting against a magnetokinetic named Arkan. He was badly hurt, and a teleporter named Zektene attempted to take him to a hospital, but they weren’t able to stay there long. What they didn’t realize was that one of their other enemies, Cain possessed a powerful object capable of blasting them across the multiverse. They weren’t anywhere near him when he set off this device, but that didn’t matter. They were both unwillingly pulled from the hospital, and delivered back to Vearden’s home universe. Fortunately for him, Saga!Three is an experienced medical professional.

She’s just spent the last however many years of her life as Doctor Baxter Sarka’s nurse. He’s a salmon, dispatched by the powers that be to treat other salmon throughout time and space. While she had no obligation to help, she chose to do so, because she felt like it was her personal calling. She’s grateful for the field education she received along the way, because now she needs it more than ever, because she’s the closest thing to a doctor Vearden!Two has at the moment. She starts working right away. None of them has any clue where they are, but there are plenty of medical supplies nearby. She starts barking orders at Zektene, who retrieves exactly what she asks for without question, and helps to the best of her ability. Fifteen minutes later, Saga!Three has done about as much as she can do for him.

“This is Vearden Haywood?” Saga!Three asks.

“Yes, have you heard of him?” Zektene answers and asks.

Saga!Three looks back at him. He’s barely conscious. “We were friends...in another life.”

Zektene doesn’t understand.

“Or so they tell me. I have no recollection of it. It was in a different timeline.”

Now Zektene understands. “Where are we?”

“It looks like some kind of laboratory, though everything is really big. Look at this table. I would need a high-chair to sit here.”

“Yeah, this looks very alien to me. All these objects are somehow both recognizable, but still familiar. Are we in a different universe?”

Saga!Three doesn’t know what she means by that. “Do you mean reality?”

“No.”

Vearden!Two clears his throat, and tries to move.

Saga!Three rushes back over, and holds him in place. “Lie still.”

“I’m home,” Vearden!Two notes. He can barely open his eyes, but he can see enough to know that his best friend, Saga is here. “How did I get home?”

“I don’t know,” Zektene tries to explain. “One minute, I’m teleporting you to a hospital. The next, I see an explosion of colors, and then we’re just suddenly here.”

“I don’t think I can get you back,” Vearden!Two laments. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Zektene says. “I didn’t have anyone back there. I was a girl out of my own time anyway.”

After Saga!Three makes sure that Vearden!Two can start healing on his own, she introduces herself to her new friend, and they decide they need to get a good look around. She didn’t come here on purpose either, and that is a mystery waiting to be solved.

While there are tons of instruments and other tools in the lab, there aren’t any actual chemicals or specimens. It’s like this place was created for a specific purpose, but has not been put to use yet. It’s the cleanest room Saga!Three has ever been in before, so either it’s vacuum sealed, or someone is maintaining it for this hypothetical future use. There’s no evidence that anyone else has ever been here before, though. While they’re examining everything, the door on the opposite wall is calling to her, like every answer they could want is just on the other side. Zektene seems to be feeling the same way about it, so they prepare to defend themselves against a mysterious enemy and open it.

They’re in a much, much larger room now. Stasis pods line the walls in two rows, illuminated only by the light from the lab. Zektene feels the wall behind them, and quickly finds the switch. Yeah, it’s even larger than they realized. There could be two hundred pods in here, but upon a closer look, they see that they’re not housing humans. Monster is perhaps the best word to use, even though their instinct for violence is not yet known.

“Gondilak,” Vearden!Two says. “They’re called Gondilak.”

“Vearden,” Saga!Three complains. “You shouldn’t be up.”

“I’m fine,” he argues. “It was getting really uncomfortable in that position. It feels good to move around a bit. I promise not to run any marathons until at least tomorrow,” he jokes.

“How do you know what the aliens are?” Zektene asks. “I feel like I’ve seen them before, but they don’t look quite right, and that word doesn’t seem right either.”

Vearden!Two slowly steps forward, leaning against objects to maintain balance. “I’ve met them before. The first time I traveled through a door, they were there...” he nods his head towards Saga!Three, “attacking the other version of you.”

“So, what are they doing in stasis pods?” Saga!Three asks. “Are we on a ship?”

Vearden!Two shrugs.

“Maybe we could ask this guy?” Zektene has moved over to one of the other pods. As the other two approach, they see that there’s a perfectly normal human inside of it.

“That’s really weird,” Vearden!Two says. “The last time I checked, the Gondilak weren’t capable of space flight, and they weren’t too keen on humans. I guess maybe they wouldn’t have been able to achieve it unless they shed their racist ideas. I wonder where the Orothsew are.”

Zektene moves to the other side of the pod to see the man from another angle. “What are the Orothsew?”

She must have accidentally activated something, because just then, the human’s pod starts making noises. Its interface monitor lights up with a language they don’t know, and the pod starts to open. “Treda Kestolin Hibesof,” says the automated voice from the computer. “Human presence detected,” it appears to translate to English. It’s a little anticlimactic as they watch the man wake up from suspended animation. It’s not like in the movies where they can jump right out and get to work. It’s a long and drawn out process where fluids are reintroduced to his system, and also spilled onto the floor under him. While it’s happening, Saga!Three redresses one of Vearden’s wounds, and Zektene looks around some more to see if she can find a window.

Finally, the man is awake, and aware of his surroundings. When he sees their faces, his eyes tear up, and then he starts crying. “Oh my God, it’s been so long. Are you really here?”

“We are, yes,” Saga!Three says. She places a comforting hand on his. “What is this place?”

The man looks up and down at the other pods. “Oh, they actually went through with it. Why did they put me here?”

“First off,” Vearden!Two says. “What’s your name?

“Ramses,” he answers as he’s struggling out of his pod. “Ramses Abdulrashid. Do you know what year it is?”

They all three shake their heads.

“Ramses,” Saga!Three presses. “What did they go through with? What is this?”

“Dandavo Dali Dali,” he replies cryptically.

“Is that a band, errrr...?”

“It best translates to Project New Beginning.”

“What does that mean?”

“Onda means new and ondali means beginning, so they do this weird reduplication rule when they put them together.”

“I don’t mean, what does it literally mean,” Saga!Three tries to clarify. “I mean, what is the project for?”

“It’s kind of the Maramon version of Project Starseed.”

“What did you just say?” Vearden!Two questions, horrified.

“That’s it!” Zektene exclaims. “They’re not called Gondilak. They’re Maramon! But they look a little different.”

Ramses practically crawls over to get a good look at one of the other pod people. He thinks over what he sees. “So, they were right. They thought this might happen.” He stands up straighter to realign his spine.

“I don’t care about this,” Vearden!Two bemoans. “If these are, like, evolved from the Maramon, then we have to destroy them.”

“I’ve promised to keep them alive,” Ramses contends. He prepares to tell them a story. “If you’ve heard of the Maramon, then you know how bad they are. What you don’t know is that there was one good group amongst them. These dissenting voices were imprisoned by society, but ultimately rescued by me and my friends. They wanted a homeworld of their own, so I helped them go out on a ship and find it. Almost two centuries after arriving on Kolob, the new civilization was getting worried about experiencing the same problem they did in their original universe. You see, they don’t die; or at least, it’s hard to kill them, and they won’t die of age-related diseases. So their population just keeps growing. Back in Ansutah, they came up with some nasty ways of combating the population crisis, but the Kolobians thought of something different.

“They decided to stop having regular children, but they didn’t mean they didn’t have the drive to create life. That life just needed to be different than they were. They needed to be mortal. Unfortunately, some scientists worked on that a long time ago, and couldn’t figure it out. A mortal Maramon just could not be engineered using the resources that were available to them. Fortunately, things were different in this universe, because they had access to so many new resources. They started scouring the nearest stars, looking for a planet that could give them what they needed. If I’m right about where we are, then I think they may have found it. I’ve been in stasis for who knows how long, so I can’t be sure, but these others may be the genesis of a new species. They should be able to carry on the good-natured Maramon tradition, but also be able to die.”

“So, they’re not really Maramon,” Zektene works through. “They just come from them. They probably don’t even know that.”

“Yes,” Ramses confirms. “They’re based on Maramon DNA, but also on whatever they’re feeding them on the planet we’re on right now. The scientists had a term for that. I can’t recall what it was in their language, but I remember the translation. They called it...the source variant.

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Source Variant: Operation Starseed (Part I)

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Right now—if there even is such a thing as a now—Saga is on a mission to find her daughter. Also right now—but a different now—Vearden Haywood is back on his homeworld, having just spent an indeterminate amount of time exploring the bulkverse. Neither of these people is unique. Each one of them possesses an alternate version of themselves. This Saga is from a different timeline, one in which Saga and Vearden are friends who were put in dangerous situations, charged with helping people at different points in time. This Vearden is from the current reality, and has never met any version of Saga, though he has heard of her. They will finally meet each other today, but what does it mean to be in today?

Saga!Two—as she’ll be called, to differentiate her from her recent counterpart—has been listlessly opening doors in this hotel. Her daughter was taken from her by The Emissary, who was working on behalf of the powers that be, who chose Étude to be The Last Savior of Earth. She has no choice in the matter but to teleport all over the world, saving people’s lives, and she won’t be able to see her family until she’s done. Saga!Three could be an old woman at that point, so she’s been trying to skip over all that, and jump forward in time. Unfortunately, her ability to open literal doors to others points in spacetime is less of a power, and more of a game of probability. It sometimes takes her on a mission she had no intention on going on, and sometimes just takes her somewhere random. Most of the time, whenever she opens a door, it just takes her to the other side of it, just like it would for any normal person. This looks promising, though. When she opens the door to room 233, she doesn’t find two beds and a TV. It looks more like a laboratory, full of computers, and equipment she doesn’t recognize. She might think this is some kind of secret temporary spy agency field office, but it’s a hell of a lot larger than it should be. It extends far beyond where the window to the outside should be.

Vearden!Three—as he’ll be called, to differentiate him from his earlier counterpart—is just hanging out. He’s in a hotel room as well, but 164 years in the past, from Saga!Two’s perspective. It happens to also be a room 233. He grew up knowing that he was meant to be a time traveler, and developed an inexplicable drive to go to Kansas City from Oklahoma when he was a teenager. This is where his suspicions were confirmed, at least partially. He met two totally legit men from the future, who were trying to return to their own time. He helped them get back, and then years later, met back up with them to help them again. This was when a special universe-hopping machine called The Crossover showed up. A woman who claimed to be his wife invited him in, and claimed she would introduce him to endless wonder. He took her up on this offer, but it’s been difficult for both of them. He hasn’t felt the love for this woman, Gretchen as she feels for him. She was married to Vearden!Two, and he is not that man. They both agreed to go their separate ways, at least for now, to take a bit of a break. Vearden!Three asked to be dropped off in 2019, because why not? It wasn’t exactly when he was from, but he quite liked it the first time around. He’s just opened the door from the bathroom when he finds himself in some kind of laboratory.

“Hello?” he calls out to the aether. “Gretchen?”

No one answers.

“Gretchen, it’s only been two months for me. I need more time than that.”

Still no answer. As he’s examining his surroundings, another door opens, right next to his, where he can still see his Peruvian hotel room. He instinctively hides behind a table.

“Hello?” Saga!Two asks. “Étude?”

Vearden!Three has heard the name before, so he can guess who this woman here is, and has been told that he would be able to trust her.

“Umm...hi,” he says timidly.

“Vearden?” Saga!Three asks. She hasn’t seen him in many years, since he died, and everything. She instinctively runs over, and wraps her arms around his shoulders.

Again, he’s never met Saga before, but this feels so comfortable. He should pull away so he can explain the truth, but he’s missed true human connection, so he just leans into it.

Saga!Two finally releases him, and takes a half step back. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know where in the timeline you’re from. When was the last time you saw me? Have you been to Tribulation Island yet?” That was where her version of Vearden died.

He shakes his head. “I’m afraid I’m not who you think I am. This is the first time you and I have met. I am from this timeline, not yours.”

Her smile transforms into a frown. “Oh. You’re Vearden!Three.”

“Yeah, that’s what people keep calling me,” he says. “I get who Vearden!Two is, but no one ever explains who Vearden!One would be.”

She nods. “I don’t know him either, or the first version of me. I mean, there have been far more than three realities, but people don’t like to think in such complex terms. I think there were really just two major timelines before this one, and they’ve had the most lasting impact on reality. You’re Vearden!Three. I’m Saga!Two.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

“No, don’t say that. Don’t ever apologize for being you. It’s still really nice to see that face after all this time, and if you’re half as good as he was, I’m honored.”

He smiles. “Thank you. He sounds like a lot to live up to.”

She smiles back. “Do you know where we are?”

“I have no clue,” Vearden!Three replies. He gestures towards the doors. “It’s supposed to be 2019 Cusco for me. You?”

“No idea. I think it’s 2183 Panama, but it’s hard to keep track. I’ve been trying to find my daughter. I don’t imagine this has anything to do with that.”

As they’re watching their doors, they slowly begin to close on their own.

“Should we try to get back through them?” he asks as he’s kind of inching in that direction.

Saga!Two shakes her head. “It wouldn’t work. The powers that be want us here, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. For all we know, it’s good for us. We better just let it go.”

The magical doors close completely, and turn back into regular doors.

Vearden!Three points to an ominous door on the opposite wall. “My instinct is to go through that.”

“Same.”

They carefully walk over to it. Saga!Two grabs a phallic device from a table that’s probably used to test atmospheric composition, or something. Hopefully it’s not an alien probe. She gets in a Jackie Robinson position as Vearden!Three prepares to open the door. She nods when she’s ready.

Stasis pods. That’s their best guess as what these things are. Slanted at forty-five degrees towards their respective walls, they span all the way down to the darkened other half of the giant room. They’re each only large enough to fit a child. Of course, they’re frosted over. Still carefully, they walk over and wipe the frost from one to see inside. Any two other people would have probably jumped back in fear, but this isn’t the first time they’ve seen aliens. This isn’t even the first time Saga has seen this particular kind of alien.

“You know what they are?” Vearden!Three asks.

“Orothsew,” she confirms. “It’s just a child, though.”

Vearden steps over, and clears the frost from another, and then two more. “They look the same. Is this gonna be some kind of horror story, Saga.”

“I don’t know. I’ve encountered them before, probably in the future, but also in a different timeline. They’re not evil, but they’re not saints either.”

Vearden starts messing with the console next to one of the pods. It’s in English, but he doesn’t understand what any of these metrics mean. “Nothing is all pure. Nothing is all dirty,” he says cryptically.

Saga!Two gets back in a defensive position when they hear another door open from the other side of this room. Footsteps approach.

“Hello?” a voice calls out from the dim lighting. “I know you’re in here! The proximity alarm went off! Make yourself known.”

“We can’t see you!” Saga!Two calls back. “Step into the light, then we’ll talk.”

The man gets close enough for them to see his face, and for him to see theirs.

Saga recognizes him as well. “Julius?”

He doesn’t look happy. “Would people stop goddamn calling me that! Saxon! Saxon! I’m Saxon Parker in this reality. I’m sick of meeting people from other realities.”

“Hey,” she says, kind of condescendingly. “I meant no disrespect. I just didn’t know.”

He calms himself down. “I know. It just gets a little tedious after awhile.”

“I can appreciate that,” Saga!Three says truthfully. “Unfortunately, we do have some more questions. Would you be willing to answer them.”

“I can, yes,” Saxon says.

“I’m Saga!Three, and this is Vearden!Two. He’s from your reality, so you have that much in common.”

Saxon is wearing his poker face.

“Could you tell us what year it is?”

“By your calendar?” Saxon begins as he’s consulting his watch. “3300.”

“Holy shit, Vearden!Three can’t help but say. He’s been to a dozen other worlds, but they all had the same start value, which means they all measure time in the same way. He was usually in the 21st century, give or take a couple hundred years. 3300 is the furthest in the future he’s ever been.

“What exactly is this place?” Saga!Two asks. “What are you doing with these Orothsew children?”

He looks inquisitively at one of the pods. “Is that what they’re called?”

“Oh no,” Saga!Two says sadly. “Did I just mess up the future?”

“Probably not,” Saxon assures her. “If you got this information from an alternate timeline, we shouldn’t be at risk of any bootstrap paradoxes. Someone else came up with the name where you’re from, you learned it later, now you’re naming them in this timeline. The future we’re heading for is entirely separate.”

She’s relieved. “Oh good.”

“Anyway,” Saxon begins, “these are the fruits of Operation Starseed. Earth sent giant ships from a star system called Gatewood. As we speak, these ships are breaking apart into smaller and smaller modules, which will be assigned different regions of the galaxy. For most of them, we’ll be taking surveys of every single star system, and building ways to travel there using faster-than-light quantum communication. In others, we’ll be doing something like this. People on Earth donated genetic samples, and allowed them to be placed on the Project Stargate ships. On suitable worlds, we are seeding actual life, which will live and progress there. In this case, I don’t think they’ll be aware of where they came from.”

“Do humans look like this in the future?” Vearden!Three asks, surprised.

“No,” Saxon answers. “They look different, because they were exposed to microscopic organisms from this planet. We didn’t have room to carry food from Earth, so they’re only eating what can be found here. What we didn’t realize was how much an effect that can have on the genes of the subjects. So, they’re part human, but part something new.”

“My God,” Saga!Two says. “This changes everything about my memories of meeting them in an alternate future.”

“Yeah, I predict this sort of thing will continue to happen on other worlds that we try to seed life on. This operation has become exponentially more complex than we thought it would. I’m tentatively calling it...the source variant.

« < » > Entire Story

Microstory 381: Commitment

Click here for a list of every step.
Ambition

I have heard people lament the institution of marriage because they think it goes against biology to stay with one person forever. Uh no, actually, no. That’s not how evolution works, and you should probably zip up your pants and take a seat over here so I can explain to you how to do a science. The whole point of this being human thing is that we are not bound by the same natural laws that govern the behavior of other animals. We get to choose how we live our lives. Some of us live way up high, some by the water; some in wood houses, some in brick houses; some don’t have houses, and some have too much house. We marry who we please based on a literally incalculable number of variables, rather than just if a mate can sing, or has a nice pebble. It’s true that there’s still a lot about us that is animalistic. We won’t be able to transcend that until step 97. But your whole “biology” argument is pure nonsense, and a symptom of your inability to rectify the fact that you’re just not that great of a person. Oh, and it’s a sign of your ignorance. Would you people please allow yourself to be uninformed instead of trying to make claims that are completely baseless? Moving on, commitment is an extremely powerful human trait that no other animal matches. Yes, there are organisms out there who mate for life, but not anywhere close to the same way we do. We hold lavish wedding ceremonies, and go on double dates, and it’s all a lot more complicated than it is for any other species. Committing to one single person is not the only way to live your life, which is actually another trait that no animal shares, as far as I know (I, for one, can admit my ignorance). If you do not want to get married, okay, but don’t piss on my beliefs because you’ve never heard of diversity. I recently attended the long-awaited wedding of two men I’ve known for about a decade and a half. Their commitment is a bond, between them, and to their children. It’s something to strive for; not belittle. I hope for that kind of connection one day.

Self-awareness