Brooke’s Battles: Bootleg (Part III)

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Following the literal annihilation of Orcus, Brooke and the rest of the crew were sent back to Earth to be judged for possible war crimes. After weeks of debate and deliberation, they were all deemed innocent. Their actions were clearly defensive, and there was no evidence any of them knew what kind of weapon the criminal radicals were attempting to use against them. A long time ago, there was a man named Lucius with a unique temporal power called molecular teleportation. He had the ability to target the individual molecules of an object, and transport each one to a different point in time and space. Though his story was not Brooke’s to tell, one thing she understood about him was that he carried deep shame for the things he had done with this power. He had let himself fall into a number of situations that led him to using his power against others. He was a murderer on an apparent path to redemption when he one day disappeared, leaving behind only one clue that suggested he was on some secret mission with a man named Curtis.

Lucius’ power was a well-sought after one. Fortunately, the two main people capable of replicating his ability were not interested in doing so. The Weaver was known for imbuing tools and other objects with temporal properties, but never once created something as destructive as a molecular teleporter. The Warrior, on the other hand, was even more deadly than Lucius. He wielded a special sword that could draw out other people’s powers, and give them to himself. He chose his targets carefully, though, and never showed any indication that he might steal from Lucius. Still, the fact that Lucius was capable of this at all proved that it did not go against the laws of physics. The logic was that if he could do it, then it could be done in some other way. One of the people who believed this to be true was Ulinthra, who managed to commission a dangerous molecular teleportation chamber in the other reality. Holly Blue was partially responsible for this invention, and helped oversee its dismantling once it was used to mercy kill an immortal man who was ready to die in peace. Apparently, though, Ulinthra had gone back on her word, and given the plans for this machine to the group of loyal followers she protected from the timeline shift. They had decided to use these plans to build a bomb, hypothetically intending to test it out on the Sharice Davids, and its crew. Their plan backfired when Holly Blue turned out to have developed a teleportation missile, which she used to send the bomb to Orcus instead.

Once the ordeal was over, Brooke felt compelled to go off, and be away from everyone. She got herself onto a cargo ship on its way to Europa Station. Once there, she stole a minilander to transport to the surface, snuck onto an icebore to dig through the pagosphere, and stowed away on an automated mapping submarine. She placed herself in a sort of standby mode, which was something many people with cybernetic upgrades were capable of doing. Then she just sat there in a stupor, with no real plan for returning to the real world.

A year later, Ecrin was waving her hands, and snapping her fingers, in front of Brooke’s face. “Wake up!”

“Beep,” Brooke said with her voice.

“Come on, all the way out of it. Come back to me.”

“Beep.”

“Too cute. Let’s go.”

“What are you doing? How did you find me? How did you get down here?” Brooke asked.

“I’m trying to recruit you, I found you with magic, and I got down here also with magic.”

“Whose magic?”

“Vitalie’s, for one.” Vitalie was a type of temporal manipulator known as paramounts, because she grew up on a rogue planet that developed its own lexicon. She could astrally project her consciousness anywhere, and visit people without interacting with them physically. “A long-distance teleporter brought me here.”

Brooke looked up to find a man leaning against the wall with crossed arms. He blinked deliberately, but didn’t speak.

“He’s going to get us back to the Sharice too, but he doesn’t have all day, so let’s go,” Ecrin urged.

“I’m not going back there,” Brooke whined.

“Why are you so damaged?” Ecrin asked her. “I’m the one who gave the order to fire the teleporter missile. You didn’t do anything.”

“I could have redirected the missile,” Brooke said. I could have sent that bomb to empty space, where it wouldn’t have hurt anyone.”

“No, you couldn’t have,” Ecrin said, trying to lift Brooke off the floor by herself. “If you had stuck around, you would have learned that. Holly Blue investigated, and learned that the bomb was choranaptyxic.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It means that the bomb was designed to tear something apart. If you had sent it with the missle to empty space, the blast would have expanded in all directions until finding something large enough to destroy, and it wouldn’t have stopped until it reached empty space again. That thing might have obliterated five-sixths of the solar system. This was the only solution.”

“We could have let it destroy the enemy ship,” Brooke shouted. “We could have killed dozens, instead of thousands.”

Ecrin took a breath. “Orcus was a larger target, for which our ship’s systems were already calibrated, since we were planning to enter an orbit. It would have been too difficult to aim for the enemy ship in that short of a time. Holly Blue made a call, and did her best. Had she known wha—”

“I could have done it,” Brooke muttered.

“What?”

“I could have made those calculations in my sleep. Had you let me in on your secret plans, I would have been able to help.”

Ecrin tilted her chin up, but kept her eyes on Brooke. “I made a call too. I’m asking for you to help now. We’ve been looking for the darkburster manufacturer, and we believe we’ve found them, but we need a pilot.”

“If you need a pilot, then you don’t need me, because I’m not a pilot anymore. Find someone else. I was never the only one, and since this doesn’t sound like it has to do with salmon or choosing ones, it’s not my fight.”

“She’s asking for you,” Ecrin said, almost reluctantly.

“Who? Holly Blue?”

Ecrin seemed embarrassed. “Sharice.”

“The ship? What are you talking about? It wasn’t designed with self-awareness.”

“It’s developed a consciousness.”

“That’s not possible.”

“There is precedent.” Ecrin paused for a moment. “Sometimes, when an automated system interfaces with a transhuman, its code can be transformed.”

“You’re telling me this is my fault?”

“It’s not anybody’s fault, because it’s not a bad thing. It’s a rare lifeform, which yes, the system leadership has chosen to keep from the general public, but that doesn’t make it illegal.”

“This never happened on The Warren,” Brooke said, referring to the ship she piloted to that rogue planet where Ecrin lived many years ago. “I spent a lot more time on that.”

“It doesn’t always happen, and the leadership wants to keep it that way. The best way to keep it hush-hush is for you to return to your post. The longer you’re away from her, the more upset she gets, and the more unpredictable she becomes. She thinks of you as her mother.”

Brooke furrowed her brow. “I am nobody’s mother, and that’s a choice I made a long time ago!” She never really got to know her own parents, and the void left in her heart irreparably soured her on the idea of a family she couldn’t pick and choose.

“Brooke, that’s not the point. You have a responsibility to this creature, whether you asked for it or not. She needs you, I need you, and your solar system needs you. Stop pouting, get off the floor, and come with me right now!”

Brooke stood up. “Fine, but I can’t go with him. I’m pristinely ungifted, remember? I can’t be teleported.”

Ecrin reached into her bootleg, and retrieved Brooke’s old necklace. On the end of it was a pendant, inside of which was her umbilical cord. It was a loophole that allowed her to experience nonlinear time, if she wanted to. She normally didn’t want to, but it was often useful, like when Holly Blue activated the emergency ship teleporter. After the destruction of Orcus, had they not been able to escape, the remaining darkstalker ships would have retaliated. Despite the possibility of something like that happening again, Brooke had gotten rid of it shortly after the hearings. “We don’t have time for you to get back to the Sharice like a silly human. Put this on, and let’s get the hell out of here.

The firefight with the darkstalkers left the Sharice Davids with considerable cosmetic and operational damage. The entire outer hull needed to be replaced, but most of the weaponry was not. They were succeeded by an entirely new minimalist array, focusing primarily on defensive and protective solutions. Holly Blue pressed on retrofitting the ship with temporal powers. Its ability to make short range evacuation teleports not exceeding just under thirteen thousand kilometers at a time was fully integrated into its systems, as a response to the integrity loss the vessel experienced during its first jump. Atterberry pods were installed on a new interstellar deck, should the need arise for the crew to travel to other stars. Though regular stasis chambers were invented years ago, an atterberry pod halted time for its occupant, until released, so it required no lasting life support component. The framework for a few Ubiña pockets—which generated artificial dimensions of space—were created for crew recreation, but they were not yet ready for primetime.

All in all, it was a new ship, which was good, because it was operating under the banner of a new organization. Their first mission, though horrific, was considered by the system leadership to be a success, and an interplanetary police agency was formed with the Sharice at the head of its fleet. Only a few humans were aware that the temporal technology the ship utilized ultimately derived from organic sources. Full exposure of these truths could land Brooke, and her friends, in Beaver Haven prison. During repairs, a technocounselor convened with the Sharice’s intelligence on a regular basis to help her assimilate into her new role as an independent being. Though she no longer had no choice but to accept all orders without question, she had a duty to respect the chain of command, just as any other crewmember did. Bringing Brooke back was vital to this effort, since she was the only one Sharice felt she could respect implicitly.

When Brooke and Ecrin arrived back on the Sharice, they were already nearly at the small and unnamed asteroid in the belt that was supposedly housing the only darkburster manufacturer in the solar system. Holly Blue came down to greet them. “Thank God you’re here. She’s threatening to go burst mode on us.”

“Burst mode?” Brooke questioned as she was following Holly Blue to the command center.

“She can’t teleport us farther than the diameter of the Earth, plus the atmosphere—because that’s the standard teleporter limit—unless she uses burst mode. She would basically jump over and over again, until we got all the way back to Earth.”

“How long would that take?” Ecrin asked.

“From here?” Brooke began to answer for Holly Blue. She quickly did the math in her head. “Assuming each jump takes a second, less than seven hours.”

“The time isn’t the problem,” Holly Blue said, opening the door. “The bulkhead would never be able to handle that much stress. We would most likely vaporize within the first hundred jumps.”

“I’m stronger than you think, Aunt Holly,” came a voice from the aether.

“I don’t doubt it, Shari. Still, if we you could adjust our heading to intercept that asteroid, I would be eternally grateful.”

“I’m not going to do that,” Sharice said.

“Your mother’s here,” Ecrin told her.

“You’re lying,” Sharice assumed.

“They’re not,” Brooke said after some hesitation. “This is Brooke Prieto-Matic.”

Where the lights were once a harsh green, they became a calming rose pink. “You came for me!” Sharice said excitedly.

“The lights change with her moods,” Holly Blue explained.

“Doctor Humanbrain didn’t think you would come, but you’ve proved her wrong,” Sharice said.

An unskinned android on wheels rolled over to the group. “That’s not my real name, but she refuses to call me anything else. My brain is indeed entirely organic, while  the rest of me is not.”

Brooke frowned. “Sharice, what did I say about calling people names?”

“You’ve said nothing,” Sharice said. “We’re only now truly meeting.”

“Well, what do you think I would have said about name-calling?”

Silence.

“Sharice...” Brooke pressed, like a mother.

“You probably wouldn’t like it,” Sharice replied begrudgingly.

“Apologize to the counselor.”

“I’m sorry, Doctor Lantos.”

“It’s okay,” the counselor assured her.

“All right,” Brooke said. “Could you please navigate us to the darkburster manufacturing facility?”

“Which one?” Sharice asked.

Ecrin returned the expression of confusion that Brooke was giving her. “Uh...the one in front of us. There’s only one.”

“No there’s not,” Sharice contended. “This place just builds the stealth module heatsinks.”

“What are you talking about?” Ecrin asked. “Where are the rest of the manufacturing facilities?”

“All over the solar system,” Sharice explained.

“Sharice,” Brooke began, “how many separate facilities are there?”

“Four hundred and ninety-one,” Sharice answered.

“Do you know where all of them are?” Ecrin asked her.

“Of course. The stupid humans encrypted the whole thing with—.”

“Sharice?” Brooke stopped her.

“Yes, mother?”

“Would you be able to help us neutralize these installations?”

“Yes.”

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Microstory 955: Bees

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A keystone species is one that is vital to the ecosystem in a way that their absence would gravely impact other species. Beavers are one example of this. In parts where beavers have died out, soil erosion has been caused by a lack of their dams. Certain species of fish have suffered, for they evolved to utilize the slow-moving areas of rivers that these mighty mammals created for them. I even named the prison in my stories Beaver Haven for its analogy to house time travelers, some of which are known as salmon. Bees are also a keystone species, and possibly the most important. Since plants can’t move around, they can’t reproduce the same way animals do. They can’t go out, find mates, and bear offspring. If they want to spread their seeds over distances beyond their immediate area, they rely on others, or other phenomena. Some encapsulate their seeds into a cotton-like structure called a pappus, which floats on the air before landing kilometers away. Others attach themselves to the fur of a creature, which is meant to walk away, and drop it off somewhere else. Yet others choose to attract insects to their flowers, which pick up the pollen like dust, and spread it around as they fly back home to use what they managed to hold onto for their colony’s honey. You eat a lot of the fruits and vegetables that come from these plants, and if you’re more into meat, you still benefit, because the animals you eat are also eating those fruits and vegetables. There are many possible answers to the question of what’s happening to the bees—the most likely culprit being pesticides that prevent these pollinators from navigating back home—but the clear truth is that it’s our fault. So, what can we do? We need bees to spread the agriculture, but we need pesticides to protect it from, well...pests. The solution is—you guessed it—vertical farming. If you bring most of the crops inside to a controlled environment, you can produce a greater volume in a smaller space, and you won’t need pest control, since most bugs don’t know how to open doors. By removing our reliance on bees, we would allow them to restore themselves to sustainable numbers, and get back to the business of supporting the planet as a whole. Bees are so important, and so innocent. Save the bees!

Microstory 954: Stem Cell Research

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As a human being who cares about this world, the people on it, and everything that happens to us, I believe in science. I believe in science that can help make the world a better place, for all living creatures. I possess a spirituality, differentiated from religion by the fact that I absolutely do not let my beliefs get in the way of progress. Organized religion has done some good in the world in the the way of charity and good will, but that doesn’t get them off the hook. Besides the fact that hope for heaven—or fear of hell, as it were—are terrible reasons to do the right thing, their good does not outweigh their bad. All religions are based on the primary sins, even the ones who claim to be virtuous. They’re all about greed, envy, wrath, selfishness, and more. Through these sins comes many of the planet’s woes; war, crime, and even natural disasters (the intensity of these recent hurricanes are the result of climate change, which is undoubtedly being caused by humans). Nearly everything that happens can be traced back to a misguided religious belief that prevents individuals from caring for their fellow man. Stem cell research is a good example of this issue. Now, I’m not saying there’s no such thing as ethics, or that we can do whatever we want as long as it helps us in the end. Problems arise, however, when ignorant people argue against research, or an advancement. The simple fact is that the average person does not know enough about the subject to form a valid opinion. Sure, it sounds bad when a Christian stands on a college campus with pictures of dead babies, claiming that stem cell research is responsible for the horrific images. But that’s not really what happened, and these arguments are not helping anything. I recognize there is a debate as to when exactly human life begins, and can’t realistically give a hard number for this, even though my canon does have an answer. The point of this research is not to stay right where we are with it. Scientists need to understand how this works, so we can engage in a responsible and safe way. That requires study and debate, but only amongst those who know what they’re doing. I’m not one of those people, and most likely, neither of you. Having read the bible cover to cover is not the kind of credentials we’re looking for. Regardless of your circular reasoning, there’s no way to prove the bible was written by God. Just saying it was means nothing to me. Therefore, it holds no more or less merit than any other work of fiction. Stem cells have the potential to save lives, and we can’t dismiss that just because it also has the potential to harm. If we lived by that mentality, we would still be living in caves.

Microstory 953: Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris

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I don’t know everything there is to know about Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris, and do not have time to research them, but I encourage you to do so. As far as politicians go, they’re two of the good ones. They fight for the rights of underprivileged and disenfranchised. They are persistent and unrelenting, and I am grateful that there are still some people in the government that want to actually make things better, instead of going back to the way things were. I have a few people on this list, but there are so many more that aren’t on here. Some individuals belong within a category of people I admire, and though I didn’t just want this to be a list of people I like, I did want to single out a few who stick out the most. To do otherwise would require a level of care and consideration I can’t commit to, since I still have a full-time job. These two deserve recognition for their efforts on the inside of a society that does not want them to succeed. They’ve had to work harder than any man, and prove themselves worthy to a degree no one should be expected to exemplify. As a woman of color, Harris has had to work even harder just to be accepted, and she’s still disregarded by so many. I was so moved by one of the speeches they each respectively gave. Of course, these aren’t the only things these two have said, but they’re the speeches that caused me personally to take notice. We all remember the nevertheless, she persisted meme, which was a classic case of an offense being co-opted by the targets as a point of pride. Yes, Warren persisted, because women have too long been silenced, and that’s exactly what they need to do. They have an intrinsic right to be heard, and anyone who doesn’t agree with that needs to try their own hand at silence. Harris’ outrage at the farce that was the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings was one of the most dazzling interviews I’ve seen. Her poise in the face of such insolence showed just how unfit for the position he really is, and though everyone’s efforts to stop his appointment failed, at least the public has all the facts. Without Harris, and others like her, we would be stuck under the burden of ignorance. I’m impressed by these two ladies, and their contemporaries, and will continue to support them despite the twisted opposition from the libertarian right. I went so far as to name a fictional spaceship in one of my stories The Elizabeth Warren, and I intend to name one after Kamala Harris as soon as the need arises. We need more people like them, and I hope their actions have inspired young political warriors to one day take up the fight for truth, if they haven’t already.

Microstory 952: Systems Thinking

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You might be asking Google right now, what is systems thinking? Well, tab back over here, because I’m going to tell you myself. Throughout the history of problem-solving, people have primarily used a process of analysis in order to understand how something works. What you do when you analyze something is break it down into its constituent parts, and try to figure out how those work. You break it down as as much as possible, until breaking them any further would lead to fractions. For instance, let’s say you’re trying to learn about computer hardware. You would open up the casing, and start removing the parts. You have the hard drive, the memory cards, processor, logic board, etc. A hard drive is made up of the platters, circuits, spindle, etc. The processor is made of God knows what, and so on. Once you understand how each part operates independently, you would theoretically know everything you could about the whole computer. But this isn’t true, is it? Because a memory card isn’t useful unless you can process the information. A hard drive might as well have no data unless you can read it. You won’t be able to change anything about the information without input/output devices, and nothing in a computer matters one lick unless you can interface with it using some kind of monitor. The lesson here is that the entire computer, and how all parts work together, is what gives us the best understanding of the topic. One of the most famous explanations for this comes from a leader in the field of systems thinking named Russell Ackoff. He puts forth the hypothetical of trying to build the absolute best automobile in the world by taking the best individual parts from other vehicles. Maybe this one has the best pistons, and this other the best gas tank. The reality is that this is an impossible endeavor, because those parts wouldn’t fit together, because they were designed to fit in different respective cars.

I’m passionate about systems thinking, because of how interconnected all of my stories are. I’m not just telling all these little stories, and claiming that they take place within the same continuity. I have to understand how each one can impact the others, and the greater mythology. If I decide that Jane Doe from Story Y is the mother of John Smith from Story X—which I wrote first—then I have to remember that Jane Doe can’t die in her story, until she’s birthed her son. If in Story Z, I decide I want John Smith to have a younger brother named James, then I won’t be able to do it, unless I decide James was adopted, or John’s half brother. I spent years not releasing a single word from any of my stories so that I could build my world. I know how astral travel works, and where the astral planes come from. I know why the subspecies known as anomalies took longer to evolve than the ambers, and I know how it’s possible for someone to be born as both. I have a list of galaxies, their stars, and the planets revolving around them. I have a timeline that starts at the beginning of time, and ends at the end of it. Whenever I come up with something knew, I have to find a way to fit it into the preexisting mythos, and if that’s not possible, then I have to create a separate universe to allow its existence, or simply scrap the project. There is a place for analysis, but systems thinking is an overall superior technique for learning something. The best leaders have a working comprehension of their whole domain, which is what we need right now. If you want that too, then come these next two elections, #votethemout.

Microstory 951: Bloopers

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Oopsy Daisy!

Bloopers. I love them because they’re funny, of course, but also because they show that the actors are real people enjoying their jobs. There was a time when bloopers were included in the extras section of a DVD, but now that we’re not watching films like that anymore, it’s kind of a dying art. They can put them up on YouTube, but then you have to think about seeking them out. Some films put them during the rolling credits, but I don’t think that’s done enough either. During my research for this tiny story that’s mostly just a waste of your time—which was not as fascinating as it sounds—I learned that some actors have refused to allow their outtakes to be released to the public. Perhaps the most famous example of this is from Leonard Nimoy, who didn’t appreciate his mistakes being shown at Star Trek conventions. I don’t love hearing that from someone I admire. Mistakes make us human, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. I think, in general, people need to lighten up about those kinds of things in general. I would much rather you screw something up accidentally than do something really well, but never learn anything from it. I went over this sort of thing in my entry about constructive criticism, which was better written, so you should go read that one instead. Consider this one here to be part of my blooper reel.

The Advancement of Leona Matic: September 24, 2201

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Shuhana Shenare, a.k.a. The Shepherd was not as easy to find as Kivi thought it would be, but she managed to do it. Shuhana obviously knew Leona would want to speak with her, but apparently wanted to make it a challenge. Fortunately, it was one that Leona didn’t have to worry about. When she woke up a year later, Shuhana was there, waiting to answer her questions.

“What are you?” Leona asked.

“What are you?” Shuhana sent back.

“I’m salmon.”

Shuhana shrugged marginally. “Sort of.”

“Are you gonna answer me?” Leona went on.

“I think you already know, based on what you’ve heard about me.”

“You’re Maramon,” Leona guessed.

“Yes, but don’t be alarmed. I’m one of the good ones.”

“Why does it seem like there are so few good ones?”

“We all started off as equals. Everyone was immortal, everyone was provided for, E-T-C. Then our population started giving us problems, and people had to make sacrifices. A few of us, however, never made those sacrifices, because we were...essential personnel. We were the elite, so as our brethren suffered and died, growing angrier by the day, we did fine.”

“That doesn’t sound very fair,” Vitalie pointed out.

“It wasn’t,” Shuhana agreed. “That’s why we built the machine. We were looking for more space and resources, so we could go back to the way we were. Unfortunately, that led to more complications, and the angry ones just got angrier.”

Leona continued for her, “and you kept the machine for yourself, and never went back for them.”

“It might not have been the right call,” Shuhana said, “but I stand by it. Had I continued with the initial mission, things might have finally evened out. Or, nothing would get better, but now I’ve infected other universes with the Maramon scourge. Rock and a hard place.”

“Why did you pretend to be my friend?” Kivi asked her.

“I wasn’t pretending. We’re friends.”

“But you were using me,” Kivi said. “Are you even a real shepherd?”

“Kivi, every Kivi has made her way to her friends sooner rather than later, but you were different. You were born in the center circle. You were trapped. Even on your walkabout, there was no way you would make it to where you belonged. I wasn’t using you, I was helping you. Yes, I wanted Leona to have the Compass of Disturbance, but I could have easily just given it to her myself, and convincing her I could be trusted would have been no more difficult than it is now.”

“Why do you want me to have it?” Leona asked.

“You’ll need it for your quest.”

The obvious response to this was to ask what quest she was talking about, but no one wanted to give her the satisfaction. She just needed to explain herself on her own.

“Leona, I know you’ve been remembering Mateo.”

“Bits here and there,” Leona admitted. “Fragments of memories, really. I can’t even make out his face.”

Shuhana nodded. “It’ll come back faster and faster, and the rest will return to you once he does.”

“That’s the quest,” Vitalie figured. “You’re sending the three of us off to find him.”

“Four,” Shuhana corrected.

“You’re coming with us?” Kivi asked.

“No, what Vitalie said was just good timing.”

“Good timing fo—”

Shuhana interrupted, “three, two, one.”

An explosion sent something flying towards Shuhana, who caught it in her arms with no problem. Leona realized it was a person she had just caught, and then realized this person was none other than Hogarth Pudeyo...uhh, whatever; Hogarth. It was Hogarth. Shuhana gently set her down on her feet.

“Why, thank you,” Hogarth said graciously.

“What the hell just happened?”

“She just time traveled from...the past?” Leona assumed.

Hogarth nodded.

“Does everyone time travel like that?” Kivi asked. “Looks dangerous.”

“No, I’m the only one who has to explode every time. I’m Hogarth Pudeyonavic.” That’s it.

“Kivi Bristol.” They shook hands.

“Nice to meet you, Kivi.”

“Wow, no one ever pronounces my name right,” Kivi noted, astonished.

“Gang’s all here,” Shuhana said. “So let me explain. There are some things you’re going to need if you want Mateo back. You won’t need them, however, if you don’t want him back, though. That’s up to you.”

“What are they?” Leona asked. “Let’s assume I’m interested in doing this.”

“I don’t know,” Shuhana said, seemingly honestly. “I can tell you that you’ll need the Book of Hogarth, and I can tell you that Compass of Disturbance will help you find that, along with the rest of the ingredients.”

“How would we know what the rest of the ingredients are?” Vitalie questioned.

“Did I not just say that?” Shuhana asked. “The Book of Hogarth will tell you.”

“None of this makes any sense,” Leona lamented. “It’s like P versus NP. You can’t just say that you know there’s a solution to our question, but that you don’t know what that solution is. You have to first have the answer yourself. And if you do, then why don’t you just give it to us? You can’t possibly know that the compass and book will help if you don’t know what we’re going to use them to look for.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Leona,” Shuhana said. “Some things I know, some things I don’t. Use the compass to get to the book, and see if I’m right. There’s no need to question it. This is my gift to you, so you can take it, or not.”

“Uhhh...” Kivi began. “Isn’t her name Hogarth? If it’s her book, can’t she just tell us what’s in it, or at least tell us where to find it?”

“I don’t know where it is,” Hogarth said, turning to face Leona. “Last I saw it, you had it, in 2025.”

Leona had to think about this for a moment. “Well, as we established, my memories from that particular adventure are pretty fuzzy. I wouldn’t have taken the book for myself. Paige would have likely had it last, so where would she have put it?”

“Use the compass,” Shuhana said again, like she was talking to children.

“None of us knows how,” Leona said. “We need to use the compass to find the book, and we need the book to give us instructions for how to use the compass.”

“I wipe my hands of this,” Shuhana said. “Figure it out for yourself. See ya, Kivi.”

“Will we ever see each other again?”

“In another life,” Shuhana replied, then she walked away without looking back.

The team was silent for awhile before Leona spoke again. “This is the part where I remind everyone around me that they have no obligation to be part of this.”

“Are you going to do it?” Vitalie asked.

“I am,” Leona said with a nod. “I have to see this through. If I loved this person, and I’m really starting to think I did, I have to find out.”

“Then I’ll figure out how to use the compass,” Hogarth said proudly. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“You said something similar about the teleporter gun,” Vitalie said to her.

“That worked out in our favor in the end, didn’t it?” Hogarth volleyed.

“I’m in too,” Kivi said after another brief silence. “I don’t know how I can help, but I know I can make tea.”

Hogarth spent half the day tinkering with the Compass of Disturbance, only slowing down upon being reminded that Leona would not have enough time to do anything until next year anyway. While Kivi was preparing their dinner, Leona and Vitalie went into the other room to talk.

“What do you want to talk about?” Vitalie asked.

“You’ve been doing this for a long time.”

“Doing what?”

“Helping me.”

“You think I should stop?”

“I think you’ve not seen your fathers much this whole time.”

“You’re remembering the corrupted reality. In actual reality, we spent plenty of time together after The Warren arrived on Earth.”

“That’s true, but the way my time works—and meeting all these immortals—I just think you need to appreciate what little time you do have. Unless you all plan to start upgrading to better bodies, you might regret spending their final years on a snipe hunt.”

“What is a snipe?”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m just saying that you’ve done more than enough.”

“Leona, I talk with them nearly every night. Astral projector, remember?”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“It’s good enough. Children leave their parents. Nowadays, people are moving out to other planets. Why are you so focused on finding a reason to kick me out of your club?”

“I’m sorry it feels that way. I just...I remember what it was like to be young. I don’t have a choice but to be here. Everyone I cared about when I was your age has been long dead. You should leave, because you can. It’s why Brooke hasn’t spoken to us more than once since the Orcus and Vanth incident, and why we haven’t seen Paige since we fixed reality. People shouldn’t spend so much time with me. I’ll expect Hogarth and Kivi to leave when they can as well.”

“I’ll make you a deal. I promise to leave the circles, and visit my fathers in person for the whole year that you’re gone, and I’ll continue to do that each year. I’m coming back on your days, though. Is that a good enough compromise?”

“It’ll do, pig,” Leona conceded.

Suddenly, Hogarth popped into the room. “I figured it out! And I’m the piglet.”

“You figured out the compass?” Vitalie asked.

“Yeah,” Hogarth confirmed. “It’s not that hard once you get the hang of it. What time is it?”

“Almost 17:30,” Leona said, looking at her watch.

“Oh good, I was worried I kept you waiting for, like, years.”

“Hogarth, did you go somewhere? Where have you been?”

“All over,” Hogarth said. “I’ve been gallivanting around time and space for three years. Vitalie, I think should go see your father tomorrow.”
“What?”
“Yeah, it may be the right time.” Hogarth started pulling something from her bag. “By the way, here’s my book.”

« < » > Table of Contents

Brooke’s Battles: Believers (Part II)

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The Sharice Davids was an old ship by the time Ecrin and Brooke took over as Captain and Pilot, respectively. It was only capable of traveling at about one percent the speed of light. This meant it would take nearly a month to reach Orcus and Vanth. At the moment, Brooke was sitting in the commissary, which she had little use of, since she did not require much sustenance. It was the middle of the arbitrary sleeping period, and though people were too nervous about their arrival tomorrow to sleep well, most were in their quarters. The kitchen manager came in and flipped on the lights.

“Whoa,” he said. “I didn’t think anyone would be here.”

Brooke looked at her wrist, where there was no watch, because she had a literally clock installed in her brain. “Oh, is it coffee time already?”

He feigned a gradual increase in fear. “Wait, if you’re here...who’s flying the ship?” He was well aware that it was fully automated. An independent pilot was almost never necessary in a technical sense, but a lot of people still felt more comfortable knowing that a person was in charge. The fact that she was nearly more artificial than biological didn’t seem to be a problem. To them, all that mattered was that she was born, and raised naturally, before acquiring any programming.

“It’s not quite time for me to get breakfast going. I come in early, because getting out of bed always wakes up my husband, so he needs the extra time to fall back asleep.”

“You’re married to...uh, Allen?” Brooke tried to remember.

He smiled. “I’m Allen. Married to Richard.”

“Right, sorry. My systems aren’t fully operational.” She was capable of simply downloading the ship’s manifest into her mind, but still preferred to meet and recall people the old fashioned way. Her upgrades were primarily designed to keep her alive, not turn her into a database.

“You worried about arrival day?” Allen guessed.

“I don’t know what to expect. I met Ulinthra in person. The reality that other people magically remember her is not what bothers me. It’s that, even without her breathing down their necks, they are still somehow doing their bidding.”

“It’s always been that way. Despite how much she pissed people off, they always did what she wanted.”

“Hold on,” Brooke said, “you knew her too.”

Allen nodded. “Back in the olden days. Richard and I had this plan to camp in every state in the country. We met her in South Carolina.”

“Forgive me,” Brooke said, “I thought you were standard human.”

“We are,” Allen began to explain. “The Overseer pulled us from our time period, and brought us here. She claims we were married to her in an alternate timeline.”

This gave Brooke pause. Leona was perhaps the most familiar with Ulinthra, having encountered her in multiple realities. When they were trying to defeat her years ago, Leona briefed the team on what they were up against. She had said something about Ulinthra marrying two men once, but didn’t bother mentioning their names. “I think she’s right. I think I heard about that.”

Allen had clearly hoped this was all a big misunderstanding, and didn’t like hearing more evidence that he had been married to a psycho.

Brooke shook her head to comfort him. “Things are different in different timelines. The way I understand it, she wasn’t nearly as bad in yours.” That wasn’t entirely true, but he didn’t need to know that.

Allen nodded, but didn’t seem to really believe that. “I better go start on my checklist. Let me know if you need anything.”

“I have my own checklist on the bridge, but before I go, just one more question. Is the Overseer going to send you back home after this? I just need to gauge what kind of person she is.”

“She’s good people,” Allen said. “She offered to take us anywhere, anywhen we wanted.” He took a deep breath. “Good luck with arrival. I wouldn’t want your job.”

“My job is easy. I wouldn’t want Ecrin’s.”

“Status report,” Brooke asked once she was on the bridge.

“On course, and on schedule.”

“Power levels nominal.”

“Weapons at the ready.”

“Crew status?” Brooke asked.

“Good to go.”

“Captain. Where’s the captain?”

The helmsman on duty jerked her head slightly towards the meeting room doors, like they were in mixed company, and she didn’t want anyone else to know.

Holly Blue was in there, sitting patiently at the head of the table, not doing anything else. Ecrin was pinching the bridge of her nose with both index fingers, the rest of her hand cupped around her mouth and nose. Her eyes were closed.

“Captain? Is something wrong?”

“Why am I here?” Ecrin asked of Brooke without moving.

“I don’t know, did we have a meeting?”

Ecrin opened her eyes, and released her hands. “In an hour, yes, but I mean in general. Why am I captain of this ship?”

“You’re a leader, aren’t you?”

“I was second-in-command at the IAC. Why isn’t Paige here, though, or Leona?”

“Well, Leona doesn’t exist right now, and Paige is gallivanting around some other time period.”

“I’m not equipped for this, Brooke.”

“You’ve been doing this for a month. You’ve been great,” Holly Blue pointed out.

“I’ve been captain of a passenger ship for the last month. We’re about to go into battle.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No one on Orcus and Vanth is going to be happy to see the Sharice,” Ecrin argued. “This isn’t going to go well, and people are going to get hurt, or die. Paige has done this before, can’t you contact her somehow?”

Brooke sat down. “Paige was the captain of a chaperone vessel, one that wasn’t capable of going into battle, and never tried. You’re what, twice as old as she is? And you have experience with police work. You’re the only one who can do this.”

“No, that’s not true,” Ecrin said. “I heard you in there, and I see you with the crew. They trust and respect you. And you have experience training a group of insurgents, and using them to defeat an enemy with superior firepower.”

“That may be true,” Brooke said, but I’m in a committed relationship to the ship. You’re the one responsible for the crew on it, and I need you to start taking that seriously. We will be arriving in Orcan space within two hours. You better get yourself ready. The first thing you should do is order Holly Blue to run last-minute diagnostics check on all electrical systems.”

“Yeah, go do that.”

Holly Blue just sat there like a stubborn child.

Ecrin looked back over when she realized Holly Blue wasn’t moving. “I said go run the diagnostics.”

Holly Blue stood swiftly. “Yes, sir.” She gave Brooke a secret wink as she was leaving the room.

Ecrin reached over and braced herself on the table to prepare for the day. “Thank you for this. I need to talk to Camden, though.”

“Can you?” Brooke asked. “Isn’t he dead?”

Ecrin flung open a knife, and pulled her pants down. Then she started cutting into her thigh—not even wincing at the pain—ultimately removing a small watch face protected in plastic from her flesh. She began to meticulously peel the plastic away. “Right now, for Camden, it’s the year 2000, but that’s always subject to change. We developed a recoil protocol, in case things go bad, and I need him. He called it Threat Level Midnight, which is a joke I didn’t get until several years later.” She began to adjust the watch’s time. “It’s not really meant for something like this, but it’ll do.” Once the time was set to midnight, she placed the watch on the floor. “I would like you to go now.”

“Okay,” Brooke agreed, though she was concerned. As she was leaving the room, she saw Ecrin lift her foot, and slam it down on the watch.

A couple hours later, Orcus was barely in view when another vessel appeared on their screens, warning them that there would be trouble if they didn’t adjust course, and go somewhere else. Captain Cabral ordered her crew to action stations, which was where most of them already were. A lot of them had significant training in their fields, but not all. Some of them had fallen into a life of war in the other timeline because it didn’t look like anyone else was doing it. With time having been reset, they lost all knowledge they gained from that, and had to relearn everything, if not more. Fortunately, space was a big and empty place, and they had a lot of waiting time before they could reach their destination anyway. While Brooke was busy getting to know her ship, and Ecrin busy getting to know her new people, others were just trying to learn their jobs. Personnel reports indicated that the majority of them were ready for action, but as said, there was no telling what they were walking into. No amount of training—be it practical or virtual—could prepare someone for the real thing. “Can we take it?” Ecrin asked the crew.

“We can,” the weapons officer stated. “They are an inferior enemy.”

“This is your last warning,” the Orcan ship said again after receiving no response.

“If they want a warning, they’ll get it. One shot, ensign. Let’s give her a haircut.” Funny metaphors. The mainstay of any good ship captain.

The officer did as she was told, firing one missile that just grazed the outer hull of the other ship. It didn’t appeared to notice it. A few moments later, though it began to change.

“What’s it doing?” Ecrin asked.

“It’s getting bigger, sir.”

“How is that possible?”

“It’s not,” Brooke said. “It’s emitting a hologram.”

The holographic image grew and grew, getting brighter by the second, until it resembled a small moon. To the naked eye, though, it just looked like a spot of light. “Sir, there are more,” the communications officer reported.

“More what?”

“More ships. Dozens, no hundreds. Shit, thousands! All around us! They must be darkbursters.”

“No, they’re darkstalkers. Mauve alert!” Ecrin ordered. The alarms rang out, and the purple rights blinked on and off. A darkburster—or in this case, a darkstalker—was a relatively small ship capable of traveling without being detected, but this was only possible by blinding the dark vessel as well. Until they reengaged their own sensors, they were basically just hunks of metal floating in space, and since they were painted black, they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye, unless they were real close. The moon hologram must have been a signal to attack, since that was the only way to communicate with a darkstalker.

All at once, the darkstalkers began to fire at the Sharice, from all directions. Ecrin ordered her crew to fire back, but the enemy ships were so small and spry that they were impossible to target. They would run out of ordnance long before they made any dent against their opponent. It soon didn’t matter, though, as the darkstalkers were targeting the Sharice’s weapons systems, crippling them in a matter of minutes. They had really practiced this. Either they knew someone would be coming after them, or they were just paranoid, and always prepared for it.

The mothership dropped its moon hologram, theoretically signalling the darkstalkers to cease their assault, which they did immediately. After a few anxious moments, it released something from its underbelly. Its exact shape was imperceptible to their instruments, but it wasn’t flying like a missile, because it was too slow. It almost looked like a boarding boat.

Brooke and Ecrin just watched it come towards them as everyone else was trying to get their weapons back online. That seemed unlikely without physical repairs on the outside.

Holly Blue burst onto the bridge. “I know what this is!”

“What?”

“Sir, permission to use the secret weapon?”

“What secret weapon?” Brooke questioned.

Ecrin didn’t answer Brooke. “It’s untested. No one has ever tried to make one at this scale before.”

Brooke wasn’t finished. “What! Weapon!”

“We have nothing to lose,” Ecrin said, still ignoring Brooke. “Do it,” she ordered.

Holly Blue nodded. She looked at the ceiling. “Computer. Execute program Kangaroo-Octopus-Laundry-Bachelor-Yearling Two-zero-two-eight!”

Brooke looked at the screen, which showed a platform rise from the bulkhead, and release a missile, presumably on a collision course with the boarding boat. “What does that thing do?”

“Plot for Orcus!” Holly Blue commanded the computer. “It’s like a giant teleporter bullet,” she said quieter.

The secret missile did collide with the boarding boat, except it must not have been a boarding boat at all. They zoomed in on Orcus on another screen. Just as the missile struck the enemy’s projectile, both of them disappeared. And then the entirety of Orcus disintegrated, and disappeared as well.

“What just happened?” Ecrin asked. “What was that thing?”

Brooke dropped her head, and sighed. “It was a Lucius-bomb. We just killed thousands of people.”

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