Voyage to Saga: Rule of Eleven (Part II)

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The face of Saga was waiting for Vearden once he walked through the portal. He was about to hug her, but was immediately wary of the whole thing. She looked like Saga, but she didn’t look like her. She didn’t hold herself, or look back at him in the same way the real Saga would. No, this had to be an imposter.

The imposter turned her chin slightly, sensing his doubt. “Wow,” she said. “That has to be a record. No one has ever figured out that I’m not really their loved one, let alone right away. You’re good. You might actually get through this.”

“Take off that face,” Vearden ordered.

“We do this—” she tried to say.

“Because you think it’s a form I’ll be more comfortable with. Yeah, that’s all well and good, but here’s the thing, I don’t really have time for that, and it isn’t. I do not appreciate seeing my friend played by anyone other than her. Original cast or bust. Take off her face so we can have a real conversation.”

“Very well.” She shook her body, letting bits of Saga form drip off, revealing just another person he didn’t recognize.

“What is your name?”

“They just call me The Shepherd,” she replied.

“Where are you taking me?”

“To your destiny.” When she saw he wasn’t impressed, she dropped the act entirely. “Okay, work with me here. I kinda have a bit. I don’t get a lot of visitors, so I spend my time rehearsing. It’s really important to me.”

Vearden pointed to himself. “Look at my face.” He turned his pockets out. “Look at my pockets. Frisk me, if you will. I assure you that I do not have any fucks to give.”

“Can’t argue with that logic, can I?” she said sarcastically.

“What do I have to do to get Saga back?”

She paced around a bit for dramatic effect. “Has anyone ever told you the reason the powers that be do what they do?”

“I thought I told you I don’t have time.”

“It’s relevant, I promise.” When he restrained himself, and stopped arguing, she continued with her speech. “Most salmon think that they’re doing great things; that they’re saving the world—and that’s true, to an extent. But the motives of their controllers are not so noble. Just watch any movie, and who wins in the end? Sometimes it’s the antagonist, when that writer has decided to be particularly pessimistic about how things are. Maybe he’s trying to hold a mirror up to society, or some other fartsy bullshit. But for the most part, the hero needs to win. He may die in the end, and it won’t work out the way he planned, and he definitely loses a lot along the way, but in the end, his efforts will not have been in vain.

“So when the powers that be jerk you around time and space, they are trying to get you to do things, but only because that’s the kind of movies they like to watch. Why did they let The Cleanser keep torturing Mateo Matic and his family? Why didn’t they just reach down, grab that dark knight, and knock him off the board? Well...because that isn’t very interesting. The only way the good guys win is if they come this close to not.”

“They’re just watching us on a TV screen.”

“Nothing so...pedestrian, but yes.”

“Makes a level of sense. What does this have to do with Saga?”

“I am not a power that be,” the Shepherd said. “I do, however, identify with them.” She made her face all creepy. “I like to watch.”

“Meaning that whatever you make me do to get Saga back won’t have any real connection to my goals. You’ll just come up with dangerous situations to throw me in so you can have a good time.”

“Why not? You do that too. Weren’t you just watching LOST? Those people’s lives were terrible.”

“Those people aren’t real.”

“You sure about that? How do you know that you’re real? How do you know that some dude isn’t just writing your story while naked in his home office, eating unsalted nuts and listening to, oh I dunno...maybe Civil Twilight?”

He sighed. “Is he?”

She shook her head. “Not anymore, the album just ended, so he’s listening to VAST.”

“This is a fun conversation; we should do this more often.”

“Yeah, well, when I’m done with you, you’re gonna wish all we did was talk.”

“That may be. I can’t see the future, unfortunately, so for now...let’s just get on with it.”

“Fine. What you experience next will be the first of eleven trials.”

“What?”

“Did I stutter...literally? Sometimes I do that, human is not my first language.”

“You said there would be eleven trials. There are only ever three trials. It’s the Rule of Three.”

“These may or may not be based on the eleven Labors of Hercules.”

“There were twelve labors.”

“There were? Then I guess I’m an all-powerful being with the ability to return people from complete non-existence, and no limit to the number of trials she can come up with!”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.”

“Plus, there are kind of eleven dimensions.”

“Oh, I think I’ve heard that.”

“I mean...it doesn’t matter how many dimensions there are, it’s not like I’m going to be sending you down the manifold. What I am going to be doing, however, is sending you to other universes. If you’re lucky, and you get through all of them, you’ll find yourself in what’s known as base reality. It is there that you will be given what you need to retrieve Saga.”

“I know you appreciate watching people struggle through these things, but can’t you just skip it this once? She doesn’t deserve this. How about I take her place? Yeah, how about that? A one-to-one. Let’s do it.”

“I don’t make the rules. I’m implementing them in my own fun way, but they’re not mine. I can’t personally give her back to you. Only The Superintendent can.”

“Okay, let me talk to him.”

She was exhausted from having to explain herself. “He’s in base reality, which takes time and a hell of a lot of work. This is how it’s happening, I don’t know why you’re questioning it. You told The Delegator that you wouldn’t.”

“That’s true,” Vearden said. He did say that. “I did say that.”

“It’s okay. I can tell that this is stressful for you, and you’re a lot different than other people I’ve shepherded. I want you to know that I’ll be there with you, every step of the way. You may not see me, and I may not help, but I’ll be close by.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing, or bad.”

“It could go either way, depending on what happens,” the Shepherd said honestly.

“So what is my first...trial?”

“This was it,” she answered as she was nodding to herself, like she had just decided on that in the moment. “There’s one universe I was planning on sending you to, but it’s having some, uh...developmental issues, that I don’t really want to deal with.”

“Okay...”

“And you’re good people, so we’ll just say that having to talk with yet another cryptic and frustrating choosing one is a hard enough trial on its own.”

“I appreciate that.”

“I’m not as bad as you might think either.”

“I am starting to see that,” Vearden admitted. He waited the appropriate amount of time, maybe a little longer. “Then what’s the next one?”

“Ah, this one will be familiar. You see, these universes bleed together, but they’re not seen for what they are. They’re interpreted as fiction, if you can believe it. This particular universe has been depicted in film, television, and other media quite a bit in our universe.”

“Let me try to understand this, are we talking about alternate realities?”

“Oh, no. That’s a different thing. Alternate realities, and alternate timelines, refer to some kind of point of divergence. They take place in the same universe, but with conflicting events. In our universe, they can run concurrently, but usually don’t.”

“Wait, back up. What’s the difference between a reality and a timeline?”

“The latter addresses historical differences, while the former is really just about the perceived differences in the so-called present condition.”

“Okay, now I’m up to speed...kinda. Go on.”

“Parallel worlds exist simultaneously with ours, like bubbles in an undrained sink, and sprouted from a different start condition. That is, the universe was created from some other big bang, or maybe not even a big bang at all. I won’t be sending you to that second kind, though; they’re weird. And they’re harder to get to.”

“This is all very confusing. I feel like I’m understanding it, but also that I’m going to be completely lost when I wake up tomorrow.”

“It’s funny you say that, because you will be lost.”

“What does that mean?”

“No, you won’t be lost tomorrow, that’s later.”

“What does that mean?”

“Never mind. You better get some sleep. Your trial starts tomorrow.”

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Microstory 505: New Mission to Keres Most Ambitious Yet

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The Director of the Confederate Aerospace Department has officially announced a new voyage to the third planet in the solar system, tentatively scheduled for an 1834 launch. All missions to Keres thus far have involved exclusively scientists and researchers, and have lasted for stints no longer than two years. Director Ansaldi has made it clear that he believes space colonization to be the next logical step in human destiny. Ansaldi had this to say: “Keres doesn’t have everything a planet needs to support life, but it has enough. It has a magnetic field not unlike ours, and a thin atmosphere composed of the right gases in the wrong ratio. With work and time, it could be potentially just as habitable as our homeworld.” The work Ansaldi is referring to includes maneuvering asteroids and building megastructures the likes we’ve never seen before. And by time, he means a few hundred years. As technology advances, so does the speed and efficiency of any given task. However, something as large as a planet still needs a great deal of time to acclimate to any changes, not matter how wondrous. It is for this reason that CAD has begun plans to form a permanent settlement on Keres. Ansaldi’s assistant, and son, Deputy Director Ansaldi explained this further in an interview following the announcement. “The amount of effort and patience required to terraform an entire planet is daunting to anyone who won’t live past 500. In order to encourage this change, people must be given an incentive to begin something that won’t come to fruition until long after they die. One way we’ve decided to do this is to create a new nation. Keresites will be given full autonomy, along with Confederate privileges, from the get-go. This will be their home, and they will want to make it better.” Some have spoken out against this proposition, calling it manipulative. Noted scientist and television personality, Ivor Leonardson, a.k.a. Fancy Leo, microblogged on the topic during the conference. “they wnt 2go to ker? Sounds great if you wnt 2die there & nvr see ur family again & build giant reflectors da rest of ur life & not hav air.” Leonardson is referring to space mirrors that would need to be built to compensate for a lack of sufficient sunlight on the surface of Keres, particularly early on in the endeavor. It is so far too early to tell whether any of this will bear fruit, or even if CAD will be able to wrangle up enough cash for the project. It is as of yet unclear who will be taking part in the mission, but evidence points to some sort of lottery combined with desirable vocations.

Microstory 504: Why Does the Destruction Destroy?

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Separatist, extremist, terrorist. These are just some of the terms associated with the unnamed man known to most only as The Destruction. It seems that every week comes with a new story about one of The Destruction’s heinous crimes. I just spent four months as a faceless minion in The Destruction’s militia, under threat of eventual criminal prosecution, and I can tell you that it is not what you would expect. I’m planning both a long-form article about my experience, and possibly a later book, but I wanted to get out a few points. First of all, most—if not all—members of the militia legitimately believe in The Destruction’s cause, and this cause is not what you’ve probably heard. They do not believe in anarchy just for the sake of it, or so that they can run around doing whatever they want. Nor do they want to dismantle the establishment so that some sort of better society can rise from its ashes. What they really want is to create cracks in the system. He has indoctrinated his people into trusting in some sort of master plan. That’s right, folks, they have what you might call “true faith”. He treats his people well, providing for them food and luxurious shelter wherever they are. He never explains his orders, but they are always followed to the letter. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you why he’s never questioned. I was able to infiltrate his organization after speaking with a survivor from his group who was deprogrammed, and she cannot explain it either. The way she’s talked about it, though, it sounds almost hypnotic, like their minds were being controlled. I can’t speak to that, however. Perhaps I just wasn’t part of it for long enough. What I can tell you is that The Destruction is not as mysterious as he would have the public believe. He’s just a man. He was born of one mother, and one father. He grew up with both pain, and happiness. He sees problems with this world, and like most everybody, he thinks he knows how to fix it. That much is clear. He’s not creating all this fear for no reason; he’s doing it for a purpose. The answer to this article’s question is one that should not be answered, because it doesn’t matter. All that matters is finding a way of combating all that fear.

Microstory 503: Deering Method Ready for Human Patients

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Metacorp—the organization responsible for maintaining oversight for all medical-based anomaly abilities—has announced a breakthrough in research. Few anomaly abilities inspired hope to as high a degree as those of one Francis Deering. She was born with the natural ability to switch her gender at will. Shapeshifting has proven to be nearly impossible, even in the fantastical world of anomalies, however Deering has always been the exception. Scientists at Metacorp spent years studying Deering’s biology, trying to figure out how she was able to do what she could do. The process was slow, but the scientific method dictates care and cautiousness. It is important to ensure that all discoveries hold up to rigorous testing, and that experiments can be replicated many times. There have also been ethical and legal issues to get over. Though sex-change operations have existed for years, any new type of procedure requires thorough review and discussion. A spokesman for the organization gathered press on the steps at the edge of Straton Pond earlier today, a symbolic gesture to assure the world that Metacorp and Bellevue are still very much in a cooperative relationship. The spokesman, Augustus Beutel, first thanked the crowd for their patience. Thought he did not give a reason as to why the conference started late, a source has implied that a small Operator cult had issued a threat elsewhere on campus. Please visit our crime section for more details on that story. Beutel declined questions from the audience, but said that Metacorp will be releasing a more comprehensive report on their website by the end of the week. We will provide a link to this information once it becomes available.

Microstory 502: Deformed Wolves Come Out of Hiding

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Dark creatures from the woods have been reported in multiple villages all across the French countryside. Descriptions varied, but one thing these reports have in common is that the animals were all said to be wolf-life. These animals have all now come out of hiding and revealed themselves to the world. They seem to have human-like qualities as well, appearing to be some sort of cross-breed between wolves and humans. Leading philosophers are unable to come up with an explanation for their true nature, and claim that a hybrid species would be biologically impossible. Still, witnesses say that there is no denying some kind of connection, and have already begun to refer to them werewolves. The first human known to interact with a werewolf directly was a young girl named Scarlett Capello. She had this to say:

Yes, I have been taking care of my friend, Barnabas, for the better part of a month now. He and his kin are in a great deal of pain, and need a lot of attention. They agreed to come out of the shadows to ask for your help. If anyone, with any experience with animals, has any ideas, they would be greatly appreciated.

This help has apparently come in the form of a coven of witches from Namibia. This reporter was unable to have access to their rituals as witch practices are strictly private, but an inside source has revealed that the main concern now is pain management. Experts expect werewolves to have a greater lifespan than regular wolves, but one still shorter than humans. This story will be updated in later issues as more information comes in.

Microstory 501: New Hitch Series Moving Forward

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Regalia Filcher, spokesperson for the Earthan Film Reclamation Institute has officially announced that the company will be moving forward with the next chapter in the Hitch franchise. The new series will be the first time we’ve visited the Hitch universe since The Trial of Allegra Cole. Insiders have said that it will be released in half-standard hour weekly installments, but episode count has not yet been determined. This news comes at the heels of an announcement from the Eridani military of initial talks with the new Fostean government regarding a possible alliance against the continuing Nectean invasion. Analysts have not been confident that any film production would be going forward due to military and social unrest the likes of which the Core has not seen since The Arrival From the Right. Filcher has said that she and her team made the decision to maintain all production business not in spite of, but because of, the war. She had this to say:

I was 239 years old when I first saw the original Earthan film that started it all. Like many others, I could see [Hitch’s] potential. Its popularity across the galaxy quickly outshined its target demographic, and not just because system population is well over a hundred times larger than that of Earth. The sequels, prequels, spinoffs, weekly programs, and books have expanded the universe beyond all imagination. There’s a reason we in the industry call it ‘the second singularity’. I’m proud to have served in this organization, and look forward to our next stage.

No word on plot has been revealed, but rumors have been cycling that it will focus on the character of Tom Reda—originally played by Earthan Jack Hartnett, and later by Halstad actor Jireyno Kaklen—who has not been seen since the third feature-length film when he heroically threw himself in front of a bus to free his friend’s daughter from a hostage situation, and has presumably been in a coma this entire time. Since Kaklen’s unexpected retirement from acting to work fulltime on the farms of Eubolos, it’s likely that they will have to recast the role. There have also been rumors that Maria Thayer herself will return, but that she may be playing a different character than she did in the original. She was recently spotted touring the Garden of Hortus as one of the few privileged Earthan humans recruited to ease uproar should the Thuriamen succeed in their goal to reveal the truth to all of Earth. If it turns out to be true that she’s been cast in a Core production, she will follow in the footsteps of the greats like Pauly Shore, Linda Fiorentino of Men in Black: Off Earth fame, and of course Gene Hackman, who has been a staple of Core Originals since KST 2419. We will update this story as more information comes in.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: June 26, 2111

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They woke up at the break of dawn the next morning. He had the urge to gather everyone yet again to make sure Arcadia hadn’t lied about her plan. No, everyone was still here. Everyone, except for Baudin, of course.

“So, what are we supposed to do now?” Paige asked.

“We’re supposed to build something,” Mateo said. “I don’t know what, and I don’t know all the rules.”

Samsonite suddenly slipped into a bitchy resting face and stepped forward. He stood there blankly for a few seconds, worrying everyone. Then he spoke in an unnerving monotone, “Traveler Four-Six-Two-Three, your first expiation is simple. You must construct a habitable structure large enough to accommodate everyone on Tribulation Island.”

“Well, that’s not so bad,” Horace said. “We have memories of doing that for decades.”

“You must do this on the other side of the island...using materials found on this side.”

“Okay, well, that’s not so great,” Horace amended.

“None of you has to do this,” Mateo said to the group after the instructions were over, and the real Samsonite came back to them. “Whether you believe me or not is not the point. The fact that you don’t remember him means that you can’t have any strong feelings about him, one way or the other. I can’t ask you to put heavy effort into something that you don’t believe in.”

Paige, who Mateo both knew the least, and wasn’t related to, stepped right in front of him. “What doesn’t matter is what we feel. You care about him, and so we do too. We are all stranded on this island. If we can’t learn to live together...we’re gonna die alone.”

That sounded like a quote from something. Saga smiled at it, at least.

“Well still, I couldn’t, in good conscience, hold it against anyone who refused, or got too tired of it. I do think, however, that someone else should lead the team. I don’t have any experience in construction. I didn’t even take shop class in high school.”

“Aren’t you a mechanic?” Vearden asked.

“I was a driver. I can change the oil, that’s about as far as my manliness goes. I never worked with wood.”

“Then I suppose I’m the most qualified,” Vearden said, and everybody seemed to agree. “Leona, though, you know the island best. Where are we going to build the shelter, and how far is it from here?”

Mateo started picturing Leona at the front of a classroom, drawing a map on the whiteboard, and wielding a baton. “The island is fifteen kilometers wide, and twenty-eight kilometers long. Since our basecamp is on one of the long ends, and actually pretty close to the middle, I can only assume that we’re meant to travel only the fifteen.”

“What’s that in miles?” Gilbert asked.

“About Nine-point-three-two,” she answered. “Walking it takes nearly three hours because of the harsh terrain.”

“I’ve done it many times,” Mateo remembered.

“Okay, we can do this. One day? That’s easy. No problem.” He took a beat to think. “All right, we’ll need three teams. Choppers, draggers, and builders. The choppers need brute strength, the draggers need endurance, and the builders need precision. Since there’s nothing to carry yet, and nothing to build, we’ll all start out as choppers. Then two-thirds of us will break off. And then half of that group will break off later.”

“We only have three axes,” Samsonite pointed out.

“Fine,” Vearden said. “I guess my math doesn’t check out, but that’s Leona’s department.”

Saga jumped in, “We’ll need the most people as draggers anyway, to cover all that ground.”

“That’s true,” Vearden continued. “I want a relay system. We’ll place draggers at strategic points along the path, and each will hand off their load. That will create more frequent breaks from all that carrying, rather than just everybody always walking the whole distance.”

Mateo had no memory of when he supposedly first arrived on the island, or when the others did. They’re memories were screwy either way, because most of them had no recollection of Mateo until recently anyway, so the time-altering, Hitler-killing adventure was still having the same effect on them. He was surprised, then, to learn that they did have a few amenities that they wouldn’t have had around had they just crashed. A single airplane does not have three axes, so these ones were just apported there, at least according to everyone else. Mario, Horace, and Lincoln were chosen to be choppers. Kivi was posted with them too. Once they had cut down as much, and as little, as she could carry, she would drag it away and hand it off to Mateo at kilometer marker two before walking all the way back. Mateo would then take it three kilometers away to Xearea. This process continued with Gilbert at marker seven, Samsonite at marker ten, and Paige at marker thirteen.

Paige would carry it to the beach where Vearden, Leona, Aura, Téa, and Saga were waiting to use it to build the shelter. Horace—having gotten into running from his life with professional runner, Serkan—chose to be their runner. He would literally run the whole distance back and forth, transporting water and snacks for them. Fortunately for him, the powers that be did not prevent him from maintaining his transhumanistic upgrades, meaning that running a few marathons in a day wasn’t actually as bad as it sounded.

After night fell, Horace ran back to the original beach and let the choppers know that they wouldn’t need any more wood. They grabbed what they had left, and started heading down the assembly line, sweeping up each dragger as they passed. They tried to help the builders finish up once everyone was at the other beach, but were rejected. Though everyone worked really hard, and no one had contributed any more or less than anyone else, the choppers had expelled the greatest amount of energy. It was time for them to rest and eat. The draggers were drained of energy as well, so they too sat down and had dinner.

While in the middle of it, Samsonite pulled Mateo and Gilbert to the side so they could have a conversation in private. “Please, keep eating. I just need to ask a few questions.”

“Shoot,” Mateo said.

“I think maybe Gilbert can help more, because he has more experience with time travel, but I can’t say for sure.”

“What is it?” Gilbert asked.

“What would you say to someone who has—oh, I dunno...been having hallucinations of zombie people sitting on horses?”

“What?” Mateo asked. “Has that been happening?”

Gilbert stopped eating and rested his chin on the palm of his hand. They waited patiently. “Were they dressed in western garb?”

“Yes!” Samsonite cried, then lowered his head, and spoke softer, when he realized others could hear. He didn’t want this getting out. “One of them had some kind of satchel with a stitching of a red fish. I assume it was a salmon. What does this mean?”

“It would seem that Arcadia has a flair for pop culture references, just like I did when I was doing this sort of thing to you.”

“What is it from?” Mateo asked.

“Teen Wolf,” Gilbert explained. “The ghost riders. The mythology is that...I don’t want to say it.”

“Say what?” Samsonite pressed. “Please, go on.”

Gilbert obliged, “if you see the ghost riders, then...then you’re next.”

“I’m going to be torn out of time?”

“Yes.”

“Wait,” Mateo questioned, “in the show, these beings took people out of time, just like here, in real life?”

“They did indeed,” Gilbert confirmed.

“It sounds like Arcadia stole her idea from them, eh?” Mateo asked rhetorically.

Samsonite wanted to remain serious. “Why would they do that? And what does it have to do with Arcadia?”

“Well, they sort of had to. And I don’t think they have really anything to do with Arcadia. She’s showing you an image of that as a joke. She’s taunting you. I only hope that you’re the only one who ever sees it. The only thing worse than being torn out of time is, like, knowing it’s coming.”

“But you’ll remember me, Mateo. You have to tell your mother about me. I know we haven’t exactly been close, and that’s okay. Just please...tell her about me tomorrow.”

“I will. Of course I will. I am not leaving anybody behind. Everyone gets an expiation, and everyone gets my full attention. I won’t stop until I have you all back. I swear to God. And I’m Catholic, so you know that means something.”

“Thanks, that’s comforting, I mean it.” He turned to Gilbert. “Will it hurt?”

“It seems to hurt on the show, but I doubt it does in real life. You won’t feel anything at all soon after, but when you finally come back, I can’t tell you what you’ll remember. Presumably Arcadia is going to mend the corrupted reality after all of this is over, which makes you wonder what reality that’s going to be. Will our memories of being marooned on an island disappear? Will it go back to whatever Mateo here remembers? Or what?”

“I’m more interested in this conversation,” Mateo said. “I’ll almost certainly remember it when Samsonite is gone. But will you? What will you think you did for the last ten minutes? What if we go off away from Samsonite and talk about him at length right now?”

“There will technically be a gap in memory,” Gilbert said, “but Arcadia won’t need to replace it with anything. She’ll remove the memories of these moments, and then my brain will fill in the blanks.”

Samsonite moaned. “Oh, I feel so hopeless.”

“You are not alone,” Mateo reminded him. “I’ll never forget, as long as you don’t forget me.”

Samsonite laughed. “I don’t think anyone could forget you, Mateo Matic.”

But they did forget somebody. When Mateo woke up the next year, everybody was in about the same positions as they were before. They had decided to sleep in the new shelter, all together. Even though Arcadia hadn’t said that was part of the expiation, they didn’t want to take any risks. There was one person missing, so who would it be? Mateo checked them off in his head as he scanned the still-sleeping faces, the exclusion of which was Paige who was just watching him. Lincoln, Darko, Leona, Aura, and...and, oh no. Samsonite. Samsonite was there, lying right next to Aura. So who was it? Who was gone? He kept looking down the line. Kivi, Paige, and Horace.

Gilbert. It was Gilbert Boyce, a.k.a. The Rogue. He was gone. Damn.

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