Voyage to Saga: The Lost (Part VI)

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Vearden opened his eyes. Above him he saw light filtering through bamboo stalks, and other trees. He could hear lots of jungle sounds; chirping, squawking, and rustling. But the sound that dominated his ears was that of buzzing. A mouse was using his chest as a little table to eat its seeds. It didn’t seem to be bothered by Vearden’s waking up. He took the little guy and placed him in his vest pocket as he was standing up. He was wearing a vest now. The buzzing was coming from bees. He couldn’t see a nest anywhere around, or really any particularly concentration of the bees. They were just all over the place; more than he had ever seen before. Fortunately, like the mouse, they weren’t bothered by his presence, so he just started walking in a random direction.

The buzzing eventually subsided a little, and were replaced by the sounds of people. He continued to walk towards it, and ended up in some kind of encampment. A few dozen people were going about their day. Some were building shelters, others fire. Some were sorting through luggage on the beach, while others were just resting. A man came in from his flank carrying a bundle of sticks. “Hey, excuse me...” Vearden tried to say, but the man just ignored him. He wasn’t being rude, it was more like he literally couldn’t even see Vearden. Likely no one could, if that were the case. This theory required further testing.

Vearden continued to walk through the camp, quickly seeing the wreckage of a plane about a football field away. It wasn’t smoking, or anything, so it had obviously crashed some time ago. The survivors had already gotten over the shock of it, and were just trying to figure out what to do next. He tried interacting with a number of people, but none of them could see him. He even took someone by the arm. She jumped and pulled herself away, trying to figure out what had taken hold of her, but was unable to find anything. So it wasn’t just that Vearden was in some kind of other dimension, he was invisible. He could use that to communicate with people, or he could protect them emotionally, and avoid touching anything. “All right, Shepherd!” he called out to the aether, confident that no one but her would be able to hear him. “What are you having me do here?”

He looked around, searching for The Shepherd, but she wasn’t there. It was worth a shot, though, right? Then he saw it. The Shepherd never showed herself, but someone else did. A young woman was staring right at him. It was either a coincidence, or an exception. She looked around as well, possibly noticing that the others could not see what she could. She said something to who could have been her older sister. The other woman nodded and went back to threading shoelaces. The younger woman waved Vearden towards her before walking into the woods. He followed her.

Once they were far enough away from camp to be heard, she stopped and turned to him. “Why can the others not see or hear you?”

“I’m not certain,” Vearden answered.

“Were you on the plane?”

“I was not.”

“So there are others here.”

“There is at least me. I assume we are on an island.”

“We wouldn’t have set up camp if we could have walked to civilization.”

“Quite.”

“Where did you come from?”

In science fiction and fantasy stories, there’s often this concept of the “underworld”. Most people are just living in the regular world. They have nine-to-five jobs, they drink beer, and they watch trash TV. But then there’s all this other stuff going on that they have no idea exists. We could be talking vampires, aliens, people who can read minds, demons, whatever. It just has to be something so realistically hidden from the rest of the world that it’s technically possible it’s actually real for the audience, but they just don’t know it. The beginning of one such of these stories usually involves one or more characters stumbling upon the truth, and starting their adventure. While they’re at it, they’re charged with protecting their loved ones, the general population, and possibly the secret people. No one who doesn’t already know this truth can know, for it will have terrible consequences. Or maybe that’s just a load of horseshit, and these secret underworlds aren’t giving humans enough credit. Maybe they can handle the truth. Maybe this woman can too. “I’m from a parallel universe,” he said truthfully.

She nodded, not in surprise, but with caution. “Do you mean an alternate reality, or another timeline?”

“I do not.”

“How did you get here?”

“Someone very powerful can cross into other worlds, and she sent me here to help with something. If I succeed, I might get my friend back.”

“So you want me to help you help us?”

“That’s how it’s been going for me so far. Is there anything you need?”

“Besides getting rescued?”

“Besides that,” Vearden confirmed.

“Hmm...” she said, thinking. “Well, Stuart is teaching us how to hunt. Do you speak Japanese?”

“No, sorry.”

“Oh, too bad. Kazuo seems to have a lot to say, but we don’t know what.”

“I know more of those people’s names than yours.”

“I’m Monica.”

“Hi, Monica, I’m Vearden Haywood. Why do you think you can see me?”

She shrugged. “I’ve always been able to see things others can’t. It’s just never been quite so literal.”

Another young woman, maybe just a hair older than Monica came through the brush. “Monica, who are you talking to?”

“I see dead people,” Monica whispered, jokingly.

“You’re not well, are you?”

“I’m autistic.”

The other woman didn’t know what that meant.

“It means I’m fine, Danielle. I am not the way I ought to be...I’m just the way I got to be,” Monica answered with a song lyric that Vearden recognized from his own universe, which was strange. She turned back to Vearden. “Do that thing again you did with the arm.”

“What?” Danielle asked.

“No,” Vearden said.

“Come on, this is my universe, you have to do what I say.”

“No, I don’t.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Just do it!”

“Fine.” Vearden gently placed his hand on Danielle’s shoulder.

She freaked out and stepped back.

“Told you!” Monica cried in delight.

“I should not have done that,” Vearden said out of immense regret.

Monica shrugged again. “She’ll be all right, she’s rich.”

Danielle started backing away more, like she had come across a snake.

“Isn’t that right?”

Danielle kept going.

“I see you, Danielle! I know who you are! I know what you did! I can see into people’s souls!”

Danielle turned and ran off.

That was weird. “Why did you do that?” Vearden asked.

Monica was still looking towards where Danielle had been. “She knows why. And deep down in her heart, she knows what she must do now. That’s all that matters.”

“Yeah, I’m lost.”

“Yeah, I’m not anymore,” she said with relief. “I see now why you’re here, especially since you’re obviously about to leave.”

“How do you figure?”

“Is that your bed over there?” She gestured behind him.

His bed from the hotel suite was just sitting in the middle of the woods. “It is, yes.”

“Well...unless your boss wants us to have sex, I think it’s probably just your exit.”

“I guess so.”

“It was nice meeting you, Vearden.”

“You too, Monica.” He turned away and muttered under his breath, “I think.”

“I heard that,” she said flippantly.

He sort of plopped himself onto the bed and started massaging his eyes. When he reopened them, he found the Shepherd lying next to him. “What was the point of that one?”

“Danielle has a lot of work ahead of her. In order for her to get it done, and get it done right, she needs to be honest with herself. Her lies are holding her back, making her sick.”

“And Monica?” Vearden asked.

“She plays her part too.”

He knew he wasn’t going to get any details, which was...whatever. He moved on, “what now?”

“You can have one night’s worth of sleep.” She stopped, and paced. She finally spoke again after a few minutes, “nah, you’ll get more than that. This next one is going to be weird. I mean, you see magic every day, because you don’t live in linear time. The next one is going to be different, though. You won’t be able to explain this magic away, not with the toolkit you have now. It’ll also be the most...menacing.”

“That doesn’t sound pleasant.”

“No, but you’ll be okay. Just, be sure not to get...” she paused for dramatic effect. “...left behind.”

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Microstory 525: Savons Are Barely Not Human

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Ever since savons, elves, dwarves, and hiniaur were reintroduced to the world, scientists have been eager to learn more about them. We don’t know exactly where they came from, or how they came to be. All we know is how different they are than us. Elves are generally leaner, taller, and top-heavy when compared to humans. The bones in their upper body are denser than ours, which is why they are unable to swim. They can’t get their heads above water in order to breathe. What they lack in the water, they make up on land. They’re faster, stronger, tougher, and possess a greater amount of endurance. On the superficial side, they also have an almost silvery, powdery, tint of purple eyes and hair. Like elves, dwarves are known for their stamina. They require very little sleep, and are particularly adept at manual labor. They are, however, short and stout, and are technically capable of swimming. They’re nothing when compared to hiniaur, though, which are at their best in the water. Every hiniaur is born with gills, but not always in the same place of the body. They’re capable of walking around on land, but require considerable amounts of salt in order to survive. They will carry little pouches of salt around their necks in case they ever find themselves too far from saltwater. It is often unsettling when first meeting a hiniaur. They grow up normal to an adolescent stage, but then they stop aging. They’ll live nearly another 120 years, but will show no outward signs of it. Biologists believe they were created long ago in an attempt to cure aging; one that failed...but not completely.

Perhaps simultaneously the most interesting, and the least interesting, of the new races are the savons. They are noted for their tendency to speak in riddles and noncontextual metaphors. More research needs to be done, but they claim to have some kind of insight into the future; one that may or may not rival that of prophets. As far as their biology goes, they can possibly be considered the opposite of hiniaur. Their bodies age extremely rapidly for several years, before hitting a plateau, and appearing elderly for the rest of their lives, which will likely be somewhat longer than humans. Despite their advanced age, they are indistinguishable from humans, and some have even been hesitant to believe that they exist. Geneticists have found this to be not too far from the truth. Testing has shown that savon genes so similar to normal humans that results are often negligible. They appear to have such minor differences that it is almost not worth treating them as a separate human subspecies. A full report will be released to the public next month.

Microstory 524: Trackstar Uses Chemicals to Enhance Speed

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No one in the world is faster than Alderic Krusen. That statement is meant to be taken literally, not as hyperbole. Just two months ago, when the track season began at Red Mountain East Tertiary School, Krusen was an unexceptional athlete, by his coach’s standards. He was good enough to make the team, but certainly no star. His parents saw his joining as an opportunity for him to stay in shape. They describe him as having grown up as a very active boy, running all over the neighborhood, unable to contain his own energy. They were worried, as exhausting as it was to keep up with him, that he was losing that as he grew older. He started getting more into video games, television, and other more sedentary activities. They thought he needed to get out more. He wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about the prospect, but he seemed trust their judgment, and was willing to give it a shot. Things changed just over a month ago. Krusen began to show signs of obsession. He would frequently skip class to workout, or run laps, and could often be seen training at night. His teachers gave him a little flexibility, not so that he would perform for his school, but because they collectively believed it to be in the best interests of his emotional state. What they didn’t know was quite how far he would take it.

Even after all this hard work, he was still not one of the best on the team. He was still not the fastest. And it was becoming clearer every day how important to him that was. His behavior began to change more. He started distancing himself from his friends, and failing to come to class almost altogether. He continued to pass tests, and do excellent on his home assignments, but he no longer showed any interest in academic studies. And then one day, it happened. He teammates describe a completely different person walking onto the field that day. He was dressed differently, sported a new haircut, and even carried himself unlike the old Alderic Krusen. He had managed to change how people perceived him in nearly every way, and he knew it. He invited himself to a practice race that he was not scheduled to be a part of. The student he was replacing didn’t seem to mind all that much, so the coach let it happen. The buzzer went off, and the racers did too. Krusen just stayed put, crouched at the starting line, featuring a full game face. He wasn’t exhibiting overconfidence; it was more like it didn’t matter to him when the race was supposed to start. He was going to run when he was good and ready.

The other racers were nearly halfway through their first lap before Krusen finally took off. At first, he was running at about the same speed as he normally did. Then he was moving faster, and then as fast as their top runner. Then he was moving even faster. And then he was moving faster than the previous record-holder for the fastest person in history, Velita Giese. And then he was moving faster than physics says any human should even be capable of running. Spectators say that he would have lapped his teammates twice, and crossed the finish line, by the time they finished their first lap. They were not able to find out, though, seeing as that the other races were too astonished by what was happening to keep going. For one brief moment, Krusen was ecstatic at finally having won a race. Then he looked around, then at his watch, and his face changed. He lowered his head under his shoulders, having presumably realized his mistake. After questioning by his coach, his favorite teacher, his parents, and even detectives of science, Alderic Krusen revealed that he did not complete the race on his own. He had first injected himself with some kind of unique drug that increased his speed. He turned the performance-enhancing drug over to the authorities at SDS, absolutely refusing to reveal its source. Insiders say that scientists are currently analyzing the drug to determine its properties. What Krusen did was illegal, but it could have potentially astounding applications in a number of fields. We will update when results are released from the laboratory.

Microstory 523: The End of Time…Travel

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Time travel has been corrupting the fabric of reality for an incalculable amount of time, or so says the Linear Timeline League. The LTL is a nonprofit organization, that doesn’t really exist. Numerous attempts have been made to create it, but all have failed. All incarnations of it exist only within the collapsed version of an alternate reality. It’s quite clear to most that, every time someone succeeds in creating the LTL, someone else goes back in time to stop it from happening. In response to this frustration, a second and separate organization was created; this one called TimeFire Anonymous. Unlike the LTL, the TFA is run by a mysterious group of people equipped with incredibly impressive and productive temporal manipulation technology. Their manifesto, which you can read in full on their website, cites the LTL’s faults. They were unable to legitimately promote the concept of a linear time-only reality, because they are just at an inherent and inescapable disadvantage. The TFA, on the other hand, has chosen to fight fire with fire.

Other counter-time travel agencies exist, but all of them are dedicated to protecting the timeline in a more ad hoc capacity. They have no ambitions to stop temporal manipulation altogether, but to prevent crime, or bring criminals to justice. The TFA finds their inaction to be abhorrent, and is actively looking for a way to end time travel completely. Many believe their endeavor to be meaningless, even with their willingness to play by the same rules as everybody else in the galaxy. What technology could one even possibly invent that’s capable of halting time travel? One second of a dip in power, and one person can slip back in time and prevent this hypothetical device from being built, forcing its creators to start all over again. The simple truth, in the eyes of the TFA’s detractors, is that the cat is out of the bag. Once time travel was discovered, it could not be undiscovered. Sure, maybe the moment in the timeline that it happened has changed—it’s even likely that this has happened, with few people even knowing about it—but fathoming a galaxy where it doesn’t exist at all is not something most people can fathom. The laws of logic shouldn’t even allow the possibility. Enter Panikon, stage left.

The Panikon is a hypothetical machine that would be enfixed to a certain point in time. It cannot be tampered with, and it cannot be stopped. Once it’s created, much like time travel itself, it cannot be uncreated. It would send a single both forwards, and backwards in time, reversing every instance of temporal inconsistency. It would indeed accomplish what most believe to be impossible; stop time travel from being discovered. Once activated, we would all go about our days without having any inkling that time travel was ever a thing. TimeFire Anonymous claims to be close to this one final solution to what they consider to be the “problem of nonlinear timer”. I’m not sure if this is true, but this journalist feels the need to take this opportunity to voice her support for their effo—TIMELOCKS FOR LIFE! SUCK IT, TFA!

Microstory 522: Anakro Biotech Reawakens Extinct Animals

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Biogenetic engineering firm, Anakro Biotech has been working on a top secret project for the last few years. Rumors milled about that they were developing an illegal human subspecies, but the president of Anakro, Stoyan Kirchner has made an official announcement, assuring the public that this could not be further from the truth. The following are his opening statements.

When I was a child, I would sneak out of the house and visit the city’s Museum of Natural History. I thought I was pulling a fast one on my family, and the guards I stealthily snuck by to get into the building. What I found out later was that they were all in on it. My parents bought for me a secret season pass to the museum, and all the guards knew that I was actually meant to be there. They must have had a few good laughs at my terrible impression of the Agent Kangaroo cartoon as I was trying to avoid detection. I was never very interested in the future, though I recognize that a lot of what our company does involves solving the world’s problems for a better tomorrow. What I’ve always been fascinated by were extinct animals. I find it heartbreaking every time I pass a model of a northern mandible shark, or a painting of blue eyed finty. These were amazing...glorious specimens, and one thing they had in common was that they were both destroyed by human expansion, among a great deal many others. It may not be sexy, and it may not further progress for the human race, but I’m passionate about this project.

At this point, the president directs a tech to open the curtain behind him. This reveals a tank with a single swimming shark, above which is a cage with a bird in it.

The first blue eyed finty in 230 years.

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Manny, the first northern mandible shark since 1725. Above it, that ball of feathers skipping across branches and stones, is Fendor, the blue eyed finty. He’s named after my favorite high king of the Straight Arrow fantasy book series, and I promise you that he is not in distress. Fintys are known for their inability to stay in one place for too long. If they don’t find food in ten seconds, they leave...evolution’s way of playing the odds. This world has not laid its eyes on the blue eyed variety of finty since the first industrial revolution in 1598. These are just two examples of what we’ve been working on in the Special Projects Division of Anakro, engineering species that were lost to time by experimenting with trace DNA, and anecdotal accounts. They’re the only ones we felt would be comfortable enough around an audience. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be releasing information—and yes, pictures and video—regarding our other new friends. A team is also putting the final touches on a proposal for the Worldwide Animal Guard, hoping to develop ways of reintegrating these new, but old, creatures into the ecological framework. I will now be answering questions.

To watch the full announcement, please see the embedded video below. [Not approved for Earthan viewing].

Microstory 521: Vampir-Human Hybrid Baby Dies

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On an unusually warm winter’s day in Raglin Park, a kaidas broke free from its leash and ran after a miacid. It started hopping over its new friend before headbutting it, which is how most goats get to know each other. The miacid was curious, but older, and more restrained. Still, the miacid eventually warmed up to its buddy, and suddenly pushed it into a nearby pond to show both dominance and affection. Their owners watched with smiles, both confident that neither of their pets would do anything they weren’t supposed to. That was how Walter Whitaker and Jovita Daelman first met. Walter is a vampir, and Jovita a human, but they were close to the same age. They met up for tea the next day, and things started escalating. Over time, the two of them fell in love, and two years ago, they were married at their special spot in Raglin Park. Both of them wanted children, but always knew that they would not be able to conceive one together. Humans and vampirs are not genetically compatible. There have been rumors of hybrids in the past, but scientists have been unable to corroborate these claims. And so, Whitaker and Daelman were content to adopt, which they did in the form of a five-year-old boy named Oscar.

They were recently thinking about expanding their family when a miracle happened. Daelman discovered that she was pregnant. They flew to a specialist in Iceland to confirm her condition, and learned that it was completely true. This was the first legitimately recorded case of a vampir-human hybrid. They remained in Iceland for the duration of the pregnancy so that a team of specialist could care for Daelman and her unborn baby girl. According to rate of development, Daelman’s due date was approximated at ten months after conception. This splits the difference between a standard human gestation period of eight months, and a vampire’s of twelve. The pregnancy went swimmingly, and the family was excited for the next chapter in their lives. The baby was born with no obvious medical conditions. It possessed characteristics of both human and vampire. Overall, it was a happy and healthy baby. Then things took a turn. The infant’s blood was trying to use both iron, and cobalt-magnesium alloy, in order to carry oxygen throughout its body. This was causing the body to reject all oxygen flow. In layman’s terms, the organs were unable to extract the oxygen properly, because they were confused about what methods to use. Little Adela Bryn was unable to breathe for herself, and was placed on a permanent respirator for two days. Unfortunately, not even this was enough to keep her alive, and she succumbed to her condition last night at 18:07 CCT. The family thanks all followers of their story, and will announce memorial services at a later date. They have revealed that they will not adhere to the customary four-day tradition.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: June 30, 2115

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Things were awkwardly silent when Mateo was sent back to his own body in 2114. He found himself lying on the ground, the movement of the sun making it clear that time had passed while they were in the past. Their bodies had just been left there in the present, empty. They were all now waking up, and struggling to get to their feet. Atrophy, Mateo guessed, was responsible for their muscle weakness. Fortunately, none of them had left their bodies by the beach at low tide. Or no, maybe someone had, because someone was missing. Oh no, that’s right. His mysterious daughter, Kivi never existed. Mateo looked over to Lincoln, wondering whether he could remember Kivi from the other timeline, but Lincoln gave nothing away. Arcadia was right about the other thing, that there was someone with them he didn’t recognize.

“Is everybody okay?” Leona asked, having recovered physically faster than most.

“That was, uh...” Horace said, “not pleasant.”

“I—” Mateo started to say, but a few others had intended to speak at that moment, and were talking over each other.

“Well,” Samsonite said, “I think that Mateo should be the one to speak, if he so chooses.”

“Thank you, dad,” Mateo said. He realized he had never called him that, nor was it entirely true. He was like a stepfather he barely knew, standing right next to a birth father he barely knew, while the adoptive father he did know was dead. “Unless anyone has any objections, it might be best if we put a general moratorium on the Ashton Kutcher Experience that we all just went through.”

“The what?” Xearea asked.

“The butterfly effect,” Leona explained.

“Oh,” Xearea replied.

“I believe we should institute a—and forgive me for this—don’t ask, don’t tell policy. Please, do not be afraid to disagree with this.”

It didn’t look like anyone wanted to talk about it either. Vearden was nodding, “yeah, I think that’s probably for the best.”

“I...” Mateo didn’t know how to bring it up, especially after his declaration. “I do feel I need to say...” He pointed towards the woman only he apparently saw as a newcomer. “I do not know this woman.”

She looked to her left, and then to her right, and then she pointed to herself. “Me?”

“Mateo, that’s Angelita Prieto. Mario’s wife?”

“Mario has a wife now.”

“For a while now, from our perspective, and yours,” Mario explained.

“Okay. Um...could everyone just...go about their day, so I can get to know my new step-mother. Sorry I don’t remember. Time travel, right?”

Mateo spent the rest of his day getting to know Angelita, who generally went by the name of Lita. They had apparently met when Mario was on a sort of vacation-slash-sabbatical in 2017 Spain. Yes, as it turned out, Mario was sometimes awarded breaks. Lita remained in her time period while Mario was working, traveling back and forth in time. He would sometimes be gone for days at a time, but no longer than that. Their timelines started running parallel so that, when Mario was gone for x amount of time, Lita would not see him for that same amount of time, as if he were doing nothing more than traveling out of town for business. Ten years later, they were both plopped onto Tribulation Island, but a few decades in the future. They both had memories of living here ever since.

Upon landing in 2115, Mateo found Samsonite to be missing. During breakfast, he spoke of Samsonite, and tried to give everybody a good idea of how they knew him. Aura was the most hesitant, but she trusted that Mateo wasn’t just straight up lying to everybody. Leona and Paige both had distorted memories of him, thanks to the remnants of his that they had never taken off. Leona was wearing his hat, while Paige was wearing his wedding ring, and those were enough to keep him tethered to their personal reality.

After breakfast, they spread out to get water, or tend to the fire. Mateo found Xearea hastily scribbling on a piece of paper with both hands. When he touched her shoulder, she flipped out and tried to stab him with the pen. Once he stepped back and gave her some space, she went back to her project. This was another trance. The instructions were probably too complicated to be spoken. When it looked like she was nearing completion, he raised his arms, and his voice. “Huddle up!”

Everybody stopped what they were doing and came over. Xearea, still in the trance, handed Mateo a list of their names, paired up together. She then looked to the crowd and spoke in that same creepy monotone the others had. “The Keirsey Temperament Sorter is a personality test designed to separate people into sixteen distinct categories. Though Samsonite was not technically a teacher, he did have a latent passion for helping people find their potential, enrich their lives, and achieve their goals. I have put you into groups of two. Each of you will teach your partner something you know, while learning something they know. My vessel has written further details, but it will be up to you to devise a legitimate test of accomplishment. You will have today to devise your lesson plan. School starts tomorrow, and your respective tests must be passed by the end of July 2, 2117.”

After the speech, Xearea started passing out slips of paper to everybody that explained what they were supposed to teach their partner. Mateo was the one with the partner list, and so he read it off while the real Xearea was coming back and recovering. “Okay, I guess we should all find quiet places to talk. Give your partner an overview of what you’ll be teaching them before starting the plan. Arcadia said nothing about keeping the lesson plan from your partner until you start, so I would say you can work on it together. Afterall, you have to know how versed in the subject they already are.”

Mateo’s birth father, Mario raised his hand. “Um, I don’t have a partner.”

“There’s an odd number of us,” Leona noted.

Mateo turned over the list to the other side. “Oh yeah, it says here you have to jump through time and find someone to teach and learn from. I don’t know if you will be able to find them yourself, or if you’ll be assig—” He chose not to finish his sentence after Mario suddenly disappeared. “Good luck,” he said after a preparatory sigh.

Xearea took Mateo by the hand and walked him into the forest. “Do you know where we’re going?”

“I thought you did,” Mateo said as he was watching Leona move off with Vearden. He carried with him the least education, so that made sense. But what would he be teaching her?

“I do know, I just don’t know what kind of memories you have of this place. Do you know what’s here?”

“Well, there were tons of buildings that have since been torn out of time, and you people don’t remember them. I think the Colosseum replica still exists, and I know we had a few huts on the other side of the island.”

“That’s not all,” Xearea said with a smile.

“Then what?” The smile was contagious.

“I think I’ll let you be pleasantly surprised. It’s the only true sign of civilization that we have here.” She kept smiling as she led him through the forest for well over a mile, never letting go of his hand.

When finally they had arrived, Mateo knew that she had been right. He was surprised, and it was actually kind of exciting. It was a gigantic driving course, even larger than the ones in the real world. There was even a raised highway, and building façades along the ‘city streets’. “Holy shit.”

“Holy shit is right,” Xearea agreed.

“When did who build this?”

“We don’t know. Vearden found it when he was out hunting many years ago.” Ah, hunting. That was probably what he was teaching Leona. “Nanotechnology obviously created it in a short amount of time, but we didn’t hear anything. You haven’t even seen the best part. She took him over to the only real building, and lifted the overhead door. In it, he could see dozens of cars of all makes and models, from all time periods. This was just the first floor of three, and it looked like there might be underground levels too.

“When this place was the hub; in the timeline that I remember, Baudin once spoke of adding a driver’s ed course, along with a garage like this. Theoretically, salmon could drop by and check out a car like a book from a library. If they were from a time before or after human-operated vehicles, or if they were going to be assigned a vehicle class they weren’t certified in, we would teach them.” He started rubbing his fingers on the hood of a 1967 Chevy Impala. “He never built it, though. I wouldn’t have been available for more than one day a year; if that, and the powers that be sent the emissary to inform him they wouldn’t allow it anyway.”

“It’s obviously more interesting to watch salmon struggle to learn something strange on their own.”

“Exactly. So why is it here now, in this timeline?”

“Maybe Arcadia commissioned it to be built,” she suggested. “She probably knew what most, if not all, of the expiations were going to be.”

“Yeah, maybe. Or maybe it’s proof that you can’t ever tear someone out of time completely.”

“Like a giant remnant?”

“A remnant that you can drive.” He was still eyeing that Impala. “Don’t know about you, but I could use a break.”

“Well,” she started smiling again. “This is nonstop for you. I get yearlong breaks.”

“I don’t need to design a new curriculum. I already know how to teach someone to drive.”

“In that case, let’s just...have some fun.”

“So you don’t know how to drive!” Mateo called over to Xearea as they were cruising down the highway with the windows down.

“Never needed to! I was turned into the Savior before I was of age, and it didn’t matter, because we don’t have human-operated cars in my time!” She called back. “And can we close the windows?”

“Yeah, okay!”

She just stared at the door.

“It’s that knob thing by your knee!—You turn it!—No, the other way!—There ya go. First lesson...in the bag.”

“How did you survive the early 21st century?”

“We used buttons by then. This car is even older.”

“Then why are we in it?”

“You feel that vibration?”

“Yeah...?”

“That’s why. They got rid of it in new cars.”

“Gee, I can’t understand why.”

He smiled. “That’s okay. It’s not for everyone. I’ve forgotten how good it feels to have this...”

“Average sized-penis?”

“Power,” Mateo finished, ignoring her remark. He then changed the subject, “so what you’re you gonna teach me?”

“I’m not allowed to say.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“I’m not allowed to say,” she repeated.

He knew he had to let it go, so he just kept driving. They drove a few more cars before the novelty wore off. Then he left her alone for the rest of the day so she could work on her own curriculum.

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