The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Tuesday, July 13, 2128

« < » > Table of Contents

Angela Marie Walton was born in 1784 to a wealthy slaveowner. He wasn’t the cruelest person in the world, but he did own people, and that was wrong in every time period. Angela grew up fascinated by the black people who worked for the family. She liked to watch them, not to remind herself that she was superior, but also not because she felt that they should be treated as equals. She was indoctrinated into the world she lived in, and she had trouble fathoming any world beyond it. She had somewhat contradictory feelings on the matter. It was wrong how African people were taken from their homes, and forced to live somewhere else. But the slaves her father owned today were not Africans. They only knew this country, so they ought to stay. They deserved to be treated well, but they were uneducated, and perhaps they could never be taught to be civilized, so at least this gave them a purpose. They had a roof over their heads, and food to eat, and she rationalized that there was little difference between that, and a freeman who had to work for a living. They weren’t getting paid in coin, but in living resources, so maybe that was good enough.

As Angela grew older, her contradictions started slipping away. She stopped seeing the good in the system, and started focusing more on how broken it was. Life was about choice, and these slaves were fundamentally not given a choice. The fact that they were born into this was not their fault, their lack of education was not their fault; nothing was their fault. She slowly became an abolitionist. But there was a problem. She was still a woman; a girl, actually, and her opinion mattered very little. If she spoke out against the injustices, she could lose everything. What she needed to do was find a husband who felt the same way. She did, in a man named Ed Bolton. He was more outspoken about his sentiments, and she admired him for that. In 1809, she began a courtship, of course, against her fathers wishes. But it didn’t matter, because once she was married, she wouldn’t have to worry about what her father thought, or how he felt. Ed wasn’t the richest man she knew, but he made a decent living, and he would be good to her. Unfortunately, they never made it to their wedding day. On September 9 of that year, Ed Bolton disappeared from his home, and wasn’t seen again for two years.

In the meantime, Angela lost what few privileges she had, and was forced to marry another man. This man was far more cruel to his slaves, and he firmly believed in their inferiority. Angela’s father didn’t even like him all that much, but he felt betrayed by his daughter for the whole Ed Bolton thing, and vindictive towards her, so her husband was her punishment. Her husband was as abusive to Angela as he was to the other humans he owned, and it all came to a head in 1816, when he dealt her a fatal blow. Ed Bolton was returned to the timestream when it happened, and tried to save her, but was unable. Angela’s husband took this as an opportunity to frame Ed for the crime, and when the latter resurfaced yet again five years later, the law swiftly intervened. He disappeared after three weeks, but the true killer was never caught, and Angela was still dead. Fortunately for her, there was life after death, and she spent the next three centuries making up for her past sins, until she was finally promoted to Counselor. Then it ended, when she tried to counsel a group of other time travelers, and it prompted a major demotion.

Over two hundred years after Angela’s death, new life was coming into the world. A woman of unknown identity was giving birth to a baby boy, completely alone. Down the hall, a man named Lowell Benton was killing someone else. The victim had done nothing to Lowell personally, but Lowell had a power. He could see people’s sins. Or rather, he always saw their sins. Whenever he looked at someone, the worst thing they did in their past flashed before his eyes. If he looked at them a second time, the second worst thing they did flashed. The cycle would continue ad nauseum, and the strain from this drove him crazy. It drove him towards murder, because dead bodies didn’t ever show him any visions. Funny he didn’t seem to get the idea to just go live out in the woods somewhere, and avoid people. He decided that being a vigilante was his only option. When he heard the screams of the mother after finishing his last jobs, he became curious. It sounded like she was in pain, but it didn’t sound like someone was purposefully hurting her. He quickly picked her lock, and broke in to find her alone, on the floor, with some towels. The baby was coming, and there was no time to get her to a medical facility. The most surprising thing was that she wasn’t giving him any visions. His theory was that the baby had never sinned, so it was sort of interfering with the signal, but the truth was that being in labor forced her to think of nothing but the pain, and whatever her sins were, they were buried so deep that Lowell couldn’t get to them.

By now, he was used to gross things, and of course, death. With nothing better to do with his night, he knelt down, and helped deliver that baby. And when the mother died by whatever specific cause, he didn’t bother to contact the authorities. He just stood up, and washed his hands. But the baby kept crying, and it was starting to get on Lowell’s nerves. He was about to leave when he caught one more glance of the infant, and felt a calm. He had also never thought to surround himself with babies before, who were the only living humans on the planet without sin. They could give him peace. So he picked up the child, and took it with him on the road. He never did call anyone about the dead mother, so by the time the autopsy confirmed she had died while giving birth, Lowell and the child were so far away, that no one could have made a connection between the two. He spent a week with that baby before growing bored with him. Sure, he was a calming presence, but he would start sinning eventually, and Lowell didn’t want to have to kill him for it. Besides, there were plenty of targets that actually did need killing, and running around with a child was obstructing that cause. He happened to be in Kansas City at the time, so he dropped the kid off at the nearest fire station, and moved on with his life with barely a second thought. The firefighters, meanwhile, named their new charge Jeremy Bearimy.

“Wow, you know a lot about me,” Lowell said. “Every time you talked about Ed, though, you gestured towards this woman right here.”

“I’m Ed,” Téa explained. “I died and was reincarnated as a girl.”

“Oh,” Lowell said. “Gotcha. Except, why would I rescue this Jeremy Bearimy fellow?”

“Weren’t you listening?” Mateo questioned. “He’s the kid you delivered back in 2018.”

“Yeah, so I saved him once. Why do I need to do it again?”

“Yeah,” Mateo realized, “why does he? Why do we need him?”

“You need a team,” Jupiter replied. “This is the one I’ve chosen for you. You’re primary objective is Leona. Once Missy returns from The Fourth Quadrant next year, hers will be Sanaa, Téa’s is Angela, and Lowell’s is J.B.”

“J.B.?” Lowell questioned. “He’s doing the initials thing? Nah, I’m not into that. Jeremy is a fine name, I’ll call him that.”

Jupiter stared at him a moment. “That’s between you and him, I don’t give a shit.”

“Who’s the fifth person?”

“That is your first mission,” Jupiter answered. “Trinity is the new team member who corresponds to Ellie. The problem is, I’m not sure where she is. I figured she would be on Thālith al Naʽāmāt Bida—”

“Thayla-whatnow?” Lowell interrupted.

Jupiter sighed loudly. “Your first mission is to locate her, and bring her into the fold.” He pointed to their wrists. “You’re limited as to when and where you can do that, though.”

“Wait, what do these things do?” Lowell was an interesting character. He was a bad dude, of course, and he questioned everything anyone asked of him, but he didn’t seem antipathetic to these requests. He both wanted all the information, and didn’t care what those answers were. Nothing was going to stop him from helping, not because he was altruistic, but because he wasn’t doing anything else right now.

“I’ll let Mateo explain. He’s your leader, by the way. He reports to me, but you report to him, and if he tells you to do something, you better do it.”

“Or what?”

Jupiter lifted his primary Cassidy cuff; the one in control of all the others. “Or I’ll switch off your time power dampener, and force you to watch all of my sins. You think the people you’ve killed were bad, you haven’t seen evil like mine.”

Now Lowell shut his mouth, and took a quarter step back.

Jupiter went on, “you are all on Mateo’s original pattern right now. I want him to be on the Bearimy-Matic pattern, however. Fortunately for you, through a loophole, those two components coincide with each other right now. The issue is that this loophole ends in less than three weeks. You have that long to find Trinity, figure out how to break into Tamerlane Pryce’s afterlife simulation, and get at least J.B. out, so he can rejoin the team. Lowell, there are only eleven cuffs total, which means you will be giving yours to him. That’s your motivation. If you fail, you’ll be stuck like this forever. Everyone understand what is expected of you?”

“Yes,” they all replied in perfect unison.

« < » > Table of Contents

Glisnia: Flesh and Bone (Part X)

< > Entire Story

“Well, I know that body belongs to you, but that was a little jarring,” Crimson Clover said.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Hogarth replied. “Lenkida said this was a long-term project, but I’m gonna prove him wrong. I’m gonna build his matrioshka body, and I’m gonna do it all at once.”

“How is that even possible?” Ethesh questioned. “I know I’m not anywhere near as intelligent or knowledgeable as anyone here, but that doesn’t seem physically possible.”

Hogarth shook her head, glad to have it back in her possession. The upgrade was nice, but it wasn’t really her. She was more of a flesh and bone kind of gal. “You’re thinking linearly. Everything happening in order, and over time, is the exact same thing as everything happening all at once, as long as you’re looking at it from the right perspective. I can see it now. I mean, I can’t see it like Aitchai can, but I understand it better. Everyone, everything, contributes just a little bit. We’ll all become part of the Glisnian collective. It will be the body that’s made up of the whole universe.”

“I’m not sure you’re making sense,” Ethesh pointed out, “and not because I’m just a dumb technician, but because you’re only giving us half the information.”

“I know,” Hogarth said with a nod. “I will explain everything. We just need to put the team together.”

“Who is on this team?” Crimson asked, like he was preparing a grocery list.

“Call everyone who’s still here. We don’t need Ambrose, Jupiter, or Hilde, but they can join us if they want.”

They met back in the room where The Shortlist and The Shorter List had their respective meetings. Hogarth, Hilde, Ethesh, Mekiolenkidasola, Crimson, Holly Blue, Jupiter, and Ambrose were there.

“Oh, God,” Jupiter said, “are we doing this again?”

“You’re not here to decide how we’re going to move forward,” Hogarth began. “I just want to tell you my new plan.”

“If there’s a new plan, then we should contact the others,” Holly Blue announced.

“I’m not going to do that, I’m done with the meetings. Holly Blue, you can leave, if you would like. Once I’m finished here, I will honor our deal, and get you back to our son, but if you don’t want to continue helping, I won’t make you. I think I can handle this.”

“Are you even capable of traveling to Declan’s world?” Holly Blue asked.

“Let me put it like this,” Hogarth said, “if I’m not capable of getting you back to Declan, I’m not capable of completing the matrioshka body.”

“How do you propose you do that?” Lenkida asked, wanting to get to the matter at hand.

“The time siphon,” Hogarth started her presentation. “You told me you wanted me to help you reach other star systems at faster-than-light speeds, so that’s how I went about tackling the problem. I saw each star as a target, but it doesn’t have to be like that. We could reach every star...every orbital around every star, in multiple galaxies. If we take just a little bit from everything—and I’m talking a molecule here and there—then it doesn’t matter if there’s life, or potential for life, or anything. No one will notice it’s gone, and they won’t miss it. I don’t see an ethical problem with it.”

The group sat in silence for a moment before Holly Blue spoke. “You wanna build a filter portal.”

“If that’s what you call it, then yeah,” Hogarth agreed. “Am I not the first to think of it?”

“You’re probably the first to think of something on the scale you’re talking about, but I know of other filter portalers. Keanu ‘Ōpūnui is a notable example. He uses his powers to manipulate the weather.”

“He can teleport individual molecules from one place to another?” Hogarth asked to make sure she was understanding her correctly.

“Yes.”

“That’s what you do, but only with your body,” Crimson reminded her. “What makes you think you can scale it up that much? Mr. Richardson?”

“Hey,” Ambrose said, “I’m not sure I feel comfortable with that. I still have no clue how we conjured a star from another universe.”

“I don’t need you to do anything anymore,” Hogarth assured him. “I can get all the energy I need from the universe itself. Every time I reach out to a celestial body, it will connect me to the other nearby bodies, like a chain reaction, or a web crawler.”

“That’s absurd,” Holly Blue argued. “What makes you think you can do that? I can’t build something that can do that. My powers only let me invent time technology that exists as a power or salmon pattern that is exhibited by someone else. It’s a lot easier when I’ve seen it done by that someone else, and even easier when I can study them. I don’t know anyone who can filter portal the universe, do you?”

Hogarth smiled. “I do. I just met him, the Aitchai.”

“Ugh,” a few of them said.

“We don’t know anything about this mysterious energy god you claim to have met,” Holly Blue added.

“You think I’m lying?” Hogarth questioned. “Tell me, Holly, how could I have gotten rid of the star intruder if not by his hand, and why would I have not just told you that truth?”

“I dunno,” Holly Blue admitted, “and don’t call me that; you know I don’t care for it, which is why you said it.”

“We used to be friends, a long time ago.”

Holly Blue took a breath. It would seem she was having a hell of a time with her respiratory system. Hogarth had thought she was imagining it, but now it seemed real. Holly Blue could sense this realization in the others. “I’m dying.”

“What?”

“I have a time disease.” She smiled quite sadly.

“Do you mean a time affliction?” Hilde asked. “That’s what we called what Piglet had before we learned she could control it.”

“No,” Holly Blue answered. “It’s an actual disease.” She breathed heavily again. “It’s the kind of thing that humans go through when someone messes with their linear pattern, and they don’t receive the proper treatment. It happened to me, ‘cause...because time and I have been working against each other for a long...um...space.”

“What does this mean?”

“It’s a unique cerebrovascular disease that affects my autonomic nervous system.” She reached up, and tapped on her eyeballs, removing two contact lenses from them. “It started out by blocking my pupillary response. I had to invent these things to regulate how they constrict and dilate, because my brain can’t do it on its own. The disease then moved on to my urinary system, which I imagine you don’t want to hear about. Now it’s gone after my lungs. Eventually, if I survive long enough to reach the final stage, my heart will just stop beating. Even if you implant artificial organs, my capillaries will stop exchanging chemicals with my tissue, and I won’t be able to transport water, nutrients, or oxygen. Can’t replace those, not all of them, anyway.”

Lenkida reached over and placed his hand upon hers. “Yes, we can.”

Holly Blue nodded negatively. “Yeah, but I’m not going to do that. I have to see my son, even if it’s the last thing I do. I don’t know if I can jump universes as a mech, but I know I can as a choosing one. I might consider upgrading afterwards, but...”

“But what?” Hilde encouraged.

“The disease might follow me through any transhumanistic upgrade. That’s why I called it a time disease, because it doesn’t respond to medical treatment. It...disappears, and comes back in the future. I think it’s literally traveling through time.”

“Have you spoken with Dr. Hammer or Dr. Sarka?” Hogarth suggested.

“Both,” Holly Blue said. “They tried, but they couldn’t do a thing.”

Hogarth looked over at Crimson. “How do you navigate the bulkverse? How can you find Declan?”

“Give me back the body, I’ll take her,” Crimson requested.

“No, I want to take her,” Hogarth insisted. “Just tell me how.”

“It requires calculating hyperdimensional metamathematics,” it responded.

Hogarth accidentally let out a belly laugh. “I sent an entire town to another planet when I was a kid. You think I don’t know metamath?”

“You did that on accident,” it said to her.

“Can you teach me, or not?”

“Yeah, I’ll teach you,” it promised. “Of course I’ll teach you.”

“Thank you.” Hogarth returned her attention to Holly Blue. “I’m sorry I’ve been hard on you.”

“No, I should be apologizing,” Holly Blue contended. “I’ve been grumpy about it. When you’re a time traveler, the future seems inevitable, as does the past. You can live in 1992, and then jump right to 2400. It can really feel like you’re immortal, because you see how things change. But I didn’t watch history unfold, I just skipped a bunch of parts. I’m just as prone to death as anyone else, and I can accept that. It’s just been tough. So many people have promised to help me find my son, and they have done so with the absolute best intentions, but they have not been able to deliver.”

Hogarth glanced over at Crimson for a half second. “I can deliver. I will. I wasn’t trying to be dismissive earlier. I can do this without you now, because you’ve been invaluable thus far, and not just on the technical side. Your sense of ethics is unmatched by anyone I’ve ever met, and I won’t forget the lessons that you taught me. But it’s time for you to go home.”

Holly Blue looked like she was tearing up, but nothing came out of her ducts, probably because of the disease. “Thank you.”

Hogarth tabled the discussion on the intergalactic time siphon thing, and focused on helping her friend with her dying wish. Crimson spent the better part of the next week teaching her how to transport her atoms to other universes, and more importantly, how to navigate to a specific point in spacetime. Then it showed her the coordinates to Declan’s location specifically. Once Holly Blue was packed, and ready to leave everything she had ever known behind, Hogarth embraced her, and dismantled every molecular bond in their bodies and belongings.

Declan was waiting for her on the side of a road, apparently having settled on this moment as a rendezvous with Crimson Clover long ago. It warmed Hogarth’s heart to witness the reunion, and reminded her that the point of doing anything in life was to progress, and support others. The matrioshka body was great and all, but it wasn’t the only path to the future, and it wasn’t essential. She would still do it, for sure, but at least she was no longer so anxious about getting it done. She had all the time in the worlds, which was nice, because that allowed her to hang out with her friends for a good month. When she left to go back to their universe of origin, Holly Blue was still alive, and actually kind of doing okay. It was possible that her time disease couldn’t follow her here, but Hogarth would never know. Holly Blue asked that she leave before seeing proof either way. She wanted her friends to move on with their lives without knowing how things turned out. She somehow took comfort in that, and Hogarth did too.

When she returned, a few days had passed for everyone else, indicating that the calculations Hogarth had come up with were a little off, and she needed to really nail those down before she tried something like that again. For now, they had work to do, and Ethesh was eager to show her the prototype that he had built in her absence.

< > Entire Story

Microstory 1490: Birth of a Big Problem

< > Table of Contents

One of the first things that the people of Durus voted on for the Solar Democratic Republic was what to do about the Time Crevice that Escher Bradley was trapped in for a hundred and eighty years. It was too dangerous to leave lying around, even with guards protecting people from it. There was no reason for something like that to exist, so it was vital that they find some way of getting rid of it. Of course, any attempt at destroying it could have devastating consequences, and completely backfire on whoever was unlucky enough to be assigned the task. If they were going to do this, it would have to be by fighting fire with fire, using paramount powers against it, once and for all. The first thing they needed to do was study it, not only to understand its properties, but also to know its range. Obviously, anyone who walked through it would start experiencing time at a much slower rate, but where exactly did that start, and where did it end? If they dug a tunnel from five meters away, when would it start happening for them too? Was it the rock? Some kind of temporal gas inside the crevice. An invisible man in there who was just controlling the whole thing for kicks and giggles? After all this research, they came up with a few options. There were some paramounts who had the ability to control the flow of time, and could potentially alter it for the Time Crevice. Unfortunately, none of them was successful. They could hold a time lock for a period of realtime, but unless they actively remained there, it would always snap back to the way it was, so that wasn’t a long-term solution. Perhaps they could simply bury it, so that no one could accidentally end up in there anyway. Well, that would take quite a long time, because remember that one second for the crevice was one day everywhere else. It took weeks to make any noticeable progress, and years until completion. Then someone had a bright idea to rid themselves of the problem forever.

A former president of the Democratic Republic suggested that they remove the crevice altogether. There were definitely paramounts powerful enough to rip it out of the ground, and banish it from the surface of the planet, at least when working in tandem. To be safe, they could even remove a kilometer diameter of land along with it, and hey, free crater. The risk was great, but if they could jettison the entire thing into space, they wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. Fixing the time discrepancy or burying the crevice would have been fine to do once they covered the logistics. Something like this, however, couldn’t be decided by just the people involved. All Durune had to have a say in the matter, so they put it on the ballot for the 2205 elections, to make sure everyone had a voice. The great thing about this, which was one of many this democracy enjoyed, was that no one was fighting too hard one way or the other. Everyone could agree that they wanted to do what was best for Durus, and if that meant going back to the drawing board, then that was what they would do. Earthan governments experienced a lot of infighting, but not Durus; not anymore. There was only one side now. The ballot measure passed, not with unanimous votes, but not by a small margin either. The necessary paramounts started working together immediately, to make sure they could perform this amazing feat in one go. They had never apported anything quite this large before, so it was important that they took their time, and got it right. Once they were ready and confident, they got into position, took out the huge chunk of land, and sent it into outerspace, in a fairly random direction. They didn’t come out of it unscathed. A lot of them ended up with psychic nosebleeds, and one developed a chronic migraine condition. She was okay with it, though, because she felt they had saved a lot of lives, or at least a major hassle that might have been. Sadly, they didn’t consider all of the angles, and that chunk of rock would one day come back to bite them in the ass. It wouldn’t be for decades, but it would ultimately change everything about how Durus operated, and potentially destroy all they had worked for since the beginning.

Microstory 1489: Solar Democracy

< > Table of Contents

Here was the end of the second Democratic Republic, and the beginning of the Solar Democratic Republic. What was the difference? Well, while a lot of things were different than before, and a lot more was deliberately changed to fit the theme, it wasn’t any more or less democratic than it was before. Of course, laws and policies were constantly changing, so it could not technically be said that the government was the same today as it was four decades ago, but that could be said for any organized region. In 2204, the rogue world of Durus finally stopped being rogue, after the however many hundreds of millions of years it likely spent wandering the interstellar void. It was now orbiting the 70 Ophiuchi binary star system, and though its orbit was artificially generated using powers and technology, they finally had a home. The Durune felt safe, independent, and empowered. They no longer relied on unwitting aid from Earth, but were taking care of themselves using all the resources they had at their disposal. No one could be sure who came up with the idea first, but it sparked at some point before arrival day, and the people voted on it during the 2205 elections. Changing the name of their government was more of a symbolic gesture than anything, but that didn’t mean it was stupid, or pointless. There was no doubt that this was the dawn of a new era; just as dramatic as the shift from the Adhocracy to the Mage Protectorate, or phallocratic Republic to the Provisional Government. They had to acknowledge that things were a lot different now, not simply because they believed they were, but because society was adapting to its new environment. Laws had to be passed to account for their new star system. These were not controversial, or even more progressive, but they did need to decide on them if they were going to survive the first full orbit, which would take years to complete. They changed other things about their government too, like renaming the head of state Luminator Prime, and having officials dress up in special clothing that apported photons of light from the center of their new suns. It was symbolic, but still important. Some were worried that it was doomed to be short-lived. They read a lot more into the symbolism, but suggesting the phrase itself was as if bookending their journey. Solocracy, they argued, could be considered a combination of the words Solar and Democracy. Obviously that had nothing to do with it, and it was merely a linguistic coincidence. Unfortunately, those people turned out to be right, in a way. The Solar Democracy did not last forever, or at least its defining characteristic didn’t. The people of Durus did not know this, however, as laws had been passed overtime which regulated what secrets seers were allowed to reveal, and which they were not. For now, they celebrated, because it took a lot of work, but they came together to get this done, and nothing would have happened without this sense of unity.

Microstory 1488: Bottom of the Abyss

< > Table of Contents

Until it started borrowing some of the sunlight that Sol was giving off billions of miles away, the best source of heat that Durus had was the broken portal. It was originally created to let all of Effigy’s monster friends into this universe, but Escher Bradley used his time powers to prevent it from working properly. This caused friction that wouldn’t be present in a well-functioning portal, and that friction generated enough energy to keep the surface warm, especially in the areas closest to it. It wasn’t entirely clear what was warming the planet enough for Savitri to survive there for ten years before Escher even showed up, but people had some theories. When Jayde Kovac finally shut down this portal, seemingly for good, in 2090, something was left behind. They called it The Abyss, and while there were no more monsters coming through from the other side, that didn’t mean everything was perfectly normal. The Abyss was a dangerous place, mostly because no one knew what it was, or what happened to people in there, because no one ever came back out. Some went in on purpose, for various reasons, including curiosity, so the first Republic had to make it illegal. They posted a guard detail around the border to stop anyone from entering, and even though that border was gigantic, they had time powers which allowed them to sense when anyone was approaching from any direction. It was one of the few things the phallocratic government did right during this time period. They even passed laws to prevent anyone from trying to use it as a form of punishment, which was, quite frankly, impressive for such an oppressive administration. Over time, it became more difficult to enforce these policies, but the laws never went away, and they were carried over into the new Republic.

Once Durus finally reached its destination in the 70 Ophiuchi system, and settled into its orbit, things started to change for the Abyss. People who happened to live near enough to see it noticed that it was less hazy than before. They still couldn’t see through it, but it was definitely thinning out. It would seem that the two real suns they now had were having some kind of impact on the weird temporal energy that once covered the area. The haze dissipated more and more as the weeks went by, and by October, experts confidently declared that it had pretty much disappeared completely. People loved that the Abyss was gone, but others pointed out that it could be interpreted as a bad omen. Perhaps all nonlinear temporal properties would eventually go away. People’s time powers, the time tech they had invented, even the unusual and artificial orbit were all in danger of being wiped off the face of this planet if this theory were true. Into 2205, things remained okay. It appeared that only the Abyss was affected. However, that didn’t mean things wouldn’t change in the future, especially since they hadn’t even completed a whole orbit yet. They couldn’t even be sure the suns had had anything to do with it, because they just didn’t have enough information. There was no reason to freak out, but it would also be foolish to not do something about it. A special committee formed, comprised of governmental officials, temporal manipulation experts, scientists, engineers, and more. They started thinking about what might happen if they lost all their powers, all at once, or gradually. It was probably something they should have considered long ago, and technically Durus was no stranger to the idea. That was why Hogarth Pudeyonavic built Splitsville centuries ago. It was always better to be prepared.

Microstory 1487: Top of the Morning

< > Table of Contents

Sixteen-point-six light years from Earth is a binary star system known as 70 Ophiuchi. These two stars orbit each other in a highly elliptical path, and the chances of there being a stable planetary system around either, or both, of them is highly unlikely. It just so happened that the rogue world of Durus was sent flying towards this system after its close call with the planets of Sol. It would have taken decades for them to reach their destination at their speed at the time, but the people didn’t want to wait that long, so they conscripted a number of key paramounts to make the planet move faster, so that it would take less than twenty years. Now it was 2204, and their dreams of orbiting their own stars were finally being realized. The experts knew that this was going to be a tricky process. There was a reason why circumbinary planets were probably rare, and why their orbits were generally unstable. That was okay, though, because the Durune weren’t looking for a traditional orbiting pattern. They obviously had the ability to manipulate their own movements, which was a power they could use to enter whatever orbit they pleased. They chose a sort of figure eight. They would orbit one of the stars, and then head towards the barycenter, which they would orbit once before flying off to orbit the other star. They would continue this pattern ad infinitum, or until they decided to do something else. There was nothing stopping them from altering this pattern later, or from leaving the system to find a new home. Again, it wasn’t going to be easy, but with their access to time powers, and time technology, it certainly wasn’t impossible. The problem was that they had to be precise and careful, because they wouldn’t get a second chance.

Accelerating and decelerating was one thing, but changing directions was a whole different ball game. Experts spent half their careers practicing for this one goal. They ran computer simulations, and came up with disaster scenarios, and figured out how to abort the mission. The last time someone tried to steer the whole planet, she just needed to avoid colliding with another planet, but this was much more complicated. There was a little bit of wiggle room when it came to finding their orbit, but if they missed their window, that could be it for 70 Ophiuchi. They would probably have to wait until they were picked up by some other system in whichever direction they ended up going. They also had to take down the sunlight they had been borrowing from Earth up until this point, or they would end up with too much heat. So it was really important that these people knew what they were doing, and that they accounted for every little thing that could possibly go wrong. Many things did go wrong, and their extensive preparation was invaluable in their efforts to correct them. Once the initial maneuvers were over, it wasn’t like they were finished. This orbital pattern was impossible in nature, and though automated systems could keep it humming, they had to maintain constant watch over the machines, because even the slightest deviation—especially in the transitional spots—could mean the end. They were ultimately successful. The husband of one of the engineers even came up with a new symbol to represent their finally independent world. It was a vaguely figure eight with a circle in the middle, and though it wasn’t completely accurate, it did look cool, and honestly embodied the people’s perseverance, fortitude, and most of all, their durability. Now they knew that they could do anything.

Microstory 1486: Escher’s Escape

< > Table of Contents

Way back in 2021, an alien entity with time powers named Effigy trapped early Durus refugee, Escher Bradley in something called the Time Crevice. Time moves slower inside than it does on the outside, so while Escher only experienced a little over eighteen hours, by the time he got out, a hundred and eighty years had passed for everyone else. As far as anyone could tell, this was a random and natural temporal phenomenon, rather than a deliberate creation of someone’s. No one knew Escher had been there the entire time, because Effigy had the ability to change her form to mimic others, so they all thought he had returned to Earth through Hogarth Pudeyonavic’s machine. They didn’t even know the crevice existed, because Escher and his friends, Rothko and Savitri agreed that it was best to keep it a secret, or people would use it against each other. He had just used up all his energy trying to get out of there, knowing that as each second passed, he was missing one day of his life. When he finally managed to make his way to an outpost called Hildera, he was relieved to find that people were willing and able to help him. A lot had changed while he was gone, and though he had never learned anything about the terrible phallocratic republic, or the monster war before it, he was worried no one would help. A part of him kind of figured that Springfield would either destroy itself and die out, or find their own way back to Earth. He was surprised to find that Durus was now a thriving civilization, with advanced technologies, and yes, even a potential way home. Of course, he probably didn’t want or need to return to Earth. Even if he managed to go back in time, his family literally forgot he existed after he first disappeared. There was just nothing left for him there.

Someone else may have wanted him on Earth, however. After spending a few days resting, recovering, and getting to know the new world, Escher let his escorts lead him to the Nexus replica building, just to see it. As if his mere presence were the key, the machine suddenly booted up on its own, and waited for someone to input a set of coordinates. The scientists didn’t know exactly why it activated itself for him. It had been sitting there at least since its discovery in 2195. It could have been a coincidence, but probably not, since not one day had gone by that no one stepped foot in that building, if only to make sure it was still off. Still, Escher didn’t want to leave, and no one else did either. This was everyone’s home now. Anyone who had wished to be let on The Elizabeth Warren was either dead, or had since changed their minds. So, what was this Nexus replica good for? Exploration was the best answer, but there was a bit of a problem with that. The calculations were proving to be tricky, as Durus was still hurtling through interstellar space at incredibly high speeds. For anyone without intimate knowledge of how these machines worked, they appeared to work better from one star system that sat at a predictable location to another. Besides, they were coming up on their destination, and it was best if the experts focused on making sure that went smoothly, rather than taking on a new project right now. The exploration missions would have to wait, for the right time, and for the people to decide how that was going to go. For now, Escher needed a new life, and to find his place in the new world. He was a child when he was unwillingly dispatched to this rogue planet, and had never received a real education, even though he was forty years old. It was time to change that.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Saturday, July 12, 2127

« < » > Table of Contents

No one in the history of Tamerlane Pryce’s afterlife construct had been assigned Level 11, white. He agreed with the other Designers that people living in the real world would not be ready to learn the truth about what happened to organic entities after death until at least the 25th century. Of course, Mateo already having experience keeping secrets meant that Pryce didn’t think this one case would be a problem. Mateo was already living on the fringes, and no one would notice his resurrection, because they didn’t know about him in the first place. Other time travelers wouldn’t be suspicious either, because they were used to crisscrossing each other’s timelines.

This came with both perks, and downsides. Mateo’s new body would be in perfect condition, and resistant to disease, which Tamerlane called the pristine edge all resurrected people would have. He also maintained a permanent remote connection to the afterlife, so he would be able to communicate with his friends while he worked to figure out how to get them all out too. There was a catch, though. He was fully capable of dying yet again, and if that happened, he would lose his Level 11 privileges, and have to start over. Honestly, this was a crapshoot when it came to Pryce’s warped mind. He may make Mateo spin the death wheel again. He might just send him back down to Earth, and maybe even sever his connection to his friends—which he might do at any time anyway. If Mateo ever returned, Pryce could also just cut his losses, and delete his code permanently, so there was nothing anyone could do. If he wanted to save Leona, Ellie, Sanaa, J.B., and Angela, he needed to be smart. He needed help. He needed Jupiter Fury.

Mateo didn’t know how to contact Jupiter, and he didn’t want to speak with The Delegator again. He had kind of burned that bridge, so he had to find some other way. Holly Blue had a special phone number to call her, but there was no way he was smart enough to remember all fifty-two digits. Dr. Malloy Hammer had a phone number too, and while it was a lot easier to remember, he never knew it, so that still wasn’t helpful. Someone on Tribulation Island, or anywhere else on Dardius, would be more than happy to help, but there was no way to get to them. He still didn’t know where the Earth Nexus replica was, so if he wanted to travel the intergalactic void, he would have to go to Egypt. Well, that wasn’t impossible, but Pryce didn’t bother to give him a new identity, so catching a flight would be problematic. In his mind, there was only one solution to his isolation, and it was kind of fitting, because it was starting to become a real useful trick these days, albeit for a different reason every time.

It always seemed to be the truth to them that the powers that be didn’t want him dead. It was also true that they appeared to ignore this concern when he had to save J.B.’s life. Or maybe they didn’t. Maybe they were only seemingly all-powerful, but millions of years ago on Dardius was actually out of their purview. It wasn’t the craziest hypothesis that they might try to save his life if something were to place it in danger. And hey, if this didn’t work, he knew exactly where he was going to go after death, and it wasn’t all bad. He chose to not call Leona about his decision, because she would probably try to talk him out of it, and be stressful about not necessarily being able to. He took the elevator to the platform of the Kansas City arcology, walked to the edge, climbed over the barrier they erected to stop this sort of thing from happening, and swung himself over.

He fell down and down and down, until a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his body, and teleported him to safety. It was Paige Turner, who was these days filling in for Savior of Earth, Xearea Voss. “Sup,” she said simply.

“Sup,” he echoed.

“Are you from the future?”

“I am.” He paused a moment. “Looks like you’re still here. Feel any dry mouth?”

“Nope, I think the PTB want us to talk for a moment. What’s on your mind?”

“I was hoping to contact Jupiter Fury.”

“Fury? Not Rosa?”

Mateo rolled his head side to side. “Rosa would do, yeah, sure. Can you help?”

“I don’t have my powers anymore,” Paige said. She patted her pockets. “I don’t have any photos anyway. If you flung yourself over the edge just talk to me, I’m afraid you wasted your time. Arcadia and Memphis have me on a tight leash.”

“Well, it was a longshot, I guess.”

Paige frowned at him. “I’m not really part of the choosing one network right now. I really only have one name for you. It might not work; I’ve never tried it. Some choosers have special ways of contacting them, and this guy has one of those ways. He’s, like, a time god, or something. Reaching out to him might be a little...uncomfortable for you, what with you being Catholic.”

“I’m not Catholic anymore.”

“Well, you might have lapsed...”

“No, The Superintendent took away my faith completely, I’m surprised you remember. The only reason I do is because I borrowed Nerakali’s memory manipulation powers.”

“Oh. Then you’ll probably be fine. You have to pray, like he’s an angel. You pray to him hard enough, he may come, and hopefully agree to hook you up with the network.” She started smacking her lips. “I’m about to leave. Real quick, his name is Vendakaiel.” And with that, she was gone, off to save someone’s life who actually deserved it.

Vendakaiel. Hm. Okay, well, this should be relatively easy. Mateo went over to the nearest tree, and got down on his knees. He closed his eyes, and held his palms together, like a silly cartoon. Then he got all the cynicism and skepticism out of his system, so he could genuinely pray to this regular man who probably liked having people believe he was some kind of time god. He only had to concentrate for a few minutes before he felt himself being pulled away. He opened his eyes, and saw the tree before him stretch taller and taller, as if made of elastic. Everything else around him was doing the same, as he was sliding alongside them. This was a form of transportation he had not yet experienced. It looked scary, but it felt great. When it was over, he was still on his knees, now in a flowery garden. It was a very relaxing place to be, and immediately made him feel calm and stress-free.

“I am Vendakaiel,” came a voice behind him.

Mateo smiled dumbly, and turned around slowly. “I’m Mateo Matic. It is a pleasure to meet you, sir.” He could see a figure before him, but couldn’t really make it out. There was something very wrong—or right, depending on your definition—with the way his brain was processing information.

“Likewise. I have heard great things about you.”

“Where are we?”

“The Garden Dimension,” Vendakaiel explained. “It is where I live.”

Mateo looked around some more. “Oh, I’ve been here before.”

“Yes, it was just over a decade ago. I remember The Conservator asking The Horticulturalists’ permission to visit.”

Mateo breathed deeply. “Is there opium in the air, like that one show with the magician who got his stuff touchers chopped off? I can’t remember the name.”

“Actually, yes, where do you think they got the idea? It’s only in this one section, though. I use it to make people feel at ease, so they do not tremble at my appearance.”

“I am not so easily disturbed,” Mateo promised. “Could we go somewhere without recreational drugs?”

“As you wish.” Vendakaiel spirited them away to another part of the Garden.

It took Mateo a few minutes for his head to clear, but that was probably faster than it would have been had he taken the drugs directly. He could see the time god fully now. It was a monster. Mateo had never seen it before, but Leona had, and he could recall her memories of the event. He just needed to think harder for a moment. What did they call it again? “You’re a speedstriker.”

“Very good,” Vendakaiel said with a bow.

“You can teleport?” he questioned.

“Eh, that’s not really the right word to use. What I do involves a lot more running. When you called to me, I had to come get you, not just snap my fingers, and make you appear.”

“I see. Well, I appreciate it. Wait, I was to understand that time monsters didn’t have agency. They weren’t conscious, just glitches.”

“I’m evolved. Some human scientists trapped me, studied me, and finally, taught me. I am profoundly grateful to them for the gift of slowness. I didn’t realize how much better it is to not be in constant motion.”

Mateo nodded understandingly. “I was hoping you could help me find someone I lost track of. His name is Jupiter Fury?”

“Yes, I know the name. You’ll have to give me a second, so I can go find him. I found him.”

“Ah, that’s great.”

“I’ll take you to him, but I require something in return.”

“Naturally.” Hopefully, if it was something he couldn’t pay, Vendakaiel wouldn’t force him to pay, but just send him back to Earth empty handed.

“I need blood.”

“Oh, no.”

“It is the only thing that slows me down. The drugs help, but there’s nothing better than human blood. I don’t kill, or drink it; I inject it, like a normal person.”

“Yeah, that’s normal.”

“Look, if you can’t do it, I won’t make ya. I was just under the impression you needed my help, so...”

“You can have some of my blood, okay?”

“No can do. If I transfuse the blood of a salmon or chooser, I take on their properties. I have no interest in skipping time. It has to be a regular human.”

Mateo let out a short growl. “Ugh. Fine. I will find a blood bag when I’m on Earth. Jupiter himself will be able to help me with that too, so it’ll be a win-win.”

The creature might have been smiling, but it didn’t have very human facial features. “You better deliver, because if you don’t, you’re gonna find out just how fast I am.”

“I understand.”

The scenery stretched again, and transplanted him right in front of Jupiter Fury. “Miss me?”

“I did,” Jupiter said sincerely. “You died.”

“I’m back,” Mateo said.

“For good?”

Mateo chuckled. “Is anything in this universe good?”

Jupiter smiled softly, and nodded in agreeance. “Report.”

And so Mateo went about telling him the story of how he died, where he went after it happened, and what his wife and friends were doing without him. He didn’t know if Jupiter himself would be able to help, but perhaps the virtual construct was like another reality, and there was a way to break into it without Pryce knowing about it. After the story, though, Jupiter didn’t think that was the case. The most likely explanation was that the simulations were being run on a massive network of computers, which were orbiting together in a massive collection, around some star. This star was probably located very far away so as not to allow the Earthans to discover it too soon. He would have to take some time to think of their options, which was a really good sign, because it meant Jupiter was truly interested in helping.

While he was waiting on that, he went into the other room alone, so he could form his technopsychic connection to the afterlife. Leona answered the call, which prompted him to appear before her like a hologram. Except this was all virtual, so he could interact with the things around him just as much as she could. It was all just ones and zeros. Leona called them avatars. “How have you been this last year?”

She held up both of her wrists, where he could see a Cassidy cuff on each. “Pryce wrote the code for them. We’re all on the Bearimy-Matic pattern, just like we were before. I’ve only been here a day.”

He wasn’t sure whether to be upset about that, or not. At first, he didn’t think it should make a difference, but then he decided it might be for the best. Mateo was in the main sequence now, and Pryce heavily implied that he managed to encode his original pattern into the new body. If true, he and Leona would be separated through space, but at least not through time. “I’m going to get you out. I’m working on it as we speak.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Leona said. “Angela doesn’t deserve this. If you can only rescue one of us, let it be her. The rest of us are fine.”

“If I rescue her, he’ll punish you,” Mateo reasoned. “Everyone is getting out.”

“Okay.” Leona didn’t just not want to argue. She seemed to agree.

“Now.” He smiled reassuringly. “How about a tour?”

« < » > Table of Contents