The Pryce of Heaven: Crisis Averted (Part IV)

< > Entire Story

Missy and Tetra are able to watch Téa and the many, many versions of Jupiter Fury rampage through the afterlife simulation, like it’s a movie. Even though none of this stuff is real, it does take code to generate. Every time they crash a car into a hotel lobby, or dump a literal ton of sugar into a swimming pool, it alters the code, and the system can detect that. These changes are happening all the time, because people are driving around, and they’re adding sugar to their tea, but the wackier these code changes there are, and the more they happen in succession, the more likely it is that the system will flag it as aberrant. In many simulation worlds, the laws of physics are different, and they’re specifically being used to simulate conditions that could not possibly exist in the real world. They allow users to journey to the center of a star, or have two sets of vocal cords. The main simulation, however, is modeled after the true laws of physics. They too can be changed, as long as you’re at the right level, but unfortunately, none of the Jupiters has these privileges.

Precisely because there are so many of them, Tamerlane Pryce deliberately capped all of them at Level 7 Elite. Still, this allows them to make unlimited requests for whatever they want, however absurd, as long as they follow that particular world’s restrictions. So when one Jupiter asked for one thousand airplanes that are all flying towards a single point simultaneously, they figured Pryce would take notice. He didn’t. One Jupiter requested a tank four times the size of a normal one, while a different Jupiter asked for a one alpaca that bites people incessantly, and another that bites the first one, but Pryce still did not come. The requests just kept being crazier and crazier, or more to the point, more intrusive to the harmony of the main simulation. But nothing works, until December 14, 2134 gets the bright idea to ask for a few fairly simple things. “Can I get a coke? No, a water. No, a lamp. No, a cat. Can I get a spaceship? No, one huge Junior Mint. No, a coke.” It works. Pryce finally shows up.

“Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! You said the magic words.”

“That was all it took?” December 14, 2134 asks.

“I assume you know it’s a reference,” Pryce says. “Anyone who asks for those specific things, in that specific order, and does so unironically, is awarded audience with me. So. What would you like to discuss?”

“There!” Missy declares. “Pryce is definitely in the simulation, and distracted by the Jupiters. Téa is back in full lurker mode. Hopefully Pryce can’t see her either.”

“Great,” the still living version of Jupiter says. “This doesn’t mean there aren’t other defenses, but now you should be able to get to the brain. That’s where it’s possible to control the whole body, I know it.”

“That’s what I was thinking too,” Missy agrees. “I don’t really know Hogarth Pudeyonavic, but that’s what makes the most sense.”

“Can we survive there?” Tetra asks. “You said some parts are completely uninhabitable.”

“That’s true,” Missy confirms, “but Pryce is still an organic human. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about him, it’s that he doesn’t wanna be a mech. He needs to be able to control the matrioshka body, so wherever exactly that is, it has to be habitable.”

“Still, we need a way to actually get up there from the ass,” Tetra reminds her.

“I’ve been multitasking,” Missy tells her. “I know enough about the section we’re in. They installed teleporter pads at strategic locations. We’ll have to make a few jumps up the torso, but it will get us to the brain eventually.”

“I hope Téa and my duplicates can distract Pryce for that long,” Jupiter muses.

“We’re tired of living in the simulation,” December 14, 2134 tells Pryce.

“Okay, cool,” Pryce says. “I’ll just delete your code. Give me a second...” He starts tapping on his virtual tablet.

“No. We want to be promoted to Level 11.”

Pryce chuckles. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I asked?”

“I like to be unpredictable, and giving you what you desire simply because you asked is certainly something I would do, just to keep people from tracking a pattern to my decisions. But I’m not going to do it. And here’s why. Her.” He gestures towards Téa.

Téa thought she was invisible, but maybe not to him.

“Her who?” December 14, 2134 questions. He’s not just being protective of her. He legitimately can’t see her himself anymore.

Pryce reaches above Téa’s head, and simulates pulling down a zipper, which serves to take Téa out of lurker mode, and exposes her to the rest of the simulation. “Her.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“Do to you?” Pryce asks, offended. “I’m not going to do anything to you. You are my honored guest; the first I’ve ever had. No one’s ever been able to hack my simulation before, mostly because they don’t know it exists. And there’s something you have to understand about that, I have no control over the living. I am Hades, relegated to the afterlife. Even though you’re in here, you’re still alive, and I can’t touch you. Your friends, who are still outside the simulation, in their bodies? I can’t stop them from doing whatever they want either. The Glisnians and I made an arrangement. I’m allowed to use their processors to run my simulation. I don’t have control over the whole thing, though. I never have. You people make a lot of assumptions.”

“The Glisnians are still here?”

“Of course! You think I stole it from them? How would I have accomplished that?”

“That’s far enough.” A woman was waiting for them in the teleporter room. They were now at the shoulder of the matrioshka body, but it took some time to get there.

“We’re not here to hurt anybody,” Tetra assures her. “We can free you, though. We can take Pryce out of power.”

“You believe that Tamerlane Pryce is in power here,” the woman gathers.

“He’s not?” Tetra asks.

“Far from it,” she begins. “We allot him processing power, but his simulation is but a small part of what we do here.”

“What do you do here?”

“Don’t be rude,” Missy whispers. “First of all, let us do introductions. I am Melissa Atterberry. This is my associate, Tetra Turner, and this is our other associate, Téa Stendahl. Her consciousness is presently in the simulation.”

“I am Avalhana. I am responsible for communing with non-Glisnian vonearthans. I must ask, are you choosing ones?”

“The two of us are,” Tetra replies. “She is what we call a salmon. It’s—”

Avalhana waves her words away. “We are aware of what it means. To answer your question, we experiment with time here. That is why we are so close to Sagittarius A*. You appear to be manipulating the speed of time on your own.”

“I’m doing that,” Missy clarifies.

“Fascinating. Which is why I should stop speaking to you. As choosing ones, you are obligated to instead speak with my associate, the Afflicted Ambassador.”

“Very well,” Tetra says tentatively.

“Please step off of the pad, so that we may bring her to our location.”

As soon as they step away, the pad activates. Hogarth Pudeyonavic herself appears before them. She looks around. “Are we in standard realtime now?”

“You are inside my bubble,” Missy confirms.

“Excellent,” Hogarth says. “I’ve always found it uncomfortable, being in the black hole, watching the rest of the galaxy move on without us.”

Avalhana unceremoniously leaves the room, but once she crosses out of Missy’s bubble, they watch her going at a normal rate. This means that she’s actually traveling at an incredibly high speed, which is highly incredible.

“What year is it?” Hogarth asks.

“Twenty-one thirty-four,” Missy answers.

“What brings you here?”

“We have friends in the simulation,” Tetra says.

“Which one?”

“Multiple ones,” Missy explains. “Sanaa Karimi, Ellie Underhill, one Angela Walton, Jeremy Bearimy, and a Lowell Benton. We think he’s been shelved, though.”

“No, I don’t mean which friends; which simulation?”

“The afterlife sim,” Tetra elucidates. “If that’s not specific enough either, it’s the one that Tamerlane Pryce is running.”

Hogarth nods. “I see. You want them resurrected.”

“We do.”

“That is not the agreement we have with him,” Hogarth explains. “He can do whatever he wants with it. No one is entitled to resurrection.”

“You don’t have to break your agreement,” Missy promises her. “We’ll rescue them, and leave you out of it.”

“That will not be necessary.” Téa is awake. She rubs all over her face, like she’s showering. Then she stands up, careful to not let the VR cap fall from her head. “I will release your friends.”

“You will?” Tetra is confused.

“Forgive me. My name is Tamerlane Pryce. I am borrowing your friend’s body. Don’t worry, she consented. I needed to speak with you, and my own body is thousands of light years from here.”

“It is? Where?”

“You don’t need to know that,” Pryce replies. “The point is that this is my only option. If I resurrect a few people, I avoid a terrible, terrible outcome; a crisis, you might call it. I’m willing to part with them to save the whole simulation. It’s very important to me.”

“How do you know about this supposed crisis?” Missy presses.

“I ran a simulation. If I push back, you push back harder, and a lot of people get hurt. I don’t want that, because then you’ll never know that I’m not evil. I’m sick of people thinking that about me. I saved tens of billions of lives. Me! I did that! I did that alone! Stop treating me like the villain!” He takes a deep breath, and composes himself. “Sorry. It’s just been very difficult lately. You and your friends are more trouble than you’re worth. They murdered a prisoner, let another escape, and they keep changing my precious code. So I will take you to The Cervix, and we will be done with this.”

“Um. The Cervix?”

“That’s where he creates people’s clones,” Hogarth decides to explain. “It’s a symbolic gesture, which we conceded, because...I don’t really remember why. I guess I just didn’t want to argue.”

“Babies aren’t made in the cervix,” Tetra argues.

“Well, I didn’t design the matrioshka body with a womb structure, so this is the closest thing. There’s no vagina either, but that’s what he calls the Earth Nexus, which is where the resurrected come out.”

They all look at Pryce. “Oh, don’t judge me. Most partial organics here live in the breast sections; because they need nourishment. I’m not the only one respecting the symbology of shape.”

Hogarth chooses to move on. “The Cervix is no longer linked to the matrioshka body, and is located far enough away from A* that it doesn’t experience time dilation. You’ll be able to drop your bubble.”

“This seems too easy,” Tetra notes. “We’ve been through a lot to get here, and our predecessors went through more before we were even brought in. There’s something you’re not telling us.”

“There’s a lot I’m not telling you,” Pryce admits. “But it’s nothing you need to know, and you don’t have to worry. You’re getting your friends back, and there’s no secret motivation behind this. There is no conspiracy, just take the win.”

“That’s exactly what someone behind a conspiracy would say,” Missy contends.

“It’s also what someone who isn’t would say,” Pryce snaps back. “If I’m lying you’ll suffer, but if I’m telling you the truth, you have ten seconds to accept it, or you’ll really suffer. So again, take the win, and let me go back to work. This has taken up too much of my life already. I just want it to be over.”

Tetra sighs. “We’ll take it. How do we get there?”

“We have a Nexus too,” Hogarth answers.

At that, Téa’s body falls to the floor. She wakes up five seconds later as Missy and Tetra are holding her in their arms. “It’s me. I’m back.”

“Did he hurt you?” Tetra asks her.

“No, everything’s fine. I’m fine. I saw our friends, including Lowell. He was shelved, but Pryce let him out. He’ll be coming back with the rest.”

“I don’t like this.” Missy shakes her head slowly. “I don’t trust him.”

“It’s our only choice,” Téa says. “We have to assume we’re getting what he promised. Take it one step at a time. Trust, but verify.”

Hogarth sets them back on the teleporter pad, and continues the series of long-range jumps, until they’re all the way at the neck, which is where the Nexus is located. They take that to the Cervix, where all their friends have already been placed in clone bodies. It’s a pretty quick turnaround, but they decide to accept that as truth as well.

Missy, Tetra, Jeremy, Sanaa, and Angela step back into the Nexus, and prepare to return to Earth, but the other three stay outside. “I can’t go with you,” Téa tells them. “I have to get back to Tribulation Island in The Parallel. That’s where I’m meant to be.”

“How are you going to get there?”

“I’m on my way,” Jupiter tells them through the Cassidy cuffs. “I will make sure she gets where she’s goin’.”

“Ellie, are you going with her?”

“No,” Ellie responds. “I’m going to the matrioshka body. The simulation is mine, and I’m ready to take ownership of it.”

“I’ll go with her,” Lowell reveals, “and help. I don’t have my powers anymore. As far as I know, you are all sin-free. I need to do something positive with my life now.”

“I would love the company,” Ellie tells him with a polite nod.

“I’ll wait with Téa,” Missy decides, stepping out of the Nexus. “She shouldn’t have to be alone, and I feel like I’m supposed to be on Tribulation Island too.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to thank you now,” Sanaa says to her. “Which I did, and it’s done, and now we can go. Boot it up, baby!”

“No hug?” Missy asks.

“No hug,” Sanaa says. “I just don’t ever wanna see your face ever again.”

“I’ve been told that can be arranged,” Missy agrees.

They say their thank yous and goodbyes, and then the Earth-bounders leave, hoping to find their friends, or at least wherever they belong.

Ellie and Lowell then step back in, and prepare to return to the matrioshka body, but now outside of the afterlife simulation. “Should we formulate a plan?” Lowell asks.

“I’ve never found that necessary,” Ellie answers him with an evil smile.

They disappear.

“Welp,” Missy says. “According to my calculations, Jupiter is about sixteen thousand light years from us at the moment. If he flies here with the reframe engine at full speed, it will take him around twenty-two years to arrive.”

“I’m gonna be kind of old,” Téa points out.

“Fortunately, I can help with that. My bubbles can slow down time as well as speed it up.”

“Okay,” Téa nods in understanding. Go ahead and do it.”

Missy grins. “I already have.”

Just then, Jupiter opens the door from the outside, and hangs onto the handle. “Y’all need a ride?”

< > Entire Story

Microstory 1525: The Best Luck is Not Luck at all, But Skill and Understanding

< > Table of Contents

I have the best luck

Except that it’s not luck at all

I can control reality

Rather, I can control my own reality

Nothing can hurt me if I don’t want it to

There is always a chance to escape danger

Or at least that has been my experience

If there is a chance of anything, I can exploit that

I can rig the chances so they fall in my favor

The greater the chance, the easier it is

But the difficult ones are still possible

nd I’m one of the best at finding those preferable outcomes

Put me in any bad situation

I will find a way out of it

Even if it’s crazy, like a fall from a skyscraper

Even if no one else could have thought of it

Because that’s the trick that they don’t know

I don’t have to come up with the best way to alter reality

I just have to decide on my outcome

I look to the future, seeking out what I want

I send my thoughts to that eventuality

And the path I take there opens up on its own

You see, everyone else makes it really hard on themselves

They concentrate too hard, and it keeps them from succeeding

They want to control every little detail about the world around them

But you don’t have to do that

Just surrender to the world

Let it help you find your way

Live this regulated life as you would an unregulated one

Be present in the best reality, which already exists

Don’t try to create it yourself

That is the only way to survive as one of us

Or rather, it’s the only way to be truly happy

Microstory 1524: What Else Do We Have to Learn?

< > Table of Contents

I never knew there was this much life on this world

I couldn’t see it all, from my little corner

These tiny islands, so rich with history

But it has all been kept from us, and us from them

The dwarves; sturdy and strong

They were built to build, and to dig for what they need

The elves; tallest and slenderest

Made to run and fight, but they are peaceful

The sea children; they are different

No one seems to know where they come from

The vampires here are different too

Having never tasted human blood; they know not what they’re missing

They were all sent her so long ago

Our world is completely foreign to them

They have never even seen the standing wolves

They do not understand a skyscraper, nor a car

Nor the electrical devices, nor even paved roads

They can learn so much from us

But we can learn from them as well

They can teach us what we have forgotten

They can remind us who we once were

Armed with that knowledge, we can move forward

And become better people; a better peoples

Because the real question has not yet been asked

If we did not even know they existed

And they were just right next door

What else is out there?

And what else do we have to learn?

Microstory 1523: When You Go Back to Change the Past, There Are Now Two

< > Table of Contents

There are two of us

There must only be one

Well, that is not entirely true

Two may exist, but one must leave

Only one can lead our life

And this is not only because it would otherwise expose us

There should only be one life per life

We have a number of options

One of us can go live on a new world

Or in a new time

Or a new space

He could live closer, of course, perhaps on the outskirts

But he would have to be very careful

Careful not to interfere

Or damage our reputation

He would need a new identity

He can also die

Sacrifice himself so the other may live free

His mind would be gone

His thoughts

His hopes

But he could die knowing that the other lived

This sounds like a bad option, but it has been done before

The most common outcome is assimilation

The two could become one

The minds melded together so they are no longer independent

One body, the other disposed of

Both will exist, but also neither

A third individual will rise, and take our place

This can also sound scary

But it has been done as well

You always think your mind will be the one to win out

That you will continue, no matter what

But the truth is that even people like us don’t know

We don’t know the answers to these philosophical questions

What is identity? How do you define it?

All I know is that I don’t want to die, or leave, or be assimilated

I want to be the one to continue in this life

He can be the one to leave

I must find a way to make him

Microstory 1522: You Have No Idea What It’s Like to See What I See

< > Table of Contents

You have no idea what it’s like to see what I see

To know what others have done, to feel their pain

To feel the pain that they have inflicted upon others

They call me a psychopath, but I can’t imagine any other way

I can’t imagine anyone else would be any different than me

Did I have to become a killer? Who can say?

I certainly could have used my gifts to help people directly

To free them from the evil, and show them out of the darkness

But there are plenty of people in the rescue business

And they don’t have my curse; they don’t see what I see

Some need to be punished, for they are too far beyond redemption

The court system, I know will fail us, if it hasn’t already

Not everyone who is guilty is caught, and I know that better than anyone

And what is a crime anyway? How do you define it, and what doesn’t count?

I see a lot of twisted histories from my victims

Not all of them were criminals, at least not in any official way

But that is how the legal system fails us on a general level

You can only convict for a particular crime, and only with proof

I have no proof, but that does not mean I don’t see what I see

I can see the whole person; who they are completely, and not just in one instance

I see the worst thing they have ever done

And if I look again, I see the second worst thing

If I look at them enough, I start to see the picture of their life as time paints it

I start to know them entirely, and they are criminals because of it

One little thing here, and another minor thing there

None of it seems too bad if you only know about a few of them

But most people are pretty despicable when you total their lives

I am the totaler, and therefore, the judge, for I could tell no one else

And even if I did, they would not be able to do anything with what they know

I can—I can act upon my knowledge, and I must

I am the only one who can exterminate the disease of humanity

Microstory 1521: Three Empty Raps

< > Table of Contents

I’ve been beaten and battered

Tattered and torn

Sent to the afterlife where it’s never warm

Tortured and cheated

Teased and transformed

Walked with dark demons and weathered large storms

I’ve multiplied, amplified, horrified, glorified

Stolen from, called a bum

Raced to the top and fallen back down

Told I’d be shot if I made a sound

And what was it for? Tell me, what was it all for? 

I'll never know, never

My life is no more

If you fell into a well

Ring a bell

Use your cell

But don’t dwell in hell

Or yell

I can tell

What you smell is not gel

That you can rub on a shell

Which will swell and rise up your eyes

To the skies

With the flies

As God cries for you guys

And then dies

With her head between her thighs

As you become wise

Win a prize

For your large pies

Filled with fries

‘Cause I’m blind like Fisher; drive your car around the block

Class like Bernthal before he learned to walk

Fat like Pratt..before he GOT G

And Alison’s alibi before she found Community

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Monday, July 19, 2134

« < » > Table of Contents

They didn’t have time to process the letter Hua managed to get to them before their Cassidy cuffs began to beep. It was not a new transition location, though. An icon of an envelope was bouncing in the corner, indicating that they had a message. Leona tapped on hers, which released a full-sized holographic image of Jupiter Fury. “Dear Mateo and Leona, I left this message for you in the case of my death, or extreme temporal absence. I am a time traveler, which means even if I become preoccupied with something, I should be able to go back to the right time period, and coordinate assignments. If you’re watching this, it likely means my death, because I would have little other reason to not return at some point, and help you carry out your mission. I’ve set contingencies on these cuffs. Should they lose their connections to me for a given period of time, they were programmed to transition you back to The Parallel, where you will have a choice.

“This reality provides you the best chances you’ll have at finding happiness. The powers that be cannot get you here. Tamerlane Pryce cannot get you here. Technology is millennia beyond anything we have in the main sequence. You can finally be free to live your own lives, and make your own choices. As you know, you are capable of removing your cuffs at will, or reprogramming them for other purposes. Leona, I’m sure you’ll think of something. You may instead choose to continue the mission. If you do, the cuffs can give you a list of the people I intended to help, and when they need that help. I make no judgments about which you choose. I’m dead afterall, and I probably shouldn’t have compelled you to wear the cuffs in the first place. Finally, if you are continuing, you will need something else, for it’s something that the cuffs alone will not be able to handle.” At this point, Jupiter’s hologram lifted his hand, and snapped his fingers. Two tiny SIM card-like slots popped out their cuffs; one on each. Inside of Mateo’s was a few drops of blood. Inside of Leona’s was what appeared to be a small shard of metal.

“This is my blood. It is poured out for you, and with it, we make a new agreement. This is the tip of the Sword of Assimilation. Eat these as a way of absorbing my temporal powers. This will allow you to transition to and from the Parallel at will, and help the people from the list. You can add to this list, or make a new one, if that’s your thing. Or, I suppose, you can absorb my powers, and just go take over the world, or whatever. That’s something I’ve always been able to do, and I doubt you would be any more interested in it than me, but again, I don’t judge. I apologize for how we met, and how I approached the mission. I should have tried to recruit you. That would have made it a lot easier on everyone. Thank you for showing me that.” The hologram disappeared.

They stood there in silence for a few moments.

“You wanna vote?” Mateo finally asked.

“We’re not like the other salmon,” Leona began. “Rather, you’re not; I’m not salmon. But one thing I’ve noticed about our lives is that we don’t receive assignments, or mandates. Responsibility presents itself to us. At first, all we needed to do was learn the ropes. Then Reaver showed up, and we were asked to capture him. Boyce gave us the Tribulations, at the behest of Zeferino. Then Arcadia showed up in retaliation, and while you were suffering the consequences of your defiance, I was retrieving Étude, stopping Ulinthra, and getting you back. After that, we just kept ending up on other planets, with various tasks to complete on them, under little sense of formality. No one has been sitting around, thinking of things for us to do, but they do keep needing us just the same. Jupiter asked for our help—in a very unfair manner, but we would have helped either way, because that’s what we do. It’s...our calling. I don’t think we need to vote, Mateo. There’s only one option.”

“I’m lookin’ at this list.” He was scrolling through his cuff. “This isn’t just our assignments; it’s all of them, for these mysterious other teams that we don’t know anything about. He’s not asking us to transition people back and forth. He’s asking us to coordinate all the transitions. I don’t know how our pattern lets us do that.”

“Jupiter never had to be present for the transition windows,” she said. “He somehow set them up ahead of time, and directed his teams towards them. If one of us absorbs his powers, we’ll do the same.”

“If that’s the case, why didn’t he just set them all up? How does his supposed death even affect this?”

She had started looking through the list as well, but with a more critical eye. “There’s a limit. He can only predict so far in the future. Every time someone transitions, it changes the timeline, and each one runs the risk of impacting the next one. You’re just looking at the current list, but we can also see the revision history. Some people were removed, presumably because their transitions were no longer necessary. Likewise, new ones have been added that weren’t necessary before. This guy here? He was supposed to transition in 2103, but he was moved back to 2107, at a different location.”

“We’re on our original pattern now,” he reminded her, “because that’s how Pryce wanted it. Those changes are going to be even more complicated to follow for us. We can’t do this. I am all for continuing the mission as he wanted, but...we’re terrible candidates to replace him. We could never be promoted, not in these bodies. We’re just not cut out for management.”

Leona sighed, somehow letting more air out than she took in. “You’re right. I know you’re right. I don’t know why he chose us.”

“He chose us, because he trusts us. We still don’t know who these other teams are, but maybe none of them could handle it either. We’re just the best out of a roster of bad candidates.”

“Right.” Leona was in the middle of finding an idea. “That’s right. We’re all bad candidates.”

“Yeah, what are we gonna do with that?”

She smiled with her lips, but not her eyes, like a sad clown, but she wasn’t really upset. “We just need to expand the labor pool.”

“Who did you have in mind?” he asked.

Leona was smiling at her cuff, but this time with her eyes, and not her lips. “How about the transitionee from July 19, 2134.”

After realizing she wasn’t just going to say the name out loud, Mateo scrolled back up on his own cuff to hunt for the right date. “Huh. I’ve never believed in fate.”

“Why would you? You’re a time traveler. I have to admit, though, it’s quite fitting.”

“Do you think she’ll go for it?”

“Well, we don’t know who she is. What has she gone through? How many times has she died at this point? Are we even friends?”

“I’d like to think we were always friends,” Mateo decided.

Leona laughed. “Well, we better get back to Earth to find out. She’s supposed to come through soon. Everyone below her on this list is grayed out, which suggests that she was the last transition he prepared for before losing his connection. If we don’t get this blood, and this shard, into someone, we’ll start losing people. Then it really will have to be one of us, because I can’t think of anyone living in the Parallel who could take up the mantle.”

They took the Nexus back to Earth, and a short-range transporter to Belle Fourche, South Dakota. They arrived just in time to witness the transition window open up, defenestrate their candidate, and close back up again. She looked around, unimpressed. “Who dares summon me?” she said in a vocal fry. “Bwahaha.”

“What is the last thing you remember about us?” Leona asked her.

“This is 2134 still?” Nerakali inquired.

“Indeed.”

“And is this...your original 2134, err...?”

“This is our second time around,” Leona confirmed.

“Okay, great. That’s perfect. The last time I saw you was the last time you saw me. We are simpatico.”

“Do you mean that we’re all friends, or is that a time travel term?”

“I dunno, maybe bolth?”

“That sounds like a reference.”

“Kinda. But yes, we’re friends, and because our respective personal timelines have no inconsistencies, we are considered simpatico.”

“That’s nice,” Leona said. “And it’s helpful. Because we would like to interview you for a new position.”

Nerakali was intrigued. “You’re hiring?”

“We developed an understanding with Jupiter. We don’t know what happened to  him, but he can no longer perform his duties.” She removed the shard from her cuff, and then reached out silently so Mateo could hand her the blood from his. “These will give you his powers, so you can do what he did.”

Nerakali took the slides to examine them closely. She chuckled. “I once asked Anatol what happened to the tip of his sword. He said he lost it in a game of Rummikub. Now I know who won.”

“As I recall,” Leona said, “the tip was there when you died. That thing killed you.”

Nerakali grinned kindly. “And now it’s going to give me purpose.”

“So, you’ll do it?” Mateo was hopeful, and ready to be grateful.

“I can’t say no to you two.” She reached out, and took them in a bear hug. “Oh, I missed you so much. Do we have time to catch up? I don’t know what this is gonna do to me, so I would rather we conversate prior to it.”

“I think that can be arranged,” Leona told her. “Pick a star, any star. We’ll find the closest restaurant, and do brunch.”

“Okay. Then you can tell me exactly where we are, and how there are restaurants on other planets.”

Nerakali said that she wanted to eat as far away from Earth as possible, while still being in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Nexus technician knew exactly where that was. They went to a world called Extremus, which both Leona and Nerakali thought they had heard of before. They ate, and they drank, and they were merry. They told her about their adventures with the team, helping people coming through the transition windows, and not always sending them back. They brought up The Transit, which conscripted fighters for some great war. Surprisingly, Nerakali had never heard of it, but she was interested in meeting the people who operated it. They had a lovely time together, and at the end of the night, she consumed the blood and metal, and became one of the most powerful people in the galaxy. Then she disappeared to start her first day on the job.

« < » > Table of Contents

The Pryce of Heaven: Hacking Heaven (Part III)

< > Entire Story

The three of them sit against the wall. They wish they could save Jupiter, but none of them had the power to do so. Tetra couldn’t summon him to her location, and if she had tried to jump to his location, she would have immediately started dying too, because she has no idea how to survive in the vacuum of space. Missy could have tried to slow time for him, but then what? How would they have gotten him out? Téa doesn’t have any powers to speak of, so she feels even more useless. They just were never the right team to deal with a contingency like that, and now it’s up to them to continue his vision. That won’t be easy, because even though they’re in the matrioshka body now, they have no clue how to find whatever they need to get to, or what they’re going to do when they get there. Missy is still a brilliant engineer, but they just don’t have enough information about this place, or how it works.

“Does anyone know that we’re here?” Téa asks. The reality is that none of them knew Jupiter very well, and as sad as it is, the biggest issue they face is the fact that he had some kind of plan, not that they’ve been traumatized directly.

Missy takes a tablet out of her bag, and starts doing what she can. “I doubt I can hack into this place. For all intents and purposes, we might as well be trying remotely, even though we’re technically in the building. I could do more with a hardline, but if I were to design a matrioshka body, I would compartmentalize the systems to an extreme degree. We would probably not be able to do more than turn the lights on and off in this section.”

“How long would it take if we were to walk from here to where the main system most likely is?” Tetra asks. “I understand we can’t do that, but what would it look like? I’m just having trouble fathoming the size of this thing.”

Missy chuckles. “How long would it take to walk to Jupiter? How long would it take you to drive? Hell, how long would it take you to fly? From head to heel, it’s about the distance from the sun to the orbit of Neptune. We’re in the ass.”

“There has to be some form of faster than light travel,” Téa figures. “You don’t build something this big unless you can get clear to the other side of it in a reasonable amount of time, should you need to.”

“It wasn’t really built for humans,” Missy explains. “Mechs can just transfer their consciousnesses somewhere else instantaneously, and start operating a new body. Like I was saying before, this is not a solid structure. It’s a bunch of gravitationally bound parts, which move in concert. A moon could probably fit within the space between a finger and its hand.”

They sit in silence for a moment while Missy keeps working.

“We’re still in the bubble, right?” Téa inquires.

“Yeah,” Missy confirms. “The rooms around us are frozen in time.”

“I guess that’s good at least.”

They sit for another moment until a voice comes through their cuffs. “Hello? Do you read me?”

“Jupiter?” Tetra asks. “Jupiter, is that you?”

“It is,” he replies.

“Jupiter, how are you al—”

Missy interrupts Téa’s question by cupping her hand around her mouth.

“You guys still there?” Jupiter asks. “If you’re avoiding asking me about my death, don’t worry. There’s no risk of a paradox, or anything. I’m not from the past. I am a quantum duplication of myself. I made a copy just as we were jumping, in case we needed someone to stay with the ship. I don’t really know why I didn’t tell you, but it looks like I made the right call. It’s taken me this long to establish a secure connection with you.”

“So you don’t have to die?” Missy makes sure.

“No, already happened. The good news is that this gives us an opportunity. Is my body there?”

Tetra slides her back up the wall, and stands to look out the viewport. “It’s...it’s close, but...” While his other body is on the other side of the hull, it’s still inside of Missy’s temporal bubble, but that doesn’t matter much, because there’s no way to get to it. They would need an airlock, and a vacuum suit. It might as well be on another planet.

“That’s fine,” Jupiter said. “There’s a teleportation feature built into them. It won’t let you go wherever you want, but it will allow two cuff-wearers to jump directly to one another. The problem is it’s designed as an outgoing feature. You can’t use it to summon someone towards you. Missy, I’m going to need you to hack into them. Shouldn’t be too hard for you, Leona and Sanaa did it all the time. Maybe you could reverse the polarity?”

Missy bursts out laughing. “If that was a joke, it was a good one, if not, it’s probably even funnier. But okay, I’ll see what I can do.” She gets to work on her cuff interface, trying to find a way to make it so they can bring Jupiter’s body into the room. No one bothers asking him why this is even a thing. They can’t fully trust him, but they can probably trust that he isn’t asking them to use his corpse to recreate Weekend at Bernie’s. Within a half hour, Missy has finished what she needs to do. Once she activates the apporter, the body appears on the floor before them.

“Okay,” the living Jupiter says. “Now it’s time to move on to the hard part.”

“That wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done,” Missy points out.

“This isn’t going to be hard on a technical level,” Jupiter begins to clarify, “but a psychological one. If you could reach into my inside breast pocket, and retrieve a little black and white bag thing.”

Tetra does this. “Got it.”

“That is a bag of holding. The white side is a virtual inventory carousel. I need you to look for something called an oligodendroglian interceptor kit.”

“Found it,” Tetra says. She selects the item on the screen, which causes the real thing to appear on the floor. It’s larger than the bag it was in. “What does it do?”

“Open it up.”

Tetra opens the pack, and starts to lay out all the pieces on the provided sanitary cloth. They look like medical devices. No...surgical tools.

Téa is watching it happen. “You’re gonna make us cut into your brain?”

“The body’s already dead,” he reminds them. “You can’t hurt it. Just dig a hole, find a spot to stick the antenna, and connect to it with your tablet. It’s just like syncing your phone with a pair of wireless headphones.”

“It’s absolutely not like that,” Téa argues.

“Oligodendrocytes are all over the brain. You just have to stick it on and connect. I know it’s gross, but this will allow us to hack into the simulation.”

“They don’t do this in The Matrix,” Tetra notes.

“They probably could,” he retorts. “Look, this has to happen quickly. We’re finally at an advantage I never had, because the signal is extremely strong here, but it won’t be long before my copy’s body loses its link to its former consciousness. You have to do this now.”

“Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine,” Tetra says.

“No, I’ll do it,” Téa decides. I’m not a teleporter, or a tech genius, but I’ve cooked meat before, and I feel like I need to contribute something.”

No one argues with her.

Téa gracelessly uses the blade to cut into Jupiter’s head, all the way into the brain. She then drops this little pebble thing into her hole, and waits for Missy to find the connection on her tablet. It really is as easy as he claimed. Within seconds, she’s linked up to his neural signal. It’s fading fast, but it’s enough for her to establish a permanent connection to where the neural signal is going, which is directly into Pryce’s afterlife simulation. From here, they should be able to gain access to the virtual constructs.

“How much time do you need?” Tetra asks as Téa is getting herself cleaned up.

“Impossible to tell. I don’t know how complex this is, or even what language it’s written in. I’m from the 21st century, this is all pretty far beyond me. I hope there are a few cots in that bag, because it could take days, or honestly, even weeks. Sorry.”

Several hours later, Missy has pretty much full control of the simulation. She would be capable of switching it off, or altering its speed of time, or even giving people clone bodies to transfer their minds into. None of that really helps them, though. They don’t need control of the simulation, but the matrioshka body as a whole, and they need to use that control to detrone Pryce himself. Unfortunately, they’re separate systems by design, to prevent something like this very thing from happening.

“We need a distraction,” Tetra suggests as Missy is looking through the simulation specifications. “Someone is going to have to go in, and make a big stink, so the other two can get to the real controls.”

“I think we all know Missy can’t be the person who goes into the simulation,” Téa adds. She needs to stay out here, so it obviously has to be me.”

“It could be me,” Tetra contends. “I’m the one who thought of it.”

“And you also have superpowers, which I’ve already explained. I can make a stink. I made a lot of stinks when I was younger, I was an abolitionist. It has to be me, in case Missy needs you out here.”

The other two give her this look.

Téa continues, “I won’t be dead, so Pryce won’t be able to delete my code, or whatever. I’m just hacking in, and if anything goes wrong, I’ll come right back to my body.”

“I can’t promise that,” Missy says, shaking her head.

“I don’t know if my pattern is over or not,” Téa goes on. “If the powers that be still have a hold of me, then I will ultimately be here for three hundred years, at which point, who knows? But at least there’s a chance they’ll protect me. You two can’t say the same thing.” She lifts her cuff closer to her mouth. “Neither can you, Mister Fury. So jam that needle into the back of my head, give me a halo, stick electrodes on me, or do whatever it is you gotta do. Let’s stop wasting time.”

Jupiter informs them that there is indeed a VR cap in his bag. It isn’t all that difficult to interface it with Missy’s tablet, and the simulation signal. Tetra places the cap on Téa’s head, and Missy prepares to send her into the frametrix, as she calls it jokingly.

“I’m putting you in lurker mode,” Missy goes over. “No one will be able to see you if you don’t want them to. Take as much time as you need to get your bearings, and make a plan. Pryce will probably be able to see you right away, but he might not notice immediately; it just depends on how preoccupied he is already.”

“Got it. Beam me up, Missy.”

Missy activates the sequence, and resolves Téa into the simulation.

She’s standing in a room. A room full of Jupiters. It looks like a party, except that every guest is the same person. They are all wearing different clothes, but all in the same style, and they all have dates and times on their shirts. No one else is around, and Téa wants answers, so she reveals herself to the world. Little by little, they notice her amongst them.

“Who is this?” one of them asks.

“She looks familiar,” observes another.

The Jupiter listed as December 14, 2134 approaches her. “Miss Stendahl, you’ve come. But you’re not dead, right?”

“Nope,” Téa replies. “We hacked into the sim.”

He nods. “That was a contingency, in case you couldn’t gain physical access to the servers.”

“I don’t know if Missy knows where they are, or what,” she explains. “It’s just my job to create a distraction.”

December 14, 2134 lets out a maniacal laugh, and looks around at his quantum duplicates. “We can do that, can’t we boys!”

Responses like, “hell yeah,” and “I’m great at that,” came out of the duplicates. They whoop and holler and smash their glasses on the floor. One of them conjures a baseball bat, and breaks a lamp with it.

“That’s right!” December 14, 2134 concurs. Still smiling, he looks back at Téa. “I knew there was a reason I kept letting my duplicates die.” He nods proudly as they begin rushing out of the party venue. “Let’s go raise some hell.”

< > Entire Story