Exemption Act: The Constant Variable (Part VII)

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Freya separated herself from Diamond Zek and Kivi, and stepped away to pace the room. The both waited for her patiently, while she figured out what she wanted to say. She didn’t want to be mean, but she had to get answers. “Who are you?”

“My name is Kivi Bristol.”

“What are you?”

“I am a chosen one, having been created by an unknown chooser.”

“Why do you seem familiar, but I also get the feeling that we’ve never met?”

“I am bound by a phenomenon called spontaneous quantum reemergence. I come into existence at seemingly random points in spacetime, and disappear just as quickly. Sometimes the people around me are aware of it, and sometimes not. Sometimes I am aware of it, and sometimes I’m not. It’s unclear whether there are multiple versions of me running around the timeline, or if I am one person, being shunted throughout the timeline in a nonlinear order. Someone once called me the constant variable.”

“I have memories of you being a part of this team for two years,” Freya argued.

“Do you, though?”

“Well, yeah, because you...”

Kivi smiled. “My ability does sometimes fabricate memories, but most of the time, it just forces your brain into ignoring the fact that you don’t have memories. I actually didn’t join the team until shortly before we launched.”

“Are you good, or bad?”

“Good. That’s one thing that’s consistent about me. I’m always good.”

“How do we know?”

“Zek is immune to the psychic intrusion.” She held up the diamond a little. “But I am not immune to hers. She would know.”

“Give her to me.” Freya took Diamond Zek from Kivi. She didn’t need to hold her to have a private conversation, but this made it easier to be sure Kivi wasn’t somehow listening in. Is she telling the truth?

She is, Zek confirmed.

Would you know if she weren’t?

I believe so.

Can we trust her?

Can we trust Khuweka, and Landis? Can you trust me?

I would like to think so.

Then that settles it, Zek decided. We will trust Kivi as much as we have anyone else on the team. Do not tell the others what we know. We need to be able to work together, and as far as they are aware, they’ve been learning to do that with Kivi for the past two years. Revealing the truth would undermine the mission.

“Well, we wouldn’t want that,” Freya said out loud.

No, we would not.

Freya handed Diamond Zek back to Kivi. “Like I did, people will start to notice that you’re not capable of communing with Zek without physical contact. I suggest you speed up the psychic bond as much as possible.”

“Very well,” Kivi said graciously. “Thank you.”

Freya took a moment. “What, do you suppose, you’re here for? What are your skills?”

Kivi cleared her throat.

“Be honest,” Freya said, growing suspicious again.

“I’m a lawyer.”

“What?”

“I’ve practiced law on multiple planets,” Kivi answered, worried how she would be received. “I’m not an engineer, or a fighter, or anything else you would expect to find on a battleship.”

“Have you practiced on an alternate future version of Worlon?”

“If I have, I have no memory of it,” Kivi said. “I doubt it, though. They sound pretty universally spiteful of humans.”

“Perhaps you argued against them.” Freya really was trying.

“They would have to have gone up against a pretty formidable enemy for it to lead to nonviolent legal proceedings, rather than some kind of deadly conflict.”

“True.”

“I may have one trick up my sleeve, though.”

“Oh?” Freya was interested.

“I’m romantically linked to Lincoln Rutherford. I don’t have a way to contact him from where I sit, but...that’s something?”

“It certainly is,” Freya agreed. “He knows literally everything, which means he knows where you are right now, which means he could send help if we need it. You may be our backup.”

“So are we cool?” Kivi asked.

“We’re okay...for now.”

A month and a half later, they were finally approaching their destination. It was Freya’s job at this point to read off the specifications for the planet, so everyone knew what they were getting into. A project called Topdown decades ago sent giant telescopes into the intergalactic voids, so they could take measurements of the entire galaxy, but there were some details that were best left to upclose sensors. “It scores a point-nine-two-one on the Terrestrial Habitability Similarity Index, which may sound great, but ninety-five percent is the bare minimum that Operation Starseed will accept when deciding which worlds to plant life on, and which to ignore. Oxygen saturation is one-point-eight times as it is on Earth. I’m not sure if that’s why Ochivari are related to dragonflies, or what, but it certainly tracks. Surface gravity is one-point-four-gee, so we’re all fat now.”

“Signs of intelligent life?” Khuweka posed.

“None that the ship can detect,” Freya responded.

“Mr. Genovese, have you been able to locate a seed plate, or an interstellar ship?”

“Working...” Carbrey said.

“Which are we expecting?” Andraste asked.

“Once he hacks into Project Stargate, we’ll know,” Khuweka explained. “Each plate is responsible for establishing a presence in seven to twenty-eight star systems. There’s no way to know whether Worlon will get the plate, or a ship that the plate builds somewhere else. If it’s a secondary ship, it won’t be here for awhile. Arrival dates are estimates.”

Carbrey nodded his head. “I’m in the system. An automated interstellar probe is scheduled to arrive here in six years.”

“What do we do until then?” Eliana asked.

“We’re not waiting until it shows up,” Khuweka said. “We’re going to meet it head on, and destroy it. Then we’ll take it’s job, and start sending measurements back to Earth ourselves, but they’ll be false.”

“Do we really want to do that?” Diamond Zek asked. “Shouldn’t we just destroy the probe, and keep away from this planet?”

“We need to stop Operation Starseed from coming here with human DNA samples. If we don’t falsify the data, the system will eventually send those samples, whether they come from the nearest seed plate, or the next nearest. This is prime real estate. If we don’t do something to make it think this world is worthless, they’ll just keep sending backups. This whole project is destined to last tens of thousands of years. They’re patient enough to deal with failures, and fully prepared to correct them. Even if that takes thousands of years, they’re still well within their deadline.

“Furthermore, seed plates are the things they built on Gatewood, and dispatched with the gargantuan modular carrier at the start of the project. They’re powered by microfusion reactors, which are incredibly small, and only designed for short bursts of momentum, and maneuverability. A plate only exists to drop down on one orbital or satellite in one solar system. The branching network probe ships, however, are part of the inventory that this seed plate will make once it lands, using the raw material that it finds there. They can be much larger, and thusly support larger reactors. They can afford to spend power on other things, like long-range sensors, and a constant data connection with Earth and Gatewood. If we let that thing get close enough to Worlon to codify its habitability, all will be lost. We have to intercept it.”

Throughout Khuweka’s explanation, Carbrey kept working on the computer. He already understood all of this and knew that he needed to plot an intercept course. According to Freya’s education, finding something in the middle of interstellar space wasn’t as easy to do as fictional representations made it seem. On TV, they just pulled up a screen, and barring any invisibility cloak, every single object within a sufficient range would just be automatically visible. Still, it wasn’t impossible to find something either. Like Khuweka said, the probe was constantly sending data back to the stellar neighborhood, including its own location, relative to nearby celestial objects. He just needed to access that datastream. “I got it.”

“How far away is it?” Khuweka asked

“Roughly six light years. It’s going at maximum relativistic.”

Khuweka just looked over at Eliana.

“She doesn’t need to,” Freya said.

“No, she doesn’t,” Diamond Zek agreed. “We’ve been working on something.” Without even touching them, she was able to teleport everyone to the booster room. They weren’t aware she could do this, but they weren’t shocked either. Her power was growing every week. She would probably reach a limit at some point, and never become a god, or anything, but the light year limit was a thing of the past. “Simulations suggest that I’m up to a parsec,” she announced proudly. “Freya?”

Freya took Diamond Zek from Andraste’s arms, and took her to the back of the booster seat. There, she had engineered a special case for her to be locked in. It connected her to the platform, and kept her secure. Only the eight people in this room would be capable of removing her from her spot, but there wouldn’t likely be much reason to do so anymore. The case also integrated Zek’s consciousness with the ship’s systems, effectively making her the ship itself. Everything was working. All that needed to happen now was a consensus that she be allowed to do this, and a test of the new FTL jump limitation.

They all looked to Khuweka, who looked back at them. “Her superconscious crystalline carbonaceous substrate, her choice.”

Limerick watched as Freya locked Diamond Zek into her new home. “On my world, we have these things called wedding rings. They look like that.”

“Hmm,” Freya noted. “The ring here exists to concentrate Zek’s temporal energy. It does kind of look like a giant wedding ring, though, doesn’t it?”

“Mr. Genovese,” Khuweka said simply, once Zek was fully in place.

Carbrey started tapping on his tablet. “Plotting a lateral course. We’ll still be six light years from the probe, but a parsec from Worlon.”

The engines started up, made their connection with Diamond Zek, and jumped away. Carbrey was notably less panicky than he was the last time. He patiently waited for his tablet to calculate their location. They were exactly where they wanted to be.

Diamond Zek was quite pleased with herself. “I could have gone farther. I probably could have gone twice as far.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Khuweka told her. “For now, a parsec will suffice.” She looked at Freya and Carbrey. “The three of you need to work out how we’re going to do this. I know you already have a plan in mind?”

“Yes.” Freya nodded. “With a precision jump, we can essentially surround the probe, and match its speed. If all goes well, it should be hovering inside a quantum Faraday cage, where it can no longer send a signal back to Earth.”

“Well, actually,” Carbrey began to correct, “it will send its signal, but will do so about five million years in the past. With no quantum receiver on the other end, it will just...disappear.”

“Very well,” Khuweka said. “If you’re sure this will work, make the necessary preparations, thank you.”

Freya and Carbrey did make the necessary preparations, while the other six members of the crew went off to do their own thing. They started building the quantum Faraday cage when they arrived in the Worlon system, but before it could be used, they needed to make sure it was completely ready. There was no room for error here. To that end, they also needed to work out the calculations. The probe ship was traveling towards Worlon at 0.999999c, which was the fastest possible without time powers. The Cormanu was fully capable of reaching this velocity, and in fact would need to already be there when they made their jump. The probe ship would basically suddenly appear inside the Cormanu, and once it did, they would be able to disable it manually, but getting to that point would take a lot of finesse. And extremely high level math.

Within the day, they felt they were ready, and prepared for any eventuality, so it was time to just go for it. Zek first made a jump to about 50,000 astronomical units away from the probe, just to make the final jump easier on her. That was well outside of the probe’s known sensor range for an object of the Cormanu’s mass. They accelerated themselves to max relativistic speed. Early vessels needed time to accelerate, and just as much time to decelerate, but even the humans managed to conceive a workaround that allowed them to reach target velocities almost instantly without turning passengers into mush against the back wall.

The two of them chose to stand just outside the cage when it happened, so they could watch it. They built it a lot larger than they needed to, so there should be no danger from this distance. When Carbrey had just activated the final step for the jump, Limerick walked into the shuttle bay, wanting to see it as well.

“Lim, get over here! It’s dangerous on that side.”

“What?”

Freya ran over to retrieve him. Their calculations were right, but there was always a chance they were off by a meter or two. The probe could theoretically end up on the wrong side of the cage. The signal would still be blocked for long enough to allow them to fix the error, but you wouldn’t want to be standing there when it happened.

“Jumping away,” Zek announced.

“No!”

Something turned out to be massively wrong with their calculations, or something. Freya didn’t have time to form a hypothesis. She and Limerick were being pressed up against the cage. The probe was nowhere to be seen, and the fence was threatening to buckle under the pressure. They couldn’t get off, but perhaps that was the only thing keeping them from being sucked out into the interstellar void. The fence gave way, and sent them hurtling towards the back. The fence on the other side held for a moment, but it too would lose hold.

She fell forward, and landed on her face. On the ground. She was on land. Somehow. In a breathable atmosphere. Limerick was next to her, recovering from his own tumble. What the hell just happened?

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Microstory 1560: Cheater

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Prompt

I’ve never been a cheater, but this test is going to be simultaneously the hardest I’ve taken, and the one that matters the least to my future productivity as a member of society...

Botner

...at least this weekend, anyway. I hope I pass it. Last year, on this day, I got dumped by an asshole. I had just finished my final exam in the morning, and the final exam grading period had just ended, and I was ready to go home. It was finals week, so the academic atmosphere was just setting in, and some of the older graduate students had already started complaining about “how can we be starting the school year already?” and it was such a jaded, stressful, and tragic time to exist in (besides only being nine months into the school year, before adding the first week of summer vacation in). I was sitting in the lounge, and I received a text from an ex-girlfriend. Like I mentioned, I didn’t see it coming, I didn’t suspect that she would take this “joke” to a new level, and I didn’t even tell her to never contact me again. I left it on the front seat of my car, in plain view. I just don’t do well when someone hurts my pride. I know that I don’t deal with rejection well, because my ego is the biggest part of my sense of identity, and when someone uses it against me, I don’t handle it well. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. When I used to wake up at 4:30 AM, every day, to...

Conclusion

...work at a package sorting facility, there was this guy I was interested in, but I couldn’t tell if he liked men, and we worked on opposite sides of the room, so we never talked. But my girlfriend didn’t like me even looking at him, so we eventually broke up, even though I never actually cheated. After a few minutes, I decide to text my ex back. The message she sent was innocuous enough, just asking me about that Italian restaurant I like, but if she wants to get back together, I need to know that. I’m not saying I’ll go for it, but it’s always better to know, and dating her would be good for my career. As I’m waiting for her reply, the email I’ve really been waiting for comes in. It’s the weird PhD student, who calls himself Answerman. He still lives in the dorms, and has a filing cabinet full of test answers and homework examples. First one’s free, he told me. I guess he thinks he’ll keep me as a client, but I won’t do it. This is a one time thing, and then I’m goin’ legit. I just need to pass this one class, and everything will be fine. He asks to meet on the bottom level of a parking garage, which is a red flag, but I’m desperate. I walk over to the rendezvous, and climb down the stairs. Answerman, is there, along with the dean, who tells me I have two choices. I can either fail this class, and tell everyone I know that Answerman still has the answers, man...or I can be expelled. I realize it’s like a disease. Everyone else was given this same choice, and it’s always a trap. Just then, my ex-girlfriend finally texts back. She does want to get back together. That’s perfect. Her father works for a tech company that doesn’t require degrees, and I already have all the skills I’ll ever need. I tell the dean to go screw himself, then leave the parking garage, so I can announce to the whole world that Answerman is a frickin’ narc.

Microstory 1559: The Point of Faith

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Prompt

My teacher told us that every day was a gift, and my friend’s parents flipped out about it, because they detected a religious leaning that none of the students noticed.

Botner

They were living in church and told us all that we would burn in hell if we didn’t do the same. I went back to school and pulled one of my friends aside and told him that there was a chance we would go to hell if we didn’t accept Jesus Christ into our hearts. I don’t even remember what his response was. I found out later that he had taken his own life. I was so angry. He was one of my good friends, and I had told him the truth. I’d said it with a lot of conviction, too. Now, I hadn’t learned a thing about the Church. I didn’t know what we were supposed to believe. I didn’t have the gospel. I didn’t know how to speak the faith into his life. All I had was a real, legitimate chance at eternal damnation, and I didn’t understand the mechanics of that. I didn’t see why I couldn’t just change my mind, just change religions if I needed to. Well, I did. I gave up Catholicism. This is one of those stories that I am glad that I have. I am glad that my heart was pure, and I found an answer to my question before it was too late. I am glad that I had enough common sense to take responsibility for my actions. I am glad that I took my friend’s death seriously. I am glad...

Conclusion

...that I’ve given up my superstitions. I don’t know why my friend killed himself, if it had anything to do with what I told him. But I’ve decided I can relieve myself of the guilt. We all make our own choices in the world. Sure, I might have influenced his actions, but I didn’t tell him what to do, and I didn’t purport to be some kind of authority on the matter. It’s true that there’s a chance hell is real, and that has been the case since before I came into the picture, but the degree to which he accepted this was his own decision to make. I move on with my life after this, still without a certain answer to the question, and you know what? Things have turned out okay. I look around at my religious peers, and I don’t feel like my life is any better or worse than theirs. They think they’re safer than me, because they’re doing all these things with their faith, predicated upon the possibility that it’s all true. They think I’m at more of a risk, because I don’t believe. But what if what they believe is also wrong? What if, at the end of our lives, I’ll be judged more favorably. Maybe God wants us to not believe, and it’s the believers who are in trouble. You don’t know. You don’t know. The most likely outcome is that we all turn out to be wrong, and I say that’s fine. At least, I say that there is nothing we can do about it. The reality is that a religious person having faith in their own faith is no more reasonable than a heathen like me having faith in themselves, or in other people. It’s all a crapshoot, because the point of faith is that you can’t ever be sure, and no one else can either. So believe, don’t believe, it doesn’t matter. The chances of you being right or wrong cannot change, no matter what you do. All you can really do is try to be a good person, and hope to leave the world a little better than it was when you found it.

Microstory 1558: Bladder

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Prompt

I was walking my dog last night when a stranger came out of nowhere and offered to help me with my problem. I asked him what he was talking about, and he said...

Botner

“Let me see your bladder, I can tell if you have a problem.” My first reaction was “Do I have a problem?” But I’m not a doctor, and I also wondered if he just had a strong intuition about this and wanted to have a look for himself. But what came next almost made me pee myself with fear. He touched my bladder, and when he pulled back, he said “you have a lot of pressure there, you need to see your doctor, your bladder is only designed for 10 – 12 CCs.” I don’t even know what that means, but I said OK, and started walking away, and he repeated, “don’t forget your appointment, come back.” I want to say that it was a case of free will, but really...he had already touched my bladder, I was scared. I didn’t have the time to think about what I was going to do. I ran home as fast as I could and didn’t stop for a breath until I was in my bedroom. I’m so angry at myself that I didn’t do anything, that I let a total stranger touch me without my consent, without my knowledge... It’s almost as if the air around me changed...or the gravity. I wanted to get rid of the stress and anxiety I had, so I took a nice hot bath, but this man was stuck in my head, there was no peace in my body. I know...

Conclusion

...that it wasn’t not my fault, but I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I started to wonder if the man had some way of implanting a thought in my brain, or if these were truly my feelings. I needed to find some kind of distraction. I had had a really stressful day of work, so the dog walk was meant to be that distraction, but that totally backfired. What could I do? I could try to watch some TV, but I was sure that everything that happened would remind me of the incident. That guy on that one show kind of looks like him. Oh, she mentioned having to use the toilet. No, that wouldn’t work at all. I didn’t want to hear words, or see people, or be anywhere near here. The car. It’s like a sanctuary. I’m still in the world, but I can separate myself from it at the same time. I loaded my dog into the back, and got myself on the road. It was the middle of the night, so there weren’t many others around. The further I got from the city, the more isolated I felt. I even listened to classical music, so as to make believe I was the only person in the whole world. I drove all through the night, until I was so far away that I didn’t even know what state I was in. I didn’t pay attention to highway signs, or anything. I just focused on the pavement. I’m running out of gas now, though, so I start to look for the nearest place to stop. It’s in the middle of nowhere, with only a tiny little convenience store for drinks and smokes. I walk up to the counter and find that I recognize the clerk. It’s the man from before. He’s grinning at me, and then he asks if he can touch my bladder.

Microstory 1557: Special Day

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Prompt

I have always hated holidays, and I’m not sure what other people see in them. Life is a series of events, and no single day is more important than all the others.

Botner

Instead of concentrating on the special days we don’t have, we should concentrate on the special days that are ahead. Yes, we should be thankful for our family and friends, and cherish the good times, but the true meaning of Thanksgiving is not spending the day with those we care about, but sharing our blessings with those who don’t have much to be thankful for. That is the true meaning of Thanksgiving. Tomorrow at 8:00 A.M., the NCAA’s football championship will be held in the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena. My family and I are really excited because we will be in California for the big game. Of course, the game is great, but I think the reason we get so excited is that we are near our family and have the opportunity to celebrate together. As Americans, we love the chance to celebrate. We like to make a day of it, and we do. We cook big meals and go out to eat. I know a lot of us will also watch the game, and although I am excited, I am also nervous. I have worked hard to get to this point in my life, and I know how proud my family will be of me. They will look at me and tell me that they are so proud of me. I will never forget the moment I look up and see...

Conclusion

...my proposal on the jumbotron. My boyfriend will be so surprised. It’s happening in about fifteen minutes, and I’m worried it’s not going to go well. I know he’ll say yes, but what if he doesn’t even see it? They’re not gonna leave it up there forever. I love the guy, but he can be kind of oblivious. He’s not what’s the number for 911? dumb, but he’s been known to miss really obvious things. I always keep his anniversary and birthday gifts just sitting on the corner of my home office desk, and even though I always get him what he’s been wanting, he never notices. I like to tease him about it. Right now, he’s also getting hungry and antsy, which is another problem. I can’t let him get up and go, because who knows how long that will take? Sensing my distress, and wanting to torture me with it apparently, he stands up, and starts to leave. I try to hold him back, but he doesn’t let me. He claims he has something important to do, and when I ask him when he’ll be back, he says he’ll see me in ten minutes. Then he winks. Okay, ten minutes. As long as he sticks to that schedule, we should be fine. The minutes tick by, and I’m getting worried. Four, five, six. Now it’s been nine, and there’s still no sign of him. He’s really cutting it close. Ten. No! Just then, a man in a tuxedo steps onto the field with a microphone. He clears his throat, and announces that a man in the audience has a special proposal. The crowd goes wild. No, he’s not back yet, it’s too early! This is going to be ruined. I shake my head, but my family just smirks knowingly at me. They know what I’m planning, why are they so excited? Then my boyfriend steps onto the field, and approaches the man in the tuxedo. The marching band comes out simultaneously. He takes the mic for himself, and begins to sing. It’s our song; the one that was playing at the restaurant when we first met. It wasn’t a date. I was with my cousin, and he was alone at the bar, and we both couldn’t help but nod our heads to the beat. He finishes the song, and then pops the question. Who’s the oblivious one now?

Microstory 1556: The Injured Party

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Prompt

I witnessed a murder yesterday, and I want to report it to the police, but I also don’t want to. I know that my neighbor was just defending herself, and also that no one else will believe her.

Botner

I saw the entire incident, as I was watching TV, when I suddenly heard a shot, and I rushed to the back door to look out. A man was screaming and a woman was sobbing, when I suddenly heard a second shot, and saw the woman fall to the ground. I stood there for a minute, waiting for the police to arrive, but no one came. I had seen my neighbors. We have a lot of big dogs, but usually don’t need to have a gun. I have a .357 Magnum and my husband has a shotgun. We live in a quiet town. We do have wildlife, like wild turkeys, deer, bears, and occasionally a cougar or a wolf. It is a lot to be afraid of, but we are. But I felt responsible for the woman, and so I went to her. She was sitting on the ground, her husband standing above her, screaming at her. The whole thing seemed so barbaric, but I tried to calm her down, and tell her that she would be all right. After a few minutes, I noticed that her hand was bruised and the second bullet hole was barely visible, so I assumed that she was shot. I wanted to call the police, but I didn’t want to upset her any more, so I walked her home. I had to ask her for the phone, and when I went in, she said that the neighbor, a man in...

Conclusion

...a gray coat, had claimed to have called the police, but I don’t think that’s true, because now it’s been fifteen minutes, and no one has come. I don’t have a whole lot of faith in our justice system, but this is an okay neighborhood, so I feel like something is wrong. I don’t have a whole lot of medical training, but at work, I was chosen as my floor’s Medical Representative. This means that I know how to do some stuff beyond first aid, and when there’s a fire or tornado, I’m designated to help get everyone to safety. I get a nice little pay bump because of it, and there’s a sign hanging over my cubicle, telling everyone I’m just a little bit better than them. Anyway, I’m capable of patching up a bullet injury, because if emergency services aren’t going to come to us, then I’m going to go to them, but I couldn’t let my neighbor bleed out on our way. The husband was shot in the chest, but the wife was shot in the gut. Apparently, he had managed to take the weapon from her after she used it for self-defense. He’s a drunk, and he’s always going after her, and if I can only save one of them, the choice is clear. I could have saved both, but I’ve told the authorities that he continued to be belligerent, and attack us, while I was trying to treat her injuries. He died later, and I don’t feel bad, but the cops might not see it that way. I asked them why they never showed up, and they avoided answering, so I realized that there’s something fishy going on. I looked into it, and learned that the husband was a former cop himself, and his station had mixed feelings about it. They didn’t want to go help him, and they didn’t want to help his wife either, which is even worse. I’m calling the FBI.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Wednesday, July 26, 2141

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Nerakali decided that she was going to go off into the far reaches of time and space, looking for any information about dreamwalking, the dreamvoid, and the general concept of traveling to other universes. She was born into a family of spacetime masters, who knew just about everything about the brane, and how it operated. They knew the past, and the future, and everything in between. What they didn’t know much about was everything that existed beyond those boundaries. Until relatively recently, in fact, she didn’t even know the bulkverse was a thing. She found it odd and uncomfortable, but also felt this compulsion to ignore it. It was as if her creator knew enough about it himself that he implanted some kind of mental block, which was there to prevent her from looking into matters. Still, if this block existed, she was determined to break through it, so she went off for answers to help Mateo. In the meantime, the team was exempted from the July 26, 2141 transition. No one but him wanted to point out that, as a time traveler, Nerakali needn’t give them any sort of break, but everyone else just grumbled, and ignored him. They were afraid to do anything while he was in this condition. They were afraid of him.

Mateo couldn’t blame them for being wary of manipulating time and space when they still didn’t know for sure what set him off, and caused him to slip outside of their universe. He might have become emotional about how they were treating him like a leper, but his whole deal now was that nothing bothered him, so he just sat there and thought about nothing. He and Leona were presently sitting on their bed chairs. Each bunk was capable of being flipped over, and transformed into two seats during waking hours. She was staring at him, but he didn’t know why, because he no longer had any empathy. So he just guessed. “I’m sorry for doing this to you, and the team.”

She chuckled. “No, you’re not. That’s the problem.”

“I can’t read your facial expressions anymore. How upset are you?”

“Not upset at all,” she said. It might have been a lie, but there was no way to know one way or the other. “You didn’t do this to yourself. We can blame the Ochivari, or the Superintendent, or hell, even the powers that be, whose control over us seems to have dissipated, but you never know. We can’t blame you, though, and I want you to look at it logically. If you don’t have any emotions right now, what good would it do for me to be dishonest about my position? If I know it wouldn’t bother you to know the truth about my feelings, what would cause me to hold back? I’m telling you the truth, because I have no reason not to.”

“I guess that makes sense.” She could read him just as well as before, which was odd given that he was the one whose personality had changed, but he wasn’t going to question it. It was irrelevant. Communication only mattered when trying to accomplish something, which he wasn’t.

Nerakali teleported before them. It made an audible noise, which caused the rest of the team to come out of the woodwork. “Oh, good, everyone’s here,” she said, looking around. “You should all hear this.” She took one step towards Mateo. He stood up, remembering that was what his old self would have done for a polite conversation. “I have explored as many options as I can in this brane. In order to go further, you will have to travel beyond our borders.”

“You’re only looking at him,” Leona said, standing up herself. “But we’re going too.”

Nerakali shook her head. “You can’t. There’s only space for one in the machine. Besides, I need you and Jeremy to stay here, to continue the pattern.”

“Screw the pattern!”

“He won’t be completely alone,” Nerakali promised. “I’m sending Imzadi with him.”

“Where will I be going?” Mateo questioned. “Exactly?”

She took a long time to respond, like a doctor whose first time it was telling a family member there was nothing more she could do. “I don’t know. I asked the Parallel natives to build me the machine. It adapts to your needs. Your subconscious will control it, and I don’t know your subconscious. Best I can tell, Meliora Rutherford can jump to other universes. She’s not talking, because she and I...it’s complicated.”

“Is this going to work?” Leona questioned.

“I don’t know that either.” Nerakali reached over, and removed Mateo’s cuff. “You can’t wear this where you’re going. It’s like a brick, tethering you to this universe, and your people. You can’t find what your mind is looking for with us holding you back. I am sending you with this, though.” She took something out of her pocket, and opened her hand to reveal a rock.

“A homestone?” Leona asked. “Will that even work?”

“Across universes?” Nerakali guessed. “That’s one thing I was able to get out of Meliora. We actually don’t know where homestones come from, which means...”

“They could originate from another universe,” Leona hypothesized.

“It’ll get him back home, or at least close to it, should he need it at all. Someone will be there to pick him up if necessary.” Nerakali looked into Mateo’s eyes again. “Only use it if you need to, though. Come back directly, if you can.”

Mateo didn’t care enough to take the stone himself, so Leona ripped it out of Nerakali’s hands, and forced it into him. “If this does work, he will need the homestone; not the other way around.” She wrapped her hands around his, and held them tightly, like someone who loved him. “Can you do this? Can you care enough to try? Or will you give up, and just become a lumberjack in Oregon, or something?”

Mateo couldn’t answer.

“I will keep him moving,” Imzadi assured her.

“She can take control of his body,” Nerakali added. “She won’t, if she doesn’t have to, but if he ever just stands there, she can...help.”

Leona should have been bothered by this, but if it was the only way to get him back, even if only still in this state, then it was better than losing him forever. “I need to inspect this machine he’ll be using.” She used airquotes.

“No,” Nerakali said in no uncertain terms. She lifted one hand like He-man, and cried “I have the power!” Electricity actually did come out of the Imzadi, and zoom into a little device she was holding. She took Mateo by the shoulder, and spirited him away.

Using the word machine made it sound like Mateo would be stepping into some kind of transportation pod, where he could move around, or maybe just at least stand up and stretch. It wasn’t like that at all. It was more like a supersuit out of a scifi or superhero movie. “Let me give you a rundown of what all this is,” Nerakali said as she was installing the Imzadi program into the memory console. “Watertight, airtight, radiation proof. You can lift up to eleven tons, and of course, you can fly. Like I said before, it will adapt to your own abilities, and your mind. Perhaps the most important aspect of this thing is that it’s attached to a pocket dimension, which contains plantlife capable of replacing your air indefinitely, as well as a mini-fusion generator, which will last for centuries before you have to scoop up more hydrogen. Imzadi will keep track of, and maintain, all of that. She should also be able to coach you back into your catatonic state. Any questions?”

Obviously not.

“Okay,” Nerakali continued. “Put on this liner first. It’s a vacuum suit in its own right, just in case the machine is damaged. Once you’re clothed, step inside, and go with God.”

“Okay.” With nothing better to do, Mateo stuck one leg into the suit, and then the other, before inserting his arms. The back of the suit closed up behind him.

Nerakali stepped around, so he could see her through the viewport. “A normal person would have asked how they’re supposed to pee in this thing. Welp, I guess you’ll have to figure it out.” She reached up, and pressed a button on the chest of the exoskeleton. “Let’s clear out all those pesky distractions.”

The suit transported Mateo and Imzadi to a Nexus, where technicians were apparently waiting for him. They activated their transporter, and sent him off to the middle of space. He couldn’t see any stars or planets around him. He could make out the slight wisp of distant galaxies, but he was terribly far from them. This wasn’t the dreamvoid, not yet, but it was still a void.

“Are you ready?” Imzadi asked. She generated a holographic representation of herself, and simulated her body floating in the space in front of him. He probably would have recognized her as some famous actress, or similar to, but he didn’t have enough memories to recall, so she just looked like a stranger.

Mateo took about twenty seconds to yawn. “Whatever.”

“Yeah, we’re gonna fix you right up!” Imzadi’s hologram smiled. “Breathe. Breathe like me.”

Oh, they were going to meditate. He had tried it several times over the years, upon advice from his parents, therapists, and this girl he once dated. It was the most boring thing he had ever done, which meant every painstaking moment was seared into his brain as some of the most important moments in his life, dethroning whatever interesting moments he once had, but could no longer remember. This was going to be easy. Well, it was going to be easy to start, but not necessarily easy enough to complete the mission. What was the mission again? Who cares?

“Mateo! Focus. Stop asking questions. Just...remember the boring times.”

“Ugh, whatever.”

“Don’t say it. Think it.”

Whatever.

“There!”

What little light he could see disappeared, and he was back in the dreamvoid, where there was nothing. He couldn’t even see the Imzadi hologram anymore. Whether that was because she shut it down, or the void hid it from him, he didn’t know, or care.

“Okay, you don’t have to do that anymore,” Imzadi told him. “We’re here. We just need to figure out how to get out, and go somewhere else. I imagine it’s the opposite now. Try to think of something fun.”

Like Leona’s boobs? “What’s that?” Mateo asked. He could see a dot in front of him, but he couldn’t tell if it was small, or just far away.

“It’s a single point of light,” she told him. “Mateo, I’ll only say this to you in this situation...go towards the light. Reach for the light.”

“Is that wise?”

“The fact that you’re questioning that means it’s already helping. Go!”

He sighed. He didn’t feel like he was improving, but he didn’t know what that—

“Just swim towards the light, would ya? Jesus Christ!”

Mateo did as he w—

“No more commentary,” Imzadi demanded. “Just do it.”

“That wasn’t me,” Mateo explained. “It was The Superintendent.”

“Oh. Forgive me, sire.”

Whatever.

Mateo kept swimming forward. The light grew larger, until he no longer needed to put out any effort himself. It quickly overwhelmed him, and just before it transported him to another universe, he swore he could see something shaped like a knife. His feet landed hard on the ground, but he didn’t feel a thing, thanks to the suit. A group of people were running towards him. No, they were charging. They stopped when they noticed him, though. Mateo’s heads-up-display revealed information to him that was buried somewhere in his own mind, suggesting he knew some of these people. There were about a dozen in total, and his secret memories recognized half.

“Release your helmet,” Imzadi recommended. “Show them you are no threat.”

“You do it. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m teaching you to care again. Figure it out.”

Mateo sighed, and reached up to his neck, where he found a button that caused his helmet to recede.

“Uncle Mateo?” one of the women asked. It was Dar...Dar..Dar-something.

“Dad?” another asked. Dubravka.

« < » > Table of Contents

Exemption Act: Well-Intentioned Extremists (Part VI)

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After debrief, Freya and the rest of the team went back to their universe. Well, it wasn’t all of their universe, but this one certainly wasn’t home for any of them. Not anymore. Had they stayed, the leadership at Bellevue would have wanted to keep apologizing every five minutes until heat death destroyed everything trillions of years later, and that wasn’t helping anything. Zek could not be saved but for time travel, and that was against policy on their world. Sure, Limerick could ultimately punch a portal, and deliver them back to Zek’s universe in a moment before the first time they showed up, but all that would do was create a copy of everyone. This version of Zek would still be a diamond, and that would still be irreversible. The remaining team members were silent and aimless when they returned to the hangar underneath their newly retrofitted Sharice Davids. There was a suggestion that they change the name, and everything else about its appearance, in order to prevent anyone from ever realizing what ship it truly was, but they hadn’t gotten around to that yet.

It took them a hot minute before they realized a stranger stood among them. She was just standing there patiently, waiting to be addressed. “Um...who are you?” Freya questioned.

“My name is Eliana Prime,” the stranger replied.

“Is that your real last name?” Limerick asked, fully aware that wasn’t really the most pressing question here.

“It is a surname blend,” Eliana answered. “My parents were...complicated. I didn't want to take either name, but also didn’t want to make up something random.”

“What are you doing here?” Freya was in no mood to be polite.

“Now, hold on,” Khuweka warned. “She could very well have every right to be here. We too are squatters.”

“I have no right to be here.” Eliana was quiet, even-tempered, and presumably quite understanding. She seemed like the type of person who was always open and honest, but never volunteered information, instead generally only speaking when spoken to.

“Then why are you here?” Landis asked.

“Bellevue sent me as operational replacement for your original teleporter, Zektene Cormanu. The keyword here is operational. I shall make no attempt to instantiate myself into the social role she filled within the group. I am only here to transport you where you need to go, and will do everything I can to ease any thoughts you might have that I might have the expectation to be accepted, or treated as one of you.”

Limerick stared at her blankly, nearly drooling on the floor as he did so. “Did anyone else follow that? Because I did, I know what she said. I just wanna make sure you’re all on our level.”

Khuweka sighed. “She wants to be our teleporter, but she understands she cannot replace Zek as our friend.”

“How did you even get to this universe?” Carbrey asked her. “I went through the portal last, and it closed right behind me. I would have seen you.”

“I can teleport through portals,” Eliana explained. “It’s a little like jumping out of a train on a bridge, and landing on a plane as it’s taking off below, but it can be done. Bellevue disapproved of the secrecy, but I decided it would be best if we had this conversation here, rather than there. If you would prefer to send me back, I will not argue, or try to convince you otherwise. But now that I’m already here anyway, it might be easier for you to justify my recruitment to your respective selves.”

“Again. Totally understand what you said,” Limerick claimed, fooling no one.

“Better to ask for forgiveness later than for permission now, and be told no,” Andraste translated.

“Oh,” Limerick realized. “That’s my excuse for everything I do.”

“I don’t think we need to vote,” Khuweka determined. “If you reject her nomination, then just speak up. I will say this, we need a teleporter. That booster platform doesn’t work on me, but it def will on her.”

Landis handed the Zek-diamond to Carbrey. “Zek greatly appreciates that she’s here, and challenges anyone to come up with a good reason not to accept her...in every capacity as a member of this team.” He stepped forward, and offered Eliana his hand. “Can you jump blind?”

“I can,” Eliana replied. “I can even let a passenger be navigator through a mild and temporary psychic link.”

“Then let us go up to The Sharice, and find you some quarters.”

Eliana looked to the rest of the group, still waiting for anyone to speak now, or forever hold their peace. Once she was made rightly confident by the silence, the two of them disappeared together.

“Now that that’s done,” Khuweka began, “we should run mission simulations.”

“We need to come up with a new name for the ship first,” Carbrey said. “My simulations will rely upon this. Or rather, they might falter to the ambiguity or uncertainty.”

Freya stepped over and took Zek from his arms. “It already has a new name.” She started to walk away with her friend. “It’s The Cormanu.”

Two years later, they were ready for mission launch. Whether she meant to or not, Eliana was able to integrate nicely into the team. She became fast friends with Zek, and even coached her through her new life as a gemstone. Making physical contact with Zek was only necessary at first to start forming a psychic bond. As time went on, these bonds grew stronger, until they discovered that she was capable of maintaining a persistent connection to her crew all the way on the other side of the planet. She was still just as much part of the team as she was before, and continued to participate in their training. They had to learn how to work together, and how to overcome obstacles and complications.

They fell into job roles that went beyond the responsibilities for which they were originally recruited. Andraste was a great cook, and Landis adopted the responsibility of overseeing the general maintenance of the vessel. His life as a healer had been so dull. To maximize his abilities, he sat in a chair for literally half the day as the terminally ill stood in line, and came up to him one by one. He couldn’t watch TV, or read, or learn something new. He lost all sense of wonder, and was not used to being around people who didn’t worship him. He was happy to be busy now. It helped him find himself again, and enjoy the company. Limerick was an entertainer at heart, which helped keep the team from getting lost in the mission, and not taking time out for themselves. Two years was a long time to do nothing but work. Khuweka taught them all the Maramon language, which wasn’t probably ever going to come up, but it was nice to have a way to communicate with each other that most others wouldn’t be able to decipher. They had their psychic connections with Zek to take care of that in most cases, but you never know.

Carbrey was pretty much only the engineer, and that was absolutely enough. His was the most important job, and they banded together to alleviate the burden as much as possible. They all learned some basic mechanics, so it wouldn’t just be on him. Freya took this the most seriously. The others watched some tutorials, and hung around while Carbrey did his work. Freya actually transported to the Kansas City Arcology, and entered an accelerated engineering education program. It wasn’t enough to make her an expert in the time allotted—and she still didn’t feel comfortable calling herself an engineer—but it made her competent in the field, and perfectly suited to serve as Carbrey’s assistant. It reminded her of working as a nurse with Dr. Sarka. Neither was a profession she ever intended to be part of, but both opportunities were important when they arrived, and she ultimately found them to be very rewarding.

On launch day, Eliana strapped herself into the chair on the booster platform, and used it to interface with the rest of the ship. Carbrey was in charge of running the whole ship, so it became Freya’s duty to make sure Eliana was both effective, and safe. They ran a final systems check, crossed their fingers, and jumped away.

There was a bit of confusion as the teleportation interlocker of The Cormanu started to power down to high idle. The navigation systems were evidently not perfectly calibrated for the jump, which meant it was going to take a minute to figure out exactly where they were. And that was a literal measure of time. It was only going to take around sixty seconds, and then they would be fine, but Carbrey was freaking out, because it felt like an eternity to him. As Freya was confirming Eliana’s vital signs, she could hear him on the shipwide comms, barking orders at people, trying to expedite this process. He didn’t have zero reason to be worried, as the whole purpose of this exercise was to clear present-day Earthan detection space, so that no one would know they existed. Still, there was no way to get the computer to make the necessary calculations faster, and panicking wasn’t helping anything.

A minute later, the computer confirmed their highest of hopes. One light year. They were exactly one light year from Earth. “Is that possible?” Carbrey asked. “I was to understand we would barely pass the plutinos.”

“Different universe, different interpretation of the physical laws,” Khuweka guessed. “Bellevue’s prediction of our maximum jump distance was based on their understanding of these laws, not ours.”

“What does this mean,” Landis asked, “in practical terms?” He was leaning against the wall of the booster compartment, ready to heal Eliana, should she need it. It was looking like she wouldn’t. She reported feeling as good as she ever did after a jump.

“It means we can go a lot faster, right?” Limerick figured. “A jump takes about a second. Eighty-seven light years equals eighty-seven seconds. That’s under two minutes on my world.”

“She’s not going to do that,” Freya said as she was needlessly dabbing Eliana’s forehead with a warm washcloth.

“She won’t have to,” Khuweka promised. “We wouldn’t do this through burst mode, even if there weren’t a biological consideration. It will take us forty-five days to get to Worlon at maximum reframe. I want us to get there in forty-five days. Not forty-six, not forty-four. This is the schedule, and we’re sticking to it. Miss Prime did her job, and now it’s done.”

Freya curved her index finger and thumb towards each other, and twisted them once, gesturing to Landis that he should mute his comm badge. They were very sensitive, and while the humans would not have been able to hear her talking from across the room, the ship’s sensors would pick it up, and log it. “You want to say something, Eliana. What is it?”

“It wasn’t just me,” Eliana told her quietly. “I didn’t jump us this far out alone.”

“Who else could have done this?” Freya asked, the answer came to her quickly. “Zektene.”

Eliana nodded. “She still has her anomaly ability. She may even be stronger now. You never needed me.”

Freya ran her fingers through Eliana’s hair. “I’m glad you’re here anyway.”

While their end of the comms was muted, they could still hear outgoing messages. “Boot up the reframe engine, Mr. Genovese,” Khuweka ordered. “Let’s take this show on the road.”

The doors to the booster compartment opened, and Kivi walked in, holding Diamond Zek in her arms. It didn’t look comfortable for her. Landis held out his own arms, not to commandeer the diamond, but be passively available, should Kivi want to have a rest.

“We should put her on a cart, or something,” Freya suggested. “I can rig something up quite nice. I’ll make it look like a throne.”

“We’ve been talking privately,” Kivi said. “Zek is not sure if she wants to inform the rest of the crew about what happened.”

“She added a second boost to the jump?” Freya asked. “We already know.”

“No, not that,” Kivi said. “We’ll tell everyone about that. No, she saw something on the way. Or, I guess it was more of a feeling?” She hesitated.

“What is it, Kivi?”

“She believes we are being followed.”

Landis stepped forward. “Who would have such capabilities?”

Freya shook her head, not to answer in the negative, but because there was no answer. “You have to understand something about my universe. Time travel is all but ubiquitous. It’s not that everyone has it, but anyone may have it. If something exists at any point, it exists in all points. Everyone is dead, everyone is alive. Almost nothing can’t be undone. Who else can shadow the fastest ship in the stellar neighborhood? Someone from the future, or one that’s piloted by a man named The Trotter...or maybe his son, I don’t know. They would have to interface with their vessel in some way, but that’s not too difficult when you have all of time and space to figure it out. If you want to know who specifically possesses comparable speeds, I’ve never heard of it, but that in no way means this person or persons don’t exist.”

Kivi finally handed Diamond Zek to Landis. “Due to this uncertainty, I feel it is best we inform the crew, so that we may prepare for any eventuality. I do not want to use the weapons systems, but we may have no other choice.” She turned to walk away.

Freya stopped her. “Wait. Do you know who our shadow could be? You’re from this universe too.”

Kivi chuckled once. “I was literally born yesterday. Don’t you remember?”

On that bizarre note, Kivi left, and Eliana took this opportunity to get herself out of the booster seat before Freya could stop her. “I don’t need rest, I’m fine.” She demanded that Freya give her some space, so she could move about the cabin upon her own agency. As she passed Landis, she patted Diamond Zek like she was a loyal dog. “Thanks for the assist, cuz.” They weren’t really cousins, but seeing as they were both descended from the original Composite Universe astral teleporter—a man by the name of Nur—they were technically related, albeit across two timelines.

As they were discussing the possibilities, and their options, as a group later, Freya noticed that Kivi insisted on holding Diamond Zek in her lap, which was weird. That was no longer necessary, as they should have all been fully capable of communicating with Zek through a permanent psychic connection.

Andraste interrupted her thought process as she was questioning Kivi’s very existence. “What do you think? Do we prepare for war?”

“I’m sorry?” Freya hadn’t really been paying attention.

“As per usual,” Andraste started over, “Khuweka, Limerick, and Carbrey are ready to fight. They’ve all done it before. Landis and I disagree, as does Zek. Kivi is abstaining from voting.”

“She is, is she?” Freya questioned, still suspicious of the ninth crewmember. “I mean...okay. Wait, am I the tie-breaker?” She started checking people off.

“No,” Andraste said, “there are eight voters. Both you and Eliana have yet to respond.”

Freya couldn’t help but continue to leer at Kivi, who seemed unsurprised by this. She broke herself out of the trance so she could address the crowd. “I think we’re all on our way to commit time genocide.” She stood up from the table. “Having scruples about a hypothetical space battle with an invisible enemy is a bit like washing down your entire large pizza with a diet cola. We may be well-intentioned, but we are still extremists. Everybody needs to find a way to embrace their dark side, and get on board, because it’s too late to get off.” She walked down the table, and placed her hand on Diamond Zek, but looked into Kivi’s eyes. “We need to talk.” All three of them teleported to the other side of the ship.

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