Microstory 1667: School of Thought

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When the Ochivari arrived in what would come to be known as Efilverse, they didn’t really have any specific intentions. They were explorers at that point. Sure, they hoped to gather resources, but they believed the multiverse to be infinite, so they weren’t too worried about whether this one would be useful to them. They could always figure out how to travel somewhere else. The Efilversals didn’t know what to think about these alien visitors either. They didn’t seem to be hostile, and it didn’t seem like they had technology, or other knowledge, that they would find useful. In the beginning it felt like an innocuous situation, and everybody could kind of take it or leave it. They did tell stories about their respective homeworlds, though, and learned from each other just the same. Both races were shocked to discover that they each had faced the same problem with destroying their own environments. Even with a sample size of only two, they were beginning to think that it was an inevitable development. If other races evolved on other worlds, they were destined to destroy it, just like the two of them had. Of course, we know that this is not true, but they didn’t understand that, and over time, the idea became so ingrained in their culture that there was no way to prove them wrong. They didn’t, and couldn’t, listen to reason. The Efilversals taught the Ochivari their ways in a general sense, not by directly telling them how they should do things, but through unintentional inspiration. The idea that any given ecosystem could be saved by taking action to preserve it faded from their hearts—if it was ever there in the first place—and was overwritten by the belief that the only way to save it is to kill anything that threatens it. One Efilversal in particular felt that some form of genocide was sometimes the only answer. The most famous quote of his would become the basis of the Ochivari’s entire belief system. “If a man begins to walk the path towards annihilation, the only way to stop him from reaching the end is to break his legs. There are no nexions from darkness to light.” In this case, a nexion is a small path that connects two paths somewhere after the original splitting fork. Apparently, you can’t even walk back in the opposite direction in this metaphor.

The Ochivari travelers saw no problem with the man’s claims, and took his words to heart, along with many more. He seemed to be the wisest of them all, and they hoped that he would help them make the multiverse a better place. They no longer wanted to be concerned with resources and expansion. They wanted to fix worlds. They wanted to prevent others from making the same mistakes. No, that’s not it. That they could do, if they interfered with any given culture’s timeline at the right moment. Instead, they just wanted to stop those who were already destined to fail their planets. They were going to proverbially break their legs. The wise man seemed to be the best person to teach them how to make their new dream a reality. He seemed willing to do as they asked, but his teachings would no longer be given for nothing. In exchange for his help, he wanted to be relocated to a universe that was free from all the drama and trauma. It would have to be normal and safe, and the Ochivari were not allowed to visit it again for any reason. These seemed like fair conditions. Again, they knew that the bulkverse was infinite, so if there was only one universe they could not save, even if it needed it, then that was a small price to pay. The teacher actually stood on a hill, and continued to disseminate his philosophy, but it eventually turned more into a group effort. The Ochivari came up with ideas that he had not thought of himself, and eventually, the radical antinatalistic school of thought was born. Once the planning stages were complete, the Ochivari stayed true to their word. Two volunteers agreed to transport him to a random universe. Unfortunately, the psychological disease he carried managed to follow him through the portal, and once he was on the other side, it began to infect everyone there as well.

Microstory 1666: Guardian Dolphins

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There was a pod of dolphins. They lived in the sea. They understood that the humans who came in their boats came to see them. So they would always put on a show. They breached the surface often, even when they didn’t need air, and they would occasionally perform flips. They could hear the cheers and applause that came from the boats, and they enjoyed it. One day, the tourists stopped coming with their boats. The seas calmed, and the quiet took over. There was no more cheering, no more applause. The dolphins just slept, and looked for food, and played amongst themselves. Two of the dolphins were curious and concerned. What had happened to the humans? Surely they would still want to see the creatures. They could not have all simply decided to stop all at once. The humans and the dolphins had long enjoyed a special relationship, with the latter always being around to lend a flipper when the former was in need. Something terrible could have happened to them, and if that was the case, they needed to know about it. The two friends went on a journey to find answers. They swam up the coast, trying to find humans who could explain their absence. The journey was proving to be longer than they thought, but they did not give up. They had to know if something was wrong. Perhaps they could help. Finally they found some people on the cliffs, but they seemed unable to communicate with them. Some humans can understand dolphin language, but most cannot. That would prove to be the most difficult challenge. They continued their pursuit of their truth, eventually coming across a lone fisherman in a small boat, who appeared to only catch enough for himself to eat. He could understand them, and he explained that a great disease was spreading through the world, killing some, and making the rest sick. The dolphins were saddened. They could not fix this problem. They did not have scientists of their own. Heck, while they could understand it conceptually, they couldn’t even make fire. Yet they still wanted to help in some way. They kept swimming around, meeting other people, and asking whether there was anything they could do, but there was nothing. They had always considered it there purpose to help the humans. After all, they were known as a guardian race. They had helped vessels find their way in the darkness, and even signalled to civilization when a traveler from a wreck was trapped on a remote island. This was something they were ill-equipped to handle, though. People started joking that they were out of their depth. They laughed quite a bit, actually, at the possibility that there was anything the water-dwellers could do. In the end, the humans had no choice but to deal with the issue themselves. Frustrated by this, the two dolphins switched missions, and began to commune with other dolphin pods, spreading the word that the humans no longer needed their help at all. It was then that the dolphins of all species began to discuss their future in the global collective. They ultimately decided to stop being a guardian race, so they could focus on their own prosperity. The humans, meanwhile, lost out on their opportunities to enjoy watching the dolphins play.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Tuesday, November 18, 2256

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Due to having been living on another planet for the last three years, and not paying any attention to Leona’s special time watch, the group didn’t know how close to midnight central they were when they went back to the main sequence. Before the AOC was able to scan the surface for the location of the Nexus inside a crater, it was already three years later. There was no sign of Anatol, so hopefully that meant he was on their pattern, and not that he was already in the Gatewood Collective. This was the most likely reason, as Nerakali and Jupiter had to deliberately program the primary Cassidy cuff to keep them from being bound to the Bearimy-Matic pattern. It wasn’t set that way automatically, so he would have needed time to figure it out.

They found what they were looking for, and between the two of them, Leona and Angela were able to get their ship hooked up to the Nexus. There was no space next to the Gatewood Nexus, so they had to program their exit to appear in the middle of interplanetary space. Kestral and Ishida knew what the AOC was, so after confirming the crew’s identities, they let them dock at the nearest airlock. They recommended the Nexus technician to place anyone else who came through in a hock that was fitted with temporal dampeners. It wasn’t necessarily going to be Anatol, but it probably was, so it was best to be prepared. Team Keshida was busy with something, so the debrief would have to wait until later. Until then, the crew of the AOC decided to take a rest in a family-owned lounge in the main centrifugal cylinder. It was set up like a bar, but this was a dry cylinder. The owner was massaging a glass, and watching them from across the room. Mateo went over to see if he needed anything.

“I know who you are,” the owner said.

“I can’t tell if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.”

“You saved us.”

“It was a team effort.” That wasn’t modesty, it really was mostly other people’s doing.

“I got somethin’ for ya...if you want it.” He reached under the bar, and Mateo could hear the beeping of a safe. He pulled out a bottle of bourbon, and set it down.

“Heh. That was never my drink, and I don’t drink anymore. Thanks, though. Better put that away.”

“I don’t drink either. I keep it for preferred customers.”

A young boy came in from the back room. “Dad?”

The owner looked back. “Yes, son?”

“A ship came in. I saw it outside. Do you know who it is?”

He smirked and looked back at Mateo. “He loves ships. Wants to grow up to be a captain.”

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that,” Mateo said.

The boy regarded him for a moment, then widened his eyes. He furiously started typing onto his handheld device. “You’re Mateo Matic.”

“I’m one of them, yes,” Mateo confirmed, knowing there was some other Mateo running around out there, somewhere.

The boy turned his head down abashedly. “Wait, it was you, in the ship.”

“Yeah,” Mateo said. “My crew and I are here to take a rest.” He gestured towards his friends, still sitting in the corner.

“Whoa,” the boy said, staring over at them.

“What’s your name?”

“Halan,” the boy answered. “Halan Yenant.”

“Well, Captain Yenant. I’ll have Crewmember Walton give you a tour of our ship, if you want.” Mateo moved his eyes back up to the father. “That okay?”

The father nodded. “Of course. Just go tell your mother first.”

“Thanks!”

While Halan went back to the back, Mateo went over to make sure Angela was cool with this. She was the best candidate, since next to Leona, she was the most knowledgeable about the ship, and also had experience counseling people. She was more than happy to do it, so once he came back, they joined hands, and left. Mateo started thinking about this interaction. He was no starship captain himself, but he was technically a member of a crew, which was just insane. He was a ridesource driver back before all this time travel began, no hope of going into space. It didn’t even cross his mind back then that such a thing was an option. Now it was just his life. Until Flindekeldan, he probably spent more time in space than on the surface of a planet, non-Earth worlds included. It wasn’t bad, or good, just different; the only problems now were all these people coming after him and his friends. Without them, he might even be able to enjoy himself again.

Mateo sat back down with the group. A few other people came in, and recognized them, so they got to talking. As it turned out, there were others who wanted to fly in spaceships. Apparently, space travel as a real concept was taught to children living in Ansutah. But this was kind of annoying, because they knew it would never be possible for them. Not only was there very little space to explore, but humans weren’t allowed to so much as leave their continent, or it would place the entire species at risk against the Maramon, who dominated the world. Now that they were actually living in what was technically a spaceship, some were frustrated that they still didn’t go anywhere. After more discussion, Mateo realized that it was no coincidence that so many such people frequented the same lounge. They deliberately formed a community for this reason. They wanted to be close to the Nexus, and the main docking sections. No one traveled to Gatewood, except for those who knew it was populated by aliens, and those few always came through here. Other docks on this cylinder, and in the other cylinders, would be out of use if not for the ferries.

After a while, Angela came back with Halan. They were soon followed by a man that Mateo recognized. It wasn’t Saxon, though, and it definitely wasn’t Julius. His name was Omega Parker, and he was a clone of Saxon’s, who chose to become independent, and ignore his duties. He was now evidently working closely with Team Keshida, and everyone in this lounge knew who he was. They didn’t seem to hate him, but they weren’t in love with him either. He took off sunglasses that didn’t make him look as cool as he probably thought. “I’m glad that most of you are here,” he said with a grin. “I have a proposal for—what the hell are you people doing here?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mateo said coolly. “What’s your proposal, I’d like to here it.”

Omega was nervous.

“Go on, Omega,” Mr. Yenant echoed.

He decided to continue. “My associate came up with an idea. I thought we should move forward with it, but they have chosen not to. I’ve been trying to convince them for a week, but they’re occupying themselves with other projects, and I’ve determined it’s useless to keep trying. Still, I think it’s a good idea, and if you want to do it for yourselves, I doubt they’ll do anything to stop you.”

“What is it?” someone in the crowd asked.

“They call it Project Extremus. The idea is to send a ship full of people to the other side of the galaxy. You’ve been looking for an excuse to get in a ship, and this is that. You tell ‘em you want a new home, I don’t think the bosses will say no to it.”

“How long will it take to get there?” someone in the crowd asked.

“About two hundred years,” Omega answered, “with this technology.” He held up a virtual storage device. A woman stepped forward with the air of authority. She reached for the device, but Omega pulled it away. He lowered his voice to speak directly to her, but everyone else could still hear. “I need verbal confirmation that you’ll fight against any sort of punishment that Keshida tries to dole out for me for giving you this.”

“I promise to defend you,” the woman said after snatching away the device. “As I have always done.” Strangely, she handed it right to Halan, the only kid in the room. “You know what to do.” As the boy was running off, she turned back to Omega. “Thank you. You can go now.”

Omega nodded. “Yeah.” He left.

Now the leader stepped back to address the crowd. “We’ll convene a full roster meeting in three days, after we’ve had time to look over the data, and discuss the proposal formally. Everyone here think that’s a good idea?”

The crowd nodded and agreed.

“All right,” Mr. Yenant said to break the silence. “Drinks on the house,” he joked.

“Mateo Matic to the throne room, please,” came Ishida’s voice on the intercom. “Mateo and friends to the throne room.”

They all walked down to where Team Keshida operated. The two of them were waiting in front of the strategy table. An android was next to them, holding Anatol Klugman in custody. He had a muzzle over his face, like some kind of cannibal.

“Why did you come here with him?” Captain McBride asked.

“Gatewood was the only destination from the Nexus where we came from,” Leona explained.

Kestral started shaking her head mildly. “Someone needs to figure out how to make those more programmable. Can you imagine buying a phone that only calls one number?”

“I think that’s the point,” Leona continued. “We didn’t buy the Nexa. They’re gifts, and we can only use them however we get them.”

Lieutenant Caldwell sighed. “We don’t want him in our star system. We don’t want him within ten light years of our people.”

“We don’t want him here either,” Leona agreed. “Now that he’s arrived, we can all leave.”

“You have two options,” the Captain said. “You can step through the Nexus, and go to whatever other Nexus you want, or you can take your ship there. We don’t care which. You just have to be out within the half hour.”

“If we connect the ship to the Nexus from the outside—” Leona tried to begin.

“We won’t let you butcher our machine,” Ishida said dismissively. “You have your two options.”

“We need our ship,” Leona said to the group. “If we use the reframe engine, it will only take us three days.”

Anatol muffled something that no one could understand.

Kestral made eye contact with the android guard. She closed her eyes, and nodded once, prompting the guard to removed the mouthpiece from Anatol’s muzzle.

“Thank you,” Anatol said. “What I said was that I’m not taking off your cuffs. I’m still wearing the primary, and nothing can be done about that.”

“We could have his arm surgically removed,” Kestral suggested.

“Don’t worry about it, but thanks for the offer.” Leona took a moment to think through a plan. “We’ll all take the reframe engine back to Sol. I’ll program the AOC to land on an icy planetesimal that has not yet been colonized for Project Oort Shield. It will be waiting for us...” She stopped. “Can we at least suppress Jeremy’s pattern, so we’ll return in 2257?”

“No,” Anatol replied simply.

She didn’t want to fight in front of company. “In that case, the AOC will be waiting for us in 2275, at which point we can teleport to Earth, and deal with whatever is going on here. Keshida, if you could give us access to Oort Shield plans, it will help me choose a celestial body that won’t come online sometime in the next nineteen years.”

“We have access to that schedule,” Ishida confirmed. “We’ll give you an extra half hour to look them over before you have to leave.”

Kestral gave her a look, which Ishida could see, but she was unfazed by it.

 Mateo gave Leona his own look, hoping the magical psychic message came across correctly. She appeared to understand when she shook her head slightly to indicate that no, they would not be telling Team Keshida about what Omega told the residents at the lounge. Perhaps if they weren’t being kicked out so quickly, they would have considered being honest with Keshida.

“Very well,” Kestral said. “While you’re finding those plans, I’ll help the android escort Mr. Klugman to the AOC. I know you don’t have a holding cell—”

“I know what to do with him,” Leona promised. “Thank you for hosting us, if only briefly.”

Kestral bowed her head a little.

They executed the plan. Leona found a pretty random icy rock orbiting the Earth’s solar system near interstellar space. An outpost wasn’t destined to be built there for another hundred and fifty years, which would give them plenty of time to get out of there, and plan their next move. Something had to be done about Anatol, and it had to be done before he gained some kind of advantage over this stalemate. Without the Cassidy cuffs themselves, only so much could be done to suppress a choosing one’s time powers. He would break free at some point, and become another antagonist for the team to defeat. For now, they locked him in grave chamber four.

As soon as they entered reframe time, they were suddenly struck by the next midnight central, which instantly jumped them all to the year 2275. The AOC had landed long ago, and was waiting for them at the destination. They expected to just be sitting on the surface of IOO-TH-2-44-256-83, completely alone, but they appeared to be inside a hangar.

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Sic Transit...Ingenuitas (Part VIII)

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Saying that the penthouse was the best was apparently not saying much. Treasure hadn’t seen a lot of this world when she first arrived, but the word she used to describe it in her headcanon was dumpy. The people here weren’t just careless with the environment, but actively destructive of it. No one deserved to be wiped out by the Ochivari, but she had to pick one universe, she certainly couldn’t pick somewhere else over this one, right? That wouldn’t be fair. Still, the individuals she met were very kind and accommodating. They seemed to love and revere her quite a bit. She was a legend before her time. She wasn’t really excited to get to the part of her future where people knew her name, and she understood specifically why. Again, she was still so young, so she hadn’t thought much about her future. She only knew that she was born with this power, and it would be irresponsible not to use it, since as far as she knew, it wasn’t something she could bequest to someone else.

“Bequest isn’t a verb,” Quino instructed her. “I’ve been studying English. It’s a noun. Perhaps you mean bequeath.”

“Bequest is also a verb in my universe,” Treasure explained.

“Really?”

“My own personal universal bubble that I live in that’s only large enough to fit me and my tiara.”

“I can’t join you?” he asked. They had grown closer over the last few months. They weren’t actively pursuing a relationship with each other, but they also weren’t working very hard to prevent it. Though as he said, Quino was now completely fluent in English, their preferred shared language was Flirtish.

“Okay. I just need to absorb enough bulk energy to make it larger.”

He took an eighth of a step towards her. “Ya know, if I were to stand closer, you wouldn’t have to expend so much energy to make your universe big enough for the both of us.”

“That’s true,” she agreed as she was taking a quarter step. “How close were you thinking, though?”

Quino skipped the half-step, and just jumped right to a pretty wide full step. Their shoulders were touching each other, and maybe a few atoms could flow between the left side of his chest, and her breast. She could feel his breath on her forehead. “How much energy would it take to accommodate me now?”

She was surprised by this. They had never come this close before, and until this moment, the way they flirted could have always been dismissed as nothing more than innocent, or maybe even platonic. She was glad he was making the first move, though. It was so unlike him, which showed that he felt comfortable being relaxed around her. She felt the same, so she kept going. “Still too much.” She pulled him right up against her, and held him in place with her arms. “This I think I can handle.” She rested her head on his neck, and they just held each other tightly for the rest of time.

Without releasing completely, Quino reached into his back pocket, and showed her some little metal thing that she didn’t recognize. “Happy birthday.”

“Is it my birthday?” Treasure asked genuinely. “How can you tell?”

“You told me how long ago your sixteenth was before you decided to show your parents what you could do. Based on the amount of time we were in Hyperion, and all these other universes, I think I can reasonably surmise that today is the day you turn seventeen. I’ve been keeping track, because honestly, while seventeen Standard Vertean years does not equal seventeen Earthan years, it is pretty close, and it’s when my people consider someone to be an adult.”

Treasure smiled and nodded. “How clever of you. But I must say, I do not know what that thing is.”

“Me neither,” Quino admitted. “All I know is that it’s the last part that your special ship needs to be complete. Once they insert this doo-da-bob under the whatever-ma-thingy, we’ll be ready to go.”

“That’s sweet,” she said.

He pulled away a little more, and looked confused, as if someone else had said something that made him wonder what was going on. “Is it? I’m now realizing that my giving this to you is basically like giving you permission to do something you’re already entitled to do. I have no right to give this to you. It’s not mine. It’s always been yours.”

“Don’t overthink it,” Treasure said, taking the doo-da-bob from him. “Let’s go tell everyone else.”

“Everyone knows. They’re waiting for you to give a go-ahead on the manifest.”

“Why would I need to give the go-ahead?”

“Like I said, it’s yours. This is a gift. The engineers expect nothing in return. They were happy to be doing something. Apparently, being a robot is boring. Anyway, it’s your ship, so you get to decide who gets on it.”

“All the humans, I guess. I mean, if there’s room for any androids who want to go somewhere else, I’m happy to oblige them as well.”

“No androids want to come,” Quino said, “not even Kickstand and Apple. There is a complication, though. Word got out about you, specifically to the island of organics who chose not to upload their minds to mechanical bodies. There were thousands of them in the beginning, but the majority of them were old, and have since died out. Over two hundred of them are still around, though, and they would like to find a new home.”

“Aren’t they sick?” Treasure asked. When the Ochivari travel to a new universe, they destroy all intelligent life with a virus that sterilizes the entire population. It takes  decades to complete, but it can’t be stopped once it’s begun.

“Yes, they are presently in quarantine, to protect us, and the other refugees. The  virus is airborne, but it can only survive for an extended period of time in a living host, so this whole area is virus-free. That’s why we didn’t immediately contract it upon arrival. Bringing them onboard is risky, and there’s still no cure.”

“Then what’s the point? Where do they want me to take them?” Treasure asked. “We can’t let them try to integrate into some other civilization.”

“Yeah, but this world is polluted, even where they are. The atmosphere is becoming toxic, and will kill them all before old age can.”

Treasure sat a moment with this information. Her parents and Miss Collins, and pretty much every adult she ever met, taught her to help others. That was everything to them; helping people. It was their reason for being, and they instilled this value in her. Her instinct was to help, but that word was more complicated than it sounded. If you were to try to help someone in their quest to become president of a company, you might be hurting the person who already was the president. So the very idea of helping others was a lot more nuanced than just seeing someone in need, and providing them with that need. She had to think about whether helping them could cause harm to others, and the answer was yes. Yes, it would hurt others. If there were a cure to the sterility virus, or even if there was a way to stop them from being contagious, that would be a different story. They could live out their lives, happy and healthy, and not worry about infecting others. But that was not the bulkverse they were living in. In reality, taking these people to safety meant risking destroying all life, in every universe. Not even the Ochivari wanted that.

It was also prudent to consider the victims. As individuals, they may have all been lovely people, but they were living in a dead world, because their ancestors—and frankly, maybe even they—made it that way. They caused the pollution, and by all accounts, it was worse here than any planet Treasure studied in school. Perhaps they didn’t deserve to be sterilized. And once she was ready, Treasure planned to do everything she could to thwart the Ochivari’s plans. This was all true. The problem was that saying the locals deserved this would be an overstatement, but saying they didn’t deserve it didn’t sound right either. She could not justify rescuing these people at the expense of the truly innocent, which yeah, included herself. She breathed in deep, but didn’t say anything.

Quino understood. “I’ll take care of it, and I’ll leave you out of it.”

“No,” Treasure said. “Tell them it was my call. It’s what my mother would do. Well, actually, she would be brave enough to confront them herself.”

“That’s why you have me,” Quino assured her. “We’re a team now.” He started to walk backwards. “You, me, and Rosalinda. Hey, get your stuff together. We leave whenever you want.”

Unlike how it was in Hypnopediaverse, the bridge collapse refugees here were all from the same place. They were attending a concert in the park, and just so happened to be in the same vicinity as each other in the parking lot afterwards. That was going to make dropping them off that much easier. The engineers were brilliant. They included a cosmic frequency detector, which would allow her to navigate to any user’s universe of origin, or if calibrated correctly, back to a universe they had been to before. Navigating the bulkverse was difficult for anyone to do. Most of the technology the Transit employed was dedicated exclusively towards making these calculations. Treasure was supposed to be able to do it psychically, but given where they were now, she was obviously not so great at that. Fortunately, the cosmic frequency workaround was almost foolproof, and a fairly easy component to add. In the future, they would try to link this little lifeboat up to the Transit’s database, to gather the necessary coordinate data.

It was very easy to pilot the little ship. An AI did most of the heavy lifting for her. All Treasure had to do was tell it what she wanted, and it would figure it out. Once all the refugees were back where they belonged—having aged, but not having missed anything from their lives—Treasure navigated them to what Miss Collins referred to as an uncivilized universe. This may have sounded bad and dangerous, but all it really meant was that life evolved on planets with the right conditions, but did not progress enough to have any sort of sufficiently advanced intelligence. They were actually some of the safest worlds to be, because other travelers had no use for them, and there was no one around for the Ochivari to sterilize. Here, she stepped out of the ship, and prepared to return home on her own. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Where are you going?” Rosalinda asked.

“I have to go deal with my parents,” Treasure said. “I just need to explain to them what’s happened, and that my life is out here now. They won’t like it, but they’ll accept it, and they won’t be able to stop me.”

“Don’t do that,” Quino strongly suggested.

“Why not?” Treasure questioned.

“I want you to be back here soon, but from your perspective, it should be longer.”

“How much longer?”

He hesitated a bit. “Three years.”

“Three years!” she exclaimed. “Why do you want me gone that long?”

“In three years, you won’t be that much younger than me. That’s important, but there’s a reason age discrepancies are so frowned upon. You have not experienced enough of your life. You have not figured out who you are, and what you want to do. You’ve not explored your options. You need to finish basic higher education before you start doing all this.”

“This is easy for you to say,” Treasure argued. “It won’t be but seconds for you, no big deal. You expect me to wait years for you, just so I can get a degree that I don’t care about, and won’t use?”

“You’ll use the education you receive; you just probably won’t use it to get a job,” he reasoned.

“What if I meet someone new? What then? You know what you’re risking.”

“If you meet someone new, then you will belong with that person, and I will be happy for you. You still need to come back here to pilot The Strongbox, though. I don’t want to live in this universe forever.”

“The what-box?”

“The Strongbox,” Quino repeated. “That’s what this could be called, because it holds treasure?”

They kept arguing about it, but Treasure decided to agree in the end. Fighting wasn’t helping anything, and she could come back whenever she wanted, regardless of what he thought was prudent. She wouldn’t even have to tell him. So they said their goodbyes, and then she screamed her way back home. In those few seconds while she was waiting for the shatter portal to break open, she had an idea. If she navigated precisely to the moment she first left, her mother would never even know she had gone. She wasn’t in the room when it happened, so she didn’t actually see it happen. This was fate. She knew she had heard a different scream when she left. She thought it was some kind of echo, but no, it must have been Future!Her.

Her mom burst into the room. “What did you do?”

“See?” Treasure began, feigning innocence. She spoke with her real voice. “I can scream and not travel the bulkverse. I don’t need my collar anymore, I can control it. I can choose whether my scream is more than just a loud sound.”

Freya regarded her, unimpressed. “Treasure.”

“Yes, mom?” She was still trying to act like a good girl.

“You’re wearing different clothes, and there’s something on your head. Did you become the queen of another world, or something?”

“Uhhhhhhhh...quick-change trick. Mom, I want to become a magician.”

Freya sighed, obviously not believing the really bad lie. “Where did you go, and how long were you there?”

“Wait, I can explain. Just—” Before she could finish her thought, an obnoxious horn sounded outside. Treasure smiled gleefully. It was The Transit. Azura was here.

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Microstory 1665: Rainrider

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I’m going to get specific with this one. I kind of just chose a story at random to tell you about someone living in Salmonverse. Many people have the ability to manipulate time in some way. They can travel back and forth, or maybe even just back. Others can only teleport. Some people can do crazy things that you wouldn’t think called for temporal manipulation. Invisibility, for instance, is generally done by altering the path of light, but in Salmonverse, it’s done by creating the illusion that something is not there when it is, by superimposing what would be there if the invisible thing actually were not. Some of the restrictions and specialties—which are sometimes referred to as flavors—are bizarre, and seem oddly designed. They can suggest that there’s a higher power making these decisions, even when there’s not. There is in many cases, mind you. People who have no control are called salmon, while people who do are choosing ones. But choosers still have their own restrictions, and like I said, they can be almost too strange to believe. One man in particular could travel through time and space, but only in the rain. When he went outside while it was raining, it prompted his ability to make a jump, and he could land anywhere in time and space, as long as it was raining at his destination as well. Each jump would discharge the temporal energy, no matter how far, and the only way to recharge would be for him to dry off completely, and then go back out in the rain. If the storm had since passed, then he was stuck there until he could find another. I just think this is such a funny little story. There is no explanation for why he had to ride the rain, and he never even looked for one. He accepted his limitations, and used them to his advantage. Man, he loved it too. Once he discovered the power, he abandoned his old life, and used it all the time. He didn’t go back to make changes to the timeline. In fact, he was usually just doing it to see the sites. He didn’t run into any evil time travelers, or get stuck somewhere scary. He just traveled the world, and the timeline, enjoying life as one of the lucky few to see all this in one lifetime. Only once did he go into the future from his time period of origin, just to make sure there wasn’t some kind of temporal lid that would block him. He never had any interest in actually spending any time there, though, partially because he didn’t know the weather patterns anyway, but also because he figured all the beauty was in the past, before pollution and overpopulation ruined everything. Few other travelers ever met him, but it was one of them who gave him his nickname: The Rainrider.

Microstory 1664: Private Network

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When the immortal man created life on a multitude of planets, across thousands of galaxies, in the Composite Universe, he didn’t have many plans to interact with his creations. He figured they could be left to their own devices, and they would rise or fall upon their own merits and mistakes. He didn’t completely abandon most of them, though. For nearly every world, he designed a way to allow his people to reach out to him, if they so wished. Most of them could be found in space, which meant that the people would have to develop enough to actually reach it, but others were near the surface of the world of origin. They would still generally require some level of intelligence, as well as the ability to work together in a team. Still, there were a few planets he chose to ignore, not out of spite or anything, but just to see whether they could find him on their own. They were meant to progress in their own way, and if they eventually became sufficiently advanced—and chose to explore outer space—they could figure it out. It might take them a few thousand years, or more, but neither he nor they were on some kind of time limit. He was destined to live for billions of years, and he had so many other things to worry about, that the outcome of any one race didn’t matter too terribly much. One world discovered how heavily populated the universe was shockingly quickly. Instead of gradually traveling farther and farther from home, they decided to stay on the ground, and focus on finding a way to jump anywhere they wanted instantaneously. This was already possible by way of the Nexus network, but this civilization didn’t have access to that. They had to come up with it all on their own.

They devised a method of sending a vessel to anywhere in the observable universe within a matter of minutes, significantly cutting down travel time, though it was still not quite as fast as a Meganexus, which can do it in seconds. They equipped their vessels with recall mechanisms, allowing it to spontaneously open a new node, and send it back home. They would always have to go back to home base first, but that wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Given enough time, they could construct a new relay point, but they only did that if they felt there was any need, like if they found any other lifeforms at the second location. That was what they were doing; going out in search of friends and allies, but also for those who might threaten them. That was another reason not to build a relay point, because if they maintained control over the technology, a nefarious force was less likely to be able to find them. Of course, they started out at shorter distances, covering their galaxy, before moving onto neighboring galaxies, and beyond. Their creator deliberately spread out his people, so each would have room to grow without worrying about running into diplomatic issues for a while. The intergalactic hoppers were pretty upset to learn that they were alone, even though they weren’t. They created a formula long before that predicted how many worlds should be inhabited, and refined it as variables came in through their travels. Not a single evolved and intelligent soul across millions of light years? The reality was that naturally evolved life was even rarer than that, as this was several  hundred million years before humans evolved on Earth. They came this close to going extinct, and while it’s rather complicated, it was pretty much due to profound loneliness. The few survivors kept going, though, and would later find themselves assimilated into the general population.

Microstory 1663: Origin of Atlantis

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Universe Prime is vast, both in space, and across time. I could tell you any number of stories from this universe, and most of them don’t even take place on Earth. Why don’t I stick with what you’re a little more familiar with, though? More specifically, I think I’ll discuss Atlantis, since that is where all the interesting things happen. You’ve probably heard of the sunken island from one story, or another. Different storytellers have different interpretations of it, but there are a few key commonalities. It was an advanced island that sank into the ocean. Sometimes its residents survived, and sometimes not. The truth is that the island did indeed sink, and not only did the people survive, but they sank it on purpose. It all started when a group of scientists from the Composite Universe found themselves stranded in a strange new world. An experiment of theirs didn’t go wrong; it went too right. It was too powerful, and the range was too wide. They made a new home here, but did not want to live a primitive lifestyle, like all the native inhabitants. They still wanted to use their technology, and explore science, so they decided to colonize an island that was surprisingly equidistant from the land masses that would come to be known as Greenland, Iceland, and Ireland—around 690 miles, in your terms. In the beginning, things were fine, as they were far enough away from civilization to avoid interfering with their development, but it didn’t last. Visitors started to come from the mainlands. It was on accident at first, but then when they returned home with stories of the wonders of Atlantis, more came, hoping to see the truth. The Atlantians attempted to prevent any further problems. They distorted the celestial sphere from nearby waters, so it was difficult to navigate, but people still happened upon them. The tried to hide their technology underneath a façade of primitivism. But that was tiresome. They needed a permanent solution. Thus the sinking.

The Atlantians figured that, if any of the natives witnessed their island sinking, they would have been amazed, but they wouldn’t have attempted to investigate it. They certainly wouldn’t have been able to dive down that deep. It legitimately looked like the island was destroyed, so it all should have ended there. Of course, it prompted superstitions, but in the end, the world’s development was not too dramatically altered. They already had plenty of stories about magic, and that would not change for centuries. Meanwhile, the Atlantians kept a watchful eye on the surface of the planet. People were still occasionally finding themselves there from elsewhere, be it the other universe, or just some other planet in Prime. If you were stranded, Atlantis was your best hope of finding a way home. They eventually discovered a way to reach out to their world of origin, but they were now mostly the descendants of those original scientists, so they considered Atlantis their home. Only a few ever chose to leave, including newcomers, many of whom saw Atlantis as a great place to start over. Those that stayed continued to advance technologically, but never ventured outside of their bubble, except to bring in someone new. The island fell completely into the realm of myth, which was their intention all along. It was a pretty diverse crowd of witches, transhumans, regular humans, vampires, aliens, and even a few androids. Since their population was relatively small, even over time, they were able to maintain a fair democracy, and managed to avoid many of the hardships that other civilizations experience from their infancy.

Microstory 1662: Aggression Towards the Mean

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Things seemed hopeless in the universe with the two counterpart realities. It might have been okay in the prime reality if they had never learned of their alternate selves, but the realization made it too complicated, and ultimately ruined everything. There was no way to fix the problem. Every alternate was the opposite of their primary self; an evil twin, if you will—or the good twin, accordingly. They could not be changed unless the primary version was changed, but no matter what, they could not both be good people. One scientist wasn’t satisfied with this. He wanted to figure out how to rehabilitate a secondary individual without changing anything about the primary, and he chose to try this by experimenting on himself. He built a machine that would allow travel between the two opposing realities. He didn’t want to do anything with this machine except facilitate the progression towards this goal, and he didn’t want anyone else getting their hands on the technology. He knew that his creation could have consequences. He needed time to save his alternate self, but if that turned out to be impossible, it left at least one person who could reveal the secret to the world. What would he do then? How would he protect it? This scientist was an above average person, who tried to make the right choices, but was also full of character flaws. He didn’t always recycle, even if it wasn’t any more difficult than just throwing it in the trash. He voted for who he thought was the best candidate for a government position, but he wasn’t always right about that, and he didn’t get around to the polling location every single time. So his counterpart wasn’t evil. In fact, many would probably have a bit of a difficult time telling the two of them apart. This was probably for the best. Transforming a rapist into a selfless volunteer hero was a tall order, and maybe better left to a later stage of this endeavor.

He did his best to quantify their differences at first, but then just kind of began to improvise. They went to therapy together, and they studied the great leaders of history. They practiced mindfulness, and tried to help people when opportunity arose. Things were going okay. They were both improving a little, and there didn’t seem to be many issues. But that wasn’t enough. The true test came when the scientists sent his counterpart back to his home reality, and observed the results. They were a failure. The secondary really did do everything he could to hold onto the lessons he had learned, but it was impossible. His brain chemistry rewired itself, and within the day, he was worse than he ever was before. He started walking up to strangers, and kicking them in the shins. He poured laxatives into his friends’ drinks, and slashed his boss’ tires. The primary version was horrified. Knowing his alternate was his opposite was one thing, but actually being able to see it firsthand was just too much for him to stomach. So he went after him. He tried to kill his evil alternate, which was ironic, because murder is pretty bad, so it automatically turned his twin into the good one. But if he was good, then he didn’t need to be eliminated, so the primary tried to become good again. But then the counterpart started becoming bad again. It just wouldn’t stop. Every attempt to change things failed. Only one of them could be good at any one time. Seeing no way out, the primary committed suicide, and hoped this terrible act would permanently turn his alternate self into a good person, but this too failed, because what the survivors learned was that when one of them dies, so too does the other. It was all still so hopeless.