Extremus: Year 48

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Former Captain and Admiral Halan died shortly after his conversation with Captain Leithe. Funny enough, the last person on the vessel still alive who could remember living in Ansutah also died that very same day. There were probably many others back on Gatewood, but this felt like a somber milestone. It was overshadowed by Halan, and everyone’s reaction to losing him. There’s a saying on Earth, don’t speak ill of the dead. This sentiment has held strong here. Even some of his most vehement opponents now have nothing but nice things to say about him. That should be a good thing, but his loyalists, like Kaiora, can’t help but feel bitter about it. He died in hock, unfitting for a man of his greatness, and those who truly loved him will never forgive these fair-weather friends for that. At least his persistent detractors hold to their own convictions. At least Kaiora can respect them for that. What she can’t respect is what has happened recently. It was all planned out, but now it’s all ruined.

Future Captain is not just something people call who they think the next captain will be. It is an official title that comes with responsibility and even a tiny bit of power, mostly involving new access to certain sensitive data. Trudie Haynes was already in this position, and had been there for two years when the council pulled the rug out from under the both of them. They have apparently decided that they need to drain the swamp. Halan picked Kaiora, then committed a crime. While Kaiora has given them no reason to not trust her judgment over the course of the next two and a half decades, they think it’s best that they handle this one. It’s not just about the captain’s seat either. Almost everyone on the crew will be dismissed at the end of this year, whether their shifts should be over at that time, or not. They agreed to a few exceptions, such as Hock Watcher Giordano, and thankfully, Chief Medical Officer Holmes. The council and civilian government justify these decisions by the new policies they devised a few years ago, which resulted in Calixte Salmon being appointed the first—and maybe only ever—Superintendent. The fact that he turned out to be a treasonous murderer is clearly lost on them.

Kaiora has been investigating this development as a possible coup, but has seen no evidence of that so far. She’s beginning to think that this is simply annoying bureaucracy at work. Besides, her medical condition is declining. She is finding it harder and harder to put as much effort into the job as she used to. First Lieutenant Lars Callaghan has been handling many of her normal duties, and he has really stepped up. Kaiora can’t help but feel proud of him. She knew there was a reason Halan and Olindse picked him to be on the team in the first place. His original position was never backfilled after Corinna disappeared, but the new crew will reportedly include a Second L-T. They say they like that it’s a thing now, and honestly, it’s one of the few things they and Kaiora can agree on. While Halan initially instituted it to control Ovan Teleres’ power, having an extra hand has served the ship nicely since then.

It’s May 19, 2317. The Captain is sitting in her office, pretending to do work, even though there’s no one else in the room to perform for. She’s just bored, which is something that happens from time to time. There are days when nothing goes wrong on the ship, and there aren’t any fires to put out. Mostly she feels like a lame duck. The transition is still months away, but it already feels over. She releases an exaggerated version of her signature sigh, but before it’s over, First Lieutenant Corinna Seelen appears out of nowhere, and takes a step towards her. “Cori! You’re alive.”

“No shit. Let’s go.” Corinna takes her captain by the arm, and transports them to Council Chambers. The council is a loosely defined collective of crewmembers and government officials who make sure everyone is doing their jobs correctly. They have been slowly accumulating power, even though their original mandate was to appoint the first crew members of the mission, and then do pretty much nothing else. Is this them? Are they the traitors? Corinna is sure staring at them with contempt. But no, Kaiora ruled them out years ago. They were the obvious suspects—especially since most of the council disappeared alongside Corinna, and had to be replaced—but they’re all clean. Kaiora’s secret investigative team has been watching them particularly closely, and has found nothing.

De facto leader of the council before the incident in the time lab, Esmee Newport is already in the room, having apparently transitioned back from wherever they were separate from Corinna. She clears her throat authoritatively. “Esteemed members of the council, after years of transdimensional investigation, we have finally figured out who has been sabotaging Extremus in multiple facets of the mission.” She steps aside, and presents the empty space behind her.

Another member of the older council teleports in, holding none other than Ovan Teleres by the chains.

Esmee continues, “Ovan Teleres, you have been charged with high treason. What say you in this matter?”

Ovan is sneering jovially. “You’re all under my spell.”

Yitro comes out of a shadow, presumably having teleported there as well at some point. “Not anymore.” He’s holding a...machete? What the hell is he doing with a machete? Ovan’s head rolls off in one quick swing. Oh, that’s why.

The current de facto leader of the council stands up angrily. “Explain!”

“Hock prisoner, Mr. Teleres,” Yitro begins, “has been infecting people’s minds with an illegal breed of nanites, which manipulate the victim’s thoughts, movements, and emotions. He controls—controlled these little buggers from inside his cell, and he was doing it for years. That’s why Rita seemed to go crazy. That’s why the Superintendent switched sides. They were all infected. They were all innocent.”

“So, wait. There are no clones?” one of the other council members asks.

“There had to have been,” Kaiora argues. “I saw the other me in the timelab. She tried to kill Greenley Atkinson.”

Corinna places a hand on Kaiora’s shoulder. “That was not a clone either. That was the real Kaiora Leithe. We think that she was the first victim.”

“No, but I’m...” Kaiora starts to say, but then she remembers. “I’m the clone. The original went back in time.”

Corinna closes her eyes solemnly, and nods slightly. “That’s right.”

“I did this. I caused all of this.”

“No,” Esmee contradicts. “Victim is not just a word we’re throwing around. It’s what your alternate self was. It’s what all of them were. Nanites are invisible to the naked eye, and undetectable when dormant. Anyone could have been infected. We still don’t know how many were, in fact. Every single civilian and crewmember will now have to get tested, even though the master is now dead.” She grimaces at Ovan’s head on the floor.

“Forgive me for the brutal violence,” Yitro says. “It was the safest way to sever his connection to all of his victims at once. Like she said, we don’t know who’s been infected. I couldn’t risk the possibility that one of you might have stopped me.”

The council leader sits back down calmly, and composes herself. “Until your story can be verified, you will all be placed in hock, including the captain.”

Yitro laughs. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”

“You have no authority here, Captain Moralez of the Admiral Perran Thatch Detachment Timeship. You shouldn’t even be on Extremus Proper right now.”

That’s when Omega and Valencia appear behind the council’s backs. “Neither should we,” Omega declares. One by one, they tap on the council member’s heads as if playing Duck, Duck, Goose. As they do, the lot of them disappear, probably to hock themselves.

Kaiora slowly backs away. “Now I can’t trust anyone.”

“Captain, you can trust me,” Corinna insists.

Desperate, Kaiora snatches Ovan’s head up from the floor. “We’ll see about that.” She teleports away, but not all the way to her secret section, worried that someone might be able to track her there. As quietly as possible, she runs the rest of the way, and slips inside, checking to make sure no one is watching her. “Daley!” she cries out once she’s fully inside the section.

Nurse Daley McKee jumps into the hallway in front of her, ready to help.

She hands him Ovan’s head. “You’ve been looking for a subject to test. Here ya go. Tell me what you find.” She passes him, and heads for the office she keeps down here, and doesn’t use much.

“Where’s the rest of him?” Daley asks.

“The rest was too heavy to carry!” she shouts back.

“So you hacked it apart!”

“Uhuh!” she lies.

“What am I looking for!”

“I’m not tellin’! You should find something, and if you don’t...either you’re lying, or the person who served him up on a silver platter is! Just do what you’ve been waiting for years to do!”

About thirty minutes later, hacker Elodie Seabrooke knocks on Kaiora’s open door. “Captain?”

“Have they found anything?”

“I don’t know. I came to let you know that I watched the footage. I know how you got that head. And I also want you to know that I’m not going to tell anybody. I understand why you don’t want to contaminate the results with preconceptions.”

“Thank you. Is that all?”

“Also, I’ve been doing a little math.”

“Your specialty.”

“There’s a reason the transdimensional investigators showed up on this day.”

“And that would be?”

“If they went back in time in the reverse dimension as far as they were planning to, they were gone for as long as it took them to get there.”

“Huh?”

“When the machine turned on, you were expecting the other investigators to use it to travel back about six years.”

“Okay...”

“That was about six years ago.”

“So...once they exited the dimension, they had to wait twelve years to return?”

“I think they went to another dimension first; another observation dimension, that is, which parallels ours in direction. And yes, I think they were stuck there for twice as long, for whatever reason. It’s the most logical explanation for why they showed up today, and not anytime earlier.”

“That sounds stupid,” Kaiora spits. “Who designed that?”

“God?” Elodie proposes.

She nods. “Anything else?”

“If this is true, then...”

“Then it’s not over. If Kumara and Errol eventually caught up with the rest in the past, they’ll have to be there for even longer, and won’t return until...”

“Around November 9 of this year. But that’s assuming they all entered the second observation dimension at the same time. They might have gone back further in the timeline, or they came out sooner. Or they died...”

“How would any of this explain how my original self went back, and somehow got out of the reverse time dimension without having to go to this second observation dimension?”

“That I can’t explain,” Elodie answers. “Maybe she escaped completely.”

They hear someone else coming down the hallway. Elodie steps inside to let Corinna in the room. “How did you get in here?” Kaiora demands to know.”

“We were in an observation dimension,” she confirms, apropos of the conversation. “It was my job to watch over you. It was a sick assignment, really, since I couldn’t do anything to help.”

“Is it true, you were stuck in there for eighteen years?”

“Don’t I look it?” Corinna asks.

Indeed. She looks like she’s in her fifties, when she should be in her forties. “Yes,” Kaiora answers truthfully.

“It was rough,” Corinna agreed, “but we survived, and we learned so much.”

“You being here does not change the fact that I still can’t trust anyone,” Kaiora acknowledges. “In fact, it probably makes it worse.”

“I’m going to the lab now, so they can test me too.”

“What would they look for?”

“Anomalies. There shouldn’t be any, but...there might.”

“Assuming you are who you say you are, and you’re still on my side,” Kaiora begins, “then you must know if I can trust them.”

“You can,” Corinna replies. “You did well. You picked a good team. The whole ship has been compromised, including the Bridger Section, but excluding this tiny little isolated area. I was in charge of watching over you, but Esmee took responsibility for these people even while you weren’t here. She knew that Dr. Malone was working for the Bridgers, and I think she only told me.”

“I see.”

“This is all gonna work out, Captain. You’ll see that too.”

“Thank you. You’re both dismissed.”

Once they’re gone, Captain Kaiora Leithe, Third of Ten goes down for a nap, and she never stands up on her own again.

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Microstory 1905: When I Lost My First Dog, I Was Distraught

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When I lost my first dog, I was distraught

I never thought I could love a second

Years passed before it was something I sought

Once I did, it was Daisy who beckoned

All of the puppies, they begged and they cried

Except for her, she just could not care less

The owner set the other dogs aside

And picked her up, my little crazy mess

On the ride home, I realized I’d been tricked

She wasn’t calm, no she was just as wild

And yet as we got acquainted, we clicked

She’s the closest thing I’ll have to a child

Sophie was basically my one best friend

And Daisy’s more my baby, in the end

Microstory 1904: I Lost My Faith in People Long Ago

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I lost my faith in people long ago

We are a selfish species, that’s for sure

There’s a reason to see others as foes

Evolution is strong, but there’s a cure

We can ignore our base instincts, it’s true

It’s possible to grow, and learn, and change

When you’re frustrated, don’t threaten to sue

Just take a break, or have a nap arranged

Most people are not wanting to attack

They live as best they can with what they bear

Conflicts arrive when trains must share a track

It’s not just that they hate you, or don’t care

I know some hearts are simply filled with hate

This simply means work harder to relate

Microstory 1903: Someone Has Left Two Birds on My Nice Lawn

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Someone has left two birds on my nice lawn

They are not meant to do that, it’s not cool

The birds stay there from dawn to dusk to dawn

They must think that I’m just a spineless fool

But I got my phone out to make a call

I told them, you best take these birds from here

The problem I have with them may sound small

You may think I sound joyless and austere

But I have the right to do as I will

With my own house, and all that surrounds it

That’s not your right, and don’t tell me to chill

That just makes it worse, I may throw a fit

If you don’t get these birds out of my sight

I’ll drive them to the dump, and strike a light

Microstory 1902: I Tried To Cook a Simple Meal Today

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I tried to cook a simple meal today

I gathered all of the ingredients

At least I thought I had the whole array

But not, judging from the odd mingled scents

I have been trying to improve myself

Getting my life in order and stable

I can’t just pull random food off the shelf

I’m careful with what goes on my table

Today I sure was not careful at all

Though I guess I always make some mistake

But as they say, I must learn how to fall

Then get up to find something new to make

To be honest, it wasn’t all that bad

Using sugar for flour’s the new fad

Microstory 1901: Sleep Never Has Been Something I Do Well

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Sleep never has been something I do well

I lie in bed and wait ‘til it’s ready

I think it’s because my brain can’t be quelled

I wish that my life could be more carefree

For others, it happens within minutes

But I’m lucky to fall in one hour

Waiting puts me at the end of my wits

I wish control was one of my powers

I’ve tried to take the pills, and meditate

I’ve tried to shut off screens, and just chill out

But this is how I am, it is my fate

I wish stress wasn’t all I was about

One day, I’ll lose my problems and retire

I wish it would happen soon, I’m so tired

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 8, 2397

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Leona was frustrated to have to leave the blue dwarf, but one of their friends was out there, and they may really need their help right now. Besides, it would seem that traveling across realities could be easier than they thought before, so perhaps one day, they could return for her to study it. The truth was that she didn’t really need to study anything. Information on it was probably in a database somewhere, having been discovered long ago. She just wanted to live around it because of how crazy it was. The time to dwell on it was past, though. They were about to jump to another reality.

“We’re all synced up,” Ramses said, checking his Cassidy cuff. “Everybody ready?”

“Yeah.”

“Good to go.”

They jumped. It was as jolting as the last two times, but they knew what to expect this time, so they all landed on their feet. They were in a dark room. Men with suits immediately took them by the arms. “Sir, there’s more,” one of them said.

A man who was trying to walk out of the room turned around and sneered at them. “Bring ‘em too,” he instructed in a graveled voice.

“By order of Captain Waldemar Kristiansen, Eighth of Eight, you are being detained for questioning. You will be escorted to primary hock, where you will await further direction. Resistance will be met with fatal violence. Please, please...” he begged, “resist.”

While the members of the team were not capable of psychic communication, they could feel each other’s emotions, and there were other practical applications to this. When one of them began to teleport, the rest could feel that too. Ramses did this, not to escape, but to see everyone else’s reactions. Leona’s emotions indicated that they should not try to jump. They were presumably on a moving vessel, and they were unfamiliar with its layout. These substrates were designed to survive, so even if they ended up in the vacuum of space, it wouldn’t kill them. But unless they retained momentum, they would quickly fall out of range, and wouldn’t be able to return, so just for now, they would do as they were asked. The good news was that they could feel Angela. When the men dragged them out into the hallway, they could see her too, also being dragged towards hock.

The men carelessly pushed them into the cell. “Sorry for the poor accommodations,” one of them said after the others had walked away without a second thought. He used a sarcastic tone at first, but then he made sure his compatriots were out of earshot. “We’re just...kind of full right now. The ship wasn’t designed to hold so many political prisoners. Whoever you are, you have to find out how to get out of here. If even one more person gets arrested, they’re going to kill them. Or maybe they’ll kill the oldest prisoner, I don’t know. We just don’t have the space anymore, and no one wants to spend the resources keeping people like you alive. So tell them what they want to know, and be good. It will probably take them a week to get to your interrogation, so hopefully no one else will screw up.”

“Thank you,” Mateo said to the boy.

“Our cuffs,” Leona said simply.

The boy shook his head. “You’re not getting your devices back. Teleportation is illegal, and they’re going to assume that they contain subversive media.” He closed the door and left without another word.

“He may sound nice,” came the voice of a stranger in the cell with them, “but...he still works for him, and that was his choice.”

Leona stepped forward. “Captain Leona Matic of the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”

“I know who you are. Those morons would have recognized you too if they spent a little more time in history class. My name is Kaison Summerling.”

“What are ya in for?” Ramses asked.

“Possession of subversive media,” Kaison explained. “I was once Captain. I stepped down due to accusations of nepotism, but now I wish I hadn’t, because I would not have selected Kristiansen as my successor. And he’s aware of that, so I’m public enemy number one.”

“This is Extremus, isn’t it?” Leona asked.

“It is,” Kaison confirmed.

“That ship from Gatewood that Omega created?” Mateo asked.

“He didn’t create it, but yes,” Leona said, “we were there when he showed up at the lounge to plant the seed of this idea. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Kaison agreed. “Things are only going to get worse. Did they call the current captain Eighth of Eight in front of you?”

“They did,” Angela answered, not thinking much of it.

By the end of this mission, there are supposed to be eleven total—rest in peace, mother. Kristiansen doesn’t ever plan on stepping down. Of course, nobody knows that, or they would get rid of him. There’s only one reason they let you hear that that’s the plan.”

“They’re going to kill us anyway,” Mateo figured, having seen a movie in his life.

Kaison nodded. “This isn’t a hock; it’s a morgue.”

Leona began to pace. She pushed her feelings to the other three. They were just as unsure as her. “We might be able to help.”

Kaison sighed. “Oh, you definitely can. You could teleport us right out of here since it’s part of your biology, and not something that can be switched off by central control. Then you could rescue all the other prisoners, and help begin our revolution.”

“But you’re not going to let us do that,” Angela realized.

“It would only fuel their hate. A revolution is nothing without the people in revolt. If we all break out of here, he’ll argue that that’s all the more reason he should just kill every seditious actor. You’ll give him the best excuse ever to wipe us out.”

“We have to escape either way,” Mateo pointed out.

Kaison understood. “The four of you do, yep. I don’t know what you got going on, but I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that your roster isn’t complete.”

“How do we leave without causing you problems?” Leona asked.

Kaison crossed his arms, and thought about it. “How strong are you?”

“Pretty strong.”

“Strong enough to break down that door?” Kaison questioned.

They all looked to Ramses, the engineer of their bodies. He stepped over to the door, and tested out its integrity. “Yeah, with a little time. I mean, no one here is as strong as Superman, but it could be done. Why would we, though, if we can teleport?”

“That would cause us problems,” Kaison said. “I’m brewing a plan, but...”

“But we’re not gonna like it?” Mateo guessed.

“I don’t know you well enough to answer that, but I wouldn’t call it foolproof, and I sure wouldn’t say it’s safe.”

They waited until it was closer to midnight central before making their move, using the time to get a little rest, and fill Angela in on what she missed. Mateo and Angela started punching and kicking the door, occasionally looking out the little food opening to make sure no one was coming to stop them. As much as these security guys loved to arrest people, they weren’t very careful with them once it was done.

Leona was regarding Kaison as he watched them slowly break down the door. “You’re coming with, right?”

“I’m afraid I can’t.”

“If you tell us where on this ship is safe, we’ll get you there.”

“No. I either die a martyr, or I live long enough to help the cause. Running isn’t going to save my people. The former would be better than anything, but my guess is Kristiansen would keep my death quiet, as he’ll keep what happens today quiet. It’ll be too much of an embarrassment. The upside for us is he can’t use it as a justification to round up every dissenting voice.”

“Okay,” Leona said, knowing there was no point in trying to convince him.

“In fact, if you could knock me out cold, that would be great. I’ll make something up about trying to stop you. He won’t let me go, of course, but it could earn me a few brownie points. They might even let me have an e-reader.”

“Thank you...Captain Summerling.”

He laughed. “Not a captain. Maybe I’ll start going by General.”

“We’re out,” Mateo announced. They were one kick from breaking the latch.

Leona turned her head, and frowned. “Good luck with your revolution.” She reached back, and punched him in the jaw. Then she strode over to the door, and gave it the final kick before leading her team towards freedom.

According to Kaison, the hock was equipped with an airlock in the floor. It wasn’t a very good escape option for normal people, because there weren’t any spacesuits anywhere around here, but that was fine with them. They just needed to make it look good. He didn’t have anything to write with, so he did his best to describe the layout of Extremus, and told them where they could go.

They weren’t going to have much time. At reframe speeds, jumping out of an airlock was indeed going to do what they feared before. They would pretty much stay put while the ship continued on its journey faster than light. They weren’t exactly in hyperspace, but it did kind of operate like that. The warp bubble was wrapped tightly around the vessel. Leaving it meant losing momentum. Since they weren’t wearing their Cassidy cuffs anymore, they couldn’t sync up as they normally would. Leona was going to be in charge. She would control the teleportation, and the others would surrender to her mind’s decision, using their empathy to link their simultaneous jumps.

When the outer doors of the airlock opened, the air disappeared, but it didn’t suck them out. They were still standing above the opening, preparing themselves. Their nanites automatically placed themselves at action stations to keep their hosts alive. When Leona was ready, she pulled them all downwards, and out into the cold. Mateo smiled and waved at the camera recording them from the corner. Just as space was trying to sweep them away, Leona engaged teleportation, and delivered them to the safehouse.

It wasn’t so much a house as another darkened room. There wasn’t anything in it except for a bench along the wall, and an extraction mirror in the middle of the room. “Did he tell you this was in here?” Angela asked as she was admiring it.

“He said it was an extra bridge that they used to use to pilot the ship,” Leona answered. “I don’t think this is that. Like I said, teleportation is hard to navigate in an unfamiliar place. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Mateo said. “There’s no one else here, we’re fine.”

“We still need to get our devices back,” Ramses pointed out, “but...I like this as our exit strategy.”

“Okay,” Mateo said. “You all stay here. I’m going to retrieve them for us.”

“No, we go together,” Leona demanded. “We promised each other.”

“It’s irrational for us all to get caught,” Mateo reasoned. “If anyone tries to get through that door, you go through that mirror. Can you do that for me? Can you save yourselves? Can you...not argue with me about it?”

Leona stared at her husband. “You heard where the evidence room is?”

“Yes.”

“Hurry back. And be quiet.”

“Stealthy is my favorite of the eight dwarves,” Mateo revealed.

He jumped, and to his surprise, he was exactly where he wanted to be. He was in the narrow aisle between two shelves. They were filled with tons of stuff, but mostly personal teleporters. He looked around for some semblance of organization, but could find nothing of the sort. Nothing was labeled, nothing was grouped. Everytime they confiscated something, they obviously just threw it wherever they found space. So he just started walking up and down. Nothing. He passed by another door, where he could see a woman sitting at a table. The dimensional traverser was sitting open on the table, and she was preparing to do the same thing to the friend detector. He opened the door. “Stop! What are you doing?”

“They asked me to figure out how these things work,” the woman answered.

Mateo picked up the lasso device. Wires and other parts were hanging out of it, and he knew he could never fix it himself. He shook it in her face. “I need to make sure every single miniscule part is here, whether it’s attached where it’s meant to be, or what.”

“It’s all there. Just...sorry.”

He peered over, and saw a chain around her ankle. “You’re a prisoner too.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know that I’m a survivor, and I can get you out.”

She stared at him a moment. She grabbed a toolbag, dumped out the tools, and swept all the parts of their devices into it. She reached out to him. “Let’s go.”

“You’re not leaving anyone you love behind?”

“No, he...he’s gone.”

Mateo reached down, and yanked the chain away from the table leg. Then he accepted the woman’s hand, and transported back to the extraction room.

“What the hell is this?” Ramses asked after Mateo handed him the bag.

“Can you fix it?” Mateo asked.

“In the next few minutes? No. Everything’s fine, it just...”

“It just what?” Angela asked.

“I could send a message across the dimensional barriers, but we won’t be able to cross over,” Ramses replied.

“What happens if we just wait a year?” Angela suggested.

“They’ll be waiting,” the woman contended. “They’ll have plenty of time to realize who you were, track your movements, and just be waiting for your return.”

“Besides,” Leona began, “we don’t have a cuff for her. Do you know where those are, by the way?”

“I didn’t see any cuffs,” the woman said apologetically. “I work on what they give me.”

“Don’t we have to wait until the next window opens up anyway?” Angela thought.

“Not technically,” Ramses said. “Before being taken apart, this thing could go whenever we wanted it to. We just wouldn’t necessarily be heading for a friend. It has to connect with the detector to accomplish that objective.”

“There’s a workaround,” Leona decided, looking at the mangled remnants of their device over Ramses’ shoulder. “Link it to the mirror. All you need is a portal, and that’s got one. Then you’ll have time to fix it permanently. Then we’ll go get the other two.”

“You can’t promise that,” Ramses said. “This ship has resources. We don’t know what we would be walking into.”

“We have to risk it.” Mateo placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

Ramses exhaled. “Okay, I’ll need your help, Lee-Lee.”

Mateo and Angela stood by while the other three got to work. The woman was just as smart and experienced as they were, and she noticed something. “Is this supposed to look like this?”

“Crap, that’s what I was afraid of. We’re running out of power.”

“By how much?” Mateo asked.

“We have one more jump,” Ramses determined. That was unacceptable. They had two friends missing. One more jump was not going to be enough. They had to find some kind of power source here, because there was no way to know whether they would be able to find one tomorrow. There had to be something on this ship...somewhere. Before anyone could come up with a solution, they were surrounded by a team of teleporting security officers.

“Uhhh...we don’t have time,” Mateo warned them. “Let’s just go through the mirror to any old place.”

“We don’t have time for that either,” Leona said.

“We can hear you.” It was the leader security guard from before; the one who sounded like he smoked. “You’re not going anywhere, except back to hock.”

They stood there frozen, not wanting to comply. The others could feel Ramses’ feelings, implying to them that they only needed to wait for midnight. It was all ready to go. They couldn’t just walk through the portal, though. These guys would shoot them as soon as they moved an inch. Except they never got the chance. One turned against the others, and shot them all dead before they could react. Then he took off his mask.

“Omega!” the woman cried, relieved.

“Come on, Valencia. Let’s let the nice people go home.”

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Extremus: Year 47

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Kaiora Leithe isn’t usually nervous. It’s unbecoming of a captain. She has to be strong, confident, and prepared for everything. But there are powers at play here that even she can’t overtake. Yes, she’s in charge of the crew, and the entire ship, but what most people don’t know is that there are, in fact, two ships. She’s sitting at the entrance of what’s called The Bridge. Yes, it’s confusing, or at least it would be for any normal person. But the only people who know this thing exists are completely comfortable with the ambiguity. This is more of a bridge than the bridge that helps them navigate space. It’s where the two vessels connect to one another, and I’m not talking about something physical. It’s a portal that can transport a user to the maximum range of one light year.

The receptionist looks up from her work. “You may proceed now.”

“Thank you,” Kaiora responds. She stands up, takes a deep breath, and crosses over.

Her key contact is standing on the other side. Avelino Bridger is regarding her with his best poker face, as he always is. He’s completely unreadable. And yeah, the Bridger Section was named after him. It’s this whole thing. “Thank you for coming.”

“Well, I’m the one who requested this, so...thank you for having me.”

“I wanted to accept your request earlier, but this is not a dictatorship.”

“Isn’t it?” she asks, one-fourth jokingly, three-fourths yeah, it’s a dictatorship. It’s the most efficient way to run a ship, and the only reason they don’t do it on the Extremus Proper is because the passengers outnumber them by orders of magnitude.

“This meeting will be exclusively between you and me,” he tells her as they’re walking towards the meeting room. “Nothing we say today will make it beyond that relationship. No one else on the board, no one else on the crew, no one else in the civilian government, will know what we discuss. Is this acceptable? I expect you to remain as confidential as I’m promising to be.”

“I accept,” she responds as he’s letting her in the room first. “I assume it’s clean?”

“It’s timelocked,” he answers. “We’ve taken all the necessary precautions to make sure no one can intrude in the present, but also from the future, or the past, or any other dimension.” He reaches up to the sconce by the door, flipping it upside down to engage the special lock. He sits down on the couch after she situates herself on the chair.

“Someone I care very deeply about has...uncovered information regarding Operation Plan Z.”

“I gathered. That’s not why we’re here, though.”

“Not entirely.”

“You just want me to promise to leave her out of it, and to not go after her?”

“See, now I’m worried, since it sounds like you know who it is.”

He nods gently. “I know who it is. We traced her.”

“We?”

“Captain, this is an ongoing, massive issue. She’s not the only one we’re tracking. Nor is she of the most concern?”

“It’s worse than what my niece did? She downloaded consciousnesses from your database.”

“We’re aware. But...”

“But what?”

He was scanning the floor, but now he looks back up. “As she is a future Captain of Extremus, we are letting it go, because we don’t see time linearly. She would have been read into the situation anyway.”

“I see. So it’s true. You have the whole future mapped out.”

“Again, you’re thinking linearly. Mapping time is not as simple as just seeing what happens, and writing it down.”

“I bet.”

He clears his throat. “I assure you, as long as Miss Leithe reveals no secrets to anyone else, we’ll leave her alone.”

“But you already know whether she does or not.”

“Once more, it’s not that simple.”

Kaiora looks away and nods. “How bad is it?”

“We don’t know.”

“Ya know, from what I remember from Halan’s era, all the breaches have come from your side. He didn’t break protocol, and neither have I.”

“You’re right. We have leaks, and when we plug one up, another pops open.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“We’re killing the civilian program.”

“You are?” That’s a big step.

“It is no longer a viable option. Ovan Teleres got too close to us, and what little we divulge to the government has put this mission at too much risk. So from now on, the captain will be our only connection to Extremus Proper. Your successors will carry that burden amongst yourselves, as you will for the rest of your life.”

“Oaksent was not a member of the government. How did he find out anything?”

“That is a temporal problem; one which our map does not account for.”

“I see. So you can timelock this room, but not the Bridger Section as a whole.”

“Correct.”

“Who was Fake!Rita Suárez?”

“That is above your clearance.”

“So, you know who she was?”

He takes a long time to reply. “It’s above your clearance to know that we have no fucking idea who she was, or where she came from.”

She nods understandingly.

“Nor do we know whether the Yitro Moralez that your alternate self saw is the real deal, or another impostor.”

“I didn’t know that you were cognizant of him.”

He clears his throat again. “Dr. Malone works for us.”

“Dammit! I worked so hard to find the most random, inconsequential, ineffectual professionals Extremus had to offer. How did you manage to get him into my personal secret section?”

Avelino breaks his poker face to reveal a smirk, but it barely lasts a decisecond. “Honestly, it was a happy coincidence. We picked him for the same reason you did, because no one would suspect someone like that would matter much. People still share secrets with him, though, and more importantly, other therapists do it. We don’t know why, but we are using it to our advantage. He has no idea who he’s channeling information to. He could become a liability, actually.”

“Is that why he keeps trying to get a meeting with me?”

“Yeah, we think he wants to spill the beans about what he’s done.”

“What’s going to happen to him?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to kill him?”

“Why would we do that?”

“Are you going to kill the members of the civilian government who are already aware of the nature of the Bridger section, and its true purpose?”

“Why would we do that?” he repeats.

“Bridger. Start talkin’. I need to know if there are going to be any deaths under suspicious circumstances on my ship.”

He shakes his head. “The circumstances will not be suspicious.”

Kaiora sighs.

“It’ll be fine,” Avelino tries to assure her. He might be a sociopath, so his words are not very convincing. “You’re fine, your niece is fine, and anyone else who has been granted access to the hidden partition of the database is fine. We’re only going to go after the people who deliberately exposed our secrets. We have to find that leak. Speaking of which, I ought to be getting back to it, and you need to be getting to MedHock.”

“Medhock?” she questions. She wasn’t expecting that to be brought up. “Why?”

“According to our map...your Captain dies today.”

“How, uh...?”

“How mutable is this eventuality?” he figures. “Not at all. It’s over.”

She gestures to the ceiling, indicating the Bridger Section in general. “No, it’s not. He’ll survive this. We already know what his answer will be.”

“We know what his answer will be. You don’t.”

“What are you talking about? He said yes the last time, he came back.”

“When he died the first time, he asked to come back because he had more work to do as the Captain, and more importantly, as Admiral. We’ve plugged that leak already. Old Man’s loophole is not going to be resurrecting anyone on your side of the bridge again. Admiral Yenant told us that he was only saying yes because of that loophole. He has no intention of being a permanent upload.”

Kaiora looks away in sadness.

“Hey. There’s a reason we give people a choice. “You’ll have to make the same decision when you die.”

“You’re right, I will. And truthfully, I don’t know what I’m going to say yet. It’s not even that long off for me, and I still haven’t figured out my answer. Halan has had a lot of time to change his mind.”

“Well. As long as you timelock MedHock, you can ask him yourself.”

“How would I go about doing that?”

Avelino stands up, and turns the timelock sconce back around. He then removes the artificial candle from its holder. He twists the bulb off of it, and hands the rest to her. “Light it. It will timelock an area for the duration of the burn. And I mean that. If you blow it out before it gets to the bottom of the wick, the timelocking power will burn out with it, and you’ll never be able to use it again. It’s a one-time use whether you maximize your productive time, or not.” So maybe not so artificial.

“Thank you for the opportunity.”

He nods once, then opens the door to let her out. She leaves the Bridger Section, and teleports to her mentor. The Hock Watcher lets her in. She finds the MedHock doctor at a desk. “Is he stable?”

“For now,” he answers.

“Out.”

“He’s stable, but that doesn’t mean—”

“Get! Out!”

He leaves with a protesting attitude.

“Final lesson, don’t treat people like that,” Halan advises.

Kaiora places the naked candle on the table, and holds it up between a tablet, and a keyboard. It’s a fire hazard, but whatever. She lights it, then turns back to Halan. “I’ve just come from the Bridger Section.”

He turns his shoulders away as much as he can. “I don’t wanna know about it.”

“You have to, because I have to talk to you, and it’s my last—”

I don’t...want to know,” he maintains.

“You’re going to listen to me, because I’m the Captain, and you’re just a prisoner.”

He twists his neck, but keeps his shoulders pointed away. “That’s cold, Kaiora.”

“That’s cold—?” She holds there with her mouth open, waiting for him.

“That’s cold, Captain,” he amends.

“Thank you. Now...get back into a comfortable position.”

He readjusts.

“Avelino told me that you plan to say no to The Question.”

“What do I have to look forward to?”

“Once you die, since no one knows you’ll still be alive, I can set in motion a series of events that will lead to your posthumous pardon.”

“That’s dirty pool, Captain.”

“It’s necessary, and it won’t be political suicide anymore. The people will be overwhelmingly in favor of it since there won’t be any consequences; at least they won’t think so. I’m going to do it whether you like it or not. You won’t be able to stop me, because of the whole being dead and dormant thing.”

“Also cold.”

“Please. Say yes. Stay alive.”

“I’ve never agreed with The Question. I was young, and ambitious, and I wanted the job, so I didn’t argue, but I wish I had. I wish I hadn’t let them create the Bridger Section at all. It goes against everything this mission stands for.”

“Don’t you see, that’s what The Question is for? Anyone who wants to hold onto their principles has every right to do so. All they have to do is say no.”

“Then let me say no.”

“You’re an exception.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you!”

“Everyone is loved by someone. Death is a part of life. I accept it, as should you.”

“No, I’m not going to let you just—”

“The candle’s burned out,” he interrupts to point out.

She looks over at it incredulously. That was far too fast. Avelino did that on purpose. He knew the conversation couldn’t last long. “God! Dammit!”

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