The Advancement of Mateo Matic: December 28, 2398

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Alyssa seems okay. If there’s secret information in her brain that she can’t access, it doesn’t appear to be doing her any harm. It’s not making her hurt people, or spontaneously cluck like a chicken. After all the tests that Ramses could think of, and all the psychic therapy that Arcadia tried to perform, they had little choice but to give up, move on, and hope that it doesn’t cause problems later. It’s been a long time since they first came up with their plan to fake Leona’s death, and they have yet to go through with it, despite nearly everything being ready. All they need is for someone to pretend to be her using the currently vacant Leona Reaver body, and Alyssa has had enough of the waiting. “I’m doing this. Show me how.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Ramses warns.

“You’ve all done dangerous things. So have I. I went to Russia. This is important.”

Ramses shakes his head. He’s tired of this argument.

“I’m tired of this argument,” Alyssa says. Maybe she is psychic. “I’m doing this, so you can either help me with the Insulator of Life and Livewire, or I can try it myself. Talk about dangerous.”

He sighs. “Okay. We’ll do it tomorrow.”

She laughs, then starts to fake laugh, “ha-ha-ha. Let’s go to that secret government hospital. Right now.”

“Very well. If you’ll get the keys, I’ll—”

“No, I said right now.”

He’s confused at first, but then realizes that she’s expecting him to teleport them there. It’s less about the thrill of superpowers, and more about them getting there quickly without him having any time to change his mind, or try to talk her out of it. “Okay, we’ll do that. But I still have to get the special equipment.”

“Okay, go ahead,” she says as if he needs her authorization.

After they’re ready, they jump to the secret hospital, directly into Leona Reaver’s room. The guard standing outside her door is alarmed, but relaxes when he sees through the window that it’s just the two of them. Ramses peeks his head out to inform him that his assignment is about to be changed. Instead of watching over Reaver’s body, he’ll temporarily be watching over Alyssa’s. He understands, and isn’t surprised. He’s probably never shocked about anything anymore. One day, everyone in the world is gonna know about time travel and time powers. The secret can’t last forever.

Alyssa has seen this done before, but Ramses reviews the procedure anyway. It’s important for her to understand that this is not just dangerous because the mission she’ll be going on will result in a near-death experience. The transfer itself is also dangerous, because it’s mysterious. Normal human brain uploading technology has been researched and perfected by thousands of experts, and experienced by billions of people in the main sequence. This? No one knows how the hell this works. It just does. And that means that if something goes wrong, they won’t necessarily be able to fix it. She accepts the risks, and lies down on the bed next to Reaver. They provided a bariatric medical bed just for this eventually, so there’s plenty of room for the both of them.

“I’ll see you on the other side.” Ramses plugs the Livewire in.

Alyssa transfers to Leona Reaver’s body. Then she starts to have a seizure.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Year 272,398

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Mateo climbs out of his pod, and into the main living area. Most everyone is sitting on the couches. It almost looks like he’s walked into a party that he wasn’t invited to. They all look pretty happy, especially Curtis. “Hey, look who’s awake! Finally! What’s it been, like eight—nine thousand years?”

Mateo glances back at his pod. “Ten, just as it usually is.”

“Ah, that’s too long. Come on, buddy. Join the celebration.” He puts his arm over Mateo’s shoulder.

“What are we, uh...celebrating?” Mateo asks, letting Curtis lead him deeper into the room.

“It’s Abigail,” he explains. “She’s gettin’ out for good behavior. Hail Abby!” He holds up his glass, and waits for everyone else to echo him, but they don’t. “Ah, you people are no fun.”

“Hail Abby!” Mateo chants alone.

“Thanks, Matt,” Abigail says, raising her glass.

“That’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout. You’re good people. Here, have a drink.” He hands him his own glass of water, then goes over to the bar to get another to replace it.

“Dani, what does this mean?” Mateo questions.

“I’m letting her use the time machine,” Danica replies.

“Transtemporal relocator,” Aquila corrects. They took Mateo’s advice. Aquila always wears sunglasses, and Bhulan never does, though she sometimes leaves them on top of her head for ease of switching if the two of them are shifting control back and forth. It’s nice to know that he can still contribute.

“Whatever,” Danica dismisses.

Mateo nods, happy for Abigail, but confused, and just a little ticked off. That’s good, Danica is finally loosening up a bit on her restrictions, but that doesn’t explain why Mateo can’t go home too. Based on their experience with the time machine, she should actually be able to return him and his friends to the main sequence. “Cool.”

Danica can sense his frustration. “I know you’re upset, and I would be sending you back too, but things have changed. Tamerlane changed things. No, I’m not still mad at you, but he’s forced my hand. I have to place someone in charge of the Omega Gyroscope, and it has to be someone I can trust. Leona is already part of the line of succession. I have already set in motion a series of events which will lead her to coming back here to rescue you. All we have to do is wait. All you have to do is wait.”

“But then we’ll have to stay here, won’t we? At least every 49,999 years, she’ll have to come out of stasis to reclaim control over the damn thing. But other than that, we don’t have real lives. We don’t have any choice.”

Danica shakes her head, she will be able to leave anytime she wants. All she’ll have to do is modify the Gyroscope’s programming to generate a new succession list, starting with me. Then I’ll send you both wherever you want.”

“What if we don’t do that? What if she refuses to relinquish control? How will you stop us? You can’t leave us out of stasis, unless you make us immortal, or we’ll die long before humans start living on this planet. The Gyroscope is all but useless until then.”

“Remember,” Danica begins, “it’s possible to change the differential. For now, ten thousand years equals one second, but I can slow it down. I can make it so that ten thousand years is more like an hour. You’ll age forty-five years in the meantime. Either she gives up control of the Omega Gyroscope, or she gives up control of her life.”

“Wow, way to be a party pooper,” Curtis criticizes.

“You don’t need to be part of this discussion,” Danica shoots right back.

“Lay off my husband!” Cheyenne volleys.

Danica sighs. “Enjoy the party,” she says to the group. Then she approaches Mateo, and takes him by the arm. “Transport us to the pool.”

At the last second, Bhulan and Aquila take his other arm, so all four end up there. Bhulan takes off the sunglasses. “This involves me as well. Team Triple Threat, remember? Aquila, please go dormant,” she says to her brainmate.

“I want us to be friends,” Danica claims. “I don’t like all this hostility.”

“Really? Because you’re going out of your way to be hostile most of the time.”

“I know that it feels that way, but one day—”

“It’s worse in the future, I can’t even friggin’ find you.”

“Don’t talk to me about the future, I don’t wanna know.”

“Oh no? Because it appears as though you’re totally sure of yourself about it. You have no doubts, no qualms. What if I told you that the future is a hellish hellscape with hellacious demons from hell, hellbent on helling it up with hellfire all over that hellhole world? Would you believe me? Would you do something different?”

“I would not believe you. If you could prove it, I would try to prevent it.”

Mateo breathes. “Your father told me that you gained some insight into the other realities, so you know how bad they are. You know how volatile the Fourth Quadrant is. You know how dangerous and unequal—and boring—the Fifth Division is. Of course, you’re from the main sequence, so you know how terrible that one is. I can’t say anything bad about the Parallel, except that they can be pretty pretentious and heartless. You seem to be under the impression that you’re going to make this world better. Maybe it’s because there’s no time travel, maybe it’s because of all the religions you create, but while I wouldn’t actually describe it as a hellish hellscape, it ain’t paradise neither. People are assholes, and then they die. This is true of every reality...except for the Parallel, because they don’t die. Ya know, why don’t we always just ignore that one?”

“They’re warmongers.” Cheyenne has snuck into the pool area.

“What?” Bhulan asks. “Who are?”

“The Parallelers. They’re warmongers. They killed more than anyone in the Reality Wars. They were heartless, and they were...ruthless. Nothing was off limits to them, or will be, rather. Women, children; antimatter weapons, bioweapons. They only lost because...” It’s too hard to go on. She doesn’t think about it, let alone say it. Anyway, it’s before my time, but I’ve seen the VRDocs.”

Danica looks down at the ground. “We’re the cause of the war, though, aren’t we? This machine. Every Constant has one. We’re the easiest link between realities. At least one of us opens a door that can’t be closed.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Cheyenne says.

Danica sneers. “New plan. No one’s going anywhere. Unfortunately, Abigail is just never gonna get home, and neither are you,” she says to Mateo. “We’re going to destroy that machine...right after we destroy the other four.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Year 262,398

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Today is the big day. Mateo isn’t sure why the happy couple waited 10,000 years to get married, but it’s got to be a record for the longest engagement. Then again, they could have waited ten seconds, and it still would have set the record since literally eight people are alive in the observable universe right now. It’s soon to be nine, as The Officiant is set to return to fulfill her duties within the hour. Until then, Curtis needs some help.

“Did you ask Asier?” Mateo asks him.

“Do you not know how to tie a bowtie?”

“I do not, but he seems like the kind of guy who would. I imagine he’s had to go to police union luncheons, and stuff.”

“You’re probably right.” Curtis tilts his head as he’s staring in the mirror, trying to figure this out.

“Honestly, you two don’t seem like the type to wanna dress up all formal-like.”

“Ya know, we never met,” Curtis says. “I had heard of you, the guy who only lived one day out of the year, but we never hung out. Were we friends in your timeline?”

“Umm...” Mateo has to think about how he would describe his relationship with Curtis’ alternate self. “We were friendly, but we didn’t hang out either. Other!You spent most of his time in the early to mid-21st century, and I blew past that pretty quickly. He was in that time traveler prison.”

“Really? That doesn’t sound like me. I have no interest in exposing our secret to the world.”

“He had a different upbringing, I’m sure.”

“Yeah.” Curtis nods, then drops his arms in defeat. “Could you go get him for me? Please?” He asks as if he feels bad about putting him out, even though it’s no big deal.

“Of course.”

Mateo leaves, and returns quickly with Asier, who does indeed have experience with bowties, though only on himself, so he has to wrap his arms around the groom’s shoulders from behind him, like a sexy golf trainer. He does a great job; it looks perfect. “Are you nervous?” Asier asks.

“No, this has been a long time comin’. I’m ready.” He flicks his tie and says, “snazzy.” Then he spins around. “All right, who has a coin?”

Mateo and Asier pad their respective pockets. “No money here,” Asier says. “It hasn’t been invented yet.”

“What do you need it for?” Mateo questions.

“I’ve not yet decided who my best man is going to be. I know, I should have asked earlier, but I forgot. It’s all happening so fast,” he jokes.” He sees their expressions. “I can’t tell if both of you want to be chosen, or if neither of you do.”

This is only going to get more awkward. “Let’s both do it,” Mateo suggests. We’re obviously skipping the bachelor party anyway, so we’ll both stand up there with you.”

Curtis smiles, and accepts. As it turns out, the ladies had the same idea, but then they realized how weird it was, everyone being in the wedding party, and not having an audience. Abigail chose to step down to fill that role alone. The ceremony was simple, uncontroversial, and nice. The reception was small, but fun.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Year 252,398

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Curtis and Cheyenne have known each other for eight years now, which Mateo is finding surreal, because he’s awake even less than they are. Though, he shouldn’t think it’s that weird, since skipping time has been his life for awhile now. The two lovebirds met tens of thousands of years ago, but since they have so much time on their hands, they have spent some of it keeping track of actual time. In fact, that eight year figure doesn’t even account for the time that one of them was out of stasis without the other. A normal couple would count all the time they were geographically apart from each other, so all told, it’s longer than that. There aren’t a whole lot of options for partnerships here. Between relatives and external relationships, neither Curtis nor Cheyenne has a large pool to choose from. So they worked really hard to test their relationship with each other to make sure that it was real, and not just a last man on Earth type of situation. After all that, they have decided that they really do care for each other, and exclusively so, even if there were billions of others around. They want to get married, but the problem is that no one here is qualified to officiate the ceremony, or sign the papers.

“We don’t need a big ceremony, though,” Cheyenne says. “Are you sure that no one vested that power in you?”

“Certain,” Danica replies. “It’s the responsibility of someone else in our world.”

“Well...could you contact that person?” Curtis requests.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how,” Danica apologizes.

“I know how.” Bhulan steps forward.

“You do?” Danica question.

“Not her; me,” Bhulan says, confusingly. “This is Aquila.” Oh, right.

“Oh.” Danica nods. “You know how to contact The Officiant?”

“Yeah, I know a lot of things,” Aquila replies.

“I’m not sure that she can come to this reality,” Danica says, worried.

“She can go anywhere,” Aquila claims. At least that is the assumption. Perhaps they should come up with some way of knowing which one is talking. One of them could always be wearing sunglasses, or be holding the talking stick. “Trust me.”

“Okay. We have nothing else to do for the next 4,000 years, so let’s plan a wedding. And by let’s, I mean anyone else, because that is not my strong suit. Really, you don’t want me involved. I can set up chairs, or fold announcements, but...”

“We don’t need much,” Cheyenne says. “We can’t invite anyone else, and don’t really want to.”

Curtis is confused. “Wait, we talked about this,” he says to her in a hushed tone.

“Yeah, and I don’t think they’re gonna be able to swing it,” she replies in a more hushed tone.

They continue to argue softer and softer until no one else can here.

“Aquila, do you know if the Officiant would be able to transport people here, like her family?” Curtis asks.

“I doubt it, but you can ask. You can’t have the wedding today, she’ll want to meet you first, and then give you time.”

“Great. Call her.”

“I have to do it alone,” Aquila explains. “That includes you,” she says to her own shoulder, likely as a way of communicating with her brainmate, Bhulan. “I’ll go dormant, like we practiced,” she then says, suggesting that this is Bhulan speaking now. Yeah, a good talking stick would really help. “Just remember to wake me up.”

Aquila goes off to do whatever she needs to do to make contact with the Officiant. By the time she walks back into the room, the woman herself has arrived. A bookcase in the master sitting room disappears, and is replaced with the door to the Officiant’s office. She steps out. “Who are the lucky two?”

Curtis and Cheyenne step forward.

“Come with me so we can talk. This could be the first of many, or the last.” As they’re stepping up to the door, she looks at the rest of the group. “I need someone to join us as witness.”

Bhulan raises her hand.

“Only one witness, please,” the Officiant clarifies. “How about you, sir?”

“Me?” Mateo questions, looking behind him to see if she means it.

“Yes, you’ve gone through this before, you know what to expect. It could help.”

“We didn’t have a witness at mine and Leona’s meeting.”

The Officiant scowls. “I made a lot of concessions for that marriage. How is it going, by the way?”

“It’s been better,” Mateo replies. “I miss her.”

“Well, come on, then. Your friends need you.”

He wouldn’t feel comfortable calling either of them friends. Curtis is from a timeline that Mateo doesn’t remember, and he’s only ever met Future!Cheyenne. But still, if they need someone to be there, he can’t say no.

Once they’re all seated, she begins. “Why don’t I let you start and drive the conversation? What are your biggest concerns regarding this event?”

“Well,” Cheyenne says, looking over to make sure that Curtis doesn’t want to say something first. “Neither of us wants a big wedding, but I was hoping my family could be there. He thought it would be okay to ask if you could retrieve them for us.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the Officiant replies. “Guest lists are beyond my purview. We in the business call it scope creep, and it’s caused some issues in past ceremonies. I can, however, perform the ceremony whenever, and wherever, you like. We can wait until you return to your family. Is that a possibility?”

“Not for a long time,” Curtis responds. “But we’re anxious to get to it.”

“Even if we did go back,” Cheyenne says, “people would hear about it, and ask a lot of questions. Who’s this guy? Where did he come from? Why wasn’t I invited? We don’t just want to keep it small, we don’t want excluded people to know about it.”

That’s an interesting take that Mateo and Leona might have tried in another life. There were some people at their wedding that they would not have chosen to invite. They didn’t get the chance to discuss before it was forced upon them. They probably would have split the difference, where all their loved ones could attend, but not the entire multiverse. Maybe they should consider a do-over. It’s certainly possible.

“Snap out of it,” the Officiant instructs with a literal snap of her fingers. “Today is about them. We can discuss your own situation at a later date.”

“Sorry, yes, of course,” Mateo says. He doesn’t remember her being psychic.

The Officiant nods. “Now. What else would you like to discuss?”

“The most important aspect of any wedding ceremony...flower arrangements,” Curtis jokes.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Year 242,398

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Danica checks her watch. They should be here by now. There must be something wrong with this damn thing. Or maybe she just doesn’t know how to use it. Tamerlane was right about that. She wasn’t chosen for this job because of her technology skills. She was chosen by fate. Or destiny, or just arbitrarily. Who knows? As she’s shaking her head out of frustration, the machine turns itself on. In a flash, Mateo and Curtis appear from the past. “I’m sending you back. Bhulan isn’t here,” she lies to them. Technically, she is here, but not because this is where Tamerlane sent her. It’s because she returned 10,000 years ago, and now she’s still here, currently hanging out with Abigail, Cheyenne, and Curtis in one of the stasis chambers.

“So we’ve already lost,” Past!Curtis questions.

“Not yet. I have another trick up my sleeve.” Danica double checks the temporal coordinates on the time machine, set to send them back to ten seconds after they left 20,000 years ago.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Past!Mateo asks.

“You’ve done more than enough,” Present!Mateo replies.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Past!Mateo argues with his future self.

“Everything’s gonna be okay,” Danica assures him. “Just say you didn’t find her here, because that’s the truth. Safe travels.” She pulls the switch, and sends them home.

“The loop is closed,” Present!Mateo declares with an exhalation that sounds like he’s been holding it in the whole time.

“The issue remains.” Danica starts tapping on her watch, remotely unlocking Tamerlane’s special stasis pod, the hatch to his private stasis chamber, and the gate to his cell. “I need you to get something for me.”

“What?”

“Tamerlane Pryce. I don’t feel like walking all the way down there, and all the way back. We may as well get some use out of your teleportation powers.”

“What are you gonna do to him?” Mateo darts his gaze over to the machine. “Or rather, when and where will you send him?”

“I’m going to send him where he wants to go,” Danica answers. Keeping him locked up was the wrong play, and crueler than she ever wanted to be. It’s messing him up, and it will only get worse. There’s one option left to fix this, but he’s not gonna like it, and she definitely won’t. Mateo will probably be displeased too. If Tamerlane wants to disappear, then she’ll help, but to different ends. After Mateo zips away, she starts to set new temporal coordinates, this time 60,000 years from now. He thinks that this will set the Omega Gyroscope free, but there’s something about it that not even he knows.

Mateo returns with the prisoner in hand. “I need to know that you’re not going to hurt him. I can’t be party to that.”

Danica takes Tamerlane by the shoulder, and escorts him into the time chamber. “He’ll be back in the year 302,398, just as he wanted.”

“Why are you doing this?” Tamerlane asks, a little worried about looking a gift horse in the mouth, but too curious to keep quiet.

“It’s clear that I can’t control you,” she explains as she’s stepping out of the blast zone. She frowns at Mateo. “But I think I can control Leona.” She pulls the switch again.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Year 232,398

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It’s the Year of our Danica 172,398. That’s what Tamerlane always likes to call it. Bhulan went back in time to destroy the hundemarke, the Omega Gyroscope, and the Insulator of Life. She had a purpose. She always has purpose. She gets an objective in her head, and she can’t let go of it until she reaches it. Danica is under an immense amount of pressure. Even before any other guests arrived, she was worried about screwing up her job. That can consume her. They’re both so stressed. He was there to lighten the mood, and despite his own past—and all the very questionable things that his alternate selves did—they were glad he was on their side. Team Triple Threat, he called them jokingly. It had a nice ring to it. They only abandoned it entirely because Team Quadruple Threat didn’t have the same ring to it when Asier showed up.

“Why are you doing this?” Bhulan questions. “I mean, I know why, you’ve just told me, but what do you think it’s going to accomplish, in the long run? Do you not trust me to be a good possessor of the Gyroscope?”

“I do not. I trust no one with that power. Believe me I more than anyone know what power does to someone. It destroys you. It turns you into something you never wanted to be. I never wanted that for any of you.”

“This isn’t the way.”

He chuckles.

“You think what I said was funny?”

“No, it wasn’t that. I was laughing at myself. I was going to respond that you’ll thank me one day, but I know better. I know that this is going to ruin my relationships with you two. I’ve decided that I have to be okay with that. For the greater good. So instead I’ll just see your claim that this isn’t the way, and raise you a yes, it is.” He leads her into the time machine, and programs her cuffs to proximate the time chamber.

She doesn’t even try to leave, she knows how much it will hurt to break that proximity barrier. But she does take one step towards him for emphasis. “Please, don’t.”

“It’ll be fine,” he promises. “You won’t feel a thing, and barely any time will pass.”

“Danica will come for me. There is no way you get 50,000 years before she finds a way. She’ll trace my point in time, and retrieve me.”

Tamerlane chuckles again. “I’m sorry, but you two don’t understand this place like I do. For instance, this is not a time machine, at least not in the sense that you’re used to hearing. It’s a transtemporal relocator.”

“That just sounds like a fancy way of saying time machine.”

“To you. But to me, I see so much more. Enjoy your trip.” He flips the switch.

Bhulan feels herself being pulled away from her initial moment in time, but she doesn’t just jump to the future, or the past. She keeps moving. It’s more like she’s sliding along the timestream, just outside of it, and never landing. She can see all of time and space from here, but not like Lincoln Rutherford can, or Danica will one day, or even as herself. It’s a garbled mess of distant images that don’t look like anything at all. She’s gaining no insight into the timeline, and she can’t control what she sees, or where she goes. She’s just along for the ride. Then suddenly, something becomes clear. Amidst all the vague light and shapes, an image forms. With it comes familiarity. Thousands of people are witnessing something. It’s the Colosseum, and this is the day that Mateo Matic defeats Zeferino Preston, a.k.a. The Cleanser, and most powerful man in the universe. This is an important moment, but it’s not something that Bhulan has ever personally cared about. The scene comes closer and closer, faster and faster, until she’s right in the middle of it all, and collides with something.

She stops. Everything stops, and all she sees is darkness, plus the faceless silhouette of another person a few meters from her. They ran into each other, and have ended up here in this void. Can she even speak? “Hey, are you okay?” Apparently so.

“I’m all right,” the other person replies. The silhouette moves a little, then starts to stand up. It’s still too dark to see who it is.

“Bhulan Cargill.”

“I know who you are,” she says.

“Do you know where we are?”

The figure looks all around at the nothingness. “A psychic bridge...a very boring one, at that. You don’t have a very creative mind, do you?”

“Who are you? I’ve never heard of a psychic bridge, and I’ve been around the block.”

She giggles. “Which block?”

“What is your name, please?”

“Some call me Frida, but I don’t think I like that anymore. A few know me as Aquila Bellamy, but I’m still not used to that either. Most just think of me as—”

“The Mass,” Bhulan realizes. The Artist, Athanaric Fury once lived in the Gallery Dimension, where he and hundreds others helped protect the timeline from time travelers. They didn’t stop them from traveling, but if any of their actions caused damage to their arbitrary idea of what the timeline should be, they corrected it. One day, they all went on strike, and quit. Due to the nature of the dimension, it was impossible to return them to work, so Athanaric used his powers to build the Preston children to compensate. They too failed eventually, and he decided to entrust all that power into a single individual, which he called The Mass. Zeferino Preston stole the body before it could be activated, and in the scuffle, Aquila found herself forced into the responsibility of protecting that timeline instead. Funny enough, she’s Mateo’s half sister.

“Yeah,” Aquila says after Bhulan’s summary. “That’s me, that’s what happened.”

“What is the purpose of this...bridge thing, Aquila?”

“I died, and my consciousness was on its way to wherever we go after we die. Not even I know that, but it would appear that you intercepted the signal, and now we’re sharing a body. This place is like the lobby of your mind. Theoretically, you have a choice to make. You can either let me stay, or force me out.”

“That would be a dick move.”

Aquila shrugs. “You’re the boss, it’s your body.”

No, she’s not going to do that. They won’t need to share for long. When she figures out how to get them back to the Third Rail, Aquila can be transferred to Tamerlane’s body, and it doesn’t really matter what happens to his consciousness. Not anymore. He’s lost the right to autonomy. As she’s preparing to say yes, she feels the energy build up again. This is just a pitstop, and she’s about to be sent back down the timestream.

“You better choose fast, or fate might choose for you, and you could be stuck with me until we find a replacement, if that’s even a viable option where you’re going.”

“You can stay,” Bhulan says quickly, and just in time. The river of time grabs hold of them both, and pulls them away. Even though there’s no up or down in this dimension, or whatever, she gets the sense that they’re going in the opposite direction now. Perhaps she’s on her way back, 50,000 years too late, no doubt. Tamerlane is going to get what he wants, and due to their moratorium on time travel, there’s nothing that she and Danica can do to reverse the damage. This will have to become the Sacred Timeline; the world according to Tamerlane Pryce. Something has to be done about that, but it can wait.

The ride ends, and she finds herself back in the machine. Nice place, Aquila notes, not saying anything out loud.

“Let me do the talking,” Bhulan whispers to her.

I was going to, she whispers back.

“I just mean, I don’t know if we should tell people about you yet.”

Okay.

“Constance, report.”

“Day 216 of Year 232,398.” Sixty-thousand years, okay.

“Please list all current residents of the Constant.”

“Danica Matic, Bhulan Cargill, Tamerlane Pryce, Asier Mendoza, Mateo Matic, Abigail Siskin, Cheyenne [last name unknown], Curtis Duvall, and Aquila Bellamy,” Constance answers.

“What the hell, you can tell that Aquila is in my head?’

“Affirmative.”

Do I still have to let you do the talking? Aquila asks.

Bhulan sighs. “Is anyone awake?”

“Everyone but Tamerlane.”

“Please wake him up. Convene a meeting in the master sitting room. Don’t tell anyone why.”

“Understood.” Bhulan has always had the better relationship with the AI, even though Danica is technically meant to be in charge around here.

While the group is gathering, Bhulan heads for the nearest bathroom to look at herself in the mirror. She feels physically dirty after having gone through all that, but she looks exactly as she did before. She doesn’t need a shower, or anything. She just needs to go out there and not waste time.

You’ll do great, Aquila encourages.

“Thanks.” Bhulan leaves the room and heads to the main area. She can hear the people talking to each other as she approaches the door. None of them knows who called this meeting or why. It’s not that she wants to make a grand entrance, but she wants to go over what happened, and what Tamerlane did, and she only wants to have to do it once. It’s best if they’re all here together. She clears her throat quietly, and walks inside.

Danica smiles at her sadly. She stands, and gives her a hug. “Glad you’re back.”

Bhulan hugs Asier as well, but none of the others, because she doesn’t know most of them, except by reputation, and she doesn’t have that kind of relationship with Mateo. She walks over to Tamerlane, sitting in the corner. He looks upset, but not guilty. He’s gone through some stuff too, she can tell. He kind of looks like he’s been tortured.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt you, I hope you know that.”

She breathes deep, and opens her arms. “I forgive you.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Year 222,398

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Danica prepares herself, and opens the hatch to let Mateo out. He looks at her, then glances over to Curtis and Cheyenne. “I have a job for you,” she tells him. She hands him a tactical bag with the clothes and other gear that he may need. “Get dressed and meet us in the time machine room.”

“I don’t know where the new time machine room is,” Mateo says.

“I put it back where it was,” Danica replies. She takes Curtis’ left arm while Cheyenne takes his right. They all three teleport away.

Five minutes later, Mateo shows up, ready to go. “What’s the play?”

“After exhausting all other possibilities,” Danica begins, “I have decided to authorize a mission to the future to retrieve Bhulan Cargill.”

“Did Pryce tell you the exact date?”

“He did not,” Danica says, “but I was able to figure out how to trace it. He sent an object of roughly Bhulan’s mass to the temporal coordinates that I have already input in the machine for your mission. All you have to do is get her back into the chamber, and bring her home. If, for some reason, you cannot return to the future version of the machine, I’ve programmed it to slingshot you back after half an hour. As long as one of you is holding onto her, she’ll be pulled back with you.”

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Mateo questions.

“We’ve been planning this for three years, accounting for every possible obstacle, and coming up with every contingency. Curtis knows what to do. Follow his lead.”

“Okay, but she can’t go,” Mateo says, pointing to Cheyenne.

“Why the hell not?” Cheyenne and Danica question simultaneously.

“It’s no secret that I already knew Cheyenne when we first met,” Mateo says. “Just trust me that she is better off not being involved in this. I’m not saying she’s not capable, just that she ought to stay out of it.”

Curtis is ticked off, but he gets it.

Cheyenne is confused, but doesn’t feel comfortable advocating for herself, or maybe she just didn’t want to go anyway.

Danica has no choice but to trust Mateo’s words, and hope he’s not lying. Cheyenne volunteered for this job, but it only demands two people. Well, it really only needs one person, but Mateo is being sent to teach him a lesson, so he knows who’s boss, and obviously he can’t go alone, or he might just go off mission. “All right, Chey, sorry, you’re benched.”

“That’s totally fine.”

Yeah, Danica doesn’t think she was ever interested in this. It’s possible Mateo picked up on this as well, and that’s his entire reasoning. That’s the kind of thing he would do, if given the data. She really does need to cut him some slack. Until this, he hadn’t truly done anything wrong intentionally, and even this wasn’t an unreasonable choice. Besides, he didn’t technically do anything but teleport an empty stasis pod to the middle of outer space. Tamerlane is at fault here. He’s responsible for everything. “All right. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll pull the switch.”

Mateo and Curtis step into the chamber. “Go ahead,” Mateo says.

Danica pulls the switch, and they disappear. Ten seconds later, they return. “Report,” she orders as they’re stepping out, sans Bhulan.

“She wasn’t there,” Mateo answers.

Danica looks for confirmation from Curtis.

“She wasn’t there,” he concurs. “You’re the one who—”

“Don’t tell me anything about what I may or may not have done in the future,” Danica warns. He was obviously going to say that Future!Her will admit that Bhulan really doesn’t show up, suggesting that Tamerlane used a lie to cover up another lie.

“Sorry,” Curtis says.

“Thank you for trying. I have to go.” She starts to walk away.

“What are you going to do?” Cheyenne asks.

Danica turns around. “I’m resorting to Plan Z.” She leaves the room, but not before she shouts, “everyone out!”

Tamerlane has already been placed in a special hock of her own design, which the builders of this facility apparently did not foresee as being necessary. It has three levels. There’s a regular cell that operates in realtime. A stasis chamber moves faster, and the prisoner is free to choose when and when not to use it. The stasis pod, however, is mandatory when not activated. He can’t get out, and he can’t control the differential. He’s been in that level almost the whole time since she found out that he sent Bhulan to the future. He’s only been allowed out for interrogations, which have not gone well so far. He has given away nothing. He’s never going to be honest with her again. Bhulan will lose her control over the Omega Gyroscope, and until Danica can find a solution to the line of succession problem, there’s only one thing left to do.

He’s in the stasis chamber right now, so she switches off the differential, and opens the hatch remotely. “Come on out,” Danica demands.

Tamerlane does as asked. He is not showing any remorse whatsoever. “You tried to go to the future, didn’t you?”

“You lied to me. Again.”

“Yes.”

“Where is she?”

“I can tell you, but you have to let me use the machine for myself...when the time comes. I must set the Gyroscope free.”

“I’m giving you one more chance to tell me where she is. If you don’t speak up now, you’ll regret it, I promise you that.”

“Not until power shifts. This is going to happen, and you can’t stop it. I don’t care how butthurt you are about it.”

Danica opens the gate, and doesn’t close it again. It doesn’t matter, it’s more for show. He’s wearing spatial cuffs, which means he can’t leave the immediate area, or get within two meters of someone else. “You made me do this.” She removes the Gyroscope from her bag as she steps into the chamber, and approaches the pod. She unlocks a secret shelf above the head, places the object inside, and locks it back up. “The minipod is special. It is simultaneously attached to the time inside, and the time outside, so we can keep using it, but you can’t ever be away from it, no matter how fast your differential is. Someone will always be in control. I control you, and you control it.” She once thought she would have to do something like this one day, but after the first few decades of realtime without him giving them any problems, she stopped worrying. She’s so disappointed. Perhaps spending a few decades in here will sober him up. Or maybe she’ll leave him there forever. She forces him into the pod. “Welcome to your new life.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: Year 212,398

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Curtis is wandering down the corridors, checking all the doors to see if he’s allowed to go in. He’s not. He tried to teleport directly into a couple of the rooms, but they’re temporally locked as well. He’s made it to the main living area now. Cheyenne is already there. She’s staring at the open door to Mateo’s stasis chamber. “Hey. Is everything okay?” he asks, hoping not to frighten her.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I just feel bad for the guy. It really sounds like Danica is screwing him over. He’s just trying to get back to his wife. Wait, is Danica here?”

“I didn’t see her,” Curtis says, “but these walls have ears. Literally.”

“Right.” She breathes deeply, and continues staring at the pods. “I should be more careful.”

“Hey, you’re trying to get home too, aren’t ya?”

“I’ve never been in any hurry my entire life. So yes, but...it seems weird to be so earnest about it. Him, I get. His life span is so short. Everything here is so weird.”

“How long is your life span?”

She just looks at him with no intention to answer.

She’s totally right. This place is so weird. You can be gone for minutes, and miss out on so much. In fact, you could be in stasis for the same amount of time as civilization had existed up to the point that Curtis first left. Empires would rise and fall. Wars would be fought. “Come on, let’s stop being depressed.”

“It’s the last day of the year, did you know that?”

“I guess.”

“He was supposed to be awakened, but the hatch never opened.”

“Maybe we could try to open it.”

“I already did. It didn’t work. It requires an access code. These people are so distrustful. I’ve never understood that. Where I’m from, our ancestors fought wars so that one day, we could live free from conflict. I don’t think that war is good, but I’m having trouble fitting in here.” Wow, they’re both making a vague connection between the situation they’re in and war. Interesting. There’s something about this girl.

“Well, this isn’t my first time being put in this kind of situation. Maybe it’ll be easier if you don’t try to go through it alone. Let’s do something fun together.”

“Something like what?” she asks.

“Well, a lot of this facility is off limits, but there’s one area I know is open.”

“Let me guess, your bedroom.”

He laughs. “No. Come on, I’ll show you. It’s a doozy.”

Cheyenne follows him into the elevator, which she never thought to try, because everyone says that it just goes up to the surface, which doesn’t even have a breathable atmosphere. That turns out to be okay, because in the mostly empty room at the top are two vacuum suits, which a little robot helps them put on. As she explains to Curtis, she’s seen space from ships and space stations before, but never like this. It’s wild, hopping along this planet, kicking at the space rocks. Because she’s traveled back in time to a completely unrecognizable calendar, and she’s been in stasis a lot of the time, the date is irrelevant. But, if she adds up all the time she has spent outside of stasis since arriving, it’s been nineteen days. It’s her birthday, and this is the best gift she’s ever received.