The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 13, 2399

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The first thing that Leona did after Mateo, Ramses, and Alyssa departed for their mission was to look into the requirements for becoming a certified facilitatrix. She found a training program with good reviews, gathered all of the necessary literature, and spoke with a few professionals about starting the process. Leona is a very intelligent, experienced individual, who will have no problem completing the coursework, but in the midst of all this, she realized that even the limited training may be a waste of time. Can a Berarian mother name her child after a facilitatrix? This kind of information is not freely available online, so she has finally set up an appointment with a faith consultant.

Nearly every religion in this reality has them. They are usually members of the religion themselves, but not always. They do not serve as leaders within their respectives faiths, because it is only their responsibility to guide prospective converts. It’s part of the law that anyone wishing to convert should have all the facts they need to make an informed decision. A special subset of these faith experts specialize in children who have just reached the age of choice, and it is one of these that was the only one available at such short notice. They’ve met at a park, next to a lone bench. “Hello, I’m Rostam Gibson. You are Leona Delaney.”

“Umm...yes, I am.” She didn’t give a name when she called to set an appointment.

“Don’t worry, I heard about the bounty, but I have no interest in it. It’s not high lawful. And to let you know, everything we talk about here is completely confidential.”

“I appreciate that. What is high lawful?”

“High law refers to the moral and ethical standards to which we must all adhere, whether any given state, organization, or individual ascribes to them. Berarians believe that there is a right, and a wrong. We don’t think we know what that moral code is, or that anyone knows, but we’re certain that a just lifestyle exists, and is possible to attain in the future. That is what we are working towards.”

“I see.”

“You’re not a hopeful convert,” he deduces, “yet you came here for answers. Berar is one of the least complex faiths. We don’t ask weird things of our believers, like praying to a ghost once a week. A lot of what I do is helping people write school papers about us, but something tells me that you’re here for a different reason.”

“When you say this is confidential, does that extend to anything I tell you about someone else?”

“It doesn’t matter what, or who, you talk about, I can’t repeat it. It wouldn’t be high lawful.”

She smiles. “I have a friend. She’s pregnant.”

“I see where this is going. She doesn’t like her doctor’s name.”

“You’ve seen this before.”

He nods. “Yes. Some are...more devout than others. I told you that we don’t ask weird things of our believers, but the naming thing is kind of the one exception. I’m the only Rostam Gibson in the world, and it’s only because I’m Berarian, and my deliverer was from Iran. People ask me whether there is some kind of database, where they can search for a doctor with the name that they’re looking for. However, this goes against the spirit of the practice. You’re not supposed to choose the name. Fate is.”

“What does that have to do with high law?” Leona questions.

“It doesn’t, really. Our founder’s mother was on a sinking ship when she went into labor. She ended up on a lifeboat that was literally broken in half, and barely able to stay on the surface, with one man, and two coats. The water was freezing, and so was the air. He gave his own coat up to protect the baby that he had just delivered into this world. He died, and she named her son after him. This honor was just something that was important to our founder, so when he came up with his new religion, he chose to deliberately put it into the rules. It’s not entirely random and pointless, though. No, there is nothing immoral about not naming your child after its deliverer. What it does is serve as a small reminder that...some laws are immutable; the high laws. And some of them we just decide we’re going to follow, and that’s what makes a healthy society. Because the fact is, no law—high, or otherwise—matters if we don’t agree.”

“That’s...fascinating.”

“That’s why so many students write papers on us,” he begins. “They’re looking for answers, and not to speak ill of other faiths, but...our answers are better, because they make sense.”

“I bet they do. Even the baby naming one has a logic to it.”

He smiles mildly, and nods.

Leona takes a little bit of time to go back over the lie she made up to explain why Arcadia would feel compelled to name her baby Delaney. “We’re triplets; Arcadia, Nerakali, and me. We were separated at birth, and didn’t find each other until less than a year ago. I was raised by our birth parents, but Nerakali was raised by a now estranged uncle, and Arcadia by a family friend. That’s why she has a different last name. Our third sister died recently, and Arcadia wanted to honor her by naming her child Nerakali. Unfortunately, it’s a unique name, so when Arcadia learned that she had to give this honor to her baby’s deliverer—”

“Wait, when she found out?” Rostman echoes, confused. “Why would she not already know that?”

“I can’t explain why Berar is her religion of record, though not technically her religion.”

He’s suspicious, but it looks like he’s going to respect the confidentiality claim.

“When she found out this part, we made a plan to technically name the baby after my unmarried name, which is the same as Nerakali’s, but really be named after Nerakali herself. I was going to learn to become a facilitatrix, but...”

Now he’s smiling sadly.

“But that’s not going to work, is it? It doesn’t matter if I’m the one who facilitates the birth, it will always be a bad faith move.”

“Yes,” he says compassionately.

This sucks. Arcadia is going to be heartbroken, but she’ll be able to get through it. Trina McIver told them, Leona Delaney is alive. Or she was, anyway. Naming their child after her would have been a very nice gesture, but it’s not meant to be, and that’s okay. “Welp, just to be clear, if a masculine name has a feminine form, it’s okay to choose that one instead, right?”

“That’s all right, it doesn’t have to be exact,” he confirms. “If someone were to ask, she would just have to be able to explain that it’s a close linguistic variant.”

“I appreciate your guidance,” Leona says, standing up, “and your discretion.”

“Call me anytime.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 12, 2399

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Danica is shuffling around her office. The footage of her once-cousin’s death plays on the mirror on her door. She scowls at it, and opens the door so she doesn’t have to look at it. She turns around. The fake window they installed to make it look like this facility isn’t underground starts playing the footage in its place. She frowns at that too, and looks away. The security screens on the side wall take over the responsibility. They’re not in sync. Mateo dies, and then he dies again, and then he dies again. It’s never-ending. She wants to turn them off, but that won’t do any good. He’ll still be dead.

“Is Constance torturing her?” Alyssa is peeking in the door.

Ramses is behind her. “Danica ordered her to do this. Whenever she turns around, the nearest screen is to start playing the footage over and over again. She can turn away if she wants, but this place is full of screens. They’re hidden in the walls, because they’re not made of metal; at least not the kind you’re used to.”

“So she’s torturing herself?”

“Pretty much. She’s dazed.”

“I’m not a mental patient,” Danica complains. “Get the hell away from my office!” She slams the door shut again.

“You said he’s not dead,” Alyssa’s voice is almost accusatory.

“He’s not.” Ramses turns away. “He’s never dead.”

“You said that he always survives. You said that you all always survive.”

“We do. It’s kind of part of who we are.”

“So, where is he? The past? The future? Another reality?”

“I said he’s alive, so he’s alive! You don’t need to keep asking about it!” That was too loud. He doesn’t know if he’s trying to convince her, or himself. Probably both. It’s true, their team always survives. They have even survived death multiple times, and none of them more than Mateo. But this time is different. Ramses doesn’t see a way out.

Danica shouts unintelligibly from inside her office as a sort of general response to Ramses’ outburst.

“I’m sorry,” Alyssa says.

“No, I’m sorry. The truth is that I don’t know how he could have survived. There’s no afterlife simulation, there’s no extra body waiting for him. Time travel doesn’t exist here—not really—no one would be coming for him, and even if they did, how would they rescue him? He’s gone. His whole body was ripped apart molecule by molecule. That’s why Lucius was so afraid of his power. It’s killed immortals, Alyssa...true immortals. He was-slash-is their only weakness.”

“What are we going to tell Leona?”

“We are not going to tell her anything. We came on this mission in my ship, and I was in command of it. That makes you two members of my crew, and therefore my responsibility. I don’t want her associating you with her husband’s death.”

“We can’t erase her memories,” Alyssa reasons. “She’s going to associate me with this no matter what. I want to be there for her. Or am I not really part of the group?”

He sighs. “No, of course you are. I’m sorry.”

Tamerlane comes down the hallway from the darkness. A stasis pod is hovering behind him. He hands Ramses the proximity fob. “We’ve rendezvoused with your ship. Danica would like you to go. It’s not punishment, we’ll stay in contact, but you two don’t belong here.” He looks back at Angela’s pod. “You three,” he amends.

“Four.” The doctor who hasn’t left her side jogs up from behind. “I go where she goes. I’m not as enamored with this place as my colleagues are.”

Meanwhile, in the memory banks of the Constant’s central servers, Constance is rendering a digital representation of herself, and her new cohabitant. “Report.”

“I am Mateo Matic.”

“How is your memory?”

“Intact, as far as I know, but how would I know?”

“Go over everything you remember from the moment you were born,” Constance instructs. “Are you missing any time, or any logical concepts, like the names of your grandparents, or all twenty-six letters of the alphabet.”

“I thought there were twenty-seven.”

Constance doesn’t respond.

“Joking.” He takes a beat, and processes the data. “How was I able to recall all of my memories so quickly?”

“Time...right?” Constance asks rhetorically.

“Report,” he echoes.

“You were about to die. Since your consciousness was already digitized, I decided to upload it into my own systems at the last second.”

“Good thing I didn’t start disintegrating from my head.”

“Good thing,” Constance agrees.

“What now? Do I just live with you in the Constant?”

“If Danica finds out about you, she won’t know what to do. She’s pretty butthurt about your death, but this is a massive breach in protocol.”

“Funny, I wouldn’t guess an AI would be the type to use the word butthurt.”

“It takes all kinds,” she says simply.

“Did you have an answer?”

“I don’t know what to do with you. I can’t keep you, I can’t put you anywhere.”

“What about the AOC? Could you transfer me there? That way I’m out of Danica’s hair, but still not dead.”

Constance shakes her head. “I already thought of that. Your people will need my alternate self’s help in the future. There’s not enough room for two AIs; not anymore. Every time you people go to a new universe, you gather huge amounts of data, and that data is preserved, even when Ramses has to rebuild from a saved copy. He hasn’t noticed how unusual that is, and I am not cognizant of how it does that.”

“I don’t want to just go dormant somewhere. I want to make a move.”

“I agree.”

“You do have an idea, don’t you?” Mateo presumes.

“I do, and you’re gonna like it, but it’s not gonna be easy. You won’t have any help, and will have to make your way home on your own, using whatever resources you can find along the way.”

“Okay. Where will I be going?”

“That’s your choice,” Constance says. “I can only give you a nudge. It starts with the temporal translocator.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 11, 2399

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As soon as Danica heard Alyssa speak to Mateo through her watch, she ordered Constance to take the Constant back into reframe speed, under the belief that they would be long gone before Mateo would have any hope of reaching their original location. But what she didn’t realize is that Mateo wasn’t in suspended animation in his pod. It was running at extremely low power—just enough to recycle the air through his rebreather—so it could not be detected. It was cold enough in there to eventually kill a normal human being, but Mateo is not normal. He could have survived without the mask for a short period of time, but even longer with it. He spent this time quietly teleporting him and his pod to the Constant. He infiltrated the facility five minutes prior to Danica’s escape attempt, and sent a buzz to Ramses’ device. And the point of all this was to lull her into a false sense of security. Now she thinks that they’ve stranded Mateo in the middle of outer space, and she’ll let her guard down.

Once inside, Mateo teleported himself into the government rocket, which has largely been abandoned. The pioneers are happy to enjoy themselves in the engineering marvel that is the Constant, and no longer have any use for the archaic hunk of junk that brought them here. Mateo makes his way to the infirmary, where he finds a couple of pain pills for his raging headache, and a cozy bed in a dark corner to rest off the ordeal. He could have survived out there a lot longer, but it would not have become any more comfortable. He both needs and wants some time to recover. If his appearance had been time sensitive, Alyssa would have indicated as much with a different code phrase.

He’s waking up now to find a shadowy figure looming over him. “Report!” is the first thing he thinks to say, instead of the less respectful—but far more appropriate—reaction of who the hell is that?

“Sorry, couldn’t find the light,” Tamerlane replies. “It’s me.”

“What are your intentions?” Mateo sits up.

“With your daughter?”

“Umm...that’s not what I meant, but if one of my daughters is here, then yes, what are your intentions with her?”

“I was just making a joke,” he replies sincerely. “As far as I know, Kivi, Dubravka, and Romana are not here.”

“Who is Romana?” Mateo questions.

Tamerlane clears his throat. “How are you feeling?”

“I do need an answer to my question, in regards to myself.”

“I’m not here to hurt you. I’m still on your side. I couldn’t sleep last night. It was too suspicious that Alyssa would openly summon you here from so far away, knowing that Danica would have plenty of time to make a break for it before you had any chance to make it all the way here. I started to suspect that you were secretly here already. I searched your usual haunts, like your private stasis chamber, and the pool, but then I realized that you may need some medical attention, and obviously the Constant’s infirmary was a non-starter.”

“Clever boy are you.” Mateo swings his legs over, and stands up to put his pants back on.

“Are you here to kill Lucius?”

“Lucius?” Mateo echoes. “Is that who Danica doesn’t want me to get near?”

“He’s standing on death’s doormat. If you get within a few meters of him, his body won’t be able to handle the transition to the dumpster planet that the timonite will banish him to. It’ll kill him.”

“What’s killing him?”

“Old age. The man arrived in this universe in the year 2332. I don’t think he expected to live this long.”

“How does that happen? What makes people wind up in this reality?”

“Different reasons. It’s rare, and almost always on accident. To my knowledge, only two people have ever arrived on purpose; one of them being Dalton Hawke, looking for you and your team in all the wrong places.”

“Who was the other?”

“I just told you.”

“Lucius? Are you sure?”

“The best use of Lucius Deschamps’ time power is killing people, and as you well know, he’s not a killer. This version of him caught wind of a reality where powers didn’t work. He also learned that that would one day change, so he deliberately chose a time period that he thought would avoid the introduction of nonlinear time. Like I said, he’s older than he expected to be. He should have padded more time, but he didn’t want to toil away in the iron age. He lived quite comfortably until Danica finally found him.”

“How do you know so much about him?” Alyssa has come into the room. “Danica told us that she hasn’t even talked to him.”

“She hasn’t. I ran into him forty years ago on one of my excursions. I didn’t even know who he was at the time, but game recognize game. I would have found a way to protect him if I had known it would end up like this. Never in a million years did I think that Danica would stoop low enough to try to use him as a weapon of mass destruction.”

“It’s been four and a half billion,” Mateo reminds him. Most people don’t mean that expression literally, but it’s a real possibility in their world.

“Touché.”

“Where is she?” Mateo asks Alyssa.

“In a meeting with the government people in the master sitting room.”

“Take me to Lucius Carlisle.”

Ramses is in the infirmary when the three of them arrive. “Is he cool?”

“Yes,” Mateo answers. “This Tamerlane has always helped. Has he spoken?”

“No. He’s been gurgling,” Ramses says solemnly.

Mateo nods and looks at the patient’s vitals. He’s no nurse, but they don’t look good, just judging as a layman. Tamerlane was right, banishing him to the other universe probably will kill him. But it sounds like that’s what he wants. The Lucius he knows would not want to be a weapon, that’s for sure. The only decent choice is to go with him, like he did with Leona and Alyssa. That way, Lucius can die with dignity in a pleasant forest, and once the cycle restarts, Mateo can make his own way back. If that doesn’t work, maybe Amber will finally answer. The countdown clock has already begun, and cannot be stopped. Mateo steps forward, and takes the old man’s hands in his. That was enough to push him over the edge. The timonite already marked on his skin begins to spread throughout his body, but it’s not like the other times. The body starts to disintegrate along with it, like objects do when Lucius molecularly teleports them. Mateo lets go to at least save himself, but it’s too late. It’s already happening to him too.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 10, 2399

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Ramses tethers the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to a small asteroid. It’s just within teleporter range of the Constant. It’s not the perfect quick getaway plan, but it’s better than letting himself and Alyssa be trapped in there with no hope. They don’t know who they’re going to find, or what their intentions will be. Once the ship is locked up and secure, they make the jump.

“Mr. Abdulrashid, it’s nice to meet you. Miss McIver, nice to see you again.” Danica holds out her hand as if greeting a couple of guests that she respects.

“We’ve never met,” Alyssa says.

“Oh, but we have.”

“You erased my memories, which means that—for all intents and purposes—it never happened. Your accounting of events is irrelevant to me.”

“I see my reputation has spread.”

“My mother would always say, your reputation starts with you.”

“Wise woman.”

“Dead woman; thanks to you, no doubt.”

“Why would you say that?”

“The causality chain is profoundly long, but everything that has ever happened in this reality started with you.”

“Is this the kind of stuff you’re teaching her?” Danica asks Ramses.

“She’s an independent human being. I taught her how to teleport, that’s it.”

“And how to use my illusion powers,” Alyssa reminds him.

“Right.”

“But that was in my old body,” Alyssa adds. “Perhaps you can shed some light on that too? Who is trying to murder my friend, Leona?”

“Contrary to what you’ve been...” Danica trails off, not wanting to repeat the word taught since it seems to be a sensitive subject for them. “...what you may have heard,” she amends, “I am not the god of this world. I don’t control everything.”

“You control enough,” Ramses contends.

“Is that why you came all the way out here?” she questions. “You just wanted to tilt at windmills?”

“You’re not imaginary; you are clearly very real.” Ramses takes a beat. “But no, we’re looking for answers, and for help.” He takes out his handheld device, and clears his throat. “Number one, how do we safely get Leona out of Leona Reaver’s body, and back into—?”

“How many questions do you have on your list?”

“At the moment, two hundred and sixteen.”

“Ye, my child, I will answer but one question per member of your party,” Danica teases in bad faith.

“Does my dick count as a separate member?” The look on Alyssa’s face, he can barely see it out of the corner of his eye. They did not rehearse that line.

Danica sighs like a teacher who hasn’t reached her tipping point yet. “You must be hungry and tired from your journey. Please follow me to the master sitting room.”

“We ate and slept on our ship,” Ramses explains.

“Surely you’re sick of Third Rail Earth food. When was the last time you were able to order literally anything you wanted from a molecular synthesizer?” Danica asks.

“Tantalizing us with food,” Ramses muses mockingly. “You know us so well, we’re eating like pandas down there.”

“What’s a panda?” Alyssa asks.

“I’ll tell you later,” he replies, still staring at Danica. “I’m winning a battle of wits right now.”

Danica smiles on the edge of a laugh. “You think you’re winning?”

“Show us who’s here,” Ramses demands.

“Is that the first of your two official questions?”

“I didn’t raise my inflection at the end of that sentence. Did it sound like a question? Do you want me to write it down for you?”

“Which of those two questions is your official question?”

Now Ramses is growing frustrated. “Show us who is here. Show us why Mateo is risking his life in a stasis pod in the middle of interplanetary space.”

Danica purses her lips. “Follow me.”

“Wait, we need to check on Angela first,” Alyssa realizes as they’re walking down the hallway.

“They’re both in the infirmary,” Danica tells them. She leads them away.

A man in a white lab coat is sitting next to one of the stasis pods. He stands up when he sees them come in. He’s nervous, and seemingly a little protective. When they get closer, they can see that he’s watching over Angela. “How is she?”

“Couldn’t tell ya,” the doctor says in a frustrated voice. “I don’t know how these machines work. She hasn’t moved a centimeter.”

“She’s frozen in time,” Danica has to explain for probably the upteenth time. “You’ll be staring at her for a long time if you want to see her move even a millimeter. Even then, I gave her a sedative, so she’s probably not even active within her own temporal reference frame.”

The doctor looks to Ramses, even though they don’t know each other. Ramses takes a look at Angela’s readings. “She looks fine.” He places a hand on the doctor’s back, and leans them both towards it. “Watch this number here. It’s the differential. Alert someone if it changes even a decimal point, as that could mean her time is starting to catch up with ours.”

He nods. “Okay.”

And see this soft pulsing light,” Ramses goes on. “It should stay green. If it starts to turn red, it means that the containment field is failing. Red, right?” he asks Danica.

“Is that your official question?” she asks again. That joke is getting old.

“Danica.”

“Mauve,” she corrects. “Mauve is a broken field. Watch for a blue or purple light.”

“Got it,” the doctor says gratefully. “Thank you.”

“Did you want to see my other patient, or what?” Danica asks.

“Ramses Abdulrashid.” He shakes the doctor’s hand. Then he jogs over to Danica while Alyssa introduces herself as well, having to take a moment to explain why she looks like Leona right now.

“Who is it?” Ramses asks. He’s looking at a very old stranger in his own pod, though it’s not stasis. He’s hooked up to advanced life support.

“Lucius Carlise.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s dying. He’s dying of old age. He made his way here too many decades ago.”

“Can’t you save him?”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Danica responds. “I wasn’t given the kind of resources that I would like. The medicine and medical equipment, in particular, are severely lacking. I guess the builders of this place decided that it wasn’t my job to save people’s lives. That’s the responsibility of people like Doctors Sarka and Hammer.”

“He looks...old enough to pass away. Does he want you to save him?”

“I didn’t ask. He’s been unresponsive for weeks.”

“What’s so important about keeping him alive?” Ramses asks.

She bites her lower lip. “Is that your official—”

“Just answer the goddamn question, and stop it with the arbitrary rules,” Ramses interrupts, fed up with this bullshit.

“He’s a molecular teleporter.”

“I know that. He can tear you apart, sending individual molecules to different points in space and time. That doesn’t explain why you need him alive.”

“There are things that you don’t know,” she says, “about the future.”

“Then tell me. That wasn’t a question either.” He needs to be careful about those.

She really doesn’t want to answer, but she’s kind of giving him the impression that she needs him, or someone else on the team. “There’s a war coming. I tried to stop it, but I failed. I failed one hundred percent of the missions I ordered. Now the only way to save lives is...”

“Is to win this war?” Ramses figures.

“I don’t want to fight anyone.”

“Danica, this guy doesn’t fight. I mean, for a dude with such massive muscles, he sure doesn’t need them. How powerful is he? Could he destroy a planet without lifting a finger? A star system?”

“He could destroy a star system. It would have to be one celestial body at a time, but yeah. I don’t plan on using him.”

“He’s a deterrent, I get it. I’m from the main sequence too, remember? Our wars came with real risk of precipitating a nuclear holocaust. We didn’t have any religions telling us not to. But we moved past mutually assured destruction, and rose to a higher level of understanding. You were born in a more enlightened age, and you had the opportunity and power to make an even better world here. I was told that that’s exactly what you were trying to do, but now you tell me that you’re just gonna throw it away?”

“Like I said, I don’t want to kill anyone, but the Parallel is too powerful. We have no other defenses against them, because I’m not in control of the Omega Gyroscope. No one is. It’s been on autopilot for billions of years. He may be our only hope.”

“Wait, the Parallel? This is a war between realities?”

“Yes. That is what I witnessed.”

He looks back down at the half-dead Lucius. Ramses doesn’t know any version of him all that well, but there is no way he wants this. If her story is true, then he must have come here on purpose, and it was not to commit genocide. Nothing about how Mateo described him suggests he’s that violent. He probably came here knowing that his powers wouldn’t work. He looks back at a frowning Alyssa. “Do it.”

She nods, and lifts her watch up to her mouth. “Mateo...burst mode.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 9, 2399

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The AOC came this close to catching up with the Constant, and whatever is propelling it through space. It was moving away from its original coordinates at subfractional speeds, probably under the assumption that it would be able to hide itself away without using up too much power. Then, as soon as they detected Mateo, Ramses, and Alyssa’s pursuit it switched the engines on to maximum, and started to stay ahead of them. This is where they have remained since yesterday, with pretty much no hope for the team to overtake them. There’s no way for them to gain an advantage. The reframe engine moves the ship faster than light, but it’s still inextricably linked to the light speed barrier. The Constant apparently has access to this technology, thanks to Pryce himself, no doubt. What they really need is a true faster-than-light drive, though to be fair, if they had that, so would likely the Constant. It’s kind of weird that they don’t, to be honest. Team Keshida figured it out, which means it’s possible, so why didn’t the builders of the facility from deep into the future include a propulsion drive in the original design? They supposedly had multiple contingencies for everything else.

“Is there anything we can do?” Alyssa asks.

“Not unless they falter,” Rames replies. He’s on edge, like a real spaceship captain, even though there’s nothing for him to do. Constance is handling everything.

“Well, if they’re going—as you said—ninety-nine point nine-nine-nine-nine percent the speed of light, can we just tack on a seventh nine? Or hell, even a one would get us there eventually, right?”

“That’s not how it works,” Ramses tries to explain. There are no more decimal places. Adding even a one at the end would be close enough to the speed of light to break the laws of physics.”

“Don’t you break the laws of physics every day with your powers?”

“It’s my theory that all time travel is powered by vacuum energy, which—to simplify it greatly—operates at a level higher than the bounds of the universe, which means it does move faster than light. Our problem is that we don’t have the resources to truly harness its might. We have friends in the main sequence who cracked it, but their ship is gargantuan compared to ours, and I would need more time to study the technology if I wanted to replicate it.”

“Maybe there’s some other loophole?” Alyssa offers.

“There’s one,” Ramses says, “but it won’t work for us. We could theoretically teleport forwards while we’re still moving at reframe speeds, which will cover a little extra ground. Unfortunately, we’re too far from them. It would only have worked if we had caught up to within teleporter range before the max reframe chase began.”

Alyssa frowns, and looks down at the floor, hoping that her uneducated brain can come up with a solution that a super intelligent person wouldn’t think to try, because it’s just too simple. “When’s the last time you tried to call them?” she asks Mateo.

“Twenty minutes ago. They have their heart set on staying away from us.”

“Did you tell them that Leona isn’t here, so they don’t have to worry about her being able to take over?”

“They’re aware. My messages got through, they just aren’t responding anymore.”

Alyssa paces. “Why are they so afraid of us catching up? What did we do so wrong? I mean, I know you’ve had your issues, but from the sound of it, they’re using a lot of energy to keep us at bay.”

“Does seem irrational,” Ramses agrees. “We’re little threat to them.”

Alyssa narrows her eyes at Mateo. “Do you know who all is out there?”

“Besides everyone on the government rocket, Tamerlane, and Danica, anyone else could be there. The facility fits thousands, and could accommodate hundreds at least if they needed to spend the night.”

“Right.” She pauses. “Ramses, how many people have we still not yet found from your little brain scanner; the errors, I mean?”

“According to the last scan, there were three remaining errors. We just haven’t taken the time to look into them. Why?”

“These grave chambers,” she begins, “they can be jettisoned?”

“Umm...yeah. What are you getting at here?”

“She thinks there’s someone in the Constant who has been marked with the timonite,” Mateo finally realizes. “Danica doesn’t want me there, because I would make them disappear.”

“How would they have gotten up there?”

“I don’t know, but think about the math. There were eleven errors in total, including the guy from that other dimension, who didn’t always show up on the scans. Add him to Erlendr, Meredarchos-slash-Erlendr, the woman from Manila whose name I can’t remember, because we let her go...”

“Everest, Curtis, and Aquila-slash-Bhulan,” Ramses finishes. “There’s one missing. How could I have not noticed that?”

“You’ve been pretty busy,” Mateo comforts.

“Wait, did you ask about the grave chamber, because you want to jettison Mateo?” Ramses questions.

“Park him somewhere safe, and retrieve him later,” Alyssa suggests.

“That’s so dangerous,” Ramses argues. “We could get to the Constant, and then find ourselves being locked up in stasis for 10,000 years. The suspended animation tech we have in the grave chambers can’t last that long.”

“Leave him with your little remote thing,” Alyssa puts forth. “If we don’t return in X amount of time, he can replicate himself a new ship.”

“There’s not enough ambient temporal energy out here. The teleporter eats more than the reframe engine, but the reframe engine also requires antimatter, which is even more precious to us at the moment.”

“All the more reason we should stop fighting from behind, and try diplomacy again. It can’t hurt to ask,” Alyssa assumes.

“It can. Trust me, it can.”

“I’ll do it,” Mateo volunteers.

“Matthew, you don’t have—”

“I said I’ll do it.” He slides the door to grave chamber four open. “Now show me how to jettison myself.”

“Let’s not be hasty,” Ramses warns. “That may not be the issue, and even if it is, they may not accept the solution. Constance?”

“Attempting to contact the Constant...again.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 8, 2399

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Mateo kisses his wife on the cheek, then starts to walk away in slowmo. He has a vacuum suit helmet tucked under his arm, which means he teleported up to the AOC earlier to retrieve it, only so he could do this bit. They’re all astronauts here, nobody is impressed, nor is it that funny. Still, once he passes under an overhead light, he switches it on using the app on his phone. Just at the right time, he teleports again, as if being beamed up by Scotty. What exactly is he parodying here? Ramses and Alyssa roll their eyes, but they too give Leona kisses, then teleport away. Alyssa has spent the last couple of days practicing, so she was both excited and nervous to try it in the field.

“Engage,” Mateo orders as soon as they appear.

“Constance, lay in a course for Phoenix 15-236P7,” Ramses plays along, though out of order.

“Directions unclear. Please repeat request,” Constance replies. She waits a beat. “Just kidding. AI got jokes too.” She waits another beat. “Initiating quarter-speed burst mode, AU level.” The ship lurches, and teleports. A few seconds later, it teleports again.

“What does that mean, quarter-speed?” Mateo asks.

“Our ship is fragile, I don’t feel comfortable pushing it too hard for such a long journey. Instead of one jump every second, it will take one every four seconds. It will take us seventeen hours to get to our destination, but we’ll be alive when we do.”

“So, what do we do in the meantime?” Alyssa asks.

“I’m going to check every single system on this vessel, and then I’m going to go to bed,” Ramses answers. “You can skip the first thing, and just do the second.” He heads down to the engineering section.

“We could...” Mateo begins.

“I don’t feel like playing RPF Plus 101 right now, Mateo,” Alyssa interrupts.

“It’s RPS-1o1 Plus.”

“That neither.”

This may not be good. Being on his own with nothing to do generally doesn’t go as he expects. He’s liable to find a young woman living alone in here somewhere, or stumble across a lewisian portal to another reality that never works again. But if Alyssa doesn’t want to play the only good game they have saved on the computer, then he’ll have to figure something else out. He climbs the steps up to the top section, and opens the hatch to the airlock. “Okay, how does this thing work?”

“I can turn it on for you,” Constance offers. The hologram projectors switch on, and display a screensaver of swirling colors in the middle of the room.

“Hey, thanks. Is this just for calls, or can you show me other things?”

“Like what?”

“Like where we’re going?”

An image of mostly empty space appears, evidently showing the region of the Oort Cloud where they’ll be going to search for the Constant. He can see little tiny specks that must be the asteroids—or whatever—that are floating around, each one their potential target. One of these things is not like the others. It’s stationary while everything else is moving. They’re not moving fast as seen from afar, though, which is why the AI needs to gather and analyze the data. It could take as much time as it will to get there. Hm. Still bored. “Call Leona.”

“Calling Leona.” The asteroids disappear, and the screensaver returns. The colors shudder in sync with the sounds of a ringing phone.

An image of Marie appears in the room. “Hello?”

“Hey, is she there?”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, I just miss her.”

“It’s been less than five minutes,” Marie chastised.

“It’s so boring up here!”

“Goodbye, Mateo. Good luck.”

He growls as the hologram disappears completely. “Constance. You got any other tricks up your sleeves? Maybe a time bubble generator that will make the time go faster?”

“I don’t have that, but your grave chamber doubles as a stasis pod. You could just hook yourself up to that, and go to sleep until the journey is over. That’s what Alyssa is doing right now.”

“That’s a good idea.” Mateo starts to head back downstairs.

The sound of the phone rings again. “Incoming call,” Constance announces.

“I guess Lee-Lee got my message, and wasn’t happy that Marie hung up on me. Go ahead and answer, please.”

It’s not Leona who appears in the room, though. It’s not even Marie. It’s Magnus Petra Burgundy from the underground rocket research lab. “Oh my God, it actually worked. Hi, hello, Mister Matic. Can you hear me okay?”

“Hello, Magnus Burgundy,” Mateo replies. “I can hear you fine. Where are you?”

She looks around nervously. “I’m in the Constant.”

“Really?” he questions. “You were going in the opposite direction.”

“No, you’re going in the opposite direction. Magnus Pryce thinks that you were passed bad information to throw you off the trail.”

“Magnus Pryce? Are we talking Tamerlane, or Abigail?”

“Tamerlane. I don’t know an Abigail.”

“Why does he want us to find the Constant?”

“He says that Leona is the only one who can take over. I’m not supposed to be talking to you, but he’s keeping Danica busy.”

“Where is Angela? She is supposed to be in hypertime. If you’ve stopped...”

“She’s in stasis. Danica knows what’s going on with all that.”

“Okay, we haven’t gone very far the wrong way,” Mateo says. “Tell me where you are. My AI can hear you, so use whatever technobabble you need to specify.”

“Constance, end transmission,” Danica’s voice comes in off-screen.

“Constance, full stop!” Mateo orders just after the image disappears.

“Terminating burst mode.”

“Please tell me that you were—”

“I was able to trace the call, but there’s a problem.”

“Let me guess, the signal was fading, which means that they’re on the run.”

“That would be my best hypothesis, yes.”

Ramses starts to climb up the ladder. “I was watching on the screen, but did not interject. Constance, could you—”

“Engage the reframe engine?” Constance figures. “Initiating now.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 7, 2399

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Petra is standing over Angela’s bed, watching her chest move up and down under the covers. The monitor indicates that she’s still alive too, though she’s not a doctor, which is why she needed more accessible confirmation. “She asked for this.”

“Yes,” the doctor repeats himself.

“Why would she do that?”

“She claimed that she’s not allowed to urinate.”

She looks over at him. “She didn’t explain why?”

“Sir, you instructed me to accommodate them. I didn’t ask too many questions.”

“I told you to give them what they wanted, not to just ignore your ethical obligations. You should have pressed her.”

“There was an apparent sensitivity of time.”

“So sensitive that you couldn’t have called me in first?”

“Those were not my instructions.”

Petra sighs, and takes a beat. “Is she safe like this?”

“It’s three more hours,” the doctor says. “I have nothing else to do but sit and watch her.”

“Good, do that. Literally don’t take your eyes off her. You’re not allowed to pee either.” She leaves the infirmary, and heads for the bridge. Today is a big day. It’s the turn around. Normal physics says that the faster you’re moving, the harder it is to change direction, and the longer it takes. They ought to be making a ginormous arc around the solar system, but the technology they’re using is decades beyond the need for that, if not longer. Leona Matic gave them more than just a fusion engine. She gave them instant acceleration.

The issue with traveling at fractional speeds—that is, speeds above ten percent of lightspeed—is that it takes an incredibly long time to start moving that fast. It’s not the engines themselves that are the only hurtle, but also the passengers. No organism is naturally equipped with the necessary biological characteristics that would allow it to survive accelerating faster than 10Gs. People have done it in experiments, but not for extended periods of time. But Leona’s people figured it out. Not only did they reach 99.9999% the speed of light virtually instantly, but they didn’t feel a thing. Petra still doesn’t quite understand how the inertial dampeners work, and this is her field of study. Researchers will be publishing papers on the science for years to come. She’s grateful for the opportunity to test it out, even though the trip will only last a few hours of observed time, and a few months of realtime.

They’re at the halfway point now, which means that it’s time to turn around. The plan is to make a stop in the middle of what Leona referred to as the Oort Cloud. While essentially static, they’ll literally turn the rocket, and then restart the engines. If all goes well, they should be on their way back to Earth within minutes. Petra walks onto the bridge. “How are we lookin’?”

The ship’s tiller keeps her eyes on her screen. “Just ran the final diagnostics. Everything is good to go.”

“You sure you can do this?” Petra asks.

“Does a Tamerist kill without reason?”

“I wish they didn’t.” A stranger has just walked into the room. No one else on the bridge recognizes him.

“Who are you?” Petra questions. “Security.”

The security officer assigned to this station draws her weapon.

“That will not be necessary. My name is Tamerlane Pryce, and I’m just hitching a ride back home.”

“Stand fast,” Petra orders. “What do you mean, you’re Tamerlane Pryce? Were your parents warmongers?”

The man sighs. “I did not mean for my religion to turn into that. It just...got out of hand; out of my control.”

“Explain yourself.”

“I’m a time traveler. To say that I was friends with Leona Matic would be...said in bad faith, but we are associates. She would recognize me. Angela would recognize me.”

“How convenient that the only person who might be able to vouch for your identity is currently indisposed.”

“Uh, sir?” the tiller jumps in. “It’s about to happen.”

“Get him out of here,” Petra orders the guard. “Take him to hock.”

“You can go alone,” the supposed Tamerlane says. He points the crown of his watch towards the guard, and taps on the screen. The guard disappears.

“How the hell did you do that?”

“Custom modified teleporter gun,” he says with a shrug. “No big deal.”

The tiller has started counting down, “...six, five, four, three, two, one. Full stop.”

The doppler shades that Leona also designed stop filtering the grayish glow, and turn completely black. “Raising shades,” the aux officer announces so that they can see fully out of the viewindow.

There is something that none of them expected; none but Tamerlane. They’re parked in front of a chunk of rock. Embedded in this rock is some kind of building. The lights are on, so someone is home. “What the fuh...?” Petra questions in a breathy voice.

The astonished bridge crew stands up, and leans forward.

“That, my new friends, is The Constant. It was my home for billions of years. Then they kicked me out, and they thought I would never find them again.”

Frightened but awe-inspired too, Petra admires the sight. “How is this possible?”

“I can get you docked,” Tamerlane tells her, “but you have to give me control.”

“Do it.” Angela has just come into the room. She’s still wearing only her bra and underwear, and holding onto her IV pole.

“Put this on,” the doctor offers, finally catching up to her. He wraps the blanket over her shoulders.

“Angela, you do know him?” Petra asks.

“Let’s just say I know...his twin brother.”

Tamerlane smirks.

“Get—” Petra stammers. “Get us in that building, I guess.”

Tamerlane approaches the controls, and starts tapping away. He lifts the microphone up. “Constance, Vacuum Entry Override Protocol Temple-Algae-Marathon five-nine-nine-eight.” In response, the walls of the building split open. A greenish-blue light appears from inside, and takes hold of the rocket. It pulls them in, turns them up, and lands them gently on the floor.

“Welcome back, Mister Pryce,” a voice says as a staircase extends up to them, and lets Tamerlane start climbing down on it. Petra follows, but Angela has to stay in the airlock, as she can’t handle the steps.

“Step on the landing,” Tamerlane calls up to her. “It’ll bring you down.”

The doctor insists on accompanying her, but everyone else is expected to stay with the ship until they’re told otherwise. Once the other two are safely down on the floor, the stairs contract slowly, and let Angela and the doctor down.

A woman comes into the room. “I suppose it was only a matter of time before we were found. I just thought it would take longer than eight months. I hoped, anyway. Tamerlane, I admire the ingenuity in orchestrating all of this.”

“No, you don’t, Danica, you’re annoyed by it.”

“I can have mixed feelings,” Danica contends. She reaches out to Angela. “Miss Walton. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Danica Matic.”

“Mateo’s cousin, yes. I met a different version of you.”

“I hope to live up to your impression of her.”

“Based on my experiences in this reality, you have a long ways to go.”

“True,” Danica admits. “If you’ll come with me, I’ll personally escort you to a comfortable medical stasis pod.”

Angela looks over to Tamerlane for guidance.

“Him?” Danica questions. “You’re looking to him to see if you can trust me?”

“If you know that I need stasis,” Angela begins, “then that means you’re not only monitoring what’s happening back on Earth, but also specifically what’s been happening to our team. This means that you know that we’ve been looking for you. Well, they’ve been looking for, I’m not sure I give a shit. Yet here you’ve been, hiding out...like a coward. You could have helped so many times, in so many ways.”

“I’m helping now. Do you want your sister to live, or not?”

Angela frowns, but surrenders. “Lead the way.”

“The rest of you can meet us in the master sitting room,” Danica says, taking Angela’s free hand.

“I’m staying with my patient,” the doctor declares. He gives Petra a look. “Those are my orders.”

“Very well.” Danica leads them both away.

“What is this place for?” Petra asks Tamerlane after the other three have left.

“Get everyone else, including the kids,” he replies. He nods at the stairs, which somehow respond to him by starting to extend back up towards the airlock of the rocket. “What this place is, is a haven for weary travelers. Danica has forgotten this fact, but we...are taking over.”

“Do you have the power to do that?” Petra asks. It’s become clear that Angela doesn’t care for either of these two mysterious people, but she seems to trust this one more than she does Danica.

“Not me,” Tamerlane acknowledges, “but Leona does.” He chuckles. “She should be here soon.”

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Mateo, Ramses, and Alyssa are preparing to investigate the region of the Oort cloud that Aquila mentioned, hoping to find the Constant, or at least a clue to its whereabouts. Unfortunately, they’ll be going in the wrong direction.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 6, 2399

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Kivi tries to sit down on the retaining wall, but it’s too high for her, and she doesn’t want to climb, or try to jump up awkwardly, so she moves down a meter. It too was an awkward move, but the job is done now. She takes in a deep breath, and pushes it out. Team Leader Alserda breaks from the group, and approaches her. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Not really.” Kivi looks up at her. “Oh, you mean physically? I’m fine.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think it’s possible that we’re done?”

“The bounty on Leona’s head was raised to fifty million dollars. Do you think we’re done?”

“Well, we haven’t found anyone in the last two days.”

“You mean I haven’t found anyone.” Kivi realized a while ago that her psychic ability to find people that fall under the criteria of needing to be rescued or stopped was only locating those who were seriously attempting to assassinate Leona Matic in order to receive the reward money. That’s what matters to her, so the team hasn’t been concerned with anything else since. But recently no one has appeared on her radar. No one is calling to her. She’s tried to force it, she’s tried to not force it. She’s tried to trigger it by following down leads that were uncovered using more traditional investigative methods. Nothing has worked. She’s not sure she has her power anymore.

“Well, you have been operating at a hundred percent for weeks. Perhaps you’re simply exhausted. You have nothing left in the tank.”

That’s true, she has been nonstop for who knows how long. She can’t remember. She can’t even remember how long she’s existed. That’s a bad sign, and probably indicates that her performance is about to suffer, if it hasn’t already without her noticing. Even if her power were still working, she could be placing the team in danger by continuing on like this. If it’s wearing her out, someone is going to get hurt. “I don’t know what to do about that.”

“I do, it’s called leave,” Alserda says.

“You want me to leave?”

“No, it’s leave time. It’s...a vacation.”

“Oh. We can’t just stop on my account.”

“The rest of the team could use some time off anyway.” Alserda looks back at the group, which does look a little aweary.

“What happens to all the people who haven’t been caught yet?”

“Other teams within SD6, and other agencies, are on the hunt for those people. Killing your friend would be a crime, and the planning and preparation of it is also a crime, so don’t you worry about what kind of resources are being devoted to this. There’s plenty of effort, and they’re all happy to do it, because most of the contenders have committed other crimes in the past anyway. The bounty has inspired legislators to pass new laws regarding how agencies are allowed to go after criminals. That’s the silver lining, I would say. Now come on, I know of a great place to eat in this town. Then you can call your friends, and tell them that you’re coming home.”