The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 6, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

When Mateo insisted Ramses teleport out of the magma chamber of the volcano to save himself, he just jumped without thinking about where he wanted to go. Home would be the obvious answer, but he’s not had a home in a very long time. He’s lived on ships, labs, lofts, flying cars, and other random places. His subconscious must have taken over the responsibility of navigation, because he ended up in Egypt. It’s where he was born, and where he spent his younger days, but he feels no strong sentiment towards it. This isn’t even the right version of Egypt. It’s a bastardization, and that’s the nicer way to put it.

Danica’s Omega Gyroscope is what explains why anything in this reality is even remotely similar to the way things are in the main sequence, but something went wrong when it was programming Egypt. This area is where civilization began, but it did not thrive here. Great unrest forced mass migration centuries ago, to the West in Africa, the North in Europe, and to the Southeast in Asia. What was left was a sad approximation of what a culture should look like. While his Egypt stood tall, especially in the latter century, this one was short and pathetic, literally speaking. Their tallest regular building is four stories high, and there’s only one like that. It’s the Port at Said, and it was partially built by Greece, which exports to the rest of the world through the Suez Canal. That’s the only reason this version of Egypt is still alive at all, because they’re in the way.

The Great Pyramid is here, which is surprising, but it’s the only ancient structure that the people still maintain, because they do get a few tourists. Plus, some ships are required to wait in the canal for customs approval, or because there’s a line, so sailors stay in Giza, which boasts the only moderately decent hotel. It’s also anonymous, which is perfect, because that is what Ramses needs right now. He’s not going back to Mangrove One, and there’s nothing left for him in Kansas City.

Angela and Marie are in space, Mateo is dead, and Alyssa is missing. Yes, he made a commitment to find her, but he would probably just mess it up. He’s not the only one who could. Leona can do it just as easily, and she will, because she cares about her just as much. They now have the world’s most powerful governments at their backs, with all of the resources they could need. They don’t need him. He can’t face Leona with what he’s done. He lived. He escaped when Mateo couldn’t, and he’ll have to live with that for the rest of his life, which could be a pretty long time if something eventually changes, and he gets his transhumanistic upgrades back.

Ramses is a genius, which is why it only took him a few minutes to write a little script that will allow him to leave Leona a voicemail without worrying about her answering any ringing. “Hey, it’s Ram. I’m sure you’ve been wondering where we are. I’m bouncing this signal all over the world, so you’ll never find me. You’ll never see me again. I’m sorry to rob you of your chance to confront me, but I... Mateo is dead. Constance!Five broke free, and he had to sacrifice himself. Now, I know I thought that last time, but I really don’t see any way out of this. He was in a volcano, and I programmed the Bridgette’s self-destruct to go off in seconds after activation. I got the alert on my device—he went through with it—it did blow up. I’m sorry I left him behind, I’m sorry I’m the one who lived instead, and I’m sorry for not coming back, but I have to protect you. I have to protect you all from me. I love you. Goodbye.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 5, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

Mateo spent a little longer talking to the current passengers of the AOC than he intended, but that’s not really what’s preventing him and Ramses from returning to Mangrove One. After some thoughtful discussion, they decided that it’s time to get rid of Constance!Five for good. They also decided to keep Leona out of it, for reasons of plausible deniability, and to also keep her conscience clean. Some may simply call it destruction of property, but that’s in bad faith. What even is a person? Philosophers, civil servants, activists, and other thinkers in the main sequence spent millennia working on a definition that not everyone agrees on, even now. Constance!Five is a person, and if they want to destroy her, murder is the only word for it. To put it any other way would be a cop out.

They spent all day yesterday clearing the vehicle of all nonessential systems, including life support, which normally rests on the essential side of things. If the android wakes up before they get the chance to jettison her stasis pod, they don’t want her having any access to an electrical system. People often call ships tin cans jokingly, but in this case, that really will be what it is, except for the tin part. It’s the only post-transition metal that isn’t on the Bridgette.

They’re currently floating in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle to refuel with Existence water. “Are we ready to go?”

Ramses sighs, and looks around at the bare vessel, as if it were their home of the last twenty years, and they’ve just packed everything up to move. Ah, the memories. “It must be. I’ve modified the teleporter to only operate by the living fingerprints of both of us simultaneously, but only using my right pinky, left thumb, and left index, plus your right ring finger, right middle finger, and right thumb.”

“Sounds complicated,” Mateo says.

“It’s like a password. Constance!Five can presumably make herself look like anyone, perhaps down to the tiniest of details, but she won’t know which fingers to use.”

“She’s alive, though, so if you were thinking that her fingerprints also won’t work because of that—”

“No, no, no. That’s just so she can’t kill us, and then try to unlock the controls, because maybe she can’t replicate dactylograms, I don’t know.”

“Right.”

Ramses steps over, and hands Mateo a slip of regular paper. “Memorize this, and then destroy the paper.”

“This is what you just told me, about which fingers to use.”

“Yes.” His demeanor has suddenly grown somber.

“What is it, Rambo?”

“Did you memorize it?”

“Yeah, ‘cause I heard you the first time.”

“Recite them, in a random order, without looking at the paper.”

“My right thumb and middle finger, your left index, my right ring finger, your  left thumb, and right pinky. I’ve gotten better at my memory.”

“Okay, now switch my name with yours, and that’s the self-destruct sequence.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Your left thumb and index fingers, and your right pinky. If you place those on the panel of the teleporter, it will explode. You don’t need me to activate it, and I don’t need you. As long as one of us is alive, we can do it.”

“Why would we do that?”

“I think you know why. It is a last resort, but it is not a non-option. You hear me? We both have to go into this knowing it to be a possibility. Every enemy we’ve gone up against has been incredibly dangerous, but Constance may be the worst one. We don’t know that much about her, but think about how scared you have been of Danica because she runs the Constant, then multiply that by a thousand, and you may come close to understanding the threat she poses. Because she’s the one who truly runs it.”

“I understand. My right pinky, and my left index and thumb.”

“Okay, let’s hope we never need to use it. Remember, it’s only if she breaks free.”

“Definitely. Let’s do it to it.”

They take one more look around to make sure that everything is as safe as possible, then they prepare to make the jump. Ramses programs the teleporter to navigate to Heard Island. They align their fingers, and go.

Wreckage all over the place, the smell of once-burning fires overwhelms the air. Already decomposing bodies are strewn about. There’s a wheel, and there’s a wing. This was an airplane, and these people’s deaths are the team’s fault. They thought that this was a remote region of the ocean, but apparently not. They’ll have to worry about finding out why the plane was flying this far south later. For now, they have to find Constance!Five. They run over the rocks, avoiding the sharp edges of the metal. There’s the stasis pod. It’s closed. Not only that, but it’s still closed. She’s still in there.

“Is this just a coincidence?”

“Not likely,” Ramses replies. “Wait, what the hell is that?” He kneels down, and looks at the keypad. “Oh, shit.” He pulls something out of it.

“What is that?” Mateo asks.

“Something I didn’t put there. I think it was hacking the lock to find the code.”

Mateo breathes a sigh of relief. “But you got it in time.”

A soft hiss is released when the hatch of the pod opens.

“Evidently not.”

Constance!Five smirks as she’s coming out of the pod like a vampire from their coffin. “Don’t feel bad. I reprogrammed avionics to upload a quantum hack to the keypad. The upload was completed days ago, it’s been working in situ this whole time. You couldn’t have stopped it.”

Trying to think quickly, Ramses teleports right behind Constance!Five, and tries to inject her with a power suppressant sedative. She grabs the syringe, and breaks it between her fingers. “Fool me once.” She takes him by the neck, and begins to squeeze.

With only a little left air in his lungs, Ramses looks over at Mateo, and ekes out, “destroy Bridgette; only thing that can find Cedar.”

“Cedar?” Constance!Five releases her grip, and drops him to the ground.

Mateo looks over his shoulder at the Bridgette, then teleports away. That’s not where he goes, though. He jumps behind a boulder, and secretly watches Constance!Five try to follow him. He then jumps back to Ramses.

“You have to destroy it,” Ramses argues, massaging his neck.

“We will, but she has to be in it first, and I want there to be no escape. I know where to take her.” Mateo makes one last personal jump, taking Ramses with him. They’re in the crawl space underneath the fuselage. They can hear Constance!Five moving around up top, trying to induce what the hell is going on. Mateo slides over to program the destination himself, having researched this a long time ago. He was told it was an idiotic idea, but it may be the only one they have. They jump.

It’s extremely hot here, as one might expect for a chamber inside of a volcano. “Now you can go,” Mateo whispers.

“No.”

“Only one of us needs to die. Go! Please!”

The hatch opens, and Constance!Five sticks her head down. “Here’s Connie!”

“GOOOOOOOO!” Mateo shouts.

Thankfully, Ramses disappears.

“You’re not getting off that easy.”

“Yippee ki yay, motherfucker.” Mateo places the correct fingers on the teleporter. He can feel it start to heat up, and in seconds, the explosion begins. But it doesn’t keep going. Everything freezes, including Constance!Five.

A hand appears out of the aether, between Mateo and Constance!Five. It bends the fingers to meet the thumb, and starts turning around slowly. It kind of looks like a periscope. It stops when it sees Mateo. Then it opens up, and waves him towards it.

Mateo crawls towards the extraction mirror, but does slip through it. He keeps going until he reaches Constance!Five. If his mysterious savior from the future has the ability to slow time down long enough to mount an effective rescue mission, Constance!Five has time to framejack a way out of this predicament too. He needs to shorten that time as much as possible. He takes her by the shoulders, and drags her along the floor until she’s right up against the teleporter. Only then does he make his way back to the mirror, and dive in head first.

“Did that work? Is she dead?” Mateo asks. He’s in a room that he doesn’t specifically recognize, but it looks a lot like Constant architecture. Leona is there, as are Ramses, Leona, and Winona.

“It has not been that long,” Leona answers. “If she survived, we’ve not seen her.”

Mateo looks around. He sees what looks like a closed viewport. He slowly heads for it, and even slowerly reaches for the shade. No one stops him, so he opens it, and looks out. He sees the stars. It’s nothing new, and it doesn’t give him even an approximate location. This could be anywhere. “Guys...where are we?”

Leona smiles. “We’re at that Phoenix location in the Oort Cloud that we’ve been talking about for ages.”

“Finally made it, eh?” He nods and returns to the viewport, just to enjoy the starscape. He turns back upon realizing something. “Aquila said you’d find me here.”

“Yes,” Leona says. “She wasn’t wrong or lying. We just didn’t have all the info.”

He steps away, and takes a gander at the extraction mirror. “Have you used this for anyone else yet?”

Leona steps over to a control panel on the wall. With it, she opens the hatches for three cloning pods. “You were never killed, so you don’t need a new body. Neither do we. The rest have been taken care of.”

Mateo gets closer to see the clones that are growing in the pods. One of them is himself. The other two are Ramses and Leona.

“Okay. Maybe you’ve been gone for a little while.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 4, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

Mateo and Ramses are still not back yet from dropping the boys off on the AOC. Aldona has not even bothered to think about long-range communications systems, because it’s not priority. They have to build the ships and satellites first, then they can worry about all that stuff. All Leona can do is hope that they wanted to have a longish conversation while going relativistic speeds, and that nothing is actually wrong. She’s been trying to keep her mind busy with her work, but it has not been easy. She’s been distracted, and not even by her husband’s absence. It’s something else. Something has been gnawing at her, and it’s not the loneliness, nor the exhaustion, though both of those have become real problems. No, she’s realized what it is. It’s the Constance!Five android they tucked away in the antarctic. She’s still a threat. She’ll continue to be a threat until she’s gone forever.

Aldona knocks on the door for her two hourly check-in, which she apparently thinks Leona has not noticed. “Hey, what’s up? Could you check these numbers for me?”

Leona accepts the tablet, and gives them a cursory glance. “They look great.”

“You barely looked at them.”

“I’m that good. You are too. Stop asking me for input that you don’t need.”

“Measure twice, cut once,” Aldona muses.

“That’s what the computer is for.”

Aldona sticks the tablet under her armpit, and folds her arms.

“Is there anything else?”

“You want to ask me for something.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Once a day, you ask for something extra. Resources, access to something. We’re nearing the end of the evening, and you’ve not done that yet. So, out with it.”

She stares at her for a few seconds. “Okay, you’re right. I was hoping to borrow one of your rockets.”

“What is it this time?”

“There is something that we need to get into space.”

“Okay. Because...?”

“Because...that’s where the sun is.”

“And what do you need with the sun?”

Leona scrunches up her lips, and shakes her head rapidly. “We may or may not need to allegedly throw something into it.”

“You need to throw something into the sun...like garbage?”

“That’s a word for it.”

Aldona narrows her eyes. “Are you trying to murder someone?”

“That...is a word for that.”

“Talk to me, Leona. Tell me what I need to know.”

“We call her Constance!Five. She can make herself look like anyone. We trapped her in a stasis pod, but it’s only a matter of time before she breaks out.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell me this? That’s who’s trying to kill Cedar.”

“I know, but not everyone believes that all’s fair in love and war.”

“If you have a version of Constance, I want it gone. Permission: granted.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 3, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

Leona is in her office, doing her multitasking thing, but this time, she’s not trying to steal from the world governments. She’s only trying to help by making this the best planetary defense system in six realities. Right now, the biggest issue is power generation. It doesn’t matter how fast they build all these fantastic structures, producing and storing energy takes time. You can always cultivate more of it with more time. Aldona is an expert in antimatter production, which is a field of research that Leona knows relatively little about. The AOC runs on the stuff. She knows how to handle the storage pods, load them, and maintain the equipment. But she’s never had to make the antiparticles herself. She’s never even seen a power plant before.

Antimatter is, as the name would suggest, and to put it simply, the opposite of matter. When a particle and antiparticle meet, they annihilate each other. Since the universe is made of matter, there’s unsurprisingly not enough of the other kind around. It doesn’t last long; it can’t. It will take a culture decades to figure out how to do it, and that’s after decades of using other, completely unrelated power sources, like fossil fuels and renewables. It’s extremely powerful in small quantities, but requires a great deal of infrastructure. Aldona can’t figure out how to make it happen in time, which is a problem. Nuclear fusion is good enough for a defense system that doesn’t have to do anything, but once a serious force tests it, that whole system could fall apart. If an enemy were to bombard their weakest link with fodder, that part of the grid would run out of juice quickly, like the health bar for a video game character who’s underwater.

“What about the Fourth Quadrant?” Leona asks.

“We’re working closely with them,” Aldona answers. They’re in less danger, because the Kansas City bubble is virtually impenetrable on its own, and there’s a way to evacuate the other islands into it, but we’re still going to help.”

“No, I’m talking about power. Antimatter is better than fusion, but what’s better than antimatter?”

“Uhh...a blackhole drive?”

“In a way, yes, but you don’t need to capture a black hole, not when you’re one of us,” Leona says.

“I’m sorry, I don’t follow.”

“Temporal energy,” Leona explains. “It’s what powers the Novus Metro in the Fourth Quadrant. At least, it did at one point. Time moves at a different speed as the main sequence, so they steal the energy that the discrepancy releases, like static from your socks on the carpet. We can use that, instead of half-assing the construction of antimatter plants, just to get them completed in time.”

“Are you feeling okay?” Aldona questions. “You look—forgive me—exhausted.”

She is exhausted, but there is nothing she can do to change that. Too many people are involved; she can’t just do whatever she wants. She’s never been responsible for an entire world. All those people, and more, are relying on her to make this happen. “That’s not the point, I’m not making this up. Let me speak to someone in Novus Metro.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but this goes beyond my understanding. What would you even call something like that?”

“I believe they ended up going with temporal dynamo.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 2, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

Angela is asleep again. Marie and Dr. Farlind woke her up for a few minutes to update her on the current situation, but she had to go back down so she won’t unintentionally purge the immortality water from her system. It’s been about a half hour, and they’re miles and miles and miles away from Earth now. Even so, the computer beeps.

“What is that?” Dr. Farlind asks.

Marie tilts her head at the screen. “It’s another ship. It just disappeared. It’s back again. It disappeared again.”

“Someone’s come after her. How long has it been on Earth?”

“Two weeks,” she answers. They’re about to be boarded. Marie goes over to the food synthesizer, opens the cabinet, and starts to pull the nutrient cartridges out. In the back are various parts. Half of the grip, the other half, barrel, trigger, magazine. In seconds, she expertly assembles them into a gun. She’s finished and aiming at the dark figure who has transported into the ship, and would have been able to shoot if Mateo had not been the one to step into the light. “Oh my God, I nearly killed you.”

“Wouldn’t have been the first time,” Mateo says nonchalantly. He looks around. “Room for three more?”

“Three who?”

“The McIver boys, plus another.”

“If need be, yeah, but who is this other?”

“It’s a newcomer. Name’s Cedar. I don’t know his last name. He’s good people. Constance is after him too. He can’t tell us why. We’ve accepted as much.”

Marie looks at the camera feed showing Angela sleeping in her grave chamber.

“Where’d you get the gun?” Mateo asks.

“Never mind that,” she replies. She tucks it into the back of her pants. “Bring ‘em on board. Then, unless you’re staying, you better get going. You’ve been here for almost an entire day already.”

“I know.” He holds up a portable drive. “This is the updated AI system.” He looks between the two of them. “One of you, or the other, can come back. This ship no longer requires human monitoring. It knows where to go, and how to get there.”

“I’m not leaving my patient,” Dr. Farlind says.

“I’m not leaving my sister,” Marie echoes the sentiment.

“Very well. You still need to upload this. It comes up with a full update on our lives since you’ve been gone. Not only does it tell you what we’ve been through, but you can ask the avatar for clarification. You can also ask it the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, or how many dimples are on a golf ball.”

“Three hundred and thirty-six,” Dr. Farlind answers proudly.

“Well. I guess you don’t need the AI then,” Mateo jokes.

He jumps back to the Bridgette when it pings again. It’s not traveling at relativistic speeds, since it’s not a ship. It has to teleport within range, and then Mateo can reach it. He returns with Carlin and Moray, then makes a second trip for the last passenger. “Marie and Dr. Farlind, allow me to introduce you to...Cedar.”

“We’ve met.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 1, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

They may not be individually modular, but the Mangrove rockets can dock with each other. They can, in fact, do so in eight places. They’re cylindrical, of course, but a walkway can extend from all four sides, around the center of the cargo bay, and also at the top, near the bridge. They could theoretically be linked together into one megaship grid of infinite numbers. It would become harder to maneuver with each additional vessel, but the option is there. For now, only two of the rockets are in space, and only those two need to link up. At the moment, the remaining members of Team Matic are having a meeting with Aldona. Her helmsman is running the bridge, while the boys are occupying themselves with playing cards in another room.

“I know I said this yesterday,” Aldona begins, “but I want to reiterate my gratitude for what you all did for my nephew. Mateo, you promised to keep him a secret, and you kept that promise. Leona, you went above and beyond to prevent that monster from breaching the airlock. I can’t thank you enough.”

Leona stops gazing out the window. They’re orbiting the moon again. “Thank you for coming for us,” she reiterates her own words from yesterday.

Aldona pauses to gather herself. “I’m not happy with what you did, but looking back, I could have handled the situation better. We’ve met before, and I know you fairly well by reputation. What happened happened, and could not have happened any other way. You’re trying to find your friend with the same vigor and commitment as I exhibit when it comes to Cedar’s safety. If you were me, and I were you, I imagine I would have reacted the same. That being said, I am here to help bolster the defenses for this reality’s version of Earth. I am not a president, nor a prime minister, nor a king. They have given me everything I’ve asked for thus far, but that is because I’m giving them more than they knew they needed. Asking them to authorize a satellite—or satellite array, or whatehaveyou—which violates just about every constitution on the map would be unwise. It would not go over well, regardless of why you’re asking.

“That being said, I understand the need for this, so I am prepared to go against my oversight, and let you do it anyway. I can’t technically give you permission, but I can look the other way...as long as no one reveals the truth regarding my involvement.”

They all three shake their heads.

Aldona nods. “Unfortunately, that may not be enough, so I’ll ask you for your patience. Allow me to launch the first wave of defense satellites first, so my clients can hardly argue against my value to the program. They need to see tangible results first.”

“How much time?” Leona presses.

“Three weeks,” Aldona answers.

“We can’t wait to look for Alyssa for three weeks,” Ramses argues.

Aldona shuts her eyes, knowing that she would get pushback for this. “Not to speak ill of your friend, but I think we all know that she is not on this world. She would have most likely reached out sooner, correct?”

“Maybe she was sent to a prison, or something,” Mateo reasons.

“Maybe,” Aldona agrees. “But you don’t really think that’s a likely explanation, do you? Not in our line of work.”

She’s right, it’s not a good explanation. If you want to hide someone from a group of fiercely loyal teleporters, the last thing you want to do is take her anywhere in the present day. The best thing to do is use time travel, perhaps even to prehistoric times; a practice known as zoicization. She could also be in the future. Or another reality, or an old timeline, or another universe. The possibilities are literally endless, and very few ideas would be too far-fetched to consider. “We have to try,” Mateo insists.

“We can help speed up your interim deadlines,” Ramses offers.

“You’ll be doing no such thing. I need you up here,” Aldona counters.

“Up here for what?” Ramses questions.

“For Cedar. I need someone to protect him. Space is still our best option. Obviously I didn’t work hard enough to conceal him, but he doesn’t have the skills necessary to stay on the move. That’s what I need you for. I don’t trust anyone else. Well, except maybe for Mateo and Leona, but I need her with me.” She doesn’t bother to explain why Mateo is an inadequate choice.

Still, he may not be completely useless. “What about the AOC?”

“It’s gone,” Ramses says. “I don’t have any other saved copies.”

“We could always catch up to it,” Mateo reasons. “I assume they’re already too far for me to teleport there on my own, but I can do it in the Bridgette instead. I know enough about how to use that thing.”

“They’re almost 3,000 astronomical units away by now,” Leona tells him. “So yes, you would need a vehicle to survive. You wouldn’t want to spend too much time there. Assuming you can cross the distance, and hit the bullseye, if you stay on board the AOC for a couple of minutes, it’s a whole day for us.”

“That’s not so bad,” Mateo determines. He faces Aldona. “Is that safe enough? He’s not untouchable, because what we’re talking about is reaching the ship, even though it’s going at relativistic speeds, but it’s not going to be easy, and we already know where they’re headed. Constance would not know as much.”

“Who else is there?” Aldona asks.

“Marie, Angela, and Angela’s doctor.”

“He seems to be getting along with the McIver boys, even though they’re much younger. He hasn’t had much experience with friends. His life has been....tough.”

Ramses and Leona exchange looks. “They should probably go back into relativity anyway, now that this new looming threat has replaced the old one. They only came out of it due to unforeseen circumstances, which are not present with this second trip.”

Aldona gives it some serious thought. “I don’t know. I don’t like the idea of him being that far from me, and it being virtually impossible to communicate with him.”

Cedar scurries into the room, Carlin and Moray in tow. “Please, I would like to go. If I can’t stay on Earth, at least let me be with my friends.”

“It is equipped with six grave chambers,” Mateo mentions.

“I don’t like that you call them that,” Aldona says.

“They’re fun to sleep in,” Moray says excitedly.

“I assure you that Marie is more than capable of protecting them,” Ramses says. “I really should stay here; for Alyssa, for the threats, for everything.”

Aldona gives it more serious thought. She looks into Cedar’s eyes. “Okay, but only if you navigate the transformer,” she says to Ramses. “Mateo can go too, if he wants. I may consider shortening the amount of time you’ll have to wait to deploy the satellite, but it’s not gonna be tomorrow. So take your time, and do it right, please.”

“Thanks.” Cedar gives her a hug.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 31, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

There should be no one on the moon but the three of them. How the man outside is surviving the vacuum of space is a nonissue. Leona can think of a number of ways for him to accomplish such a feat. The problem is that there is nothing out here. They scanned the entire surface several times while they were still in orbit. They found no structures, no power signatures, no nothin’. They’ve also not detected any new arrivals since they’ve come. Best guess, he’s an android who lay dormant in a hole somewhere, and woke up when Mangrove Zero showed up. That wouldn’t explain who he is, or exactly what he wants, but either he’s crazy, and he thinks he’s asking someone who isn’t here, or Cedar is a thing that Leona should know. Here for Cedar. What does that mean? Is it a band? A place? A tree? Does he think Cedar is on this ship, or is Cedar the person who asked him to come here, and he is the one who actually wants something?

Regardless of what’s going on here, the guy is a creepy moonwalker, so no way in hell is he getting in. She’ll fight him to the death to protect the children. She’s chosen not to say anything to Mateo and Ramses, as they have enough on their minds, and their mission is more important than ever. If this is a sign of a conspiracy, their leechcraft array could be the thing that saves them. Instead, she has tried to contact Aldona, who is not answering. One would think she would want to keep apprised of the situation up here, but who knows what she’s dealing with at the moment?

Leona checked on the boys once to make sure they were okay, but has not returned to reclamation since. She has to stay out here, so she can keep an eye on the would-be intruder, and look out for any accomplices. He or they may just be waiting for enough alone time to break through. Aldona built this thing to be a stronghold, but it is not impenetrable. Nothing is impenetrable. If brute force isn’t working, you’re just not using enough of it. It’s been a day, and this is all she’s been doing. They have spent the last hour literally staring at each other through a viewport, as if in a contest. If he really is an android, there’s no reason for him to blink. She’s all right for now, but she’s no longer wearing the upgraded body that Ramses built for her, so she’s going to need to sleep at some point. That’s most likely what he’s waiting for.

Carlin comes up to her.

“I told you to stay put,” Leona scolds.

“Can he hear us?”

Leona glares at the stranger. “Possibly.” He can probably read lips, and he may be able to eavesdrop in more creative ways, like measuring vibrations, or even reading minds. Though, if it’s that second one, there’s nothing they can do to stop it anyway.

“Let’s go somewhere where he can’t.”

“I have to keep an eye on him.”

“Use the cameras. We have to talk.”

Leona exhales through her nose, then leads Carlin to the nearest bathroom, which is away from any exterior wall, but close enough to get back on the defensive if need be. “What is it?”

“We met someone.”

“What do you mean, you met someone?”

“His name is Cedar. He’s in a secret room behind the place where Moray and I were sleeping on the floor. He let us in.”

Now everything makes more sense. Mateo must have found out about him when he first came here, and he was trying to protect him by not saying anything. He hopefully didn’t know about this stranger, though, or it would have been irresponsible to leave, and leave her in the dark. “I see. Is he nice?”

“Yeah, he’s very nice. He’s Aldona’s nephew.”

“I see,” she repeats.

“What do we do?”

Leona looks at the camera feed on her handheld device. The stranger is still where he was when they left, staring into that viewport. Maybe he’s on standby mode. Goddamn, if Leona only had her real body, she would just teleport him to the South Pole, and build a new propulsion system with the nanites, scheduled to be completed before he had the time to get back. “If he’s Aldona’s nephew, he must have a way to contact her.”

“He did. She told him to stay inside, and go radio silent,” Carlin explains. “That’s literally all she said apparently.”

“Yeah, that thing out there might be able to intercept the signal.” She looks away to think. “Go back and follow those directions. Stay there, and stay radio silent.”

“What are you gonna do?” he asks.

“I’m gonna try to talk to him,” she replies.

“Is that safe?”

“Nope.”

Carlin goes back to reclamation, and Leona heads for the airlock. The stranger is still standing on the other side of the building, biding his time, no doubt. She puts her vacuum suit back on, and prepares to exit. She grabs the golf club at the last second for a modicum of protection. She seals the hatch with a code known only to her, then walks around to meet the man. She stands to the side of him for a while, waiting for him to react in any way. When he finally does, he acts like he’s just realized that she was there. He really was in standby mode, wasn’t he? She taps her helmet where her ear would be if the helmet were her head. Then she points to herself, and then to him with an inquisitive face. “Can you hear me?” she asks at the same time.

He taps his thumb with his index and middle finger at her. He then holds his head out, palm forward and down, and slowly moves towards her helmet. He’s sporting an inquisitive face too. He seems to be asking whether he can touch her helmet.

She cautiously makes a fist, and taps the air twice to indicate a yes.

He raises his hand up, and places it upon her helmet. “I can hear you now,” he says. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes.” He’s sending intelligible vibrations down his arm, and then into her helmet space, which is atmospheric, and can propagate sound, unlike the space outside. “Are you an android?”

He tilts his head. “I’m using an android body. Saying that I am an android is a bit...how do I put this? Opprobrious.”

Opprobrious. What a douche.

He may or may not be reacting to her thoughts.

If you don’t remove your hand from my helmet, I’m going to rip both of your arms off, and set you on fire, she thinks.

No reaction. So either he can’t read her thoughts, or he’s pretending not to.

“State your business.”

“I’ve told you. I’m here for Cedar.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Say I did. Why should I help you?”

“Because I’ll kill your sons in front of you if you don’t.”

Hmm. If he thinks that Carlin and Moray are her sons, then he doesn’t know who she is. That’s good. “What do you want with this Cedar?”

“That’s not your problem.”

“You threatened my kids. It is indeed my problem.”

“That’s only if you don’t comply.”

“Doesn’t matter. You’ve said it, which means you’ve established yourself as an enemy. I don’t like having enemies. I always get rid of them.”

“How do you usually do that?”

“If they refuse to become my friend, I either kill them...or I erase their entire existence, past and future.” She’s not lying.

“You’re more than someone who was simply hired to protect the boy.”

“What has the boy done that makes you hate him so?”

“It’s not what he’s done. It’s what he will do.”

“This reality has no time travel. You can’t know the future.”

“We obviously both know that it’s more complicated than that.”

“What is your issue? What does he do? Why shouldn’t he do it?”

He looks away for a second, seemingly not wanting to clarify. “This is not what I intended when I founded Operation Free Will. This universe is too messy now. These parallel realities, and these people who are capable of reaching backwards to collapsed timelines; they’re too much. I was just trying to give people choice. I didn’t know that the elite few would use their choices to control everyone else. That is not free will.”

“What is Operation Free Will?” She doesn’t get the chance to hear the response. Something behind Leona catches his eye. She turns around to see what it is. An object is falling towards them rapidly from space. It’s this close to them when she realizes that it’s a missile. It’s heading for them; not the rocket, but the two of them, specifically. It’s very precise. At the last millisecond, she feels a pair of arms wrap around her shoulders, and spirit her away.

She’s in the hallway now of the flightworthy part of the rocket, looking into the control room. Ramses is at the radio. “Mangrove One, this is Mangrove Zero. All lives accounted for. I repeat, all of our people have been rescued.”

“Thank you, Mangrove Zero,” Aldona’s voice replies.

Leona turns around to find her husband. “Cut it a little close, don’t you think?”

“You were unwittingly distracting him,” Mateo replies.

“Who is he? Or was he, rather?”

He sighs. Aldona didn’t say much when we asked for help, but he is a bit of an inaccurate pronoun. It’s more of an it. There’s more than one parallel reality, which means there’s more than one Constant...”

Leona nods, finally getting it. “Which means there’s more than one version of Constance. Constance!Five was just the beginning.”

“We were so wrong. The AI doesn’t work for Danica. Danica works for the AI. This is who Tamerlane kept calling the boss.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: January 30, 2399

« < » > Table of Contents

Aldona has apparently never heard of the principle of SCR&M, because she didn’t design this rocket to be modular. It’s one giant tube, with living spaces at the top, cargo in the middle, and propulsion at the bottom. It’s a good thing that the first two aren’t switched, because while it’s not modular, it is compartmentalized. With a little bit of effort, they were able to pull it apart to leave one section on the moon, while the rest flew away, using the auxiliary control room as now the only control room.

Ramses and Mateo are heading back towards Earth to deploy their supersecret array of leechcraft. They’ll enter a high orbit, and launch the little leeches as they pass by other objects. Once those are dispersed, they’ll drop down to a lower orbit for another round. They’ll keep doing that until every sufficiently sized object up there has a little piece of hardware on it that Team Matic controls. Is this ethical? One hundred percent no. Is it morally right? Absolutely yes. Aldona and the world leaders are primarily concerned with external enemies, like the other parallel realities, but they know that there are plenty of domestic hostile forces to worry about. That’s what these technologies do. Like Ramses said before, this is more than just a temporal error detector. The software will map the behavioral patterns of everyone in the world, synthesize the data, and model the threats.

No specific individual is going to be targeted through this system. The artificial intelligence that Ramses curated himself will only ever output locational concerns, not people or groups. The AI is not based on the Constance program. The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez already had its own intelligence, which became dormant when Constance was uploaded for consistency, but Ramses still has a copy of it, so there is no concern of an uprising, like they have on their hands with Constance!Five. That’s something that Aldona doesn’t even know about, which puts civilization at more risk than just aliens from other dimensions. It’s why they’re doing this. Ramses’ little assistant, Mateo is certain that people will thank them for this one day.

While all of this is going on, Leona will be on the moon with the boys. She’s not being sidelined, though. There’s plenty of work to be done here. The far side of the moon is a perfect place to install a vanguard extrasolar incursion detection system. There are others, like the Lagrange points, but it has to start somewhere. The orbital defense grid will protect Earth, but it works best with forewarning. The small container of nanites that they came here with has grown extraordinarily in just a few days. Until now, all they have been doing is replicating themselves using lunar material. Now it’s time to build some stuff. Half will be sent with Ramses to turn into leechcraft during the deliberately slow journey. The rest are for Leona’s special projects.

She’s going to expand what little infrastructure is here now into a full-fledged lunar base. Hundreds of people will be able to move in by the end of next month, and thousands by the start of this future war. This time next year, it could potentially be considered the center of a colony of millions. That’s a long way off, if ever. For now she just needs to focus on making sure she and the kids don’t die in the vacuum of space. That doesn’t mean they can’t have a little fun at the same time, though.

Little Moray’s face is pressed against the glass, watching the nanites work their magic. The shaft is done, and the head is nearly there. “What is it?”

“You’ve never seen one of these before?” Leona twirls the finished one.

“No.”

“You don’t have golf on your world?”

“Never heard of it.”

“Oh, I think you’ll like it. Go get your brother, and meet me in the airlock. I’ll show you how to use them.”

Moray runs off to grab Carlin. When they get to the airlock, Leona helps them into their custom-made vacuum suits, then gets into her own. Then they go out for a walk. “Four hundred and twenty-eight years ago tomorrow—in the main sequence—a man by the name of Alan Shepard landed on the moon. He was there to collect moon rocks, and do a bunch of science stuff, but he secretly smuggled one of these bad boys with him.” She holds up Carlin’s club. “He also had a couple of these.” She pulls several balls out of her bag, and drops them onto the lunar regolith.

“I assume you’re supposed to hit the balls with the sticks?” Carlin figures.

“Clubs, and yes,” Leona confirms.

“Farthest one wins?” Moray asks.

“Well, in regular golf, you would want to aim for a tiny little hole that’s hundreds of meters away. It’s never just a straight shot, and they put all kinds of hazards between you and the hole, like water and sand traps. I don’t have time to build all that, so yeah, farthest hit wins.”

“How far did Alan Shepard hit it?” Carlin asks.

“About thirty-seven meters, but his suit was extremely cumbersome, and he could only hit it with one hand.”

“How are you supposed to hit it?” Carlin presses.

“I’ve never played. So let’s watch a video.” She taps on her wrist device, and releases a hologram for them all to watch. It’s a tutorial from some famous golf player that was being stored in the AOC’s databank of main sequence knowledge.”

They had to modify their grip, because even though these suits are a lot more streamlined than the early Apollo missions ever could have dreamed of, they still weren’t designed for extreme dexterity. Even so, they were able to make it work. To no one’s surprise, Carlin was the best at it. He barely tried, and he hit it as far as an experienced player would, though maybe without too much accuracy. Given more time and practice, he could play it for real. They evidently have to get through this war first. Once all of the balls are gone, they head back for the base. Perhaps she’ll build a rover on her downtime that can go retrieve the balls later for another competition.

That night, the three of them are trying to eat their freeze-dried dinner when they hear a banging coming from down the hallway. “Do you remember when I showed you reclamation?” Leona asks.

“Yes,” the boys reply in sync.

“Go there, and find somewhere to hide,” she instructions. After they run off, Leona heads in the direction of the banging, holding the longer club. They come in a pattern, suggesting an intelligence behind them. The exterior security cameras aren’t showing anything, but there’s a blindspot right against the hatch to the airlock. She steps inside, and peeks out the viewport to find a man. He’s not wearing a suit, and is casually tossing one of the golf balls into the...moon air. “Can I help you?” Leona asks.

He nods, and slaps his free hand against the viewport. Written on his palm in black marker reads HERE FOR CEDAR.