Putting their heads together, Leona and Ramses were able to fix the issue
with the quintessence consolidator. The second test missile they deployed
was no different than the first. It was just as intelligent and adaptive as
the first, but it failed to penetrate the thick layer of dark matter that
was now protecting Stoutverse. After a third test, they piloted the Waycar
back through the barrier. The skeleton key allowed them to pass through,
which satisfied both of their goals for this mission. They were now done
with this brane, and could leave it behind to return to Salmonverse.
It wasn’t very far away, hyperdimensionally speaking, though calculating an
entry point close to their exact destination was a different matter.
Fortunately, they had Aclima on their side. She understood Maramon
technology better than most due to the fact that she was genetically
engineered for it, instead of just being born as a normal person. They broke
through the membrane, and found themselves in cislunar space, almost running
into a shuttle that was parked at the apparent Lagrange point one. After the
near-miss, they entered a high orbit, and began to scan the surface. Before
they had surveyed the whole thing, a voice made contact with them, and sent
them the coordinates for a landing site. Cassius ordered the pilot to make
the landing, and told her that she was in charge until he got back. He and
Team Matic then exited the ship, and approached the Welcoming Committee.
“My name is Sentry Cassius Hoffman of the Interversal Defensive Ship Waycar,
name subject to change. Are we on Verdemus?”
A man broke free from the line of locals. “This is indeed Verdemus. I’m
Alpha Leif Merchant. This is Beta Uaiya Merchant. Yes, we’re married. No,
there’s nothing in the Charter that says we can’t be.”
“Wasn’t gonna ask,” Cassius said.
Leona stepped forward. “I’m Captain Leona Matic of the Stateless Private
Vessel Vellani Ambassador. Apologies for cutting the introductions short,
but we came here on a mission of grave temporal importance. We’re searching
for something called timonite, and have reason to believe that it’s here.
From our perspective, we have already succeeded in procuring a piece. We
need to close the loop.”
The Alpha and the Beta exchanged a look. “We know what you’re talking about,
and we know where you may find it. Our ancestors accidentally created it,
and the garden on top of it, over a century ago.”
“We’ll show you,” Uaiya said, “but you must promise to follow all of our
rules and customs. You cannot merely take the timonite. It must be earned.”
“We agree,” Leona promised. “Sentry, why don’t you...go back to the ship?”
“That won’t be necessary,” Cassius argued.
“We appreciate the ride,” Leona told him. “You may go on to fulfill your
mandate to the bulkverse. Thank you.”
“You can’t make me leave,” Cassius contended.
“But we can,” Leif said. “We study the Ambassador and Team Matic in school
here. I don’t even know you.”
“You’re welcome,” Cassius said to Leona with an attitude. Everyone else was
on Leona’s side but they all recognized that Cassius was an okay guy, and
that he wasn’t the enemy. He just kind of rubbed people the wrong way, and
he kind of did it immediately.
“Aclima, you’re not going back?”
“I will later,” Aclima replied. “He’s obviously not leaving yet. He knows
that you’ll be gone at the end of the day, so he’ll have plenty of time to
make his exit.”
Leona nodded in agreement. “Tell us about this garden,” she politely
requested of Leif. “Was it man-made?”
“Yes, in the middle of the largest desert on the planet,” Leif started to
say.
“Won’t be a problem for us,” Future!Mateo assured him.
“It will,” Leif insisted. “We asked you to follow our rules, and our rules
say that you cannot teleport there, or even take a vehicle.”
“How do you get there then?” Past!Mateo asked.
“You walk.”
“How far is it?”
“Roughly 6,000 kilometers.
“That’s impossible,” Olimpia figured.
“It’s not. It just takes a long time,” Uaiya countered. “We call it the
Pilgrimage. You may not enter Ferdiz unless you walk there from the desert
border. To take any shortcut would be incredibly offensive to us, and more
so to the ones who did it.”
“I see,” Leona said.
“No. But you can.” He offered her his hand as Uaiya offered hers to
Future!Mateo.
All four of them teleported away to be followed by the rest of the team,
including Aclima and Carlin. They were standing on the ridge of a mountain.
Below them, in the center of the desolate basin, sat a lush patch of fertile
ground. It looked so out of place from up here; a paradise surrounded by
desert, like an artist’s interpretation of the Garden of Eden. If they
didn’t know better, though, they could believe it was natural. This was a
reasonable spot to expect an oasis to form. Between them and the garden, they
could also see an ant-sized person making their way towards it. They were
moving very slowly before falling to their knees, and then to their face.
Angela lurched.
“No,” Leif urged her. “He is close enough to Ferdiz. Others will come for
him. He will just not have quite made it all the way. But it is not up to us
to help.”
“I thought we couldn’t teleport here at all,” Ramses reminded him.
“Just to show you,” Leif explained, “it’s fine. But if you want that
timonite, you have to make the Pilgrimage, following the rules literally
every step of the way, and you have to hope the other Pilgrims let you take
it. They do not fall under our jurisdiction, so I can promise you nothing.”
“How many people take the Pilgrimage per year?” Marie asked. “How many die?”
“These days, maybe fifty people attempt it? I couldn’t tell you how many
die. Taking the first step breaks you free from your duties to society, and
also its protections. We don’t retrieve the bodies, and we don’t communicate
with Ferdiz.”
“So it could be a deathtrap?” Future!Mateo suggested. “A group of cannibals
could be living there, waiting for their weekly meal?”
Leif fell into a very soft smile, and waited to respond as he turned his
head to look at Future!Mateo. “Yes. They could be. There are currently
around 60,000 people in the world, and there’s a reason we don’t all try
it.”
“No one comes back?” Leona asked.
“I believe some have, over the years, and they’ve been welcomed. But they
stay quiet, and if their experiences were recorded, I’m not cognizant of the
details. Like I said, I’m only the current Alpha; not an expert in this.
You’ll have to speak with the right scholars for more information.”
“This planet was populated by Extremusians. Did they abandon their mission?”
Olimpia pressed.
“No.” Leif took a breath, and admired the view one last time. We’re all
clones, or descended from the clones.” He turned away. “Stay as long as you
like, but don’t take one step closer, or you’ll be killed. That much I do
know about them.” Leif and Uaiya took each other by the hand, and
disappeared.
“How are we going to do this?” Future!Mateo asked. “I don’t know how long it
takes to walk 6,000 kilometers, but I know it’s longer than a day.”
Leona nodded. “Yeah, it could take 200 years of realtime, depending on the
terrain, and the fitness level of the Pilgrim.”
“I could go,” Aclima volunteered.
“As could I,” Carlin piped up. “Neither of us is on your pattern.”
“I’m also superhuman,” Aclima added, trying to distance herself from Carlin,
even physically. “So it should be me.”
“I don’t think there’s a maximum, since the Alpha couldn’t even give us an
exact number of Pilgrims, and he didn’t say you had to go alone. But
anyway,” Leona continued, shaking her head, “we can’t ask you to do that.
It’s not your problem.”
“It’s mine,” Past!Mateo said. “It’s mine, and mine alone.”
“If you die, it’ll create a paradox,” Future!Mateo argued with himself. “And
anyway, you’re on the pattern, just like the rest of us.”
“We need more information,” Olimpia determined. “We need the entire set of
rules. What can you take with you, what can’t you? Is there a dress code?”
Leona noticed that Angela was still staring at the fallen Pilgrim. “Angie.
This is their way. Whoever that is, he knew the risks, I’m sure of it.”
“There’s nothing to eat or drink around here!” Angela cried. “How does
anyone survive this, without an IMS, or anything?”
“We’ve seen very little of the route,” Leona answered calmly.
“Well, Pia’s right,” Angela responded. “I have more questions.” She
teleported back to the landing site. Everyone else followed.
They sat down with the Alpha, Beta, and the Gamma in the Delegation Hall of
the Ambassador. They didn’t only discuss the Pilgrimage. There was a reason
for their leadership titles, and it had nothing to do with alpha-male
mentality. Omega Strong was a clone of Saxon Parker. He gave himself that
name after the number that he was assigned left him with a mental complex.
He abandoned his calling, and struck out on his own, eventually winding up
on the transgalactic ship known as the Extremus. To remedy his regrets, he
cloned himself more than a hundred years ago to build an army to fight
against the Exin Empire. This planet was located relatively close to the
Goldilocks Corridor, though it was not considered part of it. The
Extremusians choosing it as an outpost placed the two factions more at odds
than they already were.
Some of the clones rejected their responsibilities, which should have come
as no surprise, since they were all created from the original, defiant
Omega. They weren’t exact copies at any rate. Each one was actually based on
the one prior, and genetically altered ever so slightly each time, always
drifting further and further away in every respect. It was for this reason
that the clones who chose to dig in on Verdemus instead of going to war had
felt comfortable procreating with each other, even though they all
technically had the same progenitor. There were anti-incest laws, though. It
was illegal to form any sort of romantic bond with someone within one
thousand degrees of separation. As it turned out, Leif and Uaiya were
exactly a thousand degrees apart, which was why they were so defensive about
their relationship. Different people had different ideas on what was
considered acceptable, and many felt that even this amount of genetic drift
was too close. Over time, as the population aged, these restrictions would
probably relax, especially since the descendants made it more difficult to
make the calculation in the first place, but for now, it was a topic of
intense debate.
As for the Pilgrimage, they were right that they didn’t have all the rules.
Whoever went could not go with an IMS, nor any electronic, or temporal
advantage. They were allowed minimal supplies, including shelter, limited
clothing, a knife, rope, a fire-starting kit, and initial rations. They
obviously had to carry all of this on their backs, though Leona guessed
correctly that they could travel in a group. Aclima was clearly the perfect
candidate for this since survival was so much easier for her, and the
Merchants didn’t see any issues with it. The rules didn’t say anything about
what species you had to be. For Carlin, the more they talked about it, the
more excited he became. This would be a personal journey for him—as it was
meant to be when it was first designed—but he could not articulate his exact
reasons. Regardless, there was nothing they could do to stop him. But
Past!Mateo was very perturbed. People had already done so much to help him,
and he felt like a helpless baby bird. He had to do something too.
“We can help with that as well,” Uaiya claimed. She stood up and disappeared
briefly, returning with what reminded some of them of an ankle monitor.
“This fits around your ankle. It has a little bit of the timonite you seek,
though my guess is that it’s not enough for you to just take. It doesn’t
suppress all forms of temporal manipulation, but it does tie you to
realtime. It should stop you from jumping to the future. It will use the
timonite up, though, just as it would any other power source. And if I’m
being honest, if that happens in the middle of the year, it might throw you
back on your regular pattern instantly. I don’t know enough about how salmon
work.”
Past!Mateo smiled, and graciously accepted the gift. “That settles it, I’m
going. It doesn’t matter if anyone else does.”
“You don’t need to be alone,” Aclima said to him, patting him on the back.
“I’ll be doing this for myself as much as for you,” Carlin promised.
“Are you two sure?” Past!Mateo looked to Leif for guidance. “I don’t think
there’s any going back.”
“It’s true,” Leif began, “when you begin the Pilgrimage, you forfeit your
rights. But...you’re not citizens, you’re visitors, so it’s a bit of a gray
area.”
Past!Mateo looked at his friends. “If we can’t wear our suits, then we need
time to prepare. You won’t be able to see us off.”
“That’s okay,” Leona “We’ll say our goodbyes now.” She leaned in, and
planted a passionate kiss on his lips.
“Hey, that’s my wife,” Future!Mateo joked. It was strange to see it, but he
was fine. It had been a long time since his past self had seen his own
version of her.
“That ankle thing,” Ramses said as he was eyeing it. “Do you happen to have
another one of those?”
“Do you wanna go on the journey too?” Marie asked, confused.
“No. But I think someone should stay and keep an eye on the Sentry.”
