ODD

WORLD

crystalspiegelmacher@gmail.com

1) Termagantia

Precognition

It is night, but the landscape is bathed in a pale turquoise light, reflected from the ice blue planetary ring arcing across the sky above. High atop a soaring castle tower, Termagantia sits, mediating. Below her sprawls the tortured civilization she built and rules.

Termagantia can see all the possible futures, and she has found it advantageous to study their coalescence. She is looking particularly far, when suddenly she foresees something new. As the vision takes shape, she begins to feel exhilarated. This could be the piece of technology she was looking for.

Being the Queen of Odd World has been satisfying, but Termagantia's lust for supremacy is unquenchable. She has toiled relentlessly, for as long as she can remember, to enhance her already formidable powers, and made numerous independent advancements. She is undoubtedly the most powerful sorceress she knows of. Nevertheless, there is one vexing problem she has yet to solve, and it is all that is holding her back.

“Brilliant,” she whispers to herself. “These clever people have exactly what I need, and they are coming for a visit. I must prepare to greet them.” She smiles and begins to laugh a tittering cackle. Her laughter progressively builds, rising ominously to a fulminatory crescendo that echoes a supernatural malediction across her entire land.

Laboratory

She rises, and with deliberate purpose, quickly descends the long spiral staircase to the main hall of her laboratory far below. It is a cavernous stone room, surrounded by high shelves full of strange relics, bizarre instruments, and thousands of ancient books.

In the middle of the room, commanding its open space like an opulent centerpiece, rises a fantastic towering apparatus, her uncompleted Existence Interconnector. The steward of her lab is working on the diabolical machine when she enters and announces, “Quandro, I have wonderful news.”

“Yes, my Sorceress? What have you divined with your clairvoyance?” he asks obsequiously.

“I have seen it, Quandro. I have seen a functioning Possibility Amalgamator. I told you they were feasible.”

“Yes, you are enlightened, my Sorceress,” placates Quandro, who always believed a Possibility Amalgamator was feasible as well.

Termagantia continues delivering the favorable premonition. “Some very resourceful creatures have managed to create one, and I have foreseen that they are going to use it to come here.”

“My Sorceress, if they could use it to come here, and we could obtain it from them, perhaps we could decipher how it works. Then we would have the final piece to complete the Existence Interconnector!”

Megalomania

“Yes,” she replies, staring off contemplatively. Her voice falls in pitch and begins to reverberate ethereally. “I have been waiting a long time for this, Quandro.” The brightness of the whole laboratory slowly dims. “Soon I will be able to invade the disconnected worlds, and my dominion will grow unbounded.”

A glowing aquamarine aura begins to surround Termagantia. Serpentine runners of fluorescent aqua photasmance reach out from her luminous envelope like weightless tentacles. She grins maniacally as she uses her telekinetic power to swing open two large wooden doors leading to her Black Magic chamber.

“I shall conquer every world in the Hypercosmos that I desire,” she says in an resonating baritone. A large metal chair slides from the darkness through the open doorway. Restrained in the chair is an unconscious, robust humanoid creature with reptile-like features. Leather straps immobilize his arms and legs, and behind the chair, a spiked clamp grips the creature’s thick, muscular tail, which extends through an opening in the chair's back.

“Thousands of civilizations will receive the honor of meeting their new omnipotent deity.” Her eyes start to glow as the pull of gravity fades underneath her, and she begins to slowly rise upward. She reaches out her arms, guiding her energy like a luminous stream towards the subject, forming a spectral envelope around him which snaps into a perfectly spherical orb.

The doomed creature jolts awake. He has complete heterochromia, one of his eyes a natural yellow dappled brown, the other a slate gray. A foreboding dread begins to forcefully penetrate his psyche, and he becomes insanely terrified.

Termagantia's eyes grow wide as she tilts her head back. “They will all surrender their will to mine.” With a sudden lurching thrust, she casts a focused surge of her power into the subject. His heightened consciousness is wracked with an incomprehensible feeling of horror.

Creation Of A Slave

Quandro watches as the subject struggles with all his might against the restraints. Termagantia is turning him into a slave mercenary. She has gathered advanced knowledge about the microscopic information stored inside the constituent corpuscles of all living beings, and conjured a grisly spell to utilize it for her own purposes.

Inside every creature lies the self invoking design of it's own creation, stored within the very bodies it composed. It is this lifespring which, when stimulated naturally, equips beings with the power to heal and reproduce.

Termagantia has learned to corrupt, defile, and destructively harness it unnaturally, to manufacture synthesized monsters to fill the ranks of her army of pitiless, obedient barbarians. This particularly masculine specimen was chosen to become part of her hand crafted, specially trained squad of mounted infantry dragoons.

As her energy permeates the network of biological systems in the victim's body, it seeks out and stimulates special prototypical corpuscles in the core of his anatomy. It incites a cascading reaction inside the creature, sowing the seeds of an entirely new parasitic mutated clone inside the living sacrificial host.

Inside the victim’s bones, new bones begin to nucleate. Inside his nervous system, a new one begins to develop. Inside the doomed beings mind, a new, impartial, and susceptible mind forms. As the new organs receive energy from Termagantia, the metamorphosing pupal being begins to forcefully displace it's host's encasing chrysalis.

The victim yowls in misery as the evil twin inside it begins to take shape. Every fiber of its nervous system transmits signals of pain as it is entirely ripped apart from within, condemning it to a state of supreme agony. It's body quivers and convulses with sporadic fits as the smaller bones begin to splinter and explode. Blood and interstitial fluids begin to drizzle from its eyes, mouth, and ears as the monster inside grows, shoving it's progenitor aside.

Sharing Is Caring

As Termagantia tortures her victim to death, the subjects of her domain sleep. She casts a spell every evening and puts all those unfortunate enough to dwell within her grasp into a sleep-like trance so she can engage in her nocturnal laboratory work, and meditate, in peace.

“Now, I will share your pain with everyone!” Termagantia has not given her subjects any obedience training for some time, and she is in the mood. She floats into the helm of the partially functional Existence Interconnector, sitting in a throne and caressing a large diamond sphere.

Her energy conducts into the core of the machine, bringing to life an elaborate gimbal of nested golden hoops that loom over her. The hoops begin to glow and spin, and a second orb of energy nucleates at the center of the now furiously whirring golden gimbal, growing larger, then suddenly expanding like a shock wave, out of the castle, and across her realm.

As the wave overtakes each hypnotized inhabitant, the experiences of the victim, his hellish pain, his terror, and the dread for his tormentor, are all telepathically implanted into their subconscious minds. It is as though they were all experiencing it for themselves in grueling detail. A phantasmagoric nightmare from which they cannot awaken.

Quandro has never seen Termagantia cast this spell with so much vicious passion before. Apparently, the knowledge that her lifelong plan to expand her empire is coming to fruition has excited her deeply. He carefully observes the structural stress points of the roaring gimbal, as this is by far the most energy it has ever been asked to withstand. The entire laboratory hall is flooded in a blinding blue-green light, and the twisting ribbons of energy surrounding Termagantia nearly fill its volume.

As Termagantia's sadistic gratification reaches a climax, she is filled with a sense of power and malevolent bliss unlike any she remembers. In an inhuman voice she thunders “I shall become a Goddess.”

Termagantia's Newborn

As the victim’s entire body begins to swell and tear, it attempts to lift its arm to break free from the restraint. The flesh of the arm splits, and the new arm inside erupts and snaps the subduing strap. It lifts away from the host arm, leaving it like the tattered, limp sleeve of a discarded garment, covered in blood soaked splinters of its old radius and ulna.

As the new creature’s skull enlarges, it finds the path of least resistance, and begins to slide out of the hosts mouth, opening it beyond the former jaw and skull's breaking point. Popping with the damped sound of bone cracking under flesh, the new head extrudes through the old one, which slides over and around it like a rumpled hood.

The new dragoon emerges from the lacerated, torn asunder vessel of its host. It continues to grow, larger than its progenitor, and much more powerful. It breaks free of the restraints, and falls forward onto its hands and knees. Behind the chair, the degloved skin and flesh of the hosts tail flops to the ground like a wet stocking. The new slave is dripping with tatters of gelatinous viscera, and its torso is wrapped in a tangle of its hosts bowels.

Termagantia floats out of the Existence Interconnector, and hovers towards her neonatal dragoon. She tilts her head and smiles, stroking the precious hatchling's head, and carefully removing the bits of flesh from its face.

“Hello, my newborn lovely,” she says in a affectedly tender voice. It looks up at her, with it's heterochromatic eyes, and begins to moan ghoulishly, like a baby's crying modulated to a deep, wavering roar.

Termagantia gazes back into the monstrosity's eyes, and beguiles “I am your mother.”

2) Crystal

Her Home

“Crystal!” her stepmother screams as she bursts through the door of her tiny, cluttered bedroom. “Get the hell out of bed, you lazy ass! It's practically fucking noon!”

“Jesus, fine, I'm getting up. Just get out!” Crystal normally doesn't sleep in, even on a Saturdays, but she was having those weird dreams again, and didn't bother waking up early enough to avoid Darla. She is surprised how late it is, so she quickly throws on some jeans and a t-shirt, and takes off out the door of their single-wide manufactured home.

“Don't you stay out all night, again!” Darla hollers at Crystal as she flees. “Your dad wants you here for supper tonight!”

Crystal wished she could just live with her dad alone, she would love to eat dinner with him, but Darla just ruins it. Her dad doesn't talk much since he went on disability, and Darla pretty much thinks for him now. She wishes Darla would leave, and she could take care of her dad.

Crystal jumps on her father's old motorcycle and takes off down the road leading away from the mobile home park where they live. A motorcycle is a fine mode of transportation for a young girl in suburban Tennessee. She was glad she liked her bike, because they couldn't afford a car for her. As she speeds away, she thinks about her dreams.

Her Dreams

Sometimes Crystal had dreams about her whole life at once. It was like she was looking at a 3d timeline of events in her life. She envisioned it like a picture book of photos, expanded out like an accordion. Like frames of a movie, laid out like dominoes. She could move her point of view, seeing her life in perspective, receding in the direction of time. It felt like she was floating above her whole life, looking down at it, all at once.

What would really get her weirded out is when her dreams focused in on one really big moment, like when her mom died. She could lucidly manipulate that moment, change it to see that her mom didn't die, and could view a whole different life expand out from there. She could see it, but she couldn’t feel it. It was like a better life running right alongside her real, sucky life that she could never get to.

Brent

Crystal is meeting her friend Brent who lives nearby. She met him because he rides a motorcycle, too, and they park in the same designated area of the high school parking lot. He commented that he liked her bike, which made her feel sorta better about it. She was a little embarrassed of of her bike. A nice way to put it would be that it’s the most vintage bike at school.

Brent offered to help her get it fixed up and running as well as it is, and she found out she liked spending time with him. His father has a big backyard shop building on their property, behind their house. They became friends hanging out in the shop tinkering with her bike. When it comes to her hobbies, Crystal is a bit of a tomboy, and she loves hanging out in the shop.

Brent recently bought an old '69 Dodge Charger he plans to fix it up to be his car some day. The restoration provides a nearly infinite pastime, since they practically dismantled the vehicle entirely.

“God, I hate doing fuckin’ body work,” Crystal grumbles as she sands a large patch of Bondo on the rear quarter panel. “Why don't you just fix the engine and forget what it looks like.”

Brent is sitting in the driver's seat, using a pair of metal shears to cut a meticulously shaped piece of sheet metal for a patch he is making to cover a hole in the driver side footwell. “Yeah. I just want to get it patched up so it doesn't leak, and rust to pieces. If we don't force ourselves to do it now, we never will.”

Early evening arrives, and Brent's father stops by the shop to tell Brent supper is ready. “Are you eating with us tonight, Crystal?” his father asks.

“I can't this time, Mr. Williford. My stepmom wants me home for dinner.”

“Well, alright then. You are always welcome. Brent, quittin' time, get everything put away and come in for supper.”

His father walks off, and Brent says, a little disappointed, “You aren't sticking around tonight? What about Monster Bash?”

Brent's father had set up what he called his 'dog house' in the back of the shop. It was a walled off area with a couch and a TV. Crystal and Brent had started a little tradition of staying up late Saturday nights watching a public access show called ' The Monster Bash' that aired old monster movies. It was really more of an excuse to be alone together and fool around.

“I can come back later. I just need to eat at home tonight,” Crystal tells him.

Brent approaches her as she casually drifts away, and starts to pursue her. “You better come back, or Dracula will have to turn into a bat and come get you.” He catches her, and pretends to bite her neck.

“Don't give me a fuckin' hicky! Lemme go!” she protests, laughing a little, and squirms away towards her motorcycle. “I'll be back around ten,” she says, and takes off home.

Brent isn't the sort of guy Crystal used to think she would like. He was into hunting, guns, and the military. She was typically interested in more cerebral guys, but Brent, as she found out, is pretty smart. He just isn't overtly intellectual. She felt it worked out just as well, since really academic guys seemed to avoid her because she was sort of a punk.

Brent spoke genuinely, without any predilections or groupspeak that denoted a clique he identified with. He had a group of friends, nondescript regular guys, but was still sort of a lone wolf. Crystal liked that. He didn't say much, but he would punctuate his silence with interesting or amusing observations that revealed glimpses of what he was thinking, and it was surprisingly astute. Crystal liked that, too.

High School

Monday mornings suck in general, but this morning it started raining just as Crystal rode her bike to school, and she is all wet and muddy from the knees down. The girls bathroom was crowded with other students. In the mirror she can see just how messed up her hair is from when she left home. She has been sporting an asymmetric shaved pixie cut for a while, but she let her bangs grow out so far, there is no controlling her hair when it gets wet.

“Maybe I should just screw it up more, and go for the disheveled look,” she thinks. She shakes her head vigorously, sending drops of water flying.

“Ug, gross! What are you, a dog?!” brays a girl standing next to her.

“Yeah!” says another girl interjects, “And she lives in a dog house!”

Crystal tries to ignore the snickering as she leaves to go to class. She was used to getting teased for being poor, and was attempting to cultivate a sense of immunity to it. “I need to get some hairpins, or a hair band in my backpack.”

Classes

“Oak Ridge High School only has so many seats in the sophomore AP science classes, Crystal,” her guidance counselor reminds her. “You have to maintain a B grade or higher to stay in. You’ve been missing a lot of your chemistry homework assignments.”

“I know, I've been busy.”

“Is everything OK at home?”

“Everything’s fine,” she says, but really, everything’s not fine, her stepmom is a bitch. She can't stand being around home when Darla is there, so she isn't home very often, and never has much opportunity to do her homework.

Years ago, before her dad was diagnosed with major depressive and generalized anxiety disorder, and before Darla came into the picture, she could at least sit at the kitchen table and do homework while her dad watched TV. He was always sort of zoned out on pills, since he was prone to manic episodes, but she still liked being around him.

“You need to start turning in all your assignments, and get a good grade on the next test, or we’ll have to move you to regular science classes. I helped get you into AP science because I saw a lot of potential in you, but you have to do the work.”

Crystal isn't too worried about the test, it's graded on a curve, and she understands the last chapter of their chemistry book about electron orbitals pretty much completely. From all the questions the other kids have been asking in class, she probably understands it better than anyone else, so she should get an A.

She could usually skate by on pure talent. But the counselor is right, she is going to have to do more homework to stay in AP science. She can't stand regular science classes anymore. They are so easy that they are boring, and somewhat counterintuitively, feel harder to get a good grade in.

Crystal sometimes stays late at school to do homework in the library. She could probably do her homework at home, but she really hates it there. It’s so hard to concentrate because her stepmom is always yelling at either her or her poor dad. She has a very disruptive presence, and Crystal finds it hard to concentrate when she is near.

“Alright, Mrs. Tarpley, I promise I won’t miss any more homework,” say says, deciding she will figure out a way to get her homework done more efficiently. She could probably do a lot of it in the library at lunch, if she ate fast. She didn’t mind the work, if she could fit it into school hours.

She used to read a lot when her real mom was alive. Her mom got her into reading, and her dad got her into science. Back when there was a lot of work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the Cold War, her dad worked there as a technician. Crystal remembers her dad's security badge said “Sebastian Spiegelmacher – Research Technician”. He was even working on some kind of secret project, or at least something he couldn't talk to the family about. Something to do with assembling nuclear bombs, she always figured.

Crystal's parents actually met at Oak Ridge. Her mom, Daisy, was a yoga instructor and a massage therapist who occasionally worked there helping scientists relax. She was never into science herself, but she was really into weird hippie stuff, like crystals and weird magical energy ideas. Crystal's first name was her mom's idea. Her mom loved crystals.

Crystal would sometimes catch flack from kids at school that her name is a perfect trailer trash name. Sometimes they would ask if her parents thought up the name while they were tweaking on crystal meth.

Regardless, Crystal always liked her first name, since her mom gave it to her. She remembered she liked to play with her mom's collection of pretty crystals when she was a little girl. She would hold them up to her eye, staring into them, and imagine she saw little worlds in there.

Their life used to be pretty good, and Crystal tries to remember as much of it as she can. They have been living off of her dad's disability since he got too crazy to work, not long after mom died. They had to move to the trailer park since they couldn't afford the mortgage on their old house.

Darla works part time at an old folks home, but she wastes most of the money she makes shopping for cloths and stupid shit. Darla used to work at the hospital her dad stayed at, when he spent time in a psychiatric ward, and that's where they met.

Even though Crystal was a good student, she never really figured she would go to college. She knew they were pretty poor, and never wanted to financially burden her family. She always figured she would get a job after high school to help her dad pay the bills.

After High School

It's Saturday night again, and Crystal is hanging out with Brent watching Monster Bash. They had been together for almost 2 years, and now that the end of their senior year was coming up, they had begun to talk about what they were doing after high school.

Crystal had been trying to get an intern position at Oak Ridge, to work as a technician of some kind, but the positions were mostly for undergraduate students enrolled in college. Crystal had been considering community college, and various ways of paying for it, but nothing seemed like a great way to go, and her plans were all still up in the air.

Brent was planning to join the military, but said he wasn't in a rush. His father owned a small general contracting business, and he would always have a job working for him.

“You know, my dad said he would hire you if you ever need a job,” Brent tells Crystal. “He likes you, he knows you would be a good worker.”

Crystal is a little surprised. “Really? That's nice of him. What would I do?”

“To be honest, I have no idea. Probably whatever you want.”

“He probably likes me because I'm with you. Don't all dads like their son's’ girlfriends?”

“I dunno, I can see that, but I think he likes you because of who you are.”

The movie tonight is 'Mothra vs. Godzilla'. Crystal is lying on Brent with her eyes closed, and he is watching the move.

“What the hell are those miniature twin ladies all about?” Brent wonders, watching one of the stranger scenes in the movie.

Crystal looks up and watches for a minute. “Yeah, I thought this was a Godzilla movie, where’s Godzilla? This isn’t like any Godzilla movie I’ve ever seen.”

Crystal's favorite old monster movies are Godzilla movies, particularly when he is stomping around a city, fighting another monster. She had been waiting for a scene like that, but this particular Godzilla movie was very strange, and was dragging on. “Come on, Godzilla, save us. Get out here and save us from this boring movie.”

Something In The Mail

It’s the last week of senior year, and the last class of the week. Crystal is happy because she is graduating having finished all the AP science classes. She even managed a 3.6 GPA. The the AP physics teacher is in a particularly frivolous mood, and just letting the class do whatever they want for their very last hour of high school. He starts killing time by going around the room asking people where they are planning to go to college.

“Crystal? What about you?” the teacher asks.

“I’m undecided,” she replies, basically deflecting the question, since she didn't want to say out loud that she hasn't applied to any colleges yet. Virtually all of the other kids in the AP physics class had already at least narrowed down their choices of places they were accepted.

As the bell rings, everyone gets up to leave high school forever. The teacher stops Crystal as she passes his desk.

“Crystal, can you stay for a minute, I have something I need to talk to you about.”

When the other kids are gone, the teacher says, “The school got something in the mail that, as it turns out, is for you.”

He hands her a big envelope. It has very official seal printed on it, and next to the seal it says 'Rice'. He says, “It's a scholarship.”

“What?” Crystal reacts confused, not understanding why a college would offer her a scholarship out of the blue.

“It's a scholarship. You didn't apply to Rice?” the teacher wonders, also not sure why Crystal got the scholarship.

“I have never even heard of Rice, it's a college?” Crystal asks, shaking her head.

The teacher laughs a little. “Yes, and a pretty good one, too. They have a great physics program.”

“Where is it?” Crystal wonders, hoping it is close to Oak Ridge.

“Texas,” the teacher says. “It's a full ride scholarship, tuition, housing, everything. If you didn't apply, I have no idea how you got it, but you got it. Your GPA is good, but frankly, I wouldn't have expected a place like this give you an academic scholarship.”

“Whoa,” Crystal says, suddenly feeling a weighty sense that her life might turn out to be going along a path she had not foreseen.

“It's a really selective college, you must have impressed someone somehow. This is a big opportunity.” The teacher pauses. “Crystal,” he says, and she looks at him. “You should definitely take it.”

Crystal Tells Brent

Crystal meets up with Brent after school, and tells him about the scholarship.

“Thats awesome, Crystal. Congratulations. It must be a huge weight off your shoulders to know what you’re going to do. You’re gonna to do it, right?”

Crystal can't help but say what she is thinking. “It's in Texas. If I go, we’ll be apart for a long time.”

“Yeah, I know, Crystal. I wish we could do something together, but you know I'm planning on joining the military, and that's going to take me away for a while, too. Maybe we need to deal with the fact that our lives are going in different directions. We still have this summer. Maybe we can finish the Charger before you have to go.”

Crystal laughs and says, “By the time you finish that car, they won't even be driving cars anymore.”

Crystal Tells Her Dad

“It's a scholarship, to a college called Rice,” Crystal says, handing the envelope to her father, who is sitting in his chair, watching TV. “It's in Texas, but it includes housing. So it looks like I can go off to college after all.”

“Wow, Rice, yeah. That's a nice place, I hear. That's really great, Honey. I am really happy for you,” he proclaims brightly as he flips through the papers. “How did you get it?”

“I dunno, I just got it,” she admits, smiling and shrugging. “Maybe my guidance counselor sent in an application, I'll have to ask her.”

“Hmm,” he says, sticking the papers back in the envelope. “So you are going to college. Wow. What do you plan to study?”

“Well, I really want to major in physics.”

Her dad looks down at the envelope, and replies with a disconcerted “Oh.” He nods blankly, and stares off at his feet for an uncomfortably long moment.

“Um, Dad?”

“Oh, yes, here you go,” he says, handing the envelope back to her, with a somewhat robotic smile.

His reaction leaves Crystal a little perplexed. She thought he would be happier about her choice, since physics was his major in college, too. She blows it off as him just getting lost in thought when he is reminded about physics, and his time at Oak Ridge.

He had to leave his job rather unceremoniously, because of his mental condition after mom died, when Crystal was about 5. She was old enough notice that what happened at Oak Ridge made him feel depressed, like he failed somehow. Crystal never pressed him about it, since part of his recovery was letting go of all that.

Darla is more obviously happy, and gives Crystal a two bit congrats. She is probably just happy to get rid of her. Crystal is happy to get away from her, too. She always wondered how she would be able to concentrate and study if she went to community college and still lived at home. Still, it is good at least someone will be around to help take care of her dad when she is gone.

Crystal and Brent say their goodbyes, and promise to keep in touch, but Brent joins the military soon after she leaves for Texas. Both of them are so consumed by what they are doing, their messages become sporadic, and they slowly break off contact. Brent does mention he is doing well, and hoping to become a Navy Seal.

3) Crystal's Experiment

Beginning

Crystal starts her undergraduate curriculum following a predetermined plan. She never understood what it was like to be one of those students who couldn’t decide what to major in. For her, it was physics or bust.

She feels lucky to be there, and spends most of her time outside of class studying, taking only occasional respites for social diversions, which she considers a treat. Even she sometimes wonders where her devotion to academics is coming from. The more challenging the courses become, the more she gives in to a yearning compulsion to understand. She has a few favorite secluded spots in the library she likes to hang out in, and becomes a massive bookworm.

Her freshman and sophomore years she does well in her prerequisites for the Physics & Astronomy Department, applies, and gets accepted. She eventually receives a B.S. in Physics. In typically atypical fashion, Crystal manages to convince the university to let her pursue her PhD there, without getting a Masters.

Her rationale is that she has already begun her research while an undergrad, she has chosen a very narrow specialization, and has forged a system of highly productive connections within her department. She has become close friends with some of her professors, especially her thesis professor, Prof. Singh. One morning Prof. Singh asks Crystal to meet her at the coffeehouse near the physics building.

“Crystal, I salute you for striking out on your own experimental research for your thesis, but none of your experiments have really produced the results we were hoping for. They were worth a try, but if you don't have any results, you won't have anything to write a thesis about. You still have time to come back to assisting me full time on my work, if you like. Your research and input has made a valuble contribution, and would make a fine dissertation.”

Crystal realizes this is probably her best option. “I was actually hoping you would say that, Professor Singh, thank you. I appreciate the accommodations you made, and your help with my experiments, but I’m starting to agree that that I should refocus back on your work.”

She had spent over a year building and testing her own experiments, and built several versions, but none of them worked. It was probably a bit crazy to think she could come up with a whole new scientific theory, anyways. Hardly anyone strikes out on their own original work for a PhD in physics, because it is so hard to come up with original science. She needed to get moving on a thesis before it was too late.

The basis of her experiments did seem like compelling ideas, though. A lot of the background science had to do with what Prof. Singh was working on, and he really seemed to think there might be something to them, which was encouraging. But he was also probably just being supportive and letting her do what she wanted.

Wave-Particle Duality

As an undergraduate taking advanced physics classes, Crystal became fascinated by the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics. The many-worlds interpretation is an explanation for some of the bizarre quantum physical phenomena which make it such a challenging subject to comprehend, including wave-particle duality.

There is a famous, simple bench top experiment called the double slit experiment that can show wave-particle duality. It was Crystal's favorite experimental apparatus, and while she was an undergraduate she got permission to use the physics shop to build one of her own. She loved to look at the interference pattern it produced, because she felt like she understood its profound meaning.

Several times she explained it all to some of her college friends, the double slit experiment, and what it showed about wave-particle duality, and she thought she was pretty good at conveying it. Some people understood it more than others, but most people got at least something out of listening to her spiel once.

Light, like everything else, is made of particles, called photons. When photons hit a detector, like the image sensor in a digital camera, they hit at an exactingly precise location, like a tiny, point-like particle should.

Photons in the double slit experiment, however, don't act like point particles. They act like smeared out waves. In the setup, you shoot a laser at two closely spaced slits. The slits are finely etched into an opaque coating on a piece of glass. The light waves go through both slits, and produce a diffraction pattern of laser light on a screen behind the slits that looks like a pattern of regularly spaced bands of light.

If you didn’t know what light was made of, looking at the interference pattern of regularly spaced bands it produces in the double slit experiment, you would assume it was a wave. If were made of particles, it should cast two bands of light.

Patterns

Crystal liked to explain the different patterns that particles and waves make in the double slit experiment by asking her listener to imagining scaling the experiment up. Take a plate of steel, the size of a sheet of notebook paper, and cut two vertical, parallel slots in the middle, aligned with the long edge. They are 6 inches tall, 1 inch wide, and spaced 2 inches apart.

Mount the plate a few feet in front of a car door. Shoot the plate with a sandblaster held far enough back that the spray hits the whole plate. The paint on the car door will get eroded away behind the plate in two fuzzy bands, where the sand grains shoot through the slots. This seems obvious, and that is how particles form two bands in the double slit experiment.

For waves, it is a little harder to imagine. Take the same steel plate and place it bottom edge down in a big wading pool, half submerged. Put a piece of plywood a few feet behind it. Float a volleyball a few feet in front of it. Pat the ball rhythmically to sort of dribble it, floating in the water. It should make some nice concentric circular waves. That’s your wave source.

Each wave travels out from the source and hits the steel plate. The segments of wave that arrive at the slots pass through. The slots are narrow enough that they act like sources. Behind the plate, it looks like there are two adjacent wave sources. This makes a pattern of two overlapping sets of offset concentric circles, like a Moiré pattern. Where the wave patterns overlap, they combine, or interfere. The overlapped sum of the wave patterns hits the plywood in a regularly spaced pattern of little wave crashes. That is a wave interference pattern in the double slit experiment.

What is weird about particles of light in the double slit experiment is, if you put a detector in where the diffraction pattern is on the screen, it will detect the photons hitting it in very specific locations. So the light goes from being a smeared out wave that can pass through both slits, and form an interference pattern, to being a precisely located particle when it hits the detector.

That is wave-particle duality, and it seems contradictory. If light is waves, it should always act like waves. If light is particles, it should always act like particles. All particles behave this strange way, not just photons. Electrons, for example, do it too. Scientists had a hard time explaining how they could flip-flop between both sorts of things.

Waves In What?

Part of the explanation for this paradox came when scientists tried to guess what particles could be a wave in. All waves have a conveying medium. Water waves are waves in water, and sound waves are waves in air. Eventually they realized that particle waves are not waves in some kind of normal material medium, but waves in possibility.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle says that particles don't have a specific location. All particle positions are rounded off, and smeared out into a space of approximate possible location. This smear is mathematically described as a wave. The height of the wave is the probability that the particle is there. That possibility wave is how the particles can form an interference pattern.

This provides a basis for how a particle can act like a wave, but why does the wave of possible particle locations suddenly turn into a specific particle at an exact location when it is measured? One explanation is that the wave just sort of spontaneously collapses into a random specific location based on probability when it is observed.

This is called the observer effect. It comes off sounding like the Universe realizes someone is looking, and quickly picks a location for the particle out of the possible locations, before the observer notices that there was no exact location. This is a spooky notion if you take it seriously, but Crystal did not believe in this interpretation.

Many Worlds

Another interpretation is that the particle really is located at all the possible positions in its probability wave. All the potential instances are equally real, just located along different worldlines. They don't pile up because the worldlines are separate.

What is a worldline? An easy example of a worldline is your life. You go through time, events happen in your world, and that is a worldline. It is a timeline of events in an observed world. Everything has a worldline, which, to it, seems like the entirety of existence.

As it turns out, there are multitudinous worldlines sprouting up always. When any event happens, the outcome is not one exact outcome, but a bunch of possible outcomes smeared out by the uncertainty principle. It is like the slop in the deterministic gears of the Universe spits out a splay of possible outcomes from an event. Each of the possible event results seems like an exact result to itself, and can be imagined to exist on it's own worldline.

We don't normally notice this. You are unaware of other possible worldlines of yourself, because the effects are usually relegated to the quantum world of the super tiny. The uncertainty is small, and appears magnified at the atomic level. Also, it seems our existence is confined in some way inside of possibility space, like Flatlanders trapped in a plane in 3d space. Possibility space exists outside of our normal everyday experience. That's why it took science so long to find evidence of it.

It may also have something to do with our point of view. Consciousness seems confined to worldlines. Sentient experience and worldlines are both a chain of causally linked events. Self is the worldline that consciousness is anchored to. Cognitively, we are made of events, and in order to persist through time as a self-consistent entity, we end up confined within a worldline. It is almost a tautology to say a consciousness observes a worldline, because a consciousness is a worldline. From the viewpoint of all worldlines considered together, as a giant complex thing in possibility space, a worldline is just a thread in it's timeless, all possibility encompassing fabric.

The Multiverse

The smearing of possibility into separate worldlines happens at every single quantum event that makes up the Universe as time goes by. Since that is basically is the definition of reality, it is like reality itself is smearing out over time into many possible realities. This splaying out of possible futures made up of countless branching worldlines is the many-worlds interpretation, and the place that holds all those forking off Universes is called the Multiverse.

The possibility waves of particles diffracting through a double slit setup is explained by all the different particles on separate worldlines interfering with themselves in the very fabric of possibility. Worldlines overlapping in possibility space. When you detect a particle, and measure it to have a very specific location, you are really just finding out which one of it's possible worldlines happens to coincide with your worldline. Like wearing a blindfold and picking a straw from a haystack.

When the observer's worldline and the particle's worldline interact in a significant way during a measurement, they sort of fuse into one worldline. The glue is the interaction that causally connects them. All the other particles on the other worldlines continue on their path, and sort of veer off, lost forever into the Multiverse. When that happens, you appear to see the particle's possibility wave suddenly collapse into a single, precisely located particle. That is how Crystal believes wave-particle duality is explained by the many-worlds interpretation.

In the double slit experiment, a single particle existing smeared out as a wave of possibility can pass through both slits, and interfere with itself. So it is the particles interacting with themselves in the Multiverse that produces the diffraction pattern in the double slit experiment. That is why Crystal thought it was so profound. It is as if, when you look at the diffraction pattern, you are seeing a projection of the Multiverse itself, with your own eyes. If you believe the interpretation, that is.

Coexistence And Ambiguity

It seems strange at first that you can observe the effects of overlapping worldlines from your viewpoint trapped in your single worldline, as is what happens in the double slit experiment. The trick is that you do not measure or interact in a deterministic way with the photons as they go through the slits.

Measuring imparts a causal interaction. Particles colliding or forces accelerating them makes a causal connection, fuses worldlines, and forks off the view of the other phantom particle worldlines in the possibility wave. Causality, it seems, is a big deal when it comes to defining reality. It may be everything.

Overlapped worldlines are allowed to non-destructively coexist so long as they do not interact. That is why it seems like the observer effect is such a compelling explanation. The observation does indeed cause the transition from a wave to a particle. But an observation is always a causal interaction of worldlines. A fusing of two worldlines at a node in a Y, becoming one. All observations are the detection of a result generated by a significant, possibility changing, causal interaction. Even just looking at an object requires photons of light to bounce off it, and for a particle, getting hit by another particle is major.

In the double slit experiment, the smeared out possibility wave of a photon, or all the separate worldline photons, are allowed to go through the slits without measuring which slit they went through. So they can non-deterministically go through both to produce the interference.

Any particle can randomly go through any slit, and the pattern is the same. The diffraction pattern is a statistical manifestation of possibility created by the ambiguity. Looking at the diffraction pattern does not count as a measurement because no information about the particle paths is gained. The particles hitting the screen and making a diffraction pattern tells you nothing deterministic about what any specific particle did to form it.

It is sort of like those secret code readers that use red cellophane to see letters that are obscured in jumbled scribbles of multicolored clutter. The multicolored clutter is the Multiverse, and the red cellophane is the window of deterministic experimental observation. All the different colored scribbles are there, but when you try to observe them through your red cellophane window, they are filtered out, and you only see the letters of the message. Standard, one worldline reality. The cellophane filters the other worldlines out.

We cannot directly measure a particle's wave of possibility, because observation filters the wave of possibility out. The red cellophane is measurement. We can see effects that possibility waves make if we only see effects generated by the coherent, un-interacted with system. Looking at the diffraction pattern on the screen in the double slit experiment is like looking at the Multiverse without the cellophane.

Eraser

There is a fascinating twist on the double slit experiment that produces the effect of erasing the interference pattern, and causing the photons to produce the two banded pattern expected from particles. All you have to do is impart information into the system about which slit the light goes through.

This is most easily done by carefully putting two polarizing filters in front of the two separate slits. You have to get the edges of the filters right over each slit, but it can be done with a finely crafted apparatus. Photons have a polarity, and polarizing filters block light in a special way depending on its orientation, polarizing it in the direction of the filter.

If one filter is rotated 90 degrees to the other, the light from each slit is polarized at right angles. This means it contains information about which slit it went through. This removes the ambiguity of which slit a photon goes through that is so necessary to maintaining the overlapping possibility that produces the diffraction pattern.

Crystal built her double slit setup so she could slide the polarizing filters into tight slots lined up just in front each slit. Without the filters, the wave interference pattern shows. With the filters in at right angles, the two banded pattern of particles shows.

So you can switch the photons in the apparatus from waves to particles just by changing the setup to imprint tracking information about what slit the particles go through, altering its state of possibility. It does not matter that you don't collect all the information the filters impart on the system, the system contains the information, and is different in the possibility sense.

Just to prove the polarizing filters do not themselves destroy the interference of the photons by altering their physical properties, Crystal could place them in the slots aligned in the same direction. Since both slits let light pass through with the same polarization, the ambiguity of which slit a photon went through is again restored, and the interference pattern reappears.

To Crystal's way of understanding things, these tricks with the double slit experiment are unequivocal proof of the Multiverse. Right there, before her eyes, revealed by a simple bench top contraption. She really loved the double slit experiment.

The Multiverse Is Spooky, Too

The many-worlds interpretation is not without it's spooky side, though. If reality is always forking off into all the worldlines that are possible at every event, then in the Multiverse there must be a Universe where everything that could have ever happened did. Maybe there is a Universe X in the Multiverse where the Cuban Missile Crisis did escalate into World War 3. If a person was alive in 1962, there is a version of them in Universe X that saw World War 3.

Also, all the split off Universes in the Multiverse themselves continue to split off. The Multiverse is constantly filling up with Universes. It is always expanding, out into possibility space. What that possibility space is, be it the 5th dimension, higher dimensional branes, or some other version of time, is not clear. So even with such a simple experiment as the double slit, there are still a lot of fundamental unknowns about what is shows that are yet to be explained.

Experimental Genesis

Crystal was mostly interested in the effect of turning on and off the diffraction pattern in the double slit setup, which is normally achieved by introducing deterministic information into the state of overlapped possibility waves of particles, changing their state of possibility and collapsing the wave function.

What is a wave function? Despite it's qualitatively ethereal and ghostly nature, a probability wave has a shape that can easily be quantitatively described mathematically, and it is simply called a wave function. The term for collapsing the wave function, erasing the diffraction pattern, and what happens when a wave becomes a particle in the observer effect, is called decoherence. Deterministically engaging with and collapsing a wave function decoheres it's consistently coexisting state of possibility, and it goes poof.

Crystal's interpretation of how decoherence occurs by worldline fusing was really just a pet hypotheses of hers. In strict scientific terms, there is no fully accepted mechanism for decoherence. She was just really convinced quantum mechanical weirdness had something to do with worldlines branching and connecting in the Multiverse.

In her studies and her extracurricular reading, she picked up notions that led her to wonder if decoherence could be caused by something other than strictly physical interactions, or measurements like the polarizing filters. Something non-deterministic, remote, with no physical interaction. An effect that did not actually collapse a wave function, per se, but canceled it out.

After all, the interference pattern that wave functions produce in the double slit experiment is caused by constructive and destructive interference of possibility. By Crystal's reasoning, if wave functions of possibility can interfere to produce an interference pattern, you should be able to create an equal and opposite wave function of sheer possibility in one apparatus to exactly cancel out the wave function of possibility in another.

Field Generator

She wrote a preliminary paper she submitted to Prof. Singh as part of an assignment. It rambled on at length, and had diagrams of worldlines branching and connecting in the Multiverse. Instead of patting her on the head and sending her off, Prof. Singh thought her ideas showed a lot of originality, and were worth pursuing.

Crystal went ahead and designed and built various apparatuses that were intended to produce just such a counteracting possibility field. The basic verification she was looking for was the ability to collapse a diffraction pattern in a double slit setup by overlapping a possibility field that had an equal but opposite state of possibility.

Her field generator was basically a small quantity of liquid helium in a special container covered with electromagnets controlled by a computer program. It created a specifically tailored wave function of possibility around it.

In her wildest expectations, Crystal hoped to be able to show Professor Singh an interference pattern disappear by flipping a switch and going “Tada!” That would have been amazing. She spent a lot of time racking her brain about how to do just that. She thought she might have been on to something, but her ideas were fleeting, and it was very complicated. She could never quite piece it all together. After a year of trying, she came up with bupkis.

No Results

Crystal was happy she got the chance to do her own experiments. She enjoyed the free-form challenge of figuring things out for herself. She also really liked getting access to the physics shop. It had drill presses, band saws, tube benders, shears, press brakes, welding equipment, and a couple of cool metal lathes. She loved working with metal, especially good old regular carbon steel and 6061 T-6 alloy aluminum. The construction of her field generators was never an issue. They just didn't work.

She had been given some space in a lab to run her experiments, but space was at a premium, and she agreed to clear out her experiments. She was disappointed she didn't get any eureka moment, but felt the whole experience was worth it, regardless.

She got to know Prof. Singh quite well, and he was right that she had made some decent contributions to his experiments that would make a good thesis, so she wasn't worried about her academic status. She just needed a little time to process the disappointment that her experiment was over.

She visits her area of the lab Friday afternoon to play with her experiment a little, for one last time, before she disassembles it over the weekend. She finds herself just sitting on a stool, staring at her gear, thinking about all her kooky hypotheses, knowing that this is the last time she will be thinking about them not in retrospect.

She decides to leave early and take the long way home across campus to the student housing she lives in. Her mind is now unencumbered by the pressure to produce results, and she feels her thoughts becoming looser, encompassing a larger viewpoint.

She makes it back to her room, sits at her desk, and puts on some music she discovered on the internet. It is spacey electronica, with a sort of Middle Eastern or Indian flair. Good stuff to unwind with after pondering the Multiverse.

She is playing the music on her computer using a new plugin for her player that has an interesting music visualizer. She stares at the cool patterns, and flips around to different views. Her favorites were colorful fractal visualizations, but she starts looking at some 3d visualizations, and they captivate her mind.

One in particular shows patterns moving in a corner cube of 3d coordinate axes in perspective view. She toggles a few settings, and the visualizer shows the music as overlapping waveforms moving along all 3 axes. She envisions the patterns as the fields produced by her field emitter, and suddenly realizes she never tried using a system of 3 overlapped fields to produce a fully controlled 3d shape to the field.

In a moment of inspiration, she wonders what would happen if she put three field emitters in an x,y,z frame. What would the overlapped field look like? She whips out a spiral notebook and begins doodling the pattern she knows one field has, then overlapping doodles of 2 more at right angles. It starts to make the pattern she always envisioned as the field she was after the whole time.

Crystal is starting to think she stumbled upon a great idea. She has already build 3 versions of her field emitter, and all 3 work. She turns the music off, and starts pacing around her room. The more she thinks about it, the more right it seems. “This might be it. This might actually work,” she starts to think. “I have tomorrow and Sunday before I have to clear out my space in the lab. I can use the shop. I can rig up a quick and dirty rack to hold my 3 emitters around my double slit setup. I should be able to test it.”

Crystal knows she is pushing her luck. She is supposed to clean up her space. But she decides to set her alarm early to give her nutty experiment one last Hail Mary shot.

One Last Try

Monday morning Prof. Singh comes to his office, and finds Crystal standing by his door.

“Good morning, Professor. I have some big news.”

“Good morning Crystal. What is it?”

“I got the experiment to work. I know you wanted me to clear it out, but I figured out the problem. I needed three field emitters. I used the weekend to try it out, and it works. I have it set up right now, I want to show it to you.”

Prof. Singh is a little perturbed Crystal didn't clean up like she said she would, but he does trust her enough to let her show him before he says anything. “Let me put my things in my office, and we can go have a look.”

Crystal leads the way, and explains to him how she envisions the 3 fields overlapping, and how the resulting net field has the correct shape of possibility to cancel the wave function of the photons in the double slit setup. Prof. Singh nods and says “Hmm, yes. I see,” as she excitedly rambles.

They make it to the lab, and Crystal turns on the double slit experiment, the field emitter power supplies, and gets set at the switch that turns on all 3 field emitters at once.

Crystal looks at Professors Singh's face when she flips the switch. She has already seen what happens. The diffraction pattern disappears, just like she always hoped. His eyes widen, he juts his neck forward a few inches, and his mouth goes slightly agape. He points to the screen where he just witnessed the diffraction pattern vanish, looks to Crystal, and asks “Is this what I think it is?”

“Yes, professor. I got it working. It works.” Crystal is excited that he is excited, and feels butterflies in her tummy. She is both happy, proud, and sort of amazed, too.

He looks back at the screen, takes a step back, and remarks “This is unbelievable!” He takes a few steps towards the machine again, and examines the double slit setup, but it is obvious there is nothing unusual about it causing the effect.

“Now turn the field off again.” Crystal obliges, and the interference pattern pops back into view. He looks over the setup some more. “Now on again.” Again, Crystal obliges, and the pattern vanishes.

“You didn't set it up to do that as a trick, did you?” he wonders in disbelief.

“No, professor, I swear,” she answers, suppressing as much of her smile as she can.

“Well then you did it! I cannot believe it. I mean, I thought there might be something to your ideas, but this. Well, it's absolutely extraordinary! You better get to work writing it up, I very much want to read your first draft. And I think you should build another two field generators, like your newest one, so they are all identical.”

“I was thinking the same thing. I want get started today, if that's OK.”

“Yes, by all means. I will make sure you have priority in the shop. Do you mind if I get some others to come see this? I know people who would very much like to see this.”

Conclusion?

Soon Crystal is assigned a larger area of the lab. Over the course of the next year, she rebuilds her Decoherence Field Generator, as she has officially dubbed it. With the guidance of Professor Singh, she writes out her description of the decoherence field, complete with a mathematical treatment.

Crystal is decent at math, and with the professors help, her equations seem to describe the field just fine. But exactly how the field interacts with the Multiverse, within the framework of her pet hypothesis, remains only speculation in her mind.

It is strange, she feels like she understands her hypothesis correctly enough that she was able to use it to innovate the experimental apparatus, but for reasons she cannot fathom, it's behavior resists her full comprehension. The Multiverse mechanics were muddled, and defied her attempts to come up with a complete theory.

It didn't matter, though, she wrote her thesis describing the new phenomena. It had been passed around and read by dozens of scientists. It received all positive feedback. Crystal was disappointed she couldn't use her pet hypothesis to explain it, but she was brave enough to throw in a brief mention in her conclusion of how it might be something zany like that. She had to.

Crystal gives a dissertation defense in a lecture hall before an examining committee of 5 professors. There are about 25 people there in total. Other researchers and scientists who probably read her paper, and for whatever reason, were interested in auditing her presentation. She already knows the committee will accept the thesis, and she will get a research doctorate.

After her presentation, one of the people in attendance approaches her.

“Hello Crystal, my name is Dr. James Archibald. I'm the director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.”

“Wow, hello Dr. Archibald, nice to meet you,” she replies excitedly, and they shake hands.

“We have a project going on that I think you would find very interesting. I wanted to see if you were looking for a job, now that you have more or less officially graduated.”

“Absolutely. I always wanted to work at Oak Ridge, I grew up near there. My dad used to work there.”

“Yes. I wanted to see if you would like to come for a visit. I can arrange airfare and accommodations. Are you interested?”

Crystal is ecstatic, but can't help feeling intimidated by such a prestigious position. “Yes, very much, but I have to say, my knowledge base is pretty obscure. My experiment isn't really explained yet. I don't know how applicable my research would be to any other kind of work.”

Dr. Archibald smiles, and says “Why don't you come for a visit. We can show you our experiment. I guarantee you'll love it.”

4) Oak Ridge

Showing Up

Crystal can't help feeling anxious. These people are obviously not kidding around. She was flown from Texas to Tennessee, and chauffeured all the way from the airport to a fancy office building at Oak Ridge. Her nervousness subsides a little when she sees Dr. Archibald is waiting for her in the lobby.

“Welcome to Oak Ridge, Crystal,” says Dr. Archibald. “This is Dr. Richard Maddox.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Crystal says as she shakes the other man's hand. He is a prototypical scientist looking guy, not very stylish, white sneakers with a jacket and slacks, probably in his late forties. Crystal, on the other hand, feels like an overgrown teenage scene girl in this austere place, like she better get some nicer clothes and a haircut, or security might try and kick her out.

“Likewise, Dr. Spiegelmacher,” Dr. Maddox reciprocates. It dawns on Crystal that this is the first time she has ever been professionally addressed as Dr. Spiegelmacher. This is the start of something big in her life.

Dr. Archibald puts his hand on Crystals shoulder. “Let's go have a chat about what we are really doing here, Crystal.”

In a meeting room, Dr. Maddox gives a presentation of his work to Crystal as Dr. Archibald listens in. He was working at NASA for years on what he calls a Multiverse Antenna. It's basically an array of laser beams all held in a special grid of interlocked phased array interferometers.

The idea is that it can detect signals from other Universes. A large enough signal in one Universe should bleed out through the higher dimension of the Multiverse into other nearby Universes, like ours. You should theoretically be able to detect it anywhere, since it comes from an omnipresent, locationless higher dimension.

“Anyways, that's my work,” Dr. Maddox says as he concludes his presentation. “We have been analyzing your work, Dr. Spiegelmacher, and we are excited for it's potential in furthering our research. As you know, Dr. Archibald and I want you to come aboard our team. We are starting new phase incorporating a version of your Decoherence Field Generator, and I think you will find it very interesting.”

Dr. Maddox looks over at Dr. Archibald, who nods, then looks at Crystal. “Well, what do you say?”

Crystal is worried that this is all way over her head. “Do you really think I would be able to contribute? I've never done anything like this before.”

Dr. Archibald makes an amused little exhaling huff out of his nose, and smirks. “Crystal, neither have we. Just the fact that you did what you did makes you qualified. You accomplished something many people have tried and failed at. We’re all making things up as we go along. That's life on the cutting edge.”

“Well, OK, then. I'm in,” Crystal accepts, knowing full well she has no idea what is to come. But it feels right to say yes, beyond the fact that she very much wants the job. She feels an innate trust of Dr. Archibald, and is genuinely fascinated by Dr. Maddox’s work. She is busting to find out why the need her decoherence field generator. She is very excited.

“Great,” says Dr. Archibald, standing up. “Come with me, we have some paperwork to fill out. Basically a job offer and a nondisclosure agreement. We’ll also get you a room in our dormitory building where you can spend the night, if you like.”

On Board

Crystal spends the night in her new room. She will probably be living there for a while, so she moves some things around how she feels they should be arranged. She is scheduled to be given a tour by Dr. Maddox at 10 AM.

She has a hard time sleeping, and wakes up and gets ready much too early. She puts on the new laboratory outfit they gave her, complete with a white lab jacket and a photo I.D. She wonders if she should wear a hat to hide her punk hairdo, but the photo I.D. already shows her hair, so she decides it's pointless.

She finally meets up with Dr. Maddox again, and he is wearing a lab jacket now as well. “Nice to see you again, Dr. Spiegelmacher. Hope you slept well. Welp, let's go see the antenna.”

He walks her across the campus to a bland 4 story brick building. “This is the building we will be working in. One big lab complex. We’ll get you some keys, but for now, you’ll need me to let you in all the rooms.”

Inside, at the end off a long hallway, they enter a large room, the full 4 stories high. The front of the room is filled with computer stations. Several technicians are busily working away.

The Antenna

In the unlit back of the large room dwells what is obviously the Multiverse Antenna. It looks like a small house sized, cube shaped lattice of metal scaffolding, festooned with wires and control boxes. Visible glowing from inside the cube is a grid of intersecting blue lasers.

“Come have a look at this,” Dr. Maddox says as he approaches the main computer terminal. On one of the monitors is displayed a window that looks like an oscilloscope screen. “This is the live, raw signal from the antenna.” Crystal recognizes the signal spectrum as white noise.

“Not very interesting, is it?” Dr. Maddox notes, and Crystal shrugs. “For a long time when I was working for NASA in a little lab at JPL, no one thought it was very interesting either. I knew my antenna should theoretically be able to pick up signals from other Universes, but how do you prove what Universe a signal is coming from?

What Does It Detect?

“The way I proved it was by shielding the antenna inside a Faraday cage. Since a Faraday cage blocks electromagnetic waves, an antenna inside shouldn't be able to detect any signal coming from outside of it. But my antennas did detect signals, and the signal had to be coming from inside the cage.

“The signal matches what you see when you aim out into space and detect the microwave background radiation, white noise. Since it's impossible to detect our Universe's background radiation from inside a Faraday cage, the only conclusion is that the antenna is detecting the background radiation of another Universe, coming through higher dimensions, right into the space inside the cage.”

“That makes sense,” Crystal agrees.

Dr. Maddox smiles. “You accepted that awful quickly. I wish everyone was as open minded as you. It took me a long time to get anyone to believe my interpretation of the results. Anyways, Dr. Archibald believed it, and that's how I got here. He let me built that beauty over there. It's a really good antenna.”

Dr. Maddox points to the walls and ceiling of the large laboratory. “This whole room is lined with copper. They used to do all sorts of crazy experiments in here during the Cold War. Quantum physic stuff, from the rumors I hear. We are in a big Faraday cage.”

Directionality And Signals

“Have a seat. I want to show you some more interesting signals we recorded.” He rolls a chair to Crystal, and she sits down.

“You see, the antenna is shaped like a big cube so the direction it picks up signals in can be changed. It's directional. It doesn't actually move, we triangulate its focus around the Multiverse electronically by adjusting the interferometric phasing along the three axes.

“We’re able to detect slight variations in the background signal when we aim it around, just the same as when you aim a radio telescope around our sky. Now, if you aim an antenna right at a star, you get a signal with the hallmark spectrum of a star.”

He opens a computer file, and on the screen appears a diagram showing several signal plots. “All these plots down here are all signals of stars that were obtained normally, with regular radio telescopes. They’re all stars you've heard of, Sirius, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Vega. Each a bit different, but obviously all similar stellar spectra. Now, see this big plot up here at the top? That, Dr. Spiegelmacher, is MS-1A. That stands for Multiverse Star 1A.” Dr. Maddox looks at Crystal. “We found it with the antenna, after a lot of fine tuning and scanning around. It's a star in another Universe.”

Crystal feels the hair on her arm stand up. She believes everything Dr. Maddox is saying. The fact that other Universes exist, and have stars in them, is clear. She was always willing to believe it, but now it's real. She shuffles in her chair, attempting to control her awe. Dr. Maddox smiles. “I know. It's really quite extraordinary, isn't it?”

Dr. Maddox brings back up the window with the live signal. “I can aim the antenna anywhere. We were looking off at nothing in particular, wanna see MS-1A in real time?” He clicks a button labeled 'MS-1A' and the signal slowly changes from white noise to the signal matching what he just showed her. “There it is.” The two stare silently at the jittering signal spectrum on the screen for a moment.

More Signals

“There's more. We scanned all around the star looking for planets. It took a long time, and their signals are faint, but we found some. Two resemble the signal of a gas giant planet, almost like this star has it's own Jupiter and Saturn. One object, closer in, about the distance from the Sun to the Earth, is what we think is an Earth-like planet. But that isn't the amazing part. Are you ready?”

She nods vigorously, afraid to speak because she has a lump in her throat.

“We picked up some signals from this planet that cannot be explained by naturally occurring phenomena we are familiar with. They have obvious mathematical structure that indicates either some kind of intelligently engineered output of energy, or possibly some sort of energy emitting life form or organic system.

“Most of the time things are pretty quiet on the planet, with occasional small signals, but a couple of years back we recorded an enormous burst of energy that lasted about a minute. At first I thought it was a signal from some kind of broadcast antenna, blasting a burst of data, but the mathematical structure of the signal is less like a stream of data, and more like something organic. So, we don't know what the heck it is.”

Crystal's mind is blank with astonishment. She clears her throat for a moment and finally speaks. “So you think that planet has life?”

“Well, it could be life, or it could be something we’ve never imagined before. Something that emits large amounts of energy in bursts? We have no idea. We have a few other scientists here now who's job it is to just analyze this signal. It’s that weird. Some thought it was just the planet itself, like a volcano or an electrical storm, but we pretty much ruled that out. Those things just can't produce the detailed patterns this signal has in it.

“The prevailing theory now, and the one I subscribe to, is that it's a signal produced by an intelligent species that uses organic technology. But, I mean, who knows, maybe it's just a huge space whale swimming around the planet that farted. That would be interesting too, but we just don't know.”

Getting A Better Look

Dr. Maddox looks directly at Crystal. “So all this leads to the reason you are here. We are going to try to observe the planet more clearly. The antenna is great, but it can only observe so much. What we would like to do is attempt to get more information by establishing a sort of link between the two Universes, through which we can receive more information. I think we might even be able to teleport a probe into that Universe. If we can do that, maybe we can actually image the planet.”

Crystal is shocked they are seriously considering such an crackpot scheme. “I was with you so far, Dr. Maddox, about the planet, and maybe it has life, but if I may be blunt, saying you wanna open a portal to it sounds kinda crazy.”

Dr. Maddox laughs and nods. “Oh, ye of little faith. I believe your work was just the breakthrough needed to unite a bunch of disconnected theories into one super theory that could cause a surge in what is scientifically possible, including Multiverse teleportation.”

“Using my Decoherence Field Generator? It doesn't link Universes, you know.”

Misinterpretations

“Ah, see, we believe it sort of does. Think about it, Crystal. Can I call you Crystal? So many fewer syllables than Doctor Spiegelmacher.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. At this point you can call me whatever you want if you explain to me what the hell you are talking about.”

“Great. OK, so when you observe a chance event, you see one outcome, and the other outcome splits off into another Universe, right? Well, your field generator allows both of those outcomes to exist in the same Universe. That's why you saw the interference pattern in your double slit experiment disappear. I'm afraid you misinterpreted your results.”

“Oh really?” Crystal says, a little curious and a bit annoyed.

“Yes, but it's completely understandable. It looked like the field was causing the same effect as erasing the interference pattern by overlapping a canceling wave function. But that's not what was happening.

Forking Worldlines

“You were enabling the particles of light to go through both slits by splitting the existence of the particles into two copies. This also erases the interference pattern by eliminating the ambiguity of what path a particle takes, just in a different way.

“Instead of one particle wave going through both slits, you get two decohered particles going through both slits. You never did measure the intensity of the light when you turned on the field, did you?”

“Oh my God. No, I didn't” Crystal never thought of this as an explanation, because it's impossible. She did notice the apparent brightness shift, and did think of the idea, but rejected it outright because it seemed to violate every basic tenet of physics.

But just letting herself think of it as true, turning her perspective on it's ear, parts of the muddled concepts she could not rectify about her results feel like they might make sense.

Dr. Maddox continues, “That's how we figured out what the field is really doing. It turns out when the field is on, the light is double the intensity. It splits in two, and doubles”

“How can two instances of the same thing exist in the same Universe?” she says dubiously, getting straight at the heart of what made her ignore the idea.

“The field creates a space in which two versions of our Universe exist simultaneously. In the space inside the field, our Universe is forked into two states.”

“OK, then, what about the regular objects around it, like the parts of the double slit apparatus itself? Large objects don’t split into two copies. So you are limited there, aren't you? You can't get the field to fork the worldline of a solid object like, a probe, can you?”

“Right, you didn't see your whole double slit experiment magically cleave in twain. The interference pattern is special. It's in one single coherent quantum state. In large solid objects the separation occurs in a jumbled collective state, all the atoms splitting at random different events on all their own separate worldlines. This all sort of interferes destructively at the quantum level, and cancels out the large scale effect, so large solid objects don't normally split.

Two At Once

“But that’s where I come in. I think I can use the same technology I developed for the Multiverse Antenna's triangulation tuner to align all the worldlines around a single event, then split the existence of a an entire large object around one shared event on the objects cumulative worldline. I call it a Coherence Synchronizer. It should be possible.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Crystal thinks she understands, but is grappling with the ramifications.

“Think of it this way, you know the old Schrodinger's cat thought experiment, right?”

“Yes, of course,” she replies. “I think about it all the time.”

“OK, if you put a Schrodinger's cat box inside the field, you could split the box into two versions on two worldlines. If the two boxes open up, we would observe one box has a dead cat in it, and one a live cat. And I mean both at the same time, not a quantum superposition. Two kitties you can touch. Well, one is dead, so you might not want to touch that one. But they both exist in a regularly tangible way.”

Crystal wonders “What would happen if you turn the field off? Would they recombine?”

“Well, that's what happens with light, but obviously we haven't gotten to that point with solid objects because we haven't split one yet. Hopefully soon. If the coherence synchronizer can hold the worldlines like I am hoping, they should recombine, yes. We’ll see.

“I don't know for sure what it will look like, recombining solid objects. The overlapped state in Schrodinger's box comes together instantly to form one either dead or alive cat. We should just see the two disappear in favor of one. I am curious to see that part for myself. I imagine it looks like the state that disappears morphing into the other, if we recombine them slowly,” Dr. Maddox says and shrugs.

Crystal makes an exaggerated face of consternation. Dr. Maddox smiles and assures “We're gonna watch from behind a really thick lexan window.” Crystal and Dr. Maddox both laugh at the thought of a Schrodinger's cat box exploding.

Which Fork?

Dr. Maddox continues. “That is only half of it, though. There is a corresponding possibility that, when we recombine the cat, it totally disappears. Poof, bye bye kitty. It would recombine totally on the other worldline. The worldline that is not in our Universe. Or, to put it another way, it would teleport the cat to the other Universe. So you either get a recombined cat, or no cat at all. If you have no cat, it is still out there, it's just in the other Universe.”

“What?” Crystal is confused again. “You keep losing me, Doctor.”

“Yup, The cat either recombines in our worldline, or the other worldline, which is in another Universe. We should be able to control that with the antenna technology. We basically aim where we want to recombine.

“Look, it's a lot to take in, I know. Let's take a break, we need to put the antenna back into data collecting mode. I would hate to miss another signal. Plus, I’m hungry. We have a pretty good cafeteria. Do you eat meat? They have a pretty good salad bar if you don't.”

Crystal isn't thinking about food. “So that's how you propose to teleport something like a probe to this Multiverse planet? With a combination of your Multiverse Antenna’s tuner, which makes a Coherence Synchronizer, and my Decoherence Field Generator? Sounds like a whole lotta mumbo jumbo. Do you think it will even work?”

Walk To Lunch

“As I am fond of saying, Crystal, there's only one way to find out.” Dr. Maddox stands up and reaches for Crystals hand. She grabs it and he lifts her out of her chair.

Crystal continues her line of reasoning as the two walk out of the lab. “This all sounds like it should cause a paradox and destroy the fabric of spacetime.”

“Nah, there are no paradoxes,” Dr. Maddox assures Crystal. “The easiest way to think about it is to imagine the whole Multiverse, not separate Universes. Imagine the path of our cat in five dimensions, the four dimensions of spacetime, and the fifth dimension of possibility between Universes that we can't see or touch. Separate Universes and worldlines that fork at an event are the same thing.

“I drew some figures in a paper I wrote. I will get you a copy later, you can read it. There are interesting effects from the perspective of the two Universes, but no overarching Multiverse paradoxes. But enough science. Come, we dine. We must nourish our bodies and our minds.”

Crystal decides to try and relax and look around. They are walking outside somewhere she hasn't been before, and she wants to remember where places are.

“I am supposed to be showing you around, too, remember? Not just driving you insane. Over there is the closest parking, do you have a car?”

“Well, I don't have a vehicle right now, no.”

“Oh, OK. You don't really need one. Now, I am not positive, but I think today is turkey day. They make pretty good mashed potatoes. You never said if you eat meat.”

“Yeah, I'm not a vegetarian.”

“Didn't think so, you don't seem like one, but you never know.”

5) Splitting Worldlines

Meeting The Researchers

Over the next few days, Crystal meets the whole team. A dozen scientists from various other academic institutions and NASA are working under Dr. Maddox, who is working under Dr. Archibald.

Crystal is now one more scientist. There are also about a dozen technicians who help with making parts, assembling components, and several computer programmers working on controls software. Crystal finds it amusing that, years ago, when she was finishing high school, she would have killed to be a technician at Oak Ridge, much less one lucky enough to work on a project like this. Now she is one of the main scientists.

The Setup

The team embarks on phase one of the project, building a system that can split an object, and hopefully recombine it. Over the next 8 months Crystal helps build their new field generator that will make a field at least 12 feet in diameter at nominal power.

The field emitter’s core is housed in a 1 foot box on a stand inside a large armored experimental chamber. The emitter core contains 3 orthogonally arranged containers of liquid helium held in alignment by gyroscopes. The chamber it is inside of is roughly 18 by 18 feet, about 12 feet tall, and constructed robustly enough to contain a vacuum. It has a large, thick lexan window on one face, allowing outside observations of the whole interior.

Dr. Maddox installs a system of interconnected lasers around the inside walls of the chamber. The chamber itself is on the floor of a large room, and is connected by a stream of cables to a bank of power supplies and control stations on one side of the room. Along the adjacent wall are racks of powerful computers that Dr. Maddox will attempt to use to cohere the split worldlines and guide the recombination.

Their first sample is a 1 centimeter iron cylinder suspended from the top of the chamber on a thin fiberglass filament. The air in the chamber is evacuated to simplify the conditions of the experiment. It hangs near the field generator in the center of the chamber. The team turns on the field, and Crystal confirms it is holding as expected.

First Attempt

A computer program then begins to crunch numbers attempting to fork the sample. Crystal, Dr. Maddox, and several technicians watch a close up camera shot of the sample on a monitor. Just as there seems to be a noticeable visible effect, the screen suddenly turns white, and a bright flash emits from the chamber window.

Everyone looks up, through the window in the chamber, and sees a cloud of dust falling to the floor, unhindered by air resistance in the vacuum. They all look at Dr. Maddox who says “Well shoot, it did blow up.” He looks over at Crystal, who is standing next to him. “It looks like we really do need more computing power.”

The result wasn't entirely surprising. Calculations indicated that even the computing power of a supercomputer wouldn’t be able to hold the sample's worldlines in coherence around a single event. The two forked samples decohered spontaneously and simply recombined superimposed. Every atom of the two samples was suddenly crowded into half the space, and the material expanded violently.

The sample exploded with about the same force as a similar sized piece of high explosive. Iron was used, as it has a very stable nucleus, and no significant nuclear reactions are caused by the rare event that two atomic nuclei became superimposed. Crystal had shielded the field generator inside a box made of steel plate, and while it's surface was pitted with tiny impacts, the field emitters core is undamaged.

Dr. Maddox had been lobbying for a special quantum computer to be build for the experiment, since a quantum computer would be perfect for holding a sample in coherence. It would work via the very same quantum physics that it is attempting to control, so it's the perfect application. A tentative plan was made to build one, but Dr. Maddox was asked by Dr. Archibald to try with conventional computers first, to see how close they could come.

Quantum Computer

With the results pointing to the need for a large quantum computer, Dr. Archibald decides to spin up an independent project to build the Oak Ridge National Quantum Supercomputer. A contract with several companies, the main one being a Canadian firm, is agreed upon. It will be a worthy endeavor on its own, as there are other projects that will share time on it, so adequate resources are earmarked by the National Science Foundation, and the construction is chronicled in various scientific periodicals.

In the meantime, Crystal and Dr. Maddox attempt to do what they can with the computers they have. Upgrades are made to the field generator and the coherence synchronizer, and their reliability is improved as parts fail and are replaced with slightly more well engineered parts. New software is developed to take advantage of the coming quantum computer, and Crystal studies Dr. Maddox's science in detail.

The construction of the quantum computer turns out to take longer than expected, a full 2 years. The cost grows to many times the original estimate, and the team takes on extra specialists, but eventually a working computer is delivered to Oak Ridge. A conduit of fiber optic cables was laid from the experiment to the quantum computer lab, and new control software is installed and integrated with the experimental systems.

The first attempt to split a sample using the quantum computer is a success. An iron sample is split into two copies, separated fully, then successfully recombined. Metallurgical studies of the sample do show certain distortions in the microstructure of the metal, indicating a certain level of microscopic worldline misalignment.

The new team members recruited during the construction of the computer eventually complete a third version of the control software employing algorithms specifically tailored around quantum physical laws, and eventually a sample is cleanly split and recombined perfectly, without any detectable side effects.

The size of the team has grown to around 24 scientists, 40 members total. The experiment has cost over 25 million dollars so far, not including the exorbitant budget of the quantum computer itself. It has taken almost 4 years, and Crystal has learned more than she knew it was possible to learn. But they succeeded in completing the first phase of the experiment, splitting and recombining a solid object.

It is decided the second phase will be to attempt to split and recombine a living organism. This time with the chamber vented to the outside room at regular atmospheric conditions. The justification is to address concerns for the safety of their experiments to complex biological systems, as there are some on the team who fear, justifiably, that genetic disorders could be caused by their experiments.

Animals

The first living subject is chosen to be a fruit fly. The DNA of a fruit fly is well studied, and any genetic side effects would be easier to measure. Several fruit flies are split and recombined. The image of the fruit flies recombination turns out to be particularly interesting, as the two copies, which move independently, morph back together into one single fruit fly. Each fly is studied afterwards, and no detectable side effects appear to afflict the recombined insects.

The team decides their next animal subject will be a cat, in honor of Schrodinger's Cat. Crystal volunteers on the errand to choose the feline from a local animal shelter. She chooses a two year old male tabby. The cat is to be kept in an animal subject lab in the building, resembling a veterinarian's exam room, and containing several animal cages.

“Crystal, where is the cat?” enquires Dr. Maddox when Crystal shows up to work the morning after having acquired it.

“He’s up in my room,” she tells him.

“Crystal, this isn't a pet, you are 30 years old, it's supposed to be our experimental subject,” Dr. Maddox reminds Crystal.

Crystal was afraid Dr. Maddox would have a problem with her keeping the cat in her room, but is still annoyed that he said it. “I know what age I am, and what the appropriate conduct for a 30 year old is, Dr. Maddox. The test isn't for a couple of weeks, and I can't stand thinking about that cat pointlessly crammed in that little cage the whole time. It's cruel. We don't want this cat to suffer isolation induced psychosis, it will diminish it's value as a test subject. I will take care of him. I got a food and water dish, and a litter box.”

Dr. Maddox shakes his head and sighs. “Crystal, we are going to attempt to split this cat. You know that might be dangerous. They have animal technicians here that were going to take care of it. I’m sure they have compassion for cats, too. Plus, are you even allowed to have a pet here?”

Dr. Maddox can tell by Crystal's indignant stance she won't let them keep the cat in a cage in the animal lab, so he gives up. “Fine, just don't go falling in love with it. Did you name it Schrodinger?”

Crystal laughs. “That should be his name. Schrodie.”

“Oh, jeez,” Dr. Maddox mumbles. “I guess you’ll be extra motivated to make sure this test works, so that's good at least.”

On the day of the test, Crystal is nervous for Schrodie. Crystal had bonded with the cat, and was indeed extra motivated to double check the setup, as Dr. Maddox correctly judged earlier. The cat was anesthetized, so she figures, if he blows up, at least he won't feel anything.

Watching the screen as Schrodie is split, Crystal is especially aware of there being two separate instances of the same animal. They are both her cat. She feels a bizarre emotional sensation watching them both, knowing one will disappear, and feeling sorry for it, even though she truly believes that is an absurd sentiment, since the second cat is just a manifestation of possibility.

The recombination goes smoothly, and the whole team is encouraged. Later, in the animal room, Schrodie comes out from under the anesthetic. The animal technicians want to keep him for a while to conduct tests. Crystal reluctantly agrees, but makes sure they know he is to be returned to her, specifically.

Double Jeopardy

Dr. Maddox is there watching the cat wake up. “The next time we split him, I’m thinking we should have him partially awake. We can see two cats moving independently recombine. I want to see one morph into the other.”

Crystal was worried Dr. Maddox would want to use Schrodie as a subject again. “Dr. Maddox, can we use a different test subject for the next run? I will get whatever you want. Schrodie already took one risk, splitting him again is double jeopardy. Isn't that against the law?”

Dr. Maddox knows it won't be worth arguing over whether it is this cat or that cat, and acquiesces. “Sure, Crystal. You know, actually, I was thinking maybe we should try another class of animal. A little zoological diversity might be illuminating. Let's try a turtle.” Dr. Maddox taps one of the animal technicians on the shoulder. “Can you anesthetize a turtle?”

“Sure we can, no problem,” the technician replies cheerfully.

Over the next few months numerous animals are split and recombined, though none twice, per Crystals no double jeopardy policy. They are split in various states of consciousness, and all seem unaffected by the experiment. Schrodie, who really is Crystal's pet now, seems to be as playful and annoying as can be. He has been given several checkups, and there doesn't seem to be any long term effects. The second phase of the experiment is complete.

Split A Human

It is decided the third phase will be to split and recombine a human. Crystal has reservations about the risks involved, and is dubious about the continued experimentation on living subjects, but understands it is the firsthand account that is the justification for this phase. Since you can't ask a cat or a cylinder of iron to describe it's experiences, only by splitting a human will they truly know what exactly is happening during a worldline split, and more importantly, a recombination.

Dr. Archibald decides if anyone on the team who is in good health wishes to be a subject, that they would get priority, figuring a member of the team would be able to report back their experience better, since they understand what meaningful experiences to focus on. To Crystals surprise, Dr. Maddox volunteers.

“I want to be the one to try it, Crystal. We already know it's safe. It probably sounds childish, but this is something I’ve always dreamed about. I think of it almost like being an astronaut, it's dangerous, but a rewarding life experience, and worth the risk. I always wanted to do this. I think it was part of my motivation the whole time.”

Although Crystal is concerned for her mentor's safety, she also agrees it is reasonably safe, and understands Dr. Maddox's desire to be the one to try it. “I’m fine with it, Richard. As far as I’m concerned, you're the boss, you don't need my blessing. Plus, you'll be famous.”

“I am glad you’re not against it, I was worried you might be. Anyways, if I die, I will probably be even more famous!”

Crystal scowls, shakes her head, and says “Ugh. Hopefully it will make you funnier. A lot funnier, 'cause you got a ways to go.”

Dr. Maddox's First Split

A special chair for a human subject is constructed and placed inside the chamber. On the day of the experiment Dr. Maddox is sitting in the chair with with an electroencephalogram cap on his head for measuring his brain activity.

“It looks like a futuristic barber's chair,” jokes Crystal, speaking to Dr. Maddox inside the chamber through an intercom at the main console as pretest checks are completed.

Dr. Maddox replies “Yeah, can you just annihilate a little off the sides, please?”

“Sure, Richard,” replies Crystal. “You want it to look like my hair, right? Shaved side? You are gonna look fabulous.”

Crystal checks around the room, and all stations give a thumbs up indicating they are a go. “OK, all systems are go. Are you ready for us to turn on the field, Richard?”

“Yes, Crystal, I'm ready.”

Crystal engages the field and the control software smoothly ramps the power to the optimum level.

“OK, the field is on. Do you feel anything?” Crystal asks Dr. Maddox.

“I feel normal.”

Crystal addresses the entire room. “Alright, everyone, we are going to proceed with the split. Remember, the split is preprogrammed to synchronize worldline coherence automatically, make the split, hold it for 20 seconds, then the recombination procedure will engage, and the machine will shut itself down. Don't touch anything. Just watch your readings, and only report if you see a problem.

“OK, Richard, I’m going to start the countdown to your big twenty seconds of fame. This is your last chance. Are you sure you’re ready?”

“Roger Wilco, I'm a go. Let's do this.”

Crystal raises her voice to a low shout. “OK, this is it. The test is commencing.” She pauses for a moment. “On your marks! Get set! Go!” Crystal clicks the button on her monitor to start the test.

She looks through the window of the chamber, ignoring the cameras on the other monitors, as the form of Dr. Maddox's body, wearing his cap in the chair, splits into two copies, which separate by about 4 feet. The pedestal holding the chair off the ground appears to bow outwardly to each side from a nearly coincident connection point on the floor of the chamber.

Both copies of Dr. Maddox independently look at each other. “This is amazing,” says one copy. The other says nothing, and simply looks the other up and down.

Crystal shouts into the microphone “Richard, can you see me?” She waves her hand in the air.

Both Dr. Maddoxs look at her. “Yes,” they reply at the same time. The previously silent copy then smiles and speaks. “Jinx, you owe me a coke.”

Crystal stares at the two as they scrutinize each other, and nearly loses track of time. She looks down at her monitor and shouts again “Recombination in three seconds! Two! One!” She looks up as the two Richards watch each other, and the separation between them begins to shrink. As their bodies begin to appear to superimpose, the position of one suddenly aligns with the other.

Crystal looks down at her monitor as a large message pops up “Recombination Complete.” The message then changes to “Powering All Systems Down.” and again to “Power Off. Test Complete.”

Dr. Maddox's Experience

A medical team waiting in the wings is called in. They enter the chamber, and begin to carefully evaluate Dr. Maddox. Crystal approaches, and stands back near the door to the chamber.

Dr. Maddox speaks excitedly. “Holy cow, Crystal, that was more amazing than I even imagined. It was so surreal, seeing myself as another individual, sitting right next to me, thinking it's own thoughts.”

Crystal is happy and relieved that he is alright. “Yeah, it was amazing enough from my point of view. It must have really been something from yours. Or is it yourseses?”

Dr. Maddox laughs and tells Crystal “It must have worked, because I can tell that's not funny.”

Dr. Maddox is moved to an exam room and completes a series of medical tests. All checks are negative, and while there are other tests that will take time to return results, it seems he is totally fine. A post-test meeting is held in a conference room. Dr. Archibald attends, along with Crystal, and several other members. Dr. Maddox is at the end of the table, and addresses the room.

“I only have the memory of my single consciousness. I remember seeing my doppelganger, and he was obviously independently sentient, but I have no recollection of his experience. So our predictions seems to be correct. The worldline splits around a single event, then recombines favoring one single worldline, as though the worldline forking never occurred.”

Crystal speaks up. “Now that we know for sure what is really happening, we are basically complete with the first three phases. At this point I think we should move on towards our next goal, attempting to use the antenna to guide the recombination of the worldlines to a point on the opposite fork, and teleport a test sample through the Multiverse.”

“Hold on, Crystal,” Dr. Maddox interrupts. “I agree we are ready to move towards teleportation, but before we do, I think we should take some time and test forking worldlines with humans a little more, while the setup is configured to do so. I really want to have more time to talk to my other self, because I am really curious about whether my other instance can...”

Crystal cuts off Dr. Maddox. “Richard, why do we need to keep messing around with humans like this? We did it once, and we proved what we needed to prove. We should go back to using test samples, and move forward with teleportation.”

Continued Human Tests

Dr. Archibald chimes in. “Crystal, you are right, but so is Dr. Maddox. The next step is teleporting, and we will do that. But I have been thinking about what could be a new additional phase to the original goal of the whole experiment.

“If we can send and return a probe, we might be able to send and return human explorers. There are people at NASA who are becoming increasingly interested in us taking the time to make sure that all might be possible. If we play our cards right, NASA might join us in funding something really long term and potentially very big.”

Crystal looks around the room, and back to Dr. Archibald. “I knew it. I knew there was a larger agenda. You guys probably always planned to teleport people the whole time. Were you in on this, Dr. Maddox?”

She looks at Dr. Maddox, who raises his eyebrows, and shakes his head quickly, to convey an emphatic negative.

“Oh, bullshit. You just didn't want to tell me before because you were afraid I wouldn't go along with it. You assholes are colluding behind my back, pandering for funds, and you are keeping shit from me about where this is all going.”

Dr. Archibald attempts to settle Crystal, who is obviously quite agitated, as indicated by her penchant for cursing when upset.

“We never looked that far ahead from the beginning,” Dr. Archibald assures her. “This is a natural progression, a logical extension of the experiment. We aren't running a secret underground conspiracy, Crystal, we just see the potential for a new era of human exploration. This experiment could turn into a touchstone moment in human history. Someday, very far down the road of human civilization, we might need to use this technology to survive.”

Crystal shakes her head. “You guys are absolutely crazy. Sending people through the Multiverse? Jesus. I’m starting to get nervous that all this verges on the unholy. Can we just try to send a probe, please, before I die young of a goddamn stress induced heart attack?”

Dr. Maddox also attempts to calm Crystal down. “It will just be a few more tests, Crystal. We know it's safe. We just need to gather some more data. It will only take a few weeks. Come on, we are all on the same team.” He looks over at Dr. Archibald, then back to Crystal. “If you would come to more meetings, we can involve you in more planning.”

“Yeah, well, alright, maybe I will,” Crystal replies. “But you guys better keep me in the loop, because I really hate feeling strung along like a gullible sidekick to you two mad scientists. You need a fucking voice of reason at your deranged meetings.”

Dr. Archibald smiles, nods, and offers “I am fine with you becoming more involved in the long term planning, Crystal, if you wish.”

Crystal continues her rant. “Maybe all this is really important, but you guys are rushing into something that might turn out to be a Pandora's box of cosmic fucking proportions, and I'm not sure I trust either one of you two to heed natural precaution before you accidentally put the whole Universe asunder. That wouldn't be so great for humanity, now would it?”

Dr. Maddox says “If that were possible, the Universe would already have been destroyed by some other race a billion years ago.”

Crystal turns to Dr. Maddox. “Oh yeah, well maybe most Universes do get destroyed, Richard. Did you ever think of that? I also think you are drunk with power, and losing your objectivity. Experimenting on yourself is indicative of a little psychiatric condition known as being a total fucking nut job.” She looks back at Dr. Archibald. “Did we give Richard a psych eval? Because he is starting to...”

“Alright, Crystal, we got it. You're point is taken,” Dr. Archibald says as he stands up. “OK, then. Go ahead, Richard, you have a month to continue gathering your data before we move on. And do be careful.”

Dr. Archibald looks at Crystal and smiles. “Keep an eye on him, Dr. Spiegelmacher, and let's try to get as much useful insight out of this as we can. We will have another deranged meeting in a month, so please do make sure to attend.”

Crystal notices that Dr. Archibald referred to her as Dr. Spiegelmacher for the first time, and finds it strange he did so right after it feels like she almost got in trouble for breaking rank. It reinforces a sense she has been getting, like she is ascending. She thinks Dr. Archibald is a genius, mastermind engineer, and a brave architect, and respects him infinitely. She is not sure if she is getting delusional or not, but she feels like she feels the Multiverse, and it is sort of resonating in front of her. Calling her. Her drive is maximized to answer it.

6) The Folding Problem

Dr. Maddox's Second Split

Preparations are made to repeat the test again with Dr. Maddox, only this time the split is to be held for 5 minutes. Dr. Maddox intends to essentially interview himself, though Crystal is uncertain what information he could possibly gain. Nevertheless, she refrains from questioning his methodology in hopes that letting him do what he wishes unfettered will expedite this aggravatingly frivolous phase of the experiment.

Dr. Maddox oversees the installation of a special collar on one of the chair's arm rests, through which his arm will be inserted, not unlike a blood pressure testing chair at a pharmacy. The collar is actually more like a tattoo machine that will indelibly print a code of dots on his skin while he is being held in two instances. This way they can track which Dr. Maddox is which, and know which one they get back after the recombination.

“Alright Richard, we are all set out here. I am ready to start the test. Are you ready in there?”

“Yup, all set Crystal. Proceed.”

Crystal clicks the button to engage the field. “OK, Richard, the field is on. Are you still good?”

“Good to go,” he replies.

“OK everybody, just like last time, don’t touch anything, just watch your readings, and only speak up if you see a problem. I am now going to start the test.” Crystal pauses for a moment, then raises her voice. “On your marks! Get set! Go!” Crystal clicks the button to start the automated test.

An Unforeseen Effect

Immediately warnings begin to appear on everyone's monitor. “We got a problem!” shouts the technician at the station motoring the stability of the quantum computers coherence synchronization of the of the worldlines.

Crystal looks through the window of the chamber. Instead of 2 Dr. Maddoxs beginning to split apart, there are 4. “Oh my God,” she gasps. She knows instantly that something unforeseen is happening.

Crystal rushes over to the technician at the coherence synchronizer station. “What's going on?!”

“The computer is maxed out! We are barely holding coherence!” Crystal glances at his screen. A warning flashes “Maximum Computational Capacity Exceeded.”

“Oh fuck! What the fuck?!” She looks back through the window of the chamber. The 4 partially superimposed instances of Dr. Maddox are all jostling and oscillating in a manner as though they are trying to separate, but rebounding back, unable to come apart, like they are connected by invisible rubber cords.

Dr. Maddox speaks “What's happening?!” His voice sounds as though it is being run through an echo producing sound effect. The fear in his voice is audible through the distortion “I can feel it! It hurts!”

Crystal feels a wave of anxiety overtake her whole body, like an enormous shot of hot slurry was injected directly into her aorta. Crystal shouts at the top of her lungs “Abort the test!” The technician slams his palm down onto a large red button on his console labeled “Emergency Recombination.”

Dr. Maddox begins to panic. “Ahh! Jesus! Ow, God, Ahh!” He tries to get out of the chair, but his arm is locked in the tattoo collar.

“Sit still Richard!” Crystal yells. “Sit still! We’re recombining you! Stop moving!”

Dr. Maddox begins to scream in pain “I can't! Oh God it hurts! Ahh!”

“We are losing coherence!” shouts the technician. The next 10 seconds feel like a slow motion nightmare. Dr. Maddox begins to howl in agony, his screams warbling in pitch and reverberating. Crystal is petrified into a state of utter shock as she watches, powerless to help her friend.

As the automated emergency recombination procedure attempts to recombine him, portions of his body appear to recombine in patches. The patches lose coherence and pockets of his flesh expand suddenly as they recombine overlapped in the same space.

Dr. Maddox begins to shriek and flail uncontrollably. Large raised lumps are visible forming on his arms and torso. The first part of his body to burst is the bicep on his unrestrained arm. The explosion spatters blood and small bits of flesh all over the side of his face and chest.

Another explosion occurs inside of his abdominal cavity as indicated by a very large sudden distending of his torso, but fails to break the skin. Numerous smaller explosions begin to appear, as though large firecrackers were surgically implanted in his body, and set off.

His pants and shirt become soaked in blood from the inside, and the interior of the chamber is being sprayed with dripping pulverized human flesh. Crystal briefly notices his head increase in diameter and his eyes bulge before his entire cranium explodes, covering the window with a sludge of brain, skull, and blood, obscuring the barely visible image of his body slumped forward, his head now just the empty lower half of his skull.

Crystal drops to her knees, and bows her head down, in an attempt avoid fainting. She notices herself unconsciously repeating meekly “Oh no. Oh no.” She tries to not hyperventilate. She can now hear the technicians crying around her, and hears some of them run out of the room, screaming as they run down the hall. Crystal has no idea what to do, so she crawls under the desk of her station, and sits, breathing deliberately and waiting until she feels like she can stand up without falling over.

Crystal After

After about a minute, Crystal gets up from under her desk and leaves, making sure not to look at the chamber. She walks past the crowd of people gathering and ignores them as they ask her questions. She walks all the way across campus to her room and sits down on her bed. She decides to quit the entire project and suddenly begins to cry. She wishes she had never come to Oak Ridge. She cries for a few minutes, then stops for no reason, and just sits.

Shrodie jumps up into Crystals lap and begins nuzzling her. She picks him up and lies down, placing him on her chest. She strokes him as she tries to figure out what happened. She looks at Schrodie and recalls how she prevented her cat from being experimented on twice. Dr. Maddox was the first subject to be spit more than once. “Wait, that's it,” Crystal says to Shrodie. “He was split twice.”

In her imagination she envisions Dr. Maddox's worldline in 5d space as doubled over on itself, folded, and then folded again. She feels reasonably sure that's why there were 4 of him.

She realizes that, had she not stopped Dr. Maddox from splitting Schrodie twice, they would have discovered the problem then. Crystals eyes begin to well up again. “Oh my God.” She sits up suddenly, letting Schrodie jump off her chest. Crystal feels an overwhelming rush of guilt. “Oh my God, it's my fault.” She lies back down on her side and decides to just cry.

Talk With Dr. Archibald

The blinds to Crystal’s window are open, and it is starting to get dark outside when there is a knock on her door. “Crystal?” It is Dr. Archibald. “Are you in there? If you're in there, please open the door.”

For a moment she almost decides not to, but figures that would just be stupid, and she is too tired to act stupid, so she gets up, walks to the door, and opens it.

“Crystal...” Dr. Archibald begins. She turns around and walks back to her bed and lies back down. “Crystal, I know you are probably pretty shaken up, but may I come in for a moment?”

Crystal just stares at nothing and says “I don't care, just shut the door so the cat doesn't get out.”

Dr. Archibald steps inside and gently closes the door. “Crystal, what happened today is a tragedy, but when you are doing experiments on the edge of what is technologically possible, sometimes accidents happen. Dr. Maddox accepted the risk.”

“It wasn't an accident,” she tells Dr. Archibald.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean not an accident as in not a glitch or a mechanical failure. The rig worked fine. I know what happened.”

“You do? What?”

“It's because he was split twice, and I'm the one who made it so we never did split an animal twice before.” Crystals voice begins to crack as she stifles another wave of emotion. “So it's my fault.” Crystal barely gets the last words out. She is awash in an emotional cocktail of guilt, fear, shame, loneliness, and sadness.

“What do you mean?” asks Dr. Archibald.

“Don't you get it?” she quips.

“No, actually I don't get it Crystal, but I believe you do. Can you explain?”

“He split into four because his worldline was folded from the last split. It's like folding a piece of paper over and over. The computer was overwhelmed, and he decohered inside of himself and blew up. I saw his fucking head explode. I hate this experiment now. I told you experimenting on humans was crazy. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to go in that room ever again. You don't need me here, anyways. You have a whole team of scientists, they know everything I do. I built your field generator. I don't know why I’m still here anymore. I won't tell anybody about it, I just want to get a normal job. This one sucks.”

They both chuckle. “I suppose it does have its downsides,” Dr. Archibald says. Silently, to himself, Dr. Archibald is impressed with Crystal's mental fortitude and ability to deduce an explanation for an experimental result that has never been observed before, after having just witnessed something so gruesome happen to her coworker and friend.

Crystals laughing turns to crying again and she says “I want something to drink. I’m taking a vacation.”

“Alright, Crystal. Sure.” Dr. Archibald pulls out his cell phone and calls someone “Hi, it's me. Can we get some food and some drinks sent to Dr. Spiegelmacher’s room, number 204. A fifth of vodka and some mixers. I don't care what food.”

“We have room service?” Crystal says in a muffled shout through her pillow, which she has buried her face into. “You never tell me anything.”

“Also, add Dr. Spiegelmacher to the list of people who get room service.” He pauses, listening to the person on the line. “I know we don't normally, but Dr. Spiegelmacher was just promoted to lead scientist, so just make an exception for the time being, please.”

Promotion

Crystal lifts her head and looks at Dr. Archibald. “Oh, no you don't, you callous bastard. I’m trying to quit, and you are promoting me? Do you even know what I just witnessed? You manipulative weasel. There’s no way in hell I’m taking over for Richard, and I’m certainly not continuing with any more of his batshit human tests. You know I won't do that, no matter how many fucking perks you give me.”

Dr. Archibald finishes his call and says “Crystal, you can skip to the teleportation phase, like you wanted. Inanimate objects. We should have listened to you, I am sorry about that. You are now the lead scientist of this project, so you can continue it however you think is most appropriate.”

Dr. Archibald lets Crystal think for a minute, then speaks. “Dr. Maddox was my friend also, and for a long time before you two met. I know he wouldn't want you to give up. He thought very highly of you, Crystal. We both do. I don't think you ever fully appreciated your value to this project. Maybe you don't want to. Take just now, for instance. You figured out what happened, and I bet you’re right. I don't know if anyone else here would have figured that out. You have a gift, and if you believe in anything like destiny, then you belong here. There is a reason you are here, Dr. Spiegelmacher.”

There is a knock at the door, and Crystal sits up. “Are you speaking poetically, or are you trying to tell me something?”

Dr. Archibald wheels in a cart with food and drinks, and parks it near Crystals table.

“Well, a little of both. Can I tell you a story?” Dr. Archibald proceeds to pour two tall, stiff screwdrivers.

“I have worked here for a pretty long time. I came here right after getting my PhD, just like you did. So, that's a while ago. You know Oak Ridge was basically built for the Manhattan Project, right?”

“I went to Oak Ridge High, my dad used to work here as a technician. I know what this place was built for. Making fuel for an atomic bomb.”

“Yes, well, when I got here during the Cold War, they had a lot of new military projects going on. I don't know exactly what they were doing, something with quantum physics and the military. I heard a rumor about the Philadelphia Experiment, but that's not the point. They weren't very sophisticated compared to what we’re doing, anyways.”

Crystal moves to the table where Dr. Archibald is sitting, and grabs her drink.

“Anyhow, there was a man that worked here in the same capacity as yours, as of 5 minutes ago.” Dr. Archibald tips his glass to salute Crystal on her promotion as she is lifting hers to take her first sip, so she tilts her glass, then takes as large of a sip as she can.

“The experiment he was running had an accident that cost the life of someone he cared about very much, and I saw what it did to him. He quit his research and devoted his life to trying to figure out how the accident could have been prevented. He was really just suffering from guilt, and he fell into a depression, because no matter how much he tried to come up with a solution to the problem, he couldn't undo what happened. He eventually became more or less a shut in. It's too bad, because had he kept working, we might be exploring the Multiverse right now.”

Dr. Archibald leans in a little towards Crystal, who is finishing her drink.

“That's why I think it’s important you realize that what happened to Richard isn't your fault. You were the one that warned us, but we didn't listen. The blame is on us, Crystal. And that's also why I think you should be running the experiment from now on. I trust you to keep it on track, and I trust your judgment, both scientific and ethical.”

Dr. Archibald pours Crystal another drink as Crystal is silent for a moment, then speaks.

“How are we going to do the teleporting without Richard, he was the expert on guiding worldlines, I'm just the field generator girl.”

“Crystal, you said we don't need you because other people here know what you know. But we both know that's not true. No one understands it like you do. Now you also say you don't know Richard's work. But you are not a regular scientist or technician. I feel confident you understand it better than you think. It can be hard to tell what you know sometimes, just trust me.”

Crystal takes another big slurp. “Why do you think exploring the Multiverse is so important, Dr. Archibald?”

Dr. Archibald sighs. “I don't know Crystal, I just think it's important. Like we need to, and it is up to people like us to help push it forward. Humans have the curiosity to wonder about, and the capacity to explain the Universe, but we have only just begun to explore it. It is so large and strange and deep, it would be as shame to squander such an amazing Universe. Also, I just get a feeling that humanity is going to need wisdom about the Multiverse some day. Our understanding is at a crucial point.”

“I also think humans are at a crossroads,” Crystal says as she takes another big sip. “I am just nervous to meet those people out there. The Multiverse critters!” She reaches down and picks up Schrodie, who was weaving around her legs. She holds him out in front of her and says “Oh no, a Multiverse critter!”, and laughs. “Hey, you know, since we split him, Shrodie is sort of a Multiverse critter!”

“Indeed he is.” Dr. Archibald says as he gives Schrodie a quick rub on the head.

The next thing Crystal knows she is waking up, splayed out on her bed, fully clothed, and very hung over. Schrodie is sleeping next to her, so she carefully tries to get up, but her coordination is so impaired that her hand slips of the edge of her bed, and she falls forward off it, and slides to the ground.

“Oh, jeez,” she mutters and rubs her face. “I am never drinking again, Schrodie.” It is very bright outside already, so Crystal looks at her alarm clock, but it is unplugged. There is a note on top of it. Crystal struggles to her feet, and reads the note.

Dear Crystal,

On the back is the number for room service, my car service, which you can use, and my personal number. Just give me a ring when your vacation is over. We are going to switch your room, if that is OK, so before you go anywhere, put your personal affects in the boxes by your door, and they will be moved for you.

Sincerely,

Dr. James Archibald

P.S.

Take your time.

Crystal notices some new flat boxes near her door. “A new room, eh?” Crystal sits down on her bed and pets Schrodie. “It's about time we got some goddamn recognition, huh Schrodes.”

Visiting Home

Crystal decides to visit home. She had felt weird about being so close the whole time, in Oak Ridge, but never visiting her dad. She figured he was always so out of it, he wouldn't recognize how much time that had passed, so she could do it whenever. But she kept putting it off, and it was bugging her. She decides it's about time she rectify that.

She uses Dr. Archibald's car service to take her to the trailer park, and they pull up near her old mobile home. It looks different, and Crystal wonders for a moment if they haven't moved somewhere else.

“OK, this is the place. Just wait here for a few minutes please,” she tells the driver. She exits the car and walks up the small staircase to the door. She is a little nervous. She feels guilty about not having visited, and hopes her dad will understand that she was legitimately too busy. She wonders if even she believes that herself.

She knocks on the door, and an older woman she recognizes answers. She used to live in another unit in the trailer park. “Hello, what can I do for you?” the woman says.

“Um, hi. I was looking for Sebastian Spiegelmacher, he used to live here. Do you know where he is?”

“Oh. Well, I don't know if you knew this or not, but I’m afraid Sebastian passed away about a year ago. We moved in here a while back.”

“Oh. No, I didn't know that,” Crystal says. She doesn't know how to feel. She wishes she came earlier.

“Are you related to him?”

“Um, yeah. I'm his daughter.”

“Oh, OK. I think I remember you. You used to ride a motorcycle. I'm sorry about his passing, he was a nice man. You know, I have a box of things they left behind. Would you like to take it?”

“Sure,” Crystal says. The woman goes inside and returns carrying a cardboard office box by the handles, which filled with various items.

“Here you go. I'm glad I got to give it to someone. By the way, you know the cemetery over on Fountain Head Road? That's where they buried him. Just in case you wanted to know.”

“Um, yeah, thats where my mom is buried. Thanks. Thanks for hanging onto this stuff for me. Um, bye,” she says to the woman, who waves goodbye and shuts the door. Crystal walks back to the car, puts the box in the back seat, and gets in. “Well, that was quick,” she tells the driver. “I guess you can take me back now.”

As they drive back to Oak Ridge, Crystal starts to look through the box. She finds an envelope of old photographs. They are all of her mom and dad. They are so young, and her dad is smiling, in a way she can't remember him doing. She flips through them slowly, staring at each one for about a minute, letting the emotions they elicit seep through her.

She feels a little confused and lost. She wishes she had normal, alive parents. Her life has been so weird, and now she is alone. Even her job is wacko. Sometimes she half expects to wake up in a psych ward, her whole life having been one big delusion. But, she figures, for all it's weirdness, at least her life is pretty interesting. When she dies, she knows what her headstone won't say. 'Here lies Crystal Spiegelmacher, she led a normal, mundane life.'

As she nears the bottom of the stack, the pictures are taken in places on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory campus that she recognizes. In one photo, she can even see the building she works in way off in the distance. She wonders, if he were still alive, whether her dad would want to visit again. Maybe she could have helped him deal with his weird phobia of the place.

The last photo is of her mom and dad standing in front of a giant Tesla coil connected to an array of experimental gear inside a large room. They are standing together with a bunch of scientists.

“Now this is a cool picture,” Crystal thinks and smiles. She decides she would like to frame that picture for her new room. It might make a neat conversation piece. Maybe someone at Oak Ridge would know what the experiment was. She wonders if it wasn't maybe something secret, like a military thing, and starts to change her mind. “Maybe I’ll hold off on framing it,” she decides.

7) Teleporting

First Attempt

During the remainder of her hiatus Crystal spends a few days going over the materials in Dr. Maddox's office while they clean up his guts from the chamber. She finds some of his favorite books, some famous and some esoteric quantum physics texts from the 20's, 30's, and 40's, and she reads the chapters he had marked. They are good chapters, and she finds herself talking to Dr. Maddox in her head about them as she reads.

Crystal also re-reads his second paper on how the antenna aiming technology can be used to guide the recombination point of synchronized coherent object worldlines through the Multiverse. She always feels like the only time she really got an intuitive grasp of it all was reading Richard’s explanations, and she loved staring at his diagrams of 5d space, which he drew himself by hand.

Staying true to Dr. Maddox's designs, Crystal spends the next 7 months working with the team to install additional control systems to the coherence synchronizer’s lasers in the chamber to also act as it's own Multiverse antenna. With this new antenna functionality, the chamber is eventually able to pick up the signal of the Multiverse star MS-1A. If they can aim the system as an antenna, they should also be able to guide the recoherence point.

It is decided that another iron cylinder will be teleported to a point in the middle of empty space near enough to MS-1A to be a valid test, but far enough away that any civilization would not be able to notice anything.

On the day of the test, Dr. Archibald shows up with a woman scientist Crystal has never seen before. She is a slight woman, smaller than Crystal, and has large glasses and long black hair.

Crystal greets him. “I didn't expect to see you here, Dr. Archibald, welcome. You are just in time.”

“Yes, well, this is an experiment I always wanted to see in person. Crystal, I would like you to meet Dr. Pippa Gravani, she is from CERN. Dr. Gravani, this is Dr. Spiegelmacher.”

Crystal and Dr. Gravani shake hands. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Doctor,” Dr. Gravani says in an Italian accent.

“Likewise,” reciprocates Crystal.

Dr. Archibald explains her presence. “She is a specialist in quantum entanglement. I think she can help us with establishing a line of communications across the Multiverse. I am trying to convince her to join the team, and I thought this would be a great recruiting tool. Seeing an object teleported through the Multiverse for the first time in history.”

Dr. Gravani smiles excitedly and says “I am very happy to be here, Dr. Spiegelmacher. Good luck with your test today.”

“Thank you,” Crystal says. She is glad that Dr. Archibald is thinking ahead about how to get a probe to communicate back. Sending a probe that can't transmit data is about as useful as sending an iron cylinder, which is as far ahead as Crystal has been thinking lately.

“All the stations are ready, Dr. Spiegelmacher,” says Marcus Rubio. He was the technician at the quantum synchronization terminal the day Dr. Maddox died. His efforts in the aftermath were crucial to getting the experiment back up and running, and his suggestions for improvements to the lab impressed Crystal, so she had promoted him to chief technician. “We are all set. Ready for your word.”

“OK, thank you Marcus.” Crystal raises her voice. “All right, you know the drill, don't touch anything, and only report if you see a problem. I am turning on the field.” Crystal clicks the button on the controls software, and the field ramps up to its optimum level.

Crystal looks over at Dr. Archibald and Dr. Gravani, who both give a thumbs up.

Crystal begins to shout. “OK, we are commencing the test! This is it! On your marks! Get set! Go!”

Crystal watches the zoomed in camera feed on her monitor as the sample begins to split in two. A status field on her controls window reads “Worldline Coherence Stable.” It changes to “Aiming Recombination Point” then to “Commencing Recombination.” As everyone watches, over the period of about 1 second, the samples fade to nothing, and simply disappears.

“Poof,” Crystal whispers.

All the technicians stand up and clap. Marcus approaches Crystal with a big grin on his face, holding out his hand to shake, and then reels her in for a hug and says “Congratulations, Dr. Spiegelmacher. Big success.”

“Thank you, Marcus. Good work.” Crystal says, and raises her voice “Good work everyone.” She looks over at Dr. Archibald and Dr. Gravani. He is golf clapping and nodding, and she is clapping exuberantly and hopping. Crystal thinks to herself “She is a total dork. I like her already.”

“I brought some champagne, Doctor, would you like a glass?” says Marcus.

“You did? Awesome, yes, I'll have some.” She gets the first pour, a little splash into a small paper cup. As the others wait for their cup of cheap bubbly, Crystal walks towards the chamber, goes inside, and pretends to look for the sample. “Uh, you guys, where’s my sample?”

The fourth phase of the project, teleporting a sample, is complete. Crystal is happy, and a little proud, because everything went smoothly. It was almost like she knew what she was doing. The teleporter works. The rest is messing around with probes, which should be easy. Now maybe she can relax a little and have some fun at work for the rest of her time at Oak Ridge.

That evening she wonders about what will be the next phase of her life. Will she work at Oak Ridge for the rest of her career? She probably could if she wanted to. What will happen with the probes? What if they do find life? All good questions, but she decides not to worry about it for a while.

The Small Probe

A meeting is held to kick off the fifth phase of the project. A presentation of the proposed first probe is given, and Dr. Gravani shares her ideas on how to hopefully be able to communicate with the probe across the Multiverse. Crystal is glad to be out of the spotlight for a while, and looks forward to learning something new.

It is decided they will focus first on creating a probe that can send a tiny stream of data back from the other side. Even though the Multiverse antenna could theoretically detect a probe setting off a nuclear bomb, getting a reasonable data stream will require something a little more subtle and efficient than screaming through the 5th dimension via the use of gargantuan energy surges. Dr. Gravani describes a relatively simple device that will rely on a phenomenon Crystal is already familiar with called quantum entanglement.

In quantum physics, it is possible to create a pair of particles in a single event which share a single overall quantum state. In this quantum entangled state, they can share a common property, for example spin or polarization, but in opposite values. If one particle is measured to have a positive value of the property, the other must have the negative value, maintaining the zero sum enforced by the conservation of energy.

As it turns out, neither particle has the positive or negative value until you measure them. Unmeasured, they both have an overlapped 50/50 possibility of being in either state. If you measure one, and find out it has a positive value, you know right away that the other is negative.

This is only interesting if you believe what has been proven through experiment, that the state of both particles really is in a superposition of both values. When you measure one, and it's overlapped state lands on one value, the other one really does suddenly go from being in a superimposed state of both values, to landing on the opposite value.

The entanglement holds even if you carefully separate the particles very far away from each other, and it is truly instantaneous. It is tempting to think you could use this effect to send information, like Morse code, across vast distances faster than the speed of light. You create an entangled pair of particles, keep one, have your accomplice fly off with theirs, and transmit a bit of data to them by measuring your particle, thus causing theirs to instantly change.

But, unfortunately, when you measure the value of your particle, the outcome of what state it chooses out of the 50/50 superposition is random. So the only information you can send to the other particle is randomness, which by definition cannot hold any data.

When Dr. Gravani read Crystals PhD thesis, she came up with an idea to beat the system, and send structured data instantaneously over any distance via quantum entanglement. If you put your particle in it's overlapped state into Crystals decoherence field, it forks the overlapped particle into two particles, one with a positive value, one with a negative.

Dr. Gravani came up with a method to deliberately select which value was chosen to be the final state. This means you can select what value the particle’s property takes on your end, and also what value the entangled particle takes. Thus, in the parlance of Morse code, you can choose to send a dash or a dot.

While working at CERN, Dr. Gravani was able to prove this method of sending data worked, and the task now would be to attempt to miniaturize the device down to where entangled particles could be held inside a probe small enough to be teleported.

Crystal makes sure to be involved in the construction of the probe and its communications system. The core of communications system is somewhat like a miniature teleportation chamber. It contains a small decoherence field generator, and a small Multiverse antenna as part of the particle state selector.

Since they will only be splitting a single quantum state at a time, the computational power necessary to hold the worldline splitting inside the communications core will be small, so they can use a small onboard conventional computer. The probe is designed to reply to a signal sent to it from a transceiver on Earth in an unmistakable way.

The probe is completed, and Crystal spent a lot of time in the shop participating in the actual construction. She likes looking at the finely crafted device so much, she wishes she could take it home instead of teleporting it to the other side of nowhere. Nevertheless, the team teleports the probe successfully to the same general location as the first sample, the middle of empty space in the other Universe, not too far from MS-1A.

Dr. Gravani leads the team sending the first signal from the transceiver at Oak Ridge. As anticipated, the probe replies successfully, and the response is basically instantaneous. So now it is possible to send a probe to the planet and transmit data gathered about the planet back to waiting scientists on Earth.

Plans For The Big Probe

Dr. Archibald invites Crystal to dinner to talk about the next phase. “Crystal, I didn't tell you this yet, but I arranged a tentative collaboration with some folks at NASA, contingent on the success of our first probe, to help us build a new teleportation chamber, and a fancy new probe.”

“Wow, really? Where are they going to be built?” Crystal asks.

“Here, mostly,” Dr. Archibald replies. “The main body of the probe will be built at JPL, but we will build the communications system and the teleportation chamber at Oak Ridge. We will will be taking on a few new members to our team.”

“OK, great,” Crystal replies. “Am I on the team?”

“Yes, of course, Crystal. You are permanently involved as long as you want to be. Think of yourself as tenured,” assures Dr. Archibald. “Anyhow, I would like you to head up the team building the new chamber. That’s your main role this time around, since you are the expert.

“This probe is going to be built by its own dedicated team at JPL. It's gonna be really nice, this is a real NASA level probe. We’re sparing no expense. It’s going to have thrusters so it can make a flyby of the planet, a camera, and a communications link that should be able to send back a picture or two.”

Only a small number of images could be sent back from a probe. There is a practical limit to how much data you can send with a communications link based on quantum entanglement. Only one bit of data can be sent at a time, and only as many bits can be sent as quantum entangled particles that are carried on the probe. The pictures will be low resolution, but everyone, including Crystal, is very anxious to see even a crude image of the planet.

“Oh, wow, this is going to be amazing. I can't wait to see the images.”

“Yes, I'm eager to see them as well. Who wouldn't be. Which brings me to my next point. As soon as practical, we will be publishing all of our work, and for lack of a better term, going public. About our experiments, about the Multiverse star and the planet, and about the probe. There will be a lot of media interest. It will probably be a big story. There may be some reporters coming around.”

“Oh man, do I have to give any speeches?” Crystal makes a phony nervous face.

Dr. Archibald allays her put-on fears. “I will handle most of that. You might get a little famous in the Scientific American magazine reading crowd, though. You might end up gaining some fans. You did more or less invent half the teleporter. They will have to mention you.”

“Oh brother. When is this all going to start?” Crystal asks.

“Very soon. We will be having some planning meetings, you will be invited. For now, can you put together a scientific paper detailing our experiments so far? I would like to have something to submit for publishing within a week or two, is that enough time? I know it's a tall order.”

“Sure, I think I can do that.” Crystal pauses, and thinks. “Dr. Archibald, this project will probably have some objectors. Some people might think it’s unnatural or dangerous. We might get some picketers, like they did when they built the Large Hadron Collider. There will be crazy doom prophecies by people who are afraid we might create a black hole, or let malevolent aliens in, or something. Are we going to beef up security?”

“I am consulting with some people at NASA about that, but yes, in case you are worried, we will be doing whatever is necessary to safeguard the project, and it's scientists.”

Going Public

NASA holds a press conference. They announce to the world that they have discovered a “Parallel Universe” solar system, and that it seems to contain an Earth-like planet. They also announce that the technology to send a probe has been tested successfully, and they intend to send a probe to the planet to send back a picture.

Crystal is disappointed in how vague the information is about the planet and the signal Dr. Maddox discovered indicating possible life. Still, she understands that, since everything is highly speculative, and it’s a potential hot button issue, they need to be very careful not to conclude anything or raise expectations.

The signal data is eventually published, and numerous independent scientific groups analyze it. A surprising number of diverse and interesting theories are dreamed up attempting to explain the signal. Most revolve around exotic astronomical and planetary phenomena.

A few scientists do think the signal could be indicative of life, but most of that speculation comes from the crackpot crowd. Crystal keeps abreast of the various theories, but still subscribes to Dr. Maddox's basic interpretation. She is an intelligent life believer, but her conviction does wane slightly, and she intentionally relaxes her viewpoint to be more open, lest she be thought a nut.

The public simply takes it all to mean the planet is just somehow strange, which seems natural for a planet in a parallel Universe. Interest in the whole project peaks to a near fervor after the announcement, but eventually settles to an ongoing chatter amongst interested groups, mostly about the nature of the planet and the Multiverse in general. Some people think it is a conspiracy, but life around Oak Ridge is relatively normal as construction commences in earnest.

Teleporting The Big Probe

The probe and new teleportation chamber are completed in two years. Both are impressive technological feats, and put their predecessors to shame. The probe is about the size of a van. The chamber is so large, and the field generator inside so powerful, it is constructed as it's own entire building, connected to the main building by a tunnel.

A second generation quantum computer is constructed as well. It is built mostly as a proof of concept to test new manufacturing and miniaturization technologies, with the hopes that it will help spur the burgeoning new quantum computer industry. During teleportation of the probe, it will act as a slave to the Oak Ridge National Quantum Supercomputer, which also gets an overhaul.

The day of the teleportation arrives, and with the big probe inside the new chamber, a live television feed shows the probe disappear, quick and smooth, like an extravagantly expensive two bit magic trick. Crystal is at the command center, but her old role of giving direction is taken over by a NASA Flight Director, who does about the same level of basically nothing but pushing a button that Crystal used to do.

The probe is teleported successfully and accurately to a point approximately 3 million miles from the planet, which is about 12 times the distance from the earth to the moon. This is safely far enough away to avoid any orbiting debris or moons, yet close enough for an easy flyby.

Contact with the probe is established quickly. The team orient the probe and take an extremely crude picture using it's low resolution, wide angle guidance camera that should show the planet as a tiny dot. Transmitting the picture takes only a day, and when it is fully sent, it is released to the public.

The general public is somewhat unimpressed by the tiny dot picture, but are assured that, after the correct probe trajectory is calculated, and the thruster burn initiates a flyby of the planet, they will see something much better some time later.

The flyby takes place, and the probe takes two pictures. The transmission of the first picture takes about a 3 months. There is much speculation about what will be seen. Numerous fantastic artistic renderings of strange planet are published to give the public an idea of what will be seen, but nobody knows, and everyone is very curious. When the transmission is complete, NASA holds a press conference.

The Picture

The the speaker begins by telling everyone in the auditorium to calm down, and brace themselves. When the room quiets, he shows the image on a large screen. The image is only 100 pixels by 100 pixels in resolution, but it clearly shows the crescent of a planet that looks just like the Earth, only with a powder blue ring around it, like Saturn. It appears to have dark blue oceans, wispy white clouds, and what looks like a continent. What is most amazing is that the portion of land visible appears to be partially green with what is most likely plant life.

It is a historic moment. Civilization partially grinds to a halt as people realize that extraterrestrial life, at least of the plant kind, has been discovered. It becomes an instantly iconic photo, and is splashed across virtually every television station, website, and newspaper in the world for weeks.

Scientists and the public alike feverishly yearn for more, but the attempt to send a second picture from a better angle, showing more of the planet's surface, is only partially received, and is garbled. The best they can do to enhance the image is not very good, and reveals little more about the planet than the first image.

Crystal speaks to Pippa about the data transmission failure, and Pippa feels the probe itself was probably damaged. Perhaps by passing through thin outer ring debris.

Speculation about sending astronauts is rampant. Such a plan seems to be reasonable, since there really is no travel time, and there is no need for a large rocket to launch a spacecraft way off into space. Vastly more data could be obtained this way, because hard drives could be carried. Crystal knows it would require a craft that could teleport itself back.

She is relaxing in her room at Oak Ridge, watching a scientist talk about a manned mission on cable news, when she gets a call from Dr. Archibald.

Call From Dr. Archibald

“Hello Crystal. Do you have time to chat? I have something important to ask you,” he says. Crystal feels a wave of heat flush across her forehead.

Before Dr. Archibald can say anything, she blurts “If they wanna build a ship to carry humans, it will need to carry it's own teleportation system, so it can return itself, and it will only be able to go there and back once. One return trip only, or else it's worldlines will fold, and you know how that's bad.”

“Yes, I know. Are you near your computer? I’m emailing you something. It's the ship, NASA is building it. It's really a beauty. It is a prototype that was never really practical for anything until now. I want you to see a schematic so you can get to work designing the onboard...”

Crystal cuts Dr. Archibald off. “You were right the whole time. About sending humans. I’m so sorry I thought it was a crazy idea. How did you know?”

Dr. Archibald laughs. “Yes, well, I'm a very optimistic prognosticator of these sorts of things, it's part of my job. Check your email.”

Crystal is looking around her room, trying to remember where she put her laptop. “I cannot believe they decided so fast! How can NASA justify this at the drop of a hat?”

“Look at the document I sent you. It has your explanation right on the cover page. The NASA mission statement.”

“I’m still looking for my laptop,” Crystal says as she tosses all her belongings around like a mad woman.

“Well, I have it memorized, it goes 'to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.' This project is a slam dunk. There is no point in debating it. If NASA has ever had any reason to exist whatsoever, this is it.”

“Welp, I am down with that,” Crystal says as she finds her laptop, which was on her table the whole time, under a pile of science magazines. She quickly finds and opens the email document, scrolls down, and sees an schematic of a ship with a spade-shaped fuselage about the size of her old single-wide mobile home. It has what looks like two complex propulsion units on short wings blended into the rear of the body. It is a partial cutaway diagram showing a crew of 8 inside with a reasonably sized cargo area.

“Holy shit. They can make that thing?”

“Sure, Crystal. All they need is a good reason. It's a VTVL, as in vertical takeoff, vertical landing, single-stage-to-orbit space plane and planetary exploration crew transport. Basically it incorporates all the advances from the X-Plane project, and newer throttleable rocket technologies. It will be capable of reentering the atmosphere, landing on the surface, flying around a little, and taking off again. All the way back to orbit if necessary. There may be some minor changes, the trip plan is partially up in the air, but that is pretty much the ship. Do you think we can make it teleport? Oh, also, I forgot one little nugget, I work for NASA now. Anyways, can we get it to teleport itself?”

“Well, maybe. The field generator and antenna are almost easy. It's the coherence synchronizer algorithms to run them, that's the hard part. We would need an onboard quantum computer capable of holding the entire ship's worldlines in coherence. But, if it can carry the new quantum computer, than probably, yeah. I don't see why...” Crystal pauses for a moment. “Wait, that's why you had them make that new fangled backup quantum computer, isn't it? It can fit inside this ship.”

“Clever girl.” They both laugh. “I was thinking about recommending you for my old job, which you can have, but there is another position that just opened up you might be interested in.”

“Oh yeah? What is it?” Crystal wonders, genuinely oblivious to what it could possibly be.

“You are a healthy thirty four year old woman, and you are the only qualified teleporter technician that I am aware of. We will need one of those on the crew in case something happens. Would you consider training to becoming an astronaut?”

Crystal freezes. “Uhh...” Her voice quavers slightly. “I don't know what to say. Umm...” Crystal pauses, and Dr. Archibald waits silently.

Crystal's Destiny

Crystal's mind is a turbulent blur. She is trying to tell if she wants to do it, but she cannot think a single complete thought before another idea nucleates and destroys it. She feels a psychosomatic blanket constrain her mind, almost painfully, as she is pushed up into it. Then the blanket rips, and she feels herself push through it, from the hot, stiffing air underneath, into the cool, fresh air above. She is bathed in the purist mental clarity and tranquil purpose she has ever felt. She finally comprehends the one transcendental truth that defines her. Odd World is her predestination.

Dr. Archibald is about to ask Crystal if she is still there when she finally replies. “Screw it, yes, I will go. Absolutely. I want to do it.”

“Really? Wow, that is great news!” Dr. Archibald is almost giddy. “I must say, I was really quite concerned you would reject the idea outright, call me something profane, and hang up.” They both laugh.

“Who, me?” They laugh some more.

Crystal sighs and says “Well, maybe in some alternate universe I would have done that, but not this one.”

“Well, than I am glad we are in this one. For now. I will be back at Oak Ridge tomorrow night, let's have dinner.”

Crystal paces around her room for hours, thinking about what is to come. Thinking about the ship, teleporting, and the planet. Odd World, as she decides to call it to herself. What will it be like to actually go there? She eventually forces herself to bed, and quickly falls asleep, dreaming her weird dreams again, but of a whole new set of timelines of her life. They are paths she never saw before, and even asleep, she feels herself getting almost too blissfully excited to remain objective.

8) Getting Ready To Go

The Ship

The plan is to contract Lockheed Martin to build the ship itself at their Skunk Works in Palmdale California. It will be constructed mostly of carbon fiber composite and titanium, with a ceramic heat shield covering it's underbelly. All of this requires the facilities located there for building advanced military fighter jets and secret XPlanes.

NASA decides to name the ship the 'Everett' in honor of Hugh Everett, the American physicist who came up with the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics. Crystal absolutely loves the name, and would have named the ship the exact same thing, since Everett is probably her favorite physicist ever, and from a certain point of view, the ship's father.

The entire drive system is to be built at Oak Ridge. NASA also came up with a name for that, too, a 'Parallel Universe Drive'. Crystal is not as crazy about that name. Maybe because it’s her baby. It sounds a tad too sci-fi for her tastes. She would have preferred 'Multiverse Engine', perhaps, but it's all for the public to call it, she figures, and at least it is fairly accurate. Certainly catchy.

NASA also decides to name the planet. This time they hold an online vote. The winning name chosen for the planet is 'Nimbus', which is the word for the circle of light surrounding the head of a Saint, like you see in old paintings. It makes sense, since the planet has a ring. Crystal doesn't really care what they name the planet, though. To her it will always be Odd World. For some reason, she feels like that is it's true name.

The ship and the engine will be integrated and tested in a special new hangar facility at Oak Ridge. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida was also considered, but the ship doesn't need to be located somewhere special, it could teleport from anyplace. Since it is an advanced VTVL craft, it doesn't need a launch pad, either.

Oak Ridge is also somewhat more isolated, and all parties concerned feel that would simplify security logistics, benefit post-return quarantine concerns, reduce distractions, and generally expedite the project. Also, Oak Ridge is where the drive is being built, and where integration of the drive and ship would be best supported.

The Components

Crystal is named the director of the 'Parallel Universe Drive' project. The plan is to build the entire thing as one big box that will go into the cargo bay of the ship. It will hold all three main components, the Multiverse Antenna, the Decoherence Field Generator, and the Quantum Computational Coherence Synchronizer, all as a single monolithic unit.

The engine will be designed to work essentially in reverse to the way the teleportation chambers worked, casting its field outwardly, and teleporting itself and everything around it. Crystal is a little worried about how to control the radius of the teleportation zone, but conceptually, it is the same thing.

“I know you like building things, Crystal, but this time around, you are just the designer, OK?” Dr. Archibald asks of Crystal. “There is way too much going on for you to be distracted by getting your hands dirty.”

“Got it. I boss people around,” Crystal goes along. “That's fine, I had my fill of lathing and tapping and welding for a while.”

“Good. You work with the CAD guys to plan the whole thing out schematically, down to the last bolt, and they will build it for you. Take your time, and remember to communicate what you mean, these guys are good engineers. Also, build this thing as nice as possible. Overly powerful. I want this sucker to be able to throw up a field that even you are afraid of. You have a large budget, I made sure of that. Use it all.”

Crystal laughs a little and replies “OK, Dr. Archibald, I got it. One insanely powerful 'Parallel Universe Drive', coming up. It's a shame we’ll only get to use it for a single round trip.”

“Yes, but we are going in style, Crystal. No holding back, OK. Efficiency be damned,” Dr. Archibald reiterates.

Pippa is the director of the communications project. She is tasked with designing a quantum entanglement communications system for the Everett that will be several orders of magnitude improved over the one she built for the probe.

It should allow for about 100 megabytes of total of communications, and at a data rate sufficient to support textual communications about as fast as a person can type. Small images could be sent as well, though it would take hours. They do plan to collect vast amounts of data about the planet, but will bring all that back on hard drives.

The Team

Once construction on the ship, the drive, the communications system, and the hangar are all off and running, Dr. Archibald focuses himself on choosing the 8 people that will go. He calls a large press conference at Oak Ridge to introduce them. The 8 are seated in a row of desks on the stage.

Crystal and Pippa are among them, and sit next to each other at the far left. Dr. Archibald is in front of them on stage, addressing the auditorium on a microphone. Crystal has her bangs pinned up and secured with a tasteful hair band to look as professional as possible.

“The decision was to have a team of eight people broken into three smaller groups,” Dr. Archibald begins. “A team of three Physicists, a team of two Alien Life Scientists, and three Mission Specialists, including a NASA astronaut pilot, and two military trained security personnel.” There is a murmuring from the crowd.

“I know a lot of you aren't happy about the military presence, but I assure you, it is just precautionary. This is not a military project in any way, shape, or form. We just don't have any idea what we are going to run into out there, and we need to be prepared. Alright, so introducing the team...” He turns and points to Crystal.

“First off, the Physicists. From right here at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Dr. Crystal Spiegelmacher will be Lead Science Officer.” Crystal waves and the crowd claps.

“Our Communications Officer will be Dr. Pippa Gravani from CERN.” Pippa waves to the crowd and smiles at Crystal.

“She is so excited,” Crystal thinks, squelching a smile back at the beaming Italian.

“And Dr. Hans Wintercorn, also from Oak Ridge. He will be our Quantum Computer Officer.”

Crystal had seen Hans around, but never got the chance to put the name to a face. She read some of his papers, he was the key scientist in getting the quantum mechanical algorithms working.

Crystal heard him talking to someone once in the cafeteria, and he had a thick German accent. She wondered how long he had been in the U.S. She wondered if German accent depth was a good gauge for how long a German has been in the U.S. Crystal used to have a southern accent, but lost it so fast, she forgot how long it even took to lose.

“Next up, our two Alien Life Scientists. From the Japanese Institute for Science, Dr. Tatsu Yoshida, a Doctor of Biology, and leading specialist in exobiology.” Dr. Yoshida stands up and bows to the crowd. Crystal was pretty sure he was the oldest on the team, or at least he looked it, with the twinge of gray in his sideburns.

“And Dr. Fiona Mathe, from SETI, a specialist in alien communications.” Crystal had skimmed a paper Dr. Mathe wrote about her methods to communicate with alien life, and it was pretty interesting. She invented a simplified, universal system of symbology. Crystal thought it was fairly optimistic to think they would be talking to anyone in Odd World. Dr. Mathe was from South Africa, and Crystal thought she looked a little like the part, tall, lithe, tan, blonde, like a less glamorous Charlize Theron.

Dr. Archibald continues “And finally to our three Mission Specialists.”

Crystal has no idea who these guys are. It sounds good to have a NASA astronaut as the Everett's pilot. He has flown to space, so she figures that qualifies him enough right there in her book. The two other guys just looked like regular military guys in their formal uniforms, though one of them she thought looked like Brent.

“Our Lead Mission Specialist, Ex Lieutenant Commander of the Navy, and current NASA Astronaut, John Wheeler. He will pilot the Everett.” Wheeler gets a particularly nice ovation, probably since he is an astronaut, Crystal figures.

“Our next Mission Specialist is Chief of Security Major Brian Decatur” Decatur stands up and salutes.

“And our last Mission Specialist, distinguished Navy Seal Warrant Officer Brent Williford.”

A Familiar Face

“Holy shit, it fucking is Brent,” softly blurts Crystal, whose voice is thankfully covered by the ovation he is getting. She looks over at him, and he looks back and smiles.

She looks away. “Oh my God, did he know I was on the team?” she thinks. She is suddenly embarrassed she didn't know he was until just then, and feels uncomfortable in front of the crowd.

After the press conference Crystal tries to find Brent, though she feels nervous about talking to him, since she hadn't apparently been interested enough to know he was even involved. She feels a tap on her shoulder, and turns around. It's Brent.

“Hi Crystal,” he says.

“Hi Brent.”

They smile and hug. Crystal decides to tell Brent what she is thinking.

“I had no idea you were on the team until just then.”

Brent laughs. “That's OK, I would have called you or something, but I only just found out a week ago myself. I applied, and it took a while. They gave us weird seminars and tests and everything. I didn't expect to get it, but they chose me. I was pretty happy we would get to work together.”

They finish hugging and Crystal says “I’m glad we’ll be working together, too. Thanks for doing this. I mean, not that you’re doing it for me, or anything, but I'm glad you're coming.”

Brent smiles. “I feel lucky to be a part of it. When I heard about it, I just couldn't miss it.”

Crystal and Brent leave the conference together, walk around the Oak Ridge campus, and talk about what they have been up to since they last spoke, about 15 years ago, when they were both around 19, when Crystal was a freshman at Rice, and Brent decided to join the Navy.

“Basically I joined the Navy, became a Seal, and went on a couple of missions, and trained a lot,” Brent summarizes. “I was on the officer path, but I was looking for something interesting to do, one last mission, when I heard about this.”

“I ended up finishing my PhD at Rice, and came to Oak Ridge when I was twenty four,” Crystal remembers. “I’ve been here for ten years, working on this project the whole time.”

“Then you must know someplace around here we can get some food.”

Crystal had already planned where she would eat. “Actually, there's a barbecue place here on campus that I was thinking about getting diner at, wanna go there?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

“It's not the best barbecue, but it's OK, I guess,” Crystal apologizes. “I'm afraid I’m sorta used to cafeteria food.”

“Sounds like you had it good,” Brent replies. “You don't even wanna know what they fed us in the Navy,” he jokes, and they both laugh.

Training

It is decided the team of 8 will live and prepare for the mission at Oak Ridge, since the final assembly of the Everett will be done by the scientists there, and the training will be mostly technical.

Brent is put in charge of the physical aspect of the training, since that was his function as a warrant officer with the Seals. He decides the team should start off light by jogging 2 miles each morning around the old quad near the edge of campus.

The team meet up the first morning dressed in issued gray sweat suits. The three mission specialists, Wheeler and Decatur, led by Brent, set the pace and lead the pack, followed by Tatsu, Crystal, Fiona, Pippa, and Hans.

Hans Wintercorn is in noticeably poor shape, and struggles the most to keep up. In order to prevent from falling too far behind, Hans takes shortcuts across the quad.

“Are you just gonna to let him do that, Williford?” Wheeler asks Brent of Hans' detours.

“These are civilian scientists, Commander Wheeler. Everyone should run at their own pace, at least for the first couple of weeks. We need to ease him in so he doesn't overexert. It's OK for now.”

“Just Wheeler, Williford, you don't have to address me as Commander. This is a civilian operation.”

“OK, good, 'cause I don't want to be called warrant officer. I’m sick of military courtesy. Just call me Brent.”

Hans struggles to shout to the amused pack through his panting. “You people run two miles. I am German, I run two kilometers. This affords me a thirty eight percent reduction in distance. I have completed the calculations in my head, and determined I must take this exact path!”

Decatur shouts back “Hans, your humor is so corny, you keep tryin’ to be funny, we might have to punish you with extra laps.”

Crystal, on the other hand, is in surprisingly good shape for having been a bookworm and a lab rat for the last 15 years. She has no problem keeping up with Tatsu, who is a lifelong fitness buff, and in fantastic shape for a 45 year old scientist.

“You must be a runner, Crystal,” Tatsu comments to her as they jog side by side.

“Nope, not at all, actually,” she tells him, and shrugs. “Never got into exercising.”

“Hmm,” Tatsu responds. “Good genes, then, perhaps. Some people are more athletically gifted, genetically.”

When they finish, Brent asks everyone to take their pulse. He sees Crystal isn't sure how to take hers. “Here, let me help you.” He takes her wrist, and places two fingers over her radial artery.

The run felt easy for her, but now she suddenly feels her heart rate is accelerating for some nebulous psychological reason.

“Why are you taking my pulse?” she asks, for no reason she can fathom other than filling the air with a stupid question to occupy her nervous mind.

“Everyone is taking their pulse, Crystal. I'm establishing a fitness baseline today. One thing I learned, and believe, is that recognizing your own progress is the best self motivator in a long training regiment.”

Rekindling

One evening Brent decides to visit Crystal's room to see how things are going with the project. Crystal invites him in.

“I dunno if you drink, but I brought a half rack of beer.”

“Oh, thanks, yeah. Just stick it in the fridge, right over there.”

She has an enormous pile of blueprints and notes on her table.

“Holy cow, you really are busy in here,” Brent comments.

“Yeah, well, it's a never ending series of design challenges, making this new drive for the Everett. We really have to cram a lot of parts in a small package.”

It dawns on Brent how significant Crystals role is. She really is fully overseeing the construction of something incredibly complex. He feels a little intimidated intellectually, and is impressed with her apparent work ethic.

“How exactly does that thing work?” Brent asks of the engine.

Crystal sighs. “Oh, I could tell you, but it would take an hour to graze the surface,” she chuckles.

“Would you? I want to know, as best I can.”

“Um.. alright, sure. Let's have a beer, and I'll ramble on for you.”

Crystal describes the engineering of the drive, focusing on quantum mechanical analogies to get across it's true functional essence. She eventually digresses into how she imagines Odd World, and how fascinating the possibility of visiting Odd World feels to her.

“When you say Odd World, you mean the planet Nimbus, right?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Crystal says, a little embarrassed. “It probably sounds like I’m talking about some fantasy realm, like Oz. I just like the name Odd World better. I musta subconsciously thought it up.”

“I like it better, too. What does Nimbus even mean?” Brent says, dismissing it as an esoteric name.

“It means like a halo, or just a pattern of light around a saint or a deity's head,” Crystal tells him. “The planet has a ring, so I guess it seemed appropriate. It's also a word for a rain cloud, too, so I hope that's not what it means. I don't wanna go rain camping.”

“Welp, just in case, I’ll pack some blue tarps.”

Crystal and Brent talk for hours. They had been intimate before, and Brent approaches her in the kitchen as she is retrieving another beer from her refrigerator. When she stands up and turns around, he is standing right there, and puts his arms around her lower back and leans in for a kiss with deliberate slowness to gauge her reciprocity. Crystal is surprised, but doesn't want to stop him.

Their intimacy builds and naturally concludes in having discrete but passionate sex. Crystal is a little uneasy that Brent brought a condom, but quickly forgets about why it matters. Afterwards, Brent kisses Crystal goodnight, and recedes casually back to his room.

Halfway

At the 1 year mark, the project is on schedule. Crystal's has the major components of the drive complete enough to test the field. It is capable of throwing up a field so energetic, it could envelop an aircraft carrier, were Crystal not so fixated on meticulously controlling its power output.

Pippa's communications system is also complete enough to test, and the point at which the integration of all the systems can begin is nearing.

The Skunk Works is set to deliver the Everett in a few months, and when Crystal speaks to Dr. Archibald about it, he gushes about what a gorgeous spacecraft it is. He is so pleased with it's progress, he adds to the scope, and asks the construction team to make a space on the ship for a folding, lightweight titanium all-terrain dune buggy powered by a powerful lithium-ion battery and electric motor. “If we do land on Nimbus, they will need something to get around in,” he likes to say.

The project is a regular story subject in the media, and there is the expected public uneasiness that the whole thing is dangerous, and even an abomination in the minds of various religious zealots. Crystal occasionally pays attention to the media coverage, but for the most part, is so engrossed in her work and training, she hardly has time to think about the outside world's perspective. Dr. Archibald encourages her to leave that to him.

Crystal and Brent spend their spare time together, and do some extra jogging. They explore some old roads and trails around the Oak Ridge campus. One late afternoon, they come upon a scenic view on a bluff overlooking Melton Hill Lake, with a fantastic view of the Smoky Mountains, lit up by the setting sun. They stop for a moment to look.

Crystal is sitting on an old stone wall, and Brent is standing close, facing her. The sun is in her eyes, and she is squinting, trying to shield them from the glare.

Brent says “Your eyes look really cool in this light.”

“I always wanted hazel eyes. I even wrote it down as my eye color a few times, but I started just writing brown, since hazel felt like a lie.”

Brent says “Right now the light is shining in them, lighting them up. They sort of look like pieces of amber held in front of a candle.”

Crystal likes it when Brent talks that way, and decides to capture him with her legs, and give him a smooch.

As their relationship became more serious, Crystal had begun to feel deceitful about hiding it, and finally talks herself into confessing it to Dr. Archibald.

“I’m not going to stop you, Crystal. That said, and it may sound funny coming from me, but I suggest you keep on keeping it a secret. If it got out, it would just be such tabloid fare. Do any of the others on the team know?”

“No, I don't thinks so,” Crystal replies, thankful Dr. Archibald is being so accommodating.

“Good. Let's keep it that way. It’s none of their business, anyhow. I can probably come up with some excuse to move Brent to a room closer to yours, so you don't have to slink around the hallways in the night, but you have to keep it under wraps. No public displays of affection, act professional together in the open. Keep being sneaky about it.”

“Thank you Dr. Archibald, we will.”

“Alright, Crystal,” he replies, smirking and shaking his head in minor exasperation.

Dr. Archibald doesn’t say anything, but he thinks this might be good for Crystal. She always had a perspective that seemed a bit abstracted away from the human condition. With her background, and the psychological challenges she has already faced, all potentially compounded by the mission that lies ahead, he is glad she will have someone with her, close, to ground her. He won’t always be there to help.

9) Team Building

Military Guys

Dr. Archibald decides, in the interest of having a well rounded team with a certain degree of role redundancy, that each of the three sub-teams should spend two weeks teaching the other teams everything they can about their roles.

They start the two month team building games in a classroom in an older building on campus. The first team to go are the team specialists, or as the others always refer to them as, the military guys. They break their course down into four sections; living in space, safety and caution, situational awareness, and basic defensive tactics.

On the last day, the team visits a gun range, and everyone shoots a pistol. Brent helps Crystal, and she is a pretty good shot. She likes shooting more than she thought she would, and agrees with Brent they should shoot again some time.

Fiona is the most squeamish, and complains “This is ludicrous. I cannot believe you are forcing me to use a gun. I am an ambassador and a pacifist. You don't know how abhorrent this is to me. The only people I want shot are you barbaric bastards.”

She is a terrible shot, and almost drops the pistol when she first fires it. The military guys try not to laugh at her, and let her just fire a few rounds, to get the feel of it and be done.

Life Scientists

The second team to teach are the Alien Life Scientists. They decide Tatsu will lecture week one, and Fiona the second.

Tatsu describes some theories on what life forms could evolve on other planets, and Fiona keeps reminding the military guys “If you see one of those, don't shoot it.”

After a few hours of Fiona's sardonic quips, Decatur finally retorts “Good God, woman. We didn't heckle you when you almost shot your foot off. Just shut up and let us listen to the man. We are trying to learn here.”

Brent snickers like a high school kid, and Crystal laughs with him, to the surprise of Pippa, who sympathizes with Fiona.

“I’m sorry, Pippa. I can't help it, it's funny.”

Pippa scowls and replies “If you need humor to get through the team building games, maybe we should recruit a clown.”

Crystal feels bad. “No, come on, Pippa, no. I will stop laughing, I promise.” Crystal finds it difficult to not laugh, and is having fun with the whole thing.

Fiona's presentation revolves around the scenario of meeting an alien intelligence, and how to establish communications. The military guys chime in with questions relating to their training, which has a certain degree of overlap. Fiona grants their questions legitimacy, and answers them as best she can.

Fiona's time turns out to be more inspiring to Crystal than she imagined, and sets her mind racing for days about the realistic possibility of finding intelligent life, something she had managed to not yet seriously comprehend the significance of.

Fiona concludes her last day talking to the military guys. “Gentlemen, even though we seem have some philosophical differences about the purpose of the journey, we are on the same team, so we need to learn to work together.”

“Fiona is right Decatur,” Wheeler tells him.

“Yeah, I got it, no problem. Sorry if I was a dick,” Decatur apologizes to Fiona, and they shake hands.

Physicists

The 3 physicists start their first day telling the others they will divide their time up into 3 days each, and the last day they will get an in depth tour of the nearly assembled Everett by Dr. Archibald.

“Oh, hell yes. I cannot wait to see that ship, man. Have you seen it?” Decatur asks Wheeler.

“Of course, I'm the pilot.” Brent perks up and listens as Wheeler continues. “I've looked at it a couple of times from an office window up above the floor of the hanger.” Wheeler looks at Decatur and smiles and says “She is one big, bad bird.”

Decatur is very pleased Wheeler thinks that, and says “Yeah heh heh.”

Pippa details the communications system, and fields a barrage of questions from the military guys about what limitations they will have reporting back to Earth.

“We will plan to send a report back to Earth each night. It will be a written message, basically an email. It will be possible to send quick text messages anytime, and get immediate responses, but we should not do so unless it is necessary, since we have a very limited amount of data, and no way to replenish it.”

Hans begins his presentation with a joke. “I will be speaking about splitting timelines, but please, do not split on my time, I promise to keep the content lively.”

Decatur blurts “Oh dear lord help us, Hans 'Corny' Wintercorn has the floor.”

Corny describes the quantum mechanical nature of splitting worldlines, and how a quantum computer can be used to control their cumulative synchronization. All of his explanations come complete with a very terrible joke woven in. Decatur makes sure to groan in anguish after every joke, but everyone has a good 3 days listening to Corny, who is obviously a mathematical genius, at least in Crystals mind.

Crystal's talk is an expanded version of her conversation with Brent. Wheeler is the most interested in the principle of the drive, takes copious notes, and asks for Crystal to recommend reading homework. At Wheeler's request, she spends some time drawing diagrams of their journey in 5d space on a chalkboard. Decatur just wants to know what it will be like to ‘ride the vortex’. Brent just likes listening to Crystal.

Tour Of The Everett

On the final day of training, the team go to see the Everett in its hangar. Dr. Archibald greets them outside and introduces them to a few of the lead technicians. “This is a private tour for you people. Ask any and all questions you can think of, today, while the ones who can answer them are around.”

Dr. Archibald carefully assembles the team in a spot in front of a large door in the side of the building. He yells “OK, open the door!” and it begins to open upwards. As the ship inside is revealed, Dr. Archibald says “Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Everett.”

The spaceship is majestic. The wide, flat spade shaped nose is pointed nearly at the team. The huge, wraparound front windshield has three curved panes separated by pillars, allowing for spacious views forward, upward, and to both sides. They can see two pilot seats inside the cockpit, side by side, with room in between.

As the team walk in and see the ship from the side, they can see the fuselage ends abruptly in a chamfered flat rear transom, which is currently open like a large cargo ramp.

On the upper sides of the rear fuselage are two impressive propulsion pods, blended into short wings standing out horizontally. Around the propulsion pods, there is clearance for tilting piston arms to articulate the direction of the rockets. On the end of the wings are large, upward pointing winglets.

The entire craft sits on three retractable landing pads on very sturdy looking, short legs. It is mostly light gray on top and black on the bottom, which is covered in an advanced ceramic heat shield.

Corny points to a red symbol on the side, a circle with an 8 in it. “What does that mean?” he asks Dr. Archibald.

“Team 8 ball, that's you guys. We built the ship around the concept of an 8 person crew. We needed to call the crew something, so everyone building the ship just called you Team 8 Ball. That insignia is like a salute to you guys from the builders.”

“More like team screwball, right Decatur,” Corny says.

Crystal is reminded of the old 'magic 8 ball' toy, which randomly answers yes or no questions. She wonders if maybe Dr. Archibald didn’t come up with that name, since, to her, it has obvious quantum mechanical connotations.

The team climb the ramp into the spacious empty cargo bay of the ship. Wheeler demonstrates the controls in the cockpit, Pippa shows them the utility console, which also acts as the communications station, and Crystal shows them the engine, which is currently out on the hangar floor.

“Thank you for the tour, Dr. Archibald. It is a wonderful ship,” says Tatsu, bowing.

Dr. Archibald says “Thank you, Dr. Yoshida,” and bows back.

“I second that,” Decatur makes sure to add. “We are gonna fly to the other side on one sweet ride.”

Brent laughs and looks at Crystal for a moment, and they lock eyes. Brent smirks and casually looks in another direction.

Gear

The team spends a week with various technicians going over their gear. They all get issued boots, underwear, t-shirts, pants, and a one-piece coveralls. “Oh, I love onesies!” Pippa says as she puts on her uniform.

Each member gets a headset communicator with video feed. They also get an advanced lightweight space suit and helmet connected by a hose to a rebreather cell. The rebreather cell magnetically latches to a modular backpack system which can be worn over either the uniform or the space suit. The rebreather cell can be swapped out for a light metal case full of items designed specifically for each member.

Tatsu has the largest backpack case. He requested one specially designed. “I intend to collect samples, and I require a lot of special sampling equipment,” he explains to the group.

Crystal has the standard size case, full of various small tools for the engine, schematics, and reference material.

Pippa has a special high power communications pack that will allow the team to relay messages from the field through the Everett's communications core back to Earth.

Fiona has various weird translation charts and semaphore language cards.

Corny has a smaller pack containing an assortment of connectors and a laptop. “Now, if we get stuck, we can surf their internet. That should entertain us,” he jokes.

The military guys are issued a belt with a holster and pistol, a combat helmet, and inside their backpack cases are survival gear, a knife, ammo, a folding rifle, and several small, high-tech grenades.

Project Finishing

The engine is loaded into the ship, the flight plan for the trip is finalized, and it is decided that, upon the insistence of Crystal, that the ship should teleport from orbit.

“I am not comfortable teleporting from or to any location near any solid object, or even from the atmosphere. If we can teleport from space, we should teleport from space,” Crystal pleads with Dr. Archibald.

“Alright Crystal, I actually did design an extra fuel tank that could be carried inside the ship for this, but it will take up some room until you can get rid of it.”

“I will sit crouched up in the corner, if that's what it takes,” Crystal replies. “I want the ship to be floating surrounded by miles of vacuum when we go. It’s the perfect situation.”

The ship is set up in it's final configuration, and it is decided Wheeler should test fly it at least once. As the whole team watches, he takes off vertically from the cement pad in front of the hanger, flies up to 5,000 feet, throttles down into a steep glide, makes a big circle, and throttles back for a vertical landing exactly where he took off from, as indicated by the large black circles left by the thrusters when it took off.

“Terrific job, Commander,” Dr. Archibald congratulates him after his flight.

“She flew exactly like the simulator. Congratulations to you for building such a beautiful aircraft.”

“Multiverse craft, Commander. The Everett is a Multiverse craft. In seven days, you are flying that ship to somewhere nobody has ever dreamed we could go.”

Wheeler smiles and salutes Dr. Archibald “Multiverse craft, yes sir.”

Crystal Reboots Herself

Crystal had been wearing her hair clipped back for so long, it is a jumbled, frizzy, overgrown mess. She decides, with the last chance she has to go into Knoxville, to get her haircut just like she used to wear it. Shaved on the side with a big bang swoop. She justifies it to herself “I did my job, and now that I don't have to worry about being stereotyped on the other side of the Multiverse, I want my hair back.”

She decides to push her luck and get her nose pierced, too. She always wanted a nose ring, but was afraid it would be perceived as trying to hard to be trendy, or worse, eliciting dismissive prejudice upon her by her scientist peers. That doesn't matter anymore, so it feels like the perfect time.

The shop she visits has a great selection of nose rings. Her favorite is a large silver hoop wrapped with 8 Carnelian beads. It is just too obtrusive, though, and they wouldn't let her wear it. “Some day,” she thinks. She settles for a small Carnelian stone stud. The orange-red semi-translucent stone is set in a tiny silver blossom.

When she returns to Oak Ridge, the team members comment on her updated appearance.

“Wow, Crystal, you look like a rock star,” says Pippa.

Decatur suggests to Fiona “Hey, maybe we should make Crystal our alien ambassador.”

Brent subtly whispers to her as he casually walks by “Damn, you look as good as you did in high school. I almost feel like I'm robbing the cradle.”

It is the day before launch, and the team is doing a full dress rehearsal of the prelaunch in the hanger. The team is assembled in front of the ship, holding their helmets, listening to a group of technicians.

Air Force Space Commander General Larry Howard is visiting for the launch, and he and Dr. Archibald are watching from the high observation office.

“Who's the alternative girl?” asks General Howard.

Dr. Archibald replies “That, General, is Dr. Crystal Spiegelmacher.”

“Oh,” laughs General Howard. “Sorry, no offense. I guess she's eccentric. Einstein had crazy hair, right? So I guess it's a good sign.”

“Yes, perhaps.” Dr. Archibald smiles at the general, and looks back at Crystal.

As they continue to watch, Dr. Archibald's thoughts digress a bit about Crystal. He spoke with her in person earlier, after she got her hair cut. He was struck by her appearance, though he did not say anything. When he looks in the mirror, he feels like the last 10 crazy years have aged him 20. His dirty blond hair had accumulated quite a bit of gray. But Crystal, despite everything she went through, which has been significant, by anyone's standards, must somehow be immune to stress induced aging. Maybe it was the haircut, but he was amazed by how she looked exactly the same as she did the day he met her.

He continues speaking to General Howard. “But believe me, she is the best scientist and engineer I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Actually, I think she never got around to changing her look since she was in high school. She has been pretty busy for a while, you know, inventing Multiverse teleportation and all. Once you get to know her, though, it sort of suits her. She is unique. Exceptionally unique.”

10) Opening The Door

Taking Off

On the day of the launch, the team meet in their dressing room. They all quietly suit up in their space suits. Decatur decides to break the silence. “Did anyone else get like no sleep last night?”

Tatsu replies “You cannot try to sleep, you must trust your mind to do it's job, and sleep will come naturally.”

Corny says “Or, you can do as I did last evening. Drink yourself to sleep. The only flaw in this plan is that you will have difficulty in rising up.”

Decatur laughs. “How can you tell, Corny? I thought everything was difficult for you.”

The team put on their helmets, board the ship, and buckle themselves into their seats. Wheeler and Decatur are in the two pilot seats, Pippa at the utility console behind Wheeler on the left. On each side of the crew cabin are two seats, Tatsu and Fiona on the left, Corny and Brent on the right. Crystal is on the right, furthest back, near a touch console on the engine in the cargo bay behind the crew cabin.

The Everett is towed out of the hanger on retractable dolly wheels in the pads, out to the blackened spot where Wheeler took off on his test flight. Wheeler completes his checklist over his headset with the mission control center. The others are patched into the channel, listening, as the control chief says “OK, Everett, you are cleared for takeoff.”

Wheeler announces “OK, you guys, here we go. Next stop, orbit.”

He engages the throttleable, vector thrust, liquid fueled propulsion pods, and a tight, violent shaking vibrates the entire ship.

“We are lifting off,” Wheeler announces. From her vantage point furthest back, Crystal cannot see the ground, but she can see the tops of the trees in the distance dip below the lower edge of the windshield.

Crystal feels the ship begin to forcefully accelerate forward and assume a pitch of close to 60 degrees upwards. “We are at the optimum flight angle, control,” Wheeler annotates. Crystal looks forward, out the window. She sees the ship pass through a layer of clouds, and the sky turns darker and darker. Wheeler is reporting the ships altitude back at regular intervals. “Altitude, forty thousand feet,” he says. “Roger,” control replies. As the ship continues to climb, the sky turns navy blue, a deep sapphire blue, and then black.

“I am starting the orbital insertion maneuver,” Wheeler reports. Crystal feels her own weight fall below normal gravity, and she keeps getting lighter, until she is weightless. “Everett, your orbit is good,” control reports. Wheeler yaws the ship to point at the Earth.

“Welcome to space, people,” Wheeler announces. “You are now free to float about the cabin. Except Crystal, sorry, but you can open your window now, and see the view.” The ship's designers were kind enough to give Crystal's station it's own small window. She presses a button and an outside cover retracts, revealing the limb of the Earth.

“Wow,” Crystal says. She contorts her body, and puts her helmet's face shield against the window, and the vista nearly fills her peripheral vision.

“Look, there's the moon!” Pippa says. “It looks so clear from space!”

Crystal can see it too. The rest of the crew congregate near the front of the ship, floating and looking out the large window. Crystal gets her fill from her window, then turns back to her console and says “OK, I am going to begin my 'Parallel Universe Drive' boot up protocol. Are we clear of surrounding objects, Decatur?”

“Roger, nothing but vacuum around us.”

Crystal turns on the engine and all the status indicators are green. She opens the teleportation controls software, and turns on all the components. “OK, I hate to spoil the party, but we are ready to teleport whenever you give the word, Wheeler.”

“Aw man, already?” Decatur complains as the crew return to their seats, and re-buckle their straps.

Wheeler makes sure everyone is back secure, and says “Alright Crystal. I’m ready, the crew is ready, we are all a go. Time to do your thing.”

Teleportation

Crystal feels butterflies in her stomach. She takes a deep breath and says “Alright, I am ready to start the automated teleportation sequence. Once we start, and the field comes on, and we begin the split, there’s no going back. Remember what I told you, this will be pretty weird.”

The sequence for the ship's teleportation is programmed to turn on the decoherence field generator and split the ship into two instances. The quantum computer will then power the coherence synchronizer to build a coherent worldline synchronization.

The software is set to deliberately take it's time for safety reasons, and rigorously verify the integrity of the synchronization. The split will be held with short separation distance for the verification.

Crystal had described what the crew would experience during this time. If they look, they will see a copy of themselves appear next to them, about 4 feet away, and it would be independently sentient. They were advised to remain calm and silent, and close their eyes.

After synchronization verification, the separation of the split will then be extended to the full teleportation distance of a few ship lengths, so the ship and it's crew's wave functions do not overlap, simplifying the quantum mechanical state and the algorithms describing the guidance of the recoherence.

The antenna pointing system will then guide the recoherence point to their destination across the Multiverse. The computer will then recohere them. The actual travel time through the Multiverse should be instantaneous. The data from the probes indicated this, and it is probably an effect of the 5th dimension being timeless.

“Oh God, this is the part I was dreading. Make it quick, Crystal!” Decatur says.

“I am turning the engine on now. Next stop, Odd World.”

Decatur asks “Nimbus, you mean, right?” He looks inquisitively at the others, who already have their heads down and eyes closed, so he shrugs it off and closes his eyes.

“On your marks! “ Every single member of the crew is breathing heavily. “Get set!” Crystal feels an enormous wave of butterflies. “Go!” She taps a single button to engage the automated teleportation sequence, and sits back in her seat, having already decided she was going to watch it all.

Crystal looks into the cabin of the ship, and sees the entire ship and crew split into two overlapped instances separated by about 4 feet. The primary axis of the field generator and the coherence synchronizer are aligned along the ship's length, so the two instances slide along a line down the center of the ship, and it looks as though the fuselage is telescoping.

The instances of the ship itself are static with respect to each other, but she can see the crew members' doppelgangers moving differently. In their trepidation they are squirming in their seats a little, and breathing heavily. The subtle motions of their separate instances appear to move independently.

“I can now see the crew's doppelgangers,” she warns. She can hear a few deep sighs. She turns to her right to see hers, and almost jumps. It is directly adjacent, and it looks back at her.

“Whoah, ah, I can see my doppelganger,” she says, in a distinctly more anxious voice. Her doppelganger appears to say something too, but she cannot hear it. Not surprisingly, the separate instances of the comm system itself do not intercommunicate.

As Crystal looks at her doppelganger, and it looks back, she is reminded of the one remaining confusion she has about the split existence of a sentient being. The ambiguity of which worldline instance is which. If both my instances are sentient, which one am I?

“I am this one,” she thinks. “I think it, therefore I am, but why am I me?” What is the significance of which awareness is which? The equations describing worldline forking are by nature ambiguous, and the added factor of sentience only serves to highlight the strangeness of that ambiguity.

Corny opens his eyes, and looks at the bizarre scene. He turns and notices his doppelganger, and jumps in shock. “Oh, I looked! I shouldn't have looked.” He quickly closes his eyes and bows his head. He moans a little and says “I don't feel so good.” He stifles a wretch, but some translucent tan upchuck spurts onto his face shield.

“Easy, Corny, you're fine,” Crystal says to calm him. “Just close your eyes. Keep your eyes shut, everyone. It's fine, just hang in there.”

Crystal looks at her doppelganger again, and decides to do a little test. She focuses on it's arm, and lifts hers. She sees her own arm raise, but her doppelgangers stays down. “We are truly different entities,” she realizes.

She looks around the cabin again, and sees Brent peeking up, watching her play with her doppelganger, and smiling at her. She smiles back. She notices that, compared to the other crew, his doppelgangers seem to be in lockstep, as though perfectly synchronized.

What if the ambiguity is a state of mind thing? What if you could be either one? Or both? Calmly, so as not to disturb the others, she says “Hey, Brent? lift your arm.”

Simultaneously, both of his instances' right arms raise. “That's it,” she thinks. “Brent had his doppelganger in lockstep because he was focusing on me.”

Crystal didn't say to put his hand down, so Brent's keeps his hand up. It looks like he is waving at her, so she smirks and lifts her arm to wave back. Out of her peripheral vision she can see her doppelganger move its arm too.

She speculates that maybe the state of mind that aligns doppelgangers it is sort of like being in the moment. Not being aware of what is happening, just being. Being in the zone. She puts her hand down, and so does Brent, their doppelgangers following suit.

Crystal relaxes her mind and stares at Brent. She can tell her thoughts are calmed by his presence. Thinking about flying to the other side of the Multiverse elicits strange, lonely feelings when you ponder it. You can't help but fear a nightmare scenario of getting marooned in purgatory alone. Sometimes, over the past year or two, she had gotten a little frightened about the whole thing.

Having Brent around always seemed to help alleviate that. She thinks about how lucky and glad she is they get to do this together. What are the chances? She decides just to be happy and not worry about what is going on, lest she miss perceiving the greatness of it all. She can ponder the science later.

In her relaxed state, she begins to feel her thoughts become fuzzy. She has a bizarre mental sensation, as though her thoughts are echoing. “I am hearing my doppelgangers thoughts,” she thinks, and the thought is perceived in her mind exactly like it would sound as noise put through a reverb filter. She feels a quick wave of lightheadedness, and it is so strange that she feels uncomfortable, and is rattled back into focus.

She looks to her right again, and her doppelganger is not there. She quickly looks left, and notices she is on the other side of herself. She is the other instance now. Her and her doppelganger swapped instances. “Oh my god,” she thinks in a moment of panic, and worries “What if I end up on the wrong worldline?” She tries to relax back into her state of being in the moment, but she feels too alarmed to do it.

Not knowing what to do, she looks back at Brent. He is still looking at her, and smiles again, though with a note of curiosity in his eyebrows. “He doesn't know, only I can tell that I switch instances. I wonder if you can control that. I wish I had more time to play with myself,” she thinks. At the tail end of her thought, the echoing comes back. She sighs and smiles.

She looks to her right at her doppelganger. She is back on the original side of her two instances, which is relieving to her. Suddenly she feels an unpleasant jolting sensation, like a mild electric shock, and winces a little. The fuzziness of her awareness pops back to normal. As she looks, her doppelganger begins to recede away.

She looks at the inside of the ship, and the whole other instance of the ship and it’s crew is rushing past itself. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the rear transom rush at her, and she flinches, like it is going to slam into her, but it rushes right by, all they way out the front of the ship.

“OK. The split has extended to full teleportation distance,” Crystal announces to the crew, but she cannot hear herself anymore through her earpiece over the comm. “God damn comm,” she says. She looks at Brent, and makes a squished face of frustration, and taps her helmet. She stares at him for a moment, waiting for a response.

He is not moving. His absolutely perfect stillness is stark. She looks around. The whole ship and crew are utterly frozen in time. Crystal feels a wave of terrible confusion.

“Oh God, no. No, no, no.” All her subconscious fears about about getting locked into some kind of dimensional limbo flood into her mind. She looks at Brent, waves her arms violently at him, and yells “Brent!” Nothing. She starts shaking.

“OK, calm down, Crystal, just calm down,” she thinks. “Don't panic. This might be normal. No one's ever teleported before. Just hang in there. Maybe everyone is seeing this,” which she knows doesn't make a lick of sense. “Don't conclude, just observe.” She takes a deep breath, and leans forward to look out the front window.

Against the backdrop of the Earth's bright white clouds, she can see the silhouette of the second instance of the Everett, not far in front of theirs. She is glad to see it. She decides to just look at it during the teleportation.

She doesn't know exactly what she will see. She thinks she will see the whole background vista change from the Earth to whatever happens to be in view after they teleport. Probably just looking off into space in some random direction.

Crystal stares and waits. “The teleportation should have happened by now,” she thinks. She is squelching a state of tremendous anxiety, so she just keeps staring at the other Everett. She notices that the cloud formations on the Earth behind seem like they are moving around quickly, like a time lapse satellite video of the Earth on a weather report.

She looks back in the cabin. Everything is still frozen. She spins around and looks out her station window, which gives a better view of the Earth. The cloud formations are starting to move faster and faster. “OK, good, I guess,” she thinks, happy to see at least something is happening, but she is still confused.

Crystal didn't expect any of this. The probe data indicated the actual teleportation was an eventlessly short moment. Thinking of teleporting in terms of dimensions, the dimension of possibility is outside of spacetime, so it should be timeless. The probe readings which confirmed this seemed to make perfect sense, so she never questioned them. So what is happening? She begins to wonder if maybe a consciousness perceives traveling through the 5th dimension differently than any measuring apparatus can. But why is everyone else frozen?

The movement of the clouds has been accelerating, and the whole earth is becoming a monotone light blue blur. She can see the moon has moved relative to where it was before, and dips below the blurred horizon. The stars appear to remain motionless. She keeps looking at the Earth, and the moon comes around again, moving faster.

It looks like they moving through time, but Crystal knows better. She begins to narrate to herself for comfort. “We aren't moving through time, we're moving through possibility. Those aren't moments, they're worldlines. We're in mid teleport,” she thinks, feeling a bit relieved that at least part of what is happening makes some sense.

Crystal sees the moon is passing by again, even faster, when suddenly there is an intense flash of light from it's location. She winces, and tries to see what she can with her dazzled retinas. Through the location in the sky where the moon used to be, tracing its path perfectly, appears a planetary ring.

“Holy crap, the moon just turned into a ring. There must have been a big collision, like an asteroid hit the moon in this worldline,” she thinks.

It's So Obvious

Crystal suddenly realizes Odd World has a ring, it looks like Earth, and has a solar system just like Earth's. They didn't leave Earth. “Oh my God!” she says out loud, and spins around. “Nimbus is Earth!” Everyone is still frozen. She turns back around and looks out the window again. “Odd World is the planet Earth on another worldline! It's so obvious, now.”

Crystal can see the speed of the cloud pattern motion is decelerating quickly, nearing stationary, and thinks “I’m coming out of it. We should recombine here in a sec.”

She turns and looks out the front window at the other Everett, and just then, it suddenly begins to quickly retract back, rushing straight at them.

“Jesus Christ!” yells Decatur, ducking instinctively. The other Everett charges in reverse, right at theirs, then plunges straight through it, like a phantom locomotive. Crystal sees the whole ship rush into itself, instantly stopping exactly in perfect superposition. The amazingness of the sight pales in comparison to the relief she feels that her friends are back.

“Whoa!” Wheeler says, witnessing the teleportation separation and recombination as a continuous rebounding motion. He saw it straight on from the pilot's chair. He saw the the whole ship rush out of itself, then instantly yoink right back into itself. He saw his instrument console snapping into coherence, and viewed his own doppelganger rush backwards straight into him.

“Now that was really something!” he says, looking at the hunched over Decatur, who he can now tell missed the incredible sight.

Crystal looks at the screen on her station, and it reads “Teleportation Complete.”

“We're here.” she tells everyone.

“Thank God,” sighs Pippa as she lifts her head and opens her eyes.

“So we can open our eyes now?” Fiona asks anyone who will reassure her it's OK.

“Yes, it's over now,” Pippa tells her.

Wheeler asks “Crystal, what happened? Why didn't we go anywhere? We are still just sitting in orbit. I saw the ship fly out and back into itself, but we’re still here. Did it not work, or something?”

“Look out the window, out into space, John,” Crystal says.

He leans forward to look around, and sees the ring. “Holy cow, you guys! There's a ring around the Earth now! What the heck? Crystal, what exactly is going on here?”

Crystal is so relieved the teleportation worked, she decides not to mention the time freeze she saw. Unless somebody else brings it up, which would be consoling, because she is a tad weirded out. It was either different for her, or she went schizo. She decides it's probably best she save thinking about it for when they get back. Anyways, it's probably just quantum physics playing tricks. She gets too caught up in that stuff.

“Odd World isn't another planet, Wheeler, it's the Earth. It’s the Earth in another Universe in the Multiverse. A different Earth on another worldline. I get it now. In this worldline, it seems, an asteroid hit the moon, and blew it into a ring. That's why moon is gone, and there’s a ring now.

“I understand exactly what happened. We moved straight through possibility. Or technically, through the fifth dimension. Our fifth dimensional location changed. It seems like we sat still, because we did. Our regular four dimensional spacetime position stayed exactly the same. We're at Earth, alright, we're just on another worldline where different possibilities turned out differently. A worldline that forked off some time in the past.

“The only question is, how far back in time did this worldline split off from Earth's? How far has it forked off in possibility? How different is this version of the Earth from ours? I guess we should figure that out. I guess that's the mission now.”

Corny pipes up, looking over the veil of goo covering the lower half of his visor, speaking with a sore throat “Maybe in this world, I am wealthy and famous. Let us ready the telescope, that we may use it to observe my sexual conquests.”

Decatur moans, and Crystal replies “We may have split off a tad too far back for that, Corny. I doubt you exist on this worldline.”

Corny replies “To bad. Now, Wheeler, may I take this helmet off?” Everyone laughs. The internal atmosphere was always breathable, the suits were in case of emergency.

“Sure, Corny, we all can. Decatur, get your pal Corny a towel.”

Corny takes his helmet off. “I think some may have dribbled into my suit. Do they still have those laundering matts down there?”

Crystal Looks At Odd World

Crystal smiles, and takes off her helmet, and contorts her body to get her forehead right against her window.

Her view opens up to reveal to the cool blue arc of the planetary ring, looming so dominantly over the microscopic Everett and the tremendous bulk of the planet below. The ring is so clear, it looks like a thousand concentric rings, each with a slightly different saturation of ice blue, separated by perfectly sharp, black gaps. The color looks so much like an iceberg, Crystal wonders if the asteroid was not perhaps a comet, which is basically all ice.

On the planet, she can see a sample of virtually every type of cloud, and can just barely perceive depth between the higher and lower layers. On the very edge of the planet's limb, she can see the upper atmosphere as a fuzzy neon blue band contrasted against the jet black backdrop of space.

Crystal stares into the convergence point where the ring passes behind the limb of Odd World. She notices the exquisite geometric beauty of the two curves, the large circular arc of the planet's limb, and the highly eccentric ellipse of the ring, meeting at a slight angle.

She averts her gaze from the dazzling blue and white palette of Odd World to space, and she can just make out the band of the Milky Way. She traces it back, and she can interpolate that it intersects in the same spot as the ring and limb, directly in front of her. Her gaze turns to mesmerization.

She wonders what effect the lack of lunar phases and tides would have on the geology and ecosystem, if there is one. What it must look like to see the ring from the surface at night. Or in the day. How beautiful it must be.

If there is intelligent life, they must have lore about the ring. What it is, what it means. Maybe even nursery rhymes to help their young to not be afraid of it. For all it's majesty, it is hard not to perceive it as quietly menacing. It must be different living on a world forever embraced by something so colossal.

“Odd World. I made it,” Crystal thinks. “I am actually here. I hope this is really happening. I think it is.” She suddenly feels deja vu. She has done this exact thing before, sitting in exactly the spot she is, but she cannot remember when. Of course that cannot be. But it feels so real. Suddenly, in the back of her mind, a second voice says 'how can this be real?' Her own subconscious cannot accept the infinitely impossible reality of her now. It is possible, but just so incredibly unlikely. But it is happening.

“Crystal?” Brent says as he floats up from behind. She turns and smiles. He asks “What was that orange light?”

Crystal is confused. “Orange light?”

“Yeah, there was an orange glow, I saw it reflected in the window. Um, it came from your eyes. Like they were glowing.”

Crystal thinks a moment. “Really? Weird. Must have been the sunlight giving me red-eye, like a camera flash.”

“Yeah, I guess. It was really freaky.”

Elsewhere, in a plane of existence where possibility is time, and time is another dimension of space, The Unchanger who refers to itself as the Syncurgence Enthusiast notices an unfurling pulse of harmonious patterns of new possibilities.

It shifts its gaze through the direction of time towards the moment from which the unusually powerful causal burst emanated from, far off, and smells the exquisite flower of potentiality that blossomed.

“Who goes there?” the awareness’s thought-like state occurs.

11) Odd World

Orbit

The Everett continues orbiting Odd World, and the crew can see the east coast of North America in daylight, receding as they pass over the Atlantic. The coastline appears the same as Earth's. The Everett passes into night over the southern tip of Africa. Fiona notes “There is South Africa. No lights. No Johannesburg.”

The night on the surface is dark, but there is enough light to see major features. Due to the tilt of the planet's axis, the ring face is angled slightly towards the sun. The shadow of the planet covers only part of the ring over South Africa, where it is early evening. The sunlit portions of the ring reflect onto the surface, and the landscape is bathed in a pale turquoise light.

Crystal suggests “Maybe we just can't see any lights against the bright ringlight.”

“No, I have seen towns and cities from space in a full moon, you can still see lights,” Wheeler informs her. “There must not be any civilization, at least not there.”

Pippa and Corny have been readying the observational cameras on top of the Everett at the utility console, and get their first wide angle view of the land, enhanced by night vision. Pippa announces “We have the planet surface with the image intensifier. I think I see some tiny lights.”

Crystal looks at the screen. “Oh yeah, faint, but I see 'em too. There's lots of them. Campfires or something?”

Corny studied the cameras in training, and says “Estimating from the apparent brightness, the light output is about that of a campfire, sure. Sounds reasonable.”

Each successive orbit, they cross the equator further west. The 2nd and 3rd are mostly over ocean, but they do see occasional dim lights all over Australia and New Guinea. On the 4th orbit, 6 hours later, their path will pass in darkness over the Rocky Mountains, Central America, and Brazil.

Wheeler is the only one looking out the window instead of at the monitor as ship passes over the Gulf of Mexico. As the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula comes into view, he is the first to see the lights on the horizon.

“I see lights.”

The team all float into positions looking out the window. As the conveyor belt of the horizon continues crawling forward, the coastline rotates into view enough to reveal hints of a network pattern of lights, with bright spots along the edge of the coast, branching from a central brighter area.

Fiona says “It's a civilization! It's a civilization!”, and she shakes Tatsu, who is next to her.

Crystal says “Holy shit, it is.”

Lights

Wheeler comments “It looks like a central hub with a bunch of settlements around it. I can see little villages and dark patches that look like farms all around the peninsula. The main city is obviously not dense as a big Earth city, it looks more like an agrarian society.

“Certainly no New York, but the center is a legitimate big town or like a small city. I would estimate around fifty thousand people as a rough estimate. Maybe a few hundred thousand over the whole peninsula. Of course, that’s gauging by Earth standards.”

“The Yucatan Peninsula,” Tatsu says, grabbing the shoulder of Crystals uniform. “Crystal, look at the shape of the peninsula, I have it memorized, it's shape is much rounder here than on Earth. Do you understand the significance? That is where the asteroid that caused the K–T extinction struck, sixty five million years ago. Where the Chicxulub crater is. And the planetary ring, an asteroid impacted the moon. An asteroid that could have missed and hit the Earth.”

“Yeah, I get what you mean,” Crystal says. “In this worldline the asteroid that caused the big dinosaur extinction didn't hit the Earth, it hit the moon, which shielded the planet. So Odd World is the Earth where the big dinosaur extinction never happened.”

Corny interjects “Oh, I like this theory!”

Tatsu says “This is amazing. We must land. It is imperative that we land, otherwise the mission would be a disastrous waste.”

Corny says “Maybe there will be dinosaurs! Oh, this is great. We must land, yes? I want to ride, a, um, what is the one with the horns? Trilopops?”

“Slow down, you guys,” Wheeler says in a calming voice. “We’ve got seven days of life support. Let's not rush. We should call this in.” He looks at the time on his wrist communicator. “Let's contact Earth, Pippa. It's almost time. Corny, see if you can get a picture of the city, quick. Just use the hand held camera out the windshield. Hurry before we lose this angle.”

Texting Earth

As Pippa readies the communications system, the team wonders what they will say.

Crystal suggests “We should tell them we arrived safely, and we are in orbit above Odd World, and that Odd World is Earth on another worldline. We have to tell them that. The scientists will pee their pants. Nobody figured it was Earth. It seems so obvious now.”

Fiona adds “We have to tell them about the civilizations! Did you get the picture, Corny?”

“I have the picture,” Corny says. “I will compress it, and we can send it after the typed communication.”

In a determined tone, Tatsu says “We must ask mission control to grant us permission to land. It would be a tragic mistake not to. We must establish that now.”

“Slow down!” Pippa says. “I have to compose this message succinctly. One at a time.”

Wheeler says “Let's make sure they know the ship is fully operational, and that, according to our sensors, we never moved from our original orbit. Tell them our life support is at the full seven days.”

Brent says “Tell them how awesome the view is. Hey Corny, get a shot of the ring. The public will love that, the probe shot didn't get any of that fine detail.”

Corny says “It is OK, I composed a nice shot with the civilization and the ring.” He shows Brent the picture on the camera screen.

“Yeah, nice shot Corny,” Brent compliments.

Crystal adds “Oh yeah, the ring! Tell them how we saw the asteroid hit the moon and turn it into a ring!”

“We didn’t see the impact, Crystal. It is just a theory,” Tatsu makes sure to mention.

“Well, yeah, OK,” Crystal says, still not wanting to mention yet that she thinks she saw the event during her apparently special perspective of the teleport. “But that’s what happened, I’m sure of it. Corny, can you see the shape of the peninsula in the picture?”

“Well, sort of, I think,” Corny says, mumbling a little, looking at the display on the camera. “I don't really know what it is supposed to look like.”

Crystal pushes off from where she was, and floats over to Brent and Corny, colliding with Brent to decelerate and look at the picture.

“The whole Earth is gonna pee its collective pants!” Decatur laughs.

After half an hour of Pippa composing the message, Wheeler says “OK, that's good enough, send it, it’s getting late.”

They get back a response 15 minutes later, and Wheeler reads it aloud “Roger Everett. Congratulations. Everyone here amazed. Earth and ring theory understood. Awaiting photo transmission. Will get back about landing. The feeling is probably, but not yet. Keep orbiting and gathering data for now. P.S. Dr. Archibald says 'Hi Crystal, having fun?'”

Crystal laughs and says “This is pretty fantastic, huh guys?”

“Fuckin' A it is,” Decatur replies, floating in a sitting position, with his legs and arms crossed. “Best time I ever had! Almost worth having to be around Corny for.”

Observing Odd World

The team orbits for two days, collecting data with the telescopic camera. Twice more they pass over the city on the Yucatan Peninsula, the second time during they day, and Corny is able to get video with the ships telescopic camera. Fiona and Tatsu stand next to the console watching.

“Those are buildings. Zoom in a little more, Corny,” Fiona says, guiding his aim.

“We are currently zoomed in all the way, Fiona.”

Fiona keeps narrating what she sees. “That looks like a house or a barn or something. Are those cows?”

Tatsu replies “It does look like livestock, but probably not cows. There is a road. Scan along the road. Wait, there is a cluster of objects at that intersection. They are moving. They could be humanoid. Do you see the shadows? It looks like legs moving.”

“Holy shit, Tatsu, those do look like humanoids,” Crystal says, looking over his shoulder.

As they scan closer to the city, they see more and more buildings, and more humanoids moving. Tatsu realizes they have been zoomed in for too long. “Pull back, Corny. Zoom back out.”

Corny zooms the camera back, and more buildings come into view. Soon a large plaza is visible, covered with hundreds of objects and humanoids, and Corny centers it.

Crystal says “There's like a hundred of those beings there.”

Corny decides to rack the camera’s zoom entirely back to its widest field, encompassing a ten mile diameter field of view, and the team clamors and gasps as a large city in a sparsely wooded river valley comes into view.

It is surrounded with houses and road patterns, with a center of larger multi-story buildings and larger roads surrounding a central forest. Ringing the forest are ancient looking temple ruins. The circular forest is a ¾ of a mile wide preserve of thick trees. In the center of the trees rises a gargantuan castle with one very tall tower.

Fiona says “Bakgat! It's like something out of a knights and dragons tale!”

Tatsu says “The castle is an amazing piece of stone architecture. It is hard to estimate its height, but it looks taller than any stone castle on Earth. This must be an civilization with at least some basic writing and math. Fiona, you should be able to communicate with them.”

Fiona responds excitedly “Yes, I agree with Tatsu now, we must land. This could turn out to be absolutely historic!”

Brent says “The land is pretty flat and sparsely forested, but there is that ridge on the left side of the valley there. It would make a good a hill to act as a vantage point, we can get a close look at them with our spotting scopes. We could park in the field there, behind that rocky part of the ridge.”

Crystal says “If my opinion counts, I say we land. We only get one shot at this trip. We have the ship, and the crew, and the equipment to do it. We are ready for this. It's why we came.”

Wheeler speaks in an authoritative tone “Does anyone have any objections to landing?” No one speaks. “OK, when we communicate back tonight, I will recommend landing tomorrow.”

That night Earth replies back that they are cleared for landing. The team attempts to sleep in their zero gravity wall mounted sleeping bags. Crystal is next to Brent, and having trouble sleeping. She starts lightly rubbing her foot against his.

“Are you two becoming a couple over there?” Corny whispers from the other side of Brent. “I can hear the nylon rubbing.”

Brent elbows Corny, who replies “Ow. Get a room. Maybe they have a nice bed un breakfast down there.”

“Cut the chatter, and the rubbing, and get some shuteye. Hear me Williford?”

“Yes sir, Commander, er, Wheeler,” Brent whispers. Crystal knows Decatur is asleep, because he says nothing.

Landing

The next day Wheeler gets the team ready for reentry and landing. They are all seated, wearing their spacesuits and helmets, and Wheeler looks over the interior of the ship one last time. “God damn it Crystal, you left your window shield open! Shut it!” Crystal turns in her station seat, and hits the button to close its outer shield.

Wheeler feels bad that he yelled at Crystal, and doesn't need Brent pissy at him right before a big mission. “Sorry I yelled, Crystal. I get a little tense before a mission.”

“No no, my bad, thank you. I don't want a cooked head. I'm just so excited, I forgot. Thanks,” Crystal says, accepting his apology.

Wheeler buckles himself in, and sets the ship's controls to reentry. “We are in position, I am starting reentry.”

The ship is now orbiting tail first, and the main rockets fire. Their thrust slows the ship’s orbital velocity until the Everett begins to fall. The ship then pitches over, belly first, and falls heat shield down into the atmosphere. A bright pinkish glow of plasma fills the windshield for a few minutes. When the glow dissipates, they can see land. They continue to glide a while, as Wheeler steers the ship towards the city.

Decatur says “There’s the city, and there’s Brent's field. Tatsu, we just went under five thousand feet, go ahead and start the atmospheric sampling.”

“OK, commencing GC-MS analysis of the atmosphere now,” Tatsu says, and flips a few switches on a console near his seat to begin the Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry sampling of the atmosphere.

“We feel a bit high for a direct approach,” Decatur tells Wheeler, reckoning their flight path into the valley. “Let's go ahead and decelerate into powered flight, and do a circle around the far side of the valley, then turn around and come back this way. We can bleed altitude and keep farther away from view.”

“Yup, good plan,” Wheeler says. “Transitioning now.” The rocket pods rotate down, and fire to slow the ship, then rotate back, and the ship transitions into powered flight. The ship comes in to the far side of the valley, and Wheeler announces “Banking around now.”

“Get even lower, go around that patch of trees on the back side of the field. We can come in and land right on the edge of the tree line,” Decatur suggests.

“Roger,” Wheeler replies.

Crystal can feel the ship bank, and then sees the tree line. As they come in, the ship pitches nose up, to decelerate and flatten out into a hover. Wheeler says calmly “Two hundred forty feet. Landing gear, down.”

Decatur pulls a lever, and the whine of the gear is audible. Decatur says “Gear down,”

Wheeler says “A hundred. Fifty. Thirty.”

Crystal can see the branches and long palm frond leaves of the trees rustling from the exhaust. They are right next to the tree line. The ship decelerates sharply, there is a slight bounce, and it stops. Wheeler says “Shutdown sequence.”

“Shutting down,” replies Decatur. “Perfect landing, Commander. Nice low approach. I think we are ghosts.”

Wheeler says “OK, people, hang tight. Tatsu, let us know if the atmosphere is breathable.”

After a few moments, Tatsu gets a readout from the instrument, and reports “As is consistent with our belief that this is Earth, the atmosphere appears to match the spectra of air. Slightly greater carbon dioxide to oxygen ratio, but still, very breathable.”

“OK, great. I’m going to open the hatch,” Wheeler announces. “Keep your helmets on, everyone.”

The Everett's hatch opens, and the edge of the field along the tree line is visible. Crystal looks out at the surface. Near the ramp, it appears like sandy dirt with large blades of grass. Further out in the field the grass thickens, and is about 3 feet tall.

“An animal!” Corny shouts and points. Crystal looks and sees an ostrich-like neck and head poking up from the grass, about 40 yards away. It ducks back down, and runs away, as evidenced by the wake of rustling grass.

Brent says “Wheeler, I’m gonna to get up and walk down the ramp. Check things out.” He unbuckles himself, stands up, unholsters his sidearm, and chambers a round. He walks down the ramp, and out into the field 10 feet. He speaks through the comm. “I see a couple more of those animals way off. They look like earless, green deer with a long tail. They saw me, and now they’re bolting too. But all in all, it looks pretty nice. Like a happy little pastoral painting out here.”

“Brent, would you come back and do a breath test?” Tatsu asks Brent.

“OK, sure,” Brent replies, and walks back up to the top of the ramp, and sits down. Tatsu approaches and squats next to him. He connects a bottle of compressed air to a valve in his suit, ready to help purge it if necessary.

With his helmet still on, Brent takes a few regular breaths, exhales, and holds his breath. He calmly unlocks his helmet, lifts it, and takes one regular sized breath. He closes his helmet and holds his breath for a few seconds, then exhales.

Crystal watches anxiously. “Well? You feel OK?”

Brent replies “I feel normal. No weird smell or taste. Just smells like grass.”

Tatsu says “Wait one minute to make sure.”

The team anxiously wait a minute, then Brent says “I still feel fine.”

Tatsu says “OK, once again, please.”

Brent repeats the process, only this time he inhales and exhales twice before replacing his helmet. After a moment Brent says “I still feel normal. I’m gonna try and breath the air.” He takes of his helmet, and hands it to Tatsu. He closes his eyes, and begins to breath slowly. After a few breaths he says “I feel completely normal.”

Crystal takes her helmet off, and closes her eyes.

“Crystal, wait, not yet,” Brent says, moving as if to stand up.

Crystal waves him off, and after a few breaths, she says “I feel fine too.” She stands up, walks over to Brent, and helps him up. They stand holding hands, smiling.

Tatsu stands up and says “It is probably fine, I am going to wait a few more minutes. Please say something if you feel lightheaded.”

After a moment of looking at each other, they look out at the field. Brent says to Crystal “Wanna go down and see your planet?”

“Sure, let's take a stroll,” she replies, and they hold hands and walk down the ramp.

Corny says “Damn, that would have made a good picture. They could have put it on their wedding invitations.”

Decatur looks at Corny funny and says “Wedding invitations?” He looks at Wheeler. “What does he mean?”

Wheeler smiles and says “No more chatter, let's get that camo net over the ship. Come on. Let Brent breath, I’ll help you.”

Decatur says “OK. Aren't you going to turn off the life support?”

Wheeler says “Oh yeah, thanks.”

Decatur jogs down the ramp and says “Hey, they are still walking. I think I'm taking my helmet off too, now.”

Decatur and Wheeler cover the ship with a large camouflage net woven with strips of green fabric. The team all eventually remove their helmets, and walk around the ship, looking at the surroundings.

Tatsu is looking at the trees. “These trees resemble an extinct species of Araucarioxylon to me.”

Pippa shouts “I see a bug! Tatsu, what kind is it?”

Tatsu rushes over, and captures it in a jar. He looks at it and says “I have no idea what this insect is. A type of beetle.”

Pippa laughs. “I could have told you that!”

Tatsu smiles and says “If our theory is correct, we should see a mixture of the familiar with the unfamiliar. Not all species went extinct.”

Brent and Crystal walk back to the group, and Brent says to Wheeler “Why don't we get our scopes and head over to the ridge, while we still got good light. I can take Fiona and Tatsu to help analyze our aliens.”

Wheeler looks at the sky, and all around, and replies “Yup, let's do it. Take Decatur for backup. Put on your khaki coveralls. Keep your headsets on, take video. Get your helmets on too, please. Brent, go ahead and carry your rifle, you are on point. Everyone wear their wrist communicators. Tatsu, Fiona, just follow right behind Brent. Decatur, just a sidearm, you're lugging the optics case on your backpack. Crystal, Corny, Pippa, you stay here at the Everett with me.”

The 4 Explore

The four gear up and head for the wooded hill on the other side of the field, 400 yards from the Everett, where they hope to get a view of the city. In the ship, Corny sits at the utility console, and Crystal, Wheeler, and Pippa stand behind him, watching Brent and Decatur's video feed. Brent turns around, and Tatsu is falling behind, collecting samples.

Brent says “Tatsu, you can do that later. Come on, we are about to see aliens.”

Tatsu jogs to catch up, and replies “They are terrestrial, not aliens.”

They reach the wooded hill, and climb through the underbrush to a rock outcropping. Brent says “Hold here a minute, let me check out the view.” He climbs up the rocks, keeping low as he nears the top.

From the Everett, they watch Brent's video feed as he pokes his head up over the ridge. The entire city is visible. The castle, in it's forested estate, occupies the middle of an island that is about 1 ½ miles wide. The island sits between a fork in a wide, glimmering river flowing into the ocean, visible far off. The densest part of the city fills the island, and sprawls out onto the plains formed by the river delta, where there are cultivated fields.

12) The Reptans

Seeing Them

“Are you getting this, Everett?” Brent whispers.

Wheeler replies “Five by five.”

Brent turns around and says “Decatur, get out the binoculars and come up here.”

Decatur comes crawling up next to Brent, lies on his stomach, and lifts the binoculars to his eyes. He looks for a moment, and says “Lizard people. I repeat, we have lizard people.”

Brent reaches for the binoculars. “Lemme see.” He takes the binoculars and looks, then says “I see them. Lizard people. We are in the Land of the Lost. Big tails, big heads. Greenish. They walk like a person, more or less. How much you figure they weigh?”

Decatur replies “More than you, big guy. Probably over three hundred pounds. They look like mean bastards.”

“They could be evolved dinosaurs,” Tatsu speculates from what they know. “May I come up and look?”

Brent keeps describing. “They wear clothes, like coats, hard to see detail. They have sorta big hipped dog legs. Big biceps. Barrel chested. I see some congregated at a building. A sort of stone cabin. Lots of huts and houses. Dirt roads. Looks a little like a Spanish village in spots. It seems like some of them are greenish, and some are browner.”

Tatsu says anxiously “Those could be males and females. Let me come look.”

Decatur elbows Brent, and says “Quit hoggin', lemme see again.” Brent hands him the binoculars, slides down the ridge a little, and speaks to the other two.

“OK, you guys can come on up now. Fiona, just follow Tatsu. Stay low when you get up here. Bring up the telephoto camera from Decatur's case, Tatsu. We’ll send the Everett a feed. I bet they are dying to see this shit.”

Wheeler says “We are, get us some eyes on that city.”

Crystal and Pippa look at each other, and Pippa makes a tiny clapping, excited to see the residents.

Decatur keeps describing the view. “The castle just looks like a giant castle, no activity. Can't see the bottom of it, the trees are really thick there. Out away in the fields I see rows of crops. Oh, hey, I see a farming contraption pulled by a kinda horse, or ox thing, with two horns on the sides. Like a big lizard steer. It's kinda tan and spotted. Weird. Some other contraptions, wagons. No technology, really. No engine powered equipment, I guess. It looks more like an Inca city to me, Brent, not Spanish.”

Brent says “Spanish, Mexican, same thing. You just say Incan because we are in Mexico.”

Decatur tries to stifle a laugh, and says “That's it, Brent. They're Mexican. Good intel. If you meet one, say 'Buenos dias'”

Brent does a poor Latino impression. “Aye, Watto, was sappaning?”

“Watto?” says Decatur over a high pitched giggle. “That's Star Wars, you idiot!”

Brent says “Alright, then I'm Han Solo. Called it.”

Decatur replies “You're Chewbacca.”

“Don't reply to that, Williford,” Wheeler says, predicting a Chewbacca noise from Brent. “Let's cut the chatter, men. We got a job to do.”

Tatsu and Fiona come up and lie next to Brent and Decatur. Tatsu gives Decatur the camera, and Decatur hands him the binoculars. Tatsu then hands the binoculars over to Fiona.

“Oh, thank you,” she says, looks out, and takes a moment to focus in. “Wow, I see some. They have kind of a kangaroo tail.”

Decatur says “Wait, are you from Australia or South Africa?”

Fiona keeps describing what she sees. “I see some talking to each other. They can speak. They must have interesting voices. They appear to be gesticulating with their arms, as well. They have hands. I don't see any writing, no signs or anything. It reminds me more of a Viking city, but without all the heavy clothing.” She pulls down the binoculars and hands them to Tatsu.

“I see them, reptile humanoids, or reptiloids. They look like an evolved form of theropod. They have a crest of what looks like dark feathers on the back of the head. Fully erect bipedal locomotion. The tail is bigger than I imagined. I cannot tell if their skin has scales.”

Video Feed

Decatur is leaning on his elbows, looking through the telephoto camera, and announces “Alright. I got 'em in view, patching you in Everett.”

The feed comes in to the Everett. Crystal and Pippa look in amazement as Wheeler says “They are big. They look carnivorous. We should be careful about meeting them. When you guys come back, we should talk about that. It's about eleven hundred hours, you have been out there an hour, you can stay for a while longer, but don't go any further.”

Crystal is looking at the reptiloids and thinking about what they could be. “It makes too much sense not to assume, in my mind at least, that they are dinosaurs that evolved into intelligent beings. The comet hit the moon instead of the Earth here, so dinosaurs remained dominant, and evolved to fill the niches that mammals did on Earth.

“I think we skipped over worldlines to the same elapsed time since the comet. It's probably a very unlikely chance event for the comet to hit the moon. Tiny perturbations in the orbit of a comet way out in the Oort cloud can have huge influences on its orbit closer in towards the sun. It's like a hole in one. This must be a rare, unique worldline in the Multiverse. If they are dinosaurs, we should call them Dinosauroids.”

Tatsu refines Crystal's animal classification. “They are not dinosaurs anymore, Crystal. This is obviously a whole new species, maybe even a new order. I am only sure of their class, reptile. Reptiloids is a better word for them.”

“What about reptans, like humans?” Crystal offers.

“Alright, reptans,” Tatsu agrees.

Close Encounter

Fiona, Tatsu, Brent, and Decatur observe the reptans for almost another hour before deciding to head back to the Everett. They come down the rocky crest, and are crossing through the wooded ridge towards the field, when they come to a 30 foot diameter clearing under the canopy.

Suddenly, out from the underbrush on the other side of the open area, emerges a large male reptan. He is wearing a short sleeved coat with an insignia looking like a temple under an arch, obviously representing the ring of the planet.

Brent raises his rifle and says “Whoa, hold on. Hey freeze, guys. We got a reptan here.”

“Oh my God,” Fiona says in a surprised, nervous voice when she sees him. The reptan also freezes and looks at around at the four, moving his head with convulsively quick jerking motions, scanning with his yellow dappled brown eyes.

Brent calmly says “Move slowly behind me to the field.” A crest of feather-like hackles raises slightly around the the back of the reptans head and neck. Brent begins to move sideways towards the field, facing the reptan.

Prahx says “Great Magic! What strange world did these beings come from?” He realizes he spoke out loud, and may have frightened them.

The reptan speaks in a deep, guttural voice, with burpy, chuttering barks, and accented syllables of “rung” and “ahtch”. When he speaks, his oversized lower jaw and jowls thrust around abruptly.

As Decatur passes behind Brent, he says in an intense whisper “Jesus Christ. He's got a mouth like a fuckin’ orca!” The reptan holds up his hand. He has a three fingers and a thumb with stubby claws on the ends. “Look at the claws on that big motherfucker!”

Back at the ship, the other 4 are watching the feed in nervous amazement, and Crystal says “Wow, he is fantastic!”

Wheeler says “Quiet, Crystal. Decatur, go easy now. We don't know his intent yet. Just calmly move to the field”

Prahx thinks to himself “This is exciting. I found some strange beings. Maybe these are the magical travelers that Ehroo speaks about. I will try to greet them by telling them my name.”

Several times he says “Goh Prahx”.

“Easy, Decatur. Everyone just move towards the field,” Brent says, holding up his hands in a stopping motion to the reptan, attempting to defuse the surprise.

Prahx takes a few steps forward, and taps his chest. “Goh Prahx” he says again.

Brent says “Do you wanna try and talk to him, Fiona?” She stops for a moment, and steps forward. Prahx approaches a few steps towards her, talking again.

Prahx says “Wait, don't be afraid, I won't hurt you.”

Fiona cannot stop a wave of anxiety as Prahx speaks and approaches her. She feels too astounded and intimidated to think straight. Prahx's imposing size and formidable teeth look as though he could probably maul a bear to death. She tensely walks backwards. “I can't do it,” she says.

Decatur says “Let's get some distance, Brent, this is way too close.” Prahx moves towards Decatur, who raises his pistol, and fires a shot in the air. Prahx and the other team members duck, startled by the report.

“Damn it, Decatur, what the fuck? Don't scare him! He might lash out!” yells Brent.

Decatur says “Just a warning shot. I don't want him coming any closer. I'll airmail my whole clip up his nostrils if he charges.”

Fiona would never admit it, but she is glad Decatur established dominance and stopped the reptans advance. She trots towards the field behind Tatsu.

Prahx thinks 'That is a weapon, and they are yelling. I frightened them. I should stop and back away.” He hesitantly retreats back into the brush.

Retreat

Brent backs all the way back to the field, and the others three are well on their way back to the Everett. Brent tells Wheeler “OK, we’re all on our way back to the ship. I think the reptan left, too.”

Prahx is not sure what to do, and thinks to himself “I do not want to loose them, I want to show them to Ehroo. I will look to see where they are going.” He carefully walks to the edge of the field, peeks through the brush, and sees the team retreating to a fort of some kind on the other side of the field.

“Maybe they are camped there. I will go back to the city and report this to Rinrong. As the Alma-Gurr of the Xardun Guard, he must hear about this. It is my duty to inform him of any new findings I make while on patrol. This is definitely a finding.”

Brent is the last back inside the ship. Fiona is out of breath, and talking to the others. “I think he was saying his name. He pointed to himself, and said ‘Goh Prahx’, or something like that. Like ‘I’m Prahx’” She tries a few more times to say it as he did “Prahx. Prahx.”

Brent agrees. “Right, he was trying to say hello, I think. They might be back. What do we do, Wheeler?”

“We get the ship ready to take off, just in case. Let's get the camo net off, right now.”

Tatsu does not want to leave, and pleads “We need to stay and wait! We can't leave! They may not be aggressive at all!”.

Wheeler says in a calming voice “We aren't going to leave yet, Tatsu. We will wait, I just want to be ready, in case they try to attack the ship.”

As Brent, Wheeler, and Decatur remove the net, Decatur comments “What's really weird is that he didn't seem that surprised, you know? If one of those suckers walked down a street on Earth, people would freak the fuck out. Maybe they’re more used to weird shit here.”

Brent says “Yeah, that’s true.”

Reptan Scout Team

The team watch from the windows, and Corny scans the area with the camera on top of the ship. After about an hour, Corny says “They're ba-aack.”

Coming up from the river valley, around the wooded edge of the ridge, a group of 5 reptans riding quadruped animal mounts converge on the edge of the field. They hold what look like large blade tipped staffs. Their mounts have a body shape somewhere between a Clydesdale and a rhinoceros.

Decatur looks at the group on the console screen and says “They are riding those things I saw on the farm, like reptile draught horses, with those two forward poking horns. Corny, zoom in on the lead guy. He has like a halberd, or some kind of spear with like an oversized hunting knife tip.”

Tatsu says “Those weapons are called naginatas.”

They all wear coats with the temple under the arch insignia, and the leader carries the largest naginata. They move along the edge of the wooded ridge, and stop near the place where the team met Prahx. Prahx is with the scout team. He points into the trees and tells the leader “In there is where I first saw them, Alma-Gurr.”

Rinrong says “So you came upon them, in the brush there, and they fled to that strange object over there? This ridge has a good view of the city, they must have been observing us. That could be a flying machine, perhaps they are from far away, as you suggested, Prahx. I have never seen anything like that.”

Prahx says “Before, it was covered to disguise it with the trees. They removed the cover.”

“Perhaps they are preparing to retreat,” Rinrong surmises.

One of the other reptan scouts asks “Alma-Gurr, should we ride closer to their location?”

Rinrong thinks a moment and says “No. Not yet. Dismount your hongas, and hitch them to that tree. Let us make a camp here, at the edge of the trees. We will watch them for a while, or until they leave.”

Leave?

Team 8 Ball watch the reptan scout team begin to clear the ground, set up crude tents, and form a camp.

Wheeler cautions “I dunno guys, part of me says just leave. More could come, this could be a diversion. It would be the safest choice, we did see them, we got tons of footage.”

Fiona says “I think we should stay.”

“You were pretty afraid of them a while ago,” Decatur mentions. “Why so cordial now?”

“I got scared,” Fiona explains. “I’m trying not to be. This is a huge opportunity for science, we can't waste it.”

Wheeler turns to Tatsu and Crystal. “You guys wanna stay?”

They both reply “Yes.”

Wheeler looks at Brent and Decatur. Brent says “I am fine with that plan. We can take off pretty fast. They would probably be scared of the engines, so we can get away if they charge, or something.”

Decatur says “Alright, that sounds fine. What time is it here? When is night?”

Wheeler says “Soon, three hours I guess. We’re sending a supplementary communication to Earth about this. Corny, get us a couple of compressed images of the reptans. One good close up, if you can. Fire up the horn, Pippa. Tatsu, Fiona, compose a message about our reptans.

“Brent, Decatur, let's go ahead and open the door and get some eyes on that camp. I want constant surveillance. Put your scope on your rifle, Decatur. One of you is always a sniper, the other has his head on a swivel in case they try to flank. Just stay right at the bottom of the ramp. Everyone else, stay inside.”

Brent replies “On it, Commander.”

Corny is still observing the scout team. “Tatsu, these riding animals, are they evolved trilopops?”

Tatsu says “Do you mean Triceratops?”

Corny says “Yes, yes, trizzlertops, whateveah.”

Tatsu says “I doubt it. My specialty is not dinosaurs, though I did have an interest in them when I was young. I don't know what they are, Hans. There has been so much evolution. The animals they ride on could have evolved from smaller, different looking origins. It could have evolved from proto-mammals.

“We do not know if evolution is predictable. It may be somewhat random. We only have one example, our Earth. The difference in biological diversity after the asteroid impact changed the conditions so much. What would have happened if the impact never occurred is impossible to predict. That is why this is such a very scientifically intriguing opportunity. It is like an impossible experiment.”

Tatsu thinks for a moment, and looks at Crystal. “Crystal, what if worldlines evolve? Worldlines branch off. What if some keep branching more than others? What if the worldlines of the Earth are like an evolutionary tree?”

Crystal smiles and says “I’ve had the exact same thought before. We know far less about the Multiverse than we do about evolution. I think the Multiverse’s structure is driven by influences different than those of evolution, but it's not without tendencies and shape. Maybe we can find something out about that, too. I have a feeling this worldline is special.”

Watching Each Other

The team receives a reply from their supplemental communication, and the Earth agrees with the team's plan to stay on the surface and watch the reptans. As the sun gets lower on the horizon, they notice 2 reptans, the leader and the one they met in the woods, slowly walk out to the middle of the field, and wait.

Fiona is watching, and thinking, and finally says “I want to go out there. I want to go try and talk to them again. I can do it. I interpret that as an invitation to talk. Wheeler? Can I get Brent to take me out there? There are two of them, there should be two of us.”

Wheeler takes a deep breath and sighs. “Brent? You wanna take Fiona out for a chat with our new neighbors?”

“Sure,” he replies from the bottom of the ramp. He looks at Crystal, who smirks and shrugs. She wishes she could go, but Fiona is the right choice, and she agrees there should be 2.

Brent and Fiona gear up, put on their headsets, and start to slowly walk out to the field.

“They are aware you are coming,” Corny advises them, watching the camera feed. “The leader now stands at attention. They seem to be waiting for you now.”

Crystal is peeking out at the field with binoculars from the top of the ramp, and Decatur is watching the 2 reptans from the bottom of the ramp through his rifle scope.

“Crystal,” Decatur says. “Are you and Brent an item?”

Crystal is surprised and embarrassed that he picked up on it, and thinks about lying. “Yes,” she says, figuring it is too late for it to be an issue, and it would be more of a distraction to maintain a lie.

“Hmm. Alright, then,” Decatur says. “If they get nasty, I’ll try to keep him alive for you. Ordinarily I woulda just left him as an appetizer so the rest of us could get away.”

Talking

As Fiona and Brent near, they can see the 2 reptans watching them and shuffling. The leader sets down his naginata and makes a revolving motion with his arm. Brent tells Fiona “I think they want us to walk faster.”

As they approach, Fiona decides to begin to conversate at the most basic level she can think of. She points to Prahx and says loudly “Prahx!”

Rinrong and Prahx look at each other, and Rinrong looks back, points to Prahx, and says “Prahx.” He then points to himself and says “Rinrong.”

Fiona is elated. She pats both of her collarbones and says “Fiona!”

Rinrong tries to say her name, but it is difficult for him to make an f sound, so it sounds like “Reeohnah.”

Fiona covers her mouth and whispers to Brent “It's working!”

Brent says “Do you like their voices? They sound like a combination of the Devil and Scooby Doo.”

Rinrong points to Brent, and Brent looks at Fiona. “Say your name,” she says, still whispering very excitedly.

Brent holsters his sidearm, and copies Fiona, tapping his collar bones and saying “Brent!”

Rinrong nods and says “Brent.” He goes around, pointing at everyone, establishing the moment. “Reeohnah. Brent. Prahx. Rinrong.”

“Rinrong Alma-Gurr!” Prahx declares, bowing slightly to Rinrong.

Fiona is overjoyed. Whispering softer, she says “This is the greatest moment in my life! This whole thing is the greatest moment in history!”

Brent smiles at her. “It's pretty awesome.”

When they get close, Rinrong points to the Everett, grunting. Brent gestures with his hand like a plane flying off and makes a whooshing sound. The reptans nod.

Rinrong says to Prahx “Yes, they are travelers. Good work, Prahx.”

Fiona and Rinrong speak for half an hour. They both use sticks in the sandy dirt to draw pictures. Brent watches as Fiona communicates that there are 8 of them who came from space, saw the city, and landed. She explains they are explorers. Fiona memorizes dozens of words, and begins to pick up on their speech patterns.

Brent keeps looking at the two reptans. Rinrong is too busy with Fiona to notice, but Prahx occasionally stares back at Brent. He makes a strange quick head bobbing when they acknowledge each other, so Brent nods back.

Fiona and Rinrong take a break, and Fiona relates what was exchanged.

“So, I told them who we are. They seemed to just take it at face value. I found out their city is called ‘Xardun’. They are part of the ‘Xardun Vahg’, the Xardun Army. Maybe more like a police force, or a city guard. Protectors. Rinrong is the chief. Rinrong is his name, and ‘Alma-Gurr’ is his title. He is like the general. Prahx is a middle tier soldier. He was patrolling when he found us. Those animals they ride are called ‘hongas’.”

Arms

Prahx taps Rinrong, and points to Brent's gun, which is holstered. He pretends to hold it and makes a sudden barking sound “Grut!” Brent looks at Rinrong, and he is pointing again at his gun.

Brent pulls his gun out, points it away from everyone, and shows it's side. Prahx pretends to shoot a gun in the air, like he saw Decatur do. “Grut! Grut!” He keeps doing it, continuously pointing to the gun.

Brent gets it. “Wheeler, they want me to fire a round. I think they like the gun.”

Wheeler says “Oh Lord have mercy. Uh. Well, if you are sure. Be super damn careful, here, Williford.”

Brent says “No problem.” He makes a motion to generate space, holds up the gun, and fires it into the air.

Both Rinrong and Prahx flinch. “Graw! Graw! Graw!” they vocalize to each other, throwing their heads back.

Brent says “I think they’re laughing.”

Rinrong signals back to the other 3 reptans at their camp, presumably indicating everything is fine.

Brent makes a motion for more space, points to a dirt clod a few yards away, takes aim, and fires. The dirt clod explodes in a puff of sand and dust, leaving a miniature crater.

“Graw! Graw! Graw!” they say, pointing at the spot, and gesticulating to each other and talking in their native tongue.

Rinrong says “Those weapons are very impressive. I like them.”

Prahx agrees, and says “They are like the ancient magic casting scepter!”

Rinrong dismisses Prahx. “You believe in folklore. Those worthless artifacts are not weapons. These weapons do not rely on forgotten sorcery. I would like to learn how they work.”

Fiona shakes her head, and says in a voice of exasperation “I teleported all the way to another world to communicate, and in half an hour, it degrades into a goddamn testosterone fest.”

Crystal shares another observation over the comm. “It seems like they are not that shocked by visitors. I wonder if they’ve meet other Multiverse travelers? Doesn't that strike you?”

Fiona says “Yes, now that you mention it, it does.”

Decatur decides to add an observation of his own. “These guys are pretty cool.”

Tails

There is a sense of easing tension on both sides. Rinrong and Prahx feel relaxed, and stand differently, crouched slightly, leaning back on their tails. Their tails lock into L shape, which acts to help balance them, like a kickstand coming from their butts.

Fiona is hot and tired, and sits on a large rock. The two reptans point at her and laugh.

“I think they're making fun of you, Fiona,” Brent says, “because you don't have a tail to sit on.”

Fiona replies “Tatsu, evolution is convergent. Sadly, it seems, jerks are inevitable.”

Brent walks over to a large 6 foot long branch he saw earlier, picks it up, and walks back to the group. He puts it between his legs, holding one end in front, with the other end behind him in the dirt, straddling it. He leans back, mimicking the reptans. He looks at them and smiles.

Rinrong and Prahx look at each other and laugh. Prahx points out Brent’s antics. “The male one not only flaunts his weapon, he makes jokes while on duty!”

Rinrong replies “This fighter must have a forgiving leader to tolerate his mischief.”

“I would regret committing such foolishness in front of you, Alma-Gurr.”

“Yes! You would be ordered to clean the community gathering area for many days, and I would throw many feasts to generate refuse and bones for you!”

Brent is happy he can amuse the reptans, and leans back on the stick harder. It cracks, and he falls on his ass. “Ow, fuck!” he says, rolling around in pain.

“Graw! Graw! Graw!” the two reptans cry louder this time. Rinrong pretends clumsily fall off his tail, catching himself before he does. “Graw! Graw! Graw!”

As the sun sets, dusk begins to reveal the great ring. In the daylight, it is muted against the bright blue sky, but as the sky darkens, and the stars come out, the ice blue ring glows brightly.

“Look how many lines in the ring there are,” Fiona says, looking up at the ring. They are only about 20 degrees north of the equator, so the ring is close to edge on, and arcs high overhead, peaking near the zenith.

The dark, nearly invisible portion of the ring in the planet's shadow is to the east, rising, but most of the ring is still in full sunlight. Brent looks up, and squints to see the detail. The different colored ring sections are finely ruled with a countless concentric rings, like a vinyl record.

The low light makes it difficult to see, and the two groups agree to go back to their camps for the night. Team 8 Ball sends their nightly report, detailing the meeting. It is met with a reply from Earth expressing congratulations for a mission that has already revolutionized human exploration.

Invitation

That evening in the reptan camp Prahx talks to Rinrong. “Alma-Gurr, I think we should invite the travelers to the Xardun tomorrow. Perhaps we can learn from them. They have great knowledge. They could become allies.”

Rinrong is leery. “They are still strangers, and we can take care of ourselves. I am not eager to waste time talking with them anymore. I have already been gone too long. What do you three think?” Rinrong asks the other scouts.

They all agree with Prahx that it would be worth while learning more about them.

Rinrong acquiesces. “If you promise to accompany them the entire time, Prahx, I will allow it. See if you can learn how their weapons work.”

Prahx is glad Rinrong did not mention Ehroo, and seemed to imply he would not follow them closely. He wishes to take the travelers to see Ehroo, who is the wisest man in the Xardun. He knows of the ancient magical times, and knows the legends of travelers that visited long ago.

Rinrong thinks Ehroo a crazy old man, and may have forbidden the meeting. He thinks the study of magical history is a waste of time which pollutes the minds of the young.

Prahx thinks these travelers may hold the key to resurrecting a time when their people were not oppressed by the omnipresent invisible curse that remains from the aftermath of the Magical Wars. He always believed their civilization had lost their way, and used to be much happier, but rarely expressed that thought to anyone.

13) Xardun

Nice Dreams

The next day the 5 reptan scouts rise and break camp. They all had unusually good sleep, and Rinrong believes sleeping in the countryside was invigorating.

They watch as the travelers come out from their flying machine. Rinrong and Prahx return to the middle of the field. This time three travelers come, the female interpreter 'Reeohnah', and two others, a male and another female.

Wheeler decided he would go this time, and wanted to bring Fiona and Crystal. Wheeler had developed a respect for Crystals leadership and analytical prowess, and wanted to make sure she had a chance to size everything up. She was the only one who seemed to understand where they really were. He felt it important to reestablish an overarching grip on the whole fantastic scenario before bothering to drill any further into the interesting scientific details.

The two groups greet, and Fiona speaks with Rinrong for a few minutes. Crystal is looking at the two amazing beings, and smiling. She wonders if they know what smiling is. Their skin is scaly in places. Their chin and face is just kind of bumpy, but the scales at their knee joints were like extended plates, like pleated roller derby pads.

“Holy cow, you guys,” Fiona says as she finishes talking to Rinrong. “They are inviting us all to visit the city, Xardun. We will actually be given a tour. Can you believe how great this is? We can document it all. The media we bring back is going to give everyone back on Earth a complete astonishment meltdown!”

Rinrong says to Prahx “I believe this male is of higher rank than Brent, and that other female, the silent one with the embellishments, is their mystic, or some sort of guide.”

Prahx looks at Crystal. “I sense that also, Alma-Gurr. The embellished female does appear more as I would imagine a traveler. She appears to have more diverse influences. Her small nasal stone could be a marker. I may be imagining things, but she seems to emit an adventurous demeanor.”

Rinrong says “Yes. Make sure to speak with her. I am interested in her role.”

Walk Around

Rinrong decides to ride ahead with the other scouts on their hongas, and lets Prahx lead the travelers into Xardun on foot. Pippa and Decatur wear their packs, Brent and Decatur have their sidearms, and the others travel light, with just their headsets, wrist communicators, and what they can carry in their coverall pockets.

They follow a trail that leads down into the valley, getting wider and more beaten as they approach the edge of the Xardun. They begin to cross a large bridge over the river fork into the city proper. It is a stone arch bridge with a wood walkway overhanging one side for pedestrians, which Prahx leads them down to let a large, 4 honga driven cart heavy with tuber vegetables pass.

Their technology and shelter construction is reminiscent of a hodgepodge of early historic Earth cultures. They have agriculture, domesticated livestock, metalsmithing, skilled wood joinery, stone masonry, wells, and clothing made of various materials, the most common similar to linen.

There is art and symbolism scattered about that has a nature revering tone. Repeating patterns and spirals are a theme, and most buildings have ornately carved wood beam door lintels, some with inset stones, with a tree of life symbol in the center.

Most houses are small, stone cabins with thatched roofs. Further into the city, there are larger, two story buildings. Some of the larger ones are mixed-use buildings with shops in the lower floors. Throught the shop windows they can see all manner of wares and knick-knacks, like lanterns, furniture, and strange art.

Some establishments look like general stores from the old west, selling goods in sacks and containers. There are agricultural shops with fenced yards that hold farming tools and wagons. Crystal notices one place looks like a blacksmith's shop. She can hear the sound of a hammer pounding on an anvil, and wishes she could go check it out.

They stick to the main roads, and towards the center of the city are market plazas, which are lined with vendors selling ceramic and metal cookware and clothing. Farmers sell strange vegetables and meat out of honga drawn carts. Some booths and stands are clustered in small covered bazaars where more permanent huts sell trinkets and tools.

All the reptan citizens are very interested in the team, though not flabbergasted by their presence. The females are less green, more brown, though only slightly smaller in size. The young reptans are especially curious. Some of the older reptans seem weary of their presence.

Wise Man

Prahx figures the best chance to visit Ehroo is immediately, so he leads the team directly to him. As the team near his home, they can see the edge of the central forest. There is an old stone trail leading to a ruin, only partially exposed through the trees. It is a terraced system of stone columns and beams, half destroyed, and now covered in moss and vines.

When they arrive, Ehroo is standing outside. He is very old, and hunch-backed, and walks with a cane. He has a young reptan standing next to him. They both wear similarly designed coats, with a insignia stitched on the front. As she looks at it, Crystal recognizes what it appears to symbolize.

It looks like a door opening into an infinite hallway. The hallway is symbolized as a rectangle with crossed diagonals, looking like walls, a floor, and a ceiling, all receding to infinity in single point perspective.

The door is symbolized by a rectangle with a handle on the right side. The hallway is visible through it, as though the door is made of glass, and only the edges of the door are visible. The door is shown swung open to multiple angles of increasing openness overlapped.

The interesting part is that the width of the door, from the hinged left side to the handled right side, appears to elongate and keep in contact with the right hand wall as it opens, becoming infinitely wide, never truly opening.

“Good day, Ehroo,” Prahx says. “We discovered some strange travelers, and I brought them to you. I wish to know if they are like the ancient travelers. They have an interpreter that can communicate basic things.” Prahx motions for Fiona, who goes to greet the old reptan.

After a few minutes Fiona walks back to the team. “Well, this guy is like a sage or a shaman. He knows we came from space. I guess they have legends like that. They think we might be like that. Like an example now of their legends. I think that’s why we were brought here.”

Crystal is excited that they might have met other Multiverse travelers in their past. She thinks they might have a stronger influence of the Multiverse in their culture. Perhaps it is more integrated into their mythology. Crystal had been forming a pet theory in the back of her mind that it somehow revolves around their spirituality being in tune with quantum physics.

Crystal tells Fiona “Try to tell them we come from the Multiverse, not space. Try to describe the drive, and how we traveled not through space or time, but possibility.”

Fiona says “You know, it may be too difficult to translate such complex ideas. They aren't physicists.”

Crystal stares at her intensely.

“OK, Crystal. I’ll try to tell him.” Fiona walks back over to Ehroo, and begins to speak, visibly struggling to explain how they really got there.

Ehroo And The Multiverse

The old man nods, and groans in approval, “Mmm, mmm, mmm.” He pokes the ground with his cane and says “Zhpee.” He taps his young friend, who hands him a baseball sized spherical polished rock. He holds it and says “Zhpee.”

He points to the sun, which is low on the horizon, and says “Doo,” then holds the spherical rock up, and moves it around in a circle, as if around the sun.

Fiona says “'Zhpee' means planet, or the Earth, I believe. He is indicating a planet going around the sun, which is 'Doo'”.

Ehroo starts pointing around to each of the humans, one at a time, repeating a word “Mun, mun, mun...” then holds his arms out as if to embrace everyone, and says “Ga.”

Fiona says “Ga means group? Many, perhaps?”

Ehroo moves his arm in a sweeping motion, wavering his hand, and says “Zhpee-Gah.”

Fiona says “I guess he is saying there are many planets. They know about other planets? They have astronomy?” she wonders aloud, unable to rectify how a culture at their level of technology could know about other planets.

The old man sets the spherical stone on a ledge, grabs some pebbles, and drops a stone on it. The stone bounces off the top of the spherical stone to one side, and he veers his hand over the stone in that direction. He repeats this a few times, veering his hand in the random direction the stone happens to bounce. The whole time he is doing this, he is repeating “Zhpee-Gah! Zhpee-Gah!”

Fiona says “Many Planets.”

Crystal Thinks They Know

Crystal suddenly bursts “No! He means many worlds, literally! He is talking about the Multiverse! The random stone bounces are like events splitting the planets worldline. Like an event with a random outcome. I swear, they know about it! I cannot believe they know about the Multiverse. Wow, this place is so odd.”

Pippa says to her “Crystal, I don't want to spoil your fun, but how do you figure it is all that? Humans only recently discovered the Multiverse, and our technology is much more advanced. He probably just means other planets. Even that seems too advanced.”

Crystal says “'No, he means the Multiverse, I am sure of it. The thing with the pebbles absolutely cinched it. The funny thing about the Multiverse is you don’t necessarily need advanced technology to learn it’s there.”

She looks at the others. “Zhpee' is their word for world, more like a worldline than a planet. 'Gah' is their word for many. 'Zhpee-Gah' means 'Worlds Many', or many worlds.”

Crystal looks at Ehroo and nods, saying “Zhpee-Gah.”

Corny interrupts. “Speaking of Zhpee-Gah, I wish we had some Zhpee-Gah-etti. I am very hungry.”

Decatur says “Corny, goddammit, stop ruining the moment.”

Crystal looks back at the old reptan, who is nodding. He sits up and pretends to put things in his mouth. “Mengchon” he says, and the other reptans say “Mengchon” also, then move around as if they are about to do something.

Fiona talks to the wise man, and says “He thinks we’re hungry, and says they should make us food.”

Crystal walks over to Brent, and he says “I believe in your theory, Crystal.

“This place has a whole other history. They might have advanced in a different way, with different levels of knowledge about things at different points in time. Maybe they got filled in about the Multiverse from those other travelers. Like the ancient aliens theory, only for them, more like ancient Multiverse travelers.”

“Yeah!” Crystal says, smiling.

Brent puts his arm around her. “Your planet is pretty phenomenal. Thanks for bringing me here.”

Crystal says “No, no. Thank you for coming. You are helping so much. Really.” They face each other, and Brent puts his arms around her.

Brent looks at Wheeler, concerned he might think hugging is breaking protocol. Wheeler smiles and says “You know, Williford, like I said, this isn't a military operation. A little PDA is OK. Just don't gross out the natives, right? Basic discretion, thats all I ask.”

Everyone moves to a what looks like a very large covered picnic area not far from Ehroo's house. Crystal and Brent sit together on a wooden bench as the reptans begin to prepare a cookout in a large stone oven.

Crystal is fascinated by Ehroo, and wants to talk to him, to find out what he knows about the Multiverse. She wonders if he knows more about it than they do, at least about some aspects of it all. Human science always seemed a bit too pedantic and rigid with doctrine to Crystal, and she always felt it obfuscated certain aesthetic truths to the detriment of a fuller insight.

Ehroo is very struck by Crystal. He says to his young companion “Tyro, do you see her aura? It is the color of hot coals.”

Tyro is not sure if he can see her aura, or if his eyes are dazzled by the similarly red-orange setting sun. “Master, I am not sure.” Ehroo has told Tyro that an aura is a sign of power, and it's color reveals the character of its progenitor.

Ehroo says “She is inexperienced and enigmatic, but soon she will let her abilities blossom.”

Family Tensions

Rinrong stops by to see how the travelers’ visit is going. He sees that Ehroo is there with Tyro. He walks past Prahx, immediately up to Tyro, and says “You are disobeying me. You are my son, and you should be training to fight, not squandering more time with this crazy old fool.”

Tyro responds firmly to Rinrong. “Father, our people need philosophers and fighters. You are a fighter, but I wish to become a philosopher. Our forgotten history could turn out to be the most powerful defense we have.”

Rinrong gets angry and says “You will become crazy and weak. I command you to train to fight and stop spending all your time with Ehroo.” He attempts to grab his son's arm, but Tyro yanks it away and storms off.

Rinrong barks to Tyro. “I do not have time to argue with you now, but we will settle this later, and you will learn to respect my wishes, son.”

Rinrong walks back over to Prahx. As he gets filled in about the visit, Crystal says to Brent “I think those two are family. Seemed like a family argument.”

Brent says “Yeah. Rinrong is kind of a hardass, huh.”

Barbecue

The reptans roast slabs of animal and serve the team piles of meat and strange vegetables. Crystal and Brent set together at the table and eat.

“This meat is pretty good,” Crystal says after a few bites, “but I wish we brought some of that sauce from the barbecue place at Oak Ridge. It would be fun to let the reptans try some Earth style barbecue sauce.”

Brent says “I dunno. I kinda lied about that barbecue. It was pretty lame. I got to try some authentic shit in Virginia. Totally next level in comparison. Still, though, for meat cooked as quick and dirty as this was, it isn't half bad. A little stringy.”

“Hey, I like that sauce,” Crystal says over a slightly defensive laugh. “Plus, we don't even know what this meat is. It could be sloth butt.”

Brent laughs and takes another bite. “Pretty good sloth butt.”

Corny stops by where the team is sitting, and he is holding a wooden stein, like a miniature stave barrel with a large handle. He tells Wheeler “Look at this, they have beer. Well, it is more like cider, I believe.”

Wheeler says “Alright, Corny. One glass, that's it.”

Corny says “Yes, I am simply sampling their culture. It is science.” He takes another sip. “It is OK. But I can teach them improvements, I believe. It is too cloudy, could use some filtering. You know, if I teach them distilling, perhaps they would deem me a God.”

A Stranger

Night falls, and the stars and ring begin to come out. The team is wondering whether they could just camp right where they are, in the covered gathering area. Just then there is a commotion in the distance. Many reptans are talking loudly. The disruption moves towards them, and they see what looks like a middle aged human woman in an elaborate white flowing dress.

Decatur says “Holy shit, is that chick human?”

The reptans back away from her, making a passage, as she is walking towards the team. She is wearing a tiara like jeweled crown over her long, jet black hair, and she has large, striking turquoise eyes.

Prahx asks Ehroo “Who is this?”

Ehroo replies “I do not know. Her eyes, though. I feel I have seen eyes like hers before.”

In the hallucinatory blur of fragmented images Ehroo sees in his mind when he tries to remember the war, there is a pair of eyes. He does not know if they belonged to someone, or if they simply represent an idea, perhaps the concept of evil, manifested as the imagery of a looming gaze. He cannot remember who or what they mean, but the color. Turquoise. The color seems to stir something in him. A race of beings? A discipline of magic? His memory is irreparably shattered, and every attempt to reassemble the pieces leads to further confusion and a grating sense of frustration.

As the strange woman passes the reptans, she nods to them graciously. It is obvious they do not know her. Some of the reptans seem curious, some wary, and some rush away, frightened. She continues all the way up to the team, who are seated together at a large table.

In English, the mysterious woman announces “I sensed your presence, adventurers. Greetings, I am Temperantia.”

Crystal glances at Ehroo, looking for some kind of reaction. He looks back at her, blankly.

Fiona speaks to the unexpected visitor. “Greetings, Temperantia. We are travelers to this world. We came through a ship that allows us to travel through what we call the Multiverse.”

Temperantia smiles “Yes, I know. Welcome. I am also a traveler, not unlike yourselves.” Temperantia looks at Crystal. “You are the one who discovered the technology that allowed you to travel here, are you not?”

Crystal feels a little embarrassed. “Uh, well, some of it, yes. There were others, I didn't figure it out all by myself.”

Temperantia says “Well, still, you are very clever. Not many can do what you did.”

Crystal decides, as long as she has Temperantia's attention, to ask her who she is. “Who are you, where are you from?”

Temperantia says “I come from, well, many places. I have lived a nomadic life. It is complicated, I can explain, but first, I wish to offer you lodging. I always respect travelers on a journey of discovery, and help them when I can. I am staying in the old castle, but there is a guest house that would suit you and your companions nicely. You may spend the night there, if you wish. You may stay as long as you like, and get to know this place. Come, let me show it to you, it is not far away.”

The Cottage

Brent says to Crystal “What do you think, Crystal? Should we take her up on her offer?” The rest of the team look at Crystal, waiting for her answer.

Crystal feels a bit conflicted, but decides, so long as they are on an adventure of sorts, they might as well avail themselves of whatever hospitality they can get from whomever offers it, be it evolved dinosaurs, or a mystical fairy lady. “OK, sure.”

“Delightful,” Temperantia says. She swings her arm out, showing the way. “Well, shall we?”

The team all get up and follow Temperantia, down a path through the woods. Crystal notices that Tyro is following them, probably curious about Temperantia and where they are going.

After about a quarter of a mile, they come upon a large cottage. From the clearing in front of the cottage, there is a view of the castle tower, not far away. They are deep inside the castle forest.

Temperantia guides them all the way to the front door of the cottage, reaches out her hand, and opens it without touching it. The team all look at each other in amazement. “Please, make yourselves at home. I need to return to the castle, but I will be back. I hope you are staying a while. Perhaps next time we will have more opportunity to talk. I must bid you farewell for tonight. Have pleasant dreams, travelers. Goodbye for now.” Temperantia turns and walks away, towards the castle.

“That lady is like a witch, or something,” Decatur says in a quiet voice of amazement. “This place is getting weirder and weirder.”

Crystal wonders if maybe Temperantia is versed in some kind of quantum metaphysical orthodoxy, and is enamored with the prospect of learning something about it.

The team enter the cottage. It has sturdy walls made of large stones and mortar, and a massive timber framed roof. There is a large main room, and many solid wooden doors around the walls.

“Man, this place is nice. It looks like it has never been lived in,” Brent notices.

Corny opens one of the doors and says “There is a bed in here. I choose this one.”

Wheeler walks over to a table and says “Pippa, bring your comm pack over here, let's see if we can bounce a transmission off the Everett from inside this building, we need to report back to Earth.”

Decatur suddenly says “Oh, shit, did we close the ramp?”

“I did, you numskull,” Wheeler says. “I was wondering if either of you would say that.”

Brent laughs and says “Hey, man, I saw you do it, I would have remembered.”

Wheeler smiles and says “Pippa, set up your gear, get your typing fingers loose. The Everett's comm is on standby. Just start with a strong ping to wake it up. We don't have great line of sight, but the Everett's comm will compensate, hopefully. Guys, lets put together another episode of The Adventures of Team 8 Ball in the Fifth Dimension. Then we can all get some shuteye.”

The team give as short a synopsis of their day visiting Xardun, including Temperantia. The reply from Earth supports their plan to stay another day or two.

The cottage only has 6 bedrooms, so Fiona and Pippa decide to share a room, but two more need to share. Decatur says “I’m not sleeping in the same bed as anyone of you guys, especially not Corny. Brent, Crystal, can you guys share a room? Please?”

Brent says “Where's your adventurous spirit, Decatur?” Brent and Crystal laugh. “Just kidding, yeah sure. We get the big one, though.”

Ringstruck

Brent and Crystal say goodnight, and close themselves in their bedroom. “What a day, huh,” Brent says, taking off his belt and holster.

“Yeah,” Crystal says. She can feel her pulse rising.

Brent shouts “Pippa! Fiona!”

Crystal, in her excited state, is startled a bit. “What are you doing?” she says, laughing.

Fiona and Pippa's bedroom is adjacent, and he hears no reply. He looks at Crystal and smiles. “Thick walls.”

He walks up to her, and slips his arms around her waist, sliding one up to the middle of her back, and one down grabbing her ass. Crystal moans faintly, and Brent pulls her tight and goes in for a kiss. Crystal feels herself give in completely. They make out sensually, removing items of clothing awkwardly, and falling into bed, never breaking their kissing.

It does not take long for their passion to escalate into the most shamelessly erotic sex they have ever had together. At first Brent is on top, but Crystal forcefully switches positions, which Brent is into, and she begins to ride him like a sex crazed cowgirl on a mechanical bull of desire.

Brent does not want to stop to tell her, but her eyes are glowing orange again. He wonders to himself if Crystal maybe doesn't have a little witchy woman in her, which he very much likes, and it just doesn't seem that weird right now.

Afterwards, they are lying together, and Brent is enjoying a narcotically pacifying refractory period, but feels compelled to mention something that was bugging him before he nods off.

“Uh, Crystal. I know you know, but I wasn't wearing a condom. So...”

“Yeah. I know,” she whispers.

“You aren't on the pill either, are you?” he asks, just to make sure.

“No,” she says. “I did bring a morning after pill, though.”

“Oh, really. You have it on you?” he asks, a little relieved.

“It's in my pack,” she says. Brent knows her pack is on the Everett.

“Oh,” he says. “What do we do?” he wonders, wanting to hear her thoughts first.

Crystal snuggles into him and says “Let's just figure that out tomorrow. If we have to, we can go get it. We have a little while.”

Brent decides to try and put that concern out of his mind, and get some sleep. Both of them are dead tired, and fall asleep within minutes, still embracing.

14) Seeds Of Sorcery

Gathering

The next day Prahx and Tyro greet the team outside the cottage. They all walk back to the covered gathering place, and there is a small crowd of reptans waiting. While the other members of the team try to make basic conversation with the outgoing reptans, and play little games with the young, Fiona speaks with Ehroo, Tyro, and Prahx, as the more dower reptans listen in.

Later, Fiona tells the team what was said. “So, I guess their history says they used to be a larger, more advanced society, but they are now diminished and scattered. Some kind of magic war happened. Maybe a Multiverse war, Crystal. Ehroo was alive when it happened, but he can’t remember the details. He said their was some kind of veil of confusion about who the bad guy was. Like a shadowy character who wrecked everything, then sorta receded. Nobody seems to know what they were fighting over.

“Anyhow, they also said they are all cursed by a pall left over from the war. That the curse invades their dreams, sort of hijacks their subconscious, or something. But that has abated since we and Temperantia showed up. They think something is going on, and we are part of it. Temperantia, too.”

Decatur says “Wow. That's kooky. Do they think it's real, a legend, or maybe some religious story? Are we Gods?”

Fiona says “I took it to be sort of a myth based religion, yeah. I dunno how many are into it, though. Not all of them. I could just be getting recruited into a cult. I just thought of that, hmm. Disconcerting. Anyways, they have some artifact they want to show us. Tyro is getting it.”

In an cheerful voice, Corny says “It is show and tell time. This could be fun.”

Tyro comes back with a wooden box. He sets it down, and reverently pulls out what looks like a short handled scepter. The other reptans murmur in excitement, and many repeat the word “krusur” to each other.

Tyro points it forward and pretends like he is shooting it. “Grut! Grut!” he barks, pretending to fire it.

Corny ridicules “Ooh, it's a magical phaser!”

Decatur sighs, and in a dismissive voice, says “Ohh Kaaay. These guys probably are a cult.”

Wheeler doesn’t want to jeopardize the surprisingly good relations they forged with the reptans, and says “Alright Decatur, let's keep an air of respectfulness going about their culture.”

“Yeah, I better watch out, he might turn me into a toad.” Decatur quips.

Wheeler wants to make a point. “I’m serious, all of you. The last thing we need to do is insult their religion. That’s turned out bad for other explorers before. Just nod politely. Be a courteous guest, Decatur.”

Talisman

Later, Brent and Crystal are sitting together, watching the reptans, and talking. An old female reptan, with two younger females following, shuffles up to Crystal, and hands her a necklace.

“Oh, thank you,” Crystal says as she takes the necklace.

The pendant looks like a miniature hanging bowl. It has delicately ornate arms coming up from the sides of the bowl to a loop through which the braided string runs. The edge of the bowl is lined with a ring of tiny jewels, all different colors.

The openings in the minute caged dome look as though they are paned with tiny windows. Crystal tries to look into it and shakes it, but the windows are dark and it feels solid. Crystal says to Brent “This it is a really cool little talisman.”

Crystal tries to give it back, but the old female reptan refuses to take it, and says something. Fiona, who had noticed the exchange, says “She wants you to have it.”

Crystal nods to thank the woman. “What a cool souvenir,” she thinks. She is struck again with the realization of how amazing a place Odd World is. For the first time since their tense arrival, she is starting to feel at home. She feels euphorically fortunate to be a part of such a one of a kind enterprise.

She is lucky she got her scholarship to Rice, her PhD experiment worked, that it took her to Oak Ridge, the drive worked, and it all led up to being in Odd World with Brent having a profoundly amazing experience meeting evolved dinosaurs. She smiles at Brent, who smiles back.

Suddenly the old woman reptan makes what sounds like a snoring gasp, and points to Crystal, who is holding the talisman, which is now glowing a ruddy orange.

Crystal holds it up and remarks “Oh wow, it's glowing!”

The old woman reptan is amazed and says something. Fiona comes over and translates. “She says you are special.”

The old woman grabs the talisman in her fingers and points with her sharpened fingernail claw to the red-orange stone on the side, which matches the color of the glow coming from inside the caged stone. She begins to mutter excitedly.

Fiona says “She says you're a leader. Did you catch that? She said 'Alma-Gurr', like Rinrong's title. You know, 'Alma' means 'Soul' in Spanish. I wonder if Alma-Gurr means formidable soul? You know, like 'Alma! Gurrrr!”.

Crystal and Fiona laugh. Crystal says “Maybe it just means growling little weirdo.” She is a little embarrassed the old woman would think she is a military commander on the team. She smiles and thanks the woman for her compliment.

“Ez like a mood ring!” says Corny, who had wandered near. “A mood ring from the fifth dimension. It is very cool.”

Crystal was thinking the same thing, and smiles. “Yeah.”

“Crystal,” Brent says in a pointed tone. She looks at him, and he is looking back with a spellbound expression. He leans over to her, and speaks softly. “That charm, it's glow. Red-orange. That's the color your eyes glowed. I saw your eyes glow twice. Right when we got here, in space, and last night, when, well, you know.”

Crystal makes an inquisitive expression. Brent says “I think this place is really rubbing off on you. You might be getting a little charmed yourself. Uhm. Do you think... maybe... oh. It stopped.” He is looking at the talisman, which dark again.

“Sorry I threw off your wah, there.” He wonders if maybe Crystal can control it if she tries. “Hey, what were you thinking just then, when it glowed? And what were you thinking when your eyes glowed, when we just first got here, in the Everett. You were looking out your window, remember?”

“I was thinking about how lucky I was,” she remembers. “How improbable the moment was.”

“Yeah, OK. Um, can you think that again?”

Crystal understands what Brent is saying. “Getting sort of awestruck, maybe,” She smiles and looks at Brent and says “or just kind of amazed at what’s happening.”

She looks at the talisman, and thinks to herself for a moment. “What's the theme there? When we were in the split state, just before teleporting, I could sort of control my synchronization with my doppelganger by focusing on my now. My thoughts and impulses were real in other worldlines. I could almost control them. When I think about my now, and being lucky, and how a million things had to line up just right, I get a huge feeling. A distinct zing.

“Maybe it's like fixating on a point in probability space. Like an atom of possibility, the hub of every event around it. It's like I can imagine everything that has, and could, happen when I am inside that atom. It all feels out there, real. Like I can see possibilities.”

Crystal begins to get a weird feeling, and thinks “It's like the drive. Cohering worldlines. An intersection of causally linked events. A timeless fulcrum point of possibility. A perfect threshold to see all possibility. I can do that in my head now.”

She looks at Brent and tells him “It's like the drive. I think I might get it now.” She is quiet for a moment. “I think I might be going crazy.”

Brent smiles, scoots over against her, and hugs her. “I think you are going uncrazy, Crystal.”

“Thanks. This place is really odd, huh,” she says.

Brent replies “That's why they call it Odd World.”

Crystal looks over to Ehroo, who is watching her.

“The old ones seem to like you,” Brent says. He thinks Crystal might be developing powers, and he decides the personal aspect of the mission for him now is helping her uncover them.

Showing Tyro

Around midday, the reptans bring out food again. Crystal is eating a small plate of lunch, and Tyro comes and sits next to her. He seems interested in the talisman, which Crystal now wears around her neck. She takes it off and hands it to him, and he looks at it.

Crystal thinks to herself “If any of the reptans is insightful enough to get it, this kid is. Let's see if I can teach him how to make it light up. It might be a good way to test how it works.”

“Fiona, can you come here?” Crystal asks, and Fiona gets up and sits across from them. “I want you to explain to Tyro what I explain to you.”

“Sure, Crystal,” Fiona says. Pippa moves closer to watch.

“This may take a while, Fiona, bear with me. It’s a deep concept,” Crystal says.

“Tell him to imagine his whole life as a series of pictures, like a story.” Fiona conveys this to Tyro, using words from their language and her hands.

“Tell him to imagine all the pictures together at once, strung out on a line of time.” Fiona continues communicating to Tyro.

“Tell him to identify one picture that shows something important that happened in his life.

“Tell him to imagine this picture changes, something else happened, and now the story after it change because of that one change.

“Tell him to imagine those two stories at the same time, branching at the change, like a tree branch. The story splits into two different stories where the change happens.

“Now tell him every picture branches, and his life in the Multiverse is like a big tree of different lives that did not happen.

“Tell him he is climbing the tree. He chooses one way to the top. Other paths are there, he just did not take them. That one path up the tree is the life he lived.

“Tell him to think about what is happening right now. All around are story trees. His story tree, my story tree, and many other story trees that belong to everything around him.

“Tell him all the story trees around him share one picture, and that picture is right now.

“Tell him he is in that picture, and he can see all the other story trees meeting there. Tell him that every moment is like a now, and every now is very special, and all the stories can change because it.

“Tell him to close his eyes and imagine it all at once, with him in the center, here, now.”

Pippa quietly waves at Crystal to get her attention. Crystal looks at her, and she is furiously pointing at the talisman Tyro is holding in his hand. Crystal looks, and faint yellow glow is coming from inside it.

Crystal smiles and thinks “Yellow. Tyro is yellow. I am red-orange. I should ask the old lady what all the colors mean. I guess she said mine means a leader? I better show him before he loses it.”

“Fiona, tell him to open his eyes, and look at the talisman.” Fiona tells him, and he opens his eyes, and sees the glow as it fades away.

Tyro quietly stands up, gives the talisman back to Crystal, and bows before her for a moment. Crystal hands the talisman back to Tyro. “You keep it. I give it to you, now.” Tyro reluctantly accepts the talisman, nods, and slowly walks away. He passes Ehroo, who pats him as he goes by.

“You are a magician, Crystal!” Pippa says.

“Yes, do me!” Corny says.

“Maybe later, Corny. Tyro is borrowing the talisman,” Crystal says, and smiles and looks around. Brent is standing a little ways off next to Prahx, and both looking back at her. “I wonder if they saw that,” she thinks, and waves. Brent waves back, and then, observing this custom, so does Prahx.

Rinrong Is Leery

Rinrong stops by, and talks to Prahx. “Prahx, I have been talking to others about Temperantia, and I am suspicious of her.”

“You are, Alma-Gurr? Why is this?” Prahx says

“We know how and when the travelers arrived, and they share their themselves openly. While I may not trust them yet, they are sincere, and do not instill apprehension in me.

“Temperantia does. She is insincere and secretive. Who is she? When did she arrive? Why is she staying in the castle? Where did the cottage come from? We should have known about the cottage. Do you see what I mean?”

“Yes, Alma-Gurr,” Prahx says, believing he made a good point. It was Prahx's duty to be brave, but he was beginning to believe that being too brave right now could be a blindfold.

Rinrong continues. “Things have been different. Everyone has good sleep, as though the pall has been lifted. There must be a reason it coincides with the travelers and Temperantia.”

“Yes, Alma-Gurr,” Prahx agrees.

Rinrong tells Prahx in a serious tone “If you care about these travelers, you should warn them something peculiar is stirring. Tell them, if Temperantia returns, to be skeptical of her.”

“I will warn them, Alma-Gurr,” Prahx says.

Prahx gets Fiona, Brent, and Wheeler to assemble. He tells them what Rinrong told him. He also tells them it is not unusual for Rinrong, as the Alma-Gurr of the Xardun Guard, to be very weary, but he agreed they should be on alert.

Brent And Prahx

Prahx and Brent move away from the gathering, and practice communicating together.

Brent asks Prahx if they fish in the river. He pretends to throw out a line, catch a fish, and eat it.

Prahx says yes, and pretends he is very hungry, then pretends to catch a fish, eat it ravenously, and be reinvigorated by the nourishment. They communicate the word for 'Fish' is 'Shal'

Brent indicates that, far away on Earth, he fished to. Prahx pokes him, and pretends to eat a fish and by happy. Brent attempts to show when he catches a fish, he puts it back in the water. Prahx is confused.

“Do Mengchon Shal?” Prahx asks. Brent knows that means 'No Food Fish?'. Brent says “Do Mengchon Shal.” He pretends to release the fish and by happy.

Prahx shows confusion. Brent attempts to tell Prahx he fishes for fun only. Fiona, who had been watching, walks over, encouraged others are learning to communicate so well, and impressed with Brent's patience.

“Brent goda shal mar pluk do mengchon,” Fiona says. Brent looks over at her, and she says “I told him you fish for fun, not food.”

Prahx is amused, and tells Fiona something Brent can't quite follow yet. Fiona smiles and says “He says he wishes he lived in a world that provided enough that he could catch and release prey as a game.”

Later, Brent takes a computer tablet out from his cargo pocket to check on the time and Everett's power levels. Prahx sees it and is very intrigued. Brent shows Prahx what he is doing, pointing in the direction of the ship, pointing to the power bar, and when it is low, the ship is tired, and when it is high, the ship is invigorated.

Prahx understands, well enough he asks Brent what powers the tablet. He wonders where the light from the screen comes from.

The tablet has a solar panel on the back. Brent points into it and says “Doo” for sun. Brent uses his fingers to indicate rays beaming into the solar panel, to explain the tablet absorbs energy from the sun. He flips it over, turns it off and on again, and uses his fingers to indicate light coming out of the screen later, at will. Prahx is very intrigued.

Brent shows him how the touch screen works, and lets Prahx try. His fingernails make an excellent stylus.

Brent decides to show Prahx some pictures. Most are of him and his buddies in the Navy Seals. Prahx is fascinated by their gear and guns. Brent shows him a helicopter and pantomimes rappelling on a special patrol insertion, and Prahx watches astounded and jealous.

Prahx says “Goh rak Brent zhpee!”

Brent knows ‘Goh’ means ‘I’ and ‘zhpee’ means 'world'. He figures Prahx said “I something Brent's world”, and figures ‘rak’ probably means ‘like’, and takes it as a compliment.

Brent decides to tell Prahx he likes his world, and says “Goh rak Prahx zhpee,” waving his arm out over Odd World in approval.

“Brent,” Fiona says, having watched their whole exchange. “You are a great communicator. I’m sorry I thought you would be a bad ambassador.”

Brent smiles and jokes “Well, there are folk back in Tennessee that speak something like reptan, so I got some practice.”

Temperantia Returns

Shortly after nightfall, there is a commotion in the distance. It is Temperantia, she has returned. She again walks up to the team and speaks.

“Did you sleep well? I hope the guest house was to your liking.”

Fiona says “It was very nice, thank you. We slept well.”

“Wonderful,” Temperantia replies pleasantly. “I promised last time that we could talk more. I imagine you would like to know more about me, and how I travel. I travel in a similar way to you, only different. For me, it is more natural. You, on the other hand, had to invent a way. That is very resourceful.”

Temperantia looks at Crystal. “Hello Crystal. I remember your name from last night. You have a pretty name. It suits you.”

Crystal feels a little singled out. “Thank you,” she says.

“And you are very clever. I wish to discuss things with you. About traveling the Hypercosmos. I can tell you things that would take a long time to discover on your own. I was wondering if you would like to come visit the castle with me?”

Temperantia looks at the other team members. “I do not wish to be rude, but I feel I need to speak with Crystal alone. She will best understand what I have to say.”

Temperantia looks back at Crystal. “I will teach you, and then you can pass it on.”

If Temperantia has as much knowledge as Crystal thinks, talking to her could mean a huge leap in understanding. A being that can travel the Multiverse naturally, which still seems unimaginable to Crystal, might posses an incomprehensibly high level of understanding. Crystal's only concern is if she can fathom it all.

“So you want to go to the castle and talk, right now?” Crystal asks, a little taken aback at the suddenness of the offer.

“Yes. I have a few things there that might interest you,” Temperantia says.

Crystal looks at Brent. He feels conflicted. He is worried about Crystal going off along with a weird witch, nice or not, and remembers Prahx's warning. He would feel better if she stayed, but he knows she wants to go. He would die protecting her, but her independence is part of what he likes about her, and it feels wrong to tell her what to do. He also gets the feeling that letting her discover this place for herself, her way, is important.

“If you want to go Crystal, OK. If you want to stay, OK, too,” Brent says. “We support your choice either way.”

Crystal says “Thanks.” She turns to Temperantia and says “Alright, then, yes. Let's go talk.” She gets up, and the two walk off. As they leave, Crystal turns and waves, and most of the team wave back.

Brent looks at Wheeler, who says “She's fine. Crystal can take care of herself. Plus, if there is any trouble,” he looks around at the team and the reptans “we'll just storm the castle.”

Temperantia And Crystal

Temperantia and Crystal walk down the trail through the woods, past the cottage the team spent the previous night in. “Did you build this guest house?” Crystal asks.

“No, I do not know who did. It may have been built by a family of indignant lifeforms, or previous travelers. Who knows.

“I sense this whole place was once a hub of activity, but that ceased long ago. The natives may know more, but I generally abstain from interacting with the aboriginals of the worlds I travel to. Their folklore tends to be so steeped in such preposterous mythology and fable. My appearance would simply add to it. There is hardly ever any well documented history to places like this. It is part of their charm.”

They continue on to the castle, and as they near it, they enter a clearing in the trees. The castle is surrounded by a polygonal stone wall, about 30 feet high, with battlements around the top. Over the wall, Crystal can see the windows on the upper floor of a great keep inside, and the high tower, climbing what looks to be nearly 250 feet into the night sky.

As they pass through the open portcullis, Temperantia says “The castle is very old. It must have a rich history, but unfortunately, there was nothing inside when I found it. It is just a barren shell of its former glory. Still, it is a wonderful palace. If I ever did settle down, I would just kill to live in a fortress like this. I like to stay here when I visit this world. It is my secret retreat.”

They cross the ward, and climb a set of stairs to the large wooden doors of the main entrance of the great keep. The doors are already open, and they walk through, into a grand entry hall. Crystal looks around and can see that the castle is devoid of all decorations and furniture.

“Let me give you a tour,” Temperantia says. “It is not every day you get to see the inside of such a noble manor.” She begins to lead Crystal around the echoing, vacant halls, talking as they go.

“I have been wandering the Hypercosmos for a long time. In some ways, you could say I was born from it. Many beings know of the Hypercosmos. I have been to many worlds, and met many travelers.”

Crystal wants to know how she does it. “So, you have the power to teleport yourself, naturally, as you put it, without any technology?”

Temperantia titters. “Oh, honey. Of course I have that power! I am an advanced being. With regard to Hypercosmos travel, that is. Yes, there are many such travelers. But the Hypercosmos is very large, and we do not encounter one another often, or spend much time together. I just travel. I am a bit of a solitary gypsy, if you will.”

Temperantia decides to ask Crystal a question. “So your people were ignorant of beings that travel the Hypercosmos?”

“Well, yeah. I guess we were. I had my suspicions, though,” Crystal replies, noticing she feels a little more embarrassed than she probably should.

Temperantia replies “I did not mean to be condescending. It is not a sign of inferiority that you did not know about us.”

“Well, I do now,” Crystal says.

Temperantia laughs. “Well, I suppose you do.”

Temperantia Prods Crystal

Temperantia continues to query Crystal. “Your ship, tell me about it. I am aware of technology used to help beings teleport through the Hypercosmos, but since I do not need it, I have not had much exposure to it, or a requirement to fully understand it.

“Still, I find it very interesting, and I have been trying to learn it. A bit of a hobby, it keeps me busy in the evenings. I am afraid I only have access to basic information, and I wish to learn more about it. Can you describe to me how your ship works?”

Figuring Temperantia probably has a better grasp of how teleportation works than she does, Crystal gets right to the point. “Well, it's powered by a Multiverse Engine. In a nutshell, we use a Decoherence Field Generator to split our worldlines, and a Multiverse Antenna to aim the recoherence point through triangulation. Extended objects have their collective worldlines managed by a Quantum Computational Coherence Synchronizer, and it recoheres them where we aim.”

“I see. That's a lot of big words,” Temperantia remarks.

Crystal says “Yeah, it is. We have different terms, Multiverse Engine is mine. They wanted to call it a Parallel Universe Drive. But there are no real one word terms for any of it. The engine is an assemblage of various technologies.

“So, Temperantia, how do you do teleport through the Hypercosmos?” Crystal wonders. “Do you have physiological analogs to the three components I mentioned?”

Termagantia replies “Oh dear, it is very ticklish stuff. Most people who cannot travel find it too transcendental to understand. Metaphysical states are more physical for me, you see. I find it difficult to make analogies, because I lack your perspective.

“Having said that, I believe, with sufficient time for elucidating, you may be able to understand at least some semblance of it. In a way, I would need your help to convey it. I find it difficult to invent metaphors, since I lack your perceptual context to compare it to. Perhaps together we could come up with a unified description.

“I think it would be best to start with more about how your ship works. If I understand how it works exactly, I might be able to identify the analogs you mentioned, between the parts of your Hypercosmos Engine and my organic existence. To be honest, there is one component you mentioned I am a bit puzzled by. The 'Quantum Computational Coherence Synchronizer' I believe you called it? What exactly is it? How does it function?”

Crystal replies “It's just a quantum computer. The individual quantum bits harness superposition to hold data, so they are perfect for controlling the worldlines, because they are both quantum states. You just need the same number of qubits as worldlines, then it's all just math. We have a guy on our team who does all the math, he's the computer guy.”

“I see,” Temperantia tells Crystal “I have seen small devices that can contain a quantum superposition, as you call it. You can buy these knick-knacks at curiosity shops. Merely frivolous baubles, but I suppose they operate the same as your qubits.”

Crystal instantly thinks of the talisman. “I think I might have just seen one of those earlier today. An older reptan woman showed me one. When you hold it, and think right, it lights up different colors. Is that what you mean?”

Termagantia struggles to hide her shock. “Um, yes, that sounds right,” she stammers.

Crystal has consciously amalgamated her possibilities through a Quantum Augury? Today? How can this be? Could she possibly have hidden powers? Impossible. Yet, what she said implies it. No living reptan knows how to stimulate the emission of photonic energy from a Quantum Augury. They could not have shown her. If another traveler was on Odd World, she would know.

She is genuinely alarmed. She may have underestimated this obnoxious little trollop, Crystal. Perhaps greatly. And that name. Crystal. The parallelism of her name. What if it is not a coincidence? She decides immediately to accelerate her plans.

Crystal watches as Temperantia seems to talk to herself and shake her head for a moment. She turns and smiles and says “What do you say you and I visit your ship? I would love to see it. Just the two of us.”

Crystal says “Right now?”

“Yes” Temperantia answers.

“Um, I don't know.” Crystal is trying to avoid a late night trip to the Everett with a strange being. “I really shouldn't go without the others. Plus, I can't demonstrate the engine for you, or use the ship. We can only travel here and back once.”

“Oh, come now. It will be fun! I simply wish to see it. Please?” Temperantia pleads, and thinks to herself “At least they are still grappling with the existence path wrapping dilemma. Though for how long?”

“I'm sorry, I can't without the others. We have a protocol I am bound to follow. Maybe we could go tomorrow, all of us. That would be fine. Also, we will be leaving soon, you could come watch us leave. You would get a firsthand demonstration,” Crystal offers.

“I need to see it here, Crystal,” Temperantia says in a strange voice. “A demonstration is useless,” She composes herself, and clears her throat. “Won't you let me see the engine? Just a peak?”

Crystal is getting a little uneasy. “I'm sorry, I'm just not prepared to do that now, Temperantia.”

“Oh, very well then, be dull if you must,” Temperantia says dismissively. She knows Crystal is getting uneasy, she senses it, and realizes she needs to reaffirm trust. She implied she does not need the technology. If she can make it seem like she already has it, and just experiments with it for leisure, this stingy little brat's mollycoddling may loosen.

“You know what? I have a fun idea. I did say I have some things to show you. Just something I built from descriptions in books, a mere artistic experiment. Obviously it is not a teleporter, since I do not need one, but it can help me manipulate things in a way which I cannot do unaided. While it serves no real purpose, you may find it interesting. Would you like to see my laboratory? I have one here, in this castle.”

“Yes, I would like that very much, thank you,” Crystal says in a kind tone, hoping to get past the strained moment their conversation seemed to drift into a moment ago.

The Existence Interconnector

They walk up a curved staircase from the great hall to the second floor, down a long wide corridor, to a large wooden double door, which is closed. The door does not appear to have a handle or a keyhole.

“Oh dear, I just remembered. It is locked from inside,” Temperantia says. She smiles and says “How ever shall we get in?”

Crystal makes a furrowed look, and shakes her head.

Temperantia, still smiling, raises an eyebrow, and vanishes.

“Holy crap, she teleported,” Crystal thinks. Her eyes open wide, an agape grin forming on her face. “That is fucking awesome.” Crystal is really excited to see it firsthand. A being that can teleport naturally. “That must be amazing to be able to do,” Crystal thinks, and can't help being a tad envious.

One side of the double door opens outwardly, and Temperantia is revealed standing a few yards behind it, with a welcoming arm. “Oh, hello Crystal. Please, do come in.”

Crystal enters, and the huge room slowly fills with light from sconces placed high around the walls. In the center of the lab she sees a huge machine that looks like an oversized baroque bumper car. It has a giant sculpture of ornate, gilded rings, arranged like a 3 axis gimbal, held above a throne-like seat on a substantial supporting arm system, which is attached to the back of the outlandish coach.

The only thing Crystal can say is “Wow, that thing is really fantastic looking.”

“You do not think it is too gaudy, do you?” Temperantia says, in a wishful voice. “I am afraid I get caught up in the ostentatious side of my little crafting projects. I cannot help it.”

“What is it?” Crystal asks.

“It is a resonator of sorts,” Temperantia replies plainly. “I can project and guide astral phenomena away from my body. Not terribly useful, but I don't really need any tools as your kind does. It is more of a kinetic art piece, simply for the sake of enchantment. I am more of an artist than an engineer, like you, Crystal. I can cast an orb with it, would you like to see?”

Crystal thinks to herself “It sounds a little like a field generator and antenna.” She replies to Temperantia “Cast an orb? Yes, I please show me.”

“You will like this,” Temperantia says, and teleports into the regal cockpit. She has trouble situating her flowing formal white dress. “I normally wear more utilitarian cloths. I am a bit overdressed.”

She pulls a lever, and a door in the dash opens to reveal a transparent sphere on an arm. “This is a diamond sphere, I had to trade much for it. It transmits my energy to the machine. Alight then,” she says, “Abracadabra.”

Temperantia puts her fingertips on the sphere, and begins to concentrate. An aquamarine glowing emanation flows from around her, into the sphere, and is transmitted to the gimbal rings, which begin to rotate independently. A new point source of the glow forms in the gimbal’s center, and a beam shoots out, projecting a perfectly spherical shell of energy, about 5 feet in diameter, in front of the machine.

“I can control the space in the sphere similar to how I can control the space my consciousness lies within. I have yet to teleport anything, though, but some day, maybe. It might make a fine parcel transport system. I could start a delivery service.”

“What is that glowing energy you are able to create?” Crystal shouts over the rushing wind of the gimbal.

“Photasmance. That is what makes an aura, though it is not a substance. Certain mental states can emit photonic energy. Light is a native phenomena of the plane of existence that the Hypercosmos extends through. We hardly experience it at all in the normal reality of the temporal world. Imparting energy to the Hypercosmos generates light. And other things.”

Temperantia removes her fingers from the sphere, retracts it, and while the gimbal is still decelerating, teleports back to where she was, standing next to Crystal.

“You know, maybe I forgot how much fun it is to share with other travelers. I feel a connection to you Crystal. There are a lot of strange connections in the Hypercosmos. I have a very bold proposal. Would you like to hear it?”

“Sure,” Crystal says, intrigued.

“How would you like to become my companion for a while. We could travel the Hypercosmos, I could teach you things. Your band of friends are holding you back, wouldn't you rather graduate to a more advanced level?”

Crystal is taken aback. “Well, how would I be able to travel with you without a ship? I can't teleport. Are you saying you would teleport me?”

“Well, that is partially what this is all about to me. I want to be able to teleport a companion. I am sure we can do it together, and I know we will learn much by sharing our knowledge. I feel like that is the next step for me, and I feel you would be a perfect collaborator to make it possible. Take a sabbatical here, you can always return home later.”

Crystal replies “I’m flattered that you would offer me such an opportunity, but I’m pretty happy with my team. I really want to stay with them. I think we will be able to advance our technology on our own. Plus, our ship can’t come back, and I don't know when or if anyone will come back here to get me.”

“Crystal, you are the inventor of the technology. You could get back on your own, if you needed to. They don't deserve to ride your coattails, and you need to explore without their shackles. Join me, and I promise you will live to see things you never imagined.”

Termagantia decides to try something devious. Crystal may be smart, but she is quite young, and perhaps she is still impressionable.

“You do not need to be afraid of me, Crystal. Are you sure you are not just fearful of your own abilities? Of what you could become if properly nurtured? I get a sense you may have talents greater than just your craftsmanship. I think I may be able to teach you some of my natural powers. You may even develop powers I had not even thought of.”

Temperantia walks up close to Crystal, and in a seductive tone says “I could be like a big sister to you, Crystal. I could guide you. We could share together.”

Temperantia puts her hand on Crystals shoulder, looking deeply into Crystal's eyes with her big, faintly glowing turquoise eyes. She smiles and says in a coy voice “Wouldn't you like to have a big sister like me?”

Crystal is getting an extremely off-putting vibe. This is wrong. She needs to get out of there. “Um, can I think about it?”

“What is there to think about, Crystal?” Temperantia says, getting a bit short. “You are being feeble minded. Just forget your insipid company of inferior clodhoppers and lower lifeforms and join me.”

Temperantia approaches Crystal again. “I am the most powerful sorceress you will ever meet. I promise you that.”

Temperantia eases back, and begins to pace. “I grow weary of these scattered, primitive settlements. The Hypercosmos is strewn with pathetic stone age villages. I wish to build a world like no other. With one great city. A true Hypercosmos Metropolis. It will unify a great expanse of the Hypercosmos under an orderly monarchy that will give all these lowly creatures’ wrenched lives direction and purpose. They will build me capitol city greater than any ever known.”

Temperantia again approaches Crystal, and stares her down. “The Hypercosmos calls me, and I must answer it. I need you to teach me your technology so I may progress. I need your help Crystal.”

Temperantia's eyes are glowing again, even brighter, and her voice has deepened. “Will you help me? Or not?”

Crystal is so frightened and tense, she is shaking a little. This lady is psycho. She thinks about what to say. How to say no without saying no. She tried delaying her choice, Temperantia didn't go for that. If she says no, Temperantia might get angry, but there really is no alternative. She has to tell her no, now, before this exchange spirals completely out of hand.

In as calm a voice as she can manage to speak in, Crystal says “I can't. I’m sorry Temperantia.”

“STOP CALLING ME THAT!” she screams directly in Crystals face, in a deafening voice that vibrates Crystals skull, and blurs her vision. Crystal stumbles backwards, dizzy, like she just got hit in the head with a frying pan.

The sorceress's aquamarine aura bursts into flame, her white dress begins to waft weightlessly, and she slowly floats up and away. In a calm, deep, monstrous voice she says:

“My name is Termagantia.”

15) Termagantia Revealed

Termagantia's Hospitality

“I had hoped you might like to do something great together, but I suppose that is not to be.” Termagantia turns her head, and shouts “Quandro!”

Out from a recessed entryway on the far side of the laboratory comes a strange looking humanoid. “Yes, my sorceress?” He is very tall and pale, with dark sunken eyes, and he wears a dark cloak with a long cape that appears to have elaborate geometric symbols stitched into it.

“Get that dragoon in here. Take her to the dungeon. She may have the good cell. I need to go change out of this hideous dress.” She looks back at Crystal, and in a patronizingly kind tone says “Toodaloo,” blows her a kiss, and disappears.

Quandro ushers out an enormous monster that looks like a huge, nightmarishly deformed reptan, almost as if it were transformed into a lycanthrope version of the already formidable inhabitants. In a language that sounds like the reptan language, Quandro shouts commands to it, which it orderly obeys.

The beast rushes towards Crystal, and without consciously thinking it, she screams. She runs to the door and attempts to escape, but there are no handles, and it is shut solid. The dragoon descends on her, snarling and growling, and grabs her. It picks her up, and bear hugs her so hard, it almost knocks the wind out of her. She tries to scream, but can only manage a whimper.

The dragoon hauls her, kicking and flailing, past Quandro, around the corner where they came from, and down a long straight stairway, descending the height of many floors, what seems to be below the ground level.

The stairway is narrow, and as the dragoon descents, Crystal is struggling with all her might, pounding on her captors shoulder and neck, and kicking against the walls. The beast carelessly bashes her against the stones as he shoves their way to the bottom.

They emerge into a room with several open doorways around it, then turn and proceed to the right, entering another room, divided in half by a heavy riveted strap iron cage wall. The dragoon stands there holding it's thrashing detainee as Quandro enters.

“What are you doing?” Crystal screams to Quandro. “Let me go! Let me out of here!”

“There there, Crystal, why don't you rest a while in here,” Quandro says, as he takes a large hoop of keys out from his cloak, and opens the cell door. The dragoon holding her walks to the open door, and tosses her through the air. She lands hard on the stone floor, and rolls to a stop on her side.

Crystal is angry now. “God damn you fuckin' sons of bitches!” She tries to get up and run out the door, but she has trouble standing from the pain, and Quandro slams it shut. Crystal makes it to the door and screams “Let me the hell out of here you creepy fucker!”

“Just wait here, Crystal. My sorceress be with you soon.” Quandro directs the beasts out of the room, and they leave.

Imprisoned

Crystal is panicking. What if she is stuck here forever? What the hell are they doing with her? What the hell was that slave monster? Was it a mutated reptan? Who is Quandro? Are they going to torture me?

Crystal paces in the cell, attempting to walk off the pain of her bruised legs, waiting for Termagantia to show up.

“God damn that fucking deranged bitch,” she thinks as she paces. She looks around the cell for anything she can use as a weapon or a tool to escape, but the cell is completely barren, except for a large chip of stone, which she picks up and puts in her pocket. “She better not try to keep me here,” Crystal says to herself, knowing there is probably little she can do.

20 minutes pass, and Crystal is sitting against the back of the cell, when suddenly Termagantia materializes in the middle of the open side of the room.

She is wearing a body hugging, erratically webbed, corset-like black garment that continues down her legs like a one piece body suit. The outfit is provocatively revealing, exposing her cleavage and midriff, which she juts out slightly with her shoulders back, in a somewhat daring posture. Over the spot where a navel would be, she has a garish broach the size of a large coin stuck to her abdomen.

She has on an an ornate jeweled choker necklace with a large diamond dangling over her sternum, and chains that drape over her clavicles to equally elaborate epaulettes with dangling jeweled chains that hang like icicles over the her shoulders.

On her head is a large metal muse headdress with chains that drape over her forehead, and a single turquoise stone that rigidly protrudes down between her eyes, above the bridge of her nose.

“Nice lingerie,” Crystal says. “Let me guess, you got that for Halloween, you went as a sexy, wicked space witch? Classy.”

“Halloween?” Termagantia asks.

“Yeah, you would like it. Everyone dresses up at night like witches and goblins, and goes around to homes asking for candy, and if they don't give you any, you play a trick on them.”

“Sounds delightful. But I am not a wicked space witch, dearie. I am a malevolent Hypercosmos sorceress queen. Also, it is rare I ask for anything. You were an exception. But I am through wasting my time. I am going to take the information directly from your mind. You see, I have many powers. Teleportation is simply a means of travel. I am also clairvoyant. Quite clairvoyant, if I do say so myself. So, you will give me the information against your will, and then I will kill you. Or let you rot, whichever feels the most amusing, it is irrelevant.”

Crystal wishes she could charge Termagantia. Maybe rip of that stupid headgear off and bash her with it. In a fit of anger, she decides to throw the rock at her. She quickly reaches in her pocket, and throws it at Termagantia’s face.

Just as the rock luckily passes through a hole in the latticed cell wall, Termagantia split her existence, and the rock passes through her blurred overlapping projection, and hits the wall behind her.

Termagantia snickers and says “Oh, you preciously pathetic little thing.” Termagantia laughs again, and sighs. “You may sleep here tonight. I am too tired to work on you now. And I have much meditating yet to do. I just wanted you to know what I am going to do to you, so you could dream about it. See you tomorrow. Sleep well. Lots of love.” She vanishes.

“You fucking bitch!” Crystal screams at the space Termagantia just vacated.

How Does She Do It?

Crystal decides to think, and sits back down. Parts of Termagantia's crazy machine reminds her of parts of the engine. Maybe she can figure out what it is.

The gimbal could act like an antenna. The three rings could act like the three orthogonal sides of the Multiverse antenna, and might be able to sort of triangulate a point in space. A Multiverse antenna is a pretty simple setup. Crystal could make a crude bench top version by hand.

Termagantia can teleport, so maybe she can create her own decoherence field. She is the field generator, and transmits it through the diamond sphere into the machine. It is not insane to think a field could be generated by a consciousness, properly focused, maybe in a hypnotic trance. The core of her field generator was just a cup of liquid helium controlled by electromagnets which can produce a special quantum state. Maybe so can a brain.

The trouble is always the worldline coherence synchronization. That requires a big quantum computer. Crystal is dubious that any single consciousness, regardless of how advanced, could manage the enormous of a number of quantum states a body is composed of. Everything she has read about the quantum theory of the mind revolved around the brain holding only a relatively small number of quantum states.

How can she hold her entire body in coherence? Can she elicit a mental state that is connected to her body, that could somehow naturally cohere all her constituent particles’ worldlines into a single quantum state? Perhaps some kind of mind body connection? Could she somehow circumvent the brute force method the drive uses? It seems like the likeliest explanation.

So she can teleport her body. She can also teleport her stupid outfit, it seems. Can she teleport luggage, too? At some point she can't be connected in a single quantum state to a suitcase, can she? Maybe a magical gold and diamond one she was holding. She could transmit her power through the diamond sphere. But what about regular things, things she isn't touching? Other beings?

Crystal remembers something Termagantia said about delivering parcels. She joked about starting a delivery service, but maybe she sort of meant it. She also said she wanted to be able to teleport a companion. Maybe she is looking for a way to teleport other people and things.

She said she can use her machine to project her mental state. She can control the space inside the energy orb. She can project her field around an outside object, but she can't teleport it. At least not yet. Maybe because she can't manage another objects worldlines. She can metaphysically manage her worldlines, but not something else's.

Crystal decides for now, at least with the information she has, that Termagantia is probably after the quantum computer technology.

She feels very tired. Her eyes are crossing and her eyelids feel heavy. She decides to get a little sleep. The military guys always make sure to get it when they can. Probably smart in the long run, it will help her think. Plus, Termagantia seems to be a night owl, so Crystal figures she has all day tomorrow to plan before she shows back up.

Missing

Not long after Crystal and Temperantia went off together to the castle, the team said goodnight to the reptans, and went back to the cottage. They sent their nightly message to Earth, mentioning the history the reptans shared about the magic wars, and that Crystal is visiting Temperantia in the castle.

The next morning the team wake up and meet in the main room of the cottage. Crystal hasn't returned yet, and Brent is a little worried. He decides to go ahead of the rest back into Xardun and see if she is there.

When the team meet up with Brent, he hustles over to Wheeler. “Crystal isn't here, none of them have seen her.”

Wheeler thinks and says “Well, you know, they didn't say when they were getting back. I wish they had, now. But they could just be chatting it up, or flying around the Universe, who knows. That lady Temperantia always comes by around nightfall. Maybe that's when she’s coming back. Let's just try to stay patient, OK Brent? Crystal is probably fine, relax.”

“Yeah, alright,” Brent says, even though he he knows he won't be able to relax at all until Crystal gets back.

Trust

The team again spend the day with the reptans around the gathering area. Many new reptan faces show themselves, as word of their visit spreads, and groups come by to catch a glimpse of them. The reptans are beginning to accept them into their tribe, and give the impression they see the team as special acquaintances.

Brent is standing by himself, trying not to worry about Crystal. He doesn’t want to, it makes him feel a little like an over worrying parent, which is a awful thought to him, but he can’t help it. Being so worried about one person is just such a foreign feeling to him. She is probably fine, he just wishes he knew what she was doing. He notices Fiona, Prahx, and Rinrong approaching.

“Hi Brent. Prahx wanted to say something.” Fiona tells him as they walk up.

Prahx begins to speak to Brent. “He says he’s also a little worried about Crystal,” Fiona interprets. “He and Rinrong expected her to be back by now.”

Rinrong then speaks to Brent “Alma-Gurr is saying he thinks Temperantia is a bad omen. He basically just doesn’t like her. He says if Crystal doesn’t show up by tomorrow, he’s gonna gather the Xardun Guard. They’re gonna go to the castle. They’re gonna check out what’s going on, and look for Crystal. He said you can come.”

Brent expresses his deep gratitude to Rinrong, who nods, and leaves, summoning his lieutenants who were in the gathering area to follow him as he walks off. Brent does feel better knowing the reptans have his back. Still, he is going to be anxious all day until later tonight, when hopefully she will be back.

Tyro And The Krusur

Tyro is sitting outside of Ehroo's home, holding the talisman, and thinking about Crystal. He wishes she were here, and he hopes she comes back soon. Without her guidance, he would never have known the understanding of the Multiverse she shared with him. She taught him the art of how to truly behold the Multiverse in his mind, which may be the key to the lost magic, as evidenced by the excitation of the quantum augury.

Master Ehroo had searched his whole life for answers to the ancient riddles, mostly in books. But books can only describe the magic, and he says their instructions cannot fully describe it well enough to take the place of a teacher. Crystal provided the most significant clue yet. Not knowledge, but the tenuous insight, the essence, and the ability to express it, and convey magic through intimate guidance. That is what was truly lost. Or, perhaps, extinguished.

As he sits, he restlessly manipulates the talisman in his hand. As he stares at the it, the caged gem inside the pendant reminds him of the krusurs. There is a larger version of a similar gem in a caged dome on the end of the ancient scepters.

“I wonder if the krusur works the same way as this quantum augury?” Tyro speculates. “I wonder what would happen if I hold the krusur, and attempt to engage it's magic by meditating the way Crystal taught me?”

Tyro knows Ehroo is off in the gathering area, and the krusur he showed the visitors is inside his home, in its box, in a hidden compartment. He is strictly forbidden to access the krusur without Ehroo's permission. He decides to try out his idea anyways. If Crystal's method really is the secret of the krusur, it will be worth the risk of any punishment, including expulsion from Ehroo's tutelage.

Tyro quietly enters Ehroo's home, and retrieves the krusur. He sits down in the back room, holding the scepter by the handle. He closes his eyes, and concentrates. He tries to repeat the thought process he went through last night, thinking about the structure that his life has in the Multiverse, but his mind keeps wandering back to Crystal.

Even though he only just met her, Tyro is very enchanted by Crystal. She is very special, and he feels so very fortunate to have met her, and made friends with her. He is impressed by her kindness, her cleverness, and her magical connection to the Multiverse. He wants more than anything to help her. To give back to her. She is all he can think about, so he lets his thoughts of her saturate his consciousness.

He envisions the arrival of the travelers. The events in his life that happened because of it, and ones yet to come. He sees Crystal helping his people learn their lost magic. His visions begin to elaborate upon themselves. He can see Crystal helping them break the curse they are under. He wants to be a part of it. He begins to see a vague, distant vision of Crystal. She is great. It is as though she is conjuring a very influential force that will remain forever.

“My pupil, you are doing it!” Ehroo remarks loudly. Tyro is shook from his trance by Ehroo, who is standing in the doorway.

Tyro begins to apologize profusely “Master! Forgive me, I am so sorry, I just thought that...”

“Tyro, the krusur! Look at it!” Tyro looks at the end of the krusur, which is now glowing yellow.

Tyro is astounded. “Great Magic! It worked, master!” Tyro says, standing up and walking towards Ehroo. “Crystal's taught me the riddle of how to invoke the lost magic of the krusur!” He looks at Ehroo. “She divined the magic herself! Crystal has powers! It is Crystal!”

“Then Crystal truly is a sorceress,” Ehroo says, wobbling a little, and staggers to a chair. “I had hoped it, but I now know it to be true now.”

Tyro rushes to help him sit. Ehroo speaks over his awe induced hyperventilating. “You must not tell anyone, Tyro. You know that, yes? You cannot tell anyone about how you learned to use the krusur. You cannot tell anyone that Crystal is a sorceress. All the others must be allowed to learn that for themselves. You know what will happen if you give away the prophecy. It must naturally run its course, regardless of what happens. Our time is near, Tyro. The end of the Evil Pall is near. You must remain perfectly vigilant, my greatest pupil.”

Ehroo puts his hand on Tyros shoulder, and says in the most deliberate tone he can. “Remember, do not tell anyone that Crystal is a sorceress. Not even Crystal herself. Everything depends on that. Please, tell me you know that.”

“I do master. I believe in the prophecy,” Tyro says, and pledges “I promise to keep the secret of Crystal.”

Tyro and Ehroo sit for a while in his home. Eventually Tyro says something he is afraid to say. “Master, what if we need to use the krusurs in defense? Would it destroy the prophecy to teach others how to use them? Should I attempt to learn to cast magic with it?”

Ehroo is also contemplating this as well, and replies “I do not know yet. We must wait. Patience is our mission now. We must see what transpires. We will know what to do when the time comes. We will not have to wait long. In the meantime, I have a book to show you. A book about the magic of the krusur. It is time you learn all that is known about them.”

Termagantia Reveals Herself To The Team

Darkness falls on the cloudless night, and the stars and ring come out to shine. Brent is in the gathering place, standing by himself, waiting expectantly for Temperantia and Crystal to return. To pass the time, he is trying to count the number of ringlets visible from the surface, but the harder he looks, the more he sees.

Tyro and Ehroo rejoin the others. They decide to stand together near Rinrong and Prahx, who have been with the team most of the afternoon, and they are all are anxious to see Crystal as well.

Tyro approaches Rinrong and asks “Father, has there been any word of Crystal?”

“No,” Rinrong says in a curt tone, not turning to look at his son, who has obviously been disobeying him and in the company of Ehroo all day, uselessly chronicling ridiculous myths, no doubt.

Just then, there is a commotion in the distance, only this time, the sounds of the voices are more alarming. The team see the sparse crowd of reptans scatter, running and yelling fearfully. A bright aquamarine glow illuminates the trees, and thee source of the light moves towards them.

As the panicked crowd flees, the team's view opens to reveal a woman floating above the ground, surrounded by a glowing turquoise cloud of seething ethereal energy. Below her are 5 vicious looking overgrown reptan-like warriors riding beastly transfigured hongas in a V formation, forging her a path as she glides behind them.

Decatur says “Holy fuckin' shit, you guys. Who the fuck is this floating witch, and where the fuck did she get those giant werewolf reptan cavalry motherfuckers from?”

“Shut up, Decatur,” Brent says. He doesn't care who she is, he is going to ask her about Crystal.

As Ehroo watches this sorceress, he knows it is Temperantia, but the truth of her deception is trivial compared to the strong intuition of fear that wells up within him. Her aura. He could not see it before. The color. Turquoise. The way it moves, like water grass in the river. It is so much like the imagery in his mind. Is it possible she was… He feels the rasping, gravelly discord decohere his memory more strongly than ever. It is no use now, anyways. Whomever she is, or was, will soon be revealed again, so he decides to simply observe.

The fearsome dragoons dismount their steeds and approach, growling and gesturing with their naginatas, clearing a large area for their levitating mistress. The lead dragoon walks up to the team, stops, and looks around, menacingly. He looks back to see the formation behind him, and then plants the end of his naginata in the ground, and just stares at them.

Brent is looking back at him with his hand on his holstered sidearm. The leader is wearing armor plates on his shoulders, and a chest plate. He is holding a naginata that looks like a double sized versions of the reptan ones. He has two different colored eyes, one normal, and one has a slate gray iris.

Tyro says to Ehroo and Prahx “Look, the lead beast has the eyes of Rail, the high ranking member of the Xardun Guard that went missing not long ago.”

“Yes, indeed,” Ehroo replies.

Prahx wonders “Ehroo, could that be Rail? Perhaps under some kind of spell?”

Ehroo says “I do not know. I am not aware of any spell that could do that.”

The hovering women approaches behind the lead dragoon, and gestures for him to stand aside as she descents to the ground, and walks directly up to Wheeler, Brent, and Decatur.

“I am Termagantia. I was deceiving you before. Temperantia, I believe I called myself. I must think up better names for my masquerades. This is the real me. I just came by to greet you wayfarers on this beautiful evening.” She looks up at the sky. “The ring is beautiful tonight, isn't it?”

Termagantia looks back at them and scowls. “Also, I came to share with you the fact that I have Crystal. She will be spending a little more time with me, you see.”

“What do you mean?” asks Wheeler. “Are you holding her captive?”

“Yes. But I am not planning to hurt her. Also, I recommend you stay here, on this world. If she gives me what I want, you can have her back. She is the reason you are here. You wouldn't want to leave your precious little genius behind, now would you?”

“Give us back Crystal,” Brent says.

“No,” Termagantia replies.

Brent firms his grip on his pistol, deciding whether or not to shoot Termagantia.

Termagantia begins to pace around. “Do not let my fine new dragoon henchman fool you into thinking I am vulnerable. If you even raise your pathetic weapon, puny soldier, I will kill you so violently, it will likely maim everyone around you.” She turns and looks at Brent with a smile. “Don't believe me?”

She makes a fierce sneer and bursts into a blaze of turquoise light. She whips to her side, and with a thrusting arm gesture, casts a beam of energy at a large tree 30 yards away. The entire trunk blows apart with the power of several sticks of dynamite. The boom echoes across the whole area, and shatters the trunk into a shower of splinters. The top of the tree crashes down, and many of the reptans that were brave enough to remain, flee in terror.

Termagantia laughs for a moment, watching the reptans scatter, and sighs. “I love doing that.”

She looks to the team, and in a moment of light hearted nostalgia, says “Once, in a bit of a tizzy, I blew up a whole wing of my castle. How silly I felt later.” Feigning a voice of concern, she says “I really must learn to control my anger sometimes.”

Termagantia turns away and begins to pace again. “So, back to business. I came here to tell you not to leave, and not to approach my castle, or I will kill you. I will kill you all if I feel it necessary. I can hurt you any manner of ways. I can rip you apart, I can drive you mad with a thought, whatever sounds the most frightening. And to prove I am serious, I am going to kill one of you now.”

Termagantia Proves She Is Serious

Termagantia turns to the lead dragoon “Dragoon Sergeant, grab one of them. I do not care which. Just choose a weak one. Tie him up, put him over there.” She points to an open area, and walks back away from the team.

The lead dragoon rushes over to a group of reptans, including Tyro and Ehroo. He violently grabs Ehroo, and begins to haul him off. Prahx yells “Rail!” hoping to elicit a response, but the beast ignores him.

Tyro and the other reptans attempt to subdue and bite the enormous abductor, but his hide is very tough, and he flings them off like children. The other dragoons rush up to squash the tiny rebellion.

“What the fuck do we do?” Decatur asks Wheeler and Brent under his breath.

“I don't know,” Wheeler says. “Just stand fast. We are seriously out gunned here.”

Brent says “She's going to kill the old guy in front of us.”

Wheeler shakes his head, raises his hands in despair, and says “I know.”

The dragoons prepare Termagantia's sacrifice. One grabs a sturdy wooden chair from the gathering area. The lead dragoon slams Ehroo down on the chair, rips off his coat, and shoves him back. The others wind a rope around him, spiraling it around his body and tying it crudely it into a loose cocoon.

“Alright, get back,” Termagantia commands her dragoons. She walks towards the old reptan, and stops 20 feet in front of him. She bows her head slightly, and her evil ambiance ignites again as she begins to levitate. As she rises her aura blooms in intensity to a violently turbulent conflagration of twisting turquoise photasmance.

She leans her upper body backwards, then lunges her arms forward, casting a beam of her wretched effervescence at Ehroo, forming a perfectly spherical bubble around him. The team watches as Ehroo caterwauls piteously and struggles with all his might against the binding coil of rope.

Prahx is holding back Tyro, who is fighting to break free, desperately willing to liberate his mentor at any price. “Ehroo!” he cries, the heartbreaking despair in his voice devastating the compassions of every unwilling spectator.

Termagantia is expelling the life from of Ehroo, causing his body to deteriorate at an extraordinarily accelerated rate. This is one of the powers she possess naturally, and she uses it frequently to terrify her subjects into obedience.

As Ehroo writhes, the flesh begins to fall apart around the rope, tearing open and exposing the bone. Deep gashes form and open in his face around his jaw. His howls turn to gurgling moans of anguish as his large, heavy mandible detaches on one side, dangles for a moment, and falls into his lap. His eyes turn to a brown, rotten mush and squirt from his eye sockets as he cringes in agony.

With one involuntary cough, a dark red splash of sludge is ejected from his open lower face. With another heave his right arm detaches at the shoulder, ripping a tattered flap of flesh from his upper torso, the gaping laceration revealing a pulsating lung inside his rib cage. Yellow bile streams from pores in the lung.

The muscle and scaly skin holding in his bowels disintegrates and falls open, and his intestines spill out between the loose rope winds, dangle between his legs for a moment, then detach and splurge to his feet. Despite all this, he is still very much alive and aware.

Pippa is weeping uncontrollably, and Decatur steps back and holds her so she doesn't collapse.

“My God,” Wheeler says to Brent.

All Brent can think to say is “She's insane.”

Suddenly, as a piece of dry clay would crumble, his corpse disintegrates into hunks of desiccated flesh and pasty organs, spilling out from the ropes, flopping off the seat of the chair, forming a pile around its legs.

Termagantia begins to descend and her aura dims. She is breathing heavily, and as she reaches the ground, she takes a large breath and exhales. “Whew,” she says, turning back to the team. “That was a lulu.”

Termagantia walks back towards her dragoons, motioning them to gather up to leave. As she walks past the team, she looks at them cockeyed and says “Dooon't Lee-eeave.” The group begins to depart, Termagantia following them, when suddenly she vanishes. The dragoons continue galloping off together, back to the castle.

Jamming

Wheeler decides, and the others agree, their first course of action should be to communicate the situation back to Earth. Decatur volunteers to retrieve the communications pack, and whatever else he can carry, from the cottage.

Rinrong and Prahx tell the team they can use the Xardun Guard's station house as their camp. Decatur returns, and the team sends an S.O.S. back to Earth. The usual response delay time passes, and there is no reply.

Termagantia enters her castle laboratory, and Quandro, who is operating a console connected to the Existence Interconnector, reports “I was successful in blocking their communications, my Sorceress.”

Quandro had figured out a way to block the quantum entangled communications with the Existence Interconnector when he successfully blocked the majority of the second image being transmitted from the large probe, in an effort to stop Earth from seeing Xardun before they arrived. Termagantia had foreseen this would result in them arriving less prepared.

“Excellent work, my industrious aide. Please tell me you have devised a way to block their ship from teleporting,” Termagantia inquires insistently.

“Yes, my sorceress, I believe I have. It is important you know, that unlike disrupting their simple communications link, I will require your sorcerery to power the machine for this. I need to make some additional modifications, but I believe it can be done.”

“Outstanding, do it immediately. I do not care if you tear the Existence Interconnector to pieces, we can build another one. I need that possibility amalgamating technology. I need that ship to remain on Odd World.”

Overdue

On Earth, the crew at mission control are waiting anxiously for the teams tardy transmission. Larry Howard and Dr. Archibald are in the control center as they declare the team's transmission overdue.

“If they don't ever reply, can we send a rescue team?” General Howard asks Archibald.

“Not any time soon. We have no second ship,”

“What about just sending people in space suits? Is that possible?” Howard inquires, attempting to assess the possibilities of last resort.

“I am afraid we can't control the recoherence point accurately enough,” Archibald apologizes. “Even if we risked it, if the Everett is damaged, they would be stuck there, too. We sent a fully functional team on the Everett, our only option is to simply wait, and hope they can fix whatever problem it is they apparently have.

“You know, General, while it may not help us now, I do think we should discuss building a second ship. Having only one simply will not do.”

Concern For Crystal

At the Xardun Guard house, the team and the leaders of the guard are gathered. It is becoming obvious the team cannot communicate with Earth, and everyone is quietly contemplating the recent unpleasant events.

Brent is pacing around, thinking. He walks over to Wheeler, who is standing next to Decatur and Pippa at the communications pack. “I think we should ask Rinrong, or I guess Alma-Gurr we should call him, ask him for their help. Ask to join forces, and confederate against Termagantia. Together, we might be able to do something.”

“I get the feeling he is thinking the same thing, Brent,” Wheeler says. “Fiona?”

“Yes,” Fiona replies.

“Come here with me. We’re gonna go have a talk with Alma-Gurr.”

Fiona, Decatur, Brent, and Wheeler walk to Rinrong and Prahx, who stand and face them as they approach.

Wheeler says to Fiona “Tell him we have a common enemy. Tell him we wish to ally with their forces against Termagantia.”

Fiona tells Rinrong, who nods and gives a reply to her, all the while looking at Wheeler.

“He said yes. He said they’re planning to prepare some kind of offensive, to strike when the time is right. They welcome our help.”

“Now we're cookin'” Decatur says.

Corny, who was standing nearby, says “Are we storming the castle?”

Brent says “I'm ready to storm Hell, if need be.”

Decatur agrees “Damn straight.”

“This whole thing is spiraling into a nightmare scenario,” Tatsu says. “We should have a backup plan. We should be ready to take off in the Everett. This isn’t a military operation.”

“We aren't leaving without Crystal,” Brent says to Wheeler.

Corny says “We are desperately outmatched, Brent. I also care about Crystal, but if we cannot rescue her, fleeing may be necessary.”

“Shut the fuck up, asshole. No one is leaving yet,” Brent vents at Corny. He turns to Wheeler “At least I'm not leaving without Crystal. Fuck all you, I'm getting her back, and that's that.”

“Easy Brent, I know, I get it. I'm not going to stop you, but just listen a second,” Wheeler says, attempting to calm Brent. “Tatsu makes a good point. We do need a full plan.

“Decatur, Pippa, we gotta have the Everett ready. I am thinking you can help with that. Brent, you are with Rinrong and Prahx. Go with the reptans, figure out their plan, keep us informed. Get Crystal. I will figure out how to keep the others safe, and organize our escape, if we need to. Tatsu, Corny, Fiona, you stay with me.

“I haven't given up on Crystal, Williford. But we need to have a plan B. For the others sake. OK?”

Brent takes a deep breath. “Yeah, OK. Sorry if I broke rank. Thanks, though. Good plan.”

“Well, if rank matters, I am promoting you two, Brent and Decatur. We’re all three co-captains. You with it?”

“I am!” Decatur says “You just got us promoted!” he says, slapping Brent on the back.

The reptans are watching this all with interest, so Fiona translates Wheelers plans to Rinrong.

“Ter-Ma-Jantia shu ra krak rachung!” Rinrong yells as he walks up to Brent, and slaps him on the back like Decatur did.

“Ow, fuck dude. Watch the claws,” Brent laughs.

Prahx walks up, and puts his arm around Brent, and coaxes him back to where the other reptan guardsman are, who welcome him in their circle.

“What did Alma-Gurr say?” Decatur asks Fiona.

“He said Termagantia is a dead woman,” Fiona tells him.

Decatur lifts his eyebrows and says “All right, get down, these guys are badasses.”

“It's getting late everyone,” Wheeler says to the team. “Brent!” he shouts. Brent looks over from where he is standing with the reptan guardsman. “Make sure to get some shuteye. I know you are anxious, but you need to use the time you have to sleep. You can't fight them and drowsiness, too.”

“Right,” Brent replies. “Will do.”

Wheeler turns back to the others. “All of us. Just grab a spot wherever, make a nest, get some sleep. We got a plan, that’s good enough for tonight. Time to recharge.”

Decatur walks over to Pippa and asks “So, Pippa, wanna sleep together?”

She gasps, and shoves him away, laughing “No way, you American coglione!”

Decatur stands, smirking for a moment, and asks Fiona “Caglione? Is that good?”

“I dunno, Decatur. I speak better reptan than Italian, but I don’t think so, buddy.”

16) Interrogation

Termagantia Tries

Crystal is sitting in her cell when Termagantia appears again. Crystal stands up, and walks over to the strap iron bars.

“You know, Crystal, I still have a hope you might change your mind, and join me,” Termagantia says. “You would make a good colleague. Give me your knowledge, and we could still be friends.”

Crystal says “Nuts.”

“Yes, well, be that as it may, I had to give it one last try,” Termagantia says. “You might want to sit back down for this. Really. We wouldn't want you to fall and bump that precious head of yours.”

Crystal knows Termagantia is going to try to read her mind. She is frightened and furious, but she figures her only shot is to try and fight back mentally, so she does sit back down.

“Thank you,” Termagantia nods to Crystal. She closes her eyes, and her aura bursts forth, this time with a less turbulent, smoothly flowing envelope of photasmance. She raises her right hand and faces it palm forward to Crystal. A rolling mushroom plume of glowing gaseous energy slowly erupts from her hand towards Crystal, and she leans her head forward, and closes her eyes.

Crystal can feel Termagantia enter her mind, like a schizophrenic manifestation of sentient anxiety. From inside her mind, Crystal hears Termagantia's voice.

'You have a highly structured mind,' she says. 'I can see your cleverness.'

Crystal begins to feel thoughts coming forth without her control. She is forced to see a chronological surge of memories from her youth flash before her mind's eye. 'Your mother died,' Termagantia says. 'My condolences.' The memories surge to her high school years. 'Oh, you know that one. Aw, young love.' Crystal is seeing memories of Brent, who Termagantia recognizes.

Crystal begins to see images from her time as a grad student, working on her thesis project. 'You went to a science university to learn. A great scholar.' The surge of memories slows and focus on her final version of the experiment. 'Interesting.' Termagantia says.

During her long wait, Crystal had come up with a desperate plan to try when she felt Termagantia getting access to her knowledge about the engines function. She fears she is already getting too close, and decides to try it now.

She attempts to focus her mind as she did when she lit up the talisman. Termagantia seems to be accessing her thoughts in a stream of memories, like a timeline, which is what Crystal had hoped. She has a hypothesis that if she can split her present worldline, it might seem to smear out her memory timelines, and garble her thoughts from Termagantia's view into random, unreadable nonsense.

She attempts to cognitively behold every event in her worldline that led to now. All the adjacent worldlines, on Odd World, converging to now, and every event that could have changed it, all in one great overarching mental vision of singular state in the Multiverse. She can feel the surge of her memories that Termagantia is guiding begin to break up. The images become incomplete flashes which even she has trouble remembering how they fit together.

'What are you doing Crystal?' Termagantia's voice in her head says in a pointed tone.

'Eat white noise, bitch,' Crystal thinks. Crystal can feel the bizarre delusional hallucination that is Termagantia in her mind begin to get agitated. She can feel her recollection like force grasping harder at the splitting timelines, attempting to encompass and wrangle them back into coherence. Crystal tries to relax and focus harder.

'Stop that,' Termagantia says.

Crystal knows it is working, and is energized by confidence. She smiles and focuses her mental poise as purely as she can. She is envisioning the 5th dimensional space around her now frame better than she thought she could, and is elated.

'You slimy little eel!' Termagantia says, in an irate voice.

Crystal lets her consciousness open its eyes inside her mind. She can look around and see everything that has or could have happened that might have ever influenced her present reality. It is all around her, like rivers of overlapping realities, extending off into infinity. It appears so real, she only has to turn her mental gaze to see all the views. She does not have to try to imagine them, they are around her.

Crystal suddenly has an inspired idea, and decides to stare directly inward in possibility, at now. She begins to see herself in the cell, as if she was looking from a vantage point in the middle of the cell. She looks over and sees Termagantia, aura glowing, hand out, casting her spell on her. As she is looking at her from this perspective, Termagantia looks up, and screams, but Crystal can choose not to hear her.

Crystal notices the schizophrenic invader is suddenly gone. She retracts her focus from her trance, feels herself sitting, opens her eyes, and looks up. Termagantia is glowering at her, fuming with rage.

Gritting her teeth, Termagantia booms “I will kill them all. You know I will. I will torture your boyfriend all the way to death's door in front of you, then I will will drive him mad, and have him brutally kill you. I can do that. You know I can and you know I will.”

Crystal believes her, and feels a wave of apprehension about whether her impromptu plan might end up backfiring. She tries to think of a wrinkle to the situation to buy time. “No, don't!” she yells. “I will tell you how it works. I will just explain it. Don't kill them. I am good at explaining things. I will teach you whatever you want to know.”

“Quandro!” Termagantia screams.

Quandro, who was out in the hub at the bottom of the stairs, walks in. “Sorceress?”

Still looking at Crystal, Termagantia says “You will teach him everything, or I will do what I said.” Termagantia stares daggers at Crystal with her glowing eyes, then vanishes.

Termagantia Rests

Termagantia recoheres inside her bedchamber. Reading Crystals mind was exhausting, she is a little frustrated, and needs to get away from all the surrounding thoughts by retreating to her distant silent fortress to rest and meditate.

In her bedchamber she has a portal machine that is connected to another in her previous castle, on a world she used to rule, before they made her kill them all. Teleporting short distances around a world, even while carrying certain things, is easy. But teleporting even just herself alone far through the Hypercosmos, all the way to another world, carries a heavy toll.

Together with Quandro, she devised the portals to allow her to teleport across worlds with no effort. She only needs to teleport naturally once, then she can set up a connecting portal. She has a small network of them, but has long ago depleted or destroyed the worlds they bridge to. Odd World is her only remaining kingdom, and it is far too small.

Her latest and most powerful portal is able to teleport other beings with no teleporting powers of their own, though the rate of transport flux is aggravatingly low. The Manifestation Biactualizing Crystal, the only naturally available source of possibility amalgamating matter, does not offer much power density. Even with a bank of crystals like the one she has now, which took an army of reptans mining under the castle for years to collect, it would take hundreds of days to teleport even a modest army.

She walks over to the portal, which looks like a giant baroque framed arched mirror connected to a large bank of the crystals, all wired together. In front of the mirror is a diamond sphere on a pole. She meditates purely on the biactualized state, places her left hand on the sphere, which inducts the state into archway.

She reaches her right arm through the mirror, which is now metaphysically permeable, and feels for the corresponding destination sphere. She energizes the distant sphere to the complementary state, making it safe for her consciousness to traverse the hypercosmic link. She steps through the reflective plane, and comes out in her old bedchamber.

She walks up to the top of her high watchtower, which still stands, and looks out over the devastated world of scorched earth.

“I will get her possibility amalgamating technology one way or another,” she says to herself. “I will create a system of portals that even the Unchangers will be impressed by.”

What To Do?

The next morning the team wake up as members of reptans guard begin to gather in and around the Xardun Guard house, where they slept. Brent is standing by himself when Decatur and Wheeler wake up.

“I hope you got some sleep, Brent,” Wheeler says to him.

“I got a few hours in.” Brent replies.

“What exactly are we doing today?” Decatur asks as he puts on his gear. ”What are Mr. Alma-Gurr and company planning, Brent?”

“They are basically ready to storm the castle, they can do that whenever.” Brent explains. “Nobody can figure out when, though. Alma-Gurr is hoping there will be some kind of consequential moment to unleash the hounds. I dunno either. It's fuckin' frustrating. Termagantia is holed up.

“I hate taking that glowing bitches word for it, but maybe she will get whatever it is she wants from Crystal, and let her go. I just am wondering what it is she wants from her.”

Corny offers a possible answer. “Crystal designed and built the engine, and Termagantia knows that. Crystal has knowledge. That is her value, I assumed.”

“Yeah, me too,” Brent says, and thinks to himself. “Just give her the information, Crystal.” He wonders what Crystal is up to.

Tatsu decides to say something he has been afraid to say. “What if she never returns Crystal to us? What if something worse? We may be waiting forever.”

“If you guys want to leave, I won't stop you, but I’m staying,” Brent says.

Wheeler says “Leaving Crystal behind is an absolute last resort. Let's just stay and let the chips fall first.”

Corny says “If this is going to be a battle to the death, I am not a soldier. From the simple numbers point of view, a single casualty is not that bad. Why is no one suggesting we simply leave?”

“What a surprise,” Decatur says. “Corny wants to turn tail and run.”

“What are you implyin', Brian?” Corny asks.

“That you're a wuss,” Decatur says.

“Well, it is an option. Someone had to say it,” Corny justifies.

Brent hates to agree with Corny, but no one has any idea how long Termagantia will have Crystal, or if trying to get her would have a shred of success. He has been wondering to himself what it would take for him to leave her behind. He might have to know she is dead, but what if he never knows? Eventually the ship will run out of batteries, and the generators would run out of fuel, and they would be stuck.

“I'm just gonna wait, and stick with Alma-Gurr,” Brent says.

Decatur says “I am with Brent for now. Let's just wait a while. We have no idea what is going on in the castle. Let's just stay 'till something forces us to leave.” He looks at the others.

Pippa, Fiona, and Tatsu all nod in agreement. They look at Corny, who says “Well, I prefer a democracy, so I go with this plan.”

Decatur thinks for a moment, and says “I have been wondering something. Why don't we just send a couple people back to Earth for help? They could cram the Everett full of soldiers and nukes. I know you guys said we supposedly can't go back to Earth, and then come back here a second time, but why? Is it like a physical barrier? This is pretty important. Why can't we go back and get help?”

One Trip

Wheeler decides Pippa probably knows the answer best. “OK, Pippa, what happens if you try to do a second trip?”

Pippa begins to explain what she knows. “The decoherence field has an effect where a split and recombined object leaves a wrapped path in the 5th dimension. To repeat the process would double over the already doubled path. Crystal calls it folding. It greatly magnifies the computational power required to hold coherence, and the current state of the technology cannot manage it.

“They found out early in the experiments leading up to building the ship. They discovered it in their human trials when they tried it, and someone died,” Pippa answers.

“Who died?” Brent asks.

“Dr. Maddox, who was Crystals mentor at Oak Ridge. He used himself as a test subject when they were splitting human worldlines. He did it once, then tried it again. He died.”

Pippa looks at Brent. “He died in front of Crystal. His worldlines came together out of coherence. He sort of. Um. Well, his two bodies came together in the same space,” Pippa says, trying to keep the grotesque images of what she heard from her mind.

Brent presses her. “What exactly happened to him, Pippa?”

Pippa swallows and says “He sort of teleported into himself and, over the course of about ten seconds or so, slowly blew up, bit by bit. It was very awful. Very disgusting. Crystal had a very hard time after seeing that. I have a hard time relating the story, and I wasn’t there.”

“She saw it?” Brent asks.

“Yes. She was watching,” Pippa tells Brent. “She almost quit the whole project. But Dr. Archibald convinced her to keep going.”

“Jesus,” Decatur says. “Well, she is a tough woman. Still, though, damn. That would give most people PTSD. Alright, forget the going for help idea. Let's just stick it out.”

Crystal And Quandro

Crystal had been waiting around for Quandro to talk to her for a while after Termagantia teleported off, sulking. The dragoons had assembled a table, some books, and pen and paper in the open side of the cell room.

Crystal was wondering what she would say to him. If she was right that they want to know how a quantum computer works, she had barely any knowledge of how they are actually manufactured. Maybe she could pad it with some phony baloney.

Quandro eventually comes in and sits at the table.

“Why do you work for her?” Crystal asks Quandro.

“She is my mentor,” Quandro replies. “I help her build things. I come from a very sad place, this is a much better life than any I thought I would lead. You could say she rescued me. She is a bit testy at times, but we have an accord.”

“She's evil,” Crystal says.

Quandro shrugs. “I am a willing participant. If the Hypercosmos allows it, who am I to judge. I know from experience that the Hypercosmos is very clever, and I feel it is letting us do what we do.”

Quandro sits down, and picks up his pen. “Let's start with the three components you mentioned.”

“I told her what they all do. You heard it,” Crystal says exasperated. “We split the worldlines with the field, and guide the recoherence point with the antenna. With your machine, Termagantia is the analog of the field generator, and the gimbal is the antenna. We have a quantum computer to manage all the worldlines. You don't have a quantum computer, do you? You couldn't teleport a whole ship, could you?”

Quandro is impressed. “Yes, that is correct. We have meager ones, made of manifestation biactualizing crystals, like the quantum augury you saw. In addition to being rare, the crystals naturally grow one size, and shatter when cut. They are too bulky. A bank of crystals large enough to teleport your ship, by my calculations, would be larger than this castle. You have manufactured miniaturized versions of it somehow.”

Crystal decides to tell Quandro what she knows. “Regular computer chips are tiny electrical circuits. They are made with a technique called photolithography. A circuit pattern is projected with light through lenses, reduced in size by the optics, onto a substrate. With photoreactive chemical masks and acid etching, then depositing subsequent layers, you build up overlapping layers of circuitry with structure through the depth.

“I think the quantum bit is exactly like a quantum augury. Instead of a monolithic piece of material you could grab and hold in your hand, the bit is a single particle, or an atom, trapped in the core of the tiny circuit units in the chip, which can read its quantum state. You know about atoms and particles, right?”

“Yes, the iotas of substance, and how an iota can function as a unit in a possibility amalgamator, is known to us. We do not have the manufacturing capabilities to produce the tiny devices to hold and read a single iota. Can you describe the manufacture of a unit that can hold a read a single iota?”

Crystal figures she probably can't spin a believable pseudoscience yarn to Quandro. “No, I can't. I don't know the microscopic design or manufacture of a quantum bit.”

“I was worried you were not a specialist in that field. Too bad. I will have to learn it later,” Quandro says, then begins a new line of questioning. “Why did you come in only one ship? Are your resources only able to produce a single ship? Is it one of a kind?”

“That was the first one we built,” Crystal says, not sure why Quandro would be asking that, but wanting to discourage him from thinking they are easy to make.

“They are very time consuming and costly to build. That is why we only built one. Even knowing how to build one, even with all the advanced manufacturing technology and the vast resources of my entire land, it still took us two years to complete it. You will never be able to do anything like that on this world. So why even keep us here? Are you going to try to reverse engineer the quantum computer? I am being truthful when I say that sounds impossible.”

“We do not need to reverse engineer it. Our plan is to take your ship. Your quantum computer is millions of times more powerful than our largest bank of crystals. We have efficient portals. I only need to integrate the two. Then we can build our army of millions here, invade your world, conquer it, and force you to build more quantum computers and portals. It should work.”

Crystal is shocked. The idea they could reach Earth was always in her thoughts, but to build a giant army of reptan dragoons, and invade Earth as their next conquest? She begins to feel sick to her stomach. She has to get out of there, and get back to the ship. Either fly it away or destroy it. She decides to try and rattle Quandro's confidence.

“You can't integrate anything with a quantum computer, the electronic control systems are extremely complex, made of interwoven electronically conveyed mathematical instructions. You would have better luck integrating with a brain. You have no knowledge of computers.”

“Perhaps I don't. Is there someone else on your team who does?” Quandro asks.

Suddenly Crystal realizes Corny is their perfect patsy, and she needs to hide that. “You saw the team, soldiers, naturalists, and me. We did not bring an expert in the manufacture of every level of our ships construction. That would have been a hundred people. Our technology is incredibly advanced. We will repel your army, and invade Odd World. My country alone has an army that could conquer this planet with ease.”

Crystal realizes she is on a roll. “My people are quite a hateful, warmongering race. Many philosophers fear we may destroy our own world. I even have my suspicions our journey here is part a clandestine military operation. We have weapons that can create a state of matter like the center of the sun. We can deliver these weapons anywhere in minutes. Your invasion will be crushed.”

Quandro picks up some of his belongings, and begins to leave. “Perhaps, but you have not seen our weapons or our army.”

Tyro Shows Prahx

Tyro had buried the disintegrated remains of Ehroo in the night, and spent the entire day reading Ehroo's book about the krusurs. He had been practicing exciting the crystal in the krusur, and was able to repeat the process to emit a bright yellow glow.

The text confirmed the old stories that they were able to shoot beams of magic, but Tyro is unable to influence the krusur to discharge its destructive rays. The book seems to indicate there are those with a natural proclivity to firing the weapons, and that it mirrors an ingrained temperament, a personality trait. It can be aggressive, defensive, evil, or good.

“I have the heart of a pacifist. I need the help of one with a warrior's heart,” Tyro concludes. “I cannot tell my father, but perhaps Prahx could help coax the fire from the krusur.”

Tyro goes to the guard house. Prahx is with the Xardun Guard, but Tyro is able to get his ear for a moment. “Prahx, I need your help.”

Prahx replies “I am very busy. Perhaps later, Tyro. You should be grieving.”

“Prahx, this is extremely important. With Crystals help, I was recently able to rekindle the magic of the ancient scepter. I believe I have made a great step towards rediscovering how to use the krusurs. It may give us an advantage in battle. I am able to excite it's magic, but I cannot make it fire its beam. My heart is to pacific. I want to teach you, and I hope your valorous heart will be able to turn it into a weapon of good.”

“Hmm.” Prahx is very intrigued. He always believed in the krusurs. “This is not a trick?”

“I promise on the soul of Ehroo,” Tyro says in a gravely serious tone.

“Let me invent a false errand to free myself from the happenings here, I will meet you at Ehroo's house.”

Tyro is in the back room of Ehroo's house when Prahx arrives. “Show me what I came here to see, Tyro,” Prahx says.

“Please sit a moment. I promise this will be worth your time.” Prahx sits in a chair, and Tyro sits on the ground, holding the krusur, and begins to meditate.

“Great Magic!” Prahx exclaims when Tyro stimulates the emission of a bright yellow light from the crown of the krusur. “You really have rediscovered the magic of the krusurs! This is momentous! Can you teach me?”

“That is exactly what I intend to do, Prahx,” Tyro says.

Over the next hour, Tyro explains to Prahx what Crystal explained to him. How to behold ones extent through the Multiverse, to see all the possible story paths leading towards and away from every moment. He borrows her analogy of the tree, that all moments exist, and the profound realization that every moment in time is like a now.

Prahx is seated on the floor, deep in meditation, holding the krusur, when Tyro sees the the end of the scepter begin to emit a green glow.

“Prahx,” Tyro says calmly. “Open your eyes and look at the krusur.”

“Great Magic, it glows green, like sun through the ferns!” Prahx is amazed, and watches the glow fade. “Tyro, what does the color mean? What is the meaning of green?”

“It is the color of your aura,” Tyro says. “I do not know the meanings of all the colors, but green I do know. A green aura is very special. Green is the aura color of the ancient protectors, the Natural Defenders.”

“I feel consecrated by the Universe,” Prahx says piously.

“I believe you are, Prahx. Now, the difficult part. We must learn to use the weapon. We must stimulate it to fire its sanctified lance of magical energy. I am not able to do it. That is why I brought you here.”

“What do you know?” Prahx asks.

Tyro thinks for a moment and says “I believe the secret for you will lie in the feeling of protection. Defense from evil. You must fixate your mind on the motives one would have to guard the innocent. I know you harbor this conviction.

“In your meditative state, view the timelines of your friends, of Crystal, and those of Termagantia. Observe their timelines, and use your heart to see them change around you. To change them for the security of the ones you love.”

“I will try,” Prahx says, and begins to meditate.

“Wait,” Tyro says. He leans over and moves the aim of the weapon to an empty wall. “In case it works,” he says.

“Yes,” Prahx says. He shifts his seated position, and begins to meditate again. He fixates on Crystal. Her arrival, their burgeoning friendship, how she seems to be a magical harbinger of good, her benevolence, her exceptional connection to the Multiverse, and of her dreadful abduction by Termagantia. He deeply wishes to liberate her from the clutches of evil, and he lets that strong desire build.

He sees Termagantia's selfishness, her narcissism, her gluttony for power, her pure barbaric insanity. He sees all that Termagantia has done, and attempts to envision everything that needs to be changed so she would be banished from their world, and every other.

Suddenly there is a deafening, resonant zap as the krusur discharges a blinding flash of green light, rocketing it into Prahx's chest, and knocking him backwards into a table. He looks up, and as the dust clears, he can see the light from outside coming through a large circular hole in the wall.

Prahx and Tyro look at each other in stunned jubilation, and simultaneously exclaim “Great Magic!”

Prahx falls back laughing, and wincing, as his guffaws flex the bruised spot the krusur handle jabbed into his rib cage. “Graw Uh! Graw Uh! Graw uh.”

Tyro says “We now have powerful weapons to beat Termagantia at her own magical game.”

“Weapons? How many are there?”

“Ehroo has a hidden chest,” Tyro says, staring at the hole in the wall. “I have never seen inside, but if it is full, we may have nearly a dozen. We must go dig it up.”

He looks at Prahx and says in a serious tone “I must tell you something. This is very important. You must not tell anyone we learned the power from Crystal. I was taking a great risk telling you, but I needed your help, and I trust you. I am afraid I have burdened you with a tremendous duty. You cannot tell Alma-Gurr, any of his guardsman, the travelers, or even Crystal herself. If you tell them, the magic will die.”

“Why will it die?” Prahx wonders.

“I cannot tell you now, but I will explain later. You must pledge, on all that you love, that you will never tell any living soul that Crystal was the key. Keeping the secret of Crystal is absolutely paramount, no matter what happens. We must say we learned through the books, that we discovered it independently.”

“I pledge,” Prahx says. “Is there a shovel in this house?”

Quandro Reports

Evening falls, and Termagantia returns through her portal from her repose in the distant, quiet castle. She finds Quandro, wishing to know if he learned anything from Crystal about the possibility amalgamating technology.

“While my talk with Crystal was not completely fruitless, I fear she is not a specialist in the technology of their possibility amalgamator. She does not know how to construct one.”

Termagantia asks “What is she a specialist in, then?”

“Well, to be perfectly honest, my sorceress, her skills remind me of yours, though her paradigm is skewed. I am beginning to believe that there is more than one path towards sorcery.”

Termagantia feels a little annoyed and threatened, but she has begun to accept the same thing.

Quandro continues. “We may still yet be able to obtain enough knowledge from them to integrate their systems with ours. It seems reasonable to me that another on their team may possess more of the knowledge we seek. It seems logical they would bring a complementary specialist to such a crucial component of their teleportation system. Crystal denies it, but I believe she is wise enough to conceal this possible weakness.”

Termagantia is only half listening to Quandro. “Yes, fiendish scheming my wise colleague. I might have been a little besotted with Crystal. I will meditate and observe the minds of the others for useful information later. Right now, I wish to speak with her one last time.”

Crystal And Termagantia Talk

Crystal is lying on her back, having found the most comfortable spot on the bumpy stone floor she could. She is half asleep when Termagantia shows up again.

“Good evening, Crystal,” Termagantia says, rousing Crystal, who stands up.

“Are you going to kill me?” Crystal asks.

“Oh, I have not decided anything with regard to your fate, to be honest. I brought you some water.” Termagantia says, shoving a half full waterskin through the bars. Crystal takes it and drinks. She was incredibly thirsty.

“Are you hungry? Sentinel!” she yells, and a dragoon walks in. “Get me a Pavoopea, there is one in a cage in the laboratory. Quickly!” she commands the beast, who rushes off.

Termagantia begins to digress while they wait. “You know, Crystal, I have traveled around the Hypercosmos for as long as I can remember. I can no longer recall my origins. When I teleport naturally to another world, I loose a bit of myself. As though parts of who I am are left behind. I sometimes wonder how they are doing. But, I am too busy to visit them.”

Crystal interprets this to mean that, when she splits her existence for a teleportation of astronomical distance, she leaves half behind, unable to recohere both worldlines through a journey of such immensity. Or something like that.

Termagantia wonders to Crystal aloud “When you teleported here, you did not lose any memories, did you?”

“No, I’m pretty sure we didn't.”

“Good,” Termagantia says. “Then you are doing it right.

“I an quite old, I believe. Probably hundreds of years. I can keep myself somewhat youthful. An old sorceress's trick. I have gathered much technology from many worlds. Your's is some of the most impressive I have seen. That is a compliment.”

“Thanks,” Crystal says, actually taking it as one.

The dragoon sentinel comes back in, places a large domed cage on Quandro's table, and leaves. In the cage is a strange looking creature. It has four short legs, and a wide, flat body and head. It looks like a cross between a pangolin and a giant salamander, covered with thick, branching scales.

Termagantia approaches the cage and stares at the creature, and her eyes begin to glow. The creature becomes more and more animated and agitated, beginning to make a strange squeal, then going completely berserk. Steam begins to rise from it as it collapses and and twitches. The steam turns to smoke as the creature begins to char.

“How do you like your Pavoopea?” Termagantia asks Crystal, and smiles. She roasts the creature until it is blackened, and takes it out of the cage. She rips off the majority of it's hide, revealing the perfectly cooked meat underneath. She uses two hands to lift it, and bites into it, tearing off a strip of flesh, which she chews, contorting her mouth to get it all in.

She finishes chewing, and swallows. “This world has some tasty lifeforms.” She rips off another strip of flesh with her fingers, and tosses it through the bars.

Crystal is starving, and decides to try it. She is tentative at first, but the animal does taste pretty good.

Termagantia continues her rambling. “I must say, Odd World has been good to me. They gave me this wonderful castle, mined my large bank of crystals, and make obedient and viscous fighting dragoons. I really quite like it here. Also, that heavenly ring is a very nice touch. But there is something else about this world that attracts me. I have not quite been able to put my finger on it. I will miss it.

“But this is merely a home, I need an empire. I want an empire, I can build an empire, and I will have an empire. I am too powerful not to.” She takes another large bite and sets the animal down.

She paces for a moment, then turns to Crystal, and in a serious tone, says “I have been wondering, Crystal. Do any others of your race have powers like you? All cognizant beings can learn to do certain psychic things, but you have a special inborn multiplying factor. You have intrinsic powers.”

“I do?” Crystal replies, confused.

“Oh, yes, my dear. I wonder how you got them,” Termagantia replies, deciding to try one last time to convince Crystal to join her.

“Maybe together we can find out where you received your gift. If you join me, I can teach you to hone your powers. We would be a powerful duo. We would be able to roam the Hypercosmos with freedom you cannot imagine, and you will see the most marvelous things. I could be your surrogate mother.”

“No way,” Crystal says.

“Oh well, then,” Termagantia sneers. “I came to offer you a deal. If you share your technology willingly, I will be able to roam the Hypercosmos freely. It is immeasurably vast. Since I will no longer have any particular reason to invade your world, I promise I will not.

“I will make sure you and your friends get back to your world safely, and in return you will share the information. You may continue your voyages, provided you stay out of my way, and I will stay out of yours. I cannot see how, from your perspective, that this agreement would have any drawbacks. It is mutually advantageous. You get to go home from your eye opening trip, I get what I need, and you never see me again.”

Termagantia raises her eyebrows and cocks her head. “Hmm?” She grabs the Pavoopea and jams it through one of the cell wall's openings. “Think about it. Remember, either way, I will succeed,” she says, then steps back, and vanishes.

Crystal Thinks

Crystal grabs the roasted animal, and sits back down, picking off pieces of meat. As she eats, she becomes curious about Termagantia's fascination for Odd World, because she feels the same way.

Odd World and the Earth are the same planet on different worldlines, but they seem to be close together in the Multiverse. Closer together than two worldlines that split off so long ago should be. Dr. Maddox detected Odd World early, because it was so close, and somehow distinct from other worldline Earths.

Since there is one chance event that had such huge repercussions on the two worldlines, the impact that created the ring, they are very different, but separated by maybe a single worldline forking event. Perhaps that makes them sort of connected in 5d space, as though Odd World has some kind of 5d gravity, contracting their separation in possibility space.

If they don't share the quantum computer technology with Termagantia, or she goes back on her word about leaving the Earth alone, then she is right on Earth's doorstep. She might not be able to resist invading Earth. It may not be possible to enable her to manufacture her own quantum computers. She may need to invade, regardless.

Crystal is also curious why Termagantia said she could help her find out how she got her powers. Are powers not natural? Do they have to be imparted by something, or conferred by magic? Maybe Termagantia just forgets why she has hers.

Crystal is also fascinated by the distorted psychological state Termagantia must have put herself in with all her natural teleporting. She can't remember her past, and has had her consciousness cleaved in half many times. Maybe that is why she is such a psychopath. Maybe she is the part of every psyche that leans that way, bent further and further, like distilled madness. She feels a little sorry for Termagantia, like she is an entity caught in a vicious cycle, and wonders if she was ever a any good.

Crystal also wonders, with particular interest, how Termagantia avoids the worldline folding problem. Maybe since she generates the field in her mind, she has a metaphysical connection to her worldlines, and can manipulate them in a more elegant way to avoid simple folding. But then, what happens to her worldlines when she teleports across worlds? What if she really does split and never recoheres? Would it be like loose ends? Her full state of existence in 5 dimensions must be so weird. Like a bunch of ropes in a big knot. Perhaps there could be a weakness there.

17) Escape

Crystal Gives It A Try

The praise Termagantia gave to Crystal is emboldening her to believe she just might be able to do some of the things that Termagantia can do. She is locked up, needs to escape, and has no other choice, so she decides, delusions of grandeur or not, she is going to spend some time playing with different ideas about how she can use her meditative state to help her. Ideally, she could teleport out of the cell.

How could teleporting naturally work? What does she have to think about? She figures the state of mind that excited the quantum augury might actually be putting her into a state of quantum superposition, splitting her worldlines.

Maybe focussing on your now puts you at a point on your worldline. Meditating on it just so might get you right in the middle of a branching itself. Maybe splitting worldlines overlap a little, right at the forking event. Right at the branch node. Maybe that is the little atom of possibility superposition she felt like she noticed.

But how is that out of body perspective happening? The Multiverse antenna could triangulate a point by changing its phase on three axes. Maybe she can triangulate by sliding around the overlap of worldlines right at a fork.

The working field generator core needs three separate field generators to make a three dimensional shape. Maybe a worldline is not a single line, like a simplified diagram on a sheet of paper, but more like three lines meeting at right angles, like three orthogonal coordinate axes. Maybe she can triangulate her position in possibility space by sliding around the worldline superposition at a forking event, changing the phase of their coherence.

It doesn’t explain everything, but it is enough concepts to emulate how the ship teleports. She can split her existence, and triangulate. She doesn’t need a quantum computer to synchronize a massive panoply of worldlines, because there is only one worldline, and it is her consciousness, sort of focused to a point.

So the out of body perspective might act as a vantage point from which to guide her recoherence point. If she can concentrate enough to do both, get into superposition, and achieve the out of body perspective, maybe she can teleport her body. Something to do, anyways. Crystal decides to sit back, close her eyes, and think.

Crystal is not new to attempting to figure out how to do something complicated from nothing more than a set of basic first principles. In the early years of her academic career, she was unusually good, compared to other intelligent students, at creative solutions, because she never built up an academic facade to be torn down by incorrect thinking. She was too self confident and naive to be afraid to look like an idiot in the eyes of other supposed intellectuals.

She was such a rebel, she half wanted it. Plus, she liked to entertain herself, and unbiased original thinking is more entertaining than indoctrinated, pedantic rehashings on boring old conventional wisdom. Especially when the wisdom was obviously incomplete, and as such, just a simplified analogy, and ultimately wrong anyhow.

Understanding the Multiverse fully, feeling the ineffable concepts click and move in harmony, viewing things from a totally different perspective, required a form of meditation. So Crystal was trained by quantum physics to meditate by accident, sort of like Mr. Miyagi training Daniel to block punches by waxing cars and sanding his fence.

In order to pacify and plasticize her mind to behold the liquid anti-logic of quantum physical realities, she had to take virtually infinite steps outside of the proverbial box. This state of mind always exposed a stark, base psychological facet of the human condition.

Crystal always sensed the natural difficulty consciousness has being in the moment. She had to let go of the constant anxiety and impatience caused by her fear to forget what she is doing, or constantly trying to aim towards her goals. She had to trust herself, that she knows what she is doing, and her goals would just be there at the end.

The only way to suppress tangential concerns from coming to the forefront was to let emotion sheathe unwrangled and unexplained. Be brave enough to let your subconscious intuition guide your elucidating, without clinging to stepping stones of safely sized, prepackaged concepts. It is not enough to be patient, because that is waiting. You just are. Ignore the narration of your inner monologue, and it's attempts to interject plot filler around the moment of now, to shoehorn it into some kind of overarching life plan. The voice is a petty fool, anyhow, aren't you, voice?

Crystal smiles. She is already meditating. She sighs and and relaxes. Her out of body view comes into focus and she can see herself leaning against the cell wall. She rotates her perspective to view herself face on.

She would like to see herself split. So she lets herself do it, and sure enough, she sees herself separate into two instances of her body. When she made the talisman glow, she was in a split state, but it was mental, and there was no visible doppelganger. But both of her instances are visible to her now, from the mind’s eye view of the out of body perspective. One to the left, and one to the right. Good.

She would like to see herself recohere, so she relaxes the mindset holding herself in the split state, and sure enough, she sees the two instances of her body recohere into one. Good.

She would like to split and move her instances around independently. She lets herself split again, and tries to raise her right arm. She sees both instances move their right arm, mirroring her. She can feel them both.

She tries again, only this time she tries to invoke only her right self only raise it's right arm. Since it is like she has two right arms, maybe moving them independently is almost like the normal act of moving one’s left and right arm independently.

She sees one instance lift her right arm, but it is her left instance. 'Whoops. The other left,' she jokes to herself. ‘Facing the other way probably would have felt more natural. I just have to think in reverse.” She reverses her intent, and her right instance raises its right arm. Good.

She would like to see her left instance stand up. As easily as commanding her right instance, her left instance stands up. She decides to have it walk towards the bars. It does. She tries to touch the bars, but her hand passes through the them. Interesting.

She decides to have this instance of interest walk through the bars. It passes through them as though they were a mere hologram. Great. 'Wait here, Lefty,' she thinks, and focuses on her right instance, still sitting. She repeats the process, and now she sees her two instances on the free side of the bars. Terrific. Now she is getting somewhere.

She would like to see herself recohere, standing outside the cell. So she lets herself do it, and sure enough, she sees the two instances of her body unite into one. Fantastic.

Crystal relaxes out of the meditative state, feels herself standing, and opens her eyes. What she sees does not make sense. She is outside the cell. A wave of fear overwhelms her. She is hallucinating. She lost her mind. This is impossible.

She reaches out and touches the bars from the outside. They are solid, and she is on the other side. Unbelievable. She lets go and slowly steps backwards, bumping into Quandro's desk. She picks up one of his books and opens it. There is strange writing. The book is real. It is all real.

She starts shaking and her eyes well up. She emits a convulsing gasp composed of half laugh, half cry, drops the book, puts her hand over her mouth, and muffles the most wonderful realization. “I teleported!”

Get Out

Crystal attempts to regain her composure. This is a massive stroke of good fortune, and she must capitalize on it. She must escape, but she has no idea how to get out, or where anyone is inside the castle.

She recalls that her cell’s room is off the right side of the underground junction at the landing of the stairwell leading up to the back of Termagantia's lab. Is there a sentinel in the junction room? Apparently nothing heard her drop the book. Crystal knows her best chance is to make her escape as quickly as possible, so she decides to risk a peak.

The junction room is empty, at least for the moment. “Thank Christ,” Crystal thinks, and slinks as fast as she can to the bottom of the stair well. It is clear, so she quickly ascends to the top, to the room just off the back side of the main laboratory chamber.

Crystal freezes. She can hear voices. Termagantia and Quandro are in the lab. “Shit,” Crystal thinks. She can’t get out the way she came in. She looks for a place to hide. There is a walk-in utility closet full of tools, cutoffs of exotic metal material, wires, ropes, pulleys, bearings, and fasteners. She steps in, and peaks out, looking around for some route to escape. She notices another open doorway to another set of stairs leading up. She could try that.

Crystal decides to listen in for a moment. She hears Termagantia speak.

“Quandro, explain to my dragoon sergeant that I want him to assemble the entire dragoon squad, and capture the other travelers. Tell him to take them all back to the dungeon. We will imprison them in the cells furthest from Crystal's. There are seven. Make sure to give the dragoons a good strategy to get them all at once. I don’t want to be chasing down any stragglers.”

Quandro speaks in reptan, and the lead dragoon grunts confirmation if his obedience.

“Oh, fuck,” Crystal thinks. That’s why the sentinel wasn't there when she left her cell. He is going to lead the other dragoons to go get the team. She carefully slinks to the other stairwell, and ascends it.

It opens into a giant bedchamber. It looks exactly as she would envision a psycho witches castle bedchamber to appear, with ornate armoires, a giant vanity desk covered in jewelry stands, bizarre Victorian-esque furniture, but strangely, no bed.

The place where a bed should be is devoted to a giant baroque framed arched mirror. The mirror is attached by a system of conduit to a big shelving system full of racks of something. A second run of conduit runs to the ceiling, all the way down the stairs, back towards the laboratory. She walks over and looks at what is on the shelves, and can see that the racks are composed of a grid of tiny compartments containing octahedral crystals.

“These are those manifestation biactualizing crystals that Quandro talked about. This must be a portal,” Crystal concludes. She walks up to the mirror, and looks at a transparent globe on a stand in front. “I guess you could afford two diamond spheres, huh? Fuckin’ liar.” She decides to touch the mirror, trepidatiously closing the gap between its surface and the tip of her index finger until she feels the solid plane. “OK, I guess you have to turn it on.”

Crystal looks at the diamond sphere for a moment, wondering if she should try to turn on the portal. She wishes she had time to experiment with it, but the portal probably connects to some other world. “That’s cool, but it doesn’t really help me now. Unless there’s a Multiverse police station behind it. But it’s probably some creepy fucking shithole that’s even worse than this goddam place.”

The bedchamber has a window, and through it she can see part of the ring against the night sky. She opens the window, looks down. Two long floors directly down, in the ringlight, she sees the ward inside the main castle wall.

“Maybe I can get that spool of rope I saw in the tool closet, and climb down.”

She looks around the courtyard, and out away from anything, piled against one wall, is what looks like a bunch of large, tall heaps of garbage.

“I can hide behind the garbage, at least for a little while,” she figures.

Crystal quietly retraces her path down the steps to the back room of the lab. She cannot hear any voices. They must have left. She looks into the lab. It is empty. She looks at the large doorway she originally was let in through by Termagantia, leading to the main castle hall. It is closed. She figures the door probably self locks for security, and Termagantia telepathically unlocks it, since it has no handles on either side. Crystal decides to get the rope and stick with her idea to go out the window.

Crystal ties the end of the rope to the short, sturdy leg of a large wardrobe. She tosses the spool out the window, and it spins and flips around violently as it falls, landing flat on its side with a thud. Crystal grabs some clothing from the wardrobe, and wraps it around her hands. She puts a chair under the window, and begins to climb out, carefully clutching the rope with her cloth sheathed hands.

Crystal is scared of heights. She feels a dropping sensation in the pit of her stomach as she slides off the window sill, trusting her life to her grip on the rope. She tries to dampen the sudden weight on her grip using her bent arms as shock absorbers, but she begins to slide down immediately.

“Shit!” Crystal says, gripping the rope with all her might. “Fuckin' bitch's slippery lingerie.” She is sliding downwards quickly. She manages to clench the rope in between her legs, which slows her acceleration, but it starts to friction burn the inside of her legs through her coveralls. “Ahr!” she says through her gritting teeth. She realizes she is going to land hard, and tries to land on her thigh and roll.

She lands in a tilted sitting position on her right butt cheek. An “Uuah!” noise emits from her as she impacts, and rolls around in pain. “Ow! That's gonna leave a bruise,” she says, as she gets up, and begins to limp off to the waste pile.

The Heaps

As she approaches the garbage, she stops. “What is that?” she says, looking at the piles, which look like a scrapheap of giant, weird body parts. She keeps going, around the piles to the back, looking intently with disgust at their contents as she proceeds.

The great mounds are indeed piles of bodies. Strange, deformed, mutated, alien bodies. Some look a bit like freakishly disfigured reptans, but most are other beings entirely. Crystal figures she has been mutating reptans to be dragoons, but where did she get these things? Are they from other worlds?

She finds the best place to hide, and crouches out of view, looking around at the gory mountain. The odor of putrid flesh is overwhelming. Crystal tries to move her head away from the moldy, rancid, sour pile, but it is no use. She can see all manner of worms and scavenging bugs crawling through the mixed carrion. She can feel a wave of nausea coming, and heaves out the small amount of snotty, masticated Pavoopea and water that was in her belly.

She manages, after a moment, to stop heaving, and settle her stomach. She is looking across at another mounds. One large creature in an older, more decayed pile, catches her eye.

It looks like an elongated T-Rex with Pterodactyl wings. “Ohh, do not tell me she has fuckin' dragons,” Crystal mutters to herself, trying to suppress her nausea. Crystal remembers something Quandro said to her. She has not seen their army. Crystal realizes something disturbing. Termagantia might have a fucked up army of monsters hiding somewhere.

Crystal summons all her anti-grossout powers, and climbs the revolting pile. She uses limbs, jaws, pelvises, and rib cages as hand and footholds, and reaches the peak, maybe 20 feet high. Her arms and legs are covered in putrid ooze now, but she has a decent view of the ward, and she keeps low, figuring she will blend into the body parts and be difficult to spot.

From her vantage point, she watches the group of dragoons that Quandro dispatched riding their demonic hongas from the castle, across the ward, out the open portcullis.

Crystal realizes Termagantia must have some kind of genetic engineering. She can turn reptans and hongas into freak versions, and judging by the pile of twisted monsters she is perched on, Termagantia is probably experimenting with some other unthinkable experiments on who knows what from God knows where.

There looks to be about 50 dragoons, wearing armor, and carrying oversized naginatas. Crystal knows her best chance to escape would be to wait, and try to flee out the main entry through the castle wall, but she needs to get to the team before the army does. She is already terribly far behind.

Crystal decides her best hope is to try to teleport through the castle wall. She quickly climbs back down the vile pile, hustles to the castle wall, and sits, leaning against it. She closes her eyes and tries to meditate, but finds it difficult with all the thoughts swimming through her head about her recent realizations of the dire situation the team, and Earth, are in.

Crystal knows Termagantia must be stopped. Crystal knows she might be the only one who can stop her. Her duty is clear, and she accepts it fully, even if she dies trying. She uses that thought to center her mind.

She achieves the out of body state, and sees herself sitting against the wall. She needs to see the other side of the wall, and attempts to change the perspective of her vision. She raises it, higher, above the wall crenelation, high enough to look down on the ramparts from above, until she is viewing right down on top of her body, also able to see the spot she will aim for on the other side.

She splits her body, and has both walk at the same time through the wall. As she attempts to recombine them, it feels more difficult than the last time. The smaller angle from her further perspective makes alignment more finicky, but she eventually recombines them standing on the other side, relaxes, and slowly opens her eyes.

She is on the other side of the wall. It worked. She needs to run. She starts to run immediately in the direction of the team, but her gray coverall is saturated with slime, and is sticking to her body, and pulling in a way that restricts her movement.

“Fuck it,” she says, and stops. She is wearing a sports bra and sports briefs, so she quickly unzips the coverall, peels it off, yanks it over her boots, and starts running again, noticeably faster now.

She is running as fast as she can without tripping on the uneven, obstacle strewn ground of the woods. She wonders if the difficulty she had recombining herself from so high and far away is analogous to the trouble Termagantia has with teleporting both of her split instances over world-spanning distances.

Crystal notices dawn is just beginning to break, and wonders if the team will be awake when she gets there.

Underestimation

Termagantia is about to retire back to her silent castle, but instead of walking up to her bedchamber, she decides to quickly visit Crystal. Perhaps tease her a bit with the knowledge that her friends are about to be imprisoned as well. She is in no rush, so she descends the stairs on foot.

“Oh Crystal, deary?” she says smiling as she enters her cell room. She looks in the cell, and sees that it is empty.

“What?!” she yells. She rushes to the cell door, and examines the lock. It is locked and undamaged.

“How did she get out? Where is she?” Termagantia becomes enraged.

“QUANDRO!!” she screams, loud enough that he could hear her from any location in the castle. “WHERE IS CRYSTAAAL!!!” she demands, then teleports immediately to the main laboratory.

Crystal is still running through the woods, pouring sweat, and becoming exhausted, when she hears Termagantia's vociferation. Just barely, but she hears it. She smiles.

“Abracadabra, bitch,” she says, and gets her second wind, and runs harder.

Quandro hurries from the main hall, where he has been since the dragoons departed to gather the other travelers. He quickly climbs up the stairs to the laboratory doors, which fling themselves open just as he approaches them. Termagantia storms towards to him, her aura flaring up.

“Crystal is not in her cell! Where is she! Did you do something with her?!”

Quandro cowers. “No, my Sorceress. I give you my assurances I did nothing with her, I left her in the cell.”

“Where are your keys!” Termagantia says, with a look of consternation.

Quandro pulls his keyring out, and says “Here.” He picks out the key to Crystals cell. “This is they key, I had it the whole time.”

Termagantia steps back, a look of confused dismay contorting her face. “How...” she says, halting her comment. Quandro watches her face change to a look of shock. “No.” Termagantia says, shaking her head, and begins to aimlessly walk. “Could she have... Preposterous. But... conceivably. That little... astounding. Quandro!”

“Yes, my Sorceress.”

“I think our pesky little detainee has escaped. She may have made it back to her friends. I need them here, on Odd World. What is the status of your army?”

Just then a large medallion Quandro is wearing begins to emit a quick, erratic flashing. “That is the sargent signaling now, my Sorceress. They have marched past the travelers, and have their retreat to the ship cut off. I told him to signal me when this was achieved. Their next move is to surround them.”

Termagantia breaths a sigh of relief. “Oh, whew. Outstanding. They are trapped here? You are sure?”

“Yes, my Sorceress,” Quandro says.

“Oh, my, that is comforting news. I thought we lost them for a moment.” Termagantia relaxes and walks up to Quandro. “I am sorry I blew my top, my brilliant general. If there was any higher rank than general, I would promote you right now.”

“I have even more good news, my sorceress,” Quandro says, happily. “I believe I have assembled the necessary components to block their ship. I have a few more adjustments to make to the Existence Interconnector, but I am on the verge of completing the modifications. All of it can be integrated into the overall functionality of the Existence Interconnector.

“But I must inform you that the teleportation hindering system has a large, but limited range. If they are able to fly the ship to space, and move far enough away from the Existence Interconnector, or move behind the body of the planet, it will make the surveying their precise location difficult. I cannot assure you, if that happens, that I will be able to envelop them in the counteracting field.”

“Well then, we must make sure to keep that ship near,” Termagantia says. “Do you have a plan for how to do this?”

“I am working on various strategies, my sorceress. I will devise options and inform you of them when they are fully schemed,” Quandro assures Termagantia.

“Very good, General Quandro,” Termagantia says. “Well, what a night. I need rest. It is already getting light outside. Please, keep up the good work.

“Also, take every possible precaution with little Crystal. Her powers are developing at an alarming rate. She may be able to teleport. If you need to kill her in order to stop her from reaching the ship, you have my blessing.

“I will be watching, and probing the minds of the others to see if any of them can help us with the possibility amalgamating technology. Happy hunting,” Termagantia says, and walks off to her bedchamber to retire.

Enough Waiting

The team wake up early. Crystal has been gone for 3 nights. They decided that, this morning, if Crystal was not back, enough was enough. They are going to enact their plan with the Xardun Guard to storm the castle.

The reptans have assembled many weapons, many armored hongas with special war saddles that carry extra battle naginatas, and rounded up the reserve guardsman to join, making a force of nearly 75.

“I am still uncertain of the objective of this plan,” Corny decides to tell Wheeler one last time. “It does not have a good chance of succeeding, and it may cause Termagantia to retaliate. She may decide to kill us all. We can still simply fly away in the ship.”

“Corny, you weeny, just get ready to go back to the ship,” Decatur says, to tired of pointing out what a coward he is to muster any jokes.

“Alright, you two, stay here,” Wheeler says. “I’m gonna go check in with Brent one last time, I'll be right back.”

Crystal Rejoins The Team

Brent is standing out in the gathering area with Rinrong and Fiona, going over the attack plans, when he hears the breaking branches and the rustling of something running through the woods. He sees a person. It is Crystal. “Holy shit, Crystal!” he yells, and runs towards her.

“Brent!” she yells as best she can with her burning lungs. She runs towards him, smiling, into his arms.

“Hold me!” she says, panting, and lets him take some of the weight off of her spent legs.

“Jesus, where's your cloths?” Brent asks.

“I had to ditch them. Brent, she is an evil sorceress. She has these genetically engineered reptans...”

“Yeah, we met her. Termagantia. She had those dragoons with her. She told us she had you captive.”

“Oh, welp, guess what,” she says, gasping for air. “They’re coming. All of them.” She tries to catch her breath. “About fifty dragoons. They’re coming to capture all of you, too. I got away and heard their plans. I saw them leaving.”

Crystal looks up at Brent, who is just looking at her. “Did you hear me?” she says.

“Yes,” Brent says, and is silent for a moment, then says “I love you.”

Crystal looks at him and says “I love you, too.”

“Crystal!” Fiona yells, jogging towards her from the gathering area.

Brent smiles and says “Come on, let's go tell Alma-Gurr.” He helps Crystal regain her own support on her legs. “Come on.”

Rinrong is already trotting over. “Gristal!” Rinrong barks.

“Crystal!” Wheeler shouts, running up towards the group.

“I gotta tell you guys something! Wheeler, Alma-Gurr, everyone!” Rinrong, Wheeler, and Fiona all run up to Brent and Crystal.

“I heard their plans while I was escaping. They sent an army of about fifty dragoons riding monster hongas to come capture us humans. They are coming. They might even be here already.” Fiona translates what Crystal said in reptan for Rinrong.

“But that's not the bad part,” Crystal continues in cautionary tone.

“This is gonna sound nuts, but you gotta believe me. She is trying to steal our technology. She wants to invade other worlds. She can teleport herself, and small amounts of things with her portal technology, but not a giant army.

“She needs our quantum computer. She calls it a 'possibility amalgamator'. She has a primitive one, but it sucks compared to ours. Ours is like a million times better.”

“Portal?” Wheeler inquires.

“Yeah, like in Stargate. That ring they teleport with, it has a corresponding ring on the other side. She has those. But her quantum computer to run it is garbage. She wants to make a super portal with our quantum computer. She might have a giant army based somewhere. I saw evidence of that.

“She doesn't have the technology to make a quantum computer like us. It's pretty advanced stuff, our computer manufacturing methods are beyond what is available to her. It must be rare, or hard to get.”

Brent asks “Shouldn't other civilizations have quantum computer technology? We can't be that advanced, we just went through the industrial revolution. How come the technology isn't all over?”

Crystal says “I wondered that too. Maybe it’s rare, and we’re just unusually advanced in that regard. Or maybe advanced civilizations safeguard portal technology, like nuclear weapons, or weapons of mass destruction. We might have the Multiverse equivalent of a broken arrow here, and Termagantia is like a terrorist trying to get it.

“Even worse yet, she might invade Earth. She could use us as prisoners of war to build herself more super teleporters. She actually said that to me.”

“Jesus H. Fucking Christ. Can we stop her?” Wheeler wonders “Can we even shoot her?”

“I don't think so,” Crystal says solemnly.

Wheeler says “We are just three guys with a few guns, here, Crystal. I take your warning seriously, and I would love to do something, but we need to gain a tactical advantage. I feel like retreat is the only strategic move, here. I'm sorry, but we need backup, we need to regroup on Earth.

“We have to get to the Everett before that army comes. I bet they are going to try and surround us here in the city. Let's get the fuck out of Dodge. We can figure out the rest of the plan on the way.”

Termagantia Sees Another

Termagantia is meditating on the high watchtower of her distant, silent castle, peering into the minds of the humans, looking for useful knowledge, when she spies Corny. She is at first attracted to his fear, but sees the inside his mind is permeated with the theories and ciphering of their existence interconnecting systems.

“Well hello there, my faint-hearted monkey,” she says. “I may need to conscript you for a little war I have brewing.”

18) Blockade

Dragoon Forces

The team and the reptans run back to the city guard house to gather Tatsu, Pippa, and Corny, and prepare to flee to the Everett. Wheeler quickly explains to the others “Crystal escaped. She found out Termagantia is trying to steal our technology to invade Earth, and she sent a platoon of dragoons to capture us. We have to get to the Everett, and get out of here, now.”

Just as they are preparing to leave, two Xardun Guardsman return on hongaback from a scouting patrol.

They report back to Rinrong that they have seen a large group of dragoons. There are about 2 dozen of them stationed around the border of Xardun in the direction of the field where the Everett landed, and another 2 dozen congregated on the far river bank, at the bridge leading out of the city to that side of the valley.

Fiona translates this to Wheeler as the other team members listen in. Wheeler says in a defeated tone “Dammit, we’re too late.”

“Look! One of them is coming this way!” Decatur says.

Walking calmly down the road towards the city guard house is a dragoon. As he approaches, Rinrong walks forward to meet him. Wheeler grabs Fiona, and walks up behind Rinrong to listen.

It is the lead sargent dragoon with heterochromia. He speaks in a commanding tone. He informs Rinrong their retreat to the ship is impenetrably blocked. The humans must surrender to Termagantia. They can choose to either go willingly to the castle themselves, or the dragoons will attack and capture them by force, killing anyone who attempts to stop them. They have 4 hours to decide.

The dragoon begins to walk away, but stops a hundred yards down the road to the bridge, standing at attention, watching.

Blockaded

Wheeler walks back to the others and tells them the predicament. “We’re outmatched. Even though, with the reptans, we have superior numbers, those dragoons are just too tough. I don't think we can break their blockade.”

Decatur offers an option. “What if just one of us makes a break for it? If we can get one person to the Everett, they can get away. Maybe we can meet up later? Or just fly this ship away, keep it out of Termagantia's hands.”

Fiona is translating to Rinrong. He shakes his head, and speaks through Fiona. “He says that would be suicide. He says our best chance would be to all form a tight group, and try to fight through them.”

Wheeler says “A sort of phalanx formation. Probably the best shot, but still, we will take heavy casualties. Even if we even can make it to the bridge, and then what?”

Rinrong decides to use the 4 hours to formulate an exact plan. He tells the guardsman to gather maps in the guard house, and set up a field station to devise the best strategy. The team and the lead reptans go inside the guard house.

Crystal walks over to the team's gear in the guard house, where their ammo and communications pack are, and finds the only spare cloths they brought. A woman's tank top, and a man's coverall. She puts on the shirt and ties the coverall sleeves around her waist like a belt to hold the lower pants half up.

Brent walks over to her and says “Pippa told us about the accident, the experiment that killed your scientist friend at Oak Ridge. I didn't know, I’m sorry you had that happen, but I am also really impressed you managed to keep going with the experiments. You are a brave woman, Crystal.”

Crystal is looking down, and fidgeting with the sleeves of the coverall to make her impromptu uniform as functional as possible. “Thanks, Brent,” she says. “I am sorry I didn't tell you, but I still have a hard time talking about it. I wish Dr. Maddox were here. But, then again, he might have died either way.”

Brent reaches out and grabs Crystals hand, and she looks up at him. “We’re gonna make it out of this. I’m not gonna let them get you. I promise.”

Crystal Tells Them

Crystal smiles, and leads Brent by his hand over to Wheeler, who is standing near the reptans strategy meeting. “Wheeler,” Crystal says. “Brent. I have something to tell you guys. This is going to sound hard to believe, but I swear it is true.” Crystal pauses.

“What is it, Crystal?” Wheeler asks.

“I can teleport myself now. That's how I got away. They had me in a jail cell, and I teleported through the bars. I teleported through the castle wall,” she says, staring at the ground, afraid they will think she is going crazy.

Wheeler and Brent look at each other, wide eyed. Wheeler crouches a little, and gets Crystals attention. “You mean like her? Like Termagantia?”

Crystal looks up and says “Yeah. Short distances, but yeah.”

“That's incredible, Crystal,” Brent says. “I believe you.”

“So do I,” Wheeler says. “Crystal, how do you think it is that you can all of a sudden do the things she can do?”

Crystal shakes her head and says “I'm not sure. Termagantia said she thinks I was given powers somehow, but even she doesn't know where it came from. When I first started feeling things, I thought it was this place, or maybe an effect from teleporting, but apparently I’m the only one who got it, so there must be more to it.”

Brent is wondering what about Crystals early life or birth could have imparted something into her. “Crystal, didn't your father work at Oak Ridge? Maybe he was in an experiment and passed something on to you.”

Crystal says “He was just a technician, Brent.”

Wheeler says “Maybe he worked on a secret project, and that was a cover.”

Crystal says “I don't know what my father used to do there, before he started to be affected by mental illness, but I don't think he was ever a big time scientist. Plus, I don’t think they had any really advanced projects going on in the early eighties.”

Brent says “Maybe some people are just born unique. Maybe this place really is different, beyond just the asteroid thing. Maybe reality works a little different here, and maybe you are just good at tuning into it.”

Crystal smiles at Brent and says “Maybe. Maybe I’ll never know.”

“It doesn't matter where you got it,” Brent says “it only matters what you do with it.”

Prahx Shows Crystal

Just then, Prahx walks into the guard house, and sees Crystal. “Grystal!” he bellows, and hurries over to her, and embraces her. Crystal laughs.

“Hello Prahx. I got away.”

Prahx walks over to Rinrong, who tells him “We are surrounded, Prahx. Termagantia's dragoons have blocked the path to the ship. Where have you been?”

Prahx is afraid to tell Rinrong the truth, so he says “Tyro was grieving for Ehroo, and I wished to grieve with him.”

Rinrong says “Well, I hope you are finished, because we are planning to break this blockade soon. I will need you then.”

“Yes, Alma-Gurr,” Prahx reassures him. “I am prepared to battle to the death.”

Prahx excuses himself, and motions to Fiona. He grabs her and Crystal by the hands, and pulls them to an empty area of the guard house, away from the others. He begins to talk to Fiona.

“He says Tyro used a book belonging to Ehroo to learn how to use the krusur.”

Crystal is getting so used to the reptan language, she hardly needs Fiona's translations. She heard Prahx say 'krusur', realizes the significance of what Prahx is saying immediately.

“He wants us to go with him to Ehroo's house,” Fiona says. “He wants to show us. He wants us to go with him now”

Crystal knows if they can use the krusurs as a weapon, it could give them the advantage they so desperately need, and that she has to go with him and see this. She walks over to Brent and says “I have to go somewhere with Prahx. They discovered something I have to see.”

Brent is curious what it is, but decides Crystal will tell him when the time is right. “Alright. I think I should stay here. Be careful, OK? We have less than four hours, don't be gone long.”

“I won't,” Crystal says, and kisses him. She hurries over to Fiona and Prahx who are already at the doorway, and they take off jogging to Ehroo's house.

As they jog, Crystal is looking at Prahx’s legs, and notices he has an efficient gate. His long foot extends up to a heel joint that is more like a lower, backwards knee. When pushes off with his claws, the joint bends like a spring, pushing him forward as it releases its stored energy. “I wonder if we look clunky to them,” she wonders.

They arrive and meet up with Tyro who is there waiting.

“Where is Ehroo?” Crystal says to Fiona.

Fiona tells her “Um. Crystal, Ehroo is dead. Termagantia killed him in front of us as a demonstration.”

“What?” Crystal is shocked. “Jesus.” She turns to Tyro and says. “I’m so sorry for your loss, Tyro. I lost my mentor once. You must carry on.” Fiona translates this to Tyro, who thanks Crystal for her sympathies, and assures her he is devoted to finishing what Ehroo started.

Tyro leads them behind Ehroo's house, down the path to the nearby ancient ruins. There, he shows Crystal the chest he and Prahx dug up, which contains 11 more krusurs. He says Prahx was able to fire one.

“You can shoot that thing?” Crystal asks Prahx, who confirms this. “Can you do it again? Can you show me?”

Prahx agrees. He takes the krusur, walks a few steps away, and sits down. He closes his eyes and begins to meditate. The end of the krusur begins to glow green. The glow brightens, and with the sudden sound of a massive electrical arc, the krusur emits a discharge of blinding green light into the woods and underbrush.

The discharge leaves a singed, smoldering swath, emanating outward in an approximately 45 degree spread.

Back at the guard house, Brent is outside watching the lead dragoon, who is still standing watch, far down the road. He faintly hears a loud, resounding crack in the distance. Rinrong hears it also, and steps out of the guard house to see what is going on.

The lead dragoon does not react, and holds his post. Brent signals a stopping motion to Rinrong, indicating everything is under control. Rinrong seems dissatisfied, but reluctantly reenters the guard house to continue planning to break the blockade.

Back at the ruins, Tyro begins to tell Fiona and Crystal why they need Crystal, and Fiona translates. “He says the weapon fires, but they can't aim it. The beam is too diffuse to be deadly. They said they were hoping you could try, and maybe you can aim it.”

Aiming

Prahx hands Crystal the krusur. Tyro speaks through Fiona. “The krusur is engaged by the same meditative state that excites the quantum augury. He would like you to try to fire it. He hopes you can aim it.”

Crystal walks over to where Prahx was sitting, and sits down, and begins to meditate. She achieves the state to excite the crystal in the head of krusur, and it emits a bright red-orange light.

“She has no trouble exciting the magic in the krusur,” Prahx says to Tyro, who nods.

Crystal concentrates on the krusur, and she can feel the ability to raise a tension inside it as she separates her worldlines. She hypotheses “Maybe the krusur is splitting with me. It feels like the tension is caused by the amount of superposition. I wonder what the whole thing is made of?”

She continues to raise the power, slowly, and there is a sense of strain beginning to crackle, like the first fibers of a stick ticking before it snaps. She can sense the level of excitation where it would release a burst of energy, but feels no ability to guide it.

She begins to wonder what she could do to aim it. When she teleported, she aimed the recombination point of her split quantum state simply by observing her surroundings from the out of body mental viewpoint. “I’m a two trick pony, let's try the other trick.” She begins to elicit that state, and see what she can see.

She achieves the out of body state, and views herself holding the krusur from a vantage point 20 feet above her head. She can a distinct cone of light emitting from the end of the krusur. “I didn’t see that before, when Prahx fired it, so that’s something.”

Crystal decides to try changing her vantage point, and pull back, raising her out perspective. As she does so, the cone of light's angle opens even wider. “Ah ha,” she thinks to herself, and decides to move her viewpoint closer to her body. As she does, the cone of light tightens. She moves her viewpoint closer, just outside her body, and the cone of light has shrunken to a narrow cone.

“I wonder if I can get inside my body while I’m in the out of body state? I haven’t tried that.” She decides to see if she can move her vantage point into herself, so she is viewing from the same perspective she would see normally. As she moves her into her body, the cone rapidly tightens into a brilliant, focused line, like a powerful laser. “Bingo” she thinks, and feels her face smile.

She shifts her focus back to the level of excitation of the krusur, and begins to ramp it up, feeling the sensation of a strained equilibrium on the verge of sudden discharge. She decides to aim the spectral laser at a large tree, and fire the krusur.

Prahx, Tyro, and Fiona are watching Crystal sit, noticing nothing unusual, until, for a brief moment, there is a fizzing sound, and sparks come from the end of the krusur. Suddenly a brilliant orange laser of light appears, and just as suddenly, disappears.

Through the tree Crystal was aiming at is a round hole, about 8 inches in diameter, the edges of which are on fire.

“Grystal!” Prahx shouts, holding up his arms, and running towards her. Crystal opens her eyes and smiles just as Prahx gets to her, and lifts her into the air, and sets her down on her feet.

“Yeah, I got it, Prahx.” Crystal wonders for a moment how to describe to Prahx what she did. She figures it is probably impossible to describe, and wonders if she can just demonstrate it somehow. Show him from the inside.

She decides to try and repeat what she did while Prahx is also in control of the krusur. She speculates that the krusur is sort of conductive, in a quantum state sort of way. If they both hold it, maybe they can sort of do a meditative mind meld through it. If she can guide the krusur while he is meditating on it, maybe he can pick up on what she is doing. “If it works, it will be fast, and we’re in a rush.” she figures.

Crystal Shows Prahx

Prahx is standing next to Crystal, and she hands him the krusur, and indicates for him to sit down, which he immediately does. He is sitting in a squatting position, his hind quarters and tail lying on the ground, and his legs bent in front of him.

Crystal looks at him as she sits directly in front of him, facing the same way. She indicates she wants to scoot back, so he opens his arms and legs, and she slides back against his chest, and he puts his hands back out in front of Crystal, holding the krusur in his right hand.

Crystal grabs his hands, and brings their hands together, so they are both holding the krusur. “Tell him to close his eyes, and meditate. To excite the krusur, but not fire it,” Crystal tells Fiona.

Prahx follows the conveyed instructions, and Crystal also meditates. She achieves the out of body perspective, and moves it into Prahx. As her astrally projected location begins coincide with the space occupied by the conscious brain of Prahx, she can feel something extremely interesting. She can feel his mind overlapping hers, as though she feels his thoughts around her, like a three dimensional space of moving liquid impulses and thought forces.

“This is interesting” she thinks.

Crystal tries to figure out how to guide Prahx's mind into the out of body state that she is in. She decides to attempt to organize his thoughts to match hers, which she hopes means it will feel tranquil to her, as opposed to the surging turbulent space of thoughts she feels. If their mental states match, they should mesh smoothly.

Crystal wants to warn Prahx she is going to meddle with his thoughts. She attempts to speak with her body from the out of body state.

“Fiona. Tell Prahx I wish to enter his mind. Tell him I will try to guide his thoughts. Tell him not to be afraid, it is only me.”

Fiona calmly translates in reptan to Prahx, and he acknowledges back to her. “He said he’s ready, Crystal.”

She begins to attempt to guide his thoughts. She imagines she is reaching out with imaginary arms into his consciousness. The feeling reminds her of sticking her hand out of the window of a moving car.

There is a rushing force, and she can guide the flow by imagining her hand as an aileron, deflecting the flow. She can feel the colliding rushes of thought converging in eddies, and reaches into the eddies, attempting to guide the turbulence into laminar flow. One by one she reaches around, quelling the swirling areas into a smooth current.

At first, the eddies seem to reappear after she corrects them, but she keeps doing it, smoothing the eddies that reform. As she continues, she can feel the overall level of turbulence beginning to drop. Prahx is beginning to get the hang of it, and cooperatively they are achieving the out of body state together.

Crystal can see the cone of light from the krusur now. It is green, and she knows that it is Prahx's energy conducting through the krusur. She again speaks from her body to help communicate her intentions.

“Tell Prahx to look with his mind at the krusur. He should see a cone of light. We need to focus the light,” she says, and Fiona again calmly translates. Prahx makes a humming grunt, indicating he understands.

Crystal focuses her entire consciousness on calming all of the thoughts she can feel in Prahx's consciousness. She is watching the beam, and the angle of its cone begins to tighten to a beam. She is about to attempt to aim the invisible beam at a target, when she feels Prahx aim it at a large rock in the distance. Crystal knows he is getting it. Speaking one last instruction from her out of body state through her body, she says “Grut!”

Crystal feels the excitation of the krusur rise. It rises to near the emission level. “He is going to do it,” Crystal thinks, excitedly. Just then, there is a fizzling sound, sparks emanate from the end of the krusur, and as Tyro and Fiona watch, a brilliant green beam fires from the krusur, blasting the top of the rock into fragments.

Prahx erupts exuberantly “Great Magic, Tyro! I fired the krusur!” He stands up, grabbing Crystal, and lifting her into the air. “Grystal!” He sets her down, then bows before her, kneeling and placing his hands on the ground at her feet.

Crystal is happy too.

“Rise, Sir Prahx!” she jokes, reaching down and grabbing his hand, guiding him up. He stands up.

“Reonah” he says. He then says something in reptan, looking at Crystal as he speaks.

“He said he is forever in your debt, and promises to protect you,” Fiona relates, smiling.

“Thanks, Prahx,” Crystal says, flattered, and pats him on the shoulder.

Prahx Shows Rinrong

Prahx is very intent on telling Rinrong of their new weapon, in hopes he can show it to him and convince him they can use it to fight Termagantia's dragoons. He brings the krusur, and leads the others back to the guard house.

Prahx approaches Rinrong, and gets his ear, telling him about firing the krusur. It is obvious that Rinrong is skeptical.

“Prahx, I fear you may have let the legends fill your mind with false hope in this desperate and susceptible time. Please do not lose your fighting focus now, when we need you,” Rinrong tells Prahx.

“I will show you, Alma-Gurr,” Prahx pleads. “Let me demonstrate the weapon before you, right now. I promise you will see.”

Rinrong decides to make Prahx a deal to settle the situation. “Very well Prahx, shoot the lead dragoon who is stationed here, watching us. If you can shoot him, I will believe you. Go on, then. He is right over there. If you cannot, you are no longer allowed to speak of this nonsense.”

Prahx realizes this is his only chance. “I will do it now, Alma-Gurr. Please watch.”

Rinrong laughs, and says “Go ahead.”

Prahx collects himself, settles his grip on the krusur, and begins to walk towards the dragoon standing watch. He simply stands at attention, observing, unimpressed. Prahx walks close enough to see that it is the lead dragoon with the eyes of Rail.

“Why must it be Rail,” Prahx thinks, knowing his challenge will be double, since he believes the dragoon used to be his friend.

Prahx comes up with a plan. He will attempt to hurt the dragoon that was Rail without killing him. He will aim for his arm. If his aim is true, Rail will be badly injured, but hopefully live. Perhaps they can take him into their care, and save him somehow.

Prahx stops about 40 feet from Rail. He holds up the krusur, closes his eyes, and attempts to clear his mind. “This is for your own good, Rail,” he thinks. He concentrates on the techniques Crystal showed him, and a the krusur begins to glow green.

The lead dragoon reacts, moving his head forward inquisitively, but standing fast. Prahx sees the cone off light in his mind's eye, and focuses it into a beam. He aims the beam at Rails shoulder, increases the excitation of the krusur, and fires.

The beam strikes the dragoon in the shoulder, blowing his arm off. The force spins his torso, and he is thrust back, spinning a full rotation before he lands on his back, unconscious. His hand is still clutching his large naginata, and his severed arm spins around the shaft of the weapon like a tether ball, as it falls to the ground.

“Great Magic” Rinrong bursts, and runs over to Prahx. “I do not believe what I am witnessing. Prahx, is it really true?”

“Yes, Alma-Gurr,” Prahx answers. “Tyro used the knowledge in a book that Ehroo gave him before his death to unlock the secret of the krusurs. We rediscovered the spiritual technique used to excite the krusur, and have perfected the firing of the magic. We now have a weapon to fight Termagantia.”

They look down at the dragoon, who is still breathing. Where his right arm was attached protrudes the fractured end of his upper humerus and tattered strips of cauterized flesh hanging from his shoulder.

“Alma-Gurr, I believe this dragoon used to be Rail. I wish to take him, and attempt to communicate with him. Perhaps we can save him, and learn of Termagantia's powers to create her dragoons.”

Rinrong is still in disbelief that Prahx fired a krusur. “Yes, very well Prahx. Let us drag him by the legs back to the guard house, and tie him up.”

As they grab Rails feet, and begin to haul him off, Rinrong says “Do you have any more of these krusurs?”

Prahx says “Yes, Alma-Gurr, there are twelve, including this one.”

Tie Him Up

Prahx and Rinrong drag Rail into the guard house, and the other guardsman help tie him to a support beam. Prahx yells their intentions to Fiona. “They want to tie him up out of sight and see what he knows.”

Decatur grabs the medical kit out of his pack, and attempts to bandage the stump as best as possible to stem the blood loss and keep him alive.

“Fiona!” Decatur yells. “Tell them I have a drug that will sedate him. I'm gonna shoot him up with morphine. It will make him docile when he comes to.” Decatur proceeds to inject the dragoon with a triple dose.

It is only a few minutes before Rail begins to try to open his eyes. He is extremely drowsy, and mumbles incoherently. Prahx and Rinrong are crouching together in front of him.

“The eyes, Alma-Gurr. That is why I believe this is Rail,” Prahx says.

Rinrong says “He no longer bears the scar you gave him on his face while practicing with the naginatas.”

Prahx looks closer, and sees that Rinrong is correct. Rail had a long scar Prahx accidentally gave him on his face. It suddenly dawns on Prahx that the scar was on the same side that his gray eye was on, his right side. This dragoon's gray eye is on the left. “Alma-Gurr, perhaps you are correct. His gray eye, it is now on the other side. Perhaps it is not Rail.”

Tatsu has made his way close, interested in the biological nature of the dragoons and their connection to the reptans. “What are they saying, Fiona?” he asks her.

Fiona says “They thought it was a guy of theirs, because he had that one gray eye, but they realized his eyes are reversed, and he had a scar, which is gone now.”

“Perhaps he is a clone. If the heterochromia was hereditary, a clone would have it too. But the chance nature of which side it is on would be replayed. A clone would only have a fifty percent chance of having the same handedness of the condition. A clone would also not have a scar. Fiona, would you please tell them that?”

Crystal is standing in the background, watching. “Clones,” she thinks to herself. She decides to speak. “Tatsu. I think Termagantia may be conducting genetic engineering experiments. I saw a pile of discarded, deformed bodies inside her castle walls.”

Tatsu replies “I don't understand how she could have done it, or how she engineers in these dragoon's exaggerated size and ferocity, but perhaps she can clone monsters from reptans. It is not impossible, and I am beginning to accept more wild theories lately.”

Teaching

Rinrong decides to get back to the business of breaking the blockade. “Prahx, we will stay here with the dragoon and will question him. I need you to teach some of the guardsman to fire the krusurs. You say you have eleven more weapons, gather eleven of the guardsman of your choosing, and teach them to fire them. We must hurry, we have little time. Can you do this?”

“I will do it immediately, Alma-Gurr!” Prahx says, excitedly. Prahx gathers the 11 guardsman he feels are the must brave and shrewd, along with Crystal and Fiona, and hurries them back to the temple behind Ehroo's house.

Over the next two hours, using the technique she successfully tried with Prahx, Crystal teaches the reptan guardsman. Once Crystal demonstrates the meditative state, Prahx is able to help them hone their aim holding the krusur and meditating with them as they take practice shots.

When all of the 11 guardsman are able to fire the krusurs themselves, they return to the guard house. Prahx reports his success back to Rinrong, who decides they are ready to break the blockade, and make a charge for the Everett.

19) Breaking The Blockade

Mounting The Offensive

The team decide that Pippa, Tatsu, Fiona, and Corny will stay back at the guard house. Decatur, Wheeler, Brent, and Crystal will go with the guard to break the blockade.

Brent wants Crystal to stay in the guard house, but she wants to go. Prahx tells Brent through Fiona “I will help you protect Crystal with my life.”

Brent says to Crystal “You sure have a way with these reptans, don't you.”

The three military guys all fill their handgun clips from the ammo in Decatur's pack, and Decatur decides to also bring the one rifle they have. The three and Crystal all put on communication wrist computers, and Decatur wears his full video headset and helmet.

Wheeler tells the four team members staying in the guard house “You guys see what you can do about helping coordinate us if we get split up, OK? Just hang out here at our station. Pippa, you run the comm pack, in case we need to dial an operator, so to speak.”

Tyro, who was waiting outside the guard house, meets Crystal as she is walking out. He hands her the talisman back.

“Thanks for the good luck charm, Tyro,” she says.

Tyro nods, and approaches Rinrong and Prahx. “Father,” he says to Rinrong.

“Yes, quickly, what is it, Tyro?” Rinrong replies.

“You know about the Warrior's Potion. Ehroo had been hiding a secret dose of it. I have it here. I want to give it to you. It will give you great strength. I wish you to succeed, and I suggest you to take the potion it now.”

Rinrong is silent. He had heard of the Warrior's Potion. A substance that can enhance the magical powers in any being. The substance itself is merely an organic liquid, it is the spell put on it that makes it magic. It involves a transmutation imparted into the essence of the liquid while held in an elaborate chamber constructed of special crystals. He always believed it was a myth.

“Alma-Gurr,” Prahx says. “You know now that magic is real. As our leader, we need you to be as powerful as they are. I believe you should take the potion.”

The other guardsman who are watching begin to agree with Prahx. “Take the potion, Alma-Gurr!” they say. “You will be invincible!”

Rinrong very much does not want to believe the potion is real, but he can no longer let his prejudice get in the way of such an important moment. He decides the worst thing that can happen is nothing. “Give it to me, Tyro,” he says.

Tyro hands his father a small silver flask. Rinrong takes the flask, unscrews the cap, and pours the contents into his mouth. He swallows the liquid, and hands the flask back to Tyro. He stands for a moment, waiting for an effect.

Everyone watches. Rinrong makes a strange face, and begins to breath heavily. He leans over, holding himself up with his hands on his knees, shaking his head. His heavy breathing begins to turn to grunts, and louder to groaning roars.

He stands up, and to everyone's amazement, his eyes are now glowing a bright liseran purple. He throws his head back, and begins to howl. A purple aura begins to form around him. He suddenly brings his head down, looking directly forward at Prahx. The crest of hackled feathers on the back of his head splays out, glowing, and ribbons of purple energy begin to emit from his mouth.

In a booming, powerful voice, Rinrong says “I am ready to slay every single one of Termagantia's villains myself! Do any of you wish to attempt to kill one before I finish the job alone!”

“Yeah!!” the guard yell, lifting their naginatas in unison.

“Mount your hongas! We attack now! Charge!” Rinrong raises his naginata, turns, and begins to trot down the road to the bridge. The marching guardsman follow right behind him, yelling. The mounted guardsman get on their hongas and gallop off as well, catching up to the group.

“I guess we go too,” Wheeler says, and begins to jog down the road after the main surge.

“Time to go get our ship!” Decatur says, taking of after Wheeler.

Brent and Crystal look at each other, and start to run down the road too, as fast as they can. “Here we go.” Brent says. “Stay near me, please,” he asks Crystal.

To The Bridge

Crystal and Brent catch up to the back of the group. They run very hard for almost half a mile before Rinrong, leading the whole group, engages the first dragoon.

It is on foot, and bursts out of the woods, attempting to spear Rinrong with his naginata. Rinrong deflects his swing so powerfully, the dragoon nearly lose his grip on it. Rinrong swings his naginata back, and lands the blade directly between the shoulder and neck. The blade slices into the dragoons body deeply, and blood spurts out from his carotid artery like a fountain.

The dragoon screams, puts his hands over the huge gash, and falls to the ground. Rinrong immediately raises his naginata, and spears him in the chest, pulling it out and thrusting in several times. He then raises his naginata and yells a battle cry.

The guard have struck the first deadly blow, and the entire group raise their naginatas, and return a battle cry in unison. Crystal, watching this all from about 50 feet away, is encouraged. She looks at Brent, and they smile.

“We might have a chance, Brent,” Crystal says.

“Sure we do,” he replies.

The next ¾ of a mile to the bridge is uninterrupted carnage. Rinrong slays dragoon after dragoon with one of their oversized naginatas he now carries. He is taking significant damage, is covered in gashes, but never loses his fury.

The other guardsman have more trouble with the dragoons, usually only lasting a few moments. The dragoons are very powerful, and easily deflect the guardsman's naginata swings. Crystal witnesses a guard member get stabbed in the rib cage, lifted up off the ground, and tossed over the attacking dragoon's shoulders like hay.

In another short fight she witnesses, the dragoon grabs a guardsman, and bites into his neck, tearing out his entire esophagus and larynx, before spitting it back onto him as he writhes on the ground.

One of the guardsman, whose naginata swing was deflected, uses the momentum given to him, crouches into a spin move under the attacking dragoon, thrusting upwards into his lower jaw, penetrating his entire skull, the blade emerging in front of his eyes. The dragoon breaks off the handle, and tosses it away, still charging at the guardsman. Another reptan saves him by throwing his naginata, striking the dragoon in the back. He falls over, unable to reach it to pull it out, and unable to yell, his mouth spiked shut.

Crystal is wondering when the guard will start to use the krusurs, when she sees the first shot fired. One of the guardsman she taught is coming to the aid of a another who is being defeated in hand to hand combat on the ground.

The dragoon pins the guardsman, then lifts his head and opens his mouth, preparing to bite down on the guardsman’s neck. The krusur carrying guardsman steadies himself, and fires a shot at the dragoons head. The beam strikes it in the open mouth, vaporizing an 8 inch tunnel through his skull and brain stem, instantly killing it.

The other krusur carrying reptans yell in celebration. One of them sees a dragoon headed directly at him, and attempts to fire his weapon too, but panics. Prahx, who was watching from slightly ahead, manages to maintain his composure, and fires just as the dragoon is about to thrust his naginata into the unnerved guardsman. The shot strikes in the middle of his lower back, disintegrating a large segment of his spine. His head and chest fall backwards as his hips and legs fall forward.

Prahx runs up to the guardsman. “You must ignore the feeling of danger, it is your mind’s enemy.”

The guardsman replies “I cannot use the weapon in battle as I hoped, Prahx. It is too difficult to concentrate.” Prahx grabs a spare naginata from a nearby mounted guardsman’s saddle, and hands it to him.

“Take this. Give your krusur to Crystal, and protect her.” The guardsman runs back to Crystal and hands her his krusur, and takes up a defensive position in front of her and Brent.

Prahx stops another guardsman, and tells him “Stay behind, guard the rear of the phalanx so the dragoons do not try to outflank us. Gather up any lost krusurs, and help protect Crystal.”

“I will do it, Prahx,” he affirms, and Prahx makes his way back towards the front.

Ahead, far down the road, a group of mounted dragoons wait. Three of them charge, their naginatas forward like lances. Three of the reptan guard on their hongas charge back. A krusur carrying guardsman fires a shot at one of the charging dragoons, striking him in the chest, and he falls off his mount. Another krusur fires from the other side of the phalanx, killing the charging dragoon on the other side. The middle dragoon continues charging. The three charging reptan guard all land their naginatas in the dragoon, who manages to land his naginata in the chest of the middle guardsman, killing him.

As the group of reptans and humans continue to advance they pass houses. From behind a small house, a dragoon ambushes the group from the side, managing to decapitate one of the reptan guardsman before a second reptan swings his naginata from behind, lopping of the dragoons tail. It looses balance and falls forward, and a guardsman runs up and spears the dragoon in the back of the neck, twisting the wide blade to separate the vertebrae, killing him.

As Brent, Crystal, and the guardsman leading them pass a cart, a dragoon jumps out from inside it, coming down with his clawed feet on the guardsman’s side. His claws tear several closely spaced gashes into his abdomen, releasing some of his organs, which spill out and hang from his side on by connective tissue.

As he raises his naginata to land a final blow, Brent begins to fire at him with his pistol. The dragoon turns, and begins to charge him. Crystal lifts her krusur, and concentrates, tightening the cone, just as Brent is about to be skewered. She fires early, and as hard as she can to compensate for the diffuse beam. The wide beam strikes the dragoon, and he explodes into a shower of flaming body parts and a spray of blood. Brent stands back up from his crouch, and says “Now that's what I call blowin’ someone away, Crystal, dang. Thanks.”

As the krusur carrying guardsman who were successful in killing with the weapons gain confidence, and they gather towards the front of the phalanx. They begin to take on the majority of the offence, killing most of the dragoons that attempt to ambush from the sides, or charge down the road.

The Bridge

The phalanx is moving steadily now, and in the distance is the bridge. The group approach the bridge, and there are about two dozen dragoons, mounted on their mutated hongas, on the other side of the bridge.

Crystal looks around at the reptan guard group. Their numbers have been depleted from 75 to probably half that, and 8 of the krusur carrying guardsman who Crystal taught to fire the weapons remain, clustered near the front. Rinrong is beginning to show signs of losing the power that the potion gave him, as he is limping badly, but he carries on.

They come to a clearing on the city side of the bridge. Rinrong commands the krusurs to open fire, and the 8 armed reptans begin to fire at will. Amazingly, the dragoons on the other side of the bridge hold their position, even as they are getting decimated by the krusurs.

Wheeler walks over to Brent and Crystal. “They must have orders to hold there, and can't get new orders. You got to respect their devotion to duty, I guess.”

Crystal says “They’re just mindless clone slaves. They are bred to follow orders.”

Decatur comes by and says “Those guys are getting leveled over there. Their orders to hold fast are turning out to be a huge weakness. I think we’re gonna to make it!”

Rinrong Helps Crystal

It is not long before every one of the dragoons on the other side of the bridge have been shot and killed by the krusurs. The whole group gather into a long, wide line, and begin to cross the bridge. Rinrong is standing still, watching the guard pass, being congratulated for his incredible valor. As Prahx begins to pass, Rinrong painfully begins to walk with the group again, next to him.

Crystal is just behind them, walking on the pedestrian side of the bridge. Rinrong is about to tell Prahx something, when suddenly, out from under the bridge, a dragoon lunges up the railing, reaches over it, grabs Crystal by the upper torso, and leaps backward, carrying her with him.

Prahx, Brent, and Rinrong look over as the two fall 20 feet into the water. The water is only about 3 feet deep where they land, and the dragoon is now on his back, underwater, holding Crystal, who is just above the waterline, screaming “Help! Help me!”

Prahx is the first over the railing, he lands on his side to prevent breaking his legs. He gets up as fast as he can. Brent then jumps off the bridge too, landing on his back, arms and legs out, also to spare his ability to walk.

Prahx lunges at the dragoon, who backhand slaps him, knocking him into the water. Brent begins to fire at the dragoon, hitting him once in the neck, but he turns, facing the kicking and screaming Crystal at him like a shield. Brent rushes up to try to get a better shot, but the dragoon reaches as far out as he can, and hammers him in the shoulder, tossing him several yards into the water.

Rinrong dives in last. He jumps out far enough to land behind the dragoon, bringing his weight down on his shoulders with his elbows. The impact jars loose his grip on Crystal, who is freed. The dragoon and Rinrong begin to wrestle in the water.

Brent rushes up to Crystal, and helps her up. “I'm OK!” she says, and the two, unable to run in the thigh deep water, begin to swim for the far shore. Prahx goes with them, and with his long legs and feet claws, he is able to partially run in the water. He grasp the tied up sleeves of Crystals coveralls like a satchel, and begins to carry her towards shore.

Brent stops and starts to swim back, with his gun drawn, hoping he can help Rinrong. He and the dragoon are fighting furiously, splashing and grappling so much, Brent can't get a clear shot. The two gnash and claw at each other, mutually mutilating one another, turning the water red.

The dragoon grabs Rinrong by the arms, and lunges in with his jaws agape, chomping down on his neck, and beginning to thrash him around. Brent rushes up and fires a head shot with his pistol 4 feet from the dragoons head. His body convulses quickly, and he goes limp, falling onto Rinrong, pinning him underwater.

Brent rushes over to lift him off, but he is to heavy. “Prahx!” he yells. Prahx has Crystal close to shore, and sets her down, and turns around, running as fast as he can back towards Brent. He arrives quickly, and helps Brent shove the dead dragoon off, and lifts Rinrong's head out of the water. Rinrong takes a labored gasp, and coughs up blood.

The left side of his face is partially torn off, revealing portions of his skull. His torso is shredded to tatters, and bubbles of his breath are spitting blood from large holes in his neck. Prahx stands behind him, lifting him from behind, carrying him back to the shore where Crystal is standing.

Prahx reaches shore, and pulls Rinrong up into the grass, and lies him down. “Alma-Gurr, are you alright?” he says.

“No, Prahx. It is my time to die now.” Rinrong coughs up some more bloody water. “Prahx, before I die, I have something I must tell you.”

“Yes, Alma-Gurr, tell me,” Prahx says, leaning down to hold Rinrong’s head from falling sideways. Rinrong struggles to speak.

“Tell Tyro it was his magic that saved us. Tell him I was wrong about him, that he is one of the most valuable assets to the Xardun Guard that ever served.”

“I will tell your son, Alma-Gurr, you have my word. I exalt you,” Prahx says. Rinrong lets out a grunt of approval, and closes his eyes. His chest stops moving, and he passes into death.

Brent and Crystal are watching, and Crystal says “He saved my life.”

Reverently, Brent says “He was the bravest soldier I ever fought with.”

One of the reptan guardsman who had gathered to watch Rinrong die reaches into his coat, brings out a small vial, and hands it to Prahx. Prahx pulls a large needle from out of the vial's leather container, and stabs it into Rinrong's chest, near where his heart would be. He presses down on Rinrong's chest around it, and thick, dark blood begins to flow out. Prahx uses the needle to fill the vial, and recaps it.

Prahx stands up, holds the vial up against the twilight sky in front of the other reptan guardsman, who begin to chant. When they finish, he then carefully places the vial in a pocket on the inside of his coat.

Prahx walks over to Brent, and looks all around. He then points to the trail leading up to the field on the side of the valley, where the Everett is. He then reaches down, and grabs Brent's arm, and taps his wrist communicator with his claw. He points in the direction of the city guard house and pretends to motion the others to come join them.

Brent understands, and uses his wrist communicator to call the four team members in the guard house. “Pippa, come in. Can you hear me?”

Blockade Broken

Quandro is monitoring the battle from a console which receives basic signals from remote telegraphing devices carried by the dragoon leaders. He is confused about the signals he received.

Termagantia arrives back from her sanctuary and walks into the laboratory to check in with Quandro. “What is the status of the blockade?”

“My Sorceress, somehow they have penetrated the blockade,” Quandro reports incredulously. “It took some time, they took heavy casualties, but the leader of the dragoons stationed at the far side of the bridge signaled defeat. I have some spies arriving in moments with more information.”

“What?” Termagantia says. “They will get away in the ship!”

“The game is not over yet, my Sorceress. We still have one last move we can make.”

Just then there is a pounding at the laboratory door. Termagantia opens it, and 4 dragoons come in, the one in the rear carrying an unconscious Corny as a hostage. Quandro questions the leader.

“He says they had magic casting weapons. That is how they defeated the blockade. Our defensive scheme was designed around a gladiatorial engagement.”

“Krusurs? Those old wizard wands?” Termagantia assumes. “When did they regain the knowledge to use those?”

Quandro shakes his head. “I did not think they had.”

As Termagantia thinks, her eyebrows turn down, and her lips narrow. “Crystal,” she hisses.

Seizing Things

“Yes, we can hear you,” Pippa replies over a bad connection. “I’m sorry I was disconnected for a while. I hope you didn’t need me. I have to use my wrist communicator now. Four of those dragoons just raided the guard house. They took my communications pack, Decatur's pack, and they kidnapped Corny. Tatsu and Fiona are all still here. We are fine, but they took Corny, and all our things for some reason. It was like they wanted him, specifically.”

Brent looks at Crystal and Decatur. “Why would they take Corny, and not the others?” Decatur wonders. Crystal understands his value.

“He’s an expert in quantum computers. Termagantia probably wants him to help her connect the one in the Everett to her portals.”

Brent speaks back into his communicator “Pippa, you guys come on to the bridge. Run as fast as you can, just leave whatever is left. We really got to get to the ship, and get out of here.”

Evacuate

Crystal is concerned about Termagantia's plans for Corny. “I don't know, you guys. We might need to get Corny. He might be able to tell them too much about the quantum computers. He’s probably the only one who could hook our quantum computer up to her portals. He’s a huge liability. Termagantia has a right hand man who’s really smart. I'm scared they might be up to something with Corny.”

Brent thinks for a moment. “Crystal, didn't you say they can't make a quantum computer with their technology? Then our primary objective has to be to get the Everett away from here. Corny can't help her without a quantum computer. We broke the blockade, we can make it to the ship. We’ve got to go escape now. I’m sorry about Corny, but we have no choice. At this point, it’s more about getting the ship back than us.”

Crystal begins to agree with Brent. “Yeah, good point. OK. I agree, lets get the ship out of here.”

After about 5 minutes, Fiona, Tatsu, and Pippa make it to the bridge, cross it, and meet back up with Crystal, Brent, Decatur, and Wheeler. Tyro has come with them, wishing to be there to see Crystal off.

Wheeler says to the 3 team members as they arrive, panting “You guys got 2 minutes for a blow, then we’re hiking straight for the Everett, and leaving pronto.”

Fiona and Tatsu walk up to Crystal and Prahx, and Fiona, through her heavy breathing, says “I talked some more with the lead dragoon we tied up. He talked, but he didn’t say much. He did say the first thing he remembers is waking up in front of Termagantia. He said he didn’t remember anything before working for her.”

Tatsu says “The best theory I have is that the creature was cloned and matured to adulthood before it was ever conscious. It sounds strange, but it fits the evidence. It is also possible the clone never passed through the normal stages of maturation. That it was formed as an adult. That is even stranger, but also fits the evidence.”

“She would not have time to wait,” Crystal conjectures. “This is a disturbing concept. If she can make adult clone fighters, she might be able to make an army fast. She and her right hand man are really good with technology. I would hate to think she has a soldier machine she can just turn on and spit out those dragoons like an assembly line.”

Wheeler is listening in, and says “If she had a bigger army, where is it? She wouldn't be holding back now, so she obviously can't press those bastards out like waffles. She doesn't have an incredible number of them, so they are probably hard to make.”

Crystal thinks about what Quandro said, that they have not seen their army. “I still think they have a big army somewhere. Maybe hidden, or stationed way off somewhere far, like a military base.”

“Well, whatever,” Wheeler says. “Even if she does have an army somewhere, as long as we get out of here before she can move her troops, I don't care about that this particular evening.” He turns to the 4 team members who just arrived. “You guys had enough rest, let's get to the ship.”

The team and the reptan guard begin to hike double time to the Everett. They climb the gently uphill trail around the ridge where they first met Prahx, and enter the field. On the other side is the Everett, sitting where they parked it.

“Thank Christ, it’s still there!” Decatur says. “I have never been so happy to get back on a ship in my fuckin' life.”

Back At The Everett

The team and the reptans make it to the Everett, and gather around it as Wheeler opens the ramp, and enters, preparing to depart. Crystal had been thinking about what would happen to the reptans after they leave. She is worried Termagantia might just be psycho enough to seek retribution, and is concerned for their welfare. She hopes Termagantia kidnapped Corny to help her try to make her own quantum computer, and that will keep her very busy for a long time.

Crystal asks Fiona to help her say goodbye to Prahx. “Prahx, it’s not my place to suggest how you run your city guard, but I think you would make a great Alma-Gurr. Please be careful after we leave. Stay away from the castle for a while. Look out for Termagantia. She may seek revenge. I promise we will return as soon as we can.”

Fiona translates Crystal’s wishes to Prahx, who thanks her. He summons the guardsman who is carrying Rinrong's blood, and gives it to Crystal.

“I can't take this, Prahx, it belongs to you.” Prahx insists, and Fiona translates his final thoughts to Crystal.

“He says you earned it. You are the true Alma-Gurr, he just hopes he can be a fraction of the leader you are.”

Crystal has trouble controlling her emotions. She feels like she is abandoning the reptans, and for a moment considers staying, but she knows getting the Everett back to Earth is just too important. “I promise I will return, Prahx,” she reiterates.

Wheeler announces the ship is ready for takeoff, and the team say their last goodbyes. The reptans back away from the ship, the team get aboard, and Wheeler closes the ramp. They put on their space suits, grab their helmets, and take their seats.

As she gets in her seat, Crystal notices that her reference cards, which were neatly held in a small sleeve next to the engine console, are strewn about, as though someone was looking through them in a hurry. She looks around to gather them up, and notices a few sheets of parchment with strange writing on them. She recognizes the writing from Quandro's desk that he set up next to her cell. She suddenly is hit with a wave of dismay.

“Holy shit you guys, someone was here!” Crystal says with a worried tone. “Someone was messing with my station. Was it one of you? I don't care, but I got to know who it was. I have a really bad feeling it was a spy sent by Termagantia.”

Brent comes over and looks at the papers Crystal is holding. “None of us have been here since we left four days ago. Someone else must have been here. Is the engine OK?”

Crystal turns on the console, and opens the status screen. She turns the engine on standby, and all the indicators are green. “It looks fine. It says it's functional.”

Brent looks at Crystal, and then to Wheeler. “Lets hope they just came to look at it, or something.”

Wheeler makes a grimace, and says “Damn. Well, we have no choice but to proceed. We gotta hope they either didn't try to break it, or didn't know how to sabotage it. Crystal, we have enough fuel to get to space one last time. We could just take off and hover and try teleporting right here, in the atmosphere, or just go all the way up to space. What do you think? Your call.”

Crystal says “Space now. Let's go. Everyone get buckled in. Go now, Wheeler.” Crystal knows the indicators are meticulously monitoring every crucial subunit of the drive, and if the indicators are green, the engine should work. She can't imagine a way to disable the drive undetectable by the status monitors.

Wheeler starts the engines, and the Everett begins to take off. Crystal should be relieved, but she cannot shake the maddening distraction about why Quandro would send someone, or worse yet, come to the ship himself, and then just leave it. It makes no sense. Maybe they did just come to look at the engine, she hopes.

The reptans watch as the Everett takes off, and climbs quickly through the shadowy clouds into the twilight sky, towards the ring which is beginning to shine brightly. “Good luck, my sorceress,” Prahx says to Crystal as he watches the ship disappear.

Time To Teleport

The Everett climbs in altitude, above the upper atmosphere, all the way into space. Wheeler does not bother with a burn to establish a lasting orbit. “OK, Crystal, we can teleport any time. Go ahead.”

Crystal readies the engine. “OK you guys, I am turning on the field. Once we start to split, we can't go back. On your marks. Get set,” Crystal feels a wave of anxiety, again, like she did the first time they teleported, only this time because she is afraid the engine might not work.

“Go!” Crystal taps the button to engage the automated teleportation sequence, and looks up, waiting to see the crew’s doppelgangers as the field rises and splits their worldlines. She is looking, and for a moment, tries to remember how long it took the last time. A few seconds pass. Crystal feels her eyes open wide. It's taking to long. She feels a shot of anxiety. “A few more seconds,” she thinks, rationalizing when she can legitimately panic. Nothing happens.

She looks back down at the console, which says the field is on, but nobody is splitting. “Oh my God,” she says. “Oh fuck, no no no no!” She looks at Brent. “It's not working.” She inhales slowly with a quivering gasp. “It's not fuckin' working,” she says, her voice cracking with confused, disheartened fear. She looks up at everyone. “Were not splitting. The field is on, but nothing is happening.”

“Oh, for the love of God, you gotta be fuckin' kidding!” Decatur yells.

Crystal can't stop her emotions, and feels her eyes well up, and a trickle of tears roll down her face. “I'm so sorry.” she says.

“It's not your fault Crystal,” Brent says.

Decatur, thinking Crystal might have misinterpreted his anger as being aimed at her, quickly offers “Yeah, it's not your fault Crystal, I didn't mean it that way. It's all our faults for leaving the Everett unsecured.“

“Crystal, do you know what’s wrong?” Wheeler says, staring forward out the window, wondering what to do.

Crystal goes to wipe her eyes, and her hand bangs against the visor of her helmet. She quickly takes it off, and begins to look around at the engine for a loose connection, some kind of damage, whatever, but there is no practical way to tell what could be wrong without disassembling the whole engine. “I don't know. I don't even understand how this is possible. I’m sorry.”

“What the fuck do we do?” Decatur says. “What? Do we land again?”

Wheeler is thinking, and suddenly says “If we are landing, we should do it now. We can get back to the field from here, we haven't established an orbit, we need to decide now.”

“Termagantia is pretty much beaten,” Decatur says. “We kicked her army's ass, going back now almost makes sense. I was thinking we really weren't in a ton of danger when we left, we might even be able to finish that bitch off.”

Brent looks at Crystal. “If we go back, and you fix it, can we just teleport from the atmosphere?”

Crystal says “In an emergency, yeah.”

“Can you fix it if we go back, Crystal?” Wheeler asks in a serious tone.

“I can't say for sure, I hope so,” Crystal says.

“Alright, we're going back,” Wheeler announces. “Decatur, prep for breaking and reentry. We need a high angle to get back, we’re a ways off the optimal glide path.”

As the ship is passing through reentry, about to transfer to controlled flight, Crystal is thinking about how she is not as confident that Termagantia is actually defeated. She wonders about whether they should just land and blow up the ship. She realizes they need to communicate back to Earth that they may never return, and that Earth should not send a rescue.

“Pippa,” Crystal says through the intercom. “When we land, we need to send a message to Earth. Get that ready as soon as possible.”

“Crystal, we can't send messages to Earth,” Pippa replies. “I guess we never told you. While you were in the castle, we tried to send a message to Earth, but we got no reply. We can't seem to communicate with Earth anymore.”

Crystal realizes having both their quantum entanglement based transmissions jammed and the teleportation somehow blocked cannot be a coincidence. Somehow they must be the same thing. Both of them rely on a quantum physical effect. She has a terrible realization. What if Termagantia is blocking them with her Existence Interconnector. She instantly knows it has to be true.

20) The Trap

Blocking

Termagantia is sitting at the helm of the Existence Interconnector, powering it, as Quandro is helping guide the focus of the machines new possibility amalgamator field canceling orb emitting functionality.

He has constructed a special console that attaches through an umbilical conduit to the main core of the machine, and it is covered in levers and dials feeding him information about the location of field emitting objects which the gimbal can detect over a large range. He is tracking the Everett.

“The device was successful in canceling their field, my Sorceress. They are returning, back towards us. My subterfuge implying their engine may have been tampered with appears to have misdirected their suspicions from our blocking field to the engine itself,” Quandro tells Termagantia. “I believe you can rest. They are landing. We can lower the blocking field.”

Termagantia smiles and sighs. “Very good, Quandro. My heart cannot take much more of these live field tests. But I am gaining confidence in your handiwork. Blocking their transmissions was impressive enough, but successfully blocking the teleportation of their powerful ship from so far away. Outstanding work, General.”

“It was your powers that blocked them, my Sorceress. I simply harnessed them,” Quandro says, directing the praise back onto Termagantia.

“I am quite certain of my readings of their remaining fuel capacity I obtained when I visited the ship. If my calculations are correct, their explosive propulsion system, even with great efficiency, will not be able to return to space.”

Termagantia relaxes and stands up. “Oh, I wish I could have been there to see her face, Quandro. 'What's the matter, honey? Your toy is broken? Aw.' Well, why don't you come over here, and I will fix it for you. In the meantime, let me show you some of my toys.” Termagantia begins to titter. “Hocus-pocus, little girl!”

Land Again

As the Everett is returning to the field they just took off from, Crystal tells the team what she has just come to realize. “Everyone, I know why the ship didn't work. They blocked us. They blocked the communications the same way. They have a crazy machine in the castle that can do things like that.”

“Wait, what?” Decatur says.

“Yeah,” Crystal says in a defeated tone. “Wheeler, are you sure there is no way we can go back to space? If we can get far enough away, or behind the planet, we might get out of range.”

“We barely have fuel to land, Crystal. What are you saying?”

“The engine is fine, I think they used a machine they have to block us. I saw Termagantia demonstrate it. It can cast an orb of energy out into space. I think they projected a field around us to cancel the engines field. It explains why the engine was working, the field was on, but not having any effect. It was canceled out. Destructive interference.

“As long as they have that machine in the castle, they can block our ship and our communications. I guess we have to go to the castle and destroy it if we ever want to leave. We either have to destroy that thing, or destroy the ship.”

“Well fuck,” Decatur says. “We just got away, and now we have to go right back into the lion's mouth.”

“Lions den, Decatur,” Wheeler says. “Well, at least she is vulnerable. Maybe we can just stroll on in and blow it up. I don't think she has much of an army left. We might not be that bad off. Lets think positive, here.”

Crystal decides to emphasize her concerns about the state of Termagantia's defenses. “I mentioned it earlier, and it's still bugging me. She might have another army. I find it hard to believe she could only muster that small blockade. I hate to be a downer, but we need to be really careful. She has a right hand man that’s really smart. We need to think about whether or not we are falling into a trap.”

Wheeler guides the Everett towards the field. Decatur is looking out the window, scanning for the field in the ringlight, and says “Let's try to plop her down in the little clearing in the trees near where we landed before. The trees will give us a little cover. This ship should be able to land on a dime. We should use that to our advantage. No time to be overly cautious.”

“Roger,” Wheeler agrees. “Help guide me into that pocket.”

Crystal is looking out her window, and as the Everett swings around to land, she sees the reptans. They are near the bridge, over the river fork which is glimmering in the ringlight. All 45 or so of the city guard all start running back away from the city, back towards the field. They must have seen the light from the ships rockets in the night sky. She wonders what she is going to tell Prahx, and feels guilty to have to continue to burden them with their dangerous presence.

The Everett lands in a small clearing about 30 feet into the trees from where they parked the last time, on the edge of the field. The team exit the ship, and Crystal, Brent, and Fiona go towards the field to meet the reptans. As they walk a ways into the field, they see them coming on the other side, and they converge near the center.

Prahx is yelling as they approach. Fiona says “He is asking what is wrong. Why did we return?”

Crystal says “Tell them Termagantia blocked our ship.”

The two groups meet and mingle around as Prahx and Crystal talk through Fiona. “Prahx wants to know how Termagantia blocked us,” Fiona says.

Crystal replies “She has a machine in her castle that can cast a ray that blocked us.”

Prahx thinks for a second, and speaks. Fiona relays “He says we need to fight Termagantia, then. He said we should attack now. There will be enough light from the ring for a night attack.”

Crystal is very touched that, after such a costly escape, Prahx is still willing to risk his life and the life of his guard to help them. “Tell Prahx thank you, Fiona.”

Another Prisoner

Quandro confirms the ship has landed near where it landed before, and Termagantia turns her attention to her new prized prisoner. Corny is in a chair in the laboratory, unconscious. Termagantia approaches him, and raises her aura.

“Let's have a close up look at that brain of yours,” she says. She casts her plume of telepathic energy into his body, and he quickly opens his eyes and raises his head.

Termagantia begins to exchange thoughts with him. “Corny? Tis a strange name for such a fine lad.” She rummages around some more in his forethoughts. “Hans. Corny is your nickname, I see. So Hans, you are an expert in the technology your people call a quantum computer, are you not?”

“Yes,” Corny says, staring out blankly from a partially aware haze.

“I see in your mind you have much knowledge. You are very clever. I have a machine I wish to show you that you will find very interesting. Rise and follow me, please, Hans.”

Termagantia guides Corny up to her bedchambers, and shows him her portal. Quandro explains to Corny the bank of manifestation biactualizing crystals is their analog to a quantum computer.

“So, Hans,” Termagantia says. “Could you build a quantum computer, like the one on your ship, for me, here, in this world?”

Hans stands thinking in his mesmerized state. “That would be nearly impossible with your technology,” he answers.

“Very well, then,” Termagantia accepts. “Hans, if I obtained for you the quantum computer from your ship, could you integrate it with this portal, replacing the bank of crystals?”

Again Hans stands like a statue for a moment, and replies “Probably, yes. It would take some time, I would need to learn more about your portal technology, but theoretically it should be possible. I think I could do it.”

Termagantia gently releases her hold on Corny, and he drops to his knees, and then over onto his side, unconscious again.

“Outstanding,” Termagantia declares. She turns to Quandro and says “We need to capture that ship. Crystal knows I need it. She is clever, and while I do not like admitting it, she is brave enough to sacrifice her return home by destroying it simply so I cannot have it.”

Termagantia walks up close to Quandro. “Quandro, we need to go capture that ship now. Let us prepare our army.”

Quandro has been thinking about the end game to this whole complex scheme, and decides to suggest a bold strategy to Termagantia.

Quandro's Plan

“My Sorceress, I have been analyzing our advantages and vulnerabilities. I fear having Crystal and that ship here poses too great of a threat to our ultimate goals. As you yourself have admitted, she is very powerful. She may be clever enough to yet devise a way to teleport back to her world, or send a warning message. It is even possible she may learn to do one of those things using her natural abilities.

“Crystal told me that her world has a large army with powerful weapons, and an inclination to use them. I believe her. Regardless of how incapacitated her ship is, if there is any possibility she can summon her world to attack ours, we may be facing ultimate defeat. That makes any risk of its occurrence unacceptable.

“I have a plan that involves preventing every possible risk by attacking them immediately, killing Crystal, and even destroying their ship.”

“Destroying the ship?!” Termagantia says, agitatedly. “Are you mad? We must have their possibility amalgamator!”

Quandro continues to explain his reasoning. “It is simply too dangerous, my Sorceress. Crystal may learn that the ship is still functional. They could teleport without returning to space. That could be catastrophic. We must destroy them both immediately.”

Termagantia shakes her head and demands “And then where, pray tell, shall we obtain another possibility amalgamator?”

Quandro defends his stance. “My Sorceress, please trust my strategy. I would feel much better about our chances for ultimate success if we destroyed both Crystal and the ship as soon as possible. I have a plan I wish to execute that will solve every problem.”

Termagantia decides to hear Quandro out. “Well, this must be a truly diabolical plan, because I cannot see how you could gain any advantage by destroying the ship. But please, do explain this to me.”

Quandro reveals the crucial element to his strategy. “The team of dragoons who captured the team member, Hans here, also captured their remote communications system. You can enter the mind of Hans and manipulate him to send an authentic distress call, using their customs, reporting that they are marooned, and need a rescue.

“Crystal told me they could construct a new ship in approximately two years. We know their tendency towards allegiance is strongly ingrained. Their world will not ignore the call for help, and will send a rescue ship. We have blocked all of their communications before you revealed yourself, and they were unable to warn their world about us. Their world is are unaware of any danger here.

“They will most likely see the signal we send, and Crystal will understand the significance. She will understand that if they are to save their world, they have no choice but to fight. With our army, we should have no difficulty defeating them. Once they are eliminated, we will have in essence reset the game, and simply wait for it to begin again.

“In the meantime, we can learn what we can from the Hans about integrating their technology with ours. We should be able to build our first portal to near completion, which will be swift upon receiving the second possibility amalgamator. I believe will need a very large army, and a vast arsenal, prepared in advance to successfully invade their world. We can use the time to amass the greatest army you have ever commanded.

“We now possess great tactical knowledge. Capturing the rescue ship should be uncomplicated. If, as you said, Crystal is an anomaly, and they do not possess sorcery, than it is extremely unlikely there will be a threat like Crystal next time. We will have completed every preparation, and would be able to invade their world quickly. We will then enslave them to build our new portal network, capable of sending any size army we wish to any world we choose to invade next.

“If we can manage to kill Crystal first, and their ships engine is not damaged, that would be a lucky stroke, but stopping Crystal is much more important than capturing the ship. It would make for a clearer objective to simply command the the barbarians to destroy everything. We will have a possibility amalgamator either way.

“This plan is our best strategy, and with your permission, my Sorceress, I wish to execute it.”

Termagantia rubs her chin, and smiles. “It is a no lose situation. I never doubted you for a moment, General. You are a magnificent schemer, and I am lucky to have you on my side. Remember when I said I would promote you from General if there was a higher rank? How does Grand Marshal sound?”

“I am honored, my Singularly Supreme Sorceress,” Quandro says, and bows.

Termagantia wonders out loud. “They think I am defeated, don't they? They think my dragoon squad was my army. When they see the army I am sending this time, they will consider suicide on the battlefield rather than being crushed mercilessly in total humiliation. Do you think they have any idea, Quandro?”

“I may have mentioned we have an army to Crystal, my Sorceress. I am sorry, but she was goading me, telling me her people were stronger than us. I may have leaked the surprise through my compulsion to preserve your honor.”

“Oh, darn,” Termagantia says. “Never mind then. It is safer to simply kill them without taunting them. Oh, but how I would love so very much to ridicule that pesky mouse before I stomp her to death. Perhaps I still can still teach her a bit of a lesson. It is time to test our barbarian specimens. Let us go down to the cave and assemble our troops for the final blow.”

“My Sorceress, the distress signal to summon the rescue ship,” Quandro reminds Termagantia. “We must send it now. You need to direct Hans to the laboratory. I have their communications device prepared.”

“Oh my, of course,” Termagantia laughs. “Can you tell how excited I am to vanquish that little irritation, Crystal?” she laughs. “Let's make this quick.”

Termagantia ignites her aura and reinitializes her telepathic hold on Corny. “Come along, Hans, we have a little message we need to send to your home world.”

S.O.S.

The three descend back into the laboratory, and Corny sits at a table, composing a message on the communications pack. Quandro guides him. “Tell your world, using your language and customs, to say that your team is marooned on this world, your ship is damaged, and you need to be rescued. Something short and desperate sounding, implying it is a final message, please.”

Corny types out a message that reads “S.O.S. Everett disabled. Please send help. Will hold out for rescue. Communications damaged. Last transmission.”

Quandro reads the message and approves. “Very good.” Quandro walks over to another adjunct console connected to the Existence Interconnector which has been running his automated communications blocking system. He pulls a lever to disengage the blocking field. “Now send the message, Hans.”

Corny obliges, and after a moment announces “The message is sent.” Quandro reengages the communications blocking field.

Back at the Everett, Pippa is aboard, near the utility console. She notices that the onboard communications system has relayed a message from the communications pack to Earth, and reads it. She runs down the ramp, through the trees to the field, and shouts to the team “Wheeler, Crystal! Everyone! Come here, quick!” They all run into the ship and read the message.

Crystal says “Oh shit, they are trying to get a rescue ship to come. Like a backup plan. Can we send a message telling Earth saying that was an enemy trick? Hurry, maybe they dropped the jamming field to get that through. Quick, send something fast!”

“Right,” Pippa says, and she quickly types a message saying “Do not rescue. Last message an enemy trick.” and sends it as fast as she can.

The team wait few minutes for a reply. “How long will it take to find out?” Decatur says.

Pippa tells him “I would have expected at least an initial reply from the distress call by now. Unless they are standing around debating what to say, I am starting to think we are blocked again.”

Crystal is beginning to feel like they are falling into a trap. “This is a nightmare. We are in deep shit, guys. That bitch and her mad scientist are getting the best of us here. I can't even think of what to do. We really have to go get her. We really have to go destroy her machine.” Crystal looks at Wheeler, Brent, and Decatur. “Do you guys have any ideas?”

The three men look at each other, and shake their heads. Decatur says “Can we kamikaze the Everett into her castle?”

Crystal thinks for a moment and says “I like your thinking, but that would probably be pointless. Her lab is way inside, she could be anywhere, and the walls are like five feet thick. It would be like trying to break up a sidewalk with a tennis racket.”

Decatur shrugs. “Oh well, then we go get her the old fashioned way. Like you say Crystal, that’s our only option.”

“We need to be ready to blow up the engine. We should have a grenade ready for that,” Crystal says and looks at them. “You guys get that, right?”

Brent says “We get it Crystal. Keeping the ship out of her hands means saving the Earth, and it is not optional, regardless. We get it.”

Wheeler adds “If she succeeded with that message, killing her is not optional either. Destroying the Everett will only delay her.”

Crystal stands back from the others. “We'll get ready here, in the field, and attack in an hour. We will still have plenty of ringlight. You guys go get the guard ready, I’ll train some more of them to shoot the krusurs. I’ll get all twelve krusurs an operator. I just need one hour.”

Brent smiles, liking the way Crystal is taking charge, and says “So you want to strike while the iron is hot, eh Crystal? No waiting for daytime?”

Crystal wonders if she isn't being too hasty. “Well, does that make sense? Help me, Brent. Wheeler, Decatur? Help me figure out what to do.”

Brent looks at her and smiles. “No, I agree with your plan. Any time she has to regroup is gonna make getting into that castle harder. For all we know, she could be brewing up some goblins in a pot right now. Go teach those guys to shoot.”

Wheeler says “It sounds like a plan, Crystal. Lets all agree to commit to it. We attack the castle in one hour, kill that ugly space witch, and blow up her damn ray machine.”

Wheeler looks at Decatur, who has been quiet. Decatur says “Crystal's got Rinrong's blood vial, that makes her the leader. Gotta follow orders,” he says, gets up, and walks past her towards the ramp.

Crystal smiles at him. “You just want to storm the castle, don't you, Decatur?”

“Maybe. Say, boss, can I spend my hour learning to ride a honga? I wanna get me a staff sword thing and charge down that road like a medieval knight in the night.”

Crystal laughs. “That's not a bad idea, sure. Knock yourself out.”

“He probably will,” Brent says as he follows Decatur down the ramp.

Decatur looks back at Brent. “Fuck you, pussy. I ain't got time for your shit, I gotta go save the Earth.”

21) Assembling The Army

Underground

Termagantia and Quandro leave Corny unconscious in the lab, and head down the stairs to the dungeon. They take a spur off the main dungeon landing leading to another stairwell, descending very far down below ground level. They emerge into a large room that was carved out of the rock.

It is an armory full of large naginatas, armor, shields, crossbows, and an assortment of swords and strange weapons. In a corner are a few large machines that resemble miniature Existence Interconnectors. The most elaborate one in the forefront is built into what looks like a giant saddle, complete with girth straps to fasten it to a large animal.

They pass the armory, through a door in an iron wall, to a second, even larger excavated room. It is their Organic Theurgy Laboratory and Barbarian Forge. Around the lab are operating tables, shelves of surgical devices, and banks of jars and flasks full of chemicals and potions. Running down the length of the long room are rows of very large specimens on display in booth sized tanks with glass windows.

They are hideous monstrosities, generated from life forms collected over Termagantia's travels. They look like tragic mutations, but as they go further down the line, the specimens appear more well formed, and functionally menacing. Termagantia stops to tap on the glass of one of the booths near the end of the room, and the creature stirs inside.

“Is this one of your more recent experiments, Quandro?” Termagantia asks, looking the beast up and down.

“Yes, my Sorceress,” he replies. “They are turning out nicely. They gestate even more quickly than I hoped. They are reasonably clever, as well. I have many specimens, fully grown, in a cell block in the Great Cavern. Perhaps we can test them out tonight.”

“Well, I am glad the last round of investigative probing you did on me finally enabled you to replicate my powers so closely. I was not leaning towards letting you prod my bits any further.” Termagantia finishes looking at the partially formed specimen, and says “Yes, let us use tonight as a trial run for our new barbarians. I would like to see them in action. ”

At the end of the room is another iron wall with closed doors protected by 4 dragoon sentinels. As Termagantia and Quandro approach, they swing open the doors. They walk through the doors to a staircase landing that overlooks the Great Cavern.

It is a preposterously voluminous cave with a lake of perfectly clear water in the center of the floor. There are 75 foot long stalactites hanging from the domed top, nearly 500 feet above the center of the bottomless looking sapphire pool below.

“Look, Quandro, you can see the ring through the aperture,” Termagantia says, pointing to the roof of the astounding cave.

At the apex of the dome is a 75 foot diameter hole opening to the surface of the forest near the castle. From their vantage point on the landing, they can see a portion of the planetary ring, silhouetting the trees around the hole, and casting a barely perceptible shaft of light into the misty air inside.

“That is a good omen, my Grand Marshal,” Termagantia alludes.

Quandro knows her too well. “Even you do not believe in omens, my Sorceress,” he says.

Termagantia laughs. “Yes, but it is romantic. Tonight will be an enchanted massacre.”

Termagantia and Quandro discovered the natural cave when they first arrived at Odd World, looking for manifestation biactualizing crystals. Along the edges of the cavern lies a great vein of the crystals, the only one on the entire planet, but rich enough to mine for a hundred years.

It's placement directly below the center of the old reptan capital city, which she decided to conquer and take as her own, always made Odd World seem to Termagantia like such a perfectly preordained location to ready her plans to dominate every corner of the Hypercosmos she can reach.

It was so ideal in every way, she was willing to wage a war of magic against the other pathetically sentimental natural wizards and enchantresses who lived in and visited Odd World as a special destination. They paid with their lives failing to prevent Termagantia from seizing total control of Odd World.

In sections along the sides of the cavern, a massive mining operation is taking place, run by hundreds of enslaved reptans. The edges of the Great Cavern have been excavated far back into the rock walls from the shore of the central lake, greatly expanding the useful floor space.

The miners use large tank-like iron digging machines with two heavy counter-rotating toothed cylinders held in front to chew through the limestone to generate ore for extracting crystals. The ore is gathered by the reptan slaves in carts, and poured onto large conveyor belts, leading into a massive crystal extraction machine from which a white light emits from the joints in its encasing cover.

The spent ore that emerge from the end of the crystal extraction machine is conveyed into an elaborate system of bucket elevators and interconnecting conveyor belts. It has been carefully piled up to build an arrangement of large inclined ramps, connecting with a system of stairs and walkways that have been carved into the walls, enabling smaller mining operations to begin at several levels above the cavern floor.

Amassing

As Termagantia and Quandro descend the stairs to the floor of the Great Cavern, Termagantia says “Quandro, I wish to bring one of the mining machines with our army. We can use it to destroy their ship.”

“A most creative idea, my Sorceress,” Quandro says, agreeing that it would make a fine armored vehicle for battle. “I will have one sent to the surface to meet us at the entrance to the castle.”

As the two walk across the floor of the cave, the commanding dragoon of the slave mining operation stationed in the Great Cavern approaches and speaks to Quandro, who tells him to gather his troops to help Termagantia assemble an army.

Termagantia walks to a long, wide excavated tunnel which had been turned into a detention center to hold their various fighting creations. As they walk down the row of large cells, Termagantia shops for barbarians.

“Your new improved race of augmented dragoons derived from the reptans, where are they held?” Termagantia asks Quandro.

“Just ahead, my Sorceress, around this corner. I have nearly forty ready. I call them my Assailers.”

Termagantia continues around the corner, and walks down a long row of cells. Each one contains a creature that looks twice again as ferocious as her dragoons look compared to the reptans they were hatched from.

“Yes, they are splendid. Do they follow orders as well as my dragoons?” she asks, wondering how intelligent and controllable manufactured minds will be compared to the ones she conjures herself, with her natural sorcery, from the same raw material.

Quandro says “I promise they will follow even complex battle maneuvers with perfect obedience, my Sorceress. They have all been telepathically trained with a full repertoire of combat directives.”

Termagantia reaches her hand into a cell to test whether the barbarian will attack her, or knows she is to be respected. The creature stands at attention, snarling. “Excellent. I wish to take 33 of your best Assailers.” Quandro commands the lead dragoons to assemble them.

Termagantia is pacing around, thinking. “I wish to choose two more types of barbarians, Quandro. Three kinds, for variety's sake. Thirty three times three, plus me, for an even one hundred in our army. What can you recommend? Do you have any four legged ones?”

“Yes, my Black Ravagers would be a fine addition,” Quandro says excitedly. “I prepared them from the great Night Panthers that once inhabited the distant jungle continent in your last empire. I have composited intelligent properties into them. Would you like to see them?”

“Yes, show me,” Termagantia says. Quandro hurriedly leads her back to the main tunnel, down to the dimly lit end, where there is a dark round room surrounded by barred walls.

“Do you see them?” Quandro asks.

Termagantia smiles at Quandro, and then ignites her aura. The blue-green light reveals the Black Ravagers, some pacing back and forth in their cells, some crouched against the walls, staring out at them, their eyes glowing with reflected light. They are enormous, weighing over 1000 pounds.

“Oh my, these do look like the could do some ravaging, don't they. But will these animals follow orders?” Termagantia wonders.

“I will show you.” Quandro pulls out his key chain and opens a cell door. He motions for a Ravager to come out, and it does, walking towards him, and stopping.

Quandro points to one of the dragoons that are following them, and says “Kill him.” The Ravager instantly springs into a full speed, bounding run, and before the dragoon can begin to flee, it pounces on him, overwhelming him with its far greater strength, and clamping down on the back of his neck, crushing it and killing him instantly.

“Quandro!” Termagantia reprimands angrily, her aura flaring up. “You do not have to keep proving your barbarians are better than mine by killing them. I expended great energy making each one. If you do that again, I will cast a Ring of Anguish about you. Please use a regular reptans as fodder, we have hundreds of those down here.”

“My most humble apologies, my Sorceress,” Quandro says, and bows. “I wanted to give you a good demonstration.”

Termagantia makes a disgusted sneer, and shakes her head. “Were you anyone else in the entire Hypercosmos, you would be a cinder right now.” She recomposes herself, and walks over to the Black Ravager. She reaches out and strokes him on the head. “Very impressive. Good kitty,” she says, and it grumbles from deep within its chest. “Assemble 33 of them. Including this one. What next?”

“I have a two new examples of my Winged Serpents prepared. They may be ready enough for a trial, my Sorceress. If I can feed them a potion that...”

Termagantia lifts her hand and interrupts his statement. “Quandro, after your last batch of Winged Serpents, I do not wish to see one for a while. You know how I feel about draconians. The wretched abominations you cursed into existence nearly broke my pitiless heart. Ground troops only, please.

“You see, I plan to patrol the air myself tonight, and I want clear skies. Just something very large, and very frightening, to make them defecate spontaneously. It does not matter how well they fight. They will be vastly overwhelmed. I just want a show to observe from the sky.”

“Very well, my Sorceress. I have a very large bipedal specimen made from the Roaming Giant Vulgarians of Marencifa. They are rather dull minded, but they are stalwart and will follow basic orders. Please, come have a look at them.”

Termagantia follows Quandro down another corridor to a large room with dozens of cells filled with 15 foot tall creatures that look like a combination of a gorilla and a bear, with hairless, curmudgeonly faces. One looks at Termagantia and Quandro, and lets out a thunderous howl.

“They are indeed mammoth. Do you have 33 of them?” Termagantia asks.

“Yes, just,” Quandro replies.

“What do they do?” Termagantia asks.

“They quite simply smash things, their weapon is a clobber. I call them Clobberers. They should be effective sweepers. I envision them leading the front.”

“Clobberers? Quaint. A bit of a strong odor, but I like them. Get 33 of them ready,” Termagantia says, and turns to walk away. “Tell the dragoons to get them all assembled. Direct all ninety nine of the barbarians out the tunnels to the surface, and meet at the entrance to the castle. Can you arrange that?”

“Yes, my Sorceress. Where are you going?” Quandro asks.

Termagantia smiles. “I am going to go visit my handsome old fellow, and invite him on a play date.”

Quandro relays his instructions to the dragoons, and rushes off to catch up with Termagantia, to help her prepare her mount for her evening flight.

Termagantia's Counterpart

Quandro is delayed by the dragoon sentinels at the heavily fortified door to Termagantia's private wing of the cave. Her sentinels normally have strict orders not let anyone but her in. Even after having just been notified by Termagantia herself that Quandro is to be allowed in, they must check him for weapons and poisons.

He rejoins Termagantia as she is nearing the barred door enclosing the large natural cavern her beloved companion lives inside. “Shhh!” she waves at Quandro, whose footsteps echo in the tunnel, and he slows to a tippy toed slink.

Quandro was not expecting Termagantia to take such a personal interest in the battle as to engage in it herself, much less with her cherished counterpart. She normally lets her armies fight by themselves, with him in remote control.

“I am surprised you wish to endanger your beloved pet, on which you squander so many resources. My army will be victorious without your aid, I assure you.”

“He needs a battle,” Termagantia says. “He has been without one for many years, and I wish to test our new weapon.” She walks up to the bars, and and looks into the dark cave. It sparkles with light reflected from the countless tiny crystals in the helictites that encrust the nooks of the complex lair.

“Vypiago!” she says sweetly. “My big handsome steed! Come out and see your sorceress! Want to go for a fly? Wake up, my gorgeous stallion!”

From the darkness, roused by Termagantia's cajoling, a large mound begins to move. Two large, glistening black eyes open, and a horned head the size of a wagon lifts on a long neck. Two enormous bat-like wings swing open from alongside the bulk of the beasts scaled torso.

The wings fold up and forwards, and come down onto fists of two short, clawed fingers. The other three fingers are highly elongated and webbed, and retract against the forewing forming knuckled walking arms.

The huge beast rises on its forelimbs and hind legs, raises its head, and stretches its neck out. It yawns, displaying a mouth large enough to swallow a reptan whole, tightly packed with enormous silvery black teeth. It makes a simultaneously low and high pitched 'Mrreeaahhwwip' as it yawns.

“Hello Vypiago! I am sorry you have been cooped up for so long, I have been very busy. But guess what, it is a special night. We are going for a fly! Yes!” Termagantia says in a cooing voice.

Vypiago can understand Termagantia, and emits an excited “Greeee!”.

He shakes his body of dust accumulated from his long torpor, and begins to lumber quickly towards Termagantia, all the way up to the bars. She reaches her hand in, and strokes the underside of the beast's massive mandible, which is covered with soft, sensitive scales.

Vypiago juts his chin upwards so she can scratch it. “I have missed you!” Termagantia says.

Vypiago emits a sound of pleasure as she caresses him. “Mmmr-mmr-mmr” .

Quandro watches and asks “What do you have planned with your dragon tonight?”

Termagantia quickly looks at Quandro and scowls. “I told you, Vypiago is a wyvern, not a dragon. Get that straight.” She looks back at Vypiago and smiles. “Isn't he!”

Vypiago emits a “Screeip!”

Termagantia continues to vigorously scratch his chin, and talk sweet nothings to him. “Mean old Quandro is jealous of Vypiago. He cannot create a creature as majestic and handsome as you. Vypiago is more than just a dumb brewed up barbarian. Aren't you! You are a wonder of nature. Yes!”

Vypiago emits a “Screeip!”

Quandro says “Yes, well, splendor like that cannot be concocted, my Sorceress.” Quandro is more in awe than jealous. In awe of Vypiago's unobtainably magnificent mineral incorporating organic composition.

Wyverns are some of the oldest remaining magic known, and are one of the only ancient riddles Termagantia does not know the secret of. Their origins, she believes, are lost completely. She adopted Vypiago from an old sorcerer she defeated so long ago that she can hardly remember it.

Wyverns also have trouble remembering their distant past, and it is unclear how long they live, though it is at least a thousand years. Occasionally wyverns transfer their allegiance to a new sorcerer or sorceress, and Termagantia was always very touched that Vypiago chose to couple with her.

In her infinite black soul, the grain of love for Vypiago is a singular source of light. She has only revealed that to Quandro, in order to enlist him build her weapon to carry on Vypiago, under penalty of death if he ever reveals it to anyone, perchance it suggests a shred of compassion.

The cooperative connection between a sorceress and a male wyvern is one of the deepest, most mystical bonds known. Many of the most legendary battles on many worlds have been won by sorceresses riding wyverns. The emblem of a sorceress on a wyvern is the ultimate symbol of ungodly might, and the pinnacle of all sorcery.

Termagantia means to ride Vypiago tonight, beginning a new technological era in the legacy of sorceress-wyvern dyads that will soon be known to every soul in the reachable Hypercosmos.

Termagantia's dream, when her empire is complete, is for the likeness of her on Vypiago, casting terrifying magic, to be carved into colossal monuments, stamped onto every coin, emblazoned on every bastille, and crested on the shields of an army so vast, her warriors would not fit on an entire planet standing shoulder to shoulder.

Termagantia uses her telekinesis to open the door to the cage, and swings it open. “Come on out, Vypiago.”

Vypiago makes another “Screeip!” and steps out.

“Yes, come on,” Termagantia says, smiling as she looks him over, a sight she never tires of.

He is dark gray, nearly black, with a branching network of iridescent electric blue lines on the edges of his scales. Along his back is a sawtooth ridge of large, hornlike scales.

“Oh, handsome, look at you!” she says as he passes her.

At the end of his 12 foot tail is a huge, flat, heart shaped blade made of specialized scales that is as sharp and hard as a master blacksmiths sword. It is translucent on the edges, looking as if it is lined with a transition from tissue to quartz.

“Come on,” Termagantia says, leading Vypiago down the tunnel to the cavern. “Let's go get your howdah on. We are going to go kill some bad people tonight. We are going to zap them good.”

“Screeip!”

“Go ready Vypiago's howdah,” Termagantia commands Quandro. “Have it hauled down to the floor of the Great Cavern.” Quandro ambles off hurriedly.

Together they built a special portable weapon to strap on the back of Vypiago, which she could ride on like a giant saddle, and would allow her to magnify her power to unleash devastating blasts of energy.

Functionally, it is a compact, simplified version of the Existence Interconnector, incorporated into a sculpted base designed to fit snugly on the serrated back of Vypiago. This will be its first field test, and Termagantia is anxious to give the calamitous system it's shakedown.

A team of dragoons haul the howdah down on carrying poles. They place it on top of Vypiago as he lies low on his abdomen, and Termagantia steadies him. She carefully buckles and tightens the girth straps, asking Vypiago if the fit is comfortable. “How does it feel, Vypiago? Not to snug, is it?”

Vypiago emits a “Neeyroip!”

“Good,” Termagantia says. “It needs to be secure though, not too loose, either.”

“Screeip,” he says.

Termagantia climbs the retractable ladder and sits on the high backed straddle seat. Behind the seat is a pole mounted, steerable, flat spiral coil which takes the place of the gimbal on the full sized, omnidirectional version in her laboratory.

The coil allows for a controlled, forward directed energy beam, steered by a pair of long control sticks jutting up and out from the console with angled grips on the ends. The control sticks articulate both the coil and a set of aiming reticles on a complex system of pantograph like articulated arms.

Flying

“Are you ready, Vypiago? Ready to go flying?” Termagantia asks.

“Screeip!”

“Back away!” Termagantia yells to the dragoons standing around, then commands “Take wing, Vypiago! Up and out the aperture!”

With a few powerful wing beats, Vypiago and Termagantia rise and begin to fly forward over the lake. Vypiago flies a circle around the Great Cavern, gaining speed, and rising in a tightening conical spiral, and with one final powerful burst of wing beats to gain momentum, pulls his wings in and shoots through the sky punch into the night.

They fly around the perimeter of the castle forest, and Termagantia sees that, aside from scattered groups of residents, the city is quiet. Crystal and her traveling companions are at their ship, in the field up on the valley slope, and Termagantia does not want them to see her yet.

They fly back to the gate house of the castle, and over the assembling army. Termagantia sees Quandro, and commands Vypiago to fly slow and low over him.

“Are they ready?” she yells at Quandro as he watches her fly over.

“Momentarily, my Sorceress!” he yells as loudly as he can. Vypiago makes another pass around.

“Begin to march as soon as your formation is amassed! I will catch up with them after the bridge!” Termagantia yells down.

Vypiago circles around the castle, and Termagantia says “Perch on the top of the high tower, Vypiago. We will watch their progress to the bridge from there.”

Vypiago flies high up to the pinnacle of the altitudinous tower, perching on the crenellation. The strong, hard organometallic claws on his great talons fracture the surface of the stone, sending chips and dust flying as he clasps it with his crushing grip.

“Look at the ring, Vypiago, isn't it glorious?” Termagantia opines, looking up into the night sky.

“Screeip!” Vypiago trills in agreement.

“Tonight is going to be a very special night, my royal consort. There is an enemy of mine I wish to vanquish. A small female. She is a budding young sorceress who crossed me. She stole something of mine, and she shall not get away with it.”

Vypiago becomes agitated at the thought of someone opposing Termagantia. Safeguarding the prosperity and honor of their mage is half the meaning of life to a wyvern, and it stimulates a reflexive spasm of defensive systems in his anatomy.

He huffs, and spits a liter sized spurt of clear mucus into the air. Termagantia and Vypiago watch as it falls, and as it becomes apparent that it's trajectory will hit one of the Clobberers, Vypiago cringes, and emits a “Breeerrrt!”

The mucilage strikes the Clobberer, splattering all over his head and shoulders. The Clobberer is confused for a moment, then begins to flail, and attempt to wipe it off. The extremely caustic saliva begins to dissolve his flesh, and he thrashes and howls as smoke begins to pour from his bubbling face. His efforts to wipe it off begin to rub away the gelatinous dissolving flesh from his face, revealing his skull. When the corrosive secretion touches the calcium interlaced in the collagen of his bone, white popping sparks spray from his head. It emits one last pathetic scream, clutching his head, and falls over.

Termagantia begins to cackle maniacally. Vypiago is embarrassed that he depleted his sorceress’s army, and emits an apologetic “Breeerrrt!”

Termagantia is laughing so hard, she can barely speak. “Oh Vypiago. Do not be sorry. It is just one doltish Clobberer. We may have too many as it is. You cannot help that you are so pernicious!” She reaches over and pats the base of his neck. “It is just one of the many things I love about you,” she says to console him.

“Screeip!” he says, feeling relieved his sorceress is so forgiving.

“Tell Quandro you are sorry! Say 'Sorry Quandro!' Come on, precious. 'Sorry Quandro!'”

Vypiago loosens his jaw and forked tongue, and with his best enunciation, loudly roars “Sthrorry Grongroowe!”

Termagantia titters, delighted. They look down, and see Quandro signal back to them, then he continues organizing the battle formation. Termagantia reclines against her seat back and says “Good boy, Vypiago. Time to wait for the army to advance a bit, before we join it. Are you comfortable as you are?”

“Screeip!” Vypiago answers affirmatively.

March

Quandro arranges the troops in columns to march down the road to the bridge. Clobberers in front, followed by the Ravagers, and finally the Assailers. The army is so oversized, he needs to field promote 2 of the Assailers to lead and march the first two columns in consecutive waves. Following in the rear is the mining crusher, piloted by a high ranking dragoon wearing heavy armor.

As the army marches down the road, the Clobberers demolish everything along the roadside, including carts, stands, trees, and buildings, leaving a berm of debris. A few reptans have come out from hiding, after the guard and the crew of the Everett broke the dragoon blockade. Most that catch a glimpse of the army flee in terror, as nothing like it has been seen their lifetimes.

Up in the field, near the Everett, Crystal has finished teaching 8 more of the city guard to shoot the krusurs, making 16 trained reptans to 12 krusurs, a few extra in case a replacement is needed. The 45 city guardsman are assembled and ready to march to the castle. There are 21 hongas, and Decatur has indeed spent his hour learning to ride a one. He already knew how to ride a horse, so he took to it quickly.

The plan for the team is for Tatsu, Fiona, and Pippa to stay at the Everett, along with Tyro. Pippa will stay aboard and act as a comm operator at the utility console. Crystal, Brent, Wheeler, and Decatur, wearing communications headsets, will go with the guard to the castle. They will attempt to enter it, destroy the Existence Interconnector, and, ideally, dispatch Termagantia.

Decatur is riding around on his honga, wearing his holstered pistol, a rifle slung over his shoulder, and a naginata in his right hand. “I’m ready you guys, let's go!” he says as he rides by the others.

“Go ahead, man, lead us to glory!” Brent shouts to him.

“Alright, I will!” he yells back. He gallops past the group of reptans, shaking his naginata, and begins to head across the field to the trail leading down to the bridge.

The reptans begin to march more slowly, in the same direction as the galloping off Decatur. The 4 team members begin to follow in the rear.

“Come on, you slow pokes,” Decatur says over the comm, still heading at full gallop across the field. “I am way ahead of everyone.”

“Leave some for us,” Wheeler says, smiling to Brent and Crystal.

22) Battle For The Everett

Decatur Sees Them

Decatur continues all the way to the edge of the field, to the head of the long trail leading down to the river, but decides to stop and wait before he loses sight of them. He is looking over the valley, to where the road begins to enter into the trees and buildings of the city, ¼ mile away.

For a moment he is confused by something he sees. As he stares, it becomes clear he is seeing a group of giant beasts marching in formation towards the bridge. “Holy shit you guys, there is a huge group of giant sasquatch things down there, marching towards the bridge!”

“What?” Wheeler says, hoping Decatur is seeing things.

“Exactly what I just said,” Decatur reiterates. “There are dozens of big troll things, carrying big maces, heading this way, down the road. They’re tall as a house. Uhm, Crystal may have been right about that other army.”

“Fiona, get out here quick!” Wheeler says over the comm. He wants to communicate this to the reptan guard.

Crystal starts to run towards Prahx, shouting “Prahx! Termagantia Vahg!” She points towards Decatur, who they can just see at the edge of the field.

“Termagantia Vahg?” Prahx says. Crystal wants to go towards Decatur. He is looking over the ridge. He must have spotted an army approaching. He instantly shares Crystals desire to see what Decatur sees.

Prahx requests the guardsman nearest him dismount his honga. He lifts Crystal onto the honga by the underarms, and then mounts the honga behind her. They take off, galloping at full speed towards Decatur.

“You guys, there are more things coming. They look like big black thundercats. Like giant pumas, dozens of them,” Decatur announces.

“Are you serious?” Brent says in disbelief.

Decatur replies somberly “I am dead serious man. This is fucked up.”

Prahx and Crystal reach Decatur's position, and look out at what he was witnessing. The Clobberers are crossing the river on foot, the Ravagers are crossing the bridge, and the third wave of Assailers is just coming out of the city into full view.

“Fuck, I knew it,” Crystal says. “That's her real army. We’re not going to the castle tonight. We’re fighting here. If we get those shooters over here, we have a chance to take some of them out. Wheeler, Brent, Fiona, tell those shooters to meet us here.”

Crystal begins to get off the honga, when Prahx grabs her, and holds her tight. “Prahx, what are you doing? Let me go!” she says. Prahx keeps holding her, turns the honga around, and begins to ride back to the main group.

“Let me go, Prahx!” Crystal says, confused as to why he is restraining her.

They ride past the reptan guard to Brent and Wheeler. Prahx lifts Crystal off the honga, turns it around, and rides back to the guard. He commands the guard to go form a line on the edge of the ridge, where Decatur is.

Tyro summons Fiona and runs up to Crystal. He says something that Fiona translates. “He says you are important.” Tyro grabs Crystals hand, and holds it, pulling her back from her compulsion to drift towards the guard.

“Should I start shooting?” Decatur says over the comm.

“No,” Wheeler says. “The reptans are coming, they’ll be there in a minute. Save your bullets, you will need them later. Let them fire their krusurs.”

Decatur says “Those monsters are going to be over three hundred yards away. Those krusurs don't have scopes, you know. We can take pot shots at the group, but if they spread out, they will be able to advance.”

When the 12 reptan shooters reach the crest of the valley slope, they form a line, and kneel. The other 33 guardsman assemble behind them. Prahx gallops up from behind, and quickly surveys the scene. The Clobberers have crossed the river and reformed their column, followed by the Ravagers, who have all crossed the bridge, and the Assailers, who are currently crossing the bridge.

Fire

Prahx yells in reptan to the 12 shooters “Begin to fire at all of them! Kill as many as you can before they get closer!”

The reptans begin to unleash a barrage of blasts at the army. The first hits are on the Clobberers, who are grouped together, and are easy targets, so large and tightly packed.

One blast strikes a Clobberer in the stomach, blowing a hole through his abdomen, splashing his bursted organs all over. He clutches his mutilated midsection, and falls forward dead. Another is struck in the thigh, exploding the muscle and smashing the bone, causing him to crumple sideways to the ground, rolling and groaning loudly. Several more of the Clobberers are badly injured, and they remaining ones run away from the column formation, and begin to disperse.

Sensing the danger, the swift, agile Ravagers also begin to break formation, and scatter. The Assailers rush to cross the bridge, and form a loose pattern of random echelons.

As all 3 enemy groups spread out, away from the bridge, along the river bank and up the valley slope, the reptan shooters' hit ratio falls precipitously. The accuracy of a krusur over the large distance makes it difficult to hit a single moving target, even the size of the Clobberers.

Prahx yells in reptan “Fire at the ones furthest from the road! Corral them together! Prevent them from spreading!”

Decatur is on his honga, near Prahx. Over the comm, he yells “Fiona, did you catch what Prahx just said?”

Fiona could hear Prahx through Decatur's mic, and replies “Yeah, he said to shoot the ones spreading out, to force them towards the road.”

Decatur sees that is what they are doing. “Good idea, Prahx,” he says, agreeing with his strategy.

Wheeler, who is in the field near the Everett with Crystal, asks “Decatur, what’s your assessment. How’s this gonna go down?”

Decatur replies “Keeping them on the road is working. They’re getting closer. The big ones are just like a living shield, the battle cats and the others, the ones that look like super werewolf reptans, some of them might make it. They’re pretty nimble. I’ll tell you if we start to retreat.”

Mobile

Brent is trying to think of some way they can defend the Everett if or when the army advances into the field, and has an idea. “Hey Wheeler! What about the dune buggy!?” he says.

Wheeler looks at Brent, and makes a lifts his eyebrows “Yeah. Great idea, let's go get it out.” Wheeler turns to Crystal and says “Just stay here, we’ll be right back.”

The two run to the Everett and climb up the ramp. The dune buggy is stowed folded up against the inside of the hull, held by a lifting system of pulleys and nylon straps.

“Get it down, Williford,” Wheeler says, and goes to the fore of the ship, to the console where Pippa is. “Excuse me.” he says to Pippa, reaching down below the console, opening a secret compartment, and pulling out a box. He sets it down and opens it. Inside are 10 large, cylindrical grenades.

“Pippa, I’m gonna set one of these grenades for 30 seconds, and give it to you,” Wheeler says as he pushes buttons on the tiny input and readout screen on one of the grenades. “You stay on the ship. You’re patched in, and you’ll know if they’re about to capture the Everett. If it seems like they’re gonna get to it, I want you to push this big red button on the top, stick the grenade in the engine, and just run like hell into the woods. Got it?”

Pippa takes the grenade from Wheeler, looks at him, and nods. “I got it.”

Brent was listening, but never stopped cranking the hand winch letting the dune buggy down from the side of the ship, onto the top of the ramp. It is now sitting on all four wheels, which are touching. The chassis folded in half in the middle, which points up.

Brent pulls a pin from each side. The locked rear wheels grip in place at the top of the ramp as the free spinning front wheels, and front end, roll forward down the ramp. As the bottom floor of the buggy scissors open, the lever action swings up a roll cage. The chassis lands open flat, and violently clangs in place, locking secure.

Wheeler walks up and puts the remaining 9 grenades in their box into the cargo cage on the back of the buggy.

“OK, Brent. Go ahead and drive it through these trees to the field, and park it, please. We’ll use it for our last stand.” Wheeler pats Brent on the shoulder, and runs down the ramp, back towards the field.

Brent climbs in and turns it on. He has read the manual, but has never driven it before. He presses the gas pedal, and the buggy lurches 4 feet forward down the ramp. He brakes suddenly with a squealing skid to prevent from careening all the way down.

“Wow, this thing is powerful,” he says. As smoothly as possible, goes down the ramp and begins to cross the 30 feet between the Everett and the field, weaving between the sparse trees.

Wheeler meets up with Crystal 40 yards out in the field. “Decatur, gimme another status report.” he says over the comm.

More Problems

Decatur reports back “The big ones are droppin’ like flies. They’re mostly killed, but we’ve only hit a few thundercats and super lizards. It's gonna get intense in a few minutes. Also, there’s a big tank thing that just crossed the bridge. It's coming up behind them. There's only one, but it looks pretty unstoppable. It took a few hits, and it's still coming. It looks like a big mining machine, with a rock crusher in the front. Like a big chomper tank.”

Crystal says “What are they gonna do with that? They don't need to clear a path, there’s no trees, except a few between us and the Everett.”

Brent says “Maybe they just wanna disable the Everett. Just chew up the fuselage, render it downed it, so it can't fly away?”

Prahx yells something in reptan to the shooters, who stand up. Decatur wonders what commands he is giving. “Fiona, what’d Prahx say?”

Fiona replies “He said prepare to move back.”

Crystal says “They’re getting ready to fall back. The fighting is gonna eventually start moving this way. What do we do?”

Wheeler says “We stand our ground for now.”

Crystal looks back towards the Everett, and sees Brent coming out of the woods on the dune buggy. He drives it almost to where she and Wheeler are, and parks it.

Wheeler begins to come up with a plan for a last stand. “Maybe if they get close with that crusher tank, we can drive up to it in the dune buggy, and throw some grenades under it.”

Decatur reports again from the ridge. “You guys, look up. Out over the edge of the city, way up in the sky. Do you see that?”

Crystal spies the silhouette of a large object flying in the sky far away. It looks like a huge bird. “What is that, Decatur?” she says.

“I can't tell,” Decatur says. “It's coming closer. I can't believe I am saying this, but it looks like a fuckin’ dragon.”

Termagantia Joins In

Termagantia can see the battle from her airborne position flying high in the sky. “Look Vypiago, they have krusurs. We have not seen those in a long time, have we?”

Vypiago replies “Neeyroip!” He is not sure exactly how long ago he and his sorceress last fought enemies with magic casting devices. He loses track of time when he goes into a long sleep. It was at least several decades or more.

“We thought they might have those. It seems my little sorceress adversary managed to teach these peasants how to use them,” Termagantia reasons. “Vypiago, I would like to take a shot at that group on the ridge that are firing at our army. Let us see how much we can assist them to advance. I want you to fly very high, and dive directly at them. This is our first time firing the weapon, I want a direct shot.”

Vypiago replies “Screeip!” He has felt a bit apprehensive for this moment, about having such a large magic casting weapon strapped to his back. He trusts his sorceress and her wizard assistant, and attempts to calm his disposition so he is not startled by the magical blare that is about to erupt directly over his head.

As Vypiago rises in a spiral pattern, Termagantia readies the weapon, sits back, and prepares to fire a beam of energy directly forward. As Vypiago circles back around towards the group on the ridge after his final climbing loop, he gives one last propelling wing beat, pulls his wings partially to his side, and begins a 45 degree dive directly at them.

“Remember what I told you Vypiago, this is going to be very bright and loud!” Termagantia shouts to steady Vypiago, who replies he is ready with a monotone “Screeip.”

Termagantia centers the aim of the weapon at the of the platoon of reptans on the ridge. “I am firing the weapon now!” she shouts, and presses a button on the right steering column handle.

A perfectly cylindrical aqua laser two feet in diameter, wrapped in a spiraling network veil of branching electrical energy appears with an earsplitting crack. The blinding strobe illuminates the entire valley side for a fraction of a second, defining a perfect line from the weapon directly into the center of the reptan group.

The cataclysmic blast strikes the center of the group of reptans, behind the line of shooters, blowing several of them in the air, and knocking most of them over. An 8 foot crater explodes dirt and gravel in all directions, pelting the reptans like grapeshot.

“A direct hit, Vypiago! Are you alright?” Termagantia shouts to Vypiago, wishing to ensure nothing about the firing of the weapon hurt him in any way.

“Screeip!” he replies as he pulls level and banks away from the ridge.

“Oh, what a weapon! Did you see the ones near the blast launch into the air! They will not be feeling well in the morning!” Termagantia revels. “I feel a bit like the Goddess of lightning and thunder! Good job, my brave flying warhorse.”

Decatur regains his senses on the ground, blown off his honga, and temporarily stunned. He pats his head and shoulders, feeling for the headset, which is hanging over his shoulder. He stands up and puts it back on.

“What happened, Decatur?!” Wheeler shouts over the headset. He, Brent, and Crystal were looking up at the aerial threat when the huge ray was fired.

Decatur staggers over to survey the devastation surrounding the impact. “That dragon shot a huge beam at us. It's like a mortar bomb hit. It hit right in the middle of the group. Probably half are down or dead.”

Decatur sees Prahx get up. “Prahx is alive. He has some shrapnel wounds, but he’s OK. Most of the shooters are getting up.”

Decatur rushes up to one of the reptans shooters, and helps him up. He points furiously to several Ravagers that are charging, less than a hundred yards away. They are taking advantage of the strike, and have begun closing fast.

“Get up!” he yells, “Keep firing!”

The reptan gathers himself and takes a shot at the foremost Ravager, landing a lucky shot directly into his legs, blowing them to smithereens and causing his torso to somersault like a rag doll to a flopping halt.

Termagantia Tries To End It

Termagantia and Vypiago fly over the field, and she sees Crystal standing next to two of her traveling companions.

“There she is, Vypiago. My poor little outmatched rival. She is with her friends. I expected to see their transportation machine. It is a flying craft, it is how they arrived here. I may need to destroy it in order to prevent their escape. Do you see it anywhere, my sharp eyed friend?”

Vypiago has the ability to see in the dark, and can clearly see a craft-like structure through the trees behind his sorceress's nemesis. “Screeip!” he replies.

“You do? Where?” Termagantia she asks him.

Vypiago skews his jaw as he simulates a set of two glands in the roof of his mouth to secrete a pair of liquids which mix to form an incendiary. As they fly over the area, he bobs his head back, and juts it forward, spitting a tiny comet of white hot incandescent slag at ballistic speed. The molten projectile passes over the ship, splattering into the trees behind it, emitting a brilliant white explosion that reveals the ship in a flash of chiaroscuro.

“Holy shit!” Wheeler yells. “That dragon just shot a huge tracer round out of its mouth over the ship! They see it! They’re probably going to come around and fire that laser cannon at it! Pippa, get out! Get out of the ship right now!”

Standing in wide eyed shock, Crystal experiences a moment of self preservation induced ingenuity. A desperate idea flashes into her mind which might enable them to shield the ship from Termagantia's weapon.

“I have an idea! Pippa! Grab the engine control pad from my console on your way out!”.

“OK, Crystal, I got it!” Pippa replies as she hurries through the cargo area of the ship towards the ramp.

Crystal takes off running towards the Everett. “Where are you going?” Brent says, starting to run after her. “

“Stay there you guys!” Crystal pleads. “I'm gonna meet Pippa. I'm gonna go turn on the engine from out here! The field might block that beam!”

Termagantia says to Vypiago “Yes, there is their ship. Excellent work. Please come around for another pass. I wish to fire the weapon at it.”

Termagantia has felt torn all night about whether or not she would actually destroy the ship. Seeing Crystal so close to it, however, has raised a palpable sense of alarm inside her. She cannot let Crystal win. Nothing would be more mortifying to her than losing the most important battle of her life to an inexperienced band of simpletons led by a neophyte magician.

Despite the fact that she is condemning herself to an excruciatingly long delay, and despite the fact that she is crediting Crystal with the capacity to use the ship to defeat her, she commits to the assured victory of Quandro's plan, to be patient and wait for the oblivious rescue ship to bring a second possibility amalgamator.

Crystal meets Pippa at the edge of the trees. “Gimme the pad!” she says as she snatches it from Pippa. Crystal opens the engine control menu on the touchpad as calmly as she can.

Pippa is watching her intently. “Will this work?” she asks.

As Crystal opens the engine system menu to the decoherence field generator controls, she shakes her head and says “I dunno, but can't hurt to try, right? Everyone, I am turning on the field! Do not go anywhere near the ship while it is on! Stay away from the ship until I say different! If you get into that field, your worldlines will get all screwed up and you’ll be stuck here forever!”

Vypiago again circles, climbing higher over the ridge to repeat the diving maneuver so his sorceress can get a clean shot at the craft in the trees.

Termagantia says to herself “Say goodbye to your precious ship, Crystal,” then yells to Vypiago “Good, hold this dive, I have the ship in my sights! I am firing the weapon now!” She presses the trigger, and the colossal laser flashes into existence for a fraction of a second, directly intersecting the ship.

The laser cuts off, and to Termagantia's surprised confusion, for a moment she sees a perfectly hemispherical bubble of energy where the exploding ship should be. The glowing bubble dissipates quickly, and in the light of the fires set by Vypiago's fiery spit, she sees the Everett sitting exactly as it was, completely undamaged.

“What!?” Termagantia says standing up in her seat. “How did she do that?!” Termagantia screams. “Vypiago, hold the dive, I am firing again, now!” She fires again, and the same thing happens.

“It fucking worked!” Crystal screams in shocked glee. She looks up at the attacking dragon and can now see that Termagantia riding him. “It's Termagantia! She’s on that dragon! Hey bitch, nice shot!” she screams, holding up her fists.

Termagantia feels a wave of anger so strong she screams uncontrollably at the top of her lungs, frightening Vypiago, who flinches and turns out of the dive and swoops away. “This is impossible! That horrid little vermin! She must have blocked the weapon somehow with her crafts technology! That unendurable little wretch!”.

Termagantia sits back down, wearing a face of stunned malevolence. “Vypiago, fly back over the ridge, back behind our army. We still have the mining machine to destroy their ship. They cannot stop that with their field. It will simply roll through it as if it were not there. She will not get away from me.”

“Great job, Crystal!” Wheeler says. “Beautiful move!”

“That was awesome, Crystal! Way to go!” Brent says with admiration.

Falling Back

Their celebration is cut short when Decatur reports back over the comm “We are retreating!”

A group of 3 Ravagers has managed to break through the barrage of krusur shots, and all 3 pounce on one of the screaming shooters. The enormous cats begin to maul the reptans to shreds, instinctively going for their necks, ripping their throats out. As the reptans flee, the remaining shooters fire at the attacking Ravagers, wounding all three, who are immediately replaced by a second wave, charging at full speed.

“We’re being attacked!” Decatur yells. Decatur makes eye contact with one of the arriving Ravagers, which snarls and charges at him.

“Shit!” he yells, and whips out his pistol, firing as fast as he can at the giant felines face. The shots land all around the cat's face and shoulders, but it continues charging.

“Aaaahhh!” he yells as the Ravager pounces and collides with him in mid air, wrapping its enormous paws around him, and knocking him off his honga. He barely manages to duck his head to the side as the cat snaps with its huge jaws. He jams the pistol into its chin, and fires the last 4 rounds in his clip into the cat's brain.

Decatur lands on his back, and the dead Ravager lands on top of him. “Ughh!” he yells as the cat comes down hard, knocking the air out of his lungs. “Ahh! Help!” he yells, the shear bulk of the animal pinning him.

Prahx runs up and pulls the half ton beast off of him by the hind legs, and helps him up. “Thanks, Prahx!” Decatur says. Prahx quickly helps Decatur back on his startled but alive honga. Prahx looks at Decatur and points back towards the Everett, shoving the honga in that direction.

Decatur begins to ride back away from the engagement. “You guys!” he says in a frightened voice. “We are getting whooped, here! We’re barely holding!”

As the Ravagers begin to catch up with the reptans, several of the mounted guardsman manage to harpoon a few, and the krusur carrying guardsman take out a few more, but the retreat is degrading into a mixed ground skirmish of brutal maulings, flailing naginatas, and disorganized firing of krusurs.

Sensing vulnerability, the 20 remaining Assailers begin to charge with their huge naginatas held forward. Prahx stops and eyes the leading Assailer. He lets out a battle cry, and charges it with his naginata forward.

As the two meet, Prahx parries the Assailers naginata, deflecting it, and thrusting his into its stomach. He quickly pulls it out, spins around, swinging his naginata at full extension, striking another Assailer in the head with his blade, nearly cutting his head in half. The other reptans, inspired by Prahx, begin to engage the Assailers.

Flying around the ridge, Termagantia sees that the battle has become a melee in the field, and the mining crusher has crested the slope of the valley, and is headed into the field. “Vypiago, we shall land behind the machine. We will advance on the ground, following behind it. We can help clear a path for the tank to destroy their ship, and end this infernal nonsense once and for all.”

Vypiago swoops around the ridge, down below its level, and glides up, stalling and landing 150 feet behind the tank on his hind legs. He pulls in his wings and comes down on his forelimbs, and begins to lumber forward.

“Very good, Vypiago,” Termagantia says. “I am going to fire the weapon, keep your head down.”

Termagantia sits back and aims the weapon just above the low slung mining machine into the heart of the battle. “I am firing the weapon now!” she yells. Vypiago ducks his head, and the great laser flashes on, blasting through the crowd, annihilating several reptans and an Assailer.

“Jesus, she’s shooting at everything!” Brent says, surprised Termagantia would indiscriminately kill her own soldiers.

Wheeler says “She’s clearing a path for that crusher tank.”

Several of the krusur carrying reptans fire at the tank. Their blasts strike the hardened metal crushing cylinders and create 8 inch diameter, ½ inch deep scars, but the tank keeps moving forward. It was designed to be extremely rugged in order to withstand immense punishment of digging through the hard gem containing rock of the cave, and rolls forward, undaunted.

Termagantia keeps firing into the fracas, opening a clear path for the tank. She begins to see that the inevitable destruction of Crystal's ship is near, and becomes energized with eminent victory. “Nothing can stop that tank, Vypiago! Their ship is doomed!”

Decatur arrives from the battlefront, and rides past Wheeler, Crystal, Brent. Tyro runs up to him, and helps him off his honga, as he appears too battered from his encounter with the Ravager to get off himself. “Thanks, kid,” Decatur says, and sits down on the ground for a moment.

“I’m going to the dune buggy,” Wheeler says. “I’m gonna try and get a grenade in those crushing barrels, blow ‘em apart.” He starts running towards the dune buggy, and Crystal runs after him.

“There are still too many of her soldiers out there!” Crystal says. She meets up with Wheeler as he gets into the driver's seat. She grabs the roll cage and says “You’re crazy! You can't go out there!”

Wheeler reaches back, grabs the box of grenades, and places it on the passenger seat. He takes one out and begins to set the timer. “This is set for fifteen seconds. If they get here, blow up the engine. You and Brent are in charge ‘till I get back.” He hands the grenade to Crystal.

“You might get killed, John,” Crystal says, still holding on to the roll cage.

“I have to stop that tank. Let go of the dune buggy, Crystal,” he says in a calm voice, preparing another grenade. He finishes setting the grenade for 5 seconds, and looks forward at the crusher tank, which has a clear path directly towards them.

Crystal slowly lets go. Wheeler punches the accelerator, and in a cloud of dust, peels off towards the tank. Tyro, Fiona, Tatsu, and Decatur approach Crystal. Decatur reaches out and puts his hand on her shoulder as they watch Wheeler speed towards the tank. “He’ll stop that thing, Crystal.”

Wheeler decides his best chance is to drive at full speed directly at the tank. As he approaches, one of the Assailers sees him, runs in front of the tank, and raises his naginata.

“Get out of my way!” Wheeler yells.

The Assailer suddenly lifts his naginata high, leans back, and throws it. Wheeler sees the Assailer make the throw, but cannot see the naginatas flight in the darkness. Suddenly he feels a massive punch to his chest, and looks down. The naginata is sticking through his sternum, pinning him to the seat.

“Euunhh,” he says, letting off the accelerator. He looks down at the spear and grabs it's handle, pulling on it, but it is immovable. “Bastard,” he whimpers. He looks up, and the Assailer begins to charge him. “Oh, alright then,” Wheeler says, and punches the accelerator.

The dune buggy plows directly into the Assailer, who tumbles over the roll bar, grabbing it, and hanging on, his legs dangling off the back of the buggy. Unable to move, Wheeler cranes his neck to see behind him. The Assailer reaches forward, and palms Wheelers whole face with his massive claw, attempting to pull him out of his seat, but unable to move his speared body. Wheeler, holding the steering wheel in his left hand and the grenade in his right, presses the button on the grenade, feels for the box of 8 remaining grenades, and drops it in.

The dune buggy continues at full speed towards the mining machine, collides with the front crushing cylinders, simultaneously detonating in a huge explosion. Both crushing cylinders break free from their axle bearings, the top one launching up several yards, and coming down on the operator compartment, crushing it, killing the dragoon inside.

“My tank!” Termagantia yells. “I hate these travelers so much! Vypiago, stop! Keep your head down! I am firing the weapon!” Termagantia sits back and begins to unleash a series of blasts at everything in front of her, aiming indiscriminately back and forth. As loud as she has ever screamed, she screams “EVERYONE DIE!”

Brent, Fiona, Tatsu, and Tyro begin to run towards the Everett, to escape the devastating rain of hellfire. “Stop!” Crystal says. “The engine is still on! Let me turn if off!”.

The team members stop, and Brent grabs Tyro's arm to stop him. “Everyone, get behind that log!” Brent yells, and everyone lies down behind a 3 foot diameter section of tree trunk near the edge of the tree line that offers the only meager cover available. Termagantia's blasts shoot into the trees, blowing their tops off, and into the ground all around them, raining debris all over.

Crystal runs up and lies down next to Tyro. As she is furiously tapping the control pad, turning off the engine. Tyro nudges Crystal and hands her a vial. “What's this?” she asks.

Fiona is next to Tyro, and he speaks to her, and she translates. “It’s the Warrior's Potion. Concentrated. He says drink it.”

23) Duel Of The Sorceresses

Crystal Gets Shown Something

Crystal looks at the vial. Concentrated Warrior's Potion. A concentrated version of what Rinrong took when they broke the blockade. She feels a wave of anxiety go through her as she decides to drink it. She quickly unscrews the lid and swallows the shot of bizarre tasting, bubbling elixir. Everyone is staring at Crystal, waiting to see what happens.

Termagantia ceases fire for a moment. “Where are they, Vypiago? Did they go into the trees? Do you see them?”

Vypiago does not, and replies “Neeyroip!”

Crystals eyes open wide and she shudders. “Wow,” she says, and shudders again. “Holy God.”

“Crystal?” Brent says. “We either gotta run, or you gotta do something, now. Is it working?”

“Yes,” she says, hyperventilating. “I can see it. I can really see it, with my eyes open, now.”

She sits up and looks around. “It's everywhere. It always was everywhere, I just didn't know. It's right in front of us, right now. It's magnificent!” She begins to stand.

“Crystal, get down!” yells Brent.

Termagantia sees Crystal stand up. “Well, well, well. There she is, Vypiago. Keep your eyes on her. Track her. What is she doing?” Termagantia wonders. Crystal is simply standing, looking back at her. Termagantia hesitates for a moment, sensing that something is amiss. She begins to feel uneasy. “What in heaven's name are you up to?” she inquires to herself.

Crystal can see a cloud of all Termagantia's worldlines, superimposed. She can see what Termagantia might do, and what Termagantia is most likely to do, differentiated by opacity. As she thinks about what she is going to do, she can see the river of Termagantia's worldlines reacting to her actions long before anything happens.

It is suddenly plain to Crystal that the gravity holding her to the surface of the planet is the result of all the overlapping worldlines of all the countless particles that make up the mass of the planet, distorting the fabric of spacetime by pushing the 4 dimensions of space and time out of the way, increasing the density of the possibility space that is the 5th dimension.

She can feel the ability to control her worldlines to erase her body's constituent particles’ causal relationships that overlap in possibility space with the planet's field of superimposed worldlines, removing their potential to interact causally with hers, erasing the grip of gravity.

As the team watches, Crystal begins to float upwards. Fiona, in a moment of disbelieving shock, flinches, and grabs Tyro. “Oh my God!” she says. The others watch in complete incredulity as Crystal rises several yards into the air. Brent desperately wants to say something, but is speechless.

“How did she learn so fast?” Termagantia says, staring at Crystal managing one of the great feats that marks the transition of a mere enchantress to a true sorceress.

As the team watch, a brilliant orange-red aura of whirling fire-like photasmance suddenly bursts forth around Crystal. “Great Magic!” Tyro blurts.

Termagantia realizes what she is seeing. She does not remember it happening to her. She has never actually witnessed it happening to anyone before. “Before our very eyes, Vypiago,” she says calmly. “a new sorceress is born. My enemy has ascended. The playing field has been leveled. Are you ready to fight a sorceress again, my compatriot?”

Vypiago, who is always ready for this, replies “Screeip!”

Crystal Has A Plan

Crystal suddenly realizes how to kill Termagantia. “You guys, I know how to kill her.” Crystal looks down at the engine control pad on the ground, and reaches for it. She uses her ability to control worldlines to create a gravity like force to pull the pad to her hands. She begins to tap on the touchpad with blurring speed and orchestrate her plan.

“Decatur, Pippa, listen closely. Remember these dimensions I am about to say. I am modifying the decoherence field generator to project the field out away from the ship, to a spot two hundred feet from the nose of the ship, forty five degrees forward and down, in a sphere fifty feet in diameter.

“Decatur, fly the Everett out in front of Termagantia and use the nav system to position yourself so she is exactly in that spot. Pippa, go with him, take the pad. When I tell you, Pippa, press the big button.

“I will go distract her. Be in position in exactly five minutes.” Crystal releases the pad, and it floats down in front of Pippa. “Trust me you guys, this will work. Go now,” Crystal says, and then, leaving a shell of photasmance that quickly wisps away, she vanishes.

In front of Termagantia and Vypiago have gathered 9 Assailers, her only remaining warriors on the battlefield. Prahx and two remaining reptans are stand facing them, between her and the Everett. Termagantia has been patiently waiting for Crystal to make the first move, when suddenly she appears, surrounded by her flaming aura, floating 100 feet in front of her, 30 feet in the air.

Pippa sees Crystal teleport and yells “Come on!” She gets up and helps the grunting, bruised Decatur to get up off the ground, and he runs with a limp behind Pippa to the Everett.

Tatsu, who has not spoken in some time, remarks “This is all really quite interesting. I wonder what will happen to Termagantia.”

Crystal hears Tatsu on the comm through the headset she is still wearing, and explains quietly to the team “When she teleports herself, she uses a power from inside her mind to split and control her worldlines.

“If we get her in the Everett's externally generated decoherence field, it will make her metaphysical control useless. She won't be able to hold her worldlines, she can't pull the strings.

“The bad thing that happens when you split a person with folded worldlines is going to be be very bad for her. She has more folds than an origami exhibit. She is a tangle. Her existence in the fifth dimension is an absolute mess.”

“Who are you whispering to, child?!” Termagantia yells to Crystal. “Fairies?! Has the power driven you insane already?! Aw, honey! Why don't you let me help you?! We can still be friends, you know!”

“I can see it when you are lying to me now, Termagantia!” Crystal yells back, informing Termagantia that she can no longer deceive her.

“Well, what is true is that I still have 9 Assailers, and your army of these villagers is reduced to three, none of whom carry krusurs!

“Assailers!” Termagantia yells to the group that have gathered in front of her. “Go kill the others!” she commands, and the Assailers begin to march towards the Everett.

“So, what will you do, Crystal? fight me, or save your friends?!” Termagantia derides.

“Termagantia, you have lost your way,” Crystal says. “Please, let me help you. Maybe we can figure out who you really are,” she pleads, seeing now that Termagantia is the result of a sequence of worldline spits that induced deep psychological schisms creating a self-perpetuating megalomaniacal psychosis.

“Darling, I know who I am! I AM TERMAGANTIA!” she screams, and her aqua aura ignites. She leans her arms to the side, whipping them forward with a strenuous thrust, casting a beam of energy at Crystal.

Suddenly, from directly behind her, Termagantia hears Crystal's voice say “What are you aiming at?”

Termagantia spins around, immediately casting another beam directly behind her. She hits the vertical support arm holding the emitting coil of her weapon, blowing a shower of sparks as the middle of the support evaporates, and the coil falls over. “Ahhh! Stay still you pest!” she screams.

Crystal appears standing on the ground directly in front of Vypiago's face. “Hello,” she says to him. Vypiago pulls his head back, screeching, opens his mouth, and lunges. His teeth clack together, catching only a mouthful of ozone left from Crystals aura.

“Vypiago!” Termagantia yells, looking to make sure Crystal did not hurt him.

Crystal teleports to a position on Vypiago's left, standing on the ground 50 feet away. “Betcha can't get me!” she taunts Termagantia. Termagantia screams in disgust, rears back, and casts a beam at her. Crystal instantly takes off running and begins to run around the back of Vypiago, in a circle, as Termagantia continues casting energy, turning to keep up. As Termagantia's beam gets closer, Crystal simply runs faster. Crystal smiles as she realizes she is running at inhuman speed, keeping ahead of Termagantia's aim.

As she comes around to the right side, she sees that the Assailers have just reached Prahx and the two other reptans, and they are about to clash. “I have to help them,” she thinks. “Where’s a krusur?” she wonders. If she can light up any nearby krusurs, she might be able to see any that may lie out in the aftermath.

As Crystal passes around the front of Vypiago, who is watching her, she nods at him. She concentrates on lighting up any nearby manifestation biactualizing crystals, and see several bright spots begin to glow in the field. She straightens her path to a line towards the closest one.

Termagantia changes her firing tactics, and begins to cast beams of energy in bursts, attempting to aim just in front of Crystal to hit her. To counter this, Crystal begins to run in a discontinuous path by teleporting randomly side to side 15 feet. As she nears the krusur she is going for, she reaches out her hand, pulls it with her gravity like telekinesis, and it flies into her open hand.

She keeps running, accelerating to nearly 100 miles an hour around Vypiago's tail to the right side of Termagantia again, turning wide to pass just behind the line of Assailers.

“PRAHX!” she screams as loud as she can.

Prahx sees her and shouts to the other two guardsman in reptan “Get down!” They drop to the ground, much to the confusion of the Assailers standing directly in front of them.

As Crystal races towards the Assailers, she begins to fire the weapon, aiming it out at the level of their necks. She zips just behind them, decapitating all 9 in an fraction of a second as she whooshes directly behind them, the wind from her incredible speed spinning and blowing over their limp bodies.

Decatur is in the Everett, just above the treetops, watching. “Holy shit, Crystal is an X-Man! Like Quicksilver and Cyclops combined!” Crystal hears Decatur over the comm and smiles. “Get over her, now! Let's do this!” she yells to him.

Crystal runs to a spot 60 feet in front of Termagantia and stops. “Hey Tantrumetta! Your thugs seemed to have lost their heads! You should make livelier workers, they looked dead on their feet!” she yells. She can see the fury in Termagantia's glowing aqua eyes.

The Final Confrontation

Crystal believes she knows how to cast energy beams as Termagantia does. Her plan is to cast an energy beam at her, to pin her in place for the Everett to get a shot. Crystal hopes Termagantia will be too distracted deflecting the beam to notice. The Everett's field should be just the right size to envelop Termagantia, and she will be safely outside of it.

She holds her right hand out, palm forward, and imagines a line pointing out from her palm to Termagantia. She spins her hand with a cranking motion, and imagines winding all of the worldlines interactions that lie tangential to the force axle. She pulls them by increasing the number of causal relationships in the direction they point, rolling a axis of possibility torque. This creates a field of particles from the quantum foam in a spinning tube. With all her might, she shoves her hand forward, and skews all the worldlines at once, creating a screw force, transforming the cylinder of luminous red-orange plasma into a helical vortex, thrusting the plasma forward.

Termagantia instinctively reacts, casting an orb of energy around her and Vypiago just in the nick of time to deflect the blast. As she strains to hold it, she cowers slightly, confounded by the realization that somehow Crystal has become as powerful as she is.

“I will not be defeated,” she says to herself. She thinks of the time, the work, and the meticulous preparation that she has put into her master plan. How glorious the culmination will be. How it all is threatened by one stupid girl. She lets the anger rise inside of her.

“How dare this puerile strumpet stand in my way,” Termagantia thinks. “I was defeating mages before her ancestors were born.” She lets herself become more livid than she has ever been. “I will rip out her living soul, pulverize her body, and reinsert it.” She harnesses her fury to power the orb around her as powerful as the fabric of reality can withstand.

“Vypiago!” Termagantia screams. “Forward! Get her!” Vypiago begins to push forward with his powerful hind legs, digging into the ground with his huge claws, driving against the force of Crystals beam.

Crystal pushes back as hard as she can. She is leaning into the beam, her feet digging into the ground. Termagantia is closing the gap, slowly but surely. Crystal tries to back up, but she can only hold the force by locking her knees. “Decatur! Hurry!”

Decatur replies back “Ten seconds!”

Crystal feels her muscles begin to shake and her grip on the worldline field she is manipulating begin to fatigue. Vypiago is slowly advancing, and the gap between his head and Crystal begins to shrink too quickly.

“Oh no,” Crystal thinks. “They’re getting too close to me.” Crystal struggles to hold Vypiago back, but he is too strong. His head is only 15 feet away, and he is snarling at her.

“Decatur!” she yells.

“We are in position! Go Pippa!” Decatur says.

Pippa says “Crystal, you’re inside the space!”.

Crystal knows what that means. “It doesn't matter! I will live, she will die! Turn on the field!”

Termagantia can just hear Crystal, and looks up. She sees the Everett hovering in mid air, just 200 feet away.

“They do not have a weapon on that ship. What are they doing?” Termagantia wonders.

Crystal yells “Pippa now!”, and Pippa taps the button.

Crystal sees her arm, her beam, and Vypiago split into two instances, and she halts her her beam. She looks at Termagantia, and she diffuses into a blur of many overlapping instances.

Termagantia can feel herself being being split apart by a powerful force that has no meaning.

“No,” she thinks. She drops her blocking orb, sits down, closes her eyes, and begins to meditate as deeply as she can, attempting to hold her worldlines together, but she cannot. Termagantia begins to feel her mind split into multiple consciousnesses. She attempts to reunite the them, but they are like ghosts, too ethereal to manipulate. She is all and none of them, and with no origin, she cannot control any.

She knows she is defeated, and she is disappearing.

“If only I had obtained the technology, perhaps I could have learned to fight it,” she thinks, strangely calm, as her evil disposition is dismantled, floating away in a nonfunctional ejection of disconnected feelings and impulses.

Crystal looks up and sees an array of 16 doppelgangers surrounding Termagantia. They all look similar to her, but different. They have subtly different faces, different clothes, different hair, they are different ages, and each is surrounded by a different colored aura, spanning a cool colored spectrum from yellow-green, through blue, and purple, to magenta.

Crystal notices that one in particular, which is the most different. It is the youngest, perhaps only 20 years old, very pretty, and her aura is peach colored. It is looking directly at her, and Crystal is looking back, transfixed. The young, ghostlike, peach auraed Termagantia makes a barely perceptible, but beautiful smile at Crystal.

The 16 interlaced, but independently aware minds all share the same last thought. “We are going back.”

Crystal watches as the 16 Termagantia progenitors all slowly vanish. Termagantia is gone.

24) There's No Place Like Home

Vypiago And Crystal

“Turn of the field, Pippa,” Crystal says.

“OK,” Pippa replies, and turns it off.

Crystal looks at Vypiago, who is close enough that he could strike and kill her.

“Should we land now, Crystal?” Decatur says over the headset.

“Yes,” Crystal says calmly, and slowly takes the headset off, flipping the tiny switch to turn it off, and placing it over her shoulder, afraid to make any loud noises or sudden moves.

Vypiago stares back at her. He turns his head and neck around, looking at the empty howdah on his back, then looks back at Crystal. He tilts his head, and walks a step closer to Crystal, who stands completely still. He moves his head in close to see her in intricate detail.

“Hello, Vypiago,” Crystal says.

Vypiago knows that Termagantia is gone, and that Crystal defeated her, but he does not feel anger. He feels lonely.

He looks at Crystal, the new sorceress who thwarted his powerful mage. He likes the way she is. She is virtuous, gallant, and unsullied. He wonders what it would be like to pair with a pristine mage. One who has only just discovered sorcery independently, without any guidance, and without any preconceived notion of what a sorceress is even supposed to be. Free of the ridiculous, arrogant posturing too many sorceresses seem to cultivate in their elitist covens. An immaculate sorceress. He thinks about how wonderful that might be. He decides to say hello back.

“Hherlo Ghrysstahl,” he says.

Crystal smiles. “You are free, Vypiago,” she says to him. “You can do whatever you want now.” Crystal begins to back away slowly. Vypiago lifts his head up. “Goodbye,” she says, waves to him, and begins to run towards Brent.

Crystal Tells Brent

Brent is standing with Tatsu, Fiona, and Tyro, just in the field, in front of the log they were lying behind for shelter a few minutes ago.

She runs by the decapitated Assailers, past Prahx, and as she gets closer, Brent starts to run towards her, and they meet in an embrace, look at each other, smiling.

“You did it,” Brent says.

“Ah, it was nothin',” Crystal replies, dismissively waving her hand.

Brent laughs, and closes in for a kiss. Crystal feels like she could kiss Brent forever, when she feels him stopping. She pulls back and says “What?”

Brent motions with his head over hers, and says “Seems like you made another friend.”

Crystal turns around, and Vypiago is walking up to them.

Prahx and the other 2 reptan guardsman back away, holding their weapons out. He continues approaching all the way up to Crystal, and sits down. He looks at Crystal and Brent, then looks down at the ground, picking at a stone half buried in the ground with one of his two grasping fingers, popping it loose, and flicking it around as he tilts his head from side to side.

“Do you want to be my dragon, Vypiago?” Crystal asks him.

Vypiago looks at her and says “Wryvermn.”

“What did he say?” Brent asks.

“I'm not sure,” Crystal says.

Tatsu shouts “He said he is a wyvern. It is like a type of dragon, with two legs.”

Crystal looks at Vypiago and says “Oh, a wyvern, right, of course. Sorry, Vypiago. Do you want to be my wyvern?”.

Vypiago looks at Crystal and nods.

Brent says “Crystal, I hate to be a downer, but he can't come with us. He would never fit inside the ship.”

Crystal looks at Brent, then looks away and sighs. She wants to says something, but she starts to choke up, and her eyes begin to glisten with tears. She puts her face on his chest, grabs the sleeves of his coveralls, and starts to cry.

Brent strokes the back of her head, and says “Oh, I'm sorry Crystal. I dunno, maybe we could somehow cram him in, if we move some stuff, but he has got to weigh...”

Crystal starts to shake her head, and says in a muffled voice “No, that's not it.”

“What is it, Crystal?” Brent asks.

Crystal wipes her eyes, and looks up at him. She tries her hardest to speak without crying, and says “I can't go back with you.” She starts to break into tears again.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Brent says.

She puts her forehead back on his shoulder, and shakes her head. “The field from the Everett. I was in it. My worldlines were split. I can't go back with you.”

Brent realizes what she means. “Then I'm staying here, too,” he says.

Crystal laughs over her crying, lifts her head up, sniffs, and wipes the trickle of snot from her nose. “No, you can't. You can't sacrifice the rest of your life just because I’m stuck here.”

Brent puts his hand on Crystals chin and crouches a little to meet her at eye level, then rises as she looks up, and says “Sacrifice my life? You are my life now. I wanna stay here with you. Really.”

Crystal laughs and wipes her face again. “You would stay here with me?” she asks.

“Oh yeah,” he says. “You might end up being the queen of this place, ya know. We can live in the castle, with our new pet wyvern, barbecue with the reps on the weekends. Sounds like a blast.”

Crystal says “Thank you, Brent,” and hugs him. Brent hugs her back, and looks at Vypiago, still wearing his empty, damaged howdah.

“Hey, you want me to take that stupid thing off your back?”

Vypiago nods, and stands up.

Quandro Leaves

Quandro is in the lab, and he is looking at a very special indicator he constructed to tell him when Termagantia was on Odd World. He used it to know when she returned through her portal, so he would not be caught off guard. It tells him that Termagantia has been annihilated.

“My sorceress is no more. I must leave this place,” he says. As he is walking towards Termagantia's bedchamber, he sees Corny. Despite waging war against them, Quandro respects the travelers ingenuity. Out of respect for a fellow scientist, Quandro grabs a bucket of water, and throws it on him. Corny flinches and snorts, then opens his eyes, and sits up, looking at Quandro.

“Hans, we are defeated. I am destroying the castle. You may leave.” He reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a device, which he aims at the doors to the lab. There is a large clanking sound, and the doors open. “Flee that way now if you want to live. Go quickly, your fellow travelers have not left yet.”

In The Field

The sun is coming up, and Prahx, Tyro, the two surviving reptan guardsman, Tatsu, Fiona, Crystal, and Brent are all sitting together in a circle talking. Vypiago is sitting near them, free of the howdah.

Pippa and Decatur are walking back, having parked the Everett a hundred yards away in the field. Decatur points at Vypiago, holds out his arms, shaking his head. “You guys made friends with that dragon?” he yells.

“Wryvermn,” Vypiago says to Decatur.

“Holy shit, it talks?”

Brent says “He's a wyvern. His name is Vypiago. He's Crystal's buddy now.”

“Oh, hello there, Vypiago!” Decatur says, and waves at him.

Vypiago lifts his right wing back at Decatur.

“He's pretty badass,” Decatur says, looking at him so closely now. “So you guys a are just chillin' in the park without me?” he says as they approach. “What's up with that? I’m pretty sure I just saved the day. Some thanks.”

Pippa punches him on the shoulder and says “Don't be so vain. I pushed the button.”

Decatur says “Oh yeah, that's true.”

Crystal and Brent scoot over to make room for them, and Pippa sits down. Decatur groans as he attempts to sit down next to Pippa, flops over on his side, rolls onto his back, lays his arms out. “I am ready to go home now. So, Crystal, the Everett is just about on fumes. Are you sure we can teleport from the atmosphere?”

“You guys will be able to teleport just fine, Decatur,” Crystal says.

“Don't you mean us guys?” Decatur asks.

“We aren't coming, Decatur,” Brent says.

Decatur props himself up on his elbows. “Say what?”

Pippa was thinking about the ramifications of what happened when they turned the Everett's field on Crystal, and says “Crystal, it was the decoherence field from the ship, wasn't it. You were inside it, so can't teleport back with us, or your worldlines will fold like Dr. Maddox, right?”

Crystal says “That's right, Pippa.”

Decatur thinks for a moment. “Oh my God, Crystal, I am so sorry. I should have gotten there sooner.”

Crystal looks at Decatur and smiles. “It's not your fault, Decatur. It was my plan. Technically, it did work. You did great. It's OK, though. We're going to be fine. Believe me, I would do it again if I had to.”

Decatur thinks for a moment and says “I'm not a mushy guy, but I know you gave up your ticket back to save us, so thank you.”

Crystal says “The real hero is John.”

Decatur looks at the ground and says “Wheeler, yeah. I'm gonna miss that brave dork.” He takes a deep breath and says “So you're staying too, Brent?”

“Yup,” he replies.

“Hmm,” Decatur says. “You know, it's funny, but it almost makes sense. So, Crystal, has that potion worn off yet?”

Crystal thinks for a moment and says “Yeah.”

Brent looks at Crystal and says “Do you think any of those powers it gave you will be permanent?”

Crystal smiles and says “Let's just say I won't ever forget what it showed me.”

Decatur says “Try the levitation thing again, see if you can do it now.”

Crystal says “OK, hold on.” She settles into an indian-style position, and closes her eyes. She concentrates the same way as before, and her aura flickers weakly, and she rises a few inches.

“It's harder now,” she says in a strained, groaning voice. She leans forward and puts her hands down, and lets loose, thumping lightly to the ground. She smiles and says “Welp, not as good as before, with the potion, but not bad, considering that was au naturale.”

“That's a good attitude Crystal,” Brent says. “Recognizing your own progress is the best self motivator in a long training regiment.”

Tatsu decides to ask the obvious question. “So, when are we returning to Earth?”

Fiona says “I don't wanna sound like a jerk, but I kind of want to go soon. I miss my family.”

Decatur says “I wasn't going to say anything yet, but the battery is real low too. I am a little afraid to put it off. If the battery dies, we might have to learn to refine fuel for the generator. Probably not very easy. Do you guys wanna go now?”

Pippa says “Do you think any of us will ever come back?”.

Decatur says “I hope so. I wanna see how this place turns out, now that the Wicked Witch is dead, and the reptans are liberated. It might go back to the way it was, in those old stories. Like a really cool place, huh Crystal?”.

“I have no doubt it will,” Crystal says, “But I’m not sure if that will ever be possible, Brian. The worldline folding problem, I still don’t know how to get around it. I’ll have to think about that.”

Fiona is sitting next to Prahx, and tells him and the other reptans that they are leaving. He nods. She also tells him Crystal and Brent are staying. Prahx looks at Tyro, and both are very surprised.

“Grystal trach!? Mar?” Prahx asks.

Fiona tells them that, when they used the ship's engines to kill Termagantia, Crystal was in the field the ship casts, and this means she cannot safely teleport.

Prahx begins to tells her something while looking around at Crystal and Brent, then he waves his arm out to the others, and gesticulates to the sky with his hand.

Fiona translates “Wow, you guys. He said Crystal and Brent will be treated like a king and queen, and they will build a monument in our honor.”

Decatur laughs and says “Oh, I gotta come back now! I wanna take a picture of myself in front of that, and put it on my mantle!” The others laugh. Decatur says “Hey, we should get a picture of all of us, before we leave. We can get Mr. Vypiago in there, all of us in front of the Everett. The hand-held camera on the ship has a timer, and we have a tripod.”

Decatur winces as he gets up. “I'm gonna go set that up right now. The light is perfect,” he says, and looks out over the field. As he scans, he stops, and says “Hey, it's Corny.”

Everyone stands up as Corny approaches. “Hey, how did you get away? You didn't teleport out, did you?” Brent yells at him.

“Quandro let me go,” Corny says. “He said he is leaving, and he is going to blow up the castle. Also, there is a dragon here.”

Decatur says “He's a wyvern. Crystal adopted him.”

Just then, there is a huge explosion that thunders across the valley. The team look over the ridge, and see a mushroom cloud of dark smoke rise from the center of the city.

Brent says “Oh no, Crystal, our castle.”

Crystal says “Quandro got away, through Termagantia's portal, I assume. Oh well, I guess he’s probably not too dangerous without her.”

Corny says “You guys, I am sorry that I was captured, and forced to help them. I feel like a traitor.”

Crystal tells Corny “That wasn't you. Termagantia had mind control powers. You have nothing to feel bad about.”

“Thank you, Crystal. I appreciate that. So how did you get her?”

Decatur says “Crystal got her. She grew some X-Man powers and fucked her up, then I swooped in on the ship and zapped her to hell with the engine. You missed it. I did actually have the ship's camera on, though. You can watch the footage.”

“You filmed it?!” Brent says, amazed Decatur would bother with filming right in the middle of an apocalyptic crisis.

“Well, the controls were, like, right there, man,” he laughs. “I'm just curious if big bosses back home are gonna release the footage. Don't tell them about our group photo, though. Hey Corny, I wanna take a group photo in front of the Everett, come help me.”

“Great idea, Decatur,” Corny says as they start to walk towards the ship. “Are we going home now?” Corny asks.

Decatur replies “Yep, you ready?”

Corny says “There's no place like home.”

The group gather back at the ship, and Corny sets up the camera on the tripod. Everyone lines up in front of the Everett, shoulder to shoulder. Vypiago is behind them, with his wings spread as the timer fires. Corny retrieves the camera, looks at the picture and says “This could win a Pulitzer Prize.”

Decatur says “Hey, that's my picture.”

Crystal and Pippa get the engine ready to teleport, and decide to get the military guys to help them detach the core of the quantum entanglement communications system, and haul it off the ship into the field, along with the comm pack and all the tools. Pippa gives Crystal advice on how she may be able to rig up a communications line back to Earth.

“Thanks, Pippa. It will give me something to do,” Crystal says.

Pippa and Crystal hug, and Pippa says “Please get it working. I want to hear from you.”

Crystal says “I will.”

Decatur gives Brent all the remaining ammunition, and an extra tablet computer. The team say their goodbyes to Crystal and Brent, and board the ship. Decatur is last, standing at the bottom of the ramp.

“We have enough fuel to get few miles, Crystal, should I just go straight up?”

“Go out over the ocean, then get as much altitude as you can,” Crystal says. “We know the sea level is the same because the coastline is about the same. By the way, you will end up in Mexico, you know. Good luck with that. I hope you have a phone card.”

“Oh my God, that's right!” Decatur says, laughing. “If we don't get arrested, I can drink some tequila tonight. I’ll drink a couple shots for you guys. Good luck.”

“Thanks, Decatur,” Brent says.

“Say hi to Dr. Archibald for me,” Crystal tells Decatur.

He nods and waves, and walks up the ramp.

As Brent and Crystal watch the ship fly out high over the ocean, Crystal says “I am a little afraid Termagantia isn't really dead. She just retracted into a bunch of previous versions, and in a scattered way, still exists.”

“Lets not worry about that for a few days,” Brent suggests.

Hail To The Victors

Vypiago follows Crystal with Brent as they walk together back to Xardun, tagging behind Prahx, Tyro, and the 2 reptan guardsman.

“Hey Vypiago, can I get on you?” Crystal asks him.

“Screeip,” he says, and leans down. Crystal climbs up his shoulder, using the large horny scales on his neck as handholds, and sits between two ridges on his back.

“High-ho Vypiago!” she laughs.

“Don't take off, Crystal, seriously,” Brent says with concern. “You need to ease into this sorceress thing, you're scaring me!”

As they near the ridge to descend down the valley side, a group of Xardun citizens come over and meet them. They are frightened of Vypiago at first, but it is clear he is friendly, so they approach.

“Prahx, you were victorious!” the first one says. “Or, as I should now call you now, Alma-Gurr! Many are gathered by the river, awaiting your return! It will be a glorious day!”

From her vantage atop Vypiago, Crystal is the first to see the huge gathering around the bridge, all along the riverside. “Wow, they threw us a parade!” she says.

They start down the trail, and the crowd surges towards them, cheering. The front of the crowd forms a semicircle around Crystal, riding Vypiago, and they stop.

The crowd is chanting “Prahx! Prahx!”

Prahx lifts his hand, and shouts to the crowd in reptan. “Crystal is the one you should be thanking! She defeated Termagantia! She is a sorceress now!”

The crowd cheers loudly, and starts chanting “Grystal! Grystal!” Crystal is genuinely touched and flattered, and proud to have been able to help them, who deserve it so much. Crystal smiles, and ignites her red-orange aura, to the gasps of the astounded crowd.

“Vypiago,” she says. “Let's take a little fly around.” Vypiago walks backwards a few steps, and begins flapping his wings. They lift off and fly around the crowd.

“Aw, you just couldn't resist could you,” Brent says to himself. Prahx looks at Brent, who shakes his head and shrugs.

“Graw! Graw! Graw!” Prahx laughs.

“Grystal! Grystal!” the crowd chants as she circles them. She flies into the city, and the group follow her. Prahx and Brent walk together, back to the city.

Prahx says “Brent!” and points the the insignia on his coat, the temple under the arch representing the reptan guard. He takes the coat off, and gives it to Brent, who puts it on.

“Thanks,” Brent says, looking at the oversized coat.

“Whreerler,” Prahx says, and pounds his wrists together towards the sky to honor him.

“Yeah, I will miss him,” Brent says.

Brent pulls out the tablet computer he has in his cargo pocket, and brings up a file containing profiles of all the team members. He opens Wheelers, and opens the photo gallery, showing pictures of Wheeler posing for NASA portraits, and inside the cockpit of an F/A-18 Hornet.

“Prahx,” Brent says, and hands him the tablet. He shows Prahx how to click on the images to enlarge them. Prahx looks through the images as they walk. They play a short video of him introducing himself. Prahx enjoys the album, nodding, and hands the tablet back to Brent. He refuses it, indicating he wants Prahx to have it, and Prahx thanks him.

Prahx and Brent make it back to the crowd, who are still chanting Crystals name. They have gathered around Ehroo's house. Brent makes his way through the throng to the front. He sees Crystal is on Vypiago, who is standing at the head of the stone trail to the old ruin.

Brent walks up close, and notices Crystal is staring into space with a smirk. Her aura is aflame, and her eyes are glowing red-orange. Around her head appears what looks like a moving hologram. It looks like a circular fractal pattern made of navigation instrument-like shapes, inter-rotating to make a spherical shell, and rippling with moire patterns.

“She has a nimbus,” Brent says to himself.

25) The Prophecy

Prahx Learns Something

Later that evening, Prahx is by himself in the gathering area. Vypiago has found suitable refuge in the ancient ruin, and Crystal and Brent have gone back to the cottage. Prahx is looking at the profile pages of Team 8-ball. He comes to Crystals, and decides to play her video.

“Hello, I'm Crystal Spiegelmacher,” she begins. Prahx is shocked at what he hears, and replays the video again and again, straining to hear exactly what she says. He runs to Ehroo's house and pounds on the door, and Tyro answers.

“Tyro, Crystal has a second name!” Prahx tells him. “It is the name of the ancient legend of the Zhpee-Gah Alma-Gurr!”

Tyro says to Prahx “Yes, I already know that Crystal is the prophesied Leader of the Multiverse. Ehroo told me. If you promise not to tell anyone, or interfere with the events to come, I will teach you what he taught me.”

“Yes, I promise,” Prahx says.

“Ehroo has an old book about that legend. He read it to me many times.”

“Show it to me!” says Prahx excitedly.

Tyro unlocks a secret door in the side of a bookshelf, and pulls out an elaborately bound ancient book. He opens it to the chapter about The Prophecy of the Leader of the Multiverse.

Prahx can't read the ancient text, but there are pictures. There is a picture of what looks like Crystal beaming magic at a sorceress on a dragon with a strange flying craft above her.

“That is Crystal killing Termagantia!” Prahx says, nearly frightened with astonishment.

“Yes. That is the genesis of the Zhpee-Gah Alma-Gurr”

Prahx realized the obvious anachronism when he first heard Crystals second name. “How can it be that Crystal's name means Multiverse Leader in our language? She came here long after these books were written. That should be impossible.”

Tyro explains what he was trained to know, and still studies to hopefully someday comprehend. “When you understand the Multiverse, you will understand that. Things do not just happen only in normal time. There are things similar to events, but that do not exist through time. They exist in a way we cannot explain. Like the dreams of Gods.

The Prophecy contains knowledge about the Multiverse and one great possibility. There are many possibilities, some inevitable, some unlikely, some good, some bad, some trivial, and some significant. A very unlikely possibility of momentous significance is called a Syncurgence. The shape of the Multiverse is strongly influenced by Syncurgy.

It is important that you understand that a Syncurgence is unlikely and fragile. That is why you cannot interfere with it. Even if you think you should. There are those who can foresee them. The foreknowledge of a Syncurgence is a Prophecy.

It requires great faith and discipline to know a Prophecy. If you interfere with it, it vanishes, and the knowledge you had of it vanishes too. It disappears because it never was. It is not known how many Syncurgences have been undone. Perhaps a terrible number.”

Tyro turns the page, and there is another picture showing what looks like Crystal with her red-orange nimbus around her head, standing on a castle. Behind her is a group of other entities. In front of them towers a giant demon.

“What is that?” Prahx asks, pointing to the giant demon.

Prahx replies “That is the Reality Reaper.”

“And who are they?” Prahx asks, pointing to the group of entities behind Crystal.

“That is the Sisterhood of the Sixteen Sorceresses.”

To Be Continued.