[This is a chapter from my latest novel, a sequel to The Fall of Doc Future and Skybreaker’s Call. The start is here, and links to my other work here. It can be read on its own, but contains spoilers for those two books. I try to post new chapters about every two weeks, but there will sometimes be short stories and vignettes if I don’t have a new chapter ready. The next chapter is planned for the week of November 27th.]

Previous: Chapter 40



There were tasks that Flicker shouldn’t rush. She had discovered when she was quite young that she could only build or repair a machine so fast, or things would start breaking. And it was a good idea to take the effort to clean up and put all her tools away afterwards. She was still working on better ways to do something similar while assimilating her high speed mind. It was slower than stuffing everything into her flesh brain as fast as she could, but it helped with a whole set of chronic problems.

But she finally reached a stopping point, so she slowed down and returned her awareness to her physical surroundings.

“Better?” asked Donner in the dimness of the bedroom.

“What?” Flicker hadn’t realized he was awake. "I’m fine, just done for now. How could you tell?“

"That deep breath and sigh.”

“Ah. It’s a relief to get all my gestalt memories transferred into my human mind in an orderly way. Learning’s bio-gestalt crew helped me out with some tricks for that. They’ve kind of adopted me, since I don’t have a bio-gestalt group of my own. They’re really nice. But I’m feeling all talkative now.”

“It’s fine. I figured you’d have a few more things to say.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry you got scared by the nuke. Black Swan explained why she timed things so Journeyman and I weren’t on Earth. And didn’t warn us. I can tell you some of it. There was a lot she didn’t tell me, because that would be against the EDU rules on custom she’s following, and because– Well, anyway. If you’re interested.”

“I am,” he said. Flicker could make out his grin in the faint light from the window. "But I’d listen even if I weren’t. Talking when you’re ready is part of how you cope.“

"Fair enough. So, it’s really hard to arrange a believable alibi for me. Hard for Journeyman too; he’s not as fast, but doesn’t have to worry about closed doors. But doing something conspicuous, all day, on a moon of Jupiter, works for both of us. And that was politically handy for Black Swan because of what happened in Russia.”

“Because of who died?”

“Because of who didn’t. You know the guy calling for calm on that vid bit all the news programs showed?”

“The deputy assistant foreign minister, or whatever?”

“He was the highest ranking government official who knew picking a fight with Black Swan was stupid, and apparently was the only one with a reliable phone for a couple of hours. So he’s acting president now. And will probably stay that way for a while–he won’t start any wars, no one really hates him, and everyone will be afraid to try to assassinate him.”

“Because of Black Swan?”

“Partly. But partly because of me. He was their superhero liaison person, I liked him, and people know it.”

“Wait, you know him?”

“He was the diplomat I called to calm things down whenever I upset the Russians. I talked to him after my Moon dance–I think you heard part of that. He’s not particularly honest, but he hasn’t personally done anything horrible, and he’s funny and good at defusing things. So he’s probably as good as they can do for now. I’m not sure–I’m bad at politics compared to Doc, let alone Stella and Black Swan. But do you see why a lot of paranoid people in shock might think I had something to do with him becoming president if I didn’t have an alibi? Black Swan wants them to blame her, not me.”

“Ah. Yeah.”

“Another reason for the timing was so that no one could ask me to stop Black Swan disabling all those missiles. I wouldn’t have done it, but it saved me having to say no, or worrying about it. A third reason was because anyone thinking of waiting until I’m off Earth to try something now has to worry about Black Swan being three moves ahead of them. So I didn’t stay upset at her for long.”

“Reasonable. But you said Journeyman was still pissed.”

“He was upset about a bunch of other things, too. One is Black Swan’s fault–some Russian and Eastern European magicians are suddenly unemployed and want to talk to him urgently. And other people want to talk to him about them, also urgently. And he needed to brief Stella about some weird stuff those new aliens tried to do. He needs some time. That’s why I came here to decompress. Sorry about the short notice.”

Donner grinned again. "I had DASI set up a ‘Flicker warning level’ alert for my phone a while ago. Works pretty well–I wasn’t surprised. And Journeyman is still kinda recovering, isn’t he?“

"Not physically. Lif did a good job of healing him. But he’s stressed because he needs to arrange for the tricky part of making the black hole–getting the construction subspace right. So there’s this book he has to master that’s been giving him nightmares.”

“Whoa. Like a Necronomicon or something?”

Flicker laughed. "No. But he’s a magician, not a physicist, the book is Chandrasekhar’s The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes, and he’s going to have to use it like a spellbook when he’s changing the spell. DASI is helping him, but it’s still scary.“

"Everything about making a black hole is scary to me. I mean, you’re going to be carrying it around, right? What if you drop it? And where are you gonna put it when you aren’t using it? It’s not something you can stick in the garden shed with the lawnmower.”

“I don’t plan to use it anywhere near Earth. And if I did, and dropped it, I’d just have to catch it again at apogee on the other side of the planet. I might have to dig a hole, but going through the Earth wouldn’t slow it down much at first. It would only be a big problem long term.

"Storage will be a bit messier. Journeyman should be able to make a different subspace for it that I can open without destroying. Probably. I’m still practicing. But Doc pointed out that the subspace will heat up, because the hole will be radiating and the radiation won’t have anywhere to go. So I might get a big blast of energy when I pull it out if I haven’t used it for a while, unless Journeyman pulls off another trick.”

“Hoo boy. I can see why he’s having nightmares. I’m just glad I can help you with yours.”

“About that.” Flicker took a deep breath. "I don’t know much about the music stuff, but when Osk talks to you about healing, listen. I’d have recovered full function in my hand a lot quicker if I had. And if she asks you to practice, practice. Because the person you’re practicing for could be me.“

"You think you might get badly hurt fighting whatever is coming?”

“I don’t know. But Golden Valkyrie told me something that gets scarier every time I think about it. I could win–and still have my flesh and blood body be gone, because the energy levels just got too high. Osk and some others are helping make arrangements in case that happens. But they might need your help putting me together again. You can call my mind back.”

“Oof. Like after I screwed up and Skybreaker took over your body?”

“The emulation, yeah. But this would be harder, because Golden Valkyrie is gone. She won’t be pushing things in the background, like she has for most of my life. It would be up to you and whoever else can help.”

Donner was quiet for a moment. "Practice. Got it. I can do that.“

"Thank you.”

Flicker put her arms around him in the darkness and just held him for a while.

*****

Doc awoke in the darkness, alone. No nightmares–but a lifetime had given him a dark appreciation of them; reality was almost always an improvement. Not so much, lately.

It was possible that his old nightmares were gone for good. The last try had yielded a few garbled fragments that were possibly relevant–Europa instead of Europe, a black hole singularity instead of The Singularity–but nothing predictive. Nothing he could use to plan. And Stella was right; he’d structured his life around the direct and indirect information in them to a degree that required adjustment when they stopped.

He ran his set of post-nightmare self checks. This was still data–Stella was spending the night in an EDU ship in orbit, therefore her physical presence nearby was not necessary to stop whatever mix of the old nightmare signals were still arriving. She had given up on finishing their talk after Journeyman’s interruption. Morning would do.

Tonight had hadn’t been an ideal time for the separation test, but when was? Emergencies didn’t wait their turn.

And it was past time to start planning for the consequences if it became politically untenable for the Director of the EDU to stay at his headquarters. It was officially Deep Kingdoms territory–Sealord had made it his embassy–but the US government could revoke that. Not unlikely, if there was a war. Doc might have to move, too, but his options weren’t the same as Stella’s.

He checked the clock. 1:30 AM and he was wide awake, nightmare or not. There were other preparations to make. Also overdue, since causing unnecessary stress for the Director of the EDU made what should have been a personal decision–not.

He had data–important data–that he was perhaps not giving the weight he should. Because… Well that was the question, wasn’t it? He was just as good at rationalizing as he was at rational thinking, and over-optimization could be a deadly trap if he moved out of the region of relevance.

No time like the present.

“DASI?”

“Yes, Doc?”

“Any pending alerts?”

“No.”

“Estimate a bound on the chance Flicker will do something dramatic or transit a portal in the next two hours.”

“Less than 1%.”

“Well then. Set alert interrupt level red plus. Exception: Breakpoint. Secure instance, nightmare privacy level. Engage mindscreens.”

“Verified.”

“Emergency timeloop guard; I’m thinking of a number–give me a four digit random integer.”

“9291.”

“No match. Good. Set probability manipulation canary, timeloop canary, oracle canary.”

“Set.”

“Okay, we’ll give Breakpoint a little bit to see if he gets a sudden urge to call and warn me I’m about to make an apocalyptic mistake.”

Doc picked up the headset from the nightstand and called up the appropriate notes from the secure section. He hadn’t even looked at them in a long time. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“Any changes?” he asked.

“None so far,” said DASI.

“All right. We’re going to do a psychological bias renormalization, including nightmare context integration. Primary known change: Golden Valkyrie is no longer wearing the Skystone. Starting changed assumption: Golden Valkyrie is currently causally unlinked from Earth. No preconception whether she will return to this worldline, if it survives. Secondary changed assumptions: Her last words to Flicker and Journeyman, and any consistent bias changes you’ve seen since the removal of my primary block and the loss of my top-level augments.”

“Noted.”

Safe travels, Fairhair. If you did give me a parting gift, I hope I’m not about to throw it away.

*****

Alep could finally verify the target as he closed, despite the distortion. His mind was sluggish from the damping needed to properly perceive this unnatural worldline, but his body was not. His weapons were ready, and he repeated the command for the others to follow–after all the rigors of their voyage, the goal was finally within their grasp. Baht was shouting something, but the quantum froth stole her meaning.

<Alep!>

<Gem! Where are you? You must–>

<No. Consult your anchor core. Now.>

<We don’t have time! The target will–>

<The target is not here. Consult your core.>

Could the distortion be that bad? The damping made it hard to think. Alep slowed reluctantly, to send the necessary attention inward to his causality anchor core, his safety self. And found his perceptions shifting as he did. He stopped, then followed Gem back to a nearby simply-connected space, where Baht waited. He tasted their concern.

<Another damned echo!> he said.

<Yes,> said Baht. <Was there self-echoes, too?>

<A self-echo and an entire false target line.>

<At least we know we’re in the right domain,> said Gem mordantly.

<This domain is a maze of twisty little worldlines, all subtly different!> said Baht.

<So much looping cannot be natural,> said Alep. <The inhabitants have weaponized their own worldline topology.>

They were close to the target–and far. How far was hard to tell. Causality drift meant they each had to renormalize periodically, assisted by the others. The return to self was not always smooth, and Alep had waited longer than he now knew was advisable.

<Harnessed it, certainly,> said Gem. <But weaponized? I sense more than that, in the patterns.>

<It killed Explorer’s Aspect,> said Baht. <I am certain of it. She was trying to map the hazard. She did not lose focus, she kept it too long–until drift and madness finally took her. The same could happen to us.>

<We should go back,> said Gem. <This tangle maze cannot possibly propagate over a domain boundary, so it is no threat. And no parasites will escape either–they would get pulled in and eaten, just like Explorer.>

<No,> said Alep. <We will follow the probe echoes. We are not alone–we can assist each other, and endure that long. When we reach the primary line of the probe eater, we will end it, and return.>

<What there is of us by then,> said Baht. <We are no longer who we were. The ages here have changed us. My own anchor core tastes strange.>

<But you have not lost purpose.>

<No.>

<Good. We go on.>

*****

Doc looked up from his handcomp as Stella entered the room. Sunlight streamed in from the windows, and service bots had arranged a selection of food for her if she was hungry for brunch after her flight. Doc had already eaten.

“How are the Xelians and the Grs'thnk?” he asked.

“Quite well,” she said, and sat down across from him. "Hiri is a proper pessimist–he’s been helping with the emergency shelters for the support ships. They weren’t designed for the Moon’s gravity, but he knows some tricks to minimize damage from that. Cheered me up a bit. But the Grs'thnk Auditors noted the lack of experience of modern Earth nations with definitively ending wars lost by sudden governing authority death.“

"Well, Black Swan called attention to that problem in a way that’s hard to ignore,” said Doc. "I’m sure the US continuity of government people will have a few questions for me when we finally meet. DASI said everyone in their working group is taking her prep briefings very seriously, which is an encouraging sign.“

"Oh yes. So. Have you accepted that you are no longer on the critical path for black hole construction, if you ever were?”

“I have.” Doc looked down, then back up. "I did a proper psych bias recheck last night.“

Stella raised an eyebrow. "A full one? You look like you got at least some sleep. Although–”

“I took everything apart, but I haven’t put it all back together yet. I knew we’d have to go over most of it again, anyway.” He gestured at his cheekbone. "The bruise is from sparring with robots very early this morning. That let me sleep afterwards.“

"Interesting. I’d have expected you to go to your workshop.”

“I took three steps and already had an idea for a contra-anthropic timeloop-powered deadzone bomb that would be lethal to anything that lives in more than four dimensions from two universes away. And another one for a hunting portal Journeyman could open for me that would require a black hole to permanently seal to preserve loop consistency with Golden Valkyrie’s predictions.”

“That seems excessive.”

“I doubt I’d actually be able to build it. But even trying would be a very bad idea. Self-destructive anger was the good reason for my old cognitive safety block. Much wiser to go beat up robots for a while instead.”

Doc looked down again. "I think I’ve done pretty well working with you professionally. Personally… 'I’m sorry’ isn’t close to enough. The entity collective that synchronized my coherent nightmares was, on average, an utter bastard. I’ve been finding surprising and unpleasant ways I’ve let that shape me.“

Stella smiled wryly. "Well, we have time to talk. A day of unavailability will be politically useful for me. Ashil’s portal work seems to be going well, Flicker and Journeyman are resting, and DASI, Three, and Learning can handle anything else that comes up. And fixing the problems is more important than fault. I had personal issues long before we met.”

Doc snorted. "This whole timeline has issues.“

Stella looked thoughtful. "Yes. But I do find that hunting portal idea of yours interesting.”

“Oh?”

“Just thinking about distractions, traps, parasitism, and what Golden Valkyrie did the last time she was pregnant.”

Next: Chapter 42

