Three Years

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   <default>Three Years</default>
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</image> <label>Posted On</label> <label>Author</label> <label>Music Theme</label> <group collapse="open"> <header>Order</header> <label>Previous Suggested Manuscript</label> <label>Previous Suggested Story</label> <label>Next Suggested Story</label> <label>Next Suggested Manuscript</label> <label>Chronologically Previous Manuscript</label> <label>Chronologically Previous Story</label> <label>Chronologically Next Story</label> <label>Chronologically Next Manuscript</label> </group> <group collapse="open"> <header>Series</header> <label>Series</label> <label>Previous</label> <label>Next</label> </group> <group collapse="open"> <header>About the Manuscript</header> <label>Type of Story</label> <label>Canon Status</label> </group> <group collapse="open"> <header>About the Story</header> <label>Date</label> <label>Location(s)</label> <label>Characters</label> </group> </infobox>

3031 AF

“I think it’s time.”

  “Time for what…?”

  “Don’t tell me you’re still unconvinced.”

  “I just really like Tyler.”

  “She’s a girl…”

  “Tyler can be a girl’s name.”

  “Do you want people to make fun of her for being a girl with a boy’s name?  Need I remind you people are jerks.”

  “I might have more faith in society than you.”

  “Now you’re being a jerk.”

  “Uh, thanks.”

  “So it’s settled then.”

  “No, it’s really not – stop staring at me like that!  Okay!  Fine. Name her what you want.”

  “No, we have to do it together.”

  “Alright.  We’ll name her what you want.”

  “Say it.”

  “Her name will be-“

  A ship wide klaxon pulled Aiden from his power nap.  Something thumping against the wall next to him caught his attention, and he was astonished to see the sound was that of his arm hitting the bulkhead repeatedly.  His very numb arm, that he’d slept with pressed behind his neck.  It happened.  Already he was getting the tinglies.

He remembered the ever present klaxon as it continued its incessant, fire alarm-like blare.  Maybe it was the fire alarm.  Aiden unslouched himself to his feet and exited the mess cabin into the ship’s central corridor, a utilitarian structure serving to bridge different parts of the ship, designed with as much a mind to fanciness and comfort as a prison block.  He noticed the intermediary status lights were flashing blue.  Blue alert, he pieced together, ruled out a fire.  Rather it indicated the ship was landing.

To the rear of the corridor was a ladder leading up through a deckhead hatch, which he pushed open to enter the bridge of the starship, Renaissance.  The blond haired pilot sat with his hands wrapped tightly to the controls, while a woman with dark red hair sat angled away at the comm station, furiously looking between different data monitors. 

“This ship is trash,” Mara repeated for the tenth time, seeing Aiden buckle into the next seat over, “we’re going shopping first thing when we land.”

“If we land it,” the pilot muttered.

“You’ll land it,” Aiden said, although one look at the windows – or lack thereof - reduced the sentiment to sweet nothings.  The cabin windows had all been shot out, thanks to an encounter with spaceborne Maelstrom not an hour before, and since layered over by the very opaque blast doors.  Despite his instruments, Luke Mercury was flying blind.

“300 feet,” Mara reported when the ship gave an upward lurch sending debris flying.

“Felt like 3,” Aiden quipped.

“It would seem,” Mara amended, “my altimeter’s off.”

“What was that?” Luke called.

Mara did some quick calculations.  “We’re at 10 feet.”

Luke pulled the stick back.

“NO!” Mara yelled.  “GO DOWN!  WE’RE LANDING!”

“We’re going too fast-“ Luke protested.

“POINT.  DOWN.”

“Intrepid?”

“Do it,” Aiden affirmed, ignoring the incorrect name use in the moment’s panic.  Mara grabbed the intercom receiver and speakers crackled to life across the downward pitching ship.

“Attention, passengers,” echoed Mara’s voice across the rest of the ship, “please brace for impact, there is no cause for alarm,” and they fastened their auxiliary harnesses.

“Honestly I am pretty alarmed,” she said, turning around to face Aiden.

“Yeah,” Aiden said, looking past her, past Luke, at the windowless window.  “I rather not look that way either, but my seat doesn’t rotate.”

Mara smirked.  “Happy birthday,” she said, then the ship crashed.

. . .

According to the universal time widget on his iBrick, Aiden Talmid had turned nineteen years old the day before, and instead of seeing a concert, going out clubbing, or doing normal people things, he was eating freeze dried rations with a crashed ship’s crew outside the shipwreck of the aforementioned starship, a cargo cat christened Renaissance.  Illuminated around the fire pit were the faces of the cousins Luke and Mara Mercury and the three others who’d made the trek from Nimbus Station with him: a short, thin, red haired kid named Ben Talmid, although he was a Talmid in name only.  He was the son of another dimension’s Mara Mercury and Ray Handerson, but after Ray’s death the boy had been adopted by that same dimension’s Aiden, who had married the widowed Mara after the death of his own wife, Kate.

Five years ago, Aiden would have blushed a deep red thinking about the relationships of such an interdimensional counterpart.  Three years ago, he might not have cared at all.  Things got pretty screwed up in the time between, and some things afterward, and so remained a lot of things.  Now, he just needed to survive the night.

The next face was over thirty years old, a few weeks unshaven, and belonged to a man currently in the process of talking and eating at the same time.  While his Nexus Force given name was Skilled Honored Ninja, he was also known as Shard.  He was an interdimensional wayfarer like Ben, and from the same dimension.  In between chicken wings he was mouthing out the names of constellations.  “And there’s the Wildcat, munch, that one’s Aquila, and just over those trees, Hwin.”

The third accompanier, while not from another dimension, practically lived in one.  Her narrowed blue eyes followed a ballpoint pen held between manicured fingers, powering through lines of notes on the structures of the universe, the structure of Unverse, and the theories and equations behind breaking the wall between those two.  Her lips were pursed in concentration between prominent, misnomered laugh lines.  The girl rarely smiled, though she was not depressed.  With indigo blue hair currently cut to shoulder-length, tied neatly in the back, and apparently natural, Juiliet Idyllia was the last passenger of Renaissance’s final voyage.

“Shard,” the girl cut in before the man could point out another obscure astrological sign, “no one cares.”

“Class act, Juiliet,” Shard said without looking down from the stars, while consuming another ketchup-dipped wing.  “Good chicken, this chicken.  You know, my astrological skills don’t end at constellation identification – I can read the stars, too.  They’re telling me your destiny, want to hear it?”

Juiliet flipped to a new page and resumed her frantic, blue ink shorthand.  Without hesitation, she responded, “No.”

“Oh, it’s an important one.  The stars say you could die.”

Luke coughed and snorted water out of his nose.  “That’s son of a gun.  There’s always a chance we can die.  Especially on this mission.”

“Objection,” Mara voiced.  “’We’ is inaccurate.  Only Shard, Ben, Juiliet, and Aiden can die, because I’m not stepping through that disruption.”  She fixed Luke with a hard glare.  “And neither are you, Luke.  You are forbidden to die.”

Luke shrugged.  “Fine with me.”

“No one’s going to die.” Aiden said.

“Yeah,” Mara sniffed, “and you said Luke would land the ship.”

“He did.”

“I did.” Luke agreed.

“No, you bumfuzzle.  You freaking crashed the ship.  You didn’t even crash land it, just a good old crash.  Crash, boom, bang, and shebang, we’re stranded on this goshforsaken planet.” Mara folded her arms.  “In the middle of nowhere.”

Shard pointed his chewing jaw to the southern horizon.  “There’s a city right there.”

“That’s where you were supposed to land,” Juiliet dug.

“May as well not be there, since no one’s coming to rescue us.” Mara pointed out.

“People are jerks,” Aiden said.

“Yeah.” Mara agreed.

“Yeah.” Luke nodded.

“I’m inclined to agree.” Juiliet said.

“Yeah.” Ben said quietly.  “Now please shut up, all of you.”

Shard finished the last chicken wing.  “Yeah.”

. - -

“Hey,” Mara said to him as Aiden was sorting his knapsack.

“Yeah?” Aiden said, pushing a pack of modules off to the side – to be discarded with the ship, and from his pile of various weapons he selected his Pneumatic Drill of Blasting to slide into the bag’s depths.

“Happy birthday,” Mara said from the doorway.

Aiden did a mental calculation.  “Now you’re two days late.”

“We’re having a party when we get to Jericho.” Mara said, of the city that was their destination.  “All in honor of our very own Intrepid Fusion Eclipse.”

“After we buy a new ship?” Aiden reminded.

The girl waved a hand dismissively.  “We don’t need a ship.”

Aiden shrugged away the about face.  “Okay.”  Then he reminded her, “I go by Aiden, now.”

“Too bad, you’ll always be Intrepid to me.  We don’t need a ship right now, anyway.  We have rockets.” Mara continued, while Aiden went back to sorting.  In the pile of weapons, under a force blade, he found what he was looking for, the LW A47 Versā, etymologized from versatility, synonymous with multi, as the weapon was also called a multiblaster for its several uses: ranged weapon, flamethrower, thinking cap, stun gun, all in one, it was a device that could make Skilled Honored Ninja proud.

“Almost twenty, huh,” Mara revived the subject again.

“It doesn’t really matter,” Aiden said, hooking the Versā to his belt and doing a quick peruse of the remaining items to organize.  More rations, armor shine, healing potions, firecracker nades, flash bangs, a few contemporary models of handgun, a longsword, throwing knives… he crammed it all into the backpack and hefted it up.  It felt heavier than before, considering his legs had cramped from sitting Indian-style on the floor for the last five minutes.

“Ready to go?” Mara asked, shaking her head with impatience.  The motion sent her bangs slapping across her face.

“One moment,” Aiden lifted his hands over his head and stretched.  He heard Mara snort at the inevitable lifting of his shirt.  When he was done, he turned to the now vacant doorway and exited.  The ship corridor was more busted looking than the day before, courtesy of Luke’s landing.  It got them from point A to point B, Nimbus Station to Jirdia, three thousand lightyears.  Its job was done.

Once outside, he met with Luke, Mara, Ben, Shard, and Juiliet standing a couple hundred yards from the ship.  In Luke’s hand was a remote detonator.

“What are you-“ Aiden started.

“The starship Renaissance,” Luke began.  “H class cargo cat, with a cockpit in the back, and ugly as heck.  Yet having got us through a Maelstrom attack unscathed, we are forever in her debt.”

“No, seriously,” Aiden tried again, “you’re not blowing up the ship.”  He made a dash for the blond boy – man, actually, Luke was twenty – colliding just in time to stop Luke’s trigger finger from depressing the big red button.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Luke protested, pushing his attacker off him – Aiden stepped back, grinning, the detonator now in his hand.

Then Mara caught him in a chokehold, the detonator flew into her other hand, and she pressed the button.

The explosion caused her to let go and Aiden whirled around in time to see Renaissance’s nameplate be enveloped by the flames, along with its registration number, a trace of which would have revealed the ship’s titled owner as Intrepid Fusion Eclipse of the Leek Works Corporation.

“You just blew up my ship,” Aiden stated.  “That cost me 10 million coins.”

“You might get a hundred now for its scrap metal,” Ben said quietly.

“Damn you,” Aiden muttered.  “Not you, Ben; Luke, Mara, damn you.”

Luke just sniffed and Mara cackled devilishly.  Shard offered a resigned shrug.  Juiliet returned to her notes and Ben stared at his feet.

Aiden shook his head.

. -

The fifteen mile walk off the beaten path to Jericho took all of the morning.  By midday they entered the city and following the advice of Juiliet, natively from the planet, they quickly and inconspicuously began to mingle with the diversified population.  Figorians of many races, faces, and manners of dress passed them on the streets of this modern, developed world.  In their casually outrageous attires, the Renaissance team fit right in.

“Should have landed there,” Shard quipped, pointing out a landing port where every thirty seconds an airship would take off and another would land.

“Next time a Bazooka Stromling blows out our windows, you try flying.” Luke retorted.

Recalling Renaissance’s fiery demise, Aiden stated, “None of you are flying a ship of mine again.”

Mara laughed.  “Good luck staying committed to that.”

She knew he wouldn’t.

“We should, like, get married,” she added.

“Now where would you get an idea like that?” Aiden said, knowing exactly where from.

The girl winked.

“Hell no,” Luke cut in.  “I’m not being that guy’s brother in law.”

“I thought they were cousins,” Juiliet spoke up as they approached, after ambling for half a mile down a busy road, to a bus stop.

“They are,” Aiden answered her.  “Destination check?”

Mara summoned her iBrick and reported, “A university parkway a mile past that hill,” speaking of a steeply elevated road leading up a hillcrest to the northwest.

“Think it’s faster by bus or walking?” Aiden wondered.

“I’m riding,” Luke declared.

“I’m with him.” Mara joined in.

Aiden shrugged.

Shard paused for a moment to sniff, “Lazy people,” before walking by.

“Nerd, it’s called saving energy,” Luke shot back.

Aiden shrugged.  “Catch you later,” and entered a quick jog after the janitor, Juiliet, and Ben who had kept up their stride.  Against the current of pedestrian traffic he caught up to them – although such a thing was pointless.

Their point of interest was more or less an entire swath of land that needed staking out, as not even the advanced radar technology gifted to Leek Works by the Nexus Force could pinpoint the exact location of any object in the universe – especially something as faint as a spatial anomaly five billion miles away from the nearest radar relay on a deep space Nexus Force starship.  Splitting up was part of the plan.

- .

Seated on a lakeside park bench, sunglasses over his eyes and an iBrick held to his ear, Aiden’s focus was divided.  Half of his attention was on the people in passing, primarily students from the local university, using the parkway to travel between campus locations.  Others stayed put, enjoying the lakeside environment.  His scrutiny was essential to ensuring the mission was a go.  There could be no suspicion of foul elements.

So far, all seemed clear.  Aiden had long ago confirmed his location was tangent to the projected epicenter of the disturbance.

Back on Nimbus Station, the Renaissance team’s target had been described as a “distortion in the consistency of fringe Unverse” in the mission plan.  As ascribed before, its exact location was not yet pinpointed, but that would change if Aiden and the others were successful.  They carried three subspace repeaters for detecting, and amplifying, micro gravitational vibrations in space indicative of a nascent breach in Unverse, although the possibility of taking it beyond that remained in the theoretical.

“Ash Team reporting,” Juiliet’s voice came across a secure line, “Shard and I are in position with the receiver.”

“Wynn Team reporting,” Aiden responded quietly, “acknowledged.”

“Any update from Ethel team?”

After a few moments of silence, Aiden grimaced and loudly mused, “They’re probably still on the bus.”

“We can hear you, idiots,” said Luke.  “We are not on the bus.  We are outside the library and trying to be inconspicuous.”

“Ash Shadow here; how inconspicuous of you to say that, m’Luke.” came Shard’s voice from Juiliet’s location.

“Do you have an ETA?” Aiden asked.

“Twenty seconds,” Luke gave him.

Another line crackled to life.  “Wynn Auxiliary reporting,” came Ben’s soft voice.  Acting as Aiden’s shadow, he was observing Aiden and his surroundings from afar for threats.  “We have a Nexus Force Code Gray, advising an abort.”  To Aiden, he instructed, “Without turning your head, look to your right.  Three benches down.”

Crap, Aiden thought, daring not to say anything nor so much as breathe any differently while doing as told.  He panned his eyes to the right, past the point where his left eye’s view was blocked by his nose – he couldn’t quite move them separately, yet – and counted three benches down.  The first supporting a cuddling couple, the next was occupied by some friends, and on the third one he saw her dressed in a simple dark coat.  Long, almost black hair draped over her shoulders to brush her crossed arms.  Like Aiden, she was facing straight ahead, which meant nothing as she too wore sunglasses.  Like Aiden, they obscured the true direction of her attention, and in their immediate vicinities, they were the only ones wearing them.

“Repeat, please?” Luke asked.  “Did you say abort?”

“I repeat, abort.” Ben confirmed.  “It’s a Code Gray.”

“What’s a Code Gray?” Luke asked.

Shard audibly facepalmed.  “Freaking check your log book.”

Through the receiver Aiden heard Luke grumble something.  After a moment he sighed, “Standing by,” followed by affirmative three ‘standing by’s from the rest of Ash and Ethel teams and their shadows.

He stared sidelong at the sunglasses girl three benches down again.  In itself, a choice in attire was insufficient cause for suspicious.  To request a mission abort, Ben had to have a pretty damn good reason to suspect this person, and from what Aiden could see, he was inclined to agree with Ben’s call for a Code Gray, because he recognized this girl too.  She was someone he hadn’t seen in three years, since the last time he’d been hands on with Unverse.  They’d fought but neither had won or lost, like equal and opposite.  He didn’t know her name or where she was from, and the only person he thought could, Tiberius Talmid, had disappeared a long time ago…

If she was here, she probably recognized him, too.

Alright, Aiden thought to himself.  “Alright,” he muttered to the team.  The Code Gray call meant a person of interest had been identified, which to the Nexus Force meant a person in need of apprehension.

“We’re on our way,” Juiliet responded with tight discipline, and at that moment the girl threw on a hood and stood up.

“Better start running,” Aiden said, getting up too.  He glanced up the hill behind his bench, where Ben was supposedly stationed.  He didn’t see him, as was the point of the shadow formation, but he presumed he was moving as well.  Code Gray was a serious call sign, higher priority than most standing orders.

So until they’d captured the mysterious transdimensional associate of Tiberius, or failed trying, the Unverse mission was off.

Shaking his head, Aiden almost lost the girl of interest behind a sudden crowd.  In response he shoved his iBrick into a jeans pocket and removed his aviators, increasing his pace as the parkway spilled into a market street ideal for getting lost in.  Aiden turned on his heel one way, then turned his head the other direction searchingly.  Just like that, the target had disappeared.

Such a failure would look great on the report Juiliet was sure to write, he thought, when on the other side of the street, Aiden’s eyes fell on a black hood weaving between the heads of the other passerbys.  The road looked clear so he dashed across.  She slipped into a coffee shop, the door to which Aiden caught just before it closed, jumping over the threshold and spotting the table where the girl had taken a seat.

Aiden swung himself into the seat across and was about to say something, when the color of her hair stopped him, because it wasn’t black.

Staring back at him, between parted red fringes, were quizzical brown eyes.

“Sorry,” Aiden found his voice, getting up to leave.  “I thought you were someone else.”

“Intrepid?” the girl asked, and he stopped mid-motion to recognize the sound of her voice, and then he really stared at her face.

“Goodness,” Aiden said, dropping back into the seat in shock at seeing the person he’d run into.

Kate dropped her hood and pulled out her earphones.  “Yeah, I… can’t say I was expecting to see you, either.”

“No, I definitely- I mean yes, I didn’t expect to see you,” Aiden shook his head, suddenly flustered.

“I think it’s been three years,” Kate said.

“Yeah,” Aiden affirmed, “it has.”

She leaned over.  “You look different,” she observed.

She did, too.  Unobscured by the hood, her hair was longer than before.  Her face had new dimensions, details, creases. 

“We’re older,” Aiden rationalized.

Kate ran a hand under her jaw and Aiden puffed out a laugh.  “I haven’t had the chance to shave since our ship crashed.”

“That was you?” Kate asked, staring out the window momentarily in reconciliation.  “I thought that was a shooting star I saw last night.”

“Did you make a wish?” Aiden asked.

Kate whirled back.  “You’re definitely different,” she said again, with conviction this time.  “Talkative.  More secure.”

He shrugged.  “I also go by Aiden now,” he told her.

Kate crossed her arms in validation.  “Case in point, Aiden.”

He smiled, and she grinned back.  After a moment, her face reverted to a serious expression.

“We have a lot to catch up on,” she said, looking out the window again, “and I was just grabbing some caffeine before my next class.”

“You go to the university?” Aiden asked.

“Do you have a better idea for why I’m back here?” she posed.  “On my home world?”

“Okay, I didn’t know you were from here.” Aiden admitted.  “At all.”

“Like I said, we’re going to catch up.” Kate asserted, moving to leave, and Aiden got up as well.  “And then you’ll tell me what you’re doing here.”

“I’d like that,” he said, following her out of the shop.  As they entered the street, he noticed a familiar face watching from the other side.  She wasn’t wearing sunglasses or a hood this time.

While he was momentarily distracted, Kate pressed something into his hand.  “Give me a call,” she said, and ran off.  Looking down, Aiden saw she’d given him a business card with a contact number.

When he looked back up across the street, the girl of interest was gone.

. . .

“It seems we’re not the only ones interested in the potential of this Unverse disruption,” were the recorded words of Verbina Ingram in response to Juiliet’s briefing on the day’s turn of events on Jirdia, including the transdimensional girl Aiden hadn’t run into that day.  “This was foreseeable.

“In the meantime, our long distance triangulation efforts have refined the target area, the updated coordinates are attached to this message.  Good luck, Renaissance team.”

Aiden closed his iBrick and stared ahead at the progress Luke and Mara had made on setting up their subspace repeater, which they’d packed up again during the Code Gray, and had to unpack again.  The updated coordinates placed the six of them within five acres of each other, well within walking and visual range, eliminating the need for separate teams in separate areas.

The new area of the park where they met up was scattered with artificial bodies of water, bordered with ceramic, adorned with fountains, and occupied with geese and goldfish.  Stone walkways made winding paths around them all.  A city like Jericho in a world like Jirdia had long reached the point of sociocultural maturity where all crime, petty, felonious, and terroristic was nonexistent due to unnecessity.  As a result, they could set up their subspace repeaters as they pleased.

Working in close quarters also allowed them to watch each other’s backs, as the transdimensional girl was surely watching them.

“And the diagnostics test, passed!” Luke said with a dramatic flair.  Mara punched the air and Ben tapped Aiden on the shoulder.

“We’re set for stage one,” the kid said.

Good, Aiden thought, about time.  “Let’s get this started,” he said, following Ben back to their subspace repeater.  Along the way he waved to Shard and Juiliet standing four hundred feet away on the other side of the lake with Ash Team’s repeater.  Narrowing his eyes, he panned his gaze and turned on his heel to get a full three-sixty.  He didn’t see any mysterious people, for what his eyes were worth in the evening light.  He shrugged at Ben and turned back to their repeater.  Diagnostic test results were currently on its display, tested positive, so Aiden hit the on switch and put his iBrick to speaker.

“Alright, crew,” he announced.  “Repeaters to record.”

Ben turned a dial and stood back as the machine began to hum.  The display was synced to the screens of the iBricks held by each Renaissance team member, and Ben observed the former while Aiden stared at the latter.  The seismic bars had risen and now oscillated between two close points.  There was spatial activity in the area.

“Increase the sensitivity,” Aiden said and Ben rotated another knob.  The bars reached an equilibrium and now reported a more precise range of distance.

“We’ve got data,” Juiliet announced.

“All set here,” Mara said from their station.

“Shut it down,” Aiden said and at Ben’s hand the machine shuddered to a standstill, while the numbers remained on Aiden’s screen.  157.5 feet from his repeater, 208.64 feet from Juiliet and Shard’s, and 179 or 177 feet from Luke and Mara’s.  That was all the data they needed.  He opened the secure share tunnel with the nearest Nexus Force starship with instructions to pass on to Nimbus Station.

“We could compute this ourselves,” Ben said.

“Aye,” Aiden agreed, “and we have the injector.”  They didn’t need to say that it took long enough for Verbina’s last message to reach them.  On average, 36 hours at this distance.  “But we still need their clearance to proceed.”  He of all people knew that, and it disturbed him to no end, especially when small scale spatial anomalies were, by nature, fleeting.

And if he could get one step closer to breaching Unverse again by himself, he knew he wanted to do it.

“Besides,” Aiden added, while moving to pack up the repeater.  It wasn’t larger than a cubic meter and once disassembled, folded up nice enough to fit in two backpacks.  “There’s plenty to do on a world like this in the meantime.  But I will ask you to work with Luke and Mara on taking these results and pinpointing the exact location of that disturbance.”  Staring across the lakefront, he could see the other teams already packed up and headed back to their hotel for the night.  “Seems it’ll be right on top of that drink,” he estimated.

“So we’ll need a boat.” Ben said.

Aiden turned back to him.  “If we don’t have a response by next afternoon, I’m authorizing us to proceed.”

Ben nodded.  His dark red hair had gotten long and when he did that, his bangs flopped loosely across and back from his eyes amusingly.  It made him look a lot like a certain Mara Mercury.

They made their way back to the road where pedestrian traffic remained ever steady in spite of the encroaching night.  On the walk, as they passed a coffee shop, Aiden remembered his chance encounter with Kate.  Taking out her business card, he added the number to his contacts and wrote a quick message.  Want to meet? – Aiden.

Come to the Esplanade, Kate responded.

“Meeting someone?” Ben asked when they got to the lobby but Aiden kept walking.

“You figure right,” Aiden said, and he asked, “You remember Kate?” before realizing it was a stupid question.

Ben’s face dipped grimly.  “In my dimension… we all remember Kate.”

Of course they did.

“She’s here,” Aiden told him, then he continued walking.

The Esplanade was a long seaside tract on a gentle slope, the elevated half grass and the other half sand, on Jericho’s eastern bay edge.  Sailboats, sun boats, and row boats were docked in rows along piers extending far into the bay.  On land, where Aiden walked, small stalls, booths, locker rooms, benches, and gazebos were scattered at various points.  Needless to say it was a busy locale even at night, with lights in various colors providing illumination to most of the tract, but leaving some pockets in shadow.  Music from different sources and a thousand conversations blended into a general hubbub that finding one Kate in would be impossible, if she hadn’t sent Aiden a set of coordinates leading to the edge of a pier, where she sat next to a pair of sneakers.  At Aiden’s approaching footfalls she looked over her shoulder and smiled.

“You made it,” she said.

“Not a party person?” Aiden asked.

Kate smiled, “I like the calm,” and reached for the shoes.

While she took her shins out of the water and got up, he looked across the big blue.  The salty tang in the air and the bay wind brushing against his hair reminded him of days standing on Avant Gardens and Nimbus Station, overlooking the blue swirls of shark-ridden ocean separating the worlds from the expanse of space.  He’d spent a lot of time looking, contemplating, and wondering there.  He saw where Kate was coming from.

“I appreciate calm, too,” Aiden said.

Kate finished tieing her laces.

“So I’ve done some wondering,” Kate said, giving him a thoughtful expression, “why you could be here, of all places in the universe.”

Aiden flashed her a smile.  “Want to share them?”

“No, they’re stupid,” Kate laughed.  “I rather you just tell me, if you can.”

Aiden put his hand in his pockets and stared back, considering.  “I’m not sure,” he admitted, “it’s pretty classified.”

“Oh, I’m sure you can tell me, I’m Nexus Force,” she said with a smile.

“I thought you left the Nexus Force,” Aiden said.

“I did,” Kate responded, “but I bet whatever you’re doing here, I can help.”

She was right, Aiden thought, especially considering she’d been on the planet for the past three years.  “How about we talk as we walk,” he said, and they headed for the boardwalk, “but know that sharing knowledge of this mission is on a need to know basis.  Few in the Nexus Force even know what we’re doing here.”

At his side, Kate nodded back.  “Got it.”

Aiden considered a moment, glanced around, then began.  “We’re trying to create a breach in Unverse.”

He looked back to her to see her response, but when she wasn’t there he spun on his heel to see her standing the amount of silent paces behind him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked tensely, while panning his eyes for threats, wondering to himself, had she been shot?

“Oh, Aiden.” Kate sighed.  “I thought… I was hoping, you’d have moved on."  Her expression conveyed a sense of disappointment and immediately Aiden knew what she meant.  And he was disappointed, too, to have disappointed her.  What she didn’t say, but he knew she was thinking, was that he was not so different after all.

For a moment, Aiden wondered, was she right?  Had he really been chasing the same goal for the past three years?

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s okay,” Kate said, and quickly smiled brightly.  “I’ll still help you out.”

“Oh, I appreciate that,” he said, breathing inward and fixing her a genuine return smile.  He didn’t intend to give her too many details, that was always advised when sharing intel.  He recalled one thing that was a new development for the mission, a direct cause for concern, and could possibly affect the outcome if left undealt with.

“Do you remember back in the Dimensional war,” he asked, “there was a girl working for Tiberius?”

Kate nodded with a slight grimace of empathy.  “She did a number on you.”

“She’s here.” Aiden said.  “And we don’t know why.”

Kate stepped closer.  “Does she know you’re here?” she hissed.

“Surely.”

“It’s got to be the same reason you’re here,” Kate said with certainty.  “Unverse.”

“I’ve figured as much,” Aiden agreed.  “She’s elusive.”

“I remember,” Kate laughed.  Seriously, she advised, “We’ll just have to wait till she shows up again.”

“I’m glad you say we.” Aiden said.

She smiled.  “Me too.  It’s just like old times.”  She stared at the night sky, “Well, until as aforementioned occurs… do you have a place to stay?”  Far enough down the beachfront from the rest of the Esplanade’s light pollution, the stars were visible at the boardwalk.

“We’ve got a hotel,” Aiden told her.

“Luke and Mara?” Kate asked.

“And some others,” he disclosed.

“Just like old times,” she repeated.  “I’ll walk you there.”

“You don’t have to,” he said, but she shook her head.

“We might be going in the same direction,” she said cheerily, “it’s one way to find out.”

By the time they’d made it to the main street, Kate was pointing out locales.  “There’s a good apparel store down that road.”  “That’s the best pizza place.”

A familiar logo caught his eye.  “Didn’t know there’s a Nexus Force office down here,” Aiden said, recognizing the familiar white starburst logo behind the window of an otherwise decrepit storefront.  Narrowing his eyes, Aiden made to cross the road.

“It’s not Nexus Force,” Kate said, following behind him, while he read the words beneath it.  ‘Now recruiting,’ and he saw she was right.  In small font, the front signage read, ‘Answer the Call, Save Imagination, Join the Vortex Force.’

Aiden stiffened.

There were some things to dislike about the Nexus Force, he’d admit.  As a small business owner and private operative, he knew.   But this was worse.

He looked at Kate and continued walking.  “What’s this address?” he asked, while reaching for his phone.

“1535 Main,” Kate said, shifting her eyes from him to the side, but smartly not looking behind at the target they were obviously now avoiding communion with.

He dialed into the mission channel and said into his phone, “We have a Code Bob.  1535 Main Street.  Situation: Awaiting intel.”

Someone clicked in and most inappropriate yelled back, “What’s a Code Bob?”

Aiden cringed and Kate laughed softly.  “Classic Mara,” she said, while Aiden toned down the volume and directed his feet to a sidewalk bench, which he sat down on.  Kate took the spot next to him.

“You remember the Faction War,” Aiden said.

“That was a thing.” Kate acknowledged.  “Although it was over by the time we’d returned… Cyclone and I.”

“How long has that shop been open?” Aiden asked.

“It’s not closed, if you’re wondering.” Kate said.

“Then it’s not over.  The Faction war’s not over.” Aiden said, putting his mouth into a grim, straight line.  And there was another block in the road between him and Unverse, except this one couldn’t get up, disappear, and dismiss itself.  It was hiding in plain sight.  It was a Code Bob, named after the satire piece exposing Bob, the Nexus Force hero, as a spy for the Darkitect.

“Who is it?” Kate whispered.

“Paradox Rogues,” Aiden said.

- - -

He made his way around the building’s corner to its rear fascia.  As expected, a heavy looking steel door served as a service door.  With that, he turned on his heel and walked back, every step putting the storefront another step behind him, and... he turned around to see Kate staring at him.  He waved and continued walking to the hotel.

In a short while she caught up with him.  “Where are you going?” she hissed.  “The place is unguarded.”

He glanced at her.  “You thought we were breaking in?”

“I thought you were breaking in,” she corrected.

He stuffed his hands into his pockets and flexed the seams with his fingers.  “I called a Code Bob,” he explained, “named after the satire piece supposedly exposing Bob as a spy for the Darkitect.”

“That was satire?  I remember people taking it pretty seriously.”

“Maybe they did… after the fact, the official version of the story is a satire.”  He checked his iBrick for radio chatter, then picked up his pace.  “Sorry for getting off track.  There’s protocol for things like this.  I’m following it.”

“You’re following it,” she repeated, not attempting to hide the incredulous nature of the statement.  “That’s not like the Intrepid I knew.”

“You said so yourself I’m different now,” Aiden reminded, and she folded her arms in response.

“Only in some ways,” Kate said after a moment.  By this time, they reached the entrance of the Silver Archway Hotel, with its signature brushed metal arch – inside it was a line of smaller arches, security gates, of which he walked up to one.  “You’re seriously staying here?”

Aiden swiped an ID card and the security gate opened.  He stepped through, turned around, and gestured to a small, spoked logo on the gate’s edge.   “It’s Nexus Force sponsored.”

“Of course.”  She pointed a finger, but didn’t touch, another small logo, this one printed in block text, Dekairie Defense.  “What happened to Leek Works?  The whole staying independent thing?”

Aiden felt himself taking on a forlorn look.  “It... helps to have official clearance.  And actual resources.  Luke and Mara, we all agreed to accept the Nexus Force’s employment.  The site itself is closed, though.  They get us, but they don’t get that.  We won’t make all the mistakes of the Future Dimension.”

“But you’re still making mistakes,” Kate repeated.  The gate began beeping, warning of automatic closure now that Aiden had already stepped through.  Beep.  Beep.  Beep.  She stayed on the other side.

“I know,” Aiden acknowledged, and he shook his head while saying it.  “But it’s necessary.”

“Is it?”  She spoke so softly, he barely heard the words.

“We’re close,” he continued.  “We’re using borrowed tech, so we need clearance for the next step, but when we get it…”  He could still picture the next step.  Distortions in the air, a pressure shift that made ears pop, a barely audible infrasonic roar, and the blue-white glare of a vortex.

Beep, beep, beep.

On the final note, a forcefield snapped back into the gate, visible for the split second that it spliced the air, before a gentle hum set in.

“Good night, Aiden, and good luck.” Kate said, and she gave him a small smile.

“Good night,” Aiden bid, and she stepped into the night, but not before he noticed her take on a troubled expression.

Mildly bothered, Aiden turned and crossed the hotel plaza.  In the lobby, which was darkened at this time of night, he made for the edge of the grand staircase, gripping the woodgrain banister as he climbed the stairs and sifted his thoughts.  The mission obviously didn’t impress Kate, and he didn’t pretend otherwise.  Hell, to say she was less than put off would be pretending.

He shook his head as he rounded the landing to the hall with his suite.  Luke, Mara, Juiliet, Shard, and Ben each had one of their own, in completely different areas of the hotel, so it’d take more than one well-placed assassin’s bomb to take them all out.  He snorted.  It wasn’t just his imagination that inspired such arrangements.  Secret Nexus Force Agent was a dangerous job.

With another swipe of his ID card, he authorized entry into his suite, then jammed his key into the electric door lock.  Absent authorization, a lockpicker would be electrocuted.  Petty, since anyone serious enough would just shoot the door down.

Applying a twist to the key, Aiden noted that it couldn’t rotate, meaning it was already unlocked... he’d left it locked, of course.  Grunting, he prepared to shove the door open and confirm his suspicions, while considering how it’d been done.  A small scale EMP to disable the electric shock?  Or arc-proof gloves?  Or taking the master key off the clerk.  One way or another, Aiden stood corrected.  Someone serious enough could break in without removing the door, and apparently, she was; she, being the person of interest, the Code Gray, the associate of Tiberius, the mysterious girl with the almost black hair.  Who else?

He was even hopeful, for a second, that it could be Red.

It’s late, and who am I kidding, Aiden wondered, and he threw the door open and stepped in, only to stand for another correction.  Pursing his lips, Aiden looked around and nodded, then he drew the multiblaster from his holster.  Of course.

The room was in order, the bed was still made, nothing was out of place, and he’d expected what he saw, at least partially.  Standing next to the couch, dressed all in black, athletic clothes, with her trench coat folded up and perched on the backrest, revealing the loaded belt of weapons around her hips, was Tiberius’s associate.  She reached for a weapon but was stopped by the third person in the room.

Seated on the couch was Tiberius Talmid, at whom Aiden was pointing the multiblaster.

“Explain why I shouldn’t send you where you sent-” Aiden’s voice cracked, and he cursed.  “-Where you sent my family.”

Tiberius smirked bashfully.  “Your gun can really do that?  I’d ask you to shoot it.”

“You have ten seconds.” Aiden growled.

Tiberius maintained the nerve to smile.  “She could stop you in an instant.”

Aiden kept the weapon levelled.  “Eight seconds, Tiberius, no extensions.  How’d you get in?”

“Transdimensional rift.”

“Impossible.”

“The bonds of Unverse are weak on this planet.  Jirdia, it’s called?  Quite peculiar.”  Tiberius stroked his beard with one hand and checked his watch with the other.  “I’d advise you to look into it, deeper in fact, if that isn’t telling too much… how many seconds have we left?”

Aiden shook his head.  “None.  You’re on borrowed time.  Keep talking.”

“About what, dear nephew?”

“You truly opened a Transdimensional rift into this room?”

“Just from the other side of the door.  The bonds are weak, but still very much there, thanks to you and Kate and that device your friends from the other dimension cooked up.  Mind you, I’ve been working just as hard as you to crack Unverse open again.”

“Not using Maelstrom again, I’d hope, for your sake,” Aiden warned.

“I’ve raised my standards.”  Tiberius shrugged.  “Others have not.”

“What others?”

“That would be saying too much for your ears right now.”

Aiden frowned.  “Tiberius, I’m holding a gun.  Spit.”

“Fine,” the man scowled.  “The Paradox Rogues are building a Transdimensional gate of sorts, only two miles under Dekairie Defense Company headquarters, so I’ve heard.  Happy now?  Stop pointing the gun at me, now?”

“My room, my rules.”  Not taking his eyes, or the gun, off Tiberius’s direction, Aiden reached for his iBrick.

The girl looked eager to make a move, but Tiberius raised a hand.  “Aiden, the Nexus Force can’t be involved.”

“Why not?”

Tiberius pointed downward.  “The bombs.”

“What bombs?”

“The Rogues have a few tonnes of Maelstronium down there.  This is a huge operation, and a huge secret that couldn’t occur if they thought the Nexus Force knew about it.  Think about it, Aiden.  If the Nexus Force realizes what’s going on, what’s to stop them from pressing the button?  The entire hemisphere would be infected.”  For once, Tiberius’s expression was grave.  “You know the Rogues have a fifth column in Nimbus.”

“Then how do you know this is happening?” Aiden asked.

“Not all things, but nonetheless sometimes, some things, events, and histories are shared across dimensions.”  Tiberius stared into Aiden’s eyes beseechingly, as if begging for belief.  “This is one of them.”

“So…” Aiden pressed, “which dimension had this happen before?”

“Mine,” said the girl, from whose mouth Aiden had never heard a word spoken before.

“So you do speak,” Aiden stated.  He turned back to Tiberius.  “Why do you care?”

“Ever since you went full conscript,” Tiberius said, with all seriousness, “and with the knowledge advantage I have, I decided someone had to take your place as protector of the multiverse, or what’s left of it, and-”

Aiden didn’t hear the rest under his laughter.  Tiberius protecting the multiverse was too funny.  He bet Mara and Luke would get a kick of it, too.

Then someone kicked him in the face and he was falling backward, the multiblaster flying from his hand.  He hit the ground, which lucky for his head, was carpeted, while inwardly cursing Tiberius and the girl.  Then the girl was pulling him back to his feet with one hand, which promptly shoved him into a chair pulled over by Tiberius.  Her other hand gripped a weapon.  The tables had turned.

Then Tiberius handed him his multiblaster back from where it had fallen, a gesture that Aiden could appreciate, before he and the girl then took seats opposite Aiden.

“Alright, cut to the chase, what in hell do you two want from me?” Aiden demanded.

“To get the Rogues off this planet,” Tiberius said.  “Primarily, stop the Maelstronium threat.”

“Maelstronium,” Aiden repeated.

“Maelstrom ore,” the girl defined.

“Is it for their transdimensional gate?” Aiden wondered aloud.  “To open a rift?”

“In this capacity,” Tiberius said, “in this location, I’d say it’s highly plausible.”

“You’d never use it, though,” Aiden said.

“As I said, my standards have risen.  A rift opened by such means would be a gateway to straight here from the Maelstrom Dimensions.”

“Dimensions,” Aiden repeated.  “I thought there was just one.”  Putting his iBrick down, Aiden took out a notepad instead, rested it on his edge of the table, and began scribbling notes.

“No,” the girl said, “there’s isn’t.”

“As if you know more,” Aiden said, looking up, and for the first time, even in the dimmed evening lighting of the suite, he could really study the subject of mystery.  She had dark, almost black hair like Tiberius.  There were likewise features in her face familiar to him.  Angular eyes, a wideset jaw, pointed nose, dark eyes, but not just like Tiberius, she was like other members of the family.  Like himself.  Like a long lost relative who he’d never known of.  But oddly, impossibly closer than that, and also, fascinatingly, wrong.

She stared back, making eye contact, and in those eyes Aiden saw the same comparing, calculating thoughts behind the gaze, searching, finding.

“Who are you?” Aiden asked.

She studied him for a long time, while he waited, in dreadful anticipation, for her answer.  She seemed at conflict with herself, what to say, how to answer.

“If we’re going to work together,” Aiden pressed, in a low voice but firmly, “I need to know.”  He glanced at Tiberius.  The old man was silent.

She spoke at last, the words tumbling over emotional stumbling blocks.  “My name, my birth name, is lost.  I don’t remember it.”

“Oh.” Aiden said.  He wasn’t sure if he believed her.

“So now I go by Lost.  We’re not from the same dimension,” she continued.

He’d figured that much.  “But a parallel one,” Aiden ventured.

“A Maelstrom one,” Lost nodded, “where the Nexus Force was attacked and defeated, by Maelstrom from two other dimensions.  I was made a transdimensional agent, working for the Maelstrom, infected enough to use the Arms of the Vortex for transportation, but on an excursion to this dimension… I was liberated.”  She turned to Tiberius

Aiden turned to face his uncle as well.  “You… disinfected her?”

“She arrived to my...” Tiberius chose his next word, “…laboratory, back home on Elistra, only partially infected.  I knew about Maelstrom and Imagination.  I knew how to work them, as you know, although you may or may not agree.  I did what I would anyone.  This was after the attack, of course.”

“Everything I know about my past,” Lost continued, “Tiberius and I discovered from data left from the Maelstrom attackers.”

“Lost has truly helped me, immensely, with everything.  We searched the old battlefields for data of all manner,” Tiberius described, “any clues to help me find the answers to all the questions I had… where had the Maelstrom come from?  Where had they gone?  Where had our people gone?”  He paused, and added, quietly, “Where did our family go?  Many, many people seemed to have disappeared.”

“Did you look in the cemetery?” Aiden asked with purposeful bitterness.

“I bid you not to get wound up on that,” Tiberius advised.

Aiden stared at him hard.  “That’s my prerogative.”

“I know what happened to Evelyne and I swear, I am sorry-”

“Then you’re a liar,” Aiden stood up from the chair and faced Tiberius.  “I don’t know how useful you are in a firefight.  The girl, I mean Lost, I know is good.  But two aint enough for this...  It’s a suicide mission without my team.”

Tiberius looked up in alarm.  “I told you the Nexus Force can’t be made aware-”

“We know how to operate independently,” Aiden said, while Tiberius frowned in thought.  “Hell, that’s why you came to me in the first place.”

“Some of you can be trusted,” Tiberius agreed, “for sure, the Mercurys.   The extradimensioners.  I’m worried about the blue girl.”

“Juiliet,” Aiden nodded.  “You haven’t had a chance to meet her yet, lucky for her.  Leave my team to me.  I trust her.”

“The wellbeing of this planet is hinged on your judgement,” Tiberius warned.  “Anyone you didn’t trust, I could lock away for a while-”

Aiden stared at him hard.  “Don’t disgust me.  You asked me for help, and I’m giving it, so you’d better trust me.”  He turned to Lost, as well, who had stepped back and not interfered between them for once.  “That goes for you as well.”

Lost nodded.

“I’m going to wake up the rest of the team, and debrief them so nothing nasty happens when they see you two here,” Aiden said.  “Gather up supplies.  I’m sure you know how to do that.”

He turned to leave the suite, opened the door, and made it out to the hall, halfway to the Mercurys’ suite when Tiberius called his name, and frowning, Aiden turned back to face him.  He let Tiberius approach, and when they were close enough to converse discreetly, Tiberius said quietly, “There is… more I have to tell you…”

“Oh?” Aiden said.  “You’re volunteering info?”

“I’m debating with myself,” Tiberius said.  “I know it.  Lost doesn’t know.  You don’t know.”

So it’s about Lost, Aiden thought.  “Well?”

“It’s not relevant,” Tiberius decided then and there, “not now.  When you come back, ask me.”

Aiden reached for the multiblaster, and Tiberius smiled, putting a hand to Aiden’s holster.  “I won’t play that game again.  You wouldn’t shoot me.”  He pushed the weapon back in.

“No,” Aiden agreed.  Not now, perhaps, but believe me, there have been times where I’d like to do nothing more.

He smiled.  Tiberius smiled.  The two parted ways for the moment.  Aiden had a mission to do, and after rounding up his team, introducing Lost as a friend, and explaining the circumstances, they’d need access, presumably, to the depths of Dekairie Defense Company.  Another coincidental link.  Coincidences were aplenty on this entire trip so far.  Now he’d have to meet Kate again.