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>

February 31, 3031

“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, two thousand six hundred and thrty-two 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 inappropriately 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 Maelstromnium 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.

April 4, 3031

It was first light, and like the day starting so began a new calm.  Behind his back, the hulking mass of concrete supported a bridge up and over from his side of the river to the other.  His eyes followed its span and back to his secret place where he stood now, a little green cove to go when needing peace.  But peace was not what he needed now.  He needed support, like the support the bridge had, but not so much for himself, but to give to his wife.

“I think this means we’re not ready,” she said so softly, and in the audible deadness of the morning, he heard her clearly.

  He didn’t know what to say, and he said nothing while pulling himself off his support.  He stepped across the sand and pebbles to stand by her.  In spite of a jacket, she was shivering, and he reached out-

  She retreated fast.  “Don’t-” she warned, staring at her hands.  “I don’t trust my-”

  Her hands closed into fists.

  Her eyes closed.

  This time she let him put an arm around her shoulders.  Then she broke down.

  “Kate,” he heard himself saying.  "We’ve been, and we’re in this together.  Through everything.  Look at me.”

  She did.

  “It’s not your fault.”

. . -

 Aiden woke up, momentarily lost.  When he opened his eyes, he was in his suite at the Silver Archway.  When he closed them, the image of the cove stayed fresh in his mind.  He blinked.  It was still there.  He closed his eyes longer… and it faded to memory.

He lifted an arm, rotated his cuff.  The feeling of holding Kate was still there.  Like it wasn’t just a dream, but it had actually happened.  He wasn’t sure, now, because this dream had been more vivid than the others.  He never forgot them, but he never knew what was going in them.

But this time he knew.

Not everything, but something specific from a different man’s life.  More than Rowana had ever told him.  More than what the Future Dimension’s Intrepid Fusion Eclipse had ever put in his Leek Work’s files, that Aiden had since inherited.

It felt so real, the failure, the guilt, the pain.

It was real.

The pain of losing a child.

- - .

Aiden spent some time facing the windows, letting the blur of pedestrians passing the coffee shop lull him into a contemplative trance of sorts, while he waited for Kate.  They’d scheduled a meetup that morning for reasons he’d tell her when she was there.  The Nexus Force communications network that his iBrick connected to was monitored, he knew, and Tiberius had been clear about keeping the Nexus Force out.  What the Nexus Force knew, the Paradox Rogues knew, too.

It took some convincing, but after an open group discussion with his entire team, and Tiberius and Lost present as well, they’d agreed to keep this under wraps until the operation was complete, or things got out of control, the latter requested by Juiliet.  If they needed help, the Nexus Force was a panic button away.  Tiberius had accepted that, since things would be pretty dire at that point anyway.  As well, Tiberius had presented all the files to prove that his intel about the Rogue operations was accurate.

He saw a familiar head bobbing in the crowd, and Aiden stopped reflecting on the past night’s rather tiring events to smile as Kate entered the shop.  She jumped straight into the booth seat across him, and into conversation.  “So, what’s the big secret that you can’t text or even call about?  ‘Need to see you in person,’ it’s got to be important.”

“Well,” Aiden said, inching forward in his seat and lowering his voice, “I prefer face to face communication.  I think it’s more honest.”

She raised an eyebrow and leaned forward too.  “I agree with that.  So, what do you want to be honest about?” she asked back.

“To be honest,” he said, lowering his voice with each word until he was practically silent under the general ambience, a trick he’d learned in discretion, “I’m going to be straightforward, my team and I need to get into Dekairie Defense headquarters.”

He waited to make sure she heard the request.  She nodded, then whispered conspiratorially, “I can do that… but why?”

“I’ll tell you, but it needs to be kept a secret.  From everyone.  The Nexus Force doesn’t know,” he added, “and it needs to stay that way.  And you know how much I stick to regulation now.”

“I can keep classified intel,” Kate said, folding her fingers together on the table.  “Tell me what this has to do with my family’s company.”

“There’s a Paradox Rogue operation taking place in the company right now,” Aiden said, “and it must be stopped.  That means they’ve infiltrated the company.  If you’ve noticed anything strange-”

Kate held up a hand, and her stare was dead serious.  “If what you say is true, it explains a lot, and I can tell you more about it.  Do you know what their operation is?”

“They’re building some sort of unverse breacher.”

Kate looked at the table and said something quietly.  “Always about unverse.  Sorry,” she said, looking back up.  “And after you stop them… what will you do?”

He hadn’t thought that far ahead, he realized, mostly because he didn’t have the time to after Tiberius’s late-night revelations.  “If we’re successful, my team will continue with the original mission.  That’s why I came here, to breach unverse.”

“To breach unverse,” Kate echoed.  “That’s what’s important to you.”

“It’s been for the past three years.”

“Aiden,” she asked softly, a strange expression coming across her face, “have you considered settling down?”

Startled, he met her gaze.

“After this matter with the Rogues is over, I mean,” Kate clarified, “you can stop being involved in war.  I intern with a company that’s all about improving life for people – there could be a place for you there.  Here.  With me.”

She was looking at him so seriously, and Aiden felt his face contort into a look of surprise, and Kate smiled a nervous smile.

Fate.

She was actually asking him…

Fate.

But…

“Kate,” he said, “I’m doing this to find Red.”

Now she looked surprised- no, disappointed.  “Who’s-” she started, then she shrank back.  “Oh, I… I’m sorry.  I should have realized after this time you could have… found someone else.”

Aiden blinked, confused.  “No, it’s not like that.”  She should know.  Had she forgotten?  “You know Red, she’s-” our daughter, he thought, but she really wasn’t, “-she’s Red. Red is Red.”

Kate was twirling a strand of her hair and when he said that she stopped.  “Wow.”  She looked away.

“That’s not what I meant.” Aiden persisted.  “You know Red.  From the Future Dimension.  She gave us the Unverse bomb.  She helped us stop the invasion!”

She shook her head and stood up.

To leave.

“Kate-” Aiden started to rise after her but stopped himself at the edge of the table.  He gripped it hard.  She should know, he thought.  She should know!  Why doesn’t she know?

She slid out of the booth and, after a moment, looked back, a sad look on her face.  “Aiden, I don’t know who this Red is you’re talking about – and I don’t think I want to know.”  Her voice caught, she took a breath, and she let it out shakily.  “And I don’t know who I’ve been talking to – I don’t know if I ever knew.”

Then she ran out.

“Date gone wrong?” a waitress asked.

“I wish,” Aiden muttered, allowing himself to sink back into his seat, shaken by what transpired.  Kate was interested in him- had been, was more accurate.  But how could Kate not know Red?  Red was the one who’d told Aiden to save Cyclone and Kate from Earth, and she’d had to remind him, because-

Oh.

When somebody leaves the universe, it is only normal that the universe forgets them.

Kate forgetting Red meant that Red had left the dimension.

So why could he still remember?

. . . .

On exiting the coffee shop to walk off his tension, Aiden brought up the team messaging program, while thinking of how to run a little test.  When he was done thinking, he typed out, “Do any of you remember Red?”  He had a picture of Red on his phone, and he wanted to send that too – but was it on this phone?  He changed equipment often over time.  He searched anyway but couldn’t find it.  He was sure he could find a picture from the Future Dimension archives, which were currently locked away in the Crux System, so out of his immediate access.  Still, he had other options.  He let his feet take him to the campus park, which was open and quiet.  Once seated at a picnic table, he sourced a notepad and pencil, and began sketching.

Regardless, he received dissenting answers.  No one knew a Red.

Aiden was aware that time passed as he continued drawing.  Every now and then he paused to sip his energy water.  Artistry was not his strongest skill, but he could make do.  When he finally looked up at his surroundings, the sun had changed places from in front of him to behind, and there was another person’s shadow cast next to his.

He took a photo scan of his sketch and turned to face Lost.  “Sitting here long?” he asked.

She shook her head.  “Not as long as you.”

He raised an eyebrow.  “Stalking me long?”

“I know what happened.”

Aiden sighed, and turned back to his drawing.  “Someone will have to talk to Kate again.  She’ll still want to help.”

“It just can’t be you.”

“No…” he pulled the corners of his mouth taut in thought.  “Tell me,” he said, “do you recognize this person?”

Lost looked down at the partial portrait.  As she did, Aiden discreetly studied her.  She looked so familiar, familial – but who was she really?  She looked up then.  “That’s the Future Dimension girl.  I don’t know her name.”

“You remember Red?” Aiden blurted out with enough incredulity to startle Lost.  “Thank god I’m not the only one.  No one else on my team remembers her, not even Shard and Ben.  And Kate didn’t.  But I remember, and you remember.”  He regarded Lost, with her aggravatingly familiar face.  “Why can we remember?”

They both pondered the thought in silence.

Who else could he ask?

Verbina maybe, and although he hated to admit it, Tiberius.

“Tiberius might know,” Lost suggested.

Aiden nodded.  “We can go back, see him, and update the rest of the team.”  He stowed his supplies, while Lost began unpacking hers.

“I got food,” she said, “when I saw you were here awhile.  For me, and you.”

“Oh.”  Aiden looked at what she set on the table.  It was actual takeout, as opposed to rations and such things, and he was hungry.  “Thank you.”

She nodded.

Being on the same side wasn’t so bad.

-

Anticipating inevitable awkwardness, they kept their picnic brief before heading for the planned rendezvous at Silver Archway for a second team meeting. Aiden knocked on the door to Luke and Mara's suite this time, and Ben answered to usher them in. It was a mirror image of Aiden's room, complete with a lounging area where the rest of the team were scattered about. The Mercurys were seated side by side on one couch, and Tiberius lounged on the the opposite couch. No other chairs were present. Shard leaned against the wall while Juiliet sat crosslegged on the floor with a laptop, next to whom Ben took a spot. "Lots of floor," he said, looking up at Aiden and Lost.

Shaking his head, Aiden opted to remain standing, while Lost went behind the couch to lean on the backrest beside Tiberius, who looked up and smiled at her presence.

"The files we're about to see were acquired by the Mercurys," Juiliet credited, "so thank them." Shard clapped softly while Luke reached over to dim the lights, as Juiliet aimed the laptop to the one empty wall and activated its projector. On the wall appeared dark blue building schematics. It looked like a modestly storied tower with a wide, fortress like base. Underneath the base was an entire subterranean section not unlike a tower itself, just pointed upside down and built into the earth, rather than up from it.

"This is Dekairie Defense." Juiliet introduced.

Shard's jaw dropped. "Damn, just one floor of that puts Leek Works to shame. Mine and yours. Is the underground section taller than the above-ground part?"

"The more accurate term would be deeper, but you're correct, it's deeper than the tower is tall." she affirmed. "But what the public plans aren't showing you is the tunneling network built out from what we'll call the Inverted Tower. Here's what Luke and Mara got."

The image changed to a grayscale 3D image of the structure's underground half, now showing a series of horizontal lines for hallways of rooms, with intersecting elevator shafts and stairways interspersed throughout. In the 3D viewing program Juiliet 'tilted' the image downward to show that each horizontal line actually contained a series of concentric hallways, coincidentally like Leek Works, at different sizes and floors of the Inverted Tower, some contained within others.

Mara spoke up. "The company employs well over two thousand people on this site alone, four hundred of which are security forces alone, of course backed up by AI and drone forces, state of the art and top of the line in munitions and defenses. They are a military tech producer, after all."

Juiliet set the projector to freeze and stretched her arms before leaning back. "Now we have an idea of what we're getting into."

"Not gonna be easy." Luke quipped.

"Like heck no, it's not easy." Shard expanded. "Breaking into that'd be like breaking into Nexus Tower. In my opinion, impossible."

"Thanks for your encouraging insight, Shard." Mara said.

"You're welcome sweetie." he responded sourly. "Don't get me wrong, I love sass, but lemme share with you from my experience breaking into things, that aint something I'd wanna break into without some military might. Which we can't, because they're one of our top suppliers. We're better just asking someone to let us in..."

"Which is Plan A," Juiliet raised an eyebrow, turning to Aiden questioningly.

"It's still on the table." Aiden said curtly. "Funny, I never knew Kate was from an interstellar business family. The more you know."

"It's convenient," Juiliet said, "as is having a Rogues mission drop on us from nowhere."

"Can you say more on that?" Aiden asked. "I trust Kate-"

"It's not just about Kate."

He noticed then that Juiliet's eyes were looking past him at the occupants of the second couch. Of course, he realized, and to be honest with himself, he agreed that was a concern.

"It doesn't surprise me if two multiverse-traveling loose cannons know the Rogue Directive," she relentlessly explicated, "and expect us to follow it. What surprises me is that these particular loose cannons, who've been under the radar for three years and are, need I remind, wanted fugitives, now want us to do something."

She was bold, alleging subterfuge from a party sitting in the same room. That was Juiliet.

"Considering that factor, I want verification that the threat exists, before we continue more illicit activities against a trusted partner."

"We already explained to you," Lost spoke up, "the Nexus Force cannot be contacted, then the Rogues would know you're onto them."

"That's taken into account." Juiliet answered. "You want us isolated."

"For your own good."

"We can verify the threat ourselves," Aiden put forth.

"We're still being kept isolated, to the loss of advice, guidance, and reinforcements." Juiliet warned.

"And at stake is this entire planet," Tiberius said, "because as soon as the Rogues think they're caught, they'll want to move, and Maelstromnium is a volatile substance to transport-"

Aiden put his attention to his uncle. "That's a very specific series of events you're alluding to - do you know this is what happens, or, did this happen somewhere?"

"As I told you before, some events occur consistently in different dimensions." Tiberius reminded. "If you are so able to know what I allude to, you can figure this out."

"Which dimension does this happen in?" Aiden asked. "A future dimension?"

"Not my dimension," Shard said.

"A Maelstrom dimension." Tiberius answered. "And a future dimension. Not the Maelstrom dimension, as Leek Works referred to it, but one of the other two."

"Other two?" Aiden's jaw dropped.

"That I know of." Tiberius shrugged.

Aiden turned to Ben, who shook his head, then Shard, who shrugged too. "No one told me either. I was just the janitor, after all."

Tiberius spoke up. "It's no insult to me that you want to see proof. You should want proof for everything you are told to believe, I'll say, else why believe it?" He got to his feet, an action that made him, an upper middle-aged man, wince for a few seconds. "We can all relocate to my suite."

Aiden, Luke, and Mara exchanged looks, before turning on Tiberius. "Your suite? Here?"

The man found room to smile. "At the end of the hall. Room 200."

After some mental retrospection, Mara's garnet red eyebrows shot up. "Reserved to Tangwyn Thgolar. Of course that's you."

"I'm amused you didn't realize that before." Tiberius chided. "What use is intelligence gathering if you can't read between the lines?"

"You only moved in yesterday," Luke countered. "It's not like we're evaccing as soon as anyone with your initials shows up. You're not scary."

Donning his coat, Tiberius harrumphed, but paused at the door. "I honestly don't intend to be."

. . .

In Room 200, the team watched as Lost produced a box safe from a hollow part of the wall, and slid the bookshelf back in front. With a thunk the box was set before Tiberius on his suite's coffee table, before Lost headed purposefully to another area of the room, and the man input a series of codes on its authentication panel. A lock clicked open after each string of symbols, before there was hiss of depressurization, and Tiberius opened the box.

Some of the contents could be glimpsed, such as credits, mystery vials, and a handgun, before the box was closed and Tiberius held up a sleeve of optical media. Lost returned with a dinosaur of a computer, already in the process of resuming, as Tiberius inspected his prizes for scratches and frowned when he found some.

"Copies, of course." he assured his audience, before inserting one glass rectangle into the computer's optical slot. "Do gather round."

They obliged, as Tiberius navigated through what looked to be newspaper archives, which were but one directory in Tiberius's files, Aiden noticed. "Here it is," he announced triumphantly, settling on an article dated 7 April, 3031.

Aiden checked his watch, as did a number of the others. "That's three days from now."

"Read." Tiberius instructed.

Inwardly sighing, he did as he was told. The article described a disaster tearing apart an entire hemisphere of planetary mantle of the once industrialized planet Jirdia. The planet's magnetic field had destabilized and its atmosphere thinned, turning what remained uninhabitable. The investigation turned up a concentration of enriched Maelstrom Ore at the epicenter which had, of course, begun infecting the surrounding magma.

"Damn." Aiden muttered.

"Guess our Rogues had an accident." quipped Shard.

"Now," Tiberius pulled up another file from his database, and treated his viewers to another glimpse at what other secrets he had. FieldRecovery-Elistra seemed to be the name of one directory, Aiden caught, before it was scrolled past, and a Nexus Force activity log displayed. Tiberius pointed out sections he'd highlighted from an otherwise very long write-up. "Dekairie Defense went into a lockdown planned and coordinated by Nimbus Station; Nexus Force soldiers began arresting Rogue personnel on the surface; and of course, the Rogues already knew the Nexus Force was onto them, from their Nimbus Station element, so they had already begun to leave, and take their research with them. But the Nexus Force interrupted them, and assuming an ensuing firefight..."

The man shrugged.

Shard folded his arms. "I've cleaned up Maelstrom Ore and all I can say is it's no wonder things blew up. That said, you don't need a firefight to ignite the stuff. Just moving it can set it off. I'm starting to believe Tiberius here."

"Contacting the Nexus Force would tip off the Rogues," Lost repeated, "and everything that happened in that dimension could be repeated here."

"It looks legitimate," Juiliet acceded. "The font, format, it looks Nexus Force. Now if we could see the origins of the file..." she hinted.

Tiberius smiled at the blue haired girl and let her take the computer. "Be my guest." While she conducted her inspection, he turned to face Aiden. "I'm doing a hero's work, if I may say so, but what say you, my boy?"

"You don't get my approval." Aiden said levelly.

His uncle nodded dismissively. "You'll come around."

"Nothing you do," Aiden warned, "not today, not tomorrow, will atone for what you've done. So don't try."

"Acceptable, I won't," Tiberius agreed, "not for your sake. If you want to be that way, that is your problem. But acI shall surely continue to act for those who appreciate it."

Behind Aiden's back, Luke and Mara glanced at each other. e you, it seems his problems are not limited to me."

Luke dipped his head and turned to Aiden. "The heck you talkin' 'bout?" he hissed.

"Not now." Aiden muttered.

"Wait," something clicked in Luke's head, "I think I know-"

"Not-!" Aiden started, before clamping his mouth shut. "Well, fine." He didn't like how growly his voice sounded. "You probably do know." He sounded a little better. "As I said, not now."

Luke set him with a grim stare. "Alright."

Mara looked between the both of them, an oblivious wry expression tugging the edges of her face. "The heck are you two talking about?"

. - -

"Do you hear that?" Shard hadn't finished his sentence before Lost bolted for the lights and mashed the sensor. The lights dimmed, she mashed it again, they switched to night mode. Juiliet shut off the computer and Tiberius shoved it into the lockbox, and for good measure Mara drew the curtains.

In the dimness, Lost held a finger to her lips. There was enough ambient glow from the orange baseboard lights to make out each others' silhouettes, but no shadows were cast. Nobody moved as they listened.

Aiden heard it, a subtle shuffling sound. He rotated, trying to pinpoint it, finding himself facing the wall with the curtains drawn. Mara was still closest to them. Wide-eyed, she inched a step toward the curtains again, and nearly backpedaled over her own feet when they flared out -

- and danced about for a few seconds, before settling down.

Just the wind.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Is it the Rogues?" Luke hissed.

"If it's Rogues, we're finished, so what the hell." Lost muttered.

Aiden kept his eyes on the curtains for one more moment, before turning to the door just as Lost opened it a crack, one hand on the door's edge, the other on the frame. For a second he figured the contrast from the corridor lighting was messing with his eyes, but that wasn't the case. She'd thrown a bathrobe on over her outfit.

"Can I... help you?" she asked in a bleary, sleep deprived voice to whoever was in the hall. They couldn't see past Lost, since the door was opened only so little. But as little that they couldn't see out, anyone outside couldn't see in. They were hidden in the dark. It was so good a ruse, Aiden almost felt tired too.

"Yes," a woman's voice answered, that he didn't recognize. "You can. I'm looking for someone, is Aiden Talmid here?"

Crux. She knew him but he didn't know her.

"Is that like..." Lost drawled, "...a man? What sort of a... respectable young lady are you insinuating I am... not?"

There was silence for a moment, in which Aiden turned his attention back to the curtains, then the woman said, "I'm sorry, what?"

"Comedy gold," Shard hissed as Aiden moved soundlessly past him, toward the curtains. They shivered gently in the evening breeze drafting in from behind them. Mara stood to the side, already watching them with vigilant interest.

Then Aiden darted forward and thrust the curtains aside, to reveal... nothing but the open terrace doors.

He frowned. They'd been open, of course, to let the wind play with the curtains.

He just hadn't noticed them open when they entered, is all.

Aiden signaled to Mara and the next closest person, Juiliet, to back him up. Then he strolled out of the suite onto the terrace, took in the nighttime cityscape for a moment, before turning to look along the outside wall, where there stood a girl in jeans and a dark blue sweatshirt, with hair spilling out from the hood.

Very red hair.

With no more room for discreetness, she smirked at Aiden.

Remembering that morning, he grimaced back.

"Hello Kate."

"Hello Aiden." She leaned off the wall. "Surprised to see you out here."

"Me, you." he reciprocated. "What are you doing out here?"

"Looking for you."

. -

The events of that morning were still fresh in Aiden's mind, as clearly as Kate stood before him now, so he took a stab at why that was. "Kate, I'm sorry I-"

"Don't be," she stepped forward. "It's not your fault. Like I said, earlier, I should have realized things weren't what we planned anymore. Three years is a long time to change plans, or forget..."

"It is." What did we plan? he wondered. He racked his brain to three years prior, to the last time he saw Kate in person, in the park at 2 AM. They hadn't planned anything then.

But they could have planned something before...

Aiden waved at Mara and Juiliet, and they returned to the apartment, leaving the two of them on the balcony.

"Our plan." Aiden turned back to Kate and nodded, as if he knew it. He didn't.

She nodded too. "We would be together. I remember we reached that conclusion."

Aiden hated that he couldn't remember.

And in that moment of reminiscing and wanting to reminisce, he hated what he had become.

The neurologists he'd consulted couldn't pin a cause to his memory loss and vivid dreams. It was like he was losing his memories and dreaming someone else's. But that someone else was his counterpart from the future dimension. He was sure of it and that traveling the dimensions had something to do with it.

But there was no one in the world who knew about dimensions; at least, not anymore.

Not since Red left.

It was one of the reasons he'd been searching for her.

He acknowledged his choice of action, by focusing on finding Red, had put him and Kate on different paths. He could remember that much.

But now he knew there had never been a chance. Because the rest of his memories were robbed, replaced with someone else's. His life was being replaced. His ability to choose was taken.

That was what he hated.

He said none of that.

"I still think I owe you an apology." Aiden argued.

"You don't." Kate repeated firmly. "Because I moved on, too."

"Oh."

"Granted, it didn't really work out," she smiled bashfully. "Now, if you want to tell me about who life has brought to you, I'm curious to know. But no apologizing."

"Well, it's not who you think." Aiden said, again thinking of that morning's discourse. What had been suggested then was just... no.

"Her name is Bridget."

- .

“That’s a nice name.” Kate said seriously before fixing him with a questioning stare.  “Is she nice?”

“She is,” Aiden told her - since he could tell her, with all his interactions with the subject being those he remembered, for once.  “We met on Elistra, just last month, actually, on a survey mission at Phoenix Park, where the war ended.  We have a date after this.  You’re nice, too,” he added fast, and Kate laughed.

“Well, I’m happy for you.” she said when she stopped.

“Thanks.” Aiden said.  Not wanting to let show that he was, as usual, pretty lost when it came to her, he just stared back.

She smiled.  “You keep doing that.”

Doing what? “Doing what?”  He glanced off to the skyline as he wondered.

“Aiden, you always get this super-serious, far-away look about things.”

“I do?” He looked at the floor, brows furrowed- oh, so that was it.

He met her gaze and saw her amused expression.  “You need to look in a mirror more.” she advised.  “Truly, I am glad you’re serious about someone now.  It means you’re not spending all your energy on material things, like breaching unverse and stuff.  If you don’t mind my judging.”

“I don’t mind,” he answered.  “It makes sense, and friends judge each other.  We are friends, after all.”  She did seem to regard him better, knowing about Bridget, he realized.

“Make sure you let her know that,” Kate advised again.  “Until then...” more noise from within the apartment caught both their attentions.  “See you inside,” she concluded.  Smiling still, she briskly moved on.

As Aiden turned to follow, he caught Mara behind the corner, hiding in the drapes, a good position for surveying – having been surveying them, after all.  That didn’t bother Aiden, but she was giving him a stink eye, and he paused from walking past.

“What is it?” Aiden asked.

If it was possible, Mara glared even harder.  Then she ran past him, slamming the balcony doors behind her on a perturbed Aiden.

Shaking his head, Aiden slid them open.  He caught the tail-end of Mara calling him a loser to Kate and apologizing that he was such a jerk to her, and that she didn’t know Aiden had gotten with someone.  Honestly, he still had trouble realizing it himself.  Things happened fast and he made a commitment, but he’d had to, in the moment, to keep it off his mind.  In the meantime, he kept focusing on breaching Unverse, as he’d been until then.  And so, it would remain.

They were all assembled in the apartment now, and when she saw Aiden approach, Kate proceeded.

“Meet Morgan,” introduced Kate of the woman who’d been in the front doorway.  She stood within the apartment now, which was a difficult concession to make, Luke would tell him later, only after Kate’s reassurance as a scuffle had nearly broken out between the woman and Luke, Tiberius, Lost, and Juiliet while Kate and Aiden had discoursed.  “My sister.”

“So, you can believe me now,” Morgan, the woman, said triumphantly.  She closed her eyes for a second, to let the blood rush in her face simmer down from the almost-engagement.  Though her hair remained the same color: red.  Her hair was cut shorter than Kate’s, but she was taller.  Older.  When she opened her eyes, she gave everyone a new once over.  Luke and Juiliet still looked wary, but they’d taken some steps back, given their new guest some room.  Tiberius allowed himself a glance at his lockbox, and Lost had slunk off.  Mara’s arms were crossed.  “Kate is my sister, and she told me about the alleged Paradox Rogues in the tower.  That’s how I know about them.  That’s how I connected the dots.  Now I know everything, who’s doing what, what you need, and how I can help.”

Morgan turned to Aiden now. “I can get you in.”

Now Kate grinned at Aiden. "Isn't she great?"

April 7, 3031

"What do you see?"

"Your eyes."

"I know.  They're sad."

"They're not just that.  They say something about you.  They're attentive, focused.  The way you look at things... I’d always wished someone would look at me, at my problems, like that."

“You don’t have problems.”

“We both know that isn’t so.”

“I know.  Sorry.  I just want you to feel better.  We’ll fix this.”

“I know you will.  I can see it in your eyes.”

“I promise we’ll try again.”

. - . .

The scene afforded to Aiden, Ben, and Tiberius of Dekairie Defense headquarters by the opposing second floor motel terrace was about what Aiden had expected from the hacked files.  The entire outer wall of the pyramid shaped tower, the top of which was leveled like a prism, was constructed of glass.  An expression of transparency, Aiden thought ironically.  Even some of the inner walls were glass, apparently, but becoming opaque at some point, as by then visual clarity was blurred sufficiently that it made no difference anyway.

And besides, how the tower looked aboveground made no difference to their business belowground.  With Morgan’s access, they’d spent the last two days scouting different parts of the structure in different groups.  They hadn’t make it far belowground, so as not to arouse suspicion yet.  The time for that wasn’t then, but it was getting close.

In the meantime, the team had heard back from Verbina and the Nexus Force regarding the unverse mission.  They were given the go-ahead, breaching was a go.  A confirmation of receipt was sent, with a delayed plan to proceed, but as agreed upon by the Jirdians, nothing was told to them of the Rogues.

Coincidentally, Aiden had also received a message from the deep space Nexus Force starship relaying messages for them, personally addressed to him from Elistra.  Enclosed was an ecard of a familiar grassy landscape, picturesquely hilly in the background but more personalized at fore, where stood a girl with long brown hair in a light blue Nexus sweater.  The rest of her down was cut off by the picture edge, at which was captioned, “Met your brother!”  Given that someone had to take the photo, why wouldn’t it be Alex?  Aiden recognized the meadow, of course.  He and Alex used to tussle there as kids.

The thought inspired Aiden to wonder if, at nineteen, he was still a kid.  No, he decided.  He hadn’t been a child for a long time.  Same for Alex.  Evelyne would always be, though.  He perceived red and quickly turned away, to walk back into the motel, and he kept walking, stuffing his shaking hands into pockets, away from weapons.  It was all he could do to not kill Tiberius then and there.

He stared at the floor.  He turned around.

He stared at the tower.  At the mission.

Focus.

The motel room door unlocked behind him and he knew it was Lost letting herself in.  There was a certain sense in the air when she was around that he couldn’t place.  There was a lot about her he still didn’t know.  If she was to be trusted, there was a lot about her she didn’t know.  He turned to the girl, panning across the room as he did so, but as fate would have it, he stopped when her image came into the frame of the vanity mirror on the wall, her face centered perfectly as a portrait, albeit mirrored.

Eyes narrowed, he inspected the depiction another moment before facing her for real.  She faced him back and withdrew one skirt of her trench coat, revealing a transmission receiver, blinking out the message from Ethel team.  As soon as the cycle restarting he began decoding the dots and dashes, and he looked to Lost for confirmation.

“Ready to go,” she said.

“Yes,” he nodded, not to her, but to himself.

He knew who she was.

- - -

As gleaned from the hackcessed plans, the upward facing tower was only one half of Dekairie Defense Company headquarters, and not the half they were interested in, as far as they knew and the mission was concerned. Entering the lobby, it was soon acted out how Morgan, Kate's sister, intended for them to be gotten in, when a woman dressed in the navy suited attire of the company approached the four of them.

"Welcome," she greeted while holding out a series of small cards. "Here are your access cards. Your party is already downstairs, the lift will highlight the floor. Thanks for your support." She smiled, courteously, which Aiden returned with a nod, and they, Aiden, Lost, Ben, and Tiberius, proceeded to the series of elevators on the lobby wall. He looked over his access card as they went. It was the size of a billing card, designed for the same type of equipment, but with more authentication built in. A spot on the surface indicated where he should place his thumb when reading the card, as his biometrics, and those of the others, were already programmed into their cards. Each card had printed on their names, as they knew them, assigned serial numbers, positions, and departments.

"Researcher, Interuniverse Research," Ben read aloud.

"Sounds about right, granted, a standard name doesn't exist for this type of research here." Aiden figured. The elevator doors opened and they stepped in. Thumb on their print readers, Aiden and the others swiped their card, and a single floor button lit up for floor S-33, which Lost pressed, and they began to descend. Stepping back, she put her hands in her coat pockets.

"Just observing," Aiden reminded everyone, as well as himself, as the car settled on the 33rd floor underground.

The doors slid open to a crossway that Aiden was about to exit to when a dark shape with garnet hair slammed into him and bounced off, into the elevator, leaving Aiden doubled over. "Up up up!" shouted Mara while pressing various floor buttons repeatedly, to no immediate effect, other than Lost and Ben drawing their weapons while Aiden recovered.

Mara smashed the control panel one last time. "It's as I thought. The destination was pre-programmed." She looked wildly at the elevator car's interior and pulled out a knife. "We can get out through the elevator shaft. Right Aiden?"

Aiden looked up groggily and made his way out into the hallway again. Now that no one was going to bushwhack him, he picked up on the shouts, running footfalls, and weapons fire from the outer concentric hallway, the direction yet indeterminate though.

"A setup," Tiberius said it.

"So much for a party." Ben muttered.

"Oh it's a party alright," Mara grunted, jumping to stab the blade end into the elevator roof, when a misty gas began flowing out of the vents. Tiberius noticed it first, "Out!" he shouted, and they quickly moved. At the same time Luke and Juiliet ran into view from the far hallway. Upon noticing the rest of the team, and the gas spilling out of the closing elevator doors, they mouthed, "Run!"

They moved.

"We've been looking for steps," Mara panted, although she kept pace, exchanging the knife for a Sentinel sidearm, "but they're fast."

"Who?" Aiden huffed. He looked back, past Lost, Tiberius, and Ben, and saw Luke and Juiliet following, but no one behind them yet. Twisting ahead, the way was still clear, but he wasn't sure for how long. The doors on each side were marked with symbols, and like Mara he looked for one for a staircase in between cursory checks front and back. More concerning were the card swipes at each doorway, no doubt know they would need hijacking, or some other destruction.

"Who?" Lost repeated.

Mara heard this time and grinned. "Micromanagers."

Then two cube-shaped, black, hovering sentries flew down the hall right towards them. Red eyes blinking off and on, their laser sights quickly found targets on Aiden and Mara's chests. Before they could skid to a stop or shout, Lost fired over their heads, taking out one hovering sentry. The other fired just as Aiden changed course to slam Mara to the side and they tumbled against the wall, and the weapons blast missed them to hit the ground a ways behind, and Ben shot that one down.

"Oh!" Mara exclaimed while scrambling to her feet. "This is the staircase door! I need room." She rifled through her pack for explosives to blow the door off.

They could hear more Micromanagers making their way over from the same direction as the ones they just shot down. Aiden, Lost, and Tiberius moved themselves a little ways away from Mara, while Ben headed in the other direction to Luke and Juiliet. Aiden crammed himself into the little nook afforded by the doorway, rather measly cover, but the rest of the hall was empty.

"There's another junction ahead," Lost pointed.

"We'll move up," Aiden said, thrusting his LW A47 forward and waiting for the first Micromanager to pop out from the bend of the hallway. Beyond that was the junction Lost had indicated, the corners of which could provide them more cover, if they could make it there. "How're you at sharpshooting?" he asked Tiberius.

"Handy enough," the man replied. Aiden glanced his way quick enough to see he'd drawn a revolver, albeit a retromodded one that fired not bullets but antimatter with more than one shot for each chamber.

The first Micromanager came around the bend, another floating model which Aiden promptly blew up, followed closely by a squad of the walking mech type. These took advantage of their greater stability with heavier weapons and shields, but repeated direct hits pierced them. The fallen bulk of the forward line served to block the ones in the rear from proceeding, turning their advantage against them. They were destroyed one by one, never getting to fire a shot, under the steady fire of Aiden, Lost, and Tiberius. Every shot counted. They focused fire on the last one, blowing its head off its legs before they crumpled to the ground, and as directed they headed to the junction.

"Is this even the same floor as that Maelstromnium?" Lost asked through heavy breathing.

"No," Aiden figured. "That'd be stupid. Whoever set us up is smart. If anything, this floor's probs the end of the Micromanager production line."

They reached the junction just as another squad of flying Micromanagers rounded the next bend of the inner concentric hallway. "I'm checking the other side," Aiden heard Lost tell him, and she darted down the junction to the outer hallway while Aiden and Tiberius let loose on the current assault. The flying ones were lighter and faster, so they tried bobbing and weaving while discharging their particle-beam weapons. A handful of Micromanagers were taken out before Aiden and Tiberius had to hide behind their cover, the laser-accuracy of the Micromanagers too suppressing. Aiden peeked around the corner and fired, missing. A particle-beam burst took a chunk out of the wall. Crouching now, Aiden darted out again and grazed the nearest offender while it re-aimed, unbalancing it. Tiberius finished it off and shot down the one behind it.

Lost hurried up behind him. "There's more walkers coming," she reported. "We can fall back, or try to surrender, if their objective isn't killing us."

Aiden nodded grimly. Another peek around the corner revealed yet more Micromanagers arriving, behind those still flying. He could hear the mech-types coming round from the outer ring, too. "Okay, falling back!" he agreed, darting out and booking it with Lost and Tiberius in tow, jumping over fallen Micromanagers and making it sufficiently around the curved hallway that the Micromanagers were momentarily lost sight of, but not before finding Mara putting the finishing touch on her door bomb, detonator in hand.

"Oh," she said, turning to face them. "The thing's reinforced, so... we might get a little singed." She flipped the safety and was about to press the switch when the stairwell door suddenly opened inward and human guards streamed out, kicking the explosive pack aside. Under their gray tactical armor and helmets they wore fatigues in the navy color of the Company.

"Weapons on the ground!" a guard shouted.

At the same time Micromanagers flooded in from both sides, blocking them in. Red laser sights stopped on each of their heads and chests, about four or five each. Slowly, Aiden and the others set their weapons on the ground, and got down when that was demanded, as well. As electric manacles were fastened, Aiden made sure he was facing the direction that Luke, Juiliet, and Ben had gone, and in time they were led over, flanked by Micromanagers. So the automated sentries were capable of accepting surrender, Aiden learned. In hindsight, he probably could have studied them more in his spare time to figure that out, but he spent enough time running from them to care more. There was some radio chatter between the guards and whoever commanded them, which Aiden tried to pay attention to, until he noticed Juiliet was limping.

"Off the floor. You're coming with us," the lead guard stated, and Aiden and company were hauled back to their feet. "67th level down."

"Ain't that the research floor?" Aiden asked on a hunch. "Interuniverse Research?"

The guard's visor remained as expressionless as it was opaque. "Not my place to let you know. Just following orders."

"We have wounded." Aiden said.

"You're all going." He pointed the barrel to Aiden's back. "I follow command's orders, you'll follow mine."

Aiden shook his head. He didn't like the way Juiliet's left leg dragged, despite the guards supporting her to the steps.

Their descent began.

. . .

It was not long before Skilled Honored Ninja joined them in their makeshift holding cell, a locked closet in the 67th sub-level. He was shoved in more violently than necessary, the door quickly being locked and bolted behind them.

"It's like they knew our whole plan," the Janitor shared his observation. "I got your signal, I came here, and bam. Captured. But you didn't send the signal."

"No," Aiden confirmed.

"We were set up," repeated Tiberius from his corner. He occupied the only chair in the narrow room, which was not even a chair, rather a toolbox, in what was not even a room, rather a walk-in maintenance closet. Lost somehow lounged behind him, folding herself up to occupy the space between him and the wall. Juiliet, Luke, Mara, and Aiden were bunched up on the floor, the latter keeping a steady pressure to the wound on her thigh with a corner of Lost's trench coat, not being worn of course, and removed of all weapons and tools by their captors, of course. Juiliet's eyes were scrunched shut and her overall tenseness did little against betraying that she was enduring a lot of pain.

"So who's the traitor?" the Janitor stated.

The rest said nothing, they'd already reached a conclusion.

"We were a hundred percent secure," the Janitor continued, "only we knew what we were doing. We planned out everything, of course, which ended up being followed to the letter to capture us. Someone sold us out. So, which one of us?"

He made eye contact with everyone, except Juiliet, who's eyes remained closed.

His eyes lit up as the idea dawned on him, just as it had everyone else, given time, just as they'd expected him to, given the time, and he rephrased his question. "Who isn't here?"

They were all surprised when the door opened again and Kate walked in. As they stared, the door was locked behind her, which was a surprise, too, given the conclusion they'd all silently reached, but given time and thought, they could rationalize that too-

"You think I put you in here?" Kate asked so quickly. She looked at each of them, that they noticed her bewildered expression, which was changing to hurt. "I don't buy their story a second, so I wasn't going to bother relating it, I had to pull rank about twenty times just to get to you and hear what in hell happened - and I don't like the way you're staring at me, so stop it."

"Someone betrayed us," Aiden said levelly, but hearing Kate's perspective and seeing how upset she was, just like everyone else on the team, made him so sorry for distrusting her. "We-"

"You thought it was me." she blurted. Her expression changed from downcast to angry seeing Juiliet's injury. "You're not getting treatment?"

"Denied," Juiliet whispered through her clenched teeth.

Kate muttered something quietly, somehow unheard even in the small space, although her face suggested it was something rude.

"Can't you heal her?" Mara asked.

"I'm thinking about that," Kate said. "We're too far from Crux for Imagination to work as it did there. I can still feel it, I'm sure we all do, in us. But it doesn't just come out of thin air anymore, or get harnessed just like that, when you're this far. Tech doesn't work like it did there."

She stood there another moment, then closed her eyes and Juiliet suddenly gasped. Aiden felt vibrations of activity under the coat, like a fast blur, quickly ceasing. The blood remained when he lifted it, but only what had already bled. Through the burnt tear in her clothes, there was only scar tissue. The wound was healed, and Mara cheered. "You did it!"

"Oh," Kate kept her eyes shut. "That was harder than it looked." She took an unsteady step backwards until she bumped into the door, and then slid down it, pressing her arms out for support. Aiden rushed and grabbed her shoulders before she sank completely to the ground, giving her himself to lean on as she collapsed.

"Kate?" Aiden whispered.

"A moment," she hissed, and took a long breath. "Just lightheaded. That took a lot in me," she revealed, and she opened her eyes slightly and met his. "And I hate to say this... but I know who set us up."

In a moment her eyes popped open, and Aiden tried to help her up, although she was back on her feet so quickly and surely that she didn't need it, she gave him a small nod in thanks. "If none of us-" she started to say, but corrected herself, "well, since none of us betrayed us, only one person is left, and it still hurts to realize it. One, because it's my fault. I got her involved. Two, because it is my sister who betrayed us." She gave Aiden a steady look. "It can't be anyone else."

"No. I mean yes," Aiden agreed, to assure her. "I don't believe it was those two, either," he gestured to Tiberius and Lost, who stared at the two of them with mock shock. "although there would be reason to, being that they introduced the whole idea to begin with."

"Good," Kate said.

"You seriously considered that?" Lost asked dryly.

"Of course I did." Aiden retorted. "You know me. But it still didn't make sense. And neither did suspecting Kate, which I know you all thought of."

"Did we?" Lost asked.

"I didn't," Mara said hurriedly.

"I didn't," Luke echoed. "Kate saved my life that time. I've always trusted her. Just based on what you've said, I think only you distrusted her, Aiden." He stared at him, disapprovingly.

Aiden glanced at Kate, apologetic, but she was forgiving. "Don't worry about it. We've got bigger problems right now, like getting us out of this mess alive. I'm probably safe, virtue of being a Dekairie, but you''re at the mercy of others. There's a plan to this, and it's not ours. Ours is dead. Purge it."

"Our plan was to prevent their Maelstromnic Unverse experiment from blowing the planet up," Lost reminded. "Fine, neutralizing the Maelstromnium's no longer an option, but just giving up is reckless."

"She's right," Aiden agreed.

"I know," Kate said with a sigh. "I don't know what plan this all fits into, either. Just, prioritize staying alive. I can't heal you all the time. I can't blow this door down, even though I want to. All I know is I don't like it, and that's why I'm worried. I've always hated this company. I intern at it, now, but the morals have always been questionable. This is the most peaceful world in the galaxy yet we build and sell weapons. But you're not here to hear me ramble." She shut up.

"You can still tell us," Aiden said, "it's not like we have better things to do now, and if it helps you..."

She stared at him, sadly. "I've already told you."

Aiden stared back, feeling like an idiot. Of course she'd told him, probably three years ago, when gods knew what else they'd done that he just didn't remember.

He couldn't.

In time, the locks were unbolted and the door opened again, and this time it was Morgan on the other side, but she was not alone. Two Paradox grunts flanked her, instead of company guards, firming the conclusion that Kate had reached and enlightened them with.

"Come out," Morgan said. "All of you."

They did, Aiden, Kate, and Skilled Honored Ninja first, followed by Luke and Mara supporting Juiliet, who still stood unsteadily, then Tiberius and Lost. Exiting the closet into the larger room, they were surprised at first, but it wasn't too unexpected, to see a line of twenty Paradox Space Marauders on each wall, armed with the normal sidearms, although a few brandished wormholers. Their presence was more proof that Morgan meant business with them, and certainly not the funny type. Even if they were armed, which they were not, they would consider themselves outgunned in these quarters by the heavily armed forces of the Paradox.

Or, put more accurately, the Paradox Rogues.

-

The Rogues knew of them, the mission was a failure, and Aiden wanted to close his eyes and disappear. Instead he kept his eyes on Morgan, Kate's sister, the woman who'd betrayed them... no, not quite. The woman had been aligned with the Rogues from the beginning.

"I swear I didn't know," Kate whispered to Aiden.

He gave a curt nod, keeping his eyes ahead. He stopped walking, as did the rest, and a Rogue shut the doors behind them.

"Honored guests," Morgan said, "I apologize for how your welcome proceeded... I'm still figuring out why the sentries opened fire, but believe me that wasn't meant to happen."

"I shot first." Mara said from behind Aiden.

The woman fixed the girl a grimacing stare. "That would do it."

"So why do you really want us here?" Skilled Honored Ninja demanded.

"I'll get to that," Morgan skirted the question, but kept staring at each group member. "I thought you had wounded? A broken leg?"

"Just broken hearts." Luke muttered, while from the corner of his eye, Aiden saw Kate march forward, getting Morgan's attention.

"I can't believe you'd do this!" she shouted at her sister, spreading her arms at the sidelines, where the Rogues stood. "All of this! You betrayed the Nexus Force. You betrayed me!"

Morgan nodded with the understanding of an elder. "I know what you're feeling. You won't remember, but we've had this conversation before."

Kate reeled back. "What?" She looked from surprised, to shook, to revolted in a manner of seconds. "You wouldn't." It only took a moment, but she knew what her sister was talking about. "But you did."

"What are you talking about?" Aiden shouted at Morgan.

Kate gave him a sad, sidelong glance. "Memory fade. She used it on me, and she's going to use it... on... all of us." she turned back to Morgan. "I hate you!" she yelled.

"You're an intuitive girl, Kate, but too quick to anger. That always hurts to hear," Morgan said. After all, they'd had the conversation before. Although if Aiden could tell, she looked unaffected, probably from hearing the words more than once, if what she said was true.

Now that he was on the lookout for it, he could smell the faint tinge of memory fade wafting through the room ventilation. The chemical required an activator to take effect, it was inert otherwise and would 'fade' away by itself over time, but for the moment it was in his system. He wasn't as offended as much as Kate was to the prospect of losing memory of this event. He was already no stranger to memory loss, he thought bitterly.

"Kate is right," Morgan affirmed. "As a security precaution, we've been aspirating you with memory fade. Your safe exit from Dekairie Defense, which I'm sure you all want, is contingent on no recollection being kept of what you have seen here. The alternative is imprisonment. Your intentions in coming here, and the destruction you've wrought, is already grounds for a punitive response."

"So you know why we're really here," Skilled Honored Ninja sighed. "I mean, why we were."

Morgan nodded. "You're not the only ones with information on the potential future from interuniversal research. We were steps ahead of you on that, so we already considered the potential for complications before bringing you here, but your cooperation remains advantageous to us, and that is truly why you are here." She stepped backward, then turned around and walked to a set of double doors at the end of the floor. "Please follow," she called back.

Glancing back at his companions and seeing their uncertainty, Aiden started walking so they follow him, before the Rogues forced them to follow Kate's sister. Beneath their opaque space visors, it was hard to tell if there were even people inside those suits, standing so still. He decided tapping on one of them as he walked by was a bad idea, and didn't follow through with it, but others had different ideas.

"Are there even people in there?" he heard Luke call. "Hellooo?"

"Be quiet," a Rogue's voice said from up the line.

Morgan paused at the doors, was pleased that they were on their way, then pressed through. They were of a dense looking material with heavy duty insulation at the edges, and then they were led by Kate's sister past another set of doors that closed behind them, taking them through a vacuum sealed section of the passage. Another set of the initial doors brought them into a large industrial chamber, thrice the height of the entry room, and about two hundred times the area of the little closet they'd been contained in prior to that.

They looked around, taking it all in. In one corner of the room were tall vats of similar use, Aiden figured, to the containers of Maelstrom Ore back in Future Leek Works, as in they contained the Maelstromnium they were worried about. They were of course connected to a network of pipes running across the ceiling and walls, past various control outlets and overlooking balconies, but only one pipe served as the output, and a blinking red light indicated it was not currently in use. This pipe ran across the floor, behind several rows of barriers, to the room's center, where atop of forty-feet wide platform stood two identical obelisks as tall as three quarters of the room's height.

They stared up at it, Morgan in particular wearing a proud smile. She turned to them, "Look familiar?" she seemed to ask Aiden in particular.

In more ways than one, Aiden thought. It was an Unverse breacher, or whatever they would call it, obviously; what with the Maelstromnium and all being integral to the only known method in the universe to initiate a breach. He knew there were other methods, as Aiden had seen one work with his own eyes about three years prior, used by someone from the Future Dimension and the tech was probably also from the Future Dimension, so they were still at least a decade from developing it themselves. Working with what they knew worked was therefore more viable. Apparently, Dekairie Defense, or the Paradox Rogues, had the same idea.

"Yeah." he answered. "It does."

"It's our design for an Interuniversal Projector." Morgan said. "Or optimistically, it is an Interuniversal Projector."

"What's it do?" Tiberius asked.

Morgan scowled. "Don't talk stupid, I know who you are, and you're not here to play games. You are here because we want your help to make it work, so we don't blow this hemisphere off the face of Jirdia."