EPILOGUE
ANGELIQUE
THE BETAVERSE
After the negotiation with the Atua, everyone began the long journey home.
No one was too eager to speed up their playback speed too much. They still had much to discuss.
It wasn’t all roses. They’d lost a few of the people on the journey, people Angelique didn’t know very well. When designing this mission, Peter had compartmentalized a lot of information—even the number of spacecraft that went on the journey was not known by many. This was all intentional. They needed to keep as much obfuscation as possible.
But ultimately, the team had achieved what they’d needed to.
The plan with the Atua was simple. Everyone on this journey would head back to their respective planets. The Atua would broadcast a signal back to Earth that would trigger the virus on that planet to delete itself. Once the team successfully verified that the virus was gone, Peter would send a spacecraft back to the Atua’s home world. It contained the new engine that was being gifted to the Atua, as well as plans for building it.
Atlas did also offer to equip it with a special shielding device. It was a machine he was developing to enable physical humans to travel between stars. It used a variation on the stealthfield technology from Angelique. It blocked all types of radiation from penetrating the area around the ship. It even prevented neutrinos from passing them. Neutrinos were an elusive particle that could even pass through shielding that was hundreds of kilometers thick. If the Atua and Penquins used it, they could in theory travel between stars without the problem of neutrinos and other particles bombarding living tissue. The only downside with the vehicles was they also stopped the Starnet from working.
“So we won,” Angelique said, holding a champagne flute up in the air. “And, Icarus, you’re back.”
“A version of me still died, and I lost a lot of memories.” Icarus raised his glass. “But I get your point.”
Peter raised his glass in toast, too. “Here’s to Atlas.”
They were all there because Atlas had saved them. His quick thinking meant he was able to disarm the aliens’ war fleet. And later, Angelique would also learn that he’d also saved the Atua and Penquins from being completely eliminated because, on more than one occasion, people in the group had attempted to use the weapon. Atlas had added a fail-safe that meant it was only usable if he unlocked the weapons or in the event his ship was destroyed and didn’t broadcast a reply ping when the weapon was fired.
“Peter, you started this,” Atlas said.
“You both started this,” Angelique added because it was true. Both Peter and Atlas were the whole reason the beta-explorer program had begun. They’d started it with an idea of escaping Mars. Escaping the misbelief that humanity had developed. Escaping the belief that the galaxy wasn’t worth traveling.
It wasn’t until later that they’d all realized the idea to be obsessed over the simulated world had been planted by the Atua. And full circle now, they had just negotiated humanity’s freedom. The Atua were the catalyst to them escaping Mars. They were the hidden puppeteers in the background the whole time. Even when they’d first attempted to negotiate with the alien race, they were manipulated. Now, thanks to the people in this room, they had nullified the Atua’s grasp on humanity.
“What made you confident enough to leave Mars?” Trillion asked as she took a sip of her champagne. “The whole planet was banning interstellar travel, yet you two made it happen.”
Trillion hadn’t played much of a role in the negotiations with the Atua, but she was one of the original beta explorers that had started this journey.
“We’ve come a long way since that tiny base on Mars that we barely had appropriate permits for,” Atlas said.
The team reminisced on the old days. They all shared stories of the before times, their encounters with the Dottiens. There was so much shared history between the groups.
It was just a coincidence that everyone was in this room now cheering and celebrating their victory.
The original beta explorers were there: Atlas, Icarus, Trillion, and Angelique. Peter and the crew he’d brought with him were also in the room: Hezekiah, Unity, and Ariana.
“Do you remember when we first met?” Angelique asked the group. “Back on Mars.”
“I remember our weekly briefings in that conference room,” Trillion replied. “I remember being so frustrated when I had to wheel in a television because you didn’t want a hapticgraphic projector in your office, Peter.” Trillion looked down toward her feet. “The one we thought you died in.”
“I thought I died, too,” Peter replied. “Do any of you remember the goals you set when you first learned what the beta-explorer program meant?”
Eyes in the room focused. Some of the team nodded, and some of them were still thinking.
“I read every one of your files,” Peter said. “Icarus, I remember all you wanted to do was meet another alien. You wanted to explore an alien planet from the inside, as if you were a researcher studying them. You also wanted to decode an alien language.” Peter mimed tipping his hat. “You did it. You achieved that goal.”
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“Getting the opportunity to decode two different alien languages was better than I ever imagined.” Icarus topped up his flute with more bubbles. “Nothing I could have read in a book could prepare me for how alien those aliens were. They weren’t like what you read in typical science fiction. The Dottiens were so much more unique. And what we thought were the Atua was actually two alien species that coevolved together.” Icarus’s face became more and more animated as he got excited. “This is better than a simulated world. Thank you for making this happen, team.”
Peter looked at Hezekiah. “I know you wanted to visit Pluto. I remember you telling me you were curious about it because it was a planet when you were growing up, and then it got downgraded to a dwarf planet once you were older. You wanted to go there one day because that was the farthest humans were legally allowed to go. I bet traveling as far into the galaxy as you have now is better.”
“A trillion times better,” Hezekiah replied. “Honestly, visiting your planet, Angelique, was a dream come true. I pinch myself every time I wonder if this is a dream or not. I’ll echo what Icarus said: I’m very grateful to be here with all of you.”
“I’m grateful you’re here, too,” Peter replied. “I wouldn’t have gotten off Earth if it wasn’t for you.” Peter looked toward Ariana next. “Even though you never wrote down your goals, I knew all you wanted was to be like Atlas. You wanted to invent things never thought possible.” Peter looked at Angelique and smiled as he said the next part. “I know you’ve been given clearance to access technology beyond what I know of on Angelique’s worlds. I know you’re advancing the world of quantum mechanics very quickly.”
“I can confidently say that no human alive or dead knows more about predicting quantum interactions than I do,” Ariana said.
Even though Ariana was known to be overly confident, Angelique knew she was telling the truth. She’d identified flaws in the Starnet that meant anyone who knew how it worked could spy in on any conversation. She was the reason Angelique was confident that this version of the Starnet was unhackable by the Atua.
Unity took a spoon and tapped it to her glass. “Peter, before you go and tell everyone what my goal was and tell me how I’ve achieved it, I wanted to say I know how much further in life I am because of you, Peter.” She turned her head toward Ariana. “I’ve achieved more than I ever thought possible because of you, too.”
“You’re welcome,” Ariana said, turning a little bit red.
Peter raised his glass to Unity’s rousing comment and smiled. “You’re here because you’re highly capable. You got here on your own skill set.” Peter moved his glass in Trillion’s direction. “Not many people know this, but Atlas was the reason Trillion joined the mission. He saw something in her that took me far too long to see. You created a world with so many resources that we were able to build some of the biggest megastructures any human has ever constructed.” Peter looked her in the eyes. “I don’t think I said thank you because, if you hadn’t built so many rocket ships and sent them to the Dottiens system, I wouldn’t have known where to find you all. If that hadn’t happened, I would probably have died by drifting through the wrong star system in a broken ship.”
Trillion smiled a warm smile toward Peter and then to Atlas. “I’ve always felt a sense of family toward all of you. I’ve never felt such a strong connection to anyone in my life until I met you all. This is just one of the hundreds of other adventures we’ll have together.”
“Trillions,” Angelique said with a wink. “One of trillions of other adventures we’ll have together.”
Trillion finished her glass and opened a fresh bottle to pour another. “Exactly.”
Peter turned his head toward Atlas. “My oldest friend. My business partner. You have a hand in everything, don’t you? Every single bit of technology we have today is somehow influenced by you.” Peter looked around the room. “All of us left Sol using propulsion that you designed.” Peter cracked a smile. “And I won’t blame you for our ship falling apart when we traveled here in the first place.”
“I’m impressed that hunk of junk turned on,” Atlas mused. “From the sounds of it, Earth didn’t do any maintenance on it after they confiscated it from us.” Atlas looked at Peter and raised his glass. “Look before you go and give us another story about our adventures together back on Mars, I want to say thank you, too. From what you and Unity told me, the humans on Earth are quite literally living in a fantasy world. They are so deep into the metaverse that I don’t even think removing the virus will save them. I think they’ve left the real world behind. But not in a good way.” Atlas shook his head as if he was telling himself to get back on topic. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you hadn’t pushed for this mission, then we would all probably be still on Earth. Locked inside of some simulation content with never seeing the real galaxy.”
“You’re a big part of why that happened, too,” Peter said, taking a sip. “When historians write about us, we’ll all have a part to play in the story.”
Atlas raised his hand as he saw Peter was about to address Angelique next. “I want to say thank you to Angelique before you do. You don’t know how worried we all were about your location. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the highest-grossing movie on Neuropa is about what happened to you. None of us ever imagined how impressive the true story would be. You’ve seeded more worlds than any of us. You’re the reason we have near-light-speed travel. You are quite possibly the most powerful person in the galaxy right now.”
“Aw, you’re making me blush,” Angelique said. “Let’s change the subject now.” Angelique looked around the room. “We all got a moment to feel embarrassed.” Angelique raised her glass one last time. “Here’s to all of us. The beta explorers who managed to escape into the betaverse.”
Angelique really liked that term. She remembered back to when she’d first heard the term beta explorer. The humans back on Earth had tried to recontextualize the real world as the betaverse because they believed it was the beta version of the metaverse, the test version before humans invented a better simulated universe. But she had used the term so much that beta carried a lot of positive connotations.
“We should form an alliance,” Peter suggested, pivoting the subject. “Something that ensures humanity doesn’t fragment.”
Angelique felt a bond with everyone in that room, especially those that had started her on this journey. They had so many shared experiences with one another. They’d all been on so many unique adventures. They’d saved humanity from a war with another alien species and now negotiated a peace treaty that meant they would be trading regularly with these aliens. At that very moment, Angelique agreed with the idea that humanity needed to come together as one.
But humanity needed a name. They needed something to call this coalition of worlds. “I think you’re right. We need a united front. Our worlds will unite together under one human umbrella. My planets will join. But only if we call it the Betaverse.”
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