In a family-owned, Nah’gh operated vineyard named for the Nahgah prime solar system, the bottles all bore oil on canvas versions of the system’s primary star. I found myself surrounded by the planet’s elite, mixing with the corporate philanthropist’s usual gathering of upper middle class. As I stood under a gazebo and addressed the crowd, reciting from a prepared speech, I gazed out over the gathered people.
Even with the lights in my face, it was hard to miss the presence of a crowd of BlueCleave elite guards, hulking in their suits. They surrounded an ancient Knowle, seated at a table by himself. Axle, my former CFO, with claws folded and mechanical eyes flashing.
Axle had arrived suddenly, without advance notice. Molly was ecstatic, her voice even more shrill than usual as she explained his presence to Shoshanna over the phone.
As part of my presentation, I gestured his way with an open palm and introduced the leader of the greatest affiliate in all BuyMort history, a large smile painted on my face as I did it. The crowd looked his way from their own tables and politely applauded, then went back to lightly buzzing about his presence amongst themselves.
With that formality out of the way, I proceeded with the speech I had been provided. It focused on the intelligence of Cubes and contained several anecdotes about their cooperation with other sapients. I had some of their attention, but many of the crowd were drunk, or distracted. My words didn’t really matter anyway, only my presence.
One of the anecdotes was the story of how Cube had helped us kill two beholders. When I got to the section on the notes where we had trapped Quadrum in the basement, I paused and a genuine smile flickered over my lips.
“You know,” I said, going off script. “Cube didn’t even really understand how dangerous the trap was for him, specifically. My good friend Axle over there only gave him fifty-fifty chances of making it out alive,” I said, gesturing toward Axle again. The old Knowle scowled at me, but it appeared to be his resting expression. It never altered while I spoke.
“Yeah, that’s right. People often forget it, but Axle here was a key element in that first beholder kill. He was fighting at my side, for his family’s safety, for his home. We come from such humble origins, don’t we old friend?” I asked, looking down at Axle. “Anyway, Cube understood a complicated plan. He camouflaged himself on the roof of the tunnel and took that beholder by complete surprise. Cube is really the only reason we thought we could kill that beholder in the first place. He was our key teammate in that endeavor. And then of course, later on when he was bigger, he couldn’t get enough of beholder treats, as we called them.”
A giggle rolled through the crowd, affecting every table but Axle’s. A reporter knelt to take photos of the moment, and I smiled brightly for my picture.
“We took down some real foes to sapiency in those days. We hunted monsters, and we could only do it because of Cube’s eager participation. We all owe him our lives, in a real, measurable way,” I said, getting more somber in tone.
“So do please, remember that debt when you go to make your transfers. All donations should go through our press team as well, to ensure proper credit is given in public,” I finished. Then I gave a light bow and waved to the people at the tables below as I stepped away. There would be a meet and greet portion of the event to attend, where I would share endearing stories with wealthy benefactors, making them feel like they were getting a little piece of history for their time and morties.
All of the many humans, Knowles, and Nah’gh that were in attendance wanted to shake hands with me and get a photo for their social media feeds. All of them except for Axle, who made a donation with the receptionist and then quietly left via instant portal. After an hour of glad handing and pretending to be as excited about my past as they were, I was tired and ready to leave.
In spite of myself, I stayed until well past the end of the special dinner. The patrons had all paid twenty-five million morties per plate, but that would barely be enough to cover fuel, let alone the ship rental.
Save the Cubes had only a single small craft in its fleet, and it was fitted for navigation only. The craft would be too small to move anything beyond an adolescent Cube, and most of them were discarded well after that stage, when they were considerably larger.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
So we would need to rent or buy a new craft, depending on how well the fundraiser went. Molly and Shoshanna, another human woman from Nu-Earth, were convinced rental would be our only option, and that at least one more fundraiser would have to be held before we could acquire it. I had high hopes for my influence. There had been a handful of affiliate heads and other celebrities at the function, specifically to see me.
I had to hope that would pay out. Meanwhile, I worked the press as hard as I could by staying to help with cleanup.
While I helped the vineyard staff put away tables and chairs, our invited press took pictures. By the time the kitchen staff took away my mop and insisted that I go home, the press and all our other guests had left. Molly waited for me in the hover-limo, sipping at a glass of champagne and browsing on her phone. She looked at me over her wine glass and smiled. “You sure are committed, huh?” she asked.
“Completely,” I replied. “I believe in Shoshanna’s dream. Not just for my Cube, but for all Cubes.”
They’d given me some basic literature on the way over, and with my eidetic memory, it was easy to absorb. Save the Cubes had found a tri-solar system, within an abandoned universe. The stars in the system had already destroyed the gathering planetoids within their gravity wells, which meant plenty of radiation and raw material for Cubes to ingest. I had to hand it to Shoshanna, and more likely her team, but the solar system really was the perfect playground for Cubes.
Save the Cube’s first fund-raiser had been to reopen the gate, so their single ship could make an excursion and get readings of the solar system to determine viability. The dusty history documents that had led them to it were not enough to operate on.
Shoshanna herself had spent a large chunk of her inheritance buying that first ship, then refurbishing it for the journey. To avoid having to alter her affluent lifestyle, she turned to fundraising after that single, large purchase.
It was docked at the Los Angeles spaceport, waiting to join us on our journey to Neolithic-Earth’s universe. Her ship would help us coordinate and update theorized navigational data about Cube’s discard date.
The Crown of Thorns had done it personally, using the gravity drive to not only reach the edge of the galaxy, but to throw the large Cube as well. As much information about that throw that could be found had been gathered already, so we would primarily just follow the non-profit’s calculated route and see what we found.
It required an FTL capable ship, for obvious reasons. We’d have to travel light years into the void between galaxies. Shoshanna’s ship was already equipped with a high end FTL drive, so the new ship would have to be able to match her speed, if the expedition was to take only weeks instead of months, or years.
“Well, you should have a glass of champers with me, Tyson. You just helped us have our biggest fundraiser by far. Did you know Axle would show up?” Molly asked.
“I honestly had no idea that would happen. Huge boon for our publicity though, right?” I replied, refusing the offered glass of champagne.
“Huge boon for the entire affiliate, for the entire cause. I have to admit I’m mostly in it for Shoshanna’s friendship, but I love to see your passion. It’s almost equal to hers,” Molly added. “Axle donated four-hundred and seventy-five trillion morties to our affiliate, by the way. Personal transfer, too.”
My eyes widened. “Really? How’s that compare with the rest of the donations?”
“Dwarfs them, really. The rest totaled two-hundred trillion, give or take. We’re buying a ship!” Molly exclaimed. “I’ve already cleared it with Shoshanna. We’re all going shopping tomorrow. Would you be so good as to join us? Shoshanna believes we can get a discount with your celebrity presence, plus it’ll be good press. Axle is being a bit of a stink-butt about this whole thing.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
Molly handed me her phone. A video on it was in the middle of a reporter following Axle and his guards out of the event. “Why did you donate to the WindowPuncher’s cause, CEO?” the reporter asked. “Are you reconciling? Will there be a renewed partnership announced in the near future?”
Axle stopped walking and turned to stare grumpily at the reporter. “I just hoped this nonsense would keep him busy,” he grunted. “Out of the affiliate’s hair.” With a dismissive gesture, he turned to walk away. The clip ended in the rainbow flash of a portal.
I rolled my eyes. “Of course,” I muttered. “Can’t have a kind word. Don’t deserve one either.”
Molly grinned at me and took a sip. “But he mentioned us. Not by name, but the association will be out there. I’m going to fundraise like crazy off that mad old Knowle.”
“Ha! Well, you enjoy that. He’s definitely the gift that keeps on giving,” I laughed.
Still. Scorn and derision aside, he had bought us a new ship. Well . . . a used one. A quick glance at the available ships for sale locally told me it was a seller’s market. But it would still be a ship for the cause. Once they had one they owned, Save the Cubes would be able to launch expeditions anytime they had funding for fuel and provisions.