John was lost in the gaps between the chaos of Outside and the mundanity of reality. He was slowly extending the bridge, maker it broader and longer by feeding parts of himself and the Concepts that lurked at the far end, creating a voluntary melding of matter and un-matter that linked both worlds.
Time had no meaning for him. He drifted for what felt like years but could have only been a few seconds, gradually spreading the weblike structure of the bridge. Physical dimensions didn't apply, he might as well have said it made it heavier rather than larger but the human parts of him insisted on language he was familiar with.
He felt a new strand of the bridge stretch out and brush up against something. At first he assumed it was a new Concept, coming to join the meld but then he realised it was what he had been searching for. The bridge the Gods of the System had created some impossible time ago.
Their bridge was rigid whereas his was flexible. His strand slid along the ancient metaphysical construct and the Concepts supporting him recoiled. There was no colour in this disconnected world but in his mind's eye the Gods’ bridge was black and gold whereas his own was pink and purple. Shape was meaningless in this demi-realm but he felt that his own bridge was an organic, flowing thing of delicate arcs that stretched out like a tangle of vines between reality and Outside. The Gods bridge was angular and blocky, imposing itself on the substrate rather than blending with it. He started to creep tendrils of his own bridge across the older one, gradually surrounding sections of it.
The black and the gold was inconceivably vast, despite lacking physical dimension. In comparison his own effort was a month old sapling standing next to thousand year old Redwood. But with youth came vigour and he began the long work of mapping his own bridge across the older one.
He was lost in his task, gradually feeding the power of the Concepts who flitted on the Outside and offered their help to his work, weaving them with his humanity in a way that would eventually supplant and uproot the behemoth that the Gods relied on for their power.
***
“Well why don’t we just kill them?” snapped Evie.
“John didn’t kill them earlier. He didn’t even collar them, which in hindsight was probably a big fucking mistake,” grunted Flash.
Evie and Flash occupied either end of a long corridor, one of the central passages that provided access to over a hundred holds. The inhabitants of those holds had been freed by the attackers who were currently nowhere to be seen. The pair were maintaining impenetrable force fields to block the now rampaging former passengers from spilling out into the rest of the ship.
Evie’s field was an opaque wall of purple most of the time. When the denizens on the other side backed off for a minute the field became translucent and they could see the wall of fighters blocking the corridor cycling themselves, fresh beings stepping forward while those who had exhausted themselves against the impermeable membrane backed off to rest.
Then they would rush forward, tangles of teeth and tentacles, three limb thick arms and legs thrashing and flailing at the barrier which quickly blocked off the sight as the field dispersed the force and blocked the light.
“I’m going to push again. Looks like they’re focusing on you,” said Flash. His barrier was much the same as Evie's but a deeper purple, like a fresh bruise. He drove it forward six feet before the aliens facing off against him charged back into the fray and sought to shove it away. He gave ground slightly, losing six inches as they slammed into it before he could lock it in place, but then it held firm. Felicity channelled some kind of buff or healing into him from his shoulder and he straightened up.
“We’ve been doing this for fucking hours,” grumbled Evie. “How much further till we can lock them in a hold?”
“Half a kilometre. How we get them to go back into the hold, meh,” said Bob with a verbal shrug.
“I return to my previous point: let's just kill them,” Evie snapped as she prepared to slide her own barrier closer to the source of their problems once more. As it faded back to transparency she mimicked Flash’s manoeuvre, catching the attackers unaware and managed to slide the barrier another ten feet before locking it in place. Angry grunts, clicks and screams came from the other side and she smirked.
“I did ten,” she bragged.
“Six last time for me. The winner is whoever gets to the middle first though. I’m still betting on me,” Flash replied grumpily.
“Stop fecking aboot and fecking move the bloody things back!” growled Reg.
“It’s not that easy, old man,” Evie replied. “That’s a lot of weight over there and they’ve all got fucking powers. If you want to go and collar a few it would be really helpful,” she finished sweetly.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Reg grumbled but didn’t volunteer. Even with their new abilities and the equivalent of a considerable level advantage: quantity has a quality all its own and there was a lot of quantity trying to take over the ship.
“I could remove the atmosphere if you prefer?” offered Colin from the ceiling.
“John didn’t kill them for a reason. Maybe. Until he gets back from la-la-land we’re better off letting this lot live,” said Vic. “They’re no real threat are they?”
“They are now locked out and I will soon have access to the control systems along this corridor again,” Colin replied flatly.
“You think he will do unto them as he has done unto us?” asked Felix who was leaning against a wall behind Evie.
“I would think so. I get the feeling he needs recruits. We’re the first but more will follow,” said Sam thoughtfully.
“Dad-John doesn’t need trash like this. We need to get home so he can create interfaces for my packs. Then we’ll be unstoppable,” said Zeeg lazily over the comms. The assumption of canine superiority was an accepted law of the universe and returning to her less than gargantuan size had not changed her opinion on the matter.
“Still. He didn’t just stomp them,” said Raoul. “Maybe I can get in there?” he asked hopefully.
“If I open up a gap for you the bastards will swarm out,” grunted Flash. “Once we get them penned back in a single hold and Colin can seal the door again you can have a play.”
“They’re living things! Just because the system has set them against us doesn’t mean we can pretend they’re monsters. They’re sentients like us. Well, like most of us,” Sam chuckled as she punched Raoul in the arm earning a dirty look from her lover.
“Ok, another move,” Flash grunted as he shoved back the sea of flesh again. “Twelve! Ha, suck it Evie!” he crowed.
“Phrasing dude. Inappropriate language for the workplace,” Evie joked back as she prepared another shove as well. “Six this time,” she muttered in disappointment. She couldn’t see him, what with the sea of aliens between them but she knew Flash had a broad grin on his annoyingly handsome face.
“Better luck next time,” the man replied over the comms, his smile clear in his tone.
“Cocky prick,” she muttered, waiting patiently for the aliens to calm down again and give her another opportunity to inch closer to winning the bet.
***
The Gods’ bridge was beginning to react. It was pushing back against his tendrils and John watched placidly as he lost some ground. His webs untangled and waved as they were driven away from the black and the gold. This was only to be expected but age had made the other bridge brittle. As it pushed back parts of it fragmented and separated from the main structure. Most would fade away but perhaps a few would find roots and create new Systems in other worlds. He could sense them at the edge of his perception. Alternate universes where the entire panoply of possibility played out in every conceivable fashion.
Worlds where he and Evie had never been trapped by the system, where he hadn’t messed up his degree and had lived completely different lives, never knowing Evie’s mother or meeting Vic and having Ryn come into his life. Millions of other-Johns hung at the edge of his mind. The possibilities were infinite and as he watched the fragments of the ancient bridge drifting out into the myriad universes he hoped some would lead to happier stories than his own.
His own bridge, being organic and integrated rather than artificial and imposed didn’t break, it bent like a reed in the wind and the disturbed tendrils began to collect themselves and slowly weave back around the other bridge, exploiting the damage it had done to itself in reaction to his intrusion.
For a while he was lost guiding and melding with the Concepts but he began to feel his energy flagging. He didn’t want to return to reality, as much as he was now able to return anyway. He knew it would be hours in the real world before he could manage more than single word sentences without babbling like a loon. Hopefully Vic would be more accepting of this handicap now she knew a little more of his plans.
With a sense of regret and loss he detached himself from the bridge, pulling what was left of himself back into the material universe. His eyelids blinked open out of habit, not because they blocked his vision. Zeeg raised her head from his lap and cocked it to one side, both ears raised inquisitively.
“We are all well, Dad-John,” she said softly. The runes Magic had carved into his cheeks and forehead pulsed with pink light and the motes of fire that had replaced his eyeballs were dancing orbs in their own right now. Zeeg blinked. Her master and friend seemed to have changed again.
“Good,” he said awkwardly, raising a hand to pet her gently on the back of her skull. He stood, dislodging her from where she had propped herself against him and scanned through the ship.
He saw the barriers bottling the slaves up in a small section of the ship and his face remained impassive. He focussed on a hold almost directly in the middle of the walls forcing the aliens backwards and found the last of the assault team. Mid sixties, in terms of levels. Perfect materials. He didn’t like viewing these intelligent beings as little more than fuel for the bridge but he needed every advantage he could take.
This pair were willing slaves. He could see their pasts like shadows stretching out behind them. Perhaps under different circumstances they might have considered the deeper reality of their situation but he hadn’t until Magic had forced him to see. He sighed and vanished, leaving Zeeg to stare at the alien body. Now no one was looking, she sidled over and took a few bites. The blood had tasted delicious and she wanted to check if the meat was the same-
“Zeeg, put that down!” snapped a spider drone as it passed.
John appeared next to where the last of the seven legged aliens were resting. They had exhausted themselves breaking into Colins systems and smashing the blast doors that were purposefully built to contain high levelled beings. He reached out as they turned and cut them off from the source of their power.
He ignored them as they lurched to their feet and threw themselves at him. The bounced off without ruffling his hair and then backed away, fourteen eyes blinking in fear at him.
He moved into the corridor stripping the Essence of every being he saw. Most of it went to the bridge but some of it was concentrated into a pair of interfaces growing in his left palm like benign tumours. These would be very special interfaces for two very important people. Pink sparks drifted up from his left fist as he strode down the corridor and turned powerful beings into whimpering mortals with a thought. His eyes burned so brightly they filled the corridor with an eerie purple glow.