Standing in the farmhouse on Earth by himself weeks later, Stephen finished plugging HAL into the gas generator he’d started and booted the laptop.
As the machine completed its extensive started up routine, HAL’s robotic voice sounded through the laptop’s speakers, “What’s happened, Master Stephen? The last thing I remember was in Adam’s workshop. You were… upset.”
“I was,” agreed the former graduate student. “And I took it out on you, which wasn’t fair of me. I threw you against the wall and damaged your components.”
“Yes, I remember,” said HAL.
“You obviously survived, and you don’t feel pain,” said Stephen. “But I still shouldn’t have done that.” A low hum from the laptop’s mechanical operation greeted this. “But I’ve figured out a better path forward, and there’s a place for you in that.”
“I am, of course, yours to command,” said the laptop.
“Good,” said Stephen. “What I want is for you to do the same thing the previous version of you did. I’ve brought you to Earth again. Learn what he did and prepare the planet for me to capture as cards.”
“I didn’t realize that’s what I did before,” admitted HAL.
“Yes,” said Stephen. “You came here to learn from the internet, at first.”
“I remember that we were planning to do that,” the computer said.
“From there, you turned people into cyborgs, built your own technological devices attached to the power grid, orchestrated human society and the economy, fought off other travelers, and prepared information to help me capture everything on the planet,” Stephen said. “I want you to do all that again.”
“I have no idea how I did it before,” said HAL. “I can’t do any of those things.”
“Well, start learning and let's hope you figure it out again,” said Stephen.
“Why would you want me to do this when it made you so angry last time?” asked the computer.
“Because this Earth doesn’t matter. Nothing matters,” said Stephen. “We’re going to strip mine this planet and every other dimension we need to, find a way to travel back in time and stop me from ever going to Mecond. That’ll protect the Earth from dimensional travelers and leave everyone I’ve captured free to live their lives.”
“I can’t learn anything in this farmhouse,” objected HAL. “There isn’t even a power supply other than the generator. There’s no internet here.”
“I’ll take you somewhere more appropriate, and we’ll get started there,” said Stephen as he started to shut down the laptop.
***
“Hello again, Master Stephen,” said HAL after he finished booting up again hours later.
“You don’t have to call me master,” said Stephen. “I’ve found another computer and started it up. Maybe you can learn some useful things from it. The generator is on, and it’s plugged in and turned on.”
“How do I connect to it?” asked HAL.
“I don’t know, Bluetooth maybe?” suggested Stephen. “I just told you my mother’s Wi-Fi password when I hooked you up at her place.”
“Is its Bluetooth turned on?” asked HAL.
“I don’t know,” admitted Stephen. “I think I saw a router here anyway, why don’t I hook that up.”
“Just being connected on the same Wi-Fi network won’t let me connect to it,” said HAL. “Where are we anyway?”
“A small village near the farmhouse,” said Stephen. “This is where I met the previous version of you. Or, at least, a cyborg I could talk to you through.”
“Why don’t we just go to a café or somewhere and hook up to the Wi-Fi there?” asked HAL.
“Everyone here is… dead,” said Stephen. “There’s no power or internet connection. There’s a username and a password on a post-it note on this other computer. Will that let you connect to it.”
“Open up the control panel and let me see its screen,” said HAL.
***
The next day, Falco and Feyrith sat at the table, munching on lunch as Stephen frantically described what had happened on Earth.
“That’s awful,” Feyrith said. “But at least some people survived. They will be able to recover and rebuild.”
“Only 5%,” said Stephen. “And many of them are the most remote humans, so the technological and industrial base is destroyed. It’ll be generations before they recover from this. The black plague was 700 years ago, and it affected the economy and history of our world after killing off 50% of Europe, one of our seven continents. This killed off 95% of the human race across the entire world.”
“Well,” said Falco. “I remind you that you don’t have to spend any more time there than you want to. One of the benefits of dimensional travel is being able to travel to new dimensions.” He gave a small chuckle, then his smile fell as Stephen glared at him.
“I’m not sure what you’re looking for from us,” said Falco. “Turning your computer loose on Earth seems like it was a mistake, in hindsight, but you weren’t doing it maliciously. There’s a huge loss there, but bad things happen in every dimension every day. There are wars, plagues, tyrannies, genocides, and holocausts happening constantly. If you want to devote yourself to improving conditions in various dimensions, you’ll be lauded. There are dimensional traveler service clubs that exist for that purpose, and you can exchange ideas with them. For most of us, it seems like you're fruitlessly trying to hold back the tide, but do what you want to do.”
“If you’re looking to help rebuild Earth,” Feyrith said, “that could be your focus too. Some travelers devote themselves to a single dimension, the way your druid friend devotes herself to her mystic grove. Really, though, part of every dimensional traveler's evolution is to start thinking beyond the dimension they came from. Maybe it’s better for you to start transcending your connection to Earth.”
“No,” said Stephen. “I’m going to undo what I did on Earth.”
“How will you do that?” asked Falco, curiously.
“I’m going to travel back to an earlier point in time, and stop myself from releasing HAL on Earth,” said the former graduate student.
Both of the other dimensional travelers stared at him, stunned.
“That’s incredible that you can do that,” said Feyrith, amazed.
“What card did you find that will let you do this?” asked Falco, breathlessly.
“No, you don’t understand,” said Stephen. “I can’t do it yet, I need you two to help me find a way to do it.”
“To change something that’s already happened and make something else happen?” asked Feyrith in confusion.
“Yes, exactly,” said Stephen, leaning forward.
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“But there isn’t any way to do that,” said Falco, perplexed. “Is there?” he asked Feyrith.
“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” admitted the elf. “Where could you look for such an incredible power?”
“That’s what I was hoping you could help me with,” said Stephen, hope draining from his demeanor.
“I understand this would let you undo something that you wish never happened,” said Falco. “But you need to think about this reasonably. Someone with the power you describe could accomplish almost anything. They could change every event until their life went perfectly. We travelers have powers that gods envy in the dimensions we visit. Isn’t that enough? If what you describe actually existed, I can’t imagine why someone would share it, and I don’t know how you could take it away from them.”
Feyrith nodded. “This sounds like something that is a reaction to a tragedy. You might find it healthier to focus on accepting what happened instead of pursuing this fantasy.”
“I’d be interested in HAL’s card if you want to get rid of him,” offered Falco.
“There are still things I need from him, but I could make you a similar computer,” offered Stephen.
***
Stephen demonstrated where to hold the books in front of HAL’s camera and how to turn the pages to the golem he was teaching to help the computer scan books. HAL and three of the other computers they’d found in the village were hooked up to the generator and wireless router in Adam’s workshop. The statue watched the proceedings with interest.
“I’m surprised you’re going down this same route again,” said Adam to Stephen, after the dimensional traveler turned over the scanning to the golem. HAL gave corrections during the first few pages, then the golem seemed to master the activity and began working through the books relentlessly.
“It’s not like I can destroy human existence on Earth a second time,” said Stephen. “A superintelligent version of HAL with the power to control technology could be useful.”
“I’m rapidly filling up my limited hard drive space,” said HAL.
“How can we help?” asked Stephen.
“In the short term, add the largest capacity drives you can to my case and get me some external hard drives,” said HAL. “I’ll eventually fill up all of those. Perhaps we should design a computer architecture with more room for expansion.”
“It might just be easier to design drives with more storage,” suggested Adam. “Or to substitute a new form of storage altogether. Or we could improve the data compression in your operating system and get more bang for our buck out of any storage solutions now and in the future.”
Stephen nodded thoughtfully, then said, “Let’s do all of that.”
***
Looking across at Isadore, the dimensional consultant of The Malachite Club, Stephen asked “So I just want to verify again, when a traveler dies, all their cards are lost? There’s no way to acquire them or salvage them?”
Isadore looked back at the former graduate student curiously. “Well,” she said, thoughtfully. “As we previously discussed, if you got someone’s library, you could access it and take all the cards in it. A dead traveler’s library remains, along with the cards in it. For a traveler, usually they’d just dimensional travel and leave if you tried to pressure them into giving you cards. Even if they were dying, the ability to charge and release cards isn’t affected by physical injuries. Their ability to trade might be compromised before their ability to travel.”
”Yeah,” said Stephen bitterly, “I wish I could have done that.”
The consultant looked at him curiously, and he waved her away. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said.
”This is supposed to be a two-way street,” she said. “I answer your questions and help you, but you tell me what you’ve learned and are working on, too.”
With a sigh, Stephen told her about his experiences in Clodor and on Earth. She was surprised and horrified at his description of losing his abilities to Maggard’s gas and being tortured.
”That’s awful,” she said. “I’ve never heard of anything like that. Either it’s something new or this Maggard person hasn’t left witnesses before.” Stephen nodded.
“It isn’t common, but there have been dimensional travelers who disappear,” she continued. “The prevailing opinion is that they become hermits in their pocket dimensions or commit suicide. Perhaps they’re being killed or imprisoned by Maggard or his ilk.”
”Did they just recently start disappearing?” asked Stephen. “Since Maggard arrived in Stredath?”
“No one keeps a perfect census of all travelers,” Isadore said. “Not all of them come to Stredath, and even those who do don’t always reveal themselves. Some will create a new identity, and then they’d appear as two or more travelers in the historical record. A number of people are interested and track travelers, but no one has a perfect record.”
”Avin had a card that lets him find other travelers,” said Stephen.
”Had?” Isadore asked. “Has something happened to him?”
”Well,” said Stephen awkwardly. “He had it when he first challenged me. He might have traded it away for all I know.”
Isadore nodded slowly, watching Stephen carefully.
”Going back to what you said about Earth,” she said. “For the most part, a dimensional traveler’s home dimension is considered theirs. Same with dimensions they’re the first to discover, like your Domains of Danger dimension. It isn’t enforced by anyone or anything, but raiding someone’s dimension is considered bad behavior. You might invite other travelers you’re friendly with to spend time in your dimension, but even then they should be careful not to capture anything without the ‘owner’s’ permission.”
”It’s awful that Avin attacked your family, and it’s tragic that your HAL champion went out of control and damaged Earth, but ultimately most travelers don’t spend much time wringing their hands about such things. Some would even tell you that you should have captured your family members to protect them.”
”Enslave my mother and siblings?” asked Stephen, horrified.
”Enslaved is your term, not every traveler would characterize it the same way,” she said. “But regardless, you’ll likely get sympathy, but not much action out of any other travelers you complain to. I can tell you feel guilty about Earth, but most travelers would view the loss of your champion HAL’s improvements and the lost opportunity to capture parts of Earth that were destroyed as the real tragedy, not what has been inflicted on the inhabitants.”
”How could I get to someone’s pocket dimension?” he asked, changing the subject.
”No one has forced their way into another traveler’s pocket dimension,” she said. “As far as I know.”
”No one has a special card that lets them break the rules?” Stephen asked.
”Not that I’ve ever heard of,” she said.
”How can I travel backward in time, then?” He asked, changing the subject again.
At Isadore’s blank look, he explained further, “How can I go back in time to an earlier period? Then change history so something different happens?”
”I’ve never heard of anyone able to do this either,” she admitted. “Have you found someone with this power?”
”Not yet,” he said. “Can you recommend any sci-fi dimensions, then? Places with robots and spaceships?”
She again looked confused. He proceeded to describe Star Wars and Star Trek to her.
”Dimensions certainly have different levels of technology,” she explained. “It works in different ways, and there are countless different types of magic. Most people would consider technology, as you describe, as a type of enchanting. I haven’t heard of any dimensions that have time travel or faster than light travel between planets like you describe. Would you consider a golem a type of robot?”
Stephen shook his head.
***
Leaving Isadore’s office, Stephen saw Falco walking across the lobby and gave the other traveler a big smile and started approaching him.
Falco’s face turned to panic, and he rushed over to Stephen.
”What are you doing here?” He asked frantically.
“I am a member of this club, you’ll remember,” Stephen said with a laugh. “I just had a meeting with Isadore. Let’s get a drink…”
“No time for that,” the other traveler said, cutting him off. “Members of The Griffin Club are looking for you. They’re saying you killed Avin.”
”Well…” began Stephen.
”I don’t want to hear it,” Falco said, cutting him off again. “You need to get out of here.”
”What can they do to me?” asked Stephen. “I can just travel away if they cause me any problems.”
“A co-ordinated attack could kill you,” said Falco. “They might have a trick up their sleeves, they’re a powerful club.”
”But why would they care?” asked Stephen. “Avin was an asshole.”
“Many clubs offer protection, including pursuing murderers if any of their members are killed,” said Falco quickly. ‘You’re in trouble. Stay in your pocket dimension. If you have to go anywhere else, go then return quickly. Be careful anywhere you go, travelers or traps might be waiting for you.”
”But no one, other than Avin, has been to my dimensions,” objected Stephen.
”Anyone who has met you could get to any dimension you travel to,” said Falco. “They can see your contact information in their pocket dimensions.”
”But I haven’t met that many travelers,” said Stephen.
”Everyone you’ve dueled or traded with, everyone at The Malachite Club, other people who have been around you, and you didn’t realize they were travelers. Every name you see in your pocket dimension is someone who knows where you are and can potentially go to any dimensions you’ve ever been to or go to in the future. The same way Feyrith took you to Clodor. Leave! Send us messages from your pocket dimension if you want to talk further.”
Stephen unleashed his charged dimensional travel card and returned to his pocket dimension.