Days later, Stephen showed Adam and HAL the robots he’d traded for. Both were amazed at the range of functions.
“The data pad you brought has centuries of scientific progress on it,” the golem reported. “Millennia really. It’s expanded our capabilities in every direction.”
“Any leads on time travel?” asked Stephen. “I haven’t found any trace of it during my cursory research.”
“Everything we’ve learned supports its impossibility,” said HAL. “Some of our possible avenues to explore have been conclusively disproven. Everything we learn is consistent, that time travel, in the manner you describe, is impossible.”
“It has to be possible,” said Stephen, shaking his head.
“HAL found a traveler for us,” Adam said grimly. “I think he was so pleased with the data you brought him that he focused quite a bit of effort into it.”
“Should I meet this traveler?” asked Stephen.
“It’s too late for that,” said Adam. “But the new tool I created is complete. If you could put a few cards in it, I’ll begin studying them.”
***
A week later, while tapping out the gray dust from a test tube, Adam asked, “What is it?”
“They’re called nanites,” said Stephen. “It’s one of the sands they search for on Rekkar. They’re tiny machines, from an extinct empire that existed in that galaxy long ago. Scientists study them, but I figured you and HAL might be able to replicate them. I also captured a number of aliens who I’ve been getting to know. I can put their cards in your ‘reliquary’ device that you use for studying them.
“Reliquary might be a good name for it,” said Adam. “In contrast to a library.”
***
“So, you’ve managed to capture all the outpost?” Adam asked Stephen as the statue examined the new cards Stephen had returned with after a few months.
“Pretty much,” the traveler replied. “I’ve captured the outpost, including all the buildings, the various people who were living and working there, and most of the surrounding technology. A number of spaceships, too. I captured the sand quarries that had been trading at the outpost. After talking to high ranking members of the Vrellan government, I've convinced them to begin a rebellion against the galactic authorities. They have a bunch of legitimate grievances, but apparently the authorities are now sending military forces to subdue the planet, which wasn’t what I really wanted. I had hoped to capture more outposts and towns there, eventually capturing sections of the desert and maybe even continents and the whole planet. All of that is going to be on hold while they’re in military conflict.”
“What will you be working on if you aren’t returning to Zephyra?” Adam asked.
“Another sci-fi world,” said Stephen.
***
The next day, as Stephen looked through the thick smog, he saw lights with varied colors penetrating through it. Specific details from the advertisements that lit up the obscuring fog couldn’t be made out. Stephen skirted mobile food stands, cooking up varieties of food he’d never seen before. The vendors half-heartedly made offers to him, in what sounded vaguely like Mandarin, as he moved along the crowded street. The HAL-powered translating device made chirping noises and attempted to replicate the sounds it heard as it worked at learning the local language.
The new dimension he'd discovered was called Chromehaven.
A man in rich clothing came out of the fog, walking directly at Stephen. The dimensional traveler stepped aside, which he was glad he did, as his muscle came up behind the wealthy man. The vendors nearby went quiet. Two intimidating looking men matched his stride, a couple paces behind. The goons had implants, not unlike HAL’s cyborgs, armored plates, mirrored shades with lights blinking around the lenses, and various guns hanging off their bodies.
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One of them, feeling Stephen’s gaze, made eye contact and stared at the traveler steadily as they walked past, then disappeared back into the smog. Conversation resumed after the three men had left.
***
Weeks later, Stephen sat in the dive bar he’d been doing business out of. A half dozen mercenaries were spread out around him, providing protection as he met with various connections he’d made. HAL had learned to infiltrate the mercenaries' cybernetics and had turned them all into drones. He’d also entered cyberspace, hacked into various data fortresses and recovered information that their connections had been willing to trade for.
”I just can’t pay the medical bills, Mr. Crawford,” the man sitting across from him said. “If you can wipe them out, I’ll pay you the same amount if you’ll give me a lower interest rate and more time to pay.”
”I can take care of your debt for you,” Stephen said, taking a sip of the red, bubbling intoxicant in front of him. Mild hallucinogens danced at the edges of his perception. “I don’t have any interest in holding your debt.” The man across from him started to break out in a large smile. “Thank y…” he began to say.
”So,” Stephen cut him off. “What else can you offer me instead?”
The man’s face fell. “I don’t know what else I could do for you,” said the man. “I own a junkyard, which makes a little bit of money….”
”I’ll send you a list of items I’m interested in,” said Stephen. “I’ll quantify each with a percentage of your debt I’ll erase. Deliver enough of what I’m looking for, and I’ll erase the whole thing and start paying you.”
Surprised, the man said, “Thank you! Please transfer your list and I’ll get started immediately.”
***
Months later, Stephen met with Adam in the workshop on Liminalis. “I’ve got more cards from Chromehaven, you can add them to the others you’ve already been studying. I got a few more corporations and a bunch more mercenaries. It would have been nice if Avin could help capture technology, champions, and batteries there, but it’s probably best that we’ve kept it isolated from other travelers.”
“I’ve captured a number of A.I.'s too,” the traveler continued. “HAL is more capable than any of them, of course, but some of them have a more sophisticated design than his. Fewer capabilities in the real world, though, and no dimensional traveling abilities at all. They're far more focused on 'the grid', what they call their cyberspace network. The A.I.'s design seems to explicitly prohibit them from assembling a hivemind like HAL has done. For safety reasons, no doubt.”
”The manufacturing capabilities are incredible,” Adam said. “I thought Earth might be near the limits of this industrial approach you follow. Chromehaven and Zephyra clearly demonstrate how much further you can go with it. The nanites are an incredibly precise tool and, in swarms, have the capacity to hold an A.I.”
”I’ve been experimenting on the new dimensional travel card we obtained,“ continued the statue. When Stephen looked confused, Adam continued. “The card from the traveler we… used… for the reliquary. Along with what I keep learning by studying other cards, I’ve made a breakthrough.”
Stephen approached the reliquary, examined the card, then cast identify on it.
image [https://i.imgur.com/5Fs9VJR.png]“It lets me enter other traveler’s pocket dimensions?” Stephen asked the statue. “That’s amazing.”
***
The next week, walking along the war torn surface of Rekkar, Stephen led a group of druids, pointing out features that had existed before the assault by the central government. The druids were intrigued by the alien elements of the ecosystem and by the parts that were familiar.
”So, if you capture all the parts of this world,” Briarheart asked, “nothing will be left? The entire world will be subsumed into your pocket dimension?”
”This is one of countless planets in this dimension,” Stephen explained. “If we capture this entire world, there will still be numerous other worlds. More than we could visit in a lifetime. We have spaceships here that will let us travel between them, either once we’ve captured every part of this world or when there’s nothing worthwhile left here.”
***
The next day, sitting with HAL’s golem drones and Adam, Stephen laid out the plan. “I’ll get any cards from Avin that might help, then I’ll use the new dimensional travel card Adam created to enter Avin’s pocket dimension. We’ll investigate how it works there, then I’ll enter Maggard’s pocket dimension, if it works transitively that way. If I can’t enter Avin’s pocket dimension or if it doesn’t allow me to enter his contact’s pocket dimensions, we’ll have to think about other plans.”
”When I get to your pocket dimension,” Stephen said to HAL as Avin, “let me have some time there on my own before you join us. Let me see how it reacts to me there and if there are any limits to how I can operate. Then, I’ll bring every champion, item, and card that I can from both of our collections, and we'll take on Maggard.”