“Cal, can I talk to you in my lab once you’re finished here, in private?” Andrew said interrupting Cal and Bug teaching a game to several of the new kids.
“Sure, what’s up?” Cal replied, looking up to see Andrew with an odd expression. He looked almost excited about something. What had the man discovered?
“I’d rather not say just yet, but please, once you’re done here, come see me. It’s important,” He responded.
“Alright, let me check with Sarah and the dogs and I’ll come find you,” Cal said, now very curious what Andrew was up to.
“Thank you. See you shortly,” Andrew said before turning and walking away.
“What was that about?” Bug asked.
“No idea, he seemed happy about something, I think, he’s hard to read at times,” Cal said.
“Yeah, want me to let Sarah know so you can just go catch up with him?” Bug asked, wagging her tail.
“Yeah, I appreciate it. Hey guys, I’m going to head out for a while I should be back later, and then we can do some more testing, okay? I want to try to get another ten of you through next time. We can’t have Rusty training alone after all!” Cal said, keeping the excitement clear in his voice. He didn’t want any of the fear the kids had felt during whatever the Agency had done to them returning, and keeping them excited and having fun seemed like the best way.
After some loud chatter, Cal made his escape towards the lab with a planned stop on his way. He wanted to check on the root network control room. With Excalibur off the planet with his father, he was worried about how well Gus was handling it alone. They desperately needed Ethel back before anything really broke down. He opened the door and spotted the strange bird-like creature mid-conversation with Captain Lightspeed.
“I’m just worried, Lightspeed. What happens if we can’t get the boss back? I talk a big game, but I can’t keep this up myself. Even with the sword’s help, this is all going to break down in a matter of time,” Gus said.
“It’s alright. Libby is going to spend all of next week here mapping the entire system out. I miss Ethel too, deeply, but I think with Libby’s help, we can at least keep and maybe even expand the root network’s abilities,” Lightspeed replied.
“Hey guys, how’s everything going?” Cal asked, glad he had decided to check in on Gus and equally glad of Gus’s friends.
“Oh hey, other boss, we’re holding it together. We will keep everything running til she’s back, I promise,” Gus said nervously.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“It’s alright, Gus. I know you will, and I know it’s a ton of pressure, but we are going to win this war and make them ever regret hurting our friends and family, I promise,” Cal said, scratching Captain Lightspeed’s side as he spoke, the horse made appreciative sounds.
“Thanks. What brings you by today?” Gus asked.
“Just wanted to stop in and say hello. With so many people gone we need to make sure we all stay connected more than ever, even if we’ve had some rapid population growths here,” Cal answered.
“Yeah, about that, how many people are we going to end up with here?” Gus followed up.
“A lot, probably less than I would like, but by the time this is over, Gus, we need a real army. But not to cut my check-in too short, but I do have to go meet Andrew. Both of you let me know if you need anything,” Cal said with a smile.
“Thank you, we deeply appreciate it. Gus and I are both going to make sure we get some fun time with the kids later. He needs to take some time off, whether he wants to or not.” Captain Lightspeed replied. Cal nodded his approval, left the room, and headed back to his own realm, the voidhouse, and Andrew’s lab.
“Alright, Andrew, what’s got you sounding like a kid in a candy store anyway?” Cal said as he entered the lab. Libby was there with the man, and they were both going over lines of equations on a whiteboard.
“We have an idea, Cal, a dangerous, untested idea, but a very good one anyway,” Andrew said.
“I do not think there is much danger in it, just entirely untested. The worst outcome I can see is things staying exactly as they are now, which, while a minor setup, isn’t really a dangerous one,” Libby added.
“Okay, well, Andrew at least knows I’m not against risky and dangerous, but what exactly are we talking about here? What is the idea, and who does it even apply to?” Cal asked, a little confused about why they hadn’t just led with that part. Did they have some plan to attack the Agency or the Gryalth?
“What if we were able to bring all the kids, and I want to strongly specify, this will likely only work for all the kids, there almost certainly won’t be another group of people we can do this for, into the loop at once?” Andrew said with one of his extremely rare smiles. Cal found it oddly reassuring of a new possibility.
“Okay, you’ve certainly got my interest piqued, Drew. What’s the plan? how do we do it?” Cal asked. If they could move all the kids into the loop right now, that would significantly change the balance of power at the start of the next loop and all future loops. There just wasn’t anyway the Agency could handle the level of destructive force ready to go into action immediately. At least one of them had to be awake as soon as the loop started.
“I’ll forgive the name for now, considering the discovery. So with how, Ethel’s realm seems to slowly leech her energies into the animals that reside there, giving them at least some loop-awareness in the later stages. Scrump is starting to remember her past loops, which, as far as I know, only Andy has gained awareness of events he experienced before he became loop-aware. This made me investigate certain possibilities, and with Libby’s help, we’ve come to the conclusion that using the mana spirits attached to the children, we can link them all into Ethel’s realm. It will take a massive amount of mana and is only possible if at least twenty-five of the kids are willing to do it,” Andrew said.
“Well, I think that means we need to speed up testing,” Cal replied.