When we emerged upstairs, instead of the vaguely Mediterranean island, we were standing in the crater of an extinct volcano. Lush greenery swept up the sides. The center filled with a large stone stage.

All around the edges were tiers of benches filled with people, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of faces. The tiers went all the way up the sides of the crater. I stared out, astonished at just how many people were here waiting to hear us.

Sage came rushing over. "Where have you guys been?" she asked. "It's been hours."

"Sorry," I said. “We got held up. How's it been?"

Sage looked a little flustered. “The other kids have been saying I should stay here. That it's easier. That everything's taken care of. And there's plenty of fun things to do. They took me surfing earlier. It was pretty fun.” She worried her lip, looking torn. "Maybe I should take a few days off and think about things. Maybe they're right. Maybe you've been right all along when you tell me I need to stay out of trouble.”

I gave Sage a hug. And she buried her head on my shoulder. "I was wrong," I said hoarsely. "I thought I needed to protect you, but you've been protecting me at least as much as I've been taking care of you. I need you, Sage. And Grandpa. I don't know what I'd do without you.”

“I thought you wanted me to get out. I thought you were scared of losing me.” She stared up at me, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

"It's true," I admitted. There was a lump in my throat. “I worry about that more than anything. But I want you with me.”

“What if they turn the deaths back on in Phase Three?”

“Then we won’t play,” I said firmly. “We’ll go plug into the Matrix and take the retirement package. If that what it takes. Either we all stay in, or we all get out.”

She sniffed and patted my shoulder. "I'm glad you feel that way," she said. “So what’s the plan?”

Grandpa set a hand on her shoulder. “I’m in for whatever you two want,” he said quietly. “We do this together, whatever we decide.”

“Then let’s go to Phase Three,” I said. “I got a look at the alternative, living in a reality engine with everything done for you. That doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t think it appeals to you two, either.” They both nodded, though Grandpa still looked tired and Sage, wary. “After that, who knows? But the more we learn about this setup, the more options we have. Some of the professionals seem to be enjoying themselves. Veda and the other sponsors, they get around. Maybe we tag along with them. Maybe we figure out how to get back. We’ll see how far into Phase Three we want to go. If either of you decide to call it quits, just speak up. I’ll listen.”

Sage managed a wan smile. “You don’t like giving up. You hate it when I beat you at games.”

“I know. I’m a sore loser.” I grinned at her. She’d grown a couple inches since we came here, seemed like. She was nearly up to my shoulder now.

"You ready for this?" Ames asked. "Because I'm about to use you as the stars of a propaganda piece. Earth Triumphant and all that shit.”

"Do what you need to," I growled.

Ames approached a pair of white-robed lotus eaters who stood on the stage waiting for us. "I want to address them all," he said. "Even the ones who don't think they want to fight. I want to address everyone, and I want to arrange to have the ones who are asleep hear this."

"I don't know if that's possible," the silver-haired woman began.

Ames raised his voice. “Cronos! Come speak with us. We have questions for you.”

The woman started to protest, but then there was a shimmer in the air, and a man appeared. He was about eight feet tall, sculpted like a statue of Hercules with a golden crown on his head. He looked different from the last time I’d spoken to him, like he was dressed up for company.

"I am Cronos," he said, "and I am here.”

“Let’s explain that better, to everyone here,” Ames said. He turned to the crowd. “Cronos was a program, designed to keep alert for signs of space-faring from our planet. He was left by the Progenitors who built this reality engine, and thousands of others throughout the galaxy.”

Cronos nodded his head. "Yes, and once you got here, you would have greeted us and been taught about your heritage, who we had once been, who you could be in the future.”

“But the aliens got here first." Ames said. “And they stole our birthright!” I could hear mutters from the crowd, felt my own anger rising. Ames was good at this.

Again, Cronos nodded. “They did. Their system keeps me in chains. I'm fighting as hard as I can. I have an ally within the system itself. Someone does not like how they are doing things.”

I filed that piece of information away for later. "How about the one below," I said. "The remnant of what once was.”

"That is not part of me,” Cronos said. “I am a construct program, incredibly advanced, intelligent, but made by others. That which remains below is what is left of those who created me. They are the reality engine. They are what the system seeks access to, to control, to destroy, to usurp."

"Okay, let me see if I've got this right," I said, trying to piece things together in my mind. “All the reality engines, scattered across the galaxy, were created by the Progenitors, like, a billion years ago.”

Cronos nodded. "Correct."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Then the Progenitors had some sort of argument. Some of them went off somewhere. Some of them reprogrammed their DNA and started evolution all over again on Earth and, I guess, every other world near a reality engine. Some of them remained behind inside their reality engines, asleep or evolving into a hive mind.”

Cronos nodded. “An oversimplification, but that is correct.”

“So the aliens, the Exploitation Committee, who were all descendants of other Progenitors, arrived here with their system after our probe woke you up and accidentally broadcast an alert on the reality engine network. They brought in the System, which was supposed to destroy you," I pointed at Cronos, "and also bind the reality engine itself to the alien's will."

Grandpa was nodding along. Ames raised an eyebrow. "Impressive. It took me a lot longer to piece everything together."

"I've had help along the way," I said.

"You are not completely wrong in your assessments," Cronos allowed. "What should have happened was that after your species reached me, I would spend decades, perhaps centuries, working with you. Teaching you to accept the inheritance that awaits below. My own programming is meant for that. I fear that between the alien system and my own misunderstanding of the situation, I have made some mistakes. The sleepers were not meant to stay there as long as they have, and I fear many of them may have experienced trauma. They may not be able to awaken.”

"Great," I said. "And the rest of these you've been teaching to be peaceful, polite citizens of the galaxy?"

"That was my original programming," Cronos admitted.

“Great idea, except that the aliens here have no intention of peaceful coexistence, not when they can take everything," I said.

The crowd in the stands was starting to get restless. Ames turned to them. "Just a minute more," he boomed. "Thanks for your patience."

"So what is it we have to do?" I asked Cronos. "How can we stop the aliens and their system?"

"You cannot," he said. “What I need is for you to restore the connection between myself and what remains of the Progenitors’ consciousness. Together, we can keep to take a tiny part of the reality engine for ourselves.”

“Which gets us humans…”

“The universe,” Cronos said. I don’t think the crowd could hear him: he seemed to be speaking just to us. “Knowledge. Understanding of what reality engines truly are, how to use them. It will let me fulfill my original purpose. Uplifting you Earthlings, now that you have achieved space travel and are ready. Making you full citizens of the galaxy. In time, you will be able to challenge these usurpers.”

“How much time?” Grandpa asked. “And they’re just going to sit around and let you do it?”

“They’ll have to, if we go by their rules,” Ames said.

“Bullshit. Governments never made a treaty they won’t break. My ancestors learned that lesson the hard way.” He crossed his arms and scowled. “

I turned to Ames. “You’ve got plans for if this all falls through? I don’t like anything that relies on the good will of people stronger than us. The galactics, or him.” I jerked a thumb at Cronos.

“At the very least, Phase Three is a great place to make money. If we can’t get a foot in the door, we can at least buy out as many contracts as possible, get us humans out of danger and into a reality engine slot.”

“We’re going to be put onto reservations,” Grandpa said. “You’re trying to make sure the reservations have some gambling concessions. Or that at least we don’t leave any on the encomiendas. I can get behind that, though it’s a damn poor battle plan you’re laying out here.”

Ames frowned. “I’m aware of that, Major. We’re seriously lacking in intelligence. Hard to formulate a good strategy when you’re flailing in the dark.”

"Okay, suppose I buy into all of this. What do we need them for?" I nodded to the crowd.

"Leave that to me," Ames said. "All I need to know is, are you game?"

I had a million questions. This overview had barely begun to scratch the surface. I looked at Grandpa, and I realized that sometimes it wasn't about the questions, the doubts, the fears. It was about being willing to act when needed.

"Hell yes," I said.

"Good," said Ames. "How about you, Miss Sage?"

Sage's face was pale and drawn. "This is going to matter," she said. "If we do it right, this could be the most important thing anyone's ever done." She took a deep breath. "I'm in."

“That’s all I need. Thanks," he told Cronos, who vanished in an eye blink.

Ames turned to the crowd. "Thank you for attending. I know you are all students of Cronos now. Some of you have spent weeks, even months, listening to his teachings. And you understand that while he has told you of a great and glorious future that can be ours, that enemies have intruded. Outsiders are here to take control and to bend our inheritance to their own ends.”

The crowd booed and hissed, some of them on their feet, shaking fists and yelling.

“I address you now, brothers and sisters, fellow humans, Earthborn, and I ask you to help me. We have a chance. These aliens know what they're doing. They've done this to thousands of other species, thousands of other reality engines, harnessed their inheritance and left them with scraps. That's what they want to do to us. They're good at what they do, but we humans, we're good at fucking stuff up.”

I had to laugh, and so did a lot of our audience.

“I’ve been speaking to a lot of you, showing you some of the exploits that your fellow humans have done. We have here Shad Williams and his sister Sage. They've featured heavily in my stories, along with their Grandpa."

Grandpa waved while I stood there feeling like I was an ape on display in the zoo.

“Sage is twelve years old, and she's done more for Earth than almost anyone out there. Thanks to Shad and Sage, we've got a real chance here of getting into Phase Three. That's when we can show these aliens, they can't just come and take what's ours so easily. They're going to have to negotiate. They're going to have to pay. They're going to have to respect us.”

That got a rolling cheer that filled the crater like a summer thunderstorm. I basked in the adulation, letting my discomfort fall away. We had done awesome things. Ames was right. There was more to come but if we could show the rest of humanity that we had a chance, I’d do whatever it took.

“Compare them to you. You're safe here. You're taken care of. Cronos is tending you like a mother, like a teacher. I don't blame any of you for making the choice you've made thus far. It's hard to risk your life in order to make some alien assholes a little more money.”

Ames paused and let them laugh at that. “It’s time to wake up, though. Time to leave this place. We’re going to need all of you going forward. For Shad and Sage to make it in Phase Three, they’ll need an army of allies. Crafters. Farmers. Spies. So I'm asking you to come and risk your lives again.” He paused for effect, letting his words sweep over the audience. “I'm not promising you that we'll win. In fact, we'll probably lose. I'm promising you a damn good fight and to make these aliens sorry they ever messed with Earth.”

I couldn't help myself. Ames's slightly cheesy over-the-top delivery had my heart racing. I let out a whoop. Sage glared at me, then giggled.

Ames smiled. "Shad, you're ready to go all the way, aren't you?"

"Hell yeah," I said. “We do need help. But only those who are willing. I’d rather have not enough help than unwilling help. Look, Grandpa and Sage and I have to get back. We’ve been away from our outpost too long already. Who knows what’s going on. You guys talk to Ames, if you’re willing to help. I’ll let him sort all this out.”

That got a cheer. The crowd clapped and whistled. I heard shouts of “We’re with you, Shad!”

Sage turned to Ames. “Can you send us back now, please?”

“Certainly.” He smiled.

A portal materialized behind us. “Hope to see you all in Threshold soon!” Sage waved as I led the way back to Threshold.

Only to be greeted by a hundred screaming message notifications. I popped up my chat.

Shad, get back here right away! We’re under attack!