Gizzy paced the lab, staring at the cube and watching it silently mock her. The doors opened, and she growled slightly.
“Busy doing nothing, come back later with weapons.”
“Look, I’m sorry I’ve been moody lately, but you gotta look at this from my angle of the dangle.” Said Nicole, standing between her and the table, staring 14 inches up at Gizzy, so that she couldn’t ignore her.
“And you’re still here.”
“We’re basically the leaders of this shitshow, and we need to lead as a team, together. Right now, we’re fighting each other as much as we are helping. I get it, people think you’re insane because the things you do, are in fact…insane.”
“Welcome to the lab Captain, can I help you with something?” Gizzy said, flopping down and putting her feet up.
“I was the only Captain of this ship…of two people and a robot. But this ship is my home, it’s everything to me, and I’m a scrappy bitch when someone comes into my home and tries to run things, and you got the universe pending level shit going on, so you can’t let some basically human kid get in the way. But we’re friends…kinda. We’re kinda friends because the people we love, love each other, and we have the same friends and we both want what’s best.
No more cone bullshit. As the captain, I need to know everything you know, at least the parts I can understand. I don’t care if you think I’ll think you’re crazy. Just because you’re crazy doesn’t mean you’re wrong, and Jack trusts you, and you seem to always be right about this crap. Hit me. Not literally, lay it on me. What are we after this, and what are we doing in general. If I wanna be captain, I have to know and deal with this stuff too, and if I can’t hang with the hardcore crapola you’re carrying around, then I don’t need to be captain. So no sugar coating. Maybe dumb it down a little, but no babying me and lying. What are we after?”
“For all intents and purposes, magical items that open a doorway to a place where I can alter reality and prevent us from de-existing. That temple had one wall with no doorway, we need to put a hole in that. Except we may as well be dealing with magic at this level of meta quantum physics, so…we need a scroll that makes whatever has been written into it become reality. We need goggles that can see the writing beyond our realm of sight, we need a quill so that can write on it, and that thing we took blood samples from, that’s the ink. Whatever I write on that scroll with that pen and that ink is reality, and I can keep it going as long as I’m alive.”
“How in the hell did you get that information?”
“I read the outline. Reality runs on a code, like game software. The universe is a simulation.” She sighed.
“A simulation is a good analogy. That simulation runs on code, and that basic code determines the future, which is subject to change depending on how the people within it act. I’m not from this universe. Osirians in general are from a different universe entirely and we barely grasp the technology to move between the layers. When I went through to this one, something changed in the code. I’ve been able to see the code if I focus on it. Stare at a black or white surface long enough and I start to see the symbols. 2 months ago, I finished running my software to decode it, and I got this.”
“A smart glass 13?” She raised her eyebrow.
“This is my phone…what I got is data, stored ON the phone. It’s badly broken, and I just get parts of jumbled words, but I believe the way through the wall is in the scroll, and when I found that temple and saw that the wall was real, it basically confirmed my theory. We need a quill, a scroll and glasses. And everything we need to find it is in that temple, or in this cube. And I have no idea how to open this cube.”
“How much time do we have?”
“It’s not a matter of time, it’s a matter of momentum. As long as the code keeps predicting more future, there is future. When it stops, we end. Every time I alter something with it, we get more code and more time. So as long as we keep moving and progressing, maybe time generates itself, and if we fail, it ends. By my early calculations our universe already ended, twice. The first time when I bought my first moon, and when the wife and I went on vacation, I did a little time travel experiment. We were supposed to die, and the universe with it. Our story ended with the retirement on our moon. And then I changed that. And for several years I have fought to change things on a larger and larger scale to generate more time. And then you came to this moon, and you…gave years to the timeline. Just by existing and finding me. You’re not just a fascinating human pet, Nicole. You are keeping the universe together. You have to be on this mission, because I can’t do it without you. You drive more time forward than anyone and create more code just by being you. And I don’t have a ghost fart whisp of a fucking clue what makes you so special.”
“I’m kina cute.” She shrugged. “Maybe god has a crush on me.”
“Maybe you’re a manifestation of someone he loves.”
“I was kidding.”
“I’m not. You have the same glitchy coding as Menace and myself. Those rare people who seem to have some form of plot armor, but you bent reality by showing up more than I did hacking time travel and being a literal god of this universe. You have more power than I do in this timeline, and I don’t understand why. I’ve killed worlds and saved them, built machines that distort spacetime in an attempt to keep this universe alive, and you just…showed up, kinda cute, and made a larger impact than my last few big ideas combined. We’re chosen. Me, you, Menace. That dumbfuck Captain I was on a ship with for far too many years. And now, there’s two of us left still generating code to keep this timeline moving…and if I can get through that wall, we won’t have to. Infinite time. Worlds don’t have to end. We just need 4 things from that other universe, and we can write our own code. We’re not fighting evil, or a deadline, or fate. We’re fighting obscurity and void.”
“As unbelievable as that all sounds and as crazy as it should be…you walked into a place nobody should know about, on a map you made from your own visions, and there was an elemental immortal waiting for you with a cube of cosmic power just ready to hand it over. So…are you even really insane? It’s only crazy if you’re wrong, and that seemed fairly convincing.” Nicole sighed.
“You know why I didn’t mutiny and leave you at the nearest space station and just…steal your ship?”
“I assumed because we were friends.”
“No offense but friends means nothing measured against keeping everyone I love from de-existing. I was going to steal your ship and leave you coned and stranded with Vinn and some money and you’d never even know this team and mission existed. But I remember being on this ship with you for 4 weeks, and I remember seeing myself as a chaos entity as the end collapsed around me. And then I blinked and everything was different. Like a weird dream, Déjà vu. You…little Nicole, made some choice that retconned the universe and prevented us from failing and ending the universe. I don’t know what you did or said or decided not to do, but it changed 4 weeks of time, and I can still remember the afterimage of the first one. You changed the story.”
“No pressure there. 29 year old high school graduate who dropped out of college first year, for boy who dumped me. Accidentally got married to an alien and has been fumbling around clueless ever since. I’m a real hero, just a fucking apex of success and decision making skills.”
“Captain Lawg was the dumbest living being I have ever met, including the snails, and he fucked up and saved the universe once.”
“Oh is that his actual name?”
“Sadly yes. My first few hundred years alive were spent aimlessly ruining destiny, fighting for an empire that fell, marrying someone who got old and died and then I spent another hundred years trying to figure out how to kill myself with mortal weapons and never could. Menace sometimes waves at plants. The point is that destiny seems to love us dipshits regardless, or maybe even because of, our flaws. So just embrace it, keep being you, and maybe this universe will survive long enough for me to get the power to keep it stuck that way.”
“So where is the scroll?”
“No idea.”
“The Quill?” Nicole asked.
“No idea. We got the ink and a cube that wont open, and I have the location to a temple with a door that doesn’t exist yet. That’s where we stand. You are up to date, and that is the extent of our planning. So until we break through this block, we float in the void of space and fuck around.”
“Great.” Nicole said. “Have you considered maybe you’re not the one that’s supposed to break the cube?” She asked. Gizzy smirked, sliding it her way.
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“Well maybe not necessarily me, but like…maybe if I ask it nicely, pretty please cube can you open for me.” She joked. The room shuttered as both of them landed firmly against both opposing walls, the air blast knocking over lab equipment and papers as they both landed ass to the ground on opposite sides of the room. A large plume of smoke took form in the center of the now dented table. The ball of almost liquid smoke lifted up and floated down the hall, letting out a haunting sound reminiscent of a great inhale from some unknown being.
“Yeah, I believe you. I believe all of it.” Nicole said, prying herself off the ground and dusting off her jean shorts. “What was that?”
“I dunno.” Gizzy said checking her phone and the code app she always had running. “But it changed a lot of code when it happened. We need to get to the bridge, immediately.”
“Why the bridge?”
“Because that thing just went through the hull and started moving away from the ship. We’re following that shadow thing.”
…
The 5 crewmen stood on the bridge. Jack and Vicki taking tactical positions, and Vinn just waking up and trying to figure out what was happening as the two captains tracked the grey wisp.
“Holy buttfuck, It’s moving fast.” Nicole gasped.
“What are we following? Did it fire on us?” Vinn asked.
“No. that explosion from inside the ship. That thing came out of the cube and passed right through the hull. We gotta catch it, or stop it, or kill it or something.” Gizzy said.
“You got it open? What worked?” Jack inquired.
“Nicole just talked to it.” Gizzy replied. “Oh, we’re heading to uncharted space now. That thing is just barely evading us at full distortion drive, and directly into nothing.”
“It’s space, it’s all empty.” Vinn shrugged. “How much more nothing could it get?”
“We’re at the edge of existing space, following a ghost towards the edge of the universe, expanding at the exact rate we’re both moving. We’re going literally nowhere and somewhere is generating in front of it.”
“If space is expanding…” Vicki pondered, “How did we get to the edge of it in the first place?”
“Exactly. The universe isn’t expanding consistently, just where we’re looking. Nobody knew to look here before, so it’s creating as fast as we can comprehend it being there.”
“I miss bugs.” Vicki sighed. “I miss people shooting at me, and giant bugs and moon politics trying to keep me repressed as a human being. I miss simple problems I can understand and shit I feel like I should be involved with, you know?” She shook her head.
“Hey.” Jack shrugged. “You wanted to go on this mission with me”
“What happens if we shoot it?” Gizzy asked Nicole.
“Why would I know?”
“You wouldn’t, but if you pull the trigger it’s more likely to be correct.” She insisted. “And I wanna shoot it.” Nicole grabbed the controls and took aim. The moment her finger touched the button the object turned solid and spherical, the energy beam bouncing off like a laser off a mirror, and then it went back to mist.
“That was some damn fast reflexes.” Jack squinted. “How do you dodge a beam of light as it comes at you?”
“It reacted before I pulled the trigger. It wasn’t reflexive.” Nicole said. “It knew I was going to fire before I fired.”
“It’s a foreshadow.” Gizzy smirked. “Power down the guns, lock target, and set maneuvering to follow it.”
“You know what this is?” asked Jack.
“I do now. It’s guiding us to the next location we need. Look at the sensors. Emptiest void of space and we move in the exact direction and trajectory to intersect a planet that didn’t exist before that cube broke. It’s like it just poofed out of nothing.”
“That’s a 3 day trip, and if we have an engine malfunction or drift at all, we’ll lose it.”
“We know where it’s going, plot a course for the empty space where that planet is drifting and going to be on our current aim. As long as we aim for that spot, it’s gonna be there.” She said confidently, strutting out of the bridge.
Vinn blinked and looked at the others individually for a glimmer of hint.
“The chickenshit just happened? Anyone? theories? Guesses?”
“God just thinks I’m cute.” Nicole said hopping up and continuing her daily plans as normal, as if they weren’t moving 4 times lightspeed towards a future generating ghost and a planet that should theoretically exist by the time they get there.
“Space is weird. Weird shit keeps happening in space, you know?” Vinn sighed.
…
“And how does that make you feel?” Asked Dee, glasses and button-up shirt like a therapist would have.
“Validated.” Gizzy grinned. “Here I doubted myself and my sanity, and now Nicole sees it too. It’s not just me, I’m not just alone and insane. I’m crazy, but I’m correct, and I’m in this with someone else. I should have known it earlier. You can’t break through a writer’s block alone, you just need to bring in a second person and brainstorm. Nicole was always trying to help me, and my stubborn ass was flying solo treating her like some kind of extra, like you, or the dumb bitch you’re programmed to resemble.”
“I bet she would find that offensive.”
“Oh, this far away she may as well not even exist. The point is Nicole helped me break the writer’s block and unleash the foreshadow. Wherever it leads us is where we’re meant to go. Isn’t that validating?”
“I’m glad to see you happy, but our time is actually up. I have another 2 appointments today. One with Vinn to get blood donated and one with Vicki later to get it undonated. I’m not thrilled about it.”
“You’d be way less thrilled about it if I turned your realism up over 30 percent. Be thankful I don’t need an entire Dee to vent to. Just a reason to talk to myself aloud without looking stupid.”
“Glad to see you too, Gizzy. I probably miss you back home a bunch.”
“No you don’t. The real Dee is banging my youngest son. I probably see you way more then either of us want.” She said as the door opened and Vinn walked in with a med kit.
“I’d like to make a deposit.” Vinn said.
…
Gizzy and Nicole stood on the bridge looking down at the screen, the truly hellish looking world magnified in the view. A greenish grey atmosphere behind the greenish grey sun casting a sickening hue to the clouds, as the ground below them shined a deep evil red.
“Is that…Blood? Nicole cringed.
“Oh don’t be dramatic. A planet covered in blood? First off those are extremely rare and secondly, Vicki would be up here smelling it. No that’s just…” Gizzy said squinting at the scanners “Oceans and rivers of blood red liquid…algae and iron. God, it really does just look like a bloodworld. Why do I have this ominous feeling like it’s supposed to be blood?”
“Because it’s red as shit and looks like a meat planet.” Nicole said.
“No, it’s not just that. I had a dream about this planet a few days ago. Can’t remember exactly, but something to do with a planet covered in blood, something about the flesh god, a hive mind planet of masochistic skinless inhabitants selling their own flesh as a main export.” She squinted. Nicole turned slowly with a look of WTFfery and disbelief.
“What the fuck did you eat, smoke, and drink before you went to bed?”
“No this is entirely wrong. This shouldn’t be here. It SHOULD, but it should be covered in blood. That’s iron oxide and algae, it’s a damn near lifeless world. Bio signs are so low it’s not even sure if there is life. Run a full spectrum scan before we land, I wanna check something.”
“Uh…we’re landing on a blood planet something meat god of the flesh? Uh, bullshit we are.”
“I knew it. Look at the Quantum mirror ratio. It’s completely offset, the moisture levels don’t match the salt, the light spectrum is off.”
“Let’s pretend I don’t have any science degrees for a moment, just for funzies and shit.” She sarcastically smiled.
“Smart-ass. Still better than the last captain, he was a dumbass. Anyway, what I’m saying is that this planet has clear signs of quantum retconning. The universe changed this world, and I bet you a thousand credits that before it rebooted, this was a much darker world than it is now.”
“Oh, well, I’m glad the universe decided to throw rusty plants at us rather then the planned out fucking blood god of the flesh situation.”
“Yeah me too, it was a terrible dream, made me nauseous. I didn’t even want breakfast and I’ve literally eaten raw human FOR breakfast a time or two.”
“So wait, the planet rebooted and you had a premonition?”
“No, I’m saying we went here before and the timeline changed it, and I remember the residual timeline. I’ve been there before, right before I spent 2 years in prison for war crimes and then got exiled to a different universe. This one, actually.”
“So time rebooted to a LESS dark reality than the one where you were exiled for war crimes and eat raw human flesh for breakfast? How bad was the first timeline?”
“Massochistic hive mind planet of blood selling it’s own flesh a-”
“Rhetorical, holy hell, stop mentioning the…thing. You are super sure that that is rusty, salty plant water, and that there’s almost no life signs down there? Like on a scale of 1-10 sure, how sure?”
“About an 8. Minimum 7.5. We’ll know when we get closer. Actually, if we change the scanners to look for the same timeline dissociation, we could maybe…yeah, there we go. 5 planets.”
“What changed?”
“5 planets retroactively shifted their timeline at the same moment. Give or take about 3 hours margin of error, they all shifted, about when you picked the distress call.”
“Oh that’s horrifying. Well now I have to go down there and see what I screwed up.”
“Yeah, pretty much. Imma grab some cheese and take a power nap. We’ll be there in 12 hours or so. Be ready when the time comes.”