Nothing mortal should ever come here... Why did the Original insist on this location for this requested meeting? What has changed?
The Clone waited in vast stretches of emptiness. To the micrometer, he was roughly in the center of a 300 million light-year sphere holding no organized matter. The lack of living Essence here was so pervasive there was even an order-of-magnitude reduction in the average amount of space dust drifting through the 62 megaparsecs of cubic space that surrounded him.
A truly dead region...
It had been called many things by those who didn't know its origin. Those who did, of which Zenyak's people were one, simply called it Destruction's Desolation. They would turn their backs if chance had ever oriented them in its direction.
Joshua Elias Tanner would know it as Boote's Void.
Over the last one hundred thousand Ka Nexus rotations, a few galaxies with unfavorable enough Karma had their galactic expansion paths take them to the edge of the area’s boundaries. All beings with the power to have left these unfortunate galaxies had long since done so. The slowing of the clusters' centrifugal rotations and the dimming of their stars evidenced that none who remained would survive the Desolation long enough to enter it deeply.
The Clone didn't know why Zenyak had ordered him here ... And like Zenyak, the Clone didn't like things it didn't know. In this case, the implications were clear:
Zenyak has undergone unanticipated experiences after my inception. We are no longer equivalent and coequal in our knowledge and experiences.
This would hinder the Clone's ability to serve as Zenyak.
Unacceptable.
Deepening the intrigue, Zenyak had insisted that the Clone leave Senyak and Joshua Elias Tanner's entire cuboid. If the chosen iteration had been any further, the Clone would have had to use an Aspect Doorway to arrive at the required location. Has Zenyak forgotten that his grand progeny... and Joshua Elias Tanner—even more so seem to wake up every morning and seek expungement-threatening improbabilities...
The Clone shook his head at this thought. At least Intelligence is nearby when worse will assuredly come to worst.
Space warped, and the force of Zenyak tearing through the physical iteration's barriers from the Karmic confines of the Way was nothing less than gargantuan. He stepped through and was so filled with Immortal Ka that his physical manifestation could not contain it. The power cascaded from his avatar, forcing his body into a constant process of reformation to maintain Zenyak’s physical presence. Nothing mortal could have survived being this close to him. Even the Clone needed to glance away to avoid having to re-form its physical eyes.
Uncharacteristically, the Clone spoke first. "You have gorged yourself with the cuboidal force and are barely containing it! What is the purpose for this?"
"THINGS HAVE CHANGED."
Zenyak reached his warping and reforming hand out to the Clone.
"BE AWARE."
The Clone learned what had happened since their last separation. That Oblivion's plodding movement toward the Polar Neutral Core of the Marztanak Hegemony had sharpened to a laser-focused assault directly at Zenyak's power base. This turn of events had caused the Paramounts to make one last-ditch election before opting for what they had previously considered their final option... And it worked. Worked in an amazingly successful way.
"You are winning! You have fought it back to the 48th Aspect Doorway!!"
The pride on the Original's face was unmistakable as it twisted and reformed.
"YES."
But the Clone couldn't keep doubt and concern from his mind. “What will be the cost of this victory? Surely you see the risk. Not just to yourselves, but to the multiverse as a whole! It was one thing imploding iterations back to their primordial singularities and creating a fireline. The metaphysical energy quanta remains balanced. The iterations would ultimately reform once again to Reality's purposes... But you are draining these iterations of Karma's power to the point of potential destabilization and irrecoverable rupture. A permanent separation in the very fabric of Reality ending with the destruction of The Way that binds all iterations!"
Zenyak’s impatience became apparent. "SILENCE. I HAVE HAD THIS ARGUMENT WITH CHITEKI AND THE PRINCIPAL MASTER. I WILL NOT HAVE IT WITH MYSELF. THESE POINTS ARE ALL THEORETICAL. LEFT UNCHECKED, OBLIVION'S BLIGHT WOULD CONSUME ALL. WE HAVE NO CHOICE."
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"Yes. You. do." The Clone leaned, offering its crown to inform Zenyak of why it had called the meeting in the first place.
Zenyak extended his hand. Discharging energies crackled over the caput of the Clone's physical avatar. It was destroyed dozens of times in the nano-gyra the Original took to receive the Clone's memories.
It was Zenyak's turn to be shocked. The Clone was heartened to see that the Zenyak he had been propagated from was still inside the turbulence of raw energy churning before him. I have Not wholly turned into a megalomaniac, drunk on a cuboidal power glut then... Good! The Clone reflected.
Zenyak spoke. "THE FOUR ARE CONFIRMED AGENTS OF KarmA?! SOPHIE TANNER'S POWER GROWS EXPONENTIALLY FASTER THAN EVEN PROBABILITY OUTLIER PREDICTIONS! SHE PULLS HER RETINUE TO HER EVEN IN THEIR SLEEP… PREDICTING THE FUTURE?! THIS…THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED! AS AN IMMORTAL, SHE... THEY... WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE!"
"Yes, it is. And yes, they will be." The Clone retorted dryly.
Zenyak's eyes went distant. Likely having an unknowable internal debate with the other Paramounts. Then he looked up.
"CONTINUE WITH OUR PLANS. I MUST... WE MUST THINK ON MATTERS"
An atom-splitting crunch erupted as Zenyak violently tore an opening into the Way. The Clone could see momentary deformations in its deep blue fibers as the power-saturated physical form of Zenyak passed through.
Once again, the Clone was alone in the vast emptiness. "Please do so. May your choices reflect the preeminence you have earned in your billions of years of existence. Not like a child waving his father's gun."
* * * * *
Alysa reported that Sophie remembered having a bad dream and had needed to "run to her mommy and Uncle Brad's bedroom..." But she didn't remember what it was about and had been able to get back to sleep in Alysa's arms. She was now resting peacefully in her mother's bed.
Josh scowled. ~Sp, ‘Uncle Brad’ is spending the night now!~
Sen snorted, rolling his eyes. ~Breathe, brother. You are on edge... The important thing is that Sophie is ok.~
Josh took a cleansing breath. ~You’re right...~ Then, under his breath, "I'm sure ‘Uncle Brad’ will get along with Miranda about as well as I did…Good luck, ya grubby bastard!"
Moving on to more pressing concerns, Josh went into detail for Sen and Alysa about what had happened in the dream? Vision? Summoning? Josh wasn't sure what to call it... It almost seemed and felt as if Sophie had somehow changed Josh’s memories or, more disturbingly, his reality, so that he had attended their usual play date and been pulled from his sleep afterward...
They were all uncertain what to make of that... And as a group decided to shelve the larger picture to discover what they could for now. Soon their conversation devolved into points of interrogation-like questions and answers.
"What? Of course you came by for your regular time with Sophie. What are you even—"
…
"—don't remember going back to my room after our usual play time."
…
“How is that even possible? Are you feeling oka—”
…
"Alysa, relax. You’re definitely as big a part of this as we are. And no, I have no idea what the final end is... But it doesn't sound good."
"You think!? What about the doll that took us all out?" The space marine seemed personally offended that she and everyone else hadn’t put up a better showing against the creepy menace that had terrified Josh.
“I’m pretty sure that was Dod Stal…Apparently we pissed him off when we saved the Brigantine from his lackey Kyon Shi”
He and Sen then filled Alysa in with an abbreviated version of what they had covered with Intelligence earlier. Like all challenges Josh and Sen had seen the young warrior tackle, she stoically accepted what they said as they could see the wheels in her mind spinning so that the reality of her actual meeting with him wouldn’t go the way it had in Josh’s vision.
They moved on.
The topic soon headed toward Sen who was wearing a deer caught in headlights expression that Bambi would have been ashamed of. ~Damni…was…was there?~
Josh’s confirming smile split his face. ~Yes, brother... She apparently keeps an eye on you and insists on being near if you are in danger.~
Sen didn't answer. His beaming face said it all.
...
Feeling the partially unexpected wave of emotion through their Bond, Josh couldn’t help but support his brother’s still healing heart.“Ya, maybe it wasn’t all business with her after all– but moving on, Sophie did say that Ishan was a prince more than once."
Alysa rubbed her temples. "Let's keep that under wraps until we know what to make of it… His job is dangerous enough without forcing him to get twisted on what it might mean.
"Agreed." Josh and Sen said together.
...
Josh frowned. "No... I don't know the armored goliath. But I'm sure he is on our side and meant to join us. Sophie said as much. Keep your eyes peeled for the biggest guy on the block." Josh sank back into his chair and rubbed his eyes. "There is no way I'm getting back to sleep now…"
Sen nodded in agreement. His hands folded in his seated lap. After their Mind Attunement, they needed less sleep anyway. Josh had gone from needing four hours nightly to approximately two. But he still needed some every cycle, or he would be just as loopy as when he had pulled an all-nighter before his court trials. He had learned the hard way that the loss of sleep never equated well to his cases, regardless of how necessary the need for working through the night had appeared.
Disturbingly, Alysa suddenly was eyeing them in a silent way that Josh recognized. It was the look every woman gave a man when there was a job to do, and she had just been waiting for the right time to bring it up.
Josh sighed and opened the proverbial door for her. "Yes…?"
Excitement sprang on her face like a kid about to open their first Christmas present. "I'm glad you guys are free! I've got the prioritized list of space marines for Cultivation Awakening. Let's get started!"
"In the middle of the night? Don't they have to sleep?"
Alysa took on her lecturing look. "Joshua, we are in the void. Night and day, more appropriately, sleeping and waking cycles, are constructs we use for convenience. Everyone except for command is on four rotating sleep cycles following the thirty-two-gyra galactic standard rotational day. Three-quarters of them are awake at any given time, and half are on shift right now.
“On top of that... I'm their commander. If I need them awake, they are awake. Let's go.”