Taking stock. Josh still only saw two types of Essence in his Core and Meridians. This wasn't a surprise either. He would have to prime the pump again and absorb some Aura to get the ball rolling, so to speak. As with his Mind Attunement, there wasn't any sitting in a bushel basket with a sign labeled 'Spacetime' in the immediate vicinity.

Josh scratched his head. Space... space... space... This really should be easy.

The Attunement had made it more than clear that space was everywhere. In the air around him. Between the atoms in the rocks above. Even massive expanses of it surrounded the atomic and subatomic particles composing all the matter in the iteration. Josh knew aura tracked with its iterational components. Earth from the terrestrial matter. Mind from spirit beings' brains. So... Spacetime Essence should be literally everywhere.

Josh remembered seeing condensed Spacetime Essence in the Meridians of the Kaizuko Attuned to it. It was a luminous hue of indigo. But he couldn't see a shred of aura anywhere.

Of course, under the glow of my earthen shield, everything looks tinted golden/orange...

A quick expansion of his mindscape showed he could see other Essences in the Earth Essence's glow.

Aaaand, yep! I can still see Mind Essence.

Josh let out a breath and closed his eyes... What was the issue with finding Spacetime Essence? He hadn't been able to find the Mind Aura until he had expanded his mindscape to encompass a sapient mind. Did he have to similarly find the Space Attuned part of his body and expand that into... well... space? Time? What exactly was spacetime, anyway? Space seemed possible. Time was a construct created by sapients to better understand their universe. Come to think of it…The same thing could be said about a ‘mind.’ It’s an abstraction that only existed because conscious beings thought it was easier to conceptualize a how a conscious being perceived understood and ultimately acted on their environments–

Josh pulled his ‘mind’ back from this bottomless pit of unhelpfulness. Metaphysics hadn’t stopped him up to this point and he was determined not to allow it to do so now. The whole point of abstractions and conceptualizations was to improve a sapient’s understanding and allow them to improve their functioning in the ‘real’ afterall. So, Josh started looking... And he ultimately found his space/time hub in the very last place he looked, tucked between the cells of his pineal gland.

The last place I looked? Well, of course it was. What kind of statement is that, anyway? I hear that kind of thing all the time, but of course it is. Everything is literally in the last place you look, because—who keeps looking for something when they’ve already—.

He mentally shook himself, stopping his mind from wandering down that particular tangent and refocused his attention to one of the smallest organs in the body. All the lore and legends that existed around the pineal gland, were belied by its rice-grain size—where he now focused his Intent. In that hidden place, wisps of brilliant-glowing purple/blue could only be Spacetime Essence. It didn't escape Josh that this was dramatically close to where he had found his mindscape. Perhaps there is a tie-in with the mindscape that would be of use—

Yes! There probably is. But right now, we need to get out of this collapsed deathtrap. Sen will be counting on me! Stay focused, Josh!

Still, the association with the mindscape was valid, and his first attempt to move Spacetime Essence succeeded as he approached manipulating it just like he would his mindscape—pushing out in all directions at once. The sparkling indigo ball expanded like a Hoberman sphere to a distance that seemed like ten football fields in all directions. What Josh's science brain quickly calculated out to more than six hundred million square yards. His Interface pinged.

Activating Stellar Atlas local function: Event Sphere.

Well... at least I don't have to think of a name for it... Josh became instantly aware of what could only be described as a... combined density and state of matter display in real-time.

A three-dimensional image of the shield wall they had been climbing for the last few weeks appeared using his... Event Sphere. It was scaled to approximately one meter in diameter and shaded translucently dead-center—in front of him? In his mind? Josh wasn't sure if anyone else could see it, but he doubted it. He hadn't seen anything like this when that bootlicker Ritoru Dezain had used his Spacetime Attunement.

Inside the sphere, the areas were shaded with dot plots that Josh somehow knew represented the states of matter: 1-dot for gasses, 2-dots for liquids, and 3-dots for solids. Furthermore, the dots were color-coded. Starting with white for air and other very low-density matter, increasing in darkness to become black for solid matter, like the rocks surrounding him. Lastly, things in the Event Sphere were also moving, which made sense, in real-time, animate objects... animated. Josh could see the black-3-dotted solid frames of shuttles with their white-1-dotted air-filled interiors descending through the similarly white-1-dotted air. He could see gray-colored-2-dotted spirit beings moving on the cliff face and climbing into black-3-dotted machines to move dark-3-dotted rubble around. It was amazingly complex. At the same time, everything straightforwardly made sense, at least if you were planning to translocate and didn't want to end up somewhere very uncomfortable.

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This display made obvious some facts about translocation principles he and Sen would have to keep in mind if they wanted to go from place to place and not die. The first things they would need to know were the density and the state of the substance they entered. Density was how compact a thing was. The state of the matter was defined by how it bonded to the molecules surrounding it. At room temperature, cork was only one-quarter as dense as water. Josh's science brain filled in 0.25 g/cm—3 without being asked. That's why it could float in water, which had a 1g/ml density. But cork's bonds made it solid. On his graph, cork would be a lighter color than the water it floated on but still a 3-dot solid. Translocating into the darker shaded water would likely be safe because its weak bonds to the surrounding water molecules would allow their bodies to displace the liquid. But Josh doubted it would be as pleasant to translocate into a wall made from cork. Now, it was true that their density was more than three times that of uranium. However, it would take some experimentation before Josh was willing to put that on the line and translocate into a solid medium.

All liquids may not be safe, either. Elemental mercury was a liquid at room temperature, but its density would make it black on Josh's Event Sphere. Anyone would be crushed into elephant toe-jam at the bottom of a deep enough quicksilver pool. The same was true for pools of lava. Translocating into an area just because it had a 2-dot plot would be a really bad idea. Been there, done that! No, thank you!

Josh scratched his head... Spacetime Huh? Pretty freaking cool!

The Event Sphere was awesome! Since his Interface specified that it was a local function of the Stellar Atlas, Josh wasn't sure if anyone without the Confirmation of Marque from the Kotei would be able to see it at all. If that were true, it would make translocating to any place out of sight an iffy proposition. Josh was only guessing, but those unlucky souls could likely only translocate to places they had been, and they would always be risking hitting a moving mass. At any rate, Josh was glad they each had one. He tipped his hat in respect and gratitude to the Kotei.

Moving forward, there was more to consider than just where was safe and not safe to go. Following his Attunement, Josh believed he understood several things about what was necessary for converting himself to Essence for the actual translocation. He would be traveling as pure energy and should be free to move as close to the speed of light as his control of Essence allowed. In fact, this was spacetime, here. In Einstein’s Relativity equations, one of the most fundamentally surprising discoveries is that when it comes to the relationship between matter, energy, light, time and distance—it was light that was constant and time that broke down. Yet, what might happen if someone were able to interact with both space and time directly—and most importantly, apart from light itself? With enough strength, could he translocate instantly from one location to another, essentially bypassing the universal speed limit of light? What was the difference between translocating and traveling through both space and time using his Attunement? Did translocation use the theoretical possibility of wormholes to ‘pinch’ the fabric of space like a folded sheet and punch a hole from one location to another? He didn’t know, but he was looking forward to finding out. The potential was great and mind-bogglin. Josh was uncertain how much he could handle right now. But sure, they would be going that fast when they were strong enough. I could be as fast as the Clone and Zenyak... Do Immortals exceed the speed of light? Are they not limited to the laws of physics in material matter iterations? Maybe not... Probably not. This was something he should ask Sen about. But regardless, it was mind-blowing!

Josh eyed an empty white-1-dotted space in the Event Sphere on the sunken cliff table above them. A small roundish block that he guessed was about the scale size of his shield began flashing. His Interface pinged again.

Translocate to desired location? Yes/No?

He quickly selected 'No.' A herd of questions ran through his mind about what would have happened had he picked 'Yes?' Could he take Sen with him? Would another Essence-instantiated spirit-being be immune and excluded from his Translocation skill? Or would it be a battle of Cultivation strength and Free Essence like their Mind skills? If Sen were left behind here, he would be crushed when Josh's Earthen Shield went with him. Would the shield travel with him? Could he even escape it if he wanted to?

There were too many questions that needed research. Testing his new capabilities while under an avalanche and with his brother’s life in the balance wasn’t the kind of thing he wanted to try on his first go. The limits of what and how much they could do definitely bore some study and practice time in the very near future, but getting back to their friends and troops was what was necessary right now.

Josh noticed that the tiny people and vehicles in his Event Sphere dramatically increased their activity. Suddenly there were dark expanding rings of decreasing air density that caused all bodies and equipment touched by them to be scattered. It took a moment for him to put all the pieces together. When he did, he didn't like it one bit. That's combat! The Brigantine’s troops are being attacked by someone. Probably the same someone who had nuked him and Sen back to the Stone Age. We need to get—

Sen's Attunement ended. His mind drew back to the present and his eyes opened. He looked around in the same wide-eyed wonder Josh had.

Josh nodded. ~I know, brother. It's a major-heavy trip, but you're not done having your mind blown yet!