* * * * *
Fifty Years Later
Well-rested and ready to move on, Sen returned to the blue planet at the time marked for the duel. It was precisely then that Sen realized his plan had fallen to pieces. The chaos agent hadn’t shown up for the duel. He had also diffused his Ka signature to untraceable levels with some mortal-level Techno-Lord device so they couldn’t track him again. How could mortal-grade technology obfuscate an Ethos Combi? It was unthinkable!
Ethos Combis were constructs that linked an Immortal’s Ka with all matter, energy, context, and meaning in an iteration or surrounding iterations. Combis calculated the probabilities of events, provided locations of all items, as well as being capable of providing knowledge of all outcomes from any performed or anticipated actions. In short, the information and knowledge provided through the Combi’s link via the Immortal’s Ka was a large part of what made Immortals so much more powerful than mortals.
Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of Sen’s troubles. Unable to track the chaos agent, Sen physically searched for him on all the planets in the local iterations. Despite their best efforts, over the next five hundred… ‘years’, that was the word–Sen continued to be outwitted. Always one step behind, he failed to stop the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. His death led to the inevitable rise of a despot and a particularly distasteful mortal, Adolf Hitler, with a 94% probability of occurrence. Sen also failed to stop the rise of mortal leaders who were almost equally dissatisfactory and went by the names of Stalin, Pol Pot, and Hussein.
It was the constraints of the Protocols that were causing Sen the most problems. He could only act directly against another Immortal. He had no authority to directly impose his will on the actions and activities of mortal lives, or he would expose himself to the same retribution that his target had, with the very important exception that the Immortal sent against Sen would be able to find him. That led Sen to shift his focus on finding the technology or organization that was hiding the Chaotic–all with similarly disastrous results.
After 20 Ka Nexus rotations, 500 years... Yes, Damni... 500 years, it was becoming clear that the dark and brooding chaos agent was finalizing his soul Essence collection. Ethos Combi estimates were that the evil bastard had filled approximately 92 percent of his soul-gathering array from the local multiverse iterations.
In true iterational balance, Sen was also nearing the end of his abilities and hopes. Ultimately, Sen turned to Damni for help—who, until then, had been letting him lead their floundering mission while she quietly bid her time. It was unspoken between them that the shame would be just as great for Sen whether he failed or Damni was responsible for the chaos agent’s capture... But at this point, Sen just wanted him stopped. He needed her help to do it, and he needed it right now.
And like the best of Ka bonds, she was ready to step in and help him.
“It’s about time, honey,” she said in a kind tone while rubbing his shoulders. “You know, you’re cute when you’re playing detective.” Her smile was bright and uniquely endearing as she flattened his nose gently with an extended finger. “You’re absolutely terrible at it but still cute. Alright, lover mine,” her smile transformed into a simultaneously serious and playful smirk. “You’d better clean out your ears because we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
Sen returned her caring gaze as she looked down into his eyes from her oval face. The form she chose in this physical iteration had pale blue skin with an elongated head that gently swayed on a thin, elegant, telescoping neck. The entirety of her avatar continuously waved as if gently pulled in an oscillating underwater current.
Sen eagerly listened as Damni continued.
“I have high probability data on where the chaos agent must move to finish his plans. Currently, his Anima Array is 92 percent complete per Combi assessment. I have also trended the occurrence and total Anima absorption of the ongoing genocide events over the last seventy-five years.
“There is one positive thing of note. It seems that the effort spent hiding from us has slowed the chaos agent. As the current time stream plays out, there will be a significant downturn in Chaos and overall lives lost to genocide. In fact, the probability models predict that there will be a complete cessation of genocidal events in this iteration by the year 2035. This downturn is due to globalization of commerce, media technology, and decreases in the at-risk population of victims. His need to avoid us has denied him enough time to destabilize these native trends, so stabilization against genocide is on the upswing. The result is that he is now facing diminishing returns on his investments in this iteration and the cuboid as a whole.”
Damni paused and checked a data stream she had transferred over to his tablet after he’d finally caved and asked for her help. “If these current trends remain unchanged, the chaos agent will be forced to retreat with an incomplete Array. This will cost him a lot of Essence when he moves to harvest it. Likely more than half of what he has gathered. Either that, or he will again have to make a move to enhance and increase the probability of genocide events.” She winked at Sen. “I’ll give you three guesses which one the models predict he’s going to do, and the first two don’t count! This is our chance.”
Sen was very good at battlefield strategies, assessing the capabilities of enemies, and hitting things. He was very good at hitting things. However, for complex matters of multiversal physics that included probability assessments of future actions, Sen relied on his Combi and Damni. To put it simply, Sen’s strengths began and ended with combat and tactics. As to his capabilities of strategic analysis and implementation? Well, Sen would never say that he’d married Damni for her brains–not if he wanted to keep his insides on the inside, but he’d be banished from Transcendence if that beautiful mind of hers didn’t factor into his fascination with the incredible Immortal that she was.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Blinking, he shook off the strange thoughts and returned to being thoroughly flabbergasted at his wife’s debrief. Trying not to let his avatar’s mouth gape like a water-dwelling creature Fish... yes Damni... fish beached on the shore. He sat on the edge of his seat in anticipation of learning precisely what Damni’s interpretation of the situation would be and what he needed to do about it.
He nodded, attempting to look thoughtful and informed. “Of course. That’s our chance to…”
That was as far as he got.
The fact that Sen was out of his depth had obviously not escaped Damni. She chuckled good-naturedly and smiled as she spelled it out, “All of the models point toward a lone human woman as the single most potent pivot point in the shift away from Chaos and toward stability. Assuming the chaos agent doesn’t want to lose half of his Essence harvest, he will have to expunge this woman who goes on to create an organization that funds education, provides medical access, and feeding services to the victims of poverty. These very populations are the ones that historically and statistically go on to upset a given status quo of a civilization. It is the young and disenfranchised who see their ‘only option’ to a better future is to burn down the existing societal structures and start over to create a ‘better’ one. Her actions greatly reduce the number of potential victims of genocide and, thus, the total number of souls the chaos agent can harvest. She is the origin motivator who decreases and ultimately eliminates genocide in this corner of the multiverse! If the chaos agent wants to reach his goal, he needs to eliminate her.”
Sen’s eyes bulged out as he swallowed with a dry throat. Even he understood that the greedy bugger wasn’t going to lose half of his ill-gotten gains.
We have him at last! Or at least we know where the end game was going to take place. Sen also knew that knowing where the chaos agent would have to focus his efforts would allow their Combis to once again detect his Immortal signature.
Sen tasked his Combi to track the chaos agent with Damni’s data... it chimed immediately.
Sen’s face went grim. The Chaotic was currently on the move. He had already expunged the young woman Damni had just told Sen about in four of the twenty-seven iterations that composed the local cuboid.
Anxiety tinged Sen’s voice as he informed Damni that they were again falling behind the chaos agent. “Damni, we are almost too late! The chaos agent has started eliminating her in the nearby iterations and has already expunged–no, ‘killed’... yes... killed, the female origin motivator four times!”
Damni’s head jerked up, jolting her thin blue braids. With several rapid communications to her Combi, she confirmed Sen’s data. Her eyes narrowed, and her thin jaw set stiffly, “The Chaotic is moving to remedy the diminishing Anima returns by forcing her death to become the native result in the rest of the local multiverse via iterational overflow! It’s going to work, too, if we don’t act now and save the majority of them in this cuboid!”
The principle of iterational overflow followed the concept of a simple majority. In this case, if the young female origin motivator’s existence continued in a majority of the iterations that formed the local cuboid, then the native Fate of stopping genocide would continue. Even if the origin motivator were not present in the minority of iterations, in the fulfillment of time, Karma would move in all twenty-seven of the iterations of that cuboid to adopt the majority outcome. There was a saying among Immortals because of this phenomenon that ‘Karma finds a way’. Regardless, simply keeping the woman alive in the majority of iterations would be enough to thwart the chaos agent’s plans. That meant Sen had to save the origin motivator’s life and continue her existence in at least fourteen of the twenty-seven iterations of this cuboid.
Not that I’m even going to allow things to get that far, Sen thought to himself, closing his fists so tightly his knuckles popped. I've got the cowardly bastard cornered, and it’s my turn now!
As usual, Sen was running out of time. The chaos agent had already eliminated four of his targets. Sen was down to only twenty-three living young women in the local cuboid’s twenty-seven iterations. It went without saying that with his imposed limitations, he could only be in one place at a time ... If Sen failed to protect this young woman ten more times, all was lost.
They needed to move fast. Sen jumped up and flew to the pilot’s chair. He began to quickly flick various toggles and switches as sweat beaded his forehead.
“Sweetie…”
A voice cut through his emotional turmoil. Uh oh. That tone never works out in my favor.
Where are you going?” Damni said, too innocently.
“Huh... I’m... we’re going to stop the chaos agent... Aren’t we...?”
“Of course, not honey ...” Her voice lowered into the octaves that indicated Sen was in serious danger of being tragically wrong about something he was also completely unaware of. “You didn’t let me finish my debrief. You did want my help after all, didn’t you?” Her voice regained that deadly too-innocent quality that simply screamed a warning, ‘Just try and answer this question wrong. I dare you.’
Sen did a double take at Damni’s response, and she continued. “He’s not directly interfering with the time stream, is he? No, he’s not. You know the Principal Master’s Penta Protocol as well as I do. We can only interfere in the mortal iterations to the degree that the chaos agent does. If he doesn’t appear in a physical avatar, neither can we—.”
“Wait, you mean he’s not actually–”
“Of course not.” Damni scoffed. “Based on the analysis of whatever technology has been hiding the Chaotic’s movements up until this point–if he’d have taken direct action, we’d have found him long before now. Which means…”
Sen’s shoulders slumped, one finger stilling against the ceiling panel that would have activated their transport. “... It means he’s been using cat’s paws, manipulation, and proxies.”
Damni patted Sen proudly on his head. “—So far, the Chaotic is only instigating Ka dominion of mortal minds. And by possessing the minds and souls, he is having the onsite mortals kill her. Unless and until he moves directly... here we have to stay, sweetums.” Damni finished with a raised eyebrow, her arms crossed over her chest.
The infrequently seen but well-known recalcitrant posture of Damni destroyed Sen’s short-lived hopes with more finality than a fleet of Star Negators.
Sen dropped silently. She was right. He had no viable objection to what she had said.
Hopeless, his head banged against the console in front of him.
Sen and Damni would have to defeat the chaos agent from right here... by basically talking the nearby involved mortals through it.
Sen’s head banged the console again, harder this time... He was... absolutely fucked ... Yes, fucked.
* * * * *