Dr. Hammer asked the team to take the Vellani Ambassador back to the future,
along with Tertius Valerius. She worked with Romana in her own time period,
and was able to jump to a few conclusions, though they still needed to be
tested. Apparently, the dark particles that Buddy used to manipulate time
were designed to replicate, and they were doing that in Romana’s system. To
keep them from becoming overpopulated, she should probably find a way to
purge them periodically, like the ship had to do with the excess heat shunt.
Due to their immense power, these particles had become the dominant means of
time travel for Romana. She wasn’t jumping forward in time, because the
particles didn’t need her to. They weren’t sentient—they responded to her
commands—but since she didn’t understand this, she hadn’t tried yet. Or she
hadn’t tried in the right way. Theoretically, she should be able to force
herself to return to her regular pattern, using techniques that a specialist
Dr. Hammer had brought in to consult. They would not know until the end of
the day when they could test it. But this had to be in the future, because
they were trying to keep it matched up with everyone else on the team. Well,
that was what she was trying to do. Mateo had other ideas.
“I know you want to be part of this, but you have an opportunity here. You
have a choice. You should stay. Purge the particles when you need to, but
otherwise stay in realtime,” he suggested.
“You don’t want me with you?” Romana asked.
“I didn’t say that.”
“Good, because actually, it’s not that I wouldn’t be with you. It’s that
you wouldn’t be with me. I’ll have to wait a year at a time to
see my own father. I’ll keep aging while you just stay like this.”
“I appreciate your position,” Mateo promises her, “but there’s a benefit to
you staying.” He walked over, and slid then nearest viewport cover open. The
Ambassador had landed in Castledome. Kivi and Dubravka had found swords in
the castle a few months ago, and were teaching themselves how to use them
properly. They were sparring now, not even worrying about amateur injuries,
due to their access to great medical care. “You should get to know
them. They should be your team.”
“Why can’t we all just be one team?” Romana questioned, tearing up.
He took a breath, and admired their surroundings. They were alone in
Delegation Hall. “This ship was designed to protect people, not only from
each other, but from themselves. We get it one day a year, and we make the
most of it. But it’s not enough. Your stepmother wants to use it to rescue
people from an oppressive empire thousands of light years away. This is one
of the very few vessels capable of making that journey in any reasonable
amount of time. And it’s not a once-per-year type of need.”
“You want us to go rescue people, one ship-full at a time?”
“I already spoke with Ramses,” Mateo went on. “He’s building a new model
pocket dimension. It will be able to hold hundreds of people, efficiently,
and safely. You can ferry one group per day. You’ll have to evade capture
and destruction over the course of several hours, though, as there’s a time
restriction for how many jumps you can make.”
“You’ve thought a lot about this,” Romana pointed out.
“Leona’s been working on the plans for a while now,” he explained. “All I
did was multiply it by 365. By the time we get back, you will have
potentially saved tens of thousands of people. That’s tens of thousands of
people per year. This isn’t something that we can do. Only you and your
sisters can, because you’re the only ones we trust with this technology, and
the mission.”
“I’m surprised that you think I’m capable of such a thing,” she noted.
He nodded. “You’re eighteen now. Since I didn’t raise you, I have to assume
that you’re capable. It would be as unfair as it is irrational for me to
assume otherwise. But still, this is not an order. I’m only asking. Kivi and
Dubra are training, whether they know it or not. If you wanna take a few
years to do the same, that’s perfectly all right. You know, this planet has
multiple simulations that can give you the skills you’ll need to protect
those Exin refugees. The ship itself is automated, but you’ll run into
conflict.”
“Oh my God, the planet...the dome! I never showed you the dome that I built
for you! It completely slipped my mind.”
“You didn’t have to do anything for us,” he assured her.
“Well, I didn’t lay the bricks and plant the trees by hand.”
The two of them exited, and joined the girls. They then went around and
gathered everyone else; Olimpia and the twins from the South Pole Ocean,
Ramses from his lab, and Leona, who was finishing up a meeting with Hrockas
and Tertius Valerius. They were trying to figure out if Tertius had any
interest in staying here, or if he wanted to be transported to some other
point in spacetime. They all held hands, and let Romana navigate them to the
dome that she claimed for herself years ago.
They found themselves standing on the roof of a pretty tall skyscraper. It
wasn’t as high as a megastructure arcology, but it clearly dominated the
skyline. Everyone separated, and started to get a look around. It wasn’t the
only building in the area. They were in the middle of a city fit for
hundreds of thousands of people, and if their views of the outlying lands
were any indication, even more. It wasn’t an original design, though. Many
of them had been here before, just on a different world.
“I recognize this,” Mateo said.
“It’s Kansas City,” Leona confirmed. “It’s a detailed replica of all of
Kansas City.”
“In the 2010s,” Romana agreed. “The whole metro area in the main sequence.”
“How did you do this?” Mateo asked.
“It’s actually not as hard as you might think,” Romana said. “I just
searched the virtual stacks for this area, in this time period. Then I asked
the computer to convert the map data to a format that the large-scale
automated fabricators could read. Years later, here we are with a replica of
the KC Metro within a diameter of 83 kilometers. The interiors of the
buildings are predominantly unfinished, and definitely unfurnished, but it
looks like the real thing from the outside. The mansion where you briefly
lived with your once-mother in an old timeline is totally done, though with
some creative liberties, since my access to real estate sales photos was
limited.”
Tertius was looking towards the holographically simulated sky. “What’s
happening up there?” He wasn’t looking at the clouds, though, but focusing
on something protruding from the curved walls.
“Oh, that’s a second layer,” Romana said. “I started it, but commanded it to
stop, because I don’t actually know what I would put there, or how big it
should be.” Since these domes were 83 kilometers in diameter, the total
height from the ground to the zenith was 41.5 kilometers. There was no
reason why extra layers of livable space weren’t possible. In fact, one
could build hundreds, or even thousands, of stacked layers, if they were so
inclined. It could become pretty stifling, but with modern technology, it
was certainly feasible. One extra layer several kilometers up was no problem
at all. They could do whatever they wanted with it.
“I can’t believe you did this,” Mateo said.
“I thought you might like a taste of home,” she replied. “We could put
Topeka in the dome next to it. Maybe Sutvindr next to that one?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Hrockas jumped in. “I didn’t approve
this one in the first place.”
“Ya mad, bro?” Olimpia asked.
Hrockas smiled. “It’s fine. This isn’t where you were planning to bring the
refugees, though, right? Because I have some other ideas for that.”
“Ideas, like what?” Leona asked him.
This world has lava tubes. Some of the domes were built on the mouths of
these tubes, which give them extra space, and a place to hide from their
enemies.”
“Are we worried about that?” Dubravka questioned. “How likely is it that the
bad guys find them here?”
“Pretty likely,” Leona said sadly. “It would not be difficult for an empire
sympathizer to infiltrate the refugees, and send a message back to the
Goldilocks Corridor, with our coordinates, and other intelligence. Of
course, it will take most of their ships 23 years to get here, but we can’t
be a hundred percent sure that Bronach hasn’t cracked true faster-than-light
technology, or stolen it.” She looked over at Ramses. “That’s why I had my
engineer design a fleet of orbital defense platforms. In any case, I do not
hate the idea of the refugees having bunkers to hide in during the
eventuality of an attack. I would much appreciate access to all such domes.
We don’t fully understand the politics of the Corridor. People from
different worlds may not get along, or there may even be internal conflicts.
This is gonna be very complicated.”
Roman stepped forward. “I’m up for the challenge.” She looked back at her
sisters. “What about you two?”
“What was that?” Kivi asked, not knowing what she was talking about.
“Our father offered us a job. We’re to take daily trips to the Goldilocks
Corridor to relocate refugees to this planet.”
“Uh, it won’t start that way,” Leona began to clarify. “You won’t be able to
just land on a planet, pull in some passengers, then bug out. You’ll need to
find out who even wants to go, and make sure that transporting them won’t
make things worse, for them, or for those they leave behind. If a population
of millions wants to leave, it’s going to take tons of trips, which will
leave people vulnerable until their numbers are called. And that’s just one
planet. The enemy will have so many chances to retaliate while you’re in the
middle of this.”
“I may have a solution for that,” Ramses said. “Or a workaround.” He opened
his bag, and removed a toy spaceship. “Battledrones. They can stay behind,
and protect the innocent and vulnerable. They can distract the empire with
war.”
Leona took in a deep breath, and exhaled it. “I was hoping to avoid
violence.”
Mateo cleared his throat. “Bronach claimed that he maintained control over
the resistance’s ships. War is happening. The right side needs resources,
because they may not have any without us.”
“That’s true,” Leona admitted.
“There’s a lot to work out,” Romana admitted as well. “For now, I’m raising
my hand to join the mission. Can you two say the same?”
Dubravka appeared to be considering it. “As long as we come up with a great
plan, it would be more productive than just swingin’ swords, and lounging by
the pool.”
“I’m not much of a fighter,” Kivi added, “but I believe I can use my vast
lawyering skills to negotiate with the potential refugees.”
Tertius stepped forward. “I’m in too, if you’ll have me,” he announced sheepishly.
“I can erase everyone’s memories. They won’t even know that their friends are gone
while they wait for the next bus.”
“That’s a brilliant idea,” Leona said gratefully. “I think it would be
profoundly helpful. Thank you.”
Tertius replied with a polite nod.
“I’ll need time to get the domes ready,” Hrockas reminded them. “And arrange
regular transport from them to the recreational domes. I would like to
create a welcome video too, so they understand what this world has to offer.
It sounds like their lives aren’t all that fun. If they know how great the
planet is that they’ll be going to, they might be more willing to entertain
the option. I’m happy to use them as my beta testers before the grand
opening fifteen years from now.”
“Much appreciated,” Leona said, grateful once more.
“I can help with the video,” Angela said. “I have some experience welcoming
people. I’m imagining a series.” She looked at her watch. “The problem is
I’m only around once a year.”
“Oh, we’re not ready to go either way,” Romana explained. “I need time to
train. I don’t have a lesson plan yet, but it’s gonna be somethin’.”
“I have some simulations that are in alpha testing that I’m sure would be of
help,” Hrockas told her.
Mateo had been listening to all this, taking note of what Romana and his
other daughters were going to need in the coming years. This first year will
be important, and they don’t have much time to prepare for it. Having a
thought on something, he walked over to Ramses. “Sidebar.” He teleported
them both to the middle of the woods on the outskirts of the dome.
Ramses looked around. “How did they get trees and other plant life here?”
“Turn off your comms.” Mateo tapped his neck as his friend did the same.
“Romana wants to be trained, and I don’t want her teacher to be some
artificial intelligence. We already took the VA to Snake Island today, and
back again. How dangerous would it be for the slingdrive if we tried to make
another trip?”
“Well, it would be two trips, not one, so...”
“So...” Mateo echoed. “You’re still the one with the answer.”
“So, I think I can make it work, if it’s an emergency.”
“It’s not an emergency, but it’s time-sensitive.”
“Are you trying to pick someone up?”
“Yeah. My brother, Prince Darko. And maybe the rest of my family. And Kivi’s
beau, Lincoln. And a bunch of other friends.”
Ramses smiled. “Let’s start with the one.”
