My last Parent/Teacher Conference was in sixth grade. At least, the last one Dad went to.
He didn’t pay much attention. I’m not sure he was even sober. But that didn’t matter, because Alice came with us. The teachers at Lansdowne gave her a few funny looks; she was a freshman in high school, and she should have been doing whatever high school girls do.
Don’t ask what that is. I don’t know.
But the teachers’ minds changed when Alice started asking all the ‘Mom’ questions and when Dad refused to pay any attention. They figured out the dynamic pretty quickly, if they hadn’t already figured it out. Teachers can be smart sometimes, I guess.
It was miserable. But not as miserable as the following year, when Alice and I went without Dad.
That was hell.
Location Unknown, Location Unknown, Time Unknown
- - - - -
The golden-orange digital star that, to the best of my knowledge, is the Halcyon System hangs overhead. I’ve been here before. It’s not where I intended to Mergewalk, but since I’m here, I’m going to make the most of it.
But it’s not the Halcyon System’s voice that greets me. It’s not the far-too-virtual, not-quite-Mom voice I’m expecting.
[Why are you here?] James asks. [You should not be here.]
“I don’t know what—“ I cut myself off. It’s James’s voice, but in this moment, James has nothing to do with the conversation I’m about to have. The System’s just using his voice. I re-evaluate the problem. I need to know three things. First, why am I here? Second, have I moved the odds of victory enough for the System to reconsider leaving? And third, what does the Halcyon System actually want?
But I can’t reveal certain things. First and foremost, the existence of Sidney as a separate entity from James must be protected. I need a better mask than anything Alice has ever worn. I need to pretend I’m in complete control and that I know what’s going on. I need to lie, to be fake, to make stuff up. That’s going to limit me—a lot.
“I got here through a Mergewalk,” I say instead. “My working theory is that, since I’ve leveled up the skill again, it’s changed how it works. I assume you have something to do with that, and you’re going to—“
[Teach you? That is acceptable.]
My aug flashes, and a map with thousands of points of light appears in my vision. It wavers, and for a moment, it almost feels like my augs have cut off; a wall of vertigo slams into me like a tsunami. It passes quickly, then returns as the virtual starscape zooms in on one point.
That point turns out to be thousands of points as well—galaxies—and beneath that layer are thousands more. The Halcyon System zooms in on a single blue-and-green orb. The colors remind me of Alexander’s crystals, and I shiver a little. I almost lost control of that fight. That can’t happen again. Then it zooms in further.
[You will learn how to navigate the merges. You will be able to travel precisely between realities. It will be slow until you learn to do it well.] The Halcyon System’s control over my aug continues, and it focuses in on the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Then it enters Mount Olympia, and a line-and-point map of SHOCKS Olympia appears.
This one’s not the map James has access to. This one includes everything. The black sector’s there; more interestingly, the stuff I explored in Alexander’s memory shows up. It’s like a gaming map, where anywhere I’ve been exists. “Fast travel?”
[Essentially. The Mergewalk can take you anywhere you have been.]
I take control and—awkwardly—maneuver the world until I’m in Hong Kong. There’s a whole section of the city I can travel to. So that’s cool. I rotate it back to the Olympic Peninsula and wave my hand in front of my face until the aug figures out what I want and shuts the map down.
“So, how am I doing?”
[Your performance is acceptable. However, I still believe that this reality is lost, and it is a better use of my remaining pieces to fight elsewhere.]
Belief. Pieces. This isn’t the language James used when describing what the Halcyon System was thinking. And it’s not the same language my few and far-between conversations with the System itself have used. Something’s shifted. I can’t dig in too far, though. Not into that. Not here.
“What is your goal? You seemed to want to help my reality, but now you want to abandon it. Why?”
The Halcyon System goes quiet, and the point-and-line geometry seems to contract and swell, almost like it’s thinking. [Why?] it says after a while. [Why was your reality important? And why abandon it?]
“Yes.”
[Because I want to win.]
SHOCKS Black Sector, Location Unknown - June 19, 2043, 4:22 PM
- - - - -
When I arrive at the SHOCKS Black Sector, it takes a minute to decide what to do first.
I’ve got new information, and new powers, so the first thing is to pull up my stats while I wait. They’ve changed quite a bit, and it’s been a while since I took a good look at them.
[System Access: 100%]
[Recalculating Skills, Knowledges, Bonds, and Inquiries. Adjusting Stability]
[Claire Pendleton]
?Stability 8/10
?Skills - Endurance 9, Urban Combat 4, Anomalous Computing Systems 9, Physical Anomaly Resistance 17, Open Mind 1, Revolver Mastery 25, Compulsion Resistance 2, SHOCKS Database 1, Mental Fortitude 2, Reality Anchoring 4, First Aid 2, Toxin Resistance 6, Reality Skipper Shells, Bullet Time, Slither, Smoke Form, Analyze, Mergewalk 3, Mindscape, Soundbreak, Determination 2, Absolution 2, Truthseeker
?Truths - Anomalous Bond, West End High, SHOCKS Research Facility, JAMES, Stag Lord, Halcyon Bond, Li Mei and Infovampires, Dr. Dwyer, Provisional Reality AAA, Mergekilling, Part of the Ship, Guardian Angel, Void Bond, Reality One, Alexander the God
?Inquiries (5/5)
?Why is the thinling in SHOCKS Olympia’s administrative wing?
?How does Director Ramirez intend to weaponize the merge generator?
?How can I get Alice back in her body?
?Who is Alexander?
?Why is there a giant spider in the Geren-Danger wing?
The big thing is the upgrade to Mergewalk. That changes so much; in fact, it might change everything. The Halcyon System didn’t say so, but I can already see a dozen ways to use it to react to merges. That means it’s a direct counter to Merge Prime. My passive skills have also gotten a lot stronger. But what’s most important is Truthseeker and the interaction between it and the mergekiller shells. That gives me a direct weapon against every anomaly. Between that and Absolution, I’ve had the weapons—and now I have the mobility.
That’s powerful. In Knights of the Apocalypse, some of my favorite characters were always ones who could get to the fight fast and then deal out enough damage to be helpful. I didn’t have any use for lumbering tanks who couldn’t move. The game wasn’t built for them.
I need to get some new Inquiries, but before I do that, I have a problem.
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Director Ramirez went across the bridge. He didn’t come back. There are several possible reasons why. Alexander could have killed him. The reality shaper could have put him to work getting the containment cell figured out since he couldn’t do it himself. The cell could have dropped and dragged him into the abyss. He could have simply been told to wait for Alexander to finish up with me.
Either way, I need to know. So I work my way across the bridge, spending far too much time looking down through the chain-link Faraday Cage and not enough time watching my destination. Not that there’s anything to watch; the cell door’s open, and someone’s sitting on the floor inside.
When I get there, Director Ramirez looks nervous. He’s completely back to being Doctor Twitchy now. He stares at me and licks his lips. They’re dry and cracked, and they look painful. “Did you…?”
“Kill him? Yes. He’s dead. When James gives you access to the facility, you should make sure his document’s marked however you mark destroyed anomalies.” I run through what I know about Alexander. It takes less than thirty seconds.
When it’s done, Doctor Twitchy nods slowly. It’s obvious he doesn’t believe me. It’s equally obvious that he’s not sure why he doesn’t believe me. I don’t care if he thinks I’m lying, because the truth is exactly what I told him.
Also, I’ve got a gun, and he doesn’t. Which is weird, because I specifically gave him one when I sent him here. He must have ditched it. Probably over the edge, into the bottomless pit; that’s where I’d tell him to put it if I was Alexander.
“So, when can you give me control over the facility?” Director Ramirez asks. “It needs a director to authorize certain procedures the JAMES Unit doesn’t have access to.”
“Soon, I promise. I need to know a few things first.” I take a deep breath and slide the Revolver into the chest holster. “First, why doesn’t James have access to this part of the facility?”
[That is an excellent question,] James says. [I’ve got your aug, his aug, and that’s it.]
“Interdimensional subjective relativity theorem and pocket dimension physics.” I stare at him, and he stares back like he actually answered my question. Maybe he did, but I don’t have anywhere near the schooling to understand what any of that means. Chances are, there’s not a scientist outside of SHOCKS who gets it.
He seems to realize that after a few seconds. He sighs and rubs his temples. “Look, imagine you’re in a spaceship. It’s going really fast. Time gets all funny when a spaceship moves at a reasonable fraction of the speed of light, so you age slower than everyone back on Earth. Christ, they teach this in high school, right?”
“Probably. I’m not old enough to have taken physics.”
“Okay. So, the same basic concept’s going on here. This Black Sector exists slightly desynchronized from the rest of the facility, both in space and time. It’s not part of Reality Zero, but it’s not part of any other reality, either, and can only be accessed from the door we came through. But that time and space desynchronization means a permanent connection to an exterior JAMES Unit isn’t possible. The connection breaks down over a day or two, and the external unit loses synchronicity with this disconnected pocket reality.”
That actually does answer my question. And it seems important. He keeps talking about an exterior JAMES Unit, which implies there’s an interior one that’s separate. That’s a possible place to plant Sidney if the current experiment doesn’t work. And equally importantly, I can use this place to desynchronize James if I need to disconnect from him without destroying my eyeball.
I file that information away for a rainy day.
“Second, do you know where the site’s nuclear device is?” I ask.
Doctor Twitchy goes pale. “Yes.”
“Great. I’m going to disable it permanently.”
“No!” He’s panicking, and he’s pale, but Doctor Twitchy is clearly ready to fight me on this. His hands ball into fists. “Disabling the containment failsafes could be disastrous if we have containment breaches in the Qishi-Danger wing.”
“Don’t care.” I really do care. It’s a good argument. But I can’t help remembering what Doctor Twitchy’s goal in coming here was.
“It could trigger multiple other failsafes.”
[Nope. I took care of those,] James says. He’s clearly not desynchronized yet. I stare at Doctor Twitchy.
“I…” he pauses, thinking. “I think I’ve got a way to strike back at some of the merges. I need the on-site device to test my theory. If it works, we can buy time for a permanent solution that leaves our reality as intact as possible.”
At least he’s being honest now. I wave for him to cross the bridge. “Let’s find somewhere to talk through your plan. I’ve seen your notes, and I don’t think it’ll work how you expect it to.”
Of all the things I didn’t expect to see in a high-tech lab, a green-black slate whiteboard with yellow chalk is high on the list.
[There’s probably an explanation that has to do with the anomaly they’re experimenting on and how it affects technology or something, but without knowing which one, it’s impossible to be sure,] James says.
The two of us—plus James—sit on lab stools on either side of a ceramic laboratory table. Doctor Twitchy’s near the whiteboard, chalk screeching as he sketches out SHOCKS’s understanding of merge physics. It’s all over my head, but that doesn’t matter since James translates it in real time. [We’re looking at a similar scenario to opening a window on a hot day and feeling the cool air rush out of the building. As the air balances out, reality levels become even—theoretically.]
“But that’s not what really happens,” I say after a second.
“Well, no.” Doctor Twitchy pauses. He takes a deep breath. “I’ll try to explain this simply. There is a fundamental force, well beyond Qishi-Danger, in every reality. It’s trying to maintain that reality’s current reality levels. SHOCKS was studying this via merges in the 1950s all the way to about a month ago. One thing we noticed was that our stabilizing reality force wavered briefly following nuclear weapons testing.”
“And that’s why you want to nuke a different reality?”
“Yes,” Doctor Twitchy lies. I raise an eyebrow, and he continues. “Partially. The scientifically-correct move would be to set off a failsafe at the edge of as many merges as possible for study purposes. However, the count of merges on Earth alone was in the thousands. We’d be looking at nuclear armageddon and wouldn’t be able to change the course of Merge Prime significantly.”
“Then what are you trying to do?”
[Proof of concept,] James says. [Director Ramirez doesn’t have to target every merge. He needs to aim a single merge in the right direction and destroy whatever’s causing Merge Prime. But he wants to know if it can work, first.]
That….that could actually work. It feels like using a sledgehammer for brain surgery, but it could work. I grab the chalk and start drawing. Art isn’t my strong suit. Math is, and art isn’t math. But the picture doesn’t have to be perfect. When it’s done, it looks a lot like a bunch of clusters of dots. Then I add some more. I keep going and going until, eventually, Doctor Twitchy asks what I’m trying to do.
“It’s a map of realities,” I say.
“It’s a bunch of dots,” he responds.
He’s not wrong. But the point isn’t that my map isn’t a bunch of dots. It’s that I’ve seen every reality—in dot form, but I’ve still seen them. It’s not enough to Mergewalk from one to another. But it’s enough that I know they’re out there, and that they’re laid out like constellations in the sky. “Look. I just got back from the Halcyon System’s reality. It showed me all this, and I have the power to hop from here to any reality I’ve been in.”
“So why not tell us where that reality is so we can destroy the Halcyon System?” Doctor Twitchy asks.
I pause. There’s a risk to working with Doctor Twitchy. This is probably it. But I’m still in control.
[I strongly recommend you don’t do that, Claire,] James interrupts. There’s no panic in his voice. It’s perfectly calm. And it’s not the Halcyon System talking—or at least, not only the system. [SHOCKS’s internal data connects the Halcyon System to Merge Prime. If you give Director Ramirez any chance at destroying the System, he will take it. Running the numbers, the System’s destruction would reduce Reality Zero’s chance of surviving Merge Prime to infinitely approaching zero. It isn’t a viable solution.]
“That sounds like self-defense,” I mutter. “Doctor Twitchy, that’s not the target, and I’m not sure I trust you. We’re going for a walk around the black sector. James, can you lock down the on-site nuclear device?”
[Already did,] James says.
For the next hour, Doctor Twitchy and I work our way through every door and every storage locker in the black sector. I ask questions—mine and James’s—as we go until we’re both satisfied that the device Doctor Twitchy showed us first is the only one here. James locks it down, and I fry the controls. There’s no way to manually fire it, and no way it’s getting moved. It’s as safe as it’s going to get.
I spend the rest of the time not quite understanding what Doctor Twitchy’s telling me about the experiments SHOCKS ran here. Most of that is that he doesn’t know much himself. A small part of that is how confusing the language he’s using is. I should be used to that from dealing with SHOCKS, but I’m not.
Not that it matters. The truth is that the sector is black for a reason. It’s supposed to be another oubliette, another forget-me-not that almost no one knows anything about. All the experiments here are at least as bad as what James—Sidney, rather—went through in SHOCKS Victoria. And if I were SHOCKS, I wouldn’t want anyone to know about them. It’s honestly shocking that Doctor Twitchy knows what he does. In fact, it’s so surprising that I ask him about it.
“I’m just speed-reading their briefings as we go,” he admits nervously. “If I had clearance to access any of these experiments’ deep logs, I wouldn’t be able to talk about them at all.”
My mind flashes to Alexander’s memory, and Director White’s brain melting as her augs superheated it. I shudder a little. “I think I’m done here.”
Doctor Twitchy nods. He seems more relieved than he should be. He starts heading back toward the entrance, and I follow him, one hand on the Revolver’s grip, just in case. I don’t think he’ll try anything. But I don’t know for sure.
And I’ve got a lot to do. Deal with the spiders outside. Start figuring out my next move.
Try to find where Merge Prime started.
James still hadn’t said anything to Sora. She was starting to think something was wrong with the not-AI her best friend said would be there to talk her through whatever Claire needed her to do.
There was definitely something wrong with Mr. Pendleton. Something worse than usual. He didn’t seem drunk. Sora knew when people were drunk or high—her brother had been more than he should have the last year of school—and he wasn’t acting like that. No, this was different.
Mr. Pendleton’s energy felt nervous and explosive. He was barely in control, shaking—but not from withdrawals like he had been recently—and seemed ready to blow at any moment. Right now, he was sitting next to a tank full of ants that seemed to be tunneling through the air. He wasn’t watching them, though. His eyes were glued to the SHOCKS RST trooper with the scary-looking gun at the top of the stairs.
Sora had no idea what he was thinking, but it wouldn’t be good. “James, are you there? Something’s about to happen here.”
James didn’t answer. Sora gulped and kept watching Mr. Pendleton. Hopefully, someone else would get here soon—Claire, or the director who kept acting like he was in charge. Then, she could push this problem off on whoever it was.
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