Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 10

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Nataw sighed. “I’ve been doing what I always do. After the visions came and our whole race went mad, I left. I couldn’t convince anyone in Destroy that killing the younger races was unnecessary, and so I went out to see them before they disappeared. I’m not much of a fighter, you know.”

With a grunt that edged into a growl, Govan said, “It’s not a question of convincing. We all saw what happened. In universe after universe, lesser beings evolved, grew powerful, and sought us out to destroy us. Some of us were even helping them do it, betraying relationships that predate universes. What were we supposed to do?” Continue reading Engine: Part 10 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 9

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From where she stood next to Nataw, Kee smiled. “You met him in the future, and he chose not to kill you. I think Govan will be reasonable, provided we’re talking to the version of him who spared you. If we’re about to talk to a version of him that doesn’t know anything about that, it could become messy.”

“Great,” I thought back to her.

Continue reading Engine: Part 9 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 8

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Tiger, meanwhile, had begun to sniff Nataw and Lee, starting with their butts and crotches.

I wondered if he’d still do that if he understood that they were older than our universe. Then it struck me that, given his understanding of English, he might have decided to start there because he’s a dog.

Nataw watched him and then scratched Tiger behind the ears. Then he said a word that my implant translated as Hideaway’s name in the language of a long-fallen galactic empire. “[Hideaway]. You’re a long way from home. I never liked the Abominators, but I did like what they did with your people. Dogs for hunting dinosaurs. Who’s a good boy?”

Tiger leaned in to the head scratches. Continue reading Engine: Part 8 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 7

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Lee and Nataw stepped up to the group. I overheard Lee say, “I told you that I couldn’t go with you because I was already inside but from a different time. It wasn’t that far, but the future’s unpredictable.”

He looked over the group—both versions of the League and Jody’s unconscious body on the ground.

“This is Nataw. He’s a very, very old friend.” Then he winked.

Grandpa said, “One of your people.” Continue reading Engine: Part 7 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 6

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You can’t save everyone. Hypothetically, I could pass Cassie’s dad an implant, and maybe it could save his brain, but Spark had said that anyone passing through the fight with the Abominators while owning or using an implant could cause major deviations.

It wasn’t worth the risk.

Hypothetically, I could send Jaclyn back to grab Paladin, have him heal Giles from whatever damage the process of empowering him caused, but Vaughn might not even be born then. Continue reading Engine: Part 6 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 5

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The dog observed the hand and sniffed it, but didn’t lick it. Tiger was smart enough to know he didn’t want to taste the metal-and-ceramic gauntlet.

Within a few moments, everyone had arrived: the old Heroes’ League, the new, Prentkos, and both Jody’s and Colette’s unconscious bodies. Talk about not being able to save everyone. Being turned into Rook’s mind-controlled cyborg was still in this Jody’s future. Though I didn’t need to, I made a check, changing that future had the same problems as saving Travis. I checked on Colette, too, but hers wasn’t any different.

I could do it, but it wouldn’t be worth the price. Continue reading Engine: Part 5 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 4

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“I have the ability,” she said, “but I’ll need ideas from you for how to do it. I’m not allowed to change the past on my own without the command of a living being.”

“Okay,” I said, and realizing that this might take long enough that people would notice, I asked, “How hard is it to stop time?”

The instant I thought it, I knew. Using the device, it wasn’t hard at all. Everything froze around me, and I told Spark, “Tell me if I’ve got this right. Because Lee left this place hidden and abandoned, all times from the moment that he left until now are accessible if someone opened a portal here and stayed?”

She nodded. Continue reading Engine: Part 4 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 3

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“Good,” Grandpa said. “I’m sure I must have told you how I met him. He’d been summoned by a Nazi sorcerer and trapped. We later came to suspect he’d allowed himself to be trapped, simply so that he could meet me. He never fully explained why.”

I nodded, “I don’t know either, but I think I’ve got enough of a picture of his long term goals that I can guess.”

Grandpa laughed. “I’m in the same position. Too bad comparing notes might have disastrous consequences for both of us.” Continue reading Engine: Part 3 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 2

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Hoping that if Ray realized he’d been manipulated by telepaths, he wouldn’t decide to come back and kill me, I connected with the device and instantly understood how to send him back to his own time.

It was actually simple. Ejecting him to anywhere else would be hard and not just hard. It would also have consequences, changing the past in ways I couldn’t predict.

I hadn’t been wrong about my earlier guess about obvious subsystems to include. The GCD did include subsystems for predicting what would happen based on what someone had experienced in here and being sent back to their own time.

Using them, however, was another thing. Continue reading Engine: Part 2 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 1

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As the stone touched my gauntlet, I connected with it and through it the Galaxy Core Device (GCD) itself. How did it feel to use a device that could destroy galaxies and create new ones?

You’d think it would be a moment of enlightenment or maybe ascension, since you assumed powers that you’d normally think were reserved for gods.

What surprised me is how normal it felt. I’d been absorbing knowledge from my implant on demand for years now. I’d been training with Kee to understand what Artificers could do for years and while I’d only been interfacing with Abominator and Artificer technology with those skills for a few days, it felt natural. Continue reading Engine: Part 1 →

The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)