Okay, so, that’s where we were. The original Fomorians, long before Cronus had gotten to them and corrupted them with those Seosten minds he had absorbed to turn them into what we knew, had apparently originated from something like a hundred or so million years in the past. One of their own people had become some sort of Super Trillionaire Capitalist or something and changed himself into a cyborg so he wouldn’t be anything like his own people anymore. He took over everything and began expanding onto other planets to enslave multiple species, including his own. Some Original Fomorians rebelled and ended up fleeing to find a new place to live. Eventually they found out that the only way they’d be safe from their enemy, this Wreth guy, was by finding a rift to send them far into the future, beyond any point when he could have survived. That had led them here, to this rift.

  First things first, we needed to make sure, at least as best as we could, that this was all on the up and up. We had to make absolutely certain that the Fomorians in front of us were telling the truth as far as they knew it. And yes, standing here in front of actual Fomorians was still freaking me the fuck out. They might not have looked exactly the way I remembered them, being smaller, but still. It was a close enough thing that I kept twitching a little whenever I looked around at these people.

  As part of figuring out if this was legit, Story and a few others were frantically going through all the books we had in our mind library to check for references to what could be Wreth and the Fomorians from back in this time. Or at any point relatively near now. It wasn’t exactly easy or fast-going, even with the time dilation thing going on in there. But they promised they’d let me know as soon as they had anything that could help with that. For now, I just had to keep going.

  Keep going, in this case, meant actually telling these Fomorians that we had to come onto their ship. Speaking through Kaleigh, I explained that the three solid versions of the people their robots had been chasing before were absolutely not a threat to them, that we weren’t working with their enemies, and that we wanted to keep talking, if they’d allow us to come onto their ship.

  Obviously, it took the Fomorians a moment to decide whether to accept that or not. They clearly weren’t exactly eager to let us come into the submarine. But in the end, they agreed not to attack. As long as we didn’t shoot first, they would agree to a truce so we could talk about this.

  So, I transported the three of us there, arriving right on the bridge. Which was really quite the experience, to say the least. There we were, Jazz, Theia, and me, clothes dripping on the floor as we stood in front of a group of… of semi-friendly Fomorians. It was just--yeah, a lot to even try to process. Well, we were dripping on their floor until we each used a quick spell to dry ourselves, which caused a whole thing by itself. These Fomorians really didn’t know much about magic. They were startled by the obvious use of it. The rest started to clamor for details, but the leader cut them off quickly. Even though it was obvious he was just as curious, apparently now wasn’t the right time for it.

  Speaking of the leader, that Fomorian took a second to introduce himself. He was called Kaur. It sounded very close to ‘cower,’ which was just simultaneously strange to hear as a name for a Fomorian, and fit the idea that they had been essentially running away from this Wreth guy for so long. Not that I could blame them, given just how bad things apparently were. This wasn’t the sort of fight they could actually win. They were basically just a bunch of refugees seeking some sort of asylum. Which was a really weird way to think of Fomorians in general. It hurt my brain.

  It also hurt my brain to see just how curious these Fomorians were about us. They kept staring at us, looking us up and down very intently in a way that made my stomach twist itself around even more. I had to remind myself yet again (it was basically a constant refrain in my head by that point) that these absolutely were not the same sort of Fomorians that we were used to. They weren’t calculating the best way to dissect us, that just was not who they were. Still, whenever I caught them staring at me, I couldn’t help but think back to walking into Koren’s house during Thanksgiving and finding all those helpless babies, Koren using her own hands to keep Abigail’s heart beating. I thought of that Fomorian, and just… eurgh. No, I had to put it out of my mind. They might as well be two entirely different species. Hell, they basically were. And if I could accept that beings of the same species weren’t evil just because one of them was, it shouldn’t be hard to accept that these specific Fomorians weren’t the same as those ones.

  Kaur was pressing the severe urgency of this whole thing, insisting that they had to find the rift down there and go through it before Wreth himself got word about what was happening and sent a much larger army to find them. Or even came here himself, a possibility that made the Fomorian captain shudder visibly. These guys definitely had some bad experiences with Wreth, that was for sure. The very thought of him showing up seemed to make them react like-- well like I did inside whenever I thought of facing the Fomorians that I knew, actually. Maybe even worse. No, definitely worse. They were very scared.

  I asked about that whole ‘find the rift’ thing, and Kaur explained that there was a massive maze of underwater caves and tunnels down there. They knew the rift was in that place somewhere, but not its exact location. The rock walls were obscuring their sensors and making it impossible to pinpoint the right spot from up here. So, they had sent dozens of their smaller scout probes out there to search the caves, carefully mapping them out as they tried to find the right spot. They actually had plenty of equipment that was tailor-made to do this sort of thing, but somehow the energy reading from the rift was so strong that it was overwhelming their sensors and making it difficult to narrow things down, even for the drones that were right inside the place. It was taking awhile.

  Carefully, I explained to these people that there were actually two rifts down there. That was why the energy reading was so strong, why it was throwing off their sensors. As far as we knew, the rift we wanted and the one they wanted were entangled with one another. We just all had to make sure everyone used the right rift. Needless to say, they were… surprised and confused by all that, and all of them started talking at once again until Captain Kaur barked an order for quiet.

  All of this came out while the bulk of their robot forces were out there fighting those other troops, Wreth’s people here on this planet. Apparently the Fomorians were just lucky (and yes god that sounded very odd to even think) that it was only a simple hunting party that was here and not an entire fleet. At least, it wasn’t an entire fleet yet. The people out there had just been here on Earth to start cataloguing animals and plants to see if this would be a good planet to expand to, or to pull a few samples from for what amounted to the giant zoo Wreth had turned one of his planets into.

  The point was, they were very much on a timetable here. They didn’t want to take too long or a much bigger force would show up, and it was all they could do to handle this one. Which, of course, made me ask the obvious question. “But you said there are many other ships with the rest of you out there. How are they supposed to get here in time, before Wreth’s fleet arrives and cuts them off?”

  While I was trying not to let myself be utterly overwhelmed by the thought of what could happen if Wreth and his people managed to get to the rifts themselves, Theia spoke up. “Yes, how are you going to make the rest of your people get here, if you don’t use magic?”

  The answer, as it turned out, was technology. Because of course it was. Apparently every single one of the ships these Fomorians used had been built with the ability to transport almost directly to any other, so they could instantly appear within a few thousand miles at the drop of a hat. They could do that from anywhere in the universe, without any magic being involved at all. It was only based on advanced technology. The downside was that it took up far too much power to do that sort of thing regularly. Or even rarely. The power it took up meant they could really only do it for the entire fleet one time, because doing so would practically cripple every ship that did so. It was a one-time use sort of thing, so they had to be absolutely, completely certain that they were right. The system was in place, but they would only call on the fleet to use it once they were sure this was the rift.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  That was why they hadn’t summoned everyone yet. They’d sent word that they had found a possible, even probable rift location, so the other ships were on standby, their people already packing their things and getting ready to come through the second it was actually confirmed. It wasn’t exactly the first time one of their ships had thought they were very close to finding the rift, only for it to be a false alarm. Still, it sounded like anticipation was pretty high, which made me just imagine all those Fomorians across the universe anxiously packing their bags and standing around waiting to make the jump. I had the absurd mental image of Mother Fomorians urging their young ones to make sure they packed their winter clothes and books, and to go to the bathroom one more time. Were there Dad Fomorians putting on their good suits, telling the squabbling siblings to be nice and settle down or they weren’t going to go through the rift at all? Were the... uhh... third sex Fomorians playing peacekeepers and getting everyone excited for the trip?

  Yeah, I had to shake off those thoughts. But judging by the look that Jazz gave me right then, I was willing to bet she was having similar ones. Both of us glanced at each other for that moment before she raised a hand to speak up. “Ah, like we said, we’re trying to go through one of those rifts too. And you guys should know, it’s… dangerous if we don’t get to the right one in time.”

  That made Kaur and the rest of his people, the ones who weren’t very busy directing the rest of the fight outside, or the probes doing through the caves below us, all squint first at Jazz, then at me when she looked my way. So yeah, here went nothing. Taking a deep breath, I tried my best to explain as much as I actually could. Obviously, I couldn’t get into their own future. Which kind of felt like… well, it made my stomach twist painfully. I couldn’t tell these Fomorians what was going to eventually happen to their people. What I could tell them was that an incredibly powerful burst of energy was making its way through these rifts, which were scattered across the timeline, and that the only way to prevent it from causing untold damage to the universe was by having me go through the rift to close it. Because I had gone through the first one that started all this. That left out a hell of a lot of details about that, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.

  Unsurprisingly, these people were more than a little wary about accepting what I was saying. It was kind of a lot to take in on their side, especially considering I couldn't actually tell them the entire truth. I couldn't give all the details, it was just impossible. But even the parts I could say had to sound completely absurd in so many ways. I almost expected the Fomorians to just completely reject the whole thing immediately. I really wouldn't have blamed them for that.

  But, in the end, somewhat to my surprise, Kaur eventually gave a slight backward thrust of his head. It almost looked like he had been punched in the chin or something. But the translation spell informed me that it was essentially the equivalent of nodding. He did that twice in quick succession, which was apparently their way of saying yes firmly or emphatically. Basically, he had come to a decision and was making a big show of agreeing with us, for the benefit of the rest of his crew. Or maybe just to stop himself from overthinking it so much. Either way, he made that motion before verbally agreeing. “We understand. Our people will hurry, as soon as we have confirmed that one of these rifts is the one we seek. Once we are through, you may do whatever you wish with the one that is left.”

  Right, yeah, that was why it was so easy for them to agree with even the possibility that we were telling the truth. Because as soon as they went through their rift, none of this would be their problem anymore. Whatever our actual intentions were, their involvement with the rifts would be over then.

  It was Theia who spoke up while I was still trying to figure out how to be diplomatic in my own response. “But if it looks like Wreth and his people will get to the rifts before the rest of your people make it, we’ll have to go through it anyway, even if that closes the other rift for the rest of you.” She spoke very matter-of-factly, immediately adding, “Nothing personal, but if Wreth is as bad as you say, he can’t be allowed to send his people into the future. If it starts getting very close, if you can’t hold against Wreth’s army, you’ll just have to send as many of your people through as you can before the rift is… closed.” She hesitated before adding in an even softer voice that seemed regretful, “At least some will make it, if worse comes to worst.”

  She was right, of course. What mattered was that enough of the Fomorians made it to the future and survived in order to create that civilization. A civilization that would, a few millennia later, be completely infected and corrupted by Cronus to create the evil abominations that we all knew.

  I was conflicted. This sucked, everything about it. Not only could I not warn these people about the utter tragedy that their species was heading for, but it was a tragedy that would affect the rest of the universe as well. If I just stopped that from happening, trillions upon trillions of lives would be saved. Absolutely everything about the future would change forever, and probably for the better in most ways. Sure, it would completely wipe out all of humanity if the Fomorians didn’t become the monsters they were, and just--yeah, everything would change. But if that meant saving the lives of all those other species across the universe who had been wiped out by the Cronus-Fomorians, there was at least some argument to be made that it would be worth it.

  Erasing all of humanity in order to save uncountable more species from thousands of other worlds? Was that--could that--no, I couldn’t do the math on that. I wouldn’t. It was a moot point anyway, because changing things wouldn’t actually change them in this timeline. It would just create another one, while the reality we had been born in would continue on without any of us.

  No matter how bad I felt about how all this had to go down, there was no point to trying to change it. All we could do was try to keep things as similar as they had always been, which meant identifying the proper rift and getting as many of these Fomorians as we could through it.

  Pushing those thoughts aside, I focused on what was actually happening right now. Which was Kaur giving us a long stare with those large, bulbous eyes. It was an angry look, which one might have thought would be the closest I had seen these guys get to the sort of Fomorians we knew. But it wasn’t. This was a righteous anger, a sort of, ‘I am going to protect my people no matter what you have to say about it, and if you try to hurt the ones I care about I will end your existence’ glare. And there wasn’t a single living Fomorian besides Grandfather from our time that would ever have those sorts of protective thoughts about anyone else like that. So, to be totally honest, seeing Kaur get so angry on behalf of his people helped me see him as not a Cronus-Fomorian. Maybe that was weird, but there it was. I absolutely felt safer because he was angry, because he was so protective of his fellow Fomorians.

  Before he could respond, I held up a hand. “We’ll help you.” As soon as I said that, a wince escaped me. “I mean… I’ll help you. I won’t speak for these two. It wouldn’t be fair. But I will do everything I can to help buy time for as many of your people to escape as possible. Whatever it takes, I will keep those guys off you. Just keep working on it. Identify the rift and get your people here.”

  “Hey, feel free to speak for us,” Jazz quickly put in while straightening up with a pointed look to our companion. “We’re right there with you. Right, Theia?”

  The Seosten girl lifted her chin. “There are so many reasons for me to say yes, but I think the best one will be the look on my mother’s face when I tell her what happened here.”

  That was kind of… dancing slightly closer to the line of stuff we didn’t want these guys to know anything about, but it was still pretty safe overall. So I just nodded to both of them and turned back that way. “So there it is. We’re going to help. We’ll keep those guys off you as much as we can.”

  Kaur and the other Fomorians looked a bit unconvinced that we’d be that much help, but they certainly weren’t going to argue against it. They gave us each a blue wristband thing that would work for communication, and agreed to allow some of the ghosts to go help search the underwater caves. I put Grover in charge of that group, telling them to give a tug when they found the rifts.

  Then I told Kaur to call his people in and start sending them through as quickly as possible the second they made certain it was the right rift. I promised that we would help those machines of theirs buy them as much time as possible. Speaking of which, they promised us the robot dinosaurs wouldn’t attack us anymore. We were on the same side now.

  I felt like we should say more, I wanted to say more to Kaur and his people before we got into all this. But there wasn’t time. These robot guardians of theirs needed backup. So, I gave these Fomorians one more lingering look, then teleported the three of us back out there. Obviously I didn’t send us straight into the middle of the battle, but to a ridgeline a little bit away from there so we could get our bearings and look at what was going on.

  It… wasn’t exactly pretty. The fight was getting far too close to the water, with more broken robots than intact ones. Wreth’s forces were pushing that way, and if we didn’t do something, things were going to get messy very quickly. Kaur had said they had more robots being put together, but that might be too late by the time they were built and released into the field.

  “Okay guys,” I announced quietly, trying to keep the uncertainty out of my voice, “take a breath and get ready.

  “Because it’s time to go save the Fomorians.”

  Joke Tags: After Some Quick Mental Math I Feel Like Sending A Million Fomorians Through One Rift Is Gonna Take Too Long? So They Better Be Doing A Lot Of Piggyback Rides