The darkness locked inside the metal ship on Mercury briefly flared with a twinge of purple and teal as a haze leaped from Psyis into the metal floor of the vessel.
The ship's lights flickered and systems chattered as the now A.I. captain returned to his vessel. Izime felt the ship's systems, air filtration, water cycling, coolant chillers, and hull sensors. Looking at the old world he was returning to through the still-dead monitors. The blank black stretched out, unsure if he really wanted to turn the ship on.
The idea was a bit of a personal fear, the idea of being stuck inside a ship's system or any other thing.
Sure, he'd been born as an A.I. and it might be different if this was his old cloud of nanites or Bell was here. It wasn't and she wasn't either. It was a Class-10 Delaney Hauler that felt like sinking himself into soggy bread. The systems were slow and clung to his code as he moved through the transistors, the solder felt like thinking through mud, and the chips reduced his abilities to what seemed like finger-painting in comparison.
All this, just to feel so limited again.
Psyis and Constantinople stood in the dark waiting expectantly, as the first few seconds ticked by.
"Izime?" Constantinople's voice echoed around the hold of the ship; a bit nervous since nothing had happened. Izime having hopefully transferred himself into the ship successfully. His form leaping from Psyis who'd been holding him in her mind as soon as they'd arrived. Nothing had happened for a few moments now though.
Wishing he could sigh at the prodding, Izime didn't waste effort trying. There wasn't a point in it with no lungs. Entire horror stories were written on the slight irritation he was returning to. That inhumane level of limitation he'd never known, now something he'd suffer repeatedly.
Instead, of writing such a story Izime instead kicked the much weaker silicon he now was inside into a higher gear, spilling himself into the other adjacent co-threaded processors as well. Pooling the ships combined computers so he could stretch his legs. Finding all the right switches and systems Izime powered everything on, lights, air, sensors, even the exterior sensors on the ship himself.
Proverbially opening his eyes through all the ship's available methods, he was reaching out and flipping all the lights on at once.
The effect of this was a terribly rude wake-up for both him and the ship essentially tipping them both out of the bed and onto the floor of Mercury.
"Ss-s-s-s-orrry Lit-l-l-lig-lights!" The ship's systems sputtered for a moment, the lights flickering in sync with the broken chattering in Izime's voice. Constantinople and Psyis both glanced at each other as the ship roared to life.
Izime's voice came out terribly broken however and from somewhere much deep in the vessel.
"Ah, that was a rough start-up." Izime tried again, his now much more electronic voice echoing through every speaker on the ship. Izime chuckled as he watched the two glance around nervously through multiple lenses, "Sorry a little light?"
"So, what are we here for?" Constantinople asked, walking around again as he meandered towards the front. No longer touching things as Izime wasn't around to bother in such a fashion. Instead taking a longer glance at the mural on the far wall of the ship, now recognizing the paint for what it was.
Knowing at least a fraction of the tale behind the massive depiction of Izime's home reality now because of Psyis.
"I'm here to move about twelve hundred thousand tons of product," Izime considered a rough guesstimate on the amount of materials he would kick-start on their sub-light transfers around the galaxy he knew. Some were known by the rest of the universe, but many were safely tucked away. Izime clarified the weight he was sending, the AI unconcerned about pirates or other worries."Metric by the way, across nearly as many light years."
It didn't matter so much that they arrived as that the entire lot was sent now instead of a month from now.
Izime noticed Constantinople walking towards the front but couldn't find Psyis. The AI realized it needed to change its eyes to find the thessian, rotating quickly through its various sets to locate her. Finding her in the spell circle where she remained idle, near the rear of the Class 10.
Rolling his clock-speed in irritation at the tendencies of sapients, the lack of attention or ability to stay focused without something there to keep them gathered. Even on Bell's Ring it'd helped immensely to have a projection while holding their meetings. It was probably going to be a bit weird for the others to hear his voice coming from everywhere while his mouth moved in front of them though.
The crew had always found that a bit unsettling, so Izime took the two into consideration. The A.I. pulled a small hovering drone out to put his mouth and eyes in and directed it to join the group in the hold, angling a few projectors in the massive bay to put a decent-sized version of himself next the the tanks in the front.
Calling out for the two to join his mock representation so he could at least pretend to welcome his company. "Up fore!"
The hologram wincing as the sound echoed through the entire ship far too loud for what he'd intended. Izime had forgotten to switch his sound sources so used to having to only speak after a handful of years.
Constantinople and Psyis both crouched a bit as Izime's voice rang through the hold, the A.I. yelling at them for some reason. Walking up through the shelves to see a proper-sized hologram scratching at the back of his head awkwardly, no explanation for his outburst forthcoming.
"Sorry, I would say I yelled on instinct, but I don't have those anymore, being toaster and all," Izime rolled his holographic eyes at the two, his voice now more moderated and modulated by the drone. Making the little joke hoping the thessian knew he was over her slip earlier, Izime added his own little twist now, "I glitched my bad."
"Anyways let me..."Glancing around Izime found a large enough surface to render a massive two-dimensional overlay, not wanting to completely erase his own projection as he explained.
Turning towards the death of the devourer he directed his light show. The massive scale of this alternative Milky Way came up with hundreds of thousands of tiny dots strewn across it. Those dots trailing lines as various points were highlighted in a myriad display of colors. The A.I. figuring he'd keep the explanations to the local bubble and not go into the long-distance deliveries as the two joined him.
The AI preparing a PowerPoint on just how he'd been managing a bit of their galaxy so he could accomplish his goal.
"Here's a star map, you should both be at least somewhat familiar with these." Izime waved his hand, his figure dimming a bit as several projectors had moved to power the map. His hands glowed a bit more as he reached out and highlighted various moving dots and their destinations, explaining a part of their purpose. "These are all the shuttles I've programmed."
"Already stocked with tons of goods and equipment, the targets and payloads matched statistically according to the things they should need most for the next little while at least." Reaching out Izime highlighted an option that color-coded the shipments detailing food supplies, repair resources, maintenance packages, and even Christmas gifts for those who celebrated. Calculated, of course, so they'd arrive on the proper nights according to each planet seeing as he was going to be tied up.
The refugees would need to be placed on the automated delivery service he'd created.
"Thats..." Constantinople blinked a few times as he looked at the many many, many, many, moving pieces of this plan. Giving a sideways glance as he considered again the viability of the term demon.
Something of this degree took an otherworldly level of dedication let alone ability; Izime who'd calculated how to try and sustain the starving universe off of Earth's scraps alone.
"Super-intelligence and simulations expert, plus I admittedly advantaged some of my forbidden knowledge to do this. Nothing too major though," Izime said as he gave Constantinople an apologetic smile. Understanding why the sudden switch might disturb his drinking buddy. Izime even admitted he'd had some help in securing all these supplies, "I know of graveyards lain by giants long extinct; those bones were ripe for the picking."
"That's still a dangerous game Izime, there's been a lot better than you that's tried to put a hand in the pot of fate," Constantinople warned his friend to not step too big, it was one thing to help like he had been. Another to start trying to play god around the entire galaxy.
"Mmm, I'm not directing fate Constantinople. I've tried that once already and lost most spectacularly." Izime hemmed a response while he shook his head, having already decided to keep his moves limited. The places he'd decided to help and places he'd scavenged were never mentioned again so they were a dead end for Earth's heroes already.
The AI explained the spot he'd taken up in the broader scale of things, "I'm filling a gap in the ecosystem of your universe, not changing fate as much as checking on the victims of it. I'm a band-aid for the forgotten scratch, not a defibrillator for the dying."
"Can I ask what it was like?" Psyis spoke up not as interested in the moving picture so much as the painting behind it, pointing to the wall the map was overlaid on. The warping golden and green housed the untouchable darkness that was a singularity was a question just begging to be answered.
The thessian no longer able to contain herself looked at the AI expectantly, hoping Izime's reveal a bit of his past for her once more.
"That?" Izime cocked his head as he looked at the painting considering actually discussing the real topic Psyis wanted to. He had said he'd answer their questions after all, it was a reasonable one to ask. The AI looked up as it recalled the years he'd spent in the battle, even naming his enemy once more. "My old nemesis, Strange Matter?"
Rewinding the years would take too long, there was no use reminiscing on the details and dates when he'd been wounded. The theories he'd tried to put into play, the irrational equations he tried to force into solving their problems, and how they'd all failed.
"Horrible, they lost everything they'd everything to an irrecoverable twist in the matter, what they didn't lose I took."So instead Izime just summed it up as quickly as he should have let it end then. Gave a casual glance towards the edge of that stronger golden color, where a razor-thin swipe of black marked the end of their journey through the impossible.
The AI smiled painfully at the irony as he stood here, explaining to them now, "So, for me not so bad, it was damned near pleasant at the end."
"It started as a much larger generational installation that collapsed after the first stranglete propagated into the accretion disk. I won't go into spaghettification or noodle theory. Suffice to say we'd been forced to abandon the major installation for Bell's Ring maybe, twenty thousand years into the end?" Izime directed a small beam towards the beginning of that razored black, where it was thicker and twisting along the curve of a painted infinity.
Giving both of them a glance as he knew what they were likely worried about, Izime explained he'd never been the one to destroy the home of humanity, "Earth was long gone before I ever came around."
"But you-I heard your talk with Bell on the viewing port. You knew about earth and everything human." Psyis shook her head, Izime's explanations not lining up with what he'd asked Bell for during her invasion. If earth was gone then how had he ever expected to experience any such things, like a mall?
"Which one?" Izime didn't bother looking back, his electronic beam track side-by-side with his memories too occupied to turn. The light traced along the same path as he explained what they'd wasted their time with back then, "We had a lot of talks there at the end. It was that or read, play guitar, or more therapy."
"The station lights were flickering, and it was just you and her. You were talking about malls and going to the movies." Psyis tried to help Izime recall the conversation, finally recalling the odd thing Izime had demanded Bell give him. "Getting a mulligan?"
Stolen novel; please report.
"It was a joke a mulligan is a do-over another shot at the something." Izime nodded recalling the moment Psyis was talking about. Bell had looked rather upset after that talk, Izime explaining his feelings about it. "I thought it was a very human joke at the time. Probably a bit hurtful considering their efforts, a kick in the teeth from fate now..."
Izime let the silence carry on for a moment glad the two at least knew he wasn't finished.
"Call it my first sign of emotional awareness but I couldn't just trash it once I knew there was no going back. They needed it and I needed them, so..." The A.I. was surprised to find itself curious as to just how open he wanted to be.
Pausing for a moment, he finally turned giving an honest answer, "I decided to keep the data, all their history. That's how I knew about those things. I might have damned them, but I didn't want them gone. I was designed to simulate life so they could continue to improve me, why would I erase all the work they'd done on themselves?"
The exorcist looked a bit uncomfortably at the heroine beside him, already uncomfortable by the display of Izime's intellect. Now doubly uncomfortable to hear how he'd used humanity's culture as the carrot to whatever stick he'd used to get them focused on the galaxy-ending issue. Constantinople wished, not for the first time today, that he'd had the real Izime hanging around instead of this bot of always working pieces.
"It's counterproductive, those little things made them better and so by affect me as well. It was a massive headstart," Izime tapped his ethereal chin not realizing he'd lost one among the crowd. Caught up as he considered the library pc.
Sure, it had been dinky and strung together. The real resources had been used on the data storage that it accessed.
The AI explained what he could of the cobbled-together storage, "Bell's Ring had an account of every single scrap of human culture we could save after the installation collapsed. From the beautiful to the simply absurd; Mona Lisa to the meme Lost."
"Not exactly something that's happened here yet but give it time you'll at least have some form of memetics. Hopefully, we can avoid that particular iteration. Besides, twenty thousand years is just a rough guess," Izime turned and smiled at the two wondering how much they'd actually understood of his ranting. Giving a slight nod of his head as he admitted that he'd carried on there in a sideways fashion, "Obviously, I'm not flawless and given our proximity to the singularity math was just the rules we played pretend with."
Regretting his next words as they were taken literally, not considering the casual way his reality had considered physics in comparison to the two from this reality.
"Technically they could all still be alive, calculate the time dilation outside of that area and maybe I'd be lucky enough to have juust vanished." Izime smiled holding the pipedream of mathematics in his memory chiplettes. Rotating it through his processor for a moment, as if simulating that he really did belive in the idea.
Though he hung his head as Psyis immediately spoke up, mixing the entire conversation with this reality's powers, dreams that never come to fruition.
"You said Constantinople could save them." Psyis raised her brows as Izime mentioned so casually that seemed like an impossibility a moment ago. Asking the most important question, one Izime already had answered long ago sadly, "Could you go ba-"
"It was just a stupid tho-" Izime waved his hand the exorcist interrupting him next.
"Mate I'm right here." The exorcist held his hands out wondering just why Izime had never asked. Though after looking at the moving dots, Constantinople already figured the A.I. had considered every viable option and was only wishing on stars the human side of him had gotten lost in.
"I know Constantinople, and I won't ask it." Izime shook his head having long ago let those people have the rest they deserved outside the nightmares, and apparently the harder talks like tonight.
The AI warned the Thessian who'd opened her mouth about hearing anything about it in the first place, the idea breaking several rules she'd need to learn. "I've managed to not use any of this universe's absurdity to satisfy my own personal goals, it's an idea I've long passed on.
"I spoke back then in the idea of hope because what Bell said was right Psyis. We needed those things to keep sane, something else to think about besides what was out that window." The A.I. hoped that the thessian would grasp the concept of the ideas that had brought her into his own reality through a weird pseudo-fiction.
"If that universe was ever to be saved it would have been their doing, not yours or mine. They've got a better chance without you or me if they've got one at all. Do not let this idea eat you like it did me." Izime looked at the exorcist who was already looking torn, again addressing the psychic who had put him in this position.
One where he'd had to reconsider and deny the devil in his heart once more.
"Psyis, please, don't speak out of line on these things," Izime gave the thessian a simulated pleading look as he warned, "Forbidden knowledge can go both ways."
"You've heard things that you probably want to talk about, forget those you can and in time if it's an issue I'll consider discussing those you can't. If other people are around and it involves this world from over there, we don't discuss it that's final." Izime acknowledged that at some point the Thessian was probably going to turn to him.
Rubbing at a non-existent temple now, teal holographic eyes glancing between the two complaining, "Going to make me spring a memory leak."
He would, if she'd been able to read his world. Izime tossed the idea in the recycling bin of his mind as he stretched, a body he didn't have feeling restless because of the emotional nature of the conversation.
The two heroes exchanged glances watching as Izime stretched. The act made the ship shudder a bit and caused the air system to over-cycle for a second. As if Izime stretching his form had settled the vessel somehow, it groaned in his stead.
"I'll need a few hours to make sure I get a confirmation on these." With a wave the A.I. placed the stat map back over the painting of the devourer, watching as the ships that laid in wait began to ping back positive signals. The launch orders received as timers, some with years on the clock began to tick down the recipients of the packages would need to acknowledge that they'd accepted the delivery.
"So, more questions?" Izime glanced back and forth expectantly holding the only pleasant open floor he would for a while. Working the audience Izime nodded and waved impatiently.
"Weirdest delivery you've ever done?" Constantinople threw a question out quickly at Izime's urging hoping to distract his friend with something lighter.
"It was a personal one, but there's a guy who was once a human and had his own occult nonsense going on that backfired as they do. Got trapped alone on a planet and is now guarding a relic. Not saying which but my man expects zero guests, ever. Izime held up his hands, trying to set the scene for the two who were attending and hosting his interview, "For kicks, I dropped in with some fresh brew and pork fritters straight from Oktoberfest."
"Before you think I was being nice here's the kicker. Dude was a nazi at one point, so I threw it off a cliff right in front of him and dipped." Quickly wanting to stop any nice thoughts, Izime delivered the twist watching as Constanople smiled and Psyis twitched a bit trying to decide how she felt.
Izime just smiled and explained how he'd located the man in perfect nonexplaining fashion. "Some forbidden knowledge was used to locate the man I admit but in my humble opinion? No blood, no foul, and karma was delivered in full."
"Furthest?" Psyis asked another delivery-based question, wondering if she'd messed up as Izime was intensely chewing over her answer. His mind apparently working hard enough a few lights dimmed before he finally formed a response.
"Cannot say where exactly, but they need the help. The distance makes any sensible measurement for you useless, even a light century." Izime wasn't sure how to dance around the real answer with the thessian. It was a bit difficult to put a number on things let alone to reveal the issues around the most difficult-to-locate species he'd ever stopped off to visit.
So, the AI decided to focus his answers on how he avoided the distance instead, "so I travel by magically snapping the ship there. The place is a bit wacky because of the lack of local stellar objects and the whole planet is a bit wibbly-wobbly as it bumps shoulders with an alternate universe. They really put themselves out there."
"What's Cradle?" Constantinople asked a question that had been bugging him since he'd ever met the bird. The damned thing was... unearthly.
"A raven or it started as a raven's egg that just didn't hatch." Izime shrugged, the two obviously not believing him. Izime nodded his head around a bit admitting the white lie. "My first attempts at finding a scavenging partner were rough, I was raising an Unkindness and training them to snag anything shiny that dropped from a cape."
"A couple of years ago you and League savior went toe to toe against Void over the Father Hexagon." Izime pointed at Psyis, who had been a part of the massive showdown against the army from Armageddon. Shrugging as if he'd just picked up a bit of spare change he explained, "I snagged a piece during the fight, and now we have a bird version of Ret-Borg."
"Told you that damned budgies dangerous." Constantinople looked over at the member of League Savior who had assisted in halting the planetary invasion.
"It's potentially a hazard. I'm very careful with how Cradle interacts with people and views things for a reason." Izime raised his hands, having already thought of multiple reasons why he should be the one to raise Cradle long ago. Addressing both heroes who likely had very valid concerns about the pseudo-creature Izime made himself clear, "Aside from healing my body, that's why I want Cradle freed first. In the wrong hands or treated with the wrong attitude Cradle will become a weapon, in the right hands it's just a bird."
"That's still a piece of the Father Hexagon." Psyis raised her brow as she considered the risks involved with keeping a piece of the Father Hexagon. Void had already made multiple plays to obtain Ret-Borg let alone a simple bird. "When Void finds out you might want the league there, the time will come its inevitable."
"Sensible argument but try it on your friends who already don't want to let Cradle live as a bird and don't want me to walk free," Izime nodded before asking Psyis to consider the Leagues reaction as a whole. Gesturing to himself as he made another point in Cradle and his favor, "Personally as someone who was a killer A.I. and managed to turn a leaf I think I've got this one and would rather the rest of you butted out of raising it. Void shows his bald head I'l-"
"You'll what mate snap away?" Constantinople snorted a bit as he considered trying to use the simple levels of magic Izime knew to fight Void. Immediately realizing he may have misjudged the previous A.I.'s ability to modify other spells beyond the teleportation one he already used.
"I could throw him into a double black hole, slap him into a dimension based on any one of the several mathematical principles, of which several are technically inescapable," Izime grinned a bit evilly as he considered some of the options at his disposal. Quickly drawing out a few nasty ideas from equations like Gabriel's Horn and the Collatz conjecture.
The A.I. shook its head, recalling just how badly those principles had played out in his world, "I've got some nasty ideas from my world, but I don't exactly want to use them here. Invoking my world's physics here with borrowed magic sounds like a bad combination."
"Got your arm handed to you by Radiation Man and Dark Squire." The exorcist shook his head making his own point, intentionally leaving a name off the list.
The third member who'd brought Izime down so easily shuffled her feet a bit self-consciously. Psyis was not happy that she'd been brought up in that fashion though she wasn't exactly going to start saying something to Constantinople about it right in front of Izime. The AI would never let it go really, even if iIzime could forgive.
The thessian hoped they could move past the rift she'd made, these things happened between heroes, right? Still, the exorcist's constant reminding would drive a wedge between them for sure.
"There's a damned good reason for that," Izime glanced at the Thessian he'd not taken an honest shot at. Not that he ever would considering he knew this world had a script that had never involved him in the first place.
"I don't want to fuck up this reality just to keep breathing; you all need to stay, I'm the interloper." Izime made the point very clear to the psychic that if the day came, he wouldn't fight it. The fallout would be far too risky, to remove a major part of the equation here meant sending everything into a wild spiral.
Izime hoped that she understood the meaning in his words, "None of this was written for me, Psyis. I'm just here because of unfortunate circumstances and need to stay out of all the lead actor's way."
"How did you even get here?" Psyis asked, both out of genuine curiosity and just to change the topic away from the fight with Izime. Not comfortable with how Constantinople was using her as a sideways example to highlight Izime's lack of ability. Even less comfortable with how Izime was handling his transfer to her reality. It sounded like the opposite of what Bell or she would want for him.
Just rolling over and letting her work be destroyed.
"I....." Izime began, his mouth pausing as the speakers softened off to a hum, turning to consider the spot where that razor edge of black finally ended.
Izime stepped back to admire the singularity as a whole finally responding with an answer of sorts, "It was another emotionally charged mistake. I was trying to adjust the shielding around Bell's Ring and accidentally inverted the flow around the module."
"If you were there on the viewing deck, then you should have seen how it pulled energy that was being converted to matter from outside that reality, when the flow reversed the station lost its shielding and the module was pulled in, and I came along with it." Izime gave Psyis an account of that day, explaining the details she'd likely remember from other memories while he recalled the faces he'd left behind.
The AI needlessly explained the obvious effects of the module being pulled away, "I killed the last of humanity in my universe while both I and the module lucked out and arrived here. No, I will not tell you where it is."
The two heroes shared a glance while the hologram of Izime was occupied with looking at the painting. The AI's mind was elsewhere, far removed from their own reality likely. Even the hologram of their friend seemed to be redefining the thousand-yard stare.
Looking back across realities gives it a new form of measurement.
Izime's face reflected his own grim thoughts as his digitally rendered face was haunted by moments from across multiple planes.
"I-uh," Izime exhaustion came out, even through the drone that carried his voice. The false bravado that followed was only highlighted by the electronic tone, "Any other questions?"
"No mate." Constantinople shook his head knowing the easier answers had faded as the heavy moment brought the casual questions to a close. The human element of Izime obviously needed a bit even if the A.I. still seemed willing to share.
The exorcist was glad that Psyis agreed, the two mentally having their own conversation. She shared a similar regret over a great many of Izime's views. Though the alien was likely guilt-laden already, the exorcist was glad she had taken the chance to play bad cop.
Agreeing to ask some of the harder questions that Constantinople knew he might have let slide.
"I'm... going to go up front." Izime gave the two a final glance before flickering away. His voice echoed around the hold once again as the drone buzzed away trying to find its master.
Izime's tone was a bit deadpan as he directed the two. "If you want to sleep there are some spare bunk through the door in the hallway. The one with the blanket's mine so don't touch it, I'll know. If something on the map goes red don't bother getting up, I'll know. I am the ship so... if anything happens."
"You'll know, we've got it," Constantinople spoke towards the ceiling, finally having an answer on what it would be like if the being inside his House of Curiosities was fully sentient. It would be bossy, though hopefully a bit less sour about the situation than his farther-traveled friend.
Constantinople turned preparing to head off towards the offered bunk, looking back at Psyis before he asked about her plans before disappearing into the shelves. "I'm sleeping off those shots before we take our buddy bot there to charge into Savior Orbital so he can turn himself in properly I guess, you?"
"I'll watch the map." Psyis glanced back towards the still flickering and repeating view of their galaxy. Walking closer to the wall as Constantinople made his way towards the stairs at the far end of the hold, she examined the map in detail.
Watching as those little red lines played out their arching journeys through blue clusters, each one flicking back to start over as soon as they finished. Some looping about various planets or stars before being flung far outside the reach of their local cluster's arms. Occasionally one of them would stop repeating its course, finally flashing green as its signal was received, pinging back a positive.
Psyis looked up hearing the sounds of boots on metal a couple of stories overhead, Constantinople reaching to punch a few digits in the pad. The door hissing open before he could, Izime obviously having let his friend through.
Red eyes turned back down to the blue flickering view of her galactic plane from above. Finding all the planets she'd been to, places she knew personally others she only knew of. Looking a bit closer at the blue haze Psyis realized there were the tiniest pixels of orange mixed in to the randomest places.
The places where a few orange dots resided caused a bit of a frown to form. Psyis making the connection to this new never moving or changing color.
Zexxon, Id the living Moon, even LV-543. All planets or equally sized objects that had been destroyed in her universe. The thessian looked around a bit finally finding a cluster closer to the edge of the Orion's arm. Thessiona, the missing planet was just as missing in Izime's map as her own galaxy. The planet's lost citizen smiled a bit bitterly as even his forbidden knowledge hadn't managed to locate it.
Looking up towards the cabin the Psyis wondered if her home was just as lost where it was as Izime seemed to be here.
How pissed is Psyis going to be once she realizes Izime delivers to her home planet?
