I'm worried about my next door neighbor. So I'm looking for some advice. It's really tricky you see. I think she might have been murdered. It's the little clues that are making me suspect this. There were the loud screams and gunshots in the middle of the night. Since then I haven't seen her for over two weeks. Plus there's a really dreadful smell coming from her house when the wind blows in a certain direction. Her car hasn't moved in all that time and her garage is locked. This puts me in a terrible quandary. I can't prove she's been murdered. It's only a few pieces of circumstantial evidence. If I report my suspicions I'm going to look a complete idiot if she's still alive somewhere. The stench of rotting flesh is absolutely awful, but fortunately the wind is carrying that away from me. So it's not that bad. I can get some more air fresheners if the situation deteriorates. It should settle down in a bit anyway. The weather's getting colder and most of her flesh will have decomposed by the New Year. That's only if she's actually dead of course. Like I say, she could be alive. Oh yes I suppose I should mention all of the parcel deliveries which are piling up on her porch. It's Christmas soon though so that would explain that. The thing is I'm not sure if I should report my concerns. It's not only that I would look like a complete idiot if she isn't dead. There are other things at stake here. I lent her my leaf blower before she disappeared off the face of the earth. It was when I went round to ask for it back that I first noticed the smell. So you can see my problem here. If she is dead, there's no way I'm getting that leaf blower back is there. I can't prove it's mine and I'm going to look bad if I ask for it as they're carrying her rotting corpse out of the house. There's no way I can win here. But I suppose at the end of the day I have to do something. I'm the real victim in this dilemma. I suppose I'm just postponing the inevitable though. It's a decision I have to make on my own. Do the right thing I suppose. I'll break into her garage tonight and get my leaf blower. Problem solved.
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(The copyright to this image is the property of Husqvarna.)
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The something else was a state security facility. Rather disappointingly the building didn't do a whole lot of blowing up. Not until they'd used the chain guns on it and anything that moved. Which brought the air defense forces out. They could possibly have over extended themselves, Scarlet admitted. They bugged out, keeping low. Barely above the tree line and only a couple of meters above quite a few houses. Where no radar could pick them up. Once they were clear they dropped down taking refuge in a large agricultural building. Spending a few hours there before heading to the location of their alternative transport. The one they'd used to intercept the Inquisitor General. Former Inquisitor General. Currently a pile of smoldering ash with a few teeth sprinkled in it. Tossing out the bodies of the not so special, special forces officers, the party set off to yet another location a few miles from Ham.
The last part was by far the most laborious. Going cross country with three relative invalids was slow. Frequent rests and avoidance of anyone in the vicinity. Stealing a vehicle would have only given away their position to whoever was looking for them. At this point it could well be every branch of the armed forces apart from the navy. Plus all those police, state security and citizens guards. They'd kicked the shit out of this hornets nest, then pissed all over it. Cold, wet and exhausted beyond anything they'd believed possible, Lucy, Yolande and Ruth were greeted by Felix and Felicity at the door of the village hall in Ham. Taken inside to be greeted by a warm reception. The warmth being the most welcome thing.
"Welcome to you all." Felix declared. "We were only expecting two of you, but I'm sure we can cope. I'm Felix by the way. You can rest here for a few days, but we'll need to get you moving faster than you'd wish, I'm afraid."
Scarlet and Jake stood in the doorway, looking quietly satisfied. The quiet part being most uncharacteristic. Their constant bickering and banter throughout the trek had been the only thing keeping the escapees minds off their pains. There was a blinding flash, far brighter than the constant illumination their uncovered skin gave off. Their saviors were gone.
"Who were they?" Ruth asked, blinking as she rubbed the sight back into her eyes.
"They were the Wanderers I think." Yolande replied. "There are legends about them among my people. They come. They go, and everything has changed."
Jake and Scarlet found themselves in that infinite white place without shadows. Wearing the clothes they'd worn when they'd first linked with the Geochronometric Array. They embraced. Eyes locked together. Scarlet leaning forward to rub her nose against his.
"I think that's all the happy ending we're going to get." The female Wanderer lamented.
"Here's hoping what we did make it better." He responded.
"Yeah it's tough not knowing. They could start a revolution that fails, but leads to another one that succeeds."
"Or they could all die in a few days time. It makes getting to know them impossible, or inadvisable at least."
The two of them parted, gazing around at the nothing.
"Who do you think will turn up? Angelique or Raven?"
"I don't think it matters. In a way they're one and the same. Different pieces of the whole."
She let her eyes move over more nothing, before heading back to everything. Oh God, he was everything to her. She was everything to him. It meant nothing else mattered, that was a wrench.
"Like us?" She ventured, biting her bottom lip.
"Very much so." Angelique interrupted. "You were going to say something else weren't you Scarlet."
"Was I?" She responded coolly. The avatar nodded. "Jake. I think I want a baby."
"I expect we can pick one up somewhere." He joked, cursing his stupid tongue immediately.
That frown cut him to the core.
"I want your baby. Not now. Eventually. When you've matured enough. It's got nothing to do with anything that's happened recently. So get that thought right out of your head."
His brow wrinkled.
"How did you know I was thinking that? Can you read my mind? What am I saying, of course you can. Only most of the time you don't bother. If you're sure it's not anything to do with having to... Ydrie and all that nonsense. I've practiced a bit on Pip."
Which brought a curious knowing smile from the goddess. Scarlet regarded her with a suspicious air, before switching back to Jake.
"I'm not talking about now or maybe not for years yet. When we're both ready, it might be a good idea. Right, change the subject quickly."
He did as ordered, feeling mildly frightened and thrilled at the same time.
"Why are we here and not in the vastness of your city?"
That was quite good for an off the cuff segue.
"Oh this is still the city. I couldn't be bothered filling in the other bits. You aren't going to be here long. No time at all in fact. I've got to reinsert you in the correct causal frame of course. Oh and as far as the shadow dimension was concerned, I can tell you tens of thousands of innocent people will die. At the end of which the Commonwealth will be overthrown and they'll create another catastrophe a hundred years or so later. Not a happy ending for everyone. The bad guys lose though. Which wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you."
The two humans digested the unpalatable, inevitable truth.
"I take it we're not heading off on another mission for you then." Scarlet surmised.
"No. But also yes. It's all to do with the everyone of everything. The good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. Which are all parts of every human. Except in different proportions. Same paints mixed in a near infinite variety."
Jake sighed.
"Yeah. Infinity is a bit of a bastard. Didn't you say we could choose when we arrive back at the Centrum?"
"Yes I did."
With which the two of them found themselves huddled around the GCA, in Poppy's workshop.
"Hi." She greeted them without looking up from her bench. Poppy carried on with her back to them.
"How long have we been gone?" Scarlet asked, stepping back.
"This is the eleventh day. We knew you'd be back. That you'd be successful to. The data started coming through a few hours ago. Where's that bloody gauge?" The nerd tossed a circuit crystal onto a pile of bits and grabbed something else. "Sonora and Alvar told us it would all work out fine. Not that we doubted it. Did you have a good time?"
He looked at the mother of his future child.
"I guess you could say that. We blew shit up in another dimension. It was monochrome. You know. Black and white. We were the only things there with any color."
Norbert strolled in through the door, stirring a coffee.
"Yes." He mused. "That confirms a theory Stanislav proposed a century or so ago. Which might mean there are also infra red and ultraviolet realities out there. Or should that be in here? Both I suppose. Beebo should be up and about shortly."
"Anything interesting happen while we were gone?"
Scarlet inquired, heading over to the coffee machine
"Morag's been acting a bit weird lately. That's about it. Things have been pretty chilled without you two. That's not a criticism. It's an observation."
Norbert took a long sip.
"Zhen, Femke and Alain did have a bit of a contretemps with some corsairs. Half a dozen ships that came through one of the portals. Wasn't much of a fight. We think they might have been 18th century equivalent, judging by their armaments. Picked a fight with the wrong people. It was over in ten minutes. The survivors fled back through. Alvar said it happens every so often. Nothing to worry about. You haven't really missed anything."
The two Wanderers weren't particularly worried about that. Scarlet broached the subject.
"When you say acting a bit weird, what do you mean exactly?"
Poppy downed tools, seemingly not knowing what she meant.
"You mean Morag. Sade described her as being all loved up. Which is odd because normally when Hermes isn't available she's quite subdued. Started a few days ago. She was humming and singing all the while. Then she started a project. Designing something top secret she said."
It might have been the mention of his name, Jake felt the familiar buzz of the AI in his cranium.
"What the hell is going on here?" The voice inside his head exclaimed. "Why am I getting all these extraneous readings? There's a bloody great big gaping hole almost 270 hours long in these logs. That can't be right. I'm getting estrogen levels that are off the charts."
Scarlet grabbed Jake's arm in a strong grip.
"Why can I hear Hermes through not my ears?"
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