By David C. Daoust
Dakota’s stomach rumbled. She’d been scouting through the city-station far longer than she had intended, found herself regretting that she told Vincent she’d eat later. She could be munching on something right then and there– if she hadn’t been so absorbed with her breakthrough earlier. Fact was, she really wasn’t too comfortable with making requests; sending the guards out like servants. She thought, if they offer, fine- they’re doing that anyway. Why not get in on that? She missed that train though, and there probably wasn’t going to be another. So, there she stood, dead-center of the holostage, with her stomach asking why she thought she was so smart.
Dakota could not bring herself to leave, even to eat, without first locating Suzanne. She had to be out there somewhere, stumbling through the barren city-station. Dakota wanted to try and help, more than that, she may need to help…
According to Suzanne, it was Dakota that had helped her gain control of the situation. Dakota had no memory of this, she had dismissed it as memories lost from being disconnected from the Uber Brain. If, however, she had managed to help her ‘yesterday’- today, then she had to find a way to accomplish it. Else be caught in a paradox… possibly…
Dakota was looking into the pocket from before the last ‘jump’. From before the Wraiths had managed to meet their quota and escape the pockets collapse. The jump itself, created another pocket of time, which they now existed in. Pockets that existed within ‘timelessness’, which meant the pockets were happening all at once. In some way, the nanites, were now able to communicate with those nanites from the previous pocket… Not to mention all the nanites from every other pocket the Wraiths had opened since they first took refuge within the Everywhere… Which only staggered Dakota’s mind.
The question was whether or not changing a past pocket, would then change her current reality. Which led to questions about time travel.
There were a lot of different theories on time-travel, if what she was experiencing was even time-travel.
Some theories stated that all possibilities existed in the universe, so making changes would just shift to a time-line in which those changes were an eventuality, and would in fact be an ‘alternate reality’- making any changes only count to the future of that reality. Leaving the future, the time traveler came from, null and void of any possible changes. Thus it would not be time-travel per se, only reality hopping. The supposed ‘time-traveler’ would only be visiting an alternate version of her own reality…
Other theories, the ones that were more likely to be found in science fiction stories, created this kind of ‘temporal wake’ which wiped out anything that could no longer exist in that changed timeline. This was full of loop holes. Especially considering, that timeline, the time-traveler came from would be, inevitably, wiped by these very changes which no longer needed to be changed, then the change would never be changed, and never be wiped, would itself be a wiped possibility which never existed or could exist. Thus, time travel could never exist in the real world, which is where Dakota had left those thoughts, all those years ago, in middle school.
They, however, were within a ‘temporal pocket’, outside of natural time, which, Dakota also thought, could never exist… They were definitely there, so there were now new questions.
Considering time-travel had never been achieved in the real world, Dakota had no idea what theory may actually deserve credence. Dakota much preferred the idea that whatever would be, will be, or else this wouldn’t truly be a glimpse into the temporal pocket from before, but into an entirely different reality, completely. The idea that they would vanish in a temporal wake like a discarded possibility, was ridiculous fantasy… maybe… she had to try something… or lose her chance.
Dakota was still without a proper map to help her navigate the city, but she paid closer attention to the surrounding area as she left the Red Faction’s dock. She felt like she was finally getting used to the virtual track-ball she was forced to navigate the hologram with, so losing control was less likely to confuse her. Considering their forces were currently spread out between the two ships, she had a pretty good idea of where the Otomo Cruiser was docked in relation to the Red Faction. It all looked a bit different, considering they didn’t hold the entirety of the stardocks, and surrounding areas, in this pocket; so there weren’t soldiers stationed throughout just yet. Dakota managed to make it to the Otomo Cruiser easy enough.
Suddenly the door of the Cruiser slid open. She thought she heard something, yet nothing was there. Dakota slid through the open door with the intention of scouting through the ship for her sister. Yet, instead, found herself stuck against the far wall as the door inexplicably closed behind her.
The damn navigation was even tougher through the tighter corridors.
Dakota felt foolish, pressed against the wall, trying to spin back to get it around to the airlock that clearly surrounded her on every other side. There was a good two minutes of spinning the navigation ball, and then carefully trying to turn it through to an open space before she managed to get anything slightly resembling mobility. She sighed as her brain started to echo her stomach’s question about her intelligence.
Suddenly, Suzanne came through the door.
‘Oh that’s lucky,’ Dakota thought, then puzzled, ‘Or, then again, maybe it had to be…’
Suzanne, hood already down, had a frustrated look on her face as she gazed at the device attached to the extremely unusual get-up she was wearing.
Dakota had never before seen Suzanne dressed in her ‘Constable Regalia’, nor could she know what the outfit was called, or that Suzanne had just learned it was losing energy, at an insane rate…
The mottled woman stomped off into the ship, Dakota hurriedly tried to get unstuck, so she wouldn’t lose her… instead, only slid across the wall until she got stuck in a corner.
Dakota sighed again, and called from within the hologram, “I thought someone mentioned lunch?”, innocently enough.
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