Shades Of Forever

The central square is buzzing with excited chatter, seemingly everyone in the entire village gathered around me and the two engineers. People constantly reach out to lightly touch Chief Engineer MacWillie and Huckens, as if they can't quite believe they're real until their fingers make physical contact, but the two of them take the attention with bemused grace. Dirt, Torch, and the clan leaders have given up on trying to keep things orderly until the initial jubilation fades, and are now just reminding people not to trample any of the little ones running around underfoot.

"Sky! Sky!"

Two familiar figures calling my name make their way through the crowd, one a girl with shoulder length wavy black hair, the other a sandy-blonde boy swinging his crutches overhead like extra long arms as he hops on one leg, his other in a cast, both my own age and sorely missed.

"Rifle! Door!"

We meet in a crushing embrace, just another knot of celebration in the giddy sea filling the central square. Prickles of wetness sting my eyes, my happiness at seeing my best friends again almost overwhelming. I didn't have time to think of them in the chaos of the last day and a half, but now I'm acutely aware I might have never seen them again. We hold the contact for another few seconds, then Rifle and Door back up and start bombarding me with questions.

"Sky! Is it true you brought back the outsiders?"

"One of the little ones said you fought a hundred Glowbeasts! Did you? Did you?"

"The Idiots claimed you last night, before the weird lights appeared - was that the reason why?"

"Where are the outsiders from? What are their names? Are there more?"

I laugh, putting my hands up to try and stem the flow of overlapping queries. Rifle and Door look at each other, than start laughing too, realizing they haven't given me a chance to say anything even if I wanted to.

"It's so good to see you two again," I say, my cheeks starting to hurt from how hard I'm smiling. "I really missed you."

"We missed you too, Sky," Rifle replies, Door nodding next to her. "When we heard that Wires was killed, and then you went running off yesterday morning with Torch, we were worried."

"Scared shitless," Door adds matter of factly, bracing his weight on his crutches, "especially after Dirt and Torch came back without you. No one knew what was going on, and all Broom would say was that the Idiots were taking care of a problem."

"I'm sorry I made you both worry," I apologize, a pang of grief passing through my heart as I think of Wires, but it doesn't last against the atmosphere of joy pressing in on all sides. "What happened out there... it was unbelievable." Before I can start telling them about my trials, a loud voice booms above the hubbub.

"Hey! Settle down!" Butterfly Builder has climbed on top of one of the many benches scattered around the square and is waving his arms for attention. Slowly, the loud commotion dies away into scattered murmurs. "You're all excited, and I am as well, but these people need to eat!"

Darkfern Baker climbs up next to him.

"Bakers, listen up! We need to set up a working lunch in the square! I want everything prepped and ready to serve in ten minutes!"

"Yes, chef," a chorus of voices grumbles as he steps down, Rifle's among them. "I have to go help my father, Sky," she says quickly, "but we're definitely talking later!" I wave as she scampers off, and Butterfly's voice booms out once more.

"Builders, let's get those tables up and in place! Chairs as well!"

He steps down and leads a cluster of people towards one of the broad warehouses bordering the square, the one where all the celebration furniture is kept. Another figure replaces him on the bench - Broom.

"Everyone else, lunch will be outdoors today so you can see the outsiders, but we need essential workers to return to your tasks." There's some mutterings but she overrides them with a steady voice. "Yes, I know it's exciting to learn we're not alone, but the village must endure. Your clan leaders will answer any questions you have after we let our guests eat." She steps down and the crowd begins to disperse, the jovial mood faded somewhat but not gone entirely.

"Crap, Sky, I have to go," Door swears suddenly, his eyes darting around in panic. "I'm supposed to be in charge of the filtration pumps today. Oooh, Moss is gonna kill me..." He swings off on his crutches, almost jumping in his haste, and I can't help but laugh.

"I'll find you two later," I call out, and he lifts a crutch in response but doesn't turn in his awkward hopping run. Still smiling, I walk over to where Chief Engineer MacWillie and Huckens are standing, engaged in a low conversation with each other. They look up as I approach.

"Aye, but that was one of the strangest things I've ever been a part of," Chief Engineer MacWillie grins at me, "and I've been chest deep in a malfunctioning engine trying to pull six different infinities at once. Seems like your people are a wee bit excitable, eh Sky?"

"It's not every day you learn you're not the last humans left alive in the world," I reply, and she chuckles.

"Aye, suppose that's true enough."

The Builders start emerging from the warehouse with wooden chairs and the long metal tables we use for celebration days, setting them up in a pair of rows with ten chairs to each table, along with a small grouping of tables off to the side for the food. I motion the engineers over to one on the end and we sink into our seats with grateful sighs, dappled patches of sunlight floating back and forth on the polished metal surface. Chief Engineer MacWillie leans back, letting her arms fall to her sides, staring up at the crimson leafy canopy overhead, while Huckens folds his own arms atop the table and rests his head on them, eyes battling not to close.

"I'm telling you, Chief," he yawns, "I could sleep for another day. Maybe two."

"Let's get some food in us first, lad," Chief Engineer MacWillie replies, stifling a yawn of her own. She tilts her head over to look at me. "Though I suppose we should let young Sky here eat before us, seeing as how we took most of the breakfast."

I shrug.

"It's fine. You're still probably hungrier than I am, if you went without food for three days." I prop my elbow on the table and rest my chin on the palm of my hand, making conversation while we wait. "What was it like, Chief Engineer MacWillie? I still don't understand some of this 'non-causal' stuff. Did everything happen really slow?"

"Call me MacWillie, and it was pretty normal for-"

"It was terrible!"

Huckens and MacWillie talk at the same time, and she laughs at him, slapping her massive hand on his shoulder.

"Aye, lad, it's always terrible, that's normal. As far as our time not matching yours, young Sky?" She shrugs. "Didn't feel any different than a normal three day stretch in the engine room under heavy load with everything to do and no time to eat. The Old Man expected us to make chardonnay out of shitwater, and so we did."

"You've done that before, Chief?" Huckens' voice is awed. Behind him, the Bakers start emerging with various platters of food they carry over to the clump of serving tables, setting them up for easy access. I consider walking over to fill a plate but MacWillie is still talking and I don't want to interrupt, and Rifle's father gets irritated if people take food early.

"Well, not the overloading of the engines at the end, but that's not the first Entity I've run up against, lad." MacWillie clucks her tongue. "Usually it's with a few more ships available to put them back in their place, though. If you want to be a space dog, you learn how to dance reality's jig right quick."

"What's a 'space dog?'" I ask.

"A space dog, young Sky, is one of those benighted souls doomed to wander between the stars serving their master's ship for life and beyond. Too skilled at their job to let go, too valuable to kill off-hand, too powerless to leave. The corpos love space dogs like me and the lad here, because we keep their ships moving when reality comes a'knocking. Most of us work with the engines, but I've known a few in navigation and gunnery over the years."

I'm still not quite sure what MacWillie is talking about.

They're people extremely in-tune with their integrators, Sky. My creator used several for research purposes when initially designing me. It represented an extraordinary investment of assets, as they're quite rare, and almost always assigned to combat support roles.

"Here, Sky." Rifle thumps a large platter on our table before I can reply to Box, its surface covered with an array of food. There's fresh-baked darkfern biscuits, sliced wedges of golden shimmerfruit, thick Glowbeast steaks covered in a spicy red sauce, steamed broccoli, and a wobbly crabroach milk pudding. Three square plates with knives and forks accompany it, along with two pitchers - one of chilled milk, one of water - and three cups. She winks at me. "Father said to make sure you three got fed first, and to ignore the waiting line. Something about how those two haven't eaten in a few days."

I thank her for the consideration and she heads back to help the other villagers waiting patiently by the serving table. MacWillie and Huckens regard the food dubiously as I pass out the tableware.

"This is safe to eat?" Huckens prods at a Glowbeast steak cautiously with his fork. "What is it?"

"That's roast Glowbeast with chili sauce," I reply, busy loading food onto my own plate, " and of course it's safe to eat. The Bakers make sure to only use the non-melty parts. Besides, everything we harvest goes through the Shrine of Saint Curie first, even though we haven't had a bad batch for hundreds of years. Better safe than sorry."

I cut a large chunk off my Glowbeast steak and pop it into my mouth. The savory juices pair perfectly with the spicy sauce, and I almost moan in pleasure. I was really hungry. Huckens tentatively bites off the crown of a broccoli, and his eyes light up. He shoves the rest of it into his mouth.

"Mmmm! That'sh good! What shettings do you ushe on your printer?"

I sip my milk, enjoying the nutty smoothness, then add a shimmerfruit slice to my next Glowbeast piece. It's one of my favorite combinations, the juicy tang of the shimmerfruit adding another layer of complexity to the spiced meat. Huckens continues cramming food in, barely taking time to chew. In fairness, if I hadn't eaten in three days and someone gave me roast Glowbeast, I'd probably be doing the same.

"What's a 'printer?'"

Chief Engineer MacWillie pauses mid-chew, eyes widening, then forces herself to swallow, sweat beading on her forehead.

"...Sky, where does this food come from?"

"Huh?" I take another sip of milk. "Well, the Bakers grow the darkfern in our underground farms, but you can't see those from here because obviously they're underground. The shimmerfruits come from young pricklebushes; we keep a grove over by the crabroaches to help keep them penned in. Crabroaches hate pricklebushes. We have to hunt for the Glowbeasts, and that's the Idiots' job since they're very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. You can only hunt them during the day. If you ever see a Glowbeast glowing at night and you're not wearing a protective suit, it's already too late; your insides turn all runny over the next couple days and then you die, but they stay away from the forest so we're safe in here. Oh, and we milk the crabroaches too."

MacWillie and Huckens are staring at me, wide-eyed, a forkful of food held halfway to each of their lips. Huckens' plate is empty except for a few dribbles of sauce. I frown, patting at my face.

"Did I make a mess? I probably made a mess. That sauce gets everywhere."

"This..." Huckens points at his last forkful with a shaking finger, "came from the ground?"

"Where else would broccoli come from?"

He drops his fork with a clatter, clapping his hand over his mouth like he's going to be sick. MacWillie leans over and whispers something in his ear, then sets her own fork gently down and turns to me.

"Ahhh, Sky, and now that I'm thinking on it I'm a right idiot for not considering this earlier, but eating things from the ground isn't something that normally happens in the Galactic Diaspora."

"What? Well then how do you eat?" I say around another mouthful of shimmerfruit and Glowbeast. I'm saving my broccoli for last because I don't like it.

"We have food printers," MacWillie raises her voice over Huckens' strange hrrking noises, "that create nutrition bars from recycled basic molecules. Using reality to terraform worlds does some strange things to the soil, and you have to be all kinds of desperate to eat something grown straight in it. Most people would rather starve. It's a better death."

I consider her words around my final bite of Glowbeast and shimmerfruit, using one of the biscuits to mop up the last of the sauce. Ugh. No escaping the broccoli now. I'll have to power through.

"...is that why those Corporate Marauders called me and Wires 'dirt-eaters?'"

MacWillie winces as Huckens continues turning green in the face, cheeks bulging in and out. "Aye. It's one of the nastiest insults you can throw at a person. Granted, those grunts probably didn't know you actually do eat food from the ground, seeing as how you look normal and all."

I shovel my broccoli in and swallow as fast as possible, trying not to taste it. I can't wait for it to be cucumber season.

"...well, this is all we have. Guess you'll starve. Want another ration bar?"

Mandatory broccoli serving finished, I debate taking another Glowbeast steak or finishing with some crabroach milk pudding. I decide to go with the steak. A quarter of a ration bar doesn't count as an actual breakfast, and I did a lot of running. I'll still have room for the pudding.

MacWillie blinks at me, startled, then guffaws.

"'Another ration bar,' aye but don't you sound just like a right space dog yourself. Hah, there's me told! It's a shame we don't have any Bumsnirphle's to add our fair share." She pulls Huckens upright and forces his hand around his fork, then takes her own and puts the bite of Glowbeast into her mouth. She chews it thoughtfully, then shakes her head, still smiling. "Seeing as how your village isn't sprouting centipedes from your ears and there's a distinct lack of screaming, I'm thinking this dirt might just be safe enough. And it is a mighty fine steak you've served us."

"Chief," Huckens whines, and MacWillie glares at him.

"Settle down and finish your meal, young master Huckens. You were enjoying it just fine before you knew what it was, and I don't see your head turning into a trout. A space dog needs to be flexible to deal with reality properly."

She eyes his empty plate meaningfully and he blushes, then slowly raises the fork to his lips. "It ish pretty good," he mumbles through chewing noises. "Can I have more?"

"Of course." I finish my second steak and serve myself some of the pudding. "Just make sure you save room for the crabroach milk pudding. The Bakers put mint in it. It's really yummy."

He eyes me dubiously, but adds some pudding to his second helping, dipping the tip of his fork in it to taste. His eyes light up.

"Wow!"

I finish my own pudding and lean back in my chair, pleasantly full. MacWillie is already plowing through a second helping of her own and Huckens is nearly licking the plate clean. He reaches for a third serving, but I shift the tray away from him. He looks at me with wounded eyes.

"Give your stomach a chance to rest," I advise him. "If you haven't eaten in a while, you'll just throw it all up, and that would be a waste of food. The Bakers get very upset if someone wastes food."

"Sound advice, young Sky." MacWillie finishes her cup of water, then leans back as well. Seeing that we're done, Broom and Stove Mind slide into chairs opposite the three of us. They've been hovering nearby, keeping us from being interrupted by curious villagers.

"The meal was satisfactory?" Broom asks pleasantly, and MacWillie nods.

"Aye. You have our thanks. Just tell us what's needed to work off the debt and the lad and I will see it done."

Broom and Stove exchange glances, then Stove leans forward, adjusting her spectacles.

"We have been discussing the matter, and we were hoping you would be able to offer advice. You have spoken of threats to the village, but we have no frame of reference for these things. I do not think Sky does, either?" she looks at me and I shake my head. "We need to know how to protect ourselves, and you and your boy are all we have to guide us."

MacWillie folds her thick arms across her chest, pondering Stove's request. Next to her, Huckens' hand creeps across the table towards the small amount of leftovers. I manifest a limb beneath the table and smack him on the shin, and he jerks back guiltily. After a moment of thought, MacWillie rises.

"Aye, there might be something the lad and I can do. I'll need to check something first though, and it's to do with your trees."

Broom and Stove exchange troubled looks, then stand as well.

"If it is necessary..." Broom sighs. "Very well. What do you need?"

"On your feet, lad," MacWillie grunts, hauling Huckens away from the food and marching towards the nearest tree, one of the older ones that rise sporadically in the village square, far away enough from their neighbors to allow plenty of open space but large enough that their canopies intertwine overhead. Huckens looks longingly back at the tray, but allows himself to be dragged along. Curious, I follow, joining Broom and Stove. Some of the other villagers trail in our wake, but stay well back, likely due to the presence of two Idiots doing something unknown.

"Do you know what she's planning, Sky?" Broom questions me quietly. Something calls for attention in my mind, something MacWillie did when we were waiting for the clan leaders to arrive.

...clever. I think you're right, Sky, but I have no idea what she thinks she'll accomplish. I'm not a support integrator.

"I think she's interested in the reality in the trees," I say slowly, figuring out the thought as I go. "She examined one when we first got to the forest outskirts. She implied they were similar to the engines she worked with on the ship, and she was able to use those to fight the Entity."

"'Reality?' 'Engines?' 'Entity?'"

I shrug.

"It's tough to explain. Even with Box helping me, I still don't understand a lot of it. reality is like, our universe, but also all the other universes ever made, only we can't normally interact with them so it breaks our brains when we do? And all the outsiders use it to do weird stuff? I think?"

That's actually a fairly concise explanation. Little shaky on the second part, but otherwise well done.

"If you say so. You're our expert on the matter. Guess all we can do is watch for now."

Broom's tone is wry, and we turn our attention back to Chief Engineer MacWillie and Huckens. She has the strange device with rods and dishes studded all over it in her hands, and Huckens is holding a flat pane of clear material that might be glass, no doubt fished from somewhere out of his bag. MacWillie also has a thin band of the same material that Huckens is holding wrapping around her eyes to her ears, almost like glasses.

"Allright, lad, we'll start at ten percent output." Huckens taps the thin rectangle he's holding, and MacWillie nods. "Checking ten percent." She touches the device to the tree trunk, then both her and Huckens wince and she yanks the device away. It doesn't make a piercing noise, unlike the previous time she used it, but judging by their expressions both engineers can hear something.

"Aye, closer than fifty, but not close enough. Drop it to four percent."

They repeat the routine again, and this time the reaction is much less severe. They look at each other thoughtfully.

"Three point five?" Huckens asks.

"Three point three," MacWillie responds, and Huckens nods.

This time they have slight smiles.

"Three point one?"

"Three point one five."

Huckens breaks out into a large grin.

"That's it, Chief."

"Not yet, young master Huckens." MacWillie's eyes are narrowed in intense focus. "Try... three point one four."

She repeats the test and Huckens gapes at the glass pane.

"How'd you get it even sharper, Chief?"

MacWillie ignores him and cocks her head to the side, as if she's trying to pick up the faintest of sounds, then her own eyes widen.

"...three point one four one five nine two."

"Chief, I can't get the calibration that-"

"Do it, Huckens."

Huckens screws up his brow in concentration, carefully moving one finger across the glass. He pauses, then stabs it down, lower lip clenched between his teeth. MacWillie touches the device to the tree once again, but this time she doesn't pull it away, and her gaze holds something akin to awe.

"Oh you tricky little bugger. Now I have to know more about you."

She brings the device over and around the tree trunk in a flowing motion, as if she's tracing a wandering path, step after careful step. After two circuits around the tree, she stops at a point close to head height for her, almost six scrumbles up.

Two point one meters, you savage.

MacWillie turns to Broom and Stove.

"Is there anything special about the tree right here?"

Broom jogs over to grab a chair, then brings it back and stands on it. I sharpen my eyesight to get a better look, but it appears the same as any other part of the tree - pale alabaster covered in minute striations that flow around each other like swirls in a river. Broom examines the patch of trunk, then leans her head in close and knocks on it gently with her knuckle. Her own eyes tighten and she stifles a quick gasp.

"...that's a heartwood seed. How did you know it was there?"

"I don't know what you call it," Chief Engineer MacWillie says with a massive grin, "but I call it an access port for the biggest reality engine I've seen in my life. A battle moon doesn't run engines this large and," she spins in a circle, letting the device fall to the ground and raising her hands to the surrounding forest, "we're surrounded by them." Behind her, Huckens falls to his knees, staring up at the leaves, mouth hanging open.

"So, what does that mean, MacWillie?" I ask, as someone well-versed in conversing with Box.

Well I certainly didn't deserve that.

"It means, young Sky, that this beautiful impossibility," she pats the tree trunk, "can be used to power anything requiring a reality draw, and it'll do so more efficiently than anything I've had the pleasure of working on or knowing of. Its very frequency is irrational! Huckens! We're going to have so much fun!"

"...your idea of 'fun' is wading up to the hip in malfunctioning reality, Chief."

"Chin up, young master Huckens, and don't forget your one-quarter!"

As someone well-versed in conversing with Box, I should have remembered that the second answer usually makes just as little sense as the first.

...fine, maybe I deserved that.

"...it's a tree, MacWillie."

"Aye, young Sky," her eyes gleam madly as she turns to me, "and it's an engine. A great big fuck-off engine even grander than any dream I had as a child." She turns back to Huckens. "Lad. We need to figure out the interface protocols." She spins to Broom and Stove. "Is there a tree we can test on? This heartwood seed, is it important?"

"It is the heart of the tree," Broom says simply. "We take a part of it to plant a new tree, but if we take too much, the tree dies. We are very careful not to take too much, and it regrows very slowly."

"Bloody hell." MacWillie looks around. "Is there a small one, one you don't mind potentially losing?"

Stove frowns.

"One of the small saplings on the outskirts might be acceptable. No more than two scrumbles high." She adjusts her spectacles again. "However, I must first ask, what would these 'tests' entail, and why should we allow them?"

MacWillie is almost dancing in place with excitement.

"If you want to make this village safe, me and the lad need to figure out how to properly tap into the reality inside your trees, and to do that, we need to run diagnostics. Could take us an hour, could take us a day, might shut down the engine if we hit the wrong harmonics. Pretty sure a tree's engine shutting down means it dies, and I doubt it's a matter of a few solid thumps to get it back up and running."

"Yeah, but why do we need the reality, MacWillie?" I interject. "What can we do with it?"

"Well, for starters, build an infonet receiver if we can salvage the appropriate materials from the Old Man's ship."

This is a good plan. It will help our combat potential immensely, Sky. My creator's ship should have the necessary components. There is much of value still inside.

"Box says the crash site outside the village would be easier."

"Even better." MacWillie rubs her hands together. "With an infonet receiver as powerful as these trees will allow, we'll be able to pull down nets from anywhere. That gives us eyes on the rest of the galaxy, and we'll have some notice on when the other corpos are going to show up."

"...and how does knowing when our destroyers will arrive help us, Chief Engineer MacWillie?" Stove asks.

"It lets the lad and I, and young Sky here," she nods at me, "know how long we have to work. See, once we have that receiver up and running, we're going to be scavenging the incognito field controllers from the Old Man's ship. They're located in the lower bow, and last I saw, that part of the ship's still stuck to a mountain."

I think back to the Hellhound orbital shuttle coming down, how difficult it was to initially comprehend it. If I hadn't spent my entire life looking up, I wouldn't have noticed the part of reality that didn't quite fit.

"...you're going to make the village invisible?"

"Aye, young Sky," MacWillie chortles, "we're going to crank up an incognito field so thick we could hide from the never-god herself. As long as no one physically walks into the forest, they won't sense a thing."

Another thought hits me.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't go into those ruins without a full combat squad in front of you?"

Her enthusiasm dampens.

"...aye, that could be a problem. No telling what the Entity left in there, but it probably isn't pleasant."

There is likely a molecular forge somewhere in the lower wreckage of the cruiser. Most maintenance facilities are centrally located in that model of ship. If we can equip ourselves with modern weapons, we will more than fulfill the combat role required.

"...will the lower wreckage also have violations inside?"

"I don't know, young master-"

"I'm talking to Box."

Most likely. We can practice our sneaking again.

"Because that went so well last time."

We'll ask Dirt for tips.

"Box says we can get a molecular forge from the lower wreckage, but we'll probably have to fight for it though."

MacWillie brightens back up.

"Aye, that would go a long way towards evening the odds. More than even them once I get it configured for these trees." She looks around the village thoughtfully. "Might even allow us to start bootstrapping up to an equivalent tech level. We've the power for it. Question is if we have the materials."

"...and then we'll be safe?" I can't help it. My own voice grows excited too. "We build this incognito field and the village won't be in danger anymore?"

She laughs, picking up the device and tossing it to Huckens.

"One step at a time, Sky. Let's me and the lad figure out these trees first."

Huckens sighs mournfully, putting their gear away in his bag.

"I'm never going to get to sleep again, am I?"