Chain[00].Link[00]÷<ψ>

[DONE] Hartman Vacuum Collapse
[DONE] Establishing Casimir Accretion Tunnel
[DO()] Initalizing Lysi Core 9
[100%] Searching for Location
[100%] Forming Tissamaharama Causality Needle
[100%] Inserting Seed
[100%] Crystalizing Primary Core
[ 87%] Establishing Avatar...

The news reporter on the overhead monitor continued speaking over B-roll of the ocean “scientists continue to investigate the environmental disturbances around the area of the May Meteor. The meteorite crashed into the Pacific Ocean with barely any warning nearly two months ago…”

Sanna returned her attention to the boarding line of the ferry terminal, it had finally started moving after the last of the passengers had disembarked. She picked up her duffle bag and shuffled after the others. Once on board and clear of the crowd she headed straight to the other side of the ferry, passing through the large empty seating areas, to where she could get a better view of the strait. She sighed, leaning on the railing as the summer sea breeze flowed over her.

She had a decision to make.

Sanna replayed the conversation with her battalion’s commanding officer in her head, she knew it was coming, but it was still frustrating.

“The reality is that it’s decision time Midshipman, your mother’s name was only ever going to get you so far and this is the end, you have two weeks.”

What angered Sanna most about the conversation, she reflected as she walked off the ferry, was the implication that her mother had bent the rules for her—or that Sanna had asked her to if she had. But she knew it was a distraction from the actual source of her frustration. She was frustrated that she had to choose her future already.

Sanna sighed, releasing the anger, as the Uber pulled up. It wasn’t worth getting worked up about. She was lucky, she reminded herself as she tossed the duffle in the trunk, to have the options. She spent most of the ride tallying up the pros and cons of those options for the dozenth time. After arriving at the trail head she began the short hike down the bluff to the beach. Her lists had been inconclusive again, and she thought about why that might be.

The realization Sanna had shortly before sitting down on a washed up log along the long stretch of beach was simple. None of the options gave her a way to do real good in the world. All the definitions of personal success conflicted with the ability to effect change on the world. She had realized that the decision she faced with the Navy was a prime example. It was quite possible for her to effect great change on the world by rising to a leadership position, or to leverage it into politics like her mother had. But it was a gamble mediated by politics, to gain and keep that power would require doing a lot of things she personally disagreed with—as her mother often complained. Sanna wouldn’t really have the power if she wanted to actually keep it.

The real issue, she reflected wryly as she freed her hair from it’s short ponytail to let it fly in the sea breeze, was that college had ruined her ability to think uncritically. It soured most of the options she had in one way or another. Sanna sat there for quite a while just staring out at the ocean as the waves crashed across the beach thinking about how to better decide her future.

Until she noticed movement in her peripheral vision.

With a quick glance she saw a guy with a skinny and shorter build dressed in a t-shirt and swim trunks. He was tanned with brown hair, brown eyes, and boyish features. Sanna thought he might actually be a boy, like 15 or something, except he didn’t carry himself awkwardly like they usually did. That wasn’t saying much since he was also holding a large beach-ball sized metal-glass orb patterned in tiny hexagons, with some sort of internal lighting—she assumed LEDs—making it glow. He was definitely in the weird zone whatever his age.

She had met weirder though, this was the Pacific Northwest after all.

He was just staring out at the ocean a dozen feet to her side now. Just as she returned her gaze and thoughts to the ocean and her future she heard him speak.

“What are you looking at?” his monotone voice was deeper than Sanna had expected.

“Nothing,” replied Sanna waving her had towards the view, “just thinking while lost in the vastness of it.”

He continued to stare out at the Ocean as she watched him for a beat.

Then he said, “you will be my owner.”

Sanna’s mind took a moment to fully understand the sounds, especially since it was trying to figure out if she had misheard him.

When she did reply it was instinctual, “that’s a no from me kid, how old are you even?” though it was a first using the retort on someone who was probably still in high school. Usually she used it on men much older than herself.

“I was born 3 hours and 17 minutes ago.”

Sanna rolled her eyes, “okay, new question, how high are you right now?”

The boy looked down, holding his orb out in front of him so he could see his feet, before turning to look back at her to reply seriously, “approximately three and two fifths inches above sea level.”

“Right, well,” Sanna replied as she stood up, brushed sand off her cargo shorts, and grabbed her duffle bag, “I’m leaving.”

She began walking down the beach, annoyed at weird kids with their weird orbs. What was with kids these days, she thought for maybe the first time in her life.

That’s when she noticed him following her.

Sanna turned around and asked, “what are you doing?”

“Following my owner.”

“Look,” Sanna said as she started raising her voice and waving her arms to express her self, “I’m not going be your mommy or whatever fucked up fetish you have.”

“Mother? I don’t have one of those,” the strange boy said in the same monotone voice he had been using this whole time.

“Right, and it’s not going to be me.”

“Parents aren’t things that I can have,” again his voice remain unaffected.

“Dude,” Sanna replied exasperated, “what planet are you even from?”

“Tee Oh Eye 1075 B, 200 point 6 light years away”, he smoothly rolled the large orb he was still carrying into one hand as he pointed at the horizon toward land and slightly down, “there”.

Sanna’s mind was becoming confused, the explanation of this boy being some weirdo with a mental problem was beginning to strain reasonableness. Was it possible there was something else going on here, an elaborate prank maybe?

She decided to dive right in.

“Why are you carrying an orb?”

“It is my primary core. The projection point of my Lifshitz Field and the nexus of my computation and generation capabilities.”

That had a pretty obvious follow up and Sanna took it, “what are you?”

“A weapon.”

“A weapon?” Sanna repeated “for what?”.

“To protect your species from the Phage,” the supposedly alien boy responded calmly.

“The what?”

“The Phage are a simple minded rapidly adapting invasive organism which eat any and all life that is not themselves. They arrived on your planet 53 days and 14 hours ago.”

Sanna knew what he was talking about, that was the May Meteor that had caused some sort of ecological disaster in the Pacific Ocean. She hadn’t really been paying attention to it, but there were apparently all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories about it.

Which brought weirdo with a mental problem back to the realm of explainable, this was some elaborate conspiracy theory on the Internet the boy had fallen into. She was honestly curious at this point, if only so she could have a good laugh about it later.

The wind was picking up as the sun set, forcing Sanna to talk louder as the breeze picked up, “and so you just appeared here from another planet.”

“Yes, once we noticed they had reached you we collapsed a causality vacuum to establish an accretion tunnel from 237 years back to begin deploying ourselves here. We were likely too slow again, but we must try.”

Sanna took a moment to parse that and decided it was nonsense to her. A minor in physics did not make her a physcist, even if what he was saying would make sense to one. But it certainly sounded like he claimed to have a way to cheat light speed and causality. She approached him to avoid yelling over the gusting wind, “what do you mean ‘again’?”

“We usually loose, we have yet to defeat the Phage on any world, and we often arrive too late to stalemate them.”

“Great,” she replied with heavy sarcasm.

“You are welcome, we try.”

Sanna took that in stride, deciding to poke the theory a bit, “you said you arrived here 3 hours ago? From 237 years ago? Why not arrive before they got here then?”

“I am the ninth to arrive. There is only a single accretion tunnel, one of us will crystallize and subsquently initialize every 7 hours and 51 minutes until the source runs out. The source is at the bastion I pointed at, it had the first available accretion tunnel in range and time, and will likely last for decades. The next candidate is 362 years away and won’t be ready to tunnel here for another 131 days local time, at which point the Phage would be unstoppable. Also, accretion at that distance would take approximately 21 hours each and we would be impotent against the Phage. Our resources are limited.”

He paused before continuing, “also, we cannot arrive before the Phage, primarily for logistical reasons dictated by physics.”

Sanna considered, according to him they had been arriving for 3 days already. Nearly a thousand would arrive a year. She was kind of curious if he could name the other eight people, or if he was just entirely delusional.

She decided to call his bluff.

“Prove you’re an alien”.

He tilted his head. For being a few hours old, Sanna thought sarcastically, he certainly had the hang of some very human behaviors.

Then the orb began floating as he took his hand away from it.

Sanna paused, it was a neat trick. Albeit understated. Still, street magicians did junk like this all the time.

‘A conspiracy theorist beach magician’ she thought to herself.

“Why,” she asked fake-aggrieved, “were you even carrying it in the first place.”

“The fourth stanza of our prime directive is to integrate with the native inhabitants.”

Sanna simply raised her eyebrow.

“Also,” he said supporting it again, “this is more efficient.”

“I’m going to need something more convincing than that,” she said accusingly.

“I am not yet fully operational. As my owner you must choose my initial form.”

“What?”

In response a bright blue hologram of solid light appeared to the side of them, meters tall and across.

“Choose” he said pointing at it.

Sanna was definitely feeling confused now. Holograms like this shouldn’t be possible, maybe they were projecting it on water vapor somehow? She moved her head and it appeared to be solid and without any sort of artifacts. She waved her hand through it and the light broke apart around her hand before reforming.

“You could have just done this in the first place,” she replied still feeling flippant before reading it for time to think.

“Oh.”