Heretical Edge

I had to explain… well, as much as I could in that moment to Sariel. Which was a bit complicated given everything that had just been going on, to say the absolute least. But on the other hand, at least we'd stopped openly fighting. Granted, the reason we'd stopped was the girl who was still clinging to me like her life depended on it, softly crying into my shoulder from the sheer trauma of the things she'd been forced to do. Things that Sariel had forced her to do. Even if they were for the overall good, at least from Sariel's point of view, they were still so horrific that they'd left a mark on the girl. Or this part of the girl. The person I was holding now wasn't Elizabeth's entire self, it was basically the part of her that Sariel had cut off from the rest.

Yeah, it was complicated. The point was, this part of Elizabeth was here and holding onto me so tightly I was starting to think she'd never let go willingly. But that was okay, I could talk to the other woman like this. I just had to think very quickly about exactly what I was going to say.

Sariel, for her part, didn't rush me. She just sat there, eyes fixed on the girl I was holding onto as she stayed almost completely silent. Almost, save for the occasional deep breath. Not that any breathing was actually necessary in here, given we were just mental constructs of ourselves, but I was pretty sure it was just sort of indicative of her mental state right then. Both of our mental states, really. And I wasn't even going to try to guess which of us was feeling worse right then. Sure, I knew more about what Sariel actually meant to me, things this version of Sariel didn't know at all. But she'd had some sort of horrible previous experience with 'Jacob.' An experience that had included me somehow stopping her from helping her mother. She'd had that sort of experience, and now even after holding onto that anger for so long, she was giving me time to explain this.

So, I went into what I could. Obviously, there was no chance in hell that I could get into all of it. Or even like, twenty percent of it. What I could do was give her a very basic explanation. She deserved that much. Okay, she deserved a hell of a lot more than that, but a basic explanation was what I could manage. I told her I was from the future, as she knew, and that there were these rifts through time that were going to do something incredibly dangerous if I didn't go into them. I told her that the version of me she had met before was a different one, that the people behind me being at all these rifts had essentially duplicated me and sent all the separate me's to the rifts like that. I told her I didn't have the memories of what had happened back in the time she was upset about because that had been a different version of me, that I would get those memories once all of the different me's made it through the rifts and recombined.

I also apologized for not being able to be straight with her and explain everything as much as I wanted to. I told her that there were a lot of things going on through the whole timeline, things coming up in the future that I didn't want to risk screwing up by saying too much right now. But I made it clear that there wouldn't be a proper future if I couldn't get to the rifts and shut all of them down. I couldn't tell her the whole dragon-blood enhancing the Fomorians bit, that seemed like too much information. But I could stress just how big of a deal the thing was, that we were talking about actual universe-ending consequences, and hope it worked.

Once I was done, Sariel was quiet for a moment. She gave no visible or audible reaction at all, her body motionless as she stared at the girl I was holding onto. I couldn't read her expression, it was as blank as I'd ever seen, almost like she had completely shut down. The woman stayed like that for long enough that I was debating whether I should try to say more or not. But just as I was talking myself into adding something else, she finally spoke up in a soft voice. "I don't know if I believe you or not. I don't know if I can risk believing you or not. I don't know if I want to believe you or not. No, that I do know, actually. I don't want to. I don't want to believe you. But just for a moment, say I do. What exactly do you want out of me, out of us now?" Her voice had turned a bit hard there at the end, as she finally turned her gaze to me.

Well, that was the million dollar question, wasn't it? I'd managed to convince Sariel to listen to me, but it was clear she still wasn't exactly Jacob's biggest fan. Still, it was a chance to tell her what I needed-- what the entire timeline needed, and hope she continued to listen. "The ship," I started immediately, not wanting to waste any more time. "First off, you know you shouldn't be cracking into it. There's Tartarus energy in there, a lot of it. You've seen what it's done already. Hell, you've been dealing with the consequences of that for awhile." My eyes shifted down to look at Elizabeth pointedly. If the girl was even hearing anything we said, she didn't give any indication of it, staying silent. At that point, I wasn't even sure if she was still conscious at all.

Turning my gaze back to Sariel, I continued. "If that energy gets out, it'll ruin this entire continent. It'll turn this place into a piece of Tartarus. I know you don't want that to happen. Not even if it means giving the Seosten another way to make more supersoldiers. You know how dangerous it is, what that place is really like. You went through all that to save Chayyiel. There's no way you'd be okay with risking letting that happen here. I know you, Sariel. I know you enough to say that."

For just a second, Sariel's gaze hardened as she stared at me. It looked like she was about to snap at me, before catching herself. The woman took a visible breath and let it out before she replied tersely. "You say you know me. Maybe you're right. But if you think you know me so well, why assume I don't know what I'm doing? You say you know I wouldn't want Tartarus to infect this world, yet you also assume you have to stop me from letting that happen. You say you know me, then you still assume the worst of me." There was a slight hitch in her voice as she said that, a reaction to her own words that made it clear she had mixed feelings about all of it. It kind of made me feel like she wasn't entirely certain that I shouldn't assume the worst. Or maybe just that me, someone from the future, thinking she might even accidentally let this happen was crushing. Or she was just really doubting how much she could trust me. Maybe all of the above.

Yeah, it was fair to say Sariel had complicated feelings right then. But she pushed on, her eyes still intently locked on mine. "You want me to believe you, even after everything that happened. You want me to listen to you, to think you know best and accept that you're telling the truth, even after you…" She trailed off, giving a slow sigh as though collecting herself before speaking flatly. "You want me to give you the benefit of the doubt while making it clear you don't really trust me."

Her words made me blink, shifting a little as I sat there with Elizabeth. My mouth opened, then shut. "I-- are you saying that what you're doing won't really risk letting that Tartarus energy out?"

There was a slight pause, like she was trying to decide exactly how to answer that. I saw a rush of emotions pass through her expression, face twisting slightly. Finally, the woman started to reply. But she'd barely managed to get a single syllable out before something interrupted. The ground seemed to shake violently around us, while the air turned a sort of slight reddish color. Over our heads, a few flickering flashes of what looked like lightning crisscrossed through the fog. I thought I could hear the faint sound of something dangerous growling off in the distance.

"We need to get out of Elizabeth." That was Sariel, rising to her feet as she looked around, voice sharp. "Something is happening out there. I'll step out of her, then you stop possessing me." She paused, looking at me with an expression that made it clear she wanted to say something in particular, but was stopping herself. Instead, she just added in a flat voice, "Whatever it is, we need to deal with it."

Obviously, there was a chance this was a trick. She was more in control of Elizabeth's body than I was, after all. And Sariel had always been sneaky. She could be trying to get me to willingly step out of her and release what small amount of control I and the rest of the Flique had managed to hold onto so she could jump right back into the girl and take over completely. The 'ground' shaking around us, the color change, the lightning, all of that very well could be a special effects show she was putting together to make things look bad. But I didn't think so. Or maybe I just really didn't want to think so. I wanted to trust Sariel right now.

Either way, I had to make a choice quickly. I had to decide whether to believe there was really something bad happening out there or if it was a trick from a woman who was admittedly very good at that sort of thing. A woman who had made it clear she really didn't like Jacob-me at all, and who could very well screw over the entire timeline if she did the wrong thing here. Like, say, by running into Vanessa and Tristan out there. That could end up doing a hell of a lot of damage.

In the end, I did the only thing I could. After the slightest pause, I gave a short nod and sent the message to the Flique. Let go, we're getting out of here.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

At the same time, I felt Sariel step out of her own host. We were back in the outside world, though from my point of view nothing changed. I didn't have any control of the woman's senses. I was still kneeling in that mental construct hospital by that secret room. A room that was clearly a reconstruction of the space Child Sariel had stayed in.

I started to rise to focus on getting out of there, but Elizabeth continued to cling to me. Her eyes widened, looking into mine as she stammered weakly, "Don't. Please, please don't leave me alone with her. She, I--I can't, please." Her words devolved into a series of weak whimpers, but there was nothing weak about the way she was gripping my arm.

I didn't have any time to waste, not if Sariel was telling the truth about something bad going on out in the real world. But how could I ever live with myself if I actually abandoned this terrified girl who was clinging to me so desperately? A quick glance at Sariel showed the other woman looking away, her shoulders very rigid while her fingers flexed, then clenched, then flexed again.

Wait, this wasn't Elizabeth, not the girl's full consciousness or whatever. It was the part of her that Sariel had already separated from the rest, her guilt and memories of what had happened, what she'd been made to do. The point being, this wasn't her actual mind. That realization came before I continued to pick myself up. But I helped the girl clinging to me up as well, gently lifting her to her feet. My voice was soft. "It's alright, you're coming with me. Just hold on, okay?" Even as I said that, I chanced a quick look over at Sariel once more. Her gaze had shifted to me quickly as soon as I said that, but if she had an opinion on the subject she kept it to herself. I had to resist the urge to ask her if she thought what I was trying to do would actually work.

Maybe this was dumb, maybe it was useless. But still, I held onto the trembling figure who was so desperate not to be left alone and focused on getting out of here. Instead of going back to the outside world immediately, however, I was sending myself (and with any luck, also this piece of Elizabeth) into my Archive. I had to at least try to take her somewhere safe. This wasn't the original, full Elizabeth, it was part of her that had been cut off from the rest. If she was left behind inside her old mind, she'd just… stay there, alone and lost inside Sariel's mind-prison, unable to even connect with the rest of herself. She would be lost and alone, trapped with nothing but all of those horrible memories.

Still, there was no guarantee this would actually work, no matter what my intentions were. So, I held my breath while focusing on abandoning this place. As the asylum space faded out and the much more familiar, brighter beach right at the edge of the island Archive came into view, I let out that breath while looking down. And there she was. It worked, that piece of Elizabeth was still with me. That was-- wait, that was good, right? Eh, no time to think about that, but I could at least hope that Sariel would've spoken up to stop me if she thought it was a problem.

I also didn't have time to really talk this… aspect or whatever of Elizabeth through what had just happened, or explain where she was now. Not if Sariel was right about something bad going on out in the real world. Fortunately, there were other members of the Flique here waiting for us. They immediately took the girl from me, reassuring her as she reflexively tried to cling on even more. Actually, I was pretty sure the only reason she ended up letting go was the fact that they all looked like me. Or rather, we all looked alike. That was enough to calm the girl (or maybe just thoroughly confuse her), so she let them gently pull her away from me. Then, after just a quick word of luck from the others and a promise that they would get Elizabeth settled in properly, I focused on getting back out into the outside world once more to see what the hell was going on.

My eyes opened in that outside world a second later, and I found myself staring at Sariel, who jumped a bit when I appeared. Her mouth opened like she was going to say something, but stopped herself from whatever it had been and instead simply asked, "Is the girl safe?" Her voice caught just a bit with the question, obviously still coming to terms with that whole thing.

"She'll be okay, I think." Nodding quickly while saying that, I looked around to see where we were, already thoroughly disoriented by all the jumping around. I'd gone from outside the city to inside what turned out to be Elizabeth as Sariel's host, then into my Archive, and now I was… just outside the courthouse building where the ship was hidden, apparently. The sky over our heads was kind of purple-green, and there was some sort of thick red fog leaking out of that building. It tingled wherever it touched my skin, which probably wasn't exactly the best sign.

Even as I took that in, my feet were already moving, carrying me toward those doors. Sariel was right beside me. "You have people in there, don't you? People you've convinced to help you-- do what you're doing." The woman's voice dipped slightly into suspicious harshness before she caught herself and simply added, "Tell me they aren't foolish enough to rip the door open."

By that point, we'd reached the spot in the floor that had opened up to let us walk down into the ship before. Sariel did something to make the same thing happen again, and we descended while I shook my head. "I don't think they would, not on purpose, but what is this stuff?" My hand gestured to the fog around us. "Why the hell does the sky look like that? Is it… is it Tartarus?" As I finished the question, we made it down those stairs and into the ship proper, already moving through that first corridor to pass that kitchen area we'd fought in. Not exactly fun memories.

And speaking of not fun memories, I could see the way Sariel tensed up when I spoke. This little truce of ours still didn't exactly mean she actually liked me all that much. Still, at least she answered me with a tense, "No. I mean, I don't think it's exactly that, not by itself. It's something else too, some other energy interacting with what's in that cargo hold." She paused before adding, "The rift. Whatever your allies have done here, it's managed to make the rift energy merge with the bits of Tartarus that were leaking out of the hold and created this… effect. And now if we don't put a stop to it, all of that will spread from here. You thought turning this continent into a piece of Tartarus would be bad, imagine that combined with the effect of sending that energy anywhere in space and time. You won't have a Tartarus Earth, you'll have another Tartarus Universe. That rift energy means the timeline can be changed. The one you know, the one you came from, could be overwritten."

Right, that was bad. Which, yes, was a major understatement, but I really didn't have time to let myself fully absorb the magnitude of just how bad it would be. To be fair, having a full year or so just to sit and focus on that probably still wouldn't be enough time for it, but still. I had about a second and a half for the warning to run screeching in a blind panic through my head before we passed through another hatchway and found ourselves in some sort of ovular room. It was maybe sixty feet from one end to the other, and half that across. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all gleaming blue metal, and there were several important-looking consoles near some sort of vault door directly opposite where Sariel and I had come through. Consoles that were hissing and smoking, with sparks coming off them. Probably thanks to the handful of holes that seemed to have been punched through the things.

Oh yeah, and Vanessa and Tristan were both there. Though obviously they didn't look like themselves. We weren't that dumb. The two of them were magically disguised, with Vanessa looking like a dark-haired, thin girl who was thin enough to blow away in a slight breeze, while Tristan was a taller, red-haired guy with a lot of facial hair. Anything to avoid looking like they had any relation whatsoever to Sariel.

As soon as she saw them, the woman in question snapped a quick, "What did you do!?" It came out in such a sharp 'mom voice' that I was almost convinced she actually did know exactly who they were, because damn.

For the twins' parts, they froze briefly before Tristan hurriedly replied, "Nothing, it was her!" Yeah, he definitely sounded like a kid defending himself against his mother's wrath.

'Her,' in this case, was Charmeine. The woman was in the opposite corner, some sort of pistol in one hand and a glowing spear in the other while she snapped, "They were trying to break into the cargo hold."

"We weren't," Vanessa retorted. "We were trying to find the code to turn the ship on and make it jump out of here, away from the rift. She attacked us, but missed and hit the consoles."

"Yeah, and you're pretty nimble little shits," Charmeine snapped, already raising the pistol. "Hold still for a second and we'll see just how--"

NO MORE.

The words weren't said out loud. They simply appeared in the air in the middle of the room, big holographic letters that were slowly rotating around in a circle so we could all read them from every side.

YOU WILL STOP FIGHTING

AND UNCHAIN MY DRIVE

SO I CAN GET AWAY FROM

THIS VORTEX DOORWAY.

All of those words appeared a few at a time like that, giving us a moment to read them before fading out so the next ones could come. When that was over, we all exchanged confused looks. "One of the crew?" I asked hesitantly.

"No one else alive is on the ship," Sariel immediately insisted. "The crew are all locked down. It must be the computer itself, an AI."

"Keurankei ships don't have AI," Tristan put in. "Their people really hate it, after… bad experiences. There's no way this one would have something like that. Not an AI that could speak up for itself and make demands."

I AM NOT COMPUTER, appeared in the air.

I AM WHO I AM. ME.

I AM SHIP. RELEASE ME.

LET ME SAVE TOWN.

LET ME SAVE WORLD.

LET ME SAVE ME. SAVE ALL.

VORTEX DOOR BREAKING.

NOW. NOW. NOW. RELEASE NOW.

I was already rocking back on my heels, the realization coming immediately. "Oh. You're right, it's not a crewmember, and it's not an artificial intelligence. It's real intelligence. It's the ship. The ship went through Tartarus, it's been carrying a chunk of that place around in its cargo bay this whole time. It's the ship itself.

"The ship is sapient."