Shades Of Forever

"...safe to eat, Chief? What if..."

"...been three days, I could devour a Skrat Gopher's butthole whole, lad..."

"...wow, that's really..."

"...mmmphmpphmphm..."

I crack my eyes open blearily, early morning rays sticking to my gummed up lids. Everything feels sore. I'm lying on a pile of dirt. Birds chirp overhead. Two people are eating my rations.

...oh. We're awake.

"Hnghh," I roll into a sitting position, rubbing at my face, "what happened, Box?" The two figures freeze, heads slowly rotating my way. "Morning," I yawn at them. "What's for breakfast?"

...Sky.

The pleasant sensation of a lazy return to sensibility is dashed under the cold water of reality. I don't know the two people across from me. They're other humans. They came from the ship that was hunting us. Chief MacWillie and Huckens. We killed the Entity together.

I try to say everything at once.

"...hkplort."

Huckens snorts with laughter, then slaps a hand to his face as if he's committed some sort of crime. I flush at his hidden mockery, then flush in anger on registering what they're holding.

"Hey! That's my food!"

Chief Engineer MacWillie narrows her eyes, then deliberately swallows her current mouthful.

"Me and the lad haven't eaten in three and a half days, Sky whatever you are, and we're not thieves. You'll get your recompense."

"Oh," I flush again, "I'm sorry. Where are my manners? I didn't realize you were that hungry." I hold out my open hands to them. "My meal is yours, until we both share the same want."

What are you doing, Sky? We should kill them! They came from the ship!

I ignore Box, truly embarrassed by my lack of decorum. We saved each others' lives last night. Chief Engineer MacWillie and Huckens could have ignored me, or left me to die, but they were willing to work together for a goal not their own. It's a lesson the village holds dear.

"That some sort of religious blessing?" Chief Engineer MacWillie asks around another bite of my ration. She winces as she chews, holding her other hand to her side. I try to ignore the grumbling in my stomach.

"Just a way of living. You can have what I have until our needs for life are the same. Then someone dies."

Her mouth pauses for a full five seconds, and then she swallows again, this time more slowly.

"Now that's a literal creed if I've ever heard one. The never-god wept." She takes another bite. "Your village sounds as depressing as a neutron star's anus."

"How do you know about the village?" I ask, my muscles tensing.

"Easy, there," MacWillie waves the ration at me, Huckens freezing next to her. "You told us last night. When we fought the Entity."

My cheeks burn their hottest yet. How could I forget something like that? It just happened!

"...sorry. Still trying to wake up."

...you're going to persist in treating them like human beings, aren't you?

"They are human beings," I mutter beneath my breath, but apparently it's not low enough because Huckens cocks his ear and looks at me.

"What was that?" he asks politely, coming out of his earlier shell.

"Oh, I'm just talking with Box," I explain, trying to act casual. Box said most other people outside the village were integrated, so surely they talk to their boxes. "We do it all the time."

He nods companionably, then freezes again, ration bar halfway to his mouth. If he's not going to eat it I wish he'd let me have some. I really am hungry.

"'Box' is... your integrator? It has a name?"

Sky-

"Yes. It was weird when we first integrated, because Box tried to explain itself as some sort of 'space-demon,' but if it had just told me the idea of what a 'modified combat variant integrator' does I'm pretty sure I would have figured it out."

Both of them are staring at me, mouths dropping open. Huckens lets his ration tumble from his hand, and I snag it with a limb before it can hit the ground. I bring the savory brick of dried Glowbeast and darkfern bread closer and take a big bite.

"Mmmmph. Thanksh for sharing. I wash really hungry." I wave my hand at Chief Engineer MacWillie. "Can you hand me the water canteen? It's on the side of the pack."

She grabs the canteen from the ground at her feet and tosses it at me, still wearing that bewildered expression. I unscrew the cap and tilt it to my lips, then frown when only a small dribble comes out.

"You drank all the water, too?"

Sky!

"Be quiet, Box," I hiss, slamming the cap back on the canteen. "I'm trying to act normal."

Chief Engineer MacWillie carefully places her half-eaten ration on top of the pack, then grabs Huckens' shoulder. She smiles at me.

"If you can excuse us for just a moment, me and the lad need to have a discussion. Put our noggins together and hash out some minor details."

She yanks Huckens after her and limps off. They squat down twenty meters away, heads bent next to each other. Behind them, the ruined shape of Fishhook rises into the sky, half as tall as it used to be, and now bearing an adornment at its peak - the curved tip still skewering the remaining third of the cruiser.

I don't trust them, Sky.

...adjusting baseline parameters...

Scraps of their hushed voices suddenly echo in my ears, the quiet morning world a thousand times noisier.

"...that's the protoype?"

"...aye lad. What the Old Man was..."

"...can't be more than sixteen!"

"...no telling what level of reality it's tapping into..."

"...but we fought together..."

"...need more information before we..."

The two of them finally finish their whispered conversation and walk back over, fake smiles plastered on their faces.

Let them go first, and we can figure out what-

"I heard you talking," I declare defiantly before they can say anything. "I'm the one the 'corporate marauders' were looking for. Are you looking for me too? Because I'll fight if I have to."

...I don't know why I bother. It's statistically impossible for a tutorial to go this poorly, yet it keeps happening.

Huckens matches my earlier flush, but Chief Engineer MacWillie's face slides into stone-cold stillness.

"Aye. The Old Man was chasing what you hold for a fair bit. Probably still be chasing it if not for that Entity, but now there's none left aught but ourselves."

My own expression goes cold, remembering what Box told me last night.

"Are you blaming me for what happened? Because Box is pretty sure that if your 'engines weren't running hot' then things wouldn't have been that bad."

We face each other down, Huckens glancing back and forth between the two of us. I mentally prepare myself to use my limbs, even if she totally outclasses me like her display of power last night thoroughly indicated. If they're still looking for a fight, I can't let them know where the village is. I'd rather die here.

Chief Engineer MacWillie flexes her hands once, knuckles popping, then relaxes, limping back over to the pack and grabbing her ration.

"Seems to me as if there's plenty of blame to go around, and it's a poor space dog who holds a grudge when reality comes calling. The Old Man ran a tight ship, it's true," she takes another big bite, chewing it noisily, "but he was a right pissant as well. Always interested in landing a bigger fish." She swallows, then smiles. "Besides, I got to send my mates to a better place and kick an Entity in the ass on the way out, so I'll consider it a win." She holds out a hand. "No hard feelings, right?"

I look at her hand, confused. Is she trying to offer me something and forgot to grab it?

"You're supposed to slap palms, wiggle your fingers together, and then bump knuckles front, top, and bottom," Chief Engineer MacWillie eventually says, raising an eyebrow. "Just where are you from, Sky whatever you are?"

Before I can answer, Huckens butts in.

"Chief! We're just going to act like nothing happened? That's the prototype!"

"Aye, young master Huckens," Chief Engineer MacWillie growls, "and I've served forty-five years and ninety-eight integration levels under the Wutan-Weylan combat forces for the crime of being 'socially undesirable,' with another lifetime due once I passed on, so you'll forgive me if I'm not keen on mourning the Old Man's passing nor carrying out his mission without combat support. That flighty little thing over there could take us in a heartbeat now we've no engines to draw from."

Huckens looks inward for a second, then gulps, holding his hands up. He turns to me.

"Uhhh, sorry, umm, it's just-"

We can take them, Sky. Let's get rid of them and then get out of here. We have some numbers ready to go up.

"I don't want to fight," I sigh. How is it this early in the morning and I'm already this exhausted? "If you're not going to hurt me or the village, then I have no reason to hurt you. We just want to survive. I'm from Earth, by the way."

Chief Engineer MacWillie scoffs.

"Aye, sure you are. Maybe that's what the word means in whatever translator program you've got running, but there ain't nobody living on Earth these days except for reclamation teams 'round the spaceports, and they get cycled out every three years to prevent reality poisoning. Asides, Earth is in Voidmarch territory. Even the Old Man knew to keep out of there."

I shrug.

"Okay. Doesn't matter to me. I'm going back to the village now that it's safe." I walk over and reattach my canteen to Dirt's pack, then sling it over my shoulders. "Thank you for helping me last night. Bye."

Three steps into my run I hear a shout from behind.

"Hey! Wait a minute!"

I stop and turn around. Chief Engineer Willie is limping after me, Huckens right behind her, trying to cram down the last of his ration bar.

"What about us?"

"I don't understand."

They stumble to a halt several meters away, Chief Engineer MacWillie wincing as she feels at her side.

"Me and the lad are what you might call 'stranded' at the moment. Wherever this is, I'm sure you've noticed the infonet isn't working, so we've no way to contact anyone to come get us, let alone find water and shelter."

That's the second time I've heard that term. I wonder what an 'infonet' is.

Like the biggest Archive and Memory Shrine you can imagine, only bigger.

Now I really want an infonet.

"Can't you use your ship?" I point at the pinned remnant of the cruiser.

"Oh aye, there's supplies and things in there I could cobble together, but we're in no shape to climb," Chief Engineer MacWillie pokes at her side and winces again, "and I'm thinking there's not much human left aboard. They didn't have the protection of the engine room like me and the lad here. I'd not want to investigate those ruins without at least a full combat squad to deal with whatever the Entity left behind."

"...oh. Hmm." I stop to think.

Don't do it, Sky. Bad idea. Bad idea. Leaving and making numbers go up is a much better idea.

"I'll have to bring you to the village, then. I ran from there yesterday morning. Broom might have something in the Archive that can help you figure out where to go, and we have food and water. Medicine too, if you're hurt."

Chief Engineer MacWillie stares at me, stupefied.

"Just... like that? You're going to help us? And what's this 'village?'"

"The village is where I live, and why wouldn't I?" I ask, genuinely confused. "You haven't tried to hurt me, you helped the village, and now you need help. We have to stick together to survive."

...reconfiguring core assumptions...

"I..." she trails off, shaking her head. "By the never-god's tits but you're a strange one. No telling what that researcher mucked around in your brain." She straightens up, favoring her right side. "Very well. Let's be off, though I'm afraid I won't be moving too quickly. Pretty sure I busted a couple ribs, and there's no engine energy for me to draw on anymore." She looks over at Huckens. "Though, if you ran here in one day, it can't be that far. Think you're up to carrying me if I falter, lad?"

I look at the substantial size differential between the two of them and giggle.

"I can try, Chief," Huckens says loyally, swinging his thin arms around to warm them up. Chief Engineer MacWillie lets out a snorting chuckle of her own, then grimaces and clutches at her side.

"Never you mind, young master Huckens. I'll make do." She cocks her head at me. "Which way?"

"Over here." I set off along the hillside in a direction I'm pretty sure is towards the forest. "I think. Box, can I get a waypoint?"

Core assumptions reconfigured

...your altruism is going to get us killed out in the broader galaxy, Sky. Can't we just make numbers go up?

"We'll do it on the way, Box," I say firmly.

Fine. Here.

A green indicator flickers into life in my vision, a little to the left of where I was aiming, and I adjust my angle accordingly, keeping my stride extremely slow for the injured Chief Engineer. After ten minutes of walking, and strangely, Box not bothering me, several numbers appear next to the indicator.

"Box, what're those?"

Distance remaining, and projected time until arrival at your current pace. Which is currently four and a half days assuming an eight hour sleep break for your tagalongs.

A wave of dismay rolls over me.

"I don't think we have enough supplies for that."

You definitely don't have enough supplies, which is why you should leave them behind and return to the village. With any luck, they'll perish peacefully from exposure in the night.

"I'm pretty sure dying from exposure isn't 'peaceful,' Box."

"Wait, whoa, what's this about 'dying from exposure?'" Huckens asks quickly, adjusting the large bag hanging from his belt. Next to him, Chief Engineer MacWillie is huffing for breath, hand clutched to her side, a pained expression on her face. "Who's dying from exposure? Is it us?"

I motion them to halt, and Chief Engineer MacWillie flashes me a grateful look. Her face is grey and sweating, as if we've been running the entire time. I really don't think she should be moving around right now.

"Box says we're not moving fast enough. The village is, uhm, 'one hundred and eight kilometers' away. I'm not sure what that is in scrumbles, but it seems pretty far."

"...what's a 'scrumble?'" Huckens says slowly. "It's coming across as a unit of measurement but there's no value assigned."

"The length of Book Idiot's stride, she was the one who first stabilized the village when-"

I fall silent at the look of utter dismay on Huckens' face and Chief Engineer MacWillie wheezes out a laugh, then looks like she instantly regrets it.

"Aye, lad, and you thought i was making up imperial measurements." She rests her hands on her knees, head bowed. "Either way, I'm not making a hundred click march like this." She looks up, face grim. "I'd say 'leave me behind,' but that'd be wasting valuable supplies now, wouldn't it?"

Finally, some sensible advice. We get biomass and we get to make numbers go up even more.

"We're not eating Chief Engineer MacWillie, Box."

"We're most certainly not!" Huckens declares loudly, eyes widening. "I'll carry you if I need to, Chief. I can do it!"

"Don't be stupid, lad. I've had a good run, and at least I'll have a better fate than my mates."

A thought occurs to me as Huckens continues to argue with Chief Engineer MacWillie.

"Box, why don't we carry them? Surely the limbs are strong enough?"

...don't wanna.

"Excuse me?" My voice rises.

I don't want to. They were part of the cruiser trying to hunt us down. I don't like them.

"...you told me to go to them for help last night, Box. They could have attacked us, but they didn't. Don't you think you're being unreasonable?"

...was hoping the Entity would eat them on its way out.

"Box!"

You can't make me. I'm not going to help them.

"...fine. I'm not going to level anymore."

...you can't do that.

"I certainly can. No more numbers going up. Not unless you help."

DING

"That's not going to work either."

DING DING DING

!! sparkles DING sparkles !!

DING

!! sparkles DING sparkles !!

!! sparkles DING sparkles !!

DING DING

"Doesn't bother me. No worse than the little ones on a rainy day."

Rate limit exceeded

"Look, Box. If we don't help other people when they need it, how can we expect them to help us in return? There's no village without people working together."

...no one thinks like that out there! You're going to get us killed!

"Maybe they just forgot how to. We can remember for them. Come on, I'll even let you pick the next levels. Whatever numbers you want to make go up."

...fine. I still don't like them, though.

"That's my Box."

I turn my focus back to the outside world, and if I thought Chief Engineer MacWillie and Huckens looked astonished before, now they're downright flabbergasted.

"What in the never-god's pickled arse do you have inside you?" Chief Engineer MacWillie asks, eyes wide. Huckens doesn't say anything, his mouth hanging slightly open. I shrug.

"That's Box. We talk a lot. Box says its creator was afraid it was 'too unstable,' but we seem to get along okay. Don't your integrators talk to you?"

"Nooooo," she draws out the word, "they most certainly do not. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want reality talking to me on a regular basis."

Now it's my turn to look confused.

"Wait, Box is part of reality? It told me it just did a lot of complicated math so we could access different infinities."

"Aye, that's part of what an integrator is. The other part is a sliver of that something else that stretches across all the universes. A chunk of reality mixing with all the rest. Did you never learn this during your training?"

"This is all pretty new to me," I confide in her. "Two nights ago, I was watching starflies dance. Then one crashed, and I met Box." Grief hits me. "I also lost someone who could have been a friend."

"...are you sane?" Huckens manages, and I glare at him, my grief turning to anger.

"Of course I'm sane. Sure, there's been some weird stuff happening, but that doesn't mean I've lost my mind." He still doesn't look convinced, so I stick my tongue out. His eyes bulge in disbelief. "Anyways, Box said we can carry both of you to the village, though I'll probably stop at the edge of the forest first so Broom and Dirt can talk with you, because despite what Box thinks, while I may be an Idiot, I'm not dumb."

You're not dumb, you're naive.

"...Broom and Dirt, these are... people?" Chief Engineer MacWillie asks carefully.

"They're Idiots, like me. Probably the smartest Idiots in the village. Though," my brows furrow as I think about it, "I might not be an Idiot yet. I think I'm still a Memoriam until the Idiots declare I belong to them."

"Chief," Huckens says pleadingly, "what do we do?"

Chief Engineer MacWillie lets out a pained sigh. "I think we have to go with Sky, lad. I'm in no shape to salvage anything from the cruiser, and you're still too low level."

"...you sure, Chief?"

"...no, lad, but I don't see any other options." She turns to me, her bulk still imposing despite how hunched in on herself she stands. "So, Sky whatever you are, what's your grand plan?"

"Don't freak out, okay?" I warn them, letting my limbs come out. "I'm going to use these to carry you, and Box agreed it won't eat anyone."

"This isn't reassuring, Chief!" Huckens wails, eyes fixed on the fuzzing bone-white segments, and Chief Engineer MacWillie cuffs him across the head.

"Muster up some spine, young master Huckens! If you want to work amongst the engines, you'll see worse than this on the regular!"

"It's not the seeing, Chief! It's the being wrapped up in one!"

"Can't be any worse than dislodging a memetic singularity," Chief Engineer MacWillie mutters, trying to straighten up. She looks at me, lips tight. "Guess I'll go first to reassure the lad."

Seeing her discomfort, I make my limb coil around her shoulders and then along her back, hoisting her horizontal so that it looks like she's lying on a bed. I feel some strain, but it's manageable.

"That's... actually fairly comfortable." She lets out a breath. "Not nearly as bad on my ribs, and that's the truth."

I reach with my other limb for Huckens and he yelps as it draws close, but he allows me to wrap him up like Chief Engineer MacWillie. I can hear him swearing under his breath the whole time, though.

"There, see? Nobody got eaten," I state confidently.

We still could. It would be easy, and we'd get lots of infinity expressions.

"I said no eating, Box."

I ignore the whimpers from Huckens and accelerate into a proper run. It's not quite as fast as my pace from yesterday because my limbs are occupied, but it's still causing the distance number to tick down satisfyingly quickly. At this rate, we'll reach the edge of the forest in the early afternoon. After a few minutes I check to make sure the two engineers are still okay. Huckens is whimpering quietly to himself, and Chief Engineer MacWillie is snoring.

Now can we make numbers go up?

"Yes, Box, thank you for being patient. Now we can make numbers go up."

Finally.

Establishing new reality baseline... waiting for quantum observer collapse...

You have three infinity expressions available

Infinity Expressions

Increased Damage (0/5)

Increased Attack Speed (5/5) (+30%) (Three IOs available)

*Increased Movement Speed {Short Range} (0/3)

*Increased Non-Causal Effect Chance (0/8)

Avoidance (1/5) (-1%)

Life Regeneration (0/5)

Increased Movement Speed (0/5)

Increased Pierce Chance (0/5)

Attack Speed - Irrational Options

Specialization (0/∞) (Increases Attack Speed by 1%. Subsequent investments will be 10% less. 1, .9, .81, .729, .6561, .59049, .531441...)

Momentum Strikes (0/1) (2% Increased Damage for each hit on an enemy in the last three seconds, to a maximum of double the base Increased Damage value)

Quickened Metabolism (0/1) (Increases to Attack Speed also apply to Life Regen rate, does not change efficiency of biomass use)

Phase Shift (1/1) (Non-causal damage from a single source is lessened by 50% of total Attack Speed value, to a maximum of 50% total damage mitigated. Attack Speed has no effect for three seconds after mitigating damage this way)

I was wrong. This is now the worst box.

"Okay, what are we doing, Box?"

Put one into Momentum Strikes, and the other two into Increased Movement Speed.

I do as Box says, even though I'm confused as to why it wants to make a non-damage number go up.

We're building to something, Sky. It'll make all the damage numbers go up.

"If you say so. I'm not going to complain about getting home faster."

The infinity expressions into movement speed are already taking affect, my legs churning faster across the landscape, hillside after hillside sliding away beneath my darting steps. The time until arrival number adjusts itself down. At our new pace, we'll be back to the forest by midday. I try to make conversation with Huckens to pass the time, but he's passed out now as well, so I decide to start dashing to speed us up even more.

We still have one more choice to make, Sky.

"We do?"

Impossibility Matrix Expansion Available

- Non-causal storage (0/5)

- Transmutation (0/5)

- Reality effectuator (2/4)

"...I know I say this a lot, Box, but what are those?"

Non-causal storage allows us to create a pocket dimension to store up to a certain mass. Transmutation allows us to alter the material properties of base matter. Reality effectuators are our limbs.

"...should we get another limb, then?"

Normally I would say yes, but we need to build up your village into a proper support network, and that's going to require scavenging materials from the wreck of my creator's ship, as well as the cruiser. Our most efficient choice is non-causal storage. Choose that.

Collapsing Impossibility Matrix

A yawning pocket opens in my mind. It's not painful, just strange.

This will allows us to carry up to fifty kilograms of mass without it being affected by reality.

"What's a-"

No. I absolutely will not listen to whatever term your idiotic measurement system came up with for mass. Dirt's pack masses forty five kilograms. Chief Engineer MacWillie masses one hundred and three kilograms. Huckens masses sixty-two kilograms. Your kukri weighs half a kilogram. You figure it out from there.

"...you don't have to be rude about it. There's nothing wrong with the qurnt."

The next several hours pass in silence, Box refusing to acknowledge me, so I spend the time admiring the scenery and staring up at the clouds as I run. I figure out a neat trick where I can jump in the air, spin halfway around, dash backwards, and then spin back into a full sprint as I land. It allows me to watch Fishhook recede behind us, the wreckage of the cruiser dwindling into a small chunk hanging near the halved mountain's peak, a crescent of stone sticking it in place. The sun grows higher overhead, and as I dash to the top of another hillside, I see the familiar green smudge of the forest spreading out before me.

A surge of excitement fills my veins, and I try to speed up, but I'm already moving as fast as I can. What feels like an eternity later, but in actuality is only seven minutes, I'm stopped at the outskirts of the forest, breathing in the familiar scents with a smile that feels like it stretches from ear to ear. I gently set Huckens and Chief Engineer MacWillie down next to some bushes and then shake them awake, retracting my limbs.

"We're here," I call out joyously, turning in a circle and raising my arms. "We're at the forest!" The two engineers blearily rub at their eyes as they sit up. Chief Engineer MacWillie is the first to find her voice.

"Those are some bloody weird looking trees."

"No they're not, they're just trees." I point a finger at both of them. "You two wait here. I need to go find Dirt and Broom so they can talk to you about entering the village."

"I'm right here."

"Gah!"

All three of us jump as one of the bushes speaks. Dirt stands up, and I throw a mock punch at him. He ducks underneath it and grabs me in a hug.

"It is good to see you again, Sky Idiot. We saw the strange lights last night and were afraid you had found your melty rock."

"It almost was," I respond, welcoming the body contact. We hold the embrace for a heartbeat longer, and then he pushes me to arms length.

"And who are these people? They are not from the village, of that I am certain."

I give Dirt an extremely abbreviated version of the events that led Chief Engineer MacWillie and Huckens to accompany me, and he nods when I reach the end.

"That is quite the trial. You were right to halt here. Broom and your grandfather, along with the other clan leaders will want to speak to them first. However, I do not see any reason why they would refuse them entry."

"See, Box? Told you it would be fine."

I'm still not speaking to you.

I beam down at Huckens and Chief Engineer MacWillie, who are still gazing around at the entrance to the forest in wonder.

"Welcome to my home!"