-The Kuwahawi Seas-
(Co written with SK, events happen immediately following the conclusion of Night of Blood
https://steelkomodo.blogspot.ca/2018/04/night-of-blood-part-44.html)
“There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza…”
Well, that was a very simple analysis. It was kind of hard to tell it was a hole, mainly because of the sheer amount of mist and fog that surrounded the throbbing crack that burned in mid air, the width and breadth of a good sized building. Dawn stood on her basic work platform, the sound of various large engines echoing across the sea as her machines got into place. “So. Non-subspace based omniversal movement. Functional, if...well, you see the issue.”
“It was that,” said Vent Light, still dripping seawater, “or die in the horrible, cancerous void some bright spark decided to name the Bleed. Apparently whilst reading too much Lovecraft.” To say the young man was ticked off would be an accurate statement, although lacking in the many nuanced factors that had brought about this particular mood in him. Not least because his belt was still drying off from an impromptu dunking.
“Oh, I’m not criticizing. But, Newton’s third law. Risk the Bleed, and you can basically slip through the walls of each realm, like a needle into a vein. Skip it, you avoid that risk, and the issues within it...but you can also smash through said walls like a bullet if you’re not careful. And you, unfortunately, weren’t in a position to be careful. Well, could be worse. Much worse. You want the bad news or the good news first?”
Vent gave a sardonic laugh as he pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “After the day I’ve had, what could possibly be bad news?”
“That you punched a hole that let the Todash leak into our world. You might recall what happened in one case where that occurred.”
“...I do. Quarantined an entire town thanks to that stuff. Though that wasn’t as bad as when the Aparoids showed up. Had to cordon off a whole planet to stop them spreading, and I think we nearly lost one of the Mage family to them.” Green eyes turned to Dawn, expression hard to read.
“That never happened here, did it? I can never tell what goes on in these parallel universes.”
“Not yet. Perhaps not ever. Hope for the best. Expect the worst, which is why I have these machines. All right. The good news is, the hole you broke is mostly stable and isn’t leading to the Todash or some equivalent. It also isn’t spitting out your pursuers, yet anyway. They weren’t part of the actual transfer, they just got dragged along. They might end up here later. Or never. Knowing us, the former. For their sake, also the former. Getting lost between planes of existence is, at best...something that rapidly becomes tiresome. One can never find a good hotel and greasy spoon, you know what I mean?”
“Ugh, don’t even get me started.”
A long pause as the two stared at the gaping aperture in reality.
And then Vent spoke with a hitch in his throat.
“You died,” he said, simply.
“I HAVE been playing too much Dark Souls lately.”
“No, I mean… He killed you.” A fist tightened, the glove creaking audibly. “He just… shot you through the head, like it was nothing. You were just another obstacle, and he removed you. And I should have known, I should have guessed you could have been his next target like so many others.…”
He trailed off.
“...it’s been a rough day,” he finished, lamely.
“Everyone dies. Not everyone really lives. If she was myself with a few different circumstances, I will conclude that she did what she believed was best. Anything else is pointless agonized navel gazing. Did mother tell you what happens when you naval gaze excessively?”
Vent shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t have a very good memory of her. I was very young and still learning when she and her family left - as far as I can recall, it was just me and the other Lights. And the Kobbers, but that goes without saying.”
“You get lint on the brain.” What appeared to be the energy equivalent of a giant pair of tweezers sizzled into existence, summoned by four separate machines either on the water or in the air. “The bad news is more like odd news. For an accidental puncture, this hole is strangely...enduring. I could force close it, but at the moment, that might be like trying to stop a leaking faucet by taping a cork in its end. Need more data, but it might be better to leave it open for a time, let it vent some of its excess energy. And before you think this could allow your dangers to use it as a direct route to us, I’m taking care of that right now.”
Dawn scratched at one ear.
“I think the strength of it might be more to our location than you. Wherever we go, all sorts of marvelous energies get tossed about. Newton strikes again.”
“So… that’s it, then. I’m in another dimension, with half of my tools gone, my belt and sifter waterlogged and quite possibly a megalomaniac in a bat mask coming to kill us all. Or, in Kobber terms, an average Sunday night out.” Vent gave a snort of amusement, though there wasn't very much humour in it.
“I wonder,” he mused. “Could people like Newton ever predict what we’ve discovered since then? Like how to travel between dimensions? Or how to make monsters or heroes out of deadly space chemicals? And what we’d use all that for? I mean… what I know now makes even those great theories look like Charles Knight paintings. And yet...”
“One should not judge a man because we have greater cumulative knowledge to draw from. Without the likes of Newton and Einstein adding to the mosaic, we might not be here. Shoulders of giants, and all that.”
There was a sound like someone both burped and coughed, except so loud it actually caused a four foot swell in the water, a further bloom of steam and mist engulfing the pair.
“Altered and wholly stabilized. And...yes. Hmmmmmmm. Care to help me with a hypothesis, Build?” Dawn said, as she tapped at her ear a few more times.
For the first time since she’d seen him, a genuine smirk crossed Build’s face.
“Well, then… Shall we begin the experiment?”
---
“Interesting. Same location, but twenty years apart based on latitude based entrance. Guess I’m going to need some thinking for the buoys we’ll need to put up.”
“Did anyone come through from the other side? Aside from me, I mean.”
“No, by my adjustments your playmates won’t come out here. I’ll see if I can’t set up a ‘door’ for them so they don’t crash land into a random tourist attraction. If they come out at all. As for the hole now, I’m going to make some adjustments. Make it semi one-way. If you don’t have a key, you’ll just get spit right back out if you try and go through the door. And only we have the keys, so no one on the other side goes through unless we say so. Which we’ll need to be careful about. We all remember what happened the LAST time that world’s timelines decided to snarl up and then come and say hello.”
“Ugh, yes. No more of that, please.” Vent visibly shuddered on that sentence.
“Now...this Night Rogue.” Dawn said. “How smart do you think he is?”
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