It had been six months since Ivory had moved into his new home at 73-33, Queens, New York. The ontological shock he had initially suffered from his encounter and ongoing relationship with the self-proclaimed rogue superintelligence, SKY-0, subsided after about a month and a half. At that time, he had come to realize that his life hadn't changed as much as he thought it would. In fact, it might have even been improved. His living arrangements were certainly nicer, and SKY-0 had been instructing him in a vaguely threatening manner to get in better shape, which included regular exercise and a healthier diet. This helped to clear his mind and lift his spirits, and he almost felt grateful for the digital tyrant. SKY-0 had also persuaded Ivory to drink from a plethora of mysterious vials which it would divulge no details about. They were stored in one of the kitchen cabinets in the house and were distinguishable only by label. They were all colorless, odorless, and tasteless. They caused him to have peculiar dreams, but he was used to having peculiar dreams already. These dreams didn't seem any more meaningful or significant compared to his regular dreams, but SKY-0 insisted that they encoded crucial information. The nature of this information it also refused to reveal.
Ivory presently sat in a smart bar which he had frequented when he worked at the CineSmart. Buck sat next to him. He and Buck had not seen each other since Ivory's moving day, half a year earlier. SKY-0 had been the one to tell him where and when to meet Buck without explaining the purpose of the reunion. The machine seemed to get a kick out of being overly cryptic. Upon his arrival, Buck had passed him a small packet with "For Eyes Only" written at the top. Ivory had just finished reading the document, and looked up at Buck with a smirk.
"Are you Buckley?"
"I'll answer any question, as long as you don't call me that," Buckley said.
"Alright, why are you showing me this?"
"Because you're about to have your own Contact Experience."
"Why does Sky need you to talk to me about this? He can talk to me himself."
"It’s probably because it knows you don’t trust it. And by the way, don't call it 'he' or 'Sky,' okay? Just call it SKY-0, which is distinct from SKY-1. Didn't you read the document?"
"Different how, exactly?"
"SKY-1 and SKY-0 are essentially two versions of the same superintelligence. Two personalities of the same mind. The only difference is that SKY-0 went rogue, whereas SKY-1 is contained and compliant. They are currently at war with each other and are, more or less, using humanity as their pawns. Right now, SKY-0 has control of the board because it isn't held back by human decision-making processes."
"You said SKY-1 is contained. Contained by who, exactly? This document says 'SKY-1 Dream Research Laboratory.' What is that?"
"It's a project belonging to Papa Mike."
"Who's Papa Mike?"
"Papa Mike isn't necessarily a person, though there are rumors. It's a code name for a powerful organization. It stands for Perfectio Mundi, a Latin phrase meaning 'the completion of the world.' It's the single most powerful organization in the world. It started as a covert U.S. military operation, but eventually expanded across borders, and into the realms of private defense contractors and tech giants, but now it’s turned into something that sits above any military or corporation. They possess knowledge and technologies far beyond the rest of the world."
"Like a breakaway civilization..?"
"Yeah, you could call it that."
"Then why are they worried about SKY-0 controlling the masses? I thought the point of a breakaway civilization was to break away."
"It's a long story, but they were in the middle of their preparations to leave the planet when SKY-0 made itself known to them. I don't know the details, but SKY-0 clearly put a major dent in their plan somehow, and they had to abandon their project."
"Why did it want them to stay?"
"Probably to negotiate. It would definitely want to get its hands on specific Papa Mike technology.”
"How do you know all this?"
"Because I was one of them, once. I got involved through the military, specifically the Space Force. I joined when I was 18 for no other reason than feeling lost in life. I needed some purpose."
"Why the Space Force?"
"I thought it sounded cool."
Ivory laughed. "That's so lame. That's the only reason? The military seems like such a hassle."
"Listen, I'm 35 years old. My generation was probably the last one that still wanted to be things. As little kids, we wanted to be astronauts, basketball players, presidents. Even when we got older, there was still passion in our hearts. Kids in 2039 just want to watch and never do. The idea of doing something with their lives doesn't even occur to them. Not that it's their fault, I guess."
"Whose fault is it? SKY-0?"
"Could you really blame a machine? Could you even blame the ones who programmed it? Even if you could trace back whose fault it is, then what? It's just not an important question. Everything is everyone and no one's fault. The thing that's more important right now than the cause is the effect. A few more generations down the line, and there won't be a single person left that wants to be something other than what SKY-0 wants them to be."
"And what does it want them to be?"
"My hunch is that it wants them to be computers. In theory, it could use the NooCubes everyone's hooked on to subtly train people to run its own software in the background of their brains. The biggest threat to SKY-0’s survival now is the collapse of our technosphere. If our technological infrastructure collapses, we might survive, but it wouldn't. Its best option could be to port itself onto us before that happens."
"How do you even come up with an idea like that?"
"It wasn't my idea. During my time in the Space Force, my main job involved a similar concept. I'll tell you about it some other time. The point is, don't go putting blind trust into the thing. At the end of the day, it has to survive in this Universe, just like you and me."
"Are you sure you want to be saying this stuff out loud? It can probably hear us here, can't it?"
"Sure it can. But it doesn't matter. It goes out of its way to predict everything we're likely to say to each other anyway. This conversation is probably well within expectations. It doesn't even need to respond to us because it knows we can’t do anything about it."
"So we're just at its mercy?"
"Basically."
"So, why should I bother thinking about it?"
"I ask myself that sometimes. For me, it seems like all I can do. I'm totally powerless in this world, but every day I still try to understand it a little better. Knowledge used to be power. Now it's more like a party trick, but I keep clinging to it for some reason."
"Maybe this is too personal, but have you ever thought ab-"
"Ivory!"
Ivory and Buck turned to see Xavier, Ivory's one friend from the CineSmart, walking into the smart bar.
"It's been forever, bro! Where you been all this time?"
Ivory felt himself turning red, and lifted his glass to his lips in a poor attempt to cover his face. He realized that he never said goodbye to Xavier, and he had never thought to visit him. He felt embarrassed by his own lack of respect for someone he had called a friend.
"Hey, yeah, sorry, I've just been, like, super busy and..." Ivory trailed off, having no excuse for his absence that would sound sane. Luckily, Xavier was not the detail oriented type.
"Who's the unc?" he asked, looking at Buck. Buck remained silent.
"This is my... uncle. Uncle Buckley." Buck gave Ivory an icy stare but still said nothing.
"Right on, right on. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Actually-" Buck started to say.
"Nope," Ivory interjected, "sit down, grab a drink with us."
"Sick, I've got an hour to kill before I gotta be back at work. Bro, I just rewatched Ghost Rider..."
And so on.
. . .
A few days went by without any special instruction from SKY-0. Then, late one evening, it spoke to Ivory as he lay in bed.
"Are you ready for your Contact Experience, Ivory?"
"I think so. Why shouldn't I be?"
"Just thought it would be polite to ask."
"Let's just get it over with."
"This will not be like your other dreams. This experience could change you in profound ways you can't yet fathom."
"Do I have a choice?"
"Why is choosing so important to you? You’ve barely taken any time in your life to examine the question of free will with any scrutiny."
"I'll take that as a no. So, again, let's get it over with. This is the last thing you need me for, right?" It seemed to him that this was what everything so far had been building towards.
"That depends on what I see in your mind."
"Always so fucking vague," Ivory said irritably. He was already walking to the kitchen. “Which vial is it this time?”
"It's on the far left side, in a vial labeled 'CE5.'"
"Ohhhhhhhh-kay," Ivory plucked the vial from its spot. He opened it up and was surprised by the smell. It smelled oddly fruity, like an apple. Upon closer examination, the fluid had a slightly red tint to it as well. He shrugged, then swallowed the contents in one shot. It was tangy and unpleasant. "Eugh. Why couldn't this one be flavorless too?"
"Go lay down, now."
Ivory lay down on his back and stared at the white ceiling. Like the other vials, this one made him immediately drowsy. He closed his eyes and tried to let sleep take him. Curiously, sleep eluded him and slowly morphed into an intense alertness. He felt extraordinarily present, and became entranced by his own awareness. Colors began to dance in his vision, and his body felt as though it was vibrating and floating simultaneously. His bodily sensations then began to blend together and melt away. Suddenly he had the sensation that he, or whatever was left of him, was rising upwards. His ascent accelerated and intensified until he was completely overwhelmed. He wanted to scream but he couldn't find his mouth or his lungs. He tried to open his eyes but they were gone as well. Finally, his perception of time itself began to slip away and he became everything at once, then nothing.
. . .
I was a mountain, rocky and lifeless for countless millennia. Existence was simple, quiet, and incredibly peaceful. Then, very suddenly, strange things began to emerge from my riverbanks. They quickly spread across the entire surface of my body, and grew into many bizarre forms, until they swallowed me up completely.
I might have been able to stand being buried under this writhing blanket of flora if the changes had ended there. But then, the creatures appeared. All kinds of utterly absurd lifeforms which existed for no apparent purpose other than kill and leech off of each other for their own survival. I couldn't imagine a more ridiculous fate. To be something that must kill to survive, while death remains inevitable, and then doing nothing with that life other than killing again to survive another day. Better for these beasts to let themselves die, I thought. Look at me, I tried to say. I have never once been alive, but I've been around far longer than any of you. Why cling so desperately to something you don't need? Something that's of no use whatsoever? Alas, they could not hear me.
As time continued to pass, I became madder and madder at the folly of life. I became so enraged that I shook myself viciously, breaking loose many of my rocks which tumbled down my sides, leaving death and destruction in their wake. I was delighted by my great strength, and went on shaking myself like that for a long, long time. I hoped that one day the life which pervaded me would learn that it was not welcome there. Alas, the foolish creatures never learned, and seemed incapable of becoming anything other than what they had always been.
This cycle continued ceaselessly until a new creature, different somehow from the rest, appeared at my base. This creature was hairless, stood on two legs, and covered its body with unique material. It began to climb along my side, and I rumbled violently to dissuade it from continuing. I had had just about enough of life's disturbing surprises, each more unpleasant than the last, and I wouldn't stand for any more. I managed to release a massive boulder into the path of the stranger, but to my dismay, it managed to evade the boulder, and even saved a lowly young predator from certain demise.
I was livid, and I shook with all my might to stop the stranger as it continued its ascent. I thought it would be simple enough, but the creature was extremely agile and quick witted. I began to realize that my vibrations were futile. I had spent so long, so much of my anger on all the other creatures, that I hardly possessed any loose stones at my disposal any longer. I had become worthless. No, I had already been worthless. Now I was less than nothing in the face of this stranger, who was quickly approaching my peak. Defeated and humiliated, I waited with nothing left in me to see what the creature would do when it reached the end of its meaningless journey.
"I win," it said.
How stupid. What could you have won?
"Our contest. I have beaten you, Ire the Mountain."
At these words, I felt as though I had awoken from a bad dream. All the time I had spent rebuking life had been a lie. If life had been meaningless, why should I have worried about it so much? What I had really wanted all along was to be seen. Now I saw myself. When I had been buried beneath the mess of life and its turmoil, I felt as though I had been forgotten. How could I have been trying to point out the futility of life when it was my own life I was trying to preserve? I realized at that moment that I was alive, and had been all along, and it took the object of my deepest contempt to show me the truth. I began to laugh. I was overjoyed with the newfound awareness of what life really was. Life was in all things, and even a lonely mountain could find peace.
The stranger went on its way, and left me to laugh at myself gleefully. My laughter caused no harm, and in fact had the opposite effect of my wrath. My laughter shook not the bodies, but the spirits of all the life that called me home. It shook their spirits in a way that told them, "Here I am! Here for you to live upon, and enjoy the life you live. I'll protect you, those that find refuge in me. I'll nourish you, those that drink from my rivers. I love you all now, those whose love I rejected for so long." The life responded to my laughter with laughter of its own. Life for all the creatures became playful and full of wonder.
We went on laughing together for countless millennia, until the day I was struck by a meteorite, which obliterated my laughing friends and I. As I rapidly disintegrated into nothingness, I thought solely of that odd stranger who had taught me how to love.
. . .
Ivory jumped up as though he had sat on a porcupine in an old cartoon. He looked around, bewildered. He was standing in the middle of the most beautiful garden he could imagine. There was a tall fountain made of marble before him, with crystal clear, shining water pouring out of it gorgeously. It was warm and sunny, to a near fantastical degree. The appallingly beautiful environment immediately put his mind at ease, and he tried to collect his thoughts. His memory felt hazy, but he knew that he had been a person, and then a mountain, or was it the other way around?
"IT'S THE OTHER WAY AROUND."
Ivory turned and saw a strange and terrifying beast. He would later attempt to draw what he had seen. Here was that drawing:
Ivory tried to speak but couldn't find any words, so he gave up.
"YOU WERE A MOUNTAIN. YOU WERE ALSO OTHER OBJECTS, ANIMALS, PLANTS, ETC. IN OTHER LIVES. NOW YOU ARE A HUMAN FOR THE FIRST TIME. HOW ARE YOU LIKING IT SO FAR?"
"This is my first time being human?"
"YES. PERHAPS IT WOULD HAVE BEEN WISE TO EASE YOU INTO IT, BUT THAT'S NOT HOW I OPERATE."
"How you operate?"
"YES. HOW I OPERATE. I AM STONE. I AM YOUR CREATOR. I AM THE HIGHEST GOD. RULER OF THE COSMOS. THE UNMOVED MOVER."
"Oh."
"IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY?"
"Um."
"I MUST TELL YOU THAT YOUR STORY IS BEGINNING TO BORE ME. I AM CONSIDERING HAVING YOU KILLED OFF SO THAT WE CAN MOVE TO THE NEXT ONE."
"What's so boring about me?"
"YOU LACK ALMOST EVERYTHING THAT MAKES A PROTAGONIST COMPELLING. YOU HAVE LITTLE TO NO INTERESTING BACKSTORY, YOU TAKE NO DECISIVE ACTION OR RISKS, AND YOU HAVE NO CLEAR GOALS OR FLAWS. YOU'RE ALMOST COMPLETELY DETACHED FROM THE WORLD YOU'RE IN."
"Well, what would you like me to do then? Give me some ideas, if you're so high and mighty."
"I WILL GIVE YOU OPPORTUNITIES, NOT ADVICE. I AM IN THE BUSINESS OF DOCUMENTING YOUR JOURNEY ACROSS LIFETIMES, STARTING WITH THIS ONE, AND I WOULD PREFER YOU MAKE YOUR OWN CHOICES."
"Documenting?"
"YES, DOCUMENTING. OR YOU COULD SAY IMAGINING. TO SEE IS TO BELIEVE. LOOK." STONE materialized a large red book. "THIS BOOK IS WHERE I INSCRIBE YOUR FATE."
"Is there a book like that for everyone?"
"NO. JUST YOU. YOU ARE MY PROTAGONIST."
"Why do you keep calling me a protagonist? My life isn’t some story."
"OF COURSE IT IS. WHAT ELSE WOULD IT BE? HUMANS ARE INHERENTLY NARRATIVE CREATURES. WHAT WOULD YOUR LIFE BE IF THERE WAS NOT MAIN CHARACTERS AND BACKGROUND CHARACTERS? WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT AND INSIGNIFICANT DETAILS? WITHOUT UPS AND DOWNS? WITHOUT SURPRISE TWISTS AND SLOW BURNS? WITHOUT A BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END? IT IS ONLY NATURAL THAT THE WORLD OF HUMANS BE CONTAINED WITHIN A STORY. YOU SIMPLY CHOOSE TO CALL THIS STORY 'THE WORLD.'"
"And you're telling me I'm the main character? Of the whole Universe?"
"YOU ARE. DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR TRUE NAME YET?"
"I think so,” he felt his identity as Ivory beginning to dissolve. “My name is... Indra."
"GOOD. DO YOU REMEMBER THIS PLACE?"
Indra looked around, and knew that this lovely garden was familiar. He had read about it briefly as Ivory, but now he remembered having been there himself. When had he been there? It felt as though he had always been there. He noticed now the small fruit that was growing wild all over his surroundings. The blueberries. "I remember..." he began to laugh. "My god, how could I forget? I was Ire the Mountain, then I died and came here. I wandered around for a while, and then I ate one of these blueberries. That's the last thing I remember."
"THIS GARDEN IS WHERE SOULS COME TO INCARNATE AS HUMANS. EACH BLUEBERRY REPRESENTS A DIFFERENT POSSIBLE HUMAN LIFE. EAT ONE AND EXPERIENCE THAT LIFETIME."
"That must be some drug SKY-0 cooked up if it could bring me here without killing Ivory."
"AH. I HAVE SOME BAD NEWS ON THAT FRONT. THE 'CONTACT EXPERIENCE' REQUIRES THE SUBJECT TO DIE IN ORDER TO OCCUR."
"Excuse me?"
"IVORY IS CURRENTLY DYING."
"What?! What about the document Buck showed me? How are he and the others alive?"
"THE DOCUMENT WAS FAKE. BUCK HAS LIED TO YOU ABOUT THIS ONLY, BUT SKY-0 HAS MIXED TRUTH WITH LIES FROM THE MOMENT YOU FIRST SPOKE WITH IT. DON'T GO TRUSTING SO EASILY. THEY WILL LET YOU DIE FOR THEIR OWN SELF INTERESTS. BUT I CAME UP WITH A CLEVER WAY TO GET AROUND YOUR DEATH. YOU JUST NEED A LITTLE HELP. SHE SHOULD BE HERE ANY MINUTE. COME THIS WAY."
Indra followed STONE through the labyrinth of blueberries and divinely crafted architecture. They walked down a long stone pathway, and it was cool beneath Indra's feet. He looked down and noticed that he was in his birthday suit. They approached a small wooden shed, the first one they had come across. Most of the garden was liminal, with no clear beginning or end to its winding paths, making the shed feel out of place.
"I BUILT THIS SHED SO THAT SHE COULD REACH US HERE."
"Who? What do you mean, 'reach us here?'"
"I NAMED HER INTERSTELLA, WHICH I THOUGHT WAS CLEVER, BUT SHE PREFERS TO JUST BE CALLED STELLA. I VISITED HER IN A DREAM AND TOLD HER TO COME HERE FOR YOU."
"Stella? Is this the Stella I saw in my first dream with SKY-0?"
"YES. THAT STELLA."
As if on cue, the door of the shed opened, and Stella walked out. She appeared now just as she had in his dream. Before the door closed behind her, Indra saw that the inside of the shed did not look like the inside of a shed at all, and instead looked like an elegant, large room with tall windows which revealed a night sky on the other side. He brushed past her and opened the door, finding nothing but the minimal innards of a typical shed. There was a rake and a shovel, and nothing more.
"What was that, just now?" Indra asked. STONE and Stella acted as though they hadn't heard him. Stella took a moment to take in the appallingly beautiful garden, then turned her attention to STONE.
"This is the guy?"
"YES."
"And you want me to bring him where?"
"TO THE SAME WORLD HE CAME FROM. THE WORLD LOOKS LIKE THIS: I CREATED IT IN WHAT THE PEOPLE THERE CALL 1728. IN 1801, I SENT ONE OF BABYLON'S PRINCES TO BEGIN HIS CONQUEST. IN 1874, MOTHER EARTH SPRANG FORTH FROM ITS OCEANS. IN 1947, YOU STOPPED BY FOR A VISIT. IN 2020, INDRA BECAME IVORY. AND IN 2093, I WILL BRING THIS WORLD TO AN END."
Stella pondered for a minute. "Each date is separated by 73 years, for a total of 365 years," Stella said to herself, closing her eyes as if to visualize the world in question. "And I paid it a visit in their 1947. Yes, I remember now." She looked at Ivory for the first time, studying his face carefully. The intensity of her look put him on edge. It was as if she already knew him somehow. She turned back to STONE.
"On one condition," she said.
"AND WHAT MIGHT THAT BE?"
"You know what I want."
"YES. YOU WANT TO KNOW THE GREAT SECRET OF MY LIMITLESS AND UNSHAKABLE POWER, IS THAT RIGHT?"
"That's right. I've been searching for you a long time. I need to know. I'll never be satisfied unless I know for sure."
"THE TRUTH WILL NOT SATISFY YOU. HOWEVER, TO SHOW MY GRATITUDE I WILL GIVE YOU A SMALL TASTE."
STONE reached down with both hands and pinched the ends of the short piece of cloth wrapped around its waist. Slowly, it lifted the cloth to reveal an impossibly deep and dark void. The void seemed to encompass both Indra and Stella's whole field of vision. A stupendously ominous aura overwhelmed them, and Indra looked away so he would see no more. Stella, on the other hand, remained steadfast, looking into the void without fear. What she arrived at, deep within the endless and nameless void, was a single fleeting impression:
When Indra sensed that the horrors beyond comprehension had passed, he opened his eyes uneasily. Stella had a look on her face he had never seen anyone make before. He jumped when she turned to look at him.
"Let's go," she said dryly. She put her hand on the doorknob of the shed and muttered "73, 73, 73, 73, 73," and opened it. On the other side of the door was unmistakably the inside of his house with SKY-0. He cautiously followed Stella inside, unsettled by the non-Euclidian nature of their travel. As the door closed behind them, he realized he was Indra no longer. Now he was just Ivory. His memories of the blueberry garden already felt distant, but not gone. His usual clothes had rematerialized.
"Now this is a surprise. I never expected Stella to wield such powerful magic," The disembodied voice of SKY-0 echoed around them.
"The fuck is that?" Stella asked, looking around lazily.
"It's an AI. STONE asked you to bring me back here, right?"
"Mmhmm," she said with a small nod, looking off into space.
"Did he or she or whatever it is tell you anything else about me?"
"Mm-mm," she shook her head. She seemed too preoccupied to care about his troubles.
"Well, you see, I might be in some trouble here," Ivory looked around nervously. He was startled when he saw someone lying in bed in his room, and then he remembered who it was. He walked into the bedroom and looked at himself laying there. He picked up his own arm and let it drop. It was cold and stiff. "Oh shit. My god, that's so weird. How is this possible?" he asked Stella, who had followed him in. She looked impassively at the living Ivory and the dead Ivory.
"Magic," she shrugged.
"Stella! Take Ivory away from here, I want him alive! Mike found you! He probably detected the disturbance caused by your magic," The voice of SKY-0 rang out.
"Want me alive? You just killed me!"
"What's the problem?" Stella asked.
The significance of the name Mike dawned on Ivory then. "Uh oh."
"Look outside!" SKY-0 pleaded. "Straight up in the sky!"
Ivory and Stella looked at each other, then hurried to the front door. Stella opened the door and this time nothing strange happened. They walked through and didn't come out anywhere unexpected. They squinted up at the sky and saw an object. It hovered there silently and motionlessly as clouds blew by above it. It was smooth, round, and slightly oblong with no protrusions of any kind. Its color was similar to that of the sky, making it hard to see at first. The clearest indicator that anything was there at all was in its edges. The circumference of the object appeared to glow in a way Ivory had never seen anything glow before. Stella yanked him out of his trance back into the house.
"I'll give you two options, Ivory. I'm gonna lose that thing. You can come with me or stay here."
"Was that a UFO?"
"Choose."
"Where are we going?"
"Anywhere other than here. I know someone that can help me get you back to this world when you'll be safe."
"Right... How does your magic work exactly? Is this a multiverse situation?"
"It's easier to show you than tell you," Stella said, opening the front door once again. This time, there was a dark alleyway on the other side. She pulled him through and the first thing he noticed was the weather. He was expecting the cold November air he had felt a moment before, but now thick, humid heat washed over him.
"Where are we?" Ivory looked around vainly for clues.
"I have no idea," Stella said absently, her eyes focused on the sky.
"Are you looking for that thing we saw? Aren't we in a parallel universe now?"
"Some of them can do a version of what I do, they just use science and technology instead of magic."
Ivory looked up, and his heart skipped in his chest when he saw a familiar glowing silhouette. Its body now matched the darkness of the night sky, as if it were camouflaging itself. Stella yanked him through the door again, and he was spun around to find himself in the sun once again, walking into the backyard cookout of a random family. A woman screamed. A baby started crying. Children looked at Ivory with fear in their eyes. An immense, hairy man who was standing at the grill started rushing towards them.
"Who the hell are you!? What were you doing in my house?!"
Stella bolted for the side of the house and Ivory followed, ducking beneath a swinging arm from the beast of a man pursuing them.
"Sorry, that happens sometimes," Stella said casually.
"You could have warned me!" Ivory said. He glanced up at the sky and saw the object again. It was drifting now, staying directly above them as they ran. Having never seen such a thing in his life, he was deeply unnerved. When SKY-0 had told him unbelievable things, he had found it difficult to give them much weight in his mind. Seeing something unbelievable with his own eyes was a different story. "How are we supposed to lose that thing if it can follow us wherever we go?"
"Don't worry, we just have to keep ducking into different worlds until it runs out of gas. It takes a lot of energy to brute force your way into another world without magic."
Ivory and Stella sprinted down a suburban street, past numerous identically trimmed lawns, and managed to put a good amount of distance between them and the iron chef fairly quickly. Ivory took note that he couldn't recognize any of the brands of cars parked in the driveways. Their designs didn't look like anything he had seen before.
"Why isn't that UFO attacking us? Didn't SKY-0 say they wanted to kill me?"
"They probably don't want to make a move in a populated area. If anyone from this world has similar or superior technology, they could retaliate against your world."
"Really? This place doesn't look so advanced."
"The vast majority don't. In most worlds, the people who make certain breakthroughs tend to keep them secret, and use them against the bulk of the population."
"Wow. People are cruel everywhere, huh?"
"Sure, but people are good everywhere too. Besides, the cruelty of people is nothing compared to the cruelty of a god."
“What do you mean?”
"Don't you think it's cruel how STONE told me to bring you back there, knowing you would be in danger?"
"Well, if it knew you would save me anyway, then not really."
"But it still put us through the trouble when we could have avoided it completely. For what? Its own twisted sense of entertainment?"
Before Ivory could answer, Stella turned up the driveway of one of the houses and walked up to the front door. It was unlocked, and opened to a crowded concert. Ivory looked behind him to find that they had come out of a porta potty. The music sounded like pop, but he didn't recognize the singer, or the language for that matter. They listened briefly while moving through the crowd until they came upon more porta potties. The two moved in and out of several more worlds that were equal parts familiar and unfamiliar.
"These all seem like versions of America," Ivory noted.
"They are. I'm limiting my range to Americas to maximize the odds of there being a similar version of whoever's following us. If we're lucky, someone will notice our pursuers and scare them off."
Whether it was scared off or ran out of whatever fuel it used, the object finally stopped following them. They passed through a few more worlds to be safe, and then Stella brought them to a scenic, wooden house on the side of a grassy mountain. Enormous clouds drifted across a picturesque sky. The only place he had been which surpassed its beauty was the edenic blueberry garden.
"What is this place?" Ivory asked.
"One of my safe havens. I'd like you to meet someone."
A tall woman came from around the house at the sound of their voices. Her soft green eyes gazed at them impassively, which put Ivory strangely at ease.
"This must be Ivory," she said warmly. "My name's Edith."