Then

The orange missile flew straight for the back of Cal’s head. His eyes weren’t on it, but he saw it coming anyways. He flicked it with his telekinesis and sent it careening over his head. Right before it slammed into the ceiling he grabbed it and sent it to float a foot or so in front of his face at eye level.

A second missile, green this time, came at him. He plucked it out of the air without moving from his standing position at the counter top. This one he sent into an orbit around his head in a lazy arc to join the orange one.

Several more projectiles, red, orange, green, and yellow came in quick succession. Cal grabbed each in turn and set them to orbit around his head like celestial bodies. A few drops of water splashed him, so he extended their orbits a few more inches out.

A dark, brown object, craggy, like an unwelcome asteroid crashed right into the middle of his back. The momentary distraction caused Cal to loosen his telekinetic grip on the various objects floating near and around his head. Fortunately, he was quick to recover and he was able to return them to their rightful places before they hit the ground.

“Hey!” Cal brought the offending object floating up to his face. “I thought we were making fajitas? What’s with the potato?”

Children’s laughter reached his ears.

Cal looked back to the sink. His two nieces, Tessa and Veronica were washing vegetables and chucking them at the back of his head.

“Veronica wants french fries,” Tessa said.

“No I don’t,” Veronica whined.

“We can do french fries,” Cal said.

“Tessa just wanted to make the veggies hit you on the head.” Veronica shamelessly betrayed her older sister.

Tessa rolled her eyes. “Traitor!”

“Well, I think this is probably enough,” Cal said.

“Ooh! Are you gonna cut them now?” Veronica’s eyes lit up.

“Yup! Stand back though, just in case.”

A pair of knives slowly floated out of the knife block and joined the objects floating around Cal.

“That’s sooo cool!” Veronica’s head appeared next to Cal’s waist.

“Dangerous,” Cal warned.

“C’mon, Veronica,” Tessa pulled her little sister back.

Once the girls were back to a properly safe distance. Cal went to work. The knives sliced through the vegetables in the middle of the air. They spun and twirled around each other while he stood still, his hands at his sides. A wry grin crossed his face. Impossible telekinetic powers and he was using them to play real life fruit ninja, well technically vegetable ninja, to entertain his nieces.

He peeked over and saw the wide smiles on their faces. It was worth it then. In the one year since the spires appeared, their entire world had changed over night. Deadly monsters and mutant animals essentially made them prisoners in their own home. A home that they had to flee as a result of the vicious war against the MLK Spawn Point gremlins. The two kids had precious little to be happy about. At least they had been able to destroy the Spawn Point several weeks back. With the end of the war his nieces had been able to return to their home and some semblance of normalcy.

“Quick! The bowl!”

“I’ll get it!” Veronica rushed out of Tessa’s grip and reached into a low cupboard before pulling out a large metal bowl, which she promptly threw at Cal.

He caught it with his telekinesis and sent it flying into the mass of cut vegetables like a whale devouring krill. He let the large bowl drop into his hands.

“Okay, who wants to throw me the chicken?”

“Ewww!” The girl’s said in unison.

“I’ll take this to Aunt Nila,” Tessa said as she grabbed the bowl out of Cal’s hands.

“I’ll help,” Veronica said.

The two children quickly left the makeshift kitchen and made their way down to the first level. Cal looked down from the open air loft into the first level below. The space was full of different exercise machines, a few power cages, benches, and a couple of dumbbell racks.

After they left Remy’s house. Cal, Nila, and Eron had made a home of sorts in a row of commercial properties. The building they were in now was a gym with showers. Next to it was a micro brewery, which sadly no longer had the proper ingredients to operate. There was also an auto repair shop and a large fenced in area at the back with all sorts of random heavy machinery and objects. It was almost the perfect place once they had created makeshift living and cooking areas.

Down below, Nila was in the middle of a workout. She was currently benching. Cal counted six plates on each side, so that meant 585 pounds. He watched her pump out ten reps before racking the bar with ease. It was good that she was still getting stronger. He figured she had another year of strength gains before reaching a plateau.

The children called out to her and Nila stood up from the bench and wiped her brow with a towel before smiling and heading to the back where the grill was located.

It was good to take a break from the constant monster fighting. He and Nila readily agreed to baby sit while Remy and Megan took time to hunt monsters and mutant animals. It only took a horrendous war to finally get Megan to realize that she needed to improve on the magic she got from the spire.

“Time to cut the chicken,” Cal said.

Now

“Designation: Honor, it is time for you to explain how you came to our world.”

“It might be, Tides, but that’s a pretty big story and I think I want something in exchange. You learn something new, I learn something new. Value for value.”

“Very well. What is it that you desire?”

Cal was taken aback. He wasn’t expecting Tides to agree, let alone to do it without hesitation. He probed into the alien’s thoughts and found that the offer was genuine.

“So, I saw something in one of the tutorials about a ten year period in which access to my world is restricted. I’m guessing you guys have better information on that and I’d like you to share.”

“You have it correct. The spires, as you call them, restrict travel to and from a world for the duration of the protected phase,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 said.

“Is it ten years for your world too?”

“Yes. Based on the information you provided, our world’s planetary cycle is slightly longer than yours. However the relative protected phase period is the same.”

“Does travel through the spires always lead to the same place? The same world?”

“Research indicates that for the early stages of this process what you say is correct.”

“So, my world and your world are connected,” Cal said. “Have you traveled to my world?”

“Negative. Your world is still within the protected period. We are restricted.”

“Hmm… I was under the impression that your people are a lot further into your protected phase.”

“You are correct.”

“Then doesn’t that mean your world will be open to travel?”

“Correct.”

“But if you can’t go to my world, then that implies that you are connected to a second world,” Cal mused.

“Correct.”

“How does that work?”

“Research indicates that each world is connected to two other worlds for the early phase. Conjecture leads us to surmise that one world is a lower level one, spire emergence having occurred at a later date. The second world is a higher level one, emergence having occurred at an earlier date.”

“So, that means your world is about to have visitors soon,” Cal said. “I hope they're friendly, like me!” he smiled. “These phases, what do you know? I only know about the ten year one.”

“We have discovered nothing, but it is consensus that at some point access to our world will no longer have restrictions.”

“Well, shit,” Cal said. “It’ll be a free for all. And since we know that the spires seem to reward aggressive conflict…”

“We share in your assessment, Designation: Honor.”

“All the more reason our worlds should come to an agreement,” Cal said. “We can work together.”

“It is your turn to answer our question, Designation: Honor,” Interrogator Ethereal Loaming 5623 said.

“I guess you’ve given me good info,” Cal said. “There’s not much to say. The spire said that I met the requirements to travel to your world and for an exorbitant amount of Universal Points I took the leap, so to speak.”

“What were these requirements?”

“Well, Loaming, I wish I knew, but the spire didn’t say.”

“How many Universal Points did it require?”

“All I had.”

“Clarify.”

“I had 94,387 Universal Points before I left and zero points when I arrived in your world. I kind of regret not using most of it first.”

“Conjecture leads us to surmise that there is no fixed Universal Point requirement. The process consumes whatever points the subject has,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 said.

“Agreed,” Interrogator Ethereal Loaming 5623 said.

“Have any of our people tried to do the same thing?”

“Negative,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 said.

“You wouldn’t happen to know if I could go back, do you?”

“Negative. Research indicates that the restricted period for a lower level world is inviolable. However, your journey to our world was also supposed to be impossible.”

“Good to know,” Cal sighed. “Thanks, Tides.”

“Designation: Honor,” Interrogator Ethereal Loaming 5623 said. “Explain this magic.”

“I can’t really. It shouldn’t exist, but a lot of impossible things were brought by the spires. Magic is a weapon and a tool with nearly infinite varieties and applications. The majority of which spit in the face of my people’s understanding of science and the natural world. I can’t really give you more detail,” Cal lied, “since I myself don’t have magic.”

“How is it that the spires gave your people such a wide array of abilities?”

“I don’t know, Loaming. Isn’t it the same for your people?”

The interrogators deliberately looked at each other for a long moment.

“I expect that one of the things that a friendly relationship between our worlds will bring is an exchange of information,” Cal said. “You will find a better explanation on magic when that happens.”

“This session is over,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 said.

“Wait! But I didn’t get my next question!”

“We have deemed the information received and revealed equitable.”

With that the alien sarcophagus enclosed Cal in darkness once again.

“Your claim that you had 9-4-3-8-7 Universal Points before you came to our world has been judged false. Do you wish to clarify?”

Interrogator Ethereal Loaming 5623 ambushed Cal the second that his head was uncovered.

“Uh… I’m sorry, but what?”

“Based on your own recollections we calculate that you had gained a minimum of 1-0-9-1-7-5 Universal Points from your stated events. Projections indicate that the probability that you gained more Universal Points beyond what you stated.”

“Well, yeah, I’m not going to tell you everything I did, without getting more from you guys,” Cal said. “Of course if we established an alliance between our peoples then I’d be willing to be a lot more forthcoming.”

“Projections indicate that in the four year time period from the spires’ emergence to your travel to our world the range of Universal Points you gained is from 2-0-0-0-0-0 to 3-0-0-0-0-0.”

Cal was impressed. They bracketed the amount of Universal Points he actually earned in that time period.

“Do you wish to clarify?”

“Why does it matter, Loaming?”

“To gain that amount of Universal Points is impossible,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337. “Your words are in question.”

“Oh,” Cal said. He probed into the two interrogators’ thoughts before replying. “I see… well, those four years were essentially one non-stop struggle. We ran a lot of Encounter Challenges. Had to deal with many Spawn Points. Of course there were also all of the quests that came hand in hand with those things. And I had to kill this one terrifying and powerful gi— person. Although I didn’t know at the time that sentient beings were worth Universal Points and I didn’t go into a spire until the time I traveled to your world. I didn’t think to check my points. I got the notice that they were down to zero and right after that I stepped out of the spire, surrounded by you guys. Which leads me to now.” He smiled. “Are that many points in such a short time frame so unbelievable?”

“Yes.”

“C’mon, Loaming, it’s your turn. I give, you give, right?”

The silence lasted exactly a minute. Cal kept the easy smile on his face until Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 spoke. “The Threnosh are not reckless and divided. Encounter Zone access is strictly regulated. Spawn Zones are immediately destroyed. We do not fight amongst each other.”

“Lots to unpack there,” Cal said. “I can’t really comment on that last bit. Can you clarify more on the first two?”

Another lengthy silence in which both interrogators stared at nothing.

“Only those with the proper roles are allowed into an Encounter Zone. Access is controlled to maximize the gain for the Threnosh, while minimizing the risks to the individual. The second requires no further clarification,” Interrogator ebbing Tides 5623 said.

“Earlier you said that entire regions of your world were lost to out of control Spawn Points,” Cal said. “How are you dealing with those places?”

“We keep them contained and under watch. We do not enter and we destroy the spawn that attempts to leave,” Interrogator Ethereal Loaming said 5623.

Weeks of studying the Threnosh painted a picture of a singular people and culture. One that lacked a capacity for emotional extremes, which lent well to each individual acting toward the betterment of the Threnosh as a whole. It was strange to see an entire people living with efficiency and pragmatism as their guiding principles.

Of course, Cal had to put a little ‘too be determined, pending further information’ mental note to this profile. He figured that it was extremely unlikely for an entire race to be so monolithic in their culture. Surely there were regional differences that he had yet to see, either in the interrogators’ behavior or their thoughts. Judging the entirety of the Threnosh based on the only two individuals he had extended interactions with would be a mistake.

Nevertheless he felt that he had enough to determine that forming an alliance with the Threnosh would be beneficial for humanity. The only problem was that unlike the Threnosh, his people were divided, even more so after the whole apocalypse thing occurred. It was going to be a tough sell when he wasn’t going to be able to make guarantees for the entirety of his species. If the Threnosh found such a concept abhorrent and unthinkable, as in their thought processes made it incomprehensible to them, then how was he going to get them to buy into tying their two species together in an alliance.

Glumly, he figured he might have to settle for a non-aggression pact. At least the profile he built painted the Threnosh as naturally unaggressive. They’d adopt a defensive posture unless invading Earth became a move that benefited them, which Cal could see easily happening in the event that the other world, the higher level one that connected to the Threnosh’s, wasn’t the defensive sort. And from the way the spire-enforced system seemed to be designed to favor conflict, chances were good that once their ten year protected period was up the Threnosh were going to have some unwelcome visitors.

It was going to be just like the colonial period and going by history that never went well for the people on the receiving end. Cal’s goal was to find a way to somehow figure out a way to, at the very least, delay that outcome for as long as possible beyond that ten year window.

It took weeks for him to decide that the Threnosh could be made into useful allies. Weeks to decide that they had something that he wanted. Now the challenge was to find out what he could offer from his end. Find out what they wanted. Unfortunately, from what he could see in the interrogators thoughts, the only thing they wanted was information. Cal was at a bit of a wall. He wasn’t quite sure how to proceed.

A sudden chime sounded in his ears.

You have discovered a quest!

Secure a diplomatic agreement with the Threnosh.

Success Parameters: Varied.

Failure Parameters: Varied.

Reward: Contingent.

Failure: Contingent.

Will you accept?

Yes, Cal thought.

“Interesting,” Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337.

“A quest? I have nev—”

Interrogator Ebbing Tides 2337 silenced Interrogator Ethereal Loaming 5623 with a perceptibly sharp glance.

“Designation: Honor, clarification is required.”

“Well, Tides, I’m thinking you just got a quest and from the looks on your faces that isn’t exactly something that happens a lot for you,” Cal grinned. “I’ll share if you share.”