Twelve Orbits More (Outer Wilds/???)

This entire fic is spoilers for Outer Wilds. If that bothers you, this is your last warning to turn back. The initial dialog up to the point of divergence is taken directly from the game. The crossover will take time to arrive, please be patient.

---

Deep within the comet that could one day have been known as the Interloper, a pair of Nomai were having a frantic conversation.

Staring at the stone core, the warp engineer named Poke noted "Whatever the matter inside this stone casing is, it's more than just profoundly unstable; it's under tonnes of pressure. Look at this density scan. I've never seen anything this tightly compacted before! What is this?"

Only a second later, the other Nomai present noted "This is orders of magnitude worse than I'd imagined. If this stone were to rupture, the lethal matter within would rapidly expand, completely blanketing this star system almost instantaneously. And the pressure is still building as the comet approaches this star system..."

Almost instantly Pye's resolve hardened "Return to the shuttle, right now! The rest of our friends need to know they're in terrible danger. Leave your equipment and run!"

Poke started in surprise as she asked "What are you doing, Pye!?"

Pye's answer was "The more we know about this alien matter, the better our chances of survival. I will learn what I can here. Go, warn the others; maybe they can construct shelter somehow. ...Now, Poke!"

In many universes, their story would come to an abrupt and tragic end mere seconds later as Poke tried to exit the Interloper and warn the rest of the Nomai. But in this universe, the core was just that little bit stronger. So Poke was able to make it to the surface of the comet.

Less than a minute later Poke boarded the shuttle and practically shouted at the shuttle's other occupant "Clary, we're all in grave danger! Pye's still under the surface learning what they can, but there's a highly pressurized casing of lethal exotic matter at risk of rupturing down there, and when it does it's going to blanket the entire solar system almost instantly! We need to warn everyone!"

Clary startled and immediately activated the shuttle's transmitter, calling out across the entire Eye system "This is Clary with the comet expedition! We've just discovered that the entire solar system is in grave danger; the comet's core contains a dangerous form of matter under extreme pressure! Evacuate everyone to the core of Ash Twin NOW! Bring food, air, construction materials, and farming supplies!"

Even as Clary was broadcasting the warning, Pye was already making their way to the surface. The core had held and the pressure was now decreasing, but it was displaying signs of severe material fatigue. At minimum, she estimated it would take eight more pressurization cycles for the core to rupture. But at most, they only had twelve orbits more. In addition, scans of the contained matter's properties had revealed a very important fact.

Important knowledge acquired, Pye hurried to the top of the Interloper's cave network, waiting for an opening to appear in the ice. Despite knowing the core would almost certainly hold for this particular dip close to the sun, Pye still felt her anxiety rise at the thought of the bomb deep beneath her feet increasing in pressure, the casing weakening even further.

Moments later, Pye was scrambling back towards the shuttle, and as soon as they climbed aboard told their companions "The death matter has its effects neutralized by water! It isn't destroyed by being submerged, but if you're immersed in water it won't hurt you!"

As Clary started hurriedly flying the shuttle towards Ash Twin (where the evacuation into one of the only safe locations was already well underway), Poke was already relaying the new information to Giant's Deep, saying "Phlox, the warp receiver! Set it to be constantly active in reverse mode and dump it into the sea! We need to flood Ash Twin so that the entrance to the core will be safe to use!"

Shortly afterwards, Phlox's voice came crackling through the transmitter "Big problem with that idea; Ash Twin's close enough to the sun for all that water to boil off in very short order, so unless you've got an idea to move the whole planet it's not going to be viable."

A second passed, then Poke said "The Advanced Warp Core in the Ash Twin Project. It was built to comparable specifications as the one used in the Vessel originally. It will be notably stressed by such use, but it should be capable of warping the entirety of Ash Twin to a further distance given the level of power the solar towers collect in normal operation."

Six orbits later, everyone who could be retrieved had been directed to the safety of Ash Twin's core. The residents of the Hanging and Sunless cities were all present and accounted for, those living on Giant's deep were long-since through the warp, and Solanum had been hastily retrieved from the quantum moon.

Poke had spent almost all of that time reconfiguring the Ash Twin's internal machinery for warp travel. It had already been decided that they would be going to an interstellar destination, a nearby star system had been selected, and the coordinates had been entered. Now they were just waiting for the exact right moment to warp, so that Ember Twin's adjusted orbit wouldn't send it crashing into the sun or any of the other planets.

The moment arrived, Poke hit the button, the warp core crackled with energy, and with the trademark distortion of spacetime the Ash Twin vanished from its original star system, now covered in sandy mud and filled with frightened Nomai.

After a moment, one of the children asked "Is it over? Did we survive?"

Pye simply nodded, replying "Yes, yes we did. Now let's step outside and figure out what our new home is like."

 

Under the yellow light of a new sun, the Nomai were gathered on the muddy surface of Ash Twin. They had already needed to make a few smaller warps to ensure their improvised starship wouldn't crash into anything, but now they had some breathing room. As such they'd set up a rudimentary pavilion, where they were having a discussion about their subsequent course of action.

One of the first to speak was Ilex, a long-standing critic of the search for the Eye of the Universe. Immediately, Ilex pointed out "For the longest time I've been advocating that we build a new Vessel and resume travelling as is traditional for Nomai. It seems I was just vindicated; when death came for us it wasn't signal locators or convoluted energy-wasting time travel that saved us. It was interstellar travel, the same as our ancestors before us did regularly. I'm firmly of the opinion that we should take this near-disaster as a cue to get on with our lives and leave this episode of our history behind us."

For a few moments no-one offered a counter-argument. Then another youth angrily stormed to the podium. It was only after she turned to face the crowd for a brief moment that the rest recognized her as Solanum, given the heavy environment suits they were all still wearing.

Solanum started verbally tearing into Ilex then and there, loudly exclaiming "How could you say that Ilex!? The only reason we had a way to evacuate everyone in time is because of all the work put into the Ash Twin Project! The advanced warp core was made because we dreamed of finally finishing our ancestors' mission to reach the Eye, the warp towers that were instrumental in evacuating the same! Yes we will need to build new homes here to continue the quest, but when you think about it we've only suffered a minor setback! No-one died, we lost no important knowledge, and we've even still got the most critical parts of the physical equipment."

The two of them continued to argue for nearly a minute before an older and wiser adult stepped in, namely Poke. Poke remarked "You both have very good points, and I for one wish to continue the search for the Eye. However, the fundamental reason the Ash Twin Project was put on hiatus still has not been addressed; the Sun Station failed, and without it the solar collectors on Ash Twin can only sustain a negative time interval of thirty seconds or so, assuming a close stellar orbit."

Mallow immediately asked "Perhaps we could pursue advanced gravity cannon technology, so the probe could cover the entire search vector in thirty seconds? Or perhaps make a warp-capable probe?"

Poke looked thoughtful for a few moments as she mulled over the idea. She didn't get to finish before Laevi asked "If the Ash Twin can do thirty seconds, why not send the data back thirty seconds, then do it again before thirty seconds are up?"

Ramie and Poke immediately started talking over the physics of the whole idea, before Ramie noted "I can't think of a reason it wouldn't work, in principle. If this turns out to be effective it will drastically improve the energy efficiency of time travel. Still, some basic tests must be performed."

Idly, Mallow mused "Even aside from the Eye of the Universe, energy efficient time travel will have lots of applications. We'll be able to perform dangerous experiments with no true risk, along with providing advance warning of other disasters."

Only now did Yarrow step into his role as a leader of Nomai society. As he came to the front of the assembly he said "We have been through much in recent days, fleeing our home in the face of oncoming disaster. Spire, Poke, Pye, Clary, I sincerely thank you all for the advance warning that allowed us to survive. But now, we as a clan need to make an important decision. Do we continue our search for the Eye of the Universe or not? All in favor please raise your hand."

All but three rose their hand, Ilex being one of those who did not.

Yarrow tilted his head a little at Ilex, before continuing "Very well. In that case there is the matter of approach to consider. The Eye's system is no-doubt heavily contaminated with deadly matter at this point in time, meaning that the idea of trying to directly resettle it is dubious at best. If we wish to travel back and forth between here and there, it is clear that a second advanced warp core will need to be constructed in order to propel a vehicle suitable for interstellar travel. However, the matter of whether to construct the spacecraft first or perform the time travel experiments first is worth asking."

Poke spoke up again now "Yarrow, these are projects that can be done in parallel. It will take some time to construct manufacturing facilities suitable for producing advanced warp cores, and in the intervening time it will be quite easy for Ramie and Pye to perform the time travel experiment; Ash Twin already has all the needed equipment, while the construction of advanced warp cores will need significant infrastructure before it is viable."

Yarrow noted "In that case our course of action is settled. Ramie and Pye will be experimenting with time travel. Poke will head the efforts towards producing interstellar transports. And I will help direct construction of permanent settlements here."

 

A/N: Something you may have noticed is that despite only having a white hole core, the warp receiver pads are capable of generating a black hole to send users back to their paired sending pads. This implies the existence of a "reverse gear" in even simple Nomai warp cores.

---

Almost the entire Nomai population had been cleared out of Ash Twin's core now that Yarrow had helped get the new cities under construction on an adjacent (and intensely magnetic) rocky planet named Lodestone Glen. While good for farming in, the mud now covering the Ash Twin didn't exactly make for stable building foundations aside from the now mostly defunct warp towers (though one had been repurposed for public transit to and from Lodestone Glen).

This left Ramie and Pye with plenty of room to work for their new time travel experiment. It had been decided that for safety and complexity reasons they'd only be transmitting data at the moment, but that should be more than enough to validate the theoretical basis for the experiement. They'd had to do a lot of tinkering with firmware and hardware to eliminate sources of error, but at this point they were fairly certain they'd be able to test it.

With the flip of a control bead the power for the warp device was turned on, an adjacent black hole and white hole forming in the machine's core.

Pye noted as she checked the readout "I'm getting a negative time interval of about three seconds at current levels of power. Ramie, queue the test packet."

Ramie replied "Understood. I'll start figuring out a message to send now."

At that exact moment a "message received" ping appeared on Pye's console, Pye reading off "To Pye, if you are reading this before the attached timestamp the experiment worked. See attached video file for evidence."

Pye quickly opened up the file and immediately blushed in embarrassment, hurriedly closing it as she noted "Ramie, the version of you from fifteen minutes in the future is flirting with me and I'm not sure how to feel about that."

Ramie hurriedly changed the topic "Well, we've confirmed that the methodology works for sending information back. I suppose we should inform Poke and the rest of our friends."

There was a moment before Pye noted "Actually there is one thing we should do first. Theoretical models show that time travel involving physical matter has a much higher risk associated with paradoxes, to the point of devastating entire star systems. I'm not suggesting we test it because I'd rather keep living and I don't think time travel could get us out of this one, but some relevant safety features are in order."

Ramie puzzled over it for a few moments, before asking "What are you suggesting, an emergency shutdown if any future point in the session detects physical matter being put through the time hole?"

Pye answered "That sounds like a very good idea. I'd really rather not chance exposure to spacetime shattering even by proxy."

At that exact moment the white hole opened and a message arrived on the console, datemarked from approximately a year in the future.

Ramie quickly opened it, reading

"Past us, please avoid over-reliance on time travel to acquire information that could be practically uncovered by other means. Needing to actually put the work in is important for keeping in practice, and an endless stream of answers from the future sabotages that immensely. Several of our future selves have been pointlessly injured or killed due to shoddy experiment design as a result. Please avoid making this same mistake. Searching for the Eye of the Universe does not fall under this category as the information cannot be reasonably acquired by other means.

Sincerely Ramie and Pye."

Ramie and Pye shared a look at the unexpected warning, before Pye noted "We should probably tell the others about this, Poke especially."

---

Meanwhile Poke was working in the new Warp Core Forge on Lodestone Glen's moon Anode, a shockingly electrified body with a penchant to zap Lodestone Glen with massive arcs of space lightning (which had quickly been harnessed to provide electrical power to the City On The Summit). They'd finished installing all the tooling for basic work, and now it was time to put it to the test.

Root noted "Don't get too ambitious today, we're still not set up to produce advanced warp cores. Right now we'll simply be making a trio of white hole cores to link Anode, Lodestone Glen and Ash Twin without needing to use shuttles all the time. We've already got spare black hole cores from Ash Twin so we won't be needing to make those at the moment."

Clary replied "Don't worry, I understand our equipment's current limitations so I'm not going to try and build something we don't yet have the tools to create. Anyway, shall we begin?"

What followed was hours of work as circuitry was wired, power supplies were connected, and a pulse of carefully modulated energy was applied to force a tiny white hole into existence inside the durable crystalline casing.

Still, it was done quickly and efficiently. Poke looked upon the two completed warp cores with happiness as she quickly socketed one into the warp pad that would link the Warp Core Forge with the City On The Summit.

Clary called out behind her "See you soon Poke!"

Poke replied "Absolutely, just have to link Lodestone Glen with Ash Twin first." before the newly connected warp pad activated in reverse mode and she vanished off to the City.

 

Solanum stared out into space from her new home on Lodestone Glen, her gaze fixed on one particularly bright star in the night sky.

One of the many lightning bolts from Anode crashed down into the City's lightning collectors, and despite being used to it by now Solanum still flinched at the flash and noise.

That's when Solanum noticed someone else approaching, turning around to see her mentor Bells approaching with a steaming hot kettle in hand.

Bells asked "Staring at our old home?"

Solanum answered "Yes. I have so many memories of growing up in the Sunless City and around the other planets. But now it's all been poisoned, rendered uninhabitable by death matter. Even the Quantum Moon is no longer safe."

Bells sat down and started pouring out some tea for herself and Solanum "I think I know how you're feeling. I had invested so much of my effort into teaching people about quantum phenomena that I'm not quite sure what to do with myself in a star system where there's hardly any of it to be found, aside from the normal microscopic uncertainty of atoms and molecules."

Solanum got up from her seat at the table and walked over to a cabinet "There's something I can give you that might help with that, I think." before opening and closing the door several times in quick succession.

Bells tilted her head to the side in curiosity at this odd display, but didn't say anything just yet.

Then Solanum exclaimed "Ah, there you are!" and pulled an object out of the cabinet, keeping her gaze firmly locked on it as she brought it over to the table.

Bells gasped in shock "Solanum, is that?" at the sight of the blue swirl-patterned stone Solanum had just placed on the table.

Solanum answered "Yes, it's a stone from the Quantum Moon's sixth location. It was a bit of an impulsive decision, but I took it with me when I was being evacuated. It got away from me several times on the trip here, but as you can see I've always managed to find it again."

Bells continued staring at the stone for several moments, unwilling to look away from it out of justified fear that it would vanish if she took her attention off it for even a moment. "Solanum... I legitimately don't know what to say about this. I find myself simultaneously glad that you did this and horrified that you took even a little bit of extra time during the evacuation."

---

Yarrow was currently busy with standard administrative work to keep the City on the Summit working smoothly when he received a call from Poke. Stepping into the projection pool, Yarrow found himself in the simulated version of the Warp Core Forge, as Poke held a familiar object in hand.

"Poke, is that a second Advanced Warp Core?"

Poke answered "Yes, though it's not quite ready yet; it needs to have its singularities ignited before it will be useful for anything. With this and the third unit we've already started work on we'll be able to start sending expeditions to the Eye's system in earnest."

Yarrow thought for a moment, then asked "Presumably the plan to locate the Eye's exact coordinates using a warp-capable probe is what has ultimately been selected?"

"Yes, and the experiments with time travel have also given us an idea for a safety feature to avoid a repeat of the Vessel's fate. Using a large high-discharge capacitor it should be possible to have the ship send a very brief message back in time to just before it jumped. A concise damage report should fit, and if the navigation computer receives data that indicates a jump is unsafe it can abort."

"Right, I'll make sure to get Cassava and Daz to include this in their plans for the miniaturized Vessel. I don't think Mallow or Avens should be involved in this; they seem more likely to incorporate some kind of hideously dangerous power supply to try making a ship that can go back several minutes under its own power."

Poke winced at the thought of that "Yes, I agree. Keep Mallow and Avens as far away from this project as possible please. Maybe have them work on the probe design, since that doesn't need quite so strict safety margins."

Yarrow nodded thoughtfully and stepped out of the projection pool. There was still plenty of administrative work to do, and Poke needed to get back to work on producing the next advanced warp core.

 

The warp shuttle was ready. The Advanced Warp Core was installed along with a couple backup simple cores, the momentum engines were tuned, the hull was nice and sturdy, and the water-filled airlock chamber was ready.

Yarrow had made it quite clear about what they were supposed to be doing there: secure a contained sample of death matter for study, recover any important data from the computer systems that were left behind, and return personal effects if they could be successfully decontaminated.

So with equipment prepared and nerves steeled, the trio of Spire, Conoy, and Bells boarded the warp shuttle.

Conoy noted "Given the oddities surrounding Dark Bramble, I think we should warp in well above the orbital plane. I don't want to risk getting caught up in that, nor having any unplanned collisions with planets in general."

Spire replied "I can arrange that easily enough." quickly inputting the warp coordinates for the ship. An infinitesimal fraction of a second earlier, they'd arrived safely in space around the Eye's star.

Quickly taking a snapshot of the star system, the trio of Nomai were confronted with blue-green auroras of death matter surrounding every planet save the Dark Bramble. All three stared in silence for several moments, the severity of the catastrophe that had taken place finally sinking in.

Eventually Spire broke the silence "I think we should land on Brittle Hollow first; it has the most relevant facilities to investigate. Even leaving aside technical information in the Black Hole Forge, there's the Southern Observatory to visit, along with the Hanging City."

Bells agreed, and started taking the shuttle in for a landing. It quickly breached the de facto atmosphere of death matter that had formed over the planet, and touched down in the gravity cannon, the airtight hull of the shuttle keeping the deadly matter out. At the same time, the console lit up to indicate that exterior storage compartment B had been filled with death matter, and was now sealed tight.

Bells turned to Spire and Conoy, reminding them "Remember, once you're in your water suits you won't be able to replenish your oxygen until you get back to the shuttle, otherwise you'll intake a lethal amount of death matter. I estimate that you've got half an hour of breathing time before you absolutely must be back here."

Spire was already partway through suiting up, having already connected the input port on the wearable water bag to the filling hose. He replied "I understand the dangers, Bells. We're going to make multiple trips for safety; visiting the Southern Observatory first, then coming back here before our trip to the Black Hole Forge, then coming back here again before visiting the Hanging City."

As Spire and Conoy finished suiting up, Bells nodded in approval "Glad to hear you're not planning on loitering for extended periods out in those conditions. Please stay safe."

With that, the two of them entered the airlock. The inner door closed and the chamber quickly filled with water, then the outer door released Spire and Conoy onto the surface of Brittle Hollow.

Fortunately almost all the transport infrastructure built here was still in pristine operating condition, so without delay the two started making their way to the southern observatory. The entire time their suits were warning them of dangerous death matter concentrations, while simultaneously shielding them from the lethal effects with a layer of water.

It only took a couple minutes for the pair of Nomai to reach their destination, Conoy informing Bells of their progress as Spire set about downloading crucial information. The task complete, Spire and Conoy started making their way back.

The two had already made it back to the ship when something off went wrong. They were in the water-filled airlock when Bells noted over comms "Spire, Conoy, we have a bit of an issue. According to sensors significant amounts of death matter have leaked into your suits. You haven't noticed any ill effects yet thanks to being submerged, but I'm not sure how to get you out alive. Any ideas?"

Spire asked "The water intake line we used to fill the suits in the first place, can it be used with a suction pump? If we're in the waterlock at the time we'll survive even if the death matter remains in contact with our body, but flushing the water in the suit might just take the death matter with it."

"Spire, Conoy, are you sure? We'll definitely contaminate the warp shuttle's water reserves with death matter if we do this and need to return to Lodestone Glen before continuing the mission."

Conoy answered "We're sure, we're on a very tight time limit before our air reserves run out and we need to get out of these suits before that happens. We'll connect the ports on our suits and you run the pump in reverse."

Bells immediately got to work redoing some of the plumbing on the warp shuttle, and upon confirming with the two suited Nomai activated the suction machine. About a minute later, Bells checked the sensors for the airlock, noting "There's some trace amounts of death matter left in there, but they shouldn't be sufficient to cause any noticeable harm. I'm going to flush the airlock now."

With that the water drained out of the airlock and the two explorers started stripping off their water suits before joining Bells in the pressurized cabin. Bells noted "I'm going to be putting the shuttle through some maneuvers to make sure no unauthorized death matter has stuck to it before we warp back. Really don't want to contaminate the landing bay."

Meanwhile Spire was just staring out at the planets of the Eye's system, asking "We're coming back soon, aren't we?"

"We will return. We just need to improve our safety equipment for the task at hand."

 

In the mission command module for the Probe Warp Center, Yarrow was consulting with Mallow about the design of the warp probe.

"I want to be absolutely clear Mallow, if the probe explodes on launch because of your overenthusiasm I will be holding you personally responsible."

Mallow answered "That shouldn't be an issue. The device warping the probe is external to the probe itself; while the probe does have a simple black hole core aboard, that device is purely for retrieval and running at very low power. I estimate that the probe will be able to check at least ten sets of coordinates each five minute loop. There'd be no way to fit the sort of power supply the Advanced Warp Core needs for rapid fire jumps like that into a probe that small."

Elsewhere, Privet was busy getting the new Probe Tracking Module fitted to work with the data from the warp equipped probe. The data retrieved from the previously constructed Orbital Probe Cannon by the warp shuttle expeditions was proving extremely useful here as it saved an awful lot of work coding the new tracking system.

Back in the City on the Summit, Phlox was busily crafting a new set of memory statues and linking them to the masks in Ash Twin. The entire set had been left behind in the Eye's system during the evacuation, so new ones were needed and Phlox was making sure they'd be available. It took a couple weeks of work for each statue, both sculpting the physical structure of the device and installing the esoteric quantum circuitry that let them actually function. But soon the entire set would be ready.

And deep within the core of Ash Twin Ramie was double-checking the temporal netcode required, running test loops over and over again to make sure everything would operate perfectly.

In less than a year after the evacuation the Escall Nomai clan had their new and improved version of the probe loop machine up and ready to go. Memory statues were placed in the core of Ash Twin, all three modules of the Advanced Warp Projector, and in Yarrow's quarters of the City.

With his projection pool in conference call mode, Yarrow asked "Ramie, is the Ash Twin Project ready for temporal transmissions?"

Ramie answered "Absolutely, it's been ready almost since the evacuation, and with the new expansions to the power supply we've managed to extend its negative time interval to twelve seconds. It will be more than sufficient for running a time loop of any duration we desire."

Yarrow tilted his head in appreciation, before turning to Mallow "Has the warp projector and retrieval system been properly stress-tested?"

Mallow immediately answered "Yes, I've been testing the systems for the probe repeatedly over the last few weeks. It will function as required."

"Privet, is the probe tracking system ready?"

"Yes, I've been testing with Ramie to ensure it will work as required. We're ready."

"In that case, initiate the Eyeseeker system."

All across the star system, the eyes of the statues Phlox built snapped open as they paired with their respective Nomai as a white hole flashed into existence in the core of Ash Twin. In the Probe Tracking Module the loop counter immediately snapped to well over thirty million loops, even as Privet frantically told everyone that the Eye had been located and the loop could be shut down. And then, rising out of the tracking module's central pool were the coordinates that every Nomai on this seemingly doomed quest had been desperate to see.


The location of the Eye of the Universe was now known.

---

It only took a few days to organize warp shuttle trips to the eye, mostly due to arguing over who would be on the initial journey; after all there were still only two operational warp shuttles. And the second only because the advanced warp core in the probe projector had been repurposed since it was no longer needed.

In the end Yarrow had decreed that a lottery system would be used to decide who would be on the first trip to the Eye of the Universe, with the caveat that qualified warp shuttle pilots would of course be required for each flight. Even Ilex had signed up for a lot in the random selection, most of his animosity about trying to find the Eye having vanished now that it had actually been done.

As it turned out the very first trip to the Eye would bring Solanum, Ilex, Poke, Pye, and Bells as pilot. Without further delay, Bells took them up and slotted in the warp coordinates for the Eye. Spacetime bent as the Advanced Warp Core did its job, and suddenly the warp shuttle was in orbit around a dark blue orb surrounded by a disk-shaped cloud of mist and illuminated by sheaths of quantum lightning.

Solanum gasped in awe at the sight, Poke began recording measurements, and Bells remarked "It's beautiful."

After several moments of observation even Ilex admitted "Yeah, it's pretty neat. But what's that green thingy orbiting it over there?" as he pointed out a small object visible in the distance.

Bells answered "I don't know. Let's go observe and identify it, shall we?" as she swiftly maneuvered the warp shuttle over.

As the spacecraft drew closer, Poke noted "It's obviously some sort of device, but we certainly didn't build it. We aren't the first species to reach the Eye. I wonder what it does?"

Solanum answered "I'm not sure, but I think I see a directional antenna on it and it's pointed towards the sun. Whoever made it is probably there in a place we've not found yet."

Ilex lowered his head "They're probably dead then, given the explosion of death matter we only barely escaped from. Still, we should probably go investigate what remains of them."

 

Ultimately finding the hidden ring world in a timely manner had required firing up the looped probe machine again, which had in turn required the construction of yet another advanced warp core. By now Poke was actually considering automating production, as it was getting quite tedious and she wanted to focus on even more sophisticated warp technologies.

Of course even once the Stranger had been located, there was still the matter of it being completely full of death matter. While it was true that a water suit offered reasonable protection from the material's deadly effects, they were uncomfortable for long periods and inconvenient to use.

Still, the knowledge of what had gone on here was important enough to deal with the hassle. So a set of expeditions was being arranged to explore the structure. Absolute first priority was constructing an outpost free of death matter on the outside of the Stranger, both for landing the warp shuttles, and also for providing oxygen resupply lines for those exploring the Stranger's interior.

It only took a couple of hours after the outpost was constructed for the existence of the simulated world to be discovered, and from there things went a couple different directions at once. First off, a spare artifact was sent to Phlox's workshop for him to analyze.

Upon receiving the item in question, the Nomai craftsman immediately started scanning the device. It only took him a few moments to remark "This device is remarkably similar in effect to the memory statues and masks created for the Ash Twin Project. However there seem to be a few notable differences in operation, which I will need some time to discover."

While that was going on, Ilex and Solanum were busily attempting to establish contact with the surviving Owlks in the simulation. It was clear that they really didn't want visitors given how persistent they were at extinguishing the explorer's artifacts. Still, after a couple days of this the lot of them eventually got the hint that the two trespassers weren't about to give up.

From there the tedious project of overcoming the language barrier could begin, something fully expected to take months.

Back in the statue workshop, the artifact was inspiring a major breakthrough. Looking at the design diagram of the item in question, Phlox pointed out to Daz "I'm still not quite sure about the role of the flame in this device, but this item seems to not only be capable of storing the mental state of its user, but running it in real time. That explains the presence of the Owlks in their simulated world, even though they're long dead, biologically speaking."

Looking at the diagram, Daz asked "Do you think we could achieve something similar? Making a device capable of storing and running a Nomai's mind? I don't think that we should dive into simulations like the Owlks did, but being able to transfer our elderly and dying into artificial bodies could avert many tragedies."

Phlox considered the idea for a moment "Probably, though it will be a difficult project. Thinking we should get Mallow, Avens, and Privet involved in designing the artificial bodies, while we work on the mental aspects of the system. Still, this could be the greatest advance in medicine in the entire history of the Nomai, so I'm quite eager to begin."

A couple months passed as things progressed. The explorers of the Stranger slowly cleaned out the Death Matter as they figured out how to speak with the Owlks. The newly named Project Immortality began its first tests of mind transfer technology. And the signal blocker device at the Eye was disassembled for study.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first real conversation with the Owlks was on rather tense terms. Once it became clear a conversation was possible, the very first thing Solanum said was "We found the Eye of the Universe, no thanks to you."

With a dead on stare, Sryga (the lead Owlk) answered "You have doomed us all. If you so much as touch that abomination it will destroy the entire universe."

Ilex scoffed "Please, we've taken a look at the Eye's storm. All its energies are flowing out to another spacetime. Even if it did produce a universe-sized explosion it wouldn't be here."

"You haven't seen the vision, have you? The Eye will kill us all."

Solanum asked "What vision, exactly?"

Reluctantly, Sryga answered "Fine, I will show you. Follow me." before leading the two Nomai to the archive where the slide reels were kept.

What followed was a slide show, depicting the events of scanning the Eye with a vision torch. The vision's eye glared a malevolent red when touched, flooding the entire universe. Then a scene of grass growing from the skulls of the fallen was clearly shown.

At the end, Sryga crowed "See, the Eye itself told us what would happen! If we interact with it in any way, the universe will come to a premature end!"

Solanum thought about it for a moment "While you do have a point, we fortunately have a way to test that hypothesis without risking the universe's safety. If you'll excuse me, I think it's time to go for a quick swim."

As the two Nomai walked towards the water, Sryga shouted after them "What are you going to do!?"

Solanum's response as she left was a very flippant answer "time travel."

 

Shortly after exiting the simulation and going through death matter decontamination, Solanum and Ilex had taken the next warp shuttle back to the City on the Summit. From there it had been a fairly straightforward matter of tracking down Ramie, who was still working in the core of Ash Twin.

Ramie greeted the pair of youths as they entered through the warp pad "Ah, Solanum, Ilex, what brings you to the Ash Twin Project?"

Ilex spoke first "We need to use the Ash Twin Project to retrieve information about the Eye of the Universe."

Ramie's expression became rather quizzical at that "Oh? Did you learn something important on the Stranger?"

Solanum answered "The Owlk think someone entering the Eye will instantly destroy the universe. We're pretty sure they're wrong, but we really should get around to testing that. If we use the Ash Twin Project we can get access to the information before anyone actually enters, just on the off chance the Owlk are correct."

Ramie thought for a moment "Solanum, Ilex, do you intend to enter the Eye? You know that's a one way trip."

Ilex responded "Solanum does."

Solanum answered "I was thinking that if I was paired with a memory statue I'd be able to come back in time from entering the Eye, in a manner of speaking."

"That won't work, the flow of information into the eye is one way like a warp hole... Wait, if you have an open warp with you, that might just allow the signal to stay connected through the Eye."

Solanum asked "So is the idea workable?"

Ramie hummed "Probably, but it will take a little bit to get everything set up. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call Phlox, then Poke."

---

Barely a week later, everything was ready. Solanum had been paired into the Ash Twin Project with a statue and mask, and her satchel contained a basic warp device linking her signal back to Ash Twin.

Bells took the warp shuttle in for a landing, touching down on the opposite side of the Eye from its quantum storm. As Solanum prepared to disembark onto the Eye's surface, she heard Bells "Solanum, I really hope this goes like you think it will."

Solanum took a moment to answer "It will." before stepping onto the surface of the eye.

Quantum lightning flashed around her as she hiked towards the storm, rocks and trees blinking in and out of existence Minutes passed until she arrived at the center of the vortex. There she found an odd structure resembling a partial dome in the Eye's surface. Some cautious steps revealed that the upper part had gravity oriented towards its surface, and Solanum took the opportunity to walk up.

Soon, the vortex was below Solanum, and summoning her courage, she jumped.

She fell through the vortex for several moments, before abruptly finding herself somewhere else entirely. It looked an awful lot like the inside of the Ash Twin Project. However, the warp pad to exit didn't seem to be present.

So Solanum took her time, looking around the replica of the facility. All the readouts were present, but what they said was... Ominous, and bizarre.

By far the most concerning was the one saying "Estimated time until universe becomes inhospitable to life: 281,0039 years. π√׶∆={ approaching Eye of the Universe at c."

That... That was a lot less time than anyone had thought was left. Previous estimates of universe lifespan had been firmly in the billions of years or longer before star formation would peter out.

Still, after looking around for a bit, Solanum figured she might as well see if there was an advanced warp core in here. So she turned off the artificial gravity, and opened the casing to see... What seemed to be a miniature galaxy. Solanum floated up for a closer look, the details growing finer and finer as she did. Finally she could almost grab it in her hands, staring deep into the spiral of stars.

Then her perspective... snapped, for lack of a better term. Solanum couldn't help but exclaim "What's going on!?" as she suddenly found herself falling from the treetops of an incredibly vast forest. Quickly she used her gravity boots to slow herself for a gentle landing, looking around in the ancient glade.

There were galaxies everywhere. Solanum looked around at the display of the universe interspersed with trees in awe... for all of a few moments before the galaxies exploded into nothing, plunging the forest into darkness.

After a few moments in the dark, Solanum spotted the signal analyzer on her staff. There was someone out here. So, having no better ideas the Nomai explorer started walking towards the unknown signal. A minute of walking later, she came to a clearing with a not-currently-lit campfire in the middle.

Only now did Solanum realize she wasn't alone. Two others had entered the clearing at the same time as her. The first was clearly based on an Owlk, but they were... different. Their body was clearly artificial, and one of their antlers was much shorter than the other.

As for the other, they were a species Solanum did not recognize. Their space suit was patched and worn, and their equipment was of crude, but serviceable make.

It was a major surprise when the unknown greeted them "Ah, Solanum, Steru. It's nice to finally meet the both of you."

Solanum started in surprise, as did the mechanical Owlk. After a moment, Solanum asked "I don't think I know you?"

 

The unknown replied "You wouldn't know me; from your perspective my people haven't even evolved yet, but we need your help."

Solanum looked around the clearing "I'm not quite sure what exactly you mean by that?"

The unknown asked "Quick question, but do either of you have a device on you transmitting data to your native time?"

Seru replied "No, I do not."

As for Solanum, she answered "I do, actually. I'm also hooked up to a memory statue that will bring my mind back in time when I'm done with whatever needs doing here."

The Hearthian sighed "Solanum, my people are native to Timber Hearth. By the time the ghost matter has receded enough for us to live on land, and we've figured out space travel, we'll have barely any time left before our sun explodes. Your people, the Nomai, left just enough stuff behind for us to figure out what the Eye of the Universe is. I was the first explorer sent here, and I got the none-too-pleasant experience of watching everyone I knew and loved die when I was halfway through the voyage."

Solanum sighed thoughtfully, as Seru the mechanical Owlk quietly shuffled off to one side. "I believe you. Thing is, I'm not so sure how we can actually help. The universe is going to be dying out by that time, so even if we left you with a full set of instructions for making advanced warp cores I'm not sure it would do anything for you. Also what's your name, by the way?"

"My name's Phyllite. And the reason you can help is because somehow your people figured out a way to safely pass through the Eye and reach the next universe. I don't know what it is exactly, but the writings you left behind on the Eye say you managed it. If you can figure out how to pass that information on to us, we'll have a glimmer of hope."

Solanum thought on the matter for a moment "I'll see what I can do. If you like I might even be able to convince my people to leave behind a fully operational evacuation ship on Timber Hearth."

Phyllite hummed unhappily at that "We do need to stand on our own to a degree. We need to figure out space travel on our own, or we'll be forever in your shadow as a species. Really what we need most is more time to figure stuff out before the sun blows up."

Solanum couldn't help herself, bleating happily as she replied "I think we can help with that. It's information only on pain of destroying spacetime, but we've recently developed highly useful time travel technology. If we rig up a time loop system on Timber Hearth we can artificially increase the amount of time you'll have to figure out safely passing through the Eye. Won't be able to speed up physical construction on its own, but having most of a generation of advance warning for the supernova should be long enough to build an evacuation vessel."

"Solanum, thank you, and I really hope you're right."

This is when Seru noted "While I'm glad Phyllite's people will be helped, that is not why I entered the Eye. The new universe must be made, in order for the rest of our people to arrive in it safely. There are things that must be done."

It was Phyllite who asked "Is it just me, or has that pile of wood in the middle of the clearing changed slightly?"

Solanum looked at it. Indeed it had, now looking like an unlit campfire. "Well, let's see what happens when we light it, shall we?"

Seru obliged, lighting the fire with a beam of energy. Everyone stared at the fire crackling away for a bit, before Phyllite asked "Well now what?"

"We'll need the others."

All three whirled to look at the unexpected voice, seeing an elderly Hearthian sitting in a rocking chair.

Phyllite exclaimed "Esker? What are you doing here?"

Esker simply answered "Waiting. We'll need everyone, for what happens next."

And so the three explorers found themselves traversing the ancient glade, finding memories of those who they had met on their travels. Solanum gathered Bells, Poke, Pye, Yarrow, and Ramie. Phyllite collected Feldspar, Gabbro, Chert, and Riebeck. Seru gathered only two: Sryga, and the only other Owlk who'd supported their decision to deactivate the signal blocker.

And with that everyone played one last song around the campfire, the smoke coalescing into a sphere of shimmering possibilities over the campfire.

Solanum found herself asking "So? What do we do now?"

Seru answered "In order to collapse the possibilities into a single universe we will need to observe them, and we cannot do so from outside the orb."

Phyllite noted "If it's alright with you, I'd like to do it together."

And that's how Solanum got a front row seat to the birth of a universe. The first time.

---

Suddenly Solanum woke up in the Ash Twin's core with a splitting headache and a whole lot of new memories. Ramie immediately put a hand on her shoulder, asking "Solanum, are you well?"

On her part, Solanum was frantically going for the note-taking program on her staff, saying "Sorry, can't talk right now, I need to write all this down before I forget!"

Ramie sighed "...You do recall that we put an audio recorder in your bag, transmitting back to here? You can relax a bit, we have a computerized record of everything that was said. Now, what's got you in such a frantic state?"

Solanum answered "A spacefaring species is going to evolve on Timber Hearth just before the end of the universe, and they need our help."