Shades Of Forever

It doesn't take long for Dirt to vanish into the forest, off to gather the clan leaders. I walk up to one of the trees, resting my head against the cool white bark of its trunk. Even though I've only been gone a day, I already miss the soothing atmosphere of their shadowed depths, the comforting embrace of a leafy canopy overhead.

Naturally, the peaceful moment is almost immediately ruined.

"Chief," Huckens says fearfully, "why do the trees remind me of skeletons?"

"They possess a certain boney quality, lad, that they do," Chief Engineer MacWillie agrees quietly, hand still pressed to her side.

I spin around to face them.

"They're just trees! Haven't you ever seen trees before?"

"I've seen a number of trees on a number of worlds, Sky whatever you are, but I've never seen a tree like what you're calling one."

"Chief, the bottoms of the leaves look like blood!"

"It's a tree, Huckens!" I snap irritably. "Healthy trees always have bright red leaves underneath. That's how you know they're healthy."

Overhead, the leafy canopy rustles, as if agreeing with me.

"Sky," Chief Engineer MacWillie coughs, a short bark of sound that leaves her doubled over and grimacing in pain, "do you mind if the lad and I have a look at your 'trees' while we wait?"

"Of course you can look at them. They're trees. There's nothing special about them. Just don't cut them down."

Chief Engineer MacWIllie slowly straightens into a half crouch.

"Understood. Lad, hand me the multi-dimensional spectrographic analyzer."

Huckens digs into the bag attached to his belt and pulls out a twisted contraption covered in small rods and circular dishes. I try not to gawk at the fact that it's twice the size of the bag.

Non-causal storage space. Same as what we just acquired. Told you it was useful.

He hands the strange device to Chief Engineer MacWillie, and she stumps over to the tree I was leaning against.

"What does that do?" I ask her, watching curiously as she places it against the tree's trunk.

"Measures the current state of reality in a causal entity. We use it to calibrate the engines and-"

Her voice cuts off as every single circular dish on the contraption starts violently spinning in circles, accompanied by a piercing tone from each of the rods protruding along its length. She pulls it away with an oath, and the device immediately returns to a quiescent state. Bemused, she returns it to Huckens, who wordlessly stores it away in his bag and then collapses on his back.

The forest is silent except for the buzzing of insects and birdsong.

...now that's interesting. Explains the biomass to reversible death state efficiency...

"...so what does that mean?" I finally ask.

"You're sure we're out of Bumsnirphle's, lad?"

"Aye, Chief," Huckens responds morosely, lying on the forest floor, one arm draped over his face. Chief Engineer MacWillie heaves a huge sigh, then gingerly lowers herself to the loamy surface, spine resting against the tree trunk. She leans her head back against the white bark, hand once again pressed to her side, and closes her eyes.

"That's a crying shame. I could use a gallon or two right now."

"What's what you just did supposed to mean?" I demand, walking over to stand in front of her. "And what's a 'gallon?'" She cracks an eyelid.

"What it means, Sky whatever you are, is your 'tree' I'm so happily lounging against has enough reality coursing through its body that I could run a cruiser off it alone, and it's just one of a hundred visible." She sighs again. "Yet, somehow, instead of calling down the mother of all breaches, we're sitting here on this peaceful afternoon listening to the birds go all atwitter, and I don't have a drop of Bumsnirphle's to soothe my addled mind. Instead, I've a couple cracked ribs and a headache that won't go away."

"But they're just trees," I protest. "We've taken care of them for generations. How could they possibly have reality in them? I didn't even know what that was until I met Box."

Silence stretches out again. Huckens is the one to eventually break it.

"Chief?"

"Aye, lad?"

"Where are we?"

"I told you," I snap, rearranging Dirt's pack in order to give my hands something to do, "we're on Earth. That's where I live." I frown. One of the cloaks is missing. Crap. I left it on Fishhook when we attacked the base. Dirt is going to be unhappy. I'll have to find a way to make it up to him.

"...lad?"

"...yes, Chief?"

"I'm beginning to develop a sneaking suspicion that the Old Man's insistence on keeping the incognito field up was because he just might have brought us to Earth on his quest to track down the prototype. It would explain the lack of starcharts in the daily briefings."

"...well, fuck."

"Aye, lad."

"I don't understand what you're talking about at all," I complain, tying Dirt's pack closed. "Why wouldn't you want to be on Earth? It's nice here." I think for a moment, then amend my statement. "Well, here in the forest. Outside can be kind of dangerous. You have to watch out for Glowbeasts."

Chief Engineer MacWillie lifts her head away from the tree trunk and looks at me, heavy bags under her bloodshot eyes.

"How much do you know about Earth, Sky whatever you are?"

"The world ended on April first, in a year lost to us."

I sit down cross-legged and deliver the Tale of Beginnings the way Great Grandpa Axe taught me, pausing at the appropriate places, but Chief Engineer MacWillie and Huckens must not have ever heard it because they don't know the responses and I have to do both sides myself. After I finish, I stare at them expectantly.

"Well?"

Chief Engineer MacWillie looks at me oddly.

"...the never-god wept. That's the right day, but the rest of it... if what you're saying is true... bloody hell."

"Why wouldn't it be true?"

"Because the Ganymede Incident was the first known reality breach in the last five thousand years of recorded human history, which is about all the recorded human history we have. Everyone learns about it at some point, even in the remotest infonets. Even you've heard of it, right, lad?"

Huckens grunts a muffled affirmative, and Chief Engineer MacWillie continues.

"And he's from Wales IV, so that tells you just how widespread the knowledge is."

Huckens makes what I assume is a rude gesture towards her, but my attention is on her words.

"The end of the world... was a reality breach? Like what happened last night?"

"Aye, but it makes the one we just suffered through look like a birthday picnic in a zero-G park. The history is some sort of experimental lab around Jupiter poked reality a bit too hard, and after the Entity that came through was done poking back, it decided to settle on Earth for almost two thousand years. Forced humanity out into the rest of the stars, and forced us to learn how to harness reality properly to make a new life in places that shouldn't have supported us. When we finally got our shit together and came back to kick the first Entity out, we ended up destroying the moon in the process because the damn thing just wouldn't leave. The planet itself was absolutely knackered." She tries to suck in a breath but catches herself, grimacing in pain again. "You really don't know any of this? There's literally millions of action dramas about it floating around the infonets."

I shrug helplessly.

"I know life in the Beginning Time was difficult, and that without the trees, we would have died. That's why we take care of them, and each other."

Chief Engineer MacWillie narrows her eyes.

"Aye, and I'm suspecting there's a story to those trees that no one in the galaxy knows. You shouldn't be alive, Sky whatever you are. If this really is Earth, the Voidmarch has been trying to reclaim the planet for the last two thousand years, and even they haven't made it much past a few kilometers outside their spaceports. That Entity didn't leave peacefully."

"What's 'the voidmarch?'"

"One of the big five corpos, and the Voidmarch and Wutan-Weylan do not get along, especially when it comes to the Voidmarch's restricted territory, of which Earth most certainly belongs." She rubs a hand across her face, massaging the bridge of her nose. "The Old Man stuck us in a right mess, and that's the truth."

"Why is it every time someone talks it all gets worse?" Huckens moans. "I just wanted to make enough to retire and raise moonhounds." Chief Engineer MacWillie squints at him, then throws a pebble, beaning him in the shin. "Ow! What'd you do that for, Chief?"

"A space dog doesn't falter when the engines are screaming fit to burst and reality's trying to pull you under, young master Huckens! A space dog grabs their one-quarter and gets to adjusting!" Her bellow dies away as she clutches at her side, teeth clenched together. "Although, I could use some adjusting myself." She coughs, then stares at the red flecks in her palm. "Some serious adjusting."

"Are you okay, Chief?" Huckens sits up in alarm.

"I've been better, lad. I'm not dead yet, though. Close, but not yet."

"Chief-"

He's interrupted by the sounds of footsteps and quiet conversation, and then a group of figures emerge from between the trees. Broom Idiot is pushing Great Grandpa Axe's rolling chair, the one with the wide wheels for navigating the bumpy forest floor, and Needle Crafter and Butterfly Builder walk beside them, toolbelts hanging low across their broad hips. The five other clan leaders follow behind - Water Breeder, his hair tied into plaits and a large purse full of snacks tucked under his arm; Stove Mind, adjusting the spectacles on her thin nose as she steps daintily across the roots; Darkfern Baker, squat and smelling of fire and food; Moss Water, scribbling notes furiously in a small book, several more peeking out of her knapsack; and Window Doctor, his omnipresent black bag of medicines strapped to his back. Dirt and Torch bring up the rear, fading in and out of the shadows as they move.

I scramble to my feet.

"Great Grandpa Axe!"

I rush forward to gather him in a hug, being careful not to squeeze too hard. He feels even frailer under his blankets than normal, but he still has enough strength to grip me back.

"My darling Sky," he whispers back, "I'm so glad you've returned to us safely." We hold the hug a moment longer, and then break away. He looks up at me solemnly, his face that of Axe Memoriam, one of the village's nine clan leaders. "Now then. What wisdom have you brought back to the forest?"

I take a step back to give him room as the other clan leaders gather in a semi-circle around us. A sudden feeling of doubt assails me. What if they don't approve? What if Box was right, and bringing people from the ship, people that were hunting us, was the wrong thing to do?

Relax, Sky. If we need to, it will be trivially simple to dispatch them. The Chief Engineer is heavily wounded, and Huckens isn't a combat variant.

"Oh! Thank you, Box, for reminding me!" I pick out Window Doctor, his brows raising as I make eye contact. "Before I tell you all what happened, Chief Engineer MacWillie is hurt. I think it's pretty bad. She helped save the village last night."

"Someone should have told me there were injured," Window Doctor growls, racing over to MacWillie's side and shrugging his bag to the forest floor. "I could have gone ahead." He reaches out towards MacWillie's face and she leans away, eyeing him warily. "You just hold still, young lady," he snaps, putting his hand on her forehead. "Hmm. Fever, and definite signs of exhaustion." He rummages in his bag, then pulls out a stethoscope. "Hmmhmm. Fluid in the upper abdomen, heartbeat irregular." He puts the stethoscope away and lifts MacWillie's hand away from her side, examining the blood on it, then gently prods up and down, ignoring her hisses of pain. "Hmmhmmhmm, fractured ribs seven, eight, and nine, likely liver damage and internal bleeding from a nicked artery."

He sits back and regards Chief Engineer MacWillie critically.

"Tough, but salvageable. Sky Idiot!"

I hurry over to Window Doctor's side. I guess the Idiots did claim me after all.

"Yes, Mister Doctor?"

"This is your melty rock, you can help fix it. Help me get her flat on the ground. You take that shoulder, and on three, we gently lay her out."

I reach for Chief Engineer MacWillie's shoulder and she grabs my wrist in a firm grip.

"You sure about this, Sky whatever you are?"

"Oh, yes, Chief Engineer MacWillie. Mister Window Doctor knows all there is to know about medicine."

"No one knows all there is to know about medicine, Sky Idiot, and we're wasting time! On three."

Chief Engineer MacWillie rolls her eyes in disbelief, but allows me and Window Doctor to lower her to the ground. As soon as she's level, he starts pulling pouches out of the bag.

"Hmm, heartwood for the ribs... hmmhmm, bloodroot for the artery... hmmhmmhmm, the liver can heal on its own, but perhaps some powdered darkfern for infection..."

He sets three of the pouches aside and puts the others back into his bag, then looks at me.

"Your job is to hold her shoulders still. If she moves, it might disrupt the procedure, and there will be pain."

"Yes, Mister Doctor."

He looks around, eyes settling on Huckens, then he shakes his head.

"Dirt Idiot! You've done field surgeries before. Come hold her hips. And don't surprise us."

"You're no fun," Dirt complains, stepping out from behind the tree, but he winks at me as he kneels down by Chief Engineer MacWillie's upper legs. I smile back at him.

"Focus on the patient," Window Doctor barks, and I break eye contact guiltily, looking down. He opens the first pouch and extracts three thin pieces of pure white wood, delicate crimson veins barely visible on their lengths. From the second bag he pulls out a cluster of rust-colored roots, tangled together and branching to fine tendrils at their tips, and from the third comes a small waxpaper sachet, which he carefully opens, pouring a line of dark green powder into his canteen. Window Doctor swirls the canteen around and then caps it and hands it to me. "When we finish, make her drink it. Slowly."

I nod, and he picks up the cluster of roots.

"Beginning the procedure."

He carefully teases out the auburn strands into a delicate webwork, then lays it on Chief Engineer MacWillie's side, tracing a section of her body from her hip all the way up to her armpit. He makes one final adjustment, then lifts his hands away quickly. The red filigree twitches, then parts of it break away from a single point, tumbling up over her stomach and pooling there, but he's already placing the three white heartwood sticks on her lower chest. Once again he makes a slight adjustment, and then lifts his hands away. A small crack echoes from each stick, and several pieces shift out and away, one intersecting right where the pieces of root cluster spill out.

...impossible.

"Knew it," he smiles grimly. "Hold her still. This next part will hurt."

I make sure I'm pinning Chief MacWillie's shoulders to the ground without bruising her, glad of the enhanced strength Box grants me. She's so big I don't think I could have done it otherwise. Across from me, Dirt does the same with her hips, and Window Doctor leans down, hands hovering in position. He takes a deep breath, then moves.

He starts with the broken stick pieces that aren't touching the roots, deftly sliding them back against their larger wholes with practiced motions. Beneath me, Chief Engineer MacWillie yells in sudden pain, trying to thrash upward, but Dirt and I hold her steady. As each fragmented piece touches the larger part, it fuses back into place, the tracery of veins giving off a tiny flash, and each time, she tries to buck us free. When all but the piece touching the roots is in place, Window Doctor starts nudging the scattered rootlets on Chief Engineer MacWillie's stomach back towards the main accumulation, lips clenched in concentration as he herds them along. Right before they're about to touch the spot where the last wood fragment lies, he uses one hand to slide the small chip back into the stick, and the other quickly shifts the gathered mass of tendril pieces back over the tangled cluster, draping them along existing lines like a second layer. He then pinches the damaged root portion back together, holding it for one heartbeat, then another, then suddenly lifts his hands away from Chief MacWillie's body. She gives one last anguished moan and goes limp, the heartwood sticks and bloodroot filigree flash as a unified whole, and then the entire construction crumbles into dust and blows away.

...that's impossible! That was clearly a non-causal event, but I didn't register anything!

I ignore Box and gently lift Chief Engineer MacWillie's head, bringing the canteen to her lips. Her eyes roll weakly behind closed lids, but I manage to get her to drink the anti-infection mixture. When I lay her head back down, I notice Huckens is standing over us, looking down in a mixture of awe and suspicion.

"...what was that? Is the Chief gonna be okay?"

"The patient will be fine," Window Doctor declares, gathering his supplies back into his bag. "The operation was a success. Not easy, but not the most difficult I've seen." He wipes away some sweat clinging to his sandy blonde hair. "Still wasn't easy, though. Another ten minutes and it might have been too late."

I hand Mister Doctor back his canteen and climb to my feet, facing Huckens.

"That was medicine, Huckens. That's why we take care of the trees. Don't they have medicine out there?"

He slowly shakes his head, mouth falling open.

"You're going to catch flies if you keep doing that, Huckens."