Okay, this was bad. Super, incredibly, unbelievably bad. Even Jacob knew that much, which given how little he remembered with this whole supernatural amnesia thing, said a lot about how bad it really was. This was the end of the timeline sort of bad, so maybe it was no wonder he remembered it and knew why it was a problem. If they didn’t do something about this, the Earth would change dramatically. Absolutely no question about it, this was a problem they had to fix.

  Somehow, he managed to keep his voice from cracking and squeaking dramatically, though it was a close thing. “Well, that sounds bad, for sure. Are you absolutely certain they were taken and not…” He paused, considering his words carefully before finishing with a flat, “killed? Or even lost out in space? If there’s a chance they might be floating around out there somehow--”

  “They’re not,” Optio Madeli assured him with a grimace. “Believe me, I saw the Fomorians take them aboard one of those monstrosities myself. They wanted them alive for some void-forsaken reason. Not just them either, their research. They took everything they could out of that lab.”

  Right, so this whole thing was even worse than Jacob had thought to begin with. The Fomorians had intentionally taken Radueriel and Cahethal? It had to be intentional, there was no other reason for them to take their work as well. But why would they--nope, there wasn’t time to even think of a list of all the ways the Fomorians could fuck everything up by having those two and their work. If he did, Jacob would just end up being paralyzed by sheer overwhelming terror.

  “Tabbris.” That was Gaia, or Galaeia as she was going by for these people, using the fake name Jacob had used for himself. “I believe we have a few things to help these people put their computers into some form of working order back on the ship. But they’re locked up in your vault.” Her tone betrayed nothing to anyone who didn’t know her well, but Jacob could tell what she really wanted was a chance to speak with him in private.

  Keeping his own tone even, he replied, “Yes, I remember that little trinket.” To Optio Madeli, he replied, “Give us a moment, would you? I’d like to pick up that device and see if we can get your computers working again. And ahh, maybe we’ll see if we can call in a fleet to head off those Fomorians before they get back to their own side of the line.” Yes, it would be a pretty big risk to actually call the Seosten, who would obviously know nothing about this ‘Tabbris’ or his ship. But it would be worth it if they could really intercept those Fomorians and rescue the two Olympians.

  The other man looked a bit uncertain, but finally nodded. “Of course, I will keep directing the repair efforts here. We still can’t thank you enough for this. If you hadn’t been here, if you hadn’t noticed our approach and stopped, we…” He let out a heavy breath. “We’re alive thanks to you.”

  Jacob started to reply, only to catch himself, considering the reasoning behind the man’s words. “It’s alright, we’re all in this war together,” he finally replied before reaching out to put a hand on Madeli’s shoulder. “You and your people are going to be okay. We’ll get this ship space-worthy and make sure you can make it home, I promise.” It was all he could do to keep the guilt out of his voice. After all, the only reason any of this had happened was because his ship had ended up stumbling across those Fomorians in the first place. If the monsters hadn’t been trying to chase them down after that conflict, they never would have found these Seosten. They never would have taken those two. The entire timeline wouldn’t be in such horrible danger right now.

  But he couldn’t let himself dwell on that, not yet. It obviously hadn’t been intentional on their part. What were they supposed to do, just let themselves be taken by the Fomorians? They’d had absolutely no way to know what would happen. They hadn’t even known that there were any Seosten out in this part of space at all, let alone exactly who it had been. No, there may have been mistakes made, but they couldn’t take the blame for this situation. What they could do, what they had to do, was fix it no matter where any blame fell. If there was any way to fix it. What were they supposed to do if there wasn’t a Seosten fleet close enough to intercept those monsters, or if no one answered in time, chase after the Fomorians themselves? Hell, they had only just barely managed to escape without being utterly annihilated the first time.

  Shaking off those dark thoughts along with the mounting panic that wouldn’t completely go away, Jacob again promised Madeli and his people that they would return to finish fixing things here. Then he, Gaia, and Laein teleported back to their own ship. He even managed to maintain a grim but steady expression for the sake of the worried Seosten until the teleportation finished.

  Once they appeared back on the bridge of their own ship, Jacob put his hands against his face and started cursing into his own palms rapidly and enthusiastically. Given the pressing time constraints they were working with, he allowed himself only a couple of short seconds for that before taking his hands away and focusing once more. “Okay, right, we have to do something.”

  With a gesture of her hand and a quick word, Gaia created a time bubble around them once more, giving them a chance to talk things out without wasting any more precious seconds. “How much can you explain about how bad this situation is?” Her voice was tense, making it clear that even if she didn’t know the real specifics, she’d read enough into his reaction to have some vague idea.

  Before Jacob could reply to that, Laein spoke up first. “Eden’s Garden Project? If they don’t finish the Eden’s Garden Project, doesn’t that mean half you Boscher types don’t even exist!?”

  Well that was a pretty big cat out of the bag. Jacob hadn’t been sure of how much he could actually say, but… yeah, well at this point it was pretty clear that Gaia’s memory was going to have to be drastically adjusted before this was over anyway. So he just sighed and gave a short nod. “Look, all I can really say is that Eden’s Garden is sort of a rival group to Crossroads. There’s going to be a little bit of a civil war, then they split off and have their own way of creating new Boschers separate from the lighthouse thing. It’s a big deal, and it happens largely thanks to those two the Fomorians just abducted. If we’ve managed to change things so they don’t help create Eden’s Garden in the future, it’s absolutely going to completely screw up the entire timeline.”

  Gaia processed that for a moment. Obviously, she didn't have all the context she needed to completely understand the situation. But she had enough to get the basic idea. Letting out a slow breath, she stepped over and put both hands on his face. Their eyes met, and she leaned in to kiss him gently. Jacob felt some of the anxiety and tension drain out of him. Not all of it, considering the enormity of the problem. But he did relax just enough that it didn't feel like he was literally about to explode. Her kiss made enough of the panic ease up that he could breathe.

  Once that was done--well once they both knew they couldn’t waste any more time kissing, no matter how much they would have preferred that over what they had to do, Gaia leaned back to meet his gaze once more. “So, we need to save them. Do you think there’s a Seosten fleet who can do that if we can get a message to them? They might not know anything about the real complications to the timeline, but surely finding out that two scientists capable of such work have been abducted along with their tools would be enough to convince them to stage a rescue.”

  “Yeah!” Laein snapped while her gaze jerked back and forth from Gaia to Jacob and back again. “Tell the Seosten fleet to get the lead out and come rescue their people! I don’t feel like going back to a completely different timeline than the one we left! What if things are worse there!? What if the Earth has been taken over by Fomorians in the future thanks to that? What if the Seosten lost and the entire universe is completely enslaved by those abominations!?” After getting that much out, she gasped in horror as another possibility clearly jumped into her head. A possibility that made her eyes widen, the panicked words escaping her in a rush. “Or worse, what if they did something to break Necromancy!? We have to stop them from ruining everything! Get on the radio and tell those lazy bastards to come do their jobs right now!”

  At least Jacob didn’t have to convince Laein of the situation’s seriousness, even if her priorities when it came to what the worst possible effects could be were somewhat skewed. Either way, she was right, they did have to stop this. “Maybe it’ll be that easy,” he noted, even if contacting the Seosten and convincing them to send a fleet out here didn’t actually sound ‘easy’ at all. “But if it’s not, if we can’t actually get them out here so they can handle it, what are we supposed to do? We barely escaped from those monsters the first time without trying to save any prisoners.”

  Gaia looked pensive for a moment, considering those words and the weight behind them. Finally, she shook her head. “Even if it's impossible to defeat those creatures in a direct fight, there must be a way to simply jump onto that vessel, retrieve the prisoners, and escape again.”

  “We’d certainly take them by surprise that way,” Jacob murmured with a visible grimace. “Mostly because I doubt anyone would even think about being stupid enough to willingly teleport onto a Fomorian ship. But even if we did pull that off, I doubt leaving again would be that simple. They have to have protections against that sort of thing. And that’s not even counting the part where we’d still have to actually find these Seosten prisoners, which would probably mean a lot of fighting right in the middle of a Fomorian vessel, where they could spawn all the troops they want. And considering we’re talking about the Fomorians here, I mean spawn very literally.”

  Gaia glanced away, clearly lost in thought for a few long seconds (or no seconds given the time freeze they were working with) before she straightened with a determined expression. “One thing at a time. Perhaps this is all unnecessary worrying. We should try contacting the Seosten first. There’s always a chance they may actually have a fleet nearby enough to at least lend aid.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Pushing back the reflexive urge to naysay that faint possibility, Jacob caught the woman’s hand briefly, squeezing it. “Yeah, I’ll work on that, maybe we’ll get lucky. In the meantime, is there anything on this ship we could pretend you had to come back for to fix their computer system?”

  Gaia offered him a wink that clearly wasn’t nearly as casual as she tried to make it seem. “There will be no pretending involved. As it happens, I have been working on a device here on the ship that was meant to aid with computer repair. I… ahh, meant it as a gift for you, in times that I might not be available.” There was obviously more behind her words, but they didn’t have time to get into all of that. “It should work for our purposes. Come, Laein, I could use your assistance in putting the finishing touches on it. Your fingers are really quite dextrous and suitably small.”

  “Yes, yes,” Laein muttered, having already at least temporarily shifted back to her normal shape rather than the human (Seosten) magical disguise she had been wearing. “I’m not an infant for you to make excuses to, you wish for Jacob to have private time to speak with these Seosten without my contributions to such a conversation.” She sniffed. “Clearly they would be thoroughly intimidated by my presence and would feel that there was no need for their assistance if one as stunningly capable as myself is already on the case. Oh the woes of being so staggeringly impressive, even to my own detriment. Yes, let us go and attend to this ‘device’ of yours.”

  After they had walked off to work on that, with the timestop bubble disabled, Jacob turned to focus on the communication panel. Great, this was just perfect. Now he had to figure out what to say to some Seosten fleet admiral or whatever that could convince them to come out here to intercept those Fomorians without being able to actually explain who he was in any way that would show up in their systems. He didn't have any passwords or proof that he even existed. Why would anyone outside of these lost and practically drifting people, who had been completely desperate for rescue and thus unwilling to look any gift horse in the mouth, take his word about being on their side? Sure, he looked like a Seosten and he could ‘prove’ it by possessing someone, but still. He had a feeling the admiral of an active battle fleet was going to be a bit more suspicious about being called out here to fight Fomorian ships, supposedly to rescue a couple Seosten scientists.

  Hold on, maybe he could just tell the truth. Well, not exactly the whole truth. Not by a long shot. He wasn't anywhere near that stupid or desperate. But maybe he could tell just enough of the truth, arranged properly, to make the Seosten focus on the real problem. It didn't matter if they tried to come after Jacob and the others after it was over, as long as they saved Radueriel and Cahethal first. Anything else could be dealt with after. One thing at a time, and right now the most urgent bit that needed to be handled was making sure those two created Eden’s Garden.

  Realizing that he might actually be getting ahead of himself considering he didn't even know for certain if there actually was a Seosten fleet anywhere close enough to intervene, Jacob moved to the communication panel. They had gone over it enough during this unexpected trip for him to know how to use it, thanks to Gaia’s power. His fingers moved over the holographic controls, as he cranked the power of the broadcast as high as it would go. Which was much higher than ships that were native to this time could make it. Seosten ships of this era could only broadcast slightly less than half the distance that this vessel could manage. And he was pretty sure actual Seosten ships from his present, as opposed to this mercenary vessel they had stolen from Fahsteth, could broadcast further than that. Technology had progressed in two thousand years.

  The way this part of the long-range ship-to-ship communication system worked was by first projecting a tiny burst of magical energy, one piece of a spell so small that it essentially only amounted to the magical equivalent of a couple bytes of computer code. It was a fragment of a spell that was intended to react only with the matching fragment. That tiny spell piece was broadcast in every direction, sent as far as the ship’s communication system could manage.

  Ninety-nine percent of those fragments disappeared without any reaction, going as far as they could manage before fading away to nothing. But if any of the spell pieces managed to reach a ship with the matching spell fragment, which all Seosten and various allied vessels had, the fragments would interact, creating more of the spell. Then the second vessel would send its own scrap of spell back to the original source, essentially another bit of code that had to be matched properly. That continued back and forth several more times, ensuring that it was as close to impossible as it could be for any accidental or tricked connections. Every spell fragment was essentially one small piece of a passcode. Codes that were changed regularly. Once both vessels passed their fragments back and forth several times and ensured everything matched properly, they would finally form a complete spell at either end, which would then create a link between both origin points for voice and visual communication. The whole process took several minutes.

  Obviously, the Seosten weren’t exactly in the habit of passing those spell communication codes out to mercenaries like Fahsteth. But this ship was from a couple thousand years in the future, long after the codes of this particular time had gone out of use. The computer still had them stored in the archives from some time when they’d been found in an attempt to break Seosten communication protections. Gaia had pulled them up a short time after their encounter with the Fomorians, her power allowing her to immediately dig through millions of codes stored over the years and find the right ones for this time period, just in case there had been any reason to try to contact Seosten ships. Clearly, none of them had had anything like this sort of situation in mind.

  Jacob spent those minutes gripping the console as he ran through his plan about what to say. If this didn't work, he had no idea what they could do instead. With every passing moment, the chance to save the two abducted scientists was getting fainter. Please, there had to be a Seosten fleet in range. They were able to broadcast far further than they should have in this time, but would it be far enough? Was there anyone, anyone who could help, close enough?

  Just as he was about to give up on that, after almost four very tense minutes had passed, the communication panel lit up. There was a connection. Somewhere out there, a Seosten ship was actually close enough to communicate with. And, even better, they hadn’t decided the whole thing was a trick and shut it down before the connection could be established. Though maybe that was only because they wanted to see who was actually trying to call them. They might want to create the connection just to find out where this ship was so they could track it down. But that worked for Jacob too. Anything that would get their asses out here so they could deal with this.

  The face that appeared on the hologram looked like a typical Seosten anyway. Rugged and handsome, with black hair and gleaming crystal blue eyes that seemed to peer right into Jacob’s soul even through this simple image. He announced himself crisply, “This is Legate Yukasar, of the one hundred and fourteenth fleet. Identify and explain yourself, mystery vessel. And pray you make it quick enough that I don’t decide you’re lying and put your ship down.”

  Well, here went nothing. Taking a breath, Jacob replied, “I am called Tabbris. Yes, I know the name doesn’t win me any favors, but that’s hardly the point. Consider us a private vessel, from a group that sees another way of handling this endless war. The details are irrelevant. What matters is this.” Hitting a few buttons, he sent over a view of the damaged Seosten vessels just outside, briskly explaining the problem as well as he could. He told this Legate Yukasar that they had come across a rescue plea from those ships and were in the midst of providing what assistance they could, but that two scientists who had been working on a top secret project for the Heretic-human situation, Cahethal and Radueriel, had been abducted by those Fomorians. Not simply killed, but literally abducted, along with all of their research, their tools, all of it.

  “I trust that I don’t have to tell you how bad it would be if the Fomorians manage to use those two and what they’ve taken to actually do something with the humans,” he finished tersely. “They have to be intercepted before they get back into Fomorian space. There’s no time to get into anything else. No matter what you might think of my group splitting off from the rest of our people, saving those two is what matters. Please tell me you have ships close enough for that.”

  There was a moment of hesitation, as Yukasar considered his words. Then the man held a hand up for him to wait, pressing something else at his end that muted the communication. Jacob watched as the man turned and started saying something to the rest of his officers. What seemed like a very intense, spirited conversation followed, while the only thing Jacob himself could do was picture those Fomorian ships getting further and further away. He had to resist the urge to snap at the Seosten to get the hell on with it and stop debating everything so much.

  Finally, Yukasar turned back to him and activated the audio once more. “We have a great many questions, but we are grateful for your assistance. What you’ve said has been confirmed, as much as we can, on our end. There was a research fleet in that area of space, with those two aboard. The ships you’ve shown match ships that were in our records as being part of that fleet. And we are unable to establish communications with them, lending credence to your claim that most were destroyed and the systems of those that remain were damaged beyond repair.” With that, his eyes narrowed. “That does not, of course, eliminate the possibility that you and yours were involved in that destruction aiding rather than opposing these Fomorians, or that you made this call to lure more of our people into a trap. I want your word that you speak true, and that you will lend what aid you can.”

  Jacob blinked once, grimacing to himself before quickly agreeing. “I give you my word, for what that’s worth. We’ll do anything necessary, anything possible, to stop those Fomorians from escaping with their prisoners. But we need your help. We need help from a Seosten fleet.”

  “And our help you’ll get, boy,” came the response. “But as to who it’s coming from…” He turned a bit, grunting to someone else on that bridge. “I trust him, disable the filter.”

  With that, the image on the screen flickered and blurred. When it came back, Jacob wasn’t looking at a typical tall Seosten with black hair. Instead, he was looking into the face of a relatively short and thin man, standing slightly under six feet. His hair was grayish-white, and he had a long beard. Most distinctively, his eyes weren’t exactly crystal blue. One was brown, while the other was clearly cybernetic. Just as cybernetic, in fact, as the eyes of the half-living, half-robotic raven perched on his shoulder.

  “Tabbris, my boy, your people shall have the aid of Odin, and--”

  Another face popped into view, this one of an enormous man who looked like a weightlifter, the real weightlifters who were heavyset in all areas rather than being glistening bodybuilders. He had long red hair and a matching beard, his body clad in futuristic red-black chainmail-like armor. His drunken bellow practically rocked the ship that Jacob was standing on, literal lightyears away.

  “Whooooooo hunting Fomorians, it’s Thor-time, let’s goooooooooo!!!”

  Joke Tags: I Believe It’s Probably Safe To Say Nobody Saw This Teamup Coming