by Alex Raizman
“Oh,” was all Ryan said aloud. So that’s why it’s my old bedroom. Has it really be this long since I had a home?
Then his eyes wandered upward, and introspection was obliterated. Instead of the ceiling of his bedroom he saw a field of stars and galaxies that spread out into infinity. It was far too real to be like something out of a movie. He’d seen the effect in Crystal’s nanoverse, but something about seeing them in his bedroom really brought home how vast it all was. It was also completely different from Crystal's nanoverse. The stars were brighter and the galaxies were packed much closer together, like the entire universe was scrunched into a smaller space. Maybe it is. My nanoverse is younger, after all.
Athena followed after him. "You can tell how much younger your nanoverse is," she commented, looking at the galaxies that swirled around them.
Ryan felt a surge of pride for getting it right. "Because of the star field?"
Athena nodded. "Most are much brighter than Ishtar’s, but she is very old. Your nanoverse, when you first look into it, undergoes a Big Bang. Time runs extremely rapidly in it at first, right up to the point where the first sentient life emerges - then it still runs faster than normal time, but not so rapidly that millions of years pass in an hour."
"Gotcha." He took a moment to just stare at the “sky”, his heart pounding as he did. “Uh...is there some way I can make this not my childhood bedroom? I mean, it’s a bit...much.”
“You’re a god here, Ryan. This is your staging area. You can make it into a theme park if you want.”
“Okay, fair. But...how?”
Athena sighed. “This will be good practice for when you go into your nanoverse fully. You can impose your will on this. Picture what you want and will it to be so.”
Ryan decided to start by picturing the interior of Crystal’s nanoverse, hoping a mental model would make it easier. He focused on the image as hard as he could, but when he opened his eyes it was still his childhood bedroom.
“If you can’t even manage this, you’ll find your nanoverse is impossible. Focus, Eschaton. Like you do on the sword when you draw it from your nanoverse. Like you do on whatever you see when you manipulate reality. This is no different.”
Ryan took a deep breath. Having the mental model of drawing his sword helped. He clung to that feeling and reached out, trying to apply it to the room around him.
Like wax put out in the sun, it melted away into the shape he desired. “Okay. Got it.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” Athena said, but she didn’t look annoyed. Ryan wanted to believe she looked impressed but couldn’t force himself to believe something so at odds with reality.
Besides, it didn’t matter if she was impressed. He had questions. "So from here, I can open a door anywhere in the universe?"
"Not right now. Your door was opened from Ishtar's nanoverse, so you can currently open a door anywhere in her nanoverse, or travel to anywhere in your own. To get anywhere in the universe, you'd have to head back out to the universe, then open a door to here from there."
Ryan took a couple moments to process that. "I...don't blame Crystal for waiting to tell me all this. It's a lot to take in." He could feel the need to faint begin to form again, for the first time in a while. Only not awhile, it had only been yesterday, hadn't it? Spending time under a constant field of stars, not needing to sleep unless pushed too far, and bouncing between universes and worlds has taken his sense of time for a wild ride and passionate night without even buying it dinner or calling the next day.
Athena regarded him with what looked like it had some relationship to sympathy. Maybe its distant cousin. Or she had a shoulder cramp. It was hard to tell with her. "It takes time, Escha- apologies. It takes time, Ryan. But time is short, and you should know what you have here."
"Okay." He took a few more breaths, fighting back the urge to faint. His vision started to clear. Holy crap, I held off a fainting spell! That realization hit him with a jolt. He was sure he wasn’t lucky enough to be done with them completely, but it was a nice chance of pace. "Go on."
She motioned to the touchscreens. "It seems that's what you use to command this platform. Take a look."
So he did. They were covered with icons and text. "Okay. Some of these - Refrigerator, Bed, Lights, and Temperature - those refer to this platform, right?" Athena nodded for him to go on. "Then there's a bunch of greyed out ones, like prophecy and endow - I'm guessing those are after I finish Apotheosis?" Another nod, this one with a hint of approval. Ryan was sure of it this time. See? I’m not totally incompetent! "And then…” Ryan read what was on the screen. Three little faces were on the monitors, with English labels pointing out each one’s name. “So Batherians, Graphids, and Shal'nath. These are sentients, I’m guessing?"
"Very well done," she said, although her tone only carried a hint of the praise. It’s better than being made fun of, Ryan thought, deciding to take the victory. "And three already? Shocking. Later on that will be filled with hundreds, maybe thousands of sentient species. Or you could make it all one species. Whatever you wish. So which would you like to visit first?”
Ryan gaped at her. “I’m sorry, visit?”
“Yes. As interesting as it can be to play on dead worlds, I think it would be more educational to pick a species and meet them. They’ll all be human-like for now, so don’t worry about that too much.”
“Uhh…then the Graphids, I suppose?” They looked the most like humans, and unlike the other two their name didn’t twist his tongue into knots.
Athena motioned for him to go ahead, so he pushed the tablet. The moment he did, the field of stars around them began to move, and Ryan had to sit down as they raced by. It felt like when you’re sitting in a parked car and the car next to you backs up in the corner of your eye – you’re not moving, but your brain thinks it is, because your brain was designed for a hairless beach monkey and ‘cars’ weren’t a factor in that equation. It’s really doing the best it can, bless its heart. And Ryan’s brain was still designed for a human, not fully adapted for a god, and it just was doing the best it could to handle the stars rushing by.
It was an immense relief when they stopped to hover over a planet. The star it orbited was bright, younger and more energetic than the Sun, and the planet itself was covered with vast oceans a few patches of green. Clouds swirled around the globe.
There was a button Ryan couldn’t resist pressing. “Orbit.”
As soon as he did, an almost transparent dome rose form the sides of the platform and extended over the top. As soon as it closed, the platform shuddered. The planet beneath them slowed its rotation, until it looked like they were actually in a space station orbiting the world instead of watching it spin with artificial speed. It felt more real than what he had been seeing before. It’s not like we’re watching a world. It’s like we’re over a world.
Ryan grinned at it, then started laughing. Holy crap, that’s not what it’s like, that’s what it is. Athena gave him a raised eyebrow. “What is so funny?”
“It’s not…it’s not humor. Goddamn, Athena, how long has it been since something was just so amazing you had to laugh?”
She didn’t answer, just favored him with a small, sad smile. “Point taken, Ryan. Did you want to savor the moment? We’re operating on your nanoverse’s time now that you’ve dropped into orbit – into what we call realspace, since you’re not a real part of the nanoverse - so you can wait as long as you want to. It’ll be hundreds of years before even a minute passes in the Core Universe.”
He turned towards her, feeling his eyes widen. “Wait…then can we bring Crystal here? So almost no time passes in the core world while she revives? And why don’t we spend like a year training here?”
“Two problems. Training you here is useless because you are nearly omnipotent here, and Ishtar’s nanoverse – and mine – will not function here. We get treated the same as any other sentient being. And-“ Ryan started to open his mouth, and she cut him off “-since Ishtar is not par
t of your nanoverse, you cannot return her soul to her body here. You cannot reach beyond your own nanoverse.”
Ryan let out a deep breath. “Should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Nearly omnipotent, eh? So I can…create a new world if I wanted to?”
“Of course.”
“But…not out of nothing, right? I mean it’s a basic law of physics – matter cannot be created or destroyed, right?”
Athena bit her lip, trying to find the best way to explain it. “This is your nanoverse. In the Core Universe, you can modify the laws of physics, cheat and manipulate them. Here, you are the laws of physics.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t overthink it. You can change the rules later – but for now, stick to what you know.”
Ryan felt the urge to faint building up again. “Yeah. Probably for the best.”
“Do you need to rest?”
If it had been Crystal, he would have said yes in a heartbeat. Because Crystal knew him, he knew her, and he trusted her. Athena was…well, still an unknown. She was on their side, Ryan believed that, and was an ally – but only because they shared an enemy. She wasn’t a friend, because the popular wisdom that the enemy of your enemy is your friend wasn’t true, at least most of the time. More often, the enemy of your enemy was just someone who had a shared interest in seeing your enemy’s ass kicked.
“Nah, I’m good. Let’s go meet the natives.”
The trip down to the surface was as exciting as Ryan had always hoped. Watching as their entry caused the air to compress, forming a giant wall of flame to form in front of them, was everything ten-year-old-Ryan had always wanted it to be.
As they got closer, a joystick emerged from the floor. Something he could steer with. That was appreciated. It felt more like he was actually flying a spaceship instead of on a ride. Is this thing responding to my subconscious desires? He pushed the thought down and instead grabbed the joystick to fly over the planet.
From the air, the part they were over looked like a jungle, although the plants didn’t match anything Ryan had seen before. Which made sense – they were a product of his unique nanoverse. Spotting a clearing, Ryan moved in to take the vessel into a landing.
As soon as they touched down, the plants began shooting thorns at them, a hail of razor sharp wood. Each of the thorns was attached to long vines, allowing the plants to coil them back in. Ryan could spot barbs in them as they bounced harmlessly off the ship’s dome and shuddered at the thought of what they would do to a living creature. Carnivorous plants. Awesome. Should have gone with the Batherians.
Athena didn’t flinch. “I’m assuming Ishtar didn’t tell you how your emotional state impacts the nanoverse?”
Ryan shot her a glower. “Actually, she did. So that means that life is going to evolve to be dangerous? Since it’s been a rough few days.”
“That is a common side effect, yes. Especially during its infancy. I’ll be staying here.”
“What?”
“I don’t have any of my divine power here. Without knowing the dangers of your nanoverse, I could easily be killed.”
“But what about me?”
Athena managed to avoid the frustrated tone this time, which Ryan felt she probably deserved credit for. “You’re nearly omnipotent here, remember? If something manages to kill you – which should be unlikely – you’ll be able to reform.”
“Oh.” Ryan looked at the thorns, which continued to bounce off the glass. “Okay. Can I still feel pain?”
She nodded. “So do be careful. Your wrath could destroy this world and the platform with it, which would also kill me. I’ll reform back in the core world, but it’ll take days, same as Ishtar.”
“Noted.” Okay, so I’m omnipotent. That was too much to take in, and the need to faint began to crowd his vision. So…let’s try something more manageable.
If he controlled the rules here, he could probably do some minor changes to himself. Like, say, giving his skin a near indestructible coat. He focused on the idea, trying to will it into reality. Unlike grabbing the sword or making his bedroom vanish, this was simple. A thin sheen covered him, like he’d been shrink-wrapped. Athena actually smiled. “Clever. I’ll see you when you’re done, Eschaton.”
Nodding, and not bothering to correct his name, Ryan stepped out a door and into the grass. He could hear it crunch beneath his feet, and the thorn-shooting trees continued to pelt his skin, but at least it didn’t hurt.
I just wish they’d stop.
The exact instant the thought crossed his mind, they stopped, the thorn pods curling up to wait for actual prey. Oh. I suppose I could have tried that first.
When they had been coming down, Ryan had spotted smoke on the horizon. Now that he was on the ground he could barely see it through the thick tree lines. The trees might not be firing their thorns at him anymore, but they still loomed. It wasn’t menacing like a haunted forest in a fairy tale, but held a different, more primal menace. The part of Ryan’s brain that had evolved leaping through trees like these screamed that there was danger all around. Ryan took a deep breath to calm that thought. Remember, Ryan. Nothing here can hurt you. You made yourself invulnerable. You can do whatever you want. You are literally the scariest thing in this universe. It didn’t help much - primal instinct was not so easily sated - but it gave him enough courage to begin walking into the jungle.
A few things started to resolve as he did. There were massive flowers at various intervals, iridescent with shades of purple near the base and blossoming along the color spectrum to gold at the tips. Among them buzzed insects that looked like bees but were nearly as big as Ryan’s hands and had elongated tails that ended in flexible stingers. Sometimes the insects got too close to the center of the flower, and it sprayed them with a sticky substance that caused them to fall into the center. Even the flowers are murderous. That disturbed Ryan more than the killer trees.
Then he heard a roar, and his first pair of large fauna burst out of the undergrowth.
The first animal was about the size of a squirrel and covered in a bright red fur. It froze when it saw Ryan, looking up at him with a single central eye that wrapped almost halfway around its head. It reared up, preparing to turn away, and Ryan could see its front legs ended in long, boney spikes.
Then a tongue burst out of the foliage and latched onto the cyclops squirrel. The creature had a moment to look like it knew its fate, and then the tongue retreated with the creature. A moment later Ryan heard a sickening crunch.
What loped out of the underbrush still had a bit of tail sticking out of its jaws. It was built like a tiger with a low-slung body but was covered in black and green feathers that blended into the jungle. Its head was broad and flat, the eyes on the edge of protrusions like a hammerhead shark’s. It regarded Ryan carefully. I’m not food, I’m not food, I’m not food Ryan thought frantically, not daring to move.
Apparently, the thought worked. It turned and slunk away, twin tails lashing behind it.
Ryan’s heart was pounding. It was a short hike to the fire, about two kilometers. He’d barely managed fifty meters without giving himself a heart attack. If he kept this up, he’d be screaming by the time he reached the Graphids. So why walk?
Taking a few deep breaths to steady himself, he held out his hands, palms facing the ground, and imagined a force pushing him into the air. Inch by inch and then foot by foot as he accelerated, he rose until he was above the treetops. “I can fly!” he shouted aloud, exalting in the moment. Twisting his palms, he propelled himself towards the smoke.
When he got close, he heard voices. The smoke was rising from a cluster of simple huts, and people were running between them. Like Athena had indicated, they looked pretty much like normal humans, although their hair colors were bright reds and greens and blues – like the flowers of the jungle that surrounded them. They were pointing at him, and many of them were gathering obsidian weapons of a design that Ryan had seen before. Oh, that’s where that came from.
; He landed among them, giving them his biggest grin. “Hi. Don’t be afraid – I mean you no harm.”
“What are you?” It was a woman speaking, and people moved to give her space. She was about Ryan’s height, with grey skin and thick, broad shoulders. She had sparse hair across her head, although calling it hair might be a bit much. The strands were too thick for that word, looking more like solid tendrils. Beads had been placed along them. She wore armor that looked like scale but had the dull white color of bone in between the elaborate paint that covered the armor. As Ryan looked at the others, he saw they were attired similarly, although none of them had as many beads or as much paint on their bone scale.
“I’m Ryan. And…well, I’m your God.” Ryan cringed as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Seriously, that’s your opening line? Could you be any more arrogant?
She pursed her lips. “Our god? Our god is Xapheda, She-Who-Brings Storms. Our god is Raedalis, The-Beast-That-Hunts. Our god is-“
“Oh, I’m sure they’re impressive, really, but…well, have you ever met them?”
Her lips thinned. “No.”
“Right, because they’re false gods. I’m the real deal here.”
Her knuckles whitened on her weapon. “Prove your divinity, then, Sky-Man. Prove that you are not just a trick of the Grass Walkers, or some other mischief."
Ryan thought for a moment. “Okay. Go get all your sick and injured.”
She laughed at that, throwing back her head in a mockery of mirth. “And why should I show you our weakest? So you might slay them?”
“No,” Ryan’s voice was quiet, and he kept his grin showing even though it wanted to waiver. “What’s your name?”
She spat. “I am Saphyn. Daughter of Ruphari. Chief of the Fire Masters.”
“Well, Saphyn, nice to meet you. I want you to get them, so you can see they’re healed. You don’t even need to bring them here – just go check on them.”
Saphyn motioned for some of the men, who ran off. A few minutes later they started trickling back out of the huts. “The Sky Man speaks truth. They are healed.” Their eyes were wide.
