ic A New Enterprise (IC)

[Dr Archeville]

His eyes went a bit wide when she mentioned the possibility of Afareen missing out on her grandchild's entry to the world.  "Oof, I can only imagine -- and dread to think what she'd say to me!"  He let out a nervous laugh, "so I wasn't planning on it being anywhere near as long as Daedalus & Pseudo's trip -- that was eighteen years!  My original plan was for something like on that show, a five year journey."  Memories of them watching and laughing at old sci fi shows from the 1960s, and the 1990s sequels, flashed in his mind.  "But I've been leaning more towards an idea you'd suggested, a series of month-long trips rather than one multi-year journey.  It would slow exploration down, yes, but it would be safer.  And the regular check-ins may put certain people more at ease with the idea of us being out there."

 

Left unsaid was his hope that such an arrangement could mean fewer commutes for her, and more time together.

 

He chuckled at her assessment of him, "well, I have had a lot of time to think about this particular existential horror, so I guess familiarity breeds... tedium?  But, yes, that is my understanding, as Phantom explained it to me -- I was both mother and midwife to a spawn of a Nameless One!"  He chuckled again, weaker this time.

[Dariusprime]

Her response was a snicker. "Don't let her fool you. She loves you like a son. Even if she is too proud to admit it until you put a ring on a my finger."

 

"Quite a few people would be happier if we checked in occasionally. For both of us." Fulcrum looked into her tea cup, swirled it, and took a sip. "Do you need a five year journey? Because if you do, we can make this work. I just have obligations here I can't leave that long. Commitments I can't or won't walk away from. Maybe I shouldn't have even suggested going with you. You could go out there and really find yourself."

 

Crossing her legs, she reclined in the chair, still holding his hand. A sheepish look crossed her face. "Regardless I wanted to bring up what I meant by commute. You mentioned a shuttle, or perhaps picking up a pod at CoVic. After all of that, I started wondering how fast I could fly in space. No air resistance, microgravity, etc. Sooo I may have done a few short trips off world. How fast is the Weltraumwohnmobil?"

 

At his weaker chuckle, she didn't say a thing. She simply freed her hand and began running her fingers through his hair again. That techorganic hairdo she seemed to like.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Dariusprime

[Dr Archeville]

Another thought crossed his mind.  Inwardly, he smiled.

 

He shrugged slightly, "I can't say how long I'd need.  Nor, really, how long the journey will be, given all the things that could happen out there.  We could get sucked through a wormhole and spat out into another galaxy, kidnapped and enslaved -- I'd really rather not go through that again -- or the ship could suffer some damage and we'd be stranded on another planet -- another thing I'd rather not go through again."  He chuckled again, bittersweet, remembering their time off-world during the Incursion.  Then he looked at her, and his heart melted again, "no, no, I'm glad you volunteered; I was going to ask you anyway, I was just having a difficult time figuring out how.  Solitude is good, but too much can be harmful.  Besides," he reached up to caress her cheek, "I can't think of anyone else I'd rather share the wonders of space with than you."

 

As she sat back, Penny made her mild irritation known.  Viktor slid his hand down her arm and across her hand, squeezed it, then withdrew so he could give the Lady of the Apartment another round of two-handed deep tissue massage.  He smirked at her admission, "sneaking off on your own, eh?"  He laughed, this time fully joyful, "how wonderful!  How far did you get?  Oh, ah, it can go about as fast as the Pegasus-class spaceplanes Daedalus built for the League.  A cruising speed of near-light speed, so it can reach Pluto in about, oh, six hours.  At maximum, it can reach Pluto in a few seconds, and about twelve hours to reach Alpha Centauri.  To reach the Andromeda Galaxy would take... about seven centuries.  But!," he quickly added, "I've a few ideas on some improvements.  So, how's that compare to your speeds?"

[Dariusprime]

"A wonderful bonding experience comparably, but I'd rather not go through the latter either." A wry smile at the memory turned to a tender one at his caress. "You old smoothie you. I will be right there beside you."

 

The beast, sated, reverted to fluid state. Thankfully, Penny was used to the kinetic side of this particular person. Why? Because the rewards were so worth the patience. The volume of her purring slowly crept upward. Any louder and she'd be rattling the furniture.

 

To Viktor's gentle teasing, Fulcrum did something rather out of the ordinary. She turned her face away, looking rather bashful. His laugh, however, elicited a chuckle of her own as she turned back. Her face scrunched up in thought, and the wheels in her mind could be seen whirring. Maybe the cliche that couples became more alike had a grain of truth. Her pride at her accomplishment just needed the right phrasing. She spoke up a few seconds later.

 

"Well, let's see. I started out for Mars and eventually Pluto. Alpha Centauri, being our nearest neighbor, was my first interstellar target and took about 0.5 seconds. I arrived at Polaris from Earth in less than a minute. If my math is correct, I should be able to reach Coalition Victory Station in about 45 minutes."

 

She continued stroking his hair.
 

 

 

[Dr Archeville]

Penny's relaxed purr reverberated through Archeville, a pleasant sensation he'd become accustomed to, but now was able to better study thanks to his new form.  Interesting, 30 Hz.  On the low end for a housecat, but still within standard parameters.  Could that be tied to some of the unusual effects we've seen from you lately?  Setting your purrs to match dimensional frequencies...  it could happen, theoretically.  He looked the cat in the eyes, would you let me study you, little one?  I promise it would be completely non-invasive, and would come with many treats.

 

So focused was he on Mona's cat that he almost missed when she'd started talking.  But his eyes and ears recorded everything now, so a quick playback of the part he hadn't consciously listened to, played in his mind as she continued, let him easily catch up.  And then he played the entire pronouncement over again, to make sure he hadn't missed anything.  And then a third time, to make sure he was hearing her right.

 

"What?!"  His exclamation, plus his abrupt ceasation of massaging, drew an annoyed glare from his lapmate.  "You must have been going... and your energy levels..."  He turned to face her, his own face practically glowing with joy, "liebchen, that is amazing!  What was it like?  How did you navigate out there?  What did you see?"

[Dariusprime]

Fulcrum waited patiently and with great amusement. After all Viktor and Penny were having a bonding moment. Which recalled a few memories of early relationship days. Particularly how Penny only really started liking Viktor after the whole Incident. After the cat accepted him, Mona knew the relationship was solid. She never mentioned that Penelope Archimedes Teymourian was a non-negotiable part of the deal. Or that she was a he until 2013.

 

Whether that memory or Viktor's reaction contributed more to her Cheshire Cat grin was left to the ages. "Thank you. Thank you! The experience was... unique. The first time I just kept picking up speed until I felt like I hit some sort of barrier. Like g-forces, but I still felt like I was accelerating.  Until, well, I was just floating along while the stars were swirling around me. That was the odd part. The stars didn't pass by me. They dimmed, and seemed to spiral together in these odd patterns. But somehow I still knew where I was going. That may answer the navigation question. For a moment orbiting Alpha Centauri A, I was terrified I'd be lost out there. Then I just thought about where I wanted to go, and next thing I knew I was home. Intuition I suppose."

 

Tapping her fingers on the arm of her chair, she continued, "The pattern reminded me of the spirals I saw when I looked through the window of your house from the outside. I can only conclude I wasn't so much traveling faster than light than folding space-time around me. Which makes sense in light of your hypothesis that my superhuman strength may be partially based on warping space. You remember: helps explain why I don't pulverize the surface I'm touching or the collapsing the object under the strain."

 

"But as for what it was like," she nodded, still grinning, "It was joyous, beautiful, transcendent. The world just faded away into a void, yet there was this vibration like I was connected to the universe. Eternity. Infinity. Next thing I knew my vision was engulfed by this yellow light: Polaris. I was giddy. I watched an alien star burn and churn and eject glowing matter into space. I orbited a giant and its neighbors and saw new constellations. I'll be frank, I felt like a goddess. I want to do that again. And share that with you."

 

 

[Dr Archeville]

He hung on her every word.  He loved seeing any metahuman explore and experiment with their powers, but he was especially fond of when Mona did it.  And not just because her powers had such physics-defying potential!

 

"That 'barrier' you felt may well have been some sort of dimensional breach.  Not a full breach -- you were still in this universe -- more like a stone skipping on the surface of a lake, in contact with another dimension just long enough to take advantage of its different natural laws."  His grin was starting to match hers, "I've done some theorizing on something similar, a 'skip drive,' but the power requirements were too prohibitive for the effects I was getting.  That's why I just kept Daedalus' own stardrive design for my craft.  Well, mostly, I did manage a few tweaks.  But this!," he moved one hand from a protesting Penny, who was swatting at his other hand in an attempt to get it to restart the massaging, and placed it on Mona's, "if we can figure out how you did that, and I can apply that to the Synthia Bower -- I mean, unless you'd want to get out and push -- then the possibilities would be endless!"

[Dariusprime]

Mona watched with growing concern at Penny's irritation. So much so that her first response was, "Please massage the cat before she slices your arm off." She was completely serious, if still grinning.

 

Once that was settled, Mona pondered the idea of pushing the ship, her face looked pinched up, if her eyes sparkled with whimsy. "Well...I suppose I could push. But I'd rather you run some tests while we race instead. That way I can spend some time inside the ship, and you can do what you do best. And perfect your skip drive too."

 

"I wonder which dimension. Perhaps the Zero Zone? Since it came up and all, and does sort of fit the bill. Sometimes I wish I had majored in the physical sciences or engineering like Mom wanted. Maybe I'd have a better background for this information. But that's not the way my brain is wired." She laughed lightly, still sporting the big grin. "Regardless, I'm glad the 'barrier' is supposed to happen. I don't want to rip another hole in reality. I worry about that sometimes."

 

She cocked her head to the side, "'Endless possibilities' is right, buster. Please elaborate! Tangentially, you don't suppose I could, you know, travel between dimensions?"

 

Mona had a long-standing pattern of enjoying Viktor's science talks. Gentle steering occasionally needed. Especially now, as a free man, she appreciated how patient, enthusiastic, and humble he was concerning his knowledge. Appreciation that showed on her face. No wonder he taught a little on the side. He'd be an excellent teacher as well as father. She made a mental note to mention that.

Edited August 21, 2019 by Dariusprime

[Dr Archeville]

Viktor almost made a very lewd remark, but left it unsaid.  He did smirk and wink, though, before returning both hands to Penny and resuming his massage.

 

"Possibly the Zero Zone, but, given the energies involved in your powers, I'd wager it was the Terminus.  Which," he quickly added, "is not necessarily a bad thing!"  He knew she could be touchy about that subject, and had more than enough reason to be.  He slowly turned so he could get a better view of her while still seeing to Penny's demands.  "We know the Terminus surrounds all parallel dimensions, like the waters around a chain of islands.  And so any trip to a parallel universe -- such as Anti-Earth, or Earth-Ape, or Erde -- would require going through the Terminus, even if only for a few yoctoseconds.  Which also means, yes, theoretically, you could travel to other parallel earths!  You said that when you'd reached Polaris, you'd felt a vibration, like you were connected to the universe, yes?  That may well have been how you were perceiving the vibrational frequency of this universe.  If you could 'tune' yourself to another dimension's frequency, you might be able to travel there!"

 

He suddenly glanced down at Penny, and her claws, and remembered the slight spatial distortion he saw there earlier.  "Um, Mona, dearest, has Penny ever... disappeared for a time, even when you know she should not have been able to get out?  Or appeared suddenly in a place that you know she should not have been able to access?"

[Dariusprime]

Mona just winked back and listened.

 

To her credit, Mona only looked amused at Viktor's quick recovery at the mention of the Terminus. She nodded to his question and tapped her chin in thought at the idea of dimensional frequencies. The concept wasn't completely foreign to her, but not something that exactly came up when she was studying ultra-black pigments. Maybe she could... "Hmm..."

 

The grin faded slowly, replaced with a mix of consternation and puzzlement. Her eyes locked onto the cat. "That darn cat! I've given up trying to keep her inside. Last week she was gone all day, and I've yet to discover how she's getting out. I initially thought she was large enough to operate the door. But I blocked the doors and windows from the outside. Did I tell you about the liquor cabinet incident? Last month in Berlin, I found her sleeping inside the locked cabinet in my apartment. Now that we're home, I wonder how long it will take for her to escape again. I mean it's not like she can tele...port?"

 

She just stared at Penny. Penny 'Haters Gonna Hate' Teymourian sat there purring, her eyes closed.

[Dr Archeville]

With his left hand, Viktor continued giving Penny a serious back massage, and he began to coo a bit to her in German.  He slowly moved his right hand down the cat's side, nuzzled her cheeks, then up her front legs and towards her paws.  He held one up a bit, gently pressing on the pad to make her claws extend.

 

"I've a feeling the question we should be concerned with," he whispered, "is not 'can she teleport?,' but more 'is her teleporting limited to movement through this spacetime, or can she breach dimensions?'"

 

Mona definitely heard a whirring and buzzing coming from Archeville's head this time.  The technorganic flesh around his right eye was shifting, first forming a monocle around the eye, dividing into three smaller rotating lenses, then telescoping outwards a few inches.  "There's no need to worry, kätzchen, I'm just trying to take a better look at you."

[Dariusprime]

By this point, the cat's purrs were loud enough to rattle furniture. She opened her eyes at the attention to her paw, but did not protest.

 

Mona's gaze whipped up to Viktor, then back to the cat, but she didn't say anything. Frankly, a dimension-ripping cat with Penny's personality was rather concerning. Frightening was the wrong word. But something she agreed needed to be studied and addressed. Bad enough that the poor cat had been irradiated all these years. Though Mona would certainly take meta-feline powers over many of the alternative outcomes.

 

Like water around reeds, Penny's extended claws slit microscopic rents in reality. These tiny incisions fluttered open briefly, revealing other places beyond them, but a millisecond or two later they snapped closed as prime reality reasserted itself. Infinitesimally small pulses of electromagnetic radiation, primarily radio waves, accompanied the closure. Various particles, then, likely were present as well.

 

Mona was probably right about losing limbs too. The claws looked, for lack of a better turn, rather lethal. Perhaps the vicinity of mono-molecular sharpness. And certainly sturdier looking than a typical keratin-based claw.

 

"I would hope she couldn't, but that is probably too much to ask," was her quiet reply. She shook her head and mumbled. "I don't know how I'm going to deal with a kid if a cat gives me this much trouble." Seconds thoughts perhaps?

[Dr Archeville]

"Oh, but kätzchen, what sharp claws you have!," Viktor cooed, attempting to lighten the mood.  "I'm sure you could be a match for any dog, wolf... or even werewolf!"

 

He released Penny's paw, and moved his right hand back up her leg, joining his left in continuing the deep tissue massage.  While still looking at her, he announced to Mona his preliminary  findings, and their implications.  "So, containment is a concern, obviously, we don't want her getting anywhere she shouldn't.  Wouldn't want her getting hurt -- or, more likely, hurting others.  Another concern is finding out what other changes she has undergone.  Her nails -- and size -- seem to indicate that she has gained some measure of your physical enhancements.  And as I've been massaging and petting her, I have noticed some minor variations in the texture of her fur.  At first I thought it was perhaps some residue from your art supplies that she'd rolled around in, but now that I'm taking a good examination," he held up one hand briefly to show Mona the fingertips had branched out into a variety of sensors, "I can see the hairs themselves are different; she may well be nearly as invulnerable as you.  Her strength levels, however, do not seem to have increased, and she's not flying or moving at superhuman speeds... yet.  But there's something else that concerns me, and is foremost on my mind at the moment."  He turned just enough to face Mona, "how did this happen?  I mean, yes, we know about T-Babies, that exposure to Terminus energies can alter people to grant them new abilities, though how exactly it does so is still a mystery.  So, presumably, she was altered by exposure to your energies.  But until now, I'd only ever heard of that happening to humans.  For this to happen to a non-human animal -- a non-primate, even! -- could help unlock that mystery.  Yes," he turned back to Penny and began cooing again, "you could hold the secrets to Terminus-based empowerment!  Yes, you could!"

[Dariusprime]

Penny locked eyes with her perhaps favorite human. Nothing betrayed whether or not she understood what he said. Resumption of massages, she yawned and put her head back down.

 

Now this was a lot to take in, and Mona looked all too serious. Dealing with the cat was a whole different ball game for her. Especially one that had powers like hers. Which meant that she went for a beer after Viktor's conclusion cooing. She returned with two pints and sat one on the table before partaking. She passed on the beer stein Viktor bought her for her birthday. Probably because she didn't have nine gallons of beer on hand. "I'm sure if you bribe her sufficiently she would be willing to endure a few tests. That's how I convince her to be good at the vet's."

 

Mona sipped her stout and scratched Penny's ears. "You could be famous, Penny! Penny Archimedes, the Wonder Cat! I can see it now. Your name up in lights! Or at least on a paper." Penny continued using her patented poker face.

 

"Really though," she directed at Viktor, "I hadn't considered that angle. We should have had swarms of Terminus cats running through the streets." She paused a moment, looking thoughtful. "Thank our lucky stars for that. Anyway, she wasn't in town during the '18 Terminus Invasion. I have to be source. Now this is a wild guess, but I'm thinking it's the exposure level over time. I irradiated her at low levels for at least 2 years. Maybe smaller animals are more prone to negative effects at high doses? With all the post-invasion chaos, people probably missed a mass die off of insects or delayed pathology in feral cats. Conversely, maybe humans are more sensitive to Terminus energy? That's an interesting idea."

 

Another sip and a happy smile. Obviously, the alcohol didn't affect her. She just liked a good brew. "Practicals. How do you contain a dimension-cutting cat with cleaver claws? And have you always had those sensors?" The latter question came with a smirk.

[Dr Archeville]

"I am full of very useful devices," he replied, winking again.

 

"And, yes, I agree, it likely was the prolonged exposure to your low levels of T-radiation that did it.  Also, yes, since body mass affects radiation absorption -- the more of you there is, the longer it will take to affect all your cells -- smaller animals would be more susceptible.  There are other factors, of course -- rodents are about twice as resistant to ionizing radiation as humans, reptiles about three times, insects more than ten times, shellfish more than 25 times -- though I don't believe there have ever been any studies on the radioresistance of felines.  No, there hasn't," he cooed again at Penny.  "You may be right on the human susceptibility, too: while the percentage of humans who gains powers from exposure to chemicals or radiation or what have you is small compared to those who don't, it is higher than the percentage of non-human animals who become empowered.  That could be due to something inherent in the human genetic code; unique powers among extraterrestrials seems rare, most of them that have what we would consider 'superpowers' are just showing species-wide traits.  Though, again, there are other factors to consider: animals don't have laboratories in which to have accidents, and there could well be more superpowered animals out there than we know but they're all very good at evading our detection."

 

He continued massaging Penny's back with one hand, and moved the other to her cheeks and chin, both to give her variety and to get a better look at her fangs.  "As for containment... well, I've a few ideas, but I would like some second opinioms.  And I may know someone who can help.  Though I'm not sure even Phantom would expect something quite like this."

[Dariusprime]

"Later," was her, shall we say, suggestive reply to the device comment. She tapped her chin in thought. "It's been a good ten years together."

 

At this point, Penny didn't really care what Viktor did as long as the massage continued. And my what sharp teeth she had. Cats have needle-like teeth anyway, and hers were particularly pointy. Especially for being 12 years old.

 

Mona couldn't help but snicker. She took a sip of her beer and propped her head up with the other hand. "Now your circumstance wasn't technically a lab accident, but I can't argue with the results. I know if I was a talking raccoon or something I would stay far, far away from people."

 

Her eyes lit up at the mention of Phantom. "That would be wonderful! I haven't spoken with her in years. I wonder how she and the family are doing? I'm sure Avenger is still Avenger. I'll admit I rather liked him. He just rubbed the other Interceptors the wrong way." She coughed, focusing. "She still deals with dimensional security I assume? Perhaps we should invite them over for dinner."

 

She sat up quickly, almost launching out of the chair. From the way her eyes were darting, many plans were being draw up for the gathering. "Hmm..."

[Dr Archeville]

"I assume she does," he shrugged, "I honestly have not had any contact with her since a few months after... well, you know.  Though, for all I know, she was keeping tabs on me in some manner that I could not detect."  He wondered, not for the first time, if his resurrection/reformatting was wholly the result of his nanites, or if they had a nudge from some outside agent.  "And, yes, inviting her and Avenger over for dinner would be a grand idea!  I can whip up some of the blood substitute I'd devised for him -- he said it worked for him, though I couldn't tell if he was being honest or just humoring me.  Hrm, perhaps I should pick up some pig's blood from the butcher, just in case."

 

He moved both hands to Penny's sides and worked on her core.  "Hey, so, since we're talking about couples, and us having a baby... you think we should get married?"

[Dariusprime]

Samples of pattern cloth appeared in Mona's now vacant hands. She examined them carefully as she listened to Viktor. "I wouldn't doubt that she checked in on you occasionally."

 

"Maybe a nice autumn theme. This one with the gold and rust leaves would match well with the rest of the decor," she mumbled in a quiet moment. "Oh! I have the plates from that one thrift shop..."

 

"Having both fresh and the substitute on hand would be the polite way to go. Phantom strikes me as a wine drinker though." She held up the patterned cloth for Viktor.

 

At the word "marriage", Mona put down the cloth samples and tilted her head, "Have you been talking to Mom again?" After a few moments, she added, "I tease. I tease."

 

She went back to studying the samples. "I really don't care if we marry or not, Viktor. I don't much like the concept of marriage, even in modern contexts. I am not for sale or rent." She leaned over and gave him a kiss. "That being said, if this is something you want, tying the knot is the least of my concerns. Having a kid I had to think about. This is a non-issue for me."

 

 

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville grinned.  They'd had this conversation a few times before, always with a similar outcome.  It had become something of an inside joke for them, and a way to gauge each other's moods.  "No rush, no rush.  We've got time."

 

He nodded towards the gold and rush leaf-patterned cloth, his hands still working on Penny's core.  "Would you mind reaching out to her?  I no longer have her contact info.  Oh, and that does raise a good point: do we postpone our departure until after Oktoberfest?  I've had to miss the past several -- the last one I attended was the 200th, in 2010, but that was around when things started going very wrong for me."  That was around the time his Other had gained more independence, and started physically manifesting, warping his body into a hideous fish-man when it took over.  He turned his head slightly, looked Penny in the eyes, "I think I would like to go to one more before leaving.  We'll be coming back, of course, it's not like that would be the last one I could ever go to."

 

"You'd mentioned," he turned back to face Mona, "checking in on family and the Interceptors before we go, and some other minor things.  Was the anything big you wanted to do before lift-off?"

[Dariusprime]

Mona returned the grin and set aside the selected pattern. "Of course, I'll make the arrangements. Assuming my information is still current. I may have to check with the Interceptors."

 

A sly smile inched its way across her face at the mention of Oktoberfest. She tried hiding it by continuing to sort patterns. "That sounds wonderful! Now that is a case for waiting. I'll find that lovely dirndl dress Carrie made for me. You remember? I wore it to Oktoberfest with you."

 

Left unspoken was the little fact that Mona had attended Oktoberfest most years since 2010. Ostensibly, she was mastering her love's native language via cultural immersion. The most famous photograph of her attendance implied she was taking her studying quite seriously. She was wearing the aforementioned dress and juggling three hogsheads of beer. Which according to the internet caption, she later consumed all by herself. Now whether Viktor knew that or not was left to the imagination.

 

Penny meowed quietly at the eye contact and stretched long and thin. Once situated she meowed again that he may continue.

 

Mona turned to Viktor and smiled, "I'm so happy you want to attend again. You've come so very far. This will be like a new first visit for us!"

 

"Hmm...," she fell silent for a moment, "No, nothing really that big. I'm sure something will come to me though. Anything major on your end?"

[Dr Archeville]

Viktor did know of that photo, though did not learn of it until several months after it had been taken.  He liked it, but it was not his favorite.  His most cherished "Mona at Oktoberfest" pic was a more candid, subdued one, taken in one of the food tents.  The photo wasn't even focused on her, the focus was on the 23.5 kg (51.8 lbs.) pile of sauerkraut made from one red cabbage, the largest one grown in Germany that year.  She was seated off to the side, unnoticed by the photographer at the time the picture had been taken, with a half-eaten pretzel in one hand.  She had a far-off look, lost in thought, dreamy, serene.

 

He smiled back at her, "and that's one reason I'm looking forward to it."  He paused a moment, "no, nothing major left on my end.  I suppose, for now, I can focus on the meeting with Phantom, and seeing to this not-so-little fuzzball," he interrupted his massage just enough to scritch Penny under the chin.

 

~fin~

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by Dr Archeville