(A/N: Decided I didn't much like writing in Halkeginia. I'm therefore re-purposing its slot for 'one-shot' settings.)
(POV: Clockwork Knight Marina)
I arrived in extremely close proximity to a star, barely having time to process my impending doom before I collided with a large space station at a few dozen meters per second. Grabbing on for dear life, I quickly clambered around the outside of the space station until I eventually found an entrance. As soon as that happened I climbed inside, feeling great relief at no longer being in immediate danger of falling into the sun. Huh, looks like there's some writing around here, along with a few long-dead skeletons. I suppose I might as well do some reading while I was here.
While it did take a bit of fiddling with Words of Truth to get the text legible, I was both enraged and saddened when I learned that the station I was on was designed to explode a sun as some sort of science experiment. Clearly, these people were absolutely crushed by their failure. I was just about to leave when someone in a brown patched-together space suit showed up and shouted at me "The sun explodes in fifteen minutes! Get to Timber Hearth and evacuate everyone there, I'll collect the rest of the astronauts. Meet the other astronauts at the White Hole Station, I'll be at the Eye of the Universe, now go!"
With that, the space-suited figure booked it at their top speed, and I followed. As I ran, I reconfigured myself for vacuum travel; the
instant I was clear of the sun station, I started boosting prograde, soon getting away from the star. Apparently this universe had a higher gravitational constant, because damn that star was
tiny. Similarly, so were the planets. Admittedly I didn't know just from being yelled at which one was Timber Hearth, but seeing as only one planet had an entirely breathable atmosphere and a visible village, I immediately made my trajectory there, budding off a massive shuttle around myself as I went.
Diving through the atmosphere, I touched down right in the middle of the village and immediately jumped out. I swiftly saw everyone backing away, and in response I fired up Words of Truth at maximum power as I shouted "The sun will explode in just over ten minutes! Get everyone onto the ship in five minutes along with the absolutely necessary provisions; I can duplicate them with a starting sample! Now hurry!" I couldn't afford for a single person to doubt me on this.
Immediately, everyone started dashing around, and I grabbed one particular Hearthian as I asked "Do you know if there are any others outside the village on this planet?"
Looking up at me, the terrified Hearthian answered "Yes, Tektite went to investigate a disturbance at Youngbark Crater and someone needs to go get him!"
Simulating a nod, I answered "Understood, I will go." With that I activated my Blink module to teleport fifty meters straight up and activated my thruster array, quickly scooting around the entire tiny planet until I found a crater that fit the bill with a Hearthian heat signature inside. As soon as I did so, I touched down next to the shocked Hearthian and asked "Are you Tektite?"
At this, the four-eyed alien simply nodded, before I said "Hold on tight, the sun's going to explode in a few minutes, and I'm evacuating everyone."
With that, I spent a little reserve Mana to overclock my Blink module and teleport the both of us right back to the village. As I entered the ship, I quickly counted the sixteen Hearthians in the hold now and asked "Is everyone here?"
After a few moments, everyone eventually agreed "Yes, we're all here."
In response, I replied "Understood, then we're blasting off to wait for your astronauts to meet us at the White Hole Station." and with that I fired the thrusters for the evacuation ship, the vessel shaking as we ascended. As far as actually finding the White Hole Station was concerned, that was easy as it could be. So, I parked the ship over there. Sure enough, a minute or so later two different spacecraft of Hearthian origin arrived. I quickly modified the evacuation ship to have them docked, and started boosting out of the solar system at maximum thrust. Then I noticed the head count reporting the time-looping Hearthian as missing, along with a radio signal from deep space calling out in their voice.
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(POV: The Hearthian)
This was the third loop during which I had encountered Clockwork Knight Marina, and the second during which I had coordinated the evacuation. The first time I spent utterly confused and asking the Clockwork a massive number of questions; by the time we'd arrived at a course of action it was too late, and the sun consumed the station with both of us on it. The second time we had successfully managed to get everyone past the reach of the supernova, only for me to find myself getting pulled back in time regardless.
Another several loops passed as I tracked down a way to turn off the Ash Twin Project and rehearsed how I would rescue Feldspar from the Dark Bramble. I had quickly determined that the added time it took for me to get into the Ash Twin Project would make getting Feldspar out using my ship rather impractical given the time constraints involved and the need to avoid the Anglerfish. On the other hand, I knew where the Nomai Vessel was, and the Ash Twin Project had a compatible Warp Core. For that matter, I knew the co-ordinates to reach the Eye of the Universe, so I might as well also retrieve Solanum from the Quantum Moon while I was at it.
This was the final loop. The absolute first thing I did was rocket off to where Chert was camped out on Ember Twin. As soon as I landed next to him, I told him "Chert, the sun explodes in twenty minutes. I need you to get Esker, Gabbro and Riebeck to the White Hole Station for evacuation, especially Esker and Gabbro, since Esker doesn't have a ship and Gabbro misplaced his."
Chert immediately startled and asked "Are you sure? And what about everyone else?"
Nodding, I said "I'm sure. As for everyone on Timber Hearth, there's someone arriving on the Sun Station who can handle that as soon as I get there. Now go!"
Immediately, Chert got up and dashed for his ship. Meanwhile, I sprinted for mine and made the hop to Ash Twin; I could hypothetically do this faster using my ship, but that put me at risk of losing it, and I still needed it. So as soon as the sand levels got low enough I dashed through the door for the tower, over the still-buried cacti, and through the teleporter to the Sun Station. Quickly I sprinted through the corridors, EVA'd across the gap, and encountered Marina in her blue-painted glory.
I still wasn't quite clear how she understood me, but when I shouted "The sun explodes in fifteen minutes! Get to Timber Hearth and evacuate everyone there, I'll collect the rest of the astronauts. Meet the other astronauts at the White Hole Station, I'll be at the Eye of the Universe, now go!" she didn't need to ask for confirmation, she just started moving.
Now was when our paths diverged, Marina rocketing off to Timber Hearth even as I dashed back through the teleporters to get at the core of the Ash Twin Project. I had the apocalypse-powered time machine shut down in less than forty seconds, and with its warp core in hand I made a mad dash for my ship and into the depths of Dark Bramble. Now came the tricky part.
The fog was thick and gloomy, occasionally revealing horrifying Anglerfish through the viewport. Still, my signalscope pulled through, and I managed to reach Feldspar's camp in fairly short order. As soon as I did so I told him "Feldspar, get in my ship now! The sun's exploding in about six minutes and I'm not leaving without you!"
He barely had time to argue before I started shoving him into the ship and he got the hint. As soon as I was back in the ship and navigating towards the Nomai vessel, he asked "So Hatchling, where are we going, and what's this Nomai doohickey with the two boxes on the ends?"
As I navigated past the trio of Anglerfish I answered "That's an Advanced Warp Core, and we're taking it to the vessel the Nomai arrived in. We'll be using it to warp right out of here; everyone else should be clear of the blast by now."
Mildly surprised, Feldspar asked "You know how to fly a Nomai starship?"
Shrugging as the Vessel came into view, I answered "Well, I've only ever flown their shuttles, but I have a pretty solid idea of how to work Nomai technology. You grab the radio and I'll grab the warp core, we're entering through that hull breach."
With that, we fueled up our jetpacks, opened the hatch, and exited my ship for the last time. I navigated us through the corpse-filled corridors with ease, quickly arriving at the warp core socket. The process of warping the ship took a mere forty seconds including entering the coordinates for the Eye of the Universe. The wormhole opened, and after the wrenching distortion of warp travel we were clear of Dark Bramble.
I let go of tension I didn't know I was holding, and said "If the radio's on, everyone should be coming to meet us on the evac ship in a little while. In the meantime, feel free to ask whatever you like."
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(POV: Solanum)
On the surface of the Quantum Moon's sixth location, Solanum waited, unsure of how much time had passed. The fact that her shuttle had started flickering around the Moon when not observed was a distinctly unsettling one, as it indicated that she had been present here for far longer than she had thought. As a direct corollary of that point, the prospect of getting on the shuttle and leaving the Quantum Moon seemed particularly unwise.
Lost in thought, Solanum wondered if she would be stuck here forever, before she suddenly noticed an oddity in the form of the moon's ambient light briefly reaching a blinding searing blue before dimming to nothing, though for all she knew it could have been much longer. That was in and of itself distinctly worrying, as it indicated that something rather bizarre had happened to the system's star. It was the only source of light here on the Quantum Moon, after all.
Before the panic could get
too severe however, Solanum found herself treated to a rather bizarre sight in the form of two figures walking towards her. The first was clearly a space-suited individual of a species she did not recognize, while the other was a large, bulky machine, loaded down with weaponry.
The mechanical being turned towards Solanum and inexplicably glowed golden yellow, saying "Greetings. I am Clockwork Knight Marina. My companion and I have made this journey to the Quantum Moon in order to rescue you."
Solanum thought furiously for a moment, before asking "How do you know my language? I have never met either of your species before, and if you had any contact with living Nomai at least one of them would be with your rescue party."
The answer Solanum got was far from what she expected, as the mechanical being replied "I do not know your language, and am not speaking it. Instead, I am locally altering the underlying nature of reality so as to facilitate communication without need of such things. As a side effect, deception is completely impossible while this effect is in place. In addition, you are correct in your inference that we have not met any living Nomai aside from yourself. All Nomai in-system aside from yourself perished completely roughly 2.4*10^5 years ago. The cause was a highly dangerous form of exotic matter released from a comet that had recently been captured by the system primary."
There was a pause for several moments, as Solanum digested this information, before she noted "That would be consistent with my hypothesis that I am not entirely alive, as bizarre as that may sound. It does raise the question of how you knew enough to come find me here, though."
That is when the space-suited visitor spoke up, noting "That would be on account of my actions, mostly. On account of the sun naturally going supernova, I wound up paired with the Ash Twin Project, getting caught up in the resulting time loop. This is not the first loop in which I have found you here on the Quantum Moon, but it
is the first time that the evacuation was a complete success."
Unexpectedly, Solanum found herself heaving, unsure if she was laughing or crying as the full impact of what she had just been told slammed home. Every other Nomai in the system was dead, and she was mostly dead. Indeed, the only reason these people were even here to talk to her was on account of all her friends and family dying before they could disassemble the Ash Twin Project.
After a few minutes of this, the last of the Nomai asked "If all the Nomai are dead, then why are you even bothering to rescue me? I'm just an unliving relic of a race long gone. For that matter, how are you even planning to do so? After all, leaving the sixth position will just put me into one of my deceased quantum states."
At this, the Clockwork Knight spoke up, noting "We are here to rescue you because no matter what, no sapient being deserves to be trapped and alone for all eternity. An additional factor is that there is evidence for the survival of other Nomai clans aside from your own. As for how, we've already determined that getting you out physically is non-viable, so the only option is to extract you as a mind-state and put you in a new body. As it happens, I have a pretty good idea of how to achieve that, though I will only do so with your consent."
Regaining a bit of composure, Solanum asked "How long until the clone will be ready? I don't want to be stuck here any longer than absolutely necessary."
Marina answered "Your new body will be less of a clone and more of a Mana construct, so making it will be extremely quick. That said, to ensure that it is actually you inhabiting it and not simply a mind-twin will require your body here to die. Additional local alterations to the laws of reality have been made to ensure that it will actually be you waking up in your new body as a result."
Solanum hesitated, before she answered "Do it."
Marina replied "This will hurt only briefly." before suddenly drawing their sword and decapitating Solanum in a flicker of motion.
The next thing Solanum knew, she was waking up in a soft bed.
In front of her sat both Marina and the Hearthian who had been caught in the time loop, both looking at her. The Hearthian asked "How do you feel, Solanum?"
Thinking for a few moments, Solanum simply answered "I feel alive."
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(POV: Clockwork Knight Marina)
I'd expanded the evacuation ship to comfortably hold all the Hearthians and Solanum in the orbit of the Eye of the Universe, complete with a habitat bay designed to be mostly comfortable to the Hearthians making up most of my passengers. Now it was simply a matter of deciding what to do next.
As the stars blinked out one by one, I noted "So, this universe is obviously dying. Obviously sticking around isn't a good idea, and I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to punch a rift to elsewhere."
After a few moments, Solanum asked "Is that really necessary? The Eye of the Universe is right there, and it seems to have a stable wormhole in the form of that quantum vortex."
Nodding, I answered "The problem is where that wormhole leads. Namely, it leads to a pocket of weirdly altered pseudo-space that will react to a conscious mind to make a new universe. I can absolutely guarantee that whoever jumps in the Eye of the Universe won't survive the process, and the universe it creates won't reach habitable conditions for an unacceptably long time."
After a few moments, Esker commented "Well, you seem pretty set on that solution of yours, so you might as well get on with it. That said, it'd be polite to leave the portal open once we're through and set up a beacon saying where the exit is so any stragglers aren't stuck."
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