Beyond The Impossible

Kefalonia, Greece

The sun has just risen on the largest of the Ionian Islands, beginning a day that should be like any other. Until the ground starts shaking.

The island has experienced earthquakes before, but this is a minor one: only a few buildings sustain minor damages, and if this was everything that happened today it would barely make national news.

If it wasn’t for something exceptional: the image of some sort of construction overlaps with the buildings of the island, an immaterial mirage that flickers in and out of existence.

The strange phenomenon only lasts a few minutes, and once it ends it leaves behind a tangible proof of the event: a part of the construction remains both visible and tangible.

The walls of a church are now permanently fused with the hull of a colossal spaceship, leaving clearly visible the symbol of a trident.

Two hours later

The entire neighborhood has been evacuated and is guarded by the Greek army. Hundreds of agents and scientists from the Global Defense Organization have rushed to the place, and are analyzing the metal when Quantum appears.

<Whoa. That’s a big one.> he comments, trying to look at the structure through X-Rays. The material however reacts in an unexpected way: out of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, it only appears in visible light.

<Weird.> he tells himself, touching the metal. It’s solid and cold to the touch, but something feels wrong to his senses.

<Κύριε, δεν πρέπει να είστε εδώ.> a GDO agent warns him in Greek.

<Dude, it’s like 3 AM in New York, I’m not awake enough for this crap.> Quantum complains; he disappears in a flash of light, only to re-appear a second later with a cup of coffee in his hands.

<You’d think the mask would be enough.> he says before taking a sip.

<Ω σκατά. One second.> the agent replies, hurrying to take his N-Phone and activate the instant translator. He says something Greek into it, and the phone repeats:

<Apologies, I did not recognize you. Can I help you?>

<Yes, what is this thing?> Quantum asks, knocking on the metal again.

<We don’t know yet, nothing can get inside.>

<Looks like a spaceship, but it’s not like any I’ve ever seen. Let me try something.> Quantum says, drinking the rest of the coffee and handing it to the agent.

The man can’t tell that Quantum just transformed into neutrinos; not only they are invisible, but they should be able to get through any form of matter.

Except once Quantum tries to walk through the hull, he’s violently repelled and ends up with his backside firmly planted into the ground.

<Are you alright?> the translation of the guard asks.

<I will be if you never tell anybody. Kari, you don’t happen to have a duplicate in Greece?> Quantum calls through the Soul Relay installed into his head, instinctively pressing a finger against his ear as if it was a simple earpiece.

<Already on my way, I heard the news. Did you manage to get inside the thing?> is the answer he receives from Kari in his head.

<No such luck. I’m afraid we’re gonna need Noriko for this one.>

<I’ll ask one of my duplicates… if we can get her out of the lab.>

Asgard Station, Null Zone

Kari Zel doesn’t really like this place. Not only because the alternate dimension out the station is a terrifying dark void filled with cosmic thunderstorms, or because of the solar batteries constantly charged by the dozens of artificial stars that surround the Star Forge.

It’s the artificial nature of the station: an endless succession of barren rooms illuminated by neon lights, with hundreds if not thousands of Nullbots always adding new sections.

It’s like a metallic labyrinth constructed by a madman, and finding your way in this maze is just exhausting. It took her the better part of an hour to finally locate the laboratory with the locked door and a “Busy: do not disturb” glowing sign.

<Nori? It’s Kari. We have a situation on Earth.> she says, knocking more than once and receiving no answer. She then sighs and concentrates the strength of her ten thousand bodies into this single body, which glows once the resorts to her 10K Rise technique.

<Here’s hoping it’s not radioactive in there.> she tells herself, managing to open the door even if it takes all of her enhanced strength to do so.

Once inside she’s immediately taken by surprise: gravity ceases to work, and she floats towards the ceiling. The lab is much larger than she imagined, a hollow sphere centered on a spherical scaffolding. Kari pushes against the wall to propel herself towards it.

Floating around her are random pieces of equipment, discarded pizza boxes and half-eaten containers of Chinese food.

Noriko Null is hovering above the scaffolding, cross-legged and upside-down, holding a plasma cutter. She ditched her leather jacket, which is floating somewhere in the room, and she has welding goggles over her eyes.

A small device on her belt is blasting rock music at maximum volume, at least until Kari gets close enough to shut it off.

<What the… hey Kari. You could’ve knocked.> Noriko complains, taking off the goggles.

<I did! Why did you shut off your Soul Relay? I lost count of how many times you scolded Max for doing that! What if this was an emergency!?> Kari yells, still compensating for the loud music even if it’s not there anymore, and feeling weird for treating her boss as if she was one of her daughters.

<I just took a little “me time” to unwind. I’m sure nothing happened.> Noriko defends herself, pressing a button on her N-Watch that informs her:

<You have. 1792 unread messages.>

<How long have I been here?>

<123 hours, 38 minutes.>

<Uh. Note to self: stop installing bathrooms in the labs and cancel automated food delivery.>

<What are you even doing here, Nori? I thought you were supposed to take breaks from using the Nexus for long stretches without switching it off.>

<I did that, but I couldn’t stop thinking. I had so many ideas that I just had to blow off some steam, and I lost track of time. I may have underestimated the amount of time this would take.>

<You didn’t answer. What are you building?>

<Something I discovered in the Mindscape a while ago.> Noriko replies, sending a mental command to the scaffolding. The metal twists itself to reveal what is being held together by countless wires: it’s part of an armor, still unfinished considering all the circuitry still exposed, and considering the shape meant to fit a woman her size.

<Diomedes was the first one to show me the blueprints. Roxiana calls it the Genesis Armor: apparently various Nexus wielders have tried building it over the ages, but nobody has ever managed to actually complete it.>

<And you have?>

<Oh no, not even close. The amount of precision this thing needs dwarfs even the best Amazon technology, and the energy requirements to actually power it are… but you didn’t come here to hear me ramble about this. Do you need something?>

<Yes, you have to come to Earth to see it. After you clean up.>

<What do you mean?>

<Nori, you haven’t left this room for five days and I don’t see a wardrobe or a shower.>

<Oh. I see. You’re probably right.> Noriko concedes, sending new comments to the scaffolding and whispering to her watch:

<Note to self: install a shower and a dry cleaner in the next lab.>

Kefalonia, Greece

Vesta is floating above the hull of the ship, and Quantum is sitting on it.

<Does it look familiar?> he asks.

<It has the symbol of Poseidon, but I don’t recognize the design. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him use one, he prefers to swim on his own.> she answers.

<This is a spaceship, Vesta. It’s not like he can swim in space.>

<You do know my brother is the god of the sea, right?>

The rhetorical question is followed by Noriko appearing through the Portal Generator, holding a device that none of her teammates recognize.

<Careful with that. This thing has quite the kick.> Quantum warns her, being the first to get down on the ground to talk to her.

<I figured. You better not try to get inside by turning into neutrinos, or the dimensional feedback would knock you on your #ss.>

<Sure, I knew that. New toy?>

<It’s the phase shift analyzer that I built to study the Eden’s phasing ability.>

<Never seen you use that.>

<Before I had the chance to use it, I figured out a way to integrate a dimensional spectrograph into the N-Phone. You have no idea of how much junk I have just laying around because I invented better stuff.> Noriko boasts, attentively analyzing the data provided by the device.

<It’s not the Eden again, I hope.> Vesta jumps in.

<No, this is still dimensional mass shifting but much less precise; even the Lar phase displacement technology is more advanced than this. The ship is currently stuck between being fully solid and intangible; probably its power source gave up.>

<Can you make it solid so that we can get inside?> Kari asks.

<I could, but this thing is massive… it’s basically the size of the entire island. If I make this fully solid, it will destroy Kefalonia. And if it’s fully intangible, there’s no guarantee it would stay that way indefinitely and could eventually destroy the island anyway.>

<If it didn’t stop neutrinos, I could get inside and you could guide me into fixing it. Maybe I could try tachyons, I’ve already tried everything else.> Quantum suggests.

<No, it still wouldn’t work. I could match the dimensional shift of something in contact with it, but the molecular stress would be catastrophic if the object wasn’t already…> Noriko thinks out loud, then her silver eyes shine as she gets an idea and she turns towards Vesta to ask:

<How do you feel about getting some exercise?>

An hour later

After years in the Vanguard, both Quantum and Kari Zel sometimes feel like they couldn’t possibly be surprised by anything.

But watching the gigantic ship emerge from the ground as it phases through the island, only to then spot their teammates pushing it from below, remind them there are still wonders to witness.

<How much is she lifting again!?> Quantum exclaims.

<Hard to say without knowing the ship’s composition and internal layout, but I’d say between two and four hundred million tons. You’re doing great Vesta, just put it anywhere in orbit.> Noriko tells her via Soul Relay.

<I’m never doing this again.> Vesta complains, feeling the strain of every single atom of her body vibrating as it’s trying to jump between dimensions.

<Uh, Nori, I think we have a lead on the origin of this thing.> Kari says, pointing at the letters on the side of the enormous ship.

<What does it say?> Quantum asks, not recognizing the Olympian word.

<“Ithaca”. So this is where Ulysses is from.> Noriko says.