CHAP 17: Reunion

I'd received a letter that the Heisenberg family had a new integrant coming, it seems opening the factory gave the couple some confidence in actually starting a family. I sent one back congratulating the couple and got back to work.

Since I had yet to develop a way of reading without sight, and I had been forcing myself not to use Bea's eyes, my way of working was that I'd sit. In contrast, Anita read through things out loud, dictating what she should write, thankfully I could write multiple letters at the same time with the fungus, or else maintaining the company, or companies, would be impossible with just the two of us.

I'd been in the business of making deals with multiple countries, while the laissez-faire attitude most of them assumed made doing whatever I wanted in their territories not that hard while I wasn't actively opposing them, but since the War to End All Wars — as if that'd ever be the case — was coming, I'd been making Yrga into a gun manufacturer, and as such, I needed military contracts. Competing with the four Titans was not as easy as one would think, but I had a big edge in that I was working with one whole century of developments more than them.

My "revolutionary gun engineering developments" landed me a contract with the UK, the Austro-Hungarian, and the German Empires, with the Ottoman and Russian Empires surely soon to follow, this put me in a pretty good spot from a financial standpoint, but the fact thirteen years from now all of those will starting fighting against themselves is sure to land me a war profiteer title, something I would not call good PR.

As a countermeasure to that, I've made a public announcement that Blackroot has a "policy of non-profit assistance", which means funding field hospitals in places of war and other disasters and sending supplies and whatnot. I'll lose some money by doing that, but a good reputation goes a long way, and when the UN becomes a thing, I'll already have a standing for what they're trying to do, which means they'll definitely contact me.

My true goal with this is to get enough political power to where I can directly deal with countries, and get my strings around their governments, the last time I did this was through holding what could be considered an informational nuclear bomb, which did in fact contain literal nuclear bombs, or at least their launching codes, but now I've got a chance to get my hands everywhere through more legal means, and it would be dumb to not do so.

On the research side of things, the work of integrating the fungus with the Earth is proving troublesome, the problem being the inside of the planet is scorching and very full of lava, the two of which don't mix well with living beings in general. Hence, I need to make a variant of the fungus that survives in said temperature, definitely not trivial, and that's without taking the fact it will also have to withstand the pressure of the whole goddamned planet into consideration.

Searching for inspiration, I decided to look through the evolution of the fungus, since it had been alive in the Archean Era, in other words, when the planet was a lot hotter, discovering that the 'crystallization' mechanism evolved from the less than favorable conditions of the time. At the same time, I didn't find the answers, but I did get an idea.

Silicon. If I can make a structure composed of carbon and silicon, It could be possible to resist the temperatures around the core, so I started working on that. Stability proved to be a problem, but the fungus could maintain itself working, I also started working on a 'power plant', since the core was offering a lot of free heat. Also, I needed to create a system to maintain the planet's temperature as intended, since I'm not willing to deal with the problems the sudden cooling down of the crust could and would bring.

Doing all of this research took two more years, with the fungus expanding downwards more and more, by my calculations, around half of the volume of the planet was made of fungus now, and the eldritch fear would've hit me by now if I wasn't the one responsible for this, since the idea of a living being the size of a planet was nothing short of horrifying. What this also meant was that I could make any kind of natural disaster I wanted if I so wished, and I could also stop them from happening, not only that, I could affect the temperature of the oceans, which, in addition to having control over the forests, meant I could effectively control the weather.

Safe to say, I'm pretty much the closest thing to a god right now, at least on Earth. On the more human side of things, I've made a military contract with most of the relevant powers, and Blackroot has already created a lot of field hospitals, gaining a lot of popularity, while also gaining a lot of money by selling pharmaceuticals cheaper than the competition, Express Fox has been investing in ships, Yrga has been working to bring electricity to Europe, and Ashen Finances has opened its thirtieth agency on Britain. In short, I'm wealthy, and that's always good.

I've also used Blackroot to buy some farms since I want to plant coffee and sugar cane on my own accord, I've also reserved some land to make some premium alcohol, which I've used as a way to sweeten the deal with the government officials of the world since humans love being drunk, and being drunk leads to decisions not thought through. This is also the reasoning behind offering tea when face-to-face with important individuals since the calming effects of the drink make them more comfortable.

Heisenberg sent me a letter with the name of his new baby, Karoline, and also a report of the new machines that had reached the factory, which meant that they could make engines and the parts of guns that would be assembled at other locations.

One and a half years later, I was back at the house in Karelia, sitting on the couch while petting Bea, Anita brewing some coffee in the kitchen, and the carriage Alice was on reached the front of the house, and she entered the living room.

"You're here!"

She moved so fast I could only feel her arms suddenly embracing me, and I reciprocated, Bea slipped out from between us and climbed on top of our shoulders, using her tail to hug both of us.

"I said you could always come back here, and that I'd be waiting for you. How's life going?"

"I'm sure you're already in the know."

"It's no fun if I don't hear it from your mouth, and Bea doesn't know."

"Yeah, what kind of things did you hunt out there?"

Anita entered the room, the smell of coffee wafting from where she stood.

"Who's this?"

"Your favorite fungus, but now I've got a human form."

"Good, that means you can repay me now."

"And what do you want?"

"A sorry coming from your own mouth would be nice."

"Sorry for not taking into consideration that you would be such a crybaby."

"Can I shoot her?"

"You can, but she'll win if you do, and you won't even have the pleasure of hurting her."

"Goddamnit."

"You can use me as a bargaining chip, though."

"Gray said he won't spend time with you anymore if you don't say sorry to me."

"I can hear you two, and he didn't say that."

I sighed.

"Say sorry to her, Anita. You were willing to say sorry before, weren't you?"

"That wasn't coming directly from my mouth, so it didn't feel as sour."

"I won't let you sleep on my bed."

"I'm truly sorry, Alice. I hope we can let bygones be bygones."

"That's how you use someone as a bargaining chip. Now, come on, tell you about your adventures."

Anita set down the tray, and I started sipping on the coffee while Alice told us about her travels. She traveled throughout Russia and Asia, seeing all kinds of things and hunting peculiar animals, including some humans. But I wasn't as interested in hearing as I was in why Alice was giving me the same feeling of possibility I felt from Miranda, and it seemed to be even passing on to Bea and Anita.

Since this world is 'technically fiction', as much as the word loses meaning when you find yourself transported into the world of a game — or at least that's my leading theory— it is certainly possible that this feeling of 'possibility' is a signal of plot relevance, but if that's the case, then why can I sense it? And if it isn't the case, what else can 'possibility' mean, the possibility of being strong? It shouldn't be, or else I would've felt it coming from Anita, and it wouldn't have passed from Alice to others.

As I wondered about the meaning of such a vague concept, Alice told the stories of her travels to the little fox and the fungus in human form, Bea was the only one among both of them who was really interested, mostly in the 'hunting exotic animals' part. Maybe I should take her hunting around the world myself, it could be fun, and could also help her learn to adapt to other environments.

I listened to her story, and from her words, trouble seemed to follow her everywhere, which could be a clue to what that feeling means. But I left the investigation for later, now is not the time for work. This was a kind of vacation for me, Anita had branched a part of her consciousness to deal with the company back in Bohemia, so that's taken care of.

"But enough about me, how's "world domination" going, old man?"

"Going well, ever heard about Yrga? Perhaps Express Fox?"

"That's yours?!"

"Correct. It's good to hear that our fame is growing in the East."

"Of course it is, I passed by a bunch of those caravans everywhere I went, and that fox symbols make it hard not to recognize the company."

"Building a recognizable brand is paramount if you want a successful business, and Bea seemed like the perfect mascot."

"Of course, I'm the perfect hunter... and carrier of things, I guess."

I put my hand on her head, petting her.

"You sure are, little one."

"About that, she hasn't grown one bit since I last saw her, did you make the 'procedure' on her?"

"Yes."

I could feel Bea nodding as well.

"After my 'hardware' upgrades, I refined the surgery, so the time of recovering was greatly reduced."

"That's good, at least Bea didn't have to sleep for nine years."

"You're still on about that? I've already said sorry."

"Yes, but I won't forget it. Anyways, considering how badly maintained this place is, either Miss Fungi doesn't know how to take care of a house, or you weren't living here. So, are you guys still living in that village?"

"I'll let you know that 'Miss Fungi' here knows how to care of both her house and her man, so watch your mouth."

I sighed.

"We're living in Prague."

"Bohemia?"

"That's the name, for now."

"So it'll change in the future?"

"Maybe. Anyways, we should start going back, it's quite the travel, after all."

"Sure."

I got up and opened the door for the ladies to go through. When Anita reached the outside, she created our carriage, and after all of us were inside, we started moving.

"Are you ready to spill the beans about who you are, old man?"

"I could, but that would take the fun out of the mystery, wouldn't it? You've had time to mull over the clues, so?"

"When you speak of the future, you don't speak with absolute certainty, so I'd assume you're not a time traveler, nor a god, in the normal meaning of the world. That leaves me with schizophrenic outcast or pathological liar, but since the voice in your head has a human body now, and you don't show any other symptoms, I can rule out schizophrenia."

"That leaves you with an outcast pathological liar."

"Yes, and I don't think I'm incorrect. But I've devised a new theory."

"Oh, and what is that?"

"You're from an alternate universe or timeline, the specifics don't matter, that was ahead of us in history. You've recognized deviations from your world, so you don't speak with assurance of the future, but things seem to play out similarly, so you have a basis others don't."

"Quite an astute deduction."

"What I don't get is, how did you get here? The spider destroyed its world, so how did the fox reach this one?"

"If you figure it out, be sure to tell me."

"So you don't know?"

"I only know that I was stuck in absolute darkness for who knows how long until I woke up in the middle of the forest, then I entered a cave, found a biological wonder, got myself a little girl and the rest is history. Now that you know my history, how about you tell me yours?"

She inhaled deeply.

"As you may know, my father was the best hunter in the village, and my mother was the physician. My father would teach me how to hunt, and my mom would help through the books she had inherited from my grandma, and life was good."

She started sniffling.

"During one of the times I had gone out hunting with my father, we had seen a bear, eating a caribou, I was scared, ended up stepping back, hitting a stick, and falling, making the beast turn to us, my father shot an arrow at it, making the bear turn to him... It smashed him, but he screamed at me to run away... And I did. I just did."

"Not much you could do."

"But I could've tried to do something!"

"You did. You survived, you made your father's sacrifice worth it."

"But..."

"Look, you were a child, against a goddamned BEAR. The only thing you could do was run, and that's what a good father would want their child to do."

She started crying but continued.

"When I got back home, I told everything to my mother, and she... she started convulsing, I called the people of the village to help, but they held her down, thought she was possessed by a demon, she convulsed and convulsed, the weight of those people on her body, until she stopped."

A convulsion that stemmed from the shock of knowing her husband died, and the people, in their ignorance, held her down, put her through more stress, she probably had a stroke. Ah, ignorance, how many have you taken, and how many are you yet to take?

"When they learned that my father had died, they put two and two together and figured I was the cause of this, that I was the 'demon', but they at least had the decency not to kill a child, so all they did was let the cold kill me, but I survived like a rabid dog, hunting little animals, surviving with the scraps, just out of SPITE for them."

"So, what was your name in the past?"

"Does it matter? That little girl was destroyed by the cold, and Alice was all that was left."

"Familiar attitude."

"I've learned from the best."

"Or the worst."

We fell silent. This continued through most of the travel since Bea was sleeping soundly, I truly don't understand how the little fox can sleep for so long.

After a day and a half, we finally reached Prague, and shortly after the office. I picked up Bea, and we entered the building.

"Fancy place you got here."

"Thanks. Hard work pays off."

Anita responded.

"We can at least agree on something."

Reaching the second floor, I showed Alice her room. Then we went to the workshop.

"What's this little thing?"

"Gray's Walkman, it's a music player."

"Like a gramophone? Where did it come from?"

"I brought it here with me and just forgot about it. It's broken, though I could fix it for you."

"For me?"

"Sure, I can just play music directly in my head if I want to. I can figure out how to record some tapes for you as well."

I signaled for her to give me the Walkman, and after she did, I sat down and started working on fixing it. The circuits and the headphones were completely fried, even though the tape was completely intact. An electromagnetic pulse from the nuclear explosions, most probably. Not that difficult to fix, even though it's more like a reconstruction than a repair. After I was finished, I put the tape back in and gave the device back to Alice.

"Put the headphones in your ears, this button plays the music, this one controls the direction of the gear, and this one turns the Walkman off."

"Direction of the tape?"

I sighed, then proceeded to give her a lesson into what a cassette tape was, and how it worked.

"I'll figure a way out to record some tapes for you. Consider this a gift for all those birthdays I've missed."

"Thanks. And what about the tape that's already in?"

"'The Man Who Sold the World', an album from David Bowie, one of my favorite musicians."

"Huh, I'll make sure to listen to it, make sure you've got good taste in music."

"If you like it, I can record some of his other albums. I'll make sure to also record all the other classics since you can't go wrong with that. Anita, ready for some music production?"

"Sure. This can double as a test to see if we can copy people's voices, which could prove to be useful."

"Correct."

"I'll go relax a bit, I've not stayed put for a long time."

"Good rest."

"Thanks."

She closed the door behind her.

"Are you sure giving that to her is a good idea?"

"I doubt whatever brought something from an alternate universe to this one needs a tracker if he wants to know where I am. Anyways, this audio stuff can be really useful, and I've been aching for some music I like, so let's get working."

"Will you make another Walkman for yourself?"

"No, I'll probably get a car soon, so we can work on a music player for that instead, could also prove to be a business opportunity in the future."

"Makes sense."

Luckily enough, we had more than enough data to work on this, I've disguised myself as a musician multiple times and ended up studying acoustics and musical theory quite a lot. After some tinkering with getting the instruments to sound right, we managed to make an accurate digital database for the full simulation.

We tested its capacities with Tchaikovsky's "Overture", including the cannons. It sounded iffy on some parts but after some fine-tuning, it became identical. We ran a test with "Master of Puppets" after, and the simulation sounded mostly fine but the vocals could be improved upon, the same could not be said about this "debugging" process we have to run when doing any kind of program.

After about thirty minutes of fine-tuning, everything was working perfectly, with every song we ran through sounding identical to my memories, including the vocals, which after converting the information back into an analog form, I could utilize to modify my vocal chords and allowing for me to copy any voice I heard.

After copying the albums we'd made into tapes, I put them into a box and wrapped them, making a classical gift. I hope this makes up for all the anniversaries I've lost, Alice.