Stellartale: Nullity's Dreamer

The Makers

Inner Scutum-Crux Arm, unknown sector

Ryujen zooms in the spiral map. "That was irresponsible. We could've gone into a star."

Nav-Mind Offline: Hyper Engine Locked
Auto Distress Signal Active

I sprawl over the plush seat, seeing only stars and huge pink-gold clouds outside. "What was all that you were doing with the program?"
She opens that holo again: text boxes, error logs over white line-clusters, a replay of the tendril attack. "Someone planted the bad program before we left. Used a proxy so we don't know who yet."
Didn't she say people wanted to stop us? "Any way to fix this?"
"Access the CLOUD and restore the Nav-Mind. In theory this ship can do it even from another galaxy. But the attacker might still be on us. Let's see -"
A red holo beeps. I flip around and read "Data Translated". The holo unfolds into a blue flame-eye with words.

"Grand Sentience"
We intend you no harm

Something zips fast, crossing miles to our left to meet us up front. My heart almost stops as a gold shadow of light stops a few feet head-on. I blink at the shiny gold crescent maybe twice the size of our ship, rainbow glyphs spinning from crystal orbs that change color.
Ryujen smiles. "Soulmaker Consciousness, we call them."
A mental voice from the ship. I am Ice-Flame-Spark of Persevering Storm, a Synapse-Chief of Grand Sentience. You, Asriel Dreemurr, wish to know of the Makers. We know a little more of it.
How'd they know my name or our language? And why should I trust them? "We'll call you Sparky. Why do you give me this?"
Sparky beams gladness. An ignorant unit hurts its own collective. You, Asriel, have spoken to the Makers. You wish to share such with these 'Delta Ascendancy' strangers even when your close-one 'Frisk' said no.
They're seeing straight through my head. I glance to Ryujen, who simply stares at the crescent-ship as if resigned to our fate.
If we wanted to hurt or trap you we could've done so long ago with far magics.
Good point. "If you want something in return just say it."
We only want your collective to come to truth before it hurts itself and others. You, Asriel, hurt your own close-ones before but that is not you now.
Yep, I was Flowey once. Maybe they saw it all. All my mistakes, all my unsaid thoughts. "No one else will know about this, right?"
Sparky: Our Sentience knows as one. We all already know about this. Or would you prefer I give command now so we all forget you?
I'd really like them to forget all this, but then I'd be no better than whoever blocked my own memories back there. "No you don't need to do that to yourselves for me. I promise once I get out of this alive I'll go public on this Voidglitch. Or whatever you want with me."
Very well then. Go here. This realm will fill all your needs. The crescent-ship pulses a few glyphs. A white portal opens over our ship's right side.

Open Door?

Hey anything's better than waiting to die here in space. I click the holo and the right door slides to gold light and sweet air outside. I clamber onto the fluffy purple grass and behold the distant gold spires afloat in the blue-pink evening sky, even further lacy green orbs that might be planets.
I glance back at the portal leading to our ship and its cockpit.
Ryujen stays at my side. "Smart germs. They tailor the kind of magical air we Monsters need."
Ahead I see a blonde human girl in a light blue gown and deep orange eyes.
She turns to us and smiles. "I'm Sparky. Glad to meet you both, Asriel Dreemurr and Ryujen Fangmoon. We've seen the Makers, or Wiu'Dlekeh they called themselves. Ask me anything about them."
I get it, she took a form we could deal with. Presentation.
I just need to make sure. "Is this Voidglitch real? Are you sure no one's faking it?"
Sparky reaches a hand up, filling the sky with a patchy green and blue planet whose night side shimmers with purple fractals of light. "Wiu'Dleh, a warm water moon. We saw them with our probes. We have their records." It all comes to me. All their thoughts and memories. The Wiu'Dlekeh, people of the Sea-Soil. A short fungoid race with round breathing caps, long tendrils, bright eyes clustering around a vertical mouth of fangs. Scholars, study-priests, tool-poets. Legends of mortal heroes devising great machines to overthrow demons or tricking gods into giving fire. Poet-walls teaching metal-crafts or cures for plagues. Temple halls where they debated what made the stars glow and how to improve harvests. A defiant race striving to learn and overcome, never to lose without a fight.
I blink hard with all this new knowledge from so many long-dead people, now part of me. "You're saying these... things made the Voidglitch?"
Sparky locks her fiery eyes onto mine. "The Makers became the Voidglitch. They uploaded to escape death and remake themselves." She sends me more images: Makers wiring machines to their brains, SOULs self-improving in machines, great thinking swarms turning raw matter into more of themselves.
I think back on how I woke as a joyless empty weed, way back in the Under.
Sparky glances back at me. "No. Think the other way around. How it felt when you were you again, with power and compassion beyond what you knew before. The Makers told us so joyously when they remade themselves. How they even offered other races to join them."
"You didn't, right?"
"A strange few of us, yes. But for the most we choose our own life on our own tech and terms."
Ryujen scampers up near Sparky. "How does the Voidglitch's technology work? Is it some kind of magic or DT?"
Sparky waves away Wiu'Dleh, replacing it with a glitchy black rift like a pic-machine's mistake. "Not magic or DT, but hard physics we've yet to truly know. Your own theories hold such. Our dimensional engineering with which we built this Realm is but stone flakes to what the Makers now pass as trivial. What we took eons to grasp, the Makers invent in nanoseconds."
I move in to ask Sparky. "Is it even possible to control time without magic? How'd you know all this?"
"Time and reality interact with everything. We think it might have to do with how time slows near a great mass, or how tiny parts exist in many ways at once. Never mind, you'll learn what that all means one day. For now we must review your spell Hyper Goner."
Hyper Goner. This alien's really reading me.
Sparky goes on. "Hyper Goner devours timelines. You know it as a weapon, but did you know it can also save timelines?"
I crack a laugh. "They must've all been inside me, for I was able to bring them all back. But I don't have enough magic to do that now." Even the CLOUD wouldn't either, unless I tried Toriel's granting trick. Which I don't really want.
"Don't try Hyper Goner against the Makers. They know how to steal the timeline in a prism."
Sparky smiles and calls a new red SOUL from the ground. "There's another reason I brought you here. This human requested us to meet you." Sparky turns and vanishes in a cloud of orange stars.
The red SOUL flies a few feet in front of me, where it sucks gold fire into a pillar. The hot dry wind carries a flower smell. Chara the fallen human steps calmly out in a green stripe sweater, blushing as she glances me over. Chara, my true best friend. How can I tell her all this? What'd she think of all these machines and aliens I've only started to make sense of myself?
Chara presses a warm hand to my trembling shoulders. "Asriel, I'm so sorry I used you to try and kill humans. It seemed like a good idea back then."
I pat her arm softly. "That's OK Chara, I put that behind me long ago. And hey no more Barrier. Glad to see you."
I fight back hot tears to form a rational response. I need answers. "Where have you been this whole time?"
She kneels on the waving grass. "Long story short, I've been living in this realm and watching what they watched. I am bound here, unable to leave. Perhaps you could do me a favor with your far CLOUD link?"
Ryujen shifts uneasily as if sensing risk.
What, Chara wants to be on the CLOUD with us all? I try to keep her busy. "Well what else did you want with us here?"
Chara points at my head. "I've seen Frisk act, I've seen her fight and spare, all that she did to free humans and Monsters." She sends Frisk's memories of me. Mocking my plant body, fighting me, forgiving me.
Frisk did all this? Oh right I set her up to get all the SOULs in one place but she still had her way. "Can you see what she's doing now? What she thinks everyday?"
"Only from flower bed to exit door. Stops there at the surface. We can hope she got tired of this."
"You know someone got into my memories and made me forget you. Put Frisk in your place." A really gross idea comes to me. No that's stupid, Frisk would never do this. I stumble back to our ship cockpit and select "Far CLOUD link". The plush front swells for a moment, then a round white coin pops to its surface. I grasp and it comes loose like a fridge magnet. With a holo-dot click I get on the CLOUD. No, I shouldn't talk to Frisk right now.
I sit next to Chara. "You can go to the CLOUD now."
Ryujen starts restoring the Nav-Mind.
I call Berrin Ur. Major. "I think Frisk put the filter in me. I gave her access to Nullity's Gate. I shouldn't have but she pressured me."
Berrin looks on stoic. "We logged your suspect claim but need more than a hunch to act."
Ryujen pulls in the replay holos: tendrils, text boxes, and all. "Someone hacked our ship. Can you also trace this?"
Berrin grunts. "Of course. Given the suspect pool we can prioritize it as a terrorist case. Shall we do that?"
Ryujen pauses: "Yes, shall it save high-value lives."
Chara vanishes into the CLOUD as a red SOUL, safe and free there. Her limp body fades into sweet blue bubbles that float away.
Berrin turns to me. "This may be a bit unethical, but it's for your safety. Shall we pretend to the public and media we didn't see you both alive?"
I think of Chara who'd like me to live. "Definitely."