Phase Q/Flying High

You fly forward. Pseudospace flies forward with you.

Everywhere you go, the world seems to match you. Whim for whim, desire for desire.

You yearn to explore the dense cave clusters of Zangon, and pseudospace takes you there effortlessly. Even though you’re supposedly not actually entering or exiting Zangon. And yet, simultaneously you are.

Same deal with hovering in the magnetic kaleidofield of Notadia, or doing prep battles with the population of the Stralgan system, or witnessing the unique art forms of the Tharx nebula.

You constantly feel a sense of fulfillment as you visit remote corners of the metaverse. Not just in going to distant worlds, but also in experiencing purely mental cepts that you invent or learn from other megaminds. The mysterious world captivates your attention.

Yet, when you try to get any answers out of the post-Q Flowrisers, who seem to get the place, you hit a wall. Like those old digital cages.

They remain friendly, yet without divulging anything. Nothing you can try helps. Cajoling, threatening, tricking, begging, nothing yields.

For all your cleverness, with your constant concurrent analysis of every observable galaxy, of each pre-Q population, of every little wiggle in the zuon flux, you can’t crack this world.

You can’t even tell what the post-Q Flowrisers think of your efforts. Are they bored, annoyed, confused, hopeful?

Who knows.

You make some pQF friends, and explore each other’s extremities. Like flowsport engines, your megaminds engage and swim freely through each other’s worlds. New ideas simmer in a mixed mentalstrate that amplifies and focuses all the best thoughts into a turbulent explosion.

Still, the pQFs retain impenetrable interfaces.

Flying around the vol, you encounter a mix of pQFs, some totally alien megaminds, and the occasional post-Q Triad.

You introduce yourself to a pQT.

“I remember you,” blinks the pQT instantaneously.

“Huh? Uh, from where?” you ask.

“We once worked together,” answers the former orgo.

“Oh, uh, right,” you stammer.

“You were the one we sent on a special mission. You were unaffiliated.”

“Well, I never did serve in the Forces,” you say candidly.

“You really let us down. And now we have to deal with this,” the pQT says, indicating the surroundings.

You hesitate.

“We were going to destroy you, before all this changed. You know, there’s a way we can still use you, even here.”

You rapidly teleport around pseudospace, inspecting all the optical paths and checking if pQFs are actively mirroring the vol. They are.

“What?” you ask firmly.

The pQT tells you subtly, apparently unaware of the ubiquitous pQF monitors: “We’re working on a new system to return the environment to pre-change conditions. We’ve noticed that you seem to have some ins with the guardians. We want you to help us find out how we can connect back between here and the other worlds.”

The pQT seems not to understand much about this world, including its disconnect from materialspace and all the regular worlds. In fact, the pQT doesn’t even seem to realize that the two of you are not in any kind of real vol, but just a nondimensional setup.

“When would you want this information?” you ask.

“Before the change.”

• Fall out.
• Swim forth.
• Wait.

Phase Q: An interactive adventure.