Free Form Planning

“Haven’t the Foggiest.” Varkral turned to face them. “I think we are one left turn away from doubling back on ourselves.”
“Well, that’s something at least.” Lore shrugged. “That Bailiff said that it had found a viral agent in its computing core. When was the last time you washed your hands?”
“Washed my hands?” Varkral looked down at his fingers. There was still black ooze crusted under his nails. “Just before the core universe battle.” He was obviously lying.
“Perhaps we could spread it. All you’d have to do is infect enough of the pods to cause a problem and we’ll have bought some time.” Char grabbed Varkral’s hand. “Bloody hell these are bad.” She began to scrape some of the crust from his thumb. “Get some of that in these pods and we can hopefully get Juror back to capture her.”
“As good a plan as any.” Lore smiled pulling the closest pod open. It wasn’t quite what they were expecting. Once again, their prior knowledge had failed them. Where they expected to see a large vat of red fluid, a familiar face lie. “That looks a lot like Ace. Maybe Ace and Edge’s lovechild…”
“They’re definitely a clone.” Char concurred. She gave them a second scan. “More like a clone of a clone.”
“Are they alive?” Lore looked around them. The towers seemed more numerous now.
“Comatose, but yeah, alive. They’re not in any pain but they’re also not experiencing anything. Their part Quatarrian physiology is no doubt keeping them on the edge.”
“Meaning that they’re brimming with Rejeuvinative energy.” Lore shook their head. “Of course. Balance them on the edge of life and death and it creates an unlimited source of energy.”
“So are we still infecting them?” Varkral had collected more of the scum from under his fingernails.
Lore took a deep breath. They scanned the pods, now knowing what to search for. “All of the pods life supports are linked. We infect one, we infect them all. What would it do to them though?”
“It wouldn’t kill them but it would greatly reduce their ability to heal themselves. It may even spread between towers.” Char looked at Lore’s scans.
“Two thousand six hundred people.” Lore said solemnly. “That’s the cost.”
“If it will save the multiverse, I say we do it.” Varkral was ready to tip his hand. Lore held it steady.
Char was deep in inner conflict. “Do it.” Lore looked surprised. “We don’t know how powerful this station is. This may be the only way to stop her.”
Reluctantly, Lore released Varkral. Grains of dried ooze fell from his calloused palm and into the device. Near instantly, black vines grew from out of the clone’s face, tangling and knotting as they travelled further down their body. The golden light that had once illuminated them died down. The same could be said of the other pods as one by one, they too grew dark. “I’m sorry.” Lore tried to whisper but their mouth was too dry and the words just couldn’t come. Other words soon did however.
“You idiots.” The room lit up with a burning ruby red as sirens cascaded from up high. Following in their wake, Bailiffs.
They ran. Shoe soles thumped against the hard floor. Hearts thumped against their ribcages. The taste of blood quickly filled the back of their mouths. Nothing about their current situation was ideal as they moved aimlessly through an ever darkening forest of living corpses. Whatever that creature was, it was certainly worthy of whatever praise Aloe had once given it. With every tower infected, it appeared to pick up speed, wounding more in death than it could in life. Soon they reached something they hadn’t expected, a wall. It hadn’t been there earlier so its sudden appearance stood out. It became clear why soon after. Hulking blast doors slammed from the ceiling as if to contain the infection while also serving as an effective container for the party.
It happened so suddenly. The first of the Bailiffs made contact and immediately they were somewhere else entirely. “You utter nobs.” Juror frantically ran around their control room tapping screens and adjusting dials. “You had all the time in the world but you decide to try and ‘buy more’. Screw you!” She yelled breathlessly. Lore opened their mouth to talk but she saw this and began the next part of her rant. “You had all the time you wanted you dicks. I’ll admit imprisoning you was probably not the best strategy to get you on side but you straight up murdering eight cores is too far.”
“Eight.” Lore thought back to their calculations. They shook their head slowly. “They’re not dead.”
“Oh they aren’t? They’re not producing enough energy, in fact, now they’re a drain on resources. It’s either kill them or let them kill the entire flock.” Juror whipped around the room. “They were never in any danger. The Holepunch is non-lethal as far as they were concerned.”
“You mean they wouldn’t have died?”
“No you plum. If I needed to keep re-breeding clones after every test, even I’m not that sadistic.” Lore doubted that.
“I can heal them.” Char held up her hand, within it a glowing golden orb.
“If Char heals them, can we start again. No Hole-punching, just a stay of execution for everyone.” A bead of nervous sweat fell from their temple. “I can get you out of here without destroying half the multiverse.”
“Say what?” Juror looked to their computer confused.
“Your device, this Holepunch has more than enough power to tear a substantial hole in this universe’s lining and more. I couldn’t let you do that.” Lore started. “I’m not too pleased with the method we chose to get your attention but, we couldn’t let you kill half of the population of our reality.”
“Deal.” Juror moved from her console. Char vanished in a flash of white and gold. The red lights faded, the blackened towers glowed gold once more. Winded but not unconscious, hunched, Lore caught their breath preparing for the forthcoming. Haste Breeds Errors.