Heaven and Earth

Progress was slow. Faster than expected but slow nonetheless. Lore was furiously slamming their fingers against the keyboard, modelling the changes they needed to make and finalising their calculations. They weren’t taking any chances, everything was reinforced and had redundancies, even the redundancies. Char watched on in awe as they worked.
“There’s got to be more to it…” She whispered to herself. “Lore, I know this matters but we’re not on a timer, you can breathe. What’s up?”
“You haven’t seen what I saw.” Lore thought against it but realised it was now or never. They held their hand to her temple and joined with her. They were in the black void between realities. Unlike Lore’s first visit to this space, they could see every universe in their reality, all two thousand seven hundred and seven of them. Between Varkral and Charrlene’s universes however, cracks were beginning to form. Glowing purple vines stretching from nowhere in particular filled a part of the space between the universes. The vines stretched from their origin towards the fields that surrounded the two errant universes. It looked as though they were somehow dependent on the vines for energy. Lore broke the silence. “When we stabilised those universes, we skewed the balance of our reality as a whole. Our reality is split into fifty three sections. Fifty two of them orbit the fifty third, the central core universe. Each section is a multiverse consisting of fifty two universes. The dark matter of each multiverse remains constant with any new universes taking the place of older ones. We broke that equilibrium by adding two new universes to the mix. That caused this.” Lore gestured at the vines. “They’re taking energy from whatever lies outside of our multiverse to keep everything alive.”
“What’s so bad about that?”
“There’s something out there. In the space between multiverses and we’ve gotten its attention.” Lore was whiter than usual. “I saw it at first when time tried to tell me about Reality’s true plans but I had no idea what it was. Still don’t really but I’ve read legends.”
Char floated there, trying to think of anything of relevance. “The Cornerstones.” She blurted.
“Exactly. Quatarrian texts speak of the Cornerstones but they also mention those who came before them. Before the Cornerstones came Reality but before Reality there was only one being, older than the universe itself. Nobody has seen it but every species has a name for it. For example, most of the humans call it God, your people Du’Walles, the Rexians, Freidier. No one has seen it but every species fears it. In the Quatarrian texts that were co-authored by one of the Cornerstones itself, it’s mentioned that Du’Walles lives in its own domain, existing outside of time and outside of space. Its coming will be heralded by first growth and then conflict.”
“I’m guessing that Time was the Cornerstone but why wouldn’t it warn us.”
“Perhaps it couldn’t yet. Perhaps it was by writing it in the book. Either way, we need to be prepared and if we can end the fighting between our own multiverses before it begins with the Heimdall Station then we stand a better chance against Du’Walles when it eventually shows up.” Lore removed their hand from Char’s face. They were back on the station. “I need Piper though.”
“Just to be sure?” Char looked them in the eyes. They nodded, averting their gaze. “I’ll see if I can get him.” She stepped away and began typing into her Breacher. Lore resumed their work.
Char was gone for a few hours leaving the others to pick up her slack. They weren’t too bad at it but it would have helped if Lore had told them what they were supposed to be doing. Given that, they were making great progress. Ninety percent of the new structure was complete with only the new control device left. Unlike the last time, Lore was certain to make sure that the new harness was more than capable of supporting the combined power of the Reaper and the Station itself. Looking more intimidating than either iteration, more than the harness had to be changed; now in its own dedicated room, the control harness was more like a stasis cell. Big enough for a single occupant but with enough protection to withstand the force of the universes creation and survive. When closed, the control cell was essentially a twenty five metre thick block of Osmium, Tungsten and Na’Ellir Brechlich with a metre wide cylinder carved in its centre. Only now was Lore confident that the chamber would be able to safely contain what they wanted it to without doing more damage than they were already planning on doing.
“Back!” Char’s shout echoed through the open chamber. She dragged an awestruck Piper in her tracks.
“Woah, this place is real.” Their head was on a rapid swivel which stopped suddenly. “Oh.” That was all Lore needed to hear.
“Oh.” They echoed.
“It’s coming then.” Lore nodded. “This might do it then. My dreams only show so far before they get messy. Sometimes I see you and mum so things must work out.” Piper smiled. “But then again, in those dreams I’m a girl so what do I know?” Lore found it a strain not to laugh given the circumstances and Piper’s delivery.
“Thanks Pip.” Lore embraced them. “Let’s just hope it works then.”
“Is that all you brought me here for? To find out if your L-Verse creator works?”
“Well, if we gave it a name then it must.” Lore looked to him sheepishly. “But yes. We did.”
“But we’re your parents so we can do things like this and get away with it.” Char smiled as she picked Piper up and wrapped him in a hug of her own. “I’m sorry.” She whispered into his ear. With the way things were going, her biology be damned.
“Want to give it a spin?” Lore gestured towards the room’s centre.
“Definitely.” They smiled and extended their arm.
“Varkral, Charrlene, Juror, get in here.” Lore shouted through cupped hands. They didn’t know if that made them any louder but they achieved their goal so it didn’t really matter. Lore too extended their arm out to the three newcomers. Charrlene took it confidently, grabbing Varkral with her free hand. Varkral linked to Juror and with Piper and Char already linked, it was as simple as grabbing their wife. Energy surged as they came together. The Reaper took their position as the walls instinctively closed around them.
“Small hole.” Lore thought as they connected themselves to the Station. One Small Hole.