Chapter 17

I conjured the gifted pearl from inside my emergency escape pocket universe. The only connection to the outside universe from what I had considered a giant pocket universe was the energy corridor safely inside myself.

I had a copy of the machine that had disconnected a self and a crew of 111 others from their collectives. In an emergency, I could strand myself here, forever locked away, with the only access to the massive pocket universe I had been invited to locked in with me. I admit, I was scared. I was also wondering if I was Kempu, or if that was just the power inside me that seemed to obey my direction.

I concentrated on my power, “Well, should I go visit others like us?”

The response was ambivalent, like my power had shrugged.

“Am I in any danger?”

The sensation of laughter filled me, but I couldn’t be sure what was funny. I got an image of me swan diving into a star, then bursting out and transitioning into the backstroke swimming along the corona.

“I’m invulnerable? There’s nothing in the universe that can hurt me?”

I got an image of myself juggling black holes. But then I got a sense of caution, as I saw my friends and family happily enjoying a picnic, with a sense of foreboding danger.

“Nothing can harm me physically, but I can still be hurt?”

Resigned agreement flowed from my power.

“Are you me, am I you, or are we two different beings sharing each other’s life?”

There was no response. I sighed, and looked deeply into the black box holding the pearl.

My power flowed thru the surface of the pearl, and I conjured myself into it. My power extended out its full distance, 345 light seconds in all directions. I could detect nothing, not even a single molecule of hydrogen. The wall of the pocket universe was there, a barrier behind me that led to the small pearl in the box, but it was so large, I could barely detect the curve of it.

I flared with bright light, filling the space around me with radiation. It was as if I was still in the dark, there was no reflection, nothing for the light to scatter and brighten upon. If I was going to be here a while, I might as well get comfortable.

I spent an hour building a complicated structure showing off my abilities to forge, and conjure. A dyson sphere with gravity generators, and a miniature star at the center. 5 light minutes wide, it had a surface area of 25,411,704,002,058,311 sq km. The equivalent of 48.8 million Earth’s.

I conjured a self contained sphere house, and planted it on the surface. I had used a significant but small percentage of my energy reserves creating the structure, but I wanted to show off a little. If everything went well, I could always store it and place it somewhere useful.

There was a sudden knocking on the exterior diamondillium, and I turned to look into a massive eye, staring at me. I downed my coffee, and vanished the cup back into energy. I walked to the windowed wall, and forged it into a doorway. I hadn’t had time for the 261,740,551,221,200,603,300,000 tons of atmosphere during that hour of construction, but my powers revealed there was a breathable atmosphere out there now.

The massive being knocking was snake like in shape, but monstrous. I couldn’t tell how long it was, but it was about 80 meters wide at the head, the eyes themselves were 15 meter wide pools of black.

I stepped out into the newly forged front porch. “Hi neighbor, how are you today?” I called out.

Just as I was unable to penetrate my body with my power from the outside, this giant snake was also impenetrable. My power flowed around the exterior grokking its size and shape. The snake shifted into a more humanoid form, shrinking down. It reminded me of a Naga, half man half snake. It conjured something small, odd to experience from this side of the event, and tossed it to me.

I instinctively grabbed onto the ball, which flashed with an electrical tingle in my hand as I caught it.

“Hello there young one! I’m doing fine!” I abruptly heard as the tingle faded.

“What was that!” I exclaimed.

“Omni translator. Everyone with one can automatically understand everyone else who has used it. Useful, but not popular. They make it nearly impossible to lie, as it translates both intent and meaning,” it said helpfully honest.

“Can I get rid of it?

“Don’t worry, only this you is infected, it won’t pass on to any other you, or any other being, it’s a single use item.”

“Would you like to come in?”

“Certainly! Interesting little project here. I hope I got the atmosphere right. I copied the one in your habitat.”

My power verified that the exterior atmosphere was now identical to the habitat atmosphere. Under the same lower pressure as I was, equivalent to about 3500 feet, but a good mix of nitrogen oxygen and trace gasses. Most amazingly it filled the entire dyson sphere to a depth of about 100km.

I turned and walked back into the habitat, and sat on a recliner. The Naga slithered it’s way up the stairs, and into the house. It conjured a narrow rocking chair and sat across from me. Flipping its tail out of the path of the rocker, it spoke, “This is exciting! There hasn’t been a new youngest for millennia!”

“My name is Adam. What’s yours?”

“Oh, excuse me, I’m very excitable today, and am forgetting my manners. I’m called, Lord of Wind and Sky.”

“Is that the transition of your name or a title?”

“Both!” It said with enthusiasm.

“Can I call you Lowas? My species does better with shorter names. For example my Earth name and title is Adam Howard Barkley, Poseidon Lord of the Sea of Stars, Ruler of the Dominion.”

“Lowas is fine, and the omni transistor will understand it’s me you’re talking about and translate my full name to others.”

“Excellent. My world could use these. Can you conjure one for me to have?”

“Of course,” it said with a hissing pleasure.

I caught and stored the tossed sphere with my power. “Thank you for the atmosphere you provided to my dyson sphere.”

“You are very welcome. I’m sure the others will have additions to add when they arrive. This space is ancient, older than even I am, but we don’t use it for much.”

“I didn’t plan to leave this here when I left, it was just a hobby project to keep myself busy because I didn’t know how long I would be alone here.”