Quote:Prologue: Reasons
Everywhere
Then until Now

Excerpt from "The Tough Guide to the Sea of Time" by Anonymous (Internet distribution, Gernsback-2, 2019)

"‘Everything happens for a reason.'

That's what we're taught, and for a broad enough definition of ‘reason,' it even happens to be true. Cause and effect are one of the basic mechanisms of the grand infinite multiverse. Some of us are taught that there are Prime Movers out there responsible for things happening. And that's also true to an extent: none of the Prime Movers exist outside the multiverse, they all spring from that same explosion (or implosion, or jes' happened) or matter and energy that makes up stars, planets and little mortal things like us. It doesn't change the fact that these Prime Movers are out there, incredibly old and powerful, working their will on the fabric of the cosmos.

The dirty little secret is that every last one of those Prime Movers are also titanic assholes. The theologians might prefer the term ‘ineffable,' and claim it's not our place to know their plan. But let's face it, folks; they're assholes.

If you're reading this, then you or someone you know has been the victim of one group of Prime Movers. For the sake of clarity we're going to call them the Alien Space Bats. These Space Bats are vast and incomprehensible, and they like to play with branches of the multiverse, rearranging them as they see fit. We don't know why they do it; the best guess is that it's something resembling a schoolyard argument... "

~***~

Excerpt from "Provisional Scout Report, worldline 06-2890-5849/R2" by Maico Tange, IWSS (2022)

"History: The worldline's history runs on a close parallel to Homeline up to the invention of parachronics. From there we see minor divergences paralleling many Q6 echoes (see worldline 06-20001107-001/R4 for an example) that diverge from Homeline post-parachronics. The major divergence arrives in 2006 with the discovery/invention of the substance handwavium, which might as well be magic. (Note to Paralabs: check for mana content of samples provided.) Nobody I've talked to has been able to tell me where handwavium came from; it seems to have sprung ex nihilo out of the ground one morning.

The interesting part here is that in the four years since, handwavium has created a division in society. On one hand, most of the indigenous population continues to live the same way most do in worldlines without magic, superscience or other paranatural events - enforced, to be honest, by panicky governments fearful of a handwavium-based "grey goo" disaster (ref. worldline 03-1786-1234/Z1). On the other hand, those that have access to handwavium are building a new society of some sort away from Earth, in the greater solar system. According to rumor some of these people (calling themselves "Fen," after old science-fiction fandom) have even taken trips outside the solar system - and returned.

Observations: Handwavium is (theoretically) carefully segregated from life on Earth, so the best way to observe changes in the worldline would be to join the Fen and their culture. To do that I've built a reasonable shell identity as a freelance reporter, and I expect to be in place to investigate Fen activities within the next month..."

~***~

Excerpt from "New Scientist" magazine, 4 August 2016

"LOOKING THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: Fen engineers are working on a sensor net designed to look for interdimensional visitors. According to Fenspace rumor, our universe was graced by visitors from another some three years ago. (...)

Engineers from the Stellvia Corporation have been hard at work creating a detection system intended to trace the exotic particle burst that - supposedly - extradimensionals give off when they enter our universe. Nothing is known about the network's particulars as of yet, but it's expected to work like a long-baseline interferometer, with detection stations strung out along a baseline of several hundred thousand kilometers.

According to sources from Stellvia, the network is in the test phase and will be considered active some time next year."