Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

As the wooden plank made contact with the glass canister, Cal felt a ripple of mana flow back across the makeshift weapon and into him. The glass exploded, and all around him, a chain reaction was triggered by his action as the other tanks ruptured simultaneously. Cal threw himself to the ground, expecting a wave of mana to crash into him. It didn’t. Instead, the giant metal antenna in the center of the room cracked and started to collapse downward.

Quickly getting to his feet, Cal ran through the door. “Time to go,” he said to Third Smasher as he passed the squirrel still guarding the room.

“Yes, that is rather obvious,” Third replied, joining Cal in his run.

“Cal? Can you hear me?” A voice Cal hadn’t heard in over a year entered his mind.

“YES! Fulginanis, I can hear you, sorry ignore the super happy cheering; it’s taken forever to talk to you again, buddy, and I’ve missed you. Everything going okay back home?” Cal asked.

“As well as can be expected. I doubt Gus will ever want to do this again. No one expected us to lose contact the way we did,” The spirit replied.

“Good, good. I’ll explain everything later, just gotta get everyone back together and finish this assault. Then we will get our asses back to Earth,” Cal said

“I will work to repair the bridge to Pluto. Just let me know when you are ready to reopen it,” Fulginanis said.

“Will do, thanks again,” Cal said, finishing the mental conversation for now. Things were looking up.

“Cal, is this your doing?!” yelled a cranky voice from down a corridor, moving towards them.

“Yes, pretty sure it is,” Cal responded, glad to see Ethel cranky or not. He had been starting to worry about where she had run off to herself.

“Well, good job. It’s been a while since you blundered your way into something useful. I had almost forgotten just how capable you were at it, but we’ve got a whole new problem now. I just stopped several Gryalth from boarding an escape ship, but I wasn’t able to get all of them, and I’ve heard there’s another one here somewhere,” she said.

“There is, Jen and Onelder spotted them. I don’t know if we will be able to stop the Gryalth escape, though. Once they get to the surface there isn’t a lot we can do to them,” Cal responded. He didn’t like it, but he had to accept the fact that the Gryalth still outclassed them entirely when it came to spaceships, and despite his future plans, he didn’t have the wildest idea where to begin to catch up to them. That was going to have to change soon. He added it to the growing list of things to discuss with the geniuses once they were back.

“I don’t disagree with you, but that is going to make the rest of the loop very dangerous if they track us back to Earth,” she said.

“I know, but that’s a problem to discuss later. Let’s get back to Dad and figure out our next move,” Cal said.

***

“Are you sure?” Cal heard Stan say as he returned to the chamber. He was speaking to Second Smasher.

“Yes, the vast majority of Gryalth are dead. We have cleared out nearly every section and found the chambers they were using to evacuate to both ships your wife had warned us about. We were too late to get them all, but they will not be able to escape the same way again, so whatever few are left will be shortly rounded up by the remaining troops,” Second said.

“It’s too late on the ships. They both left orbit, probably on their way back to Earth. Onelder is trying to see if there’s tracking data he can pull from the computers, but he isn’t hopeful,” Jen said. She had entered the chamber from the opposite side slightly after Second Smasher had started answering Stan.

“Well, the good news is that the interference is gone. I destroyed a giant antenna that was blocking us from communicating with Fulginanis. They are working on repairing the bridge right now. I also dealt with several powerful Gryalth,” Cal said.

“Yes, thanks to your efforts, our losses were much smaller than I had anticipated. Thank you,” Second Smasher bowed to Cal as he said this.

“So what now?” Albert asked. He was riding on the shoulder of the massive tree man as they both joined the rest of them.

Cal opened his mouth to answer, but a different voice spoke first. “Now we go home. I wish we could wait and help the squirrels clean up, but with the ships potentially on their way to Earth, we need to be safely in the void house, making any needed preparation,” Stan answered. “We’ve all grown a lot stronger on this trip and learned a lot that will help us in the long run. I won’t forget our promise, Second.”

“I know you will not. Otherwise, the sword would not have chosen you. It has been an honor to fight by your side. I wish you the greatest of luck in your future deeds. We shall fight together again,” Second Smasher replied.

“How soon can we leave?” Stan turned to his son with this question.

“Fulginanis says very soon. Also, has anyone seen Third Smasher? I lost track of him on the trip back,” Cal said.

“I am sure he is continuing to scour every area he can for any survivors. When I next see him, I will tell him you said your goodbyes,” Third said

“I appreciate it because Fulginanis says it’s time to go,” as soon as Cal said this, a swirling vortex opened directly behind him. “He doesn’t like the location, but I told him how much of a hurry we are in, so he is wasting the energy on a temporary gateway instead of something more lasting.”

After several more rounds of goodbyes, everyone except Cal had departed through the return portal. He gave the chamber one last look. This had been their only real concrete victory so far in the war, and he wanted to remember it.

Finally, after he felt he could wait no longer, Cal stepped into the gateway himself. He was going home.