Corporate shakeup

Exiting the rift, you were greeted to a thankfully familiar sight--the Earth! Although, it was still some distance away, as you could see the whole planet out the bridge viewport. But with Juno's advanced tech on the colony ship, nobody seemed concerned that they were drifting in space some sizable distance away from any Earth at all. There was a chance that you ended up back in your home timeline, but compared to the infinite other threads in existence, the chance was abysmally low. After all, you didn't go through the rift to end up on that space between spaces, so why would the rift take you back?

Juno calmly entered something on a nearby console. "Now that we don't need to dance around extra-dimensional debris, I can really open up the Alexandria II to get us where we want to be! ETA seventeen minutes to stable orbit. I'll keep us pretty far out of the path of other space stations and potential spacecraft, I don't want to cause a stir or anything. The less people know, the--"

"Hey, uh." You turned to the Kazumi-copy of yourself, who had been sitting at a station with access to the communications array. "We're picking up a radio signal? Someone wants to talk." As everyone stared at her, she blinked, not really knowing what to do given that it was her first time on a massive spaceship. "...okay, I'll just hit the button then."

Kazumi pressed a finger to the console to play audio on the bridge speakers. The pre-recorded message looped over and over, echoing throughout the room. "To travelers of the space-time distortion, I bring greetings and a warning: Earth is not safe for you. If you are headed to Earth, all atmospheric departure and entry is monitored for unidentified craft. If you want to talk, head to Kingtech Orbital Station, coordinates are as follows. No armed weaponry, or you will be destroyed on approach. I look forward to meeting you."

Juno tapped her chin, brow furrowed in thought. "Where have I heard that voice before? She sounds familiar."

"That's clearly Emilia King," the green-haired Chloe variant said, strolling away from her console. "She's the billionaire who hoards supernatural objects and materials, I'd dealt with her more than a couple times over a few exotic materials we'd used in our biopolymers. She's almost always injured or sick, what's she doing in space?"

With a shrug, Juno tapped something else on the console. "Well, zero-G could be useful as therapy for certain ailments, I suppose. I don't recall any space stations with her name on them in my timeline, but I wouldn't mind a chat. Systems are prepping the shuttle now, in case anyone would like to join me?"

You nodded, plenty curious to know just what in the world was going on. You'd known Emilia by her nickname, the Witch of Spiral City. Her occult objects and bizarre behaviors made everyone think she was recruiting an army of ghosts and shapeshifters and legendary monsters to do... something, who knows what. She was looking for something at all costs in your timeline, though you'd never seen anything more than tabloid headlines claiming things like Emilia had been engaged to a demon she summoned or whatever. She also was notorious for rarely leaving her mansion, having basically made sure it was able to maintain her health and safety in a way the rest of the world couldn't.

With the shuttle readied, you and your variants combined back into a single being for the trip, shuddering a little as you felt more complete with everyone back inside. It was so nice to be all contained together, like a constant hug of your closest friends! Juno took care of all things necessary to travel to the provided coordinates, while the colony ship's autopilot seemed perfectly capable of reaching its intended orbit all on its own. It didn't take long to reach your destination, and both you and Juno stared in astonishment at the feat of engineering you found there.

Kingtech Orbital Station was, in its own right, as incredible as the colony ship had been. About a dozen discs were connected in a ring at its center, rotating in order to provide artificial gravity to the station. Each disc looked solid on the outer surface, with the inner side that faced the other portions of the rings made of glass, so each individual unit could look at each other in the ring. The discs all seemed tethered to one another as well as a core module, from which longer arms extended out with other massive capsule modules, with smaller windows.

A voice spoke over the open comms, one which neither of you recognized. "Occupants of approaching craft, identify yourself and state your business."

Juno leaned towards a microphone. "Kingtech Orbital, this is Dr. Juno Ternion and Angela..." she looked at you for a moment, not knowing what you would use for a full name, before shrugging. "And Angela. We've got a personal invitation from one Emilia King for a chat."

"Docking procedures are being transmitted, proceed to Habitat Four."

Juno clicked off the microphone, and glanced over. "I wouldn't have expected even a billionaire to have a station like this. It's a massive undertaking, though it's no Alexandria II... but still. This is all no easy feat to do in was was likely a protracted timespan compared to my own efforts."

"This all just feels so strange," you said, watching as you approached one of the disc units. The ship took care of the docking procedures automatically, all you and Juno had to do was head to the airlock. "And I don't like the fact that we're entering a space station with no easy way out."

"Don't worry, if something happens then you'll climb inside me and we can get back to my ship whether we're inside or outside this station. I wouldn't be so interested in this trip if there wasn't a way out. Besides, that seems like an opportunity for you and me to learn more about each other," Juno said with a wink. The thought had occurred to you that given the wearable and slimy nature of both you and Juno, the idea of combining together felt like another interesting possibility. What kind of superhuman feats could you do as one full entity? Not to mention, borrowing those beautiful white locks and blue eyes felt like it would be an extra-special treat!

Your daydreams were interrupted as the airlock opened. Juno immediately started walking, likely having realized you were daydreaming about her and so she got in front just so she could shake those hips in your field of view... you hurried along after her, not at all looking suitable for a space station rendezvous while wearing the same clothes you'd taken for a beach party. Making a quick decision, you adjusted your outer layer to mimic Juno's armored plating, though it only did so in form, not function. Your armored plating took on a white hue that shone pink in just the right light, with black accents throughout.

The other side of the airlock opened, and you were immediately greeted by a red-headed woman, not at all clad in a space suit but in a tank top and short-shorts, to the surprise of you and Juno both. You realized why when the blast of warm, humid air hit you two from the airlock--it felt, and smelled, like you were walking into a jungle exhibit at a zoo or something. But the attire wasn't what intrigued you about the woman before you. Instead, it was the fact that a woman whom you knew was usually at least partly bandaged or bedridden stood before you in perfect health.

"Glad someone finally accepted my invitation," Emilia King said, as she extended a hand and smiled. "And beautiful ladies, at that! I'm honored, I was expecting... I'm not sure what I was expecting. Maybe some alien robots, or something. Come with me, I wasn't expecting guests today but I'll clear my schedule."

You and Juno exchanged glances, before following this clearly able-bodied woman deeper into Habitat Four.

"The Witch of Spiral City, hmm?" Emilia asked, sitting up in her chair to reach for a drink. You and Juno sat across from her, on a balcony overlooking heavy foliage that blocked any sign of the ground below. She chuckled a little, looking down into the liquid in her glass as she pondered something. "Such a strange thought. I'd been continuing to unearth all sorts of archaeological finds ever since my grandfather taught me everything he knew, but not once had I considered trying to use anything I'd found for its magic! No, most of those things go to museums or other collectors, which is how we funded Kingtech before it turned a profit."

You sipped at your own drink, having altered your attire once again to deal with the sweltering heat. You felt like you might melt in these humid temperatures, but the lemonade provided by Emilia helped tremendously. "It's just... odd, what you're saying," you replied. "In my timeline, you keep yourself surrounded by really bizarre artifacts that many people think have supernatural powers. But also, Hideki is a biotech company and Yabusa is the one who deal with robotics, from what I recall."

"That's certainly nothing like what things are like now," Emilia said. Juno simply sat quietly, listening to you and Emilia go back and forth, as your timeline and the current one seemed far closer chronologically. "Here, Hideki Arcana is more like a cult, and they're the ones that have purchased the more exotic items my father and I have unearthed around the world. They'll pay top dollar, that's for sure. And Yabusa Genetics has been tinkering with DNA for as long as I can recall. If they're making robots to rival Kingtech's market dominance, I've heard nothing of it."

You glanced upward, through the skylight at the sight of Earth drifting above your head. You could see where your home was supposed to be, it was strange to think it would be so scrambled up. Nothing sounded right, when described to you. It was all similar, just... off.

With a grin, Emilia nudged you. "So, what does the Witch of Spiral City do, huh? Fly around the city, summoning monsters and casting fireballs? I feel like I would cast fireballs, if I had the ability."

Glancing down at your lap, you struggled to find the best way to describe the Emilia you recalled to this new one. "You stay inside, mostly. I'd only ever seen you in a wheelchair, myself. But you're apparently so injury-prone, you've spent more time in a hospital than outside of one. I've never seen a picture of you where you didn't have some sort of bandage or cast or brace on. You have a stellar makeup team to hide the bruises and scars, I'm sure. But what I recall, you'd not once been on a real archaeological expedition of your own. But you knew everything about them, since you had that massive library at King Estate."

Emilia frowned, setting her empty glass down after one long sip. "That sounds like Reiko. She's the granddaughter of... oh, you said you came from Hideki laboratories, so you probably already know her. But, the way you described me, with the endless ailments? It's exactly her predicament, at least when I last saw her. She was always talking about a curse of some sort... I may have to ask my grandfather about it, I think he mentioned something once before."

"This is all very interesting," Juno finally said, standing up from her chair and crossing her arms. "But you both should know that infinite timelines means infinite variations. Therefore it's not surprising that this Earth is different from others. Amusing, certainly, but it doesn't answer questions about why we were removed from our timelines and why the gateway led here. You wouldn't have put that beacon by the rift if you didn't know something else, Emilia, so if you don't mind, I'd like to change subjects. I have people to save."

Emilia nodded, although she seemed enthralled by all the strange details about her doppelganger in your world, just as you were interested in everything she told you about the current timeline! Did Zoe and Chloe and the others still exist, even? What even would they be doing if Hideki wasn't a high-tech corporation anymore? You wanted to know, but you doubted Emilia had those answers. While you pondered further, Emilia tapped something on the table in front of you, generating a holographic representation of the Earth, with lines of approaches to the planet, labeled "UFO 1" through "UFO 3". You recognized UFO 3's approach as similar to what the colony ship's simulated path had shown.

"You're the third party to exit the rift that I am aware of, likely there's been more as we've only known about it for a couple months. We tracked the first craft from the ground via telescope, calculated its landing site, and sent drones to investigate. When we arrived, the craft was dismantled, no signs of its occupants. Someone beat us to it, and it had been torn apart in a matter of minutes, almost like every rivet and bolt on the ship vanished simultaneously to leave it in some of the most bizarre wreckage I'd ever recalled." The hologram shifted, showing a 3D representation of a ship--no, parts of a ship, all collapsed like someone had just thrown everything all atop each other. It was a strangely orderly scrapheap, as gravity still didn't let pieces fall too far from their original location.

Emilia let you and Juno examine the wreckage carefully, before the hologram shifted again. "The second craft, well, that looked like someone took a giant can opener to it. I'd sent the beacon out to the rift by then, but my message was apparently ignored. Again, we tried to track it, but we were too late by the time it touched down on the surface." The holographic wreckage appeared to have been pried open by giant arms, you could see what even looked like the outline of massive hands in the bent metals of the craft, the cockpit having been peeled open like an outer layer of fruit, to get at the contents inside. This one was intact enough to make out a logo: Yabusa Aerospace. As far as you were aware, no such branch of Yabusa existed in your timeline.

"And then, there's you two," Emilia said, as the hologram shut off. "Our best guess is that the occupants of the previous craft were taken, for some reason. It would've been a lot of effort to get them to show up to do anything else with them. No signs of struggle or casualties, so the only thing I can conclude is that someone is bringing remarkable people here through that rift, to do something with or to them. To know that, I'd need to know you two better. We can figure that out up here where it's safe, or if you want to see the surface then that's a risk you can choose to take, though I think there's a high probability that if you enter the atmosphere in your own craft, you're going to end up sharing the same fate as the previous two crews. It's your call, I suppose."

You looked at Juno. With all this knowledge, maybe it would be safer to try and head back toward the rift... or, maybe if you knew to expect something upon landing, maybe you could stop it from happening. Alternately, you could travel inside one of Emilia's ships... you could travel inside Emilia even! Maybe that would be enough to get you to the surface safely to get more answers. It was clear by now that Emilia only knew so much, and that answers must be on the surface somewhere. You, or at least some of you, had to get down there somehow.