-The Lord of Space and Time-

Ketaru and his companion, Ev, returned from their cross-galaxy visitation with Ketaru’s daughter and granddaughter. They were both greeted ecstatically by Ketaru’s wife and their sentient computer, Son. The time passed differently in both places, so his wife and Son had been without him and Ev for a longer time than they had been without the two of them. The difference was not much though, as they all had stopped feeling the passage of time long ago.

Their teleportation method had its major flaws though; they used magic to bend space time accurately to a single point anywhere. The warp in the space around the portal was the biggest flaw, one so big Ketaru and his wife Liren built a chamber to contain it completely, else it would cripple their small moon-sized ship after just a few uses. The room required almost a thousand years of work on a desolate planet that did not have anything but microbial life to disturb with their testing. They perfected it billions of years ago at this point. The couple did keep track of exactly how long it has been electronically, but neither had checked in an exceptionally long time.

Ev almost immediately went back to its own dwelling to get lost in whatever world it has set up for itself with the technology Ketaru had built for it. Ketaru was filled with excitement and anticipation for all the upgrades he would now be able to make to that technology, with his new understanding of the full workings of the mathematical spectrum, all thanks to his one-and-only granddaughter. He had only accessed her brain to find clues to her lack of aging; he can normally easily steer clear of the non-relevant information in someone’s mind, but this past time could not resist. He cannot cover his tracks either, and everything that is being accessed is known to the mind’s owner.

He was immediately distracted while his wife cooked them food, and he gave her a full report on the visit with Lin. He wished he could show her everything he saw, but his powers did not work on her- they never have, and they never will, as the bond that brought them together prohibited it. It was all ancient magic from countless lifetimes ago. The distraction she provided him was almost enough to allow him a moment to relax before he remembered what it was he was supposed to be doing.

Directly after his recap to Liren, he started planning his message to Itme, The Lord of Space and Time, that granted Ketaru and his family their flawless immortality. Itme was the only entity he could think of that could have an answer to the mystery of his granddaughters’ condition. He hoped her life was lengthened in some manner, for the sake of his daughter’s persistently lonely one. It was a full three days later before Ketaru actually reached out to Itme. He blamed his procrastination on trying to perfect his wording of the request. The honest reason was simply that he was nervous to reach out to him, as he always was.

Ketaru was the only person in the universe who could contact Itme in such a manner. Ketaru had a few human limitations such as needing to sleep to stay alert, eat, and communicate to some degree daily to prevent loneliness. That is about where it stops for him, as he can telepathically send any thought, anywhere. He could manipulate his voice too, in the thought; this was particularly useful to help guide his kids when they were about to do something dumb and he caught it in time. They think it’s an original thought, and therefore they almost always unwittingly heed his advice.

The message went unanswered for weeks, but Ketaru never worried that he would be ignored. After a fairly short wait compared to the lifespans of all involved, Itme did respond to Ketaru. The teleportation that Itme had through the ever-expanding universe was seamless, unlike Ketaru’s harsh procedures. Ketaru was sitting at his computer with his desks on either side of him, when Itme’s collected form appeared behind him. He was as ebullient as a 10^th dimensional being could be, at hearing from the only being it could even consider a friend. Itme was no more than a general form to Ketaru, but in Liren’s eyes, Itme had a solid body and a simple face.

Itme’s communications with Liren were direct and charming, even though they lacked the warmth of any other living creature she had met. He spoke to her of grandeur and possible places she would want to visit; he has known her for an appreciable amount of time now, so he knew the challenges she likes to take on to help the universe around her. Itme wanted only to see life flourish everywhere in every form; he will drop hints to danger which threatens that anywhere in the universe.

The way Itme communicated with Ketaru was completely different. While Itme projected a version of himself able to uphold conversation with Liren, his real self was exchanging large amounts of information with Ketaru in every moment that passed. They communicated through forms and shapes by changing the color of the room around them, sharing clips of events, and flashing pictures telekinetically with massive amounts of context clues that shed light on many things at once. Itme cut himself off from them as fast as he had come; with quick goodbyes, he evansced without a trace.

He left the explanation and humanization of dear Kani’s condition to Ketaru, but he still needed to process the information into words. Liren waited patiently as this was lengthy. She provided for him as he contemplated that talk for weeks. She did not mind. Once he worked through the thoughts, he would have enough new information to last Liren well over a thousand years of exciting table talk. She organized her own thoughts and plans for events she had been told about, using Son to look up every detail on certain matters.

The day arrived when Ketaru had collected his thoughts, and the welcome shift in consciousness to the outside world, is what Liren had waited patiently for. Now, she was nervously extremely curious to learn of her granddaughters’ condition. Ketaru happily explained everything to his wife, they contacted them, and Ketaru immediately packed a small bag. Collecting Ev, they made their way to the chamber to teleport back to the distant planet where his family waited for him.

The process was brief like always, and when he and Ev arrived, his daughter and granddaughter were waiting for him at the same spot as before, halfway up a rock face, a good distance from him. The process repeated, as they talked him up and returned to a soft seating room. He noticed new art took up the space he cleaned out last time he was here. All the art previously taken was now proudly displayed in his home. Before too long, the elephant in the room was addressed, and Ketaru narrated Kani’s fate.

“Itme has shown me you are immortal, in the sense that you will not age; you are stuck at the same level of physical development we all are,” Ketaru outlined. He was patient with their responses. Lin, his daughter, briefly broke out in tears at the prospect, before she spoke up clearly enough to warrant an answer.

“She gets hurt though, all the time. She heals well, but not like how we heal.” Lin clarified.

“The terms of her immortality are not the same as it is for us- it was not the same entity that granted you this gift that granted us ours. Our immortality is something our entity believes I earned, but we help him in his goal for the universe.” Ketaru had an easy time of this since the nervous energy that was initially present had drained from the atmosphere.

“So, someone else has gifted it to me?” Kani asked her steadfast grandfather.

“That, or you got lucky genetically. Lin, nor her brother, ever had kids before you. In billions of years, we never thought it possible, much less that the kids would share our augmented life. Your grandmother and I wanted more kids. We made one instead, based off a very real memory of someone we held dear, exactly like a son.” Ketaru elaborated.

“Does this mean there are other entities out there omnipotent like Itme?” Lin proposed, genuinely intrigued.

“That’s what this implies, yes. Now the chances of reproduction between the Anktonian race and humans is a factor of 0.0003%. Someone saw the potential for Lin’s child, and most likely helped the chances along.” Ketaru stretched out across the couch he was on, allowing  himself to get comfortable for a change.

“This means that I know what my next move is.” Kani stated with resolve.

“What is that?” Lin asked her, excited for the possibility of leaving this planet to resume her travels.

“I need to find the entity that brought me into this world, or at the very least figure out why I was. I did not need immortality to help this planet. I have done everything I can for this place. I think it’s time we went back with you.” Kani sounded resolute in her opinion, and Lin was more than happy to feed into that energy.

“Well, you gotta let me relax here for a bit before returning. Gotta have time to gather more art.” Ketaru had a note of humor in his voice, as he was also beside himself to have a new member of the family that will be sticking around.