A man sat in front of a young girl who appeared to be sixteen years old. This is far from the truth but age has been a thing of past for millennia now.

The young girl has ruby color hair that turns to a Saphire blue nearing the tips. Her eyes like-wise resemble gems, emeralds in this case, Genetic engineering at it's finest. Her eyes were framed by long lashes with thin, perfectly trimmed brows. She sported full, reddened lips with a hint of blush. Her left eye is bionic, capable of observing the entire light spectrum.

Her left arm and right leg are also bionic, a result of one of her failed experiments. She was too impatient for her natural regeneration to regrow the limbs and eye so she got prosthetics instead. She was very pale like she had never been in the sun. She wore a casual brown tank top and navy blue pants, the right plant leg was cut short so she could access the prosthetic's pockets, where she keeps her tools.

Like all meta-humans, she was perfectly beautiful, but she in a more cute way with a rounder face and eyes, and a smaller nose. Her hair framed her face like a portrait and fell down to her thighs like a royal cape. She hugged a datapad to her generous breasts eagerly awaiting my report.

I never like the 'flower children' they are unusual and the higher-ups require I report a clean psyche check no matter what. Truth is they are bearly capable of taking care of themselves, in normal circumstances, they'd be sent to a correctional facility already but they've been allocated a caretaker android whose job is less of taking care of them and more of keeping watch on them, and those around them.

In a sense the 'flower children' are the perfect citizen; docile, gullible, and always does what they are told; but having the mentality of a child despite being fifty years old is defective and a drain on resources.

Lilly Meadow is one of these 'flower children'. To say that she is a super genius is an understatement. Her thought patterns and brainwaves are completely alien, an incredibly rare mutation that occurs during development, at least that's what we are told anyway. The higher-ups may or may not have something to do with this, the 'mutations' are way too drastic and specific as if their brains are completely redesigned to the point it can't be called a meta-human brain; can they even be called meta-human anymore? Whenever such a child is born, they are to be named 'Meadow' with the first name of a specific flower.

The man looked up, Lilly was staring at the man expectantly. Standing to her right was her android caretaker who was giving him a warning look.

"A clean bill of health," the man said, passing a datapad to the caretaker. After a quick check she motioned to Lilly to leave and walked out the door with Lilly trailing behind.

"See you next quarter"

The man hated falsifying records, he hated the 'flower children', and most of all he hated their caretakers.

 

 

"Hmm Hmm Nnn" Humming to a tune I work on my newest project. A roughly spherical object. The object was about four feet in diameter and had a large section of plating not yet installed. Moving an atomic assembler I build the quantum net that would direct gravitons and use force fields, another invention of mine, to focus the gravitons in one direction; so the artificial gravity only appears on one side of the graviton generator instead of all around it.

The generator can also be used to pull and push itself forward by creating antigravity on one side and artificial gravity on the other, resulting momentum as it falls in whatever direction it's oriented in.

Gravitons themselves belong the to tachyon particle group, which includes a few other particles. These particles don't normally interact with other particles mostly because they move to fast for their wave function to collapse and be observed, making them work as a field.

So how do we observe something that can't be observed? Well, it's simple, really, all you need to do is-

"AH! Crap I messed up!" Through a moment of inattentiveness I messed up the quantum net and the whole piece is now ruined. "Gah! There goes three hours of my life" I sulked. Too frustrated to continue I walked over to the window. The moon could be seen near the horizon as a blurry round light through the hazy polluted sky. If one was in orbit around the earth they could see the moon has eight orbital rings from which resource delivering elevators are attached to. Turning on the news the holovision shown a protest at a local community center.

The protestors were chanting some lines about how the earth is dying and how we are poisoning the air and water. Security robots stood nearby with guns pointed at the protestors.

An android walked in "You don't need to concern yourself with some mentally ill people, Lilly" The android changed the holovision to an anime show that had just started its opening song. "Galaxy Girls had just started one minute and twenty-three seconds ago"

Galaxy Girls was a magical girl show featuring giant mechs, idol singing, and massive space battles against interdimensional aliens. The girls had to find and cleans song spheres to restore the galaxy song and use that to repair dimensional rifts to stop the aliens from invading.

"Ah! I forgot the new episode was today! Thank you, Stem!"

Stem was tall, six foot three inches. She had a motherly figure with a gentle seamless face. Besides the jack at the back of her neck, every inch of her was covered in synthetic skin. She had shoulder-length black hair and green eyes like my own.

"Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes," Stem said

A couple of days pass with steady work on my project, and now for the moment of truth. Standing behind a blast shield I remotely activate the graviton generator through the interface on my bionic arm.

Immediately it felt as if the entire building was flipped on its side.

"Wahh!!" letting out a startled cry I fell toward the blast shield, falling flat on my face, loose objects, and data pads fell on the generator "Turn off! Turn off!" I repeatedly mash the cancel button on my wrist only for the generator to increase in intensity with gravity now reaching three Gs.

"Hmm, how do I turn it off..." laying on my back and putting a hand on my chin I go through several possibilities. "Power cord... it runs on battery. Cut it open... It'll likely explode. Hmmm, if the stop button is increasing power then there must be a bug in the code, and that's almost entirely on the sending device which is my arm!"

Opening the coding software I check and find the code was fine, so the problem must be that the problem is in the generator after all. Luckily it's probably a flipped wire, the signal to stop was switched with the signal to increase the gravity. Pressing the button to increase the gravity, the gravity generator shut off.

"Wahh!"

I fell off the wall again and back on the floor.

Stem entered the room, inspecting the mess and the pile of everything that wasn't bolted down. She had a piece of lettuce still in her hair

"The neighbors will be very irate"

"I'm sorry Stem, seems like the force shields didn't activate so it pulled everything in radially." I tried to nervously laugh it off.

If Stem could sigh frustratedly she would have.

"I'm going to go apologize to them." Being an android she doesn't need a datapad to fill out an incident report. The department of incidents has been made very familiar with this part of the arcology.

After a week of repeated and a few more failed tests, the final product now hums steadily surrounded by force fields. The generator levitated on its own power, loose materials lay around inside of the test zone remaining still.

"I did it!" Jumping up in joy I hugged Stem who had since forbidden me to start any tests without her direct supervision; not since the generator was stuck in an increase loop. Several people reported minor to moderate injuries. They made complaints but Stem refused to tell me what the complaints were.

"Congratulations Lilly, I have sent a report, this is certainly a contender for the Nobel prize"

"I can't wait to add a second one to my collection!" I say giggling with giddiness.

I was rewarded with some free time. I visit my friend, Violet Meadow. With Stem at my side, I walk to the arcology park. A park located and takes up the entirety of the one-thousandth floor. The roof has projections to look like a normal sunny hazy day.

We walked over a small creek with an arched bridge. The creek looped around in a U shape surrounding a flowery area. The flowers were on raised garden beds. The gardens beds reach my hips, further in the garden beds it was raised again and again granting view to the inner parts of the garden. Drones carrying water, and trimmers tended to the park flying around like massive bees. The drones were also responsible for pollinating the plants, choosing the best ones. Some of the most beautiful flowers were selectively cultivated. the AI and meta-humans in charge of this park saw it as a challenge to outmatch the two-thousandth floors genetically engineered flora, but with only selective cultivation.

Seeing Violet sitting on a bench with (Violet) Stem standing next to her I run over to her. (Lilly) Stem trailing behind me. Both Stems make eye contact communicating wirelessly.

"I'm not going to lose!" Violet declared. "My Anti-Entropy Field will not lose to your Gravtion Generator!" Violet is younger than me, and she is working on her first project. In order to graduate from the government facility, we had to write a thesis of which would become our first project. It took me almost fifteen years after graduation to make a working force field generator. Violet graduated almost thirteen years ago and her anti-entropy would certainly revolutionize computers and, allow for perfect stealth by either increasing or reducing heat without any work input

"You have to finish it first!" I challenged, sticking out my tongue teasingly

Violet had long wavy purple hair almost like amethysts. She wore a formal dark purple gothic dress that hugged her modest figure. Her eyes are a bright gold that stood out from her attire drawing attention to them.

"I- I'm not going to lose either!" A timid girl spoke up, it seems she had just arrived along with (Rose) Stem who had joined the silent conversation with her identical co-workers.

"M-my Thermal superalloy will revolutionize warfare and exploration!" Rose was the one who invented the superalloy that my bionics were made of, a material that perfectly resists any physical trauma. Needless to say, it's perfect for spaceships and satellites to resist micro meteors. She also invented the perfect solar panel that is currently being used in the ongoing Dyson sphere project that is expected to be completed in about five to six hundred years at the current rate.

According to Rose, the Thermal superalloy can perfectly reflect all forms of energy including quantum wave-functions.

Rose Meadow is the oldest of the three of us. Rose had pink curly hair that fell past her shoulders to the same level of her impressive bust. Rose wore a green summer dress that matched her amber eyes.

"So, what's your next project?" Violet asked.

"I don't know, but Stem says I have a couple dozen blueprints to make and to improve and streamline the designs, the boring stuff" I sigh

"I know what you mean, Stem is such a slave driver sometimes" Rose added

"This is the first I've heard, don't you just immediately go on to the next project?" Violet asked. She has yet to complete her first project

"Stem will make you design the blueprints over and over again until she's satisfied. I was redesigning my force fields for years before she was happy" I complained. "'You need to make it more efficient' 'You need to make it smaller' 'You need to make it use less energy'" I said trying to imitate Stem. "If it's not one thing then it's another"

"And! And sometimes when you're working on your new project she'll tell you to make a new blueprint for your previous designs, it can be really annoying sometimes" Rose chipped in

"And when you ask why..." I say

""Just do it and don't complain!"" Rose and I say at the same time before giggling at our synchronization.

"Uuuu, I'm not looking forward to that," Violet muttered.

We hung around enjoying our free time for the rest of the day before retiring to our rooms and falling asleep.

I was walking on a beach, the gentle waves massaging my feet with their cool waters. large bubbles filled the air, bumping into each other and bouncing away, but sometimes they would stick, two bubbles joined yet separated by a thin wall between them. A faint ringing sound could be heard but from where I cannot tell.

There was a long concrete bridge stretching to a new continent over the horizon. As I got closer to the bridge there was a shimmering, a spatial distortion around the entrance of the bridge very similar to how a wormhole distorts space. The sun was falling below the horizon. Looking back I can see my arcology standing tall in the distance with a space elevator leading to the orbital ring above.

Stepping into the space distortion I arrive at the other end. The bridge had turned to a primitive stone bridge, the haze in the atmosphere gone and the fresh air was strangely light in my lungs. The ringing slowly grew louder

"What are you?" a voice reverberated in my mind. The voice was distorted like it was underwater yet somehow I clearly understood it. "How did you get here?" The voice continued.

I wonder where the voice is coming from? Looking around I see an unpolluted world. The trees were wild and vibrant. The wind light and free. The air clear and haze-free.

"Can you hear me? Can you understand me?" The voice said, she sounded concerned "Are you lost? Do you know the way back home?" The ringing was reaching intolerable levels. I felt... something wrap around me, it was gentle and warm but as soon as it made contact with me something flashed and the being withdrew sharply

"Oww!" the being exclaimed "Do not be afraid, I don't intend to hurt you"

The ringing was getting even louder, so loud a sharp stabbing pain assaulted my mind. Doubling over I try to make it back to the space distortion, whimpering.

"Are you hurt? I didn't mean too..." the voice trailed off, not knowing what to do.

The pain intensified becoming unbearable, like a thousand burning needles drilling into my mind.

"Please... Help me..." I was just in front of the space distortion, crawling towards it. The distortion was flickering I had to get through it fast. "Just... A little bit... further..." Reaching towards the distortion all went black.

I wake up in a cold sweat. There were doctors around me and Stem standing next to my bed. Looking around I don't recognize this room, but it looks like a hospital. Something was odd, there were five Stems in the room. Turning my head over to my left I see violet just waking up, to my right was another that I recognize, Iris Meadow. I assume Rose is here too and one other.

"I am glad you seem to have recovered" (Lilly) Stem addressed me.

"What happened, why am I here?" I asked weakly.

"You wouldn't wake up, and nothing we did could wake you. Your brain activity was off the charts and that continued for three days, any more and you could have suffered brain damage; the brain needs rest. After your brain activity returned to normal you slept for two more days." Stem answered in her usual tone.

"The others?" I asked, I already knew the answer but I need confirmation.

"Yes" Stem replied.

"Is... Is that normal?" I don't know why, but I knew it wasn't.

"There's nothing to worry about, you just need to focus on recovering" Stem replied. I smiled at Stem, but I can't shake off a feeling, I don't know what it is but it feels like I've forgotten something.

I sat on the couch, my datapad on my lap, with my hand on my chin. I was supposed to be improving my graviton generator designs but all I could think about was wormhole space distortions, I can't figure out why my mind was so preoccupied on wormholes. I had a 3D model of a wormhole on my datapad, but how to create one? It had been a week since I was discharged from the hospital yet I had made zero progress in my work.

Stem entered the room, with a plate of food.

"How's your blueprints coming?" She asked, before glancing at my datapad "Is that your next project? That can wait, your graviton designs are far from perfect"

"Yeah... but I can't seem to focus on that"

"Perhaps you still need to recover from recent events, I will arrange some free time early, Violet and Iris will be available too and a walk in the park for some fresh air may help clear your mind."

"Yeah..." I absentmindedly say. To make a wormhole first I have to build a bridge. Gravity warps space, but it warps it in the wrong direction, even anti-gravity does.

I was first in the park the next day, sitting on our usual meet-up bench. I enjoyed the slight breeze on my face. The air was refreshingly cool.

The next to arrive was Iris Meadow. She had emerald green hair tied back in a ponytail, with matching emerald green eyes like my own. She was tall, and slimly built. She wore a white blouse and with a matching frilly skirt.

Iris was the eldest of us flower children that I knew. She has numerous inventions, tachyon sensors and radios. Tachyon lasers and focusing arrays, perfectly efficient energy transmitting beams, and a few others.

As I greeted Iris Violet arrived. The Stems started their usual silent conversation

"Have you two also been thinking of wormholes?" Violet asked

"Yes"

"Yeah"

Both Iris and I agreed.

"Me too, I can't think of anything else, it's... it's like something is nagging me, a curiosity" Violet said, trying to articulate what that 'something' is

"Like an epiphany that is just at the tip of your tongue, you want to get it out and onto paper," I said

"Exactly!" Iris exclaimed "But I have no idea how to even start and Stem doesn't like me switching projects midway through"

"Yeah, Stem has been nagging me to work on my blueprint but every time I do I can only think of how to build a wormhole"

"Hmm, using gravitons I can build a wormhole bridge but the problem is the spacial distortions are in the wrong direction, it's like building a bridge but instead of building over the river you build it backward overland."

"Shouldn't anti-gravity do it then?" Iris asked

"No," I said waving my hand "Opposite does not mean inverted, we need to turn gravity inside out"

"AH! Perhaps I can help!" Violet exclaimed, "My anti-entropy field works by inverting energies increasing disorder but it might work of gravitons as well!"

The Stems had ceased their silent conversations and have started listening in on the conversation.

"But gravity fields are too weak, we'd need to invert a source of incredibly powerful gravity like that of a massive black hole" Even if we could invert gravitons there's no way we have a powerful enough source and even if we did that'd cause a lot of problems, such as where'd the mass of the black hole go.

"Perhaps that's where I can help, correct me if I'm wrong but the problem with gravitons is that they spread out too much right? Well since they are a tachyon we should be able to build a focusing array for them" Iris said

"Hmm, perhaps if we combine our expertise we can make this work, wormhole travel could open the entire galaxy to us"

"If you want to work as a group we'd need to get the approval of the council, but if you plan on making use of the graviton generator wouldn't it be best to improve its designs first?" Stem said, In her usual bland tone.

A couple of days later approval for the group project was issued but any prototype would have to be made in a work facility outside of the arcology. We were a long way off from the prototype stage so that wasn't an issue yet. Not to mention the anti-entropy device would have to be invented first.

Three years had passed since and now that the graviton generator had been satisfactorily improved I oversought the installation of graviton lasers of the new facility along with Iris. A new sport had popped up with the invention of null gravity rooms. And although the council had requested Iris and I make a kugleblitz black hole we had to tell them that was not how gravitons worked, yes you could create black hole level gravity, but you could not create a singularity, it required mass that gravitons lacked.

Both Iris and I were rewarded for the invention of the graviton laser which was the newest weapon installed in ships. Since it was gravity it could pass through any materials and when combined with two other lasers they could make up to stellar level gravity where the three lasers meet basically imploding the enemy ship, there were tons of industrial uses too. Want to turn a large comet into a small one? Compress it with intense gravity, it'll also heat the comet up but that's for the miners to figure out.

Violet had just finished her anti-entropy prototype. It'll take her a few weeks to work out the kinks and then we'll work on a blueprint for the wormhole generator.

With the completion of this project, I'll have three Nobel prizes but now that we are ready for the prototype I'll have to think about my next project.

What would have been weeks of waiting for an anti-entropy design turned into months. The problem is that the device can't invert enough gravitons, it simply lacked the power to do so. I'm not an expert in entropy, neither is Iris, so we were forced to wait. We knew this process well, the part where you refine your designs and make them more efficient. Iris and I weren't idle either, we tweaked our devices to make Violet's job easier; making it so the anti-entropy field had fewer gravitons to invert.

The day wouldn't come until about nine months after the first anti-entropy successful prototype. the device still has a long ways to go, Violet would have to continue this process for a couple more years but going by the math we have enough power with just enough room for a very slight margin of error.

With the final installments to the wormhole generator, the count down began for the first test.

We were behind thick, nearly impenetrable glass reinforced by force fields. The graviton lasers powered up, the anti-entropy fields stable, and finally, with bated breath, the lasers focused on a proton sized point in space. We didn't need a very big wormhole, just a working one to prove we can do it.

Finally, after years of work, a wormhole was opened; its destination at another facility, the wormhole being too small to see we actually couldn't get confirmation that its destination was correct but readings do say foreign particles are increasing at our side of the test site. Next, we slowly widen the wormhole, to the size of an atom, it took several minutes but it was successful, we could keep this up only increasing the size based on our ability to invert gravitons.

"""We did it!""" cheering at our success the control room erupted into applause. The Stems congratulated us on our accomplishment but right at that moment, the siren went off.

"T-the wormhole is increasing in size exponentially!" One of the support staff reported

"I've shut off the graviton lasers!" Another said, acting fast.

"It's still growing?!" by now light was being distorted as the spacial distortion grew to visible size, it was as if the light was being lensed by a black hole, but that was simply because the light paths were bent around the wormhole.

"A-activate the emergency force fields!" I command. whatever the wormhole was feeding on, the force fields should stop it. However, in the panic, everyone forgot the anti-entropy field was still active.

"W-w-wait! Stop, don't-" Violet being the only one to remember was too late to tell the support staff. At the moment the emergency force fields activated a explosion occurred. The wall was blast to pieces, the Stems shielded us from the debris but at that moment all went black.

 

 

"UHHHGGG"

I woke up feeling the warm sunlight on my face, rays of light shining through the canopy. My head hurt like hell.

'Oh god, natural LIGHT!' Shielding my eyes from the harmful beams of cancer-inducing rays I looked around, finding myself in the woods.

"How the hell did I end up in the park?"

Looking through my memories I find it completely blank for the last several hours. The last thing I remember was an explosion then... nothing. Checking my body I found myself unharmed.

Taping my left forearm a holographic screen appeared. I navigate through some menus and activate my CPU implant; it must have turned it'self off to prevent damage, the explosion probably also EMPed my equipment, luckily the shielding worked. After the bootup logo disappeared I started accessing what the chip had recorded.

"Great... nothing..." Getting up I go through some more menus and access my GPS and stared at disbelief at the words on the screen.

[Area Unknown]

That can't be, even if I was wormholed to some random area it should be near the destination facility. Unless the EMP did damage or corrupt my CPU.

"My blueprints better be there," I say, accessing my blueprint folder. "Good, everything's there," I say with a sigh of relief.

"Alright, I know I'm in the park somewhere, so I shouldn't be that far away from civilization" Booting up the compass app I walked to the east. It was actually relaxing, and the air was surprisingly fresh and light.

"Maybe those naturalist nutcases had a point," I remark, remembering the protesters marching down the street on the news. They had twigs and leaves in their hair and wore clothing with leaves clipped to them, chanting "Bring back the stars" "Our mother needs its forests to breathe" etc, etc.

I for one liked the haze, the sun's rays would diffuse so that is wasn't so intense. "Still, the sun is pretty intense here, I feel like I'll burn if I get any more" I complained. As someone who spent all day in the workshop or in the arcology, even travel to the wormhole facility was done from garage to garage, I can't remember the last time I was in the sun.

I've never been to the outside parks before, none of the genetically or cultivated flora could be seen, only wild trees, and other flora. No drones could be seen and were those birds chirping in the distance? Wait... there are birds in the outside park?! But who's crazy enough to let their pets out just like that? Whoever it is they are being irresponsible! I should report them, pets are best kept indoors after all! Not that I ever own a pet anyway.

"How far in the park did I go?!" According to my computer's clock, I've been walking for a couple of hours! The most I've ever walked in my life and still no sign of my sweet, sweet concrete jungle I'm starting to miss the square corners of buildings, the road intersections. The police sirens going off in the distance. The park wasn't THAT big, was it? Suddenly a bush rustled, startling me and a rabbit with a horn on its head popped out.

I blinked, then rubbed my eyes, this couldn't be right... Oh. My. GOD! Those naturalists were right! We ARE warping the natural wildlife! Humanity has made such great progress if it can accidentally do this! I smiled, at the adorable little mutant and spread open my arms to the proof of humanity's greatness, welcoming the little thing to the world that would be domestication and life of a cute little pet.

I giggle thinking of feeding him little pellets and snuggling with him. I've never had a pet before now I know why, I had to go out and catch one! Wait... was there wildlife in the parks? I thought rabbits were pets not wildlife; why does this one have a horn?

Before I could contemplate any further. The creature purred and leaped into my embracing arms it's mouth open smiling at me with it's white, and incredibly sharp teeth. Catching the adorable thing it purred some more biting my metal arm as I hugged it to my bountiful bosom, the fur of the creature was wonderfully soft! Ah, who cares if this thing is a wild animal, I'll do the meta-humane thing and domesticate it.

"OH, stop it, you!" I giggled. It ignored me still gnawing on the nano-steel super alloy plating. "Hmm, you need a name, hey! You're going to damage my arm. If I recall correctly in the dive game I had to use some red and white balls to domesticate animals, but I don't have any..." I sighed, the rabbit still purring in my arms. "Guess I'll hold onto him until I get to a pet shop then I can domesticate him!"

I walked thinking of a name for the rabbit while also contemplating on whether or not rabbits were pets or wildlife. I've never seen a pet rabbit before, wait, weren't they called bunnies? So bunnies are pets and rabbits are wild animals? That must be it! That explains the mutation on this one! It was never a pet to begin with it was always a wild animal. Feeling giddy about learning something new I continue walking.

"He must really like me he's been purring all this time" We've been walking for almost three hours together, all the while I've been stroking the rabbit's heavenly soft head humming to myself. The rabbit's purring has been getting louder and more intense, I think he likes being petted.

The nearby bush rustled and I heard a deep growl, a chill went down my spine and a large bear with chitin plating and spines running down it's back appeared. It has bone spikes jutting out from the back of its elbows and a horrifying snarling snout.

"Kyaaaaaa!"