Chapter 149: The Lost Dimension Part 3
Unknown Location, February 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)
Apophis was attacking Bright Moon! Adora took a step forward, brandishing her sword, before she registered Daniel's words. Turning to stare at him, she asked: "The slaves created Apophis here?"
"Ah, probably? We know that thoughts shape this dimension, and if over a dozen people believe Apophis is their god…" Daniel grimaced.
"But… could they create an entire Ha'tak?" Sha're asked.
"We don't know," Entrapta said. She was not looking at them or at the Ha'tak but staring at her tool. "In theory, anything is possible here - even the laws of nature might be changed through thought. But without testing, we don't know how much effort that takes." She finally looked at them. "Maybe if we try to change the world together?"
"Great. We'll defeat the enemy through the power of shared delusions," Jack muttered.
"Do you want to tackle a Ha'tak with your gun?" Glimmer shot back. "It doesn't look like this Bright Moon has any active defences that can take it, either."
She was right. Adora couldn't see any guns returning fire at the Ha'tak as it kept firing at the magic shield protecting the town. It looked like Bright Moon at the start of the Horde War.
"Other question!" Bow spoke up. "Why does this dimension look like Etheria?"
Adora blinked. That was a good question! The only person who knew Etheria in this dimension - before her friends and herself had arrived - would be… "Catra!" Her lover was stubborn to a fault, wasn't she? She might be able to create this.
"You think Catra imagined this?" Glimmer sounded sceptical.
"Who else could it be?" Adora asked.
"If it were Catra, why don't we see Horde frigates pound Apophis's ship to dust?" Jack asked.
Another good question.
"Look at the Whispering Woods!" Glimmer exclaimed. "That smoke…"
Entrapta lowered her visor and leaned forward. After a moment, she straightened. "That's coming from Plumeria."
Adora drew a sharp breath. So much smoke… the whole kingdom must be burning! Apophis! And now he was trying to destroy Bright Moon! "We have to stop him!"
"Unfortunately, I forgot to pack a frigate into my pocket," Jack said.
"We could imagine one!" Bow said. "Just think about one appearing and blowing Apophis to bits!"
Adora immediately thought about a Horde frigate just doing that. One from… Second Fleet. Not Third Fleet. She didn't need Priest here. Oh! "Make clear that it's an allied Horde frigate!" she said. "Second Fleet!" Someone snickered, probably Jack, but she ignored it and just thought about a frigate from Second Fleet. One to defend this world against Apophis. To save everyone. Just a single frigate!
"I don't think it's working," Jack said after a while. "Carter?"
"We don't detect any substantial changes in the vicinity, sir. Or in orbit," Sam replied. "If this Ha'tak was the result of a shared conviction by Apophis's slaves that he was their god and would arrive, then it might take several weeks to show such a significant change - and we have fewer people here than were sent to this dimension by Taweret."
So, it wouldn't work! Adora gritted her teeth. "Then we have to get into the ship and just defeat him!"
"Oh!" Glimmer disappeared and reappeared a moment later in front of Adora. She smiled a little sheepishly. "I almost forgot to check - magic works here! I can teleport us inside!"
That was great news! Adora beamed at her friend.
"But can you teleport us all inside? And off again, should Apophis suddenly decide to blow up his own ship and escape?" Jack asked. "Or display whatever god-like powers his slaves think he should have?"
Right. "Just get me on the ship. I can take him," Adora said. She had defeated Horde Prime. She could take Apophis.
"Are you sure?" Bow asked. "We don't know how strong this Apophis is."
"Yes." She had to do it. She had to stop Apophis before he destroyed Bright Moon here.
"Ah. Shouldn't we try to contact the locals first and coordinate?" Daniel said. "And find out why this dimension looks like Etheria?"
Adora pressed her lips together. The longer they waited, the greater the risk that the shield failed. The Horde had almost broken it once through continuous bombardment. And they hadn't had the firepower of a Ha'tak.
"If there's another She-Ra here…" Bow trailed off, and Glimmer nodded. "Yes. Let's go to Bright Moon. I can teleport us there!"
"All of us?" Jack asked again.
"I can recharge at the Runestone," Glimmer said.
"Shouldn't the stone be linked to the local Queen?" Sam sounded surprised.
"I can recharge there even without being linked to it," Glimmer said. "As I did before I became Queen of Bright Moon." She held out her hands. "Let's go!"
"Ah… we should make sure that they don't mistake us for attackers," Daniel said. "We are strangers - and you might be mistaken for, ah, doppelgangers."
Oh. Adora clenched her teeth. Being mistaken for Double-Trouble would be bad indeed. "We'll have to be careful."
"I can demonstrate my power," Glimmer said. "Double-Trouble can't copy that. And if I have a double there, she'll listen to us if she's anything like me."
Ah. Adora exchanged a glance with Bow. It seemed he didn't share their friend's confidence either.
But she didn't think they had a choice - the shield wouldn't last forever.
Samantha Carter wouldn't say she was easily impressed, not after everything she had seen, but this dimension was incredible. It looked like Etheria - or, rather, the region of Bright Moon, the Whispering Woods and Plumeria; she hadn't seen the other regions yet - and yet, the resemblance was only superficial. Her instruments and sensors showed differences that made it very obvious that they were in a dimension where the laws of nature differed significantly from her home dimension. Not a parallel dimension or universe at all.
Sure, she had known that from the sensor readings she had seen back at Alpha, but the difference between seeing the data and actually experiencing it in person was stark.
"Oh! I think we're starting to affect the dimension!" Entrapta said next to her as they waited for Glimmer to return. "Look!" Her hair turned her multitool towards Sam.
Sam glanced at it. "The tree changed density… far faster than would be possible."
"Yes! I imagined it being less dense, and it started to change!" Entrapta beamed. "We can change the world!"
They could. In very small ways, so far, but to think that reality - this dimension's reality - was theirs to change on a whim… It was a daunting prospect, but Sam couldn't help feeling excited. The possibilities were endless! They could create the perfect environment for an experiment. No - the nature of the dimension would preclude running experiments since their expectations would absolutely affect the outcome. But they could create environments that would offer the exact effects they wanted for any given task.
Well, they could once they had dealt with Apophis, Sam reminded herself, feeling a little foolish, when she heard another rolling barrage of blast cannon fire hit the magic shield in the distance. She should focus on that problem instead of getting distracted. On the other hand, to defeat Apophis, they needed all the data about this dimension that they could get.
"Alright! I'll take us inside the palace!" Glimmer announced. "Adora! Bow!"
Both reached out, and a moment later, all three disappeared in a cloud of sparks.
"I really hope that the shield keeps holding up," the General muttered. "Or this will be the shortest rescue mission in Alliance history."
"The readings we took show that while it is degrading, it's a linear process and, barring any significant changes, it will take at least another hour to reach the point of collapse - though there's a bit of guesswork involved when that point arrives - we never got the data we need to calculate it precisely," Entrapta announced.
"That's very reassuring," the General replied.
"I know!" Entrapta beamed at him, completely missing his sarcasm.
Sam frowned at him, and he had the grace to look sheepish.
"Well, one hour should be…"
Glimmer's arrival cut Daniel off. "Alright. I've dropped Adora and Bow off. Entrapta! Sam!"
Sam took her hand, Entrapta latched onto the other, and then Sam's stomach twisted a little as Glimmer used her power.
A moment later, they were standing in one of the courtyards of the palace - and facing several guards.
"Princess! Wait!" the officer in charge yelled.
"No time!" Glimmer replied - and disappeared again.
Sam wasn't as skilled as Daniel in such matters, but this wasn't the best way to enter a foreign nation's seat of government. Especially a seat that was currently under attack - she could see and hear the Ha'tak's guns hit the shield above her, a constant, unnerving sequence of impacts and explosions. If the shield suddenly collapsed…
"Who are you?" the officer turned to frown at Sam.
"That's my other science buddy, Sam!" Entrapta told him. "Hi!"
"Major Samantha Carter," she informed him. "Alliance Military."
"Alliance Military?" He looked confused.
"Not the Princess Alliance - not yours," Adora told him. "Ours."
"But…"
Once again, Glimmer appeared, dropping off the Daniel and Sha're.
"Princess!"
And she was gone.
"Ah… Hello?" Daniel smiled at the guards.
"Let's just wait until all of us are here," Bow said. "Then we can explain. OK?"
To Sam's surprise, the guards seemed to accept that. She would have thought they would be more suspicious - or on edge - during an attack on the palace.
But then Glimmer returned with the General and Teal'c and all but collapsed, panting. "That… took a bit more out of me than I thought," she managed to say as she bent over.
"Princess!"
"Glimmer!"
"Glimmer? Adora? What are you doing here? Entrapta? Bow? Why did you return?"
Sam had never met the woman standing in the doorway behind the guards, but she recognised her immediately.
"Mom?"
"Angella?"
Queen Angella. Glimmer's mother. Sam pressed her lips together while Adora and Glimmer gasped and paled. They should have considered that this Bright Moon was still ruled by Queen Angella. How this would affect Glimmer, Sam didn't know, but it would surely complicate matters.
"Ah… we can explain," Bow said, grimacing.
"We're not from this dimension," Entrapta spoke up. "We're from another dimension. And we're here to help. And to save Catra. And to gather data!"
Sometimes, Entrapta's bluntness could be very helpful. Sam hoped that this would be one of those times.
Angella had gone pale as well. "Glimmer?" She sounded… hesitating, not doubtful, Sam noticed.
Glimmer grimaced. "I'm from another dimension. I'm not your Glimmer," she said.
"Your daughter and our, ah, counterparts are still… wherever they are, I guess, Your Majesty," Bow said. "And… ah, these are our friends. Allies. General O'Neill, Major Carter, Doctor Jackson, Sha're. Teal'c."
Angella barely glanced at him and ignored the others. She kept staring at Glimmer instead as if she were shocked to see her.
"So…" Adora started to say after an awkward moment but was interrupted by a particularly loud impact on the shield.
"I don't want to alarm anyone," the General said, "but how much longer is the shield going to last?"
"It will last long enough for Adora and the others to return with She-Ra's ship," Angella stated.
She sounded confident, but Sam checked the data from their sensors anyway. It showed some degradation of the shield, although at a stable and very slow rate. Still, it wouldn't last forever - at this rate, it would collapse in a bit over six hours.
"Oh! You're recovering Darla?" Entrapta beamed. "Do you need help? I've restored Darla before - and we modified her once; we can do it again! Although we might not have the time to do that before the shield falls here," she added, biting her lower lip.
And even with upgrades, Darla didn't have the firepower to shoot down a Ha'tak, Sam knew. She could outfly it, of course, and a hit-and-run strategy might prove effective in some circumstances, but Bright Moon couldn't run. And that was based on the known capabilities of a Ha'tak in their home dimension. They didn't know what this Ha'tak could do.
"I can teleport us inside the Ha'tak," Glimmer said. She was still glancing at Angella even as she addressed the others. "Once we're inside, we can take out Apophis - and we can sabotage his ship." She straightened. "But I'll need your permission to recharge from the runestone for that. Your Majesty," she added after a moment with a weak smile. "I'm kind of exhausted right now."
Angella tensed at the address. "It's too dangerous to enter the enemy ship like that."
"It's our best chance!" Glimmer retorted. "We have done this before."
"Not against an actual god," Daniel pointed out.
"Apophis is a false god," Teal'c objected.
"Not in this dimension," Daniel retorted. "We don't know how powerful this Apophis is."
"It doesn't hurt to try!" Glimmer said, then blinked. "I mean… It could hurt, of course, but we've done this before, without magic."
"Glimmer!" Angella snapped. "The ship is protected!"
"Not against magic!" Glimmer retorted.
"Actually…" Daniel winced when both women turned to glare at him. "Our Apophis couldn't protect himself against magic, as far as we know. But this Apophis?"
"Let me try! What do we have to lose?" Glimmer said.
"Your life!" Angella spat. "And the shield does repel magic attacks. We tried that."
"What kind of magic attacks did you try?" Entraptra asked.
"Everything we could," Angella replied with a frown. "We couldn't stop it. We couldn't even slow down its approach."
That didn't tell them much. In order to estimate this Ha'tak's capabilities - and weaknesses - they needed more information.
But before Sam or Entrapta could ask for details, Adora spoke up. "Ah. As Entrapta said, we're looking for a friend of ours - our Catra. Have you seen her?"
Angella tensed again and looked at Adora with a frown. This time, Sam was sure that it wasn't a good sign.
The constant barrage was unnerving. Even in her cell, Catra could hear every impact against the magic shield protecting Bright Moon, and there were a lot of them. Probably more than during the Horde attack, which had almost brought it down in her dimension, and that had taken most of the artillery parks of an entire front and strained the logistics of the Fright Zone. Apophis obviously didn't have to worry about that.
Maybe I should escape, Catra thought, not for the first time. If the shield fell, then the force fields holding her captive in her new cell wouldn't last a second. Unfortunately, her odds of escaping a second time weren't good - unlike her first cell, this cell had force fields covering the roof and floor as well. And they were claw-proof. Although Catra hadn't gone all out. Even though her claws might not be able to scratch the force fields, if she applied enough force…
Her ears twitched as she picked up voices. Familiar voices.
"...can't believe you locked her up!"
Adora? Catra blinked. But this Adora was supposed to recover Darla. Was she back already?
"She was the Horde leader."
And that was Angella. But why was she saying this? Adora had been the one to put Catra into this cell before leaving for Darla. Why would…
Her eyes widened as she heard more people. More familiar people. Jack, Sam, Daniel…
She gasped and jumped up, pressing herself against the force field facing the door. Her Adora was here! And her friends! They had come for her! They hadn't abandoned her!
She drew back and straightened just in time for the door to open, then flashed a grin.
"Hey, Adora."
"Catra!"
Adora's face lit up with so much relief - and love - that Catra swallowed her comment about how it had taken Adora long enough to find her and just smiled and nodded. And blinked so her eyes would clear up.
A moment later, Adora was pressed against the force field, and Catra could almost feel her lover's eyes go over her body, searching for any signs of wounds or bruises.
"I'm fine," she told her.
"You're locked up!" Adora protested. "In a cell!"
"She was the leader of the Horde," Catra heard Angella protest.
"Was. She joined the alliance," Adora replied before turning to look at the queen. "Let her out now!"
Angella hesitated for a moment, and Catra saw her frown at her and glance at Glimmer before she pushed a button on the wall to deactivate the force field.
And then Adora's arms wrapped around Catra, and they embraced. And kissed.
And Catra relaxed with a shuddering breath. Adora was back with her. They were together again. For a moment, she didn't hear or feel the impacts from Apophis's barrage. Didn't think about their situation, this dimension. Just held Adora.
Someone cleared their throat.
Catra ignored them.
Someone cleared their throat again.
Catra still ignored them.
"So, that's the second time we had to save the cat, huh?"
With a scowl, Catra pulled back from Adora and released her - mostly. She kept an arm wrapped around Adora's side and her tail brushing over Adora's leg. "I could have escaped any time," she told Glimmer. "I actually did, and only came back to save… them," she finished with a glance at Angella. The queen was alone with them in the room, she noticed - no guards were present. No locals were here at all.
Interesting.
"Sure you could have teleported through the force fields here," Glimmer retorted, shaking her head. She was smiling, which took the sting out of her comments, but Catra didn't miss how she kept sneaking glances at Angella. Right. She should have expected this. After losing her mother, meeting another Angella would shake up Glimmer.
So, Catra let the matter drop and didn't mention her options to get out of the cell - mostly centred on luring the guards to lower the force field to get the drop on them. Besides, it was best to keep that a secret, just in case.
"Any news from the recovery mission?" she asked instead.
Angella narrowed her eyes at her. "They have found the ship and are in the process of repairing it."
"Darla. She has a name," Entrapta objected before blinking. "Well, our Darla was named Darla. You probably should ask her if she wants a different name."
"Ships are female," Jack added with a grin.
"Actually, that's not a universal custom," Daniel cut in. "The Russians, for example, use a male gender while in German, a neutral gender is used."
"I don't think the gender of the ship in question is important," Jack said. Daniel opened his mouth, likely to point out that Jack started it, but Jack cut him off. "What's important is whether or not the ship can get us inside Apophis's floating palace."
"It should," Catra said. "It's only a Ha'tak." Horde Prime's flagship would be different, but Darla's shields should be able to get them through a Ha'tak's protections. She wasn't a scientist, but she knew the capabilities of both ships by heart. She had to, to make proper tactical decisions and plans.
"Ah, we actually don't know that," Daniel said with a weak smile. "That this is a normal Ha'tak, I mean."
Catra narrowed her eyes. "It looks and shoots like a normal one," she said.
"Yes, but it was created by the thoughts of the slaves of Apophis displaced to this dimension. They consider him a god," Daniel explained. "So, depending on their imagination, we could be dealing with a literal divine vessel."
Catra blinked. What was he saying? "The slaves created the ship?" she asked out loud. That was insane!
"Yes!" Entrapta nodded emphatically. "Well, that's our hypothesis, but the sensor readings we took looking for you and the data we have of this dimension support it. This dimension is affected by the minds of its inhabitants. Or shaped - it's very malleable; even the laws of nature here aren't fixed. It's one of the most interesting places we've ever seen! Can you imagine living in a dimension where you can alter reality with your imagination?"
Catra couldn't help thinking that sometimes, Entrapta looked rather scary, in a deranged way. This was one of those times. If they were a dimension defined and altered by your imagination… She gasped and stared at Angella, then back at her friends. "Do you mean that not just the ship but Apophis himself might have been created by those people Taweret sent here?"
Entrapta nodded.
"That's our running hypothesis," Sam confirmed. "We noticed a massive change in the dimension's structure, and it seems to correlate with the Ha'tak's appearance, although we have yet to confirm it."
"So, we're fighting a god imagined by his brainwashed followers?" Catra shook her head. A dimension where people could create a god just by believing in them? Wait! Did that mean… "Can anyone do this? Imagine a god? Or other people?" she interrupted Sam's explanation about how time might play a role, and the accumulation of like-minded individuals or whatever affected the process.
"Ah… theoretically, yes," Sam told her.
"The only theoretical limits are your imagination!" Entrapta added. "It's so fascinating!"
Catra felt her stomach drop. You could create people by thinking of them? And your only limits were your imagination? Or… your knowledge? It would explain a lot. She turned to glance at Angella. The queen was glaring at her, but also… nervous? Catra shook her head. This was a bad idea, but… she had to know. Had to ask.
"Did you create all of this?" She gestured at the room. "Bright Moon, Etheria? The people here?"
What did she mean by that? Jack O'Neill tensed and glanced at Catra, then at Angella. The queen had frozen for a moment, and he felt his stomach drop.
"What?" Adora asked, sounding confused.
Angella was still not saying anything, just staring at Catra.
And Catra was staring straight back. "Angella isn't from this dimension."
"What?" Half the room blurted out the same question.
Angella didn't deny it, Jack couldn't help noting. Though her stare turned into a glare.
And Entrapta was already running with it. "Well… that is a new theory. We thought that the dimension's native inhabitants - sapient inhabitants - had formed a meta-consensus that allowed them to stabilise a core part of the dimension thanks to a shared view of how reality should work. And we thought that this would likely be a sort of hive-mind, though that was speculation based on human mental structures. But if this stabilised area was the result of one mind… it could work. We already know that there's a temporal component to the shaping effect, and if you had enough time, you could likely influence a significant part of the dimension, especially if there were no other minds attempting to shape it. And! It would explain why this dimension looks so much like Etheria! The odds that the natives of this dimension would form a world like ours despite the drastic differences in how the dimension works were pretty much zero, now that I think of it. I should have thought of that myself, but I was distracted by the new dimension's data. Sorry!"
Jack blinked. He wasn't a scientist, but he was used to listening to them, and that sounded like Entrapta thought this was a valid theory.
He glanced at Carter, who slowly nodded. "It would explain several things we noticed," she said.
"But…" Adora looked around, then settled on Catra. "How do you know that?"
"We talked," Catra told her without looking away from Angella. "She told me. This is Etheria how you think it should have been, huh?"
Angella still didn't answer, but Jack could see she was starting to scowl at Catra. He clenched his teeth. The last thing they wanted was a blow-out between them and the queen - and possible creator - of this land right in the middle of a Goa'uld attack.
"But… if you're not from this dimension, where are you from?" Glimmer asked, almost hesitantly.
Jack swallowed a curse. It didn't take a genius to realise what she was thinking, hoping, right now.
Angella turned to look at Glimmer, and her expression softened somewhat. "I came from Etheria - my Etheria. I stepped through a portal, sacrificing myself to save it." She narrowed her eyes, scowled at Catra and spat: "A portal she opened to conquer Etheria!"
Catra flinched at that and seemed to shrink in herself.
Ouch, Jack thought.
"She changed!" Adora spoke up, wrapping her arm around Catra's shoulders. "We all did. We made peace with the Horde - and we defeated Horde Prime together. And now we're fighting Apophis and the other Goa'ulds. Together."
Right. Couldn't forget the snake trying to kill them all. The snake that was potentially a god-like snake thanks to a bunch of brainwashed slaves.
Angella didn't take that well. "She almost destroyed Etheria, and you forgive her?"
"I thought forgiving was the thing on Etheria," Jack said before he could stop himself. He didn't flinch when Angella glared at him, though. She might be queen of a land she had created and have magic powers, but… well… in for a penny, in for a pound. He shrugged. "People can change. Teal'c was Apophis's First Prime before he defected, saving us all."
"Indeed." Teal'c, of course, just inclined his head in his usual way when Angella turned to glare at him.
"The Horde seems to have settled in well, the clones working hard to fight the snakes," he went on. No need to go into details.
"And Hordak threw off Horde Crime's mind control!" Entrapta contributed.
"Hordak!" Angella hissed. "You are allied with him?"
Right. He had been the main enemy of hers, hadn't she?
"People can change!" Adora said, not letting go of Catra, and Jack resisted the sudden impulse to add 'for better or worse'. This was a very delicate situation, but if they could defuse this and focus on defeating the freshly created Apophis II…
"Are… are you our Angella?" Glimmer asked in a very soft voice that still made everyone tense up again. She moved her mouth, adding something in a whisper that Jack didn't catch.
And Angella drew a sharp breath and closed her eyes before slowly turning to face Glimmer. "I… I don't know." Shaking her head, she added: "I don't know any of you. I don't understand how you could… be like that."
"Uh…" Bow grimaced when most people looked at him. "If you're not from our dimension, then something should show up on a scan… I think. But we probably need better instruments to tell."
"Yes!" Entrapta nodded emphatically. "Since no universe is exactly the same, there should be discernible differences even between parallel universes with closely-matching history. If we get enough data, we should find them!" With a frown, she added: "Although proving that you're from the same universe would be a bit harder, since even if we don't find any differences, we could not really be sure that we just lacked the instruments to find them. We don't have a lot of data on multi-dimensional differences."
"And we don't have a lot of time to deal with Apophis," Jack cut in. This was all getting far too technical or philosophical for him. They were still under constant bombardment, for crying out loud! "So, let's focus on that? We can sort out the rest afterwards."
At least, he hoped so. In any case, you had to be alive to sort things out.
Angella had created this world? This area of the dimension they were in, Adora corrected herself. It was incredible, but she trusted her friends. And Angella hadn't denied it. And she was not from this dimension, either. So, she could even be their Angella - the one who had sacrificed herself to seal the portal, saving Etheria from destruction. And Adora from sacrificing herself.
Glimmer's mom.
Adora desperately wanted to find out if this was true. She wasn't sure, though, if she wanted to find out what it meant for the people they had seen - guards she knew back home. And Catra… she had to talk to Catra. Her lover was shaken by this; she was putting up a good front, but Adora could tell.
But Jack was right - they had to stop Apophis first.
She nodded. "Glimmer needs to recharge at the runestone. And we need to know if we can get inside the ship with magic."
"It's protected against magic," Angella said.
"Did you try teleportation magic? Did this dimension's…" Glimmer trailed off, and Adora saw she was clenching her teeth.
"That would have been too dangerous to attempt," Angella retorted.
"So, you didn't let her." Glimmer scowled. "I'll try it!"
"No!" Angella blurted out.
"You can't stop me!" Glimmer spat.
"I won't let you recharge!"
"Well, they don't really act like family," Catra mumbled next to Adora.
Adora pressed her lips together. Catra had never seen it, but Glimmer and Angella were acting exactly as they had during the Horde war. "We need to know. If we can teleport inside, we won't have to risk a boarding action."
"And we won't have to wait for Darla to be recovered," Bow added.
"The shield will hold," Angella said. "I know it."
"Because you want it to hold?" Catra asked in a clipped tone. "You alone, against a god imagined by over a dozen people?"
Angella glared at her. "It will hold."
"Uh… Your Majesty, what exactly did you do with the people sent here before us and Catra?" Daniel said before Catra could push Angella some more.
"Adora collected them before they could get lost, and we put them in a small village in Bright Moon."
"Near the border to Plumeria?" Glimmer asked.
"Where the Ha'tak appeared?" Catra added
"Yes," Angella said, pointedly looking at Glimmer, not at Catra.
"Did Apophis pick them up?" Jack asked.
Angella frowned. "I don't know. We were focusing on evacuating the villages in the ship's path and trying ways to attack it."
"Would Apophis really have left his faithful?" Bow asked. "They're the source of his power."
"He might not be aware of that," Glimmer retorted.
"But they might imagine their god taking them with him, and so that is what a god created by them would do," Bow pointed out.
That made sense to Adora. But that didn't mean it was true - religion seldom made sense in her experience. However, she also had to admit that she was a little biased there.
"They also know that Apophis is a cruel god," Jack said. "They built his secret base, and as a reward, he got rid of them and let Taweret use them for experiments."
"That doesn't mean that they would have lost their faith in him." Daniel shook his head. "Many religious people are perfectly capable of finding explanations and excuses for their deity letting them suffer even though they should be able to help them. The former slaves could think this was a test of their faith. Or that they had failed Apophis or disobeyed him, and this was their punishment."
"What if he killed them with his bombardment? Wouldn't that, uh, unmake himself?" Jack asked.
"Eventually, probably," Sam replied after a moment. "But changes aren't instantaneous here, and we have not observed the constant changes you'd expect if the reality was reacting at once to any stray thought - or to the creator of the change falling asleep. So, there has to be a stabilising effect. Even if the people who thought up this Apophis were dead, I would think the Ha'tak would not be affected for several hours, or even longer."
"So, no killing the slaves to kill Apophis," Catra said. She was grinning, but Adora had a feeling that at least a few people here wouldn't have been joking about this.
"What would happen if we left, and Apophis would end up alone with his slaves here?" Sha're asked. "Would he or his faithful be able to find a way to reach our dimension?"
That was a very good question, in Adora's opinion.
"You mean if we all left?" Daniel looked at her.
Sha're nodded.
If Apophis were trapped here, could he escape? But could they leave everyone except for Angella? If the people here were just imaginary people… Adora shook her head. "We would have to rescue the former slaves as well."
Catra scoffed but didn't contradict her.
"Mission creep."
"Jack! We always planned to save everyone!" Daniel protested.
"Sometimes, that is impossible," Teal'c commented.
"We're not leaving anyone behind," Adora said. Never again. "We'll destroy the Ha'tak and Apophis." She looked at Angella again. "We need to test Glimmer's power against the Ha'tak's defences."
Angella jerked a little as if she had been struck, and Adora felt guilty for asking this.
But Glimmer nodded. "Yes."
And she and Angella were staring at each other again. At least they weren't shouting, though.
Samantha Carter half-expected Glimmer to yell 'you're not my mom!' at Angella. Despite the seriousness of the situation - they were under constant bombardment, and the magic shield would not last forever - the confrontation between the two queens left an impression of a family spat on her.
Which hinted at implications Sam didn't want to go in right now. Not when they had an Apophis powered by faith to defeat. And speaking of that… "We need to test something else," she said, interrupting the confrontation. "We need to know if anything taken from this dimension will last in our dimension."
"Oh, yes!" Entrapta was quick to agree. "We cannot exclude the possibility that this Apophis could create a way to travel dimensions - it's actually quite likely since the people believing in him were transported across dimensions, so they know it's possible - but we don't know if anything created here - or anyone - could survive in another dimension where the laws of nature are different. It depends on the exact properties of the way things are created here. If you think something into existence, does that create something permanent that won't change again unless there's someone else influencing it, or is anything here just the base energy, sort of, of this dimension, and without thoughts stabilising it, it will return to its base form? The lingering effect we theorised would indicate it would last at least for some time, but we don't have any exact data!" She beamed. "But! We can find out. We just need to call Hordak and then have him transport something from here back."
"We need to be very careful, though," Sam quickly cautioned. "If the matter taken from here returns to energy almost instantaneously, the consequences could be drastic. Explosive," she added for those who didn't immediately catch the implications.
The General winced. "If Apophis here could send nukes over to our dimension by chucking rocks through a gate, that could be a bit of a problem," he said with a twisted grin.
Adora nodded with a firm impression. "It doesn't matter. We'll stop him here anyway and save everyone." She looked at Entrapta, Bow and Sam. "Set up a safe way to test it while Glimmer recharges."
Sam saw Angella stiffen, but to her surprise, the queen didn't object. And Glimmer didn't gloat but looked at Bow. "Bow?"
"Ah, I'll stay here - we need to know what happens if we take stuff from here back," Bow said with an apologetic smile.
Glimmer nodded, and she left with Adora, Angella and Catra.
"Alright! I'll call Hordak and check where we can dump a potentially huge bomb without destroying anything important!" Entrapta announced.
"And we'll gather an appropriate sample," Sam said. Small enough so the potential energy was manageable.
"I'll prepare a sensor suite for the transport." Bow took out his tools. "So we don't need to use fixed sensors."
Which meant they could use a greater distance from the planet as the arrival point and still get all the data they needed. Sam nodded and looked around in the yard. Any rock would do, but something more complex might be more useful. Although anything complex would be big enough to pose a substantial risk should it explode.
Best start with a rock, then scale it up to more complex devices if the first experiment went well. And then try it with animals.
Sam didn't add 'and then with people', not even in the privacy of her head. Not even if those people might just be figments of Angella's imagination.
Five minutes later, everything was ready. A small rock rested in a box Bow had put together, surrounded by a sensor suite, and Entrapta had finished coordinating with Hordak.
"Alright! Hordak says the target area is clear. And that he has a lock on the beacon, though we should evacuate the area anyway so none of us gets caught up in the effect. That would be bad without a spacesuit," she said.
Sam nodded, suppressing a wince, and they retreated out of the courtyard, leaving the box on a small support made from material from their own dimension.
"Go-time!" Entrapta announced.
A moment later, the area around the box warped - and it was gone, with the support.
Sam immediately turned to her laptop, set up in the room next to the yard. The communication lag meant it would take a few seconds for the data to arrive. They felt like hours.
Then the data came back. The rock was stable. Sam drew a breath through clenched teeth. That meant they didn't have to fear a barrage of transdimensional nukes from a victorious imaginary Apophis. And that the air in their lungs was safe as well - replacing that with air from home would have been a bother.
But it also meant that Apophis could form an army here and invade another dimension if his creations lasted at least a little while. And it opened ethical questions about this world's people. What would happen to them if Angella left? Would they stay or fade into energy? And what if by transporting them to another dimension, they could become stable? Could they leave them to fade away if they could save them?
More data came in.
"Oh! It looks like there's some small degradation of the rock's structural integrity," Entrapta said. "It's losing mass."
"It could fade?" Bow asked. He sounded happy about it.
Even though she felt guilty for it, Sam shared his feelings. That was one potential very messy problem avoided.