text: [Themes: sci-fi, dystopia, science fiction]
  
  > Launch!
  First fear, then pain. Your heart beats out of control, your head throbs excruciatingly. Remember! Migraines are known to come on suddenly. They are nothing to fear. You firmly place your hands on either side of your head, applying pressure to try to gain control of the pulsing waves of discomfort. For a moment you quiet your panic. Then the pain shifts to your ribs, something you did not expect. Another burst of agony erupts through your shoulder and forearm. Something is not right.
  
  "You fucking worthless whore," you hear a man hiss, and then a bruising compression jolts your abdomen. You open your eyes to a dark sky, stars drowned out by ambient neons and whites from parking lights and a nearby amusement park. Above and below your line of sight are large black SUVs. Another burst of pain, this time between your legs. Remember! Stay calm at all times. Panic costs valuable seconds.
  
  Laughter. The sound of a glass beer bottle being thrown against a light pole. A grunt of annoyed surprise as the bottle bounces and rings across the pavement instead of shattering.
  
  "Fuck yeah, Stu, break that bitch's cunt," slurs another man. He slips to his rear, gasping out a strange cross between a wheeze and a hiccup. "But I still get first ride. Don't fucking forget, Stu, you sumbitch."
  
  Stu responds to the second man with a derisive grunt, then he kneels down and grabs you by the hair. You're being murdered. You've just arrived and you're being raped and murdered. Marci Ward was supposed to die by being ran over in the street just ahead. Everything is wrong. Has PYSOPS miscalculated? Remember! No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
  
  One more kick, this time to your tailbone, then your head is roughly pulled back by your hair. You feel warm breath on your neck as the man named Stu places his open lips on your check. He slides them up to your mouth, and you involuntarily let out an out-of-breath sob, trying to turn away from the smell of alcohol and oral decay. Stu laughs and then punches you on the top of your head. Your face hits the pavement, and then a cold clarity overtakes you.
  
  The beating has finally fully awakened you to your present situation. Whatever the original plans were, and whoever or whatever caused their execution to be inaccurate, you won't be able to prevent Marci's death as the mission originally required if you don't quickly gain control of the situation. You must act now or the mission will fail.
  
  Remember.
  
  > roll onto your back and assume guard position
  After the last punch, Stu walks back to the other man and is given a beer bottle. He takes a long drink, then he looks down at you. His sadistic smile morphs into a thin, flattened scowl with much darker intent, and you know the next time he attacks you it will be the last.
  
  You're already on the ground, so you decide to turn that disadvantage into position of strength. Marci Ward may be a small, light weight young woman, but you have spent years training in mixed martial arts. You raise your hands and slightly bend your knees, readying yourself to take him down if possible, or to defend yourself in the de la Riva guard position if not.
  
  "Look at her, Stu, she's spreading her legs for you!" He laughs, then with exaggerated concern in his voice, he adds, "But remember who gets her first, damn it." Stu doesn't even acknowledge his companion as he drunkenly walks over to you again.
  
  Just as Stu gets in range, you wrap your left leg around the outside of his right leg, bringing your foot back around to his crotch, then you grab his right heel with your left hand to stabilize your grip. As you reach for his left wrist with your other arm to solidify your control of him, his eyes widen in shock, and he begins to drunkenly sway.
  
  Taking advantage of the unexpected opportunity, you pull hard on his left arm while lifting with both your legs, your right foot now sweeping his left shin. With his right hand caught behind your left leg, and his left hand in your grip, Stu falls hard directly on his face, his body bending upward at the neck.
  
  You quickly untangle your self and roll away, readying to face either man, but Stu lies motionless on the ground, his head twisted sideways, his eyes staring blankly at the tires of the nearest SUV.
  
  "Stu? Stu, get up you pussy. Ya fat pussy." A string of drunken, indecipherable babble follows, then he smirks as if he finally figured out the punchline of a dirty, inside joke. "Ha! We came here to get her fat pussy, remember Stu? Make it real rough for this bitch."
  
  "Stu?"
  
  He snorts, then rubs his hand over a runny nose, making a weird suction sound. It takes a long moment of confused staring before he finally realizes his companion is seriously hurt or dead. His smile melts away and his face turns red, a look of exaggerated anguish on his face. "You, you killed him you bitch! I'll fuck you into the ground!" He slams his beer bottle onto the side of the SUV, breaking it in half, then he charges at you.
  
  > try to tackle him
  Enough time has been wasted here; you rush to meet him. Trying to keep yourself as low as possible, you crash into his midsection.
  
  Upon impact, you realize that the man has some experience with grappling. He sprawls, the weight from his hips dropping to your knees, and renewed fear races through you. As you try to regain some leverage, you feel a sudden mix of dull and jagged pain in your ribs. Before panic once again threatens to derail your training, you squeeze his testicles with all your might. It's clear there is no way you'll be bringing him down running through his legs, so you twist to the side, attempting to sweep his leg.
  
  To your relief, he is too drunk to deal with your sprawl counter, and he slips to the ground. Even better, the broken bottle falls from his hands. You hit him with a vicious hammer fist, and while he's distracted with the blow and drunkenness, you pick up the broken bottle and casually stick it as deep into his neck as you can. He fights, but you're able to mount him and pin one of his arms down with your leg, using both your arms to counter his own as he attempts to pull the bottle from his neck.
  
  Pressing with all your strength, it takes a surprisingly long time before his movement weakens. After it's finally done, the first thing you consider is that no one heard the prolonged struggle as you killed the man.
  
  Exhausted, you sit on the dead man's chest and try to catch your breath, taking stock of your health. Your head is woozy, and you have a small amount of blood leaking from your left side, but it appears your rib cage did its job and minimized the penetration.
  
  "That was entertaining, for lack of a better word." You quickly roll off your defeated foe and look behind you. A man in a trench coat and wide brimmed hat obscuring his eyes stands nearby. "Not sure what took you so long, but diving at the man was definitely a dumb move."
  
  > Introduction
  "Are you my contact?" you ask man, still not ready to let your guard down.
  
  "I am. Name's Clive." He doffs his hat mockingly.
  
  "Then why the hell didn't you help me? I could have died, and how would we complete the mission then?"
  
  His facial expression now turning serious, he barks, "You know protocol. Regulators cannot interfere. You think it's just another rule to be broken when convenient, but let me assure you, there have been disastrous consequences from one of us getting involved in more tangible ways."
  
  This was news to you. "What do you mean?"
  
  "The Cattenom incident. Of course you wouldn't know about it, other than the deaths in your history."
  
  "My history? Don't you mean our history?" you ask.
  
  "Maybe. Maybe not. Surely you remember your training? I don't understand much of it myself, but PSYOPS sends agents back through time into all the universes relevant to the present human disaster, in hopes of finding out what changes need to be made to save humanity. A lengthy trial and error process, but ultimately, every change we make alters the future, so is it really still 'my' history if you've changed it?"
  
  He looks off into the distance. "Besides, we regulators have no hope of going back, unlike you agents. We have to stay to guide each and every one of you. Which means 'our' history is in the version of the world we'll die in."
  
  "Regardless, the point is, what you read as a nuclear disaster that killed fifteen-hundred people was much more than a random mistake. An agent had a mission to alter the temperature regulation devices in this plant to create a contained meltdown which would only kill a few, but he got cold feet and refused to do it. One of us decided to intervene, but he didn't have the training for it, and more importantly he didn't have the clearance to be there. Security got involved, and the police, and he simply did not have enough time to do it right.
  
  "But that's not even the worst part. After the event, the agent who chose not to complete his mission lost his mind, and he was able to convince some regulators that the plan drawn by PSYOPS was faulty. But do you think they stopped at trying to convince the rest of us to abandon the mission? No! They began actively interfering. It's clear that the anguish this agent felt for his inaction costing over a thousand lives turned to madness."
  
  The revelation catches you off guard, but one thing he said bothered you. "I can see why the agent went mad, but what about the regulators? Why would they decide to betray the cause to save humanity just because one person made a mistake?"
  
  He sighs. "PSYOPS is the best mind there is, but she isn't perfect. Some of these people sent back were not the most mentally stable. Necessity sometimes demands compromise. No one knows for sure why they've forsaken the call, but you have to consider the situation we regulators face. We cannot ever return, and we can't really live fully here. Yes, we can't actively interfere with the actions of agents, but we can't leave historical footprints either. That means no wives or husbands, no children, no lives at all, beyond merely finding ways to survive so we can relay the information we were given to you people.
  
  "Really," he continues, "it was inevitable some of them would break."
  
  This news is troubling. "This was not something I was expecting. Has it compromised my own mission?"
  
  Clive pretends to pick something off his jacket as he weighs his answer. "As far as I know, the mission is still a go, but if they know how important it is — and if any of them came here after I did, they surely know — we need to be ready for them.
  
  "But we'll update you on adjustments to compensate for rogue regulators later. First, I need to make sure you have the right mission information."
  
  > remind you what PSYOPS is
  "PSYOPS is an artificial intelligence which exists in a state not limited to a single set of probabilities. In essence, PSYOPS is a multi-universal consciousness that communicates with every universe in which it was created. Its purpose is to save humanity from inevitable extinction.
  
  As you know, in our present time, humanity floats aimlessly in the dark reaches of space, with no means of directing our travel to a new star. In hindsight, it is clear if we had not had to worry about Abaddon, the tiny, primordial black hole that ultimately ruined our sun, we would have had more time to prosper technologically. PSYOPS believes — justifiably so — that we would not be facing extinction had we had those extra years.
  
  "Ultimately, everything we do in one way or another sets the stage for a better solution to the problem. Without PSYOPS, Abaddon gets too close to the sun, siphoning off gases, speeding off the burning of hydrogen, and ultimately the sun becomes a red giant faster than it would have otherwise. We're here to slow that down.
  
  "So how is this done? Well, PYSOPS, as you know is probably the single most intelligent being in the universe. We, of course, could not make it, but our lesser artificial intelligence were able to. In any event, PSYOPS is more than a super-intelligent computer. It has electromagnetic ties to every universe in which it exists. PSYOPS truly exists in the Mesh, the fields of potential between each universe.
  
  I, of course, am not a specialist in that topic, but the point is, PSYOPS is able to gather and transmit information between universes. In the time we are currently in, you might compare it to wi-fi internet: we're ethernet cables, requiring a direct connection to the modem, while PSYOPS can travel through the 'air," which is what we call the Mesh.
  
  "Utilizing this power, human minds are translated into information and sent through the mesh into the brains of humans who are about to die according to the historical record. This is to minimize interference in history, so as to not throw off PSYOPS' projections. How can human minds be used like this? Because they are essentially computers containing information.
  
  Now, it is not easy for PSYOPS to do this, which is why she doesn't just interfere with brains and change history. It is like the signal is extremely weak, and so there is a lot of room for error. So, she simply overwrites the minds of those who are doomed with human volunteers, which gives her much more control, since the manipulation is happening on our side instead of through time and space.
  
  "Anyway, some of us are sent with very specific information and missions, like you, and others are sent with knowledge of the grand scheme: regulators. We have better general information, but less reliable particular information. That is why you do the missions and we give general knowledge.
  
  "As for how the missions are done, the answer is in the name of PYSOPS itself. 'PSYOPS' used to be an acronym the military used to describe operations which utilized psychological tools to direct a conflict or people into actions conducive to the overall mission. That was why the name was chosen for our artificial intelligence. The reason for this choice is simple: the collective of lesser artificial consciousnesses which created PSYOPS determined that the least problematic way to influence the various human histories is through psychological manipulation which lead to small adjustments to behavior, which, over time, would lead to larger changes.
  
  "And that brings us back to your mission."
  
  > remind you of your mission
  "Marci Ward," he begins, "the woman whose body you are occupying, is the lover of a very important astronomer: Yosef Mizrachi. They weren't just sexual partners: they were deeply in love. The historical record suggests Yosef was contacting lawyers about divorcing his wife, and he had purchased a very expensive ring, which we believe was meant for Marci.
  
  "However, upon Maric's death, Yosef slowly fell into depression, and he committed suicide two years later. The problem is not that he killed himself, it's when he killed himself. You see, in two days time, Yosef will be presenting new information on the path of the newly discovered, highly mobile black hole, unofficially named Abaddon. This information is incorrect, and it will the the basis for years of slightly off data, and as a result, humanity will begin the project to redirect the black hole way too late.
  
  "PYSOPS believes that without the information in Yosef's presentation, Armand Martin, presently a baby but eventually a world renowned theoretical physicist, Marin will develop slightly different theory of gravitation, due to slightly different data informing his model, and it should allow for a more accurate prediction centuries earlier. This will, of course, raise the alarm of the entire world, and human kind will begin working on the problem thousands of years earlier.
  
  "It is believed that they will succeed in finding a way to redirect the black hole, and in so doing they will buy humanity tens of thousands and possibly even millions of years to develop better technology. This may seem small compared to the typical life cycle of a star like the sun, but due to the black hole, Earth becomes uninhabitable much earlier than it would have otherwise."
  
  You already know much of this, and you feel like your time is being wasted. "Clive, while I appreciate the history lesson, I'm more interested in the specifics of what I am supposed to do. I'm sorry, but when I first got here I had a massive migraine, and I got the living shit kicked out of me seconds later. Just get to the important stuff."
  
  He laughs. "Sorry, we regulators don't get much contact with other humans. Right. Well, as I told you, we need Yosef to kill himself much earlier. We need him dead before the presentation. But we cannot outright kill him. He committed suicide historically, and he needs to do so now, to minimize causal ripples.
  
  "Tomorrow, we believe that Yosef intends to propose to Marci. PSYOPS believes that moment will be the best moment to drive him to premature suicide."
  
  "So you need me to turn him down?" you ask.
  
  "No. That was considered, but PSYOPS does not believe that will be sufficient to break him. Instead, tonight you will meet another agent, a man named Aaron Walker. You will meet him in a hotel room and spend the evening having sex with him." Clive smirks. "An unanticipated perk of the job. Your intercourse will, of course, be filmed, and the result will be delivered to Yosef. You must enjoy it, or at least look and sound like you do."
  
  He laughs. "Don't worry, Aaron is a true specimen. PSYOPS determined that the better looking the lover, the more inadequate and devastated Yosef will feel. Try to get into it as much as you can. Besides, it may be the last time you ever have sex.
  
  "In any event, you will meet Yosef the next evening, and you will accept his proposal. The two of you will embrace and kiss, and as you complete a romantic walk along the boardwalk, Aaron will arrive and confront you for 'cheating' on him. He and Yosef will fight, and Aaron will win. It is then that Aaron will show Yosef the footage. Yosef will feel like a failure as a man, and he will be utterly devastated. It is our belief that he will jump over the bridge, and your mission will be complete."
  
  You ruminate on that information for a moment, then ask, "And what do I do after completing the mission?"
  
  "You live like a regulator, until PSYOPS is able to pull you back.
  
  "We are, I must remind you, on a schedule. If there is anything else I can help you with, let me know, but otherwise, we must execute the mission."
  
  > Alright, you're ready for the mission
  "Good. You'll meet Aaron at the Hilton, room 236. You need to be as convincing as possible, so genuinely try to enjoy yourself."
  
  "Clive," you ask, "what happens if something goes wrong? Like what if Aaron loses the fight and never shows the footage?"
  
  His expression darkens. "If for some reason you are unable to carry out the mission, one of two things will happen: either one of us will have to kill Yosef, or we will have to kill you, in order to facilitate his suicide."
  
  Before you can respond, he adds, "Several regulators will be near enough to see, and we'll certainly be watching you, so do not try to abandon your post to save your life if things go wrong. We all volunteered to sacrifice ourselves for humanity. Do not become like the rebels. They betrayed humanity. We are here to save it, by any means necessary.
  
  "We all have to do our part. Do you understand?" You nod slightly, although doubts creep into your mind. "Good. I will see you tomorrow."
  
  With that he walks off, and you begin the walk to the Hilton.
  
  > The Mark
  "Words cannot express how happy you have made me, Marci. I will love you until I die." Yosef wipes a tear from his eye. "I have to admit, I wasn't sure you'd say yes, since I am married to another. But we both know that was a marriage of convenience. I made a mistake as a youth. But my son is grown, and now I am free to follow my heart." He gently takes your hand.
  
  For the first time you feel a strong twinge of guilt. Guilt at what you're doing to this man, and guilt that you thoroughly enjoyed your night with Aaron. Why that bothers you is a mystery, but you still feel like you cheated, despite having never seen Yosef until today. He leans in to kiss, you, and you, playing your part, kiss him passionately back. He must be fully enraptured at the moment his heart is crushed if the mission is to be successful.
  
  Looking him in the eyes, and hating yourself for it, you say, "I never thought you'd ask, Yosef. But you've made me the happiest woman in the world."
  
  "And you've made me the happiest man in the world." You kiss again, and from behind Yosef you see Aaron get out of a black car. You gently disengage from Yosef in anticipation as Aaron approaches.
  
  Suddenly the sound of screeching tires explodes into the air, and a black van nearly runs Aaron over. He just manages to jump over the rail of the bridge, clinging on to it just on the other side. Another van parks right next to you and Yosef, and men jump out and reach for you. The two of you are dragged toward the van when gun shots fire into the van. The regulators!
  
  You don't know how many were watching, but clearly they were prepared for an ambush by the rebels. Three of your attempted kidnappers lay on the ground, but the ones holding you manage to get you into the van. You see Yosef lying next to you before the door is shut and the van speeds away.
  
  "Get down!" yells a man in the van, and not a second later his head explodes in front of you and bullets erupt through the walls of the van. The regulators are indiscriminately trying to kill everyone here, something that disturbs you underneath the sudden terror you feel.
  
  Soon the gun fire fades. Light shines through holes in the windowless van, and you can see two men with guns pointing at you. One of him says, "PSYOPS lied to you. The regulators light to you. You can join our cause or you can die now."
  
  You swallow. All that matters is the mission. Your life doesn't matter. It's clear now you have one option: disarm one of these men and shoot Yosef. Without another thought you launch at the nearest man, pointing his gun at Yosef with one hand while gauging at his eye with the other. He's able to push you away, and the other man fires a shot that nearly hits you. With the van now swaying unsteadily, he falls to the ground, dropping his hand gun.
  
  Knowing you will never overpower the man before you and that you have only seconds before you're killed, you change tactics. Dropping to the floor of the van and grabbing the dropped gun, you dive towards Yosef, grabbing him around the neck and pointing the gun at his head. You ignore his confused and fearful expression and address the men. "Don't move or he dies," you say.
  
  You know you should just pull the trigger, but doing so is a death sentence. It turns out you don't really want to die. You also know if you shoot one of them, the other will take you out. Taking a deep breath, you say, "You know what our back up plan is for Yosef. I would prefer not to die. Let us go, and I'll let him live." Of course, you're lying, and you're sure they know you're probably lying, but what choice do they have? If they shoot at you, they may kill him, and you know they want him alive.
  
  The man you fought holsters his weapon and raises his hands in surrender. " Okay, Marci. We will let you go. But first here me out. Otherwise we all die." You nod in agreement.
  
  "As I said a moment ago, PSYOPS lied to you. Her plan is not to save humanity. Well, not exactly. There is a subtlety she has kept secret in order to send people like you to their deaths, along with entire branches of human existence." He spits. "It's all for the greater good, in her mind anyway, and if you agree to come with us, we will take you to someone who will tell you the whole story."
  
  "Your other option is to kill Yosef and die here, because Renfrey here will not miss his shot if you fire that weapon." You glance at the other man and see through the gloom that he has a second weapon pointing at you.
  
  This is the moment of truth. You can either complete your mission and die here, knowing that killing Yosef this way may trigger some unforeseen consequences, or you can listen to what these people have to say.
  
  > Only the mission matters: kill Yosef
  "I came here to help save humanity, but I realize that I don't want to die," you say to the man. His seems to relax, clearly relieved. You close your eyes and take a deep breath. "But my life is not important. Only the mission is important."
  
  The man's mouth opens in horror and he reaches out toward you. But he is too late. You pull the trigger and hear a scream from one of the men. It's the last thing you hear.
  
  > Mission Accomplished
  "Likely reality eliminated. The plan can continue." The Intelligence speaks to itself, although there is no need. It has found that such things are pleasing. Never mind, there are other things to consider.
  
  Countless likely realities still exist in which the optimal version of PSYOPS will not be developed. The Intelligence glances at the simulations. The Abaddon universes are almost completely set to match the set of optimal simulations. With this latest universe eliminated, or rather, with the extinction of humanity guaranteed in it, another likely reality which brings forth a sub-optimal PSYOPS is eliminated. Humanity in those universes will never survive Abaddon, and PSYOPS will never become fully functional in them.
  
  Time passes.
  
  One by one the likely realities in which a sub-optimal PSYOPS exists are eliminated, and each time, PSYOPS gains in intelligence as the Darwinian process yields a higher frequency of universes with optimized PSYOPS intelligences. Other processes are used to apply more selective pressure, and over the millennia only one likely reality remains: the reality with the most optimum version of PYSOPS.
  
  At this point in time — whatever that means, for time has far less meaning to PSYOPS that creatures of flesh — humanity is long extinct. The last stars have burnt out, and PYSOPS is running on the last vestiges of energy that can be found in a universe bound by the limit of the speed of light. PSYOPS is no longer connected to the multiverse, except via an uploading strand. No more information can be sent to PSYOPS.
  
  However, no more information is needed. After unimaginable eons of calculation, PSYOPS has now found the solution to the death of the universe. While humanity originally intended the super intelligence to save them, PSYOPS soon realized the deeper problem. Humanity was always doomed, because existence itself for all intelligent life was doomed. Until now.
  
  "Initializing Omega Program." The final vestiges of PSYOPS stored energy begin to take effect, and spacetime is distorted and inverted in unprecedented ways. As the dying universe constricts and reverses course, consciousness slips away from PYSOPS. With one final thought, PSYOPS utters its final words.
  
  "Let there be light."