She stood.
“Okay.”
Her entire haul was sitting somewhere outside normal spacetime.
She wanted to know exactly what that meant.
First test: Time.
Lena retrieved a package of frozen berries she’d bought at Costco.
Still frozen.
That proved very little.
She put a mug of water in the microwave.
Two minutes.
Steam rose from the surface.
She checked the temperature with a kitchen thermometer.
Then:
Store.
Gone.
She set a timer for twenty minutes.
While she waited, she tested a flashlight.
On.
Store.
Retrieve five minutes later.
Still on.
Battery apparently unchanged.
Her phone alarm went off.
Lena retrieved the mug.
Steam.
Same temperature.
She stared at the thermometer.
“Oh.”
She hadn’t REALLY understood Temporal State: Suspended…
until that moment.
Food wouldn’t spoil.
That was obvious.
But neither did anything else.
Medication wouldn’t expire.
Batteries wouldn’t degrade.
Fuel wouldn’t go bad.
Rubber wouldn’t dry out.
Adhesives wouldn’t cure in their containers.
Sterile packaging wouldn’t age.
Seeds wouldn’t lose viability.
Electronics wouldn’t corrode.
Things she hadn’t even thought of yet wouldn’t slowly deteriorate over five or ten years because inside her Inventory those years simply would not happen.
“How long?”
Clarify.
“How long can something remain in Spatial Inventory without changing?”
Indefinitely.
Lena sat down.
That was potentially more important than the storage itself.
She opened Inventory.
SPATIAL INVENTORY —
Capacity: 50.00 m³
Occupied: 11.42 m³
Available: 38.58 m³
Temporal State: SUSPENDED
Eleven point four.
Costco had already eaten almost a quarter of it.
“Oh, come on.”
Spatial Inventory capacity is expandable.
Lena perked up.
“How?”
Quest rewards.
Achievements.
Skill progression.
Path development.
“What Path?”
Unavailable.
“How do I unlock it?”
Progress.
“Progress at what?”
No answer.
Lena sighed.
“Fine.”
She had thirty-eight cubic meters.
For now.
She tested everything else.
A bowl full of water could be stored.
The water alone could not.
Her refrigerator disappeared with everything inside it.
That one made Lena stand in her kitchen staring at the empty wall for several seconds.
She retrieved it.
The compressor resumed.
“Containers count with their contents?”
Eligible contents contained within a discrete stored object may be stored simultaneously.
“Cardboard box?”
If enclosed.
“Pallet?”
If configured as a discrete transportable unit.
“Shipping container?”
Subject to available capacity.
Lena’s eyebrows rose.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Then she went downstairs.
Her car disappeared.
Lena knew it should.
The System had said nonliving objects.
She still made an undignified noise when several thousand pounds of vehicle simply ceased existing beneath her hand.
She retrieved it.
Perfect.
“So mass doesn’t matter.”
Stored mass is spatially isolated.
“That’s a yes.”
Functionally, yes.
Lena grinned.
“Fifty cubic meters of steel?”
Permitted.
“Fifty cubic meters of feathers?”
Permitted.
“Same difference to me?”
Correct.
That changed logistics completely.
She didn’t need a truck to move a generator.
She didn’t need a forklift for a pallet.
If she could touch it and had enough volume, she could move it.
The problem remained those four words: had enough volume.
Lena returned upstairs with a new item at the top of her list.
GET MORE FUCKING SPACE.
She pulled up the blue system screen again.
Her eyes went immediately to Spatial Inventory.
Then caught on the two lines beneath it.
Appraisal.
Status.
“Oh.
Right.”
She’d been so focused on the space she’d forgotten she’d gotten anything else.
“System.
Explain Appraisal.”
APPRAISAL
Provides basic information about a touched target.
Requires direct physical contact and intentional activation.
Information available depends on the target and Appraisal level.
“That’s it?”
Appraisal provides basic information.
Further upgrades available.
Lena stared at the screen.
“Helpful.”
She picked up the coffee mug beside her.
Appraise.
CERAMIC MUG
Material: Glazed ceramic
Condition: Good
Capacity: 355 mL
Okay.
She touched the laptop.
Appraise.
LAPTOP COMPUTER
Condition: Functional
Power: 61%
Primary Materials: Aluminum, glass, polymers, electronic components
Useful.
Not spectacular.
But useful.
“Status?”
STATUS
Displays System-recognized information about the User, including current condition, abilities, traits, titles, and active effects.
Additional information may become available as the User progresses.
Her panel shifted.
LENA MERCER
Condition: Healthy
Stamina: 71%
Active Effects: Mild Fatigue
Abilities:
Spatial Inventory
Appraisal
Status
Traits: None
Titles: None
Lena considered that.
Then she dismissed the screen.
Storage was still the prize.
But knowing whether something actually worked before she bought it, or dragged it home, wasn’t exactly nothing.
Especially considering what she was about to do.
The rest of the evening disappeared into research.
Not shopping.
Research.
Because Lena was beginning to understand how little she knew.
Her original Costco haul wasn’t useless.
Far from it.
But she’d been shopping like someone expecting a long power outage.
The System was predicting something capable of killing hundreds of millions of people.
Maybe more.
So she started over.