This was perfect.
She took in her familiar surroundings as if seeing them for the first time. She was on the foredeck of Maddock’s boat, Sea Foam, as it rocked gently in its slip at the Key West marina, watching the sun go down out in Gulf. The sky a dazzling swirl of orange and purple against water that was almost black.
This was the life she was meant to have.
He sat down beside her and reached out with his own bottle, tapping it against the neck of hers. “To the good life.”
She laughed, but something about his toast left her ill-at-ease. “What made you say that?”
He smiled and gestured toward the sunset. “Look around. We’re living the dream here. You. Me. A tropical paradise. And Bones is three thousand miles away, helping Crazy Charlie with his latest get-rich-quick scheme. Does it get better than that?”
The good life.
“I have gazed upon the life that might have been as one might gaze through a window,” she murmured. “If only I could open the window and step through, I would.”
Maddock’s smile slipped by a degree. “What is that, a poem?”
The words — words she had read in another life, another reality — tugged at her, a force like gravity, drawing her out of this most perfect of worlds.
No. This is the life I want.
She clutched at memories like a lifeline. The day they had met, when he had saved her life after she’d gotten trapped while cave diving. The year they had been together; the fights, but also the good times, and then the break. But he had come back. He had come to her in Japan and they had fought the Dominion together, and when it was over, he had taken her back into his life and….
That’s not what happened.
But in another universe… in this universe… it was.
She reached out and took his hand, as if physical contact might anchor her to this reality, but it wasn’t enough. She knew that she was an intruder here, a usurper. This was only the life that might have been, not her real life.
But what if it could be?
The inner voice was so seductive, the touch of Maddock’s hand was so real. What would she have to do to stay in this moment?
No. This is wrong. This is a lie.
She let go of his hand, thrusting him away. The abrupt motion caused the beer bottle to go skittering across the deck, vomiting a trail of foam.
“Jade, what’s wrong?”
She could already feel herself being pulled, like a rubber band snapping back after stretching almost to its breaking point. Every fiber of her being told her to hang on to this world. She had passed through the window…no, the open door…and all she had to do was shut it behind her forever.
Can I do that?
Should I?
It was already too late. Maddock’s face vanished into the haze and the setting sun became darkness and then….
The touch of sunlight on her eyelids roused Jade.
Sunlight?
She sat up with a start. The sun had risen and now hung low in the eastern sky. That can’t be right. The sun just went down.
The accelerated dawn was not the strangest sight to greet her eyes. Something had happened to the ship, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on exactly what. Everything appeared…crooked. Bulkheads were tilting at crazy angles. The deck was warped beneath her, buckling as if under extreme pressure. It reminded her of Salvador Dali paintings where solid objects melted and flowed like Silly Putty. When she got to her feet, she could see the wave-tops flashing by dizzyingly fast, but the water level was alarmingly close to the deck; the Quest Explorer was sinking.
“Jade!”
Even though it only seemed as if a few seconds had passed since she’d last heard him speak, she turned to Professor as if he were an old friend she hadn’t seen in ages and threw her arms around him. He returned the embrace with equal enthusiasm.
“Thank God,” he whispered. “I was afraid you…I didn’t have time to warn you.”
She let go and held him at arm’s length. “Warn me?”
“You saw something again didn’t you?”
The thought of what she had seen sent a pang through Jade. No, it was worse than that. It ripped off the scab and rubbed jalapeno juice into her wounded heart. Professor, perhaps noticing her reaction, did not ask. “Me too. And I think I know what’s going on here. The disappearances of the men at the lighthouse, the ships found completely abandoned. Even what happened with Gil Perez.” He glanced at the sky. The sun was climbing fast, though that didn’t seem to mean anything anymore. “We don’t have much time. I’ll explain on the way.”
“The way to where?”
“The bridge,” he said, already moving away.
Jade started after him. “In case you’ve forgotten, the people on this ship are trying to kill us.”
“Not anymore.” He gestured to the main deck where the she had last seen the crewmen gathered around the Moon stone. The black orb was still there, but the area appeared completely deserted. As she started to turn away, she spied movement behind the sphere. Before Jade could shout a warning to Professor, what she had glimpsed resolved into a person. It was Dorion.
“Paul!” Jade cried out. “You’re still here.”
He jogged over to join them. “Where did everyone go?”
Professor paused at the base of the stairs. “Do you remember how Perez said that he had seen the life that he might have had if he had made different choices? I think that when you are this close to the dark matter field, that’s exactly what happens. You don’t just see possible futures; you see alternate realities in the multi-verse. Worlds where the decisions we make spin off to form alternate timelines.”
Jade nodded dumbly. That sounded about right.
“Maybe you see the life you think you should have had,” Professor continued, and Jade thought she heard a hint of anguish in his voice.
What did you see? Maybe there was a reason he had not asked her that question.
“A window into other worlds,” Dorion said, “but not a door. The same rules that govern our universe, also govern the multiverse. Everything must balance. If a person tried to pass between realities, it upsets the balance and the results are, well, unpredictable at best. Possibly even catastrophic.”
“‘Look but don’t touch.’” Professor summarized. “That’s what happened to Perez. He thought the other reality he was seeing was a way to escape being trapped underground, but when he tried to pass through, the fabric of reality got mixed up. All the different possibilities got jumbled and when the pieces finally settled, there were two Gil Perez’s in our world: one in the cavern under the pyramid, and another in Mexico, accused of deserting his post in Manila.”
Jade thought about how she close she had come to making a similar decision. “So if we tried to stay in one of those other realities, the same thing might happen to us? We could get teleported somewhere else?”
“The earth keeps moving through space,” Dorion said. “So when you get pulled back, you don’t end up where you started. It is like stepping off of a moving train and then trying to get back on. You’ll end up in a different car, if you don’t get left behind altogether.”