“You sent yourself through the Planck?” Samantha asked, her head swiveling from the A.I. to Aldous.
“No, of course not,” he replied. “I was studying them. I knew some universes move more slowly, so I focused my research on ones that are nearly identical to our own. The best way to determine this was by looking for recognizable events from history.”
“Red letter dates,” the A.I. added. “I can set the Planck to take us through a series of these universes, but I don’t have enough time to change course.”
“I understand.” Aldous nodded before turning back to Samantha. “Don’t change anything. These are all major events in history. We don’t have the right to interfere with the timelines in those universes. Just lie low and wait for the Planck to engage again and take you to the next universe.”
“How many universes are you talking about?” Samantha asked, still aghast.
Aldous turned to the A.I. for the precise answer.
“We’ve examined sixteen,” the A.I. answered. “They are loaded and ready. There will be a ten-hour layover in each universe, though the time frame will be relative to that universe.”
“Relative?” Craig asked. “What does that mean?”
“We don’t have time to explain,” Aldous interjected. “Explain it to him when you arrive in Universe 66,” Aldous ordered the A.I.
The door to the Planck room suddenly opened, and a large syringe on a small, levitating tray entered.
“The nanobots are ready. I will upload my consciousness now, with your permission, Professor,” the A.I. announced.
Aldous nodded. “Do it.”
The A.I. returned the nod before turning to Samantha to give one last instruction. “You will need to have Dr. Emilson implant the nanobots high in the back of your neck, just below the occipital bone. It will take the nanobots anywhere from several minutes to an hour to pass the blood-brain barrier and make neural connections so I can communicate with you.” And with those final words, his image vanished from the room.
Aldous grabbed the syringe and handed it to Craig. Their eyes met, ever so briefly. The look on Aldous’s face was intense, and his eyes communicated a message that had to remain silent but needed to be communicated nonetheless: Take care of her.
He turned back to Samantha. “I have to go now. We’re down to five minutes. I have to meet the others.” He grabbed her hands, and their fingers interlaced as he looked upon her wet, desperate eyes. “Live for me, Sam.”
“No, no, no! We need a better plan!” Samantha shouted, her eyes squeezing shut as she tried to block the nightmare out. If only she could wake up.
“There’s no better plan. Craig can’t take care of himself yet. You have to protect him and the A.I. When you return, the two of you have to hide and rebuild. You’ve got to wait for your opportunity.”
“For what?” she asked.
“The A.I. will know,” Aldous replied. He leaned in and kissed her quickly but passionately—a last kiss.
Craig, with great effort, resisted the urge to stab Aldous with the syringe.
Aldous pulled back and stepped away, but Samantha wouldn’t release her grip.
“Don’t do this, Aldous!” she shouted with all of her desperation.
“This is the right thing,” he said to her, pleading for her understanding as he tried to disentangle himself. “This will make things right.”
Aldous turned to Craig for help in separating himself. Craig didn’t have to be asked twice and pulled her roughly away from her new husband. Samantha fought back, but Craig easily manhandled her.
“No!”
“Live for me, Sam,” Aldous said again before turning regretfully and flying out of the room.
“No!” she shouted one last time before the tears turned into sobs and overwhelmed her.
Craig stood over her and watched as she cried. He shook his head slowly as he watched. He couldn’t have written a version of Hell that would have been more painful. “I hope you’re not expecting me to console you right now,” he said as Samantha continued to sob.
She pulled at her hair and rocked herself slightly, her face bowed to the ground and hidden from view. “I don’t expect you to understand,” she replied, her tone harsh but filled with regret. She almost wished she hadn’t reanimated him.
Craig watched her, crumpled and in pain, and suddenly sighed. An hour earlier, the woman had been his life. “Samantha, how about some understanding for me, huh? From my perspective, I was doing a suborbital jump over China ninety minutes ago. Now I’m watching my wife make out with a dirty old man and being told to stab her in the neck with a syringe and then to go hangout with her in another universe? This is like a bad acid trip! What do you expect from me?”
“Nothing,” she said as she stood slowly, her legs unstable. “I expect nothing.”
“Sam, this whole thing is crazy. Just give up the A.I.”
“No!” she suddenly shouted, her neck snapping around, her eyes wild. “No! Craig, they aren’t here to negotiate. They show no mercy!”
“How do you know that?” he responded.
“We tried to make contact once,” she replied. “We tried to show them what we’d done—our powers. At first they welcomed us. But it was a trap. We were invited back once they’d analyzed our powers. As soon as they’d figured out how to neutralize them, they led us to a slaughter. They killed hundreds. Aldous barely escaped with his life.”
“How can they kill you people if you’re superhuman?”
“They have super soldiers of their own, Craig. No doubt, they’ll be the ones leading the charge.” Her eyes were wide and stricken with horror. “Aldous won’t survive this.”
There was something in her expression that sent a stab of cold through Craig’s body. He could see she wasn’t exaggerating, and he knew he had to heed her warning. “All right,” he said, making up his mind. “All right, then we’d better go. How much time do we have?”
“Haven’t you set your mind’s eye yet?” she asked, concerned.
“The A.I. helped me with it, but I’m still a little foggy on how to control the damn thing. It gives me a headache just looking at it.”
“We’ve less than three minutes now,” Samantha announced.
“Okay. Well, we better get started. How does this work?”
“First, we step up on that platform,” she began, pointing to the small, silver platform. “The machine will harness the fusion energy from the generator and, for a microsecond, boil space, for lack of a better description.”
“Boil space?”
She nodded. “You’ll be protected by a magnetic field, but you’ll slip through the hole into the next universe.”
“You haven’t been through before?”
“No one has.”
“That’s not very reassuring.”
“We’ve sent probes, and so far they’ve all come back fine.”
“And what about the nanobots?” he asked, holding up the syringe. “Aren’t I suppose to inject you with these?”
“We can do that on the other side,” she said. She was no longer looking at him, but speaking as though she were in a trance.
“I think we better go then,” Craig stated. “Time’s short.”
“Yes. Time’s short.”
“Sam. Are you okay?”
“Craig,” she said, the look in her eyes warning Craig too late that something was very wrong, “I’m afraid I won’t be coming with you.”
Before Craig could verbally respond, she held up her hand and sent green sparks of energy flashing toward him, stunning him unconscious and collapsing him to the ground.