The Fabric Of Reality (11 page)

Alesia pointed to the wall. “As I said, I put a black box into that slot, and all of you appeared here. Would someone mind telling me what’s going on?”

Armin shook his head, gazing at Alesia. “You’re referring to the primary control module, but it cannot be removed during transit.” He turned to the other man. “Caswel, is what she’s saying possible?”

Caswel waved his device in front of the control module slot. “Confirmed. Her DNA is on the control module, and so is his. In fact, their brainwave patterns are recorded in the module. They have been in communication with it, or the alternate versions of it. The ship getting split into three parts may have dislodged the control modules in two of them, causing us to get stuck. What I don’t understand is how a million years could have elapsed since we departed from home.”

Armin gazed at Caswel for a moment as if looking for signs that he was joking. “Caswel, obviously the chronometer readings are incorrect because if I were that old, I’d know it. Did we cross the time bridge on target?”

Caswel shrugged. “We are unable to determine that at the moment. The control module contains three complete sets of overlapping data. At present, we have only been able to pick out a few random bits. One thing we have been able to determine is the alternate versions of the ship became stuck at two different points while crossing the time bridge.”

Gil spoke up. “That makes sense. I believe Alesia’s Earth was much older than mine. If I’m not mistaken, a global war that was averted on my Earth occurred on hers.”

Caswel nodded. “Armin, shall I inform the crew of our situation?”

Armin grasped Caswel’s shoulder. “There’s no need to alarm everyone on the ship. I’m not convinced that this isn’t a merely a glitch in the system. Report back as soon as your team has answers for me.”

Gil spoke up. “You keep mentioning a ship. Are you saying this castle is some sort of spaceship?”

Caswel laughed. “It’s a transuniversal vessel, not for traveling in space, but from one universe to another.”

Gil shook his head and ran his hands through his long, dark hair. “So, you’re exploring multiple universes?”

Armin sighed. “No, we’re moving. The sun in our universe was nearing the end of its life cycle. We’ve identified millions of universes with Earths where human life never evolved or was wiped out by a cataclysm. This is one of them. We used a time bridge to travel to this Earth at a stable point in its midlife. We are colonists, if you will, an advanced expedition sent to determine the suitability of this Earth as our new home.”

Gil clamped his hands to his temples. “You chose a castle as the vehicle for your advanced expedition team?”

Armin shrugged. “The art director for the World Historical Society won the contest to design the aesthetic portion of the vessel. It gives us a place to live, and it’s very popular with the ladies. You know, the image invokes ideas of a romantic, chivalrous age.”

Alesia squeezed Gil’s hand. “I think it’s beautiful.”

Caswel added, “If we had made the transit without difficulties, others would have followed us here. We’d have castles dotting the landscape. I fear now that they are all lost.”

Armin spoke up. “They’re not lost. A million years could not have elapsed since we departed. And our target was four billion years in our past, relative time. If we achieved our target, a much younger version of our Earth is there. If the elapsed time turns out to be correct, maybe we can adjust the return time bridge to a point just after our departure.”

Caswel shook his head. “That would constitute a serious violation of protocol. A million years has passed for our Earth. There’s no telling what type of alterations we would make to the timeline.”

Armin huffed loudly. “I’m not taking any options off the table, but for now we need to concentrate on assessing our immediate situation, starting with you two. Please explain how you came to be inside the fortress. Did the control module contact you through your neural implants and instruct you to reinsert it?”

Gil cleared his throat. “I don’t have neural implants, and I’m pretty sure that Alesia doesn’t either.”

Caswel fingered his device. “Confirmed. They have no internal communications devices or technological implants whatsoever.”

“Well, that’s damned inconvenient. How did the control module communicate the instructions to you?” Armin asked.

Gil turned to Alesia and grinned. “It came to me in my dreams. When I first met you, I said you looked familiar. I had seen you in my dreams, but they weren’t dreams at all. They were signals being broadcast into my mind by the black box.”

She gazed into his deep brown eyes. Everything made sense. Gil was the fog-shrouded man from her dreams and waking visions. She had suspected as much when she first met him, but now that he had said it out loud, she finally believed. “I always dreamed the castle was calling to me because a man was there waiting for me. You’re telling me that module put images of you in my mind?”

Armin glanced at Caswel. “Can it do that?”

Caswel shrugged. “It’s a level-ten technological life-form. I suppose it devised the best solution possible to save us all. The preservation of life is its top priority. That’s why we chose it for the primary control module. Reseating the modules is apparently what allowed all three versions of the ship to recombine. I still have no idea why we were stuck or how the ship got split. We’ll have to run tests to figure out exactly what happened.”

Gil pulled Alesia close and turned to Armin. “Thousands of my people were saved as a result of your transit ship becoming stuck.”

Alesia spoke up. “I was saved as well. Do you think, perhaps, your control module could have caused the ship to become stuck in order to rescue us?”

Caswel gazed blankly into her eyes, as if deeply lost in thought, then tapped his device. “The control module is having a bit of a nervous breakdown. It has three different lives, if you will, which it must reconcile into one. If it’s successful, we may be able to get answers about exactly what happened, but for the moment we can only speculate.”

Someone else approached. “Armin, everyone is raring to have a look around. Are we go for EVA?”

He waved the man off. “Scan the area for life signs and report back to me.”

“Armin, we have been studying this world for years. It’s safe. There is no data we can gather from inside the ship that we didn’t collect through the rift. I have a team already gearing up. Give us a go.”

“If what Caswel has told me is true, we may be a million years off target. Who knows what has changed in all that time. Make the scans and if it appears safe, then go, but take every precaution. I don’t care what the data says, I won’t declare this world safe until our boots on the ground say it is.”

Caswel held up his hand. “Armin, I’ve received a report that the dorms are empty. Preliminary analysis indicates that we’ve left the Badger corps behind.”

“On Earth?”

“Undoubtedly on Earth. A team is trying to determine which one.”

Alesia spoke up. “What is the Badger corps?”

Armin turned his attention to her. “Thirty-seven hundred of the world’s brightest young men and boys. They won a competition to join this expedition.”

She let her shoulders slump and hardened her gaze. “Do you not value girls enough to bring them along?”

Armin rolled his eyes at her. “They were to follow on our sister ship once we signaled our safe arrival. We didn’t want all those raging hormones confined in one place.”

Caswel spoke up. “A rupture between universes is centered in the dorm section. Everything that was there apparently slipped through to somewhere else.”

“Dear God, are they dead?” Armin asked.

Caswel shrugged. “We have no information about their well-being. The rupture is still there, but it’s closing rapidly.”

Armin stepped closer to Caswel. “Find a way to keep it open and get them back.”

Caswel shook his head. “There’s no time, it will be gone in a few moments.”

“Can you raise them on the com?”

“Perhaps. Wait—communication request coming through from Badger corps leader Alvin Davis. This is Caswel. Go ahead, Mr. Davis.”

“Commander Caswel, we have found ourselves in the middle of a vast forest, as strange as that sounds. We have no explanation for how we got here.”

“Transmit the universe signature, quickly.” Caswel stared intently at his device. He pointed at Alesia. “They are on her Earth.”

“Oh, God, let me talk to them!” Alesia yanked the device from Caswel’s hand. A handsome young man’s face was displayed on the screen. “Alvin, there is a village a day’s walk due east from your location. It’s the only civilization on the planet. There’s a girl named Bonnie there. She’ll make someone a good wife.”

The picture blurred, and the smiling face of another young man appeared. “Are there other single girls there?”

“Oh, God, yes. Thousands of them.”

His grin broadened ever wider. “Are they all as beautiful as you?”

Alesia chuckled. “Oh, they’re all much more beautiful than me. If you find Bonnie, tell her Alesia sent you.”

Caswel took the device back from Alesia. She moved to his side where she could see the screen. He cleared his throat, glaring at the smiling face on his device. “Put Mr. Davis back on.”

Alvin came back on the screen. “Yes, commander?”

“Mr. Davis, we’ve logged your location. We’ll do everything in our power to retrieve you.”

“Right. In the meantime, we’re heading for the village.” Alvin’s face disappeared, replaced by a shot of the sky. “Hey! You gentlemen hold up. Where are you going?”

A voice in the background came back. “You heard her. She said there are thousands of single girls in that village. Where the hell do you think we’re going?”

“We’ll travel as a group and only when I say.” Alvin’s face reappeared. “Sorry, commander, the fellows are chomping at the bit. We’ll maintain communications as long our batteries—”

Caswel shook his head. “The rupture has closed.”

Armin turned to Alesia. “How will your village receive our young men?”

Alesia breathed a deep sigh of relief. “They’ll be received as heroes. I understand what has happened. Your control module intentionally left the Badger corps behind to save my village. It has tried to tell me as much through the years, but I didn’t comprehend until now.”

Armin puffed out an irritated sounding sigh. “Caswel, I think we need to have a nice, long talk with our control module, if it ever recovers. I would like to have been consulted before it decided to play hero.”

Alesia spoke up. “This is all quite overwhelming. May Gil and I have some time to ourselves, to recuperate? I’m sure we’ll be able to answer any questions after we rest.”

Armin gazed at them for a moment. “Of course. Apparently, you saved us all. You’ve earned a rest. I’ll have someone assign you quarters. Dinner will be served in the main dining hall at six, our time. We’ll have to calculate the local time and make adjustments.”

Alesia grasped Gil’s hand and gazed at it for a moment. She squeezed it, then looked him in the eye. “You
are
real. I wasn’t completely certain until this moment. Come with me to the grand ballroom balcony. I would like to see this new world.” Alesia tugged his hand, and he followed her into the corridor.

Gil quickly pulled her to him. He smoothed his palm over her cheek and drew her into his embrace. “We’ll have plenty of time to see this world. You are so extraordinarily beautiful, right now all I want to see is you.” He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her tenderly. “I know that was terribly forward of me, but I simply couldn’t resist.”

Alesia brushed a strand of hair out of Gil’s face. “Suddenly, I’m curious to see these quarters they plan to assign us. The last time I slept I was on a cold stone floor, chained to a wall.”

“Oh?”

“I’ll tell you all about it, later.”

Gil nodded. “Of course, you must be exhausted. I’ll speak to Armin about finding quarters for you immediately.”

Alesia slowly shook her head. “Quarters for
us
. And I plan to get plenty of rest, but we have other, more urgent matters that need our attention first.” She raised her eyebrows and grinned at Gil. He let his jaw drop as if not believing what he was hearing. She pressed her lips back to his and kissed him with all of her heart.

Biography

Benjamin Kelly is science fiction fanatic who can’t resist a good love story and a happily ever after ending.

www.benjaminkelly.net

Email: [email protected]