“What if our communications go down?” Djanet cut in.
“Don’t worry about that,” James said. “It might be a bit crackly, but the CME is minor enough that you’ll be able to report back to us without any issues.”
“So...is it time to synchronize our watches?” Rich asked glibly.
“Essentially, yes,” the A.I. injected. “Universe 332’s time should be moving slightly slower than our own, but a fifteen-minute time scale is too short to detect any relevant change.”
As the A.I. conversed with the trio in space, James’s eyes inside the sim were focused on Thel, the purple hair and black lipstick of Haywire having been adopted as her avatar. Sitting with her across a small table, small and bookish, his eyes filled with obvious terror and confusion, was the Trans-human candidate.
“Your Planck platform will automatically signal us when you’ve crossed over. Interestingly, this Planck platform model is a significant upgrade on the one you and the A.I. employed over seventy-five years ago, Old-timer.”
“It is?” Old-timer responded, surprised. “But I thought Aldous abandoned the technology—”
“Apparently not right away,” the A.I. quickly answered. “There’s no way for us to know how long he continued exploring parallel universes, but he made design upgrades that made it much easier to control. The user can now, fairly rapidly, change course from one universe to the next, and there’s no longer a need for the Planck to spend a predetermined period of time in each universe.”
“That’s stunning,” Old-timer said, pulling on the back of his neck as he mulled this new information. “Aldous made it sound as though he’d abandoned the technology right away. Why wouldn’t he tell us that he’d kept experimenting?”
“That’s a good question, and a mystery that deserves to be delved into,” James observed, “but, on the bright side, it’ll make it easy for you to get back home as quickly as possible. We’ll come after you if we haven’t heard from you after fifteen minutes. Confirmed?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Old-timer replied, shaking off his curiosity with regard to Aldous’s secret endeavors and refocusing on the mission at hand. “Wish us luck.”
“Break a leg,” James returned.
“Same to you, good buddy,” Old-timer answered. “Over and out.”
“Here they come,” the A.I. noted as he sat with James in the back seat of the car, waiting for Thel and the candidate to arrive. The A.I. had taken on the guise of Mr. Big, while James would appear to the candidate as John Doe when he arrived.
“Are you ready?” James asked.
“Of course,” the A.I. replied. “I much prefer being on this side of the equation.”
James laughed slightly. “I bet. I’m a bit nervous though. Acting isn’t my forte.”
“Would you like to switch parts?” the A.I. offered. “Mr. Big has far less of a speaking role.”
James considered it for less than a second before answering in the affirmative.
Instantly, they switched avatars. James, now in the guise of Mr. Big, nodded. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” the A.I. returned.
At that moment, the door opened.
“Hello, Professor,” the computerized car voice said.
The candidate remained in what James determined was stunned silence as the front seats swiveled to face those in the back. He and Thel deposited themselves into their seats, facing James and the A.I., who remained silent.
The door closed and the vehicle began to move.
The candidate looked over his shoulder at the road and the dark, rain-soaked night, but he didn’t speak.
“Don’t you wanna know where we’re going?” Thel asked him, slouched in her seat and behaving mischievously, just as the A.I. had coached her.
Her performance reminded him eerily of the one given by Samantha Emilson almost three-quarters of a century earlier. Even though he’d never been human, his mind was modeled on a human one; like Craig Emilson, the A.I. couldn’t help but shudder as the traumatic memories of his own testing bubbled just below the surface of his control.
“I already know where we’re going,” the candidate replied.
“You do?” Thel answered, startled.
“I do,” he replied. He turned calmly, and his eyes met those of James’s avatar before falling on the eyes of the A.I.
“James,” the A.I. began wordlessly through their mind’s eye connection, “it appears the candidate may have seen through our fiction. We might have to reload the sim and try again.”
James didn’t reply. The A.I. turned to him, taking his eyes from the candidate so he could see those of James. James continued to stare forward, seemingly unaware of the communication.