Inhuman(21)

“James?” the A.I. asked again through their mind’s eye. Again, there was no response.

“Oh,” Thel began, trying to recover from the bump in the script. The candidate had surprised her, and she wasn’t sure how to react. “Well, I bet you’re wondering who these two sticks in the mud are.”

“No,” the candidate replied, his eyes still on those of the A.I.’s avatar. “I know who they are. I know who you all are.”

“Uh...” Thel stammered before turning to James and the A.I. “A little help here?”

“I know who you all are,” the candidate repeated ominously, “and I know you’re going to die.”





12



Old-timer planted his feet on the surface of the Planck platform, standing between Rich and Djanet in the emptiness of space. The setting reminded him of the night sky just one night earlier as he stood on his roof with Aldous Gibson. He knew that activating the Planck was precisely the outcome Aldous had wanted him to avoid, yet there Old-timer was, about to cross into Universe 332 again. The thought struck Old-timer that if Aldous had simply not come to him to ask him to plead with James to leave well enough alone, that transgression between universes wouldn’t be about to occur. To Old-timer, it seemed the fates were incorrigible. He closed his eyes and prayed for an outcome that would see no loss of life.

Rich and Djanet exchanged expressions of confusion as they saw Old-timer’s meditative demeanor, something they weren’t used to from the big Texan. “Uh,” Rich began, “any last words of advice for us here, Old-timer? You know, about what to expect?”

Old-timer’s eyes opened. “After we cross, there’ll be a ripple. Space and time might seem distorted, but it won’t last long. Other than that, the whole thing happens faster than a blink of an eye. We’ll be here in space one moment, and in the next, we’ll be in New York in another universe, another time.”

“Okay,” Djanet said with a slight smile. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

Old-timer nodded. “Okay. Let’s get it done. Rich, activate the Planck when you’re ready.”

“You got it,” Rich answered. “On the count of three. Three...two...one... Here we—”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Rich and the others watched as the sun vanished, along with the vast, endless sea of stars. Only perfect blackness remained.

“Uh, did I do that right?” Rich reacted, perplexed as he checked the Planck’s readouts on his mind’s eye.

Old-timer looked out into the perfect nothingness and craned his neck so he could see in all directions, looking for any hint of an object in the blackness of eternity—any pattern he could recognize. “What in the hell?”

“We’re not dead, are we?” Rich asked.

“Of course not,” Old-timer answered.

“Old-timer,” Djanet began, searching the Planck’s sensors for readings on their surroundings, “none of this makes sense. The Planck isn’t picking up anything outside of the protection of its magnetic field.”

“It has to be picking up something,” Old-timer countered as he opened up his own connection to the Planck to double-check Djanet’s observations, only to discover that she was right. “There has to be something out there.”

“Maybe the sensors are blocked,” she offered. “It might be a firewall.”

“A firewall?” Rich replied. “How could we be firewalled?”

“Someone would have had to know we were coming,” Old-timer realized.

“You mean...it was a trap?” Djanet asked.

“Rich, can you get us outta here?” Old-timer asked, turning quickly to him.

Rich opened up the controls to the Planck platform on his mind’s eye. “Uh...oh boy.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Djanet observed.

“It’s not,” Rich replied. “The Planck’s systems are frozen.”

“I guess it’s official then,” Djanet began. “It’s a trap.”

“How in the hell?” Old-timer whispered to himself.

“If the Planck isn’t detecting anything outside the magnetic field,” Rich pondered, “how can we know if we can, uh…walk the Planck? Pun slightly intended.”

Old-timer gulped a breath in barely controlled terror when he realized the implications of what Rich was suggesting. Someone had to step out of the protection of the Planck’s immensely powerful magnetic field, into the abyss of darkness. He knew he had to remain composed, but there was no escaping his destiny in that situation. His body was the most durable, he was the oldest, and if the reason they’d been trapped was because of his actions long ago, then it was up to him to test the habitability of their seemingly inexplicable surroundings. “I’ll ignite my magnetic field and—”