“Me?” Old-timer said, suddenly alarmed. Does he know? How?
“Your people,” Paine corrected himself, pointing with the hand that held the beer as he swallowed, “your universe, Universe X. By the way,” he held his beer up for Old-timer, “you want a cold one?”
Old-timer’s eyes were wide for a moment as he looked at the simulated beverage.
“Don’t worry,” Paine said with a slight smile. “It tastes as good as the real thing. It’ll even give you a buzz, but only while you’re in the void.”
“Then yes.” Old-timer nodded emphatically. “I could use it.”
Paine grinned as he tossed a second can, seemingly summoned out of nothing, toward Old-timer. He then turned to Aldous and Samantha. “He sure seems like the Craig we knew, doesn’t he?”
“Indeed he does,” Aldous said, returning the hint of a smile.
Samantha remained silent, but she couldn’t help but think the same thing. “Do you know why they did it?” she asked Old-timer, trying to keep everyone on topic, since it helped to distract her from the bittersweet presence of the twin of the man she was sure was her soulmate.
“Why who did what?”
“Why they crossed into our universe and attacked us. Why they left their technology behind and never explained why?”
“Uh…” Old-timer stuttered again, not knowing how to reply. “I think…I think it was a mistake,” he offered. As soon as the words left his lips, he experienced the deepest feeling of cowardice he’d ever felt in his life.
“It was a mistake they could’ve undone by coming back,” Samantha fired back. “How could they do that? Just left that tech here—terrified the hell out of the whole world, and then to not even bother to come back to explain. It was as if we were nothing to them, not even worth a second thought!”
Old-timer was rendered speechless. He hadn’t opened his beer and couldn’t muster the strength to reply or even move his finger on the tab.
“It’s not his fault, Sam,” Aldous said in Old-timer’s defense. “Our people could’ve chosen to react in a much more thoughtful, considered way. It was our own fear, our own overreaction that led us to this.” He turned to Old-timer. “Besides, it’s not like Craig can be held responsible for the actions of whoever crossed over.” He smiled at what he saw as the absurdity of the notion.
Old-timer still couldn’t speak. Instead, he doubled over and dropped his beer, nearly falling off the log in the process before catching himself at the last moment.
“Are you okay, Doc?” Paine asked as he watched Old-timer try to regain his breath.
“I-I’m sorry. I just didn’t...I wasn’t expecting any of this. This was just supposed to be a reconnaissance mission. We were just supposed to check and make sure everything was okay.” He looked up at Samantha, who, after a brief moment that was too painful for either of them to bear, looked away. “I-I’m so, so sorry.”
Aldous seemed to appreciate the gesture and the honesty and grimaced faintly. “You couldn’t have known, and as I said, the burden of blame is on our people, not yours.”
“Why?” Old-timer asked.
“The technology that made its way into our hands should’ve been seen as wondrous. It was a gift,” Aldous said as his heart swelled with the memory of the grand possibilities. “The materials, the power source, the advancements in nanotech—all of it should’ve led to the end of humankind’s suffering.” His face suddenly paled. “But instead, all our leaders saw was an imaginary threat. They couldn’t see past their own terror, so every instinct became about survival.”
“As far as they were concerned,” Paine said, taking over, “if this other universe had more advanced technology, and had already attacked us once, killed our citizens, then our only alternative was to prepare as quickly as possible for an imminent second attack. Comparisons were made at the highest level to Columbus versus the Native Americans. The Conquistador was brought up a lot too. The fear was that we’d be wiped out, and with no way of knowing when the next intrusion into our universe would come, every imaginable resource was suddenly funneled into reverse-engineering the advanced tech your people had left behind. They tried to gain a workable understanding of it as quickly as possible so they could build weapons with it so we could defend ourselves.”
“On the surface, it may sound like a rational response,” Aldous said directly to Old-timer, “but there was so much they failed to consider.” He closed his eyes tight as he thought about the missed opportunity. “They were so blind to the dangers.”