by Adam Moon
“She told me what happened. I had to try and stop them.”
“What did she tell you?”
“She said the blue-backs found and attacked your world. She said you’d been defeated. I agreed to come to their planet to help her take them down.”
“Then she lied to you. The blue-backs, as you call them, have not found our world. They have not attacked us. In fact, we’re very close to reaching an amicable arrangement with them. That’s why we’re here. It’s probably also why she chose today to launch an attack—to thwart our progress.”
“What do you mean?”
“Yesterday she was seen leaving with a cache of weapons, one of our ships, and two jump devices. We knew her dreadful history with the blue-backs and we knew she wasn’t happy that we were making progress with them but we also knew she wouldn’t stand a chance against them, especially with so much security here. She must’ve realized that too because she recruited you. She brought you in on her suicide mission. You’re lucky it ended the way it did or you might be dead right now.”
“This is all news to me. I thought I was here to protect the future of mankind, across the multiverse.”
“The multiverse is in no danger. Luckily for all of us, she failed.”
“What will you do to her?”
“We’ll return her to her home planet and she’ll never see us again.”
That was better than she deserved. He wondered what else she’d lied to him about. If they hadn’t pulled her out of the room he’d be tempted to punch her in the mouth. He said, “Before you kill me, I have to know something. She told me a story about ancient alien civilizations that already have jump capabilities and how we’re all expected to toe the line regarding the tech. Was that true? Was any of what she told me true?”
The Morian sniffed the air and paused. It stared right into his eyes, sizing him up as a man. Finally it said, “That is true. That’s why we’re doing our best to convince the blue-backs to refrain from abusing the tech they stole from us. It’s why we’re here, forging this alliance.”
So Samantha had peppered just enough truth into her story to make it seem plausible, even if that truth itself was implausible. She was more shrewd and conniving than he could’ve imagined. If she had her way, he’d have helped her kill thousands of blue-backs which could have been the catalyst that brought the alien intervention that he was so desperate to avoid. He was glad the Morians stopped her before he became an unwitting accomplice in an interdimensional apocalypse. He fully realized just how twisted she was by her hatred of the blue-backs. She wanted them all dead even if that meant jeopardizing all the earths in the process.
He whispered conspiratorially, “You can’t trust the blue-backs, though.”
The Morian whispered back, “I know that. The alliance is very one sided, and there’s nothing they can do about it. Now that we told them the truth about the overseers, they have to agree to stand down or they’ll condemn all of us. So far they’ve been very cooperative.”
It held its hand out and said, “Hand over the jumper she stole from us. I know she gave it to you.”
Neil retrieved it from his pocket. He knew it was his only means of escape so he quickly considered jumping. The jump would be random, and he’d have to fix the device afterwards if he was going to ever get home, but it was worth the risk. The plan hadn’t yet solidified when a new thought entered his mind: if he ran they’d chase him. If he jumped home, they’d eventually find him there with his new wife and daughter. He couldn’t allow that. He’d rather die than subject his loved ones to murderous Morians. The notion of taking his family on the run forever made him feel sick too. At that moment he realized he only had one option.
He handed the device over with shaking hands.
The Morian locked him in an uneasy stare. Then it said, “Thank you. I was sure you’d try and run again.”
Neil shrugged and looked away. “What’s going to happen to me now?”
“Our promise stands. You won’t be harmed as long as you can forget you ever saw us or used our technology.”
He couldn’t believe it. “You’re letting me go, even after everything I did today?”
“This was not your fault. You’re free of blame. Would you like me to take you to your home world?”
He was lost for words. He took a moment to regain his composure and then he said, “No. I found a new home. My family is waiting for me there.” He pointed at the black screen on the jumper and said, “I can fix that and then show you which world I’ve adopted as my home. I don’t need it after that.”
The Morian said. “You’re a special breed of man, that’s for sure. No one has ever willingly given up the chance to travel between dimensions.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing that I think jumping sucks.”
The Morian chuckled. It pried the jumper apart and handed half of it back to Neil. “I’d like to see you try and fix this.” It said it incredulously, like it thought he was lying.
Neil slipped one of the spare fuses from his pocket and fixed the jumper in less than ten seconds. The Morian stared at him in disbelief the entire time. The screen blinked on so he dragged the coordinates to his new home into the box and then handed it back. The Morian snapped both halves back together and smirked.
“You’re the first person to even remotely understand our tech besides the blue-backs. No one has ever repaired a disabled device before. I’m pleasantly surprised.”
Neil shrugged.
The Morian stared at him like he was the strangest creature it’d ever seen. Then it hit the button and they vanished.
Home
✨
BACK ON HIS NEW home world, Neil felt tears well in his eyes.
The Morian shook his hand. “Thank you again.”
Neil said, “Good luck to you and be nice to Samantha. She’s a bitch but she had every right to be.”
“Good luck to you too. We may call upon you in the future. As a fellow jumper, you are among the elite of humanity.”
“Don’t bother. I’m done with all of this.” Jumping had led to a reunion with his long lost loved ones but now that he had them back, interdimensional jumping could only threaten his newfound happiness.
He turned and walked back down the street. He was going home for the last time.
The Awful Truth
✨
THE MORIAN RETURNED to the blue-backs’ jump facility to give a progress report and to finalize their plans. He’d told Neil many lies in the past few minutes, but for good reason.
Neil Thomson now seemed content enough, which was more than could be said for his doppelganger, whose place he’d taken. The Neil he’d just dropped off thought the other Neil was dead, but the truth was far worse. The alternate Neil Thomson was still alive and he was pissed.
The Morian trackers had tried to subdue, and even kill Neil #1 and that was the worst mistake they’d ever made. They should have found a way to reason with him or placate him at any cost. They had no idea what a formidable foe he would become. The blue-backs were a mild irritation compared to what Neil became when his daughter was taken from him.
The Morian could understand his fury. Neil #1 had to watch as an alternate version of himself ran off with his daughter, and the Morians were responsible for that.
During their initial skirmish he stole a gun, a knife, and a jump device and shifted away from them before they could contain or eliminate him. The four Morians who’d been caught in his jump radius were later found on an alternate world with their throats cut. They’d been tortured before they were executed, probably for information.
But worse, two days ago Neil #1 used his stolen device to get to the blue-backs’ planet, which was the real reason the blue-b
acks reached out to the Morians for help. Samantha was not privy to the reasons why they were forming an alliance and it wouldn’t have mattered to her anyway. Either way, she wasn’t going to be happy about it. But if they’d known she would get another Neil involved, they would’ve contained her from the beginning.
The day before yesterday the furious, daughterless Neil visited the blue-backs’ jump facility and killed two security officers before abducting the head research and development officer and vanishing to another dimension with him. That R&D officer knew how to adjust the arrival coordinates in the jumpers. If Neil tortured the information from him, he could theoretically jump to the far reaches of any universe, and if he did that, the many Earths would be wiped out by the overseers. Of course they had no idea if that was his intent, but if he did, they were doomed.
The real reason he abducted the technician was probably far more mundane. He was most likely trying to find the Morian home world to exact his revenge on them all. He probably suspected that the blue-back technician knew where it was located, which was thankfully not the case because there was no doubt that he wanted to wage a one man war against the entire Morian civilization. The Morians had dealt with adversity but nothing as frightening as what Neil #1 had in store for them.
Regardless of what his intentions were, the fact remained that a dangerous, bloodthirsty man now had access to the most dangerous information in the multiverse. He had to be stopped even if it meant the Morians had to choose the lesser of the two evils and ally with the blue-backs. The jump facility had now been utterly ravaged by two separate Neil’s for two different reasons just a day apart.
When Neil #2 arrived five minutes ago with Samantha and had been subdued, they even took a moment to consider using him to somehow lure the other Neil to them. If they could reunite the daughter with her real father, then the situation would right itself. But they could see in his eyes that Neil #2 wouldn’t allow that. It might even make things worse. They already had one Neil to contend with and that was enough. If this one wanted to be left alone, they’d gladly oblige.
The blue-back liaison was waiting for him to return. She said, “I’m glad you made it back alive. Samantha has been destroyed.”
“Good. I trust you made it a quick death.”
She shrugged noncommittally. Then she said, “It seems the activation beacon on number one’s stolen jumper has just been disabled so we won’t even know when he’s jumping from now on. We’re in the dark. But it means we can be sure he managed to get information from his prisoner.”
“Dammit! We have no idea how far he’ll go to get his daughter back. Judging by what we already know, though, the multiverse is in big trouble.”
“I agree.” She paused and then said, “You should have killed number two. I wish you had.”
“The last time we tried to kill a Neil we failed and put him on a path of murder and mayhem that may bring about the end of humanity. It’s best to give the Neil’s what they want.”
“Number one wants his daughter back. When you find him, you could point him in the right direction.”
“We talked about this already. That would be foolish. If number one is so heartbroken about losing his daughter once, imagine how number two would react if his daughter was taken out of his life for the second time.”
“Well, it’s a good thing that you now know which world he’s living on with his stolen family. If we find our backs in the corner, we can offer up his location to number one, as a last resort, of course.”
The Morian stared at the jumper screen. He did have the coordinates of the previous jump. The blue-back was right. But he’d made a promise.
He ran his finger over the coordinates and deleted them.
✨
The End
More by Adam Moon
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