by Ramy Vance
Buzz shrugged. He peered at the tablet, but nothing was happening to the vegetation around the box and the robot in the glass enclosure. Outside the glass enclosure, a canary hopped up to the glass and pecked at it curiously. It flew away. “Hmm. I expected the virus to be more aggressive than this. Maybe it’s still not ready to spread to other hosts.”
“Buzz,” Martha said. “You have a canary in the greenhouse?”
“What better way to tell us if the place has been breached by a stage four deadly pathogen? Not that that will happen.”
Martha looked at him, unsure if he was joking or not. “Um, can’t you use computer sensors?”
“Are you sure this is safe?” Aki asked.
Buzz looked irritated. “Look, people. Have you ever heard of the Symmalus virus?” They all shook their heads. “That’s right. I was a consultant to a joint-CDC task force that found a way to render that particular virus harmless to humans. I’ve got this situation under control.“
They all exchanged glances.
“Plus, I came through with the defense of the summit attack with the Binnies, didn’t I?”
They couldn’t argue with that.
They waited about a half-hour, but nothing happened. Then they left and went to the living room where they tensely waited a few hours and ate a quick lunch. Still, nothing happened. Buzz left and checked on Rueben-Z to make sure he was still unconscious and sleeping in his sealed cell. He came back, confirming that this was still the case.
“Well,” Marshall said with a glance at the tablet screen, “doesn’t look like anything is happening. I don’t know about everyone else, but after dealing with Rueben-Z and now this virus, I could use some rest and relaxation.”
Buzz raised his hand. “R&R? Nah, how about something better?”
“Should we even ask?” Martha said.
Buzz smirked. “I may not have a bowling alley, but I do have a disco bar…”
Martha raised an eyebrow. “There’s no oxytocin in here, is there?”
Buzz paused as he flipped on the lights. The room was wide and circular, and colored lasers shot across the floor while mirrored balls danced above them. “Nope. Not unless you want some.”
Martha glared at him.
“Right then,” Buzz said. “Any questions?”
Marshall offered his hand to Carolyn. “Dance with me?”
She grinned and took his hand, and he swirled her into the room.
Martha whistled. “Okay, one, I thought he wanted to relax. And two, your dad’s got some moves.”
Rueben just stood there. He’d never seen Marshall move like that. He recalled all the times his dad had given him shit for taking up ballroom dancing. Guess dancing was in the Peet genes.
Buzz flipped on Stayin’ Alive on the jukebox, and Rueben shook his head. He told Aki, “Isn’t this the theme of this month?”
She laughed and pulled him out onto the dance floor. Amidst the colored lights and the music, some of the anxiety and stress from the last week faded away. Here, they could forget the time virus experiment in the greenhouse, even if it was only for a short time. For all they knew, the time virus sample in the greenhouse would never spread on this Earth. There were too many variables they didn’t know.
While they danced, Rueben lost himself in Aki’s infectious smile, her vibrant energy, and the way her dark eyes twinkled with delight. He wished he had gotten to know her in a simpler time, back when both of them thought that there was only one Earth, before all the craziness with Rueben-Z and the destruction of worlds.
Then it occurred to him that after everything she knew about him, she was still here. He twirled her around and brought her in close to him. “Why are you still here with me?”
“What do you mean?”
“After everything you know about me. Who I really am, where I’ve come from. Why are you still with me?”
She gazed into his eyes and pushed back a lock of his hair. “Because I love you.”
His heart nearly burst out of his chest. “You do?”
She smiled. “Of course. Can’t you tell?”
“Why? After everything…”
“Because you’re you. You’re dorky. I like that. And funny. And capable. Also, you’re a good friend to those around you. Shouldn’t that be enough?”
Donna Summer now played in the background, and he held her close. The reflection from the mirrored balls washed over them in reds, greens, and blues, and from somewhere, a fog machine pumped piña colada-scented smoke onto the floor.
Rueben basked in the warmth of her body against his and the soft touch of her fingers in his hand. He had never been so happy in his life. He whispered into her hair. “I love you, too.”
She whispered back, “I know.”
He laughed, and they held each other and danced in contented silence.
Off to the side, Buzz tried to dance with Martha. But he kept falling all over himself, and they both dissolved into laughter and headed for the bar.
Marshall and Carolyn whizzed by. All they were missing were bell bottoms. Marshall twirled Carolyn, and he chuckled at Rueben. “Son, take a few more dance lessons, and you might someday be as good as your old man.”
At this, Rueben and Aki laughed hard.
Marshall raised an eyebrow. “Hey, don’t laugh too hard at that—”
Suddenly, an alarm shrieked through the disco room. Everyone stopped, and Buzz flipped off the music. He retrieved a tablet from the bar. “Oh shit. It’s the greenhouse. The virus…”
Everyone gathered around the screen. Marshall said, “The virus what?”
Buzz turned and faced them all. “The virus. It got out of the enclosure.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Friday, May 26, 4:35 p.m.
“Follow me,” Buzz said seriously.
“How did this happen?” Martha demanded as they moved down the halls.
“I don’t know. Either the glass enclosure wasn’t perfectly sealed, or that virus is more permeable than I thought.
“It wasn’t that damn canary pecking the glass, was it?” Marshall grumbled.
“No. Now enough talk.” Buzz led them to his lab and passed through a door off to the side. They were now in a computer room. It wasn’t as big as the one in the mansion, but there were workstations and shelves of servers set up throughout. There was also an impressive wall of monitors at one side that he’d positioned to form one giant monitor.
Buzz quickly queued up a real-time overhead view of the greenhouse from security cameras hidden in the treetops and ceiling. On the giant screen was the transparent enclosure where he’d left the vial and the robot. The inside of the chamber was all dead grass and withered trees, and outside of the section, grass and other vegetation were dying in a slowly expanding circle.
It was horrifying to watch the efficiency by which the time disease traveled, withering all in its path.
“Son,” Marshall said, “is this the part where you say we’re doomed?”
Buzz shook his head. His face was resolute, like a general’s. “No, this is the part where I tell you all to pick a workstation and sit.”
“Huh?” Martha said.
Buzz instructed them all to sit in front of the various computers positioned throughout quickly. He selected one himself and typed up some commands. A video feed displayed on each of their computers with the word “Live” at the top corner. There was a thin black crosshair and reticle on each screen like a first-person shooter video game.
“This is Plan B, people. Rule number one of experimental science shit: never don’t have a backup plan.”
On the big screen at the front of the room, the time disease slowly spread but it looked like it might have been picking up speed.
“What you are each now looking at is the view from a combat bot equipped with flamethrowers, and liquid nitrogen blasters like Rueben-Z had. Hopefully, one of the two methods will neutralize the virus. The controls should be self-explanatory. Just use the joysticks to mov
e your robot and press the two buttons on the top of the joystick to launch the fire and ice. Understand?”
They all nodded grimly.
“Good. Now get to work people.”
They each piloted their robot up to the expanding circle in the greenhouse and started to unleash their two weapons. Occasionally they glanced up at the wall of screens at the big picture to help them navigate and coordinate the attack.
The greenhouse was big and fortunately, the time disease continued to spread outward in a predictable manner.
Buzz winced as he saw a canary fall out of the trees in the infected zone on his computer screen and wither to dust right in front of him. He wiped sweat out of his eyes and sprayed the approaching withering vegetation with liquid nitrogen.
He held his breath and moved his robot backward and watched. It appeared to have worked, and he was about to announce this to everyone else when the withering began anew and started expanding again toward his robot.
“Use the fire, people,” Buzz said calmly. “Ice doesn’t work.”
He glanced up at the big screen to ensure that everyone was tackling the problem properly. Then he switched computer screens and brought up a blueprint of the sprawling underground compound. With all the smoke in the greenhouse, he knew he had to open up the vents leading to above ground. This would be fine, as long as the fire completely killed the virus—it wouldn’t be able to escape into the outside world.
It was their only choice. If he didn’t open up the greenhouse, the entire compound was in danger from the fire they were unleashing. He opened the vents, and the fire raged inside the greenhouse until the flames wiped out all living organisms. The robots’ cameras blacked out one by one as they melted and eventually, the overhead view on the big screen blacked out as well.
“Well, did we do it?” Marshall finally asked.
Buzz breathed a deep sigh. “I think so. I think so.”
Utterly exhausted, they all rested afterward in the living room. They all eventually dozed to sleep, except for Buzz, who returned to his lab.
Sometime later, Rueben awoke to Buzz cheering in front of his tablet.
Buzz explained, “I’ve been inspecting Rueben-Z’s body armor. I found a time disease atmosphere detector.” He held up what looked like a miniature Geiger counter.
Everyone started waking up all around the room. Rueben rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “I thought Rueben-Z and Carolyn didn’t know about the disease. They thought it was a curse or alien attack or something.”
“While they weren’t sure what was causing it, it looks like they did have a way of detecting it in the air. Look, it’s tech from twenty years in the future. The good thing is that I’ve tested the entire compound. The virus isn’t down here.”
Rueben nodded. “That’s good, right?”
“Yes. Extreme heat kills the virus. That explains why Rueben-Z wanted to incite a global nuclear war—to kill potential hosts for the virus to infect—although the plan wouldn’t have worked in the end.”
Rueben frowned. “That’s good that the virus isn’t down here with us. But is there a chance that it got out? Above ground?”
Buzz shifted on his feet. “I’ve pulled up satellite imagery of the area around the base. I don’t see any wanton devastation… so I think we’re good. This virus is deadlier than anything we’ve ever seen on this planet in all of human history. Worse than Ebola, worse than the Black Plague—no one’s ever seen anything this bad. If it did get out…”
Buzz shook his head with the idea.
Martha sighed. “It sounds like we got lucky.”
Marshall bobbed his head. “Damn lucky.”
“Good job, everyone,” Carolyn said. “But we can’t just sit on this. Now that you’ve all seen what this virus can do, you understand that we must find a way to stop it.”
Buzz took a breath. “While I’d like to say that it’s as easy as burning Rueben-Z alive…” When no one laughed, he cleared his throat. “That wouldn’t fix the issue on all the other worlds it has destroyed. We have to find this virus’s origin on Earth-Z. And it’s still dormant in Carolyn’s blood. We need a cure for it—not just a way to destroy it once it’s active in the environment.”
Aki eventually asked the question that was on all their minds. “How do we determine Ground Zero on Earth-Z? I mean, not only would we need to know the physical location, we’d also need to know the exact point in time.”
They all contemplated in silence for a few minutes. Then Rueben had an idea, but he didn’t like it. “There is one person who can help us determine the virus’s origin.” They all looked at him, and he said it, “Rueben-Z.”
Martha frowned. “Buzz said he’ll be sleeping for days. He’s in a coma.”
Buzz sighed. “I can bring him out of the sleep coma.”
Rueben saw the unease on everyone’s faces. Understandable considering he’d held them all captive down here like a madman. “I think it’s our best bet.”
Buzz stroked his chin. “I’ll prepare the subject.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Friday, May 26, 6:07 p.m.
They all stood in the hallway outside Rueben-Z’s sealed cell. Via the keyboard outside the viewing window into the cell, Buzz commanded the IV line to switch over to a compound that would wake Rueben-Z up.
Rueben eyed the restraints on Rueben-Z’s wrists and ankles. There was even a thick steel band around the man’s waist. Lying there in a hospital gown without his body armor on, the man looked less imposing than ever before, although his scarred face and chiseled muscles still gave him the look of a hardened prison inmate. Beside him, Rueben saw that Aki was studying the restraints too. She looked like she approved of their effectiveness.
Marshall frowned. “How long until this fancy drug shit wakes him up?”
“Should be an hour, plus or minus five minutes,” Buzz said.
“Okay.” Marshall stood solemnly at the viewing window with his hands clasped in front of him. “I’ll stay and keep watch. Let you all know when he wakes up.”
Buzz shook his head irritably. “There’s no need. My computer will alert me when his vitals—” He stopped when he caught Martha’s cue that he was saying something socially improper. “Right. Be my guest. Stay and watch.” He turned to go.
Carolyn stepped up to the window and touched Marshall’s arm. “I’ll stay too.”
The soft smile on Marshall’s lips was barely perceptible. “I’d like that.”
Rueben rolled his eyes at his parents and turned to Aki. “Tell me we’ll never be that annoying.”
She chuckled. “Oh, we’ll be worse.”
Martha snorted. “Be? What about now?”
Rueben and Aki laughed softly, and everyone except for Marshall and Carolyn headed down the hall toward the living room to wait.
Once there, Rueben, Buzz, Aki, and Martha sat in the living room and started playing Uno to pass the hour.
Rueben smirked. “I can’t believe we’re playing Uno. I haven’t played this since I was, like, eight.”
Buzz frowned. “I didn’t furnish this space expecting company. It’s all I’ve got, and it’s the only card game my robots will play with me.”
Aki leaned against Rueben. “Well, I think it’s a fun way to pass an hour.”
Rueben laughed. “Pass an hour. We’re waiting for a comatose terrorist to wake up so that we can interrogate him about the deadly virus about to kill the world.”
“And it makes you sound all the more adventurous.” She pecked him on the cheek, and Martha and Buzz rolled their eyes at each other.
Martha turned to Buzz. “I think you and I should make out, just to get on their nerves.”
Buzz’s entire body froze, his cards in his hand, and he looked as catatonic as Rueben-Z. “Excuse me, please.” He got up and left the room.
Rueben told Martha, “You have no idea what you just did to that poor guy.”
“I meant it as a joke.”
Suddenly their ph
ones all buzzed with texts.
Rueben read it aloud. “It’s Marshall. Rueben-Z’s awake.”
They all crowded around the viewing window, looking into Rueben-Z’s cell. The man still lay confined to the hospital bed, his eyes wandering over the room’s interior.
“Can he see us?” Rueben asked.
Buzz shook his head and raised his tablet for Rueben to see. On it was a red circle. “Not unless I press this button. It’ll make the window two-way instead of one-way like it is right now.”
Inside the room, Rueben-Z began to work his jaw. He licked his lips. “What the hell did you do to me?”
The tablet Buzz held had a microphone icon on it with a diagonal slash currently across it. Buzz tapped the icon, and the slash disappeared as the tablet’s microphone unmuted. “We injected you with the same knockout serum you put in Rueben when you kidnapped him before the summit attack. And then in Carolyn down in my lab.”
Rueben-Z growled as he narrowed his eyes at the intercom in the room. “Why?” His voice came through the tablet’s speakers.
Buzz went on. “Why? You should be grateful we didn’t kill or torture you or something. You tried to kill us, you asshole—”
Rueben-Z growled even more furiously. Aki placed a hand on Buzz’s arm. “Let me do the talking?”
Buzz handed Aki the tablet.
“Rueben, can you hear me?” she asked calmly.
“What? Not calling me Rueben-Z anymore? This some sort of CIA negotiation tactic to get on my good side?”
Everyone stood tensely, watching Aki. Aki pressed the red circle button on the tablet, and the viewing window’s transparency shifted subtly. Aki waited until Rueben-Z realized that he could see outside his cell before she smiled confidently and said, “Yes, we are trying to get on your good side. We’re not here to play games. We’re not here to keep you restrained, not if you help us.”
Rueben-Z’s eyes were flushed and reddish. “What if I don’t want to help you?”
“A valid question,” Aki said. “But both you and us, we’re trying to achieve the same goal. We’re trying to figure out how to defeat the phenomenon that keeps destroying the worlds that you and Carolyn hop to. We’ve confirmed that high heat kills it, but we still have to find a way to reverse all the death and destruction on each world, including the world you’re originally from.”
