by Ramy Vance
Rueben-Z thought this over. Then he started wriggling against his wrist and ankle restraints. “Then why are you keeping me locked up like some damn circus animal or lab rat?”
Aki paused. After a glance at Buzz, she said, “We did a little experiment. One involving an infected blood sample of yours.”
Rueben-Z gave a smug smirk. “Well, that was a stupid idea. If I’m infected, at least.”
“You are, asshole,” Buzz said, leaning in over the tablet.
Aki flashed him a stern look, and he raised his hands and stepped back. “The experiment did turn out rather dangerously.”
“Shit.” The concern in Rueben-Z’s eyes was unmistakable. It was there for just a moment. Then it was gone. “It didn’t get outside this place, did it? Did it?”
Dropping her gaze for a second, Aki glanced back up to return his stare through the window. “We’re not sure. There’s a chance it escaped through the air vents, but we didn’t have a choice.”
A vein bulged in Rueben-Z’s neck. “If it got out, this world is fucked. Are you going to let me out now?”
Aki turned to Buzz.
“Yes,” Buzz said. “But not until we can confirm that the virus in your blood is still dormant. It’s possible that the blood sample we uh, experimented with was somehow able to communicate with the virus in your blood. We haven’t had a chance to check your blood again since that. Do we have your permission to take another sample?”
Rueben-Z grumbled something.
Aki said, “The sooner we can clear you, the sooner we can let you out of there.”
Buzz reached over and hit the mute button on the tablet. “Are you out of your gourd? That man is not stepping foot out of that cell. We can interrogate him from here.”
“We’ve got to show him we’re true to our word,” Aki said. “I’ve overseen plenty of terrorist detainments. As long as you can verify the virus in his blood is still dormant, you can leave the rest to me.”
“And us,” Marshall said with a nod at Martha. “He’s not so scary when he’s stripped of all his fancy gadgets and that body armor of his.”
Seeing his protest was shot down, now Buzz grumbled. “Fine. I’ll get suited up.”
A few minutes later, he was inside the cell wearing a hazmat suit and drawing a vial of Rueben-Z’s blood. He stepped in an adjoining decontamination chamber immediately afterward.
They all watched Rueben-Z’s cell on the tablet screen from the confines of Buzz’s lab. Buzz, meanwhile, was finishing up with the blood analysis.
“I just don’t understand why he’s acting like that,” Rueben said. “He’s an alternate parallel version of myself, and I’d never act that way. We’re trying to help him.”
“He’s trying…”
Everyone turned Carolyn’s way. She spoke louder now. “I’ve spent the most time with him. And I am his mother. You all probably didn’t notice, but he’s trying to be good. But…the virus is interfering with his nervous system. I’m almost certain of it.”
“Explain,” Buzz said.
“When you look at him, you all probably see a crazed dangerous man strapped to a hospital bed. That’s only natural. That is who he is to you. But if you watch closely, there are subtle movements to his body that I believe signifies that he is fighting the virus.”
She picked up Buzz’s tablet and zoomed in on Rueben-Z’s face. “See his eyes? The twitching. And the veins in his neck. His body or his mind is trying to fight this disease. He doesn’t want to kill anyone. The virus is driving him mad.
“That, coupled with his conscience…he’s inadvertently responsible for the destruction of entire world populations. Sure, he might have been able to deal with that starting out when he believed he could reverse it all. But now he’s given up hope. I think…part of him just wants to die.”
Buzz grimaced. “Well, we can’t oblige him.”
Rueben shook his head. “He could have the answer to Ground Zero for the virus. Besides, think of what this could mean for science if you can figure out how to defeat a time disease. They’d put you up on a pedestal beside Einstein. Higher maybe.”
Buzz thought about that.
“I know how you like a challenge. You may be the smartest man in the world.”
“In the whole multiverse,” Buzz posited. “Fine. Fine. I’ll get behind the idea that Rueben-Z isn’t a totally irredeemable shitbag.” Suddenly his computer beeped, and Buzz studied the screen. Then he soberly turned to everyone else. “Well, people, the results are in regarding Rueben-Z’s blood test to see if the virus is active in him now. Drumroll, please.”
No one said or made any drumming sounds.
“You guys are no fun,” Buzz whined.
“Well?” Martha said.
“The virus is active.”
Alarm spread through everyone.
Buzz slapped his forehead. “The greenhouse experiment—the virus in the blood sample must have communicated with the rest of Rueben-Z’s blood in his body, triggered it…”
“What now?” Carolyn asked.
Buzz paused, trying to think. “It’s probable that the virus is now airborne inside Rueben-Z’s cell. But it’s okay. It’s completely sealed off and self-contained.”
“You said that about the glass enclosure in the greenhouse too,” Marshall said.
“The cell is better. I over-designed it, and it should contain the virus. At least, for a while… Look, I just thought of something. I think there may be a way to stabilize the virus in him and revert it to a dormant state.”
“How?” Rueben asked.
Buzz patted Rueben-Z’s body armor lying on the table beside him. He pressed a button on it, and a hologram of data appeared in the air above it.
Aki peered at it. “It’s in code.”
“Exactly,” Buzz said. “It’s from Buzz-Z. It’s an instruction manual on his completed space and time capsule.”
Rueben inspected the coded hologram. “How can you tell?”
“Because the table of contents is in a code I developed in high school. I think Buzz-Z intended for Rueben-Z to show this to the other Buzzes in the multiverse so they could finish their prototypes of the space and time capsule if needed.”
Martha studied Buzz. “If he made the table of contents readable to you, why not put the whole instruction manual in the same code? Why pick something you can’t read?”
Buzz looked a little perturbed. “Isn’t it obvious? Because this is a friggin’ space and time capsule. Can you imagine what would happen if the instruction manual fell into the wrong hands? Nations would kill to have it. Global panic could ensue if the public even knew such technology was possible.”
Everyone exchanged serious glances.
“So once you figure out how to complete your prototype space and time capsule, you’ll be able to make the virus in Rueben-Z dormant again?” Rueben asked.
“Yes. By simulating a parallel world hop. It also reasons that resetting the virus from an active state to a dormant will ease Rueben-Z’s psychotic tendencies if the virus is messing with his head. Come on, people. Let’s review what we know about the virus.
“When Rueben-Z warps back in time, or when enough forward time has progressed, it triggers the virus into an active state. Luckily, since we took away his warping ability, we don’t have to worry about that part of the equation.”
Rueben nodded. “I think we’re on the same page now. How long is it going to take you to crack the code and complete the space and time capsule?”
Buzz sighed and clasped his hands together behind his back like a lecturer. “It’s not the capsule that’s the problem. Judging by the diagrams I’ve been able to view from this hologram manual, the shell is complete. I’ve got all of the rare earth minerals and electromagnets properly positioned. All that’s missing is the software that enables the capsule to hop sideways to other worlds as well as warp forward and backward. Right now I can only ‘simulate’ the passage of going forward in time.”
“
Are we talking hours or days?” Marshall said impatiently.
Buzz dropped his head.
“Months?”
“No. Years.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Friday, May 26, 7:40 p.m.
“Years?” It was Rueben-Z speaking through the tablet’s speakers. In a display of full transparency, they’d left the tablet’s microphone unmuted so that Rueben-Z could hear their progress.
“Um,” Aki said calmingly. “It’s not going to take that long. We’re going to figure this out.” She hit the tablet’s mute icon. “You can figure this thing out, right, Buzz?”
“Yeah. In about twenty years. This encryption is so complex.”
Aki’s face sagged, and she turned back to glance at the tablet’s screen at Rueben-Z lying on the hospital bed inside the sealed-off cell.
“Wait,” Martha said. “I’ve got it.”
“Oh?” Buzz eyed her caustically. “You think you’re smarter than me?”
“If we’re talking street smarter? Uh, yeah. But no, this has nothing to do with who’s smarter than who.”
Buzz shoved his hands into his pockets. “Then what are we talking about?”
“Zach.”
“Zach?” Buzz said. “He’s definitely not smarter than me. Although he’s quite good at hacking…”
“Exactly.” Martha grinned. “When Marshall and I stopped by the precinct, Zach mentioned that if he could help in any way to let him know. He said he won some black market hacking program that’s like ten years’ advanced for its time. How about you message him about it?”
Buzz’s mind processed this for a few seconds. Then, “I’ll get right on it. Once he grants me access to it, I’ll be able to feed it a digitized version of the hologram instruction manual. Then I’ll know if it can help us or not. It’s possible I could have the space and Time capsule up and running relatively soon.”
“All right!” Carolyn whooped, and everyone else started to smile.
Except for Buzz. “People. People. Let’s not celebrate until I can verify it’ll work.”
“Cheer up, bud,” Rueben said and smacked his best friend on the shoulder. “Like Aki said, we’ll figure this thing out. Together. Just let us know what you need us to do.”
Everyone essentially stayed out of Buzz’s way while he worked. They helped with preparing food for their next meal and continued to monitor live satellite imagery outside of the compound to make sure the time disease hadn’t spread.
When the food was ready, they ate, but no one was really focused on it. Their thoughts were on Zach’s hacking program now working on Buzz-Z’s encryption.
When Buzz finally exploded into the room with an excited face, everyone felt relieved.
“It worked! It worked! I know how to complete the space and time capsule software!”
They went down to Rueben-Z’s cell and spoke to him via the tablet outside the viewing window. Rueben-Z began to sob when they told him Buzz would be able to complete the capsule much quicker than he’d previously thought. Maybe only a couple of days, maybe sooner. Then they’d be able to reset the virus in his blood, and he’d be able to leave the cell and be free again.
Rueben-Z finally spoke in a hoarse whisper, “It’s different here.” His voice now had a different quality to it, stripped of its bellow and hateful snarl. He sounded like… He sounded like Rueben.
He looked around at them all, and he looked truly broken. “This Earth is different than the others. You all are different.”
The comment seemed genuine and started to ease everyone’s tension.
“What you’re doing on this Earth,” he went on. “Buzz, you’ve never gotten this far. Each time we made progress, something bad happened. The virus mutated again or whatever we’re calling what it does.” He gestured toward the window at them. “And after all the bad things I’ve done and tried to do to you all. You gave me a chance. I know you think I’m the villain…but it’s this virus. I think it’s messing with my head. Trying to control me. Turn me into a monster.”
Buzz rubbed his face and spoke to the calmer Rueben-Z. “We won’t let you turn into a monster. We are going to help you.”
Rueben-Z raised an eyebrow, smiled, and shook his head. “You know, every Buzz has said that and failed at it.”
Buzz cleared his throat. “Well, they’re not me.”
Rueben-Z nodded in agreement, then glanced at Aki. His voice was almost a whisper. “I know you probably hate me. I don’t blame you. But you’re my… You’re my wife…on my Earth. You know?”
He looked at her pleadingly through the viewing window. “I know it’s another world. But, back there, you’re my home, my other half. And I know you can’t see this right now, but in that world, you and I are happy. We’re madly in love, and I… I…play guitar for you.”
She made a face. “Guitar?”
He gave a slight smile. “I’m not very good, but I’m learning. I write you love songs. And we have kids. Two. Emma and Monty. I chose Emma, and you chose Montauk after that movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. You know, with Jim Carey?”
Aki’s voice was flat, her eyes suddenly watery. “I know the movie.”
“Yeah. He tells her, ‘meet me in Montauk.’” Rueben-Z sucked in a breath. “And there’s this breakfast cafe next door. On Sunday mornings we sleep in and we order crepes and we watch movies all morning, and the way you look at me is not the way you’re looking at me now.”
He buried his face in his hands. Rueben-Z was about to come undone.
Rueben put his arm around Aki’s shoulder, and she fell into him and gripped him tight.
Rueben-Z saw them and choked back a lump in his throat, a sense of longing washing over his face. “I’m just so glad not to be alone anymore. I’m just…so glad.”
After a quick dinner, they were in the lab again as Buzz worked on the software for the space and time capsule. Most of the work he was able to automate to his computer and AI, but now and then he had to step in. With the decoded instruction manual from Buzz-Z, it was almost too easy.
Everyone gave Buzz some distance but were on hand in case he needed something. The tablet was lying on a table. On it, the security footage showed Rueben-Z eating the breakfast Emma had brought him. They’d undone his restraints, and he now sat huddled in a corner eating.
Aki was the first to comment. “Poor thing. It’s hard to watch.”
Martha leaned back against the table. “I disagree. I know he can help us, but solitary confinement serves him right for all he put us through. How many times has he tried to kill all of us in the past week? He’s a psychopath.”
Aki took Rueben’s hand under the table. “I’ve dealt with psychopaths and terrorists. This isn’t that.”
“Isn’t it?” Martha said. “Even if he wasn’t thinking straight, he still tried to start a global nuclear war. There have to be consequences for that.”
Marshall chimed in. “Give him a break. We’ve got no idea the kind of pressure this guy’s under.”
Rueben whipped around to his dad. “Are you turning into a softie now?”
Marshall toyed with the table and mumbled, “It’s…just… It’s kinda hard…your kid—parallel kid—whatever… I was a cop long enough to know that people make mistakes. Good people. Some of them, after they serve their time, they find a way to make amends.”
Carolyn patted Marshall’s shoulder. “He’s right. If Buzz can revert the active virus in Rueben-Z’s blood back to dormant, it would truly give Rueben-Z the second chance he needs to make things right once and for all. He could be the only hope this planet has.”
Aki nodded in agreement. “Rueben’s been right all along. He and Carolyn. They believed in Rueben-Z when all we could see was the bad. I say we inspire him to be the person we know he can be. There’s a hero inside of him. He’s just lost it somehow.”
“Well said,” Rueben said with a sly grin. “For a badass special agent.”
Aki punched him lightly on the arm.
“As much as I love kicking bad guys’ asses, I guess I’m a big softie at heart.”
“And I love you for it.” Rueben planted a quick kiss on top of her head.
Buzz looked like he was about to vomit. “Since when did this story change from a sci-fi action thriller into a Hallmark Channel movie?”
They all laughed, and Martha winked at Aki, giving the special agent her sign of approval in dating Rueben.
Rueben didn’t see it because he was facing Buzz. “Back to the point of Rueben-Z helping us once he’s clear to leave his cell. How are we going to be able to reverse all the destroyed worlds? How are we going to find Ground Zero for the virus on Earth-Z?”
Carolyn raised her hand. “We could hypnotize Rueben-Z and relive some of his memories from before the time disease destroyed Earth-Z the first time.”
“It’s a possibility,” Buzz said. “But it would be cumbersome and who knows if it would work on a Repeater who did so much warping. I say we go to Earth-Z in the space and time capsule with the virus detector.” He raised the miniature Geiger counter-like device he’d found earlier in Rueben-Z’s body armor.
“That does sound like it’s probably going to be the best option,” Aki said.
A thought popped into Rueben’s mind. “What if there was a better way to go through Rueben-Z’s memories?”
Buzz made a waving gesture for him to go on.
Rueben smiled. “Do you think twenty years ago that Buzz-Z would have given Rueben-Z the same kind of nanobot you gave me when I was first learning about my warping powers?”
On Earth-A, Rueben’s nanobot had given Buzz tons of data on his powers when they were trying to figure out a way to stop Pout.
“I reckon he might have.” Buzz turned to Carolyn for confirmation.
