“Just what can these watered down versions of Notchka do, exactly,” General Mortimer Wren asked his technical aide, Derringer, standing beside him. They were both safely ensconced behind the observation glass. On the other side were the soldiers genetically altered, infused with partially damaged DNA strands rescued from the fire Notchka had set. All in an attempt to hide her own DNA evidence after a woman had touched her. The woman didn’t survive the blaze. She was nothing but ash. But Notchka’s super-charged DNA did. An item of no small note that Mortimer’s secretive agency was trying to turn to their advantage now. Especially since the actual Notchka seemed forever marooned in space with Clyde Barker.
“We’ve prepared a little demonstration for you, sir,” Derringer said. He gestured to the sergeant standing on the other side of the safety glass. It was metal glass, more than a foot thick. Could withstand an atomic bomb blast with only slight buckling.
The sergeant blew his whistle and the ranks separated into small groupings, spread equidistant throughout the hangar.
Each pair of soldiers levitated off the ground.
Mortimer’s mouth went wide.
And the soldiers began sparring. Inevitably, one or the other of the paired soldiers was the better fighter. Just as inevitably, limbs went flying.
When the dominant ones had torn the less dominant ones apart limb from limb, and dropped their torsos, separated from their heads to the ground, the body parts re-agglutinated. And they levitated back up to where they were before to continue their fighting.
Mortimer smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I can live with this. Who needs a tantruming, out of control little girl, when I can have legions of soldiers that might actually survive battle against robots, and come out on top. All at my command.”
“I wouldn’t sound so full of yourself just yet, sir.”
Mortimer turned to Derringer. “What is it now?”
“It’s an Age of Abundance, sir. War is on the wane. People no longer clamoring for survival are tougher to talk into fighting. They’ve got their basic needs met. Better yet, they’re hooked up to the internet with all the mind power they need to make the most of their free time. We’ve got garbage collectors deciding they’re going to engineer bacteria that just devours the garbage at home; no need to transport it anywhere. The entrepreneurial bug is spreading. Way more fun and lucrative just to go into business for yourself, now that all the hurdles have been removed.”
“Not everyone is smart enough for that.”
“The mindchips that give you the aptitudes you need are getting cheaper by the minute. Soon there won’t be anyone without one.”
The general sighed. “So standing armies are out. Fine. I guess any moron could have seen that coming. The game has shifted, that’s all. I say, when the time comes, we retrain these guys as special operatives. They can be turned into genius engineers too, can’t they?”
“Of course, sir.”
“Then I say we send them out into the world to create havoc. Engineer us any number of attention-getting headline news disasters. If no one will supply the terror that creates the demand for people like us, we’ll just have to attend to the supply side of the equation ourselves.”
“Inspired, sir.”
General Mortimer saw the look on Derringer’s face that said it all. “Speak up, Derringer. I can take it.”
“Eventually the chipheads will link up, sir, to work on group projects too big to tackle on their own, like colonizing Mars, hell, the entire solar system. That means it won’t just be us spying on people anymore. The truly transparent society will be upon us. Everyone will be inside everyone’s head. Too hard to hide a malcontent in a world like that. The next Unabomber would be neutralized before he even got off his first big bang.”
Mortimer sighed and puffed on his cigar. “You can be damn depressing at times, Derringer. You know that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, today’s problem for today. Tomorrow’s problems for tomorrow. I still like the odds for plotters and schemers like ourselves.”
“Yes, sir.”
THE PRAXIS TIMELINE
EPILOGUE FIVE
Torin stooped down and passed his hand over the gym floor. In an instant all the images came rushing back of Clyde Barker and the little girl, Notchka. Of the heinous crime they’d committed right on this very spot not too long ago. Of a man hammered into paste, as if spread across the giant rye cracker of the gymnasium matt.
Standing up with a sigh, Torin rubbed his fingers together, as if he still couldn’t get the blood off of them after all this time. “Did it really take us four timelines to solve this case?”
“That’s what Notchka said. She even had names for them. The Praxis timeline, ours, the Nexus timeline, the Solaris timeline, and the Thombari timeline. Said Clyde named them after her favorite children’s stories.”
It was still too much to take in, even for open-minded him. He shook his head slowly. “It’s all so fantastic.”
“I don’t know, some of those timelines sound pretty enticing. I’ll take a different take on Present Shock than this one any day, if only as a vacation.” Everywhere she turned, she saw more and more reflections of herself in the many mirrors, opened up by each fresh vantage point. “Maybe one day we can learn to sense the other versions of ourselves better. Learn from them.” In point of fact, all the reflections staring back at her seemed to reveal a more informed, and enlightened version of herself than she felt she represented.
“Especially now that Notchka, who came from the Solaris timeline to fill us in, am I remembering right?”
“Yep.”
“Now that she’s gone out on her own.”
“The one in the Thombari timeline, we’re actually still raising as part of a family. Us with a kid, can you imagine?” Kendra combed her hair out of her eyes as if that might help her see into the future better.
“I rather like the idea of a multiverse built so we can be all that we can be.” A glance at the workout apparatuses suggested even they were inviting him to do the same.
“Yeah, the fact that we’re together in all of these timelines does lend an epic dimension to our love. Soulmates forever, that kind of thing.”
He smiled, flushing the images from the original crime scene out of his head. “Yeah it does.” After giving her a long kiss, he said, “Makes it that much easier to gloss over all the things that trip us up in this timeline.”
“Don’t push your luck, buddy.”
Torin took her in his arms and pointed them at the door, his smile indicating he was clearly still milking this moment for all it was worth. “Well, my eternal love, where to next?”
“No idea. It’s a big wide world out there. Getting bigger all the time.”
“I suppose someday, the further into the Age of Abundance we get, not just us, but everyone will be accessing the multiverse. All that unleashed mind power, it’s got to go somewhere.”
Kendra sighed. “Stands to reason. Good to feel ahead of the learning curve for once though, considering how done in we usually are by Present Shock.”
“Yes, yes it does.”
Kendra took one last look at her reflection. Where once she felt like a cyborg gazing into those very same mirrors not so long ago, with her blemish-free porcelain skin, at least she felt more human now.
They’d gotten just a small taste of what the future would be like. Just a couple of minds, so souped up, as were Clyde and Notchka, they were liberated enough to make the entire multiverse their home.
But given enough time, the Age of Abundance would free the gods in everyone. That was good. Because it was only by feeling what it was like to play god that she felt the least bit human.
AFTERWARD
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