by Pam Stucky
Yalik nodded. “Yes.” Nodding apparently meant “yes” here, too.
“Okay, let’s go.” Eve said.
Eve and Emma quickly re-packed their bags, then the group walked back into the lush forest, Yalik leading the way with Eve up front, and Zadra following at the back.
“She must not want us to get lost again,” Charlie said to Emma.
“Did they tell you much about this place?” asked Emma, keeping her voice low.
“I didn’t ask too much,” said Charlie. “I didn’t want to scare them by telling them we’re aliens from another universe. Or maybe we’re in our own universe? I don’t even know. But I doubt they suspect people live on other planets. I just told them we were from another place and we were lost. They couldn’t believe we didn’t know about plassensnares. Weird, they don’t seem bothered that we’re dressed totally different from them.”
“It’s the bracelet, I think,” said Emma. “Eve told me the bracelets also make us look like … I don’t know how to explain it. We look like whoever sees us, I think. When they see us, we must look like them, just like they more or less look like us to us. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t even know there are other planets, much less universes.” said Emma. “So strange. It’s like going back in time. But like Milo said, time is tricky.”
Charlie just nodded.
The sun was barely up, hanging low on the horizon. Like the moons from the night before, this sun was enormous compared to Earth’s sun. In the heat, steam rose from the dewy foliage and the damp ground. Yalik moved with confidence through the trees and bushes. Nothing looked familiar to Emma, possibly because of the change from moonlight to sunlight, but more likely from the fact she’d been running with blind terror at top speed when they first passed through. When they’d arrived last night, their ignorance made them feel safe. Now, flanked front and back with people who knew what dangers to watch out for, Emma felt a sense of calm. This planet, if one learned what to watch out for, was lovely and peaceful. No bathrooms, though, and no kitchen, no wi-fi … maybe she liked her own home after all.
At the front of the group, Eve stopped. Yalik looked at her with what might have been surprise. “You are correct,” he said with a grimace-smile, “this is where we found you.”
“I thought so,” said Eve, twirling the wishing rock pendant. “Okay, that’s all we needed. Thank you so much for bringing us here. We’ll be fine now.”
Yalik and Zadra did not look convinced.
“No, really,” said Charlie, waving. “We’re good. Thank you.”
Emma, Charlie, and Eve stood awkwardly, staring at Yalik and Zadra, waiting for them to leave. Finally, looking confused but again with an air of indifference, Zadra held a hand to his chest, said, “Be well,” and they turned and left.
Eve waited a few minutes after the pair had disappeared into the distance. “I hope they’re not watching,” she said. She turned to Charlie. “Did they indicate that they saw us arrive here last night?”
“They didn’t say anything,” said Charlie, “but they’re kind of closed-mouthed types. I didn’t want to get them too suspicious so I didn’t ask if they’d seen us fly in on our spaceship.”
“Elevator,” corrected Emma.
“I know,” said Charlie. “Just joking, sis.” He reached and wrapped an arm over her shoulders, but she didn’t hug back.
“Can I borrow your Chapstick?” Emma asked her brother. “Something about this air has dried up my lips something awful.”
“Chapstick?” Charlie said, puzzled. “I don’t have any, sorry.”
“Make note of that, please, to tell the committee,” said Emma.
Charlie just stared at her. “What?” he said.
“No problem. Let’s go,” she said tersely, unraveling herself from Charlie’s arm. “Before they come back.”
Eve opened the door; to everyone’s relief, it opened without incident. They stepped inside the room and the door closed behind them.
“That’s so weird,” said Charlie, shaking his head. “An invisible room in the middle of a forest. What’s not weird about that? That’s weird.”
Eve was holding her breath. “Come on, Hub. Let us in. Please, please, please, let us in.”
Emma added her own plea. “Let us in, Hub. Please, let us in.” She waited to see if Charlie would add his “aliens aliens aliens” chant. He did not.
She didn’t have much time to think about it. The door to the Hub slid open without hesitation. Dr. Waldo awaited on the other side, his body contorted with tension, his face twisted with concern.
chapter ten
“Thank the universes you’re all back!” Dr. Waldo cried out. He swept Emma, Charlie, and Eve into a tight group hug, then released them and dropped into a chair at a table near the elevator, overwhelmed with relief. The others sat down with him. “We don’t know what happened,” he said. “That quake that shook just before we sent you away, Vik created that. We traced the disturbance to another universe. One of our scientists went there to investigate. It was a planet with no inhabitants, no life, totally desolated, we can at least be grateful for that. But Vik—or someone, we assume Vik—tried to blow up the elevator from the outside. He detonated so many bombs, bombs of such force, that they left a crater at least six kilometers wide around the elevator. That caused the quake all through the universes, they would have felt it on your Earth too, as we did in the Hub. Still that elevator, it is strong, didn’t do a thing to it, as you know, because you left in it right afterward.”
His elbows on the table, Dr. Waldo rested his head on the palms of his hands. “Luckily, Vik does not seem able to get into the Hub. We don’t know what he is using for a key. He can get into the elevator, we know, but we can only hope he can’t get in here. If he does … we shouldn’t have let you go in the elevator without knowing what happened! We put you at such risk! We didn’t know, we didn’t know. But tell me, where did you go? Did you see any signs of Vik? Wait—there’s an odd number of you now.” He counted the people around him, pointing in turn at Eve, then Emma, then Charlie. “Where’s the tall, dark-haired one? Brian?”
“Ben,” said Eve. “Well, it seems we have a problem.”
Charlie explained to Dr. Waldo what he’d explained to the girls, how Ben accidentally set off the device that would send a person back to Eve’s planet, how he’d disappeared, how they had no idea whether Ben had made it safely to Lero. As Charlie spoke, Dr. Waldo went further into a flurry of “Oh dear”s and “Oh my”s.
“Well, children, now, don’t worry,” he said, though his tone definitely sounded worried. “I gave Ben the almost most recent version of the pigeon, I’m sure he’s back home on Lero now, safe and sound, nothing to fret about, we just … well, since the quake, it seems the Hub’s calibrations are a tad off, as perhaps the elevator’s are, from what you’re telling me? Things aren’t working quite right. The Hub sealed itself off from the elevator completely for a bit, self-repairing, it seems, re-setting, but we just don’t know right now, I think it has fixed itself, lightning fast healing, that elevator, but we just can’t be sure …”
“The almost most recent version of the pigeon?” said Eve. She had watched videos of trials of early pigeon iterations. “Almost” worried her.
“Yes, well, it was only one update short of the most recent ones, just a minor glitch, no need for concern, I’m sure all is fine. We’ll get in touch with our people on Lero as soon as we can get through, check in with them, I’m sure you’ll see there’s nothing to worry about, nothing at all,” said the scientist, nervously tapping the table with his fingers.
“Dr. Waldo, that’s not our only problem,” said Emma. She looked at Charlie and directed her next words at him. “Did you guys really think I wouldn’t figure it out?”
Charlie squirmed in his seat but smiled. “Figure what out?” he said, eyes wide with innocence.
“Dr. Waldo,” Emma addressed the scientist again, “this isn’t my brother. When we left here, I
don’t know where you meant for us to go, but we ended up on a parallel Earth, a parallel Dogwinkle Island, with another Charlie and another Emma. My Charlie and this Charlie apparently decided, for some ridiculous reason, to switch places without telling anyone.” She looked at Charlie again. “Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“What gave me away?” asked Parallel Charlie, who had thought he’d been quite convincing. “We figured you guys—you and my sister—would get it eventually, but we just wanted to switch places for a while, give us each a chance to travel around. Your Charlie wanted to see our Earth, and I wanted to get off it. Just to see what it was like. No harm done!”
But Emma was neither convinced nor mollified. She lifted Parallel Charlie’s arm and pulled back his sleeve to reveal the bracelet. “My Charlie is smart, giving this to you when you switched clothes. You must have been quick about that, because I don’t remember your being out of our sight for long,” she said.
“We did it right when we got to the lighthouse, just before we all left here.” He was quite pleased with himself, as Emma knew her own Charlie would be as well. “Ran into the bathroom, switched, no one knew!”
“You left Charlie without a bracelet,” Emma said. “Did you guys at least test your languages first, to see if we all speak the same English? Or did you leave him with no way to communicate?”
Parallel Charlie’s face fell. Clearly, this thought had not occurred to the Charlies.
Emma continued, her fear for her own Charlie feeding her anger. “If the elevator was broken when we left,” she turned to Dr. Waldo, “do you even know where we went? How to find this Charlie’s home? The parallel Earth? Can you get us there again to get my Charlie back?”
“Well, now, hmm, that’s an interesting question,” said Dr. Waldo, tapping more rapidly on the table, his fingers creating subconscious patterns and punctuating his thoughts. “There wouldn’t be just one parallel Earth, now, would there? No, no, no, it’s infinite everything, infinite parallel Earths, infinite other universes, infinite infinities, it becomes … difficult.”
Emma’s heart sank straight through her and into an abyss, a black hole. She could feel it, the sucking fear of loss. What if they couldn’t get her Charlie back? She’d completely forgotten about the other issues at hand—whether she, or any of the rest of them, could get back home themselves; whether Ben was alive or scattered throughout the cosmos. She just wanted to find Charlie.
Eve understood how Emma felt. “Dr. Waldo, have you seen my father since we left?” she asked. “Is he okay?”
“I’m so sorry, my dear, you’re the first we’ve seen. Well, then, that’s a good sign, though, let’s not despair, the Hub is repairing itself and bringing people home, sorting everyone back to their proper places, just a matter of time, it hasn’t failed yet! Well, it failed a bit, but it’s fixing that, isn’t it! We just need to wait—”
“We can’t wait,” said Emma. “What if Charlie needs us? I need to find him.” She turned to Parallel Charlie, her tone softer this time. “No offense to you. I’m sure you’re lovely, but you’re not my Charlie.”
The young man gently punched her shoulder. “No worries, parallel sis. I get you. You’re not my Emma, either.”
Emma felt bad, realizing she may have been a bit harsh with this would-be brother. After all, her own brother was equally at fault—if not more, knowing him. And she couldn’t blame the Charlies. She, too, had been curious about that other Earth, the other family, and she would have understood if the other Emma had wanted to leave on an adventure. Still, she was resolved to leave immediately. “We need a plan,” she said, turning to Eve.
“First, we need to find Ben, and then we need to switch the Charlies back, and then we need to get us back to my dad.” Eve counted out the list with her fingers as she spoke. “Dr. Waldo, do you really think the elevator’s working right again? If it is, getting to Lero should be easy. We can look for Ben, and then he can help us find Charlie.”
“I can’t promise anything,” said Dr. Waldo, shaking his head, “but the fact you made it back here seems like a good omen.” He sounded far from certain. “We’ve been working on new technologies, and we have a hypothesis that all beings carry a trace of their home universe in their genes. It’s possible that this Charlie has within his own DNA the key to finding his universe again. And, I do say, the elevator, it is smarter than we give it credit. We are quite far from fully understanding it just yet. It might be able to help us in its own way. How, I don’t know, but it might. And we’ve been working out new ways of traveling, nothing we’re ready to give you just yet, but you can look.” He held out a small black sphere he’d been carrying in his pocket. “We think we have something, a way to travel without the elevator, maybe with more precision. We were working on it just when you got here. I’d love to show you sometime, but for now I think we’d best stick with the elevator. I call it Dark MATTER: dark, because it is black, obviously, sometimes we state the obvious; and MATTER, Multiverse And Time Travel Energy Redistributer.” He wiggled in his chair with delight at his own cleverness, then showed them the sphere and started to point out some features: tap here to designate coordinates; swipe here to travel.
“I understand,” said Emma, anxious to get moving, “none of us can do any more than our best. Should we leave Charlie here with you to do the DNA trace, while Eve and I go get Ben?”
“No,” said Parallel Charlie. “You’re not going without me.”
“Really, Charlie, have you not had enough adventure?” asked Emma, exasperated. “Can’t you stand to stay here just this once?”
“It’s dangerous out there,” said Parallel Charlie solemnly. “After what I’ve seen, I don’t want you going alone.”
Emma was about to protest that she and Eve would not, in fact, be alone, and that they could very well take care of themselves, thank you very much, and what a chauvinistic thing that was to say. But she knew she wanted Charlie with them—her own Charlie, preferably, but in his absence, this Charlie would do. He wasn’t so bad.
She nodded. “Okay, then. You can come.”
From the Hub side, the elevator had a strange appearance: it looked like a plain rustic sliding barn door (Dr. Waldo’s doing, Emma assumed), standing inside a frame of a dark-colored wood, standing inside nothing. There were no walls above it or to its sides; nothing but air. From the back, the frame was still visible but the door was not; the frame instead surrounded an expanse of empty wall. Emma was studying the frame with fascination while she, Eve, and Parallel Charlie waited for Dr. Waldo, who had been pulled away briefly by another scientist. Eve and Parallel Charlie had just joined Emma when from within the elevator, they heard a loud popping sound.
“That’s odd,” mumbled Dr. Waldo, rubbing his chin as he returned to the elevator. “It’s generally soundproof. I’ve never heard any sounds coming from inside there before.” Then, again—another pop, this one even louder. And another. And another.
The elevator door blasted open, flying out of the frame and nearly hitting Dr. Waldo. A young, dark-haired man stood in the empty space where there once was a door, covered in debris and dust from the explosion, a satisfied grin on his face, a giant weapon in his hands.
“Vik.” Dr. Waldo neither greeted nor acknowledged the man, but just stated his name. An affirmation of the man’s presence, but not a surrender.
Vik pointed the gun at Dr. Waldo.
“Sorry, old man,” he said. “You know we have to destroy this place.”
Emma held her breath. She felt Parallel Charlie’s hand reach for hers, his fingers intertwining tightly with her own. Grateful, she squeezed back but otherwise didn’t move. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Eve. All the color had drained from the Lero girl’s already pale face, but the look in her eyes was fierce. Eve would not go down without a fight.
“Vik,” Dr. Waldo said again, this time addressing the young man in front of him, whose dark eyes looked crazed, possessed. “This isn’t necessary, you know.”<
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Vik’s voice was calm, empty, and flat. “Dr. Waldo,” he said with an air of indulgence, “you’re right. It isn’t necessary at all. If you leave, if everyone leaves here, our problems will be solved. You will live.”
“You know we won’t leave here,” said Dr. Waldo, straightening his back but holding on to a chair to steady himself. “We are explorers. This Hub is meant to for discovery. This science, exploring the multiverse, this is our calling. We will not leave.”
Watching as quietly as she could, Emma expected Vik to get angry, to be full of rage, but instead he spoke smoothly and slowly, a parent addressing an errant child. His cold voice was slick and slimy, like the trail of a slug. “Your calling.” He nodded. “Yes. A grand, worthwhile calling, or it once was anyway. It’s lonely, now, isn’t it, Dr. Waldo? Don’t you miss home? You’ve been here so long. You never leave. Everyone else comes and goes, but here, you are all alone. You know you just want to go back to Lero, see if you can rebuild your life again, after … well, you remember. You don’t have to be brave, Dr. Waldo. People will understand. Tell them you’ve done enough. Your work here is done. Go home.”
For a moment, Dr. Waldo faltered, but he quickly regained his composure. “I know what you’re doing,” he said. “It won’t work. That’s The Void talking, Vik. Not you. It has infected you. We know what has happened and we know how to help you, Vik. You don’t have to live with The Void inside you.”
Dr. Waldo’s words fell on deaf ears. “I’m giving you a choice here,” said Vik magnanimously. “You can leave … or you can die.”
Emma heard herself gasp involuntarily. She snapped her mouth shut, but it was too late.
Still looking at Dr. Waldo, Vik paused, staring off blankly into the distance, as though he was listening to something the rest of them couldn’t hear. He nodded. Smiled. Then turned to face Emma directly.
“Emma,” he said, his dark eyes piercing into the young woman’s soul.
