One Verse Multi, page 5
I remembered talking about how the rifts were forming more frequently and the weird way that particular rift seemed to reopen.
“Luca, I have a few questions. Would you wanna go to the cafeteria and eat with me?”
I had asked the question with purely science in mind, but I wondered for a moment if he would read something more in it. The light behind his eyes at the idea of spending a dinner talking science told me he was in it for the science too. Or maybe he was more a fan of mine than I understood.
The cafeteria was a basement plaza in the Hub with several restaurants and shops. The restaurants were really just places where food was stored, reheated, and served. Each was categorized by source universe, since everything that came in had to go out. The shops were storerooms where you could get equipment, entertainment, clothes, and other things, again labeled by universe for return when done. It was vaguely like the student union of a college. I went to the endless gyoza restaurant. Luca went for cereal. We met at a table near the middle of the room, surrounded by other MVP employees.
“It’s been a while since I’ve eaten in here,” Luca said, opening the box of Honoy-Os cereal. I watched him dump it into a bowl then add a box of Froze’n Flakes on top.
“Same.”
He looked around. And so did I. I didn’t recognize any of the faces.
“I never realized how many people are here,” I said.
“Right, way more than I remember.”
I popped a few of the dumplings into my mouth.
“So, MLK, what are your questions?”
“Oh…well, I was wondering if you noticed anything weird about the rift?” I gestured at the poster, safely rolled up again.
He nearly spit out his cereal. “Of course I noticed.”
“Tell me.”
We talked about how the rift was reopening quickly, and it was impossible to know why. He said he had tried to run some analysis on the data by area, region, time, and people, but nothing seemed to hold. It was a normal enough rift on all bases the drones could measure.
“That’s all I know,” Luca concluded.
“Well, I messaged a buddy of mine and told her to keep me up to date on rifts other techs reported as weird. I also sent her your report, so we’ll see what she thinks,” I told him. I had sent the report and the message to a coordinator I trusted.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I mean I said I would.”
He grinned and ate his cereal. After a few minutes of silence, I opened the conversation back up.
“Have you ever looked in on your counterparts?” I asked.
“I know what verses they’re in.” He shrugged. “One is a TV star.”
“I don’t even know where mine is.” I then amended, “Was.”
“What happened to him?”
I ummed and watched Luca’s face. “Mikyea Winslow drowned when she was eight. That’s all I know.”
He blinked at me, his expression carefully passive. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was surprised. I had transitioned years ago, more than half my life.
“Bummer. Drowned? And you didn’t?” he said finally.
I couldn’t tell if he had questions or if his idea of me had changed. I guess that was half the point of passing, or better yet, of finding people you didn’t need to pass with. Time would tell what Luca really thought. It always did.
“Naw, I did drown. Or at least I started to, but my stepdad saved me. Mom was only dating Apollo at the time. Then when I was ten, they got married, and he adopted me. I took his name when I was thirteen, for his fortieth birthday. I changed my whole name to Martin Logan when I did that—made the paperwork easier.”
“Back up. You have a dad called Apollo King?”
“Right. He…uh…is exactly what you would expect a guy named Apollo King to be like.”
I wondered why I didn’t know where my counterpart had been from. I had been so surprised to learn I was universe-unique, I hadn’t thought much of why.
I asked Luca around a mouthful of gyoza, “Could you find that universe?”
Luca looked confused. “Your home-verse?”
“Naw, Mikyea’s. I mean, can you find the verse of someone who’s dead?”
He squinted at me, concerned. “Why?”
I was brewing an idea, but it hadn’t fully come together. “I don’t know. If I had to think it through—and I’m just spitballing ideas—we’re all doing this research because James Dugan did the thing, right? Well, that was what, six years ago? And they only found sixteen verses with him in them. What if some of his counterparts had died in some other way? Did anything happen in those verses?”
“Can the dead impact the multi-verse?” Luca said.
“I dunno. But we are studying universe-multi people, so I feel like it bears asking.”
“Bet. Well, write up the question and run it through Hugo. He’s the leader, so I can’t go on a project without his say-so.”
“Bet,” I said. Then I remembered the lab meeting. “Oh shit, what time is it?”
Luca flashed me his wristwatch. I was late.
“Shit, I have to run,” I said, jumping up. “Luca, I—”
“I get it,” Luca said, standing too.
I grinned at him and grabbed my poster. “You know, I need a frame for this.”
“Good luck, it’s a weird size.”
I laughed and ran from the Hub.
* * *
Hugo and the rest weren’t mad I was late. Hugo was translating his notes onto yet another white board. Tamar was filing her fingernails into points like lime green talons. Wei was sitting straight up but was literally asleep, his eyelashes perfect lines on his cheeks.
“Hey all,” I panted.
“You okay?” Hugo asked.
“Fine, I can’t breathe ’cause ran,” I gasped. And like the unfit chubby guy I was, I tried to breathe less loud so they would really believe I was fine. By the looks on their faces, it must not have been working. “God, why am I so out of shape?”
“Well, it’s good timing.”
Section 5
The project is restricted
I was surprised by how complicated the observation schedule was. I had eighteen subjects, which was two people per category. And according to Hugo’s plan, we were to work eight hours a day, six days a week. Not that Sunday was a day off—we just only worked six hours. I tried not to groan and reminded myself that I liked my job.
“Everyone online?” Kiki asked when all of us were ready and settled at the table in the center of the lab. They sat in a swivel chair near a bank of computers looking at us. Luca and Mason were walking around, half looking at our computers, half watching the progress of separate programs they were running.
“Ready,” Hugo said.
“I love this part,” Tamar said, genuinely excited. “I love H-HIA. They’re all so weird.”
Wei made a whistling sound and flapped his hands imitating a bird. His hand-bird fluttered off over his head.
“What was that?” I laughed.
“Take-off,” he said, looking at me over the taupe sunglasses he was half wearing. “The bird took off.”
“I would’ve gone with—” I made an engine sound and launched my hand off the table like a rocket.
“How about,” Luca said, pretending to take off his shirt. Wei cheered, and I gave him a few risqué clicking noises.
“Luca wins,” Tamar said. “The rest of you, three out of ten.”
“Three?” Wei and I said together.
“C’est le bordel,” Hugo said, rubbing his temples. “Can we move on?”
We laughed and turned back to Kiki. They walked us through the site again and had us pull up our first subject. I chose to start in on the Tiduses. Tidus of A-Class Universe 2940FOX was who Hugo had assigned to be the base Tidus, so I would be observing him the most. Not like it wasn’t already an issue—let’s just make sure I got to stare at him every other day. I reconsidered telling Hugo about texting Tidus, but the video screen popped up. And the room was empty.
“FOX Tidus isn’t in his house. Or at least isn’t in this room,” I said, turning the image of his empty room to the group.
“Oh, this is exciting.” Hugo grinned, leaning toward the screen.
“I like sectionals as much as the next guy,” I said, “but I don’t think this is how it works.”
“This is our chance to problem solve,” Hugo said. He clapped me on the shoulders and shook me a little.
“There’s information in your packet. Maybe we can find him?” Luca said, pulling his chair next to me at the table. I opened the Tidus book and turned to the index, making an unhappy sound. Luca patted my shoulder.
“Yup. I hear ya,” he sympathized.
The rest of the eight hours of the first day of observation was actually painful. Luca and I spent three hours trying to figure out where FOX Tidus might be based on his data. We had it narrowed down to work and school, but he also had several friends he visited, he went to the gym, and he liked to hang out at parks with Bowser. We were just about to scrap him when he walked in the door. I was able to observe him take Bowser out, bring him back in, and feed him. Then he left the room and didn’t come back. By the end of the day, I had observed seven empty rooms across four subjects. Hugo didn’t think my ranking of their living room sets was very funny.
Tamar had similar visibility issues with several of her subjects, one of whom sat in his living room the whole hour, but she could only see his left foot. Wei was successful with his first subject, but his second group had a few counterparts who looked like they were moving out of their houses. All of those would have to be reset. Hugo spent the whole time helping us and didn’t actually get to any of his people.
It was nearly seven before Kiki called it. They had been watching the data feeds and was unsatisfied by the information coming in. Finally, they announced, “I can’t do any more of this. I’m leaving. I suggest the rest of you leave too.”
“Wait for me,” Tamar and Wei said, standing.
“Come on now,” Hugo said. But even he was spent. I yawned, and then he yawned, and then Luca yawned.
“Okay, we start again tomorrow,” Hugo said. He made no move to leave, though. He sat and pulled some paper and a pen out of his backpack. By the time I looked up from what Hugo was doing, the other three were gone.
“I need food,” Luca said, turning to me. “Want to eat with me?”
“Sure.” I grinned, noticing Mason sitting in a chair. His beanie was pulled low over his eyes.
“Is he asleep?”
“Mas?” Luca said.
Mason started and stood up.
“You wanna come get dinner?” I asked.
“Me?”
“Sure, me and Luca are going.”
Mason gave Luca a wide, toothy grin.
Luca looked at him carefully. “We’ll probably eat in the Hub. You up for that?”
“I think I can handle it.”
“Hugo, you wanna come?” I asked, even though I knew what he would say.
“I will soon.” He dismissed me with a wave.
“Let’s go then,” Luca said. I followed them out of the room.
We ate tiredly, then Mason wanted to see the stars, so Luca and I walked with him to the observation deck on the roof of the Hub.
“Gentle winds,” a guard said as we passed his station. They were there to protect HQ from dangerous sea life and weather. Looking at the rocking horizon, I didn’t envy them.
“Come this way,” Mason called, leading us to a lounge area.
The three of us lay down on separate metal benches bolted to the surface of the building. Lying down, even on the metal, felt phenomenal. I hadn’t realized how tense and exhausted I was until I was horizontal.
“Dude, that was rough,” I sighed. “Is it always like that?”
“Never,” Luca said with a laugh.
“Really?” I half sat up to look at him.
“We don’t have to observe universe-unique people. When we do make observations, it is usually of stationary events like rifts,” Mason said. His voice was soft and low, melodic.
“So, you can see why nothing we have done has worked,” Luca continued.
“I had fun,” Mason said.
I literally stared into space. For all I understood about the multi-verse, space was still mysterious, beautiful, and scary.
“We have to fix the relays,” Mason said.
“What?” Luca asked.
“The data relays. They aren’t strong enough. They’re being spread too thin. Our model underestimated.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Mason sat up. “In order to get data from one verse to here, you have to set up a communication relay. A receiver on this end, coded to this verse, communicates with a transmitter on the other end, coded to that verse. Set up in between is a relay station coded equally for both verses.”
“How can something be in two verses at once?” I asked, sitting up.
“Carefully and artificially. We carefully balance the quantum resonance by forcing particles in and out at random. It’s basically rapidly tuning particles, bouncing data from the there-verse to the here-verse.”
“Sounds bananas,” I said, not really knowing where to put that information in my brain. “I have faith you can figure it out. What we really need, though, is a way to keep drones trained on a subject no matter where they are. The stationary thing isn’t going to work.”
“Amen,” Luca said.
“Maybe you could do it, Martin.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, in order to keep the QD on a moving target, there would have to be someone commanding them where to go. You’re the one who can control the largest number of drones, even if it’s only at one one-hundredth of the capacity we would need for the project.”
I thought about the cramp in my hands from controlling sixty-four groups at the last rift closing. One one hundredth sounded like it would kill me. “Ouch.”
I turned back to the sky. It was a clear night. I felt sorry for most people whenever I was on the station roof at night. The sky was unlike anything most people would ever see in their lives, especially in advanced verses. There was no smog, no light pollution, distortion only from the water, which amplified everything. A shooting star crossed, and I half expected the sky to ripple like water.
“Why couldn’t we get a team of drone techs and make it their job?” I asked.
“The project’s restricted,” Luca said.
“What?”
“Why do you think the data team is so small?”
I looked at him, and he looked back. Then his expression changed, and he shrugged. “I forget you’re new to this. Yeah, so it really is just the seven of us. The founders don’t want the project public. That’s why you’re on a closed network.”
“I didn’t know that.” I added that to the pile of suspicions I had about the project.
“It was a good idea,” Mason said, sounding sleepy.
I went home about an hour later. No one was around, so I sat at the piano. I played and thought about my mother. She had taught me and my brother to play, but for very different reasons. She wanted him to get involved with an art because she thought it would help him find peace and focus. Me, she wanted to be like her. I saw myself like I saw my brother.
“Lint,” I said suddenly, into the music.
“What?” Tamar asked.
I jumped, banging my elbow on the piano.
“Sorry. I was listening. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I breathed. “You’re fine, I was just…”
She nodded and moved closer. She put her elbows on the piano and leaned in to look at the strings. “Why’d ya say lint?”
“I was thinking about my brother. He used to call me lint because I would follow him around so closely. I’m so small compared to him. He’s a big dude, like our biological father, tall…meaty.”
She smiled. “Sounds hot.”
The huff of air that escaped me was more gasp than laugh. “Gross. Besides, what about Mason?”
She squinted at me. “What about Mason? What do you know?”
I laughed. “Nothing, I was just talking to him—”
“What did he say?” she demanded, getting closer to me.
I put my hands up. “That the communication relays were weak.”
She sighed. “He’s such a nerd.”
“A nice nerd.”
“We aren’t friends, Martin, so mind your business.”
I squinted at her and whispered. “Are we friends enough to talk about how sketchy this whole project is?”
She narrowed her eyes on me. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to talk herself into talking to me or trying to talk herself out of it.
“What do you know?” she finally said.
“Well, I was talking to the guys about how the observation points were irritating because the drones were stationary. Then I said let’s get more people and Luca said…”
My train of thought derailed. Everything said tonight dropped into my head, stirred around like soup, then solidified into a single idea. A solution, to be specific.
“We don’t have to control them all,” I shouted.
“Um.” Tamar blinked.
“Holy shit, I have to go,” I said, jumping up from the bench.
“What about—”
“I don’t know. I was just thinking out loud again,” I said.
“You’re so dumb, Martin.”
“Sorry, keep talking. Here…sit,” I sighed, then I made a few expressive gestures with my eyes.
She still looked annoyed, but she sat. I started to play, whispering urgently, “I didn’t want them to overhear us.”
“Who?”
“Anyone, Hugo, I don’t know. Jeez, don’t you know anything about villainy?”
