“How long exactly have I
been here?” Carter asked.
They sat outside the cave in the emerald daylight with
the scattered parts of Perry’s probe and the disassembled pieces of Carter’s two
decade old equipment.
“Law said you disappeared twenty-five years ago,” Perry
responded.
“Law, you mean Colonel Law? I take it he’s DART’s liaison
with the military now? What happened to Hague?”
“He retired just after your accident. I think he passed
away almost fifteen years ago.”
“Twenty-five years… How are things on Earth?” Carter
peered up from his work.
“Not too good.”
“Same old crap, huh?” He shook his head. “How about you?
Why would a young man like yourself risk his life darting three hundred light
years plus one universe away from home?” Carter grinned. “Get it, darting?”
Perry winced at Carter’s toothy smile. It made him feel uncomfortable.
“Like I told you, your project had been buried and I was told not to continue.
Law was at my door when I jumped, if I had stayed, I’d probably be in jail.”
“Yeah, but didn’t you leave people behind?”
“Yes, Helen, my common law partner.”
“Not married?”
“Not yet. I uh, wasn’t ready,” Perry said. “She actually
asked me, and man was she angry when I asked to wait.”
Carter laughed catching a stern look from his visitor.
“Sorry, some things seem funny to me even though they shouldn’t. I’ve been here
for a quarter of a century; I may have gone a little mad.” He gave Perry a wild
eyed stare then erupted into loony hysterics. “I used to be quite serious you
know.”
Perry gulped. This guy was his only hope to get back.
“I had a wife,” Carter mentioned. “We split years before
I wound up here. In some ways I suppose that’s why I risked coming here; I
didn’t really care about the consequences. I married too young and to some
broad whose only positive attributes were her looks.”
“Sounds like Helen actually.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-One.”
“Still young, wait a few decades; you’ll realize how the
good looking women have the crappiest attitudes. Do yourself a favor and get
rid of her.”
“Get rid of her?”
“Well, not like that, I mean like dump her and find
someone with a brain.”
Perry smiled. “I didn’t think you meant kill her, I was
just considering the thought of life without her.”
Carter giggled. “I made too many slips in my day. My
wife, getting stuck here, letting those damn sixty-twos sneak up on me and
break my stuff…” He trailed off and looked over his shoulder observing the
alien flora stretching out to the horizon. “Merely thinking of other potential
states as potential was a massive slip in logic. I completely ignored even the
possibility that such things existed. Colonel, I mean, General Law told me, you
know, but I just didn’t listen.”
“Sorry?”
“He was the first to bring it up when I presented my findings.
‘What happens to the original?’ he asked.” Carter smirked. “I didn’t much care
for the military brass, but Law was a man with some sense. Maybe he was right
to bury the project.”
“But we need it to fix the problems on Earth. Seeder
ships are too slow and no one wants to go anymore.”
“The Earth is the way it is because that is how we built
it,” Carter stated.
“What?”
“Society was built by us. We have the ability to create a
stable world, but we don’t.” Carter cranked a bolt into place with his fingers.
“I like to think that somewhere out there is an Earth where people have learned
not to be greedy and work together. Those people have the right to grow and
spread across the stars. All we’re going to do is spread the same old problems
across the cosmos. You must face you screw ups and grow from them, evolve. I’ve
had twenty-five years to think about my mistakes.”
* * *
Everything was ready. Perry stood at the mouth of the
cave holding his portable null-field looking at Carter crouching down at his
own field generator cannibalized from Perry’s probe.
“What I’ve done is reverse the coordinates,” Carter
explained. “This will send you right back to Earth, your Earth.”
“How am I going to explain this to everyone?” Perry
breathed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Carter said. “I’ve worked it out
over the years. You can use still the technology.”
Perry blinked. “How?”
Carter stared at him as if he should know the answer.
Perry looked around. “But this isn’t the same planet, we
didn’t send the seeder ships here, we sent them to another Grindious–C.”
Carter shrugged. “So?” He stood up crossing his arms
looking out over the bright colorful world. “It’s a world, it’s habitable, and
now that we’ve perfected the technology, it’s easy to get to.”
“A cross dimensional human race?”
“Might as well…”
Perry sighed and placed his thumb over the switch of his
controller. “Well, I guess it’s time to go face the music.”
“Best of luck to you.” Carter saluted.
Perry paused. “Wait, aren’t you coming?”
Carter giggled madly. “Are you kidding? I have the keys
to infinity here in my hand.”
“But– it would be easier to explain things to them if you
came back.”
“I’m sure it would,” Carter agreed he adjusted the
coordinates on his own null-field, “but you got to grow on your own.” He winked
and hit the switch.
Perry watched as Carter and a portion of his background
fluctuated in shape, features twisting as a wave of distorted space-time jumped
out from the null-field generator. Then he was gone, only air replacing his
body mass.
Perry’s thumb found the button of his own generator and
considered the mad scientist’s logic. He pressed it down and looked out at the
alien world as it quickly twisted its shape as though it were swirling down a
bathtub drain, then it rapidly straightened out, taking the form of his
basement back on Earth.
His basement was in disarray; tools, papers, and schematics
were strewn all over the place. The drawers of his filing cabinets were wide
open, his closet door was ajar, and every box had been unstacked and torn open;
someone had been searching his things. He moved to the bottom of the stairs and
looked up at the light slipping under the door into the kitchen. He could hear
voices; he recognized Helen’s and a few others. He hesitantly ascended the
stairs.
They were sitting around the dining room table and gawked
at him as though he were a ghost. Helen sat at the fore of the table, on her
one side was the man Perry had seen her leave with a few nights ago and on the
other was General Law who quickly assumed a grim stern expression.
Helen was the first on her feet. “Perry! Is it really
you?”
Perry didn’t answer, but watched as Law stood up and
flattened out his uniform. “I imagine you had quite the adventure.” He gestured
to Perry’s pants which were matted with mud.
“I did,” Perry managed. He walked over to the table and
held out the modified null-field to the General. “Here, it works. It will take
you instantaneously to a Grindious–C as long as you reverse the coordinates.”
“A Grindious–C?”
“Those alternate states we assumed were only potential,
are real. What we have is something that will take you to another dimension.
But there’s a perfectly good world there, well once you adapt to the excess
oxygen, with plenty of room for humanity to grow, although…”
“Yes?” Law studied the man through slotted eyes.
“I would recommend doing so with more respect and
responsibility than we have done on our own world.”
Law actually managed a slight smile. “I hope we can.” He
placed the generator on the table. Continuing to stare at the device he asked,
“Did you find Samuel Carter?”
“He helped me,” Perry said.
“Where is he?”
“He left.”
Law opened his mouth, but opted to shut it, nodding
instead. He folded his hands behind his back. “And what of you?”
“I have some information about Grindious–C that you’ll
need to know, but after that I’m resigning from DART.”
“What?” Helen blurted. “You can’t do that.”
Perry managed to regard her. His eyes alternated from her
to her friend sitting at the table looking quite out of place. He was most
likely here to comfort Helen in his absence. “This is my house. I bought it. I
want you out as soon as possible.”
“But-but- Perry...”
“No buts.” He shook his head then looked her in the eyes.
“I’m afraid…I’m afraid that I don’t love you anymore, maybe I never did; I
think I was afraid of you.”
The room was silent. Perry looked back at Law who was
gauging the situation with wide eyes and a thin mouth. He saw Helen in his
peripherals walk swiftly out of the room; her handsome friend followed her out
like a puppy.
The general rotated back as the front door slammed shut
then returned to Perry. “Well then, I guess you will need time to rest, can I
expect you tomorrow morning for a debriefing?”
“I’ll be there.”
“Excellent.” Law picked up the generator slipping it into
his pocket. “Since you’re bent on resigning, may I make a suggestion?”
“Go ahead.”
“After this is tested, properly, the people will need
someone to help them get ready for their new world.”
“I think I see what you’re getting at.”
The General pivoted towards the door. “Well then, I let
you to it then.” Perry saw him to the door. Law stopped in the open doorway.
“You’ve revolutionized our civilization, you know…”
“I didn’t do it alone,” Perry answered. “Just use it
properly.”
“We will do our best.”
* * *
Perry stretched out on his couch after a long day of
training leaders for an expedition. Three survey teams had already made the
move to the new planet. The human race would soon populate the new dimension.
Perry had done his best to emphasize ethics and responsibility in this new age
of colonization, but it was up the human race, ultimately.
He lay staring at the ceiling tracing the spackled
patters noting how silent the house was. Sometimes he missed Helen, but he was
happier now, freer, less on edge. The liberty was nice but it was still only an
illusion. He still worked, toiling away to beat some new ideals into the minds
of men, but what he really wanted was freedom.
He rose from the couch and crossed into the kitchen where
he opened the door to his basement. He walked downstairs to his lab where he
had been working on constructing a new null-field of his own. He wasn’t sure
why he had started building another at first, but he quickly realized why.
The keys to infinity were at his fingertips. How could he
let that slip by?
