by Aaron Frale
Jon thought about it for a moment. Rory was right. There was someone he could help: Hailey.
∆∆∆
Jon met up with Patel in one of the living quarter halls of the evening shift staff, whom were busy at work. The rooms were empty to minimize the risk of a random person happening upon them. Rumor traveled fast in Tuners HQ, and Jon hoped to avoid any word getting out about his plan.
“Patel,” Jon said when she got close.
She walked up to him and said, “Why are we meeting here? There are plenty of private places where—”
“You know in a place like this that nothing is truly private. Any plan to save Hailey yet?”
“No. There isn’t much we can do if we cannot move.”
“What about Universe 89?”
“You heard Hector.”
“Why? What’s wrong with Universe 89?”
“That’s his homeworld.”
It irritated Jon to hear it. “But what if there is something there that could help us? It can’t hurt to go check it out. If Hector has some hang-ups about his home that sounds like his problem, not ours.”
“But we don’t know why it’s off-limits—” Patel said.
“If it still exists, I don’t see why we can’t see for ourselves.”
“Are you suggesting we make an unauthorized tune?”
“All I’m saying is that we leave no solution untouched.”
“I agree,” Patel said. “Meet me at Ludie’s lab in an hour. I’ll find DeAndre and Meathook.”
Jon nodded and walked the other direction.
18
Hailey’s eyes fluttered open. She caught a whiff of burning flesh, and it felt like her skin boiled. She was on a square table. Her captors had not bothered restraining her because she could barely move her arms. A cultist doctor with goggles and a big black apron sprayed black goop on her wound. It burned, and she screamed. After a few treatments, her wound sealed, and the substance created a hard casing around it.
The doctor took the goo gun away and walked toward other instruments. The lab looked more like a torture chamber than a doctor’s office. The walls were glowing red, and various sharp objects were dangling from the ceiling. Hailey attempted to lift her head, but she was too weak. It clanged back on the table.
She forced herself to roll off and hit the black floor with a thud. Pain shot throughout her body as her limbs could barely cushion her fall. Her arm felt broken. She could only move one leg at a time. She inched her way across the floor when a big rubber boot stood in front of her.
“Oh no, no,” the doctor said. “You aren’t cleared to leave yet. You still have a meeting with the High Priest of the Flame. You’ll need to be in peak physical condition because most people don’t survive the machine.”
Hailey screamed and struggled but couldn’t do anything. He lifted her back on the table. This time, he put straps around her wrists. She cried in pain as he injected her with a burning liquid. It mended her broken arm one painful fracture at a time.
19
Jon entered Ludie’s lab. Various plants were growing in jars. During his rec time, the kid studied botany from the multiple universes and also played some sort of multi-user resource game. A medieval village was on the screen of his computer. Ludie upgraded his civilization to the early middle ages. “Jon,” he said without looking back. “What brings you to my lab?”
“Patel didn’t tell you?” Jon asked. He figured he’d wait for the others because he wasn’t sure where Ludie stood. The kid could be Hector’s snitch or just too honest for his own good. Jon walked up to one of the jars. There was a tree inside. It looked like a redwood tree, but it was way too small to be a sequoia or even to be a tree for that matter. It looked more like a model from the railroads they had at the state fair. When Jon got close, the tree moved and smacked against the jar at Jon.
“Be careful,” Ludie said. “That’s a hybrid from Universe 27c and 139a. In 139a, they have a plant that bludgeons animals and feasts on their carcasses, and you can guess about 27c.”
“Everything is small?” Jon asked. He briefly wondered if there was more to books like Gulliver’s Travels or Alice in Wonderland than he knew.
Ludie built a military building next and then scouted a province. “We nearly caused a worldwide catastrophe when we first tuned to 27c. Needless to say, we don’t go back.”
“How long has this been going on?” Jon asked.
“Me or the organization?” Ludie finished maintaining his game and turned to Jon. “One year for me. I gained the ability to tune earlier than most. I’ve been doing lab work to keep me on the project after I lose the ability to tune.”
“It’s a little early to plan for retirement.”
“Tell that to Hector.”
“Hector?” Jon asked. “I thought he had a ten-year stint.”
“He started losing his hearing at twenty-six.”
“So, people age out. It sounds like we have a long way to go before then.”
“Yeah, that’s what Hector thought too, at least for his younger brother. It’s not uncommon for siblings to have it too. One of his brothers discovered it at seventeen. He didn’t make it to eighteen.”
“What happened?”
“Hector had two younger brothers. The three of them went on missions together. It’s rumored that Hector went to a universe where a whisper sounds like a sonic boom, and that’s why he can’t tune. But the truth is that Hector began to age out and didn’t want to admit it. He probably should have been done at twenty-four, but because of Hector’s pride, the middle child ended up in a void universe, and the youngest one went crazy and is stuck in an asylum in 66. That’s why he has dedicated his life to the Tuners; people say he is trying to pay penance for the mistakes he made with his brothers.”
Jon didn’t say anything for quite some time. If what Ludie said was right, it explained why Hector was adamant about not going to his home universe, which upset Jon even more. Hailey had nothing to do with his mistake. Besides, it wasn’t like Hector would be tuning anyway. It’s not like his brother would even know they were there. Jon was even more determined to go to 89. He wished Patel would get here soon.
Ludie’s game timed out, and it said, “Reestablishing a Link to U-42c.”
“42c?” Jon asked. “Are there are other me’s walking around?”
“Good luck with that one. The odds of your parents meeting, and that none of their ancestors died before they gave birth, is pretty remote. Then add to the fact that your mom’s egg came in contact with one single sperm among millions from your dad at the exact right moment. Not to mention the fact that it could be billions upon billions of other variations if they’ve tried to conceive you more than once. The chances of you existing at all are practically zero. The chances of finding another universe were all of history leads up to that same moment of your birth, that’s like zero divided by zero. It doesn’t exist. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Ludie said. “My break is over. Finding the most useful combination among all the universes isn’t going to create itself.”
Before Jon could say anything, Meathook, Patel, and DeAndre entered the room. Ludie looked up at them and rolled his eyes.
“Ludie,” Patel said. “We need to borrow the invisibility cloaks.”
“Like Harry Potter?” Jon asked.
“They are not magic! There is science behind it. The light refracts off the material—” Ludie said.
“We can have explanations later,” Patel interrupted. “Could we please just have them?”
“They aren’t tested yet,” Ludie said. “We don’t even know if they are on Universe One’s banned list. There seems to be a microprocessor inside, but I can’t find it. It could be fried.”
“Can we just get them please?”
“I’m just saying the invisibility can destabilize at any time. Besides, you can do all the equipment requests through Hector.”
“We are going to Universe 89.”
“That’s crazy!” Lu
die looked at all of them. They were very serious. He added, “Even if you got into the control room unnoticed, there is the barrier. No unauthorized tunes. Even Jon knows that!”
“Dude,” Meathook said. “We know you know how to shut it down.”
“And let the cultists in here?” Ludie said.
“It will only be down for a second,” DeAndre said. “You turn it off. We slip out, and then you turn it back on. The cultists won’t even know it was down.”
Ludie hesitated.
“It’s not for us. It’s for Hailey,” DeAndre said.
“Yeah, bro, she’s one of us,” Meathook added.
Ludie acquiesced. “You know Hector will send us back to our universes, find a new set of Tuners.”
“Dude, bro.” Meathook put his arm on the kid’s shoulder. “If we get Hailey back alive, I’ll go home tomorrow.”
Ludie breathed heavily and gnawed at his upper lip. He opened up a closet where some of the experimental technology was kept. There were lots of different equipment and gadgets everywhere. In the corner, there was a rack with six suits that had a grey surface on one side and an invisible layer on the other. There was also a matching set of backpacks. Each person took one off the rack and began to suit up.
20
The disembodied heads of the Tuners stood outside the door to operations. Jon thought they looked pretty funny in their invisibility garments. According to Ludie, the fabric of their bodysuits refracted light in such a way that it looked like nothing was there. Since they weren’t wearing their masks yet, they looked like special effects in a movie.
“All right,” DeAndre said and peered through a window to the doorway of operations. “Brady is setting up the nighttime systems check. When he opens the door, we’ll sneak past him. I suggest holding hands with each other. We don’t want to run into one another once we are in operations.”
Through the small window on the door, they could see the last technician of the night. He flicked off his lights and walked away from his work station towards them. They all slid the masks over their heads. Each one disappeared from view. To Jon, it felt like he was looking through mesh, like when his dad made Jon a pantyhose mask when he wanted to be a thief for Halloween. His dad had made him this cliché robber outfit with a striped shirt and candy bag with a big dollar sign on it, and he wanted to wear a black bodysuit and jump between laser security systems like the thieves in the movies. It was hard to be the new kid in school with a dad who didn’t know anything about American culture.
The hallway looked empty, even though he could hear their breathing. Jon fumbled around for Patel’s hand on one side and DeAndre’s on the other.
The door opened, and they tiptoed through. It stayed open longer than usual, but the tech didn’t give it a second glance and was long gone by the time it closed. The doors in Tuners HQ were all coded to DNA. It was a great way to make sure the people who needed access could have it and keep out those who didn’t. While all the Tuners had access to operations, it was only during the day and emergencies. Their DNA could also lock them out during times when they weren’t supposed to be there.
The equipment looked strange and ominous at night. Without the workers and chatter of people, it felt like the life had been sucked out of the room. Even though HQ was a station floating between the universes, night and day were still observed for the benefit of the people on the base because most Earths had a 24-hour day/night cycle. Only a few people would work at night, mostly cleaning crews, security, and the hospital staff. Most of the operations staff worked during the day. However, there were occasions where the operations crew were roused from their sleep for an emergency tune.
Hector was in his office near the top of the room. He was busy at work. He wasn’t looking down into operations, but it wouldn’t prevent him from just turning his head and seeing what was going on down below.
“Does that guy ever stop working?” Jon asked.
“No,” Meathook said. “Rumor had it that when he was a Tuner, he didn’t ever stop training. When he wasn’t tuning, he was practicing weapons.”
“I guess we're screwed,” Ludie said. “Let’s pack it in. We’ll come back tomor—”
Jon heard the sound of someone being yanked back, and DeAndre said. “We may not get another shot at this. Hailey is one of our own, and she could be dead tomorrow. Now each of you, go boot one of the stations and get them ready for a tune. By the time Hector notices, we should be in Universe 89, and there will be nothing he can do about it. Ludie, get that barrier down.”
“What about me?” Jon asked. “I don’t know how any of this stuff works.”
“Figure out a way to bar the door,” DeAndre said.
“Why?” Jon asked.
“Because Hector is going to send a team in to stop us.”
Jon felt the hands of his compatriots disappear. One by one, computers and various equipment began to turn on. A light flickered here, and a boot screen appeared there. Hector was still at work in his office.
Jon turned toward the door and surveyed the room for a solution. It was a sliding door like all the doors in the facility. He couldn’t block it off because it would just rise into the ceiling like a science fiction movie. Because the control panels here would appear on the wall no matter where you put your hand, he couldn’t destroy it.
Jon was no closer to figuring out how he could prevent anyone from coming through the door when he turned to see Hector standing at the window in the office. He no doubt saw all the machinery coming to life and coordinates being tapped into the navigation computer.
DeAndre flipped his mask off, and his head appeared over one of the stations. “There’s no point in hiding anymore. Hector’s spotted us. How’s that door coming along?”
Jon tore off his mask and said, “There’s nothing big enough to block it off entirely. At least nothing that isn’t bolted down.”
Hector’s voice boomed over the intercom. “Stop right now!”
DeAndre’s glove came off and gave Hector the bird.
Hectors face turned red. “You’re tuning days are over! All of you. You hear me.”
The Tuners ignored him and typed at their stations. Ludie called out from his station that he was ready to drop the barrier.
Hector switched tactics. “I know what you are doing and trust me. I thought of it too. If there was a possibility of it working, I’d consider it. But it is too much of a risk, and I don’t want to lose you too.”
“Don’t listen to him,” DeAndre said. “He’s just trying to distract us while security comes.”
“It’s not distraction tactics,” Hector said. “The bootup sequence takes far too long. I just don’t want to drag you all to the brig in front of the rest of the crew.”
Jon heard security shouting down the hallway. He knew they would be here any minute. The rest of the team’s floating heads were busy at one station or another. Jon looked around the room for something to help and had an idea.
The guards coming down the hall got closer. Hector commanded them to reconsider their actions. Jon ran for a toolkit near one of the technician stations and dug through it until he found a screwdriver. The shouting was almost upon them, and Jon dashed towards the door.
The entry was on its way up when a floating screwdriver and Jon’s head skidded to a halt close by. He jammed the screwdriver into the edge, and the door stopped inches off the floor. Jon could hear the security agent inform Hector about the door, and the pleas turned into curses and more threats.
“I will strand you in a universe that is a post-apocalyptic wasteland!” Hector screamed.
After the last instrument was configured, the platform powered up. Buzzers and lights flashed a warning about a tune. Hector pounded on the window. The team ran towards the platform.
They all pulled out their TF3s. The touch screens couldn’t be accessed with the invisibility gloves. The security team outside had brought in a machine to pry open the door. Jon could see the chins of men and wom
en ready to crawl inside. Patel helped Jon flip through the dial until they got to Universe 89. Along the way, he heard the sound of 39e and the cultists’ homeworld. He was starting to get the hang of this. He learned quickly because it was a lot like music for him.
Rashaun had a game called Name That Tune, and Jon was the reigning champion. They would cover up the screen of their phones and play songs at random. The first person to name the song won the round. Jon usually got the song on the first drumbeats or the first couple notes. Most of his friends had to wait till they heard the singer before they could even guess.
Just before they were about to tune, the door rose enough for people to crawl through. The glass shattered in the conference room. A team of security swung into the window with ropes.
“Ludie! Now!” Patel said.
He hit the tune button on his device, and they disappeared, leaving Ludie to face the wrath of Hector
∆∆∆
Jon appeared in a long bright hallway. Fluorescent lights were stretching in either direction. He was no longer as disorientated from tuning as he used to be. The others appeared around him. They took off their invisibility suits and shoved them into their invisible backpacks. The bodysuits had fit well over their normal clothes, so it had worked out well.
“Anyone know where we tuned?” Deandre said.
Patel pulled up a map on her TF3, and the others leaned in closer. Jon couldn’t see what was happening, so he glanced around the corner of the hallway. There was a soda machine and a mall beyond that. It looked like a run of the mill mall just like from his universe. The stores had different names than he was used to, but it still looked normal. The militaristic and warlike world he was expecting didn’t seem to exist.
A black man in a baseball hat hit the side of the machine. He turned to Jon and said, “Man, you have a quarter?”
Jon still had the quarter he had found in his pocket. He flipped it toward the guy. Jon wasn’t even sure it would work in this universe, but it was worth a shot. DeAndre and the others came around the corner.