by Roy C. Booth
The techie shook his head no. “Lots of reasons I can't do that. You need a form signed by the Chair of your Department. I'm about to pack up and leave—closing the shop early today, I have an appointment—”
“Okay,” Jon knew all about the forms, and how intractable the techies were about requiring them. The money would be deducted from their salaries, maybe worse, if any computer went missing. “Thanks,” Jon said. “I'll see if I can come back with the signed form tomorrow—that okay?” Best Jon could do—his Chair was in Manhattan today.
The techie shrugged.
“Thanks,” Jon said, again.
He and Chandler left the building. Ordinarily, Jon would have complained about the repair facility closing early, it would have driven him a little crazy, but not today. Let the techie shut down the room and go to his appointment. With a new set of broken computers to deal with tomorrow, the techie would likely not give Jon's computer another thought. And then Jon could get his computer, and try to find someone who could get it to work.
Meanwhile, the best thing to do now, Jon considered, was call Sasha. Maybe it was the best thing in any case. If she could send him another copy of her program that Jon could install on a fresh computer, that would take care of everything. He didn't see why she wouldn't send it to him.
But he didn't want to call Sasha right in front of Chandler. He started to thank Chandler, and say he had to be getting home.
“But there's a lot more I'd like to know about this,” Chandler objected, “a lot more we need to discuss.”
“I know,” Jon said. “But I can't do it now.” Not before he spoke to Sasha. With no evidence in hand, Chandler couldn't do much, not anything really, with what he had just seen. Anyone other than Jon and Sasha would dismiss Chandler as a nutcase if he'd try to inform them about what he thought had just happened.
They approached the garage. “Can I give you a lift to the train?” Jon asked Chandler, in a bid to get him off campus and as far away from the computer as possible.
Chandler was clearly still not happy about the way this day was concluding, but he accepted the offer. “Sure, thanks.”
Jon dropped him off at the Metro-North, and swung over to the parkway. He'd call Sasha as soon as he got home and gave Trudi a long hug.
Eugene 2
The slightly different universe...
Eugene had been keeping an eye on the lab from a safe distance down the corridor . As soon as Jon left, Eugene went right over to Jon's computer. He turned it on, called up the program Sasha had left Jon, and then the program Sasha had left on Jon's computer for Eugene. He smiled broadly.
He Skyped Sasha. “I think we can move on to our next couplet now,” Eugene told her. “The Jons seem to have reached their equilibrium.”
“Good,” Sasha said. “Took the Jon in the other universe long enough.”
“Yeah, we need to look into that, could be an important data point,” Eugene said. “The soda on the keyboard was of course my doing—part of our protocol for seeing what happens when real life throws in a monkey wrench. But I can’t figure why the computer techie was taking so long.”
“Could be another monkey wrench—unexpected—could be he ran some diagnostic and found something unusual about our program,” Sasha said,
“It’s supposed to be self-disguising to the usual scans.”
“I know. You should get the computer out his hands in any case,” Sasha said.
“Yeah, the tech center should be closing in under an hour. That’ll be my next stop today.”
“Good.”
“Meanwhile, you proceeding well with Professor Ramapuram out there?” Eugene asked.
“Yah,” Sasha nodded.
“Excellent. I've been accepted as his grad assistant in the Fall. You leave him the code at the end of this term, and move on to another school. I'll come out there to keep watch and we'll be in business, just as with Jon and the others.”
“Jon will likely be calling me, to get a little more clarity on what's been happening to him.”
Eugene laughed. “Tell him the usual. You stumbled on to this program with the quantum mechanical app, wasn't really sure what it could do, so you left it in his wiser hands. Give him your heartfelt apology for not telling him more up-front... He'd need a nova of light to understand what's really happening—hey, we're not much better, are we?”
“But I'll shut him down, tell him the program is unstable, that I need to do much more work on it before I set it loose again—give to anyone as a present,” Sasha said.
“Right,” Eugene said, and his eyes were thoughtful. “You think our alternates, Eugene and Sasha in the parallel universe, are having something like this same conversation right now?”
Now Sasha smiled. “I'll do you one better: You think there may be another group of happy researchers, much like us, in yet another parallel universe, and they're running us, testing our responses, just as we've been doing with the Jons?”
END
PAUL LEVINSON is an American author and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. Levinson’s science fiction, sf/mystery, and popular and scholarly non-fiction works have been translated into twelve languages. As a commentator on media, popular culture, and science fiction Levinson has been interviewed more than 500 times on local, national, and international television and radio.
His most recent novel is Unburning Alexandria (2013) and his newest non-fiction book is New New Media (2009). The Silk Code won the Locus Award for Best First Novel of 1999. His novel The Consciousness Plague won the 2003 Mary Shelley Award for outstanding Fictional Work. His novella “Loose Ends” was a 1998 Hugo Award finalist, a finalist for the 1998 Sturgeon Award, and a finalist for the 1997 Nebula Award. The radio play of his novelette “The Chronology Protection Case” was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play of 2002. His Amazon Author page is www.amazon.com/Paul-Levinson/e/B000APZZZK.
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Table of Contents
About our Editors
Titles Released
Title Verso
Introduction
Mech
Last Human
Annabella's Children
Living In The Singularity
Cotner's Bot
Midnight Pearls Blue
Better Than Everything
Ex Machina
Island
Meerga
To Sleep, Perchance
The Walk
The Electrified Ants
Extremum
Attention Whore
Unholy Grail
Extra Credit
Afterword