by S Breaker
Laney’s stomach churned but she shook her head, almost in mocking. “Noah, we both already know how this is going to end. We’re going to find the supernova and then I’m going back home. That’s the mission.”
Noah’s expression darkened.
“I’m displaced,” Laney reminded him. “We are literally from two different worlds. We’re not supposed to be together. We’re not even supposed to have met.”
He came closer, almost leaning over her. “But we did meet. I found you,” he replied fervently. “I literally went to the ends of the world to find you.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have.” She stepped back, giving him a half-devastated look. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m not supposed to be here. For god’s sake—” She threw her hands up. “None of this would have even happened if I hadn’t got shot. If I hadn’t come with you in the first place…” she trailed off, her eyes clearing after a moment as something clicked in her head.
Noah looked up, noticing her dazed expression. “What?”
“Oh my god.”
“What?” he pressed, almost impatiently.
“Noah.” She met his gaze. “The quantum jump machine is right here,” she murmured her incredible epiphany. “I can undo everything.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “What? What are you talking about now?”
“Send me back,” she repeated, a look of urgency in her eyes. “Send me back to that day. You told me the small-scale jump platform couldn’t do it, but we have the big one right here, right now!” She let out a short, jubilant squeak.
“You’re serious.” Noah studied her expression. “Laney, that would mess with spacetime even more. That’s exactly what Berry didn’t want to have happen.”
Laney threw up her hands. “This is different! This is better,” she argued. “You can send me back to the day we first met and I can make it so that I never even get shot in the first place! Don’t you see?” she implored. “Eleanor would still be alive. P.T. would be fine.” She shook his arm. “Noah, the world we’d just come from, it wouldn’t have all got sucked up into a black hole. None of the horrible things I’ve done would have ever happened!”
Noah was already frowning. “You couldn’t have known back then what was going to happen. And we didn’t have a choice in that last world.”
“Didn’t we?”
Noah shook his head. “No.” He tilted his head slightly to regard her desolate expression. “Laney, you have done nothing wrong.”
“But Eleanor—”
“Is not you,” he finished, his tone firm. “You can’t punish yourself for something you didn’t do,” he began in earnest. “The best thing you can do right now is to keep going and…maybe someday you can fix it.”
Laney still looked unconvinced, her gaze dropped in dejection.
Noah tipped her face up. “We’ll fix it,” he pledged with a resolute determination. “You need to remember, you’re not alone in all this. Whatever happens, I’ll be here for you.” His tone changed. “Besides, even if you did go back, there’s no guarantee things won’t happen exactly as they already have,” he pointed out. “You don’t know things might turn out even worse.”
That made Laney scoff in mocking. “Worse than this?”
“Yes.” He braced his hands on her shoulders. “Laney, I don’t want to lose you. And I know it may not seem like it now, but from the very first day we met—” A corner of his mouth turned up. “I wouldn’t change one minute of it.”
After a beat, she shot him a half-incredulous look. “Not one minute?”
He cracked a small smirk. “Well.” He amended meaningfully, “Maybe one.”
Laney couldn’t help a chuckle, but she couldn’t pretend his apparent attachment to Eleanor earlier didn’t sting and it was still fresh in her mind. She resisted the urge to make a face. “What about Eleanor?”
A shadow flickered across Noah’s face. “It’s great that we can get her back,” he admitted. “But you know how I feel. And what I’m feeling, it’s not for Eleanor.” He moved to cup her face in his hands. “It’s for you,” he declared. “It always has been. Not anyone else. Not any other version of you. Just you.” He shook his head again. “I know I shouldn’t. Believe me, I tried everything not to. But I don’t want to keep pretending anymore. Do you?”
His blue eyes were intently searching hers. But she could tell from the urgent tone of his voice, he wasn’t so much asking the question because he didn’t know the answer than he was wanting to hear her say it out loud.
Because he already knew the answer.
Laney blew out a breath. “This is such a bad idea,” she mumbled in exasperated ridicule. “I’m supposed to be going home.”
“What if you didn’t?” The urgency and tension in his tone were palpable.
She looked stunned at his question. Then she started to heave, almost in disbelief that she was even considering it. What would her parents say? She would never see Darla and Kevin again.
Laney stared up into his eyes. It always felt like he could see straight into the depths of her being. But was she prepared to leave everything and everyone she knew behind for him?
When she didn’t respond right away, Noah’s face fell for a second. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to put you on the spot. You don’t have to answer that.” He dropped his hands. “And I…understand if you feel your connection to Kevin is too strong. I know I’m nothing like him,” he said, his voice low. It was obvious he was trying to keep the jealousy out of his tone, but it wasn’t working.
Laney’s chest constricted at his expression. It was as though she could feel his desolation, his frustration. She could feel it deep within herself, mirroring her own emotions.
He was right. He was nothing like Kevin.
He was more.
A soft groan came from somewhere behind them as some of the soldiers were waking up.
Noah glanced over in alert. “Oh. We have to get out of here.” He motioned Laney toward the jump platform.
“Noah,” she began. Her chest felt full and there was another lump in her throat. She felt overwhelmed with anticipation and promise and resolution. She wanted to tell him everything.
He gave her a small smirk. “It’s okay, Laney. Hold that thought.”
She met his gaze with a reassured smile.
Noah tinkered with his HUD for a few seconds and looked up with a self-satisfied nod when a swirling vortex of doom formed upon the platform. “Target coordinates are locked in,” he noted, then raised his eyebrows. “Shall we?”
Laney stared into the menacing mouth of the black hole again before indicating a short nod.
And they both stepped through the quantum shear.
Jump
“Laney? Laney!”
Laney heard faint voices in her reverie but she was having trouble opening her eyes.
“Dek, do you have them?”
“There’s some kind of interference. I’m trying to clear it up.”
She groaned, still in a haze.
“Oh no. Someone else is trying to get them.”
“Hold on, Dek. I’ll help you focus the transmission.”
“Trin, I’m losing them. The shear is dissipating. I’m losing—”
***
350 light-years in the wrong direction
Near the orbit of Saturn
“K-drive disengaged.”
“Thanks, Sigrid.” Trin’s tone was calm, collected. Her entire crew of The Dauntless had probably done space fold jumps over a dozen times before and were already accustomed to it.
Meanwhile, Laney blinked hard. She had to hold her hand over her mouth to dispel the urge to throw up.
But when she looked up at the main window, her nausea was instantly replaced with wonder.
The ship was coming up behind an asteroid-like small moon, where just beyond it, Saturn’s magnificent rings bathed in the golden yellow glow of the giant gas planet, hovering in the big black void.
It was definitely
a far cry from the planetarium show.
“Wow,” Laney murmured.
Dek grinned from the seat beside her. “Haven’t you ever seen Saturn up close before?”
She shook her head. “Nuh-uh. In my world, we’ve only ever sent unmanned space probes this far out in the solar system.”
He furrowed his eyebrows. “But you guys made it to the moon and Mars, of course?”
She pursed her lips. “Nope. Just the moon. The entire space program sort of fell apart after that.”
He whistled. “On our world, after the Apollo missions, the space initiatives just took off—pun definitely intended,” he quipped. “And it’s been a steady journey to the stars ever since.”
“You’re lucky.” Laney craned her neck, narrowing her eyes at the view, even as she was still belted into her chair, but all she could see was Saturn and a few moons. “Where’s the generation ship?”
“We’re still about a half an hour away from The Aquila,” Dek replied. “We couldn’t risk coming out of K-jump right on top of it.”
“Cam, status,” Trin called out.
Cam consulted the several screens before him, pressing more buttons, before replying. “We’re good, Commander. I’m not showing that The Aquila has detected us.”
“Good. Keep our profile low,” Trin instructed. She pressed the communicator button on her earlobe. “Sol, keep your finger on the button in case we need to rabbit.”
“Aye.” Sol’s voice came over the PA.
Laney furrowed her eyebrows, looking at Trin and Dek in turn. The tension seemed to have risen on the bridge but she couldn’t tell why.
“Sigrid, what’s the current solar output of Betelgeuse?” Trin spoke up.
“Current solar output of Betelgeuse is at four-hundred percent.”
Trin nodded. “Start the timer.” Then she swiveled around in her chair to regard Laney with a stern look. “Last chance, Laney. Are you sure you understand what you’re doing? You might not be aware of this but cosmological phenomena don’t tend to wait for anyone.”
Laney took a deep breath, taking in Trin’s full meaning.
It was highly likely that she was going to miss the supernova altogether. She was going to miss the only window for her to be able to get back home. She was exchanging Noah’s life for her own.
She swallowed hard and nodded. “This is the best idea my non-genius mind can come up with. I mean, I’m not the famous Dr. Laney Carter,” she added, offhand.
Dek looked to be in deep thought. “Who’s that?”
Laney looked shocked. “You’ve never heard of Dr. Eleanor Carter?”
He shook his head. “No. At least, not in our world. Sigrid?” he prompted, glancing up.
“There is no known record of an Eleanor Carter being born on Earth or any other off-planet colony.”
“Wow. This is definitely a different universe then,” Laney mused.
“Are you sure, Sigrid?” Trin followed up.
“You can check for yourself, Commander. Shall I print all seven-point-five-nine billion birth records out for you?”
Laney stifled her laughter as she met Dek’s equally amused gaze.
Just then, the bridge panels all lit up in bright red while a loud alarm blared on the PA again.
Trin sighed, exasperated. “Sigrid, would you give it a break?”
“I am not kidding this time, Commander. I am detecting three Alliance ships on an intercept course.”
At that, Trin’s eyes lit up in alert as she spun her chair back around.
“Confirmed,” Cam verified. “Three Alliance scout ships about two minutes out.”
“So much for the element of surprise. Sigrid!” Trin yelled out. “Prepare evasive maneuvers.” She shook her head. “I’m suddenly regretting not getting that weapons upgrade last year.”
“I told you—”
“Shut up, Cam!” she snapped then tapped her ear communicator. “Sol, stay sharp. This might get a little rough.”
“What is it? What’s going on? Are you guys in some kind of trouble?” Laney looked back over at Dek expectantly.
He gave her a sheepish smile. “The truth is The Alliance is looking for us too.”
“What? Why?” Laney looked stunned. “I thought you guys were scientists?”
“Well, this is a science vessel,” Dek replied. “We study stellar phenomenon. That’s how we made contact with Berry a few years ago. We were already monitoring the red supergiant when we happened to catch one of the frequencies Berry was using for his experiments.”
“Here they come,” Cam announced, his tone grave as he watched his screen.
Laney jerked in her seat as The Dauntless made a sharp maneuver to avoid the scout ships.
“As you can probably tell the discovery of another parallel dimension is an incredibly big deal in the scientific community,” Dek went on. “They don’t use the term, but technically, The Alliance has flagged anything extradimensional as ‘forbidden’ and therefore illegal.”
“They can do that?”
“Cam, can you bring us closer to that patch of asteroids?” Trin instructed, pointing to about two o’clock of the ship.
Dek tilted his head to give Laney a look. “I’m not sure what you know about The Alliance, but they’re pretty much the government. They used to just advise governments on scientific matters then at some point in the last few years, they took over entirely.”
“Why?”
“We’re not sure.” He shrugged. “When they found out about our contact with another dimension on the monitored feeds, they told us to shut it down and surrender all our findings—”
“But you didn’t.”
“But we didn’t.”
“And now they’re looking for you.”
“You got it. They don’t know which team the report had come from. That information has fortunately been lost.”
“Ahem. Hacked,” Cam interjected even as he frowned in concentration over his console.
“Right.” Dek nodded. “Still. They’re really cagey about anything not from this universe. We’d all be toast right away if they detect our black hole radio or your presence. I’ve heard there’s even a standing bounty for anyone who surrenders trespassers from alternate dimensions.”
“Yikes.”
“I can’t shake them, Commander,” Cam replied. “We’re not going to be able to evade them for much longer.”
“You don’t have any weapons at all? Space torpedoes? Projectile cannon thingies? Nothing?” Laney looked at each of them.
“This is a research vessel,” Dek reminded her pointedly.
Then Trin turned to meet Dek’s gaze. “Dek, do you remember that time on ‘Proxima b’?”
Dek responded with an instant brief nod.
Laney blinked. “What’s that?”
He reached down to activate his magnetic boots and undid his seatbelt before unclipping Laney’s.
“Whoops—” She floated up off her chair.
Dek grabbed her arm like a balloon string and guided her back through the bridge doorway to the corridor. “This way.”
Laney could still hear Cam and Trin yelling in the bridge as they tried to prevent a full-on space battle which they would no doubt lose. She swallowed. “Dek, what happened on ‘Proxima b’?”
He merely winked at her at the same time pushing a button on a panel by the wall and a sliding door opened with a whoosh before he nudged her squarely in the back to shove her into the little capsule. “Happy landings,” he bade with a small wave.
Laney whirled around in time for the door to slide closed in her face and she was thrust against the wall as she felt the capsule eject from the Dauntless. WHAT THE—?
She heaved in alarm as she tried to peer out the window, but the motion of the escape capsule was making her woozy, and all she saw were the three Alliance scout ships closing in on her position, and then The Dauntless disappearing in a blink, before she passed out.
Anomalies
“Oh,
you’ve got to be kidding me!” Laney could already feel the tug of something restraining her wrists before she even opened her eyes to find herself in a small interrogation room, her wrists and ankles strapped to a desk chair with duct tape
There was a sleek curved table before her, the usual mirrored panel in the off-white walls, the single light fixture on the ceiling, and the door with the little glass preview window.
She tried to squint through the mirrored panel even though she knew it was pointless to try and determine if anyone was on the other side. But as it was, she was all by herself.
Laney blew out a breath. Well. Things could be worse.
She thought of The Dauntless, slightly annoyed. For all she knew, they could be cashing in on that surrendering the trespasser from another dimension business.
She groaned. And it probably served her right for being all gung-ho about mounting a big rescue mission, putting everyone else in jeopardy again for her own selfish reasons. She wasn’t trained for any of this. She was neither a genius scientist nor a super-secret spy. She was a laughably-average high school student.
She frowned and struggled in her chair, trying to figure how much movement she could still make in it. Then she peered at her wrists closely and then bent over to see if she could bite through the tape, growling at it in the effort. She was almost grateful they weren’t metal restraints.
But as she was leaning forward, she tipped over in the chair, almost falling face flat onto the table, if not for how she’d suddenly gotten up on tiptoes, with the chair attached to her back instead of her being stuck in it.
Her eyes widened in delighted relief as she realized she could slowly move to tiptoe back away from the table. Her eyes looked to the door eagerly.
Unfortunately, with her next few steps, she tripped and fell on her knees, before the weight of the chair made her sink on the floor altogether.