Convergence

by Frank Carey

  "They why did she go after Earth?" Pris asked.

  "She didn't. Earth is a peaceful planet populated by creative types. She and her motley crew were transferring the generators from one freighter to another when they activated. We think someone left the power supplies connected by mistake."

  "So, she has no ill will against Gabe?"

  Anne shook her head. "She still loves him. My sources tell us she planned on using the generators to steal a gold shipment. Our problems are usually low-key shit."

  Anne noticed the confused look on Gabe's face. "Spit it out," she said.

  "What does Gabe do for a living? "

  "My Gabe? He's a professional baker. His cakes are the stuff of legend."

  "And your kids?"

  "Three sons, all in the military. Katalan-humans are highly sought after by Force Command due to their superior reflexes. What do you do other than going up against mutant monsters?"

  "I'm a retired cop."

  Anne looked at Gloria. "With the closeness of the signatures, I would have expected a closer correlation between realities."

  "As would I," Gloria replied. "This disparity requires closer scrutiny."

  "Definitely. Feel like writing a joint paper...?"

  "Ladies, perhaps this is not the time for an academic discussion," Marta said.

  "Sorry," they replied in unison.

  "There is one problem," Pris noted. "We don't know where Zoe is..."

  "Or why her creatures tried to rob my warehouse."

  "So, if I can find Zoe, can I borrow her?" Anne asked.

  "I need to run your request by some people before I can give you an answer. In the meantime, how do you plan on finding Zoe?"

  Anne held out her hand. A device appeared in it which she handed to Gloria. "This is keyed to our Zoe's composite biosignature. Assuming your Zoe's got the same signature and she's on this planet, it can find her. I just need a power supply."

  "Do you have specs?"

  Anne formed an instruction book and handed it to the elf.

  Gloria thumbed through it. "Yeah, I think I may have something in stock up on Station One. I should be able to have it down here by morning."

  "And I should have an answer by morning as well," Marta added .

  "Gabe, why don't you give Ms. Kitra a tour of the Precinct?"

  "Sure."

  "I think I'll tag along," Pris said.

  "Priscilla, I need to talk to you and Gloria before that."

  You could flash-cook a pizza with the look Priscilla gave Marta.

  "Lighten up, Sweetie. I make it a rule not to fool around with cyborgs. No offense, Gabe."

  "None taken."

  "But you're a cyborg," Gloria said.

  "Exactly. Where to first, DCI Adon?"

  He made it a point to kiss his wife in a rather inappropriate public display of affection. "This way, Ms. Kitra."

  He took her by the arm and led her out of the room with vodka bottle in hand.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Once they were gone, Pris turned on Marta. "Are you crazy letting her tour the building?"

  "Commissioner, sit down and get a grip," Marta ordered. "Gabe is not going to fall for her feminine wiles. Grandpa loves you and only you. You need to moderate those Katalan instincts to rip her throat out in ritual combat."

  Pris plopped down in her chair, then laid her head down on her folded arms. "Sorry. Millions of years of reflex is sometimes hard to suppress, especially when you’re dealing with yourself."

  "She's not you. She looks like you and sounds like you, but she's not you. Computer, set security level five. Authorization McMurphy actual."

  "Working... Room is now at security level five."

  "What's going on, Marta?" Pris asked.

  "Gloria?"

  "It's been over two decades since Destiny, and more importantly, since Gabe and Rista returned from the future to save you, Gabe, and the Cube from destruction by Zoe and two of her strykers. Analysis of scan data suggests we are within a year of the departure time for those five people."

  "Shit. Why am I only now hearing of this?"

  "For the same reason that Gabe and Rista cannot know about their roles in the event," Marta explained.

  "Their knowing may lead to a temporal paradox, which is why you and everyone aboard the Cube was sworn to secrecy for all these years," Gloria continued.

  "And you think Anne has something to do with this?" Pris asked .

  Marta shook her head. "After talking with her, I think she's just trying to free her family from imprisonment. Her being here at this time is only a coincidence."

  "I agree," Gloria added.

  "I knew my hackles had risen for a reason when Gabe mentioned the temporal warning signs at the warehouse," Pris explained. "Are we really exploring time travel?"

  "We have been since Gabe and Rista appeared on the Cube. I've had techs and boffins combing through every Cube sensor log for the last two decades, and in the process, we've developed a whole new science, temporal mechanics, which deals with the flow of time. Recent events suggest Zoe has been working along the same lines."

  "But we have no idea how this goes down, do we?"

  "No, and the temporal boffins have no idea either," Gloria explained. "It will happen, and we have to let it happen."

  "And we have no idea whether or not they survived the return trip?"

  "Nope. I know it's killing you, but we have to let things play out as they will. No interference, understand?"

  "Yes, ma'am. Understood."

  "Good, now go find your husband and doppelganger."

  Pris was out of the room before her chair slid to a stop against the wall.

  "Are you like that when Lucien is dealing with a woman?" Gloria asked.

  "Of course. How about you and John?"

  She nodded, then they both broke out laughing.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Precinct One headquarters was housed in a 50-story building that filled an entire city block. Inside the massive edifice, people went about the day-to-day business of keeping the United States sector of Earth safe from threats both external and internal. Overall, it was a very busy place.

  "How many beverage stations do you have?" Anne asked as they passed by another one.

  "The building is 50-stories tall with a 300-foot by 300-foot footprint. Beverage stations are spaced out at a four-by-four grid, so every 100-feet, or 16-stations per floor, or 800-stations total, give or take. Each is designed to serve a variety of beverages which are non-toxic to all League species, so no bascula tea."

  "What's bascula tea?"

  "An elven beverage that is intoxicating to humans. Don't want any drunk agents running around packing blasters."

  They continued their stroll down the busy corridor.

  "Dad, Mom!" a young, uniformed Katalan woman said as she ran up with a young human woman in tow. "We heard about what happened at the warehouse. Are you two OK?"

  "Mom, why are you staring at us?" the human woman asked.

  "Girls, this isn't your mom. Her name is Priscilla Anne Kitra, and she's from a parallel universe. Anne, these are my daughters." He put his hand on the human woman's shoulder. "This is Saffron." He then moved to the Katalan woman's shoulder. "And this is Rista."

  "How do you do?" Anne said as she continued to stare. "You are both daughters of Priscilla and Gabe? "

  "Yes, ma'am," Rista said as she and her sister stared back. "You seem bothered by that."

  Anne reached into a pocket and withdrew a small device the size of a business card. She tapped it, then handed it to Rista. On it was an image of three young men. "These are my sons. Their father is my universe's version of Gabe."

  Rista took the device and showed it to Saffron. "So that's what could have happened," Saffron said as she stared at the three hybrids. She handed the device to Gabe

  "I don't understand," Anne said.

  Gabe looked at the picture. "Very handsome. We make great kids." He handed the picture back
to her. "In this universe, Katalans and humans normally produce offspring that are either Katalan or human. True hybrids with mixed traits are extremely rare."

  "So, you're both Katalan and human?" Anne asked.

  "Yes. ma'am," Saffron said.

  "Again, more unexpected differences," Anne noted.

  "So, Dad, are you and Mom OK?" Saffron asked.

  "Yeah, we're fine. We'll explain when I get home tonight."

  "And she's met Anne already, and yes, she's fine with me escorting her around headquarters."

  "Where is she?" Rista asked.

  "Conference room 1903. She was talking to Marta and Gloria."

  The girls hugged him, then shook Anne's hand before heading off to find their mother.

  "They're beautiful. They seem worried about your mate."

  "Nah. They just want to gossip. They're both very close to their mother."

  "And you as well."

  "I try. How about you and yours?"

  "The same. I miss them and my Gabe."

  "We'll figure out a way to get them back. "

  They came upon a picture of a figure floating in space while being impaled by a beam of light. "What a lovely painting," Anne said.

  "It's not a painting."

  "It's not?"

  "No. A short time before Rista was born, I was involved in an operation to save another parallel universe. That's me floating in space while a nova-powered beam of energy passed through my body. From there, it entered the other universe where it reset it. I was basically fixing a problem created by our Zoe's brother, Josiah.

  Anne's face went white as she leaned down and read the caption on the wall next to the photograph. "By the cave spirits of Katala! Your armor was able to survive that much energy flowing through it?"

  Gave shrugged. "It's a tough suit."

  "Do you realize the implications of what you did? The stress of an unstable universe could have torn the multiverse to shreds in a short time."

  "I think Gloria's people estimated we had like a month or something."

  "You saved us, all of us."

  "I'm a cop. I serve, and I protect, so stop giving me the "Hero" look. I am not a hero by any stretch of the imagination. Any person in this building would have done the exact same thing if given the opportunity. That's how we're wired."

  They continued their walk. Anne marveled at the beings she saw. Her eyes went huge when an Alturan walked up. "Hello, Commissioner. Gabe, Klenster's got a birthday next Friday. We were wondering if you would do the cake?"

  "Hey, Sam. Sure. Anything special?"

  "Sardines. He loves sardines."

  "Got it: Sardine cake, next Friday. Anything else? "

  "Nope. Thanks." Sam replied. He turned all three eye stalks toward Anne. "Commissioner, your husband is a real keeper."

  "Yeah, I plan on it." She watched Sam slide off before asking, "What... Who was that?"

  "Detective Sergeant Sam Slathor, Forensic Biologist. He's an Alturan. I take it your universe doesn't have sapient cephalopods?"

  "No. Serpents, reptiles, avians, felinoids, hominids, but no invertebrates."

  "Are you some sort of genius?"

  "No. I only have three doctorates. Real geniuses have at least five, so I'm considered a slacker."

  "I barely made it through the police academy. Well, to each their own..."

  "Dad! Look who we found?" Rista called out as she and Saffron led (dragged?) Priscilla over to where Gabe and Anne stood.

  The hallway went silent as everyone stared at the two Priscillas.

  "Don't we all have something to do?" Priscilla asked in her boss-voice.

  The crowd moved with a purpose.

  "Priscilla, you remind me of a drill sergeant I had back in my Space Marine days," Marta noted. "Anne, Gloria and I have gotten a number of balls rolling, but we won't have results until morning. Will that be a problem?"

  "No. No problem. The situation was stable when I left and my people will contact me if that changes. For now, I must wait."

  "Good. I talked to my husband and he would like to meet you in person, so you're invited to a small dinner party we're throwing at the residence tonight."

  "Residence? That sounds official. "

  "My husband is Prince Lucien Irithyl, Ventos Prime's Ambassador at Large. His sister, Losira, Warrior Queen of Ventos Prime, and her husband, General Royce Aymar, EMEF, retired, will also be in attendance."

  "Um, sure. I'd love to. Is anyone else going to be there?" she asked while giving Gabe a pointed look.

  "No, just us five. Come along. I know a great dress shop."

  "Can I join you?" Saffron asked.

  "Sure. The more, the merrier."

  "Have fun," Gabe said to their retreating backs. "Feel better now?" he asked Pris.

  "No, but I am relieved."

  "She seems nice," Rista said.

  "And I'm not?" Pris asked her offspring.

  "Rista, don't you need to go out on patrol?" Gabe quickly asked.

  Pris glared at him.

  "You're right. Gotta go. Bye," Rista said before giving both parents a quick peck on the cheek. She quickly disappeared down a corridor.

  Pris stared at the ceiling while she counted to ten. When she looked down, she found a corridor bereft of personnel except for her husband who had gone to Stryker-1 mode. "Are you trying to give me a subtle hint, Fool?"

  "Sweetie, you know how badly I suck at subtle."

  CHAPTER SIX

  Several strykers waited outside Zoe's office door while muffled screams and epitaphs made it through the thick walls. Mark, the leader of the strykers, ran up in full armor, expecting the worst. He wasn't far from the target.

  "How long has this been going on?" he asked one of his lieutenants.

  "Twenty minutes."

  "What happened?"

  The warehouse team was captured--two of them by Stryker-1 using Zoe's hacker balls.”

  "What about Gorth? He's impervious to that technology."

  "A new stryker showed up wearing Gabe's old stealth-mode armor. She nailed Gorth from behind with some kind of stun ray."

  "She?"

  "Yeah. The spotter says she could be Commissioner Adon's twin."

  "The commissioner doesn't have a twin. What about the tech those morons were sent to retrieve?"

  The lieutenant shook his helmeted head. "No joy. All three strykers are being held in an Elven Industries lab guarded by three EMEF teams and a dozen Minotaurs."

  "Get our contacts to find out everything they can about this new player."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Talk to the boss."

  "She's armed with one of those disintegrate ray guns she invented. "

  "I'm hoping I can grovel enough so as not to give her a reason to use it on me. Evac this section, but leave a vidbot to keep an eye on things."

  "Maybe we should gas her."

  "Right. That would just make her madder. Listen up! Everybody evac the area. I want seals in place at every juncture within 100 feet of this entrance. Move!"

  In moments, Mark was alone except for a single vidbot clinging to the ceiling out of the line of fire from the door. Mark was positive he could see it shake. Turning his force field generators to full, he walked over to the door and gently knocked before instinctively moving to one side as a beam of energy blasted through it. He waited as the door opened followed by Zoe walking out into the corridor. "Sorry. I hope I didn't hurt you."

  Mark retracted his armor. "No damage. Could you hand me the weapon please?"

  She gave him the gun butt-first. "Come on in. We need to talk."

  He followed her through the door and found the rough stone walls pockmarked with blast marks from the disintegrator weapon. "You OK?" he asked.

  "I am surrounded by nanorobot-augmented idiots. Mark, why aren't you an idiot?"

  He looked at her with pity. "Can I be honest with you?"

  "Sure."

  "I'm not your pet."

 
"Excuse me?"

  "You are the quintessential Tralaskan woman--smart, beautiful, with an ego the size of Mt. Lucifer. If you weren't so damn antisocial, you'd be hanging with your sisters while planning on who would be next to get a knife in their back."

  "How dare you! "

  "So, what do you do? You manufacture several hundred nanorobot-enhanced sycophants who unconditionally worship the ground you walk on. Unfortunately, they have no idea how to think for themselves, yet you send them out on missions that would frighten a seasoned merc. Doc, do you want a bunch of love-sick drones or a trained, cohesive army?"

  She sat back in her chair and leaned her head back against its cushion. "Ever want to turn the clock back twenty years and start over?"

  "You need to stop drinking and get some sleep."

  "I have a project that will fix everything, but to finish it, I need those parts the morons were attempting to steal."

  "Did you hear one thing I said?"

  "I heard everything you said, and you're right. I let my ego take precedence over success, but that changes now. I have two tasks for you."

  "Zoe...!"

  "First, I want you to put a team together to retrieve those parts I need. I don't care who you use or what you do. Just get me the parts."

  "When do you need them by?"

  "This afternoon."

  "You've either developed a sense of humor or you've lost your mind..."

  "Gloria has ordered the parts moved to another facility. They leave in an hour. Intercept the shipment, get the parts, then bring them to me. Simple."

  Mark just stared at her.

  "Second, pick one of our bright boffins to find out who this new player is."

  "When?" he choked out.

  "You have two hours."

  He hung his head in defeat. "Anything else?"

  "No, not right now. Let me know what you find. "

  He got up and handed her weapon back. "Try not to use this on me. I would be deeply hurt."

  "Humor?"

  "No, a plea for mercy." He walked out of the room.

  "Wuss," she muttered while returning to staring at the ceiling.

  ###

  Marta and her entourage walked into the boutique and were immediately approached by a senior sales clerk.