The Argument of Constants

by Mikael Aizen

  * * * * *

  Janice's world was like a futuristic New York City, with soft canopy lights everywhere and a strange, dark fashion that would have rivaled the most horrific of Halloweens. Men and women were seven or eight feet tall, willowy. Their clothing was stiff with edged contours, accenting their shoulders and necklines. Their eyes were large with an unnatural dark blue color while their faces were thin and their chins, sharp.

  Janice herself stood in front of Taimu. She wore her jumpsuit, but her body had grown to fit it as if it had been made for her. She had long blond hair and green eyes, her skin had a slightly yellowish texture similar to the people around here. When she looked at Taimu, a soft glow came from underneath her skin and she sighed. "Taimu," she said. "You're the same." There was an overtone to her voice, like a melodic resonance catching the edge of dissonance.

  "Hi," Taimu replied. He looked at himself. His body had not changed and his legs, of course, did not move.

  The people, for lack of better term, gathered around, looking at him--and Janice--curiously. Their musical voices whispered and when some spoke together, there was a wave of bonding sound that made Taimu's heart feel anxious, it quickened.

  Janice went to him as hurriedly as these people seemed to move--smooth as the sound of their voices--and hugged him close and covered him with her body. He felt her warmth and heard the slow, whooshing of her heart that did not hold rhythm as much as shift in time to her breathing. She lifted him from the ground and swept him away from the gathered people, cradling him like a baby.

  Only after they escaped the questioning gazes did she speak again. "You did not change," she said. "This has never happened before."

  Her words made him feel curious, as if he was interested in exploring the strangeness himself. "I don't know what to tell you, Janice," he said.

  "Ji-nai--eh, here," she stumbled on the words. She smiled and glowed and she kissed his cheek. The feeling of her lips spread warmth through his skin and he flushed. "It is not your fault you are the same," she said, "I merely observe."

  Taimu shrugged, happy in her arms he leaned into her. The embrace felt natural, like two friends holding hands. She shivered and the shifting waves of her heart took on a rapid pace. He remembered that she'd mentioned that the further they were from the center of the universe, the more dreamlike he'd feel. She'd been right. "This is your world?" he asked.

  "Yes," she sighed. "Familiar." She giggled, a light sound like sprinkling water. "The fashion is very morbid."

  "Where are we going?" he asked.

  A quiet expression and the glow to her skin dulled. "There's a place, a man who created the first time machine in our reality. He will be sending the first traveler to the future, soon. We will stop him."

  "Won't that change things?"

  "The Traveler's Hypocrisy," Janice, Ji-nai-eh, answered. "You cannot change what has already been done. Because I am from this reality, I cannot alter what has already happened. In our history, the time machine was destroyed, forcing the inventor to create a new one, a better one that allowed our people to travel at will. We learned much and advanced much. This world's ancestors were the birth of the League."

  "But how are we planning to change anything, if we can't change what's already happened?"

  "Because you are from a different reality, more Real," she said. "By changing things you have the power to create a new reality, entirely different. If you so choose, the changes you make could open up a new portal, maybe even a new wing to the Gateway ship."

  "I could create a new wing?"

  "Yes, the ship is between times but it reflects realities. The shape of it changes with alterations in realities. From the ship we monitor and record the changes in reality through the Unreal, changes that anyone bound by time would never notice."

  "If the ship is between times, wouldn't everything be happening at once?"

  "The ship is not without time. It is between times. It has its own time, which is eternal, but all times and realities connect to it."

  It hurt his head to think about what she was telling him. "It's in its own reality, even if it's a gateway," he said.

  "Yes, that's correct." Janice said.

  Janice knew exactly where she was going. She carried him through streets out from under the light and she walked with an ease of confidence and as she looked about her, she glowing sometimes with a look of recollection. "This was two hundred years before your time, you said?" Taimu asked.

  She nodded but didn't offer anything else, she seemed impatient. They stopped in front of a narrow building with the tall rectangular shaped doors of the world. The building itself was thinner than any other, hardly noticeable it was so small. She opened the door by a handle like a motorcycle throttle.

  Janice pushed in and immediately she had a hand up, letting go of Taimu. Taimu slipped to the ground. "Stop!" Janice yelled. The inside of the building had tall man, taller than most. He stood in a clear dome with projected images on it. He was dialing on the screens with both hands and he had a focused frown. To one side was a girl standing within a ring of metal spouts maybe fourteen years old. She had blond hair, largely intelligent green eyes that widened at the sight of them. She looked familiar, as familiar as an alien could, and when Taimu saw her, he felt an immediate connection. Their eyes met and he knew that she was the one. She was Real.

  She disappeared.

  "Jo-sen!" Janice said.

  The man, Jo-sen, Taimu assumed, was staring at the empty spot in the room where the girl had been standing. "It worked," his voice was incredulous. "It worked!" his voice lowered, deep with excitement. He began punching more on-screen buttons, repeating the phrase as he worked.

  Janice yelled loudly, an ethereal and terrible sound like singing pain. The glass around Jo-sen shattered.

  "No!" Jo-sen said, spinning. He stared at them as if seeing them for the first time. "How will she come back? What have you done?"

  "Jason," Janice said. "Jo-sen, you have to listen to me."

  Jason? Taimu looked closer at the man and indeed there was a resemblance to the Jason he'd known and seen with the League. Alternate realities, same people but different versions. The girl. Immediately Taimu knew where he'd seen the girl. The girl was Janice, but younger.

  This was how she'd been so familiar with the world, Janice had been born here.

  Jason had bowed his head, sorrowful shaking moved his shoulders.

  "You have to create another one," Janice said, "a better machine. Change the Otrasoun frequency to 3.823 ethins, build a ectoclare casing, a larger circumference. You must be able to track who you send. Ji-nai is waiting for you. You will save her," Janice said.

  Ji-nai was Janice's name. She'd added an "eh" to hide it from Taimu. But why?

  Jo-sen was crying, Taimu couldn't tell if he'd heard.

  Janice turned and left, carrying Taimu with her.

  "What happened?" Taimu asked.

  "We failed. Ji-nai escaped before we could speak to her. I finished the events as they originally happened, and nothing has changed."

  "Why can't we just go back and try again?"

  "Because this is Real. To the Real Ji-nai, it has already happened. If we come back, then we will only be altering an Unreal version of Ji-nai, not the Real one. We have to find her where she is now."

  "Janice," Taimu said. "Ji-nai is you, isn't she?"

  Janice nodded. "Yes."

  "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "I did not want to confuse you."

  "That never stopped you before."

  "I...I was jealous."

  "You were jealous," Taimu repeated. "Of yourself?"

  "I am not Real, as you are. I wanted to be the Real me, not the Unreal." She turned her face away and they stopped.

  Her sorrow moved him and Taimu started to speak hesitantly, but then boldly. "Y...You are Real," Taimu said.

  "I am not."

 
"You said it to me when we first me and I'm saying it to you now, even if you don't realize it. You are Real."

  There was a tear that shimmered and glowed. It moved down her cheek. "You are wrong. This Ji-nai is Real. More Real than I could ever be."

  "No, Janice. She is not. To me, to me who is more 'Real' than anyone else you know, to me you are most Real. More Real than that Ji-nai because you've changed my life in Real ways, you've given me a gift--you've shown me that I not only can walk but I can change whatever matters with my will. That was you that did that, Janice. And not Ji-nai." Taimu didn't want to start a new life with this Ji-nai. He wanted to go to the True world with Janice. He realized this and instead of depression or sorrow, knowing that he wouldn't go through with the plan and he wouldn't walk again, he felt peace.

  He saw cloaked figures that were identical to the people of this world except that instead of the elegant faces of this race, they had fat faces of Koalas.

  "They're here," Taimu said.

  Janice looked up and her mouth opened in surprise. She began moving swiftly, towards the portal they'd come from. Taimu could see the portal. It was a shadow within a building's shadow, like a blacker spot than black.

  The Koalas watched warily and began to move towards them. The closer that Taimu and Janice approached the portal, the faster the Koalas came. Soon, the Koalas were running at them.

  One lunged at Janice, grabbing her leg. They fell in a heap. Another threw itself on them and then another. Janice and Taimu were separated. Oddly, none of the Koalas attacked Taimu. He screamed Janice's name and tried to interfere. He hit a few solidly, and they flew away like they'd been struck by a battering ram. He crawled forward, tearing the Koalas off of where he thought Janice was. He found her. She was a mess. Green blood dripped from a number of blows and scrapes, her bruises were dark green. Taimu covered her with his body as best he could. "Let's go!" he yelled.

  She nodded and crawled for the portal. More hollering from the Koalas, Taimu dragged himself beside Janice but he couldn't keep all the Koalas away. He pulled off his boot to extend his reach to beat back the creatures.

  At the stench of the boot, the Koalas fell back for a second. Some faint realization about the boots, at the effect they had on the Koalas stuck in the back of his mind, but he did not have time to process it. He didn't question and together they crawled through the portal.

  But the Koalas followed. Taimu heard Janice's scream again, but this time worse and with the panicked sound of someone about to die.