Minutemen- Parallel Lives

by David Danforth

  “Thorpe’s dead, isn’t he?” she asked.

  Cobb was as still as a statue, except for his smile, which grew with each passing silent moment.

  “Oh, come on.” Kaylan caught on. “It’s still one question. It’s a multi-part question.”

  Cobb remained silent.

  Kaylan sighed. “Fine. You were a plant on my team, Thorpe’s mole, and you killed the man I...you murdered a friend of mine. Miguel Scott.”

  Cobb rubbed his chin. “Scott? He’s in charge of our overseas ambassador program. Why did I, I mean, why did the Cobb on your Earth kill him?”

  Kaylan folded her arms and pursed her lips.

  Cobb rolled his eyes. “Yes, Thorpe is dead,” he said.

  “Cobb killed Miguel because he figured out...” Again, Kaylan hesitated. This Cobb didn’t seem to understand why she was here. This probably meant there were no Mulvari captured in cages beneath her, which perhaps meant this Earth was safe from a Guardian invasion.

  “Figured out what?” Cobb prodded.

  Kaylan shook her head. “Sorry,” she said. “Just taking a moment to realize God’s sense of irony extends throughout the multiverse.” She cleared her throat. “He figured out highly sensitive, highly confidential tech TPC was using. It was against his NDA. Thorpe ordered Cobb to terminate him.”

  “You’re lying,” Cobb said.

  “I’m not. Did Kaylan have you kill Thorpe before or after you two were married?” Kaylan asked.

  Cobb stared at her intently, as if his eyes were lie detectors. “I didn’t kill Thorpe,” he said.

  “Now you’re lying,” Kaylan said. “The Kaylan I saw wouldn’t have someone inexperienced as her bodyguard. And if you’re anything like the Cobb I knew, you’d do it if the price was right.”

  “There aren’t enough credits in the world that would make me take a contract to kill the ruler of the world.”

  “I didn’t say your payment was monetary.”

  “I didn’t say I was inexperienced,” Cobb said. “What was the tech your boyfriend found out about?”

  Kaylan shook her head. “No idea,” she muttered.

  “Really?” Cobb smiled. “If you’re anything like the Kaylan I know, you wouldn’t let an NDA stop you from finding out why your boyfriend was killed. Thorpe was your father; why didn’t you just ask him?”

  Because at the time, I had no idea Thorpe was my father, Kaylan thought. And then the rest of this world fell into place. The rest of what she cared about, anyway. It was like finding the missing values of an equation. Kaylan’s father—the man who Kaylan considered her father, not Thorpe—was never in the picture in this world. Who knew what happened in this history. Honestly, who the hell cared. Thomas Smith wasn’t in the equation here. Therefore, CEO Kaylan had Thorpe as a fatherly influence from day one.

  It made sense now. As did something else.

  “Cobb, I’m going to test a theory I have. You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Well, we’re just here talking,” Cobb answered. “Your time is short. I really don’t care what you do. You were about to give me an answer though.”

  “I’m really bored with this back and forth, Cobb. Let’s skip to the end. Let’s go ahead and have your wife join us.”

  “I told you, she’s not here. She’s...” Cobb saw Kaylan’s look and grunted. “How did you know?”

  “Fundamental changes in upbringing can change a person’s core being. I’ve seen this played out in the Earths that I’ve visited.” Kaylan stepped back until she could feel the back wall of the holding cell. “I’ve seen just as much concrete evidence that if there aren’t fundamental changes...well then, the person, at his or her core, doesn’t change. You didn’t have any change of conscience, Cobb. You didn’t keep the DNA scan results from your wife. There’s nothing in it for you to do that.”

  The door to the holding area flung open. CEO Kaylan stood in the doorway; her eyes were wide, and her mouth, her nose were almost a snarl.

  “Get out,” she barked at the security person behind the desk. He almost flipped his chair on the way out, and CEO Kaylan slammed the door shut.

  “Nathan wanted to try a softer approach,” CEO Kaylan said, marching up to Kaylan’s bars. “Maybe a conversation will get you to talk about how this works.” She held the device in her hand.

  Every nerve in Kaylan screamed for her to lunge and try to grab the device from CEO Kaylan’s hand. She was quick enough, and the bitch was close enough. But she heard Ulf’s voice calmly remind her:

  Your prey is never dumb. If what you hunt is defenseless, you can be guaranteed that you have become the prey, about to be eaten.

  CEO Kaylan’s pause was all the confirmation she needed.

  “Nothing happens when you push the buttons,” Kaylan said.

  “No, but I’ll bet something happens when you do.” CEO Kaylan smiled. Kaylan had seen Thorpe smile like that, mostly when he talked about TPC’s laws over the land. “Ruling this world is fine, but ruling many worlds? I don’t even know what the word for that is, but I want it. I want it bad enough to work with you to achieve it.”

  Kaylan heard Ulf’s voice again:

  The counter to this, of course, is to act like the prey. Let what you hunt think they have you. And in the moment of their arrogance, strike.

  This was going to hurt.

  Kaylan slowly walked up to the bars. “And what guarantee do I have that you won’t just kill me seconds after we visit the first world we jump to?” She was facing CEO Kaylan, close enough to try to snatch the device. But that wasn’t how she was getting out of here alive.

  “None.” CEO Kaylan lashed out with her mini-stunner, but Kaylan was ready. She clamped down hard on CEO Kaylan’s wrists. CEO Kaylan could not stop her momentum, and they both tumbled to the floor, stunned.

  Kaylan knew the device would fall from her hand, but it was fifty-fifty as to which way it would bounce.

  As it happened, it bounced right at the Cobb’s feet.

  Kaylan fought through the numbness. She tried to use her arms to prop herself up, but both arms collapsed like a pile of rocks.

  “Cobb,” she whispered.

  She watched Cobb pick up the device.

  “Cobb.” Kaylan got up on her knees. Then, using the bars, she pulled herself up to stand. “I know what’s at your core. You’re a survivor.”

  “Nathan,” CEO Kaylan mumbled. She was coming to.

  “You’re a survivor, Cobb.” Kaylan blinked, closing her eyes tight, fighting through the pin-sharp pain. “You need to listen to me right now. You give me that device, and I’m gone, and you and your wife can go back to your normal life.”

  “Nathan, don’t do that.” CEO Kaylan tried to stand, but sprawled back on the floor.

  “Listen to me carefully, Cobb.” For each second that passed, the pain in Kaylan’s body receded. “If your wife uses that device, if I’m here on this Earth any longer than I need to be, an alien race will come to this planet and exterminate everyone.” Kaylan pointed to her CEO double. “Except her. Your wife. They’ll carve her into pieces and make sure she stays conscious and alive while they do it. Then they’ll throw the pieces out past the front gates as an example to everyone of how hopeless it would be to resist. You’ll all just...wait to die.”

  “Damn it, Nathan, she’s bluffing. Think of all we could do with that thing. Don’t throw that away.” CEO Kaylan tried to stand again. She almost made it but fell to her knees.

  “Am I bluffing, Cobb?”

  “No,” he said, staring at her.

  CEO Kaylan was just about on her feet.

  “You’re a survivor, Cobb,” Kaylan repeated. “Now, make the only play you have left.”

  CEO Kaylan was standing. “You give that to me right now. You’re weak, Nathan, just like my brother, just like Travis. Like all men. You’re weak. You always have been.”

  Cobb threw the device as a curveball, just outside the grasp of CEO Kaylan, through the bars, and Kaylan stepped to
her left and caught it.

  “I hope you die, Cobb,” Kaylan said and pushed the middle button on the device.

  “Noooooo!” CEO Kaylan screamed as the room began to shimmer, and then with a sigh of relief, Kaylan left the fractured, haunted nightmare of CEO Kaylan’s world.

  EARTH 5249

  W hen Kaylan arrived, it took her less than a minute to figure out she was in downtown Chicago. Besides the tall buildings of steel and glass to her left, the brisk air that gusted relentlessly, and the vast body of water that stretched to the horizon to her right, the last fifteen hundred Earths Kaylan had visited had really shown two patterns: Kaylan either worked at the main TPC headquarters, or she worked in TPC’s Chicago facility. There were deviations in the smaller details of Kaylan’s life. There were Minutemen, but Kaylan was not on the team. There weren’t Minutemen, but Thorpe wanted her close. There weren’t Mulvari, but TPC found the secret to time travel anyway. There were Mulvari, and they lived in colonies throughout North America.

  The first thing Kaylan did—the first thing she had done for the past seven years, ever since she left the nightmare Earth that was home to CEO Kaylan—was to find a quiet spot and recite her mantra.

  In this case, she spotted a nearby park, and some convenient shrubbery hid the far corner from passersby.

  Kaylan walked over and sat down in the damp grass. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and recited her mantra in her mind.

  My name is Kaylan Smith.

  My father’s name is Thomas.

  My mother’s name is Dorothy. She died saving the universe from my grandson.

  My actual father’s name is Damien Thorpe. He’s the reason I’m in this mess.

  Damien Thorpe captured the Mulvari, and now the Guardians have come to my Earth.

  I am gathering an army to fight them.

  I hope to get home, to 2075, before I die.

  She opened her eyes and smiled.

  Now let’s go find the Kaylan of this Earth, she thought.

  She walked across the park toward the building where TPC’s R&D department should be housed, at least if this Earth matched her own.

  [You’re me, aren’t you?]

  Kaylan jumped back and almost fell on her ass. The Mulvari. Were they here, trying to contact her?

  [No, I’m not the aliens. I’m you. I’m the you of this Earth.]

  Kaylan looked around. No one was within twenty yards of her.

  “Kaylan?” She whispered.

  [Yes.]

  Kaylan looked around. “Where are you?” she asked.

  [Behind you.]

  Kaylan turned around. She saw a mother playing with her daughter by some hover sleds. Something was off, but Kaylan couldn’t put her finger on it.

  [To the right.]

  Kaylan adjusted her gaze, but the mother and daughter were still in her peripheral vision. The daughter fell off the hover sled as it squirted from underneath her. It was a wicked fall. The child looked as if she were crying.

  Kaylan didn’t hear anything.

  [None of us speak.]

  “Why?” Kaylan walked toward her double. As she approached, she could see that this Kaylan was completely bald. Her skin was as pale as Kaylan’s, so her lack of hair was a little disorienting to see. Also, as with the last few dozen worlds Kaylan’s visited, the difference in age had made itself apparent in their physical features. Kaylan just passed fifty a few days ago.

  [Living with the Mulvari, we were able to discover a way to communicate that is much more efficient than speech.]

  Kaylan agreed it had its advantages. Not only could this world’s Kaylan get her message across, but Kaylan could also feel her double’s sincereness and friendly demeanor. Kaylan could instantly tell she had a good heart. It definitely cut out the time for needless speculation. How much more could get done if you knew someone’s true intentions before the conversation was even over?

  “So you know why I’m here?” Kaylan asked.

  [Yes, but you really need to stop talking.]

  It was too quiet, Kaylan realized. As efficient as it was, Kaylan preferred talking.

  [You seem sad.]

  Kaylan stared into her younger self’s glassy blue eyes. Was she sad? Feelings, emotions, they all seemed to blend together, more with each world she visited. However...

  “I suppose you remind me of Chip.”

  [Chip?]

  “He was a Mulvari that I...we had a connection. He told me—”

  [We are the One. Yes, the Mulvari tell me that constantly.]

  “Did they tell you I was coming?”

  [Yes.]

  “And for you to help my cause?”

  [Of course.]

  “Did they tell you what we’re ‘the One’ for?”

  [Of course not.]

  “Of course not,” Kaylan said, rubbing her eyes. “Did they tell you if I’ll succeed?”

  For a moment, Kaylan thought her double hadn’t heard her. She was about to repeat the question.

  [I think it’s best not to answer that question.]

  Kaylan smiled. It was an answer that Chip probably would have given her if she were able to ask him.

  “But you’ll still allow me to scan you? To fight the Guardians?”

  [I really wish you would stop talking.]

  Kaylan suddenly realized she needed to ask a question she had asked almost fifty other Kaylans. Taking a good look, it wasn’t just her bald head that gave Kaylan pause. She looked skinny—way skinnier than Kaylan ever was. Her arms and legs were long and dangly. She looked like a marionette dancing on invisible strings.

  “No offense,” Kaylan said, “but you do understand what we’re up against? I admire your spirit, but these aliens can snap you like a twig with one hand. Telepathy is a neat trick, but what can you really do with it?”

  [I agree it is not the most potent offensive weapon on its own. I am a mutant, however. I am one of only a handful of people who can do this.]

  Mutant Kaylan rose in the air. Floated might have been a better word. When Kaylan followed her with her gaze, she saw a handful of uniformed men and women, all pointing weapons at her.

  “What the hell?”

  At the sound of her voice, the uniformed group cocked their weapons.

  [I told you many times not to talk. There is no reason to, so anyone who does garners instant mistrust. The moment you spoke to me, the woman, who feared for her child, mentally called the authorities. DROP YOUR WEAPONS.]

  The authorities did as they were told.

  [NOW BEAT EACH OTHER INTO SUBMISSION.]

  Kaylan watched the half-dozen uniformed people, who were supposed to represent order, fall into a free-for-all brawl. Mutant Kaylan returned to the ground.

  [I assume the Guardians have brains, just like any other organism.]

  Kaylan smiled. I suppose they do, she thought.

  [You might want to scan me and take your leave while they are distracted.]

  Kaylan nodded, scanned Mutant Kaylan, and thought, Hope to see you soon.

  Kaylan disappeared in a shimmer to the sound of pummeling fists and roundhouse kicks.

  EARTH PRIME

  1

  C oming down from the mountains on U.S. Highway 50, thirty miles out from Sacramento, they spotted the Guardian ship in the sky, hovering over the old state capitol.

  “We have to stop here and walk the rest of the way,” Jessica said.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kildere groaned.

  Jessica whipped her head around. “Were you always this whiny?” she snapped. “For some reason I had a blind eye to it, but you’re really getting on my nerves, Kildere.”

  She stared at him until he looked away, then she tapped Havelson on the arm and pointed to a section of loose dirt on the shoulder of the highway. “There,” she said. “Park it there, Doc.”

  Havelson did as he was told. They all exited the car, and Jessica looked up in the sky. Gabe walked up next to her and followed her gaze to the mas
sive black spaceship that blocked out the rising sun. It was dark and inelegant with sharp corners and columns jutting out at random from a trapezoid base. The entire mountainside they were on was in shadow.

  “How far away from Sacramento are we?” Jessica asked Gabe.

  “Hard to say.” Gabe peered down the highway, following the road as if they were still driving. “Thirty-five, forty miles away maybe.”

  “Forty miles.” Jessica thought about walking speed. If it were just her and Gabe, they could probably make the distance before sunrise tomorrow. Unfortunately, Havelson and Kildere would slow them down considerably.

  “I’m thinking we’ll get there by noon tomorrow,” Jessica said.

  “Sounds right,” Gabe agreed. “We can’t stick to this road.”

  Jessica turned toward him. It took her a moment, but she understood. “By now our handiwork would have been discovered,” she said.

  Gabe nodded. “And if they connect the dead Guardians at the base of the Rockies with those we killed up the incline, then it’s a fair bet that finding us is on someone’s priority list.”

  “And they’ll have the luxury of not needing to hide,” Jessica said.

  Jessica watched the two old men slowly walked up to them. “Let’s go,” she told them. “Daylight’s wasting.”

  By the time the sun set, they had gone a little more than half the distance they needed to cover. Jessica had not counted on the thick wooded surroundings and the vigorous growth of foliage that covered old hiking trails. One advantage they had was that the trek was mostly downward. They were between Rancho Cordova and Florin—two cities that had little in the way of wooded areas between them. The night sky was clear, but just as the large Guardian ship blotted out the sun for most of the day, so too were the stars missing from part of the sky.

  They were close enough to that mechanical beast to hear the hum of its engines. A high, whining sound that reminded Jessica of the old house she lived in with her parents. When she and Timmy and their mom and dad were all together. An old house meant old pipes, and every time Jessica took a shower, it would make a similar sound because of the high water pressure.