Deep inside an underground bunker in a secluded location in the Rocky Mountains, a dozen of the world’s leading scientists worked through the latest trans-dimensional calculations.

One gentleman stood in the back of the room, slovenly dressed in a shirt that hadn’t been changed in days and sporting a face that hadn’t seen a razor in weeks.

He ignored the rest of the team, not that he didn’t have anything to contribute most of what they were arguing over were his calculations. Punching some numbers on a handheld computer, he ran several scenarios with several different results. None of the scenarios were acceptable except for the one that included all of his original calculations. Some of the other scenarios would prove to be disastrous.

“Are we actually here to open a trans-dimensional gateway, or are we just screwing around?”

The room got suddenly quiet; all eyes turned to the man in the back of the room. As a two-time Noble Prize winner in mathematical physics, what came out of his mouth was usually considered gospel.

Most claimed him to be the true heir to Einstein; the rest claimed that he was a combination of Einstein and Hawking. What disappointed most was that he was no longer the vivacious young scientist like a rock star that turned the world on its head eight years ago.

With breakthroughs in quantum energy and trans-dimensional dynamics, there was talk among the community of harnessing the energy between worlds. Such energy, if harnessed correctly would bring the world out of the dark ages of oil and gas. Harnessed correctly, the power would take this world to the stars.

The scientist spoke before packed rooms made up of mostly young people, about space travel beyond our Solar System and even travel between dimensions. They would become the Columbus or Magellan of a new age.

This was all before the man’s wife was taken away by drug-resistant cancer. In less than a year the woman who was a picture of grace and beauty wasted away. He never left her side. When she could no longer walk, he carried her. When she could no longer eat by herself, he fed her. When she could no longer move, he sat by her side and cared for her every need. When she died, he almost joined her. He would have followed her willingly to the grave, but those around him would not let him.

“Jack, you’re scaring the children.” Rose Hawthorne, another Noble Prize winner in mathematical physics took a seat by her old friend and lover Jack Leigh.

They had dated for a while in college most of the time they ignored the Titanic jokes, but the relationship wasn’t meant to last. He was one of her closest friends, but she had always wished for something more.

She had tried to be jealous of his wife, Maggie, but they were such a good fit. If there was any truth to soul-mates, they were the poster children. She was ecstatic that he had finally joined the team to build the first trans-dimensional gateway. Of course, without him, they would likely not have been funded by any of the dozen or so nations that were paying the bills.

“Them young whipper-snappers.” Jack gave a half-smile as he ran through the calculations for the sixth time. She giggled; Jack was ten or more years junior to most everyone in the room.

“This is bullshit, Rose, where did they get those calculations? Did you see the ones covering the thermal flux? Did they ask some preschoolers write to them?” He typed in one of the calculations, ran the scenario, and thrust it in her face. “Boom!”

She looked down at his computer. He was right, of course; in fact, he was usually right when it came to trans-dimensional physics. It was as he was working on a different level than everyone else. It scared her sometimes. Mostly it made his colleges jealous. “You’re right, I’ll recommend to the team that we don’t use those calculations.”

“Damn straight, we won’t. Nicki Ioannou had some good ideas on Rift management. Why don’t we have her on the team?”

Rose nodded, the brilliant Greek scientist would have been a valuable member of the team; unfortunately, politics kept her away.

“Greece is bankrupt; they could never afford to buy into this technology. Plus, she made some enemies at the last European physics symposium.”

“It’s only because her theories stepped on too many people’s ideas on how the world should work.” He rolled his eyes and mumbled something about the idiocy of politics. He didn’t mention to Rose that he helped Nicki with that presentation. “When this latest test fails, and it will; I’ll go before the board and demand she is put on my team, or I am going to walk. Enough of the politics, I am doing this for everyone’s future, not so that Americans can run their air conditioners cheaper. Hell, if they push me, I’ll do it myself. I can get enough corporate backing, plenty of Angel investors out there with more cash than most countries.”

Rose looked at him with interest. This was the old Jack, the Jack that burned with new ideas. He never allowed anyone to stand in the way of his goal. She had a sudden terrifying thought of being left out. “You would still allow me to be on your team wouldn’t you?” She asked, almost in a little girl’s voice. It was as if she was asking to be on his team for dodgeball in school.

He looked at her with his bright blue eyes. God, she loved them. “Of course, don’t be silly I love your calculations on quantum disbursement. Crazy how much energy we need to bleed off, nothing we have now can handle that much output. Frankly, I think we should lock ourselves in a room for six months, maybe get another Nobel Prize out of the deal.”

Rose squirmed at the thought of being locked in a room with him. She cursed her unprofessionalism, but before she stood the Jack, she had once loved. The mathematician reached over and took his hand “Jack.”

He reacted poorly, throwing his hand up and immediately knew that he did. “I’m sorry, Rose, I can’t not yet.”

Rose nodded sadly. Jack was missing a part of himself, and she knew deep down; it was something that she would be unable to fill.

“Can I still be on your team?”

He looked at her and smiled, reaching out his with knuckles. “Of course, best friends?”

She nodded, giving him a knuckle bump.

Most of the team sat half a mile deep in the bunker with the tools of their trade surrounding them. In a small chamber, another mile beneath the room sat the equipment that would change the world forever. Wires and metals in an almost spider-like design thrummed with the initial subatomic energy.

“If we were smart, we would be doing this experiment on the moon.” Haruki Ito, an engineer from Japan, commented.

Stephen Carver grunted.” It would have been cost-prohibitive.” A professor from Cambridge and the senior researcher in the current experiment he was proud that his team wrote most of the latest calculations out of Cambridge.

He still resented the fact that Jack Leigh was brought in to oversee the project. They should have left him on his ranch to rot. If they needed him, there was always email. What bothered him was a rumor that Jack was going to pull himself from the project and get corporate backing.

A small side of the Cambridge professor, a side he kept well hidden, was in awe of the American physicist. The calculations he tossed out were difficult; it was almost impossible to understand how they were produced. Dr. Carver ignored the thought and brought up the calculations for the most recent test; they looked good enough.

“Dr. Leigh, we are ready to start.”

“Try not to blow up the planet, Stephen.” Rose joked. The rest of the room gave a nervous laugh.

The experiment, as Jack predicted, failed miserably. Stephen growled in frustration and looked up as Jack gave Rose Hawthorne a knowing smile. Then it came to him; the bastard knew it was going to fail. He, of course, ignored the fact that Jack had been telling them all week to change the experiment.

“Doctor Leigh, I would like to try it again but with some new calculations. We have run them through the simulator with varying results.”

Jack shrugged. “It’s your dime, Stephen.”

A half an hour later, the new calculations were loaded, and the experiment resets to run again.

“Make it so.” Jack laughed as the rest of the room just rolled their eyes.

All hell immediately broke loose. Energy displacement went off the chart, and all of the internal radiation counters popped around the room. “Settle down, folks, we are still Ok, but I recommend that all non-essential personnel move themselves to the upper floors.”

Jack leaned over and calmly spoke to the team leader for the group that would need to start the decontamination process of anyone who exited the lab.

“Jack.” Rose motioned to two of her monitors, then started to tremble.

Stephen Carver stood up and pulled his computer screen with him. The hologram screen flickered in and out a couple of times because of the radiation. “That shouldn’t have happened.” He dragged it towards Doctor Leigh, who watched his own monitors.

“Should have, would have, Stephen.” He turned to one of the engineers. “Get ready to dump the entire thing if necessary.”

“You can’t, Jack, it will cost us months of work,” Stephen exclaimed.

The Nobel scientist looked at Stephen with disgust, then reached over and started to type out some calculations on the fly. The Cambridge professor stood in awe.

“Well, we shouldn’t have to worry about months of lost work Stephen. We have a living gateway, congratulations.”

At that point, secondary radiation counters popped, and alarms began to go off throughout the compound.

“The planet, on the other hand, is going to be toast, actually maybe even this Solar System.”

Several people about the room started to cry. They had doomed the entire planet. The trans-dimensional reaction had gone out of control.

“OK, folks, not that it’s going to matter, but everyone evacuates.” Jack broke a small glass plate on the wall next to him then punched a large red button.

Sirens began to go off. Inside the control room, he pushed people into the emergency elevators. It would be like a rocket ride to the surface.

“Get as far as you can away from the mountain. I’ll see what I can do; I still have the original calculations that I can work with.”
Stephen looked around; he was ready to bolt. “How is that going to help? You cannot exactly run upstairs to your office.”

Jack laughed. “They are in my head.”

“Impossible.” Stephen then took off, leaving the others behind.

“You’re not leaving, are you?” Rose walked over to him and slipped her hands around his chest. “I’ll stay, too.”

Without a word, Jack picked her up and walked her to the nearest elevator, the last one leaving the surface. He gave her a quick kiss then threw the shocked woman inside. “I’ll tell Maggie you said hi.”

With four screens opened up before him, Jack’s hands flew over the keyboard, he had run at least two different scenarios, and all of them were bad. Rubbing his hands over his face, he was positive that the upcoming explosion was going to kill him way before the radiation.

“So, I wonder if you’re going to figure it out.”

He turned from his work and spied a young blonde girl sitting in a chair, spinning around in front of one of the control terminals. She wore one of those neo-Victorian outfits that were such a rage ten years ago. This wasn’t a weird reaction from radiation; perhaps it was something from the rift.

“Figure what out.”

“How to stop what is going on down below our feet.”

“I’m working on it.” He ran one more scenario; although it decreased the explosion by twenty-five percent, it wasn’t going to help.

“Boom right, you said that before. So Jack, how big a boom?” The young girl giggled.

“What’s with the gothic Lolita look? You know that’s a bit out of date. If you’re a hallucination, at least, I thought I would have better taste.” He turned around. If he was going to hallucinate, he wished it was Maggie standing next to him.

“Better taste?”

“Oh, don’t take it the wrong way, you’re definitely cute I’m just ten years too old for you.”

She laughed and then got serious. “How large, Jack?”

“Nova to low-level Super Nova, I am guessing.”

“You’re guessing.”

He shrugged. “I might be off ten to fifteen percent but close enough when you are talking about wiping out planets light-years away.”

She moved next to him to watch the screens. “You know if you’re going to stand there, at least help.” For some reason, he thought the little girl could actually help. He wasn’t positive anymore that she was a hallucination, much less a little girl.

“Not permitted, sorry.”

“Figures.” The Nobel Prize scientist closed three of the computer screens.

The scenario endings were all depressing. He found himself concentrating now on only one screen. His fingers began to type. She kept watching him then smiled when a bright spark went off in the back of his eyes. Jack began to make calculations on the fly within the program itself. It should not have been possible.

Theoretically, it took at the minimum thirty minutes to reload the calculations when the system was down. And they were never loaded by hand.

Jack did it anyway all from memory, and then he began to adjust the calculations. For a moment before the world went black he understood everything.

--0—

Jack sat on the edge of a moon crater watching the earth in all of its glory. He smiled; it was a great spot to watch the earth rise.

“So, no boom, kind of disappointing.”

He turned to the blonde-haired girl who stood next to him.“Sorry to disappoint, I kind of like the earth, how it is not scattered across the cosmos.”

“Oh no, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you did it. Good for you. See, I had a bet with the powers that be in this Universe and won.”

He didn’t believe in the powers that be in any universe but then again. “So, what would have happened if you lost?”

“The earth and most of the surrounding stars would be nothing more than expanding gas, and you would be placed at the bottom of a galactic black hole and left there for all eternity.”

“That’s good; I’m glad you won. So as the winner of this cosmic bet, what do you get?” He was pretty positive he wouldn’t like where this was going.

“I get you, of course. Jack, you scare the bejesus out of the powers that run this universe. No mortal should understand the inner workings of things. Your head should have exploded, but no, you went on your merry way creating havoc.”

“Sorry.”

“Oh, don’t be, it was a lot of fun. Now what to do about you? First of all, you have a reward coming.”

“A reward, I wasn’t thinking of one. I mean, the earth is still around; that pretty much works for me.”

“I figured that would be your response. So who is Maggie?” She smiled like she didn’t already know.

Jack began from the beginning, it was cathartic, an outpouring of his entire life with his wife. She was his only real existence for a living.

“So, Jack, would you like to meet her again?”

“You mean reborn, do that reincarnation thing? I’m not a spiritual person, so I’m not sure how that works.” He understood that in the strictest sense, she wasn’t an Angel, just something different.

“Oh no, you’re persona non grata in this Universe, my friend. Another dimension, I think.” She smiled when he didn’t blink. It was so nice to work with someone who understood how things worked, but she could see real hope in his eyes, a yearning for something missing.

“See, I’m actually here, not because of you. I am a Spiritual Detective working out the wrinkles in the multiverse. There is another Maggie without a ‘you, ’ and it’s causing issues.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” He then began to explain how that would cause problems within the overly complex systems regarding space-time. She began to jump up and down and clap her hands excitedly, which was quite the feat as the two of them stood on the moon.

“You have some growing up to do little girl, but after that, you’re coming to work for me.” She grabbed his hand. “Jack, my friend, I believe this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.”

“What, girl?” He never got out the rest as he felt stretched.

--0--

Jack felt someone poking his side, this constant irritating poking. One only person did that to him. “Stop that, why do you insist on doing that every morning.”

He opened his eyes, that voice wasn’t his but that of a young girl. He looked up and saw Maggie, but it wasn’t Maggie standing over him. She couldn’t be more than ten years old.

“Nadine, you silly goose, you’re going to be late for school.”

“Maggie?” it suddenly all came back to him, she was her sister. No, it was more than that. They were twins. Growing up on the outskirts of Paris they lived with their mother and father under the reign of Prince Jean-Christophe Napoleon.

Napoleon had not marched into Russia; there was no Waterloo. World War I and World War II also didn’t happen. It was a very different world, but it was the world in which Maggie and Nadine were born. He took one look at his former wife, his now twin, and began to cry.

Maggie immediately leaped to her side laughing. “Why are you crying, I didn’t hurt you?”

“I had a nightmare, you had died, and I was all alone.” Great sobs wracked her body. Jack had never actually cried before, but as Nadine, she let it all out. Maggie soon joined her, the two twins feeding off one another. Finally, they both calmed down.

“I’m not going anyplace.” Maggie wiped the tears from her face and then from her sister’s.

“I love you, Maggie.” Nadine smiled, joy filling her heart completeness she thought she had lost.

“I love you too, Nadine.” She reached over and held her sister close. “Always and forever.”

“Always and forever.”

Deep inside an underground bunker in a secluded location in the Rocky Mountains, a dozen of the world’s leading scientists worked through the latest trans-dimensional calculations.

One gentleman stood in the back of the room, slovenly dressed in a shirt that hadn’t been changed in days and sporting a face that hadn’t seen a razor in weeks.

He ignored the rest of the team, not that he didn’t have anything to contribute most of what they were arguing over were his calculations. Punching some numbers on a handheld computer, he ran several scenarios with several different results. None of the scenarios were acceptable except for the one that included all of his original calculations. Some of the other scenarios would prove to be disastrous.

“Are we actually here to open a trans-dimensional gateway, or are we just screwing around?”

The room got suddenly quiet; all eyes turned to the man in the back of the room. As a two-time Noble Prize winner in mathematical physics, what came out of his mouth was usually considered gospel.

Most claimed him to be the true heir to Einstein; the rest claimed that he was a combination of Einstein and Hawking. What disappointed most was that he was no longer the vivacious young scientist like a rock star that turned the world on its head eight years ago.

With breakthroughs in quantum energy and trans-dimensional dynamics, there was talk among the community of harnessing the energy between worlds. Such energy, if harnessed correctly, would bring the world out of the dark ages of oil and gas. Harnessed correctly, the power would take this world to the stars.

The scientist spoke before packed rooms made up of mostly young people, about space travel beyond our Solar System and even travel between dimensions. They would become the Columbus or Magellan of a new age.

This was all before the man’s wife was taken away by drug-resistant cancer. In less than a year, the woman who was a picture of grace and beauty wasted away. He never left her side. When she could no longer walk, he carried her. When she could no longer eat by herself, he fed her. When she could no longer move, he sat by her side and cared for her every need. When she died, he almost joined her. He would have followed her willingly to the grave, but those around him would not let him.

“Jack, you’re scaring the children.” Rose Hawthorne, another Noble Prize winner in mathematical physics, took a seat by her old friend and lover Jack Leigh.

They had dated for a while in college most of the time they ignored the Titanic jokes, but the relationship wasn’t meant to last. He was one of her closest friends, but she had always wished for something more.

She had tried to be jealous of his wife, Maggie, but they were such a good fit. If there was any truth to soul-mates, they were the poster children. She was ecstatic that he had finally joined the team to build the first trans-dimensional gateway. Of course, without him, they would likely not have been funded by any of the dozen or so nations that were paying the bills.

“Them young whipper-snappers.” Jack gave a half-smile as he ran through the calculations for the sixth time. She giggled; Jack was ten or more years junior to most everyone in the room.

“This is bullshit, Rose, where did they get those calculations? Did you see the ones covering the thermal flux? Did they ask some preschoolers to write to them?” He typed in one of the calculations, ran the scenario, and thrust it in her face. “Boom!”

She looked down at his computer. He was right, of course; in fact, he was usually right when it came to trans-dimensional physics. It was as he was working on a different level than everyone else. It scared her sometimes. Mostly it made his colleges jealous. “You’re right, I’ll recommend to the team that we don’t use those calculations.”

“Damn straight, we won’t. Nicki Ioannou had some good ideas on Rift management. Why don’t we have her on the team?”

Rose nodded, the brilliant Greek scientist would have been a valuable member of the team; unfortunately, politics kept her away.

“Greece is bankrupt; they could never afford to buy into this technology. Plus, she made some enemies at the last European physics symposium.”

“It’s only because her theories stepped on too many people’s ideas on how the world should work.” He rolled his eyes and mumbled something about the idiocy of politics. He didn’t mention to Rose that he helped Nicki with that presentation. “When this latest test fails, and it will; I’ll go before the board and demand she is put on my team, or I am going to walk. Enough of the politics, I am doing this for everyone’s future, not so that Americans can run their air conditioners cheaper. Hell, if they push me, I’ll do it myself. I can get enough corporate backing, plenty of Angel investors out there with more cash than most countries.”

Rose looked at him with interest. This was the old Jack, the Jack that burned with new ideas. He never allowed anyone to stand in the way of his goal. She had a sudden terrifying thought of being left out. “You would still allow me to be on your team, wouldn’t you?” She asked, almost in a little girl’s voice. It was as if she was asking to be on his team for dodgeball in school.

He looked at her with his bright blue eyes. God, she loved them. “Of course, don’t be silly; I love your calculations on quantum disbursement. Crazy how much energy we need to bleed off, nothing we have now can handle that much output. Frankly, I think we should lock ourselves in a room for six months, maybe get another Nobel Prize out of the deal.”

Rose squirmed at the thought of being locked in a room with him. She cursed her unprofessionalism, but before she stood the Jack, she had once loved. The mathematician reached over and took his hand, “Jack.”

He reacted poorly, throwing his hand up and immediately knew that he did. “I’m sorry, Rose, I can’t not yet.”

Rose nodded sadly. Jack was missing a part of himself, and she knew deep down; it was something that she would be unable to fill.

“Can I still be on your team?”

He looked at her and smiled, reaching out his with knuckles. “Of course, best friends?”

She nodded, giving him a knuckle bump.

Most of the team sat half a mile deep in the bunker with the tools of their trade surrounding them. In a small chamber, another mile beneath the room sat the equipment that would change the world forever. Wires and metals in an almost spider-like design thrummed with the initial subatomic energy.

“If we were smart, we would be doing this experiment on the moon.” Haruki Ito, an engineer from Japan, commented.

Stephen Carver grunted.” It would have been cost-prohibitive.” A professor from Cambridge and the senior researcher in the current experiment, he was proud that his team wrote most of the latest calculations out of Cambridge.

He still resented the fact that Jack Leigh was brought in to oversee the project. They should have left him on his ranch to rot. If they needed him, there was always email. What bothered him was a rumor that Jack was going to pull himself from the project and get corporate backing.

A small side of the Cambridge professor, a side he kept well hidden, was in awe of the American physicist. The calculations he tossed out were difficult; it was almost impossible to understand how they were produced. Dr. Carver ignored the thought and brought up the calculations for the most recent test; they looked good enough.

“Dr. Leigh, we are ready to start.”

“Try not to blow up the planet, Stephen.” Rose joked. The rest of the room gave a nervous laugh.

The experiment, as Jack predicted, failed miserably. Stephen growled in frustration and looked up as Jack gave Rose Hawthorne a knowing smile. Then it came to him; the bastard knew it was going to fail. He, of course, ignored the fact that Jack had been telling them all week to change the experiment.

“Doctor Leigh, I would like to try it again but with some new calculations. We have run them through the simulator with varying results.”

Jack shrugged. “It’s your dime, Stephen.”

A half an hour later, the new calculations were loaded, and the experiment resets to run again.

“Make it so.” Jack laughed as the rest of the room just rolled their eyes.

All hell immediately broke loose. Energy displacement went off the chart, and all of the internal radiation counters popped around the room. “Settle down, folks, we are still Ok, but I recommend that all non-essential personnel move themselves to the upper floors.”

Jack leaned over and calmly spoke to the team leader for the group that would need to start the decontamination process of anyone who exited the lab.

“Jack.” Rose motioned to two of her monitors, then started to tremble.

Stephen Carver stood up and pulled his computer screen with him. The hologram screen flickered in and out a couple of times because of the radiation. “That shouldn’t have happened.” He dragged it towards Doctor Leigh, who watched his own monitors.

“Should have, would have, Stephen.” He turned to one of the engineers. “Get ready to dump the entire thing if necessary.”

“You can’t, Jack, it will cost us months of work,” Stephen exclaimed.

The Nobel scientist looked at Stephen with disgust, then reached over and started to type out some calculations on the fly. The Cambridge professor stood in awe.

“Well, we shouldn’t have to worry about months of lost work, Stephen. We have a living gateway, congratulations.”

At that point, secondary radiation counters popped, and alarms began to go off throughout the compound.

“The planet, on the other hand, is going to be toast, actually maybe even this Solar System.”

Several people about the room started to cry. They had doomed the entire planet. The trans-dimensional reaction had gone out of control.

“OK, folks, not that it’s going to matter, but everyone evacuates.” Jack broke a small glass plate on the wall next to him then punched a large red button.

Sirens began to go off. Inside the control room, he pushed people into the emergency elevators. It would be like a rocket ride to the surface.

“Get as far as you can away from the mountain. I’ll see what I can do; I still have the original calculations that I can work with.”
Stephen looked around; he was ready to bolt. “How is that going to help? You cannot exactly run upstairs to your office.”

Jack laughed. “They are in my head.”

“Impossible.” Stephen then took off, leaving the others behind.

“You’re not leaving, are you?” Rose walked over to him and slipped her hands around his chest. “I’ll stay, too.”

Without a word, Jack picked her up and walked her to the nearest elevator, the last one leaving the surface. He gave her a quick kiss then threw the shocked woman inside. “I’ll tell Maggie you said hi.”

With four screens opened up before him, Jack’s hands flew over the keyboard, he had run at least two different scenarios, and all of them were bad. Rubbing his hands over his face, he was positive that the upcoming explosion was going to kill him way before the radiation.

“So, I wonder if you’re going to figure it out.”

He turned from his work and spied a young blonde girl sitting in a chair, spinning around in front of one of the control terminals. She wore one of those neo-Victorian outfits that were such a rage ten years ago. This wasn’t a weird reaction from radiation; perhaps it was something from the rift.

“Figure what out.”

“How to stop what is going on down below our feet.”

“I’m working on it.” He ran one more scenario; although it decreased the explosion by twenty-five percent, it wasn’t going to help.

“Boom right, you said that before. So Jack, how big a boom?” The young girl giggled.

“What’s with the gothic Lolita look? You know that’s a bit out of date. If you’re a hallucination, at least, I thought I would have better taste.” He turned around. If he was going to hallucinate, he wished it was Maggie standing next to him.

“Better taste?”

“Oh, don’t take it the wrong way, you’re definitely cute I’m just ten years too old for you.”

She laughed and then got serious. “How large, Jack?”

“Nova to low-level Super Nova, I am guessing.”

“You’re guessing.”

He shrugged. “I might be off ten to fifteen percent but close enough when you are talking about wiping out planets light-years away.”

She moved next to him to watch the screens. “You know if you’re going to stand there, at least help.” For some reason, he thought the little girl could actually help. He wasn’t positive anymore that she was a hallucination, much less a little girl.

“Not permitted, sorry.”

“Figures.” The Nobel Prize scientist closed three of the computer screens.

The scenario endings were all depressing. He found himself concentrating now on only one screen. His fingers began to type. She kept watching him then smiled when a bright spark went off in the back of his eyes. Jack began to make calculations on the fly within the program itself. It should not have been possible.

Theoretically, it took at the minimum thirty minutes to reload the calculations when the system was down. And they were never loaded by hand.

Jack did it anyway, all from memory, and then he began to adjust the calculations. For a moment before the world went black, he understood everything.

--0—

Jack sat on the edge of a moon crater watching the earth in all of its glory. He smiled; it was a great spot to watch the earth rise.

“So, no boom, kind of disappointing.”

He turned to the blonde-haired girl who stood next to him.“Sorry to disappoint, I kind of like the earth, how it is not scattered across the cosmos.”

“Oh no, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you did it. Good for you. See, I had a bet with the powers that be in this Universe and won.”

He didn’t believe in the powers that be in any universe but then again. “So, what would have happened if you lost?”

“The earth and most of the surrounding stars would be nothing more than expanding gas, and you would be placed at the bottom of a galactic black hole and left there for all eternity.”

“That’s good; I’m glad you won. So as the winner of this cosmic bet, what do you get?” He was pretty positive he wouldn’t like where this was going.

“I get you, of course. Jack, you scare the bejesus out of the powers that run this universe. No mortal should understand the inner workings of things. Your head should have exploded, but no, you went on your merry way, creating havoc.”

“Sorry.”

“Oh, don’t be, it was a lot of fun. Now what to do about you? First of all, you have a reward coming.”

“A reward, I wasn’t thinking of one. I mean, the earth is still around; that pretty much works for me.”

“I figured that would be your response. So who is Maggie?” She smiled like she didn’t already know.

Jack began from the beginning, it was cathartic, an outpouring of his entire life with his wife. She was his only real existence for a living.

“So, Jack, would you like to meet her again?”

“You mean reborn, do that reincarnation thing? I’m not a spiritual person, so I’m not sure how that works.” He understood that in the strictest sense, she wasn’t an Angel, just something different.

“Oh no, you’re persona non grata in this Universe, my friend. Another dimension, I think.” She smiled when he didn’t blink. It was so nice to work with someone who understood how things worked, but she could see real hope in his eyes, a yearning for something missing.

“See, I’m actually here, not because of you. I am a Spiritual Detective working out the wrinkles in the multiverse. There is another Maggie without a ‘you, ’ and it’s causing issues.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” He then began to explain how that would cause problems within the overly complex systems regarding space-time. She began to jump up and down and clap her hands excitedly, which was quite the feat as the two of them stood on the moon.

“You have some growing up to do little girl, but after that, you’re coming to work for me.” She grabbed his hand. “Jack, my friend, I believe this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.”

“What, girl?” He never got out the rest as he felt stretched.

--0--

Jack felt someone poking his side, this constant irritating poking. One only person did that to him. “Stop that, why do you insist on doing that every morning.”

He opened his eyes, that voice wasn’t his but that of a young girl. He looked up and saw Maggie, but it wasn’t Maggie standing over him. She couldn’t be more than ten years old.

“Nadine, you silly goose, you’re going to be late for school.”

“Maggie?” it suddenly all came back to him, she was her sister. No, it was more than that. They were twins. Growing up on the outskirts of Paris, they lived with their mother and father under the reign of Prince Jean-Christophe Napoleon.

Napoleon had not marched into Russia; there was no Waterloo. World War I and World War II also didn’t happen. It was a very different world, but it was the world in which Maggie and Nadine were born. He took one look at his former wife, his now twin, and began to cry.

Maggie immediately leaped to her side laughing. “Why are you crying, I didn’t hurt you?”

“I had a nightmare, you had died, and I was all alone.” Great sobs wracked her body. Jack had never actually cried before, but as Nadine, she let it all out. Maggie soon joined her, the two twins feeding off one another. Finally, they both calmed down.

“I’m not going anyplace.” Maggie wiped the tears from her face and then from her sister’s.

“I love you, Maggie.” Nadine smiled, joy filling her heart completeness she thought she had lost.

“I love you too, Nadine.” She reached over and held her sister close. “Always and forever.”

“Always and forever.”

Chapter 2

Hidden away in an empty freshman classroom in the Université de Paris, a high school student busied herself in front of a chalkboard. She had just completed most of her calculations based upon Friedmann’s equations that covered the expansion of space in homogeneous and isotropic models of the universe.

The basis of the equations came from Einstein’s theory of relativity. The mathematician was also hailed as a genius in this world. The calculations were nothing earth-shattering of course, but not something one would expect to find a sixteen-year-old girl writing.

Another girl of the same age stood by the entrance into the classroom, keeping an eye on the hallway. “Nadine, you’re taking way too long this time.”

An odd pair, although they looked almost alike but dressed very differently. Both wore their soft-black hair up in matching hair clips, but that is where the similarities ended.

The oldest, Maggie by thirty seconds, wore clothes more attuned to the fashions of girls her age. A little more risqué than her mother might approve but nothing distasteful. Her sister, Nadine’s outfit, came right out of the latest in Parisian fashion. Although quite appropriate for a girl her age, it would be more in fashion for a girl a few years older.

Nadine smiled as she tossed the remains of another piece of chalk into the air. These broken pieces of chalk were like her calling cards. Mostly she complained it was because the University was too cheap to get decent chalk.

These little episodes of academic graffiti, called ‘Hunting trips’ by Nadine had been taking place on and off for the last two years since their father was hired as a Professor in International Finance.

Maggie noted that her sister always scribbled some sort of mathematical calculations in and around their home though, for some reason Nadine insisted that their parents should not know. Maggie understood that it was a compulsion and when she became lost in those calculations, there was a sparkle in her eyes.

She never understood why Nadine did it, but it was something she would always support. Not saying it wasn’t fun. Confusing parents and teachers was something every teenager enjoyed. Then again, the young teenage girl was bored and really wanted to roam the halls with her sister and check out some of the new University freshman boys.

Before she could yell again, Nadine jumped off the stool, brushed her hands off, and gave her sister a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, that was fun.” She then gave one of her famous mad scientist laughs, which echoed, about the empty room.

Maggie rolled her eyes. “You have the oddest ideas of fun.”

“But you love me anyway.”

“Well, of course, that’s a given.”

Later that evening, the two sisters, now dressed in silk pajamas, lounged around the living room as they prepared for bed. Their parents were away for the evening, attending a first of the year dinner for all Professors.

As Maggie sat above Nadine, brushing her long black hair, her eyes were full of concern. Something was troubling her sister. As twins, for the most part they knew each other better than themselves. They did the twin speak, and at times their conversations bordered on the psychic, however Nadine had always been able to keep a secret part to herself.

“So what did you think of Christophe? Good looking as always.”

“Who?”

“Christophe Lefebvre, the whole reason why we went looking for new freshman.”

Christophe Lefebvre had as of last year attended their high school, now he was a freshman at the University. As the captain of the football team, he was very popular, and Maggie thought he would be happy to see a familiar face, mainly her face.

The girls were only a couple of years younger than Christophe and somewhat available. Maggie was wrong thinking Christophe would be happy to see her because the stupid boy couldn’t keep his eyes off Nadine. OK, maybe she was jealous, but something was going on with her sister, and she was beginning to get worried.

“No, the whole reason why you wanted to go search through halls, I was too busy hunting.” Nadine motioned her hand in a scribbling fashion. “Anyway I thought you had Marcel.” She said with a sneer.

Maggie had had enough; she turned her sister around and pushed her down on top of the carpeted floor. Sitting on her chest, she yelled. “What is wrong with you, why are you always a bitch around my boyfriends.” She grabbed both of her hands. Maggie could see tears forming in Nadine’s eyes, and it wasn’t because she was hurt.

“I’m not.”

“You are; even Mama commented on it. “ Their mother never liked to get in between the two girls, but she mentioned it the other day to their Papa. Mother, of course, used different words to describe her daughter’s actions. ”You’ve been like this since Sebastian.”

“Sebastian, we were in écoles élémentaire, that’s like five years ago.” Nadine rolled her eyes.

“And you were a bitch to him then. So why, what was he was doing that was so bad.”

“He tried to kiss you,” Nadine yelled back.

Maggie sat back, stunned. She then leaned forward. “I‘ve done more with Marcel you know. A lot more” Nadine began to squirm.

“Remember when you were at your piano recital a couple of weeks ago. I missed it because I was sick; well I was faking it, I had Marcel come over.”

“No, you didn’t,” Nadine whispered tears pouring down her face.

“I did, and I dragged him up to our bedroom stripped him of all of his clothes, and we did, well, you know. He has such broad shoulders and such a nice…”

Nadine now had her eyes closed. “Liar.”

“Yes, I know.”

She looked up at her sister, puzzled. “Why did you say that then?”

Maggie got off her sister’s chest and sat on the floor. “I want to have a husband, someday Nadine. I want to have children.” She reached over and rubbed the tears from her sister’s face. “Please don’t make me decide between you and a family.” The two sat in silence for a moment.

“So, what else is going on?” Maggie reached over and poked her sister in the ribs. To most people, Nadine could be hard to read. She hid her feelings when she wanted to, really well. Maggie was the only person who could take one look at her sister and know something was troubling her. “Is it our parents?”

“No, nothing’s wrong.”

“Liar, is it school? Can’t be, you make such stupid scary grades.”

“What your grades are as good as mine.”

“Hardly, so is it a boy?”

Nadine made a face.

“Or is it a girl, or tell me, Nadine, do you like girls?”

That took Nadine completely off guard. She stared at her sister in astonishment. Standing up, she brushed herself off and went into the kitchen returning with two bottles of soda.

Giving one to her sister, she plopped herself in their Papa’s chair, opened the bottle and took one long sip. She stared at the bottle for a moment then nodded. “Yes, how did you know?”

“Oh please, the way you and that Josephine girl were looking at one another. You completely ignored poor Christophe” Josephine was a classmate of Andrew that they met in the hall. “I wanted to scream for the two of you to go get a room.”

“You so did not.” Nadine blushed, hiding her head behind the bottle of soda.

Maggie squealed and bounced over to her sister, crushing her against the arm of the chair. Maggie was so excited her sister was actually acting as if she was interested in someone. She had been worried. Maybe if Nadine found a nice girl she wouldn’t be so alone when Maggie found a husband. Sure, their dating conversations from now on were going to be a little strange, but who cares.

“Do what did you like about her? She did dress well. She had nice shoes. I bet you weren’t looking at her shoes.”

Nadine looked at her sister straight in the eye. “You don’t find me sickening or weird?”

Maggie shook her head, taking a sip of her soda. “Oh no, you’re the weirdest person I know. Sometimes I find it hard to believe we’re twins. But, boy, girl whatever; I don’t care who you like. I won’t love you any less.”

Nadine smiled, tears forming in her eyes. “Cool.”

“Plus, sister of mine, I now don’t have to worry about you stealing any of my boyfriends.” She laughed and grabbed her by the arm. “So, who else do you like?”

After the parents came home, the two girls lay in their respective beds. Plans were going to have to be made to tell them about what’s going on with Nadine. Mama was getting a bit concerned.

Both girls were very pretty, but it was Nadine who the boys fawned over all the time, and she just ignored them. She had a reputation for being a bit of an Ice Queen. Maybe that’s why she was so popular, Maggie mused.

Her mother didn’t understand why such a cute sixteen-year-old girl wasn’t interested in dating any of them. To Maggie it all now made perfect sense. Nadine wasn’t really an Ice Queen, she just wasn’t the type of person to fake it. If she wasn’t interested she wasn’t interested.

Maggie also surmised that this was going to be a difficult time for Nadine, but at least she wasn’t going to be alone. It was still going to be a shock, there would probably be a bit of crying, but overall their parents would be accepting. Nadine said she didn’t care either way. She wasn’t looking for anyone’s approval. There was only one person that she cared what they thought, and that was Maggie.

“Nadine, when I get married and have a bunch of kids, what are you going to do?”

“Spoil your children, sugar them up and send them back home.” Nadine then gave one of her very best mad scientist maniacal laughs.

With autumn in full swing, the Augereau family found themselves at one of the many harvest fairs that seemed to pop up around the edge of Paris during this time of year. All kinds of apples, cheese, and bottles of Calvados were passed amongst the vendors to their customers. Artists, performers, and many other types seemed to flock to the festivals, so overall, the fairs were pretty interesting.

Nadine always loved these festivals. When she was Jack at this age, her parents would never allow him to do something so mundane. Once they found out that he was a genius at math all that was important was studying, practice for this, and that, all in the name of excellence.

There was no way that her old parents would go and have a simple fun day like the one they had today. She slipped her arm inside Maggie’s. Not that everything was all rainbows and unicorns, but things seemed to be working themselves out. Rainbows and Unicorns, she had to laugh like that thought would have ever entered her head as Jack. A girl in a dark blue gothic Lolita dress brought her to an immediate stop.

Her parents and sister jumped when she squealed. Nadine never squealed and watched in shock as she jumped over a small wall to throw herself on the small blonde girl.

Nadine’s mom turned to Maggie. “Do you know that girl?”

“No, I would have remembered someone dressed like that. Where in the world did she get such an outfit? Nadine should be having a fit about that girl’s clothes, she is such a fanatic when it comes to proper dress.”

“That’s your mama’s fault.” Her dad said with a chuckle.

Maggie’s mother ignored her husband’s comment, then asked nervously. “Do you think?”

They already had the ‘discussion’ with their parents about Nadine’s sexual orientation.

“Mama, do you question the same thing when I walk up to a boy.”

Her mother looked down with a smile on her lips. “Of course I do, I’m just curious. Oh, see she is coming back, Nadine is practically dragging the girl, poor thing.”

“Everyone, this is my friend Alice.” The blonde-haired girl gave Nadine an amused glance.

After the introductions, the family and Nadine’s friend all spent a nice afternoon walking amongst the booths of the fair. Her parents asked the girl the usual things, where did they meet and where did she live. Alice must have told them but if asked no one could remember.

Nadine and Alice walked through the center of the University campus towards one of the less mathématiques buildings. It was late, getting towards midnight; if the darkness bothered either of the girls, they made no sign. “I hadn’t really expected you to see me, but looking back I am not surprised.”

“You kind of stick out in that dress, if you like I can give you some pointers in proper attire.”

“I like my outfits, don’t you know?” Alice huffed, then the two giggled as they approached one of the side entrances. “We can go anyplace in the universe, any dimension, and you want to have this discussion in some abandoned schoolroom?” She reached over and opened the locked door.

“Useful trick, it’s not abandoned, just not used very often. Anyway, I like the chalkboard here. I wish I had my old H92 handheld, but this world is still at least a half a century behind technology-wise from my old home.”

“Why do you think?” The Spiritual Detective asked as the pair walked down the hallway towards the large empty classroom.

“Lack of two World Wars, there was a huge technology boost at the cost of something like 100 million lives. I’ll take the technology hit over the lives lost. Still, Imperial China just put up another satellite into space, which was exciting. I wasn’t born with the first space race, and I get to see this one from its infancy, very cool.”

“Other than me calling you Nadine, how are you doing?” The pair entered the large room, Nadine pulling up a chair in front of the large blackboard.

“I’ve been Nadine for over six years, I am pretty much Nadine now. I don’t really think of myself as Jack anymore. “She made a face. “Well, not true, I began to have real panic attacks when my sister started going out with boys. I felt betrayed.”

“I’m sorry…” Alice began, but Nadine waved her hand.

“I realized that my Maggie was not betraying me, and my sister just wanted to go on dates. Really, how selfish am I to make her choose.” She shook her head.

“Not your Maggie?”

Nadine smiled. “Jack’s wife, who he held until she took her last breath and wished to God at that point he could have joined her. Maggie, my sister is not that woman who Jack buried. She is my sister, my twin, and I love her as such. Still I think I am allowed a little jealousy when I see some creepy guy getting too close.”

The Spiritual Detective looked down. “I feel that I have wronged you, Nadine.”

“Not at all, look, Jack died. I have accepted that otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to move on or kept my sanity.” She whispered the last part. “You have given me a second chance, a rebirth. So besides coming to see me, which I am glad as I missed you, let's discuss why you are here.”

“You missed me?”

“Sure, why not? We only met for a little while, but I think we made a good team. Plus didn’t you say we were going to have a ‘beautiful’ friendship.”

Alice laughed. “I did say that I’m surprised you remembered.”

“So tell me about this creature of Entropy.” Nadine pulled out a piece of chalk.

“We don’t know where they come from. Maybe when the multiverse was born, perhaps they were created. I’ve never encountered one before, but one has appeared.” Alice frowned. “They don’t make ripples but tears creating havoc in those dimensions they touch.”

“And sentient beings actually make pacts with them? What do they get in return?”

The Spiritual Detective smiled, Nadine didn’t say just humans. Humans just played a part in the puzzle. “Power influence whatever the creature can provide. They are also terribly difficult to kill once they become one with the beast. You can see how certain individuals might be willing to allow themselves to be hosts to such creatures.”

Nadine started to work on the chalkboard; impossible complex calculations covering space and time soon filled the board. She removed part of an equation to fill the board with a new equation that could indeed cancel out the first.

Alice nodded, “Close.” She pulled out her own piece of chalk, and the two begin to work in earnest. Hours later, with a field of chalk bits at their feet the satisfied pair stepped back.

Nadine took one look and turned to her friend. “So it’s reducing the state of order within the section of the multiverse, and it can move from one location to another once it’s absorbed its host.”

“Yes.”

“So the beast does enough damage perhaps not even noticed until enough harm is caused that a system-wide catastrophic failure will occur with little effort.” Nadine took a seat.

A whole section of the multiverse could vanish in a blink of an eye. Sitting for a few minutes Nadine stood up and wiped part of the equation off the board what she had named the Devourer.

“Second law of thermodynamics,” Nadine said simply. “We need to isolate it, place it in its own system without outside resources.”

“A pocket universe?”

“Perhaps a Mobius loop, but yes, not that I believe in pocket universes.” She grinned.

Alice laughed.

“You will need to get it in there somehow. I would suggest a wormhole and then retreat before it could follow. Close the bastard up and seal it away forever.”

“Can you do it, create one?” Alice asked. “Would you know how?”

Nadine flipped the chalkboard over, closed her eyes, and reached for a piece of chalk. Alice watched for a moment then closed her hands over Nadine’s. “So, how long?”

“It’s coming to me in bits and pieces now. The larger part of the puzzle is complete. When Jack died, he knew it all, but then it scattered. I’m almost but not quite at that point.” Nadine spoke softly.

She has been both horrified and overjoyed at the further understanding of how things work. If she concentrated, she could almost see the process with her own eyes.

“So you will not experiment without my permission. I wouldn’t want my protégé being harmed.”

“Your protégé?” Nadine smiled. She liked that a lot.

“Come let’s get you home, it’s late, and you have school in the morning.”

Nadine laughed and took Alice by the arm. “Here, let me.” And the two vanished as the sixteen-year-old girl folded space.

What the pair forgot were the remains of many other calculations left on the other side of the chalkboard.

Nadine sat in class, spinning a pencil in her hand, obviously bored with the lecture. Although not an uncommon occurrence among most teenagers stuck in school, it had recently become an issue with the young woman.

Attending High School in earnest seemed at first like a dream come true. Like Jack, he missed the better part of his first run-through, graduating from High School at the age of thirteen, getting his first college degree by sixteen.

With math being his only outlet, Jack withdrew from the world. Of course, his ever-controlling parents saw to that, any obvious normal young person outlet had been closed.

Entering college hadn’t been much better; oh, the other students were nice enough, but not many fourteen-year-olds found themselves in an applied theoretical physics class.

Soon the sense of social isolation became almost unbearable, unable to fit in with kids even his own age much less fitting in with the college-age kids around him. Jack’s first meeting with Rose saved his sanity.

To this day, Nadine had no clue why a beautiful and vivacious girl would be interested in a weirdo like Jack. She pulled him out of the darkness, shattering his shell. More than likely, if Rose hadn’t met him, he would never have connected with Maggie. Jack never thanked Rose for that, now it would be impossible. More than likely, she cursed herself for introducing the two of them in the first place.

“Mademoiselle Augereau, do you find this class amusing.”

Nadine looked up, not realizing that she laughed aloud. “No Monsieur L'Enfant, I was just thinking to myself how much I enjoyed your lectures.” She said it with such serenity that the teacher felt mollified before turning back to the chalkboard.

The rest of the class looked at her, then smiled. Nadine was very popular, having an air of elegance and maturity that most children lack at that age. Her reputation, unless asked for a date, always helped those in need. Nadine knew that High School could be challenging enough without the specter of having to do it alone.

The sound of three black government cars screeching to a halt interrupted her woolgathering. Turning to look outside, along with most of her classmates, for a brief second she felt a bit of trepidation, then gave a slight giggle. No way would her ‘Good Will Hunting’ trips be the cause for government officials show up at her school.

Scratching calculations on college chalkboards might get her in trouble with her parents or, at worst a lecture from the Dean of Mathematics. She even made sure that the calculations didn’t go beyond what a graduate-level student would know, well most of the time.

Even if her foraying into secluded classrooms made her an Urban Legend, it wouldn’t cause the government to send men in suites after her. Rolling her eyes, Nadine continued to twirl the pencil but kept one eye on the door.

Moments later, Maggie burst into the classroom, interrupting the lecture. Nadine grimaced. She would, of course, be freaking out.

Running to the desk, Maggie dropped to her knees and whispered. “Did you see those cars drive up? Do you think we are going to get into too much trouble?”

“Maggie, please go back to class; it’s not about us. Why would governmental officials be interested in a little mathematical graffiti? Anyway, what are they going to do, charge us for excessive use of chalk?

“Mademoiselle Augereau, if you’re done interrupting my class…” Before the teacher could continue, the classroom door opened once more, revealing to both girl’s surprise, their mother.

“Oh, good I’m glad you two are together.” She, however, didn’t seem too surprised to find her two daughters together. “I am checking you out early, come on.”

“If this is what I think it is, then don’t worry. Relax, and don’t freak out. Enjoy the fun; you knew that this might happen.”

Before taking Maggie by the hand, Nadine gave a small mad scientist laugh.

Maggie just looked at her as if she was insane.

“So, mama, what’s up?” Nadine said in her most cheerful voice before getting nervous. “Nothing happened to anyone?”

Their mother shook her head. “Oh no, everyone is fine. It’s just that we have to go to the University. I’m not sure why, but your father called and said it was important.”

“What’s with all of the government cars?” Maggie asked nervously, not being in the best of shape at this point.

“Your Papa said that someone would come to pick us up.” She shrugged. “You know that he works for the Minister of Finance…”

Nadine had a sneaking suspicion that her mother wasn’t telling the whole truth. Nevertheless, after one look at her sister, who now appeared to have calmed down a bit, Nadine decided that her mother was smarter than she looked.

Watching the countryside, as Maggie talked to the driver, Nadine relaxed, thankful that the young man driving seemed more than happy to flirt with her. Unfortunately, her mother, although she tried to hide it, continued to look nervously at her two daughters.

As the convoy crossed the University commons, passing the administration building and heading straight for the hall of mathematics, Nadine started to bounce up and down. She knew the jig was up. However, one look at her sister was like a bucket of cold water splashed all over her. Maggie was having a terrible time holding it together.

Stepping out of the car, Nadine pulled her aside before enclosing her sister into a big hug.

“Maggie, you’re not in trouble. If anything, they want me, not you, unless for some reason you understand Einstein’s universal theory.”

“Einstein, who?” She smiled with a hint of tears in her eyes. “But I don’t want you to get into trouble either.”

“Trouble is my middle name.”

”OK, crazy lady, I love you.” Maggie smiled, sounding a lot better.

“Always and forever.” Kissing her on the forehead, the pair headed into the building.

For a brief moment, Nadine expected to be brought directly to her father, who would insist that she pay for all of the chalk used out of her college fund. However, with her government escort in tow, it seemed unlikely that the professors were worried about the chalk.

Passing the Dean of Mathematics office, Nadine’s interest was piqued. Down a flight of stairs, the group headed towards one of the larger general classrooms where two older academic looking men and her father met the group.

The two old frumpy looking men immediately put Nadine at ease. At least they weren’t being taken away for interrogation, not that she really thought that would happen, but she had several contingency plans in place just in case. Grabbing everyone and transporting her family to another country now seemed rather excessive.

“Papa.” Maggie ran down the hall and hugged him. Nadine quickly followed.

Without a word, he held the twin girls by their hands, pulling them into the classroom. They immediately stopped, shocked to find it packed with people, students mostly, but at the bottom of the auditorium sat over a dozen professors. The room, which had been quite loud, settled down as the group entered.

A tall professor approached and smiled. “Nadine and Maggie, your father, has been telling me good things about you. I am Professor Max Jaeger. It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.”

Nadine had to keep from laughing. Jack had met him at a physics seminar in Brussels. A highly respected in Academia, but a bit of a prig, the professor was not in the same league as those who were on Jack’s Inter-dimensional Gateway team.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir, I admire your work.”

That took the Professor aback a bit, but he recovered quickly and smiled. “I see, well we have a little math problem, and if possible we would like both of you to look at.”

Nadine’s parents were nervously left behind as the twins were brought to the front of the classroom. Why all of the shenanigans, Nadine thought. Taking took one look at the double-sized chalkboard she had to smile.

Obviously, the professors expected them to take one look at the equation and proclaim ignorance. Nadine really wanted to give one of her evil mad scientist laughs but figured it would be bad form.

Maggie leaned closer. “I don’t like that look in your eye.”

“Sure, professor, no problem.” Turning to her sister, Nadine said. “Go ahead and go sit with Mama and Papa.”

Leaning over, Maggie gave her the ‘you’re crazy’ look before kissing her sister on the cheek. “Have fun.”

The room became silent as Nadine pulled a piece of chalk from the box and studied the equation covering gravitational physics. As it seemed to be satellite data, she became curious.

The Empire had placed three satellites in orbit so far, the Chinese three. Nadine was more than a little surprised to find data here, but obviously, only a very few would even understand the math behind it.

All sorts of implications floated around in her head as she realized this was more than just a test to see if she was the person writing calculations on the chalkboards at school. Making a face, Nadine looked at the double-sized chalkboard again; it was a bit of a trick, a very clever deception.

The formulas were incomplete. She didn’t think that the professors made a mistake. Therefore, if she solved the equation, it would bracket her into one category. If she turned to the group and told them it was unsolvable, it would place her into another category.

Looking about the room, she had a feeling that there was another person involved with this little event. Deciding to pick door number three, Nadine decided she needed some help. Maggie seemed too comfortable staying out of this, which was fine. Instead, she found a cute little redhead right in the audience.

“Josephine, can you help me?”

The young girl looked surprised but nodded before walking down to the floor. “What can I help you with? I don’t understand anything on the chalkboard.”

“Don’t worry, I just need help cleaning it off, the calculations are wrong.”

As the two started to erase the chalkboard, Professor Jaeger stood up.

“Is something wrong with the calculations, Nadine?”

“Yes, they are incomplete.” She replied, continuing to erase the board. The room began to grumble at her observations.

“Why are you here Josephine, it seems like a circus,” Nadine asked.

“A few of the grad students overheard the professors talking about how they finally caught the Mathématiques Ghost, saying they were going to confront him or something. It spread around the University pretty quick. The Administration tried to move the room a few times, but the walls have ears.” Giving Nadine a thoughtful look, she said. “So, are you really the Mathématiques Ghost?”

“For the last two years.”

“That’s so cool.”

Finishing up, Nadine thanked her for her help. Expecting the redhead to sit back down, Nadine smiled when Josephine stood off to the side.

Grabbing a new piece of chalk, she began to write. The old excitement soon filled her body, the joy of the formula, the excitement of an equation solved. Little puzzles of the universe that on occasion, if fortunate enough, one can see why and how things worked.

As the first piece of chalk broke off in her hand, she flung it over her head. She admitted she was a bit of an exhibitionist, perhaps even a bit of a troublemaker. As a scientist, Jack always pushed and pushed, reaching further than people thought possible.

As the second piece of chalk hit the floor, the room began to grumble. Nadine ignored them all. When the third piece of chalk flew out her hands, she could feel the electricity in the air.

“Crappy chalk,” Nadine mumbled to Josephine, who giggled.

As the fourth piece of chalk passed over their heads, the room started to buzz. Nadine started to get hoots and whistles. She also quietly noticed a small white-haired man in a very expensive Neapolitan suit pushing forward to take a seat at the front.

Finishing the calculations, Nadine stood back and frowned. Sucks to be whoever owned that satellite, it was going to come down soon.

Finishing with a theatrical flourish, Nadine turned to the audience. “There you go, professor.”

What the hell, Nadine thought; reaching reached over, she gave Josephine a big kiss on the lips before tossing the last piece of chalk into the seats before walking out the door.

The room went wild.

Nadine listened to the ruckus she caused in the classroom. She was smiling ear to ear. It’s good to push one’s boundaries once in a while, then the smile faded realizing that bit was pure Jack. As Nadine, she had spent a lot of effort trying to be somewhat normal.

Crap, she was so dead. Did she really just stand up in front of everyone and reveal that she knew much more than your typical average sixteen-year-old did. Trembling, Nadine leaned against the wall then slid down as flashbacks of Jack’s childhood and the prison in which he lived fueled her fears.

Nadine’s parents were different; they were loving and caring and would do everything for their girls. She continued to tell herself that when Maggie burst through the doorway to throw herself on top of her sister with a squeal. “That was totally awesome! Half the guys want to date you, and I think some of the girls do too.” She grinned. “That was quite the kiss, baby sister.”

“I’m so dead.”

Maggie laughed and brushed the hair from her sister’s face. “Of course, you are, but you seemed to have a lot of fun.”

Nadine rolled her eyes and watched as her parents exited the classroom. “Oh, and I am so grounded.”

“Nadine Adora Augereau” Her parents stood a few feet from their child, giving her a look of consternation, frustration, and amusement.

“I can…err…explain.” She stood up, brushed herself off, and faced her parents. Nadine opened her mouth then began to wail throwing herself into her mother’s arms. The Jack part of her said she was ridiculous, Nadine told him to shut the hell up. It didn’t last long, especially when Maggie joined in the hug.

“Simone, I think we need to…” Nadine’s father didn’t look particularly happy.

“Hush Roger, give it a second.” Nadine’s Mama smiled at her daughter, the girl still hadn’t gotten a coherent word out of her mouth yet. “Better? So it seems that you are well good at math.”

“She is awesome. Mama, didn’t you see.” Maggie said. “She does this all the time.”

“With your help, of course.” Her father asked.

“Well, of course, I don’t do the math thing, though.” Maggie smiled, then her face fell realizing she was not going to escape punishment either.

Simone looked at her husband. “Roger, what do you mean by help?”

“It seems, my love, our two children have been roaming these halls for the last few years writing on chalkboards.”

“I haven’t been writing,” Maggie said, then withered under her father’s gaze. “I just keep watch.”

“Don’t blame Maggie, Papa, it’s my fault.” Nadine then went on to explain what the two girls had been doing. She didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. It’s not like they were writing on the walls or anything. It was just a bit of fun while waiting for their Papa to finish up with his classes.

“I doubt I’ll lose my job, Nadine, but it was highly inappropriate. You have disturbed quite a number of professors.”

Nadine couldn’t help but snort arrogant bastards.

“Roger, we can deal with that later.” Simone sighed and turned to her daughter. “You’re so good at math, why didn’t you tell us? We would have been supportive, maybe one of the Imperial schools?”

“I didn’t want to be separated from Maggie.” Nadine shook her head. She knew that if she displayed her particular gifts, there was a good chance that she would not have led a normal life these past six years.

“Figured that out all by yourself; well, you know that we would have never have separated you two. Your father and I would have done everything to make sure you still lived a normal life.”

Nadine looked stunned, then with a satisfied smile, she leaned her head on her Mama.

“She’s an exhibitionist just like your sister,” Roger complained. “Remember that incident with the Horse Guards.”

“Jenny is not; well, OK, maybe she is, but it’s hardly the same thing.”

“What did Aunt Jenny do with the Horse Guards?” Maggie inquired with a half-smile on her face.

“Can we go home now, please?” Nadine didn’t think standing around here was a good idea.

Her father smiled, “I don’t think we can, my math princess, we’ll have to wait.”

A moment later Josephine and scores of other students came pouring out of the classroom. Nadine had become a bit of a celebrity, surrounded by a crowd of admirers.

Josephine pushed through the crowd hooking her arms with Nadine’s. The crowd didn’t remain too long, most having to go back to class and a number shying away from Nadine’s father’s irritated look. After a few minutes only Josephine remained.

“Nadine dear, why don’t you introduce us to your friend.” Simone frowned a little remembering her daughter’s kiss with this girl. She was hoping that it was a phase, but she did admit this girl was pretty.

Nadine smiled and made the introductions. They spoke for a few minutes before Josephine dragged her daughter off to the side, went into her purse and wrote down what appeared to be a phone number. The kiss that the girl gave her daughter before she left made both her parents a little uncomfortable.

“And you complained when I kissed Marcel.” Maggie accused Nadine, of course.

Nadine blushed but couldn’t help but smile. She looked at the paper in her hand. This world was so in need of cell phones and email.

“Who’s Marcel, dear?” Maggie’s mother asked.

Before Maggie had to answer, several professors walked out of the classroom. “Ahh, Nadine. I see you have not departed.”

Nadine looked up Professor Max Jaeger was standing there with a number of his colleagues. She could tell that he was not terribly pleased, but he was putting a good effort into a fake smile. “You put on quite the show there, my colleague and I were impressed.”

“What type of punishment is the Dean looking at for my daughter’s little adventures?”

“Madam, the school is not interested in troubling a gifted mind such as your daughter’s with such trivial things.” There was that fake smile again. Nadine concluded that whoever placed the equations on the board was pulling strings.

“Professor Jaeger, how did you know that I was the Mathematics Ghost?” Both girls were always sure to use a secluded classroom.

“I see, well, one of our professors is having family issues. It seems that he spent the night a few days ago in his office. While getting ready for bed he saw two young women cross the University commons. He recognized you right away.”

“Getting ready for bed, what time was it?”

“I believe it was a little past midnight, Madam.”

Nadine’s mother looked shocked. “What were you girls doing out so late?”

“Nadine?” Maggie looked at her sister.

“Maggie wasn’t with me, Mama, it was someone else. She was asleep.” Nadine made a face this was unexpected.

After all, those years trying not to be noticed the one night she goes out late she gets nabbed. The school might not be punishing her, but she was in so much trouble with her parents. Next time she will take Alice up on her offer to have the discussion in another dimension.

“Who was with you, Nadine?”

“I’d rather not say, Papa.”

“Nadine.” Her mother barked.

“It was Alice.”

“You dragged that poor girl into this mess too?”

“I knew I liked her, Nadine, I bet she thought it was scads of fun.” Maggie giggled.

“Don’t think just because you weren't with your sister breaking and entering during the night it lets you off the hook.”

“Mama, it was hardly breaking and entering, we just opened the door and walked in.”

That was enough for their mother, she pointed to the wall at the side of the hallway. “Stand over there, don’t move, don’t talk, we will deal with both of you later.”

Nadine listened to her parents apologize for the umpteenth time. The professor just nodded with the fake smile plastered on his face. Obviously, something was going on, but Nadine would be sure to thank her unknown benefactor.

The professors were, of course, being ridiculous, sure, it might have hurt their ego a little that a sixteen-year-old girl surpassed them, but if it made everyone excited about math, it was a good thing. She remembered the faces of the young people who used to attend his symposiums when she was Jack. They were enthralled at the ideas expressed, the new frontiers that were opened.

“Well, that was fun,” Nadine whispered.

“You have a weird definition of fun as usual, but I still think you were cool,” Maggie whispered.

The math princess couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks.” Still, there was going to be a price, and she hoped it wasn’t too dear.

--0--

Nadine sat in the middle of class, drawing little hearts in and around some fractional calculus formulas. There was an agreement with her parents that her math classes would change, so she now sat in the middle of a bunch of seniors in honors calculus.

The class at least was an improvement over the basic geometry class that she had been forced to take. Madam Wadia was a good teacher, as well. It wasn’t her fault that to Nadine the class was pretty basic.

Grounded until she was at least thirty seemed a bit excessive, but at least this winters break family vacation to Switzerland hadn’t been canceled. She never learned to ski as Jack, but Nadine enjoyed it very much. The young girl figured in a couple of months she would be allowed out of the house, then she would be able to have her first real date with Josephine.

“Mademoiselle Augereau, if you can stop your daydreaming, please complete the equations on the board.” Nadine looked up then realized that she had missed most of class with her musing.

The other students laughed, they expected her to be embarrassed. Nadine, on the other hand, stood up, crossed the classroom and finished the calculations.

“Sorry, Madam Wadia, I was just daydreaming.” Nadine stood in front of the math teacher’s desk after school.

“Nadine, do you find the work not challenging enough?” The teacher had heard rumors from a friend of hers that worked at the University of Paris. She could understand why this young girl was placed in her class, but what surprised her even this level of math didn’t challenge the girl.

On her first day of class Nadine insisted on taking a test that the other students had been studying for all month. Without any preparation, she took the top grade. “I have a question and a request for you.”

Nadine looked surprised, then nodded.

“I heard some rumors about you from a friend that works at the University of Paris.”

Nadine blushed. “Yes, well, if it’s something about the Mathematics’ Ghost then yes that was me.”

“I see, then well, Nadine how would you like to be my assistant in class?”

Nadine’s eyes opened wide. “You mean like help you teach?”

“Yes, I’ll see about getting you some other credit for it as well. You seem to have already grasped all of the basics. Well, beyond that, really. Plus, I think it would engage you more in class rather than sitting in the back doodling in your notebook.”

“Sorry.” Nadine cringed then perked up. “Yes, I would love to help.”

--0--

The girls sat up in their room, painting their toenails and finishing their homework. It had been over two weeks since Nadine’s outing as the Mathematical Ghost, and beyond having to change classes her life didn’t seem to change all that much.

She was told under no certain terms that she would be allowed to walk around the University without proper supervision. Nadine could live with that. The fun was when no one knew what she was doing; once caught it wasn’t as exciting anymore.

“I can’t believe that you’re teaching a math class, that’s so weird.”

“It’s fun, the other kids don’t seem to mind.” She half expected that some of them to be jerks about it, but overall everyone was cool.

“Well it’s an honors class, you don’t normally get the troublemakers in calculus classes.”

“Besides myself.” Nadine giggled.

A loud knock at the door interrupted the conversation. “Girls put on your robes and come on downstairs.”

“Odd,” Maggie said as the two dressed to find that their parents and a half a dozen men and women occupied the foyer.

Nadine smiled, now this is what she was expecting all along, but it would have been nice if she was dressed. She looked around and found the white-haired man in the expensive Neapolitan suit. Everyone but the man seemed to be casually dressed.

It didn’t fool her one bit, but it was somewhat disappointing, she expected something like big guys in dark suits and sunglasses. Well maybe, it’s not like she was working on the Manhattan project upstairs, but this wasn’t a group of scientists.

“Nadine, it seems you have several visitors.” Nadine’s father looked up as the girls descended the staircase. He seemed more confused than worried, but both parents appeared to be a little bit frazzled.

“Good evening, Mademoiselle Augereau, it’s a pleasure to meet you finally. My name is Doctor Joseph Prins.” The white-haired man stepped forward smiling.

“Good evening Doctor, you were at the university a few weeks ago correct?” The name sounded really familiar, but she couldn’t place it.

He nodded. “You’re very observant, but yes.”

“You sort of stood out.”

The Doctor laughed. “I guess I do. Well, if you have the time I would love it if you would answer some questions?” He motioned towards the dining room. Maggie moved next to her sister clutching her arm quite painfully.

“Nadine, you don’t have to.” Simone looked unhappily at the group. She didn’t understand why interrupting the family’s evening was necessary.

“I’m done with my homework Mama, so I see no reason why not.” Nadine dragged Maggie along. “You’re cutting off the circulation to my arm.”

“Sorry, who are these guys?”

“Government types, I’m guessing he is a scientist may be the ISA.” Maggie relaxed; scientists from the Imperial Space Administration weren’t really all that threatening.

Nadine took her normal seat off to the side. Maggie took the one next to her and pushed the two chairs together. “Would you like some tea or coffee, Doctor?”

“Yes, Madam, coffee would be quite lovely.”

She nodded, heading into the kitchen. Nadine noticed that three of the others were missing.

“I’m guessing you work for the ISA?” Nadine looked at the Doctor. The others she didn’t know. Jack worked with the military quite a bit, and Nadine figured she had a few of the others pegged as military types.

“You are correct, Nadine. I am currently part of the research team on the Ney project.”

Nadine smiled, the Ney project was the group that was currently working on getting the French into space. Of course, she had been following it closely. It was very exciting to see humans take their first steps off the planet.

Jack had been to the NASA moon base a half a dozen times himself running one experiment or another. She then realized she was probably the only one from this earth that has been beyond the earth’s orbit.

“I’m sorry to hear that your current math class isn’t too challenging, but teaching seems to agree with you.”

It’s not like it was a secret and she expected after her little show a few weeks ago that someone was watching her. Like Jack, she often had a handler, especially when the projects dealt with certain government agencies.

Nadine just put on her best smile; she can play this game as well. “Yes, I do, and the other kids seem not to mind too much.”

“That’s good; perhaps you will be a teacher one day, maybe at a University.” He smiled as Nadine’s mother brought him a cup of coffee. He took a sip. “Thank you, Madam, excellent. So Nadine, who was this other girl who helped you? You said her name was Alice?”

“You mean the other night; yes, it was my friend Alice.”

“Do you have a last name, perhaps?”

Nadine thought for a moment. “Carroll.” Off to the corner, she could see one of the other taking notes. She suppressed a giggle. Finding Alice was going to prove difficult.

The Professor smiled. “So she is English perhaps?”

“She never said.”

One of the tall military types entered the room and set down a folder. He also placed on the dining room table Nadine’s school notebook, both the girl’s diaries and a bunch of other school notebooks.

“Doctor, was it necessary to go through my daughter’s room?” Nadine's mother objected.

They were already overrun with government types now for them to search the house. She was also terribly concerned for her daughter what had she done to get all of these people's attention?

“I apologize, Madam, orders. That notebook here has calculations in it.”

“I told him it looked like her math homework, Sergeant. In fact, all of it looks like their school work.” A second person, an older woman entered the room. She looked disgusted and gave the Sergeant an unhappy look. “I object, this is ridiculous; are we really here to read through these young girls’ diaries?”

“I object, too,” Maggie yelled visibly upset. Nadine looked around they were still missing the third person. Obviously, they were looking for more of her writings and notes.

Too bad if they came into the house a few weeks ago they would have found the bottom of her closet full of them. Now all but one was beyond their reach. The one left in her room was just something she had been working on during the past week.

Finally, the missing third person entered the room. He had one of her experiment notebooks in his hand. He passed it to the doctor.

“Do you mind, Nadine?”

“Not at all.” Her parents came from the back of the dining room, trying to get a glimpse of what exactly gotten these people’s interest. Maggie just rolled her eyes, more of Nadine’s scribbling. Leaning over she grabbed her diary. Thankfully, no one seemed to mind.

“Astronomical observations; very good Nadine, I see you’re very precise in your work. You have been making some planetary observations as well.” Doctor Prins leafed through the notebook, stopping apparently finding something more of interest. “So you have been keeping an eye on Explorateur II. You have the makings of a good scientist one day. This lovely woman is my colleague Doctor Carina Moretti, do you mind if she looks through this as well.”

“Oh, not at all, most of the book is my extra credit for science class.”

“Why would this girl be viewing our satellite.” Another man asked.

“Oh relax, Kristophe, Explorateur II’s location in the night sky had been a well-published fact.” Doctor Moretti turned to Nadine. She spoke French in a heavy Italian accent. “You do excellent work dear. I wouldn’t mind having you as one of my students.”

“I am sure it’s all very impressive, enough of her school work Doctor, that is not why we are here. Show her the photos.”

Nadine looked up at Kristophe, she was now curious about the photos herself. The white-haired doctor nodded and motioned to one of the others who came forward and dropped a thick envelope in front of her. Nadine curiosity piqued pulled out photos of Alice, and her equations from the other night.

“So Mademoiselle, can you please explain these equations?”

Merde.

Maggie watched her sister look over the photos, no one else could tell, but Nadine was obviously distressed. She reached over and took one of the photos from her sister’s hands to study it.

More of Nadine’s scribbling, what was the big deal? She knew Nadine as well as herself, and right now, her baby sister was running ideas through her head.

Maggie then had a splendid idea. “Nadine, don’t tell me that you had a date with Alice, and you did math?”

“What’s wrong with having fun with a little math on a date?”

Nadine had a half-smile on her lips, but she didn’t take her eyes off the photos.

“So, that’s what they call it nowadays.” One of the military types laughed; most of the others joined him as well.

“Corporal, that was not necessary.” Kristophe made a face.

“Nadine, do you have….”

“Nadine, don’t tell me you snuck out of the house so you could go on a date with Alice and after midnight no less.” Nadine’s mother shook her head. “And I thought we raised you better.”

“Mama.”

“Simone, I thought that Nadine was dating Josephine.”

Kristophe could feel the control of the conversation slip away from him. “Who is Josephine?”

Maggie made some sort of cupping motion with her hands in front of her chest. “Oh, she is the big boobed redheaded freshman that Nadine sucked face with in front of the entire University.”

“Maggie!” Her father called out.

“So, that was her name.” Doctor Prins said to no one in particular.

Kristophe tried again, “Mademoiselle…”

“Nadine, are you telling me that you are dating both girls?”

“Mama, I’m hardly going out with either of them.”

“Young lady, you snuck out of the house with one to do math, and you kissed another one in front of the entire University and that kiss she gave you in the hall.” Nadine’s mother was still uncomfortable remembering that kiss.

“Mama, it was hardly in front of the entire University.”

“Don’t split hairs with me, young lady. Take responsibility for your actions.”

“Yes, Mama.” Nadine nodded. “Oh, the equations, I was just playing really. No big deal.”

Kristophe turned back; any control of the conversation was gone. “What?”

“I was just playing around a little you know having fun maybe showing off a little bit in front of Alice.” She gave Maggie a smile.

Captain Kristophe Vogel didn’t think that sounded right. The equations threw the whole research team into a tizzy. This little girl couldn’t have just been playing around; there was something about her that just didn’t add up.

“I saw you have some Quantum mechanics equations in there.” Doctor Moretti pointed out. “The equations involve some sort of complex system?”

Nadine turned and smiled at the Doctor. “Oh sure, I was playing around with them; they sort of fixed some of the issues I was having. I didn’t really have a plan, I was just playing, but I had to go because it was getting late.” Nadine looked embarrassed.

“Sounds like an exciting date to me, Nadine.” Maggie laughed.

Nadine rolled her eyes.

“She was just playing with Quantum mechanics.” Doctor Prins looked up and smiled. “Barbara, let me have the packet.”

“I still don’t approve, Doctor.”

“Well, good thing you’re not in charge of this research team, then Captain.”

The Doctor took a large envelope from the woman and handed it to Nadine. The young girl looked down at the cover letter. She smiled, working with the government for many years as Jack had seen such forms many times.

Reaching over she plucks a pen from Captain Vogel’s pocket then signed it. “Papa, you need to sign this too, I am underage.”

She ignored her father’s reaction to the amount of time one could spend in jail if the agreement were violated. Walking into the kitchen, she returned with a notepad, and a pencil picked up the packet and moved into the living room.

“You’re having thermal issues, I see.” Nadine’s voice called out from the other room.

Doctor Prins looked to his assistant. “Barbara time?”

“Fifteen minutes, Doctor.”

“I think that’s a record, Joseph.” The two Doctors stood up and joined Nadine in the other room.

--0--

The world was cold, irradiated winds swept the empty landscape picking up bits of dust and debris much of it human remains. A small figure moved down a slight incline to stand before the ruins a once-proud city.

Now only the rubble remained, like the skeleton of some giant animal steel girders jutted from the landscape into the sky. Alice looked down and kicked a bit of stone with her new pink Peep Toe Platform Pumps. She thought that the little skulls gave a nice touch, but now it bordered on the macabre.

The beast had lived here for some time, its influence seeped into the very ground. The possessed must have been a person of great importance. It used its influence to bring ruin to an entire world, no an entire dimension.

A smaller dimension on this planet was inhabited by the only real life, the only life that shifted and grew strength from the great pattern of the multiverse. Now like some unneeded organ, it would shrivel up and fade away into the Abyss.

Alice looked up once more. The grey upon grey was oppressive. She felt deep sorrow for the powers that be here, but there was little she could do.

Two young women walked the streets of Paris on a cool crisp afternoon getting towards the end of fall. Both women, fashionably dressed, walked in and among the little shops enjoying the day and each other’s company.

Standing inside one of the many jewelry stores, the tallest, a red-headed girl reached over and took the other girl by the arm. “I still can’t believe it, Nadine, one moment you’re a threat to national security and the next you’re given a job.”

Nadine smiled, reaching over the counter and pointing to a set of earrings. “Isn’t that just one of life’s little oddities? It seems I passed a test or something, the good doctors were looking for people with shall we say particular skill sets. Only one of them really objected, some Captain. I don’t have a clue what his problem was, maybe he doesn’t like girls, or maybe be doesn’t like lesbians.”

Josephine made a face. For the most part, through the years, the people of the French Empire have embraced the revolutionary ideals of Liberté, égalité, fraternité, "Liberty, equality, fraternity.”

A hundred years before most other countries women received the right to vote, religious freedom was the norm and arguments over sexual orientation didn’t come up much. Oh, there were plenty of holdouts, especially among older or more religious families but they were not considered the norm. Outside the Empire, the world was a messed up place just like Nadine’s old Earth.

Nadine paid for the earrings, and the two young women walked out of the store. “Joseph, my boss told the Captain that ‘His Majesty personally requested that I find the brightest minds in the Empire, who am I to go against the Emperor’s will when one of the minds I find is in the body of the sixteen-year-old girl.’ These are for you.” Nadine handed Josephine the set of earrings.

“Nadine, you shouldn’t have.”

“I know, but I wanted to, plus it appears I am going to be getting a salary. I think I should be able to afford a set of earrings for my girlfriend.”

“Wow, what about school.” Josephine smiled, then reached for her ears and replaced her old set of earrings with the new.

Before Nadine could answer, the red-headed girl wrapped her in a hug and gave Nadine a deep kiss; people on the street walked by with amused smiles mumbling something about young love.

“School, well.” The two smiled as they came up for air. “I wanted to finish the school year with Maggie, but we had a sister meeting, and she told me I was being silly.”

“Sister meeting?”

Nadine nodded the two girls holding hands continued to walk through the Paris streets. “It’s a twin thing, drives my parents insane on occasion. The others had no idea what was going on; however she pointed out with my honor classes I didn’t see her anymore in school anyway. I get to have lunch with her, and that’s about it. My only concession and they agreed was that I got to drive to school with her every day.”

“Do you two do this often?”

Nadine nodded. “We do for most things, we tend to talk about each other’s choices and approve or not approve. The only thing that is no longer on the table is relationships.”

“So, Maggie doesn’t object if the two of us are dating?”

“Oh, not at all, she likes you actually.” Nadine made a sad smile. “This was because of me. I was shall we say overly jealous over the fact she was dating. We had a little bit of a fight about it.”

Josephine reached over and kissed her girlfriend's cheek then looked confused. “Wait, so how are you getting out of school?”

“I tested out of it. While I was at it, I also took the University of Paris entrance examination.”

“No way, those tests are horribly difficult.” Josephine almost jumped up and down. “You didn’t even study, did you? I spent almost all of last winter taking these horrible classes to get in. Oh, I am so jealous.”

Nadine grinned. “But look on the bright side; I’ll be in class with you next semester. I imagine I’ll have to double up on some things, but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Josephine looked very happy as the two walked towards the center of the city. The only thing she found odd was she thought she heard Nadine complain about having to go through Undergraduate again.

--0--

Dark smoke filled the evening air, as flames lit up the sky. Sirens followed several fire trucks as they passed the two women. Nadine had spent the entire day with Josephine and was going to meet her dad at the University to take her home.

The pair turned a corner and came upon chaos. Two older apartments were ablaze the firefighters spending most of their time now trying to keep the fire from spreading to other houses on the block.

Joining the crowd Nadine looked up at the flames. The older multi-family homes could be death traps if the owners didn’t bring the housing up to code. Beneath the flames, dozens of people ran out of the building as firefighters struggled on the ground floors.

A scream of utter desolation pierced through the roar of the fire. A young woman stood off to the side, two bags of groceries in her hands. “Louis!”

The woman screamed dropping the bags running towards the burning building only to be intercepted by two police officers.

“Louis! My son is up there, you need to let me though.”

The two police officers had not let her go. “Where is he, Madam? How old is he?”

“Louis, he is five. He’s been sick. I haven’t had the money to buy his medicine, but I do now.” She started to cry again. “So you need to let me get him.”

A firefighter in a white hat approached, she seems to be in charge.

“Madam, what floor do you live on?”

The grieving mother tried to break away, but the two police officers held her tight. “Fourth floor” She looked up most of the fourth floor was already covered in flames.

“I understand, Madam, but please step back and let us do our job.”
The mother moved to the side, her eyes never leaving the flames.

The firefighter in the white hat whispered to one of the police officers. “Try to keep her calm. If we can, we’ll try and get her son, but unfortunately part of the stairwell is blocked.”

At the sound of a building collapsing, the woman screamed, firefighters, poured out of the dying structure as it started to come down. The crowd was pushed back as the entire fourth floor collapsed on itself. The building continued to groan. Finally, the entire structure shuddered and came down. The second apartment damaged from its dying neighbor shook causing the firefighters to retreat from that building as well.

“Mon Dieu, how horrible.” Josephine looked at the woman still struggling to throw herself into the collapsed building.

“Mommy?” A small child no more than five stood safely off to the side of the burning building.

“Louis” The young woman broke free of her captors and ran over to her child. She began to thank all of the firefighters who looked very confused.

The firefighter with the white hat kneeled by his side then motioned to one of the paramedics. “Who rescued you, sweetie?”

“An angel.” He smiled then pointed to his blue coat. “She even made me put on my jacket because it’s cold outside.”

“You mean one of my firefighters?”

“Oh no, we learned in class all about firemen. It was an Angel she even walked through the flames” He leaned over to the Captain of the fire brigade. “She was very pretty. I was afraid of the fire and hid under the bed. She found me there.”

“Walked through the flames?”

“Yep, I could see them, but they didn’t come any closer. It was neat. I told her I was a big boy and didn’t need a jacket, but she said even big boys get cold.”

“You’re right, they do, baby.” The mother was crying while she rocked him back and forth in her arms.

The firefighters and police officers looked at one another. Paris was an old city, a very old city, and one learned not to question such things when they happened.

“Come, let’s go.” Josephine felt her hand being pulled.

“You smell like smoke, Nadine.” Josephine leaned over and smelled her girlfriend’s hair.

“I guess so.” Nadine giggled. “Papa will freak if I’m late, so let’s get a move on.”

The two girls left the area making their way back towards the University.

Nadine did a happy dance across the platform that connected the rocket Ariane II to the launch pad. She was now the proud owner of another Fendi Handbag.

The controller team had doubted her predictions on the latest World Cup matches, and now they would pay. The team that followed her toward the capsule all had amused smiles on their faces as she did her now-famous evil scientist laugh.

Their pink-hatted nineteen-year-old boss had brought new energy to the space program. The world had been amazed that in three short years since the Emperor announced Project Ney they were ready to send their first astronauts to orbit the moon. All knew that its success was because of the young girl who was greeting each of the technicians standing around the capsule personally.

Taking off her pink hard hat Nadine peered inside. She made a slight face as she watched technicians tighten the astronaut's shoulder harnesses. “So how are my three favorite Astronauts doing today? All ready for a little ride?”

“So far, so good, how’s our favorite scientist?” The Commander of the mission, Colonel Rebecca Cheever, and the second human into space grinned. “Did you get your new handbag?”

“Of course, like there was any doubt.” Nadine reached over her head and was passed a clipboard which she looked at it for a moment, signed the bottom then passed it back. “So folks, three orbits around the moon and back, easy as pie.”

“Don’t you wish you were coming?”

Nadine laughed. “Like they would let me, Robert, I don’t think they like me coming down here much less leaving the planet.” All of the rockets had been launched from the Imperial Space Center on the Canary Islands.

The mission engineer, Commander Robert Lanier, nodded; the young scientist’s security was said to be impressive. It was also known that she tended to ditch them on occasion how was anyone’s guess much to the frustration of the Imperial Secret Service.

“I read in the newspaper that you managed to slip out of some presentation in Naples to have a romantic dinner with the ‘Beautiful Josephine.’

Nadine blushed that had caused all sorts of problems, but it was a fun night. “Well I was told that my schedule didn’t permit a dinner with my intended. I decided that I needed a candlelit dinner with her more than another award.”

“Good for you.” Colonel Cheever understood it was hard enough for her to spend time with her own boyfriend; how Nadine managed, she didn’t know.

“Your Ladyship.” The youngest Astronaut, Captain Guillermo Pena, stumbled upon his words. “Are you going to give us your blessing?”

Nadine, raised to the peerage earlier in the year didn't quite know what to make with all of the honorifics much less the bowing.

“Call me Nadine, everyone does, and what do you mean by my blessing?”

The three Astronauts looked at one another. “Well, you know how you kind of speak to the rockets before each launch to tell us how it’s feeling. Well we all call it Nadine’s Blessing.”

It started as a joke between Nadine and Colonel Cheever on her first trip into space. The Colonel was a little apprehensive about the flight so Nadine spoke to the rocket to make sure that it would take care of her friend. Now all of the Astronauts believed when Nadine ‘spoke’ to the rocket it seemed to fly better.

Nadine looked surprised she had no idea it had become such a big thing. “Sure, Guillermo, it would be my pleasure.”

The officer looked relieved.

The world around Nadine stopped, calculations floated in the air around her and the rocket. After watching the Chinese first human-crewed mission into space explode on the launch pad, she swore that she would keep that from happening to her friends.

She didn’t fix anything, the Imperial Space Service was good at building rockets, but she gave a few things a gentle nudge. The rocket would now be more efficient, fly straighter, and hopefully bring everyone back in one piece.

“She says she's ready to take you to the moon and back.”

Fire blossomed on the once green planet below as the last of the Sun Bombs were released from the flotilla’s holds. Each plasma flash resulted in the vaporization of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Calculations estimated that in less than three hours, the Sun Bombs would eliminate all life down to the bacterial level on the planet Indus. Well above the explosions, the crew of the Battleship Redeemer watched their displays passively.

The death of billions was not a time of rejoicing, even if it was killing heretics. The teachings of the One taught that such creatures should be pitied, not hated.

Proctor Alyssa Sidorov leaned over the railing overlooking the command deck. Her eyes missed nothing, giving out bits of praise to those who worked with zeal and stern judgments to those who could not. As spiritual leader and commander of the Redeemer, she had been a figure of calm in an otherwise harrowing day.

“Proctor Sidorov, I have a question.”

“Yes, Brother Leon.” She looked down at the red and black-robed man who sat in front one of the firing consoles for the ship. He had a troubled expression on his face.

“I am concerned, not everyone on Indus could have embraced the heretical teachings. Why must the innocent die alongside the guilty?”

She smiled. “A good question, indeed, I too worried about the innocent. When those thoughts bother me, I lean upon scripture. Remember, Brother Leon, our teachings tell us that the One will know its own. Those heretics who now sleep in the cold of the abyss were not joined by the faithful. No they were embraced by the light and ascended to paradise as they shed their worldly bodies.”

Most of the command group nodded, they too knew the scriptures and felt solace in what they were doing. It was like the ancient removal of limbs to keep infection from spreading. You cut away the infected parts and often some healthy parts, but it was a sacrifice to save the whole.

“Well isn’t that pretty, look at them heretics burn.” A voice broke the pious moment.

Alyssa turned to find a tall, dark-haired man in the white and gold of the Home guard standing at the edge of the command bridge. He stood tall and straight admiring the deadly blossoms that were blooming all over the planet below. Four others in white and gold stood behind him, his honor guard; they were all well-armed.

The crew, for the most part, ignored them. Proctor Sidorov would have loved to have ignored him as well or better stuffed him out an airlock but he was the liaison between the secular and religious part of the government.

She pushed a few buttons on her command console then gave a theatric sigh. “Major Unbar, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

The tall man said to be from aristocratic blood, smiled a smile bereft of warmth. The two factions traditionally had not gotten along, but relations had gotten worse since the religious factions began to arm themselves starting ten years ago.

Military commanders learned quickly not to depend on the black and red robes unless it fits nicely into their views on the scripture.

“Proctor Sidorov, you have been a busy girl. You forced the council’s hand when you came forward with the heretical evidence on Indus.”

“Do I speak in the language of serpents Major? The corruption bred true, and it had to be cut.”

Major Unbar rolled his eyes, the Proctors always dropped into the language of the ancients when they wanted to argue. They were all insane. “Truth or not, Proctor Sidorov, there are many who believe you overstepped your authority. “

“The One knows my true worth.”

The Major reached over and scratched his beard. With another hand, he released the catch on his plasma pistol. The situation was going to get ugly in a few seconds, and he was glad he had brought back up.

Withdrawing the deadly weapon, he pointed it at the Proctor’s head. “Well whatever you think, there is now Civil War among the factions. So Proctor Alyssa Sidorov, with the power invested in me from the President pro tem of the New Republic I arrest…”

The Major’s body hit the floor before he could finish along with his honor guard. Moments later from the shadows, a half a dozen fully armored Paladins of the Inner circle approached Proctor Alyssa Sidorov and knelt as one.

Alyssa gave the Paladins a warm smile; they were such good boys conditioned to only follow the orders of the One, and currently that voice was hers. As she walked off the bridge with her honor guard in tow she commanded. “Sister Tasha take the squadron out of orbit and make way for Yana V”

“Proctor Sidorov, if they wish a Holy War, we will give it to them.” Sister Tasha said with a proud voice. Alyssa turned and looked at the command crew. They all stood there, smiling.

Donning the grey of the faithful, Alyssa confirmed with the other commanders that the purge of the heretics had gone as planned. She knew well before the warrant was issued for her arrest that such a day was coming.

She had prepared for it long before Major Unbar had ever stepped on-board the Redeemer. Many of the faithful commented that she was a true prophet of the One; she seemed to possess the gift of foresight. Alyssa knew the gift was not hers but the one she lovingly called Master.

She knelt down in a small prayer cubical inside her room. “Master, have I done well?”

As she spoke pleasure came rolling over her like fire. She had known the pleasure of the flesh before. The One demanded children, and she had birthed two children as custom dictated then handed them over to the crá¨che for education. No this was different from deep inside.

He didn’t even talk to her at first. Just ripples of pleasure came when she acted a certain way. If she failed, pleasure would still come, but it was like a shadow leaving her painfully yearning for more.

When he spoke to her for the first time, she knew it was a being of the highest order. A creature of the abyss would not use pleasure for rewards but pain and suffering as the scripture dictated.

It was wise and helped her move forward within the Hierarchy. With its influence the religions factions had gained enough power to stand against the unbelievers of the Council.

“You have done well, my disciple, the heretics of the Council will soon be thrown down, and a new age will dawn.” Proctor Sidorov writhed on the ground, her body wracked with pleasure. She was well aware she was enthralled with this being, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was the pleasure.

The beast in her laughed.

The Black Fleet slipped quietly through the remains of the star system’s picket ships to settle into high orbit around the planet Minco VII. Long years had passed since the start of the Holy Crusade. Gone were the days of pity for the heretics, those feelings were smothered as their own cities burned and when they watched their comrades die around them. Minco VII was nothing more than a nest of heretics that needed to be eliminated. The crews were no longer concerned for the faithful that remained on the planet they should have left or martyred themselves long ago.

High See Alyssa Sidorov sat in the command chair overlooking the bridge of the Flagship Redeemer. Mistress of the Black Fleet and Holy Mother on the new Blessed Council; to those around her, she was the reason any of them were left sane.

She was always there with a warm word, a touch giving out gentle reminders of why they were there and that there was still a job to do. They would have assaulted the gates of Paradise for her if she asked.

“Bring the Bomb-ship One’s Justice on station please.”

Sun Bombs were no longer the weapons of choice. The technology had become much more precise. Targets with the correct DNA markings would simply die. There was always some collateral damage, but it left enough, so when the faithful arrived the survivors would be assimilated easily.

The bright light of shields overloading and collapsing got everyone’s attention as the Bomb-ship One’s Justice shook itself apart.

“What in the black abyss was that?”

“Eight Swiftstride Class Destroyers.” A calm voice cut through the chatter. “Breaking away at two-thirds light speed, seems they are passing right through the fleet and out the other side.”

There was some admiration in the speaker’s voice for that tactic. The destroyers had dropped at least sixteen torpedoes into the unsuspecting Bomb-ship.

“Their timing was impeccable and improbable; where did they come from?” Alyssa called from the command chair.

“No idea your Excellency, they are too large to be cloaked unless the Republic had a breakthrough recently.”

She looked at another robed figure shaking his head. “No, we would have heard something about it.” So far the factions have found the best use of the limited technology was to create invisible minefields.

“Your Excellency, we have a call on one of the old Republic frequencies asking us to stand down.” The communications officer turned in her chair, obviously surprised at the request.

“We have another force, eight light hours away near the southern jump point. It’s rather light, must be a blocking force.”

“That communication can’t be eight hours old.” The communications officer commented, “They couldn’t have known precisely when their destroyers would have attacked.”

Alyssa stood up. “I don’t like this one bit. Helmsmen order the fleet to break orbit into Blessed Formation Six. We are going to head towards the nearest jump point. Let’s get some maneuvering room.”

“Main body two light hours away two degrees off Galactic Center. “

The entire deck stopped talking

“I have sixteen Strike Class Cruisers, nine Lighting Class Heavy Cruisers and six Sabre Class Battleships.”

There was a pause; one ship stood out among the Republic formation. “Confirmation one of the new Titan Class Dreadnaughts. Your Excellency it’s the Grenadier.”

It was an overwhelming force over twice the size of her Black Fleet.

“That’s impossible even Admiral Andropov can’t sneak up on someone in space.”

The commander of the Grenadier was known as a brilliant tactician, but this went beyond the norm. High See Alyssa Sidorov brought up her command screens around her touching the air and aligning them so she could get the bigger picture. She frowned; some of the slower ships might be left behind, but none of them were ready to face the impossible today.

“Your Excellency, the main body disappeared.”

Alyssa closed her eyes and nodded. “All ships prepare to engage the enemy.”

Master I need you.

--0—

The Black Fleet had been a malevolent force since the war with the religious factions began. No other formation had caused so much sorrow covering itself with the blood of billions. Its commander, High See Alyssa Sidorov, was considered to be a creature from the Abyss. All of the men and women in the Hunter Killer Fleet were willing to give their lives to stop this menace.

“Admiral Captain Carter wishes to rejoin the fleet.” An amused communication officer passed the word to their beloved Admiral. Captain Carter, the commander of the flotilla that destroyed the Bomb-Ship, was itching to rejoin the fight.

“I don’t think so, Ivan.” Mikael Andropov laughed. “Tell him a job well done and to take up station with the blocking force. If everything goes to pot he might still get another crack at them.”

“I’m hoping you’re right, little lady, that thing can’t do what you’re doing.”

The Admiral didn’t even bother to turn and face the young girl in the all-white Victorian looking outfit. The fleet’s maneuvers were well beyond their current technology, and everyone knew it, but no one was going to complain.

“No, its powers work on the spirit, the emotions, and the intellect. Its cancer has spread throughout most of the religious factions I am sorry to say.” The Spiritual Detective leaned forward. “So your life has changed just a little bit since you were a school teacher pulling kids out of a burning bus.”

No one on the bridge could hear the conversation or even see the Spiritual Detective.

Admiral Mikael Andropov smiled. He could barely remember when he was a young woman, a school teacher just out of college on her first field trip with her 5th grade English class. Being thrust into a world thousands of years into her future had been if nothing else interesting. “I never had a chance to truly thank you for this life…err...”

“It’s Alice.” The Spiritual Detective gave a small giggle.

“Really? OK, Alice, thank you.” The admiral raised his voice so the entire command deck could hear. “All right, ladies and gentlemen. Once more into the Breach.”

They all cheered as the fleet entered real space.

Plasma cannons, lance torpedoes, and other types of man-made hell had wrecked several ships on both sides. The Black Fleet still had taken the brunt of the attack.

The first pass pulverized most of the lighter escorts and leaving three of the five heavy cruisers disabled, but it was the new Projectile Cannon on the Grenadier that had done the most damage.

With its shields failing, a devastating shot had penetrated the heavy frontal armor of the Battleship Hierophant destroying half the ship. Wrecked beyond repair, crews on both sides watched the crippled vessel fall out of formation.

High See Alyssa Sidorov pulled up several damage control screens. She knew a couple of more passes like that would finish them. The Black Fleet was still trying to make the best possible speed to the closet jump point, but its commander was sure that no one was going to make it.

“Master why don’t you help me?”

“Why”

“Because I am your Disciple.” Alyssa was becoming a little frantic, somehow the Republic ships were able to turn and start another pass. It went beyond the laws of the universe, such technology was impossible.

“I can always get another Disciple, Alyssa, your death will serve a better purpose.”

“I don’t understand.” Ignoring her Master for a moment, the commander of the Black Fleet ordered her battery commanders to concentrate their fire on the Grenadier. “Let’s see if we can knock out that cannon.”

“Your martyrdom will cause a shockwave throughout all of the religious factions. It will be a greater call to war. The galaxy will burn for generations. Don’t worry, foolish child. This is none of your concern anymore. She thinks she will be able to capture me, but soon you will be gone, and so will I.” Alyssa was suddenly unable to move, and inside, her spirit began to scream as the beast devoured it.

High See Alyssa Sidorov’s prediction proved true; by the third pass, the Black Fleet was a flying wreck. Very few ships remained in action.

“Admiral Sir, it’s the Redeemer.” All eyes turned to the screens as internal explosions began to rock the great ship.

“I don’t see any escape pods.”

“No, Sir, they are all going down with the ship.”

“Madness.” The Redeemer suddenly lit up like a star; its engines overloading, taking out several damaged escorts with her violent death.

“Sir, the Black Fleet, some of the Captains are asking to surrender.”

The battle had been anything but a battle. It had been an execution leaving most of them sick to their stomachs.

“Give them mercy, Ivan, by the One I have seen enough blood to last a lifetime.”

No one who took part in the battle with the Black Fleet on either side would remember the strange maneuverings, but historians would all agree that a simple offer of mercy brought an end to the bloody fighting far sooner than expected.

Mikael turned to thank their savior, but he stopped, seeing disappointment in the Spiritual Detective’s eyes.

“It escaped, it seems I will need her help after all.”

“Is there anything?”

“No, Mikael. “ Alice reached over and kissed him on the cheek. “Have a good life if we do not meet again.”

Then she was gone.

“Thank you, Your Eminence, we are proud of her as well.” Maggie smiled at another dignitary who came to congratulate her on her sister’s rise to the rolls of the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur. Several other scientists and a handful of Astronauts were to receive the honor during the night’s ceremony.

“Your Eminence, a pleasure to see you again, may I borrow my fiancé for a moment.” Lord Alexis Bellamont came up behind Maggie and pulled her away from the Church dignitary. “She’s missing.”

Maggie smiled and reached up to touch the face of her intended. “Don’t worry, my love, she will turn up eventually; you know how much she hates these events.”

Nadine had always insisted Maggie attend the events as well. At first, she thought it was, so Nadine didn’t have to go alone, but even when Josephine in attendance she dragged her sister along. Maggie now knew that her sister wanted to share her good fortune. The two girls walked among the most powerful people of the Empire and during one of those ceremonies, Maggie met Alexis.

“I think the Ambassador of the Northern American Republic confused her with someone’s child. I heard that he was a little rude about it.”

Maggie made a face. “It’s not her fault that she still looks like she’s sixteen.”

The two sisters no longer looked like twins. Maggie now really looked like the older sister. It was also beginning to put a strain on her sister’s relationship with Josephine.

“You would think with all these advances in modern medicine they would discover what is wrong with her.”

“I thought that all women would enjoy looking young.”

“Would you want to look like a teenager all of your life?”

“No, of course not, come let’s see if we can find where she is hiding.”

Nadine stood quietly, admiring a painting in the room known as the Salon de Mars. French troops were depicted marching across an American landscape, doing battle with grey-coated troops. She knew the scene depicted one of the battles fought in the nineteenth century with the Southern American Federation of States.

“I think my uncle was in that battle.”

Nadine turned to watch a young girl in a dark blue dress approach. “So you’re hiding out too.”

Nadine laughed. “Something like that, I’m Nadine.”

“I’m Cleo, want me to give you the tour? Don’t worry, I’ll have you back to the dinner before your parents start to miss you.”

Passing through the Hall of Mirrors, the two girls looked out the windows to admire the host of dignitaries that had come to the event. Cleo was impressed that her older companion knew so much about the latest Parisian fashions. It also surprised her that the girl knew the Chá¢teau de Versailles almost as well as herself.

“Let’s go get my brother, he is supposed to be my escort. If you want, you can sit by us during dinner. I mean, if you want to, you don’t have to.”

It was difficult to believe that Nadine was actually twenty-one, if it was true then there was no chance she would want to be around a sixteen-year-old.

Nadine slipped her arm through Cleo’s arm. “No, sounds like fun. I love my sister, but she’ll want to spend time with her boyfriend.”

“You don’t have an escort.” The pair continued towards the family section of the Palace. Nadine had known for some time that her new friend was Princess Cleo, daughter of the Emperor.

“Well, my girlfriend was supposed to be here, but she had some family things come up.” Cleo reached over and gave Nadine a hug. She could tell that there was more to the story.

“Where have you been, mother’s furious.” Prince Lucien Charles Joseph Bonaparte, the eighteen-year-old brother of Cleo, stood in the center of the hallway. “We almost had to send out the Imperial Guard to look for you.”

Cleo giggled. “I wonder if he means you or me.”

Nadine smiled. “Good point.”

“Nadine, this is my brother Charlie.”

Cleo brother’s eyes opened wide.’ “You’re Comtesse Nadine Augereau.”

“In the flesh.”

“Wait here.” He started to move, then came back. “Please don’t go anyplace I’ll be right back.”

Cleo turned to take a good look at her new friend, then she began to giggle. “You know, I think he has a poster of you on his bedroom wall.”

“What?” Nadine shook her head. “Cleo, why would your brother want a poster of me on his wall...plus...plus I never posed for anything like that.”

Cleo tried to suppress a smile. “Charlie is crazy about the space program. I think it’s the one with all of the Astronauts and some of the scientists involved in the moon landing.”

“Cleo.”

The Princess began to giggle she then nodded as her brother turned the corner with a rolled-up poster in his hand. “See told you.” The three rolled the large poster on the floor. “I like the pink hard hat.”

“Thanks, it makes it easier to find me on the site.” Nadine reached over, took the pen out of the Princes hand, and signed the poster. “Let me keep this, Your Highness. Most of the people are here tonight, so let’s get all of their signatures.”

“Really, would that be ok? I mean, that would be great. “The young Bonaparte seemed very pleased about the idea. “ Also, call me Charlie.”

Nadine was amused when the Prince offered his arm. His sister took the other one and the three-headed towards the ballroom.

“Nadine, that was very nice of you.”

The young scientist smiled. “I’m crazy about the space program, too, Cleo.”

Maggie shook her head; she couldn’t imagine that on such an important occasion, her sister would go home. From what she heard about the incident with the Ambassador, it didn’t sound all that bad.

“My love, I didn’t know your sister was friendly with the Royal Family.” Lord Alexis Bellamont was currently watching the front of the ballroom.

“Well, she was raised to the Peerage, but I don’t think she knows them all that well.”

Alexis gave a small laugh. “You might want to ask her about it.”

He motioned to Maggie to look at the royal table at the front of the ballroom. There was her sister surrounded by the Royal Family. She seemed to be having a conversation with the Emperor himself.

“Mon Dieu, Alexis, she’s having dinner with the Emperor.”

“I see Nadine. You explain that well enough for an old man like me to understand.”

Nadine smiled at the forty-year-old Emperor. “You’re hardly old, Your Majesty, plus you have a keen intellect. I think you would have made a wonderful scientist.”

Emperor Napoleon laughed. “Your friends are improving, Cleo.” Leaning over, he whispered, “Normally they just roll their eyes at me.”

The Emperor of France, of course, knew exactly who had joined the family for dinner. She was raised to the Peerage, a singular honor in France. More than anyone else in this room, she was the reason why France put men and women on the moon last month.

“Papa.” Cleo crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She then grinned. “I love your dress, Nadine. Mamma, maybe the three of us could go shopping together.”

“I would like that very much, Cleo.” Empress, Anna smiled. “Perhaps when I am feeling a little better.”

Nadine took a good look at the Empress. There had been rumors going around the country that she was very sick. The Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur ceremony was the first public appearance in some time. Without any movement on Nadine’s part, time stopped.

Calculations and equations appeared all around her, which the young scientist pushed aside to look at the Empress. Nadine wasn’t a doctor, so she couldn’t take one look at her and give a diagnosis. Still she could tell that something was wrong. Nadine threw up a long calculation over the Empress, which looked a lot like DNA.

“Merde, she has Leukemia.” The young woman placed her hands over her face, then took a deep breath. Like Alice, she knew she couldn’t interfere with everything. A balance had to be kept.

It was so hard for her sometimes, it didn’t seem fair.

Nadine pushed the chair out of the way then started to write in the air, complicated calculations based on space-time probability. If the young Empress death strengthened the Dimension in which they lived then she would make sure to support Cleo through the rough time ahead. However if there was a chance that the Empress's death would cause problems, then it was her job to make sure that she stayed healthy.

Sometime later, Maggie sat back on the chair and smiled tears running down her face. “Maggie, sometimes it’s all worth it.”

The disease was a threat no longer, just inert material that the body would be able to get rid of with no problems.

Moving the chair back, Nadine wiped her face and smiled. Maybe she will get to dance with an Emperor tonight.

Alice leaned against the remains of a large stone structure that had been for a time part of the Washington Monument. The world was cold and getting colder. Large ice sheets had already begun to crawl south, grinding into paste the last remains of the human civilizations that used to dwell on the planet.

She had been hunting the beast for some time, and it had been frustrating. Humans and other sentient life were quite capable of destroying themselves without the need for an outside entity. Only the damage done to the fabric of that dimension showed the beast’s presence, but by then it had already moved on.

“I don’t know if I can do this, I am not the Caretaker,” Alice whispered to the heavens.

Only a Caretaker could feel the shadows passing, but that powerful creature had long disappeared into the edges of the multiverse. In an age past Alice was much like Nadine, a bright student who could look into the inner workings of the Universe. The Caretaker came to her and offered a chance to walk among the stars. At that time there were even others much like her roaming the dimensions keeping them healthy. Now she was alone.

The ancient being smiled. “No, not so alone.”

Alice knew that Nadine could easily step into her shoes. She would even be more empathetic with the lost spirits in her care, something that had been stripped from Alice long ago.

Rising from the ground she brushed off non-existent dirt from her clothes and looked to the stars. Nadine’s help might be needed in the future, but for now she would leave the young girl alone.

Nadine sat on the veranda overlooking the streets of Paris. Of all of the places in the world, she loved watching the sunrise over the Le Marais district in Paris.

At night, she would sit and decompress, drinking wine and laugh with Josephine. She looked through the doors into the bedroom at the empty bed. Her intended was still away at her parents’ house.

Josephine looked twenty-three, but Nadine still looked sixteen. When physically, they appeared to be only a few years different, no one cared, but she knew now when they walked down the streets. What happens when Josephine was thirty, forty would she be able to still be with someone who looked like her child. It was all her fault of course. Alice had warned her about practicing her newfound skills. The young scientist laughed. She had done more than just practice. Closing her eyes, she could hear the music of the Universe. A knock at the door interrupted the symphony.

Nadine closed her robe as she stood up, why was the Princess here? She, of course, knew who was at the door long before it was opened.

“Lia, I got the door.” The older woman nodded as she continued to make breakfast for the Comtesse.

“Cleo, good morning, you’re just in time for breakfast.”

The young Princess reached over and hugged Nadine then stepped back. “Good, I’m starving.”

She entered the apartment and realized that it was definitely furnished by someone much older. Cleo still found it difficult to comprehend that Nadine was actually five years older than she was.

“I love your apartment.”

“Thanks.” Nadine went into the kitchen to tell Lia that there was another joining for breakfast. She knew that the Princess’ security wouldn’t be eating, but would pass them some croissants and coffee anyway.

‘Come to the veranda, it’s where I normally have breakfast.”

“I didn’t wake you up or anything?” Cleo looked around; it appeared that Nadine was still alone.

“No, though I do try and sleep a little later on Sundays. Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep too well last night.” Nadine knew she was sleeping less and less; there seemed to be no need anymore.

Cleo nodded and looked over the Le Marais district. A few of the street artists were already moving around the square below.

“So, Cleo, you’re not running away from home are you?”

“What.” The young Princess sat back startled then giggled. “No, of course not.”

“Good.” Nadine waited as Lia placed a plate of fresh juice and coffee, croissants, and muffins along with homemade jellies on the table.

“Lia if you could see if the nice men outside are taken care of? I am sure they use some coffee.”

“Si Contessa.” Lia curtsied and left the two young women to themselves.

Nadine handed the young Princess a glass of Orange juice. “Don’t take this wrong Cleo, I’m delighted to see you, but why are you here?”

Princess Bonaparte looked over the streets of Paris and took a sip of Orange juice. “My mother is feeling better.”

“That’s very good news, I read in the paper that she had been sick.” Nadine carefully reached over and took a blueberry muffin out of the basket then broke off a small piece. “She seemed a little tired at the ceremony last weekend.”

“Last weekend after the party, Mama was able to sleep all night for the first time in a while. On Tuesday she went shopping with me.” Nadine watched as a single tear rolled down the Princess's cheek. The Princes Bonaparte smiled then wiped it away. “I think he was joking, but Charlie said it was Nadine’s blessing.”

Nadine smiled. “Yes, but that only works for rockets. “

Cleo laughed. “I heard they started to rub your head as well before they enter the capsule.”

“That one’s going to stop, I’m not Buddha.” She grumbled. “I’m also going to beat my friend Cynthia for that one. She was joking with me at the time. In fact, the whole Nadine blessing thing is her fault as well”

“Papa said that someone thought there was a fire in a lab, and two of the Astronauts picked you up and ran outside with you. They didn’t want their good luck charm to be harmed.”

Nadine groaned, placing her hand over her face. “They conveniently forget at times I am also their boss.”

“I wanted to give you this.” Cleo reached into her purse and pulled out a powder blue envelope. “It’s an invitation to my birthday. You’ll come, won’t you?”

Nadine took the envelope and smiled. “Of course.”

“Good.” She looked down at her watch. “I have to go. I promised Mama that I would go to church with her today. We have a lot to be thankful for.”

Nadine escorted the Princess to the door where her security was already waiting. The Princes reached over and hugged Nadine. She whispered. “I don’t know if you did bless my mother, Nadine, but if you did, thank you.”

Nadine smiled. “Have a good Sunday, your Highness. Please give my warmest regards to your mother.”

Cleo nodded and started to walk away, then turned ran up to Nadine, rubbed her head, then fled through the door, giggling.

Nadine shut the door. “ As I said, Maggie, sometimes it’s all worth it.”

Maggie flew up the stairs ignoring the elevator in Nadine’s townhome with Alexis on her heels. The couple had been in the south of France on vacation when Murine, Nadine’s assistant, had contacted them concerned about Nadine’s well-being. Maggie knew it was because of Josephine. It had been over three months since Nadine’s girlfriend left Paris.

“I’m sure she is fine, love.” Lord Alexis Bellamont had taken Maggie to the south of France to ask her hand in marriage.

He knew that marrying a twin might lead to issues in the future, but he would be the first to admit he really liked Nadine. She was like the little sister he never had.

Maggie shook her head. “She is anything but fine. Murine said when she found the letter on her desk, her face went deathly pale. Nadine then stood up and told everyone she was going home. That was four days ago.”

Besides being a lead scientist in ISA ( Imperial Space Administration), Nadine had moved into the private sector as a consultant for a major technology company. Murine normally handled all correspondence, but the letter had somehow ended up on her sister’s desk. Someone made sure that Nadine received the white envelope personally.

“So does anyone know what’s in the letter? I mean, would Josephine break up with your sister by mail?”

He was concerned about his fiancé’s well-being, as well. As soon as Maggie heard the news, they had rushed out of the resort, leaving most of their belongings behind. When Nadine didn’t answer her phone Maggie had become despondent.

The only small consolation was that Nadine’s security said the Comtesse was fine, but she was not seeing any visitors. All of the maids were given the week off with pay, and she even paid for Lia, her cook, to fly home to Italy so she could see her daughter, who was to give birth in a few weeks.

“Who knows what goes in that stupid girl’s head?” Maggie could hear the piano accompaniment for the Turangalála-Symphonie.

Music and math had always been a cornerstone of her sister’s life. When things were bad, she retreated to one or the other. She didn’t know why but when news of the letter reached them, Maggie understood immediately that her sister needed her.

Alexis recognized the music as well. “Tristan and Iseult, two doomed lovers.” He said sadly.

“Your Ladyship, it’s good to see you again.” Captain Kristen Moller, the head of her sister’s security, met them at the top of the stairs.

Lord Alexis noted that Nadine might have sent all of her help home but her security detail hadn’t changed. “How is she, Kristen?”

“I’m not really sure how to answer that, Your Lordship. She leaves for the market every morning and as always has a kind word for everyone she meets. If you didn’t know something was wrong.” She shook her head.

“My sister has always been very good at that. What happened with her Highness?”

The three members of Nadine’s security standing in front of the door all smiled. “The Princess Bonaparte visit lasted only a couple of hours, but when she left, she was furious. We thought at first it was directed at the Comtesse.”

Maggie nodded. “Her Highness chartered our plane apparently. It was also one of her people that tracked us down on the beach.” Maggie turned to her fiancé. “Alexis love, will you go down to Gabion’s and bring in dinner for the three of us.”

He smiled. “How much time do you need?”

“An hour.”

Nadine knew who was coming up the stairs long before her sister came through the door. Alexis had told her what he had planned to do on their vacation. She was there when he asked their father for Maggie’s hand in marriage.

When Nadine heard about the upcoming engagement, a heaviness pulled at her heart, but she knew it was wrong to feel that way. What was worse, her sister now looked exactly like Jack’s Maggie when they got married.

Pushing away those destructive thoughts, Nadine pulled a few strings making sure that the happy couple would be well taken care of at the seaside resort.

“Nadine.” Maggie was shocked. She had become used to seeing her sister dressing her age, using makeup to make her seem much older. Sitting in front of the piano was Nadine, without makeup wearing flannel pajamas looking every bit of sixteen years old.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the south of France?” Maggie stood under the archway that leads into the formal living room.

Nadine was annoyed, her sister was supposed to be gone for three more days. With one hand, Nadine grabbed a bottle of wine with another, she embraced her sister. “Congratulations, sweet sister of mine.”

“Stop Nadine, what happened?”

“No, Maggie, I want to hear everything before we discuss my problems.” She led her sister to the living room and produced a couple of clean glasses. “You know that the Jews believe that one always celebrates life before death. For example, if someone dies the night before a wedding, assuming it’s not the bride or groom, the wedding has to take place. A very practical people I always thought.”

“Has anyone died?” Maggie didn’t think Josephine had die if so she would apologize to her spirit for all of the bad things she had been saying about her for the past couple of days.

“Oh no, it just seems appropriate at the time.”

“Nadine,” Maggie whined.

“So tell me all about it.” Nadine grinned and passed her sister a glass of wine. “Leave nothing out.”

A half an hour later found the twins leaning against one another on the couch. “He even got down on one knee; I didn’t know that Alexis was such a romantic.”

Maggie giggled. “He looked like he was going to pass out. Silly man, did he really think I would say no.”

Nadine could still remember when Jack proposed to his Maggie. They even picked out the ring together, and even that didn’t help. Nadine could remember how nervous Jack felt in the days before he proposed.

“I’m sure they always feel that it’s a possibility. I’m very happy for you, sis.” She reached over and grabbed her sister’s hand for a better look at the ring. “It’s a big rock, is it real?” She turned her head to take a bite out of it, like biting a diamond proved its authenticity.

“Stop that, of course, it’s real, it’s his grandmothers.” Maggie pulled her hand away with a smile. It then disappeared. “Your turn.”

Nadine nodded, grabbed the wine out of her sister’s hand, and disappeared into her bedroom. A moment later, she returned with a large white vellum envelope. She passed it to her sister without a word and took a seat across from her. Maggie looked down, the enveloped looked like. No, it couldn’t be. She opened it up and started to read. “Iva and Roland Blanc have the honour of announcing the marriage of their daughter Josephine Blanc to Ian Durand...that stupid Bitch!” Maggie looked up at her sister horrified.

“Josephine called me, fairly upset when she found out that her mother made sure I was personally handed an invitation. She was planning on coming home to make the breakup all official, but her parents were concerned about her returning to Paris. Because of my fame, my personal connections. As I had somehow corrupted their poor daughter, she would instantly fall under my spell again if she returned to our apartment.”

Nadine forced out her evil scientist laugh. “Her parents were never overly fond of me. I mean, her mother actually blamed me for turning her daughter into a lesbian.” Nadine shook her head in disbelief. ”On top of all, my security is absolutely beside themselves because her parents could have easily left a bomb on my desk instead of a letter. It seems they paid someone quite a bit of money to deliver that invitation.”

Maggie didn’t want to even think about someone trying to kill her sister, and Nadine talked about it like she was telling the time. “I thought she didn’t like men,” Maggie whispered, unable to take her eyes off the gold writing on the invitation.

“Your right, she doesn’t like them, but ultimately she was given a choice between her family and me.” Nadine reached over and finished off her glass of wine.

Not that it mattered. She could enjoy the taste of wine, but alcohol held no comfort for her anymore. It was very practical; would you want a drunkard who could manipulate space-time?

“So, have you set a date?”

“Stop.”

“What?”

“Stop.” Maggie crossed the room and threw herself into her sister’s arms. “Don’t forget, I know you.”

Nadine was shaking. “You still love me, don’t you?” She whispered.

“Always and Forever.” It was at that point that Nadine finally broke down and cried.

Alice looked around the small green planetoid confusion written all over her face. The small humanoid race that reminded her of cats had been able to easily deflect the asteroid that had threatened all life on their planet.

The leader of the space miners who had ordered the horrific deed had been arrested and thrown out the nearest airlock. Once again, she expected a dimension devastated but found it barely harmed. So little damage was actually done. The Spiritual Detective could even repair it before she followed the beast again.

Alice looked around, ignoring the calculations and equations that floated around her until she found the one she needed. “The beast is moving so fast it doesn’t even seem to be hiding its tracks anymore.”

On a number of Earth-like worlds later, Alice walked among the sands of the Iraq desert as burning oil fields lit up the sky around her. Jumping on top of the remains of a Russian made T-100 Main Battle Tank, she leaned over to get a good look inside.

Clinically detached, the Spiritual Detective noted that the occupants didn’t fare very well when the 120mm tank rounds from the Israeli Merkava Mk. 5 penetrated the armor.

The commander had been the leader of a new aggressive Arab State, but he didn’t even survive the first battle to take over all of the Middle East. The beast should have made him almost invulnerable.

Actually, Alice didn’t understand why the new leader was on the battlefield in the first place. It was as if the beast was doing the minimum damage before it continued on. The damage to this dimension was almost inconsequential.

Alice plopped down on the rear of the tank and swung her legs back and forth. None of this was making any sense what so ever. What she knew from the Caretaker such beings were methodically destroying everything they touched. It didn’t skip dimensions, it didn’t do minimum damage; what it did was always an absolute.

Where was the beast going in such a hurry? Frowning, she stood and pulled up the current section of the multiverse, marking each dimension the beast had so far currently touched. The initial attacks were methodical, but then it broke up wandering in one particular direction.

“No, she couldn’t have.”

“Comtesse what you’re talking about will bankrupt the country. We have won the space race, have we not? Let us sit back and enjoy our victory.”

A room of influential men and women sat in a small auditorium discussing the future of the French Space program. Throughout the Empire, there was great pride in the accomplishments, but there was another group who now thought such money should be spent inwards on direr social issues.

“You mean we should rest on our laurels? I’m not talking about a moon base, Francis.”

“Yet,” Another voice said.

Nadine smiled at the speaker. “I’m talking about a space station. Our equipment and our astronauts need more actual time in space. I’m not talking about a week in space but thirty days, ninety days, even a year.”

“What about all of those probes you and Doctor Emir proposed that we should send to the other planets in our solar system?”

Several leading Cosmologists planned out a series of long and short-range probes that would be sent out to the other planets in the Solar system.

The first probe Amour I had been sent to Venus less than a year ago. It would orbit the planet a half a dozen times before plunging into the planet’s atmosphere. Its sister Amour II was launched a few months later would orbit the planet for years to come.

“There is too much science out there for us to ignore your Excellency.” Doctor Katherine Mercer spoke up. A professor from the University of New Orleans, she was also considered to be a disciple of Comtesse Nadine. “The science touches any number of disciplines from geology to meteorology to even biology.”

“You mean like little blue women from Venus.” A number of scientists laughed.

“No, I am speaking about terraforming,” Nadine spoke up as the room became quiet. “I have no doubt that there is perhaps microbial life on other planets, biologists have found life in the least hospitable places on this planet. No, I am talking about turning one of our neighbors into another earth.”

“You have large dreams, Comtesse.”

The young scientist laughed. “Of course I do. Otherwise, we would still be sitting here trying to figure out how to get a satellite into orbit.” The room was equally filled with satisfied smiles as well as unhappy frowns at that comment.

Duke Louis d'Orléans shook his head but had to smile. She always came straight to the point. Nadine had a good number of enemies, but there was no doubt even if she wasn’t a Peer of France that her word carried a lot of weight.

It was already a foregone conclusion that the projects she wanted to go forward would go with the Emperor’s blessing. Thankfully he wasn’t a scientist, he just had to play referee. “May I suggest that we stop at this point. I am sure everyone is already tired of hearing Nadine and myself speak. We have several papers that are to be presented after lunch.”

The room gave a good-natured laugh then started to empty out, all moving towards the dining room. Nadine remained in her chair, greeting people and talking to a number as they walked by.

“You’re not going to lunch, your Ladyship?”

“Hi Katherine, well, I’m not really a lunch person, and please call me Nadine.” Nadine reflected she wasn’t really a food person anymore. She enjoyed food, of course, but it was no longer necessary for her survival. She looked up to see the disappointment in the scientist's eyes. “However, I’ll be happy to watch you eat.”

Katharine laughed, but as the pair began to walk out the door, Nadine spotted a familiar figure. Time stopped as Nadine laughed and leaped over a table to throw herself on the small blonde girl. “Alice where in the world have you been.”

Alice broke the embrace and looked at her protégé. “Nadine, what have you done?”

“Nice to see you too, Alice.” Nadine giggled.

“We need to talk.”

“Of course, we do, but I want to have lunch with Katherine, and afterward there are bound to be some interesting papers presented by the Imperial Science Academy.”

“But we can have our talk right now, and you can still go to your meetings.”

“And then you can disappear.” Nadine shook her head. “No, you’re right, we do need to talk, but we can do it over dinner. We’ll share a bottle of wine and put some good food in our stomachs before we discuss serious matters. “Nadine looked around as calculations floated around her. “We still have plenty of time.”

Alice stood there dumbfounded it had been ages since anyone had told her ‘No’ much less told her what to do.

So she did what any immortal being might do in the same situation she whined. “Nadine.”

The young scientist laughed and spun the Spiritual Detective around. “Come on, it will be lots of fun. We can watch the Imperial Secret Service try to figure out who you are, and afterward, we can listen to some interesting science. We’ll make a day of it.”

Hours later, sitting in the back of the conference room with empty ice-cream cups littered around them, the two women quietly commented on the papers being presented before the Academy.

“Bad science, I score it as a 4.5” Alice pulled off the top of another cup of chocolate ice cream and licked it.

“4.5 really, who are you, the East German judge?” Nadine reached over and took a small taste of ice cream from Alice’s cup with her wooden spoon. “She might not be a Ken Wilson or a Joel Scherk, but her paper on quantum chromodynamics wasn’t bad science. They are still working out the Standard Model.”

Alice leaned back, her head resting on Nadine’s shoulder. “Fine, 6.5, but not any higher since you wouldn’t raise your score for that Polish chap who spoke on four space-time dimensions.”

“But, his math was wrong.”

Alice waved her wooden spoon back and forth. “Doesn’t matter, it was still a good paper.”

Throwing the empty paper cup on the ground, the Spiritual Detective straightened the nametag on her dress. All it said was Alice. Nadine had explained that she was one of her assistants and no other questions were asked.

“Katherine, except for those odd looks she gave me throughout lunch, seemed nice enough. Doesn’t she remind you of that other scientist who liked you when you were Jack?”

Nadine stopped eating and stared at her strawberry ice cream for a moment. “You mean Rose?”

“Was that her name?” Alice pretended disinterest. “So, did you ever look her up to see if she was in this dimension?”

“Without the internet, searching for people is difficult, computer records are impossible to get.” Nadine threw the half-eaten cup of ice cream on the ground.

Alice gave a sad smile. Nadine no longer needed something as mundane as the internet to find anyone in this dimension much less this world. The Spiritual Detective gently prodded. “So, did you find her?”

“She’s a Professor at Princeton, married with a couple of children. I even know her husband, well not from this world. What’s interesting, she didn’t go into Physics.”

Alice turned her head up. “Really?”

Nadine nodded. “She teaches Bio-Chemistry.” The pair sat quietly, listening to the next scientist without really listening for a few minutes. “Can we talk about this later after dinner? I really just want to spend the day with you and have a little fun.”

Alice sat up and turned around. “Why me?”

“Because with you, I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not.”

The Spiritual Detective looked at the loneliness in her protégé’s eyes and realized they were a reflection of her own. The immortal being than did something she had not done with any other being in ages, she reached over and hugged Nadine.

--0--

Alice looked down and admired her little black dress. She could scarcely believe that Nadine had talked her into going shopping. She had a style and would play around with it, but normally it didn’t change.

Clothes were not something Alice really thought about anymore if she needed an outfit, she just thought about it, but the black dress and shoes were really nice. For someone who was once male, the young scientist was now really a fashion diva.

“Thank you for taking me shopping and yes, even the spa.” Alice had almost put her foot down about going to a spa. “But why are we in a space station.”

Nadine turned and smiled at the Spiritual Detective. The pair had actually gone to a different dimension for each experience. “For dinner, of course, there is a little old-world bistro that I have eaten at a few times. It’s very nice and a popular place for station personnel and travelers to go for a nice dinner.”

“If you say so.” Alice was a little worried about all of the glances and looks the two were receiving. The Spiritual Detective clutched her purse, another thing she wasn’t used to carrying. “Are you famous here, Nadine?”

“No, why?”

“Then why is everyone staring at us.”

“They are admiring two beautiful women.” Nadine smiled.

Alice felt like hiding behind her purse or better yet folding space for a quick exit. “Are we there yet?”

Nadine sat back on her chair and looked out one of the large bay windows. The pair was given one of the small private rooms, which gave a specular view of the world below. The young scientist watched in wonder as the Martian landscape drifted below them. The citizens of these worlds had reached for the stars instead of the gun. Now the Universe lay before them.

“My greatest wish Alice is that my new world will look upwards for glory. The Universe is big enough and full of enough resources that there is no need to fight over scraps like some caged animal.”

Alice had many questions for this night, but she had an idea the first one would be the most difficult. “Nadine, why do you still look sixteen?”

The young scientist turned to watch the Spiritual Detective change herself into a dozen forms from young to old, too different humanoid-like creatures, and finally back again to her normal self.

Nadine turned back to the large window and nodded, her form changing. The young scientist was now in her mid-twenties. Her hair pulled up neatly into a ponytail. Her black dress morphed into faded blue jeans, a baggy maroon MIT sweatshirt, and sandals.

“What do you see, Alice?”

“You look like yourself, or how you should look. A very pretty twenty-something human female, what do you see?”

“My dead wife.”

The Spiritual Detective felt a blow to her heart, long-dead emotions flared painfully. She had done evil. This new life was no reward for saving a dimension in which the damage would have been the same if not worse if the beast had walked through it.

“It just sort of happened. After my memorable introduction to the Imperial Space Administration, we were invited to their holiday party, all very formal, a chance to dress up.” Nadine began. “My mama had scheduled for the three of us to go to the Salon. Our hair was made up, makeup was expertly applied; we both looked much older than our sixteen-year-old selves. My sister wore this pale blue dress that looked very flattering on her, but when I saw her, it wasn’t my sister I saw walking down the stairs. In a panic I ran into the hallway to stand before the full-length mirror. I fainted.” She smiled. “Oh, we went anyway; I said I was just hungry. I really wanted everyone to enjoy themselves.”

Nadine continued to explain that she didn’t realize at first she was keeping herself from looking older. It wasn’t until a few years later, when it became obvious that she realized what she had done. She could handle Maggie getting older, her sister aging normally, but Nadine couldn’t do it, still can’t do it.

“Doctors have decided that I have some sort of weird genetic disorder; others think I had a laboratory accident. Some even have these weird metaphysical ideas.” Nadine made a face. “Most just take it at face value. As I’m pretty eccentric, anyway well beyond the norm, if I still look sixteen it fits pretty well with my image. Since I’m also friends with the Imperial family most people tend not to ask too many questions.” Nadine suppressed a giggle then smiled sadly. “It, of course, puts a damper on any long term relationships. I mean, how many normal adults want to date a sixteen-year-old, and as for myself I’m a little too old to be going to anyone’s senior prom.”

She was still trying to figure out if she could say no to Prince Bonaparte’s invitation to his graduation dance. She had a sneaking suspicion that Cleo was playing matchmaker.

“I have done you evil, and I don’t know how to undo it.” Alice began. “I didn’t even think about long term, it just seemed a simple solution, a reward for a job well done. How many more spirits live in torment because I lack the emotional capacity to feel anymore?”

Perhaps she had outlived her usefulness, doing more harm than good. Is that what happened to the others, did they just decided to will themselves out of existence. It would be so easy just to disappear.

Nadine reached over and held the Spiritual Detective’s hand, anchoring her to the world. “At no time have I ever thought you have done me evil. You gave me a second chance, and what I do with it is my responsibility, not yours.” Nadine knew it to be mostly true, although there were dark times in the past when she cursed the Spiritual Detective.

Alice frowned; it seemed that Nadine wasn’t going to allow her to wallow in self-pity.

“Alice”

“Yes,” The Spiritual Detective looked up from her brooding.

“Is that your real name? I started calling you that as sort of a joke, but it seemed to fit.”

“Since I spend most of my time down the rabbit hole, it does,” Alice admitted with a smile. “I don’t remember my real name, so Alice…well I really like the name.”

“Good, so were those all of the questions. You ready to head back?”

Alice rolled her eyes. “You do know that’s not true, Nadine you weren’t going to do anything more than practice.”

“I did sort of got carried away didn’t I?”

“Sort of…sort of.” Alice yelled. “You’ve gone too far. I didn’t want this for you, Nadine; you’re supposed to have a normal life. I wanted you to be happy. Now you’ll lose everything, your friends, your world, your family all of it. It’s all going to die right in front of your eyes, and there is nothing you can do about it.” The immortal known as Alice started to cry. “You can’t be like me, you can’t. You’re my only friend in existence, and I can’t even do right by you.”

Nadine moved over, circled her arms around the Spiritual Detective, holding her close. “You’ve done nothing wrong, Alice,” Nadine whispered. “I knew what I was doing.”

Alice leaned back and wiped her eyes with her hands. “But why?”

Nadine reached into her purse and handed Alice some tissues. “First of all, I’m a scientist, and I’m like a kid in a candy store with all of this. “She giggled. “I’m sorry Alice I really couldn’t help myself.“

Alice frowned. “But.”

“Plus, I can’t just sit by and do nothing, and in the bigger picture you needed the help.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Come on, let me pay, and we’ll go for a walk.” After leaving the restaurant, the pair ended up in the arboretum of the Martian Space Station.

“Since you have been hunting the Entropy creature, how much time have you spent adjusting this area of the multiverse?”

“None,” Alice admitted that whatever Nadine was doing, it was making it easier for her to hunt down the beast. “So you have been doing my job.”

“Our job?

“Our job, for whatever reason, I came to understand the nature of the multiverse. If it wasn’t to help you then what was it for? Not for me to go shopping across the multiverse, which, trust me is actually a lot of fun. No it’s to help you out.”

“You decided this all by yourself.” Alice turned to Nadine with a half-smile on her lips.

“I did.”

“You must drive the people at your work insane.” Alice took a seat on one of the benches.

“So I’m told.” Nadine grinned. “Admit it, Alice, you need the help. I want to help. You’re my friend, and there is no way I am going to allow you to do it all by yourself anymore.”

Alice looked up and whispered. “How do you know that I’m alone?”

Nadine looked up at the artificial sky and closed her eyes. “Recently, I have been able to feel you out there, and you’re all alone. There were others once, right?”

Alice nodded.

“I thought so; what we need is a recruitment drive. I used to do this at colleges, but instead we’ll go to the more advanced dimensions and see if we can scrounge up some more adjusters.” Nadine raised her hand like an old announcer. “Want to live a life on the edge; be a Multiverse Adjuster? Aunt Nadine and Aunt Alice need you!”

“I like Spiritual Detective.”

“Names are not important; what’s important is that we need more help.”

Alice couldn’t believe she was having this conversation. Going out to other dimensions and recruiting others. It was something the Caretaker used to do. Alice had a thought. She didn’t know what to make of it, should she be upset or excited. “Nadine, can you feel the beast.”

“Since I healed the Empress, that’s when I knew you needed even more help.”

“You healed the Empress?”

“Come on. I can show you better from home.” Nadine reached for Alice, and the pair suddenly appeared inside Nadine’s house. “I had the girls make room for you.”

“It sounds like your planning on having me stay long term.” Alice stood in the front room, looking at the photographs of Nadine’s family. The twins looked a lot like their mother. Nadine didn’t bother to tell Alice that even her own mother was a reminder to her of what she had lost.

“Of course, my home is your home,” Nadine yelled from her bedroom. A few minutes later she emerged dressed a little more casually. “It’s rather odd not having to sleep anymore, but I do like closing my eyes in the morning and listening to the Universe sing, it’s relaxing.”

“The Universe sings?”

“Well, the multiverse does as well, but it can be a bit erratic, kind of like trying to listen to jazz and classical at the same time.” Nadine looked at her guest for a moment. “You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?”

“No, not really, it’s OK. Let’s talk about…”

“Come on to the veranda, come on.” Nadine reached for Alice and pulled her outside. “Take my favorite seat. Now close your eyes.”

“But”

“Close your eyes, Alice, relax.”

“I don’t know how to relax,” Alice admitted.

“I know you’re like a lot of people I work with. You may be immortal, my dear, but you’re on the edge of having a breakdown. I’m surprised you haven’t burned out long ago. Now close your eyes and listen.”

“It’s not working.” Alice tried to rise, but Nadine pushed her back down.

“Being wound up tighter than a watch spring isn’t healthy, Alice. You need to learn to relax. Clear your mind and listen. Trust me, the multiverse isn’t going anyplace.”

Alice sat there, feeling nothing. It wasn’t going to work. There was too much to do for them to just sit around and listen to the Universe. The beast was rampaging worlds, and the two of them were listening to music. Alice felt a finger tapping her head.

“You’re thinking too much.”

Alice sighed. Fine, she would try, and when it didn’t work, she would just fake it, and Nadine would leave her alone. She then listened, really listened. Taking a deep breath the Spiritual Detective let it out, not that she needed to breathe but it helped her concentrate. The immortal suddenly felt the world around her come to life, a symphony of sound.

“Would you like some coffee, Alice?”

Alice opened her eyes. “What?” She looked around and realized the sun was up. “Coffee?”

Nadine giggled. “Seems someone had a long night, Lia, this is Alice she is going be living here with us on and off. So please treat her like you would me.”

“Si Contessa” The older Italian woman gave Alice a warm smile then headed to the kitchen to make breakfast.

“I lost track of time.” Alice didn’t know how she felt, but she felt different.

Nadine giggled. “I know, don’t worry, I’ve been keeping track of things while you were gone.”

The pair waited until breakfast was set on the table. Alice reached for her cup of coffee and added plenty of sugar. "OK, Nadine, what's going on?"

"Remember, I told you that I healed the Empress. I discovered she had Leukemia. My choices were simple, if she was healed and it caused a disruption I would have to let nature take its course. However when I ran the probabilities I found that if I healed her it actually strengthened the dimensional bonds not disrupt them. A healthy Imperial family, in the long run, was beneficial. So I healed her." She smiled.

"So, you continued to strengthen the dimensional bonds?"

"Correct, I no longer did just adjustments in the surrounding dimensions, but I strengthened them. Especially here at home. At every opportunity."

Alice shook her head. "Why did I never ever see this?"

"Because you were too busy fighting fires, you never had a reason to do something that wasn't an adjustment."

"So the creature?"

Nadine picked up her coffee cup and took a sip. "Vile thing, I can feel it now. When I started to strengthen the dimensional bonds, I noticed it had an effect on the beast. I'm not sure it can be covered under the Laws of Attraction, but I have sure attracted the thing."

"It's not even staying in one place to actually hurt anything."

"Good, that was the idea. It needs some energy to move on, but only enough."

"And what are we going to do when it gets here?"

Nadine gave a feral grin. "Trap it...kill it."

Doctor Brian Wilson sat quietly, watching the police car roll by his hiding place. The very idea that they were looking for him was absurd. They were nothing to a man like him, peasants really. Nevertheless, it would prove disastrous if they discovered the woman in his backseat.

How could they understand that it was all God's will’ when he reached out to these accursed wretches of the night and purified them by fire? Understanding had only come to him when a being of light appeared before him offering salvation.

Before the encounter, the Doctor knew he was a simple butcher of women. Now he was God’s right hand. Understanding that there were too many that now needed his personal ministrations had come to him.

Promotion through the scientific ranks inside the biological weapon company BioCom was first of many steps that would eventually lead to the salvation of all humanity. The Northern Republic government had already inquired about a few of his ‘new’ discoveries. What they didn’t know was his personal angel had given him knowledge beyond their current technological understanding of viruses. With this knowledge, it would be only a matter of time.

Reaching over, he caresses the thigh of the struggling woman. “Don’t fear the pain, child, embrace it. The fuel will burn your flesh, but your spirit will rise up with the smoke. Knowing that many of your sisters have crossed the threshold before you should bring comfort.”

Rolling to a stop in a secluded section of the Federal Highway near the Connecticut border, the Doctor opened his door and walked over to the trunk. Pulling out three cans of gasoline, a tarp, and rope, meticulously, he proceeded to set up the cleansing ceremony.

The young hitchhiker was next, still struggling as he dragged her out of the car. Like the others, this child’s identity would most likely remain unknown. He had thrown away most of her belongings a state ago while driving past a river.

His sacrifice was now almost ready. Unlike many of the others, she was not docile, fighting him every step of the way. If they could just understand that, a moment of pain would allow them to reach eternal paradise. With the girl now spread-eagled upon the tarp, with her arms tied to ropes, the Doctor walked back to his car.

Turning around with the gasoline cans in hand, he stopped. The girl was now missing, along with the rope and the tarp. In its place was a blonde-haired girl wearing what appeared to be some sort of black Victorian dress.

“I don’t think so.”

The beast within the Doctor began to move; somehow, the Adjuster discovered its presence. How was this possible? It didn’t know, but the beast needed to flee. Once it was gone, the human would just collapse, as its spirit was quickly devoured.

“As she said, I don’t think so.” A voice behind the Doctor made him quickly turn around. Standing behind him was the young hitchhiker he had abducted.

“How?” The serial killer began.

“Now, Alice.”

The world went suddenly white for Doctor Brian Wilson. He was sitting in a schoolroom that looked very familiar. He realized that it was his old High School classroom from over thirty years ago.

“Hi, Cathy.” A young girl greeted him, but it wasn’t his own voice that answered.

Suddenly he realized that he could feel what she was feeling, hear what she was thinking but could not interfere. It took only moments to realize that he was in the body of Cathy Peterson. He had a crush on her for most of his first year of High School, but she was also the first person he ever killed.

Thirty years ago was too long for him to remember what day he took her life. However, he didn’t need to wait long. Passing himself in the hallway, she greeted him kindly before entering her Biology class. That kind of greeting was what sealed her fate.

Thirty years ago, he thought she was making fun of him, the skinny unpopular boy that mostly wanted to be left alone. Understanding her thoughts, the Doctor realized that she was being kind and thought he might need a friend.

At no time had he felt an ounce of pity or remorse for taking the lives of the women he had murdered. However, he was no longer in that body but in the body of Cathy Peterson.

The Doctor began to try to talk to her. Obviously if he could just speak to her, she might take a different way home from school. He knew her death wasn’t planned, it was a spur of the moment thing. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to help her escape the pain and terror that she would experience at the end of the day. Moreover, like Cathy, the Doctor experienced every second of that experience.

As Cathy took her last terrified breath, he found himself walking down a secluded highway. The serial killer knew that this was the second woman whose life he took. He never knew her name but now found it to be Suzanne. She was heading to New York to try to make it in the music scene and would lose her life, no matter how much the Doctor struggled to change her fate.

One after the other, the serial killer lived the last day of the woman whose life he took. He had forgotten most of them but now their lives, their hopes their dreams were intimately revealed to him. His spirit was assaulted time after time what he had done.

The beast inside the Doctor felt as if too was in prison. The emotions emanating from the killer, and his victims were so raw that it felt itself being pushed deeper and deeper into the doctor's nightmare. The beast, however, was not going to let the Adjustor do whatever she pleased. For every two steps forward, it took a step back but slowly it began to crawl its way out of the nightmare.

The beast found itself in a gray hallway. Now in control of the Doctor’s body, it ran towards what appeared to be a door. Opening it, the creature found another hallway. Then another hallway and then another.

“I’m in a loop.” The creature growled.

“You escaped.” The blonde hair girl stood at the end of another hallway with a surprised look on her face.

“There was no way that little emotional prison was going to hold me, Adjuster.”

Alice gave the beast a half-smile. Hopefully, it would miss what she was frantically trying to finish. The final touches on the beast’s prison were almost complete.

“It wasn’t meant to hold you fiend, just slow you down.”

The creature of entropy grinned. “You can’t stop me, I’ll simply move on as you know.”

“Not from here, you won’t. This little universe is just for you.”

“Impossible.”

Alice laughed. “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

The creature’s eyes opened wide as the girl stepped into a bright light. She had been masking a wormhole and the way out of the pocket universe. Throwing itself forward, it managed to hold onto the Adjustors' leg.

Alice understood that at one point, she might have closed the wormhole and spent the rest of eternity with the beast. It was a fair trade, her existence for the life of the multiverse. However, ever since meeting Nadine she no longer felt that pull. Lashing out with her foot, she slammed it into the head of the creature.

Alice felt that she and her unwanted passenger being dragged out of the pocked universe and up through the wormhole. If she didn’t get rid of the beast before they reached the other side, it would be able to escape again.

Lashing out repeatedly, the Adjustor tried to break away from the Doctor. She knew that Nadine was waiting on the other side for her return so she could seal the prison.

“If I fall, I’m taking you with me, Adjustor. We can spend eternity together.”

“No,” Alice screamed, she couldn’t allow the beast to escape but neither did she want to spend any more time with the evil thing.

“I suggest that you let go of my friend.”

Two arms seemed to come out of nowhere as the entire wormhole lit up like the sun. A screech of pure terror filled the air as the beast was ripped from its hold on Alice. The light continued to expand, pushing the beast down and away.

“What was that?” The two friends lay together in each other arms on the banks of the Seine in Paris.

Nadine giggled. “Well, you remember when Jack opened a rift in the multiverse.”

Alice turned her head to look at her friend, then nodded.

“I did the same thing except channeled the power through the wormhole.”

Alice's eyes opened wide. “You threw a Super Nova at the beast.”

Nadine giggled again. “It was only a Type 2, and it sealed up its prison quite nicely.” Holding Alice close she kissed her head. “Don’t do that again you had me worried.”

“You worried, I was terrified.” Alice realized that she did feel terror, and old feelings that she had thought long gone were resurfacing. “I thought that I was going to spend all eternity with the beast.” The Adjustor began to shake than she let out a mournful sob. Nadine just held her rocking back and forth.

“Wasn’t going to happen, if I had to go down there and kick the beast’s ass myself.”

Alice laughed, holding her friend close; it was indeed going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.

--0--

Nadine stood on a small rise overlooking a school. A hundred yards before her, a fighter jet burned on the soccer field. It was the most amazing bit of flying she had seen in a long time. Surrounding the school where dozens of homes and stores, but somehow the pilot managed to crash it in the middle of the field without even damaging the school.

Nadine wasn’t here specifically for an adjustment or to even strengthen the multiverse, she just happened to be passing through. At the bottom of the slope, a woman in a pilot’s pressure suit knelt with eyes closed and rosaries in her hands. Patches on her shoulder proclaimed her part of a squadron for a European country Nadine had never heard before.

“That was a brave thing you did, Captain Carlson.”

The woman's eyes snapped open looking at the young woman who now stood next to her. Dressed all in white she appeared to be some sort of heavenly being.

“I am ready for my punishment.” She said softly, her eyes tearing up.

Nadine looked down at the pilot and smiled. “Punishment, Eleanor, hardly. You should be rewarded for all of the lives you probably saved.”

“I am unworthy.” A single tear ran down her face. “In the end, I killed myself, an act that was always hidden inside my heart.”

“Because you have always felt different?”

Eleanor nodded. “I was a mistake, an error…a sin upon God. My feelings and thoughts were wrong. I was taught that such feelings would only lead to my damnation.”

Nadine reached over and cupped the pilot’s face with her hand. “No child born of this earth or any earth is a mistake or an error.”

“But I deserve to be punished.”

Nadine reached over and softly kissed the forehead of the Captain.
“Not today, my brave one, today I’m only giving out rewards.”

Nadine already knew what needed to be done. She was going to do more than simply slip the Captain’s spirit into another body. The now Caretaker understood that she and Alice couldn’t fix everything; however today, she didn’t care. The Guardians of this universe owed her one anyway.

Captain Eleanor Carlson lay on the ground looking at the blue sky above. She felt as if someone had hit her with a sledgehammer.

“Come on, you wuss, get off your ass.” Voices near her jested good naturally.

Rolling on her side, she realized that she laid on a playground, underneath her was a football, a ball that she had just caught.

Memories came to her; she was no longer Eleanor Carlson but Alexander Islip. Visions of her parents, her family all came to her. She was now a nine-year-old boy in a loving family.

Inside her spirit rejoiced, spreading its wings by some miracle her deepest wish had just been fulfilled. Rising from the ground, Alex reached over and threw the ball back to his best friend, Leo. “I thought it was a great catch.” Looking around he realized he was standing in the same schoolyard in which Eleanor had crashed her plane.

“Oh, it was a great catch.” Leo laughed. “Next time don’t fall down.”

Alex laughed and started to run again, pure joy filling his heart. Passing a group of girls on the playground, he spotted one dressed in white swinging on the swings. Their eyes met.

“Thank you.” Alex mouthed.

Nadine only smiled then faded from view.

Authors Notes: Thanks to all, So ends 'Numbers of the Beast'I hope you enjoyed Nadine's and Alice's story. You will see them again. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

PS For those mathematically inclined, the equations used as chapter spacers are part of the Navier—Stokes equations named after Claude-Louis Navier and George Gabriel Stokes. The equation describes the motion of fluid substances.