A.R.: Beyond the Universe
Chapter 18 - The Collector

Alex appears in space, floating a considerable distance from the Collector. During the defense against the Void, he didn’t have time to get a good look at it. There was very little time between when it unexpectantly showed up and when they started their defense against the Void. Now, with the barrier in place and the Void gone, he can take his time with the Collector. He has to determine if humans can operate it. If so, they will need an atmosphere. Things like living quarters, kitchens, bathrooms, water and electricity will have to be set up and ready to go. Alex is getting a headache just thinking about what needs to be done.

He looks that the Collector. It is larger than he remembered. He was correct when he said that the earth’s population could live inside of it.

The surface is dark, rough, and old looking. It looks as though it has been rained upon by countless meteors. He estimates the massive structure to be about 38,000 miles long, 5,800 miles wide and 425 miles thick. It looks like a long, flat rectangle with eight smaller, rounded protrusions and three larger ones on the top and the bottom:

The eight smaller protrusions are the cannons used for defense, and the three larger ones are the energy collector field generators. When these are turned on, a field surrounds the ship that attracts, collects and stores energies from other realities.

There is a total of 16 cannons, 8 above and 8 below, each with enough firepower to destroy an entire galaxy. Only one of the cannons had been used against the Void in their fight, so Alex can only imagine the magnitude of the total firepower the Collector possessed and the power it must take to operate them simultaneously. Then Alex begins to wonder what the cannons were initially designed for. After all, what else would require a defensive weapon of this magnitude with so many cannons on a single ship? Aside from the Void, is there some other ancient thing out there that requires this type of firepower for defense?

He is used to doing things on a large scale. Moving planets and suns is something he can do by thought alone, but this is so much more. Planets, suns, stars, and black holes are all formed as a part of nature, but this thing, it was built, piece by piece. He wonders who had such capabilities to make something like this.

Alex examines the Collector for a way to enter it. When he pictures what an opening might look like, a large hatch matching the image in his mind opens on the side of the Collector. Did the Collector access his thoughts? If so, that was probably how one of the other Travelers gained access to it, got it started collected energies and fired one of the cannons at the Void. A trail of water vapor can be seen floating out into open space from the opening and freezes instantly. He floats inside then imagines the hatch closing. He watches as the opening fades away, leaving no indications that there was ever an opening there. Now it is time to start looking around.

He is inside a large room about the size of a big city. He looks down to see a floor several miles below him. The walls seem to shimmer as if energized. Alex tries to see into the metal that the walls are made of and finds it like the material used on the Complex. Alex is now confident that the ones who built this machine also created and installed the defense and control units placed throughout all the realities.

He looks for some type of control panel or something that will show him the status of the Collector. He throws a thought of this nature out toward the Collector and waits to see if there is a reaction. One wall behind him begins to shimmer and the surface changes to several screens, which start providing information about the Collector. Alex is amazed that the language on the screens is in English. He decides to try an experiment and thinks to the Collector in French. The screens vanish and reappear in French. Alex then tries again in English, with the same results.

“Good, this will help a lot when I can get some people up here,” thinks Alex.

He looks at the monitors and is curious about them. They do not seem to be separate from the wall but part of it, like a projector behind the wall showing a movie on a clear projection screen. He reaches out to find that the monitors are indeed not there at all. The surface is completely smooth. The Collector must be reconfiguring the molecular structure of the wall material in the area of the monitors to show continuously changing images, diagrams and text. He studies the monitors and finds that the massive energy storage units on board are still over half full.

“Nice to know if we ever have to fire those cannons again.”

Alex asks the Collector for overall schematics and layout plans of the unit. One by one, each monitor shows level after level of plans and drawings in rapid succession. Apparently, the original builders were very fast readers. He orders the monitors to begin showing the readouts at a slower rate. He learns the Collector already has things like living quarters, a control bridge, technical stations, etc. He scans all the monitors, knowing that Dale would have a billion or so questions to ask before he even gets here. The more information he can gather now, the better off he’ll be later.

It takes him about an hour of reading and studying the screens to get a good idea what is where in the Collector. With this general knowledge in his mind, Alex proceeds to do an inspection to see what shape things really are in.

Just as the opening, it appears that the Collector’s interior can also be reconfigured by thought. Manual tearing down and rebuilding will not be required. Just think it and walls, floors, and ceilings appear and vanish at will.

“This will be useful. Instant home.”

Alex continues his inspection of the Collector by going to the bridge, the place where all the main controls for the Collector are. Alex orders monitors to appear on a wall and finds that the control of the Collector was originally in the hands of beings that did not have the ability to control the Collector by thought alone. They were like humans, probably from some distant reality. Now he can learn how they did it, and then pass the knowledge on to Dale. Alex begins to study how the Collector is operated. He learns how to create an interior atmosphere and control it. “Good, a way to add air to the inside of the Collector.” He learns about the cannons and how to operate the flight controls, navigation, and communications.

He also finds some records of the original builders. These he would study later. They will be also useful in running the Collector.

Then he finds the answer he is seeking: how to move from reality to reality. This he had never done on his own. He had always finished his mission stopping the Void, then goes to sleep, only to be awakened in another reality, ready to battle the Void again.

The secret to reality relocation is a field the Collector generates. It allows the Collector to move from reality to reality instantly. The Collector never goes anywhere in space or time. Realities, it seems, all occur in the same place, just in different phases, or layers. The field creates an opening that allows the Collector to move from reality to reality without moving any. It phases or vanishes out of one reality and appears in another. This must also be how the Void moves from reality to reality. Now all Alex has to do is to determine which reality he needs to go to, the one that is next in danger from the Void and how to select it. This is accomplished by a system that can detect the Void in other realities. Just let the system find the next reality that is in danger and command the Collector to go there. It does the rest.

Alex decides it is time to turn on the atmosphere generator and let the interior of the Collector begin filling some of the areas with an atmosphere. That way, when he brings Dale onboard, he’ll have air to breathe.

Alex enters the command for the Collector to generate an atmosphere in the bridge, one that is comparable to what is found on Earth. When the system asks him the requirements for an atmosphere, he tells the system to use the same parameters for the atmosphere found on this existing planet, and pictures an image of the Earth and its location. Very soon, he begins feeling pressure build as the empty space inside the bridge is being filled with oxygen, nitrogen, and other trace elements. He then commands the system to provide similar atmosphere in areas he has designated as living quarters. He watches as digital images of the areas change colors, showing an atmosphere is now present in the selected areas.

He uses his mind to scan the Collector to see if there is any water on board the ship. To his dismay, there are only traces in the newly developed atmosphere. He uses the system’s celestial mapping program for this part of the galaxy to quickly locate a nearby planet that has sufficient, acceptable water supplies. He is relieved to find that water is more plentiful among the stars than he had thought. Fields of huge ice crystals can be found floating in certain places in space, as if they had been put there on purpose. “Perhaps,” thinks Alex, “they were put there as a reserve or a leftover for when water is required to establish certain types of life in a new reality.”

Alex concentrates on one of the ice fields and vanishes from the bridge of the Collector. He appears at the edge of what seems to be an endless sea of huge floating ice crystals, most the size of a small moon. He concentrates on several of the smaller crystals, each the size of a small city, and travels back to the Collector, bringing them with him. Once at the Collector, he goes to the bridge, where he studies the controls for the energy beam cannons and activates one of the smaller ones. With this, he slices each ice crystal into smaller cubes, so he can bring them into the Collector for water.

He goes back to studying the floor plans. He must find a large enough room for water storage inside the Collector. He selects an unused hangar bay which he can reconfigure to provide plenty of storage capacity for the water once the ice melts. He travels to the area and is surprised to find that one room is over 1000 miles long. He begins the process of a creating a large storage tank capable of storing a large lake. Then he travels out to the large cubes of ice, brings it back into the Collector and places it in the large tank that he created.

He looks at the hangar bay and determines that there will be plenty of space in the one hangar for several dozen storage tanks. He creates the necessary tanks and places the remaining large chunks of ice in each. Then he accesses the heating system and increases the temperature in the hangar bay to 100 degrees. With the water hopefully taken care of, he turns his attention to how he is going to get the water to various parts of the ship.

Simple commands bring the ship to life, as piping appears suddenly, connecting the tanks together and spreading throughout the ship. All Alex must do is picture in his mind where he needs the water and the ship makes and locates the piping, in long, continuous runs. “Too bad,” he thinks to himself, “this’ll put the plumbers out of business.”

He goes back to the first water storage tank to observe his progress. He has spent a lifetime of lifetimes fending off the Void. It feels nice creating something that will help sustain and nourish life, not just protect it. He watches as the huge piece of ice begins to melt, leaving the liquid to collect in the bottom of the huge storage tank.

Satisfied that there is now air and water in the Collector, he now turns his attention to lighting. He accesses the controls once again and sends an inquiry about lighting. A panel appears in front of him. On it, he sees instructions for various types and strengths of lighting. Some create a spectrum of light that would be fatal to humans, like stepping into a microwave oven and turning it on.

Alex keeps looking until he finally asks the system to analyze and reproduce the light produced by this small sun, and thinks of the sun that provides the Earth with its light. This type of light will not only provide light and warmth, but also the necessary requirements for plants to grow. That will be necessary to grow food. Humans, animals and vegetation need this type of light to survive in the depths of space and other realities.

He studies each area and uses the system to determine lighting levels for each purpose. There will be living quarters, recreational areas, farms, control rooms, offices and many other areas. Each will require its own strength of lighting. As Alex watches a monitor, the system starts showing where lighting is being added and the levels of intensity, which Alex adjusts here and there. The last room to have lighting added is the bridge. Alex travels to the bridge and watches as ceiling lights appear from nowhere. Just like the monitors, the lights look like they are part of the ceiling, with the system constantly reconfiguring the metal where the light is to project the required amount of light.

Now all he must do is to get some soil in the Collector. They will need it to raise crops for food, clothing, feed for the animals, etc. He needs to find a developing planet with suitable soil he can take, one where complex life forms have yet to develop. If he is going to use soil to grow plants from Earth, he must be careful to use a soil that is compatible with Earth’s plant life, animals and humans.

He once again accesses the ship’s celestial mapping program and finds several planets that will meet his needs. He pictures the locations in his mind and travels to the nearest one. He goes to the surface, where his tests determine that the soil is not suitable. The molecules are too coarse and the wrong material; they will not sustain life. He travels to the next planet and the next until he finds one where soil tests prove positive for earth-type plant growth.

He brings the planet back to the Collector and uses the smaller cannon to cut it into thin slices. Having the soil, he needs, he then looks to the interior of the Collector to determine which areas are large enough for planting enough food to feed a small army and selects another hangar bay.

He brings a slice of the planet into the hangar bay and places it on the floor. He finds a sonic cannon on a platform high above him, hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the hangar bay. He uses the cannon to break-up the large slice into fine soil. He repeats this process until he has an area several hundred square miles of good planting soil, at least 50 feet deep. All he has to do now is to get water and light to the area.

It only takes a couple of minutes of planning before the system creates water piping from the closest water tank to sprinkler systems far above the new soil. Alex watches as large lights appear in the ceiling, duplicating the light and heat produced by Earth’s sun, without the ill effects of harmful radiation.

Alex goes over his checklist. He has water, a place for food to grow, heat, and light. That will do for now. He plans to leave everything running in the Collector so that when he comes back, it’ll be ready for Dale and his crew once they arrive.

The more Alex thinks about it, the more he begins to suspect that those currently living in the Complex are the perfect candidates for living on the Collector. They already have experience in self-sustained living. He is amazed how things have been working out. When the Travelers needed help with the Void, there was Sara and Kate. One of the Travelers unexpectantly finds the Collector and now it will be used as living quarters and as a weapon to fight the Void. But in order to operate the Collector without the other three Travelers, he will need the help of a small army of people to take their place. The people currently living in the Complex already have experience in self-sustained living, as if prepped for this very event. Alex wonders if there is some larger force somewhere at work, making everything happen for a reason.

Then he sees something on the monitor that solves many of his immediate problems. He studies the screen as if in disbelief and then smiles.

With the Collector in working order and armed with the newly discovered information, Alex concentrates on home and vanishes. A moment later, he reappears in his living room, only a few inches from where he had vanished from earlier.

He calls for Sara, but there is no answer. There is also no MacGuyver to be seen. There is only one explanation. He looks to the door and sees that the leash missing. That means that either Sara has taken the dog for a walk, or she is still at work and Lilly has the dog.

Alex does a quick scan of the Complex and finds Lilly and MacGuyver playing ball in the park on the level she lives on. That is her favorite place to take the dog to play. It is bigger than the park on his level and has large open places for MacGuyver to run and play ball.

Alex travels to the park to find Lilly and MacGuyver in the company of Sara, who is amazed to see MacGuyver run around a bunch of large bushes, in a different direction than where the ball was thrown. She knows the dog reacts like that for one reason only: Alex. She follows the dog to see Alex bending down, petting little companion.

“Well, hello there. Tough day at the office?” she asks him.

“Nope. Got everything ready for Dale and his crew. We need to talk about the Collector and who will be living it. Got some time?” Alex asks her.

“Sure. Lilly: Alex and I need to do some talking. Watch MacGuyver for a while?” she asks the girl.

“We’ll be here,” Lilly tells them.

As they walk down the corridor toward the chute, Sara senses that Alex wants to say something. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the Find_Nøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“OK, mister, out with it. What do you want to ask me?”

“Am I that translucent?” Alex says.

“Alex,” Sara says, “when you’re worried about something, it shows on your face like a big neon sign. There’s not much that can hurt you, so it must be something else. Out with it.”

“It’s the Collector.”

“What about it? Is it not working out?” she asks.

“It’s working out fine. In fact, better than I ever imagined it could. It’s ready for Dale and his crew to get up there and start figuring out how to operate and run it.”

“Then what’s the problem?” asks Sara.

“We’re going to need people up there, a lot of people. If we’re going to live there, we’ll need food, clothing, entertainment, cooks, books, everything,” Alex tells her.

“So, how many people are you thinking?”

“Sara, how many people live here in the Complex?”

“Last count… about 50,000 or so. Why?”

“What would you say to everyone living in the Complex moving to the Collector, lock, stock and barrel?”

Sara’s eyes get very big. She had anticipated maybe a couple of hundred engineers, scientists and technicians, not everyone in the Complex.

“Alex, do you realize what you are asking? You want everyone to leave their home, their world, their planet, to live on an alien spaceship? This is home for these people. Some of them have never left it. You can’t just ask people like that to up and leave, can you?”

“That, my dear Sara, is the best part. As I was getting ready to leave the Collector and head back here, I saw something on a monitor that I never thought of. It will allow the people here to make the transition almost imperceptible to them.”

“Just what makes you think that?” she asks him.

“Because onboard the Collector, there are more defense and control units.”

“Defense units? As in the Complex defense unit? You saw a bunch of Complexes on the Collector?”

“Yes. Must be a couple of dozen. I never thought of it, but the Collector must have also served to transport and locate the units in addition to providing energy to a new reality.”

“Even if there are other Complexes onboard the Collector, it will take years before we can convert one of them to be like what we have now,” Sara says.

“Not so. Before I left, I scanned the controls of one of the defense units, and it’s just like the Complex. Each unit has the necessary equipment to move it from place to place until its location is ideal. I know where those controls are, on the units on the Collector and here. I can instantly move the Complex with everything and everyone in it, as is, to the Collector. The move will be so imperceptible to those in the Complex that they will not even know they moved. When the Complex leaves, it will be instantly replaced with another sealed defense unit, same size and the Complex, so that who-know-who won’t ever be able to get access to the technology inside. Once the command is given to the Complex that it will be relocated, it will retract the deep-core power rods and seal the openings leading to the mantle. I’ll set the controls so the moment this unit vanishes from here, one of the matching defense units on the Collector will take its place, filling the gap left when the Complex moves from here to the Collector. The change should be so smooth that no seismic sensors used by geologists on Earth will ever even know it happened.

“So, what do you think? Think your people will want to explore the unknown and help fight the Void while still getting to take along their homes and everything close to them? Nothing gets left behind: no pets, no plants, and no leaving the stores they love to shop at. They’ll even have the all the movie theaters, parks, and beaches that they’re used to having. If you think about it, don’t you find it strange that when we need people to man the Collector, we have a group already prepared for self-sufficient living?”

Sara looks at Alex. She can find no flaw in his logic, except one. “And what if they do not want to leave Earth?” she asks him.

“The only way to know is to ask them. I can make an announcement. What do you say, can we at least give it a try?” he begs her.

“OK, we’ll put it to a vote. But since they know me, I’ll do the asking. When do you need to know their decision?” asks Sara.

“I’ll need to check with Dale once we get him and his people up there. Off hand, I’d say probably a couple of months,” Alex answers.

“Well, since we don’t have to leave tonight, you promised Dale and Kate some chili. You’d better get cooking if we want to eat before midnight,” Sara says.

That is all that Alex can ask for. He knows he will not be able to force the population of the Complex to come with him. They will have to decide for themselves. Once the Complex leaves if some decide to stay on Earth, they will not have the Complex to live in anymore. The replacement defense unit will be sealed, with no way to get in it. Those who choose to remain on Earth will have to be relocated, with new IDs, histories, jobs, and lives, just like the witness protection program. They will also be susceptible to being located by the ones who want the Complex for themselves.

It takes Dale and his crew two weeks in the Collector before they give Alex his estimate on when they can leave. Even Alex does not anticipate his response.

“We can leave anytime that you want” Dale tells him. “Once you gave the Collector information about us, the system converted its controls to something we can understand and use. It even uses English for the instructions. We’ve already figured out how to operate the hard stuff, the rest will be a piece of cake. What we did not learn in the last two weeks, we can easily learn out there.”

That is more than Alex could have ever hoped to hear. Now all he has to deal with is the population of the Complex, and Sara. Alex thinks of his home in the Complex and vanishes. It is well past midnight when he crawls into bed next to Sara.

The next day, Alex says nothing as Sara heads for work. He has to get his nerve up before approaching her with the news. He leaves the suite, gets in a chute and goes up two levels to the on with her office on it. He goes to the door to her office, takes a deep breath and opens the door. She looks up from her desk to see a very apprehensive look on his face.

“Ok, mister, what now?” she asks.

“Remember when you asked how long we might have before the Collector is ready to use?”

“Yes…you said about 6 months.”

“Well, I might have been just a little off…”

“A little off? Something wrong?”

“Well, not exactly…”

“Alex, what are you trying to say?”

The collector…well…Dale says…”

“Out with it already!”

“Ok, here goes. The Collector is ready to go now.”

“But you said 6 months!”

“Yes, but I did not anticipate how quickly the Collector would adapt to Dale and his crew. Once they got on board, the Collector started working with them, teaching them what they needed to know. From what Dale said last night, they had it almost completely figured out.”

Sara sits back in her chair and takes a deep breath.

“Then, I suppose it’s time to let the people know what’s going on.”

That evening, Sara makes a public announcement to everyone in the Complex. Every TV set, PDA, movie screen and holographic imager in the Complex shows Sara’s face.

Everyone in the Complex stops what they are doing when they see Sara’s face. They know that Sara would not interrupt them except for something very important.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. I need to make an announcement that will affect every one of you. It is extremely important that each of you listen to what I am about to say to you.”

Sara looks over at Alex standing to the side, just out of camera view. “Here goes...”

“As you all know, the Complex is a very special place. We all know it is old, but even I had no idea until recently just how old it really is, or what it was put here for. What I am about to say may sound like science fiction to you, but I can assure you that it is very real. The Complex was put on our planet as a defensive weapon long before there were even people on the Earth. It is part of a large network of identical Complexes spread throughout the galaxy and way beyond. That network is meant to defend this universe and others just like it against a massive threat in the event that the threat becomes real. About six months ago, it happened here, in our galaxy. Something called the Void entered our universe. If it continued its course, Earth and everything else would have been destroyed. Nothing in this universe would have survived. However, thanks to this network of Complexes and others who helped, it was stopped, and Earth is now permanently safe from this menace. However, some of those who helped that day lost their lives. That was the day we all experienced the large explosions on Level One.

“I am sure you all know where we get our power from. It comes from long rods that go far into the molten mantle deep below the earth’s crust. These rods, as it turns out, not only provide us with the power we need everyday, but were absorbing and storing energy to power a weapon used to defeat this threat. When the Complex was asked to transmit the energy that it had been storing to help in defeating the Void, a short circuit in one of the deep-core shafts caused the explosions you all heard and felt.

“In spite of everything, we were successful, and the Void has forever left our universe. We are all now safe from this menace. With the Void no longer a threat to our world, we can stay and live here in peace. However, that is not the end of the story.

“There are other universes, other places which are also vulnerable to the Void. Some are already under attack. If it continues to do its damage and enough of these universes are destroyed, it is thought that a cascading effect will occur. If enough of these universes are destroyed by this Void, those remaining universes, including ours, will cease to exist. It will wipe out every last thing in existence: us, our homes and families, our planet and sun, everything. This is a threat that must be stopped, once and forever.

“To do this, we must be able to move between these realities. We have found, in deep space, an ancient space craft. We think this is the craft that was used to place the Complex here on Earth millions of years ago. This spacecraft not only placed the Complex here on Earth, but other places in our universe, as well as other universes. It is the only known weapon that can damage and hurt the Void. The ancient people who built the Complex and operated that ship have long since vanished. There is no one left on it to operate it or use it in the fight to help defeat the Void. But we can. We can use it to fight with. And, because of its massive size, we can also live in it, all of us.

“The spaceship is massive in size. It is larger than our own Earth. It can easily hold every one of us, and many times more. We have had our best people up there in it for the last two weeks, looking it over, learning how to use it. We know it works. We know how to use it. Now we need people to man it. This is where you must make a decision that will affect you and your loved ones for the rest of your lives, so every one of you needs to listen to this very carefully.

“The Complex, our home, has the ability to travel to this ship and dock within it.

We can travel to this ship in the Complex and live there, in the ship. You will not be leaving anything behind, except the Earth. You will still have your schools, stores, and theaters--everything you have now. The only thing that will change is that the Complex will not be deep inside the Earth’s crust, but inside a large space ship. It has everything in it we will ever need to survive, live, and prosper should we chose to go. We can learn how master it as a weapon to fight the Void. We would, in effect, be the ones who go after the Void, trying to do what we can to stop it. We can bring the fight to it instead of waiting for it to show up and destroy everything it touches. This is not a short-term mission. It is very likely that many or all of us or our children may never see Earth again should we decide to go.

“In our journeys to fight the Void, we would be traveling to other worlds and unimaginable places. The sights and things that you would experience would be beyond what anyone can comprehend. But make no buts about it…we will be at war when it comes down to it. There will be a definite level of danger. The ship can protect itself and us against this threat. But there will still be some level of danger involved.

“You should also know that once we leave the Earth, a duplicate, sealed version of the Complex will replace it instantly. The replacement Complex will never be accessible. It is sealed and will have no way for anyone to get in or out of it.

“Now I must ask you to make a choice. You will need to decide if you want to stay on Earth to live out your lives outside the Complex or go with the Complex and live among the stars. If you chose to stay, you will be relocated, given new names, histories, homes, and funds to support you and your families for life. You or your descendants will probably never know what became of those who chose to leave.

“If you decide to stay with the Complex, the move will be a non-event. It will occur instantly. You will not feel anything. One moment you are in a Complex beneath the Himalayan Mountains. The next, you will be in the same Complex but deep in space, inside the spacecraft, billions of miles from Earth. This is an opportunity that I, as a scientist and a person, cannot pass up. My hope is that many of you I have come to know will choose to join me. If you decide to stay on Earth, no one, especially me, will ever think anything less of you.

“Dale, our chief tech, is on the craft and has determined it is ready to be used. I am going to give each of you a vote in this. If you wish to stay on Earth, enter 100 on your PDA and hit send. No message is required. Each person gets one vote. Any duplicate votes will not be counted. If you wish to stay with the Complex and leave Earth, enter 1 on your PDA and hit send.

“I cannot stress to every one of you out there how grateful I am for the friendship, hard work, and loyalty you all have shown to me and the Complex. Again, voting to stay on Earth will not make you look weak, and it will not make anyone think less of you.

“When I end this announcement, you will have one week to vote to stay on Earth and live outside of the Complex, or to leave with the Complex and live onboard a spaceship, traveling among the stars, trying to stop an ancient threat. Unless any of you have any objections, those who decide to stay with the Complex should know that the Complex will leave Earth the day the last person who wants to stay has left the Complex and has been relocated to their new lives. May God bless and keep everyone one of you as you make your decisions. Thank you.”

After the announcement, Sara looks to Alex and asks, “Well, how’d I do?” By now, Kate has joined Alex, and Dale’s face can be seen on a nearby monitor.

“Honey, I don’t know if Lincoln could have done a better job,” Alex tells her. “You did great. I’ll be curious as to when the first votes come in and how they’ll vote.” He gives her a kiss and a hug.

“Well, I don’t think we’ll have to wait a day, much less a week,” Kate says. “Look at the vote counter. Already, over half have voted to stay with the Complex. No, make that 75%.”

“And how many want to stay on Earth?” Sara asks her.

“So far, none. It’s looking like a landslide. They all want to go.”

Sara turns to Alex. He can almost see a tear on her cheek.

“Now what’s that for?” he asks as he wipes the teardrop from her face.

“A year ago, I had no idea anything like this would ever happen. We were all content doing our own research or problem solving. Then I get the e-mail from you, and everything changes. I had no idea I would be married, not only to the man I love but an alien so old no one would ever be able to make enough candles to put on the cake, let alone have a cake big enough. You’ve taken me to places I’ve never dreamed of and done things that no one in his right mind would believe. Now we’re headed off into space to live in an alien spacecraft and do battle with something that has existed since the beginning of time.”

“Is that all?” Alex asks her.

“And I get to take everything and everyone I love with me. We all get to see worlds and places no one could ever imagine. I’m both scared to death and so elated I’m not sure if I should run and hide somewhere, hoping that this is all a dream, or if I should just strap myself in and wait for the ride to begin.”

Alex can tell that she is torn between staying or going. After a moment of silence, it is Kate who speaks.

“Listen, sis. None of us ever knows why we are here or what we are supposed to do with our lives. For once in my life, I know what to do. I know where I am going: out there. I know we have the tools to get the job done. It might take a year, or it might take our children’s children to finish the job. But at least we’ll be together doing something that counts. And as far as I am concerned, that’s the only thing in this life worth doing.”

Sara looks at her sister and wraps her arms around her. She wipes away the remaining tears on her cheeks and turns toward Alex.

“Folks, I have an announcement to make,” Kate says. “Looks like the voting is complete. They all want to go. No one voted to stay on Earth. Sis, you gave one hell of a speech.”

Alex looks at his wife. She and her sister are remarkable. He never could have dreamt anything like this would ever happen.

Sara looks at Alex. “When do we leave?”

She sees that Alex is glowing and it continues to get brighter, his light spreading throughout the room and the Complex. His face has a serious look to it, as if concentrating hard on something.

He turns his head slowly and looks at her.

“Now.”

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