when you were passing through that alien treasury?”
“I left that to the twins, who take after their father. I’m sure they pinched a good bit for themselves, but what they passed on will make us independently wealthy for life. If we live.”
“The war, of course.” My elation turned to depression at the thought. “What is happening?”
“Nothing good. As you observed the aliens on their own are a little on the stupid side. Once the gray men were out of the picture leadership must have been divided. But there still must have been a few commanders left who were bright enough to come in out of the rain because they launched an all-out attack. Left their base completely. Just took everything they had and came after us. So we ran, and are still running. Just picking away at their fringes to let them think we will stand and fight. But we can’t afford to. They outnumber us and outgun us at least a thousand to one.”
“How long can this last?”
“Not much longer, I’m afraid. We’re almost past all of our inhabited planets and will be coming out soon in intergalactic space. After that we can retreat no more. Or if we do the uglies will see what we are doing and even they are smart enough to figure this one out. All they have to do then is leave a small force to keep us at bay, then they can turn and start attacking our planetary bases.”
“You don’t make it sound too good.”
“It isn’t.”
“Do not worry, my sweet.” I clutched her and kissed her a bit more. “But your own little Slippery Jim will save the galaxy.”
“Again. That’s nice.”
“I was ordered to come here,” a familiar voice said.” Just to see you kissing and hugging? Don’t you know there is a war on? I’m a busy man.”
“Not as busy as you are going to be soon, Professor Coypu.”
“What do you mean?” He shouted angrily and clashed his protruding molars in my direction.
“I mean you are about to make the weapon that will save us all and your name will ring down through the history books forever. Coypu, Galaxy Savior.”
“You’re mad.”
“Don’t you think you’re the first one to ever say that. All geniuses are called mad. Or worse. I read a report highly secret that you now believe in parallel universes…”
“Silence, you fool! No one was to know. Specially you!”
“An accident, really. A safe just happened to fall open when I was passing and the report dropped out. Is it true?”
“True, true,” he muttered tapping his fingernails on his teeth unhappily. “I had the clue from your escapade with the time helix when you were trapped in a loop of time in a bit of past history that did not exist.”
“It existed for me.”
“Of course. Just what I said. Therefore, if one possible different past could exist, then an infinity of different pasts—and presents must exist. That’s logical.”
“It certainly is,” I cheered. “So you experimented.”
“I did. I have gained access to parallel universes, made observations and notes. But how does this save the galaxy?”
“One more question first, if you please. Is it possible to pass through into these other universes?”
“Of course. How else could I have made my observations? I sent a small machine through to make readings, take photographs.”
“How big a machine can you send through?”
“It depends on the power of the field.”
“Fine. Then that is the answer.”
“It may be an answer to you, Slippery Jim,” Angelina said with some puzzlement, “but it doesn’t make much sense to me.”
“Ahh, but just think, lover mine, what can be done with a machine like that. You mount it on a battleship with plenty of power. The battleship joins our space fleet and the fighting begins with the enemy. Our forces flee, the battleship limps behind, the enemy rushes up, the field is turned on—”
“And every one of those awful creepy-crawlies and all of their guns and things zip right through into another universe and the menace is over forever!”
“I was thinking of something roughly like that,” I said modestly, polishing my fingernails on my chest. “Can we do it, Coypu?”
“It is possible, possible…”
“Then let us get to your lab and look at the gadget and see if the possible can be turned into the tangible.”
Coypu’s newest invention did not look like very much at all. Just a lot of boxes, wires and assorted gadgetry spread all over the room. But he was proud of it.
“Still in rough shape, as you can see,” he said. “Breadboarded components. I call it my parallelilizer…”
“I would hate to say that three times fast.”
“Don’t joke, diGriz! This invention will change the fate of the known universe and at least one unknown one.”
“Don’t be so touchy,” I said soothingly. “Your genius will not go unmarked, Prof. Now, would you be so kind as to demonstrate how your parallelilizer works.”
Coypu sniffed and muttered to himself while he made adjustments on the machine, threw switches and tapped dials. The usual thing. While he was busy I was busy too giving Angelina a quick hug and she hugged right back. The professor, wrapped up in his work, never noticed that we were wrapped up in ours. He lectured away while we snogged.
“Precision, that is the important thing. The various parallel universes are separated only by the probability factor which is very thin as you can well imagine. To pick just one probability out of all the countless possible ones is the trickiest part of the operation. Of course the probabilities that vary the least from ours are the closest, while completely changed probability universes are the most distant and require the most power. So for this demonstration I will take the nearest one and open the portal to it,
A last switch was thrown and the lights dimmed as the machine sucked in all the available power. On all sides machines hummed and sparkled and the sharp smell of ozone filled the air. I let go of Angelina and looked around carefully.
“You know, Professor,” I said. “As far as I can see absolutely nothing has happened.”
“You are a cretin! Look, there, through the field generator.”
I looked at the big metal frame that was wrapped with copper wire and glowing warmly. I could still see nothing and I told Coypu so. He screeched in anger and tied to pull out some of his hair, failing in this since he was almost bald.
“Look through the field and you see the parallel universe on the other side.”
“All I can see is the lab.”
“Moron. That is not
“Wonderful,” I said, smiling, not wanting to offend the old boy. Though I really thought he was crackers. “You mean if I wanted to I could just step through the screen and be in the other world?”
“Possibly. But you might also be dead. So far I have not attempted to pass living matter through the screen.”
“Isn’t it time you tried?” Angelina asked, clutching my arm. “Only with some living matter other than my husband.”
Still muttering, Coypu exited and returned with a white mouse. Then he put the mouse in a clamp, fixed the clamp to a rod, then slowly pushed the mouse through the screen. Absolutely nothing appeared to happen other than that the wriggling mouse managed to squirm out of the clamp and drop to the floor. It scuttled aside and vanished.
“Where did it go?“ I asked, blinking rapidly.
“It is in the parallel world, as I explained.”
