“Enough theorising, Henry,” said Josh. “We need to think ofsomething quickly before it kills us.”
“How do you know we’re unauthorised personnel?” asked Henry,trying to buy some time.
“I cannot verify your identities,” said the android Josh. “Ihave temporarily lost contact with my prime user.”
“Yeah. That figures,” replied Henry. “I’m afraid she’s alittle out of range.”
“Your prime user authorised us earlier,” said Josh. “Here,you can contact her to confirm our identities using this.”
He held out the tachyometer and surreptitiously activatedit.
The android seemed unsure and walked towards Josh, promptlyfalling into the bubble he had created and disappearing.
“Stupid android,” said Josh. “What a poor imitation of me.He didn’t have a fraction of my brains.”
“Where did you send it?” asked Henry.
“Same place as Vanessa.”
“At least she’ll have something to play with, and luckilyfor her it can run off solar power.”
“Yuk,” said Josh. “Do you think she has sex with it?”
“I’m sure she does,” said Henry. “She couldn’t have the realthing so was probably using this as a substitute until she could have you forreal.”
“If that’s the case, why obsess so much over me? If she hadjust stuck with that android substitute all of this death and destruction couldhave been averted.”
“You know as well as I do that no android, no matter howsophisticated, can ever truly be as perfect as a human. At least not yetanyway. Even the Josh we just met that looked identical and could probablyperform sexual acts with Vanessa in a far superior way than you ever could.”
“Thanks very much!” exclaimed Josh. “I’ve never had anycomplaints, you know!”
“I meant technically superior,” clarified Henry. “Justbecause he might have unlimited stamina in bed, what he wouldn’t have is thatcocktail of pheromones and hormones that make the sexual attraction between twoliving, breathing beings so exhilarating. We’re still a long way fromreplicating that, if indeed we ever can.”
“That didn’t seem to bother your other self. He had onecalled Dani which Vanessa implied your counterpart was having, shall we say,relations with.”
Henry paused and Josh thought he saw him blush slightly,which could mean only one thing.
“You had Dani, too, didn’t you?” he asked.
“I did and there’s no shame in it,” replied Henry. “A lot ofpeople have sex robots these days. And let’s face it, I was married to Vanessa.Can you blame me?”
“Not at all,” said Josh. “At least you could be confidentDani wouldn’t kill you.”
“That’s true,” said Henry. “And despite the lack ofpheromones I still had a far greater connection with Dani than I ever had withVanessa. Dani was infinitely preferable.”
“You know what you said about our android friend keepingVanessa company in 10,000 BC,” remarked Josh. “I don’t think he is, becausehe’s going to materialise hundreds of feet below ground.”
“What happens if you materialise inside solid rock?” askedHenry.
“I don’t know but I can’t imagine it’s very pleasant,”replied Josh.
“With any luck, she won’t be lonely for long, anyway,” saidHenry. “Once we’ve done what needs to be done, she should be erased fromhistory altogether. And speaking of erasing things, we really need to get intothis system and see what damage she’s done to the multiverse.”
Henry moved over to the captain’s chair to examine thescreen.
“We’re in luck. She’s left this open, and what’s more, Irecognise this system. It’s the same as I was using to analyse the multiversefrom my universe. I should be able to analyse what she’s done and then shut itdown – permanently.”
“While you do that, I’m going to have a scout around and seewhat else is down here,” replied Josh.
“Be careful,” warned Henry. “Just in case she’s got anyother nasty surprises down here.”
Henry hadn’t been exaggerating when he had said that theplace was huge. As Josh explored he found that in addition to the residentialareas, there were all manner of recreational areas. It was like a whole townunderground, with gyms, restaurants, a large cinema, squash and tennis courts,and even a swimming pool.
He found large storage areas with plenty of tinned food butalso greenhouses with artificial light for growing fresh food. It reminded himof footage he had seen of the first Mars colonies – effectively they hadre-created that project here underground on Earth.
After about an hour of exploring, he returned to Henry whodidn’t have good news.
“She’s deleted my universe!” he exclaimed. “Sometimeyesterday, before she came to meet you. And not just mine either, she’s wipedout the whole multiverse. This universe we’re standing in now is the only oneleft.”
“Why would she do that?” asked Josh. “All those people…allgone. We’re talking trillions!”
“I doubt she was remotely bothered about that,” said Henry.“We already know how little value she places on human life.”
“And not just human life,” said Josh. “All life, on all theplanets in the universe.”
“It’s murder on an unprecedented scale,” said Henry.
“She must have had some reason for doing it,” said Josh. “Itcan’t just have been down to her love of killing people.”
“Perhaps she saw the other universes as a threat,” saidHenry. “She might have envisaged the particular scenario we’ve just played out– that someone from another universe would come to stop her.”
“Which is exactly what you’ve done,” said Josh.
“And now I can never go home,” said Henry morosely.
“On the bright side, you’re still alive here. You didn’tdisappear when she wiped your universe.”
“True, so it looks like I’m destined to live out my lifehere,” said Henry.
“There’s no way to restore the universes she deleted?” askedJosh, thinking about the poor guy he had left stranded in one of those otherworlds in 1988, just before Vanessa had unleashed her reign of terror. Itlooked like there was no chance of getting him back now. Hopefully he had atleast been able to live out a full life there before his universe wasobliterated.
“No – it’s not like you can just hit undo. Once they’regone, they’re gone.”
“Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing,” said Josh. “We hadalready discovered that too many universes might trigger a new Big Bang. Now weare back to a single universe, perhaps we should keep it that way.”
“Perhaps we should,” said Henry. “On the plus side, only oneuniverse means
