Chapter 2

A small four-passenger vehicle waited for us in the tall grass at the edge of the wood. It must have sensed our approach because when we were within a few feet, the doors lifted and the seats rotated outward to accommodate our backsides. As soon as we were seated, they returned to their original position. The first thing I noticed about the interior was that there were no apparent controls; no steering wheel, no accelerator or break pedals.

When we were situated, a screen lit up in the center of the dash displaying some characters entirely foreign to me. Hex tapped three or four of them, setting the vehicle smoothly in motion, first rising a few inches off the ground then accelerating quickly through the tall grass and up a rise and onto a narrow ribbon of white stretching into the distance. Then it really took off.

I looked anxiously over at Hex and said, "I, uh, sure hope this thing knows what it's doing."

"It does. We'll be a few minutes en route so now would be a good time to ask more questions if you have them."

I was trying to estimate our speed but all I could come up with was 'too damned fast'.

I managed to tear my eyes away from the scenery flashing past us in a blur. "OK, here's my first question. Obviously, English can't be your native tongue so where did you learn to speak it so well and how about the people we're going to meet? What kind of language do they speak?"

"Brent, your Earth is just our latest discovery. Most of the known populated universes have been tied together for so long that they've evolved a common language; in fact we refer to it as Common. As for my English, I've lived among you for quite some time in preparation for this moment."

"So I was actually targeted for this little jaunt?"

"Not exactly. Initially, your selection was pretty much random, although I had to wait until the right sort of person came along before I could initiate contact."

"Jesus, Hex! You had damned near seven billion people to choose from! How did I get to be the lucky one?"

"I can't explain the science behind it but the initial point of contact between the universes just happened to be the park bench you and your lady friend occupied on a daily basis so it seemed like a logical place to start. It could have just as easily been in the middle of Beijing or Somalia. I've been watching you and listening to your conversations as well as those of hundreds of others for some time and you and Margaret were by far the best choices among the various people I've been monitoring. On top of that, you returned nearly every day so I had plenty of opportunities to insure you were the ones we wanted. I picked today to make myself known because your new iPad provided the ideal platform to initiate the shift. By our laws, bringing you through the portal had to be done with your consent and you were the one who tapped the icon."

I stared at her incredulously. "Look, I practiced law for forty-four years and I've got to tell you that's pretty lame, Hex. When I tapped the icon, I had no clue this would happen. Your laws must be damned forgiving when it comes to the fine print."

"Maybe. If I were you, I'd probably sue me."

"Damn it, Hex, your story just doesn't make any sense to me! Are you saying that once you're dropped into a new universe, you have no way of getting back without some kind of electronic platform like my iPad. What if that particular world hasn't advanced that far yet?"

"In that case, I'd have to wait for a specific period of time until they open the portal for me to return. In this case, it would have been another few years but since you happen to have a device that's up to the job and since you and Margaret happen to be ideally suited for our purposes, I chose to return now."

"So why don't you carry your own device?"

"Two reasons: One, we couldn't take the chance that something might happen to me and the technology might fall into the wrong hands and possibly cause the portal to be opened to an unsuspecting world and, two, knowing I'm stuck someplace for years and years encourages me to take the time to be very thorough in my study and analysis of the new world's inhabitants. The fact that your world already possesses the technology to contact and activate the terminus makes my job easy because it tells me you're at least technologically capable of a relatively easy assimilation into the multiverse."

"What terminus?"

"The end point of contact with the multiverse is located a few thousand kilometers out in space. With your iPad, we were able to route the signal through your Internet and ultimately through your satellite network to bring the terminus to Earth to pick us up."

"And that was the little speck of light?"

"Right!"

"Hmm. I can't quite put my finger on it but I get the distinct feeling you're conning me somehow."

"Trust me, Brent! You're going to like the results."

"I never trust anyone who makes promises beginning with 'Trust me'."

"Probably a good policy but in this case, you should."

"Right! So why pick an old geezer like me?"

"We have our reasons. It'll all make sense to you eventually. That's about all I can tell you for now. If you want an explanation of the physics behind all this, you'll have to talk to someone else. Any more questions?"

"Yeah, a few hundred. If the people I'm about to meet look like humans to begin with, why did they go to the trouble of getting you all dolled up in a hologram? Why not just send one of the natives?"

"Because I'm an agent, Brent. This is what I do and I'm very good at it. Among other things, I have a particular talent for learning new languages. So far, I've made first contact with more than sixty universes and learned to speak at least twice that many tongues."

"No shit?"

"No shit."

The interior of the transporter was as quiet as if we were standing still instead of pushing through the air at what I guessed was maybe four hundred kph. My breath caught when we topped a hill and were presented with an incredible view. Before us for as far as we could see was a city of white, silver and blue structures of various sizes and shapes. Some of them I estimated at over five hundred meters high although, from that distance, it was only a wild guess. It turned out to be a very conservative guess. As we dropped down the hill, the ribbon of roadway we were flying over joined what had to be a main artery accommodating literally thousands of transporters, most similar to the one we occupied. Unfortunately, the crowed highway conditions had no impact on the speed at which we were moving. To merge into traffic, we simply shot between two vehicles leaving no more than a few inches of space between us. I squeezed my eyes shut and held a death grip on the edge of my seat for the rest of the mercifully short trip into the city. It reminded me of driving the beltway around D.C.