Intrepid (14 page)

I thought about that for a minute. Somewhere out there, there were other Rebeccas, and Lindsays, and Coach Mathensons. I shuddered at the idea of millions of Coach Mathensons screaming into a microphone at a million different pep rallies. Maybe there was a world where he was a pocket-protector-wearing lab rat. That idea made me smile—a nerdy Coach Mathenson, scrawny and pale.
 

“On Gaia, Dr. Maxina Planck was the first to discover the Multiverse and how to harness the Energy of the Big Whisper—the initial Energy that kickstarted Creation.”
 

“The Planck Activation Bracelet?” I fingered the leather bracelet on my wrist and wondered where Iago’d pressed earlier to pull up the screen. The little bracelet had some explaining to do, like the fact that it wasn’t my mother’s after all. I kept shoving the question of my mother to the back of my head, because I knew it was going to be a painful answer. Now was not the time to think about her. I still needed the clean cut version of the story, and I studied Iago’s triangle to keep my brain on track.
 

“Yes. Dr. Planck discovered the hard way that not everyone on Gaia had the ability to Jump. In her first experiments, she sent twenty Explorers to Hop within a universe. All twenty of them spent a year teleporting in and out of places on Gaia, and it’s actually now a viable mode of transportation for everyone in the Gaia-verse. But Jumping turned out to be more complicated. When it was time to test the limits of the Planck Activation Bracelet, only three survived the first Jump. The other seventeen were painfully thrown back into the Gaian-verse, and they died within hours. After autopsies were performed, it was discovered that there were transcription errors in their genetic codes. Dr. Planck was devastated by the loss, and formed a team to research what may have caused the deformities.
 

“It took another five years for a geneticist named Judith Beasley to discover there had always been slight variations within the DNA of those who survived compared to those who didn’t. At first, she theorized that Saltadors were able to survive the Jump because they were the only versions of themselves that existed. Those who died did so because they were unable to be written into place when they Jumped because their Energy was already replicated in the Multiverse. She was mostly right. After more testing she discovered that the DNA of a Saltador had a stronger dose of Original Energy from the Big Whisper, and because of this, when the first Splice that began the second universe happened, a small portion of the population was never duplicated. Think about two glasses filled with the same amount of water. If you take one of these cups and start pouring portions of its water into other cups, there is still the same amount of water, but it’s spread out. In terms of Energy, Saltadors are like the full cup that never had to share. This population existed only on Gaia and passed on these higher doses of Energy to some, but not all, of their offspring. When it came to Jumping, anyone without this genetic abnormality lacked the proper dose of Energy within them to survive the Change.
 

“Dr. Beasley then figured out how how to tag this genetic mutation and test for it. Eventually, everyone on Gaia was tested for it, and those who had it were entered into the ranks of the Saltadors.” He stopped circling the word on the triangle and grinned before he continued: “Saltadors? We have the ability to survive in nearly any condition.”
 

I tried to imagine the history that existed universes away. The stories of people who died to promote discovery. The scientists with the creativity to think of the impossible. And the greatness that comes after that. It filled me with a strange sense of pride. “So. I can travel the Multiverse?” I asked.
 

“Yes,” he said.
 

A grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. “Cool.”
 

Liam
 

And indeed the soul reasons best when none of these senses troubles it, neither hearing nor sight, nor pain nor pleasure, it is most by itself, taking leave of the body and as far as possible having no contact or association with it in its search for reality.

—Socrates on his Death Bed
 

—S-3000, V-234323-L987699, Prod.
 

Chapter Eighteen
 

 
Nobu dug the tips of his toes into the sand from where he sat a few feet from me. His sandals rested near his feet in two, neat lines, and his arms buckled at the elbows to prop up his torso. We watched the foam break on the waves, and I moved sand through my fingers. I moved my hands along the hot, hot sand and noticed the way the grains were soft and scratchy all at once. I felt an immense sense of awareness. This was the reprieve between. The first Jump was just the trigger, and there was still more pain to come. I took in the palm tree-lined beach as clouds rolled in and out along the shore.
 

Nobu laughed a laugh that sounded like thin glass breaking. “I’ve been wanting to bring you to the 2040s ever since I found them.”
 

The 2040s. This location was not exactly the spot I envisioned for my Change. I threw sand his way, but it got caught in the breeze before it even reached him. “And this was the safest place you could think of?” I was trying to joke, but it wasn’t coming out right. My voice felt funny in my throat. I was scared, and I didn’t want to admit it.
 

 
“Don’t worry, brother. This is a safe island. Sometimes, you can see the pterodactyls flying in the distance, but, on this universe, they have yet to figure out how to get here from the mainland. If you travel down this Vein a bit more, they’ve made a nest right here where we now sit.” He knew I worried about something much heavier than pterodactyls flying over us, but I appreciated the attempt to soothe my nerves. I imagined the paths this Vein of universes took and smiled. After today, I’d be able to visit them a little, not that I’d get to do much traveling compared to Explorers. I was a Watcher, after all. I’d only get to come to places like this on leave, or if I needed to experience a data point for myself in order to understand it.
 

“I don’t know if I should be thankful or sad for you.”
 

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t think the Change would—” he paused and sucked in air between his teeth.
 

“Would what?”
 

He leaned back on his arms so that his entire face caught every ray of sunshine available. It made his tan skin take on shades of a golden, baked pear. “Why is she dangerous?” he asked more to the sun than to me.
 

“Texi?”
 

“No. The wisdom-tooth fairy. Yes, Texi.” The sentence lacked the complete feeling of sarcasm it was supposed to have, but as I examined his face, I noticed how tired he was.
 

I knew it then. Nobu had things he needed to say, and he wished he wasn’t the one who needed to say them. I pushed a strand of hair out of my eyes and frowned. I knew this answer better than I knew my own heartbeat, but the way Nobu asked it made me realize he knew something I didn’t. Again. Why was Texi dangerous? I thought about the question and twirled it in my teeth without actually saying the words out loud. I paused before answering because I was trying to think of an answer that wasn’t the same, old one.
 

“Liam. Pay attention.” Nobu snapped his fingers in the air to get me to look away from the empty line of sky. “Why is Texi dangerous?”
 

I thought some more, but sometimes the most obvious answer is the right one, and I finally said, “She’s a hybrid.”
 

“What does that mean?”

“They placed an extra mutation in her so she carries the Saltador Marker
and
the Splicer Marker in her genes.” I knew this already. Nobu did too.
 

“Why is she
dangerous
?” he asked again.
 

I sighed and gave the answer that felt generic to me because it was the one we’d used over and over again. “A Splicer should never become self-aware, and they should never have access to the Knowing. Being able to choose against nature could have irrevocable consequences. If her mutation catches, she might create universes that could collapse the entire system, killing us all.”
 

Nobu let my answer settle into the space between us before he said anything again. “Or she could not just
find
the Path, she could
Create
it.”
   

The Optimal Path. Everything always seemed to come back to the one great mission. Every Saltador knows that the Multiverse is losing steam too quickly, preparing to contract back in on itself with every Splice it takes. There is a theory that we believe to be true—that there is an Optimal Path that can reach back into the Origin of Energy and help us discover how to Create Energy once more. This Vein of universes is theorized to keep the Balance just enough to refrain from Splicing too much nor fall into Stagnation. Although Saltadors have come to terms that the Multiverse as we know it will eventually die, we hope to prolong the life of humanity despite this by finding this one, perfect Path.
 

The duty of the Saltador is to tourniquet the cuts of time in a dying Multiverse, but, as is the case with all societies, Gaian politics has its fair share of disagreements on how to find the Optimal Path. A faction called the Calvary believed Saltadors are like the anti-aging cream for an old man already riddled with wrinkles. They believe the Path is a Multiversal fountain of youth, and they’ve gone to great lengths to find it. But when they couldn’t, they set out to Create it instead. They experimented on Texi and nine other children, turning them into hybrids. They inserted extra mutations of the Splicer gene while they were in the womb, and when the Gaian Order discovered the labs, the Calvary was accused of crimes against humanity by the Humanitarian Laws. The scientists involved were put on trial and found guilty. The research was commandeered and destroyed while the scientists involved were arrested or executed.
 

On the other extreme were the Shadow Boxers who believed nature must run its course and that Saltadors had come to misunderstand our purpose. It was not our right to help preserve the Multiverse, but to Explore and try to understand the Multiverse in order to find peace with our fates. After the Humanitarian Project Trials, the Shadow Boxers wanted all ten test subjects destroyed because the children were experimental abominations. The Gaian Order demanded the patience of all factions and hid the subjects in separate, secret locations across the Multiverse until they could decide how to proceed with them. But since the Gaian Order is supposed to be the balance between extremes, its parts contained all elements of the very extremes it set out to balance. A Shadow Boxer Delegate leaked the locations of the subjects, and Shadow Boxer spies tracked down nine of the ten children to execute them. Texi was the last one left, only because the one sent to kill her discovered he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
 

Ringo.
 

He took Texi, buried her presence in Geronimo, and helped her live a relatively normal childhood.
 

I remember asking Corbin why Ringo wouldn’t let Texi call him Dad. Corbin said it was Ringo’s way of distancing himself. He couldn’t afford to get anymore invested, because he struggled with objectivity regarding the girl already, and he felt that something as little as a name could unravel everything he was hoping to accomplish with her.
 

Nobu stood up and stretched, then he kneeled so his body interrupted my view of the ocean. “Why have
you
been given the task of Watching Texi?”

“To see if she was worth giving a chance.”
 

“Do you know everything about her? Every detail? Can you anticipate her?”

“I believe so.”
 

“Good.” Nobu’s grin was more sad than happy, and I couldn’t bring myself to return it.
 

And just like that, perspective shifted and new truths filtered in. The Knowing became clear, and I felt the tendrils of all the deeper things going on. “I was never meant to be a Watcher, was I?” I put it out as a question, but I already knew the answer.
 

“I’m sorry, Liam. I’m so, so sorry,” he said as he patted me on the knee. “Your new assignment will begin after your Change.”
 

Chapter Nineteen
 

“We were never meant to go through this alone,” Nobu reminded me. “Remember, I’m here to tie you to sanity, and to stop the madness from seeping in.”
 

The Change.
 

It was coming.
 

I always wondered: if anticipation was in the mind, how it could affect the body so much? Because I felt the anticipation of the Change just as vividly in my body as any physical pain or pleasure. In fact, the feeling tormented me even more because I felt the pain of wanting simultaneously with the pleasure of not yet having. I think we are the most alive when in the realm of anticipation because our senses are the most open to contradiction. To top it off, this was a unique anticipation, because after today, I would never encounter the Change again. I would never again be as altered as I would be today.
 

Today, I would Stand on the Shoulders of Giants, and that is a mighty, mighty place to stand.
 

The madness? I was close to it, I knew. I’d heard about those who slipped into it during their Change. They were unable to anchor themselves through the pain, and their sanity became trapped in the Nothing. But in waiting for the pain, I tasted the bitter edges of madness within my fear. All I needed to do was give in to it, and I’d be free.
 

Another string of electricity stitched through me. If I thought that anticipating the pain was worse than experiencing it, this moment told me I was dead wrong.