And there was Nick himself, half a year younger, in his pajamas, holding his little brother, and rocking him back and forth. A neighbor woman brought blankets to wrap around both of them and moved the two boys out of the way when the firefighters arrived, too late to save anything that mattered.
Nick’s mother wanted to rush out, but he held her back. She looked at the other Nick, then she looked at him. She shook her head as if she’d lost the power of speech.
So Nick did the only thing he could. He told her the truth.
“I came back from the future to save you,” he told her. “But Dad and Danny, and the younger me, can’t know. They have to think you died in the fire. For now.”
“I can’t do that!” she said, but she didn’t move.
She was light-years away from understanding any of it, but that was all right. Every moment she didn’t run out there and show herself was a moment closer to the past that Nick remembered.
“Mom, look at me,” he said. “Really look at me. For me, it’s been nearly half a year since this happened. And, until this moment, I never knew you were alive.”
Now she was the one who was crying. And even though Nick felt like bursting into tears as well, he kept his emotions in check. Tonight he needed to be the strong one.
“This is all the past to me, and we can’t change the past, no matter how hard we try,” Nick told her, as calmly as he could. “Danny and Dad will be fine. And you’ll see them again too. I promise. But not yet.”
But she wasn’t ready to believe him, and she couldn’t take her eyes off his father and brother and younger self.
“You want to go to them, I know. And I won’t try to stop you. But that’s the thing—I don’t have to. You won’t be able to make it over there. Something else will stop you….”
And just then the chimney of the burning house came crashing down, blocking access between the two backyards. Nick remembered the chimney falling, but of course never saw his Mom or himself in the shadows behind it, even though they were there. To Nick the past was like a movie now. Even with a new perspective, nothing would change in the second viewing.
“See, it’s no use,” he said. “And it’s probably not a good idea to keep trying. I get the feeling that the space-time continuum has an attitude. You don’t want to mess with it.”
They watched for a minute more. The fire trucks arrived and began to futilely douse the house. Danny and the other Nick were checked by paramedics.
“Six months?” his mom asked.
“Closer to five.”
“And they’ll be fine?”
“Trust me.”
His mom put a hand on Nick’s shoulder and with her other reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. “I do trust you,” she said with a hint of pride. “We’ll do it your way.”
Nick nodded. “The entire roof is going to collapse in about a minute,” he told her. “We don’t want to be here for that.”
And his mother said, “No. No, we don’t.”
Then she looked at him, and in spite of everything, offered him a faint smile. “So where do we go?”
“Here and there, I guess,” he told her. “But first there’s something I have to get in Colorado Springs.”
Go,” said Caitlin as she and Nick stood before the wormhole at the top of the tower. “Do what you have to do!”
“See you soon,” he said. And with that, Nick leaped off the platform, and into the unchangeable past.
The wormhole collapsed as soon as Nick jumped into it—and immediately Caitlin disconnected the globe from the phone and got to work reconnecting the globe’s wires as they had been before Nick had rerouted them. She only hoped she remembered the sequence correctly. When she was done, she snapped the halves of the globe back together and inserted it into the drum of the dryer. Beside her, Edison began to regain consciousness, mumbling incoherently about destiny, his light bulb, and his secret love for Mrs. Higgenbotham.
Down below, a figure grabbed the toaster from the ground and started climbing the tower ladder. Caitlin assumed it was an Acceleratus, maybe even Jorgenson himself. It was only when he neared the top that she recognized who it was. She was confused for the briefest instant.
“Hey,” Nick said as he reached the platform, a little out of breath. “Long time no see.”
“Speak for yourself,” Caitlin said. “I just saw you a minute ago.” Except, she noted, his hair was now about two inches longer. “You need a haircut,” she told him.
“First thing tomorrow,” he agreed. He placed the toaster back in position, then reached into his coat pocket and pulled out what appeared to be the lid of a blender.
“You got it!”
“Oh, yeah!” he said with the widest of smiles. He put it over the copper blender, where it fit perfectly. “It’s the machine’s timer!” he told Caitlin. “Once we engage the F.R.E.E., it will give us just enough time to get away.”
And then, behind them, Edison said, “Turn around slowly. No sudden moves.”
Caitlin and Nick turned to see him, fully conscious now and holding a small pistol aimed at Nick’s chest. And his hand wasn’t the least bit shaky.
“Time is short,” Edison said. “We’ve nearly missed the window. So you will do exactly as I say.”
Far below, another figure, this one in a damaged pink suit, clambered over the top of the metal ring.
When Jorgenson had been abandoned by the other Accelerati, he couldn’t care less. Let them leave him for the “safety” of the command center. Cowards! Traitors! They would learn soon enough how long that safety lasted!
Instead, he circled the giant metal ring, searching for a gap near the ground, hoping it had landed on a boulder or spanned a crevice, leaving enough room for him to wriggle underneath.
On his second time around he heard a metallic clang. He hurried around the ring, and on the far side found a knotted rope dangling from a grappling hook. Someone else had just gone over!
He grabbed the rope and climbed up the sleek metal wall, then he dropped on the other side and hit the ground hard, which knocked the wind out of him. He got up and ran toward the tower, limping slightly.
He could see the dead boy, Vincent, his body sprawled beside the elevator. Not Jorgenson’s problem. The boy should have died right the first time.
The elevator door stood open, as if it had been waiting just for him. Finally something was going right! He ran into the elevator cage, pulled the door closed after him, and pressed the button for the top.
With a rattle, the cage began to slowly climb.
Thomas Alva Edison had seen empires rise and crumble. He’d witnessed more wars than he could count, and experienced not only the industrial age, but the age of invention, the digital age, and the age of humanity lying on the couch complaining about how slow their Internet connection is.
It had been his intention not only to witness the worldwide transmission of wireless energy, but also to be its master. To possess its very source. To be the conduit of humanity’s endless flow of electrons, powering a brilliant future.
But that was before he had brushed the strings of the cosmic harp. The vibration had been music to his soul—but not just any music. It was, simply put, the closing chord. As if his life, for nearly a hundred years, had been straining to hold the penultimate note of a powerful symphony and now the final note was at last being played, with a thundering of brass and a fiery explosion of strings. The harp had indeed spoken to him. And its message was: “You’re done.”
There was no questioning the truth of it, and it had doused his malignant ambition as completely as water on a burning candle. Only now did he realize what a burden that ambition had been. How light he felt without it! How free!
With that in mind, he knew exactly what needed to be done.
“Remove the battery from Tesla’s machine,” he said to Caitlin.
“What?”
“You heard me! Remove it! Now!”
The girl did as she was told. And
once the battery was in her arms, he turned to Nick and lowered the weapon. There was no need for it anymore. “Now then, you, Master Slate, shall disconnect me from my battery—both the visible wires, and the backup ones beneath the chair. Then you shall use my battery to power Tesla’s machine. In this way, I shall make things right.”
Nick looked at him, stupefied, while up above the sparking asteroid began to move out of range.
“Did you not hear me?” Edison said. “Our window of opportunity closes in two minutes. Do you want to be responsible for electrocuting the world? Now do as I say!”
“Yes, sir.”
Nick knelt down and disconnected the backup wires first. Now the only thing holding Edison to life were the wires that went from under his collar into the large battery on the chair behind him.
Edison looked to Caitlin, and offered her a smile. His smile used to be a warm thing when he was a younger man, but for many years now, it had been a leering jack-o’-lantern grin, suitable for frightening children away at Halloween, but nothing more. Ah well, it would all be remedied in a moment or two. “Take that battery back to your erstwhile friend, and reanimate him. But warn him to take care not to exceed his normal life-span. Living this long…it does things to a person.”
“Yes, Mr. Edison.” Caitlin said. “It’s been…an honor knowing you.”
“I’m sure that it has. But now I must return my borrowed time to the bank. Master Slate, I’m ready.”
Edison took a deep breath, relishing the electric smell of ozone in the air, then fixed his eyes on the asteroid above, and Nick disconnected his battery.
Edison’s borrowed time was apparently returned to the bank with much interest. The moment Nick disconnected him, he didn’t just die, it was as if he crumbled from within. As life left him, his head lolled to the side, and his shoulders slumped. His worn body took on the semblance of a mummy. He didn’t look horrible, though. He looked at peace. He looked satisfied. And he would forever be where he wanted to be: at the center of power.
“Give the timer a quarter turn, counterclockwise,” Nick told Caitlin. “That will give us one minute. We can’t risk any longer or the asteroid will be out of range.” She set the timer and it began to tick. Then Nick connected the wires of Edison’s large battery to the posts of the washboard, amazed that by moving only a few objects, he was able to open up a space in the F.R.E.E. that perfectly accommodated Edison’s battery.
“Okay, let’s go!”
They climbed down the ladder as quickly as they could, and on their way down, passed Jorgenson, who was in the elevator cage, slowly making his way up.
“Bad idea, Dr. Jorgenson,” Nick shouted as they went in opposite directions.
“What have you done with Edison?” Jorgenson demanded, rattling the cage; but he was trapped in it as it rose. “Bring that battery back this instant!”
Jorgenson continued to bluster and make empty threats as the elevator ascended. He pulled out a weapon and fired, but Caitlin and Nick were already too far down the ladder and he didn’t have a good angle to hit anything but the tower itself or the ground. His spleen-venting wail of frustration was worthy of the greatest of supervillains.
In the command center, everyone had watched Nick and Caitlin climb the tower. Everyone had also seen Nick race through the gate with a grappling hook and climb the ring while they could also still see him at the top of the tower.
Under normal circumstances this would have caused everyone to question their sanity, but as these were not normal circumstances, no one batted an eye. After all, there had recently been seven Nicks; two were hardly worth mentioning.
There was, however, some panic in the control room—the asteroid was about to move out of range, and the F.R.E.E. had not yet been turned on. In fact, it seemed to be falling apart, as evidenced by the toaster that had plunged to the ground.
All eyes and hope were on the second Nick as he climbed toward the platform, clutching the toaster under his arm like a football.
“That kid better know what he’s doing,” one of the Accelerati grumbled.
“That kid knows exactly what he’s doing,” said Z.
When Nick and Caitlin started down the ladder, Mitch leaped into action.
“No!” shouted Z. “Don’t go out there, you’re—”
And Mitch blurted, “—about to become a human kite.” He had no idea what his blurt meant, but he knew he was about to find out.
Nick and Caitlin reached the base of the tower with fifteen seconds to spare, and there at the foot of the ladder lay Vince, just as Edison had left him.
“Give me the battery!” Nick said.
“He can carry it himself,” said Caitlin. She put the battery in Vince’s hands, and reconnected the wires to the electrodes behind his ears.
There was no lag time. Vince opened his eyes, fully awake, and said, “Wha’d I miss?”
Caitlin just smiled. “Ask me later.”
They hurried from the tower, only to be met by the ten-foot-high curved wall of the ring.
“Well, that wasn’t there before I died,” said Vince.
“Stay low,” Nick said. And that’s when the machine powered on.
At first there was a low humming. Then a rhythmic clanking, plus a sound like the dragging of chains, along with a powerful vibration that made their bones ache. They felt more vibrations through the tower, and the ground, and the air itself. Then the sky seemed to explode, and they knew, without a doubt, that the asteroid had begun to release its charge into the machine.
Nick knew what was coming next and was the first to feel it: a queasiness in the pit of his stomach as the weight machine countered the force of gravity. He felt his hair standing on end, and watched as Caitlin’s poofed out and rose, its ends stretching skyward.
“Lower!” Nick told them. “Hug the ground.”
They all stretched out, their bellies to the dirt; but with nothing to grab on to, Nick felt himself beginning to weigh less and less. If they went entirely weightless. there’d be nothing they could do….Then the massive ring began to rise, also caught in the antigravity field.
Nick only hoped that by keeping low, near the widening gap between the ring and the ground, they’d be close to the edge of the antigravity field and not be drawn up by it.
“Go!” he shouted.
Caitlin scrambled under the ring and Mitch was already there, waiting for them, a rope tied around his waist and Nick’s grappling hook attached to a nearby tree. Mitch grabbed Caitlin and pulled her the rest of the way. Nick was right behind her, but Vince, who couldn’t quite scramble because he had to carry the battery, was being lifted away.
Just before he rose too high, Nick reached up, grabbed Vince’s ankle, and began to rise with him; so Mitch grabbed Nick, and in a moment all three had left the ground. Down below, Caitlin reeled in the rope, like one might reel in a kite caught in crosswinds, until she had pulled them out of the antigravity field. The three then hit the ground, suddenly feeling very heavy.
“We’ve got to get back to the control center,” Mitch said, untying the rope from his waist. “We’ll be safe there. I hope!”
But as they hurried from the tower, Nick couldn’t help but look back. The ring had risen to the top of the tower and was encircling the F.R.E.E., which was now hovering above the platform and absorbing a massive bolt of continuous lightning from the asteroid.
With every component in place, the F.R.E.E. did what it was designed to do. The battery had primed the device, setting the weight machine pumping and powering up the other parts. The clothes dryer came online and shrank the globe to a singularity. The ghost lamp, encased in the dome of the hair dryer, became the ultimate lightning rod and drew down the asteroid’s energy. That lightning bolt, which came in as a chaotic discharge, was then focused by the other parts of the machine and shot out in a well-ordered beam into the ring, which now hung around the machine at the same level. The overload was divided by the prism and sent straight down through the small
grate into the chamber far below, where it was dispersed harmlessly through the seven tunnels.
And then something even more remarkable happened.
As before, every light began to glow, every appliance began to turn on—but unlike the first time, they did not explode or burn out. The power supply was steady and controlled. It began in Shoreham, but spread outward, town by town, until the sphere of power reached Manhattan. As bright as New York City is at night, it became nearly blinding as every single bulb within the city illuminated, turning the island of Manhattan into a true city of light.
Although he didn’t want it, Jorgenson had the best view of the machine. A true front-row seat.
He was already weightless when the elevator cage opened automatically. He kept pushing the down button, but he floated out of the elevator before it could return to ground level, and he rose weightlessly toward the F.R.E.E., which now hovered above his head. He could not even hear his own wail above the deafening sound of surging electricity.
He hoped for a quick and painless death. But the moment the discharge from the asteroid ended, something unexpected happened.
The entire machine, and the ring around it, disappeared. It all just vanished, and Jorgenson, just beyond the edge of the teleportation field, fell to the empty platform with a thud and a pained groan.
His ears were still ringing in the silence. But he was alive! He’d been sure that hellion Nick Slate and the forces of the universe had conspired to kill him, now that they’d ruined him, but here he was. And without Edison in his way, he could do as he pleased. He would purge those who were disloyal to him. He would punish all those in need of punishment. He stood up, ready to face this glorious electrified day….
Then, without any warning whatsoever, he too vanished.
In the control room, the Accelerati, no longer under the iron fist of a Grand Acceleratus or the influence of Edison, were not interested in ending Nick’s or anyone else’s life anymore. It seemed, for the moment, that everyone’s goals had aligned, which left them on the same side. They all cheered as the F.R.E.E. lit up everything for nearly a hundred miles in every direction, and fell into stunned shock when the machine disappeared. Yet even after it was gone, the electrical charge hadn’t faded.