Reality Zero
By
Graham M. Phillips
Copyright Graham M. Phillips 2016
Chapter 1
Will Hunt was feeling nervous. Whilst he had thought it was a good idea to meet his counterpart in this reality, he was beginning to have second thoughts. Judging from his experience with Kat Brown, who was walking beside him, he was beginning to realise that you neither could nor should expect your doppelganger to have the same traits as yourself. Just to add to his unease was the fact that he was jobless, homeless, had no usable money and was even wearing borrowed shoes. Everything he owned was still, he hoped, on Shackleton but he did have a few resources on Columbus, thanks to Billy and the navy. He was also hoping that the navy uniform he still wore wouldn't attract attention, as it wasn't the uniform used by the navy in this reality. Although it was similar, it was the wrong colour and the badging and other insignia were undoubtedly all wrong as well. Hopefully, anyone who took more than a passing glance at him would just think he worked for one of the many shipping companies that frequented the space station.
As they walked along the corridor towards his meeting with Bill Hunt and his wife Becca, Will realised that there was a slight air of neglect about the public corridors he'd walked down in Cantabrigia, compared to those in Shackleton and Columbus. There were small patches of rubbish in some of the corners, odd lights were flickering and clearly needed replacing and the walls and floors looked slightly worn. He’d also noticed the odd cobweb, though he couldn’t work out how their inhabitants managed to survive on a space station. Even some of the advertising screens had dead pixels, making them look less than a perfect medium for promoting their wares.
He was also somewhat put out that, by disappearing from her reality, he hadn’t managed to get to see Sarah Hirst again. He’d been hoping to get to know her better in fact, much better, but that looked unlikely now.
‘I know I should’ve asked earlier, but what exactly do you want from Bill and his wife?’ asked Kat, as they entered the central hub of the station.
There was no reply. She asked again.
‘Sorry, miles away. I was thinking of someone I met in the last reality I was in, and realising I might not see her again. As regards Bill, I’m not really sure, to be honest. It seemed like a good idea when I suggested it in your apartment but I'm beginning to wonder if it was. Bit late to back out now, though!’
‘Bummer. What was her name?’
‘Sarah Hirst. We’d only just met but there was something about her, you know? I think it was love at first sight, although if you’d asked me before I met her, I would have denied such a thing existed.’
‘Yeah, I know. A few years before I met Janet, I literally bumped into a girl in a cafe. We both finished up with coffee down our fronts and she came back to my place to clean up. That took a while, I can tell you! Unfortunately, she had to fly out the next day and I haven’t seen her since. We kept in touch for a while but even that fizzled out. I’ve often wondered how it would have panned out had we had longer to get to know one another. Anyway, sounds like you're going to be floating the currents a bit then when we get there.’
Will looked quizzically at her. ‘Sorry, I'm not familiar with that phrase.’
‘All it means is that you'll make it up as you go along’ smiled Kat.
‘Ah. Yes. That sounds about right. We talk about winging it. I've been doing it all my life. Why change the habits of a lifetime?’ he said, smiling back at her.
‘While I can stay around for an hour or so, Janet comes off shift then and she'll wonder where I am if I'm not at home. If nothing else, I need to explain your presence to her, so she doesn't think I've gone straight!’ she laughed.
‘Wouldn't want that. Not a problem. I'm grateful that you're helping me out until I can get myself sorted out. Do you think you'll get a chance to talk to your boss about my communicator today? The sooner I can get some money and out of your way, the easier it will be for both of us.’
‘Once I’ve talked to Janet, I'll call him and try and set up a meeting between the two of you. I think that, just as I was, he'll be mighty impressed by your communicator, especially the holo camera and projector. We've nothing remotely like it. Trust me, he'll see the potential of getting something like that to market. It would give us a real edge over the competition. It's got to be worth several million credits to the company.’
‘Provided he can let me have some up-front funds so that I can get some clothes, some food of my own, and somewhere to live, I'm sure we'll be able to agree on a suitable deal. Some footwear of my own would be good, too!’
‘I'm sure you will. Anyway, we're almost at the restaurant. It's just over there, next to the clothes store’ responded Kat, pointing in the restaurant's direction.
As they got nearer, they could see Bill and Becca standing near to the entrance.
Bill was looking at the Menu in the restaurant window but Becca was looking in their direction. Will waved. Becca returned a wave and nudged Bill. Bill turned around and walked towards Will and Kat.
‘Wow, I can't believe the similarity. Apart from the hair and your choices in beards, you could be twins’ exclaimed Becca.
‘It's closer than that’ replied Will. ‘I'll explain when we get into the restaurant but be prepared to be more than surprised.’
After they had chosen their meals and drinks, Kat invoked the table's privacy screen. ‘I think that the best way to start my explanation is to show you a few things that will probably confuse you. They are the real thing and haven't been edited in any way, before you think they have’ said Will, feeling slightly nervous about whether Bill and Becca would be comfortable with what he was about to show and tell them.
With that, Kat dimmed the booth's lighting level and Will laid his communicator on the table and showed them several holo movies, holo images and some 2D images of family and friends, including the images he had taken of Billy, Kate and Peter only yesterday.
When he'd finished, Kat increased the lighting back to normal and looked at Bill and Becca. They looked somewhat taken aback by what they'd seen.
‘I have no idea how you did that but I think you need to explain it’ said Bill, looking worriedly at Will.
‘To be honest, there's no easy way of explaining this. I hope that what I say makes sense. My full name is William Richard Hunt. I come from another reality. In most respects it's the same as this one but, as different decisions are made, the realities fork in different directions. The differences between my reality and yours are fairly small, so the fork must have happened fairly recently. So, for example, I lived with my version of Becca in my reality for about five years but she was known as Becky and we didn't marry. We split up last year. Billy Hunt, who you saw in some of the images, is married to Kate and their son is called Peter. I dated a version of Kate in my reality at college but it only lasted a few months. Kat here is her version in this reality but lives with Janet Walters and has never met either of us before. Lots of little decisions leading events in slightly different directions. For all I know, there’s a female version of Bill and me out there somewhere.
How I came to this reality, I have no idea. When I found myself in Billy's reality, I'd had an accident in mine and woke up with him looking over me. Luckily, we both had a communications facility in almost the same location, as we were on an asteroid. I’d have died otherwise, as I’d taken my helmet and spacesuit off when I entered our base. Last night I fell asleep on Billy and Kate's couch on their version of this space station and woke up in Kat's bed, much to both our surprise. Fortunately Janet was at work, or I don't know what would have happened, as I was on her side of the bed!’
‘I think I get the gist. Sounds like you're reality hopping. What do you want us to do, th
ough?’ replied Bill.
‘I'll be honest, I'm more confused than anything. How many alternate realities are out there?’ responded Becca.
Looking first at Bill, Will replied ‘I’m not totally sure but I was just hoping for a friendly face and a helping hand. I’m not sure I can impose too much on Kat and Janet. I don’t have any clear ideas as to how you can help me at this stage. It doesn’t have to be much. As you can imagine, it’s quite a shock to the system to have no usable ID, or even have no idea what the currency is. I’ve also got no idea how, independently, I could access the other basic things that most people take for granted, even food and shelter. I’m currently wearing borrowed shoes, for Pete’s sake! I can’t even claim to be a refugee. How would I explain to the average official where I came from? I’m not even sure where to start. At least in the last reality, the navy helped out. Don’t think I’d get the same support from them here.’
Looking at Becca, Will said, truthfully ‘I have no idea how many there are. Apart from my home reality, what I’ll call Billy’s and this one, I know there's at least one other. Billy and I found a base of the people from yet another reality on the fifth planet in the system. Billy called it Astraeus 5. In my reality, it's called Zeon. The base had two warships and a whole load of weapons and such in it. The people who put it there seemed to be preparing for some kind of war. I had the dubious pleasure of meeting their leader, the Exalted General Willem Gott. A most unpleasant individual. In that reality, they spoke a language called Esperanto, not English. He interrogated me and was very quick to get one of his guards to hit me with a rifle butt. Bloody painful, I can tell you. Then he had me thrown in a cell. Fortunately, Billy was able to get the navy from his reality to get me out of there and back to his reality after only a few hours. The whole experience was one I hope never to repeat. Thinking about it, it might be worthwhile someone having a look to see if there's a similar base in this reality. Any suggestions as to who I need to talk to, to warn them?’
‘I work as a departmental head in station administration, so meet the Prime Minister quite regularly. A guy called Henry Allen. He comes up from Mercia once a week to meet the Station Managers. He could do it from his office on Britannia but likes to maintain the personal touch. I could see if I can arrange you to have a meeting with him. Would that help?’ said Becca.
‘Sorry, guys. Got to dash. Janet's due back from work anytime now and I really need to see her. Give me a call before you leave, Will. Think you can you find your way back to mine? We need to sort out where you can sleep. The apartment isn't really designed for three’ interjected Kat, rising from her seat.
‘We have a spare room, now that our daughter's left home’ proffered Bill.
Becca gave him a quizzical look ‘We'll need to clear it out, though. It's full of some of the things she didn't want to get rid of when she moved out and never got around to sorting through. Some of it dates back to when she was little and seems, for some reason, to have sentimental value. We'll need to look through it and see if we can tidy it up enough. Somewhere under all the crap, there should be a bed!’
‘That sounds great. Kat and Janet would prefer that option, I'm sure. Where did your daughter go? I'm amazed that you have a daughter old enough to leave home’ responded Will.
‘Becca and I met at school and Jen came along when we were both seventeen. It wasn't an entirely planned pregnancy. Having finished college, she decided she wanted to work with animals, so went planetside earlier this year. We talk to her quite regularly, , and she's hoping to get up here to see us in a couple of months’ replied Bill.
‘If you would be able to manage that, it would my life a lot easier with Janet’ said Kat, leaving the booth, giving them all a kiss on the cheek.