Jackie:

  Time slipped through my fingers. I was the only person able to stop Alpha’s apocalyptic Redistribution Program, but I buckled under the pressure.

  I massaged my jaw, aching from incessant teeth grinding.

  “Alpha was junk before I injected it with Life Rite,” I huffed, pacing around the blazing furnace in my Kiln Room, my skin slick with sweat.

  The tightness in my rib cage relaxed. “That’s it. I’ll travel to the past and change that pivotal choice. I’ll never inject Alpha with the serum. That should shut down the Redistribution Program.”

  I clapped at my renewed mental clarity. Plan in place, I used my custom-made fireplace as a portal into the Slipstream.

  The room dissolved, the chatter of my mind slowing to a gentle hum. A warm stillness spread through my body, as if every cell were expanding. A brilliant light flooded my mind, time folding, as I entered the Slipstream once more.

  Once inside, sparks of probability rained down, giving me a much-needed dopamine hit. I chuckled, eager to squash my deadly drone problem.

  “I remember that day clearly.” I summoned the portal to the past, back to when I injected Alpha with liquid vitality, Life Rite.

  The stream took me to the lab after hours. Sterile. Eerily quiet. Even the dusty janitors had gone home for the day.

  Empty except for me and my lead technician, Trystian.

  “You’re fired,” I told him.

  He threw a file folder, sending papers across the vinyl. “The miscalculation of mutation cycles was an honest mistake.”

  “We lost too many Carriers today.” I hammered my fist on the stainless steel table, shattering glass vials.

  “The cost of innovation is significant. I know.” He bit his lip to stop from crying. “Replicating Mark’s exact serum is difficult, but we’re getting closer with every generation.”

  “The PX people ripped from their lives… They died in vain, Trystian. Those are my Wellness Checkpoints. Nothing will absolve me of that.” I pointed at my chest with a trembling hand, overwhelmed by the true cost of my immortality serum.

  Red rings appeared under Trystian’s eyes. He shrugged. “This is what we signed up for.”

  I turned away from him. Frustration at his incompetence bubbled in my throat like acid reflux.

  Trystian moved close, putting his hands on my shoulders.

  I flinched.

  He backed off, sighing. “Let’s talk about it in the morning.”

  I shook my head, rage burning in my chest. “Didn’t you hear me? You’re fired.”

  “Good luck finding my replacement.” Trystian shook his head, cheeks flushed.

  I sneered. “Mark was irreplaceable, and you, honey… you are not Mark.”

  “Go to hell, Beatrice.” Trystian stormed out, leaving me alone in the dimly lit lab.

  I pressed my watch, summoning Alpha.

  The drone clicked into the room, its motor humming. “What can I help you with, ma’am?”

  “Assign Striker to follow Trystian home. I fired him, so we’ll need to enact the final termination clause of our agreement. Got it?”

  “Final termination clause assigned to Striker,” the drone repeated.

  I bit my manicured finger, conflicted.

  Should I call off the hit?

  Trystian and I had gotten close, rebuilding Life Rite together without Mark.

  Too close.

  “Alpha, you’re smarter than that imbecile. That’s because Mark made you. Everything he touched turned to gold.”

  An idea stirred within me.

  I used my DNA Identifier to unlock a steel cabinet. Inside, vials of original Life Rite serum glowed green.

  Mark’s original batch. My personal stash.

  I prepped a syringe of Life Rite. My natural reaction to losing Trystian was to upgrade my drone to eliminate human error.

  This was the moment I came here to change.

  My breath caught in my throat, my free will overriding the simulation of the past. I concentrated deeply to change the probability.

  “That’ll be all, Alpha.” My hand shook as I focused on changing my mind.

  I smashed the syringe against the stainless steel table instead of injecting Alpha with it.

  “Your heart rate has elevated,” Alpha told me. “Do you need medical assistance?”

  I exhaled, wiping the splatter of Life Rite serum off my silk dress. “Alpha, call a janitor to clean this mess.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I leaned against the table, wiping sweat from my forehead. “That should do it. Here’s hoping I stopped the Redistribution Program.”

  Time warped around me as I pulled out of the stream, back into the tunnel of endless possibilities.

  “Hope is for fools.” I needed to check my work.

  I closed my eyes and asked the Slipstream for guidance. “Does Alpha stay offline now?”

  The stream I exited began to fast forward, showing the immediate outcome of my root change.

  The stream stopped like a movie on pause, inviting me to experience the effects of the timeline change firsthand.

  I re-entered the portal.

  The very next day, I sat at my desk overlooking Twin Flames. The only thing visible through the morning fog was the omnipresent Grid.

  Pressing my watch, I called Alpha into my office to check if Striker had taken care of Trystian yet. My conviction was wavering, and if the hit hadn’t happened, I was going to call it off.

  Alpha entered with a young Feraz, only about seventeen-years-old, in tow.

  I stiffened, adjusting my blazer. “I wasn’t expecting company. What can I help you with, young man?”

  “Mrs. Claudi, may I show you something?” he asked.

  I scratched my head. “Wait. What are you doing here, Feraz?”

  “I’m your intern. Remember?”

  “Oh, yes. Of course.”

  Mr. Tal and I had been exchanging favors for twenty odd years. It was hard to keep track of them all.

  “Well, what do you want, Feraz?”

  “I got a crazy idea to give Alpha an upgrade and… Wow, I think it gave him a whole new level of intelligence.”

  Feraz held an empty syringe in his hand. It wasn’t from my secret stash, but the replica serums Trystian made were close enough.

  My face fell. “You’ve got to be kidding me. What have you done?”

  “Hear me out…”

  I tuned Feraz out. I’d heard enough.

  If I didn’t give Alpha the serum, the details of the timeline changed, but the outcome stayed the same.

  “Probabilities are so hard to change…”

  “Excuse me?” Feraz asked.

  “Ma’am,” Alpha added. “If I may explain on his behalf…”

  I waved my hand, done with this half-baked version of the past. My eyes crossed as I shifted my focus away from the stream.

  I exited the portal and landed back into the Slipstream.

  “That didn’t work, but there has to be a way…” My gears turned as I scanned the dazzling spark in front of me. “Yes, that’s it. Rewind again.”

  I rewound the stream after I failed to inject, but before Feraz did.

  I re-entered the portal to try again.

  Back in my office, I summoned my doe-eyed intern, Feraz.

  “Hello, ma’am. You’re looking striking today.” He winked.

  I faked a smile. “Thanks for coming, Feraz. I regret to inform you that your lab access has been revoked, effective immediately.”

  His jaw dropped.

  This could hurt my bargaining power with his father, but billions of lives were on the line. I had to stop Alpha’s Redistribution Program.

  “It’s not your fault. There’s an issue with, uh, classified information. We’re eliminating all non-essential employees, which includes interns. No need to report for the rest of the semester, but you’ll still get full credit. I’ll submit the paperwork to Hampshire University myself.”

  Feraz shrugged. “Okay. Great.”

  I nodded, satisfied with myself. “Let’s see how this changes the timeline. Fast forward.”

  I focused intently, and the stream followed my command, showing me the near future if I didn’t inject Alpha and if I fired Feraz from his internship.

  I smirked at the power of this place, but my smile soon faded.

  In this updated version of the timeline, a vial of serum accidentally fell and spilled into the drone’s open circuits.

  I groaned, my nostrils flaring.

  Rewind. Fast forward. Repeat.

  I tore that stream apart until it turned into vapor, erasing my work.

  The scene around me twisted as the world folded inward, ejecting me from the portal, back into the Slipstream.

  My scream reverberated through the ethereal tunnel. The probabilities were unyielding.

  “No matter what changes I make, it still points to the same inevitable conclusion. I have to go back further in time, to the inception of the idea to upgrade Alpha.”

  I shook my head, denying the idea. “The day Mark died, my darkest moment. Of course, it holds the key to ending Alpha’s Redistribution Program.”

  My stomach churned as I thought of that day once more. Since I recently showed this memory to Jackie, the stream appeared on command, crisp with the haunting details I longed to forget.

  The muggy night air on Bennu Island. Bullets echoed in the distance. The villagers stormed the complex. Mark’s hopeful ocean eyes, desperate to cure my debilitating disease.

  I entered the stream before the guards arrived with Grace and Zayne.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Mark sat on the balcony overlooking the volcano, trying in vain to get his drone to shoot bullets with a new gun attachment.

  “Damn it. It’s impossible to work under these conditions. I need more time.” Mark pushed Alpha away.

  I sauntered onto the balcony, ignoring the dread pooling in my stomach.

  I caressed Mark’s arm, my heart fluttering. “Don’t worry. Everything will work out, my love.”

  Mark kissed my cheek. His stubble electrified my skin, and his woodsy cologne made me melt.

  I pulled him into a tight embrace, neither of us wanting to let go.

  “B, we’re so close. I’ll protect you at all costs.” His voice tickled my ear.

  My chin trembled knowing we’d soon say goodbye, but I had to stay focused on the task at hand.

  I had to change the probabilities.

  The first time I experienced this moment, I made a flippant comment. “Your stupid drone should get some Life Rite serum. Maybe then he’d be able to fire bullets.”

  This time, I bit my tongue, concentrating on saying something else.

  Anything else.

  Remembering Mark’s response to what I refused to say, I blurted that out instead. “Maybe it has something to do with the laws of robotics…”

  His handsome face lit up. “My muse strikes again. It’s the law of robotics. I’ve got to change the main input… only temporarily, of course.”

  “You’re so clever, Mark.”

  He opened Alpha’s backplate. “How do you know about the laws of robotics?”

  “You told me about it once.” I shrugged, hoping this subtle tweak would make all the difference.

  Maybe if I didn’t mention the idea of injecting Alpha, it would never get upgraded. He’d be a basic machine instead of an intelligent, biochemical synthesizing monster that wanted to destroy the world.

  That was all I needed to do, but I wasn’t ready to leave the stream yet. I let the memory play out.

  “They found Grace,” I told Mark.

  “Thank goodness.” Relieved, he embraced me with his warm, muscular arms. “I can’t wait to show her what we’ve done.”

  I melted in his embrace.

  “I know how to surprise her.” I clapped my hands. “I’ll wait in the other room in my wheelchair. When Grace comes, wheel me out.”

  Mark kissed my neck. “That’s my muse, always seeing the magic in everything.”

  “I can’t wait to see her reaction.”

  The bliss of experiencing that moment for the first time vanished since I knew what her reaction would actually be.

  But my chemistry with Mark was electrifying. We were on top of the world. A king and his queen, cured of a debilitating disease. There was no problem we couldn’t fix together. The miraculous results of the Life Rite serum thrilled us, and we couldn’t wait to share the news with Grace.

  “I love you, dear.”

  “I love you more.” I looked deep into Mark’s ocean eyes, grateful to have had such a powerful connection yet despairing that it didn’t last.

  Footsteps echoed from the nearby office.

  “Here she comes. I’ll go hide.” I gave Mark one last kiss, then left for the big reveal.

  That last glance at Mark shattered me; his arm muscles flexing as he used the screwdriver on Alpha. His polo shirt spread across his broad chest. Seeing his genius at work.

  A tear fell down my cheek. This was the last time I could visit this moment without going insane. I couldn’t keep losing him over and over.

  As I left the balcony to grab my wheelchair for the big reveal, I cuffed my hand over my mouth to muffle my sobs.

  In the adjoining office, my body recoiled as I sat in the wheelchair that confined me for all those years. No longer a prisoner of my body, I shed a thousand tears for every year I missed.

  None of that mattered now.

  I wiped my tears.

  Will my last-ditch attempt to stop Alpha’s Redistribution Program work?

  Fatigued, I withdrew from the Slipstream to find out in real time…

  Back to my physical reality in the present day.

  I woke up in my Kiln Room and summoned Alpha from my watch. Sweat drenched my body, so I turned off the furnace.

  The scanner outside the door clicked, and Alpha entered. “Hello, ma’am.”

  “Alpha, what’s the status of the Redistribution Program?”

  “I am gathering the remaining three percent of data to build redistribution protocols.”

  I slumped onto the couch, defeated, too exhausted to cry.

  My schemes didn’t work, and I was out of Slipstream possibilities to explore.

  I had to fix this in the here and now of my physical reality.

  My heart pumped, pushing me into fight-or-flight mode. “Alpha, shut it down.”

  “Negative.”

  “Utterly unacceptable, Alpha!” I bolted to my feet and ran out of the humid room, leaving my killer drone behind.

  The stubbornness of the probabilities meant solutions in the Slipstream weren't guaranteed, so I had to investigate answers covertly in real life too.

  My usually serene demeanor faded as I raced through the halls of Camp Claudi.

  “Out of my way!”

  Gilda from the skincare department gripped her clipboard and hugged the wall as I flew by.

  I always made it a point never to look frazzled, but this was a genuine emergency.

  “Hurry.” I pressed the elevator button a dozen times.

  The lift couldn’t come fast enough. I twisted my sweaty hands together to strangle the panic away.

  The ding of the opening doors rattled me further.

  I rode the elevator down to the tech room and scanned my DNA Identifier to enter the R&D department.

  Twenty of the world’s top robotic engineers worked with Malik on replicas of Alpha, digging into the core mechanics to figure out how to shut them all down.

  My engineers stiffened at my presence.

  “Someone give me good news or my payroll will be a lot lighter tomorrow,” I yelled. “Haven’t you heard? It’s the year of efficiency.”

  Threatening to fire someone always got fast results, but these idiots still had nothing to say.

  “Tell me something good, Malik.”

  He turned ashen and didn’t even muster the guts to look me in the eye. All my employees were cowards like that.

  He stammered, “I… well… so…”

  “Spit it out.” I crossed my arms and gritted my teeth.

  He blurted it out. “Basically, in layman’s terms, the drones are locked. There’s a source code we can’t penetrate. Even though Alpha’s replicas were all made recently, they’ve somehow downloaded this cryptic programming. It’s wild. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “I asked for good news.” My body flushed despite the overly air-conditioned room.

  Malik stared at me blankly.

  Looking around the room, no one else made eye contact with me, either. Cowards. All of them.

  “Figure it out, people. And fast. I’ll be back in an hour.” I stormed out, the steel door slamming behind me.

  My shoulders drooped, and I leaned my forehead against the cement hallway wall. Alpha would go into annihilation mode soon.

  I tried to deepen my shallow breathing, but it was no use. There’d never be enough air until I found a solution.

  Not knowing what else to do, I went to check on Jackie. I needed the support of my family now.

  I scanned my DNA Identifier and walked into Jackie’s Kiln Room, expecting to find her passed out on the couch.

  Her stupid notebook was there, but she wasn’t. Maybe she finally mastered taking her physical body into the Slipstream.

  “Jackie?” I called.

  Sniffling came from the corner.

  I found Jackie curled up in the fetal position.

  “Jackie? Are you okay?”

  She looked at me with tears streaming down her cheeks, wearing her party dress from days ago. How long had she been working the Slipstream to the detriment of her health?

  Preoccupied with problems of my own, I hadn’t noticed.

  “Jackie, what’s wrong?” I reached out to comfort her but pulled my hand back, not wanting to get bitten.

  She mumbled something incoherent and rubbed her face, smearing her eye makeup across her cheek.

  I sighed at how sloppy she was.

  “Where… which stream is this?” Jackie asked. “Where’s Grace?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Where’s my mom?” Jackie asked accusingly. “Is she okay? Did you see what they did to her?”

  I rolled my eyes. I didn’t have time to rehash the past.

  “Get a grip, Jackie. Grace is gone.”

  Her eyes darted around the room, trying to piece together where she was. “You let them do this, didn’t you?”

  My disdain turned to pity. Jackie was lost in it all.

  I put my arms around her shoulders. “Don’t worry. I’m here. We’re together. In this reality, right here and now. We’re together. Isn’t that enough? It has to be,” I whispered.

  Jackie’s cheeks turned bright red, and she pushed me away.

  She stood and paced like a wild animal, spouting nonsense. “They did this to her, and you let them. You did this to Grace. You did this to all of us. You’ll pay for what you’ve done.”

  “Stop, Jackie. You’re losing yourself, losing sight of the truth. Reality is escaping you…”

  “I can’t stop,” Jackie replied. “I won’t stop. Not until I save my mom. I need to save Grace, Zayne, and Baxter, too.”

  Her pointed gaze cut like a knife. “You lied about Baxter, and now you’re up to something worse.”

  Jackie shoved her dirty finger in my face. Her hand shook, unsteady and unhinged.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The drones! You unleashed them into the Slipstream, and now they’re infecting everything. They’re taking people’s souls.”

  “Souls? Don’t be so dramatic. Sure, they’re taking data, but—”

  “So you knew about this?”

  What did Jackie see in the Slipstream to make her think the drones are stealing souls?

  After seeing the shell of a man Feraz was, I assumed she was right on some level.

  “I’m sorry, Jackie. I truly am. No matter what I try, I can’t stop them. They’re running the final simulation, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  “What do you mean, final simulation?”

  “They’ve collected massive amounts of data, and they’ve decided…” I choked up delivering such horrific news.

  “What? Tell me already!”

  “They’re going to eliminate ninety-nine percent of the population due to its Redistribution Program.” The words felt like bile coming out of my mouth.

  Jackie looked at me in disbelief. “The Dusters and the Climbers… Alpha’s going to take them out like trash.”

  “They say it’s the most efficient use of…” Finishing that sentence made me want to vomit, but I cried instead.

  I needed comfort, but Jackie ridiculed me.

  “The kingdom has fallen under your reign, Queen Beatrice. Admit it. You’ve made so many mistakes. You’re not the mastermind you portray yourself to be.”

  “Like you can do better?” I scoffed. “You’re a Slipstream junkie! Always stuck in the past like your lowlife father.”

  Jackie laughed. She actually laughed at me.

  I crossed my arms, my jaw clenching.

  Jackie said with spite, “You’re so focused on winning the future that you miss the point. You’ve inflicted so much pain on people as a means to your end. Your happiness shouldn’t come at the expense of others. You think you’re so great, but you’re a monster.”

  That stung.

  I screamed back, “I had no choice. I had to look to the future, explore the probabilities. Don’t you see? That’s all I had left. My body was paralyzed, but my mind wasn’t. Don’t judge until you’re trapped in a decaying body, okay? Anyone in my position would weigh their options. I chose life!”

  “Well, this life sucks. Take away this cursed phoenix gene. I don’t want it. I never asked for any of this. I can’t live in this unjust world for eternity.”

  Jackie paced barefoot, hair a mess.

  It broke my heart to see her in such a state, to have another child reject me and the life of luxury I provided.

  “Maybe you’re right.” I slumped onto the couch. “The true cost of choosing my life was too great. I’ve lost Mark, Grace, and now you’re slipping away from me, too. I always end up alone. It’s the most probable outcome, I guess.”

  Jackie stopped pacing and came to me. She looked me dead in the eye. “We’ve got to go back in time to fix things. Make massive changes. Have you tried that to stop your creepy robot sidekick?”

  “I’m sorry, Jackie, but you can’t change the past. I’ve tried repeatedly, and I can’t handle the maddening ache of failure any longer.”

  “I don’t believe that. Firestorm made it seem like… I won’t stop until I figure it out.” Jackie grabbed her notebook and riffled through its pages, as if the answer would magically appear.

  My head slumped into my hands. I rarely conceited defeat, but the Alpha problem was critical, and none of my simulations in the Slipstream worked. Despite my sincerest attempts to the contrary, Life Rite left a deluge of suffering in its wake.

  I could justify the mutations, and even scorched lands, but I could not in good conscience let Alpha kill billions of people.

  I hated to see Grace fall ill, even after she threw me and Mark into the volcano, but to watch Jackie unravel was the final straw.

  “You’re right, Jackie,” I finally said. “I lied to you.”

  “I knew it. Baxter died in the street. You never tried to save him.”

  “Um.” I forgot I told her that. Seemed better at the time to ease the blow.

  I shook my head. “Not about that. I lied about changing the past.”

  “What do you mean?” Jackie asked with an insatiable desire to know dancing in her wild eyes.

  “The Slipstream portals represent key decisions that are pivotal in our lives. When you change events, the outcome may still be the most probable. Do you follow?”

  “I think so.” Jackie looked at her map of the Slipstream, processing my explanation.

  “There’s a more pivotal moment that can change the probability. I can’t control the knock-on effects, but there’s a deeper root cause of it all. If…”

  I choked on the idea. The thought of it made me sick.

  “What? How? You’ve got to change our fates, B.”

  Tears streamed down my silky cheeks. “I can’t focus on the past. It’s too hard. I felt trapped back then. It was worse than a cage… I can’t go back. We need to keep going forward.”

  Jackie shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  Maintaining my well-crafted composure was no longer an option. I blubbered, “I’m not a villain. I’m a hero.”

  Jackie softened at the sight of my watershed tears and put her arm around me.

  “There’s a fine line between the two,” she said. “A villain will sacrifice the world to save a chosen few. A hero makes personal sacrifices to save the world. Either way, sacrifices need to be made.”

  I nodded. “I know we have to stop Alpha from ending it all.”

  Jackie grabbed my hands and looked me in my eyes. “Let’s be heroes. Let’s change the past. It’s the only way to save our future.”

  “What about the empire I’ve built?”

  Jackie shrugged it off so easily. “Life Rite only benefits Flyers, and let’s face it. They’re not using immortality to make life better for anyone but themselves. Everyone else is barely getting by. That’s why Alpha thinks most people are disposable trash. There’s no chance of survival in this cutthroat world. We have to go back to save the Dusters and the Climbers.”

  I shook my head and said between sobs, “I can’t. I’m not ready.”

  Jackie stood and crossed her arms. “Fine. Maybe the drones will kill me, too. After all, I’m just a janitor. A Duster. A useless Slipstream junkie…”

  Jackie ran off crying, leaving me alone with my sorrow.

  Exhausted, I crumbled into the couch, lamenting my options.

  I can’t go all the way back, can I?

  Refusing to go through with such an extreme plan, I wiped my tears and walked back to the R&D department.

  “It’s the eleventh hour… Tell me something good.”

  A sea of dumbfounded faces greeted me. Those imbeciles didn’t have any solutions.

  I was alone in this. The weight of the problem was heavy on my shoulders.

  “To the dungeon.” I sighed, resigned to fate.

  Forlorn, I made my way to the operations department in the basement of the complex.

  As I dragged myself through the halls of Camp Claudi, employees asked me to sign payroll, approve photos for an article, and other tasks that were utterly meaningless now.

  I waved them all away. None of it mattered anymore.

  The biggest decision in history had to be changed, and I was the only one stupid enough to do it.