It's been 20 years. My Anne has grown up so much since then. My Alisa never left my side, her warmth is what has kept my cold heart pumping. How could I ever live without them? I must have died... and now my blood is on my hands. I can't let them know... I can't let my daughter know I killed her father. I can't let my my wife find out it's her husband's murderer whose heart she's been catering.

20 years ago

I woke up full of excitement. It was a big day for me and perhaps for all of mankind, the first attempt to open a portal to another universe, the first demonstration of Dr. Anant's life's work.  As the Station finally began to orbit the ringed-giant Saturn, I began going through the check-list for the final time.

For some people, the Station symbolized hope, a back-up plan for the survival of the Human race. A study by, the famous astrophysicist, Dr. Wells in 3192 stated that the star Betelgeuse might have been very close to the end of its life. It could have exploded in a violent supernova at any moment from then to  ten thousand years. There might have been a gamma-ray burst involved which, in an extremely improbable scenario, could have annihilated half the Solar System.

The goal was to  look for another Earth in another universe where humanity could thrive, just in case our present abode in the cosmos was lost to some interstellar agent of doom.

The Station, officially called the Experimental Ultra-Terrestrial Einstein-Rosen Bridge Station, was constructed on an orbit around Earth, by the docking of 47 segments. Though it was a rather large vessel, most of the space was occupied by the complex machinery for achieving the mission's objective. The crew chamber wasn't lofty but was big enough to house a lone astronaut, me. It had the standard cryo-chamber where I had been sleeping for 8 months, until I woke up about a week before the day I lost everything and I took everything from me.

My eyes and hands moved mechanically as I went through the check list. I'd done this too many times in the past few days. After that, I sent an "All Clear" message to the World Space Association. Since I was in an orbit around Saturn, several light hours from Earth, it would be a long time before I received the reply, if they lived to receive the message that is.

I heard the jingle of a notification and it was all that I could have asked for. I saw my little Anne standing in front of her mother, waving her little hands with childish vigor. "All the best Daddy", she said in her squeaky little voice. Alisa stood behind with her thumbs raised. 

I beamed at their faces. I felt I could've smiled for the whole day, so energetic had my kid's voice made me. She must have gone to sleep soon after sending that message, I don't know if she woke up after that.

According to the watch, it was time for me to initiate the process. I was not to wait for a signal from Earth as it would have been impractical with that communication delay. I turned on the power cores and the machines began to whir. In about 2 hours, I'd be looking through a portal to another universe.

I recorded the observations as different parts of the bridge generator swung into life. Every few minutes, I sent the observations towards Earth, not knowing if anyone was there at the recieving end.

An alert message popped up. I hadn't recieved the reply for my "All clear" message. I wondered what had gone wrong, and as I removed my eyes off the screen, I noticed it... Blinding light from an odd direction... From Orion... Betelgeuse!

I ran to the hazard detection telescope. I turned towards the inner Solar system, full of fear, hoping against hope that the dreadful thoughts in my head were wrong.

I saw glowing plasma, moving at unimaginable speeds, in shapes which were anything but spherical. The Sun... Was no more... It had been shredded. And it's blood, the plasma, ran outward at near light speed vaporising anything that came in it's path. And the Earth was in the path...

This couldn't have been true, I thought, as the Station erupt into a frenzied howling of sirens, it obviously hadn't recieved a signal for too long and interpreted that its course must be erroneous.

I couldn't control my tears... My Anne, my little Anne... My Alisa... My parents, my friends, my world. GONE!!

Just then, startling me, a different glow filled the Station. The portal, it had worked, but what was the point now... I looked at it with my tears still streaming down my eyes. And on the other side, I saw someone, and came back into my senses at once.

I saw myself, looking at me through the portal. He looked at me with a startled expression, he wasn't a weeping mess, the sirens weren't shining on his Station even though the last light of Betelgeuse was blazing through the window on his side.

The Gamma Ray Burst hadn't hit his Sun... Anne, Alisa and everyone on Earth was alive... A sudden rage took over me. I jumped through, taking him by surprised and flailing him through the portal, to my Station. He turned and jumped towards me but I closed the portal before he could reach it.

Then, there was silence. I sent back a report that I'd seen myself from a doomed Earth through the portal and had to shut it down to defend myself from him. Then I heard the jiggle of a notification, "Daddy, I couldn't sleep. Missing your lullaby."