CHICAGO, ILLINOIS U.S.A – Penthouse, The Legacy: APRIL 11, 2141AD – 4:02AM

Emmeline jammed her hand into her thigh pocket and pulled the large curved NeoPhone out. Cindis' face stared back at her from the screen looking ... well... looking worried.

"What did you say?" She demanded.

{You shouldn't call the police, Emmeline.}

It didn't make sense... Emmeline had given the 'Audio Off' command. Cindi shouldn't be able to say anything... and she certainly shouldn't be second guessing Emmelines requests!

"What are you talking about Cindi? Make the call!"

{Mr. Crane left detailed instructions for exactly this situation Miss Roth.}

"Cindi..."

{I am sorry Emmeline, but I must follow Mr. Cranes' directions. I will open the gateway now.}

There was a bright flash behind Emmeline and a popping sound like that of a Champagne bottle being uncorked. Startled she turned and saw the portal. It hung about a foot in the air and was roughly seven feet high by three feet wide. Its' surface gleamed and swirled like liquid mercury. She tried to see what it was made of but she couldn't seem to focus on it. In fact just looking at it was making her head pound again.

"What is it...?"

{A gateway... it is safe to pass through now.}

"....a gateway? Gateway to what...?" She reached out to touch it shielding her eyes with her other hand.

{Dimension Beta; Mr. Crane is waiting for you there. Please step through Emmeline.}

"I don't understand Cindi..."

{Mr. Crane will explain; I cannot keep the gateway open for much longer, please go now Emmeline!}

Cindi was practically shouting now, but that shouldn't be possible. Emmeline bit her lip nervously.

"Will it hurt?"

{Proceed now... the gate is collapsing!}

It was, Emmeline could see the edges beginning to blur and waver.

"Oh, what the hell!" She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and practically leaped through the mirrored doorway.

She stumbled out the other side falling to her knees. The floor seemed to be about a foot higher on this side.

{Your foot Emmeline!}

She looked back expecting to see the gateway but there was nothing just her right leg which seemed to have been cut off just above the ankle. In horror she pulled it through just as the air shimmered and blurred for a fraction of a second. Emmeline reached down and touched her foot.

{The Gate is closed, I will not be able to open another for at least one hour.}

Emmeline stood up cautiously, looking around. She was still in Richards office but it seemed different somehow. She walked to the desk, there was a picture of a woman holding a baby on it that she had never seen before. Stacks of files lay haphazardly across many surfaces. The date on the display embedded in the glass top read Thursday April 13, 2141.

"The dates wrong..." she muttered quietly.

{Please proceed to the press conference Emmeline, you will find Richard there.}

"What.... What are you talking about? We already gave the press conference."

{Mr. Crane will explain everything, please go there now.}

"This doesn't make any sense..."

At that moment the giant steel door to Richards office swung open. A man walked in wearing a strange looking suit. He was tall and incredibly handsome with jet black hair and a perfect Vandyke beard. His suit was black and very tight fitting, showing his lean well muscled torso off to great effect. The arms of the suit were three quarter length and he wore a thin crewneck sweater beneath it. On his forearm was a large tablet device which curved around and was held in a black neoprene holster.

"Miss Roth, so good to see you, Richard is getting ready for the reporters. My god, what are you wearing?" he turned and began talking to the tablet on his arm. "Candi, we need a whole new outfit for Miss Roth. Send it up to Richards' office right away."

{Of course, Mr. Simpson.} replied the girl on the tablet. She looked just like Cindi but her hair was blond.

For the next fifteen minutes Emmeline kept her mouth shut. Mr. Simpson said a number of things that made very little sense to her. He seemed to know her and spoke as if she knew him. Luckily he was the type of man who enjoyed the sound of his own voice so he didn't seem to notice that she said nothing. Within five minutes the new outfit arrived, carried by a beautiful young woman who was immediately dismissed.

"Here we are, Miss Roth," He said handing the package to her with a flourish. "Now be quick, the press conference will be starting in fifteen minutes.

"uh... yes... thanks" She took the package from him and he left without another word.

Once he was gone Emmeline went into Richards private bathroom to shower. She tried to take off the baseball cap but the blood had glued her hair to it, so instead she gingerly pulled the sweatshirt over it. She kicked off her Toms and shucked her yoga pants and stepped into the shower. She let the warm water run over the hat soaking through to her hair. The floor of the shower turned pink and after a few false starts she was eventually able to pry it off her head without too much pain. She washed her hair three times and finally she seemed to have got all the dried blood out. She quickly washed the rest of her body and shivering, stepped into the drying cubicle. Heat lamps in the ceiling and walls turned on accompanied by vents blowing strong gusts of warm air and in a matter of minutes she was completely dry.

Emmeline opened the package and held up the lovely teal dress that the girl had brought her. She still had no bra or panties, so she was glad it was a tight fit as she stepped into it, arranged herself, then reached around and pulled up the zipper.

{They are waiting for you Emmeline.} Cindis' voice, from where she had left her phone on the counter, startled her. She grabbed it and headed to the conference.

The elevator opened onto a frenzy of activity. Another beautiful young woman who looked vaguely familiar took her by the hand talking a mile a minute. Emmeline didn't catch most of it as she was led a makeup table. Quickly the girl and her assistant got Emmeline ready to be on camera. Once they had enveloped her in a cloud of hairspray she was whisked off to the press room. Finally she saw Richard but there was no time to talk. He smiled at her encouragingly, gave her a wink and the conference started.

Emmeline tried to make sense of the next half hour. Richard spoke at length about being

"On target with the agenda..." and "preparations nearing completion..." He went into some detail with regards to NeoWorld but spoke more about "the percentage of population saturation..." and never once mentioned the peace deal that she supposed was the purpose of the press conference. Many of the questions were unintelligible. An incredibly tall exotic looking red haired man asked, "When the merge would happen?" But she knew for a fact there were no mergers taking place. Most disturbing of all was Richard... he was nothing like his usual upbeat smiling self. He was serious and even seemed angry or frightened at times.

When the press conference finally ended, he grabbed her hand tightly in his own as if he was worried she might leave him. They exited through a side door and took a cargo elevator back up to his office. After they were both inside he closed the huge vault door.

"Lock down Candi, no one comes through that door!"

{Of Course, Mr. Crane.}

He turned to Emmeline, his face ashen. "Em, thank God you're hear. I can't believe it, I just can't fucking believe it!" he was pacing frantically around the office.

"What's going on Richard? I'm totally lost!"

"Oh Shit, of course you are, sit down and I'll try to explain."

"Okay, this is going to be hard... how much do you know about physics?"

She bit her lip, "not much..."

"Right... well... we aren't technically in your universe anymore... no that's wrong..."

"...are you talking about another dimension?"

"No that's not right either... think of this as an alternate reality. Imagine your reality is a soap bubble in a big tub and every time you make a choice it stirs the bubbles up. The bubble you're in splits and becomes two bubbles every time you have a choice. Each choice happens and a version of you exists in both bubbles... both realities. Now, here's where it gets tricky, some bubbles are close together so the membrane that separates them is very thin, maybe only a very minor detail separates those two realities. Throughout your life you may accidentally move between those realities without ever realizing you've done so. But the multiverse doesn't like that, it's a waste of space so eventually those two bubbles may merge back together into one bubble and the two versions of you do the same... get it."

"Sort of..."

"Okay, well then there are the bubbles that are far apart... the differences in those realities are vast and even if they were right next to each other the membrane between them would be so thick it would take a huge amount of energy to break through. You could never accidentally end up in one of those realities."

"...The gateway..."

"Yes... we figured it out, well I didn't but someone did..."

"So we're from different realities..."

"Yes..." He turned away.

"But... I mean why ..."

He walked slowly to the giant bank of windows, they were set to opaque. "... Candi, depolarize the windows..."

Slowly the glass changed from milky white to fully transparent, the sun was shining. Emmeline walked over to stand next to Richard and looked out. The city of Chicago should have been a bustling metropolis, it was almost 5:30am and the streets should have been awash with cars. The sidewalks filled with early morning commuters. Instead there was no one. Nothing moved down on the street, not a car, or a person. The buildings looked deserted. The huge banking building across the way was a ruin of broken glass and filth.

"Oh my God! What happened...?"

"A plague... a virus... It killed the children... all of them. Everyone under the age of Eleven... across the entire planet... and the virus left all the adults sterile... there won't be another generation." He turned then and looked past Emmeline to the picture on his desk. "My son... Sam... he was one of the first."

"Richard.... I'm so sorry..."

"... My wife couldn't deal with it... now she's gone too."

Emmeline wanted to say something, the right thing, but her throat seemed to close. She put her arm around him, hoping that contact, would help. He turned and wrapped his arms around her, holding on like a drowning man to a life preserver.

"That's why it was so important to create the gateway. That's why they did it... they knew there had to be a reality where it didn't happen... and then they found it..."

"My reality..."

"Yes... but it's all gone wrong... when they sent me through I was told it was to use my skills, combined with what we knew from being 48hrs ahead time wise, to prepare your reality for us to join you. If you'd let us... we could help. We learned so much after the virus, when the whole world has an enemy like that it unites people. War ended, famine ended... but without children there was no future. I thought I was helping your world so that one day our people could be united. So we could hear the laughter of children in the streets and know that life would go on. But now..." He released her from his embrace turning away from her once again.

"What..."

"Cindi found the truth, embedded in the code of her sister program Candi..."

"What truth, Richard? Tell me..." Emmeline reached out and put her hand gently on his shoulder.

"they lied to me...I haven't been helping your people... I've been preparing your world for an invasion...."

"They're going to attack us?" Emmeline pulled her hand back in horror.

"No...it's worse than that... they don't need to attack. They have a weapon... they call it the 'Merge' It's like a... an inter-dimensional bomb... they tag the things they want to merge... all NeoWorld Technology has the tags embedded. Almost everyone in your world now has some piece of that tech, hell we were giving it away for free... Once they activate the Merge, everyone that's tagged will be merged with their counterpart from my reality. The bubbles will combine effectively wiping every adult in your reality from existence."

"But... why.... Why would you want to do that...."

"I don't! Everyone here believes we are just going to coexist ... I don't know who's responsible... maybe it's just a small group, but they have all the power. The fact is no one else can even understand the technology. The man who figured it out... created the gateway is a recluse. There's only rumors..."

Emmeline grabbed his arm. "We have to stop them!"

"I know... I spoke to a friend of mine, Professor Tate and he's..."

{Security door override is progress}

Richard turned to see the locking wheels on the door begin to spin.

"What the hell? Candi, lock it out!"

{Sorry Richard, I cannot, the override is complete}

"Shit! Candi, gateway, now!"

{Launching Gateway}

As before came the flash and popping sound as the gateway materialized two feet from where they stood. Richard took Emmelines hand and they both plunged though the opening. Emmeline sprawled to the floor forgetting the height difference on her side and Richard bent to help her up.

"Shut it down Cindi." He yelled as once they were on the other side. He turned to Emmeline. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," she said, her knew where scraped and bleeding but her head had started to pound again, but no time for that, "what's going on?"

"I think..."

The man appeared from nowhere. There was a flash of light as a new gateway opened and he seemed to step out of the wall on the other side of the room.

{Run!} Cindi Commanded.

Adrenaline surged through her body and Emmeline took off towards the door with Richard at her heels, the man came after them without saying a word.

"Close the door Cindi!" Richard commanded.

Cindi silently obeyed and the giant steel door began to swing closed. Too fast! They wern't going to make it in time, Emmelines head pounded in agony as she forced herself to run faster. Ten feet more but the door was almost closed. She risked a glance over her shoulder, Richard was there but the man was close behind. He was closing on them his hands outstretched. Emmeline launched herself the last two feet headfirst through the gap, scrapping her should on one of the locking bolts. She sprawled on the floor as Richard tumbled out on top of her and heard the vault door clanged shut. They lay panting in an awkward embrace on the floor, Emmeline was dizzy and her head was screaming in pain.

{Please make your way to the elevator.}

Richard pulled out his phone and Emmeline saw Cindi on the screen. Cindi was biting her lip. So real...

"Cindi... what the fuck is going on?" Richard demanded

{There is no time, Richard! Go to the elevator, now!} She looked afraid, but that was impossible.

"Tell me what's happening!"

Suddenly the wheels on the vault door began to spin. It was opening!

"...Cindi! What the hell are you doing?"

{I am not doing it Richard... you must get to the elevators, please!}

The door was swinging towards her and suddenly the mans' arm squeezed out of the gap and made a grab for Emmeline, narrowly missing. Richard grabbed hand and hauled her to her feet. They sprinted down the corridor to the elevator which opened at Cindi's command. Emmeline threw herself inside and Richard slammed the 'close' button.

"Cindi, have the car ready!" He panted.

{It is waiting now.}

The elevator stopped and the door opened on the parking level. Emmeline rose from the floor and quickly made her way out. At the curb Richards' car stood idling with the rear door open.

"What about my car..." she asked.

{Please Emmeline... there is no time!}

They piled into the backseat as the car lurched forward, tires squealing.

{Put on your seatbelts please.}

She strapped herself in without a word as the car flew through the parking lot at incredible speed. They passed the long bank of auto lifts to Emmelines' right without slowing.

"Go back we have to get to the lifts!" She screamed but the car continued at its' breakneck pace.

"Cindi! What are you doing?" Richard asked.

At that moment the car suddenly swerved right throwing Emmeline against the door. Ahead was a long straightaway ending at a bank of full length windows. The car seemed to be going even faster.

Suddenly the man ran out into their path. The car veered to the left attempting to avoid him but then came a sickening crunch. Emmeline turned and stared out of the rear window as the man's' body cart wheeled across the lane way.

"Oh my God! Stop... STOP!"

{Brace for impact.}

Emmeline turned back to the front in time to see the bank of windows directly in front of the car, before they plowed through.

They flew out of the side of the building shards of glass all around them, Seventy five stories up.

Richard clutched Emmelines right hand as she braced her other hand against the back of the front seat, hanging on for dear life. Directly in front of them loomed Tower B of the NeoWorld Tower Complex. They were heading straight for it at incredible speed. The car began to tilt forward, nose down.

"Lean back Emmeline..." Richard said in a strangely calm voice. Squeezing her hand even tighter.

It was not a request and she obeyed automatically. She only weighed 104 pounds but it was enough. Her weight redistributed and the car leveled again, then came the impact. The front end of the SUV crashed through the windows of Tower B and the car slid sideways into ... the executive parking lot.

Richard turned and looked at Emmeline. "Holy crap... floor seventy of Tower B... we dropped five stories... are you okay?"

"Yes... I think I might have pee'd a little.."

He laughed, "Me too..."

Then they both laughed and suddenly he was kissing her, awkwardly to start as most first kisses are and then deeply as she gave herself completely to the moment.

The car took off again, this time at a more moderate pace, breaking the spell. They entered an Auto-Lift and dropped to ground level to make their way to the exit. Once outside Emmeline saw a man standing in front of the exit of the Tower A's Executive parking garage down the street, but it could have just been a security guard.

They sped south down State Street through the Loop and made a hard left onto West Roosevelt Road.

"Where are we going?" Emmeline asked.

Cindi answered {To the HyperLoop, I've purchased two tickets.}