Portofina Caye, Belize – April 11, 2141AD – 4:41am

It took Cindi seven minutes to reroute and encrypt the call to Williams' satisfaction, although it was obvious he still was less than happy with John.

"Look Will, you can't just drop something like this on me..."

William gave him a withering look. "Jonathan I did no such thing. The journal contains everything Viktor knew about the goggles and therefore everything I know. Why didn't you read it?"

"Why are you even involving me in this? You know I'm not interested in more research after...what happened... Don't get me wrong... what you've got here is amazing... ground breaking... but it's got nothing to do with me!

"If you had read the journal, John, you would realize it has everything to do with you."

"What's that supposed to mean..."

"What happened ten years ago, the accident in North Dakota, it happened in the other dimension as well. Only worse, John, so much worse..."

"That... that's not possible... we stopped it..."

"Yes, here we stopped it... but they didn't John. In their dimension, it spread. The whole world was affected. Almost two billion children under the age of 16 died..."

"... but I... I didn't..."

"Not you John, but a version of you, and the virus has left the adults sterile. Their world is dying. no new generations will ever be born..."

Johns' head was spinning, he slumped into a chair with a blank look on his face.

"... but we stopped it... two billion..." John buried his face in his hands. He felt like he was going to be sick.

"I'm sorry John but there's more..."

"No... William... I can't...."

"They are here John..."

"Who...?"

"Richard Crane is one of them, that's why you saw the blue aura around him. That's the give-away. He is from the other dimension. They are preparing something John. An invasion... an attack... I don't know, but Viktor was sure of it. They know we stopped the virus. Perhaps they want revenge or just to take over, but Richard Crane is part of it, of that I am sure."

"That's insane William... how could they be here...?

"Viktor believed that the barrier between dimensions was very thin. Think of it Richard, perhaps every decision that you make creates a new dimension. Your alarm goes off in the morning, you have a choice, you can get up or you can hit the snooze button. Each of those choices has ramifications. If you hit the snooze button you might be late for work and get fired. If you get up as soon as the alarm goes off you might end up in a traffic accident. What if both choices exist, each in its own dimension? Most of the time the differences are small almost inconsequential but then there are the big choices. What career you pursue, who you marry... if you have children. These choices shape your existence. People probably pass back and forth between dimensions all the time without even knowing it.

"But you'd know if you passed into that dimension... without... without children. How do you explain that?"

"It's only a theory John... maybe the greater the divergence the thicker the barrier between the dimensions... but they have found a way through John. Richard Crane is the key! We have to get to him and get the answers!" William was red in the face, his eyes tearing... he looked as though he might pass out. He slumped forward closing his eyes.

"William!"

The old man sucked in a ragged breath and waved his hand at John.

"Are you okay?" John asked quietly.

"No John... I'm old... too old for this..."

"Look William... even if all this is true... what can we do about it?"

"We have to try John, this is our fault."

"No, if anyone is as fault it's me, my research caused the virus..."

"I encouraged it John... I was selfish... I pushed you too hard. I should have seen what was coming but ..."

"Nonsense William, you can't claim responsibility for my mistakes. I won't let you. I thought I could stop people from aging... from dying... and I did just the opposite. I may even have destroyed an entire world..."

"We have to try and fix it John!"

"Alright... so how do we get to this Crane guy?"