Remix of images by Nick Fewings, John Peters, and Paul Volkmer<\/em><\/p>\n A full trashcan sat in the dark just outside my alternate-dimension self’s office. Housekeeping came by every morning, so obviously this lucky \u201cme\u201d was still employed here, working during the daylight hours. I was the unlucky me who was stuck prowling dark hallways at 2 am on a Tuesday.<\/p>\n Inside the office, the smell of old coffee aggravated the throbbing that had been growing in my skull ever since I transited. The flicker of the fluorescent hall lights added to the aspirin-proof pain reminding me that it wasn\u2019t healthy to be in someone else\u2019s universe. No time to waste. BioChemEng wasn\u2019t paying me to find out how long it took for the blood vessels in my brain to fail.<\/p>\n The smell was coming from \u201cmy\u201d blue mug decorated with the chemical structure of caffeine. It sat on a desk filled with printouts of chemical analyses and notes on experiments. Bingo! Other me had been busy, so maybe I was lucky after all.<\/p>\n My fifth guess unlocked the computer. Thank God for forgetful executives who insisted that IT relax their three-failure lockout rule in every universe. I inserted the terabyte thumb drive and started copying everything.<\/p>\n While the data transferred, I looked around. Sticky notes were piled by the computer with file names and other reminders and Monday\u2019s paper was in the corner.\u00a0 All just like home. Keeping an eye on the progress bar, I dug through the old sticky notes. This version of me postponed doctor\u2019s appointments and had overdue library books, too. Huh.<\/p>\n The file transfer finished, and I pulled the drive. Before I left, I dropped an old \u201cCall doctor for physical\u201d note on top of the pile \u2013 if you can\u2019t pester a different version of yourself, who can you pester? \u2013 and took the newspaper with me.<\/p>\n I hoped the files had useful results. My last three late-night visits hadn\u2019t been very productive, and Mike was getting impatient. I used to think \u201cpublish or perish\u201d was bad when I was in academia. But now \u201cperish\u201d is literal.<\/p>\n I went down the staircase two steps at a time and jogged back to the transfer point. I was cutting it close; it was 2:35, and any minute I would get dizzy, nauseous, and confused (the just-out-of-surgery version of those feelings, not the fun out-too-late-partying version). Besides, the guards on my Earth patrol this floor at 3 am. I couldn\u2019t afford to be caught by a guard whose watch was fast.<\/p>\n Back in the room where I had first appeared, I stood on the X I\u2019d chalked on the floor when I arrived. I tucked the newspaper under my shirt, gripped the thumb drive in one fist, latched my wristband snugly \u2013 the more skin touches an object the better the odds it will return with me \u2013 and pressed the button on the wristband.<\/p>\n Instantly, I reappeared in my own office building, back in the painted circle I had left from. The room had been intended for executive conferences but was empty in every alternate world I\u2019d ever visited.<\/p>\n Both the smell of old dust in the alternate version of the room and the smell of desperation in this one depressed me. If they ever made a movie about Alternate World Transfer, I\u2019d be surrounded by shiny equipment with flashing lights and people in white coats. Instead, I\u2019m in a barren room with nothing but the circle I was standing in and an old desk in the corner. The actual AWT equipment (power supplies, field generators, control system, cooling, and all) is downstairs. It doesn\u2019t look like a movie set there either; it looks like what it is: a computer server room stuffed with too much equipment.<\/p>\n Behind her desk, Dakota stood and said, \u201cWelcome back.\u201d She traded me a bottle for the thumb drive and wristband, and I gulped the water down, while she got to work downloading the drive into the secure network.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you get anything good?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope so. It looked like this alternate has been busy, so I might have lucked out. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n I grabbed the handbag I\u2019d left on Dakota\u2019s desk and headed for home, taking the newspaper with me. If it didn\u2019t have to do with biochemical results, it wasn\u2019t Dakota\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n As I left, I waved to Victor, who had just arrived for his 3:15 transit. \u201cGood luck and watch for the guards,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n He laughed and said, \u201cHope their watches aren\u2019t slow.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d stop laughing when the headache hit. He gets them worse than I do.<\/p>\n Next morning while I had coffee and a cinnamon muffin, I skimmed my alternate\u2019s newspaper. I wouldn\u2019t be up to doing anything more strenuous until after lunch. While it\u2019s creepy to see a desk that looks almost exactly like your own, in an office almost exactly ditto, I have no problem reading news articles from alternate worlds: it\u2019s usually fun to see the differences that show up.<\/p>\n But today it was less fun. I read about Alfredo Taber, the top NFL draft pick in the other universe, and someone I\u2019ve never heard of here (Google tells me that in this universe he plays arena football in Atlantic City). Nothing upsetting about that \u2013 but then I saw that he\u2019s the top pick because he won the Rose Bowl for my alma mater<\/em>.\u00a0 And that reminded me of how far I\u2019d fallen since I was in college.<\/p>\n Sometime in the last few years, the other universe\u2019s Taber got a lucky break that put him in position to become a star. In this universe, the break didn\u2019t happen (or some bad break did), and he\u2019d never know how close he\u2019d been to being a star. I know <\/em>that some of my alternates are still doing the protein biochemistry that I dreamed of doing when I was in college \u2013 uncovering the secrets of life and health was how I thought of it then \u2013 while now I celebrated if I find something good to copy from some other me.<\/p>\n In other news, the weather yesterday in the alternate world was a beautiful spring day in the low 70s. Here it was rainy, windy, and about 45 degrees, with the prospect of slush by the weekend.<\/p>\n In the afternoon, I was at work and over the AWT hangover. I was still not ready to hear \u201cDid you bring home anything good last night?\u201d when I passed my supervisor\u2019s office. Mike had been the first person to use the AWT device; on his alternate\u2019s desk he found the research results that kept our company going (there had been rumors of bankruptcy) and got him his promotion and a raise.<\/p>\n He got a nice office, too. I went in and said, \u201cI\u2019m still digging into Omar\u2019s summary of the data. Most of what I recovered last night is results we already have, but there are a few hints that they may be on the track of something new. I was just on my way back to the secure room to get into the details.\u201d<\/p>\n I spend most of my days in the cramped, shielded room where all data from other universes is kept (hence the empty trashcan outside my real office). The company doesn\u2019t want anyone to know about the AWT or what we learn from it.<\/p>\n Mike said, \u201cDamn. Too bad there\u2019s no way to go to the same universe twice. It\u2019d be great to visit these guys next week and see what they\u2019ve come up with by then.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be glad to set up some experiments to follow up on what Omar found so far.\u201d<\/p>\n He sighed. \u201cLindsey, I know you want to do real research again, but the company is not going to approve paying people to study protein folding or anything else when we\u2019ve got the AWT. Getting results without paying for researchers? It\u2019s better than stealing.\u201d<\/p>\n It is<\/em> stealing, I thought, but said, \u201cI know. But why not do a little research the old-fashioned way? It would backstop our AWT work in case of dry spells like the one we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n He glanced at the large diagram posted on his wall. It looked like a bush growing from the bottom, with branches growing upward and outward, and more and more branches splitting off the further up it went. Each branch of the bush represented a set of possibilities, of alternate universes, which grew as time went on. Every world version any of us visited was recorded as a branch, with our best guess of what differences had happened in each.<\/p>\n Mike said, \u201cIf the dry spell lasts any longer, we\u2019re all fired. I\u2019ll stop by later to see how you\u2019re doing. I hope you\u2019ve dug up something valuable by then.\u201d<\/p>\n I hurried off, stewing, with no one to vent to. Someday I\u2019d be mad enough to mention the plaque I saw a few weeks ago \u2013 placed in memory of his alternate, who died six months ago. Even if my warning saved his life, he wouldn\u2019t like learning that he\u2019s not perfect. He\u2019d been embarrassed enough that he left his shoes behind on that first trip. His socks had kept the shoes from making enough contact against his skin to be transferred with him. I leave off the socks when I travel.<\/p>\n Friday morning, I was back at the AWT for another 2 AM transit. This time, things weren\u2019t as productive. We can\u2019t aim the AWT (what does \u201caim\u201d mean anyway when talking about going to an alternate universe?), so I never know what I\u2019ll get.<\/p>\n There\u2019s plenty of room for variation even with just a few years of differences snowballing after whatever quantum divergence separated two alternates. I\u2019ll never find a world where Wallis Simpson was the Queen Consort, or Zayn is still in One Direction, because of physics equations I don\u2019t understand that limit us to worlds that diverged no more than a few years before the AWT was invented. I don\u2019t know why Anders and Isabella always use alternate British royalty and boy band breakups as their examples of variant worlds and I\u2019ve never figured out which one of them is a history buff and which one is a groupie. What matters to me is that in some worlds, versions of me find scientific results that I haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n What I got this time was an office that belonged to someone else. My key wouldn\u2019t open \u201cmy\u201d lock when I got there, and I didn\u2019t recognize the name by the door, though the names nearby were familiar. There were two possibilities, and no point in sticking around in either case, so I headed back to the transfer room.<\/p>\n Every time I go to another universe, I find one that branched off from ours sometime in the past. Nguyen, Anders, and Isabella (theoretician, engineer, and engineer) tell me that interference effects prevent visiting worlds that have branched off more recently than twelve months, and we can\u2019t get to worlds that separated very much before the invention of AWT either. I\u2019ve worked at BioChemEng for almost ten years, but in this world, I don\u2019t. I hoped that my alternate had a better job in this world and wasn\u2019t dead.<\/p>\n After a minute to recover in my world, I hit the \u201cactivate\u201d button for another try.<\/p>\n The second alternate world I visited that night was disturbing in a different way. My alternate\u2019s office was a mess \u2013 the kind of mess I recognized. She<\/em> had discovered something odd in her results and was digging in to figure out what it meant. Jealousy stabbed at me as I looked at her scrawled notes. Even though I knew it didn\u2019t matter (I wouldn\u2019t have to clean up any messes), I carefully maneuvered around the stacks of papers and books, looking for (damn it!) results to steal. She\u2019d been at work all day, testing idea after idea to find the key factors that could be investigated next. The smell of sweet and sour chicken pervaded the office \u2013 she\u2019d had had dinner here, which meant she\u2019d stayed late, too. This could have been me, doing what I had been doing before the AWT was invented.<\/p>\n A sound in the hallway snapped me out of my reverie; I\u2019d been wasting time being jealous of my alternate self when I should have been focused on more important things \u2013 like the guard checking office doors around the corner. He wasn\u2019t early \u2013 I\u2019d forgotten spending ten minutes in the locked-door world. I grabbed my alternate\u2019s experiment notebook, and as many of the scattered pages of calculations as I could hold and left down the hallway parallel to the one the guard was coming up. I was being quick and quiet until my return timer went off, telling me that I had spent enough time outside my own universe for the night (I sure had).<\/p>\n The guard\u2019s keychain jangled. His night had gotten a bit more interesting, and he moved a lot faster than I expected. I got around the corner before he saw me, and while he was reporting to his supervisor that he\u2019d found an unlocked office, I slipped into the stairwell and got away.<\/p>\n The next afternoon Mike came to my office to give me a bonus and a handshake. He said, \u201cI appreciate your dedication in making two trips in one night.\u201d and \u201cIf the material you got on your second trip pans out, you\u2019ll earn a ten percent cut of the net licensing fees the company earns.\u201d and several other things like that. I think he\u2019s read an article on motivation.<\/p>\n On his first trip Mike had brought back a breakthrough for manufacturing proteins that promote bioaccumulation of toxins in plants (useful for cleaning up toxic waste sites). Before he was over the transfer nausea, the company\u2019s business strategy changed to \u201cleverage alternates\u2019 research and monetize the results\u201d (I understand management jargon, but I prefer the engineers\u2019 running gags about finding songs people\u2019s favorite bands never got around to making, or to seeing the effect of royal love affairs on World War II) \u2013 and my job became finding the next miracle. I bet upper management would send me out to rob (alternate) banks if I could get to one and back to the transfer point before dying.<\/p>\n Mike\u2019s praise embarrassed me; I hadn\u2019t earned anything. I sometimes wonder if the breakthrough he\u2019d found on his alternate\u2019s computer had been stolen the old-fashioned way from a competitor; no version of Mike seems to understand the joy of discovery itself.<\/p>\n After he left, I got back to work reviewing my lucky alternate\u2019s moments of insight and trying not to feel like a fraud. Maybe someday, I\u2019d steal something that looks so promising Mike\u2019s boss would have no choice but to let me complete the last steps to discovery with real research. That hope, not Mike\u2019s clich\u00e9d compliment, was enough to keep me going. So far.<\/p>\n The following week, Victor had a bad fall in a stairwell when the lights went out in the alternate world he was visiting. He\u2019d spent almost sixty minutes struggling back to the transfer point and passed out the moment he got back. Lucky. If he\u2019d passed out on the wrong side, Anders figures he would have died an hour later, leaving the alternate BioChemEng with a very confusing corpse.<\/p>\n After Victor\u2019s accident, the company installed a defibrillator and other medical equipment in the transfer room and gave Dakota some training, but Victor wasn\u2019t going out again. The knee would get better, but the local hospital had detected heart damage that wouldn\u2019t. The doctors were puzzled by such rapid deterioration in a thirty-five-year-old, but they didn\u2019t know about AWT. Whether it was too many trips or the one that lasted too long, he wasn\u2019t fit to transit anymore. The company put him to work with Omar analyzing results, but that left even more pressure on the remaining three of us who could still get results, while we worried about our own health, too.<\/p>\n Mike told me he had great faith in my ability to find the next gold mine. After all, I\u2019d done so well during my last trip, but I could read between the lines. The truth was, with only three of us, the whole program would shut down if we didn\u2019t deliver, and who\u2019d want to hire an out-of-work chemist from a defunct company, who might have mysterious heart problems, too?<\/p>\n Two weeks and five fruitless trips after Victor had been taken out of action, I arrived in an alternate world and was greeted by a meter-wide sign on the transfer room wall:<\/p>\n \u201cSTOP STEALING!\u00a0 GO AWAY!\u201d<\/p>\n I hit the return button without thinking; I hadn\u2019t even chalked an X yet.<\/p>\n Back in my world, I sat on the floor and hugged my knees, shaking and panting. Dakota spilled her drink when I returned only seconds after leaving, but she had the oxygen mask half on my face before I could say anything.<\/p>\n After explaining what happened, I added, \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on, but I\u2019m going to find out. Tell Mehcad and Jade not to transit tonight. I\u2019ll take the responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t going to fresh territory every trip; I had been walking over trapdoors every time. And I needed to know why.<\/p>\n I got everyone I needed into the secure room by nine the next morning (a tight fit for a room that normally had four people working on terminals on a central table). I’d been in the office since six, getting things ready. To his credit, Mike helped by corralling the key people I needed. The only ones missing were Victor (still recovering) and Nguyen who was listening in from her office (she\u2019s a friendly person but does not do well in crowds \u2013 and in this cramped room, more than three people made a crowd). I told them what had happened, and then turned to Isabella and Anders.<\/p>\n \u201cYou told us that the AWT would never visit the same universe twice, even if we wanted to. You said we were \u2018sampling individual points in a continuum of possibilities\u2019 and no matter how many universes we reached, they still amounted to a \u2018measure-zero\u2019 subset of the continuum, or some such jargon.\u201d<\/p>\n I paused to take a breath and to drain a little of the sarcasm from my voice before adding, \u201cSo, how could anyone know I was coming last night?\u201d<\/p>\n Isabella and Anders looked at each other, as if deciding who would start. After a moment, Isabella took the lead. \u201cWe did tell you that there\u2019s no chance you\u2019d ever see the same universe twice. And we don\u2019t think you did.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n She continued, \u201cWe should have seen it coming. We thought that the branch point between worlds would always be a few years before we invented the AWT. We were wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Anders said, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to tell exactly when a world diverged from ours. The AWT readings don\u2019t tell us that. We have to figure it out by looking at the data you bring back. For a long time, it looked like all the divergence points could have been about twenty-eight months before the AWT was invented. But now we can see that the divergence points have been drifting forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Nguyen spoke up through the speaker phone, \u201cI looked at the numbers last night, and reviewed our best theoretical model. It looks like divergence points are always between eight hundred and nine hundred days of the present<\/em>, not of when we started using the AW\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat does that have to do with anything?\u201d I said, louder than I intended. Nervous scientists will obsess about the damnedest details if you let them. I\u2019d apologize later for interrupting.<\/p>\n Anders answered for her. \u201cLast night you went to a world that some other <\/em>version of you or the others had already visited. We\u2019re not the only world that has the AWT anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u201d I said. I could feel the blood draining from my face. I was starting to get the picture.<\/p>\n Isabella added, \u201cThe people who put up the sign must be going crazy trying to figure out how someone got into their secure facility; you\u2019re lucky there weren\u2019t guards posted in the room when you got there.\u201d<\/p>\n Jade spoke up. \u201cI\u2019m not getting paid enough for that.\u201d Neither was I.<\/p>\n Anders projected a chart onto the screen on one of the walls \u2013 I recognized it from the diagram posted in Mike\u2019s office \u2013 and pointed to the center of the bush. \u201cThis is the branch we\u2019re on. When the AWT was invented, we could explore every branch that split off less than thirty months before, so we had a wide variety of alternates to raid \u2013 worlds that never funded the AWT project and fully funded your research or Mike\u2019s….\u201d<\/p>\n Nguyen whispered, \u201cOr worlds where I never recovered from the car accident.\u201d (She\u2019s not all the way back in this world, in my opinion.)<\/p>\n Mehcad, who was standing in the back (since there was no room for any more chairs), said, \u201cThere are probably worlds where the government took over AWT research and moved the whole project to Area 51.\u201d<\/p>\n Nobody laughed. Anders just pointed back to the image, this time to a point not quite halfway up the central branch, \u201cA few months ago, we were here. We\u2019d lost access to all these worlds.\u201d He pressed a button and the outermost branches turned red and vanished.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are still an infinite set of possible worlds to visit, but by this point, many of them have the invention of the AWT in their pasts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot all of them would have gotten it working as well as we did \u2013 otherwise they’d’ve shown up here first \u2013 but those that got it working even partially would have done the same things that we did. Like looking for research results in alternate universes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow could you miss that?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI know it\u2019s obvious now, but we focused on the fact that AWT travel can\u2019t go back to the same universe twice. We assumed that meant that nothing we did on one trip could affect the next one. We were wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Nguyen added, \u201cParticle physicists are not used to taking people\u2019s behavior into account when making their analyses.\u201d<\/p>\n I snapped, \u201cParticle physicists who want funding need to think about people\u2019s behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n After a moment, Mike said, \u201cSo now we\u2019ll have to have to watch out because some alternate worlds will know we\u2019re coming. That\u2019s going to cut down on our success rate.\u201d<\/p>\n Mehcad turned to me. \u201cImagine how you would have freaked out if the sign had said \u2018Stop stealing, Lindsey.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t laugh. \u201cIt was worse than that,\u201d I grimaced. \u201cThe sign was in my handwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n Silence. I could see Isabella looking uncomfortably at Anders. I leaned forward and said, \u201cThere\u2019s worse, isn\u2019t there?\u201d<\/p>\n She nodded. \u201cThe other thing that happens on worlds that invent the AWT is that BioChemEng stops doing their own research.\u201d<\/p>\n Like we did in this world. Meaning more and more Lindseys would be wasting their best years playing burglar instead.<\/p>\n \u201cShit. We\u2019ll have no one to steal from.\u201d That was Jade.<\/p>\n \u201cYep. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve been seeing more dud trips. Your alternates are using the AWT and storing the harvested data\u201d (Isabella never said \u201cstolen\u201d) \u201con the secure system, not in their offices.\u201d<\/p>\n Mike asked, \u201cWhen will others start trying to raid us?\u201d Trust Mike to think of that! (Still, I should have thought of it first).<\/p>\n Isabella answered, \u201cWe did a rough calculation. There\u2019s a 1 in 15 chance it happens tonight. By the end of this month, the odds are more than 99% that we\u2019ll get visitors every night. It may have already happened. How carefully do you check your own office for signs of visitation?\u201d<\/p>\n Jade, Mehcad, and I exchanged glances, and I could tell we were all thinking about the same thing. Isabella didn\u2019t know that when we raided our alternates\u2019 offices, we weren\u2019t neat. I stole notes a few weeks ago that my alternate must’ve spent hours on. Mehcad told me that he took other souvenirs, like a favorite mug that he\u2019d cracked, but his alternate hadn\u2019t. Even when we just copied computer files, we made no effort to cover our tracks. The idea of that happening to us made me feel guilty and scared, and I could tell it was the same for the other two. None of us answered Isabella\u2019s question.<\/p>\n Instead, I summed things up. \u201cSo, we\u2019ve run out of worlds that have information we can use, trying to get more data might get us killed, and even if we go back to doing our own research, we\u2019ll still have people trying to raid us<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 My voice cracked a bit at the end, which I hated.<\/p>\n Colin, the big boss, said, \u201cToday, we force a password change across the building. I\u2019ll have IT push a random password generator to everyone.\u201d\u00a0 He looked at Mike and added, \u201cNo more guessable lock combinations on the secure room either.\u201d<\/p>\n Mehcad asked, \u201cWhat will visitors do when they realize they can\u2019t get information? Trash my office? Go up to executive row and trash things there? You can make a big mess in a half hour and still get back to the transfer point, if you really want to.\u201d<\/p>\n Colin looked like he was thinking about the good points of boobytraps. \u201cWe\u2019re in a classic Prisoner\u2019s Dilemma. Even if we do our own research and stop raiding other worlds, we\u2019d be raided anyway \u2013 and all our alternates are going to think the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n Mehcad said, \u201cWe could seal up the transfer room. We wouldn\u2019t be able to use the AWT anymore, but no one else could either.\u201d<\/p>\n Nguyen said, \u201cActually, we have enough leeway to adjust the transfer coordinates to aim for the hallway outside the room. So could any other version of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Dakota said, \u201cSometimes I leave the stuff Lindsey, Jade and Mehcad bring back in my desk until the morning. That won\u2019t be safe anymore either. I\u2019ll need to lock it in the secure area every night as soon as the last one is back. Wait! We set up the secure area only a couple of months after Mike\u2019s first trip. Once our alternates realize no one\u2019s doing research, they all can go to the secure room to steal what we … harvested.\u201d (I appreciated her delicacy \u2013 even though I was a thief.)<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t we use cameras instead of guards, Colin?\u201d Mike asked.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy bother? You know the person raiding Lindsey\u2019s office will look like Lindsey. For that matter, we\u2019ll have to keep all researchers out of the secure room and offices except for specific, pre-set times \u2013 or we\u2019ll have guards mistaking our researchers for an intruder. We\u2019d be better off if the damn AWT had never been invented.\u201d<\/p>\n That<\/em> set everyone off shouting ideas.<\/p>\n \u201cHow about guard dogs? No, robot guards!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRobots aren\u2019t the answer to everything, Jade!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe could sabotage the alternates\u2019 AWT equipment each trip.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they could sabotage us!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe we could move the facilities somewhere else?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d have the same problem again in a year \u2013 and we can\u2019t keep moving over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlus, we\u2019d be losing our main advantage: no one to raid if our offices moved.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot to mention the added the expense of moving all the equipment and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Colin banged his mug on the table, spilling coffee all over. \u201cEnough of this. Missions are cancelled for tonight, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n He glared at each of us in turn. \u201cI want you to go off and think about the problem. And don’t let me catch anyone updating their online resumes.”<\/p>\n \u201cTomorrow at eleven, we\u2019ll meet again to talk about solutions. If we don\u2019t have one by then, we may as well give AWT to our competitors and let it screw up their lives, too, or sell it to the government. I\u2019ll bet the NSA would pay a lot to contact alternate versions of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n The government would find a way to make private use of AWTs illegal. We had painted ourselves into a corner.<\/p>\n Halfway through the doorway, Colin turned to Anders and Isabella and added, \u201cOne more thing. We paid a lot for the AWT support equipment, and it\u2019s still pretty new. Before tomorrow, give me an inventory and an estimate of what its resale value is.\u201d<\/p>\n I was happy to get out of the overheated secure room and its air of despair, but my office didn\u2019t feel safe anymore. I knew I was being a hypocrite, but I still couldn\u2019t sit at my desk without wondering if tomorrow I would find the office trashed (or containing a dead alternate). I left the building instead. Maybe a walk would help me think. Or maybe I\u2019d just keep walking and never come back.<\/p>\n At first, all I thought about was the danger I was in, not just in alternate worlds, but in my own. But if we stopped using the AWT, I\u2019d lose my connection to the other Lindseys, and the chance to enjoy their successes vicariously. I missed real research so much.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t always fun, of course, but when I\u2019d had an experimental system set up just right and could detect the effects of a one percent change in concentration or temperature or when I\u2019d built a mathematical model that matched my results, I\u2019d fall asleep at my desk with a smile on my face. I wanted that again. It was crazy that being able to visit alternate universes got in the way.<\/p>\n What would I do if the company shut down the project? I wouldn\u2019t be able to tell anyone what I had really been doing for the last few years; it would look like I had lost my knack for productive work. Mehcad, Jade and Victor were in the same boat.<\/p>\n I\u2019d read about the Prisoner\u2019s Dilemma in college. If the suspects could communicate, they could convince each other that they could be trusted. But I couldn\u2019t communicate with my alternates; even if I left a note, I couldn\u2019t get a reply.<\/p>\n I reached the corner. All around me drivers obeyed the stop signs, so pedestrians could cross. There were no lights at this intersection and no police nearby, but somehow people were taking turns. They couldn\u2019t communicate except with a hand wave or a blinking light, either, but they managed. Further on, a bush near the sidewalk reminded me of Anders\u2019 illustration.<\/p>\n Mike had seen valuable results in his alternate\u2019s office and had decided to steal them, setting the pattern for all our dealings with other universes. What would I have done if I had been the first?\u00a0 What could I do now<\/em> to create a new pattern?<\/p>\n The answer hit me all at once: We\u2019d been applying business strategy, following Mike\u2019s lead. But science uses a different kind of strategy:\u00a0 publish or perish. And I knew how to make it work to get Colin and me both what we needed.<\/p>\n I ran all the way back to our building.<\/p>\n Anders, Isabella, and Nguyen got the idea at once (they were scientists, after all). The problem was that they weren\u2019t in charge, and neither was I.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think Mike will go for this,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n Isabella said, \u201cNo way. And Colin is already looking to cut his losses and get out.\u201d<\/p>\n Anders added \u201cIf we don\u2019t do something soon, the equipment will be sold off, and the building will be abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ll have to go tonight. You\u2019re supposed to be inventorying anyway, so you\u2019ll have an excuse to hang around. I\u2019ll persuade Dakota to join us, too.\u00a0 She\u2019s got that first-aid training that I might need.\u201d<\/p>\n We spent the rest of the day working on the details. Not many people were around to wonder why I was putting binders together. I think Mike spent the rest of the day emptying his office of anything that couldn\u2019t be replaced. I hoped to make that a wasted effort.<\/p>\n At 2 am, I nerved myself to transfer to yet another alternate world, glad I wasn\u2019t risking anyone but myself. Dakota, Anders, and Isabella would be safe in our world, I hoped.<\/p>\n Before I stepped in the painted circle, Isabella said, \u201cBe quick and be careful. It\u2019s been less than twenty-four hours since your last transit, so you may feel worse than usual this time.\u201d<\/p>\n She wasn\u2019t kidding. My head started aching the moment I arrived, and when I turned on the wristband\u2019s LED so I could see my way out of the empty transfer room, the light blinded me. As I touched the doorknob, I heard dogs barking and a voice shouting, \u201cIntruder on the third floor!\u201d<\/p>\n I was back in the chalked X and over to my world before the guards saw me, but I\u2019ll bet the dogs were confused.<\/p>\n I told the gang what had happened and finished with \u201cI\u2019m going again.\u201d They didn\u2019t look happy, but neither was I.<\/p>\n This time, the migraine was worse. I was smart enough to cover the light with my shirtsleeve. However, when I got to the door, I couldn\u2019t get out. The handle had been removed, and I could see no gap around any of the edges. Another wasted trip.<\/p>\n When I got back, I said \u201cSomeone liked Mehcad\u2019s idea about sealing the transit room.\u00a0 Give me a minute to rest and I\u2019ll go back.\u201d Dakota insisted on checking my vitals first. I faked a smile. The migraine aura hadn\u2019t disappeared when I got home. Not a good sign, but I went ahead anyway.<\/p>\n The moment I arrived in the new universe, the pain in my head redoubled. Even in the dark I saw a kaleidoscope of red and yellow images flashing, and when I turned on the flashlight, it got worse. Was I risking a seizure? I got up to \u201cmy\u201d office as fast as I could. As I opened the door, the lights came on. Another me held a taser aimed at my midsection.<\/p>\n I said, \u201cI\u2019m not here to steal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s after 2 am, you\u2019re not from this universe, and I found my office turned upside-down last week. What am I supposed to think? I\u2019ve been sitting here in the dark waiting for a thief, and here you are.\u201d<\/p>\n If she tased me, I\u2019d never come to. So instead of running away, I walked in, slowly. She was standing in front of my chair, so I sat on the one with the torn back I keep for visitors. A wave of dizziness struck me as I sat. Not that much time left. I had to make it count.<\/p>\n \u201cI admit it. Up until last week, I was raiding alternate universes. You knew to wait for me here, so I\u2019ll bet you were doing the same.\u201d<\/p>\n The other me looked disgusted. \u201cNobody here has been stealing anything. After my office was wrecked, Mike briefed me about something called a WorldJumper that Koch and Castillo are working on. Can\u2019t you think of anything better to do with it than stealing?\u201d<\/p>\n Being face to face with another me was so much worse than I had ever imagined. The other Lindsey didn\u2019t look like the person I see in the mirror. She looked like my driver\u2019s license picture, not just reversed, but grim. This Lindsey was the one who belonged here, not me. I couldn\u2019t pretend that the diploma on the wall, the framed certificate from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, or even the old textbooks on her bookshelf were mine, not with her right in front of me.<\/p>\n A bead of sweat dripped into my right eye as I struggled to focus.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just like you, with a year and a half head start. If you don\u2019t listen, you\u2019ll be in the same boat, when your bosses figure out that they can cut their research budgets by sending you to steal. You know Mike would do that in a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHim? So what? He\u2019s not my boss. If you\u2019re trying to convince me someone else made you a thief, I\u2019m not interested.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to get us out of the hole we\u2019re in. In my universe, we got into stealing when we realized it\u2019s not possible to revisit a universe \u2013 there\u2019s no way to aim the AWT.\u00a0 Did you know that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat does that have to do with sneaking around at 2 am?\u201d<\/p>\n It was infuriating that someone who looked like a picture of me didn\u2019t understand what I was talking about. I threw the binder onto the desk in front of her. The smack of it hitting echoed in the quiet of the pre-dawn building; I\u2019d never done anything so loud while in an alternate. \u201cIt’s all in here. Just look at it. Quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo time to explain. You\u2019ll have to use your brain. Does your team understand the limits of Alternate World Transport?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Anand didn\u2019t tell me anything about limits.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen they\u2019re not done inventing it yet.\u00a0 What happened to Dr. Nguyen?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMinh Nguyen?\u00a0 She\u2019s not here anymore. She had a car accident and never came back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n Our Nguyen was right that her absence would\u2019ve mattered.<\/p>\n It was getting harder to focus. I kept getting distracted by the aura\u2019s flashing lights and by the way the other Lindsey lounged among my things. (Her things!)<\/p>\n The other Lindsey moved the taser slightly, which eliminated my distraction, at least for the moment, and I continued, \u201cWhen they get it working, someone will think of stealing research from other universes. Maybe they\u2019ll justify it because other people raided you. But it can\u2019t work for long. It only worked for us because we were first. That\u2019s not true for us anymore, and it won\u2019t be for you either.\u201d<\/p>\n She said, \u201cI get it. You\u2019re running into universes where they\u2019ve already invented Worldjumping, or where someone else with a Worldjumper has already stolen their stuff. That\u2019s why you\u2019re miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo. I was miserable before that. Even when I was stealing and getting rewarded for it. Especially then. The budget for doing anything else was eliminated, and suddenly I\u2019m doing nothing but ran…ransacking offices to get what the company wanted.\u201d I paused to take a breath. I needed to concentrate to get the words out right.<\/p>\n \u201cA few weeks ago, I visited the office of one of us. She\u2019d had a breakthrough. I remember what that felt like. I don\u2019t want to be a thief, anymore; I want to be her or you, and I can. We<\/em> can.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n I pointed to the binder. \u201cWith that.\u201d<\/p>\n Alt-Lindsey put the taser down (still in reach for her, but not me) and opened the binder. \u201cAll right, but first I need to see your machine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow?\u201d I showed my wristband. \u201cThe rest is located back where I come from.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen explain how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll show you how it works. But we\u2019ll have to go downstairs. I can\u2019t transfer from here.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019d hoped she had started to trust me, but she picked up the taser and motioned for me to go first.<\/p>\n As we crept down the stairs, I told her about the machinery required to punch across infinitely branching universes and describing the effects on my health. In the transfer room, I stood on the X. \u201cThis is the transfer zone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood. Thanks for the binder. With this, I can keep them from volunteering me for the Worldjumper.\u201d<\/p>\n She smiled and pushed the button on my wristband.<\/p>\n \u201cDamn her!\u201d I said once on the other side, making the welcoming committee jump.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t explain. I didn\u2019t like what I was learning about myself and didn\u2019t want to tell my friends about it. I told Isabella, \u201cGive me another binder.\u201d<\/p>\n She protested, but only for a moment. She knew the stakes.<\/p>\n This time, the transfer room on the other side wasn\u2019t empty. Another version of me was there.<\/p>\n We stared at each other for a long moment, then I held out the binder to her. She knocked it out of my hand, and while I was still in shock, she shoved me into a chair. Next thing I knew she was behind me, zip-tying my hands together behind my back. Then she tied my legs to the chair. She\u2019d come prepared for trouble, and tonight\u2019s multiple transits had wrecked my reaction time.<\/p>\n I said, \u201cI\u2019m not here to steal from you.\u201d It came out more feebly than I intended.<\/p>\n The other Lindsey said, \u201cDamn right, you\u2019re not.\u00a0 I got here first, and I don\u2019t want you interfering. You can just wait here until your auto-return takes you back.\u201d<\/p>\n She left the room without hesitation, even as I yelled \u201cWait!\u201d and \u201cCome back!\u201d<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t have an auto-return. My arms were bound together, so I couldn\u2019t push the return button, and the other me might not be back until I was unconscious. I started to hyperventilate. Was I already passing out? The pain of the cold metal of the chair\u2019s back cutting into my arms was keeping me awake for now, but how long would that last?<\/p>\n I forced myself to stop struggling, calm my breathing and think. The return button was on the side of the wristband, where the knob on a wristwatch would be. The metal bar that was pressing into my arms went horizontally across the back of the chair. If I pulled my arms up in just the right way, I might be able to push the button against the bar.<\/p>\n A moment later, I landed on my ass when the chair under me disappeared. The zip ties around my legs disappeared, too; they\u2019d been around my pants, not my skin. I fell back onto my still-tied arms, my weight twisting my fingers and straining my shoulders.<\/p>\n I rolled over, like a turtle trying to right itself. \u201cCan someone cut me loose?\u201d<\/p>\n Dakota did. I got to my feet, rubbing my left elbow, which I\u2019d smacked on the floor (I\u2019d have a bruise there, too). \u201cBitch,\u201d I muttered.<\/p>\n Dakota glared at me. I said, \u201cNot you. Thank you for getting me out of those.\u201d<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t tell them any more details. I was too shaken by the attack. What in the world (her<\/em> world) had turned me into that? I did ask Isabella if they\u2019d ever considered an automatic return device instead of the return button.<\/p>\n She replied, \u201cYes, but we decided the wristband button was a better idea. Why?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe we should use both. I\u2019m ready to go again.\u201d<\/p>\n Isabella said, \u201cShouldn\u2019t you give up for tonight? You\u2019ve taken four trips in thirty minutes. You\u2019re pushing your luck.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThings are getting worse. By tomorrow, it might be war. I\u2019m not kidding. I\u2019ve got to break the pattern tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n Dakota said, \u201cThis is your last trip. No matter what trouble we\u2019re in now, it would be worse if we had to explain to the police how you badged in at midnight and never badged out.\u201d<\/p>\n On that cheerful note, I grabbed another binder and left.<\/p>\n No one in the transfer room. Good. I hurried out of the stairwell to my office.<\/p>\n Something poked me in the back and my own voice said, \u201cKeep walking.\u201d I should\u2019ve looked both ways.<\/p>\n She sounded angry and nervous. I was both. When we got to my office door, she shoved me through the doorway.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t try anything. I\u2019ve got a gun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n I put my hands up and turned to face her. She had me covered with the gun in one hand and was holding her phone awkwardly in the other one \u2013 until she got a good look at me.<\/p>\n Shock spread across her face as she recognized mine.<\/p>\n She said, \u201cW-What\u2019s going on?\u201d I hate when I stammer, and I didn\u2019t like it any better from an armed version of myself.<\/p>\n I rushed through the same explanation I had given Taser Lindsey, but it took longer, because she didn\u2019t have the same background. Either this universe was lagging way behind in AWT development, or she was out of the loop.<\/p>\n Partway through the explanation, she tossed the gun onto her desk.<\/p>\n I twitched.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fake. Ever since the break-in two weeks ago, I\u2019ve been carrying it around to make myself feel better whenever I\u2019m here late. I was coming back from the restroom when I heard you in the stairwell and decided to play hero.\u201d I nodded. I was playing hero, too, wasn\u2019t I?<\/p>\n I went on. There was so much to tell her, and I was getting lightheaded, and not just from the d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu of giving this same explanation less than an hour before. Soon, this Lindsey asked, \u201cHow?\u201d just like the last one.<\/p>\n I pointed to the binder. \u201cWith that.\u201d I couldn\u2019t waste time letting her figure it out, since the very concept of alternate worlds was new to this one. \u201cIt summarizes all my research \u2013 what I did and what I stole. Everything. Giving it to you doesn\u2019t hurt me. Go ahead. Read enough to convince yourself it\u2019s real. But hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n Alt-Lindsey started skimming, as I struggled to stay conscious.<\/p>\n I asked, \u201cDid you ever get that checkup?\u201d<\/p>\n She looked up, \u201cNo. What?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSee, we really are the same person. Still putting off taking care of ourselves. In half the universes I visit, I see the sticky notes about calling for a checkup.\u201d<\/p>\n She smiled, then pointed at the binder.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of this stuff, I already know, but some of it is new.\u00a0 Did you…\u201d<\/p>\n My timer went off, and the other Lindsey jumped. She said, \u201cYou have to go now?\u201d<\/p>\n When I tried to stand, I wobbled. I focused on the other Lindsey\u2019s face, but she was spinning along with the room. I fell back, and the corner of the bookcase hit my spine, but I didn\u2019t fall any further.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlternate worlds aren\u2019t healthy to linger in.\u201d I carefully stood, and by crouching a bit, I kept my balance.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s get you home then.\u201d<\/p>\n Footsteps. The guard walking down the far hallway.<\/p>\n I asked, \u201cCan you distract him until I get to the stairwell?\u201d<\/p>\n She shook her head. \u201cYou\u2019ll never make it. You can barely stand. What happens if you don\u2019t get back soon?\u201d<\/p>\n There was no time to be gentle. \u201cI\u2019ll die. But first you need to know \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTell me as we go.\u201d She ducked under my arm so I could lean on her. \u201cWhere to?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDownstairs. That conference room they never finished.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s go. If I leave the lights on and the door open, the guard will waste time calling security to report it.\u201d<\/p>\n We headed to the stairwell as fast as I could manage. Walking down the stairs was even slower. At each step I moved my left foot down and then my right, rather than risk a fall.\u00a0 I kept a death grip on the railing with one hand and my other arm around alt-Lindsey\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n Once off the stairs, I could talk again, \u201cStealing worked when my world was the only one that could. Now it won\u2019t for mine or for anyone else\u2019s. But we can do something better. We can share our results. Then both of us benefit. Even if my experiments fail, you\u2019ll know what to not waste time on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow can we share? I\u2019ll never see you again, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust leave your results in that transfer room, and we\u2019ll do the same. Some version of me will get it. We\u2019ll do the same once I convince Colin to go along. But if I can\u2019t convince you, how can I convince them?\u201d<\/p>\n I was babbling, just like in college after an all-nighter. The other Lindsey must be tired, too, but she had the home universe advantage. I didn\u2019t dare look at her\/my face to see if I was getting through to her. I just kept moving, and talking, as much as I could.<\/p>\n \u201cGonna take time to get other alternates on board. The first page in the binder explains everything we know about operating AWTs \u2013- no need for you to start from scratch.\u201d And\u00a0\u201cAsk Anders to calculate what will happen if this goes on.\u201d And\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not \u2018Prisoner\u2019s \u2018lemma\u2019 if the other prisoner is you, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Even that got to be too much effort.<\/p>\n As we turned the corner, towards the hallway with the transfer room, the other Lindsey stopped.<\/p>\n From around the corner, the sound of footsteps, stopping, and a muttered, \u201cStand by for report on fourth floor, north.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n \u201cYou left the door open to the conference room, didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d I said, and leaned against the wall, in exhaustion and despair.<\/p>\n \u201cThe guard checking this floor spotted it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDamn. He\u2019ll see the \u2018X\u2019 I drew on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGreat,\u201d she replied, \u201cHe\u2019ll call all the others to take a look. No matter what happens, they\u2019re not going to let you in the room until it\u2019s too late. Hold on.\u201d<\/p>\n The other Lindsey ran off, leaving me slumped against the wall. I held on, by not falling. A minute later the shatter of glass echoed from the far side of the building.<\/p>\n I peeked around the corner. The guard rushed out of the transfer room, shouting into his radio, as he hurried away.<\/p>\n A moment later, the other Lindsey was back. She said, \u201cThat binder better have enough in it to keep me from getting fired.\u201d She put my arm over her shoulder again. \u201cLet\u2019s get you out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n When we reached the transfer room, she was half-carrying me. I couldn\u2019t stand, so I sat on the floor.<\/p>\n But when I reached for my wristband, Alt-Lindsay grabbed my hand. \u201cTwo things before you go. Look at Schulte\u2019s paper in the July 2015 issue of Molecular Metabolism<\/em> and you\u2019ll get the pointers you need to go further with the toxin-concentrators.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd?\u201d I asked, with my finger already on the button.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you ever run into a universe where My Chemical Romance didn\u2019t break up?\u201d<\/p>\n I was laughing through tears of pain and relief when I reappeared in my own universe.<\/p>\n \u201cI did it. Real contact with another me. Better than stealing,\u201d I said, before everything went black.<\/p>\n Six hours later, I found out they had met two other versions of me while I was on the other side. One hit her own return button instantly \u2013 but the other one took a binder before leaving.<\/p>\n By eleven, we were ready for Colin\u2019s meeting, with a copy of that paper that Fake-gun Lindsey mentioned. We were able to show him that with that (non-stolen!) information, we could make Mike\u2019s toxin-collecting proteins at least 20% more effective. That was enough to get Colin to restart everyone\u2019s research \u201cas a pilot project only,\u201d and to authorize my other ideas, too. The moment the decision was made, I let go of the tension that I had been building since I had made my first transit. I could see the signs of relief on the other faces in the room, too, even Mike\u2019s. I\u2019d won, but he hadn\u2019t lost.<\/p>\n Fifteen months later: As I arrived in the alternate world, the lights were on, and the conference room wasn\u2019t empty. A sign on the wall said \u201cWelcome\u201d, like the one in the room I just left, but with a different font and hung in a different place. There were also cookies \u2013 each of us knows just what our alternates\u2019 favorites are.<\/p>\n I dropped the last week\u2019s records of our experimental results under the arrow marked \u201cIn\u201d and picked up a thumb drive from \u201cOut\u201d box. Less than two minutes later, I was home enjoying a couple of chocolate chip cookies (I could always take the ones that we left in our own transfer room, but those are for guests).<\/p>\n I wonder sometimes about the versions of me that didn\u2019t figure this all out. Somewhere in a timeline I\u2019m never going to reach, zip-tie Lindsey might be getting ever more paranoid about being self-plagiarized. Or she might have been killed by some elaborate security measure or another version of herself. I\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n Even in the first few weeks, it was a relief not to worry about desperate other versions of ourselves sneaking around at night. And soon enough, we started getting reports from other worlds, and every one of them included \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d (that\u2019s slang that both the managers and engineers know) that we could use immediately.<\/p>\n Real research isn\u2019t a pilot project anymore. It\u2019s even better than it was before the AWT. We don\u2019t have to worry about dead ends. When I\u2019m not sure what approach to take, I just choose at random \u2013 and then pass what I find to all my partners\/sisters across the universes. One of us always finds a path forward.<\/p>\n By now every version of me I see remembers that moment when I (we) figured out that the scientific method has always meant publishing your work so that it can be shared and built upon. And that really is better than stealing.<\/p>\n END<\/p>\n<\/div> Andrew E. Love, Jr. is an electrical engineer and long-time science fiction fan, with stories published at\u00a0Daily Science Fiction<\/i>,\u00a0Page and Spine<\/i>, and\u00a0The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts<\/i>; in addition to writing, he also enjoys juggling and giving talks about science.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>Better than Stealing<\/h2>\n
by Andrew E. Love, Jr.<\/h3>\n<\/div>
Andrew E. Love, Jr.<\/h2><\/div>
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