Chasing Glory

There had been a loud explosion, the suit protected her eardrums but she could feel the vibration through her feet. She leaned against a wall, panting hard. She was sorely tempted to take off her helmet and take a few deep breaths, but her display overflowed with warnings. The enemy had released viruses in the air. She was once again thankful for the shields that protected their cities. Standing up she gazed at the horizon, there were glimpses of bright flashes where explosions kept bouncing off the shields. Would her daughter be in bed already, could her husband see the battle from their apartment?

“Status report Captain Asfar!” the comms buzzed in her ear, “I’m behind enemy lines, my unit is down but I have the package”. Instinctively she touched the pocket on her torso, where the encryption transmitter hummed gently. As long as she kept this out of their hands, those alien freaks could never break through the shields. “Roger that, you are to ensure the safety of the package, we’ll try to send a recovery team ASAP” the command officer’s tone was shaky. Nobody had been able to predict that the enemy would use something as simple as the encryption transmitters to hack their defense grid. It was a huge stroke of luck that Amira’s unit had been able to recover the last one before the aliens got their claws on it. As she stood up and cocked her plasma rifle, she knew the recovery team wouldn’t be able to make it in time, maybe she was finally desperate enough.

“I think I’m gonna do it”, she sent to Liz, her response was quick to arrive “I initiated the startup sequence, go when ready”. Amira slid the cover from the device strapped to her left arm. The large red button was almost like the eye of a demon, teasing her to poke it.

***

Amira’s fingers were massaging the corners of her forehead, a habit her mother had always disapproved of. They were in Liz’s lab, the windows were open to let in the breeze. Outside the city was awash with large holograms warning people of the upcoming war and selling one-way tickets off the planet. They were sitting at the table with remnants of their meal hastily swept aside to make room for the cause of Amira’s budding headache. The device looked like a piece of modern art, a few glowing bits of metal and plastic with wires dangling from it. Her eyes kept being drawn to the big red button which sat there like the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae. She was never interested in experimental gadgets, she preferred her equipment to be of the shooting kind. “So lemme get this straight, in the middle of the most decisive battle ever fought in the history of our planet, you want me to take it for a spin”. She finished exaggeratedly, using air quotes for the last part. Sometimes Amira communicated more with her hands then her words. “Yup” came Liz’s unequivocal reply. Her auburn hair was streaking from the messy bun she had tried to imprison it in. Framing her crooked glasses in a way that gave her the stereotypical look of a mad scientist. Amira had thought her friend’s obsession with proving the existence of parallel universes was over. It was supposed to be a childhood dream, like becoming president or marrying a movie star. “Look, if you leave a battlefield, it’s called desertion, the army shoots people for desertion”. Amira tried to reason with her friend, Liz only rolled her eyes in reply. She walked around the table to stand beside her. “You won’t be leaving in the typical sense of the word”. Amira was not reassured “You’re sending me to a different universe, how is that not leaving?” her hands shot up on their own. “I know you failed quantum physics in college-“. “I never took quantum physics in college, I failed regular physics” Amira interjected while taking a swig from her bottle. “- in any case, I’ll make it simple for you, as far as space-time is concerned, you’ll be in the same place, only the universe will be different”. Liz explained in her most pedantic voice. “As a soldier, you can use that to your advantage, say you’re in a tough spot, getting attacked from all sides, jump to a different universe”. Liz said with a flourish wearing down Amira’s resistance. “If this thing is so useful to soldiers, why don’t you bring it into HQ and ask them for funding”. Amira had to put the brakes on before Liz got too excited. “I’ve tried many times, they keep telling me that they need results. Something to prove the device is worth sinking money into”. Liz countered with a touch of frustration in her voice. “Plus I’ll be monitoring you the whole time, you’ll be in safe hands”. Amira knew she was out of options, after a while she looked at Liz and nodded in defeat. She was already regretting her decision when Liz tackled her in a hug smothering her face with hair.

***

Amira wasn’t sure at first if it had in fact worked, she was hoping to get a text from Liz but none was forthcoming. After pressing the button she had felt a slight sense of vertigo but that was it. She was still standing in the same spot. A radar sweep of her environment told her that the area was teeming with enemy combatants. It was peculiar that somehow they were all moving away from her. As she turned around the corner, her foot hit something and she almost stumbled, she looked back to find a dead body. Not just any dead body, it was her own or the version of her that lived in this universe. Her armor was leaking blood and oil. The pouch on her front lay ripped open, her empty eyes gazed at the sky where droves of enemy ships were moving towards the city. Amira felt panic rising in her throat. She pulled back the cover and pushed the button again. This time her surroundings changed visibly as the dead body was no longer in one piece but strewn around the ground. The enemy was still moving towards the city, it was that sight that made her want to run, to escape this nightmare. She pressed the button once again, this time there was no body. The ships still advanced towards the city. Her message queue lit up with a broadcast from command. “Attention all units, Captain Asfar is compromised, evacuate immediately, the shields will fall”. Amira sat down heavily, her body thumping against the earth, she had been to three universes so far, she wasn’t supposed to be in any of them, not alive anyway.

***

Liz was frantically searching all the screens on her walls, she had to keep pushing her crooked glasses back up her nose, she couldn’t find Amira. Her quantum signature kept disappearing, she had made so many jumps. What was she looking for? Just then something caught her eye, this was the third time it had happened. Right before Amira’s signature appeared in a universe, a similar signature would vanish. Maybe that was the cost you had to pay for traveling to a parallel universe. You could only slip into a world where your copy had already died, Liz’s eyes widened as she realized the implications. Amira would be greeted by her own dead body every time she jumped to a new universe? That sounded horrible, how could she have overlooked this? Liz had doomed her friend to a terrible fate. There! a tracker had finally caught her. She had decided to stay in a universe long enough for Liz’s quantum tracer to link up with Amira’s comms. Her fingers moved in a frenzied rhythm, texting Amira before she jumped again.

***

When the message found her, Amira was looking at her own face, it wasn’t in a mirror but her parallel universe twin who had taken a plasma bolt to the chest. They were identical in every way, except this one had a nose ring. Amira had wanted one when she was a teenager but her mother had always refused.
“Thank God! I finally found you, why wouldn’t you stay put?”
“Kept seeing dead versions of myself, kinda freaked me out at first but I’m over it now”
“You had me scared for a while, I thought there was something wrong with the device, ready to come home?”
“Not yet, I wanna see how to win this thing”
“Amira look, the way this device works, it will only send you to universes where you’re already dead”
“I figured that out too, But Liz. I need to stop those damn ships from reaching the city”
“Did you hear what I said? Even if you do stumble upon a universe where the ships turn back, it’ll be one where you’re dead!”
“I’m a soldier Liz, dying doesn’t scare me” Amira shot back almost angrily. But then she saw an image in her mind. It was raining, her daughter was clutching a teddy bear and holding her husband’s hand. Amira’s body was being lowered in a grave. Would an 8-year-old even understand the concept of glory or sacrifice? She imagined Liz sitting alone in her lab. Drinking herself silly, crying over their college photos. She could see that Liz had been typing for a while and would probably send her a wall of text
“It’s fine, I won’t sacrifice myself” Amria sent
“Oh Thank God”
“I’ll find a way to win, and then I’ll come home”
“I’ll be ready to pull you back, just say when”
“Sure, and Liz…”
“Yes, Amira?”
“I’m not paying for my drinks ever again”
“Noted”, Amira could feel her friend’s smirk come through, she looked up at the horizon, the ships were advancing. If there was an infinite number of universes out there. She would find one where the ships turned back. She would find one where she got to her hug her daughter again. Her finger pressed the button.