Mister Mittens gave a loud sniff and walked away with his nose in the air.
“I can’t go back home,” Gabriel said. “Sorry, but I guess you’re stuck with me.
I’ll need your help. I don’t know half what I should to survive in this world.”
“I dunno if you’re worth the trouble,” Sam said playfully as she snuggled into him. Her tail curled around his other side, feeling warm and soft against his arm.
“I guess I’ll just have to fix your sun. Will I be worth the trouble then?”
“You really know how to fix the sun? You’re not jerking me off, are you?”
“I think I can,” Gabriel answered.
“Gabriel,” Sam said, looking up at him, eyes welling with tears. She seemed
unable to say anything more, though her mouth worked in the attempt to.
“I’m going to save your world, Sam,” Gabriel pulled her into a close embrace,
“because I have what it takes.”
“Am I dreaming,” Sam asked.
“I’ve been asking myself that since I got here. If I am, it’s the best dream I’ve ever had, because I got to meet you in it.”
“How are you gonna do it? If the scientists that built this place couldn’t figure it out, how can you?”
Gabriel forestalled any more questions by kissing her as thoroughly as he knew how.
Chapter 32: The Impossible Solution
“Allie,” Gabriel called in a loud, firm voice when he didn’t see the hologram girl upon returning to the conference room with Sam on his arm, and Mister Mittens padding sullenly behind them.
“Yes Gabriel,” Allie appeared before him, pushing a dark lock of hair from her face. “Have you thought of something helpful?”
“Oh yes,” Gabriel cried in imitation of his favorite incarnation of the Doctor.
Approaching the table, he took in everyone as Sam sat with Mister Mittens in her lap.
“I’ve got an idea,” he said. “It’s completely insane, and that’s probably why you never thought of it.”
“Please go on,” Allie leaned forward in interest.
“If we go back in time using the Spires of Infinity to destroy the Spires of Infinity before they can do too much lasting harm to the sun, we create a time paradox,” Gabriel explained. “In essence we make it impossible for us to travel back to destroy them, and that contradiction creates a whirly vortex of doom that will destroy the universe.”
“We’ve heard this before,” Jonathan yawned.
“And it makes as little sense this time around,” Michael finished.
“A time paradox,” Gabriel held up one fist, shaking it for emphasis. “Infinite destructive energy.”
Shaking his head at the blank looks everyone was giving him, Gabriel would have at least thought Allie could keep up. Maybe Kari too, she seemed rather smart.
“What else do we know of that has infinite destructive energy,” Gabriel asked.
“Something we just happen to have in the basement?”
“A black hole,” Allie said slowly.
“A black hole has infinite mass,” Gabriel held up his other hand, “infinite gravity, and infinite time. What would happen if you contained something that could destroy an infinite amount of mass and time within something that has infinite mass and time?”
Gabriel grasped the fist representing the paradox with the hand representing the black hole.
“That is brilliant,” Allie’s eyes popped wide.
“Oh yes,” Gabriel cried again.
“The two forces cancel each other out. I cannot believe that I never thought of that! That is pure genius!”
“I’m lost,” the twins said in unison.
“We kill three birds with one stone,” Gabriel explained. “No more black hole in the basement, goodbye nuclear wasteland, and hello warm yellow sun.”
“The calculations will be staggering,” Allie muttered. “A single mistake and
everything goes boom.”
“How about I make matters even simpler for you?”
“What do you mean? How?”
“What if I travel back to the day that the black hole was created,” Gabriel asked,
“and turn off the containment field? The black hole will be the paradox.”
“What about us,” Mister Mittens asked. “I was born only because of the radiation caused by the nuclear war. If it never happened I wouldn’t exist. Most people on this world will simply cease to be, replaced by others who might have been.”
“That’s where things get a little sketchy,” Gabriel shrugged. “No one really
knows exactly what happens when time paradox is created. My thoughts are that it will create an alternate timeline where the Spires were destroyed. The paradox will try to create a new timeline, but the black hole will cancel out the force driving it before it can completely branch away, causing both realities to exist in the same place at the same time.
“In fact, I believe that we’ve already created the paradox. The three of you were granted access to the facility by Allie herself, several centuries ago. Why would she do that? How would she even know about you? Because we’ve already gone back to fix things, and the changes to the world haven’t happened here yet because we still have to go back in our part of the timeline to fix them. We’re all still here, even though the paradox is active, though the effects haven’t caught up to us yet. And . . . none of you are following a single thing I’m saying, are you?”
“It is possible,” Allie shrugged, “but highly unlikely.”
“Look, I’m a lawyer, not a physicist, but I think that because the paradox will be contained at its moment of creation, everyone in this world now will still be here. It’s the world that will reset, not the people. The paradox still exists. The impossibility of the timeline has not been erased, but the destructive energy it generates is gone. Or, maybe I don’t really know what I’m talking about and everyone will just cease to exist. Allie?”
“I calculate a seventy-nine percent probability that things will turn out the way you say, Gabriel,” Allie nodded.
“One in five,” Mister Mittens said thoughtfully. “I’ll take those odds if it means saving this world from freezing to death.”
“Me too,” Sam said.
“I am afraid that I will cease to exist,” Allie sighed dejectedly. “I suppose that is for the best, really. I should have died long ago . . . unless. Of course! I have an idea!”
“Who will go back,” Kari asked. “I’ll do it, if you tell me what needs to be done.”
“It’s my responsibility,” Gabriel said. “Your father sent me here to fix things.”
“You already came up with the idea,” Sam cried. “Let someone else. What
happens if you die in the past, or get trapped back there? If you’re going, I’m going with you!”
With a nod of agreement with herself, Sam folded her arms beneath her breasts
pointedly. Not that Gabriel didn’t enjoy the sight of her cleavage nearly toppling out of her low neckline, but with how much huffing and puffing she was doing lately, a more modest garment might have been a better choice.
“I am afraid that would not be advisable,” Allie said. “This facility has very sophisticated security systems. One person may slip through with my help, but the chances dwindle exponentially with each addition.”
Sam glared at the hologram.
“Computer skills will be necessary,” Allie continued.
“I know computers,” Kari protested. “And I’m very skilled in creating illusions to hide myself. I can do it.”