I gasped for breath as I woke suddenly to the sounds of klaxons blaring. The fog of confusion caused me to wonder where I was until DJ’s barking reminded me I was on the shuttle. “Theia, what happened.”
I unbuckled and walked over the DJ’s crate and let him out. He happily licked my face for a good twenty seconds before I remembered asking Theia a question. “Theia, what happened.”
“I’m still trying to review the data. Sorry, I’m a little busy.”
“What can I do to help?”
I made my way back to the pilot chair and started to reviews the damage logs that were streaming in. We had a small micro leak with luckily was being addressed and while still looking at the board, the light turned from red to green.
“The shuttle is secure now. Sorry, Master, I miscalculated the energy required for the jump, but I think we made it.”
I pulled up the screen and breathed a sigh of relief seeing Earth was still in one piece. I’d seriously thought I had cracked the core. I tried zooming in, but couldn’t get a close enough image.
“How is Earth?”
“I’m picking up radio traffic, and I’ve connected to the internet.”
I tapped the console in front of me trying to pull up news feed, but each time my connection was blocked. “Theia, are you blocking me?”
“One second…”
“Not one second! Answer me!”
“Yes and no.”
I waited for a few seconds for Theia to clarify but she stayed silent.
“Did we or did we not make it back to my world?”
“Yes and no.”
“What the fuck does that mean?!”
“Master, I’m still trying to figure out what went wrong. Please be patient and let me analyze the data.”
“Fine. So, why are you blocking my internet access?”
“Please hold, your call will be answered by the next available agent.”
DJ’s wet nose prevented me from screaming and decided she’d talk to me when she was done with whatever she was doing. I climbed out of my chair and sat next to DJ on the floor and played with him for some time. A half-hour later, Theia finally graced me with an answer.
“Master, this galaxy has the same resonance pattern as your world.”
“But…?”
“There is Mana present.”
“How is that possible?”
“Unknown.”
“So…the million dollar question. Can I go home?”
“That’s just it. You are already home, Caden.”
“What?”
“Caden White, UNC Engineer, currently working on Explorer One.”
“I’m not on Explorer One, Theia. I’m stuck in a shuttle with you and my dog, DJ.”
Theia didn’t say anything for a few minutes, and I knew something was wrong.
“What are you not telling me, Theia?”
“Umm…”
“Spit it out.”
“Well, I’ve been reading news articles and…you were successful in your testing. Granted you caused a blackout with your EMP, but you wrote a thesis on the benefit of using APRILs to mine the asteroid belt. You got your funding, and a job with UNC and are currently on a mining expedition testing your process for large-scale mining.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
I went to argue with Theia, but she put up my personal dossier on my screen, and I started to read through the documentation. With each turn of the page, I began panicking more and more. Theia stopped blocking my access to the source, and I read articles and watched videos from my award ceremony and graduation. I watched one video and noticed that even DJ stayed behind. How?
“Theia—”
“I don’t know, Caden. I’ve verified the resonance signature, and we are in your world. I can’t see any variances. I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry.”
I watched videos of my overweight self at a press conference and then again as Theia hacked into Explorer One’s internal cameras and watched myself work. I looked—I looked happy.
###
Theia and I spent the next day bouncing ideas back and forth on how or what happened and drew a blank. I—I shouldn’t exist, but I do. The world didn’t end with my experiment but continued like it has always done. I wasn’t a mass murderer. There was that good news.
I read Caden’s communications for a few hours before I realized it wasn’t me. We may have started out the same man, but we were two different people today. Caden White was greedy, selfish and driven to prove he was somebody. I—I wasn’t that man.
“Theia, what do I do? I can’t go home. He’s never been gone. Nobody mourned my death or my disappearance. This Caden has done everything I wanted to do. I’m a nobody.”
Theia popped onto my lap, startling me. “No, Master. You are so much better than that man. You have accomplished more than he will ever accomplish in his life. You created me, Mana, El Dorado. You—you are the one I love. Not that man.”
“But—Theia, I’m an accident. A duplicate. I’m—”
“The man I love.”
I rested my forehead on her shoulder and sobbed. My home was gone. My friends and family are lost to me forever else I destroy another man's life.
“I—,” I wiped my eyes dry and took a few deep breaths. “I love you too, Theia. I’ve been an idiot and so focused on getting my life back that I forgot to live in the moment. I’ve been selfish and stupid. I guess I’m not that different from this Caden in that respect. I’m sorry.”
Theia grabbed my face between her hands and turned my face up to look into her eyes. Then, she lowered her head and kissed me. My head spun as I took her mouth as mine and passionately kissed her back. I knew she wasn’t here physically but damn it felt real. We kissed, cuddled and other things until I promptly fell asleep.
To my credit, I was very stressed out.
###
Theia and I continued where I left off the night before, and we didn’t get back to talking until after breakfast.
“So, if there’s Mana here, do they have magic?”
“Not that I can detect, but your history has many references to the Gods or aliens visiting the planet. Do you think—”
“That they were talking about us?” I supplied.
“Yeah. I see no other explanation for Mana being present in this world unless you or I visited it sometime in the past.”
“Right. It’s not like you’re the one who created it or anything.”
Theia giggled and snuggled up to me. “Master, we both created it.”
I chuckled, pinched her side, and she squirmed away from my hand. “You’re trying to blame me for what you did. I wonder why nobody in this world has noticed the Mana.”
“I’m not sure, but it’s there. I’d have to get a closer scan of the world since we’re so far out here but I can detect it’s presence from within the Source.”
“It’s communicating?”
“Yes, and it’s pleased we’ve returned.”
“It’s—”
“Pleased.”
“It’s alive?”
“Caden…,” Theia blew out a frustrated breath, “you know it’s alive.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s never talked before.”
“Have you listened?”
I opened my mouth and closed it again. “I—I can’t say that I spent much time talking to it.”
“I swear it must be a male thing. I always thought your books were exaggerating when it said men don’t pay attention to important things around them.”
“Hey! I resent that! I just didn’t think about—Fine. I admit I don’t pay attention to silly things.”
“Like me?”
“What? No! I pay attention to you.”
“If I didn’t throw myself at you, you’d have never kissed me.”
“I—Okay, you got me there.”
We joked back and forth for most of the morning trying to come down from my disappointment and our afterglow. I can’t say, I didn’t think about her not being human, but then again, I wasn’t a real boy either. I gave up trying to figure out what I was around mid-day and just accepted the fact that I was alive and real.
Nobody hailed our craft or even noticed our shuttle. Did I mention space was vast? Unless they visually saw our shuttlecraft or picked up energy readings, it would be nearly impossible to see a stationary object in the solar system. Theia and I were just happy to be with each other finally.
“Not to put a halt to our fun,” Theia said mid-day, “but what do you want to do? No! Other than me. I swear you’ve been more chaste for the last year than a monk and you have a filthy mind all of a sudden. I mean…we’re here. Now what?”
I leaned back in my chair while holding Theia’s hand and assessed my life and my goals. The corner of my mouth quirked and I knew what I wanted to do.
“If they want Gods…why disappoint them? Let’s go home.”