Date: 29.8.2450 ST (Secondary Timeline)

Location: Dimensional Labs, Neo Seattle outskirts, Neo Washington, Tribesta System, Aradrox Galaxy, Aleph Universe

As the evening shadows fell, the Dimensional Overseer (D.O.) swam peacefully in the Olympic-sized swimming area. Through the floor-to-ceiling bulletproof glass, she admired the sunset as it settled over Neo Seattle, the capital of the planetary colony. The year was 2450 ST, and her job was ever increasing in terms of tasks that she needed to fulfill.

Well, this swimming pool sure has all the benefits of an Olympic pool, with no chlorine, Alicia, the current Dimensional Overseer, thought, her violet eyes gazing through the water of the pool. A few dozen laps around the pool, and now I’ve got some decent formulas forming in my mind regarding the conservation of energy in the universe.

She wasn’t the only one swimming. There were quite a few other people on the artificial beach that the lab had built, but she was the only one swimming in that pool. She knew it was illogical for her to be the only one to swim in this single pool, but there was nobody else in the pool with her. Why, she didn’t know, but it was worth investigating. While she hadn't minded when she'd been working through her mathematical dilemmas, the fact the pool was empty save for herself irritated her. Her position as Dimensional Overseer caused more troubles than she felt it was worth. Just because she was the boss didn't mean she didn't want friends, or perhaps romantic companionship.

It’s rather annoying that I can’t be seen as a woman, she thought. Why is it that nobody wants to ask me out after I get done with my shifts here at this lab? I’m not getting any younger, that’s for sure.

That was a definitive dilemma that she wanted to end. After all, she was of legal age in the colony, all because it was harder to live in this planet’s environment. However, many of the workers here at the lab didn’t support the legal age as proposed by the colony, having been raised primarily back in the home world. It was really getting on her nerves.

What did some techs call me earlier? A “busty midget” or something like that? I don’t think that should even apply while I’m here in this colony.

She then saw and heard the effects of a person performing a cannonball in the pool. She stopped a few feet away from the cause of the disturbance. A little girl with brown hair in a pageboy cut in a one-piece swimsuit bobbed to the surface. Alicia realized it was her little sister, who had come by way too early.

“Annie, what are you doing here?” she asked the little girl with a glare upon taking a breath of fresh air. “If you think now’s the time to have me return home, that’s not how it works here.”

“Aw,” Annie pouted after she did the same, her violet eyes drooping. “But you’re never home, sis! It’s always been you working at the labs, taking some time off from work while still at work, and sleeping in the dorms! When are you going to come home and play?”

The Dimensional Overseer softened her violet-eyed glare at her little sister’s complaints. “I plan to return home in a few days, should the schedule permit,” Alicia said. “Besides, I’m not entirely sure that I’m able to leave the other workers here without explicit instructions about what to do when I’m gone.”

“Okay, sis,” Annie said, her pout lessening with each word that she heard. “Can we play in the pool together, though?”

The Dimensional Overseer opened her mouth to speak, paused in mid-speech, and closed her mouth, tilting her head to the side.

“What’s wrong, sis?” Annie asked with an innocence only a child could have.

“I have an idea, actually.” Alicia said, smiling, “wanna play Marco Polo?”

“How do you play that?” Annie’s eyes were enormous, filled with questions and excitement.

“Simple. I close my eyes while you swim to a different part of the pool within a time limit, and I have to find you by calling out Marco. Call out Polo after hearing me call out what I have to. The point of this is for us to get some exercise in, of course, so be sure to get ready when I come looking for you.”

Annie nodded, some pep in her motion. “Okay, sis! How much of a time limit do I get?”

The Dimensional Overseer mulled that one over. “How about a minute?”

“Sure thing.” Annie opened her mouth, preparing to take a deep breath.

“Computer, please set a timer for sixty seconds,” the Dimensional Overseer said. “After that, please turn the timer on after a fifteen second delay.”

“Affirmative, Dimensional Overseer,” a digitized voice called out over the intercom. “What is the reason for this timer, if I might be so bold to ask?”

“My sister and I are playing Marco Polo while she’s here with me,” Alicia said. “I hope that’s reason enough.”

“That it is,” the computer said. “Beginning the countdown before the timer.”

“Sis, what’re sixty seconds?” Annie asked.

“That’s how long a minute takes,” the Dimensional Overseer said. “I hope you can remember that.”

Annie nodded.

“Good,” the Dimensional Overseer said. “Now, I’m about to close my eyes, so get ready to swim.”

“Okay, sis.”

As the Dimensional Overseer closed her eyes, she heard the telltale signs that her little sister took the idea as gospel, allowing for the elder sibling to contemplate what to do from here on out. I don’t want to disappoint Annie again, especially since our parents are getting ready to divorce. That’s not supposed to be a legal option for ending marriages around here, but it’s something that the first-generation colonists are insisting has to happen. I don’t get it… why does it have to be the home world’s way or the highway, exactly?

“Hey, boss, who’s the little kid you’re playing with?” A new voice asked, pulling her from her thoughts.

The Dimensional Overseer turned to look at the speaker, a tanned slightly younger woman than herself sporting E-cups in a red and black checkered bikini with a dragon print on it, standing on the pool walkway. “Oh, hello, Rachel,” she said. “Did you enjoy your shopping trip yesterday?”

“Yeah, I did,” Rachel said. “Still, you didn’t answer my question. Who’s the kid?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Annie, my little sister,” the Dimensional Overseer said. “I owe her playtime, after all.”

“I hear that, boss,” Rachel said, shrugging. “I wish I was lucky enough to get a little sister...”

“You never know,” the Dimensional Overseer said. “Your parents are still young enough to give you a little sister, I think.”

“Eh, you got a point,” Rachel said. “I just hope that nobody thinks it’s a good idea to tell me I’m going to be a big sister to yet another brother…” she shuddered.

“Don’t worry, Rachel,” the D.O. said. “It’s statistically likely that you’ll be getting a little sister three times as often as a little brother. Just be patient.”

Rachel nodded. “Thank you for that.”

“It’s what I’m here for, apparently,” the D.O. said. “Now, are you going to quit tanning yourself and enjoy the water? It’s great!”

“Gimme a bit. I want to surprise Marcus with my new look.” Rachel said with a smile.

“Marcus?”

“My assistant in the vegetation department.”

“Ah, right, I remember him now. You’re finally dating him?” Alicia asked with a knowing look.

“I plan to as soon as he takes a blinkin’ hint.” Rachel’s tone implied just how impatient she was getting regarding that matter. Boys.

“Fair enough.”

“Dimensional Overseer, your minute is long up now,” the computer called out.

Rachel and the Dimensional Overseer blinked in unison. “I’ll get back to you about this, boss,” Rachel said.

“Good idea,” the D.O. said, moving over to play the game with Annie. Here’s hoping that she’s still in the pool…

The bark of an intercom suddenly interrupted her thoughts: “Madam Dimensional Overseer!”

Eh? Whose voice is that?

The Dimensional Overseer rose from the water, peachy skin and back-length golden blonde hair glistening as she walked along the pool walkway over to the intercom video display. Turning on the receiver, she saw it was a black-haired man with green eyes, wearing a green and white lab coat. A patch on his left lapel showed his name to be… oh, wait, she remembered him now: he worked in the String Theory Department, a few ranks under her. “Hello there, Hermes McDaniels. Now, what seems to be the trouble?”

“It’s Elliot and Ricardo in our department,” Hermes said, shaking his head. “They’re at it again.”

What the… this is not good. “I’ll head over there right now, Hermes,” she said. “Thank you for this.” She turned off the intercom and rushed to get a towel.

“Sis?” Annie called out from the opposite side of the pool.

“I’m sorry, Annie,” the D.O. called back. “Duty calls, and it waits for nobody, man, woman, or even child.”

“Aw…” Annie pouted. “Will you make up for it when you get back?”

“I plan to, little sis,” the D.O. said. Toweling off swiftly, she put on her lab coat and hurried to the lab. After a minute of speed walking, she got to the door and heard the muffled voices of her direct subordinates.

“I’m telling you, we need to change the value in the x variable,” one man said, sounding rather exasperated. “Otherwise, what we’re doing will make us look completely insane.”

“You want to bet that it’ll make one iota of difference?” a second man retorted, his voice gruff. “Frankly, this is going to be a right pain in the ass to deal with, no matter what way you look at it.”

Oh, great…

“Maybe you’re being blind to the truth, Ricardo,” the first man said, his tone flat. “After all, there’s absolutely no way that this is within acceptable parameters, not when this variable has the value negative one!”

“Elliot, knock it off, will you?” Ricardo said with a groan. “Do you want me to get the D.O. in here to clean up after you for messing with the values when they’re not an is—”

With that, the Dimensional Overseer opened the metal sliding doors. “What seems to be the problem, gentlemen?”

“Boss,” Elliot, a scientist in white robes, said with a sigh of relief. “Thank you for coming here. I think Ricardo needs some remedial lessons.”

“Elliot, if anyone needs remedial lessons, it’s you!” Ricardo, also a scientist, but in black robes, said with a growl. “We were talking about the equation needed to solve the problem with the afterlives going away, and Elliot here thinks it’s a good idea to change the x variable for a different value when it literally can’t be a different value!” He shook his head, glaring at the white-robed scientist. “Frankly, this is a hopeless mess to deal with, all because you can’t find it in yourself to stick with real—”

“Ricardo, enough,” the Dimensional Overseer snapped. “I need to look at the values as written. If you don’t mind…?”

“Not at all, no,” Elliot said, taking her over to the whiteboard where they had written the formula and values in question. “See what we had x equal in all of this?”

The Dimensional Overseer nodded. “I need more context, Elliot. How long has this value been negative 1?”

“Ever since this experiment began, boss,” Elliot pointed at the time and date next to the x value. “We have to change this value to a higher number than it is now.”

“Why are you two ignoring reality regarding this?” Ricardo stepped over to the two of them, his footsteps echoing along the ground. “That was actually the first variable we changed. Someone forgot to mark the date as changed on that formula board.” He glared pointedly at Elliot. “Frankly, this is your fault. No two ways about it.”

Before Elliot could argue, the Dimensional Overseer looked at the time value next to the variable and pressed a button, showing a time and date that was relative to one particular universe or another. Indeed, it was a rather long time ago when the number changed… but it had changed, regardless. “Ah, that makes sense,” she nodded, before giving a sidelong glance at Elliot. “Elliot, next time, please remember to adjust the time value after changing a variable.”

“But, I—”

“P-L-E-A-S-E R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R.”

Elliot drooped his head. “Yes, boss,” he said, giving off a defeated sigh.

“Good, good,” the Dimensional Overseer nodded. “Now, how about we look at the reason for the value and flip it to a positive number?”

Ricardo, just as he was about to gloat, spun his head in the Dimensional Overseer’s direction. “You’re joking, right, boss?”

What did I do in my previous assignment to get stuck with this level of stupidity? The Dimensional Overseer shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t joke about this,” she said. “Now, how to best handle this little mess…”

Elliot and Ricardo both looked at the data on the board before Elliot saw something that caused him to facepalm. “I can’t believe that this variable is widespread as an exponent the whole way through,” he said with a groan. “I mean, it’s everywhere in the formula!”

Indeed, the formula looked an awful lot like they threw it together haphazardly, with no care for the results. It sure had a lot of issues they needed to sort out…

“That was intentional, remember Elliot?” the Dimensional Overseer asked her subordinate. “I don’t have to remind you of why that is the case, do I?”

“I don’t remember why we did it that way,” Ricardo said. “Care to explain, boss?”

The Dimensional Overseer turned to face Ricardo and said, “Simply put, it’s keeping the enemy from finding out about our plans to preserve the afterlives and save the universes attached to them.”

“That’s a good point, yes,” Ricardo nodded before he walked over to the nearest computer monitor. “Now, how are we supposed to maintain a sense of understanding of what happens within these simulations before we move on to the real thing?” He booted up the attached computer.

The Dimensional Overseer put a hand to her chin. “It would have to be with the computers running, even if we can’t run them all indefinitely. That would be a reckless use of energy… and we don’t have that much energy to use for it.”

“You have a point, boss,” Elliot picked up an eraser from the formula board as he said that. “Should I change the x value for you now, or later?”

“No, not yet…” the Dimensional Overseer said. Suddenly, she removed her hand from her chin. “Actually, scratch that. Change the value of the x variable to positive 3 for this simulation run, then up it by 1 for the real deal, both of you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Elliot and Ricardo saluted her before they began adjusting and inputting the formula one more time for a simulation run.

“Also, monitor the energy consumption used for the simulation,” she added. “The more energy consumed by the simulation, the less we’ll have for the main experiment.”

She saw Elliot and Ricardo nod at the same time before they went about their job, making sure everything was ready, or so she thought. She knew they had to get it right, because who else would? This job was rather thankless for saving all of reality from being devoid of any afterlives.

They could only hope that their actions didn’t cause a massive upheaval in the time-space continuum. That was the last thing that anyone needed here.