Principal Thomas Bailey twirled his pen as Neville and his dad spoke to him. Neville even let out some tears for dramatic effect. Pain, trauma, abuse of trust, violence, blood. It was quite a story to come out of a physics classroom.

Kids are getting good these days, Principal Thomas Bailey thought.

"So," Mr. Dernan said, "will you fire her, or shall I sue the school?"

The principal opened his drawer, pulled out a bottle of whiskey and a shot glass, and began pouring.

"What is this?" Mr. Dernan was appalled at the principal's disdain for the meeting. Drinking at work and school, what is wrong with him?

He took a drink. "Listen, Neville's dad, have you met the physics teacher?"

"No," Mr. Dernan said. "But I know he's dangerous."

He laughed to himself as he poured himself another drink. "She," the principal emphasized, "if I had to take a guess, weighs one twenty and is probably five feet seven."

"She?" Mr. Dernan grew skeptical. "You never said it was a woman."

"I didn't say she was a guy either." Neville got defensive.

"How tall are you, Neville?"

"Like, six one."

"And," he twirled his shot glass around, "how much do you weigh?"

"One-ninety."

"Great," the principal began using his laptop. He browsed the school's page to Stephanie's profile with her photo and turned the screen to the dad.

"You expect me to believe this little girl beat up two fully grown teenage boys and another girl at the end of a physics lesson? She may as well be your son's wet dream."

"Watch it," Mr. Dernan said.

The principal slammed his glass against his desk. "What did I say to you, Neville, the last time we spoke?"

He looked at his dad and then back at the principal. "Not to waste your time."

"And why is that? Mr. Neville Dernan."

"You need to replace part of the roof on the school, your wife had her appendix removed, and the temp is still learning."

"And now I have a made-up story of you trying to start shit with one of my teachers," the principal said.

"I will sue this school," Mr. Dernan said.

"Oh, will you now?" Thomas took another drink. "Be careful who you share videos with, Neville. Let me show this one a student accidentally shared with a teacher."

Neville's eyes widened with sheer panic.

"You sitting by a pool, a body floating in the—"

"I made it up!"

"What?" Mr. Dernan said.

"I injured myself in gym class."

"Why?"

Neville thought fast. "Her class is hard, literally. If she gets fired, it will get easier."

"Get in the car," Mr. Dernan rose and slapped his son on the back of his head. "I'm so sorry," he said. "And we'll discuss what to do with you later."

"Don't worry about it." Thomas finished his drink as they left the office.

***

Connor's arms grew sore. All evening, he lifted heavy, unrecognizable parts from her garage to the living room. Small but heavy, he still had to raise the dolly filled with pieces strapped onto it over several steps from the garage. Stephanie pattered away on her laptop as Connor picked up a slight sweat. Joules sat by Stephanie and kept an eye out.

"Great, I think that's all of it," Connor said.

"See that square-shaped equipment in the corner?" she said.

"Yeah."

"Please place a battery in each one. I stacked those in the kitchen."

Connor checked out the batteries. They were unlike anything he's seen or bought in a store, they were sturdier, like a brick. He grabbed as many as he could and got to work. The metal cubes all had an opening that fit the batteries perfectly. Dark blue solar panels and small antennas were on the other sides.

"Now screw in the plates," Stephanie said.

He saw where she nodded, and he followed the order.

Nearing the final few after about a dozen cubes, he asked, "So, what are we doing with these?"

"Great question. We're sending these to space. Many will land on asteroids between Earth and Mars," she said.

"For real?"

"Yup, for real," she said. "We need to know where we're sending people via dark matter. Knowing the exact destination is key. The more signals those boxes ping each other, the more precise the target location. The greater the distance, the more difficult it becomes. Mars is pretty tough to reach without these."

"Alright," he said. "Did you ping a signal off the mirrors on the Moon? Is that what the telescope in your backyard is for?"

"Yup, great conclusion."

"Why not just Aeon Flip these over to the asteroids?"

"Switch, Aeon Switch. Some electronics and certainly many kinds of battery power don't play nice once converted to dark matter. Remember how I asked you to leave your phone with me before you got sent to the Moon?"

Oh.

"It charges matter which affects electrons when performing the switch, essentially a short circuit for active devices, similar to what the mind goes through in the Lucid Passage. Though electronics running on fusion don't need to be turned off, sending the Aeon Switch via dark matter won't prevent it from working. You must remember to turn off all electronics first, then turn it back on."

He noted that and took a step back as Stephanie checked on the parts he had brought in. "Nice work," she said. "I knew you were dependable."

He hid it, but he relished the compliments as it was rare for him to get even one aside from Stephanie's. "Anything else you need?"

"Why's that? You trying to get out of work early?"

"Whoa," he said, "no, of course not."

"I'm kidding," she said. "This should be all for tonight."

***

Connor woke up and got ready for school. After making his way downstairs, he began his routine, letting Joules out, getting a bowl of cereal, and checking his phone for anything interesting. Tabitha ignored him, as she usually does. Once finished, he grabbed Joules to head out.

"You can leave her here today," Tabitha said.

"Why?"

"The neighbors are gone."

"Okay, cool." He had to bring Joules to school because the neighbors didn't like her howling.

The car ride was quiet. No radio, no talking. It was just two individuals with a thousand-yard stare. Arriving at school, he stayed instead of hopping out of the car, wanting to break the silence. "My new job is really cool," he said. "I'm putting together a few small rockets for an experiment." He figured she shouldn't know anything about being turned into dark matter.

"Sounds good."

"I will send the rockets into space," he said. "How cool is that?"

"Sounds good."

He remained silent, and his anger took over, not a wave of physical anger like he wanted to punch something, but frustration trying to force him to scream. His bottled emotions began to crack.

"Well," she said, "anything else?"

"What did I do?"

"What do you mean?"

"What did I do to you?"

She was taken aback by that. "Nothing."

"Yes, I did! You're always short with me, and you always side with Axel. You're not interested in my new job. You never ask me how school is going."

She looked shocked. "I love you," she said.

"Then why?"

She tapped the steering wheel. "It's hard to look at you."

He knew what she meant.

"I can't help that I look like dad and—"

"You weren't even supposed to be here," she said.

"What?"

"I kept you for him," she said. "I grew to love you, and he died because you needed a ride home from school. He's dead because of you."

"Blaming me for a drunk driver at three PM?"

"Yes."

"Blaming me because Axel forgot to pick me up?"

"I'm not blaming the firstborn." Tabitha deadpanned.

Dejected, Connor opened the front door. "I would expect nothing different from you."

And he slammed it.

He didn't bother to look back and went straight to school. He skipped his coffee shop, skipped getting the crappy school coffee, skipped going to his locker, and just went straight to physics and sat. His panic grew as he sat alone in class. He closed his eyes and began counting.

"Connor." Something tapped his shoulder

Connor opened his eyes to Teresa, who kept her distance. "Oh God, now what?"

"I came in early, hoping to see you. You haven't been returning my texts."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Blocked you."

"Oh," Teresa said, "I want to apologize."

"I don't believe in forgiveness," Connor said. "I don't care about excuses, either. Just leave me alone."

"Connor, please listen."

"Why? What did I do? Neville, Olivya, now you? I don't get it. God. How can you treat someone like that? I hate you all."

Teresa felt his words like a punch to the gut. He didn't even bother to look at her. Watching her consequences demean her with no life, no inflection of tone, he told her he never wanted to see her again. The banter with Neville, Olivya, or the others did not match the banter she had with Connor, and she missed it. Regardless of how brief it was.

If she knew why she didn't help him at the pool, she could express it.

She forced herself to take several steps, digging deep to find the resolve and courage to approach him, only to freeze, turn, and cower in her seat where Neville and Christian sat. She teared up. What am I doing? She couldn't figure out why she had done that to Connor. Someone she liked.

She quickly wiped her face as students poured in. Noise and phone scrolling continued even as class started.

"Where's the teacher?" someone asked when the bell rang.

Connor lifted his head and looked for Stephanie. The class was full, yet Stephanie was missing.

Probably doing some weird dark matter thing again, Connor reasoned as he lowered his head.

The commotion stopped random chatter, and a collective gasp swept the room. Connor became irritated at all the interruptions his nap got barraged with. It was warranted, as when he lifted his head again, he was alarmed as the sky turned dark and a shadow moved across the grass and over trees. "Whoa."

"Might be a cloud," Christian said.

The sky grew even darker, and birds began roosting.

"One gigantic cloud," someone else said.

Phones buzzed and rang at once, and a new set of synchronized gasps responded to the news they received. Connor checked his phone. An alert said, "WARNING. Meteor heading to Earth. Collision in Forty-Five Minutes. Seek shelter."

"Like, we're going to die? Yeah, right." Neville said. "Christian will die a virgin, literally." Christian hit him in the arm and laughed.

"This isn't a joke," another student said. They lifted their phones, and the president spoke, telling everyone to seek shelter. And the alert popped up again.

Everyone ran for the door, and the hallway funneled a stampede of students running in all directions. Neville and Christian bolted ahead of their peers.

A car accident happened right outside the school window where Connor was sitting.

Forty-five minutes. What should I do? Joules, he thought, I need to be with Joules.

He grabbed his book bag. Wait, I don't need these. He ran for the class entrance, but the crowd grew denser than the matter heading for them. Someone screamed for help, and he saw someone else trip and fall and get trampled.

Shit, shit, shit. His panic led him to the window. Opening the latch, he got one foot awkwardly over, and as he was about to hop out, he spotted Teresa sitting alone.

"Teresa," he said. She turned but remained focused on her phone, texting. "Come on."

She bolstered up and ran to the window. He jumped down, and he held her as she got through. Mayhem had reached outside the school caused by their peers running in many directions.

"I'm getting my dog and heading to a canyon," he said. "It's our safest bet."

"Connor, please listen," Teresa said.

"It's fine, but we have to run right now."

"No, I'll be fine."

"What?" Connor said.

"Please, trust me, go get your dog. Thank you for helping me through the window, but someone is picking me up."

He backed away, confused, but she was right. There was no time to argue. Suit yourself.

Turning away, he booked it for the street, which was now filling up with car wrecks and street lights that had automatically turned on.

Some students watched the meteor as they got out, in awe of the doomsday eclipse, accepting their fate. A couple was making out like there was no tomorrow, and students were yelling for help on their phones, crying, and hurrying to their cars and bikes.

And he looked up. Awe-inspiring didn't describe how the sun reflected off the side of the meteor as it approached. It was the end of the world.

Who's the dumbass now, Axel? Connor chuckled, then refocused. It's a forty-five-minute walk from home to school. He picked up the pace.

Determined to get to Joules, he ran over broken glass and used one hand for leverage to hop over the back end of a wrecked car. A block later, he almost fell on some unused train tracks, crossed into a small business district, and weaved through a group of people in suits who were all looking up. The scene was similar at the school, crying, hugging, and lots of reckless driving coming out of the parking lot. He took a breather. He's guessing it's been five minutes. He stumbled through the dark field, tripping on a log and landing on his hands and knees.

Wait, he thought, if it's straight, it's about two and a half miles. A mile is nine minutes of light jogging and should give me the time.

He took it slower but more consistently to avoid any more tripping.

As he approached a residential area, he lunged over two parents who were stuffing their children into a storm drain. In another yard, an obese man sat on a lawn chair in his underwear, chugging a beer and watching the sky.

A car swerved and hit a light pole in front of him. He instinctively ran around and heard another car run into that, and like an action hero, he didn't look back.

He ran on more glass at Main Street and swerved around looters carrying their stolen goods. They were slowing him down, so he took to the street and kept going along the yellow stripe, stepping aside for traffic, jumping over wrecked cars, and around confused drivers checking out the damage.

One more mile.

More of the same. Car wrecks and people screaming who didn't know what to do. He ignored them all. He got blinded. Just briefly. He stopped again to let his eyes adjust. Bright lights rose from the ground, and smoke trailed behind. Crowds of people pointed and cheered, and others had their hands clasped in front of their faces with joy. He watched the missiles go after their target. As they got closer, their trajectories became erratic, like a bottle rocket with no fins. The rockets swerved like drunk drivers, and their engines went out like a night light. Dozens more were launched, and dozens more failed.

He hurried up. No more distractions, no more stops. He got to the row of ranches behind his house. It was too dark to see Joules. But he could hear her. Even from a hundred yards away, the howling toward the meteor was distinctly Joules. He paced himself as he walked towards the back end of the fence.

"Connor!"

He turned. Stephanie waved her hands with her lit-up phone to get his attention. He hustled over to her.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"School."

"You ran here from school?"

"Who cares about school?" he said. "I need to be with Joules."

She smiled at his decision.

"Come on," she pointed up, "We're going to stop this thing." More rockets above fizzled out. "Too much wiring and electronics in those. Dark matter doesn't play nice." She chuckled and then turned to walk inside.

He followed her lead. "Can't you turn it into dark matter?"

"Yeah. But I need a week to power the Aeon Switch to do that. So, we need to improvise."

Great.

The room still had the items he had brought in from her garage. But one thing was unique, the strange object on the plate.

"Get into the space suit," she said. "I'm sending you to the meteor."

"Come again?"

"No time for questions, as we only have fifteen minutes."

Shit. Okay, I got this. He changed into the suit in under a minute. She quickly grabbed it all and set up the oxygen tank. She grabbed his arm and walked him to the device on the plate.

"This is a sort of hydrogen bomb," she said. "It must be manually set on the meteor to work. Press the button, pump the handle five times, flip the switch, and then I'll bring you back." She check-listed.

"Oh, my God," he said, "how?"

"Yeah, you're wondering why we can't set it up here and then send it before it blows," she said. "The chain reaction moves too fast, turning it into dark matter, yielding unwanted, dangerous results."

"I mean, where did you get this?"

"I borrowed it from my last job. Listen, you press this button to turn it on, and then you pump this latch five times, then you flip the switch. We need to manually charge this to create enough force to start the chain reaction. It'll happen two minutes after you do the fifth pump."

"Button, five pumps, switch, got it. And when did bombs have hand pumps?"

"It's a prototype to disguise WMDs as, say, a refrigerator or an oven to move them across borders. And thank God as this will work. Step back," she said as she hustled to her laptop. In a flash, the bomb was gone.

Connor stepped on the plate.

"Don't move too much, do not take a heavy step," she said. "Not exactly a lot of gravity there, but its forward force should keep you on it."

"Will I live?"

"Probably," she said. "I believe in you. Five minutes until detonation, three until I bring you back."

Connor saw a flash of light.

[]~*

Another younger Connor was walking Joules with his mom. A favorite memory of his. It was the day he took Joules home from the vet. Neon and blue shades blanketed the sky and left similar highlights on the sidewalk and trees. He watched this for hours.

This has lasted a lot longer than the last trip.

He didn't mind the wait; he looked so happy, the Connor who was walking Joules.

*~[]

His feet landed against a hard, smooth surface, like a colossal cue ball with a short horizon. His arm moved for balance and bumped into the bomb. Even compared to the Moon, he could feel the difference in gravity as he moved his arm to press the button. Or was it acceleration and not gravity? It looked nothing like a meteor compared to what he's seen in photos.

The button turned on the fiber optics, and the device lit up.

He pumped the handle, which was much harder than Stephanie made it sound. He put his weight into it, and it moved.

Thunk.

The vibration from his suit made a deep, echoing noise like being in a shower. He spotted a missile bouncing off the smooth surface of the meteor.

Gotta hurry.

A second pump caused triceps soreness. A third was so painful that he leaned against the bomb to rest. The Earth was close and occupied a quarter of the sky, and he enjoyed the view, despite the large shadow that engulfed his home. His arms burned, but he had to keep going. He began the fourth pump after rubbing his arms and screamed as he forced all his weight on it.

One more.

As he started the push, a shadow came across the surface. It wasn't just any shadow but a figure with arms and legs. Connor panicked as the shadow came closer. He turned to see a floating girl. She wore a suit that illuminated purple that swarmed around her figure along with a matching helmet covering her face. Almost alien.

He about lost his legs at the sight.

What?

She floated closer and touched his glass visor. As she spoke, the vibrations from her voice transferred into his suit, projecting a distorted but still understandable voice.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

He was exhausted from miles of running, pumping the damn bomb's handle, and now this. He nearly unconsciously answered her.

"I have to pump the handle one more time and flip the switch. Then two minutes til detonation."

"How did you get here?"

"My science teacher sent me."

Her head tilted in confusion. Obviously, she came to some conclusion, but Connor didn't know what.

"Who are you?" she said.

"I just want my dog to live."

"How are you going to get back?"

"She'll bring me back. But I gotta pump the hand—"

And he was gone.

[]~*

Fireworks brightened the night sky. Connor stood on a field alone with a show all to himself.

Oh God, he thought, she'll have to send me back.

The noise and fireworks went off, and smoke moved across the field. He smelled gunpowder. That smelled appropriate. He noticed the connections between his thoughts and what he saw when Stephanie sent him somewhere.

"Fuck," he yelled.

"Connor?"

He turned and saw Teresa. "Stay out of my dreams."

"Stay out of my mind."

*~[]

So she kept sending people through dark matter, the girl reasoned. Show off.

The astronaut had disappeared, but she heard him swear in her head.

He went right through me, awesome. Her awestruck wonder at the technology ended quickly. She's a thousand years ahead. How? She couldn't for the life of her figure it out.

But first things first, she floated to the bomb as her original plan to send it back into space wasn't needed, and carrying a heavy canister strapped to her back to do the trick was a tiresome waste. The bomb was going to do an eighty-percent explosion. It may as well go for one-hundred. With help of her advanced suit, she was able to pump the handle, then she flipped the switch, and hauled ass back to Earth. Her suit left no exhaust and showed no sign of moving parts but a light pattern rotated as she sped up.

Connor, she thought, I'll make it up to you.

***

He landed on the plate. Stephanie ran over to him and lifted the visor.

"How did it go?"

"I needed one more pump," he said. "Send me back."

She looked dejected. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"I have to store energy to do this. We've used it up," she said.

His knees hit metal in dejection, and the backs of his hands rested next to them.

"Connor," she unlatched the visor portion of the helmet, "it's okay, we tried, you tried."

"I wasn't strong enough, that handle, and there was a girl—"

"What, girl?"

"I don't know. She wore a purple suit and mask."

"Oh good, follow me," Stephanie ran outside immediately, and Connor tried to keep up while still wearing the astronaut suit.

"What's going on?" he said after a beat.

"Any second now, and please shade your eyes."

Stephanie held her hand up, and so did Connor, shading their eyes—in the dark. The sky flashed a brilliant array of colors, and night turned to day faster than the meteor had turned it to night.

"Holy..." he took a deep breath, "we did it?"

"We did," she said. "You helped save the planet, keep it up, and you'll get a pay raise."

She went back inside. You should leave detonating a mini hydrogen bomb off your resume. Anyway, let's get you out of the suit."

"It's completely gone? No debris or anything? It looks like it vanished."

"Neutrinos are light, super light. The Earth wasn't in much danger. Most of it wasn't anyway."

He screamed into the sky like a sports fan in a stadium and dropped onto his back. Surrounding areas erupted, car horns went off, gunshots and tons of cheers as everyone's anxieties and fear evaporated.

"Let's go inside. I have frozen pizza to celebrate."