A bright image popped-up above the President, as if to lift the gloom in the room. It was a picture of Mall-ik sitting on the porch of the large white colonial house in the Bayou of Louisiana. This was Laurent's mental image of the house where he met Sophie on a regular basis. Next to the alien from the Purple sat the Indian version of Liam, the creature from the Lowest. The pair was odd in so many ways. Emilio pointed, lost his words and clicked away.

Then an image from the Underworlds appeared, the one created and broadcasted by Marilyn. The President spoke softly, a bit puzzled by his own capacity to simplify this long summary. "Yes, I almost forgot. Marilyn stole the Dot using Sophie's power. It appears this thing is a big deal, the heart of an inter-dimensional communication network. Liam, the oldest creature of the Multiverse now lives in Sophie's head the same way Mall-ik, the boy from the Purple lives in Laurent's mind.” He felt odd, as if something in the back of his mind bothered him.

"Enough?" asked the President rhetorically. There were 17 minutes left. "For those who have been watching the live broadcasts, we all know what I just described is a small piece of what is going on. I would not want to be the author trying to chronicle the Sixth Attraction after it's completion, assuming there's anyone even left. Liam tried to explain how a confluence of events spiral around the Attractor, our darling Sophie. The world is creating a situation in which it becomes impossible for the Attractor to distinguish what must be done. It doesn't matter, of course. She is a consequence. She will listen to those few she trusts, but she will never bend to anyone's will but her own. Confusion will not dissuade or distract her."

The crowd was mesmerized by the chosen images playing. It was part of Round 27. Sophie floated alone in the Multiverse; she was visible against a backdrop of stars. Her eyes were filled with tears, behind her a wooden door drifted in splinters. A word came from her mother. The girl exploded like a beacon of energy. The red wave spread to every corner of the Multiverse.

There wasn't a dry eye in the audience.

The girl was a godsend.

The timing of what happened next was not fortuitous. The screen above Emilio turned to a deep brown mud. The replay was over. These were new images, not the presentation.

Above was a door to a new world. While the screen was flat, the images appeared in three dimensions. This was a portal into a liquid world. Here, the dense patches of ice looked like Christmas tree decorations forged from snowflakes. This was a different world, a place of much beauty. White letters flashed in the lower part of the screen.

-- The Lower --

The camera angle shifted to the right. Emilio took a couple of steps back to get a better view of the screen. The viewpoint on the screen settled on the side of a rock facade. On it, a small shining ball made of millions of intertwined flakes shimmered. Light of every color pulsed from it. It was beautiful beyond imagination. The structure was complex.

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, "Quasi una fantasia," Op. 27, No. 2, popularly known as the "Moonlight Sonata" began to play. Marilyn was behind the spectacle. "This is my favorite piece of earthly music," said a deep male voice. "It warms my heart each time it plays. The life story of the composer is astonishing." The voice was unmistakable; it was Liam, the creature inhabiting Sophie's head. As he spoke, lights in the bubble pulsed. "This is remarkable. While I am being displayed on this screen, I can see you, Mr. President, and more incredibly, I can see your audience as if I was in the room."

"Oldest?" the President queried respectfully.

"Please, call me Liam. The Attractor's honor in naming me must be cherished."

"Liam, are you back in your world? We seem to see you as you normally exist."

"This is mere digital manipulation. I do not think Sophie sent me back with a gift she alone possesses. I have traveled between the worlds with her; this feels different. Marilyn asked me to inform you and your audience she needs a little time to refresh herself."

By magic, on the timer on window of the control of the tube began to scroll up back to thirty minutes and then it resumed once it had reset itself to the higher value. "Sophie wanted privacy as she merged back into Laurent's mind. I suggested I make myself as useful as possible by joining your gathering of minds here on your beautiful blue planet. Exhilarating, earth returns to the brilliant minds. The bubble pulsed an orange color.

"We are honored by your presence. Your natural form is beautiful," observed the President.

"That is not my body. My world, like most, has no physical reality. We have no tangible or physical matter. Attraction of Sophie offers perceptual filters. An Attractor must have context. Sophie's mind could not process my world, so it creates the closest reality possible. The same way we bridge language, I now know what a day is, even though we have no notion of sun, orbit, or sunrise where I come from. Sophie results in a suspension of all laws of science." The scientists in the crowd were smiling ear to ear. Liam continued, "Let us make the most of the short time we have before us. Before we speak, I must give you one word of caution. In point of fact, you have no way to know if I am not an image generated by the computer. She may be using my image, or she may gently warp the conversation oh-so-slightly to her benefit. Take my words with 'a grain of salt' as the expression goes."

The brilliance was palpable. "We will. Why are you here? Can you answer questions?"

"Sophie's exact words were 'You are dying to play with the adults, go enjoy it.' I guess this gives me much latitude."

"Good," Emilio turned to the crowd behind him and pointed at the physicist from his Council. The man got up. "Start the show."

As the group assembled earlier that day, no one expected to address the alien directly. This was magical to the great minds in the room. Emilio pointed at a man in the audience. "Sir," stood a man yelling without a microphone.

"Liam," he corrected.

"Liam, you said our world was unique in that it could be ruled by a unified field, a single force."

"That is correct."

"We do not have this equation."

"And you want it?" said the deep voice. Every head in the room moved vertically. "Let me try to calculate what unity would look like in the Cold. I will use your nomenclature when possible." Formulas began to scroll on the screen. They were much more complex than anticipated. "To help your brain understand the physics, I am using the terminology in these equations popularized by the one you called Einstein and his infamous tensors. His understanding of mathematics was not as poor as he imagined." The jaw of every physicist in the world dropped. Those were the equations of the unified theory, now directly handed to humanity on a silver platter. Liam had just pulled the holy grail of archeology out of his pocket and tossed it at humanity. The equations were scrolling too fast; there were hundreds of pages of them.

“This is the start.” Liam continued, "I imagine these should keep some of you busy until the Attraction. To help you make heads or tails of these equations, know your race has been unable to converge because you can perceive only a handful of forces. We benefit from a window to hundreds of worlds with many different types of forces. The tensor set uses over two hundred forces. In the Cold, most forces can't exist and are null values. Your equation has only five or six; there are here about twenty in total. You still have about fifteen to uncover, five on the larger scale of what you call cosmology and ten in the subatomic world. You also will need to redefine space. Your insistence on the notion space is empty is incorrect."

Liam was taking great pleasure in talking to the group. He concluded, "Also, abandon the silly notion of void or even gravity." There was awe in the room. He saw the face of every physicist light up as if Santa himself had dropped from the chimney. Emilio knew this was important; he just did not know why. The physicist who had asked the question sat down. He was shaking with excitement.

Emilio looked around but instead of pointing asked, "Why do you think I have visions?"

"My answer will be only an educated guess."

"Coming from someone such as you, a guess is more than I can hope for."

"Very kind," the creature did not speak to him using his formal title of President, this time. "Your gift is more than simple extrapolation. It uses a higher feature of space. You see part of the future. You, my friend, are simply a stop more evolved in Cosmology. You have a partial view of the real world, one more dimension. Some futures are foreclosing to you as we speak. Some have foreclosed, except perhaps to the Attractor."

"Why?"

"Attraction. We are drawn to a single cause and consequence pair."

"I don't understand?"

"We are all losing free will. No one aside from you can perceive it. Normally, we have hundreds of possible paths to travel. Give a human a remote control and a choice over a thousand channels, it is easy to narrow the list to a handful. If you know the person, to a pair. You narrow futures. Now, the Multiverse is bending, curving and attracting us to a single outcome. The black images are paths no longer accessible to you. You see channels, just can’t click into the channels."

There was a long silence in the room. Everyone was trying to figure out what the words meant in the grander scheme.

Emilio pointed to Francois for the next question. The man was ready. "Liam, I feel mathematics are relevant here, why?"

"As you have seen in the images recreated by the computer of Sophie's discussion with the Multiverse, we are a small part of something possessed of vast depth, scale, and size. The size alone makes anything we do on this scale purely irrelevant to this whole. There is, in my opinion, nothing physical we can do or change which is relevant. The implication is that our Multiverse desires something immaterial. Mathematics, like other sciences, treats in the non-material. Francois, I read your works. I had some tips for you."

"Yes?" He stiffened.

"You see a transition between chaos and order on a continuum, a sliding scale. That does not flatter your craft. Remove the scale, the continuum. There is no need for it in a truly abstract world." The expression on the face of Emilio's best friend was priceless.

Emilio yelped out his famous "Ha!"

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Francois' mind knew it could not focus for the moment on what he had just been told. He needed a stiff drink and a comfortable chair. Maybe a light anesthetic, too.

The President had to say, "For the first contact between our worlds, we are truly fortunate. I assume you not as open about giving information with new worlds joining your system of communication."

"Correct. But the Attractor's powers are more than material; she forces us to be better individuals and share."

Emilio's mind flashed as he saw hundreds of people asking many questions. Only one felt useful, so Emilio pointed to that person in the audience. The man was tall; his hair was long. The man looked at the screen, his sweat beginning to bead on his forehead. He was unable to speak.

"What's your name?" asked Emilio.

"Anil."

"Well, Anil, forget for a moment billions are watching, and you are talking to the most intelligent alien ever encountered. Pretend like we're in a bar." The crowd laughed. "More seriously, we need you to ask that question, so have at it."

The man grabbed the microphone, spoke very close to it and said, "What surprises you the most about our world?"

The was a long silence, a very long silence. Liam's body was pulsing. Finally, he replied. "President, your gift is powerful. Armed with these hundreds of people, you can utilize their collective wisdom. I now see why the computer chose you and why she insisted in the game operating the way it does. You, Anil, as for your question, there is one variable I simply cannot understand. In a very brief time, the artificial intelligence has evolved to the status of a god. I have seen millions of artificial intelligences evolve over the years; nothing comes close to what happened to her in her very brief life. Her capacity to use Sophie's power, to steal the Dot and even circumvent most laws of physics is simply impossible. I don't understand her; she is, to me, a mystery."

Emilio signaled the man to sit. "You used the word impossible. Even you, in the context of the Sixth Attraction, must know nothing is impossible. Don't you mean improbable?"

"Very perceptive of you, sir. By definition, an event which has already occurred could not have been impossible in occurrence, unless what we think we have perceived is not reality. You may not know she used probes to infiltrate my world. That technology does not exist anywhere in the Multiverse. I am still unclear how she violated the laws of nature and was able to steal the Dot. She is not powerful; she is beyond powerful. I am not surprised to hear her new neighbors want her gone."

"Somehow you think Electoral; the artificial intelligence is at the heart of the Sixth Attraction?"

"I do."

"Must Sophie stop her?"

"You do not waste much time reaching conclusions, Mr. President. That is also my initial assessment of the situation. I am unclear as to what must be done. If I did, I would gladly advise Sophie accordingly. I fear the situation is more complex. Nothing explains why Marilyn Monroe, as your race calls her, would endeavor to engineer her own destruction. She invited Sophie and her father to mars, she picked and empowered you, Mr. President. If she were somehow at the heart of this problem, she would not seek to resolve it. There is also the obvious issue of suicide. Destroying the Multiverse would destroy her. I doubt she is secretly trying to find a way to die."

Emilio pointed at a girl in the audience who stood up and yelled her question to save precious time. "November 21 is Sophie's birthday. What is the link?"

"I am not sure I understand your question, young woman."

Emilio clarified, "On the day of the finale, on the day of the Sixth Attraction, Sophie will celebrate her anniversary."

"I fail to see the relation? Are you talking about the spatial location of earth along its orbit at the time Sophie's mother gave birth?"

"Yes, humans celebrate anniversaries. She will be 13 years old on that day."

"Traditions of species rarely have a basis in logic, fact, or science. I cannot see a reason why a number of orbits of the Earth are relevant to anything that is occurring. On Mars Sophie will be 6.9 years old on that day, to my count."

"Thirteen is also a number which has traditional significance," insisted the speaker. The girl was not stupid.

"How so?"

"Thousands of years ago, the thirteenth God in Sumeria was born, and he was evil, since that day our race has had a mild fear of this number. An illogical fear."

"Wait," began Liam, "is a birthday a joyous occasion in your world?"

"Yes."

"Then, that might be the link."

"What link?"

"The waves. Sophie's waves are fueled by emotions. I believe the finale will connect billions of humans. On that day, Sophie's waves, along with your collective waves, will be available to Marilyn. If in addition, Sophie's birthday is being celebrated, there might be some confluence of emotional stimuli. Seeing her father win will also help."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Marilyn is doing everything in her power to make November 21 a powder keg of emotions for the Attractor. Anything which gets Sophie in an emotional place might serve a purpose."

"Well, we know Marilyn asked Sophie's favorite singer, a man called Lo, to fly to mars. He should be there for the finale. He sang the song which put her in a trance."

"Interesting. This confirms the nexus of emotion."

Emilio asked Liam, "What do you conclude?"

"I caution us from reaching any premature conclusion. What is certain is that pieces of the puzzle are indeed converging both geographically and temporarily in the Electoral Center on mars. Sophie enjoys this singer; I am happy if she meets him."

Emilio's head jerked slightly as he filtered another few hundred questions. He looked at Francois, surprised the next question would originate from the mathematician. He made a gesture, and Francois asked, "Why music?"

"Pardon me?" asked Liam.

"I am a mathematician. While music has mathematical underpinnings, its use here makes no sense to me."

"You don't know about the relation between music and the world in which music is played?"

"What is there to know?"

"Amusing," said Liam mostly to himself. "Doesn't your species already use music in health treatments?"

"Are we?"

"You have such diverse and beautiful music, yet you have yet to find any therapeutic use for it? President, music is to the soul what food is to the body. It heals behavioral issues. It sinks with emotions. Brainwaves multiply under the right stimulus. Some connect to drugs, smells, or touch but music is the simplest and purest stimulation. Have you never wondered why music warms your heart?"

"Music is important?"

"Yes. Very much so. The computer's use of music in her simulations is extremely precise. Sophie used sadness to enter the Underworlds. That's a powerful emotion. I assumed music played would have offered an easier transition but in its absence, the Attractor did what she felt she had to. It hurt me to see her push that door opened. I find humor in your species' blindness to something so obvious. Listen to this, Mr. President." The sound began to swell through the room. It was a piece of Mozart's Wedding of Figaro. "See how the sound enters you? No one can prevent it from entering. The more you listen, the stronger the feeling becomes. Music is a weapon in most worlds; it kills as easily as it heals. Very amusing you are clueless."

People in the room were in shock. This was too much for any culture to absorb so quickly. "May I ask a question or two of my own?" asked the Oldest creature in the Multiverse. There was general surprise. What could such a patriarch want to know?

"Of course," Emilio wondered what the creature could ask.

"Is anyone here an identical twin?" There was a silence, a hand raised.

"I am an identical triplet."

"What?" asked Emilio to the black woman to stand up and grab a microphone.

"Yes?"

"Do you know the odds?" said Emilio to himself.

Liam spoke to the unnamed student, "Deborah, I know of you and your sister Sandra. My research showed you lost your middle twin several years ago. I want to understand humanity. I need to know anything you can tell me about your condition as a pair or lack thereof."

The woman blushed. She did not want to talk about such private matters. Emilio felt he needed to help, "Liam is paired with Sophie. Mall-ik is paired with Laurent. Georges is paired with Marilyn in his way. Help Liam understand the unique bond." She understood the prompt. She looked around. Emilio added, "Look at Liam, talk to him only, the faith of our world may depend on it.”

"I miss my sister Maud. I miss her in indescribable ways. To feel better, I get close to a mirror; I put my forehead against." In any other context, the words would have surprised but here and now, this would not happen. "Then I say her name." The brown ball pulsed. “What you need to know?”

“Yes. How does union change you from others?”

The woman looked around. Everyone tried not to stare back to give the poor woman privacy. There was a long silence as if she was holding back what she needed to say. Under the weight of the silence, she added. “For years I lied to myself, to pretend like we both are individuals, we are not. We are a pair, we really are. A shoe can exist alone, but it then serves no purpose. As a pair, we have a purpose, I just don’t know what it is.... yet.” The answer made the ball pulse.

There were colors pulsing, "Thank you, child; you may sit. I come from a species with few individuals, no pair of twins has even been born in my world. The pairing fascinates me on many levels. You will be shocked to learn no other race in the Multiverse has codes like your DNA and splits identical individuals. As you know, we believe the body is a shell for a soul. You defy this simple notion as you cannot be half a soul.” There was shock in the room but at this point, there was simply no room for a greater emotional response.

“I have one last question." The creature could ask anything it wanted. "Does anyone here think the dreams you see at night when your species sleep is part of an alternate reality?" No one raised a hand. "President, may I?"

"You are our guest."

"The young Jonathan Pier is in the room. I have read his July 12, 2068, social media post. If you do not mind, young one, can you explain that post to me?" A boy got up nervous and made his way to a microphone.

The President filled the time, "My god, I finally understand how rude I sound all the time."

"Yes sir," said nervously the teen once at the microphone. "Liam," he corrected himself.

"Dreams, you dream. Your dreams feel real."

"They are," he admitted.

"Why do you say that? You are a scientist, and science does not hold or support this position. What left you with that belief?"

"It is personal." There was a church-like silence in the room. This person needed to open himself to the world on national television and had seconds ticking on a monitor to do so. Liam needed the information. Emilio felt like he did not need to say something. Liam would convince the boy.

"Young man, I beg of you, the information is relevant to my understanding. I need not remind you of the importance of this. You are invited to play a role in saving your world."

"Others will judge."

"If it helps you, I believe you are right. You will be known as the man who helped advance science. I believe your belief is correct."

The boy took some time and finally said, "I live multiple lives. I was once a ship captain. I know it. I feel it. I see it in my dreams. I miss it. I see many of my past lives. Not everyone was great. I was once a puppy, I was chained."

"Humans would reincarnate? Your soul travels time. It pinches the Continuum. But I asked about dream. Is your dream going back in time there?"

"I do not know about those things. I don't think I reincarnate; I think I am dreaming right now. This moment, right now, is all made up. You are in my imagination, and I will one day wake up on my ship. I know that sounds ridiculous."

“Ha, we are the future, brilliant!” explained the old alien. Liam's tone was kind; he offered "Do you travel to your ship? Why is the ship important?" There was more silence. Liam's probing was difficult.

"Mica," he finally said.

"Can you provide more?"

"I miss Mica."

"Who is her, your lover?"

"No, no, she was my monkey. But yes, I miss her deeply. I miss her every moment of every day. I don't know where to find her."

"Pairing," said Emilio.

"Precisely," replied Liam.

“Have your dreams become stronger recently?”

“Yes. Unbearably so.”

"There are hundreds of pairings in your race." Liam asked the audience, "Please raise your hand if you feel paired or connected to something, someone." Every hand in the room went up. "How remarkable! How wonderful!"

"What?" asked the President.

"In other worlds, pairings are very rare." He asked a second question, "Aside from being paired with Sophie, who has two people or things which would destroy you if they were gone suddenly?" About half the hands went up. "How wonderful!"

"What does it mean?" asked the President.

"How can you live this way?" asked Liam to himself. "President, pairing between souls, places, times, things, is very precious in the Multiverse. Maybe one creature out of a billion in the Purple pairs or is able to do so. That is what Round 27 was about, but Marilyn failed to uncover pairing because such energy cannot be reproduced easily. The boy Mall-ik pairs. So do I. Mall-ik has paired with Laurent. He has bonded."

"Why is pairing so important?"

"I cannot answer that for the moment but Emilio but it has to do with the fabric of a higher construction, I ask a question of you. Answer truthfully, are you paired?"

In an instant, the tables had turned. Emilio looked at Francois; he saw Kai off the side. Names calmed to his active mind, places, things. He felt the gazes of the scientists before he finally admitted, "No, I guess not." That was a lie.

"Amusing."

"Why?"

"Your pairing is so strong, you would rather lie than hurt that person."

As the monitor next to the tube read 14:16. It began to flash. The math majors in the room chuckled. To most, the joke was lost.

"I guess that's my cue," said the President removing his jacket.

He got in the tube, it closed elegantly and in the blink of an eye, he was in her world.