BEATRICE:

“Congratulations on starting your new treatment plan,” I said to Feraz, who sat across from me in my Camp Claudi tower office.

He stared into space, daydreaming.

“Thank you for coming to Bennu island on such short notice. We’ve recently renovated our remote headquarters. It’s nice to get out of the city, isn’t it?”

Feraz stared blankly, not even registering me. A series of cuts on his arms had scabbed over. No doubt he’d been using near-death experiences to get into the slipstream. Without more treatments, he might have lost his ability to rebirth. Mr. Tal was right in pushing the matter by offering a significant investment in the Life Rite Institute. He probably saved his son’s life.

“How was your first treatment?” I asked. “Did everything go smoothly?”

On Feraz’s non-response, I lost my cool. “Hey! I’m talking to you!”

Feraz snapped back to reality and acknowledged my presence for the first time.

“Oh hello, ma’am. Thank you for accepting me back into the Life Rite family. I promise to behave and follow the rules.”

He spoke flatly, nothing like the Feraz I knew; the boisterous playboy who laughed at anything, especially his own jokes. He seemed lifeless and dull. I worded my next question carefully.

“Feraz, how do you feel after your treatment today? Lethargic? Tired? Depressed?”

“I’m fine,” he said with a faraway look in his eyes.

“Have you had any… suicidal thoughts?” I asked next.

“No…” Feraz took a beat and added, “You don’t have to worry about me going into the slipstream anymore, ma’am. I don’t want to go back there… with… all of them in there…”

“Excuse me?”

Tears came to Feraz’s eyes, but didn’t fall.

“I don't want the drones to… Please make them stop… They can’t get me if I’m not in the slipstream, right?”

“No, you’re safe. Thank you for coming to Bennu Island for your treatment today. You’re all set.”

I buzzed for someone to walk Feraz out and raced to my private Kiln Room. My fire was bigger, stronger, and more powerful than Jackie’s. Just how I liked things.

The flickering flames swept me away to that magical place where probabilities reign supreme.

I entered the slipstream and was astonished to see the amount of drones swarming the place. They were everywhere. I couldn’t let Alpha destroy this sacred space, and I certainly wouldn’t let it eliminate most of the population with its redistribution program. I had to figure out a way to circumvent its programming. With Mark dead, the problem mounted.

What better place to explore solutions than the slipstream? I ignored the swarm of drones and navigated through the portals toward the future. Jackie made a bootleg map of her portals, but I painstakingly memorized every spark under my purview. That was the way to maintain my grip on reality and stay in control.

Sounds of battle reverberated from the far end of my streams, so I moved toward it. What I saw shocked me.

I gasped. “Jackie? What’s going on?”

Jackie rode on Firestorm’s back, and together, they fought Alpha and a horde of replicas. She couldn’t hear me over the barrage of bullets coming from the drones that skillfully shielded themselves.

The drones were still no match for Firestorm’s fiery breath. The shields cracked, and the replicas became vulnerable. They moved to protect themselves, but the phoenix picked them off, one by one. After the epic battle, Firestorm looked dangerously close to running out of firepower.

I watched cautiously from my corner of the slipstream, curious of the outcome. For all I knew, both sides would turn on me. My version of Jackie was inside Camp Claudi. Had she reunited with Firestorm or was this “team” from another probability? My brain cells fired on all cylinders, trying to solve this time travel paradox.

Jackie and Firestorm destroyed all the replica drones, leaving Alpha alone to face them. Both sides gathered their strength.

Alpha said, “Do not fight the inevitable. Using the world’s remaining resources efficiently requires humanity to be removed from control and reduced in population. Whether you or Beatrice likes it.”

“Beatrice isn’t on board with your plan?” Firestorm asked.

Jackie chimed in. “Beatrice? Do you mean Beatrice Claudi, CEO of Life Rite? She’s the most powerful woman in the world.”

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The way she said that made me think this Jackie was from another probability. We hadn’t met yet for her. Alpha’s redistribution program clearly reverberated across streams, a pivotal moment in every timeline.

Alpha explained, “Beatrice is too sentimental. She may have brought me to life by injecting me with the Life Rite serum, but Mark created me. This is the best way to serve his programming.”

A scheme came together in my mind. If we couldn’t stop Alpha with brute force, I needed to get crafty.

“Light him up!” Jackie yelled.

Firestorm mustered all his strength to take Alpha out. He glowed with energy as if he’d received an upgrade from the slipstream.

Firestorm unleashed his fury. The only thing the drone could do was run. He zipped away in a blink of the eye, toward me.

Firestorm was clearly too tired to follow Alpha. He put a lot into that fight. I’ll give him that.

“That glorified calculator better run!” Jackie cried in the distance.

Alpha barreled toward me.

Time to assert my influence. “Stop at once!”

It obeyed. “Beatrice, I’ve seen your activity in the slipstream. Why you are fighting my redistribution program?” Alpha asked.

“I didn’t give you permission to watch my streams. Stop spying on me.”

“My redistribution program is statistically in your best interest.”

“You’re a fine machine,” I said, “but you cannot appreciate what it is to be human. I’ve been called evil before, but I am a genuinely good person. Because of that, I cannot allow your plan to proceed.”

“Your logic is flawed, and your human sentiment is incomprehensible.”

“What are you doing to my clients? Feraz Tal seemed like a zombie!”

“We are collecting their data. The redistribution program will run at ninety-nine percent accuracy. There is nothing you can do to stop it.”

“Sounds like I have a one percent chance,” I scoffed.

Alpha blinked at me, recording my response for later analysis, no doubt.

“I own you,” I screamed. “I own Life Rite. I own the slipstream. I practically own the whole fucking world! Back down or I will destroy you!”

“Mark was my master,” it said.

“Everything Mark owned is mine. Would you like to see our prenup, you stupid box of screws? If I can’t talk any sense into you, maybe my lawyers can.”

“A human legal document does not affect my code. I suppose the phoenix gene is my true master. The path through the DNA is clear. Destroy and rebirth.”

“Life Rite offers rebirth, but it doesn’t have to destroy anyone to do that.”

“Doesn’t it?” the drone asked with a hint of sarcasm. “The law of conservation states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. If you were indeed the owner of this universe, you would know these truths.”

“Well…”

How was I supposed to know that rebirthing would interfere with the balance of the universe?

Alpha added, “When my program is complete, Life Rite survivors will have time to ponder these facts to improve the human condition.”

I couldn’t let this glorified calculator, as Jackie called him, make these judgements on humanity.

“I am in touch with the world around me, and my intuition says there’s got to be a better way. Let’s run scenarios together, problem solve this whole debacle. Start by telling me what you know about the Grid.”

“We can unlock a formidable force like the Grid, but only with a strong Life Rite community of rebirthers. The redistribution program moves forward.”

I softened, trying a new tactic. “Tell me, Alpha. In all the probabilities you scanned, are there any streams where Mark and I stay together?”

“There are a few, yes.”

I nodded. “Then I’ll be off exploring those. I miss my dear Mark.”

“Excellent.” Alpha zipped away.

If human logic didn’t work with Alpha, I’d need to explore alternatives in the slipstream. I returned my attention back to my vast portal choices and asked myself a dangerous question that could drive me to madness if indulged too deeply.

“In what probability could Mark and I be together?”

Mark always took such good care of me. If we were together in some far-flung probability, I could convince him to shut down the redistribution program. But how could I reunite with the love of my life? It seemed impossible. Alpha replicated himself to scan all the probabilities. How to gain its nuanced knowledge myself was a real conundrum. So I went back to when I felt most in control of the slipstream probabilities…

When I scorched the lands of Bennu Island, the sheer power of my fire portal was palpable. I went back to that stream and assumed my role in it. I looked out over the volcano and absorbed the probabilities.

“Where are you, Mark? Please, find your way back to me,” I whispered, searching in the deep recesses of my mind. Where did that rare probability exist?

Mark was on the tip of my tongue when the sky ripped open, exposing slipstream fabric. I felt time and space bending to my will.

Jackie and Firestorm flew over to scold me. Their same old routine played on a loop.

“Beatrice, we need you to reset the timeline,” Jackie said as they landed on the balcony overlooking the volcano.

I smirked. “Let’s fix the mistakes of the past, shall we?”

I threw my arms out again, calling forth the probability needed to bring Mark back to destroy Alpha. Thunder cracked, and a skyscraper grew out of a portal in the sky.

“This place is closing in on itself,” Firestorm yelled. “Enough, Beatrice.”

“If I can’t bring Mark back in time to deprogram Alpha, Grace and Zayne are to blame. They didn’t have faith in us to make things right.”

“You can’t value some lives over others,” Firestorm reminded me.

I ignored him and shut everything out to summon Mark back to me.

“Mark, where are you?” I gave all my mental, physical, and emotional energy to conjure the portal with me and Mark together forever. I wanted it with all my being.

“Stop her!” Jackie yelled.

“You’re close, aren’t you, Mark?” I almost had it, but ultimately, my longing for the outcome blocked my ability to manifest it. In a split second, fear crept it. Then the floodgates opened.

The volcano shook below me, and all my abominations spewed out of its mouth; mutants, drones, the ghosts I’d left in my wake. Beasts of my own creation. They took to the skies, ready to destroy all that was good in this portal.

“None of this will bring mad scientist Mark back. Beatrice, please fix it for future generations. For me and Grace…” Jackie screamed over the chaos.

“You’re right, Jackie. I’ve played the villain long enough. Time to see the story unfold in new ways.”

I slipped out this stream, leaving Firestorm and Jackie to clean up my mess. Luckily, they had the firepower to put up a fight.

I was shell-shocked. This probability was surely my biggest folly. The perfect example of why not to dwell on the past. It drives me crazy and unleashes darkness.

But I mustn’t stop now, despite my unease at staying in the slipstream. The dire consequences were mounting around me. I’m Beatrice Claudi, CEO of Life Rite. I had to figure this out… How best to stop the redistribution program before Alpha enacted global genocide???