Chapter 23: If another planet would take me, I'd be glad to go.

May 11th, 2023, Templeton, California - Earth

Oliver spent the next few hours putting out fires from his direct underlings. Productivity was going to be down for a bit due to the fallout from State. Twirling a pen was not doing it for Oliver, and he started chewing softly on the end of the instrument. He became lost in e-mails and excel sheets when he heard a knock at his door. The pen fell out of Oliver's mouth and landed on the ground. He turned and looked at his boss.

White gray hair was thin but fully covered the man's head. He was slightly shorter than Oliver, but half as thin. A lanky build that kept a thin body through weekends of cleaning and repair on his ranch and house but never built any muscle due to a well-disciplined minimal diet. He dressed somewhere between the casual of Miguel and the professionalism of Oliver, but the 'casual Friday' shirt, vest, and pants were almost as expensive, if not more so, than Oliver's. He favored earthy grays and darker colors, and his black shoes, well-shined, would look good in a boardroom but had a rustic element he could survive an hour on a ranch or a farm if he was careful where he stepped.

Samuel Becker was the type of man who woke up at just before five each day because he was done sleeping, and that gave him an edge that he could bite a man's head off if he needed to, but just as often was ready to lay back and take a nap. He was the kind of man who wore a flag pin on his breast.

“Mr. Swift.” Oliver didn't like it when he was being formal. That meant he was in trouble.

“Sam, good for you to stop in I think I cleaned up the mess with State. Bit of an exciting morning.” He swiveled and started to stand up, but Samuel just made his way to a seat without care, Oliver returned to his chair as well.

“State can show some mean teeth, but you'd be one to know. Glad you got it sorted out. Still.”

Oliver gave the man space.

“Still, I can't help but wonder, maybe we should refocus our attention elsewhere,” Samuel was mulling it over like a decision like that was as important as what he should have for lunch.

“They're attacking other worlds. Stealing humans and bringing them to live in hell,” Oliver laid out the stakes for his boss.

“I suppose it does need to be addressed. If we cut out now, we can claim a couple of very big wins. That learning technique, and the milk. When you're up at the casino that's the best time to quit.” Sam's hands made a bit of a dance as he laid out the positives of their mission so far.

Oliver's boss continued, “We're moving too fast and we're making mistakes. It's one thing to get State off your back, you and I are old dogs who know how to play the game, but if the other council worlds are serious about protecting their interests here, what is your plan?”

Oliver did not really have an answer, “It's our world.”

“Well, there's talk of redrawing things, with what's going on Terra.” Oliver looked at the man confused, almost frightened. That was not the agreement that got Earth on the council. Sam tried offering more, “Everything is stable for hundreds of years, and along comes an upstart like us and in less than twenty years we solve an entire Nitz invasion by ourselves. We're built different Oliver; they don't like us. Terra was the one friend we had, and we're now on our own.”

Oliver looked down at the desk, “We're close. Just once we figure out how to fix things, we can all be friends again.”

“I think we should send the giant back. He's drawing attention. No more price checks, no more expeditions for huge fruit or whatever. Every time we rip open the dimension and step into their world, it's like a spotlight telling the multiverse: 'Look at us, we're up to no good.'”

“No!” Oliver tried to recover, “I mean, what about the project? Our secret tech.”

“All the more reason to back out, there are other worlds we can test the physics of the multiverse, Oliver. If the council realizes what we learned about convergence...” Sam held up his hands again, as if weighing Oliver's complaint and finding it wanting.

“I guess. Look I'm close to something important, Benjamin is close. He just needs a push to realize what it is. Give me another week with him.”

“You don't think uplifting all the giants, making them normal isn't going to draw attention? And what about the Nitz? They're all going to come out of their shells and then what's our plan? Ask them to play nicely? What if the horde decides they want their planet back? We're not in a position to fight another war.” Sam was not trying to berate, but he was trying to help Oliver realize his place in things.

Oliver thought over his options. The Amazons did not have to become monsters. “What if the Amazons changed themselves? What if they could see the potential that the regular sized ones had and let them be more? Like, if they uplifted themselves. Then we could, maybe invite them into our fold. We could have all the Nitz tech to ourselves.”

Samuel was unsure, “That doesn't seem possible. Besides, you literally have one in your house. Your team goes there every other week. You're not subtle on this. You need to send Benjamin home before anyone finds out we're moving people between dimensions.”

Oliver scrunched his hand and dug the nails deep, he could not believe he was considering this, “We could...”

Sam turned his head slightly, and Oliver tried again, “We could have someone there permanently. This place has been the golden goose, there's got to be more. Don't you want to know what the Nitz are up to here? We might even be able to find where the horde is hiding. We could also monitor the other council world's coming and going, if we kept someone stationed there. Setup some sort of spy network.”

Samuel leaned back but his chair refused to give, instead his posture grew modestly taller against the firm chair.

Oliver continued, “And our long-term projects. The local contact would be able to make sure the Amazons keep to the vision.”

Samuel shook his head, “It's too dangerous. Who would we even get to do that? Alex Len?”

Oliver swiveled a bit. He looked at the wall, the floor, the door behind his boss, and finally met his eyes, “I could do it.”

Samuel just blinked for a bit, he had not expected that, “I've read your reports Oliver, you know how many near misses your team has had? This is too big. I'm old enough to have known some Oh eSs eSs folks, those who were there at the start. Do you know how difficult it was to build everything from scratch? Just let it go.”

“I can't let him go.” Oliver's response was quiet, he did not want to admit it.

“You're not one to build attachments to things. I get that you think this is important, I know you think you're able to stand up to this danger.”

Oliver decided to admit the truth, “I put him in the chair. He's in there ... I can't do that to him.”

Samuel paused for long enough it made Oliver think he made a mistake admitting it. Finally, Samuel asked, “Why?”

“I thought, since it worked so well with Powell, I thought we knew enough.” Oliver got even quieter, “I'm a monster.”

“Is it working?” Samuel was not sure he wanted to know.

“No, I don't know. Maybe.” Oliver looked at his boss dead on, “Let me go back with him for a few days, maybe nothing will stick, and it'll be fine. If it does, I'll figure the next step. Maybe he can be our guy, but he needs someone to be there.”

“A changeling, a goddamn changeling. There are laws,” Both Oliver and the director knew that I.E.D.R was above such considerations. “Look, the trafficking, the political manipulation, pissing in the council's cereal, all fine, all part of the job. But that?” Samuel breathed in deeply, air coming in through his teeth and down a coarse throat. He sounded like a horse.

Samuel just admitted it, “I'm not happy with the decisions you've been making lately. I don't want to fire you, but you keep swinging for the fences when I just need to put a guy on first base. The worst part is sometimes you hit a home run.”

“You know who is not like that?” Oliver teased.

Samuel waited for Oliver, who allowed himself to smile first at his own clever answer.

“Naomi.”

Samuel laughed, and Oliver laid out the plan. “Look, let me take the fall for the stuff on Dath Ilan, and the black-market stuff once that comes out too, I'll be off world, just blame it all on me. Even send a statement to the council saying I was acting on my own for anything you need a fall-guy for. I'm the one whose gone off the reservation. Meanwhile Ben and I go back and get the real work done. I'll be like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. Disavowed but secretly avowed.”

“Oliver, you're Tom Cruise if he ate McDonalds every day. You know, it's funny, I'd almost think you planned this whole thing out. That's what makes you so great Oliver, you adapt to things so well no one knows you're flying by the seat of your pants.” Samuel let that hang for a bit, “I guess you did learn to fly when you fell out of that plane. I want you off world as soon as possible. I want it to seem like you bounced because of State's report. The fallout from this is going to be pretty bad, and we'll let you know when it's safe to come back.”

Oliver forced a weak laugh at his boss's joke. That had been the most traumatic and horrible event of his life, but he knew how to be polite in victory. The two exchanged pleasantries and went over some of the expectations for what a planetary wide spy network was going to look like. After Samuel left, Oliver returned to the excel sheets.

“Just ten million. I wish Miguel hadn't gotten low-balled,” Oliver complained to no one. Oh well, he had not planned on getting much money from the entertainment exchange anyways. The nest egg he built from the secret projects he and his team had initiated should be enough to jump start his plans for an intelligence network. He had been laying the groundwork for this for years, with contacts in government, academia, and industry. The timing could have been better, he had not expected Tiffany to recover that quickly.

Poor gal, the Amazons at Dark Cliff at done a number on her when Oliver had broken her out. Nasty place, but if you have money, definitely useful. Tiffany had certainly been a naughty little boy in her previous life. Something of the host survived.

At least that was the answer Oliver preferred, he liked it better than believing it takes eighteen years to teach a person right and wrong.

* * *

December 7^th 2116, Hiko, Nevada- Terra

Oliver reached into his flight jacket and pulled out the long silver-gray phone. He slapped Nick hard and pointed to the black screen.

“We crossed over!” Oliver exclaimed, waving it in Nick's face. The vents in the bomber had kicked on, turning the once broiling interior to an icy cold. Flakes of snow began to accumulate and be blown onto the men and their instruments.

“You brought an eye-phone to Terra? You are an idiot,” Nick chastised his friend.

“I thought since it was Apple it might work.” Oliver put away the phone away, before he noticed something. His head turned to the wall and then back to Nick, “Are the engines on?”

The alert light above them began to flash a dark red orange.

“Switching to emergency power.” Collins hit a switch; cabin lights flickered as the plane shifted to the front battery.

“Engines have flamed out, no response from throttle.” Ben turned to Collins. “I still have some control, I can coast, maybe see if I can't get us to a good spot to bail out.”

“No!” Collins was fast at saying it. “I think I can restart the engines. It's just some turbulence; they needed some more voltage.”

Behind the cockpit Eskender was still going through the shift equipment. What once was a shining display of monitors was now completely shut down, only a feint static charge leaving the dark displays. He reached into a bag and pulled out a gravimeter. He could at least verify they were on an identical Earth.

Ai was oblivious, she spent her time watching Eskender. She had seen the flashing light and was sitting patiently, hands in her lap. Soon she would need to climb the ladder and crawl into the bomb bay. She had volunteered to stay in the old gun compartment, so she could be closer to the physics package, but Benjamin had insisted she should be strapped in. Just in case something happened.

Collins flipped two more switches to his right, “Bringing up engine four first,” Collins moved a single middle stick of the eight throttles up fifteen percent, his eyes directed to the gauges between him and Ben. They were seven clocks moving in reverse, hands falling backwards towards high noon, and one in desperate jitter now moving in proper rotation, at a pace of one minute on the clock face per second.

Ben watched the engine dial slowly moving, and his eyes glancing at the altimeter. They were losing both speed and altitude.

Below them Nick desperately began looking about, “Shit, grab my jacket, Oliver. Just throw it on me, maybe it'll land near me when we eject.” Oliver had done the same, laying his own flight jacket over his seat like a blanket. A minute ago, it had been over one hundred degrees, and now it was snowing. They had not planned for this.

The nearest engine on the left wing gave a hick, and a long grind, but slowly the starter turned on. With the extra power the plane began to roll.

“Nick, here's the plan. If he doesn't flip the eject signal by one thousand” Oliver flicked to one of the few display gauges in the offensive compartment. “We both go.” Oliver then slapped the oxygen mask on and tightened it to his head, his hands fell down to the ejector seat. The handle was touchy and poorly positioned, one bad pull and he would fall out of the plane.

Ai could see the sun coming in the cockpit, the first crepuscular rays shining happily on a new world. The plane was now making a long slow turn. She had thought they were supposed to head west to the target, but perhaps they had shifted into the wrong spot. At least they had not dimension shifted upside down.

“Ben, keep us stable.” Ben struggled with his stick as the plane began a soft long turn. The dark morning sky became a shift or reds and yellows as the distant morning sun entered the cockpit. After thirty seconds Collins reached over to another switch. The plane's roll began to slow as engine five came online.

Benjamin finally was able to breathe properly again. He had been biting his teeth, and now he had two engines. If he needed to, he could land with that. His eyes looked out the cockpit for a highway or perhaps a flat stretch of land.

Collins wanted more, his hands were still guarding the four and five engine throttle, and he repowered the rest of the engines. All eight started to roar to life, drowning out all other sounds.

The air commander gave a communication to the team, they were free to move about the cabin, he turned off the alert light. His chair and flight suit were covered in sweat and now became uncomfortably cold in the declining temperatures. He gave a command through the radio, “Doctor Gao, please verify the physics package is ready for delivery.”

“Captain, got good news, sky is clear. Bad news. Bockscar had to make an emergency landing on highway three seven five.” Nick's voice came over the cabin. Ben and Collins looked at each other, knowing the implication, one less nuclear bomb would be available for the mission.

Benjamin started returning the plane to the correct altitude, direction, and speed. “We will be arriving in San Diego in forty-five minutes.”

AI started making her way down the ladder to the offensive compartment below. She was slow, each step moving one foot down, then the next, and gripping the railing hard with her hands. About halfway down her foot missed as the plane hit a bit of turbulence. She let out a startle and looked at her feet in confusion. Her grip failed and she started to slide a few inches.

A couple hands held her up at the back, “I got you.” Slowly they lowered her to the floor. AI turned to her savior.

“Captain Swift?” It took her a second to realize he was still holding her on the unstable floor, she shook him off carefully and smiled.

“Doctor Gao, this way” Oliver led her to the back and opened the small compartment she would crawl through to the bomb bay. She ducked down and began to crawl, following the catwalk around and to the left. Oliver followed behind.

Once inside the cavernous bay was large, normally it would be full of smart weapons or racks of bombs, instead there was one large bomb hanging carefully and ready for release. The physics device was larger than a man, and looked like a long pill, ten feet long and four and a half in diameter. The end had another foot for a thin tail that ended in a square box of fins. It looked heavy, perhaps eight to ten tons of metal.

Ai moved to a panel on the package. It was a mix of wires and lights, and she pushed and held a button for ten seconds. A soft ring came from the device, as bulbs lit up in sequence. Finally, a green light glowed next to Ai's hand. “We're good.”

Oliver looked at the device and at her, “That's it? I could have done that.”

“And if the light hadn't turned on, would you have known what to do next?” The physicist slapped his chest, giving a soft laugh. Her smile was as bright as the earlier sun. Oliver could see why Nick liked her.