Chapter 24: The blonde doll smiling behind us says, “One day, you'll be just like us.”

May 11th, 2023, Creston, California - Earth

Oliver's mind was elsewhere as he started down the road to his home. He began bringing the truck into a similar spot on the driveway to yesterday but stopped early. A car was already parked there. He gave the vehicle plenty of space and found another spot. There were no markings on the sedan to indicate this was some government vehicle. It was just a gray KIA, a vehicle chosen for going from point A to point B and on weekends point C.

Oliver wondered if he should try to call emergency services or perhaps arm himself – like with a branch or a piece of metal - as he walked to his own front door. It was unlocked when he carefully pushed it in. He tried to be as quiet as possible, ears attuned to any disturbance in the living room.

“How's that feel?” an unknown voice asked.

“Perfect, just perfect. I can read the small text now.” Benjamin answered.

Oliver pushed in the door slowly. Beside Benjamin was a pale white fellow of advanced age. He wore a blue jean long men's work shirt the color of the sky, and his hair had growing white, like dirty snow. Clean shaven, he had started to take on a bit of a plump in the face, but not too much in the stomach and arms. He stood next to Ben, staring up at the man who had found himself sitting in a recliner, and the two men shared round thin glasses. The older man turned as he heard Oliver enter the room.

“Xanatos!” Oliver shouted.

“Oh, I was wondering when you would be home,” came the reply from the older man.

“Hey, we're twins!” Oliver made a movement with his hands pointing at Xanatos, he paused a bit making a stance.

Xanatos’ happy demeanor became a frown, and he nodded, “Not a single person in two dimensions remembers that commercial. What was it even for, gum?”

“Insurance.” Oliver made his way over to the other man and slapped his shoulder in a hug, “Ben see, we're twins” Oliver’s face next to Xanatos while giving a thumbs up with his left hand.

Benjamin stared down at the short man, “Maybe it's the new glasses, but I don't see it.”

“I'm his grandson.” Xanatos said with a matter of fact, as if that was an explanation.

Benjamin was confused. He could see the resemblance, but Xanatos was at least a few decades older than Oliver. Maybe early sixties to Oliver's... six. “Do you guys age backwards?” Perhaps there was still a chance he would get to baby Oliver.

Oliver laughed, “No, he's from an alternate timeline twin planet. It's called Terra. Their clocks run twice as fast. Speaking of. What are you doing here 'young man'?” Oliver raised his voice with a mocking-yet-paternal tone with the question.

“Optometry, I travel around and perform services. Benjamin here put out a request for some help.”

Benjamin smiled, “Everyone has been so nice today. I got a hair stylist to give me a trim, and a tailor stopped by as well, he promised he would work through the night and rush new clothes over first thing in the morning. This planet is great.”

“Ben, this is a secret safe house, no one is supposed to know there's a giant here from another dimension. Also, Xanatos, since when have you been an optometrist?” Oliver did not know which fact was more confusing, the fact there were random strangers visiting the giant, or that his grandson had mastered a new profession.

Xanatos gave his answer, “A couple years now.”

Oliver looked around the room, “Seriously? You're like sixty, you can't just up and change careers, and certainly not become a doctor, that's a multi decade commitment.”

Xanatos chided him, “It's just a skill, something to do, it seemed useful, and I like doing it. Imagine if you had to keep doing your first job Oliver. How many Bee fifty twos are flying these days?”

Benjamin added, “He has a machine to make the glasses in his car and these are perfect. No electronics to distract me either.”

Ben started to put the pieces together, “Alternate timeline, from Terra. The planet in Oliver's video.” Despite saying that, Ben could not remember a single bit of information from the video except the blurb on the back.

Xanatos nodded, “That's right, we're the ones grandpa dropped a thermonuclear device on.”

Benjamin frowned, “Oliver, hitting people is wrong. Promise me you won't do that again.”

Oliver shook his head, “It was a Nietzschean invasion, and we stopped it.”

Xanatos laughed, “They aren't called that.”

The snide retort from Oliver was half muted, “Yeah, well, if they wanted me to learn how to pronounce their name right, they shouldn't have strung me up in a prison camp for six months.” His logic was unbeatable.

Benjamin nodded to the older man, “Oliver is being modest, he speaks their language, it's quite impressive.”

Xanatos agreed, “Of course he does, it's like the tenth most common language in the multi. Oliver was at State for a few years, right, Counselor Swift? Deputy something to Pangaea?”

“For about two minutes, yeah, then they not-so-politely asked me to leave.” Oliver turned to Ben, “I said their dinosaurs were fake, and that Earth's chickens had better claim to the title.”

The two men looked at Oliver, was he just making up a story, telling a joke? Xanatos tried laughing.

Benjamin looked to Oliver and then back to Xanatos, and then back to Oliver, who sighed before giving the answer, “Nitz Kean is a creole language on worlds where China, England, and Spain colonize North America. The Chinese usually stay home, that’s why we speak English here on Earth... America.” He waited a moment and then continued, “I'm sorry, I should have been honest about what I knew earlier.”

“Oliver, you've been lying to me since I met you.” Benjamin called him out. “You did it right now. I know linear Aye is a mixed language. What about linear see? Why is it you get to lie to me, but I can't lie to you?”

The boy's back stood up, “That's fair, I'll be honest for the rest of the day. No more lies. The specific variant used by the nomads and your island people, I can read and write.” He turned to Xanatos, “And yes, that is impressive.” His attention went back to Ben, “I didn't want you to know for certain what I knew, in case you were working with the horde. I don't think you are anymore; I don't see any more reason to lie.”

Benjamin smiled at that, finally some trust and honesty. No more spy nonsense. No more messing with his head, the two of them could work together. Benjamin pulled up the tablet to try reading some more with his new glasses.

Oliver directed Xanatos to the couch, and he turned to the giant. Ben's attention was elsewhere, a perfect chance to test something, calmly Oliver spoke the command.

“Benjamin, while parents sit in silence with their books and papers the grown-ups are oblivious to the antics of their progeny. Hear not our giggles, whispers, and secrets, enjoy the peace and quiet. For it is best that children be seen and not heard.” What a mouth full! He would need to beat the intern who came up with that code phrase.

Benjamin could not move. He could not respond. He could keep reading, moving his eyes on the screen and entering simple commands on the tablet. No matter how hard he pushed, it was like a weight that kept his body locked in place.

“What was that?” Xanatos asked, making room for Oliver to sit down.

“It's just a command to keep him from hearing us. Unless we set the house on fire, he's going to be completely indifferent to what us children do. We could jump on the furniture and color the walls and he wouldn't stop us. The whole world is mute to him.”

Benjamin tried to comment, but there was nothing. Benjamin understood that either Oliver was lying to Xanatos, or Oliver did not understand what he had just done. Neither made him feel comfortable with the new, trustworthy Oliver.

“First off, hello. It's good to see you. How have you been?” Oliver's mood was bright, his hands raised in acceptance of his near kin.

“Things are not good Oliver.” Every word was heavy and deliberate for Xanatos.

“How are the whales doing? Are they recovering?” Oliver tried small talk.

“The whales? Not, how's dad? Not how am I?” Oliver hung his head a bit in shame, “They're fine.”

“How is, um, your dad?” Oliver was not sure he wanted to know.

“Dad's getting old. They want to shove him into a Vee-aRe, chamber. He's mad at everything these days.”

“He can come here, he doesn't have to stay with me, maybe mom, his grandmother. She could use the company.” Oliver offered it sincerely, coming up with the plan on the spot. Xanatos seemed to consider it, but it would be another problem of Terra being offloaded onto Earth. He instead changed directions.

“What's the deal with 'Mr. Green Giant' over there? I knew grandpa was a bit poofy, but I wasn't aware your tastes were so eclectic. This an example of divergence? I thought kink didn't work that way.”

Ben could not move. He wanted to speak up, they were talking about him, but no words came. He hit the next page button, and the back button, and the next page button again on the tablet.

Oliver defended himself, “It's not like that. He's here while we figure out a possible Nitz incursion on his planet.”

“Then there is still hope I'll run into my double someday.” his grandson taunted.

“You know, it's hard to date when you know you have a soul mate and no clue who that could be. Maybe my favorite grandson could give me a hint?”

“No. It doesn't work like that.” Xanatos and Oliver had had this conversation at some point, and Xanatos had won it before.

“Then why are you here?” Oliver finally got around to asking.

The older man held his chin for a second with a couple fingers, then decided how to answer it. “Official business. I'm here to see you, I have some questions I think you can answer, and when your friend here put out the call, on your social media account, I was curious to see what was going on, and thought now would be a good time to ask.”

“I wasn't aware Terra was doing off world expeditions.” Oliver was trying to politely say it without saying it, they both knew Xanatos did not have permission to be on Earth.

“We had a few secret projects going on during the war. You do know Terra invented dimensional travel before the microchip, right? Plus, we picked up a thing or two from the Nitz.” Xanatos brought his head up to his head and adjusted his own glasses, taking them momentarily off his face before returning them. “Things are getting worse back home.”

“We're trying to make things right. Earth literally fed your entire planet for a year.” Oliver offered.

“It's not resources, it's, like a death of hope. We've lost our place in the universe. Terra was the one council planet that got there through peace, cooperation, and understanding. We showed a better way of doing things,” his grandson was somber in response.

“We're you too. We're sharing. It's your spot on the council too. Our wins are your wins. You can still be that better way,” Oliver was optimistic.

“Our planet is littered with guns and leftover armaments from the war. Lots of old grievances and some new. There are not enough resources to go around, and now there is no escape hatch. Ethiopia and Eritrea have just gone to war.” The older Swift said, the last part was paused and then said quietly, as if the point was obvious.

“Ehh, those two are going to war like every five years on Earth. That's just a thing they do.”

“Grandpa, Italian Eritrea, and the Kingdom of Italy, is now at war with the Ethiopian Empire. I haven't read volume two of Zang's book, but I believe that's a canon event on your world.”

Oliver backed up on the couch, every muscle grew tense, “No. That's not possible. You already had World War Two. We purposely timed things so... You can't have World War Two a second time.” Oliver was not actually sure that was how the physics worked, but no one had ever heard of a World War Two Two.

“Hmm, well, maybe. Like you said, there's lots of reasons that can happen, could be we are reading too much into it. I'm not here about that though.”

The old man started talking about the tale, “Off world contact was extremely limited after the war, we wanted to try restarting our computer industry, so we reached out to a few planets to bring us work, because we could still use our time advantage to compute. Just send us a hard problem, and we'd send back an answer. All our old contacts said no. We know their computers are not that much faster or more efficient than ours, and you'd think with the time advantage we could do the computations for cheaper.”

“Hmm.” Oliver just kept his mouth shut.

“We're not going twice as fast. Not since the war. Earth kept it secret from us by limiting off world travel.”

“We didn't want you guys to panic, there was so much to do after the war.” Oliver's explanation was sensible but short.

“Grandpa, I'm here, it doesn't take a chronometer to know how much Terra has slowed down.” The old man's patience was growing shorter.

“Do you think the Nitz attack might have left some lasting damage?” Oliver tried.

“No.” The denial was cold, he stared directly at Oliver's face.

The younger man got defensive “I'm not allowed to say anything.”

Xanatos stood up and went past Benjamin's chair. He pulled out a bag with “Swift Optometry” on it. He dug for a bit, and pulled out a box, then walked back to the couch.

“This belonged to my grandpa.” It was a wooden box of polished oak, intended for jewelry, documents, and keepsakes. It was twenty-one inches long, a foot wide, and eight inches tall and had a simple lock on the front.

Oliver did not have anything he owned that looked like that, but it reminded him of a box his mother once hid away in her closet. She always keeps important documents in there, passports, social security cards, and birth certificates. If this is the same family box, Oliver could finally know the answer to a question that had plagued him for fifteen years.

Oliver desired to know the damage to his destiny he caused when he dropped that bomb. With the information inside he could begin to repair it. Fix things. He would go back to Victoria if that's what it took, being called Ollie was a sacrifice worthy of meeting one's soul mate. Oliver's hand reached out to touch the box slowly. Xanatos held up a hand to stop him.

“He left it with the family to give to you, but we decided against it.” Xanatos explained.

“You can't do that. It's my box.” Oliver almost shook. His voice elevated and Ben even seemed to lift his head for just a second, a father concerned over a yelling child. Oliver noticed and lowered his voice.

“Please, you have no idea how important this is.” He had a quiet desperation. For thirty years he had wanted this, ever since he learned he had a twin.

“My grandfather was a great man, and I'm not saying you're not, but nothing you've done compares to what he meant to us. If you want to show you're the same man, you're going to have to show me that side of you.”

Oliver had already broken so many laws, and this seemed necessary. Xanatos knew what kind of man his grandfather was, the moral weight of what needed to be done, and the lengths he would go to achieve it. It was not just the gift, it was what the gift represented, a box of hope for Terra's future. No one else on Earth would open it.

Oliver began the explanation, “It was a requirement to get on the council. They said it would be good for you guys to slow down a bit. And they aren't wrong. We can't feed your entire planet, and certainly can't at half speed, but ten percent we can do. The food is coming, no one has to go hungry. We even gave you those whales to help repopulate the oceans.”

“The device, it was Verdant technology. They came to us with something to disrupt your Hubble constant. I don't even know what that means, some kind of dark energy machine, but it causes time to go slower now. They, sometimes use it to lock out the naughty worlds.”

“That could destroy our space time! A slow down like that will cause a big crunch. Do you have any idea what kind of damage this is doing to our cosmos?” Xanatos' hands wafted open, as if trying to carry the enormity of the problem in them, trying to make the scale of it known to Oliver.

“It... Yes, it could, you are on a clock here. They said we wouldn't let it get that bad though.”

“We've got ten years, maybe fifteen.” Oliver looked at him with surprise, and Xanatos went into this interview knowing more than he let on. “Why? Why would you do that to your brother?”

Oliver did not like that. He did not want to be blamed for problems of his Earth; it was not like it was his fault.

The younger man tried to explain, “We put it on the moon. It's simple, you just fly up there and turn it off. We put a lock on it. A human has to turn the key, no robots or disintegration. They said if we did it, we could get in the council, we would be responsible for your part of the cosmos.”

“They also said it'd let us catch up a bit, and we'd be together again. Twins. We're supposed to be the same.” The last part came in shallow, Oliver refocused his energy and spoke with certainty, with a bit of anger to it for his last argument.

“And more than that we deserved it. You stole our time.”

Xanatos was incredulous, uncertain, “We didn't steal... it wasn't like we wanted to take your time.”

“And not just our time. All our best years. Earth had World War One and World War Two. Communism. Decolonization. The cold war. The post-colonial world. Racism. Two hundred million people died on Earth in our wars, men and women who had happy lives as far as I can tell on Terra. If Terra hadn't come in nineteen ninety-two, I fear, no... I know what future events were in store for us.”

Xanatos shook his head. What sort of complaint was that? How was it Terra's fault that Earth made bad choices? He tried anyways, “Sometimes you're the Earth. We didn't try to make things bad for you. You guys just weren't ready.”

“And you know the worst part. You let your defenses down and you encouraged a Nitz invasion. There were only a few million of them and they conquered your planet. No resistance at all. You tried to show the universe a better way and look how that ended up. Then grandpa and grandma had to come in and save your butts. What thanks do we get? None. We're giving you ten percent of our food a month and we get spit on in your streets. I know volunteers who had dealt with disdain from their own sons and daughters, those same children who are now babies on Earth today. You know what it feels like to look at your own kid, and know you are going to raise him to be an ungrateful asshole ...”

“You nuked us!” Xanatos yelled.

“Hey, keep it down over there, don't make me get up.” Ben was not even sure how he was able to speak there. He wanted to say anything else, but his eyes were glued to the tablet.

“Sorry” Oliver got quieter.

“Yeah, sorry, Mr. Young.” Both boys looked at each other.

“Oliver, why did you guys trust the council on this? They're the worst people in the multiverse, when I was at State, I had to work with them. You should know though; you got banned from Gaia over complaints on their weapons testing.”

“Pangaea? How'd you know about the robot facility?” Oliver was confused, the official story was about dinosaurs. How good a spy network did Terra have? They were the nicest, best people in the multiverse, why would they even need spies?

Xanatos buttoned up his mouth, “uh, sorry, wrong... Yeah, Pangaea. Always get those two confused in my old age.”

“Look, we know they're playing us. Whether or not we did it, they were going to do it. So, we did it, and then we put a couple tricks in.”

Xanatos waited, and Oliver continued, “Yes, Terra is now going a tenth the speed of the rest of the multiverse. The device is on the moon in a spot you should be able to get to, the Sea of Tranquility.”

“We don't have a manned space program. There's nothing out there. Just stupid rocks. God, it wasn't enough that we went our own way, now you have to force us to recreate your crowning achievement. A manned moon landing. Do you know how expensive, how dangerous that is?”

“Well, yeah, but we can help.” Oliver hinted.

“Earth couldn't put a person on the moon today. It's impossible. We're dead. And we're at ten percent speed. How is anyone going to help? Are you going to e-mail us the instructions? We can read your books; we know what it takes to get there. We don't have it in us. No one does.”

“No, no. There's something else. It is only one tenth the speed on average. You go at regular speed, well, Earth speed, three days of the month. During a full moon. You lose more time as the moon goes away. During your three days you pop out, and we can share everything one-to-one. That's the secret. If we get caught, we will blame it on tidal forces or something. No one knows how to explain the moon.”

Xanatos nodded. Earth giving Terra a rocket would be 'uplifting', but if Terra solved the problem on her own, then that is just fair. The council was hypocrites, but they honored the rules of the game. For three days a month Earth and Terra could cooperate in secret.

The baby brother had made a mistake working with the council. All Earth ever wanted was to be like Terra, and that led them to make bad decisions, but at least they were trying hard to make things right. Terra needed to set an example, be forgiving, take the hit and move on.

Xanatos put the box down on the couch and pushed it slightly to Oliver, who eagerly grabbed it. His arms shook as he reached down and slowly lifted the polished wood hinge, which gave a subtle creak. There was no paper, no jewelry. Neither documents, nor passports. No marriage certificates or death certificates or birth certificates. Instead, there was a black and white toy. Oliver carefully pulled it out.

The stuffie was close to twenty inches long, black with white spots, deep black eyes, and white bottom. The exterior had a light fuzz and inside was a firm plush that held its shape. It was pristine, only the lightest of wear from storage and age.

“SHAMU” Oliver recognized it immediately, he could see himself in one black eye and Xanatos in the other as he began to cradle the toy into his chest. He was careful not to tug on the blue, white tags. “I always wanted Willy, but my parents said I had toys at home.”

He then remembered something. SeaWorld on Terra was gone. He knew that for a fact. Where did this come from? Oliver looked back in the box. There were two photographs.

He lifted them up carefully, Xanatos gave a warning, “Careful, don't get those mixed up.”

Oliver looked at the top one first, it had a six-year-old boy reaching for a plushie like the one in his lap. He wore jean blue suspenders and had a simple red shirt on. His hair was slightly too long for a young boy's cut and had bits of blonde in auburn and a spikey top that refused to stay down. His other arm was being pulled by a much taller woman from off frame.

“This is me! How do you have a picture of me from my trip to SeaWorld? This was just after the movie came out too. Nineteen ninety-three?”

“No, that's grandpa.” Xanatos pointed to the other photo. “This one is you, taken in twenty eighty-seven based on the time stamp.”

The photo was nearly identical, though the quality of colors in the second photo was stronger, much less faded, and taken with a digital camera. The angle and timing of the shot was twinned. A six-year-old boy, reaching for a plush toy, being pulled by his mother to go back home.

Oliver started a laugh that became a cry, “He came to Earth to give me the toy I wanted, and then he kept it for himself.” Tears started to form, and he breathed in deeply, leaning hard on Xanatos, “You have no... it's not fair. I told you what you wanted. Just give me a hint. Was it supposed to be Ai?”

He started rubbing the younger man's shoulder in a hug, “It doesn't work like that Oliver.”

“Please, anything. Victoria? Naomi? I need to know.”

“It's not Naomi. It's just something you need to come to terms with Oliver, your fate is different. You are on a different path. The lines don't always converge again.”

Benjamin finally finished reading. It was a short book on Earth's liberation of Terra. It was not a biopic on Oliver's mission, like “Necessary Evil,” but it told him enough. The disaster of the air war on the opening day, the use of nuclear bombs, and finally the global invasion.

Earth was filled with the most odious people Ben could imagine, but deep down he knew they were not inherently evil. They just resorted to being mean because it was the only solution that made sense to them. Earthlings were products of their period, time, and place, and with the right molding they could grow up to be as nice and lovable as the Terrans or their counterparts on Amazonia.

Even in this room, Oliver was nothing more than a six-year-old boy. Here was a grandpa and a grandson together, the younger one crying over not getting the gift he wanted and needing comfort in a plush toy. They were all just children, and every now and then the little ones just needed to be hugged.