BEATRICE:

  Back to my physical reality in the present day.

  I woke up in my Kiln Room and summoned Alpha from my watch. Sweat drenched my body, so I turned off the furnace.

  The scanner outside the door clicked, and Alpha entered. “Hello, ma’am.”

  “Alpha, what’s the status of the Redistribution Program?”

  “I am gathering the remaining three percent of data to build redistribution protocols.”

  I slumped onto the couch, defeated, too exhausted to cry.

  My schemes didn’t work, and I was out of Slipstream possibilities to explore.

  I had to fix this in the here and now of my physical reality.

  My heart pumped, pushing me into fight-or-flight mode. “Alpha, shut it down.”

  “Negative.”

  “Utterly unacceptable, Alpha!” I bolted to my feet and ran out of the humid room, leaving my killer drone behind.

  The stubbornness of the probabilities meant solutions in the Slipstream weren't guaranteed, so I had to investigate answers covertly in real life too.

  My usually serene demeanor faded as I raced through the halls of Camp Claudi.

  “Out of my way!”

  Gilda from the skincare department gripped her clipboard and hugged the wall as I flew by.

  I always made it a point never to look frazzled, but this was a genuine emergency.

  “Hurry.” I pressed the elevator button a dozen times.

  The lift couldn’t come fast enough. I twisted my sweaty hands together to strangle the panic away.

  The ding of the opening doors rattled me further.

  I rode the elevator down to the tech room and scanned my DNA Identifier to enter the R&D department.

  Twenty of the world’s top robotic engineers worked with Malik on replicas of Alpha, digging into the core mechanics to figure out how to shut them all down.

  My engineers stiffened at my presence.

  “Someone give me good news or my payroll will be a lot lighter tomorrow,” I yelled. “Haven’t you heard? It’s the year of efficiency.”

  Threatening to fire someone always got fast results, but these idiots still had nothing to say.

  “Tell me something good, Malik.”

  He turned ashen and didn’t even muster the guts to look me in the eye. All my employees were cowards like that.

  He stammered, “I… well… so…”

  “Spit it out.” I crossed my arms and gritted my teeth.

  He blurted it out. “Basically, in layman’s terms, the drones are locked. There’s a source code we can’t penetrate. Even though Alpha’s replicas were all made recently, they’ve somehow downloaded this cryptic programming. It’s wild. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “I asked for good news.” My body flushed despite the overly air-conditioned room.

  Malik stared at me blankly.

  Looking around the room, no one else made eye contact with me, either. Cowards. All of them.

  “Figure it out, people. And fast. I’ll be back in an hour.” I stormed out, the steel door slamming behind me.

  My shoulders drooped, and I leaned my forehead against the cement hallway wall. Alpha would go into annihilation mode soon.

  I tried to deepen my shallow breathing, but it was no use. There’d never be enough air until I found a solution.

  Not knowing what else to do, I went to check on Jackie. I needed the support of my family now.

  I scanned my DNA Identifier and walked into Jackie’s Kiln Room, expecting to find her passed out on the couch.

  Her stupid notebook was there, but she wasn’t. Maybe she finally mastered taking her physical body into the Slipstream.

  “Jackie?” I called.

  Sniffling came from the corner.

  I found Jackie curled up in the fetal position.

  “Jackie? Are you okay?”

  She looked at me with tears streaming down her cheeks, wearing her party dress from days ago. How long had she been working the Slipstream to the detriment of her health?

  Preoccupied with problems of my own, I hadn’t noticed.

  “Jackie, what’s wrong?” I reached out to comfort her but pulled my hand back, not wanting to get bitten.

  She mumbled something incoherent and rubbed her face, smearing her eye makeup across her cheek.

  I sighed at how sloppy she was.

  “Where… which stream is this?” Jackie asked. “Where’s Grace?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Where’s my mom?” Jackie asked accusingly. “Is she okay? Did you see what they did to her?”

  I rolled my eyes. I didn’t have time to rehash the past.

  “Get a grip, Jackie. Grace is gone.”

  Her eyes darted around the room, trying to piece together where she was. “You let them do this, didn’t you?”

  My disdain turned to pity. Jackie was lost in it all.

  I put my arms around her shoulders. “Don’t worry. I’m here. We’re together. In this reality, right here and now. We’re together. Isn’t that enough? It has to be,” I whispered.

  Jackie’s cheeks turned bright red, and she pushed me away.

  She stood and paced like a wild animal, spouting nonsense. “They did this to her, and you let them. You did this to Grace. You did this to all of us. You’ll pay for what you’ve done.”

  “Stop, Jackie. You’re losing yourself, losing sight of the truth. Reality is escaping you…”

  “I can’t stop,” Jackie replied. “I won’t stop. Not until I save my mom. I need to save Grace, Zayne, and Baxter, too.”

  Her pointed gaze cut like a knife. “You lied about Baxter, and now you’re up to something worse.”

  Jackie shoved her dirty finger in my face. Her hand shook, unsteady and unhinged.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The drones! You unleashed them into the Slipstream, and now they’re infecting everything. They’re taking people’s souls.”

  “Souls? Don’t be so dramatic. Sure, they’re taking data, but—”

  “So you knew about this?”

  What did Jackie see in the Slipstream to make her think the drones are stealing souls?

  After seeing the shell of a man Feraz was, I assumed she was right on some level.

  “I’m sorry, Jackie. I truly am. No matter what I try, I can’t stop them. They’re running the final simulation, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  “What do you mean, final simulation?”

  “They’ve collected massive amounts of data, and they’ve decided…” I choked up delivering such horrific news.

  “What? Tell me already!”

  “They’re going to eliminate ninety-nine percent of the population due to its Redistribution Program.” The words felt like bile coming out of my mouth.

  Jackie looked at me in disbelief. “The Dusters and the Climbers… Alpha’s going to take them out like trash.”

  “They say it’s the most efficient use of…” Finishing that sentence made me want to vomit, but I cried instead.

  I needed comfort, but Jackie ridiculed me.

  “The kingdom has fallen under your reign, Queen Beatrice. Admit it. You’ve made so many mistakes. You’re not the mastermind you portray yourself to be.”

  “Like you can do better?” I scoffed. “You’re a Slipstream junkie! Always stuck in the past like your lowlife father.”

  Jackie laughed. She actually laughed at me.

  I crossed my arms, my jaw clenching.

  Jackie said with spite, “You’re so focused on winning the future that you miss the point. You’ve inflicted so much pain on people as a means to your end. Your happiness shouldn’t come at the expense of others. You think you’re so great, but you’re a monster.”

  That stung.

  I screamed back, “I had no choice. I had to look to the future, explore the probabilities. Don’t you see? That’s all I had left. My body was paralyzed, but my mind wasn’t. Don’t judge until you’re trapped in a decaying body, okay? Anyone in my position would weigh their options. I chose life!”

  “Well, this life sucks. Take away this cursed phoenix gene. I don’t want it. I never asked for any of this. I can’t live in this unjust world for eternity.”

  Jackie paced barefoot, hair a mess.

  It broke my heart to see her in such a state, to have another child reject me and the life of luxury I provided.

  “Maybe you’re right.” I slumped onto the couch. “The true cost of choosing my life was too great. I’ve lost Mark, Grace, and now you’re slipping away from me, too. I always end up alone. It’s the most probable outcome, I guess.”

  Jackie stopped pacing and came to me. She looked me dead in the eye. “We’ve got to go back in time to fix things. Make massive changes. Have you tried that to stop your creepy robot sidekick?”

  “I’m sorry, Jackie, but you can’t change the past. I’ve tried repeatedly, and I can’t handle the maddening ache of failure any longer.”

  “I don’t believe that. Firestorm made it seem like… I won’t stop until I figure it out.” Jackie grabbed her notebook and riffled through its pages, as if the answer would magically appear.

  My head slumped into my hands. I rarely conceited defeat, but the Alpha problem was critical, and none of my simulations in the Slipstream worked. Despite my sincerest attempts to the contrary, Life Rite left a deluge of suffering in its wake.

  I could justify the mutations, and even scorched lands, but I could not in good conscience let Alpha kill billions of people.

  I hated to see Grace fall ill, even after she threw me and Mark into the volcano, but to watch Jackie unravel was the final straw.

  “You’re right, Jackie,” I finally said. “I lied to you.”

  “I knew it. Baxter died in the street. You never tried to save him.”

  “Um.” I forgot I told her that. Seemed better at the time to ease the blow.

  I shook my head. “Not about that. I lied about changing the past.”

  “What do you mean?” Jackie asked with an insatiable desire to know dancing in her wild eyes.

  “The Slipstream portals represent key decisions that are pivotal in our lives. When you change events, the outcome may still be the most probable. Do you follow?”

  “I think so.” Jackie looked at her map of the Slipstream, processing my explanation.

  “There’s a more pivotal moment that can change the probability. I can’t control the knock-on effects, but there’s a deeper root cause of it all. If…”

  I choked on the idea. The thought of it made me sick.

  “What? How? You’ve got to change our fates, B.”

  Tears streamed down my silky cheeks. “I can’t focus on the past. It’s too hard. I felt trapped back then. It was worse than a cage… I can’t go back. We need to keep going forward.”

  Jackie shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  Maintaining my well-crafted composure was no longer an option. I blubbered, “I’m not a villain. I’m a hero.”

  Jackie softened at the sight of my watershed tears and put her arm around me.

  “There’s a fine line between the two,” she said. “A villain will sacrifice the world to save a chosen few. A hero makes personal sacrifices to save the world. Either way, sacrifices need to be made.”

  I nodded. “I know we have to stop Alpha from ending it all.”

  Jackie grabbed my hands and looked me in my eyes. “Let’s be heroes. Let’s change the past. It’s the only way to save our future.”

  “What about the empire I’ve built?”

  Jackie shrugged it off so easily. “Life Rite only benefits Flyers, and let’s face it. They’re not using immortality to make life better for anyone but themselves. Everyone else is barely getting by. That’s why Alpha thinks most people are disposable trash. There’s no chance of survival in this cutthroat world. We have to go back to save the Dusters and the Climbers.”

  I shook my head and said between sobs, “I can’t. I’m not ready.”

  Jackie stood and crossed her arms. “Fine. Maybe the drones will kill me, too. After all, I’m just a janitor. A Duster. A useless Slipstream junkie…”

  Jackie ran off crying, leaving me alone with my sorrow.

  Exhausted, I crumbled into the couch, lamenting my options.

  I can’t go all the way back, can I?

  Refusing to go through with such an extreme plan, I wiped my tears and walked back to the R&D department.

  “It’s the eleventh hour… Tell me something good.”

  A sea of dumbfounded faces greeted me. Those imbeciles didn’t have any solutions.

  I was alone in this. The weight of the problem was heavy on my shoulders.

  “To the dungeon.” I sighed, resigned to fate.

  Forlorn, I made my way to the operations department in the basement of the complex.

  As I dragged myself through the halls of Camp Claudi, employees asked me to sign payroll, approve photos for an article, and other tasks that were utterly meaningless now.

  I waved them all away. None of it mattered anymore.

  The biggest decision in history had to be changed, and I was the only one stupid enough to do it.