THE MOMENT
Dr. Eileen Thomspon was wide awake, she was sure of that much. She sat on a red chair in front of a large black glass desk with a woman named Anna sitting behind it. Her cot, tent, and even the dig site were nowhere to be seen. She woke up in the room with Anna two minutes ago and she'd had enough questions answered to know it wasn't a dream.
"Your discovery will change the world," Anna nodded with a cautious smile. "I apologize for handling it this way...," she said. "But, considering what you've unearthed, I think you'll agree it was an urgent situation." Eileen shook her head.
"I can't agree yet," she said. "I don't know what we found; how'd Area-51 get involved?" Anna introduced herself as a representative of Area-51. The fact that Eileen woke sitting upright in a room with no doors or windows gave Anna a certain credence; but, she was telling the truth. Eileen ran the archeological dig technically. However, she was too busy with the administration side of things to monitor the team too closely. Her leads did the digging figuratively and literally and took charge of their own processes and testing. They'd uncovered a chamber, found some graves, and celebrated over the weekend before Eileen woke up in a sealed room.
"One of your leads sent samples for testing...," Anna slid a manilla folder over the desk to Eileen. She picked it up for a look as Anna continued to explain the situation. "The bones show evidence of a modern diet, and are riddled with microplastics," she said.
"So?" Eileen giggled. The area they were searching was known to have fresh graves too. It was easy to assume a prank, or at worst, a mistake. She may have given certain team members the responsibility of being 'Leads'; but, they were all still students. Some were more immature than others, and happy to waste external resources like lab testing. "What's the problem?" she asked to complete the thought. But, she studied the file and could see the answer staring her straight in the face. She still would have taken it for a typo; then, Anna confirmed it.
"Well, this person died 2200 years ago," she said. Eileen was smart enough to earn her position and she quickly put together a few assumptions. Area-51's involvement confirmed a lot of weirdness, and beyond that Anna had said the discovery would change the world. Whatever the mystery was, Eileen assumed they'd already solved it. She doubted she'd be there for a conversation otherwise.
"Are you sure?" Eileen asked.
"Very," Anna nodded. "The initial results flagged our system, and we verified them independently on-site." Dr. Thompson had already been kidnapped; but, she took extra offense at them trespassing on her site.
"And, you found something that will change the world....?" Eileen asked. Anna shook her head.
"You and your team found something that will change the world," she smiled. "We're not planning to steal credit away from you, that is if you want to reveal it. That's why we're here Dr. Thompson. I just want to make sure you're really ready to show off what was found. We'll help you with the next steps whether you do or not."
"So... what. What's the big secret, is it time travel? Is time travel real?" Eileen asked. She was ready to get to the meat of the situation now that she had the power to decide. She wasn't convinced she could trust Anna yet; but, she was comfortable enough with not having a choice at the moment.
"Time travel is real....," Anna nodded. "But, not exactly as you understand it, and that's not what this is about." Anna slid another closed folder across the desk to Eileen. "Here's a reconstruction of what that person might have looked like; this would've been the next step in your research...," she said. Eileen opened the folder for a split second, then immediately closed it again.
"C'mon...," she laughed. It was so ridiculous that she had doubts again. She searched the seamless room for any hint of an exit; the whole thing had to be an elaborate prank.
"Oh, we've confirmed that too," Anna nodded at the folder. "We have more advanced technology; we can tell a lot more about a set of bones than you might think. Look again," she said. Eileen sighed and opened the folder.
Her own blue eyes were staring back at her. The woman's hair was a superficially different style and she had a small scar on her cheek that Eileen didn't own. And, the sense of style was all wrong. It looked exactly like her; but, only almost.
"That's... not me...?" she asked. Anna nodded.
"That woman is what's known as your 'Zero', or doppelganger. She's you from an alternate universe. We've determined she was a scientist who created a way to Traverse between universes, and through a stroke of bad luck trapped herself in a tomb. Revealing what you've found will open your Earth to the multiverse fully; are you prepared for that?"
"I don't know...," Eileen shrugged. "I'm guessing you have experience. What's out there?" she asked.
"To be honest, I misled you a tiny bit," Anna nodded. "I represent Area-51; but, not your government. All Area-51s in the multiverse belong to a corporation named Rad Industries, that's who I truly represent. There are several high-profile corporations with a multiversal presence. If you want to know what's out there, that's the answer; more of the same. Corporations run the multiverse on a larger scale. You're in charge of the team that made the discovery and you get to decide how it plays out next. If you decide to cover it up, we'll help you and tell the multiverse you're not ready to join yet," she said.
"If you'd like to proceed and open your Earth to the rest of reality, I'll help you decide on the best corporation to align yourself with, whether or not it's Rad Industries. Once you choose a 'Corporate Sponsor', if you will..," Anna giggled. "... they'll start the work to integrate your Earth into their network of services. I can already tell you it would be an upgrade for your Earth no matter which one you choose."
"Can I meet more of my Zeros?" Eileen asked. It was more information than she could handle at the moment; but, she mostly focused on one seemingly insignificant detail that burned brightly in her mind.
"Of course, that's quite simple," Anna nodded.
"I'd like to...," Eileen said. She had to. Anna was talking about alternate realities so casually that Eileen was ready to believe her. But, there was more to it than that. She just didn't want to meet other versions of herself, she wanted to hear their stories. She needed to explore what other possibilities she might have lived through in a different lifetime. In the past few minutes the multiverse was revealed to her; but, it was her team's discovery that really made an impression.
Up until that moment, she didn't know about other Earths. Entire worlds of people existed that she had no idea about, that was one thing. It was quite another when she considered she had a whole parallel life 2200 years ago. If she lived one full lifetime thousands of years before she was born, there was no telling how many others she didn't know about.