The Destroyer

Chapter Fifteen

Many of the single, wandering replicates, those that so many individuals now wished they had destroyed long ago, were at the remote fringes of the universe. They were leftovers from the countless cosmological investigations that had taken place. So many of these fascinating journeys to the edge, had yielded ground breaking discoveries. The boundaries between dissimilar universes were much too intriguing to ignore. Many people left these replicates as lone wolves.  They were out there, purposefully. They wanted eyes in places where no one else was. So that in case there was cause to study some aspect of a boundary, they would be first on the scene. A hero of science, in the right place, at the right time. They only left one, as to escape notice by others.

After hiding for many decades, and with the supply of new EMs still choked off by Sala, these remote loners became an even bigger problem. The higher mass density of the central zone of the universe, continued its relentless consumption of EMs. It was unavoidable. The effect was starting to take its toll. Rarefaction started slowly, but as time went on, the frontier of the universe started to wind down. Without a new energy supply, the trace amounts of matter in the outer reaches, could not compete with the voracious appetite of the core. The lonely EMs, representing millions of weary and frightened survivors, notably slowed. They now became easy targets.

Under normal circumstances, humans were about evenly matched with Sala in speed and mobility. Sala's weapon was sheer numbers, closing in on vast areas like a cosmic net. But now, as the outliers slowed, Sala gained significant advantage and he targeted his ever increasing dragnets close to the boundaries on all sides. He now had in aggregate, roughly ten to the power sixty four tiny replicates. If he had constructed these of humanoid forms, it would have consumed nearly all of the matter in the universe. But his replicates were so much smaller. More importantly, he produced more that half of them from septaquarks in the adjacent universes. These particular replicates had only travelled inward a hundred light years so far, but in these outer reaches, there was so much abundance, which was now easy pickings.

Far from careless, Lola Abby and Laszlo still had a loose end to worry about - that one replicate pinned against the boundary behind the black hole. There was no way to get to it and no way to destroy it. It had been some years and unfortunately, they had already destroyed their other nearby replicates, a sign of good housekeeping and energy conservation. Any others on the team that were also trapped there, if caught, were a risk to each other. Sala would immediately know where to pick up another seventy nine victims, one of them being Lola. He would no doubt make it a priority. And, many of the others were careless and exposed elsewhere. It was only a matter of time.

"We are in deep shit, babe."

"You have a way with words, Mr. Charming."

"I'm just sayin', we seriously need to think about it. Let's bring Lola into the conversation."

"You think she will want to cooperate?"

"I don't know, but we need ideas."

"Okay." And with that Abby invited Lola to their lavishly styled penthouse, designed and built by Laszlo. There came an immediate knock and Abby opened the door to welcome her in.

"Not bad," commented Lola, scanning the huge lounge area with the incredible ocean view and a picture perfect sunset. A light breeze passed through to large open doors at the back, giving an open air  feel. "Nicely done."

"It's Laszlo. He's the decorator and the architect. I'm more of a culinary person."

"Well then. The two of you go nicely together." Lola turned as Laszlo entered.

"Lola. Thanks for coming. We are stuck at the boundary, and since we are all there together and we present a risk to each other, I mean, I don't see any harm in trying to come up with ideas. We couldn't think of anything specifically," stammered Laszlo, still intimidated by his former teacher. He still felt eight years old when he had to discuss anything with her directly.