"Dad?" Lena's voice was bright, untroubled. "Mom says dinner's ready. She made your favorite—lentil soup. And, uh, she wanted me to ask: why did you just appear in the hallway and then vanish? It was weird."
Aris obliged, though a cold seed of dread lodged in his gut. He aimed a ballistic gel dummy, placed a rifle on a robotic mount, and activated the KJ. Hit. The rifle fired. The bullet, which in a trillion alternate universes veered wide, punched dead center. kj activator
The KJ glowed white-hot. The lab lights flickered. Reality groaned like a stressed tree in a hurricane. For one eternal second, Aris saw the multiverse: a billion Elaras, alive and laughing. A billion bullets, spinning wide. A billion Aris Thomes, who had never built the device at all. And, uh, she wanted me to ask: why