“Okay, question,” Scarlett interjects. “If this is all a part of the plan, but us being here could derail the plan if we don’t get home, why did Adams and de Stoy give me the necklace in the first place?”
Nari shakes her head. “Because apparently I’m going to pass on a message to my successors that they have to.”
“We must be meant to be here,” I breathe. “There must be something we’re meant to do. Maybe it was meeting Nari, getting her on track to founding Aurora Academy. Telling her about the Zero, the gifts. Maybe all that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”
“This is getting awfully close to being my own grandmother,” Scarlett mutters. “Okay, so how do we get out of this, Magellan?”
“GOOD QUESTION!” the uniglass beeps.
Silence descends, broken only by the shuddering station, the sound of alert sirens. We look at each other, then down to the cobbled-together string of uniglasses. Magellan spits and pops.
“Well?” Scarlett asks.
“I HAVE NO IDEA!”
The floor feels like it’s falling away from beneath my feet. “You what?”
“I MEAN, MAYBE I USED TO. BUT IT LOOKS LIKE THAT PART OF MY MEMORY IS CORRUPTED. OR GOT DELETED BY MR. BULLDOG CLIP HERE. YOU SURE YOU DIDN’T STUDY BOTANY, SASSYBOY?”
“We’re stuck here in a series of shortening loops, waiting for our paradox bubble to eat itself, and you knew this was coming.” I’m on my feet by now, reaching for the wrench. “And you don’t know how to fix it?”
“WARNING: CONTAINMENT CASCADE IN EFFECT. CORE IMPLOSION IMMINENT, T MINUS THREE MINUTES AND COUNTING. ALL HANDS PROCEED TO EVACUATION PODS IMMEDIATELY. REPEAT: CORE IMPLOSION IN THREE MINUTES AND COUNTING.”
“I think—” says Zila softly.
“Botany,” I huff. “I was in the top ten percent of my whole year.”
“OOOOOOH, I’M IMPR—”
“I think,” says Zila, pausing until she has our attention, “that we should return to Scarlett’s necklace. And Magellan’s analogy of the elastic band.”
Scar’s the first one smart enough to slip into helper mode, taking in Zila’s stare, the slow nibble on the curl, all the hints we know and love that our Brain’s brain is working at full capacity.
“Right. I got given this crystal for a reason.”
“Chronologically speaking,” Zila nods, “your necklace is ‘of the future.’ It has existed longer than the piece in Dr. Pinkerton’s quarters. Magellan said that time wants to be ordered. So if we can remove the phenomenon anchoring it here, your necklace should snap back to its original position.”
“The anchor is the larger piece of crystal,” I supply.
“The probe it came from,” Nari says. “Down on Level 2.”
“Indeed,” Zila agrees. “If we can cut the probe off from its power source so it’s no longer functioning as an anchor in this time, and apply a comparable amount of quantum power to our piece of the crystal as was used in the blast that brought us here, the temporal shock may cause time to reassert itself.”
Scarlett frowns. “Like … shocking someone after a heart attack?”
“Exactly.” Zila pauses, tilting her head. “Either that or we will be erased entirely from the spacetime continuum. But I believe the odds of success are at least 8.99 percent.”
“THAT MAKES SENSE,” Magellan says. “YOU KNOW, YOU’RE PRETTY SMART FOR A PROTEIN POPSICLE FULL OF TEENAGE SEX HORMONES.”
Zila glances at Nari, frowning. “I am full of no such thing.”
“Okay, so first problem,” I say. “Presuming this tremendous discharge of quantum power doesn’t just delete us from spacetime entirely, it’s not like we just have that kind of energy at our disposal. The power levels you’re—”
“WARNING: CORE IMPLOSION IMMINENT, T MINUS THIRTY SECONDS. ALL HANDS EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. REPEAT: CORE IMPLOSION IN THIRTY SECONDS.”
“CORE IMPLOSION?” Magellan beeps. “THIS PLACE IS IN WORSE SHAPE THAN I AM. WHAT THE HELLS HAPPENED AROUND HERE, ANYWAY?”
“Part of the experiments these lunatics are doing,” I tell it. “They’re running a sail out onto the edge of a dark matter tempest, and the whole place got hit by … oh.”
“A quantum pulse,” Zila supplies.
“… And we know exactly when it will hit,” I breathe.
“Forty-four minutes,” Zila nods.