CHAPTER 27

  "I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm close to something real

  I wanna find something I've wanted all along

  Somewhere I belong."

  -Linkin park

  ...

  Carl was sitting on his couch, the TV was on but he wasnt watching it. He held his phone, the academy website pulled up. The page said

  "Scores will be posted at 12:00pm."

  It was 12:01.

  Carl pulled the page down and watched the little circle spin at the top of the page as it loaded.

  "Scores will be posted at 12:00pm."

  It was now 12:03.

  "Dammit!"

  He was sure he had done well on the final exam. He had studied relentlessly. There was that old seed of doubt in the back of his mind though.

  He set the phone down next to him. Wait five minutes, then check.

  His eyes drifted to Steve's painting of him attacking the bug monster.

  This could be the end of that guy. There was a disconnect there. The old him versus the new him.

  People can change right?

  He couldnt wait five minutes.

  He picked up his phone and pulled the page down again and let go.

  The little circle spun and...

  The scores were posted.

  He searched for his name, it was alphabetical.

  Maitland, Carl - 98.7%

  Holy crap. He passed.

  He jumped up and pumped his fist, and accidentally crushed his phone.

  Shit.

  He didn’t care. He passed, thats all that mattered. He wanted to run across the hall and tell Penny. He had to calm down though. He dropped the mangled pieces of his phone in the trash can.

  Took a couple deep breaths and calmly walked across the hall and knocked.

  "Coming!"

  He shifted from foot to foot.

  The door opened.

  "Is it posted?"

  Carl nodded.

  "And?"

  His smile reached almost to his ears.

  "Speak Carl! What was your score?"

  "Ninety eight point seven."

  "I knew you would ace it!"

  She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. It took him by surprise but he kissed her back passionately. She let go and pulled on his shirt.

  "Come with me."

  "Where are we going?"

  "I have a graduation present that you need to unwrap."

  "Oh?"

  "Yeah...me."

  She pulled off her shirt and threw it at him and ran into the bedroom. Carl grinned and ran after her.

  "This is to celebrate our friend and colleague Carl Maitland for successfully completing his academy training."

  Royles held up his glass.

  "Welcome to the team as an official member Carl."

  "Thanks guys."

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  He looked at them all.

  His friends.

  It was a great feeling to belong.

  Matt was eyeballing the cake.

  "So...we gonna cut into this or what?"

  There was some laughter and Carl picked up the cake knife.

  He started cutting it into big squares.

  "You guys are coming to my graduation ceremony right? You're the closest thing I have to family here."

  Everyone either nodded or said yes.

  Carl looked at each one of them again, he couldnt stop smiling.

  The rift alarm sounded.

  Royles dropped his fork and slipped out of the room. Carl looked at Steve.

  There shouldn't be anyone coming through.

  Andy and Penny both stood up.

  Carl held out his hand.

  "Finish your cake, I'll go see whats going on."

  They didnt argue, but they didnt sit back down either.

  Carl left the conference room and headed to Royles office.

  "What do we got?"

  "Three armored men."

  "Let me see."

  Carl walked around Royles' desk to look at the monitor.

  Three figures stood in the rift room, each of their armors were different, they were variations of nanotech suits.

  "Can I speak to them from here?"

  Royles pointed at a small microphone.

  "Hold that button to talk."

  Carl leaned down and pressed the button.

  "Helmets off gentleman."

  The helmets of the three men snapped back and melted into their armor. Three Carls stood there.

  Royles gasped behind Carl.

  "What the...?"

  Carl turned to face Royles.

  "I'll handle this. Don't open the door until I'm down there to meet them. I'll take them to the conference room. I want you there with me sir."

  Royles was still staring at the screen, he finally looked up at Carl and nodded.

  "Good."

  He spoke into the silver bracelet he wore.

  "Nano, where are you?"

  "I am currently in standby mode in Matt's laboratory."

  "Come to Royles' office please."

  "On my way."

  Royles looked at Carl again.

  "Do you think thats necessary?"

  "I don't know. Every version of myself I've ever met has been fairly reasonable...but just in case."

  Nano entered. Carl walked over, tapped Nano on the back and stepped in when it opened up.

  "Uniform look buddy."

  The suit changed to the grey of Department seven uniforms, the patches appearing on his shoulders, his name on his breast.

  He looked over at Royles again.

  "You good."

  He nodded.

  Carl walked out to the rift room.

  When he was outside the door, he looked at the camera in the corner and gave it a thumbs up. The door lock clicked open and the vault door slowly opened.

  The three Carls started to walk out but Carl put his hand up.

  "I'm going to say this once. This is my home, my job, and my friends all rolled into one. If any of you step out of line, you will be dealing with me personally. Is that understood?"

  The two carls in the back nodded, the one in front ignored him. Carl put a hand on his chest as he tried to continue forward.

  "Answer me or I'll throw you back through the rift."

  The leader of the three laughed and tried to remove Carls hand. He couldnt move it.

  He put his hands up in a surrender pose.

  "Yeah, we won't cause any trouble."

  "Good."

  Carl dropped his hand.

  "Follow me."

  Carl poked his head in the conference room.

  "Guys, I need the room."

  Everyone looked at each other in confusion, but they got up and started filing out of the room. As they filed past the Carls he heard Penny exclaim in surprise.

  "Oh my god!"

  Royles walked up. Carl waved his hand towards the large table in the center of the room.

  "Take a seat."

  The three entered and sat down.

  Royles entered and headed for his seat.

  The leader of the three looked at Carl.

  "This conversation is between Carls."

  Carl shut the door, he walked over to the leader and looked down at him.

  "This is my world not yours. That man runs this facility. Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of him."

  Carl stared at him intensely, a little trick he had picked up from Royles himself. He glanced up at Royles. He couldnt be sure, but he thought he saw a hint of a smile.

  Carl sat down.

  "Just so we dont get confused I'm going to call you one."

  He pointed at the leader.

  "You're two."

  He pointed at a long-haired Carl.

  "You're three."

  He pointed at a Carl with a goatee.

  "Now, what can I do for you?"

  The leader, one, was a little flustered by his treatment so far. He cleared his throat.

  "We have been sent here by the Council of Carls to investigate a sighting of a non-Carl wearing a nanotech suit."

  "Yeah, his name is Steve. What about it?"

  "Well, that is not allowed. The nanotech is for Carls and Carls only."

  "Says who?"

  "The council."

  "Why exactly should I recognize their authority? I've never even heard of them, now they want to tell me what I can do with my suit? I'm gonna have to say that their authority is no good here. Sorry you wasted your time."

  The three Carls looked at each other.

  Three was the first to speak.

  "Thats not how this works. There are clear rules and guidli..."

  "I don't care how it works. You dont get to tell me what to do. If you're worried Steve will misuse the tech, then I vouch for him. I trust Steve with my life."

  "It doesn't matter if..."

  "I think it matters very much. It's my suit. Actually, I can't even really claim ownership. Nano is free to make his own decisions. Nano? You want to back me up here bud?"

  "Carl is correct. Steve is a worthy user."

  Two was whispering in one's ear.

  One turned to Carl.

  "The council would like you to come in and stand before a..."

  "No."

  "Uh. You dont really have a choice. If you refuse, more Carls will be dispatched to retrieve you and the suit."

  Carl leaned forward, angry.

  "ON WHOSE FUCKING AUTHORITY?!"

  "Carl Primes."

  The anger melted off Carls face and he tilted his head back and laughed heartily.

  The three Carls looked at each other in confusion.

  "I am Carl Prime you dipshit."

  One sat in stunned silence.

  "That is a very bold claim."

  "It's not a claim. I am the original Carl. So your boss is Skeever, aka me in like 10,000 years."

  "He has been known as Skeever before, yes. I have a list of questions given to me by Skeever in case I should find his younger self. Will you answer them?"

  "Yeah, of course."

  "Then I will need everyone else to wait outside, this is privileged information."

  "No. I don't want them creating a disturbance. We'll go out into the hall and you can ask me your questions."

  Carl stood and walked out with one. He closed the door behind them.

  "Ask away."

  One tapped on a display on his forearm, a list came up.

  "Predator world, the man that gave you the spear, what was his name?"

  "Roo."

  "The man you call your brother, what is his nickname?"

  "26."

  "What kind of car did..."

  "'74 Camaro. Are we done here?"

  "Yes sir."

  They re-entered the conference room.

  One looked at the others.

  "It's him."

  They both looked at Carl wide-eyed.

  One turned back to Carl.

  "Forgive us for our ignorance. We didn't know..."

  "Yeah, yeah, I dont care. So, we're square here?"

  "Yes sir."

  "Good, and knock off the sir shit. Now, theres something you can do for me. I gave up trying to find my universe, but I'd like to see my son. Can you get a message to Skeever?"

  "Of course."

  "Good. Tell him where I am."

  "That's all?"

  "He'll know. I'm sure Chloe went to him for help when I first got lost. Just tell him to come see me and bring Robbie, please."

  "I will relay that message."

  "Thank you. Now, if there's nothing else."

  The three Carls stood and Carl Prime escorted them to the rift. He watched each one jump through.

  Royles stood behind him.

  Carl turned to look at him.

  "I'm sorry for the disruption sir."

  "You're fine...but I have so many questions."

  Carl chuckled.

  "C'mon, lets go finish our cake and I'll answer any questions you have.

  There was a knock on the door, Penny stuck her head in.

  "Am I interrupting?"

  "No, we were just finishing up."

  "I didn't mean to eavesdrop...but you have a brother?"

  "Sort of. Hes a younger version of me from a different timeline, but we've been through some shit together."

  "Huh."

  "I know, its all a little confusing."

  He turned back to Royles.

  "You need anything else from me?"

  "No."

  He turned back to Penny.

  "C'mon, I'll explain it a bit better."

  She hooked her arm through his and the walked down the hallway to her apartment.

  Later that evening Carl went to Matts lab to try and catch him before he left for the day.

  "Matt!"

  "Hey Carl, whats up?"

  "So, with the other versions of myself taking a message back, you dont need to work on finding my rift anymore."

  "I figured as much."

  "I'm sorry."

  "For what?"

  "You've put all this work into the frequency finder device and now its useless."

  "Not at all Carl...I made several breakthroughs while working on that device. Remember the rift visualizer that Nano downloaded?"

  "Oh. So you're not mad?"

  "Why would I..."

  He walked over to Carl and put his hand on Carls shoulder.

  "No. I'm happy...for you. You'll finally get to go home."

  Carl went silent.

  "Whats wrong?"

  "This is my home now. I want to see my son and my friends, but I've invested in this world, in you guys. I literally just graduated from the academy. I'm not going anywhere."

  "Well...thats your decision of course. For me personally, I would love to see you stay."

  "Thanks man."

  Matt gave him a big smile.

  "There was something else."

  "Yeah? What's that?"

  Carl reached in his pocket, his fingers touched the smooth glass disc that Jeff the alien had given him.

  "I'd like you to take a look at something if you have the time."

  He handed him the disc. Matt turned it over in his hands.

  "Is this...I watched your interaction with the alien. I wondered what it was he gave you."

  "Yeah, thats it. I figured it was like, an alien business card or something."

  Matt laughed.

  "Maybe. I'll take a look at it."

  "This is off the books. I want it back. You can give any findings to the department, but it was a gift..."

  "I understand."

  "Thanks Matt."

  "Ha! Thank you! Its not every day I get to examine an alien artifact."

  "Fair enough."