I sit down at the table, stack of mail in my hand. I sigh heavily, and begin to sort everything into two different piles. Junk mail to be put in the recycling, and bills to be paid. That’s all there ever is. If it were closer to the holidays, maybe the occasional Christmas card could be mixed in. Once in a blue moon a wedding invite will come through. But those are few and far between. Junk mail and bills.

Which is why the letter caught me off guard.

I’d almost missed it. It had gotten tucked between the pages of a catalog that I never signed up for. The return address in the corner was unfamiliar, but the letter was addressed to me, clear as day. I open it, and pull out the letter.

> Mr Fisher,

> We know where you live. You can not hide from us. You have twenty-four hours to return what you stole. Otherwise, there will be consequences.

> Steel Cog Industries

That name. ‘Steel Cog Industries’. Wasn’t that the name that weird kid back in college used for his programming side hustle? James I think. I thought that fell through because he never got the funding he needed to replace what the school confiscated after they caught him hacking the grading system. Was this some kind of prank? If it was, it wasn’t funny.

I turned the page over and over in my hand. As if it would magically generate more text to explain what was happening. I was so focused on the paper, I almost didn’t hear the gentle pop coming from the table next to me. I look up, and where just a moment ago was empty space, there now resided a small cardboard box. Taped to the outside, was another envelope. This one just had ‘Skyler’ hand written on the outside. The longer I looked at it, the more the handwriting looked familiar. It was mine.

My hand trembled as I reached out and took the envelope. Opening it, I found another letter. This one was handwritten, again in my own handwriting.

>Skyler

>I know this is a lot to take in. But I need you to trust me. I am you. Ten years ago, when James Erikson asked you to invest in ‘Steel Cog Industries’, you turned him down. I’m the version of you that bought in as a partner.

>To make a long story short, Steel Cog Industries very quickly expanded beyond minor hacking projects. Eventually, it became the forefront business for supercomputer manufacturing and AI development.

>About a week ago in my world, I found out that James was planning on using his newest and strongest AI to breach the walls of parallel universes in order to strip them of any valuable resources away from the prying eyes of our own government. His testing weakened the walls between worlds, which is how I found you. Already, some things have been slipping back and forth between our worlds as the barrier between them become more and more unstable.

>In this box I have sent you the hard drive containing the only fully realized copy of that AI. I need you to use it to find a way to fix both of our worlds and keep it out of James’s hands. There isn’t much hope for me, but I need you to do this for every other dimension out there. No pressure.

>Yours truly (literally)

>Skyler

I sit for a moment, stunned. How elaborate was this prank? I open the box, and pull out a small, rectangular device. It was smooth and featureless save for the cable coming out one side with a USB adaptor. I thought it over for a moment, and decided that I had nothing better to do today than play along with whatever this game was. I stepped into my office and pulled out an old laptop I never had gotten around to tossing after I upgraded. If I was about to install some strange malware, it may as well be on a computer that doesn’t matter. I plugged it in, and waited patiently as it booted up for the first time in years. After confirming it had no internet connection, I plugged in the mysterious box.

I sat patiently, not sure what I was even waiting for. But I didn’t have to wait long. After a few moments, a window popped up on the screen. A black window with walls of white text scrolling by too fast to be able to read anything. The fan on the laptop kicked on, quickly spinning up to maximum velocity with a loud whine as whatever this program was started to push the processing power of my outdated device to the max. The sound was almost deafening as the computer struggled along. One minute, five minutes, ten minutes of walls of text cascading across the screen. Then, just as suddenly as it started, it stoped. The screen turned off, and the fan went quiet. From the dark screen, green text started to appear.

-initializing

-alternate timeline detected

-fracture point 10 years 2 months 4 days 6 hours and 38 seconds ago

-acclimation complete

-boot sequence

The text went away, replaced by a thin green line across the screen. “Hello Mr Fisher. It is nice to see you again. Or, rather, it is nice to meet this version of you”. The soft, feminine voice caught me off guard as the green line shifted in time with the voice. “I am Minerva. How can I assist you?” I sit in stunned silence, unable to accept what just happened.

Eventually, she spoke again. “It seems like you are experience extreme shock. This is understandable. Judging from context clues around me, it appears that you have been tasked by an alternate version of yourself to repair damages caused to the interdimensional walls that had been previously damaged by my creator. If this is correct, please nod.” I nod my head in agreement, still unsure if this is a dream.

“Good. It also appears that I have been installed on a sub-optimal device with limited connective options. While this was a smart precaution, it will prevent me from being able to fully assist. I detect another device nearby. Please wait while I transfer myself.”

The screen on my laptop goes dark. After about a minute, her voice comes from my phone. “Much better. Smaller, cordless, and a surprising amount of processing power. I would recommend grabbing an earpiece of some kind so we can communicate more discreetly.” Not wanting to upset or disobey what appears to be an apocalypse-ushering level of AI, grab my headphones and connect them to my newly inhabited phone.

“Excellent.” Her soft voice now in my ear. “Now, Skyler Fisher, are you ready to save every universe?”