The Fabric Of Reality by Benjamin Kelly Page A

shimmered with foggy white mist. “Damn.”
    Alesia groaned loudly. “It cleared away a moment after you left. Was that noise I heard an attack?”
    “Yes. Unfortunately, I have a small fire in the control room.”
    Alesia’s eyes widened. “Why are you here talking? Go put it out! I’ll wait for your return.”
    He started away, then turned back. “No jumping to your death while I’m gone. Promise?”
    “I promise, now go!” She flipped her hands at him as if shooing a fly.
    Gil hurried to the control room. Black smoke was pouring out of one electrical grid circuit box and collecting in a thick layer at the ceiling. One of the two supercomputers had gone dark. Fortunately, not the one controlling the Barrier Sphere. He yanked a fire extinguisher from the wall and emptied it into the panel of flaming plastic.
    The Barrier control display was lit up with flashing red blocks indicating that several Emitters had failed as a result of the last big hit. As much as he wanted to go eat with Alesia, if he didn’t fix the problem immediately, he’d be dead before they finished their meal. Gil rushed to the Barrier Emitter Housing Facility. A blast of heat nearly put him on the ground when he opened the door. The cooling fans had stopped operating. Apparently, they were wired into the damaged part of the grid. The backup generator had kicked on, but obviously there was a problem inline keeping the power from going where it was needed.
    Okay, think. Main power is out, backup is on, why aren’t the fans working? The fire melted the wiring insulation. It must have caused a short circuit. Gil flipped open the cover of the breaker panel. The main breaker had kicked off. He ran to the tool box and grabbed a large pair of cable cutters, then severed the main power lines coming into the box. Please work. I have someone very special waiting for me, and I don’t have time to keep screwing around! He snapped the main breaker into the on position, and the cooling fans came to life. It took him five minutes to sprint to the banks of failed components. In the time he had spent repairing the cooling system, several more Emitters had failed. The stress from constant bombardment was destroying the entire system, a few components at a time. He jerked the useless parts out and inserted fresh ones as quickly as possible.
    ***
    Gil appeared in front of Alesia, huffing loudly, bent over with his hands on his knees. “I’m back,” he panted.
    Alesia gazed curiously at him. “Is everything all right? You’re out of breath.”
    He tapped the center of his chest with his fist. “Nothing like a brisk jog to get the old heart pumping.”
    “Gil, I have a feeling you have more important things to do than sit with me.”
    “Nonsense—” he paused, still puffing hard—”our date is the most important thing in the world, at the moment.” Gil sat on the floor facing her. He tore open a flexible package and dumped the steaming contents onto a plate.
    “It’s all right, Gil, I know your situation is deteriorating. Go tend your machines and don’t worry about me.”
    He spread out the food on his plate with a fork. “Alesia, there is nothing I can do to any of my equipment that will significantly benefit either of us. Have you not eaten yet? You didn’t have to wait on me.”
    She grinned and shrugged. “I assumed it was customary to eat together on a dinner date.”
    “It is but—do you not have a drink? It’s difficult for me to see through the fog.”
    “I didn’t plan that far ahead.”
    Gil raked his fingers down the foggy barrier between them. “Do you care to try an experiment?”
    “Okay.”
    He twisted the top from his bottle of water and handed it to her. “I don’t expect this to work, but try to take a drink.”
    Alesia put the bottle to her lips and turned it up. Water flowed from the bottle, down a ribbon of fog, and onto the floor in Gil’s Reality. She handed it back to him.
    Gil took the water and frowned.