There were 12 Collectives in all, there were 2 branches that seeded off the Collectives. Cousins so to speak. Collectives were people who could travel through time and space, between the spaces between spaces. They could balance lives simultaneously in multiple realities and parallel universes and change time. I’m Viktorya and I am not one of those assholes. But I did manage to blow up my office but I promise that it was not entirely my fault. It started about a week back. Everything started off as a normal Monday morning. I was in my warehouse working on my molecular diffusion device but my sponsor kept butting in on my work and compromised a lot of my progress. Murphy knocked on my door.
“Vik I need to assess the work on the compression cable for the defibrillator-enator!” Murphy slapped a thick packet of paperwork in her hand. “The numbers don’t match up to the original prototype rendering.”
Murphy pulled back her thick curly hair from her eyes and sighed. Viktorya was in one of her odd moods again, she was too wrapped up in this project that she neglected to take care of herself at times. Murphy just needed to breech onto the other side of this door and she could do what she was hired for. But Viktorya just-
“Diffusion Murphy! Defibrillator is for heart related matters. We are beyond that!”
“Open the door!”
“I don’t have time for your negativity at this moment. You’ll ruin the vibe of science.”
“I have coffee.” Murphy sang.
The door swung open and there before her stood a tall, unkempt woman. Her hair was in a wild bun and her eyes were magnified by brass multiple lens goggles. Her clothes covered with oil and dirt.
“On one condition.”
“I will not Vik.”
“Murphy this is my space, it’s a requirement for all visitors before entering the lair.”
“Why must you call this a lair.” Murphy sighed. “Mwa-ha-ha.” Murphy said sardonically.
“Where is your enthusiasm Murphy!? We are making magic!” Viktorya snatched a coffee from Murphy and twirled away.
Viktorya’s lair was chaos. There were papers tapped and nailed to the wall with numbers and diagrams with many scattered and crumpled on the floor. Cups and dishes that were well used and dispersed among the place. LED lights were hung along the diagrams that added a sort of charming sense but everything else was just a mess.
“Vik the compression cable. What’s going on with that?” Murphy pulled off her pea coat and tossed it over a chair in the corner.
“It is now a chamber.” Viktorya said plopping a straw into her coffee. She began sipping and typing away on her computer.
“Yes that’s the problem, the company had settled on a cable not a whole chamber that’s expensive.”
“It would not have worked without the chamber, all the calculations on the computer neglected to render in the force of other external components. It was not enough power.”
“What external components?”
“Gravity for one, temperature, the geomagnetic field-”
“All right, all right I get it.” Murphy interrupted. “You need to check with the company first.”
“Its fine Murphy, tell those suits that I got a sweet deal on him.”
“Him? Your calling the machine a him? Isn’t that a bit objective?”
“Yes. Yes, it is. But check it.”
Viktorya launched herself into the furthest part of the warehouse urging Murphy to pick up the pace. The bug-eyed woman stopped in front of rectangular object about 12 foot in height covered in a white sheet. Vik removed her goggles and set them on her neck.
“This is the chamber?!” Murphy shook her paper work at the oddity that stood before her.
“No, this is.”
Viktoria pulled the sheet away to reveal two showers that have been taken apart and reconstructed with wires and lights and odd gears. They had been fitted with a ceiling and a glass door.
“Vik, please tell me you didn’t.”
“Meet Jeff and Kyle.”
“Jeff and Kyle?”
“Yup they’re gay and proud.”
“They’re not real.”
“Yes they are. Shhh never mind her my lovelies.” Viktorya kissed the machines.
“How much?” Murphy sighed.
“Free so fret not my little buddy-pooh.”
“Oh my god, what am I gonna tell Nigel?” Murphy rubbed her neck.
“Well you could first tell him he’s an-“
“No! Not today Vik.” Murphy pointed her papers at Vik and gave a scornful look. “He is our boss Vik. He’s both our paychecks. Respect him.”
“Gross. Respect is so time consuming and counterintuitive. He doesn’t respect me and yet I gotta respect him? I think not.”
Vik ran over to her laptop and began typing in a series of numbers and letters.
“You know you’ve actually made perfect timing Murphy. You are about to witness the first ever transportation device.”
“Really? You said that the last time.”
“Yeah this one is really going to knock your socks off. I recalculated everything with the new chamber. Check it. See this?”
The inventor pulled a brown ball out of her pocket and tossed it to Murphy. Papers flew in the air as Murphy fumbled the ball around in her hands.
“It’s a potato.” Murphy put the potato on the table and began picking up the sheets of paper on the floor.
“Yes. This spud is going to go into this chamber and come out to that one to the right.”
“How does this work exactly? Keep it simple please.”
“I will basically destroy this one here and it will digitally copy it and render it again.”
“I would die if I walked into that machine?” Murphy stepped away.
“Oh yea defiantly. You would die but your clone would be over there. But the machine isn’t strong enough for people yet.”
“What the hell would Nigel even want this for?”
“I can think of like ten good reasons.” Viktorya stopped and looked upwards. “Scratch that I can think of one good reason. Four other reasons are bad and the rest are worse.”
“Worse? Like how bad?”
“The extinction of the human race, mammal and reptile kind.”
“Why do I do continue to do this to myself?” Murphy shook her head.
“Because you love me.”
