LIGHTSPEED Presents: 'Plausible Realities, Improbable Dreams' by Isabel J. Kim
“This always would have happened, but at least you checked the equipment properly,” says Dr. Shin.“That never happened, what exactly are you talking about?” says Dr. Shin, looking up from her laptop and frowning at Cat. “Are you feeling all right?”Her desk is covered in stacks of paper, because computers were never invented. Her desk has a sleek terminal embedded in its surface, because computers were invented in 1935.
The first time they met they spent three hours talking over coffee. The second time they met they spent two hours discussing comic books while Cat wrangled statistics and Roshan googled grants. They’re slightly-more-than-friends forged by too many late nights and too many early mornings, and their lives ran in sexually tense, collegial comfort until Thursday at 5:54 PM when the multiverse fractured.Roshan frowns and stares at the diagram he’s whiteboarded in his neat handwriting. “Neither can I.
Then she’s climbing back to Roshan in the coffee shop near the lab, typing away at his netbook. She’s sitting in bars with him, drinking whisky and scribbling notes. They sometimes actually do their job so that Dr. Shin doesn’t fire them, and while they oversee the equipment Cat’s hand stays on Roshan’s shoulder like her physical presence can anchor him in this reality.Then they’re fracturing away again.
He does her citations for her. She buys him coffee. They talk to Dr. Shin about the direction of the paper they’re writing, and she doesn’t notice that they’re standing closer than usual. Nothing about their lives changes except for everything that does. They work together; they sleep together; they catapult through realities separately and talk about them over ramen noodles, over overpriced cocktails, over eggs over-easy in the morning.
When they’re together, Roshan likes to hold her hand. Cat doesn’t mind. She likes the warmth of it against her own, his pulse keeping time in the present.Cat and Roshan are getting ready for a meeting with Dr. Shin when Cat loses the thread in a tremendous cascade. One moment they’re discussing their agenda for the afternoon—-how they want to go over the new grant proposals and the hydrophobic coatings study. Cat is thinking about their afternoon plans. She wants to go to the library.
The thing in the shape of Dr. Shin walks sedately to Dr. Shin’s desk and sits heavily in the chair. She gestures for them to sit down. “Time for a performance review, my darling assistants.”“What are you doing to Dr. Shin?” Roshan asks, sitting in a chair, pulling Cat down with him and keeping a grip on her hand. Roshan’s the kind one—-Cat hadn’t even thought of what happened to Dr. Shin, and she feels suddenly ashamed. Dr. Shin’s a great boss.
“Aren’t you?” the Dr. Shin Thing counters. “Oh, the details don’t matter—-your gender, your history—-what you do in this point in space is the same. You fulfill the same purpose. Let me guess: you’re always talking over each other; you never fight about anything; you finish each other’s sentences. You can predict each other. It’s why you get along so well—-like recognizes like.”Cat stares at the Dr. Shin Thing, because she doesn’t want to see what Roshan’s face is doing.
“Yeah, I really wish,” Cat says, and goes back to her work. This reality is too close to the one where Roshan lives, and she’s expecting to fragment out of it quickly. But half an hour later, Cat’s still watching the code compile. She doesn’t have a headache. Maybe that means the knot is untangling.Roshan puts a cautious hand on her shoulder. Cat jumps.“Jesus Christ,” Cat breathes. “No, don’t be sorry, look, come here.
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