Haste Breeds Errors

No-one went first. Then everyone did. Both sides of the argument began at once but stopped soon after. Lore stopped but Juror gestured for them to begin.
“Right…” They put their hand to their face, contemplating how to properly begin. “As I tried to tell you earlier, we live in a multiverse. Surrounding us should be fifty one other universes not including the central core. This is one of the universes towards the middle. These universes, while stable usually, are a lot like dominoes; one falls, all the universes after them fall too. Each universe is surrounded by a field of dark matter. Should that field be significantly disrupted, the dominoes fall.”
“So if I was to use the Holepunch…” Juror looked around them.
“It’s likely you’d have done more than get yourself home.” Char gave her counterpart an apologetic look.
Lore thought for a moment. “How exactly does it even work?”
“The towers generate low levels of dark matter and Rejeuvinative energy. The Holepunch uses the Rejeuvinative energy to negatively charge the dark matter. Through the use of the polar collectors, the Holepunch attracts dark matter from the walls of the universe itself, weakening them, then it fires a concentrated blast of the collected matter, shattering the weakened wall. The blast reverses the reaction with the Rejeuvinative energy which proceeds to flood the towers it came from. While the procedure is ongoing, it’s unsafe for any unshielded organics to be down there. That’s why I wouldn’t fire until you were safe.”
The wheels of Lore’s mind were turning. A half formed idea now had a little more weight to it. They took a second look at the control panels. Everything had a purpose and, thanks to a diligence present in most Chars, everything was clearly labelled.
“How did you arrive at this concept? I assume you somehow worked out that reality was sectioned off with walls of dark matter but weaponizing a planet?”
“When I arrived here, there was nothing and no-one. In this reality, humanity reached its industrial revolution much earlier. No one remembers Neil Armstrong but they do remember Michael Collins; first pilot to break the light barrier. From there, humanity drifted away from the idea of terrestrial living. Well, living on Earth. So many planets to exploit, so little time. With this planet’s atmosphere royally screwed, there was a mass exodus. Everyone left but took next to nothing with them. I arrived to an empty planet filled with tech beyond my wildest expectations for the early twenty first century. I tracked down a contingent of clones who found themselves in America. We thought this was our Earth. We spent years searching for any records of us or what happened. If we had started with the particle accelerators, we would have saved ourselves nearly half a decade.”
“Dark matter research?” Lore postulated.
“Exactly. They had valid evidence stating that rapidly accelerating then decelerating dark matter would cause a fracture in the fabric of the universe. From there, I spent years looking for a source big enough to tear a stable rift. I was flying around the accelerator as I used to while I was thinking, using the clones to power my Reaper when I thought I had the answer. When I stopped, it was like hitting a brick wall. Purple cracks formed for a split second then they were gone. I scanned myself and that’s when I got the idea to use the Reaper to power this thing.” She gestured towards a harness of sorts. Two arm gauntlets dangled from the ceiling above a pair of metal boots.
“I thought so. So what’s with all of the knobs and dials?”
“I tried to use my Reaper to control it but, I wasn’t strong enough to hold the connection. The knobs do the same job but without me at the centre.”
“May I?” Lore gestured towards the interface behind them. Juror allowed it. Lore slipped their arm into the gauntlet and placed their feet into the mounted boots. Their metal arm fell to the ground as they grabbed the second gauntlet with their energy arm. As it made contact with the gauntlet’s surface, a connection was established. The set up was crude and painful but Lore eventually numbed themselves. They were expecting to feel millions of clones crying out in pain but nothing of the sort. Silence. They had the power at their fingertips to destroy reality. Carefully, they disconnected. They opened their eyes and stepped forwards. “I hadn’t noticed it before but we aren’t where Earth should be are we?”
“I may have moved it.” Juror looked rather suspicious. “I brought Earth to the most dark matter rich area of space, The universal centre. The big bang may have happened billions of years ago but there are still traces of its effects, micro-rifts that bleed dark matter from where those first three particles exploded into everything.”
“How exactly did you move a planet?” Char didn’t know whether to be scared or impressed.
“Breacher. I used the towers to amplify my tiny crystal’s power but, after I calculated where it was and checked that it was safe, I brought the Earth and all of its cloned residents to the best place to test.”
“I think we can help each other out here.” Lore began. “We need clones. Battle ready with strong matrices. You want a way home.” Lore shrugged suggestively.
“Tit for tat?”
“More or less.” They paused, thinking of whether or not they really needed what they were going to request. “I’ll take you home but I’ll also be taking this planet.”
Stunned silence. Char and Varkral were becoming increasingly worried. “Why?” She managed to eke out.
“I’ve got a plan to defeat Reality. But I need a lot more power than we’ll ever have at our disposal as just the Reaper.”
“You need more than just the Reaper? What are you planning on doing, killing Reality ironically?”
“I’m hopefully not going to be killing anyone.” Lore gave a soft smile. Juror choked on her last breath. She stood chuckling to herself.
“Bit too late for that.” Juror began. “After I captured you, I downloaded your entire Breacher Library. You destroyed an entire universe for two people.” They had barely taken the time to consider that. Moving on Out.