Tales from the Multiverse

Introduction

Everything is perfect in Ikardsville. The grass is green. The sky is blue. Everyone is happy, all the time.

Kaiser Killackey lives in Ikardsville. She has a mom and a dad and one brother. His name is Corinth. They all get along fabulously. There are no dissonant relationships in Ikardsville, because no one ever disagrees. They don't have to argue about politics or ethics. Those were all removed from the community long ago. Now the Council takes care of those things, and the people of Ikardsville can live in joyous harmony for the rest of their lives.

Kaiser Killackey is just like every other girl in Ikardsville. She is a model student who dreams of one day growing up to take her place in the community, marry, and have two children, a boy and a girl, just like all of her female classmates will do after graduation. She takes great pride in being normal.

Kaiser's class is graduating in two days. Tomorrow she takes her final exam, the Placement Exam. It will determine her career path and set the foundation for the rest of her life. She, as well as all of the other students her age, are quite nervous to take this test. She, as well as all of the other students her age, stay inside and study tonight instead of going outside after dinner as is their custom. Kaiser's mother, just as all of the mothers of Kaiser's classmates are doing, comes in just before curfew and sweetly placates her eldest child's nerves. Kaiser and her classmates go to bed still feeling nervous, but significantly less so.

Kaiser wakes up long past curfew. Her classmates slumber on.

Confused, she stumbles downstairs to retrieve a glass of water from the kitchen. Never in her memory has she woken up in the middle of the night like this.

As she passes her parents' bedroom on her way to the kitchen, she sees an eerily familiar green aura coming from beneath the door. For reasons unbeknownst to her, Kaiser impulsively pushes the door open and peers inside. Kaiser has never done anything on impulse in her entire life.

A small team of people in plastic yellow jumpsuits is standing around her parents' bed. Two people hold down her mother, whose body is convulsing and writhing violently, while another person holds a whirring machine - from which the odd light is being produced - over her head. On the other side of the bed three more jumpsuited people are doing the same to Kaiser's father. Muffled screams that are more animal than human emanate from beneath the green-glowing pods that hide her parents' heads. Bold, black letters upon the back of the jumpsuits spell 'COUNCILPERSON'.

Kaiser has the distinct feeling that she shouldn't be seeing these things. Calmly, she closes the door and tiptoes back up to her room without getting the glass of water. She lies on her back in bed and listens as the quiet tromping of boots comes up the stairs, and stops in Corinth's room. Her brother's wailing floats faintly through their adjacent bedroom wall. Eventually it ceases and the steps approach her room. She waits patiently for them to enter and place the odd machine over her head, too, but they simply stand in silence outside of the door. Kaiser sits up in bed and hugs her knees to her chest tightly. A strange feeling has begun to form in her chest. She does not like the feeling. It is foreign and unwanted.

A very long time passes before a quieter footstep treads slowly down the hallway. The feeling in her chest intensifies as Kaiser watches her doorknob turn.

"Hello, Kaiser," says the small man who steps into her room. He is wearing a long white coat, and his bald head gleams in the shaft of moonlight which falls through the window over Kaiser's bed. His voice is soft and lilting. Kaiser shocks herself when she thinks that his voice sounds very much like how flowers smell.

"My name is Dr Veritas." The little man gives her a sad, subdued smile. "You have experienced some very unsettling things tonight, haven't you?"

Kaiser is trembling for some reason. She nods hesitantly.