MVPD Story
Matthew Ryan Fischer
James
Smith once read that he possessed the most common first and last name in
America. Everyone always told him they
thought there would be more Johns, but he figured that probably because of the
whole John Doe thing. James didn’t
really do a lot of research on the subject, but he knew it was a close race
either way and as change was the only constant in his life, it was bound to
change as tastes changed. Aidan with all
its variant spellings had been popular for the last ten years. Some people blamed that on a popular
character on a popular television show.
James didn’t know about that. He
didn’t watch that much television. The
next generation would need lots of nicknames to keep all the Aidans they would
know organized. James actually didn’t
know another James. So he knew Aidans
might not run around in packs of Aidans.
But that wasn’t the point. James
was a common name. That was the
point. And for now James was number one
and James Smith liked it that way. James
found it to be incredibly fitting, considering his job. James wondered if his parents planned things
this way or if there really was some sort of higher powered fate that caused
these things to happen.
James
worked in security as an Agent, and had currently been called to the Thomas
Jefferson Monticello Museum. James
didn’t know that much about Revolutionary History, but he knew it was very significant,
historically. There were a lot of
important people who did important things and lots of things that could have
gone differently. James was not a direct
descendant, but one of his namesakes had signed the Declaration of
Independence. He thought that was pretty
exciting.
James
had no appreciation for alternate spellings of names. He had met a Jaymes once and instantly hated
him. But alternate and inane spellings
of names came as part of the job. Ayden
was trespassing at the Jefferson and alarms had been triggered. This was one of the more straightforward
parts of James’ job – reply to alarms as they were tripped. Once he responded, things could get wild
pretty quickly, but not often. Most
times it was just someone trespassing somewhere they weren’t supposed to
be. Most people when caught trespassing
were pretty willing to go home quietly into the night. James hoped that was all that would happen
with Ayden.
“You
aren’t supposed to be here.”
“I’m
just a tourist.”
“I
know what you are. You can’t be a
tourist here.”
“Come
on man, be cool.”
“Rules
are rules.”
“I
just wanted to see. Do you know how rare
this place is? How unique—“
“Nothing
is rare. You could go any number of
places and actually be an actual tourist.
All you’re doing right now is trespassing.”
“Yeah
but this was the one I could afford.”
There
is was. It always came down to cost. It was always money with the
trespassers. They could somehow afford
to take the trip, but couldn’t afford to do it right.
“There
are no devices here. This world hasn’t
signed any treaties or contracts. This
world isn’t even aware of the MVPD. I
have to send you back. You know that
right? And I’m confiscating your
connector.”
“But
my deposit! F--”
“You
broke the rules. Too bad so sad.”
James
didn’t know too much about the kid’s world, but he knew it was a very British
place with a lot of British flags flying over what some people called colonies
and other people called states.
Ayden
was sent home and James went back to his relay station. He had reports to file.
* * *
James saved his case report to the MVPD database. Copies would be sent to agents on Ayden’s
world for further review, to the device manufacturer in case there had been a
theft, to the tourist company in case they hadn’t properly done a background
check on Ayden, and a note would be added to the file of the travel agent that
rented Ayden the device. Chances were
that nothing would come from any of it.
Ayden was probably just a kid who made a foolish kid decision without
thinking about it because that’s what kids did.
Ayden thought he was an adult.
Nobody really realizes how young they are or how stupid they are. That’s not the way humanity worked. You only realize after the fact or not at
all. This kid seemed like the type who
would never realize. He would just
stumble through life, mistake after mistake after mistake. He was probably privileged and had never had
something not go his way before. Some
parents did their children a real disservice that way. Of course if he came from a rich family that
sort of attitude would probably allow him to run and ruin quite a few
businesses before it was all through.
Working for the MVPD was a thankless task and it got harder
everyday. There was an infinite amount
of work and there was only more all the time.
You were never finished. How many
worlds were there? Infinite if you
believed the theorists. And it only got
worse once their world discovered multi-verse travel. As one theory went, once your divergent
timeline has something, chances are any divergent timeline that breaks off of
yours will have it too. Add in the odds
of every other timeline ever splitting and eventually discovering it too, and
you suddenly had an infinite chance that there will be an infinite number of
universes with said technology.
People
used to worry about the secret of the atomic bomb getting out and the danger
that posed to the world. Imagine the
danger of the weapon that could destroy a universe. Once that was discovered, it would basically
ensure an infinite amount of universes basically were guaranteed to die. Of course an infinite number would survive as
well, but that wouldn’t do the deceased ones any good.
Things
got bad when you started thinking about the alien worlds and other
civilizations. There were enough
problems with humans making alternate realities. Nobody really wanted to consider the damage
done past present or future from alternate planets and alternate races.
And
or course there were the alternate dimensions.
No one had tracked all of them down yet.
At least not anyone on any world that the MVPD was in contact with. Nobody knew what obstacles would present
themselves once they started opening up all the alternate dimensions. None of the current rules of reality would
matter. You might contact another
dimension and just by the very act of contacting them, destroy your own. That was a scary thought. At least no one in this universe was working
too hard on cross dimensional travel. At
least not that James knew about. He
hoped they weren’t anyway. He didn’t
know if he could handle another amount of infinite possibilities to police.
The
MVPD worked diligently to keep some form of law and order across the
multiverse. They signed treaties when they
could and committed sabotage when necessary.
James wasn’t a part of any of that.
He kept an eye on his ten earths and that was that. He was aware of several other James Smiths
that did the same thing across alternate worlds. We are protectors he thought. “We.”
He liked to think in those terms, even if he had little or no connection
to any other James on any other planet.
He had been to one training seminar and met a dozen other James
Smiths. It was a rather ineffective
weekend getaway where the goal had been knowledge sharing and networking. Despite how it sounds, meeting another “you”
really wasn’t all that beneficial. If
you were an asshole, chances are the other you would be too. If you were smart enough to figure out
something, chances are the other one could too.
They say great minds think alike.
Well so do average minds and mediocre minds. Meeting yourself didn’t usually add any new
abilities or thoughts to the mix. You
spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was the same and if something was
different, why it was different. But you
didn’t really talk about the job or train or coordinate efforts or anything
like that. And once the novelty wore
off, things usually devolved pretty quickly.
On average you annoyed yourself pretty quickly. Nobody wants someone around mostly exactly
like them. It reminds a person of their
failures, bad habits, and limitations.
Worst was when the other you was successful and somehow you
weren’t. People hated that. Lots of fights broke out because of
that. Best case you might meet a
drinking buddy. More likely you met a
guy that you really didn’t want to talk to and didn’t want to talk to you
either. Management soon decided you
should meet other protectors from other planets, but not other versions of
yourself.
James
still held out hope he could meet a future wife using his exploits at the MVPD. If an ex on his planet was close, maybe the
one from another world would be perfect.
Management frowned upon this sort of leisure pursuit. You were supposed to do your job, but stay on
your world unless there was a worst case dire dilemma. The multiverse was not supposed to be your
private dating service experiment.
Supervisor Bob stopped by to check in on the night’s outcome. “Bob.”
Another super common name. Why
was it that everyone at his branch at super common names? That fate thing kicking in. Maybe.
If you were common, that might mean there was some sort of common link
across the cosmos and the alternates.
“The kid give you any trouble?”
“Nah. Everything was pretty routine.”
“Good.”
“Some
worlds are stupid. You know?”
“Sure
I do. But what kind of stupid are we
talking about right now?”
“How old was that kid? Seventeen? Maybe.
No way he should be offworlding yet.
And they give him a device to go anywhere? Idiotic.
No telling what damage he could do.”
“I’m sure it was all within the rules and regulations. Device wasn’t pirated was it?”
“Didn’t seem like it.”
“Kid probably took it upon himself to go somewhere he wasn’t supposed to
go.”
“Probably.”
“You might want to check into things anyway. Might be a good idea.”
“Might be.”
James
was tired. He wasn’t interested in extra
work right now. But policing the
multiverse was a thankless job that never ever ended. It only ever grew bigger.
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