Universal Maintenance

Chapter 1

I stood in front of the barn, debating wether or not I should go in. The sheet of paper which I held in my hand advertised that coming here would be a great way to get in touch with the universe. There were telescopes and stars drawn on the sheet. I assumed that it was some kind of astronomy club. I liked astronomy. And besides, my mom said that I should get out more. I was in my senior year of high school, and having some kind of extracurricular would look good. Although, I wasn’t sure that this club was associated with the school - despite the fact that there were posters and flyers advertising it around the halls.

I entered the building where there was a friendly-looking hand-drawn sign reading “entrance.” I went in, and discovered that the barn had a couple lines of chairs set up in front of a stage. There was a mic at the stage with no one behind it. There were a handful of people sitting in the audience. The only person I recognized was a guy who had graduated from my school last year.

I moved deeper into the building, and sat down in one of the chairs towards the back. I waited there a few minutes for something to happen. Eventually someone entered the barn, and ran up to the stage. She jumped up onto the stage.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said into the mic. “There was some traffic.”

The guy I recognized from my school laughed at that. I still couldn’t come up with his name.

“Anyways, if you’re here, then you’re interested in the universe and it's contents. What that means in this context, is you want to work for the universe’s maintenance team. Maybe you weren’t planning on it, but then again nothing ever goes according to plan. If you decide to leave at any point during this seminar, no one is stopping you. Just don’t expect to be able to tell your friends about what you heard.

Now, the universe is a big place. Here, on Earth, not much of the population tends to think about this. You all just think about your own lives and rarely consider the fact that there are infinite universes and even countless planets with sentient life in this universe alone.

But let’s put aside those in this universe for now. It’s other people in other universes that concern us. Unotherized individuals who want to get in illegally. That’s where we come in.”

The speaker removed an official-looking badge from her jacket pocket. The speaker was dressed relatively casually. She wore jeans, sneakers, a red coat, and a lime green shirt. She had striking blue eyes and bright red hair.

She continued talking, “It’s people like me who do quality control on the universe. We track all comings and goings in and out of this universe, and make sure everyone who’s moving interdimensionally is moving safely. We also have a division for monitoring time travelers, but I’m afraid I don’t have that high enough monitoring clearance.

Now, if you would like a job working for this organization, monitoring the travels of highly advanced individuals, please remain seated and you will receive further information.”

Everyone in the audience other than myself and the guy I recognized but couldn’t place stood up and left the barn. As they were leaving, the woman onstage pointed a slim metal cylinder at them. I didn’t know what she was doing, but I was curious.

Once she was done she pointed at me, “You. What’s your name?”

A bit stunned that she was acknowledging me, I answered with the name of my choice, “Ash.”

“Well, Ash, are you interested in learning the secrets of the universe?” She smiled at me, holding out the mic.

“Yeah, I guess,” surprisingly enough, the mic picked up my voice from the back of the room. In truth, I was intrigued. If she was telling the truth and there were alternate universes and I could be a part of the group who watched over this one, I wanted to join. Besides, I needed a job. Hopefully making sure interdimensional travelers weren’t getting up to trouble paid well.

“Well, then you’re going to need to know the basics. You can’t just enter the taskforce without knowing at least the basics.

First of all, infinite universes. The thing about having infinite universes is that there isn’t quite enough room for them all to exist without interacting with each other automatically. Every single story, book, song, movie, show, whatever - exists as another universe. There’s a universe where The Death Star was really built, one where Panem is a real continent, another where The Doctor travels through time, and yet another where The Avengers defend the Earth. There’s a universe where kids really get letters from Hogwarts, and a universe where mice are the smartest animals on planet Earth. Even the silliest stories such as Friday the 13th and Monty Python exist as realities, but I’d advice caution when entering them as logic tends not to exist.

Next, taking objects from other universes. If you take devices from other universes that are not very common objects, it’s better to make an exact copy of the object than take the unique thing from it. That object could be an important plot device and you don’t want to mess up a universe’s storyline.

Finally, no accepting bribes. The individuals who will attempt to travel illegally are wealthy enough to offer substantial bribes. Do not accept them. Administration will find out, and you will be fired, have your mind wiped, and dumped on a random planet.”

“Not like administration pays much attention,” said the only other person in the room.

“True, but it’s always good to be careful,” said the speaker.

“Umm,” I started.

“Yes?” asked the speaker.

“If I accept, when can I start?” I asked.

“When you sleep,” she answered.

“When I sleep?” I echoed.

“Yes.” She tossed me a tennis ball. “Keep this in your room when you go to bed.”

She offered no other explanation, and instead told me to go home.

I did, and was profoundly confused. I went over all that had been said over and over again. I wanted to believe it.

I fell asleep, clutching the tennis ball.

Chapter 2

I fell asleep. As I began to enter the dreamstate, I noticed something annoying - nothing was happening. A while went by while I was lucid and asleep, but nothing was happening. Eventually, a red circle appeared in my vision and in it, bold text appeared reading “Self-Personalization Completed.”

Light suddenly appeared, and I found myself in a white room with a mirror on one wall. I stared into it, and down at myself, confirming that it was indeed a mirror.

Instead of my short black hair, I had shoulder-length hair that was neon pink. My eyes were lavender instead of dark brown. I was wearing a deep aquamarine suit with a lime green tie. My feet were covered with a pair of red heelies. Not that I had anything to compare myself against, but I felt taller. Usually in dreams, I looked like myself, so I found this a bit weird.

“Takes some getting used to, doesn’t it,” The voice came from behind me and it sounded familiar. After a moment, I saw his reflection in the mirror in front of me. A short man with fern-green hair and pine-green eyes was standing behind me in a red suit without a tie.

“Who are you?” I asked, turning around.

“I’m Tom Holden. I used to go to your school. I was at the meeting today, remember?”

Once he said his name I remembered him. “Oh yeah. How’d you get in my dream?”

He laughed. “You’re not dreaming. You’re unconscious yes, but your mind is not in your body.” Seeing the confusion on my face, he continued. “This place is where people of the organization you heard about meets. Your body is getting all the rest it needs, but your mental presence is here. You will be able to do your job without it disrupting your daily life. You will also gain whatever appearance which you chose.”

“You look a lot like you do in real life,” I said.

“And you don’t. But that’s ok. Would you like a tour, or would you like to get started. I’ll warn you though, there’s not much you’re going to be able to see considering how low-level you are.”

“I guess I’m ready to get started then,” I decided, eager to begin.

“That’s good.” He clapped his hands and the room around us shifted into a plain-looking office. There was a desk and a chair. On one wall, there was a series of moniters showing nothing. “You will be working here.” He gestured towards the wooden chair and I sat down. “You will be watching the monitors for anything out of the ordinary. For the first few days, You will be watching the feed of another individual until you get the hang of it. For now, it's time for you to learn.” He walked off, through one of the walls. I sat there a moment before he pushed his head through the wall. “By the way, this place works partially on dream logic. Imagine this room to look however you want, and it’ll look that way.” He disappeared again.

I thought a minute, before falling out of the hard chair and into a large purple beanbag. The desk shrunk and contorted into a kotatsu. The square room’s walls expanded into the shape of a circle. The floor and the space on the walls around the moniter now were covered in thick, plush, blue fabric, making everywhere comfy. My shoes disappeared, making me barefoot. Hanging from the ceiling was now a basket filled with snacks.

I was removing a packet of Oreos when suddenly a beam of light came down from the ceiling. The beam widened into the pale blue image of a woman in a suit standing facing the screens on the wall. I saw her fiddle with some device, then suddenly the sound of her breathing filled the otherwise silent room. The screens lit up with all sorts of data.

There were columns labeled “universes,” “approvals,” “jumps,” and other words I knew but didn’t understand in context. The woman spoke, and explained aloud what she was doing as she went.

She could monitor all disturbances within the fabric of the universe. The charts in front of her knew where and when the disturbances occurred, and wether or not something was authorized to happen at that location.

I was just getting the hang of it all, when I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. Frustrated, I tossed the tennis ball across the room. I got up, and silenced my phone alarm then got ready for school. Once I was at school, and sitting in math, I found myself doodling grids and vague intimations of symbols I’d seen on the screens in my dream. I wanted to know more about what they all meant.

Most importantly, I wanted to know more about Tom. Why was he there? Why was he at the meeting? Assuming that it wasn’t just a dream, he must’ve worked there. But what did he do?

When I got back home and finished my homework and ate dinner and watched a few YouTube videos, I was ready for sleep. Though I forgot to pick up the tennis ball, it seemed to still work. I returned to that personalized room when I went to sleep, and after waiting a bit the image of that woman appeared from the ceiling.

I watched intently as she approved of various instances of individuals crossing into the universe. Apparently there were a lot of people checking over the same data to reduce mistakes. The codes for each universe were very long. One missed symbol in an approval code or a designated universe could be catastrophic.

The woman, who’s name I did not learn said that they used to do all of this on paper until recently. That must’ve been a literal nightmare.

A few days past as I learned the different codes and ways to tell who was coming in and out of the universe. Every once in a while, numbers didn’t line up. People coming from a universe ending in y would have a pass from the next universe over (or one ending in z). Whenever this happened, someone would be contacted to deal with it.

I wanted to be someone who dealt with it. I wanted to know what dealing with it entailed. I wanted to do something more hands-on.

Of course, everyone has to start somewhere.

Chapter 3

I sat down at the table, and immediately helped myself to dinner.

“What are you in such a hurry for?” my mother asked. “Do you have plans to sneak off or something?”

I stopped briefly to say, “No, mom. I’m just really tired and I would like to get to bed.”

She still seemed a bit suspicious, but didn’t say anything. It didn’t take me very long before I was full and ready for sleep. I ran up to my room, and dove under the covers. After a moment I jumped back up to turn off the light before returning to bed.

I lay there trying desperately to fall asleep. It had been exactly two weeks since that first day in the barn, and for nearly every night I’d actually been doing my homework early so as to be able to go to sleep as early as I could without seeming too suspicious.

While I wasn’t really doing anything in the dream place that the tennis ball took me to so far, the experience of being there was better than anything else I could think of. I could do whatever I wanted in that little room, and when I woke up I felt so well reseted it was unbelievable.

On top of the fun I was having, messing around with my little imaginary bubble, I was still tempted with the idea of eventually working in the field, something I kept hearing about, but knew would be far off. I wasn’t in any way positive, but I had gotten the idea in my head that if I spent as much time asleep as possible, then I would have a better chance at actually getting a job.

I fell asleep, waking up in the room I’d come to know. There were toy unicorns everywhere and everything was soft and comfy. There wasn’t really any gravity in the room and as I floated around the room watching someone work on the wallscreens, I wore a rainbow unicorn onesie. While it admitidally wouldn’t seem to be that exciting to an outsider, this whole experience was, to me, very pleasant and somehow freeing. Though, I wouldn’t have been that surprised to find out that they were messing with my head because they were low on staff and just really wanted me to join them.

That night, while I was watching intently as an infraction was discovered, I suddenly found myself enclosed in darkness. When the darkness lifted, I was sitting in a stiff chair. In front of me, there was a large wooden desk and behind it - a tall man wearing a black suit. He was looking down at some papers before him.

“Sorry for the wait I’ve been-” he cut himself off after he looked up at me. “I thought I sent for Ash.”

I looked down at myself. I had the same suit I’d found myself in when I first ended up in this place, and I found that the long pink hair that I had in this place was in a braid.

“I am Ash?” I pointed out, a bit confused as to what he meant. Maybe he was looking for someone by the same name.

“Are you sure?” He asked, then continued before letting me answer. “Here it says that you’ve been spending the past two weeks learning about how to spot errors in travel logs.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I've been doing.“ I confirmed.

He then began muttering something in a language I couldn’t understand before saying to me, “I’m really sorry about this, but I can’t have someone of your abilities continue like this.”

“What do you mean?”

“The people who brought you hear made a huge mistake, and I’m afraid I can’t let this continue.” He reached behind his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper. He handed me the paper.

I took it. After a moment I glanced down and began to read what was written on it. At the top, it said, “Universal Management Field Agent Contract.”

I looked back up, an expression of absolute bewilderment on my face.

The man chuckled. “You know, most people, when they first get here, they just try to look how they would normally. Most don’t really try to understand what’s going on, and their minds see this all as just a dream. Your mind is somewhat unique in the sense that you are able to perceive this all as real.” He pointed at the space above my head. “Your thoughts are racing with opportunity. You want to accomplish something, but you don’t want anyone you know to know."

“What are you talking about?” I blurted out, confused.

“Your mind,” he stated, pointing at me. “I guess you didn’t know but those of us in charge can read other’s minds while in this place. SInce you got to this room, I’ve been going through your mind and examining your aura. Even an amateur should be able to tell that you are destined for things greater than just quality control. I hope that you will forgive the incompetence of those who brought you here, and agree to become an agent.”

I was stunned, and very confused, but I agreed anyways. I read over the contract, and signed eagerly. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay very close attention to the fine print.

Chapter 4

The next evening when I went to bed I arrived in a new location. It was a plain white box of a room, I had the same appearance as the last time. I stood in the middle of the room, waiting for something to happen.

After a few minutes a guy appeared. He was casually dressed in a hoodie and jeans. When he appeared, the room changed. There was now a pair of chairs in the room and in front of them what looked like a video game set up. Only one though.

“So you’re the new recruit, huh?”