Useless: Male Superhero in a Reverse World
Chapter 25

Dr. Treda shook her head mournfully as she tossed hard drive after hard drive into the grinder that the US government had sent over to her office, along with a couple of federal agents with very large guns to make sure the doctor did as she was told.

“This is a travesty against science, you know.”  She tipped another drive in the black slot.  She heard the teeth of the grinder shredding the metal and plastic. “We just wanted to warn you about the risks of dimensional transfer, not stop research entirely.”

One of the agents dropped her sunglasses. “You warned us that this was a potential earth threatening event.  What did you expect us to do?”

“Be more careful?  Give us more funding for long term research?  Anything but send shredders out.”  She sighed. “Look, this pile of drives is the last we have.  Can I go please take a smoke break?  My assistant can easily put the drives in the grinder.”

The agent nodded. “Be my guest.”

The young researcher grabbed her cigarettes from her office and headed to the atrium of the H & R office building.  The atrium was a massive glass structure that encased the space between three towers.  It was filled with light, water features, and plants.  Treda loved coming down here to clear her mind.  She lit her Charon brand cigarette and blew a long column of smoke into the tree she was sitting under.”

“You know, smoking is a nasty habit.”  A man’s voice said behind her back.

“The research is still out on that, whoever you are.”  She lied.  Turning around she immediately put out the cigarette into the heel of her shoe.  “Mr. Hazel! I’m so sorry if I knew you were here I wouldn’t have lit up.”

Dr. Treda knew of Richard Hazel and had worked with his staff on a number of occasions.  Something looked odd about him this time seeing him.  Was it the new longer haircut he was sporting? He had two steaming cups of coffee in styrofoam cups, and sat down on the other side of the bench and smiled.

Richard continued. “I hear that a certain project has almost completed its data scrub.  I bet you’re disappointed.  Would you like a cup of coffee?  I just brewed it myself. I remember you take milk, no sugar.”

“Yes thank you.  Having your life’s work ground to dust is never an inspiring moment.”  Her hand moved to her mouth and she forgot she put out her smoke. “It’s a real dent to your sense of self worth.”

“Now that H & R and the government have far less need for particle physicists, do you have any plans?”  Dick raised the cup to his lips in a slightly mechanical manner that Treda found odd.

“Yes, but I’ve got another job lined up.  Emboss’s friend, the Gatanaxian, has completed her first technology transfer.  I’ll be part of the first research team, analysing the power modules.  A suitcase sized box that can power five hundred homes for a thousand years.  Donadd says it's impossible to turn into a bomb.  Our team will be tasked with disproving that statement.”  She sipped from the cup. “Mmm.  Good coffee.”

Richard nodded. “I only buy the best beans.”  His lip twitched twice before he continued. “What would you say if I told you that there was still an opportunity to work on dimensional travel? There are groups of powerful people who haven’t given up hope on being able to bring men from the other side.”

“Really?  Is this a black project?  Does the Department of Gender know about this?”

“I guess you could say it is a black project Dr. Treda.  Those in the current administration lack the vision needed to bring about a new age of women.  Women can live the life they were supposed to have.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Each woman, having two or three men, all serving her needs.  Men would finally put women on a pedestal.”

“I never saw you as a women’s rights activist.”  She sipped more of the coffee. “The idea of that world sounds nice in theory.  I’ve worked long hours, but for a world where more women can have a single man if they so choose.  We wouldn’t have to lead such stressful, sex starved lives.  No more guilt coming from our mothers to join a harem.”

“You wouldn’t be shackled to what society wants.”  He tilted his head and nodded. “So are you in?”

Treda looked up at the artificial habitat, filled with tropical plants. “While it’s a worthwhile goal, I have to move on.  Gatanaxian technology may very well bring around the advances we need to perfect dimensional travel.  The tech is real and has been in operation for centuries.  We can help people right now, I can't give that up.”

“My boss said there was a ten to one odds you’d say something like that.”  Richard flung the coffee cup into a nearby bin. “That’s a shame.”

“Boss?  But Mr. Hazel, you’re the founder of the company.”  Her head started to swim and Hazel’s outline started to blur. “You don’t have any boss.”  She slumped over and her head fell into Richard’s lap.  She slept soundly.

“I have one now Dr. Treda.”  He pet her head mechanically. “I’m going to put you and a friend of yours on the company jet to go and meet her.”

…

Dr. Treda’s eyes opened wide as the pungent odor of smelling salts hit her nose.  Her first eyefull was her work colleague Dr. Moarly.  She was sitting on the same couch bolt upright and looked ghastly pale.  Moarly looked at Treda and gave a tight smile, but remained silent and unmoving. She looked around and saw a black haired woman with blue eyes and a sly grin on her face toss the salts into a rubbish bin and walk to a woman with salt and pepper hair sitting behind a desk.  The younger woman spoke with an eastern european accent. “She’s up, boss.”

Enola Gortinson raised her eyebrow. “I noticed.” She gave a nod to the recovering doctor. “I hope you enjoyed your flight. It’s nice to meet you Dr. Treda, I’m Enola Gortinson, Richard’s new…supervisor.”

“Flight?  Where am I?” Treda rubbed her eyes and cracked her neck.  “Why is Dr. Moarly here.”

“You're in a small office building across from the particle research lab at CERN.  I’m here to inform you of your current situation and your mission now that you’re working for the Hera group.”

“Hera?!  What are you talking about, I’m no terrorist.  Men should have the freedom to choose whomever they want.”

“Did I say you were working for us willingly?”  Enola raised her hand. “Don’t worry, your conscience can remain clean.  You’ll be working under duress.”  She looked at Tanya. “Why don’t you show her the feed.”

The black haired girl handed a tablet to the Doctor. “Just swipe, you’ll get every angle.”

Dr. Treda saw a camera feed of the large home she lived at with her husband, children, and sisters-in-law (that was how the wives of a man referred to each other).  She swiped,  each bedroom in the house had a camera feed.  The last video showed the nursery, with her child sleeping soundly.

“What the fuck is this?”

“The Hera group excels at blackmail, Dr. Treda.  Your husband's home is rigged to explode.  It will be the unfortunate result of bad gas line work.  Such a terrible tragedy.”  Enola made a fake frown of concern. “We wouldn’t want that to happen would we?”

“They’ll know I’ve gone, they’ll call the police.”

“Richard has made sure that would not be a problem.  You’re taking a long work trip and won’t be back for months.  The only person who will miss you dearly will be your child. Having such a big family doesn’t give you enough time to notice when someone is off on an adventure.”

“Maggie!” Dr. Treda touched the face of her daughter sleeping soundly.

“So, now that you see you can work for us.  I want to make it clear that Hera wants your dimensional travel research to work again.  Dr. Moarly is here to improve the scope you used to find potential candidates.

Moarly cursed. “That tech took years to produce.”

Tanya walked over with a briefcase and opened it in front of them.  Inside was a crude approximation of the device made by the Department of Gender.

“You think a science project like that will do half as well as the one I personally destroyed?  You're more likely to find serial killers than compliant men in the parallel dimension with that piece of crap.”

“Don’t you worry about their psychological profile Moarly.  We just need it to work.”

“You’re willing to pull super powered psychopaths into our world?”

Enola stood up and walked to Moarly. “Let me worry about that.  Dr. Treda, in your research did you not say there was a moment in time where the subject froze mid way through the portal? And that the subject is unconscious for another hour after transference?”  She bent down and stared with emotionless eyes.

“Well yes, that would be just after the person was bombarded with Tachyon particles.”

“Would you say we could test their body for invulnerability at that moment? ”

“I suppose that’s possible, but that’s pure speculation.”

“Good, then we have our failsafe.  Hera can control any man whose skin we can puncture.  At the moment of time stop, we perform the procedure.  If it is rejected due to invulnerability, we simply return the target back to their home universe.”

“This is insanity!  You're talking about potentially populating parallel universes with invulnerable super psychopaths!”

“Why should I care what happens to one of a trillion alternative worlds? And don’t worry, when this is all said and done, you may have the privilege to breed with a subject.  Wouldn't it be nice to give birth to a super-abled person?”

Dr. Treda spat. “Your lack of empathy is fascinating.  You should have your head examined.”

Enola gave a hollow laugh.  “All I need is your compliance.  I don’t care how you feel about me.”

Moarly balled her fists. “What assurances do we have that you won’t blow up our families at the end of all this?”

Enola walked to the window.  “Because by the time we’re all done, the world will be a very different place, and you will pose no threat to the organization.  You’ll be an insect, undeserving of our attention.”  She waved out at the research institute across the road. “And the world will be a wonderful place to live in.  You’ll be happy and so will we.  There would be no need for … hostilities.”

Dr. Treda looked to see Dr. Moarly quietly weeping.