Stripped of other options, feeling acutely miserable in her own skin, Kay sat at the computer. It was just as she’d been told: all their data was there for her, with an interface that was close enough to Windows and controlled by a touch screen. The translation had a few rough edges; that was all. The rodents had been reaching for language to describe universal phenomena, as alien to them as to her, but the numbers came through loud and clear.

I had no idea. Not quite true, but an idea was all she’d had. The rats were a step ahead. Their scientists had gone on to develop their idea into a reality: that their Earth was part of a sequence of parallels, each one branching from the next. And now the principles that had maintained the separate existences of these worlds were failing. Soap-bubble universes threatening to merge into one another and, eventually, pop. Even Kay had to stretch her mind to believe it.

This entire universe of parallels was complex, held together by inviolable laws and irresistible forces, composed of an unimaginable amount of energy. Yet, at the same time, these were just tiny particles that existed on reality’s knife edge. It was all numbers, when you came down to it.

The universe had sprung into being due to an imbalance between matter and antimatter—which gave rise to All That Was. The energy this took was like a huge debt borrowed from the future. And now being called in? One minus one is zero.

As far as causes for despair went, there wasn’t much to beat the end of everything. On the other hand, Kay knew numbers. Numbers were her business. She wasn’t going to save the world on Rove’s say-so…but she could still save the world.

Several hours of deep perusal later, she had visitors, as the soldiers at the door let in another pair of rat-creatures. Thankfully these ones weren’t in uniform. The foremost of the two wore what looked like several layers of jackets, each one pulled out into starched points at its lower corners. The overall impression was something like a tiered pagoda, or a spiny segmented pyramid. Its posture switched rapidly: sometimes a tall stretch that would have brought the top of its head to around Kay’s breast level; at others a hunched, low stance, monkey-like hands clutched before it like a pantomime villain. Its companion was…Kay frowned. Its companion was a full-on cyborg super-rodent. The creature’s head was shaved, giving it a horribly cadaverous appearance. And a metal implant extended over the left rear quadrant of its skull, bristling with stubby antennae. It wore decidedly less ostentatious clothing, just a loose smock—and its ears and tail had been cropped or injured at some point. Its posture was entirely hunched and low, and Kay retranslated that stance from “plotting” to “placatory.”