Kay very badly wanted to see the rat-creatures as a plague that sought to unleash itself on the rest of the universe, her Earth included. Yet after a month of clandestinely spying on her captors, she characterized them more as their own primary victims. Oh, she could certainly despise their leadership caste, with its monopolization of the world’s assets and free space. But even the considerable luxury they lived in would seem cramped to a reasonably prosperous human.

Rove always spoke with Dr. Rat about her, pointedly asking how “he” was doing. Kay tried to anticipate his visits, so she could wear one of the dowdy suits he’d sourced for her. She generally stood looking miserable as Dr. Rat bragged about the great strides she was making under his erudite guidance. The creature strutted back and forth before Rove and his thuggish bodyguard, body twisting and undulating. His little hands made grand gestures like a dictator before a rally, only for him to collapse back into cowering when either of the men shifted position.

Then it was Kay’s turn. Daniel Rove strode over, hands behind his back. “The little dottori seem quite taken with you,” he noted on one visit. “Of course, they’re always very keen to impress on me how much they’ve achieved with the tools at hand. Perhaps you’d like to comment.”

Kay was well aware that the translator was feeding all that back to Dr. Rat, but Rove plainly didn’t care. Besides, the rats did seem to be profoundly rude to anyone they considered beneath them, so maybe that was just basic etiquette this side of the looking glass.

“We have a good mathematical model of the declining forces that form the structure of the branching universes,” she confirmed. “We’ve attempted to isolate some of the matter, energy or particles involved—using the bigger accelerators down below—but so far that’s still—” She bit off “up in the air,” because the last thing she wanted was Rove’s derisive laugh at anything resembling a joke. “Inconclusive,” she finished awkwardly.

“And can you affect the decline?”

“Using our equations, one of the practical labs was able to reverse the degradation measurably for five one-hundredths of a second. The results appear to be replicable. However, as matters stand, there is insufficient energy to achieve a greater result.”

Rove raised an eyebrow. “We want to preserve a part of the universe, a lifeboat when the ship goes down. I think we’ll find the energy. What are we saving it for, after all? One Earth, two…We can burn quite a lot to get what we want.” He gave her his brisk, soulless smile and would obviously have left at that point. Yet Khan’s professional pride was pricking her, and she added, “There are other ways. I think it’s a question of leverage.”

Rove regarded her. “Explain.”