Raymond Stantz

"My apologies," Kitt said again. "I'm more used to people being used to my human form and my transition between the two."

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"Please do not mention it," he mumbled, finding himself with the sudden urge to very quietly retreat and find a safe spot from the alternate Kitt.

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gone_byebye

"It's okay, big guy. Not gonna happen again, right?" The last word came out from between clenched teeth as she darted a look at Kitt. "It's all gonna get fixed, and then we can tell the nice people from Bizarro World our part of the story."

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"Right," he said, sighing a bit. His CPU still hurt.

"96 percent," the Milliways KARR chimed in with again.

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At that message, Bonnie reached in and disengaged the computer override, the dial clicking softly until it was back in place. "There. True to my word. All yours again."

And she made her way back to her Karr.She couldn't have just stood by.

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As soon as he regained control of the car, Michelle's KARR backed up slightly, looking as if he was trying to take cover behind her. "I think you would be better suited to epxlaining our world at the moment."

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gone_byebye

Michelle patted the Trans Am fondly. "Probably," she agreed, and took a deep breath. "All right, let's start with this... KARR here and I are both operatives for the Foundation for Law and Government. We've been partnered for several years now, ever since his original driver retired. My name is- was- Michelle Long."

She pauses, to watch for a reaction.

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This time, it was Kitt's scanner that went dim.

A few moments later, he transmitted to his brother, [I hope that will lessen the number of the hits to the head you'll give me.]

But aloud, all he said was, "I see."

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[The hits to the head, yes, but your door is still mine.]

The Milliway KARR's scanner changed shades several times before settling down as he thought things over. "That's...rather eerie, actually. And I see you don't have that little 'til death do us part' problem for AIs here."

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gone_byebye

"Sorry," Michelle says. "About the eerie, I mean. The other thing was... well, they were afraid that might be the case, so back when Paul retired they made as complete a backup as they could of KARR here. Just in case. The transition was really, really tricky... he almost didn't make it." She looks down at the car with a worried little smile. "Pulled through in the end, though."

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Bonnie looked over at Kitt, who was markedly silent. She knew that no amount of backing up his memory would leave him the same if he was separated from Michael. Wondered if it would be that way for Karr, because she didn't have Michael's training. Her hand tightened on the lip of Karr's window.

"They're tougher than they look in some ways," she agreed quietly. "But... I've got to ask, you... You're not old enough to be a version of Michael. Too old to be his daughter, I'd think..."

She glanced over at Kitt again. Still silent. She worried.

"Are you... related to him at all?"

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"I am-or was-doing quite well now," Michelle's KARR added in.

"Ah. In our universe, we'd simply die from cascade failure, and that would be that." Bonnie's KARR felt her hand tightening, and he moved slightly to touch her with his prow.

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gone_byebye

Michelle winced visibly at the thought. To Bonnie, she said, "I have very few male relatives. My father's name is Richard, and yeah, I've heard the jokes. My grandfathers are named Tom and Wendell, and my only uncle is named Judd. None of my cousins are named Michael. Sorry."

Ray put up a finger. "Um, Bonnie? Could I talk to you and the guys for just a second, please?"

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Bonnie glanced up at Ray, nodded - and then over at Kitt.

"Yeah," she said. "As long as we're not talking... absolute privacy, I mean..."

She didn't want Kitt to have to move for a while.

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The Milliways KARR's scanner flashed a bit as he picke dup on the wince. Apparently the thought of being related to Knight was..less than appealing. "What is it, Ray?"

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gone_byebye

"Won't be necessary, Bonnie. Just over here, please, and I'll be quiet about it." He glanced at Michelle, who nodded and turned to speak quietly with her own KARR.

"Okay. It's like this." Ray looked back and forth between Bonnie, Karr, and Kitt. "I've been doing timeline research since a little after I arrived at Milliways. I've found that I, personally, exist in at least four different timelines- this one, and three others. For some reason I haven't figured out yet, this is the only timeline in which I was born in the 1970's instead of the late 1950's- and in which all the major events I've had to deal with happened in the early twenty-first century, instead of the mid-1980s." He glances over Michelle-wards, then looks back to the others. "My friend Peter, in the Bar, isn't the Peter native to this continuum. He says the Gozer crisis- the first really big adversary we had to face- happened in his world sometime around 1984 or so. In mine, Gozer happened in October of 2003."

"I think maybe what we're looking at is another twenty-year displacement. I don't know how, but unless you've got a better explanation, I think we might just be looking at one more example of how a truly wacked-out universe can mess with the people and events we know best."

Quietly, Michelle said, "If I never hear the words 'cascade failure' again, it will be too soon."

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Kitt's scanner whispered quietly and finally he bothered to scan Michelle Long-- Or was it Michelle Knight?

He supposed the presence or absence of a certain metal plate he knew of very well would make it obvious just what had happened. If it was an offset like Ray had mentioned.

[The one thing I couldn't have prepared for.]

"It has... set me aback, in either circumstance."

And he thought some time spent in human form would help him deal with it.

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[It's bizarre,] KARR agreed. Outloud, he said, "But if they decided to use an 80s model rather than a new one and there was a previous driver, then the events we know about could have happened in the 80s, and simply led to different results. But I'm no scholar on alternate universes."

Michelle's KARR nudged her with his prow. "You and I both."

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"I think we just need to hear the whole story," said Bonnie softly. "There are a lot of factors we can't even imagine. And I think it's time we let ourselves stop imagining and actually listen. Stop conjecturing."

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gone_byebye

Funny thing about the Gulf War. Even though they had access to more advanced field medicine than in any other war to date, occasionally battlefield surgeons still had to substitute metal for bone after especially egregious head injuries. Michelle's Bradley hadn't entirely been able to save her life, it appeared.

"This universe isn't entirely an offset," Ray admitted. "The same men were president in Peter's 1980's as they were in mine, so-" He shrugs. "I don't know. I really don't. We're just going to have to find out what happened. Ready?"

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"Ready as I'll ever be, I suppose," The Milliways KARR said, his scanner steadily flicking.

"I hope we do not send one of them into the same sort of failure," the other KARR mumbled, his own scanner flaring.

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[It's her,] Kitt transmitted, not quite able to speak aloud. [She's this reality's Michael. I scanned her. I...]

Kitt's scanner dimmed again. He would definitely need some time in human form to be able to let his mind wrap around this. But one thing he was absolutely glad about.

He felt no connection to her at all.

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gone_byebye

Michelle looked up as the others turned their attention her way. "Better now?" she asked.

"Not really," Ray admitted, "but as close as we're gonna get."

She nodded.

"Okay, it's like this. The AI project-" She touched KARR's fender lightly. "-started years before I even knew the Foundation for Law and Government existed. I joined the Army fresh out of high school, looking for money for college. I never really imagined that we'd actually go to war again, but we did- within a couple of months of my signing up, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and Desert Storm followed after. I drove an M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle over there, like I said, and it saved my life more than once- although not entirely, once." She tapped a spot under her right eye. "We came under heavy mortar fire at one point and our armor failed. The plate the surgeons had to put in came in handy- I couldn't go career for medical reasons, but the Seattle PD had no problem with it. I was moving up through the ranks pretty nicely when I ran afoul of a people-smuggling ring out of China, run by a Triad boss with no fear of American law. The FBI agent I was working with died in a firefight with his gangmen, and I probably should've too, but Wong didn't know about the plate when he shot me..."

She looked down at KARR again, smiling fondly. "I think you can understand why I don't really remember what happened next. What I do remember is waking up in a recovery room that wasn't in any hospital building in Seattle that I knew of- and believe me, I knew my city's hospitals. A guy named Paul Fullam had found me, and his boss- a man named Wilton Knight- was looking for someone to take his place, because Paul was just about ready to retire. Does any of this sound familiar?"

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"A little," said Bonnie. "I... don't know the whole story about Michael. Only two people do..." She glanced over at Kitt. "But it sounds a little familiar."

She thought about moving between her two cars. She felt like both of them might do with a hand on their hood.

"It'll be really familiar if you tell me they altered your appearance and renamed you Knight."

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