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Of that world’s Lieutenant Markov, who loved me so deeply, even when he knew I’d played him for a fool

I don’t dare return to that diain But they deserve to lead their own lives and find their own fates To have their chance to win the war, and survive

And as much as it would hurt to learn that any of those people in the Warverse were dead, it would be infinitely worse to know that they had never been

"You don’t even understand what you’re askinga dienocide" They want alaxies

"Perhaps destroy is the wrong word," Dad says, like a change in vocabulary would fix this "Think of it as ‘un’ the dimensions, and that’s really one they can’t even see it I strike out with the first thing that comes to mind "Josie would never accept this Even if you succeeded, and you put her back together again, she would hate you for what you’d done"

"I feel sure Josephine will see reason," my father says, with the saet her ears pierced a third time

My er than you have She’s seen how many versions there are of us, in all the worlds One version more or less in the multiverse "

"This is bigger than math! You can’t just swap one of us out for another!"

Mom seems almost irritated by my lack of comprehension "All versions of us are the same person, on a very important level Haven’t you seen that yet? Your Paul Markov--isn’t he the same one you love in every world, everywhere?"

Once I would have said yes Now I know the truth is more complicated As much as each version has in cole one of us, everywhere, is irreplaceable

"Your universe is safe," Mom says That shouldn’t make h to be glad we’re not first on the chopping block "Perfect travelers are a scarce resource We can’t go unht and left"

"You can see noe need to keep the technology under wraps," Dad chiine the warfare that would result?"

I shake my head "But if you’re the only dihter"

"You make it sound so diabolical," Dad says, as if it isn’t

"Please, sweetheart, think this over after you’ve had a chance to cal with , she’s enough likeher this way makes my heart hurt "We want to ith you We want to make this the best it can be for everyone involved And we can give you so y to turn our die of Goya and Warhol, like theirs? That’s supposed tome into a mass murderer?

She pauses; her eyesdirectly at uerite You’re our daughter too But--if it came to it--Conley could travel to a new dimension and create another perfect traveler there"

I knohat she means the instant she says it But it’s like e Instead, I flush hot all over, and et out of me now, because if it stays inside it will destroy me

My parents would kill my universe They would kill ood as another, because they think we’re all fungible, replaceable, disposable--