Sometime in the future, on Earth ...


    Twenty-five billion lived underground, avoiding the uninhabitable surface.


    Daryl despised his life once he invented the multiverse-gateway and viewed duplicates of himself enjoying the surface.


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    He wrote:


    ''What else can I do? I can''t stay. I''ll have to swap for a balance, never returning. There''s one world where I''m isolated but appear content living off the land, fishing, and hunting.''


    Daryl fired up the gateway and for weeks enjoyed his new solitary existence.


    One day ...


    A drone dropped off an airtight package containing an old-style newspaper with a headline—


    ''Asteroid Impact Imminent!’