THE MOMENT
"Old gold? That's good, right?" Minerva asked the question with a smile, and Beckham was mildly surprised. It wasn't his first meeting with the intimidating executive, and he was already comfortable with how quick she was. She was an 8-foot-tall woman with broad shoulders who was almost two of him, and on their first meeting, he anticipated a dumb jock who coasted her way up, but she proved bright and warm. Her question sounded completely divorced from what he'd come to expect. Although, in fairness, he had difficulty processing the truth himself at first.
"No, I don't think you understand. The gold bars you found are genuine. The problem is that carbon dating suggests they are about 300 years older than anything else right now." He said.
"That doesn't sound... possible exactly...," Minerva said. "... how sure are you?"
"Very...," Beckham nodded with a sigh. "...enough to inform the government. I'm sorry," he said. "I submitted a report and sample this morning, and I expect we'll both hear something as soon as someone gives it a read. I don't know where you found the gold, but I strongly believe that it's of the utmost priority that we find out more about where it came from. According to all our instruments, those bars were formed before the universe existed; that's a discovery that cannot be understated."
"You gave away a sample of our gold?" Minerva asked. "And you involved a government agency despite our private arrangement?"
"I did the right thing," Beckham nodded. "If I'm wrong, I've made my peace with that. If I'm right, it changes everything we thought we knew."
"Congratulations," Minerva smiled. "You did the right thing, you're right, and now everything you thought you knew is different. How do you feel?" she asked.
"What?" Beckham asked.
"It was a test, and you've passed with flying colors. You were confident in the results, stuck to your guns, and did what you thought was the proper thing; those are all traits Chroma Corp. looks for in an employee."
Beckham was surprised, but also still confused. If it was a test, where did it start exactly?
"Did you mess with my instruments?" He knew what readings he got. And, he knew he was thorough with his methodologies. If someone found a way to manipulate his equipment, he needed to know.
"No, no," Minerva shook her head. "Chroma Corp. is a multiversal company. You'll learn more, of course, but to answer your question. We gave you gold from a different universe, one older than this one."
He felt that wasn't really an answer he could explain to the feds.
"Wait..., but I submitted -," he was struggling to process so many different threads, but it suddenly seemed important. If he was going to accept they were a multiversal company, he also had to accept he'd already revealed them to the government.
"Oh yes, we got your report," Minerva smiled and offered him a polished chrome folder across her desk. He was confused, but accepted it and opened the file to take a look. It was his report with the attached sample in a small transparent bag.
"How do you have this??" Beckham was dumbfounded.
"You'll learn about our processes as you go," Minerva nodded. "We're a multiversal corporation with branches on billions of alternate Earths. We own a lot of those Earths in their entirety, including yours."
"Does that mean... I can visit any of those Earths?" Beckham asked. It was impossible to believe, but he decided to skip disbelief altogether and simply accept what he was being told.
"You'll be able to choose any of our Earths to move to, if you wish," Minerva nodded with a smile.
"Thank you...," Beckham shook his head. "I do appreciate that, but I'm just thinking about a visit right now." He gestured at the folder in his hand. "This gold is so old... I'm genuinely curious where it came from. I'd like to visit that universe first."