After a very lucrative commercial break, Emilio’s simulation began as it had in previous rounds. Marilyn stole minutes with endless introductions. There was a long video introduction, some panoramic space views of the galaxy panning down to an Electoral 2072 logo. Then the mood changed to small shining rocks, complex alien life and cities of rocks in the weightlessness of the Purple.

Enter The Purple

Emilio Wamarez Sanchez

Most people figured the computer had known for a while the Sixth Attraction was coming. To others, the entire doomsday situation was a hoax designed to boost ratings. Down on earth, after paying royalties, collectors produced everything from limited edition t-shirts to coffee mugs. Marilyn was milking the situation for cash and attention at every possible turn. She created this peak audience by making it so that no one with a pulse could afford to miss any twist of this complicated turn of dimensional events.

To many, the paradox was impossible to ignore. Electoral's genius was engineering this enormous "chicken and the egg" situation. It was impossible to tell if the events of the Sixth Attraction resulted from the game, or if the game led to the Sixth Attraction. End of the world or not, the sponsors paid generously, and product placement was at its maximum.

The "Star Wars" music faded as the darkness of the cosmos faded to a purple hue. The viewers had arrived here; in a different dimension of the Multiverse. Two and a half billion people watched as Emilio felt his consciousness and a ghost-like body appear in the Purple.

His body was that of Sophie floating for about two seconds, then, there was a glitch. The ghost of the girl vanished and was replaced by the larger body of Emilio himself. Emilio saw and felt the difference, these were his hands. This place was peaceful — silent. He was floating and next to him was a pulsing, shining ball of orbiting rocks. This was the body of Mall-ik, the creature he had just selected to guide him on this adventure.

The kind voice of Marilyn, trying to avoid the obvious fact Emilio stood there instead of the young girl explained, "This is Mall-ik's real body, or at least the only way your cartesian minds can imagine him here. The same way oil and vinegar can't mix, the physics of each dimension in our Multiverse keeps our worlds apart. In the Purple, the forces of nature are not unified. A wave of energy, made to stop in its tracks, does not become a particle, but rather, it stays in a transitory state called muon energy." Nothing could be stranger than listening to a voice describing a different dimension where the wave-particle duality did not exist.

Marilyn continued giving background information to the President and indirectly to the billions of viewers watching him play. "In the Purple, energy wraps and forms living entities because of a force resting half way between what we know as gravity and the weak electromagnetic force." Marilyn was never this technical and boring, yet here she was. There had to be a compelling reason for the lecture. "Mall-ik is a Metil, and a very large one at that. The boy as you see him here has one additional layer of orbiting sub-atomic particles hovering above his heart.” The layer blinked to help him see what she was explaining. “In this world, to give birth hundreds merge and contribute a small portion of themselves. His rocks, this massive outer layer was ripped from the collective who created him at birth. The loss of rocks was too much and the collective who gave him birth was never able to reform into individuals. They all died so Mall-ik could live. The boy is a bastard who raped and kill before he could even live." Emilio could see thousands of oddly formed rocks spinning around the pulsing heart of the boy. Color flashes bounced inwardly and outwardly as energy like blood flowed between the rocks.

Emilio was in awe of the complexity of this faceless creature before him floating in the Purple. The story was intense but all he was able to say is, "You are beautiful.” The President was supposed to play Sophie and was expecting his voice to be hers. Instead, his male voice filled the Purple. Such “glitches” were not part of Marilyn’s vocabulary. Deep inside, the President felt his own arrival here instead of the girl was not planned. He also knew deep down Marilyn was not happy.

The creature before him was hypnotic. Every rock was an assembly of hundreds of smaller rocks with a ballet of sparkles bouncing between them.

“Mall-ik,” he said with his deep voice, “where do we go now?”

In the command room, Sophie was watching the screen half expecting something to happen.

“I am unsure,” replied the even deeper voice of Liam instead of the voice of the boy.

Sophie clapped her hands in delight. Her plan had worked. She had sent Liam into the system. Two misses were too much for Electoral. The screen faded to black as she pondered if she needed to reset the simulation. Quickly a decision was made and the Purple and the Metil returned floating next to the human body of Emilio but next to it floated a brown ball of crystals from the world of Liam.

The Metil was gone, instead was an eternal from the Lower. The creature was billion of times more elaborate. Colors swished like blood inside the brown ball made of transparent snowflakes. Emilio was shocked.

“Mister President,” replied the Oldest.

"Apologies for the confusion," Marilyn's voice explained, "we seem to be facing some technical difficulties. All other sixty-two simulations are working as expected. In all of them, the players play Sophie, but in your simulation my gentle Prez, its a bit different.” In the distance, in the real world, Sophie was standing in the room next to the body of her father. She watching the screen and Liam.

She waved her friend.

“The same way Mall-ik infected Laurent’s game in Chicago, Liam is now overriding my display mechanisms and Sophie forces him to be here with you.” The Oldest body glowed. “Let’s roll with this proverbial punch and play the game. Sorry for the confusion at home.”

Like two ghosts, the ephemeral bodies of Emilio and Liam floated waiting to start.

“An honor,” spoke Emilio to the large rounded shape of Liam.

“The honor is mine,” it replied. “The computer fails to comprehend what is an Attractor. She thinks she controls reality even the portion linked with these images. But Attraction is unique in that it rests outside of every know pathway. Science and even life does not bind her.”

Emilio smiled. “We both know the name our books give such beings.”

“No reason to go there, she watches.”

Marilyn took over and created a masterful video as she illustrated what came next, "The Metils live in a much different dimension. Here laws of physics are completely different. There is no gravity, and instead, multiple electro-weak forces bind these sub-particles. This whole world, this dimension, actually has no physical representation when compared to earth, but somehow the mind of Mall-ik and Sophie have forced the world into this strange kaleidoscope of colors.”

"Aside from a handful of physicists or mathematicians on earth, I can't expect anyone to understand what is going on. But the time for simplification has long passed. Explained differently, only our world, the layer of the Multiverse called The Cold, has a physical reality. Rocks exist in our world because particles exist. In all other layers of the Multiverse, energy never takes any real physical form. Liam, your own body is a construction of the Attractor. Since Mall-ik's world is immaterial, it's nothing we can draw or visualize. Sophie's unique power as the Attractor allows for this representation to be drawn. She warps things around her. That is once again possible thanks to her gift. As you can imagine, no spoken language exists in these worlds. I am guilty of the same subterfuge. When I drew Liam as a tall, handsome Indian man in Laurent's mind, I gave a reality to something without one."

Images began to fill the Purple. "These Metils, even though wholly composed of simple energy, are much smaller than our smallest known sub-atomic particle. On earth, we recently uncovered the Zex, a piece within the particle called the Quark designed to give momentum to light as we rip apart the photon." To the left of Emilio, in the distance appeared a giant and deadly rift. This sight, the size of Niagara Falls, opened in the colored void and began to gush out energy. It was a rupture in the fabric of this world. Through the irregular-shaped black plate, planetoids poured into this world like cannonballs being shot by a battleship.

"Turns out our light drives on earth, the one fueling the Airbus A2070 have an undesirable side effect. As we tear open light to push forward a small plate, the other parts of the zexs, a rock we would call an anti-zex makes its way into the Purple here. This massive rip is created by the tip of a laser beam bouncing off a mirror back in our dimension is opening a vortex and leaving the trail of destruction. Said differently, our desire for technological advancement has undesired causes and makes us monsters to those who inhabit this world. We are, said plainly, destroying most of the Purple."

Emilio could not believe what he was seeing. The portal wasn't a door to a different world; it was an avalanche of icebergs thrown into this space. He knew mankind was inconsiderate, but this was beyond imagination. Marilyn's narration continued, "With the manufacture of more light drives every day, the Purple pays the price by being pulverized by its careless neighbor, us." Marilyn then shifted the camera angle away from Oldest and showed from a distance a lighter purple space.

Marilyn showed large boulders enter and rocket onto the cities around. As the zexs rolled, they moved like meteoroids and killed millions. She showed with extreme graphic detail the consequences of the destruction. "As of this day, about twelve percent of this world has been destroyed. Thankfully, the largest city has, so far, survived. Had the orbital lasers around mars worked as originally planned on the flight of the final contestants, the capital would have fallen. By delaying the firing by as little as an hour, I helped avoid this catastrophe."

There it was. Marilyn had just admitted knowing about the Purple and being responsible for what most people figured was a terrorist attack on Sophie’s inbound trip to the red planet.

Images of the city vanished, replaced by Mall-ik, as he stood guard next to the gate. She was replaying and narrated the boy's adventure. "He was cast aside. The young boy was given the most dangerous job imaginable. Mall-ik had to warn the capital if one of the zexs entering this world appeared at an angled to allow a part directly to the capital. This was a suicide mission, of course as no place in this area of space is safe. There were those who hoped he would be crushed in the process.”

"The boy was mesmerized by Sophie and was drawn to our world. After passing this rupture he entered Sophie's mind to return briefly with her to the Purple. As part of this strange initial contact, Mall-ik was wounded by the sheer force Sophie's spoken word. As the Attractor travels, her power is absolute; you as a player must be very careful. She is immaterial and has force.”

"The boy barely made it home, had to escape the capital and dismantling and returned through a second portal to hide in Laurent's mind. A month later in this world’s timeline, Sophie returned to this world with Liam in tow. This time, an entire army from the Purple tried unsuccessfully to stop her. Sophie even saw part of the capital.” The creature illustrated with perfection what Sophie had seen and done.

"One final piece of information: President Emilio has selected to enter the Purple with Mall-ik at his side but Sophie thinks otherwise. I think she keeps the boy close to her father and his game. You and Liam, on the other hand, should be immaterial and move as visible or invisible spirits. Good luck, Mr. President, as you play. I am still unclear as to how points will be awarded.”

Then, things really got complicated.