Earth-349: The Last Story, Prologue 3

Natalie Richards looked up from her desk when she heard a knock at the door.
She stretched out an arm and opened it, and since Richards was still widely
known to the world as Doctor Fantastic, a former member of the Fantastic Four,
when she stretched out an arm it really stretched. The door, some ten yards
away, opened, and Jane Arbogast entered. She'd already removed and stowed her
Iron Maiden armor, and like Richards was wearing an AIM coverall, its beekeeper-
style cowl thrown back.

Richards had spent her entire life surrounded by scientists and intellectuals,
and she knew that social awkwardness was something of an occupational hazard,
but until her previous visit, Iron Maiden had always kept her armor on the
entire time, even the helmet. That had seemed a bit much, even to Richards.
Arbogast had been terribly nervous on her previous visit, but she seemed a good
deal more relaxed this time.

Richards finished what she was working on and rose from the desk just as
Arbogast got to within normal conversational distance. She rose and extended a
hand, and was glad to see that this time Arbogast took it without hesitation.

"Good to see you again, Richards. Is Palmer here?"

"Not yet, and I was expecting her half an hour ago. Oh, well, you know how she
is: she can arrive via telephone at any moment, so naturally she's always being
delayed at the last minute."

"So, let's see your Museum of Many Worlds, shall we?"

Richards smiled. She admired Iron Maiden's direct, down-to-business approach,
presumably honed by running the day-to-day operations of the worldwide company
owned by her reclusive boss, Tony Stark.

Richards led Arbogast down a corridor to a large double door. It was after six
on a Sunday night, so there were few staff members around. Richards punched a
six-digit code into the latch and opened it. Lights came on automatically all
through the cavernous space.

"This was a dining room for the staff until we built a smaller and more
pleasant one, but it's just about perfect for a museum."

Much of the space was still empty, but Arbogast could see that the museum's
collection was already impressive, and included entire airplanes and
automobiles, as well as display cases containing everything from furniture and
clothed mannequins to coins, stamps and newspapers. The smaller cases had many
drawers each, containing yet more artifacts from parallel worlds.

Richards went up to one case which displayed an assortment of newspapers and
magazines that displayed unfamiliar celebrities, unfamiliar fashions,
unfamiliar sports and even unfamiliar plants and animals. She opened one of
its drawers and lifted out a newspaper, a copy of the Pittsburgh Courier about
a year old. The biggest headline read, "PRESIDENT ROBESON MEETS WITH EMPEROR
SELASSIE". Smaller ones indicated that the Indianapolis Clowns had defeated
the Newark Eagles in the third game of the World Series, that Harry Belafonte
had received his sixth Academy Award for Best Director, and that Surgeon
General "Torchy" Brown had begun a new national campaign to wipe out syphilis.

"This is from Earth-319," Richards said, smiling. "The funny thing is, you
could read the entire paper without guessing what the biggest surprise would be
if you were to visit there."

Arbogast took the paper and carefully opened it.

"Something more interesting than the fact that the President's first name is
Paul rather than Kenneth, I take it."

Richards laughed.