Asher's Dilemma by Coleen Kwan

annihilate the machine himself.
    Quigley spun on his heel, searching for a suitable implement. A gleam of metal on a nearby shelf caught his eye. He darted forward, and his hopes rose. His Viper Ray. Why his ray gun should be on a shelf in the workshop he didn’t pause to ponder. Snatching it up, he hurried towards the chronometrical device.
    “Stand back,” he bellowed.
    Minerva cried out, “Asher, no.”
    “What the devil are you doing?” the present Asher shouted.
    “Since you refuse to listen I’m taking matters into my own hands. Stand aside, I’m about to blow up this diabolical invention once and for all.” Heart pumping wildly, Quigley approached the machine. The copper shell gleamed. With the black promethium magnets studded upon it, it looked like a giant tortoise. He twisted the dial of the ray gun to maximum power. One shot would melt half the promethium magnets. Another would blast the console to bits. And then he would turn his attention to the network of cables snaking out of it.
    “Stop.” Asher gesticulated in agitation. “Don’t do this, I beg of you. There must be some other way.”
    His hand clenched around the ray gun grew moist. He felt his doppelganger’s pain as his own. Perhaps there was another solution, but time was running out. “I’m sorry,” he gulped. “I have no other choice.”
    He squeezed the trigger. A hot blue beam of light shot out of the barrel and struck the copper shell. Sparks exploded. The beam of light ricocheted off the copper, bent right and hit Asher. With a single cry, the man fell back, a burning black hole the size of a dinner plate in the center of his chest.

Chapter Six
     
    No.
    Minerva felt the cry tearing at her throat, but no sound came out. She rushed towards Asher, fell to her knees. The smell of scorched flesh filled her nostrils. Her eyes ached, her body shook, her heart protested, but she forced herself to examine Asher’s injuries.
    “No,” she moaned, taking in the charred mess, the singed edges of his white shirt, the gaping black gash in the middle of his chest from which wisps of smoke still rose. “No…” Her stomach heaved, revolting against the undeniable signs of death. Footsteps approached. She glanced up, but all she saw was a blurry shadow through her tear-choked vision.
    “Oh God, what have I done?” The man’s voice quavered.
    Rage gave her strength. Rising to her feet, she battered her fists against Quigley’s chest. “You’ve killed him. You’ve killed him. You beast…you fiend…”
    He took her blows without resistance. “I’m s-sorry,” he stuttered. “Minerva, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—” Trembling, he dropped the ray gun onto a nearby table and pressed his forearm across his eyes.
    She punched him once more. The buttons of his jacket scraped her knuckles but she felt nothing except the shrieking inside her. I love him. I love him . Over and over she repeated the words in her mind like a prayer, calling him back, desperate for one last chance to tell him how she felt. But there could be no last chance, because she’d seen the blue ray slice right through Asher’s chest. He’d died in an instant, and now he would never know how much he truly meant to her.
    “Minerva, please.” Quigley, the other Asher, the Asher who’d pulled the blasted trigger, regarded her with horror and mute pleading in his eyes. “I didn’t know the shot would bounce off like that. I—I’ve never seen it do that before.”
    “Murderer! You never gave him a chance.”
    “I did it for you.”
    With a venomous glare, she hurled at him, “I hate you. I hate you for what you’ve done.”
    The ghastliness of his expression caused her stomach to clench. Dear God, she surely didn’t hate him? He was the same man as the one lying on the floor. How could she hate one and love the other when they were both Asher Quigley?
    A faint groan drifted up from the floor. She twisted, gasped. “Asher?”
    Oh merciful heavens, it