By Ann Darlington
The Sagittarius was a battleship. It was equipped with the most advanced weapons that the Nebulan’s had invented. The carrying capacity of the ship was one thousand personnel. In the midst of the Nebulan-Genolian war, the Sagittarius was the pride of it’s class. But since the peace treaty between the two planets, there was no need for an army of battleships any more. The most destructive weapons were taken off the ships and they were retrofitted to serve other purposes. Jack Walsh, the captain of the Sagittarius, was not pleased when he was told how his ship was going to be used. It was designated as a commercial tourist ship, that would transport people between the planets of Nebula and Genolia. He considered quitting after he heard the news, until he saw how much they were going to pay him. Not only would he get a base salary, he would get a one percent of the profits from the tourist fairs. Jack was even given the option to purchase the ship outright. That was out of the question, he didn’t have that kind of money in the bank. So, instead, he worked out a long term plan to buy a smaller ship, after he had done his time in the tourist industry.
Jack convinced his second in command to stay on with him. Moira was a great person to work with. She had a fabulous sense of humour, even in some of the most dour situations. Her tastes were a little eccentric and she would get a kick out of running a tourist ship. Moira didn’t have any ambitions of running her own ship. She preferred to have less of the responsibility and more of the fun. Since the ship was now a civilian friendly zone, Moira brought her husband, Thomas, on board with her. He joined the catering staff as a chef.
After a few runs between the two planets, which was a two week round trip at a slow cruising speed, their scope expanded. They offered a two week cruises around the galaxy. It turned out to be quite a popular thing to do. The ship was so big, it was like a flying resort. There were several restaurants, that ranged in the class of food that was offered on the menu. Some restaurants had a dress code and others were quite casual. Each night, there was a dance in the ballroom. Most nights, the band played classical music, so couples could waltz and foxtrot, but other nights they played rock and roll for people to jive and swing. During the day, there were free classes offered for anyone who wanted to learn how to dance. Moira loved the social details and was always coming up with new ideas to entertain the guests. She would hire comedians, theatre companies and magicians to join the cruise and put on performances.
Periodically, they would change their routes to appeal to a broader group of people. Personally, Jack liked passing by the Rainbow Nebula, that his planet was named after. The colours always amazed him. He never had a chance to stop and enjoy the nebula when they were at war. Whenever he saw it, his heart welled with the regret of loosing Paullina. Jack was engaged to Paullina when he was promoted to captain of the Sagittarius. They served on the Sunrise together and Paullina decided to stay behind when he transferred to the other ship. She had her own career as a doctor to consider and the situation was better for her on the Sunrise. Jack proposed to her before he left and they agreed to marry when the war was over. The long distance relationship was difficult, but they were often too busy at their jobs to dwell on it. Then one day, Jack received a message from the command centre. The Sunrise had been lost. It was destroyed by an enemy battleship. Jack was devastated. Moira was the one who helped him keep his sanity, she made sure he didn’t retreat and give up his position. She was like a sister to him, and he a brother to her. Coincidentally, they were both single children.
One day when Jack was at the nebula, the ship’s sensors detected a huge surge in Thurston Waves. He hadn’t seen that type of activity since the war. The waves were typically caused by a ship’s exploded while travelling faster than light speed. He scanned the area to determine the source of the waves. It wasn’t coming from anywhere nearby. In fact, it looked like it was coming from somewhere outside the galaxy. That wasn’t possible, the sensors must be malfunctioning. Jack paged Moira to come to the navigation room.
“Yes, boss, what’s up.” Moira asked as she sauntered into the room.
“Take a look at this,” Jack said, pointing at the computer console.
Moira raised her eyebrows. “Hmm, I think the sensors are due for a tune-up. I’ll go tell the repair crew to have a gander.” She disappeared for a few minutes, then returned and plunked herself down on a chair.
“Have you called command about this yet?” she asked.
“No, I want to make sure this isn’t a technical malfunction before raising any alarms.” Jack responded.
“What? You didn’t find if fun the last time? I seemed to remember the treaty almost went up in flames, when the sensors told us that a Genolian ship was about to blow us up? That happened on April Fool’s day didn’t it?” she said with a smirk, she wasn’t an innocent bystander in that gag. Jack didn’t speak to her for a week after that one. Was it her fault that he jumped the gun and called command?
“Captain,” a query came from the console, it was one of the repair guys.
“Yes,” Jack said.
“There sensors are fine, is there anything else you want us to check?” the disembodied voice asked.
“No, that’s all, thanks.” Said Jack and he signed off. “We’ll it appears we have a genuine situation on our hands.” He placed a call to the general command centre. General Lorraine Taylor appeared on the monitor. Jack explained what they had just discovered.
“Interesting,” the general said. “I don’t think it’s the Genolians playing tricks on us. We’ll have our scientists look into that phenomenon. Keep to your original flight plan and we will let you know if it is anything to be concerned about.”
“If you say so,” Jack responded. The general hung up in a hurry and left him staring at a blank screen. “What do you think Moira?”
“My instincts tell me that this is going to be trouble. Let’s enjoy the trip while it lasts. Are you interested in coming to the play tonight, they are doing A Midsummer Night’s Dream? You have been cooped up in your room too much in the evenings, you can’t say no.” She asked.
“Fine, but you have to come get me. Otherwise I won’t remember.”
That evening, Moira and Jack went to the Auburn Theatre to see the play. They had mediocre seats, off-centre from the stage. Jack was actually enjoying the performance. During intermission, the pair got up and walked around the lobby of the theatre to stretch their legs. A woman approached them with a concerned look on her face.
“I’m sorry to disturb you sir,” the woman said to Jack. “But, there is an important message from the general. She didn’t want you to phone back, she said that she wanted to speak with you right away. She said that commander Ellington should come too, if I could find her.”
“Thank you Ginny, I’m come right away.” Jack told her. Moira and Jack were disappointed to leave the play, but at the same time curious what the general had called them so urgently about. When they arrived at Jack’s office, the general was tapping her fingers on her desk.
“Taking a bit of a break?” Lorraine said sarcastically.
“Sometime you should come and take a cruise with us, the plays are quite good.” Jack said and ignored her insult. Lorraine resented her position as a tour operator.
“I have some good news for you,” she started. “You can stop slumming and go on a real mission. As soon as your cruise is over, you are to report back to Nebula to pick up your new crew. We’re sending you to investigate the cause of the Thurston Waves. It is our opinion that there may be an intelligent civilization in our neighbouring galaxy. So, the Nebulans and Genolians are putting together a joint effort to find out who are neighbours are.”
“If the Genolians are in command of this mission, there is no way I want to be involved with it. They can’t organize their way out of a paper bag. Their also quick to jump into hostility.” Jack said.
“Since the mission involves taking your ship, their government agreed to let you be in charge. Although, they are sending one of their captains aboard to keep an eye on you. They seem to think you have problems with organization too.”
“Who exactly are they saddling me with?”
“Captain Cassandra Madden. I think you know her already.”
“In fact, we’ve worked together before. She is an efficient captain, unlike her peers.” Jack was even less happy to here that that bitch Cassandra was going to be his partner on this trip. She screwed him on the last assignment they worked on together. He managed to get an official reprimand on his negative behaviour to the Genolians. It was beyond him why she would agree to team up with him again, unless she wanted to punish him some more. The root of their strained relationship went back to the end of the war. Cassandra’s government had forced her ship to surrender and his was the only Nebulan ship nearby. She was mortified the first time they had to work together and did her best to put him down. Trying to regain her pride, he thought.
The next week went as usual. Moira was excited about the new assignment and her enthusiasm made her work harder to please the guests. Jack was dreading meeting Cassandra. Since the trip was going to take over a year, they would have to put aside their differences and compromise for the sake of the crew. It would be a challenge, both captains were strong minded.
When they returned to Nebula, Jack and Moira reported to central command to learn the details of their assignment. Lorraine had fleshed out the plan during the past week.
“The goal of this mission is to determine the cause of the Thurston Waves. We are very interested in finding out if there is intelligent life in the other galaxy. I expect that you won’t be able to accomplish your goal until you reach the other galaxy. Since we don’t want you to be twiddling your thumbs for an entire year, we have come up with a list of projects for you to work on during your voyage.” Lorraine said.
“What kind of projects did you have in mind?” Jack asked.
“One project is to create a deep space communication network. The Sagittarius will drop transmitter, receiver relays at periodic intervals along the route. Through the relays we should be able to send messages to you.” Lorraine explained.
“What about the crew compliment?”
“We don’t plan on loading the Sagittarius to full capacity. Some of the space will be converted into labs for the different disciplines of the crew. Between ourselves and the Genolians, we will put 500 people on the ship. Of course, it will be a 50-50 split. Most of the Nebulans have been selected already. However, we left the staffing of your support crew for you to handle.” Lorraine said.
“During the voyage back, I prepared a list of people that I would like to work with.” Jack said. “How long do you expect the modifications to take?”
“It should take about twelve days to reorganize the ship, install the equipment and load the crew. With regards to the mission. If it does turn out that the Thurston Waves were artificially generated, don’t attempt to make contact. Gather as much information as possible and send us a report. We don’t want to make any contact until we have had a chance to assess the situation. The last thing the Nebulans and Genolians want is another war.”
“I think we can agree that is a wise precaution, but what if contact becomes unavoidable?”
“You will have to use your best judgement in that scenario. Our primary concern is to prevent a potential conflict. Try to find out if they are aware of our existence.” Lorraine suggested, then she handed him a folder. “Here is a document outlining the other projects. I also included a schematic of the changes that are going to be made to the Sagittarius. Most of them are cosmetic. Have a look at them over the next couple of days and come back to me if you have any concerns. Now, if you don’t have any more questions, I’ll let you get started on your preparations.”
When Jack took on the job on the cruise line, he gave up his apartment on Nebula. Since he was on the Sagittarius more than on the surface, it didn’t make sense for him to pay for an apartment. Instead when he did have to stay on the planet, he would rent a hotel room. This time the central command paid for his expenses, they wanted to keep him happy. Some of the other commanders were concerned that Jack would decline the assignment at the last minute. Lorraine knew that he wouldn’t. Jack hated working as a cruise captain, this was exactly the opportunity he was looking for. It would be a chance for him to perform a serious job again. He had a difficult time adjusting to being a civilian after the war was over. He only agreed to continue working aboard the Sagittarius because he had a personal connection with the ship. Jack would not disappoint them.
Jack was very busy over the next week and a half. Every day he went to the Sagittarius to verify that the modifications were on schedule. He read over the science projects that were planned during the trip. Most of those projects didn’t even effect him, they were self contained within the various departments. In fact, he didn’t have much to do himself during the voyage except steer the ship the correct direction. Oh, there was the little issue of managing the Nebulan, Genolian integration. There was bound to be some stress with the two groups working together.
When the Sagittarius was finished, Jack walked through the ship to inspect the changes. It was one thing to see the plans on paper and another to see it in person. He was shocked when the Sagittarius was retrofitted from a battle cruiser to a tourist cruise ship. The modifications were not a radical this time. Several sections of accommodations had been converted into labs for the engineering, astronomy and biology departments. A number of the smaller rooms were doubled in size. The crew needed more space considering the length of their mission. The recreational areas were untouched, although full services wouldn’t be offered, unless some members of the crew volunteered their time to entertain the others. Jack signed the official forms to indicate that the changes had been made to his satisfaction. Then he called central command to have them start moving the crew onto the ship.
Moira was disappointed when she returned to the Sagittarius and discovered that her quarters had been reassigned. She and Thomas used to have an interior room, now she found out that their new room had windows. She hated watching the stars fly by, it made her nauseous. She had kept that little fact hidden from Jack, when the ship was stationary, she enjoyed looking at the view. Moira immediately closed the curtains. The other aspects of the room were nice, there was a bigger living space, an office and a full kitchen – Thomas would be thrilled.
On this mission, Moira would have more responsibilities than Jack. She was in charge of running the engineering and astronomy departments. So, the day to day activities of the extra projects would fall under her management. Moira loved being busy, if she didn’t have three things to do all at once she felt she wasn’t working hard enough. Lorraine told her that Cassandra was going to manage the biology and medical departments. At least their areas wouldn’t cross over much. Cassandra was the kind of person who liked to have things her way. Moira wondered how she would like being a co-captain with Jack, there would no doubt be some interesting negotiations between the two.
Cassandra left the office of the Genolian central command after a very lengthy and vocal meeting. She was smiling, she had won, they were going to allow her to be co-captain on the deep space mission. They tried to argue that her current state of health may hamper her ability to do her job. That suggestion made her furious and she expressed her displeasure at their decision. Then she launched into a list of reasons why she was the best woman for the position. It was exhausting, but in the end, they couldn’t refute her past record.
Her next challenge was to speak with Aaron. She was dreading that conversation more than the confrontation with her commanders. Aaron was her boyfriend. She had made a big mistake getting involved with him, he was a lesser rank than she was. Lately it was causing a lot of trouble, Aaron wanted her to recommend that he get a promotion. Cassandra was embarrassed that she hadn’t foreseen the potential trouble. Aaron had charmed her when she was going through a vulnerable time. She had just discovered that she was expecting a baby. The result of a on-night fling with her colleague, Captain Jason Montgomery. She never told Jason that he was the father of her baby and he never asked. Cassandra was thirty-eight, she decided to raise the baby alone. Then Aaron had come into her life, but she didn’t intend for the relation to last long. Cassandra hoped that Aaron would take the rejection in stride and not make a big fuss. She was absolutely looking forward to her new life on the Sagittarius. Even working with Captain Jack Walsh wasn’t going to ruin it for her.
After picking up the new crew on Nebula, the Sagittarius’ next stop was Genolia to get Cassandra and her group. At least that gave Jack a good week of peace. The crew would also get used to his command before the Genolians stirred thing up. The ship docked at a space station orbiting around the planet of Genolia. Ships the size of the Sagittarius were too big to land on the planet routinely. Cassandra would take a smaller transport vehicle up from Genolia and they would rendezvous on the station.
Jack and Moira were waiting at the docking port for the extra two hundred and fifty people. The two governments decided that both sides would have equal representation. That would load the ship to half capacity. The Genolian’s appeared before their captain and were shown aboard the ship. Cassandra deemed it necessary to follow up at the end, she approached the two Nebulans. Her uniform wasn’t her standard blue and silver long sleeved shirt, with pants. Instead she was wearing a tunic and leggings, with long boots. It was obvious as she came closer the reason for her change in garb. Cassandra was pregnant. That was certainly unexpected.
Cassandra glared at Jack and Moira, daring them to say anything about her condition. Jack wasn’t that stupid, he knew better from previous encounters with the icy woman. Instead, he extended his hand to greet her cordially.
“Welcome to the Sagittarius, Captain. I expect you remember Commander Ellington.” Jack said.
“I never forget anything.” Cassandra replied ominously. She shook Jack’s hand and then Moira’s. The three of them climbed up the stairs to the entrance of the ship.
“The layout of the Sagittarius has changed since you were last here. We were moonlighting as a tourist freighter.” Jack explained.
“I hope that means the quarters are nicer.”
“Oh, we spared no expense for such a distinguished guest. We’ve put you in the Empire Suite.” Moira said. The women had their differences also.
“Excellent.” Cassandra said dryly. “Don’t waste your time showing me where it is, I’ve already memorized the schematics for this heap. I have a list of items that I require. I trust that you will make sure I get them promptly. We also need to discuss the details of the mission, I’ll make myself available this afternoon, around three.” She ended the conversation abruptly and walked away form them.
“I think she’s become more friendly.” Moira commented.
“One can only hope.” Jack responded. Cassandra was used to being the one in command, he wondered if in the years since he last saw her that she had become more flexible too. He would have to find a way to satisfy her ego and keep her out of trouble. It wasn’t likely that she was going to let her pregnancy distract her. Jack resolved to find out when she was due, it looked like the baby’s birth could be a few months out.
Later, Captain Madden gave Captain Walsh her list of demands. They haggled over the list and eventually came to a compromise. She wanted access to various specialized equipment to supplement what the Genolians had brought with them. Since it would take a year or more to reach the other galaxy, travelling at Thurston Speed, the two had other scientific and medical research projects planned. Then they discussed the crew assignments and responsibilities. To minimize tension, the two captains would initially manage their own crew. Over time, they would exchange personnel and integrate them into one team. Most of the people on board were ex-military, so there was some latent resentment between the two sides. With all that settled, Jack and Cassandra went their separate ways, each content with the outcome.
The Sagittarius finished loading the containers of food and equipment for the space station that evening. It was tallied and a master list was checked off to ensure everything was accounted for. There wouldn’t be anywhere along the way to buy what they had left behind. So, the crew was extra careful that they had everything they need before they departed. Cassandra was given the list to approve and she informed Jack that they were ready. Jack manoeuvred out of the dock and entered their flight plan in to the navigation computers. He pressed the start button and they were off on their new adventure.
May 14, 1997
Evelyn looked at herself in the mirror. She was about 5’5”, athletic, had long brown hair and green eyes. Sometimes she wondered how a 30 year old got to be CEO of a major corporation. Her mother had founded the Universal Research and Innovations Corporation before she was born. When she died of cancer last year, the board had unanimously voted for Evelyn to take over. There were plenty of senior board members to choose from, but they thought a young woman with a brilliant mind and new ideas would take the corporation in a profitable direction.
Edith Rutherford had happily lived long enough to see her daughter married to her long time boyfriend Derrek. Derrek also worked at Universal Research as an Engineering Physicist, he was a couple of years older than Evelyn. Edith had seen a lot of potential in Derrek, early in his eight year career at the company, she had assign him to lead projects. He proved to have excellent management skills and his technical knowledge was unequalled. The only other in the company to come close to Derrek in ability was Lawrence. The two men were competitive. Derrek was more of a team player and Lawrence liked to have his own way. Edith always thought that if Derrek didn’t work out for Evelyn, Lawrence might be a good match. Evelyn was a strong woman, she would be able to assert herself with Lawrence. In the first project that she controlled, Evelyn quickly gained Lawrence’s respect, as with the others on her team.
There was a loud knock on the office door. Evelyn, broke out of her reverie and turned around.
“Come in,” she called. Lawrence walked into the office. Evelyn was a little concerned. Last month, she had made a decision to shut down the project that Lawrence was working on and he wasn’t very pleased about it. A team of six engineers was working on unconventional means of transportation. More specifically, teleportation. Every year, the corporation set aside money for research projects, as opposed to client commissioned projects. When Evelyn became CEO, the first thing she did was approve that project. Unfortunately, the work done so far showed that the technology was only feasible for small objects and it required serious amounts of energy. Since no obvious products would be developed from the research, she had to shut it down.
“There is a theory I have been thinking about for a long time,” Lawrence began. ”In the past month, I have been collecting data to bring some support to it. I think it is something that you might be interested in.”
Evelyn was curious. Lawrence was a very intelligent physicist, in the past he had come up with some fabulous ideas. “Tell me about it.” She said. For the remainder of the afternoon, Lawrence and Evelyn discussed the possibility of a Duo-Spheres. Lawrence proposed that this universe was attached to a mirror universe. The work with the teleportation principle got him postulating that it was possible to travel between the two universes. He brought notes, diagrams and equations to show Evelyn that his theory had some merit.
“May I take some of this home to look at overnight?” asked Evelyn.
“Please do, I would really like to have your support in pursuing this.” Lawrence said. He left a folder of his notes on her desk and went back to his office. It seemed as though Evelyn was genuinely interested in his theory.
Evelyn stopped working around 6pm. Over dinner, she told Derrek about her meeting with Lawrence. Derrek drilled her with questions about Lawrence’s theory. Evelyn wasn’t a physicist herself, her background was more in computers, although with her position, she dabbled in quite a number of fields. She passed the folder of notes to Derrek, he took them and wandered off to the living room to look them over. That was it for Derrek, Evelyn didn’t see him again until they went to bed.
“I want to work on this,” Derrek said.
“You know after the teleport fiasco, I can’t authorize another dream project.” Evelyn stated to her husband. The board would not be impressed.
“I don’t think this is fantasy Evelyn, I think we can really do this.” Derrek argued.
“This is Lawrence’s baby, the two of you would have to work together on it.”
March 10, 1999
Grant Holmes sat on an uncomfortable metal chair, with his eye pressed to the eye piece of a telescope. He was looking at Mars, it was bright in the sky that night. He scribbled down some notes, then got out of his seat and walked over to his desk. For an astronomer, it was exciting to be able to work at the Australian Telescope. At thirty-five, he was one of the older members of the astronomy team. He had worked there for over six years and finally got his own assistant, Murray, the previous year. Murray Preston was a recent university graduate who worked solidly. Unfortunately, Murray didn’t have a good grasp of promptness, he was frequently late for work.
Tonight was an exciting event for the team. They were expecting a spectacular meteor shower, starting around ten o’clock. It was nine-thirty now, most of the team had already gone outside to watch the event. Grant decided it was time to join them. Some of his co-workers were sitting on picnic benches, others were sitting on blankets on the ground. It was agreed that family members would be allowed on the normally private facilities to enjoy the shower as well. Grant’s wife, Kelly, was waiting for him around the north side of the telescope, she had brought a wool blanket for them to sit on. He sat down next to her and put her arm around her. There was a general buzz of conversation in the air, but it stopped when the show began.
The first golden streak flashed through the night sky at precisely 10:01pm. A few more followed several minutes later. After ten minutes the sky was filled with lights and the crowd murmured with approval. At 10:29pm, the density had diminished again and it looked like the fun was about to end. Then, much to everyone’s surprise, one of the meteors strayed from the direction of the others and started heading towards Earth. None of the astronomers were alarmed, the meteors were small and by the time they burned up in the atmosphere there would be only dust left to hit the ground. In the horizon, a red trail blazed down to the ground, the meteor was actually going to hit Australia. Simultaneously, all of the team members leapt from their seats and raced into the telescope leaving their spouses behind. Grant looked at his wife apologetically before he abandoned her.
“Where did it land?” Grant’s superior Phil asked nobody in particular.
“We’re on it,” shouted the group. Working together, it didn’t take much time to determine that the meteor had fallen fifteen kilometres from their current location. Since it was night time, they decided to send a couple of people to the site in the morning to investigate. It was a bit of a fight amongst the team about who would be selected to go. Phil chose Grant and his assistant Murray to be the privileged ones.
Grant arrived home at midnight and told his wife the exciting news. She would have been more happy for him if he hadn’t have woken her up.
The radio alarm was set for 7am. Grant hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before with all his excitement. He got out of bed and had a shower before going to the kitchen for some breakfast. Kelly was still sleeping and he didn’t think it was a good idea to wake her. The plan was that he would pick up Murray and the two men would drive out to the meteor site. Grant ate he breakfast quickly. He gathered a few important things and then went to his SUV.
Murray was waiting on his veranda for Grant to arrive. He was actually prompt for a change. They drove out to the highway near the landing site and parked the car at the side of the road. The last kilometre would have to be walked. Both astronomers had prepared themselves by donning thick boots. It was possible that they might encounter some poisonous critters during their hike. As an extra precaution, they brought a anti-venom med-kit that was standard issue these days for travellers and a cell phone so they could call for help. Phil told them to report in periodically, so the cell phone had a dual purpose.
Grant and Murray stepped off the road onto the field, fortunately the terrain was flat, it didn’t take long to cover a kilometre. It was an uneventful walk, they didn’t see or hear any snakes. At the meteor site, there was a small crater. The vegetation around the hole had been scorched by the heat of the debris. The crater was coated with a fine red powder and inside it were a couple of red rocks. Murray took a digital camera out of his bag and started taking photographs of the site. Grant lined up a tape measure to give an indication of how big the crater was. When they finished documenting everything, they were ready to remove samples. Murray fished out two glass containers from his bag and handed them to Grant. Before Grant touched anything, he pulled on long safety gloves. Then he reached into the crater and deposited the red rocks into the containers. The samples almost disintegrated as the jars were shaken around. Next Murray passed Grant a small portable vacuum to collect the dust particles. In total, they were at the site for an hour. Grant called Phil to let him know they were on their way home.
Back at the Telescope, the seven members of the team that were left behind were eagerly anticipating the return of Grant and Murray. As soon as they walked in the door, they were assaulted with questions. One at a time, Grant tried to provide questions. Meanwhile, Murray transferred the photos from the digital camera onto one of the computers. He called the team over to have a look when the files were finished being copied. The photos weren’t quite as exciting to look at as being there, but everyone was satisfied. Grant passed around the sample jars.
“Could you make sure the samples are sent out for analysis, Grant?” requested Phil. They didn’t have facilities on site to handle that sort of thing. Typically any meteor samples that were found were sent to the University of Australia. Dr. Sheila Anderson of the University of the Texas had submitted a request for a meteor sample for a study they were working on. Since the debris was large enough, it could be shared among the two labs.
Grant waited for his colleagues to finish admiring the contains of red pebbles. He wrapped the jars up in boxes full of Styrofoam and addressed the packages to the two locations. Murray was tasked with the chore of delivering the boxes to the post office. A job that he cheerfully accepted this time. Once the astronomers settled down, Phil assigned them their duties for the day. They would be busy analysing the data the computers had collected the previous night.
That afternoon, Grant went home after a very satisfying day at work. Kelly was a nurse and her shift didn’t finish until seven, so he had some time alone before she arrived home. He decided to cook her a nice dinner. When Kelly came home, the aroma of lasagne was wafting throughout the house. Kelly loved it when Grant prepared romantic meals for the two of them. The dining room table was lit with candles and there was a bottle of chilled wine ready to be enjoyed.
“It was such a wonderful day today.” Grant exclaimed.
“I can tell.” Kelly replied.
“Let’s not spend too much time over dinner, “ Grant said with a suggestive smile, “there’s something else I have in mind for us.” The pair recently decided to try to have a baby. It had only been four months since they first started, no luck so far, but they had a lot of fun trying. Kelly was apparently amenable to the idea of going to be early. They enjoyed their meal and then proceeded to the bedroom.
March 20, 1999
A package arrived at the University of Texas for one Dr. S. Anderson, with a return address of Australia. Sheila was delighted when she picked up the package from the campus mail. There was only one thing she was expecting from Australia, a sample from a meteor. She had heard about the shower two weeks ago and that the Australian Telescope Research team had recovered a some debris. So, she would finally be able to complete her study. She tore open the package and picked up the glass container filled with red particles.
Sheila was disappointed that she could not get to the meteor fragments immediately. She had a busy day filled with classes, the fun would have to wait. The fragments looked very similar in colour to another sample she had seen last year. She wondered how similar they looked at the microscopic level. Oh well, she thought, it was time to put that out of her mind and head to class before she was late again.
Later that day in the lab, she was looking at the particles under a microscope. It was fascinating to look at the composition, it was like the other sample she had seen. Using a stronger magnification, she saw something that gave her a nervous tingling sensation in her stomach. It looked like there were very tiny microbes in the meteor dust. Was this proof of life from another planet? Sheila tried another slide and observed the same thing. She called one of her assistants over to have a look to make sure her eyes were not deceiving her. Mary, her assistant describe the same thing. Hmm, this type of thing wasn’t really her area of expertise. She decided to ship some of the particles to her friend in France. Pierre Bordeaux was a biologist at the University of France. He specialized in very small things, he would definitely know what this anomaly was.
March 28, 1999
Fragments of the famous meteor shower were travelling all over the world. Pierre had just received the sample from Sheila. After her discovery, she had called him to share what she had seen. He was definitely interested in having a look himself. It was difficult waiting a week for the package to arrive in France. Pierre hadn’t spoken with anyone else about the potential news phenomenon. Situations like this had cropped up in the past and were either found to be hoaxes or misunderstandings. He wanted to be careful not to spread rumours that turned out to be false.
Two hours later, Pierre concluded that the strange things that Sheila saw in the particles were indeed microbes. What an astounding discovery. Pierre deemed it appropriate to tell his peers. After such an important find, the department held a meeting about how to proceed in the research of this little organism. There was much debating about the issue and eventually they came up with a plan. An inconsequential notification went out the press about their discovery. The bit got attention for a day or two and then was forgotten by the masses.
June 1, 1999
Lawrence and Derrek were sitting at a small table. A small black object about the size of a paperweight was sitting in front of them. They both stared at the object with intense satisfaction.
“So it’s finally finished.” Lawrence said to Derrek.
“That is it.” Responded Derrek with a grin.
“I’ll race you to Evelyn’s office. The person who gets there first can tell her the good news. The men were like children, over two years of their lives went into this project. It involved innovative principles, good engineering and a lot of frustration. Derrek and Lawrence weren’t particularly close before they were paired together for this project. After being forced to spend so much time together, they became very good friends. They raced out the door and tried to beat each other to Evelyn’s office. The other engineers on the floor gave them odd looks as they flew by.
“Guess what?” Lawrence asked Evelyn, when he crossed her threshold first.
“I think guessing would spoil your fun, let’s hear it.” Evelyn said with a smile.
“The prototype is finished. We did the last simulation this morning, the device passed with flying colours.” He said with infectious exuberance. Evelyn jumped out of her seat and kissed him on the cheek, then she gave Derrek a more personal kiss.
“I’m taking you two out to the most expensive restaurant in town to celebrate! Put on your coats, let’s go now.” Evelyn was thrilled at their accomplishment.
They went to Chez Louis, a fancy French restaurant in the downtown of North Valley. Evelyn was well know in the city and had preferred seating at all of the ritzy restaurants. The chef came to speak to the trio personally and offered to make them some special dishes. They accepted and asked for him to send them some appropriate wine to go with the meal.
“Now that the simulations have been completed, we should consider doing some real tests.” Lawrence said.
“I agree.” Said Derrek.
“Well gentlemen, what kind of effort would that take?” Sophie asked.
“Our calculations from the simulations showed that it would take a tremendous store of energy to open a gate for one person to go through. We could try sending a smaller object, although we would have no way of discovering if it reached the other side and we couldn’t bring it back.” Lawrence explained.
“A human trial is awfully risky. Are you sure that’s the best next step?” she wondered.
“Well, there may be some alternatives that we can consider. Let’s worry about that another time.” Derrek suggested.
“Good idea. Let’s just enjoy our meal.” Said Sophie.
July 6, 1999
It was time for Kelly’s annual physical. She sat in the waiting room, thumbing through a magazine. An elderly man and a mother with her young son were the only other people in the doctors office. Kelly was tempted to arrive late next time, her doctor always kept her waiting for at least fifteen minutes. Finally a nurse came out and announced her name. Kelly replaced the magazine on the rack, picked up her purse and followed the nurse to the examination room. The nurse weighed her, asked if there was any changes in her health and then instructed her to put on that dreaded paper gown. At least it was warm in July.
Once again, Kelly waited for her doctor to come into the room. Another five minutes passed and Dr. Gloria Burns finally appeared. Dr. Burns looked at the chart that the nurse had left and nodded.
“Before we get started with the examination, is there anything you would like to talk to me about?” asked Dr. Burns.
“There is something I am starting to be concerned about, “ Kelly admitted. “My husband and I have been trying to conceive a child for the past nine months and obviously, we haven’t had much luck yet. Is it possible something is wrong with one of us?”
“Usually, we only become concerned after a couple has been trying unsuccessfully for a year. There are things you can do to try to improve your chances, I’ll give you some literature to ready that you may find helpful. Keep trying and if nothing happens in three months, why don’t you make another appoint to see me and we can discuss the matter further.” The doctor responded. “Was there anything else that you were worried about?” Kelly shook her head, everything else was fine. After the examination was over and Dr. Burns had sent Kelly on her way with a clean bill of health, she went to talk to her nurse Ursula.
“Mrs. Holmes is the second woman this week with complaints about trying to have a baby.” Dr. Burns commented to Ursula.
“That’s not terribly unusual, it’s probably just a coincidence. You know these first timers, they aren’t willing to put in the time it can take.” Ursula said.
“It’s just that I had another one last week too. Oh, you’re right, it’s just a fluke. Whose my next patient?”
September 15, 1999
Three months later, Kelly found herself back at the doctors office. She and Grant still hadn’t had any luck getting her pregnant. It was time to get Dr. Burn’s assessment of the situation. There were several other women in their mid-twenties and early thirties in the office that day. Maybe Dr. Burns is doing a women’s health day, Kelly thought. A couple of Kelly’s friends at work were trying to have children themselves, but they hadn’t been trying as long as she had been.
In the examination room Dr. Burns gave Kelly a requisition to have some tests performed to make sure her reproductive system was functioning normally. If those tests came up with nothing, then Dr. Burns recommended that Grant be tested as well. The doctor said goodbye to Kelly and asked for the next patient. Something peculiar was happening in town, Gloria was seeing a much higher incidence rate of problems with fertility. It was almost like something was in the water affecting all of the young women nearby. Gloria decided to write a report and send it to the Australian Medical Association to get their opinion of the situation.
October 14, 1999
Almost a month after she had sent her report to the Australian Medical Association, Gloria finally received a response. It was a little late. By October, the entire country was reporting high statistics on fertility problems. About fifty percent of the couples trying to conceive were unsuccessful. The AMA had begun an investigation two in September but as of yet, hadn’t determined the source of the problem yet. Dedicated teams of biologists were put together to study the issue. Testing showed that both men and women were equally showing problems. A health warning was issues to the rest of the world, not to travel to Australia. Other countries, such as Canada and the US were enlisted to help analyze the crisis. As those countries started investigating, they discovered they had a similar trend occurring. It started more slowly elsewhere.
The biologists originally thought that the illness may have been caused by a virus. That theory was quickly discarded when none of the people tested showed any evidence of a virus. In fact, other than the fact they were sterile, the people were perfectly healthy. Nobody was even reporting any symptoms that they had been sick. It was as if somebody had waved a magic wand and impaired everyone. Dr. Overland a doctor of genetic engineering tried studying another angle. He compared the DNA of those with the illness to the people who had not succumbed yet. It seemed that their DNA had been altered, damaging their reproductive ability. Was this some biological weapon that had been released to weaken them, Dr. Overland thought. No, it couldn’t be, the effects were worldwide. The affliction was so targeted that he couldn’t imagine any naturally occurring phenomenon to have caused the damage.
Evelyn left messages with Lawrence and Derrek to meet with her as soon as possible. She had just come out of a board meeting where there were some very disheartening discussions. Things were going very badly in the world, with the decreasing rate of children being born. The board came to her to decide how they could further the effort to find a cure for the mysterious illness. Now it was time for her to talk with her favourite men about the situation. Lawrence and Derrek arrived at her office together, they looked very sombre. Rumours travel fast Evelyn thought to herself.
“Please sit gentlemen.” Evelyn said and gestured to the couch. Then she sat down at her desk. “The situation is this, we need to do what we can to research a solution to this global health problem. As such, I’m asking you to shelve the Mirror Project. I need the two of you to devote your full attention to this new project. There will be two separate projects, you will each lead a group. The purpose of the two teams is to pursue different angles on the problem. Other companies and research facilities are beginning their own investigations. I have a list you might want to look at of contacts at the other locations. Use whatever resources you need, if there is something we don’t have that you need, order it. I’m sure I don’t need to emphasize how important our new direction is. Start assembling your teams today and keep me apprised of your progress. Thank you.”
Lawrence and Derrek went off to begin their new assignments. Evelyn sat in her chair for several minutes without doing anything. What was happening was a catastrophe. There were no signs of improvement and every sign that the problem was accelerating. Luckily, only humans were effected by the illness at least that was the case for now, there was speculation whether it would spread to other species. Evelyn shuddered, she didn’t want to think of the possibilities.
January 3, 2000
Up until this point, Pierre had not been involved with researching the global fertility issue. It was the top priority, but there were other important things to look into as well. In the past week, a few discoveries had been made that drew him in. A statistical analysis had been done to chart the spread of the illness. The map it generated pointed to Australia as being the source. The other discovery was evidence of strange microbes inhabiting the Australians. No one from any other country showed the microbes flowing in their blood. Considering these factors, it looked like the meteor might have started the disastrous effects. A Dr. Burns, from Australia sent him some blood samples to compare to the what he saw in the meteor dust.
Pierre carefully prepared a slide for the microscope. He slid it under the lens and took a close look. A dead ringer. The microbes from the blood behaved identically to the ones from the meteor. So, somehow these little suckers were messing with human reproduction. It was a mystery why they were only evident in Australia. Perhaps they had a limited life span farther apart from the source. Maybe the meteor fragment was a source of food or energy for them. It was a new angle to investigate. With the source finally found, it should help with determining a treatment plan. A possible concern was the microbes re-infecting everyone once a cure was found. No doubt, they would have to be destroyed, especially whatever debris was left at the meteor crash site.
After preparing a report with all of the supporting evidence, Pierre made a phone call. He talked to the Global Health Organization and shared his find. They asked to be faxed a copy of his report for their review. He complied willingly. Then they asked him if he would help establish what the microbes did to cause the damage. Microbes were his specialty, there was no way he could hide in his cubical any more. Suddenly he became one of the most busiest men in the world.
March 2001,
The biology team in France, led by Pierre Bordeaux, made a significant discovery by researching the microbes. They learned that the microbes effected human DNA in a specific area, the part that controlled reproduction. The DNA could be possibly be repaired using gene therapy. A specialized team was put together with expertise coming from several countries. Their task was to develop a treatment that would restore the DNA to it’s original state. It took almost a year, but the team finally came up with a plan. The remedy would involved two months of gene treatment at a special clinic. They didn’t expect that everyone who went through the process would be cured, some individuals might have to repeat it. It would be an expensive process and there were limited clinics that had the facilities to perform the treatment. During the trial period, the GHO mandated that successes were to be kept a secret from the general public. The scientists didn’t want a riot on their hands for holding back the good news.
Gloria was sitting on her sofa looking at her patients’ medical records. The GHO had requested that she submit the names of several couples that would be considered as test subjects for a new procedure that they had developed. The scientists who developed the process had sent her a list of qualities to look for in the candidates. The main criteria were the couple had to be less than twenty-five, hadn’t already had a child, didn’t have any health problems and had minimal exposure to the meteor microbes. As she discovered files with all the prerequisites, she set them on the coffee table in front of her. The pile on the floor was growing. She needed a way to pick just three couples to submit to the GHO.
When Gloria had finished sorting through the files, she decided to go outside for a walk and clear her head. If the treatment worked, she would be making a few people very happy. The GHO promised to withhold the names of the doctor’s who referred the couples. The doctor’s had expressed concern that other qualifying couples who were not selected for the trial might find out and cause trouble. Tension was very high when it came to issues involving the meteor affliction.
As she walked down the street, she noted that the playgrounds were empty, it was too late in the day for kids to be outside. Gloria realized that the youngest children in the world would be a year and a half old now. Even if the gene therapy was successful, there would be over a two year span where no children were born. The schools would have to adapt for the absence of two grade levels. They would probably have to amalgamate as well because there would be less children. That was all irrelevant. It didn’t matter unless the treatment actually worked.
There was a Chinese restaurant on the next block. Gloria remembered that she hadn’t eaten dinner yet. She stopped and tried out the buffet. It was delicious, the quality wasn’t the best at this particular restaurant, but the selection was impressive. Gloria gorged herself on fried rice, egg rolls, lemon chicken, chow mien and other good stuff. It did a good job of taking her mind off her current dilemma. She paid for her meal and was given a fortune cookie.
“The key to your future is held in the decisions you make.” The cookie said. Well that’s a little vague Gloria complained to herself. That really didn’t help her at all. But, then she had a thought. What if she picked the couples who prior to the catastrophe were trying to have a baby and failed. The ones who were trying the longest would get priority. She rushed home to filter through the files one more time.
The next day, Gloria composed a letter to the GHO. It listed the three names she had selected, along with a justification why they should be considered. She sealed the letter in an envelope and slid copies of the medical reports in too. Hopefully, they would respond promptly so she could inform the lucky couples.
Two weeks later, Gloria received a call from Dr. Francis Overland, administrator for Project Stork. He let her know that the team had selected Norman and Vivian Turner for the trial. Arrangements would be made for them to travel to France, where the clinic was located. Gloria gave the Turner’s a call and left a message for them to make an appointment to see her at their earliest convenience. Vivian phoned back an hour later and set up an appointment for the next morning.
At nine am, Vivian and Norm were told that they had been selected to participate in a top secret program to undergo gene therapy in an attempt treat them. Gloria explained that the process would take a minimum of two months and it would be in France, so they would have to take a leave of absence from work. They had no need to worry about the cost of flying to France or the money they would lose from not going to work. The GHO would ensure that they were compensated financial. She also made sure that they were aware that there was no guarantee that the process would work. There was also a risk involved in any type of gene therapy.
“I want to do it.” Vivian told her doctor. “I understand that this is an experiment, but somebody has to be the first one to try.”
“I agree with my wife,” Norm said. “When do we leave?”
“It will take a couple of days to make the necessary arrangements. I will give you a call when I have your tickets. Before you leave, you need to sign a confidentiality agreement. It’s important nobody knows what you are doing. As far as they know, you are taking two months off to travel around the world. You have just won the lottery.” Gloria said. She handed them the forms to sign. The GHO had really covered their butts on that form she thought. The Turners signed the forms and then left the office to prepare for their trip. Gloria faxed the forms to the GHO and gave Dr. Overland a call to arrange for the plane tickets.
Three days later, the Turners were on a plane to France. They had never been out of the country before, so it was added excitement for them. The GHO had paid for First Class tickets. They enjoyed the free wine and watched an in-flight movie. On their arrival, they were greeted at the airport by Dr. Overland himself and his assistant Barbara. They whisked the couple off in a limousine after clearing them through customs. It was another hour before they reached the clinic. It was in a secluded area, surrounded by a security fence. The Turners wondered what they had signed themselves up for. The car finally stopped in front of a brown building.
“Welcome to your new home for the next two months,” Dr.Overland said. “I imagine you are tired from your long flight. Barbara will show you to your room, where you can freshen up if you like. There is a cafeteria on-site where you can get some dinner. We provided a kitchenette in your room so you can prepare your own meals in the future. The cafeteria food can be a little boring after a while. I have to leave you now, there are some other matters I have to attend to. Barbara will answer any immediate questions that you might have.”
“This way,” Barbara led them into the complex. They walked through the maze of corridors until they reached their room. It was labelled 103. Barbara opened the door and followed them in. She gave them a brief tour of the room, that was more like an apartment. It had a living area, bedroom, private bathroom and the promised kitchenette.
“If you need anything all you need to do is pick up your phone and dial 0. A receptionist will answer and help you out. As Dr. Overland mentioned, you can make your own meals. Just provide us with a list of groceries and we will have them delivered to you. There may be days when you don’t feel like cooking anything. The cafeteria provides room service. Your only restriction is that while you are receiving the treatment, you are not allowed to consume alcohol. I imagine that won’t be a problem, or you wouldn’t be here. At seven o’clock tonight there will be a general information session, where you will have an opportunity to meet the other couples who will be participating also. Do you have any questions.” Barbara explained.
“Not at the moment, thank you.” Vivian responded.
“Okay, then I will see you later.” Barbara said and she left the room.
“These accommodations are a lot nicer than I expected.” Norman commented.
“I’m going to have a nap.” Said Vivian as she sat on the edge of the bed and pulled off her shoes. “You might want to do the same, it sounds like we will need to be on the ball for tonight.” He didn’t argue and joined her.
Vivian and Norman woke up around six-thirty. Barbara had mentioned that somebody would be coming to get them at quarter to seven, for the info session. The clinic ran on time, Barbara had returned to fetch them. They were brought into a small meeting room. Two other couples were already there. Barbara left the six of them alone.
“I’m Vivian and this is my husband Norm. We were put in room 103.” Vivian introduced them to the others.
“Paula and Maurice, we’re right next door in room 104.” said one of the women. She had long blond hair and wore glasses, her husband sported a brown moustache and a beard.
“Ivan and Alexandra. It would seem their keeping us together, we are in room 105.” the other man said. He was a little heavyset, especially compared to his waif of a bride. The couple looked no more than twenty. The six of them exchanges handshakes. Shortly after, Dr. Overland and Barbara entered the room.
Barbara turned on a computer projector and a slide-show appeared on the screen at the front of the room. Dr. Overland re-introduced himself and commenced to drone on about what the treatment program entailed. The couples listened quite intently at first, but their attention started to drift listening to the doctors monotonous voice. Barbara passed around some coffee and the group perked up.
“Tomorrow we will start your treatments by doing a physical evaluation of your current health. Barbara will find meet you in the cafeteria at 8:30am and give you an orientation of the compound. Each couple will be assigned a doctor for the course of the treatment. After the orientation, Barbara will take you to meet them.” Dr. Overland said to conclude his presentation. Everyone returned to their rooms and went to sleep early.
In the morning, Vivian and Norm got dressed and searched out the cafeteria to have some breakfast. Each decided to try the special, which included two eggs, hash browns, a choice of bacon or ham, juice and coffee. The food wasn’t as bad as Dr. Overland had lead them to believe. It was more interesting than the cereal and toast they usually ate. Ivan and Alexandra showed up after they had finished eating. They also selected the special. Since they had the time, they chatted a bit to get to know each other better.
Ivan was a clerk at a sporting goods store and Alexandra was a waitress. The two of them had been married for a year, they were actually both twenty-three, older than Vivian had thought. They didn’t have any children, which was one of the reasons why they were selected for the trial.
Maurice and Paula had decided to skip breakfast, they arrived at the time Barbara was supposed to collect them. Maybe they had ordered something to be brought to their room. The couple looked tired, like they hadn’t gotten much sleep the previous night.
When Barbara arrived, they dutifully followed her around the complex as she showed them where all of the facilities were. The clinic had a gym, an indoor swimming pool, and an entertainment room, with billiard tables. It was as though they had checked into an all inclusive resort. Little did they realize, the treatment would put a damper on their desire to have fun. At the end of the tour, Barbara dropped each couple off at their doctor’s office.
Norman and Vivian’s doctor’s name was Henry Summers. He was in his fifties and well experienced in his field of genetic engineering. Dr. Summers explained their daily routine. They would receive incremental treatments every morning, that would last up to three hours. In the afternoon, tests would be performed to determine the success of the change to their DNA. Every fourth day, they wouldn’t have to undergo any procedures, they were free to enjoy themselves however they wanted. It all seemed very straightforward to the Turners, they were ready to get started.
May 2001,
Lawrence, Derrek and Evelyn were together for their weekly dinner at the Rutherford’s’. The three were sitting in the living room after a traditionally large meal. The conversation tended to stray to Meteor problem.
“You know,” Derrek said. “The problem now is that we don’t have anyone in the world that is normal anymore. Everyone’s genes have been affected by the meteor. There’s nothing to use as a reference for how things are supposed to be.”
“True,” Lawrence responded. “What we need to do is use the Mirror and check out what things are like on the other world. If the meteor hasn’t hit them yet, maybe they can be of help.” He was only half joking. They had to stop the project before it had gotten to a practical state.
“I think it’s time for drastic measures,” Evelyn stated. “We’ve all been thinking the same thing for quite some time, Lawrence just finally said it aloud. The answer to the fertility problem isn’t to be found on this world. We have a responsibility to do all we can to find a solution and that means trying the Mirror Transfer device. There are a lot of uncertainties which means that it could be dangerous. We never actually tried to send a person through the gate before, the transfer could end up killing them. We also don’t know what the other world is like. Can we assume that the people there are like us? They could be a more advanced society, or worse a much less technologically advanced society. If we do this, the facilities to research our problem have to be on the other side. The other issue is that we don’t know if our communication network device works. The whole operation is risky.”
“We have to do it.” Derrek’s reply was firm.
“I agree, it’s necessary.” Lawrence concurred.
“Well, okay then. Now how do we proceed? Who is going to be the one to go?” Evelyn asked. The three looked at each other. The choice was difficult. Lawrence and Derrek were the ones with the technical knowledge of the Mirror device.
“I should go.” Said Derrek. “There is no way Evelyn can do it. This has to be done in secret and there is no way to justify a mysterious absence for the CEO of Universal. That leaves either Lawrence or myself.”
“Yes, but we both have the same backgrounds, “ Lawrence argued. “There is no advantage for you to take the chance. Did you consider that you would be leaving your wife for at least a year? How would we explain your disappearance?”
“Now gentleman,” Evelyn broke in. “It seems that I am in a conflict of interest situation. I can’t be the one who decides.”
“Let’s flip a coin then.” Derrek said boldly.
“A coin? That’s a quaint idea, but I like it.” Said Lawrence. He fished a quarter out of his pocket and passed it to Evelyn. “You can’t choose, but you can flip.” Evelyn took the coin reluctantly and flipped it in the air.
“Heads.” Lawrence was the first man to call it. The coin fell onto the table between the three engineers. It was tails. Derrek “won” the opportunity to travel to the other universe.
“That’s settled then.” Evelyn said. She tried not to think about the possibility of losing her husband for more than just one year. It would be worth the long absence if they were successful at developing a treatment.
The next phase of their planning was to determine how to explain Derrek leaving the company, and especially leaving Evelyn. A reassignment to another company wouldn’t work because it wouldn’t be believable that a person of Derrek’s experience would take a job at a small nameless company. If they claimed he went to a bigger company, somebody would find out he wasn’t actually working there. Derrek was just too much of a public figure. Then their was the matter of Derrek and Evelyn’s marriage. A separation was in order, but Evelyn refused to make up a story about Derrek cheating on her. The circumstances required a little more creativity.
“I thought of something that might work very well for us,” Evelyn proclaimed. “Derrek is going to have a nervous breakdown. The stress from his position at the company, the terrible importance of the project he is working on and the hours he has been working is too much. Over the next three months, we will carefully orchestrate his decline. During that time, Derrek and my marriage will be thrown against the rocks. We will let some rumours go around the office and have a few public rows. By the time the preparations for this mission are completed, nobody will be surprised when you ask for a leave of absence.”
“Excellent, I’ve always thought Derrek would go nuts one day.” Lawrence joked.
“Well, as long as my reputation is going down the toilet for a good cause, I’m willing to participate in this embarrassment.” Derrek said.
“The final issue is what technical aspects do we need to prepare?” Evelyn hoped the men didn’t mind her managing the situation.
“We need to be ready for the least optimum scenario. If the communication network functions from the other side, which I am ninety percent sure that it will, we don’t have to worry about sending information to Derrek. On the other hand, if it doesn’t work, Derrek needs to bring all the possible data that he might need. We should prepare several data storage devices and a data reader to send with him. I don’t think it is feasible to send all of the other research equipment, we have to hope that the other world is sufficiently advanced. “ Lawrence listed the various things to consider.
“We should also develop a research plan. It would be good to know what my goals are.” Derrek contributed.
“After all of the proposals the three of us had done, it should be much effort at all to spec out an approach.” Lawrence said.
The group hashed out a few more ideas before calling it a night. They were reinvigorated by the idea they had put together. None of them admitted that they should have tried this sooner. Each hoped that the information they learned about the illness over the past year would be the factor that ultimately led to it’s success. It was after 1am when Lawrence finally went home. Derrek and Evelyn didn’t go to sleep right away, they decided they better take advantage of the time they had left together.
June, 2001
Three months had past at the clinic in France. The couples would participated in the study had completed their therapy and they were now waiting to see if it worked. Vivian, Alexandra and Paula were all scheduled to have pregnancy tests that day. The doctors were confident that at least two of the couple were cured. They had doubts about Vivian and Norm, the gene comparisons from before and after the treatment didn’t show the degree of changes as the others. It was thought that their proximity to the meteor crash site had affected them more severely than the Andrevichs and the St-Jacques.
The women waited patiently with their husbands for the results of the tests. It felt like an eternity for Dr. Overland to bring them the results. Then when they were at their wits end, he appeared with a clipboard in hand. His expression didn’t give anything away.
“I’m pleased to announce that Alexandra and Paula are pregnant!” he exclaimed. Everyone jumped up, there was much hugging and congratulations.
“What does that mean for us?” Vivian asked when the ruckus calmed down.
“Unfortunately, we are going to have to run some more tests. It may be the case that you will have to undergo the treatment program for a longer period of time. I can’t make you stay though, if you have decided that you’ve had enough and want to go back home. You can have a few days to make your decision.” Dr. Overland told them. “We would like Paula, Maurice, Ivan and Alexandra to stay nearby so we can monitor the situation. You can leave the clinic and we will provide each of you with a house where you can enjoy your privacy again.”
The doctor left the couples to talk amongst himself. He felt badly for the Turners, but the success of the treatment was outstanding news. First he had to phone the GHO and make a report. Then he would make the other necessary phone calls. It was a very good day indeed.
In Australia, a reporter Theodore Pierce wrote weekly columns about the ongoing research. His primary source for information was Dr. Gloria Burns. Gloria had been involved with testing the men and women of the area and sending results to the various labs around the world. She was also part of the group who selected candidates for the experimental treatments. Theo was having an affair with Gloria. He found that the information Gloria was willing to share after their intimate relationship started was far more interesting than before. That wasn’t his goal, just a side benefit. Theo’s wife had become distant when she found out that she wouldn’t be able to have a child. He found that she preferred to spend more time with her sister than with him. So, when Gloria expressed her attraction to him, during an interview one evening, he accepted her advances.
They were in bed together at her apartment the night when he heard the news. It hadn’t exactly slipped out, Gloria was too excited to keep her mouth shut. Too bad she picked the wrong person to tell. Gloria told him how she had sent names to the Global Health Organization for a revolutionary treatment plan. The couples had been treated over the past few months and finally, two couples successfully gotten pregnant. She asked him not to put the news in his column yet, because the GHO was still trying to determine how to roll out the process.
Theo was stunned when he heard the news. Gloria had kept this from him for several months! His wife might be able to have a baby after all. Just the hope that it might be possible could bring her closer to him again. There was no way he was going to keep this a secret. If the people of Australia read what was going on, it would force the GHO to release the procedure to the public. He left Gloria’s early that night and went home to write his column.
The next day, an article in the Australian Daily came out about the treatment plan. The by-line read Theodore Pierce. Gloria was furious, she gave Theo a nasty call and terminated their love affair. Theo could care less. When he told his wife that she would be able to have a baby after all, she was ecstatic. She decided that they should get in some practice right away. Theo’s life was a whole lot better now.
As the GHO predicted, the response from the public was speedy and demanding. There were riots and demonstrations in a couple of cities. The people wanted fair access to the treatment plan. Nobody seemed to care that it was still in the experimental stage or that it was not always successful. They had gone too long without any children being born. It was time for things to change.
An emergency meeting was held with the GHO members to decide a way forward. With the limited facilities, how would it be possible to be fair in who was chosen to receive the treatment? A radical suggestion was made by one of the younger members of the council. They proposed that there be a lottery. The couples who wanted to have children would fill out a request for treatment form and send it to the GHO. Once a month, the organization would draw a number of names to grant treatment licenses to. More facilities would be built to increase the throughput, each country would need their own clinics. The council voted unanimously to implement the idea.
A news conference was held the day after the council decided on the lottery. They outlined the rules on how couples would qualify. It was simple, the only restriction was that the couple could not already have a child. They decided it was the only fair criteria. Questions were asked about the details of the treatment and other issues. The council brought the gene therapy specialists to explain the more technical aspects of the treatment. The public seemed to accept the plan, it was a good start.
August, 2001
Derrek sat alone in the room they had come to dub the Mirror Room. Since he had submitted his resignation that morning, he was in hiding from everyone except Evelyn and Lawrence. The other two were meeting him in the Mirror Room around 9pm. They wanted to be certain that most of the employees had gone home for the night before opening the gate. It typically caused a brief brown-out in the power when it was activated. Probably not enough to arouse suspicion, but they didn’t want to take any chances.
Lawrence was the first to arrive. He was carrying a soft briefcase for Derrek to take with him. Inside were three data modules containing all of the known research into the fertility problem, a device to read the modules and a few other small things they thought might be useful, most notably another transfer device. Lawrence handed the briefcase to Derrek.
“Good Luck,” Lawrence said. A few minutes later, Evelyn entered the room. She had already said good-bye to her husband the night before. It was a difficult time for both of them. The past three months were hard for them too, having to pretend they hated each other when they felt the opposite.
“I guess I’m ready to go.” Derrek told them. He walked over to the transfer device and turned it on. The gate opened in front of the three conspirators. “I’ll call you when I get there.” He said with a smile. Derrek approached the glowing wall and stepped through.
It was night time on the other world. There wasn’t a way for the device to be programmed to open at a desirable location because they had no means of getting feedback from the other world. Luckily, the gate opened up in a treed field. Unfortunately, it was dark, so Derrek was having difficulty seeing. At least the transfer didn’t have any adverse effects on him, not that he could tell anyhow. The first order of business was to send a message back to his friends. He opened his briefcase and searched out the second transfer machine. Lawrence had devised a small keyboard and display to interface with the machine for communication purposes.
“Trip was great. Arrived okay.” Derrek typed in the short message and pressed transmit. Then he waited. Letters slowly appeared on the monitor. “Good to hear from you. Happy your alive.” Was the message. It work! This mission was going to be a lot easier now that he could collaborate with Lawrence and Evelyn.
“Have a good night. Call you tomorrow.” Derrek signed off. The next task was to determine if there was any civilization. He took another little device out of his bag. It was designed to pick up radio signals and such that emanated from cities. It would also indicate the proximity, so Derrek could use it to find a city. If this was a mirror universe like Lawrence theorized, things couldn’t possibly be that different from their world. He turned on the device and was relieved to discover a city existed about 5 kilometres away. The trees would explain why he hadn’t seen any lights. Since Derrek didn’t know if the field would be a safe location to spend the night, he repacked his briefcase and started walking.
It wasn’t long before Derrek stumbled onto a road. What a promising find he thought as he walked along the road. The locator device pointed in the direction of the road, it seemed that it went directly into the city. In fact, Derrek thought he could finally see lights in the distance. Derrek wished that he was in better shape. Over the past months, he had given up his exercise regiment to help support his breakdown story. A couple of cars zipped by. Cars, excellent! Derrek wished that he had a car right now. Eventually, he reached the edge of the city. It looked very similar to the cities on his world. There were streets, traffic lights, people and tall buildings. At this time of night, there weren’t many people roaming the streets. Derrek wondered if he could get a hotel, but how would he pay for it? His credit card wasn’t going to work on this world.
There were benches alongside the road, Derrek decided to sit down and think. Lawrence, Evelyn and he had pondered the problem of integration with this society at great length. They had nothing to go on, so plans couldn’t be made in advance. In the end, they agreed that Derrek was on his own for that portion of the project. The general plan was that Derrek would get a job at a science research centre so he would have the facilities to perform his own research. First he need to figure out how this world operated. He looked along the street and found his answer. Across the road was a building labelled Public Library. What better place to learn than a library?
Derrek walked across the street and into the library. He was surprised to find it open late at night, but this one seemed to be opened 24 hours a day. Inside he found what he expected, plenty of books and even some computers. There was one small problem, Derrek only knew how to use the computers from his world. The ones on this world were bound to be different. He saw an information desk and decided to approach the woman sitting at the desk.
“Excuse me,” he said to the woman, whose nametag said Petra. “This is my first time at your library, I from out of town. Could you show me how to look up things using your computers please?”
“Sure thing, that’s what I’m here for.” Said Petra. She took him over to a computer station and sat down with him. In the next half hour she gave him a demonstration. Derrek observed her intently. She was just explaining to him how one particular programmed worked. He tried to learn the steps in between as well. After the lesson, Derrek was confident that he could fumble around and figure the rest out by himself.
“Thank you Petra.” Derrek said to his teacher. Then he started searching for some information to get him started. Petra had shown him how to print pages, a feature that Derrek appreciated. He jotted down additional notes on the papers. One of the items he would have to purchase was his own computer. Until then, paper would have to do. Derrek spent a long time at the terminal, he even fell asleep. Petra tapped him on the shoulder to wake him up.
“You fell asleep.” She stated the obvious.
“Sorry, I’m working on a term paper that’s due tomorrow. You know how it is.” Derrek lied to her.
“Well, okay. But, you might be more productive if you go home and get a couple hours of sleep.” She said, trying to be helpful. Derrek took the hint and decided it was time for him to leave. Derrek had learned a lot at the library. It had given him a few good ideas. In the morning he would be able to get things started. For the next few hours, there was nothing to do except wander around town. While he was strolling down the streets, Derrek passed by a restaurant with a help wanted sign. The restaurant was opened early, by now it was past 6am.
Derrek talked to the manager of the restaurant. Janice Long was looking for a part time cashier and she was willing to provide on the job training. She said that nobody wanted a part time position, so she hadn’t filled the position during the month the job was open. To her Derrek looked like a responsible man, she offered him the job and he accepted. The breakfast rush was on, so she had Derrek observe as she worked the cash. Derrek picked up the skills quickly and soon she left him alone at the till. One of the things he had observed was that many people used credit cards. The credit cards were passed through a scanning device to get approval from the credit companies. It might be possible to record the signal coming from the scanning device using his locator device. If there were enough samples, he might be able to forge a credit card. It was worth trying. By lunchtime, the regular cashier arrived and Janice told Derrek he could go home.
Derrek retreated to the library, where he anticipated he could work on his card. By some good fortune, all of the credit cards were the same size as the cards from his world. He took out one of his lesser used cards from his wallet and used one of the devices Lawrence packed to modify the chip in the card to send a signal like the other cards. When he was finished, he decided to be ambitious and try a hotel. He hadn’t slept in over 24 hours, he was exhausted.
The Sleepy Time Inn was only a couple of blocks away from the hotel. He walked over and requested a room. The gentleman at the reception desk took his credit card. Derrek held his breath as the man scanned his card.
“How many nights will you be staying,” he asked, handing back the card to Derrek. The card had been accepted!
“Just one, thank you.” Derrek responded. He took the key from the clerk and headed upstairs to his room. For the first time, he didn’t look at his surroundings before collapsing on the bed and falling asleep.
May, 2003
A nine month old child was running around the recreational facilities on the Sagittarius. She was the only infant on the ship, although several of the crew had become pregnant during their journey and were expecting within the upcoming months. It would be good for Sarah to have playmates. Although, someone did have the foresight to bring several domestic felines on board. The cats tolerated the child’s attention, since the adults were usually too busy working to pay them any heed. As Sarah was chasing one of the cats, she spotted her mother and begged to be picked up. Cassandra lifted Sarah on to her lap. With the absence of children on board, there were plenty of couples willing to take care of Sarah and have their dose of fun. Cassandra knew what she was doing when she accepted this mission.
Jack, Moira and Cassandra were sitting together at the rec centre discussing their favourite books. The three had come to a truce to make their trip more palatable. They worked well together when they tried. Although, Jack and Cassandra would still get into vicious arguments when they disagreed about something. Moira sometimes thought they did it on purpose because they perversely enjoyed arguing with each other. If it wasn’t for Sean Robinson, Moira would have thought Jack and Cassandra were doing more than fighting. Sean and Cassie (as he called her) had become an item during their year on the Sagittarius. He was one of the doctors on board. Thankfully, not the one who had attended her during the birth of Sarah. Cassandra didn’t talk to that one for two months after her baby was born. The doctor had determined it was necessary to perform a C-Section and Cassandra was livid afterwards. Eventually she conceded that the doctor had made the correct decision and that she was in deed in danger of dying. She turned to Dr. Robinson for the baby’s routine check-ups after she blacklisted the other doctor. Sean was able to give her directions and she actually followed them without complaints. They had a mutual respect for each other that made their relationship strong.
One of the junior scientists brought a report to Cassandra. She thanked him and quickly flipped through the report she had been anticipating.
“Our scientists are saying that there are signs of life in the asteroid field we are travelling through. It looks like there are tiny microbes living in the rocks.” Cassandra shared with her companions. “The other fascinating thing is that the asteroids appear to have come from the space near our two planets. There is evidence that our biological weapons have struck them.”
“Would the biological weapons have effected the microbes?” Moira asked, she was concerned at the thought that they had caused damage to another species.
“Well, obviously, it didn’t kill them. The lab is trying to verify if they have been transformed in any negative fashion. The results are inconclusive so far.” Cassandra answered.
“Is there any chance that bring the microbes on the ship will cause illness to the crew?” Jack asked. The last thing they needed was an epidemic.
“Don’t worry, the lab is operating under full biohazard levels. Most of the scientists are experienced in handling this type of situation. The primary concern is to determine whether the microbes are dangerous to us. Remember the exhaustive clean up that we had to do after the war? It was a disaster trying to destroy any of the biological agents that were lying dormant all over the place. Genolia still has teams in place to monitor the situation and search for anything they had missed. Whoever decided to let loose those weapons should be ejected in to space without a suit. How did the war get that desperate? The lab is going to report back if they learn anything more.” It was unusual for Cassandra to go on a rant about her government and the war.
“You two have hear the story how the war started, haven’t you?” Moira asked. The others shook their heads. She was delighted to have the opportunity to spin her yarn to a new audience.
“My grandmother told me that we didn’t originate from this universe. Five hundred years ago, the humans came here when our planet was destroyed. Long distance space travel hadn’t been invented then. Oddly enough, they had discovered how to move between universes, which is a far more advanced technology. Anyway, there was a worldwide war going on at the time and one of the sides nuked the planet. It was overcome with radiation and the planet died. Both sides anticipated such an event was likely to happen and they sent settlers to the other universe to start fresh. One of the sides settled on Nebula and the other on Genolia.
“Time went by and space travel was finally invented, around the same time on each planet. They did share a common base of knowledge after all. One day, the Nebulans and Genolians encountered each other in space. Nothing bad happened right away, they quickly returned to their home planets and informed their governments. Despite the passage of time, they continued to blame one another for losing their planet, Earth. A new war flared up between the two. The rest, everyone has heard already.”
“How come you never told me that story before? We’ve been working together for years.” Jack inquired. It wasn’t the type of story Moira would keep to herself.
“My grandmother only told me the story before I left Nebula for the mission. She is getting frail and through she may not live to see me return. She wanted me to be able to pass on the story to my children. Too bad I don’t have any kids yet. Thomas and I will have to start working on that.”
“I think it is time to get back to work.” Jack suggested. The three parted ways and returned to their afternoon duties.
Back in the navigation room, Jack was looking at the star charts. They were at the edge of their galaxy and about to enter the expanse between theirs and the next galaxy. No ships had been past the border, so their charts wouldn’t be as accurate beyond. At least it would keep the crew busy charting the new territory. Before they ventured on this journey, the Nebulan government used their telescopes to determine the origin of the Thurston Waves. When the Sagittarius got closer, they would be able to pinpoint the exact location.
Jack decided to pick up on his correspondence from Nebula. Along the way, the Sagittarius was dropping transmitters to create a communications network over the long distance. It was particularly useful for the ship, but as of yet, nobody else would benefit. Jack had a theory that this mission was the first step in colonizing other planets in their system. Since the Nebulan-Genolian treaty had been a success for the past ten years, the governments were far more willing to do things together. The war had curtailed their exploration of their galaxy. A lot of people wanted to see a program started up again to continue where they left off.
Moira came into the navigation room to find Jack snoring in his chair. She clapped her hands loudly above his head. It had the desired effect, Jack feel out of his seat on to the floor. Moira howled with laughter.
“Oooh, I get you every time.” She said.
“As you can see, my work had been very stimulating.” Jack said.
“What has our mighty captain been up to?”
“Just reading some letters from home. The tour company assigned a smaller ship to fly our route. The costumers are enjoying it, although the repeat clients commented that the Sagittarius ship and staff provided them with a far superior vacation. I hate to admit it, but there are aspects of that job that I actually miss. It was interesting meeting new people. Those plays you had put on at the theatre were great too.”
“I thought you didn’t like going to see the plays?”
“Sorry, I was only pretending not to like them to get on your nerves.” Jack smiled at his friend.
“I was thinking about starting a theatre group here. There are a number of people on board who have had experience performing in amateur plays. It might be another good hobby for them to relax after work. What do you think?”
“Sound like a good idea. You have my approval to go ahead with that idea. If you come up with anything else, just let me know.”
“Great. There were a few other ideas I came up with from our time on the tour boat that might be good for here too.” Moira proceeded to relate her list of ideas to Jack. He listened with mild interest. At least it was more exciting than watching reading the latest updates from command.
Cassandra, Jack and Moira made their way to the science lab where the microbes were being studied. The lead biologist had summoned them to give them an urgent update. They had made a discovery that was causing them some concern. Cassandra introduced Jack and Moira to Dr. Poole, the woman in charge of the lab. They all shook hands.
“Thank you for coming so quickly.” Dr. Poole said. “As you know, we have recently made an alarming discovery. It took us time to prove, but the organisms have definitely been mutated by the biological agents that they were exposed to. They absorbed the biological agents and changed the composition of the agent so it would act differently. It appears that if a human is exposed to the microbes, the microbes will damage that person’s DNA. Upon further study, the element it impairs is the reproductive ability. It would cause a person to become sterile, permanently.”
Cassandra, Jack and Moira were speechless. This was not the news that they were expecting. By this time, the three had assumed the microbes were harmless. Now they found out they would cause irreparable harm to humans.
“Has anyone been exposed so far?” Jack was the first one to speak.
“Thankfully, we have been very methodical about following our procedures.” Dr. Poole responded.
“Is there anything that can be done to reverse the effects of the microbes?” Cassandra asked the doctor.
“It would require some pretty radical gene therapy to make the necessary repairs. There is another possibility that we have been discussing amongst ourselves. We could try modifying the microbes so they have the opposite effect. Rather than damaging DNA, it would repair it. This is a bit moot since there aren’t any cases of people being in contact with the microbes.”
“That may be the case now. But, what if the microbes aren’t isolated to this area? They have already travelled a great distance. Some asteroids may have spun off in different directions. This could be a disaster if the microbes reach Nebula and Genolia. We need to be prepared. Start working on a method of treating the problem. Perhaps in the process, we can restore the microbes to their original state.” Cassandra wasn’t going to take any chances, the microbes were a threat. The two captains and the commander left the biologists to ponder their new challenge.
“We might have to infect somebody.” Dr Poole said frankly to her colleague Dr. Rupert Yarrow after the others had left.
“To test that a cure works, you do need one subject with the illness.” He commented. They looked at each other with a grim understanding. What if the test subject wasn’t cured? That person would never be able to have children. Dr Poole and Dr Yarrow knew that they would be experimenting on themselves. The captains needn’t know the measures that were required to perform their task.
August, 2003
Saturday
She took a bold step into the ballroom and looked around. Several hundred people were already there. Some were dancing and others were sitting at round tables scattered around the room. A dark haired man in a tuxedo approached her and offered his hand. The woman accepted and was lead out into the dance floor for a waltz.
“I didn’t know you could dance.” She whispered.
The man grinned more widely as he whisked her around the room. As the music stopped, he took the woman outside to the back patio. The stone patio surrounded a large swimming pool. The pool was lit and a glass platform was covering the water. They walked out onto the platform and started dancing again.
Another woman came out of the shadows and started laughing. Suddenly, the glass platform moved and the dancing couple fell into the water. The weight of the woman’s gold sequenced evening gown was started to pull her under. She felt some arms around her, as someone pulled her from the water. The stone floor was cold against her back and she lost consciousness.
Suddenly she awoke in a soft bed. She was drenched in sweat. Confused, the woman tried to figure out where she was. There was a man lying next to her in the bed, her fiancé she thought. It had all been a dream, she hadn’t almost drowned in a pool. Reality came back to her and she looked at the clock, it was 3am. Definitely too early to get out of bed. The woman was reluctant to go back to sleep after such a disturbing dream. She lay awake for almost an hour before finally falling asleep.
This time, Sophie was awakened by a cat jumping on her chest. Maggy, short for Magnitude, started kneading and purred loudly. Sophie acknowledged the cat by giving her a quick rub on the head. She looked next to the empty space next to her. Brian had already left for work. It was Saturday, but Brian had to go in anyway to get a project finished in time for Monday’s deadline. It was 10am. Today was going to be a busy day, Sophie hadn’t planned on sleeping in. Maggy protested as Sophie rolled out of bed and got dressed.
Sophie went downstairs for breakfast and was followed by two hungry cats, Tiger, had quietly emerged from his hiding spot. After feeding the cats, Sophie sat down and ate a bowl of cereal. She looked over a list of dress stores that she wanted to visit that day. Sophie and Brian were getting married the following spring and Sophie still needed to find a formal dress to wear. There were three stores that she really wanted to visit, so they were circled with a highlighter.
After Sophie finished breakfast, she grabbed her purse, set the security alarm and left the house. It was raining outside, so she pulled on the hood of her coat. Luckily the car wasn’t too far away. The first store on her list was called Starlight Designer Fashions, it was only a twenty minute drive and close to the other two stores. Sophie had driven by the shop before, it had a tacky purple and red façade, but the dresses in the window were tasteful and elegant. The drive wasn’t pleasant in the rain and she was starting to question whether she should have just stayed at home with the cats. Thirty minutes later, a harrowed Sophie arrived at the store.
A bell rang when she opened the door and a tall older woman appeared from the back of the store.
“What kind of dress are you looking for?” she asked.
“Well, it’s a bit complicated,” Sophie started, “I’m getting married next Spring, but I want to be able to dance and I can’t even back up in a traditional wedding dress, which is ridiculous! So, I have decided to get two dresses, a traditional one for the ceremony and a practical one for the reception. I’ve already found the first, now I am looking for a stunning evening gown to dance in. I would prefer something that isn’t black because my fiancé will be wearing a black tuxedo. A lighter colour would be much better.”
“Okay,” responded the sales woman, “all of the wedding dresses are on this floor, which means you should look upstairs where the evening gowns are. I’ll go with you to show you how things are organized.”
The two women proceeded up the narrow staircase to the second floor. Sophie was surprised to see the number of dresses available. There were racks of gowns on three sides of the room. On the fourth side, across for the stairway was a full size three way mirror and a couple of dressing rooms.
The woman, whom Sophie found out was named Lorna, explained that the dresses were organized by designer. The sample sizes were a 12, but they could be ordered in any size and most were available in other colours. There was a small section of custom dresses that Lorna made herself, that were one of a kind. Lorna went back downstairs to let Sophie to explore the dresses.
Not knowing where to start with all of the selection, Sophie methodically began from one end of the room and worked her way around. She started with five dresses in different styles, some were sleeveless, others had spaghetti straps. None of them had all the qualities that she was looking for. It had to be classy, but sexy, long, but easy to move in and it had to be fancy enough for a bride not to be mistaken for an ordinary wedding guest. Eventually, she reached the custom made gowns at the other end of the room. Sophie flipped through the dresses and stopped when she saw a gold one. She pulled the dress off the rack and took a closer look. It looked strangely familiar, but she couldn’t figure out why she was attracted to it. Looking at the size, it was a 14, which was what she normal fit into, so Sophie decided to try the dress on.
When Sophie came out of the changing room, Lorna had come back upstairs. Sophie walked over to the mirrors and looked at herself. The dress had thin shoulder straps, the neckline came down into a V which was nicely flattering, the top was fitted and the ankle-length skirt flared out at the bottom. Shiny gold sequence added a regal air to the image of the dress. Suddenly, Sophie remembered where she had seen the dress before, it was the same as the one she was wearing in her dream.
Sophie turned to Lorna, “So, you said that these ones are custom made?”, she said motioning to the dresses in the corner and the one she had on.
“Yes,” Lorna answered, ”I made those myself. The one your wearing is the newest, I just finished it last night. It shouldn’t be up here, my assistant must have put it with the others by mistake. I made it for especially for a certain client.“
“Oh, that’s unfortunate,” Sophie was disappointed. It was exactly what she wanted, except for the colour, her favourite was purple, not gold. The gown looked fabulous on her and the gold did bring out the highlights in her auburn hair.
“If you like it that much, I can make you something similar, in another colour,” offered Lorna.
“I’ll consider that, but I probably can’t afford a custom dress that elaborate,” Sophie explained. She returned to the changing room and put on her jeans and sweater.
“It’s not as expensive as you might think,” Lorna said as they walked down to the main floor.
“Thanks you for your help. I might be back when your new stock comes in.” said Sophie and she left the store.
Sophie got back in her car and drove to the next store on her list. The selection at the second store was poor since a recent sale had cleared it out of evening gowns. Sophie arrived at the third store to discover it was closed for inventory. Realizing that she hadn’t eaten lunch yet, Sophie decided to grab a sandwich at a local sub shop before heading back home again.
Derrek finished typing his resignation letter on his notebook computer. He sat back and read it a final time before hitting the print button on the word processor. The printer next to his desk quietly printed the short document. Derrek picked the letter out of the tray and inserted it into a white envelope addressed to his boss. That task completed, he moved on to the next item on his list of things to do before he left the company. He opened up the file explorer and methodically deleted all of his personal files and notes, there was no need for the Institute to look at those items. The filing cabinet was also in need of a purging. Anything relating to his official projects that he worked on, he left in the drawers, the rest, he buzzed through the shredder. During the past week, Derrek had removed the few personal articles that he kept at the office. The only thing remaining was a small white box, with a blue bow and ribbon, sitting on a shelf in the bookcase.
A short while later, Derrek walked down the hall to give the envelope to his boss’ secretary. In the letter he indicated that he would continue working for the following two weeks, as was standard for the company. However, Derrek had no intention of returning on Monday, he had to leave town to take care of some family business. The matter was rather urgent and it required his immediate presence. After he dropped off the letter, he went to see his friend and co-worker Brian Michaels. Brian was on the phone when Derrek arrived at his office, so Derrek stood outside for a few minutes. When he saw that Brian had hung up, he walked in to say hello.
“I have potentially excellent news,” Brian told Derrek. “Our client is considering moving our Monday deadline for completing the project to next month. They have a few new features they would like to add to the requirements that would take extra time to implement. Marion said that the managers are getting together for a meeting to make a decision on how to proceed. The bad news is that I have continue going on the assumption that the deadline is still Monday. Everyone will have to stay until I hear from Marion. But, with any luck, I will be able to send them home by lunchtime. I’m impressed at how hard the team has been working, it’s about time they had a free weekend.”
“Let’s hope things go our way.” Derrek said, agreeing with his friend. “I hate to bring this up now, but I just given in my two week notice. I have an important personal matter to take care of and it is going to require that I leave town indefinitely.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Brian responded. “You have been an great asset to the team. I hope you will consider returning someday.”
“Since I won’t be here for the wedding, I thought I would give you a little gift now.” Derrek presented Brian with the little box from his office. Brian untied the ribbon and took the lid off the box. He pulled out the object that was inside. It was a soapstone carving about a foot long and six inches high of a prowling tiger. The black rectangular base that the tiger was mounted on, was decorated with three inset crystals. There was also a card to go with the gift that said “Congratulations. Best wishes for your future, Derrek”.
“That’s terrific, it will go perfectly with our collection.” Brian thanked Derrek. “You know, in all this time, you never did get to meet my fiancé, Sophie. Would you be free tonight to have dinner with us?”
“Actually, you probably don’t remember, but I did meet Sophie once. It was at the company Christmas party, she wasn’t feeling well so you ended up leaving early.” Derrek responded.
“Now that you mention it, I do remember. Poor Sophie, she had the stomach flu. Well? What do you say about dinner?” Brian asked.
“Sounds good to me. I better get back to work.” Derrek excused himself. He was looking forward to talking with Sophie. Brian had told him a lot about her during their long days working together. Derrek wandered back to his office to sort out the rest of his day. He had barely sat down at his desk when Brian burst into the room.
“Marion called,” he said with a wide grin. “It’s all set, the program is being extended. I’m going to make the rounds and send everyone home. I have a couple of things to clean up after that, but what do you say about ditching this place and heading to my place early?”
“I’ve just about wrapped up what I need to do. Come get me when you are ready to leave.” Derrek said.
An hour later, Brian knocked on Derrek’s door to let him know it was time to go. Brian gave Derrek directions to his house and they walked outside to their cars. Derrek decided to stop at a liquor store on the way and pick up a bottle of wine. He knew that Brian liked red, he hoped that Sophie had the same preference. They arrived at Brian’s to discover that Sophie was out, Brian mentioned something about an endless search for a dress. It was a little soon in the day to start on the wine, so they went to the basement to play a few rounds of pool. It wasn’t a game that Derrek had the opportunity to play often. Brian beat him four games to one. Around the time that Brian was expecting Sophie back, they had given up on the pool and went back upstairs. They were just opening the wine when they heard Sophie at the door.
There was a red sports car in the driveway when Sophie arrived home. Brain drove a blue sedan, maybe his car was in the garage and he was entertaining somebody. A tired Sophie entered the house and heard voices coming from the kitchen. One of the voices, she recognized as Brian’s, but the other was unfamiliar. She took off her shoes, threw her handbag in the closet and walked over to the kitchen to see who was visiting.
He was a tall man, about 5’11”, with short dark hair, he was wearing a plain grey suit with a paisley blue tie. Sophie thought she had seen him before. Brian looked over at his fiancé.
“This is my co-worker Derrek,” Brian introduced the stranger. “You probably don’t remember, but you met Derrek at the last company Christmas party.”
Derrek extended his hand and Sophie reached out to shake it. His grip was firm and he gave her a confidant smile.
“Pleased to meet you again. I’m not surprised that you don’t remember me, you weren’t feeling well the last time we met,” Derrek said.
“So, what brings you two out of the office so soon? It’s only six o’clock, I thought you had a big deadline on Monday,” asked Sophie.
“Our clients decided to extend the deadline until next month. They came up with some new requirements for us to implement. My team has been working a lot of overtime, so I sent them all home. I asked Derrek to have dinner with us tonight, I hope that’s okay with you. I tried to reach you on your cell phone, you must have had it turned off. Did you have any luck with your shopping excursion?” Brian finished and handed Sophie a glass of wine.
“I figured that we would just barbecue some steak for dinner. There is plenty for three people. I’m looking forward to learning more about Derrek,” she smiled at both men. “The shopping didn’t go very well. I tried on a lot of nice dresses, but none of them were what I envisioned for our wedding. Maybe the stores I pick for next weekend will work out better.”
Sophie went to the fridge and pulled out a couple of filet mignons. “Why don’t you start the barbecue, while I fix up some carrots for you to grill with the steaks,” she said to Brian.
A couple of hours later, dinner was finished and everyone had moved into the living room to relax. Sophie noticed that Brian and Derrek had consumed a lot of wine. They were probably relieved that their project was postponed. Sophie asked Derrek if he was interested in staying over night, rather than take a taxi home and leave his car at their house. Derrek was amenable to the idea, he was enjoying the couples hospitality very much.
Sophie learned a lot about Derrek over the course of the evening. He started working at the Science Institute two years previous when he discovered that the project he was working on was no longer supported by his company. He was married, but for the past year he was separated from his wife. He said that his work was too blame, he travelled a lot and worked long hours. It also came up that he didn’t have any children. Derrek also seemed to have an affinity for cats, both Maggy and Tiger were curled up around him.
Brian eventually excused himself and headed to bed. Sophie talked with Derrek for a little while longer. Then she showed him the guest bedroom, before going to bed herself. That night she fell asleep quickly, the wine and all of the shopping had done a good job.
Around 2am, Sophie woke up, she was incredibly thirsty. It must have been from drinking all that wine. Brian was sleeping quite heavily beside her, he wasn’t even snoring like he usually did. The two cats were dozing at the end of the bed on Brian’s feet. Sophie got out of bed, grabbed her housecoat from the chair beside her bed and put on her slippers. She quietly left the bedroom and trudged downstairs to the kitchen. The light was already on and someone was moving around in the kitchen. Derrek apparently couldn’t sleep either. It was funny that she hadn’t heard him come downstairs, she was typically a light sleeper.
Derrek had taken out two glasses and poured cold water from the refrigerator for them. He handed her a tall glass. Sophie took a sip of water, it felt good against her dry throat. It tasted a little metallic, she thought it was probably time to change the filter. Just as she was about to say thank you, she started to feel dizzy and grabbed the edge of the kitchen counter for support. Derrek swooped behind her to catch her before she fainted.
When Sophie woke up, she found herself lying on the sofa with her hands and feet bound together.
“Don’t bother screaming, Brian won’t hear you. I drugged his wine this evening,” explained Derrek. “I’m not going to hurt you, we’re just going on a little trip.”
Derrek was kneeling on the floor, fiddling with a round device that was atop the coffee table. The device was small, about the size of a paperweight, it looked black at first, but then started glowing an eerie blue colour. All of a sudden a wide ray of light burst horizontally outwards from it. The light hit the wall which caused the wall to turn the same blue colour. Derrek grabbed Sophie and threw her over his shoulder, then he approached the pulsing wall and stepped through it.
The other side was dark, there was a low humming noise surrounding them. Derrek put Sophie down on the floor. It took some time for her eyes to adjust to the low light levels. The room was only about 15 square feet. In the centre of the room, there was a table with a device similar to the one Derrek had used at her house. The walls seemed to be covered with metal panels and the ceiling looked like it was made from glass prisms. Derrek walked over to the wall and flipped a switch. The room lit up and Sophie had a clearer view of her surroundings. The room didn’t have any windows, but there was a door near where Derrek was standing.
“What’s going on? Where am I? What do you want from me?” Sophie fired a bunch of questions at her abductor.
“It’s not the best time to explain, we have to leave before they get here,” Derrek came over to untie Sophie.
The door started to rattle, voices come through from the other side.
“Damn, I thought we would have more time, we arrived a full day before the deadline. They must have been alarmed the system to let them know when it was used,” said Derrek.
The door burst open and four armed men filed into the room. They were wearing grey uniforms, with a hexagonal patch over the left shirt pocket. Sophie thought they must be special security officers for whatever company this was. The men were brandishing guns that looked more like those futuristic laser weapons that you see on television.
“Lie down on the floor,” the first man into the room ordered, pointing his pistol at them. “You are under arrest for industrial espionage and impersonating a public figure.”
Derrek and Sophie went to the floor and for the second time in the day, Sophie found her hands bound behind her back.
Derrek and Sophie were taken to the security level in the basement. On the way down, they passed through the lobby where the company’s name was hung in big gold letters: Universal Research and Innovations Corporation. The floor was covered in hexagonal grey and white tiles. The receptionist at the front desk was another security officer, he stared as the captives passed by.
The master guard used a key to open the elevator and the group filed in behind him to go to descend to the security level. Around twenty men and women were busy working at computers, they all looked up and whispered to each other as Derrek and Sophie were ushered by. At the far end of the space, there were several empty holding rooms with glass walls. The pair were put in to one of these rooms and left to themselves.
“Industrial espionage? What the hell is going on here?” Sophie’s anger was unleashed on Derrek.
“Now Evelyn,” Derrek emphasized the name. “This is all a big screw-up, somebody has obviously misinterpreted some intelligence info. Once they realize who you are, they will back off and start to fear for their jobs.”
Sophie was silent, since Derrek had abducted her, nothing made any sense. The guard accused them of impersonating a public figure and now Derrek was calling her Evelyn. She decided the only way that she was going to get any answers was if she humoured Derrek in his scheme.
Derrek got off the bench, angrily marched over to the window and rapped on the glass. “Someone with authority better get their ass over here or they are going to regret coming into work today,” he shouted.
One of the security men, with a badge that named him T. Wakefield, went over to the glass. “What do you want?” he asked.
“This isn’t an impostor,” Derrek started, pointing at Sophie. “This is the real Evelyn Rutherford, you have made a critical mistake.”
“Sure she’s the real Evelyn, she has been surgically altered to look the same. Mr. Bates said you would sneak back here with a double to fool us into letting you steal classified information. You must take us for idiots.” Wakefield responded.
“You are an idiot,” said Derrek, “check her DNA and you will see what a bad decision you have made locking us up in here.”
Wakefield looked confident, but in secretly he was starting to doubt his resolve. The woman looked a lot like Ms. Rutherford, except for the hair. The real Ms. Rutherford had long brown hair, not short red hair. But you never know, maybe she changed it since he saw her yesterday. Wakefield made a decision.
“Milton,” he called, “bring an Easy ID machine over here.”
A woman, H. Milton, efficiently pulled a rectangular box out of her desk and brought it over to her boss. Wakefield entered the cell and closed the door behind him. He motioned for Sophie to insert her finger into a hole at the side of the box. She stared at the man with the proper amount of indignation before obeying. Ten seconds passed and some text appeared on the top of the box. Wakefield nearly choked as he read “Evelyn Rutherford, CEO, Universal Research and Innovations Corporation, Alpha level security clearance.”
“Clearly there has been a serious error committed here,” Wakefield appologized.”I’ll start an investigation and figure who caused this mischief. We are truly embarrassed Ms. Rutherford.”
“I would have expected a bright person like you would have questioned your sources when you saw me dressed in nothing but a nightgown and a housecoat. What thief wears slippers when she is trying to steal something?” Sophie improvised.
“Well, uh, we thought that was part of the ruse too.” Wakefield said lamely.
Derrek gently grabbed Sophie by the elbow and started steering her towards the exit. Sophie glared at Wakefield and the others as she left. They hurried through the building and stepped outside into the cool air. In front of the building, there were several parked cars. Derrek headed for the closest one and tried the passenger door. It wouldn’t open.
“Try opening the door,” he said to Sophie. She put her fingers under the driver’s side door handle and pulled the door open with ease.
“There,” Sophie was pleased, “it wasn’t locked on this side.” She slid inside the car and closed the door.
“Actually, the entire car was locked. When you put your hand on the door, the car scanned your finger prints and unlocked the door. This is an executive car, any of the executives can use it. Unfortunately, during my absence, I have been deleted from the computer system and couldn’t open it myself,” Derrek said as he opened the other door and joined her.
“I don’t understand what you are taking about. I think it is time for you to explain what is going on” suggested Sophie.
“I would love to, but we need to move before security starts looking for us. Drive us to the Starlight Motel.”
“Okay, give me directions then.” Sophie put her hands on the steering wheel.
“First, take your hands off the wheel, it’s just there for emergencies. Second, announce to the car where you want to go and it will drive us.”
Sophie shook her head in amazement. She did as was directed and the car started moving. A monitor turned on in the dash of the car, it displayed a map. The car was equipped with a GPS, as it progressed along the road, a red dot moved along the map towards their destination. Sophie couldn’t tell from the map what the scale was, so she had no idea how long it would take to get to the motel.
“What’s are ETA?” asked Sophie.
Derrek pressed the dash in front of him and another monitor flipped over. After touching the screen in a few places, he told her it would be twenty-four minutes. Then he ignored her for a while and worked on the monitor for a while. Sophie briefly fell asleep, but was awaken when the car came to a stop.
They were parked in front of a single story motel with six units. A neon sign indicated it was the Starlight Motel and there were indeed vacancies. The pair got out of the vehicle and went to check-in. As they reached the reception office, the car came to life again and drove away, presumably back to the corporation.
Getting a room was the most uneventful part of the day. Derrek smiled at the proprietress, signed a false name to the register and promised to pay in full the next morning before ten o’clock. The woman gave him a room key and smiled back at him. Sophie and Derrek went back outside and found their room at the end of the building, unit number six.
When they were safely in the room, Derrek pulled the curtains closed and said to Sophie, “If you would like, now would be an excellent time for me to explain.”
“Forget it,” she responded, flinging herself onto the bed. “I’ve realized this is all a bad dream, so I’m going to go to sleep and when I wake up, I will be back at home with my fiancé and two cats. I shouldn’t have drank all that wine, it frequently gives me nightmares.”
Derrek sat down on one of the two recliners in the room and watched Sophie as she pulled the covers over herself. Why not let her sleep, he thought. She had been up most of the night, maybe it wasn’t the best time to tell her the truth anyway. Sophie would benefit from having a clear head when he told her the story of how he really came to work at the Science Institute.
Evelyn sat alone in her office. She looked at the calendar, it was August 9th. Today was the second anniversary of Derrek’s departure. She hadn’t heard from him in an entire year. When the Mirror Gate failed the previous year, she hoped that Lawrence would be able to fix it to bring Derrek back. Lawrence tried for months and was unsuccessful. He convinced Evelyn that it would be best if she considered Derrek lost and moved on with her life. During the time that he was away, Lawrence and Evelyn had become closer friends. Evelyn allowed it to become more than that when she finally accepted that Derrek would never return to this world. She needed another powerful ally in the company, so she married Lawrence. Derrek would have wanted her to be happy. Although his absence made Evelyn withdraw from her work, she let Lawrence take on more responsibilities. He was a brilliant man, she felt confident in his abilities to manage more aspects of the corporation.
It was getting late, she had been at the office since seven that morning. There was an important meeting with a big client that day and it took most of her energy to get through it. Now she just wanted to get home. Pixel, her cat, would do a good job at cheering her up. There was nothing like a warm cat purring in your lap to put your troubles out of mind. Lawrence never really liked Pixel, because Pixel ignored him. She thought of him as an interloper, maybe Pixel missed Derrek. Derrek had giver her Pixel as a wedding gift. Oddly enough, she never had a cat before. Evelyn became an instant cat person.
When she finally arrived home, Evelyn popped a prepared dinner in the microwave to heat up. She ate it on the sofa in front of the television. Lawrence was still at work, so she had time to relax by herself. After dinner, she curled up on the sofa and pulled an afghan over herself. Pixel jumped onto the sofa and curled up with her. The two of them napped together for the next few hours.
Halfway through the space between the two galaxies, the Sagittarius was able to make a good scan of the new galaxy. They were able to chart out the layout of the galaxy. From their scans, they were able to determine that the Thurston Waves originated from the third planet from the sun in the solar system. That fact determine they set about to learn all that they could about the planet. It was easy to find out the technical facts such as the size of the planet. The challenge was discovering whether there was intelligent life there. If it was intelligent they hadn’t made advances in to long distance space travel yet.
“Captain,” an engineer came to Jack with some news. “We’ve detected transmissions emanating from the planet.”
“What kind of transmissions?” Jack asked with eager anticipation.
“We are working on that right now sir.” He responded.
“Keep me apprised of the situation then. Be sure to tell Captain Madden what’s going on.” Jack said and dismissed the engineer. Who are what was living on that planet. Transmissions seemed to indicate some sort of intelligence. As usual, he would just have to wait for the answers. Later that day, Cassandra went to meet with Jack in his office. She had the answers that Jack was looking for. The engineer was a Genolian, he had gone to Cassandra before he had told Jack anything. A year in space and loyalties still fell on planetary lines. At least the crew was fully integrated and working well together.
“It’s a television signal.” She announced to Jack. “I told the engineering department to patch the signal to your terminal.” Cassandra tuned the monitor to the correct channel and they watched the transmission together. The inhabitants of the newly discovered planets were human. They spoke a dialect of English. It was difficult to understand every word because of their accent, but they got the gist.
“They might have satellites orbiting their planet. When we get closer, we may be able to intercept current transmissions and get a better picture of what we’re dealing with.” Cassandra said.
Jack looked thoughtful. “Excellent idea. Until then we should gather whatever information that could be useful from these signals. The big question is what would have caused a Thurston Wave. There is no evidence of Thurston ships in the space around their planet.”
“Maybe they found another application for Thurston theory. I noticed that you didn’t comment about the inhabitants being human. I thought you would be asking what humans are doing in a different galaxy than ours.”
“Remember that story that Moira told us a few months ago? The one about humans originating from a different universe. Do you think some of the people from Earth opened a gate to this galaxy? If they crossed over at different times, the gate may have opened in different locations.”
“This is really all speculation. We don’t even know how the duo-universe travel works.”
Moira came bounding into the room, she looked excited. “Have you been watching our neighbours television show?” she asked. The pair nodded that indeed they had been looking. “Then you know that we found Earth?”
“What!” Jack shouted.
“So you haven’t been watching that closely after all.” Moira scolded him. “There were several people on the monitor who mentioned Earth. It’s there planet. Our planet!”
“Hold on. If what your grandmother told us is true, we are not from this universe. Therefore, this Earth is not our Earth.” Cassandra rationalized.
The conversation came to an abrupt halt when a loud alarm coming from the sensor network started. Jack ran over to the sensor panel. Failure lights were lit up all over. The Thurston Wave count was off the charts. After a few minutes, the sensors returned to normal and the Thurston Wave value started declining.
“Another one?” Moira asked. Jack didn’t answer her, he pushed the pager button to call the engineers.
“If you didn’t see that, put your full effort into finding out what just happened.” He ordered.
“We’re already on it, Captain. Confirmative on a Thurston Wave, it originated from Earth. The duration was two hundred and three seconds.” The engineer responded.
“Any indication on likely cause?”
“Not yet. We have much more data than from the first Thurston Wave. It will give us a better opportunity to study the occurrence. I think we can safely conclude that the event is not random and it is artificially generated.”
“Thanks, keep up the good work.” Jack said and turned off the communication network.
“We need to get closer.” Cassandra sighed. “It’s strange that those waves came nearly a year apart. I’m very keen on learning what this mystery is all about.”
“So am I, but I’m afraid we will have to leave that up to the engineers for now. What we can do is discuss our cousins on Earth.”
“When we arrive in their solar system, it would be a good idea to stay out of site until we learn more about them. Since they don’t have deep space travel, we can assume that they will be unprepared for a large ship going into orbit around their planet. If they get it into their heads that we are hostile, they may fire a weapon at the Sagittarius and destroy us. So, first we need to find out what their society and technological abilities are. That may answer why the Thurston Waves and coming from their plant. If we don’t find what we need from that research, we have to find a method of communication with someone on the planet. That effort can be done concurrently with the former.”
“Agreed. We should put the Sagittarius in geo-synchronous orbit around one of the more distant planets. By my calculations, we should be reaching their solar system tomorrow. Let’s make sure every team is prepared for the next stage of our mission.”
“I’ll draw up a plan as soon as we are finished with this meeting.” Cassandra said.
“By the way, how is your biology team progressing with their microbe research?” Jack asked Cassandra. Dr. Poole and her colleagues had been suspiciously quiet during the past two weeks. Since Cassandra was responsible for the biology lab, Jack decided not to interfere with her management style.
“Now I remember what else I was going to tell you. The astronomers have picked up more samples of asteroids contaminated with the microbes. It seems they travelled quite a distance in the past ten years. The good news is the organisms appear to have come from the same source, they exhibit the same behaviour as the first batch. The biologists were concerned about further mutations and were quite happy to find out otherwise.” Cassandra revealed.
“But what about their progress on a cure?” Jack pressed the issue. Cassandra looked uncomfortable.
“Dr. Poole and Dr. Yarrow have created three different variations on the microbes. They are confident that one of them will successfully repair damaged DNA. The final step is to try the microbes on a test subject.” Cassandra paused.
“Cassandra, what did you do?” Jack was concerned that Cassandra had made a foolish decision.
“I did what I had to do.” She said defensively. ”Dr. Poole and Dr. Yarrow were about to infect themselves with the microbes. I couldn’t let that happen. Those two biologists are two of our most valuable resources. If the microbes killed them instead of just sterilizing them, none of the other biologists would be able to replace them in ability. Besides, they are both young and neither of them have had children. I have Sarah, if I can never have another baby, at least I have her.”
“I wish you came to talk to me about this earlier, rather than keeping it a secret from me. How long have you been infected?”
“Two weeks. Dr. Poole wanted to run tests on an infected human before trying any of the modified microbes.”
“Shit Cassandra, you’re one brave woman. What did Sean have to say about it.”
“I haven’t told him. Once Dr. Poole gives me the treatment and I am back to normal, then I will explain what happened. You will NOT tell him either.”
“Is one test subject enough? I should do this too.”
“Absolutely not! I’ve ordered the biologist not to let you volunteer. The Sagittarius needs her Captain. Moira tried to volunteer already and I stopped her too.”
“Moira knew about this?”
“Sorry, I needed to talked to somebody about my decision. I knew that she would support me and that she would keep it a secret from you. Of course, after I told her that Dr. Poole needed a subject, she ran right over and asked to help out. That woman is crazy. It’s a good thing she didn’t go through with it, Sean tells me that she is pregnant. Although, will all the tests the doctors run, they would have stopped her anyway when they discovered she was pregnant.”
“Moira is pregnant? I can’t believe she didn’t tell me.”
“Yes, it’s true. You and Moira haven’t been spending enough quality time together in the past month.” Cassandra joked. Moira had been busy lately working on her many social projects. She must have been working on a more personal project as well, Jack thought. He would have to congratulate her and Thomas.
“I see you women are getting along quite well. Conspiring and keeping secrets. I’ll have to be more observant in the future. I don’t like being surprised.”
Cassandra smiled and excused herself to prepare for the next day. Jack left his office to find Moira and give her heck for not sharing her good news with him. He went to the theatre and found her rehearsing a play with her troop. Moira saw him enter the room, so she walked over to talk with him. Jack gave her an enthusiastic hug and twirled her around the room.
“Congratulations! Why didn’t you tell me Moira?” Jack asked.
“Cassandra finally let it slip.” Moira guessed correctly. ”I was waiting for a good time. Unfortunately, the closer we got to the solar system, the busier we both became. Oh well, the cat’s out of the bag.”
“Let’s go to dinner tonight. We haven’t had an entertaining conversation with each other in too long.” Jack suggested.
“I think I have room in my schedule for a dinner with a good friend. Pick you up at seven. I’ll have Thomas prepare my favourite dish, Beef Wellington.”
“Sounds great. When are you planning on putting on your play?”
“Probably in another week, we have to iron out the bugs first.”
“Make sure to reserve me a good seat this time. I should let you get back to your practice.” Jack said. He went back to his office to continue working on his plans.
Sophie opened her eyes carefully, the space next to her was empty. Brian had obviously left early for work again and was nice enough not to wake her up. It was strange though that she didn’t feel the weight of one of the cats on her feet. She rolled over and saw Derrek sitting on a chair in front of her. Sophie sat up realizing this dream wasn’t about to end.
“You should have something to eat before we start this day,” Derrek said. He brought over a tray of breakfast foods.
Sophie took a slice of toast and slathered on some raspberry jam. The she took a sip of coffee, it was calming to her, she finished it quickly. The caffeine worked fast and soon she was ready to tackle this reality.
“Okay, I’m ready,” she said, “hit me with it.”
Derrek closed his eyes. He knew this moment would come, yet he was afraid to tell her. She was comfortable with who she was, how was he going to explain that she was somebody else.
“Your name is Evelyn Rutherford, you are the CEO of Universal Research and Innovations Corporation,” Derrek started. “Sophie Wells is your double in our mirror universe, the two of you switched places a year ago. Your memories from this world were chemically suppressed and Sophie’s memories were implanted overtop. So, although in your mind you think you really are Sophie, it’s merely an illusion.”
“I don’t believe you.” Said Sophie.
“That’s not surprising considering what I told you can’t actually be proven easily. You haven’t even had the opportunity to encounter your double. Once I restore your memories, everything will make sense again.”
“Well, supposing what you told me is true, that doesn’t explain everything that is going on.” The mirror universe and double switching was preposterous. Sophie thought of the glowing blue device, maybe the drug Derrek used on her caused hallucinations.
“Four years ago, a small meteor struck our world. It was a minor event, it didn’t cause much damage except to the few trees where it landed. There wasn’t even much left of it after the impact. Not long after, couples started having problems conceiving children. It wasn’t noticeable at first, the rate of problems wasn’t very high. Several months past, and there was a twenty-five percent problem rate, then fifty percent and by the end of the year, nobody was able to have any children. Doctors and scientists had started doing tests and eventually linked it to the particles that the meteor left behind. With the source discovered, they were able to begin research on a treatment program. They had some success, it involved gene therapy that was a little dangerous. When I left, there was about a ten percent success rate.
Somehow it was leaked to the general public that there was a cure for the problem. There was serious outrage from the people, they all wanted to have children after a year without any being born. It was decided that until the problem had a more successful solution, couples would have to apply for a license to get the treatment. To be fair to everyone, it was administered like a lottery. People that already had at least one child were disqualified from the process.
Around the time of the meteor, Universal Research, was working on technology to teleport objects through space. It would require huge amounts of energy and only small objects could be moved, so the company scratched the project. However, one of the engineers, Lawrence Bates, secretly went to the CEO, that’s you, with a theory about a mirror universe and the ability to travel to it. You were intrigued and told him to take me on as a partner to pursue the idea. You didn’t see any reason to bring anyone else in on the project. It took some time, but after a lot of effort, we developed a machine to open a gateway between the two universes. Despite the success, the CEO was reluctant to send anyone through in case it caused the traveller to be harmed. So, that project was shelved for the time being.
When the meteor effect was discovered and the initial research was done on the problem. Lawrence, you and I started speculating whether a solution could be found on the other side of the gate. Beside the danger issue, there were some additional considerations. The device required a full year to charge in order to have enough energy to transport one human. Once on the other side, it would require another year to charge before that person could return. We came to the conclusion that I would go first. During the year I was away, we planned to make improvements to the system, if possible, to either charge faster or be able to send more than one person at a time. Lawrence already came up with a method of transmitting a signal to the other world, but we had no way of testing it since none of us was on the other side to receive it.
It took a few months to coordinate our new project, we had to explain my absence to the rest of the company. So, I conveniently I had a breakdown, which caused a separation from my wife and then I went on indefinite leave from the company. The transfer went extremely well. One of the first things I did when I arrived was test out the new communication device. Surprisingly, it worked without any modifications. We were all set to continue with our plans.
After some initial investigation, I determined that the Science Institute would be the perfect location to do my research into the fertility problem. Like the Universal Research Corporation, it dabbled in everything from Biology to Physics and Engineering. Every week, I would send progress updates back home and in return would get reports back. Then one day, when I was walking down the corridors at work, I bumped into Lawrence. Only it wasn’t Lawrence, his security badge said Brian Michaels. We hadn’t considered the possibility of encountering doubles, it was a bit of a shock. I stayed away from Brian until the three of us figured out the ramifications of this new factor. We decided it wouldn’t be a problem as long as I didn’t run into myself. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any way to find out if a double existed.
By chance, I also met your double. It was at the company Christmas party. Brian and I were working together by then, so he introduced me to his fiancé Sophie. The two of them entertained everyone with their ballroom dancing skills. Unfortunately, they left early because Sophie wasn’t feeling very well. It was after that incident that I got to know more about Brian and Sophie. I thought it may be important to have background on Lawrence’s and your doubles.
Near the end of the first year, I had made some significant advances, but I was the only test subject. I needed you to come to ensure things worked on a female as well as a male. The only catch was that you couldn’t be here with your double hanging around. We made a drastic decision to involve your double and convince her to switch places with you for a year while we finished our work. Actually, that’s not entirely true. We couldn’t afford for her to refuse, so I abducted her and sent her back. You and Lawrence were going to explain everything when she got to you.
When you arrived from the other world, I didn’t think that the transfer had worked. You were wearing the same clothes as Sophie, you didn’t know who I was and you certainly didn’t know who Evelyn was. Coincidentally, the communication device had stopped working, so I couldn’t ask Lawrence what happened. Instead, I put you back in Sophie’s place. Then I had to wait another year before I could try the transfer device again. In the meantime I continued my work.
Now you are probably wondering how I came to believe you were actually Evelyn, and not Sophie after all? You submitted a blood sample to the Science Institute for some research project a couple of months ago. I had been borrowing blood samples for my testing and when I tried yours, it behaved the same way as an infected person from my world’s would. I came to the conclusion that all along, Lawrence wanted me to believe that the transfer didn’t work. When both of you women were in this world, Lawrence swapped your clothing and your memories before sending you, Evelyn, across. Then he sabotaged the communication network so I couldn’t figure it out. That gave him a full year to execute whatever scheme he had going. I don’t know if I can trust the real Sophie either, she may be conspiring with Lawrence.”
When Derrek was finished his story, Sophie looked at him with an incredulous gaze. It was difficult to tell if she was accepting what he told her or whether she had concluded that he was some crazed person who had recently escaped from an institution. She didn’t say anything at first, then she started laughing.
“That’s quite an elaborate tale you just told. I would be inclined to think it was a fabrication, except for some of the things I have seen, such as the automobile with an auto-pilot and the genetic identification devices. On the other hand, maybe you have just taken me to a city where research is being done on the effects of advanced technology on society. But, if that was the case, I don’t know how a project of this scale could be kept a secret from the general public. The bottom line is, I need you to give me some proof,” Sophie concluded.
“As I said earlier that’s difficult. If I take you to where you used to live, nothing will look how you expect it to, so how can you believe I’m telling the truth as to were you really are? If I arrange for you to meet your double, the resemblance could be explained by plastic surgery. I could show you identical DNA scans of both you and your double, but again, you could claim I falsified the tests,” Derrek paused. “Oh shit, why didn’t I think of this before, in two years, I must have forgotten. Come outside with me.”
Derrek took Sophie out of the motel room into the morning sunlight, he pointed at the sun. That clinched it, he was really crazy, Sophie didn’t see anything wrong with the sun.
“The sun has risen in the West.” He emphasized.
“Your daft, that’s not West, that’s East. The sun always rises in the East.” She responded.
“Not here it doesn’t, the sun always rises in the West and sets in the East. This is a mirror universe after all.”
“Do you have a compass? Why am I supposed to take you word that East is West?”
“Sorry, I don’t have a compass handy. Why don’t you go ask the motel proprietress if you don’t believe me.”
Sophie, not caring that she was only in her pyjamas, stomped into the motel office.
“What direction does the motel face,” she asked the woman at the desk.
“Why it faces West,” she said. “Didn’t you notice the wonderful sunrise?”
“But, the sun rises in the East,” Sophie stammered.
“What planet are you from lady?” the woman looked at her like she was dim witted. “The sun rises in the West. Ask anyone, even a child can tell you that.”
Sophie felt sick to her stomach. What Derrek had told her was true, this was a mirror universe to the one she came from. That still didn’t prove that she herself was born on this world. From what Derrek said, doubles shared the same DNA, so a genetic identification of Sophie from the other universe, would still come up with Evelyn Rutherford. Now what should she do?
“I think I need my memories back to be of any use to you. I don’t know who anyone is or how anything works in this world. What do we have to do to make me myself again?”
“When I left, my company was working on an experiment drug that affected the brain and how it processed memories. I presume, that is what Lawrence used on you. We have to find a sample of that drug, which means going back to the Corporation. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is wise to return until we find out what your double is thinking. While we were in the car, I was able to hack into Evelyn’s schedule for today. It turns out she will be reviewing proposals from home this morning, so I propose that we visit her there. I didn’t mention that during my absence, Evelyn married Lawrence, which is why I am concerned about her. Lawrence is supposed to be at the office all day, but he may be distracted by the fact we were captured and went missing. I’m hoping that he will think we plan on going back to Universal Research to steal some of the memory drug.”
“Sounds great, but I can’t keep wandering around in my pyjama’s. I didn’t get a chance to pack any clothes before we left on this trip.”
“We’ll stop on the way and pick up something more appropriate for you. I’ll go call at taxi.”
The taxi arrived ten minutes later. Sophie was not surprised to discover that it didn’t come with a human driver. To pay for the service, the passenger had to insert a credit card into the door before it would open. Derrek pulled out his walled and selected a holographic card to try in the door. Soon, they were on their way to a nearby women’s clothing store. They decided it would be better if Derrek went in the store alone and the necessary articles of clothing. Sophie instructed what sizes she needed, but it was almost like he knew what they were already. Derrek was very efficient, he quickly returned with a bag full of clothing. Sophie climbed in the backseat and put on her new stuff. Derrek had selected a tasteful long-sleeve purple blouse, black jeans and coordinating shoes. At the bottom of the bag were some practical looking white cotton undergarments. Sophie was impressed, he must have had some help from whatever kind of sales people worked at stores in this universe.
The apartment building where Evelyn lived was big - twenty stories tall and she occupied the top two floors. It wasn’t all living space, she had her own fully operational office, networked to the computers at Universal Research for the times she worked at home. There was also space up to two other people to work with her. Derrek and Lawrence often worked with Evelyn in her apartment rather than at the office when they wanted more privacy due to the secret nature of their project. Of course now Lawrence was living there too. Sophie was curious how things had changed in the past year.
Derrek and Sophie entered the lobby of the building. It felt similar to being in a hotel, there were nice sofas to sit on with little end tables, plastic trees and plants decorated the space. There was even a reception desk where visitors could have their friends pages or leave messages. Derrek led Sophie to the elevator, which had a female attendant to push the buttons. The woman greeted both Derrek and Sophie by name, then she escorted them to the top floors. The elevator didn’t open up directly into the apartment, there was a small waiting area and a door. Derrek positioned Sophie behind the door and rung the doorbell.
Evelyn answered the door and saw Derrek standing in front of her. She looked at him with disbelief, then she turned as if to run back into the apartment. Evelyn probably thought he was an impostor and was getting ready to hit the security switch by the door.
“It’s me,” Derrek said calmly. “I made it back. If you doubt me, try the Easy Id machine.”
“No,” all the colour drained from Evelyn’s face, ”it can’t be. You were stranded on the other side.”
“Actually, I wasn’t stranded at all and I brought somebody back for you to meet,” Derrek pulled Sophie into the doorway so Evelyn could see her.
The two women stared at each other. They were identical in appearance, except for their hairstyles. Evelyn had grown her hair and died it brown, Sophie’s red hair was natural and she preferred it short. It wasn’t all a trick, there was definitely two of them. Evelyn struggled to regain her composure. Sophie was equally disturbed finally meeting her much talked about double.
“Let’s go inside and I’ll tell you how I managed to come back to this world,” Derrek said.
The three of them went in to the apartment. It looked very tidy and organized, either Evelyn had a lot of time on her hands or she hired a housekeeper. The floors were done in hardwood, at least in the living room. On the outside wall, there was a large picture window, with a view over the city. The furniture was black leather, but one of the chairs had a fleece blanket covering it and a contented purring ball over fur sleeping atop. They all sat down for Derrek’s second account of the events.
Derrek explained how he thought the transfer hadn’t worked a year ago when the women were supposed to switch places. He wasn’t suspicious at the time because the technology was still experimental. He had thought that in time, Lawrence would find a way to fix the communication channel. Then Derrek told Evelyn about the blood tests and his discovery that Sophie wasn’t really Sophie. Lastly, he explained his transfer back to this universe and their capture by the security team at the corporation. Evelyn listened with rapt attention. Unlike Sophie, she knew about the mirror universes and the quest to find a cure for the meteor affliction.
“It’s amazing, I feel like I really belong in this world , I have no memory of the other world at all. Everyone treats me like Evelyn, not Sophie. Although there are some strange things I have noticed about myself in the past year. I never knew how to dance before, but at the last Universal Ball, I waltzed with clients like I had been doing it forever. They were really impressed, oddly enough, the corporation acquired a few new business deals afterwards. What is my original life like, in the other world?”
Since they had the time, Derrek let Sophie and Evelyn exchange backgrounds about what their lives were like in their new environments. Although they grew up on different worlds, they had a lot of common interests. The most evident one being their love for cats, they both were interested in computers since they were young and their favourite colour was purple. The memory suppressing drug obviously wasn’t completely effective, Sophie discovered she also developed some skills she didn’t have in the past. Sophie eventually brought up her relationship with Brian. Derrek winced, he was hoping to avoid that subject until later. Sophie was sleeping with her double’s fiancé and in this world, Evelyn married her fiancé’s double. Lawrence had created one heck of a mess by mixing up the women’s memories. It would further complicate matters if Evelyn revealed that she and Derrek were married when he stepped into the transfer gate.
“So, I have a fiancé in the other world, and I’ve unwittingly gone and married someone else,” Evelyn said.
“If it makes you feel any better, Lawrence and Brian are doubles,” Sophie responded cheekily.
“I guess that would explain why I fell for Lawrence so easily. This is terrible, I don’t even remember that I loved Brian. I should be jealous that you have been sleeping with him for the past year. It’s not your fault though, considering that you thought you were me.” Evelyn smiled.
“Ladies, I’m grateful that you are getting along like old pals, but there are a couple of urgent matters at hand. There is something I didn’t tell you before about my second year in the mirror world. After the transfer had supposedly failed, I tried to send a message and I didn’t get any responses back, so I concluded that the communications network was broken. I tried to fix it on my side and sent a couple of test messages, still no response. Eventually, I wondered if in fact, my messages were being received on the other side and Lawrence was unable to transmit messages back. I continued to send progress reports, just in case I was right. Since, I didn’t think I had Evelyn to test out my treatment, I experimented with other methods to prove to myself it would work. Then I sent a message to Lawrence that I was coming back at the end of the year with a potential treatment. Considering what has happened, I think it is safe to assume that he has been monitoring my reports and he knows what I brought back. That is probably why he had us detained when we first arrived, to get a hold of it before we brought it to you.”
“Lawrence has always been a conscientious person, why would he risk the future of humanity for his own personal gain?” Evelyn asked Derrek.
“Lawrence has always been an ambitious man. He wanted to be responsible for a major discovery at Universal Research, because it would bring him great fortune and notoriety. Marrying the CEO of one of the biggest technology companies in the world certainly would have given him a lot of power and money, but maybe not fame. Can you imagine what people would think of him, if he discovered a better treatment for the meteor affliction? I’m sorry I have to be this blunt, but it is important you understand Lawrence isn’t Brian.”
“You bastard! What do you expect me to think when you return out of the blue after being gone for two years, then you tell me that my husband is a conniving liar and that I’m really from another universe, not the one that is familiar to me. It’s a lot of change to digest in an hour.” Evelyn raged.
“I felt the same way,” Sophie sympathised.
“I apologize Sophie, Evelyn, you were seriously wronged. Hopefully, you can forgive my part in this debacle and work with me to extract the meteor treatment. Before I brought Sophie here, she and I drank a virus that contains the composition of the drug. What we need to do is extract the virus and then decrypt the information on how to recreate it here. Unfortunately, there is a time restraint. The virus isn’t permanent, it will dissipate from our systems in three days.” Derrek said.
“Why didn’t you just bring a sample of the drug with us when we crossed over here. Then you could have just analyzed the sample and copied it.” Sophie asked.
“I was afraid that the act if crossing between universes would destroy the sample and I couldn’t risk that happening.”
“You also said that the recipe is encrypted, did you happen to use my little toy to do that?” Evelyn wondered.
“Yes I did. I was hoping that you still had yours it in your office downstairs.”
“Of course, you can’t trust anyone these days, it always helps to have your own personal encryption device. I keep it locked away in a secret safe. I haven’t even told Lawrence about it. He is my husband, but as CEO, there are still some things I don’t share with him. I guess I never did trust him as much as you.” Evelyn smiled at Derrek.
Evelyn took Sophie and Derrek down on level into her office. It was incredible, it truly did look like she could run her entire company from home. There were several rooms, some were set up like computer labs, others looked more like meeting rooms. Sophie wouldn’t have been surprised if video conferencing was mainstream on this world. It may be a mirror universe, but somehow it had advanced a lot faster than the other one.
Evelyn stopped in front of a small closet. She opened the door, which revealed shelves of computer parts and peripherals. Then she proceeded to remove the items from the bottom shelf. At the back of the shelf, was a false panel and behind the panel was a safe with a digital touch pad. She pressed her hand to the pad, then entered a long sequence of number. The safe wouldn’t open.
“That’s odd, I haven’t opened this for a while, but I would never forget the combination. Certainly, there isn’t any problem with the hand print.” Evelyn was surprised.
“When exactly was the last time you used your encryption device, Evelyn?” Derrek asked her.
“Well, let me think. I could have sworn I used it a few months ago on the Jenkins proposal. No, wait, I used the standard encryption for that one.”
“Is it possible that you haven’t used it in the past year?”
“Maybe,” Evelyn wasn’t sure.
“What if you changed the code?”
“But, I would remember if I had done that!”
“Not necessarily,”
“What are you thinking?” Sophie got in on the conversation.
“I have a theory, indulge me for a few minutes. Do you remember anything strange that happened the day you and Sophie were supposed to switch places?” Derrek asked Evelyn.
“The switch was scheduled to take place in the late evening. Lawrence and I had one last dinner together at my place before I went away. We were just colleagues then, we didn’t get together until later. I wasn’t planning on drinking anything because I wanted to be alert when I reached the other world. Lawrence convinced me to join him in a farewell toast. I guess we headed back to the office shortly after. It’s all a bit hazy. I clearly remember waking up on the floor with a huge headache. That’s when Lawrence told me the transfer didn’t work and that the communication device was fried in the attempt.”
“You say that you don’t really remember what happened between the time you left your apartment and when you woke up after the accident?” Derrek summarized.
“Um, that sounds about right. I didn’t think much of it considering the transfer attempt made me sick for a while.” Evelyn was a little unsure of herself.
“I think it is possible that something happened to Evelyn after Lawrence took an imprint of her memory. Any events that occurred afterwards wouldn’t be transferred to Sophie. I suspect that Evelyn changed the code to her safe during that time.” Derrek concluded.
“Yes”, Evelyn nodded, “that could be what happened. The only way to verify that would be to restore our memories.”
“Derrek told me that the memory drug was experimental and could only be found in the lab at you corporation. Is that still the case? His information can be a little out of date.” Sophie asked Evelyn.
“Unfortunately, it’s true. We have been doing a continuing study on the effects of the drug so it isn’t available elsewhere. Evelyn sat down and started petting her cat, Pixel who had followed them downstairs, while she thought about the situation. There wasn’t any other choice but going to Universal and making the attempt to retrieve the memory drug. Lawrence would no doubt be expecting Sophie and Derrek to come themselves. If he was already suspicious, how would she prove that she was herself and not Sophie, posing as her? Was Lawrence going to let her near the Memory Research division at all?
“I’m going,” she said. “Alone. It’s too risky for us all to be in the same place. In one hour, I will call and leave a message on my voicemail to pick up cat food. If you don’t hear the message, leave, because something has gone wrong and I won’t be able to help you anymore.” She grabbed her coat and her briefcase, then she left the apartment.
After Evelyn left, Derrek turned his attention to several the monitors in the office. They were tuned into the security cameras in the apartment building, one was displaying the front lobby and another the elevator in front of Evelyn’s door. He was clearly concerned about staying in a vulnerable location. However, it would be difficult to get in contact with Evelyn if they moved to somewhere safer. The time passed slowly without much activity on the monitors. Then Derrek saw a stranger arrive at Evelyn’s door. He hadn’t come through the lobby or Derrek would have seen him before. The fact that he arrived suddenly didn’t give them much time. Sophie saw the man too and looked concerned.
“We have to hurry,” Derrek said to Sophie. He picked up a tablet from the desk, then grabbed her hand and they ran down the hall to a T intersection. Derrek pressed his hand to a mirror on the wall and a passageway opened in front of them. He could hear the man force his way into the building as the secret door shut behind them. I really hope that Lawrence didn’t find out about Evelyn’s emergency exit, Derrek thought. Evelyn had been concerned about being kidnapped by criminals looking for huge ransoms, so she had some precautions built into her apartment. They had nineteen flights of stairs to run down before exiting the building. Fortunately, Derrek didn’t hear anyone following them, but that meant the stranger would likely be waiting outside. There may be others watching the rear exits as well. At the bottom, Sophie and Derrek paused to catch their breaths. Derrek pushed the door open and looked outside. The back alley seemed deserted, he motioned for Sophie to come out.
A burley man stepped from behind the door and whacked Derrek behind the legs, he stumbled to the ground. Then the man lunged at Sophie. She kicked him hard in the stomach as he got close. Rattled, the man stepped backwards. He quickly regained his composure and swung his fist at Sophie’s head. She dodged away before contact and took hold of his arm. With a relative ease, she flipped him through the air onto his back. His head bounced on the cement pavement and he appeared to be unconscious. Sophie went to check on Derrek, only to discover he had risen from the ground and was watching her.
“Don’t stand there gawking,” Sophie told him. ”Let’s get moving.” This time she pulled him behind her and ran out to the street. They jumped on a bus that was passing by, but it was moving too slowly and in a predictable direction, so they jumped off again and hailed a taxi.
At long last, the Sagittarius had reached the solar system where the Thurston waves had originated from. Jack brought the ship in orbit around Neptune, where he thought they would be out of view from Earth. In the morning, Cassandra had presented him with assignments for the crew. The astronomy team had already discovered the presence of satellites orbiting the Earth. The engineers began scanning the hundreds of satellites to find a useful source of information. As the engineers found good satellites, they began filtering the signals to other groups that would parse the transmissions for relevant data. It was a monstrous task.
By the afternoon, the crews worst fears were realized when they discovered that Earth had been infected by the microbes. The entire planet had been sterilized. Most of the television transmissions contained spots about the catastrophe, so it wasn’t difficult to determine the scope of the problem. They were also able to ascertain that a gene therapy program was in place to repair the damage from the microbes. The biologics raised a flag that they wanted more information on the treatment that had been developed. The people of Earth had some significant advances in technology to be able to perform gene alterations. The captains had another meeting, this time with Moira.
“We have to contact these people, they need our help.” Jack said to the two women.
“That fact is not in dispute. Who are we going to contact?” Moira wondered.
“We can’t help them until we have a cure. I’m going to ask Dr. Poole to administer the microbes to me today. In the meantime, find out who is in charge down there. There is no way we want to share the solution and find the planet if feuding and one side won’t give it to the other.” Cassandra announced.
“I’m going with you.” Jack said. “Moira, you will be responsible for finding the right phone number to call.”
Jack and Cassandra went to the biology department. Dr. Poole was expecting them. As soon as she heard about the microbes on Earth, she knew that Cassandra would come for the treatment. Several days ago, Dr. Yarrow had drawn samples of Cassandra’s blood and had introduced the three microbes to the samples. One of the samples showed encouraging results, the others were not as good. They decided that the third variation would be the correct one.
To prevent the microbes from escaping into the ventilation system and circulating around the ship. The biology department had built an air-tight containment room for their experiments. Before Cassandra was confined, Dr. Poole fitted her with special monitors to record the progress of the treatment. She gave Cassandra two bracelets to wear, one that would monitor her vital signs and the other that would track the changes to her DNA. They had wireless transmitters to send the data to computers outside the room.
Dr. Poole opened the door to the special chamber and told Cassandra to go in. The doctor firmly pushed the locking mechanism into place. Cassandra sat down on the bench inside her glass cage. On the wall of the chamber, there was a chute to pass through objects. Dr. Yarrow prepared the microbes in a time released packet and handed it to Dr. Poole. She placed the packet in the chute and it dropped to the floor on the other side.
“In five minutes, the microbes will be released into the air of the chamber.” Dr. Poole explained to Jack. “Cassandra will breath them in and the microbes will do their work on her body.”
“How long will it take for Cassandra’s DNA to be fully repaired?” Jack asked.
“We predict it could take up to twenty-four hours. That is the approximate length of time the microbes took to do their damage. It’s safe to say that the repair will be comparable.” Said Dr. Yarrow.
“How do you let Cassandra out of the room without the microbes escaping?” Jack wondered.
“We shortened their lifespan so they will only live for six hours in our air. They need to be in contact with the asteroid rocks to survive any longer. The original microbes could last up to three days away from their native environment.” Dr. Poole explained.
A red puff of vapour escaped from the packet in the containment room, the required five minutes had elapsed. Cassandra looked calm, she was breathing normally. Then, as the microbes reached her, she gasped for a moment and then returned to her normal breathing again. The doctors looked at their computer monitors and nodded as they noted the readings were within an acceptable range.
“Back to the waiting game.” Dr. Poole said. “We’ll call you hourly with reports Captain. There is not need to wait here and watch, the process is entirely internal.”
“Thank you, Dr. Poole. I’ll leave you to your work then.” Jack turned around and left the biology lab.
While Jack was with Cassandra, Moira had been busy with her assignment. She left a message for Jack to meet with her when he returned. Moira’s office was down the hall from Jack’s, he walked over and rapped on the door.
“Come in.” Moira shouted through the door. Jack entered the room and sat down in a chair in front of Moira’s desk.
“What news, fair lady?” Jack asked playfully.
“Our friends in engineering have been piecing together the story about Earth. The planet has a Global Health Organization (GHO) that is running the show with respects to their gene therapy treatment program. I think they are the ones that we should approach about our method. With regards to the other issue, the engineers have made some progress there too. A company call Universal Research and Innovations Corporation, is one of the biggest technology firms on the planet. They have affiliates all over the world. What makes them interesting is that they were dabbling in teleportation theory several years ago. Our physicists say that Thurston Waves and teleportation may be related. Apparently their teleportation research was shelved, but I’m wondering if they are up to something else on the sly?” Moira summarized what had been discovered from the satellite transmissions.
“Has there been any indication of what their reaction might be if we made contact?” Jack asked.
“No, it’s too hard to tell. That will probably also depend on who we attempt to make contact with. Will the GHO trust us if we talk to them? They might think that we sent the microbes to their planet on purpose.”
“Tell the engineers that they have twenty-three hours to cram for their Earth exam. As soon as Cassandra is out of quarantine we are heading for Earth.”
“That’s assuming Dr. Poole and Dr. Yarrow have cured her.” Moira was sceptical about the outcome of the treatment.
“I have full confidence in the ability of those doctors. Cassandra will be perfectly normal this time tomorrow. Go get the engineers ready.” Jack said emphatically. Moira leapt up and ran off to give her engineers their new directive. Jack paced around Moira’s office, pondering the dilemma of contacting Earth. He was disrupted from his reverie when Sean barged into the room.
“Where’s Cassie?” He demanded in a threatening manner.
“I haven’t seen her.” Jack lied, he didn’t scare easily.
“She’s gone missing and nobody admits to seeing her anywhere. I don’t buy it, she’s up to something. She disappeared shortly after we heard the news that Earth has been contaminated by the microbes. Tell me what’s going on right now.” Sean was insistent.
“Cassandra is helping Dr. Poole and Dr. Yarrow in the biology lab.” Jack admitted, realizing that Sean was going to find out soon anyhow.
“She went and infected herself.” Sean proclaimed. “I told her that would be dangerous, but she wouldn’t listen this time. Maybe she doesn’t care about what impact that would have on me, but what would Sarah do if anything happened to her mother? I have to go talk to her.” Sean exited as abruptly as he entered. It was a good thing that Cassandra was in a cage, Jack thought. About that time, Jack received his first report from the biology lab. Cassandra was doing well and her DNA was regenerating to it’s proper form. He hoped that the news would continue to be good over the next day.
Evelyn confidently walked through the entrance of the Universal Corporation, trying to keep up the impression that today was the same as yesterday. She took a quick look around to assure her self that everyone else was behaving normally. There was the usual number of clients waiting around for meetings. Fortunately, none of them were people that she had business with. She wanted to stay focused on her task and not get distracted with trivial conversation. As Evelyn walked past the guard to the elevator she wished him a good morning.
“Ms. Rutherford,” the guard called to her before she moved on, “Mr. Bates left a message for you to see him. He said it was important.”
Evelyn muttered under her breath and swiped her identification in front of the elevator to open the doors. She stepped in and announced to the air that she was destined for the 9th floor. As she ascended, she had to wonder how much Lawrence knew, whether he suspected that Sophie and Derrek had come to her already. The elevator finally stopped and Evelyn walked down the long corridor to her husbands office. Bonny, Lawrence’s reception seemed to be expecting her and motioned for her to go straight in.
Lawrence was sitting at his desk, looking over a document or something on his computer. He looked quite happy to Evelyn. She walked over to him with purpose and sat on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a lusty kiss on the mouth. Then she reached over to the desk and pressed the pager button to let Bonny know that they didn’t want to be disturbed for a while.
“Was that what you wanted to see me so urgently about?” Evelyn asked afterwards, when they lay entwined on the sofa.
“No. Something came up at the office last night that I wanted to tell you about.” Lawrence stroked her arm affectionately.
“Why didn’t you call me and ask me to come in right away?”
“I wanted to be certain that what I heard was accurate before I told you about it. Last night Derrek used the transfer device and arrived back here safely.” He paused to see how Evelyn was reacting, she looked expectantly at him. “And he brought Sophie with him,” another pause. “The security apprehended them and kept them for an hour before they were fooled into thinking Sophie was you.”
“I know,” Evelyn knew immediately that she couldn’t lie, she knew her husband well, Lawrence had already found out that Sophie and Derrek approached her. “They paid a visit to our apartment. I believed that the transfer device would never work again, it was shocking to see them. Derrek recounted an improbable story about how my transfer a year ago really did work and that I was really Sophie. I think the stress of being away from his own world for two years was too much for him. He made himself believe that Sophie was really me in order to make the fact he was stranded easier on himself. Why he didn’t send us any messages when the connection obviously worked is odd.”
“Did he mention his work on the fertility treatment?”
“Yes, Derrek told me that he had a cure and brought it back with him, but he didn’t show me any evidence. I didn’t know what to think, so I left them at my apartment and came here to get your input on what to do.” Evelyn decided half truths were the best tactic.
“That was an excellent idea,” said Lawrence, “you wouldn’t want anyone to be alarmed by seeing two Evelyns. It would be very hard to explain without revealing our little secret about the mirror universe. Oh, by the way, I think we need to pick up some cat food for Pixel, the bag is almost empty.”
Evelyn jumped off the sofa in alarm. Lawrence bugged their apartment, he heard absolutely everything. How did he manage it, she thought. Evelyn had sophisticated bug scanning software that ran every day to ensure that no one was able to get inside information on her business at the company. It was intended for rival company agents, not her own husband. She anticipated some serious trouble ahead.
“You’re a bright woman Evelyn,” Lawrence complimented her. “I see two options for your future. The first one is my favourite. Help me retrieve the famous treatment technique from Derrek and Sophie. That’s ultimately what’s important anyway, isn’t it? I know you, you won’t let the world suffer for what I have done. Then you keep up the charade of being Evelyn Rutherford, my beautiful, talented, sexy wife and CEO of Universal and we’ll send Sophie back to the other universe where she now belongs. Derrek can conveniently go missing again.”
“That sounds just wonderful,” Evelyn said dryly.
“I see that you need some incentive to choose option one. Here is the other option. In the past two years, Evelyn Rutherford hasn’t been the most honest and forthwith CEO. During that time, she has accepted several special deals with her clients. Some include taking money from one client to ensure another client, a competitor’s project did not get completed in a timely fashion. Also, some potentially problematic inventions were put on to the market without proper quality assurance. I’ve been collecting evidence on you for quite a while, board won’t take very long to fire you as CEO. Then they will want an investigation…” The plan was executing exactly as expected. Evelyn wouldn’t be able to help anyone if she was sent to prison for bribery and embezzlement.
It was worse than she imaged. She hadn’t expected that Lawrence would blackmail her into becoming an accomplice in his plan. There wasn’t much she could do but accept his offer. Derrek and Sophie really were on their own now.
“Where are we going now?” Sophie asked Derrek
“I think we can agree that Evelyn’s mission is not going to be successful. Those thugs arrived before she had a chance to even arrive at the corporation. I don’t know how Lawrence guessed where we were.” he responded.
“At this rate, the virus is going to disappear before I get my memory back.” Sophie lamented.
“Not if we extract it first.”
“How will that help? Won’t it still become useless in a couple of days?”
“That is true. However, I can get a scan the virus to get the code out before that happens. Then we have unlimited time to obtain Evelyn’s decryption computer. At least we don’t need Universal specific facilities to extract the virus. Any biology facility would have what we need. The problem is, the contact I trust the most doesn’t work nearby. Actually, that’s one of the reasons why I trust her.”
“Wonderful. Who is this person and where does she work.” Sophie asked.
“Her name is Amanda Farnsworth. We attended the same university and became very good friends. She never liked the idea of working in a big corporation, so she decided to become a professor at the same university. Amanda did quite well in that role and eventually became head of the biology department. After I moved away, we kept in touch and tried to visit each other a few times during the year. Sometimes I would call her whenever I needed an unbiased opinion regarding a biology program that I was working on. Like many biology departments these days, her lab is concentrating on discovering a way to cure the population. “ Derrek explained his relationship in detail.
“Are you certain that she still works at the university? You haven’t been in contact with her in over two years.” Sophie wanted to make sure they didn’t waste any time going to the wrong place.
“Well, I was just about to check on that exact fact.” Derrek said. He pulled out the tablet computer that he stashed in his pocket at Evelyn’s apartment and showed it to Sophie. “This little beauty hooks into the Global Information Network through a wireless connection. It’s a little like the Internet on the other world. With this device we can find out whatever information that we need.” He turned on the computer and did a search for Amanda’s current whereabouts. Derrek discovered that she had moved out of her apartment, into a townhouse, but she still worked for the university. He did a few more queries to see if anything else had changed since he last spoke to Amanda. Nothing exciting cropped up, it looked like they were heading to Morton. Derrek shared the good news with Sophie.
The journey to Morton would take over twelve hours by car. At least they didn’t have to worry about falling asleep at the wheel. Despite the car being able to drive itself, the pair decided to stop in the evening and get a decent nights sleep in a real bed. The place they stopped at this time was a little more upscale. It was classified as a hotel, had three floors of rooms and it’s own restaurant. The one that they were given had two double beds, a walk-in closet and a small kitchenette. Derrek flipped on the TV when they arrived to catch up on some current events. The TV wasn’t massive with a large picture tube like most of the ones at home. It was about four feet square, one inch thick and it was hanging on the wall. Sophie had a wild thought about what it would be like to introduce some of the innovative technologies from this world to the other. A person could make a lot of money selling some of this stuff.
When they checked in, they asked the restaurant to send some food up to their room. In the chaos of the day, they remembered that neither of them had eaten since breakfast. They ordered a couple of hamburgers and French fries and ate their meal at a small table in the hotel room. Sophie and Derrek were both very tired, they didn’t make any attempts to talk to each other during dinner. Derrek occasionally turned his head to the television whenever he heard something interesting.
After dinner, Sophie felt the urge to go have a bath to relax and try to imagine she was back on the world that until yesterday she thought was her own. Instead she had a quick shower and changed into her pyjama’s again. The hotel manager had provided them with bathroom supplies, so Sophie was also able to brush her teeth and fix up her hair. When she emerged from the bathroom, Derrek was still engrossed with whatever was on the television, he hardly noticed her as she climbed into the other bed. Sophie closed her eyes and wondered what Brian was thinking about her absence. He probably reported her missing to the police and they would be looking for her.
“Derrek, what happened to Brian?” Sophie finally asked.
“I’m sorry, I had to drug him to make sure that he didn’t wake up and try to stop us before we left. He would have woken up with a headache, but he will attribute that to all of the wine he drank the night before.” Derrek answered.
“Sure, but what will he do when he realizes that I’m missing? The original Sophie didn’t return to take her place back.” Sophie added.
“You left a message on your voicemail that the company you worked for paged you in the morning. They requested that you travel overseas to a client’s site to fix some software problems there. You assured him that you would be in touch in a couple of days.” Derrek had to make contingency plans when he decided to take Sophie back with him. His hope for Brian’s sake was that the original Sophie returned to him before he got suspicious.
Sophie was relieved that Derrek had fully thought out the consequences of her abduction before he acted. She closed her eyes again and fell asleep. Derrek turned off the television, set the wake-up alarm and then he also went to sleep.
In the morning, they packed their few personal items and had a light breakfast. When they went out to the parking lot, their taxi was gone. It had returned to it’s home base to service other clients during the night. Sophie and Derrek had to wait half an hour for another taxi to arrive. While they waited, they had a discussion on whether to call Amanda in advance and let her know they were coming. A surprise visit was less of a risk. Lawrence might have someone watching the traffic on the telephones to see if Derrek made an appearance.
Evelyn was perturbed as she sat on the couch watching Lawrence. How could he have bested her? Treachery had happened in the past with other ambitious employees and clients, but she had always caught them. She had a reputation of being almost psychic in her ability to determine whether a person was telling her the truth. It had changed a year ago, subtly so she hadn’t noticed, small things escaped her notice. Lawrence had placed himself in a position where he had Alpha level security clearance. All her proposals that she worked on, he had access to and could make changes to. When she was too busy working with one client, Lawrence made decisions on her behalf with other important clients. What reason did she have to doubt he had her best interests in mind, he was her husband. Then to find out, he had been setting her up all along. She had to admire his ingenuity, he matched her game, then beat her. Evelyn wondered if the past year would have been any different if the real Evelyn was present instead of her. The two women had discovered that the memory swap didn’t effect some innate personality traits.
The phone rang and Lawrence answered. The video on the phone was facing away from her, so Evelyn couldn’t see who was calling. It wasn’t hard to guess that he was being given bad news, Lawrence started swearing.
“Your friends aren’t at your apartment anymore, they’ve escaped. I sent a couple of guys to pick them up and bring them here, but they were outwitted.” Lawrence summarized his conversation for Evelyn’s sake. He started pacing the room, trying to anticipate what Derrek’s next move would be. It was alarming that Sophie successfully fought one of the men, which ultimately allowed them to get away. From the background Derrek had sent him about the real Sophie, she hadn’t taken any self defence classes. On the other hand, the original Evelyn had participated in several, she was quite adept at handling herself. No, it wasn’t possible that Evelyn and Sophie had switched places, the woman in his office was definitely Evelyn. She had made certain he knew that when she first came into his office.
“Well, they aren’t coming back here, that’s for sure. What are they going to do next?” Lawrence pondered.
“I resent having to suggest this, but Derrek has to get that virus extracted before it is neutralized. Otherwise, he has to travel to the other world again to retrieve his research, that is if he hasn’t destroyed the evidence already. He and Sophie are going to be looking for a biology research lab to access the equipment they need. In this city, there are dozens of such facilities that Derrek would have contacts with. It will be challenging to determine which one he will run to.” Evelyn’s words showed that she could be cooperative.
“You’re right, finding Derrek and Sophie is going to take too much time. Derrek is far too competent to allow us to track their location. There is another way.” Lawrence grinned widely at his wife, the answer was clearly in front of him. “We are going to the other world to get Derrek’s research ourselves. Then there will be no need to worry about that meddlesome pair of misfits.”
“But, the transfer device only works for one person, we both can’t go. And how do you propose to get back without waiting for a full recharge?” Evelyn countered.
“You would have to think I’m quite foolish if you think I’m going alone and leaving you free to bring Derrek and Sophie here. Wakefield confiscated everything in Sophie and Derrek’s possession when he arrested them. Derrek was carrying a little circular device that Wakefield didn’t recognize. It was the machine that Derrek used to open a get between the two worlds. I had a good look at it, he had made significant advancements in the technology during his sabbatical. From my calculations, the device has double the capacity and uses half the energy. With some slight modifications, the fully charged device we have here will have the same capabilities. As such, we will be able to make a round trip without a layover time in between.” Lawrence responded to her. There was one more thing that would make their excursion more successful. “How would you like to have your original memories back?”
Evelyn knew exactly what Lawrence was thinking. “You need a guide for the other world, who better than Sophie?” she said. “Aren’t you concerned about what restoring my memories will do to my existing ones?”
“Memory Research wasn’t one of your responsibilities in the Corporation, it was mine to manage and I was a keen supporter of their efforts. The scientists in that division are quite systematic and thorough in their studies. Over the past two years much has been discovered about the effects of our memory drugs. One of the studies they performed looked at precisely that, the effects of suppressing old memories, implanting new ones and then restoring the old memories again. The statistics they compiled showed that ninety-five percent of the people in the studies successfully integrated the memories. The brain was able to determine which memories where developed by the subject and which ones were introduced by the scientist. It wasn’t an immediate transformation, of course, it took some time for the people to adjust. During that time, they often became confused and many were physically sick for a short period afterwards. We’ll start the process now, so you will be useful to me by the time I finish the adjustments on the device.” Derrek explained everything like he was briefing a client.
Lawrence took a vial and a syringe out of his desk. He approached Evelyn and asked her to hold out her arm for him. Evelyn took a deep breath, neither she, nor her double was fond of needles. She looked away as Lawrence prepared the solution and injected it into her arm. The chemicals didn’t affect her immediately, then suddenly her head started to throb. Lawrence was closely watching her to make sure it was working on her. Evelyn’s hands flew up to her head, it was a terrible feeling, she started shaking. The experiences she had were becoming increasingly unclear and she was losing touch about who she was. Confident that Evelyn was incapacitated, Lawrence left his room and locked the door behind him. On the way out, he told Bonnie not to disturb Evelyn as she wasn’t feeling well and was taking a little nap.
Evelyn was starting to feel sick, she got on the floor and started crawling to the private bathroom attached to the office. She made it to the toilet in time to throw up, she stayed there a moment to make sure she wasn’t going to be sick again. Then she pulled herself off the floor and up to the sink. After swishing her mouth out with water and splashing her face with water, Evelyn looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was long and brown, was it supposed to be that colour? She noticed that her right arm hurt, someone had taped gauze to her arm, who did that she wondered? There was something that she decided was very important to do a moment ago. Evelyn stumbled out of the bathroom and fell into Lawrence big leather computer chair. She folded her arms on the desk and lay her head on top of them. Looking down, she noticed that one of the drawers in Lawrence’s desk was ajar, she pulled it open. The item inside looked vaguely familiar, she took it out and placed it in the pocket of her jacket.
When Lawrence returned to his office several hours later, Evelyn was sleeping on the couch. He gently shook her awake to minimize startling her. “How do you feel?” he asked quietly. Evelyn’s eyes were clear and focused as she looked up at him.
“Awful, I need an aspirin, I feel like I have the worst hangover.” Evelyn complained. Lawrence was encouraged by her response, this is how most of the test subjects had reacted when they regained consciousness. At least she hadn’t gone crazy like the other five percent. In those cases, the unfortunate souls had to have their memories completely wiped out. But, they were paid well for participating in the study, they all signed the insurance wavers.
“Tell me what your name is,” Lawrence commanded.
“Evelyn,” she said with a smile. Lawrence didn’t find that response funny, was she playing games with him? “At least, that’s what my name was for the past year. Before that I was called Sophie.”
The new taxi looked identical to the last taxi, the license plate was the only thing that differentiated them. Sophie and Derrek climbed in, anxious to get on their way. There was still a couple of hours remaining in their trip to see Amanda. Sophie flipped through a magazine that she had picked up at the hotel. Too many ads she thought. Maybe she would ask Derrek to tell her about what was so interesting on the television the previous evening.
“So Derrek,” she began cautiously. “You seemed very interested in the television last night. Did you learn anything interesting?”
“There wasn’t as much news as I thought there would be on the fertility problem. I think that our society has resigned itself that the problem is never going to be solved entirely. I watched an entire debate on how the Baby Lottery works and how it could be improved upon. The couples who have had the procedure have a fifty percent chance of having another child on their own. There is a growing movement that is demanding these couples give there second child up for adoption to a couple that hasn’t had a treatment license issued yet. In some cases, families are secretly pretending their second child was born to a relative so they aren’t taken away and given to strangers. Other couples who have been given a treatment certificate are taking money from wealthy families and signing their licenses over. There has also been a higher incidence rate of kidnapping. Babies are being stolen, some of them are even being sold. The security levels at hospitals has gone way up since I left two years ago. It’s scary to hear what has been going on. I have been thinking that it doesn’t matter what happens to us as long as we put an end to this madness.” Derrek was sad as he recounted what he had learned.
It was no wonder that Derrek’s mood had seemed pessimistic that morning. They were holding back the key to solving a world wide problem. Did it really matter if Lawrence got his hands on the treatment first?
“It matters,” Sophie said to him. ”We can’t predict what Lawrence is going to do if he deciphers the treatment. What if he doesn’t let everyone have it? What if he claims only a certain amount of the drug can be produced at a time and people still have to wait for it? He can do any number of things that won’t solve the issues you told me about. We will decode it first, and then distribute it to everyone. Not only can Lawrence can’t have it, the corporation can’t have it either, nobody should make any money from the treatment. You never did tell me how it works. I always assumed it was some sort of drug.”
“It is, but the formula is a little complicated. The good thing is that it works in small quantities. We don’t have to produce much of it to affect thousands of people.” Derrek said.
“Has the meteor been completely eliminated? People won’t get sick again will they?” Sophie wanted to ensure the solution was permanent.
“As soon as the meteor was discovered as the source, it was vapourized. The scientists and engineers documented every aspect of the meteor prior to destroying it.”
The car was driving through the countryside. The trees were green and vibrant, it was summer in both worlds. In the city, it was easier to see the differences between the two worlds. They were getting closer to their destination, several tall buildings could be seen in the distance. A large river surrounded the city of Morton, it was really on an island. There were several bridges that crossed over the island, none of them would be busy outside of rush hour. Sophie became more interested as they arrived in the city. Morton was definitely smaller than North Valley, home of Universal Research and Innovations. The buildings were shorter and the core was less dense. The university was on the other side of the island, so Sophie got a thorough tour. She wished that Derrek would come out of his depression. Without her knowledge of how things worked in this world, she needed his help.
Derrek had perked up a bit when the got out of the car. He was looking forward to seeing Amanda and finally sharing his secret with someone from this world. They walked down a stone path to the biology building. It was a small looking building from the outside, but it had several levels underground. The took the stairs down one level to the floor where Amanda worked. The office doors weren’t numbered, but metal name plates were affixed to each one. The walked along until they found Amanda’s name. Derrek loudly knocked on the door. Amanda sometimes could be totally immersed in her work that she didn’t hear things around her. After a few minutes the door swung open.
“Derrek!” Amanda exclaimed. “I was so worried about you. When you had that breakdown and I hadn’t heard from you, I thought something awful had happened. I’m so relieved to see you again. Your such a bastard for not sending me a message to let me know that you were alive. What brings you here, out of the blue?” Then she saw Sophie behind him. “Don’t tell me that you got back together again? That’s wonderful news!”
“What?”, Sophie looked at Derrek not sure that she understood what Amanda said.
“Do you have the time to catch up?” Derrek ignored Amanda’s comment and Sophie’s outburst.
“I have a class to teach shortly, but in an hour I will be free the rest of the day.” Amanda answered.
“Sounds great. I expect it’s okay if we wait in your office for you. I promise I won’t touch anything without asking this time.” Derrek thought after travelling so long, waiting an hour wouldn’t matter.
Amanda picked up a binder and left them alone in her office. Sophie was impressed, Derrek actually kept his word and didn’t touch anything. The equipment he needed was most likely in another location, this was more of an administration office. It wasn’t terribly large, there was enough room for a desk and some bookshelves. Amanda was a little late returning. Some of her students had cornered her to ask about results of a test she had recently given them.
“Would you care for a little lunch to go with our social banter?” Amanda asked when she strolled into the office. Sophie could see why Derrek liked her, she seemed to have a bubbly personality.
“I’m afraid we have some business to take care of before we can enjoy a leisure lunch.” Derrek told her succinctly.
“I’m in for a bit of a story, aren’t I.” She asked rhetorically.
For a third time, Derrek described his experiences over the past two years, he was starting to improve the telling. Amanda listened patiently, without interrupting until he finished.
“Whoa, I have a million questions for you, but I see that getting this virus out of you two should be the top priority. Let’s go to my lab right now.” Amanda said.
Two of Amanda’s graduate students were working in the lab when she arrived. She told them to take a break for lunch and they promptly exited. Amanda’s lab was far bigger than her office. Beside the entrance was a little cupboard with clean lab coats, Amanda handed one to Derrek and Sophie. She motioned for them to follow her to a lab station in the corner.
“You will probably want to sit down for this, I need to draw a vial of blood from both of you.” Amanda told them. She pulled a pair of latex gloves from a box on top of the bench. Derrek and Sophie sat down on a couple of metal chairs. Sophie fidgeted in her seat, the last time she had a blood sample taken, she fainted. Learning this, Amanda decided to take Sophie’s sample first. She got everything set up and went to work on Sophie’s arm. Amanda had a lot of experience taking samples, she found a vein quickly and soon the trauma was over. Sophie turned away for Derrek’s turn and put her head between her legs.
Derrek tapped Sophie on the shoulder to indicate that Amanda was finished. She lifted herself up slowly to see what Amanda was up to now. Amanda took the vials to the blood analyser on the next bench. She slid a panel open in the front of the analyser and dropped the samples into the grooved slots. Then she flipped on a computer that was sitting next to it. She navigated around the software and selected the desired analysis criteria. The machine started to whir with activity.
“It should only take a few minutes to come up with the results.” Amanda explained. The three waited, watching the computer monitor expectantly. Three minutes passed and the computer made a beeping noise. A page of numbers and symbols finally appeared on the screen.
“Excellent,” Derrek declared. “Save it to an optical for me please.” Amanda put a clear cylindrical object in the computer and then handed it to Derrek.
Evelyn and Lawrence returned to the little room where Derrek and Sophie had arrived. The modified mirror gate was set up on the table in the middle of the room. Lawrence punched in the activate sequence. A bright blue beam radiated out of the device and flashed onto the wall. The gate opened and the pair stepped into the other world. They arrived in a location very familiar to Evelyn, it was Sophie’s living room. Not much had changed since Evelyn was last at home, the furniture was all in the same positions and the art was just as she remembered it. Her houseplants had grown, Sophie had divided the Spider plant and there was now a pair of plants hanging alongside each other. Brian would be at work, they would not have to worry about being discovered.
“Derrek would have done all his research at the Science Institute. If he left anything behind, it would be there. I’ll try to find my car keys and we can drive there right now.” Evelyn said. Fortunately Sophie kept her spare car keys in the same spot by the front door. It was a new key ring thought. When Evelyn went outside, she discovered a brand new sedan in the driveway. She was amazed, Brian had always discouraged her from buying a new car, he wanted to stretch the lifespan out of her old car so they could save some money for the wedding. Either Sophie or Brian must have gotten a nice bonus check during the past year.
Evelyn used her keys to open the car door. “A bit of a novelty eh?” she said looking over the car at Lawrence. She started the engine and they backed out of the driveway. During the trip to the Science Institute they came up with a plan. Evelyn would visit Brian and lure him out to lunch, then Lawrence would enter the building posing as Brian and search the office. When they arrived at the Institute, Lawrence waited in the car for his opportunity. At the last minute, before leaving the house, Evelyn had taken a men’s coat out of the closet so nobody would take note of the fact Brian was wearing different clothing.
Unlike Universal Research, the Science Institute wasn’t guarded by a huge security network. Evelyn entered the building and headed directly for Brian’s office on the second floor. Luckily he was there alone and not in some meeting.
“Did you miss me?” Evelyn asked Brian. He looked a little shocked to see her. “My business trip ended early, the client had the problem mostly figured out by the time I arrived. It was a colossal waste of time. I flew back as fast as I could.” Thankfully, Derrek mentioned to her his alibi for Sophie’s departure.
“Well of course I missed you.” Brian responded to his fiancé.
“Good, let’s go out to lunch then. I haven’t had anything but airplane food to eat today.” Evelyn proclaimed. Talking to Brian was a strange experience, he looked like Lawrence, but his whole demeanour was different. Brian was more relaxed and spontaneous, Lawrence was more cautious and tended to plan things out in advance. When Evelyn’s memories were restored, she remembered how strongly she felt about Brian. The feeling was shut out for a year, but it didn’t matter she still loved him. What would Brian think when he learned that she had married somebody else, his virtual twin no less? Lawrence was going to pay for his betrayal. Evelyn was determine to take back her place on this world.
“Since that deadline got postponed, it looks like I have the time. Sure let’s go out, we haven’t done that in a long time.” He said. Brian turned off his computer and went with Evelyn. She suggested they take his car because her car was messy with a lot of her travel bags.
Lawrence saw them leave the building and walk towards Brian’s car. He waited until they had driven out of the parking lot before he got out. Evelyn had described the general layout of the Science Institute. In the main foyer, there was a listing on the wall of the employees and their office numbers. Conveniently, beside that, was a floor plan for visitors so they wouldn’t get lost. In case he didn’t find what he was looking for in Derrek’s office, he made a mental not of Brian’s number too. He had to be quick checking the list, the real Brian wouldn’t have any need for it. The last thing he wanted to do was draw attention to himself.
The door to Derrek’s office was locked. He had wondered if that was going to be an issue. Fortunately, he had already come up with a strategy to get it unlocked. He walked down to the maintenance office and asked to speak with somebody. One of the staff approached.
“I was wondering if you would be able to let me into Derrek’s office? You see he hasn’t come into work yet and I need to get a very important document that he has for me. Normally, I would wait for him, but the meeting is in five minutes.” Lawrence tried to look sincere as he explained his problem.
“Luckily, we keep spare keys around. I’ll fix you up.” Said the man. They returned to Derrek’s office and Lawrence was ready to being his search. Lawrence walked in the room and sat in front of Derrek’s notebook. He surveyed the room, it was a little too organized. Derrek had been careful not to leave any traces of his presence at the Institute. Lawrence examined the contents of the drawers in the desk, they he looked at everything in the file cabinet. Nothing. He glanced back at the computer. Not only did he not know how to operate a computer on this world, he truly doubted that Derrek would leave his research on the hard drive to be found by anyone. If Derrek had a contingency plan to come back for his research, he would have to leave it in something that wasn’t going to be removed. When this office was taken over, that person could potentially change a lot of thing. The information was not going to be in Derrek’s office.
With more confidence, Lawrence set out to find Brian’s office. It wasn’t too far from the other and this time the door was unlocked. So, this was where his double worked, interesting. Brian’s room was definitely lived in compared to Derrek’s. There were knick-knacks on his bookshelves, he had plants hanging near the window and there were photographs mounted on the walls. His eyes were drawn to a opened white box on Brian’s desk. A card was sitting on top of the box, so he read that first. Luck seemed to be with him today, it was from Derrek. Lawrence grabbed the box and pulled out the tiger sculpture. He inspected it very carefully, when he turned it over, a little crystal cylinder slipped out of the base and fell on to the floor. Lawrence picked up the cherished storage device, he had found it!
Brian drove Evelyn to a fancy restaurant that they like to eat at. They asked for a table near the window so they would have a nice view of the river. The waitress brought menus to their table and took their drink order. Evelyn opened her menu and thought about Derrek and Sophie. She hoped that they were successful at finding a lab.
“Brian,” Evelyn said. “I’ve had enough of all this wedding planning. I don’t want a big wedding anymore, let’s just elope and get it over with. Over the past year, I have been doing a lot of thinking, and I really want to have a baby. Soon.”
“Hold it. Where did all this come from?” Brian was shocked. Sophie wasn’t usually this direct. “Is this all because you can’t find the perfect dress? That really doesn’t matter much, we’ll just have one made for you.”
“Never mind, I’ve been under too much pressure lately. I want things to be normal again, no more hassles.” Evelyn responded.
The waitress came back from their orders. They sent her away with their requests. Evelyn had calmed down somewhat. She had to be more watchful with what she said to Brian. He had no idea what she had been through in the past year. Society was very different to what it was like here. The rest of the meal passed more quietly. Brian and Evelyn discussed unimportant things. Soon it came time to pay the bill and return to the office.
“Let’s celebrate,” said Amanda. “I know a nice little place nearby that make an excellent spaghetti sauce.” She was referring to her place. Derrek remembered her specialty was pasta. Amanda also produced a very good homemade wine. Derrek decided to pass on the alcohol again. The three took Amanda’s car to her townhouse. They drove back to the centre of town. Amanda had purchased a nice end unit in a great location. It was within walking distance of all the stores.
While Derrek and Amanda were in the kitchen working on lunch, Sophie lay down on the sofa and rested. She hadn’t eaten anything since giving the blood sample, not a very good idea she thought. Her mind drifted and suddenly she remembered something that Amanda had said when they first met. Amanda commented that Sophie and Derrek had gotten back together. What had she meant by that? Did she mean that they had started working together again? Unlikely, the comment seemed more suggestive.
Derrek had come into the room and assumed Sophie was sleeping. He knelt down beside her and kissed her gently on the forehead. Sophie’s eyes popped open.
“I’m you wife.” Sophie stated. It all made sense. In the other world, Derrek told her that he and his wife separated, because of work – which turned out to be because he left the universe. His handprint unlocked a secret passage that Lawrence didn’t even have access to. When Lawrence approached her about the mirror universe concept, she assigned Derrek, her most trusted associate to work on it. She was married to him and didn’t even remember him. He left that little fact out when he brought her back to this world. She couldn’t believe it. For the past year, not only was she living with somebody else’s fiancé, she was unwittingly cheating on her husband. Derrek had only realized who she was a few months ago. It’s no wonder that Derrek was obsessive about bringing Lawrence down. Sophie was furious, she slapped him.
“What was I supposed to tell you?” Asked Derrek. “Without your memory, how would it have helped our predicament?”
“I forgive you. I understand everything a lot better now.” Sophie said. “I don’t want to talk about it now.”
Derrek went back into the kitchen to help Amanda with dinner. She heard the exchange and felt sorry for them. From what she heard, Lawrence had really done a number on them. She was surprised that Lawrence had turned on Derrek, they had been such good friend before Derrek left. They finished preparing dinner and brought it out to the dining room to eat.
Lawrence was just finishing in the office, when Brian and Evelyn walked in. Evelyn tried to wheel Brian out again before he saw Lawrence, but it was too late.
“What are you,” Brian started. Then he got a clearer look at the face of the intruder, it was as if he were looking in a mirror. Lawrence lunged forward and knocked Brian over the head. Brian collapsed on to the floor.
“How could you do that?” Evelyn asked. She was appalled that Lawrence would assault someone.
“What else could I do?” Lawrence responded. “Was he going to think I was some long lost twin? You will be pleased to know that I found Derrek’s research. I think there is a reason why he didn’t bring the crystal back himself. I have reason to suspect that the transfer erases the data from them. So, we will have to transfer the data through the communication network. It will take a few minutes to set that up. Please lock the door so nobody else disturbs us.”
Evelyn locked the door. Then she pulled Brian over to the couch and lay him on it. He was developing a nice purple bruise on his temple. There wasn’t much she could do for him at the moment, she would bide her time and see what Lawrence was going to do.
Lawrence took the transfer device out of his bag and set it up on Brian’s desk. Then he connected the communication computer and inserted the crystal in the computer to be transferred. After five minutes, a green light flashed indicating the transmission was complete. Lawrence turned his attention back to Evelyn and Brian. What good was Evelyn to him now? She had served her purpose in leading him to Derrek’s research. He decided to leave her in her own world.
“Wait here with Brian, there is one more thing I need to check in Derrek’s office. “ Lawrence said to Evelyn. He unlocked the office and left the room. Two minutes later, there was a fluctuation in the power. Evelyn knew that meant Lawrence used the Mirror device to return to the other world. She should have suspected that he was going to leave her behind, it was were she belonged after all.
Brian woke up shortly after Lawrence left. “What happened?” he asked Evelyn.
“You slipped and hit your head on the door.” Evelyn fibbed. “It must have been all that wine at lunch. Now that you are awake, I should take you home so you can put some ice on your bruise.” Brian was a little groggy, but he let her drive him home.
When they got to their house, Evelyn took some ice out of the freezer and put it in a bag for Brian. She also found the coffee machine and brewed a batch for the two of them. Brian was sitting on the couch when she brought him the hot and cold items. As she walked across the living room, she noticed something on the wall shelf that was new. It looked like a paperweight. Evelyn wandered over to the shelf and took a closer look. The object wasn’t a paperweight at all, it was a Mirror Transfer device. How did it get on the shelf, she wondered.
“Brian, how did this get here,” she asked, holding up the paperweight.
“I found that on the table a couple of days ago. I assumed you bought it, I hope you don’t mind that I moved it. I was worried that the cats would knock it off the table.” He explained.
A couple of days ago, Evelyn thought. Derrek and Sophie had transferred to the other world at that time. That meant Derrek left the transfer device behind. It seemed like a risky thing to do, but nobody would guess it was anything but a paperweight. He must have had a good reason to do it. I wonder if it still works, Evelyn was thinking of the possibilities. Then she noticed Tiger was playing with something near the chair where she had thrown her coat. He swatted it in to view and Evelyn saw that it was a small vial with liquid in it. It must have fallen out of her coat. She scooped it up before Brian noticed.
A memory floated back into her consciousness about Lawrence’s office. She had taken the vial out of his desk. It was… She struggled to remember what it was. Of course, it was the chemical that Lawrence had injected her with to restore her memories. All this time, she didn’t know that she had it. Sophie needed this. Evelyn knew that the files Lawrence had transmitted would also be encrypted. He would search out the real Evelyn to get access to her decryption device. Naturally, he would come to the conclusion that he needed to restore her memories. Evelyn had to get to Sophie with the vial before Lawrence got to her. The only way she could do that would be to use the device, but she didn’t want to transfer to the Mirror Room. Lawrence had showed her once how to re-tune the gate to open at a more convenient location.
Evelyn began considering where Derrek and Sophie were likely to be. They needed to find a biology lab to remove the virus from their blood. Derrek would pick a location that was not affiliated with Universal Research. That ruled out just about every lab in the vicinity around the corporation. So, it had to be outside the city, somewhere less urban. Who would Derrek trust? Amanda. His long time friend from university. Before Derrek left, the three of them would get together a couple of times a year. She had to be the one he would search out. Amanda worked at a university in Morton two years ago. Evelyn hoped that she still worked there, it wasn’t something she could verify in this world.
Brian was snoring lightly on the couch. He had fallen asleep while Evelyn was contemplating her return to the other world. It was for a good cause she thought. When I finish my task, I will return here and become Sophie again. She placed the Mirror device on the table and made the necessary adjustments to open the gate outside of Morton. Then she pushed the activate button and watched the portal open. After the gate was established, the device could be removed, so she picked it up and took it with her as she walked through the gate.
This time, she arrived at a secluded park, right outside the city. Amanda had taken Derrek and Evelyn to this park several times to watch the geese in the ponds. It wasn’t a popular location, which was one of the reasons why Evelyn selected it. She started walking to Amanda’s townhouse. Fortunately, Evelyn was aware of Amanda’s move from her apartment. She had mailed Derrek a change of address notice the previous year.
“Sophie!” a voice called out behind her. Evelyn spun around and saw Brian. He had followed her through the gate. His snoring usually indicated that he was sleeping soundly, he shouldn’t have woken up. “What is going on here?”
“Brian, you shouldn’t have come. I didn’t want to bring you in to this mess.” Evelyn said.
“Where are we?” Brian asked.
“It’s a long story, let’s sit down on one of the benches.” Evelyn sat next to Brian and told him about her adventures. Unlike Derrek, she didn’t leave anything out. She felt it was only fair to recount everything, not matter how uncomfortable.
“Okay, “ Brian said when she finished. “There are obviously some personally issues that we have to work out once this crisis is over. I think we should concentrate on one problem at a time. Let’s go to Amanda’s house.”
While they walked over to Amanda’s house, Brian asked Evelyn to tell him about the differences in the two worlds. She barely got started when they arrived at their destination. Evelyn rung the doorbell and Amanda answered the door. She seemed a little startled to see Evelyn, but asked the newcomers in. Derrek and Sophie were sitting at the dining room table, they stood up when they saw who had arrived.
“Are you crazy, what are you doing bring him here?” Derrek exclaimed. He thought Brian was Lawrence and was understandably upset.
“Hang on, Derrek. Don’t you recognize your friend Brian?” Evelyn said. Derrek took a closer look at the man standing in front of him. His clothes didn’t look quite right for this world and his demeanour was more relaxed. It was Brian.
“In that case, what on Earth is Brian doing here?” Derrek asked. Evelyn gave him a quick synopsis of her excursion back to the other world. Then she brought the vial out of her pocket and handed it to Derrek. He looked at the vial, his brain registering the ramifications.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” said Sophie.
“I’ve been through it already, it’s terrible.” Evelyn said.
The biology lab on the Sagittarius was full of spectators. Cassandra had been in the containment room for a twenty-four hour period and was about to be released. All of the indicators from the readings of her DNA were positive so far. The bracelets weren’t as accurate as the devices they were able to use outside of the chamber. When Cassandra emerged, Dr. Poole would run some more official tests. Sean, Sarah, Jack and Moira were present to witness the events.
Dr. Yarrow unlocked to glass room door and let Cassandra join the rest of them. Sean pushed himself in front of the doctors and hugged Cassie before they could stop him. It wasn’t like he was at risk, the microbes in the chamber were long dead. Sean let released her and let the doctor remove her bracelets. Dr. Yarrow lead Cassandra to a comfortable chair where Dr. Poole could perform the additional tests. The room was tense with excitement. Until Dr. Poole gave the nod, they could not celebrate that they had found a successful treatment.
The two doctors hovered over their subject while the others watched in anticipation. Sarah began to fidget and fret. Moira let go of her hand and she ran over to her mother and jumped on her lap. Fortunately, Dr. Poole had just about finished taking samples and was ready to check them using the analyzer equipment. Another long half hour passed. None of the crowd wanted to speak, the room was quiet except for the humming of the computers. Then Dr. Poole looked up from the computers and stood up to make an announcement.
“Break out the champagne, we have a cure!” she shouted. The room came alive with sound, the cheering was deafening. Jack turned on the communication system and gave an update to the crew. The rumbling of cheers could be heard from outside the biology lab now. Dr. Yarrow took Dr. Poole’s words to heart and started passing out glasses of champagne. He gave the first one to Cassandra. She looked tired, but was ecstatic that the risk had paid off.
The celebration continued into the evening. Thomas and the other cooks prepared a feast for the entire crew. Jack didn’t want to discourage the party, the crew deserved to have some fun. Earth could wait a few extra hours. Besides, it gave him more time to decided what to do when they arrived at their cousin planet. At two in the morning, he was awoken by the sound of his communication channel ringing. Jack groggily got out of bed to respond to the page. One of the engineers appeared on the video monitor.
“Captain,” she said. “There has been another Thurston Wave.”
“Pardon?” Jack mumbled, not sure that he had heard her correctly.
“A Thurston Wave, sir. We were able to pinpoint the exact location this time.” The engineer answered.
“Where did it come from?” he wondered.
“It came from Universal Research and Innovations Corporation.” She responded.
“Okay, thanks.” Jack said and turned off the monitor. So, the people at Universal were definitely involved in the Thurston Waves. Now it was time to find out why. Jack finally made a decision. He and Moira would take a shuttle and investigate what kind of technology the corporation was using to cause the waves. Cassandra would take over the management of the ship while he was on the surface. When they were down there, it would be easier to figure out who to reveal the Sagittarius’ presence to. The engineers had figured out a way to orbit around the Earth and shield the ship from Earth’s detection. Jack went back to bed. He would share his idea with Moira and Cassandra in the morning.
Over breakfast, Jack told the two women about his plan. Moira didn’t have any objections, she was excited about visiting Earth. Cassandra, on the other hand, was more reluctant. Her concern was that Jack and Moira would be vulnerable on the surface. There wouldn’t be anything the Sagittarius could do to protect them while they were gallivanting around. Jack reassured her that they would bring a communication device to keep in contact with her. He promised that he and Moira would stay out of trouble. A promise that wasn’t really in his control, Cassandra thought. The three were paranoid about a conflict, so a secret intelligence mission did seem to be the most appropriate action. They finally agreed on the plan. Jack told the crew they were leaving Neptune’s orbit and heading for Earth.
It took mere hours for the Sagittarius to reach Earth. The solar system just wasn’t that big for the ship. When they left Neptune, the engineers activated the shield device so the people on Earth wouldn’t see them arriving. Jack put the ship into orbit and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when there was no response from the planet below.
Moira had been preparing one of their shuttles to take them to the surface. The mini vessel was also equipped with the special invisibility shields. Since arriving in orbit, the search was on for a suitable landing site. It had to be close to the corporation, but also in an uninhabited area. Luckily there was such a site nearby. Jack and Moira loaded themselves into the shuttle and said good-bye to Cassandra. She wished them luck. Moira piloted them out of the ship and plotted a course to their destination.
The shuttle landing in a deserted parking lot in the middle of the city. Before they ventured out of the shuttle, Jack checked the sensors to make sure the air would be safe for them to breath. Since humans lived on this planet, it was likely to be okay, but they had to be sure. While Jack was busy with the scans, Moira was looking at the map that the astronomers had generated of the city. The company they were looking for was only a few blocks away.
“Are we ready?” Moira asked Jack.
“No, but let’s give it a try anyway.” Jack responded. They took their first steps out of the shuttle onto the planet Earth.
“Wow, look at how blue the sky is.” Moira said, she was awed by how bright the colours were on this planet. There sun was more of an orangey colour and their sky had a purplish tinge to it.
“Get that out of your system now,” Jack warned her. “We have to blend in when we meet people. It won’t be good if they cart us off for acting crazy.”
“Sorry, I’ll be a tourist later.” She smiled, thinking about how the guests on the Sagittarius reacted when they saw the Rainbow Nebula.
They made the short walk to Universal Research and Innovation Corporation. It was an intimidating looking building with it’s height and girth. The pair took a chance and entered the building. When they were inside, they saw the waiting area and sat down. They would appear less conspicuous looking around if they pretended that they were waiting for somebody who worked at the company. Moira picked up a newspaper and flipped through the pages. Jack evaluated their surroundings. The company was patrolled by security guards. There was a keyed elevator on one side of the room and public elevators on the other side. Jack noted that some people who entered showed an id badge to the security officer at the desk and they were able to pass through the gate to the elevators. Across for where they were sitting, there was a portrait of a young woman. She had long hair and a gorgeous smile. Under the painting was the name Evelyn Rutherford, CEO. If the company was experimenting with Thurston Waves, this was the woman that would know about it.
“Moira,” Jack said. “I think we should try to talk with Ms. Rutherford.”
“Are you nuts?” Moira was horrified. “We don’t know anything about the woman.”
“Well, what did you think we were going to do? It would be impossible to break into this fortress and find our answers. The only way to get in is to be invited.” He whispered.
“Have it your way.” She lost her enthusiasm. Getting locked up on a foreign planet if they were arrested wasn’t her idea of fun. Jack walked up to the security guard.
“Excuse me, Kent.” Jack said, reading the man’s name off his uniform. “I would like to schedule an appointment with Ms. Rutherford please.”
“May I ask your name and for some identification please.” Jack pulled a card out of his pocket and showed Kent. Moira did the same. In monitoring the transmissions, the engineers on the Sagittarius discovered that they had access to some government computers. The clever people forged identifications for Jack and Moira to use. The guard made a show of examining the ids.
“The computer shows that this is your first visit to Universal. What business do you have here. Is Ms. Rutherford expecting you?” he asked.
“No, she isn’t expecting us. We have a very important proposal to present to her and we are willing to wait until it is convenient with her to meet with us.” Jack responded. He motioned to his briefcase when he mentioned the proposal.
“Very well, I’ll see what I can do. Take a seat in the waiting room.” The guard waved them away. Jack and Moira returned to their seats. A few minutes later, Kent came over to them.
“I’m sorry to say that Ms. Rutherford is out of the office today. You will have to come back tomorrow.” He said.
“Is there anyone else we could talk to about such an exciting proposal?” Jack asked.
“Mr. Lawrence Bates would be your next best bet. Unfortunately he is not available today either. I hope you didn’t came from too far away.” Kent responded and left the two.
“Now what?” Moira posed the question to Jack.
“I don’t know. Let’s sit here and think about it.” He said.
Amanda went to the bathroom and found her medical kit, she had a few emergency syringes on hand. She took the vial and loaded up a needle for Sophie. Neither Sophie nor Evelyn watched as Amanda prepared the syringe. The twins sat down and Sophie clasped Evelyn’s hand for support. Amanda administered the memory antidote, then she stepped back with Derrek and Brian to watch what happened. Like Evelyn, the tonic took a few minutes to circulate through Sophie’s system. When it hit her, she jumped out of her seat and ran to the bathroom.
“Would somebody get me some water please,” Sophie asked when she emerged from the bathroom. Amanda went into the kitchen to fetch her a glass. Sophie slowly drank the entire cup, then she sat down on the sofa.
“Thank you Amanda.” She said. Much to Evelyn’s surprise, Sophie immediately seemed aware of her surroundings. During her experience, her thoughts were clouded and it was difficult to distinguish between the various sets of memories.
“Are you okay?” Evelyn asked her.
“I think so.” Sophie responded. She looked up at her husband Derrek, with a new prospective. “The medication was never tested on anyone from your world, it seemed to have less side-effects for me. I remember now what happened to me the night we were going to switch places.” Sophie took a deep breath and proceeded to tell them.
“Lawrence and I were having dinner together that night. He enticed me into drinking some wine, that he evidently slipped a drug into. I became very light headed and sleepy, so I decided to lie down on the couch for a few minutes. Lawrence said he would brew me some coffee in the meantime. I drifted off and when I woke up, I felt something cold and metallic pressed against my head and my right arm really hurt. I demanded what Lawrence was doing and struggled to get up, but I was too weak. The metal object looked suspiciously like the memory imager device that Universal was developing. He left me and went downstairs to do something in my office. When he was gone, all I could think to do was change my priority passwords. I thought Lawrence was trying to read my mind to find out what they were so he could access my work. So, I verbally commanded my computer systems to change the codes. After that I passed out and the next thing I remember was waking up as Sophie.”
“Do you also remember what you changed the password to?” Derrek asked.
“Of course, it’s my favourite twenty-four digit number.” Sophie responded.
“I guess that means you are ready to return home and get that encoder.” Amanda declared.
“Yes it does. I really want to thank you for all your help Amanda. When we decode the data, you will be the first to get a copy.” Derrek said and gave his friend a bear hug.
“I think you should take my car, it would travel faster than a taxi. You can send it home when you are done with it.”
“Much appreciated. Until we see you again.”
The group of four said good-bye to Amanda and piled into her sedan. Derrek told the car to drive to the hotel that he and Sophie stayed at the previous night. Despite the faster automobile, it would still be better if they stopped to sleep. The women fell asleep in the back, while the men talked for the first time about Derrek’s past. Brian was curious about what Derrek’s life was like before he came to the Science Institute. He always thought that Derrek seemed more intuitive about certain technologies, now he finally knew why. A few hours later, they checked into the hotel. They got two rooms, Brian and Evelyn stayed in one room and Sophie and Derrek in the other. The two couples had some important issues to deal with now that they were correctly paired up again.
Sophie was looking out the window, watching the cars go by. Derrek had decided to go find some cold drinks and an ice bucket, so she was in the room alone. She didn’t hear him when he returned, he walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. Sophie turned around and looked at him.
“We can’t just pretend that none of this happened.” Sophie said.
“I never said that we should. Why do you think I didn’t tell you that we were married when brought you back?” he responded.
“In hindsight, I think that was a good idea.” Sophie conceded. She was having a difficult time concentrating. Her memories brought back all of the feelings she had for Derrek and all of the intimate times they had together. Several days ago, she thought they were strangers and now she found out they were lovers. Her face flushed red with embarrassment.
“Why are you blushing?” Derrek asked.
“I need some time,” she whispered. “I have all these new feelings and I don’t know how to handle them.”
“After all that has happened, I don’t expect you to be my wife again. We had an artificial separation two years ago, we’ll just make it official, if that’s what you want.” All Derrek had thought about over the past two years was being reunited with his wife. He wasn’t about to ruin a reconciliation by trapping her in their relationship. He would free her so she could figure out what she wanted.
“We should probably get some sleep.” Derrek suggested. He went to the bathroom to have a shower before he turned in. Sophie pulled the covers over herself and had another fitful nights sleep.
In the other room, Brian and Evelyn were resolving their relationship in a more direct manner. “Let’s just have sex and get it over with.” Evelyn proposed. “We know we are going to reconcile eventually, let’s just do it and avoid all the frustration. I’m sorry for what happened. You’re sorry too. Let’s kiss and make up.”
“You know, you’ve become a little bolder since you came back to me. It will take some getting used to, but I’m all for moving on with our lives.” Brian said. He pulled her to him and gave her a solid kiss on the lips.
“Do you think you can call me Evelyn?” she asked.
“Anything you say,” he growled and pulled her towards the bed.
Lawrence had returned from the other world and was checking the messages received on the communication network. He found that Derrek’s research had been successfully received. Lawrence downloaded the data to a storage crystal to take back to his office. He had a spring in his step as he walked back to his office. The feeling was short lived when he placed the crystal in his computer and discovered the data was encrypted. Derrek was such a bastard, who was he protecting the information from? Lawrence guessed that Derrek used Evelyn’s encryption scheme. He would need to get the decoder to make any use out of this data. As destiny would have it, Lawrence knew exactly where his wife kept her little toy. He even knew the password, thanks to the memory scanner. Before he exited the building he checked to see if there were any urgent messages for him.
“No messages, Mr. Bates.” Said Kent.
“I’ll be out the rest of the day. Please cancel my appointments form me.” Lawrence requested and continued to his car in the parking lot.
“Did you hear that?” Jack said to Moira. “The guard was talking to Bates!” Moira whirled around, but Lawrence had already passed by and all she could see was his back as he left.
“We have to follow him.” She declared firmly. Jack nodded. The two hurried out of the seats to follow their target. They saw him get into a vehicle and drive away. Moira read the license plate as the car disappeared from site. Jack pulled out his communication device and called Cassandra.
“Cassandra, can you do us a favour?” Jack requested.
“What do you need? Have you gotten into trouble already?” she asked.
“We need you to track a car for us.” Jack gave Cassandra their location and a description of the car.
“You couldn’t have come up with a better challenge?” Cassandra teased. “Give us a few minutes and we will get you that information.”
In the meantime, Jack and Moira hailed a taxi. They weren’t surprised at the lack of driver, Nebula had automatic vehicles too. A voice coming from the dash inquired where they would like to be driven. Jack paused for a moment and waited for Cassandra to call back with the location of Mr. Bates’ car. Then he gave the directions to the taxi and they were off. The car they were chasing hadn’t stopped yet and since they hadn’t caught up with it, Cassandra would send them periodic updates. Eventually the car did stop and they arrived at their destination shortly after. It appeared the Mr. Bates had driven home.
“We shouldn’t go in the front door this time.” Moira said.
“Let’s find another way in then.” Jack agreed. They went around to the back of the building and used an x-ray scanner to map the structure of the building. A staircase wound up to the top of the building and seemed to stop abruptly. There was no evidence of doors beyond the tenth floor, it had to be a secret passage they were seeing. It was a logical assumption that such a senior person at the corporation would live in the penthouse. They entered the maintenance door and ran up the stairs. At the tenth floor, there was an exit to the level on the right hand side. Jack did a 360 degree scan of the landing and discovered that there was another flight of stairs through the wall on the left hand side.
“Any ideas how to get through that wall?” Jack asked Moira. In response, Moira took out a pistol and blew a big hole in the wall.
“Now that wasn’t very subtle Moira.” Jack chastises her.
“I’m tired of pussy-footing around.” She complained. “Let’s move before we lose the guy again. It may not be so easy to track him the second time.”
Jack shook his head and carefully stepped through the jagged hole. Maybe he should have left Moira in charge of the Sagittarius and brought Cassandra with him. They went up another nine flights until the staircase ended. Jack made another scan to located the secret door. He couldn’t stop Moira from blasting another opening in the wall. She was definitely getting out of control.
Lawrence quickly parked his car and rushed upstairs to his apartment. Evelyn hid her decryption device in a closet on the lower level. He opened the closet door and cleared out the shelf where the safe was hidden. There were two barriers to getting into the safe. One was a positive identification of Evelyn’s hand and the second was the correct entry of the pass code. Lawrence pulled a latex glove over his hand and pressed the door of the safe. A green light went on, indicating that the scan was successful. Then Lawrence typed in the code on the key panel. This time a red light flashed at him. He tried it again, but the red light kept flashing. The code didn’t work! How was that possible, he found it in her most recent memories, it had to be right. Unless… He thought for a moment.
“When did Evelyn change her pass code?” Lawrence queried the central computer.
“August 8, 2002.” The computer reported. That was the same day he sent Evelyn to the other world. How could she have changed the code? Then he realized that he left her alone for a few minutes. The computer only required a verbal command from Evelyn, she didn’t have to get up and key it in at a terminal. Should have gagged her, he berated himself. If Evelyn hadn’t rigged the safe to self destruct, he might be able to blow the door open. Lawrence grabbed a scanning device and checked. Sure enough, Evelyn was prepared for anything. Drat, he should have brought her back with him. Now he was forced to capture Sophie, she would have the new code.
A loud noise came from down the hall. Lawrence spun around and saw two strangers stepping though a hole in the wall. The man and woman approached him. He noticed that the woman was holding some sort of gun, presumably the one that made the hole in the wall. Lawrence opened his mouth to sound the security alarm. The male intruder suspected something was amiss and tackled Lawrence before he could verbalize the command. The stranger was powerful. Lawrence prided himself on being a strong man, he used to work out daily when Derrek was around, less often since that time. But this was different, the man knew exactly what he was doing to subdue his target. The more Lawrence struggled, the tighter the hold on him got.
Moira noticed some cables in the closet that Mr. Bates had been standing in front of. She took them out and started tying him up so Jack could let go. When she finished binding Lawrence, she stuck some duct tape over he mouth to keep him quiet. Jack stood up and glared at Moira.
“This wasn’t how I envisioned our encounter with Mr. Bates.” Jack said, he was upset that the situation had turned confrontational. It would be harder to convince Bates that they were trustworthy after assaulting him.
Lawrence looked up at the pair and tried to assess his predicament. So, somebody had messed up, that could work to his advantage. He wondered if they were working on their own or whether another party had hired them. Considering how disorganized they appeared, they must be working alone. He tried to move himself into a sitting position.
“Sorry, it must have been my hormones. They have been a little erratic lately.” Moira apologized to Jack.
Jack was wondering what to do next. Should they go for broke and tell Mr. Bates the entire story? Or should they just interrogate him about the secret project that his company was working on? He decided not to consult with Moira. So, he thought about what Cassandra would do in this situation. She had a better head for how to deal with the unexpected. It’s one of the factors that made her a good captain. Jack wasn’t as flexible in his thinking. He was fine as long as he planed for every possible outcome before the situation arose. Unfortunately, this was one scenario that he wasn’t prepared for.
“You are going to listen to what I have to say. Then I will take your gag off and you can speak. Calling for help will not be an option.” Jack instructed Lawrence. Cassandra was not going to be impressed with him.
“My name is Jack, and this is Moira.” Jack started. “We travelled here from the planet Nebula in a neighbouring galaxy, on a space ship called the Sagittarius. If we look familiar to you, that is not a coincidence. Our ancestors come from the planet Earth. Only, not this Earth, but an Earth from another universe. Hundreds of years ago, the inhabitants of our planet were at war and they spoiled Earth by releasing nuclear bombs. Our ancestors were an advanced race, they had developed the technology to travel to other universes. In the eventuality of a nuclear was, settlers were sent to the other universe to start a new life. They took samples of plants, animals and encyclopaedias of their global knowledge to their second home. It took time to find a suitable planet to inhabit, but eventually, the discovered the planet of Nebula.
“It took us over a year to come this distance. The reason why we took on such an endeavour was that we detected something we call Thurston Waves coming from your planet. To us, they are a phenomenon that is typically artificial, especially at the strength that we were detecting from your planet. Our government directed us to investigate and determine what the cause was. They were curious if there was intelligent life on this planet.
“As we approached your planet, it became clear to us that the Thurston Waves were emanating from Universal Research and Innovations Corporation. We had been monitoring the satellite transmissions from your planet. In the past, your company was researching teleportation. Our physicists tell us that Thurston Waves can be related to that type of technology. Since you have stopped that project, we would like to know what you are working on now that would cause these waves.” Jack concluded his story, then he removed the tape from Lawrence’ mouth.
Lawrence was excited to hear the tale, but his outward appearance was relaxed. He had no doubts that what Jack told him was true. Discovering the Mirror Universe enhanced his ability to believe that anything was possible. Lawrence moistened his lips before speaking, the tape had taken a layer off.
“I am pretty sure that I know where your Thurston Waves are coming from. I developed a device similar to the one your ancestors built. It opens a gate between our world and it’s Mirror Universe. The technology is based on the work we did on the teleportation project, which you tell me could have generated the waves. It follows that my transfer device does the same.” Lawrence said. He avoided mentioning Derrek and Evelyn in his explanation.
“You can travel between different universes?” Moira asked.
“That’s right. Although when I first created the device, it was limited to travelling once a year.” He responded.
“Our sensors detected the first two waves about a year apart. But the following waves were mere days apart.” Jack admitted.
“I improved the device over time. It uses a new power supply that allows the gate to be opened more often.” Lawrence volunteered the information.
“Are you the only one involved in this project?” was the next question from Jack.
“Yes,” Lawrence lied. “The corporation doesn’t approve of non-profitable projects. That is the reason why they shut down the teleport project, it didn’t prove to be feasible. The same was true for the Mirror Universe gate. Since it was based on the same technology, it was likely not to be practical either. It was a pet theory of mine that we had a mirror universe, so I acted on my own to prove it.”
“I think we should take him to the Sagittarius so he can talk to our physicists.” Moira suggested. Lawrence liked the sound of that idea.
“Before we do something that rash, I want to speak with Cassandra.” Jack walked into another room and called Cassandra. When he told her what happened, as he suspected she wasn’t pleased. However when he got to the part about the universe gate, she changed her tune.
“By all means, bring him up. Our engineers and physicists will be lining up to ask him questions.” Cassandra gave Jack her approval.
“We should keep the other issue to ourselves for now.” Jack suggested.
“Why would you say that?” she asked.
“Don’t you find it a little odd that one man could develop this kind of technology by himself? My instincts tell me that he is hiding something from us. I think we need to be careful. We should also limit his exposure to the ship.” He put the uncertainty into Cassandra’s thoughts. Jack hung up and went back into the hall to untie Lawrence.
Moira and Jack brought Lawrence to their shuttle. Lawrence began asking all types of questions about the small craft. Jack answered the ones he could and left Moira to fly them up to the Sagittarius. Lawrence was in awe when they approached the ship. It was the biggest space craft that he had ever seen. The side of the ship opened and Moira landed them inside. Cassandra was waiting for them when they arrived.
“Lawrence Bates, I would like to introduce you to Captain Cassandra Ellington, she is the co-captain of this vessel.” Jack said. Pleasantries were exchanged amongst the two.
“We have some crew members that are eager to meet you Mr. Bates.” Cassandra said.
“I’m just as interested in meeting them.” Lawrence said. Cassandra lead him away to meet the crew from the engineering department.
The morning came quickly and the two couples met in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Brian and Evelyn were in a good mood, and looked refreshed. Derrek and Sophie were the opposite. Apparently Derrek hadn’t slept well either. They ordered light breakfasts and asked for packed lunches to go. By eight, the quartet was back on the road, heading in the direction of North Valley and Universal Research and Innovations Corporation.
Several hours later, the group arrived at Evelyn’s apartment building. Sophie pulled on the hood of her jacket to avoid comments when the doubles walked through the lobby. The elevator woman took them to the top floor. Evelyn used the key and they entered the apartment. Little did they know that they had just missed encountering Lawrence. They walked downstairs to the office level. Evelyn was shocked to see a large hole in the wall where her secret door had been.
“What on Earth is that?” she exclaimed.
“Those thugs that chased us from the apartment probably did that.” Derrek responded. “Don’t worry about it, let’s get the decryption device.”
Evelyn opened the closet door and revealed the safe. She pressed her hand against the door and was rewarded with a green light. Then she motioned for Sophie to come over and enter the numerical code. Sophie carefully pushed in the sequence. The safe door popped open and revealed it’s contents. Apparently Evelyn stored more than her encryption device in the safe. There were several other devices and a few folders hidden as well. Sophie took out the decoder and passed it to Derrek. He went into the computer lab and set it up. The other three crowded around him to watch. Derrek put the crystal storage device in the decryption box. His notes displayed on the monitor when from gibberish to coherent text. There was a sigh of relief throughout the room.
“Let’s send this to Amanda so she can test it out in her lab.” Derrek said.
“How will she know if it works?” Brian asked.
“I have included samples of healthy DNA to make comparisons to.” Explained Derrek. He turned on the video phone and called Amanda.
“We have successfully decrypted the research.” Derrek shared with her.
“Great, when can I have a copy?” Amanda wondered.
“Right away, be on the lookout for an electronic message. We need you to make a batch of the treatment drug and try it out before we broadcast the formula to everyone. I did what I would on the other world, but it may react differently here.” He said.
“Okay, talk to you later.” She hung up.
The four went back upstairs to wait in the living room. Evelyn prepared a snack of cheese, crackers and pate and brought them some juice to drink. Pixel jumped wandered in the room. She glanced at Sophie and at Evelyn, she was confused, they smelled the same. It took her a few seconds to decide to jump onto Derrek’s lap. She knew who he was and she missed him. Derrek stroked the cat he hadn’t seen in two years.
“How long do you think it will take Amanda to create the drug?” Evelyn asked.
“I imagine it will take a few hours, first she has to learn how to do it. The steps are complicated, she might have to do it more than once to get the correct formula.” Derrek explained.
Amanda read the notes that Derrek had just sent her. He outlined a formula in clear simple terms. However, the recipe was going to be a challenge. She called in her two grad students, Justin and Kyle to help with the procedure. They worked on it non-stop for three hours. After a few false starts, it seemed that they had the gist of the sequence. When the three were finished, Amanda held up the vial of green liquid for a moment. In her hands could be the cure the world had been waiting for the past four years. She would have to try it on a male and a female subject to ensure it worked for both genders.
“I should have told you what we were making before we started.” Amanda said to her students. “But, I didn’t know if we would be successful producing the formula. This is a possible cure for the meteor illness. It was developed without the awareness of the GHO, that is why I have been secretive.”
“So, now you have to test that it works right?” Kyle rhetorically. “I volunteer to try it.”
“As do I, more subjects are better.” Justine said.
“I don’t need to remind you of the risks in human trials?” Amanda asked the two. Of course she wouldn’t, they were biology PhD students. They shook their heads, no. “Good, I’ll be the female subject. Let’s get started.” They connected monitoring equipment up to each other and noted their initial health status. Then, each one consumed a small portion of the tonic.
“Do either of you feel any different yet?” Amanda joked.
“No, but it looks like our DNA is changing slightly. See how it is getting closer to the healthy specimens?” Kyle noted.
Over the next hour they watched the improvements. The men’s signs showed that they had almost been restored to their initial condition. Amanda’s, on the other hand, were not progressing as well. During the next half hour, Kyle and Justin’s DNA appeared to be fully repaired. The changes to Amanda’s DNA had stopped entirely and she was only half way back to where she should be.
“Maybe it takes longer for woman?” Justine conjectured.
“No, it doesn’t work.” Amanda concluded.
“But how can you be sure?” Kyle asked.
“Derrek was never able to test the drug on a woman. He was only every able to test it on himself. It only works for me.” Answered Amanda.
“How is it possible that he didn’t try it on any woman?” the students wondered.
“It’s best you don’t know that side of the story yet. It may be possible to modify what we have and make it would for females as well as males.” Amanda was disappointed. She would have to break the news to Derrek. Somehow she couldn’t help but blame Lawrence for interfering with Derrek’s mission to the other universe. Amanda put in the call to Derrek.
“I have some good news and some bad news for you.” Amanda said to her audience at Evelyn’s apartment.
“Well?” Derrek asked.
“Your treatment works on men, but not women. Now that we have your research, I think we can develop something that works for women too, but the results won’t be immediate. It will take time to figure out what modifications need to be done to the drug. I’m sorry to tell you this. But, this is still an enormous breakthrough.” She explained.
“All that trouble and it doesn’t even work?” Derrek was despondent. He hung up with Amanda and turned to the others.
“It was worth it.” Said Sophie. “As Amanda said, you have made a breakthrough in the research. It won’t be long before they find the ultimate solution.” Brian and Evelyn nodded.
“Have confidence in Amanda, she will finish this for us. What we need to be concerned with now is Lawrence.” Evelyn said.
“Where is he?” Sophie asked.
“I assumed he was at the corporation. We can easily find out.” Evelyn responded. She phoned the company and asked to speak with her husband.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Rutherford. Your husband isn’t in, he said he was going to work at home for the rest of the day.” The security guard Kent told her.
“Since he isn’t here now, he must have been here before we arrived.” Derrek guessed. “When he discovered that the research he stole from the other world was encrypted, he must have come here to use the decryption machine. But, he wouldn’t have been able to get into the safe because Evelyn changed the code.“
“That’s good logic, but where did he go from here?” Brian asked.
“Let’s look at the security cameras. I assume you still have them?” suggested Sophie.
“What security cameras?” Brian asked.
“Evelyn and Sophie are the two most paranoid women you would ever meet.” Derrek laughed. “Evelyn has security cameras mounted in the halls and in the computer lab in case there is ever a break-in.” Derrek hoped that Lawrence had not disabled them.
They returned downstairs and cued up the videos for the last several hours. Evelyn fast-forwarded until they saw movement in the corridor. It was Lawrence. Derrek had guessed correctly, he was going for the decryption device. All four smiled when Lawrence was unsuccessful at unlocking the safe. Then they gasped in shock when the intruders broke through the wall and assaulted him. Unfortunately the video did not have any sound.
“Do you have the video for the computer lab?” Derrek asked. He wanted to see what the stranger was doing when he briefly left the others.
“I have audio for those.” Evelyn said proudly. She always turned the recordings off whenever she was working in the office. Evelyn put in the other tape. What they heard made them nearly fall of their seats.
“This is not good.” Said Derrek. “Of all the people to contact, they find Derrek.”
“At least they don’t trust him.” Brian said.
“I think it is time to go back to Universal Research and clean up Lawrence’s mess while he is off the planet. I want my company back.” Sophie proclaimed.
Amanda’s car was still sitting in the parking lot, Derrek wanted to keep it until he was certain they didn’t need it anymore. They piled back in and drove to the corporation. The first order of business was to get rid of Lawrence. Sophie typed up a letter of resignation for Lawrence and asked Brian to sign it as Lawrence Bates. While Evelyn and Derrek waiting in the office, Sophie walked Brian to the board director’s room. She stood by him, while Brian presented the letter to the director.
“This comes as a shock to me, Lawrence.” The director said.
“Yes, I know this is sudden, but I have my health to consider. My doctor tells me that if I don’t eliminate stress entirely, I may be at risk of another heart attack.” Brian responded. Sophie had to come up with a plausible reason for Lawrence’s resignation, she liked the idea of giving him a fatal illness, but Derrek talked her out of it. The three made some small talk, then Brian and Sophie returned to her office.
“I found the evidence that Lawrence was going to blackmail Evelyn with.” Derrek told them when they entered the room. “It wasn’t as concrete as he lead Evelyn to believe. It will take me a few minutes to clear this up for you.”
“Excellent.” Sophie responded. Things were going according to plan.
“Is it possible to send us home?” Evelyn asked. “Now that everything is settle here, you don’t need us any more. Just like you wanted your company back, I want my old life back.”
“It seems that the improvements Lawrence made to the Mirror transfer machine mean a gate can be opened at any time. We can easily send you home if that’s what you want.” Derrek said.
“As soon as possible. Thanks.” Brian was as anxious as Evelyn to get back to the other world. When Derrek finished clearing Evelyn’s name. The four friends walked to the Mirror Room. Derrek fired up the transfer device and a gate to the other world opened again. They said their good-byes and then Brian and Evelyn stepped through the gate.
The transfer did not go unnoticed. On the Sagittarius, the sensors picked up Thurston Waves again. Jack was with Moira in the navigation room when he was informed.
“Now, if our friend is the only one who worked on the universe gate, why are we detecting Thurston Waves when he is on our ship?” Jack asked Moira.
“Maybe he activated it by remote control.” Moira said humorously.
“It’s coming from the corporation again, somebody down there used the device and I would like to know who. Let’s go talk to Mr. Bates.” Jack got up marched down the hall to the engineering department. He tried to get Cassandra’s attention. She was listening to Lawrence talk about his theory with the physicists. However, she saw Jack and went to talk to him. Jack gave her a little update. Cassandra’s brow furrowed.
“Go back to the surface and investigate.” She suggested. “Let’s not alert Mr. Bates.”
Jack travelled to the surface alone this time, he would be more effective without Moira. When he was back at Universal, he saw that the guard at the front desk had changed. It was a woman this time and her name was Gladys. He decided to retry the ploy from the morning.
“I’ll see if she is available.” Gladys told him.
“Does that mean Ms. Rutherford is in?” he inquired.
“Yes, as it happens, she just got in an hour ago. Please take a seat.” Gladys called Ms. Rutherford to ask if she had an appointment slot available. Sophie answered the phone back in her office.
“Ms. Rutherford, there is a man here to see you about a proposal. Do you have any time to see him?” Gladys asked. She was sure the answer would be no, Evelyn didn’t usually accept cold calls.
“Could you send me a scan of his id?” Sophie asked. Gladys transmitted the id for her boss. The photo looked very familiar to Sophie and Derrek. It was the same man that broke into her apartment. The same man that took Lawrence up to his ship.
“I have some time available now, please send him up.” Sophie instructed the guard. Gladys was stunned, she walked over to Jack and directed him to the elevator. Jack was taken to the seventh floor. Gladys told him that Evelyn’s office was to the right at the end of the hall. The corridor seemed very long as he strolled along. Evelyn opened the door and let him in. There was a man sitting next to her desk.
“My name is Evelyn Rutherford,” Sophie said. “This is my husband Derrek.”
“I’m Jack Walsh.” Jack introduced himself and shook their hands.
“I think you also know my other husband, Lawrence?” she asked.
“I’m not sure what you mean.” Jack played innocent. He wondered what the woman meant by ‘other husband’, nothing in their research indicated this society was polygamous.
“Lawrence Bates, you and your friend broke into my apartment and took him up to your ship.” Sophie confronted him. Derrek didn’t say a word, he was entertained by the exchange.
“What makes you think that?”
“I have video surveillance in my house. We heard your conversation in the computer lab. Tell the truth.” She demanded. Jack gave up and told her the same story that he recounted to Lawrence.
“Lawrence is a liar.” Derrek finally spoke up. ”Evelyn, Lawrence and myself developed the Mirror gate together.”
“We detected several waves over the past two years. What were you doing over there? Lawrence said that in the beginning it only worked once a year. That’s what originally tipped me off that he was lying about being the only one involved. He obviously wasn’t the person who went on a vacation to the other world for a year.”
“It was me.” Derrek said. “I first travelled to the other world two years ago.”
“So what were you doing there?”
“That’s none of your concern. You came here to find out about the Thurston Waves, but when you talked to Cassandra, you said there was another matter that you were going to keep from Lawrence because you didn’t trust him. What was that about?”
“Why should I trust you any more than Lawrence. Keeping secrets isn’t any better than Lawrence lying.”
“Derrek went to the other world to do research.” Sophie broke in. “No more games, let’s put all of our cards on the table. The last year of my life has been a fiction. I want my life to be normal again and it is going to start now.”
“Wait, before you start, do you mind if my co-captain Cassandra listens?” Jack requested. Sophie indicated that was fine, so Jack called up Cassandra on the communication device. Then Sophie proceeded to tell them absolutely everything about the last four years. When she was done, Jack could sympathise with all that she and Derrek had risked in the past two years. Their lives had been turned upside-down and the cure they came up with didn’t even work. Ironically, they had brought a real cure to their planet by using the Mirror gate and causing the Thurston Waves.
“Wow, I guess it is my turn now.” Jack said. He shared the Sagittarius’ experiences since their departure from Nebula.
“You found a cure?” Sophie had tears in her eyes.
“And you are sure that it works for everybody?” Derrek wondered.
“Yes, after Cassandra tested the treatment, all of the biology team tried it on themselves. It worked for every one of them. We are all humans, it should work for you too.”
“Could your biologists bring the microbes to the surface for my friend at the university to try on Earth subjects.” Derrek asked.
“I’ll send a couple down right away. Where is the university located?” Cassandra said over the communication channel. Derrek gave her the directions. Since it was too long a drive by car, Jack offered to fly them there in his shuttle. They parked the ship in the park near Amanda’s house and waited for Dr. Poole and Dr. Yarrow. When they arrived, the group walked to the university to join Amanda.
Dr. Poole opened a lunch-box sized container and showed Amanda the samples inside. She had prepared three vials of microbes for Amanda, Sophie and Derrek to test. The trouble was that the university did not have a self-contained room like the one they used with Cassandra. Instead they had to improvise. The doctor brought an electrically generated containment field to use on the lab itself. The doctors and the grad students would leave before the microbes were released. The subjects would monitor their own vital signs as they did earlier. Since the microbes lasted up to six hours, the others would return to Amanda’s house until the time had elapsed. Amanda would use the phone to give Dr. Poole updates.
Amanda watched the monitors with fascination. The changes were happening more slowly than when she tried the drug that Derrek had developed. Since her DNA was already partially restored, the microbes finished the job after ten hours. She was delighted. Now she just had to wait for Derrek and Sophie to finish their transformation. Since the maximum lifespan of the microbes had passed, Dr. Poole removed the shield from the lab. The two doctors and grad students came into the room to help monitor the results. By noon, the next day, Derrek and Sophie had also been cured. Their DNA was compared against the healthy versions and was declared normal. Earth finally had a cure for their damaging condition.
“Have you thought of a means of distributing the microbe around the world?” Amanda asked Dr. Poole.
“Now that we know the altered microbe will not cause any more harm to humans, we do not have to release it in a contained environment. It fact, the most effective way to reach everyone is to release the microbes into the air. The same way that they infected everyone, they can cure everyone. We will need to lengthen the lifespan of the microbes to have them last long enough to circle the globe. I estimate it will take three or four days to produce the number of microbes that are required.” She answered.
“Should we inform the GHO about this solution?” Amanda said to Derrek.
“No, I don’t think that is a wise idea. Who knows how long it would take them to approve the microbes being released. After four years, a distrust has grown for the organisms. The GHO would want to do exhaustive tests on the altered microbes and our technology isn’t as advanced as our new friends. Remember, it’s always easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.” He responded.
“I’ll call Cassandra and fill her in.” Jack stated.
“There is another issue.” Sophie put forward. “Do you intend to make your presence know to the rest of our world Jack? If you don’t, we have to explain how we came up with this treatment.”
“Regardless of what we decide to do, I think you should keep our involvement with the microbes out of your story. It’s our fault that the microbes became dangerous in the first place. That fact may be damaging to relations to your planet.” Jack reasoned.
“Okay, here are my thoughts. Universal had been working on an undisclosed project involving a radical treatment plan. We kept it a secret because the nature of our cure, it involved the very microbes that did the harm. The corporation was concerned about the publics response to such a project. As such, it involve only a small group of people. We tested the modified microbes on ourselves and found within twenty-four hours all the subjects had returned to normal. After verifying the treatment worked, we created enough microbes to cure the population and released them.” Sophie proposed the story.
It sounded plausible to the rest of the group. Universal was a large corporation and the CEO had the discretion to work on a covert project. That settled, they began discussing their strategy for releasing the microbes. Amanda and her grad students agreed to travel to the Sagittarius and assist Dr. Poole and Dr. Yarrow. Derrek and Sophie would return to Universal Research and Innovations Corporation and manufacture the evidence of their microbe research.
On the Sagittarius, Jack and Cassandra were discussing their course of action. The big question hanging in space was whether they would announce to the rest of the planet that the Sagittarius was in orbit.
“It’s time to go home.” Cassandra said.
“I didn’t expect you to agree with me about that.” Said Jack. “I thought you would have been interested in learning more about Earth.”
“Yes, I am interested in discovering more about Earth, but not this one.”
“I see. When Dr. Poole has completed the microbes for Amanda, we will start our return voyage. Once we are back to Neptune, we can send a message to our governments. Can you begin the preparations for our departure?”
“Sure thing, I’ll get Moira to help me with the arrangements.”
Evelyn walked into her bedroom and noticed that there was a pink box with a big floppy pink bow sitting on the bed.
“What is this?” she asked Brian.
“It’s just a little present that I bought for you. Go ahead and open it.” He said with a smile. Evelyn pulled the bow apart and lifted the lid off the box. Inside she found tissue paper wrapping the gift, there was something glimmering underneath. As she parted the paper, she revealed a sequenced gold dress. Evelyn lifted the dress out and held it up against her.
“This is exactly the dress that Sophie described to me. She saw it at a store before Derrek brought her to the other world. Where did you get this?” she wondered.
“I had it made at Starlight Designer Fashions. Sophie was having so much difficulty finding the perfect dress for the wedding. One time she described her ideal dress to me and I made the decision to have it made as a surprise. Do you like it?” He answered.
“It’s fabulous, the dress is perfect. I’m going to try it on.” Evelyn stripped off her clothing and slipped the dress on. “Zip me up?” Brian assisted with the zipper. Evelyn sauntered over to a the full length mirror on the closet door. The dress fit wonderfully, it was very flattering on her. She turned around and looked at Brian with love in her eyes.
“Okay, now you can take it off me.” She said. Brian was more than willing to help her remove the dress. He was careful to hang it in the closet before he turned his attention back to his fiancé.
That night, Sophie and Derrek returned to their apartment together. They ordered in some dinner from their favourite restaurant. Derrek went to the wine rack to select a vintage for the meal. Dinner was pleasant for both of them, there was no more crisis to worry about. They talked about other things, such as Derrek’s re-introduction to the company. After a two year sabbatical, he was ready to resume his job. Sophie would need the extra help with the press from their involvement in the microbe treatment. She wondered what the board was going to say when they found out about her “secret” project. The response would probably be favourable, it wasn’t a profitable project, but it would bring the corporation good media attention.
“I think we should get another cat.” Sophie suggested.
“Sure, but what makes you desire another cat now?” Derrek asked her.
“Two cats are always better than one. They can keep each other company while we are at work. Sophie had two cats, it was great fun.” She responded. Pixel would definitely enjoy having a playmate.
“Would you like some dessert? I saw some chocolate cake in the freezer.” Derrek tempted her.
“How can I saw no to chocolate?” she said. Derrek went to the kitchen brought them each a big slice of cake. When they were done, Sophie sighed. “Tomorrow, I have something to take care of.” she said.
“That’s tomorrow, tonight, I have something to take care of.” Derrek responded. He pulled her close to him and kissed her on the mouth. He was afraid she might resist, because she wasn’t ready for their relationship to change, but she kissed him back. Derrek scooped her into his arms and took her to their bedroom.
Lawrence was sitting in Cassandra’s office, she told him to meet her there after he was finished with the engineers. She hadn’t arrived yet, Lawrence found that odd, the woman was know for her promptness. Finally he heard the woman enter the room. He turned around and had a surprise. It was Sophie, at least he assumed it was her since he had stranded Evelyn in the other world. How did she find out about the Sagittarius?
“The game is over Lawrence.” Sophie said ominously. “I’ve taken back my company. You are not a threat to me any more.”
“That’s not possible. I sent the evidence of your crimes to the board.” Lawrence stammered.
“The board never received the evidence. In fact, we destroyed it so they will never even know it existed. You have also resigned from the company, or rather Brian did for you. Apparently you have developed a heart condition and can’t take the stress any more. By the way, I’ve also started the process of divorcing you. I’m having an affair with my former husband Derrek, who has returned from his mysterious absence.” She said with satisfaction. Cassandra finally arrived.
“Good, I see that Sophie has updated you on your situation on Earth. Since you no longer have a place at Universal Research and Innovations Corporation, I have a job proposal for you. Although we are more technologically advanced than you in some areas, you have surpassed us with your Mirror Gate technology. We would like you to come back with us to Genolia and help us develop a similar technology. Our goal is to find the universe that our ancestors came from. We would like to return to our Earth and see what became of it after we left. I know it is a big step leaving your planet, but I believe you have more to offer us on our world. Your past indiscretions don’t bother us, because of the war, most Nebulans and Genolians have their own dark elements. I can give you some time to think about it.” Cassandra said.
“No, I’ve already made my choice. I accept, I will go with you when you leave. But, if you will allow me, I would like to return to the surface and collect my belongings. Sophie can escort me if she is worried that I may be up to some mischief.”
“I don’t think you have anything to gain by doing me harm now. Derrek and I will make sure you get what you need for your new project.” Sophie declared.
In the afternoon, Sophie and Derrek escorted Lawrence into Universal to gather his research on the Mirror Gate technology. While they were sorting through files, Derrek had a thought.
“Could the Mirror Gate technology be used within our own universe?” he said aloud.
“Not as it stands now. That would be equivalent to teleportation and remember, we never got that to work effectively.” Lawrence responded.
“I didn’t mean transporting a person within two points of our universe, what I meant was, could we send a communication signal across?”
“Interesting. I hadn’t thought of that possibility before. There was no need to since we don’t have long distance space travel. But, it would allow the Genolians and Nebulans to contact Earth. I’ll work on that with the physicists on the Sagittarius. You never know, maybe you will get a message from me before we arrive at Genolia.” Lawrence said. “I know you two will never forgive me for what I did, but I hope that we can still work together for the benefit of the Genolians and the Nebulans.”
“We’re all adults. I didn’t like you much when we first began working together at Universal.” Derrek said.
“As for myself, I don’t intend to speak with you for at least a year and possibly longer. You will have to do something fantastic to redeem yourself in my eyes.” Said Sophie.
“Fair enough. I think I have everything that I need from here. I’m ready to return to the Sagittarius.” Lawrence stated.
Derrek called Jack on the communication device that was loaned to him and informed him that Lawrence was finished. Jack send Moira down with a shuttle to pick him up. Sophie was pleased to see him leave the planet. When he was gone, they started working on getting Derrek his privileges and passwords back. Once that was completed, Derrek and Sophie continued their work creating their fictional microbe project. They also prepared a press spot about the microbe release.
Jack and Moira were relaxing in the lounge. It would be busier for them in a couple of days when they left Earth’s orbit to return home. Jack thought about what he would do when this mission was over.
“I think I might like to pilot a tourist ship again.” He said aloud.
“What?” Moira exclaimed. “I thought you wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those again.”
“As much as I complained about it, the experience was enjoyable. Although, I might like to drive a smaller ship. With less people, we can go to more remote locations that take longer to travel to. It was tedious travelling to the same places all the time. But, it was like I was paid to be on vacation. My support staff were so good, that I didn’t have to worry about the day to day goings on.“ Jack responded.
“Thanks for the compliment.” Moira said. “I might consider joining you when the baby is old enough to walk. Although that will be by the time we arrive home at Nebula. So you may not have to wait long. Would you buy your own ship?”
“Of course. My food and accommodations were taken care of on the Sagittarius, so I had nothing else to spend my money on. I saved it all for the eventuality that I might purchase my own space vehicle.”
“And you are sure that will satisfy you?”
“Definitely. I don’t want any more adventure in my life. I dislike the unpredictable. Cassandra is far more suited than I am for dealing with that kind of thing. A mundane job is exactly what I am looking for. Who knows, maybe I will meet a nice woman on a cruise, settle down and have kids of my own.”
“I can’t picture you with children.”
“Are you kidding, I play with Sarah all the time.”
“Yes, I’m kidding. Now I have to go with you to make sure you hook up with the right woman. I’ll tell Thomas, he will love the idea.”
“Before we start up a business together. I think we should spend some time on Nebula. I feel like I need a vacation from space. What I need is to sit on a beach by the ocean and read a good book.”
“Are you sure that you haven’t found someone already. You’re acting really drippy, it’s out of character.”
“I’m just looking forward to going home.”
Amanda was jealous when she saw the facilities that Dr. Poole and Dr. Yarrow had to work with on the Sagittarius. The lab was four times as big as the one in the university. The equipment was like nothing she had ever seen before. She was dying to find out what other advances in biology the Nebulans and Genolians had made. Unfortunately, Dr. Poole wasn’t talking. Jack had told her not to share any technologies that were vastly different than what Earth had already developed. He didn’t think it was wise to influence their advancement. It was a bit of a double standard with the Sagittarius bring Lawrence back to Genolia to introduce the Mirror Gate technology. But, Jack rationalized that since his ancestors had already discovered it, then it was just a matter of finding what they had lost.
Dr. Poole did bend Jack’s rule somewhat. She gave Amanda a cold storage device to keep a sample of the modified microbe in case it was every needed again. She also showed Amanda how to multiply the microbes to produce the quantity that would be needed for another outbreak. Then she gave Amanda copies of her research into the microbes, so Sophie could add it to the records of her clandestine project.
Three days after the experiment with the microbes, Amanda returned from the Sagittarius with a package from Dr. Poole. She brought it to the little park by her house and unwrapped it. Inside the package was a container filled with modified micro-organisms. Amanda set the box on the ground and opened the container. She smiled as she watched the microbes leave their cell and scattered to the winds. In twenty-four hours, the world would return to normal again.
Sophie boldly stepped into the lavish ballroom. It was her first Universal Research and Innovation’s ball since she had come back. She smoothed out her purple dress and looked around the room, hundreds of people were already there. Her name was announced as she walked down the staircase to the dance floor below. A dark haired man stepped forward to greet her as she reached the bottom. He stretched out his hand and whisked her off to the dance floor.
“I didn’t know you could dance.” Sophie whispered.
“I couldn’t when we parted two years ago. Neither could you by the way, before you became Sophie. Brian cajoled me into taking private lessons, he said that the women love it.” Derrek laughed.
“With all that has been going on, I haven’t had a chance to share some exciting news.” She said.
“And what news would that be?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“That’s wonderful!” Derrek spun her around a few times. “There is going to be a big baby boom this year.” As they reached the other side of the room, Derrek took them outside to the patio. They continued dancing to the music, but stopped when they heard laughing coming from a dark corner. Sophie stiffened a little, remembering the nightmare she had all those months ago.
“Who’s there?” she called. A sheepish looking couple stepped out of the shadows. It was Evelyn and Brian. Evelyn was wearing the gold sequenced dress from her dream. She came over and hugged her double. Sophie almost didn’t recognize Brian, he had grown a full beard since she last saw him. At least nobody would mistake him for Lawrence, unless they looked really closely.
“Do you like the dress? Brian had it made for me, but I had to have it let out after the wedding.” Evelyn said.
“It’s beautiful. Wait a minute,” Sophie stepped back and looked at Evelyn. ”You’re pregnant too” she accused.
“Of course I am. After being in a world without children for an entire year, it was my first priority. Did you just imply that you were pregnant as well?”
“Yes, I just found out this week.” Sophie said. The two women hugged each other again and the men shook hands.
“I’m sorry that we had to miss your wedding. Things have been a little crazy here since you left.” Derrek told Evelyn and Brian.
“We understand. You can always watch the video, we’ll transmit it to you when we get back home.” Brian informed him.
“Sounds great!” Derrek responded.
“I wish Derrek had told me that you were coming.” Sophie complained.
“Well, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if he had.” Brian said.
“Are you staying long?” Sophie asked.
“I think we can manage a couple of days.” Evelyn said.
“In that case, let’s go back to the ballroom and do some dancing. We have plenty of time to chat later.” Sophie suggested.
“Sounds like fun. We’ll try not to run you novices over.” Brian teased Sophie and Derrek.
The two couples walked inside. The band was playing a waltz. Brian and Derrek took their partners and manoeuvred onto the dance floor. Their thoughts slipped away with the rhythm of the music and they continued dancing until the early hours of the morning.