Transient Echoes (25 page)

“It is not yours,” said Ludo. “You must craft your own world. Build it to your liking and fill it with your thoughts. You must do this, and it must be yours and yours alone. You must remember every detail. All the blades of grass, all the clouds in the sky, all the rocks at your feet. Remember these things so you may build them again and again, every time you close your eyes. Once you have mastered this new world of yours, then I will teach you to fly.”

******

Ortego Reconstruction Outpost

January 27, 2351

Mei was optimistic. It took Bart less time to build the second set of mobile coils, which put them ahead of schedule. She thought about asking him for more, but four was enough for the moment. In the meantime, he could work on building explosives to take down the rest of the building in case they had to bury the portal.

During this, Zoe managed to collect an enormous amount of useable data from the ruins, thanks to the flippies.

John, Sophie, and Mei spent most of their time in the basement. They brought some lighting fixtures so they wouldn’t have to do everything with their night vision on. The green hue gave Mei a headache.

She wanted to run experiments with the rods to make sure a magnetic field would actually do the job. Sophie observed her mentor and assisted where she could. Mei explained every detail to the girl. She wanted to make sure someone else knew how to shut the field down. If anything happened to Mei, Sophie would know what to do.

They fiddled with the rods, fine-tuning their frequency for hours. The field had to be exactly right, otherwise the rift might not form and they’d have to start all over again. Given how impatient Tremaine had gotten lately, Mei wagered she was running out of time before the old woman found out the truth. She had to act fast.

Nevertheless, Mei was staying positive. The first official test was scheduled for this afternoon, and so far she had no reason to doubt her success. Still, anything could happen. She wasn’t a fool. She was prepared for failure, hence the extra coils and explosives. If the whole thing went to hell, she’d end the story here.

At half past noon, the team arrived at the Ortego site, equipment in tow, ready to make history. Bart, Mei, Sophie, John, and Mortimer the Flippy all waited in the basement of the Ortego building.

“Coils are coming online,” said Bart, his eyes on his pad. “Should only be a few minutes.”

“I’m good up here,” said Zoe. Her face appeared in the corner of Mei’s visor. She had knotted hair and looked exhausted, although the radiation suit hid most of it.

“Sophie and I will proceed with the field activation process, so I suggest everyone step back and give us some room,” said Mei.

They did as she asked. She unzipped the bag and removed the first rod. She gave another to Sophie. They’d previously gone and marked each and every one of the spots where the rods would go, measuring the distance so they were equally apart from one another. “Remember,” said Mei. “It’s just like I showed you.”

Sophie nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

Mei twisted a ring at the center of the rod, releasing the pin at its core and snapping the rod into place. The room cracked with a loud pop as the rod sent a thin needle into the floor for support. “Next.”

The process repeated until both women had placed eighteen rods around the anomaly. When the last two were set, Mei and Sophie joined the others near the far end of the room.

Mei took her pad and opened a simple app Zoe created specifically to operate and monitor the wormhole. Zoe called it “Knock Knock.” With a tap of the pad, a countdown appeared on the screen to signify the startup process.

“Everyone stay back,” she said as the clock counted down. When it hit zero, the rods activated, bringing no visible change. But Mei knew this wasn’t so. Her pad showed a buildup of the magnetic field as it formed, spreading through the circle and slowly stabilizing itself.

A light erupted from the center of the room, flashing like a thunderstorm. “What was that?” Zoe asked, taken back.

“Some kind of electrical discharge,” said Bart.

Another flash, this one brighter than the first. It snapped through the room, causing them all to shield their eyes. Behind her arms, Mei saw a series of short, bright bursts, consuming everything. The pile of metal caught on fire, sparks dancing around it. A low rumbling shook the floor, causing Sophie to fall. She screamed. Bart caught her and didn’t let her go. The room was going wild with the sounds of thunder.

A massive orange spark danced atop the surface of the anomaly, weaving and expanding like a piece of yarn. After a few seconds, it lifted off the metal altogether, swirling in the air like fire in the sky, like lightning in a bottle.

In less than a moment, the string of light exploded. Mei felt the grip of John’s hand around her arm. It was the Second Jolt all over again.

But suddenly the shaking ceased, and all at once the light surrendered. When she could see again, Mei lifted her eyes and saw what remained of her experiment.

It was the rift, alive and real, a massive circle of darkness, pulsing with the same steady breaths it had all those years before.

After all these years, she’d found it.

******

“Holy shit, it worked!” shouted Zoe through the com in Mei’s visor.

“Look at it!” yelled Bart. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“It’s pitch black inside,” said John.

“No, look,” said Sophie, pointing to the base of the rift. “You can see something.” She paused. “It looks like a flat surface.”

Sophie was right. Mei could see the ground on the other side, a deep brown. What the hell was over there?

“Hey!” snapped John. “Aren’t you going to shut it down?”

Mei blinked, trying to collect herself. She could make an excuse, tell them they should examine it while they had the chance, but she stopped herself. She could wait. Do things the right way. She nodded. “Okay.” She took her pad and hit the deactivation icon. “Shutting it down now.”

Mei expected another shakeup, perhaps even an explosion, but the portal only dissipated, fading into the air with a series of sparks. Below the rift, where the cluster of furniture had been, nothing now remained. Somehow, the debris had disappeared with the arrival of the portal. Had it been sent through? If so, then right now a ball of manmade metal and plastic was halfway across the universe. Another planet, maybe? She wasn’t sure. The bridge had to go somewhere. Mei was certain of that. Whether it was a planet or the inside of a gas cloud, she couldn’t say, but she knew it existed.

Variant had to come from somewhere.

******

Ortego Reconstruction Outpost

January 28, 2351

When the portal was activated, the scanners recorded a complete drop in radiation output. With the micro-tears reformed into a full wormhole, the problem was momentarily solved. It was by no means a permanent solution, but it gave Mei the reason she needed to try again.

The following morning, she assembled her team to discuss the next phase in the plan. “We’re sending something through this time,” she told them.

“Don’t look at me,” said John. “I hate traveling.”

“What did you have in mind?” asked Bart.

“We need to scan the bridge from within the event horizon as well as the other side. It may give us the data we need to find a way to seal it for good.” She looked at Zoe. “A flippy seemed like the best idea.”

“Which one?” asked Zoe.

“Your call,” said Mei. “I trust your judgment.”

Zoe smiled a little. “You got it.”

Mei dismissed everyone, asking them to meet her at the Ortego site in three hours. She planned on spending the time fine-tuning the rods. With a little work, she was fairly certain she could cut down on the activation feedback.

John drove the dirt cab with her in the passenger’s seat, still tinkering with a few of the rods. “We’re really doing this, huh?” he asked when they were nearly halfway there.

She didn’t look up. “It’s the only way to get the data.”

“Okay,” he said. “I just wanna make sure you’re not doing this for another reason.”

She paused, the rod in her hand. “What other reason?”

“Terry died from that thing,” he said. “Here we are bringing it back. You sure this is what you want?”

She didn’t say anything.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain. You know I’ve got your back.”

They sat in the cab for several minutes without saying a word. Mei caught herself holding her breath, debating what to tell him, wavering somewhere between the truth and a lie. At last, she set the rod on the seat between them and looked at him. “What do you think happened to him?”

He returned her glance. “To Terry?”

She nodded.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, putting his eyes back on the road. “I barely understand what happened to
us
.”

“If I said…” She stopped herself, not knowing if she should go on. But didn’t John have a right to know what was going on? Sure he did, but what if he tried to talk her out of it? What if he thought she was crazy?

He slowed the vehicle and looked at her. “What is it?”

She stared at the dash. “What if I said the reason I’m doing this is because of him.”

“Because of Terry?” he asked. He stopped the cab altogether and put it in park.

“I want to know what happened to him, John. I have to know where he went.”

John stared at her with the same soft, blue eyes she’d known her entire life. She had expected doubt or even a difference of opinion, but he had none of that in him now.

He leaned across the divide of the seats and held her by the palm. He wiped her cheek with his other hand, pulling tears away. Without realizing it, she’d been crying. “It’s okay,” he whispered, smiling warmly. “I get it.”

She gulped, pushing down the lump in her throat. “No one else can know,” she said.

“They won’t,” he told her.

“If anyone finds out, they’ll send me home and cut me out of the program. They’ll say my judgment’s compromised.” She paused. “Maybe they’re right.”

“You’re doing what you think is best. It’s what you’ve always done.”

“Maybe it’s selfish,” she muttered. “Looking for an answer just because I want to know. It doesn’t help anyone but me.”

“You’re wrong,” he said. “What about Terry? He died protecting us. We owe it to him to find out what really happened. And I want to know, too.”

She nodded.

He beamed a smile her way and let go of her hand, taking the wheel again. “We’d better hurry,” said John. “Don’t wanna miss the big show.”

******

When everyone was in the basement, Mei and Sophie set the modified rods in place. The team stood a few meters from the circle, their backs against the wall and waiting.

Mortimer was sitting a few steps from the others, a long cord hooked into his side. No one knew whether a wireless signal could go through the portal or not, so Zoe had the flippy jacked into a local control box. She was sitting behind it now.

“We’re doing this just like last time,” said Mei, motioning to the rods. “I tweaked the equipment, but be ready for a light show in case I goofed it.”

Bart gave a thumbs up. “Hit it, Doc.”

Mei touched the icon for her Knock Knock app, bringing it to life on the pad. She took a deep breath, staring at the space where the bridge was about to form, and pressed the activation button.

A burst of light filled the room momentarily. It only lasted a second before dissipating into a steady, pulsing circle of darkness. The modified rods had been a success. Mei let out a sigh of relief.

“Amazing,” said Zoe. “It’s so different up close.”

“Nice work on the mods,” said Bart.

“Thanks,” said Mei. She turned to Zoe. “Ready?”

“Morty’s raring to go,” she said, fiddling with the controls. Mortimer raised his tendrils into the air. “He’s ready to party!”

“Do it,” she said. “Everyone make sure you have the feed going on your visors. If you see anything, call it out and mark the timestamp for later.”

Zoe positioned Mortimer in front of the rift, easing him to within a few centimeters of it. “Here goes nothing,” she said.

The little window in the corner of Mei’s display went black as Mortimer passed through the gateway. The flippy disappeared into the darkness, tugging his cord behind him.

“Activating night vision,” said Zoe.

The screen in the corner of Mei’s visor lit up the environment in a bright shade of green. What lay before the flippy left her dumbstruck—a vast room with desks and chairs, surrounded by flattened metal walls which rose higher than she thought they should. Below the flippy, a wide ramp stretched out towards the floor.

“What the hell is this?” asked Bart.

“Zoe, keep going,” said Mei.

The flippy crept forward off the ramp, dragging the cord behind.

“Turn around,” ordered Mei. “Let’s have a look at the whole room.”

Zoe rotated Mortimer’s head, passing several desks and what looked like computers along the way. As it reached the rift, Mei felt her heart flutter. There, standing before the little flippy, a tall, metal ring sat elevated in the air, and at its core Mei saw herself watching from the other side.

“Holy shit,” muttered Zoe, her mouth agape.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” said Bart.

“I don’t get it,” said John. “Did Ortego build another one?”

Mei didn’t know what to say. Could John be right? Did Ortego actually make another portal? If so, where on Earth was it?

She stopped herself, shaking her head. No, it didn’t add up. Variant came through the original portal, which meant this couldn’t be on Earth. Not unless Ortego created Variant themselves and accidentally released it. But why send the gas through the rift in the first place? “Zoe, keep scanning the room.”

“Aren’t we going to talk about the artificial ring we just saw?” asked Bart.

“Later,” said Mei. “Right now we’ve got other priorities.”

Bart grunted. “Yeah, okay.”

“Doctor Curie, I’ve got something,” said Zoe. “Look there, against the wall near the doorway. Here, let me move closer.”

It took Mei a moment to realize what she was looking at. With so much going on, it was easy to overlook. But as the flippy neared the wall, she saw what it truly was: a pack, academy-issued with the name Terry stitched on its flap.