During the night, a late storm off the Atlantic met up with a high-pressure area moving down from Scotland, drenching Northern Ireland in a powerful rainfall. Andy, wrapped in a blanket on the floor, woke to darkness punctuated by near-constant flashes of lightening, and howling winds throwing rain against the window above him. A distant moaning alarm told him that the Irish Sea had once again breached the levees built inland against it. The sound was low in the register, indicating that for now, it was just a leak.
A fainter signal brought his attention into the room, and he scooped his Pad from the floor where he’d dropped it when he fell asleep. The message alert showed a text from Pete, and he tapped it open, hopeful and anxious about what it would say. Whatever it was, it would be in a code of some sort. Pete would never send real information over the web.
Good to see you again, mate. Congrats on the job at Sun. You’ll have to tell me everything you’re learning. You know I’m jealous. Karen says she’d be happy to show your friend around uni. She’ll meet her at two in front of the Lanyon Building.
Andy had been holding his breath, but now he let it out in quiet relief. The rebels would take Moira. The fact that Pete expected to hear everything Andy learned at Sun was a small price to pay.
He glanced over at Moira, still asleep on the bed. She was little more than a dark shape on the bed, but he could see that she faced him, curled on her side, the blankets pulled to her chin. Her hair fell over her face, and he had to resist the urge to go over and smooth it back.
They had talked long into the night, after her discovery that humans had entered their world from another universe, trying to fathom the meaning of it. He still felt a thread of disbelief. How could such a thing be true? Moira was inexperienced. Surely, she was misinterpreting the data. True, her explanation seemed fool-proof, and he could see the logic of her path. But he was inexperienced, as well. They had to be wrong.
He shivered, thinking about the neutrinos. They were altered from their usual state, proving a multi-state ability. He didn’t know if that was a result of the bridge-building, or if they had somehow been altered first, to make them useable for the bridge.
He shook his head. Questions. He had nothing but questions. After a glance out the window into the darkness of the storm, he turned and quietly slipped into the loo to dress. He’d wake Moira before he left to make sure she understood how and where to meet Karen. Then he would go to work. If the answers existed at all, he’d find them at Sun.
~~~
Sam woke to a dark room. As had happened every morning since his capture, his hand searched the empty spot beside him, looking for Sarah. Like every other morning, he drew his hand back, afraid.
A low, continuous moaning forced itself into his awareness. It sounded like a fog horn. He wondered if the building was close to the harbor, and realized that here was a clue to where he was. He didn’t know how it would help, but knowing anything was better than knowing nothing.
He was finishing his breakfast tea later, when his door opened and a guard came in, followed by a blonde woman. Her short, spiked hair and black leathers reminded him of biker chicks back home. She bounced on her toes with nervous energy, but dark circles under her eyes made him think she wasn’t sleeping much.
She held out a stiff hand and spoke in a quick staccato. “Good morning. I’m Dinnie Warner. If you’ll come with me, I’ll escort you to your lab.”
He took his time reaching to shake her hand, looking her over with cold disdain. “You don’t seem to see anything odd about my need for an escort?” he asked. “Do you people always keep your scientists locked up and under guard?”
“You’d be surprised, Dr. Altair,” she said, turning to the door. He had to admit, he was surprised. He’d expected her to prevaricate.
He followed her out, the guard a few steps behind him. “What is that moaning sound?” he asked as he caught up with her. “It’s been going on for an hour or more.”
“Levee breech.” She walked as fast as she talked, her black boots tapping a refrain on the hallway floor. “Happens once in a while, but all the people have moved inland, so it’s just a matter of repair.”
“Inland? Do you mean levees against the sea?”
“Of course.” She glanced at him, puzzled, then her face cleared. “Your world is a hundred years behind ours, isn’t it? Climate change isn’t as advanced there.”
He remembered the vids brought back by his probes. “We’d noticed the sea was further inland than in our time. I didn’t realize it was still rising.”
“It is.” Warner ushered him into a lift, stepping in after the guard, who ignored their chatter. “The North Pole is completely thawed, but there’s still some ice at the South Pole that’s melting. The Gulf Stream has been effectively shut off for twenty-five years, which is why it’s so cold here. That cold reacts with hotter atmosphere flowing from the west and south, creating massive storms. The sea continues to rise, and all the storms drive it inland, too.”
Sam shuddered. “The original Altair suggested this was possible. I’m sorry to see it’s come to pass.”
She shrugged. “We’re living with it.”
Sam looked away, struck by a sudden thought. Are they hoping to take over our world if their own becomes uninhabitable? Is that what’s behind Feldman’s actions?
Not that Sam felt he could attribute any altruism to Feldman. His plan was probably to send over the elite of their population, and let everyone else die off.
Warner seemed willing to let the conversation lag. When the lift stopped, she dashed out, leaving the guard to make sure Sam followed. They caught up with her outside double doors with a sign that declared this was “Lab 3B.” The sign was partially blocked by another guard, who seemed appropriately burly. At Dinnie’s gesture, he opened the door and stood aside to let them pass. Dinnie held out an arm, indicating that Sam should enter.
The first thing he saw was his own portable CERBO, still in its case, on a nearby counter. He forced himself not to rush over to grab it. He’d never get anywhere with it, not with two guards behind him. So he directed his gaze around the room, a typical laboratory with a hood, sink, and cabinets on the far end, and long tables creating rows down the middle. The room boasted two scanning tunneling microscopes, one each on tables to his left and right.
He turned to Warner, raising his eyebrows in question.
She mirrored his look. “Mr. Feldman says that you already know your assignment. Everything you need should be here. If not, just let your guard know and I’ll take care of it.”
“What I need,” Sam said, “is to be allowed to return home. With Miss Andrews, and with my equipment.”
Warner sighed, and Sam thought he detected a flicker of sympathy in her downturned mouth. “Just follow your instructions, Dr. Altair. You’ll have an assistant, who should be here soon. He doesn’t know who you are, by the way. He’s only seen a little of what happened when you came through. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the need to limit knowledge of your work.”
Sam nodded. “I do, but if I’m going to accomplish anything, I’ll need an assistant who knows what we’re doing.”
“It’s up to you, of course,” she said, turning to the door. “I’ll collect him shortly and let you have time to find your way around the lab.”
~~~
The levee-breech sirens had shut off by the time Andy waved his new security badge at the entrance to Sun Consortium HQ. Dinnie Warner was waiting for him on the third floor. She made no effort to chat, and he glanced at her profile as he followed her down the hallway. Her tight jaw, and shadows under her eyes indicated a rough night. He wondered if it had anything to do with people from another universe, but he hadn’t figured out a way of broaching his suspicions.
Dinnie stopped in front of a sealed door, an alert guard standing next to it. She turned to Andy, her expression empty of emotion. “You’ll be working in here. There’s a guard inside as well. Remember all those nondisclosure forms you signed?”
He raised an eyebrow and nodded, more uneasy than ever.
“The presence and identity of your coworker is top secret information. Once you enter this lab, there’s no turning back.”
She had to see how nervous he was. This was one reason he never wanted to get too involved with the rebels. He didn’t have the stomach for it. But Moira was counting on him. He gestured to the door, inviting Dinnie to open it. She did, and he followed her in.
~~~
Sarah stood in the laboratory the guard had brought her to, and glared at the computer screen that displayed her instructions in indifferent black and white. Feldman had been thorough, as if leaving nothing to chance. She was to design a new time machine, based on CERBO, that was useable within this universe, as well as for interdimensional travel. Further, she was to design shielded containers that would allow them to transport people within the Sol system, including the earth-moon-NISS system, whatever NISS was, and around the planet itself.
Her glare turned into a confused scowl. Shielded containers? Shielded from what? This must be Sam’s doing, throwing red herrings around to keep Feldman unaware of CERBO’s true versatility.
“If so, that’s good,” she muttered. “I just wish I knew what the red herrings are.”
She also wished Sam had told Feldman that they couldn’t transport within a universe. They could, of course, but it had not been a priority. Well, she could use that to stall. Tell Feldman she wasn’t sure of what she was doing.
Turning her back on the monitor, she saw her own computer on a table near a wall of cabinets. She switched it on, then gasped at the obscene blue-and-gold sun logo that appeared on her screen. What had that bastard done to her computer?
Then she realized that he’d done nothing to it. It was just that Sun’s was the only network available to its signal. Sure enough, the logo went away, replaced with an innocuous home page chronicling the best of Sun’s public projects. Sarah doubted the public would ever know about the bridge.
Lips tight, she accessed the virtual keyboard and sent the home page to computer purgatory. Then she opened her own program for neutrino alteration, shaking her head in understated despair. I’m just an engineer. I need Sam or Uncle Jamie to give me the numbers.
She could do it, though. Uncle Jamie would never approve, unless he’d personally checked each equation, but there was no denying that she could do it. She typed furiously, overwhelmed with the thought that this world had no Uncle Jamie, or Dad, or Mum. Well, maybe a woman the same as Mum, except she wouldn’t be Sarah’s mum. This world had no Sarah, for that matter.
Home was suddenly very dear.
~~~
Inside the lab, clicking sounds led Andy and Dinnie around a hulking STM at the end of a long table. A man fiddling with its innards turned at their approach, giving Andy an appraising glance before turning his attention to Dinnie. As she introduced them, Andy tried to figure out why Sam Altair looked, and his name sounded, familiar.
Before he could give it much thought, his new co-worker issued a challenge. “Your file says you’ve just earned your masters. You realize this is pretty advanced stuff we’ll be doing?”
The implied “are you up to it?” rankled a bit, but Andy supposed he shouldn’t let it show. Instead, he shrugged. “At the moment, I’m rather in the dark about what we’ll be doing. But if it involves the neutrino bridge I saw last night, I assure you I can keep up.”
Sam looked skeptical, but Dinnie put a hand out. “Mr. Green is as knowledgeable as anyone else in the world about this subject. If he doesn’t know it, no one else does either.”
“Why?” Sam raised his shoulders in obvious confusion. “You had the basics of it a hundred years ago, yet you don’t seem to be any further along in the study of it.”
Dinnie flushed, but her chin jutted out in defiance. “We’ve had other priorities, Dr. Altair. Such as survival. A good deal of the knowledge gained during the twentieth century was lost as climate change accelerated. We’re catching up now.”
“And surpassing it,” Andy said, now certain that this man came from another universe. His hands trembled with the knowledge, and he stuffed them into his pockets. “My next step is to study the deliberate manipulation of neutrinos.”
Sam pressed a button, bringing the STM to humming life. “Prepare yourself for a crash course in that subject, Mr. Green. Just the Cliff Notes version. I don’t have time for details.”
Andy watched through narrowed eyes. “Did you build that bridge, Dr. Altair?”
“I did.” Sam was peering into the tunnel, making minute adjustments to several knobs. “Our job here is to make another one, and teach Albert Feldman how to use it.”
“Feldman?” Andy jerked at the name of Sun’s notorious executive. “Is he involved in this?”
Dinnie handed him a file. “Not your concern, Mr. Green. I believe Dr. Altair will need these data input into the STM’s computer. Why don’t you have a seat, and have at it? I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”