Date: Jan, 13th 2003
Location: A diner just south of new Mexico about 20 minutes away from Stallion's Gate.
Sam found himself standing in the entrance of a rundown roadside dinner. He walked over towards the serving counter, took a seat on a stool, and picked up a menu. As he did a woman who looked to be around 60 walked over. "So what`ll it be?" She asked him.
"Huh?" Sam replied looked up at her startled at the prompt service then realised she was waiting for him to order, "I take a coffee please" she walked off. Sam looked round and saw a TV in the corner, which was showing a breaking news story the headline read 'explosion heard in mountains near Stallion's Gate', Sam recognised the place name so continued watching, but the news program ended. Sam looked away noticing the waitress was back and had just placed a mug of black coffee on the counter in front of him, he thanked her.
"Would you like milk, sugar in there?" she asked him.
"Just milk please" she poured some milk in from the jug she was holding and went to leave, "do you have a newspaper I can look at, please?" the waitress went to the backroom, he then remembered why he knew Stallions gate. "That's where home is," he said to himself. 'What happened? Al where are you?' He started to wonder if everything was ok there.
The waitress returned carrying a newspaper and handed it to him. He thanked her and looked at the front page for the date, he checked again Jan 13th 2003. "I've been doing this for nearly 14 years now?" he spoke aloud.
"Time flies doesn't it?" the waitress asked him. He realised she had overheard him so he nodded.
"Sure does" she was about to ask further questions, when the diner door opened, so she walked off to serve the new customer.
"Hey Sam?" he heard a familiar voice speak turning round he saw Al Calavicci standing next to him, wearing a white suit jacket with a pale blue shirt underneath its top two buttons were unfastened.
"Al, it's good to see you, why am I here?" Sam asked he wanted to ask about Stallions Gate, but saw the Waitress was heading in their direction.
Al looked at his hand link slapped it and gave it an annoyed look then placed it back into his pocket "Ziggy, has no data" Al reluctantly replied the frustration showing in his face. He took a seat on a stool next to Sam.
"So what`ll it be?" the waitress finally asked, Sam went to say he was ok, but Al replied.
"I'm good just here to meet my friend." Sam looked at Al shocked, then looked at the waitress "You can see my friend?" Sam enquired.
"Of course I can, I may be getting older now, but my eyes are not that bad." She responded, annoyance at Sam showing in her face.
"Actually I'll take a coffee white extra sweet," Al ordered. She walked off to get the drink.
Sam reached his hand to place it on Als shoulder, expecting it to pass through him, but instead it stayed in place, Sam left his hand there and tried his other hand, with the same result. Realising Al was actually there sitting in front of him and was not a hologram from the future he pulled his friend closer to him into an embrace. Tears started to fall from his eyes. When he released him, Al spoke. "Sam, you're home, Stallion's Gate, is less than a 20 minute drive that way" Sam looked in the direction Al pointed, then quickly grabbed a napkin holder to look at his reflection in the smooth metallic finish. However, instead of his own face, a young handsome face belonging to a person in his mid-late 20s looked back at him.
Sam was about to question Al when the hand link beeped "Thank you Ziggy." Al said in irritation then relayed message to Sam. "Your name is Celvin Smithe. You were born April 1st 1987." the waitress interrupted them by placing the coffee in front of Al, and stayed there, to see if they required anything else. He tasted it "perfect thank you" he beamed a big smile towards her, making her smile back in gratitude.
"You boys require anything else?" They both replied they were fine, "If you require anything further just call" She left them.
When she was gone, Al continued "You were born in Miami Florida where you are a small time TV heartthrob who starred in several daytime soap operas'" This was not the info Sam wanted so he interrupted Als monologue.
"Al, I saw on the TV earlier this news headline, something about an explosion in the mountains near Stallion's Gate... What happened?" he enquired.
Al, looked at Sam and shook his head, "so, you heard about that?" Al got up and stared to pace a distant look now on his face. "OK, Sam. This goes against the rules, but I believe that is why your here. There was a small power failure in the mainframe of Ziggys CPU, which led to an explosion. It damaged several vital components so we are currently running at half capacity. When I left the components were being replaced, that's why there was a delay in getting the details." Al grabbed his coffee and took a sip before continuing, "However there's another problem, the interface is all messed up and the ego is gone, we restored most of the interface via a backup but we cannot get the ego back. It is just not there, it has been replaced with the ego of an elderly Asian man's. As for the interface, well everything seems to be ok at first, but then it messes up again, we do not know what to do Sam. Personally I blame that new chip we installed last week since it was made in Japan." Al sat back down and took another sip of his coffee. Sam sat there absorbing what Al had said, while sipping his own.
"Al, is it ok for me to come take a look for myself? Maybe I can fix it?" Sam finally asked.
"That's why I believe you are here now Sam." Al grabbed a mobile phone from his pocket and dialled a number "Gushie, it's Al... I am with Sam I'm bringing him in now, he needs clearance..." Al waited for a couple minutes "... Ok we'll be there in 20 minutes see ya Gushie"
Al called the waitress over to pay her for the coffees. He handed her $10 telling her to "keep the change" she took the money and the cups and thanked Al as they left the dinner.
In the parking lot, they walked towards where two cars were. Al pointed at a Red Porsche convertible "this is your car Sam." Sam felt in his pockets and found the keys.
"Which way was it Al?" while admiring the car. He starting thinking 'This car looks like it can get some speed going.' He then opened the driver's door and climbed in. A huge grin appeared on his face at the prospect of driving the car.
"Just follow me, we will have to take the main gate since you currently lack the required clearance for the employees tunnel" Al got into his own car and drove towards the road, Sam followed him as they sped off away from the dinner. Sam found he was struggling to keep up with Al.
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When they reached the security check point the guard handed Sam a visitors ID and a parking pass. "Ok, Mr Smithe just follow the Admiral" Sam thanked the guard and followed Al to the private secure parking zone, parking next to Al.
"Ah Calavicci-San, so good to see your safe return. You bring Beckett-Sensi here?" Al looked at Sam
"Yes Ziggy, he's here with me now" Al replied
"Hello ziggy, are full diagnostics under way?" Sam asked realising he could speak to Ziggy
"Ah, Beckett-Sensei full diagnostic print out in Okusan's hands." Sam smiled as he started to remember Donna his wife. He smiled as he saw Donna standing there by the door that would take them from the car park into the main complex. As he walked over towards her a phone started to ring Sam realised it was Celvin's so he reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone in question
"Hello?" he answered
"Yo, Celvin, its Rex you still going to get to California within a week?" the person on the other end asked.
"Hi Rex err there's been an unexpected delay I'll have to get back to you with my eta"
"What delay? You know we cannot afford any delays. Just remember, if you're not on the set in 7 days time we're giving your role to Martin"
"I'll get there on time, I swear. I'll phone you tomorrow with an update" Sam replied hanging up the phone.
"Beckett-Sensei cannot be late. That role Celvin's big chance to appear in big Hollywood movie" Ziggy chimed in as Donna rushed over to hug Sam. As they embraced each other, they started to kiss.
"Good to have you back even if it's only for a short time" she said after breaking the kiss, then took a step back and looked him up and down, "nice eye candy body you leaped into, Celvin Smithe is one of my favourite soap stars" she said cupping his cheek.
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They walked into the main chamber hand in hand Sam found he recognised everybody except for a slightly younger woman in her mid-30s, she was wearing a loose fitting pink jumper and black sweat pants, he smiled at her and shook her hand. Al introduced her as Sammy-Jo. Upon hearing her name he remembered her and realised she was his biological daughter.
After catching up with everyone, Sam started to work with Sammy-Jo looking through Ziggys code. After a couple hours, he had identified the problem and had written a patch to repair the problem. He gave Sammy-Jo the patch to check it over, while he wrote an updated routine for the imaging and acceleration chamber. When they were ready, he passed her the new programs to look at then upload. He got up and stretched then saw Donna standing there holding two plates. He walked over to her and took the plates "just like the old days before you leaped" she said making Sam smile.
"Yeah, it already feels like I never left." he walked over to Sammy Jo, who had just finished looking over the updated programs and had started the upload into Ziggy's CPU, and handed her one of the plates she took it thanking him and Donna.
After finishing eating, they saw the upload was complete. Sammy-Jo watched as he switched status of the new code from pending to test. Then set the corrupted code to deletion. He smiled at Sammy before ordering "Ziggy self test of new code audio results."
"You forgot to say please Doctor Beckett" Ziggy replied in the old original voice.
He laughed then added "please Ziggy."
"Of course Doctor Becket, the test will take precisely 5.23 minutes to complete." Sammy-Jo whimpered and lifted her jumper up revealing her swollen mid section and placed her hand on it which made Sam's medical training kick in.
"You ok?" he enquired.
She pulled the jumper back down "I'm fine, just a slight pain its gone now."
"How far along are you?"
"About 8 months, due date is not for another couple weeks."
Sam nodded, as she changed the subject "You are even more amazing than I heard, you spotted that progressive coding error I made when I updated the backup program last week. I should never have changed your code, but the backup was taking too long, this update reduces how long it takes by 40 minutes."
Sam just smiled at her "It is good code I nearly missed it. The new code should indeed make things a lot smoother. I updated the rest of the code to allow smoother incorporation of yours" Just then Ziggy interrupted them.
"Self test complete all systems projected to run at 110% of previous efficiency, all systems normal. Sam smiled, feeling pleased with himself and of Sammy-Jo. He set the new code to live, and deleted the corrupted.
"Well looks like everything is fixed and running better than before." he said then looked towards Donna who had just walked into the room. He embraced her before announcing to her "I believe its time I stopped leaping through time and come home in my own body. I'm getting to old for this leaping into young people." He kissed her, then took her hand and escorted her into the main chamber Sammy-Jo followed them, taking a seat offered to her by Tina. "Ziggy, what are the odds of my returning to my own body here and Celvin returning to his own if we both simo-leaped into each other." Donna put a hand on his shoulder in hope.
"The chances of a successful retrieval of Doctor Samuel Beckett with those conditions are 89.64%" Ziggy responded after a moment's hesitation.
"Those are very good odds Sam" Al said, "Beth will be pleased, after all when I'm at home she always complains that she never gets to see enough of me." Beth walked over to Al and gave him a playful slap on the chest.
"It's not complaining just would be nice if you were able to spend more of your time at home with me instead of here observing his leaps" Beth replied. Sam looked over to Beth remembering how he leaped into her house and told her the story of how Al was still alive, saving their marriage.
"Well if this works, you will see him a lot more. It's time I stopped this leaping I'm getting too old for this."
Sam got changed into the white jumpsuit, while Celvin was escorted from the waiting room to the accelerator chamber door, Sam and Celvin stepped into the acceleration chamber and vanished within the waiting room they both reappeared Sam looked into the mirror and the reflection showed his own albeit older face. He cheered to himself thinking 'I'm home'. He looked over to the other person who was looking disoriented "Where am I, what am I wearing here?" Celvin asked. Sam and Al tried to explain what they could about where he was, while Tina examined him.
After Tina cleared Celvin for release, Al took him to the parking area so he could move on and continue with his life.
In the main chamber Donna was holding Sam's hand, saying it was good to have him back home. Sammy-Jo grabbed her mid-section and let out a whimper Sam looked at her. He walked over to see if she was ok, a wet patch appeared on the chair she was on and her whimpering turned into a scream. She grabbed Sam's hand and screamed at him "I think I'm in labour...!" Sam took control his medical training kicking in.
A couple hours later, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Sam smiled holding the baby he cradled he baby and whispered to Donna, "I'm a grandfather." He handed the baby to Sanmmy-Jo who took the baby, then looked at Sam.
"What do you mean, Grandfather?" Sam realised she had heard him and that she did not know he was her father. He told her he would explain after she had recovered. She nodded and instantly fell asleep from exhaustion with the baby resting in her arms.
The next day, Sam explained to her about his leaping to help her mother, how he was initially her grandfather, then her mother's fiancée and then finally the Lawyer.
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edited : June 27th 2013, rewritten to fix mistakes.