Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists from the Dyad Institute into the desert to develop a top secret project known as QUANTUM LEAP. Pressured by neolutionists to prove his theories or lose funding, Doctor Beckett prematurely stepped into the Project Accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was 1 of the clones from another Dyad project known as Project Leda. Fortunately, contact with his own time was made through brainwave transmissions with Al, Sam's monitor and project observer, who appeared in the form of a hologram that only Doctor Beckett can see and hear. Trapped in the past, Doctor Beckett finds himself leaping from clone to clone, putting things right that the Proletheans made wrong and hoping each time that his next leap...will be the leap home.
Act 1
This may be the darkest room that I've ever leapt into. I'll have to use my other 4 senses in order to gain my bearings from an, as usual, disorienting leap. I hear rustling of what I think is a liquid and horns. Am I on a boat in a body of water? I smell...a type of algae that tells me that I'm near a freshwater lake. I taste...sugar, I think my host has a junk food addiction. I feel...metal bars all around me and I'm unable to stand up. So I'm being held captive in a cage that's probably more suitable for a decent sized dog. Without Al coming through the imaging chamber door, this may be all of the information I can get right now.
Or can I? I also feel like my entire back is an open wound, like my host has many fresh cuts on their back side. I want to say that there's a pattern in the cuts, but thinking about that is a bit disturbing. OK, I need to find a reflective surface. A mirror, a puddle of water, a shiny piece of metal will suffice. After looking around, a flickering light in the distance shows that I have a razor blade of all things in the cage with me, but it's bloody. Does my host self-mutilate? That's unfortunate. Then some of my host's hair falls into my face. It's blonde, unkempt, and reminds me of a fight I had in Helsinki, some time ago.
Oh boy...I'm Helena.
Project Quantum Clone Leap, New Mexico
Current Date: November 17th, 2011
"CODE RED IN THE WAITING ROOM, WE HAVE A CODE RED IN THE WAITING ROOM!"
Dr. Verbeena Beeks was not used to shouting (much less through an intercom), in fact she was probably the most quiet staff member of Project Quantum Leap (before and after the Dyad takeover). So for her to shout meant that this was a legitimate emergency (validated by the alarms that Ziggy put into effect right away on her behalf). There weren't many incidents of violence among the people who got put into Dr. Sam Beckett as he set right in their lives what once went wrong, but after Leon Stiles (a drifter turned murderer from the southern United States), there was about 2 incidents a year. But it was no less easier on everyone, as they were fighting someone inside the mind of their friend.
"You hold me captive? Only Proletheans own me!" said...whoever this was inside Sam. Even the way the head tilted from side to side was...unsettling to Dr. Beeks. But the word Proletheans repeated itself in Dr. Beeks head, as she had taken the liberty of reading the files that Dyad had on their clone project ever since the takeover. And Dr. Beeks suddenly realized that only one clone had had significant dealings with that group of people for any length of time in their lives.
"You're...Helena" said Dr. Beeks, who by now was fighting back tears from the pain of fighting over the killer clone.
"You know my name too? You're loose end I must tie up" said Helena as Sam as she grabbed a metal chair to use as a weapon, frustrated that someone could actually defend themselves against her and her training. Dr. Beeks was too terrified to move, accepting that she was about to be beaten to death by someone inside her primary patient and friend...
...except that the chair was grabbed by not 1 but 2 of her other friends. Namely, Tom Beckett and Al Calavicci.
"That will be quite enough of that" said Tom.
"Jesus. Helena's mercenary attitude in Sam's body? I'm surprised my arm isn't broken. The bluetooth headset that was in my hand is in a could of pieces" said Al while holding onto the one leg of the chair he caught while Tom held another. Even the 2 of them were just barely a match for this crazy clone, at least until Beth Calavicci stabbed what she saw as Sam in the right butt cheek with a syringe, pushing down on the plunger as hard as she could. Helena as Sam was out cold about 10 seconds later.
"That was scary" said Tom as he helped Dr. Beeks stand up.
"No, the fact that I had to give her the entire needle and it still took about 10 seconds for her to go down is scary. 1 third of what I had in the syringe is usually enough to put down a medium sized horse in under 3 seconds. So Helena has probably been the victim of a lot of torture and brainwashing since she was a child, thus developing a high tolerance, not unlike a drug addict." said Beth as she stared the needle, still shocked that she needed all of its' contents.
"From what I read in Dyad's file about these Proletheans, they're the absolute worst elements of fundamentalist Christianity combined with a general hatred of Science." said Dr. Beeks.
"Swell, they must love us" said Al sarcastically, who then stuck his left arm out. A blue light then began running up and down Al's arm, indicating a scan by Ziggy.
"Some bruising, Admiral, but no break. You'll be fine in a few days. Dr. Calavicci, get some ice for your husband. Al get another bluetooth before you enter the imaging chamber. Feel free to get the old handlink out of storage, if you must" announced Ziggy. Beth nodded, and excused herself. Sammi Jo entered the room almost immediately afterwards, then shook her head at the sleeping Helena as Sam on the floor.
"With her already out, we have no way of figuring out where or when she came from" she said, looking a bit sad that someone had to put her father to sleep.
"That's...not...entirely...accurate" chimed in Ziggy hesitantly.
"Explain" said Al, looking up at the ceiling as if his brain registered that the parallel hybrid computer was speaking to him from above.
"Well, I must give credit to Dyad where credit is due. The extensive list of upgrades that they've put into me are large enough for even me to not have finished going through all of them as of yet. But, I think I can get the date from...inside Helena as Dr. Beckett." said Ziggy, with an air of uncertainty seldom (if ever) heard in the machine's voice.
"What are you going to do? Probe the brain and ascertain some sort of temporal discrepancy between Helena's brain and the present day?" asked Tom in complete belief.
"I think your missing in time brother has had a positive effect on you, Mr. Beckett. That's exactly what I plan to do. Everyone please give me several feet of space in all directions of the body. This is my first time trying this, and not even I know if I'll succeed." ordered Ziggy
Everyone followed Ziggy's instructions, as they took her uncertainty more seriously than her certainty. A blueish-green light shown on the unconscious body of Dr. Sam Beckett, to get to the mind of Helena (the humans around Sam were frustrated that not even Dyad knew Helena's last name, though that also was why she eluded even them, even now). Then the light ceased, and Dr. Beeks checked the inside of Sam's wrist. Her right thumb going up indicated that Dr. Beckett was alive and no worse off as a result of the scan.
"Well? Anything?" asked Sammi Jo after about 6 seconds of silence.
"This is...startling, to say the least." said Ziggy awkwardly.
"Elaborate, using layman's terms, as best you can" stated Al, who may have actually have felt sympathy for Ziggy, as Ziggy may have been stumped.
"The scan I just performed should have produced a negative number inside of me. Specifically, the number of seconds that the subject's brain is behind today's date in accordance to their...internal clock, is the least scientific term that I can use." said Ziggy, trying to regain a cybernetic composure of sorts.
"OK, sounds simple enough. The bigger the number, the further back Sam leapt in time" offered Tom.
"It...produced a positive number. Leaving me with only 2 answers, both of which are about equally plausible. Either this upgrade wasn't installed correctly or..." started Ziggy.
"Or Sam leapt into the future, where Al will probably never be able to reach him as we've never prepared for this moment." said Sammi Jo, now staring off toward the wall, horrified at the reality of a problem that was discussed but never realized in the entire history of Project Quantum Leap.
"Assuming that the second answer is the right one, how far ahead are we talking about?" asked Tom, who then wrapped his arms around his niece.
"The number itself kept fluctuating. As Helena is probably the most seriously damaged mentally out of everyone that Dr. Beckett (save for Aaron Collins and MAYBE Leon Stiles). 1 year, 4 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 3 hours and 14 minutes is the median. But I must inform you all that I have no idea as to how accurate I would be in this scenario, even if Helena were mentally stable." said Ziggy, almost pleading to be forgiven for a mistake she had no idea she could make until a minute ago.
"It's all we have to go on. Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow inside the imaging chamber so that we...send Al forward." announced Sammi Jo. Everyone got to work as Al headed for storage.
I think the boredom of being unable to do much of anything is the worst part of being caged, so far. I haven't been here long enough to be full-on starving, but I am hungry. Then again, if Al shows up, it's not like he can feed me holographic food. The anxiety is a close second, and I imagine that Al felt exactly like this when he was a P.O.W. in Vietnam.
"How's it going, Sam? I think yours is smaller than mine was back in 1968" came Al's voice. He was wearing a Royal Blue, almost purple 3 piece suit and cowboy boots made from Alligator skin. But Sam's main focus was on the holographic image and sound of his best friend and project observer.
"Al? You sound so distorted." said Sam.
"You sound and look distorted to me too, Sam. Sammi Jo, tune the frequency in the opposite direction than normal. OK, that's better. Sorry Sam, we're in uncharted waters with this leap." he said in the form of an apology.
"Since when is that not in effect?" asked Sam sarcastically.
"Sam...you finally went to the other side of the string" said Al softly, hoping that Sam would remember enough about his own string theory to put the pieces together.
"I'm...in what you would perceive as the future?" asked Sam, already calculating the ramifications of what was happening.
"Not that far into the future, but yes. Near as Ziggy can tell, your current date is somewhere around the first of April in 2013, give or take 7 days."
"My present day is...November of 2011. Somewhere in the mid-month but I can guess that at least a few people on the project have already made thanksgiving plans outside the project" guessed Sam.
"Your Swiss-cheesed memory can guess that?" asked Al.
"Yeah. I can't figure out how you found me when there's an infinite number of possible futures." said Sam, mildly frustrated.
"Well Sam, we've had your Quantum signature on file ever since Ziggy began using quantum computing elements. So we modified her to send me forward once we used your quantum signature in your RNA."
"I guess I should be thankful that you found me at all." said Sam, Al nodded.
"Why was this even needed? Was the patient so disoriented that no date could be extracted from them?" asked Sam.
"Actually, the opposite. Remember, this is Helena that we're talking about. About your equal in fighting with massive mental instabilities" offered Al.
"I remember her from Helsinki. So I guess that she tried to rough up someone but was stopped?" asked Sam, looking traumatized.
"If I still smoked cigars and you were real, I'd give you one right now. Anyways, Dyad's upgrades include Ziggy being able to scan the patient in order to get that date. The info was weird at first, even by Ziggy's standards, but Sammi Jo figured it out." replied Al.
"Brilliant. You're uneasy about me in the cage, aren't you?" asked Sam out of legit concern.
"Yes sir. Makes me wonder if Tom ever got captured but kept it a secret" thought Al out loud.
"He never told me" said Sam while trying his best to shrug.
"Actually, no. As a retired Admiral, I would've been informed of any M.I.A. status when I went over his dossier to hire him to join the project. Even though he is your brother, I wouldn't just skim over his file like that." added Al after a moment to think.
"So, is my mission for me as Helena to escape? Or is it to to keep her in here? Neither would surprise me, as she is one of the 10 most psychotic people I've ever encountered in my leaping."
Al let out a dejected sigh, then said "Yeah, that was why we had to subdue her in the waiting room. She attacked Dr. Beeks. It took Tom, myself and Beth a needle of tranquilizer to put her down. Even then, I'm surprised she didn't put at least Tom and I in the hospital." Al then turned on his bluetooth headset, then mumbled something to Ziggy. After a minute, he spoke again "It's mostly your first guess, but with a twist: You have to wait until someone comes to help you escape as Ziggy says the most likely outcome of her escaping alone is to get killed by a group of religious zealots. Oh, and Helena broke y first bluetooth so don't be surprised if I go back and forth between this and the old rainbow handlink"
Sam made a non-verbal gesture of dismissal, then immediately flashed back to a party from 1984. Specifically, a meeting between himself and Dr. Aldous Leekie.
"Proletheans. I'm technically the one who named them back then, although I'm very much ashamed of that." said Sam in terror.
"I...dreamt of that night not long before the Dyad buyout. I had no idea that you really did name them. Apparently NBC had some of them protesting the TV show. That's actually what lead to the temporary cancellation after season 3 which is when Gooshie suggested that they do that leap where you leapt into the loony bin. It was the most interesting way to do a clip show in TV history, according to TV Guide a few years later. We got 2 more seasons, much to the chagrin of the Proletheans." ranted Al.
"I commend Ziggy for giving me a mission when I'm ahead of her, time-wise. She's basically calculating from near infinite possibilities of things that may never come to pass. I can only imagine how many circuits she blew trying to locate me." said Sam with more than a slight hint of praise in his voice.
"She didn't. Once her polarity was reversed, it was actually easy." replied Al proudly.
"That explains why I've been feeling queasy ever since you got here. I've never been in a leap with Ziggy's polarity reversed. That said, I understand why you did what you did, and I do appreciate the effort"
"You're welcome. And you're right, it's a side effect. I'm not feeling too well myself." said Al in sympathy.
"I theorize that the queasiness will grow exponentially with the length of your visits. I recommend you keep your updates to a minimum until I leap out of here." said Sam.
"Normally I would consider vetoing that as I am your one link back home. But in light of everything, I'll agree for now. Unless you're in the cage for too long" said Al, who opened the chamber door and left.
Sam felt physically better, but emotionally worse.
To say that Dr. Leekie had his fingers in many pies, would be a vast understatement. It was actually beginning to get difficult for even him to keep track of everything he was involved in pertaining to Dyad or Neolution. He was currently on a private jet over North American airspace, but the clouds underneath his plane masked his way of finding out his exact location.
It was only in that brief moment that he even wanted to know where he was before the cell phone in his pocket began vibrating. He took it out and saw that the phone number, while partly unknown to him, had a 575 area code, he immediately visualized a vast majority of the state of New Mexico, then smiled as he pushed the talk button:
"Hello. Ah, Dr. Fuller, how are you?" he asked, trying to sound cheerful.
"Still settling down from the beginning of the newest leap. We had no idea that you made a clone completely insane" came Sammi Jo's reply.
"Dr. Fuller, I can assure you that all of the clones under Dyad's control are of perfect mental health" replied Dr. Leekie in what he new was probably a half-truth at best.
"As best we can tell from the slightly altered voice of Sam Beckett and a lack of proper grammar in the sentence structures when she first got here. I suspect that this clone is from a rural part of the former Soviet Union, the Ukraine perhaps?" offered Sammi Jo.
Dr. Leekie went through the list of clones in his mind that had ever been made. Only 2 came up, and only 1 interested him.
"Helena?" he asked hopefully.
"Yes Sir, she's still under sedation. We had to use some of your upgrades to Ziggy in order to pinpoint the date in which Sam leapt" said Sammi Jo in a manner that suggested she may have broken some protocol in Dyad that she didn't know about.
"That would be why I ordered the upgrades to be implemented. So that Al can monitor Sam better" said Dr. Leekie, trying to sound cheerful while already planning a way to make sure Helena stayed in Sam permanently.
"Even you forgot 1 detail, sir." said Sammi Jo very sternly.
"I rarely do, but I'm all ears" said Dr. Leekie, now switching to asking himself if Sammi Jo needed to terminated with extreme prejudice.
"Well, Sam's string theory is not limited to his past, but his whole lifetime...meaning..." Sammi Jo intentionally stopped talking, letting Dr. Leekie think for a minute before he finished "Sam is in the future? Good God, I'm amazed you found him, even with my changes to Ziggy" said Dr. Leekie in pure astonishment. He immediately forgot about killing Sammi Jo, happy to have been wrong for once.
"Speaking of Ziggy, she estimates that Helena will only be asleep for about another 50 minutes before she wakes up due to past experience with sedatives. Do we have your authorization to restrain her for the duration of the leap?" asked Sammi Jo.
"I'm actually a tad insulted that she isn't already. So yes I do authorize it, in fact, I think you'll find that Ziggy isn't the only thing that we upgraded. Leekie out." replied Dr. Leekie with confidence as he terminated the call, knowing that Sammi Jo was safe for now.
"I wonder if my future self will go after her, she is my white whale, after all" he mumbled to himself.
Helena's grogginess was still prevalent, even with something of a partial immunity to whatever they injected her with. But she still knew on some level that a lot was wrong. For starters, she felt many, many years older. Secondly, she felt about the same level of strength, but a better sense of discipline than she had ever had before. Finally, she felt bigger, as big as, well...
"I am boy now?" she mumbled to herself.
"Your mind is inside a boy, yes" came a voice that sounded slightly like a girl, but also...false?
"Why can't I move?" Helena as Sam asked to...no one in particular.
"Because you're the first person in Quantum Leap history, well, since the post-Dyad takeover to be dangerous enough to warrant the use of one of our new toys. This is an electromagnetic stasis field. It's a prototype Dyad built especially for us. They hope to one day use it to immobilize people for medical transport, say if you're paralysed or something. But for now, it'll do nicely on you."
Tom Beckett managed to say all that from the room's entrance before Ziggy could say it for him (Helena as Sam couldn't see any of it other than the ceiling, which Helena did silently admit that it was a nice shade of blue). Then he walked in, and even came to the left side of the large, black machine that was restraining Helena...
...and then he took out his sidearm (a .44 magnum pistol) and aimed the long barrel close enough for her to see.
"I wish they had this when Leon Stiles came to visit. It would've saved Al, Gooshie and the rest of the project a very big headache.
"Gooshie, little guy with bad breath? He dead now." replied Helena, who then added "How in hell do I know that?"
"Our guess is that a piece of Sam is still here and a piece of you is still in the future." replied Tom flatly, making sure to keep eye contact with Helena, even if she was trapped in the body of his own brother.
"It look too cold to be built by anyone other than army" said Helena thoughtfully (even though she couldn't see much of the machine either).
"Good guess. The U.S. Department of Defence started working on this not long after the Leon incident, actually. Then 9/11 happened and their priority shifted to surveillance. Dyad bought the patents a year ago and gave us their first one."
"I am now inside the old man who fight me so well inside the bodies of the bad sheep?" asked Helena. Tom nodded at first, then Helena began rambling about every time she saw Sam. To Tom's horror, most of them hadn't happened yet, from his perspective. Seeing that Tom had actually moved closer to her, gun and all, she immediately began crying. In Tom's experience, he guessed that she was crying out of guilt. He at first, dismissed the notion, as he considered her to be a complete sociopath.
But then Helena lifted her head up. Even in electromagnetic stasis, she was strong enough to have her forehead pressing against his gun barrel.
"Do it"
Act 2
Sam had been alone inside that cage for several hours (at least he thought that he did, there was no clock anywhere nearby). Given how dark it was, his mind might have been playing tricks on him in a similar manner to a prisoner spending time in solitary confinement. It was an uncommon event that the imaging chamber door was his best source of light, for the grand total of the 3 seconds that it took for Al to walk through and have it disappear behind him.
"How's it going, Sam?" asked Al, who only then noticed that Sam wasn't looking at him, or at anything in particular.
"It's official, I'm never going home. As long as I never leapt into what for me is the future, I could take some comfort in knowing that I might one day return to my present. But now that I'm in my own future, there's nothing left for me to hold onto." said Sam, who actually cried a single tear out of his right eye. Al actually tried to hug Sam, briefly forgetting that he was a hologram who couldn't touch him. He did however notice, that Sam never even gave Al a glance.
"Ziggy, if there's any trace of Helena in Sam, adjust my frequency accordingly. Thank You" said Al into the bluetooth. After about 20 seconds, Sam shifted his focus.
"Al? It was so weird. I could hear your voice, but only see this little girl. The feeling when I saw her was the worst guilt I've ever felt. Even worse than I when I leapt into myself as a senior in high school and couldn't save my own family."
"I'm just glad you're back. I've never seen you that sad before." said Al, beginning to relax.
"Al, as I'm still in this cage until I get the go ahead from you and Ziggy to escape, would you please be so kind as to look around where I am? It might help me be at ease, or at least we'll have a route out of here when the time comes?" asked Sam.
"Oh sure Sam." said Al. The sounds that Sam had heard several thousand times before of Al vanishing only to appear at a different point almost instantly was registered at least a dozen times, before finally returning to his original point.
"OK. We're on the lower galley of a decent sized boat. The ceiling is very well soundproofed so screaming for help won't do you any good and there are at least a dozen armed fisherman on board at the moment so Ziggy says it's over 99% that leaving now would kill you." ranted Al, who then began to feel out of breath.
"What about the lower galley itself?" asked Sam.
"Well, there's a cot, some cheap LED lighting scattered across the galley, and bloodied razor blades that are even more scattered across this place"
"My Helena's handler cut himself shaving?" said Sam sarcastically. Al then walked around and stared at what would be Helena's back.
"No Sam. She's into...self-mutilating. The extensive cutting seems to be her way of drawing intricate wings over her back. An Angry Angel of some kind?" asked Al as he stared at the back of the body that Sam leapt into, terrified. Sam found something resembling clothing and put it on.
"That is very much unlike you Ziggy. You're..." began Dr. Beeks.
"Normally detached from everyone that Dr. Beckett leaps into? I agree with you, which is all the more reason that you should heed my advice and not interview Helena at all for the rest of this leap. I have been concerned with your safety since her attack earlier and do not want you getting injured if Helena somehow breaks out of the stasis unit."
"Before Dyad bought the patents, the military put 800 pound animals in stasis without issue in a smaller version of this machine. Helena is maybe 140 pounds soaking wet and with a brick in each of her hands. I'll be fine" said Dr. Beeks.
"Half of those animals were already sedated via a tranquilizer that was much stronger than the one that Dr. Calavicci gave her when she first got here." stated Ziggy who then showed a holographic video of Helena fighting Sam in Helsinki in an effort to prove her point.
"Would you withdraw your objections If I went in with her?" asked Tom while staring at the ceiling.
"Cheerfully" replied Ziggy.
"Then we're in agreement" stated Dr. Beeks as she and Tom entered the stasis room. They came in to find Helena still restrained but she was crying severely while staring at the ceiling.
"I'm not impressed. Sociopaths can cry if they think that they can get what they want." said Tom in an icy manner that Dr. Beeks wasn't used to from him.
"Very well, I'll play the good cop: Helena, what's wrong?" asked Dr. Beeks.
"I am currently receiving a new software update. For the next 5 minutes, this room will not be recorded" came an announcement from Ziggy that sounded more automated than normal.
"I was to bring her to Tomas, but I knew what he would do to her. So I let her go, then a car hit her. I don't know if she'll live." said Helena in pure sorrow.
"Who, Helena? Who are you talking about?" asked Dr. Beeks in a tone meant to convey both curiosity and sympathy.
"Little Kira. She miracle child of my sestra, Sarah."
"We've never met Kira, but we met Sarah once. Sam switched places with her like he's doing with you right now."
"I know. Knebworth, England. 1996. I saw Sam through the sniper scope and it distracted me. I only shoot dark-skinned boy helping them. It was like I can't kill Sam, because I know he represents God." said Helena in more eloquent English than she had ever spoken before.
Tom immediately held up his right index finger in front of Helena, indicating that he would be back in a moment. After walking away several feet, he began to whisper to Dr. Beeks:
"We need to find out everything about Kira, off the books so that Dyad doesn't find her."
"Ziggy dispatched Donna to that little project weeks ago. That's why she's barely been on project grounds." she replied.
"Normal surveillance will resume in 15 seconds" announced Ziggy.
"Did Ziggy manipulate everything so that we could protect Kira?" asked Dr. Beeks as they returned to within view of Helena.
"She one very smart computer sestra" whispered Helena, who then winked at them and smiled.
Sam has had periods of depression that I file into 2 categories: Leap-specific and long-term. The first time that I really noticed that he had leap-specific depression at times was when he leaped into Jimmy Lamotta. I may have bent the rules of Quantum Leap back then when I confided to Sam about my sister, Trudy, but it more or less snapped him out of it long enough to complete the mission of holding a job and saving his little brother Cory. The first time I noticed long-term depression over multiple leaps was when he leapt into himself as a 16 year old kid, then into a soldier in his brother's unit in Vietnam. That one was trickier as a journalist died who wasn't supposed to, Tom Beckett made it home, but my one opportunity to escape Vietnam was lost (but a few years later, Sam even fixed that so that Beth never left me). I try to assess what I need to do to snap him out of it immediately. Usually, it's with simple moral support, others it's actually arguing with him (arguing with a man Time magazine called the next Einstein is always difficult). But this? I'm completely lost as to what to do.
"Al? I think I've figured out a way to figure out today's date and my location more accurately than Ziggy" said Sam in a momentary lapse of happiness.
"I'm listening" said Al, not wanting to risk putting his best friend back in melancholy.
"If you go outside and let Ziggy scan the sky above you, she can figure out a near exact date and location based on the positions of the stars. Even if it's daylight outside, there will be stars to analyze." said Sam with some passion.
"OK Sam, I'm on it" said Al, just happy to have something resembling his friend back.
Leaping into the future? Wow. I know that there's a writer in...Wisconsin, I think? Who wrote me into a crossover story with the cast of Back to the Future. I've leapt into a few of the readers and I must say, it was a very well written story. Especially the sequel that hypothesized that I needed to leap into my own present with another brilliant scientific mind for the best possible chance of me getting home. A shame that Doctor Emmett Brown doesn't actually exist in the real world. I hope for a similar situation to happen to me, sooner rather than later.
"Sam, we did it. Ziggy is analyzing everything now and will have the results in 3...2...1. OK, You are somewhere adjacent to Lake Ontario (likely the Greater Toronto Area) and the date is April 4th, 2013. Ziggy must make clear that even she could be off by a day in either direction as this is completely new ground for her." said Al.
"For all of us. If it's still in our budget, put Ziggy in for a defragmenting of all of her systems. She's earned it." said Sam with a smile. But then the smile turned back into depression.
"No Sam, don't get down in the dumps again" said Al.
"Different reason this time. I suddenly remember my sister Katie. She never did meet Chuck, did she?" he asked, referring to his abusive brother in-law.
"They did meet, but she never went on a date with him. He's currently serving 20 years for attempting to murder some other girl...who Ziggy says resembles Katie. You may not have accomplished as much as you wanted to when you leapt back into your 16 year old self. But you saved both of your siblings. Tom works on the project with us now, and Katie owns a chain of vinyl record stores. I can't believe those things are coming back." said Al.
"As long as she's safe. Al, you're fading in and out. Either Ziggy blew a chip somewhere or there's a massive power drain across the entire project." said Sam, who had now switched to worry.
"Damn! The stasis field" shouted Al as he completely faded out. Sam had neve feltr so alone in his life, much less his leaps.
The stasis field was indeed flickering in and out, but Helena chose not to take advantage and try to escape. Well, more accurately, a certain scorpion was keeping her company.
"No matter what Helena, lie still. You don't even look like you anymore" muttered Pupok.
"Insect, you know I'm not me" whispered Helena.
"You'd have to eat me to be rid of me. Listen quick, you leave here, you starve to death in the American southwest and you'll never be back in your own body again." said Pupok.
"How did you follow me? I'm not in my time?" asked Helena, more confused than ever.
"I sense all of my companions. The man that you're inside is fixing something in your future. For once in your life, stay still."
"Helena, are you going to cause trouble?" asked a very worried Beth holding not one, but 2 syringes full of tranquilizer. One in each hand.
"No. In fact, I want to help you. I think there is a blown fuse somewhere in building, I remember convent in Ukraine have problem like this when I was little girl. I also have memory of Sam and weird suit boy going over blueprints long time ago" said Helena, who was staring at the ceiling, now ignoring her...scorpion.
"That...would actually make sense. It seems Dyad didn't upgrade everything when they took over the project. If I were to bring you a special meal as a thank you, will you play nice with us?"
"Yes Dr. Calavicci, as long as it is Ukrainian." said Helena, trying to now look Beth in the eye in order to show her sincerity.
"I'm sure Ziggy has something on file." said Beth, now reassured.
"One last thing, I think power drain affect...not Sam...the one who watches Sam like guardian angel"
"AL" shouted Beth who then ran out as Tom and Verbeena entered. They distinctly heard Helena mumble in a mix of Ukraine and English to Pupok, whom neither one of them could see or hear.
Act 3
Al and Beth had caught up to each other in one of Project Quantum Leap's many vast hallways. There had been a time where both were happier to see the other, but neither one of them could remember when.
"Are you OK?" they both asked.
"I'm fine, just really worried for Sam. He's more depressed about being away from home than usual and I don't know if it's him or a piece of Helena left in him. And you?" replied Al first.
"I'm OK too. In fact, I think the piece of Sam still in Helena is her being a lot more aware of the situation than the average leap subject. She actually volunteered to remain still in exchange for food, despite the stasis field being sufficiently weakened for her to try an escape. She even made a guess that the cause was a simple blown fuse."
"A guess that I have determined to be correct, have isolated the location, and have dispatched a maintenance team to fix it accordingly. But given how some of the fuses are as old as I am, this could take some time." announced Ziggy.
"So what's the priority?" asked Beth.
"The imaging chamber, obviously. Given Sam's current mental state, I don't think he can cope with not having me there more often than usual." stated Al seriously
"Normally I would agree with you. But Helena may very well be the most mentally unhinged leap subject in history, and I'm including Leon Stiles in that. And that's not even factoring in the danger she could be to herself." countered Beth.
"My dear, you don't even know how much of an understatement that is." said Al softly. Ziggy, as if on cue, projected flickering images of Helena's back, specifically the scars that she put there.
"If it weren't for her first 5 minutes here, I would feel sorry for her." said Beth coldly.
"The Admiral is right, Dr. Calavicci. The imaging chamber wins in this case. Helena is at least somewhat aware that she's very far from home, so the probability of her escaping is less than 15% as long as no one continues any hostile behaviour towards her. Tom Beckett in particular"
Beth let out a dejected sigh, knowing that she had just lost the argument.
Sammi Jo Fuller-Beckett was always nervous making long distance phone calls to anyone, but no one more than Dr. Aldous Leekie.
"This is Leekie, go project quantum leap" came the voice on the other end of the phone.
"Hello Dr. Leekie, this is Sammi Jo, providing you with our mandated weekly update." she replied.
"Of course Miss Fuller-Beckett, you have my undivided attention"
"I actually have to begin my report by filing a grievance. We have experienced a power outage of not insignificant proportions when Dyad promised us, among many things, that we would be guaranteed constant electricity for the duration of their sponsorship."
"While that is a valid grievance to file, I am more concerned with the state of Helena" said Dr. Leekie in a failed attempt of showing that he cared about the project at all.
"OK Dr. Leekie, I've had enough of your shit. It's one thing to be detached from this project as you are rarely on site. It is quite another to dismiss something as significant as a loss of power as a minor inconvenience." screamed Sammi Jo. Even Ziggy made a few beeping noises, indicating that even the parallel hybrid computer was startled by Sammi Jo's outburst.
Dr. Leekie, if he felt anything at all, was aroused.
"Perhaps you'd care to discuss your grievance over dinner the next time I'm in New Mexico." he suggested. Sammi Jo immediately hung up in disgust, with Tom catching up with her.
"Everything OK?" he asked, knowing the answer already.
"No. Leekie made a pass at me just because I'm honest with him" said Sammi Jo, furious.
"If it's any consolation, I think Helena wanted me to put a bullet in her head. I was actually tempted to do it for one brief moment. But, not out of hate. It felt like it would be more of a mercy killing."
"Tom, I don't need to remind you that had you pulled the trigger, you would've killed your brother too" said Sammi Jo, softly.
Tom seemed completely unaffected.
Helena elected not to speak out loud for the time being, as there were people (and parallel hybrid computers) watching her, not being able to see Pupok, her scorpion companion.
"So where am I?" thought Helena in Sam's body.
"Nuevo Mexico, senorita Helena. Where my fellow Scorpions feel most at home. Somewhere in the gate of horses"
Helena took it upon herself to go inside the part of the mind that was Sam Beckett's and not her own.
"So...Stallion's Gate, New Mexico. And I've travelled back in time?" thought the transplanted Ukrainian.
"Not by much. Not even a year and a half by your human standards. Of course for a Scorpion, that's about a quarter of a lifetime, so what do I know?"
The scorpion then began giggling to itself.
"It really is pointless to escape. After all, I'm still in old man's body. He strong though, like baby ox" thought Helena.
"Well, it may be pointless for you. They can't see me like you can."
"Hi Helena, Ziggy decided Chicken Kiev would be most fitting for you." said Beth, who entered with a disalarming smile usually reserved for Al.
Pupok had vanished, and Helena wasn't going to share anyway.
"Thank you, Dr. Calavicci. Is there enough for you to join me?" said Helena, meaning it. Beth said nothing, but 4 technicians brought in a folding metal table with 2 chairs. Beth even spoke "disable forcefield" so that Helena could get up and sit at the table with her.
The depression inside of Sam was momentarily broken and replaced with distraction. The distraction in question was noises, which very briefly amused our time displaced doctor. Pretty much every child in the world was startled at least at one point by noises (real and/or imaginary) under their bed, or in their closet, or what have you. Sam was nearing the age of a senior citizen, and hear he was monitoring the noises he heard above him from his cage. After about 2 or 3 minutes, he concluded that there were in fact people still upstairs, possibly the ship's crew, possibly armed as Al had described earlier. But with Al not in view, Sam had no idea if this was his chance to escape, so he elected to escape the cage but not the room of the boat itself. Sam sat down a few feet away, feeling a...coat?.
"Wow, how was I wearing a jacket and unaware of it until now. I must have put it on after I showed Al Helena's scars." whispered Sam. Sam dug through the pictures, finding a girl approximately 7-10 years old as the subject, which filled Sam with equal amounts of wonder, joy and dread.
"A human clone really has had a child. I can't even begin to think of all of the ramifications of that." thought Sam.
"How's it going Sam? Wow, cute kid. Wait, is that?" asked Al.
"I think so, I think this is Kira." said Sam.
"So, Helena is feeling guilt for harming her but it hasn't happened yet? That angry angel is a psychic?" asked Al in American sign language, as he knew the transmission was likely being watched. Al then winked at Sam, to which Sam interpreted as Al telling him to reply in the same manner.
"Normally I would say no, but as I've leaped into my own future, I'll entertain anything at this point" was Sam's reply. Al chuckled a bit, like a misbehaving child in a toy store.
Sam then took a piece of paper away from the pictures. It was white, heavily crumpled, and with printing on it in multiple colours that Sam presumed was from the kid in the pictures. Sam began reading:
Dear mommy,
I miss you. Mrs. S says you are in the sunshine. I miss you so much, please come home.
Love,
Kira
It was then Al's turn to be scared. Sam read that aloud, but in the voice of Helena. Then Sam disappeared in a flash of blue light. Then reappeared.
"Al, Al, get Ziggy to do the thing with the stars again." said Sam urgently.
Al vanished, then reappeared.
"You jumped further ahead kid. A few hours, at most, but why?" asked Al.
Act 4
"Someone's coming upstairs. Female, light build if my ears serve me correctly. Al, stake them out" whispered Sam sternly.
"I'm on it. Ziggy, put me at the top edge of that makeshift staircase that people are using to come on or off the ship, now!" shouted Al.
For Sam's leaps, the average time that Al was gone when sent to observe something other than Sam himself was about 30 seconds. In this instance, however, he was only gone a little less than 3.
"Sam, it's...you...you just came aboard" said Al, who looked very worried.
"At some point in my future I'm going to leap back into myself, leave New Mexico, come to Toronto, just to confront Helena? Al, that doesn't make any sense" said Sam, utterly confused.
"No, one of the other clones is coming. Dyad isn't able to figure out who as a few do live in the greater Toronto area but Ziggy went through the few leaps you've done and she says it's Sarah Manning." said Al.
"Well...at least we know she made it to Canada without issue after the Knebworth leap" was all that the pragmatic time and clone displaced doctor could say.
There were then several steps on what Sam heard to be a metal staircase. A flashlight (LED was Sam's best guess) was shown through the crack of the door several feet from the cage that Sam as Helena was trapped in. Sam actually sat up for this, eager for some kind of contact from anyone who wasn't Al on this leap.
"Uh oh Sam, she's packing a gun" said Al as he punched a few buttons into his handlink to Ziggy. The door then was opened just enough to allow Sarah to come in. Sam was briefly worried that Sarah was going to shoot her outright, but that was overridden by the joy of seeing a past leap subject alive, a feeling that Sam rarely got.
"Sam, Ziggy says that there is a 99.3% chance that Sarah is going to put a bullet between Helena's eyes at the slightest provocation" whispered Al (as he suspected that clones could possibly see and hear him on account of their DNA being basically identical).
"You came" said Sam, trying his best to stay in character, even adding "How is Kira?"
"You're never gonna see her again" said Sarah, with a thinly veiled layer of rage in her voice that Sam had never experienced before. But Sam understood completely now, the real reason that he leapt into Helena.
"Sam, Ziggy says that she made a mistake. You were supposed to stop Kira from being hit by a car. But when events changed without your help so that she didn't die anyway, you leapt a few hours ahead, and were given a new mission: making sure Sarah doesn't execute Helena. If she shoots you, Dyad executes Sarah, 2 other clones, Allison and Cosima, and nearly all of your loved ones are killed as collateral damage to cover up everything. Kira will then kill herself and Siobhan Sadler in a murder-suicide a few months from now. I really don't know how you're going to talk Sarah down though, she means business" says Al, now certain that Sarah couldn't see or hear him.
"I will never hurt her" whispered Sam as Helena.
"Wish I could believe you" said Sarah.
"Well, you have brought things down a percentage point or two, keep her talking I guess, but be careful" said Al.
Sarah then stood up, shaking her head, pointing the gun inches away from Sam's head. Sam then just leaned forward, muttered the words "Do it" without any emotion in the voice at all.
"Sam, are you out of your mind?" shouted Al. Then an incoming text message came through to Ziggy's handlink, for Al.
"Helena said the same thing with me hours ago. Let Sam continue" was the text, with Al immediately knowing it was from Tom. Al decided that maybe just trusting the Beckett family would be the best course of action.
"You care" said Sam, smiling and relieved.
"No I don't" replied Sarah coldly as she acquired a key nearby.
"Well, at least now you're below 90%, kid" said Al.
"Stay back, DON'T TRY ANY SHIT!" announced Sarah. Sam went to the back of the cage as Sarah unlocked the padlock in front of the cage. Sarah then re-pointed her gun at Helena as she took a few steps back.
"You, are all I have now" said Sam, making sure to sound as distraught as possible. Sam then walked towards Sarah, and then hesitantly hugged her. Al just began scratching his head, completely lost as to what his best friend was doing.
"I love you" added Sam in a high pitched whisper. Then the door opened again, and Sam (using sleight of hand) acquired Sarah's gun and pointed it at the man who entered. He was dressed like a broken catholic priest.
"This must be one of those prolethean nozzles" said Al. Sam silently agreed. Sam then quickly pointed the gun at Sarah, then back at this religious zealot as he said "You must be Sarah"
"You can't harm her kid" declared Sam.
"Harm her? Never! The child is innocent" he replied.
"Sam, Ziggy says it's a perfect 100% that he's lying just to talk you into giving him the gun. If you do, Sarah gets killed first, then you. Sarah won't even have to wait for Dyad to kill her" said Al.
"You are the light, Helena" the man continued. "You are the original, you know what that means" he added. "The child is rightfully your daughter"
"He's lying, Helena, Helena. There's no original. I told you, we're the same. Neither of us is the original" said Sarah, who seemed a bit desperate herself.
"Put her down!" shouted the Prolethean. "We'll bring the child home, to her real mother"
"Helena, Helena. Look, look, you know that connection we feel? I feel it too. It's us" countered Sarah.
"She'll say anything to save herself" whispered the Prolethean.
"Oddly enough Sam, the Prolethean is lowering the chance of you or Sarah getting killed better than you are" said Al, completely confused.
"HE LOCKED YOU IN A CAGE! HE LIED TO YOU...YOUR, YOUR ENTIRE LIFE! He's gonna do that to Kira! He's gonna hurt Kira! Like he hurt you."
Sam then lowered the gun, then turned his attention to the Prolethean.
"Go ahead Sam. After what this guy did to Helena, You can give him a beating guilt-free" said Al softly, making sure to nod at Sam in approval. The Prolethean offered a weak smile at Helena.
"You made me this way." said Helena. Sam either didn't notice or care that Sarah took back the gun as he (as Helena) jumped the Prolethean, beating him within an inch of his life. Sam, remembering learning about the wounds of stigmata, then tried to gouge out the Prolethean's eyes. That is when Sarah knocked out Sam.
"OK fair enough, Miss Manning. Sam almost did cross a moral event horizon, I'll give you that" said Al.
The Prolethean himself was soon in the cage.
"I know what you are" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, I'm the one with the keys" said Sarah confidently. Even Al chuckled at Sarah's snarkiness, before she added "Maybe I'll give them to Dr. Leekie"
"Oh Jesus, maybe gouging out his eyes...would've been a kindness" said Al, almost pitying the Prolethean. Sarah then grabbed a barely conscience Sam as Helena, muttering the word "Come on!" as they exited the boat.
Tom Beckett was walking down a hallway, one of many hallways in project quantum leap. He was heading for his quarters, assuming that he would not be needed until the morning (as a soldier who fought in the Vietnam war, he knew to never take sleep for granted). But with 4 doors before he reached his own, he overheard crying. Specifically, crying from his niece. He cared, so he investigated.
"What's wrong, Sammi Jo?"
"I really tried my best not to let Dr. Leekie's pass at me bother me. But, it did" she managed to say in between sobs.
"If I were Al, I'd call him a nozzle. But something tells me that he's even lower than that on the evolutionary food chain. I'm sorry he did that to you, but I would be lying if I said that I was surprised. I didn't mean that to sound insensitive" said Tom, trying and failing to hide the anger in his voice.
"No, you didn't sound that way at all. Besides, I'm not surprised by the actions of men either." said Sammi Jo flatly.
"Ziggy?" asked Tom, thinking that the parallel hybrid computer couldn't possibly make Sammi Jo feel any worse.
"Yesssssssss?"" replied Ziggy, as if she expected to be summoned at that exact moment.
"What is the most likely result of me or someone else in the project arranging for Dr. Leekie to die of a 'tragic accident'?" asked Tom, even making quotation marks in the air around the words "tragic accident" as if Ziggy would notice, much less care.
"I project a 99.4% probability that Dyad would retaliate by terminating the project, then arranging 'tragic accidents' for everyone who's ever been involved with the project, everyone they care about, then just shooting Dr. Sam Beckett in the head, whether someone else is inside of him or not"
To say that Tom Beckett and Sammi Jo Fuller-Beckett felt dejected at Ziggy's scenario would be an understatement. It was actually Sammi Jo who spoke first, "Maybe we'll get lucky and one of the clone's monitors will get sufficiently pissed off that they'll kill Dr. Leekie without consequence"
Tom laughed. Ziggy explored that scenario silently, and never revealed that there was a 99.8% probability of that exact thing happening to Dr. Leekie within 3 years.
"Ziggy is indicating that both Sam's and Helena's minds are merging, similar to the Lee Harvey Oswald leap, among many others." said Donna.
"Glad you were here today" replied Beth.
"I'll go interview Helena again. That way we have a baseline" said Verbeena. Donna and Beth both nodded at her in approval, she then left. Al then silently walked back into the imaging chamber, not needing to be told to get a baseline on Sam as well. Al was outside, in the dark, on a driveway. A car was directly in front of him, a black one.
"Oh haha, very funny Donna. You were supposed to centre me on Sam. Sam is in the trunk? Oh boy!" said Al as he bent over in a way that made sure his face went through the trunk as everything in the imaging chamber was a hologram to him.
"Al?" asked Sam as Helena but sounding more like Helena.
"I'm here, Sam. I'm here. Ziggy says you and Helena are merging."
"Not as much as other leaps. I just...Helena has spent a lot of time in confined spaces ever since she was turned over to the church. She needs to rebel against something, anything. The amount of torture that this girl was subjected to in order to be anything even remotely resembling complacent would likely kill almost anyone else on the planet"
Al nodded thoughtfully, having suspected that Helena had a past along those lines. But what frightened Al was that some of those syllables coming out of his friends mouth sounded like the Midwestern American English that Al was used to hearing from Sam Beckett, but the rest sounded most definitely from the Ukraine.
Meanwhile, back at the project...
"I don't dislike Sam, I do like him. I like him more than I like most people, actually" said Helena as Sam.
"And what do you like about him?" asked Verbeena.
"How he sacrificed literally everything to fix mistakes in time. I know Tom originally died in that war, and that Katie avoided being abused...like me. We are both driven to help, I'm sorry for what I am. I'm sorry for being twisted into an angry angel. I just want to be an angel, like Kira. I hope Sam can fix his father, but I don't know how he can do that anymore. He died before any of us clones were made."
"She shouldn't be this articulate. Based on her background..." began Tom.
"That's the part of Sam still in Sam, I think. Helena is no monster, she's just broken. The only valid difference between Helena and the rest of us is that her scars are more visible. Still, we should continue to have our guard up for when she comes back into our lives. Helena, listen to me very carefully..." whispered Dr. Beeks.
"You have both my ears, Doctor" said Helena, sounding more like herself and less like Sam.
"She's the only thing you need to hold onto in order to redeem yourself. As long as you remember her, and her mother, your sister. Even you can be rehabilitated, I promise"
A single tear left each of Helena's eyes, and she nodded in silent gratitude. Both Dr. Beeks and Helena knew they were talking about Kira, but knew they had to be cryptic in order to keep her and Sarah safe.
"I'm ready to leap, Sam is not" mumbled Helena.
Sam Beckett took little comfort being locked in the trunk of the car. But Al Calavicci would be the last to blame her.
"Is Helena going to be OK?" asked Sam, never thinking he would show concern for someone he considered a sociopath.
"Several bumps in the road, but...she'll be fine" replied Al, a little confused.
"What's wrong?" asked Al.
"Well according to both my old handlink and new bluetooth, Ziggy says Helena needed to be back at the project as much as you needed to be here. Apparently, Verbeena telling her that she can be fixed is what gives her the drive to get better."
"She's going to remember being out of time?" asked Sam, before a blue light grew around him, causing the leap.
Dr. Sam Beckett was used to leaping into other people's bedrooms, in fact his first leap ever was into the bedroom of one Captain Tom Stratton. He was also used to not being given the satisfaction of even having 5 minutes of rest even when he leapt into the beds. What he was not used to, was drops of rust water falling on to the back of his head, and later his face as he sat up. There were many noticeable and long cracks along the ceiling and all of the walls, enough to where Sam immediately thought that this house (and he used that term loosely) should be condemned immediately. Then again, he could be leaping into a homeless person who was "squatting". His second observation was that wherever he was, he was somewhere very warm.
"Could this be my first leap to Africa?" Sam asked himself quietly, but with a smile on his face.
"Camila, desayuno, vamos a bucear hoy en las islas del Rosario." came a voice from 1, possibly 2 rooms over. Sam needed a moment to deduce that the words were in Spanish, translating roughly as "Camila, breakfast, we're going to go snorkeling on the Rosario Islands today"
"Oh boy, I'm in Columbia"