Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett stepped into the Project Accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were 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 once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap...will be the leap home.
Act 1
It was a dream back to January 1st, 1984, being had by Retired Admiral Al Calavicci. The dream itself suffered from a bit of double vision for 3 reasons. One: because he was very drunk that night, Two: because most of these details were filled in by his best friend Sam Beckett after the fact and Three: Because due to the effects of his current project, Quantum Leap, he actually remembered this in 2 different ways: One with his wife and 4 daughters, the other without. It had been well over a decade since that strange leap where Sam had leapt into himself at his exact moment of birth, and while Al was grateful to this "other Al" for giving Sam the chance to save Al's first marriage, it meant that Sam delayed his own return home. Sam was actually approaching a point in his life where he had spent half as much time bouncing around in time putting things right that once went wrong then he had actually living his life beforehand.
For this dream, Al was actually dreaming that he was Sam (which was a relief to him as he was ashamed of his drinking that night esp. In the version of the dream without his wife). Sam was on top of the world that night, as this was not just a New Years Party, it was a celebration of he and his wife Donna getting the funding to start the Starbright project. While no interstellar drive (the project's objective) was actually produced, it caught enough of the American Government's attention to get Project Quantum Leap off of the ground. Sam (in the dream) excused himself from the party for the moment to use the men's room (which amused Al's subconscious to no end, given how many times Sam and a holographic version of Al talked about the current leap in men's rooms across time and space. It was here that the retellings of the evening by Sam to Al in the aftermath took over. Sam was (for lack of a better word) enjoying the couple of minutes of downtime as he hated schmoozing with people just because they gave him a large sum of money for his projects. He felt that Donna was better at it than he was, and she would agree. Still, free lodging at this Holiday Inn in San Francisco, use of one of their private ballrooms (which was very brown and very corporate looking) and a decent food and beverage spread for the party was very generous of the government. Al (still dreaming he was Sam) was then distracted by the noise in the other ballroom which while it was equal in size to the one that the starbright project was using, definitely had more people in it by a margin of dozens.
"Sorry, there is over 100 of us in there" came the voice of a man at the urinal 4 urinals down from Sam's.
"It's OK, we only have about 25 and some of them are our benefactors. What's your project?" asked Sam.
"I'd...rather not say, as the legalities of it are still being debated" came this man (who had just finished peeing and was now at the sink washing his hands).
"You're not making a self-guiding nuke to take out the Soviet Union are ya?" asked Sam, who himself was finished peeing and also washing his hands.
"Oh no, nothing like that: Human Cloning" replied the man who Al now saw as very tall, thin, middle aged and dyed brown hair that was very quickly receding. He was wearing a grey Armani suit, which was entirely too stuffy for Al's tastes.
"Forgive me, but I can see why people would oppose you in that field. Copying human life goes completely against natural law, not to mention every religion that has ever existed." replied Sam.
"Oh there are ways around the bureaucracy if you have enough money or leverage and I'm actually surprised that the religious groups are as quiet as they are. Sorry, I don't have a name for them yet."
"I'd call them 'Proletheans' personally" said Sam.
It was at this moment that this man awkwardly laughed at Sam. "Proletheans...I like that. I'm Dr. Aldous Leekie, by the way"
"Dr. Sam Beckett" he replied as they shook hands.
"Dr. Beckett...I've heard of you. You just made the cover of Time Magazine a few months ago, didn't they bill you the next 'Einstein'?"
"Yeah, I hope my proverbial 15 minutes of fame is 14 minutes in" said a very annoyed Sam.
"You could at least parlay this into looking at job offers." offered Dr. Leekie.
"I'm perfectly happy overseeing the building of an interstellar drive, thanks" countered Sam as politely as he could while making to sure to add a thin veil of telling Leekie to fuck off.
"If the government ever pulls their funding out, feel free to give my company, the Dyad institute a call." said Dr. Leekie, knowing that he had no chance of winning over Dr. Beckett right away, but still gave him a business card. To Sam's credit, he took it.
"I really do think human cloning will be a bigger benefit to mankind than an interstellar drive." added Dr. Leekie, trying not to reveal that his party was actually celebrating that several hundred woman around the world were already pregnant with essentially the same child (with many already in the second or third trimester).
"I don't believe so, look at how poignant the space race is even after Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969. Human Cloning is a fringe science at best and illegal at worse. And with that, I bid you good evening" said Sam with a grin on his face. Dr. Leekie then nodded, and walked to a payphone, quickly putting in several quarters to make a long distance phone call to Toronto.
"Marian, it's Aldous. Yeah I established contact with Beckett. No, I didn't get him. OK, it's in motion. Yeah, he and his colleagues are definitely people of interest"
Original Leap Date: October 1st, 2011
Current "Present Day": October 4th, 2011
Leaping about through time, I occasionally leap into someone with some sort of mental illness. There was Jimmy, who was diagnosed as mentally retarded (but I believe he actually had down syndrome instead), there was Lee Harvey Oswald (who I suspect had borderline personality disorder but that could've just been our minds merging) and about 2 dozen others whose names elude me in my swiss-cheesed memory. But this particular leap is noteworthy in that this 28 year old man named Aaron Collins has been officially diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (due at least in part to excessive social contact with others), persistent depression (formerly dysthymia) and social anxiety disorder (and apparently some of his past therapists and social workers think it's avoidant personality disorder based on his records that are scattered all over the world). If there was ever one person out of everyone I have ever leapt into who I wouldn't blame if they just decided to give up on life and move into a mental institution permanently, Aaron would be him. Apparently he's been in some psych wards already, and has dreams of other worlds where he's been in one since childhood. Again, I don't blame him for his feelings, especially since he's been repeatedly forced to socialize his entire life when he would be better off left alone.
This leap is actually a pretty simple one compared to most of my other leaps: Focus long enough to write an outline for a novel called "Suspects" so that when he eventually meets a girl named Ida Wordell, he can finish the novel after they break up. Al told me that in the original history that the break-up combined with his inability to remain focused long enough to finish writing anything longer than an essay was the final nail in the coffin, leading him to suicide by hanging on his 30th birthday. I'm 1 or 2 chapters away from finishing the outline, and Aaron himself has been a greater help than most of the people that I've leapt into as he seems to not only be handling being leapt into without prior consent very well, but seems to be treating his time in the slight future somewhere in New Mexico as a vacation of sorts...
...I wish I was even remotely as happy as he was...
I don't know exactly how long I've been leaping now, but I would say somewhere between 15 and 20 years. I don't think I'm 60 yet, but I may or may not have been told as such by Al, and I'm not sure I want to remember. I know that I have fewer days, fewer leaps ahead of me than behind me (and my hair must be all the way grey at this point and not just the one streak of it that I had when I started), sometimes I can feel myself along my own string, and I know I'm close to the end (and I've known all along that death will eventually end my leaping if I don't get home first). I may never say this to Al, the best friend that I've ever had, but I've given up going home. I've accepted that I'm running out of time and I'm just going to help as many as I can before I...go back to that strange bar in Pennsylvania for one last drink.
And with that internal monologue concluded, Sam heard the "whooshing" sound that he had been accustomed to for decades: It was the sound of a door from the future (his present) opening to reveal Al, his best friend and Project Quantum Leap observer. While Al had stopped smoking cigars shortly after Sam arranged his first wife to not leave him, his penchant for wearing strange clothes was still present. In this case, it was a purple suit with a green silk dress shirt on underneath, complete with a black and white tie that resembled a concert piano. If Sam was accepting of his own mortality, a greater worry for him is Al dying first. Al was about 19 years older than Sam, so he was closer to 80 than 70. But Sam's fear of Al dying was selfish of him, as Al was the only person tuned into Sam's mind (that Sam knew of) so if Al died, he could spend his last leaps leaping completely blind. It was devastating enough when Gooshie (Head Programmer of Ziggy, the parallel hybrid computer that gave Sam his missions) passed away in 2001, but Sammi Jo Fuller (Sam's technical daughter from a leap a long time ago) took over nicely, even upgrading Ziggy on many occasions.
"Hi Sam"
"Hi Al, anything new from Ziggy?" asked Sam, trying to hide his sadness.
"Your percentages are over 96% and keep going up with every outline point you make" said Al as he punched a few buttons into Ziggy, which was now various shades of blue as opposed to the rainbow colours that Sam had known for years.
"I'm still not sure as to who I make the murderer. Otherwise I would've leapt by now"
"Dr. Beeks, who does Aaron want as the killer?" Al began to chuckle before he continued to talk "Oh that'll be good, Aaron says make the blonde singer the killer. I know I'm a married man and all but I'd really like to be one of her favorite enemies"
Sam didn't even react to Al's lechery anymore, for it had ceased to shock him years earlier (And to be fair, once Beth was back in his life, Al did tone down his shenanigans considerably). Instead he just went along with Aaron's suggestion and wrote in the outline that Isabel Foster was the murderer (which even Sam liked as she was seemingly so unlikely to have been the killer).
"It's amazing Al, he's going to have a whole multiverse with people he may or may not be speaking to at this time. He'll be able to write any story, any genre. Hopefully this also improves his mood, maybe help him smile every once in a while. OK Al, I think that's it"
"You did it Sam, he now has a lifetime of things to write and while he doesn't end up with Ida, at least he doesn't kill himself."
"Then why haven't I leaped yet?" asked Sam, as he tended to do nearly every leap.
Project Quantum Leap, New Mexico
Current Date: October 8th, 2011
It turns out that the reason Sam hadn't leapt yet was because of Aaron in the waiting room. He was wearing a white Fermi suit, staring at his reflection on a stainless steel desk.
"I have a feeling I've met this Dr. Beckett before" said Aaron, bewildered by staring at the table and seeing Sam's face stare back at him.
"I assure you Aaron, you haven't. We keep very extensive records of every leap that Sam has ever had, and your name was not in our files before you arrived.
"I believe you, Dr. Beeks"
Dr. Beeks always had to think of new ways to engage most of the subjects (or failing that, ways to sedate them since the "Leon Stiles" incident (where Sam leapt into someone who escaped the project property)). For Aaron, it was relatively simple: Play Chess with him during the interview...
...except that Dr. Beeks didn't know how to play chess, so Ziggy was giving her the moves through a Bluetooth headset (that Aaron had permitted). Dr. Beeks was grateful as to how easy a patient Aaron was. Given that Sam Beckett could leap into any human being who has ever lived from 1953 onwards (or in 1 case, a member of his family from nearly a century before that), to say that Dr. Beeks was subject to a lot of racism would be an understatement. Aaron was (by contrast) a misanthrope, but a very polite one who established on 1 of the many tests that Dr. Beeks gave him that he aspired to not even notice her skin colour (a dark chocolate) as members of his family (namely, on his father's side) were very upfront racists that he never understood.
"Queen to Queen's Rook 6, Capturing your pawn, I believe that's Checkmate" declared Aaron as he moved the appropriate pieces.
"It is" replied Ziggy through a speaker in the waiting room and not through Dr. Beeks' headset. Dr. Beeks (as if on cue) put her King down on the ground and offered her hand, Aaron (to her surprise) actually shook it.
"Great game" said Dr. Beeks, utterly bewildered that for all intents and purposes, a human beat Ziggy.
"You look as if Ziggy has never lost before" offered Aaron.
"Only to Dr. Beckett himself, Professor Stephen Hawking, Dolph Lundgren and Asia Carrera in the 17 years that I've been in operation. And all 4 of them needed more than 50 moves, you needed 19."
It took Aaron a moment to process the ramifications of that statement. He had already determined Dr. Sam Beckett to be a man of 6, possibly 7 doctorates. He knew who Hawking was (and even admired him like so many others). He had heard that Dolph Lundgren was every bit as smart as he was strong (as Dolph had attended M.I.T.). And Asia Carrera was one of the few porn stars that Aaron was actually attracted to (as she was a member of Mensa and had played Carnegie Hall as a child with the piano).
"I attacked early, and the Knight-Queen gambit I pulled off should've failed" was all that Aaron could offer.
"Normally I would shut down for 8-24 hours as my ego was deflated. But in your case, Mr. Collins, I must concede that your brain fascinates me and I wish to engage you further."
Aaron immediately went into the foetal position, rocking back and forth.
"Aaron, what's wrong?" asked Dr. Beeks.
"I don't like people (or in this case, a machine) being interested in me on any level, especially intellectual. In the interest of full disclosure, I was long overdue for this since I arrived as this is all compounded by me being in an unfamiliar environment." said Aaron in 1-2 word bursts, fighting off the urge to cry.
Dr. Beeks nodded thoughtfully (silently amazed that Aaron could function so well in this state, which she determined happened often enough for Aaron to be at least somewhat used to it).
"What's the ideal method of stopping this?" asked Ziggy, who on some level had computed that Aaron knew how to treat Aaron better than any "professional" he had ever known.
"It'll eventually pass on its' own. Normally I would suggest ending all stimuli of any kind or sedating me for the duration of this leap but I am actually thinking that the opposite of that would work. Is it against protocol to give me a tour of the facility?"
Ziggy immediately went to her default programming "Only those with the correct password can access the facility beyond this room"
Aaron sighed and announced "Beckett-8-8-1953" making sure to spell Beckett in CB lingo.
"Access granted" announced Ziggy, much to the shock and fear of Dr. Beeks (and within a few minutes, everyone at the project).
"How did you guess that?" asked Dr. Beeks.
"Either part of Sam is in me, or I used Socratic method to determine it. I'll be taking the tour now." said Aaron with a grin.
It had taken 20 minutes to show Aaron around. Most of it was staring at the monstrosity that was needed to make Ziggy the computer that she was. Dr. Beeks and Aaron then returned to the waiting room.
"Feel better now?" asked Dr. Beeks.
"Yes I do, now that I'm somewhat more familiar with the facility. Why were you so willing to show me around what I think is a classified building?" asked Aaron.
It took Dr. Beeks a moment to gather her answers: "3 reasons: A) You knew the password, B) You're probably the easiest leap that we've had in a decade or so and C) Between you and me, we're expecting to have our budget completely cut in a few days, so no one's really following all of the procedures anymore as we're due to lose our jobs soon enough anyway."
It was now Aaron's turn to absorb all of that information before speaking "My sympathies. I normally don't ask this of another human being but, may I please have some paper and some differently coloured pencil crayons. Sorry, America calls them coloured pencils. Then again, If I ever write this down, I'll be spelling the word coloured then Canadian way with a 'U' in it and not the American way without a 'U'"
Dr. Beeks laughed and replied "I know what you're trying to say and I'll see what I can find."
By the time Aaron began feeling that he was ready to leap, he had made over 20 drawings. More than he had made in the previous decade as he never liked drawing.
"I think I'll be leaving soon" he said to Dr. Beeks.
"Frankly, Sam was done a while ago and I'm surprised you haven't left already. For what it's worth, I'll miss you Aaron, you were 1 of the nicer leaps."
"Promise me something" said Aaron urgently.
"Anything short of committing a crime" replied Dr. Beeks.
"Promise me that no one will ever throw out these pictures. Keep them with your records." said Aaron.
"That's actually standard procedure as we've had repeat guests. Even if we do get shut down, they'll be going to the national archives" said Dr. Beeks.
Aaron nodded as a flash of blue light took over him, indicating he leaped out.
Act 2
United States Supreme Court, Washington D.C.
Current date: October 8th, 2011
Only 4 people from Project Quantum Leap went to the Supreme Court (as it was all that they could afford to send): Elizabeth Calavicci (Project Physician), Donna Eleese-Beckett (Maintenance), Samantha Josephine Fuller-Beckett (Head Programmer and Project Technician) and Tom Beckett (Government Liaison).
"Standard 'I wouldn't exist if not for this project' speech for me, Uncle Tom?" asked Samantha rhetorically.
"If we need it, but I think they're tired of hearing it by now. They should also be tired of how Sam leaping into someone in my patrol unit saved my life, ensured your stepmom married your dad and prevented Beth from leaving Al"
Samantha nodded, adjusting a black Versace ladies' business suit and put her long, brown hair back in a ponytail. She was a daughter conceived by Sam during a leap in 1966 (she was born the following year) and had the same eidetic memory and intellect that her father had. She was told on her 35th birthday (March 15th, 2002) that the man she was technically working for was her dad. She then asked for Donna's blessing to legally change her surname to "Fuller-Beckett", and she agreed.
Donna was (at most) barely remembered by Sam even under the most ideal of circumstances, so she accepted Sam's infidelities while leaping long ago. Everyone at Project Quantum Leap praised her as the most understanding woman known to exist because of this. She elected to wear a modified Fermi suit that was converted to a dress in order to embody the spirit of her husband.
Beth and Tom wore Naval uniforms (Though Beth was retired as she was nearly 80 like her husband) in order to subconsciously promote the military ramifications of the project, if they ever got the original test subject home. Tom had the crew cut that went along with the uniform (despite being in his early 60's himself, he had not yet retired) while Beth let her out down to her shoulders (with a few streaks of grey to go with an otherwise black hairdo).
"Where are your daughters?" asked Samantha to Beth.
"They're in San Diego, getting my old house ready as we're likely going to be back there for good in a few days" replied Beth in almost a whisper as they began walking up the stairs. There was no press to greet them, they were too far removed from the heyday of the project to get any sort of public attention whatsoever as they continued up the white steps.
The interior by contrast was brown everywhere that it could be (save for the American flag, of course) and Tom, Beth, Donna and Samantha had been sitting down on deeply-stained brown chairs behind a large deeply-stained brown desk for several hours.
"You may now make your closing statement, but only 1 of you." stated Chief Justice John Roberts. After a moment of whispers, it was Tom Beckett who elected to stand up and represent the project.
"Mr. Chief Justice, We've presented you the argument that my life saw April 9th 1970 and every day thereafter because Dr. Sam Beckett, my brother, leaped into a younger version of himself dated November 25th, 1969 and then into Herbert 'Magic' Williams, a soldier under my command in Vietnam on April 7th 1970. We've presented you the argument that Samantha Josephine Fuller would not have been conceived had Dr. Sam Beckett, my brother, not leaped into William Kinman of Pottersville, Louisiana on June 14th, 1966. We've presented you the argument that Dr. Beckett's marriage to Donna Eleese-Beckett never would've happened had he not leaped into Professor Gerald Bryant and reunited her with her father while inadvertently triggering the exposure of the Watergate Scandal on June 15th 1972. We've presented you the argument that Elizabeth Calavicci would've abandoned her husband Al for another man had Dr. Sam Beckett, my brother, not leapt into Detective Jake Rawlings on April 1st, 1969 and himself on April 3rd, 1969. So, we're not going to dwell on those arguments. Instead I'm going to present to you what you've wanted us to tell you since our first annual budget review back in 1994: Global changes."
The entire supreme court then leaned forward, as Project Quantum Leap had kept relatively quiet
about this aspect of their project unless it was absolutely necessary. Tom Beckett then continued:
"I'll spare specific names and dates as you can request them from our archives if you don't believe me. We triggered the exposure of the Watergate burglary as mentioned previously, helped Buddy Holly change the lyrics to 'Peggy Sue', triggered the northeast blackout of 1965, taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk, inspired the film career of Woody Allen, taught Chubby Checker to do the twist, performed the Heimlich manoeuvre on Dr. Heimlich, gave Sylvester Stallone the idea to punch ribs in a meat packing plant for the movie 'Rocky', started the literary career of Stephen King, inspired Donald Trump to get into real estate..."
It was here that Tom Beckett held up 1 finger to the Supreme Court, then made a gesture that he needed a glass of water. The Chief Justice personally reached for a bottle of mineral water from a mini fridge under his desk and handed it to Tom. Tom mouthed the words "Thank you" without saying them and he drank the whole thing. He then winked at Samantha, Donna and Beth (who could barely restrain themselves from laughing as all of them were remembering Ziggy freaking out and nearly exploding that she had recently calculated a 99.6% probability that Donald Trump was going to win the 2016 presidential election). After he finished drinking, Tom Beckett tossed the bottle into a nearby blue recycling bin and resumed his speech:
"Prevented Lee Harvey Oswald from killing Jackie Kennedy as well as John, took over the life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer in order to escalate the actions taken on sexual harassment in the workplace, kept Marilyn Monroe alive long enough to make 'The Misfits', started the family name 'King' in the Southern United States for African Americans, ensured Elvis Presley brought Rock n' Roll to the global mainstream...There are over 100 other examples I could give that are just the major changes in history, and that's not even counting for the lives of the common man, or the indirect changes to the space-time continuum that cannot be calculated. But most importantly, by cutting off our funding, we leave the greatest soldier in American history save for MAYBE George Washington behind the enemy lines of fate and chance forever, and in all probability, kill the soldier outright in a war that he only entered because the Clinton administration pressured him to enter said war prematurely or lose the funding that we are asking for an extension of today. I implore you as the government liaison of this project, the soldier's brother and as a citizen of the United States of America, for 1 more year of budget money."
"It was the best speech I've ever heard about my husband" said Donna.
"Yeah but I think comparing dad against George Washington and effectively choosing against George Washington was what got our budget money cut completely." added Samantha.
"To be fair, we knew this day was coming for years, maybe decades" replied Beth.
"Maybe Sam continues leaping without us helping him and he corrects my speech, or leaps into 1 of the nozzles that voted against us"
It was 6-1 against them, after only 20 minutes of deliberation. It was actually the Chief Justice himself who was the only vote in favour of granting them more money.
"How do you want to break the news to everyone back in New Mexico?" asked Tom to Donna.
"Let Al do it, but have Ziggy prepare his speech. I imagine Al will be getting drunk to ease his pain, so will everyone else at the project for that matter." replied Donna.
"Is there any reason to not go back to the hotel, pack up and check out right away?" asked Samantha.
"No. Let's go to our soon to be former home" said Tom, devastated and dejected.
"I wouldn't give up hope so easily if I were you guys" came a voice behind them. Samantha didn't recognize the tall white-haired (and nearly bald) man, but the other 3 did from a conversation Sam had with him in the men's room of a Holiday Inn, nearly 3 decades earlier.
"Doctor..." began Donna.
"...Aldous..." continued Beth.
"...Leekie" finished Tom.
"I'm sorry, but I've never seen a look of dread over all 3 of their faces before" added Samantha, making sure to maintain eye contact with Dr. Leekie while taking a step or 2 away from him. He had behind him a few people ("followers?" asked Samantha to herself) who had silver hair in various styles and 1 white eye.
"Sorry, they follow me everywhere since I did some interview a while ago. The press calls them freaky leekies. I was made aware of your, shall I say, appointment with the bureaucrats. As I remember Dr. Beckett from long ago, I'm curious as to how it went."
"That's really none of your business" stated Donna matter of factly, getting ready to punch him in the face.
"Why such hostility?" asked Dr. Leekie with his trademark smile, badly hiding his web of lies.
"We were set to recruit a girl named Cosima a few years ago. To say that Dyad 'unofficially influenced' her to go into biology instead of quantum physics robbed us of a legitimate chance of bringing Sam home years ago would be a vast understatement." stated Beth while looking at Samantha.
"That was her high school guidance counsellor, not me. And judging by the angst, I can already guess that the last of your funding is gone in...less than 72 hours?" asked Dr. Leekie.
Tom basically shrugged and threw his hands up, accepting that their project wasn't as secret as they thought. "Monday morning, 8 am"
"How many people will be entering the public sector, or in some cases, retiring?" asked Leekie.
"About a hundred, what are you getting at?" asked Samantha, who herself was annoyed by Dr. Leekie now as he adjusted a brown leather jack to go with...some kind of ensemble that she didn't understand in her mid-40's.
"Dyad, partly as an apology for steering Cosima away from you, partly because I've always admired Dr. Beckett...is willing to foot the bill indefinitely, you'll never have to worry about any obstructive government ever again." suggested Dr. Leekie.
"What's the catch, Leekie?" asked Tom, trying to hide that his own brother's life was on the line with this conversation.
"You allow us to modify the equipment so that Dr. Beckett leaps to only one specific group of people"
The 4 of Project Quantum Leap huddled:
"It's either this or Sam dies" whispered Donna.
"I hate to admit this, but you're right" added Tom.
"I have some conditions too" said Samantha.
"Lead the way" finished Beth.
"Al Calavicci remains the Project Observer tuned into Sam's brain, no one is replaced, we oversee and approve every modification prior to implementation and we get a 15% raise across the board along with full benefits."
"Deal, we can be in New Mexico and get started tonight"
It was Dr. Beeks who took the call.
"Project Quantum Leap? Yeah, Aaron's out. What do you mean good news, bad news. We lost the government funding...but we got a private benefactor who's putting up more? That's amazing, yeah I can get emergency access cards ready in a few hours. OK great, Sam lives. Bye!"
Dr. Beeks was in the waiting room when Ziggy made the announcement over the Project's PA system that Sam was not going to die as a result of budget cutbacks, and as she already knew, she ignored them. The custodial staff were the first to be dismissed in the event of the project being cancelled, so Dr. Beeks took it upon herself to clean up the waiting room after Aaron had leapt out.
The food tray was thrown out first (Aaron had requested Shrimp Etoufee that morning, a favourite Cajun dish of his, so he said). After that remained only the pictures that he drew (as Sam had been collected by 2 security guards not long beforehand). Dr. Beeks was still confused that Aaron had even made that request, as his records showed that he never had the skill for visual art. He had won several poetry and writing contests in his younger days, and was capable in several musical instruments, but had no significant talent in drawing, painting or the like. Dr. Beeks quickly glanced at the drawings and...was stunned...
"That's why he wanted to draw after I gave him the tour, he wanted to sketch out schematics and diagrams"
For a cursory glance of a few minutes, Dr. Beeks had determined that these drawings would've put half the engineers on the planet to shame, then came the last page. It wasn't a drawing at all, but a series of revised math equations and programming codes that would work in Ziggy, with a note at the bottom right hand corner:
Dearest Dr. Beeks,
Thank you for your hospitality and the meal (best etoufee I ever had, my compliments to the project chef). As you can see, I had an ulterior motive for the tour. Please hide these drawings away from the incoming buyout from the Dyad institute. I've been having dreams of this place for weeks and I have no idea why. Something tells me that I just fulfilled a stable time loop or something.
See you down the road of time,
Aaron
Dr. Beeks had to fight off tears as she read it, as it was nice to feel gratitude from a leaping patient. Granted, she sympathized with those who weren't grateful as they had not consented to having their mind invaded, but as Sam's success rate in helping others was nearly perfect, it was nice to get this from Aaron, a thank you note and suggestions on how to get Sam home that were surprisingly well detailed. Dr. Beeks then nodded and whispered "Your secrets are safe with me, Mr. Collins. Safe travels home"
Leaping about through time, I know that something had happened on the Project Quantum Leap side of things back in New Mexico. With the amount of time I've spent leaping, I'm now able to somewhat pinpoint how long I'm in limbo between leaps. Most of the time, it was a few hours or days. On occasion, more than a week would go by. But this feels like at least 3 weeks, maybe even a whole month. To the best of my recollection, no limbos were ever this long. And I may or may not have seen a much older version of the person I just leapt into in what could be described as a different version of that bar I went to when I leaped into myself at my exact moment of birth. I also feel younger and healthier for some reason.
Sam's first instinct was a simple one, one he nearly always used: look all around him to get his quantum bearings. He could see that he was in a very large crowd (well over 100,000 people by his guess) and his slight build coupled with a Sex Pistols T-shirt, ripped Jeans, a black canvas backpack with assorted slogans and band names and Doc Marten boots suggested he was a young girl just entering adolescence. This music he heard wasn't punk rock though, it sounded like 1990's alternative rock mixed heavily with middle-late period Beatles.
Oasis, I'm at an Oasis concert.
Switching to hear what was closer to him, he overheard a lot of European accents, mostly British. He quickly jumped up, and saw enough architecture in the distance to conclude that he had leapt to somewhere in England. Then Sam ran through the list of places in England that could hold a crowd of this size and play live music. He narrowed it down to Glastonbury or Knebworth, and based on how warm it was (he guessed it was middle-late summer based on how hot he felt), he was leaning towards Knebworth.
Sam hadn't recalled leaping into England too many times previously, and for that, he was sad. As a lifelong Beatles fan, he had wished to leap into one of them. But his instinct told him that that was now impossible.
Project Quantum Clone Leap, New Mexico
Current Date: November 1st, 2011
"Sam's first Leda Leap was a success" declared Dr. Leekie.
"Correct. For the first time in Quantum Leap history, Dr. Beckett has leaped into a cloned human being" stated Ziggy as emotionless as possible. She had been modified to 1 specific group of several hundred people rather than billions around the world (some of who, she already knew were dead or were going to be shortly. If she could articulate what Dyad did to her software and programming, she would describe it as physically handicapped. One upside though, is that she was now in the cell phones of every member of the Project so if Tom Beckett went on vacation but wanted to check up on Sam, he could just interact with Ziggy as opposed to making a long distance phone call back to New Mexico.
"How long will it be before your technicians are done modifying the imaging chamber?" asked Al, feeling like Donna made a deal with the devil back in Washington.
"They were actually ready half an hour ago, Admiral. Our main concern was making you a new handlink. Then we decided to eliminate the handlink all together for something...simpler" replied Dr. Leekie.
Samantha then approached Al, whispering "I'm sorry" as she handed him a Black Bluetooth headset with the Dyad Institute logo etched in grey along 1 side.
"So sterile, where's the heart?" mumbled Al to himself as he put it on, pretending he liked it by giving Dr. Leekie a thumbs up.
"Are you ready to depart, Admiral?" asked Ziggy.
"Yes, I most certainly am" replied Al immediately, wanting to leave the renovated version of his home for the better part of 2 decades (a view that Ziggy in her own way, shared). When Al entered the corridor leading to the still all-blue lit imaging chamber, he realized that even the Fermi suits were different. They were actually black now, and closer in appearance to corporate attire suitable for office buildings that the Admiral wouldn't be caught dead in.
"I'm going to hate working for Dyad, at least only Sam has to wear one" mumbled Al, Ziggy muted the audio in the room so that Al could have a well-earned moment of privacy.
To Sam, the whoosh of the opening of the imaging chamber door even sounded different. It sounded more like a low-end droning sound as opposed to an actual whoosh.
"Al, what is going on?" asked Sam who had excused himself to go to the porta-potty a few minutes prior. They were entirely too commonplace at outdoor concert venues, Sam was lucky to find one that didn't have random urine or fecal matter put up into handfuls of wadded paper and thrown up onto the ceiling (Al, to Sam's disgust walked through the door as a hologram and became distracted by the random pictures of lady's body parts drawn all over the walls).
"We have finally lost our government grant and the only private grant we could get is from the Dyad Institute"
"I remember them being at the other hall when we had the Starbright Project greenlit back...somewhere in the 80's. A Dr. Leekie tried to recruit me for Dyad in the bathroom, I always thought he was a bit creepy, so I left quickly" said Sam, happy that his swiss-cheesed memory ended up mostly working for him instead of against him for once.
"That would be the guy that bought us out. They're giving us more money but everything looks so sterile, the handlink I have is now a headset. Oh, and I'm not a 'project observer' any more, I'm a 'monitor'." said Al, sounding very depressed.
"Well, can we please keep some things the same? Like letting me know as many of the 5 W's as Ziggy feels like giving me?"
The headset in Al's right ear began vibrating, he spoke "Go Ahead", then Al heard "Push the silver button" coming from the headset, he shrugged and followed the instructions (coming from Samantha). A holographic display shot out in front of Al displaying all of the data that Sam had just requested. Al switched positions, walking through the porta-potty (as it was just a hologram to him back in New Mexico) so that Sam could read it all too. It came to him in neon blue, very small letters:
"OK, So I'm Sarah Manning. I'm at Knebworth in England on August 11th, 1996. I don't have any records at all prior to being adopted by a Siobhan Sadler, and I was adopted along with Felix Dawkins. Ziggy, were they near me in the crowd?" asked Sam, and the words changed briefly to period specific photos of the 2 of them, Sam remembered being in the crowd with them. The images then changed back to the words. "I actually like the new interface. The main scenario is...helping Sarah and the others get smuggled into Canada?" asked Sam.
Al nodded "A lot of European and Asian orphans even in the late 20th century got smuggled out to Canada and the United States. The political unrest never sleeps. Anyways, Ziggy says that sometime during the smuggling, Felix dies. You have to ensure that Felix lives so that he can be a prominent artist as an adult, and make sure that the 3 of you arrive in Canada safe."
"How long will that be?" asked Sam. Ziggy put up an estimated time of arrival being several weeks from now.
"Oh boy" said Sam, his trademark.
Act 3
I had made it back to the people I now knew were Sarah's adopted stepmom and brother. It had just occurred to me that I had missed out on a lot of festivals and concerts in the 60's and 70's as I was in school all the time, so I actually was enjoying as much of this leap as I could. But I was still focusing a lot of my attention on Felix, Sarah's foster brother.
"Stop staring at me, you're looking at me like I need to put on eyeliner or something" he said.
Felix, even at his young age, was very effeminate in his mannerisms. But the part of me that's still Sarah Manning knew, that this was an amazing human being regardless of whatever his sexuality would become in adulthood. He was wearing skinny blue jeans and a Queen T-Shirt, not caring that Queen would actually go down to 2 touring members after a one-off concert in Paris with Elton John less than a year after this show. I then turned my attention to Siobhan, who was constantly looking in every direction for someone and wearing similar jeans to Felix, only with a white t-shirt with what I think is the album cover for Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks" pink album cover painted on it. She definitely seemed like a veteran rebel, which may be why she adopted Sarah to begin with: Sarah was completely outside the system, and Siobhan wanted to keep her that way.
"Come on, Carlton's here" shouted Siobhan (but Sam and Felix could barely hear her in light of the crowd cheering at Oasis launching into "Champagne Supernova"). Sam was about to take Felix by the hand, but Felix actually walked ahead, closer to Siobhan.
"Mrs. S, why did you agree to meet Carlton at a public place like this?" asked Felix, who had to nearly scream in order to be heard.
"Because chicken, you and Sarah fight almost as much as the Gallagher brothers"
Sam laughed at that, but was then disturbed by 2 things: The first was the memories of leaping into several Oasis fans in the past where he suddenly became aware that it was a miracle that Noel and Liam didn't kill each other on stage as that was the severity of their fights. And secondly, Felix seemed put off by Siobhan's choice of words.
"Are you OK?" asked Sam, making sure to sound like he was legitimately concerned for Felix.
"Piss off" said Felix with a smile, who was trying to make "Sarah" aware that he would be fine, but Sam could tell that the smile was forced. Sam determined that the best course of action was to act like he was leaving Felix alone, but he still had to keep him alive somehow.
"Al, where are you?" said Sam in a normally volumed voice knowing that the large crowd should drown out his question and prevent strangers from looking at him, thinking he was crazy. Then came the sound of the door opening.
"Al, why did Felix die in the original timeline?"
Al struggled to scream an answer, and was disoriented by walking through nearly a dozen concertgoers. Finally Sam lip-read Al saying "Ziggy, switch to speech to text". Al then began talking with more enunciation in his words. They finally appeared in the blue neon 2 feet from Sam's face:
In the original timeline, Siobhan and Carlton were arrested but got Sarah and Felix onto the boat anyway. While Sarah made it to Canada, Felix died of Scurvy. Jesus, who dies of scurvy in 1996? And Sarah becomes a prostitute who dies from being murdered at the hands of her pimp, Victor Schmidt who gets off on a self-defence technicality. God, this Vic is quite a dick. End Speech to text.
Sam, Al, Siobhan and Felix then noticed a protest developing in the crowd.
"Must be Blur fans" shouted Siobhan.
"Oh god, I forgot the Britpop rivalry" shouted Al.
"Britpop?" screamed Sam.
"Yeah. In the mid-late 1990's, Fans of British music were fighting amongst themselves as to who was better: Blur or Oasis. It wasn't a big issue in America since Blur only had 'Song #2' as a hit, but 2 of my daughters got into some catfights over it. It was like Beatles vs. Stones all over again"
Sam nodded in agreement, but then regained focus "Al, what do I do? The protest is in the general direction of where Carlton is supposed to be"
"Blend in, it'll make it harder for the pigs to find us" shouted Siobhan. Al nodded in agreement, and Sam went along with it. After 5 minutes, they came to a Black man in U.S. Army fatigues waving for them to come to him. Sam instinctively knew that this was Carlton.
It took them the better part of 15 minutes to get off of the festival grounds (and they received many dirty looks when they declined getting their hand stamped for re-entry) with nothing of note happening other than Sam putting 1 of Sarah's hands in the hand of Siobhan and the other to pulling Felix along (Sam was even surprised that Felix didn't object). Sam then put his hands to his head, indicating that he suddenly afflicted with a violent migraine.
"Sam, what's wrong?" shouted Al...and Siobhan. Sam knew that he had to choose his words very carefully in order to not attract the wrong kind of concern. He took a deep breath and said "Either I'm having a stroke or it was something I ate this morning" he then ran to a nearby bush and began throwing up. In between vomits, Sam whispered "Al, I think that this migraine is a side effect of the leaping process as Quantum Leap was never designed to leap into a human clone"
Al then pushed a button on Ziggy's headset and screamed "Get all of that Leekie? Have your Dyad lackies look into it on the double! OK, yeah, recalibrate Ziggy while Sam is still awake, that won't make things worse" stated Al sarcastically.
"Actually that is an improvement...now I'm fine, NOW I'm worse...OK...I'll be OK now. Make sure to keep an eye on me for the duration" said Sam to both Siobhan and Al simultaneously.
"You got it" said both of them.
"I like this one" said Al, pointing to Siobhan as opened the chamber door and left.
Dr. Leekie was smiling from ear to ear, to Beth Calavicci, Samantha and Tom, it was chilling.
"One of my unmonitored clones can now be monitored"
"Monitored?" asked Samantha. Dr. Leekie ignored her and headed for the waiting room. Samantha waited until he was away from the main office.
"Ziggy, with our recent buyout from Dyad, do you have access to Dyad's archives and databases?" asked Beth
"I do, though some of the files have redactions" said Ziggy, who if she were a physical being, would be smirking.
"Check all Dyad files pertaining to human cloning with an emphasis on the word 'monitor'. Display on our new flatscreen...monitor." requested Donna, noting her poor choice of words
Ziggy silently complied, and the revelation was horrible.
"The clones don't even have the basic human right to freewill?" asked Beth.
"Their own friends and family are made to spy on them. We may do that for the duration of the leap, but that's a few days of someone's life at most, not throughout their entire lives" said Donna in utter terror.
Samantha then spoke again "Uncle Tom, Al, I know you technically outrank me on this project but will you kindly beat Dr. Leekie to the waiting room and look after our cloned patient who's in the body of your brother and best friend?"
Tom was already...quietly...jogging. Al grabbed a nearby cane...that he didn't need to walk with.
"Oi, who's the white hair?" asked Sarah to Dr. Beeks as Dr. Leekie entered the room.
"That would be Doctor Leekie, he brokered the deal to take over this project" answered Dr. Beeks.
"Hello, I've been looking for you for a long time." said Dr. Leekie, whose facial expression changed to that of lechery not even Al would be capable of in the timeline where Beth left him.
"Wait about 10 years, and I'll still turn you down even for 20K" said Sarah, who treated Dr. Leekie like a potential rapist or molester.
"Oh it's not like that. You won't remember this when you go back but you were part of a science experiment and I lost you...and 1 other. It is so good to see you again. Dr. Beeks, will you please excuse us"
Dr. Beeks side-stepped so that she was in between Dr. Leekie and Sarah "I believe I won't, as I believe you intend to harm my patient."
That was all that left Dr. Beeks' mouth before Leekie threw her into the wall.
"Neolution, so many body mods available to make the old young again. We even modded the body you're in now as we don't want Dr. Beckett dying on us before we direct every clone to the history we want them to have."
"And did you modify me with this?" asked Sarah as Sam, who proceeded to roundhouse kick Dr. Leekie in the face, knocking him out cold with 1 kick just as Tom Beckett and Al Calavicci entered the room.
"Is that your memory Miss Manning, or Dr. Beckett's?" asked Tom as he entered the room and helped Dr. Beeks up, whispering "Have Beth look you over" to her before she left.
"Does it matter?" replied Sarah as Sam. Al laughed, shook his head, then (in a rare breach of protocol and along with Tom), saluted Sarah.
Act 4
I had fully recovered from that awful migraine not long after I had it. Leaping into a clone was something that I only briefly thought when I built Project Quantum Leap so long ago. I had theorized that there may be physical problems on account of the DNA being a copy. I guess it would be like re-mastering an album or a movie based on a CD and not the original master tapes. It seems that my team knew what to do immediately and re-adjusted the interface between Al and I. I can't guarantee that there won't be problems in the future, but for now I feel fine.
Knebworth is near a river, I can't remember which one. But Siobhan made us go the long way around to a series of boat piers (and it was already nighttime when I leaped so it was likely the middle of the night now). She said that it was to 'throw off the scent of the fascist pigs' in a tone that suggested that she had had a lot of run-ins with the law in her past. Normally I'd side with Law and Order but, something inside me told me that for all of her flaws, She would do literally anything for her adopted kids.
"SHIT" exclaimed Siobhan, trying not to alert anyone as she checked her jacket pockets.
"What's wrong?" asked Felix.
"I lost the note with the directions. I don't know what pier our boat is at"
"It's the very first one. I wrote that note, remember?" said Carlton in what Sam had now deduced was a mild Jamaican accent.
"Oh Sam, you're never gonna guess what happened in the waiting room, the little girl you leapt into just kicked our new benefactor's butt" said Al.
"Cops are here" said Felix.
"How the bloody hell did they find us?"
Sam turned to Al, who replied "Tell them the first boat was compromised"
"The boat was compromised?" asked Sam.
"Sarah, how do you know that?" asked Siobhan as she thought Sarah was talking to her, not Sam talking to Al. Siobhan and Carlton started laughing nervously, as the cop drove by them, and they thought it was a false alarm.
"Tell her 'we need the backup, a birdwatcher's been bought'" said Al, pointing to Siobhan.
"We need the backup, a birdwatcher's been bought" repeated Sam. Siobhan and Carlton stared at her frightened, with Siobhan leaning closer to Sam.
"You're not supposed to know that code yet, chicken." she said to Sam.
"Tell her 'I listen more than you give me credit for'" said Al.
"I listen more than you gave me credit for" repeated Sam.
"I suppose you do. Come on!" said Siobhan as she heard more cop cars in the distance.
"Sarah, do you know which backup boat to take? Siobhan has 3" asked Carlton frantically as he was running and dragging Felix along.
Sam immediately stared at Al while running, while Al was already saying "Ziggy, did you get all of that?" as Sam did. The figures came up in front of Ziggy's face in neon blue letters:
"Backup Boat #2: 68%
Backup Boat #1: 21%
Backup Boat #3: 10%
Turn yourselves in: 1%"
"Boat #2 seems safest" replied Sam.
"#2 it is. I know not to bet against Sarah unless I have to." replied Siobhan. It was only another 100 metres...
...and then a gunshot was fired.
"Shit, a sniper." declared Carlton.
"The shot came from behind, keep moving" replied Siobhan, only 90 metres away.
"You never told me anything about a sniper" shouted Sam.
"Chicken, I wasn't exactly expecting a fascist pig to bring out the big guns, y'know" replied Siobhan as she was assuming that Sam (as Sarah) was talking to him (as her).
"It wasn't in the police records or in the papers, Sam. I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, Ziggy says this doesn't change the probability at all"
"Stay the course" says Sam, thinking he needed to reassure the adults and a now very scared Felix, 50 metres to go...
...and then the second shot was fired, through Al (who was unfazed as he was a hologram) and into the back of Carlton's left shoulder, causing him to fall off the dock into the river.
"CARLTON!" screamed Felix.
"LEAVE ME BEHIND!" shouted Carlton.
"Carlton's gonna be fine Sam, the bullet went through clean. If you rescue him though, Siobhan gets executed as she's wanted for killing her husband even though it was self-defence while Felix still dies on the boat and Sarah gets lost in the Canadian adoption system and won't live to see her 21st birthday. Carlton was never meant to join you but he'll see Siobhan in Canada years later and he's just fine." shouted Al very quickly.
"Do as he says, we press on" said Sam. Felix and Siobhan nodded as Carlton waved goodbye with the unwounded arm, tears in his eyes. A third shot was fired in their final 20 metres, and if Felix had been an inch taller it would have struck him in the back of the head. Thankfully, it missed and someone in what would be the boat's lower galley opened a trap door and waved them inside. Siobhan threw Felix in first, then Sarah, then Siobhan joined them as a fourth shot hit the boat as the door closed.
"This emergency meeting was called in order to discuss the insubordination of your team and the assault of Doctor Leekie in your project's waiting room. You have breached the terms of our sponsorship of you and we move to terminate your funding with extreme prejudice effective immediately." said a Dyad employee by the name of Ferdinand Chevalier as he stared directly into the eyes of Al Calavicci, who gulped as he was (at one point) high enough in the U.S. government to know that that meant everyone remotely connected to the project would be buried somewhere in the nearby desert.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mr. Chevalier." replied Ziggy, who was not just a voice through the project, but a holographic replica of the Leda clones.
"How is this possible?" asked both Ferdinand and Donna.
"When Sam and Al switched places as a result of a lightning strike when Sam leapt out of Sam Bederman, he took the liberty of updating my retrieval systems. It was not the most efficient re-programming of me as he was under some distress and it contained redundant programming code, but the extra code began to accumulate with other redundant programming code from subsequent upgrades by Samantha to where I had enough to construct my own holographic avatar program. I decided to take on the form of a clone by the name of Rachel Duncan in order to remind Ferdinand that I have access to all of Dyad's secrets now. I was hoping that the human cloning experiment done in the late 1970's and early 1980's was illegal so we could use it as leverage against someone at some point, but Dyad has a lot of fingers in a lot of shady pies, doesn't it, Mr. Chevalier?"
If Beth (or anyone else) could guess Ferdinand's emotions at that point, it would be feelings of...sexual arousal?
"Who's a dirty hologram of a dirty clone?" asked Ferdinand.
"I am, but Sam also designed me to go beyond my original programming. Enough to where I've grown to care about my creator's colleagues. So, double the money, leave us alone, and we'll keep quiet. Otherwise, Dyad will be destroyed in a matter of weeks, with everyone in it facing more than just simple jail time."
Ferdinand need a moment to think.
"This proposal has a shelf life of 10 seconds, Mr. Chevalier"
"I know when I'm beaten. We'll be in touch, but I request an immunity clause if you ever ask us for our help limited to only said help. We can be quite beneficial to our interests in Dyad."
"Acceptable on the condition that all Dyad employees leave the property within 1 hour and no harm ever comes to anyone from the original project" stated Ziggy as Rachel.
"Deal" said Ferdinand who walked through the Ziggy hologram, preparing to leave.
"I'd hate to see you in court, darlin'" said Al.
"Indeed" as Ziggy's hologram vanished.
So Siobhan, Felix and I were underway, on our way to Canada, but I still haven't leaped yet.
"Mrs. S, Felix's pale skin in not by choice, he hasn't been eating right. As we're on a boat for a while, make sure he gets his Vitamin C and the like, yeah?" asked Sarah quietly.
"Well look at you, Mrs. Caring for others all of sudden" whispered Siobhan.
"Oi, piss off" replied Sam, thinking that a little of Sarah was in him as he would never talk to someone like that.
"Where are we going to settle, Mrs. S?" asked Felix. Sam made sure to look at Siobhan, wanting to hear her answer.
"Toronto. It's easy to hide in plain sight there as it's the largest city in the country." replied Siobhan.
The droning noise was heard, Sam went to look at the instrumentation on the ship, pretending to be interested so that he could talk to Al without incident. Al, was laughing.
"What's so funny?" asked Sam.
"Oh, our new benefactors turned out to be such nozzles that Ziggy became her own hologram to defend us." said Al. Sam was in shock.
"That's great Al, amazing." said Sam, who didn't quite join in on the laughing, but was smiling, happy that his crowning computing achievement outgrew herself in.
"Chicken, what's wrong?" asked Siobhan to Felix. Ziggy flashed a slang dictionary definition to Sam before Sam could even think of requesting it.
"Chicken means underaged male who is often pursued by much older males" said Sam, reading off the words that only he could see.
"Is that true, Felix?" asked Siobhan.
Felix nodded while sobbing, answering "Yes, Mrs. S. My life before was traumatic...because of that. I know I'm gay, even though I'm a kid. But no one should be looked at by men that old unless they want to be. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you, I was so ashamed"
"Oh Felix, I'm the one who should be sorry. I promise to never call you that again." said Siobhan who was fighting back tears. Felix and Sam then joined Siobhan in a group hug.
"You did it Sam. Felix's confidence from this lets him become a successful painter with galleries all over the world, and he even has an exhibition of paintings of the clones he meets. Not much is known on Sarah but she has a daughter named Kira and they both turn out OK. Wow, it looks like most of the others can't have kids" Al let slip.
"There are others?" asks Sam as the blue light surrounds him, triggering his leap.
When the blue lighting disappeared, Sam saw that he was in a classroom. Based on the white ceiling tiles, old desks with uncomfortable chairs but the fine grey John Phillips suit he noticed on the professor, he concluded that this was a special high school or maybe a community college.
As I spent a lot of my life in classrooms, skipping 2 grades in high school and earning 6 doctorates, I had a gut feeling that this leap on the surface seemed easy...
"All right students, the written exam begins NOW!" announced the professor.
But eventually would be difficult...
Sam then began looking at the questions across what turned out to be a 4 page exam. He noted that every question was multiple choice or fill in the blank. After checking to see if the beginning of the exam told him to just sign his name and hand it in (a trick that saved Sam in junior high once as it was a "Can you follow directions?" test), he decided to start from the beginning.
"Which colour is NOT on the primary colour spectrum in nails, hint: it's the same as paint.
A) Red, B) Blue, C) Black, D) Yellow"
"What am I in, kindergarten at a prep school?" asked Sam.
"Goderitch, no talking. You don't wanna fail cosmetic and beauty school again, do you? This is your 5th time taking this test. You should've accidentally passed the class by now" asked the professor.
"No sir." replied Sam, and then he saw a reflection on his partially polished desk. Other than the hair colour (bleached blonde) and age (early 20's by Sam's guess), she looked exactly liked who Sam leapt into for the last leap.
"Oh Boy"