Disclaimer: I do not own nothing. All credit goes to Michael Crichton.
It was a quiet trip to the memorial service. The cross country plane trip with her daughter had been an uneventful ride, if a bit lengthy. Beth had always hated plane rides especially when she was younger; she had always thought the confounded thing would simply burst into flames and she would be trapped helpless. So she distracted herself with all sorts of ridiculous frivolities, and made sure that she had her story straight by the time the plane landed at Ronald Reagan International. Every detail down to the letter had to be meticulously arranged, it wouldn't do for her to slip up now.
Jennifer had tried several times to engage her mother in some sort of conversation but had soon given up after they boarded the plane. Beth was all but dead to the world; she was far too wrapped up in trying to think. A perfunctory glance out the window told her what she was expecting to see; it was a dreary miserable looking day. The perfect somber like weather for a group funeral, memorial Beth corrected herself, a funeral would require bodies.
The ever efficient military had only waited three weeks after the incident to schedule the funerals. Well technically only two for Beth and the other two survivors, after their monotonous days in the decompression chamber. She hadn't heard from either Norman or Harry since then, and truthfully she wasn't sure if she was ready to see them now. Because of everything that had happened, and everything else they thought had happened but never really did.
She sighed to herself for what must have been the tenth time; she was going to go crazy trying to think of the situation with only pronouns. The sphere still existed and she knew it. But she was the only one that did because of that foolish pact the other two came to. With that knowledge, seeing them and everyone else involved in the incident would be that much harder.
"Mom?"
Beth snapped out of her reverie and glanced over at her daughter. Jennifer Halpern looked quite a bit like her, the same light coloring but she still had her baby fat and wore her hair longer. She sat on the other side of the taxi in a new black dress.
"Do you know how much longer until we get there?" Beth sighed. Jennifer had already asked the same question several times, even before they had boarded the plane last night.
"It says so on the directions that you printed out." The response was the same too.
Beth wasn't sure why she had decided to bring her daughter to the funeral. After all, her ex-husband had pitched a fit when he heard that Beth planned on taking their daughter out of school for, what he had called, "a field trip". Then again, perhaps it was for that very reason she had done it in the first place, to get under his skin. The knowledge that she had essentially used her daughter as a pawn didn't sit well with Elizabeth. After all she could recall having a conversation with Norman about how poor Jennifer's academics were. The only thing that Jennifer Halpern seemed to be good at was softball.
"But not for long." Beth whispered to herself.
Pretty soon her daughter would be good at everything. Beth did have the power, so what if she used it for selfish reasons; it wasn't as if anyone could call her out on it.
"Not for long what Mom?"
"I said, not much longer until we get there."
And in front of them loomed the entrance to Arlington Cemetery. Past the entrance, Beth and her daughter could see the long rows of white grave markers rising up from the acres of green grass.
Beth reviewed her plan one last time and focused on the details. She was going to go to this memorial and neither Norman nor Harry would come anywhere near her, nor anyone else. The grieving families would each come to her and, after accepting her condolences, would go about introducing her to the other guest at the funeral. Many of whom will be men and women that would have worked with Barnes at the Pentagon. They will be as obvious, as the government always about something confidential, and make several references to some important research facility where her skills could be seen as an asset. Beth would dither about something unimportant and let them make their own conclusions about what she did and did not know.
Beth savored each detail. The future inquiry into her ex-boyfriend's so called "research" would reveal that he had in fact plagiarized her work all those years ago, just like she had tried to tell everyone.
And then somehow, in however many years it takes, Beth will command the ship to bring back the sphere. Only this time nothing will have the chance to go wrong and her body won't be found mummified under the ocean.
There has to be a way to come out of that alive, Beth decided. But she deliberately pushed the panic away and decided she could deal with it later. For now she had to make it so she actually has a chance to actually get the powers in the first place.
Beth woke up the next morning feeling ten feet tall. She had done it; everything that Norman and Harry had said couldn't be done with this power. Well she had done it and proved to them that she definitely was good enough.
No.
Beth had proved that she was better by doing something they were too afraid to even think of.
And that was all she did, she simply had to think and whatever she wanted would happen and the stupid susceptible world would fall into step without even stopping to consider how she had done it. No one would ever catch her doing this, how could they? What she was doing with this power should have been done long ago, change the world for the better and stop letting the overbearing bureaucrats have free reign because they had money, she and her colleagues should be the one's at the reigns not the ham fisted armies and the oily politicians. She had worked tooth and nail to be successful and had overcome more obstacles than she had ever imagined, now by some stroke of luck she could do this.
The years passed in leaps and bounds for Bethany Halpern, as she went back to school and got her degree in astrophysics. She carried on with the sorts of things she remembered that Ted had always wanted to do, and gains recognition for her work. Taking care to mention him in every speech, and dedicating several of her books to his memory. Her ex-husband and his wife Aimee moved to Geneva while Beth received full custody of Jennifer. Together Beth and her daughter moved to an upscale apartment in Chicago's Old Town Neighborhood.
Somewhere along the way she had considered just letting the power go away, but she knew that the cycle had to come full circle or she would never have had so much to live for. Now her daughter was in the best schools and was extremely clever not just athletic. And Beth relished seeing Jennifer's awards and numerous successes; if she had nothing else she would have been content.
Jennifer entered the quiet apartment. "I home." She called out while taking off her shoes.
Silence greeted her and she made her way to the answering machine in the kitchen, there was a note stuck to the top.
"Last Minute Trip to DC, there's money for take-out if you want it. Call as soon as I land ~Mom"
Typical mom, full of good intentions but always putting her job above everything else.
There was a call that night, at four in the morning, just not the sort of call that Jennifer was expecting when she blearily stumble over and picked up the phone.
It would seem her mother had died.
Jennifer stared out the airplane window, with the manila file clutched to her lap. She had never flown in the business section of an airplane before and had to admit it was definitely a step up from that crowded ride she had taken all those years ago when she was just nine years old. Come to think of it, that had been the last time Jennifer had flown in an airplane.
When Jennifer landed in Washington, she was greeted by her mother's long time friend Norman. He had been kind enough to take her to the Pentagon so that she could officially claim her mother's body and begin the funeral arrangements.
He waved her over to where he stood by the luggage claim, with her bag already at his feet. "You look just like your mother." Norman said after he hugged her, but for some reason that made his brow furrow, as if he was trying hard to remember something.
"Not quite," Jennifer grinned as she grabbed her duffel bag. "I'm taller."
Author Note:
This story was written several years ago and taking space up in my laptop. I polished it up here and there and smoothed over some of the more clunky sentences. Let me know what you think. I figured it was only fair to post something new after so many years of nothing. The last few lines of dialogue in the book always seemed so unfinished to me. Beth knew exactly what she was doing and most definitely never let go of the power.