Near Light

by novalounge

This is a sequel to 'One Way Trip', so read that first. If 'Life is Strange' was their origin story, 'One Way Trip' was a re-awakening. An introduction to new friends, hidden enemies. Warnings for the future. Early power-ups for what lies ahead. 'Near Light' is the continued adventure of Max & Chloe, picking up where 'One Way Trip' left off. Pricefield, etc.

10. Dreamland

Chloe pushed away from the giant-ass transformer. The low frequency hum set her teeth on edge. Max dropped them off in an electrical substation on the outer edge of the base, facing the mountains to the northwest. Blind-spot. Coast was clear. No one saw them pop in.

Max caught up to her. "Good?"

"We're good." Chloe motioned toward the wide low structure a few hundred yards in front of them. "Wanna go hang out at the bar?"

"Seriously? Here? I…did not expect that."

"Yep. Staying secret is damn thirsty work. Peeps gotta eat, drink and…be merry I guess?"

"Any chance for Romulan Ale, Captain?"

"That's lieutenant, thank you very mulch. And no such luck. Lots of whiskey though."

"Corrected. And ew. Pass. Still seems super weird that they'd have a bar here is all."

"You're so cute. And what else are people gonna do at night?"

"Stars are pretty…"

Chloe looked at the cluster of buildings from all sides. There were no windows. Even the doors were solid. Just the rudimentary signs differentiating one entrance from another. Sam's, the place was called. Rec center of some sort. Bar, gym and pool were all inside their own linked buildings. Tennis outside, baseball diamond across the street.

Chloe steered them right, toward the baseball field. Aside from the tennis court off to their left, it was the only patch of green she could see from any vantage point. They took the next left, heading through several rows of long, low dorm buildings. Had a choice from there. North base hangars to the left, south base hangars to the right. They'd head north first.

The snow had mostly gone with the morning rains, tapering off to a dry gloom an hour before. There were a few people out and about. Some in uniform, others driving by in those white trucks. Not as crowded as she'd expected, but it was mid-morning on a Wednesday. Lots of people working away, out of sight.

Chloe pulled back to herself, glanced Maxward. Could tell she was feeling better. Didn't press. Whatever had her down this morning mostly faded before they left. If it was important, she'd share on her own. Sometimes a mood was just a mood. Hugs were usually good medicine.

"We're on camera now, right?" Max asked, interrupting Chloe's thoughts.

"Yeah. A few. Audio too. Sort of. Don't sweat it. I'm scrubbing us out in real-time. Only live people can see or hear us."

"Pwnership has its privileges? So…what would happen if I say, leaned in and kissed you right now?"

Chloe thought about it. "According to regs, I think I'd have to yell 'PDA' really loud and point awkwardly at you for like a minute or two. Then write you a citation or some shit?"

"That…doesn't sound right."

"No, it's true. For whatever reason - stay with me on this - military protocols weren't designed to celebrate displays of affection between people. Crazy right? If we ever build an army, I'm replacing salutes with hugs. Like, step one."

"That's not the worst idea I've heard today. But it might not be the best, either. Dunno. Like where do you draw the line? Who initiates? What if someone's not a hugger? Do you get in trouble? Who gets priority in a group? Or do you group hug? Do you extend the courtesy to diplomats? Couriers? The enemy? So much complicated."

"Damn Max. That's more thought than I gave it. Maybe you're right. I mean, I know at the most basic level, the correct response for me would be to kiss you back. But we'd really have to hope no one was watching with their own eyes. Although, I guess you could scrub that out if it came to it…"

"Least there's no windows anywhere, right? God, this is so weird. Like we're in some alternate universe of boring giants, where glass was never a thing."

Chloe chuckled.

Max looked around. "So, uh…where's our first stop, Lieutenant Price? Er. I mean… 'Carter'?" Max glanced down at Chloe's name tag, then down to her own.

"There's a hangar I wanna check out. Past these dorms, left side… Lieutenant O'Neill."

"So appropriate. And I'm really happy you made it with two 'L's…"

Chloe shrugged. "Pfft. Like that was even a question?"

They casually strode toward their destination. Boot-falls alternating between soft rubbery thuds and the occasional mini-splash. The ground on the base was a mix of concrete and hard packed desert dirt, pounded down over half a century of use. Pools of water everywhere. Scattered mirrors into an upside-down cloudy world.

Chloe gestured at one of the puddles, asked, "'Member when we were kids? …like I don't know, maybe four or five? You had that pink plastic rain jacket with the bear on it? Whenever that was…"

Max smiled, as much to herself as to acknowledge Chloe. "…after the rains?"

"Yeah. Puddle-stompers."

Max's face lit up as she quietly shouted, "Oh man - Mukluks!"

Chloe laughed. "Mukluks. Shit. You're so funny. Forgot about that. Um. Okay, so remember that thing we used to do? Jumping into the puddles, trying to see if we could fall through to the other side?"

"Oh my god. That's right." Max face-palmed. "That was your dad, too. I was so fucking gullible."

"Heh. What was it? He said it was like falling into a hole. We'd just keeping going. Convinced me that it was my twin - the one on the other side - that saved me every time. That she'd always be there, jumping right where I jumped."

"…pressing back just as hard to keep you safe. I think I remember something like that."

"Anyway, used to imagine that it was more like fifty-fifty. Like how could she know otherwise? So I used to think that those times where I had the rando urge to jump in a puddle, it was cause she was going to, and it was my turn to save her…"

"I really miss that. Being a kid I mean. PB&J without crust. Sunshine? Eating an orange and having that be like the best part of the day? Taking off into the forest to find pirate treasure and not coming home til after dark…"

Chloe stopped, big grin on her face. Motioned around them. "It hasn't really changed all that much, has it? What part of this is any different?"

Max nodded. "We are wearing silly hats again. You make a compelling argument, Price. Back to 4th grade. Pirate twins forever…"

"Funny how that worked out…" Chloe set off again. Looked at Max. "I always knew we'd do…interesting things."

"If we only knew…"

After they'd traveled a bit further, Chloe pushed her viewpoint outward. The buildings and hangars around them were all windowless. Painted that uniform light beige. Lots of space, with buildings spread out on an open grid. Like they could move a large plane almost anywhere without wingtips touching buildings at all. 'Cept through the narrows. Dorms. Probably the point. Some of the layout went back to the U-2 spy-plane, with its super-wide wingspan.

Chloe made note of the parking lot full of white cars, trucks and vans a few rows lots over. They were gonna need some wheels at some point. Easier to get around than walking, with zero danger of popping in where a person could see.

Max kept pace alongside. "So? What do you think? Is it everything you'd hoped and dreamed it would be after all this time?"

Chloe shrugged. "Knew we'd get here eventually. But I gotta be honest, dude. Kinda feels more like an airport than a spaceport."

Max pointed toward their destination. "What's in all those hangars? Can you see in?"

Chloe fought the urge to bring up her holo. "Planes mostly." Bots refreshed their interior scans. "Like that hangar there…" Chloe pointed ahead to their right. "Russian Sukhoi Su-27. Fighter. They have three different versions in there. Five planes. Maintain 'em. From what I could find, they bought a couple in Belarus in the late 90's. Recovered one of the others somewhere off the coast of Alaska and rebuilt it. Other two are a mystery."

"Dogfight practice?"

"Yeah, and training, intel. Understanding strength and weakness. As spies learn about modernization and tech upgrades, new software, whatever, they install duplicates on these, see if that changes things… Everything out of view of the public. I mean, it makes sense. You'd kindof expect that everyone was doing this with each other's shit, right?"

"Yeah. What else? Anything super weird or fun?"

"Same story on the other side. Chinese fighters. Plus, a homebuilt working copy of a prototype hypersonic ballistic missile design someone stole a few years back."

Max shook her head. "Dumb. Should we tell them? It's all a waste of money, I mean? Cause…not like any of that shit's gonna get used on people or anything."

"They'll get there. Meanwhile, I mean, it's not totally useless."

"What? Deterrence? …still seems dumb. Gotta keep up, keep outdoing each other. Just one small fuckup… came close with the Russians a few times during the cold war, didn't they?"

"Yeah. But there's some people who think that it prevented a conventional war between the superpowers that should have happened between the 1960's and 80's."

"I'll show 'em superpowers…"

Chloe laughed, "Down Max." Got serious again. "David used to say… and I can't believe I'm reminiscing about shit David used to say… anyway, he used to say that 'an armed society is a polite society'. Whatever. He wasn't all that polite. But I guess the same is sorta true about nations. Well, a little while longer, anyway."

"Whole nother timeline. And I'm not so sure the thought's even correct. I mean, seems to me the places with the most guns have always had the most shootings. You know, cause they have all the guns to shoot at each other with? Not like the Middle East is a good example, but…"

Chloe, thinking back, "Yeah, but there's also a balance of power issue - it equalizes power between the physically strong and the weak. Allows someone who might otherwise be a victim to defend themselves against a stronger attacker. I know though. It invites challenge, and doesn't always go that way."

"Cause one weak person with a gun can take that out on a lot of innocent bystanders too. We've both experienced that in lots of ways, Chlo…"

"Fair point. Applies to people and countries I guess. Still feel safer with a gun than not though. Even if the rounds are mostly of the zappy variety these days. And on the topic of the Middle East - same kinda deal. Maybe they feel they need all those guns cause of multiple invasions and history and… yeah. More of same."

"Yeah… Complicated."

"Anyway, I think the politeness thing holds when everything's cool and everyone's being polite. Duh. But…second it goes south for real, everyone's got all their guns out, trying to figure who to shoot at and where to duck. Like the idea of mutually assured destruction - it may keep things from going bad for a while, maybe even forever - like that last 'are you sure' button. But it amplifies the dying exponentially if shit does go off the rails. And let's face it, crazy happens."

"Except…"

"I mean, yeah, nukes and stuff are pretty much a waste at this point anyway. You're right. We're here now. Hopefully the reasons for all the bullshit go away soon too. Meanwhile, I guess we could be polite and leave them a note. Say something like 'Don't sweat it - we got this - no more wars - use the cash on something else' or some shit? With a smiley-face, for sure. Think it'll be enough?"

"If we can do little hearts to dot the 'I's too, I'm sure that'll close it. We can just retire after leaving it here, yeah. Totes."

Two airmen walked out of a door on their right. Maintenance building. Sergeant and an A1C. Right hands shot up to the brims of their caps in salute. She and Max returned them, kept walking. Chloe intentionally mangled her salute a little. Kept the hand too flat, and at slightly the wrong angle. She noticed that Max delivered hers perfectly. Form, delivery, everything. Interesting. She must have done some research after all?

Max said, "See? That might have been a little awk, right? Stopping to hug. I mean, what if everyone was in a hurry? I'd be all like 'It's cool. I don't know you, dudes.'"

"No, you're right. It was just an idea." Chloe watched from above as they walked. Added thoughtfully, "Maybe skipping instead of marching then?"

Max considered. "I see no problem with this."

"Parades would be so much more awesome…"

Max nodded in agreement. "That's actually what the world desperately needs. Less marching. More skipping."

"However do we contain our genius in these tiny little heads, Max?"

"Well, that's not entirely true for you."

"Yeah, you either."

"Answered your own question then"

"That's cause I'm a genius."

Max laughed. "Think your humility circuit's fried."

"Oh my god - how can you say that? You know I'm like the absolute most humble person that has ever fucking lived in the entire history of ever."

Max shook her head, "Uh-huh…"

Shifting for a moment, Chloe looked beyond the roofs and walls around them to the shapes inside. Toolboxes and tech. Parts. People. Ladders and benches. Storage shelving. Each crew had their own in-hangar wired network, but no links out. There was something in that hangar over there that looked like a space plane. In others, a few more Chinese and Russian aircraft. Fighters and bombers. Missiles. More than a few scaled testbeds. Mix of one-half and three-quarter sized test drones and planes. Long triangle shapes marked them as hypersonic. A shit-ton of drone forms. A few were huge. Bombers maybe? Or carrying more drones? Missiles carrying missiles? More than a few railguns, laser systems. Big enough for ships. Or jumbo jets. Maybe they'd scale them down later. Some craft did look a little like UFOs. No clearly defined front or back. A lot like the first gen ring-drones John's teams used to keep an eye on them when they first met. Hell, they might have even been prototyped here, now that she thought about it.

While snooping, she was pretty surprised to find a couple of large mechs sitting idle inside another support building, another mile ahead. Way beyond exo-suits. Actual fucking mechs. Two stories tall. Legs. Arms. Total crazypants designs. They weren't aircraft, but there was obviously plenty of space to test them out here, away from people. They weren't all that sophisticated. Basic materials. Armored. Hydraulics and motors. Guide-by-wire systems, but no neural controls she could see. Surprised they even bothered to make space for people in 'em. They could have done remote piloting just as easily, with no personnel risk. It wasn't clear what they were even for? They had some basic anti-personnel and anti-materiel weapons systems, and some anti-missile countermeasures bolted on. But there was no way they'd stand up to even minimal fire from tanks, planes or attack helicopters. They looked cool, for sure. Scary if you were a person on the ground, probably. So…maybe for urban patrols? But the armor was marginal for RPGs, even. Chloe made herself a note to dig in a bit further later. Curious.

They finally reached the first small hangar she wanted a peek into. Scans showed it was completely empty. Like nothing at all. No tools, no wires. Just empty space between the walls. Wasn't quite sure she believed it. Maybe they had some amazing new stealth design? Chloe Prime didn't follow this stuff in total detail first go-round, but she remembered a few optical stealth reveals later in the 21st.

She confirmed that no potential witnesses had line of sight to the two of them outside the hangar. Tried the door. Locked. No prints on the keypad she could use to guess at the combo. No card reader or other biometrics tech. She could force the door, but that was sure to set off alarms.

She gestured. "Maxi-moo? Babe? Would you mind?"

Max burst out laughing. "W-what?! Maxi-moo? I…I just can't even…" She vanished. Chloe heard laughter on the other side of the door before it opened from within.

Chloe slid in quickly, closing the door behind her. No alarms, no surveillance tech.

"…such a dork sometimes…" Max said from the darkness.

"Still your dork though."

Light leaks came in around the door, and around the frame of the sliding door that took up most of the front wall. Chloe flipped the switch for Max. The lights overhead clicked and flickered to life, throwing the room into a sickly yellow-green. Large empty hangar. No breaks, seams, partitions, nothing. Only echoes. And a four-foot wide hole in the concrete near the back corner. Dropped a couple of inches into dirt. Nothing down there she could see. She carefully walked across the space, just to be sure there wasn't an invisible plane or anything.

Nope.

Empty.

Huh.

Max shrugged at her.

Chloe, after a brief pause, "When you said we might not find anything… I didn't think to take you quite this literally."

Max shrugged again. "Would make a pretty cool loft space though. Think it's for lease?"

"Needs some windows I think. More natural light? Little stuffy. Maybe unleash a Roomba or twenty?"

"You're so spoiled. We could do projections from outside onto the inside walls. Just something to give the feel of outside, open it up?"

Chloe nodded. "Could work. Or we could, I don't know, open the giant sliding front wall?" Waved her arms to the front.

"Chances of being discovered may go up slightly."

"Only slightly. Life is risk. Chicken?"

Max spun in place. "Think they'd turn a blind eye if we set up a little chill-out space in here? Like, brought in a Zamboni, iced the floor, some white couches and maybe a DJ with some fat speakers?" Max pointed to various areas in the hangar.

"Charge a few bucks…summertime. They might actually dig it. Could be too over the top though."

After a pause, Max nodded, said, "Lemonade."

"Hmm?"

"Lemonade."

Chloe looked around, nothing to see. Squinted. "Elaborate?"

"We move in. Open the wall, set up a gigantic stand. I'm talking like huge." Max raised stretched her arms out all the way. "Sell ten gallon glasses of lemonade. Five bucks. Whatever. Still make a killing in the summer. Bet we'd learn a bunch too, just by listening. The Lemonade Stand UFO Spy Ring…"

Chloe thought for a moment, laughed. "There's always money in the lemonade stand? Haha! I kinda wanna do this. They'd have to drag them away though. The glasses. Ten gallons is pretty heavy. Or maybe we sell skateboards to put the drinks on? Or like, little wheels on the bottoms of the cups? What happens when they try to stop us? I mean, it would be a really tough one for them to explain away. For sure. Can you imagine? Especially if we resisted and they had to call in for more help? Commanders get called back to the Pentagon. Security contractors grilled. Congress gets involved… Closed door sessions…"

Max giggled, adopted a terrible but enthusiastic southern drawl, "Right? 'So explain again what happened, General? Two teenage girls bypassed all your sophisticated world class security systems, broke into a top secret hangar, and…it says here in your report, and I quote, 'they started a giant lemonade stand?'"

Chloe snickered, replied in a slow, deep faux microphone voice, "Um, yes sir. That is correct."

"When you say 'giant', am I to understand that the stand itself was of significant scale? Or was that the lemons?"

"Um, that would be both, sir."

Max giggled, got serious again, continued. "So thinking back to the incident…would you still agree with the other assessments that it was good?"

Chloe deadpanned, "Um. Our security is the absolute best in the world, congressman. We don't know…"

"No - no - the lemonade. Was the lemonade good?"

They both started laughing.

Stopped. Fought to contain themselves.

Maybe it was their goofy-ass voices echoing around the hangar, maybe it was the butchered lines from a classic comedy series that wouldn't be made for another twenty years. Maybe it was the faces they made while playing their parts, or simply watching each other try so hard not to laugh. But what began as a minor case of the giggles quickly devolved.

First Chloe, then Max, they started again. Kept going.

In waves, long after they should have stopped for good.

Just about the time one of them would recover, they'd look at each other, burst out laughing, and it would start up all over again.

Max finally said, between breaths, "Oh my god…so…stupid."

"We really are." Chloe agreed, shaking her head, near tears.

They looked at each other, fought the giggles, started up again…

"I mean… it's not…even funny!" Max gasped, face red.

"Nope. Not at all… fuck I can't breathe…"

"God - why…are we…laughing?"

Chloe, doubled over, "It's so not funny…hehe…that it's circled all the way around to funny again? Heh. I don't know. It's…something in the air?"

Max laughed, "Definitely in the air!"

"Gas maybe?"

"No - just our regular old giant cloud of stupid. Haha!" Max simmered down, "Oh god. Air. Um… Hehe. But here we are. In Area fucking 51. I mean, it's kindof funny. We could really do it. Performance art? Documentary? God, just their faces when base security rolled up…"

"So stupid…stop. Please…"

"Hehe. What is wrong with us? We are so dumb. hahaha!"

"Oh man. Heh! Is it…is it wrong that I'm kinda thirsty now?" Chloe snorted.

Max, crying, "No. But I…haha…I hehe… I have to pee… ahahahahaha!"

"Oh, jeesus - just stahp! Fuck, just…Max stop! hahahaha"

"Oh look… there's a…there's a hole over in the corner… hahahaa!"

They were both out of air, faces red, doubled over, laughing so hard they were coughing…

---

Max aged the door forward until it collapsed. Stepped over the pile of rusted dust at the threshold, then rewound everything back. Opened the door for Chloe.

"Three's a charm?" Max said cheerfully, bowing as Chloe stepped in.

"Crap." Chloe flipped on the lights.

After recovering from their ridiculous giggle-attack in the first hangar, they'd made their way to a support building that Chloe wanted to check out. She said bot-scans were being scrambled. Turns out, the room was filled with massive rolls of bubble wrap, thermo-plastics and other sorts of large format packing and shipping materials. The combination of curved bubbles, variable layers of transparency and sheer quantities of bubble wrap and reflective sheeting confused the bot optics. Nothing ominous.

Disappointed, Chloe led them here.

Another empty hangar, apparently. Last question mark on the north side of the base.

Small. A hundred feet or so across, it was the same inside as the first. Well, almost. No hole in the concrete, for starters.

Chloe stopped, grabbed Max's arm reflexively as she stared at the opposite wall. "Holy shit."

"What?" Max squinted in the half-light but couldn't see anything unusual. Looked back to Chloe, then the wall. Just regular old boring hangar innards.

Chloe started toward the other side, clicked her flashlight at the wall, then off again. "Above the intercom thingie? You don't… no, course not. Oh shit… nevermind."

Max could sorta make out something stuck to the wall as they got closer. Too many lights out to be sure. "What's up? What do you see?"

Chloe stopped a dozen feet from the wall. Gestured from one side to the other with a flashlight, laughing. "The whole fucking thing is covered with writing. A giant equation. I mean that in both senses, by the way. And a legend with values for some of the variables… The actual fuck."

"Why can't I see it? What does it mean?"

"It's…uh… damn. That's kindof genius. Sorry - nothing for you to see. I would have missed it too if it weren't for the roach-dudes chillin' in opposite corners back there playing interferometer… This was meant for me, Max. Fuck. Has to be. I'm probably the only one who can read it. There's something… it's not written on the wall exactly. I can't describe it. Um… Okay - here - visible light usually bounces off of shit, then some of that stabs you right in the eye. Bang. Electrical impulses, blah blah blah, you've got vision. But here…something is taking the photons in - but reflecting some back as low energy radio. Takes a retina surface the size of the back wall and a few seconds of sampling to resolve it into anything more than fuzz."

"Wait - so there's a transmitter or something in that box? Why haven't they picked it up on the base?"

"No - it's uh, not that at all. And there's no transmitter exactly. Like I'm seeing this as actual writing on the wall. But in radio, not colors or shades of light and dark. It's all EM in the end, but some is…downshifted. The lines of the figures themselves are reflecting back radio… It's simple - I don't know if it's ink or something in the paint or what…nanoscale structures maybe… Anyway, it's converting the wavelength. That's it. Light hits it at high frequency, it reflects a small portion back much lower. Probably not powerful enough to spread much beyond the walls. Lights out, nothing at all. Damn."

"Okay - so…I'll be the one to say it. That's kinda weird. Right?" Max raised her eyebrows, eyes questioning.

Chloe smirked, side-eyed Max, "Yeah, but…come on…"

Max shrugged. "True dat. What's it mean?"

"Uh…result of the equation is 1114380399."

Max raised her arms. "That's it?"

"Yeah." Chloe continued to stare at the visibly blank wall.

Max did some mental dashing. "So…it's a phone number."

"Not necessarily. Just…a number."

"Should we maybe punch it into that?" Max pointed to the wall-mounted metal box to their left. An old-school numeric keypad mounted under a five-inch tube screen. Eye-level. "See what happens?"

"Sure?" Chloe slid over, quickly punched in the code. "What could go wrong?"

Max sighed. "Had to say it…"

She heard a series of mechanical clicks, a tone, then the black and white screen hummed to life. On it, another hangar like this one, only with a couple of jet engines torn down in the background. A man in a jumpsuit walked up from the side. Sunglasses pushed up into his dark messy hair, smoking. He saw them, smiled big, "Hiya boss!"

Max and Chloe looked at each other, back to the screen. Chloe said "I'm sorry - who are you? You know us."

The man paused, his smile withdrew. He finally tossed his cigarette, let out a breath, ran his hand through his hair. Serious, studying them. "I see… Sorry. You said this might happen. Not important who I am. But I've been asked to tell you that you need to head south."

"Asked by whom? You're somewhere here on base, aren't you?" asked Max.

"By you. I'm sorry, that's…all I can say right now. I should go. Good luck. We're all counting on you."

Max and Chloe both said, "Wait…" as the screen went black.

"Fuck." said Chloe, punching in the number again. Nothing. No clicks, no sounds.

"Can you see where he is?"

"Nothing. I don't see him at all. I don't know Max…"

"That's a closed circuit kindof dealie, right? Are there wires we can follow or anything? He's gotta be close!" Max looked on all sides of the box. Nothing coming out. No inner-wall in these hangars, so nothing should be hidden. Might sprout out the other side, outside?

Chloe found latch on the side of the box, hinged it open. "The fuck?" She pointed for Max. "One wire for power, one for signal."

Max looked where Chloe held the light. Both wires ended, cut an inch past their internal connections. Just ended. Nothing further, nothing in the wall behind.

"My Scooby sense is tingling." said Chloe.

"Spidey sense?"

"Kinda like that, but I also want a snack. Fuck, Max." Chloe laughed, confused. "What the hell?"

Max, ascii shrugging, "For reals. What was that?"

"I don't know. But when an anonymous man on a small television screen tells you to do something…"

"Sooooo… south?"

"Nothing more up here anyway. There's a giant-ass hangar off the southern tip of the runway we should hit. Lots of stuff in there. And a back corner I can't resolve. That's south I guess?"

"K."

"We should score some wheels too. Think it's gonna be a long day."

As they headed back for the door to outside, Max said, "I'm glad that wasn't weird at all. I was a little worried when you started reading invisible radio equations off the inside wall of a big empty hangar at a secret UFO base…"

Chloe ignored her. "Bet everyone at HQ is eating lunch right now… Wanna stop at the base chow hall after this? It's on the way?"

---

Max rolled her window down, flopped her arm out over the edge. Fought the overwhelming urge to make air-dolphins with her hand. Wasn't sure it would help with the whole 'blending in' thing. They weren't really going fast enough for her to ride the wind, but that old itch was still there.

They'd 'liberated' their white truck from a large parking lot full of very similar white trucks and vans back at the base. Nobody'd miss it. Base vehicles were all over the place.

Max offered to fold or fly them over the hill, but Chloe wanted to drive. At least to the turnaround halfway up the lakebed on the other side. She wanted to see it all from ground level with her own eyes. Drive-by. Make sure. Assuming it was nothing, they'd head back home for a quick costume change before heading to the next site.

"Shit!" Chloe suddenly jerked the wheel to the left, then the right, narrowly avoiding a wide watery pothole. Max was buckled in, but almost spilled her water. Looked down to see Chloe's arm held out between Max and the dashboard. Aww. She steered them further to the right to let an oncoming truck pass by on the left. Guys inside eyeballed them as they went by. But went by.

Road wasn't remotely smooth after the runoff, and the mud puddles weren't helping. They weren't getting stuck or anything - just made it rough. The occasional loose rock clanked around the wheel wells as they drove south, away from the airbase.

The remaining hangar they'd broken into on the south side proved unremarkable. Just one defense contractor with a lot of technicians, test planes and drones under one roof. Some disused, stored, others under repair. Base-wide, it was a big 'nada'. Other than their mystery hangar experience, anyway...

What they mostly found was a busy joint-test facility working with secret experimental - but conventional - aircraft designs. Nothing more. Chloe's scans of the rest showed stuff that was interesting, surprising even, but not remotely alien. No mystery propulsion systems. No buildings with weird doorknobs or other signs of possible non-human presence. Not that either of them really expected that.

Chloe had her bots do a double-check for any other mystery writing in odd spectra, but…zip.

Still, the journey was fun for the most part. Chloe wanted to come back another night. Hit the bar. Break into their pool. Always with the splishing… They'd already done all the hard parts. Well, Chloe had. Infiltrating base systems, creating military records and IDs. They could come back any time they wanted. They were legit. Or rather, Lieutenants Carter and O'Neill were.

As for the rumored S4 facility further south… Chloe's bots were a bust on anything approaching a secret hangar at the eastern edge of Papoose Lake. The roads heading that way weren't heavily traveled, there were no signs of any workforce going in or out. Vehicle GPS tracking histories she'd found in the main security servers weren't painting the area as any kind of traffic magnet. No indications of industrial-scale activity anywhere on the southwestern side of Papoose Mountain. Almost completely undisturbed past the turnaround at the end of the old dirt patrol road.

Chloe confirmed that land ownership records had it squarely under the Department of Energy, and the whole section of the mountain, along with much of the territory to the west, had been classed as wildlife preserve. Seismic wasn't showing her anything either. Not even shadows where something might have been filled in.

After a half hour of nonsense, sing-a-longs and spine-rattling, they reached the turnaround, looping around a teardrop shaped pool of standing water. Chloe stopped the truck, shut off the engine. Quiet. "Nope."

The rain started up again. Fat drops.

Max rolled up her window. "Alright, love. What do you think it means? Why was S4 scribbled in the old notes from the 1950's? And why was that the one thing Margaret was able to pull from Andersen's head? And BT-dubs, WTF Go-south-guy?"

"Dunno. Fuck. Possible Andersen was just trolling us. I don't know. Either S4 mention in isolation would have stayed at nothing probably. The two together seemed to mean something, but… I don't know, honestly. We had a scribble and a thought. We…I…assumed that it validated some of the original Area 51 rumors - a nearby test facility for UFOs. But…there's only ever been one eyewitness who referenced S4 directly. Same dude who went public to the news-peeps that Area 51 even existed - back in the late 1980's. But maybe it's not where he said it was. I mean, he was right about Area 51, but maybe the rest was BS? Hive mind is divided."

"So we looked where the Internet said to look, and we didn't find anything? Are we sure that's conclusive? Internet, etc.?" Max made that face.

"We're parked where the dude himself said it was. Obviously nothing's here. Same thing I guess, but…"

"Well… Either he was telling the truth, or he's wrong about the details, or he's lying. You're my partner in corkboard - work it back, Chlo."

"Yeah, okay." The air above Chloe's left arm flickered a bright amber as her holo interface came back to life. She projected a 3-d topographical area map into the space between them, started explaining with the data overlays while she rotated and zoomed. "If he's telling the truth, and he's right about where it was, it means they closed up shop and maybe filled it in? I don't see any evidence of that here. Look - nothing. And I'm not seeing any tunnels or anything in seismic data. Well - I guess it could also mean that it's so well hidden that it's really for real not detectable. Like at fucking all. But even here, there's no traffic… I mean, look outside. We'd see tracks, footsteps, disruptions…something. That leaves going through the mountain, and I'm just not seeing tunnels or any of that underground either."

Max turned, "For what it's worth, I'm not sensing any voids or anything over there. But how hard would it be for you to mask the existence of underground structures? If you were designing from scratch?"

"From you? Probably impossible. You're feeling indirectly, but not measuring with energy through a medium. But…from anyone else? Yeah, no… I could do it for sure. Same principal as optical invisibility. Just need to move energy around all of the internals without altering any of it along the way. But…that's me. But…for normals working with 1950's tech and engineering? Fuck no. Seismic isn't from any one direction. It's all over the earth, plus reflections, deflections through rock layers and the mantle… No, I'm probably the only one who could right now. It's too specific. But, I mean, even if they could somehow do it - say aliens or some other beyond advanced bullshit — it's too much trouble to go through for an edge detection case when they could just, you know, use the base at Area-51? It's right there, and it's already hella fuckin' secure. Ya know…mostly."

"The return of 'hella'…" Max smiled, reached into a pocket and offered a cheese stick to Chloe. "Okay, so what if 80's dude was telling the truth, but he got the location wrong? Just got turned around somehow, whatevs?"

Chloe took the cheese. Sliced open the wrapper. Painted a blue line along the path they just took. "If he went there every day like he said, that seems super stupid. He talked about a bus they rode for years. Windows were blacked out, but, it's the same fuckin' road we just took. Not a lot of roundabouts. Takes as long as it takes. How lost could he get? Maybe if he weren't paying any attention - no…I just…doesn't seem plausible. He seemed like a moderately sharp-ish dude."

Max sipped at her water. Raindrops outside were falling closer together. "Okay, so maybe he's wrong, but not lying. Believes what he's saying, but - he was lied to, or what he thinks is true isn't right for some reason. We know thoughts and memories can be manipulated."

Chloe paused, "That's sounding more like our evil mystery crew… but why let him go public at all? Why have him expose the real Area-51 base? Why get people asking questions?"

"Misdirection?"

"Yeah, I mean, that makes sense in a psyops sort of way - but why misdirect about something literally no one knew about back then? Unless the exposure was their goal? But why would the designation he made up link with our mystery paper and Andersen's brain-fart in a super relevant way? You know I'm a huge fan of coincidence, but that's three separate references to the same something, right?… And where the fuck did the generator design come from then?"

Max looked off to the hillside. "So the lying option is obvious I guess. If he's lying, none of it's real, and the 'S4' on a 1950's paper dealing with anti-grav propulsion wouldn't jive. Andersen could still have heard it from somewhere in any scenario - hell, he could have scribbled in the margins of the docs for all we know, right? Could it be that simple?"

"No - the scribbles were dated to within a year or two of the page it was on. Ink. 50's. James wasn't even a wriggler yet."

"Ew. And that's…that's fucking irritating." Max leaned her head back, visualizing the moving parts. "We're missing a piece. Gotta be. Wish I had a real giant cork-board right about now."

The holo space between them vanished, along with Chloe's interface. "Feels like. And when we get back, we'll put the gang on it. Like, the thing that makes the most sense to me is that there's a real location called S4, William Andersen was involved in some way, and whatever they were doing there was linked to his device."

"Right. And then 80's dude outs Area 51…"

Chloe interrupted, "Which turned out to be true…"

"…and he drops S4 at the same time, putting it a stone's throw away…"

"…which may be false…"

Max continued, "…adding up to an explosive truth carrying along a lie for the ride?"

"…probably without him even knowing it."

Max turned back to Chloe. "Okay - so let's say that's right. There is a place. The location is wrong. Why? And what do we do about it?"

"Yeah - I have no fucking clue, dude. That's where it breaks down for me. Then there's the hidden message only I could see, and cryptic engine repair guy who kinda sorta maybe knows us, enough to call us 'boss', unless he calls everyone 'boss', cause people do that, right? But he still hangs up after talking through wires that don't fucking exist… We are fucking south." Chloe let out a breath. "Without more pieces, that feels like a global snipe hunt. S4 could be fuckin' anywhere."

"Square one?"

"Maybe not 'one' exactly." Chloe softened. The blue rings of her eyes glowed brightly for a second. "Let's be open to the possibility that the universe will answer all of our questions - in the fullness of time."

Max did a double-take. "Who are you, and what have you done with my Chloe?"

Chloe laughed. "Couldn't resist. But that look… priceless."

"I'll 'priceless' you. I…I don't even know what that means."

"Let's just head back, change. We have one more stop, anyway. Maybe get lucky. Shut it, perv. It's even further south, so…?"

Max asked, "K. Let's not go too far south, though. I like penguins, but Antarctica seems…chilly…"

"…says the supergirl who can make time blankets."

"Whatever. Hey - so in all your digi-minion-wanderings, they find any references at all? To our Andersens, any Them-sign? Anything?"

"I totally want to say 'Them-sign the likes of which even…' You know, never-mind. Big fat 'nope'. But…it's the way it's all put together here too. The stuff I was able to get to last night was mostly about the base itself. Administrative networks. Security. But most things aren't on the same network here. Or any network in some cases. Area-51 is a little like a hacker space, you know? The base provides the location and the french-fries, and a consortium of nine defense contractors shows up with their own people, laptops and planes and shit. Do what they need to, and take the data back when they leave. There's exceptions, like the ongoing military training, drone ops, operational flights, whatever. Saw that stuff. But the contractors have their own shit compartmented. CIA too. I'm working on it, but it's distributed back at their own HQs. It's a focus now. Might know more tonight or tomorrow. But I'm afraid it might just be more data for the future ref pile, and not much in the way of concrete insight…"

"Just checking."

"I know. I'm hoping there's something we can find after we change. Something off-network, local archive, anything. I'm really hoping TV-south-guy isn't a fucking figment. But… I've raised the replication limit on our little scouts, so we should eventually find everything around here, and have eyes on anything new moving forward. Answers, if there are any to be had. We should also think about planting a new core below the mountain. For giggles, if nothing else."

"Yeah - remind me before we head home for good. I'll make you a space"

"Coolio."

---

Max put them inside the perimeter, out of sight of the main entry gate. Site-6. A single long paved airstrip. A perfect circle of fencing a third of a mile in diameter. A few oddly shaped bright white hangars above ground, along with more typical buildings and small trailers around them.

Chloe's ant-bots confirmed there was more to the site down below, but they'd only managed to travel a couple of layers down before hitting figurative walls. Possibly actual walls too. By Max's reckoning, it went down six floors, maybe as far as eight. And something went out and down under the lakebed in a line - off-axis to the runway, but nearly as long. Chloe said the current cover story for the facility was drone and sensor testing. Might have been something else in the past. They'd check it out either way.

They were outside the Area-51 exclusion zone completely. This was still a restricted area, but only lightly and politely patrolled. Mostly civilian workers - government and defense contractors. Lots of personal vehicles in and out. Paved roads connected back to public highways to the south. Gated, but… They weren't actually all that far from home.

This area was part of the sprawling Nevada National Security Site - formerly the Nuclear Test Site - where hundreds of atom bombs were tested in the old days. Maps of the area showed a ton of weird unmarked buildings, artificial towns, a lot of excavation, cratered valleys and dirt airstrips in all directions. Airspace here was open to Nellis pilots for training flights and bombing runs. It seemed an unlikely place to hide or test exotic aircraft, especially when Groom Lake was so much more tightly controlled. But that's precisely why Chloe thought they should check it out.

Max studied the buildings. Found the entrance. Chloe adjusted her white lab coat before leaning around to face Max. Straightened her lanyard affectionately.

Max pushed at her fake glasses. They weren't fitting right on her nose. Was bugging her a little. "Shall we?" Max held a clipboard to her chest. White lab coat, ponytail, blocky nerd-glasses.

Chloe crossed her eyes. "Hot." Shook her head, laughing a little. "After you."

Max headed for the people-door to the right side of the large hangar door.

Chloe trailed behind. "No one around. I've got a few thermals in the trailers over there. Drone crews. Bout it. Twenty cars in the parking lot. We're good. Just…you know…fly casual."

Max swiped her lanyard past the reader. LED went from red to green with a low beep. She heard a metallic click as the door unlatched. It opened to a clean, tidy, air conditioned space that looked more like a tech lab than a hangar. Polished floors, large screens on the walls. A grey drone the size and shape of a small crop-duster slept in the center, dwarfed by the room. Toolboxes to one side, a small panel open in the nose. A few technicians leaned against a bench on the other side, monitoring something.

Max continued along the right wall past the bins and workbenches, heading for the door to the central office space that separated this hangar from the much larger one on the other side. Elevator at one end of the office would lead down. She pushed through the heavy door. Grey-blue industrial carpet, overhead lights, white workstations with monitors - and about ten people working away at whatever it was they were working away at.

Max kept her head down, walked purposefully down the center aisle toward the elevator door on the far side. Glanced at her clipboard once.

Halfway down, she nearly collided with a man as he abruptly rose from his workstation. "Sorry." she said. Went to move around him, but he blocked their way. She noticed others watching out of the corner of her eye. A couple of them stood up. Busted.

The man was in his early thirties, a little overweight, glasses, rebel sigil from Star Wars emblazoned on his shirt. "No, no - I'm sorry. My fault. But you guys should probably come with me. Director will want to see you, now that you're…here."

"S'cuse me?" said Chloe.

"It's okay Ms. Price. We've been expecting you for a while now. We didn't know exactly when, but…"

Max and Chloe looked at each other. Back to him.

He added, "You're nowhere near as anonymous as you might think. I mean…even if we didn't already work for you, bunch of science and aerospace nerds like us, hanging out in the middle of the desert playing with toy robots? Of course we'd know you both by sight."

Max wasn't sure she felt as entirely surprised as she probably should, but she wanted clarification. TV-Guy had called them 'boss' too. They were definitely south of Area-51. It made a certain sort of sense. "Yeah, if you wouldn't mind escorting. I think it would be best if we spoke with the director."

He headed toward the elevator. Turning, walking backwards, "Great. Um, huge fan, by the way. I'm sure you guys get that a lot. But… Like really, you know?" His eyes got bigger for a sec as he said it.

Max could see the sentiment echoed in the others in the room. Their expressions similar to first-day newbs back at HQ. This wasn't the time or place for the million questions they both probably had. Max assumed that these workers, despite their apparent enthusiasm, weren't real insiders of MCCP yet. Had to watch how much they gave away. Least until they learned more.

Need to get Sophie down here.

Give everybody a once-over.

Maybe figure out what the fuck?

Did future-me come back and do all of this when I was sleeping? Why? When? How?

This isn't the kind of thing you do in an afternoon… And I'm pretty sure Chloe would have noticed. She seems just as surprised as I am…

Why didn't I leave me a note or something? Why keep this under the radar? And why break that now?

If all of this is actually true, I mean…

She realized The Rebel was still walking backwards, waiting for a response. "Sorry… Yeah, we do get that a lot, but…we're all just people, right? Look forward to catching up with you all later." Max said to the rest as they continued on to the elevator.

Chloe kept quiet, but Max could practically hear her brain spinning. Flying casual, indeed.

"I'm Dave, by the way. We're a…pretty tight knit bunch here." After a quiet pause, "Yep-p. Many hats as they say." He laughed quietly to himself as he hit the button. "So um…it's okay if you don't want to answer… I mean, of course it's okay - who am I to tell you it's okay or not… I'm talking too much. But that new mystery heavy everyone's so excited about - out at L2… that's us? right? Or…I guess, you guys, or corporate or whatever?"

Chloe rolled her eyes, shrugged noncommittally. He nodded. Seemed satisfied.

The elevator dropped three floors before slowing. Doors opened to a wide bright hallway. There were a variety of large pictures on the walls between the doors. Drone models, aerial photos, a few team pictures. At the end of the hall, a T intersection leading off to the left and right.

"Just here, on the right." Dave took them through an open door into a spacious office that looked like it had been last decorated in the 1960's. Fresh wood paneling, Danish modern furniture, comfortable artwork on the walls, messy desk, fake window behind, passing artificial light.

A man somewhere in his mid-sixties, fit, white hair and beard, sat behind the desk. He looked up from his monitor. "Thank you Dave. Susan called ahead, said you were bringing them down."

"Cool. I'll be upstairs if you need anything."

"Thanks again. We'll be fine." He waited.

Dave walked out backward, leaving Max and Chloe in the man's office. Once they were alone, he stood, all formality gone. Eyes smiling, face in wonder. After taking them in, he finally said, "My god. Look at you two. Haven't changed at all."

Max cleared her throat. "So I'm Max, and this is Chloe, but…you already knew that?"

He chuckled. "Of course. Sorry guys. I know I'm staring. It's so good to see you again. Been a very long time." His voice trailed off. "…well, outside recent media coverage anyway…would have been, what, early 1980's, right?"

Chloe looked to Max. Back to the man. "Wait - what the what?" Chloe turned, side-whispered behind her hand, "Max, that's before you were born. You can't…actually…do that, can you?"

Max didn't want to answer. Mixed company. And it wasn't time. Chloe was better at blocking telepathic intrusions, but she still wasn't quite at 100%. Max was still the only one who knew for now. In a manner of speaking. Or, is it 'a manner of thinking'?

Without missing a beat, she shrugged awkwardly. "Not yet." Least, not yet by myself… Although, technically, it's still by myself I guess, but… She ended lamely, "It's…complicated…" Max turned to the man, "Um. Can you maybe bring us up to speed a little? Pretend we're lost?"

He paused. "I'm sorry Max - this is a bit nostalgic, seeing you guys like this. But, I guess I never really knew for sure. If or when you'd ever come back, I mean. Until a couple of years ago. But now… This is, uh…amazeballs - like you used to say."

Max squinched. "Wait - who used to say?"

"Chloe mostly. But I did catch you once or twice." He smiled.

Max nodded, said very slowly, "Chloe was there too. With us, in the 1980's."

"Please. You two are inseparable. Sorry - yeah, you don't recognize me… Years have taken their toll, I'm afraid. It's me. Nelson. We were friends, partners? For years. It was always yours, of course, but I watched over it for you after you left. Or is that not…"

Chloe stepped in. "I'm gonna need you to start at the beginning. Please? Who are you?"

He hesitated, deflated a bit. "I see… I apologize, Chloe. I didn't occur to me that it would all be backwards for you two. Okay, uh, my name is Nelson Mitchell."

"Chlo - we haven't met him. Not yet."

"Yeah, I was gettin' that vibe. Cause, you know, I'm all smart and junk…"

He smiled. "I really have missed you two…"

"Okay, Nelson, um - it's nice to meet you. Bear with us? Let's start with basics. What is this place?"

"101 then. This is a high security R&D and test facility for Lombard Aerospace. We…you…have other locations. I'm the director, but the company is yours. I was here at the beginning, but you're the original founders - none of the rank and file know that for obvious reasons - but it's what's true. It's currently under a holding company, Lombard Partners - which everyone here knows as an undisclosed subsidiary acquisition of MCCP. But it's five minutes of paperwork for that to be true in a legal sense."

Max added, 'Founded…in the 1980's…"

"Yes. That's correct. And before your head goes in that direction, no, we've never been involved in offensive weapons systems. You'd never have it. And I wouldn't either. Chloe and I didn't always agree on everything, but that was one thing we all held in common. Anyway, before you left, you set in motion our two primary goals. The first and only public mission - well, classified, obfuscated, but you understand what I mean - was to develop and test remote sensing technologies, with special emphasis on chemical, nuclear or other radiological threats. And if we had time and resources, a means of detecting biological weapons at various stages - from development to dispersion."

Chloe piped in. "Sniffer tech?"

"As you say. But a bit less pedestrian. Our R&D has been focused almost exclusively on active technologies for most of our history. Company's nearly thirty-five years old now." He gave a little shrug. "Anyway, active - throwing something energetic out and seeing what comes back, rather than waiting for the wind or the odd gamma particle to hit a passive monitoring surface."

"Interesting.' said Chloe. "How's that going?"

"You were always pushing the idea that people are mostly clever. So of course we solved all of that ten, fifteen years ago. Since, it's been about making everything smaller. Fit into a smartphone case, for example… And ongoing sales and support. We're profitable. Been selling to governments and international bodies for much of that time. Some of the lower tech devices we sell in bulk to DHS. Ports, cities, interstates, we're part of the first line of radiological detection. It's stopped several attacks that we know of, doubtless more we don't. Internationally, we've been helpful in uncovering violations of international law, treaty violations, that sort of thing…"

Chloe interrupted, "Wait - go back. Solved? So you could detect a bio-sealed canister carrying a weaponized virus at a distance?"

"Yes. You have the order of the question correct as well. We're detecting the device in that case, not the biological agents themselves. Sealed, remember. The software was half the battle. It's only gotten better as technology advanced. There are classes of considerations determined by the needs of the biological matter and the intention of the people involved at the moment of scanning. Transport from an original host for further R&D looks different from an active dispersion device. Specifics matter less to us. But both have to provide for safe transport, temperature control, so on. We can go into the details later if you'd like."

"How do you deal with false positives? Shaving cream, whatever?"

He looked at Chloe, searching for something in her eyes. Recognition, maybe. Shook his head. "It's really you." He smiled. "It's a finite universe of consumer packaged goods, manufactured containers, scientific devices… We keep up, with signatures for everything that's out now, heuristics adapting for what's new until we can get them profiled."

Chloe nodded. Max knew that look. Not yet fully satisfied, but holding for the next opportunity to poke at things.

Max circled back. "You said there were two missions?"

"Yes. The second mission, smaller circle - one of stewardship."

"…of…" prodded Max.

"I'll get to that. I promise. But I'd like to respond to your earlier questions if I may? Context is important."

"Yeah." Max took a chair. Chloe slid into the other. Max knew both of their minds were racing now. Too many questions.

Obviously FutureMe and FutureChloe jumped back to set something in motion. Must have been damn important to take on the risk of interacting with people, moving money, creating tech - disrupting everything that far back… Ripples. I wouldn't do it. Not without some major something… But it would have to be about something outside the first loop, wouldn't it? Maybe not. Shit. Not enough info yet…

He continued. "So like I said, last time I saw you was in the early 1980's. In person, anyway. A couple of years after you left, there was one video call. Back before such things were more than science fiction, really. I gave you a message. The one you said to pass on. You…said that if I ever got a call from you on that line, I was to tell you to head south… We were still working out of our Dreamland space then…"

"Oh my fucking god. That was you." Chloe gave voice to Max's thoughts. Full stop.

Max reeled. That was like two, two and a half hours ago.

"So you got it already. Good. Oh… South. I see those looks. Tell me - did that just happen for you? Is that what finally brought you here?"

Chloe leaned back. "This is some trippy-ass shit right here, Max. Fuckin'…"

"Okay… Uh - Chloe, we were in the same building he was. The hangar. The engines. The cut wires."

"Oh my god. The camera angles. Why didn't I see it? The wires - fuck - they were a goddamn loop! It was a direct connection back to itself through a tiny fucking wormhole! Has to be. That's why it just ended. How long was that link sitting there, wide open? That's a lot of power to sustain a wormhole like that over decades… wow."

Max, wanting to make sure, "Uh. Yeah, right? Nelson, question - is that the only way we communicated with you?"

Nelson shook his head. "No. I hadn't seen you in person for about two years when the call came in, but we were all here for a couple of years before that. Between Vegas and Groom, and Antelope Valley out in California… We were all friends. Spent a lot of time together. Setting up the company, building the product and research roadmaps, getting the first contracts off the ground, but we all spent a lot of time together outside of that too."

Chloe leaned forward, "Right, um - okay, so we were both physically here? You're certain of that?"

"Yes… 100%, Chloe. Your hair was different colors when we first met, but later you kept it black. Professional as you could for how young you both were. Are. I was already twenty-eight when we first met, so Jerry and I had to play the old men in meetings…"

"Jerry?"

"Our first chemist and engineer. He died a few years back. Cancer. Went fast, mercifully. We all ran together. Back then. You guys, me, Jerry, Walter, Wash… Walter, he, uh, punched out of an F-16 over Bosnia in the 90's. Never recovered his body. Lost track of Wash after the Twin Towers fell in New York. Figured he went back to his professional roots, CIA. Might be still, I don't know." He shrugged, resigned.

Max was still absorbing. "I'm sorry, but you know we don't remember any of that, right? I'm not doubting exactly, but it hasn't happened for us. Not yet."

Nelson got quiet. Nodded. Spoke slowly. Almost to himself. "Well, like I said. I was 28 when we all first met. You guys were insane and ridiculous and oddly goddamn compelling, and…terrifying sometimes. Driven for sure. And I knew it was impossible, but…well, I'm an old man now, so I can say it…I loved you both. We all did. How could we not. And then it was over. Even knowing it was coming…broke my heart when you two went away. And again, just a little more, seeing you that final time. I didn't know, you see. If I'd ever really see either of you again. If I'd still be the one waiting when you came back. You never said when…"

Max could see that his eyes were glistening. If this was all true…

He continued, "That time, with all of us together - best I've had. Was only two years, I know - but it takes up so much more space than that. Larger than life. Anyway, you were always careful not to say too much. Worried about unintended ripples moving forward - so there were rules about how we could operate. Made sure we stayed out of the public's eye. But you trusted me with the outlines of what was coming. I never said a word of it to anyone. Scout's honor. When I saw you again, on the news back in 2014, well, I knew it was just a matter of time. Guess it always was with you two. Always was..."

"Why didn't you find us? After you knew we were here in Vegas, I mean?" Max asked.

"You know, I wanted to. Almost did once or twice. But you were adamant. You didn't want me to look for you. And if you showed up again, you asked me to wait until you came to me. That's the only way you could be sure."

"Sure of what?" asked Chloe.

"You wouldn't say. Has to do with the second mission I'm guessing."

"About that…"

"You're right. You're right. Listen to me, going on about times long gone… Have to remember…to you, I'm an old fart you've only just met." He smiled sadly, looked away. Stood, moved to the left side of the room. Lifted a painting of a lighthouse off the wall, revealing a safe.

Lighthouse.

As he turned the dial, Max took in the rest of the room. Began to notice the small things. Things no one else would ever know to look for. Just random keepsakes amidst the clutter of a man's office at the end of a long career. A blue butterfly inside a large dusty crystal paperweight on his desk. A snow globe with a deer inside on a bookshelf to the right. Oregon. Chloe was seeing them too. A framed underwater photograph behind them - two whales. A bigfoot on a mug on the sideboard. Fragments of a map taped between small panes of glass; the Taklamakan desert. A stuffed squirrel, holding a nut. A picture of Max and Chloe, clipped from a magazine, displayed in a small frame on the bookshelf. Next to an old faded Polaroid of six of them, filling out a booth in some Vegas restaurant. It was Max and Chloe for sure. And the man from the television. Messy hair. Cigarette. The others, she didn't recognize. Not yet.

Max stood as Nelson opened the safe. She wanted to give him a hug. Something. Some small token to acknowledge what appeared to be a lifetime of friendship and loyalty. To undo some of the pain some future version of them had left behind…

Chloe said quietly, "This isn't what I was expecting to find today…"

Nelson smiled. "Like you always said, Chloe - 'Max works in mysterious ways.'" He reached into the safe, pulled out a small cube, tossed it underhand to her. "Been hanging on to this for you for half my life."

Chloe caught it effortlessly between her fingertips, bathing them in a blue light.

Max retreated into herself for a few seconds.

This is new. A loop I'm chasing, rather than leading. We're chasing… Or…maybe not. No. Not new. The voices…our voices…in the white expanse… The dreams in higher dimensions. The butterfly storm, Chloe's upgrades… Notes from the future. Our off-world facilities. Luna, Triton, the others… Scattered around the solar system, but also millions and millions of years in the past. Or so they said in the note. My writing and Chloe's. Pictures. Blind photo jumps into body-sphere-sized hollow spaces underground. In rock. Ice. The start. She made them for me. For us… Safe keeping…

No, Chloe, I don't know how to leave my own lifeline. But I will. There's a part of me that exists outside of time - and while now-me doesn't have access to those future experiences or memories, they do exist, even now. I have them. Somewhere inside me. All time is simultaneous. …from a certain point of view. And every time she moves, she expands that lifeline for me. Enough to let me follow the photos she left. Hacking our way around our limitations in time travel.

And once I've been somewhere… that's enough to fold people and crates along, five days a week…

She looked up at Nelson. "You knew us. Will…know us." Max said. Statement of fact now.

Nelson smiled warmly. "My sweetest friends. Seems like. A bit out of sequence, is all."

The cube dimmed. Chloe, face dark, slowly, deliberately rose from her chair. Voice flat, almost…afraid? "Show me."

Max, confused, "Chloe?"

Chloe, more softly now, "Please."

He nodded. Walked to the door. "It's all the way downstairs, out at the end. Vault."

"What is it Chlo?" Max followed them out.

"I need to see it first. Need to make sure before I say anything, Max. Trust me. Please. Few minutes and I'll share everything."

---

Chloe leaned back against the cold wall of the elevator. The cube hit her like a punch in the gut.

Their day's adventures, her curiosity and excitement about their future travels to the past, even irritation at Max's cryptic throwaway non-answer - 'it's complicated' - all shot to hard background when she read the contents.

She knew it was real. True. It came from her, after all.

She pushed off in the room. Delayed, anyway.

A few minutes, to hold this burden alone.

Max chatted up her new friend on the way down, oblivious.

Her voice a wash of burbling musical notes… Chloe wasn't listening to the words. Just the sound. Faraway. Happy.

She deserves a few minutes.

As sick to her stomach as she was, Chloe felt worse for Max. She put so much of herself into changing everything. Into saving everyone… again.

Chloe knew better than to try to protect her. Promises aside, it was too easy to forget what she really was. With all her easy, goofy, stupid, sarcastic, sweet day-to-day chill…

Forever 18. And 21. And 350. And more than 500. And something…other.

Chloe wasn't naive. She knew Max. Heard things at night sometimes. She knew there was a lot of missing time that couldn't be accounted for with micro-jumps. Max had seen and experienced the worst of humanity. They both had, but… And she still fought. Hard. Still believed that the good outweighed the bad. That people could make a difference. That they were worth saving. That they could be so amazing, like it wasn't even a question. And she knew Max was right. She'd seen it too. Last loop.

And all of this - might not make a goddamn bit of difference in the end.

Even without any real information, the implications of the thing in the vault…

Fuck. What hope do we have?

Even with all of our…her…powers…

Is any of it even gonna matter?

So much sound and fury…just noise…

Even the turnaround in the last timeline - did we…they…only delay the inevitable? Is that why she didn't include experiential memories after Max's disappearance? Was there an urgency behind her rapid evolution that went beyond her own survival? Beyond finding Max?

Fuck. What does this mean? What does this mean? What does this mean?

They came to a stop. Door dinged, opened to the long, dark utility corridor.

---

Max walked into the elevator first. Nelson followed. Chloe passed between them, half sitting on the rails of the back. Quiet. That faraway 'I'm processing' look. Max let her be.

The doors closed. Nelson inserted a key below the row of floor buttons, turned it. Hit the floor buttons in a coded sequence. Removed his key as the elevator slowly descended.

Max touched his arm. "Thank you."

He smiled an apology. "Sorry. Didn't mean to get overly emotional in there. Seeing you guys again… I…shouldn't have shared all of that. Still ahead for you. Might change how you are around me. The guys. You know, spoilers, right?"

"It's okay. I'm sure we'll manage."

He changed the subject. "Speaking of, I'll have my people get in touch with your people. To formalize the acquisition of Lombard Aerospace under MCCP."

Max smiled. "How much is this gonna cost us?"

"Modest sum. Two hundred million ought to do. Enough to look like a legitimate asset purchase. That's about eight times profits, which is the right formula. Most piles back into development, so real contract revenues are obviously much higher. Don't mind me - it's all going to the charities of your choice."

"You won't keep any?"

"I've been very well compensated over the years, Max. I've never wanted. You two made sure of that. Stock tips. The holding company made a few key investments out of early profits. Some were short term, fuel for the R&D budgets. Others were long term holds. Conservatively, diversified investments under management are worth somewhere north of five billion. I'll hang onto that for my own retirement."

Max gave a laugh. "So you'll give away the two-hundred million for this, but you'll keep the five-billion and the holding company?"

"I won't use much of it. And after I go, all my assets transfer back to you two anyway. Virtuous circle."

"Well, hopefully not for a long time. Sounds like we have a deal then."

"And so we do. And here we are." The doors opened to a long, dark utility corridor.

He motioned to the golf cart parked against one wall. Reached down to unplug it from the outlet. He took the wheel, waited for them to get aboard, and they sped off in silence.

Max glanced back into the dim of the tunnel. Chloe's face picked up the alternating cycles of light and dark from the passing overhead lamps. She was still withdrawn, her expression troubled.

Nelson said, "I'm curious, Max. If you didn't know we were here, or that we 'were' at all, what were you two doing at Groom?"

"Oh, yeah. Uh, we snuck in. Long story, but bad guys hit me with a gravity generator in Vegas. A number of clues set us off on a search for a place called S4."

He chuckled. "Of course they did. But see? Now if you'd started here…"

"Is it real? Do you know where it is? It's been driving us nuts today."

"I do. Sorry to disappoint, but it's long gone. It was right up the service road, halfway to the Mercury Highway. Bout a mile or two? Hard to see, under the roadway like that. The hangar doors were hidden in the embankment leading down to the lake bed. It's all concrete fill now. I think they abandoned it sometime in the early 90's. We were still working out of the Ranch back then, so I'm sorry I don't know anything more than the rumors. I mean, we didn't lease this site out here until the late 90's, so…"

"Is there any way we can take a look without drawing attention?"

He gave her a look, eyes rolling in the flickering lights. "You were always pretty good at moving between moments… Oh, and by the way - next time you feel like you want to sneak into Area-51, don't. We're small, but we still maintain a hangar on-base. Which is your hangar now. Again. As senior parent executives of a subsidiary defense contractor in good standing, you'll have access. There's paperwork, obviously, but nothing you two can't handle…"

"That's both good to know, and slightly less fun."

"Goes without saying. We should introduce you around the base sometime. Ownership on some of the major defense contractors is muddy as you'd expect. But the people working the problems on site are a pretty interesting bunch. Enthusiasts, you might say. I think some of them would get a real kick out of meeting you guys in person."

She caught herself before she could say 'really?'…

They were nearly there. He stopped twenty feet or so from the end. Max expected a vault door of some kind. Or maybe at least a door of some kind? This looked like slab of concrete. Dead end.

"That's uh… nice door?"

"This section of underground is the one improvement we made to the place when we took over. There's no door. The interior vault space is a cube, twenty-feet on a side, with this hallway at the centerline of one axis. Just to orient you. The walls are ten-foot of reinforced concrete in every direction outside of that. Been sealed since 2000. Took forever to cure. Thing was throwing off heat for years. Sure they thought we were testing a reactor down here or something. Anyway, figure you can show yourself in. Just, mind the drop…"

Max slid out of the seat, throwing shadows as she approached the wall. Rough. Cool to the touch. She looked back. Chloe was out, leaned against the front of the cart. She shrugged. Motioned for Max to do her thing.

Max took a step back. Froze a thin sheet of space, rectangular, slightly larger than a normal door. Walked it ahead, buffering the material in the forward event horizon, carving a doorway for them. Air hissed inward as she breached the inner wall.

She called back, "Chloe? We're through. Little light? Or…I could make a wormhole, I guess."

She heard footsteps echo from the corridor behind. She dropped down into the room, slid the sheet edgewise, sideways through the concrete, out another hundred feet into the earth below the salt flat. Collapsed it. She might have heard a soft thump in the distance, as ten feet of concrete pushed its way back into three-dimensional existence into the salt and dirt. Shrugged. What's a minor seismic disturbance out here?

Max scanned the dim interior. Couldn't see much. The air was too dry, for sure. Her footsteps crunched. Chloe came in behind her, bringing her holo to life. A million amber stars reflected and refracted off the walls as she moved. A thin sheen of salt crystals had grown on the inside…

The room was empty, save for a single metal table in the center. On the table, a wooden tray. On the tray, a small stone. Dark, polished. Like a river rock. Only with some sort of intricately tiny gold curves painted on it maybe. Max looked closer. What she thought were lines were actually flowing rows and loops of tiny symbols. And what she thought was gold paint turned out to be amber reflections picking out the edges of the microscopic surface etchings. She could see that they were softly glowing a pale green underneath. Leaking through. Like the tritium from one of Chloe's gunsights.

It was beautiful.

Max felt the shock as she touched it. Next thing she knew, she was on the floor against the wall, hand tingling, a pain in her shoulder, and an ache at the back of her head.

Chloe rushed over, hovering. "Max! You okay?"

Max, softly, "ow."

"Your nose…"

Max felt the blood drip above her lip. Like an old, mostly annoying friend.

Nelson crouched in the doorway above. "Max?"

Max looked up, held her head. "um… ow. hi."

Chloe, apologetic, "Sorry dude - I didn't know…"

Max rolled her eyes. "anomaly detected."

Chloe looked back. "Thingie's gone."

Max shook her head. "it's here somewhere. equal and opposite reaction…"

Chloe, hand on Max's knee, "You should time-out."

"Go. Look. I'm okay."

Chloe nodded, moved away.

Max picked herself back up. Salt crystals fell from her lab coat as she moved. Felt the back of her head. Bump. Wiped under her nose. Gave the room a pause, accelerated her body clock, sending her healing into overdrive. Slid back to normal time feeling much better.

The shock wasn't electrical exactly. But something. Despite the regen, her hand still hurt a little.

"Found it!" Chloe said from the other side of the vault. She was bent over, poking at the wall.

Max noted that the entry hole was larger than the stone. "Wow. Shit. It actually went into the concrete?"

'Yeah… Looks like. So, here's something. It's bigger now. Exposed crystals, wrong shape, kindof inside out. And not shiny. So…yeah."

"That's…odd."

Chloe paused. "You know, there are certain phrases that kind of lose meaning after centuries around you…"

"Sorry…" Max moved closer to look at it over Chloe's shoulder. She felt a push of repulsion at about five feet. Like opposing poles on really strong magnets wanting to move her sideways…

"Max, stop."

"The fuck? You feel that?"

"What? No. But when you came up it started moving. Inside. Changing again."

"That's…yeah. Are you gonna be able to get it out?"

"I don't think so. It's bigger now than when it went in. If I had chopsticks or something maybe I could push it around, but… It's like it's on the wrong side of a bottleneck. Assuming I had a way to grab it, which I don't, I don't think it's coming out the way it went in. Sorry, dude. I knew it was broken, but I didn't know it would react to your touch like that."

"Broken?"

"Well, off axis. The cube…said. Um, so okay - it's trans-dimensional, but knocked loose. A point somewhere in it is still anchored here, but it's like rolling around…" Chloe waved her hands, "…out there. Which looks like an irregular, growing, shrinking, weird geometry kind of thing here… We did it with a nuke, apparently? Anyway…"

"Gotcha. Um. Why? You know, fuck it. Here, I'll just rewind and not touch it this time. Gimmie cube?"

"Yeah. Just a sec." A blue glow, then Chloe handed it off. "See you before."

"It'll be dark. Need to orient myself to the door real quick. There. Okay."

Max rewound past her point of entry, back into darkness. The tray was somewhere behind her. This time, she carved the doorway starting from the bottom of the floor on the inside, ramping up. Easier for everyone to get in and out without the sudden five-foot drop.

She emerged at the top, tossed the cube to Chloe, still leaning against the front of the cart. Nelson back behind the wheel. Chloe caught it, glowed blue. Fired up an amber light. Followed Max down. "Interesting."

"Right?"

Nelson came in behind them.

"Shit." Max said.

"Shit." Chloe agreed.

"What?" asked Nelson.

Tray was empty.

"It was right here - I placed it here myself, and I watched as we poured the last wall."

"No, it's not that. It was here. We saw it too. There was a reaction… Rewind. Max, you don't think…"

"Crap. It's still in the wall, isn't it?"

Chloe shrugged. "Wow. Okay - so it's really off-axis. Damn, girl…"

"I could prolly carve around it? Need to be careful about accidentally hitting it though."

"You know Max - let's…um…not take the risk? We've got two trans-dimensional objects interacting out of sight here, you being one of them, and…we have no idea how that…"

"Why did we do this again?"

"Safety, I think."

"So glad that worked out."

"I actually think it did… anyway… Nelson - aside from Max playing bus driver for the next week, what do we need to do to clear a few of our teams in and out of here? I'll…build lightsabers or something to carve it out. Do this the old fashioned way."

He shrugged casually. "I'll handle everything. Just get me a list of names."

"Cool. Once we get it out, we'll figure out how to move it safely. I left myself instructions on how to fix it. Re-align and lock it, I guess. Designs for a machine - but I'll need way more energy than you have available out here."

"Chloe - seriously - talk. The fuck is this thing? Why would we bring it here?"

Chloe stopped. Took a breath. "I don't have the whole back story, Max. I think she…I…knew it would take some time to stabilize it first. And more time to figure it out. If I had to guess at our motivation, I'd say we'll know what we need to know when we need to know it, but not too much before. Control the variables - you know how fucking with time works - and how careful we might need to be.

As to the 'what', I have the bare bones of it. And…you're not gonna like it. I don't fucking like it."

"Spill…"

Chloe let out another rapid deep breath. "It's obviously not just a rock. It's a…node, I guess. Ancient. Something we found off-world. Or took from someone…I can't tell. Tech. …ish. Alien. Simple, but way fucking advanced. Half a billion years old, at least. Part of a system… not exactly a computer, or network, at least, not in the way that we think about them…"

"So, what, is it like OtherChloe? Is it…you know…alive, or?"

"No, not…exactly. It's something…different. Found, cultivated, but subverted for a terrible purpose. Something they use to navigate. That's part of it. Like…a…galactic fucking Cerebro. It's how they know which worlds…"

Max could see that Chloe was barely keeping it together.

She nodded, reached out. "Hey - it's okay, Chloe. We always knew this was about more than just earth. Planet Steve? The paintings…"

"No, Max, you don't understand. It's also like…sets of rolling records. Of where they've been, I think, and…look, we're not talking about some crazy-ass rogue alien assholes picking off planets one at a time. Or some traveling locust race, or even fucking Reapers… I caught a flash… past the data…I'm not sure I meant to include it in the upload, but maybe it was intentional, maybe it was a leak. I mean, I couldn't read them, but they were linked sequences of repeating symbols, groups of five. IDs of some sort, and coordinates, right? In time and space? That's one thing it could be? It's what she thought they were. Fuck. Just the brief bit I saw… Max, there were fucking millions of 'em…"

Max, after a stunned pause, "Oh. fuck me…that's…a lot of planets…"

"No, Max. No. Not planets. It's a lot of devices. Like this one. Being used. Each representing another endless trail of murdered worlds…"

Max was quiet for a moment. Finally, slowly, "Chloe. We'll figure it out. We always do. There's a reason…"

"Dude. Are you fucking kidding me? I'm sorry, but the sheer fucking scale…like this is industrial galaxy class bullshit. I mean, I love you, and I know you're nothing short of amazing, but…this…I just can't… like - what? I mean, who the fuck are we to figure anything out? You know? I'm just some girl… like…who the fuck am I?"

Quiet.

"I know who you are." Nelson's voice resonated through the darkness, building in the space between twinkling amber stars. Almost as if the room had been purpose built for this moment. Familiar, warm, but unyielding, he said, "You're Chloe fucking Price. And she's Max fucking Caulfield. That's who you are. You're closed loops. Neither of you is supposed to exist. Max dead at birth, you dead by two. That was the score. That's what you said to me.

Your girl beyond time there - she's here cause she chose to be. Fought her way into this life. Saved herself, and she's been saving your sorry ass one way or another ever since. That's not for nothing. So. Here we all are. You got some bad news. Take whatever time you need. You get this out of your system. Do whatever you have to do to get your shit together. Cause when you come back up top, you need to walk out as the gods you've made yourselves into.

You chose this fight. Both of you. And now you've got a whole goddamn bunch of people dragging alongside you trying to figure out how to help. They believe in you and the future you've sold them. And they need to keep believing in you. Cause there's billions more counting on all of us to not fuck it up. More, by the sound of things. So they need to see that you believe too - that there's a chance. Cause, without that, you might as well rewind back to nothing, cause we're all just ash…

Shake it off. Then work the problem. Break it down a piece at a time if you have to. But you pick up and you keep moving forward. Just like the rest of us."

He turned, walked up the ramp. At the top, he looked back to Max. Chloe was facing the other way, couldn't see. He bowed his head slightly. She understood. Diminishing footsteps as he returned down the tunnel to his cart.

Chloe, under her breath, "fuck."

Max pulled her into a hug. After a minute, said, "Hey. Look, I don't know much. But I believe in us. I do. Us as kids. Us in the first loop. Us now. And all the future versions of us that are still out there, helping along the way. I've learned my lesson on that. I'll never bet against us in any form, Chloe. Not ever."

Chloe sniffled. "I know. It's just, there's limits, you know? There's such a thing as too much. I'm just…it's fucking overwhelming."

"I know, baby. I know. I feel it sometimes too. But…he's right. We've gotta find a way to push through it. We don't have the luxury. There's no one else steppin' up here. We've got us, and our team. So we'll figure it out. Together. All of us. And any versions of us across time, or in the sideways branches - whoever wants to help, whatever it takes. It doesn't change anything here. Now. There's still one problem at a time to solve. Work to be done. Junior level Earth bad-guys to sort out. A future to help engineer. And, look, maybe we can't do anything more than safeguard home for a while. I don't know. But whatever comes, remember that we're not alone. So don't you dare give up on me Chloe."

Chloe snorked. "What are you? Fucking Samwise now?"

Max snickered softly.

Chloe smiled. Whispered, "…love you Max."

"I know."

Chloe through a laugh, "…and, oh my fucking god I hate you sometimes."

Max, half laughing, half crying, "I know…"

"what do you think he meant? 'bout us being closed loops?"

"I dunno…"

"shit. guess we gotta do this." Chloe took a breath.

Max pulled back, met Chloe's eyes. "Looks like."

"Kinda puts things around here in perspective I guess, right?" She looked away, blinked. Looked back. Her eyes, quietly reflecting artificial stars, suddenly pulsed rings of electric blue. "Fuck 'em. What do we do? Guess first thing is to get the crew briefed. Get an extraction team out here to rescue our wayward little artifact…"

"Yeah?"

"Gotta figure out how any of this shit maps to our local earth gangs too, I guess, right? I mean, their long game feels like assisted suicide, not space invaders…"

Max pressed her forehead into Chloe's. "Yep. Prolly someone in charge somewhere, maybe, right? Or…something. That's another index card for the board…"

"Yeah." Chloe looked down for a moment. Whispered, "…thanks, Max."

"Always."

Arms around each other, they walked up the ramp to the exit.

Chloe stopped at the top, ran her hand through her hair, laughed as she shook the color back her usual blues. "That fucking prick."

Nelson and the cart were gone.

Max shook her head. "Nah. He was giving us space. Knew we could use a walk. Or we could just, you know, appear or whatevs…"

"…still a prick."

"I like him." After a moment, Max tugged on Chloe's far side belt-loop with her thumb. Asked, "We good?"

Chloe wiped her cheeks. "Yeah, for now."

"We gods?" Max smiled.

Chloe shook her head. Sighed. Said with resigned mock enthusiasm, "We gods."

Max leaned her head on Chloe's shoulder as they started down the hallway. "So, um, Chlo? I don't know if this will make you feel any better, or maybe this isn't the best time to tell you, but… Um. I kinda sorta became a warp drive yesterday?"

Chloe chuckled. Gave Max's hip a gentle pull toward her. "You know. It kinda does, actually. Tell me about it?"