Chapter 20:
The trio fell out of the portal and landed on the ground. Michael's vision was engulfed by a blue light. When his vision returned he looked around and found himself in a sterile white room.
"Okay, what's going on here, Gooshie?" a voice asked. Michael looked and saw a man in a flashy suit, holding an odd handheld device, standing at the door. "Ziggy, try to get a lock on Sam, now! And figure out who the guy he leaped into is!"
"Oh boy." Michael said, putting his face in his hands.
Meanwhile, Sam Beckett sat up as he tried to assess his new surroundings. He saw a young woman, and a young man standing over him.
"Michael, you okay?" the girl asked.
"Uh, yeah." Sam Beckett said, standing up and scratching his head.
"Anyway, we have about three days here, so you'll have plenty of time to relax after that last world." the boy said.
"Oh boy..." Sam Beckett said.
Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator - and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, and sometimes the future, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Doctor Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap... will be the leap home.
"Okay, kid. Who are you?" the man in the flashy suit asked.
"You tell me first, I have to be sure that you aren't a threat to me and my friends." Michael said.
"Fine. I'm Rear Admiral Al Calavicci. I help run a program called "Project Quantum Leap" and you are in the year 1999." the man said.
"1999? That's more than 10 years ago! You want me to believe I've time traveled?" Michael asked.
"Wait. You're from the future?" Al asked.
"I'm from 2013. My name is Michael Josephson, and if this is the past of this world, I don't exist in the form I am now." Michael said.
"This world? What are you an alien?" Al asked.
"Might as well be. I'm an inter-dimensional traveler, and I need to go back to my friends now." Michael said.
"Easier said than done kid, there's a procedure that's got to be done." Al said.
"Like what?" Michael asked.
"I'll explain it later, I have to go check on something." Al said, walking out of the room.
Sam Beckett sat in a hotel room as he attempted to figure out who he was, and what he had to do to leap out.
"We're going to go check the area out, do you want to come?" the girl said.
"Do you mind if I stay here, I'm a bit tired." Sam Beckett said.
"Let him relax, Rebecca! He deserves it." the boy said.
"Okay, we'll be back soon, Michael. Come on, Sam." Rebecca said, as they walked out of the room.
"Well, what are you waiting for, Sam? Go with her!" a voice said. A face was soon matched to it as Al Calavicci walked through the wall into the room.
"Al, I've never been happier to see you." Sam Beckett said.
"Neither have I! Cause it took us a while to find you." Al said. "Do you know what year it is?"
"Al, I've been doing this for so long, I don't know what year it is." Sam Beckett said. "1996?"
"Twenty thirteen." Al said.
"I've been leaping for more than a decade?"
"Not quite, you've somehow leaped into the future."
"But that can't be possible, I can only leap within my own lifetime!"
"Obviously not! And the guy in the waiting room, Michael Josephson, told me a lot about who he is."
"Who is he?"
"He's an inter-dimensional traveler. He's from another Earth that is nearly identical to ours! And his friends, Sam Evans and Rebecca Collins, are traveling with him. Apparently, they have this device, like the handlink, that he uses to open the portals, but it's set on a timer. So, when it hits zero, they have to go, or they'll be trapped here for 29.7 years."
"That's a cool story, Al. But how does that help me?"
"I used that and ran it through Ziggy, and Ziggy says that there is a 93% chance that you're here because they miss the gateway. You have to make sure that they make their portal. And then you leap out."
"How do I do that?"
"Do you know how long that they're here for?"
"The boy said something about three days."
"That should be enough time to figure this out."
"I hope so."
"Listen, I'm gonna go and talk to this kid again, and see if Gooshie has any ideas on how to figure out exactly what you need to do." Al said, walking into the holographic door.
Sam Beckett crossed the room to the mirror and looked inside. He moved his hand around the head, inspecting it.
"Not bad... He's about, nineteen, brown mop-top, could use a shave." Sam Beckett thought. "Wish it was my own face though."
Michael stood up as Al walked back into the room that Michael had learned was the "Waiting Room".
"Okay, I talked to Sam. Now I want to know if there's any important information you need him to know."
"Listen, can I get out of this room? It's frankly a bit too sterile for me. And possibly a different set of clothes, the white scrubs really aren't doing it for me."
"You're taking this better than most of the other people who've been in here."
"I've swapped bodies with someone before."
"It's not exactly swapping bodies, you know."
"What is it, exactly?"
"You are in your body. But you have Sam's aura projecting over you. Do you want to see a mirror?"
"Sure." Michael took the mirror from Al's hand and looked into it. He saw an older man, with brownish hair, and a streak of white in the middle. His eyes widened.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I... I look like Scott Bakula." Michael said.
"Who's that?" Al asked.
"Must be Dr. Beckett's double on my world." Michael replied. "Doubles do have differing names sometimes."
"Anyway, we need to have our programmer, Gooshie, figuring out how to get some information on why Sam leaped into you."
"Can I tag along? I did build an inter-dimensional portal, I think I might be of some assistance."
"If you want, just be sure to keep up."
"Aye aye, Admiral."
Sam and Rebecca walked into the Dominion Hotel and into the elevator.
"Don't you think Michael was acting weird? He's never looked like that after a slide, and he always wants to explore." Rebecca said.
"You're worrying too much! He's just tired." Sam said.
"I guess..." Rebecca said, as they walked into the room.
"Al! If I don't know what I have to prevent, how am I going to leap outta here?" Sam Beckett shouted.
"Michael, who are you talking to?" Rebecca asked.
"I'm..." Sam Beckett started.
"Say that you got an idea for a novel!" Al suggested.
"Got an idea for a novel?" Sam Beckett asked.
"Oh, cool!" Sam said.
"Yeah, anyway, the kid helped us rig Ziggy up to the accelerator, and I have no idea how he did it, but he somehow gained us access to future records! So Ziggy just has to run and a search of all records from today, til they are scheduled to leave, and he'll find out why you're here!" Al shouted.
"That's good." Sam Beckett whispered.
"Huh?" Rebecca asked.
"I just said that, you uh, look good today." Sam Beckett said.
"Well, thank you!" Rebecca smiled.
"Anyway, Sam. I gotta get out of here, Ziggy has to dedicate a lot of power to the probability matrix." Al said. "I'll be back."
The door opened and Al walked into it. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar, and lit it. He walked down the corridor into the control room.
"Okay, I think I've figured it out. I've been reviewing the data as Ziggy has been loading it." Michael said. "We do miss the gateway, but it's not how I thought we did."
"How do you miss the gateway?" Al asked.
"I can answer that, Admiral." Ziggy said.
"Get on with it, Ziggy!" Al shouted.
"Dr. Beckett must prevent Samuel Evans from being taken into police custody for being a serial killer." Ziggy said.
"Serial killer?" Al asked. "What the hell does he do?"
"It appears that he was a serial killer that the police couldn't find until he was spotted by a hotel clerk on November 15th 2013." Ziggy responded.
"That must be his double on this world." Michael said. "Can I go into the imaging chamber?"
"Sure, but why?" Al asked.
"I have to tell him this stuff myself." Michael replied. "Let's go."
Sam Beckett sat on the hotel bed, as Sam flipped through the channels on the television.
"Stop it on the news channel!" Rebecca shouted from the bathroom.
"Got it!" Sam shouted back.
The holographic door opened and Michael and Al walked out of it. Al had his hand on Michael's shoulder.
"Sorry, kid. Only way he can see and hear you." Al said.
"No problem." Michael said. "Dr. Beckett!"
"Yeah?" Sam Beckett asked.
"Just tell them who you are and what happened. They've lived through weirder." Michael said.
"Guys, I have a confession to make." Sam Beckett said.
"What is it?" Rebecca asked, walking out of the bathroom.
"I'm not Michael. I am Dr. Samuel Beckett, of Project Quantum Leap. I leaped into your friend to put right what once went wrong for you guys within the next few days."
"What?" Sam questioned. "That's ridiculous. You look and sound like Michael."
"But I'm not!" Sam Beckett said.
"Tell them that Sam's double is a serial killer on this world." Michael said.
"Sam's double... is a serial killer on this world?" Sam Beckett said. "What do you mean, this world?"
"Who are you talking to?" Rebecca asked.
"I have an observer from my own time, and he's tuned to my brainwaves. And so is Michael." Sam Beckett replied.
"Yeah, listen you two!" Michael said, walking up to Sam and Rebecca and smacked them in the head, although his hands just glided through their heads.
"I'm a serial killer?" Sam asked.
"And the hotel clerk is the one that calls the cops! Keep away from the front desk for the next, how long do they have?" Michael said.
"How much time do we have?" Sam Beckett asked.
"Two hours." Sam replied.
"How is that possible?" Michael asked. "It's only been like a day on my end."
"It takes a while to find Sam, so we sometimes end up finding him a day or two into his journey. Sometimes it's the reverse." Al replied.
"Anyway, stay away from the hotel clerk until the timer hits zero." Sam Beckett said.
"Okay." Rebecca said. "And then we get Michael back?"
"That's how it works." Sam Beckett said.
"Let's hope it does." Al said. "If not, we're in some deep caca."
Michael sat in front of Ziggy's console and was tapping away.
"What are you doing?" Gooshie asked.
"Trying to figure out the retrieval program." Michael said.
"That was tried twice, and even after Dr. Beckett modified it, it failed." Gooshie said.
"I built an inter-dimensional portal that hijacked your machine and brought me here. I might be able to find something Dr. Beckett didn't." Michael said.
"Just don't expose my wires..." Ziggy said.
"Is the computer always like that?" Michael asked.
"That's how Dr. Beckett programmed him." Gooshie said.
"I think I may have increased the probability of saving Dr. Beckett." Michael said.
"Really?" Gooshie asked.
"If the conditions are correct, and the disk works, then yes." Michael said.
"There's an 8.7% probability of it succeeding." Ziggy chimed.
"It was worth a shot," Gooshie said.
"Yeah." Michael said.
"Get back in the waiting room! They're sliding in five minutes!" Al shouted.
"Good luck, Gooshie. And try looking up Quinn Mallory, he might be able to help you." Michael said.
"I'll do that," Gooshie said, smiling.
Sam Beckett sat on the bed of the hotel room as Rebecca paced around the room.
"When do you get back to your time and Michael comes back here?" Rebecca asked.
"Whenever I set right what once went wrong." Sam Beckett said.
"Or will go wrong." Al said.
Suddenly a loud knock came on the door. The trio jumped.
"Police open up! We know you are harboring a killer!" a voice shouted.
"Shit!" Rebecca said.
"Sam! Figure something out!" Al shouted.
"I've got it." Sam Beckett said.
"What is it?" Rebecca asked.
"You! Open the window!" Sam Beckett shouting, pointing at Rebecca. "And look shocked."
"Okay..." Rebecca said.
"And you, under the bed!" Sam Beckett said, pointing to Sam. "Now!"
Sam Beckett ran into the wall and started thrashing about.
"Ah!" Sam Beckett shouted.
The police burst into the room.
"Where is he?" the cop asked.
"He went out the window!" Sam Beckett shouted. "Go after him!"
"Quickly!" The cop shouted as he turned around to leave. "We'll be back for you later."
"Got it." Rebecca said.
"We did it!" Sam shouted, rolling out from under the bed.
"Yeah!" Sam Beckett shouted, as his vision was engulfed by a blue light. Michael's was too, as he sat in the waiting room.
Michael's vision returned as he looked around the room and saw the mirror and in it, his own face.
"Oh thank god." he whispered.
"Dr. Beckett, are you okay?" Rebecca asked.
"It's me. I'm back." Michael smiled.
"And in great time too, time to slide!" Sam said, activating the timer.
"Let's hope our next leap, will be the leap home." Michael said, laughing.
Al walked out of the imaging chamber, and put the handlink on Ziggy's console.
"Is Sam back?" Al asked.
"No, he's leaped into someone else." Gooshie said.
"Well, it was worth a shot." Al said. "I didn't think it'd work anyway."
"You should look someone up, Quinn Mallory, that's what the kid that Dr. Beckett leaped into told me to do."
"Ziggy! Get me all the info on Quinn Mallory you have!" Al shouted. "Good luck, Sam. Wherever you are."