Chapter 37
A little after midday, as the sun streamed through the window, Malcolm sat bolt upright in bed, his hair sticking out all over the place. Wait. Wait, wait, WAIT. THAT WAS BRILLIANT. He leaped out of bed and ran to his study, pulling a massive sheet of Plexiglass down from the wall. He hadn't even bothered to put on his slippers before he began to scribble on it madly. An hour or so later, he stepped back and surveyed his work. He was a genius.
Malcolm poked his head into the Shannon's living room.
"Jim. Jim!"
Jim turned from eating his 2:00 pm 'breakfast' at the table and exchanged a humorous smile with Elisabeth.
"Come in, Malcolm."
"No time! Meet me at my lab in ten minutes!"
"But wh-"
Malcolm's head disappeared and then popped back in again half a second later.
"And bring Lucas!"
Then he was really gone, and Jim and Elisabeth stared at each other in bewilderment.
"What on earth is he up to this time?!"
Elisabeth laughed, shaking her head.
"I have no idea, but whatever it is, something tells me he's going to spontaneously explode if he doesn't get it out, so you better do as he says."
Jim jumped up, finishing off the last bite of his sandwich.
"Did you see his hair?! Looks like something already 'spontaneously exploded'."
Elisabeth grinned at him, but said nothing. After a few seconds, Jim sighed.
"Very well. A commander's work is never done."
He placed a kiss on his wife's head and proceeded to the door, turning to point at Elisabeth before he exited.
"Okay, but just so we're clear - you didn't disagree with me about the whole hair thing!"
"Jim! Go!"
He ducked through the doorway, his wife's indignant laugh following him outside.
Malcolm was hovering near the door impatiently when they arrived at the small room adjoining his lab.
"Well, what are you waiting for?! Sit, SIT."
With an amused glance at each other, Jim and Lucas sat down in the prepared chairs. Not a second after they were seated, Malcolm spun the Plexiboard around to face them. He pulled an electronic pen out of his pocket and placed a small dot on the board.
"A few years ago, as we all know, the government discovered a few tiny fractures in the fabric of space and time. These fractures are invisible to the naked eye - only a few microns wide."
Malcolm drew two lines.
"Theoretically, it works like this. When the time fractures dilate - like an expectant mother's birth canal .." Lucas and Jim both winced at this, and Lucas' lip curled in displeasure. Malcolm ignored them and continued. ".. they can only stay open for 18 minutes. This allows humans, vehicles, cargo, anything else you can think of to pass through on two conditions:
One - That they pass through within those 18 minutes.
And Two - That the item passing through be small enough to fit through the fracture."
Lucas nodded impatiently.
"Everyone knows that. Continue."
Malcolm proceeded, growing more excited with every passing minute.
"Well, up until now, we thought it was impossible for those fractures to be dilated naturally, which was why the only way to get here from 2149 .. and back .. was to create a way to manually dilate the fractures ourselves and then wait for the optimum time to do it. After the first couple of pilgrimages, our researchers were able to roughly guess the dates the fracture would be the most elastic, based on the patterns in the subatomic energy surrounding it - hence the less-than-metrical pilgrimage dates - but it was never thought possible for the fractures to dilate on their own! - and yes, I said fractures. I believe there are many more waiting to be discovered."
Lucas nodded again.
"It's true. The Badlands appear to be riddled with incredibly unstable fractures, or at the very least the outlets of those fractures. When you get close, it's like a light show. Constantly flickering and flaring up and vanishing, only to start all over again a couple of minutes later."
Malcolm pointed at him with the pen.
"Right! Now, the question we've been asking ourselves is 'How did the ship's figurehead get here and where did it come from?', correct?"
"Well, actually, that's two questions .."
Malcolm scowled at Jim for a moment before turning back to his board.
"I believe there is a natural phenomenon that happens from time to time that causes the fractures to dilate on their own, and which allows them to grow to much larger sizes than we're able to stretch them to. See, look .. this is our Earth."
He drew a sad circle that rather looked like it had been sat on.
"And this .. is parallel universe, 2149 Earth .."
"Well, actually, it'd be 2150 by now, wouldn't it?"
Malcolm glared at Jim again as he violently scribbled another lop-sided circle on the board.
"Technically, yes, but for the purposes of this demonstration, it is irrelevant!"
As Jim subsided, he continued excitedly.
"These Earths are rotating in similar tracks at nearly the same time, only opposite each other. I believe that when the rotations of the two Earths overlap perfectly, for a short space of time, it-"
"Causes all of the fractures to enlarge and create bridges to the other planet's time stream!" Lucas had jumped up so quickly, he hadn't even noticed knocking over his chair. "But then, wouldn't the people on 2149 Earth have noticed them before now?"
Malcolm shook his head slowly.
"Not necessarily. There doesn't appear to be too many of these fractures around, and - I haven't proved this, mind you, but I don't think all of the fractures open when the rotations collide. It depends on a few other factors as well."
Jim hurriedly picked up Lucas' chair as the young physicist sat down again.
"Such as?"
Malcolm looked thoughtful.
"Well - and I'm theorising again here - it could be possible that the dilation of the fractures is dependent on the outside temperature. Should the intersection of the parallel Earths always occur when 22nd century Chicago is in the middle of winter, perhaps the molecular bonds aren't vibrating quickly enough to trigger the reaction and stretch the time portal. As we all know," with a glance at Jim "molecules move faster in higher temperatures - the higher the temperature, the more elastic the bonds become, causing some materials to melt in high temperatures. If we assume the atomic bonds have to be elastic in order to enlarge the fractures, perhaps it would offer some explanation on why the fractures haven't been documented until recently."
"And the points of origin of the Badland fractures might be located somewhere that's hot and humid most of the time - such as the Caribbean. Hence the ship." Lucas added.
"Correct!" Malcolm beamed at his quick pupil. Finally, here was someone that didn't stare at him blankly when discussing multiverse theory! "And now that I think of it, I do recall some strange legends coming out of the Caribbean region .."
"But, wait, hold on." Jim rubbed his temples. "This is all wild conjecture at this point! Surely you can't base actual facts on unproven theories .."
Malcolm snorted inelegantly.
"We're scientists, Jim. Most of our work is based on the assumption of unproven theories! We take the simplest, most realistic outcome and work off that. Take-"
"I know, I know. Occam's Razor. The explanation that assumes the least is the most likely to be true."
Lucas and Malcolm stared at Jim in astonishment. Jim frowned back at them.
"What?! Oh, come on. Give me some credit. It may not be my favourite pastime, but I've read a book or two before."
Malcolm raised his eyebrows with a "who knew" expression and turned back to his Plexiboard, spinning the pen around in his fingers.
Lucas stared at Malcolm with bright eyes.
"If you're correct and this is true, I'll bet it's even possible to predict when the next crossover will take place. Like predicting an inter-dimensional eclipse!"
Malcolm nodded. "Exactly! It would also seem that the two Earths' timelines are linked. As one Earth ages, so does the other, only millions of years behind."
He turned to offer an extra explanation to Jim, who had been almost following the conversation thus far.
So say you came to Terra Nova in 2149 .." He placed a dot on one of his lines. ".. If you went back through the Portal the next year here, the time fracture would take you back to 2150, because the fractures age simultaneously. See?"
Jim frowned.
"Sure."
Lucas took over.
"The fractures seem to throw you out within a few miles of where you went in - hence the need for a Portal Terminus to tether the main fracture on our end .. that is, of course, until someone blew up the entirety of Hope Plaza .."
Jim glared at him indignantly.
"Who's fault was that? YOU made that necessary."
Lucas lifted his hands in surrender.
"Alright, alright. The point is, the fractures opening in the Badlands could throw things out miles away, and we don't know how many there are. The Badlands are a fairly large expanse of land, but they could be littered with all sorts of things in odd places. Chances are, that figurehead came through a natural fracture dilation a few hundred years ago. Probably sailed right into it, the fracture shrank, the ship was sawed in half, and the sand in the Badlands preserved it until the Phoenix Group dug it out recently. Who knows what else is out there!?"
Jim took a deep breath.
"But we still have no idea what their plans were with it or how they knew to look for it in the Badlands."
Lucas shrugged.
"Probably discovered another cluster of fractures on their end and calculated the position here. It's really not that difficult. As to why they wanted it .. well, you'd have to ask them. I wasn't in the habit of asking my employers to explain their actions to me."
"Maybe you should have."
"Probably. But then I probably wouldn't be here to tell the tale."
There was silence for a moment before Lucas smirked at Jim.
"You didn't really think you blew up the fracture, did you? You may have destroyed the necessary technology to enlarge it, but they'll rebuild it again, and then they'll be back. Their mission is too important to let a little explosion stop them. You may have delayed them, but you haven't gotten rid of them forever, you know."
Jim nodded, staring at Malcolm's board with a stony expression.
"We have to figure out what's really out there so that we can be ready for them." He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. "We have no choice - we need to go to the Badlands and investigate."
Lucas shrugged.
"One thing's for sure, it's dangerous territory. Once something can be predicted, it can be exploited, but something tells me those Phoenix guys don't understand a speck of what they're getting themselves into."
They were all silent for a moment, distracted with their own thoughts.
"What do you say, Malcolm, up for a little reconnaissance mission?"
"Me?!" Malcolm gaped at Jim in surprise.
"Sure. The less people that know about this, the better, and you were the one that came up with .. all this .." Jim gestured to the board, now almost covered with lines and squiggles, as well as illegible writing. Malcolm shook his head.
"But I'm just a scientist! I'm no good in the field!"
"Come on, Malcolm. I need you along. We'll take a few soldiers with us and leave Reilly and Dunham to hold down the fort." Jim grinned. "You're usually begging to go. This is your big chance! It'll be fun!"
"Fun." Malcolm repeated, looking glum. "Traipsing through the jungle with you?"
"I'll take that as a yes." Jim stood up and nudged Lucas' shoulder. "You're coming, too, genius."
"Me?!" Lucas repeated Malcolm's incredulous question from a few minutes ago. Jim glanced at Malcolm helplessly. The researcher offered no support. He shrugged.
"Don't look at me! I'm with him!"
Jim cleared his throat and turned back to Lucas.
"You're coming. You're the only one that's been there before, and we need your expertise." He looked over his shoulder at Malcolm. "We'll also bring Curran. He knows his way around the jungle."
Malcolm and Lucas both scoffed at the same time.
"Great. We're going to be scampering through unknown places with a couple of murderous traitors - no offence." Malcolm paused and glanced at Lucas, who leaned on his knees.
"No, I'm with you." He stared up at them. "And there is no way I'm running into enemy territory at the mercy of you two lunatics - no offence."
"None taken." Jim said dryly. "But you're coming, regardless."
Lucas shook his head firmly.
"Nope. I'll stay here, thanks."
"Come on, Lucas .." Jim sat down in his chair and stared solemnly at his victim. "This is your way to really do something good. To help the colony out. To repay us for our unfathomable kindness." Jim smiled and put a firm hand on Lucas' shoulder. "And either way, you're coming. Whether we pull you along kicking and screaming or you come with a smidge of your dignity still intact is completely up to you."
Lucas scowled at him.
"I guess I don't have a choice then, do I?"
Jim shook his head sadly.
"No. Sorry."
Lucas looked up at Malcolm, who was watching the conversation, looking almost as distressed as if Jim was addressing him.
"Fine. When do we leave?"
Jim stood up.
"Day after tomorrow, but keep it to yourselves. Only the security team knows we're going."
"What about Elisabeth?!" Malcolm protested.
Jim glanced at him in annoyance.
"Yes, and Elisabeth."
An hour or so later, after discussing their plans in depth, Jim dropped Lucas back at his house.
"Remember - not a word to anyone. Especially Skye."
Lucas nodded.
"I understand."
"Good. See you in a couple of days."
Lucas sighed.
"There's no chance you'll change your mind about this, is there?"
"None whatsoever."
Jim smiled and patted the doorframe twice.
"You'll be fine."
With that, he turned around and walked back up the street, leaving a miserable-looking Lucas on the inside mat. When Jim had disappeared from view, Lucas shut the door and turned back to his kitchen. As he did, a devious smile spread across his serious face. Well, that was way too easy.