August 13, 1995
Sam sat in an overstuffed chair next to the window of the project infirmary room and gazed out into the desert sands. The left side of his chest and shoulder were tightly bandaged, but surprisingly, Sam little more than a dull ache when he tried to move his arm inside the sling. The full effects of the anesthesia had not yet worn off and Sam was content to sit and watch the afternoon pass by him.
After all that had happened that day, most of the project staff were slowly settling back into their project routines.. Federal agents had carefully searched the control room for any incriminating evidence, and within hours the entire complex was again available to all staff.
Being Saturday, many employees were off for the day so gossip and speculation had been limited and died down rather quickly as people settled in to their routines.
The hologram Al had yet to return from the waiting room, and Sam was becoming a little concerned as to why he had not leaped. Sam wondered if there was still something to be sorted through, some minor detail to correct.
Verbena had stopped by earlier, and both Tina and Gushie had called to see how he was doing. Al was on his way to Washing, but also made a brief call of inquiry. Except for these short interruptions, Sam had spent most of the afternoon alone, contemplating the effects of the newly constructed history, and slowly drifting into a peaceful realm of half sleep.
It was in that half dream stated that Sam saw himself standing in front of the accelerator, and without explanation, he knew that the part of himself that still existed in the waiting room was preparing to repeat his own fateful history. He wanted to call out, to reach that part of himself that existed only in the future. He wanted desperately to stop the inevitable.
"Sam?"
He had heard the voice, but when he oped his eyes, no one was present. As gently as the image had appeared in his mind, it vanished. All that remained was a faint physical longing for a place he could not really remember.
"You alright, Sam?" the hologram Al asked.
Sam took a deep breath and held it for several seconds before slowly exhaling.
"I think I'm getting ready to leap, Al. I think I am somehow beginning to integrate somehow."
Al's brow furled. He wondered if Sam was somehow intellectually or emotionally aware of his counterpart.
"It shouldn't be much longer now, Sam," the hologram said.
Sam nodded and looked out the window. He was silent for a long time, adrift in a sea of unattainable memories that teased the edges of his conscious thought. Within hours, maybe minutes, he would again be swept away from all that was familiar. As different as this leap had been, Sam longed for the chance to stay. He longed to be home, to be no one other that Sam Beckett.
"What happens to Tess?" Sam asked quietly.
Al didn't bother checking the hand link,. He remembered the details. "She turned State's Evidence. Verbena and I both spoke on her behalf and she received a probationary sentence. She's teaching Quantum Physics at a small college in the Midwest now."
"And Ohlemeyer?"
This time Al did refer to the hand link. "Twenty years for espionage, ten years for kidnapping and holding hostages at gunpoint, ten years for having a concealed weapon, countless minor charges. He ended up with a sentence of sixty-five years. His lawyers were able to plea bargain the attempted murder. After all, we couldn't produce the victim.
"And what about Tyler Bennett?"
"You really changed history as far as Tyler was concerned. Our lawyers were able to plea bargain him right out of court in exchange for being the prosecution's star witness. He not only stayed with the project, but he ended up receiving a Congressional Medal of Honor for his loyalty and bravery to his country. Right now he's involved in a project with Gushie refining the transmission of the imaging chamber and installing a backup circuitry generator system so we won't have anymore of those fade outs in the imaging chamber when we have a system overload."
Sam smiled. "That's good, Al. That gets a little disconcerting sometimes."
"And Tina is making progress with her thought manifestation research on the interlock system. She thinks preliminary testing could be in as little as two months. If it works, Sam, we could have you home for your birthday. Maybe sooner!"
"That all sounds good, AL."
"How's your shoulder?"
"Doctors say it's not really a bad injury as far as gun shots go," Sam said, his voice trailing off sadly.
Al knew the root of Sam's depression, but there was little he could do to console Sam, but Sam's silence concerned him.
"You don't want to leap, do you, Sam?"
The corner of Sam's mouth twitched. "Of course I'd like to be home, Al. But it's not that simple... All afternoon I've been getting these fleeting glimpses of people and feelings that I think I should remember... But I can't remember... At first I thought it was just the effects of the anesthesia. But there's more to it than that. I know it has something to do with my leaping... It's like I'm trying to merge with the other me... But then, just as the pieces start to fall into place, we're torn apart again before I can make any real connection... One minute I'm on the verge of remembering and the next minute it's all swiss cheese again... I can't explain it any better than that. It's just that this leap feel somehow different than usual."
Al looked at the hand link. There was now less than an hour until the Sam Beckett in the waiting room was to step into the accelerator.
Al punched at the hand link. "Ziggy says it's caused by the neuron and meson link that you two share. It's like the time you and I simo-leaped and picked up a few of each other's habits. Only this time you're simo-leaping with yourself so the connection is even stronger because the neurons and mesons are identical."
Sam's eyes grew wide with astonishment when he realized Al was right. "Al, that means I'm merging with the other me! That's it, Al. We're somehow trying to merge,and because of that, I'm actually connecting his his, or rather, with my memories!"
Al couldn't bring himself to share Sam's enthusiasm for this unusual turn of events. Unlike Sam, Al knew the potential repercussions that Sam would ultimately have to face if his memory were to return.
"In a way, Sam, you are sort of merging. But Ziggy says it's only temporary and that when you leap, you probably won't remember anything you might be picking up during this time."
But Sam was barely listening to Al. The possibility of merging with his other half was all he could think about. If he could merge mentally with his other self, then way not physically as well? Sam's mind was racing against time to sift through the countless mental calculations and hypotheses. Sam stood and began pacing, oblivious to the pain in his shoulder.
"Al, when I leaped in here two days ago, there was an instant, before I had any sense of being, when I felt this vast surge of energy. It was incredible. I didn't know what it was then, but it wasn't like anything I'd ever felt before."
"I know that feeling, but it usually requires a female partner, Sam," Al said.
"Is there anything that doesn't remind you of sex, Al?"
Al looked thoughtful for a moment. "No," he replied.
Sam looked at Al with exasperation.
"And you think you know what that surge of energy was," Al said, trying to return to the subject.
Sam shook his head. "It makes sense, now, Al. When I leaped into myself, there was an instant when I was whole again! There was no Sam Beckett leaping around in time. And there was no Sam Beckett in 1995. We were both in one exact space, at one exact moment in time. And for that brief instant, we shared what we knew as the present."
Al quickly fed this hypothesis into the hand link. Unlike Sam, Al was quite surprised that Ziggy gave credence to this possibility.
"Sam, Ziggy agrees with you, but why is this any more significant than any other leap? After all, every time you leap, there is an instant of complete merging. What makes this one any different?"
"Al, there have been other times that I have shared similar brain waves with people that I've leaped into. Right?"
"Right."
"And when that happens, part of that person seems to stay with me, right?"
"Right."
"Well, I think that's what's happening now. Only this time I think we've been on the verge of merging all afternoon. We're somehow connecting even without the energy surge of leaping! We just don't have the necessary energy to complete the bond. If Ziggy could lock on to us both at the exact instant of simo-leaping, maybe she could establish enough of a bond to pull me back. Al, this is probably the best chance we've ever had to bring me home!"
Al jabbed again at the hand link. "Sam, this might work," Al said. "Ziggy says it's vital that you both be in exactly the same spot at the exact moment that you leap."
"That would be the accelerator! Al, if we're both in the accelerator when the energy field is created, Ziggy would have almost double the power capacity. In essence, we'd be creating a pushing force from 1995 and a pulling force from 2000! If the forces are strong enough, I'll end up in the waiting room!"
"The question is whether we can actually harness that kind of power and then control it's direction. Have you stopped to consider what might happen if both sources pushed and pulled in the same direction?"
Sam brushed off Al's notion. "How much time do we have before the initial leap?"
Al checked the hand link. "Forty-seven minutes and twenty three seconds."
"Good. That should give us enough time to get things squared away here. I need all the data on my original leap, things like the exact power setting, the energy readings. I need all the peak points and times of energy influx and the dimensional curvature readings. Tell Ziggy to contact Gushie. He'll know exactly what I need."
Al jabbed at the hand link, trying to keep up with Sam's requests. "Ziggy says Gushie is already working on it at that end."
"Great, then let's get down to the control room and start getting this ready. With a little luck, I could be home for supper!"
Half an hour later, Sam and Al completed the process of feeding Ziggy the data Sam had requested. Sam had made certain the control room was completely locked so no one would inadvertently happen upon them. With the hand link, Al carefully monitored the situation back in the waiting room.
"Sam, there's a problem here that you may not have thought of."
"What's that?"
"Well, technically, you're in 1995 right now."
"So?"
"So Ziggy says if you step in the accelerator at the exact same time you did in the original history, there a fifty-two point six percent chance that you'll simply repeat history and, in essence, be thrust into a sort of dimensional leaping cycle."
"Ziggy's wrong. Don't look so surprised, Al. It's not the first time Ziggy has been wrong. This isn't really a repeat of the original leap. There are additional factors involved here that were not present the first time around. When I took the first leap, there was not a mirror-leaper five years in the future. So, there was actually only half the amount of energy available for that leap. That alone negates the possibility of cyclic leaping."
Al fed Sam's hypothesis into the hand link and after a moment Ziggy reluctantly agreed.
"How much time do we have?"
"Five minutes and seventeen seconds."
"That will give us enough time to double check these figures."
"Sam, we know what will happen if everything goes as planned, but what is the worst case scenario?"
"Al. I've been leaping around for five years. If this doesn't work, I'll just keep leaping. I mean, there really isn't a choice in the matter, is there?"
"The question is where will you leap? With twice the energy, Sam you could be plummeted forward or backward, maybe even beyond your lifetime. Have you thought about that?"
"Al, I know this is the right thing to do. Whether it works or not, I have to try."
Al slowly nodded his understanding.
"Now, you have to go back to the waiting room and make sure everything goes as planned," Sam said.
"I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?"
"Sam, in your original leap, I wasn't there, remember. I was supposed to be in Washington. It was by some fluke that I was able to get an earlier flight back, but even then, I was on my way to a wedding reception. I wasn't on the project grounds when you leaped. In fact, I seriously think that was intentional on your part."
Sam had no memory of that, but it made sense to him.
"But we have to make sure everything goes just as it did in the original leap," Sam protested.
"It will. Gushie is monitoring that from the waiting room. If it's even a fraction of a second off, I'll know and we'll abort the whole project right here."
"Okay, how much time?"
"Two minutes."
Sam set the automatic timing controls and double checked them.
"I guess this is it, Al. Wish me luck?"
"More than luck, Sam."
Sam took a deep breath and walked up the ramp to the accelerator. At the door, he turned back to Al. "You know what to do?"
"Yep. And what I don't know, Ziggy does."
Sam drew another deep breath and held it. He took one last linger look around the control room. Then he turned and stepped into the accelerator.
As the door slid shut behind him, Sam found the zero point mark on the floor. He placed both feet on the silver marking
…...And waited.