CHAPTER 2
Stallion's Gate
A hidden door slid open and Frank Parker watched expectantly, interested to see whom, or what would come through it.
An attractive coffee-skinned woman entered and said, "Hello, my name is Verbena Beeks. I'm sure you're quite confused by all this." Verbena offered her hand to Frank to shake.
"Lady, I don't know what happened but you look human enough," Frank stood but refused the extended hand. Verbena retracted her hand.
"Were you expecting something else?" the psychiatrist questioned. Before Frank could answer, they were interrupted by a man in a lime green suit entering the room.
"What have you got for me, Verbena?" he inquired.
"Not much I'm afraid, Admiral," was the reply. Parker snapped to attention on hearing the rank and saluted Al. Al used this to his advantage.
"Name, rank and branch," he barked at Frank.
"Parker, Francis B., Lieutenant Special Ops., Sir." ['Where the hell did that come from,' Parker thought.]
"At ease, Parker," Al allowed. Frank relaxed.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Frank asked.
"Yeah, sure," Al replied as he sent Verbena to Ziggy with Parker's name and instructions to search military archives. Together the two men watched as Verbena sashayed out of the room.
"Nice" muttered Frank.
"Yeah" Al sighed. The men regarded each other for a moment, assessing body language.
"Admiral, I've got a ton of questions beginning with: Where am I and what did you do with the sphere?" began Frank.
"Sphere?" Al questioned before he caught himself. Then he changed the subject. "Nice to meet you, Parker. I'm Al Calavicci."
"Frank"
"Frank," Al began, "before I answer your questions I have a couple of my own."
"R.H.I.P. Admiral," replied Frank, "You go first."
"What's the last thing you remember before waking up here?"
"Wishing I'd kissed Olga good-bye," answered Frank wryly.
Looking for more useful information Al asked, "What is today's date?"
"It's February twelfth." A fog began lifting in Frank's brain. He looked at Al as if really seeing him for the first time. "You're Admiral Calavicci," he stated. Al just nodded.
"Then I made it," Frank realized sotto vocci.
Noting that comment in his head and wondering where the Guest thought he had 'made it' to, Al moved on and asked the most important question. "What year is it?"
"It's two thousand." Frank answered. Then he noticed the man's quickly covered expression. "Admiral?"
"Call me Al," Al replied as he hoped the horror he was feeling wasn't showing on his face. Parker said that he is in the year 2000. That's the first time Sam has leaped beyond when he stepped into the Accelerator Chamber that first time.
"Al, I'm currently attached to the N.S.A.," Frank continued. "Is there a phone here I can use?"
Before Al could answer Ziggy's disembodied voice called out to him. "Admiral, I have something you should see."
"Coming," Al responded to the air. Then to Frank he said, "I'll be back."
And Frank found himself alone again, with no information and his frustration rising.
******************
"What have you got for me, Ziggy?" Al asked as he was entering the Control Center.
"Frank Parker is at Hanson Island Psychiatric Prison." Ziggy supplied.
"WHAT!?!"
"That's the most recent thing we can find on him," Beeks added. "Here's the more complete biography." She pointed Al to one of Ziggy's multiple viewscreens. It said:
Parker, Francis B.
Born: 1967, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Education: 1989 - B.S. Biology, University of Virginia.
Background: Former Navy SEAL, CIA Spec Ops Division.
Personal Information: Divorced, one son age 8.
Parker was remanded to the Division of Mental Services in
South Carolina after experiencing violent paranoid tendencies
during operations in Somalia.
"Oh, I've got to get to Sam," Al started. "Gooshie, bring up the Imaging Chamber and get me to Sam, NOW." Al almost bellowed the last word.
"I regret to tell you, Admiral, that the Imaging Chamber remains offline," Ziggy almost pouted.
"Well, keep working on it!" ordered Al.
Al's shouting still ringing in the air, the door to the Control Center opened to admit Dr. Donna Elesee. "Is there a problem, Al?" she asked softly.
"The Imaging Chamber is still offline, Dr. Elesee. I'm working on it," answered Irving Gershowitz, QL's Alpha Techno Geek, better known as Gooshie.
"I'm sure Sam's fine," Al lied to Donna.
"In that case, you might want to, er... freshen up," suggested Donna. "Company's coming," she reminded him.
As Al walked to his quarters to change his clothes his mind raced. 'A psychiatric ward. No wonder this Parker thinks it's next week. He's nuts.'
Neverland
Back in Frank's quarters, Sam got busy searching Frank's PC again about his mission and his coworkers. The data he found on the bombing was disturbing in several ways. First, the date of February 10th indicated an event that hadn't even happened yet. Second, the phrase "Backstep" was used several times. What did that mean, exactly? And finally, just the idea of his Project being blown to bits was unnerving. In the process of researching past mission files to try to uncover the meaning of 'Backstep', he stumbled across the personal journal of Frank B. Parker. As Sam got comfortable for a long computer session he wondered when his holographic Observer would show himself.
********************
Stallion's Gate
Al was very busy hosting a dinner party for members of the joint congressional finance committee. God, how he hated these things but he had to keep the funding for the project. If Quantum Leap was forced to close down, then Sam would never be able to leap back home, and that was totally unacceptable to Al.
So in dress uniform, the Admiral was wining and dining senators, congressmen and their aides. At his side was Dr. Donna Elesee, the lead quantum physicist of the project. She was with him for three reasons tonight.
First, Donna could explain the most technical of details of the project in plain English. Second, she was a damn sight better to look at then he was. And third and most importantly, Donna was the ever-present reminder of what and whom they all have to lose if they were to shut down. She was Mrs. Sam Beckett.
*******************
Frank hated cells. He's been in too many of them. Finding a way out was all Frank could think about all night. He wondered, 'why hadn't Al sent Verbena Beeks back to interrogate him further but rather armed guards? Just how he was going to rush the door when it never opened with warning?' But no matter what, he was going to find a way to get out.
Monday, February 7, 2000
Ziggy's soft alto purred softly to Al at 0500. "Admiral, the Imaging Chamber is online but I can't say for how long."
"I'm on my way," Al replied.
Neverland
The leaping process and its unfortunate memory loss side effect had taken its toll on Sam Beckett. Real time had stopped for him that day in 1995 when he stepped into the quantum accelerator and vanished into the past. There was no tomorrow, no New Year's Eve, no real concept of 'the present'. For Sam, the present was wherever and whenever he was.
Sam had spent the entire night reading about Project Backstep and its chrononaut Frank Parker. It read like bad science fiction but was undeniably real. Using alien technology salvaged from the Roswell crash, the USA built a time machine with a one-week limitation and has been using it to stop terrible events from happening. 'Just like I make right what once went wrong.' thought Sam.
"Nice cell," a familiar voice spoke from the doorway.
"Al!" Sam all but shouted. "Where have you been?" Sam assessed his friend's image and said, "You look like hell."
"Thanks, Sam" Al returned after looking down at his rumpled bathrobe. "It's good to see you, too. The Imaging Chamber has been offline and I don't know how long it will stay up so we've got to talk fast."
"Al, I'm at a secret government facility...."
"I know Sam, we've done some research on Parker. By the way, that's you." Al used the handlink to point to Sam.
"Frank Parker, chrononaut extraordinaire," Sam said with glee.
"Frank Parker, nutso inmate is more like it," said Al. "Ziggy is still running scenarios so you'll have to play this by ear." The hologram was beginning to degrade. "Just be careful, Sam."
Sam nodded. "But, Al ..." he called.
"I'll be back, Sam. Gooshie, I thought you fixed this thing." Al was saying as he faded away.
"...I'm in the future." Sam finished to the empty room.
Stallion's Gate
"Gooshie, I thought you fixed this thing." Al was saying as he left the Imaging Chamber for the Control Center.
"I ... I ... I did Admiral," Gooshie finally got out indignantly. "It just fried a circuit board for no reason," he continued from under the imaging matrix control station. "I'll have it up and running again as soon as I replace it," Gooshie promised.
********************
Frank Parker was on his 253rd push-up when Verbena Beeks entered the room around 0800.
"How are you this morning?" she inquired cautiously.
"I'm fine, beautiful," he replied as he stood up. "And how are you?" he asked turning on the Parker charm. Beeks had left the door open and the guard outside.
"Oh, just fine. I was wondering ..."
"If we could have coffee together?" Frank finished quickly. "I'd love to."
"O.K.," Verbena agreed after some consideration. Turning to signal to the guard, Verbena found herself pushed aside as Frank rushed the door. He hit the guard in a flying tackle and the guard's head hit the floor knocking him out cold. Taking his gun, Frank ran off down the corridor in search of a phone.
************************
Al and Tina were having coffee in the mess hall when the general alarm sounded. Tapping the communicator on his wrist Al asked, "Gooshie, what happened?"
"Admiral," Gooshie's voice answered back, "We have a major programming problem with Ziggy and the Guest has escaped the Waiting Room." He sounded panicked.
"Dammit!" Al said. "Sorry, Tina," he called over his shoulder as he hurried from the room.
**********************
Neverland
Sam was in awe of everything he had read about Project Backstep on Frank's PC. It was an engineering and scientific masterpiece created largely by Isaac Mentnor and John Ballard, the engineering wizard whose talents rivaled Gooshie's.
Sam had long wondered why there was a deep man-made cave in a mesa at Stallion Gate. At first he had surmised that it was the result of a nuclear test, but it had obviously been dug, then abandoned in favor of the Nevada site for Never Neverland, long before Sam found it and realized this was the place to build his quantum accelerator.
The history of Project Backstep also explained why the government placed Quantum Leap under 'military protection' and was only too happy to let Dr. Beckett have the military liaison he requested, Admiral Al Calavicci.
Heading out for an early morning run to clear his head and refresh his thoughts, Sam met up with Olga Vukovitch who was dressed in a tracksuit.
"Going for an early run, Mr. Parker?" Olga asked. Something in her tone gave Sam the definite impression she was miffed at something.
"Yeah, I thought I'd work off some of this nervous energy," Sam hoped his answer sounded lighthearted enough.
"Well you're late. We always run at 6 a.m. and it is now 6:20. We will have to cut our run short if we are going to take off on time."
"Sorry, I ... ah ... forgot." Sam stammered. "Shall we?" And the two ran off into the sunrise.
About four miles later the two runners took a short break for some water. Sam, winded and sweating, perched himself on a large rock staring out into the brush that surrounded Never Neverland while he tried not to guzzle the entire contents of the water bottle at once. Olga walked in circles while sipping at her bottle.
"Ja mnogo bi dala uznat' chto ti sebe dumaesh' (A penny for your thoughts)," Olga startled Sam.
Sam Beckett speaks seven languages fluently; unfortunately Russian is not one of them. 'Does Frank speak Russian?' he wondered silently. Then aloud he said, "Sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night."
"Was there anything in particular keeping you awake?" Olga asked looking intently into his eyes.
As Sam watched the woman's pale skin glowing in the morning sun he realized, 'She's flirting with me'. He weighed his options and decided on the better part of valor.
"I was wondering if Talmadge and Ramsey had the remote site up and running yet," he said.
"And this kept you up last night?" she shook her head. "U menya i bez etogo zabot polon rot! (I can think of better reasons to lose sleep!)," she mumbled as she started her run back to the complex.
After a shower and a quick change of clothes, Sam met up with Mentnor, Donovan and Vukovitch. The four had a light preflight breakfast and took off at the pre-scheduled 0800. Whether it was the all-nighter at the computer, the eight mile run or the soft rhythmical whoop, whoop, whoop of the helicopter blades is uncertain, but which-ever it was caused Sam Beckett to fall fast asleep ten minutes after takeoff.
Temporary HQ, Socorro, New Mexico
In Socorro, Sam and Craig Donovan were assigned the same hotel room and had stowed their gear when Isaac knocked on their door.
"Ready?" the older man asked.
"Yup," answered Donovan.
"If you don't mind, Dr. Mentnor, I'd like to drive," Sam said.
Although slightly surprised, Isaac agreed.
"Just don't get any speeding tickets, Frank," joked Donovan.
The drive was refreshing for Sam. 'I'd forgotten how beautiful the desert is' thought Sam as he drove the car south through the small town of San Antonio, New Mexico.
A few miles later Craig Donovan tried to start a conversation. "Just what is Project Quantum Leap? I mean, what does it do?" Craig asked.
Before Isaac could answer, Sam started running off at the mouth.
"Quantum Leap is based on the theory that if one can accelerate his atoms to a fast enough speed he can travel to any time in his life." Sam looked back at Craig in the rearview mirror. Seeing a perplexed face, he continued, "Consider a piece of string. Hold it at one end and let it hang. That represents the life of a person, birth to death. Now take that string and scrunch it up in your hand. See how many parts of it can touch at any time. That's quantum acceleration theory," Sam concluded.
The silence in the car was deafening.
'Oh, boy, what have I said?' he thought.
Isaac Mentnor looked quizzically over at him. "I've only heard the string theory explained so well by one other person. He was a graduate student of mine. I had hoped to persuade him to come work with me at Neverland but it was not to be."
"What happened, Isaac?" asked Craig.
"His heart was way too committed to his dream. I felt it unfair to ask him to help me fulfill mine instead." Isaac sighed.
"Is that who we're going to meet?" Craig asked.
"No, Dr. Beckett is... otherwise occupied now," said Isaac swallowing hard.
Another silence filled the car.
"Anyone want some music?" Sam offered, hoping to lighten the trip.
********* Continued in Chapter 3 *************
Stallion's Gate
A hidden door slid open and Frank Parker watched expectantly, interested to see whom, or what would come through it.
An attractive coffee-skinned woman entered and said, "Hello, my name is Verbena Beeks. I'm sure you're quite confused by all this." Verbena offered her hand to Frank to shake.
"Lady, I don't know what happened but you look human enough," Frank stood but refused the extended hand. Verbena retracted her hand.
"Were you expecting something else?" the psychiatrist questioned. Before Frank could answer, they were interrupted by a man in a lime green suit entering the room.
"What have you got for me, Verbena?" he inquired.
"Not much I'm afraid, Admiral," was the reply. Parker snapped to attention on hearing the rank and saluted Al. Al used this to his advantage.
"Name, rank and branch," he barked at Frank.
"Parker, Francis B., Lieutenant Special Ops., Sir." ['Where the hell did that come from,' Parker thought.]
"At ease, Parker," Al allowed. Frank relaxed.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Frank asked.
"Yeah, sure," Al replied as he sent Verbena to Ziggy with Parker's name and instructions to search military archives. Together the two men watched as Verbena sashayed out of the room.
"Nice" muttered Frank.
"Yeah" Al sighed. The men regarded each other for a moment, assessing body language.
"Admiral, I've got a ton of questions beginning with: Where am I and what did you do with the sphere?" began Frank.
"Sphere?" Al questioned before he caught himself. Then he changed the subject. "Nice to meet you, Parker. I'm Al Calavicci."
"Frank"
"Frank," Al began, "before I answer your questions I have a couple of my own."
"R.H.I.P. Admiral," replied Frank, "You go first."
"What's the last thing you remember before waking up here?"
"Wishing I'd kissed Olga good-bye," answered Frank wryly.
Looking for more useful information Al asked, "What is today's date?"
"It's February twelfth." A fog began lifting in Frank's brain. He looked at Al as if really seeing him for the first time. "You're Admiral Calavicci," he stated. Al just nodded.
"Then I made it," Frank realized sotto vocci.
Noting that comment in his head and wondering where the Guest thought he had 'made it' to, Al moved on and asked the most important question. "What year is it?"
"It's two thousand." Frank answered. Then he noticed the man's quickly covered expression. "Admiral?"
"Call me Al," Al replied as he hoped the horror he was feeling wasn't showing on his face. Parker said that he is in the year 2000. That's the first time Sam has leaped beyond when he stepped into the Accelerator Chamber that first time.
"Al, I'm currently attached to the N.S.A.," Frank continued. "Is there a phone here I can use?"
Before Al could answer Ziggy's disembodied voice called out to him. "Admiral, I have something you should see."
"Coming," Al responded to the air. Then to Frank he said, "I'll be back."
And Frank found himself alone again, with no information and his frustration rising.
******************
"What have you got for me, Ziggy?" Al asked as he was entering the Control Center.
"Frank Parker is at Hanson Island Psychiatric Prison." Ziggy supplied.
"WHAT!?!"
"That's the most recent thing we can find on him," Beeks added. "Here's the more complete biography." She pointed Al to one of Ziggy's multiple viewscreens. It said:
Parker, Francis B.
Born: 1967, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Education: 1989 - B.S. Biology, University of Virginia.
Background: Former Navy SEAL, CIA Spec Ops Division.
Personal Information: Divorced, one son age 8.
Parker was remanded to the Division of Mental Services in
South Carolina after experiencing violent paranoid tendencies
during operations in Somalia.
"Oh, I've got to get to Sam," Al started. "Gooshie, bring up the Imaging Chamber and get me to Sam, NOW." Al almost bellowed the last word.
"I regret to tell you, Admiral, that the Imaging Chamber remains offline," Ziggy almost pouted.
"Well, keep working on it!" ordered Al.
Al's shouting still ringing in the air, the door to the Control Center opened to admit Dr. Donna Elesee. "Is there a problem, Al?" she asked softly.
"The Imaging Chamber is still offline, Dr. Elesee. I'm working on it," answered Irving Gershowitz, QL's Alpha Techno Geek, better known as Gooshie.
"I'm sure Sam's fine," Al lied to Donna.
"In that case, you might want to, er... freshen up," suggested Donna. "Company's coming," she reminded him.
As Al walked to his quarters to change his clothes his mind raced. 'A psychiatric ward. No wonder this Parker thinks it's next week. He's nuts.'
Neverland
Back in Frank's quarters, Sam got busy searching Frank's PC again about his mission and his coworkers. The data he found on the bombing was disturbing in several ways. First, the date of February 10th indicated an event that hadn't even happened yet. Second, the phrase "Backstep" was used several times. What did that mean, exactly? And finally, just the idea of his Project being blown to bits was unnerving. In the process of researching past mission files to try to uncover the meaning of 'Backstep', he stumbled across the personal journal of Frank B. Parker. As Sam got comfortable for a long computer session he wondered when his holographic Observer would show himself.
********************
Stallion's Gate
Al was very busy hosting a dinner party for members of the joint congressional finance committee. God, how he hated these things but he had to keep the funding for the project. If Quantum Leap was forced to close down, then Sam would never be able to leap back home, and that was totally unacceptable to Al.
So in dress uniform, the Admiral was wining and dining senators, congressmen and their aides. At his side was Dr. Donna Elesee, the lead quantum physicist of the project. She was with him for three reasons tonight.
First, Donna could explain the most technical of details of the project in plain English. Second, she was a damn sight better to look at then he was. And third and most importantly, Donna was the ever-present reminder of what and whom they all have to lose if they were to shut down. She was Mrs. Sam Beckett.
*******************
Frank hated cells. He's been in too many of them. Finding a way out was all Frank could think about all night. He wondered, 'why hadn't Al sent Verbena Beeks back to interrogate him further but rather armed guards? Just how he was going to rush the door when it never opened with warning?' But no matter what, he was going to find a way to get out.
Monday, February 7, 2000
Ziggy's soft alto purred softly to Al at 0500. "Admiral, the Imaging Chamber is online but I can't say for how long."
"I'm on my way," Al replied.
Neverland
The leaping process and its unfortunate memory loss side effect had taken its toll on Sam Beckett. Real time had stopped for him that day in 1995 when he stepped into the quantum accelerator and vanished into the past. There was no tomorrow, no New Year's Eve, no real concept of 'the present'. For Sam, the present was wherever and whenever he was.
Sam had spent the entire night reading about Project Backstep and its chrononaut Frank Parker. It read like bad science fiction but was undeniably real. Using alien technology salvaged from the Roswell crash, the USA built a time machine with a one-week limitation and has been using it to stop terrible events from happening. 'Just like I make right what once went wrong.' thought Sam.
"Nice cell," a familiar voice spoke from the doorway.
"Al!" Sam all but shouted. "Where have you been?" Sam assessed his friend's image and said, "You look like hell."
"Thanks, Sam" Al returned after looking down at his rumpled bathrobe. "It's good to see you, too. The Imaging Chamber has been offline and I don't know how long it will stay up so we've got to talk fast."
"Al, I'm at a secret government facility...."
"I know Sam, we've done some research on Parker. By the way, that's you." Al used the handlink to point to Sam.
"Frank Parker, chrononaut extraordinaire," Sam said with glee.
"Frank Parker, nutso inmate is more like it," said Al. "Ziggy is still running scenarios so you'll have to play this by ear." The hologram was beginning to degrade. "Just be careful, Sam."
Sam nodded. "But, Al ..." he called.
"I'll be back, Sam. Gooshie, I thought you fixed this thing." Al was saying as he faded away.
"...I'm in the future." Sam finished to the empty room.
Stallion's Gate
"Gooshie, I thought you fixed this thing." Al was saying as he left the Imaging Chamber for the Control Center.
"I ... I ... I did Admiral," Gooshie finally got out indignantly. "It just fried a circuit board for no reason," he continued from under the imaging matrix control station. "I'll have it up and running again as soon as I replace it," Gooshie promised.
********************
Frank Parker was on his 253rd push-up when Verbena Beeks entered the room around 0800.
"How are you this morning?" she inquired cautiously.
"I'm fine, beautiful," he replied as he stood up. "And how are you?" he asked turning on the Parker charm. Beeks had left the door open and the guard outside.
"Oh, just fine. I was wondering ..."
"If we could have coffee together?" Frank finished quickly. "I'd love to."
"O.K.," Verbena agreed after some consideration. Turning to signal to the guard, Verbena found herself pushed aside as Frank rushed the door. He hit the guard in a flying tackle and the guard's head hit the floor knocking him out cold. Taking his gun, Frank ran off down the corridor in search of a phone.
************************
Al and Tina were having coffee in the mess hall when the general alarm sounded. Tapping the communicator on his wrist Al asked, "Gooshie, what happened?"
"Admiral," Gooshie's voice answered back, "We have a major programming problem with Ziggy and the Guest has escaped the Waiting Room." He sounded panicked.
"Dammit!" Al said. "Sorry, Tina," he called over his shoulder as he hurried from the room.
**********************
Neverland
Sam was in awe of everything he had read about Project Backstep on Frank's PC. It was an engineering and scientific masterpiece created largely by Isaac Mentnor and John Ballard, the engineering wizard whose talents rivaled Gooshie's.
Sam had long wondered why there was a deep man-made cave in a mesa at Stallion Gate. At first he had surmised that it was the result of a nuclear test, but it had obviously been dug, then abandoned in favor of the Nevada site for Never Neverland, long before Sam found it and realized this was the place to build his quantum accelerator.
The history of Project Backstep also explained why the government placed Quantum Leap under 'military protection' and was only too happy to let Dr. Beckett have the military liaison he requested, Admiral Al Calavicci.
Heading out for an early morning run to clear his head and refresh his thoughts, Sam met up with Olga Vukovitch who was dressed in a tracksuit.
"Going for an early run, Mr. Parker?" Olga asked. Something in her tone gave Sam the definite impression she was miffed at something.
"Yeah, I thought I'd work off some of this nervous energy," Sam hoped his answer sounded lighthearted enough.
"Well you're late. We always run at 6 a.m. and it is now 6:20. We will have to cut our run short if we are going to take off on time."
"Sorry, I ... ah ... forgot." Sam stammered. "Shall we?" And the two ran off into the sunrise.
About four miles later the two runners took a short break for some water. Sam, winded and sweating, perched himself on a large rock staring out into the brush that surrounded Never Neverland while he tried not to guzzle the entire contents of the water bottle at once. Olga walked in circles while sipping at her bottle.
"Ja mnogo bi dala uznat' chto ti sebe dumaesh' (A penny for your thoughts)," Olga startled Sam.
Sam Beckett speaks seven languages fluently; unfortunately Russian is not one of them. 'Does Frank speak Russian?' he wondered silently. Then aloud he said, "Sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night."
"Was there anything in particular keeping you awake?" Olga asked looking intently into his eyes.
As Sam watched the woman's pale skin glowing in the morning sun he realized, 'She's flirting with me'. He weighed his options and decided on the better part of valor.
"I was wondering if Talmadge and Ramsey had the remote site up and running yet," he said.
"And this kept you up last night?" she shook her head. "U menya i bez etogo zabot polon rot! (I can think of better reasons to lose sleep!)," she mumbled as she started her run back to the complex.
After a shower and a quick change of clothes, Sam met up with Mentnor, Donovan and Vukovitch. The four had a light preflight breakfast and took off at the pre-scheduled 0800. Whether it was the all-nighter at the computer, the eight mile run or the soft rhythmical whoop, whoop, whoop of the helicopter blades is uncertain, but which-ever it was caused Sam Beckett to fall fast asleep ten minutes after takeoff.
Temporary HQ, Socorro, New Mexico
In Socorro, Sam and Craig Donovan were assigned the same hotel room and had stowed their gear when Isaac knocked on their door.
"Ready?" the older man asked.
"Yup," answered Donovan.
"If you don't mind, Dr. Mentnor, I'd like to drive," Sam said.
Although slightly surprised, Isaac agreed.
"Just don't get any speeding tickets, Frank," joked Donovan.
The drive was refreshing for Sam. 'I'd forgotten how beautiful the desert is' thought Sam as he drove the car south through the small town of San Antonio, New Mexico.
A few miles later Craig Donovan tried to start a conversation. "Just what is Project Quantum Leap? I mean, what does it do?" Craig asked.
Before Isaac could answer, Sam started running off at the mouth.
"Quantum Leap is based on the theory that if one can accelerate his atoms to a fast enough speed he can travel to any time in his life." Sam looked back at Craig in the rearview mirror. Seeing a perplexed face, he continued, "Consider a piece of string. Hold it at one end and let it hang. That represents the life of a person, birth to death. Now take that string and scrunch it up in your hand. See how many parts of it can touch at any time. That's quantum acceleration theory," Sam concluded.
The silence in the car was deafening.
'Oh, boy, what have I said?' he thought.
Isaac Mentnor looked quizzically over at him. "I've only heard the string theory explained so well by one other person. He was a graduate student of mine. I had hoped to persuade him to come work with me at Neverland but it was not to be."
"What happened, Isaac?" asked Craig.
"His heart was way too committed to his dream. I felt it unfair to ask him to help me fulfill mine instead." Isaac sighed.
"Is that who we're going to meet?" Craig asked.
"No, Dr. Beckett is... otherwise occupied now," said Isaac swallowing hard.
Another silence filled the car.
"Anyone want some music?" Sam offered, hoping to lighten the trip.
********* Continued in Chapter 3 *************