DISCLAIMER: His Dark Materials belongs to Phillip Pullman and affiliates. No copyright or trademark infringement intended. However, this story is my pathetic attempt to continue his wondrous work. It belongs to me.

A/N: The Plot Bunnies attacked me at three a.m. for this. Thanks for the reviews, they are very much appreciated; and flattering when you're getting them eight months after the first posting.

Chapter Two

The Constellation Project

            "I don't believe you," Will said flatly. It had been too many years of hope, disappointment and pain for him to staunchly believe Mary had actually found a way to a parallel universe.

            Mary closed her eyes in grief over Will's disillusionment. "Will, I—"

            "No," he said fiercely. "I refuse to believe something that isn't true. It's not possible to travel to a parallel universe without the Subtle Knife." It was his turn to clench his eyes shut against the anguish he only allowed himself to feel on this particular day of the year. "Dreams can only last so long," he said in a quieter voice.

            Mary's heart wrenched at the boy's admission of the pain that had gripped him for so long. It wasn't fair one so young could feel so hopeless.

            "Please, Will," she said softly. "I'm not trying to fill you with false hope. Please," she said again, "if you'll just come with me—"

            "No!" he exclaimed, jumping up with his eyes blazing and fists clenching in fury. "You've done this too many times! I'm not going to listen to your false promises any longer. I can't believe you'd do this today, of all days. I can't take it!" With that, he whirled around and started stomping away to his small bedroom.

            "Wait, Will!" Mary shouted. "Stop acting like a baby! Imagine if your mother, or even your father could see you like this right now." Mary knew it was cruel of her to mention his parents in order to catch his attention in this way, but she had to do something to make him believe her. He slowly turned around, his eyes still smoldering in upset.

            "How could you bring them up?" he asked in a strained voice barely above a whisper. "I-I can't deal with this right now."

            "You don't have to," she said. "Come with me, I'll explain everything."

            He took a deep breath, "Fine," he said resignedly.

***

            "It's the most amazing thing," Mary said, in a placating voice, glancing over at Will, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the small sedan.

            "Sure," he muttered tonelessly, staring out the window unseeingly. Mary could tell he didn't believe her, and probably thought her discovery would be a fluke, just as all the others had been. She shook her head sorrowfully and concentrated on driving to the lab.

            Mary Malone had floated from one job to the next, mostly in laboratories; and in much more junior positions than the steady job that she had held, up to the day a young, fierce girl had burst into her office and interrupted her work.

            Since she had committed fraud and resisted governmental authority four years before, she had been unable to obtain a position barely above that of an intern. She made very little salary to go in day after day to check on experiments, record observations, and be gawked at by her colleagues, who thought she was a criminal. Her record stated she was, what with destroying a scientific facility and creating thousands of dollars worth of damage.

            Knowing she could never fit in or gain respect from this world, she was constantly on the scent for any scientific discovery's that were even close to what she had worked on prior to her first trip to a parallel universe.

            And she had found something.

            After showing her badge to the security officer in the parking lot entrance, and driving up to the building she'd been working in, she led Will into the small sterile building where she'd been tending experiments of little importance for scientists whose egos exceeded their intelligence, in Mary's opinion.

            Will obediently and quietly followed her to the end of a long hallway with bleached white walls and fluorescent lighting to a set of elevators. Upon stepping into the elevator, Mary took out a pass for restricted zones that belonged to her superior and inserted it into the only slot for such a thing, pressing the button labeled "B-12".

            Will had seen the card and assumed correctly that her boss had no idea Mary had it. "Mary," he said warningly, "if you get in trouble—"

            "I won't," she said, cutting him off mid-sentence. "I'll return it when we're finished here, before my superior knows it's missing."

            Will said nothing, but he gazed critically at the dark-haired woman beside him. He knew she had trouble finding a decent job because of her record, and that if she were to get caught breaking any rules she may never work up to the level of respectability she'd previously held back when she worked with "dark matter".

            They stepped off of the elevator into a large, cavernous room that was enveloped in darkness. Mary flipped a switch off to the side and the room was thrown into the same bright fluorescent light found in the corridors, but this was not what made Will gasp loudly.

            In the center of the vault-like room stood an enormous metal structure that was most likely a computer centered around a large metal arch that held many great orbs in the frame. Mary watched Will's widened eyes take in every detail of the arch and the platform on which it was placed with a sense of contentment and excitement. This would be what he deserved – what they both deserved if it could successfully transport them to the world of humans and dæmons.

            "What is it?"

            "They call it Polaris. You and I would call it a portal of sorts."

            "Why – why… Polaris…?"

            Mary smiled at Will's sputtering. "Polaris is the name of the north star. Back when sailors didn't use compasses, they used the north star to navigate. Polaris is named because all other portals lead to it."

            "There are more?"

            "From what I gather on the computer that runs Polaris, they've established portals only in two other worlds, Lyra's, and one we haven't encountered yet, which they call Ophelias."

            "So the scientists you work for have created and established portals in three worlds…"

            Mary snorted. "Not exactly. It seems that the portals, or the Constellation Project, as it's called, are headed by a top secret research team that are using the space more than the highly intelligent scientists here. They've no idea the portal is here."

            "Is it the government, or…?"

            "That's something I haven't been able to figure out," Mary said, scowling. "I know the director is a man named Richard Burke, but I have no idea who he reports to. He may be heading this privately, and then offer to sell the Constellation Project to the highest bidder."

            Will walked over to where Mary was standing, by the computer, inspecting it closely, "Why is it called the Constellation Project?" he asked, turning to the slight woman, brows furrowing.

            "The other portals are named after constellations. Orion in Ophelias and Dorado for Lyra's world."

            "What do they call Lyra's world?" Will asked, gazing at the arch once more.

            "Dæmonatia, for obvious reasons."

            Will walked toward the arch, stepping onto the platform and looking at one of the orbs surrounding him closely. It was obsidian in color. Will thought he briefly saw an ethereal flash of multiple colors, but it could have been the reflection of the pale lighting. He finally turned back to Mary Malone, who was still standing by the computer.

            "How did you discover all of this?" he asked, perplexed.

            She started to pace, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so. "I haven't been completely honest with you, Will. I know we agreed that day that we would leave it all behind us, but I couldn't. I always searched for the way back," she said.

            Will nodded. He remembered that day, it had been the day they'd come back from Lyra's world. He knew he hadn't left it behind, either.

            "Every job that I've taken in the past four years, I've made sure to find out everything about what that company was involved in at the time. The reason why I've never held onto a job for long is because I kept purposefully leaving. Then there were the… false alarms." She paused, as if to allow Will to process the information, and then continued.

            "I've gotten into all the restricted areas of multiple labs across the county, where I would either find nothing, or something like a remote possibility." She stopped pacing and turned towards him, smiling slightly. "Remember the first time I dragged you into a 'remote possibility', Will?"

            Will nodded again. He'd been just as excited as she when she'd brought him to one of the labs she worked in when he was twelve, just a few months after their return. Mary had found some sort of file that mentioned the 'dark matter' project she'd been working on before, and instead of investigating it thoroughly, she'd gotten Will immediately, thinking that that was it – a way to Lyra's world without creating Specters or holes for Dust to leak out of.

            Unfortunately it had only been a mention of the project in passing, and led nowhere. Will had sunk into a depression similar to the one he'd had upon their return to their world months earlier. After that, Mary was much more careful in her search for a way to travel to different worlds.

            "Anyway, I did the same here, by swiping that restriction zone pass that my boss never uses, and discovered the arch. Everything I've learned about the project I've learned through that computer," she said, gesturing mildly towards the hulking machine.

            "But the computer couldn't have had open access, that would be careless," Will mused.

            "Right you are, Will. I had to make a more daring move and copy the access information from one of the research team members. Nearly got caught that time," she said dreamily, staring beyond Will to her own harrowing adventures in the recent past.

            Will couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. He ran over to Mary Malone and hugged the mildly surprised woman. They didn't normally engage in such familial acts. Will stepped away from her, still smiling.

            "So, when do we leave?"

***

A/N: I suppose another disclaimer is needed here for the portals. Portals between worlds is not my invention, it's been done many times before. The clearest example in my mind is similar to 'Stargate', but I honestly don't remember anything else of that movie or series, other than the fact that it had portals.

I have decided I will need a beta-reader if I wish to continue this. If anyone's interested, please email me or say so in your review. It shouldn't be too hard of a job, as I seem to take long breaks in-between chapters. Being familiar with the HDM trilogy is a must.

Please review. I'm trying to form in my own mind how Lyra might have changed in the last four years. If you would, please tell me how you imagine Lyra is now, after four years since the events in HDM. Thanks!