A/N- The countdown begins. After this chapter, there are two left to go before the end of the story. Just to give you all a little warning, you know. Enjoy!
Korean Pearl- Thank you! Actually, in the first draft of this story, Alia did kill Lothos… but I decided I didn't like that ending, not after she'd just been told about forgiveness. So I changed it, and I think it turned out better for that. Glad you thought so!
TesubCalle- Thanks! As for Sam, and the canon that he never gets home… I'm one of those fans who refuses to believe that his future is set in stone. This is a time-travel story, anything can happen. To me, saying Sam never came home is like saying Tom died in Vietnam, or that Beth had Al declared dead and then remarried. Both these events happened. And then Sam changed it. Who's to say Alia doesn't have some wrongs to put right as well? Drat, you got me ranting. Anyway, whether Alia succeeds or fails remains to be seen…
PippinDuck- I hope this chapter fulfills your expectations… :grins:
Deranged Lunatic- Wow, I'm glad it had such an effect on you! At least I know I'm doing my job! Thanks!
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Chapter 21- Project Quantum Leap
"The intent here is to gain a clearer perception of humanity- where we've been, where we're going, the pitfalls and the possibilities, the perils and the promise. Perhaps even an answer to that universal question: Why?"
–From the film Back to the Future
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The world shimmered, and faded away. I had left Lothos behind, and I hadn't killed him. I would have breathed deeply had I had a body, but as it happened, I couldn't feel anything at the moment. So I just tried to recover in my mind, instead.
I had done what I had wanted, without being consumed by my fear, my anger, my hatred…
Thank you, I whispered. Thank you, God. I, I guess there is a better way than death of settling things. But there is one more place I need to go, one thing I really need to do…
The light faded, and I returned to my body. I heard a gasp behind me, and whirled round to see a lady with bright red hair and blinking earrings staring open-mouthed at me. At first I thought it was somehow Zoey, but a second look told me the two were radically different. The woman was standing behind a large desk made of… Legos?
She reached forward and pressed a panel on the desk, shouting, "Intruder alert! Code red!"
"No, wait, I…" But the woman was already rushing for the futuristic door at the side of the room. I looked around frantically, but barely got to see anything before the lighting in the room grew so bright I couldn't see. It blinded me and I fell to the floor, gasping.
I blinked as I heard the door open once again, and a man shouted, "Put your hands up!"
I stood and did as requested; searching for the source of the voice, but my eyes still didn't work. I decided to say nothing and hope they wouldn't shoot first, ask questions later.
The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but it wasn't Sam's… who could this be?
"Ziggy, has she got any weapons on her?" Ziggy! So I had Leapt to the right place. I just hoped it was the right time.
"No, Admiral. The intruder is unarmed," a female voice said, somehow coming from all directions at once.
I heard footsteps coming closer, then a gasp. "It's her!"
"Who?" This from a voice who hadn't spoken before.
"It's her! Alia! The Evil Leaper!" That confused me, who at Sam's project would recognize me? Except… Sam's hologram… Al? It struck me as ironic that upon finally meeting him in person, I still couldn't see him.
"I could have told you that, Admiral," The computer sniffed, or rather, made a sound that could have passed for a sniff. "Her brain patterns match those of the second Leaper Dr. Beckett encountered, a woman who identified herself only as Alia. The energy residual surrounding the subject suggests that she Leaped here."
I wondered if I could put my arms down now, or if they were pointing a gun at me. It was very frustrating to be blind.
"How did she do that?" Al demanded. "Where did she come from?"
I wasn't sure if he expected me, or the computer, to answer, and decided to say nothing.
"What is going on in here?" Demanded another voice- a woman's. I blinked heavily and my vision began to clear. Slowly the image of an African-American woman walking steadily toward me materialized. When she saw me standing there, stunned, she hurried forward. "Oh, honey, are you all right?" She turned to look at the rest of the group, people whose faces I couldn't see clearly yet. "How did Angel get here?"
The question must have been directed at Al, since nobody else seemed to have a clue what was going on. But he said nothing, so I answered for him.
"I'm not Angel."
The woman stared at me in confusion that slowly melted into understanding. She nodded slowly. "So you are Alia."
"Yes."
Everyone was quiet for a moment, then the woman with her hands on my shoulders said softly, "How did you get here, honey?"
"I Leaped."
"As herself?" Al blurted, not believing me.
Ziggy's voice wafted through the room. "It is possible, Admiral. You will remember that Dr. Beckett Leaped as himself during your last contact." Al stiffened at that, and turned away, just making me more confused.
Now that my vision was clearing, I was free to study Al more closely. He appeared to be older than Sam… and, in my opinion, had seen harder living than Sam ever had. And the look in his eyes told me that he was seeing some hard things again. Despite the bright clothing he wore, there was no cheer in this man. Not at this point in time, at any rate.
What, I wondered, had caused him to act in this manner? Surely it couldn't just have been my reappearance… could it? When he noticed me staring, I dropped my gaze quickly. This was someone who I did not want to antagonize.
After another moment of silence, the woman said, "Well, now. Maybe we should go somewhere more comfortable, hmm? This… this sounds like a story that could take awhile." She began to propel me towards the door.
"You can't take her into the Project, Verbeena," Al said.
Verbeena laughed quietly. "How much further into the Project could she get, Al?"
"He doesn't trust me," I said quietly. He had good reason not to.
"Listen, if you're worried about her escaping, you can put it out of your mind. She's not going to get far in this maze of corridors, crawling with guards."
"She Leapt in here," Al argued. "She could somehow Leap out, crazy as that sounds."
"If she were going to do that, it would have happened already," Verbeena pointed out. "I don't think she wants to 'escape'. She has something she wants to tell us, and I think, as a courtesy, we'd better hear it."
Al seemed like he wanted to protest again, thought better of it, and headed out behind the rest of us. I glanced around, not exactly sure who the 'rest of us' were. There was Verbeena, of course, who had recognized me but thought I was Angel… was it possible she had seen Angel in my aura, here, during the last Leap? That would explain things a little bit. There was the woman I had surprised in my Leap-in, dressed in a revealing skirt and blouse, with the blinking earrings. She reminded me of several airheads I had known in high school. What was a person like this doing at a top-secret government Project? And there was a short man who seemed very nervous about the whole situation; he kept glancing at me anxiously and chewing on his moustache. When he got too near me, I caught a whiff of his breath and hurriedly moved away, wrinkling my nose. I'm not quite sure what I had expected to find at Sam's Project, but it wasn't this group of people.
Verbeena, whoever she was, was right that I would soon become lost in the corridors of the project. We made so many twists and turns I doubted I could find my way back to the last hallway we had walked down, much less the Control Room. Finally we reached a door, where Blinking-Ears pressed her hand against a panel beside the door. It opened with a whoosh. Inside was a not-so spotless conference room, not the pristine, futuristic place I had expected. Papers and binders were strewn about on a wooden table; calculations that were meaningless to me were scribbled on a whiteboard on one wall. The chairs were even old, it seemed. I stared around the room in surprise. This was not what I had expected.
Verbeena must have seen my startled expression, because she said, "Budget cuts." She brushed away spare papers, and everyone took a seat. Then suddenly they were all looking expectantly at me.
Nervously I glanced around the table. I had to put this right… "I know most of you are probably wondering why I'm here," I started out, quavering slightly. "I… well… Al doesn't trust me, and he has a good reason to." I swallowed nervously, hoping my feelings weren't showing. "I tried to kill his friend, Sam Beckett, more than once. And, more than once, Sam tried to save me. The third time we met, he succeeded in bringing me with him on a Leap, which is how I assume you recognized me," I said to Verbeena. She nodded, and I continued. "I'm… I'm very grateful to Sam, so since returning to my own time I've been working on something… Lothos, as Al has heard, is the artificial intelligence unit that… controlled… my Leaps. I returned to him, and threatened to kill him, unless he did something for me. So I got this for you." I knew I was babbling, but it didn't matter much anymore. Just so long as they got it.
Al frowned. "What is it?"
"The Retrieval Program."
Blinking-Ears and Bad-breath glanced at each other, then scrambled for the pile of papers I had carried all the way here. They began flipping through them frantically. It was obvious they weren't listening to me anymore.
I could tell that Al was not convinced, however. "You've left a lot of the story out, I noticed. Like how you became involved with this 'Lothos' in the first place, and why you tried to kill Sam. Or are you going to fall back on the Swiss-Cheesed excuse again?" He asked sarcastically.
With some difficulty, I looked him straight in the eye. "My memory is perfectly clear now… Al." I paused. "Much too clear. But if you really want the full version…" I took a shuddering breath and began.
It took awhile to tell the full story. At least, that's what it seemed like to me. As I talked, it seemed like the past repeated itself again. Once more Zoey found me, once more Lothos tortured me, once more Sam saved me. I must have cried at some point during the tale because when I finally finished I realized my face was wet, and the others, even the computer-absorbed people, where all looking at me, with expressions of shock and pity. Except for Al, who was staring grimly into space, his expression unreadable.
When I was finished, the woman at the other end of the table stood up, glancing at me nervously. "I'm sorry about, like, everything and all. And we really appreciate what you've tried to do." She stole a glance at Al, who still had not shown any emotion. "But, even if this really is a viable Retrieval Program, which by all appearances it seems to be, it, like, wouldn't do us any good." She paused, then said softly, "We've lost Dr. Beckett."
My world, which hadn't been very stable beforehand, crumbled. "What?"
"We lost him. He Leaped, as himself, for one last time, and we, like, looked forever, and finally found him. But we lost contact. We can't, like, get a lock on him. And if we don't have a lock, we can't retrieve him."
My anger flared, along with despair. This couldn't be happening. "Well, find him! Do something! You're the smart, scientific people, you're supposed to be able to do something!" He's supposed to know everything!
"You think we haven't?" Al's emotional wall broke down then, and he turned on my furiously. "We've tried everything they threw at us! Every possible theory! We worked ourselves to the bone trying to find him, but it's no use. We can't find a trace of him. Nada! There's nothing else we can do!"
I took a deep breath, urging myself to be calm. It wasn't really their fault Sam had disappeared, was it? They must have been trying like hell to get him back for the past few weeks or days, and had to feel discouraged that nothing had happened. I resigned myself to the fact that this simply wasn't the right time. Okay, all I have to do is go back a few weeks, back when they still have him…
Suddenly, the room faded. I felt time slide by me. It wasn't like a Leap, where time is flowing and I'm standing still, but as if I was falling down a slide backwards. I began to panic. It was too far! I wasn't going back just days or weeks, but months, years…
God…
Peace, Alia.
What's… what's happening?
Something that once went wrong is being put right.
And just before the timeline and my memory of it faded, a last fleeting thought entered my mind. Sam…