Disclaimer: I do not own Threshold...
Beta'd by Ethos. Note: I've basically just beta'd her grammar and sentence structure, so everything else will remain intact for her artistic purposes.
Last time...
Fenway nodded in agreement. "The facts are that we can't wake any of them. I've tried everything I could think of to wake them up, as I said before its like a coma."
"What do you mean like a coma?" Baylock asked.
"Well, its only like a coma in the fact that I can't wake them up. No matter what I do, they won't stir. Its like they're trapped in that world." Fenway muttered.
"So what does that mean for Threshold?" Ramsey said.
"I'm taking over the project until Caffrey wakes up." Whitaker said, glaring at them all. "So get back to work."
----
Chapter six: Head Trip Part Two
They were all still sitting there. Her head was resting on Cavennaugh's shoulder. Who knew how long they had been there, still stuck in this glass forest. Lucas was just sitting there looking at his hands; they felt so real... Why did their dreams always make them feel like they were awake? Everything always seemed so real; people weren't supposed to feel pain when asleep!
Yet, here they were. They were stuck in this place where reality seemed to meet the dreamworld, a place where anything was possible. Molly looked up at Cavennaugh; he looked slightly feverish. Who knew what that radiation had done to them... All Cavennaugh had done was sleep for the past few hours. The poor man was exhausted.
She looked back at the younger man. He was now busy scribbling in the dirt. "What are you doing?" she muttered.
He looked up and blinked for a second. "Just playing around, doing some equations for fun."
She rolled her eyes. "For fun?"
He nodded. "Why do you really think they showed us that star exploding, Caffrey?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. You're the astrophysicist, you tell me."
"We were meant to see it. It's one of those things that we need to know... Otherwise we wouldn't be here... This is one of those times we need Fenway. He's the one that understands this symbolism stuff..."
She nodded. "That's true. Why would we need to see a star explode though? Its not like it matters to us, does it?"
He looked up, his blue eyes widening slightly. "Well, it depends where its at... It just might."
Molly looked confused. "Why would a star exploding matter to us?"
"Well, cosmic radiation isn't nice Molly." She looked up at Cavennaugh. He'd woke up. "Well, I assume its not nice."
Lucas nodded vehemently. "Its not nice at all. If something like that were to hit Earth... It depends on how much energy was released; hopefully not much. Otherwise we're fried."
"But why would they bother with Earth then if cosmic radiation were to hit it? Its not like the planet would be able to support life afterwards, right?" she asked the scientist.
"Well, we are dealing with an alien species. Caffrey, you said it yourself. We may be dealing with an alien race whose powers are on the verge of being on the supernatural. Who knows if they could resist the radiation." He shrugged. "I thought Kaluza-Klein Manifold was going to be as weird as this got... I never thought I'd actually ever have to put all of this to use."
She nodded. "I never thought my plan would ever see the light of day in my lifetime."
"I never thought I'd be assigned to protecting the team that would stop aliens from taking over the world." Cavennaugh muttered.
----
"Whitaker, that goes against her plan!" Baylock muttered as he followed the national security advisor.
"I don't care. Her plan is flawed! Where's the provision where it says anything about what to do when half of the Red Team is asleep?"
"On page five hundred thirty two." said Fenway.
They all turned and looked at him. "What!" he demanded.
"You read it?" asked Ramsey.
Fenway glared at them all. "So? Whitaker, it's not like you should make such a decision anyways. They're surely going to be awake in a few more hours. You don't need to bring in new members for the red team. Believe me, their theta waves are already decreasing a little bit. Give it a few more hours."
The ex-senator glared at the former NASA medical director. "Alright, I won't bring in the extras. But I'm remaining in control till she wakes up." He stalked off.
"Aren't you supposed to be the head honcho while Caffrey's asleep?" Ramsey said looking up at Baylock.
He nodded. "Yes, I am. Are you lying about the theta waves, Fenway?"
Fenway blinked. "Me? Lie? Would I do that?" He grinned.
----
"I don't care! I want to know what's going on!" the dark-haired woman demanded.
"I'm sorry. Its' not my place to tell you what is going on! Go bother someone else about it!" Fenway said trying to keep his voice from raising. What was with young people now-a-days!
Cynthia glared at the older doctor; why wouldn't anyone tell her about Sean? "Is he evolved in another dark waters thing!"
Fenway looked startled for a moment before he answered her. "I can't tell you that. Why don't you go bother Baylock or Whitaker about this!"
"Because you're the weak link! NOW TELL ME WHY HE WON'T WAKE UP!" she shouted at him.
"How about you go away?" he requested. He couldn't let them all down and tell this obnoxious woman what was going on...
"No I won't. I'm not going away. Now, why won't anyone tell me what's going on?" She had been asking these questions for several hours now. Why wouldn't they tell her anything? It was bad enough that Sean came home and had nightmares all the time. He'd also come home with a dislocated shoulder once, and now with a severally burnt back. She needed to know what was going on, and no one would tell her... Not even Sean...
"I'm sorry. I can't tell you what's going on, it's not my place to do so." Fenway looked up at the woman. Her bottom lip was slightly trembling. Why did women cry around him! He couldn't stand it when people cried...
----
Ravenese was washing her hands to free them of the soil of the earth, the very soil she grew her plants in. The dirt freely flowed from her hands, dirtying the water and the sink as the fertile dirt washed down the drain. She felt so tired... Why were they accelerating her program?
She had considered what Manning had recently offered her. He had offered her the chance to become better then herself. The chance to survive the radiation.
She had almost taken it. Almost. She wasn't ready yet to give up all of her humanity. Maybe it seemed weak of her not to be able to rid herself of it, but she couldn't help but to cling to it. After all she was human, wasn't she? It didn't matter that she was partially infected since the elders let her hear a bit of the signal once she reached puberty.
She was still human. She would wait a little longer to become one of them. Even if she had to put up with being tired from a hard days work. Being human was oddly enough more important to her then she had first realized.
----
Kyle entered the house. Molly had given him a key. Of course, he really didn't need it though. He just appeared in the middle of the living room. The guards outside didn't even notice his appearance.
He was wondering where Molly was. She hadn't called him in days. That wasn't like her at all; she typically kept in touch with him. Kyle walked up the stairs looking in every room; she wasn't there.
Which was extremely strange, to say the least. The bed looked like it had been slept in. He sat down. Why hadn't she called him? He looked around the room, searching it with his eyes. Even though he saw theta waves, he had also been gifted with another faux blessing. He had superior eyesight. He looked down at the hardwood floors and saw barely visible footprints. They were two different sets of shoes, men's shoes, at that. He also saw Molly's distinct prints from her tall high heel shoes. Those were fading though.
What had happened here? He sat there and wondered about it for several minutes before suddenly disappearing. He'd would have to find Molly another way. After all, she needed to know what he had found out.
----
Ramsey had his feet propped up on the desk playing on the sleeping Lucas' blackberry. Damn, that little machine was addicting... His eyes flickered up to the computer screen. He was supposed to be monitoring the sleeping red team member's houses. So far nothing had happened. Baylock had a suspicion that the vigilante might appear to look for information.
There was nothing yet. He had been sitting here for over three hours just staring at the screen. HE was a renowned mathematician, and one of the top linguists in the country. HE was not meant to do guard duty, HE was meant to be translating at the UN or teaching at a top university. HE was important, and staring at SCREENS for three hours was a grand waste of HIS all important time.
He went back to playing on the blackberry. Exactly how did Lucas get anything done with this thing around him! He played for several more minutes and then glanced back up at the damned screen and blinked. "What the hell?" he muttered, getting up and walking up to the screen.
He saw movement where there should be none. He zoomed in and blinked. How had Baylock known? There stood the vigilante. He picked up his phone. Why did it seem like he was becoming a security guard as of late?
----
Fenway took off his blue lab coat; even though the dreamers were still in their pseudo coma, he wanted to get some much needed sleep. He pulled on his jacket and left the Threshold building, Fenway walked over to his vehicle. It was his own, he'd finally gotten it shipped from Florida all the way up here with some more clothes and other belongings. They were stashed away in the trunk. It wasn't like he had many belongings After all.
His wives had gotten the majority of his belongings; spiteful bitches. He climbed in his car. It was the only one he would drive now a days. Nigel didn't want to drive Threshold's SUV's. They were terrible on the gas, and that meant terrible on his meager wallet.
He climbed into the Prius and smiled. It had only been a couple of days since it had arrived. He wouldn't move the stuff out of the car till he got a more permanent residence, hopefully an apartment or a small house. It was all he needed to be more comfortable in this terrible city. He couldn't breathe here, bad air, bad people, bad food; he didn't know anyone outside of the red team, and alien's on top of that.
The story of his life, indeed.
He started his car and drove towards the hotel. When Caffrey woke he needed to ask for his own place. He also needed to ask for a week off sometime to visit with Darwin.
He shook his head and turned on his radio and listened to the soothing tones of Pink Floyd. It was already getting late, so he turned on the headlights as he drove through the heavy traffic. It grew dark early around here. He wasn't used to this climate...
He started to notice something strange as he continued to drive. Call it a sixth sense doctor's always seemed to have. Something felt wrong, very wrong. He pulled into a parking lot and looked around; something was happening...
He got out of his car and looked around. There was the buildings of the city as usual, the heavy traffic, a cool breeze from the north. Everything seemed normal, but something was out of place... He noticed a car had slowed and pulled into the same parking lot as him. Call it instinct but he piled into his car in a hurry. Something WAS wrong. Was he being followed! He pulled out, and made an illegal U-turn and headed back to the Threshold building. That wasn't a Threshold vehicle. The car made the same U-turn as he had. That confirmed it; someone was following him. Or was it a something?
He pulled out his phone.
----
Molly and Lucas had went back to their yoga. Cavennaugh tilted his head and watched the two neo-hippies. He still couldn't understand how people contorted their bodies like that... He didn't mind watching Molly, but watching Lucas disturbed him. He didn't need to see another man do that!
Now Molly was another story. He rose an eyebrow. He didn't mind that at all. It was a very pleasant sight, seeing Molly do that with her legs. He grinned, and felt glad suddenly that Molly and Lucas had their eyes closed.
Molly suddenly opened her eyes and Sean quickly wiped that smile off his face. She smiled at him and looked up into the sky with a confused look on her face. Those dark curls of hers hung away from her face as she peered into the starry sky.
She blinked then, and looked even more confused. "What's wrong, Molly?" Sean asked.
Lucas then opened his eyes as well. "I don't know." Lucas said. Molly nodded in agreement. Sean almost rolled his eyes; why did he get left out when it came to this dreamer business?
Lucas got up and winced as the feeling returned to his legs. He looked around everywhere, hoping to see what he sensed. Molly hauled herself up as well; she was shivering even though it felt balmy in the forest.
Then they both froze. Cavennaugh felt a bit cold as well. Then something happened...
----
Fenway continued to drive Baylock had told him he had agents coming. Why did things like this always happen to him! Who knew what was following him; it could be human, or whomever was following him could be alien. HE was not prepared for a close encounter of a third kind.
He reached over and opened his glove department while sitting at a red light. There was the small gun Caffrey insisted on him carrying. Sure, they said it was easy to shoot the little thing, but he highly doubted that. Point and shoot didn't sound like good advice.
Especially since he had never fired a gun before. Fenway pulled it out of the department and settled it in his lap. If it came down to it, he would try out that advice. It was a better fate to have a gun misfire on him then to become an infectee. A much better fate.
He checked his rear-view mirror. The car was behind him a few cars down. Where were those agents!
The light finally turned green and he sped off. He took a wrong turn away from Threshold. He wouldn't lead anyone there, no matter what.
He merged into heavy traffic, and looked around for Threshold's characteristic black SUV's. There was nothing yet, so he drove slowly through traffic for several minutes. The car was still several cars behind him.
He made a turn onto a highway. Now it was time to get some speed. Yes, Nigel Fenway, safe, cautious doctor he was, had one vice. He liked to speed. He put his pedal to the metal and sped off. The car was struggling to follow. Fenway smiled. It also helped that his son liked to mess with cars. Darwin had been babysat by some of the best professors of physics and the such when he had been little. Even though Fenway told the kid to stay away from his car, the little bugger had gotten ahold of it while he had been away. Figures his son's habits would come in handy now. A souped up hybrid was a nice car indeed, especially in this situation.
Fenway drove for a few miles, and finally the SUV's showed up. It had taken them long enough. They moved to box in the car. The car was close enough now that Fenway could make out the terrified man's face. Fenway smirked and pulled onto the nearest ramp. It was a good thing that the first thing he had done with some time off was to explore the town... The mystery man obeyed what the SUV's were signaling, and pulled onto the same ramp. The SUV's followed him. Fenway pulled into the nearest parking lot that wasn't full of cars and parked his car. One of the SUV's had gotten ahead of the car. That agent now stopped his car in the middle of the lane which forced the car to pull into the parking lot. The other SUV followed.
The man parked his car, his head hanging in what seemed defeat. The agent jerked open the car door and pulled the young scared looking man out. Fenway walked over and held up a hand. "Don't hurt him."
"Why exactly were you following me?" Fenway asked.
The man's dark eyes had widened. Fenway saw the eyes dilate. The poor dude was scared. Fenway calmed his voice down a bit. "I'm not going to bite your head off. I just need to know why you were following me."
The young man eyes lit up with a sudden idea and he spat at Fenway's face. Fenway stoically flicked the spit off of his cheek before nodding at the guards. "Lock him up and throw away the key."
----
Baylock came into Ramsey's lab. He looked around; the place was a pig's pen. Of course, it belonged to two young men whose main goal in life was to beat the other one to the last doughnut... The place also smelt like a pig's pen.
He pinched his nose and relaxed. "What is that stink!"
Ramsey looked up and shrugged. "Just one of Lucas' experiments gone wrong. He had to borrow one of Fenway's infected rats."
"I do not want to know. Don't tell me any other details. Now why did I get a phone call?"
"Because that vigilante dude is in Molly's house. In fact he's sorta sitting on her bed right now. He seems awfully familiar with her place, if you know what I mean." Ramsey wiggled his eyebrows up and down.
Baylock glared at the dwarf. "What exactly are you implying Ramsey?"
"You know what I'm implying. Don't play dumb. He seems to know the layout of the place quite well."
"Well, let's leave that topic alone until Caffrey wakes up. What should we do?" Baylock asked looking at the screen.
"I think we should bust down the door, and capture ourselves a serial killer."
Baylock shrugged. "I'll take your advice on this one."
Ramsey glared. "Only because you don't want to face Caffrey's wrath."
Baylock laughed as he left the stinky lab. "Oh, and Ramsey, get an air freshener or something. Get anything to cover up that smell!"
Ramsey rolled his eyes; ah the fresh smell of fried rat at night...
----
Baylock went straight down to the holding cells. Fenway had actually reeled in a good catch. He entered the area and saw Fenway standing in the hallway leaning against one of the walls talking with the agents.
Fenway looked up once when he saw Baylock coming and pointed at the cell. "He won't talk. I need your permission or Whitaker's for a blood sample."
Baylock let out a long drawn out sigh. "Go ahead, if you can hold him down."
"You can't take my blood without a warrant! I demand due process! You can't hold me here without charging me with anything, and I have committed no crime!" the young man finally spoke. He was looking frantic.
"Now he talks." Fenway muttered, rolling his eyes. "I hate to say it, but we're in dark waters. There are no rights."
"What do you mean we're in dark waters!" The young man's voice was up an octave.
Fenway motioned for the guards to open the cell. "Hold him down. I have to take a sample of his blood." They did so. The young man back away to the corner of the cell.
"This is against my rights! You're violating the bill of rights!"
"As I told you, we're in dark waters, there are no rights." The guards grabbed the young man and held him down while Fenway took out a syringe. "Listen, I don't like it either, but if this is what it takes, then so be it." Fenway drew the man's blood and left the room. He paused in the doorway. "And if you want to see the light of day again, I would advise in giving these agents the reason you were following me."
----
Meanwhile Kyle had returned to Molly's home. He looked around. She still wasn't here. He had not been able to figure out where she had went, so he had decided to return to the scene of the crime.
He looked around; nothing had changed... Kyle was really worried about her. What if something had happened?
All of a sudden he felt a sudden burning pain in his neck! His eyes became blurry as he slid down to the ground, falling on his knees. He saw his attacker in the last few seconds before he passed out, it was... It was one of Threshold's agents! Why?
----
Fenway was now looking down at the three dreamers again. He was having no luck waking them up. He was actually on the verge of picking up the phone and calling Larson...
Nigel picked up the phone. It felt so heavy... He really didn't want to do this. It was bad enough he was asking for help... But to ask Daphne for help!
He dialed the number and let it ring. Finally after a couple of minutes Daphne picked up. He heard her voice over the line and couldn't help but smile a little bit. A few fond memories of times passed flooding there.
He shook his head. "Daphne? Are you awake?"
"Do you have any idea of what time it is?" she growled.
He looked over at the clock on the wall. "Four in the morning. Daphne I need you down here. We have a problem."
"Why should I?" She sounded a bit grouchy.
"Lucas, Cavennaugh, and Caffrey won't wake up. I think they're all stuck in that dream world of their's."
He heard the rustle of sheets. "Getting up?"
"Go away, Nigel, I'll be there in a bit." she said as she hung up the phone.
He smiled. He needed to stay away from her. Yes, that was the best idea. Stay far, far away from her.
Fenway couldn't help visiting the bathroom and checking his hair. He hated himself for it. Why did the presence of past flames always make him vain?
Fenway's phone rang as he was washing face. He at least looked decent now... He answered the phone, "What do you want Baylock?"
----
Fenway and Larson looked down at the unconscious infectee. "Now explain why did you have someone put a dart with sedative in it in his neck?" Daphne asked. "You could have punctured-" Fenway started to say but was cut off by Baylock.
"The agent missed. He's relatively new to firing a dart gun."
"Why did you send a newbie, then?" Daphne asked.
Baylock glared at the doctors, "Just tell me when he will wake up."
They both shrugged at the same time, making the older man glare even more. "You two aren't really taking this seriously are you!"
They shrugged once more in unison. Baylock walked out the room frustrated and grumbling.
"You really think we should do that to him?" Daphne asked Fenway.
He shrugged, and then smirked at her glare. "Why? Do you think it raises his blood pressure?"
She laughed, and looked down at their brand new patient. "Has the test finished yet or not?"
Fenway peaked at one of his new toys. "Nope. Give it five more minutes or so. Till then lets shackle this guy up. Infectees sometimes have nasty surprises."
"I couldn't agree with you more."
----
"What's wrong with us? Why is it cold now?"
"Something is about to happen, again." Molly muttered. "Or someone is coming."
Sean tried to struggle to his feet, but Molly knelt down beside him and gently pushed him back down. "Sean, I need you to reserve your strength, not hurt yourself."
She stood to her feet then and hiked up her nightgown until she reached her thigh. Lucas and Cavennaugh both stared; Lucas because he was wondering why Molly was hitching her gown up, and Cavennaugh because he had quite the nice view from where he was. There on her pale thigh was a gun holster. She took out the gun that Cavennaugh had given her.
"You go to sleep with a gun on your thigh?" Lucas asked, blinking.
"Gives a new meaning to dangerous woman..." Cavennaugh muttered.
She glared at them both, "And when I save both of your asses, what are you going to do?"
"Grovel at your feet, apparently," Cavennaugh said. "Considering you won't let me get up."
They heard someone walking, coming towards them, all of their cocky banter stopped as the person entered the clearing.
"I need to know your decision. Are you one of us?"
----
to be continued...