CH 5.5

I hurried down the well-lit hallways, my heels making dull "thuds" on the hard carpets. In my hands I held two months' worth of sleepless nights and coffee-filled days. The carbon-sheet computer flapped against the wind created by my running-walking down the hallway.

We had made a major discovery. By major I mean it would save me and my team at least five years' work, and many many failures. I had found Skylea Zander's earliest formulation, the very template upon which my friend had made the technological advancement of the century. Ironically, we were about to throw that disk into the incinerator when I decided to do one last search.

Disk C6.

Zander had mentioned it a few years back, before we were teenagers, which was the only reason I had gone for a last look. C6 was a graveyard of her creation. Literally hundreds of thousands of files dumped there when she had no more use for them. I found that most were useless trash mixed with random bits of programmed games and some half-finished photomanipulation. A labyrinth that hid the one file which contained a lifetime of research. When I saw it, I went to wash my face to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. We all thought Skylea had destroyed everything that had anything to do with her research.

I stopped at the steely door at the end of the hallway. It was well polished, allowing me to see the dark circles underneath my eyes despite my attempts at concealing them. The shiny black plate on the door read DIRECTOR. I took in a deep breath, and then knocked.

The door opened almost immediately. "Finally. I was almost going to look for you."

"Director Stence, You are not going to believe this." I said. I know I told him that already on the holograph phone, but I couldn't help myself. Director Erinen Stence gaze tiredly down at me. He, like many here, had a haggard expression, and with good reason. They had given us two months to comb through the wreck Skylea had left behind, and the deadline was looming.

I handed him the paper thin computer, on which was displayed a series of familiar handwriting and lines of codes. He accepted it, his eyes fritting over the screen.

"Do you have an explanation for this?"

"I think this is the first concrete advancement in Skylea's research. I found it on disk C6 with all of the other trash files she'd dumped over the years. This, of course, isn't trash by any means."

Stence didn't reply. His eyes were widening by the minute.

"Is this for real?" He finally asked, using a finger to scroll down.

"The physics matches what I know as of now, and everything else makes sense. I think I can use this as a starting point to recreate what Skylea had already done. Using her own work might get us there faster than starting from scratch." I said.

The director again didn't reply. I leaned against the metallic doorframe. These past two months of endless work had taken its toll on me.

"Alright, you are a go." He laid the computer flat on his palm and swiped across the screen several times with his other hand. "I've copied this onto my computer. I'll look through it now. Go get started on the actual project."

I took my computer back and rolled it into a scroll. Erinen Stence was already on the way to his glass desk and I knew I should be leaving too. But I had something else to share with him.

"Director Stence?"

He turned around.

"I...found something else, when I did her calculations."

He nodded with a "uh-huh".

"I worked out the maximum force the portal could sustain without breaking, and I found that the energy released during the destruction had a disturbance force less than the maximum." I finished, hoping Stence would get the obvious conculsion.

The director's brows furrowed as a flurry of emotions crossed his face. First, there was disbelief, then shock, joy, concern, and finally his features were unnervingly blank.

"So there's a chance the portal remained intact while she was in it?" He asked flatly in his low voice.

"Yes, and Skylea is alive right now." I said.

Erinen merely shook his head, sighing sorrowfully.

"What?" I stared wide-eyed at him. Something was wrong, and I knew it wasn't my math, "If the portal remained intact, then Skylea would've gotten through unharmed. It's only logical."

"Chen, you were not required to learn history, so I won't hold it against you," He said quietly, "According to the data you've given me, Zander was right in the middle of a warzone. Who knows what might've happened after all this time?"

His words echoed in my head. After all this time.

I had forgotten it's been almost a year. The eight months I've spent underground in a bunker was an unmemorable blur. But still, I had found a glimmer of hope that my friend was still alive, how cruel of him to shatter my hopes like that? I clutched onto the computer scroll with both hands, staring at the hard floor. Director Erinen Stence crossed the room, placing a large hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry Chen. Your profile didn't say anything, but I know you were close with Zander. These past two months had been hard, and finally we have something to show for it. Go take a day off, rest." He commanded softly.

I nodded, turning away into the white-lit hallway. I could hear a door hiss pneumatically somewhere on the other side of the building. As the director's door closed behind me the entire world suddenly seemed to swirl wildly. The rolled-up computer fell to the floor harmlessly and I leaned against a wall, steadying myself until the dizzy spell went away.

Despite what the director said about wars, I feel that there might be a chance my friend is still alive. All I need to do is reinvent the technology she'd destroyed, rediscover the knowledge that she'd buried. I bent down and picked up the sheet of PC. I have no idea how I'm going to use the treasure I'd found today and in any case, I didn't care right now. I desperately needed a good night's sleep.