Chapter 18: The Glimpse

The rest of your song
I'll hear in the Other World
Oh, sweet cuckoo bird!

~Anonymous, trans. Toshio G. Tsukahira

Astrid, Lincoln, Peter, Olivia, and Simon Hsu rushed in the direction of the cave-in. They froze at the sight: a pyramid of rubble in the middle of the tunnel, Agent Dunham nowhere in sight.

"Oh no," Lee nearly whimpered. "Oh God no."

Olivia looked over it. She saw the rock, saw its origin, but she didn't see the other Olivia. She wasn't there.

"We need to move this rock out of the way, now!" she shouted.

The two other FBI agents were the first to follow the order. Peter and Hsu joined in hauling the rocks out of the way moments later.

Olivia worked frantically. The others thought Agent Dunham was buried under the rock, but she knew she wasn't.

But would be if they didn't work fast.

She had seen the cave flicker and vanish around her, felt the universe flow through her, and now she was somewhere else.

She was in a forest. Trees as tall as redwoods towered above her, the canopy lost in dim fog. There was a slight chill, though the air was damp, like a swamp.

It wasn't hard to figure out what happened: she had instinctively escaped the falling rocks by tapping into her innate power to cross universes.

But where was she now? And how could she get back?

Before she could think of an answer, she heard a strange sound in the eerie silence of the mist. Something breathed. Something sniffed. Something big.

She looked over her shoulder, trying to determine which direction the sound was coming from. There was a thump. Heavy. A footstep.

Another.

She held her breath. It was coming closer.

A shadow congealed from out of the fog. It was huge.

She hadn't spent much time in natural history museums, but she was pretty sure she was looking at a Tyrannosaurus rex.

It took a few steps closer, then stopped, looking directly at her. She had the feeling it was evaluating whether she was edible. Or maybe just whether she'd be worth the effort to eat.

Of all the monsters and mysteries she'd encountered in her time with Fringe Division, she had never felt anything like this: she was staring into something ancient, primal, more natural and more pristine than anything she had ever seen. She was nearly paralyzed with a combination of fear and awe.

With a jolting motion, the dinosaur resumed its advance. She didn't move. Already she could feel the pull of the other universe, drawing her back.

The approaching tyrannosaur flickered before her eyes.

And then everything went dark.

"Olivia!" she heard Lincoln gasp in relief before her eyes adjusted to the meager light of the mine. She felt arms wrap tightly around her. Lincoln's and Astrid's, she determined.

"What the hell just happened?" Hsu asked.

Agent Dunham looked around. The narrow tunnel was littered with rocks, but a space had been cleared where she'd reappeared.

"Shall we just say it was an aftershock?" the other Olivia asked sardonically.

Peter had joined Astrid and Lincoln next to Agent Dunham. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes. I'm fine."

"Maybe we should get out of here," Lincoln suggested.

"No, we still have work to do. I'm fine," Agent Dunham argued.

"You should have a doctor check you out," Hsu suggested hesitantly. He was already beginning to question what he'd seen with his own eyes, especially since everyone else seemed to be reacting so casually to a woman disappearing and then reappearing in front of them.

"Later. We still have work to do."

Olivia sat up in bed in the hotel room she was sharing with Peter. He was still up, his computer and an array of papers spread out in front of him.

She glanced at the clock, blinking until the blurriness of her vision diminished enough for her to read its glowing numbers. "It's almost three a.m.," she noted groggily. "Are you ever coming to bed?"

"There was a ripple," he stated. "As soon as she crossed over to the other universe, there was a ripple of energy in the cave. The instability we measured was spherical. As far as I can tell, perfectly spherical. As soon as she crossed over, a ripple of energy went out from where she was standing to the limits of the sphere, then came back. It smoothed it out. As soon as she reappeared, it was gone, just completely gone."

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked groggily.

Peter finally looked up at her. "The instability on the quantum level that we picked up when we first got to the mine, as soon as Olivia went to the other universe and back, it completely disappeared. That's the opposite result from every other method we've found to cross universes, which makes that point in the universes less stable. Basically, she created a miniature bridge at that point that stabilized the universes."

"Can this wait until morning?"

Peter shook his head slightly, distractedly. "If I can figure out these readings, Olivia...I think I could reproduce it. I'd need Walter's help, but...I think this might give us a way to safely travel between universes. I think this might give us a way home."

She climbed out of bed, no longer tired.