EPILOGUE
The strong quantum energy packets rushing across time and space landed in their pinpoint location along the space-time continuum. The sense of sight returned followed by sound and touch. Donna Eleese looked at her hands with no sense of recognition. Above her was a ship's bridge and below her was a wooden deck covered with cargo moving equipment. The deck rose and fell with the ocean waves. Nothing seemed familiar down to her own hands and feet. Wearing a parka and blue jeans she just could not accept the scene around her. Consciousness left her as her eyes closed and she fainted dead away.
Another man ran over to her side as did two others behind her watching. "Jenny." he whispered. "Are you all right? I mean Klaus. Wake up. Wake up." The concerned voice was that of Dr. Beckett who was dressed up in similar seafaring garb. They were on the desk of the S.S. Horace Greeley plummeting through the North Sea east of the United Kingdom on a course to Oslo, Norway. A fateful accident was to occur soon killing most everyone on board when they rammed a passenger ferry in the fog off the coast of Norway. Al had filled Sam in only hours before. Reaching over and touching the figure of his fellow crewman caused light to dance all over him as another figure was revealed underneath. A beautiful brunette in her forties that was quite unconscious. Sam looked on in astonishment and whispered worriedly, "Oh, boy!"
Project Quantum Leap
Stallion's Gate NM
August 24, 2002
Removing the surgical dressing Beth Calavicci looked closely at Donna Elesee's wrist very unhappily.
"That incision needs at least two more days to heal. One wrong move and it will be infected before you can say Hanoi Hilton," she said shaking her head. Though marveled at what the human body could accomplish she wished it could heal itself faster and more completely.
"Beth, Sam just leaped into 1973. If we're going to minimize the impact on Sam we have to do it now," said Donna as she rubbed it due to the discomfort and stiffness.
Al looked on. "And that little tiny do-hickey does the same thing as the radar range that we fried in the Acceleration Chamber?" Al said looking on in disbelief.
"Not really. This is a frequency modulator and it will shift the pattern signature of the wearer by .317. Ziggy can search at that phase differential and lock onto the person. By going straight to the source and not trying to separate the signatures from here, retrieval should be easy. We've learned enough from Jenny's modifications that with the right set of conditions we should be able to bring Dr. Beckett home. By removing him ever so slightly from the physical plane he's in, it should be a cinch to pick him out of hyperspace," explained Sammy Jo who looked very tired though relieved.
"The stiffness should persist as long as the capsule is embedded in your arm. I don't like using the human body as a FedEx truck," said Beth while applying some more antiseptic to the scar.
"It the only way our quantum leaping equipment can send a solid object to Sam. Tooth fillings, bone pins and the like have been leaped with the leaper. This is just the next step. And finally we broke Jenny's hold onto Sam. And I get to be with Sam," said Donna with a hint of dreaminess in her voice. His last visit had been too short and too full of emotion to be very fulfilling.
"All right Red team, let's get this show on the road," said Sammy Jo ushering everyone from the medical lab.
All of the primary personnel stood around the Acceleration Chamber entrance milling around nervously looking up and down and around not directly at each other. In the center of the group was Dr. Donna Elesee wearing a white Fermi suit looking the most nervous of all.
Al spoke first broke the tension. "Well, kids. The first time we sent someone out into the vast morose of time Dr. Beckett did it alone with only Ziggy for company. No one had to say a thing. This time is different and yet I still can't come up with the words. Donna, what advice can I give you? I have none. What can I send with you? Just my respect for your courage, my admiration for your intelligence, and my best wishes for you in your journey. God speed." Al said uncomfortably expressing his emotions.
"Thanks all. I'm kind of speechless myself. Just for Sam and me I thank you all. There is no other group of people that I more trust with my life. And no other people that I will..um miss so much," she said not crying though stumbling over the words.
Verbena and Sammy Jo both hugged her tightly as Donna looked up to the ceiling. "Ziggy, fire up the chamber."
"All specifications are within required norms, Dr. Elesee. Please enter the Acceleration Chamber when you are ready. Good luck on your journey, Doctor," said Ziggy with just a hint of sorrow in her voice.
Sammy Jo whispered, "Give Dad, my love," to a surprised Donna. "Now get going. TIME is waiting."
Donna gave Al one quick hug. "Get going, kiddo," he said quietly.
The ramp seemed longer than she remembered it as the door slid up and she entered. Turning around she gave a slight wave as the door closed in front of her. Taking her position in the center of the chamber, Ziggy gave her a ten second countdown. Every nerve in her body tingled as her body decomposed and she vanished.
Back in the control room Al waited with the rest of the staff. The air seemed to have been sucked from the room as not a breath was uttered by anyone.
"Dr. Elesee has successful leaped and has appeared in 1973," said Ziggy quite nonchalantly.
"Thank God. What is the status of the waiting room Ziggy?" asked Al chomping nervously on his Prince Albert Special.
"Activity is detected. Processing. Processing. Dr. Jennifer Daniels is in the Waiting Room, Admiral," said Ziggy.
"Whooo, that's great. Have Juliana standing by. Verbena, please accompany me!" said Al marching out of the Control Room and down the corridor.
Reaching the entrance to the Waiting Room Al found two uniformed project guards flanking his determined looking daughter. "Do not let Dr. Daniels exit this room under any circumstances, Jules."
"You got it, dad," replied Juliana with a confident grin.
"Ziggy open up the door," Al asked into the hand link. The door quickly opened and Al peered in. The table stood there empty with no one in sight. Al cautiously stepped inside.
"Noooo!" came a hysterical scream from nowhere. Dr. Daniels leaped from the closest corner. Still wearing the white Fermi suit she knocked Al to the ground and proceeded to beat on him with her fists. Julianna hauled her off by the scruff of her neck and the two guards easily restrained her. She wiggled furiously.
"You bastard! You had no right to bring me back! I was good for him! I love him AND he loves me! We would have been great things together! Now you've ruined everything!" she hissed at Al as she struggled between the two armed guards.
"Doctor, you are a nut case. You may be a genius, but you are certifiable. Using the Project for your own personal reasons could have cost Sam Becket his life. I'm going to make sure you find yourself locked up in Leavenworth for the rest of your life!" Al stood up, brushed himself off and then glared angrily at the doctor.
"Not with what I know about the government's most secret project. It'll be all over the papers," she hissed.
"True. Then we'll make it a private sanitarium or a locked room deep within Area 51," retorted Al sarcastically.
"But now he is so alone! He NEEDS someone more than the likes of you! You're not even real there!" she screamed.
"Sam Beckett is alive, well and with the woman he should be with. His wife!" explained Al looking quite pleased.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed renewing her struggling. "He's mine! He loves me! He would have married me! She gave him up!" The two guards had a difficult time keeping her standing.
"That's enough. I am thankful you helped us out in the past, but somewhere you lost it, lady. Jules, take her from my sight and notify the F.B.I." he said throwing his hand toward her.
Fighting like a hawk, she was dragged kicking and screaming down the corridor. Verbena accompanied them in case she was needed.
"St. John. Fire up the Imaging Chamber. I have to check on the two Doctors," he said running back toward the control room as the story dissolved to the sickbay of the SS Horace Greeley.
S.S. Horace Greeley
March 29, 1973
In all my leaps I have had to adjust to knowing all shorts of strange women and determine their relationships to my leapee. Some were friends, some were lovers and in a few cases they were deadly adversaries. Now in the space of only a few leaps I've met two new women who were following me around in time. Who this one was is my biggest problem and my biggest puzzle.
"Klaus is sleeping peacefully," said the ship's Norwegian doctor in the ship's sickbay. "I find no injuries on his body. It must have been an electric shock to cause this though there were no electrical wires near him."
"May I see him?" asked Sam anxiously.
"Of course. Stay with him as long as you like. He may be out for a while. You may stand watch, my friend," he said slapping him on his back and walked away.
Looking at the strange woman, Sam shook her a bit. Nothing happened. He did find a fresh wound on her forearm and strange writing around the wound. Of the several cryptic messages, the last one read "Best of luck old friend, Al!"
Sam was perplexed "Al? She must be from the project, but why did she take Jenny's place? Al was convinced just how dangerous she was and yet someone else came here. Why?" thought Sam. The woman began to stir. "Um, er. Ahh!" she moaned as she began to come back to life. "Oh, my. Whoa!" she said somewhat incoherently. "Where am I?" she asked.
"You're O.K.. You just fainted. Miss?" asked Sam inquisitively.
"Thank you. You're so very kind. Who are you?" she asked with the most perplexed look Sam had ever saw on anyone's face. "That's a little hard to explain. Just call me Sam and you're?" he asked again.
"I'm.. a. I'm.. a. I'm at a loss. I can't seem to remember a thing. Not one thing since I opened my eyes here. Complete amnesia. Why do I know that?" asked Donna.
Sam smiled. "You'll be surprised how little you know. You have a bad case of Swiss cheese brain. Look at your arm here. There is a name. Is that yours?"
"Childish scribble. Why did someone write on my arm? Very curious. Donna Elesee," she read. The name was written under one of the healing wounds on her arm. "Is that me?" she asked. "I am ever so not myself today. I don't think I'm anyone today."
"You're starting to sound like Alice while she was in Wonderland. See that name? Beckett? That's me," he said as if talking to a child. "Do you know a Jenny Daniels? She was kind of traveling with me. She and I were very close."
"I've heard that name. Some TV show I think," she said to Sam furling her brow.
"That woman, Sam, is your wife. Another quantum physicist and another time traveler. Doctor Donna Elesee Beckett," explained Al who had just arrived.
"No wait. From another time line? That's the story that I got from Jenny," said Sam laughing nervously.
Al shook his head. "No Sam. Ever since you first leaped you left this woman at home. And she loved you so much that when we needed someone to come and help you, she said she was the only one who could do it. She made a very dangerous trip just to be with you."
"My wife?" said Sam looking perplexed. He couldn't convince himself that he had forgotten as important part of his life as that.
"Whom are you talking to?" asked Donna who had followed these last conversations with some quirky disbelief.
"Al, a friend that you can't see," said Sam almost absent-mindedly.
"Great. The only person in the world I know talks to an invisible friend. Donna or whoever I am, you're in worse trouble than you thought. God, my wrist is sore. I must have injured it when she fell." Looking again at the writing she saw something about leaping and two partially healed scars were encircled on her arm. "Have you been operating on me?" asked Donna a little scared. "You don't look like a doctor."
"No, you had that 'injury' when you arrived, Donna. What's this all about, Al?" Asked Sam to the only person who could explain.
"Sit back and I'll bring you up to date," said Al who took one long puff before he began. When he was finished, the cigar had burned out. He popped the stub in his mouth. "And as you can see, no matter how calm and collected Jennifer Daniels was in your presence, her own obsession with you had driven her over the edge. Being around you was probability the only time she had all of her faculties intact. Too bad, because she had really been an asset to the project. Strange how things go," sighed Al looking more thoughtful than usual.
"And why is.. um, Donna here?" asked Sam.
Al explained about the capsules imbedded in her wrist to as much as Sam could understand. Most importantly was that they needed a good medical facility to remove the one marked for Sam. "And not here. This facility is a poor excuse for even a prison hospital! When we find you one, Sam you'll have to remove the capsule for yourself."
"Check," said Sam making a mental note. Then he summarized what Al told him since she could not see his "official" Observer.
"So I'm a mad scientist that jumped into her own portal maker with some miracle twenty-first century beeper in my wrist?" She asked with quite a bit of sarcastic lilt in her voice.
"That the main jist of it. The flip side is just as unusual," said Sam as he handed her the mirror.
"It's about time I find out more about this unknown quantity called me," she said looking in the mirror. The image was of a good-looking thirty-ish man with a blonde beard and short-cropped hair. "Hey, that's cute. How do you make up the image?" she said enjoying the spectacle.
"That is you. When you leap you assume the image of who ever you leaped into. To the whole world in 1973 you are merchant seaman Klaus Pendleton and I'm Gustav Erickson. To Al and me your still Donna." asked Sam explaining everything to the woman.
"That's right Sam. Donna Elesee Beckett, Quantum Physicist. And the most beautiful woman on the staff next to Elizabeth O'Dywer Calavicci," said Al with a great deal of pride.
"Well, you better rest up, Donna. The sickbay is probably a good place to be unless you want to play sailor. But don't worry, the Swiss cheese effect gets better eventually," stammered Sam. "What I do remember.."
"Is far less than you forgot, Sam," said Al from experience.
"Is far less than you forgot. Just don't worry, you will get better," said Sam not only trying to reassure her but also because she didn't hear Al's comments. "I gotta run," said Sam. He reached over to kiss her, but then thought better of himself concerning their current identities.
Donna pulled back momentarily and waved good-bye. Then she called out, "So long, Al, wherever you are," she said squinting to look all around the room. She saw Sam leave and then she lay down in the rather uncomfortable bunk.
The medic came in almost immediately. "That Erickson was all talk, talk, talk. You think him a woman. Ach. Your color is good. I release back you work. Join me in mess room. We having chip beef tonight!" he said almost rollicking with laughter.
Donna looked up, put her hand on her stomach and turned over. She had not had a chance to get her sea legs, let alone a rock solid stomach. "No, thank you. I'm going to turn back over for a while, thank you," she said turning a bit green. The bunk started swaying more back and forth.
"Fine, I eat alone. Good night, Pendleton." He left with his huge footsteps resounding down the hallway. The overtired new leaper fell fast asleep. During her dreams she remembered her life back in New Mexico, the courtship of a shy quantum physicist and the double pain she had felt both times he left her to follow some unknown force through the galaxy. And there were times that were so good that the corners of her mouth turned up and a smile appeared on her sleeping face.