Chapter 3

Pam was violently tossed and pummeled in the transverse tunnel between worlds. She landed in a field next to a large stone wall. She fell unconscious as her body stretched out of the transverse portal slit and snapped back to three dimensions.

A small cart pulled by a donkey was coming up the path next to the castle's rampart wall when the slit of light opened, and a red and black figure shot out and landed on the ground. The donkey stopped, brayed, and jumped its front legs off the ground, almost toppling the cart. Merlin, a man of about 30 with a long brown beard and dirty brown hair, calmed down the donkey, hopped off the cart, and ran to the red figure. It was a pregnant woman wearing red leggings, a red shirt with a strange symbol on the chest, and a black cape. What sort of entity was this?

Merlin had been studying magic and knew there were other worlds where other entities lived. He wanted to find out more and picked up the woman, or whatever she was, and placed her in the cart. He covered her with a cloak and straw so no one could see what he had in the back of his cart and headed for his cottage on the edge of town, away from most of the townspeople.

Merlin carried Pam into his cottage and laid her on the small bed in the corner. He stoked the fire and put more wood on to get the large iron pot of water to boil. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her long black hair was tousled, and her milky white perfect skin was smudged with dirt from her fall to the ground. She was moaning.

Pam woke and blinked her eyes to focus. Remembering what had happened, she jumped, sat up, and looked around. She saw a bearded man looking at her and asked, "What happened? Where am I?" He shook his head, indicating that he didn't understand her. She tried Spanish and Portuguese. He didn't understand those languages either. He spoke to her, and the words sounded familiar, but she couldn't understand what he said. She sat up further and could feel the aches all over her body. She raised her shirt and saw bruises, but none on her pregnant belly. Barry must have protected the baby.

Barry, where was Barry? She couldn't feel him. The suit felt different. She called Barry in her mind but got no answer. Was he deactivated? No, wait, she could feel a slight vibration but no reaction. There was something wrong with Barry. What was that light that pulled her in? It must have done something to Barry.

Pam looked around and saw that she was in a small cottage with everything handmade and ancient. Looking at the bearded man, she put a hand to her chest and said her name, "Pam." She pointed to the man, indicating she wanted to know his name. She repeated the action, and he finally understood what she was asking.

He said, "Merlin." With a confused look, she repeated with a questioning intonation, "Merlin?"

He said, "Gese, Merlin," and he pointed to her and said, "Pam." The most beautiful name he had ever heard. She nodded.

He went to the pot of boiling water and dipped a bowl into the pool. He pulled a pinch of herbs from another bowl on the mantel, sprinkled them into the bowl of hot water, and swirled it around. He offered the bowl to Pam, and she sipped the hot water. It felt good as it went down her throat. She said, "Thank you."

After a while, Pam got up and walked around the cottage, looking at everything. She looked out the open door and saw the donkey grazing in the yard and a cart. She sat in a chair, looked out the open window, and tried to figure out what had happened. Somehow, she had returned to what looked like the early Middle Ages. The young man said his name was Merlin. He couldn't be the same Merlin from the King Arthur stories, could he?

The days passed, and Pam tried to learn a few words from Merlin. She helped him prepare meals that mainly consisted of oatmeal with a bit of dried, boiled meat and a few boiled vegetables with some salt and herbs. She tried to talk to Barry daily, and the vibrations she could feel seemed to get a little stronger each day. Merlin could see her talking to herself and thought she was praying to her god. He showed her some of this magic to impress her. He could move small things across the table with what Pam assumed was telekinesis. She smiled and clapped her hands.

It had been several days since she had arrived in this strange place, and she wondered and hoped that someone—Ralph—would find her. She missed her husband and thought about his thoughts and feelings with her gone. Tears welled in her eyes. Merlin saw the tears and wondered why she was crying.

Finally, after about a week, she woke up, and Barry said, 'Good morning' in her mind. She jumped out of bed, so happy to hear Barry. Merlin jumped off his mat on the floor and asked, "What is wrong?" Barry translated for Pam. Pam was so happy that she clapped her hands, twirled, and floated to the ceiling. Merlin fell back to the floor, fearfully looking up at her and trying to crawl away backward.

Pam saw him and came down softly and said, "It is okay; I am sorry I scared you." Barry translated for her and spoke in old English. Merlin could see her stare off and speak in a different voice but in his language.

Pam said, "I will explain everything to you in two days," with Barry translating. Then she told Barry to download Merlin's language for her. She began to shake, and her eyes rolled up in her head. After five minutes, she sat down, closed her eyes, and held her head because of the headache. She could see that Merlin looked concerned. She said, "It is okay. The headache will go away soon." Merlin looked surprised; he understood each word. He started asking many questions, which Pam could only partially understand. She told him, "Wait two days." Merlin nodded his understanding.

After two days, Pam could converse fluently in Old English with Merlin. She explained that Barry, her suit, was alive and could speak and act on its own, how it had special powers, made her very strong, and she could fly when in the suit, but it would only work for her. She would be like an ordinary woman if she took the suit off. She also explained that Barry knew all languages and could plant them in her mind so she could learn any language in two days. He also knew much knowledge that he could relay to her.

Merlin asked, "Is Barry a demon?"

Pam laughed, "Oh, no. We call him a biological/robotic amalgam, which means nothing to you. We received the suits from the little green guys or aliens from one of the stars in the sky." Merlin looked very confused.

She told him, "As far as I can tell, I am from over 1500 years in the future. Where I come from, people use many magical items daily. What you would call magic, we call science. Everyone can go to school and learn science if they want to."

She explained, "I walked into a building where some of our magicians or scientists were working on a new device. A slit of light opened, pulled me in, and I landed here."

Merlin told Pam, "I saw the slit of light, and you came through."

She said, "I'm sure they are trying to find a way to get me back. Ralph must be furious and ready to do something bad to someone if they don't figure it out. He can have a bad temper when triggered, and my being gone might do that." remembering what had happened on their second honeymoon.

Merlin asked, "Who is Ralph?"

She said, "Oh, that is my husband, Ralph Hinkley; he is the First among us, and I am Pam Hinkley, the Second." Husband? Merlin was sorry to hear that Pam was married.

Merlin reverently said, "Your husband is the King, and you are the Queen?"

Pam laughed and said, "Oh, no. We don't have Kings and Queens. Everyone gets to vote on who the leaders will be. The Hero League I belong to has decided that Eric Thornton will be the League Director."

Merlin asked, "But how can your husband be the First and you the Second if you are not in charge?"

Pam said, "That is hard to explain and is a long story; I will tell you one day."

They talked for many hours, and Pam tried to answer Merlin's questions, but she couldn't answer them all and just told him it was magic. He accepted these answers.

Pam asked Barry, "Why were you inactive when we exited the portal?"

Barry explained, 'This universe works on different frequency patterns than the universe we are from. I had to recalibrate all my systems to the new frequency patterns.' Not understanding what that meant, she had to accept it. At least Barry was back.