The sun was beginning to rise, and there was a natural silence with only the rustling of the wind to be heard from the tiny road. A field of grass spread far towards some gentle hills in the distance to the south, while the right side of the road was lined with a few suburban houses with shadows that retreated long across the sidewalk. A single two story building of unpainted wood was ahead on the opposite side.
A red portal ripped open the sky, and soon, out flew a larger, fair-skinned man with longer dark hair in a long-sleeved blue shirt, light grey jacket, black slacks, and heavy black shoes. He exited feet first, and rolling to a stop, jogged back towards the swirling vortex. There was a shout, and an eastern woman with middle-length jet black hair, a larger white shirt with a wide and flowing lower hem, grey pants, and black slippers flew out. The Professor caught Mary in two massive arms, and remembering himself, immediately placed her down to his left with a nod and a smile. She laughed nervously and backed up a step.
A final shout, and one more woman with fair skin, brown hair, a tight and sleeveless yellow shirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers flew out, head and arms forward, to meet the arms of the Professor. He grabbed Wade, spun with her momentum, then brought her to a stop in his arms, facing up. They smiled at one another. "Nice catch!" Wade praised as the Professor let her down. "I've had some practice," he replied, "though I do prefer the weight of a pair of lovely young ladies in my arms, rather than the full weight of Mr. Brown on my chest."
Wade giggled a laugh, then gave a checking nod to Mary, who spoke. "All of those babies back there were a big change from the other world we saw," she commented. The Professor nodded. "Very much so, but I doubt we could have survived their cuteness much longer," he opined. The vortex flickered, fuzzed, then slammed shut with a strange noise that resembled a gunshot. The three looked at it strangely, then turned to look down the road.
They took in the sights around them, breathing surprisingly fresh air. "No cars," Wade said. Mary looked about carefully. "Have you been to any empty worlds before?" she asked. The Professor's eyebrows knit in thought, and his mind traveled backwards. "Our initial forays into the infinite, I believe," he answered, gesturing towards Wade. "The world with the spiderwasps, perhaps?" She shook her head. "It was empty up until that announcement and the swarm," she remembered. She pointed at him. "Maybe the world underwater?" she suggested. The Professor shrugged. "Perhaps, or maybe it was simply a localized tidal wave," he offered.
The two stopped, then looked to Mary, who seemed to have the slightest of ironic pouting faces. With a pair of laughs, they took positions on either side of her, then Wade hooked her arm to walk forward together. "Right, no reminiscing without an explanation," she remembered.
They walked down the gentle road for only a few minutes before Mary noticed signs of life ahead. They continued on as the Professor made a questioning noise behind them. "Huh," he started. The girls turned to see him looking at the timer. "That's odd." They slowed their pace to look at the blank device. "What is it?" Mary asked. The Professor continued to stare at the timer. "I'm not sure," he answered, "but I think I saw something."
They all stopped to look. A few seconds passed with only the blowing of the wind to be heard about them. And then, they saw it: the entire 3x3 grid of white keys at the bottom of the timer flashed, revealing Kromagg words in bright red upon each of them. Mary's eyes widened in surprise, then she quickly took it from the Professor. "Can I have your notepad and pen?" she asked. The Professor reached into his jacket and complied, watching as she wrote down the words as they flashed up.
Continuing their walk forward, one of the people ahead stopped, then turned to walk towards them. Mary, catching the movement, looked up briefly from the flashing words to see him: a tall, muscular, fair-skinned and middle-aged man with a square face and strong jaw, middle-length dark hair, and blue eyes, and was wearing a short-sleeved light blue work shirt, black pants, and black shoes. "Looks like people are pretty young here for a change," she commented.
"That man appears to be in his late 30s, maybe early 40s," the Professor commented. "Hardly someone I would refer to as y..." His words suddenly cut off, then he looked to the smaller dark-haired woman. "My dear Lady Mary, I do appreciate the compliment," he said with a slight bow. "Hey hey," she intoned back in a straight-faced, faux proud, flat, and cheeky manner, still taking notes. Wade giggled.
The man waved as he drew close. "You folks from out of town?" he asked with a wide and welcoming smile. Wade smiled back diplomatically. "How could you tell?" she asked, to which the man gestured around himself. "Well, Pine Grove's not that big a town," he answered. "We know just about everyone here." He reached his hand out. "I'm James Layman," he said, shaking everyone's hands. "Professor Maximilian Arturo," the Professor started. "Wade," Wade spoke out next. "I'm Mary," Mary finished up, then returned to her note taking.
James pointed to the Kromagg timer in her hand. "Are you waiting on the next Renewal?" he asked in slight confusion. The Professor laughed a single nervous laugh. "Ah, yes, of course," he spoke. "We are rife with anticipation." James nodded in respect. "Well, I know a few folks who watch their screens carefully in case another comes," he started, "but it's been ten years since the last one. You'll probably be waiting for a while."
With another look at the device, he made a confused face. "But I don't recognize this terminal," he said, then looked up between the Professor and Wade. "Is it a new model?" he asked. Wade shrugged. "Yeah, but you know these new types," she responded. "I think we might need to visit a store. See? We lost the display."
Taking another look, James nodded in understanding. "I don't recognize these ports either," he admitted, looking up, "but I bet my nephew Dave could find something for you folks." He winked with a smile. "It's my day off and I was planning on heading into town earlier, so if you folks want to tag along, I can take you there."
The Professor clapped his hands together in appreciation. "Thank you, my good man!" he said boisterously.
The four walked past the two story house on the left, then shortly after arrived at the man's white suburban house, its garage door open and filled with boxes, and the front lawn surrounded by a short green fence. James entered the garage, and from within its central shade, pushed out a large four seat bicycle, two in the front and two in the back, each with their own set of pedals, and a pair of handlebars on the front left. He took the driver's seat of sorts, then motioned for the others to join him. The Professor sat up front, and the girls in the back, and assisting the man in his pedaling, they were off and down the gentle road east.
Nature was in full display as the sweating four headed forward down the small road, the sun higher in the sky. Trees and bushes lined their travel path on the left and right, and distant hills could be seen beyond them. A woman in sunglasses who looked to be in great shape was heading the opposite direction on a one seater, and she and James exchanged waves as they passed.
"You know, my kids hardly remember cars," James said to the Professor next to him. The Professor nodded, breathing heavily with the effort of pedaling the bike. With a laugh, he continued. "The younger one actually remembers flying in them," he remembered, shaking his head. "Maybe it was the speed. But you know, the quads move well enough for me." He tapped the handlebars in emphasis. The Professor smiled. "Nature... is best," he huffed out. James looked to him with a concerned smile, to which the Professor shrugged. "The academic... life," he got out, before returning to the pedaling.
While James and the Professor were busy talking, Wade and Mary pedaled. "There's some kind of repeating pattern," Mary said quietly, the pen in her mouth in thought while she consulted her notes. "But it seems to repeat a different pattern every few minutes. It looks like it starts with a certain button on the grid, then cycles through the others row by row." Wade looked to her and stopped pedaling. "What do you think it is?" she asked. Mary shrugged and stopped too, pen still in her mouth. "Not sure," she admitted, "but I think it's getting close to finishing the possible combinations." She took the pen from her mouth, then took some more notes.
They began to pass by some small towns on the left and right, then approached a much bigger one ahead and a bit to the right, off of the road. The buildings slowly rose over the horizon as they passed a sign that read "Welcome to Allentown, PA."
Their location was a surprise enough, but the fact that there were no airplanes, helicopters, or even a sign of bustle going in and out of the city was even more strange. The Professor looked back at the girls, who seemed just as confused as he.
"You ok?" James asked. The Professor turned to see him, giving him a look of concern. "Uh, yes, my dear James," the Professor stammered with a smile. "I was... simply wondering about those most delightful Philly cheesesteaks that I've heard so much about. Do you find Allentown to be as skilled in their preparation as other cities?" James suddenly laughed. "Professor, if you wanted some cheesesteaks, you should have told me," he said. "Philly used to have the best ones before the Renewal, but since things settled down, Pine Grove is number one." He looked over with a mischievous smile. "Brie and camembert," he said slowly and with great pride.
The Professor looked back to the girls once more, eyebrows raised. Wade's stomach growled. Mary looked between them blankly. James chuckled. "Ok, ok," he said in a fake tone of giving up, "my cousin's house is a little off the road, but we'll see what we can do for you three." Turning back towards the road, the Professor was able to pedal for only a minute or two before his legs slowed considerably. "Ladies, can you take over for a moment?" he said backwards, with his head leaning against the back of his chair and eyes closed. "I'm spent."
Mary reached her legs down to pedal, but Wade reached out to tap the back of her hand on her left leg, shaking her head slightly. "Aw, please?" she said in a voice just a bit too high-pitched and cute. "We like the view." Mary looked between her and the Professor. "Um yes, please?" she copied. "We would very much like to look around."
In a flash, the Professor's eyes flew open, and he sat up, taking his position once more. "Very well, ladies," he said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together in preparation. "I do believe I've caught my second wind!" Wade and Mary exchanged cheeky smiles, then James turned them down a side dirt road and into the nature beyond.
With the sun setting, their bellies full and waving goodbye to James, the three approached a computer hardware store where a young man was waiting for them. The fair-skinned man was blonde-haired and brown-eyed, and wore a service outfit of solid black: black t-shirt, black pants, and black shoes. The girls were under each arm of the Professor, helping him move forward on jelly-like legs to enter, and they sat him at a center table. Mary then stood to talk to Dave, who soon brought different displays, monitors, cables, keyboards, and other products to the table in boxes.
"Did you see that?" Wade asked quietly into the Professor's ear, rubbing his shoulders in appreciation. "We're in Pennsylvania." The Professor nodded and spoke back slowly from the comfortable massage. "Yes," he answered. "But whether due to the Kromagg device having a larger range than our original timer, or whatever is causing the grid to light up, I am uncertain." He looked over the hardware in front of him, not yet willing to break Wade's grip, and simply settled for looking over at Mary. She was now sitting at a nearby table and fielding questions from Dave with a nervous smile.
Turning back to the boxes, the Professor began digging around for cables of every stripe, but was unsurprised to see that not a one of them could fit the odd ports on the side of the Kromagg device. (It was worth a try at least), he thought. He suddenly winced and let out a slightly pained grunt as Wade rubbed an elbow into a particularly sensitive part of his shoulder. "Miss Welles," he said slightly above a whisper, as if in defeat, "you are an absolute savage." The pressure disappeared as she lifted her arm. "Do you want me to stop?" she asked in slight concern. The Professor said nothing, and simply reached back to gently bring her elbow back to its original position. Wade chuckled, smiled, and continued.
Many minutes passed, and with every cable exhausted, and all but his legs soothed, the Professor turned and called to the other table. "Lady Mary, if you would, please," he said. She turned to him, excused herself from Dave with a goodbye wave, then took a seat along with Wade. Dave returned to the counter to check his computer.
"Perhaps we could try a bigger store, maybe in Allentown or Pittsburgh," the Professor suggested, but Mary shook her head. "They're all mostly abandoned," she answered. Wade looked to her in confusion. "Why? Was it some kind of war, or disease?" she guessed, but Mary shook her head again. "Once someone called the Diviner banned cars, transport in and around larger cities became to difficult to manage," she explained. "Without daily transport, supplies of ready food, maintenance, or emergency services, much less commuting, they became too unwieldly to manage. Most people just gave up and left to live in smaller communities. At least," she indicated back to Dave, who waved at her with a smile, and she waved back, "that's what Dave told me."
She placed the timer and her notepad before her. "It's settled on a final pattern," she said, pointing to the grid. Taking a closer look, the Professor and Wade saw that she was right: it was a code of six, and after a brief pause, would repeat the same words again. "What's it saying?" Wade asked. Mary turned her notebook to her. "Before, it was flashing all of the buttons in a sequence, so I was able to write down what they said." She indicated the top left button on the 3x3 grid, then each button next in line in turn, with her pen. "Correct, Scan, Cancel, Shift or Move, Engage, Send, Option, Input, Menu," she translated one by one. She made a face. "This would be a lot easier if we had a display," she muttered.
The Professor shook his head. "Even if they could link up," he answered, "I've yet to find a single cable to match the port on its side. I suppose we could turn one or two on while I search again. Miss Welles?" She nodded, then began plugging in a trio of monitors into an outlet under the table, and fishing out their relevant lines. "What buttons are lighting up?" she asked, pulling out a display cable protruding from the back of a CRT monitor and untangling it from the mess of lines.
Pointing to each one with her pen, Mary spoke. "Correct, Input, Input, Correct, Cancel, Engage," she said one by one. In response, the timer flashed the same buttons in the same order once more. The Professor took a breath, nodding in thought. "Perhaps a kind of code," he reasoned. "On a numerical keypad, the keys would be 188135..." Mary took down the numbers, and the Professor continued. "Or in reverse on a different keypad, 722795." Mary nodded and made a note.
"Now assuming a math based on base ten..." he started, then paused to look at Mary, who nodded and held up five fingers in confirmation. The Professor nodded back. "Then perhaps, this has a relation to some kind of resonance from this world, maybe a signal broadcasting from a local source, or a particularly powerful data stream from a far distance. Or maybe it's a code to find a compatible monitor, a kind of failsafe in case the device is separated from a visual screen and the user needs to quickly find a matching display. But then of course, there's..."
While the Professor continued to mutter, taking the pen from Mary and scribbling more notes, she took a longer look at the timer. "Correct, Input, Input, Correct, Cancel, Engage..." she muttered softly. Her eyebrows knit in thought. "Is it some kind of movement?" She picked the timer up, and waved it forward, down, down, forward, back, then made a circle with it. When nothing happened, she looked around the store. "Perhaps it's indicating something nearby...?" she continued, then rose to look around.
Wade made a face, sucked in her bottom lip, then put a hand on the two's shoulders. "Guys, why don't we just push the buttons in that order?" she suggested. The Professor and Mary suddenly stopped, then looked to one another. "It can't be that simple," Mary said in disbelief. The Professor shrugged, then the three sat at the table together. Pen at the ready, the Professor watched as Mary turned the timer away from them and towards the entrance to the shop, powered it on, gave it a slight charge, then input the keys, one after the other. When she reached the last one, she looked between them, then struck it.
All at once, every one of the lights lit up in solid red. Immediately after, the massive CRT monitor before them lit up, displaying a 2x6 menu with many white boxes labeled in Kromagg on a black background.
"Lady Mary, type the coordinates to the human homeworld!" the Professor insisted. She nodded, then using the grid buttons to navigate to the second box from the top on the left, began typing a series of unfamiliar symbols into a new box. She started slowly at first, as pushing the grid buttons on the timer opened up smaller boxes containing other Kromagg symbols, but in seconds, she seemed to understand how they were organized, and her hands flew more quickly to finally finish the string of data to the end of the dialog box. She struck a final button, then the screen went blank.
"Did you get it?!" Wade asked excitedly. Mary flashed her a half-smile and gave her a thumbs up. The other two breathed out sighs of relief, and the Professor held out his hand. "Congratulations, Lady Mary," he said, shaking hers gently, "you've done it." She blushed slightly and looked away.
A beep came from Dave's direction. The three looked over to see a look of both surprise and confusion on his face. His eyes moved across the screen, then again, then again, all the while silently mouthing out some words. "Are you ok, Dave?" Mary asked. He looked up. "It's the Diviner... but I don't know what this means," he said, then turned his monitor to face them, displaying only a single line of text. When they saw it, the Professor used Mary's position to slowly hide the Kromagg timer in his jacket.
"NO INTERDIMENSIONAL TRANSLOCATION DEVICES"
Night had fallen when the three left a nearby cafe, and stepped away from the main road to find a quiet place to slide. Behind the night shade of a large tree, the Professor looked to Mary. "We're finally getting you closer to your home," he said with pride. She nodded silently.
Powering on, then up, the timer with the large white button on the top, then the upturned triangle button, the familiar thrum of power vibrated throughout the Kromagg device. When it was at a familiar peak, the Professor engaged the small red button in the center-top. The beam shot out, an angry red vortex formed... then it instantly collapsed with a sound like a muffled gunshot.
The Professor looked down at the timer, confused. "Odd," he said, pointing it out to engage once more, but there was only the slight hum of energy from within as a response. Waiting for the recharge for several minutes, he once again pushed the power up button once more, feeling the device shake harder in his hands. When it felt as if it might come undone, he engaged the device. Another vortex appeared, then immediately collapsed with the same sound.
"We shouldn't risk breaking it," spoke Mary from his side, "or going in." The Professor nodded in agreement. "Yes," he said, using the downturned triangle button to bring the device to a silent and unmoving rest. He turned it over, thinking. "Do you think it's related to that message Dave got?" Wade asked.
The Professor hummed in further thought. "That's one possibility," he answered. "Or perhaps it's on its last legs. Miss Beckett did explain that they were older models before she..." He trailed off. She screamed in triumph in his mind's eye, taking an entire hallway of those disgusting creatures with her. Her words came back to him: "You... get those girls... out of here, understand?"
The words seemed to echo around him before Mary broke the silence. "The vortex looked strange on our arrival," she said. "And the pattern showed some kind of repetition. It started to play out shortly after we got here. They could be connected as well." Wade looked to her. "You don't think someone or something was trying to get into the timer, do you?" she wondered aloud, taking it from her to look at it. "I hope he didn't scramble anything."
The Professor finally spoke up. "It's possible, but I do believe it was nothing more than a one way display," he guessed. "Whoever or whatever is affecting the timer, they seem to be able to affect the grid buttons, and nothing more." He paused. "At least, that's what we need to go on," he continued, pointing to the Kromagg device. "Without this, I fear there is no way for us to leave this place," he finished, then took a deep breath in resignation. "In any event, let us leave the power off for good measure, shall we?"
Wade nodded and pushed the large button on the top. She looked over to see the Professor staring at the hills in the distance. "You have an idea?" she asked, to which the Professor smiled. "I always have ideas, my dear," he answered cheekily. "But they shall wait until morning. Shall we find a place to retire for the evening?"
"What is an interdimensional translocation device?" the old hostess of the B&B asked. She had short and curly white hair, and was wearing a white apron with a cartoon cooking rabbit upon it, covering a blue blouse and a long black skirt, both covered in pictures of multicolored flowers, and grey slippers. She set down three beautiful egg omelettes with vegetables considerately cooked and placed to the side before them. Wade and Mary exchanged a look, then surreptitiously turned their plates over the Professor's, forking their assorted peppers and mushrooms onto his. He beamed, then placed them atop his omelette contentedly.
"Maybe its the dimensions of furniture, or a house?" Wade suggested deceitfully. "Like it says you can't put some kind of machine between two houses so they don't share a boiler or something." Mary nodded, understanding the ruse. "Translocation could just mean that you can't use the boiler to cross between houses, but you can still put the machine between the two," she offered.
The older woman sighed, turning towards the sink. "This is going to be worse than the debates about what defines a 'car'," she lamented. "The Diviner's done right by us so far, but I wish he would be more clear."
The Professor nodded in admiration at the two clever women, then spoke up. "This breakfast is most scrumptious, madam," he started, changing the subject. "But might I impose upon you to ask for a map of the USA, and a compass if you have one? I do have a terrible sense of direction, you understand." The older woman turned with a smile. "Of course," she answered, but pointed a chiding finger at him. "And I won't hear of any more payment for it, you hear?" she said, before turning away. "Absolutely not, my dear!" the Professor called after her, then returned to his meal.
After paying for their stay, the three once more headed into the field, now in the morning shade of the tree from the previous night. "Are you going to try and slide us out of here again, Professor?" Wade asked. He shook his head. "No, something just came to me during our previous attempts," he answered. "Lady Mary, if you would take care of the map and pen," he started, handing them to her, then turned to Wade. "And Miss Welles, if you would 'man' the compass, so to speak," he finished with a mischievous grin. She mock saluted in return. "Sir!" she answered with her own.
Turning parallel from the tree and towards a line of houses, the Professor gently eased up the power on the device. The grid buttons instantly lit up in response, and began flashing the pattern from the hardware store. With Mary and Wade looking on in confusion, the Professor turned the timer slowly to the left, until he felt a strange vibration from the device. Passing it farther left, the vibration disappeared. "Miss Welles?" he spoke, bringing the device back to the middle position. "Could you take a reading of this direction?"
She did so, and laid a finger down on the side of the compass for Mary to see. "West by southwest," she answered, holding the compass carefully in that direction. "But what..." she started, then immediately froze, fear squeezing at her stomach, remembering what he had said about the emulator keys. "Is that..." she said, looking out at the hills to compose herself before continuing, "Is the timer having some kind of reaction to something that way?" she asked.
He nodded silently. "Are there Kromaggs here?" Mary wondered aloud. The Professor looked about at the peaceful houses, pristine nature, and the utter quiet of where they were. "Doubtful," he answered. "Unless they're peaceful." Wade's face darkened and she scoffed. "Impossible," she practically spat, to which the Professor slowly nodded. "I quite agree, Miss Welles," he answered, "but the fact remains that our egress from this world and to the human homeworld is being blocked, or observed, by something in that direction. Lady Mary?"
With a nod, she took out the pen. "Where's Pine Grove?" she asked. The Professor pointed out an area close to Allentown, and taking careful note of Wade's position on the compass, Mary drew a steady line from their position to somewhere through the center of California, finally meeting the Pacific Ocean. Wade ran her finger down the line. "St. Louis, Kansas City, maybe San Francisco?" she asked. "But aren't a lot of the big cities abandoned without transport?"
"Most likely," the Professor answered, hand on his chin. Wade smiled. "Then maybe they left something behind that's keeping us here," she surmised. Mary hummed and exhaled slightly. "So we need to go west," she said. Noticing a line with hundreds of parallel lines running through it, she pointed in satisfaction with a slight smile. The Professor followed her finger along the map, and returned it. Wade stood behind the two and threw arms around their shoulders. "Who's up for a train ride?" she asked happily.
The sleeper car was reasonably spacious, featuring a small desk looking out on the window at the far end, a carpeted floor wide enough for two people to sit across from one another, and two bunk beds on either side with freshly pressed blue sheets. Mary sat at the desk, doing a word search. The Professor was sitting to her right on the bottom bed, reading a newspaper with a glass of red wine that he gently swirled in his right hand, and with the bottle between his feet. Sunset fields of grass and trees passed by as they sped into the coming night, with the muffled and gentle sound of the chugging train around them.
Wade came in a few minutes later, holding an older periodical labeled "World Scenes." She sat across from the Professor. "Well, I've found out a few things about this world," she announced. The other two looked up, and Mary turned her chair, which swiveled on a floor holder to click to a stop 180 degrees from the window.
"The Diviner is some sort of mysterious lawgiver," she explained. "Every once in a while, it sends a message through just about every monitor, screen, and device on the planet, all in different languages, and people just do what it says."
She checked the page she was opened to. "The last message was about ten years ago and just said 'NO CARS'," she read, "and before that, it was 'NO TRUCKS'." The Professor made a face. "And people just take these messages seriously?" he asked incredulously. Wade shrugged, flipping a few pages back. "Apparently everyone had the same reaction in the 1950s," she read. "All the TVs around the world lit up and just said 'NO ASBESTOS'. People thought it was some kind of hoax or joke, or maybe an environmental group that snuck into some broadcasting stations. But about a week later, a massive earthquake hit both New York and Beijing at about the same time. Hundreds of thousands died. Right after the one in China, the message came again. I guess people decided not to chance a future strike."
Mary took the timer out of her pocket and waved it back and forth slightly. "I suppose we haven't quite learned the lesson either," she said. "I hope the train doesn't derail in punishment." The Professor shook his head. "We'll be at our destination in a few hours," he answered. "This Diviner gave the people seven days for asbestos, surely we can have two." He gestured towards Wade. "I suppose the bigger demands came later?" he asked, to which Wade nodded. He took a sip of his wine. "The frog in the boiling water," he muttered. "By the time the cars were gone, people had already forgotten what was taken before."
Closing the periodical, Wade smiled. "Oh come on, Professor!" she said. "Is it really that bad? Without all the cars around, it's super quiet and relaxing. And look, they still have trains!" She gestured around the room to make her point. The Professor smiled and raised his glass to her. Mary reached behind her to grab and continue her word search book.
"It certainly is a fine way to travel," he conceded, "but without these modes of transport, business, especially international, suffers. And cities will naturally be lost, to say nothing of the large-scale laboratories and science facilities that would be much harder to support."
"Ok," Wade responded with a laugh, "I can see why that would bother you. But those places we visited? They were so nice. Is it so bad to live in a little town, with almost no pollution? Just smell the air!" She sniffed, taking in a big breath of fresh detergent from the sheets and the recycled air of the ventilation system. She coughed a bit and laughed despite herself, and the Professor couldn't help but follow.
"Of course," he answered, "but at the expense of personal freedom, local travel, emergency response, rapid international aid, trade..." Wade cut him off with a shrug. "So wait for your stuff to get here by boat, and hire beefsteaks like James to run those quad bikes around," she said, lying down on the bed with her arms behind her head. "I like living in a world without falling bombs or tanks."
The Professor took a sip of his wine. "Perhaps naval blockades and being shelled from the ocean is preferable?" he teased, to which Wade looked at him smugly. "I'll live in Wyoming, so, ha," she retorted, then looked back towards the bunk above her.
Circling another word, Mary spoke up. "I just like the quiet," she said, eyes on her book. Wade and the Professor looked at her. She slowly looked up from her book, then looked between them. Then, closing her eyes, she nodded sharply in fake seriousness. The other two burst into laughter, then Wade sat up again. "Hey, I heard they have pizza in the dining car," she said. Mary's eyes almost shined at the news.
When their tomato soup, cheese pizza, and cordon bleu were finished, Wade, Mary, and the Professor retired to their sleeper car to settle in for the night. Hours later, Mary awoke to the slight snoring of the Professor, who was turned away from her in the dark, and whose blanketed back was lit only by the soft moonlight outside. She leaned over the side of her top bunk to check on Wade, but she was gone, her blanket open and folded over in a triangle shape. Sliding off the side and putting on her slippers, she left the car.
It didn't take long to find her: she was sitting in the lounge car, with only a single light above and in the center of the car illuminating the area. Empty chairs and tables lined the room, and the dark natural scenery rushed by outside. Wade was looking out the window, chin resting on her left hand, as she watched the trees zoom by. Catching Mary's reflection in the window, Wade quickly brought her hand up to rub her eyes, coughed, then turned to smile. Mary saw that her eyes were red.
"Is it ok if I sit?" Mary asked. Wade nodded, and watched as she knelt down at a public refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of water. She offered one to Wade, they clicked their plastic tops together, then they opened them and started to drink. Wade looked back out the window, clearing her throat and straining to smile.
"Are... um..." Mary started, not knowing what to say. Wade shook her head. "It's ok," she answered softly, as Mary sipped at her water. "It's just hitting hard right now. I'm almost done." Mary put the bottle down, looking back down the hall towards the sleeper car. "Should I get the Professor?" she asked.
Wade just waved her hand gently. "No," she answered, bringing up her right hand in front of her mouth. "Rest comes after the fight."
Focusing her eyes on Wade, then the sleeper car behind her, then her again, Mary watched as Wade closed her eyes, squinted hard, then after a few seconds, opened them again. "Done," she said with a smile. She reached her hand out to take Mary's, and strangely enough, Mary didn't feel the need to immediately pull away.
They both looked out at the plains rush by. Mary followed a distant tree slowly move to their left, then spent a few seconds watching the closer shrubbery fly by, before Wade released her hand. "How are you doing?" Wade asked. Mary nodded strongly. "Good," she said in all honesty, to which Wade seemed relieved. "You've done a lot for us, you know!" she said happily, her spirits lifting. "All that money you raked in with those old people, the computer you fixed at the kid's hospital..."
"I hate that mouse," Mary muttered, and Wade laughed. "It hates you too," she joked. Mary chuckled softly. "The translations you're doing too," Wade continued. "We wouldn't be able to make sense of their technology without you." She paused, thinking of something that made her exhale softly in amusement. "I'm much happier to be dependent on you for sliding, not them." Mary nodded humbly. "I would still be with them if not for you two," she answered. "I have much to thank you for, as well."
A short silence passed before Wade spoke. "Do you have any plans for the future?" she asked. Mary's eyes moved down while she thought. When she didn't answer, Wade followed up. "Marriage? Kids? A job? Just see the world? Or worlds?" she offered. After a few more seconds, Mary opened her mouth slightly, then sighed. "I just want to go home for now," she answered, a bit flatly. "To see my family."
Wade smiled. "Me too," she answered softly, then turned to look back out the window. She felt rested, relieved. (A bigger oasis), she thought happily as the shadowed trees flew by. Moments later, Mary spoke up. "I really admire you," she said. Wade turned to her, slightly confused. "After all you've been through, you're still strong," she continued. "Fighting. It suits you."
With another bright smile, Wade looked down at the table, then to Mary. "I've got good teachers, good friends," she said, squeezing Mary's hand. Slowly leaning back, she put her hands behind her head, then looked out the window once more. "I still have hope I'll see everyone again," she added. Mary blinked, then looked down at the table in thought, before following Wade's eyes outside, watching the scenery.
After a few minutes, Mary yawned despite herself, too slow to stifle it. Wade chuckled. "You're right, we should get back to bed," she suggested, then after the two downed their water and tossed the bottles in the recycling bin near the door, they returned to the car for some needed sleep.
Morning light peered through the window of the train, awakening the Professor. Something was wrong.
There was a knocking sound down the hall, and the muffled sounds of talking. Wade and Mary stirred, annoyed looks on their faces. "What's going on?" Wade asked. There was another knock next door, and more muffled talking. Mary looked up at the brightness outside the window. "Why are we stopped?" she asked. The Professor quickly looked to the window to confirm that they weren't moving.
The knock came outside the door, and without waiting for a response, an old conductor with a strong white mustache, glasses, black conductor uniform, and black hat entered. "Sorry, we need everyone off the train," he said in a voice deep and gentle. The Professor sat up, throwing his blanket to the side. "Whatever for?" he asked in confusion. The man returned his look. "Didn't you get the latest Renewal?" he asked, fishing into shirt pocket to pull out a small device with a tiny screen.
"NO TRAINS"
The three exchanged knowing looks, while the man brought the screen to his eyes in confusion, lowering his glasses. "It's strange," he said. "First the interlocational transdimension thingie, and now this." He paused for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, if the Diviner wants it, that's what he'll get. Now, I'm gonna have to find a new..." he muttered, before remembering himself and looking to the three. "Your fares will be refunded, of course," he promised, "and there are people arriving from a nearby town to come take care of you, see where you need to go." With a tip of his hat, he left, closed the door, then exited towards the next cabin.
"You think this is the Diviner coming after us?" Wade asked. Mary nodded. "The strange vortex, the button pattern, the Renewals that seem to be targeted at us, it's too coincidental," she guessed. She turned to the Professor, who stroked his beard with his right index finger and thumb in thought. "Where are we?" she asked. He turned his eyes to her. "Judging by the time we spent on this train and the direction we took, I suspect we are somewhere in the northern United States, possibly North Dakota."
Shortly after, the three collected their belongings, then exited the train with a flood of other people, arriving on a cold plain with light grass in front of them. There seemed to be two small towns to the southeast and southwest, sitting in front of small hills dotted with sparse trees. "Excuse me," Wade said to an older couple in fine clothes, who turned to smile at her. "Could you tell us where we are?" she asked.
"Of course," the older woman answered, "we're just outside of St. Paul. We should be picked up within the hour." The older man nodded, then gently pulled the woman away to continue towards a crowd of people gathering around a man on a box, gesturing and speaking quickly. The Professor smiled. "The perfect spot," he said mysteriously, then beckoned the girls to come with him towards the plains. "For what?" Wade asked, to which he sneakily took out the timer. "Triangulation, my dear," he answered softly. "Ladies, shield me please."
When they were far enough away from the crowd, Wade and Mary took positions to the Professor's left and right side, and blocked his slow right to left sweep of the lightly powered timer. Feeling a certain sweet spot, losing it with a further turn, then returning to it, he nodded to Wade, who took out her compass and made a note of the direction. She nodded at him, and turning off the device, he watched as Mary unfolded the map. Following Wade's thumb cue on the compass, she drew another line from St. Paul, which was thankfully labeled on the map, through the US, down to around San Diego, and into the ocean again.
"Interesting," the Professor said. Wade peeked over Mary's shoulder. "So where are we going?" she asked, before seeing the answer herself. "Southern Colorado," the Professor answered, then made a face as he took stock of the distance. "Great," Wade replied, "so how are we gonna get there?"
The three drew closer to Greenhorn Mountain, nearing a small lodge on the way, on three brown horses. Mary picked up the basics well enough, but the Professor seemed to take to the ride more quickly than he should have, suggesting that he had had more experience than he had let on. Wade caught up to the other two on the darkening trail as sunset turned to night. "I swear if I see a monitor with NO HORSES written on it," she said between them, "I'm going to drive this horse so far up his..."
"We get..." the Professor interrupted, his index finger raised in supplication, "...the picture, Miss Welles." She humphed in fake outrage, then reached into her saddlebag for another gulp of water. As they approached the lodge, they dismounted, and a younger woman in jeans, a black shirt and jacket, and cowboy boots came out to meet them. She thankfully didn't seem disturbed by the animals, and instead smiled. "Can you we leave our horses here for a while?" Mary asked. The woman nodded. "Sure," she answered. "The horse rental place is just down the trail, so we have a hitching station here."
The three dismounted and tied up the horses, taking the supplies from the saddlebags and placing them in backpacks that were also packed within. "Thank you, young lady," the Professor said, nodding to her. He took out a 20 dollar bill from his wallet, then held it out. "If we don't return, please bring these fine animals to the rental establishment," he said, but she just shook her head and pushed the money back. "My pleasure," she said with a smile. He returned the smile, then beckoned the others up the trail, flashlight lighting up the night.
The trail was dusty and covered with low shrubs, and the silence of the area was refreshing after the continuous clopping of the horses. They made for one-way rental service animals on this world, where they could be taken from outpost to outpost and freely left at the destination. Wade almost relished the thought of being stuck here, taking on a job of riding a horse from one particularly overcrowded rental area to another in order to balance out the population, enjoying the camping and sights of nature on the way.
The Professor made periodic stops as they climbed the trail to retriangulate their destination. After about a half hour of hiking and several checks, he came to an inescapable conclusion. "It's inside the mountain," he said to the others. The girls exchanged a look. "So what do we do now?" Wade asked. Mary shrugged and stepped forward. "Find a way in," she suggested, then took point.
Spending another hour walking around the peak, the three discussed the timer, the food, their quad bike trip, and the horse ride through the midwest, laughing and talking loudly and happily as they walked through the brush. "Caught her like a football!" Wade laughed, pointing to Mary, who smiled. "And this is one football I refuse to spike," the Professor added, laughing. He turned to Mary. "And how was this Dave?" he asked mischievously. Mary shrugged. "Cute," she answered, poking through another bush to check the rock behind it. Wade shook her head and smiled.
"Well then, Lady Mary, Miss Welles," the Professor said, "shall we retire to the lodge? We can try again in the morning." Wade nodded. "It'll probably be easier to see then," she added. The three continued back down the trail with the mountain to their left. Several minutes passed by in silence as they walked through the dark, and eventually, the dim light of the very distant lodge slowly came into view.
"Wait," Mary said, stopping them. "Do you hear that?"
Standing still and straining to listen in the dark, the others could finally start to make out some kind of tone: it was a D2-D#2-A3 trio that sounded like a radio squeal, with a one second pause between the notes endlessly repeating between one another. Turning her head left and right, Mary led them to a side of the mountain they had previously passed, then pointed towards a specific side of the rock face.
The Professor stepped forward to take a look, flashing the light about the mountain face. Eventually, he found a small crack, almost impossible to see, running vertically. Placing his pinky finger inside, the only one small enough to enter the tiny hole, he pulled, revealing a locked metal panel inside. Wade gently pushed him aside, then pulled a small pair of bobby pins from her hair, smiling cheekily as she inserted them into a tiny keyhole. A few fidgets later, and the panel popped open to reveal a keypad.
With the sound of the radio squeal still coming from deep within the mountain, the nine unmarked keys lit up in a specific order: up, down, top left, top right. Wade reached out to touch them, but the Professor grabbed her hand, shaking his head. With a nod, she stepped back, then he walked a few feet away to take a rock off the ground. Approaching the keys, he pressed them in order with the jagged stone.
All at once, the rock wall next to the panel hissed and slammed into the ceiling, making the three jump and fall to the ground in a fright. Their hearts beating, they could hear the three note radio squeal more clearly, coming from inside, but no other noise. Gathering themselves, they stood, brushed themselves off, then entered the now revealed rocky hallway.
It opened into what looked like an entrance hall, about ten feet tall, and well over a hundred feet wide. The ground and walls were still dirt and rock, and there were what appeared to be small cars and digging tools, dusty and long abandoned, strewn about the area. A pair of shovels and a pickaxe lay on the floor before them, a car with a drill mounted to the front was parked against the far left wall, and when the Professor brought his flashlight to them, the three saw that the hall ended at rocky dead ends on both sides.
The notes continued from somewhere to the right, and the three looked to find a metal door there. As they drew closer, the squeals grew ever louder, and their hearts pounded faster. The Professor pointed to it, the girls nodded, then they carefully made their way over. The door had a simple handle and opened inwards to reveal a bare metal hallway, and the notes grew louder as they walked in. Inside, there were two metal doors on both the left and right, and a final door at the very end, unmistakeably the source of the sound. They drew closer, bodies tense and ready to act.
Suddenly, the trio of notes was replaced with a high-pitched G3 squeal. Jumping in shock, the Professor instantly threw open the first door on the left, opened and flashed it to see it was an empty room, shoved the girls inside, then flattened himself against the wall, aiming his light down the hall. His heart raced, and he dared not make a sound. After ten seconds of the squeal, the entire complex fell silent. Wade poked her head out first, followed by Mary underneath her. The Professor looked between the two, then nodded, continuing their progress forward until they were close enough to open the far door.
Wrapping a sweaty hand around the handle, he pushed it down to hear the click of the door opening, then slowly pushed it open to reveal what was inside. The door creaked, and the brightly lit room was laid bare to them.
What he saw drew little more than a confused head tilt and a "Hmm?" from the Professor. He stepped in fearlessly, and the girls followed.
The room was lined with metal from the floors, to the walls, to the ceiling, which rose the same ten feet above them. In the center of the room, the only feature of note, was a large black pillar that ran from the floor to the ceiling, and in its center were four roller chairs, each facing a monitor and keyboard attached to the pillar.
"Some kind of... command hub?" Mary asked, standing straighter and breathing more easily. The Professor made a circle around the big black tower, then smiled in both relief and confusion as he examined the far monitor that faced the far wall. "Well, it's no wonder it's so quiet," he spoke, sitting at the chair and typing into the keyboard. The girls took up positions on either side of him as he pointed at the monitor. It displayed multiple angles of the complex, one of which showed them all standing in front of the pillar from a side angle. Wade looked up to where the camera should have been, but saw nothing. "There's nobody here," he finished.
He typed into the keyboard, got an explanatory dialog box, then looked to his left. "Excuse me, Lady Mary," he said. She backed up, and he rolled his chair to the keyboard and monitor closest to the hallway and facing the far wall, pushing away the other chairs and typing into the new keyboard. The girls followed him to see the latest Renewal: NO TRAINS.
"Yeah!" Wade called out. "Don't ban horses! They're too cute." The Professor typed a little more to see the previous Renewals, each in red letters. The trains Renewal, however, was green. "Guess that one got cancelled," Mary surmised. "But someone must have made this place, sent those messages to stop us from coming here," she added.
"So not Kromaggs," Wade continued. The Professor shook his head. "No," he answered. "And judging from the reaction to our arrival, probably not allies of them, either." Wade looked to him. "So did someone build this device to keep Kromaggs out?" she asked in wonder. "Or did they beat them back and lock them out?"
"Possibly," he answered, thinking. "Or at least, they're not a friend of interdimensional travelers." He typed into the keyboard, pointed at an advice dialog box, then followed its instructions to roll to the monitor on the right from the hallway door, then typed once more. There was a hissing and crashing sound towards the entrance of the mountain. "I've locked us in for the night," he said, looking at the girls. "Let's see what you two ladies can find while I try to make sense of this place," he finished with a wink and a smile.
The shower in the room next to the empty room was completely functional, including heating, and after the trio had finished up, they felt a lot more relaxed. The control room had a far more lived in feeling after the girls took turns hauling a massive amount of dusty bedding, pillows, and blankets from a nearby barracks of sorts, shook the dust out, then laid them all across the floor. Wade rolled around on them, laughing and chatting with the other two, Mary kicked idly at a pillow under her feet while she continued her word search, and the Professor rolled from keyboard to keyboard, learning as he went. The other three chairs sat forgotten in the far corner.
"They're sliders," the Professor said in wonder.
Mary looked up, pocketing the pen and dropping her book. "What?" she asked, sitting up in the mess of blankets. The Professor looked between the two women. "The people who built this place," he explained, gesturing around the complex. "They came here from another world, hollowed out this mountain in secret, then began constructing this facility."
Wade gestured to the black tower. "So why did they build this machine?" she asked. "Did they just want to broadcast a huge hello to the world? Then they looked around and decided they could change a few things?" The Professor shook his head, rolling to the monitor on the left from the hallway. "No," he answered, typing. "This is some kind of research device, designed to send data back through the portal."
Confused, Mary put her arms around her knees, then spoke. "So the earthquakes...?" she started. The Professor shook his head. "Likely predicted by the immense strength of this machine's detection systems, and used as a means to popularize the Renewals," he guessed. "I don't think it has the capability to cause natural disasters."
"So where are they now?" Wade asked. The Professor rolled to the far monitor, typed something, then pointed. "Here," he said, and the girls got up to look at the monitor. The camera angles depicted many men and women in white uniforms standing in the very same room that they were in. A man raised a small black device in front of them, and a rainbow-lined portal opened, pulling them all in. Seconds later, they were gone. The Professor typed into the keyboard again, bringing the monitor back to the current surveillance, where they saw themselves standing among the blankets and pillows. "They left, and never came back," he explained.
He rolled to the left monitor again. "Now there are records here to indicate... yes..." he finished, entering his query. "Yes," he said, pointing at the monitor. "Hours before they all left, the research machine detected a flood of cosmic rays striking the Earth's atmosphere," he explained. "The atmosphere became charged, and before their sliding device would fail to work completely under those conditions, they left."
After some typing, he pointed up at the monitor again. "The machine doesn't have the ability to open portals, so every attempt it would make to contact its creators while the atmosphere was charged was in vain," he continued. Despite herself, Wade felt a tinge of sympathy and let out a tiny "Oh" in response. "There was a knowledge loop," the Professor continued, bringing up more information. "It began to build theories and concepts from the data it collected, then went to work to protect the people of this world so its masters could have an Earth to come back to."
"By outlawing most transport?" Mary asked. The Professor shrugged. "Well, it would make world war more difficult," he guessed. "Remember, World War 2 and its related horrors had just finished up before the machine began its edicts." Wade leaned in, putting two smug folded arms on his left shoulder. "See? What'd I tell ya?" she teased, making as proud and pompous a face as she could. The Professor looked back at her with faux seriousness. "Miss Welles," he started, "gloating is punishable by a forced backrub." She lost the prideful face and laughed. "How about we make it three?" she said happily, kissing him on the forehead and turning back to the screen.
"So the 'NO TRAINS' Renewal was to prevent us from arriving," Mary started. The Professor nodded in agreement. "Likely it could only detect the Kromagg timer," he surmised, "otherwise it might have made an edict against brilliant professors of cosmology and ontology, as well as being accompanied by more than one striking lady of skill and cunning." Mary and Wade looked to each other with faces mixed with beaming pride, embarrassment, and sheer disbelief at the oversweet honey.
Thinking for a bit, Wade made a confused face. "But it let us in," she said, then turned to the others. "Did it change its mind?" Mary nodded. "We arrived from another Earth, carrying a Kromagg device," she reasoned. "It wasn't until we reached the mountain that it could tell we weren't a threat."
Looking around the small room, and finally setting her eyes on the black tower, Wade spoke. "So... it can hear us? See us?" she asked, then looked around the room. "We're really friendly!" she called out with a smile, then focused on the spot where the hidden camera could see them in the room. "We're just visiting!" If there was a response, it wasn't obvious.
"Our priority now is to find the human homeworld," the Professor continued, typing more into the left keyboard. Wade made a face. "But how?" she asked. "If even this machine's friends never came back, how are we going to leave?"
Mary shrugged. "We got in..." she started, and the Professor spoke up next with a smile. "So we can also get out," he finished. "Look: the machine has been engaging in data collection, finding patterns in the charged atmosphere. There are small windows of opportunity to open a vortex, but according to these readings, we have to be quick."
Wade snapped her fingers and smiled. "So maybe we can open a portal for the machine, and let it tell its friends when they can come back!" she reasoned, but the Professor shook his head. "I'm sorry, we cannot do that, Miss Welles," he answered. Her face fell. "Why not?" she asked.
The Professor looked about, as if also trying to communicate with the machine. "For two reasons," he said. "First, we know little about this device. It is of Kromagg origin, and obsolete technology, according to Miss Beckett. We may only be able to open a sliding window once, then if we miss the very window that we opened, may be stuck here for 29 years. We simply don't know, and we can't run the risk of never seeing the others again, especially if they may need our help.
"Two," he continued, "the calculations and timing are absolutely critical. If the synchronization between worlds if off by seconds, the people coming here would likely be crushed to death in the resulting collapsing tunnel." Wade shivered, and Mary bit her lower lip.
"And if we came in at the wrong time?" Mary asked. The Professor shook his head, then lifted the timer to point at it. "If this device wasn't designed to shunt us to a different parallel universe under such an emergency, and I have every reason to believe that this obsolete technology made by a gaggle of violent warrior ape-men has no such failsafe," he explained in complete seriousness, "we would be dead right now, reduced to base particles strewn across multiple universes."
He looked back to the monitor. "No, the others will have to wait until the situation has concluded," he continued, pointing to the screen, "and readings indicate that in perhaps several decades, there may be such a time. Until then, this world is at the behest of a, from what I can tell, benevolent AI. But look," he said excitedly, "just such a window will open in a few minutes for exactly two minutes, then another right after for a little over ninety seconds. Another window will arrive tomorrow, but the machine is still calculating the time that the window will remain open."
Wade look around the room again. "Mr. Machine?" she said in as friendly a manner as she could muster, "We just want to go, ok? Please don't do anything to the timer!" She gestured around herself with upturned hands, smiling broadly. "I really like what you've done with this earth!" she added.
"Time is short," the Professor interrupted, standing and carefully watching the monitor. "Are you ready?" Mary and Wade gathered up their backpacks, looked to him, then nodded. When the monitor showed that the window had come, he powered on, charged, then activated the timer. This time, the swirling red vortex stayed in midair. The Professor smiled, looked around, then jumped into its mouth.
He was immediately pushed to the floor. Looking up in confusion, he began to rise to his feet as the girls threw a glance at one another, then dashed past him and jumped together. They too, were thrown to the floor. "What the devil is this?" the Professor cried out, reaching a hand towards the vortex. It felt like something was resisting his push, not allowing him to approach any closer. The girls, too, tried to push through the mouth, but were just as unsuccessful.
When the sixty second time limit was close at hand, the Professor put his arms out and pulled the girls away from the vortex, seconds before it collapsed.
Wade's eyes were wide in shock. "Don't tell me..." she started, looking to the timer in disbelief. "We won't know until the next window," Mary added, her voice nervous despite its steadiness. She turned to the others. "I'm sorry, I didn't know this was going to happen," she spoke softly. "It was supposed to let us in, then we could find a way through from there, not just push us back."
The Professor waved his hand in soothing dismissal. "Assuredly not your fault, Lady Mary," he said, then quickly sat on the single roller chair and rolled it to the right keyboard and monitor from the hallway door. "I'll try to get the computer to take readings on the next attempt..." he started, typing furiously, "assuming we are afforded one." He looked about. "If you would kindly lend us your assistance, I would be most appreciative," he added.
The seconds dragged on with nothing more than the Professor's typing filling the room, and their own agitated thoughts. Finally striking the input key, the Professor rose once more, then powered on and charged the timer. He winced slightly, watching the left monitor count down to the window, and when it came, he engaged the device.
The familiar beam shot out, and the vortex opened once more. The three breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God," Wade whispered, then slowly approached the vortex with Mary. They put their hands up to it, feeling the same resistance, and the closer they got, the harder it pushed them back.
Mary turned to the Professor, who was running back and forth between the left and right monitors. "Any luck?" she asked. He briefly glanced at her, then back at the monitor. "We'll know soon," he answered quietly, watching the code expand on the screen. Shortly after, the vortex closed.
As time passed and he watched the left monitor, the Professor's face went from confusion, to surprise, to shock. "This data... is going to take an extraordinary amount of time to sift through," he said. "This must be the computational instructions and readings of the force that prevented our entry. But I don't even know where..."
The code grew longer and longer, scrolling by impossibly fast. The Professor let out a sigh, then pointed to the pile of pillows and blankets. "It would be wise to turn in for the time being, ladies," he suggested. With a pair of nods, Wade and Mary leaned back, wrapped themselves up in sheets, then settled in for the night.
"I believe in you, Mr. Machine," Wade said sweetly through a tired voice. In moments, she and Mary were asleep.
Awakening to find the Professor and Mary at the left monitor, Wade stood to read the data on screen... which was no longer scrolling. Several windows on the monitor were opened up, showing a similar line of code tucked between different readings, each saying the same thing. Wade drew closer to the monitor, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "It's highlighted..." Mary spoke, then looked around. "Is that you, Mr. Machine?" she called out. Again, there was no discernible answer.
Wade watched in amazement as the data slowly shifted and converted in each of the windows, until familiar letter pairs, then familiar words, began to appear on all of the windows. "Great Scott..." the Professor whispered, his eyes wide in disbelief and mouth slightly open. Mary looked between the open windows. "It's some kind of message buried in the code..." she added, blinking several times, mouth also open in surprise. Wade's face mirrored theirs as she read aloud the deciphered message:
"where i studied, xxx who taught me, xxx who i lost, xxx quinn"
"My boy," the Professor whispered, his eyes welling with tears. Wade smiled a bittersweet smile, then brought her hands to her mouth, the tears falling. "Quinn..." she said softly. Mary looked to the two, then back to the monitor. "Quinn... defeated the Slidecage?" she asked aloud, then pointed at the code. "Then he left this?"
The Professor nodded, wiping his eyes. "Bravo, Mr. Mallory," he said softly, then turned to the others. "He left this message behind, in case someone needed to make entry... someone who knew him." Wade smiled brightly. "And if he left this behind, he may even be there!" she reasoned. The Professor nodded with a similarly bright smile. "We simply need to work in the resulting coordinates into the ones for the human homeworld, and we will either find ourselves in the belly of this particular beast, or on the homeworld itself.
"So the keys to our little mystery would be..." he continued, then typed them out one by one.
"uoc"
"University of California?" Wade asked. The Professor nodded with a smile, nostalgic memories of the old campus flooding into his mind. "Are you sure it's not 'uob'?" she added, but the Professor shook his head. "We rarely referred to it by the specific campus name when we were together," he said confidently. "I'm sure this is it." He began typing again.
"mpa"
"That one's obvious!" Wade said happily, but Mary made a face. "Didn't he think you were dead?" she asked. "Why didn't he say something to that effect?" The Professor nodded in response, his eyebrows knit. "Yes, that is odd," he whispered. "Could it be..." he continued, then trailed off. Thoughts of the Azure Gate Bridge world whirled in his head for a short time, but he soon shook his head. "Bah, we'll have time for this later," he finally said confidently. "As for the last..." He typed in the final part of the code.
"wkw"
Wade felt a lump in her throat and choked up slightly as the letters typed out. Mary took a step to the side and put her arm around her shoulders, then squeezed. The Professor took a step back, then putting a comforting hand on her free shoulder, pointed to the code. "Once we've added these coordinates into the ones that Lady Mary has memorized," he said, "we'll have our key."
Several minutes later, Mary and the Professor finished their calculations. She pointed to the notebook with the pen, he with his finger, and as they came to the last few digits of the coordinates from their own calculations, spoke them in perfect unison. They smiled then shook hands, assured that they had the right ones. Wade stepped back to address the black tower. "Mr. Machine, could you give us a display to put these new ones in?" she asked. Almost instantly, the back monitor flashed away from the camera views placed around the complex to be replaced with a completely white screen.
"Thanks!" she said, then nodded to the Professor, who slowly powered on the timer and raised its charge. The monitor lit up with the same screen from the hardware store, and Mary carefully tapped in the new coordinates into the waiting dialog box. When she was finished, she confirmed the code, set it to input, then gave a thumbs up. The monitor switched back to the sights of the inner complex.
Checking the left monitor, the Professor saw another short window approaching. "Gather your things ladies, we only have forty five seconds to keep the next open," he warned, preparing the timer as they rushed to recover their trail backpacks once more, "and it opens soon." Wade called out one last time. "Thank you, Mr. Machine!" she called out sweetly. "We hope your friends come back for you soon."
"Three, two, one," the Professor counted down, then engaged the timer. The vortex appeared, and he pocketed it once more. Mary jumped first, backpack on her pack, and successfully made it through. "Come along, Miss Welles!" the Professor shouted, then he too, was through.
Wade quickly rushed over to the front terminal's keyboard, then typed something into the Renewals box. "It's just an idea," she said with a smile, then waved around the room. "You can send it if you want!" In seconds, she too, was through the portal. The angry red vortex closed soon after, leaving the complex empty once more.
The monitor blinked with a simple message, gentle and non-capitalized:
"Love and take care of each other"
There was a pause as the cursor blinked idly at the end of the sentence. A few more seconds passed, then the message disappeared. A dialog box popped up briefly in the corner before disappearing:
"MESSAGE SENT"