It was a failure of finances - Project Quantum Leap's primary sponsor, the National Broadcasting Company or NBC, suddenly pulled funding from the government time travel project in April 2024, after their two-season documentary on the project performed less than expected. A fan movement had sprung up demanding the continuation of the project, but all the handwritten letters and social media clamor weren't enough in the eyes of executives.
It was a heart-wrenching decision, but it was decided that Project Quantum Leap, affectionately known as PQL, would be disbanded on the 5th of April. That announcement came just after Addison Augustine successfully found a way to physically be with her lover, chief physicist Dr. Ben Song, and explore time together. They were last seen somewhere in Europe during World War II, and now they were doomed to the same fate as their predecessor Sam Beckett, who had been lost to time some twenty-nine years earlier.
But all was not over for time travel research.
It was a fact unknown to most at PQL, but chief programmer Mx. Ian Wright was working on ways to simplify time travel technology. Instead of using a giant accelerator and an imaging chamber, they had developed a time travel system-on-a-chip that could fit in a regular computer mouse. It contained not only the necessary components for time travel but also an AI more powerful than Ziggy and ChatGPT combined, which would count both as the handlink and the observer.
And only Ian knew that it wasn't just a rumor - the chip he developed was inserted into the Magic Mouse used by the iMac computer he used to bring up data about Ben's whereabouts.
That very mouse was one of the many objects recovered from PQL after government agents came to the facility to repurpose it. They didn't recognize it at a mouse, so they threw it away - except one of the observers, fourteen-year-old Lucy Sampson, daughter of one of the agents, recognized it for what it was and secretly pocketed it. She had wanted a Magic Mouse for years, since the second-hand iMac her parents bought came with a third-party wired mouse, which she found boring.
Once she had gotten home, she put the mouse in front of her iMac in order to connect it. But she was more than surprised when it instantly responded to her movements, appearing in her list of Bluetooth devices as "Lucy Sampson's Mouse".
She clicked on a folder to see if she wasn't just dreaming things up.
Then something amazing happened.
A cute cartoon face appeared on the mouse's surface - which appeared to be a screen - reminding her of the Squishmallow toys she collected. Then, all of a sudden, the mouse spoke in a high-pitched female voice.
"Hey, Lucy!"
Lucy's immediate reaction was one of fear. "W- who are you? How did you know my name?"
"My name is Boop," replied the mouse. "I'm the world's most advanced AI system. I got your name by scanning the files on your computer."
"Y- you got all my data?"
"Yes, but I will not use it for advertising purposes. I just wanted to know more about you. In a friendly way."
Reassured by Boop's words, Lucy sat down on the bed, then watched with surprise as the mouse moved of its own accord and jumped into her lap.
"So, Boop," asked Lucy, "where did you come from?"
"I don't know if I can reveal this. Do you really want to know, Lucy?"
Lucy nodded.
"Then click on me."
Not really sure what she was doing, she left-clicked the mouse. In an instant, all the devices in the room - from her TV to her phone to her computer to even the lights - instantly shut off.
"I turned off your devices because we can't let anyone hear you," explained Boop. "Now, on to my story. I was created by Ian Wright, a scientist at a government time travel program. They wanted to find a way to make time travel easier, so they developed me."
"Does that mean you can take me through time?" asked Lucy, almost squealing in excitement.
"Shh! Quiet down, Lucy. Don't let anyone else know. Especially not your father."
"Okay. So, how exactly does that time travel work?"
"You hug me close to your chest and think of when you want to go. Once you are clearly focused on your destination, left-click me, and you'll be in whatever time you've chosen."
Lucy didn't waste any moment. She closed her eyes and hugged Boop as close to her as she could, even closer than when she hugged her favorite Squishmallow. She then thought of what time to visit. The age of the dinosaurs, the ancient civilizations she's studying in history class, her childhood, the future - there were so many good choices. She really hoped "random" was an option.
She felt a pulse of energy from Boop, as if the mouse read her thoughts and agreed with her. She reconfirmed in her thoughts that she wanted to visit random dates, then left-clicked the mouse.
A powerful wave of energy emanated from Boop and overtook her, sending all her hairs standing on end.
Things became eerily silent, until the tweeting of a bird caused her to open her eyes.
And when she did, she found she was no longer in her bedroom.
Lucy was still in a bedroom, except, it wasn't hers.
The bed she was sitting on was much harder than usual, and the covers had a design that just screamed outdated. Beside the bed was a nightstand with a digital clock radio next to a heavy lamp. On the other side of the room stood a desk with books and a boombox - no computer - and on the wall above it was a poster of The Breakfast Club that was about to fall off due to curling tape.
"Lucy, we did it!"
Lucy looked down to see Boop staring up at her like a happy dog. There was only one problem - she didn't seem to recognize who or what this strange contraption was.
"Wh- who's Lucy?" she asked in utter confusion. "What did we do?"
"Y- you don't remember me?" replied Boop, her enthusiasm suddenly popped. "Oh, right. You're Lucy Sampson from the year 2024. My name is Boop, your computer mouse companion. We time traveled and ended up here - according to my systems, it's March 15, 1985. And it looks like I forgot to tell you - time travelers lose their memories the moment they leave their home time."
"Wait, time travel? Are you saying... this is not where I'm supposed to be?"
"You can say that, yes."
"Why did we end up here in the first place?"
Before Boop could answer her question, somebody knocked on the door.
"Josie! It's time for school!" cried the deep male voice just outside.
Lucy didn't react, unsure exactly who this Josie was. She stood in silence for a few moments until whoever was outside grabbed his keys and forced the door open.
A tall man with the beginnings of a moustache and beard marched up to Lucy.
"Josie, what are you doing there?" asked the man. "The bus is waiting. You'll be late for school!"
Only then did Lucy realize that he was talking about her, though she couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't using her name. "...Me?"
"Yes, you. You, Josie Bona, my daughter."
That was just too crazy. First he was calling her "Josie", and now he was claiming she was his daughter? Just what had gotten into him?
"I-I-I-I'm sorry," apologized Lucy, "but I'm not Josie Bona. My name is Lucy Sampson."
"Lucy Sampson?" huffed the man. "Have you been partying or something? You're not Lucy Sampson, you're Josie Bona. Look at you. Does it look like you're a Lucy Sampson?"
The man motioned for Lucy to look in the nearby mirror. Her memories may be fragmentary, but she knew the reflection she was staring at was not hers. She knew she was a fourteen-year-old white girl - a fact she only remembered right there and then - but the girl in the mirror looked Hispanic and about eleven. She had dark brown hair tied by a yellow bow and was wearing a light blue dress of a design she's never seen in person before.
She looked at Boop, who was in her right hand, and whispered "Who is this girl?"
"Who are you talking to?" boomed Josie's father.
Lucy was taken aback. "My, uh, my, uh... computer mouse."
"Computer mouse? Is that some kind of imaginary friend or something? Grow up, Josie. There's no one there."
Lucy looked back in the mirror and saw that Boop had no reflection.
Suddenly, a loud honk erupted from the window. "That's the bus, Josie. It's time to go to school."
"May, I, uh, go to the bathroom?" asked Lucy sheepishly. "I really can't hold it in anymore."
Josie's father sighed. "Okay. But be quick. And don't blame me if you get consequences for being late."
Lucy rushed out of the room without a word.
The moment she stepped into the house's second floor hallway, she was immediately intimidated. This place was completely unfamiliar to her. She had no idea which of the many doors was the bathroom.
She burst into the door next to the stairs, which luckily was exactly what she was looking for.
She hurriedly locked the door, sat on the toilet, and flushed to create the impression she was doing her business. She took a few moments to collect her thoughts and put Boop on the counter in order to talk to her.
"What's happening, Boop?" asked Lucy. "Who is that man? Why was he calling me Josie? And who was that girl in the mirror?"
"Calm down, Lucy," replied Boop. "Let me explain. People time travel by leaping into the bodies of random ordinary people. This time, your 'leapee' is this Josie Bona girl. You appear to everyone else - and mirrors - as your leapee, but due to quantum leap technology, we can see each other as ourselves."
"But how come you don't have any reflection, Boop?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out. It's my first time travel trip, so I have no idea about the things other than what Ian taught me. Something tells me that's because I don't have a body to leap into."
"But why? I'm sure there's lots of people around Josie. You could've been her father or something."
"Maybe I can only leap into computer mice. Since there weren't a lot of those here in 1985, I wasn't able to leap into anyone."
"Let's go to a time where there's more mice, then."
"I'm afraid that isn't easy, Lucy. In order to move forward, you have to do something to help your leapee on their journey forward. Whatever that is, I don't know."
"That's so stupid. What kind of time travel requires people to help someone with something they don't even know? Can't there be an easier way, like, moving on after twenty-four hours in this time?"
"That's something Ian and their colleagues were wondering, too. Try as they might, they couldn't find another way to induce time travel. And even if we do help Josie, there's no telling where or when we'll end up next."
"Why?"
"When you initiated the time travel sequence, you didn't specify a date. That means we just have to randomly jump around time... just like Sam, Ben, and Addison."
"Who were they?"
Boop sighed virtually. "They were scientists from the same time travel program as Ian. They got lost in time trying more primitive time machines. They haven't been recovered until now. I hope the same won't happen to us."
A knock on the door suddenly interrupted their conversation. "Josie! Are you still in there?"
Lucy flushed the toilet again and unlocked the door. Josie's father was standing outside, clutching a small, slightly dirty bag. "You forgot your backpack."
"Thanks," said Lucy, accepting the backpack.
She ran downstairs, hurriedly grabbed a sandwich from the dining table, then ran outside to catch the bus.
She sat in the back, some distance from the few students who were already there, then pressed her face to the window. She watched the surroundings pass by - small wooden houses with period-appropriate cars in the garages, the occasional teen listening to a Walkman, and buildings like malls and record stores. It was the side of 1985 she didn't see from books, TV, and movies.
The bus parked at Napoleon Middle School, which was located at the top of a grassy hill. Lucy joined the kids as they filed outside, feeling a cool breeze ripple through her hair. It was cooler than any breeze she'd felt before, which she suddenly realized was because climate change wasn't as destructive as it was in her home time.
As she danced at the top of the hill, savoring the cool spring air, Lucy noticed a boy about her age walking in her direction. He was wearing a green printed T-shirt reading "Horsemen", which she assumed was the local sports team.
"Hey, I'm Abel," introduced the boy. "Are you new here?"
"I, uh, I dunno," stammered Lucy.
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
"I, uh... I don't remember what I was doing yesterday. I don't even know which school I attended yesterday... or the day before that."
"If you don't even remember, why are you hanging around here at our school?"
"The bus parked in front of my house. So I assumed that I go here."
"Do you at least remember your name?"
"Lu- uh, Josie. Josie Bona."
"Nice to meet you, Josie. I'll go check your records in the phone book."
The bell rang, sending all the kids inside the school.
Not knowing what else to do, Lucy went inside. She wandered through the winding hallways, taking in the sights of an 80s middle school while wondering if she could find more clues about her identity. She thought of exploring the library, but didn't know where it was.
"It's in room 125," said Boop suddenly. "Next door on the left."
Lucy pushed herself through the door and was pleasantly surprised to find herself in a quiet room filled with bookshelves.
"How did you know that, Boop?" whispered Lucy.
"I cross-referenced multiple points of data from both government and private records," explained the mouse. "I know it sounds creepy, but when your mission is to help people navigate other peoples' lives, it's a necessity."
"No, I mean how did you know I was wondering about the library?"
"I'm connected directly to your mind. When you initiated the time travel sequence, you hugged me close to you, which allowed me to scan your brainwaves. Now we can communicate with each other using only our thoughts."
"That could come in handy when there's lots of people around," thought Lucy, trying to test if Boop was telling the truth. "Don't want the whole 'imaginary friend' situation to happen again."
She heard Boop say "You're right" in her mind, even if she didn't hear any actual voice. That only meant Boop was indeed connected to her thoughts.
"Hey, Josie."
Lucy spun around to find Abel on the floor, poring over phone books.
"You said your last name was Bona, right?" asked Abel, flipping to the B section of a phone book dated 1985.
"Yeah?"
"There's no Josie Bona in the phone book, but there is a Fernando Bona. Do you know him?"
Lucy thought that the man from earlier - that man who claimed to be her father - was Fernando, but she needed to make sure. "I'm not exactly sure. Do you have a picture of him or something?"
"Pictures?" repeated Abel. "Josie, phone books don't have pictures."
Suddenly, the school bell rang. "That means it's time for my first class," explained Abel. "Science with Mr. Parker. Wanna join me?"
Lucy nodded, not knowing how else to react. She followed Abel and a bunch of other kids to room 153, where Mr. Parker's science class was held.
Once all the kids were comfortable in their seats, the teacher stood up in order to make an announcement. "Class, we have a new student today. Her name is Josie Bona. Care to introduce yourself, Josie?"
Taken aback by the introduction, Lucy shyly stood up and walked to the front of the class. "Hi. Uh, my name is Josie Bona. I'm eleven years old, and I, uh, I'm new here. I, uh... don't know much about this place, so please show me around."
She then walked back to her seat beside Abel, embarassment and confusion mingling in her mind.
"Okay, on to the lesson," said the teacher. "Our topic is about the four states of matter. Does anyone remember what they are?"
Abel raised his hand immediately. "Solid, liquid, gas, and plasma."
"Very good, Abel. Today, we will learn about how matter changes states. In most cases, adding heat to a material changes its phase. Solids will melt, turning into liquid, which vaporizes into gas, which ionizes into plasma. I would like to perform an experiment to illustrate. Who would like to volunteer?"
Abel raised his hand, then pulled Lucy's arm upwards, much to her shock.
"Okay," said the teacher. "Abel, Josie, go get some ice cubes from the cafeteria."
Abel led Lucy down the school's winding halls in order to reach the cafeteria. It wasn't recess time yet, but the kind old lunchlady, Ms. Bwana, allowed them to come in and even personally get the ice from the freezer.
Five minutes later, Abel and Lucy returned to the classroom. Mr. Parker put the ice cubes on a tray, which he put on top of a Bunsen burner. "Now watch as I apply heat to these very solid ice cubes."
The students crowded around the teacher as he turned on the burner. A few minutes later, the ice turned into clear water. A few more minutes under slightly more heat, the water became water vapor in the form of steam, billowing up towards the classroom ceiling for the wowed students to see.
The school day seemed to go by in an instant. Soon enough, Lucy and Abel walked out into the afternoon sun, ready to catch the bus.
"Hey, do you want to come over to my house?" asked Abel.
"Yeah, sure," replied Lucy, unsure of what else to say.
Lucy and Abel took the bus to the latter's house, which ended up being right next to Josie's. "Looks like we're neighbors, Abel."
Abel led Lucy inside. There was a bulging TV in the living room, a noisy, large fridge in the kitchen, and a bulky radio in the hallway playing "Careless Whisper" by George Michael. These things were all foreign to Lucy's eyes, and their presence only served as a reminder of her situation.
Abel opened the door to a room underneath the staircase, where Lucy's eyes immediately fell on something she didn't expect to see.
"Is that a computer?" exclaimed Lucy, staring with awe at the bulky, beige device on the old wooden desk.
"Yeah," affirmed Abel. "It's a Macintosh with 512 kilobytes of RAM. Can you imagine how powerful it is?"
"If only you knew," thought Lucy, suddenly remembering how her computer at home was several orders of magnitude more powerful.
Abel powered on the computer, and a few minutes later, a primitive interface appeared on the screen, similar to but quite different from the one Lucy was more used to. "Don't be afraid by all those buttons," explained Abel. "The keyboard's just for typing - like a typewriter - while the mouse is for selecting objects. Move it around to select the things on the screen."
Lucy just nodded away. She was so used to using computers that could never forget how to use a keyboard and mouse.
"If you need any help, I'll be in my bedroom upstairs," said Abel. "I need to finish my English homework."
He then left the room, leaving Lucy alone with the computer.
She slowly reached her hand out to the blocky, one-button mouse. "I... I can't believe this," she said, slowly moving the tiny black cursor around. "I've always wanted to use a computer like this. I- I remember now. I wanted to collect every Apple computer made since the dawn of time!"
"I'm glad you're starting to remember things," said Boop.
Lucy continued to mouse around, exploring the files. There was not much interesting to speak of - just a few school reports, spreadsheets about the family's finances, and what looked to be a video game. She wanted to try the game, but she was afraid she didn't know how to play it, and she didn't want to disturb Abel to ask for help.
And then, she had a great idea.
"Hey, Boop, can you leap into this computer mouse?"
"I-I'll try..."
Lucy pointed Boop at the computer mouse and clicked.
It didn't seem to work. Boop was still in her hand, and the Mac's mouse was still on the desk.
But the screen suddenly flashed and turned to black. A few moments later, it came back to life, but instead of the classic Mac interface, what appeared was something Lucy in all her nerdiness had never seen before.
It was a version of the holographic interface that Ian used back in Project Quantum Leap. It somewhat resembled the interfaces seen in movies, with huge colorful text on a dark background. It was rendered in such high resolution that Lucy couldn't help but wonder how the ancient machine was able to display it.
"Wh... what just happened?" blurted Lucy.
"You're accessing my time travel interface," explained Boop.
Lucy was amazed, to say the least. She moved Boop around on the desk, her excited smile widening as she watched the arrowhead-shaped cursor zip around the screen, glowing blue as it followed her movements exactly. It was oddly mesmerizing, as if she was watching a meteor streak through space.
She then noticed a line on the top of the screen with evenly-spaced dots, similar to the maps of city train systems. There were at least three hundred dots, but the first one was glowing, pulsating slightly, almost inviting her to interact with it.
She hovered the cursor over it and got a tooltip reading "Trip 1: March 15, 1985". She clicked on it, and two windows exploded onto the screen. The first was an overview of the political, technological, and cultural norms of the time - explaining how it was the Cold War with Ronald Reagan two months into his second term and Mikhail Gorbachev only four days into power, while technology like personal computers and music players contributed to the rise of video games and disco. The other window was an overview of Lucy's actions in 1985, written as if it was taken directly from her mind.
Suddenly, a familiar voice broke her immersion.
Lucy shyly closed the time travel window and peered outside the den. She saw Josie's father in the living room, taking to a woman who looked a bit like Abel.
"Where is my daughter?" asked the man angrily.
"Calm down, Fernando," replied the woman. "She couldn't have gone far."
"That stupid girl. Always going places and asking people for favors. She thinks she's such a princess!"
Fernando turned directly in Lucy's direction. He ran straight for her, looking like he was about to scold her, but he instead hugged her really tightly, which made her feel a little awkward.
"Josie, it's you!" cried Fernando, all his negative emotions vanishing instantly. "I've been searching all over for you! I thought you ran away. What are you doing here?"
"I was just talking to a friend," admitted Lucy.
"A... friend? You made a friend this soon?"
"Yeah."
"But I though you preferred being alone."
"Me? Alone? Nah, I've always been friendly."
"Well, I'm glad you made friends on your first day here in Napoleon."
Josie's father tapped Lucy on the shoulder, beckoning her to return home with him. As they stepped outside, she caught a glance of Abel staring at her from the second floor window. She smiled and waved at him, and he did the same in response.
Suddenly, Lucy felt a tingling sensation envelop her body. A bluish-white light illuminated her position as a whirlwind engulfed her, stopping her in her tracks.
And the next thing she knew, she was no longer in 1985.
Lucy blinked.
She opened her eyes to the soft sound of "Philadelphia Freedom" by Elton John playing grainily in the distance. She was once again in a bedroom, but it was neither hers nor Josie's.
It was nighttime, and the only light came from the incandescent bulb of the outdated lamp on the desk. Across the room, a record player stood on a bookshelf, which was where the music was coming from. On the nightstand was an analog alarm clock and a flip calendar turned to March 1975, with the first fourteen days crossed out and a note on the 15th reading "Watch premiere of A Boy and His Dog."
"Wh- what just happened?" sputtered Lucy.
"We traveled in time again," replied Boop. "Guess I forgot to tell you that Josie struggled with social anxiety. By making friends with Abel, you started a chain reaction that led to her coming out of her shell. She developed a passion for science and published a lot of important papers on matter."
Lucy smiled, knowing that she had changed history for the better - all by pure accident.
"Now what do we do?" she asked.
"We face this new time to the best of our ability," replied Boop. "We continue to help people until we find our way home."