THE SPIRAL

Clinking plates and cutlery reverberated through the big prefab in a great racket, seeming to drown out all other sound. The smell of cooked meat and boiled vegetables hung at head height when sitting. Slight orange glows from space heaters picked at peripheral vision, the walls themselves not really good enough to keep out the late-winter cold. The people just turned into unfocused blobs, most of them the off-green camouflage colour of Army uniforms.

Must be shift change, Anne thought idly, as she watched the door. The canteen building, if you could call it a building, was usually devoid of soldiers. But not entirely. It was the one place you could speak to them, and it was always interesting to find out how much they had been told by their superiors.

She had watched the door for one soldier in particular, but he didn't arrive, so her mind had wandered. Three and a half months after, everything they knew about the universe had been challenged. Ice men with medieval weapons had appeared every few days, always different ones, always differently armed.

But the world still didn't know. Anne didn't know how to feel about on the subject, except that it bothered her. What am I doing here if no one ever reads our research?

"Doctor Cloutier?" said a voice.

Anne blinked and looked to the rest of the table. The random collection of scientists were all looking at her. All of them were dressed like they were on vacation at a sky resort, warmly but colourfully. She hadn't even heard any of them sit down, excepting Dr. Shih. She smiled politely. "Sorry, didn't catch that."

"Evidently," Shih frowned.

Anne sighed theatrically. "Was busy watching for a certain Corporal," she said, before waggling her eyebrows and pulling some buttery mashed potato into her mouth with a fork. That drew a laugh out of a few of the audience.

Doctor Shih wasn't one of them. The woman's eyes widened with disapproval.

"Relax before you hurt yourself, ma chère," Anne continued.

Wide eyes became narrow. "We have more important things to worry about," Shih responded.

Anne put down her fork and straightened in her seat. "Have to enjoy things while they last," she said, "We have plenty of time to talk. On the other hand, I get the feeling I won't be seeing Corporal Teixeira for much longer."

"The Corporal is fifteen years younger than you," Shih objected.

Ouch, I'm not that old. Amanda Shih could be a bitch when she wanted to.

"And I still plan to jump his bones," Anne said, plastering a smirk on, "But since you are distracted by my distraction, let's begin. I'm the one who called these little meetings after all, I do want to hear what you all have to say." Just in my own damn time.

Doctor Shih gave a small nod, not rising to the bait. "I'll start. Doctor Klassen and I are almost finished with our genetic analysis. What we found is… interesting."

Anne wanted to roll her eyes at the theatrics, but settled on taking up her fork again to spear a piece of steak on her plate. "And what did you find?" she asked, before eating. I'm going to need a colonoscopy if I keep eating this military food, even if it is good. The steak was passable for camp fare.

"They're families," Shih declared, her voice rising slightly with excitement, "The small ones, that is. Almost all are buried in familial groups. The exceptions seem to be males that joined other groups, for mating purposes. Once we mapped their genome, it became obvious very quickly, but that was easier said that done until we discovered a niche in their thigh bones that preserves a large amount of DNA."

Anne chewed on that for a moment, while doing the same for her steak. The taste seemed to get worse as her thoughts turned to darker paths to explain how Dr. Shih's evidence fit into the puzzle. Family burial suggests they were placed there deliberately or they died together.

"That fits with what we've been seeing," she frowned, "There's subtle differences in the design of arrowheads and spearheads depending on what stone we look under."

Dr. Shih nodded. "Different design indicates different origin. Slightly different manufacturing techniques."

"Bingo." Anne tilted her head to look down to the other end of the table. "Hey Forensics Guy, you absolutely sure all of the individuals died violently?"

Forensics Guy was Doctor Nicolas Rose; a burly guy with a pig-ish face, and the head forensic archaeologist and anthropologist that CSIS had brought in. Anne hadn't trusted him at the start, but he had been the first to volunteer information he strictly should not have.

"Every single one," he said, drinking some water before continuing, "I've examined three of these things a day since arriving, and not one of them is without blunt force trauma or piercing wounds from primitive projectile weapons."

Anne's food turned sour in her mouth, and she reached for her coffee to clear the taste. "Well, there goes my hopes then. Bearing in mind we need to keep examining the evidence and challenge ourselves on any hypothesis, but it looks like a massacre."

Doctor Rose shook his large head. "It was a battle."

Anne recoiled a little at that. "A battle? The small ones weren't likely to be all that capable fighters, surely?"

"Don't underestimate the little guy," Doctor Rose replied, "Almost all the wounds are on the front or sides, all the weapons found within skeletons found pointed towards the back. Even on the juveniles, which is strange as hell. And the few Sasquatch bodies we've got, all but the first few have dozens of arrowheads in them."

He drank his water and pointed with his dinner knife, in the direction of the morgue building. "If it was a massacre, you wouldn't expect so many deaths by projectile. And you'd see consistent patterns of injury. Almost none have been struck in the back of the head or hung."

"Makes sense," Doctor Shih thought aloud, "Ancient peoples didn't usually line up firing squads of archers either, I'd imagine."

Anne frowned. I'll be the one to make calls like that, Doctor. "There are examples of that, actually. But not many."

"Why waste an arrow when you can just club someone on the head?" said another scientist from the other end of the table. Sombre nods did a Mexican wave down towards Anne..

Shih threaded her hands on the table and looked to another group. "Any news from the Physics and Astrophysics side? It would be nice to have some evidence of extraterrestrial origin other than the DNA anomaly."

Doctor Fleming, the tall Physics Guy, and Doctor Fournier, the short Astrophysics Girl, exchanged a coy glance. Well, they're having some kind of fun, Anne thought.

Fournier quickly produced a sheet of paper. "Got an email from a colleague in the University of Wisconsin-Madison," she said, "They run the IceCube neutrino telescope in Antarctica."

Anne's brow knit. God, high physics is so weird. "The what telescope?"

"Neutrino," said Fleming patiently, "They're particles that rarely interact with matter. Makes it fucking difficult to detect them. We didn't even know they had mass until…"

The man stopped, seeing the blank stares from Anne and everyone else.

"Pieces of physical reality flying around is all you need to know," Fournier added, "Anyway, I asked a bunch of colleagues with particle or astrophysics experiments running if anything unusual happened on the time and date of the Event. Most came back with nothing."

"But the telescope in Antarctica is the one of the best neutrino detectors in the world," Fleming said, "At the exact time of the event, the count of detections went through the roof. Every time the ice demon thing appears, the count goes up too, just not to the same extent."

"It's not a demon," said Anne and Shih together. Startled, Fleming held up a hand in surrender.

"And not only that, but they were able to pinpoint the source as the Spiral," Fournier concluded, "They just don't know it."

Anne glanced between the two scientists. "I don't get it. Please explain like you're talking to a child." She spoke for most of the table in this.

The two physics geeks exchanged exasperated glances. It was Fournier who clarified. "There's a source of neutrinos coming through whatever the Spiral is when it's active. The particles are coming from another place. Pieces from another part of our reality, or another reality entirely."

Fleming picked up the document. "And one of the things the aurora borealis is made of? Like what was flaring when the soldiers went missing? Neutrinos from the sun."

Chair scraping loudly on the floor as she moved, Shih jumped to her feet, her eyes practically bulging. "You have the key to open it!"

"Be quiet!" Fournier hissed through her teeth, "Do you want the military to know right now?"

Smart woman, Anne thought, She understands the risk. "Be patient," she told Shih. The geneticist sat down as abruptly as she had stood up, and leaned on her elbows across the table to listen.

"Have you found a way to open it," Anne said, "Or do you think it's just one part of the process?"

Fournier turned to Fleming for the answer. "It's a way to open it," the man said, "We're pretty sure it was opened from the other side when the soldiers disappeared, the neutrinos from the aurora must have hit the Spiral in just the right way as their vehicle passed through." He scooped up some of the mash from his plate into his mouth.

"The stones are probably just a marker of where the space can fold," Fournier interrupted with a wave of her hand, "The anomaly probably orbits Earth's gravity. We doubt the rocks have a function in how the portal works, despite their interesting geology."

The geologists nearby Anne made faces like they doubted that, but did not interrupt. The joy of interdisciplinary work, she thought.

Fleming waved his fork in agreement. "Point is, we can probably open the portal on our side, either to go to the other side or to bring whatever is waiting nearby over here."

Anne blanched. Her first instinct was that bringing something over was a bad idea.

That ice guy might not be a demon, but he's not a friend, her fear said.

But we can learn so much about the other side if we do, her rational mind retorted, And the Army is already here. A swordsman is no danger to a squad with guns.

"We should go to the Army with this immediately," Shih said excitedly, "They'll back a scouting expedition at once, to find their missing guys."

Fleming shook his head. "Neutrinos aren't something we can just generate at scale with the equipment we have here. We need something radioactive in the right way like a reactor, or an accelerator. The military doesn't have those laying around and those that already exist are not hugely portable."

Anne sighed. "It'll be too expensive," she concluded, "Or it'll take a long time."

"For the military alone anyway," Fournier agreed, "So it would be very difficult to keep secret even if they did have the money laying around. Plus there's no guarantee our hypothesis is correct, even if the math and sequence of events checks out."

Shin grit her teeth and turned to Anne. "We have to convince the government," she said, "This is the biggest discovery in the history of the world. We'll fly back to Ottawa tomorrow."

Anne said nothing. She didn't know how they could possibly do what Shih said, when it came down to it. If it couldn't be done secretly, it might not happen at all. Canada having access to the resources of an entire world and the ethics of accessing them was all too controversial to be done correctly.

"Doctor Cloutier!" said a familiar voice.

Anne turned to find Teixeira pacing hard over towards the table, fully armed, a few other soldiers trailing behind him. Warmth rising, she quickly caught herself before her eyes ate him up and redirected them towards his own. Steady, Anne. Steady. "Corporal, how are you?" she asked as casually as she could.

Shih snorted, softly enough so the man didn't hear it. Too obvious.

"I'm well," Teixeira replied, with a smile that died quickly, "It's good you're all here. You need to come now. Everyone at this table." He thumbed over his shoulder.

Anne stood up. "What's wrong?"

"Can't tell you in here. Too many non-cleared people." Teixeira looked to a table at the other side of the room. Anne saw a few Parks Canada guys sitting with her backs to her, both craning their necks to look up at the Corporal. They had been brought in to turn the surrounding area into a national historic site, and had no real idea about the Spiral. Damn it.

She grabbed her coat from the back of her seat and slung it on, following Teixeira. He spun on his heel and moved on. The scraping of twenty or so chairs behind Anne told her that the others were on their feet too.

Outside, the sun beamed down from the south, turning the snow mushy underfoot. The smells of food disappeared, replaced by fresh but cold air smelling of nothing much at all.

Teixeira navigated the outer buildings used mostly for support and logistics, before reaching the chain link fence with barbed wire on it. The gate through was guarded by armoured vehicles with nasty and large looking cannons on them, with military police on the outside and full-blown soldiers on the inside.

Teixeira flashed his access badge at the police and they let him through at once, but stopped Anne to look properly at hers. The female officer in charge looked between the little laminated paper and her face three times, and scowled. "That's a terrible photo of you, Dr. Cloutier," she said, handing the badge back.

Anne scowled back. "It was taken after I had been awake for thirty hours," she replied, "Want to see how you look after that?"

The cop smiled with no shortage of sarcasm, then waved Anne through, seeing to the growing queue of scientists behind. Teixeira was waiting, and continued to wait as the others made it through.

"Not going to tell us what this is about?" Anne asked.

"Nope," Teixeira replied.

Anne shook once with a silent laugh. "Just like the Angel Eyes thing," she said, "You could loosen up a bit. You might like it." I know I'd like it immensely.

Teixeira rolled his eyes. "Loosen up and I might get my head cut off by some thing coming out of that rock formation. And stop asking about Lieutenant Duquesne. You're not going to crack me."

"Oh?" Anne said, cocking her head, "Not even a little?"

Teixeira's eyes stared off into the distance, little creases on the edges of his mouth forming. "You're not stuck up like most of the scientists," he said, "So I'll say this, if you'll shut up about it from now on and tell no one. Agreed?"

Anne said nothing back, and kept her face placid as could be. Teixeira took that as acceptance of his terms.

"As far as I'm concerned, Duquesne is a murderer and a thief. Reason I can't have you speaking about it is that not everyone agrees in the platoon. And the brass definitely feel different about it."

What the hell did the missing lieutenant do that his former subordinate thinks he's a murderer… Anne's mind ran for a moment, and joined a few dots. "So he's their murderer and thief?"

Teixeira did not reply, but looked at her the same way she had looked at him a moment before, giving nothing away.

Anne, tu l'as mis dans le mille. She ventured to cool him off. "Doesn't mean he deserves to be abandoned."

"Just as long as we're bringing him back for a trial, not a hero's welcome," Teixeira growled. The last person soon after made it through the checkpoint. "Alright, follow me, let's go!"

The Corporal took off at a soft jog, most of the snow having been cleared the rest of the way by a big yellow bulldozer sitting nearby. Shih cursed under her breath, but fell in with Anne as they ran to catch up.

The destination was the Spiral itself. All the stones were down for once, and the new shoulder high fence around it looked like it had been ripped from a cattle farm. A collection of about twenty armed soldiers was waiting, most of them aiming their weapons into the Spiral itself, where a dark figure was standing.

Anne couldn't make out the details with so many soldiers in the way, but it wasn't hard to guess that this was the reason for the call-back from lunch.

One man wearing the three chevrons of a Sergeant stepped forward to intercept them.

"Corporal, what took you so long?" said in a Scottish accent, "Couldn't shift the civvies quickly enough?"

Teixeira shifted his weight awkwardly. "No, sir."

He's going to get chewed on. Anne cleared her throat. "There's a checkpoint we all had to come through, and only one officer who can do the checking for some reason. Might explain the delay."

The Sergeant bristled. "Aye, I'm no dafty, but an order is an order."

Anne sucked in a breath in annoyance. Good thing I'm a 'civvie' who doesn't have to mind my words. "What's your name?"

The man's mouth moved like he was chewing a cigar. "Sergeant MacDonald."

I asked your name, not for your rank. "Stupid orders are stupid, Sergeant," Anne replied coolly, "Now move aside. Something is happening, and complaining about the delay is delaying us more."

The Sergeant's face went blank, though his fist coiled and uncoiled around a stress ball that didn't exist. "Aye," he said, before raising his voice, "You scientists get to work!"

"Asshole," Shih muttered under her breath, as the other scientists broke up and went to the various forms of recording equipment placed in an arc around the Spiral. Anne shot a disapproval at her with a gesture to calm down, though the geneticist had no real place to go.

The Sergeant turned about and marched back to the group of soldiers. "Lieutenant, the head scientist is here!" A tall soldier in a green beret switched places with him, her black hair tied up in a tight bun behind her head. Anne recognised who it was from the various meetings she had attended with the officers, and this woman stood out in any crowd.

"Lieutenant Jones," she said, "What is going on?"

The officer turned her head towards the figure, her mouth thinned when it returned to view.

"New stuff with holographic ghosts," came the reply in a husky voice, accompanied with a curling finger, "Follow me."

Anne found herself escorted right up to the fence by the Lieutenant, Shih sneaking along behind unnoticed. They came up beside the soldiers behind it, and the figure in the middle of the space was revealed.

In many ways, it was like the ice creatures from before. Medieval armour, a sword, long silver hair. But it wasn't an ice creature, it was a man. Anne judged him to be in his fifties. He had a striking red birthmark that spilled from his face, over his chin and down his neck. He wore black clothes and a thick black wool cloak.

"What in the world…" Anne breathed.

"Yeah, that was what I said," Jones said, "Guy has tried speaking to us, but we're not understanding a word. He walked the perimeter too, seems very interested in us. We were hoping you could help us. You know a bunch of languages, right?"

Anne glanced back at Doctor Shih. "Not that it will matter, but between the two of us, we know quite a few, yes," she said.

Lieutenant Jones' head snapped back as she noticed the geneticist hanging back, evidently not expecting her presence. "If you're both willing to go out there, I'll send you with a small escort. He can't hurt you in theory, but we're taking no chances."

Hell yes. "I'll go," Anne said at once.

"Me too," Shih added.

Jones smirked, then spoke into her microphone. Two more soldiers arrived nearby, both tall young men that were still nonetheless shorter than the Lieutenant. Their rifles were in hand, which Anne found oddly comforting. How strange to feel safer around guns.

"Corporal Taylor and Private Williams will escort you," Jones said, "They've already volunteered to be put into the Spiral."

"So if we find ourselves on the other side, we'll protect you," said Williams with a wink.

"If we can," Taylor agreed softly.

No point in delay, or we'll upset that Sergeant more. Anne put her foot up on the fence. "Let's go." She climbed like it was on her father's cattle farm and swung her legs over to drop onto the Spiral. Jones ordered the two soldiers over to do the same, though Taylor helped Shih up first before climbing himself.

The four volunteers quickly found themselves alone with the apparition, whose eyes quickly locked onto their presence. A shiver went through Anne, and it wasn't from the cold wind. Discovery is never comfortable, she reminded herself, And you're on camera, don't embarrass yourself! She moved towards the objective of their being there at all.

Closer proximity did nothing to cure her fears. The man was scarred badly. He had lost an eye and the socket was empty, something that a wave of hair had hidden until she had moved near enough. His expression was sharp, his face carved with lines from both creases and old wounds.

Anne steeled herself, walking even faster towards him. The soldiers with her must have panicked, because they ran ahead of her and took a knee, aiming their weapons at the apparition. Corporal Taylor held a palm behind him to get her to halt.

It didn't matter, they were in civilised speaking distance now, and the visitor didn't seem to mind the weapons. If anything, his remaining red eye seemed to gleam and his expression soften on seeing the rifles. What's that about?

"Hello," Anne said, "I'm Anne." She tapped the front of her coat. Understand please. "Anne."

The man stopped staring at the weapons, and bowed slightly at the waist. As he raised himself up again, he spoke. He repeated her name and said what could only be a greeting, before introducing himself. His voice was strained, like he was far older than his outside seemed to suggest. The tone was quite obviously polite, but the name was difficult to catch. The first name spoken vaguely sounded like Brandon, but the second was entirely alien.

It was frustrating enough to make Anne want to claw at her face. Progress is progress, she reminded herself, If he understands what a name is, maybe he knows the names of the missing. "Do you know Michael Duquesne? Patrick O'Neill?"

"Zheng? Singh?" Dr. Shih added, "Arran? Sayer?"

A crooked smile broke onto his face, revealing yellowed teeth. He gave a single slow nod, gestured to Taylor and Williams, then spoke what could only be an affirmative.

Anne nodded rapidly, almost jumping and unable keep the smile off her face. They're alive! Which means this IS a portal or space fold. The two soldiers lowered their weapons slightly and stood, evidently getting the picture too.

"Well, they're alive," Shih said in triumph, "Which means we were right all along. How do we ask him where the missing guys are?"

"Good question," said Williams, moving his attention off the man, "Think he can read English?"

"Not likely," Taylor replied, still fully engrossed in keeping the apparition in sight.

Anne bit her lip and thought about it.. Not quite as easy to communicate that with hands. "Duquesne," she said, before pointing her two forefingers at her own eyes, "Where is he?" She spread her hands in the classic 'where' gesture, hoping it was ubiquitous enough to translate.

The figure brought his hand to his face, not quite touching it. He pointed behind himself, around his side. Anne didn't quite get it.

"Behind him? With him?" Shih asked herself, pacing a half circle as if trying to look in the direction he had indicated, "Though if he's there with him, wherever there is, why is he not projected too? And why does a medieval guy have a holographic projector that can transmit to another part of the universe in the first place? So many questions!" The geneticist was practically vibrating now.

The apparition narrowed his single remaining eye, but was interrupted by a loud caw. A massive crow flew into the Spiral. An arm was offered and the bird landed on him, cawing again and again. The man moved closer to Anne to get her attention, causing Taylor and Williams to raise their rifles again. Once he had it, he pointed at the sun, and held up three fingers.

"Three days?" Anne guessed aloud, "He'll come back in three days?"

"Good bet if I ever heard one," Shih replied. Which was her way of saying she was certain, given she was the best poker player Anne had ever met.

With his message communicated, the man disappeared, his form dissolving into transparency, the projection over.

"Alright, you've done your jobs," Corporal Taylor declared, "Move out of the Spiral before the mean, ice demon-looking assholes come back. Angel Eyes might handle them but you certainly can't." He turned his rifle sideways, as if to corral a reluctant Shih away from the centre of the area. The geneticist complied, though not without childishly sticking her tongue out at the Corporal, getting a really sort of stare back.

Anne walked away with Williams without trouble, wishing they could've had more time. We're so close to cracking this mystery, three days can't come fast enough.