Utility Company (Book 1): Blink

by Swardstrom, Will

  “After you get through the last mirror you’ll find yourself in the engine room. You have to go to the far side of the room and you’ll see another panel like this one. All you have to do is do the scan and thumb it, at the same time that Smith thumbs this one. That’s why you have the earpiece, to time it just right. “

  “Ok.” Nik stepped up to the mirror and took a deep breath.

  Smith grabbed his shoulder before he could step in. “In a little bit, I will not be able to talk for about fifteen minutes,” Smith said. “But you will be able to talk to Hoppy and Marie. If you get off track or need help, call on Hoppy. It sounds like he knows what he’s doing. As for timing our thumbs, tap the earpiece twice when you’re ready, then tap it again in a three-count. I’ll be ready for you.”

  Nik nodded a bit nervously. “All right, two taps, then three.”

  “Yes,” Smith said. “Now, remember what he said. Know who you are when you go in there.”

  Nik smiled with more assurance than he felt and turned back to the portal. He thought about himself, his identity. Nik Davidson, husband of Penny, father of Sisco and Kira. History teacher, science fiction…aficionado…check that‌—‌nerd. Ten years at Calvary Road Baptist Church, faith is lacking at the moment. Nik sent up a quick prayer. He could use all the help he could get. I’m going because…because I have to get my family back. I have to. Good. That’s settled. Nik took a breath, expelled it, and stepped through…

  _____

  Smith turned back to Hoppy after Nik stepped through. “Okay, two things and then you go.” He eyed the door. Something seemed different about it.

  “First what’s up with fifteen years? That’s an awfully specific number to be throwing around. Second, you’ve only had contact with our world?”

  Hoppy smiled. “Actually, it’s the other way around. Your world broke the barrier with us first about a decade and a half ago.”

  “Damn. Bridges?”

  “Yes. Uh, how did you know that?”

  “I was a junior agent under Agent Street at the time. Is Bridges here? On this side?”

  “Yes. He’s the reason why we have all this. Actually, Bridges and Bridges‌—‌both of them.”

  It was clicking together in Smith’s head. Fifteen years, that might mean… He got out the little pack and got down on one knee, pulling things out. He looked up at Hoppy and said, “You’d better scoot.”

  Hoppy took a look over at the door and his eyes opened wide. The surface was already shimmering. He took a couple steps to leave and began to run. Smith was busy. He put new contacts in, pulled out his sidearm and removed the clip. He pulled a new one out of the bag, shoved it in and put two more in place on his belt.

  Then, one more thing to make it complete. One piece of chewing gum. He put it in and grimaced. No matter what minty flavor they put on top of it, nothing could mask that taste. Breathe…in…out….inn… oout… iiinn…

  Smith thumbed a switch on the sidearm and everything changed. Let them come. He was ready.

  _____

  … and stepped down. There was a portal about four feet in front of him and portals on each side and more. Nik froze in confusion. He glanced to his left and the portals continued off into the far horizon. He looked to the right and saw the same. Being sure to keep his feet rooted in one place, he looked backwards. There was one portal going back. That was a relief. He turned around and looked at where he was supposed to go.

  Was this some sort of physical manifestation or philosophical allegory? There is but one path behind us but before us the choices are beyond measure? Nik had never really been one for philosophy and this didn’t seem to be the time to start. He took a step forward and began to feel the pull from the portals on each side. It was like an actual pull on the mind, bending it towards…what might have been?

  Nik closed his eyes and let his thoughts drift to the right side. Nik and Penny have three children. Dax is so lively, always bouncing off everything. She’ll be in kindergarten next year.

  He opened his eyes, and glanced to the left. That was all he needed. Whatever was to the left was much too painful to bear. He reminded himself of who he was. Nik Davidson, husband of Penny, father of Sisco and Kira. History teacher, science fiction nerd. Church-goer, wife-supporter, loving-father…Time to take another step. Nik walked up to the center mirror and stepped through…

  _____

  The shimmer faded out and as it did, Smith watched the movement on the other side. His senses slowed; he could take the time to examine each motion. That was an arm, someone walked in front of that one. Another was pointing left, then stop, then right. A nod on the left, and someone running in the background.

  The view through the door was limited, but there were a minimum of five people through there. There were probably more. Smith lifted his firearm and aimed at the one man standing center in the back of the cavern. shift…click. The sighting mechanism in the contact lenses gave him a target. He squeezed gently and in his own perception, the trigger slowly engaged and a projectile eased out of the sidearm at a leisurely pace towards the target. The man was nodding his head, acknowledging the pointed directions when it hit.

  The projectile splintered on impact, and the man on the other side of the portal convulsed as he fell. Smith knew he would eventually be all right, but would be out of commission for the next half hour. That should be long enough.

  The other men were still in the process of diving out of the way. Smith blinked to clear the last target and attempted to find another. Too late. Even with sped up perception, he could only force his body to do so much.

  He slipped behind an outcropping and waited.

  _____

  … and stepped down. Nik looked around. It was the same scene. There were portals ad infinitum on each side of the one in front of him, but only one behind. He stayed careful about going forward but stopped when he felt the pull again.

  To the right, Nik and Penny only had one child. Sylvie was the joy of their lives, but a medical issue kept Penny from conceiving another. They were discussing adoption, but were not convinced.

  Nik shook his head. He turned to the left. Kira was sick. Very sick. Her life now measured in days or weeks. The girl had a strong spirit and she was so inspiring to everyone she came in contact with, but Nik dreaded the day.

  He shook his head again. I am Nik Davidson, husband of Penny, father of Sisco and Kira. They are both healthy and strong. I love them and they love me. He took a step…

  … and found himself in front of a row of mirrors, yet again.

  Inside, something stirred. This was ridiculous. He knew who he was and what he was about. Why bother with the infinite possibilities? He approached the next portal. On the right, he had pursued a career in the minor leagues. On the left, he had never met Penny. He took a step...

  … and found himself in front of a row of mirrors, yet again. This was going to get old real quick.

  _____

  The men on the other side had a plan. Smith could see it beginning to form through the portal. In a few moments of real time, men would be storming through the opening one at a time in an attempt to overwhelm him. In the meantime, they were setting up some cover fire. Someone was behind a rock formation and they were occasionally firing in his general direction. It was obvious they hadn’t seen him yet.

  He was counting between the shots, and there was a pattern. The guy shooting the gun probably didn’t realize it, but THERE! Smith in one motion leaped, shift… click… fired and rolled. One less problem to come through, but there was that guy sneaking through right now.

  Smith launched himself to the right as he came up from his roll. It was two steps to catch up to the guy trying to sneak through and then a leg sweep. The man fell and put a hand out as he did. Smith sensed that the man was off balance, so he pushed up on the hips that were falling towards him, throwing the man on his head. Smith fired once and turned back to the door.

  He was now completely to the side of the door and had
no visibility of what was going to come through. Not good.

  _____

  Nik’s head was spinning. In the last several minutes, he had encountered too many different versions of his own history to count, and it was all starting to crowd in on him. Nik Davidson. Boyfriend‌—‌no, lover, no! Husband to Penelope? Nelly? Nella? …Penny. Father. of. Kira. and. Sisco.

  He stood in front of another of the countless mirrors and sighed. How many? He could sense a life without Penny but with someone else off to the right. Was that his first college girlfriend? To the left, devastation. The left almost never seemed like a happy ending, and when it did it seemed sickeningly sweet somehow, as if it was too good to be true.

  He took a step…and found himself in someplace new. The possibilities in his head faded away, and with relief he realized he had made it to the engine. It was a large domed cavern, obviously helped along in that shape. It was reinforced with rounded girders at the top connected to arches coming down on eight sides. In the middle of the room were eight posts, each surrounded by their own smaller rods, equidistant, creating some sort of a field in the exact center of the room. Nik tried to examine it, but he found that something inside of him felt as if it were twisting up just looking at it. He looked away, but still felt a persistent buzzing coming at him from the direction of that field.

  The Engine. It didn’t appear to be a power source. However, it was certainly manipulating power, great quantities of it from the looks of it. Nik thought it more likely that the machine in this room enabled the mirrors to become portals. On the outside edge of the room lay a ring of workstations, each with an array of monitors. Actually, he corrected himself, there was a ring of monitors all around whatever that thing in the middle of the room is called. Singularity? Nik decided to brush up on his science when he got home.

  He started walking through the room and the monitors brightened up, sensing his presence. He looked up at them and started passing what appeared to be news websites.

  Tim Tebow prepares the Browns for the Super Bowl…President Winfrey in Syria for peace talks…Katy Perry marries Zac Efron…In a strike-shortened season, the Minnesota Vikings win the Super Bowl. Titans and Suh lose…Al-Qaeda gains ground in Florida and New England…Tom Bergeron wins Golden Globe for best actor in a dramatic presentation…Rocky XV Coming Soon...

  This must be a peek into other realities. Hoppy had said…wait a minute, he had an earpiece. “Hoppy, can you hear me?”

  There was an awkward pause. “Nik? You made it through the tunnel? I wasn’t sure you would.”

  “Yeah. It was...intense. I’m sure I know who I am now. After a while, the whole thing just kind of pissed me off.”

  “Oh. Right. You’re one of those. So, you’re in the engine room now?”

  “Yes. Where am I going?”

  “The opposite side of the room from where you are now.” Nik was already walking that way as he said it. “Try to ignore all the monitors.”

  “Right. What are they showing me?”

  “Other Earths. We have enough that we can get in and occasionally make a network connection with some of them, but that’s about the best we can do. Those are just the ones we can access. There are so many more out there that are just plain inaccessible by us at all.”

  Nik found the panel. “So, I found it. Eye scan and thumb it?”

  “Yes. Give Smith your signal after the eye scan.”

  “Right.” He flipped open the hatch and got to work.

  _____

  As Smith paused, three more men burst through going in three different directions. At the speed his perceptions were going, nothing was going fast. Smith lifted his sidearm and the sight in the contacts dilated shift click. He fired on the first one heading toward the back of the room. That one went down quivering while the second one was coming straight towards Smith. Smith noticed the steps. Left…right…left…the body mass lowered. The man planned to tackle him. Smith spun out to the left and brought the grip down on the back of the man’s head.

  Tap, tap. Ok...That will be Nik ready for the three-count. Smith turned and fired on the man falling awkwardly to the ground. Before the stunned body could even come to a rest on the floor, Smith had launched himself back toward the panel.

  Where was that third guy? Smith let his perceptions speed around the room as he raced toward his goal. There he was. Around a corner, getting ready to fire. Smith saw the squeeze happening, the gun pointed low in a direction Smith might normally roll. Instead, Smith willed his body to stop on a dime and dove left. As he floated in air, the shot pinged to his right. Smith raised his weapon and the contacts dilated shift…shift…shift…he fired, but there was nothing to hit. Whoever it was had fired and run.

  Smith got up and rushed toward the panel. Tap…there he was down the far side of the cavern running away. Tap…a hand reached through the mirror. Was that Quincy? Tap…Smith thumbed the panel and stepped back. A moist thud happened behind him. A forearm and hand was lying on the floor. And, there on the hand, the class ring that Quincy always wore.

  Smith took off down the hallway. If that was Quincy, there was a good chance the guy who made it through was Jones.

  He reached up and tapped his earpiece once. It would take a while for Marie to respond. He leapt over an obstacle on the floor and stopped at a corner, weapon held ready. Marie responded. “Q?” She kept her response short so he would be able to hear and understand what she was saying.

  Likewise, he needed to speak in such a way she could understand while he was in this state. “Chase. Scout.”

  Tap tap. Affirmative on that. One more moment. He checked his watch. Five minutes until the gum wore off.

  “Clear.”

  Smith accelerated around the corner and saw three directions ahead: an upwards leading offshoot going left, a passage turning sharply right just beyond that and a generally straight path that eventually turned off on its own. “Q?”

  “Go.” He ignored the left offshoot. “Tight. Go.” At the right offshoot, he sped around and kept going. If he had his directions straight, this would lead back towards the center of the caverns.

  Marie kept ahead of him now. “Go...Aft...Go...Go...Go…Tight…beeeep!” She had grabbed her earpiece and held it. The runner must be nearby. “Tight. Go. Tight.” Smith peeked around the corner and saw a dead-end cavern on the right. The runner must be on the right.

  Smith checked his watch. Less than two minutes remaining. Advantage gone after that.

  He heard a voice and had to slow it down in his own mind. It wasn’t hard. It was one word. “How?”

  Should he respond? He chose not to. Yet.

  Marie checked in. “Left portal. Go.” He glanced left and saw the shimmer. On the other side was a man’s back. He dove at it and caught a shoulder as the other man began to spin away. Thinning and graying black hair, some scruff on the chin. That was Jones, all right. He lifted his weapon, but saw Jones fingering something on his wrist. Not again! Smith dove back the way he came and felt the force field blast help him on his way.

  He landed back in the hallway and noticed the portal immediately across from him shimmering. Way to go Marie. He scrambled to his feet, dove through and landed on Jones’ back. Jones sloughed the weight off and rolled out. Both guns went skittering across the floor.

  Jones straightened while Smith came to a ready stance. “Left.” He heard in his ear. A new portal was shimmering. It was now or never. He feinted left, jabbed right, ducked under a swing and shoved. Jones wobbled back off balance and Smith rounded with a kick. Jones flew through the open portal. Smith dipped, grabbed the closest weapon that he could reach and fired at the man’s thigh. The bullet went through and through.

  Smith looked down at the weapon in his hand. It was not Smith’s gun. It was Jones’.

  He looked back at Jones. He was in an octagon-shaped room with mirrors on all sides. Smith couldn’t help but give a wry chuckle at the room. There was always something new in this mission. Jones was lying on the
floor in the middle. It looked like there was an old bloodstain there already and the leg wound was adding new red to the old brown.

  The effect the gum provided was beginning to wear off. He could feel the mother of all headaches about to start.

  “How? How did you get all of us?” Jones asked, trying to crawl on the floor.

  “We made some advancements of our own in the last fifteen years.” Smith looked down at this man, the embodiment of one of his greatest friends. “I don’t get it. You and I have always been tight in my world. What could possibly motivate you to do everything you’ve done?” Smith could feel exhaustion seeping into every muscle of his body. He needed to stand just a little longer.

  “You have no idea what it’s like for us. We’re going on the offensive to take back control, and you stood in our way...both times. I’m glad I got to tap you at least once, Smith,” Jones said, motioning to his head. “His head popped like a tomato, don’t you think?”

  Smith shook his head. “Damn you. It’s such a strange sensation to be doing this but I have no choice. You were my friend. I can’t tell you how very sorry I am about this.” He tapped his earpiece twice and the portal shimmered away in front of him. He could hear a scream coming from the other room before the shimmer cut it off.

  Legs increasingly weak, Smith slumped to the floor. “Marie, I’m going to need some help.” He tried to breathe deeply, but it wasn’t enough. All sight faded to nothing, faded to black. He passed out.

  September 11, 2001 11:53 p.m.