The Far Side

by Wylie, Gina Marie

  “Yeah, I imagine that’s a good idea. See you two then.”

  “We got the camera and rifle back this morning,” Kris told him.

  “Cool! That’s amazing! Evidently where the other side is located isn’t terribly sensitive to anything that you changed with the new machine. It’ll be exciting to figure out why. I’ve been trying to work out the math, but nothing leaps out at me.”

  “Well, we’re at Crenshaw now, and then we’ve got more errands to run. We’ll be in touch.”

  She hung up and sighed. She wasn’t as bitter at Kit as Andie was. Yeah, he shouldn’t have done it, but there were arguments in favor of what he did, and things had turned out significantly better than she had ever imagined -- and he was kind of cute.

  Ezra was hovering not far from Andie and she smiled inwardly. Ezra was, she was sure, far more of a match for Andie than Kit. She knew the four studio employees had taken one look at him, and knew exactly what he was. That wasn’t going to hurt Andie’s creds, because while personal guards weren’t that uncommon, they were an indication of status. And it was a good sign that Ezra knew that he was supposed to guard Andie and not Kris, no matter who had hired him.

  About four they were back at Crenshaw with another load of stuff. While they were driving around, Ezra talked in general terms about what they should expect from a security standpoint.

  “Most things are obvious,” he told them. “If someone you don’t know calls and wants to meet you, don’t go off alone with them.”

  “As if I ever would!” Andie sniffed in derision.

  “Sometimes it just happens -- you’re expecting a call and it seems innocent enough. Just resist the temptation not to bother with security.

  “Don’t consistently go to the same places at the same time of day. Sure, you have a job site, your homes and all of that. That ties you down, but it’s a controllable problem, particularly if you vary the times you come and go.

  “Make the other side work. I know it sounds juvenile and trivial, but work out code words for everything. Don’t spend much, if any time on them, and keep them simple. For instance, Site A could be A for Andie’s house. Site B for Kris Boyle’s, Site C is Crenshaw. Buildings one, two, three. Something like that. Simple, but just enough to make someone have to work a bit.”

  “And this is effective?” Kris asked doubtfully.

  “Well, if it takes them ten minutes to figure it out, that’s ten minutes they are wasting their time, not doing something more effective to plot against you. No, it’s not much, but it’s a distraction. Besides, talking in a foreign language in front of strangers is a popular pastime around the world.”

  Ezra left and the two young women talked for a while. “Tomorrow, Kris, I’ll take any adventurous Caltech alumni through for a short tour. I’ve got my notes on the computer now from the other day, and I’ll work on that map. After I get back, you and Ezra can go and expand on it. As I say, I was keeping the laser on steadily, sweeping it around. I found one passage of at least sixty feet beyond the wall of that chamber and another between three and four times that. There were a couple of spots that were further than sixty feet as well. The room is a beehive shape, about eighty feet tall in the middle.”

  “I forgot to ask Kit about radios. We need better communication. It was too close the other time,” Kris reminded her friend.

  “Right! Well, I know I was kidding everyone about the door being closed for the time being, but if we can’t get radios to work, I’m thinking we need something else. Two cans and a piece of string, if nothing else.”

  “Yeah, I was thinking the other day, we should get a bunch of emergency supplies if we’re seriously going to explore there. Food, you know, hiker meals like we’ve had, water, candles -- a lot of survival gear. Then before we do anything else, move it through and stack it in the dead end of the cave. That way...”

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea! I keep waiting for the old man to scream about his credit card bill. He got it a week ago, and he usually pays things pretty quick. I don’t know what kind of limit he has on it, but I have to be pushing it.”

  “I’ll talk to my dad. He can set up a line of credit for us. It would probably make accounting a lot easier, anyway.”

  They parted and Kris went home. Her father arrived later than her mother for a change, and supper was Chinese takeout. Right in the middle of it, Kris got a call.

  “Kris,” Andie told her.

  Kris frowned. There was something wrong with Andie’s voice. She wasn’t sure what, but it wasn’t normal.

  “Andie.”

  “Could you come over? Now?”

  She grimaced... okay tomorrow was Sunday, so it was no big... except it was after ten at night. She knew for a fact her mother’s car was blocking her truck in the driveway. She looked at her parents at the dinner table. They wouldn’t even be happy with her driving by herself at this hour... When in doubt, ask.

  “Andie wants me to come over. It’s important.”

  Her mother inclined her head and looked at Kris. “I’ll take you.”

  That was a surprise. Kris told Andie she was coming and gathered up her phone and purse. When they got in her mother’s car, her mother started the car engine, but didn’t turn on the lights and made no move to put it in gear.

  “I’m a doctor, you understand?” her mother told Kris.

  “I’ve always understood.”

  “We have an ethical code that some play fast and loose with these days. I don’t. Please, let me come in with you.”

  Kris frowned. That was so astonishing, as to be virtually unbelievable. “Sure.”

  They arrived and her mother walked with Kris to the front door. Andie was there and opened it before they could ring the bell. Otto Schulz was sitting on a sofa, the big screen TV showing some sports recap show, but the sound was muted.

  Andie tugged on Kris’s hand, and dragged her into the bedroom without saying a word. Kris would have assumed that her father had grounded Andie if it wasn’t for her mother’s odd behavior.

  “What is it, Andie?”

  “I’m being a cow. A cry baby. If you’re here, you’ll keep me from making more of a fool of myself.”

  “What?”

  “My old man hasn’t been spending as much time at the sports bar as I thought. He’s been spending a lot of time with some fucking lawyer and at Cedars-Sinai.”

  Cedars-Sinai was the hospital where Kris’s mother was a research doctor. And a major hospital in the LA area.

  “What’s he doing there?”

  “He has cancer. The Big C. Inoperable. He’s known for a couple of months. He’s telling me now because he’s at the point where he’s going to have to go in the hospital. It is, he tells me, unlikely he’ll be getting out again. Not ever.”

  “Oh, Andie!”

  “The stupid bastard didn’t even tell me!” she broke into tears and buried her head on Kris’ chest.

  Kris rubbed her friend’s head and back, trying to be comforting. Andie sobbed for about two minutes then pulled back, wiping away the tears.

  “I told myself I wasn’t going to do that,” she told Kris.

  “Oh yeah, sure! You hear that kind of news every day, and take it in stride, each and every time.” Kris didn’t mention what had happened when Andie’s mother had died.

  Andie sighed. “He’s been seeing the lawyers to get his estate in order, so there’s no probate and there’s no doubt what will happen to it. He’s been getting sicker and sicker, not wanting to go in the hospital until I was eighteen, as that would make it easier. Now, he says, close enough.”

  “Andie! Anything, anything you want, I’ll help!”

  Andie gestured at her closed closet door. “That’s what I want! The Otto Schulz fusion process! Otto Schulz’s doors to wherever the fuck they go!” She didn’t cry on Kris’s shoulder again, but the tears were back.

  Andie wiped them away and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re sorry? Andie, you’re
off your nut! I’m the one who is sorry! Like I said, if you need help with anything -- even buying more Hot Pockets, you know how to find me!”

  That brought an ephemeral smile to Andie’s face. “I guess. I just -- I wanted you to know. This changes nothing, you hear! Nothing! We go on as planned!”

  Kris nodded.

  There was a soft knock on Andie’s door, and she went to it. Her father was there, Kris’s mother behind him.

  “Helen says I need to look in your closet.”

  “You go fuck yourself!” Andie said without hesitation. “And she can fuck herself twice!”

  “Andrea, I’m your father. I’m checking out, you understand? I know you do things to suit yourself, but this is the first time you’ve done something important without telling me about it. Please.”

  Andrea threw the door to her bedroom wide open, stalked over to her closet and banged that door against the wall, hard enough to break the doorstop and send the door handle through the plasterboard.

  Otto looked at the machine and chuckled. “Rube Goldberg! Rube Goldberg! Report to the Schulz residence! You’re needed on the floor!”

  He smiled at Andie. “Did you know some fuckin’ assholes from the power company were here earlier? There’s something fuckin’ wrong with the power here, some fucking suit told me. Someone rewired one of their poles a week ago, and now this area has had periods were there is almost zero power consumption. I told him to go fuck himself.”

  “Well, that’s because their fucking meters run as well backwards as forward. I thought I had to bypass the fucking meter, but it’s able to handle what I’m putting into the line,” Andie spat out the words angrily.

  “And what would you be putting into their lines, Andie?”

  “Juice. Current. 240 volts of sixty cycle power.”

  “I used to fancy myself as an electrician,” he told her. “What kind of amps?”

  “Two hundred,” she said, meeting his eyes defiantly.

  “I sure the fuck hope you haven’t forgotten all that shit I taught you.”

  “Nope! It broke once, but it wasn’t anything to do with the power.”

  “And this is the eight thousand dollar ding on my last credit card bill?” he waved at the machine.

  “About six thousand. I took a few wrong turns.”

  He laughed. “And here, I thought I had a fuckin’ daughter who was pure geeky airhead nerd! Just goes to show you how much dynamite you can pack in a small package!”

  His eyes lit on the .460 leaning in one corner. “And of course, my elephant gun is to keep those nasty suits away?”

  “There’s something else. You wouldn’t approve.”

  “As you may have noticed Andie, the last couple of years, I’ve given you pretty much a free shot at things.”

  “You wouldn’t approve,” Andie said stubbornly.

  “How does it work?” Helen Boyle asked. “How can you get that kind of power out this, whatever it is?”

  “Fusion,” Andie said simply.

  “Jesus!” Helen Boyle drew out the word and emphasized the last syllable. “Yeah, I wouldn’t approve either! In your closet! Are you crazy?”

  “There’s no radiation here. None. Most of the products are alpha particles...”

  “Alpha particles are radiation the last I heard!” Helen interrupted her.

  Andie gave her a bird. “If you know so much, just what is the mean free path of an alpha particle at sea level, in the atmosphere?”

  “I have no idea. No doubt, you do.”

  “I do. About three feet at the energies involved here. However, that’s in the air. A piece of paper will stop 99% of them. In this case, they come off charged and are what I use to create the power. Alpha particles are, by the way, helium nuclei, without electrons.”

  “Can it explode?” Otto asked.

  “No. Not even theoretically. That globe is a charged cathode, and the various particles to be fused are inertially confined. They are attracted to the center, where the charge is, accelerate all the way, and if a boron atom hits a hydrogen atom going the other way hard enough, they fuse to make excited carbon-12. That breaks down almost at once into three alpha particles. Anything that doesn’t fuse, starts slowing down, runs out of steam and then turns around and heads back, for another pass. Put in enough atoms of fuel, and things happen. Fusion.”

  “And it can’t explode?” Helen asked.

  “No. The cathode would break, if things got too energetic. All kinds of things would break. Without the potential well, the fusion stops. In any case, I’m using about a hundred grams of boron at a time and five hundred grams of hydrogen. I have to keep topping them up, because the fusion depends on how often the ions hit each other. If the densities fall off too far, the fusion stops.”

  “So, what isn’t it I would approve of?” Otto asked.

  “You know how fond I am of Star Gate SG 1? That.”

  “That? You’re shitting me!”

  “Fuck no!”

  “What are you talking about?” Helen asked.

  “I don’t know if it’s a wormhole; I’ve asked a Caltech guy and he doesn’t know either. There are four Caltech geeks coming over tomorrow to look at it. We’ll figure it out eventually.”

  “Can I see it?” Otto asked.

  “It’ll take a few minutes. There’s not much to see,” Andie admitted.

  “Show me,” he said firmly.

  Andie sighed and started things running.

  Helen touched Kris’s arm. “This is what Oliver was talking about the other day, wasn’t he? About a project you and Andie are going to work on over the summer?”

  “Yes,” Kris told her mother.

  The various steps held their attention and the two adults watched until the blue sheet shimmered into visibility and finally came to rest.

  “And that’s it?” Otto asked.

  “No giant toilet flush,” Andie agreed.

  “Cool. What’s on the other side? Can I see?”

  Andie handed him a flashlight. “It’s dark and there’s not much to see.”

  He took the flashlight and walked up to the blue rectangle, and poked the flashlight through. Sensing nothing out of the ordinary, he leaned forward, no doubt, Kris thought, seeing the happy face.

  Kris was a little shocked when he vanished through it. Her mother gave a little startled sound, but remained quiet. Time dragged and Kris grew a little nervous. Finally Otto was back.

  “A little underwhelming. Where the fuck was I?”

  “I have no idea,” Andie told him. “Around the corner, down the block -- Carlsbad, someplace on another planet half way across the galaxy -- maybe even halfway across the universe. There’s no way to tell yet.”

  He laughed, shutting off the flashlight. “I know you think I’m hopelessly stupid and, compared to you, I probably am. That doesn’t mean the possibility that I was walking on the surface of another planet didn’t give me a hard on.”

  Andie blushed and Kris coughed.

  Otto Schulz turned to Helen Boyle. “My daughter is going to be richer than that fuckin’ piker Bill Gates!”

  Andie started shutting it down and the blue rectangle vanished.

  “I’m not sure I’m following all of this,” Helen said. “What did you see?”

  “A cave or tunnel,” Otto told her. “Not very long, but there’s a bigger room beyond. Bigger than I wanted to explore just now, so I came back.”

  “And why would I disapprove of my daughter exploring a cave? A little dangerous, I suppose, but with the right equipment it wouldn’t be that dangerous.”

  Otto Schulz laughed and turned to Kris. “And I thought I was fuckin’ stupid! Your old lady is really fuckin’ stupid! Dumber than a stump! Jeez! Dumber than me!”

  “Excuse me!” Helen said, drawing herself up. “I’m sorry if I’m not a rocket scientist!”

  “Mom, do you see the blue rectangle?” Kris asked.

  “No, Andie turned it off.”

  “That�
��s right. Guess what you’d see if you were on the other side right now?”

  “Nothing, why?”

  Andie snickered and Otto was shaking his head in mock sorrow.

  “Mom, how would you get back if it was off?”

  Finally it dawned on her what they were talking about. She shrugged and said primly, “You wouldn’t do that to me.”

  “Nope,” Andie said with some of her earlier good cheer. “Not on purpose.”

  Kris could see her mother didn’t fully understand, and when she saw Andie was about to make things abundantly clear, Kris shook her head. Andie promptly subsided.

  “Speaking of stupid,” Helen said, not really understanding what was going on, “Otto has the abbreviation ‘AMA’ stamped in big red letters on his records. That’s ‘Against Medical Advice.’”

  “When I was diagnosed the doctors said I had a one percent chance to be alive after six or eight months with treatment and no chance after four or five months without treatment. I couldn’t see the difference,” Otto said without his usual verisimilitude.

  He turned to Andie. “You and me, we kinda don’t get along that well. Promise me, you won’t hang around when things go bad. They say it really sucks.” He turned his eyes on Helen. “They said it would suck all six months if they treated it, win or lose.”

  That request caught Andie flatfooted. “Whatever.” She ostentatiously closed her closet door. “I’m feeling tired. If you all will excuse me...?”

  Kris went with a little reluctance, her mother with none at all. Her mother didn’t say anything all the way home, which suited Kris. Kris went into her room, stripped out of clothes and crashed across her bed. How was it people could be so different? It had never made any sense to her.

  Kris woke up at seven the next morning. Her mother was already gone, and her father was nearly ready to leave himself. “Are you doing okay, Kris?”

  “Yes. The machine is working again and leads back to the same place.”

  “I’m sorry to hear about Otto.”

  “Yeah. Andie is handling it better than she did her mother’s death -- but not by much.”

  “The meeting with the Caltech people is still on?”

  “Yes.”