The Sphere: A Journey In Time

by Michelle McBeth

  "It's a chance I'll just have to take. Go, Addy!" He pushed the button on his sphere and was gone. I pushed mine as well.

  Chapter 14

  I fell hard on my hands and knees against the white mats on the floor. I closed my eyes against the brightness of the White Box and fought off the wave of nausea, breathing hard. It didn't seem to help. The air, normally clean and odorless, had an acrid smell and felt thick with decay. I coughed up a bit of bile and waited for the voice to ask me my name while continuing to breathe heavily. I collapsed onto the floor and coughed some more, trying to open my eyes against the harsh lights. The white walls slowly came into focus. I didn't see the aides come to take my sphere away. In fact, I saw it laying there still, not far from where I had dropped it. I didn't see anyone at all.

  As my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I realized the normal spot lights were not even on, it was merely the whitewashed walls illuminated by the ambient light that were so intense against my eyes after the gas lamp lit night I had just left. I picked myself back up onto my hands and knees. My time must be off, I thought to myself. I came back early, or late, and no one was expecting me. I leaned over to grab the sphere and noticed the mat had a moldy look and smell about it. They never smelled that great to begin with, but this looked like no one had been in here to clean up the sweat and sick in a few weeks. How late was I?

  I forced my legs to hold my weight as I stood, pocketed the sphere again and staggered over to the exit door into the examination room. I figured from there I'd be able to call someone and get some assistance. The examination room was also unlit like the return chamber, but without the plain white walls it was dark by comparison, and once again I had to wait for my vision to adjust. “Hello?” My voice echoed in the room. Surely someone was watching, someone was always watching. I knew from watching Noah's return video roughly where a camera would be, looked up towards that direction and asked for help. Any second now, someone would come to help me.

  Or perhaps not. If it was the middle of the night there wouldn't be much call for someone to be monitoring this area. Still, I would expect the return chambers to at least have a few alarms. I leaned over the examination table for support while I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I saw a set of clothes piled on a chair near the wall to my left. I took them over to a sink and undressed, throwing the normal clothes on and replaced the sphere in one of the pant’s pockets.

  I turned on the faucet. It sputtered for a moment before some cool water ran out. I splashed my face and wondered if the bathing area would be working. Given the lack of lighting in here, I doubted it. In fact, I didn't see any lights on anywhere. None of the medical equipment had those soft red standby lights that glowed even when they were powered down. I had never been through here at night. Would they actually power down the whole dome? The only light seemed to be coming from the return chamber. I didn’t understand how that could be though, if the lights in there had been off. I rummaged around in a cabinet and found an ambient light disc. I activated it and waited as it rose to hover just above my head. With a little more light surrounding me, I realized the place looked in a state of disarray. Dr. Crebbs seemed a bit anal-retentive, so this took me by surprise.

  I moved on to the next room and looked longingly at the tub, but as I moved closer I noticed the water that pooled at the bottom was dirty and had a green algae-like tint to it. Something in the recesses of my brain told me this was not good. Algae must take several months at least to form in an environment like this. I moved more quickly now through the rooms and reached the hall at nearly a run.

  Like everything else, it was dark. I turned to my right, intent on heading back to the living area dome, but hesitated, remembering the room I sat in just a few days ago while the important looking people debated what to do about Noah. I turned back to the left and walked down the hall past where the older version of Noah had been held briefly. When I reached the door that I thought was the boardroom, I tried the handle. The door was locked. Feeling a bit silly, I knocked on it. I was not surprised by the lack of response. I didn't want to try kicking it in while wearing the soft shoes I had put on in the examination room. My 17th century boots were still back there, but I didn't think it would give so easily as the wooden doors did. I looked around the hall for something to smash against the door but there were only a few toppled chairs.

  I looked back at the door with yearning. I felt like the answers to so many of the secrets they had kept from us were in that room. I looked further down the hall and realized I had never been past this door. I walked a little further down the hall, past a few more doors and turned a corner. Though the hall was exactly the same, it looked darker. I began to feel uneasy and glanced up at the ceiling, looking for some sign of surveillance equipment. I glanced behind me a few times, certain I was being watched as I walked toward the door at the end of the hall. I expected it to be locked, like the other door, but the handle turned easily and a sense of foreboding overcame me.

  I stood there for a moment, clutching the handle, motionless, and waited for something to happen. Nothing moved. I could hear nothing but the sound of my breath. I pushed the door open a crack and tried to peek through but could see nothing. I took a deep breath and flung the door wide open, trying to convey a sense of confidence that I lacked.

  It was an office. A large, ornate wooden desk that looked out of place in a facility like this sat directly across from the doorway. A door sat in the middle of each wall. As I stepped into the room, a soft light came on, and I heard Connery say “Good morning, Dr. Lancing.” I stopped immediately and surveyed the room, but no one else could be found. I realized it must have been an automated system. It seemed there was at least some power left.

  I grabbed the light disc, turned it off and pocketed it, then walked around to the desk and sat down. A display sprang to life above the desk. The main part of the display showed a paper someone was working on. There were a bunch of equations and some constants I didn’t recognize. In the upper right corner of the display was a chart that looked like someone’s vital signs. The name said “E. Phillips,” and to my surprise, the chart was updating. E. Phillips was alive and being monitored, almost certainly nearby.

  I was about to jump up and try the doors when the lower right corner of the display caught my attention. Two folders sat there, one labeled “A. MacDuff” and one labeled “N. Kent.” My eyes bored into the icon representing Noah’s folder and after a few seconds it opened.

  The folder contained a list of files, the date of the most recent one was June 3rd, 2073. It was a memo titled “Neutralization Order.” Below that was a video dated June 2nd, 2073. It was titled “Interrogation Session 4.” A few more videos followed of prior interrogation sessions and Noah’s return. Then a long list of files of various missions and status reports. I looked back up at the first file. “Open.”

  Connery’s voice greeted me again. “N. Kent files subject to clearance level 1 or special access channels."

  The folder closed as well as the unfinished paper. I swore to the room. The remaining display was a split screen of video monitors. One showed the White Box. The other three were places I didn’t recognize. One looked like a dorm room, one like a hospital room, and the last a large laboratory. I couldn’t see the bed well in the hospital room, but my instinct told me that was where I would find E. Phillips. I stood up from the desk and walked to the door on my left. It was locked. There was another door next to it that opened.

  It was a dormitory style room. A dozen beds lined the walls. Small desks next to each bed contained papers and personal effects. All the beds were neatly made except for one. The third bed on the left was disheveled and a mark that looked like dried blood stained the left side of the pillow. I picked up a framed photo on the desk that showed an adolescent girl grinning with a ball poised a few inches above her open hand. The picture must have been taken shortly after she tossed it in the air. She was standing next to a man grinning down at her, but most of his
face was obscured by long hair. I could only guess that it was Doctor Lancing.

  I decided this must have been some sort of medical research wing, though I wondered why the head of medical research would have files on Noah and me. I ran my finger along the top edge of the desk but no dust had collected on it. I opened the single desk drawer. It had a few file links inside and the ball from the picture with some writing on it. I pulled it out to read it. Eliza Phillips had signed it with a date: November 24, 2068. 5 years before I started working here. I had no idea this place was here the whole time I had been employed.

  Why would this place look pristine while the return chambers were in shambles? I put the ball away and walked around to the next desk. The picture on this desk was another child. He was holding a card up with a heart on it. His smile was elated. He was standing in front of someone wearing a lab coat who had their hands on his shoulders, but he was cut off from the chest up. “Doctor Lancing again, I presume?” When I opened the drawer, the desk was completely empty.

  I sighed and continued to the end of the room. The door at the end was also unlocked and I recognized the laboratory from the video feed in the other room. In person though, it didn’t look like a laboratory at all. There was only one lab table and it was pushed into a corner as though it had been in the way. A single petri dish filled with some gooey substance sat in the middle of it. There was no other lab equipment visible, which I found odd.

  The floor was softly carpeted, a definite change from the rest of the facility, and large pillows were strewn about. A neatly stacked pile of blocks, taller than me, stood precariously off to the side of the room. Two empty chairs sat facing each other in another corner. The lab table was out of place in such a comfortable setting. There was no other exit so I left the room and went back through the dormitory to the office again.

  The door on the opposite side of the office also opened easily. Before I even had it open I heard the soft beep of a heart monitor and knew I had found Eliza. She lay in the hospital bed, eyes closed. Electrodes connected her to various machines. I didn’t understand how she could be here; as far as I could tell, no one else was around. Perhaps if I waited someone would show up to take care of her. Perhaps Doctor Lancing was still working here. Or perhaps she’s been sitting here on life support for weeks.

  She didn’t look ill in the slightest, and her IV drip was nearly full. Someone had definitely been here recently. She wasn’t even on a ventilator, she must have been breathing on her own. I took her hand and squeezed it. “Eliza?” She did not stir. Nothing about her changed.

  I glanced around the room. Next to the head of her bed was a chair with a strange looking helmet on it. A cable came out of the top and snaked somewhere behind Eliza. I walked around the other side of the bed to see where it went and immediately regretted it. Eliza’s skull had been cut away. The other side of the cable looked like a claw that had been dug into her brain.

  I turned away and ran from the room, trying to control the nauseated feeling that had surfaced. From the office I could still hear the soft beep of the monitor. She’s alive, I kept telling myself. Someone here had done that to her, and I didn’t want to stick around to find out who it was when they finally returned to her. I moved to leave the place but was stopped by the mental picture of the helmet on the chair. It was linked to her brain. Perhaps it was a way to communicate with her. If I could find out what was going on, maybe I could help her.

  I looked around nervously. I was fairly convinced that someone would be coming back through here at some point, and I didn’t want that to happen while I was in the room with Eliza. What choice did I have though, I had to find out what was going on here. I went back into the room and looked around again. There was a closet off to the left that housed medical supplies. I figured, if I heard someone come into the office, I could hide there.

  I sat down, took a deep breath and put the helmet on my head. I closed my eyes and tried to listen, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes again and glanced over at her. “Eliza,” I whispered.

  Immediately images started filling my head. I gripped the arms of the chair, the intensity of it was painful. It was like someone had taken over my mind and would not allow any of my own thoughts to surface. I struggled to get a handle on myself, the images were flashing past so quickly I couldn’t understand any of them. I forced myself to relax, clear my mind and focus on what I was seeing.

  There was one image I started to recognize, it was showing over and over again. It was the picture of Eliza and Doctor Lancing with the ball in the air over her hand. I was seeing it through the eyes of Eliza. The image stretched out into a few seconds during which I could feel Doctor Lancing pat Eliza on the shoulder. She stared at the ball and I could feel her face as she broke from an intense look of focus into a smile. The ball didn’t move during this time.

  There were more flashes of Doctor Lancing, though his face was never in focus. He was frequently in the laboratory room I had seen with other children. I caught a glance of a sphere. One of the children was holding it, and while the rest of them watched intently the young boy disappeared then reappeared a few seconds later. I caught a glimpse of Noah, but the image vanished too quickly. Somehow my mind knew I could get it back though, and I focused on bringing the image back to the forefront.

  Noah was hunched on the floor in a plain room. I could see what I assumed was Doctor Lancing’s white lab coat in my peripheral vision. I watched passively as Noah clutched his abdomen and screamed. The back of my mind found it odd that I didn’t care as I watched, merely continued to focus on his mid-section as a man’s voice asked, “Where is she?” Noah screamed that he didn’t know.

  My vision flickered to the other side of the room. There was a ghastly pale, gaunt looking man strapped into a wheelchair with another, different helmet on his head. He was staring with wild fright at me. I saw the corner of Doctor Lancing’s lab coat swing slightly as he turned to the man in the wheelchair. “Where did you take her?” The man didn’t take his eyes off me as he whimpered, “I don’t know,” just before breaking into a heart wrenching wail of pain.

  I leapt out of the chair and tore the helmet off my head. I barely had time to register that several objects fell to the floor as I ran out of the room, through the office and into the hall. They had been looking for me, and they might still be looking. That little girl, Eliza, could use her mind to move things and to hurt people.

  I sprinted down the hall, pulling out my light disc as the light from Doctor Lancing’s office faded behind me. I turned the corner, half expecting to run into him, and slowed my pace a bit to get around the chairs I had noticed earlier. Someone had built that helmet and burrowed into her brain as a way to interact with her. That made no sense, she could hear and react to people, why not just talk to her? It must be something more than that, a way to link to her mind, to her ability to manipulate objects from a distance. A few objects in the room had started to levitate as I was linked with her, that’s what fell. I hadn’t realized it while I had the helmet on. Had I done that? Or had she?

  I rounded another corner and could see the light from the living dome spilling in through the glass doors at the end of the hall. I kept sprinting towards the exit and refused to look back to see if I was being followed.

  Chapter 15

  I burst through the doors into the living dome and only then allowed myself to turn and look behind me. Through the glass doors the hall was still and empty. It looked as though I had never even been in there. I switched off the light disc and pocketed it again, then turned back towards the main courtyard of the living dome.

  It was barely recognizable. The gardens were wild and overgrown. The buildings looked like they were in good shape, though the grass had also overgrown and vines were covering much of the central facades. I guessed Doctor Lancing didn’t have much need for a tidy living space.

  I walked slowly over to my living quarters, trying to ignore the fact that the most alarming part of the facility neg
lect was a giant hole in the roof of the dome. Something had shattered a large section of the glass and bent the frame in. Eliza, perhaps?

  When I reached my door it did not open automatically for me, but it was easy enough to force open. It was dark inside here as well, but I didn't have to go in to see from the light in the doorway that someone had destroyed the space. Either through searching or looting, I wasn't sure. I lit my disc again and cautiously wandered in.

  The kitchen cabinets were open and the contents disheveled. It looked like they had been searched. I couldn’t imagine why someone would want to search my kitchen cabinets. I wandered through the space, my bed had also been stripped and clothes pulled from the closet. I had so few personal effects, I had no idea what someone would have been looking for. I was simultaneously puzzled by the motive and angry at the invasion of privacy. What little I had left in this place.

  I left my quarters and walked across the open space to Noah’s quarters. I could tell immediately upon entering that it wasn't right. The decor was off. The furniture too fancy. Aside from a thick film of dust, it didn't look to be disturbed. I wandered through just to be sure, but nothing looked out of place, except for the fact that being Noah’s quarters, everything in there looked out of place. I walked back outside and double checked the door. It was definitely the right room. I tried the next door over. Like Noah’s place, it seemed to be undisturbed. I went back outside, and my gaze was drawn back up to the hole in the roof of the dome. I tried to push my fear away. Whatever had done that must be long gone. This place was empty. I walked over to the area of grass below the hole. Through the weeds, I could see shards of glass on the ground but nothing else. Whatever came through didn't seem to do much damage where it landed. I stared up at the hole again for a minute. It was making me feel unsettled, like I was wrong that whatever had come through had left a long time ago. I forced myself to turn my back to it.