by Mark Wandrey
The website was light on detail and heavy on religious mumbo-jumbo, but it also had megabytes of high-resolution images of the Portal and the so-called Avatar. Professional artist’s renditions scanned and presented for your viewing. Most had commentary from “The Prophet Victor”. The images were woven together to help visitors reach the same conclusion as Victor had originally come to. This was an Avatar of God and the Portal was a passage to Heaven.
“What the fuck am I doing?” he wondered for the tenth time that night. He was a decorated New York City Police lieutenant with his whole career in front of him, and he was spying on government agents, misusing police equipment, and accessing confidential databases for his own use. He’d used the department database to refresh his memory on the story of Capt. Hicks, now Gabriel. He'd done time and been released on parole two years ago. The FotA did have a legitimate lease on their building, and while it was condemned, they had a right to occupy it prior to demolition. Whether they had a right to hold services to the public in such a place was another question that he, as a police officer, should have investigated. “And just what are you doing in there?” he wondered as he wiped cream cheese from his hands. The trucks were all unloaded and the doors were closing, taking the Portal dais from his view. The damned thing looked just like Victor's drawings.
Unaware they were being observed, the work continued inside the dome. Ten days ago a completely unprepared scientist had fallen through the Portal and disappeared. A search of the New York vicinity had been organized, but other scientists stopped the effort almost before it began. The video recordings taken from the other side of the Portal were analyzed. The man was no longer on Earth.
“What they hell are you saying?” Mark Volant demanded as he ran into the control trailer. Dr. Osgood had looked as if he had discovered the Holy Grail itself.
“Look at this!” the scientist said and pointed to a screen. Volant looked at it for a long moment, narrowing his eyes in concentration.
“I’m looking at the sky,” he said with a shrug. “You made me think I was going to see E.T., rockets ships, something crazy like that.”
“You don’t see anything strange?”
“No.”
Osgood sighed and shook his head.
“If you’re playing some kind of a game with me, I’m not amused. We’re trying to organize a search for your missing man. I doubt that idiot could survive overnight in this park without a motor home, and who knows how many miles he is from here-“
“If I had to make a wild-assed-guess I’d say a couple hundred trillion miles.”
“Did you say trillion?”
“Sure did. Roberts, bring up the night sky, will you?” Another man nodded and the image changed. “We ran a composite of the northern hemisphere night sky.” Volant could see the stars spinning around slowly then moving back and forth. For a moment he recognized the Big Dipper, then Orion’s belt. The scene stopped moving and a new bunch of stars appeared. These were made bright blue to offset them from the white normal stars. The patterns didn’t look familiar at all. As he watched, they started moving again, at a dizzying speed. “We didn’t find a complete match.”
“So what does that mean?”
“The stars we photographed on the other side of the Portal are not the same as those on this side. Shit, we even ran the southern hemisphere just in case we were missing something. It’s not our neighborhood.”
“It might not be our galaxy,” threw in Roberts, earning a scowl from Volant.
“This is ludicrous,” the agent said finally. “Are you trying to tell me that damned thing opened a door to another world?”
“Almost certainly.”
Volant's brow knitted in consternation, trying to get his mind around the puzzle. “It’s like that movie Stargate?”
“Oh, I don’t think it’s an Einstein-Rosen bridge (a stable worm hole). More than likely some kind of a dimensional Portal, or quantum filament transition. You probably can't see through a worm hole like you can through this-”
“In English, please!” Volant snapped and looked out the window of his trailer at the dome in the near distance. “I guess your fellow egghead is dead meat.”
“No, we just need to go through and get him!”
“Out of the question,” he said and made a sharp, chopping gesture.
“What are you talking about? You just can’t leave him there.”
“You saw what happened, he couldn’t come back.”
“That was just the first attempt. To establish a scientific sample we need to try again. Maybe if more than one person goes through we can return.”
“You volunteering to go through next?”
Osgood’s eyes got big and he took an unconscious step back.
“I didn’t think so. Who’s going to make the decision to send people through to, as you're claiming, another planet? And what might be a one way trip?” Osgood remained silent and looked pensive. “Yah, that’s what I thought too.”
“Well, he was the first human to set foot on another planet,” said Osgood.
“Good for him. I'll get the kid a fucking medal. Why would you even think that this might be a two-way Portal? You’ve looked at the drawing on that thing. It’s pretty obviously some sort of evacuation device. Other scientists think it might be a way of luring us into a trap. If they're right, it looks like they caught their first bug.”
“A rather far-fetched assumption, wouldn’t you say?”
“Any more far-fetched than a Portal to another world?”
“There are so many aspects to this discovery I couldn’t begin to tell you about all of them. From the very fact that such a device is possible, to the fact that a world nearly identical to our own exists elsewhere! We need to tell the world!”
“No fucking way. Threat assessment is ongoing.”
“If you believe this was a threat, don’t you think they would have wheeled a bomb through, or sent an army over by now?”
“Possibly, but who sent it, and why not hang around and brag about it, or at least say hello?”
“Good question, unfortunately only one person saw our benefactor…”
“Or aggressor,” Volant reminded the doctor, “and we can’t find him. As usual, the cops are powerless to find one homeless bum. I can’t believe they let him go in the first place.”
“Maybe they let him go on purpose.”
“What did you say?”
“I said maybe someone wanted to let him go. Maybe they had seen it too, or wanted to keep the secret to themselves. Maybe even in on it from the beginning?”
Volant nodded his head and scratched his chin as he thought. “Well, we’re still looking for him. My superiors are weighing the options about whether to go through the Portal again.”
“I would say we have to, if only to see if our man is still alive.”
“He’s not a big enough concern to send another person through on a one-way trip, but there are other reasons to go through.” Osgood scowled but could do nothing but wait for morning.
To Volant's surprise the decision came only an hour later. A C-130 landed at JFK and brought with it a highly trained team of army commandos, the next to go through.
The event would be recorded in every way imaginable for further analysis. Volant wouldn’t tell Osgood why the higher-ups had experienced a sudden change of heart over sending through an expedition.
Once the commandos were on site, the military and scientists went to work with fervor. Equipment was aligned, computers began recording and the elite soldiers were shown in. The squad of twelve stood looking at the gleaming dais and all the arrayed equipment with the calm detachment of the professional soldier. Their commander stood at the head of the group and looked everything over before pronouncing his opinion. “What a cluster fuck.”
“Welcome aboard, Major,” Osgood said, coming over to introduce himself.
“He’s a Lt. Colonel,” Volant corrected him, stepping in and shaking the now smiling soldier’s
hand, “and your assessment is not far off.”
“Thanks, you must be Mark Volant. This is the chief egghead?” The soldier cocked a thumb at Osgood.
“That would be me,” Osgood said, laughing at the now inside joke. Many in Portal City were now calling the dome The Egg, in deference to Volant’s preferred title for the scientific community.
“You’ve been fully briefed?” Volant asked the soldier.
“Sure, not that I made a lot of sense out of it. This is supposed to be some kind of doorway to another planet?”
“That’s what the eggheads think. We need an assessment of the situation. Is that just some sort of fancy hoax, or is it a Portal to another planet? One person went through ten days ago; he was unable to return.”
“We’ve all seen the video.”
“I'm the one who wrote the briefing.”
“So there may be no way back, making this a one way trip. We’ve got all kinds of plans to establish a research base on the other side, if time provides.”
The two men exchanged a strange knowing look that made Osgood cock his head and look from one man to the other. Was something going on he wasn’t aware of?
“But we don’t know how that’s going to work out, which is why you are all volunteers,” Volant explained.
“Like I said, we saw the video and we’re here, so that means we’ve volunteered.”
Osgood spoke up. “We want to break your team up into three groups.”
“Break up my team? I don’t think so.”
“There is too much still to be learned about the Portal and the particle physics behind whatever sort of dimensional transition is taking place. That you transition through in three groups has been deemed the most expeditious use of your assets.”
“Huh?”
“He says there is more to be learned if you go through in groups of three,” Volant translated. “It will probably give them a better chance of getting you back too.”
“Splitting us up was not part of the OP.”
“You volunteered for a possible one-way mission into unknown territory. You make the call, Lt. Colonel. Your team’s not up to it, that’s fine. We’ll call your superiors and get another one out here. But from where I’m standing, aside from the one-way gig, it looks like camping in the Sierra foothills.” The soldiers were all looking around, making their own evaluations. The commander turned and made eye contact with each of them, one at a time. Every one of them nodded their head.
“Looks like we’re good to go, sir.”
“Excellent. The science fair is under the direction of Dr. Osgood.”
“Fine. Proper introductions, Doctor. I am Lieutenant Colonel Dan Wilson. My assets are at your disposal.”
“Very good. If you could decide how you are going to split into teams over there, and please don’t touch any of the equipment, we’ll call you when we’re ready.”
Osgood moved over to a group of excited scientists and told them the experiment was on. They all cheered and began giving each other high fives. “These eggheads are too much, aren’t they?” Lt. Col. Wilson said to Volant.
“They are, but Osgood’s also a fuckin’ genius. I wondered when I got here if NASA found him in a closet somewhere, so I pulled his dossier. The guys got more doctorates than I have socks. He’s been involved in the design and implementation of a dozen interplanetary probes and he’s actually been in orbit once. He’s the biggest brain I’ve ever known, that’s for sure.”
“Big brains don’t always mean big smarts. I’ve seen a lot of soldiers killed over the years by people put in charge just because of the degrees they have on the wall.”
“I think this guy’s got it together well enough. Besides, I’m going to be here and I have my hand on the plug.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re not going through that!”
“You have a point.”
One by one, the science teams called out their readiness until finally Osgood came over and gave the thumbs up. “We’re ready to start. The Portal team is going to take a run with a robot first. After that we’re going to try and send a monkey through. If we progress as planned, the soldiers are last.”
“Whatever you say, doc,” the soldier shrugged.
“Good. We’re hoping to make some major strides in understanding this thing as we go, hopefully learning how to bring things back through. Gentlemen, here we go!”
The first tests were simple. A scientist climbed the dais on foot. He was dressed in camouflage and had a backpack full of equipment. When he reached the top step the Portal sprang to life. He didn’t step through. Instead, he removed a tennis ball from a pocket. It bristled with a number of tiny instruments. Using an underarm toss he threw the ball through the Portal. Another scientist on the other side stood ready in case nothing happened. There was the briefest purple shimmer and the tennis ball was caught on the other side.
“There was an incident!” called out the chief recording technician. “Only about ten milliseconds in length. Minor pulse in the terahertz band and a slight rise in ionizing radiations.”
“Almost like it was looking at what went through,” Osgood commented. “Step up to stage two.” From out of view came a humming sound, which was followed by the appearance of a wheeled robot. The scientist standing on the dais held its controls and he guided the machine up the steps and through the Portal. It arrived on the other side of the dais still on their own world.
“Same response, maybe a little more energetic,” the recording technician reported.
Next, the camouflaged scientist was handed a cage. He stepped right up to the edge of Portal and opened the cage. A single pigeon shot out of the cage and through the Portal. Again the instruments recorded an energy emission, nearly identical to the first one.
One experiment after another proceeded. A watermelon followed the pigeon, then a keg of water, ending with a derelict refrigerator. Of course no one caught this last item, it merely crashed to the floor in a flash of photographs and chuckles from the soldiers. Unnoticed by Osgood, one of the scientists passed another a twenty-dollar bill.
“Are we going to spend all day tossing appliances through there or do I get a swing at it?” wondered Lt. Col. Wilson.
“Patience my good man,” said Osgood. “We have one more static test to perform.” He turned back to his team. “Bring in Bernie.” A pair of technicians rolled in a wheelchair with a covered figure riding within.
“I thought we would be the first people to go through.”
“No, not the first, but you possess something Bernie does not.”
“And what’s that?” Osgood stepped over and pulled the blanket from over the seated person’s head. It revealed a man in his late thirties dressed in street clothes with a pack on his back. He was clearly dead.
“Life, Lieutenant Colonel.”
Volant chuckled and shook his head at the surprise and consternation on the commando officer’s face. The man made a disgusted sound and backed away.
“Let’s give Bernie his moment of infamy.”
The corpse was wheeled to where a simple mechanical catapult waited. The body was placed inside and everyone backed away. On the dais, the suited man moved as far to one side as possible and at a signal from the event recorder, the catapult was triggered, sending Bernie flying.
There was more of a reaction this time. The same pulse of radiant purple for a split second, and nothing landed on the other side. “Was Bernie transported?” Osgood asked, surprised anything had happened.
“Doesn’t look like it. Based on the readings it’s just the opposite. I’d have to say the Portal disintegrated Bernie.”
“How rude,” Volant mumbled.
“Get air samples, check for any debris, run back the high speed data capture!” Osgood barked. A few minutes later, it was obvious that the cadaver had been completely vaporized. Nothing more than a few parts per million of hydrogen gas and carbon remained. “It would be impossible to do a more effective job with a commercial
incinerator,” said one scientist, “and this only took about three milliseconds.”
“The energy readings were elevated,” said another scientist, “but nothing like what we got when Hooper went through originally. Let’s try the chimp!”
“I think we have more or less confirmed that this thing is smart enough to only allow a living human being through the Portal,” Osgood said to his team. “There’s no need to disintegrate Bobo. Lt. Col. Wilson, we’re ready for your first people.” The military man nodded his head and four soldiers separated from the group, led by him. “You sure you don’t want to wait until last to go through yourself?”
“A commander would never ask his men to do something he wouldn’t do himself,” Lt. Col. Wilson said and looked up at the Portal. He nodded to his men who took off their packs and knelt to go through them for a final check.
Osgood watched them work, amazed at the impressive array of equipment the packs contained. Most of the items he could not identify, but some were obvious. There was a reverse osmosis filter that looked like a microwave burst transmitter broken up between the men. One man was carrying their shelter while another transported a tiny high-tech hydrogen heat exchanger that would keep them alive in temperatures from fifty below zero to one hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit. Another man had a case of instruments Osgood provided for the mission.
They knew from the brief view of the other side after the first accidental trip that there was a breathable atmosphere on the other side, but just in case things were not as they seemed, each man had on a gas mask and replacement canisters rode their belts. Their web gear pouches contained hundreds of items to aid in their survival and as the last touch the other soldiers came over and handed each man their rifle.
“Do you think weapons are really necessary?” Osgood asked with a look of distaste on his face.
“I don’t tell you what thingamabob to use on that whatchamacallit,” Wilson said and hooked a thumb toward the Portal, “I'll ask you not to tell me what kind of hammer to use on any nails I’ll encounter.”