Genesis Dimension

by J Boyd Long

  “Well,” Bob said. “I guess that was successful. Nobody got shot. Maybe they don’t even know we were there.” He sat down carefully, and leaned against the door.

  “Unless they’ve come up with a computer that tells them when a door is unexpectedly open, I think we slid in under the radar,” Tocho said. “I guess the only way to know for sure is to wait thirty minutes, and try it again, and see if there’s somebody on the other side trying to figure out what happened.”

  “Or pointing a gun at us,” Quentin said.

  “Or pointing a gun at us,” Bob agreed. “I don’t think we have to worry about them being able to track us through their computers. They aren’t that sophisticated. Or, maybe I should say that their focus is on moving stuff, not tracking door usage. That’s the way it used to be, anyway.”

  “Why are there so many DimGates in one place?” Quentin asked. “I mean, if you can go anywhere with a DimGate, then you really only need one, right?”

  “Those are mostly static,” Bob said. “They’re set to go to a place that has a lot of back and forth traffic from DimCorp headquarters. One of them might be set for your boss’s office, for example. That way he can go to meetings without having to program it every time, and the mail clerk can deliver stuff to him easily, and so on.”

  Quentin paused as he realized just how unlikely it was that they had made it this far. What if he hadn’t typed Eissa’s lucky number into the DimGate in Zimmerman’s office? They might have walked straight into DimCorp’s headquarters instead going to Bob’s dimension, and things would be very different right now. That was a thought he didn’t want to pursue too hard.

  “Say we open the door again, and there’s nobody there,” Quentin said. “Do we go in, and make a quick exploratory incursion? See what we can see?” Just saying it made his legs weak, but they were finally getting somewhere, and he didn’t want to lose the momentum.

  “We haven’t prepared for that at all,” Bob said. “We don’t have a plan, or a contingency plan.”

  “Well, let’s make a plan,” Quentin said. He could appreciate Bob’s desire to plan it out carefully, but this was an extenuating circumstance, and Bob’s reluctance to acknowledge that was frustrating. “If the coast is clear, we need to take advantage of it. It might not happen again, right?”

  “Let’s take a breath,” Tocho said. “We have to think everything through. No rushing into anything.” He glanced at Quentin. “Now, I agree that if it’s clear, we should go in. However, we shouldn’t all go in, it should just be one person. I propose that I go in with a camera, go to the ends of the corridor, and take a video of what’s there. Then I’ll come back, and we’ll make our next plan from there.”

  “Why you?” Eissa asked. “Quentin or I could do it, and we probably stand a better chance of looking like we belong there if someone comes along.”

  “No way,” Tocho said. “We can’t risk Quentin, because he’s our primary hope for shutting down the computer system. We can’t risk you, because you’re the medic. Bob knows a lot more about the DimGate system than I do. I’m old, I’m the least essential part of the team, and I’m the obvious choice for something this risky.”

  “Well, I can follow your logic, but I don’t like it,” Eissa growled.

  Quentin agreed. He felt dirty for accepting it, but he couldn’t argue with Tocho’s rationale. It just seemed callous to talk about which one of them was the most expendable.

  “What about us?” Quentin asked. “What are we supposed to do?”

  “Stand here and be ready to slam the door if something happens,” Tocho said.

  “Tocho’s right,” Bob said. “He’s the logical choice. He’s got more experience as well, and that counts for a lot in this kind of a situation.”

  It still felt bad, but at least with Bob on board with the plan, they were back in action. Standing around arguing about whether they should make a move was the last thing he wanted to be doing.

  “Well, we should at least go back to the cabin and get him a gun,” Eissa said. “We can’t send him in there alone and unarmed.”

  “That’s exactly how I’m going in there, alone and unarmed,” Tocho said. “If I do run into someone, and I try to fight my way out, I’ll ruin the mission. They’ll probably kill me or take me prisoner, and they’ll have a whole platoon of soldiers standing in front of the door waiting on you guys to open it. There’s everything to lose, and nothing to gain, by fighting someone at this point. If I get caught, the smart thing to do is to use my old ‘lost scout’ line.”

  “What’s that?” Quentin asked.

  “I pretend to be a scout that’s been trapped in another dimension for a long time,” Tocho explained. “It’s about as perfect as you could ask for, especially in the days since we blew up their computer. They probably have scouts stuck in hundreds of dimensions.”

  It was a pretty good cover story, and Quentin grinned his approval. Once again, he was learning lessons on the importance of simplicity.

  “That’s actually pretty solid,” Eissa admitted. “Okay, you convinced me.”

  “It’s been about twenty minutes,” Bob said. “If anyone was coming, they ought to be there by now.”

  Quentin rubbed his face, and ran his hands through his hair. The emotional roller-coaster was inching its way back to the top, getting ready for another plunge. He was going to develop bleeding ulcers at some point, if this kept up.

  “Ok, I’m going to just crack it open at first,” Tocho said. “If I holler ‘kill’ you hit the kill switch, just like the old days.”

  Bob nodded, and Tocho turned to Quentin.

  He bent over and touched his toes, stretching out for a moment. Quentin took Eissa’s phone and stepped up beside the door.

  “Hold them like this.” He put the phones together, with the screens facing in and the cameras facing out. “That way you can just use one hand and stick them out into the hallway a few inches without exposing yourself. Just make sure you keep them horizontal like this, so we get the best view.”

  Tocho stood up, brushed his hair out of his face, and nodded. “Got it.”

  Bob activated the door. Tocho turned the knob quickly and opened the door a crack, braced to slam it back. There was no one in sight, so he opened it a bit more and stuck his head through. He relaxed, and opened the door the rest of the way.

  Quentin activated the cameras and handed them to Tocho. “Good luck.” He stepped back, suddenly sure that something horrible was going to happen to Tocho. He had to fight off the desire to call the whole thing off.

  “Here we go,” Tocho whispered, and took off down the hall at a fast walk.

  Quentin watched carefully as Tocho neared the end. Tocho flattened himself against the last door and leaned over, slipping the phones out into the intersection. A moment later, he poked his head around the corner and looked both ways. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he turned and headed back up the hall at a trot. He passed the door and disappeared towards the other end. Quentin stepped through the door just far enough to be able to see Tocho as he went through the same sequence on that end. The dreadful certainty that Tocho was about to get caught wasn’t dissipating, and he wished Tocho would hurry up. After what seemed like an eternity, he came back down the hall at a trot, grinning and giving them a thumbs up.

  “Okay,” he said, stepping through the door and closing it behind him. “Good news.”

  Quentin took the phones from him and stopped the recording, and Bob hit the emergency shut-off on the door. He came around the side of the panel and waited for Tocho to explain.

  “Here’s the situation,” Tocho said. “We’re on the third row of gates. That blue arrow on the wall is pointing towards the new control room. It’s got a big window in the wall, and you can see all the computers in there. The overhead lights are off, and I didn’t see anyone. There are screensavers going on most of the screens that I could see. I don’t know if they’re off today, or maybe it isn’t being staffed yet, or what, bu
t right this minute, it looks like we’ve got the place to ourselves.”

  “Well, that’s a damn pickle,” Bob said. “Here we are with tons of opportunity, and no preparation.”

  If they had an opportunity to access some unguarded computers, they had to take advantage of that. Quentin could take a quick look at the system and see what they were up against. They all wanted more information, and this was the only way to get it. Best of all, it was something Quentin could do by himself, without endangering anyone else.

  “Look,” Quentin said quickly. “Since no one’s there, let me run in and try to access the computer system. I can at least see what it is and get an idea of what I’ll need to do when we do this.” He could hardly believe the words he heard coming out of his mouth. They were the words of someone much braver than him, but he knew it was the logical next step. Use your logic, Quentin, it’s one of your best tools.

  “No way,” Bob said.

  “We’ll never have a better chance than this to look it over,” Quentin argued. “Ten minutes, in and out. It’s as low-risk as it’s likely to ever get.”

  “He’s got a point,” Tocho said. “I’ll go with him, and be the lookout.”

  Bob sighed, and rubbed his hands over his face. “This is all happening too fast,” he muttered. “Way too fast.”

  He looked at them, dropping his hands to his sides with another deep sigh. Quentin felt bad for putting him in this position, but he was sure it would be a mistake to pass up on this opportunity.

  “Okay,” Bob said finally. “You go in, see what you can learn on the computers, leave them exactly the way you found them, and you come back out. Then we go to the house and think this out for a while. No more winging it.”

  Quentin’s hands were shaking, and he clenched his fists to hide it. He didn’t want to give Bob any reason to change his mind. He nodded and turned back to the others, plastering a fake smile on his face. “Alright, now we’re getting somewhere. Are you ready, Tocho?”

  Eissa grabbed Quentin in a surprise hug, which he returned after a moment. “You be careful in there,” she said. “Don’t make me have to come drag your ass out.”

  “Aye, aye,” he said, stepping back. “I’ll be careful.”

  “Alright, listen up,” Tocho said, bringing the focus back to the mission. “Eissa, you’ve got to run the door this time. If you see someone coming, and it isn’t us, close the door and tell Bob to shut it down.” He turned to Quentin. “I’ll go first. We stop at every corner and check before we go out in the open. If I hold up a fist, you stop. If I wave you off, you haul ass back to the door. I’m in charge, and on that side of the door, there is no argument or discussion when I say something. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Quentin said. His heart was pounding, and he wiped his sweaty palms on his pants as they stepped up to the door. Suddenly, he stepped back.

  “Wait,” he said, blushing furiously. “I know this is ridiculous, but now I’ve got to pee. You guys jinxed me earlier.”

  “Yes!” Eissa laughed and clapped her hands in delight. “It’s not just me now.”

  Quentin hurried into the woods, as Tocho and Bob relaxed from their positions for a moment and glanced at one another in amusement.

  “Bob, do you need to go?” Eissa giggled. “You’re the only one left.”

  “Yeah, what the hell, I might as well,” he said, faking exasperation.

  A few minutes later they were all back in position.

  “Sorry,” Quentin mumbled. “Nerves, I guess. I’m good now.” His bowels still felt loose, and his voice shook. He pictured the smoking gun barrel from the image of the dead protesters, and the expression on Holt’s face, trying to recapture the rage that he had felt the first time he saw it. His fist clenched tighter, but now it was to hit something rather than to hide something.

  “Okay, here we go,” Tocho said.

  Bob activated the door, and Tocho cracked it open. After confirming that the other side was still deserted, he slipped through with Quentin right behind him. Eissa stepped up and grabbed the doorknob.

  Tocho and Quentin walked briskly down the corridor, and stopped at the last door. Tocho peered around the corner, gave Eissa a thumbs up, and vanished. Quentin gave her a little wave, and followed him.

  In front of them were two more rows of DimGates leading off to the right. Directly ahead was a wall with a huge window set into it. The window revealed rows of computers on desks, which reminded him of the famous NASA control room. The main overhead lights were off, but a bank of security lights cast a dim glow across the room. There were television screens covering the walls, although they were all dark at the moment. As they got closer, he noticed bundles of wire hanging out of the ceiling in a few places, and several ladders standing in the middle of the floor.

  Tocho paused at the last row and peered around the corner.

  “Clear,” he whispered. “You stay here. I’m going to try the door over there. If it sets off an alarm, haul ass back to our gate. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Quentin whispered back.

  He watched as Tocho jogged across the open floor to the door, which was to the right of the window. He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants again as Tocho reached out and grasped the doorknob. The door swung in silently, and Quentin expelled a lungful of air that he didn’t even realize he had been holding. Tocho turned and waved him over.

  They entered the room, and it became even more obvious that a lot of construction was still underway. There were bits of wire covering the floor, and a coating of dust on everything. Quentin moved the mouse on a computer near the door, and the screensaver vanished, exposing the desktop screen.

  “No password required,” Quentin murmured. “For shame, for shame.”

  He sat down in the chair, and began exploring the computer. The operating system was unfamiliar, but it followed a similar logic to what he was used to working with. He experimented with some keyboard commands, and was delighted to see that the expected windows popped up in response to a few of them. He opened up the list of shared drives, and cringed as the list populated. It was a huge network. That meant they had a lot of servers, a lot of drives, and a lot of users. In some ways that was good, but it also made things more complicated.

  In the Recents directory, he found the last few things that had been accessed from this computer and opened one of the links. It turned out to be a server, and it was still being programmed. The programmer had left notes where the coding had been paused for the day, and Quentin looked over them with interest. It was the same sort of thing he did for himself at IBZ. In a weird way, he felt at home for a moment.

  “The network is still being constructed,” Quentin called out after a few minutes. “That’s why there’s no security. They just haven’t gotten to that point yet.”

  Tocho was wandering around the room while he waited, doing his own exploration. “There are boxes of cameras over here,” he replied. “I have a feeling our timing is perfect. A few weeks from now, it might be a whole different story.”

  Quentin glanced around as he stood up and walked to the back of the room with Tocho, pointing to a door in the side wall. “Can we open that door?” he asked. “I’m guessing that’s the server room. If it is, that’ll be important to know.”

  Tocho walked over and put his ear to the door, listening.

  “It’s risky to open a door, not knowing what’s on the other side,” he said. “I don’t hear anything suspicious, but you just never know.”

  “I get that,” Quentin said. “I was just thinking that if I can’t do it with a virus, that we might have to figure something else out. Knowing where things are at will make planning that a lot easier.”

  “You’re right,” Tocho said. “You go stand by the front door, and be ready to run, just in case.”

  Quentin nodded, and ran to the front of the room.

  Tocho braced himself, and opened the door a crack. After a moment, he opened it wider, exposing a dark room behind it. Small red a
nd green lights flashed from the darkness inside, confirming Quentin’s guess. Tocho waved him over, and turned on the light switch.

  “This is way bigger than the computer bank that Bob and I blew up,” he said, as Quentin arrived.

  The room was about twenty feet long, but narrow, more like a wide hallway. Three rows of computer racks went from floor to ceiling, and ran the length of the room. It was freezing in there compared to the outer room, and Quentin rubbed his arms as he wandered to the back, noting the number of server banks, and what was still waiting to be wired in. He was intimidated by the sheer volume of what they were up against, and he had to remind himself that bigger didn’t mean harder, it just meant there was more of it.