Open Writing

PART THREE

UNIVERSES

Cal, Karen and the others watched anxiously as Jonathan and Joe disappeared into the blackness of the portal. Reluctant to leave the portal, they stared at it for a couple of minutes, and suddenly Jonathan and Joe stepped back into the room unchanged.

Cal took Jonathan’s arm and led him to a seat, and Joe followed. “What happened? What went wrong?”

Jonathan looked at him puzzled. “Wrong? I thought it went rather well.”

“But you were only gone for a couple of minutes.”

Jonathan stared. “A couple of minutes? We thought we’d stayed longer than we should have, an hour at least.”

“At least.” Joe nodded.

Jonathan was thinking and nodding. “There must be a time differential between the two universes. Time here passes much faster than time there.

I wonder if that holds for all other universes?”

“What was it like, Jonathan?” Arnold said,

Jonathan looked at Joe, then said, “Different.”

“Where was it Jonathan? Here? This world?” Cal asked.

“No, there were two moons in the sky. I don’t know where it was, but it wasn’t here.”

“Was there any life?” asked Karen.

“Jonathan shook his head. “No; at least none that we saw. Just rolling grassland and an occasional hill.”

Joe said, “Reminded me of the savannahs of Africa and the prairies of west central America. Except for the no life part.”

“Pleasant, though,” said Jonathan. “Nice climate, not too hot.”

“What kind of sun?” asked Arnold.

“White dwarf,” said Jonathan.

Cal nodded. “Not Rigel.”

Jonathan shook his head. “No, definitely not Rigel.”

“Well, that’s interesting. Not only did you move to another universe, you moved to another planet. I suppose the moves would be random; no way of controlling where you go?” Arnold asked.

“None that I know of, Jonathan shrugged. “I will continue to examine the device, but….”

Dennis Crafter alerted them with a shout from by the main door. “Cal! Someone’s coming! I’ve got movement on the motion sensor.”

Cal ran to the door and joined Crafter. “Who is it? Can you see?”

“More of those alien monsters, probably.”

Cal turned to look at the others. “Well, we have no choice now; we’re going to have to explore these universes a little sooner than we anticipated.”

Alarmed, Karen looked at Cal, “We’re just going to go through? But they’ll follow us!”

Jonathan smiled. “Actually, Karen, they couldn’t track us.”

Cal nodded. “I have to admit I wasn’t sure of that, but it’s good to have it confirmed. Thanks, Jonathan.”

Cal and the others gathered their equipment and personal packs, while Jonathan went to the device and began making the adjustments, then handed everyone return devices. “Don’t lose these,” he said. “They’re the only way we can get back here.”

Cal looked at Karen and took her hand. “Come on, babe, let’s go!” He took a deep breath for courage and they ran through the doorway together.

* * * *

Reality 1254

Expecting a landscape of rolling hills and grassland, Cal couldn’t at first grasp what he saw. He and Karen stood between the brick walls of buildings in a narrow alley such as could be found in almost any western city on Earth. The surface beneath their feet was paved, and wet. A rusty, overflowing dumpster stood against the one wall. He wondered if they were back in the U.S.A.

“Where are we?” Karen asked, looking up and down the alley.

“Beats me. Could be any large Earth city.” He glanced down to the end of the alleyway where it opened at a city street where cars drove past. “Look! Cars! Come on, let’s go look around and see if we can tell where we’ve landed.”

Karen turned in a circle. “I don’t see the others? What’s happened to them?”

Cal shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe they went to another universe or universes. Maybe we all got separated. But we’ve got the return devices; we can always go back.”

“Back to what? An underground stone room full of those…creatures?”

“Yeah, you’re right. We have to play this by ear. We’ll have a good look around and, if we have to, if things get hairy here, at least we have one line of retreat. Meanwhile, let’s find out where we are.”

They walked toward the street and paused. There were people walking past who seemed oblivious to their presence. But the people were translucent.

“We’re invisible to them. That’s why they’re ignoring us,” Cal exclaimed.

“Remember what Jonathan said about merging universes and a room full of bubbles? That’s what we have here. To most people on this planet, we’d be invisible. Maybe some, like mediums, would sense our presence.

“However, we need to find out where and when are we.” He looked closely at the cars driving past. “Those cars look like 20th century Earth models. Like about 1950 or so.” He took a few steps forward and stopped, looked puzzled, then held his hands out before him, as though pushing against a barrier.

“What is it, Cal?” asked Karen.

“I don’t know. It’s like…some kind of membrane; flexible.” He turned to Karen. “I get the feeling that if I pushed a bit harder, I could… break through.”

He stepped back, the forward again. “I’m going to try it.” He held his hands out as before.

“Wait!” Karen grabbed his arm. “I believe you’d better wait until there’s no one around before you do that.”

“Why? They can’t see us.”

“I know. At least, they can’t see us now. But if you break that membrane or whatever it is…I don’t know….” She looked into his eyes for understanding.
He nodded. “You have a point. This might be the final barrier to this world, and if we push through it, we might enter the world proper, and become…?”

“Corporeal.”

“Yeah. Hmmm. Well, we can’t just stand here. What do we do?”

She looked at him. “You’re right. I guess we have to try.”

Cal nodded. “Okay, on three.” Taking Karen’s hand firmly in his left hand, he reached out with his right and touched the membrane. “One, two, three!” He leaned hard on the barrier, it gave way, and they stumbled into another universe, stumbling fell to their knees on the pavement.

Self-consciously, they looked around, saw no pedestrians at the moment, and got to their feet. Nobody had noticed their clumsy entrance. The scene appeared the same as before; it was definitely a 1950’s American city. He looked at the passing cars, trying to gauge the model years, when Karen drew his attention to something.

“Cal, you dusted yourself off when you got to your feet just now, didn’t you?”

He looked at her, puzzled. “Well, sure, but…”

“Don’t you see? You have a physical self to brush off. We made it; we’re real!”

“Son of a bitch,” he said softly. “You’re right. We’re here.” He looked around at the cars and people, then looked back at Karen. “Wherever here is. What shall we do now?”

The air was warm and the rising sun had just appeared between two buildings, so the city was just waking up. “Well, first guess, it’s summer,” Cal said. “Any other time, it’d be cold this early in the day.”

Karen shrugged. “Can’t prove it by me; I’m a London girl.” Cal stepped closer to the building, out of the way of pedestrians who stared curiously at them. Cal became aware that he and Karen still wore the same clothes they had when they landed on the alien planet, and people here wore light summer clothes. Cal and Karen suddenly felt very out of place.

“This doesn’t seem like such a good idea any more. We’re a tad… conspicuous,” Karen said.

“Copy that.” Cal looked up the street to where a crowd was gathering.

“Maybe we would be less conspicuous in that crowd.”

They began walking toward the crowd, and noticed that most of the other people on the street were also going that way.

“Where do you suppose they’re all going?” she asked. Cal shrugged and they kept following the flow. They came to an intersection, and on the opposite side was a large park. The people streamed across the street, oblivious to any traffic and Cal and Karen followed. Cal looked around as they crossed the intersection and said, “I think I know where we are. Look to your right.”

Karen did so, almost stopped in her tracks, but the press of people behind her pushed her on. “Is that what I think it is?”

Cal nodded. “Yup. Looks like their version is the same as ours.”

Across the street, behind a familiar iron fence, stood The White House. They stared, but the crowd pushed them on, obviously eager to get wherever it was they were going, which was what Cal and Karen were about to find out.

Entering the park through a great archway, Cal and Karen hurried along with the great stream of humanity. Reaching a confluence in the tree-lined path that wound through the park, the tide took the right-hand path and ahead, Cal saw, was a greater mass of people, all crowded together on a wide expanse of clear grassy land. Through the trees he could barely make out several large shapes, and his eyes widened as he turned to Karen.

“Do you see that?” he said incredulously.

Karen nodded. “Oh, yes, but I can’t believe it. It’s the first one, isn’t it?”

The crowd slowed, then stopped, leaving the two travelers facing a sight they never thought to see again. In the middle of the field before the Reflecting Pool, huge and shining and silver, stood their ship from their original expedition, the Hermes I.

Somehow Cal and Karen now were near the front of the throng, at the head of the shallow rectangular pool from where, in their world, Martin Luther King had given his famous “I have a dream” speech. A rostrum and a bank of microphones had been set up; someone was about to give another speech, but the two travelers found it difficult to keep their eyes off their old ship.

Although, Cal noted, it did not look old. The metal hull gleamed bright silver in the sunlight, and the call sign letters and numbers, red and blue, stood out clearly. Cal became aware that Karen was tugging on his sleeve, and bent his head to hear her words.

“Cal,” she said excitedly, “those numbers! They’re the same as the ones on our ship!”

Cal looked at the ship again, then back at his wife. “Well, sure they are, honey. What did you expect?”

Karen shook her head impatiently. “No, you don’t understand. I can accept that the people of this reality have built a ship exactly like our Hermes, but what are the odds that they’d give it the exact same designation; the same numbers, the same letters? It’s just not possible.”

Cal looked at the ship a moment longer, then understood. “So, you’re saying that this isn’t this world’s version of the Hermes….”

“Right,” Karen said breathlessly. “It’s ours.”

She turned and looked at the ship again, noting as she did so that there were signs of activity by the rostrum. “So what’s it doing here?”

“I would say it’s been brought here from our reality. That means someone else has discovered how to travel between realities,” he mused. “I think that’s something we…” Cal broke off as someone tapped a microphone and the ensuing screech of feedback quieted the crowd. Then a voice welcomed everyone there, and the two watched as President Harry Truman stepped up to the rostrum.

“Fellow citizens, I want you to all join me in welcoming here today our very special guest. He’s come quite a long way to see us,” the President chuckled, and the crowd laughed along with him, “and I’m sure you want, as I do, to make him feel right at home. Now, you may have heard of the way he communicates with us. He doesn’t actually talk, but kind of speaks to us in our minds.” Truman held up his hands and grinned good-naturedly. “He’s given me his solemn word that he won’t try to steal any of our thoughts,” laughter again, “and I’ve promised we won’t either.”

Truman gestured behind him, where a tall, impassive figure in a black robe stood. Cal and Karen stared in disbelief as the figure stepped forward.

[I give you greetings] it said in their minds, and the two travelers had to clutch at each other for mutual support. The figure on the dais with the President of the United States was none other than their alien friend from the 10th planet, Miktat ’entau Kallechaem, whom they had called ’tau.

Cal stared at the figure he had last seen from the pilot’s seat of the alien spacecraft as he took off from the doomed 10th planet. ’tau had been standing on the spacepad watching them lift off immediately after the blast that had decimated the rebel forces and killed its leader, and which had also taken the life of Bill O’Rourke, their beloved comrade. Bill had sacrificed his life so that they might escape, and his loss had been the hardest thing for them all to bear.

Karen gripped Cal’s arm. “Cal, how can this be? The tenth planet was destroyed; Jonathan said he saw it happen, two thousand years ago. How can ’tau be alive?”

Cal shook his head as their alien friend ‘spoke’ again.

[I have come a great distance in time and space to be here. My home world is no more and, as you know from my previous appearances on your communications networks, I am the representative of its few remaining survivors.]

Here, ’tau paused, and indicated a group of people, similar in appearance to himself, sitting on chairs at the rear of the stage.

[There is another with us, one who was anxious to be here today.] ’tau turned again, and Karen sobbed aloud as a tall, burly figure stepped to the alien’s side.

“Howdy, folks,” said Bill O’Rourke. “I’ll tell ya, it sure is good to be home.”