Shaw didn't care. Being in his early 20s thoughts about taking credit and whether or not he would have the rights to things were far from his mind. He just wanted to DO something. Something big. Something that would change things. The credit would come later.
"OK," Shaw said to his empty lab. "No time like the present."
Shaw walked over to a table and flipped a switch. The vibrating machine kicked into life with a soft hum. This flipped on the switches for the other machines in the circle. Computers kicked into life. The hum gradually grew louder and louder. The tables began to vibrate. He stepped back from the circle, but he could feel the vibrations in his teeth.
Shaw stepped back further from the circle, hoping that would ease the vibrations and, he told himself, so he could get a better view of things. Instead, it seemed as though the machines were now feeding on each other. The vibration, as it went around and around the circle, was growing in intensity. Each machine fed the next and then increased the power. The amount of energy that was now being fed into his circle was massive and the lights above Shaw's head flickered.
"Uh oh," Shaw whispered.
The floor began to vibrate. Not much, at first, but Shaw could feel the intensity growing and growing. One of the machines very visibly vibrated on the table, bouncing up and down as if it were having some kind of tantrum. Shaw looked up at the fluorescent lights and they were rocking back and forth as if the building were in the middle of an earthquake.
In the center of the circle, however, there was something truly interesting happening. The focus of the vibrations was creating a disc in the middle of the air. The inside of the floating disc was wavy, like looking at something in the distance on a hot day.
Shaw stepped forward again, ignoring the fact that the floor was vibrating quite a bit. There were waves of bright energy, like electricity, connecting each of the frequency-generator machines and he stepped close to that circle, some sense of self-preservation keeping him from stepping right into the beam where he likely would have been electrocuted if not vaporized completely. He stared at the waving disc with something like awe. The wavy air was now forming into something - an image. It was hazy, hard to see, but there was definitely something there. It was like looking at a very old television with rabbit-ears that were not properly adjusted.
Something in the disc was moving.
"What the hell?" Shaw whispered.
The image grew solid, but it was still very hazy. The portal was not opening any further.
"More power," Shaw muttered. "I need more power."
Shaw walked over to the wave machine and turned up the power as far as he could. The machine began to pound on the table like fists. He barely heard it.
The portal was become more distinct. Yes, there was something on the other side. There were people. People walking down the street. None of them seemed to notice the portal or Shaw.
He gasped. Then he giggled like a child. He realized he was giggling and clasped a hand over his mouth. Mustn’t fall into mad scientists stereotypes, he thought, but then giggled some more.
One of the fluorescent lights exploded into shards that rained down on Shaw's head. He let out a cry of pain as several of them cut his cheek, his jaw and across his forehead. There was another shattering noise and Shaw whirled around, his feet crunching on broken glass, and he saw that the windows of the lab had exploded outward. One of the machines leaped into the air and crashed to the floor and this was followed by another loud cracking sound. This one sounded much like metal snapping, with a horrific scream.
The portal vanished. There was a bright explosion of light and the force of it flung Shaw backwards where he landed on one of his lab tables. Immediately the table collapsed beneath him. There was another pop, another explosion, and his legs went up over his head and he sailed across the lab.
In the area where the wave machines were still vibrating, the floor cracked in a perfect circle. There was another loud snapping sound and part of the floor simply vanished, falling through the hole. There was a horrendous crash as it collapsed into the lab below.
There was more crashing as the wave machines fell into the hole, as if committing suicide, and clattered in the lab on the floor below. The vibrating stopped. Alarms went off.
Shaw was covered in debris and more glass and his head hurt.
He barely noticed.
He had almost formed a portal.
He had seen other people. Other people in an alternate dimension.
It had almost worked.
Shaw got to his feet. There was blood running into his eyes and his head was throbbing. His feet nearly gave way. For the first time he really noticed the damage that had happened in the lab. There were red lights flashing. He heard people yelling and calling out. The wind from the broken window was intense and cold.
"Oops," Shaw said.
***
"Look, Dr. Shaw, we brought you here because we want you to be free to experiment on whatever you want," said Frank Mackenzie, the director that Shaw reported to directly. "We encourage our people to think of the craziest stuff possible and encourage them to explore it. However, we want it done as safely as possible. We prefer that you bring your ideas to us and we talk it over and then we make the necessary arrangements."
Shaw sat in a chair in front of the man's desk. His head was covered in bandages that had soaked through with blood and there was an ice pack on his head. He had taken some aspirin several hours ago, but his head was still pounding.
The man's office was utilitarian at best. There was a metal desk and a standard-issue office chair. The decorations were likely there when Frank had first entered the office after accepting the job. He was a dullard in many ways, the kind of man who thought only of business and not about creative things like office decorations. There were plastic plants along an air conditioning unit just below a window. As if the plastic plants might need sunlight. There were a few photos of the man's family on his desk and a little glass sphere in which was a tiny plant and three small shrimp swimming around. An enclosed ecosystem that somehow seemed to speak more to Shaw about what Frank wanted as a manager than anything the man had said.
"We also have two things that all of our people work on here," Frank said. "The experimental stuff is great, but not a lot of it pans out and most of it doesn't make any money. That food stuff you were working on, that's a money maker. This alternate dimension stuff, while fascinating, doesn't have much of a practical application. At least not right away."
Frank sat back and folded his hands across his stomach. When Shaw had been brought here after visiting the infirmary, Frank's face had been red. The moment the director had seen Shaw's battered face, however, he had softened a bit.
"You just cost us a lot of money in repairs," Frank said. "Thousands, at least, but potentially millions. We have a lot of safety systems in between the floors and walls that will have to be replaced."
Shaw lowered his head, feeling very much like a kid who had been called into the principal's office. Fank’s chair hinges squeaked as he moved. Shaw wondered if the man left the hinges on the chair that squeaky for some kind of intimidation factor. Frank sighed and slapped his hands on the top of his desk and looked up at the ceiling.
"OK," Frank said, "we can't punish you for taking initiative. We try to do that here. So, here's what we can do. Consider this your one warning and then give me the specs for the experiment you want to perform. We will find you a facility that will allow you to conduct them without destroying the entire building."
Shaw raised his head slightly, a smile just barely hidden behind his lips. Frank was leaning forward again, once again the office was filled with the creaking of his chair. Frank's head was cocked to the side a bit as if he were studying Shaw.
"I like your initiative," Frank said. "Here's the rest of the deal, though. You have to continue working on the food thing. If you can get that developed to a level that we can use then we can make money off of it. That money can be used t
o help fix those damages. I'd rather do that than dock your pay, and I am assuming you agree?"
Shaw said: "Yes, absolutely. Thank you for allowing this."
Frank smiled. Shaw knew that this had been the man's plan all along. There was also a feeling that his work with the alternate dimensions had more applications and money-making potential than Frank was letting on. Whatever, Shaw thought, as long as they let me continue to work with it. I was so close.
"OK," Frank said, "go home for today. Rest up and make sure that you haven't dislodged half your brain. When you get back here tomorrow, spend time working on your food experiments and then follow up with me tomorrow afternoon. I should at least have an idea of where we will be setting up this other experiment."
Shaw nodded, at a loss for words. The smile was now on his lips and any notion he had of trying to act cool about this was gone. He stood up and shook Frank's hand. He nearly skipped out of the office. The pounding in his head was forgotten and his brain was spinning with ideas of what he should be doing next.
***
Dr. Lance Shaw drove home, his brain still filled with ideas of what he should do next. He had been so close. The wave generators had been vibrating at a frequency that nearly opened a dimensional portal. He needed to generate a more powerful energy field, he figured, and he needed more of the wave generators. He needed better control over the intensity of the vibrations he created and he needed more protection around him to stop those waves from bringing the lab crashing down around his ears.
He drove home barely aware of what he was doing, completely oblivious to traffic. He pulled up in to the parking lot of his apartment building and as he stepped out of the car the afternoon sun bore down on him, but the air was biting and cold. Shaw had a smile on his face, his head down, thinking.
So, of course he collided head-on into a man standing on the sidewalk.
Shaw's head collided with the man's chest and that caused his already sore brain to explode in pain. Shaw let out a cry and staggered backwards. His vision exploded in white and he stumbled off the sidewalk. He vaguely heard the man he hit also cry out, but he was in too much pain to really notice.
"Jesus, watch what you're doing!" Shaw yelled, his hand on his head.
"I believe you collided with me," said a voice. "Dr. Shaw."
Shaw felt a sudden chill travel from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, as if the air had suddenly become electrified. He had been living in his apartment for months, but he had been so busy with Gemini that he hadn’t bothered to get to know any of his neighbors. He had no intention of getting to know them, either. Shaw had little need for social interaction with the people around him. When you were a man who graduated with three degrees in various sciences at an age as early as he, most of the "regular" people in the world bored the living snot out of you. They could not keep up, their mundane lives were frustrating.
In short, there was no one around here, living in this apartment complex that should have known his name.
Shaw raised his head and then shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight. The man in front of him wore a long gray overcoat and a hat with a wide brim. Shaw had not seen a hat like that outside of movies (what few movies he had bothered to view). Beneath the shadow of the hat was a man with what he could only think of as a weather-beaten face. There were thick lines and the skin looked like leather. There was stubble across the man's chin and wisps of gray hair stuck out from beneath the hat. Resting on the hat’s brim were goggles that had red lenses.
"Wh-who are you?" Shaw asked.
"I'm the man who is here to stop you from continuing with the experiment that you started today," the man said, his voice as rough as his exterior. He had a faintly British accent. "You are messing about with things that you cannot possibly fathom."
So that’s what this was. He had heard about other laboratories who were constantly jealous of the things, the advances, being made at Gemini. Other scientists had been muttering about being offered lucrative jobs and opportunities if they would just sneak files out of the Gemini building. There were rumors that Gemini had an entire secret security force to take care of people who decided to sell Gemini secrets.
Rumors of people who had disappeared.
"I don't know who you are and I don't appreciate being bullied and made to feel afraid in the parking lot of my own apartment," Shaw said.
"I'm sorry to do that, Dr. Shaw," said the man. "But this outfit is necessary, you’ll just have to trust me on that. Please, just stop the experiments that you started with the alternate dimensions. The work you've been doing with food is a good thing and can help the world, change it. There's nothing wrong with feeding starving people. Maybe it's not as exciting, but it could make you a legend in the scientific community. That's not a bad thing. You could end up with some kind of major prize or award and end up in the history books."
Shaw cocked his head to the side, studying the man. How old was he? He looked like he had been standing out in the desert sun for years. Where the hell had he come from? Where the hell would that outfit be necessary and accepted?
"Who are you?" Shaw asked.
"My name is Ezekiel Clay," the man said.
"How old are you?"
Ezekiel tipped his head back and laughed a hoarse laugh that matched his rough voice.
"I am old," Ezekiel said. "How old, well, even I have lost count."
"Who sent you?" Shaw asked.
Ezekiel thought about that for a moment. "There are things that I have not been authorized to talk about just yet. I'm just here to tell you that it would be best if you stopped your experiments. There are people, other people, people perhaps not quite as nice, watching you and this experiment. They want you to succeed, but the success of this experiment will be detrimental to everyone. Literally everyone, in this world and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others."
"What do you mean?"
"There are walls, barriers, between realities, Dr. Shaw," Ezekiel said. "They are there for a purpose. There are things in these other realities that are dangerous. If you start mucking about with those barriers, they weaken and if they weaken, realities can collide."
Ezekiel lowered his head, his face obscured by his wide-brimmed hat for a bit. Then he raised it again, studying Shaw's face, as if trying to determine if anything of his warning was sinking in. There was a momentary widening of his eyes that made Shaw think that Ezekiel realized he might only be fueling the young scientist’s curiosity.
"If the realities collide, that’s a bad thing, they tend to cancel each other out, but not until the two realities spend time trying to exist, thrashing in their death throes, and nearly destroying each other. Then they just stop existing. All of the people. Everything. Just stop."
Ezekiel's eyes burned into Dr. Shaw's brain. His head still hurt from the beating it had taken earlier in the day. The headache pounded at his skull, making it feel as though his eyes were bulging out of his skull.
"I'd like to ask you to leave, Mr. Clay," Shaw said. "My head hurts and I'm not really thinking all that clearly. I need to go into my apartment and load up on a lot of painkillers and then I intend to get a very long and good night's sleep. Once tomorrow comes, I have to go back to Gemini and decide what I'm going to do next. Your suggestion has been noted."
"You're not going to stop, are you?" Ezekiel said. "I can see it in your eyes."
"You're a mind reader now?"
Shaw found reserves of bravery that he did not know existed. He walked past Ezekiel, brushing past the man with his shoulder. The long jacket that Ezekiel wore felt heavier than just leather or some other known material. He caught the old weathered face out of the corner of his eye, the eyes now sad. Still he pushed past and started walking to his apartment.
"There will be others who visit you, Dr. Shaw," Ezekiel said. "And there is one that will probably contact you that you will definitely wish you had never heard from. I cannot tell you his name, because as far as we can tell, he has no name.
It may not even be a 'he' so much as an 'it.' It's evil, whatever it is, Dr. Shaw. Make no mistake about it. There are those here on this plane that work with it and have been corrupted by its evil. They may also pay a visit to you and will likely do more than just talk."
Ezekiel shifted from one foot to the next and his mouth opened and then closed. He looked like he wanted to say more. Instead, he just reached up to his hat and pulled down those odd red goggles. Then he lowered his hands to his belt buckle where there was a soft click.
"You've been warned, Dr. Shaw," Ezekiel said. "Be careful."
And then there was a quick, bright, flash of light and Ezekiel was gone.
Shaw gaped at the spot where Ezekiel had been standing. He walked over and waved his hand around like an idiot for several seconds. There was nothing there.
"This has to be the weirdest day of my life," Shaw said to himself.
He walked into his apartment, shut the door and headed for the kitchen. He removed the prescription bottles in the small white bag that the doctor at the infirmary had given him. He opened one of them and took several of the pills, then he got a beer out of the fridge, walked into his living room and sat down. Not long after, he dozed for a bit.
***
It was night when the phone started ringing. Shaw had fallen asleep on the sofa and he jumped when the jangling sound pierced the veil of sleep. On the coffee table in front of him was the empty beer can. He admitted, at least to himself, that when it came to booze he was a total lightweight. He rarely drank and the beer in the fridge had been in there since he moved in, bought in payment to his friends for helping him move in.
"Huh?" Shaw said aloud before realizing the origin of the ringing.
Shaw fumbled for the cordless. It skittered out of his fingers and across the glass surface of the coffee table. It then teetered on the edge and fell onto the floor. He cursed, staggered to his feet and reached down to get the phone. Once had it firmly in hand, he pressed the phone to his ear on the last ring before it would have gone to voicemail.
The Man From Taured Page 11
