Faolan walked them back to the keep, disappointed their stolen moment had been interrupted. As he listened to Boomer and Samantha’s banter, he noted she kept her sadness from the man she claimed as guard and friend.
Chapter 10
“How long will you permit this to go on?” Faolan challenged Boomer outside the door of Samantha’s chamber. “She was supposed to have time to sleep, yet the sun is already in the sky.” He had waited for her to share the morning meal and then waited half the morning just to be certain she was fine.
Boomer glanced back at the closed door. “I checked on her not too long ago.” He let out a sigh. “This is nothing. Once she’s in the zone she can go for a day at a time. I never expected her to stick to the time limit.”
“Does Jeff know how the bargain has been violated?” Faolan asked.
“I do, and I’m not happy about it,” Jeff said as he walked toward them in the corridor. He looked at Boomer. “The men have eaten and are now beginning the sanitation survey. Miller already returned from the village this morning after checking on the child. I wanted to talk to the major about our men training with Faolan’s.”
Jeff turned to Faolan. “And I also wanted to talk to you to see how you felt about combining our skills. There is also the thought that our men should learn to handle a horse.”
Faolan didn’t even contemplate the question before his reply. “The idea is a fine one. Kagen has the warriors on the training ground behind the walls of the keep. Your men are welcome.”
Boomer chuckled. “You can go in and talk, but she will ignore you. Do you really want to start her day with ideas on how to violate the timeline with joint training?”
“Dana already peed in that pool,” Jeff said. “How long is it safe for her to work like this?”
“She can handle it. It’s only been fourteen hours according to my watch.”
Then Faolan heard a cry that made blood freeze in his veins. Through the closed wooden door, he heard Samantha scream, “Nooooo!” Then nothing.
Before the sound ceased, Boomer was on his feet with the door opened. Faolan saw her seated at the small table he had provided. On the surface sat an open metal box, which glowed and held her attention. There was a piece of metal on her temple and a small round item next to the box.
Again Samantha screamed. “No! No! Nooo!”
The three men poured into the chamber and ran to her side. It was Boomer who said, “Oh my God, she’s shaking. This is wrong. It’s never like this.” He called her name and received no response.
Jeff asked with panic in his voice, “Can you break the connection?”
Boomer seemed to weigh the question before he said, “Get Miller and the med kit. I’ve never had to do this before.” His hand reached for the metal on Samantha’s skin.
Jeff ran from the chamber. “Be back in five.”
Faolan stared with dread as the mountain removed the metal and counted four heartbeats before it happened.
Samantha cried out in anguish and gripped the sides of her head. Her screams continued as her body fell to the floor in convulsions. Boomer tried to pick her up, but she fought as if her life depended on it. Her arms and legs battled while her eyes rolled in their sockets.
Both men received blows from the unseeing woman as they tried to come to her aid. Faolan saw Boomer fall backward as her foot connected with his chest. She struck out with her fist, and Faolan saw stars.
It was Boomer who held him back from another attempt. “Wait for Jeff and Miller. We can’t do this alone.”
Faolan stared in muted silence as Samantha again convulsed on the floor. It seemed like they waited for days, though the help came fast. He heard Jeff’s boots pound on the floorboards, and then he and Miller flew into the chamber.
Boomer stated, “She started as soon as I disconnected UNK005. Don’t touch her!” Then the man spoke of her attack.
Faolan saw the item in Miller’s hand. It was the same one he had used on the boy. The healer waved it over Samantha’s writhing body.
“Her heart rate and pulse are through the roof, neural activity is off the charts, and it can’t even read the adrenaline levels.” Miller knelt by his case. “Find a way to restrain her so I can sedate her. Now!”
Boomer looked at Faolan and Jeff. “I’ll pin her middle. Someone else take her arms and legs.”
Faolan feared for her ribs as Boomer dove to cover her chest. Jeff’s knees pinned her shoulders, and still Samantha fought them. When her legs moved to dislodge Boomer, Faolan covered them and wrapped his body around them.
He never saw what sedate meant, only felt the fight leave her body. The sigh escaped him as Boomer lifted slowly and declared it safe to let go. Faolan silently apologized for his rough treatment of her small frame as he rose.
It was Boomer who lifted the quieted body from the floor and placed it on the bed. All the while, the man uttered apologies. Tears brimmed in the large man’s eyes, and Faolan feared the worst.
Again Miller waved the item over her body. His voice was soft. “Heart rate and pulse are returning to normal as is the rest.”
Jeff rose and moved to the side of the bed. He assisted Boomer in placing her pliant body under the blankets. “What in the hell was that?”
The pain came out in Boomer’s reply, “I don’t know. Samantha never reacted like that before. That wasn’t even her longest log-in.” The big man held her hand as he answered.
Jeff walked to the table and took the small round object in his hand. He held it up and asked, “Now what?” With a look of disgust, the object went back on the table.
“The major will be unconscious for most of the day. I gave her a large dose based on her reaction. Now we keep an eye on her and wait for her to wake up. I plan on hourly scans just to be safe,” Miller answered.
None of it reassured Faolan. “Will she be fine?”
Miller nodded. “I think so.”
All he wanted was to scream at Jeff and Boomer for allowing such to happen. However, the men already bore such pain in their eyes that he kept quiet. Faolan said, “I will sit by her side.”
Boomer never looked away from Samantha as he countered, “Not now, Faolan. She’s mine to protect.”
Jeff’s hand touched his shoulder before he could speak. Jeff said, “Faolan, let Boomer stay for now. You can come and check on her later. I think I may have caused a small panic in the courtyard when I went to get Miller. My men and yours are waiting to hear what happened.”
“What did happen?” Faolan asked.
“I’m not sure, but we can let everyone know Samantha is resting,” Jeff replied.
It was the whispering that woke her. Yet she had to fight to crack open her eyes and regretted the decision as nausea took hold. Samantha wondered who whimpered before the realization struck that it had been her.
The male voice said, “I think she’s finally waking up.” It took her a moment to be certain it was Jeff who spoke.
A strange woman answered, “Then I will leave you.”
Samantha only caught a glimpse of the swish of dark skirts that left her darkened room. She asked, “Who was that?” Her voice was rough and cracked.
“Keira, the housekeeper. She came to check on you and bring me something to drink,” Jeff answered. “Though you may need it more.”
It took a great deal of concentration to force her body from the soft pillow into an upright position. Though the room spun with effort, she asked, “Why am I in bed?”
Jeff held out a cup and lifted it to her mouth. With his aid, she sipped the cool water and again asked, “Why am I in bed?”
“Yesterday morning we had to disconnect you from UNK005 because you were screaming and shaking. It resulted in you having convulsions, and Miller had to sedate you,” Jeff explained.
For the first time, she noted the dark night outside the window and the small fire burning in the hearth. “Yesterday?”
“You’ve been unconscious since. It’s now the end of the next day. I’m useless without my watch, but the evening meal ended a while ago,” Jeff said as he again handed her the cup.
She cringed as he told her of her physical resistance to help, the tranquilizer, and the worry she had caused her men, Faolan, and the people of the keep. While grateful not to have woken alone, Samantha asked, “Where’s Boomer?”
On cue, Boomer entered the chamber and sat beside her on the bed. He stroked her bound hair as he said, “The latrine is behind the keep and not exactly convenient.” His arms pulled her close as he whispered against her head, “You scared the crap out of me, Sam.”
“I’m sorry, Boom,” she answered, and she leaned in for the embrace. “I’m so sorry.”
Boomer pulled back. “What happened?”
The question was also on Jeff’s face as Samantha decided how to explain. “I’ve never connected to only the small UNK005. It’s always been to both. Previously my primary connection was to the large sphere with a secondary link to the smaller.” She continued to explain the difference, including a connection with the base’s computer network. “Turns out the large one is more of a power source and contains comparatively small amounts of raw data. The small one is the true information database, and together they form a complete circuit. I learned more in that one session than I’ve gathered in over five years of research.”
“So we now assume the small one is too dangerous?” Jeff questioned.
“No. I mean, I don’t think so,” she replied.
“Perhaps you missed your breakdown,” Boomer added.
“That happened because I attempted to download too much at one time, I think.” Samantha replied. “Imagine the smaller UNK005 is like a normal computer with files within files. Now imagine that computer realizing what you need and finding it for you.”
“Are you saying that thing is sentient?” Jeff asked as he wagged a finger at the desk.
“Not as in alive and breathing, but it led me to where I needed to go within the files.” Samantha heard the awe in her voice as she said, “While I was searching it, it was searching me to discover how to best fulfill my needs. UNK005 took me places I wasn’t prepared for and downloaded it too quickly for my mind to process. It led me down pathways I never even dreamed of searching. Basically, the neural connection goes both ways.”
Before Jeff could say anything, she continued, “The information download overwhelmed me, and it was my fault. I knew the data was coming in too fast. I felt the moment I lost control, but my curiosity kept growing. It only gave me what I wanted.”
“No more, Major,” Jeff commanded.
“You’re missing the point. Next time I know what to do to prevent overload.” Samantha hesitated. “But I don’t want to go back in for a while. I need time to convert what I absorbed so I can fix what I did.” The simple truth was the download had scared her. For the first time, she hadn’t been the one in control of the log-in; UNK005 had been.
“What did you do?” Boomer asked.
The tears pooled in her eyes, and she said, “At first I thought I broke time.”
Jeff stood and began pacing the chamber. “How exactly did you break time?”
She knew how, and UNK005 knew how, but Jeff would never understand the complexity of dark matter particles and the ebb and flow of the universe. She sat straighter in the bed and said, “Time is not linear, nor is it the constant we believe. Gravity can bend time and light in a black hole. The scholars of our world have theories that explain this phenomenon, and they are all wrong according to UNK005. All you need to know is that time is more of a fluid-like material trapped in a bubble, yet it still has defined borders. Borders that once violated cannot be repaired.
“Despite your science fiction imaginings, there are no other realities and no other timelines. Only one exists, yet the possibilities within that timeline, or bubble, are infinite. Free will is real and has a direct impact on all matter, dark and physical.”
Jeff stopped his motion. “Okay, so there is only one timeline. I’m with you on that. What does that mean to us?”
“It means that by opening the quantum door I made a new bubble. Though I’m now certain Dana’s arrival here came after my creation of the quantum door.”
“Whoa, back up a second,” Boomer said. “She got here first by over fifty years.”
“No, Boomer. First, I made the quantum door that left a residual door which Dana found,” Samantha said. “Stop thinking of time as a line. So, I made the door and left cracks within the bubble. Dana stepped through a crack into a new section of the bubble.”
“Why couldn’t she step back into her time?” Jeff asked.
“The future being unwritten is a constant. Some theories are correct, and every action leads to environmental reactions. Dana changed the world by simply arriving in this time. We are currently rewriting history in a new bubble due to my creation of the quantum door and our entry into this time.” Samantha waited for both men to nod and continued, “According to UNK005, this should be the new and now only timeline. But because the smaller and the larger UNK005 are separated, both time bubbles exist.”
“Is that a problem?” Jeff asked.
“In theory, the universe can support the additional time bubble with no negative consequences.” Samantha took a breath. “The problem lies with the larger UNK005 being alone in the other time reality. Somehow it keeps that time bubble as a solid construct. Should the colonel or anyone else attempt to duplicate my research and open another quantum door without the control sphere, the smaller one, the power contained in the larger could in theory destroy both of the bubbles.” She paused. “That realization is why I screamed. I saw the potential end of everything.”
Jeff ran his hand over his hair. “I’m lost with all of this bubble versus bubble stuff. Just tell me what needs to happen.”
“Our world is close to destroying itself. The sad reality is that it has no impact on the universe. Our planet is merely a speck in the fabric of reality. The issue that needs to be resolved is still the larger UNK005. Our people will try to make another quantum door, and they will fail without the completed circuit. We need to stop them and find a way to prevent the destruction of . . . well, of everything,” Samantha said. “UNK005 is certain it will be used if left in my lab, hence the whole destruction probability.
“I believe the time bubble we came from will collapse after the remaining UNK005 is removed. While I don’t want that type of ultimate power, time continues from this point somehow without the threat of UNK005 being found in the desert. My working theory is that we have already prevented the war in this bubble.” Samantha sat back against the headboard and waited for the men to process the information. “We still need to recapture UNK005.”
“But you said we can’t go forward,” Boomer said.
“I know, and that’s still true, but there is still something I’m missing, something in plain sight,” Samantha answered as her hand opened and closed and opened and closed. She saw Boomer’s expression change. “Don’t tell me what you saw in the lab.”
Boomer nodded. “If our time bubble pops, do we still exist?”
“Yes, because we are no longer in that bubble. Is it a paradox that we still exist? Yes, but UNK005 thinks we need to violate time in an effort to prevent it from being found by humanity,” Samantha said.
“I don’t like the way you talk about that thing,” Jeff said.
“It likes you, Jeff,” she teased and waited for him to find the joke.
He rolled his eyes. “Now what?”
“Now I need time to think. Don’t worry. I’m not going to connect again until absolutely necessary. I need mundane a
ctivity to process the information download and find the missing piece of the puzzle. Life in the dark ages should be uncomplicated enough to allow for a bit of concentration.”
“All right, you think and keep me informed. In the meantime, we proceed with the sanitation detail and co-training,” Jeff said.
Samantha asked, “When did I authorize such activities?”
Jeff smiled. “You were sedated, and I took command. Are you ready to take it back?”
Samantha shifted and put her feet on the floor. Pleased to find balance, she said, “First I need to speak with the men and let them know what I found. I’m assuming Dana would also like to know how much she changed the future.”
“Do you think her presence here was enough to prevent a war?” Jeff asked in disbelief. “This is just one tiny spot on the planet.”
“All I know for certain is that UNK005 does not think it’s found in this new bubble, so for now I can only theorize the future develops on a better path due in part to Dana. So our mission remains the same: recapture UNK005 and bury it deep,” Samantha stated.
“Let’s assume we can recapture UNK005. Where do we take it?” Jeff asked.
Samantha answered immediately. “While there is a plan, I’m still working on the details.” There was hesitation before she added, “I need to determine the methodology for another quantum door before I decide where we go from there.” Jeff’s silent nod was the only acknowledgment.
“Where are the concerns over mixing with this time and minimizing our impact?” Boomer asked.
She smiled. “For now they have been put on the back burner, but we still need to use some restraint. No exposing the culture to discussions of what the future holds, no creating advanced weaponry, and no advanced tech development. We need to let this time bubble develop as it should, slowly.”
Time of the Draig Page 13
