by Mathy, Scott
Lia obliged, taking the second-to-last tube out of the Doc’s bag and passing it to him. “No more heroics, okay? We’ll handle the heavy lifting from here.” If she was trying to comfort him, it wasn’t working.
“Who was trying to be heroic? I didn’t want to die. I promise I’ll avoid any fights, but I can’t help what just happened.” He inserted the tube and relaxed while the chemicals did their work.
Lia snapped to attention, “Someone’s coming.”
Dwight started to push himself up, “We have to take them out quietly – no telling how many there are.”
The psychic stopped him, “What did I just say about heroics? There are seventy-two guards and three administrators in the base. Eight of them are superpowered, one is an alien. Twenty are on break… and two of them are currently fucking. Happy?” She put her fingers against her temples, “More importantly, the four coming our way think they are greeting their new investors instead of investigating an intrusion.”
“So, no killing then?” Dwight groaned as he rose.
Lia looked more than a little annoyed with her friend’s violent tendencies, “As long as you don’t say or do anything to make them doubt the false memory I gave them, they should have no reason to question what we’re doing here. As far as they know, we’re here to inspect the facility and should be given a full tour.”
“Aww,” Ellis whined, taking the bag over her shoulder, “I had some new non-lethal gadgets to test.”
A moment later, the door leading into the complex opened with a loud clang. Three armed guards stepped through it, followed by their supervisor. Their black tactical outfits –conspicuously similar to paramilitary garb Dwight had seen during his time in the army – clashed with the stark white heavy trench coat of their officer. The older man’s hair matched the jacket, and the remnants of a long military career were etched across every line in his face. “Ladies, welcome to the end of the world.”
Ellis straightened herself, suddenly appearing very professional, “Thank you, Commander.” She extended a handshake.
He returned the gesture without hesitation. “You’ll forgive me for not sending a crew to meet you at the plane. The weather can be unpredictable this time of year. I understand you were joining us for an inspection of the anomaly. I assure you that all is well on both sides, but if the Council insists on a tour…”
“Lead on,” Lia said, stepping forward. “We have a limited amount of time.”
“As you say. This way, please. There are tunnels that connect the barracks with the central hub. The anomaly is secured at the heart of the base.” He held out his arm, inviting them through the hatch his team had entered.
They followed, walking through the door while the three guards took position behind them. Their guide spoke with pride as he recounted the history of the base, “Over a decade ago, a satellite mapping the Antarctic ice shelf detected a strange energy off the coast. It took nearly six months to mount an expedition. When the first explorers arrived on this island, they found the anomaly: an unprecedented tear in physical space.”
Ellis pondered the implications of his story, “It’s been stable for that long? Without any containment field?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he continued, “The station was built around the portal for research purposes. The scientists found that by feeding massive amounts of electrical energy into the anomaly, it was possible to increase its size large enough to pass through.”
As they walked down corridor after corridor, Dwight took stock of each room they passed. Dozens of guards went about their routine, completely oblivious to their presence. It appeared as though the barracks had everything the staff needed to exist in isolation for years. Dwight noted multiple bunk rooms lined with full beds and other amenities, a sizeable mess hall, a stocked library, even a gymnasium – all with state-of-the-art technology. The complex was better equipped than anything he’d experienced during his service.
“This all sounds like a terrible idea,” Dwight commented as they passed down a staircase and through a heated underground passage that must have connected the buildings. At least they hadn’t been forced to run through the blizzard again.
Ellis ignored her companion, “So where does it go, the portal?”
“To another dimension,” the commander answered, “Completely deserted. Well, it was, anyway.”
The group came to a heavily reinforced gate; its utterly ridiculous pistons and rotating locks looked like it could have held Midas at bay for hours. Their escort stopped, unclipping a radio from the belt beneath his heavy jacket. “Perkins here. Seven for entry to main chamber,” he said into the receiver.
The radio answered back, “Confirmed, sixty seconds to cycle.”
While they waited, Dwight concluded that there was no way the facility belonged to any government, “So who built the prison here? If this place was designed for research, when did it become the dumping ground for unwanted Powers?”
“The Council recognized the potential uses for the anomaly and made the conversion six years ago.” He paused, slightly shaking his head, as if fighting off Lia’s implanted memory. “Where did you say you were from, again?” The commander tensed, his soldiers pulling their lowered weapons tight. Their entourage exchanged suspicious glances.
Fortunately for the visitors, Lia’s mind worked far faster than their escort’s. Instantly, each of the guards relaxed their grips on their guns. They froze, immobilized by her mental locks. “Great, now I have to reset their minds every few minutes or they’ll know we shouldn’t be here.”
Dwight realized his error. “I’m sorry, but look at this place!” he attempted to whisper despite his frustration, “Manning this station must cost a small fortune. We haven’t even seen the prison yet, and look at the investment here. And for what? The way Commander Exposition describes it, they should be to flip a switch and make the doorway inaccessible. Whoever is running this place must have damn-near limitless resources at their disposal.”
The Doc stopped him by holding up a hand, “It’s fine. We need to see for ourselves and work out a plan.” She pointed the hand at Dwight, “You, no more talking,” then turned to Lia, “Can you make them continue exactly as if our inquisitive idiot had kept his mouth shut?”
“Easily,” the psychic answered.
Immediately, the men started moving again, as if someone had pressed “play” on their tour. The commander continued his history lesson as though Dwight hadn’t spoken, “The first crew through the portal discovered what would come to be known as Acheron Station: the gateway to the underworld. There was an actual name to it, but the prisoners started calling it that, since they were essentially condemned to the afterlife. From there, they are transferred into the Warden’s care.”
“Warden?” Dwight asked, trying to gain information in a way that didn’t require Lia to delete sections of their host’s brain.
Commander Perkins stared at Dwight for a brief moment, as if trying to recall something just beneath his present thoughts. Unable to find it, he replied to Dwight’s question, “Right, she’s a real piece of work. One of the first exiles sent to the station. Initially, we tried to man the station, sending supplies and rotating guards across the gate every few days. Eventually, we learned that we didn’t need to.”
Lia looked horrified, “You abandoned them?”
“No, no. We let them take charge of their own imprisonment. Rather than lose personnel to an inevitable superpowered riot, we withdrew to the other side and made them a deal.” He sounded proud of the ingenuity, even if he hadn’t personally been the one to come up with it. “If they don’t behave, we stop sending food and supplies through the portal. You’d be surprised how well they act if their only other option is starving.”
“That’s monstrous,” Lia concluded, trying to hold herself together.
The commander straightened his coat, “Miss, these are some of the most dangerous, unruly, powerful beings our world has ever seen. If they’re here, it’s for a d
amn good reason. Think of all the lives that have been saved by removing them from society.”
“You created the Warden to be your overseer on the other side?” Dwight asked.
Perkins laughed, “Us? Hell no. She took over exactly how you’d expect: she killed, crippled, and beat the rest of them into submission. It’s like some deranged social experiment. She’s become our twisted administrator because they’re all too scared to do anything against her and her gang.”
Dwight thought the whole thing sounded like a miniaturized version of New Haven. “You don’t think she’ll force her way through someday, fight her way out with her army?”
“How could she? We control access to the portal and randomize when deliveries come through. There’s no getting out without us opening the gate.” The door finally began to ascend on its heavy treads, the enormous mechanisms breaking their seals. “She reports how many are alive down there, and we provide just enough to keep them that way. Whether they actually are or not don’t really matter. It’s not like they’re coming back.”
As the steel barrier reached the halfway point of its agonizingly slow climb, Dwight saw what was taking so long. Throughout the distance of the corridor, more than a hundred feet from where they stood, five more doors of the same construction were each making the same trip at their staggered intervals.
Dwight marveled at the height of security in the complex, “You did all this?”
“Not us; the scientists who began the research. They had no way of knowing what was going to step through the portal when they opened it. For all they knew, there was an army of alien monsters just on the other side waiting to be unleashed.” Commander Perkins ducked under the first barrier. By the time they made it to the second, he no longer had to.
Ellis added, “And you use all this as another threat for the prisoners. If you wanted, you could drop those doors and seal this place forever.”
“You got it. Like I said, there is no escape from Acheron. Once you’re in, you don’t come back.” He beamed with pride at the finality of the statement.
The final barrier, a wheeled hatch that looked like something off a high-tech submarine, lay at the far end of the hall. As soon as they cleared the last overhead door, Perkins radioed for them to be closed. Without the same delay as their rise, each of the six enormous steel slabs dropped back into place. With an ear-splitting crash, the locks turned, blocking off any chance of retreat.
Perkins spun the wheel on the hatch, pushing it with a forceful grunt once the pins retracted fully. They each stepped through into the heart of the complex. Atop the surrounding catwalks, more guards armed with heavy rifles followed their movements. Dwight counted at least three barrels pointed at each of them. Regardless of the commander’s lead, these soldiers were obviously instructed to take no chances.
At the center of the chamber, a bank of computer monitors on each side of a ramp led the way to their objective. Hanging in the air roughly six feet from the floor, the minuscule violet dot floated between two gigantic Tesla coils. The cables feeding the machines were strewn across the ground.
“This is the anomaly,” Perkins gestured at the closed portal, “and the universe’s most secure prison.”
There were three researchers – all dressed like more refined versions of their own Doctor – manning the lab stations just off the ramp. Perkins led the way to a seated woman lost in thought studying readings from one of the screens; Dwight had observed the same expression many times in his visits to Ellis’s lab.
“This is Dr. Dozman. She has been trying to find a way to replicate the anomaly outside of the facility. How are your tests going, doctor?” Perkins waited for several seconds without a response from the distracted woman. She was definitely older than either Dwight or Lia, but still short of the Doc’s age. Ellis would have described the plump woman as youthful by mad scientist standards.
Finally, Ellis put a hand directly between the woman’s thick glasses and the monitor. Her vision focused on the obstruction. She traced a line in the air to direct Dozman’s attention to her face. “Hello, doctor.”
Dozman jumped a little in her seat, suddenly aware of her new guests, “Oh! Hello! Sorry, I was watching for fluctuations. What can I do for you?” Her two companions continued their studies, realizing they had escaped the requirement of social interaction.
“Yes, we’re going through to Acheron,” the Doc said bluntly. “Do whatever it is to open it while I watch, please.”
There was a series of clicks from the shooting gallery lining the upper level of the room. Perkins stepped away from the group, his own men raising their weapons. He put his hand against the pistol at his side. “You will do no such thing.”
“Oh for fuck’s…” Lia sighed, freezing the assembled guards and their commander in place. She left Dozman and her team unaffected.
Dwight sparked his shock pads, preparing to disable the scientists. There was no way of knowing if any of them had some kind of alarm hidden around their work stations. With the press of a single switch, they could theoretically call for help, or seal the lot of them in forever. Despite his impairments, the hitman felt confident he could take them, if needed.
Ellis, as it turned out, was more than prepared for the situation, “Doctor,” she started, rolling a chair over from the far side of the computer bank and taking a seat in front of the startled scientist. “My friends and I need to extract one of the prisoners from the other side of that portal. I am prepared to offer you a small fortune toward your research – or whatever you want to use it for – in exchange for passage.”
“You’re going to fund my research for letting you go through?” the woman was genuinely puzzled by the proposition.
“Sweetie, you can spend it on your project, or all the scantily-clad cabana boys – or girls, I won’t judge – and umbrella drinks you want. I don’t really care.” She put her hand over Dozman’s, which had been resting against the terminal. “Think about it: no more frozen bunker. Just warm beaches and sexy lab assistants.”
Dozman made her decision almost before the words had finished leaving Ellis’s mouth, “Done.” Her co-workers also nodded their silent agreement with little resistance.
The Doctor didn’t seem the least bit surprised by her choice, “Excellent; I’ll leave this with you, then.” She dug two small items from her bag. The first looked like a garage door opener with a single button on its smooth face; the other had no buttons whatsoever, only a light.
She passed the light to Dozman. “That should work when we’re ready to leave. When you see it turn red, open the portal again.”
Dozman looked more confused, “That goes to another dimension; there’s no way to get a signal of any kind though once it’s closed, and we don’t have the kind of power you’d need to leave it open for more than a minute. As it currently stands, it takes several hours to incrementally send the prisoners their monthly supplies. You don’t want me to describe the last time someone was caught in the middle of a ‘closure incident.’”
“It’ll work; trust me.” She held the button down, flipping the light on Dozman’s receiver. “This one is only a miniaturized laser and a single particle. What happens to the particle in this one happens to the one in yours – shouldn’t matter where it is in this universe, or any other.” She released the button and the light in its mate went out.
Dozman stared at the smaller woman in disbelief. “You’re telling me you solved quantum entanglement?”
“Yes, over lunch about a year ago. I’ve been trying to think of things to do with it ever since.” She rotated the remote around in her hand, “It seemed so much more useful at the time.”
The astonishment on Dozman’s face could have belonged to the world’s scientific community. She held the tiny light in both hands, lost in amazement at the Doc’s casual disregard for the device.
“Anyway,” the Doc added, heading for the ramp, “we’ll be back as soon as we find our man. Until then, Lia will keep you company a
nd make sure that your friends aren’t forming a firing squad when we get back.”
“I’ll what?” Lia asked, chasing after her. “Beth, no, I’m coming with you. You may need me over there.” She took a step ahead of the smaller woman.
Ellis put both of her hands up to Lia’s shoulders, trying to calm her worried friend. “We need you here more. If they know we went through the portal to get Bernard, they’ll be waiting for us when we return. Even worse, they could call whoever is actually in charge of this place for reinforcements. I don’t know who this ‘Council’ is, but they sound like the kind of folks we don’t have the power to fight right now.”
Lia’s eyes filled with fear, “But what if what’s over there is worse? I have to keep you safe,” she said, pleading.
“Dalia Roux, you know me. I am perfectly capable of handling anything the universe could possibly throw at me.” She held Lia close, pressing herself into the material of the bald woman’s jacket.
Dwight made his way past them, allowing the two a moment of comfort. He wouldn’t dare disturb the rare act of compassion the world allowed into his life. He decided rather than gawk at his two friends embracing, he’d inspect a cosmic anomaly for novelty. Stepping to the landing of the ramp, he found the mysterious spot swirling, against all natural laws.
It couldn’t have been more than an inch in diameter, this strange purple oval hanging in midair. He walked behind it, trying to get a look at its backside, but the reverse was no different. As he moved around its surfaces, he found that the object was completely flat. Its two-dimensional surfaces pulsed with purple tendrils of energy that he swore he’d seen somewhere before, but through the constant background headache of the chemicals keeping him alive, it was difficult to place where.
His two companions parted, the Doc making her determined way up to Dwight while Lia watched her go. The psychic wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her oversized coat. Dozman slid her chair over to the controls of the gateway.
