by Lynn Donovan
Ashton and Sharp ignored her. She shrugged. If they hadn’t heard her yell that the drill would be loud, they certainly didn’t hear her speaking quietly about the faeries.
Abbie placed the hole saw against the less illuminated quartz and pulled the trigger. She cut a shallow core sample. Removing the sample disk from the saw, she marked it with a sharpie, placed it on the table, and moved twelve inches toward the fissure and the twinkly-lit area. She couldn’t help but to glance through the fissure before starting the drill. With no frightening figure, only abundant greenery seen, she drilled another sample, marked it, and moved further along the wall.
The ominous feeling tiptoed across her skin despite the absence of any evidence to warrant the sensation. This work had to be done. She was the one to do it, so she suppressed her instincts to stay away from this wall and kept drilling. Joseph’s presence helped calmed her nerves and made her feel safe.
After a while, she had a line of shallow holes all the way across and above the fissure. She removed her ear protection. “I wonder?”
Abbie walked to the desk where her assorted tools were and retrieved a metric ruler from her canvas tool bag. Joseph stayed near the wall but watched her return. She shamelessly put a little extra swing in her step as she approached him.
A sensation of warmth radiated through her body. The heat crept up her neck and filled her cheeks. She liked having Joseph here with her. Stettler had demanded everyone work in pairs. Which would have been a nuisance, if she weren’t so attracted to this particular Chemistry Physicist.
She glanced at Ashton. The poor sucker got stuck with a security guard. Although he seemed to know what he was doing as they worked out a strategy to create some sort of containment cage.
Her eyes drifted to Joseph. She grinned at him. His lips parted and his gleaming white teeth showed through as he returned her smile. A desire to put everything down and just kiss him coursed through her veins. She cleared her throat instead and turned back to the cracked wall.
Placing the metal ruler across the darkened split in the quartz, she measured the width of the crack along the fissure from point to point. Twelve measurements. She’d do this every day until the cage prevented her from standing this close. She spoke the readings to Joseph. He recorded each measurement with an arrow pointing at the approximate place on a penciled drawing of the opening he had sketched for her on graph paper.
Together they gathered samples, while Ashton built his contraption, until a voice from the hall announced the lunch cart was here. Abbie looked at her watch. “Wow. It’s already four o’clock.”
The four of them grabbed sandwiches, chips and drinks from the cart and returned to their work. Abbie asked for a peanut butter and honey sandwich. She would save it for the faeries.
She continued taking samples and recording measurements until the exterior light pouring in from the exposed woods faded. Abbie yawned.
“Let me walk you to your apartment.” Joseph put away his goggles and helped her gather her tools into the canvas tool bag.
“Let’s take all these samples back to my office first. I’ll run tests first thing tomorrow.”
Joseph agreed. Abbie gathered her canvas tool bag, while Joseph carefully covered the roller cart with a canvas tarp.
Abbie approached Axel before walking out of Lab One. She touched his shoulder, and he pulled his earplugs from his ears. “How’s Holly holding up?”
Axel shrugged. “I stopped by her apartment before coming here, but she wasn’t there. I haven’t had a chance to catch up with her since.”
Abbie nodded. Her heart ached for the woman. Even though she seemed obnoxious, Abbie understood the need to get ones hands on an experiment that went wrong and figure out what happened. She truly could imagine how beside herself Holly must be right now. “Surely Stettler will let her follow up on the accident.”
Axel lifted an eyebrow. Doubt filled his face. “You’d think.”
Abbie wanted to tell him everything would work out. But something was off about Stettler and his decision to ban Holly from this investigative team. She pursed an empathetic smile instead and walked out with Joseph pushing her cart.
Maybe tomorrow truly would be another day.
Joseph knocked on Abbie’s door just as she opened it. His eyes widened. “Oh. You’re ready?”
She backed up and picked up the doll house. The open side was covered by a pillow case tacked to the roof. She turned the covered side toward her chest. “I am now.”
Joseph looked at Abbie sternly. “You’re taking the faeries?”
“Yes. I believe their knowledge of crystals will be beneficial to our investigation.”
“And you’re thinking you can carry them across the facility in the doll house without bringing up any suspicions?” Joseph blocked her leaving the apartment.
“I’m not taking them to the Quantum Labs, just my office. We don’t have to go through security checkpoints. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them you and I are fixing this up for my… little cousin.”
Joseph didn’t move. “We could bring the samples you collected yesterday back here.”
“Yeah, but that’ll be tonight. I really want to get answers today.” Abbie shifted the house. Its weight beginning to feel heavier.
“So… taking them to your office will speed up your investigation?”
“That’s the plan.” Abbie took a step toward him, hoping he’d step aside. “Can you stay and help? I’ll bring them back here if we go to Lab One again. I do want to measure that fissure again before sundown. And before Axel and Rick get that cage in place.”
“Honestly, with Dr. Teak restricted, I might as well help you as to tweet my thumbs in my lab. But it concerns me to move the faeries across the facility.”
Abbie laughed. “You mean twiddle, twiddle your thumbs.”
Joseph chuckled. “Yes. That’s what I mean.”
“Good. I like having you around.” Abbie grinned mischievously. “I only need to take them this one time. We’ll be careful and once they are able to give me some feedback, I’ll rush them back here.”
“And I like being around you. I really think this is an unnecessary risk. But—” Joseph took the doll house from her and walked into the hall. “I can see your mind is made up.”
He led the way out of the building and through the indigenous garden. “Fall is definitely in the air. It feels chilly this morning.”
“Brrr. Yes, it does. I should have brought my sweater.”
“Do you want to go back and get it?” Joseph paused but he didn’t look happy to go back.
“No, I can wear my lab coat if I am cold in my lab.”
He nodded and continued toward the QuESO building. “I hope you’re right about this.”
Chapter Thirteen
While Abbie examined the core slices under the microscope, Joseph sketched out some equations on a smart pad. She’d tell him what to enter in her computer from her observations, and he’d comply, then return to his calculations. In the meantime, another computer sounded. Abbie glanced up from the scope. “Ah, good.”
She walked to the screen and pushed two keys on the keyboard. A printer cranked out a report. She returned to the microscope and designated some more information for him to record. When the printer halted, Abbie retrieved the data and shuffled through the printouts.
“Hmm.”
“Anything impressive?” Joseph craned his neck as if he could see her data sheets.
She glanced at him with baffled eyes. “No?”
He pursed his lips. “Hmm. I’ve run through some calculations before the experiment and even with the absence of the concrete wall, I still can’t justify a quantum entanglement big enough to connect another dimension.”
She turned to him. “If this accident was caused by entanglement gone wrong, or that crystal exploding, there’d be evidence of the crystal intrusion in the concrete, in the quartz wall, or … somewhere. The way the lab wall blew out and that instantaneous sw
oosh that took everything through the quartz, like an implosion… but the mountain wall looks unharmed, minus that fissure we measured— I just can’t make sense of it.” She paused. “Okay, maybe the faeries squeezed through that fissure, but that behemoth thing we saw… there’s no way it stepped through that tiny crack. He had to just pass through that quartz wall.” She pierced him with questioning eyes. “None of this makes sense, Joseph.”
He tilted his head with a shrug. “Unless it was just a bear.”
Abbie laughed. “That thing was not just a bear!”
They sobered. His eyes focused on nothing. His mind reeling with possibilities. “I wish we could examine that power coupling. I can’t remember how it looked after the event. There was the window glass broken… debris from the lab wall crumbled, and that… fog… the crystal was… just gone… like Zeke, just vanished. But I can’t remember what the power coupling looked like.”
Abbie licked her lips in thought. “Neither do I.” She turned to the faeries clustered on her desk against the opposite wall. She had assembled the rock samples she’d taken from around the fissure and laid them out for their inspection. She had spent an hour writing down everything they said about the samples. Nothing was unusual now that it was separate from the scintillating wall, or like what they had seen on their side.
“How did you come through from your side of the… to our world.”
They looked at her curiously, blinking as if on cue. “We are not sure.” “We heard a noise.” “We flew near to see what it was.” “A lot of… trash flew out at us.” “Many colors.” “Shapes.” “Odd things.” “We flew closer to see.” “Next thing we knew…”
Aura stood out from the others. “We were here.”
Abbie turned to her counter and lifted a pencil. She sketched out a drawing and lifted to toward the faeries. “Did you see anything that looked like this? Only it was about…” She put the paper down and held out her hands to show the size of Holly’s crystal. “This big.”
The faeries shook their heads.
Abbie lifted her eyes to Joseph. “So, if there is a portal… it must be, I don’t know… active on their side? But why? And— is it the rock or the fog?”
Joseph squinted. “When we were outside, standing on the side of the mountain, the faeries came out of the fog. And the fog sparkled like the quartz wall does now.” He paused. “I think the fog has something to do with it, but I don’t think it’s the portal. Did you take samples of it?”
“Yes.” She turned to another computer. “Just a minute.” She clicked several keys. Stared at the screen. Clicked some more keys, then refreshed the screen. “I don’t get this.”
She looked at Joseph. He walked over and peered over her shoulder. Abbie turned her head, intending to tell him her impressions. But a fragrance diverted her attention and she inhaled deeply.
He leaned into her. “RawChemistry.”
“W-what?” She blinked.
“My cologne, it’s called RawChemistry. One of my sisters bought it for me as a joke, but I like the fragrance.” A blush flooded his face. “I take it you agree.”
Abbie dropped her eyes and cleared her throat. “Yes. I do.” She smiled. “So, anyway.” She cleared her throat again. “The water samples, like everything else, don’t make sense. I was expecting sulfuric acid, or something mineral based, organic, even. All we have is equivalent to distilled water.”
“Really?”
Abbie looked at the screen and back to him. “Well…” She looked back at the read out. “Yes, really. Okay, there’s a slight uptick here.” She pointed at the chart. “But it’s not enough to be conclusively mineral or organic.”
“Hmm.” Joseph straightened. “You know, we really can’t dismiss anything as an expected anomaly. We don't know if the fog was sparkling or if it was just picking up the effect from the wall. After all, when we walked into the fog it did not sparkle around us. Only the wall sparkled. So it’s… probably the wall.
“But there is something about that fog. It is different than any mist or steam I’ve ever seen. Nothing seems to affect its dissipation. And it seemed to move so far, then pull back, remember? Right after the… accident?”
She nodded, also in thought.
He rubbed the back of his neck and paced along the bank of computers. “You know, I personally wrote down and verified every one of Dr. Teak’s calculations. She wasn’t wrong.”
He stared at Abbie. She returned his gaze. “I believe you. Although you guys were not taking into account the negative possibilities. Holly said she was assuming only the pos—” Abbie closed her eyes. “You know what? We’ve already been through that. All I’m saying is the composition of the quartz wall is far more complex than Holly's crystal. Indium, florine, chlorine, and traces of about fifteen other elements, including gold. There's no computer simulation powerful enough to determine how entanglement might manifest in that kind of a hodgepodge.”
“And there’s still the question of how the photons from Holly’s crystal caused the lab wall to break which allowed the entangled photons to cascade into the quartz.”
Abbie laid the printouts down and returned to her microscope. “How could that have happened?”
“A separate event? An implosion that punched a hole in the back of Lab One giving the photons direct access to the quartz?” Joseph shook his head. “Without looking at the power coupling or the crystal, we’ll never know.”
“Then we, or somebody needs to examine that power coupling.” Abbie stared at Joseph.
“Right.”
“So, now what?”
“You write up your report, submit it to the investigation team, and I’ll find out who was assigned to examine the power box.”
Abbie nodded. “And… let’s go by to see how Holly is doing after we take the faeries back to my temporary apartment.”
Joseph cocked his head back in surprise. “Okay? You having a change of heart toward Dr. Teak?”
“Maybe. I mean, times have changed and one of our own is being mistreated. We need to find out what her theory is.”
“But she’s restricted from her lab.”
“You don’t honestly think that will stop her from analyzing what happened? She’s a genius. Besides, you said yourself, you put pen to her cognitive calculations. She doesn’t have to be in her lab to review her calculations.”
“You have a point. Let’s go there now.”
“Yes.” Abbie shut down her computers, gathered her papers, stuffing them in a manila folder, and put it in her satchel. She pulled the satchel and her purse over her shoulder and stood beside Joseph. “Ready?”
He gestured for the faeries to climb into the doll house and reattached the pillow case to the open side. His eyes flitted between hers. “You know. I have to admit. Whether it’s the faeries influence or not, I really like working with you, Dr. Crossan.”
“Awwww.” The faeries cooed from inside the house.
Abbie looked their way, then back to Joseph. She smiled. “I like working with you, too, Dr. Assad.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, drawing her closer to him. She closed her eyes. The warmth of her skin radiated against his face. His lips brushed lightly against hers. An exhilarating sensation washed through him—
“Um, excuse me.” A young woman, wearing the sandwich vendor apron, pushed the sandwich cart into Abbie’s office. The woman glanced back at the hall.
Abbie stumbled away from Joseph. Gasping for air.
The woman took another step, speaking softly. “Do you know where I can find Axel Ashton? I-I’ve got a sandwich order for him.”
Joseph gawked at the woman. “Amelia?” He whispered. “Parker… isn’t it? How did you get in here?”
The woman looked startled. “You’re… Joseph… Abdul-Jabar?”
Abbie chuckled. The heat of embarrassment filled her cheeks. But this mystery woman calling Joseph Abdul-Jabar filled her heart with amusement, and yet, her instincts knew something was ter
ribly wrong.
Joseph stepped away from Abbie. “Assad, actually. Come in here.” Joseph rushed to her and pulled her into Abbie’s office. He turned to Abbie. “This is Zeke Callahan’s fiancée. I had a beer with Axel and Zeke in town a time or two. That’s how I met her.” He turned back to Amelia. “You’re not supposed to be here. How did you get past security at the front gate?”
“Would you believe I bribed my friend, Casey Kim, to let me bring her sandwich cart from Java the Hut?”
Abbie’s brows rose. Resourceful.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back with a heavy sigh. “Oh, Amelia. You shouldn’t be here.”
“I need answers, Joseph! Where’s Zeke?” she whispered.
Abbie started. Oh my goodness… She glanced at the doll house where her faeries hid from the intruder. Don’t move! Don’t make a sound! She hurried past Amelia to gently close her office door.
“Come sit down.” Abbie guided her to a stool in the lab.
Tears filled Amelia’s eyes. “They called me… the other night… and said there had been an incident in the lab.” She lifted pleading eyes to Joseph.
He touched her shoulder as she spoke. She continued. “What kind of incident, Joseph? Is Zeke alright? Did he get hurt? They wouldn’t tell me any details. I’ve been losing my mind ever since that phone call.”
She sucked in air. “I called Medical. A, uh, Dr. Crossan wouldn’t tell me anything other than Zeke was not there.” She glanced at Abbie’s lab coat. Anger and frustration filled her narrowed eyes. “Are you who I talked to?”
“No.” Abbie reached to touch Amelia’s arm. “My sister is a doctor in medical. You must have talked to her. But—”
“How could they call and tell me so little? Don’t they realize not knowing exactly what happened would drive me more crazy than being honest with me? I have a really vivid imagination. My mind can make up way worse things than what probably is reality.” She folded over, crying into her hands. “I just want to know what happened to my fiancé!”
Then she looked up and pierced Abbie with a sorrow filled glare. “Please, just tell me— is Zeke dead?”
