Jadie in Five Dimensions

by Dianne K. Salerni

“Dad mentioned it, but he didn’t know the boy was my… was related to me. And there’s more.” I lower my voice. “After talking to Sam last night, I had an accident on the Transporter and was rescued by Miss Rose. Except it wasn’t an accident. I think she’s figured out what I know and is trying to scare me.”

  “Dave and Steve said the Seers would punish us if we figured things out.” Marius clenches both hands. “What kind of accident?”

  Instead of answering, I push him into the chair beside my desk. “Who are Dave and Steve? Tell me that first.”

  I sit on the edge of my bed while I listen to his story. It contradicts everything I’ve been taught—and everything Mom said—but makes disturbing sense. “They said gambling? We’re a game to them?”

  “Yeah, our universe is Las Vegas, and Miss Rose is the lady who spins the roulette wheel. These new guys said that Sam Lowell was halfway to inventing something the Seers don’t want made. On his computer.”

  “They’ve tried twice to wreck it.”

  Marius squirms in his chair. “Me and Ty stole it.”

  “What?!”

  “We stole his computer. We followed you to the library, and when you left, we grabbed his computer.”

  “What the hell, Marius! Why’d you do that?”

  “Ty wanted to know what was so important.” Marius leans forward, his eyes locked on mine. “Sam’s working on a program that can help humans see in 4-space. It’s just a video game to him, but it might work for real. That’s what the Seers don’t want us to have—a way to see what’s going on out there. If Sam finishes it… if we give it back to him and let him finish it… we’ll be fighting them. That’s what Dave and Steve said.”

  I gasp as it hits me. “The course correction is complete! The computer was stolen. It’s as good as destroyed.”

  “But Dave said—”

  “I don’t care what Dave said. If the computer stays stolen, maybe the Seers will leave the Lowells alone.” I don’t know how the bike accident ties in with the computer, or what that has to do with giving baby J.D. to the Martins, but if their goal is for Sam to never finish this program, we can make that happen.

  Marius shakes his head, not convinced. “Look,” I say. “Sam knows nothing about the Seers, but his life has been messed up by them. He’s not my brother the same way you are, but I feel responsible for him because I know what’s going on. Do you get that?”

  “Well…”

  “Ty’s an evil genius. Let him figure the program out. He’s better equipped to handle whatever the Seers throw at him than Sam Lowell, don’t you think?”

  Marius sighs grudgingly. “You have a point.”

  “Tell him,” I demand. “Tell Ty right now that we’re leaving Sam alone.” If Ty’s as smart as he thinks, he’ll take a hammer to Sam’s computer and forget about it. The Seers are not the benevolent beings we believed them to be, and their minion Miss Rose could squish us between her six gigantic fingers.

  Perhaps Marius is thinking the same thing, because he nods and takes out his phone.

  Ty answers immediately. Marius puts the phone on speaker, and I hear Ty ask, “What’d she say?”

  “She doesn’t want Sam Lowell involved. She wants the Seers to consider the course correction complete so they’ll leave his family alone.”

  “Okay,” says Ty.

  “Maybe it’s not a good idea to mess with that program anyway. Maybe… uh, what’d you say?”

  “Okay,” Ty repeats. “I got it.”

  Marius and I look at each other in surprise. Neither of us expected Ty to give in that easily. “You’re okay with that?” Marius asks.

  “She doesn’t want me to involve Sam in my plans,” Ty says. “So I won’t.”

  “Plans? What plans? Wait a minute—”

  But Ty has already disconnected.

  22. TY

  Ty realized, not long after Marius left, that Sam Lowell was superfluous to his plans. Sam’s only a programmer, and Ty can do that work as well as, if not better than, he can.

  The person they need is Dr. Lowell. Jadie’s biological father.

  If Ty feels the slightest twinge when he proposes his idea to Dave—or when Dave enthusiastically devises a method for carrying it out—he brushes it off. It’s not as if they’re going to dangle the man over a shark tank. Ty names the plan Operation Captive Audience because that sounds so much better than kidnapping.

  Dave completes the first phase that afternoon. When he returns for Ty, he doesn’t bother inserting an avatar into the room, instead calling out from 4-space: “It is done. Are you ready?” Before Ty can respond, huge fingers clamp around his waist and yank him out of his universe.

  He flies past the usual array of nonsensical, morphing shapes—cross-sections of the Transporter—but then he plunges into darkness, gripped around the middle by a hand larger than his entire body. It feels as if he’s being carted around like a child’s action figure. He bites back a protest only because he knows Dave has grabbed Dr. Lowell from under the noses of the Seers (if they have noses), and there’s no time to demand a more dignified form of transport.

  The darkness ends abruptly with Ty looking down into a strange white room. From his viewpoint in 4-space, the structure is foreshortened but cubeish in shape.

  Inside, a scholarly-looking man with glasses and rumpled hair walks along one of the walls, examining it with his hands. He’s wearing a suit, although the tie has been pulled loose, and he moves sluggishly, as though his shoes are mired in mud. The only other items in the room are a desk, a chair, and a rolling suitcase that Ty suspects came with their captive.

  Dave drops Ty into the center of the room and plops his Resister avatar down as well.

  Dr. Lowell, who was bending over to peer beneath the desk, straightens up and turns around. Although his visitors have appeared mysteriously in the blink of an eye, the scientist does not look frightened—perplexed, maybe, and indignant. “If this is an alien abduction, it’s extremely clichéd, and—” He breaks off, seeming surprised by the four-dimensional twist in his voice.

  Ty clears his throat. “Welcome to the fourth dimension, Dr. Lowell.”

  “Where am I?”

  “Sound travels differently here, but you’ll get used to it. I’ll repeat. This is—”

  “I understood what you said,” Dr. Lowell interrupts. “But I don’t believe you.” His expression is at odds with his words. Something sparks in his eyes, and he looks around the featureless white room with a new revelation.

  “Dr. Lowell, you know where you are,” Dave’s avatar says without moving its mouth. “This is your life’s work.”

  “Dimensional theory,” Ty adds.

  “I know what he means.” Dr. Lowell points at Dave. “What is that? Some kind of simulacrum?”

  “We call it an avatar, but simulacrum works too. He lives in 4-space in his true form but uses this stand-in to interact with humans.”

  “Why am I here?”

  “Because you are the best in your field and the only person who can help us,” Dave says.

  Dr. Lowell shakes his head. “My field is dead. I’ve been told that at every job interview for the past year.”

  “It was arranged for you to fail at your interviews.”

  “What? Who are you?”

  “You can call me Dave,” the avatar says. “And this is Tyler. We have brought you here to give you firsthand knowledge of the fourth spatial dimension so that you can complete your unified theory of physics.”

  “Why don’t you save a lot of time and give me the completed theory?” Dr. Lowell turns toward the desk and, when he sees what’s on it, laughs shortly. “I see. You don’t have a theory.”

  Dave replies in a slightly insulted tone. “I know what goes into it. But only you can do the mathematical calculations.”

  On the desk are several pads of lined paper, pencils, and a slide rule. Dr. Lowell picks up the slide rule, which stubbornly resists, like a magnet, even though the desk is made of wood.
“You don’t need to provide me with something as advanced as this. Don’t you have an abacus I can use?”

  Ty laughs in spite of himself. He doesn’t want to like this man—he’s nothing but a means to an end—but Ty has to admit that Dr. Lowell is handling the situation with the poise and sarcastic humor of… well… Jadie. “He has a point, Dave. Can’t we give him a computer?”

  “A computer will not work in this containment unit,” Dave says. “This room is a tesseract, Dr. Lowell. Are you familiar with that term? A tesseract is a four-dimensional version of a cube.”

  “I know what a tesseract is,” the scientist snaps. “The light source is coming from a part of the room I can’t see. The kata side, perhaps? That’s why there aren’t any shadows under the desk.”

  Ty stoops and looks. Dr. Lowell is right. There are no shadows.

  “The light is on the ana side,” Dave explains. “Shadows are thrown in the kata direction, where you cannot see them. Currently, this tesseract is subjected to forces that counteract gravity in a way similar to centrifugal force on your world.”

  “Counteract gravity?” Dr. Lowell lifts one foot off the floor like he’s pulling up a suction cup.

  “Yes. That is a diminished version of our gravity. If you were subjected to the full effect, you would be incapacitated. It is like whirling a bucket of water in a circle with a rope in your world. The water will defy gravity and stay contained within the bucket. Consider this room the bucket; it is moving through our space at a high rate of speed, lessening the effect of our gravity.”

  “Lessening but not overcoming.” Dr. Lowell drops the slide rule, and it is slapped to the desk as if by an invisible flyswatter.

  “Gravity acts as a wave moving through different dimensions. 4-space experiences the apex of the wave, the highest magnitude of gravity. 3-space enjoys the nadir, its bottommost and weakest point. In our universe, gravity is an overwhelming, inhibiting reality that supersedes all others. In yours, it simply keeps planets revolving around suns and causes objects to fall to the ground.”

  Under other circumstances, this would be fascinating, but Ty turns the subject back to the purpose of the enterprise. “Why can’t he have a computer in here, Dave?”

  “Electronics are disrupted inside the tesseract.”

  Dr. Lowell screws up his face, as if Dave has said something silly. But Ty focuses on the problem. “We can’t fix the program if electronics don’t work here.”

  Dave replies calmly. “You said you could complete the program at home, given the correct mathematics.”

  That is not what they discussed earlier.

  “Tyler, how did you come to be here?” Dr. Lowell speaks gently to him. “Were you abducted like I was?”

  “I’m here by choice.”

  “Where’s your family?” the scientist presses. “Do you have one?”

  Ty’s irritation flashes. “They’re at home.”

  “Then you’ll understand how important it is that I get back to my wife and my son. I’ll accept a tour of four-dimensional space, if that’s what’s on offer, but I’ll do the calculations at home.”

  “That is not possible,” Dave says. “I am not the only four-dimensional being keeping an eye on you. If we send you back to Earth, the others will know. And they do not want a unified theory developed.”

  “But I can think better if I’m not worried about my family.” Dr. Lowell waves a hand at the stark white cubicle. “Frankly, I can’t work under these conditions.”

  He’s lying. His eyes keep returning to the pad of paper and pencil. Ty gets the impression Dr. Lowell can barely restrain himself from diving into that desk chair to record everything he’s observed so far. Sure, he has to make a token protest… but Ty’s father would abandon his family in a heartbeat for a career opportunity like the one Dave is offering. Ty has no doubt this man will do the same.

  “Dr. Lowell.” Ty uses what he hopes is a persuasive tone. “Enemies in the fourth dimension have tried to stop you from finishing your theory. You can’t go home right now.”

  “I won’t negotiate.” The man crosses his arms. “If you don’t put me back, I won’t calculate so much as two plus two.”

  Now he’s just being difficult. Ty opens his mouth to say something snippy, but Dave speaks first.

  “We have not brought you here without an incentive. Complete the work on your theory, and we will reunite your family. You. Your wife. Your son. And your daughter.”

  “I don’t have…” Dr. Lowell stops, then swallows hard. “I did have…” His eyes become glassy, moving from the lifeless avatar to Ty. “You can’t mean…”

  “Your missing daughter.” Ty smirks. “Jocelyn Dakota—but we call her Jadie. I know her pretty well. Do what we ask, and we’ll bring her back to you.”

  23. TY

  Ty doesn’t expect Dr. Lowell to drop to his knees and thank him, though he anticipates some degree of gratitude. Therefore, the depth of the man’s anger catches him by surprise.

  “Your cruelty is astounding,” Dr. Lowell growls. “I know you’re a child, so I’d like to think you don’t understand the emotional impact of such a lie.”

  Ty throws his hands up in innocence. “I’m not lying! Here, I’ll prove it.” He pulls out his phone to share Jadie’s seventh-grade school portrait and soccer team photos from last year’s yearbook, snapped for this purpose.

  But the phone is dead.

  “Electronics do not work in this room,” Dave reminds him.

  Dr. Lowell shoots Dave’s avatar a knowing glance before turning on Ty again. “Perhaps you’ve been lied to as well.”

  “No. Jadie was found by the side of the road when she was a baby, and since then she’s been living with the family in the house next to mine. There’s a birthmark over her left elbow here.” Ty indicates the spot on his own arm.

  Dr. Lowell’s face remains rigid. “I want to believe you. But why should I? Why would you know my daughter? Who are you?”

  “I’m someone whose life has been interfered with by 4-space beings, just like you. They call themselves the Seers, and they play with humans for entertainment.”

  “After your daughter was abducted,” Dave says, “what happened to you, Dr. Lowell?”

  The scientist turns his scowl on the avatar. “Why don’t you tell me, since you seem to know everything about my life?”

  “You did not start postgraduate classes when you were supposed to, and you lost your position in the doctoral program,” Dave says. “It was eighteen months before you went back to get your doctorate. Your education was delayed.”

  “Do you think I cared about that? I lost my baby girl!”

  “You didn’t lose her, she was stolen,” Ty reminds him. “By creatures who didn’t want you studying dimensional theory.”

  “You got off easy,” Dave says. “Your daughter was moved to a different family, by whom she has been well cared for ever since. You made it back to school, although every time you got close to producing a unified theory of physics, something happened to set you back.”

  “You call that getting off easy?”

  “The last person who came as close as you have to the mathematical truths of the universe was killed, Dr, Lowell.”

  “What?” A feathery sensation runs up the back of Ty’s neck.

  Dave never mentioned anyone getting killed.

  “But you want me to complete the theory?” Dr. Lowell’s eyes bounce off the avatar and wander across the ceiling and walls, seeking the real Dave. “So these unseen enemies will kill me too?” His wandering gaze lands on Ty like a laser beam, and Ty swallows uneasily.

  “You are safe here, Dr. Lowell,” Dave says in a placating voice. “I promise.”

  “Is my family safe? What happens when I’ve finished the work? You’re not planning to keep me in this cage forever, are you?” Dr. Lowell takes off his glasses to clean them on his shirt, muttering under his breath. When he shoves them back on, he glares at the ceiling. “Why do you want me
to finish the theory?”

  “Your theory will provide the basis for a computer program that compiles images collected in three dimensions and postulates the appearance of the missing fourth dimension, allowing you to see an approximation of reality in 4-space.”

  “That sounds like…” Dr. Lowell trails off, as if having second thoughts about saying what pops into his mind.

  “Sam’s program?” Ty pipes up. “Yeah, I stole that from him. Took the whole computer, actually.”

  “You did what?”

  “That means he’s safe. Confused, but safe.” Ty smirks again. “You’re welcome.”

  Two fleshy tubes with protuberant knuckles plunge down from the ceiling, causing Dr. Lowell to jump backward. Pinched between curved claws is a leather-bound journal with a worn cover. “This journal contains the remains of the last scientist’s work.” Dave deposits the book on the desk and withdraws his fingers from the room. “I believe you will find that his formulas reinforce your theories and take them one step further. Work quickly and fill in the gaps. Your absence will not go unnoticed. The beings who call themselves Seers will squabble among themselves, trying to figure out which one of them moved you and why. That will buy us time, but we need to get you and a completed theory back to your braneworld as soon as possible. We will help you disperse the unified theory worldwide, and Tyler will finish the program your son started.”

  “And then the ‘Seers’ will kill me,” Dr. Lowell concludes, then looks at Ty. “And you too. Aren’t you worried?”

  Well, he wasn’t before…“Dave?” You never mentioned a dead physicist!

  “Rest assured. By their own code of honor, they can do nothing to interfere if your theory becomes widely known,” Dave says.

  “The code of honor of beings who stole my child?”

  “Some of them will suffer a loss of status. Others will rise in their place. Scientific development in your braneworld will progress, and their game will change.”

  “And we’ll have a program for seeing in 4-space, thanks to you,” Ty adds pointedly. For a physicist whose wild theories are proving true, Dr. Lowell doesn’t seem enthused. Even allowing for the captive audience scenario (okay, kidnapping), Ty thinks he’d be pretty excited if he were in Dr. Lowell’s shoes.