Linkage: The Narrows of Time (36 page)

“Correct, but they don’t have the activating
enzyme. Despite their supremacy, they’re not a very intelligent
species. They’re able to use third-party technology, but
mathematics and reverse engineering are not their forte.”

“Then it should be relatively easy to
outsmart them.”

“One would think so, but they’re very cunning
and can sense deception. Throughout our history, we have tried to
outmaneuver them numerous times, with limited success. They learn
quickly, almost instinctually.”

“Eventually, they’re going to find the
enzyme, aren’t they?” Drew asked.

“It’s only a matter of time. So far, they’ve
been thinking two-dimensionally, only consuming surface resources.
But eventually, they’ll expand their efforts to underground
locations. Fortunately, we do have some time to work with.”

“Well maybe
you
do, but
our
planet is being consumed one square mile at a time,” Lucas said.
“People are being eaten and soon there will be nothing left of
Earth.”

“Do you have a plan?” Drew asked.

“I’m hoping we can use the Quantum Foam
Generator to provide the supplemental power we need to contact our
home world. Once they know where we are, they should be able to
open a rift to us in this universe so we can return.”

“Why do you have to contact them first? Can’t
you just open a rift from our side to get home? I have to assume
you know the quantum signature of your home universe,” Lucas
said.

“We do, but they probably have safeguards in
place to stop unscheduled travelers from entering their space. Then
there’s the problem of time advancing differently in both
universes. They’ll need to open the bridge from their side.”

“That makes sense,” Drew replied,
nodding.

“Huh?” Lucas said, suspecting that Drew was
full of shit.

“Think of time as flowing like the mighty
Mississippi River,” Drew replied. “Their universe is in the future,
or upstream, and ours is downstream, in the past. When trying to
swim across the strong current, it’s only possible to hit your mark
if you start your swim from the upstream side. The same thing is
true with a transdimensional bridge. They’ll have to open it from
their side.”

This was one of those times when Drew was
three steps ahead of Lucas. He had no idea how Drew knew that
answer, but the explanation did help him understand the concept.
“So, what do we do next?”

“You two get back to the silo and begin
preparations. This time, be sure to follow my specs to the letter.
I’ll stay here and get the generator running. When I’m ready, I’ll
call you.”

“Call us?” Lucas asked, worrying that he
didn’t have the strength for yet another trek up the stairs with
Drew on his back.

Kleezebee opened his equipment bag and, after
sifting through its contents, pulled out a pair of Motorola
handheld radios.

“Use this to stay in contact,” Kleezebee
said, handing one of the two-way transmitters to Lucas.

“What’s the range?”

“Fifty-two miles. More than adequate. Stay on
channel forty-four,” Kleezebee said, digging into his bag
again.

“Will it work down here?”

The professor pulled out two silver devices
with a red toggle switch on the side. Each was the size of a
cigarette pack with a stubby black antenna sticking out of the
top.

“Place these signal boosters in the
stairwell. One at the top and bottom. They’re battery-powered and
will take care of the problem.”

“Excellent,” Lucas replied with admiration
for his mentor’s ability to foresee needs and plan accordingly.

Drew unfolded his handwritten calculations
and gave them to Kleezebee. “Here. You’ll need these,
Professor.”

Chapter
27

Intervention

Lucas and Drew rode the silo elevator to the
7th floor, where Bruno was waiting for them with a steaming cup of
coffee in his right hand. Lucas expected Bruno to be chowing down a
few caramel-covered treats, not drinking a cup of Joe. If Kleezebee
had not told him about Bruno’s death in 2001, Lucas might have
thought this man was the real Bruno, not just another replica. The
fresh coffee stain on his shirt would have been a dead
giveaway.

“Welcome back, gentlemen,” Bruno said in his
usual jovial voice.

“Good to be back. How’s Mom doing?” Lucas
asked, worrying that everyone had forgotten about her. He
envisioned her lying on the floor in the bathroom for hours, crying
out in pain. He thought it might be a good idea to get her one of
those emergency necklaces advertised on late-night TV. The kind
with the push-button radio transmitter built in. That’s what a
thoughtful son would do. He just didn’t know where to come up with
the extra cash to buy it.

“Great. She’s upstairs in her quarters. We
just had lunch together.”

“We should probably stop in later and spend
some time with her,” Lucas said to Drew.

Drew nodded.

Lucas looked down the hallway in both
directions. “Where’s the reactor?”

“Just two doors down on the left. Follow me,”
Bruno said.

Lucas held the radio he was carrying up to
his mouth, then pressed the switch on the side of it. “Dr.
Kleezebee, can you hear me? This is Lucas.”

The radio squawked. “Read you loud and
clear.”

“We’re here in the silo. Bruno’s taking us to
the reactor.”

“Excellent. I’ve entered the new equations
for NASA’s reactor, and we should be ready to begin the power-up
sequence within the hour. Call me when you’re ready.”

“Ten-four,” Lucas said.

“You’re supposed to say
over
when you
finish a sentence,” Drew said.

“I really don’t think DL cares,” Lucas said,
clipping the radio to his belt. He wanted to say something else,
but chose not to with Bruno within earshot.

Bruno held the door to the reactor room open;
Lucas and Drew went through to the inside.

“Yeah, it’s a near duplicate all right,”
Lucas said, looking at the reactor sitting in the middle of the
room. However, unlike in their lab, it was not in its own sealed
chamber with a twin-door air-lock system. But it did appear to have
most of the same components—the ring of electromagnets, the cold
neutron beam, and all the coolant pipes, power cables, and other
equipment. To the right was Kleezebee’s version of the Primary
Control station, with its twin consoles, video screens, and control
instruments in between.

“There’s the E-121,” Drew said, pointing to
two familiar looking metal containers in the corner. A three-ring
binder was sitting on top of them.

“I’m assuming the receptacles are around here
somewhere, too?” Lucas asked.

Bruno nodded. “In the bottom container. But
DL had us pre-load the reactor with one of the E-121 samples. You
should be all set.”

“Awesome,” Drew replied, rolling over to the
containers. He opened the binder sitting on top. “Here’s the
procedure manual.”

“Where’s the computer equipment? I need to
recompile Trevor’s code.”

“Our Linux servers are on the first floor, in
the data center. Trevor’s up there now, prepping the servers.”

“How’d he know to do that?” Lucas asked.

“You installed the signal boosters, didn’t
you?”

Lucas thought about it for a second. “Oh, DL
called ahead,” he said, nodding as if he should have known the
answer. Kleezebee must have used a channel other than forty-four
since he didn’t remember hearing anything on his radio.

“All he needs is your user name and password
to download the code from your cloud storage space.”

“My user name is
DRLREMC2
and the
password is
CATSRULE3X.
Do you need the IP address?”

Bruno wrote on a slip a paper before
answering. “Trevor already knows your stuff’s on Bitwise Server
Group Twelve.”

Trevor must have been looking over his
shoulder when he accessed his storage space from the lab. It wasn’t
a big deal. The source code was his anyway.

“Actually, it’s server group eleven. They
moved me to a different cloud last week. His stuff’s in a folder
called Gigantor, with an upper case G
.
”

“Got it,” Bruno said, scribbling one more
time on the paper before walking to the door. “I’ll get this to him
right away.”

Lucas waited for Bruno to leave the room.
“How do you think Kleezebee’s inter-dimensional beacon works?”

“They’re probably going to open a micro-rift
to their home universe, and then send a compressed data stream
through it.”

“ET phone home,” Lucas wisecracked.

Drew laughed. “I’d bet it’s an S-O-S that’s
encoded with our coordinates within the multiverse.”

“I wonder how long it will take ‘em to
respond?”

“The real question is where? I don’t think
they’ll send a communiqué back. They’re most likely going to open a
portal from their side.”

“Probably down here where it’s secure and out
of sight.”

Both of them looked at each other, before
staring at the open section of the floor right behind the Primary
Control Station.

“You don’t think?” Lucas asked.

Drew smiled. “We’ll know soon enough.”

Five minutes later, Bruno returned. ‘Trevor
says he’ll be ready in three minutes.”

“A three-minute recompile? Damn, those must
be some lightning-fast servers,” Lucas said, wondering if Bruno had
heard Trevor correctly.

“You ready to get started?” Drew asked,
flipping through the procedure manual.

“Let’s light the fires and kick the tires,
Big Daddy.”

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, they had completed
the startup procedures and the reactor was humming along.

“Man, I love that sound,” Lucas said. “So
what’s next?”

“There’s a new page of instructions added
onto the back,” Drew replied, handing the binder to Lucas.

Lucas looked them over. “Seems simple enough.
Let’s get ‘er done.”

Drew entered the new command sequences into
his console, while Lucas followed up by adjusting a few of the
riser panel’s instruments. It only took another minute to
complete.

“That should do it. All we need to do now is
wait for DL to call,” Lucas said.

“Let’s hope he got that reactor working,”
Bruno said.

“Yeah, otherwise, we’re all fucked,” Lucas
said, leaning back in his chair.

“What’s the latest word on Larson?” Drew
asked Bruno.

“Last I heard, he was in surgery, but he’s
expected to pull through.”

“That’s a damn shame,” Lucas replied. “You do
realize that the first thing he is going to do is call the general
and tell him we’re alive.”

Bruno nodded. “That’s assuming his memory’s
intact and he’s able to speak. You cracked his skull hard. There
could be permanent damage.”

“Imagine that, a self-serving attorney who
can’t speak.”

“Just goes to show you, there is a God in
Heaven,” Drew added.

Bruno walked out of the room without saying
anything.

“I hope we didn’t offend him,” Drew said.

“I don’t see how,” Lucas replied. “Maybe he
had one too many spicy burritos today? You may have to loan him
your can of air freshener.”

Drew laughed for a good twenty seconds.

“So what’s your take on this whole
Kleezebee-from-outer-space thing?” Lucas asked, trying to stop his
own laughter.

“It’s pretty wild stuff. But when you look at
everything we know about him, it all fits.”

“It certainly explains all his toys . . . and
his cash.”

“He does seem to always be two steps ahead of
everyone else.”

“Well, I’d be, too, if I knew the
future.”

“There’s no guarantee his past and our future
are always going to be the same. Not when we’re from two different
universes.”

“That’s true. I guess it’s not always a
slam-dunk.”

“It’s probably a good thing he’s smarter than
everyone else.”

“Everyone, except maybe you,” Lucas
replied.

Drew looked a little embarrassed when he
smiled.

The radio activated with Kleezebee’s voice.
“Are you guys ready?”

Lucas depressed the transmit button on the
radio. “Yes, sir. We’re powered up and ready to proceed.”

“On my mark, wait precisely ten seconds, and
then engage your neutron beam.”

“Roger that,” Lucas replied in his most
military-like voice.

Once Kleezebee gave his mark, Lucas and Drew
waited exactly ten seconds, then proceeded with their experiment,
firing the neutron beam right on cue. Both Lucas and Drew reviewed
the chamber’s video feed to verify that the E-121 canister had
vanished.

“Looks like it worked,” Lucas told Kleezebee
over the radio. “E-121 is on its way.”

Their radio squelched with Kleezebee’s next
communication. “Go ahead and power down. I’ll meet you in the
surveillance room in one hour.”

“Ten-four,” Lucas responded, before turning
down his radio.

“DL can’t be serious,” Drew said. “How’s he
going to climb up those stairs on crutches and still get here in an
hour?”

“The guards up top must be helping him up the
stairs.”

Drew nodded. “So what do you think DL stands
for?”

Lucas shrugged. “Your guess is as good as
mine. Next time we’re alone with Bruno, let’s ask him. He probably
knows.”

Drew looked at his watch. “Let’s go check on
Mom while we have some time. I’m sure she could use the
company.”

“Good idea. Let’s stop at the mess hall on
the way. I’m starving.”

* * *

Ninety minutes later, Lucas and Drew were
chatting in the silo’s surveillance room with Kleezebee, Bruno, and
several video technicians. Two armed guards had joined them, taking
position on either side of the elevator doors. Energy domes were
still terrorizing the planet, filling the video screens with scenes
of destruction and mayhem.