The Sphere: A Journey In Time (8 page)

Chapter 8

My first few days on the island were wonderful. Adam and Marina were happy to leave me to myself whenever I wanted, and Marina was quick to produce a drink and conversation whenever I wandered by. I had been spending my mornings out on the boat with Adam, and my afternoons indulging in mostly mindless physical activities. I did a proper trek around the edge of the island one day and finally took a lengthy bath in the whirlpool tub when I had returned. I swam a lot and worked on my tan as well.

I ate dinner with Adam and Marina every night. I enjoyed their conversation and since they were cooking for themselves anyway, I didn’t want them to have to make something different for me.

Now that I had confirmed I was being watched, a bit of the magic of the island had died. It was still a glorious place to be and I took delight in all the things I did, but the metal creature had reminded me that I was still at the whim of the laboratory. I wanted to ask Adam and Marina how it felt to have their lives spied upon, but I realized, just as I felt about my job, they probably thought the good parts outweighed the intrusions.

I let them talk about themselves much more often than I talked about my past. The lab had already learned enough about me through my conversations with Noah. For some reason I felt the need to let some part of myself remain secret from them, as though on the island I was a different person, Island Adelaide.

My fourth day out sailing I felt like I really had the hang of it. At least, getting out and back was easy. Maneuvering around the dock was still tricky but with everything else Adam mostly sat back and let me handle things. I found it exhilarating but also very relaxing. It was so quiet and the gentle rocking of the boat in time with the waves was soothing.

I still confused some of the rope lines, but I generally knew what they were for and when to use them. So even if I was surprised when Adam told me to do something with the sheet and I was expecting him to say the halyard, I still did the correct thing.

We were just preparing to do another man overboard drill when Adam pointed into the sky and said, "Look."

I looked in the direction he was pointing. For a moment I saw nothing, but then a glint of light attracted my gaze to a spot off in the distance. It was tiny, and impossible to make out any sort of shape, but it had to be a plane. "The seaplane?"

"Nothing else would be flying this way. The seaplane is the only thing that comes here. We better head back." I detected a bit of anxiety in his voice, though his demeanor remained calm. I helped him swap over the jib and we ran an aggressive pace back to the dock. The plane grew in size as we approached and passed by us as we were navigating our way to the side of the dock. I saw Jim in the copilot seat. Panic gripped me. This could not be good. Jim wouldn’t just decide to come on vacation while I was here.

The plane landed as we were coming around to the side of the dock. I noticed Marina standing ready with my backpack. Someone must have contacted her that I was going to be taken away. The plane managed to dock right when we did and I jumped out as Adam was tying the boat up. I grabbed my backpack from Marina and ran along the dock to where Jim was just getting out of the copilot seat. He hopped out of the plane just long enough to open the door to the back, gesture for me to get in, and climb in after me.

"What's going on?"

"Later." He wouldn't talk to me the whole ride home. I assumed he didn’t want the pilot to hear what he had to say. The panic started to churn through me. My first thought was something had gone very wrong with my mission. That time had taken a turn it shouldn't have and it was my fault, but argued with myself that I would have known immediately upon returning. Perhaps instead, something I had said to Adam and Marina made them angry at me. I tried to calm myself, but the drone of the engine fighting against the turbulence of the small fuselage and Jim's detached manner were amplifying my uneasiness. The flight was only two hours, but it felt like an eternity had passed when we landed.

We silently got into a car and took off for what I assumed was the lab. My stomach was in knots. I stared at Jim, hoping he would break the silence, but he stared out the window, seemingly lost in thought. A few times his hand went up to his ear as he listened to someone, but he did not volunteer any of what he heard. We finally got to the lab and quickly passed through the vestibule again. Still not speaking, Jim started stalking off towards his office and I dutifully followed for a moment before realizing I was still in my bathing suit and shorts.

"Jim!" He stopped and turned to look at me. I merely gestured at my shorts but he got the point. He changed direction and started walking towards my quarters instead.

He stopped in front of my door and said "Two minutes." That didn’t even leave time for a shower. I put on clean clothes in a soft blue which I hoped would help convey an air of innocence. I had been hoping to take a hot shower to help calm myself but splashing some cool water on my face would have to suffice. When I couldn’t get a brush through my windswept tangles I quickly gave up and pulled my hair into a bun to keep it out of my face. With a sense of dread I went back outside.

Once again Jim led the way to his office. It was in a separate wing in the Mission Enclosure. Though most of us worked from our quarters, Jim preferred to keep his business life separate from his home life. He sat in his desk chair and gestured at the one across from him. "Sit down, Adelaide."

My panic increased. Jim never used my full name. I thought back over my actions since I had returned. Nothing stood out as being out of the ordinary or out of acceptable behavior. I shook a little bit as I pulled the chair out slightly and sat. The nervousness must've been clear on my face.

Jim sighed. He glanced around the room as though looking for someone, then looked back at me and softened his gaze a bit. "You're not in trouble."

"But something's wrong."

"Yes. Yes, Addy, something is terribly wrong. I need to show you something. Subject 34, file f." A picture of a man sprang up on the desk between us. "Do you recognize him?"

I stared at the three dimensional representation of the man's face. "Turn once." The head spun once slowly in a clockwise direction. It was an older man, probably in his early hundreds. His hair was long and wiry, like he hadn't kept it up at all. It was almost entirely gray. He was scruffy, but clearly not from lack of trying to shave. His eyes were familiar but I couldn't place him. "I'm not sure, Jim. Some of his features are familiar but I know very few people that old, and he's definitely not one of them."

Jim sighed again. "Ok. Subject 34, file a."

I understood that this would be the first file on this man, whoever he was. I expected it was some research on a new case, so I was very surprised to see the well-lit White Box with its light gray mats now displayed on four different camera angles in front of me. I could never see the room well, the lights were always so blinding. I saw it clearly now. The aides who collect our personal effects and the sphere were standing by ready for someone's return. I deduced I was about to see that old man arrive. He must have stolen the sphere from someone.

He suddenly appeared in the space and chaos erupted. A look of shock and confusion crossed his face for a split second before he fell over and started screaming. I could only imagine the sort of terror that could be imposed on someone, suddenly arriving in a strange place, blinded and completely disoriented. It was hard enough on us and we were trained for this. We were from this time period, we were used to it.

I watched with sympathy as the man writhed on the floor and vomited. The aides stood back, too frozen with shock to do anything. "Sound," I said. I cringed slightly as his screams filled Jim's office. I could hear Jennifer over the loudspeaker asking what to do. One of the aides had wandered a little closer and grabbed the sphere away from where the man had dropped it on the floor. From one of the camera angles I could see the old man’s eyes as he looked desperately at the retreating aide. Again, something about his look was familiar to me. He closed his eyes again and continued screaming. The other aides had wandered a little closer as well. Jennifer was giving instructions, but from the record I was watching it was hard to hear her voice over the screaming man.

A new panic suddenly filled me. Noah was on his mission this week. It was Noah who should've come back to the return chamber. This man must have discovered the sphere, and not knowing what it was, accidentally activated it. And then more panic. Noah was a man who was clearly smarter and cleverer than those around him in that time period. What if he had been mistaken as a witch? What if they had burned him then gone through his belongings? "My God, what happened to Noah?"

"That's what we need to find out."

I watched for a few more seconds before another dread overtook me. Jim was responding to a different question. That's why the eyes were familiar. He hadn't been left behind. The man screaming and writhing on the floor was Noah.

I leapt out of my seat and screamed at the video. "Noah!"

"Addy, sit. Focus.” His voice was commanding. “Close Subject 34, file a." Jim gave me a concerned but warning stare.

I sat back down. My head was swimming. "Subject 34, file b!" I said, before Jim could say anything else.

The emotionless voice of Sean Connery greeted me; "Subject 34 files subject to clearance level 2 or special access channels."

"All in good time. Calm yourself."

"Jim what is going on? I need to see Noah!"

"You will, trust me, but I need you to focus." I took a few deep breaths but my hands were still gripping the arms of the chair as though it was keeping me from falling off the Earth. "You'll have access to all the files and we'll let you see him, but we need to go over some things first."

"Like what?" The question came out almost as a scream. My breathing had calmed a bit, but I was still overly anxious to see Noah. I was barely sitting on the edge of the chair. Jim didn't say anything, but glared at me for a moment. I took another deep breath, relaxed my death grip on the chair, and slid back into it to sit properly. I grasped my hands together in my lap and focused on slowing my breath. Noah was alive. That was something at least. I would help him. I would find a way. "Okay. What do you know so far?"

"He's been back for about ten hours. His body is of course adjusting to the time shift so he's not in the greatest state right now. He won't eat and can't seem to talk. He appears disoriented. We don't know if he knows where he is or even who he is. However he is doing things that suggest he has some knowledge of what's going on."

I thought back to his pleading eyes looking at the retreating aide. I assumed it was a general plea for help, but perhaps it had been more specific than that.

Jim had paused to take a deep breath and said the next sentence with hesitation. "He appears to have aged about seventy-two years."

I did the math. That would put him at one hundred and twelve years old. How long did people live in the late 1600s? I had no idea but I was pretty sure it wasn't that long. From the images I had just seen, I guessed that he would look to be in his mid-60s to them. "But if his body adjusted to the time period, it would only have been twenty years-"

Jim cut me off. "It doesn't quite work that way, as far as we know. He has aged as he would here, more slowly than he would in the late 1600s. "

I tried to imagine being stuck in Stratford for seventy-two years. I thought I would have gone insane. "So he was there through half of the 18th century." I rested my head in my hands and my elbows on my legs. It was hard to fathom.

"It would appear so. We're keeping him sedated. He looks at Doctor Crebbs like he knows her. We're hoping he'll respond to you in a more significant way."

"When do I get to see him?"

"I'd like you to review the rest of the files first. It's mostly clips of more significant moments since his return, but I want you to be prepared. The sedation is keeping him calm, but he had a few rather aggressive moments." Jim looked at me with concern again. I could tell he was trying to judge my demeanor.

The shock had passed. I lifted my head from my hands, sat back in my chair again and looked back at him. I was feeling a bit defeated, but gave him a nod.