Schrodinger's Nightmare 1
Jul. 12th, 2006 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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stellaluna_.
"I don't get it," Flack said, walking circles around the mirror. "What's so important about this thing they want us in to look at it? And by us I mean you."
"Of course," Stella said pointedly, setting up her laptop and unpacking the rest of her equipment. "Try and remember I'm the one with the degree."
"Believe me, Major, I haven't forgotten," he said bitterly. "I don't get it. Why do the Marines have this thing? It looks like it belongs in a museum, maybe with Indiana Jones next to it or something."
"It was discovered on a dig in Giza, some of the scientists got some weird readings on it and sent it to the Air Force, who sent it over to the Marines. Who sent for us."
Flack snorted. "They coulda kept it with the damn Air Force; we wouldn'ta hadta come all the way up to New York. The jarheads forget we are Air Force?"
"You have something against New York?" Stella said dangerously, looking up from her laptop.
"Yeah," Flack said. "I grew up here, and after I joined the Air Force, I was really hoping to never come back. You?"
"Queens," she said shortly. "Stop moving, Captain, it's extremely distracting and I'm trying to work."
"Fine," he snapped, and stopped in front of the mirror. It was taller than him, almost seven feet high, and broad enough that he could have taken a horse through. The frame was no kind of metal Flack knew, a dark blue-amber color engraved with ocean designs. It was smooth and cool to the touch. Flack let his fingers rest on it, brushing over the wave crests, then felt something click under the ball of his thumb.
"What was that?" Stella said, lifting her head.
"Don't know," Flack replied, but the metal was heating under his hand, skin temperature and hotter, until he tried to snatch his hand back and couldn't. "Jesus Christ," he tried to say, but the words were lost in the sudden rush of -- something.
And everything went black around him.
-
-
It was the sort of thing some scientists dreamed of. Black car and government plates on the curb. A blue uniformed military officer -- Air Force -- standing at the door, which was very clearly unlocked. Danny didn't happen to be one of those scientists; he preferred his work at Caltech.
"Dr. Daniel Messer?"
"Um, yeah, that's me," Danny said, wondering why the Air Force felt the need to break into his house.
The airman pulled a handheld scanner out of nowhere. "I'll need to see some ID," he said, "and your prints."
"To get into my own house?" Danny said, but he pulled out his wallet anyway and subjected himself to the scan.
"They're waiting for you, Dr. Messer," the officer said, swinging the door open. Danny stuck his wallet back into his pocket and went in, where another airman pointed him toward his kitchen.
There was a woman in Air Force blues fussing over his coffeemaker and a man in a Marine uniform at his table. He stood up as Danny approached.
"Dr. Messer, I presume," he said, holding out his hand. "I'm Colonel Mac Tayor, U.S. Marine Corps; this is Major Stella Bonasera from the Air Force."
Danny shook his hand and smiled at Major Bonasera, who was still tinkering absently with his coffeemaker. Colonel Taylor offered him a folder.
"You'll have to sign that," he said.
Danny glanced inside. There was a single sheet of paper and a pen there. "A non-disclosure agreement," he said.
"You refuse to sign that, we walk out of here right now," Taylor said. "And you won't learn what this is all about."
Danny hesitated; Major Bonasera glanced over at him. "Maybe the Colonel didn't make this clear," she said. "You're one of the best astrophysicists in your field and there are a lot of good ones where I work." She smiled slightly. "I'm a physics doctorate myself -- quantum, not astro."
"Oh, well, in that case," Danny said, and scribbled his signature.
Bonasera smiled wide, all teeth like a shark, and took the NDA out of his hand. "Have a seat, Doctor," she said.
"Sure," Danny said. "If you put my coffeemaker down."
"It was defective," Bonasera said coldly, and tightened a screw before putting it on the counter behind her. She handed the non-disclosure agreement over to Taylor.
"It was defective," Danny corrected. "I fixed it."
"If that's what you call fixing it, I'd hate to see how it looked before," Bonasera said.
"Major," Taylor snapped.
Bonasera glanced at him. "What?" she said. "A little truth never hurt anyone. I thought he was supposed to be the best in his field; clearly he's been fooling someone high up."
"All right," Danny snapped. "You don't break into my house, seduce me into signing some piece of paper that signs over my soul to the government, and then insult me in my own kitchen. I've never heard of you, Major Bonasera, so out. Out. You can't be that good."
Bonasera's head jerked up. "Excuse me?" she demanded. "I'm the best quantum physicist employed by the United States military -- the best scientist employed by the United States military -- and if you haven't heard of me, Dr. Messer, it's only because all my work has been classified for the past fifteen years. Unlike you, Doctor, I was recruited right out of college."
"Unlike you, Major, I refused that recruitment; I seriously didn't feel like signing my soul over to the government, and this last five minutes was a serious lapse of judgment, so I'm just going to take that --" He grabbed for the NDA, Taylor slid it out of his reach.
"Stop overreacting, Doctor," he said. "Major Bonasera is just very competitive, as I'm sure you understand. Have a seat. We've got a proposition for you."
Danny glanced at Bonasera, who'd gone back to leaning against the counter and prodding absent-mindedly at his blender, then sat slowly down.
"I think this might interest you," Taylor said.
-
-
"He just disappeared?" Danny said, leaning forward. "As in, popped out of existence disappear, or got kidnapped disappeared?"
"The first one," Bonasera said. "Although I wouldn't say 'popped' so much as...'sucked'."
"So I'm thinking a small stable wormhole," Danny said eagerly. "Theoretically they can be created, although we don't have the technology to do that yet, but clearly this civilization, whatever it was, did, which means that as soon as we figure out how we've got the technology, and then --"
"Where did Captain Flack go?" Mac interrupted.
Danny blinked, backtracking his thoughts. "Well, the possibilities are infinite."
Bonasera stopped with one hand through her curls. "Oh, no," she said. "I'm not training a brand new assistant; I can't put up with the sheer amount of idiocy I had to wade through to find Flack again."
"The possibilities are infinite," Danny repeated. "But the possibilities of the possibilites aren't. There are only three that I can think of."
"And they are?"
Danny ticked them off on his fingers. "A, time travel; B, teleportation; C, parallel universes. I'm gonna count B out because I think we woulda heard from your missing soldier by now, unless he landed in the middle of the ocean or the Taklamakan Desert or something."
"Which leaves time travel and parallel universes," Mac said slowly.
"Well, theoretically they're both possible," Danny said. "It's quantum stuff, that's not my forté, but the theory's fairly simple. It's just the getting there part that's hard."
"Both parallel universes and time travel are technically possible," Bonasera said. "I've done some research on them at Ar -- with the Air Force, but we haven't gotten anywhere near the reality."
"Which one is more likely?" Taylor asked.
Danny and Bonasera glanced at each other. "Unless Captain Flack traveled into the future -- which he may have, I don't deny it -- I think we can count out time travel," Bonasera said. "His arrival in the past would have changed something; my people have been searching, we should have found some time of record by now."
Taylor folded his hands in front of him, frowning. "All right, Doctor Messer, Major Bonasera. I need you to get that device up and working. We're sending in a team after Captain Flack."
stellaluna_."I don't get it," Flack said, walking circles around the mirror. "What's so important about this thing they want us in to look at it? And by us I mean you."
"Of course," Stella said pointedly, setting up her laptop and unpacking the rest of her equipment. "Try and remember I'm the one with the degree."
"Believe me, Major, I haven't forgotten," he said bitterly. "I don't get it. Why do the Marines have this thing? It looks like it belongs in a museum, maybe with Indiana Jones next to it or something."
"It was discovered on a dig in Giza, some of the scientists got some weird readings on it and sent it to the Air Force, who sent it over to the Marines. Who sent for us."
Flack snorted. "They coulda kept it with the damn Air Force; we wouldn'ta hadta come all the way up to New York. The jarheads forget we are Air Force?"
"You have something against New York?" Stella said dangerously, looking up from her laptop.
"Yeah," Flack said. "I grew up here, and after I joined the Air Force, I was really hoping to never come back. You?"
"Queens," she said shortly. "Stop moving, Captain, it's extremely distracting and I'm trying to work."
"Fine," he snapped, and stopped in front of the mirror. It was taller than him, almost seven feet high, and broad enough that he could have taken a horse through. The frame was no kind of metal Flack knew, a dark blue-amber color engraved with ocean designs. It was smooth and cool to the touch. Flack let his fingers rest on it, brushing over the wave crests, then felt something click under the ball of his thumb.
"What was that?" Stella said, lifting her head.
"Don't know," Flack replied, but the metal was heating under his hand, skin temperature and hotter, until he tried to snatch his hand back and couldn't. "Jesus Christ," he tried to say, but the words were lost in the sudden rush of -- something.
And everything went black around him.
-
-
It was the sort of thing some scientists dreamed of. Black car and government plates on the curb. A blue uniformed military officer -- Air Force -- standing at the door, which was very clearly unlocked. Danny didn't happen to be one of those scientists; he preferred his work at Caltech.
"Dr. Daniel Messer?"
"Um, yeah, that's me," Danny said, wondering why the Air Force felt the need to break into his house.
The airman pulled a handheld scanner out of nowhere. "I'll need to see some ID," he said, "and your prints."
"To get into my own house?" Danny said, but he pulled out his wallet anyway and subjected himself to the scan.
"They're waiting for you, Dr. Messer," the officer said, swinging the door open. Danny stuck his wallet back into his pocket and went in, where another airman pointed him toward his kitchen.
There was a woman in Air Force blues fussing over his coffeemaker and a man in a Marine uniform at his table. He stood up as Danny approached.
"Dr. Messer, I presume," he said, holding out his hand. "I'm Colonel Mac Tayor, U.S. Marine Corps; this is Major Stella Bonasera from the Air Force."
Danny shook his hand and smiled at Major Bonasera, who was still tinkering absently with his coffeemaker. Colonel Taylor offered him a folder.
"You'll have to sign that," he said.
Danny glanced inside. There was a single sheet of paper and a pen there. "A non-disclosure agreement," he said.
"You refuse to sign that, we walk out of here right now," Taylor said. "And you won't learn what this is all about."
Danny hesitated; Major Bonasera glanced over at him. "Maybe the Colonel didn't make this clear," she said. "You're one of the best astrophysicists in your field and there are a lot of good ones where I work." She smiled slightly. "I'm a physics doctorate myself -- quantum, not astro."
"Oh, well, in that case," Danny said, and scribbled his signature.
Bonasera smiled wide, all teeth like a shark, and took the NDA out of his hand. "Have a seat, Doctor," she said.
"Sure," Danny said. "If you put my coffeemaker down."
"It was defective," Bonasera said coldly, and tightened a screw before putting it on the counter behind her. She handed the non-disclosure agreement over to Taylor.
"It was defective," Danny corrected. "I fixed it."
"If that's what you call fixing it, I'd hate to see how it looked before," Bonasera said.
"Major," Taylor snapped.
Bonasera glanced at him. "What?" she said. "A little truth never hurt anyone. I thought he was supposed to be the best in his field; clearly he's been fooling someone high up."
"All right," Danny snapped. "You don't break into my house, seduce me into signing some piece of paper that signs over my soul to the government, and then insult me in my own kitchen. I've never heard of you, Major Bonasera, so out. Out. You can't be that good."
Bonasera's head jerked up. "Excuse me?" she demanded. "I'm the best quantum physicist employed by the United States military -- the best scientist employed by the United States military -- and if you haven't heard of me, Dr. Messer, it's only because all my work has been classified for the past fifteen years. Unlike you, Doctor, I was recruited right out of college."
"Unlike you, Major, I refused that recruitment; I seriously didn't feel like signing my soul over to the government, and this last five minutes was a serious lapse of judgment, so I'm just going to take that --" He grabbed for the NDA, Taylor slid it out of his reach.
"Stop overreacting, Doctor," he said. "Major Bonasera is just very competitive, as I'm sure you understand. Have a seat. We've got a proposition for you."
Danny glanced at Bonasera, who'd gone back to leaning against the counter and prodding absent-mindedly at his blender, then sat slowly down.
"I think this might interest you," Taylor said.
-
-
"He just disappeared?" Danny said, leaning forward. "As in, popped out of existence disappear, or got kidnapped disappeared?"
"The first one," Bonasera said. "Although I wouldn't say 'popped' so much as...'sucked'."
"So I'm thinking a small stable wormhole," Danny said eagerly. "Theoretically they can be created, although we don't have the technology to do that yet, but clearly this civilization, whatever it was, did, which means that as soon as we figure out how we've got the technology, and then --"
"Where did Captain Flack go?" Mac interrupted.
Danny blinked, backtracking his thoughts. "Well, the possibilities are infinite."
Bonasera stopped with one hand through her curls. "Oh, no," she said. "I'm not training a brand new assistant; I can't put up with the sheer amount of idiocy I had to wade through to find Flack again."
"The possibilities are infinite," Danny repeated. "But the possibilities of the possibilites aren't. There are only three that I can think of."
"And they are?"
Danny ticked them off on his fingers. "A, time travel; B, teleportation; C, parallel universes. I'm gonna count B out because I think we woulda heard from your missing soldier by now, unless he landed in the middle of the ocean or the Taklamakan Desert or something."
"Which leaves time travel and parallel universes," Mac said slowly.
"Well, theoretically they're both possible," Danny said. "It's quantum stuff, that's not my forté, but the theory's fairly simple. It's just the getting there part that's hard."
"Both parallel universes and time travel are technically possible," Bonasera said. "I've done some research on them at Ar -- with the Air Force, but we haven't gotten anywhere near the reality."
"Which one is more likely?" Taylor asked.
Danny and Bonasera glanced at each other. "Unless Captain Flack traveled into the future -- which he may have, I don't deny it -- I think we can count out time travel," Bonasera said. "His arrival in the past would have changed something; my people have been searching, we should have found some time of record by now."
Taylor folded his hands in front of him, frowning. "All right, Doctor Messer, Major Bonasera. I need you to get that device up and working. We're sending in a team after Captain Flack."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-13 01:01 pm (UTC)"Sure," Danny said. "If you put my coffeemaker down."
"It was defective," Bonasera said coldly, and tightened a screw before putting it on the counter behind her. She handed the non-disclosure agreement over to Taylor.
"It was defective," Danny corrected. "I fixed it."
"If that's what you call fixing it, I'd hate to see how it looked before," Bonasera said.
I love this dialogue. This would so be the Stella in that icon that's captioned "Oh, please. He was senseless before I beat him."
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-14 07:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-14 06:01 pm (UTC)I love this! It's fabulous. The mirrorverse is just fascinating, and I'm totally enamoured of what we see here of their alternate selves. They're recognizably (and logically) different people, while still echoing (or being mirror images of) their canon selves. That's a damn hard trick to pull off.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-16 01:12 am (UTC)I'm so glad you like it! I love writing the mirrorverses; at this point in time both canon and the bardverse tend to tire me out, but the mirrorverses are fresh new worlds. I was a little worried about characterization (was Stella too mean? Danny too trusting?), but at the risk of sounding conceited, I think I know the characters by now. But I'm glad it works!