CHAPTER 5

  "There is a balance between two worlds,

  One with an arrow and a cross,

  Regardless of the balance, life has become cumbersome..."

  -Seven Mary Three

  ...

  He backed up to get a running start. If Royles wanted him to collect intel on the other side, the least he could do is have fun with it. He bolted forward and jumped through the rift. For a few seconds he floated high above the foreign world in silence, with the exception of the wind in his ears. This was a good feeling, a freedom few are afforded as they plod miserably to and from their nine to fives. This was why he threw himself into the weird, these precious moments. He wished Chloe was here flying through the air with him, he could almost hear her melodious laugh, he smiled as gravity began to take hold again. Two blue flames ignited in the thrusters on his back and he shot forward to the village he had seen on his first foray through the rift. He would see her again, if he had to go through a thousand universes, he would see her again.

  He landed on the outskirts of the village with a thump. He ducked behind a tree.

  "Camouflage buddy."

  The armor shimmered then took on a leafy green camouflaged appearance. He moved quietly through the brush, circling the village. When he was close enough, he could see why the buildings had looked so odd. Their walls were trees braided together, some sort of clay or cement between them. He spotted some saplings in a square, the site for a new building. A man stood there braiding the thin supple trees. He had bronzed skin and wore only a crude loincloth. Carl saw no weapons in the town, save for a sharpened stick leaning against a house. These appeared to be a primitive people. Whatever was happening with the rift wasn't their fault. Maybe they weren't the only inhabitants of this planet. He backed into the forest quietly. No sense scaring anyone needlessly, he should leave these people be.

  Back in the air his armor shimmered and returned to its normal chrome finish. He flew the opposite way for awhile and saw nothing but more forest. Besides those primitive people, this world was empty. It didnt feel right, something was off. He landed in a clearing and stood listening.

  Nothing.

  The only thing he could hear was the pinging of the hot metal on his thrusters. Where were the animals? No bird songs, no bugs, just silence.

  "This shit is eerie Nano, Can you scan for signals please?"

  "One moment."

  Carl wandered amongst the trees looking for some sign of life...anything. he lifted rocks and kicked at wet patches of leaves. On earth you were guaranteed to find a bug under one of those.

  Still nothing.

  "No signals Carl."

  "I dont get it. I can accept that they're vegetarians. But dont you have to have animals, or at least bugs for a healthy ecosystem? Am I wrong here?"

  "I am not familiar with this world Carl, I do not know."

  "Maybe we should take samples or something?"

  "That could be helpful."

  "Alright, can you form a couple small containers?"

  Some nanomaterial dripped from his arm and three small containers formed. He picked them up and stuck two to his belt. He knelt down to get a dirt sample. The grass was tough, he couldnt get to the soil.

  "Jeezus..."

  He popped a blade from under his wrist and stuck it in the ground. It clanked against metal.

  Carl stopped moving, his forehead scrunched up as he tried to make sense of the sound. He jabbed the blade in again, again it hit metal. He dragged the blade and cut a V. He lifted the flap, sure enough it was metal, with two scratches on it. He stood and yanked the V of grass back more, he continued until he had a ten foot swatch pulled up.

  "What even is this?"

  "Are we sure this is a planet Carl?"

  Carl dropped the flap of grass.

  He was silent.

  He knelt again and knocked against the metal. Based on the sound and feel, he estimated it to be about two or three inches thick.

  "Could you make a blow torch?"

  A rod formed on the back of his gauntlet and extended out past his hand. It ignited.

  He held it to the metal, it got red but the torch didnt cut through. He burned a section long enough to get it white hot and tried to jab a blade into it. The blade glanced off.

  "I can scratch it, but not cut or melt it? This place is fucking weird."

  He sat down to think.

  The man he had seen, he had been real enough. Right?

  He stood, his thrusters firing, he shot up into the air. He had to go back. That man was the only living thing here.

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  He landed with a heavy thump outside the village. There was no weather, which meant no wind. Nothing moved, he hadn't noticed before. Nothing moved but the man. He remained in the same spot, braiding the saplings together. He had made no progress.

  Carl crouched behind a tree and watched him. It took awhile to notice but the mans fingers would stop every seven minutes, then jerk back to the starting position and begin weaving again. The man was stuck in a time loop.

  "Maybe we can break him out of the loop? Whattya think?"

  "I think it is dangerous Carl, what if we are dragged into the loop?"

  "Hmm...fair point."

  He moved around the edge of the village until he was about five feet from one of the buildings. There was a low hum, he could feel the vibrations in his teeth. He looked around, saw no one and crept up to the door. It wasnt locked, the door swung open and Carl put himself against the wall. Nothing happened, no threats, he peeked inside quickly. A single metal box in the middle of the room, there was a step down as he entered. The box was connected seamlessly to the metal that covered the planet. He knocked against the box. It didnt sound hollow. This is where the electric hum was emanating from.

  He stepped out of the building and walked to another one. Another building, another box. This wasn't a village at all.

  He flew back through the rift and came to a skidding stop on the concrete floor of the warehouse. He checked his watch, he hadnt been gone that long. He stepped outside hoping Royles hadn't left him. He spotted the vehicle, it was red now, and that wasnt Royles behind the wheel.

  "Hey, where's Royles?"

  The man extended his hand as Carl buckled his seat belt.

  "He had some things to do, I'm Hicks, nice to meet you."

  "Nice to meet you too, I'm Carl."

  "Oh, I know, you're all everyone in the office is talking about right now."

  "Good things I hope."

  "Well...is it true you accidentally threw a guy through someone's roof?"

  "That...uh, was an unfortunate accident."

  "Holy crap! So are you an alien or what?"

  "No. Just a guy. I have superstrength, from a serum."

  "Thats insane!"

  "Yeah, I guess."

  "I'm sorry, lets get going. I just never imagined something like that could be real."

  Carl stared out the window as they drove through rural neighborhoods. He had long ago come to terms with the weirdness of his life. Sometimes he forgot how it felt to be in awe of all these things he took for granted.

  Hicks and Carl walked in and Carl immediately felt rather uncomfortable, because every pair of eyes in the office was on him. He smiled and nodded but felt they all knew something he didnt. He got to the elevator and swiped his badge, instead of the pad lighting up green, it lit up orange. The elevator did not rotate open. There was a voice behind him.

  "After day three I had your badge deactivated."

  Carl turned, it was Royles.

  "What?"

  "My office. Now."

  He turned and walked to his office, Carl followed.

  "How long do you think you were gone?"

  Carl looked at the ceiling.

  "Uuuhhhh...I dont know. An hour and a half, maybe two hours."

  Royles sat back in his chair, his brow furrowed, his eyes on Carl. Carl began to feel uncomfortable again under the mans intense scrutiny.

  "What?!"

  "You stepped through that rift five days ago."

  Carls mouth hung open, his mind scrambled for an explanation.

  "Thats not possible...I wasn't there long at all! Definitely not five days!"

  Royles said nothing, only studied Carls face. He hit a button on his phone.

  "Tell Dr. Skagerty I'd like to see him please."

  "Who's Dr. Skagerty?"

  "He's a physicist, one of the best. I think he might be able to help you."

  Skagerty entered the office and introduced himself to Carl.

  "Call me Matt."

  "Dr. Skagerty, my colleague here entered the rift five days ago, but to him it was only an hour or two. How is that possible?"

  Matt looked at Carl for a moment.

  "Whats over there?...on the other side I mean."

  "A whole lot of nothing. Some kind of fake planet, covered in metal and dressed up to look normal. Somebody went to a lot of trouble."

  "I see. Is there atmosphere?"

  "Yeah. I can breath, and theres gravity too."

  "A sun? Or a central planetary light source of some kind?"

  "I guess...I didn't really look. It wasnt dark."

  Matt turned to Royles.

  "Think I could go with him? Without readings, I can only make educated guesses."

  Royles sighed.

  "I have a team working on a short range jet pack. I'll send the two of you through when its finished and tested."

  "Why would I need a jet pack?"

  "The rift on the other side is hundreds of feet in the air."

  "Oh."

  Royles had set Matt up in a conference room, complete with whiteboards and an overhead projector. Carl was sitting at the end of the long conference table eating a pack of pistachios he bummed off the receptionist. Matt was scribbling on the whiteboard and mumbling to himself. Carl couldn't make heads or tails of his scribbles. After some time Royles and two other agents entered.

  "Carl, Matt, I want you to meet the rest of the Department 7 team. This is Andy Malone, he specializes in probability and statistics and has a medical background."

  Andy was a toned and muscular fellow. It looked as if his black polo could barely contain his biceps. He shook hands with Matt and Carl. He paused at Carl.

  "Can I see it?"

  Carl cocked an eyebrow.

  "Dude...see what?"

  Carl looked uncomfortable.

  "The armor...what did you think I meant?"

  "Uh, nothing."

  The armor formed around him and Andy touched his shoulder.

  "Thats amazing. You know, I calculated the chances of you ending up on our dimension. Without exact numbers its not really possible, but it guessed at it. It was like, a trillion to one chance you'd end up here."

  Carl just nodded, unsure what to say.

  Royles had his perpetually annoyed look on his face, so Carl and Andy sat down.

  "This is Penny Hill, a damn fine agent who's tenacity means if there is a solution, she will find it."

  Penny shook their hands and sat down. She was a slim brunette in a black pantsuit with eyes of cold blue that seemed to look through you.

  "Now that everyone's here we can get started. First of all, I talked to my boss and have been approved to move the D7 office to the old warehouse where the rift is contained. There are several crews working around the clock to make that happen. Now, Carl, brief the others on what you saw on the other side."

  Carl stood up and walked to the front of the room, he didnt know he would have to brief everybody. He was still getting used to following the rules of beaurocracy.

  "Well, uh, ok. So the rift is a few hundred feet up on the other side. The "planet" isn't actually a planet at all, I dont think. Its man-made, covered in metal and dressed up to look like a planet. Its odd, theres also this village with fake houses covering some kind of electrical boxes. There's a guy in the village, but I think hes stuck in a time loop. Uh, thats all I got...oh, the time thing...to me, I was gone maybe two hours tops. Royles says I was gone for five days."

  Carl went and sat back down, back to his bag of pistachios and the little pile of shells on the table. The room was quiet a moment before Matt jumped up.

  "Ok, so based on what hes saying, theres the issue of time dilation. Why is it happening? Well, theres velocity time dilation, but that would insinuate that the planet, or metal ball, whatever it is, is moving at high speeds. Im not saying this isn't possible, but for the rift to stay in the same place...I dont think it is. That leads us to gravitational time dilation. I think thats what's happening, but without some readings, I can't say for sure."

  Carl raised his hand. Matt pointed at him.

  "You have a question?"

  "What does that mean in english?"

  Matt laughed.

  "Time passes more slowly in stronger gravitational fields. The more massive an object, the more it warps spacetime, causing time to slow down nearby."

  Carl nodded as if he understood, he was still a little lost. Penny broke the awkward silence.

  "A man made planet? For what purpose?"

  Matt shrugged.

  "No idea. If we're seeing gravitational dilation, then this whole operation was intentional...I think. I need more data to postulate the "why"."

  Royles stood up.

  "We dont have the luxury of wasting time. Carl, Matt, be ready to go as soon as R&D finishes the jet pack. The rest of you get some rest, as soon as they return, we've got to examine the data. Dismissed."

  He turned and left. Andy and Penny didnt say much as they left and Matt didnt look like he was going to leave. He was still writing equations on the whiteboard.

  "Hey Matt, if you had to guess, what do you think it is?"

  "Well...the electrical boxes and the increased gravity lead me to believe that maybe its some kind of power source. Thats just a guess though, I can't say for sure."

  Carl nodded, he scooped up his pile of shells and dropped them in the trash. He had to go remind Royles to reinstate his security clearance so he could go take a nap in his office.