From: nakazawa@phakt.usc.edu (Rei Nakazawa)
Newsgroups: alt.ql.creative,alt.tv.quantum-leap.creative
Subject: NEW STORY: "Leap Year" (6/6)
Date: 9 Nov 1995 23:30:01 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Message-Id: <47uv1p$qa8@phakt.usc.edu>

	Alia's hand brushed Sam's cheek.  "My God... Lothos tortured 
you, didn't he?"
	Sam, his jaw still hanging open, had a little trouble answering.  
"H-how did you...?"
	Alia's face turned hard.  "Believe me, I can see the signs."
	"B-but what happened to you?  Why are you here?"  Sam's mind 
whirled with a million questions; it was hard to get a hold of himself, or 
decide where to start.
	Suddenly, Sam heard a wonderfully familiar electronic ring.  
"Sam, you're out of there!  Thank God!"
	"Al!"  He turned towards his friend, both half fainting with relief.
	"Al?" Alia asked.  "He's here?"
	Al stared.  "She's here?"
	Sam nodded impatiently to them both.  "Yes!  But why are you 
here?  What happened to the jamming field?"
	"Well, Ziggy figures that Lothos is keeping the field centered on 
the Holding Chamber while he's off-line.  Guess he didn't figure on her," 
here he pointed to Alia with his cigar, "letting you out.  That is what 
happened, right?"
	"Right."  Sam turned back to his fellow Leaper.  "Alia, what 
happened after... Mallard, Ohio?  The women's prison?"
	Alia frowned.  "It's hard to remember...  One minute I was with 
you, and Zoey was shooting at me..."  She started.  "Zoey!  What 
happened to her?  And why the hell are you in Thames' body?  I wasn't 
able to get much out of anyone else without looking suspicious."
	"After Zoey shot you?" Sam prompted.
	Alia shook her head.  "As far as I remember, I Leaped directly 
here.  Into Veronica DeLuce."  She shivered in disgust.  "Fortunately, 
or maybe not, I remembered her.  I was a little surprised to be back 
here, though.  But when I heard that you were also here..."  Alia's 
beautiful features twisted in fright.  "Sam, we have to get out of here, 
before Lothos comes back on line."
	"But what about Michelle?  I thought you told her that she'd be 
safe."
	"Maybe I'm here to rescue you, and after that, we and she'll 
Leap out.  Or maybe we can bring people back here to shut down the 
Project and rescue her."  Her voice was growing louder and more 
desperate; she was obviously grasping at straws, a little out of her 
mind with fear, fear of a presence that was, to her, the Devil himself.
	Sam grabbed her shoulders firmly.  "Alia!  Alia, you have to calm 
down..."
	"Don't you understand?" Alia shrieked.  "You've felt what 
Lothos can do!  He can make it go on, you know!  Forever, and ever, and 
ever!  You'll scream and you'll cry out, begging to die.  But Lothos won't 
let you die, oh no.  He'll have his fun with you.  He'll draw it out for 
days, weeks, months, and every minute you'll die just a tiny bit, just a 
little, enough for him to have his fun before you..."  She trailed off, her 
eyes squeezed shut as she drowned in her personal phantoms and 
terrors.
	"Where will we go?"
	"I don't know... we'll just run, until we find help!"
	Al looked up from his hand link.  "It's over two hundred fifty 
miles of forest to the nearest town, Sam."
	"Alia, listen to yourself!  Remember where we are; we'll never 
get out.  Our only chance is to destroy Lothos, right here and now."
	Alia's eyes widened.  "Sam, do you know what you're saying?  
Destroy Lothos?  We can't!  We have to run!"
	Sam stared into her frightened eyes, comforting yet firm.  "Alia, 
for the past God-knows-how-many years, you've been running from 
Lothos, doing whatever he and St. John and Zoey have wanted so you 
wouldn't be punished.  Stand up now, Alia.  Face him!  Show him that 
you're not afraid now, that he can't touch you anymore."  He wrapped 
his arms around her, drawing her close, a column of support against the 
evil that lurked on the other side of the elevator doors, despite the fear 
that strangled her just beneath the surface, a fear he struggled each 
minute to suppress.  "Please."
	Alia stared at him, wondering if he were insane.  Yet she knew, 
deep down, that he was right.  And she felt a link to him, an emotional 
connection she'd never felt for anyone before.  With it came a trust, a 
trust in his words and actions, and what he was trying to convince her 
of.  Sam saw this, and prayed he wouldn't betray her trust.  Finally, she 
spoke.  "Let's do it.  I have a score to settle with this Project."
	Sam smiled.  "I knew you could do it.  Come on."  He pressed 
the switch again, and the elevator began to move once more.
	"Where are we going?" Alia asked with more than a touch of 
nervousness.  "What are we going to do?"
	Sam paused.  He'd been running on automatic ever since he'd 
been freed; he hadn't given much thought to after...   "Good question."  
He paused, thinking.  Obviously, the best way to get out of here was to 
Leap, but...  "Wait...  Al, if I were to Leap into Tyler Wharton the day he 
and his family were going to go on vacation, and make sure he and 
Michelle go instead of staying home, what are the chances that Monica 
would still be able to somehow cause Jeff to shoot all those people?"  Al 
paused as he inputted this on his hand link.
	"That just may work," Alia said.
	Al raised an eyebrow.  "Only 6%."
	"Good.  Then we'll use this Project's Accelerator Chamber to..."
	"Are you crazy?!" Alia broke in.  "Even if you try this while 
Lothos is off-line, as soon as he's back, he'll stop you in an instant!"
	"Not if we do something with him first," Al broke in.  "Ziggy has 
been busy analyzing Lothos' circuitry.  Because they're so much alike, 
she thinks she can tell you how to bypass all the security protocols and 
everything else you need."
	"Ziggy can tell us how to cut Lothos off."  Sam saw Alia's former 
fear return.  "We can do this, Alia."
	Alia shuddered, but forced herself calm.  "Okay.  I think I 
remember something about Lothos' programming and structure.  I think 
I can help."
	"Great!  Just in case we fail, we should disable those... machines 
that give the torture," Sam said, stumbling over his words.
	Alia nodded dumbly.  "Right."  The elevator doors ground open.  
Alia found that she was holding her breath, but she had no need; the 
corridor was empty.  She stuck her head out, looked around, and 
stepped out, beckoning to Sam.  "If I know Lothos, you were probably 
unconscious or drugged when they brought you here.  I think I remember 
how to get there.  This way."
	"Al, go on ahead, make sure our way is clear."
	"Gotcha."  He pressed a button on his hand link, and vanished.
	Alia and Sam peeked around the corner.  The halls were dead 
silent.  Somewhere in the distance, Sam could barely hear the muffled 
sounds of men and women talking and laughing loudly.  Fortunately, it 
was in the other direction.  They inched their way around the corner into 
the long row of doors.  Sam was almost immediately reminded of _Alice 
in Wonderland_: doors, doors, everywhere...
	"This way."  Alia pulled his arm towards a door.  Then she 
stopped, her face blank with fear.  Sam heard it too: heavy footsteps 
heading towards them.  Alia whirled around, then forward.  There was 
no sign of the origin, but they were growing louder.  "We have to hide!"
	"Alia, calm down..."
	Al blinked into existence by them.  "Sam!  Someone's coming!"
	"In here!"  Sam grabbed Alia's arm and headed towards a nearby 
door that had been carelessly left ajar.  He pulled her inside and quickly 
shut the door.  Sam leaned his ear against the door, listening.  The 
footsteps crescendoed, filled the hall with its echo, then just as quickly 
subsided, the sound disappearing into the distance.  Sam relaxed.  
"He's gone."
	"My God..."
	"What...?"  Sam turned, and froze.  Lying on the bed before him 
was a hauntingly familiar face, emaciated from lack of muscle use, 
attached to a beeping machine with a myriad of tubes and wires.  
"Zoey."  Alia was still, staring at the comatose form with a strange 
expression on her face.  Sam stepped forward and put his hands on her 
shoulders.  "Alia..."
	"You can't imagine how much suffering she and I caused, Sam," 
she whispered.  "She always enjoyed it, wallowed in it.  You saw what 
happened in 1987.  She was one of the chief designers of Lothos."  She 
shuddered.  "St. John gave her the job of looking over me after I..."  Here 
she flushed red.  "Seduced him.  I thought I could get ahead."  Alia 
laughed bitterly.  "Look where it got me."  She stared at the tubes, the 
machine, the once terrifying presence now helpless before them.  "It 
would be so easy to end it now.  Just unplug the machine, smash it, 
smother her with a pillow..."
	Sam squeezed Alia's shoulders.  "No."
	"I know.  It would make me as corrupt as her."  She turned to 
Sam and smiled wanly.  "See?  I have learned something from you, Sam 
Beckett."  Sam smiled back, though a bit weakly.  "Besides, she's 
suffering more now, I think; don't you?"  Her grin grew wider, though 
Sam wasn't really sure if she was joking or not.
	Al looked up from his hand link in panic.  "Sam!  Forget about the 
sabotage.  According to Ziggy, Lothos is coming back on-line in twenty 
minutes!"
	"Sam?" Alia asked in concern, seeing Sam's stricken face.
	"We have to get to Lothos now."  He grabbed her wrist and 
started dragging her towards the door without thinking.
	"What?  But what about..."
	"Lothos is coming back in twenty minutes!"
	Now it was Alia's face that turned gray and sick.  "Sam, we have 
to..."
	Sam stopped and turned towards her gently, soothingly.  
"Alia..."
	She gulped, and her shoulders hardened as she steeled herself.  
"Let's go."
	Sam grinned.  "Let's."

	The guards were afraid, to say the least, when Dr. DeLuce and 
Thames strode into the Control Room.  With Lothos off-line while the 
grunts of the programming and hardware staffs upgraded Lothos 
according to "request," the main staff was expected to quietly vanish for 
a while and leave them alone.  The guards snapped immediately to 
attention from the languid postures they'd had before.  "Dr. DeLuce.  
Mr. Thames," the first guard said.
	"Mr. Bellucci, Mr. Lesser," DeLuce responded coolly.  She 
nodded at Thames, who immediately kneeled before the control unit and 
pried off a panel.  Pulling a keyboard connected to a small screen within, 
Thames immediately began alternating between typing on the keyboard 
and changing the inner mechanical structure with the equipment that 
had been hanging from the inside of the panel.
	This immediately set off alarm bells in the guard's brain.  
Usually, that terminal set up inside the control unit was set aside for 
the most urgent programming changes that had to be done immediately.  
By using it in what seemed to be a non-emergency situation, he was 
breaking Project rules.  And that made him nervous. "Er, Dr. DeLuce, 
what's he doing?"
	DeLuce turned a cold, cold eye on Bellucci, who immediately 
paled.  "What business is it of yours?  We're simply making some final 
adjustments before Lothos comes back on-line."
	Bellucci glanced over DeLuce's shoulder.  Thames was busy 
poking into the innards of Lothos' control unit, removing a circuit board 
here, cutting a wire there, adjusting what looked like programs on the 
small terminal.  Occasionally he'd look over his shoulder, as if listening 
to thin air, before returning to his work.  Not like him at all.  "I don't 
remember the Project Head ordering any changes..."
	DeLuce stuck her face into Bellucci's, her hot breath puffing 
against his neck.  "As I said, I don't think it really is any of your 
concern.  Would you like to tell Lothos when he comes back on-line 
why the adjustments aren't done?"
	The guard sweated.  He was faced with disobeying larger rules 
enforced by entities not present, or disobeying orders given by staff 
immediately present who could surely send him to the Holography 
Chamber in the blink of an eye.  He didn't have to think long.  "N-no, 
ma'am."
	"I thought not."  She turned to Thames.  "Done?"
	"There's a lot to do here."
	"I'll help."  She hurried to the unit and knelt down beside 
Thames.  "Okay, we have to rewire the ROM connection here to..."
	Bellucci frowned in sudden suspicion.  "You're a psychiatrist!  
What would you know about Lothos?"  His grip tightened on his rifle.
	For a while, no one moved.  Then DeLuce slowly rose to her 
feet, her back turned towards the two guards.  "It's really quite 
simple..."  Then she turned, the sidearm she had taken from Bellucci's 
holster in her hands.  She fired, and Lesser collapsed to the ground.  
Bellucci tried to raise his rifle, but a white light filled his vision...

	Sam stared at the two fallen guards.  "Why did you...  Are 
they...?"
	"Don't worry," Alia said as she tucked the gun into one of her lab 
coat's large pockets.  "It's an energy based weapon, and I set it on low 
power.  They'll be sleeping for a while, but that's it."  Sam nodded.
	"Sam, Ziggy says that you'd better do something soon.  When 
these two miss their hourly check, they'll have Security down here even 
without Lothos."
	"Alia, we have to make sure Security doesn't get in here."
	"Right.  I think I know how to stop the elevators from down here.  
It'll only take a minute."
	Sam glanced back at the open panel, wires and electronic 
messes spilling out.  "There isn't much security down here, is there?"
	Alia snorted derisively.  "St. John usually keeps everyone in so 
much fear that not much is needed, especially with Lothos around."  At 
that, she hurried out of the room.
	As soon as she was gone, Al spoke up.  "Okay, as far as we can 
tell, we've got you past the security protocols and locked Lothos out of 
these controls.  Now all Ziggy says we have to do is activate the 
Accelerator."
	"Can't we just activate the program now?"
	"No good, Sam.  The Accelerator controls are supposed to be 
controlled by Lothos only.  Only way to get them on without him is to 
manually reroute and rewire stuff to get by the programs.  As soon as 
Alia gets back, she can probably fill in a few of the gaps."
	"Right."  Sam picked up one of the circuit boards he had 
removed.  "Is this important to being able to Leap out of here?"
	Al checked his hand link.  "Nope."
	Sam immediately swung the board against the edge of the 
control unit, smashing it in two.  He then grabbed the piece and 
smashed and ripped it apart as much as he could.  "What about this 
one?" he asked, picking up another.
	It took a second for Al to recover from his surprise.  "Uh, no."  
He watched as Sam destroyed it also.

	"How much longer until Lothos can be brought back on-line?" St. 
John asked impatiently.
	"Just a couple of more minutes, sir.  Please be patient."
	"Well, hurry up!  I want Lothos back now!"

	"Sam!" Alia shouted as she reentered the room.  "I've got the 
elevators locked.  It should buy us a couple of minutes to..."  She 
stopped as her eye caught a rather large pile of broken computer 
components lying on the floor.  "What...?"
	"Never mind this," Sam said urgently as he finished pulling on 
the Fermi suit he'd been forced out of earlier.  "I need you to help me 
figure out how to get the Accelerator activated without Lothos."
	Alia nodded.  "I'll handle the programming bit.  You just change 
the circuitry as I tell you to."  She sank to her knees beside Sam, 
grabbing the keyboard and commencing to hack.  She typed in silence for 
a few seconds before saying, "Remove the circuit board marked 13-A 
and reroute its input wire to the main ROM base."  Sam obeyed.  "Now 
cut all input to RAM chip 2..."

	"I have trouble believing that that arrogant, pompous bit of 
machinery is in any way related to me," Ziggy huffed.
	Had Al been present, he would've likely been moved to 
comment, but only Gooshie was around, and such a remark wasn't in his 
nature.  "The proof is right there.  St. John worked on your design quite 
extensively, and obviously found a way past security measures and 
was able to copy your design and alter it to..."
	"Uh oh."
	Gooshie froze.  "'Uh oh'?  What's 'uh oh'?"
	"Lothos has come back on-line."
	"WHAT?!!  Warn the Admiral immediately!"
	"Already done," Ziggy responded calmly.

	Al's eyes widened.  "Sam!  Lothos is..."
	"Just what are you doing to me, Dr. Beckett?" a deep baritone 
from above rumbled.
	Alia looked up in sheer panic.  "Lothos!"
	"Alia!  Back already?  I see you've realized the error of your 
ways."
	"I'll never come back," Alia hissed.  "Never."
	"I wouldn't say 'never,' my dear, especially when I have guards 
coming down here as we speak."
	Alia paled, but quickly regained her composure.  "Let's see them 
get down here without the elevator."
	"Working on it right now," Lothos said mildly.
	Alia jumped up and ran to the door, wildly slapping at a button.  
A heavy steel slab slammed shut over the opening.  "There!" she 
puffed.
	"We can cut into that in under five minutes," Lothos said.  
"Unless I can bypass the security program on the door lock."
	Alia gasped. "Sam, we have to hurry!  Get into the Accelerator, 
now!  I'm almost done!"  She returned to her typing, her fingers flying 
madly over the keyboard.
	"But..."
	"Get in there, now!"
	"Ah, they're almost down here," Lothos said merrily.  "And 
soon, I'll have two subjects to have fun with."
	"Go!"  She shoved him towards the Accelerator, then returned to her typing.
	"Go, Sam!" Al shouted.  Sam paused, torn in two.  Then the 
pounding of fists and heavy batons against the security door sparked 
him into action; he sprinted for the Accelerator, taking his position in the 
center.
	Alia typed in the final line of instruction, her chest heaving for 
breath.  Finally!  Soon Sam would be safe.  As the pounding against the 
door rang through her ears, she briefly wondered how she would survive 
this, but just as quickly pushed the thought out of her mind.  She 
pressed the "Enter" key.
	Suddenly, the terminal screen exploded in her face.  Alia didn't 
have time to scream as she was thrown backwards.  Her body landed 
on the floor with a dull thud.
	"Countdown initiated," a smooth female voice very much unlike 
Lothos' announced.  "Accelerator activation in one minute."
	"Alia!" Sam shouted.  He ran out of the Accelerator towards the 
fallen Alia.
	"Sam, are you crazy?  Get back in there!" Al screamed.  Sam 
ignored him as he fell to his knees by Alia's side.  He groped for a pulse.  
Thank God, she was still breathing.  She'd be okay.
	"Almost done," Lothos announced.  "Just thirty seconds more, 
and sixteen armed guards will storm this room.  You're toast, Beckett."
	"Accelerator activation in forty seconds."
	"Sam, you've got to keep that door shut!"
	"But how?"  By this time Sam had pried off the button panel 
beside the door.  He dropped it, leaving it hanging by several wires from 
the machinery within.
	"Ziggy says that you've just gotta destroy the door mechanism.  
That'll keep the thing shut.  But just don't damage the emergency 
systems, or the door will automatically open."
	Sam stared at the machinery inside.  As far as he could see, 
there were two distinct sets of operating mechanisms, with an equal 
number of wires running from each.  "Which one?"
	"Uh..."  Al worked at his hand link desperately.
	"Almost, Beckett."
	"Accelerator activation in twenty-five seconds."
	"Got it!  It's the..."  Al's image began to break up, as if he were a 
radio signal in the middle of a static storm.
	"Al?"

	"Gooshie, what the hell is going on?"
	"Lothos has reestablished the jamming field," Ziggy said.
	"Override it again!"
	"Not enough power, Admiral."
	"Sam!  Smash the one on the left!  The left!"  He literally 
screamed in Sam's ear, to no avail.
	"Accelerator activation in fifteen seconds."
	
	"No good, Beckett.  Just a few seconds more, and you may kiss 
your butt goodbye."  Lothos laughed.  Sam turned back to the 
machinery, sweat running down his cheek.

	"Sam!  The left!  The left!"  Al watched Sam's hands reach out.  
He bit his lip nervously.  "C'mon, Sam..."

	Sam's hands grabbed cold metal.  With a final burst of effort, he 
gave a mighty pull.  Amid the squeal of metal and a shower of sparks, 
the chunk of machinery ripped out of the panel.  Sam staggered 
backwards, barely regaining his balance.
	"Accelerator activation in ten seconds."

	The door remained stubbornly shut.  Al slumped, breathing a 
sigh of relief.  "Thank God."  He straightened up as a voice finally 
penetrated his consciousness.
	"Accelerator activation in nine seconds.  Eight.  Seven.  Six."
	"Sam, you've gotta hurry!"  Sam immediately ran towards the 
Accelerator Chamber, as if hearing Al's every word.
	"Beckett!!!"  Lothos shrieked in pure rage.  "When I find you, 
you'll suffer in the flames of hell!!!"
	"Five.  Four.  Three.  Two.  One.  Accelerator activated."  An 
eerie red light flooded the room.

	Sam opened his eyes.  He was standing in a driveway, his coat 
pulled tight over him to protect him from a wintry blast of cold air.  
"Tyler, honey?  Are you sure?"  An older woman with long brown hair 
looked at him with concern.  Sam quickly realized where he was: 
February 26, 1956.  The Leap had worked.
	"Exactly how bad are you feeling, son?"  A tall, middle aged man 
slung a suitcase into the trunk of a car and slammed it shut.
	"If he's really feeling sick, I'll stay home with him," Michelle 
volunteered.  She didn't look too happy, though.  Sam tentatively 
reached out and touched her.  Her face didn't change.  "Tyler?"
	"Really, honey?"  Mrs. Wharton asked.  "Could you?  I mean, it's 
too late to get anyone else to..."
	"No," Sam interrupted.  "I feel fine.  Let's go."  He started 
towards the car.
	"Are you sure?" Mr. Wharton asked.  "If you're feeling sick, you 
shouldn't go."
	"Really, I'm fine, Dad.  I'm sure."  He climbed into the car and 
settled into a seat.
	Mrs. Wharton raised an eyebrow.  "Well, if you're sure..."
	"C'mon, Mom, he said he's fine."  Michelle jogged to the other 
side of the car and rapidly got in.  "Let's go."
	"All right."  The two adults got into the front seats.  Within half 
a minute, they had pulled out of the driveway and started down the 
street.
	"Good going," Michelle whispered into Sam's ear.  "You know 
what I would've done to you if I'd had to miss this because of you."  Sam 
nodded dumbly.
	"Sam!"  Al appeared between Sam and Michelle, standing right 
through the seat.  "You did it!  Now Jeff can get over his mom's death, 
and no one dies.  In fact, because Jeff plays in the big game, he leads 
'em to a victory and they go on to be state champs!  That allows Jeff to 
get a scholarship, and he and Michelle get married in seven years."
	"What about Alia?" Sam hissed, trying to make sure no one else 
heard.
	"Ziggy says she Leaped out right after you.  She's fine, but we 
still don't know where she is now."
	"And the Project?"
	Al's eyes brightened.  "That's the best part!  You did so much 
damage to Lothos that they won't be able to do anything for months at 
least.  Probably more!"
	"But... they can recover, can't they?" Sam asked softly, turning 
towards the window, watching the buildings outside zip by.
	"I'm afraid so."  Al looked up from the hand link.  "Sam... I 
was there.  I was there when they..."
	"I don't want to talk about it, okay?"
	"Please, Sam, you have to.  I know they hurt you a lot, but..."
	"You don't know!" Sam said violently.  "You can't know..."  He 
trailed off, turning his eyes solidly away from Al.
	"Sam, don't shut me out," Al pleaded.  Still no response from his 
best friend.  "Sam?"  Then Sam Leaped.

	Al Calavicci found himself once again in that empty blue room.  
He sighed heavily, his shoulders drooping.  "Admiral?" Gooshie asked 
tentatively, his head sticking through the open Imaging Chamber door.  
"Are you all right?"
	"Ask Verbeena to see me as soon as she can."  With plodding 
step, he left the Imaging Chamber, his heart heavy.
	"Admiral?" Gooshie asked again.  "Is something wrong with Dr. 
Beckett?"
	"Not something, Gooshie.  Everything."  Without looking back to 
see Gooshie's concerned expression, he disappeared down the corridor.  
Suddenly, the future and past looked very gray...

END

(If you want to know how I'm continuing this, see Part 0/6...