PREVIOUSLY
IN “LIFETIME”
“FUTURE’S
END”
For
the first time ever, Sam leaps almost thirty years into his future
where he meets a woman named Isabella, and her companion, Adam. She
reveals to Sam the horrible account of what has happened to PQL in
his absence and how it became the catalyst for a cataclysm known as
the Great Disaster. He is further shocked when Isabella reveals that
she is in fact the biological daughter of Sammy Jo Fuller and Daniel
Fulton, and that she has purposely brought him here to bear witness
to the religious cult that his son, Stephen, started to keep his
legacy alive.
As
Isabella and Adam lead Sam into her private workspace, he is also
reunited with Ziggy, who has now assumed a fully tangible
holographic form with emotions. She informs him of Isabella’s plan
to send him back to the Star Bright Project to plant the “seed”
for his return home. A chip containing the perfected Retrieval
program must be integrated into the circuitry of SID (System
Interface Database), which was the prototype for what would
eventually become Ziggy. As the time of “Old” Sam’s imminent
death draws near, Adam shows his true colors and attempts to kill
Isabella with a futuristic quantum laser weapon. In the ensuing
struggle between Sam and Adam, Ziggy loses control and becomes a
force to be reckoned with, electrocuting and killing Adam. She
detects Isabella still alive, “unstuck” in the time stream, and
promises she will do everything she can to find her. Sam then holds
the Retrieval chip firmly in hand, and leaps.
PROLOGUE
Once
again, Sam was surrounded by nothing but quantum blue. Within the
void, he was able to hold onto his thoughts and memories. His brief
encounter with his older self, dying before his eyes, shocked Sam
into a new level of awareness he had been denying since his very
first leap. He knew the truth now. I’m
in control—always have been!
Holding
onto that realization when he leaped again though, would be an
entirely different matter. It required him to retrain his way of
thinking—to unlearn a frame of mind he had grown accustomed to.
Since the quantum void enabled Sam to surpass all physical
limitations, his mind was now open to a myriad of impulses. He could
“feel” the presence of every single time-traveler who had ever
leaped or would leap, both in the past and
in the future. Linear time was non-existent here. The void acted as
a cosmic nexus for all time periods and parallel dimensions. There
was literally an infinite amount of timelines branching off from one
another, and in some cases, falling back on each other.
Just
as quickly as this level of awareness invaded Sam’s mind, it
disappeared again. He knew that it was because he was about to leap
again. Human beings were not meant to retain this level of awareness
in the mortal plane of existence, hence they become like gods
themselves.
Ahead
of him, Sam saw the mirror again. This time, a flood of images was
reflected back to him. He could clearly see the mirror images of all
of the “leapees” from the past ten years. Significant segments
of his past were now guiding him along to his next-to-last
destination on the roller-coaster ride through Time. Sam felt his
body become tangible once again, as the pull of the leap brought him
back to reality…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When
the blue light finally faded, Sam found himself standing in a
well-lit room. The light emanated from a chandelier on the ceiling
above him, and in front of him was a wooden table with chairs around
it.
The
momentary confusion that Sam had gotten used to in his ten years of
leaping faded quickly when he looked down at his left hand and saw
the Plexiglas tube clenched tightly in his palm.
The
Retrieval chip! Sam
remembered. It worked! Now,
all I have to do is plant it into SID. But…
Sam
looked around at his surroundings and realized he was in someone’s
home—a dining room, to be specific. Where
exactly am I? Why didn’t I leap back to the Star Bright Project?
A
small tug on Sam’s pant leg brought him out of his thoughts. He
looked down and saw a small blond-haired girl, maybe six or seven
years old staring up at him. “Uncle Gooshie? Have you seen Mommy
and Daddy?”
“Um…
no, but I’m sure they’re—wait!
W-what did you just call me?”
“Uncle
Gooshie!” the girl responded innocently.
“Gooshie?”
Sam said in shock. “No! It can’t
be!”
Almost
directly in front of him, Sam saw a wooden china cabinet filled with
fancy dinnerware. As he looked into the glass windows, he strained
to see his reflection and was completely thrown for a loop when he
saw the face of his late colleague and friend, Dr. Irving Gushman,
staring back at him.
“I’m
Gooshie!” Sam exclaimed in amazement.
The
little girl started giggling, saying, “You’re being silly, Uncle
Gooshie! Oh boy!”
PART
ONE
New
York City, New York
March
17, 1984, 2:38 PM
“What’s
that thing you’re holding, Uncle Gooshie? Is that a toy for me?”
the little girl asked Sam.
Sam
looked away from the reflection and turned his head back down toward
the girl. A toy? What’s she talking about? he thought, before realizing she
was referring to the Plexiglas tube containing the Retrieval chip.
“Oh, this, no, uh… niece of mine,” he answered. Would
be nice if I knew her name! “This is, uh… something very
important for my job. It’s not a toy!”
“But
it looks sparkly! Can I have it, pwetty pwease?” she begged him
with puppy-dog eyes.
“Moira!”
a male voice called out behind him. Sam turned around and saw a
well-distinguished man of about average height with blond hair and
wearing glasses. “Uncle Gooshie says it’s not a toy. Why don’t
you go back inside and finish watching your cartoons, and let Uncle
Gooshie finish getting his things together? He’s going to be
leaving to go back home in a little while.”
“Moira!”
Sam whispered in realization. Gooshie’s
niece, Moira McCloud… no, Perkins… from Al’s Place—but, that
wouldn’t be right either, she’s a little girl in this time. That
man must be her father! So, who is he in relation to Gooshie?
“But
I’m thirsty! I wanted to ask you or Mommy for something to
drink!” Moira said innocently to her father.
“Mommy
was still feeling a little sick, remember? I’ll get you some juice
if you go back inside and watch TV, okay?” Moira’s father
tousled the top of her hair and smiled.
“Okay,”
she said simply, as she walked back inside and plopped herself on
the living room couch.
The
father turned back to Sam and said, “Don’t mind Moira, Irving.
She gets a little rambunctious at times. I guess it’s the tomboy
in her, huh?”
“Heh
heh, yeah, I guess so,” Sam answered. “It’s okay, she wasn’t
bothering me.” He noticed the man casually glimpsing at the chip
he held in his hand, silently questioning its purpose. “This is,
uh, a special piece of equipment I’ve been working on… for when
I go back to work. I was just… checking to make sure it was intact
and everything.”
“Always
the workaholic, eh, Irving?” the man said, shaking his head but
smiling all the same. “I guess I should be grateful you managed to
sneak some time away from your work to help look after Moira. I know
that Project of yours doesn’t give you much in the way of free
time, but I still appreciate all you’ve done to help us out while
Catherine’s been sick with that nasty flu going around.”
“Anytime,”
Sam replied. Hoping he’d glean some additional information from
his prodding, he further asked, “So, is Catherine feeling any
better?”
“Cathy?
Oh yeah, she’s just resting now. She’ll be fine when we leave to
drop you off at LaGuardia. She insisted on personally making sure
her ‘little brother’ has no problems boarding the plane.
Flight’s at 5:15, right?”
So,
Catherine is Gooshie’s older sister. That must make this guy his
brother-in-law, Sam
thought before responding. “Um, I… think so.”
“Good.
I’d better go get Moira the juice she wanted. Wouldn’t want her
throwing a tantrum,” the brother-in-law said, winking as he passed
Sam to walk into the kitchen area.
With
the little bit of information he obtained, Sam realized two things:
one, that this was the home of Gooshie’s sister and
brother-in-law; and two, that Gooshie must be getting ready to leave
to return to the Star Bright Project after a brief vacation. That,
itself, boggled Sam’s mind. Gooshie hardly ever
took vacations!
Sam
continued to look around the house, trying to spot anything that
might prove useful. On the dining room table, Sam noticed a tin tray
with a few pieces of mail on it. Most
likely bills! Sam thought. They
would have the owner’s mailing address on the front! Sam never
liked having to snoop around a stranger’s home, especially sifting
through mail, but he felt that one tiny peek wouldn’t hurt in this
instance.
The
name on the front read: Robert
Burke; and underneath was the address: 249
E. 75th St., New York, NY 10021. The postmark in the upper-right
hand corner read: 15 MAR 1984,
which told Sam that it was probably either the 16th or 17th of
March. St. Patrick’s Day!
he realized.
Hearing
the noise coming from the television set, Sam walked into the living
room of what he now assumed to be a townhouse on the Upper East Side
of Manhattan. Moira was sitting on the couch, smiling and watching
the cartoon on the screen. A muscular man with blond shoulder-length
hair was holding a sword and wearing a tunic with a red cross on his
chest. He was fighting a strange-looking equally muscular guy with
blue skin and a skull for his face. He was also wearing a dark blue
hood over his head. Other than the different heads and the coloring
of their skin, the frames of their bodies looked almost identical.
“What
cha watchin’, Moira?” Sam asked curiously.
“A
tape! That’s He-Man! He’s the most powerful man in the universe!
That’s the bad guy, Skeletor! He’s a real meanie! He’s trying
to get into Castle Grayskull!”
“Okay…”
Sam responded. Why is the
animation so corny? In just thirty seconds, I’ve seen the same
pose used twice! he thought.
“And
that girl inside the castle is the Sorceress! She’s really pretty!
I wish I could be the Sorceress! Then I could turn into a bird and
fly, fly, fly!”
Sam
then looked into her hands, and noticed that she was holding a
miniature version of the hero, He-Man, holding a plastic sword in
his right hand. Sam knew very little about ’80s cartoons, but from
what he observed, it seemed apparent that this show was being aimed
specifically towards young children, so that their parents could go
out and buy the toys. He shook his head and smirked. Typical
’80s corporate America!
“Here’s
your juice, Moira,” Robert announced from behind Sam, as he walked
over to the couch and handed the cup to her. “Try not to spill it,
okay?”
“Thank
you, Daddy!” she smiled as she took the cup in both hands, sipped
her juice, and continued watching.
“Quite
a handful, huh?” Sam asked Robert, referring to Moira.
“Ha,
you don’t know the half of it, Irving. Most girls her age are
starting to get into Barbie dolls and playing dress-up… she’s
into all the typical boy stuff: cops-and-robbers, things like that.
Cathy and I always have to keep running after her just to make sure
she doesn’t accidentally hurt herself. I swear, sometimes, I think
she’s a boy trapped in a girl’s body!”
Huh!
No wonder why I saw her as Tess McGill when I leaped back to Al’s
Place! What was it Tess said in that leap way back? The man she
married had to be more of a man than she
was? Another small smirk came to Sam’s face.
“Anyway,
I thought you still had to get a few things together,” Robert
interrupted his train of thought. “You’re all packed and ready
to go?”
Sam
looked around, assuming and hoping
Gooshie still didn’t have more to pack, and responded, “Um…
just about. Just looking around to make sure I didn’t forget
anything.”
“Well,
you were only here for a couple of days, and you didn’t bring
much, except some change of clothes. So, I’m sure you’re good to
go. I just wish you could have gotten more out of your brief stay
with us. We could have all went down to Fifth Avenue to watch the
parade.”
“Ah…
well, maybe next time,” Sam smiled, as he placed the Retrieval
chip into a secure compartment of the suitcase he saw on the floor. Wouldn’t
want anything to happen to it before I get back to the Project!
“Yeah,
definitely wouldn’t want to forget that, it looks pretty
important,” said Robert. “Well, I’m just going to finish up
some last minute stuff around the house before we leave. I figure it
shouldn’t take much more than an hour or so to get out of the city
and to the airport. If you don’t mind, I’m going to go check up
on Cathy, okay?”
“No
problem,” Sam reassured. That’ll
give me a little more time to get my bearings and make sure
everything is in order. I’m just still not sure why I leaped here
and not at the actual Project. Is there something else I’m
supposed to do? Moira doesn’t need my help for another fifteen
years or so, and I already helped her a while back, didn’t I?
Sam
tried to remember the last time he saw the adult Moira. Although,
physically, her appearance matched that of another woman he had
helped, Tess McGill, it was simply a “mirror expression.” It all
had to do with the fact that he met her outside of the mysterious
“Al’s Place,” a tavern that did, and yet, didn’t exist. It
was all coming back to Sam now, as if the events had happened
yesterday…
The
first time he leaped there, about five years ago, he had leaped as
himself—not into—on
the date of his birth, August 8, 1953—right down to the precise
second he left his mother’s womb at 12:15 PM. The bar was located
in Cokeburg, Pennsylvania. After talking with Al the Bartender, Sam
realized that he needed to put right a wrong in Al Calavicci’s
life—his first wife, Beth, believed he was dead, having been an
MIA in Vietnam for several years. He leaped back to the Calaviccis’
home in San Diego in 1969 and told Beth that, “Al’s
alive! And he’s coming home!”
The
second time Sam leaped as himself to Al’s Place was about a year,
maybe a year and a half ago, only this time it was Thanksgiving
2003, and he was in South Bend, New Mexico. The Bartender hadn’t
aged a day since 1953, coincidentally. The Bartender continued
trying to convince Sam that the person in control of his leaps was
Sam himself. While there, he met the adult Moira. At that particular
point in time, her full name was Moira McCloud, having remarried a
man named Brad after the death of her first husband, John Perkins.
With the help of a detective named Perry Mason and an “angel”
named Angelita, Sam was able to rescue her daughter, Sara. Detective
Mason, however, ultimately turned out to be Gooshie.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Gooshie…
is it really you?” Sam turned to the man next to him. He still
looked like Nick Allen, but when Sam looked back to the reflection
in the mirror, it was Gooshie—his friend—the head programmer,
who had worked for years to try and bring him back home.
“Yes,
Dr. Beckett! I can not believe that it is really you!” Gooshie
smiled as Sam hugged him. “You mean you haven’t been seeing me
as me all this time?”
“No…
no, to me you look like Nick Allen, a guy I leaped into years
ago.” Sam froze for a moment. “And you don’t see me as me?”
“Except
for your mirror image, you look like Lieutenant Tyler. Remember?
From back in the early days on the Star Bright Project?”
Sam
searched for a face, but his Swiss-cheesed memory still had a few
holes in it. “I don’t remember.”
“Almost
everyone here looks like someone I have known,” said Gooshie.
“Al says that’s just—”
“The
way it is,” Sam completed the sentence. “A mirror
expression…”
The
Bartender smiled at the two friends reunited. “It’s funny how
life can surprise you, isn’t it?”
“Life?”
said Sam to himself. Then he realized, “But you… Gooshie, you
died. Al told me you died trying to fix Ziggy and save the project.
That was… three years ago, I think!”
“Sadly,
yes I did, Dr. Beckett. March 1st, 2000, to be exact. I was working
in the Main Conduit Relay Room and, well…”
Sam
grabbed Gooshie by the shoulders and asked excitedly, “Then how
are you here—You’re a leaper, aren’t you?!”
Gooshie
shrugged. “I was given a choice. I could either go straight to…
you know,” he pointed to the ceiling, “or I could stay and help
someone here. I was given the opportunity to leap forward in time to
fix a mistake of my choosing and cannot leave until the mission is
accomplished. If I fail, time rewinds to the date of my death and I
have the chance to fix it again.”
“And
if you can’t fix the mistake?” Sam asked, looking at his friend
in amazement.
“Then
I can’t go… home.” Gooshie shifted his glance to the
Bartender.
“You
made the choice, Goosh,” smiled the Bartender. “But it looks
like you have extra help this time, don’t you think?”
Gooshie
nodded and smiled as Sam asked, “You can only leap forward? Not
back in time?”
“That’s
correct, Dr. Beckett. We aren’t allowed to alter our own
lifetimes. We can only help people outside of our own lifetimes. I
chose to help my niece, Moira, get her daughter back.”
“Your
niece? You are Moira’s uncle that left her his estate!” Sam
grinned widely as he realized the connection. “The computer chip
you created for Ziggy… the one that made you rich… oh my God,
this is incredible!”
(*From
Episode
932, “Mirror Expression III”)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
And
just as Sam had the opportunity to correct a mistake in his friend
Al’s life the first time, he had the chance to correct a mistake
in Gooshie’s life that time as well. He could remember leaping
back to the year 2000, saving John Perkins’ life, and then telling
Gooshie, “You gotta listen
to me. In two weeks, in the Main Conduit Relay Room, you get—”
But
alas, Sam wasn’t able to finish his warning in time. Although
Moira’s first husband, John, was saved, Gooshie still died two
weeks later—at least, in that particular timeline. He also seemed
to remember the date of Gooshie’s death conflicting in other
leaps, but that was a mystery to be solved for another time.
Perhaps
that’s why I leaped here now… not just to plant the chip, but to
somehow also save Gooshie? It’s been so long since he died, could
I still save him without changing anything else that’s happened
since then? Sam
thought. But if that were the
case, then wouldn’t I have leaped into someone else to warn
Gooshie in person? Even if he was told in the Waiting Room, I’m
here and he’s there; I don’t see what I’d be able to do
now to prevent his death
fifteen years or so before the fact. The Swiss-cheese effect would
cause Gooshie to forget what anyone told him anyway. No, it’s
gotta be something else! But what?
Until
he could figure out what that “something else” was, Sam figured
his safest option would be to go with the flow of the leap and see
what would develop. As long as he kept his main objective in mind,
to make it safely back to Star Bright and plant the “seed” for
his long awaited return home, the rest of the leap would most likely
fall into place.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
LaGuardia
Airport
Flushing,
New York
March
17, 1984, 4:32 PM
As
Robert drove the car across the 59th Street Bridge into Queens, Sam
looked out the back window to take in the awe-inspiring sight of the
Manhattan skyline. Even though he had been to New York City a few
times in his life, both before and during his leaping, he still
couldn’t help but be amazed. With the sun just starting to set
beyond the horizon, the Empire State Building, the Statue of
Liberty, and so many other prominent sites were shimmering in their
architectural beauty. He could definitely understand why most native
New Yorkers claimed it was the greatest city in the world.
Upon
arriving at LaGuardia, Sam found the information on his ticket
pretty self-explanatory and was able to find the terminal gate he
needed to board with relative ease and some time left to spare.
Saying his goodbyes to Gooshie’s immediate family, Catherine gave
Sam a warm embrace and whispered in his ear, “Don’t be a
stranger, you hear? Even if you’ve got to write us letters, just
to let us know how you’re doing, okay?”
“Okay,
I promise,” Sam reassured. He was genuinely certain Gooshie would
follow through on that request, from what he remembered about
Gooshie’s character. Looking at Catherine, it amazed Sam how much
she looked like his old friend, except for her feminine features and
medium-length brown hair.
As
she kissed his cheek, she wrinkled her nose, looked at Sam
curiously, and inquired, “Have you been taking something new for
your sinusitis?”
“Huh?”
Sam asked, slightly confused.
“No
offense, little brother, but your breath usually reeks, even with
the medication you take. This is the first time in as long as I can
remember where I’m not reeling backward from your bad breath.
Those must be some curiously strong mints you’re taking, or
something.”
Saying
the first thing that popped up in his head, Sam grinned and
responded, “Someone gave me some Altoids! They work pretty
well!”
“Ha
ha, okay, if you say so, Irving,” Robert responded, as he stepped
forward and shook his hand. “I know we discussed this before, but
thanks again for giving us a hand.”
“You’re
welcome, Robert.”
“Moira,
honey, you want to say goodbye to your godfather?” Robert asked
Moira.
Sam
bent down, picked up little Moira Burke in his arms, and gave her a
huge hug, as if this would be the last time he would ever see her.
And for all Sam knew, maybe it was. “Take care, kiddo. Stay out of
trouble, and don’t give your mommy and daddy a hard time, okay?”
“Okay,
Uncle Gooshie. I love you!”
“I
love you too, Munchkin!” Sam said, without quite realizing he had
said it. My mind must be merging with Gooshie’s. He calls her Munchkin!
Putting
Moira down and picking up the small amount of luggage he had, Sam
walked toward the gate, showed his ticket to the flight attendant,
and boarded the plane.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Outside
Albuquerque International Sunport
Albuquerque,
New Mexico
March
17, 1984, 11:12 PM
Overall,
Sam’s flight had been rather uneventful. After a brief layover in
Cincinnati, he caught the connecting flight back to Albuquerque. It
took him a good half hour to claim his luggage, and he found out
that Gooshie had left his car at the airport so that he could
immediately start his long drive back to the White Sands Test
Center. Good thing my memory
seems to be working with me on this leap, Sam thought. Or maybe it’s a little residual from Gooshie? Whatever it is, I’m
sure grateful, since it seems like my neural link with Ziggy is
still inactive for now.
As
he began making his way out of the terminal, he walked through a set
of automatic doors in an attempt to try and locate the lot where
Gooshie’s car was being held, but soon found himself getting
slightly lost. Upon turning a corner in an isolated area outside,
Sam noticed a small group of about three young men hassling someone
in an alleyway. He couldn’t see the person’s face from the angle
he was standing at, but it appeared to be a woman that the hoodlums
were attempting to mug—and probably planned on doing more than
that.
If
it was one thing that angered Sam Beckett more than anything, it was
men taking advantage of a poor, defenseless woman. Sam couldn’t
allow that injustice to happen, if he could help it.
Sam
dropped his luggage, started moving toward the group, and shouted,
“Hey! Why don’t you guys pick on someone your own size?”
Taken
by surprise momentarily, one of the men ran off, leaving Sam to
defend himself in a one-on-two confrontation. Having excelled in
several forms of martial arts training, Sam was more than a match
for the street punks, and successfully scared the remaining two men
off. But not before threatening to press charges if they came
anywhere near him or the woman again.
Feeling
a sense of pride in having fended off a possible crime, Sam turned
back toward the frightened woman, who seemed to think he was one of
them. “Please, stay away from me! Leave me alone!” she pleaded.
“Those
guys are gone, Miss. I promise, I’m not going to harm you! Please,
let me help you,” Sam insisted. Despite the woman’s nervous
protest, Sam gently helped her to stand up. As he looked the woman
over to make sure there was no serious injury upon her person, their
eyes locked, and Sam almost fell back in shock when he discovered
her identity.
“Alia?!”
PART
TWO
Project
Quantum Leap
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Control
Room, Present Day
“Personal
log entry for Samantha Josephine Fuller, Friday, November 18, 2005.
It’s been three months since my father, Dr. Samuel Beckett,
disappeared without a trace. In that time, Admiral Calavicci has
made numerous attempts to lock onto Dad’s brainwaves using
Ziggy’s upgraded epochtonusalgraphic probe and
goniospectrophotometer in the Imaging Chamber, but to no avail.
Dad’s sudden disappearance has caused the Senate Committee to have
second thoughts on providing additional funding, and Al and Beth
have met up with General Hawkins in Washington, D.C. to make a plea
before the Committee. With the two of them not due back until the
22nd, Dominic Lofton and myself have been left in charge to deal
with any immediate problems that might arise with Ziggy or my
father. Although at this point, it seems bleak that Ziggy will
reestablish a connection with him anytime soon.
“So,
I now find myself at a loss of what exactly to do. My retrieval
theories have hit a slight snag, and I can’t seem to focus on the
problem. Ever since my father used Dr. Garner’s Time Displacer
Unit in 1959 to leap back here briefly, the original program became
corrupted. I was lucky enough to be able to use most of the
equations as a building block for a new program; so fortunately, I
didn’t have to start completely from scratch again. But, I have
this terrible feeling that time is running out. I can’t put my
finger on it, but I have this weird suspicion that if we don’t
find and retrieve him soon, we never will. Even with my high IQ of
192 and my eidetic memory, they feel so limited in comparison to the
huge complexity of finding my father drifting in the time stream.
“And
then there’s Daniel—the love of my life, the man who asked me
for my hand in marriage. If I hadn’t have spent so much of my time
over the past two years trying to perfect the Retrieval Program, we
probably would have been married already. It would be a dream come
true to have my ‘real’ father there to walk me down the aisle,
to watch me recite my vows to the man I want to spend the rest of my
life with. Daniel tells me he understands and that he’s willing to
wait, but I know that deep down inside, he’s hurting. He wants to
start a family with me, and I feel so afraid that his patience will
soon wear off. In his eyes, I need to move on with my life. I can
still remember each and every word he told me the other night as we
lay together in bed. ‘Life’s too short, Sammy. You never know
what could happen. The world could end tomorrow, and we would never
have the chance to know what our life could have been like. I’m
sure your father would tell you the same thing if he was still with
us.’
“I
know. It’s silly to worry that some ‘great disaster’ or
something would suddenly destroy our chance at happiness. But in a
way, he’s right. I don’t know if I could ever live with myself
if something terrible happened before we had the chance to unite our
souls in the eyes of God. But on the other hand, I don’t think
Daniel truly comprehends the nature of my father’s existence; that
he’s still alive, trapped in time somewhere. I need to find him. He deserves to come home after all the good he’s done.
If only I could get a signal—some sign that my father is still out
there, waiting to make contact. I need something to restore my
dwindling hope.”
Dr.
Sammy Jo Fuller walked the corridors of Project Quantum Leap,
racking her brain in an attempt to come up with something—anything—that
would allow her to reestablish contact with Sam in the time stream.
As she entered the Control Room, her thoughts went back to her fiancé,
Commander Daniel Fulton, and what he told her the other night about
moving on with her life. The love they had shared that night was a
particularly special experience for both of them, and she could feel
the bond between them growing stronger with each passing day. For
the first time in as long as she could remember, Sammy Jo found
herself at an important crossroads in her life. The time would soon
come when she’d be forced to choose between the two most important
men in her life: her father, Sam, or her husband-to-be, Daniel.
It
wasn’t like she would have to resign her position at the Project,
but married life would put a significant damper on the amount of
time she could invest in perfecting the Retrieval program. Knowing
that no one else on staff even came close to comprehending her
equations and continuing her work effectively didn’t help matters
any. Other than Stephen, there was no one else at the Project
qualified enough to carry on her work. And besides the fact that
Stephen was a genius, he was still just a boy.
Out
of the corner of her eye, Sammy Jo noticed the new head programmer
observing her as she drifted off in thought and quickly shook it
off. “Any news on Dr. Beckett, Dom?” Sammy Jo asked him.
“Sorry,
Dr. Fuller,” Dom responded. “Ziggy’s still coming up blank. If
Dr. Beckett’s still out there, he’s either still moving through
time or his neural link with Ziggy’s been severed somehow. I wish
there was more I could tell you, Dr. Fuller.”
Frowning,
but not entirely surprised, she said, “It’s okay, Dom, I
didn’t really expect anything new. And by the way, I’ve told you
a few times already… call me Sammy. You don’t need to be so
formal here. We always tried telling that to Gooshie and Sinjin too,
but they insisted on using formalities most of the times.”
Laughing,
Dom explained, “Sorry, Dr. Ful—uh, Sammy. I’m just still so
used to the formalities from my original line of work. To be honest,
I’m still trying to get used to not hearing anyone, other than
Ziggy, call me Professor
Lofton, even though it’s been a good four years since I officially
had that title. I’ll try to keep what you told me in mind… Sammy!” He smiled as he called her by her first name.
“That’s
all I can ask, Lofty!”
she joked back with a smile, but it faded quickly as her thoughts
returned to Daniel and the choices she would have to make.
“Hey,
you look a little worn out and tired. Everything okay?” Dom asked
her, concerned.
“Yes…
no… well, sort of… I’m not sure. It’s… personal
stuff…”
“Ah,
I understand. I won’t pry; I was just concerned, that’s all.”
“Oh,
it has nothing to do with you,
Dom. It’s just—well, I confided in St. John about a lot of
things, including Daniel, my fiancé. Sinjin knew we would end up
together before we even
did!”
“Hah!
Yeah, it was like that with Aurora and me.
Everyone else knew we were perfect for each other before we
both realized it. Took me a good few months before I got up the
nerve to ask her out.”
“It’s
just… sometimes, I worry that I’m letting my work get in the way
of making the ultimate commitment to Daniel, you know what I
mean?”
“Yeah,
I hear ya,” Dom replied. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it
though, Sammy. I’ve only been here for a few months, but I can
tell you’re a kind and generous person. If his love for you is as
strong as you make it out to be, then he has to know how important
your work is too. He’ll wait for you and go out of his way to make
sure you’re happy. Things will work out, you’ll see!”
Smiling
at Dom, Sammy Jo responded, “Thanks, Dominic! I really appreciate
your reassurance!”
“Anytime,
Sammy!” he smiled back.
Suddenly,
a mild-sounding klaxon went off in the Control Room as Ziggy’s
disembodied voice announced from all directions, “I believe I have
reestablished a partial lock on Dr. Beckett’s brainwaves.”
“What?
Are you serious, Ziggy?” Sammy Jo exclaimed excitedly.
“You
should know by now, Dr. Fuller… I never make false assumptions
based on what I know. I have detected a slight increase in neural
activity, which is usually associated with Dr. Beckett leaping. It
is, however, a weak signal at best.”
“Is
there anyone in the Waiting Room yet, Ziggy?” Dom asked.
“Negative,
Professor Lofton. I am having an unusually hard time maintaining my
neural link with Dr. Beckett’s brainwaves. It may take anywhere
from twenty-four to forty-eight hours to synchronize our timeframe
with his.”
That
news gave Sammy Jo slight cause for concern. “Well, keep me
informed, Ziggy,” she then ordered with a renewed determination.
“It seems like I’m going to be running the show until Al gets
back. Lofty, let me know the instant the Visitor shows up in the
Waiting Room, okay?”
“You
got it, Dr. Fuller,” Dom replied enthusiastically before he
corrected himself. “I mean, Sammy!” he added with a smile.
Sammy
Jo walked out of the Control Room with a new spark of hope igniting
within her heart.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Outside
Albuquerque International Sunport
Albuquerque,
New Mexico
March
17, 1984, 11:22 PM
“My
God, Alia!” Sam exclaimed. “It’s really you! I can’t believe
this!”
“How…
how do you know who I am?” Alia asked in confusion. “Who are
you?”
“Alia,
it’s me, Sam…” he started to answer back, but suddenly realized that
to her, he must have still looked like Gooshie. Unless… would she
be able to see through Gooshie’s aura if she looked closely
enough?
“Sam…”
Alia searched her memory. “You’re going to need to give me more
than just a first name. I’ve met a number of men named Sam in my
lifetime and you don’t look familiar to me at all.”
“Alia,
hold onto my shoulders and look closer,” he responded, convinced
that his theory would be proven. “Look deep into my eyes… it’s
me, Sam Beckett.”
As
she strained her tired-looking eyes to look deep into his gaze, the
vision of the short, goofy-looking man with reddish-brown hair
started to become transparent. Beyond the aura, she could indeed see
Sam’s green eyes and the white streak in his hair, and in an
instant, it all came back to her.
“Sam!” she shouted in astonishment. “It’s you! Wow, how long
has it been since you last saw me?”
Sam
searched his Swiss-cheese memory to try and recall their prior
meeting, but came up blank on a specific timeframe. “I’m… not
sure. From my perspective, it’s probably been a few years. I’m
guessing it must have been a lot longer for you, going by how much
older you look. I mean… uh… not that I was implying you were
old—I mean… oh, darn it…” Sam decided to quit while he was
behind.
Alia
simply gave him a weak smile and reassured him, “It’s all right,
Sam. I know what you meant. It has
been a lot longer for me. I’m almost forty now. The last time I
saw you, was at the ranch on Kingswood Farms in Virginia back in
’77. Do you remember any of that leap?”
Like
a flash of lightning, the image of a young thirty-something
blond-haired woman dismounting a horse filled Sam’s mind:
“Oh!
Good afternoon, Mr. Kidd. You startled me!”
Sam
froze, unhearing and in total shock as his eyes fell on her face.
“It's impossible,” he murmured in a barely audible tone as
pictures of past events flashed through his mind—a prison; a
shotgun; a dark-haired man with sad eyes; a college library; a
loud-mouthed punk in a letterman's jacket… and a cape? He dared
not move lest he break the chain of memories.
“Mr.
Kidd?” The woman said, her forehead wrinkling with worry when he
didn't respond. She took a step toward him, the horse shadowing her.
“Are you OK?”
She's
calling me Mr. Kidd, Sam's
mind finally registered. She doesn't have any idea of who I am!
Sam replied shakily, “What? Oh! I'm fine.”
“Are
you sure?” She didn't look convinced, but her step slowed.
“Yeah.
I'm sure.” The urge to run away overcame him and suddenly Sam's
feet began to move. “I… uh… forgot something.” He bolted
back into the house, carefully shutting the door and leaning on it,
his head on his arms. His heart was pounding furiously. “Oh my
God. That was Alia!” he breathed out loud.
(*From
Episode
724, “Fallen Hero, Part I”)
“I
remember!” exclaimed Sam. “You were… yourself. You couldn’t
see me when we touched.”
“Well,
I was back in my own aura,” Alia reminded Sam. “As I still am
now. The only reason I can vaguely see you now must be because I
still have some leftover leap energies inside of me that allow me to
see beyond your aura. I haven’t actually been a leaper in nearly
ten years.”
“I…
set you free!” Sam recalled. “But… how come you didn’t leap
home?”
“Lothos’
project was my home, Sam.
I couldn’t have very well been free if I remained there, now could
I?”
“No,
I guess you’re right,” Sam realized, a bit embarrassed he had
forgotten. “Well, then, how did you end up in 1977 as yourself?”
“I’m
not really sure, Sam. All I knew was that I just wanted the
nightmare to end. I can remember Zoë aiming the shotgun at me. I
pushed you out of the way, the shot was fired… and then, I felt a
completely different type of quantum energy envelop me. It was much
more serene than I had ever experienced before. I was floating…
drifting in a heavenly blue void. And… I heard a mysterious
voice…”
“A
voice?” Sam asked. Could it have been the same Voice he vaguely
remembered hearing often in-between his leaps?
“Yeah,
it was a… comforting voice, nothing like the cold fear that
Lothos’ voice exuded. It told me not to be frightened. ‘Think of
something peaceful,’ it told me. ‘Let my voice guide you to a
new time… a new place where you can start fresh.’ When I felt
the leap pull me back into the real world, I was standing on a dirt
road in the middle of nowhere. I was wearing a denim jacket and just
the clothes on my back and couldn’t really remember much of
anything at first.
“So,
I did the only thing I could think of doing—hitchhiked a ride with
the first pickup truck I saw pass by and hopped in. The guy driving
the truck was Jim Kidd, the man you leaped into when we met later
on. He was a gentle and caring man; he asked me where I was from and
where I was going, and I told him I couldn’t really remember. As I
looked in the side-view mirror, I saw my own reflection for the
first time in I don’t know how long. In that moment, my identity
came back to me and I told him my full name, Alia Novack, and that I
had no real ‘home’ to call my own. We began talking about a lot
of things, and he offered to give me a place to stay at his ranch.
He proposed I could work for him to pay off room and board, and
although I was nervous to say yes at first, I accepted his offer
graciously. He treated me like the daughter he always wished he
could have had before his wife died, and I really looked up to him.
I was living and working happily there for a little over eight
months when you came back to save me from Thames.”
“Thames…”
Sam recalled. “The tall black guy who leaped back to try and kill
us!”
“He
was about as sadistic as they come, next to Zoë. I managed to grab
a shotgun and shoot him in the back, just before he was about to
kill you. I’m not sure why, but I suddenly started shaking after
that. It’s not like I hadn’t killed anyone before, but it was
different with Thames somehow. And then, you leaped. I was so sure
that Lothos was going to send Zoë back to finish me off, but… he
didn’t.”
“I
destroyed Lothos, Alia,” Sam reassured her. “I tried saving Zoë,
but she chose to kill herself rather than be saved.”
“Zoë’s
dead?” Alia asked in shock. For about ten seconds, she seemed to
stare off into space before responding, “I can’t say I’m sad
to hear that, but… there’s a part of me that doesn’t believe
she’s really gone forever.”
“I
saw her die with my own eyes, Alia,” Sam reassured, remembering
how upset he felt over not being able to save her soul. “There
was… nothing I could do.”
“So…
Lothos’ reign has finally come to an end,” Alia said in
realization. “I never thought the day would come when I’d be
truly free from his influence.”
Deciding
it would be best to try to change the subject and with curiosity
peaking his interest as well, Sam asked, “So, what are you doing
in New Mexico? You seemed like you had found peace at the ranch.”
“A
few months after you left, Mr. Kidd’s truck was run off the road
in a terrible accident. Because he had no living relatives, he never
designated a beneficiary to his estate in his will. So, once it was
sold, I had no place to stay, and I had to move on.”
“I…
I had no idea,” said Sam earnestly.
“I
don’t really think there’s anything you could have done, Sam.
Anyway, I began traveling, not really knowing where I was headed or
what I should do with the rest of my life. At one point, I met a
really nice guy named Dane. He was a cop and we both took a liking
to each other. We dated for a while and started to get pretty
intimate. Then, after about five months, he was gunned down in the
line of duty.”
“Oh,
God… I’m so sorry,” Sam consoled her.
“So
am I,” Alia replied. “But, there was more. I… had a child with
him—a boy. He was born about seven months after Dane died.”
“My
God, did—did Dane know you were…”
“Yes,
he did. I… think he was going to ask me to marry him, but… he
never got the chance.”
“I…
I don’t know what to say, Alia. What ended up happening to your
son?” asked Sam, knowing he probably wouldn’t like hearing the
answer.
“I
wasn’t in a position to take care of myself financially, let alone
an infant. So… I gave him up for adoption. It pained me to do it,
but I felt I had no choice,” she said sadly.
Sam
just dropped his head, partly in sorrow, partly in shame. He had no
way of knowing what had happened to Alia since he had last seen her.
He inadvertently sent Alia from living a life of servitude by a
malicious half human-half computer, to a life filled with sorrow and
despair. He had to wonder if she had been any better off in the long
run.
A
sudden thought came to Sam’s mind. “How old is he now?”
“I’d
say about four years old. I know what you’re thinking, Sam, but
it’s too late. He has a family that takes care of him. He
wouldn’t even remember me now. And besides… I don’t even know
his name to find him.”
Sam
just remained silent as Alia continued to explain her situation.
“As
for why I’m here in New Mexico now, well… to be honest, I really
don’t know. It’s as if something inside me… compelled me to
come here. I felt drawn to this area for some reason. I’m tired of
drifting from place to place, Sam. I just want a place to stay, to
call my own.”
“Don’t
you have any family? Or an acquaintance that could take you in to
help you find your feet?”
Upon
mentioning the word “family,” Alia seemed to shudder
momentarily, almost as if that simple word caused her even more pain
than her recent experiences. The moment wasn’t lost on Sam.
“You…
left home when you were younger. I remember now! You said Nathaniel
Lothoman found you on the streets of London, but you never explained
how you wound up there.” At first, Sam wasn’t sure he should
press the issue further. But one look into her glossy eyes told him
that she wanted—needed—to
share her story with someone after all this time. He allowed her to
speak at her own pace.
Alia
swallowed hard as the tears began to form, and she dug deep into her
soul to dredge up the painful childhood she had long ago repressed
from her memory.
“My
father was one of those ‘tough-as-nails’ Marine men, always
moving their family around from base to base. Major Walter Novack
was the kind of man that always made sure everyone knew he was the
‘lord of his castle,’ and he expected his ‘loyal subjects’
to follow his orders right down to the letter. I don’t think I
ever remember seeing my father with a smile on his face, or giving
me any form of praise whatsoever.”
Even
in her head now, she could hear her father scream, “ALIA!”
as her thoughts returned back to her childhood.
“You
want to explain to me this report card of yours?” Walter yelled.
“Two Bs and a C?! What the hell am I
paying good money to give you a good education at a private school
if you can’t even get good grades?”
“Walter,
don’t yell at your daughter,” his wife yelled back. “You’re
treating her like she’s failing!”
“She
keeps this up, she WILL end up failing! And I don’t remember
ASKING for your opinion, Jenna! You’d best keep your big mouth
shut if you know what’s good for you! I was asking Alia
the question! She’s an intelligent girl, she can answer for
herself! So, I’ll ask you AGAIN, little lady, would you care to
explain these marks? Huh?”
The
ten-year-old Alia looked up at her father with fear in her eyes and
weakly responded, “I… I’ve been trying my best, father.”
“Well,
obviously, you’re not trying hard ENOUGH! How do you ever expect
to get by in this world if you perform at sub-standard levels?”
“Walter,
a couple of Bs is hardly reason to reprimand your daughter!” Jenna
tried to reason with him.
“I
thought I told you to shut your mouth! I
make the decisions around here, not you!
Alia, you get back to your room and wait until I decide on your
punishment!”
The
young Alia ran off crying, not knowing how to please her father.
He
always seemed to be mad at us for something—myself, for my
inability to live up to the high standards he set for me; my mother,
for her lack of discipline to “keep me in line”—but I think he
was mostly angry at the world and the conditions that kept him from
being promoted to General. An incident during his tour of duty left
him with a crippled right leg, which prevented him from doing
anything other than a “desk job.” He was ultimately given an
honorable discharge. It wasn’t too long after that before he began
turning to the bottle. At that point in time, we had been relocated
to London, in the U.K. Although my father was able to find work, my
mother still had to take a part-time job while I was in school to
help provide for us. Despite that, my father still expected her to
do what was “expected” of her as a wife and mother… no
questions asked.
“When’s
dinner gonna be ready, babe?” a drunk Walter asked Jenna.
“Dinner’s
running a little late, Walter, I’m sorry,” she responded.
“Jeez,
Jenna, I’m starvin’ here! And look at this filthy pigsty!
Clothes hangin’ on the chairs, dust covering shelves… what the
hell are you doing in the afternoon when you’re home with Alia?”
“There’re
a lot of things I need to do during the day, Walter! You know, I
wouldn’t have to constantly run around trying to tend to the house
if you chipped in a little bit when I was busy!” she said as
respectfully as she could.
“Excuse
me?” Walter asked angrily. “I do plenty,
working and providing for my ungrateful
family! I know MY place; you would do well to be reminded of
YOURS!”
“That’s
either the old-fashioned mentality or the booze talking,” Jenna
muttered under her breath. The remark was just loud enough, however,
for Walter to hear.
“What
did you just say?” Walter yelled through his gritted teeth.
“N-nothing!
It’s not important,” Jenna replied nervously.
“Like
HELL it was nothing! What the hell gives you the right to question
the way I run my household, you stupid bitch?”
As he asked her the question, he slapped her across the face,
turning her cheek a bright red.
The
young Alia, now thirteen years old, stood in the hallway outside her
room, listening to the argument unfold. When she saw her father slap
her mother across the face, she couldn’t remain silent. The man
might have been her father, but she knew it was wrong to hit
someone.
“Stop
it, Dad! Don’t hurt Mom! She does more than enough to take care of
us without you barking at her!” she yelled as she grabbed a hold
of Walter’s arm to prevent him from slapping Jenna a second time.
“WHAT
DID YOU SAY, you little BRAT?!” He turned around with a furious
glare in his eyes and slapped Alia with his other hand. “Don’t
you DARE show disrespect to me ever again, you hear me? EVER! I
think it’s time you learned the lesson my father taught me
whenever I mouthed off to him!”
Walter
quickly unloosened the belt around his waist and wrapped it tightly
around his fist as he moved closer to Alia. Never feeling more
frightened in her life, she crawled backward, begging her father not
to punish her. “Please, Dad, I’m sorry! Please! I promise to
give you the respect you deserve!” she pleaded through her tears.
“You
bet your ASS you will when I’m done teaching you respect!” he
shot back as he pelted her once, then again just as quickly.
Jenna
ran back into the room to try to hold her husband back. He had
reprimanded Alia before, even spanked her many times when she was
younger, but never went to this extreme. “Damn it, Walter, stop
this! She doesn’t deserve your rage!”
“DON’T
tell ME how to raise my daughter, BITCH!” With those words, he
punched Jenna with his free hand, knocking her to the ground in a
withering heap. Turning his rage back to Alia, he continued his
assault, striking her with his belt as many times as it took before
he felt confident enough that his “discipline” was engrained in
her brain forever.
Seeing
his daughter and wife lying on the ground, helpless and crying
pathetically, Walter decided that the best course of action was to
go out for the night and let them think hard about what they did and
why he had to “punish” them. He muttered something under his
breath and then went to the closet to get his coat and put it on as
he walked toward the front door. Speaking loudly enough for his
“subjects” to hear him, he exclaimed, “I’m goin’ out for
the rest of the night! I expect the both of you to start cleanin’
up your act and show me nothin’ but respect from this day
forward!”
As
the door slammed shut, the youthful Alia slowly and painfully
crawled over to her mother, still lying hunched over on the floor
with bloodshot eyes filled with pain and fear. She tried her best to
hug her mother, to comfort her, but Jenna seemed to drift off into
her own world, continuously whispering, “It’s all my fault!
It’s all my fault!”
Something
in me snapped after that. My father had always instilled fear in me,
but when he physically assaulted my mother and I for the first time,
I felt genuinely afraid that he would kill us. I had heard all the
stories about husbands and fathers who fell into the cycle of
abusing their families. I had never been able to understand why
those men’s wives could be so stupid and weak as to actually
convince themselves that they were to blame for their husbands’
behavior, and yet, here she was, my own mother beginning to believe
it herself. I knew then that I couldn’t allow the cycle of abuse
to destroy us. I had to take action.
Many
hours later, Walter stumbled through the front door into a dark
living room. Before he had the chance to turn on the lights, he
heard the sound of his gun being cocked and looked up to see Alia
aiming it straight at his chest.
“Alia?
What the HELL are you doing with that gun?! Put that damn thing away
or you’ll end up hurting someone!” he screamed at her.
“Yeah!
Maybe YOU!” Alia shot back at him. “I don’t want to hurt you,
Dad, but if you don’t stop your drinking and treating Mom and I
like crap, I will, I swear
it!”
“Alia?”
the two individuals could hear Jenna ask, as she walked into the
living room wearing a robe and stopped dead in her tracks.
“Walter? Alia? What’s going on?”
“It
has to stop, mother,” Alia said nervously as the gun started
shaking in her hands. “He can’t be allowed to hurt us! He has to
learn to control his temper and stop his drinking!”
“Alia!
PUT–THE–GUN–DOWN!” Walter said cautiously but sternly.
“You have the AUDACITY to point a gun—MY gun, that I keep in the
house to protect MY family—at ME? You’re some piece of work,
Jenna! Encouraging my own daughter to defy me!”
“What?!”
Jenna screamed. “I never
did anything of the sort, Walter!”
Walter
took a step toward Jenna, preparing to show her the back of his fist
again, as Alia shifted on her feet, preparing herself to pull the
trigger. Smirking at her with a mocking expression, Walter simply
said, “You wouldn’t DARE pull that trigger, Alia! I mean, really!
Look at you… your hands are shaking! You’re a cowering,
disrespectful girl who needs to be kept in line! As soon as I
reprimand your mother, you’re next, little lady!”
He
continued moving toward Jenna, not taking his daughter’s threat
seriously as he turned his back to her. “STOP!” Alia pleaded.
“Please, father, don’t make me—”
BANG!
BANG!
Two
shots in the dark were fired, and Walter stopped moving as he felt
the bullets hit his back. “Alia? She… actually… shot me?”
His eyes went wide with realization as he fell to the floor.
“Oh
God, Walter!” Jenna raced over to his fallen body, and as she
touched his back, her hands were covered in blood. “My God, Alia,
what did you do? Call an ambulance! Hurry! ALIA! Are you listening
to me?”
The
young Alia just stood there in shock over what she had done. She
lowered the arm that held the still-smoking gun and fell to her
knees, as she realized that her world had changed forever.
“The
paramedics eventually came and took my father to the hospital. It
was touch and go for a while, but he survived. He ended up being
paralyzed from the waist down though. And the cycle of abuse stopped
too. It took two shots in the back from a terrified daughter to make
him realize what he had become. I, on the other hand, lost my
innocence that night and couldn’t bear to face my family anymore.
So… I left. I haven’t seen them since. It wasn’t long after
that when Nathaniel Lothoman discovered me and used his charm to
‘seduce’ me into joining him on his grand experiment.”
Sam
shook his head in disbelief over her account. “Oh, Alia, I am so
sorry!” He thought back to his own father, John Beckett, and the
kind and loving family man that he was to his wife and children.
“I… can’t fathom how any
man could do that to their own wife and daughter!”
“Not
everyone can have the kind of peachy-keen
family that you grew up
with, Sam!” Alia said snidely. “Most of us don’t have the
luxury of living on a huge farm with parents and siblings who
respect and love each other!”
Sam
heard her remark and looked at her with guilt in his eyes. He
didn’t know how to respond to something like that, although he’d
been sure that Al used to have conversations like this with him in
the past.
Alia
noticed Sam’s discomfort and immediately apologized. “I’m
sorry, Sam. I know you didn’t have control over your life. It was
out of line for me to imply you were intentionally rubbing your
family’s morals in my face.”
“That’s
quite all right, Alia. I might not completely understand what you
went through, but I can sympathize,” Sam responded as a light bulb
suddenly went off in his brain. “In fact… I think you’re the
reason I leaped here and not at the Project.”
“What
are you talking about?” Alia asked, confused.
Sam
shook his head, realizing that it was now after midnight, and he
needed to start the drive back to the Star Bright Project. “That
must be the other thing I need to do. Follow me to my car. I’ll
explain it on the way. Come on!”
INTERLUDE
Meanwhile, in Washington,
D.C…
Ex-Rear
Admiral Albert Calavicci had reached an impasse with the Senate
Committee. Despite his wife Beth’s reassurances that the Committee
would listen to reason, he and General Hawkins seemed to be hitting
a “road-bump” in their quest to obtain additional funding for
the Project. Al’s reasons, of course, were so that he could pull
out every resource at Ziggy’s disposal to find Sam; Hawkins’
reasons, Al concluded, were purely out of ambition so that he could
gain control of the Project’s directives and personally oversee
Sam’s leaps. Knowing this about Hawkins didn’t help matters any,
and Al was almost certain that the tension between the two of them
was not lost on the Committee.
Although
Beth’s presence in Washington was strictly to provide moral
support for her husband, she had begun sensing something odd about
Al’s behavior within the past several hours. Being as vocal as he
was about Hawkins wasn’t a big surprise, because she was used to
hearing her husband’s blunt comments for more than forty years.
What disturbed her was that Al began expressing doubts about ever
finding Sam at all. He as much as told her that he didn’t know why
he was even bothering trying to keep the Project up-and-running,
because Sam had never disappeared for this long and was most likely
gone forever at this point. It didn’t sound like Al at all to just
start giving up, but she dismissed it as the amount of stress her
husband was under and told him to try to remain optimistic.
Whether
he chose to take her advice or not, she couldn’t tell. But she
decided that now would not be the best time to argue with her
husband. Right now, he needed her support, regardless of how
helpless he was feeling. In the back of her mind, she hoped and
prayed that a miracle would soon happen to restore Al’s spirits.
PART
THREE
Project
Quantum Leap
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Waiting
Room, Present Day
As
the blue rays of light faded, the aura of Dr. Samuel Beckett
returned to the Waiting Room after a three-month absence. The
Visitor experienced the standard disorientation that was normally
associated with being replaced in time and called out to no one in
particular, “Hello? Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me?”
Minutes
went by before he got any form of response. The synthetic and
sexy-sounding feminine voice that seemed to permeate from every
direction brought the Visitor to a state of alertness. “Do
not be frightened. Someone is on their way and will be with you
shortly.”
Soon
enough, a rectangular door opened vertically on the far side of the
blue-white room, and a rather attractive thirty-eight-year-old woman
with shoulder-length brown hair and a white lab coat walked through.
She was holding a strange-looking contraption in her right hand,
which was blinking random colors.
“Hello,
my name is Sammy Jo Fuller. I know you’re probably confused, but
please try not to be frightened, no one’s going to harm you.”
“Sammy
Jo, huh? That’s a pretty name,” the Visitor said calmly. “Are
you from down South?”
Smiling,
she answered, “Why, yes I am! I grew up in Potterville, Louisiana
with my momma, Abigail. Can you remember your
name, by any chance?”
“Well,
of course, it’s…” the Visitor stumbled. “It’s… um…
Irving… Irving… what the—? I can’t seem to remember my last
name! What the heck is going on here?”
“It’s
okay, Irving, don’t worry. It’s simply a side effect of what
brought you here. It’s only temporary, I promise. I know this
might sound strange, but can you remember what year it is?”
“The
year?” Irving asked. “Why would you need to know that the year
is 1984?”
Bingo!
Sammy Jo thought, as she quietly entered the year into the handlink
so that Ziggy could begin doing a search. Looking back over at the
Visitor, she attempted to fudge the truth and replied, “Um…
well, this… experiment you’re involved with usually alters
people’s perceptions of time. That’s why you’re having trouble
remembering certain details about your life. Just trying to
determine what you can and can’t remember, that’s all.”
“An
experiment?” Irving asked, as he suddenly remembered something.
“Sounds a little like the project I work for… Wait a minute! Am
I being interrogated?”
“What?”
Sammy Jo asked, before nervously responding, “No… I mean, well,
yes, but only for information, that’s all. What
project?”
“Damn,
Adams found out I was gone, didn’t he? Please, don’t report me!
I needed to take a few days to deal with some family issues,
that’s all, I swear!”
Sammy
Jo began moving closer to Irving to try and reassure him that he had
nothing to worry about and suddenly hauled herself backward upon
getting a whiff of the Visitor’s nasty breath. She couldn’t
remember anyone’s breath ever smelling that bad since when Gooshie
had still been around. She was about to say something else to him
when his eyes suddenly drifted downward to the glass table he was
sitting on and he caught a glimpse of his reflection for the first
time. Oh boy, get ready for a huge panic! she thought, mentally preparing
herself.
What
he said, however, was the last thing she expected him to say. “Dr.
Beckett? W-why do I see Dr. Beckett’s face in the mirror?”
“You
know Dr. Beckett?” Sammy Jo asked in shock.
“I-I
work with him and… Captain Calavicci at… the Star Bright
Project…” he said in fragments as the memories came back one by
one.
“Star
Bright Project?” Sammy Jo said, as it suddenly dawned on her
exactly who Irving was. “Oh my God! Gooshie?!”
“You
know me?” Gooshie asked in complete confusion. “What’s going
on here? How do you know me when I’ve never seen you before
today?”
“It’s,
uh… a bit complicated to explain…” Sammy Jo trailed off. Dear
God, it’s almost like he’s back from the dead! No one else
except Dom, Ziggy, and I can know he’s here! Especially Tina! God,
she’ll freak out! Her mind went off in a thousand different
directions as she attempted to pull herself together as much as
humanly possible and act professional. “I’m sorry, but I have to
speak privately with someone. Excuse me,” she said, as she opened
the door and practically ran back into the Control Room.
“Ziggy?”
she asked as soon as the door closed.
“I
anticipated what you were going to ask, Dr. Fuller, and I have
already restricted Waiting Room access to everyone except you. I
suspect that talking to a close friend who died four years ago could
traumatize even Dr. Beeks,” Ziggy answered with a hint of sadness
in her voice.
“You’re
a gem, Zig! Do you have enough from what he mentioned to get a lock
on my father?”
“I
am still having difficulty maintaining a link with Dr. Beckett’s
brainwaves. It shall take some time to establish a partial lock.”
“Should
we contact the Admiral in D.C. and tell him what’s going on?”
Dom asked Sammy Jo.
“No,
not yet,” she determined. “If Ziggy’s still having problems, I
don’t want to prematurely get Al’s hopes up. Besides, knowing
Gooshie is ‘back’ temporarily would just distract him from doing
his job. Until we get more info, I’ll have to fill in as the
Observer when and if Ziggy gets a lock. I’ve had to do it a few
times before, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to sync up our
brainwaves again.”
“I’m
on it, Sammy,” Dom replied as he began the procedure to transfer
the currently weak neural link over to her brainwave patterns.
“Good.
While I’m waiting, I guess I’ll have to try to talk to…
Gooshie,” she pondered out loud. “Good Lord, what a mess!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
March
18, 1984, 8:40 AM
“So,
let me get this straight, Sam,” Alia started to speak. “Your
theory is that because we’re the same and we both have residual
leap energies stored in our bodies from years of leaping, that if
we’re holding each other when you leap home, I’ll be pulled with
you to your Project?”
“That’s
the theory, yeah,” Sam replied sheepishly. “Trust me, Alia,
it’ll work. Remember when we leaped together into the Mallard
Women’s Correctional Facility as two of the inmates? Al said there
were two women in the Waiting Room. That means that your physical
aura can be transferred to my own time again, as long as I’m
holding you when I leap.”
“And
this… chip you brought back with you from the future… you need
to plant it in this… SID computer?”
“That
was my main mission on this leap. And now, after meeting you again,
in New Mexico of all places, I just know that our encounter wasn’t
a coincidence! It might not have been intentional on my part, but I
left you to fend for yourself all those years ago; that’s
something I have to put right now. My Project will welcome you with
open arms, Alia. You can start a new life there—one with purpose.
You’ll see!”
After
driving Gooshie’s car for a good number of hours, Sam finally
pulled the vehicle into the parking lot of the Crossroads Diner, a
well-known local establishment just outside of Stallion’s Gate,
approximately twenty miles north of the Missile Range and the Star
Bright Project. With every minute that went by, more and more of
Gooshie’s memories seemed to be merging with Sam’s mind, and he
could remember that the Al of this time had covered for Gooshie’s
temporary AWOL status. He needed to call Al on a private line so
that he could meet up with “Gooshie” outside of the Test
Center’s perimeter and give him the card key he had been holding
for him.
With
Alia standing next to him, Sam picked up the phone inside the
vestibule and first dialed what his memory remembered to be the
number to Al’s office. When there was no answer, he then tried the
main reception area of the Project.
“First
Lieutenant, Zackary Manheim, speaking,”
he heard a young officer say on the other end of the line. Sam
remembered exactly who the young man was.
“Thank
goodness it’s you, Lieutenant Manheim. I was afraid I’d get
someone else,” Sam said, spouting Gooshie’s exact dialogue
word-for-word through the psycho-synergizing effect.
“Doctor
Gushman?” Zack
countered, recognizing what he heard to be Gooshie’s unmistakable
voice. “I didn’t know
you’d left the complex.”
“Long
story, just get a message to Al Calavicci, will you?” Sam asked
impatiently.
“Certainly,
straight away, Doctor. I’ll put you through to the Captain’s
office.”
“No!
No, I tried his office less than a minute ago; he wasn’t there.
Could you beep him please?”
“Sure,
but—”
“Here’s
the number where I can be reached,” Sam paused while he read back
the number displayed on the wall above the phone. “553-2639… did
you get that? 553-2639.”
“But
that’s in—”
“Yes,
I do know where I am, thank you, Zackary.”
“Okay,
I’ve sent that page out; can I help you with anything else?”
“Nothing,
but please, it is vital that you don’t tell anyone that I’ve
phoned or where I am… understand?”
“Understood…
but—”
“No
more buts, I don’t have time. I’m going to hang up now, and
remember; you haven’t heard or spoken with me outside of the
complex.”
Sam
hung up the phone and waited for Captain Al Calavicci to return his
call.
“By
the way, Sam,” Alia said while they waited, “you never told me
exactly who this… ‘Gooshie’ fellow is that you leaped into.
He’s a good friend of yours?”
“Gooshie?
Yeah, he was… the original head programmer for Ziggy before he…
was killed trying to save her.”
“Oh
no!” The sudden realization hit Alia and she sadly asked,
“From… being infiltrated by Lothos, right?”
“Yeah,”
Sam replied plainly, then seeing her saddened expression, he
reassured her, “It wasn’t your fault, Alia. He died a hero!”
The
conversation was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing. Couldn’t
have come at a better time! “Hello,” Sam answered.
The
gravelly but younger voice on the other end responded, “Gooshie?
Nice to hear from you, pal. Did everything go well at your end?”
Al!
God, it’s so great to hear his voice again, even if it’s not
really my
Al! Sam thought as he replied, “Um, yeah… Catherine’s
feeling much better. She and Robert really appreciated me helping
out with their daughter, even if only for a couple of days. How’s
everything going over there, Al… uh, I mean, Captain?”
“Truthfully,
I’ve seen better days, but it’s nothing you need to worry about.
I’ve got your card key to give back to you. Where are you now?”
“I’m
at the Crossroads Diner just outside Stallion’s Gate.”
After
a momentary pause, Al continued, “Okay,
gimme about twenty minutes. I’ll meet you there.”
“Captain,
before you go, I have a favor to ask you,” Sam added quickly as he
looked over to Alia. “On my way back, I ran into an… old friend
who’s run into some hard times. She has nowhere else to go right
now, and I was hoping you could give me clearance to bring her to
the Project for a brief period of time until I can… arrange a more
permanent solution to her problem. I promise, she won’t get in the
way.”
“Hmm,
that’s… gonna be a bit difficult, Goosh! Adams downgraded my
security clearance. The nozzle’s got it in for me, I tell ya!”
That’s
right! Sam
remembered. Al had to sneak
around for a little while until it got straightened out. This makes
things harder now. Great!
“Listen,
we’ll worry about that when we get back to the Project, okay?”
Al reassured. “I owe you a
favor anyway. See ya in about twenty minutes!”
Before
Sam could respond, the line went dead. He just smiled and thought, Good
old Al! I could never have made it this far in my leaps without
him… in any time period!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Star
Bright Project Complex, New Mexico
March
18, 1984, 9:42 AM
It
had been a bit tricky, but Al had managed to sneak Sam and Alia into
the complex through some of the unguarded caverns underneath the
Project. Sam was very careful not to reveal too much about Alia’s
identity for fear that Al might remember her when they both met her
for the “first” time years later during Sam’s second leap into
Jimmy LaMotta.
As
they made their way back into the main corridors, another old
acquaintance of Sam’s turned the corner ahead of them: Dr.
Sebastian LoNigro, or “Bobby” as he had called him during the
Star Bright days. He seemed slightly agitated and upon seeing Al, he
ran up to them.
“Al!
Good, you guys are back. Agent Adams just returned and he wants to
see us in his office. Sam told me you had to run a quick
‘errand,’ so I stalled to buy you some time, but he’s on the
warpath!”
“Oh
great! I thought Adams wasn’t due back until tomorrow,” Al said
worriedly.
“So
did I,” Bobby reciprocated. “But apparently, he got back early.
He actually wanted to talk to both of you specifically, so I
didn’t know what to tell him. And… who’s this, if you don’t
mind my asking?”
“Bobby…”
Sam began to say before he remembered that Gooshie was always
insistent on using formalities, even among friends. “Dr. LoNigro,
this is an old friend of mine… um, Allie. She’s hit a bit of a
snag, and I promised her I’d try to help her get her life
situated. She won’t be here for very long, but the fewer people
that know she’s here, the better. Would it be too much to ask for
you to get her down to, uh… the Control Room?”
“You
have my word, I won’t cause any trouble,” Alia offered.
“It’s
okay, Gooshie. I know you wouldn’t bring someone into the Project
from the outside unless it was important. Come with me, Allie. In
the meantime, the two of you should probably report to Ross Adams’
office ASAP,” Bobby told the two men. “Sam and I will meet up
with both of you in about ten minutes.”
“Thanks,
Bobby,” Al responded, relieved that he had at least a few people
on his side.
Upon
hearing the name “Ross Adams,” Alia suddenly whispered in
realization, “Adams!”
“Take
my bag, Allie,” Sam told Alia, referring to the luggage that
contained the Retrieval chip. He then walked over to her and
whispered, “Make sure the chip is safe until I get down there.”
“Sam,
wait! Don’t ask me where I’ve heard Adams’ name before; it’s
a bit complicated to get into now…” Alia whispered back to him.
“The ‘other’ Sam of this time doesn’t know about Ross’s
contact, ‘Dr. L,’ yet, does
he?”
Dr.
L? Sam thought, not
sure if he remembered who that was or not. Swiss-cheesed
memory always kicks in at the worst times! “We can’t worry
about that right now, Alia. Besides, if my past self were to find
out something he doesn’t know about yet, it could cause a time
paradox. I’m not ready to deal with that
again any time soon. Just follow Bobby down to the Control Room.
I’ll meet you back there, okay?” he whispered.
Realizing
that what Sam told her was valid, Alia took the bag and allowed
Bobby to quietly escort her down to the Control Room.
“All
right, Goosh,” Al sighed, as Sam turned back toward him. “Time
to face the music. Let’s get this over with!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Office
of Agent Ross Adams, CIA
Star
Bright Project Complex, New Mexico
March
18, 1984, 9:55 AM
Agent
Ross Adams considered himself a patient man, but when it came down
to information concerning an employee’s whereabouts, he did not
like to be given the runaround. Therefore, it was with great haste
that he told his secretary to admit Captain Albert Calavicci, and
Doctors Irving Gushman, Sam Beckett, and Sebastian LoNigro, into his
office as soon as he received the call.
Sam
felt more than a little uncomfortable standing next to his past
self, especially being twenty years his senior. Whether the
discomfort went unnoticed by the “other” Sam or not, he
couldn’t tell.
As
Adams looked up from his desk, he smirked and said, “It appears
there are rumors circulating that several of the key employees
I’ve been assigned to oversee are sneaking around exiting and
reentering the complex without my official authorization. Now why
would these rumors be floating around, may I ask? Any ideas on the
subject, hmm?”
Al
was the first to speak up. “Are you accusing us of circumventing
your authority, Agent Adams? Where are you hearing these so-called rumors?”
It took all he had to hold his tongue. Al was in enough hot water
with Adams already. It was only through the Sam Beckett of this time
that he had been reinstated as Project First Assistant Director
after his drunken incident at the vending machine two months
earlier, and although he had still flirted with the bottle a few
times, he’d been sober ever since.
“I
have my sources, Captain,” Adams replied matter-of-factly. “Do
you deny that you and Dr. Gushman went unaccounted for within the
past hour?”
“I
deny nothing!” Al answered hotly. “And let me tell you something, Agent
Adams… you’ve had it in for me ever since you came on-board this
Project. I’ve been clean for two damn months, and I deserve a
little bit more respect
than what you’ve been giving me lately!”
“Al…
it’s okay,” Leaper Sam nudged, as Gooshie’s personality began
to psycho-synergize with his brainwaves once again. “Agent Adams,
Captain Calavicci was covering for me. I requested a temporary leave
of absence to deal with a family crisis that came up. I swear I
never had any intention of undermining your authority. I take full
responsibility for my actions.”
Before
Adams could respond, the “other” Sam piped in, “I can
personally vouch for Gooshie’s character, Agent Adams. If he
needed to take a few personal days to be with his family, then I
don’t think he should be reprimanded for doing what he felt was
necessary. Dr. Gushman is a good and honest man who I’ve known for
over ten years now. Al was just trying to avoid a whole bunch of red
tape, and you were away on business. That’s all this was about,
honest!”
“I
concur with Sam,” Bobby chimed in. “And with all due respect, I
think you should cut the Captain some slack. He works his tail off
keeping this Project on schedule, and I’m sure that if Dana were
to look hard enough, she’d find a harassment clause in your
contract that could get you some heat with your agency if you
don’t follow it. So, if I were you, I’d suggest giving Al and
Gooshie a break and let us all do the jobs that our government is
paying us to do!”
Leaper
Sam looked over to his old friend, smiled, and thought, That’s
the Bobby I remember! Always treated everyone fairly and never
allowed anyone to boss him around!
For
a minute, it appeared as if Adams was ready to explode from the
anger he felt welling up inside him but just as quickly brushed it
off and grinned widely as he addressed the other four men in an
unusually cheery attitude. “Well,
why didn’t you just say
you had a family emergency in the first place, Dr. Gushman? No need to sneak around; I would have understood. I’m not looking
to become anyone’s enemy. We’re all friends here, aren’t we?
So, consider this conversation fini.
You can all go back to work now!” he finished off with a goofy
grin.
“Thank
you, Agent Adams,” said Leaper Sam with gratitude, as he proceeded
to walk out of Agent Adams’ office and return to the Control Room
on Level 20.
As
Bobby and the “other” Sam followed closely behind, Adams briefly
stopped Al to get one last word in edgewise. “Don’t think that
this means you automatically have your security clearance back,
Calavicci. We’ll settle that
little affair later. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to take care
of some paperwork. Carry on!”
Al
curled the corner of his lip up slightly, almost snarling at Adams,
but held his temper in check and left the room. Alone in his office
once again, Adams leaned back in his chair and sighed as the
telephone on his desk rang. He picked up the receiver, knowing
exactly who it was on the other end. “Yes, Dr. L?”
He
listened to the voice and responded to the request that was being
made of him. “Yes, sir… I understand, sir… As soon as I have
more information, I will inform you immediately… Thank you,
sir.”
Adams
hung up the phone, opened the cabinet next to his desk, and pulled
out the taped-up sheet of paper he had placed there two months ago
that read: MY NAME IS SID.
“What
dark little secret are you hiding from me, Dr. Beckett?” he
whispered to himself.
(*For
more details on the back-story and events in this chapter, please
read SBP Episode
001, “Origins” by Brian D. Greene and the forthcoming SBP
episode, “With a Little Help” by Sue Johnson on The
Starbright Project website.)
PART
FOUR
Project
Quantum Leap
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Waiting
Room, Present Day
Sammy
Jo was getting flustered. Ziggy had finally reestablished contact
with her father, and yet couldn’t maintain a solid lock on his
brainwaves. She couldn’t understand what the problem could be and
knowing that the Gooshie of 1984 was in the Waiting Room didn’t
help matters any. As Swiss-cheesed as his memory was, he was a very
intelligent man—he knew that Sammy Jo wasn’t telling him
everything.
“This
room looks an awful lot like the Reactor Chamber at my project,”
Gooshie started to explain. “Where
did you say that this… Project is located? New Mexico?”
“Um…
yeah…” Sammy Jo trailed off.
Squinting
his eyes in deep thought, Gooshie looked around and added, “This
is the same complex, isn’t it? The room has been modified, but
it’s the Quantum Reactor Chamber, I’m sure
of it! And Dr. Beckett’s reflection is in the mirror…? Holy Moly!
He did it, didn’t he?”
“Did
what?” Sammy Jo asked, feigning ignorance.
“He
broke the time barrier! I’ll be damned! It’s just as his String
Theory said! Dr. Beckett took my place in time! Fascinating!”
Sammy
Jo knew it was pointless to try and deny it. “Yes, he did. Dr.
Beckett has leaped back into your life at some point in our past.
His aura surrounds you, and yours is surrounding him. Once we find
him and figure out what he’s there to do, you’ll go back to the
time you came from and will most likely not remember any of this.”
“Ha
ha, I didn’t expect I would!”
Gooshie exclaimed with joy. “It’s okay, I don’t mind…
really! Just knowing that I’m a part of the greatest adventure
mankind’s ever experienced is reward enough! Tell me… is Dr.
Beckett the only one who travels in time, or are there others?”
Before
Sammy Jo could respond, the silky voice of the parallel-hybrid
computer interrupted the conversation. “Dr.
Fuller, Professor Lofton requires your immediate attention in the
Control Room.”
Saved
by the ego! Sammy
thought with a smirk. “I’m sorry… if you’ll excuse me, Dr.
Gushman,” she said as she opened the door and reentered the
Control Room.
“Now
seemed as good a time as any to tell you that Ziggy thinks she’s
located Sam,” Dom told her as soon as she entered.
“What
a relief!” Sammy Jo responded. “Where is he?”
“That’s
just it, Sammy… he’s… here!
Well, here twenty years
ago, at least! The neural link suddenly got a boost when Sam entered
the Control Room of the Star Bright Project in 1984. If he leaves
the area, there’s a chance we might lose the lock again. I’m not
sure why.”
Thinking
on that for a few seconds, Sammy Jo took the upgraded handlink out
of the console’s receptacle and proceeded into the Imaging
Chamber.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Star
Bright Project Complex, New Mexico
Control
Room, March 18, 1984
Sam
made his way to the Control Room on the twentieth level of the
complex and couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit weird as he
took in his surroundings. Twenty years and a few cosmetic changes
later, this very room would be the main hub of activity for Project
Quantum Leap. He could see the photographic images in his mind: the
massive globe that housed Ziggy’s mainframe, the main console that
activated the Accelerator chamber, even the ramp leading into the
Imaging Chamber. It was a surreal experience being home, and yet,
not home at the same time.
As
he walked over to the Main Conduit Relay for the Interstellar Drive,
Alia approached him and handed Gooshie’s bag over to him.
“Everything work out okay up there with your boss?”
“He
wasn’t really our boss, but yeah… everything worked out, I
think,” Sam reassured her. “Anyone bother you down here? A lot
of the technicians should still be on leave for the holiday weekend,
so it should be pretty quiet down here, I would think.”
“I
don’t think anyone significant noticed me, if that’s what you
mean.”
“Good.
Tina must be down in the Crystal Lab working on one of the relays.
I’m pretty sure she would be the only technician that would
recognize you in the future.”
“Dr.
Beckett?” a garbled, female voice with a Southern accent suddenly
asked from behind him. Without thinking, Sam turned around on reflex
and was relieved when he realized that it wasn’t a native to this
time period, but rather a faded image that only he could see and
hear.
“Sammy
Jo?” he asked.
Raising
her right eyebrow in curiosity, she in turn asked, “You re*ember
me?”
The
memory of his previous leap suddenly came back to him in a flash. He
remembered meeting his granddaughter, Isabella Fulton, and the story
she told him of Sammy Jo’s death sometime in his near future. Sam
couldn’t hold back the tears that fell as he joyfully exclaimed,
“Oh, Sammy! You’re alive!” As he reached out to embrace his
daughter, he nearly tumbled over when he passed right through her
image.
“Sam?”
Alia asked in confusion, as she saw Sam staring into thin air—or
at least from her perspective. “What’s going on? Is that Al?”
“D-Dr.
B*ckett, is ever*thing alright?” Sammy Jo asked in mutual
confusion.
Getting
a hold of himself to wipe away the moisture from his eyes, Sam
responded first to Sammy Jo, “Y-yes, I’m… I’m fine. It’s
just… so good to see you after so long!” then to Alia, “It’s
my… daughter, Sammy Jo!”
“Your
daughter?” Alia almost shouted. “You—you have a daughter?
You never told me that before!”
“Actually,
she didn’t exist the first time you and I met… long story!
Listen, Sammy… where’s Al, and why are you fading in and out
like that?”
Still
reeling over the revelation that Sam remembered she was his daughter
this time, Sammy Jo shook her head and said, “Al’s, uh… he’s
unavail—*FZZZ—the
moment. I’m filling in f*r him. As f*r why I’m fading, we’re
not sure. Zig—*FZZZ—hell
of a time finding you!”
“The
neural link!” Sam realized. “My ‘anchor’ must be starting to
deteriorate on your end. There isn’t much time left!”
“What
are—*FZZZ—talking about, Dad? And, what’s Alia doing here?”
“I
don’t have time to explain right now! Sammy, I have a way for
Ziggy to retrieve me along with Alia, but I need a few minutes to set it up in this era. Do you
have enough power to activate Ziggy’s hologram?”
Sammy
Jo looked down at the handlink and punched the button that projected
the holographic matrix of the hybrid computer. “Exactly what
are—*FZZZ—proposing,
Dr. Beckett?” Ziggy asked.
Sam
gave Sammy Jo and Ziggy a brief overview of his plan to retrieve
Alia by holding onto her when he leaped and how it would be possible
based on the events that occurred back when they both leaped
together the first time. The expression on Ziggy’s face made it
obvious that she was more than a bit intrigued over the process.
Taking into account all of the information provided, Ziggy gave her
final analysis. “I project a 97.6 percent chance that Dr.
Beckett’s plan shall succeed. What—*FZZZ—intriguing
plan, Doctor!”
“Where
did this… chip c*me from, Dad?” Sammy Jo asked, confused.
“From
the future… another long story I can’t get into right now.
Before I plant the chip though, I need to go down one level to the
lab and shut down the power output to the Main Conduit Relay,
otherwise…”
“Otherwise,
you will suffer—*FZZZ—same
fate as Dr. Gushman suffered, which would be ironic considering you
are sharing his aura more than fifteen years before his death,”
Ziggy finished for him.
Rolling
his eyes, Sam replied, “That’s not quite how I would have put
it, but, yes, I’ll be fried if I try planting the chip without
shutting off the electrical current first. Alia, stay here, it
shouldn’t take too long.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Star
Bright Project Complex, New Mexico
The
Crystal Lab, Level 21
Only
three people were allowed on Level 21 without escorts: Doctors
Samuel Beckett, Donna Elesee, and Sebastian LoNigro. Even the
Project Director, General Thomas Collins, and the two Assistant
Directors, Captain Albert Calavicci and Commander Jonathan Bartlett,
needed to be escorted by one of those three individuals. So, after
remembering this minor detail, Sam placed a call to his old
colleague and met up with Bobby by the elevator so that he could
personally escort “Gooshie” down to the lab. During the trip
down to Level 21, Sam informed Bobby that he was taking care of
“Allie’s” situation and that he would personally arrange her
transport out of the complex within the next hour. It was also
mutually agreed that “Allie” would not be discussed again in the
near future. After all, it would be a bit hard for Gooshie to explain how a woman he
knows nothing about suddenly vanished into thin air, Sam
thought.
As
they walked by the “Glass Room,” Sam’s heart skipped a beat
when the door opened, and the younger versions of himself and his
future wife, Donna Elesee, stepped out. She was every bit as
beautiful as Sam remembered her from that leap to Lawrence College
way back during the first few months of his journey; perhaps even
more so, if that were even possible. It was because of that leap
that history had changed, resulting in Donna no longer leaving him
at the altar. At this point in time, they had only just started
developing a close working relationship with each other.
“I
need to talk with Sam and Donna about the status of the orb,
Gooshie, so don’t mind us,” Bobby told him. “Do what you have
to do, and I’ll escort you back up when you’re done,” he added
with a smile.
Forcing
himself to take his eyes off of Donna, he entered the Glass Room and
passed by the glowing palm-sized blue orb that would eventually grow
into Ziggy. As Sam got closer, it began to pulsate and radiate
warmth toward him.
“Wow,
it hardly ever reacts to anyone other than Dr. Beckett. It must
really like you, Gooshie,” said a bubbly female voice from inside
the room.
Sam
looked over and saw the youthful red-haired Dr. Tina Martinez-O’Farrell
working at the output relay on the far side of the room, blowing a
huge wad of bubble-gum from her mouth, which subsequently popped.
Ah,
the orb senses me!
Sam realized. Interesting! It
must be imprinting Gooshie’s aura onto its extraterrestrial
polymer, like it did with mine! And to think that this little energy
orb is essentially the heart and soul of Ziggy! Incredible!
“Good
morning, Tina,” Sam greeted her. “I need to shut down one of the
relays that connects to SID for about a half-hour or so. Will you be
down here for a while?”
“Yeppers!”
answered Tina with a huge smile. “You want me to, like, turn it
back on for you in an hour, so that you don’t have to come back
down here again later?”
Perfect!
“If you could, that would be great! I appreciate that, Tina!”
“Anytime,
Gooshie!” she winked back at him. “Maybe we can, like, grab some
lunch a bit later? If you wanna, that is…”
Sam
smiled, knowing that the love affair between Gooshie and Tina began
to bloom during the Star Bright years. “I’d like that very
much.”
“Awesome!
Catch ya later then, cutie!”
Sam
shook his head in astonishment as he shut down the necessary relay
and then walked back over to Bobby who was waiting for him. As he
turned his head to look back over to Donna one last time, he saw her
standing close to the “other” Sam as they reentered the Glass
Room. It took every ounce of restraint he had to not walk back over
and tell her how much he wanted to be with her.
Oh,
Donna, honey… I’m so sorry I left you all those years ago! I’m
coming home to you, my love! I promise!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Star
Bright Project Complex, New Mexico
Control
Room, Level 20
Sam
returned to the Control Room and began the procedure to plant the
chip into the Main Conduit Relay, which at this particular point in
time diverted power to the ISD, or Interstellar Drive. With Ziggy
and Sammy Jo’s help, he was able to integrate the chip into a
covert alcove inside the conduit that Ziggy guaranteed would not be
accessed for at least another twenty-one years. Alia stood watch in
front of Gooshie’s post, just to make sure no one would discover
what Sam was doing.
After
approximately thirty-five minutes, Sam was finished. Just as he
placed the metal plating back onto the opening of the conduit to
cover it up, a sudden power surge in Ziggy’s program activated as
her and Sammy Jo’s holographic images became whole once again.
“Dad,
I… I think it’s working!” Sammy Jo announced. “All of a
sudden, Dom’s telling me he detects a signal being emitted from
Ziggy’s mainframe that he’s never seen before.”
“The
time-code!” Sam practically shouted. “Sammy, what’s the date
there today?”
“November
20, 2005,” she answered.
“Two
more days…” Sam whispered before raising his voice for both
Sammy Jo and Ziggy to hear. “Ziggy, deactivate your search engine
and focus as much power as you can into the Retrieval program. If
Alia and I move closer to the Quantum Reactor inside the chamber and
hold onto each other tightly when you activate the Retrieval
program, there shouldn’t be any problems, but I don’t want to
take any chances. Pull up her file from the archives and try to
project her residual brainwave patterns into the Waiting Room.”
“Affirmative,
Dr. Beckett. Dr. Fuller, I suggest you return to the Control Room
and assist Dominic with the retrieval process,” Ziggy recommended,
as she deactivated her own matrix and disappeared.
Sammy
simply nodded as she entered the command to open the Imaging Chamber
door. As she stood in the white rectangular doorway, she looked back
to Sam and Alia and said, “Good luck… Dad!” The door then
closed, and Sammy Jo disappeared into the future.
“Are
you sure this is going to work, Sam?” Alia asked as she walked
with Sam into the Reactor Chamber and huddled into Sam’s arms.
“It’ll
work, Alia! Trust me. Just keep focusing on this room—focus on my
voice and where I’m taking you. I’ll leap… and you’ll leap with
me! Just like before!”
Alia
remained silent, knowing in her heart that Sam would fulfill his
promise somehow. For what seemed like the longest minute of her
life, she just stood there, holding onto Sam with all her strength
as the familiar tickling sensation of the leap overcame her one last
time. As she and Sam entered the blue void, nothing but happiness
welled up in her soul. For the first time in as long as she could
remember, Alia Novack felt truly safe.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In
the blink of an eye, the surroundings of the Reactor Chamber of 1984
dissolved away, as it became the Waiting Room of 2005. Sam looked
down and saw that he was indeed wearing the white Fermi suit he had
first worn upon stepping into the Accelerator Chamber ten years ago.
Huddled next to him was Alia, wearing the same clothing she wore in
1984. They both loosened their tight hold on each other as the
Waiting Room door opened.
Sammy
Jo walked through and approached them both. “Dad?” she pondered,
not quite certain she could actually believe that her father was
finally home. She had been let down so many times before.
“Sammy
Jo! I… I’m home! I-I
can’t believe it! I’m finally home for good!”
With
her eyes starting to glisten over, she looked up and asked, “My
God! Ziggy, is this for real?”
“Yes,
Dr. Fuller,”
Ziggy’s voice replied with surprising enthusiasm. “The
individual standing next to Ms. Alia Novack is indeed the true Dr.
Beckett! The Retrieval chip he planted in the past worked. His
leaping cycle has finally ended. Welcome home, Father!”
“Oh,
Dad!” she exclaimed, overcome with emotion as she embraced her
father.
“Samantha!”
Sam reciprocated back.
“I’ve
been dreaming of this day for so long, ever since I found out you
were my real father! I’ve wanted to tell you how much I love
you!”
“So
have I, Sammy! So have I! We have all the time in the world now! And
I’m never going to leave you, Stephen, or Donna ever again!”
EPILOGUE
ONE
Elizabeth
O’Dwyer Calavicci returned to the hotel suite with her husband
after a long grueling day in front of the Senate Committee. Al had
seemed very downtrodden and run down, and he wanted to be left alone
for a while. She couldn’t really blame him for feeling the way he
did, but in the same sense, she was a bit annoyed that Al was
apparently giving up so easily. The Committee had yet to make a
decision, and although Hawkins seemed to have his own agenda, she
felt confident that he had as much to lose as they did if the
Project were to be shut down. He wouldn’t be easily deterred from
accomplishing his objective, which gave him and Al a common goal for
now.
Her
thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing, and she
picked it up. “Yes?” she asked. As she heard the excited voice
on the other end of the line, she felt her heart suddenly flutter
upon hearing the news that was being told to her. “Are you
SERIOUS? Oh my God, Al needs to hear this! AL!” she shouted
excitedly. “Come here, you’ll never believe this!”
Al
walked over and took the receiver from Beth’s hands. “Yeah,”
he said tiredly, with no clear emotion evident in his voice.
“Al?”
Dom’s voice could be heard on the other end. “It’s Sam! He’s back!
We got him home!”
Al’s
eyes suddenly shot open with surprise. He thought he was hearing
things. “You’re kidding!” he said back, more in denial than
realization.
“It’s
true!
He’s standing here right in front of me with Sammy Jo! Ziggy had a
lock on him briefly, but we didn’t want to inform you unless we
were sure we found him! And now, he’s leaped back to the Project!
You and Dr. Calavicci got to get back here ASAP! Ziggy’s already
made a general announcement to the entire complex to celebrate his
return! It wouldn’t be the same without you here!”
Al
just stood there in shock, not saying anything for about fifteen
seconds as he heard the cheers from several technicians coming from
the Control Room. “I… I can’t believe it! All right, Beth and
I will get back there as soon as we can,” Al finished as he hung
up the phone.
“Oh,
Al, isn’t this wonderful?” Beth embraced her husband with
everything she had as tears began to fall from her eyes. She looked
up into Al’s face and was surprised to see him still in disbelief.
“Al! Honey, what’s wrong? Aren’t you ecstatic that Sam is
finally home? You’ve been dreaming of this day for ten long
years!”
“I
am, Beth, it’s just… we’ve gotten him home before and he’s
never been able to stay for whatever reasons. I can’t help feeling
that there’s another catch this time. Something doesn’t seem
right about this.”
“AL,
come on! I’m sick and tired of you being so pessimistic! There’s
no catch! Sam’s finally home and he needs you to be there to
welcome him!”
“You’re
right, Beth,” Al gave in as he kissed his wife on the forehead.
“Go inside and pack your things. I’ll let Hawkins know what’s
going on!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Back
at Project Quantum Leap, Verbena Beeks, Ike Bentenhoff, Dom, Tina,
and several others began gathering in the Control Room. Sammy Jo
gently pushed her way through the forming crowd to give Sam and Alia
some much-needed space. “Allow me to be the first to officially
welcome you to our family, Alia. You must be a good person if my
father went out of his way to free you from Lothos’ evil project.
Lord knows, he almost got to us if it hadn’t been for Gooshie’s
noble sacrifice, but if it hadn’t have been for you, my father
could never have permanently stopped his evil. And for that, we all
thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Welcome aboard, Alia!”
“I…
I don’t know what to say,” Alia responded, completely taken
aback by Sammy’s kind words. “Thank you!” she said simply, as
she shook Sammy Jo’s hand.
As
the door to the Control Room opened again, the room suddenly got
quiet as Sam stepped forward to move closer to the two individuals
who walked through. There she was, his wife, Donna Elesee-Beckett,
older-looking with graying hair and “crow’s feet” forming in
the corners of her eyelids, but still as beautiful as he remembered.
And standing beside her, holding her left hand was his adorable
nine-year-old son, Stephen.
“Donna!
Stephen!” Sam proclaimed, unable to hold his emotions back.
“Sam,
it’s really you!” Donna cried as she reached out and kissed him
full on the lips. “You remember us!”
“Of
course I remember you!” he reassured, as he knelt down and hugged
Stephen.
“Dad!”
Stephen exclaimed, his eyes glossing over now as well. “I knew
you’d come home someday! I just knew
it!”
“Al
and Sammy have told me about some of your accomplishments, son.
I’m so proud of you! I know you’re going to grow up to be a fine
young man someday!”
Before
he could ask where Al and Beth were, however, Sam was suddenly
overcome with a wave of dizziness and nausea. The Control Room
started to dissipate before Sam’s eyes, replaced by a strange
reddish glow. He couldn’t understand why no one else seemed to
notice until he realized that it wasn’t the room being engulfed by
the glow—it was he!
Something
was tearing him away from his long awaited reunion. He tried to
scream out, but no sound was able to emerge from his lips. He had no
control over the new force that was pulling his body back into the
maelstrom of space-time.
EPILOGUE
TWO
Once
again, the tingling leap energy began to envelop Sam, but this time,
it was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. Instead of the
familiar blue void, an endless field of red surrounded him, and the
force of the pull felt stronger—more controlled. Even the
“sound” of the leap was different. As his vision began to clear,
he found himself in a small, enclosed room with walls that also
seemed to pulsate blood red. This…
seems like the Waiting Room, but… it’s different! Sam
thought. “Where am I?” he practically shouted.
For
what felt like five very long minutes, Sam’s question was followed
by silence, except for the distinct metallic hum coming from all
around him. Although Sam couldn’t recall ever experiencing any
form of claustrophobia in his life, he clearly began feeling that
fear now. Again, he screamed out, “Where am I?” followed by,
“Someone! Answer me!”
“Ah,
at last, the good Dr. Beckett!” replied a male voice from behind
Sam. He whirled around and was nearly blinded by the bright white
light of the open doorway. All Sam could see was the shadow of a
man, standing in the doorway and appearing to hold something in his
hands, which were crossed in front of him. “I apologize for the
lack of hospitality when you first arrived, but we had to make sure
you were the real deal. You are the ultimate prize… and now
we’ve finally got you, after all this time!”
“The
ultimate prize?” Sam exclaimed. “What do you mean? Who are you?
And where the hell am I?”
“Hell?” the voice shot back in mockery, followed by a sadistic
chuckle. “That’s where you’ll be wishing
you were by the time we’re
through with you! Ah, how the tides have turned… being the leaper
for all those years, putting things right that once went wrong…
Ironic how you have now become the one that’s been leaped into… to have
something in your life be
put wrong that should have gone right!”
“What
kind of double-talk is that? Show
yourself!” Sam demanded.
After
a few seconds of silence, the figure stepped out of the doorway,
revealing his true identity. Despite his Swiss-cheesed memory, Sam
remembered exactly who the tall black man was. “Thames?
No! I-it’s not possible!”
“Oh,
but it is, Beckett! You still don’t know what’s happened to you?
I would think it should be
obvious, but perhaps you need a little reminder. Take a look at your
reflection in the table!” Thames ordered.
As
Sam looked down at the glass table in front of him, he couldn’t
help but notice the skin-tight black Fermi suit he was wearing. Upon
seeing the reflection in the mirrored surface, Sam nearly fell back
in shock when he saw the face of the auburn-haired woman staring
back at him.
“Look
familiar?” Thames slyly asked.
“Zoë!” Sam replied. But how could that be possible? Zoë was
supposed to be dead… wasn’t she?
“You
got it! Zoë’s leaped into you!
So, you’d better get used to your time here, Beckett! ’Cause you
belong to Lothos now!”
With
Thames’ words echoing in the back of his mind, Sam shuddered in
fear as he whispered, “Oh boy…”
Special thanks to Brian
Greene and Sue Johnson for their input.
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