Date: Sun, 20 Jun 93 13:08:05 MDT From: tperreau@banshee.VLA.NRAO.EDU (This space for rent) Message-Id: <9306201908.AA02137@banshee.vla.nrao.edu> To: alt-ql-creative@cisco.com Subject: All Souls Night -- Part 5 All Soul's Night Part V While Al was having his conference with Ziggy and Dr. Wallace, Sam returned to Wallace's home, after purchasing some food for the nearly bare pantry. He put the food away, acting in a daze. The painting had affected him more than he realized. He now heard the music almost all the time, always faint in the background, but present. He found himself drawn to the west window, where he could feel the tugging at his soul. Sam shook himself and walked into the den. Jeffery had been methodical in his research, Sam noted, and took copious notes in an elegant longhand. Sam browsed through the notebooks, trying to follow the path that Jeffery Wallace had spent most of his life on. It was midafternoon before Al appeared, the imaging room door opening up and he passed through. It was a couple of minutes before Sam realized that Al was just standing there looking at him. He put down the notebook. "It's interesting, Al. The family of MacLeod of Dunvegan have a three foot by four foot piece of silk. It dates back to the fourth centry. Legend has it that one of the chieftains of the MacLeod's was given the cloth by his faery lover, and when unfurrled it would grant the MacLeod's victory in battle, but for three times only. MacLeod pilots in World War II, fighting in the Battle of Britian, would carry a small picture of the faery flag with them -- none of them were killed in battle." Sam stood up and looked out the window. "What does Ziggy have to say?" "If you repeat what Wallace did, then you will leap. If you don't, there's only a 3% chance that you'll leap, and if you do, then Wallace will be dead in three years -- an auto accident." Al looked at Sam. "However, if you do repeat the same steps, and leap, there are three posibilities of some- thing happening: you will leap as normal, you will leap back to the same spot as yourself, or you will..." Al puffed on his cigar. "Go to the Otherworld?" Sam finshed for his friend. "Yeah," Al sighed and walked around the room. "Ziggy is convinced that the mound is a doorway to another dimension, one that is opened by..." "Walking clockwise three times around the mound, with four leaf clovers wet with dew on your eyelids so that you can see the truth." Sam flashed a crooked smile at Al. "It's all there in Jeffery's notes." "Well," Al was at a loss of words. "According to Ziggy, walking clockwise three time will build up a magnetic charge, one that will cause the door- way to partially open. That's what the bobbing lights were about. You leaped in as Wallace was about halfway through the third circle." Al punched at the handlink. "When you leap, the energy discharge should be enough to cause a temporary rip in the space-time continuum, which is what you do anyhow when you leap. This rip will be the doorway -- which you could leap through. Ziggy doesn't have all the variables figured out yet. She wants a baseline model, and there's none available." Sam continued to look out the window, trying to filter out the ever present music. "When do I have to do this?" "What? You're actually going to do this?" Al dropped the cigar which vanished as it left his hands. "You must be out of your swiss cheesed mind! I'm not going to let you do this!" "Relax, Al;" Sam turned away from the window. "It's Jeffery who vanished, not me. I think that everything is going to work out fine. Now, when?" Al scowled at Sam. "Anytime after sunset, but Ziggy suggests midnight in order to put as much of the earth between you and the sun for shielding. She's not sure what's going to happen, Sam, but we know this -- due to the magnetic interference, it's unlikely we'll be able to monitor you. Ziggy is trying to run an adaptive imaging program, but until you...do whatever it is, she had no idea if it will work." "It will, Al. Trust me." *** Al emerged from the imaging chamber, muttering under his breath. The kid was going whacko and he couldn't help out. He climbed down the stairs to hear Ziggy playing some music. It was a haunting tune, one that he didn't recognize. He listened to the chorus, which was sung by a woman. "I can see the lights in the distance Trembling in the dark cloak of night Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing A waltz on All Souls Night." "Ziggy, what song is that from?" "The song is called, appropriately enough, 'All Souls Night," Ziggy's voice was subduded. "The artist is Loreena McKennitt, and it's from her CD titled 'The Visit.' I ran across it searching for more references." "Any luck?" "No, Admiral. Most of the data that Commander Sara downloaded to me is timelocked with codes that not even I can supercede. The best I can do, if Father really intends to go through with the doorway activation, is to boost the microfusion generator and try to cut through the interference with the adaptive program. I will have the retrieval program loaded, but hold little hope that I can cut through the interference." "Anything else we can do?" "Pray, Admiral." Ziggy went silent.