From: Coast2C@aol.com
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 21:18:35 -0400
Message-ID: <960430210414_387198529@emout13.mail.aol.com>
Subject: Convergence:  Part 2 of 25

Convergence
by 
Dana Anderson

Part 2 of  25      (Author's Notes and Disclaimer found in Part 1)

*               *               *               * 

Al grabbed a quick breakfast and checked back with Gushie.  Ziggy 
was still insisting that Jenna Tyler did not exist.  Not being in the 
mood to pace back and forth in the Control Room, Al decided to 
spend some more time with Sam.  Gushie had a tendency to get even 
more nervous than usual when the Admiral was out of sorts.  He 
would get farther with Ziggy without Al making him jumpy.  Also, 
Sam was definitely not the military type.  He was going to have a 
hell of a time impersonating Jenna Tyler.  She was a serious 
recruiting poster type if that perfect uniform was any indication of 
her personality.

*               *               *               *  

September 1st, 1989 appeared around Al again and he found himself 
standing in the middle of a moving car.  Al reached over and pulled 
up a chair and positioned it so that he would appear to Sam to be 
sitting in the back seat of the car and sat down.

"Hi, Sam" Al said.  "Gushie still hasn't gotten Ziggy to admit that 
Jenna exists, so I decided to come back and help you play G.I. Joe 
until they come up with something."

Sam gave Al a barely perceptible nod without turning around.

"Have you reconsidered that trip to Washington I suggested?" Al 
asked.

Sam shook his head with a little more emphasis than his previous 
movement.

"Some friend" Al complained.

Paul turned the car into an unmarked, narrow road which led uphill 
through a stand of trees.  As they reached a level stretch of road, 
Sam looked up at the bulk of the mountain which rose above them.  
The road led to a gate in a tall electrified fence with concertina wire 
strung along the top.  Signs on the fence read 'Restricted Area:  
Keep Out'.  Two military policemen manned the gate.  One 
approached the car while the other stood to the side; they were both 
armed.  Paul was reaching into his breast pocket.

"Sam, check your shirt pocket for a security card" Al said.

Sam slapped the front of his shirt on one side, then the other.  
"That's real lady-like, Sam" Al said, in a disgusted tone.  Sam had 
the grace to return a sheepish look and produced the security card 
from the second pocket.  The military policeman scrutinized both 
cards, returned them, waved the car through the gate and saluted as 
the car began to move.

"Return the salute, Sam" Al prompted.  Sam followed Paul's actions 
as well as he could.  "Button your pocket.  You're not supposed to 
walk around with unbuttoned pockets" Al told him.  "Well, I guess 
we've established that you're no lady and you're certainly not 
General Patton" he added.

Sam rolled his eyes.  He really hated it when Al ragged him when 
there was someone else around and he couldn't answer back without 
appearing to be a nut case.

The road opened up into a long, narrow parking lot with just enough 
room for two way traffic and a single row of parked cars on either 
side.  Paul pulled into an empty space and cut the engine.  They got 
out of the car and continued on foot in the same direction they had 
been driving.  After they had walked a hundred yards or so, Sam 
saw a huge opening cut into the mountainside.  There was a guard 
post here as well.  Another M.P. checked their security cards and 
saluted them.  Sam did a little better with his salute this time.

A road led into the mountain, but there was also a raised walkway 
with a railing.  There was only room for them to proceed single file, 
so Sam dropped back behind Paul and Al trailed along behind.

"Kind of reminds me of the Project complex, except that's cold and 
dry and this looks cold and wet" Al said, looking at the water 
trickling down the rock walls of the tunnel.

The road made several opposing turns and descended in a fairly 
extreme grade.

"I wonder what they've got down here" Al remarked.

As they came around what they discovered to be the final turn, they 
were blinded by the glare of sodium lamps.  There was a huge metal 
door with security cameras positioned to provide a view of the entire 
area.

Paul punched a large green button and stood clearly within view of 
the security camera and waited.  Sam could hear the sound of 
pneumatic assisted gears working in the door. 

"Sam, that's a bomb blast door.  The tunnel, the door; this place 
is designed to withstand a direct hit by a nuclear weapon!  Paul 
and Jenna must be into something top secret." Al exclaimed.

The huge door swung open slowly, pushed by a single military 
policeman.  Sam was impressed by the engineering.  It must have 
required careful counterweighting for one person to be able to 
perform the operation.  Paul, Sam and Al entered the cavernous 
room on the other side of the door and Al heard a sudden intake of 
breath from Sam.

"What wrong, Sam?  You can't be claustrophobic in a room this 
large" Al said.

"I've been here before" Sam whispered out of the side of his mouth.  
Sam fell an extra step behind Paul in an attempt to allow only Al to 
hear him.  "Just before I found myself in the living room of the 
Tyler's quarters I was here."

"Ziggy did say that you leaped into the same person twice.  Don't 
say anything else right now, just take a good look around and then 
follow Paul through the check-in procedure" Al told him.  "Once we 
get to wherever you work we'll find a place for a quiet talk."  Al 
thought for a moment.  "But _not_ the men's room" he couldn't 
resist reminding Sam. 

Paul stood in the center of the large room until the M.P. closed the
exterior door.  Another M.P. waved Paul and Sam over to a counter 
that was protected by a large pane of bulletproof glass.  Paul 
exchanged his security card for a photo ID badge at the security 
check point.  Sam followed suit and clipped his badge to the flap of 
one breast pocket in imitation of Paul's actions.  When this activity 
had been completed, a third M.P opened an interior door that was a 
miniature replica of the bomb blast door they had already passed 
through.  Sam followed Paul through the doorway.  

"Take your hat off, Sam." Al said.  

Sam complied as he followed Paul up several flights of stairs.  Paul
opened a door on the fourth landing and gestured for Sam to precede 
him.  Sam stepped through and Paul allowed the door to swing shut 
as he started down the hallway.  He stopped at a door and turned.  
"I don't have time to stop in this morning.  Give me a call when 
you're ready for lunch and I'll join you if I'm not too busy" Paul said.  
"Have a good day."  With that he turned and continued down the 
hallway.

Sam grabbed the doorknob and turned it, but the door didn't budge.  
There was a panel with numbered push buttons on the wall next to 
the latch.

"Whoops, road block number one" Al said.  "The door has a 
combination lock.  You're supposed to know the code."

At that moment, the door opened from the inside and Sam was face 
to face with a startled young soldier carrying an empty coffee pot.

"Sorry, Colonel" the soldier said.

"That's all right, er" Sam began.

"Private" Al prompted Sam.  "Private Reiger" he added, getting the 
name and rank from the soldier's fatigue shirt.

"That's all right, Private.  I seem to have forgotten the combination" 
Sam ad libbed.

"It's the first of the month, Colonel" the private said.  "The 
combination was changed at midnight.  It's 3-6-5-3-2-4 now, 
ma'am."

"Of course" Sam said.  "Thank you, Private Reiger."

"You're welcome, Colonel" the private said and held the door while 
Sam entered, then headed down the hallway with the coffee pot.

"That was a stroke of luck" Al remarked.  "Now you can get in 
without waiting for someone else to come or go through the door."

Sam was looking around with a smile on his face.  He was starting 
to feel at home.  Sam and Al stood in the doorway to a large 
laboratory.  There were work benches and electronic equipment 
everywhere and several large chalkboards on the walls.  The 
chalkboards were covered with mathematical notation and electronic 
circuit diagrams.  At the far end of the room was a piece of 
electronic equipment that, from the decidedly non-assembly line 
construction, appeared to be a prototype of some kind.  There were 
doors on either end of the large room leading to other labs.  Directly 
ahead was a glass enclosed office with the inscription 'Lt. Colonel 
Tyler' on the door.

Sam and Al went into the office and Sam closed the door behind 
them.  "There's a duty roster and chain of command on those 
clipboards behind you, Sam" Al pointed out.  "They should tell us 
what you do around here."

Sam walked around the desk and retrieved the clipboards from the 
hooks on the wall.  He sat down at the desk and Al looked over his 
shoulder.  "Wow" Al said.  "You're in command of the Electronics 
and Communications Research Section.  That should make for a fun 
day."

"Well, it's more in line with my background than most of the other 
jobs I've had to undertake since I've been leaping" Sam said.  "If I 
have to be a woman, this is the one to be.  At least I'm not an exotic 
dancer or something equally degrading."

"Have I told you lately that you're a real wet blanket, Sam?" Al 
queried.

"Repeatedly" Sam replied.

"Just checking" Al said.  "Okay" he continued "you have eight 
people reporting to you in your lab.  You also have four officers in 
other labs with staffs of their own who are under your command.  
The work day starts at eight so shortly after that your NCOIC should 
bring you a personnel report for your staff and the other officers 
should give you their reports.  Then you call your complete 
personnel status in to the commanding officer's orderly room.  It's 
seven forty now, so we've got some time.  Tell me what you 
remember about your last leap."

"Not much" Sam admitted.  "I remember that room, though."

"Was there anyone else there?" Al asked.  "Do you remember the 
M.P.s, Paul, anyone?"

"I think Paul was there, at least I seem to remember seeing his face.  
I don't think I was there very long.  A few minutes at the most" Sam 
said.

"Ziggy says the first time you leaped into Jenna was at eight o'clock
tonight.  That's kind of a long work day for a Friday before a long 
weekend" Al remarked as he operated the handlink.

"Long weekend?" Sam repeated.

"Yeah," Al said "Monday is Labor Day.  It doesn't mean much for 
most military personnel, but an eight to five operation like this 
probably gets a holiday."  He glanced at the duty roster.  "Yup" he 
pointed to the clipboard "everyone's off on Monday."

"Why do you suppose she worked so late?" Sam wondered.

"I saw those chalkboards in the lab" Al snorted.  "She's probably just
like you; there's no such thing as a normal work day when there's 
one more calculation to be figured."

"Maybe" Sam said "but why did I leap in for a couple of minutes 
almost twelve hours from now and then leap back into the same 
person at six fifteen this morning?"

"And why didn't she show up in the Waiting Room?" Al added.  
"And what are you here to change?"

"Lots of questions and no answers so far" Sam sighed.  He pushed 
the chair back away from the desk.  "I'm going to take a look around 
the lab.  I might get some clues if I find out what she's working on."

"Good idea" Al said.

They spent the next two hours wandering around the lab and poking 
into everything.  They were interrupted several times in the first half 
hour with the personnel reports that Al had warned Sam about.  
When the final report came in, Sam called in the overall status, 
under Al's expert tutelage, to the commanding officer's clerk.  

The lab was fairly busy, with some of Jenna's staff crafting prototype
circuitry by following the diagrams on the chalkboards and the 
others fetching and carrying or taking care of administrative 
functions.  They studiously ignored Sam while he scrutinized the 
chalkboards.  

Al spent some time looking over the shoulders of the technicians 
and making comments about their expertise and working habits.  He 
checked with Gushie from time to time to see if any progress had 
been made in getting Ziggy to come up with any data on Jenna 
Tyler.  Every time Sam heard the beeping noises from the handlink 
he would look over at Al, but each time Al simply shook his head.  
Finally, Al got bored with the atmosphere in the lab and Sam's 
distraction with the calculations he had been studying.

"I'm going to check on Paul" Al said.  "Maybe whatever you're here 
to do has something to do with him.  Anyway, if you're going to call 
him at lunch time you'll need his extension.  I'll center in on him 
and read it off his phone dial."

Sam just nodded.  There were too many people around for him to 
risk a conversation with an invisible person.

"Gushie" Al said to the air around him "center me on Paul."

*               *               *               *  

Al's apparent surroundings changed in the blink of an eye to an 
office that was a near twin to the one Al and Sam had found in 
Jenna's lab.  Paul was sitting at the desk talking on the phone.  Al 
looked over the paperwork on his desk and then leaned over to 
check the extension number on the phone dial.  He was just about to 
pop back to Sam's location when something in Paul's voice caused 
him to stop and listen.

"Are you sure you won't change your mind?" Paul said to the phone.  
He listened for a moment.  "All right, I'll give you a call next week, 
then. So long, sweet stuff" he said and hung up.

Al's eyes narrowed.  "That sounds suspicious, fella.  Are you up to 
what I _think_ you're up to?"

Paul sighed and took a notebook out of his drawer.  He started to flip 
through the pages.  Al moved around the desk to look over his 
shoulder.  His eyes went wide and round.  "You dirty dog" Al 
snarled.  

Paul paused at one entry and smiled.  "Lovely Laura" he said aloud.  
He picked up the phone and dialed a number.  "Hello, beautiful.  It's 
Paul" he said.  "Do you have any plans for tonight or would you like 
to hear what I have in mind?"  Paul listened to the person he had 
called for a moment, then laughed.  "I think I can improve on that.  
Pick you up at seven?  Okay, I'll see you then.  Bye now" he said and 
hung up.  "Yes!" he exclaimed, and put the notebook away.  

Al sputtered in fury for a minute or two, but was frustrated by the 
fact that any crushing remark he managed to come up with would go 
unnoticed by anyone here except Sam.  Paul returned to the 
paperwork on his desk and Al settled for a backhanded swipe at 
Paul's head which, of course, did not connect.

"Gushie" Al shouted "center me on Sam."

*               *               *               *  

Al reappeared in Jenna's lab.  "That dirty so and so" he began in a 
loud voice, startling Sam.  Sam pointed at Jenna's office and Al took 
the hint.

Sam walked into the office and closed the venetian blinds that 
covered the glass partitions.  Al popped in, the fury still evident on 
his face.

"What's the matter, Al?" Sam asked as he closed the last blind.

"Paul, that's what!" Al exploded.  "Do you know what he was doing 
when I went to check on him?  He was calling up women!  He's got 
a little black book... well it's really blue, but you know what I 
mean..."

"Calm down, Al" Sam suggested.  "You're not making any sense."

"_Sense_?  Why should it make _sense_!?" Al roared.  He saw the 
look of patience on Sam's face and realized there was no point in 
yelling at Sam when it was Paul who had made him angry.  Al 
clenched his fists, closed his eyes and counted to ten.  Sam could tell 
what Al was doing and when his friend opened his eyes again they 
looked a little more rational.

"Better?" Sam asked.

"Just barely" Al replied.

"Start at the beginning and try to stay calm" Sam recommended.

Al took a deep breath and let it out again.  "I had Gushie center me 
on Paul" he began.  "He has an office just like this one down the 
hall.  He was on the phone but I didn't pay attention to what he was 
saying at first.  I took a look at the papers on his desk.  They were 
mostly administrative stuff; budgets and staffing, that sort of thing.  
I checked the phone dial to get his extension and was about to come 
back here when something caught my attention."  Al stopped to take 
another breath.

"Spit it out, Al" Sam said.

"He said something about the person he was talking to changing 
their mind, then he said something about calling them next week" 
Al continued.

"So he was talking to a drinking buddy or trying to get up a game of 
basketball" Sam said.

"Most guys don't call their drinking buddies 'sweet stuff'" Al 
snapped.

"Oh" Sam said.  "I guess not."

"Yeah, I guess not, too" Al agreed.  "It gets worse.  After he hangs 
up, he pulls a notebook out of his desk drawer and starts looking 
through it.  I looked over his shoulder; page after page of women's 
names and phone numbers.  He must have over a hundred names in 
that book.  He called someone named Laura and made a date with 
her for seven tonight!"  Al's face was flushed with outrage again and 
he was breathing hard.

"Calm down, Al" Sam said.  "You're hyperventilating."

"'Calm down'?" Al shouted.  "No wonder she jumps him in the 
head!  It's probably the only time she can get him alone.  He's got 
enough on the side to be stepping out on her every night of the 
week!"

"I can't believe this is Al Calavicci I'm talking to" Sam remarked.

"Hold on a minute, Sam" Al retorted.  "I may be fond of the ladies, 
but I'm a free agent.  This guy is married _and_ he's neglecting his 
wife."

"I see your point" Sam said.  "So  you think I'm here to get Paul to 
walk the straight and narrow?"

"Maybe" Al replied.  "Or maybe you're here to bust the guy and give 
Jenna a fresh start."

While Sam was considering Al's opinion, he reached up and 
unclipped the security badge from his pocket flap.  He gazed at the 
photo on it for a few moments in silence.  Al noticed his scrutiny 
and walked around the desk to look over his shoulder.  

"Yeah, she's beautiful all right" Al remarked.  

"That's not what I was thinking" Sam said.  "Ever since I saw her ID 
card this morning I've had the feeling that I know her."

"Really?" Al inquired.  "Can you remember anything about her?"

Sam closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again and 
shrugged.  "When I smiled at her reflection in the mirror there was 
a flash of something, but I haven't been able to make the 
connection."

"Maybe you saw her reflection when you leaped into her tonight" Al 
suggested.

Sam shook his head.  "I don't think so.  I wasn't there very long. 
Besides, in the glimpse of memory I had I think she was talking 
to me."

"Is there a mirror around here?" Al asked.  "You could try smiling 
into it again and see if that jogs your memory some more."

As Sam started looking through the desk drawers for a mirror, Al's
handlink beeped.  Al punched a few buttons.  "What did you say, 
Gushie?" Al said to the ceiling.  His eyes widened and he looked 
back at Sam.  "Gotta go, Sam.  Gushie says there's a visitor in the 
Waiting Room" Al informed him.

"Since I'm still here I guess it must be the non-existent Jenna Tyler" 
Sam said.

"I can't _wait_ to hear Ziggy explain this" Al said as he operated 
the door to the Imaging Chamber.

*               *               *               *  

End Part 2 of  25