Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 16:32:54 -0600 (MDT) From: "Katherine R. Freymuth" Subject: Whale ch 10 Message-ID: Chapter 10 "What do you mean 'if only it were'?" Verbina asked in concern. "Al, what's wrong?" Al didn't hear Verbina's question. "Ensign Hastings, report to the Control Room immediately," he ordered over the complex's intercom. "What is going on, Al?" Verbina demanded as Gushie came into the room, a pad in his hand. "Admiral," he said before Al could answer Verbina. "I have an update on the security system." "Please, let it be good news," Al prayed. "I'm afraid it isn't," Gushie answered. "The entire system needs to be replaced." "Replaced!" Al exclaimed. "_Deve essere uno scherzo!_(*) How long would that take?" "I can't be certain. It depends on how soon we can get the new system. It could be early as a week or as late as a couple of months." Al sighed and rubbed his eyes in frustration. "_Accidempoli_!(**)" "Al!" Verbina insisted his attention. "You're speaking in Italian. What's wrong?" She was again interrupted by a person entering the Control Room. "Ensign William Hastings reporting as ordered, sir," the young man stated with a respectful salute which Al returned. "Ensign, take your place at the Waiting Room door beside Lieutenant Jamese." "Aye, sir," the Ensign answered, obeying his orders. "Another guard on the Waiting Room?" Gushie wondered. Al took a deep breath and exhaled with resignation. He looked at both Gushie and Verbina. "You're not going to believe who's in the Waiting Room." "Who?" Verbina asked. Al looked directly into her eyes. "Zoe." "Zoe?" Gushie questioned. Al nodded his head to Verbina's incredulous expression. "Somehow, Sam has leaped into Zoe." Gushie was still very much confused. "Who's Zoe?" "She's the other leaper," Verbina explained. "She's been putting wrong what once went right." "But, I thought she was killed by Dr. Beckett," Gushie responded. "Well, obviously she wasn't!" Al exclaimed, pacing the Control Room nervously. "She was there at the end of Sam's last leap. We have to assume that she somehow survived that shot Sam put in her." "How can you be so sure that person is Zoe?" Verbina asked skeptically. "Because she recognized me!" "How could she? She's never seen you!" "Verbina, look at me! I'm in my dress uniform! My rank told her who I was! I mean, not a lot of people are allowed to go into the Waiting Room. It's probably the same where she's from. Not to mention that their computer is just as complicated as Ziggy! Their computer probably has information about all of us!" "Some of Admiral Calavicci's theories have valid reasoning," a female voice interjected. "Thank you, Ziggy. Now, stay out of this!" Al complained. He received an insulted huff from the computer as a response. "So, what are you going to do?" Gushie asked after a moment of silence. "Well, for one thing, we'll have to confirm my suspicions. We can't just assume that the person in the Waiting Room is Zoe. Another thing, I'll have to tell Sam. In the meantime, we have to find out just what Sam has to do so he can do it and get the hell out of her! Ziggy, I want you to..." "You told me to stay out of it," she chided in a voice which indicated bruised feelings. "I apologize for being terse with you, Ziggy," Al told her. "Apology accepted, Admiral." "I want you to theorize on what Sam has to do to leap." "I have already come up with a theory." "Why didn't you tell us before?" "No one asked," she answered. Al sighed in frustration. "Okay, what is it, then?" "Based on Dr. Beckett's current location, there is an 84% chance that he must prevent the Khrushchev from ramming a Greenpeace ship named the Eisenhower." "The Eisenhower?" Al questioned. "What's next? The Churchill?" "I'm afraid that would be inconsistent with the pattern," Ziggy commented. "Ha. Ha," Al replied to the comment. "Well, his mission hasn't changed much, has it?" he said more than asked. A look crossed his face. "Wait a minute. If Sam is on the Khrushchev just before that ramming and Sam has leaped into Zoe, then..." "That is correct, Admiral. Dr. Beckett has leaped into Captain Petri Rustov, whom Alik Roulier intends to kill." Al exhaled. "Ziggy, set up the Imaging Chamber. I'm going back into the Waiting Room to prove our theory." "Did I shock you, Admiral?" Zoe asked Al as he entered the Waiting Room. "You can imagine what a shock it was to me to find myself looking at Dr. Beckett's reflection in the mirror." "How the hell did you get here?" Al demanded more than asked. "You mean you don't know?" Zoe exclaimed. "Oh, how interesting!" Al glared at him. "I know Dr. Beckett has leaped into you," Al told her. "That means that he's leaped into Captain Rustov, doesn't it? Just exactly what were you doing on that ship? Were you supposed to ram the Eisenhower or was that an added bonus to killing Alik Roulier? Or vice versa?" Zoe raised her eyebrows. "Kill Alik Roulier? Hmmm! Sounds... amusing! Tell me this, Admiral, just for my own curiosity. Thames insisted that the good doctor wasn't aboard the Khrushchev but from your words, I take he was wrong. Wasn't he?" That was all Al needed as proof. The name of Zoe's Observer proved the theory. That meant Al had his work cut out for him. He would have to rearrange the duty roster to allow for tougher security on the Waiting Room door. "What makes you think that?" Al questioned. Zoe lowered her eyelids. "Because I knew he was there, the same way you know who Dr. Beckett is when you see him in your Holographic Observatory. I just knew he was aboard. That is all there is to it." Al turned to leave. "Leaving so soon?" Zoe asked. "I've got what I want. For now," Al told her and left the room without a word. Once he was out, he ordered Hastings and Jamese to keep a close eye on the door. He then went into the Imaging Chamber, ready to drop the big news on Sam. "Who's in the Waiting Room?" Sam exclaimed upon Al's news. "The Evil Leaper," Al repeated plainly. Sam had been dressing as Al spoke to him. The morning had come within three hours on Sam's leap in and he could hear the sounds of men working outside his cabin. "Zoe? Al, that's impossible! Petri Rustov is in the mirror, not Zoe!" "Sam, you're forgetting the principles of Quantum Leaping. The aura of a person never changes regardless of who's in the person. You see Rustov because you are him, even though he is probably in their Waiting Room." "Well, then, why did Zoe leap into Rustov in the first place?" Al looked at him with a slight frown. "You don't remember the end of your last leap, do you?" Sam paused with thought. He shook his head. "I don't remember anything about my last leap. Everything is a blur." He took a breath. "I do remember that, when I leaped in here, I had this odd feeling that I hadn't really leaped into the person who I see in the mirror." "Well, you got that much right, that's for sure," Al told him. Sam sat down and exhaled slowly. There was obviously something bothering him. "I can feel her inside me, Al," he whispered. "And it scares the hell out of me." Al looked at his friend with concern. He had seen this sort of thing before. It wasn't uncommon for Sam to take up some of the leapee's traits when he leaped into someone. But if this was anything like when Sam leaped into Oswald.... "You can do this, Sam," Al told him firmly. "I know you think you can feel her but she isn't really there. When you leap, you're Dr. Sam Beckett. Zoe can't make you do anything you know is wrong because she isn't in you. Do you understand?" Sam shook his head. "But she is in me, Al." He took a breath. "These thoughts that I keep having, they're not my own." "But you're still in control, aren't you?" Al told him. Sam nodded. "Then don't let those thoughts stop you, no matter what," Al ordered. "Keep reminding yourself that you're Sam Beckett. Zoe isn't here. You are." Sam nodded again. "So why did Zoe leap into Rustov?" "To sink the Khrushchev and the Eisenhower by causing the ships to collide." Sam suddenly had a vision in his mind. Zoe was holding his wrist tightly with an evil grin on her face while the two of them were in the middle on an earthquake. At least, it felt like an earthquake. "She succeeded the first time," Sam realized. Al nodded. "You remember." "Vaguely," Sam replied. "She was trying to keep me from leaping. She wanted me to go down with the ships." Al nodded. "That's right." He raised the handlink. "Ziggy says there's an 84%..." He hit the handlink. "... a 96% chance that you're here to keep the two ships from colliding." "What's the Khrushchev's current course?" Al checked the handlink. "Heading straight for the Eisenhower," he answered. Sam smiled. "Then all I have to do is change course and I'll leap." "No, you can't do that, Sam!" "Why not?" "Because the moment you leap, Zoe will change it back to the way it was! You have to do it in a way that Zoe can't change when she leaps back." "Okay. How do I do that?" "I don't know." "You don't know?! Al!" "Sam, I have a lot of things to worry about right now. You have to give us a little time to come up with theories. Zoe's in the Waiting Room and the only security I have are twenty men who haven't had a lot of sleep recently. This isn't a picnic for me, Sam." "Okay. Okay. I'm sorry," Sam told Al sincerely. "I'm sorry too, Sam. But, until I get the problem with the security system and Zoe solved, you're on your own here. Go ahead and change course but don't leap!" With that, Al opened the Imaging Chamber door and left. "Great," Sam muttered as he left his cabin to face the latest leap. (*)You've got to be kidding! (**)Oh, boy! (what else did you expect!)