Colonel Christian Racene’s eyes were closed, and his head was propped back against the wall of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster as it rocked and creaked. The sun had not yet crested the horizon, and if he had been in the cockpit, he would have been able to see the millions of stars that were visible to the naked eye in the desert sky. His wife was from Nevada, and she had always regaled him with tales of how incredible the night sky there was. Since there was very little ambient light to wash out the radiance of the stars and the topography tended to be flat in the desert regions, one could see the stars relatively unhindered.
He groaned and stretched his toned six-foot-one frame and yawned. Perhaps if he got some free time on this assignment, he would steal a jeep and take a night drive out into the desert. Of course, he almost never had any free time, not even when he was on leave. Much to his wife’s irritation, his career monopolized almost one hundred percent of his time and energy. He was surprised she hadn’t already divorced him, but he guessed when you really loved someone, you could put up with almost anything. She certainly hadn’t fallen in love with him for his sense of humor, which was as dry as the Nevada desert and filled with dad jokes even before they had had children.
The load master signaled for him to make sure he was strapped in for the landing when he felt the plane jolt as the landing gear deployed. He ran his hand through his dirty-blond hair that was starting to become more salt than pepper and scrunched his forehead up, squinting his ice-blue eyes, which extenuated the slight care lines that had taken up residence there. He really could use twelve hundred milligrams of ibuprofen and a double shot of espresso.
It had been a long flight from Dover AFB, which was the closest base from Two Independence Square Washington DC that was flying supplies to Groom Lake. Thanks to the ambient noise in the back of the C-17, he had not slept much on the flight. He hated the noise-canceling headphones, both inner and outer forms, and opted to listen to an audiobook instead. Of course, that only added to his insomnia, so the only sleep he had managed to get were a few cat naps here and there.
The sudden jolt as the plane hit the tarmac and decelerated knocked him out of his thoughts. Since he was not wearing any ear protection, the loud noise from the engines made his head throb even more than it already did. He grimaced and closed his eyes, trying futilely to force away the stabbing pain. The engines eventually subsided as the plane came to a stop and so did his headache.
He blew out heavily but did not open his eyes, not wanting to return to the land of the living just yet. His hand went reflexively to the locket he wore around his neck, and he caressed it gently, feeling the smooth metal between his fingers. The feel of the locket always helped to calm him. Inside of its simple silver frame was a tiny picture of his wife and daughter. His wife had given it to him for Christmas a few years ago as a gift so he could always have his family near his heart.
He chuckled softly to himself at the memory. His wife was sentimental like that and was always saying things like she was speaking a dialogue from something made for a TV sitcom. Even though her obvious stereotypical female corniness drove him nuts, he had to admit, it was one of the things that he loved most about her. That, and her impossibly large brown eyes. Good God, he had gotten lost in those eyes the first time she had glanced his way, and thankfully, he had never found his way back out again.
Much to his dismay, his daughter had been born with the same impossibly large eyes. As soon as she first turned and looked at him, he knew instantly that his heart had been captured once again. Now there was nothing in this world or the next that he would not fight for his family. He would move heaven and earth if that was what was required of him. Future suitors beware, because as far as he was concerned, no one was good enough for his little girl. The truth was, he had no idea what he would do if he ever lost them. Lose his mind most likely.
He could hear the whine of the rear hatch of the plane as it slowly lowered. He finally opened his eyes and squinted as the light hit them. The loadmaster had turned up the interior lights, and his eyes needed a few seconds to adjust. Thankfully, his headache only returned as a dull throb instead of the full-on pounding of before.
Reluctantly he reached down and unlatched his restraints, retrieved his pack and laptop, and gingerly rose to his feet. The airmen had already begun unloading the supplies, and he had to navigate around them in order to exit the aircraft. As soon as he reached the end of the plane, he was instantly assaulted by the piercing brightness from two spotlights that were being used to illuminate the aircraft’s cargo bay. He grimaced, raising his right hand and wincing as he squinted in an attempt at warding off the invading light.
“Colonel Racene?” a female voice asked.
All Christian could make out through the glow were the silhouettes of two people. He squinted in an attempt to make out more detail but was unsuccessful.
“Yeah,” he grunted. “I know you all here are supposed to be the brightest minds in the world, but can you turn it down just a little before you blind me?”
He heard a slight snicker from someone in the back but not from the person who had just addressed him. He guessed not everyone appreciated his humor. She was most likely not yet acquainted with just how awesome the dad joke truly was. Hopefully, he would have time to educate her.
“Colonel, I know you have just arrived, and I am sure it has been a long flight, but we are on a tight schedule,” she replied after a few seconds of silence. He thought he could detect a slight hint of annoyance in her voice but was not completely sure. “If you would be so kind, we have a car waiting for you.”
All business and no play, he thought to himself with a sigh. Well, this was the military and the clandestine super secretive side of it at that. One thing he loved about working at NASA was that even though it was filled with Ph.D.’s of every kind, most of them had some semblance of a sense of humor. Well, everyone but the director.
He made his way down to the ground deftly avoiding a large forklift that sped past him and up the ramp. As soon as he made it to the end of where the lights were, he was met by a tall master sergeant. The man gave him a crisp salute, which he returned in kind, and then reached out and took his bag. The airmen turned slightly and motioned Christian toward a waiting black sedan with tinted windows and government plates that was parked about fifty yards away.
The woman who had spoken to him earlier walked up and extended her hand. He noticed the glint of the silver birds on her shoulders as she extended her arm. He could not make out every detail of her face, but he could tell she was in her mid-thirties and African American.
He took her hand, shook it, and nodded warmly. “Pleasure to meet you, Colonel…?”
“Johnson,” she replied as she motioned for them to continue moving toward the car. She turned and started walking toward the vehicle as she spoke. He shrugged and fell into step next to her. “I am Doctor Aniya Johnson, and I am the director of Project Wonderland.”
Christian scrunched up his forehead. “Project Wonderland? As far I understood it, all of the projects here at Groom lake, aka Area 51”—he used his fingers to make air quotes—“had to do with experimental aircraft and weaponry. Project Wonderland is primarily concerned with the study of proving the existence of alternate dimensions through gravity anomalies.”
They reached the car, and the tall master sergeant opened the rear passenger side door for him. He dipped his head and got in as Colonel Johnson made her way to the driver’s side and got in beside him. Before he even had a chance to close his door and fasten his seatbelt, the master sergeant was already in the driver’s seat and had the car running.
“I guess I should not be surprised that you know about Project Wonderland since it is primarily based on your research,” she said with a sigh as she fastened her seatbelt.
“Well,” he said with a shrug, “I do work for NASA, and I have top-secret clearance. Comes with the territory when you are one of the president’s science advisors. Plus, POTUS loves my book on anti-gravity. He found it impossible to put down.”
Colonel Johnson ignored his joke and tapped the headrest of the driver’s seat in front of her, and the master sergeant sprang into action. She grimaced as they sped away from the parked C-17, took in a deep breath to calm herself, and turned back to face Christian. “Colonel Racene,” she said through pursed lips. “Have you been briefed on why it is you were called here?”
Now that he was sitting close to her, he examined her face and realized she was older than she had first appeared. Colonel Johnson was in her early forties, fit, and strikingly beautiful with piercing dark-brown eyes that bored into him with the intensity of a star. Like most military officers, she had her long raven hair up and pulled tight around her head and wore little to no makeup.
He scrutinized her for a few more seconds before he spoke. “Well, I was pulled out of a lecture on the potential threat of rogue miniature black holes and told I had to be to Dover and on a C-17 as soon as I was able to get my things together, so not much. I barely had time to kiss my wife and little girl goodbye before I was torn away and found myself on a plane heading here. The director of NASA mentioned that it had something to do with a strange gravity anomaly. Other than that, I am in the dark.”
She turned away and looked out the window in contemplation. “I feared as much. Honestly, I was hoping you might have already come up with a working theory on what we are dealing with here.”
He squinted and studied her body language. The way she hugged herself and shivered slightly made her appear apprehensive, frightened even. What exactly was going on here? His gut reaction after having been whisked away so quickly had been that something pretty serious must have happened, and Colonel Johnson’s reaction only confirmed his initial assumptions of the situation.
“Colonel Johnson, what exactly is going on here?” he asked, getting right to the point.
“Aliya,” she said softly. “You can call me Aliya.” She turned to look at him as the car made a sharp turn down a long dirt road, and her head rocked slightly as she reached out to steady herself. He could not make out her eyes since the only ambient light in the car was coming from the touch screen in the center of the dashboard, but he instantly knew she was indeed afraid. Her anxiety was infectious, and he could feel his stomach tightening up.
He fiddled with the locket around his neck and let the smoothness of it calm the pit that was starting to grow in his stomach. “Okay. Aliya. You can call me Christian, or Chris if you prefer.”
Aliya lowered her head and placed her hands in her lap. “I am really not sure, Colonel… I mean Christian,” she replied hesitantly. “We were working in a remote base in Alaska when, out of the blue, we were told to put our current experiments on hold and to relocate our entire program here to Groom Lake. That was only a few months ago, and so much has happened already that I have no idea where to begin. To be honest, we have taken years’ worth of data in the last two days alone, and I have no idea what any of it means. I had hoped you could shed more light on the situation, and that is why I asked for you personally.”
“Okay,” he said soothingly. “I am here now, so what exactly is it that you have discovered that has disturbed you enough to call for me?”
She turned away again and looked out the window. “I am sorry I was curt with you earlier, but the situation is steadily getting worse, and we needed to get moving.”
“No worries,” he said, physically waving her apology aside. “Just be specific about what it is we are facing so I can start formulating a plan of action. As long as you haven’t created a miniature blackhole, then I am pretty sure we can figure out a solution for whatever issues you are having.”
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, and his heart sank. He hoped to God they had not really created an actual blackhole.
She sighed and visibly composed herself before she spoke again. “Well, about six months ago, a gravitational anomaly was discovered in one of the buildings. The workers who entered the building suddenly felt heavier as if someone or something was pushing down on them. At first, no one thought anything of it, because strange things happen here all the time due to all of the different forms of testing, but after one of the aircraft here suddenly fell from the sky for no apparent reason, the brass took notice.”
She paused, contemplating how best to continue. “That’s when we were called in. As soon as I arrived, I noticed that there was a strange aurora around the building at night, as if it was emitting a very high electromagnetic field. Of course, that was not possible since there were no active experiments being performed in that area, but upon further study, we found that something in that specific location was indeed generating some form of electromagnetic energy.”
She paused again, allowing what she had just said to sink in. When she spoke again, her voice was soft. “About two months ago, I was studying the strange anomaly when, all of a sudden, I was thrown to the ground and pinned. I couldn’t move or even breath from the crushing force that was being exerted upon me. It was as if someone had increased the gravity in the room tenfold. Just as I was about to lose consciousness from loss of oxygen, it suddenly stopped. I know it sounds crazy. Heck, I think it’s crazy, and I experienced it for myself firsthand. That was only the beginning of the phenomenon. Everything that has happened since then has become more and more… unbelievable. Christian, I have a PhD in astrophysics, and I can find no rational explanation for what happened to me in that building, nor for what is continuing to happen here at Area 51. If I didn’t know any better, I would blame it on the rumors of extraterrestrials and experimental alien technology, but other than that, I am at a complete loss. This is why I called you. As one of the foremost authorities on gravity and gravitational anomalies, I had hoped you could shed some light on what is happening here.”
He continued to fiddle with his locket as he sat back in his seat, ruminating on what she had just said. Nothing she was describing was possible, at least not outside of theory. Of course, he was sure she was not telling him everything, but what could they have possibly done that would be causing what she described to him?
They came up to a guard tower, and the lights from the building illuminated the interior of the car, allowing him to see her more clearly. She was undoubtedly afraid, and she turned and stared at him with the same pleading eyes that his daughter used when she was unsure and in need of comfort. His heart melted just like it did every time his daughter looked at him like that, and he hoped to God he could live up to her expectations.
Aliya insisted that they go directly to the project site as soon as they had exited the car. He could tell that she was extremely anxious, so he didn’t argue. In truth, he wanted to see just what it was that had disturbed a scientist of her stature. If his memory served, Project Wonderland had recently made a breakthrough in the understanding of dark matter. If they had found a way to manipulate it… well, he silently hoped they had not.
The theory stated that the reason why we could not see dark matter was because it was matter that existed in a parallel dimension. The mass of the matter was so dense, that the effects of it actually bled through the dimensional fabric and into our own reality. Project Wonderland had found gravitational anomalies all over the entire globe that gave credence to this theory. The concept was that it was dark matter not only kept the universe together but held the multiverse in place. It was just a theory of course, but if true, the implications would change our understanding of how the universe functioned.
They made their way quickly past unadorned buildings and hangars as the morning light gradually illuminated the awakening compound. Christian had never been to Area 51, but since he was one of the president’s science advisors, he was aware of all of the current and past projects that had been centered here. Most of the research being conducted had to do with experimental aircraft and weapons systems. It was strange, though, that he had not been briefed on the fact that Project Wonderland had been moved here. What else hadn’t he been informed of?
He jerked slightly as a loud explosion knocked him out of his contemplations. He grunted and squinted as the intensity of the noise caused his head to begin to throb again. He really did need some ibuprofen. The door to the ordinary-looking hangar was raised so he was able to see inside at just what it was that had caused his headache to return.
Two MPs stood to either side of the hangar as a rather tall officer in full dress blues watched the experiment from the doorway. The bald head, slight paunch, and the way the man rested his hands on his hips like a superhero made Christian instantly smile. There was another loud crash, and the man began to flail his pudgy arms around wildly and shout obscenities.
“Well, I will be a monkey’s uncle,” he said as he instantly turned and started heading in the direction of the now shouting man.
He had made it halfway to the hangar before Colonel Johnson realized that he had walked away from her. She threw her hands up in the air, rolled her eyes, and groaned before hurrying after him.
“Colonel Racene!” she called through pursed lips. “We really don’t have time for any distractions.”
He waved her off just as he reached the still fuming officer. As soon as the man saw him approaching, his face lit up, and his ranting ceased. He let out a bellowing laugh that caused his stomach to bounce and his shirt to become slightly untucked. He replaced his hands on his hips and leaned forward slightly as if he was trying to get a better look at the approaching Christian.
“Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus himself! Well, if it isn’t the master of gravity himself!” the man roared, extending his arms out.
Christian embraced the older man, who squeezed him so hard that it caused him to wince. “Okay, old-timer,” he grunted. “You can let go now before you break a rib.”
The officer let go and took a step back to inspect him. “Old-timer?” the man scoffed. “I’m not the one with all this gray on my head.”
Christian ran his hands through his hair reflexively and shot the man a mischievous smile. “That’s because you don’t have any left.”
Aliya was breathing heavily by the time she finally reached the two men. “I should have known you two would know each other,” she groaned.
“Doctor Johnson,” the man said, inclining his head. “You seem out of breath there. You gonna be okay?”
“General,” she replied through breaths. “I will be fine.”
“General Flag here was my first commanding officer. He is also the man who recommended me for the position of science advisor,” Christian exclaimed. “I owe my career to him.”
General Flag blushed and waved the compliment off. “I did nothing of the sort, my boy. All I did was make sure the rest of the brass knew of your genius. How are Alex and Emma?”
“They are doing great. Alex has taken up painting, and Emma has just started the first grade,” he replied with a wide smile.
Flag shook his head and whistled. “When did Emma stop being a baby?” he asked, his ice-blue eyes gleaming. “Last time I saw her, she was just a wee little thing. Oh well, I guess time really does seem to move faster the older you get.”
“I guess we will just have to go find a black hole somewhere so we can slow it down,” Christian said with a laugh.
Both General Flag and Colonel Johnson’s faces darkened slightly. Christian’s eyes flicked between both of them as they glanced at each other grimly. His heart started to beat a little faster, and his hand went reflexively to the locket around his neck. He had known General Flag for years, and he had never known the man to have ever been even remotely spooked. If he were visibly worried, then the situation was far more severe than he had originally supposed.
“General, we really need to be making our way to hangar B-15,” Aliya said, breaking the tension. “I am sure Colonel Racene will have plenty of time to catch up with you afterward.”
“Yes,” he replied, clearing his throat. “I need to get back to my weapons system test anyway.”
“Weapons system?” Christian asked, leaning to the side so he could look past the general and into the dimly lit hangar. “What project are you working on?”
The anxiety from before instantly left the general’s face, and all sense of urgency dissipated as he clapped his hands together in excitement. He leaned forward and put his arm around Christian, turning him toward the hangar. “Project Warhammer, my boy. Are you familiar with it?”
Christian thought for a minute as the general ushered him farther into the large hangar. “Isn’t that the project that was tasked with developing armor for the Space Force designed for void combat in space?”
Aliya fidgeted and rolled her eyes when she saw Christian’s face scrunch up in curiosity. He was like a puppy who had just discovered a squirrel, and she knew that no matter how hard she tried, she was not going to be able to pry him away now. She sighed in resignation and followed them both into the hangar to observe Project Warhammer.
One side of the hangar was mostly empty, while the other was clustered with targets and obstacles of every shape and size. The smell of burning plastic and metal instantly assaulted them as they entered the bay, and a haze of gray-black smoke hung in the air slightly obscuring their vision.
A few meters away, faintly shrouded by the dark mist, stood a massive man-shaped suit of armor. The marine inside the suit was flexing his fingers and turning his wrists, which were both covered in polymer plates the color of unpolished iron. The entire suit was made up of interlocking black-and-gray polymer plates that were connected to a suit of what appeared to be a Kevlar-like substance. He turned his armored head as they approached and peered at them through the T-shaped visor on his helmet.
“General,” the marine said through the speaker system on his helmet. The voice was slightly distorted, as if the man inside was using a voice synthesizer. He inclined his head slightly toward them as he spoke, and Christian was surprised at how flexible the armor was. “Sir. Ma’am.”
“Captain Chau,” the general replied in greeting. “This is Colonel Racene.” He motioned to Christian. “Colonel Johnson here, you already know.”
Aliya inclined her head in greeting. “Captain.”
“The colonel here has come to see what he can do about our little issue over in Hangar 15,” he said, pointing his thumb at Christian. “I thought while he was here, I would let him get a look at the future of modern warfare.”
“Well,” said Captain Chau, “there are still quite a few kinks that need to be worked out, but overall, the armor is functioning very well. Just before you came in, I tested out the strength enhancers and was able to lift and throw a six-hundred-pound object one hundred yards with relative accuracy.”
“I assume that was the loud crash that got my attention earlier,” Christian said.
“Most likely, sir,” Chau replied. “I was also testing the parameters of the shoulder cannon, so that may have been what you heard as well.”
He reached down and quickly punched a few buttons on the touch screen on his right wrist as he spoke. Christian jerked slightly as the backpack the marine was wearing suddenly opened up, and a large cylindrical weapon snapped upward and into place on the marine’s shoulder. The servos whirred as the firearm moved back and forth before coming to a halt, pointing somewhere down range.
“The new modifications allowed me to fire a concentrated plasma blast for three seconds before the system started overheating,” he commented. “The cooldown time before blasts was also at least two seconds shorter, so we are making progress.”
“Excellent!” General Flag exclaimed happily. “Now all we need is the POTUS to actually greenlight the Space Force, and we will be in business.”
“Not to be a bother,” Colonel Johnson interjected, “but we really do need to get to Hangar 15.”
“Yes, of course,” the general replied with a disappointed sigh. “This can wait till after Christian here has used that big brain of his to solve Colonel Johnson’s little problem. Captain, you may return to your duties.”
Even though General Flag seemed to make light of the situation, Christian could sense an undertone of unease in his voice, which started his heart pulsating again. The armored marine captain inclined his head again and then turned and moved back in the direction of the test area. Christian reflexively caressed his locket as he watched the marine leave. He was once again shocked by just how flexible the armor was. He had expected the marine to move with a clunky heavy gait, but that was not the case at all. Instead, Captain Chau moved with a fluidity that should not be possible for how much armor he was wearing.
Christian tore his gaze away from the remarkable armor and back to the two people in front of him. Aliya audibly sighed with relief when the captain finally left, but he noticed that the relief was only temporary as her face tightened up slightly as her anxiety returned. The general’s smile was likewise forced as he motioned for them to head out.
“If you don’t mind, Colonel, I think I will join you,” Flag said, his voice not betraying the obvious unease he felt.
“That would be fine,” she replied, turning and leading the way out of the large hangar.
Christian and Flag shared a quick look before they both turned and followed her out of the hangar and toward the mystery he had been summoned here to solve. Strangely though, it was not apprehension that was slowly creeping into his mind, but excitement. Yes, a man he had known his whole life who was never rattled by anything was certainly disturbed by what was happening here. That fact, however, only heightened the childlike sense of curiosity that was even now rising in his heart.
The air seemed to be charged with electricity as they approached hangar B-15. Christian could not tell if it was his own growing excitement or the strange phenomenon that Aliya had described to him. Certainly, something was going on here since he could feel the hair on his arms standing on end. He reached down and slowly ran his fingers over the hair on his right arm. He actually had goosebumps.
Unlike the rest of the installation, which was now coming to life, this area was devoid of activity. As they approached, both the general and Aliya slowed down. He turned slightly to look at them and saw apprehension clearly etched on their faces. Christian’s hand went to his locket, and he absentmindedly caressed it as he turned away from them and continued on toward the hangar.
As he drew closer, he saw what seemed like a slight haze surrounding the hangar. He squinted as he walked in an attempt at identifying what exactly it was that was causing the fog. His eyes went wide and his heart beat faster when he finally identified what the substance was. The cloud was made up of small grains of sand and rock as if a meteor had crashed here and the debris of the object had been caught in the gravity of a large object.
Of course, this was impossible. In the void of space, objects often became entangled in the gravity of much larger objects, but here on earth, it just wasn’t possible. When he finally managed to reach, for lack of a better word, the debris field, he tentatively reached his hand into it and into the phenomenon.
He jerked slightly as he felt his hand become weightless and rise slightly on its own. It took everything in him not to jerk his hand back as his mind screamed warnings at him. Christian closed his eyes, caressed his locket with his free hand, and breathed out steadily, calming himself. When he had composed himself enough, he opened his eyes and slowly moved his hand through the debris field.
He could feel the particles give way to his hand as he slowly swished it back and forth. A few of the particles moved faster than others and actually moved far enough that they apparently left the gravity field and clacked to the ground at his feet. He looked down at the small rocks and dirt that had fallen on his boots and found nothing out of the ordinary about them.
“Colonel,” Aliya called to him. “Please be careful and don’t go any farther into the anomaly. We still have no idea what is causing this or how dangerous it actually is.”
Christian shook his head, blinked a few times, and then cleared his throat as he removed his hand. He was at a complete loss for words. Never in all of his years as a scientist had he seen anything like this. Certainly, it was possible that there were such gravitational anomalies out in space, but here on earth, it just wasn’t possible.
He looked up at the hangar and saw that the debris field extended outward in a dome shape to about one hundred yards on all sides. There was a massive hole in the top of the hangar as if something had crashed into it. As he continued to examine the structure, he saw that some of the debris from the roof was also suspended in the air above the hangar.
General Flag walked up and stood next to him. He looked up at the hangar and then back at Christian. His eyes held concern and so did his voice. “No one has gone in yet. We felt… well, I felt that it was just not safe. General Thompson agreed, as did the president.”
It took a few minutes for Christian to register that he had spoken. He nodded slowly in response but never took his eyes off of the scene. His hand was still fiddling with the locket as General Flag watched him expectantly.
Christian finally tore his gaze from the debris field and looked at the general. “What kind of tests have you performed on it? If no one has gone in, do we even know what is… in there?”
Aliya, who was still standing a few feet back from them, replied, “So far we have used both absolute and relative gravimeters.” She walked up and handed him a tablet. “Here is the original reconnaissance survey for the area.” She reached out and ran her finger across the screen. “And here is a graph showing the changes in the local absolute and relative gravity.”
Christian stared down at the tablet and squinted. “This is… impossible.”
Aliya gave him a lopsided grin. “So is the debris field, and yet, here it is. To be frank, Colonel, I am completely baffled as to what is going on here.”
Christian was silent for a second before he finally looked up from the tablet and back at the anomaly. “I have a theory.”
General Flag grunted and shot Colonel Johnson a smile. “I told you he could figure it out. My boy here has the biggest brain and imagination I have ever seen.”
Aliya grimaced and rolled her eyes. “So you have said a thousand times.”
Christian turned to look at the two of them, his eyes afire with intensity. “I know I am not supposed to know about it, but I do know that we do indeed have an actual alien spacecraft stored down in the hidden facility below ground.”
General Flag started to protest before Christian cut him off with a raised hand.
Colonel Johnson simply looked away slightly and ran her hand through her hair. “I am one of the president's advisors, and I actually know more than I let on. My field is the study of gravity and the potential it has, so I know there is a ship below us that uses a gravity propulsion system. We still have no idea how it works, but I have theories.”
General Flag pursed his lips and grunted but said nothing. He just stared at Christian for a few seconds before he nodded his head for him to continue.
“From the beginning, I theorized that it actually tapped into the dark matter from other dimensions and used that to rip a hole into other parallel universes and then back into our own at a farther place in time. Of course, the potential environmental implications of using mini wormholes for space travel for both our dimension and theirs is staggeringly catastrophic.”
Colonel Johnson and General Flag glanced at each other nervously. Flag was the one who spoke first. “So you are saying that the aliens who crashed here in the fifties have somehow reactivated the gravity drive?”
“Not exactly,” Christian said excitedly. “But someone has. The way the gravity is fluxing here is not random. After just a few seconds of studying Aliya’s, I mean Colonel Johnson’s data, that became clearly evident. Someone has been slowly increasing the gravity by manipulating the drive, but I doubt it is the beings who created it.”
“Then who?” Aliya interjected.
Christian looked down at the tablet again and then slowly back up to the hangar. “I think it is someone or something from one of the dimensions that run parallel to our own.”
“What did you just say?” exclaimed Flag, furrowing his forehead and leaning forward slightly. “Is that even possible?”
Colonel Johnson responded before Christian had a chance. “Theoretically. But it would require massive amounts of energy.”
“That’s true,” Christian said, nodding his head. “But we don’t really know how it works or what kind of power source it uses.”
“Yes, but how would they know where it even is in our dimension or how to find it?” Aliya asked.
Christian’s face lit up as he turned to look at her. “Well if whoever it is is actually in a parallel universe to our own, it is conceivable that they have an Area 51 as well.”
“And if they have an Area 51, then they might also have an identical alien spacecraft,” Aliya said, finishing his thought.
“Exactly,” he said as his grin widened to a full-blown smile. “If it were me, and I had been the one tasked with studying the craft, that would be exactly what I would do.”
“You two have lost me,” Flag uttered. “So what you are saying is that someone from a parallel universe is the cause of all of this?’
“Precisely,” they both affirmed together.
“I have to inform the president about this immediately,” General Flag exclaimed, pulling out his cell phone.
Before he even had a chance to engage it, the ground began to shake violently beneath them. Aliya staggered and nearly fell before Christian caught her. He drew her close as he attempted to keep them both upright. General Flag, however, had fallen and was now lying on the ground, clutching his right arm and bouncing helplessly from the force of the earthquake.
“What in blazes is going on!” he shouted through gritted teeth before he slammed into the ground so hard, he was knocked unconscious.
Aliya was breathing heavily and pressing her face into Christian’s chest when the ground finally stopped its quaking. Her eyes were closed so tight that she was visibly gritting her teeth. Christian’s hand reflexively went to his locket, and he clutched it tightly, hoping that whatever had just happened was over. It was then that he noticed the hair on his arms rising, and he felt the air around them become heavier.
“God no” was all he was able to say before he heard a loud cracking noise, and the ground around them collapsed.
Christian coughed violently and then crumpled up in pain. He was pretty sure several of his ribs were broken. He was lying on his stomach, so he planted his hands and forced himself over onto his back, nearly losing consciousness in the process. The particles of dust and debris in the air swam in and out of focus as he fought to keep from passing out.
When the pain had subsided enough for him to move again, he took in his surroundings. It was obvious from what he could make out through the debris that they had fallen into the chamber that was directly below where they had been standing. He painfully forced himself into a sitting position with his back leaning up against a large piece of broken earth, nearly throwing up from the pain.
His hand went reflexively to the locket around his neck, and he sighed as he felt its smooth surface in between his fingers. No matter how bad life got, this locket always reminded him he had something to not only fight for but to come home to. Moisture welled up in his eyes, and he blinked rapidly, trying to get enough of the dust and debris out of them to see clearly.
As soon as his vision had cleared, he immediately searched for Aliya and General Flag. To his relief, Aliya was lying only a few feet to his left. From the amount of blood he could make out on her head, he feared that she was dead. He sighed with relief when he recognized the steady rhythmic rising and falling of her chest, proving she was at least still alive. General Flag was nowhere within his field of vision, and he feared the worst.
A low persistent humming noise caught his attention as he continued to scan for any signs that General Flag was still alive. He turned in the direction of the noise and was not surprised to see a large metal saucer-shaped object about thirty yards deep in the chamber. The debris had begun to settle, so he could clearly see the strange pulsating aurora that surrounded the craft. It was immediately evident that it was the cause of the bizarre humming.
As he stared, fixated on the strange undulating lights, the noise steadily increased until it rose to deafening proportions. He grabbed at his ears and gritted his teeth, trying in vain to shut out the loud vibrating noise that rolled over him in steady waves. He could feel himself screaming but could not hear the sound of it over the thunderous vibrations. To his great relief, the sound slowly receded as the lights began to collapse in on themselves, forming a small black tear in the air in front of the strange craft. He was breathing heavily and whimpering from the pain in his head as he stared up into the pulsating black void.
“My God,” he breathed as he watched, wide-eyed, at the small tear gradually expanding.
Christian’s face was awash with every color of the light spectrum as the tear grew and pulsated outward. It finally came to a stop when it reached about six feet in diameter. He watched in horrified fascination as the absolute darkness inside of the wormhole began to pulsate and stretch like fabric as if someone or something was trying to claw their way through it.
With a burst of light that caused Christian to squint and put a hand up to shield his eyes, the material finally tore. When the light finally faded enough for him to see again, he saw that the pulsating darkness had dissipated and was now replaced by a large figure. He blinked away the blobs of color that still lingered in his field of vision and stared at the person in front of him, trying to make out the details.
The person lifted up his right arm and appeared to be typing on a keypad. Suddenly, a light emanated from his helmet, illuminating him. Christian stared in shock at what he saw. The person before him was wearing the very same armor he had seen being tested earlier by Captain Chau. There was no mistaking the telltale black-and-gray polymer and the t-shaped visor of the helmet. The only difference Christian could see was that instead of the usual red, white, and blue American flag, there was a strange blue star on a white inverted chevron.
The man turned his head slowly, taking in his surroundings. He stopped when his head reached where Christian was sitting. The figure continued to stare at him for what seemed like an eternity. It then turned its head slightly to take in the prone figure of Colonel Johnson. Christian could have been mistaken, but he could have sworn that he saw the figure's shoulders slump slightly when he saw her.
Christian continued to watch as the man crinkled his hands into fists and slammed them onto the sides of his helmet. The armored figure seemed to be angry or upset, but Christian could not make out which one it was. After a few seconds, the man seemed to compose himself and then turned to face Christian again. With frightening speed, he lunged toward him, stopping just shy of slamming into him.
“Are they still alive?” asked an anxious male voice. The voice sounded distorted and strange through the helmet’s speakers.
“Who?” Christian stuttered, his hand still clutched tight around his locket.
The man noticed the locket and then froze. He reached out one of his armored hands tentatively toward the locket. It shook slightly, and the man quickly drew it back and caressed it with the other one. The armored figure shied back slightly and turned away from Christian, holding the shaking appendage closer to his body protectively.
“Who?” the man asked through the speakers, not able to mask his obvious annoyance. “Alexandra and Emma!”
The figure reached out his non-shaking arm and pointed to the locket Christian was still tightly clutching. Christian looked down at the locket and then back up at the armored man in front of him. He opened his hand and lifted it up so the man could get a better look at it.
“Alex and Emma?” he asked, confused. “My wife and daughter?”
The man seemed to get visibly agitated, and he clenched his fists again. “Yes!” he screamed, his voice crackling as the speaker's capacitors failed under the intensity of the shout.
Christian visibly winced, and he threw up his hands defensively. “Yes!” he said fearfully. “Yes! They’re fine.”
The man seemed to discernibly calm down when he heard that, and he hunched over and hugged himself. Christian kept his hands up a few more seconds before he finally felt safe enough to put them down. He watched in absolute amazement as the man just stood there hunched over, holding himself and shaking as if he was crying.
“Is she dead?” he asked, turning slightly so he was facing Aliya.
Christian looked over at her and shook his head. “No. She is still alive. I am not sure how injured she is, but for now, she is still breathing.”
The armored figure shuddered again, and he heard a distorted noise from the helmet that sounded like a deep sigh. “Thank gods. I could not bear having killed her twice.”
Christian blinked rapidly, and his mouth dropped as he tried to process what the man had just said. “Twice?” he asked incredulously.
The man’s helmeted head snapped back toward Christian, and he stood up straight. Christian flinched again in fear, unsure if the man was going to attack him. To his relief, the man reached up and popped the clips that connected his helmet to the Kevlar mesh suit. He watched in horrified amazement as the man slowly lifted the helmet off of his head and dropped it to the ground.
At first, he had to squint to see the man’s face, but as soon as his eyes adjusted, he was able to make out the man’s features clearly. He gasped, and his eyes went wide in shock. The face he beheld was his own. There was no mistaking those ice-blue eyes and graying blond hair. The same face he saw when he looked in the mirror every morning was staring straight back at him.
The man smiled slightly and ran his hands through his short blond hair. His forehead scrunched up the exact same way, and he had the same faint pockmarks on his cheeks from having bad skin as a teenager as Christian did. He blinked again, and his hand rubbed up against his locket subconsciously.
“I see you rub the locket when you are anxious as well,” the man stated in his voice. “I always did. Alexandra used to tease me about it.” His face turned sad as he spoke. “I put it in Emma’s coffin when they buried her.”
“What?” Christian exclaimed incredulously. “She is not dead. I talked to her just yesterday.”
His doppelganger grimaced and scrunched up his forehead. “And I am very thankful for that. In my universe, both Emma and Alexandra perished in a car crash.”
“What?” Christian asked, shaking his head. This was all so surreal, and his mind was having a hard time processing it. “Perished? In a car crash?”
The man nodded. He turned and looked at Aliya and breathed out another sigh of relief. “Aliya and General Flag tried to stop me you know. At first, I was able to conduct my research in secret under the guise of Project Wonderland. Since we were studying black matter and parallel universes, I was able to hide my true intentions from them. But the closer I got to the answer, the more they suspected.”
“Black matter?” Christian asked, confused. “You mean dark matter?”
The doppelganger nodded thoughtfully. “That must be what you call it on this earth. Yes, dark matter. As soon as I was assigned to study the crashed spacecraft, the plan formulated in my mind. If they could use the drive to jump from universe to universe, so could I. It took me years to finally find a universe where a spacecraft from the same alien species was housed in the same facility as mine was, but when I did, it was only a matter of time before I figured out how to jump between worlds.”
The fog in Christian’s mind was beginning to clear, but the confusion was slowly being replaced by a growing sense of dread. “Oh God,” he thought as the realization of why his double had risked so much and done so many horrible things in order to come to this exact universe. His doppelganger looked down at him with sad eyes when he saw the realization of what he was about to do dawn on his face.
“I never intended to use the marine armor, but General Flag tried to stop me. This armor was the only way for me to fight my way to the ship so I could engage the gravity drive. I regret having to kill him and Aliya, but I was so close, and I was not going to let anyone stop me from seeing them again. No one. Not even myself. It was a gamble that you would be here the way I was, but I reasoned that if you were as smart as I was, then this is where you had to be.”
Christian swallowed and gripped the locket in his hand tighter. He thought of his wife and little girl and wished he could see them one last time. He closed his eyes and imagined their touch and the smell of their hair. He sighed deeply and opened his eyes to see his doppelganger examining him. There were tears in his eyes as he punched the touch screen on his right arm. Just like during the test before, the cylindrical plasma cannon snapped up from the backpack to rest on the man’s shoulder.
“I truly am sorry it has to be this way,” the man said sorrowfully. “But if you had lost them the way I did, you too would have done anything and everything within your power to see them again.”
He pushed the touch screen on his arm two more times and the cannon pivoted on his shoulder until it was facing directly at Christian. “I truly am sorry,” he said. “I promise I will take good care of them.”
Christian did not look away or close his eyes as the barrel of the canon began to glow an angry bright red. His ribs were broken, and he couldn’t move, so even if he wanted to run or fight, he couldn’t. A lone tear slowly made its way down his cheek, and he clutched his locket even tighter as the energy from the plasma cannon shot toward his head and everything went black.
Chrystian watched through the car window as the cherry trees of Washington DC flew by. The black sedan turned down a side street and then down another before it finally came to a stop in front of a large blue-and-black raised ranch. A small girl was riding a small bike in the driveway, and he smiled when he saw her and rolled down the window.
The little girl instantly saw the movement and turned to look at the car sitting in front of her house. Her eyes widened in joy, and she threw out her arms when she saw him. “Daddy!” she screamed, as she ran toward the car.
He was out the door and had her in his arms before she had even gotten two yards. She giggled and hugged him back as he held her close. He squeezed her even tighter, afraid that if he let go, she would simply fade away. Tears were running down his cheeks, and he was sobbing. He switched her to his hip and just stared lovingly at her.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?” she asked, reaching up to wipe the tears from his face.
“Oh, nothing, honey. I am just so happy to see you,” he replied with a smile.
He heard the door to the house open, and he turned to see Alexandra standing on the small porch smiling at him with her hands on her hips. Gods she was beautiful. Her big brown eyes were watching him curiously, and his heart skipped a beat as it always did when she looked at him with those glorious brown eyes.
“Well, you are back earlier than expected,” she said, leaning up against the door frame. “I thought your flight wasn’t until tomorrow.”
Before he even knew what he was doing, he had put down his daughter and ran straight at her. She flinched in surprise as he wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her full on the mouth. She wrapped her arms around him as he pulled her closer and closed her eyes.
“Ew,” he heard his daughter exclaim. “Gross.”
He held the kiss for a few minutes longer before he pushed his wife away and held her at arm’s length in front of himself. The tears were flowing again, but he didn’t care.
“Are you all right?” she asked him, concerned. “I have never seen you like this before.”
He brushed the tears away with one of his hands and hugged his wife again with the other. “I am just fine,” he said with a sniff. “I am just happy to finally be home.”
“Well, you only left a few days ago,” she said with a mischievous wink. “Did you miss me that much?”
“More than you will ever know,” he replied as he fiddled with the small slightly singed locket that hung from his neck.
