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Prologue
Present Day
"Colonel! We need you to come back to Command, sir!" The airman's face was flushed from the run up two flights of stairs to catch up with Colonel Barker.
"What seems to be the problem, Airman?" The airman halted just short of Colonel Barker's body, trying to stop his heart from hammering. And it wasn't from the run.
Swallowing visibly, the young man paused a moment to look into his superior's eyes. "There's another distortion, sir. This time, it's significant." A look passed between the men before they quickly headed to the control center. Voices that usually filled the room were hushed in a strained silence.
"How long has the distortion been present?" Colonel Rick Barker was a man of few words. Having grown up in a military family, words were only necessary when actions weren't enough. Barrel-chested and short in height, he was intimidating in many other ways. He had piercing blue eyes that seemed to go to the heart of a person, reading secrets. His voice was a deep baritone that carried when he spoke, no matter how softly he had spoken. A brush of light red hair covered his arms and chest while his tight military haircut showed a slight graying of that same red tone. Most redheads had a ruddy complexion to match, but luckily, he hadn’t inherited that particular trait. His skin was the envy of many women who considered it perfectly porcelain.
A middle-aged man spoke from his desk, "Sir, it's been approximately two point five seven minutes since we first observed the distortion on the screen. Sergeant Tolley is running back the tape to see if we missed the beginning of the distortion." Barker looked at the young woman named Tolley as she sat at her station, reviewing the recorded tape.
"Tolley, what's the determination?" Barker asked, refusing to walk closer to the Airman to hurry the process. The young brunette looked up from her computer.
"Sir, I see no indication of the distortion prior to when it was first reported." She made notes as she spoke. Without looking at her computer, she jotted as she talked. Barker nodded and spoke to the room in general.
"Where is the distortion located and how big are we talking about? Do I need to call this in?" Everyone froze for a moment, knowing the implications of such a call.
"Colonel, I'm afraid it's the biggest we've seen in a while, possibly years. Big enough that..." the voice faded, fear invading his next words, "big enough that a breach is possible. We may have had a cross over." Barker reeled like someone had slapped him, the color drained from his face although his expression and body language did not change.
"Tolley." Barker's voice, strong and low, was heard easily in the quiet room. It was nearly silent, despite the twenty-five people and various electronic devices. "Get the god dammed scientists up here." His voice began to grow in volume with each word. " I want them here yesterday!"
Without answering her superior, she picked up the phone and spoke, "Code orange, I repeat code orange. Shut down the facility. This is not a drill. Code orange." Loud clanks of locks and of bars sliding into place over windows followed, echoing throughout the partial underground building. "Code orange initialized, Colonel. Facility on lockdown and the science crew are on their way to the council room. ETA five minutes."
Barker stood, straightening his uniform shirt, wrinkled from his previous long hours on duty, "Tolley, Bean and Chatfield, bring your data and follow me. Jackson, maintain visual and report if any changes occur. We'll be in council room alpha. Tolley, make sure you set up visual from the main controls to there. The rest of you—" He turned to see the pale faces of his men and women. They were afraid but worked just as efficiently as if the world wasn't ending. "Pray this isn't as bad as we've been led to believe." Turning, he led the way out the room to what he hoped wasn't the beginning of hell on Earth.
The scientists rushed into the room, pulling out notebooks and scientific calculators, prepared to crunch numbers. Barker was throwing out questions to his team as they filed in. Each answered quickly and with strong voices. He was proud of their professionalism and calm demeanor in the face of the unknown.
"Where is the distortion right now, Bean?" The middle-aged man named Jeremy Bean stood and flipped on the view screen.
"Right now, the main opening is located in the Midwest, here." Jeremy pointed to a small town in Iowa. "We noticed higher than normal electromagnetic fields there for weeks as you know, but we've noticed these higher readings in several other locations all over the world but nothing came of it. Approximately six minutes ago, we saw the field collapse then spring up like a mushroom cloud. The rip followed less than thirty seconds later."
Scientists scribbled and jotted in their notebooks, some taking out slide rules, others punching in numbers on va
rious machines. One elderly woman stood and began pacing the room. "Rick, has the Air Force sent any personnel to verify the distortion visually?"
