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Gary was looking at Marc with a guarded expression. “Why all this interest in Dave?”
“I don’t know. He seems familiar that’s all.” Marc tried to shrug and pretend it wasn’t important, while his heart was pounding double time. Gary narrowed his eyes and groaned. He covered his eyes with his hands. Marc knew he struggled with telling him the information, then he heard Gary grumble before blowing out a breath. He dropped his hands to the desk top.
“His name is Dave Amsted. Captain Dave Amsted. He’s a life-long military man and he’s been a pilot in the Air Force for almost seven years. He and his team are currently under subcontract to fly with KenSpec Labs for a top-secret study. Why do I have a feeling that things are more fucked up now that you know that?”
Marc looked up to his friend—he could feel the color had drained from his face. “I really need to make that call, Gary.”
****
Marc sat in an underground train headed to a facility in Iowa. When the train slowed then stopped, a male alien stepped on board with a smile on his face. He was probably as tall as Marc with the blackest hair he’d ever seen. His skin was snow white while his too-large eyes were the color of sapphires.
He held out his hand in greeting. “My name is Jonah. Avery sent me with the life-stabilizing serum injection so you may safely cross the time pod line.”
Marc nodded and offered him access to his arm. The injection was painless and he felt no different afterwards but the scientist in him was dying to find out what was contained in the formula. He and the world had learned of The Beings and their facilities in 2017 and then the aliens known as the Otronians, or Watchers, in 2018. He wanted to be part of the council that worked with both sets of aliens but he was so wrapped up in studying the time distortions he couldn’t fit that in too. If he’d been single he’d have jumped at joining the Exchange Program, but being married, he’d never expose Sadie to all those aliens. They were fascinating but every damn one of them were gorgeous. Nope. Wasn’t going to happen.
Yet, here he was on his way to meet with the second-in-command of the largest underground facility in the United States. He was excited yet apprehensive at the information he could be gleaning. His security clearance was extremely high, so he could get into this facility without Vargas’s permission, but he didn’t even want him or Colonel Barker to know he’d been here. He tried to play it off as information he needed for his lab, and while part of that was true, he also needed to get The Being alone to discuss the dream.
When the door to the train opened again, the man, Jonah led him over the platform to a set of moving stairs that was surrounded in what appeared to be plexiglass. “Are you familiar with the facility and the layout?” The alien’s voice interrupted his musings.
“No, I’m afraid I have complete ignorance of the facility.” The man nodded. Marc was struck at the size of the man’s muscular chest and arms. He was glad now that Sadie didn’t have these men to compare him to. He made a mental note to start back on his gym membership. Damn.
“When we get to the main level, we will be walking by the Social Area. It should be fairly quiet this time of day. Usually it is full of Otronians, Humans and Beings. I hear from those who have come from the surface it is comparable to a night club. Lots of music and dancing.” Marc nodded as he looked around. Each level of the facility could be seen though the plexiglass tube.
“Avery is meeting with you today since Micah is busy with other issues. He does send his apologies to you.” They got off the escalator-type transport and walked down a wide corridor. A few people were walking in various directions through the hallways. He spied a tall blonde woman and nearly tripped. Holy shit, that was Monica Strandshire! He had no idea the socialite was part of the program. She was well-known for her family name, their money and her legal issues. She looked completely different here, like she finally found a place to be calm and happy. He shook his head as he followed the man down the hall. He studied the other people as he walked down the corridor. Every dusky-skinned man he saw had tribal type tattoos on their massive arms and every one of them could be models or actors. Yep, Sadie was better off at home.
He was finally led to a small room and offered bottled water to drink. He sat long enough to down half his water when the door opened and a Being male walked in the room. He had the greenest eyes Marc had ever seen. Marc stood and shook his hand as the man introduced himself as Avery and sat down at the table.
“I understand you need some help with the time continuum. There have been issues. We have been monitoring them and in contact with our counterparts on Earth Two.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Marc sat heavily in the chair, his heartrate jumping.
“I will try to explain it to you. I know you are a scientist but you are also a human with the limitations of the knowledge of your people.” Avery sat looking at him intensely. He felt the alien was trying to determine his worth and how much he could safely tell him. Marc decided to remain silent and let the man judge him.
“No one should be surprised that there are other life forms in the Universe but humans have always deemed themselves the only humanoids in the vastness of the stars and planets. Taking that knowledge into account, Dr. Kensington, you should be open to new discoveries.” Avery stopped talking then clasped his hands together on the table. He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing as he maintained eye contact. Suddenly, Marc felt nervous for the information he was about to learn.
“Why would there be only one timeline?” Marc felt his eyebrows raise then lower. The man had a point. Hearing there were others ‘out there’ had sent many people over the edge. So many thought it was a government conspiracy, or conspiracies. There were too many stories to even keep track of as gossip spread when The Beings admitted being on Earth.
“Think of this time we are in as a tube that is surrounded by a thick membrane. Everything that happens in this timeline is contained. Each decision is made and that affects the people of this timeline like a ripple in a pond. Along side this time, there is another tube where people live who are our counterparts. They live and make their own decisions. Sometimes they make different decisions. Some are small. Where you might have worn this blue tie, the other you may have worn a red one. But since each of you are surrounded by a membrane in your timeline, it only affects each of you in each separate timeline.”
Marc held up his hand to stop Avery from talking. “Give me a minute to digest this information.” Avery nodded and cont
inued to sit with his hands clasped in front of him. Marc took a breath and tried to quickly assimilate what he’d just learned with all the theories he’d been taught, all the knowledge he’d acquired. He was excited and scared at the same time.
“Okay. I understand. But let me ask you something. This not only has to do with my studies, but also something personal. Something strange.” He felt himself wince, knowing he’d have to tell Avery the real issue. He quickly explained about the dream and then seeing the picture of the man named Dave. He also explained that he’d just learned that Dave have been flying over the large time rip.
Avery stood up and paced the room, his forefinger tapping his chin. Marc could tell he was in deep thought. “So, you have never met this man but you have mutual friends. Perhaps in the other timeline the man, Dave, and your wife met and are together. As I stated earlier, when decisions are made in one timeline it doesn’t affect the other timeline. One can extrapolate that both men have followed the same career path and were on the same mission. Our DNA is exactly the same as our counterparts across the membrane, so their memories could have crossed the time rip. There have always been pinpricks in the membrane between timelines. Déjà vu is a common phenomenon due to leaks between the timelines and also when humans see ‘ghosts’ it is really when there is a bleed over of those small pinpricks.”
Marc sat in the small room wondering what this time rip would mean for him and Sadie. “Could this sharing of memories change our own timeline?”
“There is no way of knowing for sure. I could contact my counterpart on Earth Two, to see if this Captain Amsted was also on the mission, although with what you have told me, I am certain he was. It is safe to contact them here since we are in a contained time pod atmosphere. We contacted our counterparts after we discovered a psy-bond was formed in our Wyoming facility. They also had such a bond.” He waved his hand dismissing Marc’s quizzical look. “Psy-bond mates are not part of this issue.”
Avery moved away from the table and motioned for Marc to follow him. “We will go to the communications room. I do not know how long this will take to contact them, but I am almost certain they will be trying to contact us as well.”
Chapter 5
Marc sat at a round table looking at a large flat screen on the wall. He stayed out of camera range, simply hoping whomever was with the other Avery was doing the same. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see his other self or, god help him, Dave Amsted. All he saw was the mirror image of Avery. He felt like he was floating in space without an anchor. This started with an erotic dream and had led to communication with a parallel timeline. Un-fucking-real. Personal decisions were never discussed and too much information was never shared. Names of the men piloting the helicopter during the fly-over of the time rip, that was important.
“Yes, we had Dave Amsted fly over the time anomaly on this side of the timeline. He did not return to the base with changed memories though.” Marc stared on the screen at the other Avery, who looked slightly different from the one he sat with on what the Beings had named ‘Earth One’. The other Avery had slightly longer hair and was more muscular, but they still would be hard to tell apart if in the same room.
