Chapter 18

ID: 1762291   (Rated: 13+) Artifact Man  A thriller, new age, sci-fi novel about a strange man found in the desert. by Hyperiongate

ID: 1768844   (Rated: E) Chapter 17  Artifact stuns, Jack and Lise eat, Rudolf reflects. by Hyperiongate

3:00 am, Tuesday, March 24th
Renown Medical Center

Part time janitor and full time member of Colonel Lanier’s team, Sergeant Jackson leaned in towards the screen, his hands holding the earphone to his head. He didn’t want to miss a thing. He watched as Annie walked around the TIG tank, dragging her fingers along its surface. Both audio and visual quality was excellent.

She liked the feel of the glass. It was warm, making her feel as if it were alive and not just part of the TIG tank. Touching it also made her feel closer to him. She looked at the pink-skin covered body floating only a foot or so away from her touch. It wouldn’t be long now; he’d told her as much.

“Will it hurt when they bring you out of the tank?”

Any discomfort will pass quickly.

“Is it going to be dangerous?”

It will be, but not in the way anyone suspects. Do not worry about me. So long as you are alert, the danger will pass.

She paused in their conversation for a moment. Staring up at a random corner of the room, she mentally reached out to check the TIG performance data. All conditions were normal. She used to have to go into the control room to find this out. At some point in the last few days, she found that to be unnecessary. She was not sure how she did it. It was like the information was “out there” waiting for her and all she needed to do was cause her universe to pass through it.

Colonel Lanier watched the data as it was relayed to him at the Artifact base. Something was going on between the girl and JD11. He couldn’t tell what, since neither she nor the man in the tank was talking. Only the data revealed any kind of story at all. The impact of her proximity to the patient had been well documented by this time.

When she was on shift, JD11 began to heal at an exponential rate. There was something about that information that tugged at the Colonel’s subconscious. He just could quite hear what it was trying to tell him.

Lanier studied the folder in front of him. Highlighted in yellow was the statement “She has purchased a large caliber handgun.” What could that mean? Nothing in her profile came close to suggesting that this was something she might do. Her surveillance team assured him that no outside influencer could have gotten to her. The only new thing in this girl’s life was JD11. While she certainly had an impact on JD11, Lanier felt that this was a two-way street. Somehow, the man floating in the tank had changed Annie. And now she had purchased a gun.

The colonel had considered blocking the final delivery of the weapon. It would have been a small thing to insert a “no gun” statement into the results of the mandatory background check all gun purchasers must go through. In the end, he decided to see where this little detour in routine would lead. The team inside the hospital would be well aware of her weapon and be ready to take action quickly should she threaten the patient.

Sand Mountain
72 miles East of Reno, Nv

Rudolf took a few minutes to review his route. He had to cover just over ten miles, in the dark. Sunrise was just under four hours away. Not a problem. The detail of his maps was astonishing, even by the high standards of the United States military who was the unwitting supplier.

The senator had done an excellent job. A few phone calls and twisted arms was all it took. Now a foreign agent was in country using top secret government information to foil a project being conducted by that same government.

The maps showed the area of interest, about ten miles due south, as it had changed over the last several days.

Someone has been very busy, Rudolf thought.

He set the maps aside and picked up a photograph. It had been taken two days ago. Taken at extreme range, it showed a military vehicle as it entered highway 50 from the south. This was particularly interesting for two reasons. First was the fact that there was nothing to the south of highway 50 at that point; not even a road. The second point was the identity of the man sitting behind the wheel of the vehicle.

Colonel Wesley Lanier.

Rudolf knew this man well.

This was both good and bad news. The fact that the infamous Colonel Lanier was at the site spoke volumes about the importance of whatever was out there in the desert. At the same time, Colonel Lanier was not a man to trifle with. He didn’t make mistakes and had the uncanny ability to anticipate anything that could go wrong; including the presence of someone like Rudolf.

He packed everything he needed into a small backpack and quietly climbed out the back of his rented camper. The non-descript vehicle fit right in with the rest of the campers at the site. While everyone else slept, waiting for the sun so they could attack the mountain of sand with their off-road toys, Rudolf was slinking off into the night.

He dropped the night goggles over his eyes and started off at a moderate pace; one he could keep up for hours. By dawn, he needed to be in place. The foothills just to the east of the encampment would allow him a perfect vista of whatever was going on.


11:00 am, Tuesday, 24 March
Artifact Base

Colonel Lanier looked around the table at his collection of experts and advisors. Dr. Szokoly was there with three other physicists. Sitting off to the side, against the wall, was a stone faced man in military fatigues. He wore no sign of his name, outfit or rank. Something about him made the scientists want to be somewhere else. The group was rounded out by a few of the Colonel’s staff in charge of supplies, security and such.

“As most of you know by now, the Artifact seems to have become active; at least intermittently. Two nights ago, it began to vibrate. At the time this began, two of Dr. Szokoly’s people experienced strange sensations of déjà vu. I experienced something of the same sort a short time later when I put my hand on the Artifact. At first, I stopped all access to it. Later, I amended that to access limited only to those times when the vibrations were not present. Thus far, the vibrations only take place between midnight and around six in the morning. Dr. Szokoly, do you have any more to add?”

“Yes, sir. We have no idea what may have started this event. We were setting up for a series of experiments when this all began. We don’t think the vibrations are in response to anything we may have done.

As some of you may know, we first captured a single image of what looked to be a night sky emanating from the heart of the Artifact. Our high-speed camera was recording at 1,000 frames per second and only a single frame contained this image. Last night, and again this morning, we were able to capture two more images. It’s worth noting that the images appeared at the exact time the Artifact changed condition; from static to vibrating and back. All three of the images were similar in that they depict a night sky. However, the one from this morning is unique in that it is recognizable. It is an exact image of what our night sky looked like about 66 years ago.”

Lanier spoke up. “How can you tell?”

“The stars are so far away, that there is very little change over the years. At first glance, this looked very familiar to anyone that spends time studying the stars. However, when we tried to match it digitally with our current sky, there were slight differences. The relationships between the stars will change slightly as closer stars move more than the farther stars. Our programs picked this out and searched forward and backwards until we had a positive match. It’s definitely our sky, just not the one we are seeing right now.”

“Were you able to narrow it down to a specific date?”

“Yes, sir. The photograph we took this morning is the sky from August 6th, 1945. The day the Allies dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.”

Lanier exchanged looks with the man in fatigues. “I doubt that this is some sort of coincidence. What about the other pictures? Have we been able to figure out where they came from?”

“Not yet, but we have a dedicated program projecting our sky forward and back ward in time, looking for a match.”

“Let me know when you find something, or nothing. Any new ideas on the effect of the vibration; the déjà vu events?”

“At the time the Artifact began to vibrate, we had two technicians in very close proximity; roughly two feet away or less. Both men became disoriented. When we brought them out of the containment chamber, both reported feelings of déjà vu.”

Turning to the colonel he asked, “Sir, did you experience and sense of Déjà vu as well? My impression was that you did.”

Lanier had not discussed his experience with the doctor.

“I did have a strong feeling that I had been there before. As a matter of fact, I had a strong feeling of several reoccurring events in my life; events that never actually happened. It was as if I were having a déjà vu experience for an infinite number of versions of myself; all different people and yet all of them me.”

A smile spread across Dr. Szokoly’s face. He had just heard what he wanted to hear. He and the other white coats began to chatter amongst themselves. Lanier knew that once this group went into its brainstorming mode, they were oblivious to any outside considerations such as briefings with the colonel. He heard terms like “time travel”, “parallel universe” and “Multiverse”.

“Dr. Szokoly,” he said loudly trying to break the spell of pure science at work. “Do you have any ideas about what may be going on?”

“Well there are several theories about what has taken place. The most likely, albeit least interesting, of them all is that the feelings of Déjà Vu were all just a coincidence. We have all been working long hours making us all mentally and physically fatigued. When that happens, our minds can wander off in search of relief. A fantasy Déjà Vu type experience could just be the equivalent of a mental vacation.”

“At the other end of the spectrum is the idea of a parallel universe. This is an extremely farfetched idea but it not new to scientific thought. We know there are several dimensions that we are unable to experience directly. A parallel universe is very much along the same lines. There is something that is all around us and yet we do not knowingly experience it.”

“That seems like quite a leap from the coincidence theory. What makes you think the artifact is related to a parallel universe?”

“Actually, we think this Artifact could be involved with several parallel universes; an infinite number of them in fact. The multiple universe theory states that everything that can possibly happen is all happening at the same time. We are just passing through one of the infinite string of possibilities that exist. Feelings of Déjà vu result from those instances where your existence in this universe passes though another string of possibilities, one where you also exist but on a different plane or reality.”

“Interesting idea Doctor, but how does the Artifact fit in with all of this?”

“Since several different people experienced Déjà Vu when near or in contact with the Artifact, we think it may be a node, a place where several universes overlap at the same time. While there have only been three instances of Déjà vu, those instances represent 100% of those people that have come into close proximity with the Artifact while it was vibrating.”

Lanier ended the meeting with Szokoly with his usual, “Keep me informed.”

He waited until the scientists had left the room before turning to his stone-faced guest in fatigues and saying, “I have something I need you to look into. Rudolf is in country.”

The man nodded. “I’ll take care of him.”

Lanier shook his head. “I can handle Rudolf. I need you to find out how he came to know about this situation so quick.”

“Washington?”

Lanier nodded and said, “Yes. We have a leak there that needs to be plugged.”

ID: 1773203   (Rated: 13+) Chapter 19  The assassin closes in on his targets. by Hyperiongate