Subject: JQ: [FIC] Ripple 10/?
July 26, 1998
Disclaimer: JQ characters belong to HB & Turner Productions. Charles
Wallace, Meg
and everything associated to the "Time" trilogy belongs to Madeleine
L'Engle. Characters used without permission. No $$ made for this venture.
Enjoy! ^_^.
Category: Adventure, Episodal, X-over, a touch of Fantasy
Rating: Some language and concepts for mature audiences
Archivers: Not a problem, as long as you tell me where you put this baby! ^_^.
Summary: The Echthroi strikes!
This is a continuing series. It is advisable to read the preceding chapters
before reading this one if you haven't done so. The earlier chapters are
available in the fanfiction page of my site at:
http://members.xoom.com/inachan/jqfics.html
or at your request at [email protected]
The Ripple Effect (10/?)
by: Ina-chan
The night wind was biting all of the sudden. Rachel clasped her windbreaker
tighter to compensate for the sudden cold. She let out another defeated
sigh. This was
definitely NOT her day. Not only was she tired, hungry, and needing a
shower... she was
now cold as well. The fact that they were searching in the darkness did not
help in easing her uneasiness either. She pointed her flashlight to the
direction of her friend.
"Alena..." She called out uncertainly, "Its not going to make much
difference if we just return early tomorrow morning to look for it."
The other woman didn't reply.
"Alena?"
"No."
"Alena, curfew is due in thirty minutes."
"That never stopped you before." Came the monotonous reply.
"This isn't like you at all. Did something happen while I was gone?"
"I lost my mother's pendant. I need to find it."
Rachel frowned and started to rake her flashlight across the ground again in
frustration. Her friend has been acting strange since she came back...
staring blankly in space, talking in that strange lifeless voice. At first,
Rachel assumed that she caught her friend in an unguarded moment of worrying
for her family, knowing the current political situation in the other
woman's country...
But the way Alena looked up at her... it was strange... like there was
something
different in her eyes... something she vaguely remembered seeing from some
place else
before... And they way she talks... monotonous and lifeless... as if her
voice was flattened and evened out in one smooth note... Strangest of all...
how she seemed to disregard the dormitory rules... The Alena she knew is a
sucker for organization. She holds any form of rules and policies close to
her heart like the sacred words of the Ten Commandments. Sentimentality or
not... Rachel could hardly believe that her friend will disregard all that
without a second glance for a piece of jewelry... Come to think of it...
she could barely recall her friend wearing any form of jewelry at all...
She looked at the direction of her friend again by the corner of her eye... and
frowned. From what she can make out from the dim light, her best friend just
stood
unmoving in place with a vacant far-away expression on her face... no not
vacant... more like she was waiting for something to happen...
With a determined stance, she walked up to her friend, "Alena... is there
something going on that I should know?"
"I lost my mother's pendant."
Though Rachel considers herself to be a very patient person, specially when her
concern for her friends is triggered... there is only so much patience one
can have...
specially when you need a shower. "All right Alena, if you're going to be
stubborn about
this... I'm going home. I'll see you later when you're ready to talk."
Before she could move, however, her friend's fingers dug into her arm...
"Alena..." Rachel began uncertainly through clenched teeth, "What are you
doing?"
Her friend didn't reply.
"Let go... please... you're hurting me."
"Let her go," A third voice commanded
Rachel spun her head around and saw three new silhouettes through the dim
light.
"It took you a long time to get here. How disappointing. I thought I was
going to have to start without you," Alena commented
"Alena?"
"Let her go, please." Another voice begged
"That's all Ionahatan? 'Let her go, please?' No last minute heroic moves?
Really
Charles, I'm disappointed as ever," Alena voiced as sarcastically as her
unchanging tone
allowed
Rachel could feel the ground spinning around her due to her confusion, "What is
going on here?"
"But I want to see for myself... what it is..." The other woman tightened
her grip, "Let's play a little game, Iohanatan."
"Look, I'll do anything you want... just leave her out of this."
"Mada-- Alena... you don't want to do this. You know you don't want to, you
have to fight it," A young female voice pleaded, hoping to reach the woman
from within
the Echthroi's haze
The chilly evening air started to stir and pick up speed. A small sphere
of light appeared a short distance behind the two women, and started to grow
and glow an
ominous bright light... such as one at the end of the tunnel. The group
stared at the vision, caught between awe and utter terror.
"Holy..." Rachel instinctively clutched her best friend and started to pull
themselves away, but the other woman was anchored to the ground.
"No..." The first voice belonging to the youngest of the trio cried out in
disbelief, "You wouldn't..."
"I'll drop a penny in the pool..." Alena smiled, "And you'll have until the
next
Kairos cycle to find it."
The smallest of the trio moved, "Don't let her get near the tesseract!"
Alena was faster, however. Before the command even registered in his
companion's minds, Rachel felt herself pushed backwards by her best friend
with what
seemed like a force of inhuman strength...
She stumbled and a scream was caught in her throat as she felt...
or what felt like invisible hands...
taking hold of her...
pulling her...
...toward the gate.
Illuminated against the tesseract's light, a vision of an
unfamiliar child... reaching out for her...
That was the last thing Rachel saw... before being blinded and disoriented
by the intensity of the brightness that engulfed her.
***
Hadji Singh watched the loose articles clatter on the laboratory tables
uneasily as the ground jarred underneath them. He looked up and saw Meg
Murray frozen over the notes she was pouring over with an expression
identical to his on her face.
"Was that an earthquake?" Hadji whispered the obvious
"I certainly hope so," Meg whispered back
"I have a bad feeling about this..."
Meg bit her lip and glanced to the direction of the door, "Don't worry, I'm
sure
they're okay. Charles Wallace won't let anything happen to them."
"You do not seem bothered with your brother."
"Pardon?"
"With him changing... physical age... before our eyes."
Meg's eyes returned to the pile of papers she was working on, "Hadji, we both
know that he's not really the Charles Wallace of this time. I just talked to
my Charles
Wallace in the phone yesterday... nine years old, at home, with the
chicken pox."
"Oh..."
It was the young woman's turn to give the boy a puzzled glance, before a grin
crept on her lips, "You know... If I were to tell this to someone else, they
would probably just shake their heads and mumble: 'There are always ONE of
THOSE within families of brilliant people.' So I reckon you and your
friends go through things similar to this on a regular basis."
Hadji grinned, "Since I was eleven years old."
"Not bad. Charles Wallace was five... I was almost fourteen*."
"Was it the tesseract?"
"Yes."
Hadji lowered his eyes and returned his attention tot he ancient piece of
technology he was working on. The young woman clasped her hands together and
watched the young man, "Do you think it will be any help?"
"I honestly do not know."
"This is top secret stuff, so you better not spread it around," Meg teased
as she rested her chin on her hands
Hadji smiled back.
"My father is a physicist. He belonged to a team in NASA that experimented on
the possibility of traveling through space without the use of rockets and
space shuttles. They worked on several theories derived from Einstein's
Theory of Relativity. Specifically the concept of time and interdimensional
travel. It wasn't perfect, but they sent rats... dogs... and finally...
people. The first scientist who was sent earlier never returned. My
father was the second man..."
"Did your father..."
"No. We didn't hear anything about him until almost two years later. Someone
came to our lives... I don't know how to describe them... like guardians or
something...
its like how Charles Wallace came to your lives. They helped us get our
father back. And
we learned about the Ecthtoi... the dark planets... the shadowed planets...
and how from
the subparticle levels to the vast cosmos, there is a constant fight between
harmony and
the Echthroi... Sounds so pretty out there, huh? I hardly believe that it
even happened..."
"Yes," Hadji agreed, "I would be extremely cynical if it were not happening
to us now... But why were the Echthroi after you?"
"No. Not me..." Meg closed her eyes, "They were after Charles Wallace. They
even tried to kill him when he was six.** I still don't understand why they
wanted my
brother out of the way so badly. Seeing him now... I think I'm beginning to
understand... but I still don't really know."
"Now... it would seem that they are determined to get rid of my friend as
well,"
Hadji mumbled absently. He stopped and turned back to face the older woman,
"Tell me...
how much does Dr. Quest know about the tesseract?"
Meg made a face, "Dr. Quest... I know technically he is a doctor now... but
that
still sounds a little funny..."
"MEG!"
"ALL RIGHT! I'm not really sure. My father knew Benton through his uncle,
since Quest Enterprises is one of the more generous sponsors of the space
program.
Benton didn't study under my father... before he disappeared... but he did
advocate
Benton's application to the university of his choice when he was six...
being a well known figure in the Institute for Higher Learning in Princeton
helps, I guess... not that I'm debunking Benton's abilities... Benton and
Charles Wallace... they're alike in many ways. I don't know. Maybe it has
something to do with being geniuses. The have this ability to 'communicate'
in a level that only the two of them can understand..."
"Meg, I am sorry to sound rude but... the tesseract."
"I'm getting to that. It was after we got my father back. Benton visited,
he and
Charles Wallace started to make this model of the tesseract... so I think
Benton pretty
much knows the theory behind it. Though... I don't think Charles Wallace
told him the
practical applications... or that practical applications of the tesseract is
possible at this time...... You think this has something to do with that
program you're working on, don't you?"
Hadji ran his hand tiredly behind his neck and stretched, "I was hoping
there were some similarities that I can work on."
"I thought you knew..."
"I KNOW how the 'Rachel' program works. I could probably recreate it from
scratch if I had the luxury of Questworld technology..."
"But you said UNIC is a precursor of this Questworld thing you were talking
about."
"It is. But UNIC is STILL just a fancy information processor. She is not
capable of
doing the things we are asking her to do."
"So you're saying that there's no way we can re-create 'Rachel'?" A new quiet
voice asked
Both occupants of the laboratory turned sharply around to the direction of the
newcomer and saw their three companions standing silently by the door. Hadji
gaped in
shock at the appearance of his best friend. Jessie instinctively reached out
to support
Jonny as he started to move toward their dismayed friend. The boy, however,
shook
himself away and staggered to face Hadji's stunned face.
"Jonny... what happened?" Hadji whispered as he gripped the edge of the
table, as if to keep him from moving, trying to fight the urge to jump up
and call Dr. Quest for help.
The expression on Jonny's face, on Jessie's and Charles Wallace's already
screamed at him exactly what happened. Hadji tried to fight the lump slowly
forming
painfully in his throat.
Under the light of the room, the effects of the earlier event has made
itself present. Pale, disheveled, unsteady... the translucent quality of his
skin started to display his superficial blood vessels in a way that can
fascinate any medical student was a sign, that the barrier protecting him
that Charles Wallace was talking about, was slowly loosing its efficiency.
But despite that... his now pale blue eyes held the determined fire ever
present in them.
"Hadji... tell me the truth. 'Rachel'..." Jonny spoke with great effort
"I'm sorry."
The Indian boy can only watch as the fire was slowly extinguished as his best
friend finally accepted the hopelessness of the situation. He can only watch
as his friend's shoulders uncharacteristically slumped in defeat. Hadji
lowered his eyes and tried to cut off from what he knows as one of the more
painful visions of his life... or what's left of it, that is. He wanted his
friend to yell at him... to make one of his stubborn unrealistic demands...
to recite one of his far fetched back-up options that always miraculously
work... to give him one of those annoying 'Hadji-don't-be-such-a-wuss' looks
his friend always gave him in situations like this ever since they were
children... to hear that irritating tone of superiority in his friend's
voice that indicated his arrogance regarding the facts of human mortality...
But Jonny simply ran his fingers tiredly through his hair...
... straightened up...
... and gave him a weak smile.
"I guess you win this time Hadj."
With those words, the blonde's legs gave way and unceremoniously collapsed unto
the floor.
(To be continued)
Comments, criticisms, bricks to [email protected]
Author's squawk:
Hmmm... just tried to tie some loose ends with the Benton of this
universe's life and his connection with the Murry's. In book 3, Dr.Murry is
also revealed to act as the President's scientific advisor regarding his
expertise... He, like Dr. Quest, is basically an independent scientist with
Ph.D's many times over, I'm assuming that he's also a professor at the
mentioned Princeton Institution, and he also did classified work for the
government... such as the "Tesseract Project". I figured by closely
connecting Benton to Dr. Murry... I can easily connect his University status
as a child prodigy... and perhaps having Benton follow Dr. Murry's footsteps
as well.
Here are some canon reference notes to Madeleine L'Engle's work mentioned
above:
* Approximate age, since Meg's age was not stated in "A Wrinkle in Time". It
was just
mentioned that she graduated grammar school... and in the next book (slated
a year later), I believe she was already attending highschool... my brother
lost my copy of "A Wind in the Door", so if anyone who has this book knows,
please feel free to correct me.
** Pook kid! First he gets taken over by the "IT" in the first book... then
the mission in "A Wind in the Door" was trying to save Charles Wallace's
life. Why were the Echthroi so afraid of Charles Wallace, you ask?
Everyhting is explained in book 3: "A Swiftly Tilting Planet."
Ja!
Ina-chan