Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 17:54:45 -0700 (MST) From: "Katherine R. Freymuth" Subject: Circles of Fate - Part 7 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Quantum Leap "Circles of Fate" Part 7 Al was walking around in the basement of the Hindon house, looking around with trepidation. The cigar he was puffing gave him little comfort. Even as a hologram, he could feel the coldness, both physical and emotional, of the spacious room. Now that he had the time to look, he could see there were three doors, each leading to other rooms. He passed the one in which Sam had been a prisoner. "Al?" a voice called out. Al froze. The voice had come from the horrible room. It was a frightened voice. It was a female voice. "Al?" the call came again. Al slowly approached the door and passed through it. He looked around but he couldn't see a thing. "Al, I'm scared," the voice said. Al suddenly recognized the voice. He gasped in shock. He hadn't heard that voice in years. "Al, I'm scared. When's Momma coming home?" Al closed his eyes and swallowed. The voice was that of a fifteen year old but the words were that of a three year old. A very frightened three year old. "I don't know, honey," Al said quietly. "I don't like it in here, Al. I wanna go home." "Al?" another voice beckoned. "Oh, gawd, Al! Help me!" Fear filled Al's eyes. He slowly left the small dark room and returned to the basement's main room. He took a step back in horror. The room was filled with people, all of them whom he cared deeply for, all of them dying. His wife, his daughters, Sam, Verbina, Gushie, Tina, his father, his tail-pipe buddy Chip Ferguson, his ex-girlfriend Lisa Sherman - all of them were beaten and dying. All of them were calling out to him. "Dad!" "Al!" "Albert!" "Bingo!" Al sat up quickly, panting and forcing a scream to not come from his lips. He took a breath, trying to calm himself. *It was only a bad dream, Calavicci*, he reminded himself. "Al?" Al jumped slightly at the break in the silence. A hand gently touched his shoulder. "You were having one of those nightmares," Beth concluded. Al shook his head. "No," he said honestly, looking into his wife's eyes. "It wasn't about Vietnam. I haven't had one of those in years. You know that." "You had one after that incident with General Burke," Beth reminded him, hugging him gently around his waist. She exhaled. "Well, something frightened you. What is it? Is it about Sam?" Al smiled at her. "How could you tell?" "Because we've been married for forty-four years," Beth answered. "Want to talk about it?" Al shook his head. "I'll be okay. I'm just worried about Sam." Beth gave him a wry smile. "You're always worried about Sam. You don't always have nightmares. What's wrong?" Al exhaled. He could never keep anything from Beth. "This last leap's been very hard on him. He nearly dies from it and I'm not sure he still won't." He looked into his wife's eyes. "The situation he was in was horrible. He did get out of it but he's so weak, it scares me. And I guess my imagination has been running away with me because I just saw you, the girls, Sam, Trudy, and Papa.... everyone... all in the situation Sam was in." Beth gently lay her head on his shoulder. "You really are afraid he'll die." Al returned the hug. "The possibility has never been so strong." He paused. "He's holed up in an old barn right now. I'm pretty sure he has pneumonia and Alex tells us that, if we don't retrieve him soon, just leaping will kill him." Beth tightened her hold on Al. "Oh, gawd, Al! No wonder you can't rest!" Al didn't say anything. He closed his eyes, relishing the warmth of Beth's embrace and the feel of her skin against his. Finally, Beth gently moved away from Al. "Why don't you get some sleep?" she told him. "I'm sure he'll be fine." Al touched her cheek gently. "I wish I could share your optimism." He sighed, standing up from the bed. "Where are you going?" Beth asked with concern. "I need some time alone to think," he replied as he slipped on his robe. Beth exhaled. "Now, Al, don't brood. And don't tell me you're not going to. You always brood when you want to be alone to think." She extended her hand to him. "Come back in bed." Al smiled, looking at her. He looked her over carefully. "You know, for being sixty-five, you are one hell of a gorgeous woman." Beth laughed. "And you'd rather be alone, brooding in your robe." It was Al's turn to laugh. He took off his robe. "You have a point there." He started climbing back into the bed when a chime came from the nightstand. "Well, at least it's not waking us up this time," Beth commented to Al. Al didn't answer her. He reached over to the nightstand and picked up the colorful wristband, which looked a lot like Ziggy's control console. Pressing a button on it, he slipped it onto his right wrist. "Here," he said, replying to the chirp. "Sorry to disturb you, Al," Admiral Kalarco told him over the link. Al exhaled. "Janet, do you realize what time it is? Do the words oh one hundred mean anything to you? This can't be about Sam because Ziggy assured me that he and Alia would be safe for the night in that barn." "This is important, Al," Janet told him. "Dr. Fuller says that she has a solution. Since every minute counts with this situation, I'm calling an emergency meeting. We'll be meeting in the Control Room in an hour and a half. That should give everyone time to get to the complex." Al paused, sorting everything the Admiral had just told him. "I'll be right there," he assured her before disconnecting the line. He looked at Beth. "I've got to go." "And I'm coming with you," Beth told him firmly. Al exhaled. "Beth, you know the complex is off limits to you. You may be the Surgeon General but you're not authorized personnel," he told her firmly. "Besides, you have a meeting in the morning. And what about Christy?" "Christy isn't a little girl anymore, Al. She's twenty-one years old. She can take care of herself," Beth replied. "As for the meeting, I'll cancel it. I didn't want to go sit and listen to a bunch of medical nonsense anyway. This has to do with Sam and I'm coming with you, even if I have to make it a surprise inspection." Al smiled. "You're a stubborn woman." "And don't you forget it," they said in unison, knowing the response very well. *************************** Alia looked at the people in the Control Room, each of them waiting for her to explain why they were all awake at one o'clock in the morning. "Well, Dr. Fuller?" Admiral Kalarco pressed. "We're all here." She looked at Al and Beth. "Including some people who shouldn't be." Al gave her a slight shrug. "It's not like she hasn't been down here before," he replied. Alia smiled. "Come take a look," she instructed everyone in the room. She motioned them to Ziggy's console upon which were several papers, each spread out so that everyone could see them. Everyone circled the console. Alia made sure everyone could see the papers before she began. "I had been examining Dr. Beckett's retrieval program, trying to find out why it hasn't been working. As you recall, I've been doing some alterations to the program but, every time we're tried it, it failed. Now, when Dr. Hathorn told us of his latest finding, it got me thinking. What if the reason we can't retrieve Sam is the same reason he's losing his energy? What if we can't retrieve him because of how long he's been leaping and because of the circumstances of each retrieval attempt?" Gushie shook his head. "But that doesn't make sense. We've been trying to retrieve Dr. Beckett since he first leaped." "But that was the old program," Alia pointed out. "That program wasn't complete. Under normal circumstances, I'm sure that program would have worked. But the circumstances were not normal. Dr. Beckett leaped before he could finish the program. Ever since that first leap, the circumstances have never been normal and therefore the program has needed constant alterations." Everyone understood what she meant as they examined her findings laid out on the console. Al frowned. Something bothered him about Alia's words. He looked at her with ponderous eyes. "A...Sammy Jo," he corrected himself. "What do you mean by normal circumstances? True, we've made constant alterations to try to get the program to work but...." Alia exhaled. She found that she was getting ahead of herself. "Okay, let's look at each retrieval attempt separately. Now, in the first attempt, was Dr. Beckett given any kind of warning?" Al shook her head. "No." "So it is possible that the attempt was in some way traumatic to him," Alia concluded. Everyone looked at Verbina. She nodded. "It could have been," she confirmed. "Being suddenly and without warning drawn through time might have caused him to put up a mental barrier to keep himself from leaping." Alia nodded. "This second time, there was a warning but he hadn't yet accomplished his mission. Correct?" Al huffed. "What are you trying to get at, Sammy Jo?" She looked at everyone. "In the case of leaping, a normal circumstance would mean that Dr. Beckett is aware of the retrieval attempt and willing to be retrieved. I think our inability to retrieve him not only has to do with an aged program that needs constant alterations for the conditions of the retrieval but also has to do with Dr. Beckett's unwillingness to be retrieved." "What?!" Al yelled, glaring at her. "Al..." Beth warned. "Are you saying that Sam DOESN'T want to come home?" "In a way," Alia told him. "Unconsciously, he might not want to stop leaping. Sam has always had this overwhelming urge to help people and right now that means leaping and thus making the world a better place. We can't just yank Sam home. He must truly want to come home and to feel as if he has done everything he possibly can to change history for the better. He also has to be warned so that he won't have any traumatic experiences that might interfere with the retrieval." "That's ridiculous!" Al exclaimed. "Sam's always wanted to come home. If that is all it takes, he would have been home years ago!" "No," Verbina put in, thoughtfulness in her eyes. "It isn't ridiculous." She looked at Al. "She may be right, Al. Sam's always been one to think of others before himself, even total strangers. You know that more than anyone here. There's always been that little glimmer that urged him on to help more people, regardless of his own feeling. He may have put up an unconscious barrier to prevent himself from being retrieved." "And," Alex added, "the times we've tried to retrieve him without forewarning do coincide with the times when he was under the most stress and had been weakened the most." He paused, discomfort in his face. "Oh, my gawd! All this time, when we were trying to help him, we were expounding the problem, leading him more to this situation." Al swallowed. "You mean everytime we've tried to help Sam by trying to bring him home, we've actually been hurting him?" Alia looked at everyone, gauging their thoughts. "It looks that way. Yes." Al rubbed his face with his left hand. "Oh,gawd," he whispered. Beth came closer to her husband and took his right hand. Al looked into her eyes and saw the true sympathy she had for her husband. He took a breath and looked at Alia. "So, what do we do?" "You have to convince Sam that he doesn't have to leap anymore. Or at least convince him that he'd be more of a help here than anywhere else. The first would be better." She looked at Verbina, who nodded to her statement. She returned her gaze to Al. "Most importantly, you have to get him to let himself be retrieved. He has to be completely submissive," she added to Alex's nods. Al looked into Alia's eyes. They were firm, loving, and truthful. She knew precisely what she was talking about. He nodded with understanding. He knew that she was telling him the truth about the situation. "I'll do it," he told her. Alia nodded. She turned to Kalarco. "Admiral?" The Admiral nodded. "Let's do it. This is your show, Dr. Fuller. Make it a good one." ------------------------------------------- Want to know what happens? Well, you'll have to wait for Part 8. Katherine