From: Lenora McCoy Subject: "Quantum Leap: A New Leaper" (3/5) Date: Mon, 05 May 1997 22:37:28 -0700 Organization: Sprint Internet Passport Message-Id: <336EC398.AC@technologist.com> "Quantum Leap: A New Leaper" by Lenora McCoy (Part 3 of 5) The party was already jumping when Al popped in. Looking around, he noticed that the crowd was mostly women. "Oh, boy! I think I got the better part of the deal here." A tall, well-endowed brunette walked through Al on her way to the punch bowl. "Yummola! I am gonna do a lot of observing tonight," and he began to follow the tall brunette around like a little puppy dog. Agnes sat back in the comfortable rolling chair and surveyed her work with satisfaction. The recorder would record everything the telescope saw while she was at the party. Then she realized, she hadn't yet stopped in at the party. She looked at the little gold watch Jenny wore around her left wrist. 7:00. Agnes figured that she had about an hour before local sunset, so she could stop in at the party for a while, but then she had to come back to the observatory to study the star charts and plan out the evening's observing. She got up and left the observatory, locking the door behind her, and headed for the party. When she got there, Miss Janel immediately descended upon her. "Oh, Jenny, you're here! Wonderful! How long can you stay?" Agnes forced a smile, "Only until 7:30. I still have to map out my observing schedule for the night." Miss Janel nodded, "Of course. We'll do the awards right now. Everyone!" she called, silencing the room, "We will do the awards right away, as one of our students has to leave early." Agnes discreetly searched the room, looking for Al, and spotted him both staring at a tall, well-endowed brunette and talking to a short blonde woman. Then she did a double-take, since no one else here could see or hear Al. Miss Janel noticed the blonde and said, "Jenny, will you please go ask Anna over there to sit down, and then take a seat yourself." Agnes nodded, and walked over to Al and the blonde woman named Anna. She came up behind the woman, but neither she nor Al noticed Agnes approach. She tapped Anna on the shoulder, and suddenly a wave of electricity passed through them and Anna's features melted into those of a man who looked vaguely familiar. Al noticed this, and decided, finally, to make introductions. "Oh, Agnes, meet Sam Beckett. Sam, this is our new leaper, Agnes Garreffa." Sam smiled, "Pleased to meet you." Agnes smiled as she took his hand, "Same here, Dr. Beckett. Miss Janel wants me to ask you to sit down." Sam glanced over to Miss Janel. "Okay. Come on, Al." They sat down in the back, Al standing in the aisle beside Agnes. Miss Janel clapped her hands to silence the room. "Everyone, I'm glad you all came, and now we will pass out the awards to our outstanding students. First, to our best beginning piano student, we present the award to Jenny Sandino." Everyone began to applaud. Agnes stood up and walked to the front of the room, with Al at her side. She accepted the award with a smile and quickly sat down. The rest of the awards went by quickly, and she paid very little attention. At the end of the awards ceremony, she glanced at her watch and almost yelped. 7:45. She got up and told Sam discreetly, "I have to go to the observatory." Sam nodded, "Al and I will stay here and keep an eye on things. He told me about your mission." Agnes grinned, "Thanks!" and quickly left. Sam looked for Al to ask him a few questions, but Al no longer stood in the aisle. After a moment, Sam spotted Al following the tall brunette again. *Some things never change,* he thought, and began to plot a way to draw Al away from his woman-watching. Back at the observatory, Agnes pulled out the star charts to plan her observing schedule, but then realized she needed to have some idea in which area of the sky she was supposed to be observing. Just as she was about to panic, Al popped in with a smug look on his face. "Al! You're just in time! I need to know where this comet was found." Al started at the sound of her voice, but then quickly recovered and began to beat the handlink, producing the expected tortured squeals, "Uh, Ziggy says it's found in...Cass-ee-oh-pee-ah...or is that Ethiopia, the country?" Agnes pounced on the star charts. "No, Cassiopeia is a constellation...here! It's supposed to be Cassiopeia's throne, but it looks more like a W than anything else." She yanked out rulers and compasses and began to plot the coordinates for the telescope. "Oh, by the way, how come you're here so early?" Al looked up from half-heartedly tapping the handlink, "Oh, Sam said I'd be of better use to you here, and that he'd handle the suicide. He figures it's his way of making your first leap a bit less stressful. I think it's his way of ruining my fun." Agnes giggled, "You fun? You mean staring at that tall woman?" Al glared at her, "Yes! Sam will tell you, I have a very healthy interest in women. Besides, most of my wives were tall brunettes -- the best of the species." Agnes's head popped up, "Most of your wives? How many do you have?" Al produced a smug grin, "5 ex-wives and counting." Agnes rolled her eyes in exasperation and walked over to begin positioning the telescope. "Remind me to thank Dr. Beckett when this is all over. Uuugh! This is heavier than I thought!" Al perked up, "I'll go get Sam to help you! Then you can thank him, and get two things done at once!" Agnes glared, "No you don't. You stay right here. I'm going to trust Dr. Beckett's judgment on this matter." Al tried giving her a puppy dog face, one that had worked on Ruthie, Maxine, and Theresa, but not on Sharon or Beth, and apparently not on Agnes either. She ignored him and continued to position the telescope. He gave up and went to look at the star charts. "How did some of these get their names? Ursa Major, Ursa Minor -- they look like the Dippers to me!" Agnes smirked, "They should - that's what they are. The Dippers are parts of Ursa Major and Minor. Ursa means bear. Ursa Major is Big Bear, and it has the Big Dipper in it. Ursa Minor is Little Bear, and it has the Little Dipper in it. The end of the Little Dipper is Polaris, the North Star, a good thing to know, because if you're ever lost, you can always find your way by Polaris." By now, the telescope was in position and ready to go. Agnes strode over to the timetables, looked up the date, and found the time of first dark. "8:49 PM. And it's...8:40 now. I have 9 minutes to get the film in place and ready the dome for opening." Al watched in fascination as she loaded film and unlocked latches. At 8:49 on the dot, she started cranking the dome open. Above, the stars twinkled brightly. Al was entranced, "Wow! No wonder you went into Astronomy!" Agnes corrected him, "Astrophysics," and set to work examining the sky through the eyepiece. --------------------------To be continued------------------------------ -- Lenora McCoy, confessed Obsessed Leaper, Al-coholic, and Dean-drooler AdmiralCalavicci@hotmail.com AdmiralAl@star-trek.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/4401/ CalavicciQL@juno.com Author of "Quantum Kirk" and other stories (list and/or requests by e-mail)