From: LauraM3017@aol.com Message-ID: Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 15:39:33 EST Subject: Quantum Pretender (1/2) This is an amateur publication and in no way intends to infringe upon the rights of any television, movie, written or other material. Quantum Leap is copyrighted by Bellisarius Productions. Pretender is copyrighted by MTM Enterprises and NBC. All original material is copyrighted: (c) Copyright 1998 by Laura Michaels All Rights Reserved This is a Quantum Leap/Pretender crossover. Please send any comments to lauram3017@aol.com. For this and other stories on this style, see http://members.aol.com/distasis. Delimiters in the story have the following meaning: / denotes italics _ denotes underline This one's for Jarod and Sam... Quantum Pretender by Laura Michaels Sam was studying some disks and a silver briefcase with display equipment when Al appeared. "Sam, I have more bad news," Al said. "Did you find out something about Jarod?" Sam asked. "Ziggy's still not able to turn up anything. It's like he doesn't exist." "What's the bad news?" Sam asked. "He escaped from the waiting room." Sam turned his full attention on Al. Sam looked surprised. His brain was swiss cheesed from the leap, but he could never remember anyone getting out of the waiting room before unless they let the person out. Quantum Leap was a high security project. "How?" "We're not sure," Al replied. "Well I've found some more information on who Jarod is," Sam said. "Actually almost his entire life is right here." He gestured toward the disks. "Have Ziggy run a check on a corporation called the Centre in Blue Cove, Delaware." "Right Sam." Al started punching in the data for Ziggy. "I have a feeling we're not going to like what we find," Sam said. * * * * * A female voice interrupted. "That's not very nice." Jarod looked up from the terminal he had hacked into. He searched the room, but saw no sign of another living soul. "Where are you?" After a few moments with no reply, Jarod turned his attention back to the terminal. "My father's going to be very upset with you." The statement didn't make sense. The voice didn't sound like a child's. Who was this person and where was she observing him from. "Was it your father who was responsible for locking me up in that room?" Jarod asked. He continued hacking the computer. "Stop that!" At that point, the voice almost sounded like a complaining child except for the deep richness of the tone. "I'm just making a few minor changes. No one will notice." "Except me," the voice replied. A wild notion came into Jarod's head. "You're the computer, aren't you? Whoever programmed you really knew what he was doing." No reply. Jarod kept hacking. "I need some information," Jarod said after a few minutes. "You don't have clearance," the voice replied. Jarod changed a few more lines of code. "Are you sure?" "Quite sure," the voice replied, annoyance in its tone. Jarod shook his head. He had thought he was dealing with a complicated computer program. As he listened to the voice and continued to look at the code, he slowly realized this program was more than the sum of its parts. It was somehow intelligent. It would be very difficult to get what he wanted. "Where's your father now?" No reply. So much for talking about family with this thing. "I don't suppose he programmed you with a conscience?" "He did better than that." "So he told you it was all right to kidnap and lock people up?" Jarod asked. "My father would never approve of that." "Then help me," Jarod pleaded. "If you don't help me, the people here will lock me up again." "You're in a top secret, secure government facility. You don't have clearance to be walking around interfering. You could damage someone.... Do you have a conscience Jarod?" "Yes, I do," Jarod replied. "I'm not going to hurt anyone." "Then undo the modifications you are making." "I need to make sure you don't tell anyone where I am. What kind of government project is this?" "That's classified." "If I don't know what kind of project this is, how am I supposed to trust the people here or know I'd be safe if I remove my changes to your programming?" No reply. Jarod began searching the code again to get some clues as to what it did besides create an artificial personality to talk to. "I see you contain a lot of detailed data on history." Jarod continued searching the data. "Most of it is dated from 1953 on. I'd guess if it was necessary for creating your personality it would cover material going much further back. What is this data for?" No response. When the artificial intelligence didn't want to talk, it really didn't talk. Jarod decided to try a new strategy. "What kind of programming do you have to protect yourself?" he asked. "If I threaten to shut you down, would you tell me what I wanted to know to prevent it?" There was silence for a moment. "If you threaten to shut me down, you would put my father in danger. The odds are 76.7% you would not do that." "I can do simulations of possible outcomes too. I don't think you want to challenge me on this one." It was like playing chess with a computer, but for much higher stakes. After a few more moments of silence, Jarod changed tactics again. "You know I never knew my father. I was taken away from my parents when I was very young. Tell me about your father." "Dr. Beckett is a genius in the field of artificial intelligence," the computer finally responded. It began to brag about its father and how well it was designed by him. * * * * * "So what you're telling me is that we basically have some kind of psycho loose in the Project," Al replied. He had just finished listening to Sam's synopsis of what he'd seen on the disks. Sam looked at Al. "Psycho?" "This 'Centre' dragged him away from his parents when he was a little kid and has basically been running experiments on him all his life." "That _doesn't_ make him a psycho," Sam replied emphatically. "He's a genius..." "Not like you," Al finished for him. "You came from a good home...." "Al, you were an orphan yourself, assuming, I'm remembering correctly. You turned out all right." "I didn't have a bunch of nutcases messing with my brain." Sam was silent for a moment. A serious look appeared on his face as he remembered something. "What about your time in 'Nam?" Al had been MIA in 'Nam for 6 years. Al took on an equally serious look. "I'm talking from experience. If what they did to him was anything like 'Nam, he could easily be a psycho." Al typed and banged at the handlink in frustration, checking to see if anything further had been reported regarding the intruder. "We have to find him as soon as possible." "Inform Ziggy of what I found here," Sam said. "It would be so much easier if Ziggy could just access those disks," Al said. "Then Ziggy could figure out this guy's next move." "His next move...." Sam realized how stupid he'd been for not thinking about it earlier. "He'll want to know what's happening to him. He'll probably try to access Ziggy. That's what I'd do." "He won't be able to override the security protocols," Al replied. "You're forgetting this guy's a genius, like me. He could probably write his own Ziggy if he had the funding, materials and personnel." "He's not like you, Sam," Al reminded. "I'll go increase security." "Tell me when you have anything on this new information. I need to know what I'm here for." "Maybe you're here to stop him," Al said. "Stop him from what?" asked Sam. Al nodded his head in the direction of the red notebooks full of newspaper clippings they'd discovered. "From getting involved in any more tragedies." "Hurry back Al," Sam said. The imaging chamber door opened and Al made his usual exit. * * * * * "So I can't talk to your father because my neurons and mesons aren't on the appropriate wavelength?" Jarod asked. "That's basically correct," Ziggy replied. Jarod felt annoyed. You'd think with all the people he could pretend to be, he could pretend close enough to an observer's brain wave patterns to get access to Ziggy's father. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. "What's he doing now anyway?" Jarod asked. "Attempting to correct something?" "Correct what?" Jarod asked. "An event in your life or someone you've come in contact with." "I could do that myself." There was annoyance in Jarod's tone. "Obviously not or Dr. Beckett would not have exchanged places with you." "Exchanged places?" Jarod asked, shocked. "He can't..." /be another Pretender?/ "He wouldn't want to be me. ...Why is he doing this?" * * * * * Sam turned around when he heard the familiar sound of the imaging chamber door. "Did Ziggy find out why I'm here?" "Still working on it. She did say the information explained a lot, but she won't give me anything concrete on what you're here to do. Says there are too many variables." "That doesn't sound like Ziggy," Sam replied. Al shrugged. "You think Jarod had time to do anything to Ziggy?" "I hope not. They've got to find him, Al." "I have everyone working on it. I even sent for some reinforcements from the military." "We can't hurt him," Sam said, concerned. "I made sure their orders were to apprehend him alive. I've got security walking around with tranquilizer guns. We don't know for sure what would happen to you if he died. It could cause you to leap though. I have Ziggy running odds to see what might happen. ...Which we may or may not be able to trust the results on." "You and Verbeena need to _talk_ to him. I'm sure we can discuss things with him reasonably. He's probably terrified. I remember how I felt when I saw someone else's face in the mirror for the first time." "Sam...." Sam didn't want to hear Al remind him again that Jarod wasn't like him. If Sam had been taken away from his parents like that, he could have been -- he might not have Jarod's skills as a Pretender -- but he knew how Jarod felt. They were both different. Sam interrupted Al before he could start another lecture. "Anything on that Centre in Delaware?" "Yeah. You're not going to like it." * * * * * "I'm glad you decided to trust me, Ziggy," Jarod said. "You're very intelligent for a human," Ziggy replied. "My father and I have been working on this and are still unable to make it functional." "I think I can help. You think I'll go back to where I was if I fix this?" Jarod asked. He was pretty sure the answer would be yes. "87% probability." "Close enough," Jarod replied. "I would like some additional data from you to help Dr. Beckett," Ziggy said. "What did you have in mind?" "Please clarify why you are running from the personnel at the Centre." Jarod looked surprised. "Because they want to lock me up," he replied matter-of-factly. "You've already shown how difficult that is to accomplish. Please clarify why you're running away." "I told you. I don't want to be locked up again. I don't want them using me for experiments. I don't want them hurting people with what I've thought up." "Why don't you stop the experiments?" "I'm trying. I can't stop all of it." Emotion tinged Jarod's responses and Ziggy noted it along with the increase in heart rate and respiratory changes. "I need to do some further analysis." Jarod assumed Ziggy referred to the program they were trying to fix and continued his own work on it. * * * * * The handlink started flashing like crazy. Al slapped it. "What is it?" asked Sam. "Ziggy wants clarification from you on something," Al said. "On what?" "Ziggy wants to know why Jarod is running away from the Centre." Al looked up from the handlink. "If we knew things like that, we wouldn't need Ziggy to figure out what's going on during leaps in the first place." "Tell Ziggy to search her databanks on ...POWs and ...animal experimentation. That should give her a frame of reference. I leaped into a chimp once, didn't I? Ziggy must have some data on exploitation of intelligent beings." Al started punching things in, annoyed Ziggy would ask such a ridiculous question. "Maybe this Jarod guy really is putting her programming out of wack. If he interferes with something vital to the Project...." The handlink started flashing again. "Seems that's not what Ziggy wants to know." Al stared at the read-out for a while trying to decipher it. "Now this sounds like Ziggy." Sam and Al both appeared a little calmer. "Ziggy wants to know about the peculiarities of human relationships that would prevent Jarod from closing down the Centre." Sam smiled. "I understand. Ask Ziggy if she thinks I'm here to stop the Centre." Al input the information. He looked irritated at the reply. "Ziggy doesn't want to speculate until she has more data on Jarod's 'human' relationships with people at the Centre." "That sounds like our Ziggy." * * * * * "I can see why this won't work," Jarod told Ziggy. "We're going to need more than just some corrections to the software." "I'll requisition any parts we need," Ziggy said. "I'll also need to get to the appropriate areas to install everything." "That should be very little problem for someone who can take on the characteristics of a person in any position...such as a security officer." "I'll still have to make it past some of that security. Do they know what I look like?" "You have the aura of Dr. Beckett." "What?" Jarod asked, surprised. "You have the exact appearance of Dr. Beckett," Ziggy explained. Jarod felt shock at the news that his appearance had changed. At the same time he gained some understanding into how Dr. Beckett could take over the role of someone else's life so easily. If he looked like the person, was a genius in his own right and Ziggy helped him with the background details, Dr. Beckett didn't need to be a Pretender to do the kinds of things he was doing. Lucky for him. He might have ended up at the Centre too if he had been one. "I'll need some help avoiding security." "That will be no problem, Jarod." * * * * * Sam spent an uncomfortable night in the small hotel room. He'd been up half of it with nightmares from what he'd seen on the compact disks. It hit too close to home. No one should be treated like that. What bothered him most was how easily it could have been him. He was no Pretender, although he could easily put himself in Jarod's shoes after all the lives he'd entered into. He was different. Dr. Sam Beckett was a genius in his own right. He sat there wondering how Jarod could live his life like this. The small hotel room seemed as bad as the cells at the Centre. He was surrounded by depressing memories - disks of experimentation and notebooks filled with newspaper tragedies from other lives. He ordered breakfast from room service. No point going out and risking having the wrong people see him until Ziggy had some idea what he was supposed to do. If only Jarod hadn't run away. They could have asked Jarod why he was in this particular city in this particular motel. Then again, if Al was right, maybe doing nothing and preventing Jarod from doing something bad was exactly what he was supposed to do. He was anxious to see Al and have a friendly face to talk to. Al showed up shortly after breakfast. "Ziggy's got something," Al said. /Finally./ "Does Ziggy know what I have to do to leap." "Ziggy wants you to follow her instructions to the letter." "Where have I heard that before?" Sam asked, trying to remember the specific leap. "I seem to remember her saying that on a number of occasions," Al said. "What are Ziggy's instructions?" "It's like you thought. We need to stop the Centre and Ziggy's working on a plan." "Wait a minute. I've leaped into a time here that's exactly concurrent with the present time at the Project...." "Right," Al replied. "We have government contacts at the Project that could help shut the Centre down permanently." Al input the comment into the handlink. "Ziggy's already thought of that. Ziggy says that the Centre has access to very high government officials and that if they thought the Project was involved they might try to shut us down." "So what _does_ Ziggy think we should do?" Al banged the handlink in vexation. "Ziggy says it's obvious." He punched furiously at the keys. "Here we go. The answer is publicity." Al looked up at Sam. "Publicity? How does that...?" "We go public with the Centre's crimes and let the people know what horrendous things have been going on." "I don't like it," Al said. "What if the Centre puts their own spin on it or makes Jarod look like some kind of monster." Sam could really get hurt if he was still in Jarod. "We need to make people sympathetic." "I think they'd sympathize if we showed them the right excerpts from those disks. I don't think Jarod could do that given how personal they are to him. Ask Ziggy if that's why I leaped in. Maybe I can share Jarod's past with others when he'd be too uncomfortable to let people see him like that." "Ziggy says there's a 96.4% chance Jarod is too personally involved with some of the people who work at the Centre to risk losing all contact with them." Sam looked sad. "They're the closest thing that comes to family for him. Ziggy hasn't been able to dig up anything on Jarod's real parents, has she?" Al checked. "Thanks a lot, Ziggy. She says she's getting tired of being asked that question." "That means no. So what is this great plan of Ziggy's that we need to follow so carefully?" Al typed in the question and Ziggy started spitting out recommendations line by line. Al read the display. "One, you upload portions of the D - S - A's..." Al hit the handlink. "What's a DSA?" The link flashed. "The compact disks to Ziggy over the computer using a secure and encrypted transmission. Two, you need to get publicity focused on the Centre using the disks. Three, I need to call in some major favors with some top government officials. Four,..." * * * * *