PROLOGUE
Project
Quantum Leap
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Admiral
Albert Calavicci still couldn’t believe the audacity of Jonathon Thomas
Beckett. The way that young man
had plastered the truth over the Internet about the classified government
funded project still ruffled his feathers.
Everything the boy had done, every word, every single word placed in
that chat had led up to a point and it was beginning to poke him squarely in
the nose.
Sitting
down at his desk, Al turned on his computer as he sipped at the steaming cup
of coffee in his right hand. Leaning
back in his chair, he waited for the computer to warm up then he peered at
his desktop for a long moment before he asked, “Ziggy?”
“Yes,
Admiral?” the parallel-hybrid computer purred back.
“Would
you display the spam message that started all of this nonsense, as well as
the transcript of that chat that was held?”
Without
an audible response, two documents faded in on Admiral Calavicci’s screen.
Transferring his coffee cup to his left hand, he placed his mouse on
the email. He read it again,
this time aloud: “Experienced
lapses in time you can’t explain?”
He paused, sighed, and then continued to read the rest of the message
aloud.
“Have
you had moments of your life pass by without any memories of it?
Have changes in your life occurred without you understanding why?
Have you ever felt like you had an out of time experience?
Have you had persistent dreams of being inside a blue room,
constantly monitored by people you have never met?
If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you are invited to
attend a live chat Sunday night (Jan. 15th) at 8PM EST.
At this time, all members will describe their experiences to the best
of their abilities and we shall all pull together what we have learned to
figure out why this event has occurred to a select number of us.
Is it a form of alien abduction, or is it something else beyond
imagination? It is my hope that
some of you will help fill in the gaps of our memories.
“This
message has been sent to various e-mail addresses all over the country in
the hopes of finding others like myself that have shared a unique
experience. Most of you reading
this will probably disregard this message as a joke, but if a small
percentage find that a chord has been struck then this message has done
it’s job. The website address
for Sunday’s chat is at the bottom of the e-mail.
In the meantime, a message board is currently up and running for
those who wish to talk beforehand.”
Al
set his coffee cup down, and then he rubbed his face hard.
J. T. had given them factual explicit answers and all it did was get
an assembly of people parked outside of the project’s perimeter asking –
no – demanding to see Dr. Beckett.
Al
used his mouse to minimize the email and looked at the transcript dated
January 15, 2006. He read
through all of it very thoroughly then shook his head and closed his eyes.
“Admiral,
are you okay?”
“Yes,
Ziggy. I’m fine.
Fine as I can be for someone still on a damn string.”
Al knew that he was still under the scrutinizing gaze of General
Hawkins and that didn’t set well with him, either.
Shaking his head to try to rid himself of the anger that quickly set
in with just the thought of the patronizing, egotistical bastard, Al peered
up at the ceiling hoping for some divine aid.
Sighing, he glanced back at the computer screen.
“Has Sam leaped yet?” Al asked.
“No,
Admiral, he has not. As soon as he does… you’ll be the first to know.”
After
being whisked away from his last leap, Doctor Samuel Beckett needed to
escape. It seemed that every
leap was getting tougher and hard-hitting.
He remembered the exchange he had with an enigmatic bartender some
time ago, being told that he was the one leaping himself in Time, but he
just couldn’t make himself believe that - not after what he had learned
that day.
The
leaps had become tougher… much tougher for him, not only mentally but
physically as well. He
remembered righting a wrong for Al and knew, deep in his heart, that it was
the right thing to do. He just
wished that he were home.
Even
as he felt weightless in the void that held him over an immeasurable abyss,
Sam was not aware of any part of his body.
It was as if he was in a dream; a realm where he could see everything
from a universal scale, but not see anything at all.
It was then that he heard the voice that occasionally talked to him.
“Rest,
Dr. Beckett.”
“I
want to go home,” he said softly.
“Not
yet. Close your eyes and rest.
The road ahead is… bumpy and long.
Rest. You will be home
soon enough.”
If
he could feel his head, Sam would have bowed it slightly, but still the
words came softly, “Oh boy.”
PART
ONE
Hope
Springs, Virginia
February
10, 2006
Paige
Ilene Arlyss sighed as she walked from her cherry-red Volkswagen GTO to her
house. She couldn’t believe
the day she was having. At ten o’clock in the morning, her boyfriend, Darryl
McDaniel dumped her for no apparent reason and then walked away.
Because her mindset was extremely bewildered from the ordeal with her
now -- ex-boyfriend, she was sure that she failed the Physics test over
Chapter Eight. It was then at
lunch that she found out that Darryl had already asked Phoebe Daniels to be
his girlfriend. By the time she
got to the door of her house, she’d had enough for the day and she just
wanted to snuggle up to the two things that didn’t judge her:
her Siamese kitten, Schrodinger, and her computer.
Opening
the door, she heard her mother in the kitchen singing a country-western song
that was playing on the radio. She sniffed at the air and smiled
appreciatively. Her mother was
making fudge. ‘Perfect
comfort food after such a miserable day,’ Paige thought to herself.
“Hi mom,” Paige said as she paused in the doorway of the kitchen.
A
tall brunette with emerald eyes turned with a smile as she looked at her
daughter. “Hi honey.
Did you have a good day at school?”
“If
you call getting dumped, finding that your ex-boyfriend already has another
girlfriend by lunch, and failing a Physics examination a good day…
sure,” Paige said with a scowl as she plopped her backpack on one of the
dining room chairs.
“Oh
honey!”
Paige
shrugged her shoulders and let a smile ease her anguish.
“It’s okay, mom.”
Dianne
Michelle Lane turned to her daughter after dipping a spoon into the second
bowl of fudge she had been making. “Comfort
licks,” she said warmly as she handed Paige the spoon.
“As soon as it’s done, I’ll let you have some fudge, okay?”
Paige
grinned at her mother. “Thanks
mom,” then gave the spoon a lick and hummed.
“Anything
for you, honey,” Dianne said as she watched her only child pick up her
backpack and head back to her bedroom; then went back to humming the song on
the radio.
Walking
into her bedroom, Paige tossed her backpack onto her bed.
Going to her desk, she bumped the mouse of her computer slightly then
watched, as her monitor seemed to come to life.
Animatronics of a kitten clawing at an envelope at the corner of the
screen told her that she had new e-mail.
After sitting down, she opened her e-mail program.
What she found wasn’t surprising.
Paige found another e-mail from the ever playful, every annoying, but
always-kindhearted Shepherd Jameson.
Paige
leaned back in her chair slightly as she read and licked at the spoon.
PIA,
I
heard about what happened with Darryl.
He’s a hypocritical ass. You
should go out with someone like me. *Hehe* I know… I know… go fly a kite
noodle head, right?
Anyway…
have you thought about the Valentines Day Dance – The Enchantment Under
The Sea? Isn’t that name just
hokey or what? Well… I know
that I’m not the hunkiest guy around, but if you’d like… we could go
together. Wow… I’m corny… asking a girl out on the computer
instead of face-to-face. But
then again, you know me….
Oh
yeah, I forgot to ask you – have you thought about what or who sent that
e-mail / pop-up virus to you? Have
you traced it? The main reason
why I asked about it is because if you can get rid of them as easily as you
do … and you know how computer literate I am… with all those floozies
out there… I just don’t want the little rinky-dink computer I have go
blutzeroo, if you know what I mean.
Well,
sugar lips talk at ya later. Call
me if you need to talk.
Later,
Shep
“The
dance?” Paige rolled her eyes
but a grin spread across her features as she thought about the dance that
the school was going to hold. Darryl
had asked her to go with him. A
frown immediately found its way onto her face.
“We’ll talk later about that Shep,” she said softly as she
continued to read. “I’m not in the mood for a dance at the moment.”
As she read about Shepherd’s computer skills, she smirked.
“You are a long way from being any kind of computer literate
person. However, that
virus…”
Paige
minimized her e-mail program then opened yet another to look at the virus
she had received recently. It
was harmless; or at least it seemed to be.
It had no malicious intent to shut down programming; nor did it have
a code to reformat the computer. It
wasn’t a worm capable of replicating itself and eating the memory of her
CPU either. It didn’t even
look as if it was capable of transmitting itself across networks or
bypassing security systems. Even
as Paige studied it, she knew that just the aspect of it sitting on her
computer was enough to pique her curiosity.
She
rapped her fingernails thoughtfully on the desk as she finished up the rest
of the fudge on the spoon. She
stared at the virus application software for a long moment then turned in
her chair to look at the picture of her father, Ira Milam Arlyss, on the
wall. She had only known him
for four years of her life, yet her mother told her often enough that she
was more like her father every day. Paige looked into his eyes.
“So, what do you say, dad? Do
I crack it? Or no?”
A slow smile spread on her face before she answered back, “You’re
right, dad. They shouldn’t
have sent it if they didn’t want me to crack it.”
Turning
back to her CPU, Paige flipped open yet another operating software program
and began; her fingers flying over the keyboard; her mind seemingly to run
even faster than her fingers. She
was sure glad that she had the weekend ahead of her.
“Doctor
Beckett?” the voice called through the abyss echoing softly as it
disturbed his rest.
Even
though Doctor Beckett still could not feel his body, he intently opened his
eyes. “Yes?” his voice was weak and weary.
“It’s
time, Doctor Beckett.”
“Time?”
He was trying to get his bearings from being woken from his much-needed rest
and relaxation.
“Time
to put right what once was wrong,” the voice reverberated back at him.
“Don’t worry Doctor Beckett.
You’ll know all you need to know.”
Before
the green-eyed physicist could reply, he leaped.
PART
TWO
Hope
Springs, Virginia
February
10, 2006
As
reality began to materialize around him, he found himself lying back on a
bed, listening to music, which he assumed was on the airwaves.
Sam swallowed as his stomach made its presence known with a growl.
He forced the idea of food away and tried to concentrate on where and
who he was.
He
rubbed at his eyes as he sat up on the bed.
With just a glance around the room, he knew that he had leaped into a
teenage boy. He didn’t know
how many girls had posters up that displayed several bikini-clad super
models around their room.
Shaking
his head, Sam stood up and felt his back pocket.
He was relieved when he found a wallet.
Pulling it out, he looked at the driver’s license.
It belonged to Shepherd Allen Jameson, born January 16, 1988, living
at 2613 Maple Avenue, Hope Springs, Virginia.
Sam
frowned as he looked at the teen’s driver’s license.
The green eyed, black haired, tan faced kid staring back at him made
him question why he had leaped into Shepherd Jameson as he heard the
telephone ring.
It
immediately stopped, letting him know that there was another person in the
house with him; moments later he heard a bellowed call from somewhere else
in the house. “Shepherd! Phone!”
Reaching
over to the phone beside the bed, he picked it up and answered
indifferently, “It’s your dime.”
Sam blinked and shook his head wondering why he couldn’t have just
said hello as he heard the click as whoever had answered the phone hung the
extension up.
“Oh
Shep, you won’t believe this!” the voice on the other end of the line
was a female and her voice was bubbling with enthusiasm.
“Uhm…
ok… what… wait… who is this?” Sam stumbled.
“It’s
Paige. I can’t believe this.
I’ve never stumbled across anything like this.
I mean, I knew that they existed, but…” Paige began to ramble.
“Paige?”
Sam asked hastily with a grin.
“Yeah?”
she said excitedly.
“Take
a deep breath. Slow down.” Sam
heard her take in a slow deep breath, then let it back out. “Now, tell me what you found.”
“Well,
you know how you asked about that e-mail – pop-up virus that I
received?”
“Yeah,”
Sam said knowing that she was trying to base things on Shepherd’s prior
knowledge even though he personally had no clue about the virus she was
talking about.
“Well,
I found more out about it; not only from the net, but from the program
itself.”
Sam
frowned. “What’d you
find?”
“Ok.
Number one, about only fifty or so people got this so-called virus.
This one message board I go to... to check out computer viruses and
colds was talking about this virus that they have named Inconspicuous.
However, it was number two that’s got me all hyped up.
You ready?”
“Sure,
what?”
“It’s
taken me all weekend, but… I’ve found something complex.
I’ve found a hidden program in this virus!”
“You’re
hacking into it?” Sam asked a bit amazed.
Sam had heard of people who had gained unauthorized access to
computer systems for the purpose of stealing and corrupting the data they
found. It was because of those
individuals that he had put so many security applications and protocols on
the parallel hybrid computer. “That’s
illegal,” he said into the receiver as the Imaging Chamber door opened a
few feet before him.
Admiral
Albert Calavicci stepped out of the Imaging Chamber door dressed in a
comparatively easy on the eye outfit. He
wore black khakis, a dark blue buttoned up shirt and a black tie.
He waved at Sam as he held up the handlink to get the data Sam would
need for the leap. “What’s
illegal?”
Paige
sighed on her end of the phone. “Not
really. I’m not out there trying to steal anything from anyone.
I just want to see what this hidden program does.
That’s all. And if
they didn’t want it to happen, then they shouldn’t have sent it to me.
Just listen, Shepherd. There
are hidden programs in everything. Most
hidden programs are in your computer for a reason – you know so that you
will not accidentally corrupt them or delete them.
Well, you can do the same thing in any manmade file.
It makes it invisible to the simple-minded people who don’t have
the knack of reading or writing programs.
Well, these hidden programs can be accessed by passwords. They call
the programs hard-parameter programs. They
have one way in and one way out. It’s
absolute. You with me so far?”
“Yes…”
“Well,
this one like I said is more elaborate.
This one has soft parameters. Now
remember, hard means… unless you have the password, you won’t get in.
Soft parameters mean that in order to gain access; you have to
contribute to the program. In
other words, you share your knowledge with the program.
You feed the data every step of the way.
So, if you don’t feed it the right data, your entrance is
rejected.”
“Sam,
what’s illegal?” Al asked as he looked at his friend who was still on
the phone. Sam raised his index
finger asking for a moment. Al
nodded.
“Okay,
so you can’t guess your way in. Good.”
Sam then put his hand over the receiver then said softly to Al,
“Computer hacking.”
“Ahhh…
Crackers… lovely beings on the planet,” Al supplied.
“Right,”
Paige said still thrilled even though a thought of not getting in bugged
her. “The designer was no
dummy. You know what, Shep?”
“What?”
Sam asked a bit hesitantly.
“I’m
gonna break this one. I’m
gonna do it. I’m…”
Paige
broke her sentence when she heard someone pick up an extension.
“Paige? I’m sorry to
break into your conversation honey, but I need to use the phone.
I need to talk to your stepfather.”
“Okay
mom,” Paige said plainly. “Talk
to you later, Shep. I’ll let
you know what I find.”
“Okay,”
Sam said with a frown. “Bye
Paige.” Hanging up the phone, he looked up at Al a bit expectantly.
“So, what’s going on, Al? Why
did I leap in as Shepherd Allen Jameson?”
“Oh
good. You’ve already started
to piece the puzzle,” Al began.
“If
you haven’t seen it already, Al, I’m in a colossal puzzle and all I’ve
found is the corner piece! Give
me something. Why am I here?”
“Gees,
Sam. You’re testy.
Have you had your Wheaties this morning?” Al tried to decrease his
friend’s mood but from the gaze that Sam shot at him for his efforts, Al
knew that Sam wasn’t going to lighten up much more.
“All right. All right.
You already know who you are. You
have leaped into…”
“Hope
Springs, Virginia.”
Al
looked up from the handlink as he waved his hand in the air whimsically.
“Seems to me you have more than one piece of the puzzle, Sam.”
Sam
grimaced as he rolled his eyes. “Do
you have anything on Shepherd?”
Al
smacked the side of the handlink as the words hung for a moment.
“Well, uh, no. As far
as Ziggy can see, there hasn’t been anything that happens to Shepherd or
his family.” Al paused then faced the scowl on the leaper.
Even as Al took a step toward Sam, Al asked, “Who was on the phone?
Maybe that’s why you’re here.”
“That
was Paige. Paige what – I
don’t know. She didn’t give
her last name.”
“That’s
enough for Ziggy to get a good rundown on the people of Hope Springs,
Virginia. That shouldn’t take
too long.” Al entered the
data into the handlink then looked approvingly at the posters on the wall.
“Thank God for women, huh, Sam?”
“That’s
degrading,” Sam supplied protectively but his eyes drifted over to one of
the posters and he blushed as his gaze lingered.
The
bleep of the handlink brought Al’s eyes back to the link in his hand.
“Aha! Paige Ilene
Arlyss was whom you were talking to on the phone.
She’s seventeen, the same age as you… er… Shepherd is and oh…
she’s a computer whiz. And
well…”
“And…?”
Sam queried back as he narrowed his eyes.
Al
cleared his throat and pulled up the Imaging Chamber door as the handlink
let out another definitive beep that Al had recently come to know as more
trouble coming his way. “I’ve got something that I need to check on.
I’ll be back.”
“Al…”
“I’ll
be back,” Al assured him, and stepped back into Project Quantum Leap.
Project
Quantum Leap
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Al
couldn’t believe what he had read on the handlink and rushed back to see
just why Ziggy was spewing gobbledygook.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Al demanded as he waved the
handlink in the air. “Ziggy,
tell me what’s going on! Why
can’t we give Sam any data on this leap?”
“I
can not give data that I have not received yet, Admiral.”
“What?”
“Just
that. I can not predict the
future.”
“Dominic,
did you give her some new program that mimics L.S.D. or something?”
A
comical look came over Dominic’s face but quickly faded as Ziggy’s next
words floored them all.
“Dr.
Beckett has leaped into Hope Springs, Virginia into the aura of Shepherd
Jameson on February 10, 2006. The
only reason why I can not give any data is because it’s currently
happening.”
“Oh
my God,” Al said with a shocked expression on his face.
“Okay, then, Ziggy – give me your best guess.”
“I
could deduce that Dr. Beckett is there for Paige Ilene Arlyss, but I can not
say for certain why he would be there.”
Al
nodded at the parallel-hybrid computer’s words.
“All right, then, give me everything you’ve got on Paige Arlyss.
Perhaps some logical sense will prevail here.” Al glanced around the room as people scattered.
For
several long moments, Al paced the room, his mind going ninety to nothing.
His right hand came up to rub at his stubbly chin and he pursed his
lips in wonder. “Is
there…” Al paused for a moment then glanced up at the blue sparkling orb
of lightning above him. “Is
there any way that the retrieval program could work since he’s in the
present? What are the odds on
that Ziggy?”
“If
Doctor Beckett hadn’t used the other accelerator in Dr. Garner’s lab,
there could be a high probability.”
“What
is it now? Should we try?”
“Using
the retrieval program as it is, now, Admiral, there is only a twenty percent
chance of it working correctly without harming the doctor.”
“Damn.
Okay, Ziggy, let’s get this ball going.
Give me all you can and we…”
“Oh
my…” Ziggy’s sensors warmed in the orb above Al as her voice rose in
surprise.
“What?”
Al asked.
“Paige
Ilene Arlyss is the daughter of Dianne Michelle and Ira Milam Arlyss.
Ira Arlyss died in an automobile accident in 1994.
Though the police found that his brakes had been meddled with, they
could not find any evidence to pin Dianne Arlyss with the murder of her
husband. Mrs. Arlyss even hired
a hypnotist and went under Sodium Pentothal to convince everyone involved
that she did not have anything to do with her husband’s demise.
Dianne Arlyss then married Isaac Dennis Lane, five years later.”
For
a long moment, Al frowned wondering how the information had anything to
really do with the leap. It didn’t seem to mean anything.
As the frown furrowed his brow, he was surprised at what he heard
next.
“Oh
my,” Ziggy said again, her voice pitching even more curiously, causing
everyone in Central Control to stop and look up at the spherical orb that
shimmered methodically.
“What
is it, Ziggy?” Al asked warily.
“Isaac
Lane has recently signed a contract with General Hawkins.
He is currently working with him in an anti-terrorist project called
Project Liberty.”
Al
looked up at the parallel-hybrid computer, inwardly rolled his eyes and took
in a deep breath as he tried to push down the anger that wanted to overtake
him. ‘That monkey butt,’ he thought to himself as he glanced at the
Imaging Chamber door. ‘He’s
working on an anti-terrorist project? Hell,
he’s a terror himself.’
Al
looked up at the electrifying blue orb above him and shook his head.
Something about what Ziggy had said was eating at him and it didn’t
have anything to do with General Hawkins.
Licking his lips, he tilted his head slightly then asked, “Ziggy,
what’s with the ‘Oh my’ responses this evening.
Is there a problem?”
“I
do not know, Admiral Calavicci. I shall run a diagnostic and see if there is
a problem. Thank you for
pointing it out.”
Al
frowned; questioning what exactly was going on.
Now, the ego-bound computer was being terribly polite about running a
diagnostic. Something again was up and he knew it. “Your welcome, Zig. Listen,
just check it out and let Dominic know what’s going on.”
Shaking his head, Al then looked over at Dominic.
“Get the link back up. I’ve
got to talk with Sam.”
“You
can’t, Admiral Calavicci,” the computer purred back to the Admiral.
“And
why not?”
“Dr.
Beckett has leaped.”
“He
leaped!? What the…” Al’s
questioning quickly faded as he turned, his head angling up at the sphere
once again.
PART
THREE
Hope
Springs, Virginia
February
11, 2006
Paige
looked at the screen as she leaned back in her chair.
She wasn’t any further along than she had been when she called
Shep. “Augh,” she rumbled
lowly in her throat as she tilted her head up to the ceiling hoping for
divine assistance.
The
thing that was stumping her was the question from the virus itself that was
on the screen:
Who
has many experiences in their travels and
yet
takes time for the prosperity of others?
She
tried various answers just that sparked off the top of her head: Captain
James T. Kirk and Spock of Star Trek; Thomas Magnum of Magnum PI; Michael
Knight of Knight Rider; and Angus MacGyver in MacGyver; any of the team in
Stargate SG1; the new handsome Captain Jonathan Archer from the new Star
Trek: Enterprise, then went to more real life individuals; the Pope; Mother
Theresa; police officers; investigators; policemen and women; lawyers;
priests; teachers; and as her shoulders sagged, she thought of the hero next
door who moved in from Alabama and rescued her dog from being hit by a car
over a month ago.
“Great.
This is going to take forever. Dammit,”
she mumbled, then in frustration, she got up from her desk and walked away
from it. She had been sitting staring at the screen for so long that
her butt was beginning to hurt and she felt as if her brain was going to
start to melt from the strain of thinking.
As
she walked into the kitchen in search for something to drink and a snack,
she went to the pantry and glanced around.
Nothing caught her eye. “Isn’t
that the case?” she whispered. “When you’re somewhat hungry, you never
find exactly what you are searching for.”
It was in that moment that she slumped her shoulders and her hand
came up to her head in an abrupt epiphany.
“You moron!” she exclaimed as she shut the pantry and opened the
refrigerator to get a drink.
She
rushed back to her room with the cola in her hands and quickly opened her
Internet browser. She typed in
the whole phrase into the Yahoo search engine and, crossing her fingers,
pressed the enter key.
Forty-three
thousand, four hundred results came back on her screen and she began with
the first one, reading through each title that came up.
It was better than sitting there wracking her brain as she tried to
think of the answer.
As
Paige scrolled through the pages the titles seemed far-fetched and
completely random in nature. Some
of them that popped up in the search engine were titled:
Scrappleface:
Rumsfeld’s Sorry for ‘Axis of Weasel Remark’
Useful
Tools
Chronology
of the History of Slavery 1619 to 1789
The
Nature of Time in Economics
Wisdom
of Time
A
Brief of History of Time: Revisited
Chapter
1: The Law of Time and Chaos
Time:
Albert Einstein – Nobel Prize in Physics 1921
It
was after she had scrolled through a few thousand entries, she propped her
head in her hands as she read through the titles.
Two hours later, she came across an interesting post from a message
board. As she read it, she was
unaware that she was reading parts of it aloud.
“Have
you ever felt like you had an out of time experience?” Paige paused then
uttered painfully, “Ohh brother.” Yet
she continued to read, “Is it a form of alien abduction, or is it
something else beyond imagination?” Paige
frowned but curiosity won out and she then went ahead and read the chatroom
discussion that was held on January 15, 2006.
By the time she finished reading it, she hummed.
“Wild. Some people and their affection with time travel just
really…”
She
stopped in the middle of her rambling thought and for a moment sat back and
thought about the implied and detailed meanings in the chat she had read. Minimizing the Internet browser, she looked back at the
question and the cursor waiting for her answer.
She typed in a name on the keyboard -- her answer being one man’s
name: Sam Beckett.
Balling her fists, she hesitated, then finally pressed the enter
button.
The
computer screen went utterly black, faded to a sparkling blue-white hue, and
then suddenly it turned a brilliant blood red then went black once more. In the middle of her screen it said:
Identify
yourself.
Paige
wasn’t quite sure about identifying herself to the program for fear of
retribution, but she plunged ahead and entered only her first name.
Without pause another question popped up:
Why
are you interested in Sam Beckett?
Paige
bit at her bottom lip as she typed in:
I am interested in Sam Beckett to find out why he has assisted so
many people in his travels.
It
was then that her computer seemed to have a personality of its own as it
split the one virus program she had been working on into two.
She blinked at the screen, mesmerized.
Her screen was divided in half from top to bottom.
At the top of the screen, there was a request.
At the bottom there was a question.
She
decided to try out the top first. It
began asking her questions about Sam Beckett – questions that had some of
the answers from the chat that she had read then others… others were more
unambiguous and she couldn’t respond to them.
When she couldn’t respond to it anymore, the program replied with
‘Nicely done,’ then went blank.
The
bottom however began to spew out questions that were odd.
When the program asked, ‘Do gray cats have claws?’ Paige
answered ‘yes’. Immediately
another question scrolled itself across the screen:
‘How wide is the Mississippi River?’
When she put in the answer that she had to look up, the monitor then
scrolled another: ‘How
many seeds are in a watermelon?’
Although
the questions bewildered her and had nothing to do with the program itself,
she understood what the programmer of the software had done.
He had made the virus a heavily coded program –for his or her own
reasons.
Paige
knew she was close but even as she pulled away from the computer once again,
she knew she was a good step away from being able to get into the program
itself. She just needed more
information about this Beckett person.
Someone had to know answers. She
just needed to dig deeper.
PART
FOUR
Stallions
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
February
11, 2006
Al
was pacing like an expectant father. He
couldn’t believe that Sam had leaped and he also didn’t understand why
Ziggy couldn’t find him. He
hadn’t done anything, had he? Al’s
mind raced. Even if Sam had
done something, there was no history to base anything on.
Being in the present was not helping matters one bit.
“Have you found him yet, Ziggy?”
“I’m
refining my search right now, Admiral,” Ziggy replied promptly.
A moment later as Al had passed by the mainframe of the hybrid
computer, Ziggy purred, “I have a lock.”
“Oh,
thank God!” Al exclaimed. “Let’s
get that door opened so that I can talk to Sam and find out what’s going
on!”
Hope
Springs, Virginia
February
11, 2006
Sam
blinked his eyes and shook his head slightly to try to regain his senses
about him. He didn’t
understand why he had leaped already and he blinked as he realized that he
remembered his previous leap.
He
quickly looked about him to find out that he was in an office, sitting
behind a computer. Looking
carefully at the computer screen, Sam wondered if he had leaped into Paige
Arlyss. Seeing data spewed across the screen, he sighed as he glanced
down at his attire to see that he was wearing a police uniform.
Swallowing, he checked his badge to read:
Officer McPhearson. “Oh
boy,” Sam simpered. The name
seemed familiar to him, but he quickly dismissed it and glanced back at the
computer before him to decipher what was on it.
He
heard someone clear his or her throat and he turned to see an older
gentleman who was leaning against the doorframe; a warm smile on his face. “Lorraine? Why
don’t you come with your old man and we’ll go get some dinner?”
The
man’s face seemed familiar to Sam and as he blinked, Sam remembered him
from a previous leap.
“Hi
Sheriff,” Sam had responded while nodding his head towards the little
girl.
“Almost
don’t recognize her, do ya, Brad?” the sheriff smiled.
“My little Lorraine is growing up quick.”
The
young girl shuffled, clearly embarrassed by the attention, causing Sam to
smile.
“Almost
reminds me,” the sheriff went on, “have you considered my suggestion of
applying to the police academy? Since
you quit your job at the prison and all, I figure you could get certified
and work for me.”
“I’ll
think about it,” was all Sam could say.
“Good.”
The sheriff started to lead the girl forward.
“Well, I gotta run. Promised
Lorraine she would spend her allowance at the music store.
Wants to buy something called Wham!
Lord knows what the hell that is.”
Sam
grinned at the man and shook his head.
“Okay, Dad. Let me
save this document then, we can go. Okay?”
It
was in that moment that the phone rang.
Sam immediately leaned over and picked it up and answered, “Officer
Lorraine McPhearson speaking. May
I help you?”
“Officer
McPhearson, it’s good to hear your voice.
Sergeant Bennings, here. Listen,
Lorraine, I’m going to be coming into Hope Springs for a few days. I want
to check out a few things that I had heard about t | 
