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PROJECT
LIBERTY REPRISE:
“True
Callings, Part I”: (January
21 – 23) General Hawkins invokes presidential authority and locks down
Project Quantum Leap to conduct an investigation after a nationwide e-mail
message threatens the secrecy of the project.
Meanwhile, Sam has leaped into the town of Hope Springs, Virginia in
1985, as a costumed vigilante known as Captain Liberty.
“True
Callings, Part II”: Tom
Beckett’s son, J.T., admits that he is the one that leaked information
about the Project to all of the former leapees who received the e-mail
message.
“True
Callings, Part III”: David
Watkins (the grandson of former leapee Arnold Watkins) admits to Hawkins
that he is the one that sent out the initial message across the Internet.
Back in the past, Sam succeeds in shutting down the criminal empire
of drug kingpin Darius Dreck with the help of Dr. Alexander Garner.
Dreck’s property is eventually sold off to the U.S. government
where, in the present, Hawkins begins construction of an anti-terrorist
project called Project Liberty. Tom
Beckett is brought out of retirement by Hawkins and promoted to Captain, as
he, J.T., and David Watkins are brought aboard this new project…
“The
Enemy”: (February 6) Dominic Lofton is blackmailed by General Hawkins to
create a copy of Ziggy’s program after a reporter named Benjamin nearly
succeeds in getting into the complex by stowing away in Dom’s car.
Hawkins plans to use this copied program to run Project Liberty, and
also reveals to Dom that he has secretly programmed Ziggy to lie…
“Eternal
Shadows: The Dawning”: (February
10 – 14) Sam begins leaping into various people in present-day Hope
Springs. A high school senior named Paige Arlyss discovers a computer
virus embedded within a copy of the e-mail message that was sent out by
David Watkins. Even more
disturbing is that this virus begins asking questions about Dr. Sam Beckett.
Paige’s stepfather, Isaac Lane, who just so happens to be the head
of security at Project Liberty, has agreed to take Paige to the project to
ask General Hawkins about it.
“Eternal
Shadows: The Emergence”: As
Isaac Lane, Sam, along with Al, finally discovers the true nature of
Hawkins’ project. The
Ziggy-copy has been named Omega, and is being used as part of a time-travel
experiment.
“Eternal
Shadows: The Supremacy”: As
Hawkins conducts further investigation into Sam’s prior leaps, he returns
to PQL briefly where a mysterious conspiracy seems to be afoot involving
other leapers.
“Eternal
Shadows: The Enchantment”: Back
at Project Liberty, head technician Lexia Stafford and her assistant, Nate
Adams, discover a minor glitch in Omega’s systems and begin working to
correct the problem. As they
leave the room, Omega begins evolving and taking on a life of its own…
“Quantum
Evolution”: (May 8) Hawkins invites Al to witness the initial testing phase of
Project Liberty. The experiment
goes awry when another glitch occurs, resulting in the deaths of four
soldiers upon their retrieval. Meanwhile,
Sam leaps into an astral projectionist in 2001.
A psychic warns Sam that Hawkins will be involved with something that
causes Armageddon. According to
Al, however, Sam is there to sabotage the experiments of a terrorist named
Mustafa, who Dr. Braden sold time-travel information to in 1985 (during
“True Callings”). Dr.
Garner (now in his late eighties) suddenly shows up and is killed trying to
help Sam. Sam succeeds in his mission, and Al reveals his true identity
as a younger Alexander Garner, sent by the Bartender to watch over him.
The real Al shows up and informs Sam that a nuclear explosion has
just occurred in present-day Hope Springs…
“Quantum
Departure”: (May 9 – 14) Sam returns to Al’s Place, and is sent into the
near future by the Bartender. Al
leaps to the tavern and follows Sam into the future, where he finds himself
inhabiting the aura of a twenty-six-year-old woman named Alicia Dalton.
He and Sam are reunited as they begin their search for answers and
subsequently stumble upon the remains of Project Quantum Leap.
Searching through the destruction, a dying General Hawkins reveals
that he was drugged and tortured by a woman from Project Liberty, whose goal
was to connect an interface that would link Omega to Ziggy.
Sam also begins feeling an intense hatred towards Al after finding
out that Al kept information about his family from him.
Sam returns to Al’s Place again and has an emotional reunion with
several long-lost friends and family members (Gooshie, Alia, Alexander
Garner, and John and Thelma Beckett). They
all wish him luck and to stay strong during this new crisis.
But history seems doomed to repeat itself…
“Give
Me Liberty”: (May 8 – 9) As Al is sent back in time with knowledge of what is
to come, he orders all non-security personnel to be evacuated to Holloman
Air Force Base in White Sands and then leaves with Daniel Fulton and a small
battalion of soldiers to rescue Dom and Aurora. Two time zones over, Captain Tom Beckett awakens within the
ruins of Project Liberty and attempts to leap, but is attacked by a shadowy
figure that he recognizes all too well.
Meanwhile, back in the past, Sam begins leaping multiple times into a
key figure from Project Liberty, losing further control over his own
thoughts and emotions with each successive leap.
As Sam finally discovers that he has been leaping into Adam, Al leads
Dom, Aurora, and his security team back to the Project where a riot has
quickly broken out among the anti-government protestors. It is at this moment when Lexia Stafford arrives with a
drugged-up General Hawkins in tow, and Ziggy informs Al that Lexia’s true
identity is that of Zoë’s daughter, Tala.
Back in the Project Liberty ruins, Tom Beckett confronts the entity
that assaulted him…
And now, the conclusion…
PROLOGUE
“Despite
the slight modification to Tala’s secondary assignment of infiltrating
Project Quantum Leap, everything is going according to plan.”
“What
did you do to my brother? Show
yourself, you coward!”
A
moment of silence permeated the air until the figure finally complied.
“Very well. I am
afraid you caught me just as I was beginning to realign my holographic
matrix to its standard configuration. Now you shall get to see me for whom I truly am.
Through the façade of the Internet virus program and the corruption
of the Ziggy-copy, Omega, I have been reborn!”
The
mystery man stepped forward, revealing his identity to Captain Thomas
Beckett. Standing before him in
a white blazer was not the individual that Tom had first recognized, but
rather the evil mastermind who once controlled a time-travel project in the
British Isles.
“You
recognize me from General Hawkins’ files on the evil leapers, do you not?
My name is Nathaniel Lothoman—but you may call me… Lothos!”
PART
FIVE
Project
Liberty Ruins
Hope
Springs, Virginia
May
9, 2006
5:01
AM (EDT)
“That’s
impossible!” Tom responded back in shock.
“I read all of the files concerning you and those other ‘evil’
leapers. Sam destroyed you
years ago. The evil leapers are
dead!”
“So
they are,” the hologram of Lothoman confirmed.
“I will admit, Zoë was always the one I wanted to carry out my
plans. I regret I was not able to find a way to resurrect her… at
least, not yet anyway.
Perhaps in another decade or so, I’ll be able to create perfect
clones, or at the very least, cyborg replicas of her and Thames.
But for now, they will have to be considered casualties of war.
As for myself…” Lothoman turned around showing off his
holographic form like he was on display at a fashion show, and continued,
“The corporeal man who was once Nathaniel Lothoman may indeed be dead, but
sentient computer programs can never truly ‘die.’
I am but the holographic representation of Nathaniel.
And now, thanks to Omega, I have been able to fully utilize the power
of this project’s reactor to reemerge in a tangible
form and continue where I left off.”
“It
was you this whole time, wasn’t it?” Tom realized.
“The virus? The
‘glitch’ that killed those four soldiers?”
“Yes. Well done, Thomas.” Lothoman
clapped his hands together in applause.
“And none of it would have been possible without the help of my two
co-conspirators.”
“You
don’t mean—? Dammit, of course! Lexia and Nate!
How the hell did two computer programmers like them end up involved
in all of this?”
“I
would have thought it should have been obvious by now who Lexia Stafford
really is…”
Outside
Project Quantum Leap
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
May
9, 2006
3:01
AM (MDT)
“Tala
Lothoman?” Al exclaimed. “You
mean Lothos and that Zoë bitch had a daughter
together?”
“Actually,
they had twin daughters,
Admiral,” Ziggy answered matter-of-factly.
“Tala and Siren, both born on January 1, 1979, many years before
Dr. Lothoman became Lothos.”
“I
don’t remember either one of them!”
Al was stunned at this new information.
“I
would have been surprised if you had,
Admiral. Dr. Beckett and myself
are the only two who remember the original history.
Three years ago, Tala abducted you and Julianna and forced her into
premature labor, seeking revenge for the death of her parents.
After she stole your grandson, Julianna died from her injuries while
Tala tortured and murdered you. Captain
Tom Beckett, who was a Commander at that time, replaced you as Co-Director
of Project Quantum Leap, while Dr. Fuller took over as the Project Observer.
Dr. Beckett leaped back in time to September of 2001 and convinced
Siren to betray her sister so that the information she received on Project
Quantum Leap would not be used against us; thus saving you, your daughter,
and Jude in the process. From
your perspective, none of it ever happened.”
(*Authors’
Note: Refer to the “Leap From
Hell” trilogy from Seasons 8 & 9 for this reference.)
Al
pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt the mother of all migraines coming
on and asked, “What ended up happening to Tala?
How did she end up joining Project Liberty under Hawkins’ nose?”
“Unknown,
Admiral. After January of 2002,
I can find no further data on Tala Lothoman.
The last known information given on Siren Lothoman was on April the
30th, 2003.”
“What
information did you find on her?”
The
sparkles in Ziggy’s holographic eyes dimmed slightly.
“Her body was found in an abandoned warehouse outside of
Libertyville, Illinois on April 27th.
She died from an accidental overdose of heroin.”
Ziggy paused, her eyebrows raised in confusion.
“This… is not right.”
“What?”
Al asked, turning toward Ziggy’s face as he brought his hand up to rub his
temples wishing he had some Tylenol.
“I
have other information on Siren Lothoman in my database as recent as January
1, 2005.”
“Huh?”
asked Al, his brain a bit muddled. “How,
if she’s been dead since May of 2003?”
A
moment passed as Ziggy’s expression changed to one of deep thought.
“Ahhh. It is possible
that history has once again been
altered by an unknown source… a ‘wild card,’ if you will.”
“A
‘wild card’? Connors?” Al
wondered aloud.
“No,
Admiral, although I am troubled that I have not been able to discern further
information on his whereabouts
either. No, I believe this current crisis might have something to do with Alia’s son, Adam.
He was never supposed to be a factor in the normal flow of Time.
His very existence has been causing fluctuations and anomalies in the
time stream that are undetectable to my program.
It is the only explanation I have at present.”
‘God,
will Lothos’ dark legacy never end?’
Al thought.
His
thoughts were interrupted as the increasing sounds of the anti-government
protestors brought him back to the present.
If he, Daniel and the others didn’t fall back now, they never
would.
Turning
back to Ziggy’s hologram, which was starting to fade again, Al said,
“Find Sam, Ziggy. I don’t
care where you need to siphon off more power from, just do it so that you
can go back and check on him when he shows up.
I’ll be back inside as soon as I can.”
“As
you wish, Admiral. Good
luck,” Ziggy complied before she deactivated the E.O.H.
Taking
out his walkie-talkie once again, Al contacted Corporal Heston and said,
“Corporal, get the General away from that woman if you can, and get
yourself and the other men back here on the double!”
As
the once peaceful protest quickly began turning into a full-scale riot,
Corporals Heston and Kincaid managed to sneak up on Tala and tackle her to
the ground. In that brief
moment of disorientation, Tala loosened her grip on General Hawkins as
Corporal “Rusty” Kincaid pulled him away from her.
“Let go of me, you… traitorousss wench,” Hawkins slurred.
“General,
I’m Corporal Ralph Kincaid from Project Quantum Leap.
I’m here to help you. Come
on, we’re going to get you to safety.”
Hawkins,
who was still extremely disoriented due to the residual drugs in his system,
simply nodded in response. Rusty
supported the General’s weight and they moved as quickly as they could
back to the front gate.
Meanwhile,
Corporal Heston struggled with Tala who had managed to get a firm grip on
the gun he held in his hand. With
Tala’s speech still fresh in the minds of several of the protestors, they
took it upon themselves to charge forward and come to her assistance.
It wasn’t long before Heston became enveloped within the crowd’s
rage and a gunshot fired, ending his young life.
As
Al ran back to join Daniel, Dom and Aurora, he looked back toward the throng
of protestors and closed his eyes in sympathy for Corporal Heston.
‘Your sacrifice won’t be in
vain, Corporal. I’ll make
sure of it,’ he thought. Seeing
that Rusty and Hawkins were safely inside the main gate, Al focused all of
his remaining attention on how to get Aurora the medical attention she so
desperately needed.
He
didn’t have to think long, however, as the sound of a helicopter suddenly
echoed overhead with the pilot motioning toward the project’s helipad.
Not knowing exactly where the helicopter came from, or even having
heard it above the deafening noise of the crowd, Al nodded his head in
understanding and led his group to the landing site.
As the copter landed, Al shielded his eyes and felt his heart skip a
beat when he saw who was inside of the cockpit—his wife, Beth, holding a
first-aid kit, and his old friend, a white-haired, white-bearded,
seventy-three-year-old General Thomas Collins.
“I
figured you could use a hand, Admiral,” Collins shouted above the
deafening roar of the helicopter blades.
“General,
you have no idea how happy I am to see you,” Al shouted back.
“Dr. Lofton has been injured.
One of those damn protestors threw a rock through the window of our
van.”
Beth
went into full medic mode and began treating Aurora’s injury.
“She’s unconscious, but I think she’ll be okay.
As long as we get her back to Holloman right away, there should be no
problem.”
Al,
Daniel, and Dom helped Beth and Collins to lift Aurora onto a gurney and
strap it into the helicopter’s cockpit.
Al then placed his hands on Dom’s shoulders and said, “You’re
going with them, Dom. No
arguments.”
Dom
looked at Al with tears in his eyes and said, “Thank you, Al… for
everything you did for us back there. If
you hadn’t found us when you did, that reporter, Jake, might have killed
us when we got back to the Project.”
“Don’t
even give it a second thought, Lofty. I’ve
already lost Gooshie and St. John. I’m
NOT going to lose a third programmer, if I can help it!
Now, get in that chopper! Your
wife needs you.”
Dom
nodded in agreement and climbed into the cockpit.
Al turned back toward General Collins and said, “Take care of them,
Tom. I can’t guarantee that this Project will hold out much
longer, but if Dr. Beckett succeeds in changing history, it’s likely you
won’t even remember having this conversation.”
“Changing
history?” Collins asked, flabbergasted by the revelation.
“So, Sam actually did it?
He proved his theory! That’s
what you and he have been working on here this whole time, huh?
If only Dr. LoNigro could have been around to see this!
Well, even if I don’t
remember any of this, I’m honored that you would share that knowledge with
me during this crisis. I only
wish there was more I could do to help.”
The
two friends shook hands as Al finished, “The honor is all mine, Tom.
You stuck your nose out for us back in the Star Bright days, and
neither one of us will ever forget that.
Just make sure my people are safe back at the base, General.”
Collins
saluted Al and climbed back into the cockpit.
It was now Beth’s turn to say goodbye to her husband.
“Al, please be careful!” she cried.
Al
simply caressed the side of his wife’s face and told her, “Tell Jackie,
Lizzie, Vicky, and Christa that I love them.
I’m not sure how long my men can hold out before the protestors
overtake the complex. You might want to say a prayer that Sam will find a way to
change all of this. Frankly, we
can use all the help we can get right now.”
“I
love you, Albert Calavicci,” said Beth, embracing her husband of
forty-five years.
“I
love you too, Elizabeth O’Dwyer,” Al responded, pulling his wife into a
long and passionate kiss. He
knew that if Sam failed, this could very well be the final kiss they shared.
Beth knew it too, evident from the newly formed tears that fell from
her eyes. She climbed back into
the cockpit, returning to Aurora’s side.
General Collins then gave the go-ahead to his pilot and the
helicopter flew off, returning to Holloman Air Force Base.
“All right, Dan. Let’s
get back inside the complex and secure it for as long as we can.
I need to get back to Sam as soon as possible.”
Retreating
back to the helipad entrance, Al and Daniel waited for the Marine guards to
clear them for entry as they made their way back into the complex.
Through it all, Al couldn’t get the thought out of his mind that
time was very quickly running out.
Project
Liberty
Hope
Springs, Virginia
May
8, 2006
2:08
PM (EDT)
How?
Why? For what purpose?
All the questions I wanted to ask went unanswered as I found myself
plopped unceremoniously back into Time.
I just prayed that the purpose of the past leaps would show me the
light billowing in the midst of the pain I was enduring.
Sam
Beckett, quantum physicist, the next Einstein of the century as well as the
modern-day Don Quixote found himself dropping into the Time stream once more
in mid-fall. He landed abruptly
on his backside as he looked up at the familiar room of the Control Center
inside of Project Liberty. He
was back? In who?
What was he to do? Why
couldn’t Al show up and let him know what was going on!? Why wasn’t he being kept in the loop?
Sam
slowly arose from his position on the floor and began a quick inspection of
his body as his hands brushed at the back of his pants.
Frowning, Sam’s hand came to the slightly smoking hole in his
shirt. He blinked as he focused his attention on the other smaller
burnt hole, and a vague memory came to him.
“Oh
my… I did it again.”
The
feminine voice made Sam’s head come up for him to see a leather-clad woman
standing on his side of the mainframe.
Even as he took a step toward the woman, Sam found pain zinging from
the base of his neck up into his skull, giving him an instant headache.
His temper rose and his face mirrored the anguish he was feeling.
Even as he closed his eyes to try to get a grip on his outlook of the
situation, he felt himself being pushed to the side as the host took over
once again. He hated it when
the psycho-synergizing effect placed him in the background.
He had no control. He just had to sit back, watch and hope that the situation
wouldn’t get worse than it already was.
“I
thought we aborted that program, Omega!” Sam found himself saying as he
took several steps toward the figure.
The
parallel-hybrid computer hauntingly smiled at him as she crossed her arms
over her ample chest. “I
couldn’t let that happen, Nate.”
Sam
opened his mouth to begin to argue with the hologram when the door behind
him opened. He turned his head
to see a blonde-haired woman with a determined look on her face approach
him. “What is it?”
“We
need to talk, Adams.”
Sam
rolled his eyes. “You always
need to talk about something. What
is it now, Lexia?”
Lexia’s
eyes narrowed and with the speed that he wasn’t expecting, slapped him
solidly across the face, sending his head spinning to the right.
“Don’t you ever talk
to me like that, Adam,” she hissed at him.
Turning
his head back to her, Sam grabbed her by the shoulders and roughly shook
her. “It’s you who needs to watch yourself, Tala.
You must have forgotten who dismantled that stupid computer – what
did you call him, Troy? – and let you out of that damned room.
All I need to do is go back in time and you can die in that room.”
“No,”
Tala said as she blinked at him. “You
do that and you lose everything that you’ve done so far.
I… I’ve helped you.”
Releasing
her with a small shove to move her back away from him, Sam gave her a wary
look. “What do you want then,
Tala? Omega and I have some
unfinished business to take care of.”
Hating
that the man had an upper hand against her, Tala ran her tongue over her
teeth then sniffed as she glanced at the holographic woman standing to the
side watching them. Dismissing
the thought that she wanted to express about the way the hologram was
dressed, she turned her attention back to Adam.
“Are we still set with our plans?”
“As
soon as I figure out why Omega didn’t abort her holographic program –
yes.”
Sam
Beckett couldn’t believe what he was seeing from the corner in which he
had been pushed. Why he
couldn’t help out – to stop Nate / Adam – whoever it was that he had
leaped into? He couldn’t
understand what was going on. ‘Plans?
What plans?’ he asked himself.
“All
right. Then, I’m going to go
get started with Hawkins.” Tala
rubbed her hands together in excitement.
“Once he’s drugged, I’ll take the link that Omega will need to
integrate into Ziggy at Project Quantum Leap.
Once it’s all set – then we’ll have control of both
projects.” With a gleam in
her eye, Tala’s lips curled into an evil smile, “Then with Lothos back,
we’ll be in control of everything.”
‘What!?’ Sam screamed out. He
couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He couldn’t let that happen.
He had already taken care of Lothos and he couldn’t let that
maniacal ego-bound computer become in control again.
‘No!’
Adam
smiled at her words. “Yes,”
he said. ‘It will be all mine
to control,’ he thought. Glancing
back at the hologram that was looking down at her fingernails as if she was
bored, he turned back to the woman standing beside him and gave her a once
over before he glared at her. “Well,
what are you waiting for? My
approval? Go.”
Tala
gaped at him. “You know, just
when I think that you almost have a heart, you turn into an ass, Adam.”
Adam
shrugged his right shoulder lightly. “I
didn’t get into this business because I had a heart, Tala.
I got into this… to win. Now,
get your ass in gear.”
“Go
to hell, Adam,” she said as she turned and started toward the door.
“Only
if you lead the way,” he said as he watched her walking away, admiring the
view only to see her flip him a universal signal that only made him lick his
lips in approval.
‘Damn you,’ Sam thought as he tried to push his way back into the
foreground. ‘God, help me! Help me!’
Turning
back to the hologram, Adam crossed his hands over his chest as he started
toward her. “Now, Omega, why
did you rewrite the program elsewhere into your system?”
Omega
slowly dropped her hands back behind her back and she met his gaze.
Tilting her head slightly to the side, she let her eyes run over his
body. “I have seen the way
that you look at Lexia Stafford… or should I say Tala Lothoman?
What is wrong with wanting the same?”
Adam
laughed as he dropped his hands and started toward the mainframe to erase
the program. “You’re a
hologram, not a human. Now,
let’s get rid of that program, shall we?”
The
laughter and the self-righteous way that Adam approached with the sole
purpose of erasing the program from Omega’s system, heated the
parallel-hybrid computer. Before Adam could even make it to the multi-cubed mainframe,
Omega extended her hand out in front of her and an electric pulse came from
it picking Adam up off the floor, and slammed him back against the wall five
feet away. “I think not,”
Omega said, her voice reverberating in the room lowly.
Landing
on the floor once again, Adam shook his head and looked at Omega, his anger
mounting. “You’ll regret
that,” he hissed as he picked himself up, once again looking at another
hole in his shirt. Leaning
against the wall for a moment for support, he got his breath back before he
started for the elevator door. Even
as he looked back at the holographic image of Omega as he entered the
elevator, he watched as it shimmered then faded as the doors closed.
‘I’ll get you, lovely one.
I just need the right angle.’
As
the elevator ascended to another level, Adam placed his hand on his neck and
massaged at the tense muscles there. The
electrical shock from Omega had hurt him more than he was willing to
declare. If it happened one more time – even if it meant he had to
take Omega apart, bit by bit, he would; just like he had done to Troy –
the computer system that had been in Beijing, China keeping Tala captured in
her own project.
Without
warning, another pain jolted Sam out of his thoughts.
He screamed out in agony and closed his eyes tightly in an attempt to
shut out the impulse. Without
even realizing it, the leap pulled Sam along Adam’s string once again, and
in the blink of an eye, the time-traveler had jumped ahead in time four
hours. Still in the same location, Adam took control once again and
waited for the elevator to arrive at the floor he selected.
As
the elevator doors opened, Adam came face to face with Dr. Eric Daniels.
Adam looked at the man before him with a half-smile as he tried to
shift past him, but Daniels grabbed him by the arm.
“We
need to talk, Nate.”
Adam
stopped and brought his hand up to rub at his temple.
“Oh, yeah? What
about?”
‘Stop him! Stop him!’
Sam screamed out from within the corner he was in.
‘He’s going to let loose a
menace on society! Stop him!’
“I’ve
talked with J.T. and Tom Beckett about this glitch.
We need to work together to… hey… what happened to your shirt?”
‘J.T.? Tom?
What the hell?’ Sam questioned.
“Don’t
worry about the shirt, Eric. Listen,
I’ll come back down to the control center in a bit.
I’ve been going at it for over twelve hours.
I need some sleep, man.” Adam
pursed his lips slightly. “Uhm…
if you’ll gather everyone in there, we can all put our noggins together to
figure this out.”
Eric
nodded his head as he looked down at his watch.
“All right. How’s
eight-thirty?”
Adam
nodded at his words as he started away from the elevator, but then turned
back to Daniels with a grin knowing that he had pulled yet another fast one
on the man before him. “It’s
a date.”
PART
SIX
Project
Liberty Ruins
Hope
Springs, Virginia
May
9, 2006
5:45
AM (EDT)
“AAARRRGH!!”
Tom screamed as the tangible holographic form of Nathaniel Lothoman
shattered his left arm with the lead pipe.
“The
pain can stop, Captain,” Lothoman spoke smugly.
“All you need to do is simply pledge your allegiance to me and
admit that I am your superior. A
very simple request, I would think. It
is not like I am asking you for the life of your first-born son—oh wait…
too late.”
Tom
stared into the malicious eyes of Lothoman / Lothos with burning hate as he
simply spat in his face and said, “Burn in hell, you self-righteous
prick!”
Lothoman
suddenly laughed hysterically at Tom’s bold statement, and wiped the spit
from his eye as he answered, “I respect your defiance, Thomas!
How utterly refreshing! Maybe
you should be the one leaping
through time and not your brother. Perhaps
if he had had your courage and
determination of will, Samuel would have had the strength to resist my line
of questioning. But then again,
if it was not for him, it is quite possible that I wouldn’t even exist as
I am now.”
“You’re
joking, right?” Tom asked before laughing in disbelief.
“You can’t honestly expect me to believe that this is all Sam’s fault just because he allowed Braden to interrogate him in a
moment of weakness.”
“Braden?”
Lothoman looked at him a bit oddly.
“Oh… so you have been doing some heavy reading, haven’t you? You
believe that Dr. Braden is responsible for the evil leaper project.”
Tom
looked at him with confusion, not quite following where Lothoman was
leading.
It
was now Lothoman’s turn to laugh as he replied, “You honestly believe
that fool is what led to my creation? You
are almost as naïve as your brother! Zoë’s
father didn’t give me any information I didn’t have already!
All that ‘interrogation’ did was add another layer to an already
convoluted and fluctuating timeline! And
to think that your brother actually blames himself
for the chain of events that led to my existence! My creation would have occurred no matter what Braden did.
If Samuel only knew the truth behind how I came to exist in my
current form, he’d be shocked!”
“The
truth?” Tom asked as the revelation suddenly hit him like a brick wall.
“Oh no… it was you!
But that can’t be! How in the hell
did…?”
“A
story for another time, Thomas. But
suffice it to say, I’ve been involved in your brother’s life in more
ways than you could ever dare to imagine.
It has taken me quite some time to compile all of these facts into
what I call a Comparative Historical Data File, but I now know how each
timeline developed, both before and after the multiple temporal incursions.
Allow me to explain how all of this came to pass.
I suggest you pay close attention to my ‘lesson,’ Captain.
I will not repeat it again…”
Before
Tom could even protest, Lothoman’s matrix flickered to reveal a new
outfit. Instead of wearing the open white blazer with red shirt
underneath that he had been wearing, he now wore a dark grey double-breasted
business suit with pleated dress pants and an open-collared white shirt.
Lothoman paced in a circle as he clenched his hands behind his back
and began his history lesson. “Early
on in my scientific career, I knew that I was destined for greatness.
Dr. Nathaniel Lothoman: ‘the
next genius of our time.’ Has
a nice ring to it, wouldn’t you say?”
Even
as the hologram spoke, Tom rolled his eyes, thinking, ‘This
guy’s got an even bigger ego than Omega, if that’s possible!’
“But
there was one man who threatened to take that glory away from me,”
Lothoman continued, “Dr. Samuel Beckett!
He was quickly stealing the thunder that I so rightfully deserved.
Although his String Theory was quite thorough and changed the way we
look at quantum mechanics, I knew that I wanted more. Traveling through time and altering it was not enough.
I needed to find a way to record
the changes in history—to observe the new timelines as they occurred.
In order to do that, I realized that I would need to create a
computer system like nothing the world had ever seen before—a quasi-living
hybrid computer that would house my superior intellect and provide me with
the ultimate power to manipulate and control Time.
And so, once Dr. Beckett faded into obscurity after the Star Bright
Project came to an end, Dr. Zoë Malvison and I began building a project on
a quaint island in the British Isles. We
began to train our teenage daughter, Tala, in the ways of computer
programming so that she too would realize our vision.
“As
my project came close to completion, I knew that I would need a test
subject—someone gullible and easily seduced by power.
It was then that I found the youthful Alia Novack, a runaway living
on the streets of London. She
was weak, but I knew that Zoë could teach her the ways of betrayal and
ruthlessness. Once I became the quasi-living hybrid computer known as
Lothos, I made it my goal to accomplish what I believed Beckett to be
incapable of doing—restoring order to a chaotic universe through time
travel! Zoë and Thames broke
Alia’s spirit, conditioning her to accept her role in the New Order. She would accomplish what I ordered her to do, or suffer the
consequences, simple as that. It
took almost two years of planning and a few minor setbacks, but in 1998,
Alia was successfully sent into the Accelerator.
(*Authors’
Note: Refer to “Fallen Hero,
Part II” from Season 7 and “Guinea Pig II” from Season 10 for these
references.)
“Alia
exceeded my expectations far more than I had expected of her.
After all, her leaping cycle was but a trial run.
And so, I decided to let her continue wreaking havoc on Time, giving
her false hopes that one day, I would reward her by allowing her to return
home. For the next year, I was
never able to detect anything out of the ordinary, and I had naturally
assumed that Samuel was either already dead or not a threat to my plans.
So, imagine my surprise upon discovering that Alia first met your
brother when the two of them had leaped into the LaMotta household in
1966.”
As
Lothoman spoke the last sentence, his matrix vanished.
It was replaced with a three-dimensional holographic image of the
events, which was projected above the main control console for Tom to see
with his own eyes. Even in the
midst of the chaos Tom found himself in, he couldn’t deny that his
interest was peaked. He stared
in awe at the technological wonder of the holographic imagery playing out in
front of him…
“Well
well well well well!” the auburn-haired woman began as she circled around the
leaper, inspecting him from head to toe like a piece of meat.
“So where did this studly morsel come from?”
“Not…
not now,” Alia mumbled out of the side of her mouth.
“Not
now?” Sam asked, thinking he was the one that was being addressed.
“I just want to know where you’re from, that’s all.”
While
Sam talked, the Observer with a British accent licked her lips, greatly
admiring Sam’s “sweet cheeks” before adding, “Well, I don’t mind a
little afternoon’s delight; as long as you don’t, uh… forget your
assignment. Where’s Jimmy?”
“He’s
Jimmy,” Alia answered. A
moment of silence passed as the older woman turned to look at Sam / Jimmy,
then looked back at Alia, who clarified, “He used
to be… Jim—”
Sam’s
confusion quickly turned to almost drunken glee when Alia began talking to
thin air. He interrupted excitedly and said, “Excuse me.
Excuse me for a second, a-are you talking to a… hologram?”
Alia’s surprised laugh only confirmed Sam’s suspicions.
“You’re talkin’ to a hologram, aren’t you! You are… a… time-traveler too!”
“Too?
What does he mean ‘too’?”
“Sam
Beckett, I’d like you to meet my partner… Zoë.”
“Zoë!?
Hiya, Zoë! It’s
really nice to meet you… I think….”
“Alia,
what’s going on here?” Zoë asked, overlapping Sam’s excited and
perplexed greeting.
“Uhh,
we’re not sure,” replied Alia, still looking at Sam like a giddy
schoolgirl fascinated by the handsome man.
Sam couldn’t help but look at his attractive young companion like
an infatuated puppy-dog as well. “Sam and I touched and then suddenly he…”
“Listen,
you mustn’t say anything to him about us!
Nothing, do you hear?” Zoë commanded through clenched teeth.
Even
as Sam asked Alia what Zoë was saying, she lowered her eyebrows and asked
her partner, “Why?”
“Why?!
Because we don’t know anything about him!
Ohh, I’ll have to go back and run this by Lothos!”
Zoë entered a command on her orange handlink as the rainbow-colored
doorway reopened and she stepped through it.
Before it closed, she ordered, “Remember, keep your mouth shut!”
(*From
Episode 506, “Deliver Us From Evil”)
As
the first sequence ended, various images continued to intersperse within the
hologram as Lothos’ voice continued, “Of course, I did indeed
know a great deal about him before that day.
But when Zoë returned to Central Control and informed me of this new
development, it only confirmed what I had already suspected since
1995—that Dr. Samuel Beckett succeeded in proving his theory and was now
trapped in the past. I saw this
as a perfect opportunity to eliminate him once and for all so that nothing
would stand in the way of my claiming supremacy over Time.
But Alia’s failure to comply with my order to shoot Beckett only
increased my resolve to find him and make sure that he and his partner, Rear
Admiral Albert Calavicci, suffered.
“So
after some time had passed, I leaped Alia back into the aura of one Chief
Petty Officer Shannon MacLean at the Star Bright Project in 1984.
Her mission: to accuse
Captain Calavicci of fathering her unborn child and to then throw herself
down a flight of stairs, killing the infant, and resulting in Albert’s
immediate dismissal from both the Project and
the Navy. Goodbye, future
Project Observer! Without his
influence, Project Quantum Leap would have ended before it had a chance to
begin. But, because of the incompetence
of one of my doctors, I was forced to send Miss MacLean back before the
fetus could be aborted. History
continued unaltered, so I had to cut my losses and hope that Alia would find
your brother again. (*Authors’ Note:
Refer to the “Chiefest of Sinners” saga from Season 1 of The
Starbright Project for this reference.)
“Luck
was on my side when Alia did meet up with him again upon leaping into
college student Dawn Taylor in 1956. This
time, I ordered Zoë to keep a close eye on both of them.
After Alia’s previous failure, I wanted to make sure there would be
no further mistakes. Unfortunately,
Beckett’s ingenuity caused her to fail her mission once again. When he and Alia simo-leaped into the Mallard Correctional
Facility in 1987, I sent Zoë into the Accelerator after Alia’s signal was
lost. Thames was her Observer,
but he was unable to warn Zoë in time, and Beckett shot her. I was able to retrieve her and save her life, but by that
time, Alia had escaped. (*From Episodes 515 &
516, “Return / Revenge”)
“Over
the next year, I attempted to track Dr. Beckett down.
When the new timeline was created in which Al’s first wife, Beth,
never remarried, it altered the timeline in a way that I could exploit to my
advantage. Now, suddenly,
Calavicci had four daughters through Beth and one through his old flame,
Lisa Sherman… the perfect revenge. And
so, Zoë came into contact with Dr. Beckett again when she abducted
Calavicci’s youngest daughter, Christa, in 1996.
Unfortunately, the Albert Calavicci of that time period shot Zoë
again, this time leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.
(*From
Episode 610, “Battle
Scars”)
“It
was then decided to send Thames into the Accelerator to finish what Zoë
started. I was finally able to track Samuel down in 1977.
Tala detected that Alia was there as well, and I formed a plan to
kill two birds with one stone. First, Thames leaped into a technician at Project Quantum
Leap and integrated a piece of myself into Ziggy’s main conduit relay.
With her program incapacitated, I then sent Thames back to 1977 to
finish off Alia and your brother. To
my surprise, Alia killed Thames, and Dr. Beckett somehow leaped into my
complex undetected. He destroyed my project from within and I was powerless to
stop him…”
Sam
felt the hair on his body raising as electricity started to build up in the
air and knew he was running out of time.
The door popped out a few inches and he grabbed the edge and pulled.
It opened slowly, reluctantly, not used to the motion. The air inside was sour.
Zoë
had dragged herself across the floor to get to him, but the struggle for a
full breath made her woozy. She
watched helplessly from where she lay on the floor, hoping to kill Beckett
with a look.
“You…
will die… with me!” Lothos’
voice was weak with static, but Sam could still feel the energy building.
Once
in the cramped portal, Sam scanned the wires around the emaciated seated
form. The eyes, which had
appeared unseeing, now had a slight glow and Sam was sure he was being
observed. The face surrounding
the eyes could hardly be called human. Sam could see the wires just under the skin of the skull, and
it made his skin crawl. Recalling
human anatomy, he gripped the bundles that appeared to lead to the most
active parts of the brain, and pulled.
They were stuck fast, skin adhering to the cables.
He braced his feet and pulled again, starting trickles of blood.
The room was hot with building energy, and Sam knew time was gone.
He gritted his teeth and pulled hard, and two bunches of cables
pulled free with a sucking sound. Blood
spattered the portal walls.
“NO!”
The scream was more like a deafening feedback squeal, and Sam
automatically clamped his bloody hands over his ears.
“LOTHOS!”
Zoë’s gravely plea was barely heard above the inhuman shrieking.
Blindly,
Sam reached and pulled, desperate to stop the painful noise.
Four cables later, the noise began to dwindle.
Sam’s hands were sticky with blood.
He felt around the atrophied human form looking for more cables,
pulling them as he went. There
was no resistance. When he
thought he had the last one, he leaned back and looked Lothos in the eyes
defiantly.
Sam
didn’t feel anger. He
didn’t feel hate. All he felt
was pity, and he was sure it was clear in his eyes.
There wasn’t anything he could do for him; there was nothing human
left to work with. He wondered
if his Project was safe now.
The
gleam in the eyes faded, and turned milky.
Fixed and dilated, they stared at nothing, and the body slipped into
a pile of disjointed limbs with his last hissing breath.
Sickened
at the sight, Sam stepped from the portal and gulped in great breaths of
fresh air as he wiped his sticky hands on his pants.
He watched as Zoë slowly removed her hands from her ears and forced
herself to look at the open portal behind him.
The
cords that were once connected to Lothos were now dangling, dripping with
dark blood. The once commanding
form of Nathaniel Lothoman was now a shriveled, shrunken pile in the chair.
“No,”
she growled, knowing her love was gone forever.
(*From Episode
725, “Fallen Hero, Part II”)
“Your
brother believed that I was truly gone that day, and so he leaped out to
continue his noble quest to ‘put right what once went wrong,’ while Zoë
proved her loyalty by ending her own life.
What everyone didn’t know, however, was that as Dr. Beckett was
terminating the corporeal form of Nathaniel Lothoman, my program was being
transferred onto the Internet. I
took on the form of a computer virus, moving from one system to the next,
disguised as spam messages in order to seek out and corrupt various
intelligence networks across the world.
I continued accumulating more and more knowledge with each program I
corrupted, biding my time until a suitable mainframe came along through
which I could reemerge.
“Meanwhile,
Tala had escaped the project’s destruction and began implementing a new
plan to get her revenge for the presumed deaths of Zoë and myself.
Using the information she acquired from a courier-for-hire, she was
able to successfully duplicate a new project in Beijing, China with the help
of her newly discovered twin sister, Siren.
In the original history, Tala sent a leaper named Trinity into the
aura of Dr. Donna Elesee in 1990. Although
Trinity was killed on that mission, the experiment proved to be a major
success. (*From
Episode
801, “Leapers Who Need Leapers, Part II”)
“Shortly
thereafter, she relocated the project to Melbourne, Australia and began
plotting her cold retribution. She
came back to the U.S., abducted and murdered Admiral Calavicci and his
oldest daughter, Julianna, and stole her son, Jude.
But because of Beckett’s incessant interference, he put a stop to that chain of events as well. Somehow,
that never-ending supply of ‘Beckett charm’ that runs in your family
broke through Siren’s conscience, and she betrayed Tala…”
The
day had finally arrived. Tala
was so giddy with excitement that it was hard for her to stand still as she
watched the technician throw the switch to start the sequence to run what
she had rightly named (from Beckett’s research), the Accelerator.
Her eyes scanned the machine as it began to hum and her heartbeat
skipped as the technician nodded his approval.
“Well,
is everything functioning correctly?” she asked anxiously.
From
out of nowhere, a male voice seemed to float around her.
“Running diagnostic.” There
was a pause then the voice replied almost dreamily, “The system is fully
operational and is ready for the first participant, Tala.”
The
voice that had floated down to her was one that she knew rather well over
the last couple of years. She
had been intimate enough with him to know that voice, and it made her smile
coyly. “Thank you, Troy.”
She grinned then snapped her fingers meaning to call in the newly
appointed leaper, to enter the accelerator.
However, when the woman, a rather tall lovely woman with flowing
purple hair, didn’t show, Tala scowled.
“Where is Trinity?”
Troy
answered her immediately. “Trinity
is currently in the restroom closest to her quarters. She
is violently ill. Perhaps…”
Tala
sighed aggravatingly as she stomped over to the closet and yanked out the
white Fermi suit. Siren entered
the room just in time to see her sister tug the arms into place, the black,
leather body suit she’d peeled off in a heap on the floor.
“We
haven’t run the program fully, Tala.
What if something should go wrong?” Siren asked taking a hesitant
step toward her sister. “I
mean…”
“That’s
what you’re here for, right?” Tala snapped at her.
Siren
glanced at the Accelerator knowing full well what she had done with the
programming. After she had seen Tala torture and succeed in killing Troy
Webster only a few months ago, she wondered if Tala’s idea of using a part
of his brain to help with the implementation of their super computer would
complicate the altered programming. She
didn’t want to see her sister hurt, but at the same time she didn’t want
her sister to hurt any more people. “Won’t
you reconsider? Why don’t we
just wait until Trinity feels better? I
mean one more day won’t hurt anything.
Then you can direct the leap into Donna Beckett like you wanted.”
Tala
quickly turned and walked the few steps over to Siren and slapped her hard
across the face. “Listen here, little sister,” Tala spit at her, “I run
this show and since I want this to work now, I will take action.
I’ll leap into Donna and take the chance.
Understand?”
Getting
Tala to be the first one to step in the Accelerator had been the trickiest
part of Siren's plan. Tala was
going to send in her new assistant Trinity first, relishing the idea of
acting like God and directing past events with a wave of her hand.
Siren had slowly poisoned Trinity, insuring that she would be sick
for a long time. Tala
wouldn’t have the patience to put off the first trial; Siren counted on
that, and hadn’t been disappointed.
Siren
massaged her cheek and silently nodded her head.
She darted her eyes down toward the floor as she stood in front of
her sister, but slowly, she looked up as Tala walked toward the Accelerator.
“Have a lovely leap, Tala,” she whispered so softly that
she wasn’t sure if she said it or not.
“It’s definitely going to be a long one.”
Tala
took her place on the Accelerator pad and took a deep breath then said,
“Let’s get this show on the road. I
want to get into some… trouble.” She
grinned then watched as the door closed on her and sealed her inside.
In
the moments to follow the energy surge that consumed the rooms, along with
the technicians words of “Firing in three… two… one… fire!” echoed
through the room. There was a
hum and a pulse of energy, then relative silence.
Siren
glanced around the room then ordered the Acceleration room to be opened.
When the door opened, Siren looked inside to see that Tala was gone.
“Troy,
was it successful?” she asked, concerned and hopeful at the same time.
A
hollow laugh echoed through the room. “The
leap was successful, Ms. Siren. The
program works perfectly.”
Siren
hurried to the Imaging Chamber across the hall and ordered the window she
had them put in because of her new calculations be opened.
Inside the Imaging Chamber was Tala, walking around in a solid white
room with a concerned expression on her face.
Siren glanced around the room and found her sister.
Siren pressed the intercom button then called out, “Tala?”
Tala
turned to her sister. “It…
it didn’t work. All I did was
leap into the Imaging Chamber. This
program is full of errors! You
didn’t do something right!” Tala
stepped toward her sister at the window and slapped at the window.
“What the hell is going on? What…
what did you do?”
Siren
looked at Tala with a small smile of satisfaction.
“You won’t be hurting anyone else, Tala.
You’re staying right here.”
Tala
shrieked out in anger, her holographic fingers raking at the window.
All Siren did was blink. “Goodbye,
Tala. I’ll come by to check
on you from time to time.” Siren
turned her back on her sister then slowly turned back around.
“Don’t worry, the other contributors to the project will be
coming to check on you, too. In
fact, they’re planning on making this place one of their office buildings,
so to speak. You’ll be like a
piece of modern performance art! Remember,
it’s their money and their project. I
know they’ll be happy.”
“NO!!”
Tala screamed at her. “YOU…
YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME IN HERE ALONE! YOU
CAN’T!” Tala shrieked at the top of her lungs as she watched Siren turn
away from the window and walk away. Tala
slapped at the window again yelled once again, “DON’T LEAVE ME ALONE,
SIREN! I’M YOUR SISTER,
DAMMIT!!”
A
soft male voice floated down around her as the door clicked shut.
“She didn’t leave you alone, Tala.”
Tala’s
eyes scanned the white room. “What?”
she asked, still in shock at the turn of events.
“Wh… what did you say?”
“She
didn’t leave you alone, Tala. I’m
here. Remember… your favorite
toy?”
“No,”
Tala breathed heavily. “No.
This can’t be happening. I
want outta here! LET ME OUT!”
She went to the door of the Imaging Chamber and tried to beat on the
door but to no avail. “LET ME
OUT!”
“You
can’t leave,” Troy’s voice traveled down to her.
“Just remember, Tala, the last thing you’ll see… is me…
holding your leash.” (*From
Episode
902, “Leap From Hell, Part III”)
“That
could have quite possibly been the end of the story.
But Fate intervened in the form of my greatest failure, Alia. After your brother had leaped back to 1977 and saved her from
being killed by Thames, she continued living her life, drifting from one
place to another. In 1980, she
gave birth to a son named Adam who, although quite psychotic, was in fact a
technological genius. Once Dr.
Braden interrogated Samuel in 1959, a ripple effect occurred that sent
shockwaves through Time for the next half-century.
Now, Adam, who had been given up for adoption and was subsequently
orphaned as a young child, was able to get a hold of Dr. Braden’s lost
journals in the early 1990s, shortly after his death—cause and effect, my
dear Captain Beckett. Adam
studied those journals to great lengths and discovered ways to travel
through time that neither your brother nor I had ever imagined.
He bade his time until Samuel’s sudden three-month-long
disappearance in August of 2005. (*Authors’
Note: Refer to “Guinea
Pig II,” “Past’s
Prologue” and “Future’s
End” from Season 10 for these references.)
“Because
of Ziggy’s diminished capacity, Adam was able to infiltrate your project
during that period of time, acquire a piece of technology that he could use
to create a modified portable time-travel device, and send himself back to
the year 2000 before Zoë became paralyzed.
Due to my limited resources at the time, I had no idea who Adam
really was, so I recruited him to be Zoë’s new partner.
Needless to say, his presence added yet another layer to the
timeline, and I leaped him into Admiral Calavicci in November of 2005.
In the original history, Adam and Zoë had finally succeeded in
destroying Project Quantum Leap—that is, until one of Dr. Beckett’s
descendants retrieved him in the future.
He was given a retrieval chip to plant into Ziggy at some point in
the past. This resulted in yet another
fluctuation in Time, and he returned to Project Quantum Leap, thus changing
history. So, I sent Zoë into
his aura as a back-up leaper until Adam could return and accomplish their
joint mission. But Adam proved
his deviousness and betrayed us in the end…”
Thames
entered a few more commands into his handlink as he said, “Lothos is
already linked into Ziggy’s database thanks to the codes Zoë entered
earlier. Once the perfected
retrieval program from the future has been transferred, Lothos says you are
to remove the chip and then increase the Accelerator’s energy coil output
to critical levels, so that this whole place will blow to kingdom come.”
Adam
suddenly turned toward Thames and Zoë, holding an oval-shaped device in the
palm in his hand, with an architectural design that neither of them had ever
seen before. “I’m afraid that I must make a few amendments to those
plans. Zoë will be sent back
to where she came from—you can do whatever the hell you want with
Beckett… but the Retrieval chip is mine to salvage.
You see… I never had any intention of handing this technology over
to Lothos. Only one of us will
get the chance to control time—and that someone will be me!”
Zoë
laughed at Adam’s audacity. “You
must be joking! You honestly
expect that Lothos would allow you to just walk away after betraying us?”
“Yes,
I do,” responded Adam, as with a single motion, he pressed a button on his
device, which immediately caused Thames’ holographic image to fade
completely.
“What
the bloody hell—?” Zoë shouted in sudden shock, suddenly feeling a jolt
in her synaptic pathways as well.
“It’s
a jamming signal, specifically designed to seek out a subatomic agitation of
carbon quarks that are tuned to the neural pathways of a leaper’s
brainwaves and cut off their link, | 