CHAPTER 17

Cade

From what that Dominic guy said, it took a long time to find exactly the right spot to do this.But where we were now was the best place on Tellus that matched up exactly with the same place on Earth.They were the same out-of-the-way spot on two different planets.As Dominic explained it, they were just the right place where the quantum domain buffer between the two worlds was just the way it needed to be for the energy of the Ambience to flow from one to the other.

Rolling this around in my head, I realized how much I was out of my depth, dealing with something that Marshall Callaway and Jenna understood way better than I did.I was at my best in a scrap or in bed with a woman, and naturally what I enjoyed best was that second one.Especially now since the woman was Jenna.

The Intercross had to do a lot of sneaking around on Earth to make this happen, which made me think of how Jenna had basically snuck the three of us across the domain to her planet.We weren’t actually trying to sneak around, but that was how it had worked out, after all.We didn’t know if Jenna had told her father about that.If she did, he hadn’t let on.It would probably come up sooner or later and we’d have to see how Mr. Callaway would react to it.We weren’t even completely sure he approved of Elliot, Byron, and me all sleeping with Jenna.We all hoped that by being so protective towards Jenna, we could somehow gain her father’s good graces.For now, the uppermost thing on everyone’s mind was seeing how this experiment would turn out.If it worked the way Marshall hoped it would, maybe his satisfaction with his work would help him feel more kindly towards us or that was the theory, anyway.Jenna and her Dad were better with theories than I was.

From a treehouse at the edge of a big clearing in the forest, Jenna, Elliot, Byron, and I could see the latest stage in Mr. Callaway’s work.With us in the treehouse, sitting at a table with some monitors, was Adrienne, the woman from the group that came to meet us with Neal Callaway.At one end of the clearing, near our vantage point, a pole was stuck in the ground with the Callaway brothers standing near it.At the top of that pole was the full-scale version of the Ambience transmitter globe, which was big enough that I guessed it must have taken two, maybe three people to get it out here and hoist it up onto the pole.The power output of that thing was probably going to be huge, maybe great enough to light up a tall building.Near the other end of the clearing was a big spot where the air flickered like a mirage.This was the sync point, where at the right time you could step through from Tellus to Earth without a piece of tech like the domain ring.It was one of the naturally occurring spots, and it was only open at certain times.To make this work, the Callaway’s had had to calculate its cycle of when and how long it would be there.

Now was the time in the cycle.While the air was flickering over there, we stood a chance of changing two worlds.The scales broke out down the back of my neck and shoulders just from thinking about it.

Adrienne’s monitor table was set up at the front window.Her eyes were mostly on the devices that kept track of the state of the sync point and how stable it was, and would make sure the globe was ready to work and measure its output.The rest of us stood behind Adrienne, just waiting.Standing nearest to Jenna, I leaned a little over in her direction and asked in a half-whisper, “How are you feeling?”

Jenna gulped a bit and said, “Nervous.Anxious.A little scared.”

”Likewise,” I said.

”And really hoping this will work for Daddy.”

Good for you, I thought.Whatever Jenna and her Dad had talked about, and whatever feelings they’d gotten out there, she still loved her father and wanted what was best for him.That’s what family means, if you’ve got a good one.The Callaway’s naturally had their problems like everybody, but after all they were a good family.I pictured Jenna, her father, and her uncle all sitting around the living room of that big house across the threshold from here, describing this moment to Sarah.I hoped we’d all get to be there for it.

Keeping her back to us and her focus on her gadgets, Adrienne announced, “Everything is a go.”Her mirror sat on the table in front of her, set up with a connection to the brothers on the ground.She called into it, “Marshall, Neal, we’re as ready as we’re going to get.”

Marshall Callaway’s voice came back, “As soon as they’re back from setting up over there, we’ll engage.”

Right on cue, three people came shimmering out of the sync point:Ayers and Phillips from the rendezvous earlier, and Dominic, just appearing like ghosts out of vibrating air, stepping from what looked like nowhere into the clearing.I’d been through the artificial portal of the domain ring, so I knew it wasn’t like something out of some spooky old story.But seeing it just happen without any kind of tech made me shiver a little.Some things make you wonder what kind of world you really live in.

Dominic wore a vest with a tool pocket in it.The three of them had been over there secretly setting up the receiving globe on a pole just like the one over here.They walked towards the Callaway brothers, smiling and nodding.Things were all set.The guys and Jenna and I all traded quietly excited looks, tamping down our excitement and nerves.“Everything’s ready,” Jenna whispered.

Then, as if he could hear Jenna from down there, or as if he could read her thoughts, Mr. Callaway’s voice came up through Adrienne’s mirror.“The techno that we left to monitor the other side says it’s all set up.Everything’s ready down here.You can engage now.”

On a reflex, I took Jenna’s hand.Elliot took Jenna’s other hand, and Byron, behind us, put his hands on her shoulders.I held my breath and guessed the others were doing likewise.Adrienne called, “Engaging in three…two…one.”

She hit a lighted surface on a monitor keyboard.

We heard a loud popping noise.Jenna let out a gasp.“Oh no!What happened?Did the transmitter break?”She gave nervous looks over her shoulders at us.We all looked anxiously back at her.

Adrienne said, “Transmitter powering up to optimal function.It’s working.The system is working.”We caught the excitement in her voice.I almost wanted to laugh.Instead I just smiled, not wanting anything to break in on this moment.

The transmitter globe lit up like a purplish-white sun, throwing off the most fantastic glow.Next we heard a whining sound mixed with what sounded like the roar of one of the “jet airplanes” from Jenna’s world.Then, out of the globe came a bright, pulsing band of light of the same weird, ghostly color.It streaked through the air over the forest clearing and into the flickering sync point, where it made dancing sparkles on contact.

Up in the tree house with us, Jenna bit the fingernails of one hand, hugging herself with her other arm, and jumped up and down as if she were looking at a pile of presents for her to open and maybe in a way she was.After not being with her father for so long, she was back with him again at what was probably the greatest moment of his life.In her place, I might have jumped up and down too.

From Adrienne’s mirror, raising over the sound of the transmitter working, came the excited voice of Mr. Callaway.“The techno that we left over on the other side reports that the receiver is picking up the energy stream steadily!Both parts of the system are optimal and stable!There’s no attenuation or static in the transmission at all!It’s not breaking up or distorting; it’s going through fine!We have a working system!”He cackled and repeated, “A working system!”

Jenna whirled around, beaming a smile at us as bright as that big ribbon of light coming from her father’s machine, and almost squealed like the little girl she’d suddenly become, “He did it!Daddy did it!He really did it!”

“He sure did,” said Elliot as she practically jumped into his arms,; and he lifted her from the floor into a great big kiss.“It’s just like he said it’d be.”

Elliot put Jenna down and let her accept hugs and kisses from Byron and me, while through Adrienne’s mirror we heard laughter, applause, and congratulations going on down below.Adrienne said into the glass, “I’m very happy for you, Marshall, Neal.You’ve done just what you set out to do.”

Jenna leaned over Adrienne’s shoulder and called into the mirror, “Daddy!Daddy, you did it!You really did it!This is so wonderful!You are the most brilliant father!Oh, Daddy…!”

”Thank you, Sweetheart,” replied Mr. Callaway’s voice.

Neal’s voice said, ”I’m glad you were here for this, Jenna.Everything we’ve been through these past few months has paid off.”

”It absolutely has!” Mr. Callaway called, laughing.“You may not have been with us through the process, Jenna, but I’m happy you’ll be with us through the results, my beautiful girl.”

Jenna looked fit to cry.“Daddy, do you want me to come down now?”

”Wait a few minutes, honey,” her father answered.“Let’s allow the system a chance to run for a bit and make absolutely sure it’s stable.”He paused.“Though it certainly looks as if there aren’t any problems.Tell you what.There are some bottles of wine and some glasses in a cabinet up there behind you.How about going and breaking some out?I just want to run the beam through some more test cycles, then you can come on down and we’ll celebrate.”

“Okay, Daddy,” said Jenna and Elliot and Byron went with her to the cabinet that her father talked about, while something outside caught my eye and I stayed to watch.

Down on the ground below, Dominic stepped away from the pole and out into the open space of the field, and took his own mirror out of his vest pocket.He held it up in the direction of the energy stream and kept it raised there, capturing and recording Mr. Callaway’s success.Ayers and Phillips did the same, making recordings of both the energy stream and the sparkling portal to Earth.That was all well and good; history would want good recordings of this.I looked down at the base of the pole where the Callaway brothers were recording each other and their working system from their own points of view.It was a proud moment all around.

And then something happened that I didn’t quite understand at first.

Dominic reached into an inside vest pocket and pulled out something else.I squinted, not wanting to think I was seeing it, not wanting to believe it.The two brothers saw it too.They stopped what they were doing and gestured at Dominic.Jenna’s father seemed to be about to say something.

And then Dominic raised the thing that he’d taken out of his vest and aimed it right at the transmitter globe.He shouted, “In the name of Gorgonos!”And he fired off a shot!

The beam from his energy pulse pistol sliced the air and hit the transmitter globe.A second later, there was thunder like a dozen storms, the world shook like the sky was coming down, and everything was blinding light—and fire!The floor rocked and tilted under us in the middle of the blasting and the noise, knocking everyone off their feet and sending us all flying towards the back of the room, and suddenly the back of the room was under us, but our feet were in the air.Bodies went spinning.Walls and ceiling and roof cracked and turned to splinters, and outside was a huge sound of tree limbs snapping into pieces.There was the sound of screaming somewhere in the noise of everything tearing apart.Then came the smell of smoke and the crackling orange fury of fire.

I had the sensation of falling, with everything falling all around me.Falling—then everything went black.

Next thing I knew, smoke was everywhere; and I was both coughing and, on pure reflex alone in the daze that I was in, lifting and knocking broken, burning pieces of the tree house and the tree itself off me and away from me.Pulling myself out of the debris, I blinked and looked around at a nightmare scene.The transmitter globe was in pieces, jagged fragments of it still at the top of the pole and other broken parts on the ground where the Callaway brothers had been knocked off their feet.Marshall sat there with the unconscious Neal’s head in his lap, looking up at his broken machine and all around at the demolished tree house, its burning parts, the tree with huge limbs broken off and burning—and the edge of the forest beyond the tree turned to a gigantic curtain of smoke and fire.

Stunned and more terrified than I’d ever heard or seen anyone in my life, Marshall Callaway looked into the burning, smoking ruin of the tree house lying on the ground and screamed, “JENNA!”

Forgetting everything else, not caring if I was hurt because my morphing would heal it, I jumped to my feet to see Elliot scrambling out of another part of the burning timbers and tree parts.Coughing, I ran to him as he dove right back into that inferno and started throwing debris to one side and other and like her father, Elliot also screamed out in total terror, “JENNA!”

Ayers and Phillips ran to the two brothers, and Mr. Callaway told them to go and help Elliot get Jenna and Adrienne out of there.As the two human guys moved quickly to do as the scientist said, I realized two people were still missing in all this.I took just a second to look up and around again, and couldn’t see anything through the growing forest fire and its wall of smoke.

Where was Byron?And where was Dominic?