CHAPTER EIGHT
Giant
Alex's ass was numb thanks to the hardness of the bench outside the hangar that he now sat upon, watching dawn break over the horizon. A kaleidoscope of colors burst from the sky, a sight that never got old to him. As much as he loved it, this was the first time in a long time that he had just sat and watched the sun come up, watched how the light gently emerged from just behind the Groom Range mountains far off in the distance. He had been to this secret base many times before, but today was different than any other time.
As he watched the darkness gradually give way to light, the irony of the situation hit him like the first sun rays of the day hit his face. Here he was, sitting on a bench at the world-famous Area 51, the place where the United States government was supposedly hiding alien spacecraft and maybe even alien beings themselves. But, he knew none of that was true. He had seen every part of this base, and although he had been shown some impressive experimental aircraft, they were all developed by very much human scientists. He had piloted many of these experimental aircraft himself, so there was no doubt what was really on this base. He knew full-well the truth that the world seemed so reluctant to accept: there were no aliens here, and never were as far as he could tell or had ever known.
And yet, on this day, he would be test-piloting an aircraft with technology on board that, when it became known to the world, would all but affirm most peoples’ suspicions about this base! Even though his very much human wife (although, some days, he thought might be an alien, given her off-the-charts intelligence) was responsible for creating that technology, it was so far beyond the bounds of what had been done before that it might as well be alien technology!
In any case, there would most definitely not be any lack of people who claimed as much when the world finally learned of what they had done her today.
A chuckle emerged from Alex as the irony of that worked its way through his brain. What’s more, he realized, was that if the UFOlogists who regularly watched everything that occurred on this base from far off in the distant mountains managed to get a look at the X-100 in flight, especially if they were watching at just the right moment when it blinked out of existence (just from this universe and not from all universes, Alex hoped!) they would be stunned beyond reckoning and convinced they saw an alien craft in action.
Alex' chuckle turned into a full-on laugh, just as Melissa was walking up to him.
“What’s so funny?” Melissa inquired.
“Oh, nothing much. Just the fact that you’re an alien and I’m about to become one!” The laughter exploded from Alex as Melissa cocked his head to the left, like a dog hearing an odd sound.
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, babe.”
Melissa knew Alex well enough to know that she wasn’t going to get an answer. Sometimes, she knew, Alex just thought amusing thoughts and wouldn’t share them with anyone, at times not even her. It wasn't a sign of anything wrong with their relationship she knew. It wasn't Alex being guarded or not wanting to share with his wife. Sometimes it was just easier for him to not have to explain the wacky thoughts that invaded his mind sometimes and amused him.
“Well,“ Melissa began, “in any case, you’d better get inside and get suited up. You take off in thirty minutes.”
Alex’ face stiffened as the laughter died off like a balloon losing air. He regarded Melissa for a moment, then jumped to his feet, snapped to attention, and saluted Melissa.
“Sir, yes sir!”.
The crooked smile she flashed him was precisely the reaction he was looking for – she was so cute when she did that – and it was all Melissa gave him, no words needed to be said. She waved a hand towards the hangar as if Alex didn't know where he was supposed to be.
Fifteen minutes later, Alex emerged from the locker room in the hangar in full flight gear, ready to go. Major Alcheck and Melissa were there waiting for him. Alex snapped to attention and saluted Major Alcheck, who quickly waved him off.
"Captain, no need for a salute today. Given what you're about to do I think we can dispense with the military protocol for a little while".
It was an uncharacteristic thing for the major to say, given how staunchly military he always was. Alex understood though: the gravity of the situation was in no way lost on either of them it seemed.
“Yes, sir," Alex said, but even the usage of the word “sir” caused Major Alcheck’s nose to crinkle a bit.
“Ready to go, captain?"
“Yes, all set. That is if Melissa here is all set?"
“Oh yes,“ Melissa replied, “we’re five-by-five on the technical side!”
Alex’ mouth opened just a little as he stared at her. He couldn’t help but chuckle: Melissa had used the correct military term and had used it correctly!
Even the stoic Major Alcheck cracked a smile and issued a respectful nod.
“Alright then, let’s get going, Godspeed to you, Captain… Alex.”
"Yes, sir, thank you, sir!" Alex saluted the major again, but this time in a distinctly non-military fashion, flopping his arm up to his brow as if it was made of rubber.
This time, Major Alcheck smiled and saluted back – though a proper military salute, not the rubber-arm Alex salute - and then quickly snapped his hand down to his side, cuing Alex to get to the X-100 and prepare for takeoff. As Alex began briskly walking across the tarmac to where the plane was being prepared for him, Melissa followed along.
“Ok, now remember, the power core was installed and turned on a few hours ago so the singularity is formed and the particle beams are feeding it, but just enough to keep it at equilibrium. The power core is feeding it just enough matter to keep it from evaporating, which is a thing a singularity will do if no matter is falling into them, but not enough for it to break through to another universe and form a wormhole. As the hyperstealth drive engages, more the particle beam flux level will intensify, and you’ll start to notice a blue glow forming around the X-100. That’s just Cerenkov radiation caused by virtual particle pairs popping in and out of existence and forming a charged particle envelope around the airframe.”
“Ok, so blue glow good, got it.”
Melissa did the dog head thing again for a second
“Yes Alex, blue glow good. And, once the flux density reaches a certain level, the wormhole will form, bridging our universe with the one nearest ours because we’ll be feeding in just enough particle energy to go that far, and you’ll be pulled through pretty much instantaneously.”
As they approached the X-100, Alex abruptly stopped and swiveled to face Melissa, grabbing her arms, and stopping her dead in his tracks.
"Look, Melissa, you know as well as I do that I don't really understand all the science behind this, but I understand more than enough to understand the danger here. And I know you do too. But whatever happens here today, if it goes bad-“
“Alex, it won’t go bad-“
“-I know it won’t, but if it does Melissa, I don’t want you for a second to blame yourself for it. I understand what I’m getting into here. I fully accept the risk. This is what we do, babe. And besides, I know you have and will continue to do everything you can to get me back safe, no matter how much you joke about wanting to kill me when I leave my clothes on the bedroom floor. I trust you Melissa, unquestionably and absolutely with my life and no matter how this goes, it is not your fault. You hear me, babe? Not your fault.”
Melissa just looked at Alex and began to feel herself welling up.
He’d protect her no matter the cost, even if that cost be his own life if it came to it, and that very much included protecting her potential feelings.
“Thank you, Alex.”
“But hey,“ Alex quickly added, “let’s just make sure nothing goes wrong, okay?”
Melissa just smiled and wrapped her arms around him, fully intending never to let go. Alex squeezed her back and for a moment considered pulling out of this test. There were other test pilots that could handle it. Maybe.
The thought drained from his mind as quickly as it had entered.
"I love you, Melissa."
“I love you too Alex.”
Alex abruptly, but gently, broke the embrace and pushed her away just a bit
“Alrighty then, see you in a bit."
Melissa smiled and replied in the one way she knew Alex would appreciate the most.
“Damn straight you will! It’s your turn to do the dishes tonight!”
And with that, Alex turned and began climbing the ladder into the cockpit of the X-100.
Melissa stood there for a moment, admiring both the man and the machine. The X-100 was a sleek piece of machinery. It took a lot of its design cues from the F-117 stealth fighter, sharing the same basic triangular shape, curved edges, and deep black coating. A big difference, however, was the inclusion of an extra dome situated directly behind the hump where the cockpit extended from the top. That second dome was where most of the key to this whole flight was situated, namely the quantum singularity generator. There wasn’t enough room inside the airframe to house the entire generator, so the dome was added. At least for this test flight, aerodynamics wasn’t of primary concern. However, the generator was large enough that even that extra space in the dome wasn’t enough, so it shared a big chunk of space from the main cockpit, making it a cramped fit for the pilot. This layout was the only way to get the whole thing in there though so it was a trade-off that had to be made. The generator was so close to the pilot’s seat that he could, in fact, reach back, given enough effort, and touch it. Since the singularity was on such a small scale there was no real danger to the pilot in terms of radiation or gravity, so that last little bit of internal space was stolen from the cockpit’s rear section to make it all fit.
The plane was a remarkable sight, a marvel of modern technology, even without the singularity generator.
But so too was the pilot.
Melissa, determined to make sure this wasn’t the last time she saw her husband, began running back to the control tower, a thousand thoughts running through her mind. Procedures and contingencies and event sequences and double-checks of various equations, all processing as fast as her mind could. She realized as she ran that she felt intensely alive, as if charged with electricity, and she wondered if this was how Alex felt going into a combat situation or a test flight. She wasn’t so much nervous as she was excited and completely focused on the job at hand.
——————————
Ten minutes later, Melissa looked on from the control tower and watched the altitude readout climb. Alex took the X-100 through 36,000 feet and took stock of his readings, as he knew Melissa was doing from the ground.
“Telemetry looks solid Alex. All data points are within expected ranges.”
Radio static broke as she heard Alex’ voice come through.
“Confirmed tower. I show green across the board here too.”
“Alex, continue the climb to 45,000 feet and commence cruise once you reach altitude.”
“Roger, Melissa, uh, I mean, gotcha Melissa, err, that is, roger tower.”
“Time for one last joke before the big show, huh Alex?”
“You know it!”
A minute of silence passed before Alex next reported in.
“Tower, I’m at 45,000 feet, cruising airspeed locked in at 500mph. I think we’re good to go here.”
Melissa swallowed hard as she looked over at Major Alcheck. Major Alcheck’s face belayed no emotion as he stared at the video display being transmitted by the E-3 AWACS surveillance jet that had been awaiting the X-100’s arrival at the specified test altitude. He must have sensed Melissa staring at him as only a moment passed before he nodded approval to her.
“Ok Alex, we're a go here. Set the timer for 30 seconds and engage the hyperstealth drive. It should take 10 seconds for the gravity envelope to fully form around the airframe, five more seconds for dimension jump to occur, and the particle beams will ramp power down for exactly 15 seconds later, after which you’ll be automatically pulled back into this universe. All sensor stations are trained on you and data recording is active.”
“Roger, see you on the flip-side.”
With that, Alex entered the three-digit code into the onboard computer that would activate the hyperstealth drive. He hesitated just a moment with his finger hovering over the Enter key that would transmit the code to the generator.
“Well, here goes everything!” Alex thought to himself as he pressed the Enter key.
Immediately, a hum began right behind him, a hum that quickly grew in both volume and pitch. Just a few seconds later the Cerenkov radiation started, and everything around him was engulfed in an eerie pulsating blue light. Even though it seemed spooky to Alex, he also thought it looked kind of beautiful in a weird way. It was a very dark blue, but an intense blue, like nothing he’d ever seen before and the effect it had was impressive: the view through the window shimmered, and it looked as if the clouds around him were shimmering.
Exactly fifteen seconds after he had pressed the Enter key, precisely when Melissa had said it would happen, Alex slipped out of this universe and into an immediately parallel one.
And no more than twenty seconds after he had pressed the Enter key, Alex realized something was incredibly wrong.
——————————
The blue glow still surrounded him, but no longer did there appear to be any other light around him. Gone was the reflected white light off the clouds around him. Gone was the reflected sunlight off the ground below him. Suddenly, darkness surrounded him, save for the Cerenkov radiation.
That was the first of four clues that told him something was wrong, and that “wrong” was a word that didn’t even begin to describe the reality.
It was a darkness far more profound than anything he had ever experienced, even during night missions in the middle of the wilderness where there was no artificial light for hundreds of miles in every direction and moonlight obscured by cloud cover. This darkness seemed even darker than that, as if the darkness was actively eating all light that fell upon it.
The second clue that something was very wrong, just a few seconds later, was the realization that the picture of Melissa that he always kept in the bezel of the cockpit canopy in front of him was now floating in front of his face! Quickly following that was the realization that he himself was now beginning to float off the seat a little bit, just an inch or two since he was strapped in, though it seemed he would otherwise be floating until his head hit the canopy.
“What the hell?” Alex muttered to himself.
He wondered if he was inverted, but that wouldn’t explain how the picture was floating; if he were inverted, it would have hit the cockpit canopy already. That wasn’t what it was doing at all, it was floating in mid-air, only moving slightly in seemingly random directions.
He realized what the right answer was, though his mind would scarcely let the thought bubble up to his conscious thoughts because it was categorically insane. But, he knew it had to be true.
He was weightless!
The third clue that something was very, very wrong was that the timer had expired at the thirty-second mark just about twenty seconds ago, but he hadn’t returned.
It was then that he realized the hum from the hyperstealth drive was still going. It hadn’t shut down like it was supposed to. The particle beams were still feeding the singularity.
The fourth and final clue that plainly informed Alex that something was very, very, very wrong, made the first three clues look like infinitesimally small and insignificant bumps in the road. This clue was a whopper, the whopper to end all whoppers.
Alex noticed something out of the corner of his eye, just outside his field of vision allowed by the canopy. Something was coming into view, slowly. He realized he must be slowly rotating and as a result, the object was being revealed little by little. It took him a few seconds to be able to see enough of it to realize what it was, but it would take him quite a bit longer to come to grips with the reality of it.
Jupiter! He was looking at Jupiter! The largest planet in the solar system loomed over him now, staring him in the face like the mythical Kraken of Greek mythology towering over an insignificant ant on a distance seashore.
And Alex was now that ant!
Alex’ eyes grew as wide as they were physical able as his mouth hung agape before he finally summoned enough command of it to speak.
“What… the… FUCK?!”
——————————
Alex watched in awe for what seemed like an eternity as various parts of Jupiter came into view as the X-100 continued to spin slowly. He watched, was mesmerized by what he was seeing. He was also quite in shock now, a state Alex was rarely ever in.
He watched as the great red spot came into view. This was a feature he recognized, and for a moment he realized just how beautiful this was! As crazy as this situation was, as his brain struggled to comprehend what was going on, he realized that all the pictures he had ever seen of Jupiter just didn’t do it justice. The colors were so much more vivid in real life, and the atmosphere was a churning, tumultuous, seemingly living entity, a constant churn, changing and reshaping itself as the seconds ticked by. He was transfixed especially by the giant red spot, which he knew could engulf several Earth-sized planets with room left over to spare. He watched as the spot rotated, its centuries-old winds forming a cyclone the likes of which no human being had ever seen as Alex was seeing it now. He was so spellbound by the spot in fact that he didn't immediately notice that it appeared to be getting larger.
“Wait… oh shit, the damned thing is getting larger!”
Alex forced himself to focus on other parts of Jupiter, which he quickly realized were also growing larger in his field of view. It didn’t take him long to realize what was going on: he was in a rapidly decaying orbit around Jupiter. In fact, he suspected it wasn’t so much an orbit as it was a direct collision course.
“This is bad” Alex murmured to himself. Just that little bit of extreme understatement was enough of a joke to break him out of his shock and laser-focus him. He had to do something or he knew he’d be dead within minutes. He knew enough from visits to various planetariums with Melissa that probes sent into Jupiter’s atmosphere were crushed quickly due to the tremendous pressure of its gravity and atmospheric composition. But, since being in orbit around another planet wasn’t exactly on the agenda, he didn’t have any equipment that could tell him how close he was or how much time he had. All he knew was it didn’t look to his eyes like he had much at all.
In fact, he began wondering exactly why he wasn’t dead already- after all; it wasn’t like he was in a spaceship! He figured that the cockpit likely had enough of an air-tight seal that he hadn’t been exposed to space yet. He quickly realized that if was true, it also meant that he had a limited supply of air. Soon, the air in the cockpit would become poisonous from his own exhaled carbon dioxide. He had a small reserve canister of air that he could use by switching over to his mask, but that would only buy him a few minutes. It was, after all, not intended for use in space!
Alex chuckled at the thought that abruptly entered his head: I wonder if I’m going to suffocate before Jupiter eats me alive?
That second small moment of levity passed as he focused again on the real problem at hand.
He quickly realized that with the hyperstealth drive still running he was likely stuck here. Alex knew Melissa would be proud of him because he had a good idea what was going on! Melissa’s lessons on parallel universe theory and how the hyperstealth drive worked must have stuck with him better than either of them had suspected!
He was supposed to be pushed into a nearby parallel universe. Being nearby, within the larger fabric of the multiverse, would mean there would be little change, perhaps just on atom different in a far corner of the universe. Alex likely wouldn’t even notice any difference even though he would no longer be detectable in his original universe. That’s how it was supposed to work anyway. But, if he were to be pushed into a parallel universe further away from his own original universe then the degree of change would be greater. Since the multiverse encompasses all possible configurations of reality, that had to mean that there existed a parallel universe in which Jupiter was in the same physical location as Earth was in his original universe, or at least close enough that he wound up in a rapidly decaying orbit. He knew galaxies rotated and moved, as did planets of course, so Alex figured such a universe must exist even if just by sheer mathematical chance.
He must have gotten pushed into a much more distant parallel universe, that was all there was to it.
It was at that moment that Alex noticed something about the Cerenkov radiation: it was intensifying. The shimmering was much more rapid than before, the blue a deeper shade and it felt to Alex how it felt standing outside during a severe thunderstorm, as if the air around him was charged with energy. The power all around him was palpable. He also noticed that the sound coming from the hyperstealth drive had risen in pitch and volume all this time as well.
The particle beams must be malfunctioning, feeding the singularity far more than they should be. He wondered for a moment whether Melissa had designed them to work in zero gravity. Even she couldn’t think of everything after all.
It didn’t matter, either way, he knew. The question now was what to do about his predicament. There was only one answer available to him, and fortunately, it was the one that made some sense to him. He remembered Melissa’s explanation for how he was supposed to get back to his original universe. He should get pulled back automatically when the particle beams begin to slowly power down.
Alex realized that time was running out even without the prospect of being crushed by Jupiter’s gravity and/or atmosphere because if the drive was continuing to feed the singularity, then it was likely pushing him through more parallel universes too. Melissa had mentioned at one point that the further away from your original universe you go the weaker the link between the entangled atoms that tethered him to his home universe would become and eventually that link would snap and he’d be stranded in a parallel universe, unable to return home.
And shortly after that, he would either he killed by the monster of all planets, or he’d choke on the poisoned air he himself was generating.
His course of action was clear: he had to get the hyperstealth drive shut down immediately. The problem with that plan was something else Melissa had told him in passing:
Alex, if the particle beams ever aren’t powered down gradually, then the singularity will evaporate almost instantaneously. It would be a violent release of energy, a nuclear explosion equivalent to roughly 3 tons of TNT. So, if anything were to go so wrong that you had to abort the flight immediately, then you’ll need to reach back and pull the ejection handle on the side of the stealth drive behind your seat. It’ll be a bit of a stretch because the handle is mechanically linked to the drive ejection assembly, we couldn’t just run a simple switch up to the control console and activate it electronically, it’s physically part of the hyperstealth drive. When you pull it, it’ll blast the secondary dome away and eject the stealth drive almost immediately. There will be a few seconds’ delay because the control system on-board the X-100 that’s usually in control of the drive has to transfer control entirely to the drive itself, a secondary control processor, and that takes a little bit of time. There should be enough ejection explosives to throw it far enough away, and the particle beams will continue feeding the singularity with residual energy for long enough for you to survive the blast since the radius would only be about 2,000 feet or so.
“Ok, this isn’t going to be fun.” Alex quipped, as he looked out at Jupiter. It was almost a traveling companion at this point to him.
He slipped his right arm free of the harness keeping him in his seat and began stretching it behind him, feeling for the ejection handle.
All he felt was air. The handle was too far, and he was too restrained by the harness anchoring him to the pilot’s chair for him to reach it.
“Damn it, Melissa! A little bit of a fucking stretch?!”
Alex hit the release button for his harness and he quickly began floating further off the seat as the harness retracted, freeing him. He grabbed the side of the seat with his left hand, squeezing as tightly as he could to keep himself roughly in place and he stretched his right arm again behind him.
“Good thing I stopped stretching on a regular basis!” he quipped sarcastically.
This moment of levity lasted all of two seconds as Alex continued his seemingly impossible task. He stretched his arm, simultaneously twisting his body as much as the small cockpit would allow, He knew he must be only a few inches away from the ejection handle, but he couldn’t seem to stretch enough to reach it. He began to feel tendons and muscles ache in his arm, shoulder, and abdomen as they began moving beyond their breaking point. Suddenly, like a bolt of electricity, a Charlie horse began on his side, the pain quickly radiating throughout his midsection.
He paused for a second and tried to twist the other way to counteract the reaction of his muscles to actions they were not prepared for, but it did no good.
He bellowed out in agony as the pain advanced through his shoulder and down the length of his arm. His hand was now numbing under the strain.
Alex fought through the pain and began to stretch even further, willing his body to do what it was so intensely signaling it could not. Now, the joints in his arm and shoulder began to feel as if they were going to pop out of their usual positions and he began thinking a shoulder dislocation was a very real possibility.
Just as he began to think he might be reaching a point where he physically couldn’t go any further, Alex’ index finger felt the rubberized texture of the ejection handle.
With a sudden jolt of adrenaline, he willed his body to stretch even further, to twist and contort even more severely.
The tip of his finger now hooked the handle ever so slightly, and all he needed was another few millimeters. With all his might and