As We Speak

The red morning sun was scarcely over the horizon, illuminating the morning clouds with a beautiful red-orange glow by the time I reached my parking space at the university. It was one of those sunrises that made one want to stand and stare, mesmerized, until it came to an end. Unfortunately  I had a long day ahead of me and could not enjoy the angelic light for long.

I oversaw the entire physics department and all related projects at a prestigious university. One experiment was not going well, and I was going to have to cut funding to it unless those involved began to produce some hopeful results. Arriving at work several hours early, my intent was to lend this group some assistance so we could get things back on track.

This particular project was a search for the theoretical magnetic monopoles, which could help prove the existence of dimensions beyond those with which mankind was already familiar. If we could prove the existence of monopoles, that could give science a giant leap in its quest for physicists to rectify the nine-dimensional paradox. I had the faculty working on the project meet me at the facility early with the students working the project to arrive at their normal time.

Turning the corner into the hallway where my office was located, I found two gentlemen in suits standing on either side of the door. Both wore dark glasses and rather expressionless faces. Whoever they were, their mere presence stirred feelings of panic and anxiety within me.

“Are you Doctor Madeston?” one of the men asked me flatly.

I did not like being confronted like this so early in the day. I wanted to lie to them and tell them they had the wrong person, but something inside me told me the question was rhetorical. Following a brief moment of hesitation I replied, “Yes, is there something I can do for you?”

Both gentlemen began to approach me as the first continued, “We are going to need you to come with us right now.”

“I am not going anywhere but to work,” I responded bluntly. “If you need to speak with me, you can make an appointment with my secretary when she arrives.”

“You don’t understand,” the man said to me, “you are coming with us one way or another.” With those last words, both men brandished large handguns concealed underneath their jackets.

“Am I being kidnapped?” I inquired.

“No sir, but it is imperative that you come with us immediately.”

Distraught and confused, I complied with the two men as I truly believed they would offer me no other options. The two led me through the back of the building to a large black sedan and instructed me to take a seat at the back of the vehicle. Once I was inside, the man who had yet to speak a word closed the door. The silent man took a seat behind the steering wheel and the other climbed into the passenger’s seat. Before they even put on their seat belts, the driver began to leave the university parking lot with what I would call a high level of urgency.

We were on the road for two or three minutes before I finally demanded they tell me what this was all about. All the man in the passenger’s seat would tell me was they were with the government, and my presence was required. He would not tell me anything about the situation or where we were going. Asking him repeatedly did nothing but get me the same answers over and over. It was obvious I was not going to get any more information from this man, so I resigned to my fate and stayed quiet for most of the rest of the drive.

It did not take me long to notice we never stopped at a single traffic light. It was as if someone were turning them green for us before we reached them. This helped cement for me that these were indeed agents of the government. The quiet driver far exceeded the speed limit the entire time. Although we passed several police cruisers, not a single one made an attempt to stop us.

Of all places, the two men brought me to the local hospital. Parking beside the building, the two led me through a side door which led directly to an elevator. The quiet gentleman typed a code into the keypad causing the elevator doors to open. All three of us climbed inside the elevator, which carried us to the roof of the building. There on the helipad was a military helicopter with its blades moving so fast they appeared to be spinning in the wrong direction. My two escorts walked me over to the helicopter where I was greeted by a man calling himself Cooper. Cooper helped me onto the aerial vehicle and fastened the door. No sooner did I sit down than the helicopter rose into the air.

Hopeful I would now find out what this fiasco was all about, I asked Cooper if he could give me an explanation for why I was being treated like a hostage. To no surprise, he said there was not much he could tell me. He had not yet been to the site and was simply following orders by getting me on location as quickly as possible. When I asked what he meant by ‘on location’ he simply replied by telling me he was only given the information he needed. Clearly this was something major if the government was keeping such a tight lid on it.

I am not sure how far we traveled, but flying for nearly an hour at top speed we could be hundreds of miles away by now. Eventually we arrived at a large farm spread out at the base of the mountains. I could see military vehicles forming a perimeter around the farm in addition to a large section of the facing mountain.

The farmhouse and barn were both converted into a headquarters of sorts. Multiple tents and various equipment were set up in between and around the two buildings. Personnel wearing military uniforms, lab coats, hazmat suits and the like moved about the area performing various tasks.

The helicopter landed well outside the headquarters area so as not to disturb the workers as well as the tents. Four men came running out to the landing site to greet Cooper and me as we exited the advanced military vehicle. Two of them were obviously military personnel, but the other two appeared a bit out of place in this setting. Both men wore lab coats, but one of them was tall and thin while the other was short and pudgy.

“Dr. Madeston I presume,” the taller man said as he extended his hand toward me.

I shook the man’s hand and told him I was indeed Dr. Madeston.

He introduced himself as Doctor Walton and his companion as Doctor Garner. The two military men appeared to be no more than escorts at the moment, and they led us to the large red barn resting several hundred feet from the farmhouse. Walton was a prominent chemist, and Garner was a world-renowned microbiologist. I thought it very strange for there to be a chemist, a physicist and a microbiologist working together on the same project. 

Multiple people occupied the barn to which the soldiers led the remaining three of us. There were military personnel, people wearing lab coats as well as individuals dressed in everyday wear. Virtually everything normally stored in the barn, including the animals, were removed. It was instead filled with tables and storage bins loaded with a countless range of high-tech equipment.

Only a few moments after we entered the barn, we were approached by a man introducing himself as the general in charge of the operation. At this time, he introduced the two military escorts who walked us from the helicopter. One man was in command of the operation, although I still had no idea what the operation was, and the other was a specialist in communications.

Frustrated with all the secrecy, I asked the general if he would kindly explain to me why I was abducted from my place of work and brought to this remote location.

“The best way for me to explain is to simply show you the anomaly as you are probably more qualified to tell me what it is than anyone else here,” he replied.

The general called for several people to join us, some of them grabbing equipment along the way. Soon we were loaded into a personnel carrier which brought us from the headquarters that was now apparently some form of secret base. We were stopped at four different checkpoints as the soldiers guarding each barricade verified our identities before allowing us to proceed.

It must have taken us an hour to travel perhaps two to three miles with all the red tape we had to go through before finally being allowed to arrive at our destination. Four heavily armed soldiers assisted us in exiting the vehicle before instructing us to follow them. They led us through some of the forest at the base of the mountain until we reached what appeared to be a large circular cave entrance.

“Do not move any closer than we do to the anomaly,” one of the soldiers instructed.

I could not help but to be intrigued and frightened at the same time.

What was this anomaly we were going to see? What could be potentially so dangerous that it required such a large military presence?

As we approached the wide entrance to the cavern, we noticed something unusual coming from inside. There seemed to be an orangish light emanating from about a hundred or so feet inside the cavern. At this point the escorting soldiers once again instructed us not to approach closer than they did under any circumstances. It was rather shocking when the General, a man outranking the others by many times, listened quietly and obeyed what the men said.

Taking one step at a time, we slowly worked our way down the winding natural corridor, we gradually grew closer to what I am sure was what was referred to as “the anomaly.” Upon drawing nearer the source of light, I realized it was not actually glowing. Instead, I gazed through a large roundish soap-like film. On the other side of this incredibly thin barrier, I saw trees, meadows, and clouds. I was in fact looking through a weak spot between this universe and another. There was a world that was not ours so close I could reach out and touch it. This was more than I could ever hope to discover during my entire lifetime.

We were only given a few minutes at which to gaze at this absolute wonder before we were again escorted to our transport. The entire way back, between the four check points, no one said anything of substance. The implications of the impossible thing we saw fully occupied our minds. This was something absolutely unheard of, at least in modern history, of any such thing ever being discovered.

The idea of trying to look at the universe through nine dimensions now seemed completely asinine as this discovery may prove the existence of perhaps an infinite number of dimensions. This discovery could turn the world of physics on its end. Of course, I doubted very seriously the government would ever allow me to get a word of this to anyone else.

Soon after our return to the compound, Walter, Garner and I were escorted to the farmhouse. Initially we assumed we were here to give our expert opinions on the situation and perhaps do some analytical work while we were here. Instead, I found my reason for being here much more shocking.

Inside the living room area was converted to a conference room, and men wearing uniforms occupied the seats at one end of the room. Our two military escorts were already there, standing next to a table. One of them motioned for the three of us to come take a seat. Knowing I really had no other choice, I walked across the room and sat down. The other two scientists did not know what else they should do, so they followed me and took a seat.

One of the uniformed men began to speak. “I regret bringing you here under these circumstances, but we had no other choice.”

“You are not here just to analyze the anomaly, in three day’s time, we intend for the five of you to enter this other universe and find out as much as you can as possible.”

Standing up immediately, Walton shouted, “You cannot just snatch us up and tell us you are going to send us to some place completely unknown. We’re not soldiers; we are scientists.”

“This may be the greatest discovery of all times, and you will be an essential part. Each one of you was chosen carefully from a long list of candidates.”

“But you can’t just do this to us,” Doctor Garner demanded.

“I am afraid that, under NS9 authority, we have every right to conscript the appropriate people for this mission” the second man said.

“Each of you were given rooms in the house where you will be individually briefed on everything we learned so far,” the first continued.

With that, we were told to exit the room and someone escorted each of us to our own rooms. My guts churned and my head spun at the thought of crossing into another world, another universe. It was hard to believe I was going in early to work today to catch up on a project, and I ended up here on an expedition to an unknown world.

What was this NS9 and what gave them the authority to conscript anyone they pleased? Was this some secret government agency, or was it perhaps an international agency? Was this their sole purpose, to examine anomalies like this one?

NC9 even appeared to have authority over the military, which was probably the most disturbing thing about this agency. It seemed to have connections at the highest level and access to unlimited resources.

I learned very little through the briefings. The radiation levels around the anomaly were no different than the ambient radiation of the mountains. The sun followed the same path through the sky as the sun of this world, although it maintained a different position. No communications were detected from the other side. It was all mostly just basic information. I was told very little to give me insight into what this NS9 drug me into.

Some of the briefings were carried out by groups and some were with individuals. At one point during the long discussions of dry material, I inquired as to why drones were not sent into the anomaly to try to get readings without sending humans to the other side. This turned out to be the first means used to make contact with the other side. Unfortunately, the operators lost their signal connection with the drones immediately after entering the anomaly, which continued their flight path until they were out of sight.

This greatly concerned me because, if the signal was not getting through to control the drone, there was a distinct possibility we would not be able to get a signal through to keep in touch with this side of reality. I told the lady giving this part of the briefing that I had no intention of crossing that barrier if I was not going to be able to communicate with this side.

She assured me one of our military escorts was a specialist in communications. He would be responsible for establishing contact from the other side before we proceeded more than ten to twenty feet into the anomaly, the communications expert was to establish contact with our world. Part of my job was to help him calibrate the instruments and establish a connection. If communication could not be established, we would return directly through the portal. This gave me little reassurance, but at least now I did not feel like I was being sent off to my death.

Finally, the agonizing briefings came to an end, and I was led to the kitchen where I would eat my dinner. When I arrived, I found Walton, Garner and the Colonel already seated and consuming their meal. A few moments later the sergeant, who would be our means of communication to our home world joined us.

The silence at the table was deafening until Garner finally spoke.

“Is anyone else as terrified as I am?” he asked. “I mean, they are talking about sending us into what could very possibly be another universe.”

“I understand you are scared, but you are going to have to get yourself past that before we embark on the mission,” the Colonel replied. “We cannot afford to have anyone losing their cool while we are on the other side. Sergeant Buckman and I will both be heavily armed just in case the situation calls for it.”

That statement did very little to calm my nerves. We were about to travel through a barrier between worlds, and there was no guarantee we would make it back to this side. It was possible the portal did not even exist on the other side, as the laws of physics seemed to be irrelevant in this scenario.

We continued to discuss various theories through the rest of our meal and for the next hour. The truth was we really had absolutely no idea what caused this anomaly or even how long it would last. There was a very distinct possibility this may be a one-way trip. We had no way of knowing if the opening existed on the other side or not. Since they were unable to return any of the drones back through the portal, there was no way we could know. Perhaps that was the reason the flying devices lost their signal, because they were no longer receiving the signal through the anomaly. 

As I expected, I did not get much sleep that night. All I could do was think of everything that could go wrong with this unprecedented expedition. One would think that, as a physicist trying to prove the existence of other dimensions, I would be more excited about making such an exploration, but all I felt was a sense of fear and dread.

The first thing the next morning, following a quick breakfast, was to be fitted with customized hazmat suits. These suits were capable of protecting us from slight increases or decreases in pressure we might experience when passing through the anomaly. Made to be puncture resistant and highly corrosive resistant, they contained both refrigeration and heating units. As the suits were sealed, each was equipped with two canisters of liquid oxygen to supplement the oxygen produced by the air scrubbers installed in the suits.

This process took several hours as every seal had to be checked and rechecked once we were fitted with our protective equipment. As soon as we finished with our fitting, we were all brought out to the barn to select what equipment we wanted to take with us. The building was filled with a multitude of devices and gadgets. Thankfully they had them organized by function and purpose.

There was much more equipment we wanted to bring than what we could carry, but thankfully we were given a six-wheeled rover to take along with us that could carry most of our equipment and supplies. Our load was still limited, and it was difficult deciding what would likely be the most crucial equipment. Doctors Wagner, Garner and I collaborated in our decision of what items would be most useful to us and which would probably be nothing but cumbersome.

On the morning of our expedition, it was difficult to eat anything for breakfast as my nerves were a mess. I knew I needed to eat a full meal because we would not be eating again until we returned to this side of the anomaly. There was simply no way of doing so without having to remove our protective gear. If I was going to keep my energy up during the expedition, I had to consume a full breakfast.

Soon after breakfast the final preparations began. Getting sealed into the hazmat suits took much longer than the fitting did as every seal had to be checked and triple checked to make sure no gases or potential pathogens from the other side leaked in. Standing there as others assembled my protective suit around me, I endured nearly two hours of virtual motionlessness before the task was finally completed. Once everyone was ready, we were loaded into a personnel carrier and driven to the location of the anomaly.

My heart began to race as we walked into the narrow cavern toward this window into another world. My body temperature rose with my heartbeat and soon the cooling system on my suit kicked on. The Colonel stopped me as soon as he heard this and told me I needed to calm down. I needed to keep myself steady, so I did not run out of coolant prematurely. I knew he was right, and I nodded my head indicating I understood. There was not much I could do to settle my nerves, so I tried to think of the scientific papers and such I would be able to publish about the subject. The thought of going down in the history books in the world of physics did a little to calm my nerves.

When we reached the opening to the other side, the rover filled with our equipment was already there waiting for us. Several other teams surrounded the cavern leading to the portal to another world, there to monitor everything they could from this side of the event horizon. Once the exploration team entered the cavern, the other teams followed.

The first order of business was for the Colonel and the Sergeant to enter the portal and try to establish communications. The two walked through the anomaly, stepping through the film as though nothing were there, and instantly we could no longer hear them through the radios in our suits. The sergeant began adjusting the communication equipment on the rover in an attempt to compensate for the distortion caused as the signal passed from one world to another. Nearly twenty minutes passed and there was still no link between this side and that, and I finally mustered up the courage to step through the thin barrier separating this world from another.

My orders were to stay put until communications were established, but I knew the sergeant was never going to compensate for the distortion without my knowledge of physics. When I turned and looked back at the portal, I found on this side the anomaly stretched between two large trees. Both trees were dead and all the leaves that once graced their branches lay scattered about the ground. That was when I noticed the grass and all the plants in the area were also brown and dead.

The Colonel was quite upset that I broke protocol, but I assured him I could help get a link established with the teams on the other side. I first began by examining my equipment to get a baseline of the ambient energy in this region of this world. I then took readings on the electromagnetic field of this place along with more readings from other devices. Soon I was able to tell the Sergeant how to adjust the radios in a way that would compensate for the differences between this world and our own.

Once messages were successfully sent from one side to the other, the last two of our colleagues mustered up all their courage and stepped through the microscopically thin wall between dimensions. As soon as they stepped into this other reality with the two military men and I, I pointed out the condition of the trees and all of the foliage within sight. Not only was every plant in sight dead, our microphones picked up no sounds of any insects or animals one would think should fill the partially forested meadows in which we found ourselves.

The Colonel radioed back to our world to apprise them of the current situation, and doctors Walton and Garner began selecting specific equipment from the six-wheeled rover carrying a majority of our things. Walton began an analysis of the atmosphere, Garner began to examine the dead blades of grass, while I continued to monitor the forms and levels of radiation.

The atmosphere was comparable to that of our world except the carbon dioxide and ammonia levels were a bit elevated, but other than that the atmosphere appeared to be very similar to that of our own home world. Although the ambient radiation levels were quite elevated, it was not beyond the protection capacity of our hazmat suits.

Following our preliminary analysis, we began walking what our compasses told us was south, but according to the motion of the sun it appeared we were traveling more to the east. We had no idea what the electromagnetic field was like on this world, nor did we know which direction the sun set as compared to our own sun.

Following the lead of the Colonel, we headed toward what appeared to be power cables running just on the other side of a distant hill. If there were indeed power lines running through this area, there was a possibility we could run into some of the inhabitants of this world.

Until now I assumed any denizens of this realm would be the same as those of our world, but I eventually began to think of the things certain creatures may have evolved into in this world.

What if life evolved into something more aggressive, something more powerful than the animals to which we were accustomed?

I suppose I would have to rely on the protection of the two military escorts if we encountered some unknown beast as the rest of us were not armed. The power lines came into better view as we moved deeper into this world, and I became hopeful any beings living in this world would be very similar if not the exact same as us. If their infrastructure matched that to which I was accustomed, then it was very probable the people who created it would be as similar as well.

We maintained a constant transmission connection with those monitoring us from the other side, although they tried to keep from disturbing us unless completely necessary. Otherwise, our focus needed to remain on our surroundings and with what we were doing. We traveled for just under thirty minutes and we began to receive interference in our communications. The Sergeant and I worked on the problem for a few minutes, but the transmission appeared to clear up on its own.

As we made our way toward the power lines, we began to round the top of a large hill. From the peak of the hill, we could see off in the distance a farmhouse, several trucks and other farming vehicles, a barn and everything else one would expect to find on a farm. The Colonel pointed to the home and indicated that it was now our destination. I had to wonder what anyone would think if they looked out their window and saw the five of us and a rover full of equipment coming their way.

Suddenly the leader of our group raised his fist and told us to halt. He appeared to be looking at something lying on the ground twenty feet or so ahead. I could not see anything due to the tall brown grass, but I did see several large patches where the grass appeared to be matted down. The Colonel, telling the rest of us to remain in position, slowly worked himself forward toward the nearest of the open patches.

Suddenly he froze in his tracks as if he saw something shocking. Telling the rest of us to stay back, the Colonel called the Sergeant over to his position. The Sergeant was apparently as shocked as his superior because he seemed to freeze when he looked at what was lying on the ground. The two communicated over a channel not available to the civilian personnel, obviously discussing something they did not want us to hear. Minutes passed and the Colonel finally called for Walters and Garner to join them.

Apprehensively I began to move forward toward the two military men. What I saw took my breath away. It was the mummified body of some sort of farm animal. It looked very similar to a horse, except that it had small horns on either side of its head. No insects swarmed around the carcass, and it did not appear to have decayed at all. It was obviously dead, that was not at question. How it managed to lie there to dry out in the sun without rotting or being consumed by scavengers was a mystery that baffled us all. Each one of the open spaces in the grass contained the remains of one of these creatures.

Once we emerged from our initial shock of this gruesome discovery, Walton retrieved some of his equipment from the rover, as did Garner. Walton tested the animal for a variety of chemical agents capable of doing something like this but found nothing out of the ordinary.

Using a scalpel and tweezers, Garner took small tissue samples from the first of the creatures we found and examined them carefully with a portable electric microscope. He quietly examined the samples for what seemed like hours before the Colonel finally lost his patients and asked Garner what he saw.

Garner stood up and took a step back before turning to face the leader of the expedition.

“Everything here is dead,” Garner said flatly. “These carcasses did not decay because even the bacteria here is dead. There was nothing, no bugs, nothing here to eat these bodies, so they stayed here until they completely dried in the sun.”

I was about to express my intense desire to return to my own world when interference cut into our communications again. This time it did not sound like regular static. There almost appeared to be a repetition in the noise, but before we could try to tune in to the signal to listen to what was being said, the interference again ended.

Now I told the Colonel I was done with this expedition, and I wanted to return to base.

“That’s a negative. Our mission is to find out if any of the people of this world are still alive. That farmhouse is our best bet, so that’s where we are heading.”

As much as I wanted to be defiant and refuse to proceed any further, I was more afraid of staying here by myself. The thought of making it back to that portal alone terrified me more than continuing on with the mission. I did not know if the Colonel would physically force me to the farmhouse, but it did not matter as I went willingly, reluctantly but willingly.

It took nearly thirty minutes for us to span the distance between the remains of the livestock to reach the fence surrounding the modestly sized home. Since we approached from the rear of the dwelling, the Colonel decided we should circle wide outside the barbed wire barrier and approach the building’s front door. As we made our way around the structure, we passed a large tree with a tire swing dangling from a massive limb. There was a teeter totter about ten feet away from the swing, and a small shed converted into a playhouse.

In the process of making our wide detour, I spotted something that stopped me in my tracks. Lying on the back patio of the farmhouse was what resembled a canine, but its fur was similar to that of a sheep. It appeared to be resting on the concrete patio still gripping a ball in its frozen jaws. It was as if the poor creature died while it was in the process of playing. Scanning the area, I looked for anyone with whom the creature was amusing itself, but I did not see any obvious signs of the animal’s owners. It occurred to me that, if the house pet was outside playing with one of the residents of this home, it would likely be a child. I ceased my search for the body and focused my attention on the Colonel, terrified of what I might find if I continued to scan the landscape.

The wide path we took around the house seemed to take forever as I attempted to avoid examining my surroundings too closely. I did not want to be the one to discover the bodies of the residents of this home; I did not want to discover bodies at all. We finally reached the gravel driveway leading up to the home. I would normally worry about the residents attempting to protect themselves from what must look like an alien invasion, but I had very little doubt there was anything left alive in the house.

When we approached the front door of the dwelling, the Colonel gave it a few sharp knocks. He allowed another minute to pass and gave the door three more sharp raps. No one replied, and after another minute or two, the Colonel checked the door to see if it was locked. He turned his wrist and the knob turned in his hand with it. Pushing the door lightly, the Colonel called out through his external speaker to anyone who may be inside. Again, there was no reply.

The Colonel and the Sergeant both readied their firearms and entered the house as if they meant to attack. Neither of them said anything to us, and being that we were not armed, the other two scientists and I waited outside. It did not take long for the two men to clear the moderately sized home.

“There’s nothing alive in here” the Colonel said over the group intercom. “I do have the residents. They are all lying dead at the dining room table.”

Walton and Garner took this as their queue to join the Colonel in the dining room. I found myself unable to move. My feet felt as if they sprouted roots to the ground as the terror of what awaited me inside that doorway would not let me progress. When the others realized I was not with them, they called me and told me to join them. It still took me a minute or so before I finally worked up a tiny amount of courage and walked through the doorway.

This was not my area of expertise. Science was always in my blood, but blood and gore were not something I handled very well. That was one of the reasons I chose physics as my field of study. The most disgusting thing I was used to seeing on a regular basis was an improperly erased chalk board.

I almost began to vomit when my eyes caught sight of a family of four seated around the table, each one of them dried into mummies just like the animals we found thus far. Turning my head away from the scene, I did my best to calm myself. Were I to vomit in my suit, I would have to remove my headgear. Doing that would expose me to whatever killed off this world.

At that moment, the same static pattern we picked up several times before began playing once again. The Sergeant and I ran out to the rover since it contained our primary communication equipment. This time, instead of trying to tune it out, we tried tuning in. We did not get the frequency adjusted in time to understand what was being said, but it came through clearly enough to know that it was a message of some sort. The pattern repeated at regular intervals of thirty -two minutes, so next time we planned to be ready to clear up the signal.

As much as I did not want to, the Sergeant and I rejoined the others inside the farmhouse. Walton was busy utilizing multiple testing methods to check the house for nerve gas, pesticides and a myriad of other toxins. Garner took tissue samples from the two adult bodies and examined them under his microscope.

This was the first time I took a close look at the mummified corpses. Now that I was prepared to look at the gruesome sight, it did not affect me as intensely as it did before. I tried to keep my eyes off the children, but I did want to see what the people of this world looked like. They were not much different from us. Their arms appeared to be disproportionately long to the size of their bodies, and their eyes positioned on the sides of their oblong skulls. This probably would have allowed them to see in all directions at once. Although they had five fingers just like humans, there were no nails, claws or talons at their tips. 

As the other two did their testing, the Colonel called for my attention. “Dr. Matheson, come and take a look at this. I glanced over to see the leader of our expedition holding a small stack of newspapers in his hand. “You have to see this.”

This required me to walk through the dining room and past the unfortunate family that obviously succumbed to the same life ending event as everything we saw thus far. It was my only way into the living room where the Colonel currently stood. Moving around the furniture, I joined the Colonel next to a reclining chair with a dark stained wooden newspaper holder residing beside it.

Handing me the first newspaper so that I could see the headlines, the Colonel let go and prepared to hand me the next. Although the newspaper was printed in the language of these odd beings, virtually everything was identical to English. Some words were misspelled compared to back home, and some of the letters did not correspond to the English alphabet. Despite the differences, I was easily able to decipher the headline.

“Scientists Create Micro Black Hole,” the headline read. The article went on to say these scientists worked on this project for more than a decade. The black hole was contained in a massive electromagnetic field which prevented the pinhole from exerting its effects on the planet. The endgame in this situation was to create a perpetual energy source that could end the need for the use of natural fuels like coal or crude oil.

The second paper began with the headline “Black Hole Containment Breach.” I scanned over the article to find the magnetic field created to contain the micro black hole faltered and began to fluctuate. This sent gravity waves coursing through the entire solar system and wreaked havoc on the laws of physics. The wrinkles in space-time caused tears in the very fabric of reality resulting in lesions connecting this world to many others.

That was how the anomaly appeared in our world. The attempt to harness the most powerful force known to physics tore an opening from this world to ours. According to the article, it created portals to many worlds as well.

I continued to read through the stack of newspapers hoping to get a better understanding of what exactly happened here. On the fifth day’s newspaper, the focus of the articles moved from the black hole and began to speak of massive die-offs all around the planet. Entire populations perished in a matter of days. I was unable to gain any more information from the periodicals as that appeared to be the final one.

I did not get to finish my thoughts before the transmission we picked up at regular intervals began to play. This time we were able to tune in to the specific frequency and were able to listen to the broadcast. The message was in English, but the accent was very strong and unknown to me.

“If you are here, you cannot go home. While exploring the newly discovered worlds, we brought something back with us. Mass die offs are taking place and death will soon consume our entire planet. If you go home, it will follow you and do to your world what it did to ours. This is an emergency broadcast. If you are here…”

The message repeated itself a second time and came to an end. I could not say how many minutes passed as we stared at one another in shock. Coming back to his senses, the Colonel told us to pack it up. We were headed back to the portal.

Calling back to home base, the leader of our expedition told those on the other side we were likely exposed to an infectious agent. After he informed them our hazmat suits maintained their integrity, he requested a sterilization chamber to be installed at the event horizon of the anomaly. Someone from the other side told him they would begin setting one up immediately, but we would have to remain on this side until it was complete. I hoped and prayed they would have the isolation chamber constructed before our arrival.

This time we did not make a wide berth around the house, opting for the most direct route home. The rover we took with us as it was capable of moving as fast as we could walk in these bulky hazmat suits. Besides, it carried the communications equipment which allowed us to communicate with our own world. Moving as quickly as possible, it was still going to take us more than an hour to reach the portal back home.

We could have moved faster if we left the rover behind, but it contained the equipment we needed to maintain communication with the other side. The Colonel checked in with home base every ten minutes as we tried to make our way back out of this world as quickly as possible. They assured us they would have the equipment ready to quarantine and purify our suits and what equipment we brought back through with us. I was quite sure we would have to stay in quarantine for at least several days, but once we got out of these suits and anything contaminating them, I was confident we would be okay.

The Colonel checked in with home base when we reached the dead livestock, we encountered previously to apprise them of our progress and give an estimated return time, but this time there was no confirmation transmission. The Colonel repeated our location and estimated location, but again we received no return communication from the other side.

At the leader’s command, the Sergeant and I got to work trying to tune the signal back in. Despite everything we tried, we could not reconnect with the home base. It was not a problem with our equipment. We completely lost the signal from the other side.

Since we were only waiting for the rover because it contained our communications equipment, the group’s leader ordered us to leave it behind. He spurred us to a light jog, which was about all we could manage in the bulky hazmat suits. I did not like the Colonel’s sudden sense of urgency. Despite not being in the best of shape, I forced my tired body to keep up with his.

I was so happy when we rounded the final hill and saw the dark anomaly resting like a hole between worlds. As our side of the anomaly was inside a cave, I was not surprised to find it dark, although I did expect to see some light from the quarantine chamber. The whole thing was so overwhelming, I did not think to pay much attention when we passed through as I had my focus on too many other things. We closed about half of the distance from our current location to the portal back to our world, and we could tell that something was not right. There was no reason the portal back to our world should be completely blackened.

Panic began to fill all of us as we continued our approach. It soon became obvious there was something on the other side obscuring our world from sight. We transversed the remaining distance as quickly as we possibly could, and when we reached our destination, our worst thoughts were confirmed.

There was a large steel plate covering the other side of the connection between the two worlds. The Colonel tried to pound on the steel with his fists, but it was constructed to stand only a micrometer or two from the portal. His efforts produced only dull thuds.

“Maybe they are just getting ready to let us through,” I said in desperation.

“Don’t you get it,” the Colonel snapped. “We’re going to die here. They received the same transmission we did. The rover relayed it back to them. Once they heard that, they had absolutely no intention of letting us cross back through. We are stuck here in this dead world. They’re probably filling the cave with concrete as we speak.”

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