I took a deep breath as my gaze moved across the rows of sophisticated equipment. The room was a bit stuffy from the heat being generated by all of it running at the same time. We had adjusted the air conditioning down twice already, but there was only so much it could do to make headway against the massive amount of power that was being consumed here today.
"We are almost ready for you, Rod."
Brad Jordan, one of my fellow researchers, stood behind me checking off items on a clipboard. Today was the big day. The first attempt to see if the last ten years of blood, sweat, and tears had been worth it. A hand clasped my shoulder, and I turned around to stare into the bearded face of Sam Dayne, my partner in crime in this endeavor.
"Remember, this first time is just a fast in and out test of the process. I preset your module to return you to the platform after three-minutes no matter what, o.k.?"
"Don't worry, Sam. We have been over this a thousand times."
The tone I was going for was one of reassurance, but I heard the shaking in my voice, and I knew Sam couldn't miss it. He smiled sympathetically, rubbing my shoulder before he moved off to double check the settings on the primary controls. I tried to slow my breathing and focus on the task ahead it wasn't every day that a man takes a leap into a different reality, so I needed to stay calm.
A low hum began to fill the room. The quantum intermix chamber started to glow with steady white light. The time was almost here one giant step forward for humanity, or at least we hope that would be the case.
"You don't have to do this you know. Why not send one of your assistants? Does it make sense for the head scientist to go?"
This was a voice I was very familiar with since I had been married to its owner for the last twelve years. My wife, Jocelyn, had come to stand at my shoulder while the humming grew louder in front of us.
"I can't ask anyone else to shoulder this risk. It's mine, and Sam's design, as well as our theory that is being tested. It's only right it be one of us that goes, and I drew the long straw."
Jocelyn came around to stand in front of me. Her short brunette hair fell around her small, round face framing it perfectly. She smiled at me making her gorgeous green eyes crinkle up at the corners, and her soft pink lips spread back from her white teeth.
"O.K., Mr. Brave Scientist, you just make sure you come back to me in one piece."
"I've go it covered," I replied with more confidence than I felt.
"Power lever at 80%. You had best take your position, Dr. Hewitt."
My lips brushed briefly across Jocelyn's before I took four short strides that brought me to the edge of the platform. Jocelyn followed in my wake staying just outside the safety circle marked in red two meters away.
"We have 100% power. Quantum flux initiated," called out Sam from behind the primary control panel.
A soft tingle broke out all over my body like a thousand invisible fingers were tickling me. My vision started to dim as if the light in the room was fading away. I began to mouth a last, "I love you," to my wife, but before I could complete the words the bottom dropped out of my world.
I staggered backward feeling dizzy, and robbed of my balance. It took a moment to realize that I was no longer in my lab but standing on a grass-covered hill. The sun was bright beating down on me. I could hear voices, and as my vision cleared, it became apparent I was in a city park. There were people all around me occupied in different mundane activities. I saw folks walking their dogs, and a couple of teenage boys throwing a football back and forth not far from where I stood. The trip had been more disorienting than I had expected since it was apparent I hadn't landed in the lab but at a different point.
"Holy shit! We did it," I mumbled to myself.
At least it appeared that we had, I would need to find some proof first that I wasn't in the world I had known. My feet were a bit unsteady, but I walked quickly down the hill conscious of the fact that my three minutes would soon be up. In front of me was a vendor selling hot dogs, and newspapers. It seemed like the best place to verify that our theory was correct.
My hands shook as I lifted a newspaper from the small wire rack. I didn't have to look far to find the proof I was looking for it was right in that day's headline.
"President Eastwood calls for new Middle East peace initiative," I read the headline out loud to myself.
"President Clint Eastwood? Fuck me. We did do it!"
I looked around me in awe. Sam and I had advanced the theory of travel between parallel realities using quantum fluctuation, and entanglement as a bridge for years, but I had never hoped to see it a reality in my lifetime. Thanks to the generous endowment from my wife's family we had made it far sooner than we had anticipated. I was standing in a world that was very similar to my own, but for a few differences perhaps close to identical. There could be a million more variations out there, and now the way was open for us to explore them all. The excitement was hard to contain, but then a soft buzzing on my hip told me that my time here was almost up.
It was harder to get back up the hill than it had been to go down, but I wanted to be as close to my original entry point as possible. Glancing around one last time, I smiled at the thought of what my colleagues would say when I returned. The buzzing on my hip abruptly stopped, and my module beeped five times slowly counting down. I closed my eyes and steadied myself for the transition.
The beeping stopped, and then nothing...
Opening my eyes, I removed the module from my belt glancing at the small liquid crystal display on the side. The words that flashed there sent a chill up my spine.
-Signal Lost-
"Oh shit...This can't be good," I thought.
The next several hours were some of the longest of my life. I sat on a park bench with the quantum flux module in my hand trying to ascertain what was going wrong, but given the limited tools I had at hand, there wasn't a whole lot that I could accomplish. Everything seemed to be in working order, but for some reason, I had lost connection with the quantum field in my own reality. It was like the anchor that tied me back to my world, and without it, there was no way for me to find my way home.
I knew I couldn't let the fear take hold of me or I was as good as lost. The logical thing to do was seek out the help of someone who would have the right tools for me to investigate this problem further, and there was only one person I could think of that could provide me with that assistance.
Thankfully, this place ran on the same system of currency as my own, so it was no problem for me to find a bus to take me back to my lab. The building looked on the outside the same as it did in my world, and if I needed any further proof that this world was a parallel to my own I got it when the security door to the central lab opened when I used my palm print.
The lab was mostly quiet, and I was grateful for that since I wanted to keep my interactions with people to a minimum. I had no idea if the person I was in this reality was close to my own personality or different from me. There was one person I had to speak to though if I was going to get the help I needed, and I stopped in front of Sam Dayne's office door a moment later and knocked softly.
"Come in!"
The door swung back noiselessly on its well-oiled hinges, and I quickly took stock of the room beyond. At least on the surface, it appeared the same as the one I had sat in countless times in the past ten years which was to say a real mess. Sam was a brilliant scientist, but was completely indifferent about keeping his office organized. He was sitting behind his desk studying me with a perplexed expression as I closed the door behind me.
"Rod! What the heck are you doing here? I thought you flew out this morning to go to Washington, and meet with those guys from Anotech about getting some help building a secondary coil."
"Right...Um...You see Sam here is the thing. I'm not the Rod Hewitt you know."
"O.K...So what is that supposed to mean?"
"It means the experiment worked! Well, it almost worked I got to your reality, but I got stuck."
