Episode 42

“Whatcha doing?”

Cattleya was sitting by the portal, hunched over some sort of contraption, engrossed in her work, when Sharp came up behind her and accidentally gave her a jumpscare. She whipped her head around so quickly, he had to duck her horns.

“Whoa! Sorry!” Sharp stepped back as Cattleya scowled at him, which gave him a better view of what she was working on.

“Hey! Did you make a barometer? There’s a cut off liter bottle of Strawberry Coffin Cola, a ruler, some tubing… Pretty cool. How well does it work?” Sharp sat down next to her and examined her device.

“I’m quite vexed. This tubing is unruly and won’t remain aligned along the ruler, and I am at a loss for a clear method to mark this peculiar, transparent vessel except to score it with scissors.”

“Yeah, that’s called plastic. You’ll need some tape for the tubing, and a permanent marker. Hold on…” Sharp went over to his gear bag and pulled out both items. “What did you do with the rest of the soda?”

“I flushed it down the loo. It tasted disgusting.”

“Aw, c’mon! That’s my second favorite flavor.”

Cattleya gave Sharp a long, weary look.

“Well, don’t go dumping the rest of the stash I found. I plan on drinking those. There may come a day for a mandatory caffeine infusion. Next time, dump it into a container or something. I’ll even drink it flat.”

“I hear words. They sound English, but what you say is incomprehensible.” She tossed her hair dramatically and cut his reply off. “Be that as it may, you said a permanent marker? As in forever?”

“Well,” Sharp drawled. “It’s permanent unless you scribble over it with a dry erase marker. Then it comes right up. And micro-scrubbing sponges make short work of permanent marker if it’s on the right surface.”

“So…a permanent marker that is not permanent? Baffling. What, pray tell, is a dry erase marker?” Cattleya shook her head as if clearing her thoughts. “Never mind. Your world is filled with numerous perplexing matters, but none of that matters at the moment. The barometer isn’t functioning. It was raining on the other side a moment ago, but there was no change here.”

Sharp’s mouth formed a perfect “O” as he realized that he hadn’t made time for the AR chat with Cattleya yet, nor had he updated her on everything his sensors reported.

She wasted her time…or I wasted it. How shall I spin this?

“I bet this would work fine on the other side of the portal, even with soda as the liquid, but there’s…um…let’s call it a clear membrane of energy on the portal that filters most atmospheric conditions. Or mutes them. It doesn’t work very well, especially if velocity is involved, but it filters out humidity and atmospheric pressures,” said Sharp to a crestfallen Cattleya. “Sorry. I didn’t know you were interested in that data, or I would have said something earlier. I’m impressed you made your own barometer. Maybe now’s a good time for a quick AR primer.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Sharp gave Cattleya a deeper introduction to the various stats windows and sensors that he had attached spatially to the portal in his virtua displays. Her thirst for understanding entertained him as he answered question after question. He was tempted to let her know how all this tech was made possible with his tiny contact lenses just to see the look on her face when his phone rang.

“Ask the AI bots for help if you have any questions,” he said as he configured permissions for her AR goggles. “I’ll send you a calibration app to train the bots to listen to your voice. I gotta take this.”

He left Cattleya to figure things out on her own and took the call.

“Hey, Novell.”

“Don’t ‘hey’ me! You didn’t take my call yesterday!”

“Yeah, we had our hands full. This portal is wild, but it’s dangerous.”

“Too dangerous to call me back?” Novell said half in jest.

“C’mon. Don’t bust my chops. I was up straight for over thirty hours fighting for my life. I haven’t even had time to fill out reports. You can read all about it then.”

Sharp walked back over to the portal and inspected the scissor lift and plates.

“We parked the scissor lift with some of the wormhole generator plates in front of the portal. Cattleya and I finally got some sleep after that. You got any good news for me? I’d love to get out of here.”

Sharp stood silently as his friend explained that people in the Observation Room would be freed soon, but he would not be. Sharp wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but he was growing numb to disappointment. Obviously, they’d have to build containment barricades to prevent infection and worse from escaping through the portal.

He could hear the sounds of hammers and the high whine of stublasers over the intercom. The villagers were buzzing with excitement while looking towards the sealed door for their salvation. However, for Sharp, each hammer strike seemed like a nail driven into the coffin of his freedom. No private projects. No two-week notice. He was a monkey at the zoo—those listless souls that sit around their cages with no enthusiasm for life.

“Sharp? Sharp?!”

“Yeah, what?”

“I know you’re disappointed, but I’ve been working all night to get us this far. One step at a time. First we cordoned off the entire complex. Then we restored power. Next we barricaded the building and revoked access for the elevator to VIPs and top level security only. We cut off internet access, too. All to keep a lid on this.”

Sharp was momentarily tempted to sneer at his friend and let him know that he had reconnected the lab to the internet already, but decided to hold off. Then he sent a command to his car to drive itself into the parking garage. With so much activity around the building, he didn’t want his car to be noticed. There would be plenty of room on a Sunday, so he instructed it to find a corner somewhere in the bottom level of the garage and to hide behind larger vehicles if possible.

“Then we began building quarantine facilities around the WMD lab and commandeered the other lab on your floor for research, medical, and even a kitchen. It’s been a lot of work. I’m doing all that I can to get you out. Hang in there! And don’t ignore my calls, got it?”

Sharp terminated the call and walked over to Cattleya. She was still interacting with the bots. There stood a bona fide Minotauress, horns and all, decked out in AR goggles, chatting with bots as if they were real. If he was in a better frame of mind, he’d have thought she was cute.

She smiled at him as he walked over to her, then noticed his countenance. “What’s wrong?” she said, suddenly concerned.

“I was just hoping to get out of here. I wasn’t worried about solving the WMD problems on site, especially since I suspected somebody had tried to kill me. I just wanted out. I thought you’d be let out, too. Then we could work on getting you home safely. But it seems we’ve been given an extended stay at Hotel Hell.”

Sharp explained the situation to her as staff in hazmat suits came into the Observation Room. The relieved cheers of the villagers felt like blades stabbing his eardrums. At that moment, the room shuddered and groaned with the arrival of a new vista. Cattleya’s pretty mouth turned downward in a pout while Sharp gave a long sigh as they both looked toward the covered portal and resigned themselves for whatever came next.