Scene 1. Conspiracy.
As Lilly approaches, the double doors of the restaurant open for her as she enters. She nods her head and smiles to the handsome young doormen as thanks.
Wow. Gentlemen to greet me at the door. Good thing I dressed up a bit for this date-meeting.
Lilly then walks to the side waiting area. The establishment is one of the town’s few upscale restaurants, located on the far side of town, isolated, and away from The Accelerator, to hold their confidential discussion on what to do next. Danny emerges from the shadows of the waiting area.
“Why are you hiding, did you see someone from The Accelerator?”
“No, and I don’t want to either. Let’s get a private booth far in the back.”
At Danny’s request, the ‘maître d'’ walks the two patrons to a padded booth to the side and back of a large, vacant meeting room. They are escorted to a private booth surrounded by padded panels hanging from the ceiling to quiet sounds and block vision.
“Ha ha, this is a booth for ‘lovers’. We could have met somewhere else more private, such as my apartment.”
Danny gasps at Lilly’s intimate offer.
“Your apartment and my house may be watched. This is the only place I can think of that doesn’t have microphones planted, and there is a lot of background noise. I have had private meetings here before, and think this is best, especially now. The Accelerator management suspects I am up to something as there is evidence my lab has been searched recently, one of my assistants or contractors has likely ratted me out. That is why I need you, Lilly. You’re someone that I can trust, to help me with my research from now on.”
Danny lifts and examines the table flower vase centerpiece and feels around under the table, still concerned about hidden microphones.
“Sorry, I know I am being paranoid, but I meet with many people at this table, they know me here, so I may have aroused suspicions.”
Danny finally sits back at settles into the thick pads of the booth bench and relaxes, but is still breathing heavily.
Lilly stares intently at Danny, worrying that he will collapse and die in front of her, from the stress of his discovery and from her proximity as a physically imposing female.
“You should get out of your lab and get more exercise. I am willing to exercise with you and be your physical trainer, just to get away from my prudish, sexist supervisor.”
Danny looks up, across the table, at Lilly. She is a head taller, as he shyly smiles up into her imposing form. Lilly, realizing she is scaring him again, drops her stare, and looks down at the menu to change the subject.
“I have never been here before. What do you recommend?”
“This is a preferred restaurant of vegetarians. They feature faux meat plates of vegeburgers and veggie-loaf, as well as a full salad bar and good cooked vegetable dishes.”
A waiter makes his way to the back of the hall, smiles, and speaks in a heavy foreign accent.
“Good evening, my friends. May I take your drink order? We are featuring several premium wines this evening, they are listed on the card on the menu. My lady?”
The two order, but no wine this evening. The waiter turns his head back and forth regarding the odd couple, collects the menus and departs.
“I performed a few more tests before The Device prototype destroyed itself, collecting a lot of good data. The most important observation was that the operation of The Device did not extinguish all life in our quadrant of the galaxy, at least, not yet. When I discovered that my lab was being entered I dismantled what was left of the prototype, removed the smaller, surviving, components from my lab and hid them in a remote area of The Accelerator, but I need your help to move the larger components.”
Food is presented at the table by two waiters, with the short phrase.
“Bon appétit.”
The two eat in silence. Lilly is at a loss for words, with a sense of foreboding about what she may be asked to do next.
“My wife dropped me off here, so may I ask you to drive me back home? I would like to show you something on the way, if we are not followed, that is.”
“I came here by bus.”
“I had a rental truck dropped off outside. Can you drive a truck?”
“Lilly glares at Danny, surprised at his assertiveness.”
“Okay. You aren’t asking me to do anything illegal or dangerous, are you?”
“Nothing real illegal or really dangerous.”
“Why do I not find your statement very reassuring? Okay, I have followed you this far. My friend Liz says that my curiosity is going to kill me someday, maybe today is the day.”
Neither are in the mood for dessert, so Danny sets a stack of bills on the table. They exit the restaurant with a short thank you from the host.
“Merci beaucoup.”
Scene 2. Pickup.
The two walk close together to a side street where a medium-sized delivery van is parked. Danny reaches under the right front wheel well, retrieves keys, which he passes to Lilly. She unlocks the cab doors and the two mount the front seat. Lilly does not leave much room for Danny on the bench seat, but Danny cautiously moves against her. She senses Danny shivering, although it is a warm night. Suddenly, Danny is back to being the plushy toy ‘Danny’ that Lilly adored. She reaches over his shoulders and draws him into full contact with her.
“You’re cold, just relax, and warm up next to me. You now have me as your bodyguard!”
After their brief intimate moment, Lilly releases Danny and turns the ignition key. The truck loudly roars to life, frightening them both, unused to the large, powerful vehicle.
“I am not so sure that I can handle this monster. I guess we’ll see how it goes. Okay, where to, Mac?”
“Our first stop is The Accelerator, we’ll drive along the back road along the county park where we will pick up a few things.”
“Danny, you haven’t been stealing things, have you?”
“No, I am temporarily ‘borrowing’ a few things. I plan to return everything afterward, if we don’t destroy the galaxy before that.”
…
The service road along the perimeter fence behind The Accelerator is very dark at night. During the day, across the road is the county park known for its ball courts. Lilly plays tennis there occasionally, so she is familiar with the area.
“Pull up to those buildings by the fence, on the right.”
Lilly pulls the truck up near the first building and Danny nods. She turns off the ignition key, they exit the truck, and walk to the first building. Danny pulls a flashlight from his jacket pocket and shines it on one door of the building that faces the road.
“Oh my, a security hazard.”
“Just so.”
Danny produces a key, unlocks the door and walks inside, Lilly follows as he has the only light. In the center of the small room is a pile of disassembled apparatus, likely the remains of The Device prototype from Danny’s laboratory.
“I can load the smaller items, but it will take both of us to load the larger ones.”
“Pshaw! Danny, you just stay back out of my way, and I’ll load everything for you, as that’s my job. I don’t want you to get whacked now, I’m saving that for you later. You just look out for site security or the cops. No one is going to buy your ‘I’m just borrowing it.’ story.”
Lilly finds the physical exertion loading the heavy equipment relaxing, after the intense dinner and drive over, entirely ignoring the possibility of her arrest for theft. Danny locks the building, the two mount the truck, Lilly starts the engine, and they continue their drive down the dark park road.
“Where to now?”
“My storage space. I don’t think anyone knows about it. We will store the stuff there until we need it.”
Danny guides Lilly to the commercial district of the town to rows of low buildings and up to the front gate. Once again, Danny has the key to admit their truck into the commercial storage shed grounds. His unit is, of course, at the far back of the grounds, facing the wash to avoid view. Danny unlocks one of the units and raises the door. Piles of equipment are already inside, but Lilly finds room for the new shipment.
“It looks like you have been busy with your collection.”
“I think we now have everything that we need.”
Lilly again has a sense of foreboding, gazing at Danny’s oddly shaped apparatus components.
“For what?”
“I’ll show you the plans once we are done here.”
The two enter the truck again and continue their drive.
“Will you please drive me home and return the truck? I’ll give you the address.”
Lilly, the stalker, already knows where Danny lives, drives up and stops, in front of his large ranch house.
Lilly grins as she faces Danny, winks, and bats her eyelashes and giggles at Danny’s recoil.
“Oh, you have a very nice house! Apparently, being an award-winning physicist has great perks!”
“Naw. My bosses are just vulnerable to blackmail. Open the fence and park the truck in the front yard of the agency, put the keys on the top of the right front tire. A cab will be waiting for you there, to take you back to your apartment. Be careful, it isn’t a very nice neighborhood.”
“Oh goody, hoods to bash! I could use the workout!”
“They might have guns.”
Lilly laughs her loud braying laughter.
“I hope they don’t have trouble swallowing them.
By the way, doesn’t your wife wonder what you are up to, maybe hanging out with strange women?”
Danny frowns as he shakes his head.
“No, she doesn’t question anything I do, as long as I bring home the ‘daily bread’ for the family. She doesn’t think I have the courage to have ‘an affair’ with anyone.”
“Family? Do you have kids?”
“Yes, two kids, a girl three and a boy five, both adopted. I don’t think I can produce kids of my own.”
Lilly already knows about Danny’s family, and doesn’t press him further.
“Well, as dates go, tonight has been one of my most interesting. I’ll see you tomorrow at your lab, we will clean it fresh for setting up the new project.”
“For our cover story.”
Scene 3. Cover.
Lilly, wearing a long white lab coat, appears outside the door of Danny’s laboratory at The Accelerator with a trolley with several large peaces of apparatus on it. She knocks on the door and waits.
I am here at the time we agreed on. I hope Danny hasn’t been arrested.
The door opens a crack and an eyeball appears, magnified large in his glasses.
“Lilly, what is all that junk? Are you bringing it all here to me in my lab?”
“Yes, I brought you a couple of spare particle beam focusing magnets for The Accelerator. Let me in and I’ll tell you my plan.”
Danny guides Lilly inside the door, carefully closes it, and locks it behind her.
“Here’s my plan. You are this famous young superconductor genius, and The Accelerator is still using old-fashioned electromagnets for its particle beam focus coils. Why don't you invent some superconducting focus coils? Or least pretend that you are. Knowing you, you probably will.”
Danny, smiling, stares up at Lilly, not surprised at her good idea. He knows she is a bright underachiever. She is looked down upon by the scientists, along with the rest of the technical staff because she does not have an advanced college degree.
So many here could contribute so much more, given the chance.
“Okay, Lilly, let’s get started.”
“Let’s clean this place up first. Danny! What a mess you have made since I was here last! Did your ‘quantum soup’ boil over?”
Lilly examines the ceiling of the room over what once was the table that held the quantum mirror. A small circle of the ceiling tiles are burned completely through, with the surrounding tiles charred as if by a rocket exhaust. She unfastens her long lab coat, twirls it into folds to store at the door, revealing herself to Danny, who covers his face as he quickly backs away from her, almost falling over a junk pile.
“Oh come on, Danny, I have dressed like this for you in this lab before, although this is what I wore when I got into trouble with my supervisor.”
“I am sorry, Lilly. You look fine, but perhaps you should wear some of your new clothes that cover more of you and offer more protection. I fear that something of yours might get ‘nipped off’ in the equipment when we start soldering and welding.”
Lilly strides to the back of the lab, opens a storage locker and removes a mop and bucket.
“Ha ha, okay, I get it, but I’m not going back home to change. I will be scrubbing the lab benches and the floor down on all fours. I refuse to do all this heavy cleaning in a lab coat. So, you might want to hide where you don’t have to watch me. But after today, I will be more ‘protected’.”
…
The two work all day cleaning the lab and setting up the new equipment for the superconducting focusing magnet research facade.
“Wow, The junk piled like this makes it look like we are doing real research.”
“I have a few more items from the scrap pile I can add.”
“I have a better idea, I would like you to fabricate some items for me. Let’s see if we can get something here to actually work. And also, Lilly, since all of this is your idea, please compose a grant proposal for it.”
Lilly nods her approval, with a smile.
“I knew you would think of something. Sure, I’ll write a proposal for you, but this will require your help too. When did you want to discuss the…”
Danny shakes his head, covers his mouth, in a gesture to silence Lilly, and passes her a paper. Lilly examines it, a page from an appointment book with a date, time, and address. Lilly cannot contain herself.
“Oh goody! Another date with a renowned physicist!”
Scene 4. Plan.
After a week of cleaning and scrubbing Danny’s lab at The Accelerator, it is at last the weekend. Lilly takes the bus to the stop near the local coffee shop. Danny is waiting out in front, having been dropped off by his wife, walking to and fro in front, anxious to discuss the plan for their clandestine research experiments.
“How are you getting home?”
“My wife is returning in an hour and a half to take us home. You’ll get to meet her. I hope that you all get along, as I really depend on you both.”
“Is this place private enough?”
“It's pretty noisy, so I don’t think we will be overheard. We work together, so us meeting here should not appear unusual.”
“On the weekend?”
A waitress appears and the two order sandwiches and cold drinks, without consulting the menu.
Danny slides a large envelope over to Lilly.
“Take a look at these diagrams and see if you can think of some place, private and out of view, where we can assemble something like this. The Device in operation should be quiet and low power, about the same size, power, and sound as a small industrial walk-in refrigerator. In addition, it will require a place close by for vessels to store liquid nitrogen, tanks of compressed helium, and truck access for refills.”
Lilly opens the envelope and pulls out a sheaf of letter-size writing pad sketches. She carefully examines each page, she is familiar with the style of Danny’s rough sketches and diagrams.
“This thing is pretty big. I presume you mean to build it somewhere that the public, The Accelerator spies, and other snoops are not likely to find it, or follow us to it as we come and go.
Perhaps we can rent an industrial office suite, or an unused out-building on a large company’s site? We will only be using it on the weekends or late at night when everyone else should be gone, and forbidden access by the night janitors and watchmen. Have you thought about how we will pay the lease?”
“No problem with the rent, as I can squeeze it out of a grant if it is not too much. The Accelerator has many off-site facilities and storage buildings, as they would rather not build anything more at the site to preserve the aesthetics. I don’t know what name to use to sign the lease to not be traced back to you or me.”
“That I can do. My parents have established ‘The Foundation’, a non-profit corporation they use to collect donations and purchase equipment for their expeditions. They gave me signature authority, so I could conduct business for them when they were unavailable, out of the country. Now that I think of it, my parents and their associates have leased industrial facilities through The Foundation that they use to prepare specimens that are too big, too dirty, or otherwise not suitable for processing at The Museum or The College. I’ll see if I can find the locations and the keys for The Foundation facilities locally.
I can blackmail my parents for permission by offering to return to school.”
Danny looks up and out the front window of the café.
“My wife is here, let’s go.”
Danny opens the back door of the sedan for Lilly, she slides in as Danny enters the front passenger seat. Danny’s wife turns her head and looks over the seat as Lilly enters the back seat.
“Lilly, please meet my wife Pat. She is my chauffeur, and she keeps me alive. Pat, please meet Lilly, my assistant. She keeps me alive when I am at work.”
“Hi! I’m Lilly.”
Danny’s wife is tight-lipped as she turns her head forward without a word. She shifts into drive, pulls away from the café curb into the road traffic. Danny directs his wife to Lilly’s apartment.
The only words spoken during the drive.
Scene 5. Location.
Lilly cables her parents to seek their permission to use space in one of the foundation’s specimen storage and preparation buildings. She states in her message that she has decided to apply for readmission to The College and resume work on her physical science degree. She needs more room for her graduation thesis project than The College can provide. So, she was hoping that she could temporarily borrow an unused space in one of The Foundation’s facilities for her ‘large apparatus’. Her parents are overjoyed to hear that their underachiever daughter is seeking readmission to The College. They immediately cable her back, unquestionably agreeing to provide whatever resources she needs to finish school.
Lilly telephones Danny with the good news.
“Hi Danny, I didn't intend to disturb you at home, but I have good news. My folks have agreed to provide a space of my choosing for my research at any of The Foundation’s sites. Let’s take a tour and if we find a suitable one, I’ll move everything in tomorrow.”
Lilly maps out several facilities leased by The Foundation out of town and isolated. Lilly rents a truck and picks up Danny. They drive to each location to see which is most suitable for setting up the ‘new research’ facility. One in particular seems to be the most suitable, with truck access, plenty of room, and it shares the site with an abandoned tire factory. The chosen facility is a drive-in warehouse, so truck traffic won’t appear unusual and materials can be delivered and unloaded out of sight. The main hall is a spacious concrete pad with offices along the sides. The Foundation’s staff have converted several offices to laboratories for specimen processing. They have piped compressed air and water into the labs and have built a sturdy locker outside the main building for the air compressor and welding gas cylinders, with plenty of room left for the liquid nitrogen and compressed helium storage tanks.
Lilly brought cleaning supplies and tools, so they begin cleaning out an unused room on the end of the main building, away from everything else, in case someone comes to use one of the other labs. The chosen room is ideal as it is large with no windows and a sturdy steel door. As Lilly is moving materials stored in the room to another room, she notices that Danny is unscrewing the lock on the door of their selected lab room.
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“Danny, what are you doing to the door lock?”
“I am taking the door lock to a locksmith to get it re-keyed, and we’ll also add a combination padlock to the door. Then we’ll be the only ones with keys, and access, to this room. Let’s do it now, and move everything over here tonight.”
Danny and Lilly drive to the town’s one locksmith for a ‘while-you-wait’ re-key. They purchase a hasp and combination padlock for additional security on the lab’s one access door.
They spend the rest of the evening moving materials from Danny’s storage space to their new research station.
Scene 6. Refrigerator.
Danny stands in the center of their newly claimed laboratory space, regarding the odd shapes of the components and apparatus for the proposed device, as Lilly works to sort the small parts on the floor of the main hall, then she looks up at the largest components, piled by delivery truck crane against the far wall.
Danny looks up and scans the high vaulted ceiling of the main hall.
“I have an idea. Let’s construct another room here in the main hall with top access, such as a walk-in refrigerator. We can purchase prefabricated walls with removable roof panels, then assemble The Device inside. The Refrigerator will keep The Device cold and out of sight. The Refrigerator is a good cover story, we can claim that we are providing secure cold storage for The Museum’s specimens. We’ll need a big one that we can lock. Keeping The Device cold should help with its stability, while the walls will add additional security, should anyone ever get a look inside this room.”
Lilly looks up from her part-sorting task, watching Danny gesture as he speaks.
“We have a larger problem and may have to construct your walk-in refrigerator out on the main floor, anyway. Some components are too large to fit through the lab room door unless you want to cut them into small pieces. Out on the main floor, with the vaulted ceiling, we can easily move everything into place with a crane. We’ll configure The Refrigerator like a box with an easily removable lid, then lift the lid, install components, then place the lid back on and lock it down.I saw a crane at one of The Foundation’s sites. I’ll call The Foundation and let them know we are using it here, so they won’t report it stolen. As for The Refrigerator, make sure that the walk-in you buy will be big enough.”
…
Lilly has The Foundation deliver the crane. Danny has the pieces of the refrigerator delivered, along with storage tanks for the liquid nitrogen and the compressed helium gas. Lilly is adept with the crane, so she quickly assembles the base and the side walls of the refrigerator, with its pieces fitting together like a puzzle. She leaves the roof off, to lower in the large components of The Device and the heaviest component, the heat pump. Lilly runs the power lines to the breaker panel and installs ducts and radiator cooling fans to the outside of the building. At last, it is ready to test.
“Okay, Danny, I am closing the circuit breaker, so watch out.”
A mechanical groan is heard from the heat pump, then quiet.
“I don’t hear anything. Is it working?”
“Yes, it is working.”
Instantly, the cooling fins are frosted over, ice-cold inside The Refrigerator.
Scene 7. Device.
Lilly lowers components of The Device with the crane, piece by piece, through the open-top of The Refrigerator.
The chassis housing for The Device is lowered into The Refrigerator and assembled. The Device is a black box resembling a smaller version of The Refrigerator that houses it. Then Lilly lowers in what she calls The Great Arch, eight-foot stanchions, bolted to a baseplate four feet apart at each side of the box, for the sturdy frame of The Mirror. Lilly lowers the cap piece connecting to the top of each stanchion, completing The Mirror frame, facing the doorway of The Refrigerator. Lilly installs bars projecting from the top of the inner doorway, and drapes a dark brown cloth fabric shield over the doorway and down the sides. Danny has Lilly affix two cones to the top bars, the spray nozzles for the helium gas. The cones curve downward like long fangs along each side of The Mouth. After affixing more gadgets, she begins assembling the components inside the back of the inner box. It has taken all day and is now quite dark outside the building. Even the main floor is dark, with only a few working overhead lights. Lilly is exhausted, even Danny is panting from the assembly of the device. Lilly picks up her tools, walks out, and turns to stand at the doorway of the now roofed refrigerator. Looking inside, The Device resembles the large snake head with an open mouth and fangs, as in her dream.
There really is no way to escape this… If I run away, I will never know…
Danny’s wife picks them up at their prearranged meeting spot, out of view from the road. They drive in silence back home.
Lilly, back at her apartment, undresses, showers, and prepares for bed. Danny claimed that The Device prototype destroyed itself shortly after he demonstrated it for her. He says that the super-conductive quantum mirror film sometimes spontaneously, and explosively, evaporates, also just touching the mirror’s surface or even getting anything near it can hasten its demise. Presently, only Lilly and Danny know about Danny’s device, agreeing that more testing should be done before revealing it.
Lilly lays down in bed and quickly falls asleep from exhaustion. Her sleeping is fitful as she recalls her dream, what she saw in Danny’s laboratory, and by Danny’s words.
…
Over the following days, the final assembly is completed, helium and liquid nitrogen delivered, and, at last, everything is ready to begin a full operational test of The Device.
Lilly is at the circuit breaker panel and Danny, in a heavy coat, is standing to one side of The Device housed inside The Refrigerator that now resembles a bunker. Danny had Lilly place heavy bags of sand all around the outside and over the top of The Refrigerator. Danny shouts.
“Okay, Lilly! Throw the switch!”
“Switch is on.”
Danny cautiously turns one insulated valve, then another mounted on the side of The Device. A soft hissing sound can be heard. Danny waits for a few minutes, then closes a large knife switch. The device shudders. Danny can no longer contain his excitement, bouncing up and down on his toes.
“Lilly, come over here and witness The Device in operation.”
Lilly hops over to The Refrigerator to see large plumes of white condensed water vapor roiling out of the open door and into the main hall. She peers into the open door to see Danny bouncing in the dark mist next to The Device in operation.
“I don’t think you can see ‘it’ until you turn off all the lights.”
Lilly returns to the circuit breaker panel and turns off the overhead lights for the main hall. As her eyes adjust to the darkness, she sees colored images projecting out of The Refrigerator doorway as she walks back to it.
“I think I can see it working even from out here.”
Lilly peers into The Refrigerator.
“Wow, Danny, you have turned The Refrigerator into The Freezer.”
Danny is invisible in the darkness except for the reflections from the lenses of his glasses. He speaks, a ghostly voice from the darkness inside.
“The colder, the better.”
Lilly shivers as she approaches. Her eyes widen in horror as she is abruptly confronting the drama of the previous demonstration of The Mirror, now with additional horrors. The Mirror is a shimmering vertical doorway mounted on the side of The Device, directly facing Lilly, presenting Lilly with a dark, distorted reflection image of her full figure.
Lilly screams into the image of her nightmare cave. Danny turns on the overhead light inside the refrigerator, then opens the knife switch, the faux mirror image ripples, spiraling down into a bottomless black crevasse and disappears, revealing the shiny metal back panel support structure of The Device, behind The Mirror.
“This will be enough for today. Everything seems to be working, but I need to look over the charts before we do anything more. We need to plan and gather materials for experiments. This is enough for today, it’s time to go home now, anyway.”
Lilly is still holding her breath after several minutes and is about to pass out from her terror. She gasps for the cold air and steps back, still unable to speak.
Danny sees Lilly wavering and walks quickly over to prevent her from collapsing onto the hard concrete floor.
“Here’s a chair, Lilly. Please sit down before you pass out. I am not strong enough to hold you up and prevent you from falling.”
Lilly sits and resumes breathing, gasping, shivering, embracing herself from the cold of The Refrigerator.
I thought I was ready for this, and boy was I wrong. I have consistently underestimated Danny’s ability to frighten me.
Liz is right. I’m doomed…
Scene 8. Pet.
After several days off to move and construct The Device at The Foundation’s compound, Danny and Lilly are back at work on the superconducting version of the focus magnet in Danny’s weird lab at The Accelerator. They are careful to talk in low voices, and in code, to avoid any planted listening devices.
“Did they give you any trouble when you requested reinstatement at The College, Lilly?”
“Surprisingly, I had no trouble getting back in, The Dean signed my reinstatement request without any words. The same with my advisor on signing my request for credit on a ‘special project’. My only trouble was with Liz. She wants me to take the GE classes she needs to graduate with her and help her. I do owe it to her, and I need those classes too, so I agreed to take one GE class. My favorite physics' professor coerced me into enrolling in one of his classes before he would sign. So, I will have to leave you for school for a few hours, maybe days. They all emphasized that I had to attend the classes in person to get credit.”
Danny looks up from the magnet, with his evil smile.
“Good! When I am on stage for my grand physics award, I don’t want my coauthor to sit there like a ‘dumb-dumb’. Be ready, as the press will likely aim most of the questions at you because you are a cute and photogenic female.”
Me? Cute? Even if Danny is the only one that thinks so, it is enough.
“Maybe after I take a few courses at The College, you can give me a brush-up review, before we have to put on a public performance.”
“Are you available after work tonight? I want to purchase a pet and would like your help with it, if you are willing.”
This must be Danny’s code for working on The Device.
“Sure, if you’ll buy me dinner.”
…
Danny’s wife picks them up at The Accelerator, they drive in silence to the town’s one pet shop.
Somehow, I have to break the ice with Danny’s wife. Despite Danny’s denials, she sees me as a threat and her silence is screaming at me.
The pet shop is a cacophony of animal sounds, barking, bird screeches, and the like, packed solid with cages, animal care products and toys. Lilly, the giantess, carefully and comically threads her way through the narrow aisles, to avoid snagging on one of the precariously piled products. The proprietress suppresses a giggle.
“What can I help you with today, a pet perhaps?”
“Actually, yes. I would like a vertebrate animal that is inexpensive, undemanding, and easy to care for.”
“A fish perhaps?”
Danny bends down to peer into a rat cage. One rat sees him looking in and walks over to the grill, looking up. Lilly cannot suppress her laughter as she watches as the two rat-faces regard each other.
“No, I need something more advanced than that, something terrestrial, such as a mammal or a bird.”
Danny stands up, discounting the rat, as Lilly chuckles.
Of course, you would rather not own one of your kind.
The proprietress walks out and points to another row.
“Perhaps a bird?”
Danny decides on a green parakeet. And the two walk out of the shop, Lilly carrying the food and supplies while Danny is holding the new dome birdcage by the handle on top, looking into the cage as he walks.
“Danny, you are going to trip and fall.”
“You’ll catch me if I fall, as always. Besides, this thing is fascinating to watch. I have never had a pet of my own before, my parent’s didn’t trust me as they thought I would use it in my experiments.”
The two walk out to Danny’s wife waiting in the car. Lilly decides to try at least loosen the ice.
“Pat, why didn’t you come in to the store with us?”
Lilly does not drop her stare with Pat’s long silence.
You are going to answer me. I am settling this impasse right now. I will meet your stare all day if I have to. If you want your husband to get another assistant, you will have to say it to me.
Pat drops her stare and responds to Lilly, but avoids answering Lilly’s direct question.
“I must apologize to you, Lilly, as I have been quite rude. Please get in. We’ll talk more at The Facility.”
The two enter the car as usual, Danny in the front passenger seat and Lilly in the back. Pat pulls the car away from the curb. Pat pulls the car into the large empty parking lot of The Facility compound behind large storage containers to block any view from the road and shuts off the engine. She turns to face them both and continues her apology.
“Lilly, I know that your help has been essential to my husband. I worry that he will be crushed trying to move some heavy piece of equipment, and I can see that you are strong and athletic. You are the first assistant he has ever had that has lasted more than a week. What’s worse, all he talks about is you.”
Pat frowns as she tears up, covering her face. Danny reaches over from the passenger seat.
“Oh no, this is all my fault, and I am so sorry! I’ll get a male laboratory assistant tomorrow. I am so sorry, but you know I am so oblivious in relationships, even with my wife of many years.”
“No, don’t either of you apologize. This is my failing, for my jealousy, and hoping I could keep quiet and endure it. I covet your relationship with Lilly. She is your assistant, a witness to your genius, and your greatness, that I can never be. Maybe you are lovers as, Lilly, you are very attractive, but I doubt it. Danny, you are in love with your science and unlikely to take any flesh and blood lover, not even me. So, Lilly, don’t get your hopes up.”
Pat’s last statement breaks the somber mood, and they all laugh together at the absurdity. Danny and Lilly reach toward each other over the car seat, slap their digits and rock back away from each other. Pat watches their comic gestures to each other, now not so sure about the possibility of an affair.
Danny opens the car door and exits, still carrying the birdcage.
“You are keeping the bird here?”
Danny nods, so Lilly carries the bird accessories.
“Perhaps you will care for the bird once we are done with it here, if it survives.”
Lilly walks to Pats side window.
“Let’s do a private lunch and share some Danny stories.”
Danny frowns and hastens Lilly to hurry.
“Let’s get going, Lilly. We have a lot to do and not much time tonight.”
The two trudge toward their building as Pat drives away.
“I do like your wife, and I think we’ll get along better now. I am sorry to put you through it, but I am glad that you were a witness and know about it all.”
“I think her confession will help us too.”
Scene 9. Swallowed.
The two enter the main hall of The Facility, Lilly reaches for the light switch and flips it on, the few functioning light bulbs weakly illuminate the hall from the ceiling. Lilly looks over at the birdcage, suddenly concerned.
“What are you going to name your new pet?”
Danny turns his head with his evil grin, glasses glinting in the dim light.
“Living test subject #1.”
“I guess I should have known. I presume we are operating the device again tonight.”
Lilly calms down and begins preparing The Devise for operation, checking The Refrigerator’s temperature chart record. She also checks the ‘intrusion monitors’ she has set up to see if the hall was entered while they were away. The hall checks out, so she begins sequentially starting each component, checking it for nominal operation before starting the next down the line. At last The Device itself can be started, they assume their positions, Lilly at the breaker box and Danny in The Refrigerator. Lilly shouts from the distant side of the building.
“Okay, Danny, I am throwing the breaker switch! Now!”
Danny’s muffled voice confirms that The Device has started. Lilly watches the breakers for anomalies during the startup. Everything starts in sequence, each step takes several minutes before quantum operations of The Mirror can occur. The worst of the electrical danger is over, so Lilly walks over to The Refrigerator to peer in the door again, with trepidation, relieved to see that it is still dark. Lilly notes that Danny has set the birdcage on a chair outside The Refrigerator door, but within reach.
“Okay, Lilly, we are good to start The Device. Hide your eyes.”
Lilly does not hide her eyes as she watches Danny close the large and dramatic knife-switch on the side of The Device. Boiling, creaking, and groaning is heard from inside The Device as the super-cold liquid nitrogen cools its internals even more. The Mirror begins to take form as a flickering, shimmering liquid, somehow held vertical. Distorted images begin to form through the flickers, the faux reflection of the refrigerator doorway with Lilly standing. The image continues into sharper focus and Lilly is once again viewing her alien twin from the cave nightmare, standing calm as a silhouette in The Refrigerator doorway against the dim light of the main hall.
“Lilly, turn on The Refrigerator interior light. Please don’t look in The Mirror this time and panic, as I might destroy this quarter of the galaxy, so be ready.”
Danny picks up a stick and cautiously holds it as he reaches around to the front of The Mirror. Lilly sees the reflection of an alien arm as Danny reaches over the surface of The Mirror and touches the stick onto the mirror as ripples pass over its surface. Danny slowly passes the stick further into The Mirror. Lilly watches as the stick’s reflection breaks into two images, such as an image refraction in water. Danny removes the stick and examines it.
“Wow, the galaxy is still here and the stick looks the same after its immersion into another Universe. We’ll do a microanalysis on it later. Yay, we have successfully completed test one on The Mirror, now hand me the birdcage.”
Lilly turns and steps outside The Refrigerator. She picks up the birdcage, holding it up, so her eyes are level with the bird’s, as it calmly sets on its swing perch.
“Sorry, my sweet tweeting friend. We are feeding you to a monster.”
Lilly enters The Refrigerator, carefully keeping to the side wall to avoid seeing her faux reflection in The Mirror. She passes the cage to Danny. Danny looks into the cage.
“Lilly, close The Refrigerator door.”
Lilly jokes, “Won’t the light go out?”
Danny pauses, then reaches down and turns on his flashlight.
“It might. Also check that we can still open the door from inside.”
Lilly carefully closes The Refrigerator door, checking that the latch handle will open the door from inside. Danny opens the birdcage, shaking the cage as the bird is reluctant to fly out, sensing danger. Suddenly, the bird jets out of its cage door, directly into its reflection in The Mirror. The Mirror ripples as the bird merges into its faux mirror reflection, instantly darting back out of The Mirror and crashing against the back screen of its cage. Danny shuts the cage and starts shutting down The Mirror, and the faux reflection image slowly evaporates.
“It’s cold in here, that’s enough for today. I am glad I put a soft plastic toy at the back of the cage or the bird would have broken its neck.”
Lilly missed clearly witnessing the experiment as it all happened so fast, only seeing a flurry of feathers on both sides of The Mirror. She looks down at the birdcage as Danny is walking around The Device to shut it down for the night. Lilly picks up the birdcage, opens The Refrigerator door and walks outside where it is warmer.
“Something is wrong with this bird, other than we are freezing both ourselves and it to death.”
“What is wrong with the bird? Is it dead?”
The bird is initially stunned, but shakes its head, stands, shivering, and begins to walk around on the floor of its cage.
“I will take it home and care for it from now on. This bird has risked enough and has earned a home with me. But note that this bird is not only a different color, but it is a different species. Your bird from the pet store was a green parakeet, but this bird is a blue barn swallow.”
“An ambassador from another Universe.”
Scene 10. Maw.
“Hi Liz, I am sorry to call you so late, but I can’t sleep and I need your help. I need you to drive me to the location where I have been working on my special project for The College. I know, I haven’t told you very much about it, and I have been ignoring you. Furthermore, I need your help to operate it, tonight, if possible. It shouldn’t take very long to perform the test I have planned.”
…
Liz drives up in her car as Lilly is waiting on the street in front of her apartment.
“Thank you for interrupting your sleep and picking me up. Please take me over to the old abandoned tire factory on the east side of town, I’m using one of the old buildings that The Foundation has leased.”
Lilly directs Liz to the building, Liz is concerned and curious.
“Are you going to tell me what is going on?”
“Better. I am going to show you.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“I am not certain, as there are parts of The Device that are prone to explosions, stay clear of those.”
Lilly unlocks, opens the delivery gate to admit Liz’s car, and locks the gate behind. Liz drives up the private road and parks next to the building. Lilly switches on the flashlight that Danny purchased for her to navigate the dark and dangerous facility. The two women walk to the side door, Lilly unlocks it, and they enter into the dark of the large main hall. Lilly moves to the side wall and switches on the vaulted ceiling’s dim lights. Liz closely examines The Refrigerator piled with sandbags, the only items on the floor of the main hall.
“Don’t tell me, this is your project? ”
“Not The Refrigerator, but The Device inside.”
Lilly walks up and unlocks the door of The Refrigerator and switches on the interior light. Liz peers in as the condensed water vapor roils out into the main hall.
“That’s your project? It looks evil. Have you invented the household trash disintegration machine?”
“That’s what we are going to find out, and I am going to get to the bottom of my nightmares. The breaker panel is over here. I need you to close these breakers in order of their numbers when I shout to you. I’ll be tending the startup of The Device inside The Refrigerator. Let’s get started.”
Lilly shows Liz the electrical circuit breaker panel on the wall of the main hall. The breakers are numbered for the start sequence. Lilly enters The Refrigerator and shouts to Liz to begin closing the breaker switches as Lilly opens the valves for the liquid nitrogen and the helium gas, feeling the interior of The Refrigerator become even colder with the sounds of boiling and hissing gasses. The sequence is complete, except for The Knife-Switch.
“Okay, Liz, come on over and witness the magic.”
Liz walks to the door of The Refrigerator to see Lilly inside, standing next to The Device, holding the handle of The Knife Switch.
“Yes, Liz, stand right there, watch the metal frame next to me, under the fangs, and tell me what you see.”
Lilly closes The Knife Switch and The Device growls as it gradually comes to life. Sparkling lights shower on Liz in the doorway, then she is covered in patterns of colors. The colors focus and Liz is illuminated with steady light as from the interior light of The Refrigerator. The faux reflection of The Mirror has formed, Liz is staring into it, fascinated. Dual voices speak.
“What am I seeing? What am I hearing.”
Liz reaches up and covers her mouth as she watches the image in The Mirror make the same gestures.
“Oh, Lilly, that is so cool. How did you do it? I want to use it for my art projects.”
The strange echoes make spoken words difficult to understand, but Lilly is determined.
“Liz, I need you to stand outside The Refrigerator Door and be prepared to run away if you hear The Device making strange noises. I am performing my experiment now.”
Liz steps back outside The Refrigerator door, suddenly alarmed by Lilly’s warning. Lilly steps up to face the mirror and closely regards her distorted reflection, this time without fear, cheerfully greeting her distorted image.
“Hello, my other me. I would like to meet you. I have many questions to ask.”
Liz watches in terror as Lilly steps into The Mirror and into the open mouth of the monster snake of her nightmares.
“Lilly, no, no! Don’t do it!”
Scene 11. Copy.
Lilly steps in to and out of the maw of The Mirror simultaneously, with the images of Lilly passing through each other. As Liz watches in horror, as what steps out of The Mirror only vaguely resembles the ‘Lilly’ that stepped in. Liz screams.
“Lilly!”
But Liz’s scream blends with another Liz screaming from within The Mirror in an odd resonance. The faux Lilly stands staring at the screaming Liz.
“Liz, stop screaming, I am right here. And what happened to you, you look unfamiliar now.”
The Device is protesting with whistles and pops. The new Lilly runs up, dragging Liz out of The Refrigerator.
“Liz, run! Head for the door.”
The two barely clear the doorway of the main hall when The Device violently explodes like a bomb with a brilliant flash. They crouch, holding each other in fear, protected behind the metal enclosure for the gas storage tanks. The quiet of the night resumes as they chuckle into the disaster. Lilly struggles to take command of the situation as they slowly raise their eyes to regard one another.
“That aught to wake up the town. Liz, go turn off the circuit breakers, and I’ll turn off the gas valves here. Then we’ll check the extent of the damage and put out any fires. Here, take my flashlight, and don’t trip over any debris. The explosion will likely summon the authorities, so let’s get out of here after we secure things as much as possible.”
The two set out to complete their tasks securing the facility without comment. A smoking pile of debris is all that remains of The Device, The Refrigerator walls are lying flat on the floor of the main building, scattered about with small fragments of The Device embedded. There is no fire, just the condensation of the cold gas from the severed pipes. The high window and several of the building’s metal panels have been blown out. The two women meet at Liz’s car and quickly get inside.
“I’ll call the fire department when I get home and claim that it was a natural gas explosion and all is well now.”
“What is ‘natural gas’?”
“Let’s get you back home for now, and sort this all out.”
“Wow, the town has really changed tonight.”
“Nothing here has changed tonight except for you, Lilly. I think I’ll call you, The Mirror’s Lilly, Lilly-2, or ‘two’ for short.”
Lilly’s apartment key does not fit the lock to the front door, but she obtains a spare key from a jar of keys in the garage, they enter Lilly’s apartment, and she switches on the light.
“What is this furniture? What happened to my sculptures, my art, someone has ruined everything! But you have Danny’s bird, the original one that disappeared in one of his experiments and was replaced by a strange green bird. What is it doing here?”
“Calm down 2, please sit down somewhere, your other self liked this furniture. I am sure your original stuff is fine, somewhere. Don’t throw your key away, I am sure it works on your apartment door, out there, somewhere.”
“You must have been doing the same things on your side of The Mirror as we were on this side. You stepped into it, didn’t you. That must have exchanged you for the ‘Lilly’ on this side. This must be, as I saw my false reflection of the Liz on your side of The Mirror, she had features similar to yours and not much like mine.”
“Danny! It’s Danny’s device, not mine, so we need to call Danny and ask him what to do!”
“Unless he has another device, there is not much he can do until he can build another. You did not explain what The Device does, but what happened seems rather obvious. You might as well make yourself comfortable, relax, and enjoy your tour of our side of The Mirror and hope that my Lilly isn’t screwing everything up for you on your side for your return. Assuming that a return exchange is even possible.”
“Why don’t you try to get some sleep here tonight, 2? I will pick you up tomorrow, we will go out and buy you clothes to hide in. Fortunately, you are about the same large size and shape as my Lilly, so you likely can wear her clothes, but we will buy you hats and gloves to completely cover the startling bare pink or your exterior hide. Danny will understand what happened to you, so he will likely have you resume your lab assistance at The Accelerator, out of sight.”
Liz gazes at the digits of Lilly-2’s fore appendage, reaching out to touch them.
“What are these? Your digits? They look like pink sausages.”
Lilly-2 sees that Liz’s digits are very different from hers, so she flexes her strange alien digits as a full demonstration of their operation for Liz.
“This is my hand and these are my fingers, very different from yours, my new Liz.”
“But you, my new Liz, look quite nice in your tight black angora sweater, I really like your black fluffy feathered bracelets on your ‘wrists’.”
“Thank you for the complements, but my black angora ‘sweater’ and my black ‘feathers’ are built in on this side.
I am not a good seamstress, but I will have to make you special gloves, Lilly-2.”
“No gloves of this world will fit those ‘hands and fingers’ of yours.”