Chapter 18
Bewildered and heart pounding, Addison stepped back into the Imaging Chamber. Had Ziggy really just ordered her in here? Since when did Ziggy just talk casually like a person?
Of course, that was perhaps the least confusing part of all of this. She really had just seen her mother and grandfather working side-by-side like it was the most normal thing in the world, hadn’t she?
The door closed itself behind her and she stood on the catwalk, unable to predict what was coming next.
“Captain Augustine,” said the voice, “It seems I’ve just recorded a major shift to history, and I suspect the catalyst leads back to you.”
Addison trembled. “Are you… really Ziggy?”
“I am,” the voice confirmed. “Doctor Beckett installed my ego into the mainframe of this complex, unlike the version of me from prior to the change. Given your marked surprise at this, I have to assume your memories have not been updated. That’s quite unusual. I will be flagging this as a critical anomaly in my log files.”
Addison felt weak at the knees, and she dropped to the floor, grasping for something to hold onto. She took a firm grip of the edge of the Imaging platform.
What kind of a catastrophic event could have occurred to cause something like this?
“So everything out there… it’s different now…”
“Yes, Captain—though technically it’s you that is different. As far as everyone else is concerned, you have just inexplicably become confused by what has always been your life.”
But, Addison thought, that meant anything could be radically different to what she remembered. Never mind that Sam and her mother were here—what else could be changed? She was a stranger in her own life.
Addison felt her chest and throat tighten. “No…”
“I don’t understand your consternation,” Ziggy said coolly. “Is that not what we do here all the time—change history for the better?”
“I… I don’t…” she began, but her breathing had become too laboured to continue. She tried to rein in her panic, but it wasn’t helping.
“You seem to be experiencing some difficulty breathing,” Ziggy observed. “I am sending in the nearest medic.”
A moment later, the door slid open, and Sam Beckett came into the Imaging Chamber, looking worried.
“Hey, what’s going—” Laying eyes on Addison, he let out a gasp. “Addie?” He hurried to her, dropping to his knees as he put an arm around her shoulders. “Hey… it’s okay, I’m here. Can you describe your symptoms?”
But Addison couldn’t speak. And having Sam’s arm around her made it real. He was really here, in the flesh. Her mind couldn’t reconcile this.
“Just breathe for me, okay? Can you do that? In… out…”
Addison followed his directions, taking gasping breaths at first, but the acute sensations finally began to release, making her able to take in air more easily.
“I think you just had a panic attack,” Sam observed. “Is it about Ben? Or is all of this too stressful? Listen, if you need time off, I’m sure we’d manage okay.”
“You don’t understand,” she croaked, grasping at his shirt. “I’m… I’m not from… here.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Everything’s wrong. You were never here before.” Addison looked up into his gentle, but puzzled, eyes. “I don’t know why Ziggy has a voice, or why you’re not lost in time, or why my Mom is working here. None of this is… my life. It all changed, and I—I didn’t, and I don’t understand why.”
Something in her words made Sam’s mouth drop open, and he let out a slow, “Ohhh… oh boy…” He gently turned her chin up towards him. “I think I might know what happened.”
“You do?”
He bit his lip. “Well, probably. I’ll have to look at Ziggy’s data, but… when I met him, he looked just like you do now.”
“Who?”
“The version of me that leaped into you.”
Addison glared at him. “Leapt… into me?”
Wait, thought Addison, is that why I had no idea what was going on? Sam had just leapt out of me? But then, how is he standing here now?
Sam gave her a weak smile, before letting it drop. “I was truly hoping something like this wouldn’t happen when we reached the point of convergence. It’s been twenty years for me, Addison.”
“Twenty years since what?” She didn’t understand a word of what he was saying.
He stood, holding out a hand to her. She grasped it, and he helped her to her feet.
“Since Ben changed everything.”
* * *
Ben was not home. And, to his extreme dismay, he was not with Sam either.
Instead, he was sitting in what appeared to be a high school cafeteria, a half-eaten tray of food set in front of him. Across from him sat a girl of probably sixteen or seventeen, chewing on a candy bar.
“Well? You gonna take the job?” she asked in a half-interested tone.
“Uh, job…? Oh, uh, I haven’t decided.” Ben sighed as he was forced to, yet again, play detective in a new leap, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. “What do you think… about the… job…?”
The girl, who had bouncy chestnut hair and freckles, pondered the question as she took another bite of her chocolate.
“Well,” she said, her mouth still full, “A hundred bucks is a hundred bucks, you know? Cold hard cash. I’ve seen what you can do—you won’t get caught, will ya? You’re too smart for that.”
Ben idly prodded an unappetising piece of meatloaf on his tray. Caught? Whatever this ‘job’ was sounded illegal. And he was… how old, exactly?
“Uh, I dunno,” he said, shrugging. “Might not be worth the… you know. Risk.”
“Oh my gawd!” the girl cried. “You’re bonkers! I wish I could afford to just turn down a hundred smackeroos on a whim like that!”
“Well then, why don’t you do it?” Ben asked, bringing the fork to his nose and sniffing the meat before venturing a taste.
“Ugh,” he said, spitting it out. Not good.
The girl looked at him, incredulous. “Are you serious? Me? I couldn’t hack my way out of a paper bag. You’re the expert. Everyone knows it, even Mister Lopez.”
Hacking, he thought. Well, I guess I might be able to do something like that if I absolutely had to. It’s more a Jenn thing, though—or even Janis. Maybe when Addison gets here I can request one of them to help out. Then again, if I can avoid it, that would be a lot better.
But, he realised, Sam had been Addison the last he’d heard. Was he still there, in Addison, or had he left when…
Anxiety snaked its way around his chest as he wondered what it was he’d done by bringing a younger Sam along with him. Just what had happened to him, anyway? He had been certain they were leaping together; he’d felt it.
He stood up, eyes darting around for bathroom signage. He finally spotted some at the far side of the cafeteria. “I’m just gonna go… you know.”
“What, again?” The girl smirked. “Okay, don’t let me stop you.” She checked her watch. “Meet you at the side gate when you finish in there. Brad’s gonna be picking us up, right?”
“Brad? Uh… sure, I guess…”
Were he and this girl about to go play hooky with some guy?
Speaking of which, he wondered what gender his host was supposed to be. The baggy jeans, sneakers, backpack, and black t-shirt weren’t giving much away. If he picked the wrong restroom, he thought, there might be questions.
On his way to the bathroom, he looked carefully around himself for a reflective surface. He finally found what he was looking for at the cafeteria counter, where glass sneeze-guards protected bain-maries. He stepped up to one, catching a vague glimpse of black eyeliner and burgundy lipstick in the ghostly reflection.
Okay, chances are I’m a girl, he decided, before making a beeline for the girls room, trying to suppress the very uncomfortable feeling of entering a bathroom for teenage girls.
He stepped to the mirrors to get a better look at his appearance and stumbled back when he recognised the face.
Is that… am I…?
Looking back at him with young, but somehow jaded, eyes, appeared to be a teenage Janis Calavicci.
“Addison, where are you?” he whispered as he gazed upon Janis’s pale white face and dyed black hair with streaks of bright blue. He’d certainly never seen Janis like this before.
He opened her backpack to see if he could find any clues to the date. Inside one pocket, he found a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
Oh, Janis, he thought, disapproving. Well, he supposed, her Dad wasn’t exactly setting the best example on that front, was he?
The thought of Al made Ben realise that he must still be alive, and he suddenly felt very lucky to have leapt here. He would go along with things for the moment, and hopefully Addison would show up soon to tell him why he was here.
Assuming what he’d done hadn’t screwed things up too bad.