Episode 12: Once Upon a Time in Section 57

Episode 12: Once Upon A Time In Section 57

Clarke and Jack came by Taffy's room minutes after she left. Penny, who had been excited and awake hours before was now crashed out on Taffy's couch. They were both curious as to how Taffy had made it through the night after being exposed to the nanos for the second time in two days.

"Where is she?" Jack asked. He had almost passed up on this visit since he had meetings all day, but he couldn't force himself to avoid her.

"She's not here," Clarke said. "And that's not possible. She should be worn out and zapped of energy."

"Maybe she's different," Jack suggested "Or maybe she's being questioned by the Section 57 agent. Helen said one was sent o her location last night.

"Section 57? Why are they getting involved in this?"

"Who knows." Jack shook Penny's shoulder. "Wake up, kid."

"I didn't do it, I swear," she mumbled.

"Didn't do what?" Clarke asked.

"Huh?" Penny rubbed the sleep from her eyes then got a good look at who was talking to her. "Hey, guys."

"Where's Taffy?" Jack asked.

Penny shrugged. "Beats me. Try the Concourse. I don't think she's had a chance to check things out since she got here. I mean, she's been unconscious most of the time."

"Thanks, kid." Jack barely cracked a smile then turned and left the apartment.

Penny raised her eyebrows.

"Don't mind him. He's still working on his interpersonal skills." Clarke thanked Penny then let himself.

Penny poked her head out the door and shouted down the Concourse after the men. "Oh, and you might want to check out the strange Indian dude who broke into Taffy's apartment last night." When she noticed neither were listening she gave up and pouted. "Fine. Be that way." She slammed the door and returned to her nap.

***

Jared managed to drag Carter to a utility cart parked in a maintenance bay. He lugged him into the back and drove the hidden road to Section 57. He skidded to a halt in front of the S57 Infirmary and motioned for two orderlies to help him. They put Carter on a gurney and took him into an awaiting operating theatre.

"What do we have?" the masked doctor asked.''

"He's been astrally effected by foreign nanos. He went into Subject 337's fractured reality and helped her mend it. I need him to be scanned."

The group in the infirmary had certain protocols they had to go through for a foreign nanite containment. Jared sat in the waiting room for over an hour while everything was checked.

The head doctor came out of the operating theatre and conferred with Jared. He handed him a report and they went over it together.

"What's wrong with him?"

"His ATP levels are depleted. He's not used to such a bombardment of nanites. The one he connected with must be infused with them. e restored Mr. Wayne's ATP levels to normal. I'll leave a monitor with him in case he has a few stragglers hanging on."

"Thank you, doctor."

"That was quick thinking on your part. Most Watchers aren't familiar with nanite symptoms."

"Let's just say it's not the first time I've seen foreign nanos."

The orderlies loaded Carter back into the utility cart and Jared drove him back to his apartment on the Concourse. The front door key was above the door sill. Typical. Jared let himself in and propped the door open. When he returned to the cart Jack Osbourne had spotted him and set the steaming cup of coffee he had gotten off a Starbucks kiosk onto the front steps.

"Need a little assistance, buddy?" Jack asked.

"That would be wonderful." Jared said trying not to act too suspicious. The two of them carried Carter to his bed and Jack noticed how pale the man was.

"What happened to him?" Jack asked. "He have one too many at the Shangri-la?"

"He was infected by foreign nano technology. It effected some of his fluid levels but he should be fine tomorrow."

Jared thanked him for his assistance and nearly walked him out the door. Jack noticed how insistent the man was to be rid of him. The door slammed before he was a foot away from the apartment.

Jack pulled out his cell and dialed Clarke. "Carter's back and he's got a visitor."

Episode 11

Trouble With UFOs

Episode 11

As the artificial sun rose bringing the next day to a start in A51, I left Penny back in my room. She had been busy the night before, and I still wasn't sure what happened. Even the dream which had seemed so significant last night now faded. It was hard to grasp onto the content of what had happened. But I did know one thing... Penny was worried.

I window shopped on the Concourse and saw a comic book my brother, Ames, would love. The thought made me miss my family. I wondered what they were doing and how they'd handled my disappearance. 

I'd stopped in front of a stationary store and all the journals, pens and pencils worked their mojo and pulled me in. The lady at the counter was listening to music on her ipod and told me to feel free to look around.

"We can also etch words into the cover of any one you choose."

That would come in handy if I wanted a different journal for each of my stories. A red hard-bound journal drew my attention. There was something almost familiar about it. I found a British flag patch and the lady behind the counter even created a second one of the logo I had created for my main story. A second notebook grabbed my attention. It was a white journal with a multi-colored line drawing of Big Ben. There was something about British culture that lured me. I wasn't sure why. I just found it fascinating. 

The lady packaged my purchases and I continued on with my leisurely stroll along the Concourse. As I began to think of my stories and plot lines, I spied a flash of a man up ahead. He had strong European features and a scruffy five-o'clock shadow. He was exactly what I imagined my secret agent, Evan Stone, might look like. He walked casually and then suddenly veered off to the right.

I followed his path moving up a head and found myself in a park-like setting. How they had created such a setting inside a large warehouse was mind-boggling. The Evan look-a-like was no where to be seen.  I stopped at a park bench and lifted my face to the artificial sun. It felt so real.

Before I could sit down someone approached me from behind. I turned around suddenly and came face to face with Evan Stone. I couldn't move as my eyes took in his surprising appearance.

"Why are you following me?" His British accent was low and sexy. It rounded out my character perfectly. I'd never thought about that aspect too much.

"I'm not..." My voice stuttered and I stepped back a few paces.

"No one else in this place looked at me twice but you. You saw me."

"I'm not blind. And I have a hard time believing you didn't have every woman here checking you out."

"It's my job to be invisible," he said.

"I'm not sure how that's possible. You look like a handsome leading man dressed like a superstar," I said. "Everyone should notice you." I extended my hand. "I'm Taffy."

"Evan Stone," he said reaching his hand toward mine.

The impact of the name settled in my mind. Evan Stone? How was that possible? I pulled back my hand before he could grasp it. "No way!"

"What's wrong? Do you know me?" Evan stepped back assessing me for a split second and surveyed his options for a quick exit.

"Know you? I created you."

"Pardon me, but last time I checked my mum created me."

"I know. Born in Bristol, England and recruited by MI6 when you were seventeen."

He moved closer to me. "Please stop. I don't want to have to kill you."

"I write stories," I explained. "You're one of my secret agent characters." I pulled out the notebook I was currently filling with stories. "See for yourself."

He paged through the volume. "Have you been following me? No one could know all this. Not even my handlers at MI6."

"Following you? No..."

Evan looked off behind me and a concern expression crossed his face. I turned to see who was causing him so much distress. But the Concourse was empty.

"Of course, I'm not following you, I continued, turning back around. "LIke I said, I'm a fiction writer." What I was saying left my head as I realized Evan Stone was gone. I looked off into the park and saw people playing, having picnics. The other direction was a long hallway that was cast in shadows. He wasn't there either. He was definitely gone.

I'd wish I'd had a camera because no one was going to believe I saw my own character in the flesh.

Episode 10 - In Control

Episode 10 - In Control

I could hear the voice calling out to me. It was a voice louder than the whispers. It took a second to realize that the voice was coming from someone she barely knew. "Carter?"

He appeared to manifest in front of me instantly. "Wow," I said. "Impressive."

"That was all you," Carter said. "You called out to me. This is your dream, after all."

"Dream? I'm dreaming?"

"You are," he said.

Unbeknownst to either of us a figure sat at the bistro sipping coffee It was Jared and he was observing us.

"If I'm dreaming, why is it so weird and disjointed?"

"Penny found something in your blood that  caused you to go into seizures. They also could be damaging your dream state."

"No one messes with my dreams," I said, "feeling the aggression build. When it came to a boiling point I flung my hands out. The red notebook I'd lost along the way came flying back to me. When I caught it, the world around me changed from sepia-toned to technicolor.  And I didn't notice it at the time but Jared was no longer sitting at the bistro table.

"You should probably wake up because Penny is out there and you don't know how worried she can get. She really likes you."

"The feeling is mutual," I said.

Carter faded away and I glanced down at the red notebook. In gold letters across the front was labeled "My Story." As I thumbed through it I noticed only a few pages had been filled in.

Maybe this was a sign, a message to take back to my real life. I shrugged, held the notebook tight and willed myself to wake up. 

***

My eyes opened and I had no idea how long I'd been asleep. Penny was sitting in a chair next to the bed dozing. The dream I'd left behind was fading quickly. The more I came back into the real world, the farther the dream fell into the background. 

Carter waved at me from the hallway. He stepped into my room and put a hand on Penny's shoulder. She woke up instantly but held onto some grogginess. 

"What?! Is she awake?" Penny slurred. 

"Yep. She made it back to the real world in one piece." Carter smiled. "Take a look for yourself ."

Penny opened one eye and scanned the bed. Then both popped open wide. "You're awake! Yippie!"

She hugged me so tightly I had no doubt that at least one person inside A51 cared about me as more than a science project.

***

Carter left Penny to watch over Taffy. He closed the door to her room and leaned on it weakly. Being inside another's dream was exhausting enough but helping to pull back a fractured reality took more out of him than he wanted to admit. 

Jared Watson appeared behind him. He put an arm around his waist, holding him up. "You're a glutton for punishment, you know that?" Jared said.

Carter smiled weakly. "With you being here -- are things with Taffy worse than they seem?"

"You've remedied some of the problem," Jared. "Bringing both realities together in her mind brought a new compatibility."

Jared brought Carter to a wooden, elaborately carved bench and sat him down. Then he grabbed a water bottle from a kiosk a few feet away and handed it to him. 

"What do you mean by 'compatibility'? Are you talking about Clarke's nanos?"

"General McCabe had more than one reason for bringing Taffy to the facility. We believe some visitors have been implanted with an alien tech. She's been seeing strange symbols flashed across her vision sometimes when she wakes up."

"You mean little green men aliens?" Carter's voice was filled with suspicion. He had seen a lot during his time in Area 51.

"Not exactly. The visitors we've heard of throughout history, they're not aliens. They're us looking back into the past. We believe someone from the future planted technology into people they believed could not only translate it but transform it enough to change the future." Jared watched Carter gulp down the water as he took in the information. 

Carter laughed but it caused pain in his side. "Do you know how out there that sounds?"

"I know. I didn't accept this explanation lightly, Jared said. "I need to bring you back to Section 57 and debrief you. We've both been exposed to both the fractured tech and the tech in harmony. We have to be scanned for residual emissions."

"All right but I am going to need to rest. Helping her focus took a lot out ..." Carter couldn't get another word out. He pitched forward and passed out against Jared. 

"Sorry about that, Buddy." Jared picked up the half empty water bottle and threw it into the trash bin. "We both have to go to containment immediately."

Episode 9: Dream Weaver

Episode 9: Dream Weaver

The strange dream-like world where I found myself was hard to focus on. The walls of the room seemed to shimmer and at times disappeared completely. Whispers were everywhere, none prominent, all somewhere in the background. As I walked forward the scenery moved by quickly.

I was holding a red notebook. It felt important to me but I had no idea why. A man approached and tried to take the book from me. I held it close to my chest and scurried away. I didn't know why I was protective of a book I knew nothing about.

I didn't know where I was going, but I just kept moving. I made it outside and found a French looking bistro. People were sitting at tables. They flickered in and out like bad reception on an old television. They were there but they really weren't there. The only thing I knew for certain was that only I seemed to be completely in the world. 

A man approached from the distance who also seemed as solid as I was. I walked toward him, but I lost my balance stumbling forward a few steps. Somehow those few steps moved me miles away. I looked around. The man was nowhere to be seen, neither was the bistro. The landscape was now filled with dying fields of wheat. The color of everything washed out and appeared a strange glowing amber/tan shade.

"Where am I," I whispered, but the sound of my voice wasn't soft. It was like a sonic boom.

Held the hand over my mouth in horror. How had I done that?

My eyes watered as I pondered the only question that kept coming into my mind. Where was I?

***

Jared Watson had never seen such a fragmented reality before. His only explanation was that the two incompatible nanites had damaged her in some way. He had almost caught up to her but immediately lost her again.

He was connected to section 57 through an internal link. His controller spoke in his ear through a wireless device created by A51 techs. 

"Dude, I am I receiving this right? Everything seems strangely off-center. Ozzie Ladd was watching from back at section 57.

"I think the incompatibility between the nanites somehow damaged her dreaming mind." Jared checked the electronic device he held in his hand. He turned and moved toward where the blip indicated Taffy was located. 

"Her dream reality has been fragmented," Jared said.

Can you repair it?" Ozzie asked. "From where I'm sitting at doesn't look like an easy task."

"If I can find where the split began, I may be able to save her," Jared said.

"And if you can't."

"She maybe stuck in the dream state forever."

***

"What are you doing," Carter said to Penny

"Snooping would be the operative word. And FYI, Indian dude is not in there," Penny said.

"What?" Carter threw the door open. Taffy was lying on the bed paler than anyone should have a right to be. He felt for her pulse. "It's too low. Call Clarke. He needs to be here to help her."

Penny grabbed for the in-house phone on the bedside table. She tapped the connection. "It's dead." She came back to Taffy's side and gave Carter side glance. "You know something. Spill it. Who's the Indian guy?" Carter sighed. 

"He's a Watcher for section 57. They keep track of all of us. Jared only follows the lives of special people. Taffy must be one of them."

Penny noticed something on the side of Taffy's temple. It almost looked like a tracking device. "What's this?"

Carter touched it and felt the world around him slow down. The fake trees of the Concourse blinked in and out of existence.

"Focus, Taffy," he said barely speaking above a whisper. "Bring everything back into focus."

It had been years since he had traveled into someone's dreams. Carter never thought he'd do it again, especially while he was fully awake. 

"Taffy. Come and find me. Bring me to you," Carter said. 

Episode 8: A Penny Saved

Trouble With UFOs

by Toni Walker

EPISODE 8: A Penny Saved

Clarke Jenkins wasn't in a good frame of mind. He'd just discovered that the military was keeping things from him. That fact wasn't surprising, it was the MO of the place. But he needed to know when the advancements in technology started effecting the nanites he was injecting into his subjects. 

His feet pounded down the hallway toward the General's office. Jack Osborne was standing nearby as he passed him.

"You can't go in there," Jack said. "McCabe is not in a forgiving mood."

"He's keeping things from me."

"He's keeping things from everybody. Where have you been? This place works on the theory "the fewest people as possible need to know."

"Those foreign nanos in Taffy's blood. They have to be some kind of experimental thing. And experiments of that kind only happen here, in Area 51." Clarke eyed McCabe's door.

"Even if it's true. Which I'm not saying it is. McCabe is not going to admit to something like that. He's had bigger bullies than you try to pry information out of him." Jack glanced around and pulled Clarke to the side. "Let me do a little digging. See what I can find."

Clarke exhaled, a sure sign he was not ready to confront a 3 star General about something he had no proof on. "All right. But I'm not giving up on this theory."

"I'm not asking you to."

Jack and Clarke went their separate ways. Jack moved toward the military area which was guarded by sentries twenty-four hours a day, while Clarke moved toward the scientific sections walking past Jared Watson. Clarke didn't offer even a glance in his direction. Working conditions at Area 51 weren't friendly. There were many foreign-looking doctors milling around focused on their own projects. He was just one of many. 

Jared pulled an odd shaped device out of his pocket. It was basically a specialized tracker for the nanites Taffy had in her blood. The beacon beeped slowly indicating Taffy was probably asleep. The tracker gave him the most direct route to her room without running into guards. It would be a winding path but well worth it. 

Jared smiled at a young girl who seemed determined to get to Jenkins office but he paid her no mind. That off the cuff decision had been a big mistake because the perky Penny definitely noticed him. 

"Hello, Mister Stranger," Penny said to herself. She had a great memory and she knew she hadn't seen tall, dark and Indian at the facility before. As he walked toward the civilian Concourse, Penny followed silently after him.

"Where are you going?" she whispered to herself. She watched as he moved from the area the scientists gathered to the civilian section. The man seemed to know exactly where he was going. Either that or the device he was carrying was leading him somewhere.

Before she could move forward a hand covered her mouth and pulled her back into a dark corner. She didn't scream because the voice that whispered in her ear belonged to Carter Wayne.

"You had a tango coming up quickly behind you."

"So, you decided to play hero and save me?" Penny said with the frustration of a teenager. "For your information, I was following a man who doesn't belong here."

"Oh, yeah? Who?"

"Indian dude carrying a techno device. He went that a way."

A concerned expression covered Carter's face. "Stay here." He quickly moved in the direction the Indian man had gone.

"I don't think so," Penny said. "Nobody puts Penny in a corner."

***

Carter Wayne knew exactly who Penny had described. That could mean only one thing: they'd sent an operative from Section 57 into the facility.

He didn't have time to explain to Penny how he was familiar with such an outfit. He'd lose her respect for sure. He checked some of the popular civilian areas but eventually found Jared Watson hovering outside Taffy's apartment.

Penny wasn't deterred by Carter ditching her. She'd learned a long time ago to never give up. She came up behind him. He was crouched down trying to stay out of view. Penny came up beside him and mimicked his stance. "What's the plan, kemosabe?

Carter jerked in surprise.

"You shouldn't have followed me. This could be dangerous."

"Yeah, dangerous for Taffy. That man is making quick work of the door and Taffy is out for the count."

"What do you mean?"

"Jenks put a whammie on her. He put a single nano into a drop of her blood and she seized up. Crazy, huh?"

"Yeah, crazy." The wheels in Carter's mind were working at light speed. "That means she can't protect herself."

"Pretty much, which is why I was following the dude to begin with," Penny said with attitude. Then she became quickly animated. "He's getting inside."

Carter and Penny crossed the promenade. Their actions drew the attention of other people on the concourse. Penny always wondered if mixed in with the civilians were undercover military tattle tales. Today would be a good day for them to come out of the shadows.

"What exactly is the plan here?" Penny asked. "Do we go in guns blazing or do you take him off guard with a joke?"

"We don't have guns, but a loud distraction might work."

"What are you expecting here? We don't have explosives."

"We just need a loud noise, any loud noise." As he said that a light came into his eyes, a light of inspiration. "And I know exactly what we can do." Carter slipped into the crowd and disappeared into the Concourse.

"Yeah," Penny said slowly. "Just leave the teenager alone. I can handle it. No problem."

Penny peeked in the door expecting to see the Indian lurking inside. Funny thing was... he was no where to be seen.

"What the heck? No way!"