Souls of the Never Read online

  Jason shook his head. “The storm is exactly what we’d be riding if this reaction got away from us, Jules. You know that. Beginning shutdown sequence.”

  Jason typed a code into the master console, and watched the displays as the super magnets moved the particle beams out of collision configuration.

  He snorted in frustration. “In the words of the great man himself, ‘Better to have lived to fight another day, than have your atoms smashed to, well… atoms.’ Anyway, I need an early night. I have a flight to catch at 5am.”

  “You know, for a scientist with so many credentials, your devotion to your family is just, well... weird,” teased Julia.

  “You’re just biased due to your own terrible record in that department,” retorted her boss. “I mean, why do you keep doing it? It’s what, three divorces now?”

  “Two. I wasn’t married to Mark,” Julia snapped indignantly. “Oh, and there was the fact he was an asshole.”

  “Hmmm, yes, I’d forgotten that. I’m not sure how, though, seeing as you continue to bring it up,” said Jason, teasing her. “Maybe there’s more there than you’re willing to admit?”

  “Bite me.” Jules snickered, sticking her tongue out briefly.

  Jason smiled. Jules had been with him for the last seven years, ever since she’d debunked a theory of his during a lecture at MIT, while on a consulting tour of the USA. Jason was of the opinion that, if a grad student her age had the sheer balls to argue the validity of two of his published papers, in front of a crowd of his peers and her seniors, he was fully entitled to get his own back.

  The form of his revenge, however, had blown the brash youngster away. He offered her a post on his team. A very junior one, at least until she’d finished her education. He’d offered to pick up the tab, of course, and the rest, as they say, is history.

  “You know, maybe you were right all along.” Jules became thoughtful. An idea was rolling around in her head, just barely formed, but gathering momentum.

  Jason saw her expression go vacant as she grappled with whatever was hatching in her mind.

  He smiled. “Far be it for me to argue with you, but what are you accusing me of being right about? You make it your hobby to prove me wrong at every turn.”

  “Oh stop it! That was seven years ago. Can we drop it already?” Jules laughed, but she stopped the rest of her reply as the thought popped into clarity.

  “In fact, let’s not stop it,” she said, “because that’s what I meant. What if you were right and I was wrong all along?”

  “About?” Jason was confused, but he was used to his junior going off on a tangent like this. Some of her best ideas had come this way.

  “Well, you have to admit, your basic universe theory—that there are multiple universes out there, each one created by different choices—well, that’s pretty much out there.” She smiled as she spun a finger in a circle around her temple.

  Jason chuckled at the blatant insult.

  “But what if you were right about the rest, Jason? Specifically, the barriers.” Jules was on a roll. “I mean, all along we’ve assumed the quantum level of matter is identical, and behaves according to the same laws of the universe, wherever it is. The theory agrees. In fact, everyone agrees with this.”

  Jason’s raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I’m not sure where you’re going with this, but you seem to be trying to rubbish my first two theoretical papers, while at the same time you contradict my third. This third paper which, incidentally, was written after you pointed out the errors in my first two.”

  He worked over what he had just said, and came to the conclusion there was logic in there... somewhere.

  “It’s the barriers Jason!” enthused Jules. “I mean, all along we’ve been working on the assumption the barriers between dimensions, realities, worked to our set of rules, and our physical laws. We’ve been chasing a white rabbit down a rabbit hole for years, but the one thing we’ve always been looking for is the rabbit hole.”

  His brows furrowed. “So what you’re saying is, even though there is proof the barriers between alternate realities do exist, there may be other ways to travel between them than breaking through them?”

  Jason sat back, put his hand inside his lab coat pocket, and pulled out a pipe. Not that he’d ever think about lighting it in here, however, but it was one of the tools he used to focus his concentration.

  Julia got up from her chair and started pacing back and forth across the small cramped laboratory, keeping herself distracted from the outside world while the idea fully formed.

  Jason was just one step behind, and as they looked at each other, a spark of thought jumped between them as they simultaneously realized the possibility. That they may have just solved a conundrum which had stymied the scientific community, ever since the theory behind the Einstein-Rosen Bridge had been proven to be sound.

  “So our white rabbit could be using a foxhole, or a badger’s hole,” said Jules.

  “In fact, anything except a rabbit hole,” Jason concurred, finishing her thought. “Okay, that’s certainly going to prove hard to sell to our colleagues. Unless, of course, we can generate a shred of proof.”

  “Well, Dr,” said Jules, “I think I feel like hunting some rabbits this evening, how about you?”

  If they were right, and it was a huge if, Jason thought, then they were on the brink of a discovery which could revolutionise the future of the human race. For decades, man had dreamt about reaching other worlds, walking on alien soil, but the distances involved were immense. With the spaceship technology available to mankind today, it would take hundreds of years to travel to even the nearest sun, and keeping any sort of crew alive for this length of time was currently impossible.

  Of course, there were the various experiments ongoing in fields such as cryogenic suspension, where the body was frozen to temperatures far below zero, so it could be preserved much longer than a normal lifespan. These ideas, however, were in their infancy, and there was no certainty they would ever be proven workable.

  So imagine if a method could be found to link two points, separated by hundreds, perhaps thousands of light years, allowing a person to step in at one side of the portal and be transported instantly to the other. Faster than light theory had been proven, indeed the experiment currently being carried out here had successfully harvested millions of exotic matter particles, which exhibited all the characteristics of superluminal existence. If it could be proven this void between worlds existed, and the evidence gathered by his team during the current round of procedures definitely pointed to it, the next step would be finding a way to navigate within it.

  Then there was the only slightly gigantic task of finding a point to link to and creating the link. Simple, he thought ironically.

  Jason put the pipe in his mouth and clasped it tightly, the stale tobacco taste allowing him to relax as he turned to his friend, smiling broadly.

  “Ah, screw it; I can sleep on the plane.”

  Switzerland—Alice Through the Looking Glass—The Recent Past

  Jason had thought tomorrow would be the greatest achievement of his life. The culmination of his life’s work in the lab, brought to fruition in the experiment planned for the following morning. But as he lay here in bed with his wife slumbering in his arms, he knew he’d just surpassed it. Well, technically it had been a two-person job, but this little detail didn’t prevent him from feeling the elation and pride within, as he looked down at his beautiful and pregnant wife.

  As she stirred, he remembered with regret the time lost with Katheryne, his daughter, and he made a vow then and there to make more time for this new life growing beside him. In fact as his wife woke up he made his first tentative step along this path.

  As for Katheryne, well, she might just be surprised when her parents kept a promise for a change. The flight home to Belfast was booked for just after the experiment. Home, he mused. In the last ten years he’d spent more time in this lab than the house he owned.

  “Hi,
you two,” he murmured, as he kissed her gently on the forehead.

  Alice McNair laughed. “Don’t tempt fate, it might be twins, or triplets,” she said, mischievously. The completely unconcerned look on his face must have shocked her as she sat up abruptly. “That wouldn’t bother you at all, would it?” she asked.

  “Nope,” he chuckled, smiling widely, “in fact, I’ve made a decision. After tomorrow’s experiment I’m going to retire, well, semi-retire at least,” he added on as a look of disbelief appeared on his wife’s face.

  “How can you say that Jason, I mean, what you do, it’s important, it’s—” but Jason interrupted her.

  “What I do is almost finished. Once my theory is proven tomorrow, I can let Jules and the others continue the day to day work, while I get to sit back on my laurels for a while,” he said, smiling.

  Alice grinned back at him. “Hmm, I don’t think there will be much time for sitting on any laurels, seven and a half months from now.”

  Jason chuckled and pulled her closer, putting his hand on her stomach. Their schedules lately had made her news all the more remarkable. They’d seen each other only twice in the last two months, so that meant...

  “Paris,” he said. “We made this little one the weekend in Paris, didn’t we?”

  Alice put her hand on top of his and smiled. “Well, let’s face it, we had enough practice at the time, remember?”

  Jason grinned at the memory and leaned in to kiss his wife.

  “Why don’t you come with me in the morning?” he said, “I mean, it probably won’t be anything much to look at, but it’d mean a lot for me to have you there to see my final triumph!”

  Jason sat up straight, and raised one pointed finger in the air, in what he obviously thought was an impersonation of pure brilliance. Alice, however, took one look and hung her head in her hands, giggling furiously.

  She looked up once she had recovered to see him smiling at her. “OK, my nutty professor, I’d love to come. I haven’t seen Jules in ages anyway.”

  She smiled wickedly at him as she pulled him to her.

  “But for now, let’s see what sort of final triumphs we can get up to, just the two of us.”

  Belfast—Graduation Ceremony—The next day

  “Are you going to eat that?” Perri laughed, as she expertly snagged the last bit of bacon from her friend’s almost empty plate, stuffing it into her mouth as she grinned broadly.

  “I hate you,” Katheryne said, chuckling, even though it was the crispy bit she loved so much.

  Perri’s auburn curls shook as she laughed triumphantly. “Hate you more.” She smiled as she finished their customary exchange, between chews of the bacon.

  They sat outside a little cafe on the Dublin road, down the street from the hotel where Perri’s parents stayed last night. The spring sunshine shone through the leaves, and cherry blossom fluttered like hundreds of butterflies as the gentle breeze disturbed it.

  Katheryne smiled at her friend and wondered, not for the first time, how they’d ever ended up this close. They were like sisters and best friends rolled into one, but were complete opposites in looks and personality. They were living proof of the age-old proverb that opposites attract.

  Katheryne bowed her head as a group of guys walked by, staring at her. She recognised a boy walking along with them, and tried desperately to become invisible. His name was Liam, and they’d chatted a few times. He was doing a Masters in software design, and they shared a few classes. Unfortunately, he seemed to like her, and she squirmed in her chair as he waved. She imagined the smile fading from his face as she turned her back on him.

  Why don’t they leave me alone? She thought. She wasn’t ready for anything like that; and what was so special about her anyway? Thankfully, by the time she turned back, Liam was lost in the stream of humanity. And fortunately, Perri was too caught up with demolishing the remains of her Ulster fry to notice Katheryne’s flush.

  Katheryne smiled as her friend wolfed down the last bit of potato bread, dripping with HP sauce. There was a time, not so long ago, that the sight of food might have made her sick. Events in her recent past had put her on a downward spiral into self loathing. It had been a long and tiresome struggle, but Katheryne had a comfortable relationship with food again. So much so, she really missed that last piece of bacon.

  Perri sat back and belched, loudly. “Now, that hit the spot. My stomach needed something to soak last night’s alcohol up.”

  Katheryne chuckled. Perri was just Perri. She was loud and strong willed, but with a smile and sense of humour that she used to diffuse the delicate situations she sometimes found herself in. If she were honest with herself, she would admit she caused a fair percentage of those situations.

  Perri’s auburn curls framed a pale face with a pair of dark brown eyes, a button nose and a full mouth, which was usually moving. She was no beauty, but striking, and her personality forced people to look beyond the exterior.

  She used her brashness and confidence, along with her looks, to become quite a presence among students and staff alike, and it was unlikely there was anyone on campus who was unaware of her. Any enemies she made didn’t stay around for long. They either left her alone, after realising that winning against her was impossible, or more often, became her close friends.

  Perri also had a soft streak a mile wide, which she kept well hidden behind the brazenness and sheer volume, but of which Katheryne was fully aware. She was lucky to be counted as her friend. The pair had been inseparable for years, since meeting at Victoria College boarding school.

  Katheryne’s parents were scientists. Jason and Alice McNair were famous, but their work involved frequent travel, which was why Katheryne, during her secondary education, only saw her parents at school holidays. Even then, it was unusual to have them both at home at the same time.

  Perri’s mother was a former student at Victoria, and firmly believed this school had shaped her young adult life, and set her on course for a successful future. She wanted the same for Perri, but the road hadn’t been as straight or uneventful in her daughter’s case.

  Today was special. The crowd of passers-by, mostly students and their families, were there for the Queens University graduation. There were dark gowns everywhere, identical to the ones worn by the two girls.

  “Where are your mom and dad?” asked Katheryne, fidgeting as she glanced up the street. “It’s almost time to go.”

  “Oh, knowing them, they’re taking heed of the advice I gave them last night.” Perri smirked.

  “What advice?” Katheryne smiled, because she already knew the answer.

  “To get a room!” Giggles defeated any fleeting attempt to compose herself, and both girls descended into uncontrollable laughter.

  “Good morning, girls,” said Perri’s mother, picking this moment to walk up to their table, hand in hand with her husband. The girls looked at each other, tears streaming down their cheeks, and promptly lost any semblance of self-control. They chuckled helplessly.

  “You know, I wonder sometimes what sort of monster we’ve created,” pondered Perri’s father, Chris, as he looked on smiling.

  Amanda, Perri’s mother, also smiled. “I blame the company she keeps. I mean, she’s always been such a quiet, impressionable child. Well, until the last few years, at least.”

  She looked fondly on the two girls, as they gradually regained their senses. Amanda loved her daughter dearly, but held no illusions about the impact of Katheryne’s appearance in her life. Amanda suppressed a shudder, remembering her fears of how Perri might have turned out, had she grown up among the group of friends which stole her away from her parents for over a year.

  Katheryne had seen the real Perri inside. The moment they met, she sensed a kindred spirit. She knew Perri was secretly desperate to escape the group, which had drawn her into their world of bullying and abuse. The thought of these so called friends turning their spite onto her, terrified Perri. It was Katheryne who suffered more than a year of ta
unts and attacks, to reach out and give Perri the strength to fight back.

  And in customary Perri style, the fight was spectacular, resulting in two broken noses, (neither of them hers), several black eyes, and a healthy collection of bumps, scrapes and bruises.

  Since then, Katheryne had been like a sister to Perri. She’d become a permanent fixture in their lives, an adopted family member who, in Amanda’s eyes, was as close as her own blood.

  Amanda felt guilty sometimes, because Chris and she were playing the part of both parents. Katheryne’s parents were almost never around, always too busy with work, and Amanda thought, almost bitterly, about them now. This was their daughter’s one and only graduation, and they’d been too busy to come. She swallowed her anger and smiled at her surrogate daughter.

  “So, Katheryne, what time do your parents get in? It’s a pity they couldn’t make the ceremony.”

  Katheryne returned the smile. There was no bitterness hidden behind it, Amanda knew. Katheryne loved her parents, and had accepted their absences a long time ago.

  “They’re getting in around 7pm. They’ll meet us at Benedict’s for dinner,” she said. “I talked to them last night, and they were so sorry they couldn’t make it, but dad was really excited about something. He was like a little boy on Christmas morning.”

  Amanda raised her brows. “Oh? What’s he doing now?”

  Katheryne smirked. “No idea. You know my dad; ever the secretive one.”

  Amanda chuckled. “Well it’ll be nice to see them again. We haven’t caught up in...well, it must be over a year.”

  Perri butted in. “Which means we can leave you lot talking, while we go and have some fun.” She grinned widely.

  They all laughed, and Amanda released Chris, reaching with her hands to both of them.

  “Come on you two. We took longer to, um, get ready,” she said, blushing underneath her makeup, “but we’d better be off. God knows, I’m sure this place will be glad to get rid of the pair of you, if even half the rumours I’ve heard are true.”