Lost Worlds by Douglas Neman

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Lost Worlds (3/3)
by Douglas Neman

"Mr. Blalock will see you now."
Sarah stood up and let the retinal imager scan her eye. The door clicked softly, and she entered.

"Why, Sarah," Blalock said. "What brings you here? I haven't ordered a debriefing -- there's no need."

She sat down. "I want to know why my assignment was terminated a mere 24 hours after its inception."

Blalock snorted, jerking his head back in surprise. "Well -- I wasn't under the impression that I owed you an explanation," he said. "The last I knew, it was not your place to reason why."

"No, it's not my place to reason why," she said. "But I'd still like to know."

Blalock leaned back in his chair. "Go home, Sarah. We'll call you if we need you."

Sarah started to protest, and as she did, she squeezed her purse ever so slightly in just the right place, activating a communications relay inside it. It bounced through the internet satellite and caused a gear channel to open up right to Blalock's office.

Almost immediately, his intercom buzzed. "James Schneider wishes to speak with you," his secretary said. "I don't know any James Schneider," Blalock said. "He must know you. He's contacting you direct." Blalock glanced at Sarah for a moment, who was dutifully examining a painting on the wall.

"Send it through," he ordered, putting on his headset for privacy. Sarah couldn't hear what the mysterious Mr. Schneider said, but she didn't need to -- it was a responsive cybernetic program, the most sophisiticated one on the market. And it would say what she'd programmed it to say.

"Mr. Blalock?" a thick German accent asked. "Do you remember me?" "No, and I don't like jokes. Who is this?" "Oh, I assure you, sir, this is no joke. We have met before. I've sat in your office before. How are the two potted ferns doing that you brought up from Earth? Have you managed to kill them off yet?"

Blalock whipped around to look at the bookshelf behind his desk. His two ferns were there, just as the caller had described.

"How did you know that? Who are you?" "I'm someone in trouble; someone who needs your help. You will have difficulty tracing this call, but so will the people who are almost certainly listening in. I have a desperate message for you. Right now, I'm in a shuttle. If look out your bay window, off to the far right, you will see the message."

Blalock stood up and went to the window. "Look, whoever you are, if this is an assassination attempt, it's a pretty poor one. The only things that can come through this window are so powerful that it wouldn't matter where I was standing anyway, so what exactly is your little game?"

"This is no assassination attempt. This is the only way I know of getting a message to you. Are you familiar with the old Morse Code?"

As Blalock was facing out the window, Sarah quietly slipped out of her chair. On her index finger was a synthskin overlay of Blalock's print -- something she'd lifted long ago, in preparation for any eventuality. The drawers of his desk could only be opened by his fingerprint, with the warmth of body heat behind it.

She placed her finger on the pad of the lower right drawer, then quickly took out the file on Eden Project. It took two seconds to thumb through everything which hadn't been there before and place it in her photographic memory. She replaced the file, closed the drawer, and darted back to her chair lightning-quick. She reached inside her purse and terminated the relay.

"Yes, I'm familiar with Morse Code. Why?" Blalock asked. "Because in just a few seconds, a high-intensity blue light will begin flashing. You will only have one chance to read it- No! No, they found me! How-"

Then the message broke off in deadly static. "Schneider? Schneider!" Blalock snapped. "Aaahhh," he snarled, tearing off the headset, looking out into space. "Now what the hell was that all about?"

He thoughtfully returned to his desk. Sarah was where he'd left her. "Finished?" she asked.
He looked up at her, clearly preoccupied. "Was there something more you wanted, Ms. Wallen?"

She started to speak, then appeared to hesitate and change her mind. She needed to continue the part of acting like a good little agent.

"No, sir. No, I just wanted to apologize for any temerity I showed a few minutes ago. I was just upset at being yanked off a mission, that's all."

"Apology accepted. Now get out."
"Yes, sir," she said, and slinked out of his office.

"I don't believe it!" Vasquez looked at the machinery which sat in his lab. "Where did you find it?"

"An old friend of my husband's," Sarah said. "I figured he would have something like this lying around."

Devon slowly walked around the cold sleep chamber that Sarah had somehow - *somehow* -- managed to scrounge up. "Does it work?" she asked.

"All systems on this baby are operational!" O'Neill said. "I got my best man -- guy named Danziger -- to check it out this morning. We can put Alex in it right away, and keep him alive until we reach New Pacifica."

She just shook her head, looking at Sarah in wonder. "You are something else, you know that?"

Sarah just smiled. "Some would say so."

Alex lay on the white slab, ready to be cyrogenically frozen. He was trembling, but trying not to show how scared he was. Devon, Dr. Vasquez, Julia, and Sarah were there. Sarah held his hand.

"That's right," Vasquez told him. "This lady here just saved your life. She loves you very much, you know. You're lucky you found her."

"We both are," Sarah said, and looked at Alex. "In a way, you've saved my life, too."

"After I was coughing, and everything, and I could tell I'd been operated on, I thought I was dying. I had that dream again. I dreamed you came back and told me you loved me."

"That wasn't a dream, sweetie," Sarah whispered. "That was real." She kissed him. "We're going to put you to sleep now, okay?"

"When I wake up on the other planet, will you be there?" "Absolutely," she said. "I'll be the first person you see when you wake up."

Dr. Vasquez made the injection. Alex's eyes closed, and the slab pulled into the chamber. The lid swung down.

Sarah rested her hand on the top of it, knowing she was only half finished with saving all their lives. And when she was finally done with that, then...then, it was only the beginning.

Devon laid a hand on her shoulder. "When you see him again, we'll be in a whole new world."

Sarah smiled. "That almost sounds like what a preacher would say at a funeral."

They all laughed.
"Are you ever afraid, Devon?" she asked. "Setting out for a new world means losing an old one. Are you afraid to lose the world you know?"

Devon wasn't sure if she really understood the question. She sensed Angela was asking for some reason she couldn't fathom.

"Yes. Yes, I get scared all the time. But I remember something George Bernard Shaw once said -- "Whenever you've found something, it always feels at first as if you've lost something."

Sarah thought about this.
"We are all going to leave behind the world we know and have become familiar with. We're going to lose this one, personally. But I'm not all that sure it's worth hanging on to."

She squeezed her shoulder. Sarah stood up, and they all left, O'Neill guiding the cold sleep chamber out the door.

In the darkness of cyberspace, two people appeared facing each other -- Dison Blalock and Dr. Julia Heller.

"Well?" Blalock asked. "Did she ever realize that you were really evaluating her, instead of the other way around?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Julia said. "You were correct to suspect her. Sarah Wallen did indeed show a weakness, and she became emotionally attached to the boy. In my opinion, she's no good to the Council as an agent. I'd say just let her go. She's not worth being sent anywhere. Just leave her be. She can't harm you."

"Is that you're official review of agent Sarah Wallen's performance?" "Yes, it is. It was pretty dismal. However, if it's any consolation, I think she'll make a good mother." She smiled.

"Was that meant to be funny, citizen?" Blalock asked. "No, sir," Julia answered.
Blalock sighed. "All right. We won't take any action against her. We'll just let her go her way. She's not a problem. Keep me informed." And with that, he disappeared.

Six weeks later, after hours of carefully poking around the internet satellite, Angela Williams finally found what she was looking for.

The file on Eden Project had confirmed her fears -- she had been pulled from her assignment because the Council had decided to eliminate Eden Project.

They were going to do it with a bomb upon departure. Evidently, they weren't even going to tell Julia. Sarah had kept up her role as a Council agent, but she had acted sick and depressed, so they wouldn't choose her for any more assignments, which, thankfully, they hadn't. This left her free to start her new life as Angela Williams.

Now, 8 hours before departure, she had found the fake newscast she knew would be made beforehand.

She locked it in and, with a deep breath, sent it up to the bridge of the advance ship, anonymously. There it would be received by Commander O'Neill. It would cause quite a commotion when they saw that, but if anyone knew what to do, he would.

She sighed with genuine relief for the first time in six weeks. Then she closed up her terminal, saying goodbye to the lost world behind her, and made her way forward to prep for cold sleep.

-The End-

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