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Pat and John are up early this morning.
The floor really isn't doing either of them any favors comfort-wise. Meanwhile, Sally's still completely zonked out under her blankets, looking perfectly content. John's messing around with the coffee pot, and you can practically see the wheels turning in his head—he's thinking about how, with all this incredible technology they've encountered from different realms and dimensions, you'd think they could at least manage to have some basic electricity here. Instead, here he is having to build a fire just to get some coffee going.
"You know what? Tomorrow I'm getting my own room," Pat starts to grumble. "Actually, scratch that. You and I should keep this room and just boot her out. Let her little prima donna self get her own space. Yeah, I think that sounds much better."
"Whoa there, partner. Let's not kick off the day all cranky and irritated," John says, still focused on that boiling coffee pot. "Look, Sally's actually a sweetheart, but she's been pushed way past her breaking point lately. Just give her some breathing room—she'll come around again. Getting her a room to herself so she doesn't have to bunk with rough characters like us? That's probably not a bad idea. But let's make it a nice gesture, not some kind of punishment."
"Yeah, okay, you're probably right," Pat admits with a sigh. "It's just... I love that girl so much, you know? Always have. But she's been in this awful mood lately and keeps taking it out on me. That really stings. You notice how feelings seem so much more intense in this denser realm? I bet if we were somewhere really dense like Earth, this would hurt like absolute hell. The emotions there are just so overwhelming. Maybe that's actually why we keep getting drawn back there—we're basically addicted to feeling things that intensely. Just thinking out loud here, sorry for rambling."
John pauses for a moment, considering that. "You know, you might actually be onto something there. I've definitely noticed there's an intensity to everything here that just doesn't exist back at the Lake. Don't get me wrong—I absolutely love the Lake. It's just so much more laid-back and peaceful there. Honestly, I don't think I'd want to stick around Powder Junction for very long. And the more I think about it, if we actually manage to find Earth again, I think I'd just want to visit. I'm not sure I could handle actually living there anymore."
"Hey guys, good morning! How'd you sleep?" Sally asks, sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, looking adorably disheveled.
"Like absolute crap," Pat shoots back without missing a beat.
John quickly jumps in with damage control: "Good morning, sweetie. Just ignore Patrick over there—I think he must've slept right on a floor crack or something. We'll all feel human again after a decent breakfast. Oh, and we were just talking about giving our pretty little lady here some more privacy. Pat and I thought we'd get you your own room so you don't have to share space with a couple of knuckleheads like us."
"Aww, that's really sweet of you guys! But honestly, it's not necessary at all. I actually don't mind sharing the room with you two—it's kind of comforting, to be honest. Just two small requests though: be more careful about what you eat for dinner, because in this dimension you guys are absolutely gassy, and two—get the hell out of here so I can get dressed! Hee hee, just kidding, guys." John grins and heads for the door to wait for Sally down at breakfast. Pat follows along too, but definitely without the smile.
"Hey there, Michael!" Pat calls out as he spots Michael approaching their breakfast table. "Come join us—we've got plenty of bacon."
"Don't mind if I do," Michael says, pulling up a chair. "So Pat, I can see there's definitely a sparkle in your eyes this morning. What's got your mind working?"
Pat's been sitting on some ideas he wants to share, but up until now he's been too self-conscious to bring them up. After yesterday's experiences though, he's caring less and less about what the others might think. So what if his ideas sound stupid? He's going to put them out there anyway. "I've been doing a lot of thinking about my time back on Earth. By the time I was fifteen, I had PhDs in math, physics, temporal mechanics, and dimensional dynamics. But that was all with the help of the INA chip, you know? Most of what I actually 'learned' was really just getting good at knowing where to find information on the network. Learning was basically practice at locating data, putting it into some kind of useful contextual framework, and then applying it to whatever problem I was trying to solve. Now, even though I don't have access to all that data anymore, I still remember the process itself, and a lot of the information I was exposed to is still kicking around in my memory to some extent. What I'm getting at is this: if I really concentrate, I think I can figure a lot of this stuff out. And that's exactly what I plan to do. You keep saying we can't interact with the 3rd level, that it's invisible to us. Well, there are lots of things that are invisible—back on Earth, radio waves were invisible, but we still used them to transmit voice and music and pictures and data. What we needed was a transducer—something that would react to the radio wave on one end and create audio or video or whatever on the other end. So what we need here is a transducer for 3rd level light waves. If we can somehow detect them in the 3rd level and translate them to the 5th level, then at least we can see whether there's actually something there. With enough resolution, we might get a pretty clear picture of what is—or isn't—there."
Michael's clearly delighted that Pat is really starting to engage with their mission. "Well now, in my time there weren't too many transducers around—maybe a telegraph key and that was about it—but it sure sounds like you might be onto something here. You let me know what you need to build one of these transducer contraptions and we'll give it a test run, see what it can show us."
"Or maybe we could smoke it out," John adds to the brainstorming. "Back at the mill, they'd get concerned about air flow patterns. But you can't actually see air, and just feeling it doesn't give you a clear picture of what's really happening. So they'd call us firemen in and we'd set barrels of rags to smoldering, make a bunch of smoke. Then we could just watch the smoke move through the air and see exactly which direction everything was flowing. Maybe we can figure out some way to inject 5th level smoke into the 3rd level and see if anything shows up there." Michael's eyes are practically dancing as he responds: "Now that's another brilliant idea! I have absolutely no clue what kind of smoke we could use, but let's keep that concept bouncing around—maybe we'll be able to work something out. Sally, you got any bright ideas?"
Sally lets out a little burp and says, "I think I ate way too much again. Will you guys still love me just as much if I get fat?"
John immediately jumps in: "Of course we will, sweetie pie! You just get as plump as you want and we'll love every single inch of you just as much."
"Okay, we're getting a little off track here, guys," Michael says, trying to steer them back. "We really need to put together some kind of actual game plan. We all bring different skills to this, and it's probably going to take all of them to get this job done. My contribution is that I can get you there—I can set up an etheric visit for each of you to go and do whatever you need to do. And I can bring you back when you're finished. But you guys are going to have to put your heads together and figure out exactly what you're going to do once you actually get there."
Sally smiles apologetically. "Sorry, Michael. But a girl's got to watch her figure, you know?"
"Trust me, I know," Michael says with a knowing look. "I haven't always been single like I am now, so believe me, I completely understand."
"Hey Michael?" John asks, switching gears. "I noticed down at the general store that they had fishing supplies. You got a lake around here somewhere?"
"We sure do—several of them, actually. They're not quite as gorgeous as Penny Lake, but they've definitely got fish. Why, do you think now's a good time to go fishing?"
"Well yeah, actually I do," John replies. "We need to sit down and really start putting together that game plan, and we might as well do it with a hook in the water instead of just sitting around here."
Michael grins and gets up from the table. "Come on then, guys. Looks like we're going fishing. It's your turn to pay, girlie, so throw some cash on the table and let's get out of here." Sally digs around in her purse, finds a few bills, and lays them on the table as they all head out. They swing by the store so John can find a fishing pole that feels right in his hands, and then they're off to the lake. John's the only real fisherman in the group, but Sally grabs a few extra things from the store to turn it into a proper picnic. It's shaping up to be a really nice day.
John's got a nice fire crackling, and Sally has a pan ready with a few fresh-caught fish all set for cooking. Michael and Pat have been deep in conversation about this and that for quite a while now, but so far there isn't much of an actual game plan emerging. Everyone's still hopeful they can come up with something concrete soon. But if not... well, maybe living forever at the Lake, or here in Powder Junction, really isn't such a terrible fate. You just have to learn to deal with the boredom, and honestly, it's not that big a deal. All these thoughts are drifting through Sally's mind as she tends to John's fish and gets the picnic spread ready for their little outdoor lunch.
"Really good fish, John. You've definitely got a knack for catching the tasty ones," Michael compliments him as they dig into lunch.
Pat's been mulling over an idea and he's determined to try it out. "Michael, I want to attempt something. I honestly don't know if it'll work—in fact, I'm pretty sure it won't—but it won't cost us anything to try. I've noticed that feelings are much more intense here, and apparently significantly more intense in level 3. I want to go there and just see what I can actually feel. We've tried going there to see something, and we know that doesn't work. But if I can use myself as the transducer—use my own senses to feel whatever's there to be felt—maybe I can pick up on something, at least know if there's anything there at all. So how exactly do I get there?"
"There's a booth in town that we can use to send you there," Michael answers matter-of-factly.
"A booth? How does that work exactly? Why do we need a booth?" Pat asks, curious.
"Well, actually, you don't really need a booth at all. What you need is a shift in consciousness—something to set up the right mental state so you can leave this perception behind and move into the 3rd level," Michael explains while Pat thinks it over.
"How about a door? Would that do the trick?" Pat asks.
Michael chuckles. "Sure, as long as you truly believe it will work, then it will."
Pat considers this for a moment. "You know what? It's way too nice out here to make you guys trek all the way back into town. I know Ben can tinker around with the edges of the reality he manages, and I'm pretty sure you can do the same thing. Michael, how about you put a door for me in that tree over there and hand me the key?"
Michael laughs heartily. "There's your door, son, and it's not even locked. Just be careful—there's going to be nothing but pure blackness on the other side."
Pat walks over to the door, turns back to wave at everyone, then steps right into that blackness and completely disappears. Sally immediately runs up to the door to see where he went, but just like Michael warned, there's absolutely nothing but black void on the other side.
"How long do you think this is going to take? I'm getting really scared for Pat out there all by himself in that... nothingness," Sally says, worry clearly growing on her face.
"I honestly don't have a clue, sugar," Michael replies. "If he's not back by dark, I guess we could start a fire and camp here for the night in case he comes back late."
Sally and the guys finish cleaning up from lunch and start making preparations to potentially camp overnight, but then Pat suddenly pops back through the door after only about fifteen minutes.
"Back so soon? Did you get scared? I was so worried about you! I looked through that door and saw all that blackness and it just looked absolutely terrifying," Sally says, relief and concern mixing in her voice.
"Temporal compression, my dear lady—a consequence of the way level 5 and level 3 divergence creates tension in the extra-temporal dimension we're dealing with here. I was actually there for quite a long time. And I learned several important things. First, initially I couldn't feel anything at all and couldn't see anything either. Even using my most practiced meditation techniques, I couldn't quiet my mind enough to sense anything. And it was this constant battle against the fear of all that darkness. But then I just surrendered completely to the darkness and became part of it. That's when I heard it—off in the distance, like this buzzing sound in my head. It was a sound I'd heard before. So I moved closer, and closer, and I started to be able to perceive the shape of things. It was Earth. She's still there. She's still round. And... she's still alive."
"Well, that didn't work out, but it was a good attempt, son. Maybe we'll take another shot at it tomorrow and see if we get better results," Michael says as he starts helping Sally pack away the picnic supplies.
"You're not listening to me, Michael. She IS there, and she IS alive. I know it because I was there. I heard it myself," Pat insists emphatically.
Michael's looking a bit irritated now. "Son, I hate to burst your bubble, but we've been searching for life out there for several millennia. The best psychics and sensitives we have in these domains have been out there trying to look and feel and hear exactly like you just did, and they've gotten absolutely nothing. Now you're telling me that you poke your head into the void for a few minutes and suddenly you can hear a planet and know that it's alive? That's just a little more than I can accept right now. If she was really alive, we'd be able to see her. Let's try this again—I'm not saying your method won't work eventually, but I'm betting what you heard was just wishful thinking. You imagined it."
Pat gets very serious and looks Michael directly in the eyes. "Michael, don't underestimate me on this. When I said I was there for quite some time, I mean I was there for QUITE some time. The Pat who just came back through that door is not the same Pat you watched leave fifteen of your minutes ago. I was there for weeks. And during that time, I found the planet—which had drifted quite a distance away from these domains because we lost our navigational lock when the ethereal link was severed. I figured out how to compensate for that drift, and it's been corrected now—we're back in spatial sync. I did a complete survey of the surface. I know what happened, and I know why it happened. I've got quite a story to tell you, and it's a story you really need to hear. I know what went wrong. What I don't know is how to fix it—and that's where I need your help. Let's get back to town and grab some dinner. I haven't eaten in a very long time." The whole group is taken aback by Pat's intensity and conviction.
Michael just grins and says, "Yes, Master," and they all head back toward town. Maybe there really is something substantial to Pat's claims after all. They'll have to wait until after supper to find out the whole story.