Chapter 14

Time: Sunday, December 23, 2018 6:37 PM

Ten minutes after Emily had finished her testing, the group was still milling around the library, talking about dinner and having a final look around before taking off. Jada was walking across the elevator threshold and on a whim decided to satisfy her curiosity. She pushed the lit button. The door opened at once and she entered and took a look at the keyboard. It was still without power, and the override button was where she remembered it.

Suddenly a swift shock of fear and premonition hit her, and she ran out of the elevator towards the opposite door across the room. “Emily! Ashley! Please, come with me! You other people stay here!” Emily blinked in surprise and then started to chase her roommate with Ashley. The remaining people looked at each other in confusion.

They didn’t have long to wait. Less than two minutes later Mark’s phone rang. “Hello, Mark?” It was Emily’s voice on Ashley’s Leophone.

“Yeah, hi. What’s going on?”

“Mark, can someone down there in the library try to open the elevator?”

“Huh? Yeah, sure ... Okay, it’s open.”

“Right now it’s open? You can see inside?”

Mark thought he could hear the strain in Emily’s voice. “That’s right. I’m just outside and I can see the keyboard.”

Mark heard both Emily and Jada give tiny whimpers. “Mark, everybody,” said Jada, “Can you guys come up here? The elevator is open on our level too. There are two carriages in the same shaft, one right on the top of the other.”

Mark shivered as he realized the implications. “Yeah, we’ll be right there.”

A minute later the rest of the group started walking into the second-floor lounge from the kitchen. There were hugs all around. Madison spoke up first. “Why is everybody so nervous? All this proves is that this isn’t an elevator at all. Each portal is more like a train station. Isn’t that what we were suspecting?” She looked around surprised. “Hey! Where’s my brother?”

The six women blinked. “Who saw him last?” asked Jada.

“He was right behind me downstairs,” replied Hannah. “Remember? He was holding the door open for us in the game room.”

The group found him standing outside on the pink cobblestone walkway that separated the two small parks. He was staring north and almost straight up into the star-filled sky. Jada touched his arm. “Mark?”

For a moment there was no response, and then in a calm, quiet voice, “Take a good look, Jada. See anything you recognize, anything at all?”

Time: Sunday, December 23, 2018 11:30 PM

Jada gently knocked on Mark’s bedroom door. He called out for her to come in. Mark was sitting lotus fashion on the floor, quietly watching a small weight tied to a thin string suspended between two bookshelves. The weight was slowly swinging back and forth, and Mark was timing the swings using his phone as a stopwatch. “Just give me another minute,” he asked. Jada sat on the floor nearby and waited patiently. She noticed that Mark’s eyes were very red.

A short while later he punched the timer on his phone and recorded his observation. Then he looked up and tried to smile at Jada.

Jada tried to smile back. “I know what you’re doing. So, what’s the gravity here?”

Mark nodded. “It’s a two-meter pendulum. I think I’ve got it to within a millimeter between the center of mass and the pivot point. I timed a hundred swings three times and got 285.1, 285.4, and 285.3 seconds.”

Jada stared at the tiny weight and sighed. “The motion looks normal to my eye. Where’d you get the weight?”

“Oh, I rooted around the hospital room downstairs. And you’re right, the motion looks normal. It’s only about a half a percent difference from what it should be. With Earth gravity, I should measure 283.8 seconds.”

“So, it’s a half a percent difference in frequency, which is proportional to square root of gravity, so ... a one percent difference in gravity, right? It’s a decrease for here.”

“Yep, 9.7 meters per second squared, as near as I can measure it.”

“I knew it! I knew I felt a little lighter walking out of that elevator two days ago!”

Mark blinked in surprise. “Was it really just two days ago?”

Jada ignored his comment. “And the pressure! I’m guessing it’s a little thinner than what we’re used to. Emily thought we were rising in the elevator. This planet has a thinner atmosphere, doesn’t it?”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. Burlington, Vermont was about a hundred meters above sea level. Perhaps we’re at a higher elevation here, that’s all.”

“Assuming this planet has oceans, you mean.”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure about that. The climate is too nice for it not to.”

Jada nodded. She was sitting close by, wearing a set of long-sleeve pajamas. Mark was too. She scooted over and sat right beside him and offered her hand, and then gave a smile when it was accepted. She squeezed his hand. “This changes ... everything! I’ve noticed you said Burlington WAS a hundred meters above sea level, not IS a hundred meters above sea level.”

“I know. My mind is grieving. My parents, all my friends, my cousins...” Mark gave a huge sigh and wiped his wet eyes on his pajama sleeve. “Maddy and I, we have ... we had an older sister. Her name was...” He couldn’t go on. After a moment he started to cry, very softly.

In great tenderness, Jada touched his shoulder. “Do you want to be alone?” she whispered.

Mark shook his head no. He looked absolutely miserable.

“Come on. Lie with me.” A moment later Mark was sprawled on his bed, with Jada perched on the edge, her hand gently touching the top of his head.

“I was trying to do some experiments, keep my mind busy...”

“It’s okay, Mark. I understand.”

“Jada!” he wailed between sobs. “It’s not okay! Everyone, all at once! I really think The Intruder was real!”

“I know. I do too. The Intruder was real.”

“And...” But the words just wouldn’t come. He howled, “Our beautiful Earth?! All the people! My family!”

Jada said nothing at first. She just held Mark in her arms and rocked him as he cried. “Try to rest, Mark,” she whispered. “I’ll stay with you.” He nodded and closed his eyes. Jada reached over and killed the lights. She lay with him for a long while, not saying anything, not doing anything except thinking and maintaining a gentle contact, a simple touch on his head with her hand. And the time passed. Eventually Jada’s eyes blinked open and her body jerked. She realized she was chilly. She covered Mark and herself with a blanket and returned to a very troubled dream.

Monday, December 24, 2018 8:08 AM

Jada cried out as she awoke. She blinked and looked around. She was still in Mark’s bed. He was lying next to her with a concerned look on his face. “Jada, you okay?”

She looked at the time, looked at the sunlight coming into the window horizontally from the southeast, and then looked at the clock again. “The sun is rising later today than it did yesterday, isn’t it?”

“Yes, from the clock here about eight minutes, quite a jump for one day.”

“What could cause that?”

Mark shrugged and tried to make a small joke. “The usual suspects, the tilt of the planet, the phase of the year, whatever our latitude is. I’m guessing it’s a natural phenomenon. Jada, how are you feeling?”