4. The aborted recursion

The deafening roar and the acrid smell of cordite may have sent Rain running for calmer spaces, but the rest of the party completed their allotted shooting training with competent results. Algernon alone though seemed to want more from his weapons training.  

“I’d like a bigger gun.”  He said to the weapon’s training officer after class.

“Do you have a requisition?”

“Oh yes, it’s being processed.”  He lied, trying to put into practice skills he was learning from Rain.  In this, he was initially successful.

“What did you have in mind?” She slurped her forgotten coffee and considered the gun cabinet. What could a young man of Algernon’s experience and strength wield?

“I did some research, “ Algernon pulled out his notebook and flicked to the appropriate page, “I’d like a Barrett M82, please.”

The weapons officer nearly choked on her cold coffee.

“I don’t think so, it’s far too big a weapon, you wouldn’t be able to carry it for one thing.”

“Oh, I know.  That’s why I’d also take a Steyr SSG69. It’s not as big It will only kill a man whereas the Barrett can kill a car, and I think that’s better, don’t you?”

He was sent out to find how his “requisition” was going.

Out on the campus, Peggy was searching for the party. The portal in her lab was found to be stable and connected to a recursion, of sorts. She now had the duty of collecting her wayward group when she came across Algernon worrying over his request dilemma.

“Hello, you there.  You have a name, right?” She called waving Algernon over as if communicating with a different species.

He looked at her suspiciously and walked over.

“Algernon.” he said simple. Since that first day when he was pulled through her portal to Earth, he had put Peggy into the same category as all the people who he’d ever come to distrust.  Scientists.

“And just to be clear,” she continued oblivious, “you are a person.”

“I’m not a dog of any species.” He retorted harkening back to her words only a week ago.

Peggy looked at Algernon confused,

“What? What have canines to do with it?”

Once again, Algernon thumbed through his notebook and found the page, 

“I looked it up, Rottweilers are a breed.” Rounding on her with his evidence.

“Not Rottweiler, rock…never mind.  You are human?”

“Close enough.” He replied enigmatically.  It was obvious to those who spoke to him, that Algernon had a thing about experimentation. It seemed he was fearful of being too interesting to the scientist in case she thought to start experimenting on him.  Peggy was not one of the people that spoke to Algernon usually and had no idea his thoughts.

“Well, head over to my lab.”

“What!”

“We’re being sent out.”

“Where?”

“Through a swirling hole of death.” she replied matter of factly in a way that was far more scary that even her choice of words would suggest.

“Will it be safe?”

“Readings say we’ll definitely come out the other side, just couldn’t tell you where that is.”  Peggy looked around the campus expecting to find the rest of the party, “Where are the other two?”

“Rain’s in the library.”

“And the tall one?”

“In the gym?”

But Bruce was not to be found in the gym. 

After speaking to his supervisor and going through channels Bruce had acquired for himself a requisition form for body armour. He was patiently waiting in the queue at Stores when Algernon arrived.

“You have a requisition form?”  Algernon spoke, almost in awe when he saw the bigger man, “Can I look at it?”

Bruce obliged, but he didn’t let it leave his hand.  It didn’t matter anyway, under medium body armour Katherine Manners had slashed the rest of the box for ‘required supplies’.  There was no way he could add something else even if Bruce would let him.

“See. If you go through your supervisors, instead of trying to defraud the system like someone we won’t mention, they’ll more as likely give you what you ask.”

Algernon sighed and acknowledge defeat, for now, and made his way across to the office wing and Lawrence Keaton.

Generic and small, the offices of the senior operatives were not made with comfort in mind.  When Algernon knocked at Keaton’s office door, it was to a crashing and cursing unlike the other Estate supervisors Algernon had been exposed to.

“Yes?” Said a distracted voice from behind the door.

“It’s Algernon to see you.”

“Ah…yes.  Come in, come in.”

Algernon opened the door to see Lawrence Keaton straightening a huge bag full of thin wicked sticks with metal or wooden heads perfect for smashing small things.  Once it was upright, Keaton rummaged through the sticks, searching for one in particular.

“I seem to have misplaced a golf club.” Keaton admitted, finally giving up on the bag and lifting it back into the corner of his office.

“Is it for killing golfs?”  asked Algernon in all innocence.

“No golf isn’t a creature,” Keaton looked down at Algernon indulgently, “ it’s a sport. Where you hit a ball around a field to get it into a hole.”

Algernon nodded listening intently to this new information.

“Would it not be easier to pick the ball up and put it in the hole?”

“That would defeat the purpose…never mind, what would you like, Algernon?”

Algernon repeated his firearm request.

“And I want to learn to ride a motorbike.”

“The motorbike request seems a reasonable suggestion, but these guns…  Can I ask where an interest in such powerful rifles has come from?”

Algernon’s note book appeared and he skimmed through its pages until he got to the appropriate one, 

“Yes, I watched a brilliant documentary just recently.  It was called, Akira. Very enlightening. I think I could be like that.”

Algernon left with a note for motorcycle lessons on the campus 125cc scooters, and a note to the gunnery officer for appropriately sized rifles for him to train on.  It wasn’t everything Algernon wanted, but he’d run out of time. With the small victory he had achieved, he ran across campus to Peggy’s lab.

Meanwhile, Peggy had indeed found Rain talking to one of the library staff.  His studies into Spiral Dust had come to a short and very sudden end. It seemed, though the dust was thought to be made from ground down ciphers only found in the recursions, The Estate knew almost nothing about the drug, the consistency of hallucinations or the spiral scarring on the eyes. Any operatives that had come across it, had just simply reported the fact. All leads had gone dark and no testing beyond preliminary had been conducted into the dust. It was a frustrating position for Rain to be in and it was affecting his mood.

“I can’t give you any more details about the stuff, there aren’t any.”  He complained to the increasing belligerent Librarian, “Look, if you just let me into the archives I’ll know what I want when I see it….”

“Storm?  Cloud?” Peggy called, trying in vain to remember this individual’s name.  It made it more difficult when he kept changing it every time he talked to someone new.

“Mr Bigby to you,” he replied in the same tone and accent as Bruce, the big one.  He turned and saw Peggy, his face lighting up, “But you can call me whatever you want, Doc.”  He beamed and she felt nervous. That look usually meant he wanted something, “You can get into the archives can’t you?”

“Of course,”  she replied. As research staff she had full access to all relevant materials kept in archives.

“Excellent!”  Rain grabbed her arm and dragged her in front of the Librarian, “This is Dr Peggy Martin, preeminent among the researchers here, please step aside.  I will of course be escorting her as an assistant….”

“Look we don’t have time for this.” Peggy shook Rain’s grip off which got his attention.

“We have mission.  You are to meet with the other two at my lab in a half an hour.”

Rain picked up a metal and carbon fibre golf club that was  leaning against a nearby table.

“Ready to go!”  He replied as if the golf club was all that was required for a mission into the unknown.

“Do you know where the big one is?”  

Rain closed his eyes and held his fingers lightly to his temples as if trying to psychically link to the bigger man.

“Brucie …Brucie … at the gym?”

“No,”  Peggy unsure where to check next, but she had run out of time, “If you see him, he’s wanted too.”

Peggy and Algernon met again crossing the Campus, one hunting for the elusive ‘Big One’, a task made more difficult for not having his name,  the other stalking back from bureaucracy disappointment. Peggy stopped Algernon again, 

“Um…you were very helpful with the body.” she said without preamble, “The drug dealer. I meant to say something before and forgot.  Thank you.”

“Ur…sure…you’re welcome?”  he replied stunned. Had he ever been thanked?  Ever?

Then Peggy spotted Bruce stepping out of Stores.  It wasn’t hard, he was head to toe in military grade jungle camouflage gear, complete with helmet and body armour.

“You won’t blend in like that.”  She commented.

“Like what?”

“Like you stepped out of G.I. Joe.”

Bruce looked offended.  He was pleased with his practical and hard wearing outfit and didn’t understand the doctor’s criticism.

“Look, we’re being sent out. Collect your gear and meet us at my lab.”

Bruce was about to do as requested, but stopped in his tracks by yet another social injustice, 

“What, all of us?”  

“Yes.”

“Even the kid?”

“Well it’s his choice…”

 “We can’t take a child!  I’m going to be having words with Hetzfeld about this.”  Bruce marched off now looking every inch the military man.

Rain was already at the lab staring at an artist’s rendition of The Strange and known recursions on the wall, when Algernon arrived.  As the only one who had been through a portal, Algernon was well aware of what might not be waiting for them on the other side. Like air, gravity or solid ground.  He went straight to Hertzfeld and peppered him with questions as to what was known about the recursion. Not much.  

“Breathable air? “

“Yes.”

“Safe landing spot?”

“More than likely.  There is ground and it was a true inapposite gate with two way access.  Besides nothing had come through since it had been opened so it was assumed safe.”

Bruce was next, loudly demanding to know where Hetzrfeld got off letting a child go on a mission to an unknown and possibly dangerous new location.  As Peggy walked in last of all, Rain pulled her aside.

“Take a look at this?” Rain pointed to the poster, “I’ve actually never seen a picture of The Strange.”

“Well it’s an artist’s interpretation and not an actual true rendition, no one has seen The Strange…”

“But, doesn’t it look familiar?”  Rain urged, pointing specifically at swirling bodies of matter that made up much of The Strange itself.

“Oh yes, “ Peggy looked closer and could make out the fractal patterns that symbolise The Strange for much of the scientific community concerned with its study. “Just like the eyes of that…guy.”

“John.  Bruce’s brother.”  Rain prompted. She’d met the guy.  She saved him from a near drug induced coma and yet he hadn’t made an impression on her.  Was she really that cold not to remember his name?

“Yes, him.”

Rain sighed and continued.

“They both saw very similar and vivid hallucinations.  Worlds within worlds.” he gestured to the rest of the illustration showing the recursions and their links to each other and Earth.  “What if they weren’t hallucinating? What if they were looking at The Strange.”

“But that’s what I was saying. No one can look at The Strange…”  Peggy started before their conversation was cut short by Bruce’s protestations, 

“We shouldn’t be taking the kid, we should be training him up.”

“This gate is very stable and everything seems very straight forward,” Hertzfeld responded, “This is the best sort of training for an intelligence like Algernon’s.”

“And who’s going to look after him in there?  I suppose I will.”

“Yes, dad.” Algernon replied almost automatically.

“And since when did I adopt you?”  he turned on Algernon, “I don’t care what my brother said, Algernon is a perfectly common name.”

Of course, once the blustering had finished, Bruce decided to go first, which the rest of the party gladly let him.  One step he was in the warm well lit lab, next he was in a place that was almost exactly the same.  

But most certainly wasn’t.  It was a lab. The same lab.  The same equipment, sat on benches in exactly the same places.  Even the portal at this end seemed to be in exactly the same spot, though this lab was completely empty of life. The air was still..  No sound of voices, the chirping of birds or rustle of leaves outside the window. The light was…duller and every surface was covered in dust.  As Peggy and Algernon stepped through the gate, Bruce saw the cloth tube of a trouser leg and shoe peaking from around behind a table.

As soon as Peggy stepped through the gate her senses tingle at something above her, swirling.  Like a storm that she could neither see nor hear but only feel on a basic level. She put the thought aside as Bruce pointed out the crumpled pile of clothing.  On closer examination it was clear that the cloth was filled with dust. Rain came through last, his golf club ahead of him in preparation. Seeing the scientist and researcher busy with a suspiciously human shaped pile of clothing, he stalked away, over to the computers.

“Any threats?”  Algernon asked. Bruce left the lab and checked the corridors beyond.  Nothing.

Having access to lab equipment on this side of the portal, Peggy ran some simple tests and discovered the dust had once been a person,

“Tens or even hundreds of years ago, there’s no way of telling here.”

“So, is this the future or an alternative Earth?”  Rain asked looking at the group. No one had a suggestion and the silence fell on the group like the ever present dust. “But this is your lab, is there a calendar?” 

They search the lab for a desktop calendar or diary.  The one they found was for the current year but was a few months behind the actual date. 

“They probably forgot to flip it over, I think the one in the lab is the same.” Peggy admitted, this recursion was throwing up some heavy questions that no one to answer.

“She made this.  She made this world.”  Algernon said almost in accusation, pointing to Peggy, “Portals follow you.  You make them.”  

“Well I did press something that started up the portal, but I didn’t make this world.”  she replied perplexed at Algernon’s suggestion. She didn’t have any knowledge or power to make a recursion, even one as empty as this one seemed to be.

Rain had started up the computers  and was now trawling through the system infrastructure looking for differences.  Nothing caught his attention until he found, not employee records but surveillance files on both Peggy and himself.  He search again, hunting for Algernon and Bruce, but neither of them were on file.

“Well here’s a difference, we are not with The Estate.”  he showed them his results and spent some time looking through the records on both him and Peggy.  

“How old is this portal?”  Bruce asked looking around him at the abandoned, post apocalyptic setting.

“Only as old as it is in our world, a couple of hours at most.”  Peggy assured him.

“But he’s hundreds of years dead in a place that’s probably no more than twenty years old at most in our world.  How can that be? ” he pointed to the pile of rags and dust that once was a human.

Now that the body had been established as such, Bruce felt confident enough to carefully checked the dust and clothes for identification.  An I.D. badge identical to the ones they all wore was found as were a few loose cards. They were all in the name of Elmer McCain. A look moved around the group at the discovery of McCain’s name.  Though he’d had little to do with the group since they’d arrived back on Earth, McCain was the one that discovered they were quickened and brought them into The Estate. He was one of very few people they all had in common and one they knew to be a competent and experienced Estate operative.

“I’m reporting this back to Hertzfeld.”  Bruce announced all grim and serious, “Stay in this room and I’ll be right back.”  With no more than a nod he disappeared into the portal.

Rain continued to trawl through the records on him and Peggy. Peggy’s showed The Estate had been watching her and her work for some time.  They thought her studies interesting, but as she had no knowledge of recursions, felt it was safe to leave her alone for now. Rain on the other hand was a known connman and had swindled a number of agents.  A number of aliases were listed and he was considered a problem and worth continued careful surveillance. Rain tried aligning this information with this theories of the four of them being drawn together somehow.  But in this recursion, they’d never met. What would a trawl through the records on the other side reveal?

Without tests to perform, Peggy was once more drawn to the swirling energy that played against her mind.  She felt inextricably drawn to the swirling energies above. Curious to the point of distraction, she started walking out the door, down the corridor to the stairs for the next floor up.

Meanwhile, Bruce had dutifully and carefully reported all they had found out so far.

“El McCain is on assignment and can not be contacted, but I realise that finding his name badge in that recursion would be disturbing.”  Hertzfeld accepted McCain’s ID and tucked it into this desk draw.

“Are we sure he’s fine?  Could he have been sucked into this dead world?”  

“Very unlikely, but I’ll ask through channels, see if we can get some eyes on him.”

“Appreciated.  I’ll head back and see what else they’ve found.”  Bruce nodded and stepped back through the portal.

Bruce returned to an empty lab as Algernon and Rain followed Peggy out the door.

The next floor was as empty as that on the ground.  The energy was somewhere still above Peggy. Following the stairs she reached the bulkhead that gave access to the flat-topped roof.  The door opened out onto a campus scene devoid of life. Above, purple clouds swirled blocking sunlight and obscuring any sign of the sky. The view over the roof, towards Gasworks Park, out across the lake and the city skyline was empty.  Even though the day was dark, not a light was on in any of the skyscrapers. The normally futuristic shape of the Space needle was dull and barely visible against the clouds. It looked like a dead world, but everyone could hear the flapping of large wings from high above. 

Shadows in and then against the clouds. Amorphous and shifting shapes moved purposefully against the sky in the group’s direction. Three peeled away and descended towards the lab building where they stood.
“Get inside, now.”  Bruce called

“Ah Rain, time to go.”  Algernon called legging it to the bulkhead.

“Can you hear that, where’s it coming from?” Rain looked around, oblivious to dangers that may be threatening.  When the creatures, for lack of a better description, were spotted he agreed wholeheartedly and ran for the door and down the stairs.

Dense fractal patterns distorted and chaotic made up the body and wings of the three creatures as they dived, attacking Bruce.  Their touch was icy cold and threatened an embrace of the same as their fractal bodies tried wrapping around him. He shrugged it off and swung around with his crowbar, 

‘Take that demon!” as the crowbar smashed into the form, crumpling it in half and sending it wheeling away. It screamed like an undead thing of rags and hatred.

 “Take that you bad boy!” Bruce crowed and prepared himself for the next swing.

“That’s the ticket, Brucie.  Keep at’em Professor!” Rain encouraged giving him a confidence boost.  Bruce swung again, missing this time and was caught by a nightmare beast.

“What the heck is that thing?!” Peggy screamed but no one could tell her.  They looked no more than a tear in reality.

Looking for something that would help, Rain ran down the stairs and found a fire extinguisher.  Popping the seal he ran back up the stairs.

“Keep it up Bruce, I’m coming!”

“Get away, back to the lab!” Bruce roared pulling another monster off him and back into the air. Peggy and Algernon complying without complaint.  Rain returned with the CO2 and thrust the cone of the nozzle straight into the injured winged thing. A fog of white enveloped the doorway. The creature screamed, flailed and fell out of the air, dead. 

With the nearest beast gone, Bruce slammed the door closed, leaning against it for support. The other two creatures smashed bodily into the door making it quake with each impact.  Eventually the attacks stopped both men took stock of the situation. Bruce pulled out a medical kit and started patching himself up as best he could. It was all Rain could do to not run away.  Instead he looked away, holding open the first aid kit and feeling useless.

“We’ll heal you up on our side, let’s go.” Rain started up from their seat on the stairs but Bruce shook his head. 

“I bet the scientists would love a look at that dead thing out there, I’m going to grab it when I get a chance.”

Rain looked at the injured and frostbitten Bruce and then at the door.  Without another moment’s thought he opened the door and using his golf club hooked the dead creature pulling it inside.  It was what the other two creatures had been waiting for. One set of black wings attacked Rain, draining the life from him and wrapping around his arms.  It wedged itself between the door and the door frame so now Bruce could no longer close it. Little by little, between beatings from Bruce’s crowbar and careful prods from the back end of the putter, the creature was pushed out of the door frame and the door slammed shut with a satisfying, slam.

Rain burst out in hysterical laughter.

“You bloody fool!”  was all Bruce could articulate.

“That was brilliant!”  Rain giggled and sat down on the stair above the broken body of the flying thing, beside the now sorely injured Bruce. Both had sustained injuries, but Bruce knew he would not have survived much longer against the beast if the door had not closed and wanted Rain to know it.

“I pegged you for a coward!” Bruce spat with righteous anger and Rain quickly became serious,

“I know.” He replied simply, unscathed by the taunt, only by the truth it revealed. “Sometimes that’s better.”

“I nearly died!” Bruce bellowed and now the implications of his actions came home to Rain. His eyes grew wide as his face drained of colour.  Horror and shame were all that remained on the usually affable face. 

 “Get down the stairs.”  Bruce ordered and Rain complied.

“Okay.” 

The battled warriors, dragging the corpse of their enemy, joined up with Peggy and Algernon in the lab.  Together they went back through the portal and to the waiting Herzfeld in their world.

“What happened to you?”  Hertzfeld exclaimed as they stumbled through the portal.

“This happened and two others just like it.”  Bruce gave Hertzfeld the body of the creature who took it gingerly.

“A thonic, but that shouldn’t have been.  These are creatures native to The Strange, they’ve got not place in a recursion.”

“And neither did we, especially the boy, it was totally inappropriate.”

“Leave the kid alone.  If you’re not his dad then leave him alone.”  Peggy argued, “It’s his choice.” Peggy’s outbursts were always surprising, but one in defence of Algernon?

“Regardless, it’s clear that this portal is dangerous.”  Hertzfeld walked across the lab and unlocked a narrow cupboard.  From it he withdrew a gun-like device with a wide barrel. He turned it on the portal and shot a shockwave that disrupted the portal, making it collapse and disappear.  “From what you have said, that recursion was connected to The Strange proper. The Dark Energy Network is what recursions are built on. Unfortunately, it also sends people mad.”

“Mad?”  Rain asked dubiously.  This sounded like myths and fables.  

Hertzfeld nodded, “If you’d been able to see through the clouds you would would have looked out onto The Strange directly.  We’ve lost a lot of good operatives due to direct exposure.”

“How about El McCain, has someone got in touch with him?” 

“Yes, we’ve been in touch.  He’s alive and well. I can’t give you any more details and I certainly can’t explain you finding his identification.”

Rain breathed a sigh of relief and  seemed to take some comfort in Hertzfeld’s assurance only to be replaced by excited theorising, “But that means that there really could be a world, other worlds, alternate ones where…”  Rain’s saw everyone watching and caught himself clumsily at the last moment, “…something didn’t happen.”

“String theory is only a concept.” Peggy replied ignoring the awkward speech from the usually articulate one.

“I think we’ve found some evidence!” 

“At least we got back home.”  Bruce interjected trying to push the talk onto more practical and sensible discussion.

“But did we?” Rain replied manically treading a well travelled train of thought. “If there are multiple worlds, did we ever make it back to our world from the Wasteland?”

“I never thought of that.” Bruce confessed and fell silent.

“Well, welcome to my world! Now you know one of many thing that’s been doing my head-in since we came back!” Rain gestured as if encompassing the whole world in his fixation. The small black puzzle box appeared in his seemingly empty hand and he stumbled out of lab dragging his club behind.

“I don’t think it was a true recursion.” Peggy spoke up, “I think it was more like a replica, out of phase with the original.”

“I think we need to check your machines, Peggy.”  Hertzfeld gestured to the barely unpacked equipment that had filled her garage in New Orleans.

“Yes, but …I don’t think it could have been the cause of the recursion, I wasn’t using it at the time.  Besides…at home…I …may have been experimenting with raw iridium …and I haven’t unpacked any of that .”

“I’m going to research thonics.” Bruce gave up as the conversation turned too dark and  technical for him and left to tend his wounds.

“Yeah, me too.  I want to know how they suck life out of lifeforms.” Added Algernon whose enthusiasm for the gruesome for once matched his seeming age.

Days went past.  Algernon spent more time in the firing range, Peggy was locked away in her lab and the Bruce found solace in repetitive exercise and processes of bureaucracy. 

After going missing for a day, Rain returned dark circles under his eyes, clutching his puzzle box. As a distraction, he searched the party’s record on this side of the portal, comparing it to what they’d found in the recursion. Besides the addition of Algernon and Bruce and all their inclusion into The Estate, the records were very similar.  Hetzfeld had written a note into Peggy’s record.

“Though her perspective is so different from most, it is possibly because of this difference that makes her so valuable.”

Rain felt his records needed more colour and added details to his escapades that the usual report format just couldn’t do justice.  Maybe some of those colours were not strictly to the pallette, but after he’d finished, Rain was sure the report was far more readable and entertaining. 

When they were brought together again, it was by Katherine Manner’s request that they all met in her office.  As they waited quietly for the rest of the group to arrive, Rain leaned in close to Bruce and said low voice, 

“I’m sorry about risking your life on the roof.  It was stupid. I’d never thought…I’d never want to hurt anyone.”

“Well I’m glad you learnt something.”  Bruce grunted an acknowledgement he’d heard and accepted.

“I’ve just never stuck around long enough.”Rain mumbled and turned away, “I’m usually packed up and gone long before then.”

“What was that?”  Bruce asked as Peggy and Algernon joined the group and the briefing began.

“Knowing how effective you were all last time, I’d like you to investigate rumours of another Spiral dust dealer.”  Katherine began handing out notes on what little The Estate had gathered, “They seem to be working out of a warehouse at the docks, though no one has seen the individual leave the building. He has been described as wearing heavy clothes and have a greasy or grimy complexion. We want surveillance really, find out about this individual, find out where they’re getting the dust and get it back to us.”

“Can we set up a camera with motion detectors over the Interwebs.”  Bruce asked the group and received a scornful look from Rain.

“Really?  Interwebs?  Who are you kidding?”  

“Well I don’t know how it works.”

Fortunately, with research, Algernon did and the next day the party were across the lake setting up cameras along dockside at Commencement Bay.  While Algernon set up the equipment wearing Bruce’s Hi-Vis, Rain “supervised” and kept questioners at bay. As a con it was one of the simplest.  No one questioned the need for security cameras and they were left to do their work. In the end the cameras were set up to watch the door but provide good blindspot for hiding. Bruce walked the block checking for access to the warehouse and finding only the main door and a grimy window.

“I don’t know.”  Rain was heard complaining as Bruce walked passed looking like a dockside worker, “I don’t like this sitting and watching. If I was doing this job I’d just walk up to the door and knock.”  

“Well, you could.”  Bruce suggested, What’s the plan?”

“Really?”  Rain looked at Bruce with surprise, “I thought…well I don’t want to do me and get someone in trouble.”

“This is your thing, we’ll follow your lead.”

To be continued…