NaNoWriMo, Day Two

You mean I have to bleed onto the page every freakin’ day? Every day? Damn! Still lots of adrenaline and enthusiasm, but the tiniest little bit of reality is starting to creep in.

Lots of dialogue and exposition to set the stage in this chapter. I suspect that it will be something to be played with, rearranged, or completely re-done in a later draft, but for now it starts lining up the challenges for our protagonists and establishing the setting. This is not necessarily a bad second step after pulling a bizarre and highly improbable scenario out of my ass in the first chapter.

CHAPTER TWO

The paramedics were thorough as they made sure that Tom was not in need of immediate hospitalization. He patiently lied to them about what had happened, explaining it away as a dizzy spell brought on by low blood sugar combined with the adrenaline from getting scratched by the cat. He sipped some orange juice as they checked him out. He graciously allowed them to again clean and wash his arm and hand where the cat scratches were, followed by the application of some fancier, paramedic approved ointment. Once his temperature, heartbeat, blood pressure, blood sugar, balance, and mental functions were all determined to be within norms for a man of his age, they left him alone again.

In the course of the exam Tom had been moved back onto the couch in the living room to rest and more easily be examined. Now he lay there with the cat curled up asleep on his chest and wondered what his next move should be.

While he didn’t know exactly what had happened in this room earlier, it seemed obvious that talking about it to the paramedics or just about anyone else would be ill advised. Whether he actually had mental problems or Alzheimer’s disease or not, if he started mouthing off and asking about floating black holes that only the cat could see, he would be prejudged and assumed to be missing a few marbles. That wouldn’t solve anything.

He could go looking on the internet for information, but given the bizarre nature of the afternoon’s events, he had serious doubts about the validity of anything he might find there. No doubt he could call into the Art Bell Show and get a sympathetic audience, but he needed actual data and help, not a warm welcome into a community of conspiracy obsessed wackos. Still, it might be worth a quick, quiet search online. You never could tell what might turn up.

As he thought about it, Tom realized that the appearance of the bizarre phenomenon had triggered a collection of long buried memories from his very early childhood. It was probably nothing, but it was more than he had now.

The second problem was Jason. Tom had no information regarding who he was, if he could be counted on, or if he could be trusted. If secrecy was necessary, Jason was definitely the biggest security risk right now. Was secrecy necessary? That was another huge question, but it seemed prudent to act as if it was. To paraphrase the saying about guns, it would be better to be paranoid when it wasn’t necessary than to not be paranoid when it was.

That brought an even bigger set of questions. With so many unknowns and only a small set of truly bizarre data, how safe was he right now? How would he know if he was in danger? What exactly was the danger if it existed? Those multiple layers of teeth on the edge of that hole would have made a great white shark turn tail and run. But were they even teeth? More important was the thing that contained them. The thing. The object. The hole in space. Make that the invisible hole in space.

Tom had way too many questions with way too little data.

After carefully shifting the sleeping cat off of his chest and onto her pillow on the couch, Tom retrieved his cell phone from the kitchen table. Giving instructions to have a text message sent back to the IP address from which the video had been downloaded, he typed, “Jason, call me please.”

In a few seconds, a return message popped up. “In a little bit, on another call now.”

Tom settled back to wait. He transferred the video file to the home server and brought it up on the big screen. He slowly flipped through the images which showed the floating hole. A few of the frames he ran through some software to clean up and enhance. Knowing it would be there made the video less shocking, but seeing it blown up and enlarged made it even more bewildering and bizarre.

Looked at in detail, there didn’t seem to be any fuzziness or unevenness to the edge of the whole. It was tilted in the view of the camera so it appeared as an ellipse, but every indication was that it was perfectly round. The edge didn’t seem to pulse, waver, or wiggle. It just existed, a clean hole punched in the air.

Tom noticed that in some frames when he was moving behind the hole as seen from the security camera, the hole was completely opaque. The interior of the hole appeared at first to be jet black, but some of the later frames showed shadowy, grey, indistinct forms. The grey blobs were faint and with the slow frame rate they seemed randomized from one frame to another, like snapshots of static on an old television.

In the last three frames, just as his arms rose up, the “teeth” appeared from around the edge of the hole. They were small at first, then bigger with a second and third row, then huge with several overlapping circles and arcs. It was like looking into a tunnel-shaped, circular buzz saw.

Tom cropped an image that showed just the hole with the teeth. Like that it looked almost abstract, like something that might be found in a tattoo on a gang member. Tom asked for an internet search for the cropped image. A number of pictures of wheels and clip art dingbats came up, as well as some images from an assortment of science fiction films.

Eliminating all of those results, there were a handful of images which looked similar. One image was centered in a pentagram. Another appeared to be an ancient cave drawing. The final match was from a wood cut dating back to eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. Tom filed the images for future reference.

The phone rang. Tom saw that it was the security company and put the call on speaker. He also started his own recording of the call, without benefit of the mandatory warning beeps.

“This is Tom Tiernan. Who’s this?”

“Mr. Tiernan, this is Jason again. You asked me to call you back.”

“Thank you for calling back, Jason. And please call me ‘Tom’. I don’t think we need to stand on formalities at this point.”

“Okay, Tom, no worries. How are you feeling now? Did the paramedics give you a clean bill of health?”

“Yes, they’re gone now. Thank you for calling them earlier. Jason, it sounds like this call is being recorded. I’m assuming that our previous call was recorded as well. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir, that is correct. All of our calls are recorded, there’s no way to shut that off.”

“That’s fine. I’m wondering who has access to those recordings, since I’m very concerned about my private security. I’m sure you know what I mean.”

“Yes, sir, I understand completely. Absolute customer privacy is a cornerstone of our company’s services, so we have extensive safeguards to make sure that all records are kept private. As I’m sure you’re aware, we’re required by law to keep all recordings, video, audio, and data, but unless there’s a court order, no one outside of the company except you can access them. Inside the company, only the agent handling an incident and their direct supervisors are allowed access, and that access occurs only in certain very restrictive circumstances. Per your instructions, I’ve marked this incident as ‘closed’ and set the security levels on all of the related data so that even a supervisor shouldn’t be able to access it without getting written permission from you in advance.”

“Thank you, Jason. And this is a secure line?”

“Yes, sir, as secure as they can be given the track record of the NSA and associated governmental agencies. If anyone is listening in, it would be them, but I’m not aware of anything that’s happened that might trigger any of their systems.”

“Well, there were certain things in that video that they might be interested in, but we’ll just have to hope that it’s too far out into the Twilight Zone to be something that they would be setting triggers for.”

“That would be my assessment as well. Um, Tom? Can I speak freely?”

“Jason, I insist that you do. I don’t know what’s going on and we don’t know each other, but we’re in this together and we’ll need to trust each other. A huge part of that is communication, so it’s critical that we not hold anything back from each other. What is it?”

“Tom, pardon the figure of speech here, but… what the fuck is going on? Unless you’re pulling the greatest practical joke in the world on me, something happened two hours ago that is way, way off the scale for bizarre. I’m really hoping that you’re going to tell me that I’m being punked and there are cameras hidden here someplace. Ha, ha! Right? Ollie ollie oxen free, the jokes over, right?

“Tom? I’m doing my best not to lose it here. I’ve been trying to carry on as best I could for the last two hours, but if that video wasn’t doctored or some kind of special effects clip, something seriously fucking wrong is going on here!”

“Jason, just take a breath or two,” Tom said, trying to make sure the situation didn’t spin out of control. “Calm down. It won’t help either of us to panic. Besides, if there’s an evil, ravenous, interdimensional, piranha black hole lurking about, it’s in my house, not yours. Right?”

Jason took a minute to avoid hyperventilation. Tom could hear a couple of choking sounds, but then it sounded like Jason was pulling it together again. Slowly the heavy panting that Tom could hear got quieter.

“Okay, sorry about that, Tom. I think I’m better. I just had to get that out, it’s been tough holding it in with no idea what’s happening.”

“I understand. I don’t know if it makes it any better or not, but I can assure you that I’m just as freaked out as you are with that video. If it’s fake, and I’m not saying it might not be, I didn’t have anything to do with making it. If any reality TV hosts with hidden cameras pop up there, tell them to let me off the hook also. In the meantime, let’s assume that the video is real and we’ve got to deal with it.”

“Right. Deal with it. Any ideas how we do that?”

“Not yet, but I’m working on it. My first concern is keeping an extremely low profile and staying off of everyone’s radar. I think that it’s absolutely critical that this doesn’t go any further than you and I for right now. I do not want to get locked up in a loony bin or on some unmarked Navy ship because Homeland Security hears about it and freaks out. Agreed?”

“Yeah, that seems reasonable. I can get onboard with that plan.”

“Good. I’ve got everything here locked down as tightly as I can for a high-end private residence and home business IT setup. Security at your end is better, but you’ve also got more people with potential access. I’m leaving it up to you to make sure that things stay secure there. Can you handle that?”

“Yes, I’ll keep it locked down and I won’t raise any flags while doing it. Good plan, I’m on it.”

“Okay, Jason, the next thing I need you to do is to go over that video pixel by pixel to see what’s there and if there’s anything that we’re missing. First of all, check to see if you can tell if it’s faked. If it is, I think we have a much less dangerous situation to deal with and a whole different set of questions to ask. I’m sure that you have access to much better software toys than I do for that sort of thing. Just don’t do it at work and keep it quiet.”

“I can do that as well. I’m off for the next two days so I’ll start that. What are you going to do?”

“I did some fast and dirty analysis on the images in the video and that gave me a couple of long shot things to track down. For one of them I’m going to need to talk to someone, a distant relative. She’s way off the net, so I’ll have to see her in person. I’ll let you know when that happens, since I think the two of us need to stay in close contact on this thing.”

“Tom, I thought you said we had to keep this between just the two of us for now. Who is this you’re going to tell about it, and why?”

“She’s a crazy, old great aunt who lives off in the boonies in Colorado. I won’t tell her any details, but I remember her telling all sorts of weird stories when I was a kid. My parents and the rest of the family finally told her to stay away from all of us. I haven’t seen her in twenty years and I don’t even know if she’s still alive. But I haven’t heard that she’s dead, so I’ll try to track her down.”

“It’s something I guess. Let me give you my phone number so that you can reach me outside of work.”

“Sure.” Tom wrote entered the number he was given into his phone. “And Jason… You’ve got all of my personal data from my account there. I’m sure that you’ve made a copy of it for yourself by now, whether the rules allow it or not, and that’s fine. It’s what I would do in your position. On the other hand, I don’t know anything about you other than your first name. Can you fill me in?”

“Oh, right. I’m Jason Kosta, from Glendale.”

“How old are you, Jason?”

“Twenty-nine, I’ll be thirty on December ninth.”

“My son is about your age. Do you have a family, Jason?”

“My parents and two older brothers are all back east, around the D.C. area. I don’t have anyone out here with me. I just got the job here when I got out of the service and stuck around because the weather’s nice. And I like to surf. Not much of that in Maryland.”

“Okay, good enough for now. Let’s check in with each other tomorrow. I’ll call you before noon, unless I have to head out of town, in which case I’ll call you as soon as I know where I’m going. You call me if you get any information or if you don’t hear from my by noon. Have you got that?”

“Got it, Tom. Two last questions though. Do you think that the video is real? And if it is, is that thing dangerous?”

“If I were a betting man I wouldn’t give it more than a one in ten chance of being real. But you don’t bet with your brains, you bet with your gut. That’s why they sell so many lottery tickets with really lousy odds. My gut has the odds closer to fifty-fifty.

“If it’s real, I want to be really cautious because I don’t know if it’s dangerous or not. I’ve been working in the hard sciences for a long, long time and I’ve never heard of anything like that. If we didn’t have the video as evidence I would just assume that what happened was some kind of hallucination or optical illusion. Even with the video it might turn out to be that.

“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and jump to any conclusions. As Carl Sagan said, ‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.’ We could make ourselves look very stupid very fast with this. I would like to avoid that.”

“Who’s Carl Sagan?” Jason asked.

“Really, Jason? Do me a favor. Before you work on analyzing the video, google him. Anything else that you can think of?”

“No, sir. My brain is fried and I’m off in ten minutes. I may go home and have a drink and avoid thinking for the rest of the night.”

“Good plan. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Jason.”

Tom got up and cooked a simple dinner in the microwave. As he settled down to try to track down any information on his ancient, crazed aunt, he found himself involuntarily glancing up at the ceiling periodically. He wondered if he would be able to see another invisible disk if it appeared, now that he thought that he knew that they existed. Of course, he never saw anything.

It finally occurred to Tom that instead of watching the room, he should watch the cat, since the cat had apparently seen the thing, whatever it was. She was the equivalent of the old canary in a coal mine. But she slept calmly all evening, oblivious to any interdimensional portal invasions.