The Displacement - Ch. 5

5. Destination Unknown

              In the dead center of the multiverse lies a dimension that some big-wig Skaylian scientists have named Floating Space. It’s not a very large dimension -- in fact, as some of those same big-wig Skaylian scientists have postulated, the force of all the other dimensions rotating around it is causing it to shrink. It’s not very welcoming, either. There are no habitants, save for a number of friendly dust clouds and a few surprisingly hospitable sparks of dimensional discharge. Needless to say, then, Floating Space doesn’t receive too many visitors, and those who do pass through are usually quick to leave. It’s a bit like Earth, really -- filthy, dangerous, uncongenial, and generally unpleasant.

              That, however, changed no part of the fact that when Nes found himself flying through the lurid dust clouds of Floating Space -- for this, as fate would have it, was the dimension that Lyle Pillar had chosen to use for the whole Flume business -- he was in no way calmed. As the mushy world of purplish matter and flickering sparks swirled sickeningly around his pod, he found himself thinking the same four words of most who behold Floating Space for the first time.

              “I’m... going... to... HURL!”

              For him, the statement may well have held some truth -- he was flying at such an impossible speed, with so much G-force crushing him against his seat, that he was having trouble keeping that energy bar down. Under the sheer pressure, his cheeks flapped loosely as he grimaced. He imagined what he must have looked like at that moment and would have chuckled if he weren't so terrified.

                Just when it seemed like Nes could no longer bear the pressure, the pod came to a sudden halt and the G-force relented completely. The change was so great that he felt as if he’d just dropped a hundred pounds. After a few moments of heavy breathing, he was able to focus clearly enough to take a quick stock of his new surroundings -- but this only further confused him. Had he known any inkling about any other dimensions outside of his own, he would probably have recognized his surroundings immediately, and, more than likely, would have said something along the lines of “Well, this is Floating Space, alright. Good thing I read so much Sorrell Rackwaker.”

NOTE FOR RESEARCHERS:

Who, you may ask, is Sorrell Rackwaker? Well, first of all, I don’t blame you for not knowing. Most people don’t, regardless of where you ask. But, to be more specific, he was Skaylian, he was an author, and he was obsessed with two things: small dogs and the multiverse theory. In his life, he composed a total of six scientific tomes -- five on the latter and the awkward sixth on the former -- before his untimely death at an autographing event, at which he gleefully picked up a border collie, immediately discovered his fatal allergy to dog hair, and promptly keeled over and died of asphyxiation.

              Nes Garrow, of course, had never heard the name Sorrell Rackwaker, and he never would in his entire lifetime. Therefore, the first few words that popped into his mind were a bit less specific; something closer to “Wow. I’m in a big purple cloud. Ooh, look at those flashy things. Am I moving? Oh. I’m not.”

              This thought led naturally to another one that proved much more disconcerting. “I’m stuck here.” Alarm began to grip him, freezing him solid from head to toe. “I’m stuck. In the Flume!”

              Realizing that he was panicking, he silenced himself. For all he knew, this could have been how things were supposed to go. After all, he’d certainly never been through a Flume before. Pillar’s got this, he thought to himself. Everything’s under control.

              In an effort to calm himself, he took to looking out the window. There wasn’t much to see in Floating Space, but it was calming to watch the swirling clouds. It was like staring at a screensaver; he could get lost in it, and, being such an avid thinker, it of course got him to thinking. He found himself recalling a time in his childhood where he had gotten stuck on Space Mountain. If this weren’t supposed to happen, surely it couldn’t be any worse of a problem than that -- just a mere setback, a small glitch.

              But an ugly thought suddenly hit him, and all that calmness faded away. What if this wasn’t part of the plan? He recalled what Pillar had said about the Flumes. He hadn’t mentioned anything about stopping still in a sea of purple fog. Only Scotland. Scotland! That was where he had been told he was going. Not this place, wherever it was! Further still, the past few pods had taken mere seconds to reach their destinations. He had been trapped in this stormy limbo for almost two minutes!

              He took it back. This was worse than Space Mountain. Much, much worse.

NOTE FOR RESEARCHERS:

There are quite a number of differences between Space Mountain and Floating Space, the most prominent among these being that Space Mountain cannot get you killed. On the other hand, Floating Space can, in fact, get you killed. Among the many ways for a Flume passenger to die in Floating Space include asphyxiation in the vacuum of space, being cooked alive by a massive charge of dimensional energy, falling victim to the inescapable clutch of sudden nonexistence in a field of supercharged zerbian particles, and other horrid fates of the like. But Nes did not realize that any one of these unpleasant things could happen to him at any second. All he was really noticing about his being in Floating Space was that he was there, and he did not want to be there.

              Nes searched around frantically for any kind of button or switch that could contact Dr. Pillar, or initiate emergency procedures, or do anything else that could somehow get him out of this, but every inch of the tiny craft’s interior was completely bare. Nothing was there in the pod but the seat and its very distressed occupant.

              “Dear God,” he thought to himself. “What do I do now?”

              As if on cue, the voice of Lyle Pillar suddenly came through an unseen speaker. “Nes! Nes!” he shouted. He sounded worried. That was a good sign -- at least he must have known what was happening. Nes wasted no time in getting to the most pressing of his questions.

              “What the hell’s going on?”

              “I think it's gone wrong!” Pillar said.

              “Great observation, Sherlock Holmes!” he shouted back. “In case you don’t know, I’m not exactly in Scotland right now!”

              “Where are you, then?” asked Pillar frantically.

              “I don’t know!” belted Nes. “Some crazy place with sparks and swirly purple stuff! Please tell me you can explain this!”

              For the longest while, there was silence. Nes bit his fingernails like a little boy as he waited for Pillar’s answer. Finally, it came: “This... is bad.”

              “No way!” screeched Nes, almost in hysteria. “I know it’s bad! Explain it! PLEASE!”

              “Well,” began Pillar, “the only reasonable explanation I can come up with is that the communication between the two Flumes stopped. I don’t know how. The only way that could ever have happened is if it were disrupted by some other frequency and-”

              “Alright!” Nes shouted. “Enough with the nutty professor routine! What do I do to get the heck outta here?”

              “You don’t have to do anything,” commanded Pillar. “Just stay calm! We’re going to try to reverse the process and bring you-”

              His voice was suddenly cut off, replaced with a loud static buzz; after several seconds, however, even this disappeared. All was quiet once again in Floating Space. Nes’s heart began to beat a mile a minute. The worst thing imaginable had just happened. His last connection to the world he knew had been severed!

              “Dr. Pillar?!” he said, as if the man would be able to hear him. “Dr. Pillar? Are you there?” No noise of any kind came out of the speakers. Again he began to look frantically around his pod, beating at every surface his hands could reach, hoping against hope that he would find some switch or button that could turn the communication system back on and restore the scientist’s reassuring voice. As he had before, he found no such thing.

              “Someone!” he yelled. “Anyone! Can you hear me?!” He waited for what seemed like an age, listening for the faintest noise. No response came. He squirmed back against his seat, groaning and grinding his teeth. This silence was going to drive him insane! How long was he going to be stuck here? He wanted out of this pod right now. He wanted to be back on Earth -- at home, in school, anywhere but his current state; trapped in a stormy limbo, held prisoner by this God-forsaken SILENCE!

              At once he realized that he was panicking again. “I’m panicking,” he said to himself. “Stop it. Stop it, Nes. Pillar can handle this. He said he would.” He leaned back and stilled himself, trying with all his might to relax. “Everything’s going to be alright. Everything’s going to be alright. Everything’s going to be alright...” He voiced the words over and over again like a personal mantra, but each time they lost more of their meaning. They were empty, unsure words, and they couldn’t reassure him. Every second felt longer than the last. He waited. He waited some more. He tried to visualize what he assumed would happen at any second now; some force would come from nowhere to drag him backward -- at first slowly and steadily, then eventually with the same mighty speed with which he had first rushed into this no-man’s land, pulling him back through the tunnel and into the welcoming safety of Pillar Enterprises. But as he continued to wait, nothing happened at all.

              He watched as a large orb of light began to form just yards outside his stationary pod. With every second, it grew exponentially; he could hear it crackle as it sparked and flickered. Soon it had grown so large and so close that he could have sworn he felt his hair standing on end.

              “Oh, no,” Nes muttered, his heart beating a mile a minute. “I’m going to fry like an ant!”

              But Nes Garrow was luckier than he would have given himself credit for. Just as he was starting to think that he ought to be saying his prayers, the pod lurched abruptly, and the same feeling of G-force he had felt before began to return like a long-lost friend. By then, it was the last thing he was expecting, and it made him so giddy that he thought he’d burst into tears. Pillar really had done something, and it had worked! He was going to get out of this nightmare! As he flew forward, he heard a muffled boom behind him -- the orb had exploded in a massive jolt of energy. That, had he not begun moving again, would have been the end of him; he knew that for sure. Nes may have never been one to bet the farm on anything metaphysical, but today there was no denying it -- some force or another was on his side.

              His happiness, however, was short-lived, for soon enough he made another realization. “I’m going forward,” he thought. “Not backward.” Wherever he was headed, it certainly wasn’t back to Pillar Enterprises.

              “Britain,” he said aloud. “Just Britain. That’s where Pillar said I was going in the first place. There’s nothing wrong with Britain. I’m going to be OK. I’m going to-”

              His thought was cut off when, out of the blue, the force intensified to a whole new level, crushing him against the back of his seat. Outside the pod, the purple clouds of Floating Space were moving by so quickly that he could no longer make out any individual one. The roar of the pod as it cut through space was nearly deafening, and -- though perhaps it was only his terrified imagination at work -- he swore he could feel the temperature beginning to rise.

              At this point, he didn’t care where he was going. He couldn’t take this for very much longer, or he was going to faint! But his prayers were once again answered when, finally, like angels welcoming him into heaven, a bright light leapt seemingly out of nowhere and enveloped his world completely. The crushing force came to an abrupt halt, and all was once again completely silent.

              For the first few seconds, Nes couldn't see a thing; the blinding radiance forced him to keep his eyes shut. As much as he longed to know what was going on outside his pod, there was no way for him to know. Several long seconds passed. Then, finally, there was a sound -- a sharp crack, like tree branches snapping. It was followed quickly by another nearly identical sound, and then another, and another. The pod was tossed left to right, and the unsettling sensation of falling had begun to overtake him. His mind raced. What on the good, green Earth was happening to him? If it weren't for that dreadful light...

              It was not long before his pod smashed into the hard, unforgiving ground. He let out a cry of panic as the impact jostled him, sending a jarring shockwave upward through his body. But, once all had gone still, he felt no pain anywhere. By some miracle, he had broken nothing. There was one thing, however, that he had yet to do -- open his eyes. Despite his overwhelming curiosity, after all that had happened, something was telling him to keep them shut tight. Whatever those noises and that awful crash had entailed, a smooth ride into a British laboratory could hardly have been a possibility. He had an uneasy feeling that if he opened his eyes, he wouldn’t like what he saw one bit.

              But after several painful seconds, he could take it no longer. For better or worse, he had to see! Nes forced his eyes open in one deliberate jolt, only to be greeted a thick veil of after-images. It was hardly possible to see anything but the dark interior of his pod.

              “Blast it!” he said to himself. Why wouldn’t this cruel world let him see? He blinked as rapidly as he could, doing everything in his power to banish the cursed globs of purple and green. One more second of not knowing, and he’d be a wreck! For all he knew, he could be on the surface of Planet X, surrounded by little green men with blasters raised!

              He gave a short laugh. Planet X. What funny thoughts he was letting himself think today. There was simply no way that--

              He froze mid-thought. A horrible worry had just crept into his brain. He had, after all, just been in a place more alien than any he would ever have thought to exist. In his circumstances, his greatest fear seemed more possible than he would have liked it to be.

              Planet X!

              He slammed his eyes shut again, knowing that he had seen nothing so far; no hard evidence for any alien world. Thoughts like that weren’t good to dwell on, anyway. When he opened his eyes, he would be in Britain. That was all.

              “Please,” he thought to himself, hoping for all he was worth that whatever force in charge of his fate was listening. “I just kissed the girl of my dreams... Please, not Planet X!”

              He forced himself to open his eyes. By then, the fog of after-images had begun to fade. Now was the time. He boldly rose his head, looking out through the window to behold a calm, happy scene of--

              Oh, no.

              The wave of shock that beset him then was almost enough to make him whimper, and he soon found himself wishing he had never even woken up this morning. Whatever he had gotten himself into now, it was certainly not good -- and, indeed, though he may not have quite understood it yet, his current predicament was far worse than Floating Space could ever have hoped to be.

              If he did know one thing, though, it was that this was certainly not Britain.