kurofai | [TEAM FUTURE] (BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA) CHOOSE A DOOR (Reply)

Title: CHOOSE A DOOR
Prompt: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Rating: PG
Warnings: Language

(All door choices lead to pretty much the same ending, but some are longer than others. But consider yourself warned, if you do make the wrong door choices, this thing is fucking long! This may be obvious but if you get stuck, try a different door.)

Enter your cut contents here They materialized in a hallway that was far too small for such a feat. As the portal closed, they were thrown against the walls and ended up in pile on the linoleum floor. They sat up and looked around. At one end of the narrow hallway stood a number of doors on either side with long thin screens built into them . Moving pictures flashed back and forth. Mokona jumped up onto the windowsill behind them. Looking out they saw tall buildings with row upon row of windows and a street with little tiny cars moving back and forth. In the distance there was a big patch of green field that looked rather inviting.

“Wow! It looks like Mokana’s world!” he said with glee. “But Mokana doesn’t feel Yuko’s presence. Very strange indeed!” They heard someone coming up the stairs behind them.

A middle aged man with safety goggles on came running up the stairs and stared at them in disbelief.

“Who are you?" He took the goggles off, "how did you get in here? This is a secure area of the lab. What the hell are you even wearing? ” The man had a thick Scottish accent, and it took a moment for them to understand him. Fai looked over at Kurogane, the man didn't look hostile, but they could never be too careful.

“We’re travelers ...” Fai began, “We um ... came here from ... from far away. ” Fai was trying with all his might to avoid a confrontation.

"I really must demand an explanation. I was downstairs and my instruments started going crazy as if someone had teleported just above me. Wait … did ... did you teleport here?"

“Well sort of. You have teleports here?” Fai ventured.

“Well of course. Where did you come from? Wait ... from a different time? From the future?” his eyes widened in amazement.

Fai thought fast. He decided to just go with the assumptions, less questions that way.

“Yes, we are from the future.”

"But that wasn't a normal teleport. That was, right out of thin air. That's not the same teleport technology we have. I mean, I know it will be different in the future, but how could you not even know about our teleports, do you even know where you are? Or should I say 'when' you are?"

"No, no we don't. We don't have a whole lot of information about where or… when this is." Fai looked around his companions. He was floundering for an explanation.

"Oh god this is amazing. I am receiving the first time travelers. I feel so honored. Forgive my manners. This is a secure a facility, you must understand my concern. Anyway, I’m Dr. Rory Mitchell, head of the applied topology department, and you have just arrived in the year 2038, in London, at Imperial College to be exact. ” He shook each of their hands in turn. They just gawked at him. They had never had someone receive them so openly.

Syaoran was the first to speak. He introduced himself and the others, "I'm Syaoran, this is Sakura, Fai and Kurogane." He gestured to each of them.

"Not to be vain, but it appears as though you have not heard of standard teleportation during this time. I was in the founding group and have devoted my life to developing this technology. Has my work had so little of the impact on the future? Do they not have spatial teleports in the future?"

"Well I'm not sure. You see, we come from a very distant part of the future. Things are very different.” Fai began.

“Yeah,” Syaoran jumped in, “We’ve just lost a lot of the information about the past.”

Fai was grateful to for Syaoran’s quick thinking.

“Oh my god! What happened? Was it an atmospheric gas storm? Did it all finally catch fire?”

“Well I’m not um ...”

“No, no you’re right, don’t tell me, that might cause a paradox, you’re so right. But god I’m so curious, no, no, you’re right." He looked at them as if he didn’t know what to do, so he decided to do what any good Scotsmen would do. "Um... can I get you some tea?”

~~~~~~

They sat around a small table in an office holding brightly colored mugs of earl grey tea.

“So" the Dr. said, sitting down next to them "why have you come here? I assume there is a reason?”

“We are looking for something. A feather.” Syaoran pulled out a drawing from his pack and handed it to Dr. Mitchell. He took it and stared for a long time.

“Yes, I have seen this before. It’s been 10, 15 years. It showed up off the coast of California, well, what was California. A surfer found it during a lightning storm. He said that all the lightning was being funneled into it. Called the police. Most of them thought it was either an experiment from North Korea or an alien artifact, so they called U.C. Berkley. Had a radiology team take it away. They never did figure out what it was.” He looked over at them. “Why? Was it important?”

“What do you mean ‘was’?” Kurogane snapped.

“Well I’m sorry mate, but your feather, most likely, is no more. Berkley was destroyed along with the rest of the California in the Megaquake. It might even be underwater by now.”

“But, we have to get that feather.” Fai insisted.

“Does it have some significance?” A look of realization came over his face. “Wait, are you... are you trying to stop whatever it is that ends this civilization? Oh dear me. This is terrible. The world's first time travelers have come to me, I can't even help them. How useless. ”

“You said you had teleports right? Could we teleport there before it was destroyed?”

“Berkeley disbanded their teleport projects well before the feather was found. The only way you could get to Berkley would be to force an opening in the present time, but that would be suicidal. Besides,” He looked them as if they had lost their minds, “you are TIME TRAVELERS. You can travel in TIME. Just go back to 2027 and get the feather, easy peasy.”

"No, see, we only get one shot. We can't travel again until we get the feather." Syaoran tried to explain.

"Oh, does the feather have something to do with your teleportation technology? How does that work anyway? Let me guess … it has something to do with bending space time." That he looked at them expectantly.

The truth was they had no idea how it worked. They had all assumed it was some sort of magic. Thankfully, Mokana piped up.

"Yuko uses the laws of space-time displacement to take us from here to there. She's very good like that."

"Space-time displacement laws? What are those? And for that matter, what exactly are you? A robot? Or do other animals gain sentience in the future? Wait… if you tell me that may create another paradox. This is going to be somewhat hard. Perhaps I should stop asking questions."

"That would be helpful." Kurogane was glaring at the Dr.

"It might be helpful if you tell us how your teleports work." Fai looked over at Syaoran. He was hoping they could come up with a plan if they had more information.

"Oh yes of course! That would be helpful. Well, as I'm sure you already know, it's possible to fold space. We sit on a membrane," he picked up a piece of thin screen and began to draw on it, "like this piece paper-tablet. Normally if we want to go from here," he drew a little house on the screen, "to here," he drew another house on the other side of the screen, "we have to take the straightforward path and travel along the paper," he drew a dotted line from one house to the other. "But if we cheat we can make the journey much shorter." He folded the screen in half until the houses were touching. "Technically speaking it's a worm hole, but only a temporary one, not like the ones you find in space."

Fai was quickly regretting his question.

"After we learned how to manipulate space-time well enough to fold it," the doctor continued, "the only real problem was figuring out how to connect two overlaid portions of the space-time fabric. Now this is where our methods seem to differ." He looked over at Mokona, "We use entangled electrons to link the two points in space-time. Entangled particles have the unique property of being non-causally connected, so as long as we keep their wave format from collapsing, we can link two points in space-time which otherwise aren't causally connected. Holding the particles in a non-collapsed state is where everything seems to go wrong. You see, you can't simply stop them, because that would determine their velocity and consequently everything else. So we developed a sort of race track for them to run along while we set up the teleport. The problem is that these things travel at almost the speed of light, and even with a massive magnetic field, you can only get those little buggers to spin so much before you run out of track and the teleport dissolves. We found that the connection lingers and if you send another set of particles through you can reestablish it, but that means you have to reestablish a connection about every 5 seconds, which is completely impractical. Besides, the amount of magnetic field needed to sustain the connection is somewhat hazardous. The medical limit for magnetic exposure is 300 Gauss per hour. This is about a mega Gauss per second, not to mention the completely unknown side effects of traveling through space in that manor, so clearly health and safety had an issue with it. Right now we are trying to find a better way of sustaining the particle. In fact I was just working on that.” He gestured to the stairs he had come up earlier.

The entire group looked at him with completely blank expressions. They hadn’t understood a single word he had said.

Syaoran was the first to speak, “So, you said something about forcing an opening to this … Berkley place?”

“Well yes, in theory you could forcibly reestablish a connection, but Berkley’s been abandoned. I mean, think about that for a minute. It was a linear accelerator, a NUCLEAR facility, and then there was an earthquake and it was abandoned. Not the kind of place you just want to mosey on into. Not to mention the fact that it might be underwater by now. He picked up the screen he had been using and wrote something on it. “Let’s see if we can’t get satellite images of this. See, see this is L.A.” He turned the screen towards them. It showed buildings empty and half destroyed; concrete everywhere and a fire blazing in the distance. “That’s from three years ago, last time anybody went out there.” He pushed more things around on the screen. “Well, Berkley is only partially submerged, but still, you don’t want to go there, that’s the most dangerous place I could possibly think of to go. I mean, maybe aside from North Korea, but that was kind of their own faults.”

“We HAVE to get that feather.” Fai was trying to bargain with him.

“You’re stuck,” he said empathetically, “as betwixt the devil and the deep blue sea." He sighed.

Sakura tried to use her never ending charm, “Please, we have to get that feather back. Is there anything at all that can be done?”

It worked, “Well I mean, I’m not saying it’s not possible, just that it would be extremely dangerous and foolhardy and ...” He looked into his empty tea cup for a few long seconds, then looked up at Syaoran. “How much are you willing to risk getting this feather?”

Syaoran looked him straight in the eye, “I am willing to risk everything.”

He looked back into his tea cup. “I can’t help you. I would like to, but …” He looked over at Sakura. “I have a wife and a daughter that need me. I mean, operating all of that equipment for such a sustained amount of time under such unsustained conditions is a risky venture. Not to mention that I could lose my job and my credentials. I know that makes me sounds like such a coward, but with academics being so close to the economic cliff anyway…I can’t put my family at risk like that. I want my little girl to have a decent life, not end up in some boarding camp. She’s only 7.” He looked back to Kurogane and Fai. “You must understand.” Fai nodded and Kurogane just sighed. “But I won’t hinder you either. I’ll show you how to use the equipment and give you what help I can.” He smiled apologetically.

“Thank you.” Sakura smiled sweetly back at him.

“No time like the present.” He stood and motioned them to follow him.

They entered a concrete room full of unfamiliar machinery. Fai had grown accustomed to advanced electronics from the numerous other technologically advanced civilizations he had been to, but this place caught him off guard. Piffel world was the only thing that came close, but Piffel’s machines had been tailored and crafted to be pleasing to the eye, to look good and fit in with everyday life. Fai knew that there was steel and wires until it all, but it still felt natural.

This room was about the furthest thing from natural that Fai could imagine. Everything felt raw. There were no windows. The walls were cinderblock and the ceiling was open, exposing the metal and wooden beams. Most of the room was filled with tall metal frames with boxes of dials and knobs and screens and tiny wires that wrapped around everything. Wires ran from giant metal boxes up across the ceiling disappearing into the dark hall. There were yards of black cables taped to the floor with black and yellow mats running over them. Everything looked sharp and uninviting. It was like they had stepped into the belly of a giant mechanical beast. Fai shuddered.

Dr. Mitchell led them further into the room and around a stack of monitors and a giant panel of buttons to a small clearing against the wall. There were 5 little metal doorframes with a winding glass halo above them and copper wires wrapping down the sides. There was nothing on the other side of the doors, just the cinderblock wall. There wasn’t even enough room to step through.

There was a small black chair with wheels on the bottom and an ugly orange cushion on it resting behind them that Dr. Mitchell haphazardly pulled over to the monitors and sat on. He pushed buttons in quick secession and the monitors blinked to life, numbers and lines quickly filling them up.

“Ok, the system will take a while to warm up and I’ll talk you through its operation.” Dr. Mitchell walked over to one of the doors. “This,” he ran his hand along a metal tube that fed into the glass halo on top of the door frame, “is our ion generator. It’s fairly compact and self-shielding, so there’s nearly no exposure. Definitely not enough to worry about.” He tried to give them a reassuring look, but it was only making them more uneasy. “And then when it’s triggered, a single electron is released into the glass vacuum tube. It’s maintained for about 5 seconds give or take. When it dissipates, the teleport will close and another electron will have to be released. The unfortunate part is it is very difficult to keep the same electron to electron connection sustained over multiple iterations. In other words, if there is more than one door open on the other side, where the parallel electron is being held, when a new electron is released over here, it may not connect to the door over there that is was presently connected to.” He glanced back, searching for acknowledgement of their understanding but was met with blank and confused stares. “In other words, if there is more than one door open at once, it might switch connects every 5 seconds or so.”

“Oh god,” Syaoran was beginning to realize the full magnitude of the task they were about to undertake.

“Yeah, and to make matters worse,” the Dr. looked regretfully at them, “you might want to try and limit the number of times you pass through the teleports.”

“Why, what happens?” The severity of their situation was now dawning on Kurogane as well.

“Well, as I was saying earlier, the level of magnetic field that is required to maintain the electron in such a tight configuration for even for 5 seconds is rather significant, on the order of a mega Gauss or so. It’s very carefully balanced, so you won’t have any problem taking metal through it,” He gestured to Kurogane’s weapons, “but the human brain is amazingly sensitive to magnetic fields. Repeated passes through a field this strong, even though it’s balanced, will still upset the ionic balance in the human brain. In particular it wreaks havoc with your … pineal gland I believe it is, which acts as a sort of compass for the rest of your brain and has a larger quantity of iron atoms. Under the influence of the magnetic field, these atoms can get skewed, which can lead to general confusion and disorientation, nausea and vomiting, and eventually loss of consciousness. As if this wasn’t enough,” He took he glasses off and cleaned them out of nervous habit as he continued as, “The magnetic levels need to be maintained or the electron’s energy can be deposited into the vacuum tube causing it to explode. We aren’t talking any kind of nuclear explosion here, just an electrical one, but it would be enough to seriously injure or kill anyone within a few feet in addition to rendering the entire apparatus useless.” The Doctor paused to let them take this in. All 5 of them were now very aware of the fact they were in way over their heads, for about the hundredth time in the last few months, yet this seemed a million times more frightening. Mostly cause they didn’t have any idea what they were doing. “Let me see if I can bring up a map of the facility. It was under U.S. government protection at the end there, so there may not be much in the way of layouts, but let me take a look.” He sat back down in the chair and began pushing buttons again. Soon several of the screens were filled with layouts and photographs of buildings.

A bell started ringing outside the door of the lab. Dr. Mitchell looked up, “Shit, that’s the 30 minute warning bell. I have to go soon, or I could get in trouble.” He looked up at the top monitor. “Ok it’s almost done warming up, should be ready to run soon.” He turned to face them. “Are any of you good with computers?”

They stared at him for a few moments. Syaoran contemplated putting forth his experience with hieroglyphs, but Mokona popped out from Fai’s hood before he had a chance.

“Mokona can check e-mails!” He jumped onto the Doctor’s lap.

“Ok,” the doctor said hesitantly, “I think we can work with that.” He put Mokona down on the panel and pointed to the top screen, “This screen shows what doors you have open. When it says open, the electron is in the vacuum tube and everything is connected properly. It will tell you when it’s not open. Here are the coordinates for the targeted location of connection.” He pointed to a little box of numbers on the next screen over. “All of this runs automatically so you shouldn’t have to do anything … hopefully. Over here,” He pointed to a red switch under a plastic casing, “is the emergency off switch. If you flip it, the power to the whole building will be cut. It turns everything off immediately. This is probably the best way to power everything off when you are done, but when you flip this, you can’t turn anything on again, so obviously, use discretion. Make sense?” He looked down at Mokona, who nodded, then back up to the rest of the group. “Ok, now all we have left is to do is try and force a connection to Berkley.” He sat down again and started pushing more buttons.

Syaoran walked up to the monitor the maps where on and tried to make sense of it. “Do you know where we will be teleporting to?” He addressed the Doctor.

“I wish I could tell you, but the only guarantee I can make is that it will be somewhere in the Berkeley National Lab’s accelerator facility because that’s the only place they had teleports. Other than that I have no control over which one it picks.” He continued rapidly pushing buttons. “But I can wager a guess as to where this feather of yours would be.” A glimmer of hope sparked in Syaoran’s eyes as the Doctor enlarged one of the maps on a bigger monitor.

“There are 3 main buildings in the accelerator sections, well 4 if you count the start-up building.” He pointed on the map. “All of them have doors in them on various floors, but this one,” he pointed at a long rectangular building at the far right of the map, “is where the main lobby is located. This is the most likely location for the feather. I know they had it displayed there for a while, but I can’t say for certain it’s still there.” He gave Syaoran an apologetic look.

“No, this helps a great deal. Mokona is able to sense the presence of the feather, so together with that, we should be able to locate it.” Syaoran said as he inspected the map more closely.

The doctor looked down at Mokona in astonishment, “How… no, we have to get this door open.” He went back to typing.

“So, Syaoran, the manjuu and I will go through and try to locate the feather. Fai, you and Sakura stay here and make sure this thing doesn’t blow up.” Kurogane said, eyeing the teleport, which was now making a high-pitched humming noise.

“Ok, this is my favorite part, watch the doors.” He doctor directed their attention to row of door frame. The concrete behind them was starting to look wavy, the way things do on a very hot day. After a moment it literally started to twist in on itself and tighten and constrict. Sparks flew from the copper around the frames and then the insides of the doors turned a hazy gray blue that looked like lake water after a snow storm. “Beautiful isn’t it?” the doctor looked at them like a painter would a masterpiece. His admiration was broken by the sound of another bell. His eyes went wide and he jumped up from his seat. “Oh shit, that’s the 5 minute warning, I have to go.” He ran over to another desk and grabbed his bag, shoving papers into it. He looked back at them. “Oh god you are going to need some torches.” He ran over to a tall metal cabinet, pulled out 4 heavy metal flashlights and dropped them into Kurogane’s arms.

He grabbed his bag and turned to face the travelers. “It was … an incredible privilege to meet you. I’m so sorry that I can’t help you more. I will pray to whatever god is left watching over earth that you find your feather. Good luck.” With that he turned and ran out the door.

~~~

Kurogane dropped the flashlights on the table and looked at his companions. “Syaoran, you know how to use one of these right?” He picked it up and threw it at Syaoran.

He caught it and turned it around a few times, finally pushing the little rubber button at the end. The light shone brightly into his eyes and he turned it to face away from him before clicking it off again.

Well so far so good. Kurogane looked over at Fai. “You got it covered over here?” Fai nodded and Sakura gave her most encouraging smile. He looked back at Syaoran. “You ready?”

“Yeah.” Syaoran walked over to the panel and picked up Mokona, putting him inside his coat. He walked over and stood in front of the row of doors. “What does the monitor say?”

“It says ‘open.’” Fair reported.

“Yeah, but which one?” Kurogane was quick to reply.

“All of them from the looks of it.”

“Well which one goes to Berkley?” Sakura said from the chair in front of the panel.

“I don’t know,” Syaoran replied. “Maybe all of them do?”

“Let’s just pick one, we’re wasting time.” Kurogane said impatiently.

CHOOSE A DOOR: 1 2 3 4 5
(Each door is a hyperlink to the next part of the story!)

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[TEAM FUTURE] (BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA) CHOOSE A DOOR

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