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When the Sleeper Wakes   by: Kim EM  &   Debra Rachel        ©2001 All rights reserved

Part 03: Discoveries

 

Chapter THREE: DISCOVERIES

When I came to, Elle was helping me to sit up. She hovered over me till she saw that I was once again back in the real world, and said, "Relax, you’re going to be okay."

I weakly looked up and asked, "Did I hear you right? You said that today is Monday the 28^th of August TWO THOUSAND?"

Elle looked me straight in the eye. She paused (for dramatic effect, I’m sure) and said, "Yes, it is. And that puts today some thirty years later than you said you thought it is. That’s, well, it’s been puzzling me. You’re obviously nowhere near thirty years old. So why do you think its Nineteen Seventy?"

I sat back and thought about it for a while. Thirty years... where had I been? This body, it didn’t seem right to me. Could I have been someone else thirty years ago? But that didn’t make sense. How could a person turn into a different one? Still, it would neatly explain why I was unfamiliar in my body. I roused a bit from my speculations to see Elle still standing, calmly waiting for my answer. "It, it just is."

She kept looking at me, waiting for more, I suppose. I retreated back into my head to think some more on this. Why was I not hysterical at the possibility that I was someone else, and had-- somehow-- been changed into the person I now was? Because the thought was so ludicrous? Maybe. It would take a lot more thought, that much I knew. Once I had thought about it a little more I realized that I was going to need help getting some answers, so I decided that I would need to start asking some questions.

I turned to the General, who was sitting unmoving and silent, staring at me as though I were some alien come to visit. From his point of view, maybe I was. Beautiful naked women probably don’t magically appear at Cape Kennedy every day. I giggled at the thought. "General, this "Cape Canaveral Air Force Station", it’s a secure facility, right?"

He opened his mouth, closed it again, shot a quick look at Elle, who gave him a slight nod, and only then did he speak. This Elle must be pretty important to be giving generals orders, I realized. "It’s secure. At least, it’s as secure as it can be with hordes of tourists wandering around every day."

"Tourists?"

"This is still America’s prime launch facility, but NASA and the National Park Service have turned this into one of Florida’s main," he spat out the words, "_tourist attractions_. Right over there," he nodded at one wall, "is the old training center. There’s another busload of tourists stopping there every seven minutes."

Urrm. That meant that just about anyone would have access. Damn. I tried another tack. "This building is secured, right? So there’s no way I should be here without someone knowing about it, right?"

The general thought about it, and Elle backed up to the wall, leaning with her arms folded, interjecting, "You shouldn’t, no." The general nodded in agreement, looking disgruntled.

Well then, General," I continued, "I’d suggest you start asking some pointed questions of your security people. Someone should have an idea where I came from." I looked to Elle, then back to the general. "I want some answers as much as you do. Probably moreso if I took the time to think about it." He rose sullenly and I’d swear he was marching to the door. Some things never change. "General," I asked sweetly. HE stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Do you suppose you could find me something to wear? This ‘toga’ is just a touch drafty."

He seemed about to refuse when Elle jumped in. "I’m sure the general can find you something a bit more stylish." The general huffed a bit, then silently marched out the door. As it closed firmly behind him, she said, "He’s not as bad as all that. I think it’s just what he thinks people expect from generals." She paused a moment and sighed. "It’s a shame, but he really is quite good at what he does."

I looked at her silently for a moment, then, when it was clear she wasn’t going to continue, asked, "Which is what?"

She looked back at me, then said, "It’s a long story, Dear," as the door reopened and a soldier entered sheepishly, carrying a pair of regulation Air Force coveralls. As he handed them to me, Elle said, "These should do for the moment, until we can get you something better."

Elle directed me to the other door, and it proved to e the entrance to a small loo. Upon entering, I quickly shucked off the bedsheet and pulled on the coveralls. Of course, they were too big for me. Typical military, everything is too big or too small. Hey, wait a minute! What did I mean, typical military? When did I, I mean, how did I know... umm...

My mind went blank for a bit as I rolled up the sleeves and legs of the coveralls. No point in letting them drown me. I reached for the door and then stopped suddenly. From the room came the sound of raised voices.

"YOU were supposed to be watching her," the general almost screamed, "How the f- hell did she get out? That door was supposed to be locked and guarded?"

"General," Elle said softly, "remember, the goal is to get your point across," her voice took on a hard edge, "WITHOUT swearing!"

 

Damn. Why couldn’t they stay on the point? This was getting interesting.

The general wasn’t cooperating. Damn. "Without... Damned civilians."

Elle’s voice took on a warning note. "I wasn’t always a civilian, General. And I haven’t forgotten who it is that forced my change in status."

"I felt you were a security risk, and honestly I still do."

"Well then, General, it’s a good thing the President disagrees with you, isn’t it?"

He made with a harrumphing noise, and then belligerently asked, "So what DID happen with the room’s security?"

"I decided, and you concurred if you remember, General, that there shouldn’t be an overt presence. The room was fully monitored with micro-cameras."

"They would have worked one HELL of a lot better if there had been people monitoring them," the general grated.

"General," she sighed, "Helen wasn’t supposed to awaken for another six hours. Had she woken on schedule, everyone would have been in place."

"So now what?"

"I wish I knew, General. This would all be so much easier of we had some idea who she is or how she got into KSC. Her first appearance, in the VAB itself, shook a lot of important people, especially with the Endeavour mission in only two weeks. That one HAS to go..."

The general broke in. "Damnit, ‘L’, I know all about the importance of that mission. And I wish you wouldn’t patronize me by telling me things I already know. " He paused for a moment, as there was the sound of someone moving about. "Look, you don’t like me any more than I like you. Big deal. We have to work together, so we might as well try and cooperate."

The room fell silent at this point, and I thought it might be a good time to re-enter. My brain at this point was overloaded with questions and no answers were coming to mind.

 

An hour or so later, we were in Elle’s car heading west towards Orlando.

"Why Orlando?"

"Why not?" Elle looked my way with a smart-ass grin. I sighed and returned to staring out the side window. After a pause, she started speaking n a serious tone. "Helen, we don’t have any clue who you are, no idea how you got into secure areas of KSC, and especially no idea why."

I interrupted. "I don’t know any more about this than you do! Probably less! I don’t remember a bloody thing about myself. Think what it’s like to wake up naked in a strange country with no idea how you got there, no memory, and no possessions."

"I can imagine. Believe me, I’ve been closer to your situation than I’d normally care to admit."

"What?"

"Maybe I’ll tell you sometime. In the meanwhile, we’re heading for my local office, which is located just outside of Orlando. I want to run a physical on you and see of we can find any abnormalities."

I looked sideways at her, now intent on her driving. "We need to go to Orlando for that? NASA doesn’t have doctors?"

"Oh, they do. It’s just that this physical is going to contain a few non-standard items that I don’t want their doctors to observe."

 

Non-standard? Their doctors? A suspicion began growing in my mind. "You, you don’t really work for NASA, do you?"

"I’m on the NASA payroll as a security officer. But," she paused for effect, "I do have additional responsibilities."

"For?"

"I really can’t say. Not yet anyway."

"Oooooh, that makes me feel so much better." I slid down in my seat and closed my eyes. I still didn’t have any notion what I’d gotten myself involved in, and it didn’t seem as though things would be improving much.

We drove long in silence for another fifteen minutes or so until the land changed from swamps to suburbs, and finally ahead loomed the downtown of a large city. "This is Orlando?"

Elle nodded.

"It’s, it’s different. The Orlando I knew of was a small district, maybe some forty thousand in population?" I sat there gawking at the city.

Elle gave a small laugh and said, "It’s grown a bit over the past thirty years. Between NASA, Disney, and the other attractions, this is now one of the fastest-growing cities in America. I think it’s now fair to call Orlando a major city."

We drove through and out the other side, then exiting the expressway and following several highways towards the south. At one point near the end of our journey we passed some built-up parkland, something Elle called "Universal". A short distance past we turned onto another road and Elle said we were approaching the "Sand Lake" office.

The building looked like a typical suburban office block, and we entered the lobby and rode up to the fifth floor without passing through any security. When I mentioned this to Elle, she grinned wolfishly and said "Our security is somewhat more subtle than that." Whatever that means.

She keyed an unmarked wooden door, totally ordinary from all appearances, and we entered. Inside was what looked like a standard-issue doctor’s office. Elle turned to me and asked me to strip off the borrowed coveralls. "Shouldn’t we wait for the doctor or his staff first?", I asked.

Elle laughed and shook her head. "No staff, not for this. And the doctor is here."

"You?"

"Amazing, isn’t it? Believe it or not, I’m a M.D., graduate of the Medical College of Wisconsin, interned at Doyne Hospital, residency at Bellevue, and practiced for several years as an Assistant Medical Examiner in Manhattan."

My head swam as I looked at her. I’d have sworn from her appearance that she couldn’t be older than about twenty-five. "You- but- you-" I finally gave up and sank to a chair. "How?"

She laughed, a short, bitter, barking sound. "You mean my age? I look too young for all that, short of being Doogie Howser?"

"Who?"

"Never mind. It’s something old and ugly and not worth the explaining."

I looked at her, mindful of how rapidly her mood had shifted, as though an old pain had resurfaced.

Elle turned to a cabinet and pulled out a small metallic gadget. After a moment of fiddling with some controls, she turned and pointed it at me. I must have looked nervous, because she grinned again and said "Don’t worry, it’s not going to hurt you. I’m just scanning for some things." She looked down at a small indicator light on the handle, then looked up at me. "One down."

"What?"

"That was a test looking for mechanical components. You’re not a robot..." I interrupted with a nervous laugh. She said seriously as she put the device aside, "It was a possibility I had to check out."

"That’s possible? Technology’s gone that far?"

"Ummm," she temporized.

"What else did your little gadget tell you?"

She looked directly at me and said, "You’re not wearing a body suit..."

"A WHAT?"

"...and there’s no bionic components," she continued, unfazed, as she drew on a pair of thin latex gloves.

"That means I’m really me?"

"Well, it means we haven’t ruled that out as a possibility yet."

"Yet?"

"Oh, there’s lots of possibilities we haven’t pursued yet," Elle stated as she fiddled around with a small syringe. "Stick out your arm." I did so, and she gave the inside of my elbow a quick swipe with an alcohol wipe. She deftly inserted the needle, drew some blood, and placed a piece of cotton over the puncture. Disposing of the needle into a red plastic container for some unfathomable reason, she plugged the ampoule of blood into the receiving socket on another strange device.

As it started vibrating and whirring, she stripped the gloves and tossed them into a receptacle lined with thin red plastic. What the fascination with red was, I felt without a clue. I stood still, still pressing the cotton to my arm as she stepped to a keyboard and began swiftly typing. The television screen before here displayed her notes. It must have been one of what I recalled from somewhere as the new computers that didn’t need card decks to use.

After a few minutes the device with the blood "dinged" and she stepped over to check it. Her eyes widened in surprise as she read something on a small display panel. "Damn. I would have sworn..." She trained off into silence.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing much. It came up negative."

"What does that mean?"

"I could have sworn it would have shown the presence of HuggleBugs." She sighed. "Back to the drawing board."

"HuggleBugs?"

 

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To Be Continued....

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© 2001 by Kim Em. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.