Through the Rabbit Hole

Bzzzrrt!

Bzzzrrt!

Bzzzr-Thump!

Crack!

“Uuugghh…”

Alex pried his eyes open. Still half asleep, he sat up in his and groaned to himself. Once he had collected his brain properly, he peered over the side of bed to the ground. Apparently, he had miscalculated his hand’s force while reaching to silence his alarm clock, accidentally sending it tumbling off his bed stand to its gravity-induced demise.

“I hate Mondays…” he grumbled to himself. With a sigh, he reluctantly pulled himself from his sinfully comforting covers. The sleep-deprived man reached down to pick up the fallen device. A tired smile grew on his face as Alex tenderly caressed the newest fracture on the digital clock’s display, which somehow still managed to display the time – six-thirty. “You win again old friend,” he said nostalgically. “I swear, I’ll beat you one of these days.

Replacing the device that had tirelessly roused Alex nearly every morning since his university days, he commenced his weekday routine.

Brush teeth – check.

Shower – not applicable; not a shower day.

Work clothes – check.

Check email – check.

Make breakfast – check.

Halfway through his habitual checklist, Alex found himself sitting at his living room table before his rather nice morning meal, five minutes ahead of schedule. French toast and orange juice, instead of the usual milk and bland cereal with ‘bran’ in its title. He always made sure to put the extra effort into his Monday and Friday meals.

Alex took a moment’s respite to appreciate his fine work before bringing his first fork-full of maple syrup-laden French toast to his awaiting lips. But before get a bite of his favourite breakfast into his mouth, the phone rang.

With a grumble, Alex quickly made his way to where he had left phone on the kitchen counter to answer it, and cringed at the caller I.D. He briefly considered just letting it ring, before deciding that ignoring the call would only lead to more problems than answering it. So, with a calming breath to dampen the dark dread deep in his gut, he tapped the ‘voice only’ button.

…

“But mom, I-“

“Don’t talk back to me, Alex. You may have gotten some fancy science job across the pond, but I’m still your mother,” Alex’s mother reprimanded.

“I’m sorry. I’m just saying that I’m not sure that I can accommodate that right now.”

“You’re not sure that- Your father and I haven’t seen you since August, and your brother’s finally finished college. I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you again.” Her tone was gaining force. The thought of sharing a living space with his twin brother again put Alex into a panic.

“Oh, no… You know how much Josh… hates… airline food,” he struggled to come up with something. “And what about Daisy? I seriously doubt that she’d agree to come.”

“Daisy’s old enough to be alone for a couple weeks,” she replied, a hint of doubt in her voice. “I don’t want to hear any more excuses. You’ve been delaying this since spring. We’ve already booked the flights. We’ll arrive at-“ Alex heard the shuffling of papers, “-Berlin Tegel Airport this Friday at ten p.m. You have a guest room, don’t you?” Alex sighed at the prospect of clearing the room of all the equipment he kept in it.

“As a matter o’fact, I do. Is there any more of my privacy you’d like to intrude upon?”

“Don’t act like a child, boy,” she chastised sternly. “It’s just a little family visit. We’ll stay with you for a week in Germany for your birthday, then go off to see the rest of Europe. It’s been so long since I’ve been to Paris.” The scientist knew he had been defeated. He exhaled in frustration.

“Very well, mother. If that is all, then I will have to depart for work in a few minutes to conduct groundbreaking research for the Terran Union that benefits all Mankind,” Alex stated, feeling quite perturbed.

It’s not that he disliked his family; in fact, he loved them quite a lot. It’s just that the physicist couldn’t afford distraction at the moment, as his work was nearing completion – the culmination of nearly a decade of international research and trillions of credits.

“No, I think we’re done for now. You can go play with your scientist friends and your quanta-thingies.” Alex nearly face-palmed. “Wait- hold on, your brother wants to talk to you.”

“I really should get go-“

“Gooten tawg, mine brooder! Comment ça va?” Alex started rubbing his temple with his free hand.

“Good morning, Josh,” he replied testily, when something occurred to him. “Wait, isn’t it, like, one o’clock over there? What are you doing awake?”

“Me? I’m testing dad’s new game. It’s fucking awesome,” Josh said like a hyperactive child, which he was on some level. “As for mom, you know her. She got up specifically to call you in the morning so you’d be thinking about this little visit of ours all day.” Alex could just hear the smirk on his face. Of course she did.

“Listen Josh, I have to go to work now.”

“Alrightee then. Hey, remember to pick up dad’s game. It comes out in a couple weeks.”

“You know I always do.”

“And you know that I’m always better at them than you.”

“Goodbye, Josh.”

“Say Alex, have you gotten another girlfriend yet? I hear Germany’s got some pretty fine-”

Alex hung up on his infuriating twin. He could hardly believe that they were composed of virtually identical genetic material. Alexander Weaver, a world-class quantum physicist employed by the Unified Terran Space Programme, and his brother Josh, who had taken six years to finish community college, and known by most as the town womanizer. The worst part was that Alex knew his brother could be better if he tried. Josh may have had less academic conviction than Alex, but had a mathematical intuition rivalling, and even surpassing that of the physicist’s (though it pained him to admit it).

Alex tore himself away from those previously explored thoughts and turned his concentration to the task at hand; namely getting out the door before he was late for work. He grimaced as he looked back to his forgotten breakfast. Alex hated wasting good food. He took his keys from their spot hanging on the wall next to his house’s front door, and made his way out to the drive way.

The early-morning sun was shining, warming the crisp, German autumn air. Squirrels frolicked on the physicist’s pristine lawn, and a jet flew past over the suburban terrace from the nearby military base.

“Eichhörnchen. Düsenflugzeug. Rasen,“ Alex muttered to himself, acclimating his brain for speaking German for the rest of the day, even as he focused on not thinking about all the things that could still go wrong with his work. He sighed.

Well, my day’s already ruined. It’s not like it could get much worse, he thought to himself as he approached his car.

<~.~.~</^>~.~.~>

“Power con?”

“Mana flow nominal.”

“Control con?”

“All control runes functioning and calibrated.”

“Targeting con?”

“Near-Equus body telemetry triangulated from Manehattan, Vanhoover, and Appleloosa observatories.”

“Manipulation surface?”

“Translocation sigil is responding as predicted.”

Deep in the Canterlot Caverns, a large, dark chamber sat, illuminated only by a series of glowing, intricate symbols carved into the stone floor. In the centre of the ceiling, a green crystal about a metre in length hung suspended by a thick chain and several wires and cables interfacing with it. The vault itself was circular in shape, approximately fifty metres in diameter. A smaller, brightly lit control room connected to the chamber, separated by three inches of magically reinforced glass.

Twilight Sparkle, along with several researchers wielding quills and clipboards, stood gazing into the vault. A dozen unicorn technicians manned mechanical consoles, controlling and monitoring different parts of the hidden mechanism via needle gauges and plotter readouts. The two alicorn sisters stood close to the entrance opposite to the observation window, looking expectantly to Twilight.

Princess Celestia sat on her haunches, trying to maintain focus, despite the noticeable bags forming under her eyes. Princess Luna, however, was leaning forward on all four hooves and appeared to be brimming with anticipation, a giddy excitement in her eyes.

“Then begin the countdown again,” Twilight ordered with a hint of frustration, “And this time, let’s make sure the tracking system doesn’t lose power before transport.”

“Starting five minute countdown to translocation sigil initiation.”

“Capture manifold charging normally.”

“Remembering to activate tracking system power regulator.”

The technicians sounded off from around the control room in sequence, the last a little sheepishly.

Satisfied with the reports, Twilight turned from the observation window to head back toward the other princesses. The sound of her hooves’ clopping on the concrete floor mixed with the steadily increasing pitch of the hum emanating from the now-pulsating crystal on the other side of the glass.

“Don’t worry, princesses. I’m sure it will work this time. Eighteenth time’s the charm, right?” The violet alicorn asked hopefully. Luna nodded enthusiastically, while Celestia smiled kindly and placed a gilded hoof on her former pupil’s shoulder.

“Twilight, I still stand by what I said when I agreed that your idea of capturing a meteoroid was a wonderful idea, and you have done a wonderful job planning the project. And in only two months, as well. But a good administrator should know when to cease.” Twilight moved to object, but the solar princess cut her off. “Just for tonight. We’ve been at it for over five hours, and it’s nearly two in the morning. We can try again in the morning.” She tried not to let her growing exasperation show. Twilight only continued with her objection.

“But Luna’s alignment spell won’t last much longer! We might not have until morning!” She blurted out. She stopped herself before accidentally going on a rant, so Princess Luna came to her defence while the young alicorn recomposed herself.

“’Tis true. I can sense the enchantment degrading. Once it fails, the meteoroid will move out of the machine’s targeting range.”

“And we won’t get another chance like this for months,” Twilight said far more calmly, though still urgently. “If we can capture this body, it could tell us so much about the Universe, and even our own world. It could even be the first step for ponies to leave our atmosphere into the Ether!” Celestia gave a small sigh, though still wore a soft smile.

“Two minutes until transport, your Highness.”

“Yes, Twilight, I was present at your powerpoint. Believe me, I am just as fascinated with the idea of studying a heavenly body as everypony else. Well…” she glanced beside her to Luna, who was appeared rather distraught by the notion of giving up their effort. “In any case, even if we lose this opportunity, there will be others. A year is practically no time at all to wait for a project like this. And we can always go with ‘Plan B’ and get the trebuchet out of storage to launch some boulders. We never did get to give our new machine here a proper field test.”

“I suppose…”

“And speaking of the machine, it looks like it could use a break as well.” Twilight turned around to observe the sigil chamber. Instead of the steady hum it had been producing at the beginning of the night, it was now erratic, its pitch occasionally dropping and wobbling before continuing its climb. The light from the crystal, too, seemed to flicker every few seconds. “We wouldn’t want to break Luna’s new favourite toy, now, would we?” the Solar Princess smiled, and Luna’s expression grew concerned once again.

“One minute, your Highness.”

“Twilight, please promise me that this will be our last attempt for tonight.” Celestia concluded her speech. The lavender princess looked around the room. The ponies manning the consoles did look quite fatigued from their long night of work, though she knew none would dare complain. A good many of them had tasted her ire the time it had taken them a week to weed out a problem in the machine’s power distributer.

“Alright, I promise. But we’re getting up as early as possible to get started again.”

“Thirty seconds.”

Celestia nodded curtly. Their conversation over, Twilight resigned herself to stand beside the sisters, facing the observation window to see if their arduous work would finally pay off. The humming had become nearly too high to hear, while a new tone began to vibrate the observation room, a bass drone. The cluster of crystal hanging from the ceiling began casting a green aura over the centre of the floor in the vault, while the carved symbols began phasing through a rainbow of colours, flooding the once murky chamber with a thick blend of lights.

“Ten…”

“Nine…”

“Eight…”

An engineer began the final countdown. Everypony in the control room was tense. They were moments away from possibly making some of the greatest achievements in pony history; a triumph of arcane engineering and the direct study of a minor celestial body, untouched by the atmosphere.

“Seven…”

“Six…”

”Five…”

”Four…”

”Three-”

POP!

“LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!”

“Abort! Cut the power!” Twilight shouted as a white flash and a bang occurred inside the chamber. The room gently rumbled from the excess power being dumped into the ground. The noise and light from the crystal dimmed to nothing, and the engraved symbols on the ground shifted to a dull red. Twilight could start to make out a serpentine figure standing right in the middle of it all, underneath the now dead crystal.

The purple alicorn marched toward the window and the startled researchers to see Discord standing in her machine. Now standing right up against the window, muzzle pressed to glass, she took in the sight of the Spirit of Chaos himself. He seemed to he wearing a strange hat and a white shirt, partially covered by suspenders that were keeping up a pair of green shorts that his elongated body somehow fit into. In his paw, he held some form of accordion with far too many keys, too slim for even the daintiest of hooves to use to any effect.

He chooses now to ruin everything? To take away my last chance at making the greatest set of discoveries since the time of Starswirl? Twilight thought to herself as she glared through the glass at the offending draconequus. The young princess felt her anger start to flow through her blood.

“Discord! What are you doing?!” she yelled through the glass. Noticing his audience, he turned to face the window from the other side. As he took in his surroundings, his previously ecstatic expression soured into disappointment.

“I’m asking myself the same question. This isn’t Oktoberfest…” Twilight had become so enraged that she didn’t even question how they were conversing through the thick glass.

“I-I-I can’t even- Do you know what you- Why would you- What in Tartarus is- No. You know what? Just leave. Leave, so we can… do... s-something.” The combined effect of so many lost hours of sleep for the sake of this project and the sudden appearance of Twilight’s arguably most infuriating friend had finally drained her. She felt the dreaded feeling of failure in the pit of her stomach, the thought of everything she had been working to accomplish had been doomed to fail from the start. After all, why should anything go her way? Just because you work your flank off for the good of all ponykind doesn’t give you a free pass from misfortune.

“Oh, my thoughts exactly, Twilight. Believe me, the last thing I would want to do is get in the way of you ogling your precious space-things. I know how much you love space-things,” Discord said with his usual sarcasm-laden tone. He batted his suddenly overly-long eyelashes and played a suggestive set of chords on his strange accordion. Twilight just stood in the adjacent room, her head hung in self-pity, crying silent tears of defeat. She’d always dreamt of reaching the Heavens, and this was supposed to be her chance to touch something that had.

“Come now, dear Twilight, things aren’t so bad, are they? Think of it this way; you’ve still got your health!” the master of chaos said while leaning his elbow against the window, still wearing the silly getup. The lavender alicorn looked up slightly to lock eyes with the draconequus, her glare screaming, ’What’s the fastest way to wipe that smug smile off your damn face?’ “Alright, alright, I can see that this must be a bad time for you. I can tell when I’m not wanted.” He turned away from the watching ponies, assuming a faux melancholy posture as he slumped back towards the centre of the chamber.

“Well, didn’t he catch on quickly?” one of the researcher ponies beside Twilight mumbled to himself, also very upset about their lost scientific opportunity.

“Yes, I’ll get out of your manes now. But since we’re such good friends, I’ll even do you lot a little favour. I’ll turn your little super-duper interplanetary fishing net back on.” Before his statement could sink in, Discord departed in a flash, suspenders and all. But instead of the flash of light instantly dispersing like usual, it lingered after his body had vanished, then arced to the deactivated crystal above. The chaos magic filled the machine’s conduits with power, bending them to its will.

“All systems are coming back online!”

“Targeting’s fried! I can’t see what it’s doing!”

“Power levels are over 1000... 5000... 9000... Power levels are off the scale!”

The engineers all called out their various permutations of “Things are hitting the fan!” The vault across from them quickly began filling with violently bright light. All of the machine’s noises came back tenfold, shaking the mountain they sat under. Twilight and the researchers had to shield their eyes, even through the window’s enchantment designed to protect them from harmful levels of radiation. Celestia’s concern grew into panic at the thought of Equestria’s top minds, not to mention all three princesses, could very well die hundreds of feet below the ground. Cadence would kill her if she had to inherit another throne.

“Shut it down, now!” The sun princess shouted over the wailing of alarms, while preparing a shield spell and group teleport.

“Too late-“ somepony managed to yell before the crystal exploded, its shards putting cracks in the ‘unbreakable’ window.

Then everything went white.

<~.~.~</^>~.~.~>

♫You can’t always get what you want...♫

Alex smiled as let his car drive him down the highway, gently bobbing his head to the beat of his music. Golden leaves fluttered down from nearby trees, swept around by the airstreams of cars in the morning work rush. However, the road was definitely less congested than usual, due to the local festivities.

The physicist didn’t normally enjoy more modern music, but he always kept some handy on his trusty phone for whenever the mood struck him. Well, relatively modern compared to his usual fare; his great grandfather had probably thought this particular song to be dated. Alex chuckled to himself, imagining his grandpa rolling around on a skateboard, blaring a boom box while licking a puddin’ pop. Ah, the past!

Alex was in a far better mood than when he had left his house ten minutes earlier. Driving, especially in the autumn, had a calming effect on him. One of his many misgivings about moving to Europe was having to adapt to new weather patterns, but was pleasantly surprised to find Germany’s seasons not too different from what he was used to. Autumn especially reminded him of home; colourful displays of leaves, overcast skies, and a nice chill in the air, just the way he liked it. He took hold of the wheel, and turned off the highway at his exit ramp. He was about ten kilometres west of Berlin, his home, nearing his workplace and making excellent time due to the lack of traffic.

“Crap, the drink,” Alex cursed himself as he remembered the refreshment he was randomly selected to procure for an employee’s birthday that day. He scanned the street for the nearest convenience store, eventually finding one and pulling into it.

What’s this guy’s name again? Ah yes, Jerry, that new French intern, Alex recalled as he perused the selection of carbonated drinks. As the project leader, he tried to remember the names of all the staff under him. He had only been given the position several months earlier, as staff and assets had to be “reallocated” for Project ANTLRE, leaving his department understaffed. Not that Alex knew of Project ANTLRE. He had no way of knowing about such government secrets. Certainly not.

So here he was, on shopping trip for Human Resources to buy some non-alcoholic beverage for some guy’s birthday. They had been quite specific about the non-alcoholic part. Wouldn’t want to incite any incidents in a laboratory where high-power lasers were as accessible as screwdrivers, especially during Oktoberfest.

The physicist finally decided on a three-litre bottle of ‘Irn Bru’, and took it to the front counter. Since I have no way of knowing what Birthday Boy likes, may as well get what I know I like. A dejected-looking teenager stood at the register, who probably drew the short straw on who’d get the shift during the festivities in the city. Her face took on a polite smile as Alex approached.

“Good morning, sir,” she said, taking Alex’s drink to pass it under the barcode scanner.

“Good morning,” he replied in decent German.

“Will that be all?” She put the drink in a plastic bag with the store’s logo on it.

“Yes, thank you.”

“That will be two point five credits.” Alex passed his left hand over the RFID reader and typed in his bank code to transfer the credits, and took the bag. “Have a nice day, sir.”

“Thanks, you too.” Alex never liked the verbal exchange between the shopper and cashier, even in his native English. It was always awkward, in a variety of ways. He would be happier if the transaction took place in silence. Then again, Alex had learned long ago that his way wasn’t always (almost never) the best way when it came to these things. Reconsidering his opinion, he supposed that just staring at each other wordlessly would lend itself to a whole new range of awkwardness. He should just buy all his food online.

His party contribution purchased, Alex returned to his car in the small parking lot. He set the drink on the passenger seat beside him, and chose to drive manually the rest of the way. He spent the remaining minutes getting to his workplace in silence, with only the hum of the electric engine and his own thoughts to occupy his mind.

…

A drone buzzed overhead as Alex treaded along the Berlin United Terran Space Centre building, where he had worked for the last five years of his life. It was an old building, made mostly of glass and concrete from the time before Unification. Still, it served its purpose. It had offices, several research labs, a fabrication bay, and even a small launch pad, though it saw little use. The entire complex was situated in a large field surrounded by trees.

Alex curiously looked over to an adjacent storage building a small distance away. A team of people wearing reflective gear guided a hook being lowered from a hovercraft to a large storage container labeled ‘Top Secret’. Once hitched, the container was hauled up, and the hovercraft’s engines fired up to accommodate the new burdon, and departed into the sky.

As he neared the front doors to the main building, Alex grimaced as he spied a couple engineers loitering against the wall and laughing. He paused in his walk to look down at them

“Why aren’t you working?” He asked sternly, internally amused by how harsh German could sound. The young engineers looked up from their conversation to their superior, suddenly quite worried.

“Eh, sorry sir. We were just talking and, uh… must have lost track of time,” one said apologetically. Alex simply raised an eyebrow, then turned and began walking again, responding without even looking at them.

“You’re not paid to talk. Don’t let it happen again.”

“Of course. Sorry, Doctor.”

Alex could hear them quietly curse him as he walked through the automatic doors. He really did hate getting in other people’s business, even if they were doing something wrong. He preferred to just ignore others and focus on what he was doing, but that was the nature of his new job as project leader. He had more responsibilities than when he was just a research scientist, and also had to deal with staff a lot more than he was comfortable.

The office was much emptier than usual, likely due to the Oktoberfest celebrations leaving many with hangovers. Just as well. Alex enjoyed slow days as much as anyone else.

As Alex made his way to his office, he noticed a group of female interns crowded around a water cooler, giggling amongst each other and occasionally glancing at him in unison. Alex was about to ignore then when one of the girls broke off from the group and made towards him. Immediately, the tittering ceased, and the interns all looked away, some making themselves scarce.

The girl approaching Alex was quite young, not much older than twenty. He recognized her as one of the department’s new intakes for accounting. He sighed and stopped walking as she began to introduce herself.

“Good morning, Doctor Weaver. I’m-”

“Miss Michelle Ackermann. Welcome to accounting. You have an expenditures spreadsheet due today. I expect it my inbox no later than quarter-to-eleven.” The intern stood stunned by the curt interruption. While she was still processing what had just happened, Alex took the opportunity to step around her and continue on. As he left, he could hear laughs from behind him as the girl rejoined her comrades.

“Told you.”

“I can’t believe you actually did that.”

“You see the look on his face?”

Rolling his eyes at their childish banter, Alex entered his manger office. It wasn’t exactly huge, but that didn’t bother him. He kept it as tidy as possible, all his books sitting neatly in their shelves, his computer setup managed properly, and his whiteboard standing out of the way in the room’s corner, left blank over the weekend and ready to be covered with math.

Alex sighed as he took a seat at his desk and booted the computer.

He despised the administrative portion of his job, but it had to be done, so he didn’t make a fuss about it. Especially when there were so many other thing to make a fuss about.

He just had to make it to lunch, when he could don his lab coat and do what he was hired in the first place to do.

<~.~.~</^>~.~.~>

Twilight tentatively cracked one eye open. Everypony still seemed to be alive.

The control room appeared to be structurally stable, despite the heavily cracked observation glass, and several smoking consoles. The conn ponies had dropped to the ground and covered their faces in a protective position, and many of the scientists doing the same. The princesses just stood stunned, Celestia with a half-charged mass teleport spell on her horn. Everything was safe.

“Is everypony alright?” Celestia asked as she discharged her horn. The ponies slowly got off the ground, shaking off their shock and confirming their safety.

As the room recovered from the scare, Twilight slowly approached the observation window. She raised a hoof to place against the glass, but decided against it for fear of damaging it further.

“...teleportation stream snapped mid-transport. The numbers suggest the matter was dumped about three hundred kilometres north of here...”

“...targeting’s still down…”

“...take weeks to get this back together…”

Twilight scarcely listened to the engineers’ chatter. She was feeling so many emotions, she found it impossible to express a single one.

So many hours spent, so much work. Dozens of ponies, billions of bits.

Twilight recalled how, when she had begun to isolate herself, trying to solve the plethora of problems with the machine’s design, all her friends came to cheer her and encourage her. They had even temporarily moved to Canterlot a few weeks ago so that she could spend what little free time she had with friends. They had all been so supportive of her efforts to make Equestria a better place by furthering ponykind’s knowledge of the Universe.

Suddenly, the emergency lights flickered on in the vault across from her, somewhat illuminating the dark expanse. In the middle of the floor, she could make out a large, ovalish mass sitting in the middle of the floor. As her eyes adjusted, she could see that a boulder-like object had indeed appeared on the teleportation pad.

Twilight’s ears pricked up, but dropped when a moment later, the asteroid’s surface ripped open like a month-old melon and grey sludge erupted forth, indicating a faulty teleport.

Twilight simply exhaled, then turned and headed for the exit slowly, her face blank of any emotion. It wasn’t as if her soul could be any more crushed.

Luna attempted to engage Twilight as she passed to reassure her, but Celestia put her hoof on the lunar princess’ shoulder, shaking her head.

Twilght took the elevator up from the depth of the Canterlot Mountain, then made her way back to the palace from the outdoor shaft entrance. When she finally got back to her suite, Spike was fast asleep. Without making a sound, she dragged herself to bed and tucked herself in.

Gods, she hated crying herself to sleep.

<~.~.~</^>~.~.~>

Twelve-thirty rolled around, and Alex was heading away from the cafeteria after his lunch. This time, he took an elevator down to the subterranean laboratories. When the door folded open, the halls were profoundly different to the ones several levels above, which could be mistaken for any office building or university. These halls had cold steel floors and grey ceramic walls, illuminated by oppressively bright LEDs. The ceiling was adorned with security cameras and alarm lights every few metres.

At the end of the corridor Alex was stopped by a pair of armour-clad guards in front of a heavy door with a card reader instead of a doorknob. He presented his laminated ID, for them to inspected. One nodded and pressed a button on their wrist armour. Alex rolled his eyes as he inserted his ID into the reader and slipping through the door as it was pulled open by hydraulic pistons.

Alex really thought all this security to be a bit much, but then, none of the higher-ups ever listened to his suggestions.

A couple of Alex’s coworkers were in the locker room when he entered to get his lab gear. As he removed his lab coat and began sliding his arms in, the others noticed and called out to him.

“Hey Alex. Have a nice Oktoberfest?” asked Alexander McCormick, an Irish experimental physicist, in English.

“Don’t call me that, McCormick. And my weekend was rather uneventful.” Alex responded in German, annoyed. He disliked anyone but family using his name’s abbreviation. The fact that his coworker’s name was also Alexander didn’t help the issue.

“How typical of you. I swear, the day you ever go and have some fun is the day the cold-fusion guys on level five have a breakthrough. Seriously, it’s always ‘we’re five years away’ with those guys.” McCormick switched to German

“Are you just going to stand there judging my lifestyle? I imagine I could find a few criticisms about you, myself.”

“Actually,” Charlotte Kruger, a middle aged scientist, interjected, “I have something you might find worthy of note. I saw that you have a visitor waiting in your lab.”

“Riveting” he responded petulantly as he dug through his safety equipment. Charlotte’s voice dropped as she continued.

“It’s Commander McKay- or Reynolds now, I suppose…” Alex nearly dropped the goggles he was holding. His mood immediately went sombre. He stood in silence for a few moments. “Alexander? Are you… going to be okay?” He snapped out of his funk a second later.

“Uh, yes… I’m sure I’ll survive. ...Well, if that’s all, I shan’t keep the commander waiting.” Alex finished buttoning his lab coat, picked up a small duffle bag and made for the exit without looking back.

...

Sure enough, after making his way through the facility corridors, the sliding glass doors to his lab opened to reveal Commander Carly Reynolds née McKay. She was dressed in civilian clothing with an access badge around her neck.

Alex’s lab coat fluttered like a cape as he stormed into the lab, a scornful scowl on his face. He barely looked at Carly, who looked apologetic. He came to a stop a few metres from her and looked down at the woman, his eyes boring into hers.

“Yes?” he questioned dryly.

“Sorry for dropping in like this…” When Alex didn’t comment, she continued. “I’m just in the Berlin area for a few days while I oversee some cargo being picked up from here.”

“Ah, so you’re the one stealing our resources.” She grimaced at the accusation.

“Don’t be like that. A government project just needs some more staff while we’re in the final stages of completion. You’ll get them back soon.”

“Well, my project is also nearing completion. I’m not going to pretend to know what this ANTLRE is about, but do you have any idea how sensitive that thing is? Any misstep could set me back months!” Alex pointed to an object sitting in the cleanroom on the other side of an observation window. He just shook his head and turned to set his duffle bag on a nearby table and began to root through it. Momentarily confused, he pulled out the bottle of ‘Irn Bru’ he had bought for the party scheduled later that day. He must have accidentally brought it. No matter.

Putting it in his large coat pocket, he went over to the airlock to the cleanroom. As the first pressure door opened, he turned back to Carly.

“If you’re here to talk, you’ll have to do it while I work. I’m very busy. As you can see, this lab has a distinct lack of assistants,” He indicated to the lifeless room. She nodded and joined him in the airlock. After decontamination, they stepped into the cleanroom. The surfaces were alabaster white and polished stainless steel.

In the middle of the room was a metal table. On the table was an large, elongate octahedron, about a metre long. Its edges were a metal frame, with faces made of reinforced glass. Inside the transparent prism could be seen a long, sliver-like crystal, glowing a gentle purple. Cables that hung from the ceiling and snaked along the ground interfaced with the object at several points.

Carly looked around cautiously.

“Shouldn’t we be wearing masks and gloves.” Alex was beelining for a row of holographic computer monitors on a long desk along the far wall of the room and sat down as he switched one on.

“No. This is just a Class-D cleanroom. It’s just for keeping out dust.”

“Ah.” Carly looked around awkwardly as Alex proceeded to ignore her. “So… this is that quantum antenna that’s going to Jupiter Station?”

“Yes, and it’s likely also the single most valuable object on the planet, so the Terran Union and I would appreciate you being careful around it.” He glared over his shoulder until she stepped away from the table. “So. How’s the husband.”

That one hurt. Both of them.

“Christopher’s fine.” She couldn’t lose face here. “Listen, I can see you’re busy. I thought we could just talk like old times, but if you want me to leave-” Alex suddenly stood with enough force to topple the stool he had been sitting on.

“Well I can tell you right now, we certainly can’t talk ‘like old times’! You made sure as hell of that!” He seethed at her. He then noticed what she had holstered around her waist, and it only served to feed his ire. “And what makes you think you can just tote around a gun in a secure area like that?”

“I have clearance for it. It’s also one of the reasons I’m here. It’s a new model of the standard issue one. This facility designs them. I’m just here to pick up the prototype.” Alex scowled at the offending device before approaching Carly. He held out his hand, requesting to hold the weapon.

Carly Hesitated for a moment before giving it to him. She would never have even considered handing it over if she didn’t know that Alex would be responsible with it.

Alex looked over the gun, frowning. Neither noticed a slight hum coming from the quantum antenna.

“You know, I really don’t appreciate all this militarism in the government,” he said. Carly scoffed.

“Oh really? You didn’t seem to have a problem with it a few years ago.”

“I’m serious. It’s not necessary. For fighting terrorist cells, I understand, but on common enforcers?”

Purple arcs of electricity began to leap from the antenna, licking the table and attached cables.

“Believe it or not, crime still exists, and we still need to keep the upper hand on it. Besides, energy weapons are far more efficient than ballistics.”

“And that’s another thing-” Alex pointed the gun’s grip at Carly accusingly, but before before he could continue, he was interrupted by a mighty crack and flash of light from behind him.

CR~ACK!

Carly was thrown back by an explosive force, bracing herself as she impacted with the observation window. It held.

When she regained control of her overwhelmed senses, Carly looked up from her bruised arm. Her jaw dropped when she saw the metal table the antenna had been resting on was rent in two, and Alex was nowhere to be seen. Alarms were going off, and she could hear running outside the lab. She sat on the ground where she landed in shock for what seemed like eternity, before reacting.

“What the fuck?”

<~.~.~</^>~.~.~>

Alex stared for a good long while at his surroundings. What had once been his beloved lab was now a blanket of snow for as far as the eye could see. One minute, he was making an excellent point against the use of lethal weapons in law enforcement to his ex girlfriend, the next, he was in the same position, knee-high in a snow drift. Wind was howling in his ear, and the moon and stars shone down on him.

At his feet was the quantum antenna. This priceless feat of human engineering, capable of the instantaneous transmission of information, now lay partially shattered in the snow, along with some stray sheets of paper scattering in the wind.

Alex’s befuddled mind tried to come up with something to put this in a positive light. At least I don’t have to go to that birthday party. He exhaled a foggy breath.

“I really hate Mondays.”