Chapter 11

At last, after a painfully long journey, Conor finally was walking through the main entrance of NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. The magnificent building looked as if it had gone through a bad day. Some parts of the exterior wall were cracked, and Conor couldn't help noticing the several broken windows.

Once he was at the concierge though, everything still looked the exact same. Well, not really, they had replaced some equipment with newer ones but apart from that, everything looked the same. Conor thought that even the smell of the large space was the same.

'Hello, welcome to NASA. How may I help you?' A lady at the concierge enquired with a huge smile.

'Hi- hello. Yes. Can I speak to the director, please? This is urgent.' Conor asked.

'I'm sorry, you might need to wait. Mr. Atlas is at a meeting currently. You need to wait until it's over and he is free.' The lady replied.

'Oh, alright, sure. How long do I have to wait?' Conor asked.

'The meeting should be over in seventeen minutes; you may have a seat there.' The lady replied with another smile. Conor nodded curtly and walked towards the plush sofas before sitting down on them. He thought hard of what to say, and he wondered if anyone would believe him.

As Conor lost himself in his thoughts, the time flew and before anyone knew it, the Director of NASA was downstairs and in front of Conor himself.

Conor was thinking about how to piece together all the things he had seen in the reality when he saw a pair of black leather shoes in front of him. He looked up and saw a man with a serious look. He had white hair and a clean-shaven face. The man was donning a three-piece suit, with several pins pinned to his chest. Conor stood up immediately.

'Hello, I'm Mitch Atlas, director of NASA. Ms. Everett here told me that someone wanted to meet me urgently so here I am. How may I help you?' Mr. Atlas said.

'Hi, I'm Conor. Conor Sam. I'm from Operation Reality Hole. Here's my NASA ID.' Conor introduced himself briefly and handed Mr. Atlas his ID card. Everyone gathered there gasped in disbelief while Mr. Atlas's eyes widened. He took the card and checked it. Once he thought it was legitimate, he handed it back to Conor.

'Dr. Sam, welcome back. We are very pleased to have you back here. Please, follow us to the conference room for further explanations.' Mr. Atlas said and signaled at Ms. Everett to take Conor to the conference room.

They all entered an elevator except for Mr. Atlas, who went another way. The elevator climbed to the fifth floor and opened its door. Ms. Everett led Conor to the conference room which was right beside the elevator. The room was big, with glass windows that offered a view of the workspace below them.

Mr. Atlas entered the room, together with several other people. There were two other men and a woman. At the signal of the director, Ms. Everett left the room, closing the door behind her.

'So, Dr. Sam, we may need to ask you several questions.' Mr. Atlas started. 'But first, let me introduce these people. Here is Mr. Brad, Mr. Fry, and Mrs. Fox. They are one of the best employees we have here and were placed into the research team for Operation Reality Hole. They've had several questions, and we hope you can answer them.' Mr. Atlas explained lengthily.

'Hold on, just call me Conor. No need for Dr. Sam and such. Yes, what would you like to ask, sir?' Conor said.

'Please, the main objective of the mission was to explore the reality and possibly bring back seeds for the gene banks here. Did that work?' Mrs. Fox asked. Conor let out a big sigh.

'Unfortunately, mission objective failed.' Conor said in a curt tone.

'But why?' Mr. Fry enquired.

'You see, I had tried to get some seeds. I had collected them even. But they all just vanished. And then I was attacked by a big animal thingy when I touched it, it literally just turned to dust.' Conor explained briefly.

'Conor, this is not a weird science fiction movie, nothing can just turn into dust upon contact. Are you sure that's what happened?' Mr. Brad asked.

'It was! Everything was real! I could feel the pain. How can that not be real?' Conor said.

'It can't be real, as you have yet to provide a logical explanation to it. The way you explained it yourself, any five-year-old could do the same. We need details, sir. The whole world was counting on you. We waited for four centuries for a ray of hope, and here you are, giving a nonsense explanation to something totally illogical.' Mrs. Fox said. Mr. Atlas looked stunned. Conor, however, was rising in his tempers.

'HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?!' Conor shouted. 'You guys spent years to research on the reality, then why don't you find the answers to your questions yourselves?'. Nobody else spoke. 'Well, Mr. Atlas, it seems that your research team has been wasting their time in front of the computers. They also don't seem to have any idea what the reality must have been like.' Conor snapped.

'We can only observe from outside, Conor. We don't and are unable to know what's in there. That's why we are asking you.' Mr. Atlas spoke calmly.

'Then why are you not believing me?' Conor asked.

'Because your explanation is absolute bull- I mean, it doesn't make any sense!' Mrs. Fox erupted.

'Please have a look at the mission report paper. It says on the first page that the hole resembles a-'

'A wormhole.' Mr. Atlas finished Conor's sentence.

'Yes. Exactly. A wormhole. So, nothing in there actually makes any sense. Now, you listen to me and keep your Earthly logic knowledge to yourselves. They don't apply in this case.' Conor said. All the others were silent.

'What I told you was the truth. In my opinion, if I touch any living thing in there, it disintegrates by itself as if it's allergic to me or something. I have thought about it, and I think the realm is the afterlife. Basically, everything in there is dead. When things die on Earth, they get transported to that realm.' Conor explained and braced for the outrage.

'Nonsense! That still doesn't make sense!' Mr. Fry said.

'Yes, but listen first. Why else would things disintegrate? It must have known that I don't belong there and what else makes me different if not me being a breathing creature?' Conor explained more. He began to think that he was getting his point right.

'But that doesn't justify the fact that when these holes popped up, many of the general population went missing.' Mrs. Fox argued.

'That was actually false info. All the missing were only dead bodies. It was revealed at a later report.' Mr. Atlas said. Conor was stunned upon hearing the news as it literally just confirmed his theory for the realm.

'Okay, let's say that realm really is a place of the dead, then why would anything disintegrate anyway?' Mr. Fry asked.

'For this reason; it is on the basis that death can't be undone. So, if the reality somehow knew that I was trying to bring back life on Earth by planting crops and stuff, it won't let me do it in any method.' Conor explained. Everyone else was silent.

'That's it then? There's no hope for Earth? At all?' Mr. Brad questioned.

'There may be some ways to save ourselves from extinction. But we need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan. Conor, thank you for your statement. We all immensely appreciate what you have done for us. Should you have any queries or requests, don't hesitate to contact us. See you soon.' Mr. Atlas said and left the room, signaling at the others to leave too. They all stood up and left, leaving Conor standing there, in the middle of the large conference room, alone.