Chapter 20

The next day was certainly a lazy day for everyone at the lab since it was a Sunday. All the occupants of the lab were just walking around, chit-chatting, drinking coffee and occasionally picking up some work.

Conor was very fine at this as he knew some of them ought to be exhausted by now. They had been grinding hard for the past few months and they deserved a break for a few days. He had proposed for a vacation to Mr. Atlas but unfortunately, it got turned down.

Alyssa approached her boss, who was staring through the glass walls of his office at the others in the lab. She knocked on the door to signal her presence. Conor turned around and welcomed Alyssa.

'Feeling chilled hm?' Conor asked.

'Chilled? No, I am not feeling cold. Just relaxed.' Alyssa replied with a smile. Conor chuckled.

'I can sense that you came here with a purpose.' Conor said. Alyssa looked at him.

'Well, yes.' She replied. 'Just a little chat.'

'Let's open a topic then, may I?' Conor requested.

'Actually, I would like to do the honours.' Alyssa replied. 'My father used to talk highly of you.' Alyssa continued. Conor adjusted his posture on the chair so that he could sit more comfortably.

'He always wanted to meet you. He had read about you and your mission in the diary of my forefather who was your friend at the same time. Everything was there. All the details.' Alyssa explained. Conor inhaled deeply.

'Well, I am sure I can make some time for your father.' Conor replied with a smile.

'I'm afraid he has already run out of time. He passed away six years ago.' Alyssa said. Conor was stunned. He apologized and expressed his sympathy.

'It's fine. Don't worry about it. Besides, I didn't come here to talk about that anyways.' Alyssa said.

'Well, is there something you want to know?' Conor asked.

'I always get surprised at one fact; why did you accept to go into the hole so easily? I mean, how did you gather so much confidence that you were sure you could come back? The scientists had no data about the hole whatsoever? Why did you go in?' Alyssa asked.

'To be honest, I don't know myself. But I think they picked me out of all people because I was a daredevil scientist once. I produced all sorts of radical and crazy ideas and even tested out some of them whilst knowing how wrong things could go.' Conor explained.

'Things such as your teleporting machine?' Alyssa asked.

'Yes, exactly. Teleportation of particles was made possible centuries ago. But they never figured out how to put the particles back in the same exact order. That's what I tried to do. Unfortunately, it never worked efficiently. It took large quantities of energy to transport the particles so it flopped.' Conor explained. He also went to say more about his other works too- which were equally crazy.

'Well after that I suppose NASA had chosen me because they knew no one else would go in there. I didn't protest because I knew if I withdrew, no one else would go in and the world would be in trouble.' Conor explained.

'But the mission failed. Your objective was not met.' Alyssa stated.

'Yes. We did not expect the reality to work like that. We also did not expect the Earth to be still alive after four centuries.' Conor said. Alyssa was silent.

'Okay, I'll tell you the real thing now. Come to my office, if you don't mind.' Alyssa said.

'Oh of course. Let's go.' Conor said as he stood up and wore his white lab coat.

Once they reached Alyssa's lab, she opened her laptop screen.

'This is satellite data from last week. Gravitational.' Alyssa said. The data graph showed spikes of high activity- which was very strange and unexpected.

'What are you trying to say-?' Conor asked. 'Another hole?'

'Yes. Another hole.' Alyssa replied.

'Well- if it leads to the same reality, there's no use researching on it. It won't help to save Earth.' Conor said.

'I knew you would say that. But no, I don't think it's the same reality. We recorded a certain signal that was also emitted from the previous hole. I did a comparison. They are very different.' Alyssa explained.

'But- we don't have enough resources to focus on this hole too. We are already halfway through one mission.' Conor explained.

'Don't you think that we might find answers in there?' Alyssa asked. Conor considered it for a moment. Instinctively, he thought of the mountains in his dreams.

'We need to discuss it further. I can't just say yes, I don't have authority for that. Go back to work, for now. I'll see what I can do about it.' Conor said and left Alyssa alone there.

She closed the laptop, anger and disappointment raging inside at her own failure.