Chapter 3

-3 YEARS AGO-

"Psst. Harper. Pssssst."

A soft poke on my cheek prodded my groggy brain. I was not happy to be disturbed.

"Shh- Go away, it's too early…" I said, sentence fading as I rolled over to the opposite side of my squeaky twin-sized bed.

"Harper, wake up. It's important, seriously." My assailant wouldn't be dissuaded that easily and began to shake my shoulder.

My grogginess turned to frustration as I finally gave in and turned back toward my seemingly giddy sister. She leaned over my bed, still outfitted in her overly professional daywear suit skirt and her not-so-professional loose blond ponytail. I quickly tapped the screen of my phone lying next to me.

"What the- ALIYAH IT'S FOUR IN THE MORN-"

"It's finished." She said with a wide grin.

Suddenly, my grogginess and anger were gone, all but replaced with disbelief. Disbelief and excitement.

It's done.

My dream of 6 years was completed and ready.

I floundered to get dressed and flew towards the lab that my sister and I had created out of the room that was once our father's office. Each step didn't feel quite fast enough as I sped down the hall, anticipation overflowing.

Cold air flushed past me as I swung open the lab's big burly door.

In front of me stood a single monitor, surrounded by an incredible mass of indecipherable technology. Surrounded by meticulously organized piles of papers and research stood blinking servers, stainless steel cooling pipes and much more, a low hum lingered in the air as they executed their given duty for the first time.

In the center of the room, there was a small, slightly raised platform with a large metal tower and a dusty old 4:3 monitor sat directly atop it, the old Windows "pipes" screensaver blinking the same way it was the day I "borrowed" it from the school library.

"It's incredible, isn't it?" Aliyah asked, having followed shortly behind me.

"It's just… Wow." The actual sight wasn't really that pretty. But to us, who had pumped years of time, effort, and every penny we could scrounge up working our respective part-time jobs, it really was a sight to see.

I couldn't wait any longer. "Let's try it out, how do we get it up and running?" I asked, resuming my walk towards the monitor.

"Wait what?"

I looked back at Aliyah to see a hint of trepidation and worry on her face. "What do you mean, what? Let's get this bad boy up and running!"

"You're actually gonna… Use it?"

"Isn't that the whole point? Why else would we have made this if not to use it haha?"

"But… Well-, I-... You're right but… I guess I never thought we'd actually use it… It's another world, you know and think about the…" Her voice trailed off.

A hint of anger flared up in me. What, did she think that we were making this just to show off? Maybe to pawn off to the military? Not a chance in hell.

"This is my dream, this is what we made it for, I'm going to use it no matter-"

"What about our family?" Aliyah cut my selfish jabber off, giving me a "cut the crap" kind of glare.

She continued, her voice growing louder,

"How do you plan on getting back? Were you going to just up and disappear? Leave everyone behind and possibly kill yourself on our crazy, untested hunk of metal? Are you really willing to throw your life away for a small chance at your daydream?" Her tone quickly shifted toward outrage as she prattled on.

She was right, it was selfish, stupid, and probably suicidal. Despite that, I couldn't help but feel indignant.

I turned straight towards her and met her fiery gaze. "Yes, I was. I think I still am. I know that makes me selfish and idiotic and probably 50 other terrible things, but this is my dream and I want to chase it."

I continued, cooling down as I spoke, "I, I hate to say it but I need your help to do this stupid thing. Aliyah, please help me reach my fantasy dream."

"What kind of halfwitted dream is that?" She spat at me, a look of instant regret crossing her face.

It was too late, my heart plummeted. It wasn't her refusal to help, or even anything to do with the topic at hand… It's just. Aliyah was the only one who hadn't berated me for following such a stupid dream before. No matter how many people scoffed at me when they heard, she always… She was always there to help and push me forward. Oh.

"I guess you wouldn't get it, huh." I sighed.

"What do you-"

"It was never your dream. You were just humoring your older brother's stupid daydream, hah." I let out a half-laugh, half sigh. I could see the hurt I was inflicting on her, but for some reason, I couldn't stop the words from coming out.

"Nothing the prodigal Aliyah can't handle I bet, maybe she can make even the stupidest dream from her delusional brother work haha,"

"No, Harper no… That's not what I-" She faltered.

I knew that there was no point to these words, but they just kept coming.

"No, Aliyah, you're totally right. This whole time, I- I thought that this was our project, y'know? It makes sense, in what world would the amazing miss Aliyah actually believe in such a halfwitted dream"

"If anything, this just makes me want to do it more." I smiled and turned toward the monitor. "If you don't agree, you can just sit there and watch, I'll figure out the controls on my own, but this is… This is something that I absolutely have to do. Thank you, truly, for helping me get this far. I think this is where I step out on my own." I couldn't bring myself to look back at her face.

When I heard no reply, I walked toward the monitor and hefted myself onto the platform.

The screen had a simple black and white menu with different settings to be adjusted, and a big green "START" button labeled in the top right of the menu, cheesily taking up more than a 3rd of the window. Hah, why did I ever doubt that I could do this, with someone as smart as Aliyah, there's no way we wouldn't have streamlined this.

I hovered the mouse over the start button, and I… Hesitated. The words that she said started to roll over me.

Maybe I should wait until the morning.

Maybe I should say goodbye to the family.

Maybe I should make up with Aliyah before I go, I mean, she's the only one who's supported me this far, I shouldn't leave on such bad terms.

My hand slowly lifted from the mouse as more and more of these thoughts raced through my mind.

I would wait. I've waited my entire life for this, what's one more day. I smiled grimly and turned back towards her, "I'm sorry" on the tip of my tongue.

SLAM.

Aliyah had launched herself towards me in a mad dash to stop me, throwing our bodies directly into the machine in front of me. My head made direct contact with the hard stainless siding of the machine, I was lights out.

…

-cannot be aborted. Please prepare for tra-

My head throbbed and darkness engulfed my vision.

"-Damnit Harper, why are you so hea-"

As my unconscious brain began to stir, I could feel my body being slowly pushed.

-Transfer beginning in 3, 2-

"-please please please, make-"

Another bolt of pain rushed through my body as it slammed into the ground, darkness quickly retaking control.