A Unique Point of View
By: Christina Campbell

Chapter 1

As soon as the credits were done and the commercials started, Rachel 
watched as Alan went quickly toward the bathroom with an expression of 
shock on his face.  With growing wonder, she followed to listen at the 
door.

She heard Alan, whom she was now sure was Sam, hiss a tirade at Al.  
Two minutes later, he seemed somewhat mollified, and left the bathroom 
to find her leaning against the opposite wall with an awed expression 
on her face.  "Are, are you really--"  She seemed unable to continue.

-----

Sam stopped, wondering how in the world he was going to deal with this.  
"Oh, boy."  

Rachel bit her lip, trying to hide a smile.

"What?"

The smile grew.  "If I hadn't been sure before, I would be now.  Do you 
know how many time's that's been said at the start of a Leap?"  She 
rushed on before he could respond.  "Please tell me the truth.  I do 
know how to keep secrets and I just want to help."  Somehow her 
expression had changed; she was pleading with him, and didn't seem 
nearly as assured as she had a few moments before.  "You have no idea 
how much I've longed for this to be real."

Sam shut his mouth as he looked at her, considering.  Al was 
frantically shaking his head and telling him not to admit it, but Sam 
knew that she was already convinced.  And the longer he waited, the 
more sure she would be.

Finally, he nodded.  "Al's screaming at me not to say anything, but I 
don't think it would do any good to lie.  I'm--I'm Sam."
She exhaled as if she couldn't believe it. Trying to stay calm while 
speaking to mid-air, she said.  "Al, don't worry about me being a 
security risk.  I'm not.  Hello, Sam.  Good to meet you."  She put her 
hand out.

He shook it, feeling a little silly.  "Hello, Rachel."

She laughed a bit sheepishly.  "Can you tell me why you're here?"

Sam looked uncertainly at Al, who shrugged.  Al obviously didn't 
approve of Sam telling her any of this.  "You and your mom are going to 
die in a car accident tomorrow.  Apparently, the two of you were going 
to the mall.  Christmas shopping."

Rachel's eyes widened, then closed.  "Oh, no."  She took a deep breath 
and looked him in the eyes.  "I guess that I'll just have to shop some 
other time."

Sam's attention was distracted as Al's handlink twittered and chirped 
at him.  "That did it, Sam.  She graduates from college and becomes an 
accomplished programmer.  Apparently, she's known in those circles as 
having an interest in just about any field of science, including 
quantum physics!  And as far as we know, she's never told anyone that 
Project Quantum Leap is real."

Sam smiled and turned to Rachel.  "I can feel the Leap coming, so good-
bye.  I don't know _what_ you're going to tell your brother, though!"

-----

She was inside the mountain, now, on an elevator going down.  The 
guards had told her that someone was going to be meeting her at the 
bottom.  Since Sam's Leap, her mother had divorced her stepfather and 
gone back to her first husband's name.  Rachel had approved and made 
the switch with her. So, because of the change in her last name, Rachel 
didn't know if she had been hired because she already knew about the 
Project, because she was a good programmer with an interest in quantum 
physics, or both.

The man waiting at the elevator platform could be none other than Al, 
although the only resemblance between and Dean Stockwell is that they 
could both wear such bizarre clothes and make it look good.  Al was 
wearing teal pants and a multi-shade green shirt with a lime green tie.  
[Bizarre, definitely bizarre.]  He stepped forward and offered her his 
hand.  "Hello, I'm Admiral Calavicci.  Welcome to Project Quantum 
Leap."  He showed no signs that he recognized her.

She stepped out of the elevator and shook his hand.  "Rachel Thorton."  

She purposely looked him up and down.  "Nice outfit, Admiral."

He smiled, and she had to work hard to seem unaffected by it. "I've 
always gone for the informal.  Right now, though, we have to get you 
some rooms and a lab.  This way."  He started walking down the hall.
Suddenly a voice out of thin air made Rachel jump.  "Admiral, Dr. 
Beckett has landed."

Al mumbled something under his breath, then looked up. "Ziggy, get 
Donna up here.  Miss Thorton doesn't have a room yet."

There was a slight pause.  "Admiral, Dr. Eleese is not here."

Al blinked.  "That's right. She disappeared last Leap.  Ziggy, is Tina 
needed down there right now?"

"No, Admiral."

"Then get her up here.  It shouldn't take long to get Miss Thorton 
settled in."

There was a pause.  "Tina says she's coming."

Al looked at Rachel, who had a baffled look on her face.  "I'm sorry, 
but they need me in the Control Room.  As soon as Tina gets here, I 
have to go."

"Um, Admiral?" She was trying her best to look as if she had no idea 
what was going on.  "Who's Ziggy?  And . . . Tina?"

"Tina's title is Pulse Communications Technician. She's easier to explain than Ziggy.  Ziggy is, well she's, hmm…"

The voice came out of thin air again.  "Since you do not seem to want 
to fill her in, Admiral, it's now my job.  I'm a parallel-hybrid 
computer, Miss Thorton."

Rachel's eyes went wide and then she smiled.  "A computer?  I've never 
talked to a computer that could talk back before! Pleased to meet you, 
Ziggy."

"And you, Miss Thorton."

Just then, an absolutely stunning woman came down the hall.  "Go, Al.  
Dr. Beckett needs you."

Al smiled, then turned back to Rachel.  "Miss Thorton, this is Tina 
Martinez-O'Farell.  I have to go.  Duty calls."

[It is much more than duty, and you and I both know it, Al.]  Rachel 
nodded and watched him leave.

"Hello, Miss Thorton."

"Rachel.  I'll take Miss Thorton from authority figures, like the 
Admiral, but I generally prefer my first name."

Tina smiled.  "Then you can call me Tina.  Your rooms are this way, and 
I think Al would, like, much rather call you by your first name than by 
your last, you know?  He refers to most of us by our first names. Have 
you, you know, met Ziggy?"

Rachel's face lit up.  "Yes!  How lifelike is she?"

"Very lifelike, to the point of being self-aware.  Dr. Beckett's, like, 
one of the smartest men on the planet, and she's his baby."

Rachel froze for a second, as if realizing something.  "We're talking 
about Dr. Sam Beckett, aren't we?"

Tina's eyebrows went up.  "You've heard of him?"

[You could say that!]  Rachel shrugged.  "Quantum physics is one of my 
hobbies--if something as complicated as quantum physics can be called a 
hobby.  I've read a fair number of articles by him, but nothing 
recent."

Tina stopped.  "Ziggy, how much is she cleared for?"

"All of it.  She's to work on the retrieval program with Sammy-Jo."
Tina closed her eyes.  "There's a good reason why you haven't, you 
know, heard anything from him for, like, a long time.  He Leaped."
Rachel was glad that she had taken acting lessons.  If she hadn't she 
would have given herself away.  "He leaped?"  She was careful not to 
put the emphasis on the word that would imply a Quantum Leap.

Tina nodded, and started moving down the hall again. "Here are your 
rooms." She opened a door in the hallway.  "Ziggy, these are now Rachel 
Thorton's private rooms."

"OK.  And Tina?"

"Yes?"

"They're gonna want you in the Control Room pretty soon."

"They can, like, wait a little.  Rachel needs to, you know, be filled 
in.  Please tell them that I'll, like, give her the medium-short 
version and be down there shortly.  Rachel, as I was saying these are, 
like, you know, your rooms.  After today, they'll open only to you and 
those you clear for automatic entry.  You need a, like, security card 
and a palm print to get inside both your rooms and your lab.  Al can't 
even get in here unless you, you know, clear him, but he can, like, 
walk into your lab.  Um, I, like, don't have the time right now to show 
you your lab.  As Ziggy said, they'll need me real soon, you know?  But 
I can give you, like, the bare bones about Project Quantum Leap."
Rachel listened and didn't interrupt as Tina gave her a brief rundown 
on PQL.  When Tina had finished, Rachel nodded.  "I won't ask questions 
now, even though I have a million and one.  I'll stay here and unpack 
until someone shows up to tell me where my lab is."

After Tina left, Rachel started unpacking.  As she placed a picture on 
the dresser, Ziggy interrupted her.

"Miss Thorton?"

Rachel looked at the ceiling.  "Ziggy, can you call me Rachel?"

"Yes. Rachel, when Tina was telling you about the project, you didn't 
seem very surprised.  Why?"

"Ziggy, can you keep a secret--even from the Admiral?"  Rachel had 
remembered not to call him 'Al' at the last moment.

"As long as it doesn't compromise project security."

Rachel laughed.  "This might be construed as a breach of security, 
although I don't see how anything could be done about it now.  Ever 
heard of TV show by the name of Quantum Leap?"

Ziggy paused.  "Yes, although I only know the basic premise of the 
show.  I do not have individual episodes or even episode summaries in 
my memory banks.  I take it you've watched the show?"

"It was one of my favorites when I was younger.  I still watch it when 
I can find it, though by now I know most of the episodes by heart. It's 
also one of the reasons I have an interest in quantum physics.  
However, I didn't know it was real!"  [Until Sam showed up as my little 
brother.  But there's no way I'm going to tell her that yet!]  "Will 
you keep this to yourself?"

"Yes.  Now that you're with the Project, you're not a security risk.  
You'll soon know more about the technical aspect than would ever have 
been on the show, anyway.  I would advise discretion about knowledge of 
the Leaps, however."

"Um, Ziggy?  I know I'm new here, but I would advise that _you_ not to 
try to get those episode summaries.  We're probably somewhere near the 
beginning of the third season, and people shouldn't know too much about 
their own future."  Rachel considered for a second.  "Are you allowed 
to tell me when Sam, excuse me, Dr. Beckett, is right now?"  ['When Sam 
is right now.'  The English language just can't cope with time travel.]

"Just a second.  I'll have to get clearance from the Admiral."

-----

Al was just about to go into the imaging chamber when Ziggy spoke up.  
"Admiral, is it all right to tell Miss Thorton about Dr. Beckett's 
Leap?"

Al didn't even stop.  "Sure, as long as it's not personal."

Tina looked up in surprise.  Al wasn't usually that trusting of someone 
who'd just arrived.  [Well, she didn't, like, even have to be asked to 
stay in her rooms, and she seemed, you know,  remarkably understanding 
about me having to, like, get back down here.  Wait a minute, why would 
she have thought to ask Ziggy?  She's, like, totally new here.]  
"Ziggy, did she just start up a conversation with you?"

"No, I asked her a question."

Tina just shrugged and got on with her job.

-----

About fifteen minutes later, Al stepped out of the Imaging Chamber, 
tossed the handlink to Tina and moved on up to Rachel's rooms.  He 
knocked on the door.  "Miss Thorton, it's Al Calavicci."

"Come in, Admiral."  The door opened.  She was putting various momentos 
and odd memorabilia on shelves.

"Please, call me Al.  I don't dress much like an admiral and I tend to 
be informal in other ways too."

[Thank God.  I'm gonna have a hard enough time remembering to call Sam 
'Dr. Beckett.'  I don't need to have to remember about Al too!]  "Then, 
Al, call me Rachel.  Tina said that you liked to go by first names. Can 
I see my lab now?  And have a more thorough run-down on the Project?"
He nodded and showed her to the door.

He showed her where her lab was and took her on a brief tour of the 
Project. "Do you need to know anything else, Rachel?"

Rachel considered that.  [What am I not supposed to know yet.  Oh, of 
course.]  "Yeah, who's 'Sammy-Jo?' Ziggy told Tina that I'd be working 
with her."

"Her name is Dr. Samantha Josephine Roberts.  She's as much of a genius 
as Sam is."

[That makes sense, seeing as she's his daughter--a fact that Al doesn't 
know and won't for another two years.  Oh, well.  Secrets I can keep.]  
Rachel nodded.  "Then I hope I can keep up with her."

*****************
Feedback requested!  What do you think of my story?

Christina C.
christina.l.campbell@vanderbilt.edu