CHAPTER 3

Sam nervously paced the Control Room thinking, he had to get the 
hand-link, he had go back to his own time.  He strode steadily towards 
the now darkened Accelerator Chamber and stood on the metallic disc and 
waited, nothing happened.  Of course nothing happened, the Accelerator 
needed to be activated.  Disheartened he stepped back from the disc and 
looked down at his bare feet, he was still wearing the white Fermi-suit. 
 He sat where he stood and held his head in his hands, desperately 
trying to conceive a solution.  Slowly, his eyes began to close, fatigue 
took over and Sam fell into a deep sleep.

A hazy, feminine figure stood above him, silhouetted against the bright 
light behind her, she held out a hand and he took it.  He rose to his 
feet, never once taking his eyes from her darkened face.  As she turned 
the light illuminated her features, he knew her, he could remember her 
but he couldn't recall her name.

"Sam," her voice was soft and gentle, she held his hand tenderly between 
her own.  She bought her soft, red lips down and kissed it, it was a 
feeling of a feather as it brushed his skin.  "I came back for you Sam."

He swallowed hard, he opened his mouth to speak but the words were gone 
and so he closed it again.  She bought her head back up, now face to 
face with him, inches apart.  He looked into those blue velvety eyes as 
he had done years before and again was lost in their depths, 
"J-Jes-sie," he stammered, as if her eyes held her name, he swallowed 
hard again.  Her luscious, red lips met his for a brief moment, his eyes 
closed.  He could feel her lips as they brushed his cheek across his 
skin to the other cheek, down to his neck.  He felt a quiver inside, a 
feeling he had not experienced for years.

A loud humming noise followed by footsteps on a hard floor made him open 
his eyes.  Florescent lights flashed on and the humming stopped.  He had 
been dreaming.  He raised his head from the hardness of the floor and 
eased painful joints into a standing position, he looked around the 
corner into the Control Room.  The unmistakable figure of Gooshie stood 
by the control panel.

Despite his aching body Sam hurried towards him, limping as the 
circulation returned to one of his legs, "Gooshie, you're here."  He 
remembered then that Gooshie could not hear or see him, even so, Sam 
continued to talk, "can't here me can you, but it's great to see you 
pal, even though you can't see me."

Gooshie continued to read and input data from a clipboard into Ziggy, 
oblivious to Sam standing behind him.  Sam turned around, looking for 
something, anything that would help him, he noticed a calendar standing 
on the middle shelf next to the control panel. At the top in capitals 
the word SEPTEMBER below in large numbers, 15.  So what if he were a day 
early.  He then looked at the clock it was 7:12, "It must be morning, 
Gooshie always comes in at 7 am."  His thoughts then strayed to the 
Imaging Chamber, as he saw the door below the clock,  he raced towards 
it and went through.  Once inside he let his eyes become accustomed to 
the blue-pink light, he blinked intensely several times.  With each 
blink images became more clear, he could see Sammi Jo and Al talking, Al 
was pacing as usual, and his hands motioned to his words.

"Al, Ziggy can you hear me?"  Sam saw Al instantly look up at Ziggy, he 
spoke to her, it was like watching a silent movie.

Al turned and picked up the hand-link from the shelf, he pressed a few 
buttons.  Sam could hear Al's voice, "Sam where are you?"

"I'm in the Imaging Chamber."

"What yer doin' in there?"

"I leapt Al, but I'm stuck."

"What you mean yer stuck?"

"I leapt, but as a hologram and I don't have the hand-link.  Ask Ziggy 
if she can figure a way of getting the hand-link to me."

"Well just come out of there."

"I can't Al, it's the year 2000 and Gooshie's in the Control Room, he 
can't see or hear me, I need the hand-link to operate the Accelerator 
and to communicate with Ziggy."

Sam saw Al turn and talk to Ziggy and then to Sammi Jo,  "Sam, We think 
you're in big trouble there." Al turned back to Sammi Jo and listened to 
her, "Hang on Sam, I'm coming in, see if I can do somethin'."

Al entered the Imaging Chamber, "Sam can you see me in here?"

"Yes Al.  Can you see me?"

"No I can't, but I can see Gooshie in the Control Room.  Hey I just had 
a thought pal, remember when you and I switched places, we had trouble 
with the hand-link, Gooshie put a spare hand-link in the Imaging 
Chamber, can you see it?"

Sam looked around, "Where Al?"

"Straight opposite the door."

Sam moved to the wall opposite the door and saw the hand-link on a shelf 
near the floor, he bent down to pick it up but could not grasp it.  "Al 
we got a problem here, I'm a hologram, remember."

"Oh right Sam, you can't get it.  I'll get it from here and see what 
Ziggy has to say."  Al picked up the spare hand-link and headed back to 
the Control Room.

Sam could see Al talking to Ziggy and Sammi Jo.  He stood and waited.  
It felt like waiting for the verdict on a death sentence.  Sam's legs 
ached and he sat down, forgetting, he leaned back against the wall and 
fell into it.  "Darn it," he was confused, and looked round annoyed at 
the wall, hesitating, he tried to grasp the hand-link once more.

"Sam, can you still hear me?"

"Yes Al, what have you figured?"

"Ziggy reckons that, if we put the hand-link into the Accelerator 
Chamber you should be able to get it at you end."

"I don't know about that, the Accelerator was designed for 
microcosmic-molecular objects, I don't know if it'll work on inanimate 
ones."

"What do you want me to do?  Give it a go or what?"

"Yeah give it a try Al, what we got to lose.  I'm stuck here, and I'm 
getting seriously hungry.  Give it your best shot Ziggy"

Sam watched as Al placed the hand-link onto the metallic disk in the 
Accelerator Chamber.  Al turned to Ziggy, "Ziggy, Activate the 
Accelerator Chamber."  The overhead disk began to lower.

"Al wait!"  Sam shouted, "The time Al, you've got to adjust the time on 
the epoch-atmosphicmetre dial, I didn't set the time when I left, it'll 
need advancing."  The Metallic disk stopped descending.  "I don't know 
the time, just wait while I check."  Sam ran out into the Control Room 
and checked the clock above the door.  "Al it's 11:42,  Gooshie's still 
here so I guess it's still morning."  Sam stood and waited for a reply, 
but none came.  Realising he had to be in the Imaging Chamber to speak 
to Al, he rushed back in.

"Al it's 11:42 am."

Al turned the dial on the control panel, "Okay Ziggy, re-activate the 
Accelerator Chamber."  The metallic disk continued it's descent, "I've 
set the atmosphicmetre to mid-day, should be with you anytime then."  Al 
scuttled towards the Accelerator Chamber, blue-white light flashed 
between the metallic disks and bright white sparks were emitted from the 
hand-link.  "I hope this is working Sam!" He shouted above the sound of 
the wind and static.  The hand-link shone white and disappeared along 
with the light.

All at once Sam had a horrifying thought. "Al!  The date, the date was 
wrong!  I arrived a day earlier than the date I'd set on the 
epoch-atmosphicmetre."

"Maybe that'll happen with the hand-link too, if not then you'll have to 
wait another 24 hours, it's not as if I sent it to you yesterday."

"Oh Al I hope so.  I'm going into the Control Room to wait, I'll get 
back to you after noon."  Again Sam went into the Control Room to check 
the time. Five more minutes, he sat on the floor a couple of yards away 
from the Accelerator Chamber.  Thoughts of the day's events went though 
his mind.  He remembered the dream he'd had, why had he dreamt of 
Jessica Olivera after all these years.  She still had the same effect on 
him as she had done from the first day he'd met her, and that frightened 
him, he like to be in control of his emotions.  He'd lost control from 
the moment he'd met her, he didn't want to treat her so badly, but he 
didn't know what to do about it, he still didn't.

Blue-white light flashed from the Accelerator Chamber, changing to 
bright, blinding white.  Sam shuffled himself away as the light 
intensified, turning his head from the glare.  As shadows dissipated 
from the walls, he turned back and scrambled to his feet.  Lying in the 
centre of the metallic disk was the hand-link.  Hardly daring to move he 
stared at the object.  Afraid to grasp it in his hand in case.... he 
could not bear the thought.  Slowly he stepped, nearer to the object of 
his fixation, he crouched, on hands and knees, he moved in closer.  
Cautiously, he raised a hand from the ground and shifted it towards the 
object, fingers outstretched, gingerly he touched it, it was solid.  A 
gasp of relief left his soul, as his eyes closed he collapsed in a heap 
and rolled over smiling, the smile turning into laughter, hysterical 
laughter.