Chapter 1: Chapter One – Dimension 8423-7-1

The end of his pen tapped against his lower lip as he studied the paper on the desk. It was a lot of work to file a finished mission. This one in particular had taken weeks and was one of the worst. Assigned. They were always for one reason or another. Whether that be for money or propaganda. At this point, he felt they might as well be the same.

He sighed as he set the pen down and closed the file. He was done studying the behaviour of animals. Most of them were sold, taken from their habitat and put in a showcase of sorts. To see them in such a way knowing they were done because of him hurt the most, but it was the only job he had. Sometimes he regretted it. 

He pulled the file cabinet open and put the file inside its intended spot. Just another to the hundreds he had left. His eyes glanced at his wall of pictures. There was Project 67. A matted quad-horned monkey of sorts with a big snout and eyes you could not see. Those were Gultons from Dimension 12-097. Then Project 293. Long, feathered otter type animals with small wings. A smile peaked on his lips at that one. Those little feathered Beddles were so kind. Too kind at times. He probably should have left them be in that world and pretended like he had never seen them.

Grabbing his coat, he left the office into a brightly lit hallway. Several other researchers of other backgrounds walked by. He would take a simple glance at how they styled their hair. Lots of people said that people’s shoes would describe a person. To him, shoes had been made for the intent to be worn as for hair someone could do all on their own. No one’s hair was the same and therefore he believed anyone could tell by someone’s hair.

Whether they colored it or curled it or simply flick the hair back or pulled a strand behind their ears, it was all about how they subconsciously told anyone about themselves. It could be that they are anxious or cold or happy or understanding. Creative or demanding. It had its in and outs so to speak. 

After travelling through the maze of the closed off building, he knocked on a metal door just like the rest of them with the number 708 plagued on it. With an ear tilted to the door he waited for a response.
A muffled chuckle grew louder as he came closer to the door, “Ya know yer about seven minutes late by this point-” the door slid open to reveal a familiar face. His bushy black eyebrows somehow maintained and his coils on top of his head with almost a mohawk of sorts fading into his dark skin. Caring, maintained, and as always: friendly and protective of your well being. His smile beamed, “Glad ta see ya, Galen.” His hand swept towards the room inside, welcoming him.

Galen nodded softly. “Thanks, Raf.” He pulled his satchel over his head and set it on a nearby chair; including his coat. He pulled a paper out of his satchel and walked over to a wall full of them. He picked a tack from the nearby table and stuck it to the wall. 

“Not even a ‘how are ya’?” Raf mused as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

“How are you?” Galen asked as his mind was travelling from paper to paper on the wall.

“I’m quite swell. You?” Raf leaned back into the counter as he sipped his coffee.

“I think anyone who drinks black coffee isn’t doing ‘swell’.” 

Galen looked all along the wall in a big picture. They had worked on this project for a little over five years. It was a project people could only dream of. Top scientists couldn’t even crack what they were trying to do. It could take a research team of even hundreds or thousands and still no one was able to crack it. They have failed attempts over and over. Still over all the years they never gave home. There was one time they did but of course they went right back a few months later. Galen couldn’t remember how many headsets he had gone through to find some of these places. He just hoped one day they could find it and he would no longer have to analyse the behaviour of poor animals.

Raf smiled before shaking his head. “Ya never cease to amaze me, Gal.”

“As for you.” Galen passed over a piece of paper before looking back. Raf’s words were lost as he stared at it. It’s complexity he knew. He had drawn it himself. But something was added to it. He took the tack and plucked the paper from the wall as he inspected it closely. Dimension 842-9 was in Intersection 9 with Dimension 843-8 in Intersection 7. But there was one more. 

“Gal?” A calm hand rested on his shoulder. “Ya hear me?”

Galen glanced at him before handing him the paper. “Set me up.” He dashed over to the other side of the room and pressed the code into a small vault. 

Raf looked from corner to corner on the paper to see nothing. “Gal… what are ya lookin’ at here?” 

“Intersection 7 over 9.” He fit on his gloves, thin metal clasping over his wrists. He jogged back over to the wall in haste. Putting on slim black glasses he had in his pocket, he flexed his hand to reveal a hologram of data that had been stored over the years they had researched this. “Look,” he pointed over to their small diagram of mathematics. “This Dimension.”

“It passes through Lucia’s law,” Raf murmured out loud. 

Galen’s gaze couldn’t lift off of it as it gently moved into its mathematical state. “Yes.”

“Gal, that’s impossible to even hop to. Not without the right settings! You could be stuck in a Hop for years. I… I could be long gone before you even arrive there.”

Galen looked at Raf with a glint in his eye. “Who said I would actually go there?”

Raf looked at him for a long time. “Oh you-”

“Set me up.” When Raf did not faze, Galen loosened his shoulders with a sigh. “Raf… Please?”

Raf shook his head. “I will only do this because I-”
Galen shook both fists in a small victory. “Thank you, Raf!”

“-know you will never shut up if I don’t.” Raf walked over to his computer as Galen stood onto the platform with haste. “Just promise me this…” They locked eyes as Raf held the computer mouse in his palm. “Promise me if you don’t find anything in the first twenty four hours that we’ll leave this one… we’ve done too many for too long with you wandering for months just to find nothing…”

Galen’s hands gripped onto his headset as he kept his eyes locked with Raf’s. He remembered the process. He would get so hopeful to find something just to find nothing. Even just a fragment. An animal. Something. If this didn’t work he knew he’d be defeated. This was the first dimension he found within Lucia’s law. Everyone knew what Lucia’s law was. It was the same dimension they were in. A cross point in which your dimension could hold life. Not just a living thing but intellectual life like them. People who could talk and grow to build societies over millennia. 

“I promise.”

Raf turned his focus to his computer, double tapping his glasses to sync them into the database. “Ima hold you to that, Gal. If ya don’t-”

Galen had already adjusted his headset onto his head with a smile. “I know- I owe you another stuffed animal.”

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“And?”

Galen sighed with a tilt of his head. “A tea party.”

“Over what?”

“Three hour long Hildon game.”

“That’s betta,” Raf chuckled. Inserting all the information needed. He moved and tweaked every little mathematic until it was perfectly aligned. “Which dimension?”

“Dimension 8423-7-1, Intersection 7 over 9.”

“Gal…”

“I know… Raf… I know. Just… please.” Galen tightened his fists as he looked at the darkness in front of him. “Please.” 

Every little detail of sound echoed through his ears and time seemed to slow. He knew what Raf was thinking. To go into a triple dimension could mess everything up in the headset. It was too narrow. Nevertheless, they were going into a decimal of an intersection. It was like trying to load all the numbers of Pi. It would load and load until the graphics fried. 

Raf finally typed it in, hovering his finger over the Enter key. “Are ya ready?”

“I’ve waited five years for this, Raf…”

Click.

Galen stood still as he waited in the darkness. It was just an endless sea of grey as it searched and searched for a signal. The most concerning thing is that he would never be able to make it because as far as he knew, no one had travelled to this dimension before. 

After thirty minutes of painful silence, Raf broke it, “Gal, this might take a while. You sure you don’t want to sit down?”

“I’m fine.”

In all reality, he wasn’t. His feet ached and so did his arms and eyes. Just try standing in grey for thirty minutes to see how it feels. It takes forever. Especially when you anticipate something exhilarating like this. 

As hours and hours pursued, he couldn’t help but imagine what it looked like. It could be anything! It could be just water for miles or deep inside a cave system. It could be on the top of a tall mountain. In a field of wildflowers or grain. Sometimes it was mucky with inches deep of gooey mud. Crystal clear ground that mirrored the sky. Crystal mazes. Forest beyond your imagination. 

There could be purple trees or fanged chickens. Odours that could outweigh a disastrous fart. Or something sweeter than the richest chocolate in the land. It could be ruins or virgin land. There just wasn’t any telling of what it could be like.

“Gal-”

He awoke with a start. Looking around, he found himself on Raf’s couch. He sat up to prevent himself from getting stuck there. When had he fallen asleep? Or had he passed out?

“It’s time for ya ta go ta work. The Set isn’t even close to half yet.”

“Not even?”

Raf shook his head, “Not even. But I’ll leave it on and after work, ya can play with it. How does that sound ta ya?”

Galen looked at the set on the table in the middle of the room along with his gloves. Thanks to Raf it was all plugged in to charge. No doubt this type of calculation was draining its battery faster than normal. “Okay.”

Raf smiled at him, “We’ll get there. I promise.”

“I hope so.” He ruffled his own hair before slipping on his coat and pulled his satchel over his shoulder. He stopped for a moment to look at the headset. A million possibilities ran through his mind. He couldn’t even fathom all of them. “You promise you’ll keep it on?”

“Yes, I will. Now get on to work. Ya shouldn’t be late.” Raf led him to the door and pushed him on his way. “Stay focused!”

Galen couldn’t even focus enough to answer back. To think about the dimension and what they could discover was like nothing before. He could be the first in a million years to find one dimension… with people like humans.

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