Chapter 2: Chapter Two – Snow

The moment the door opened he rushed into the room.

“Why thanks for askin’, Gal. I’m doing mighty fine.”

It had been a week of waiting. A week of charging and watching it load for hours until sleep took over. He eagerly slipped the headset on with his gloves on the platform. He had done the calculations at work at how long it would take to get there on the first trip and they were getting close. 7 days, 21 hours, 57 seconds, 41 milliseconds, and 13 centiseconds.

If he had done his calculations right, he was only minutes away.

“Man, not even a word? Too excited?”

Galen could feel his presence but he didn’t care to respond. He mumbled over and over under his breath to ‘come on’ as he felt the seconds gaining on his consciousness. Flowers and stones. He wanted to see the animals and the sky. How the clouds accumulated. He wanted to walk around and feel what it was like. Even just the idea was driving him crazy. 

He heard Raf sit in his chair with a sigh. “Gal, we aren’t even close.”

“Just… trust me… please.”

“You’ve said that for the last three days.”

Galen looked at the grey with a tight chest and fists. “I mean it this time,” he murmured to himself. He just knew it. It was in his bones, he could feel it. He knew it was there. He was just so close. 

Raf’s steps grew closer until they were in front of him. By the way his fabric shuffled, he could just imagine his mother-like crossed armed look he was probably giving him. A cocked eyebrow and slight lipped smile. “Ya remember the first time ya put that headset on?”

Galen didn’t move a smidge. “Dimension 78-0, Intersection 1. It took about 15 minutes to locate.”

“Yeah… yeah it did.” Raf chuckled to himself. “Weeks after this one and you still look giddy.”

“‘Cause I feel it, Raf.” Galen calmly exhaled. “I feel it.”

With a sigh and a ruffle from the shake of his head, he could hear the hopelessness in his breath, “Gal… We both know this isn’t going to work.”

An ache in Gal’s chest watered his eyes. It was a manual rule. If it went longer than a week it was safe to say that dimension did not exist close enough for them to reach with the tools they had. It didn’t even flicker. The percentage bar hadn’t even made it halfway on Raf’s computer. 

“Come on, Gal.”

Gal lowered his head in defeat. Maybe he was right after all and he should give up. Plus, they had that paper forever and had never marked it as a clear dimension. He was lucky to even get a loading symbol with the numbers he plugged in. Lucia’s Law was very clear about that. It was either all or nothing. Sometimes real numbers are better than the infinite. 

Cold washed over him. A kind with a soft breeze that tickled his fingers and nipped at his ears. He knew Raf as a person to keep a room warm like it had been seconds ago. He opened his eyes to see a bright light. White. Snow. It wasn’t grey anymore. Everything around him was pure white with flakes falling around him. He could see his dress pants stuck within the inches of it. Opening his palms in front of his headset he could see them in the dimension before him. Plain as day. 

“Gal?”

Galen looked up at the sky to see skies of endless white. All around him was white and snow. Trees sprouted out with strands of crystals. It was like willow trees but… leaves of ice, leaving small chimes in the wind. A gush blew from behind him, rustling the forest in a small chorus. It exhilarated his chest in a tight excitement he couldn’t hold it anymore. He dipped his hands into the snow and threw it up around him. 

“YES! YES!” With laughter he rejoiced, flinging snow around with the biggest grin.

“Galen? Galen, what do you see?”

Galen hollered in excitement and he played in the snow. He could feel it on his fingertips, soaking into his skin. He could feel it on his cheeks and in his shoes. His eyes sparkled just at the sight of it all. Snow. With trees. Life. Environmental life. In winter. Just that fact alone was something he had not seen before. 

“Galen… this… we made it!”

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Galen smiled at Raf’s voice through his headset. “I know! I… It’s life… in winter.”

“I… Gal, you are the smartest man I know.”

“I know.” Galen took a moment to catch his breath. He was finally here. He had finally made it. Forget what he thought he would see- this was infinitely better. Stepping forward he wandered through the snow’s clearing into more of the forest. It was absolutely breathtaking. All white, blue, and bright. Something was sweet in the air. He couldn’t place his finger on it just yet though. 

A chitter startled him as a bird took flight beyond the trees. A bird. Life. It was life! He glanced down to the bushes below that might have started the bird away to notice- red.

“What is the need for this inappropriate rowdiness?”

Galen quickly took off his headset. He glanced at Raf’s screen to see that he had made sure of a backup plan to his release. Instead of the snow he had seen before, it was a common game most men would make a rowdy about. 

He turned to the lady that was at the door. Her cold eyes pierced through his mind as his racing heart slowly dissolved from excitement to terror. She could tell a lying soul from just the dust in the air. If she found out what they were doing, they were sure to be doomed. She could destroy all of their progress. Dimension 8423-7-1, Intersection 7 over 9. He could remember that right? None of the others worked. He hadn’t written it down last week. 

His heart slowly calmed as he realised she had no evidence. They had cleared the wall of all their past work just a few days ago since none of it mattered. That was in a box beneath Raf’s bed. They had made sure of it. 

“Dr. Hinsely. I… I’m quite sorry we didn’t mean to,” Raf said as he stood to address her politely. 

“And how am I supposed to excuse this behaviour?” Her lips pierced into a great distaste. It reminded Galen of red wine gone wrong but that was only because of the colour of her lips.

“On Thursday, Galen’s therapist requested that he be more social due to current depression fluxes. She thinks that a little exhilaration would help his performance and accuracy with the current Dimension 902 research project.” Raf glanced over at me before looking at her. He wasn’t sure how she hadn’t been able to tell just yet. Or maybe she had.

Her eyes struck him as his fingers gripped onto his headset. “Is this true, Dr. Netlis?”

“Ye ye yes um… Dr. Hinsley. I I I am really sorry I just I-”

“Shush. I will speak to your therapist some time tomorrow about these… issues of yours.” She glared over to Raf. “I will see if this will excuse your rough behaviour.” Her shoulder briskly turned on her way back out. He relaxed his shoulders slightly before her hand grabbed the doorframe to stop the door. He tensed once more as her focus laid on him, “And I will be speaking with you about living arrangements. You have been tardy the last five days. I will mention that to your therapist as well.” Her hand released and she disgruntledly looked away. “Good day.”

The door shut and so did his brain. His fingers numbed with no headset to hold. Everything seemed to close and so far away as the air grew thick. Tears welded at the edge of his eyes as he tried to stay present. It wasn’t even that bad. She didn’t do anything. But it still plagued his mind with her eyes and voice and everything strangled his throat. 

“Gal- Gal listen to me.”

A blurry image of Raf filled his vision as choked on the bubble in his throat. He couldn’t even catch his breath. He wished he could move his fingers enough to grab the air and put it in his mouth. Logically he knew that wouldn’t work but he wished it did. 

“Hey… Gal, I’ve got you. Let’s go lay down.” 

He didn’t try to think too much as Raf led him to his bed to lay down. He hadn’t even been in enough thought to realise he was laying down with his gloves off and headset far away from him. The thought he was freezing this bad from something so simple forced a rock into his gut. What about their discovery? He should be celebrating after her leave. Not panicking.

Raf looked down at him as he sat on the edge of the bed after pulling blankets over Galen. “You’ve had quite a day. Let’s calm ya down and then we both better get some sleep.”

“But my tardy-”

“Eh eh- don’t worry about that. Yer just fine.” Raf picked up Galen’s hand and helped work the tight muscles out until his fingers were relaxed. “Yer gonna be alright. I’ll take care of all of this. Nothin’ is gonna happen. It’ll be like nothing happened once mornin’ comes!”

Galen nodded his head tiredly. He hoped so. If Dr. Hinsley where to find out about any of this, he could kiss his little discovery goodbye forever. But it would be alright. He could trust Raf. He was always good with words. At least, that’s what he could hope for.

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