Field Investigations

Chapter 4: More Explanations

I couldn't believe it. Kenna Rainer was standing up for me. Kenna, the person who kidnapped me and brought me onto this bus. Kenna, who for the majority of the bus ride hadn't talked at all unless I'd asked her a question, and even when she had talked hadn't told me anything of any importance. But she'd changed. We'd gone into the Field, and when we came out of it she'd seemed like a completely different person, finally offering me explanations for what had happened this afternoon. And now here she was, telling the supposed 'most powerful being in the universe' that I had the right to know what the hell was going on.

The most powerful being in the universe, A.K.A. Douglas, seemed surprised. "Look, we agreed before that it was better for her not to find out yet. The people at the... at that place-"

"I can hear, you know," I interrupted, glaring pointedly at Douglas. I was getting tired of hearing them talking about me like I wasn't there. A perplexed frown spread across his face.

"I do know," said Douglas. "But I can't exactly see why that matters."

I was about to respond when Kenna stopped me. "First of all, Douglas, if you really didn't want her to find out, then why did you suggest going into the Field earlier after the accident?" 

"Well, what did you want me to do after-" Douglas started. Kenna kept talking, though. "And second of all," she said. "I don't see why our agreement matters right now. Whether I was right or wrong to tell her, she knows about the Field. At this point, we're better off forgetting whatever plans we might have had and just telling her everything."

Douglas considered this. "You're right," he said grudgingly. "I don't think you should have told her in the first place, but now that she already knows..." His voice trailed off as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, grey, Duracell battery duct taped to a spherical contraption.

"Thanks, Douglas." Kenna said, taking the contraption and walking back down the aisle. He didn't seem to hear her, his eyes fixed on the long stretch of highway ahead. 

I followed Kenna to the back row of the bus and sat down next to her. She was still fiddling around with the contraption, so I looked out the window while I waited. We were on a highway, forests surrounding us as far as I could see with no buildings in sight. Hillsides blasted into granite rock replaced the usual railings on the side of the road as we passed through tunnels that cut into the mountains towering a few thousand feet above us. I'd never gone far out of the suburban neighborhoods of Norwalk before, so I wasn't used to these kinds of views. Of course, Norwalk had forests and lakes, but unlike here they were all lined with houses and offices, restaurants and shops.

"So this," Kenna said, interrupting my train of thought, "is called a Transporter." Wait - that was the Transporter? I raised an eyebrow. It looked like a fourth grader's failed attempt at a science fair project with its haphazard design.

"Most of them are a bit higher quality." She admitted. "We didn't bring a Transporter with us, but we needed a way into the Field after the crash earlier, so Douglas threw this together with some spare parts he found in his bag."

"So this... this thing," I said, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that this hodgepodge of seemingly random, taped-together components could produce enough energy to bridge interdimensional gaps, "somehow zapped us a pathway into another dimension earlier." 

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Kenna said. "I know it doesn't look like much, but trust me when I say that it works just as well as any fancy, stainless steel, high tech Transporter does."

"Okay," I said, distracted. My brain was working overtime trying to figure out this whole concept of interdimensional travel. "Wait - how does it decide how much to transport into the Field? When we went into the Field earlier, it took the bus and everyone in it. Is there a way to get it to only take one person into the Field?"

"Yeah," Kenna answered. "You see the calculator here?" She pointed out a miniature graphing calculator that had been attached to the spherical gizmo with a couple of pieces of scotch tape. "You can program these things, you know, using a language called BASIC. This one's been programmed to read certain inputs and send corresponding signals to the Transporter. You just have to type in who or what you want to transport. It's pretty complicated, though, because you have to convert the names into a sort of code in order for the calculator to read them." 

"Huh," I said, eloquent as always.

"So, you ready for the fun part?"

"Huh?" It took a second for my mind to catch up with what she was saying.

"You know, using it. I'll show you how it works and then you can try taking a quick trip into the Field on your own." She noticed my panicked expression and laughed. "Don't worry," she said, smiling slightly. "We'll plan it out carefully. There are thousands of Field dimensions, and we'll check my Field Interface beforehand to make sure there won't be any extreme temperatures this time."

I still wasn't all that keen on going into the Field again, but I could tell that Kenna wasn't going to take no for an answer. Anyway, maybe going into the Field could give me the chance to escape. As much as I hated to face it, Kenna and Douglas kidnapped me. Even if they were starting to feel like friends (well, Kenna at least), I had no reasons to trust them and every reason not to.

"Alright," I said, forcing my face out of its nervous grimace into a smile. "Show me how this Transporter thingy works."