Chapter 1 - Yet Another Jumper Story
Ann sat in her usual seat at her favorite coffee shop. The cup of mocha warmed her hands as she listened to the owner talk with a fellow patron.
“So, what do you think of the videos of all these people disappearing?” The customer asked.
“Best special effects I've ever seen...” The owner of the Tim Hortons trailed off, some doubt in his voice. Hesitation showed he was resistant to answer on something he knew nothing about. “I’m actually a little concerned that it’s not in the news. Seems fishy that there aren't even any discussions of it as one of those internet... things.”
“Meme?” The customer answered as she accepted her coffee..
“Yeah.” Said the host as they concluded their transaction.
Ann couldn't help but think about her husband- ex-husband.
Those long months of loneliness and worry flooded back as Alex jumped from world to world, not physically aging, but aging nonetheless. Until it all came to a head when he finally reached Equestria.
Her deep thought was interrupted by the voice of her host at the bar. “I beg your pardon?” Ann asked for clarification to the man pouring coffee from a carafe.
“I said would you like a anything to go with your moch-” And in that moment, he vanished in front of her, leaving only the sounds of inrushing air and the pot he held shattering on the floor.
Ann’s eyes slowly looked down... nothing. There was no trace. The man... disappeared! Only the shattered carafe and a puddle of hot coffee was left. The room was painfully silent, like the man had just died,The customer that he was previously serving had fallen on the floor in shock. She quickly got up from her seat, almost knocking over two patrons as she exited.
“That didn’t happen. That didn’t happen. Please, please, please let me be crazy.” Ann muttered as she ran to her car. She struggled, fiddling with her keys as her hands were shaking. Finally, she got inside and tried catching her breath. The hot summer air made her hyperventilate as she turned on the car for air-conditioning. After five minutes, the cool air calmed her nerves. “Did that really happen?” The shock finally abated, but replaced with more fear. That poor fellow wasn’t the only one!
It was thirty minutes before Ann returned home. What was the home of Alex Roberts was now redecorated with new family pictures and a new husband (the exception being a set of family photos that had Alex with his children. Those memories were still precious to Ann and she would not punish Alex by erasing him from their family’s history. Much of her life was finally stable after all that insanity... and then that man disappeared. ‘Could, I disappear?’
“I am telling you, folks, this is no trick. People are disappearing. Just... vanishing. On camera! The news is calling it a camera trick hoax, but this is no hoax. These aren’t vanishing acts! No one here is connected! The United Nations knows it!” The man on the ‘Young Turks’ ranted as Ann sat at her desk, watching more and more of these recorded disappearances.
Ann typed in her own comment, agreeing with the video, knowing quite well it was happening. She reviewed her memory again. The conversation was casual but interesting enough that she sat by the coffee bar. She took a sip and, by the time she put her cup down, the owner vanished in front of her! The carafe the man held shattered on the ground. He was... gone. There was no mistaking it! He disappeared! At first she tried to pretend this wasn’t happening, but that was hard to deny as stories popped up online about other disappearances.
It was happening again, to other people. There was no denying it. She took a deep breath and did something she hadn’t done in months. She logged onto skype, her list of contacts popping up. She clicked on the private contacts folder and double clicked on “mylittlebrony.” There she clicked on the one username who might be able to help find out what the hell was going on.
Not on Earth. Not in its solar system. Not even in it’s universe, a man walked down the stairs of his modest, but beautiful home situated in Ponyville. He had just put on a shirt, which covered the scars on his back. He looked out the window to see the mid-morning sun lighting the neighboring buildings as well as some early morning workers busy in the sky. He made his way to the living room to put on his hiking boots.
However, his attention was called to a noise on his laptop. He remembered he left it on password-protection last evening. After accessing his desktop, he saw the reason for the sound was his skype account: notifying him of an incoming message from someone he talked to less often than to his children... back on Earth.
The message read, <Alex! Please answer! Something horrible is happening here on Earth!>
175 meters beneath the Franco-Swiss border, near Geneva, Switzerland, a man stood in the breakroom of what was considered one of the greatest achievements of human engineering. It was the lunch break for the department of engineering. A short line formed in front of the buffet as servers provided requested entrees. One tall man carefully made his way through the cafeteria line. He stood a head taller than everyone else. Dressed in his labcoat, which was unbuttoned to reveal his polo shirt and blue-jeans. His eyes were covered by round, darkly-tinted spectacles. What set him apart from others was a noticeable assortment of rounded facial-piercings that decorated his ears, eyebrows, and the bridge of his nose.
His left hand felt the side rail that was on the tray-table as he walked. Finally his hand felt the protective glass, tracing up to the menu attached to the glass. Of course it had the items in Swiss, French, English, but also braille. His fingers traced the bumps briefly and he made his requests as he slowly made his way down.
“Hey, Tycho. I’ll help you to your seat.” Said a co-worker as others offered to assist.
Tycho shook his head. “We’ve been through this, guys.” He passed by the co-worker. The others took that as a signal to back off, but this one wasn’t deterred.
“Hey, I’m just trying to be courteous.” The man replied putting a hand on Tycho’s tray and trying to take it.
Tycho stopped, getting annoyed and pulling his tray closer to him. “Let go. I know where I’m going.”
“I’m not buying it, Dr. Hernandez! Stop being a stubborn fool or you’ll trip on the seats out there!” He raised his voice and yanked the tray.
Tycho then grabbed at his co-worker’s tray and yanked it from him, pushing his own tray into the co-worker. “Then I guess I’ll return the favor.”
“Wha-” The man replied.
“You were sitting where? Four tables over and five back? Let’s go.” Tycho moved on ahead. “And pick me up an orange pop.”
These things happened often at work with Tycho’s co-workers forgetting he was more than capable of taking care of himself. Less experienced co-workers, like the one who took his tray, would underestimate him all the time. More experienced workers knew better and only occasionally offered help. His closest friends at CERN, as well as human-resources, did their best in educating the other employees about his capabilities. But, being a busy place, it was a slow process.
“He had the entire department memorized in his first three weeks. Takes most people four or five.” A pale, blonde woman met them half-way. “I told you, Tycho isn’t helpless. He learned from a guy who mountain-bikes as a hobby.”
They sat down with the woman as Tycho took out his laptop. The co-worker remained silent, almost embarrassed as he handed Tycho back his tray, mumbling an apology. Tycho traded back the co-worker’s tray and started eating as his laptop booted up.
Others sat with Tycho as they discussed the latest project. The excitement of successfully finding traces of the Higgs Boson was still running high, but that always meant one thing: more work to discover the next scientific breakthrough. Tycho took his lunch break as an opportunity to catch up with today’s media. His Skype booted up as he received a notification of a contact from... mylittlebrony. Tycho brought his fingers over a pad that extended from the keyboard as blunted pins began rising and sinking in different combinations onto his fingers, spelling out words in braille.
“It’s rude to not pay attention to the conversation.” A another man scolded Tycho.
Tycho stuck his tongue out in mock-defiance. “World Cup, my friend. Never stand between me and my football team.” He then got the notification from skype as he quickly processed the braille pad.
“What do we have this time?” He asked himself as he read the latest message, spelling out the sentences to his fingers as he translated in his head:
<Mylittlebrony: Hey Little Tyke. How are you doing?> He read the rest as the braille output spelled the rest of the message. Tycho hadn’t talked to Alex Roberts for months. He almost wondered if Alex fell off the map completely.
<I am doing fine, Al. Been a while. Been busy?> Tycho typed in response, then waited for a reply.
<Very. I got some videos and news clips to show you. Do you have time to look at them?> Tycho read.
<Sure. I’ve got half an hour. Send them over to me,> Tycho replied.
Tycho left one hand on one side and began tapping the tab, going through the links. The braille output spelled out the items as he patiently searched. The one youtube video that caught his attention was the one Al Jazeera pulled.
“It would appear there seems to be an increasing number of videos with claims of random people disappearing. And it isn’t just happening in the United States. Its everywhere. Is it a hoax or has something extraordinarily terrifying happening on Earth,” said the voice on the video.
He then checked out the articles, signalling his computer after each link opened to spell out the description for each. This process took time, patience, and a bit of imagination. He thought deeply before returning to the skype conversation, having difficulty believing what was going on. Once the computer notified him he was back on skype, he replied to his friend <Hey, give me a sec to get a co-worker to confirm this.>
He noticed Arjeta was still around, for she never left her chair. “Arjeta.” He hailed her.
“How did you know she was there?” That same co-worker questioned.
“Her voice, she loves curry chips,” Tycho explained nonchalantly. “Her figure.” Tycho grinned humorously. “I mean it’s not hard to miss when you listen-” He then felt the crumbles of curry chips being poured on his head.
“Ha, ha. Funny boy.” Arjeta retorted with a smirk. “As if you can feel me up with your ears.”
Tycho chuckled as he wiped the crumbs from his head and clothes. “Its a compliment, Onee-sama.” He replied with a grin.
“I like you better when you talk french, nerd.” She retorted in Swiss.
“Look who’s talking, Ms. Trekkie.” He chuckled. “Can you watch these for me?”
“They funny?” She asked as leaned in closer to view the screen.
Tycho activated the monitor and the videos were in front of her. After five minutes of watching them, the technician was silent.
Tycho waited for a reply, but none came. “Any opinion?” He prompted her.
“This can’t be really happening.” Arjeta replied skeptically, but with a hint of worry.
“So... are people really disappearing?” Tycho asked. “Aliens, perhaps?”
“I think its a hoax, to be honest. Its like those... what do you call them? Mee’s?”
“Memes.” Tycho corrected her.
“Yeah, it could just be a meme that has spread around.” The woman stated, obviously trying to cover up some concern. “Now, if you’ll stop pretending to hear my body and come up with a solution for next month’s project, then we can all get a three day weekend, how does that sound?” She smiled and patted Tycho on the shoulder.
“Can I still listen to your melodious voice, oh sweet siren?” He then heard her toss her spork at him, which he dodged. It promptly ricocheted off his laptop and smacked someone else at the table. “I’ll get to work, no worries.” He stated as his friend and co-worker waved in acknowledgement before leaving. He switched back to skype and typed in the chat window. <So yeah, people appear to be disappearing in these videos. I’m no expert in hoaxes but... you know, let me check something and I’ll get back to you tonight.>
“Um... did you seriously just dodge that spoon she threw at you?” Asked that same patronizing dick- Tycho took a breath and stopped himself from getting wound up about the guy.
“Look up human echolocation on your spare time, Dr. Friedman. There’s a reason I click my tongue so much.” Tycho finished eating before he took his tray and laptop to go back to work, smoothly walking around obstructions, leaving a visibly embarrassed Dr. Friedman at his seat.
It was a cool way of showing the new guy he wasn’t helpless, but not cool when he got so distracted that he got lost in his own workplace. It always happened when he got worked up.
He heard a nearby worker's footsteps and flagged him when he passed by. “Hey, lost track of where I am.”
The person stopped in his tracks and smiled walking up to Tycho. “Its okay, Dr. Hernandez. Happens to all of us.” The maintenance man patted Tycho on the shoulder. “You’re on Green 52, B-level. Just head to the end of this hall to get to your department.”
“...thanks.” Now Tycho was embarrassed, that old feeling of frustration creeping into his mind as he quickly stomped it down to regain his calm. Still, he hated the fact he couldn’t read as most people could.
After another busy day at work, Tycho rode with his friends home.
“Do you seriously think those disappearances are actually happening?” Dr. Friedman asked Arjeta.
“No. Someone does something on the internet and other copycats post the same. It shouldn’t be surprising.” Arjeta, who was driving, replied as she took the vehicle onto the highway.
“And yet every news outlet refuses to say anything about it. Even a VIP ambassador is shown vanishing. It’s kinda scary when an editor refuses to comment.” Tycho stated.
“Maybe they just don’t want to give it more publicity.” Friedman remarked, though he wasn’t too keen on the idea himself.
Arjeta followed behind one vehicle, who kept driving slower than the other cars. Sadly, she couldn’t get around him because of the semi in the neighboring lane.
“God I hate that! Holding everyone up behind them!” Friedman grumbled.
Tycho wasn’t paying attention as he received an email on his laptop. The sender was Juan Yin at the University of Science and Technology in Shanghai: We have been experimenting with devices that can detect quantum entanglement events. Our particular devices can detect a quantum entanglement event within 30 kilometers. We were testing the device and it detected two Q-E spikes that were hundreds of times greater than expected. At first we thought it was malfunctioning, but after checking the approximate times of the disappearances against the times of the spikes, we are concluding these events are very possibly linked to two disappearances on campus.
Tycho broke out into a cold sweat and hesitated to reply as his mind was trying to comprehend what was going on. People were being teleported away? As incredible as it was, he had to ask ‘to where?’ His thought process was broken when Arjeta slammed the brakes and swerved the car out of the way as the vehicle in front of them failed to follow the curve of the road and collided with the semi passing it. Arjeta changed lanes, almost scratching the bumper on the back of the semi truck. After getting past the semi, she sped up, watching the semi carefully as it came to a stop. They pulled over the side of the road after getting a decent distance ahead of it. All three in the car breathed rapidly from the shock.
“Did you see that?!?” Dr. Friedman asked, terror pushing his voice up an octave.
Arjeta silently nodded, recovering from the shock, but still shaking.
“What? What?” Tycho leaned forward just barely regaining his bearings as he rubbed his poor head.
Arjeta took a deep breath to regain her composure, barely. “That driver disappeared.” She swallowed and looked to see the driver of the semi walking towards the remains of the unoccupied vehicle.
Tycho walked into his apartment, still shaking a little. Not from their near-death experience, but from the idea that something very bad and very wrong was happening on Earth. His apartment was nicely decorated with good furniture. It had two bedrooms, with one where his office was located. He hooked his laptop (thankfully still working) into the docking station on his desk and fired up his personal computer. As the computer booted up, Tycho took a shower to try and relax his nerves. He didn’t even take the time to remove his piercings.
Tycho ducked as he went from room-to-room. Being as tall as he was was more than just an inconvenience for him, having learned early and painfully that doorways were not made for someone his height. After he got dressed, he sat at his computer and caught up on his emails.
<Tyke, you there?> He received from Alex.
<Yes, I am here. Alex, I saw->. Tycho rolled his white-and-white eyes and deleted the second sentence. <Alex, my co-workers and I almost died on the road home. Some guy in a vehicle in front of us disappeared right then and there!>
<Oh no! Are you okay, buddy?> Alex replied.
<Yeah, but I’m even more shaken up about all this. A blogger estimates the disappearances are happening about 50 people per day. I mean, we’re not worried about the entire population fading out of existence, but this is freaking out the entire planet!> Tycho sent articles about the building hysteria. Governments scrambling to calm the population. Enemy nations blaming each other. Religious groups declaring the end of the world or the rapture or whatever. Chaos was not breaking out now, but how long before that would change?
<Tycho, I am contacting you about this because I know nobody else that can help. You said you had contacts that knew stuff about quantum entanglement, right?> Tycho received on skype.
<Yes, Alex. I know the scientists both in Australia and China that worked on this. You want a referral?> He replied.
<No, I want you to coordinate. We might be able to help with this, but we need to learn as much as possible about what is going on.>
Tycho raised an eyebrow. <Who is ‘we?’ >
There was a delay and he received a contact request from the user: StarswirlMagic.
<Tyke, can you accept a contact request from StarswirlMagic? She has some questions to ask you, and some requests.> Tycho read and accepted the contact.
Done. He replied. <Who is she really?>
<Her name is Twilight Sparkle. You two need to talk. I will be back to start a group chat later, then we’ll do a skype call.>
Tycho blinked at the name. <This lady named by Stephenie Meyer?>
<Ha ha ha...no.> Replied Alex. Tycho grinned. <Just go with it. Everything will be explained later.>
Tycho then received his first message from this ‘Twilight Sparkle.’
<Greetings, Darksight. I am Twilight Sparkle. Alex told me you can help us.> StarswirlMagic wrote.
Tycho smirked at her name. <My name is Tycho Hernandez. May I ask where your name comes from?> he typed.
<My parents, of course. And who is Stephanie Meyer?> she replied dryly. Impressive over text.
Tycho raised an eyebrow before typing <I envy that you don’t know.>
<Well that isn’t important right now. So Alex tells me you are ‘sciency.’>
He chuckled at Alex’s term. <By that, he means I have a masters degree in engineering and masters degree in particle physics with a honorary doctoral degree in engineering physics.>
<How do you get an honorary degree?> Was StarswirlMagic criticizing it?
<There was a comprehensive examination I couldn’t pass. Test anxiety. But I did some impressive work at CERN.> Tycho explained, feeling slightly defensive.
<You work at the Large Hadron Collider!?!?> Her excitement radiated from the text.
His smile returned. <Yes, yes I work there. Anyways, my grandpa is the VP at the college, and hates standardized tests, especially multiple choice. He granted me the honorary degree after getting the physics department a very expensive research partnership with CERN. That and my thesis was too good for them ignore.>
<Where did you get educated?> Asked StarswirlMagic.
<M.I.T. What is your degree and occupation?> Tycho replied.
StarswirlMagic replied quickly. <Grand Scholar in Magical Sciences. I am a librarian!>
Magical sciences? Something wasn’t adding up. Tycho took some time to find a tactful way to ask about it. <...well that is a good job, but I never heard of that degree.>
<Well I am not exactly from where you are.> StarswirlMagic typed cryptically.
<Sounds American. Like schools for Klingon lingo.> Tycho thought better of that response just after he sent it.
StarswirlMagic responded too quickly for deleting it to be a viable option. <I’m not American.>
<Well who is? I was born in Canada, but my parents immigrated from Japan and Bolivia.> Tycho mused.
<Well, let’s discuss what they found out in China.> He read as he began to pull some articles from a save folder.
<Changing the subject, huh? Okay well you know the Chinese lead the world in experiments involving Quantum Entanglement, right?> He inquired of StarswirlMagic.
<Right, using technological means to teleport.> ‘If you were a Dungeons and Dragons player,’ Tycho thought to her response.
<As opposed to casting a level 6 spell?> He joked.
<No no no. There are no ‘levels’ in spells, only the informal zero to five scale used by magic users to describe proximate power level. I’m 4th level. You see, spells are more a degree of attenuation to thaumic resonance and the ability to manipulate that resonance, which moves specific particles much like your radios can selectively receive and ignore certain frequencies.>
Tycho reread that paragraph several times, trying to figure out her angle. Was Alex messing with him?
<So with that, teleportation involves moving about six different particles into a particular pattern to achieve interspatial length. In essence, it branches two different points in space to achieve movement without moving.> It was at this point Tycho stared at the screen, then made the ultimate conclusion: Para-science would be best discussed like regular science. With alcohol. He got up from his seat to fetch a rum and cola.
<Are you there?>
Tycho returned to his chair with an extra large glass. <Had to get a stiff drink cause this is gonna be interesting. So, lets talk China, then we can talk about your metaphysical ‘theory.’>
Tycho sat back in his chair, sipping his rum and coke as he transferred articles to StarswirlMagic. What the heck was Alex doing, he wondered?
His cellphone buzzed. Tycho stretched in his chair and flipped it open. “Yes?”
“Tycho? Its, me, Ann,” the familiar female voice said.
Tycho blinked. “Ann?” He thought about that voice until the gears in his mind finally turned. Alex’s wife- no, ex-wife. “Oh, Ann! I haven’t heard from you in a long while.”
“Yeah, well... It hasn’t been easy since the... divorce. So, um. Are you on your laptop with Twilight Sparkle?” Ann asked.
Tycho’s curiosity was seriously tickled by this coincidence. “Yeah, you know her?”
“I do. I was told you will be voice chatting with them.” Ann replied.
Tycho nodded. “And by them, I am assuming her and Alex. Why? You joining us?”
“I am joining because you aren’t going to believe who you are talking to,” she replied. “Hang on, the kids are home.”
Tycho sighed and lightly scratched to top of his head. “Alex, Alex, Alex. What are you dragging me into?”
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Where is the rum gone?
I just knew from the beginning this was based on TMOARJ (wow big acronym) I mean Alex Roberts, divorced, living in ponyville and with a working laptop, I commend you good sir, keep writing this if you please
Pretty good writing. You did change up one thing from Reality Jumper series. The event that moved the people also moved a radius of stuff around the jumper.