Martin

  Chapter Six

  Present Day

  ‘Martin? Are you with us yet? Martin, try to open your eyes’ I gradually became aware of a young girl’s voice next to me. Was I still dreaming?

  With my eyes closed I desperately attempted to get my bearings. I can remember that I had been thinking about the Lotus when I had fallen asleep in the sun. Bloody hell, I hope I hadn’t been asleep for too long; I certainly didn’t want to get sunburnt. I could feel that the sun was still shining brightly above me, but whose voice was it that had just woken me? I put my hand up to shield my eyes from the glaring light as I now began to open them. My sunglasses - where were they? They must have fallen off as I slept. As my eyes gradually opened, I now became aware of some very strange noises from all around me. The noises, yes they were rather strange, but I had definitely heard them somewhere before, but where?

  ‘Martin, are you okay?’ it was that girl’s voice again. I now had my eyes fully open. What the hell? I was not in my garden, I was in the lab, but this is the place that I can now remember from that weird and vivid dream that I had the other night. Was I still asleep? Was I now living my own dream? This was very confusing and very scary. Something was wrong, very wrong. How could I be here?

  ‘Martin, I’m over here’ again came her voice. I turned to my right and there she was. My head was still very confused; the moment I saw her I knew immediately that we really did know each other and that everything around me was indeed familiar. Now it all started to come back.

  ‘Sarah?’ I asked still blinking my eyes.

  She came over to me and said in a quiet voice into my ear ‘What do you mean, ‘Sarah?’ You must have had one hell of a wild ride if you didn’t recognise me just there. Nobody forgets me Martin, nobody. I always do like to make sure of that!’ She then stood back and winked at me before continuing, ‘So tell me, how do you feel?’

  I was now very quickly coming to terms with my waking environment. I had only been awake for three or four minutes and yet I was now fully aware of where I really was. My mind was still a little confused and my body felt pretty stiff from my deep sleep. I was no longer in my garden at all. I was back in the lab; it was not bright sunlight that was above my head: it was bright lights shining down upon me to help me wake from my deep sleep. I also realised that it was the hum of all of the various bits of equipment in the lab that was responsible for the strange noises that I could now hear. Had I been dreaming, or did I really go through into another dimension? I really did not know. Bloody hell, I really felt very weird now, and Sarah would like to know how I feel?

  ‘You want to know how I feel Sarah? The truth is I honestly don’t know how I feel.’ As I finished answering I could see another person coming towards me. It was Alistair.

  ‘Well Martin, as far as we could tell it all went as we envisaged at this end, so what about you? How did it all go?’ he asked me in a very matter of fact way.

  ‘Alistair, I have been gone for…gone for a bloody day and half. I was told that the whole thing would be for one minute exactly, so what the hell is going on here?’

  ‘Martin, if you remember from when you went through the dream sequence yesterday, your mind for some reason gives you the illusion that you have been gone longer than you have in reality. It’s just the way that your mind interprets it all. I can assure you that you were connected for one minute and no longer.’

  ‘Yesterday I was a very different Martin and I was talking to Caroline, who just so happens to be my wife! I tell you Alistair, I have been gone a day and a half, and I can remember all of it, everything in exact detail, all of it. So don’t even try to tell me that I have been ‘connected’ for only a minute.’

  I could see that both Alistair and Sarah were exchanging questioning glances at each other. They both turned as Davila now stepped forward.

  ‘Martin you clearly have had a very intense experience, and you must have a lot to tell us. I can also tell that you are after a lot of answers from us. That’s very understandable. With that in mind, I think it best if you get yourself fully awake first, and we can then all sit down and talk this through in the meeting room. That means all of us,’ she said addressing everyone around my chair. She looked at her watch and then added, ‘It’s nearly three. Tell you what, everybody here can get ready to prepare for me an in-depth summary of all of the data relating to the run, and we will then meet at 16:30. That will give you all about an hour and a half. Everyone okay with that?’

  Davila’s question was really another one of her orders and everybody agreed. For a few moments Paul, who was standing right beside Davila, had started to say that he was not sure that he would have time to collate all of the necessary data, when he noticed the glare from Davila direction and he quickly fell into line.

  ‘Good, it’s agreed then, 16:30,’ stated Davila and then she spoke to me once again. ‘Martin, you will feel a lot better if you unwind in your own room before the meeting. Get yourself a drink, maybe have a shower, you know, to get yourself awake. I’ll get someone to take you to your room.’

  For the first time since she had come into my view I noticed that Davila now had a small smile as she now addressed everybody. ‘I know that we still have yet to analyse all of the data and we also need to sit down with Martin, but at first sight it all seems to have gone to plan. So, congratulations everybody, well done…and that includes you, Martin, and I really do mean that. Right, see you all in an hour and a half.’ She turned and purposefully left the lab.

  Sarah came over to me and removed all the leads from my body and then she began to help me out of the chair. As she did so, I once again had this very strange and powerful sensation that we somehow knew each other very well, almost as if there were some sort of a connection between us. However this time it was, without doubt, much more surreal than it had been before. I now remembered how confused I had been when I was the other Martin, and how I had all these new memories that continually kept coming into my head that at the time I simply could not understand. Well, this sensation with Sarah, it was identical, and had exactly the same effect on me. So if I was indeed now back in the real world, just how could I have a memory of someone that I had never met before, or, for that matter, how could I even be sure that this was the real world and simply not a dream? I now felt even more confused and bewildered, just as Caroline had felt. Caroline? My wife…would I ever see her again? I could feel an odd wave of emotion come over me, but in truth, I really did not know how to interpret it. I knew that she was not my wife, or at least I was pretty sure that she wasn’t. So what was it that I was now feeling?

  I remembered to get out of the chair slowly and once again as I put my weight onto my feet I felt very unsteady. In spite of the fact that I still felt confused and slightly groggy from my deep sleep, I was instantly aware of the serious demeanour of everyone around me, as they were all now desperately gathering the data together demanded by Davila.

  Alistair explained that as they would all be too busy preparing for the debriefing, Davila had arranged for one of the military personnel to escort me back to my room. As he finished speaking, the same sergeant that had let us into the chamber a few days ago marched firmly into the lab and towards me…no wait a minute, I just realised that it was not a few days ago as I had thought just now…when the hell was it? Damn, this was confusing, I was definitely losing track of time. It could have only been yesterday, that is if they were actually telling me the truth. I now realised that I did not trust any of them anymore, and I was feeling a little paranoid about the whole thing. The complex, the machines, Sarah, Davila…even Alistair. Bloody hell, just what had I got myself into?

  Apart from briefly stopping off at one of the drinks machines for a coffee in the corridor, the sergeant and I walked in complete silence to my room. I remembered from our previous encounter that she was very short on conversation and certainly did not understand any humour. I knew that I certainly had lost all my sense of humour, and she was the last person that
I wanted to talk to just now. Before leaving me she informed me that she would collect me at 16:25 to take me to the meeting room.

  That would give me just over an hour to gather my thoughts, and to possibly have a quick shower. As soon as the door to my room closed I made straight for my bed and lay down. I felt so tired and confused. I closed my eyes and immediately felt myself dozing off. No, I did not want to fall asleep, not again. If I fell asleep now, just where would I wake up next? For a few moments I could feel my heart start pounding as I began to get myself into a real panic. However being so tired, my self induced worried state did not last for very long as I was unable to keep myself awake any longer.

  I awoke with a start and immediately sat myself up in bed. I rubbed my eyes and looked around to see where I was this time. I was still in my room in the complex, thank God for that. I glanced at my watch. It was a quarter past four, shit – I only had ten minutes before the sergeant came to collect me. I dashed into the shower and had the quickest shower that I’ve had in a long time. I had only just finished dressing and was in the process of putting on my shoes when the sergeant arrived. That was cutting it a bit fine, nevertheless, at least I now felt fully awake and a lot less paranoid after my unplanned sleep. I now looked forward with some confidence to getting some answers from the meeting.

  The sergeant then escorted me through the tunnels and we only parted company after I was actually in the lift, which I knew would deliver me directly into the meeting room. With my hair still wet from my recent shower, the doors of the lift opened and I stepped into the meeting room. Already seated and waiting for me were Davila, Sarah, Paul and Alistair. My immediate reaction was that I was late, but after quickly glancing at my watch I realised that I was in fact on time, they were just early.

  As always, it was Davila who got out of her chair to come over and greet me, before showing me to my chair at the table. I was seated next to Paul on my right; with Sarah directly in front me. Sitting next to Sarah was Alistair, and between both Paul and Alistair was Davila, effectively head of the table, which I thought very appropriate. I noticed that everyone, including Davila, had clipboards and various notes in front of them. I knew straight away that this meeting was going to be a lot more serious and in-depth than my earlier ones had been.

  With the pleasantries out of the way Davila proceeded to tell everybody how the meeting would run. She wanted Sarah, Paul, and Alistair to give just a brief summary of exactly what had happened before, during, and after the run, as well explaining anything when asked or questioned by anybody else. They were however to talk for no more that ten minutes, and to just try to keep it simple. Should they want to discuss anything in greater detail, then that would be for the follow up meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning. After they had all done their little talk, Davila herself would then give a brief summary, followed by a detailed breakdown from me. She also added that due to the terrible cold in here, they would have regular drinks breaks throughout the meeting.

  That was my cue. ‘Davila, before we do start the meeting in earnest, would you mind if I grabbed a coffee just now? It’s not that I’m cold, well not yet anyway, it’s just that I’m really thirsty.’ With Davila currently in her authoritarian mode, I did wonder how my out of place request would go down. However, I didn’t really care, because I was, for some reason, exceptionally thirsty.

  ‘Not at all Martin, good idea. Does anybody else want a drink before we start? I know that I certainly do.’ As Davila finished talking she was already getting up and making her way towards the dreaded drinks machine.

  Everybody else followed her, and one by one we grabbed a drink, before taking them back to our seats. Once we were all seated, Alistair suggested that it would be best if he spoke first. With Davila’s agreement Alistair now started.

  From the very moment that Alistair started to speak, I had absolutely no idea of what he was talking about. For the first four or five minutes I really did try hard to understand what was being said. Even when he was questioned by the others, I still understood nothing – his explanations were incomprehensible to me. I knew before he had started to talk that I probably would not follow everything, but I did expect to have some understanding of some of the things that he would say. For all I knew he could have been talking complete and utter rubbish and I would have been none the wiser. As his talk went on, I gradually started to switch off, I simply could not keep my concentration and my mind began to go off in different directions. Fortunately, just as I was beginning to lose my concentration completely, Alistair finished talking - thank goodness! I just hoped that his little talk was to be the most boring of them all, and that from now on it would begin to get a little easier.

  It was Paul who was to talk next, but before he did, Davila said ‘Martin, I am going to have to ask for your patience here as I am sure that most of this will be over your head and completely meaningless. However, I wanted you here as you are part of this, and this is all very important.’

  ‘Davila, I have not understood one word of what Alistair has said just now. I found him to be about as coherent as when he’s had a few beers down at our local!’ I said smirking directly at Alistair.

  Everybody round the table, laughed briefly before Davila responded ‘If it’s any consolation to you, I too have been very worried about Alistair making much sense for quite a while as well, but we really must move on.’

  I found myself only able to concentrate for about a minute once Paul had begun his little talk. It was just the same with Sarah. As with Alistair before, I found it completely impossible to make any sense of what was being said. Unable to follow events, my mind very quickly began to wander and to speculate.

  I was now sure that I was indeed back in what I now called ‘the real world.’ I must have been because I could clearly remember all of my life and it all fitted together logically. As for what had happened when I became the other Martin, well that was definitely still to be answered. I can clearly remember my day and a half as somebody else; I knew that much to be true. However, if I had been connected for only one minute, how could I experience a different dimension over a different time period? That did not make any sense to me. I could not see why everybody connected with the project would lie to me about how long I was asleep, as I would find out immediately when I left the complex to go home.

  Of course, they could have been lying to me all along about travelling to other dimensions. As far as I was concerned what I had just experienced could have been nothing more than a dream sequence implanted into my mind. After all, they did do something similar before, so how would I ever know the difference?

  There was also something else that I found very disturbing. If, as they say, I really did travel into another dimension and I had genuinely connected with another Martin, just what damage had we done to him, this other Martin? He was pretty much living a normal life by anybody’s standards. It was apparent now that all of his unknown flashes of memory were actually my memories. When he first awoke and didn’t recognise Caroline that was because for those first few minutes, it was actually me and not him that was consciously aware. However, in little over twenty-four hours he has now lost all of his self-confidence, displayed complete irrational behaviour to the point where he frightened his own wife, questioned his own sanity, and appeared to be suffering from some form of split personality, or even schizophrenia.

  Schizophrenia? That got me thinking, I genuinely didn’t know anything about this condition at all. However, the thought now crossed my mind that maybe people that suffered from this, were somehow getting visits from…themselves? That would make sense, or at least it certainly would for my Martin. I chuckled to myself; my mind really was doing the rounds. I was beginning to imagine how other people, unconnected to the project, would react if I started to explain my experiences to them once I got out of the complex and was finally home. I had no doubt at all that they would consider me completely eccentric, or more probably even worse!

  I realised that i
t had become very quiet around me once again. Sarah had stopped talking, at last! I hoped that she had not been saying anything unpleasant about me, as I really would be none the wiser since with all my daydreaming - I simply hadn’t heard one word! It was now the turn of Davila to talk. However, before proceeding any further we all agreed to have a quick break.

  Unlike our earlier meetings, there was no small talk at all when we were stretching our legs and having our drinks. Everybody was very straight faced. This meeting was very serious and business like. It was just a shame that I had no idea of what was going on! We all returned to our seats and waited for Davila to sum up todays events. I decided that I really must at least try to concentrate on what was being said, especially as I was supposed to have my say immediately afterwards.

  Davila probably spoke for around fifteen minutes during her brief summary. Apart from a few nice words that congratulated the team for their hard work and diligence over the last few years and how much of a success it had all been, I once again did not have a clue about anything that she had said.

  I had sat in this damn freezing cold room for about an hour now, and I had not understood a bloody thing. I again felt like a fish out of water as I had done when I first arrived in the complex, not understanding anything and feeling completely helpless. I had to confess to myself that I found the whole experience very frustrating and bewildering, my only consolation was that at least their little speeches had now come to an end.

  ‘And now we come to you Martin. God, you must have really suffered sitting through all of that, but at least you kept awake that’s the main thing. How are you doing?’ enquired Davila.

  ‘I’m fine, just fine. If truth be told though, I have not understood anything that has been said by anybody at all.’

  I could see that Davila was now looking quite relaxed: she was clearly pleased with today’s events. ‘Martin, I know you must be full of questions, and we will try our level best to answer all of them for you. However, before we do get bogged down with too many questions, I would very much appreciate it, if you can tell us in exact detail, without interruption, your whole experience. When I say whole experience, I mean from the moment Sarah gave you the sedative, right up to the time that you finally opened your eyes again. By doing so, we can then add your experience to what we already know from our data. If you remember, your description will be the only knowledge that we will have of where you went and what you experienced, so please do not leave anything out at all, no matter how insignificant you may think it is. Is that okay with you?’

  ‘Right, just so that I’m clear on this Davila, you want me to tell you exactly what I experienced, and I guess that you will be taking notes because as I have already said, I have got nearly a day and a half to get through’ I answered.

  ‘You got it. If you have got a day and a half to tell us about, then we want to know all about it. Not only will we be taking notes, but we will also be recording everything on video - unless that is, you have any objections?’

  I shook my head before saying, ‘That’s all right by me. You said you wanted me to talk without interruption. Does that mean that you don’t want to ask any questions as I’m going along?’

  ‘Just as you have a lot of questions for us Martin, I’m more than certain that we will have questions for you as well. However, just tell us about your experience first, and then we can then move things on. Everybody okay with that?’ asked Davila looking around the table.

  We all agreed and then Paul very quickly set up the video camera that was now directed at me over Sarah’s shoulder. Before we started we once again had yet another round of hot drinks. With the camera now all set, and everybody’s pens and clipboards at the ready, I was finally able to begin.

  I really did not know how long I had been talking before I finally finished, but it must have been for nearly two hours as it was just about seven o’clock now. The moment that I began to retell my experience, I could immediately tell that they were all completely fascinated by what they heard, whilst at the same time they were all feverishly taking down notes. I noticed that Sarah alone easily went through about half a dozen sheets of paper. I did wonder why she wrote so much as this was all being captured on video. From time to time some or all of them would exchange quizzical and questioning glances at each other, clearly very surprised by what I was saying. When I finally finished talking, there was a long and eerie silence in the room.

  After what seemed like an absolute age Sarah then exclaimed, ‘Wow and wow! No bloody wonder you were weird and lost when you first woke up.’

  ‘Martin you lucky old bastard! What an adventure you’ve had!’ boomed Alistair with a laugh. He was out of his chair now and came round behind me. He was clearly now in cheerful form as I got an especially hard whack on my back. He then put his hand out to me and we firmly shook hands. ‘So you old rascal, you did travel into another dimension. You really did do it! You don’t know how happy you have just made me.’ He returned to his seat shaking his head slightly still chuckling to himself.

  It was Davila who now spoke, ‘That is one hell of a story, and I’m sure that I speak for everyone here when I say that…that I really don’t know what to make of it all, or to know where to begin. It just seems so fantastic. I know that we still have to piece this altogether, but on the face of it, we did manage to connect to another dimension and ultimately, that’s what we set out to do, and that’s what we’ve done! You succeeded Martin, we all did. What we all deserve now is a glass of champagne to toast our amazing achievement. Unfortunately, as you all know alcohol is forbidden in the complex, so I’m afraid it’s the…coffee!’ Davila now stood up, stretched, and then added ‘My goodness - it really has got so cold in here, I never realised that the time had gone so quickly. Tell you what, let’s have our last hot drink of the night, and then we will let Martin ask his questions. We need to finish up by eight if we want to get fed in the canteen.’

  She was right: I too had not noticed the time go by and it was only now that I realised just how cold it really was. I was pacing around, cupping my hot coffee when I decided to put my first question to Alistair. ‘Okay clever clogs, if we can accept as fact that I did actually travel to another dimension, then tell me how I had a day and a half somewhere else, for only a minute here? Because it certainly does not seem to make any sense to me.’

  Alistair looked directly at me, sighed and then slowly answered ‘This is a very important issue, so for the record, lets all sit back down at the table so that we can continue with the video recoding.’

  Once we were all again seated Alistair continued. ‘For the record Martin has asked for an explanation for the differences in time experienced between the two dimensions. How can we explain it? Martin I honestly do not have an answer for you. You stated that it did not make any sense to you, well it doesn’t to me either.’ He looked around the table and then asked everybody, ‘Well you have all listened to what Martin has said, can any of you begin to speculate why the time lapses should be so different?’

  Everyone shook their heads except for Sarah who answered very slowly and deliberately. ‘Alistair, I know that I touched on this subject briefly when I first started to work on the project and you pretty much dismissed my idea. Since then, none of us have been able to look into it any further with the limited time that we had, but if you recall, I did suggest that when the MDT had made the connection between two different dimensions, it could in fact be actually warping space. Now clearly I can only speculate and make assumptions, but if space was indeed warped, then it would logically follow that time itself would be warped, creating one time line that was very different to where you started from.’

  Once Sarah had finished her rather interesting theory there was silence in the room for a few moments. I could see that everybody around the table was now mulling over what had been said.

  Alistair who had been drumming his fingers on the table then responded, ‘Yes I do remember your suggestion when you first arrived Sa
rah and no, I did not dismiss your idea, but I do confess that I think it unlikely. I am still not convinced that the MDT did warp space, but nevertheless, we do have to consider all possibilities. Of course if for a moment we assume that space was indeed warped, then it opens up another interesting question.’ Alistair paused as we all looked intently at him, waiting for what he was going to say.

  ‘Martin, when you went to sleep in the lab it was Friday afternoon and when you woke up as the other Martin on the same day, it was still Friday. That is what we expected, so far so good, but you came back to us on the same day, when in the other world it was now Saturday. I’m sure you can all see where this is going. If Martin then repeated the run just now, he should arrive in the other dimension at about the same point as when he leaves here, in other words Friday. If he arrived back in exactly the same other dimension, would he arrive on Friday again, or would it now be Saturday, which of course should be impossible?’

  For once I was mostly following what they were all discussing and I was absolutely fascinated by all their various theories, and I could not wait to see where it would now go.

  It was Paul who now spoke, ‘There is also another piece to this jigsaw, which as far as I can see only adds to the confusion. Martin only became conscious in another dimension as he was waking from an already sleeping ‘other Martin.’ He then had another night’s sleep, so we know that by falling asleep in another dimension does not necessary mean that you automatically return to your own dimension. Martin then did return to our dimension when he fell asleep the next morning. So, does that mean that he returned to us because his minute was up and the MDT ceased it’s transmitting, or did he return because he fell asleep?’

  Again there was silence in the room for a moment or two as everybody was now carefully considering the new ideas.

  I decided to now ask, ‘this may sound like a daft question, but your answer will help me to understand some of this. Let’s assume that I had stayed a little longer in the other dimension and I watched the lottery on the television, and then memorised the winning numbers. I would then return here a day or two before our own lottery; would my memorised numbers strike it lucky for me?’

  They all looked at me with slightly amused faces, it was now Davila that answered me with a bit of a smirk, ‘Tell you what; let’s get Martin back to the other dimension right this minute. We could all earn ourselves an incredible fortune!’ She paused for a moment before adding ‘I do like you Martin, I really do! It’s certainly a good question - does anyone here have a sensible answer to this?’

  It was Sarah that responded immediately ‘If we assume space was warped then theoretically it should indeed be possible to do what Martin has just suggested, that much is true. Unfortunately, it would be a virtual impossibility for us to be able to place somebody into another dimension that is as near as identical to our own to be able to achieve the same result on the lottery.’ She paused and then looked directly at me before saying ‘You see Martin, the other dimension you visited, it was in fact very different from our own. Your other life was completely different, for example, you were married, you had different friends, you even said yourself that world events in the newspaper were different; therefore the lottery itself would not be same as ours. So, no fortune to be had I’m afraid!’

  ‘Now, important as it is trying to work out how to win it big on the lottery, our time is up for just now if we want to get off to the canteen before they stop serving the food. I for one certainly need some hot food. If nothing else, I can at last get myself defrosted! We clearly still have a great deal to go over, so may I suggest we continue our discussion once we have finished eating in the canteen. Is everyone okay with that idea?’ Davila asked.

  We agreed and Sarah who was clearly getting into all of this replied ‘Yeah, you bet. I could stay up all night discussing this!’

  Making our way to the canteen we decided that we would eat first, and only after we had actually finished eating would we then start our discussion once again. It was good to get out of the meeting room, it really had been cold. With dinner out of the way, like everybody else, I had pretty much warmed up again and was now ready to thrash out some answers to the first run.

  Davila now said, ‘I’m sure that you have all thinking things through whilst you were eating. Now interesting as this has all been, I fear that we have been straying from what we have set out to do.’ Davila paused and looked at us all. Having got our attention she now continued, ‘The main reason for Martin travelling into another dimension was to make contact. Yes, we were successful with actually connecting the two different dimensions, but were we really able to make contact? I would say that the answer is a firm no. As Martin has already pointed out to us, all we have done is to leave behind a very confused other Martin. I would like to remind you all that the last thing that this project wants to do is to interfere in anyway with somebody else’s life, and unfortunately it would seem that that is exactly what we have done. I have to tell you all, that this does concern me a great deal. I would like to think that we are able to ensure that we do not have a repetition of this unfortunate incident, should we attempt to do the same thing again.’

  Davila paused and took a sip of water before continuing, ‘In fact, I am so disturbed by what has happened that I am of the mind to not sanction any further experiments until all of you can assure me that we do not leave behind some other poor confused soul. There is of course the small matter of the other confused Martin, isn’t there?’ As she finished talking she fixed me with her stare.

  There were a few moments of silence before she continued, ‘Martin, I’m sure that you feel pretty much okay now, would I be right?’

  ‘I feel okay, yes’ I replied.

  ‘But you must have been very confused for a while with the experience that you have had. You do know what I’m getting at don’t you?’

  As I had been listening to Davila over the last few minutes, it was now very clear why she was in charge of running the project. She had remained completely focused and had remained very objective throughout, unlike everyone else, including Alistair, who had all immersed themselves completely in my story. She was also astute enough to realise that I had been genuinely distressed by it all.

  ‘Well yes, as I made clear to you earlier, I was pretty much disturbed by what I experienced, to the point where I was a little paranoid about all of this, and beginning to mistrust you all. In fact the whole thing has been so mind-blowing and fantastic, that I still consider it very possible that I did not actually travel into another dimension at all.’ As I paused I could see everybody’s questioning looks. ‘Okay then, if any one of you was in my position, how could you convince yourself that it was in fact the MDT that had connected yourself to another dimension, and was not simply a pre-constructed dream sequence that was deliberately placed into your mind? Could you tell the difference? How would you tell the difference? Can any of you convince me that what I experienced was, really real…can you?’

  Once again silence descended over everybody for a few moments. It was Alistair that now responded, ‘You know, Martin does have a very good point here. I mean let’s face it, the films that we have used for the dream sequence runs have all been relatively short and cheap, and were done very tongue in cheek - a bit of fun really. However, it is entirely conceivable that if a lot of money and special effects were employed, how would you know the difference? I know we have all touched on this before, but just how do we convince Martin that it was not our project team that deceived him? It’s a good question, and one that I’m not sure that we can really prove to Martin.

  ‘However, if we did not send you into another dimension Martin as we have claimed, why then would we go to such lengths and deception to play a dream sequence to you whilst you are sleeping and then send you home? Surely, that would make even less sense?’

  ‘Alistair, none of this really makes a lot of sense, not to me anyway. However, now that a few hours have passed since I have done th
e run, I definitely feel a lot less paranoid than I was earlier. Nevertheless, the memories that I have from the other Martin, they will always be with me. It’s kind of a strange thing really, and I find it very difficult trying to come to terms with my own emotions, let alone trying to put it over to you all. However if truth be told, I am very glad that I have been on that ‘little trip.’ I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.’

  ‘Martin,’ interjected Davila, ‘both Alistair and I promised you an adventure, it would seem that you undoubtedly had that, and one hell of a one too! Now that a little time has passed since doing the run you are actually saying that you are glad that you’ve done it, well then, I think that now would be a very good time to draw things to a close for today. It is now coming up for ten, and I’m sure we could all do with a well-deserved rest.’

  I was glad that Davila was now bringing things to an end as I certainly could do with that promised rest. However, other than a lot of speculation generated from our lengthy discussion, I was really none the wiser. My questions and uncertainties had not in any way been cleared up. My only consolation was that everybody did appear to be genuine when discussing the strange phenomenon of the time differences between the two dimensions, which on the face of it, could only mean that all of what seemed to have happened to me, did indeed take place.

  Davila looked at all of us and said, ‘You’ve all done a really good job, so well done to all of you. However, as you are all very keenly aware, we do need to discuss this all in far more detail tomorrow as we have now ended up with far more questions than we anticipated.’ She turned and addressed Paul and Sarah. ‘I’m going to talk with Martin for a couple more minutes so I will say good evening, and I’ll see you both at the meeting at 09:00.’

  After Paul and Sarah had left she said, ‘Well, your time with us is for now at an end. As you already know, none of us had any real idea of what would happen on the first run, or as Alistair has liked to call it, our ‘maiden voyage.’ There is now an enormous amount of work and analysis from the first run that we all now need to get on with.

  You of course, will be returning home tomorrow morning. I would like to think that we will do a second run, after all, that is why we are all here, but as I made clear earlier, I will only sanction it if we can make some changes as well as having a reasonable understanding of how the first run really did go. So, assuming that we do go for a second run, will you be our man Martin? Would you want to do it all again?’

  That was a very good question. I had to admit to myself that I had been so embroiled with everything connected with the first run that I had not given any real thought to the possibility of a second run. Would I do it again?

  ‘I’m not sure, that is the only truthful answer I can give to you at this time. As you can imagine I still feel a bit strange from what I’ve just done. I suppose deep down I would like to do it all again. I want to explore and find out more, that is who I am. Having said that, I really do need to clear my head so that I can think straight.’ I looked at them both, smiled and then added. ‘I think what I am trying to say is, that I would probably say yes, but I won’t make any promises at the moment.’

  ‘You get yourself off home and take it easy for the next few days, and all going well I’ll join you for a drink or two at our local, and then we can start to discuss things. How’s that sound?’ asked Alistair.