My boots echoed on the metal floor as I looked around. One of the signs I hadn’t been able to read before was now clear, an arrow pointing toward Laboratory 01. I turned to address the people who had escorted me, to ask where I was supposed to go next, but there was only blank grey metal where they’d been standing.
I turned back at the sound of footsteps. A man walked down the corridor staring at a tablet in one hand and a white mug in the other. He wasn’t paying attention to anything except whatever was on the screen. I tried to step aside, but clipped his elbow instead. Dark liquid sloshed out of the mug, the sharp smell of burned coffee splattering across his white lab coat.
“Why don’t you watch where you’re going—” he snapped, then stopped short. He glanced at the tablet. “Oh. Wait. That was today? Damn it.”
He turned and headed back toward the lab without another word.
“Great, Kyper,” I muttered. “Looks like they didn’t even get the memo.”
His answer was a low mrow that made it clear he wasn’t impressed.
I followed the scientist because no one else was showing up. Voices filtered down the hall, growing louder with every step.
“She wasn’t scheduled for today,” one voice said.
“Tell that to the woman who looks like her breakfast was nails and anvils,” another replied.
“The blackout starts in four hours. They know we usually get apple sauce when they push it like that,” the first voice said, almost plaintive.
“Well, they managed it. And she’s here,” the second said.
I stepped through the doorway. The sound stopped immediately.
“What is a blackout,” I asked coolly, “and what does apple sauce have to do with my arrival?”
Words hit all at once. Temporal issues. Transporter apples. Bad waves.
And the worst of it.
“No contact.”
“Excuse me?” I said. “No contact where?”
“Why… with Earth, of course.”
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