ᶜʰᵃᵖᵉᵗᵉʳ ᵒⁿᵉ | ᵗʰᵉ ᵗᵉˢˢᵉʳᵃᶜᵗ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖⁱˡᵒᵗ

"We aren't gods. We will never be. We are scientists. There's a difference."

PORTLAND

     "Experiment 128 is in operation. Doctor Robertson, do you copy?"

    "I copy. Let's get this show on the road."

    "Alright. Boost the thermal scanners. Initiate the cryptic blasters. Moller, check the Chip Retractor. Doctor Robinson, start your boosters."

    "Yes sir. Initiating boosters now."

    "Alright. Agent Jones, activate turbo number one on the count of three. One. Two. Three."

    Breathe.

    Just Breathe.

    She watched all the workers in the window ahead working around like busy bees. They were actually so far away that they looked like little ants. She could still see the head of this operation, Benjamin Cross, staring out the window with a bright smile on his face. She knew he was trying to comfort her in this. But she didn't need him too. She volunteered for this so she was prepared for the consequences.

    With her eyes closed and her fingers squeezing the steering wheel as if her life depended on it, she could feel the atmosphere changing. It was like the world was warping. When she opened her eyes, the world she once knew was slowly fading away with pinks, oranges, purples, and blues replacing it. It kind of reminded her about Star Wars whenever they went into Hyperdrive or The Wrinkle of Time whenever they were trying to go to different worlds.

    Here goes try number eighty eight. She mumbled to herself. She suddenly remembered what she was suppose to do. Like lighting speed, the girl pressed all the buttons she had memorized in these eighty eight attempts. It was easy pie, which she had remembered the first twenty three digits of pi.

    Then finally, she rested her fingers on the red buttons on top of the steering wheel. "I'm ready when you are commands." She mumbled into her headset. Her breaths became uneven when she heard the rumbling. She was scared this time because they were closer than ever before. After the last attempt, the doctor and everyone else dedicated their lives to this and they had gotten it. Now it was time to test it.

    The tiny ship started to vibrate. She felt queasy in her suit. A suit almost identical to one of an astronaut with the helmet all the way to the white suit that was thin and glued to her skin. Often times, she would breath heavily and the glass in her helmet would get foggy. There wasn't anything she could do but try to rub her nose against it to clear it.

    The girl's brown eyes looked up to the large, around thirty five feet long, metal, three sticks that lowered themselves to make a triangle. As soon as they connected they made the same colors she was seeing around her. Then, there was a loud pop. Something like when you hear the transformer around your neighborhood go out in the middle of the storm.

    The triangle was filled with darkness. She could no longer see her friend's proud face on the other side anymore. Instead, she could see the stars. And she could see a clear road, where you can still see the stars beneath, with blue rims in the middle of space. The girl blinked rapidly at this beautiful sight in front of her.

    She was almost there.

    Her gloved hands reached out in front of her as if she was going to touch the sky. But it jerked back once she heard a voice on the other side of the comms. "Doctor Robinson, prepare to advance." Just as the voice has commanded, the girl pushed forward the controls and as she did, the little spaceship drove toward the pathway.

    When she clicked the button, the ship started to move rapidly. The girl bit the inside of her cheek, hopeful this would work. New flash. It didn't. The portal suddenly closed and she crashed into the wall in front of it. Luckily, the scientists here had foreseen this and padded the wall. So she crashed into pillows basically.

    The girl emitted a groan. Her brown hair flown all over the place in her helmet, the sounds of beeping were echoing throughout the ship, and her foot was crammed underneath the console. Her hands immediately went to her feet, but she let out a wince when an overwhelming feeling of pain hit her.

    Doctor Robinson.

    Doctor Robinson.

    The girl looked up at her name being called. Her eyes look king lazily to the people who recently ripped off the hatch. "Hey, Anne. Look at me. You alright?" Benjamin, the head, spoke quickly. His hands flew to the seatbelt that hugged her neck and there was a a large pink mark across it from the seatbelt rubbing against it.

    "Yeah-" Anne coughed aloud. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just... A little rough landing is all." She laughed to herself, her chest aching as she did so. Anne felt the console being lift off of her ankle momentarily and then someone pulled her ankle out. Her whole body was on fire, not as much as it was the first attempt, but still it hurt.

    Benjamin smiled anxiously while he nodded rapidly. "This is far from rough, Annie." He looked over to a couple of medics and they quickly ran over to Anne, gently picking her up. Ben watched as they carried her over to Med Bay.

⇨

    "The tesseract."

    "I'm sorry. What?" Anne was fine. She was fine. Of course she sprained her ankle, but it was wrapped properly and the burns around her neck were drenched in ointment. But she was well enough to join the meeting after the incident. Benjamin placed a yellow folder on the table by her once she had questioned his statement.

    "The tesseract. It's a weapon." Benjamin spoke. His eyes were in deep concentration as his arms were folded across his chest. He watched as Anne opened up the folder to find a picture of a large blue cube. It was something out of this world. Literally. And it glowed so bright, Anne bet that it would blind someone within the first glance.

    "We can use it for Project Orphic. It can be used like a door for other worlds. We need it to finish this project. Think of it Annie!" Benjamin yelled. Anne looked up at him. Excitement had gotten the best of him, he was basically jumping up and down at the thought of it. The brown haired girl smiled but it quickly fell to into a frown when she looked at the cube again.

    "Yeah, I agree, this could help. But, Ben-" Anne gulped aloud. "We don't know where this is at. And by the looks of it, it might be expensive and kept in a thousand vaults." She tried to explain to the best of her ability. But it failed. Benjamin had his dorky look on, his science geek face.

    "We do though." Benjamin breathed out as he placed his hands on the brim of the table. He looked down on the table before looking back with a mischievous look on. "An organization called S.H.I.E.L.D has it as we speak right now! Annie! I'm telling no you, we need this. I can't keep seeing you like this everyday. This is the key to everything. It's either this or other tests subject."

    "No." Anne was quick to say. "It's either me or the project gets shut down." The girl looked at her wrapped ankle, her eyes blinking rapidly as she began to think. Think hard.  She had heard of SHIELD before. When she quickly climbed her way up in the science world, she had met the Margret Carter. The elite woman gave her an award and a picture that hung in Anne's office forever.

    She wasn't willing to take something like that from SHEILD. And she certainly wasn't going to spend millions of the company's dollars for a cube that could quicken her project. She was very hesitant on this and Benjamin saw this. "You said it was a door to other worlds. Not universes, Ben." Anne sternly commented.

    "We can modify it. We are scientists for crying out loud, Annie. We can turn it into something greater." Benjamin slammed his fist on the table when Anne wouldn't agree quickly enough with him. She looked up, her eyes widen at how passionately he was about this. It would certainly make things a lot easier. Even if she wanted to work for it, the tesseract would make it a whole lot easier and they would be quicker to success. There was one thing though.

    "Ben," Anne muttered as she stood up from her spot on the chair and limped around the table over to the man. "We aren't gods. We will never be. We are scientists. There's a difference. To modify such a thing would be impossible." She said. Her eyebrows were knitted together and her mouth was slightly gaped.

     "Then why ain't it in the hands of the gods. Why isn't it in the hands of Odin? It's in our hands. We have it. Not the gods." Ben had reasons with the woman. She ended up looking up as he was talking, her eyes were glued to him with curiosity. He did have a point. It was on earth. Not Asgard. Earth.

    "Fine." Anne had agreed with the head of the operation to which he started to shout in celebration. A bright smile replaced the serious frown on his face and his fists began to pump in the air. "We get this blue thingy, and we finish this project and we can be done. Deal?" She held out her hand for the man to shake.

    "Deal."