Hold on to your seats, folks. Here comes the penultimate installment. That can only mean one thing - I'm almost done with the blasted thing! Hooray, huzzah, and various onomatopoeic expressions of celebration. Now I'm off to eat cake.
"Go and tell Lizbet we're almost through, will you?"
"Right." I spun and hurried back to the main room. Lizbet wasn't difficult to find - she was the one around which everything else moved, like the sun at the centre of the solar system. I slalomed my way through the people working around me, and called out to her.
"We're almost through." I said once I had her attention. A single nod was all I got in reply, but she began moving with much more certainty, giving orders with more optimism. I suddenly had the feeling that this was what teamwork was all about, and it felt really good.
As I turned back, there was a hollow, booming crash from down the access tunnel. Everyone around me jumped, staring at the billowing dust that poured from the tunnel, before shrugging and turning back to their work. Hurrying back, I hoped nothing awful had happened.
Nothing had. I met two more people in hazard suits, a man and a woman, as they bustled past me and over to Elizabeth, and then my companion appeared beside me, looking smugly satisfied.
"We did good work today, girl." He told me happily. "You work well. I was struggling to keep up with you."
"Please." I chuckled with him. "It was a walk in the park for you. I was the one struggling. You set a hard pace."
He laughed properly at that, a great noise that had heads turning our way.
"Teamwork." Was all he said in reply.
Before I could begin to wonder what to do next, Elizabeth stepped up onto a chair in the centre of the room and called for silence.
"We've got the stabilizers working now, so we're back on track for closing this bastard and going home. Containment was breeched in the explosion, but we should have the intruding material isolated in the next five minutes, and after that we'll be needing the beacon. Anyone not involved in containment or closure needs to wait in the centre of the room here, and we'll set the barrier up round you. You'll be back for a cup of tea and a hot bath in no time."
As she climbed down from the chair, people began moving into the centre of the room, myself and my companion among them. A man carrying what appeared to be a handful of mobile phones began circling the group, placing a gadget every ninety degrees around us. With my attention focused on him placing the last gadget, I barely noticed Jason walking over to me.
"How are you holding up?" He asked. I jumped at his voice, then laughed depreciatingly.
"I'm fine." I said. "Apart from jumping at civilised conversation. I'm glad the tunnel didn't collapse in on me again, though."
"I meant having your ear bent by this old sod." Jason grinned at my companion, who was unsealing his hazard suit and pulling the helmet off.
"Ahh. Well, I survived." I shrugged as I copied him. "It was a close thing, though."
"Didn't complain once." My companion said cheerfully. Now he was out of his helmet, I could see he was an older man, hair turning to grey at the temples, and whatever parts of his face were not covered by beard and moustache were generously supplied with wrinkles. He didn't seem old enough for the wrinkles, but they gave him character. Not that he needed more character. "She didn't even sigh, or roll her eyes when she thought I wasn't watching. She joining Containment?"
"If she wants to." Jason gave me a sideways, thoughtful look. "I'll give you a bit of time to think about it, though." He told me reassuringly.
"What're those things they've placed on the floor around us?" I asked, moving the subject away from the decision I had to make.
"That's the barrier. It'll protect us if anything... unpleasant happens during closure. We can't use it all the time because it separates us too much from the event, but I have no objection to using it now."
"And what do we do while we're in here?"
"Wait. It shouldn't be long."
"You know, I can see that this isn't an issue, since no one else is worrying about it, but how do we get back home? Will we need to cut through to the door?"
"The Office will open another door into this cave."
"Why haven't they done that already?"
"Because opening doors can interfere with events. That's why the first one was so far down that tunnel - that was the closest safe distance from an active event. It's a complicated business, opening doors, and it's something I've never cared to try, but I would imagine there isn't anywhere else close enough for a safe doorway. But all we have to do it wait for the window to be closed, and the Office will open something up right here and get us home."
"And that won't take long?"
"There somewhere you need to be?" My companion asked jovially. I drew breath to reply, but before I could speak, I felt a chill run through me, turning me dizzy making it hard to breath. By the time I realised that the pressure in the cave had dropped, the chill had passed. Around me, people were fidgeting and rolling their shoulders in response to the pressure drop, although no one but Jason looked perturbed. Jason shook himself, grimacing.
"I hate paradoxes." He muttered. "You alright?"
"What was that?"
"The window closing. Paradox loops are bastards for side effects. I would have warned you, but it wouldn't have helped."
"Thanks." I told him sarcastically, still trying to get rid of my feeling of light-headedness.
"Well, if you like your warnings, I'll give you one now. Prepare to feel like your bones have turned to rice pudding."
I stared at him for a moment while my nameless companion chuckled quietly to himself and nodded. After a moment, I began to believe he was serious.
"And what does that..."
With an almost comical creaking noise, the rock wall to my right parted, allowing a door to squeeze into existence. As it appeared, I suddenly had the answer to the question I had been in the middle of posing. That was what your bones turning to rice pudding felt like.
"Oh, that wasn't fun."
"You get used to it." Jason chuckled. "Not very much, of course, but a bit. It'll only happen if you get yourself trapped away from the Office, anyway."
"Knew a guy once who loved it." My companion told me. "Used to volunteer for cave work, mines, anything underground, then get himself stuck a'purpose. They had him retrained eventually, once they got sick of it - couple of years later, he turned up in Door Control, happy as Larry 'cos he could get his kicks every day."
"Nowt as queer as folk." I replied, to general agreement. Around us, people were beginning to pack away the machines, tools, tables, and other miscellany that had survived the explosion. Anything broken beyond repair was being left, and I wondered what would happen if, in the distant future, someone dug down this far and found that crumpled thermos of coffee or the remains of that circuit board that had been snapped in half.
Someone hustled myself and my nameless companion out of our hazard suits, packing them away neatly in the case they had come from before adding it to a pile of boxes being ferried out through the door. Jason gave me a nudge, and together we wandered over to help with the decamping.
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