A new reality assaulted their senses, all of their senses, it was as if they had just awaken in a strange place, but the sights were surreal. The people around them were all regular people, even when their choice of clothes seemed a little odd, they were clearly in a train station of some sort, a very modern instalation, and it seemed like a busy day. They could hear announcements in the speaker system but the language was not familiar to Leon or Kate, people were walking in small groups, some seemed like families, some like groups of friends or co-workers, a small portion walked alone, inside each group they could hear different languages spoken, English, Spanish, German, and others they could recognize from the sound, however the signs around them were written in a single language, presumably the same language that was used in for voicing out information, a common language they all seem to understand and talk between them when communicating with people from other groups.
There were holographic images of arrows with numbers and letters floating above the crowd, William waited while his companions assimilated the situation, a short pale bold man was walking directly towards them, it seemed like he was going to bump into William, instead he passed trough him, without ever noticing he was there, then they remembered this was all suppose to be a "Mirage", an illusion, but much more real that either of them could have expected.
- This is the place I came from, and the day your parents and I traveled to your world - William explained - It is a reconstruction from my memories and those of other people in the station who volunteered to recreate certain events, only sensory information is collected, to preserve the privacy of the people involved.
- Is this 1980? - Leon asked, knowing the year his real parents had died.
- No, 1979, you and your parents had lived close to a year in your reality before the accident.
As William replied, to both of them seemed impossible, they had thought they were transported to the future, the installations, the holograms, manhood finally adopting a common neutral language, all seemed to be still futuristic concepts even in 2011.
William started climbing the stairs towards the exit doors, behind them a train was coming to a stop, it barely made a sound, a modern monorail had stopped at the station, the doors opened with a hiss, and people started to orderly walk out, they turn back to follow William, as they came to the crystal doors they could see the the street in front of the building, the vehicles kept some of the familiarity that allowed them to distinguish between cars, buses, public transportation, and others, but the designs were totally different to those on Earth, except for a White Volkswagen beetle parked close to the door, it looked brand new, the building doors opened as some people passed by, the moved with them to the outside, they suddenly noticed that they were walking asides a younger version of William, a young couple and a small kid, the husband looked a bit like Leon but taller and more elegant, the wife was a pretty blond, very white, who held her son's hand tenderly.
- Look Leon, you were so cute! - Said Katherine with that typical inflection in her voice women make when they see a baby or a puppy.
- And he was the whole reason for this assignment - William added in a colder tone - none of us really like to venture into Earth, even when we all came from there, or at least one of our ancestors did.
- What is this place? - Leon murmured more to himself than to the others, he had a vague memory, but he always supposed they were infantile fantasies.
William pressed a button in his unit, everything stopped, as if time stood still, the sounds were interrupted, the air stopped blowing, smells ceased to exist, they both looked at him, as he started to speak.
- During the course of history people had disappeared from all places on Earth, inexplicably, groups of people, complete cities and civilizations, sometimes single individuals, suddenly vanished, some leaving witnesses, some are attributed to mythical creatures, some just considered unsolvable mysteries or legends.
Approximately every 8 years the alignment of our planet and yours produces a 5th dimensional fold which connects both our planets in seemingly random locations, when people on Earth move trough these folds they end up here. A whole civilization has been established here, in what the first citizens called Agartha, trough the years and thanks to the development of science we found a way to predict the 5D-Fold locations on both sides, and we started traveling back and forth to study your culture and avoid further unintended travels into Agartha. There is an organization, you can think of it as a "border patrol", it's known as 5DG, and operates in both sides of the folds, I was assigned a long term mission, which might be critical to the survival of both our planets, the time for the next fold is approaching, and you are both part of the key to find the locations and duration, we think that the hole will have the largest size ever, which may be catastrophic for both planets, so we need to find a way to stop the cycle, which means the connection will be lost for ever.
- We know nothing about fifth dimensional folds - Leon finally replied - what makes you think we can learn enough on time.
- You can't, but we think the whole team has the combined knowledge to create a disrupting device. - This time William doubted a bit, they both felt he was withdrawing information.
- You are not telling us the whole story - Katherine challenged - Why should we trust you?
William said nothing, he just gave them a nod toward the frozen figures of himself, Leon and his parents, and pressed a button in his unit again. They remained silent as they saw the scene from the past.
Leon's Dad said something to his wife in a language that sounded strange to them, then he approached the car with William.
- Is this the car? - Leon's Dad asked looking suspiciously at the Volkswagen, he sounded like someone who natively spoke English.
- Gregory, you know that it has Agarthan technology, it only hast to look Earthling - William responded
- 5DG would not ask you to do this if it wasn't safe.
- I don't know about 5DG, but I will trust you. - Gregory responded - Are you coming too?
- I asked the chairperson to let me go, If your calculations are right I have to make everything I can to protect you and your family - after saying that William turned towards Leon and his mother, with a serious look he continued - why do we have to bring them?
- I won't be leaving my family for 32 years, besides you know that Leon will have to solve this, is all in my report.
- I don't understand the math behind your calculations, but 5DG checked and they said that your son will increase the probability of success in all but a few branches of the prediction tree, and the wiser move is to bring him along. But I just don't like to put the kid at risk.
- That is why I need you to come too - I have the memsphere with all possible outcomes you will be able to help to complete the plan if we can't.
- OK, we should get ready, the portal will only open for 11 seconds this time.
- I know - As Gregory Said that he turned to his wife and son and said something again, the only discernible words to Kate were Irina and Leon, she suspected Leon understood more than that.
Leon and his mother entered and sat in the backseat of the beetle, William went to the passenger side, and Gregory to the driver sit, he turned the key and started driving, as he did the car disappeared from view.
With the car gone, William turn to Leon and Katherine and began to speak again.
- Whenever you feel that I'm withholding information is because I myself don't know it, I have the memsphere and a computer that allows me to execute it's simulation and avoid undesirable outcomes, but I don't know what has to happen, there are too many variables, so I just tell you what I do know.
- I understand - Katherine responded - is something like the GPS helping you avoid traffic jams.
- A bit more complex than that- William said with a smile.
Leon remained silent, William pushed a button, again blackness over everything, and then they were back at Max's, Leon had a tear in his cheek, Katherine understood that the simulation did not convey that information, and she understood why Leon had not said anything after the ghosts of their parents and himself had appeared into the simulation, she wanted to hug him but she didn't, she just placed a hand on his shoulder.
Nobody tried to fill the silence. The sight of his mom and dad, the imperfect Russian of his father, the voice of his mother, even Agartha were somehow familiar, it was as if all of these triggered some memories from his early childhood, he suddenly knew he was loved, he remembered the crash and felt abandoned all over again, amidst all of these events, the only familiar face, the only person he trusted then was William, and he knew he had to trust him again, but he still wanted to protect Katherine, William felt he needed to protect them, so there was some danger, something William knew about and hadn't told them yet.
- Why do we need protection? - Leon finally asked - and why should we expose Katherine to any danger?
Katherine felt at the same happy and insulted, happy because she knew Leon cared about her, insulted because he seemed to think that they needed to get rid of her, even if it was to protect her.
- Maybe Katherine can decide by herself - She said, in a tone that told Leon that the "maybe" in her phrase was just a figure of speech.
- You will each decide by yourselves - William intervened - after I debrief you on the dangers of this mission, but you both have to know, the probabilities of success increase greatly in the scenarios where Katherine intervenes, she is a determining factor according to the computation, I think I now know why.