Revelations of a Stranger World

     Mr. Roberts started the investigation because he was curious and concerned about what happened to his employees. He wants to find resolve, help James, and keep good faith in his company. Since the start though it’s only been a stream of more confusion and mystery. He sighed. Perhaps the whole thing was a mystery to begin with, the explosion, the vanishings of multiple people, the story of eyes in the dark. And whatever caused it would take a while to decipher. But it’s the most bizarre and deadly mysteries that frustrate when the truth is held back. What is the truth? Maybe it’s something supernatural and they’re only trying to find an alibi to cover the whole disaster. Dr. O’Connell did admit the convention wasn’t even about the incident (but was, but it’s too complicated, but don’t worry…). All this paranoia wasn’t helping at all either.

    To his surprise it did come. After two long days the members of the convention prepared a press conference as they promised. News networks from across the country and the globe came. The terrifying story of a monumental exploration team suffering a huge accident, but not in the way you’d expect, had been circling the headlines for weeks and the speculations were climbing high. People of all kinds gathered around their TVs, computers, and phones, chattering about rumors and theories, recalling the events they had heard, and debating about whose ideas were going to be verified in the upcoming event. 

    Behind the cameras aides were scurrying around moving papers and prepping the filming equipment. The lead scientists representing the convention carefully settled along the row of seats with their papers and notes lied out in front. Then after all the anticipation, the cameras were turned on. Every major network was now streaming the same table lined in front of seven older individuals, five men and two women, wearing thin rimmed glasses and tousled white hair. A black man with a thick mustache sitting in the middle started it off, “Hello, my name is Dr. Cameron Brown. It is my pleasure to introduce this press conference and lead in answering questions regarding the tragic G.U.L.E.A. event. My associates and I have been long at work looking into some very monumental data gathered during investigations.”

    Meanwhile Mr. Roberts and James, who had been invited to watch with him in a small conference room, took a funny look when they said investigations with a plural. It had been assumed they were going to catch up with the data they found and other investigations weren’t impossible but to keep them secret from them specifically was off. And worse yet the two had a feeling that more strange things were to be revealed today.

    “—and though most of what we have to say is bigger and a bit separate from The GULEA Tragedy,” (still more stunned and somewhat contempt looks) “we further believe in the theories we have come up with because they give greater confirmation and possibility of what we think may have caused just abhorrent disaster.

    “Let me now turn the time to Dr. Synthia Johannsen who will present the synopsis of our revolutionary theory.”

    While still feeling confused and resentful to the scientists’ fleeting care for the tragedy, the two in the office sitting on a leather couch in front of a large mounted TV couldn’t help but wonder what it was so revolutionary that it might excuse their almost disregard for the lives lost—if that could be still possible. Both minds were buzzing with the craziest of ideas that may be delivered: aliens? Was there a breed of extinct terrors still roaming the jungle? Dragons? They were dying of eagerness to hear for weeks but now it was unbearable.

    On TV the camera was now focused on an older lady with ruffled short gray hair and pale grey circles of the same color folded under her eyes.

    “Hello, everyone. Thank you for your time today. What I’m about to describe I will be hard for many of you to understand, but will change the lives of many. It isn’t rocket science, but I’m afraid that isn’t the only complicated field out there. During our time we spent many head-breaking hours evaluating and crunching all the formulas as quickly as we could with the help of state-of-the-art computer models. Though as a disclaimer, preferably we would’ve spent a few more years but a few were impatient to find closure. Still, my friends, we are confident enough to say: we have found a new frontier—not in the Amazon—but folded beneath it. Allow me to explain, we now know that there is an alternative form to a parallel or alternate universe. Alternate universes exist outside our universal frame and may include changes to physics and can not naturally be detected with our universe. What we have may be what we may call an alternate world. It exists on a smaller scale within perhaps our universe, always exists in the same point our world does and yet can not be detected unless you use lots of energy to bump up into it. We call this: Biosphere II.

    “Think of it as a magical realm, if you will, that requires a special charm to see into a separate world that simultaneously exists. This is must like that but with energy and quantum mechanics to open it up at certain funnel points. This is what GULEA bumped into where the divide between the other world and ours is weaker."

    At this point James Jordan and Brian Roberts were perplexed and dumbfounded by both the idea and that this was the idea.

    “At this point we will now redirect to how this connects to the tragic event.”

    This time a more middle aged man was on screen who spoke fast and energetically, “The incident was shocking and unexpected. It’s hard to imagine what could’ve caused such a tragedy, but we had clues. We were tipped that it may have been a strange new species and later searches did confirm some evidence but not enough to conclude anything. Now with the idea of Biosphere II, we have a strong hypothesis: it is very likely that at some point something caused a species to cross over to our dimension and happened to come across GULEA’s party. Having a new species from an unknown world that may be structured very differently means whatever this new creature is could have any unprecedented capabilities to demonstrate the destruction we saw.

    “We do not presently know where this is, if it has crossed back over, or what it looks like. We just know it could be out there. Any questions for me or my colleagues?”

    Brian then turned over to James, “So that explains the eyes you saw! —James?” James was sitting stunned with the events coming back to him now with missing scenes replaced. His heart felt like it dropped onto a rock. Water welled in his eyes as his vision and his mind veiled in a dark cloud filled with anguish, shame, and regret. All the trauma came now knowing he barely escaped an alien whatever and that the men that he knew met a worse fate than he realized. How did he even survive and why did he survive? His breath was getting heavy.

    “James!”

    “Huh, oh”

    “Are you alright?” Brian asked.

    James faintly nodded, “Yes, sir, I’m alright. I—I don’t know.”

    “I’m sorry,” Brain apologized empathetically, “Hearing about what happened. I thought some answers would help you feel better, I mean, knowing all that happened though must even more horrifying.”

    “Right. I thought so too but—” James gave a lost sort of sigh. Without warning he shot up from his seat, “I should go.”

    “Fine, I’ve had enough too,” Brian suggested with a startled look, “But, James, you don’t seem alright.”

    “I’m fine I just need to get out,” James insisted.

    “Just a moment though. I want to make sure you get a ride home,” Brian offered pulling out his phone to call up his secretary.

    But to his dismay, James was already out the door when Mr. Roberts glanced up. Twitching an eyebrow, he remarked, “I’m worried about that man.”