Operation Teleport

The diary entry of a military operation gone wrong.

Date:  27May2013
Time:  17:29
Operation:  Teleport

It was all supposed to be as planned.  The mission was simple:  teleport into the next room.  But something went wrong.  Terribly wrong.

The first tipper that things were wrong, should have been the way the scientists were acting.  They were jumpy, as if they thought we had the Black Plague.  We'd look at them, and they're eyes would widen in fear, as if we knew something secret, and they were scared that we knew.  What, exactly, I did not know.  But it didn't make me feel any better.

My team and I were shoved into spacesuits, which were more like superhero costumes than military uniforms.  All we needed were capes, and we could have stood beside Batman and Robin for a photo shoot.  They gave us ear pieces for communication, a few shots in the rear, a light weight meal, and then we were ready to go.

If I thought the scientists' unease was not reassuring, then it was a good thing I hadn't taken a look at our transportation.  The metal box sat in the center of a wide hangar, made of some sort of heavy duty metal with a control panel at its side and one thick plated window.  There were no seats inside, no surgical chairs or equipment; just empty space.  The whole thing seemed ominous.  

The good doctors led us up to the machine, yapping like puppies.  They gestured here and there, telling us what each thing did.  Honestly, I couldn't have cared less.  All I was here for, was to be a lab rat.  We were the first humans to move through space and time; previously, they sent a rolling chair, fruit, and a plant through, with success.  Now they were on to bigger and better things, and it just so happened that we were it.

They swung open the door and we filed inside like cattle to the slaughter house.  When the door shut, it was like a cell.  There were running lights along the top, filtering in white, ghostly light.  The interior was a sterile space, the only footprints being those which the five of us tracked in.

We didn't know what to do from there.  The only thing we were briefed upon, was to stand with our eyes closed.  So we waited...  And waited...  There wasn't a countdown, no flaring brightness that told us when they were starting up the machine.  We didn't feel anything, didn't hear a sound.  It was just, quiet.  So much so, that I began to become uneasy.  It wasn't meant to be this quiet.  I could hear the others breathing, so I knew that I hadn't gone deaf.  Did anything even happen. 

Turning on my heel, I moved towards the window, ready to cuss out the nerds and whoever else was out in the bay, when I realized something...  That wasn't the warehouse I was looking at, it wasn't even that damnable metal box...  It was someone's living room.

I yelled for the other four of my crew, and we stared at the plush couch and recliner.  It looked normal, but this wasn't the room we were teleporting too.  Not by a long shot.  That room was full of equipment, with a medical team on standby.  There wasn't supposed to be a TV playing The Secret Circle, or delicate curtains framing a wide window viewing a front lawn.

I had tried to reach HQ using the hearing devices, but all I got was static.  The rest of them broke ranks, attempting to reach through to whoever was on the other end of communications, but like me, they came up with nothing.  We didn't know where we were, how to get back.  For all we knew, it could be September 11, 2001. 

We came back together, ready to form up and figure out a plan, when someone caught my attention.  She stood back away from us, a half smile on her lips.  She held in her arms a black cat, who purred and watched us with huge, green eyes.  I didn't know who she was, and by her flowing green dress and layers of brown hair, she didn't appear to be military.

She welcomed us to her home, asked us where we were from.  OPSEC requires us to keep things top secret, so we spoke only little.  We didn't give away out mission, nor anything related to it.  But from the way she looked at us, it was like she already knew.

Then the house did the most amazing, and bizarre, of things.  The solid wall to her right opened up, forming a carved doorway, and out slid a desk chair, a potted plant, and a bunch of apples.  She laughed when we moved away, as if it was the most comical thing she had ever seen.  Then the house seemed to take a mind of its own.

Chairs moved across the floor, curtains danced around, and doors appeared and reappeared.  Haunted.  Possessed.  Magical.  You name it, I thought it.  That, and a few choice words even a sailor could have been proud of.

When the panic was over, I opened my eyes.  To my relief, everything was still; and we were back in the shiny white box.

Like one mass creature, we lunged for the door, falling through it and gasping for air.

The scientists stared at us like her had gone mad, and we stared back at them, angry for sending us to such a place.

But then, the lead doctor opened his mouth and shocked us all.  "Operation Teleport, failure."

Depressed, they turned and left, leaving us in a piled heap on the floor.  I was angry, confused, frustrated.  They said it was a failure, and from the conversations I overheard, we apparently hadn't gone anywhere.  A few of my team members rushed after them, but I stayed behind, staring into the open door way.

A gray chair rested in the corner, with a potted plant and a wooden bowl of apples in its seat.  Something else was there, too, a sheet of paper.  Upon retrieving it, I felt a cold shiver run down my spine.

Tell them to quit sending things to my home.  It is upsetting my house, and I'm tired of it.

Blessed be.
      Maeve Donovan.

I dropped the note and ran for the scientists.

Date:  25June2013
Time:  10:00
Operation:  Teleport (Suspended)

They gave up on Operation Teleport, for now at least.  The entry above was done immediately after, and while others may not believe the bizarre encounter we had, others have taken it to heart.  We never found out who the woman was, or where we even went.  Was it an alternate universe, another part of the country?  I'll never know.

To those who choose to go through Operation Teleport in the future, I say this...  If you happen to land in a house that's alive, with a brunette and a black cat, tell her I said hi, and when she asks you to take a seat, do it.  Maybe then, the house won't be quite so mean.

Sincerely,

Rhiannon McLeod