Spatial Unit 2 Chapter 2

As soon as Nick and Kate went through the opening, the rift closed, leaving Alice and Jerry to just stare wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the place where the two detectives just vanished. Well, Jerry was staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed, Alice was just a little startled.

"What was that?" Jerry asked, pointing to the now empty space.

"What was what?" Alice replied.

"That . Where did those two cops go?" Jerry stuttered,

"What two cops?" Alice asked innocently.

"The cops you came here with. From Special Unit 2." He insisted.

"What's Special Unit 2?" She asked oh-so-sweetly.

"You know what, never mind." Jerry said, giving up. "I know there is something going on. If you're not going to tell me then I'll have to find out on my own." And with that he stormed off.

With him gone, Alice could worry about other things. Like how to tell Page that Nick and Kate are who-knows-where with the very Link that they were trying to catch. Aside from telling Page, she also worried about the two detectives's well being-who knew what the Link was doing to them at that very moment.

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A short while later, when Alice returned to the stationhouse, she told Page what had happened. Page had on his face the look. Needless to say, Alice wished she were someone, anyone else at that moment. She wished she wasn't the person who told Page that his two best detectives just followed a Link into God-only-knows where.

Seeing the expression on Page's face, Jonathan decided to speak up and help Alice out.

"I think I have a way to track them, to find out where-or when-they are. But it'll take some time to set it up. And I'll need to set it up at the location they left from. And I'll need to get the supplies. And I'll need to." His voice trailed off into incoherent chatter as he excitedly thought about getting out of the stationhouse for a while.

"Jonathan, shut up with your rambling, we have two detectives we have to worry about. So tell us how much time it will take to set up this tracking thing." Page demanded furiously.

"W-well, my estimate would be about 3 hours in all." Jonathan stuttered in frightened response. (With an angry Page breathing down your neck, who wouldn't be intimidated?).

"Three hours?! We can't wait three hours!" Alice exclaimed. "Who knows what they could be facing while we're setting up that thing." Even Page cringed from her unexpected outburst.

"It's the only way. Either we take the three hours to set up the tracking device, or we just leave them in whatever untold hell dimension they are in now." Jonathan answered in his own defense.

"'Untold hell dimension'? I thought that the STG could only travel through space and time, not through different dimensions." Alice interrupted, sounding just slightly panicked.

"S-sorry, I was watching Buffy reruns last night. Anyway, as I was saying, the sooner we start setting up the tracking device, the sooner we're done setting it up, and the easier it will be to find them. The more time we spend debating this, the more time the STG has to absorb enough energy to go some where else." Jonathan concluded.

"According to your best guess, Jonathan, how far through time and space could the STG have gone considering the amount of energy it drained from the power plant?" Page inquired calmly in attempts to ease Alice's worry.

"Considering the fact that the STG sucked the entire plant dry it is my best guess that it could have traveled anywhere from 2 miles and 2 seconds, to 2,000,000,000 light-years and 2 centuries. The only way to know for sure is to set up the tracker. The link was just newly evolved when we found it, now it's stronger and it's smarter. Even if we did find it, I don't know if we could catch it. It may have gotten too strong for us to use the improved equipment on." Jonathan said morosely. That definitely did not appease Alice's obvious concern for her coworkers. In fact, it made her even more upset over their disappearance.

"So you're saying that they could be anywhere, anywhen, with no way to stop it and no way to get back?!" Alice exclaimed, sounding even more alarmed.

"First of all there is no such word as anywhen. Second of all I'm working on figuring out how to get the improved weapons to them and then get them back. And finally, would you stop panicking, it's getting rather annoying." Jonathan said relatively harshly. "Besides," he added more gently, "the scared little girl persona is not becoming on you."

"Fine," Alice said, calming down, "set up that tracker thing. Just make sure you do whatever it takes to get them back." Upon seeing the questioning look on both men's faces, she added, "Nick owes me fifty bucks on a bet we made."

Carl, who up until that point was busy trying to break into Nick's desk, piped up. "Yeah right. So how do we get them back? He owes me a hundred. I bet him that Alice had a crush on him, and I was, apparently, right."

"I do not have a crush on him. And I'm starting to see why he enjoys beating you up so much. You're an annoying little prick." She then proceeded to strangling him.

"Hey I resent that remark, my prick is not little. I'll have you know, I scare a lot of women with my trowser luggage." Carl defended while attempting to get her away from him.

"Yeah, right. You know the real reason you scare off women is your smell and personality!" Alice remarked while still wringing his neck.

"Okay, we have two detectives and a Link we have to get back. Can you two keep the personal animosity to a minimum?!" Page demanded, unamused by their bothersome banter.

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Meanwhile back at the power plant, Jerry was back and trying to search for clues. Needless to say, he didn't do a very good job of it. After about three hours he gave up and left.

Less than five minutes after he left, Jonathan, Page, Alice and about ten Special Unit 2 officers arrived at the plant and set up the tracker. It only took half an hour to set up because most of the preparations were taken care of at headquarters.

Once that was completed, Jonathan activated the machine. It started up with a loud hum and the air around where the portal was began to shimmer. The machine started beeping as it attempted to analyze the data retrieved from scanning the energy signatures the portal made when it collapsed. When the energy signatures were thoroughly analyzed, the machine printed out the information. Of course, Jonathan was the only one who could read the print out anyways.

"Bad news guys." Jonathan said solemnly. "According to these read- outs, Nick and Kate are one hundred and fifty years into the future and moving away from Earth at faster-than-light travel. My best guess is that they're on some sort of alien spaceship."

Alice again started to panic. "So there's no hope of getting them back?!"

"Now I didn't say that. All that means is that we have to get them back sooner." Jonathan said as he began tinkering with the tracker. "But first, I have to reconfigure the tracker to reopen the tear in space-time to send them the weapons so they can catch the Link."

"Jonathan. I think that getting Nick and Kate back are more important than catching the STG." Alice complained.

"Alice let's think rationally about this." Jonathan said in the same tone you would use on a child when you're explaining to her why she can't get her favorite toy back. "If we get them back first, then there'll be no one there to catch the STG. Besides, it will probably escape by the time we can get to it if we put Nick and Kate as our top priority. Anyways, I'm sure that they can take care of themselves."

"Okay, fine. But get them the equipment quickly so we can get them back sooner." Alice conceded.

"Alright, we're almost ready, put the equipment on the spot Nick and Kate disappeared." Jonathan instructed. One of the officers did that as everyone else watched Jonathan finish with a few adjustments and the weapons shimmered and disappeared.

"So where'd they go?" Carl asked. Everyone groaned.

"Carl, were you paying the least bit of attention the last hour? Because that was all we were talking about for that length of time." Jonathan questioned, sounding slightly irritated.

"Sorry, I was too busy stealing your wallets." Carl answered with a contented smirk on his face. Then, realizing what he just said, "I mean I wasn't stealing your wallets" he corrected, with that phony innocent expression he always has when he's guilty of something.

"Carl, give me back my wallet!!" Page yelled.

"Wallet? I don't have any wallets. I was only kidding!" Carl defended guiltily.

"Okay, then what are these?" Page demanded, as he then grabbed Carl by the collar and gave him a hard shake. When he did that, more than a dozen wallets fell from Carl's person.

"Those? I was just checking if you had your ID's in them. I was going to give them back, I swear!" Carl defended.

"Now you know that we all have our ID's so give me back my wallet!" Page ordered very harshly.