Work Text:
“Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other”
― Paulo Coelho
In the middle of the night an explosion rocks the entire facility. Lights flicker on and off. The thick concrete walls tremble. Then, all things are as before. As if nothing ever happened. An experiment gone wrong? An anomaly gone haywire? Maybe even the fabric of space and time torn asunder? Who knows. Such things are of little importance now.
[Day 1]
Amelia Watson is awoken by the sound of static over a radio. The IT specialist raises her sleepy head from the desk she’d been sleeping on. She reaches for the walkie talkie that the security department had supplied to every employee of the facility. It crackles to life.
A voice comes through. Small. Timid. "Hello," says the person on the other end of the line, "can anyone hear me?"
“Yeah, copy that,” answers Ame. “Is this security? Everything good?” Amelia looks around the IT office. Her desk is crammed into the corner, lost in a sea of other beeping computers and server racks and a jumbled mess of wires strewn about. The room is stuffy, and unbearably warm. The lights are eternally too dim and the space is eternally too loud with the whirring of computer fans. Everything is as it should be.
“Oh, oh no,” goes the voice. The sound crackles, the end of phrases marked by that crunching sound of static. “I’m Ninomae Ina’nis, broadcasting from Radio Tower 8.”
“Radio Tower 8? I thought the radio towers only went up to 7,” answers Amelia. She swivels on her office seat, types away on her keyboard. She finds a company-wide email sent much earlier that day. It reads: “ATTENTION: Radio Tower 8 Test Broadcast Today!”
“Never mind,” goes Amelia, before the voice could respond. “Found the bulletin email. What’s up? Need IT for something?”
Ina’nis giggles. “Nothing, actually. Just kinda bored.”
“Oh,” goes Ame. “One of those, huh? Bully the poor night shift employee with little pranks?”
“It’s not a prank! I swear!”
“Alright, sure. How can I help you then? And how are you broadcasting to this walkie talkie? Are you hogging up the entire frequency?”
Ina’nis clears her throat. “Okay,” she goes. “One. I’m just kinda lonely, I just wanna chat. Really. I’m currently the only person in this tower and it’s the middle of the night. Two. There’s this super complicated switchboard-looking thing in front of me and I’ve been messing with the switches. So maybe I do actually need an IT specialist’s expert advice. And three. Pretty sure this tower’s special because it can do direct broadcasting of frequencies. No, it doesn’t make sense to me either. I’m just rolling with it.”
Amelia nods along. It sounds sketchy to her as all hell, but most things in the facility she works at is of that nature anyway. She looks at the computer clock. 2 AM. “Well, I got about five hours of my shift left. Wanna tell me your life story?”
“How about you start with telling me your name? I already told you mine,” says Ina.
“I’m Amelia Watson. You can call me Ame if you want.”
[Day 2]
The radio crackles to life again. 2AM. On the dot.
“Hello, Amelia Watson? Amelia Watson, do you read me? Over. Chhhrrrt.”
“Roger that, Ninomae Ina’nis. Loud and clear. Over.”
“How was your day, Amelia Watson? Over. Chrrrrt.”
Ame stifles a chuckle. “Alright Ina, you don’t have to make the static cutting sound every time, you know.”
“What are you talking about? Over. Chhrrrrt.”
“Fine, Ninomae Ina’nis. You win. Over. Chrrrrrt. I just ate like, 3 tacos just now. Over. Chhhrrrt.”
“Hey Ame did you know you don’t have to make the static cutting sound every time? What a dork.”
[Day 5]
“Boring day in the IT department again?” asks Ina. “Is it always like this for you?”
“Yeah,” answers Ame. She leans far back in the office chair, holds up the walkie talkie in front of her face. “Sometimes I get a call for assistance but it always turns out to be some scientist so sleep deprived they forget how to turn on their computers or some shit.”
On the other end, Ina giggles. Although warped by static, the sound is enough to make Ame’s cheeks feel warm. “Aw man, now I feel bad,” she says. “I used to be one of those scientists too you know. I’ve definitely called IT because I thought my mouse was broken but it turns out it wasn’t even plugged in.”
“Oh really?” says Ame. She’s grinning, trying to imagine the voice on the other end as one of those exhausted scientists down the hall. She sits straight up again. Looks over to her computer. A part of her says she’s being weirdly creepy, but she ignores that voice in her head. She opens the employee directory. “What department were you in? And how come they transferred you over there?”
“You know how it is in the facility. The right person in the right place and time. I just got randomly recruited, I guess.”
“Hey Ina,” goes Ame, tentative. “Sorry if this is a weird question. Don’t answer if you think I’m being creepy. But uh. What do you look like?”
There’s a pause on the other end. Amelia is on the verge of picking the radio apart and consuming it bit by bit when it crackles to life again.
Ina is laughing. “I don’t mind. But on one condition.”
“Yeah?”
“You tell me how you look like too.”
[Day 7]
Some days Amelia Watson only has the glow of computer monitors to keep her company. These days, she keeps the radio extra close.
“Hey Ame,” goes Ina. Her voice is softer than usual. “You ever feel… I don’t know… alone?”
Amelia Watson swivels around in her seat. She imagines Ninomae Ina’nis standing there in the room with her, leaning against a server tower and sipping on a coffee (she said she likes coffees). She imagines the expression the other woman might make. Brows slightly furrowed. Eyes unfocused. The barest trace of a frown on her lips. Something painful lurches within Ame.
“Ame?” goes Ina.
“I’m here, I’m here.” After a pause, she says, “Hey, I’m talking to you right now, you know. So you can’t feel alone.”
“Fair,” she says, and chuckles lowly. The sound makes Ame’s heart race.
[Day 10]
Amelia Watson spins around nervously in her office chair. She drums her fingers against the plastic of the walkie talkie. On the computer, she’s pouring over emails, looking over the facility blueprints, searching up images of the nearby locations.
“Hey Ina,” goes Ame. She hopes the nervousness in her stomach doesn’t leak out into her voice. “I… I actually tried to visit Radio Tower 8’s site location before my shift today.”
“Going to work early? What a trooper,” says Ina, chuckling. “What about it?”
Ame ignores the temptation to quip back with a joke. “Is… Is the radio tower really supposed to be half sunk in the middle of a nearby lake?”
There’s a pause. Ame hears the distinct sound of someone taking a deep breath on the other end of the line. “Yeah. Design flaw, apparently. The entire thing’s supposed to be, you know, above the water. But the structure sunk down. Apparently the ground is too soft and the tower is too heavy. So now the only access way is an underground tunnel that frequently floods.”
Ame isn’t sure how to respond. She settles for, “That sounds like an OSHA violation for sure.”
Ina laughs. A warm fluttering replaces the nervous static in the pit of Ame’s stomach. “Did you try to pay me a visit?”
“I… I uh…”
“It’s okay. Someday I’d like us to meet.”
“I’d… I’d really like that, actually.”
[Day 13]
“Ame,” says Ninomae Ina’nis. Her voice sounds serious. “Remember how we talked about meeting once?”
Ame rises to her feet. Her pulse skyrockets. Without even thinking about it, she’s brushing off crumbs off of her shirt, straightening out her tie, combing through her messy blonde hair. “Y-yeah? What about it?”
“Well, the tunnel water level’s pretty low today. If… if you have the time…” There’s a quiet pleading in her voice that makes a wild energy settle on Ame’s bones.
“I’m on the way.”
The IT specialist finds herself standing before a large, steel door. All kinds of warning labels and danger signs are spray-painted on it. There are goosebumps crawling along Ame’s skin. She swipes her card on a panel. The seals unlock, one by one, the clanking of metal echoing throughout the basement’s chamber. The door swings wide open.
“You sure this is the place?” asks Ame.
“The door with the scary signs? Yeah, you’re in the right place,” answers Ina. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Hard not to,” goes Ame, chuckling nervously. She steps through the threshold.
The tunnel is dark. Musty. Mold creeps along walls and the smell of damp is almost overpowering. The sound of dripping water surrounds Ame. She feels mud sucking in her shoes underfoot. Ame holds up a flashlight. The tunnel looks endless. Fear begins to seep into her blood. Burrowing into her bones. Rooting her to the spot.
The walkie talkie gripped in Ame’s hand crackles to life. “Do you trust me Ame? You just need to follow the tunnel. I’m right here, I’m right here.”
Amelia holds up the radio to answer. No words come out. She blinks. Tries to imagine Ninomae Ina’nis waiting at the end for her. A scientist, waving, waiting to meet her for the first time.
Wind howls in the tunnel. It doesn’t make sense, thinks Ame, there should be no wind. Doubts cloud her thoughts and she loses sight of the thought of Ninomae Ina’nis. Fear grips her heart. It doesn’t let go.
“It’s okay,” goes Ina. Her voice is soft. So soft. But fear roars in Amelia Watson’s mind. “We’ll get there someday,” says Ina. “Someday.”
And Amelia Watson is unable to speak, but she turns. She seals the door. She leaves work early.
[Day 14]
Amelia Watson rushes to work. She slams into the office, startling a coworker, ignoring their confused questions of “Hey, you’re early?” and “Yo, did you even sleep?” She grabs the radio on the table, and without a single word, she rushes toward the tunnel.
Regret. She feels so much regret. She wishes she had the courage. Wishes she could have taken those steps. But now. Now she can. Now she’s ready. She presses the button on the walkie talkie, a long-winded apology already on the tip of her tongue.
“Hello, Ina? Ninomae Ina’nis? Are you there?”
No response. Static.
A horrible churning brews away in Amelia’s gut. She surges forward. Swipes her card on the panel once more. No matter, she thinks, she’ll apologize in person.
The tunnel is different.
It’s… dry. Aged, almost. Like a hundred years have passed since she was here last. Dry dirt crunches underfoot. The air is stale. The sound of silence is deafening. Amelia holds up her flashlight. She can see, barely, the end of the tunnel. She could swear it was longer yesterday.
She swallows, hard. Courage is renewed in her chest, a fire in her blood. She imagines Ninomae Ina’nis, sitting before the radio tower’s switchboard. Maybe she’d be mad to see Amelia after what happened yesterday. It’s okay, thinks Ame. She can make it up to her. She swears.
Amelia Watson practically runs down the tunnel. She kicks up dust with every step, her lungs heaving and burning. She makes it to the end. There, an incredibly rusted ladder with a hatch at the top. She climbs, the metal groaning under her weight, the rough of it almost cutting into her hands. Amelia isn’t thinking anymore. She just wants to see Ina.
She pushes open the hatch.
She climbs through and finds… no one.
Amelia looks around, confused. Equipment and computer monitors and panels are all beeping and glowing with life. In the center of the room, a large switchboard, in front of which is a mic with a button, and an empty office chair. Ame crawls through the hatch. Looks around the room to find no trace of the woman she’d been speaking to for the last two weeks.
Right in front of the mic are two sticky notes.
The first one reads: “I’m sorry, I guess we didn’t meet this loop either, huh?”
Amelia feels like her mind is swimming.
The second one reads: “One day may we be blessed with love that can overcome fear.”
At the base of the mic is a button, blinking red. It’s ready to broadcast. Amelia Watson smiles bitterly. She takes her seat in the office chair. Rolls up close to the mic. Behind her, the hatch creaks shut. Seals itself. The sound of rushing water can be heard, distant.
Amelia doesn’t really care anymore. She clears her throat. And she pushes the button.
“If there is no fate and our interactions depend on such a complex system of chance encounters, what potentially important connections do we fail to make? What life changing relationships or passionate and lasting love affairs are lost to chance?”
— Simon Pegg
In the middle of the night an explosion rocks the entire facility. Lights flicker on and off. The thick concrete walls tremble. Then, all things are as before. As if nothing ever happened. An experiment gone wrong? An anomaly gone haywire? Maybe even the fabric of space and time torn asunder? Who knows. Such things are of little importance now.
[Day 1]
Ninomae Ina'nis is awoken by the sound of static over a radio. The scientist raises her sleepy head from the desk she’d been sleeping on. She reaches for the walkie talkie that the security department had supplied to every employee of the facility. It crackles to life.
A voice comes through. Soft. Shy. "Hello," says the person on the other end of the line, "can anyone hear me?"