From: aa811@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Terri M. Librande)
Newsgroups: alt.ql.creative
Subject: As It Fell Upon A Day Part 4
Message-ID: <1jcc9mINN4c1@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
Date: 17 Jan 93 19:33:10 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
Lines: 93
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"As It Fell Upon A Day"
Part 4

Sam eased back in the chair.  He looked up at his friend.  There was
something about the look on Al's face--pain, hurt.  "What's wrong?"
Sam's voice was soft, concerned.

"It's all too close, Sam." Al brushed his hand over his forehead. "Maybe
I'm taking this too personal or something, I dunno."

"I want to save those kids, Al."

"Sam, Ziggy says that Kent State, or something like it, has to happen or
the anti-war movement loses an important rallying point. Those kids died for a
purpose after all."

"A purpose?  To be a rallying point?"  His voice was thick with sarcasm and
disgust.  "Maybe the reason it all sounds so senseless to me is because it is.
It wasn't meant to be."

"I don't like the sound of this."

Al was busy punching buttons.  "Sam, Ziggy says your odds of success are nil,
zero, zilch!"  He gestured with the link.  "Impossible."

"Too many have died already, Al."  Sam knew he had to do something, anything to
prevent the deaths on Monday.  There was something in him that would not
allow it to happen.  "I've been put here to change things for the better.
Maybe I can get the rally or whatever cancelled, or talk the Guard out of 
using real loads--I don't know, but there seems to be a lot of alternatives."

"Ziggy says..."

"I don't care!"  There was a fervency in the scientist's voice that broached
no arguement.  "Screw the odds, Al.  I have to try."

"No, Sam."  Al's voice was deadly serious.  "If, and I state that again, IF
you continue on this course of action, Ziggy gives you no chance of success
and a fifty percent chance that you might get wounded yourself, or die."

"Die?"

"As in dead."  Al's usually expressive eyes were flat, without life.  "In 
the original history, Dr. Barry disappears from the campus.  For good.  His
car is found in the parking lot, but he's poof--gone.  Ziggy theorizes that
Barry has to stay here, but he doesn't know all the details yet."

"I can't stand idly by and see people lose their lives."  His friend looked
uneasy.

Al hated it when the scientist became stubborn.  Like a mule.  "Christ, if I 
had been at Kennedy's assasination I guess I'd think about changing 
circumstances, but I wouldn't.  Because I wouldn't recognize my own 'now'
when I got back."

"Don't give me that.  If you had the chance to resequence events you'd do
it."  His insistance grew, eyes alight.  "I have that chance, Al.  Something
wants me here to save lives.  If God is in control of this experiement, would
he want those kids dead Monday?"

"I'm not discussing theology, I worried about you ending up dead, dead, DEAD."
Smacking around the link gave him little satisfaction this time.  Al wiped the 
perspiration from his forehead.  Arguing with the kid was a heavy job.

Sam could just barely make out sounds coming from the blocks away.  He got
up from the chair and went to the window.  The night breeze was fresh and
clean, but there was a taint of a chemical smell in it, foreign and biting.
"I think they're using tear gas, Al," he stated anxiously.

"No guess."  Sighing, Al stood at Sam's shoulder.  "It was about the only
weapon they could use against the kids.  Usually, like tonight, it defused
them.  I got a good dose of it once--not a great feeling--like you're gong
to choke to death, thenyou throw up and feel lousy for a couple of days."

"I can't do anything to help them."

"Ah, Sam."  Shaking his head, Al rubbed his hand across the back of his neck.
There wasn't much he could say in the way of comfort.  He had to remember
that his friend was a person who cared too much.  How had he ever functioned
as a doctor, Al wondered.  
"I'll stick close on this one," he said softly, meeting Sam's dulled gaze.

"Thanks, Al," His hands gripped the sill of the window until the knuckles 
whitened.  "I think I'll need you more than ever."


Terri Librande
More to come...
-- 
"Unscrupulous--but effective!"  Al in "Starcrossed"
Terri Librande aa811@cleveland.Freenet.edu  Assistant Sysop
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Sig--Go SCIFI