The observatory was shrouded in darkness, with only small streaks of light penetrating the murk. Plastic sheeting rippled gently, briefly revealing the dated grey computer equipment below. The vast telescope was aimed at the closed ceiling, patiently awaiting a view of the night sky.
A brilliant white flash illuminated the entire chamber in an instant, before retreating back to a single point in the centre of the room, leaving behind a party of seven. Three of the team, Art, Jake and Krank, immediately stepped forward in three separate directions, guns pointed ahead, primed for any potential ambush. As the trio swept the room, Anthony lit a flare, filling it with a red glow, which threw quivering shadows of Ebbe, Carter and James across the towering walls.
"Hello sweetie," Ebbe cooed gently, as she made her way to the telescope, running a hand lovingly across the eye piece and checking her fingers for dust. "Some white light would be appreciated Gannymede," she shouted to James, who nodded, and scurried across the floor to a side wall, where he flicked a few switches. After a few seconds, several strip lights on the side of the walls started to blink into life, finally bringing a clean white light into the building.
"Clear," Art yelled from the left. This sentiment was echoed by Jake and Krank, and all three swiftly returned to Anthony's side.
"A little help?" Ebbe shouted to anyone willing to listen, as she started to pull the plastic sheeting away from the computer panels. Anthony nodded to Art and Jake, who both immediately stepped up and began pulling away the thin sheets and tossing them to one side.
Anthony eyed Carter with suspicion. He didn't like the way he was watching Ebbe, and he didn't like the way he seemed unperturbed by the events that had unfurled in the last few minutes. What reasonable minded man would remain so calm when transported across space and time without a word of warning? Besides, Anthony had an innate distrust of politicians. Especially their esteemed leader, who had surely reached his position by duplicity and corruption. Anthony could tell Ebbe a thing or two about her friend, that was for sure.
"Secure the room," he barked to James and Krank. James gestured to Krank, who followed, James leading him towards a pair of large metal doors with frosted glass panes. Krank tested the door, and found it was locked. Wordlessly the pair planted small amounts of explosives where the two doors met. Before taking up position, one either side, a few metres from the doorway, guns trained on the entrance.
Anthony acknowledged their confirmation that the only way in was now protected, and started to feel a little more relaxed. He turned his attention back to the prime minister, Hunter, as Ebbe had called him. Carter seemed blissfully unaware Anthony was eyeing him with mistrust as he slowly spun around, taking in the vast chamber that housed the telescope.
"Need any help Ebbe?" Anthony asked. She didn't answer, but he was pretty sure she shook her head. The lady was in her own world now, that was for sure.
"Pretty cool, eh," he said to Carter, who was staring up at the ceiling in awe. At first he got no reaction, and was about to ask again, when Carter turned and offered a wide smile that Anthony found hard to dismiss as anything other than a politician's mask.
"Spectacular," Carter agreed, "I've often wanted to visit, but the job rarely permits a getaway."
"All those foreign visits," Anthony replied suggestively.
"Quite so," Carter responded bluntly, refusing to rise to Anthony's jab at recent headlines. "Though with Ebbe's box of tricks, I could visit Russia, China and the US in the same day."
"It's some next level sci-fi shit ain't it!" Anthony enthused. While he had the man engaged on strange phenomena, Anthony thought it was a good chance to check how extensive the lapse of gravity truly was. "It's been a few days of crazy shit, don't you think sir? What with the sun, and the gravity."
Carter nodded thoughtfully.
"It's been the most difficult few days of my term so far," he confirmed. "Ebbe, dear girl, do you need any help?" he then shouted, before turning back to Anthony, "pardon me," he said, before striding off to Ebbe without awaiting a response from either.
Slimy son of a bitch, Anthony thought. Typical politician, never actually confirmed or denied anything. Look at him, leaning over Ebbe, placing his arm around her shoulder, as if she were a vulnerable waif, in need of his protection. My God, he snorted, she's actually playing into his act. He watched, wide mouthed with incredulity as the hard-edged Ebbe twirled her hair, and even seemed to giggle girlishly at something he whispered into her ear. Is this the same woman who defied his V6 and placed herself in the line of fire?
"Jealous mate?" Art remarked with a wide grin plastered on his craggly face.
"Fuck off," Anthony spat, "she's playing him like a violin," he countered.
"Whatever you say," Art grinned.
"At least you talked less when you were in a coma," Anthony joked.
"He doth protesteth too much," Art chuckled. Anthony responded by jabbing him gently in the ribcage with the butt of his gun. "She's an amazing woman," Art added, his grin dropping away.
"No mate," Anthony corrected, "she's so much more than that."
Art turned to eye Anthony with a lopsided smile. With an amused snort, he returned his attention to Ebbe and Carter.
"I suppose you're right mate," he added, rubbing the back of his head.
Ebbe suddenly stood and gestured dramatically at the ceiling.
"Release the Kraken!" she intoned with mock authority, as a loud hum began to vibrate through the building. A sliver of light peeked through the emerging crack in the ceiling above. The whirring vibrations intensified as the dome split apart and daylight spilled through. The mechanism shuddered to a halt once the roof had opened to the full width of the telescope. A eerie silence fell upon the room, as all the occupants stared up and out at the light blue sky now visible.
"Gentlemen," Ebbe started, "you have all seen recent phenomena that defies your understanding of the world as you know it. Am I correct?"
Everyone nodded, and mumbled she was correct.
"Sadly, you are all far beyond the curve in this matter. Some, I believe, have been aware of our precarious situation for some time now, but out of ignorance, or fear, or out of greed and malice, they have opted to shield the world from the truth. Now, I fear, it may be too little too late to reveal to all humanity what the few had learned. What do you think, Hunter?"
"Ebbe?" Carter replied with a frown.
"Your government have had a team protecting that control room for years now, have they not?"
"I, I..." he stuttered, much to the delight of Anthony. Gotcha!
"To be fair, I never expected it to be you who'd order my assassination," Ebbe added bluntly, much to Anthony's surprise. Instinctively he reacted, anger boiling up within. Stepping forward, he aimed the tip of his semi-automatic at Carter with a scowl.
"You son of a bitch," he cursed.
"Ebbe, I can assure you," Carter began to plead.
"Hiring a strike team to attack your own men was a stroke of genius, I must say," Ebbe continued, her steely gaze fixed upon Carter. "Eliminate me, and take control of the cubes below, all under the radar. Tricky tricky."
Anthony flicked a glance at Ebbe and she nodded back him, her eyes gesturing to Carter. The woman was a natural at this, Anthony thought, before signalling to his team that they should encircle and restrain the prime minister.
Within seconds Carter Huntington was tied up on a swivel chair, his hands behind his back, his feet secured tightly together with a plastic pull-tie.
"Lucky for you I'm not the vengeful sort," Ebbe glared at Carter, before turning back with a sweep of her hand, to gesture at the sky, "besides, sad to say that I shall be needing your help. And," she paused and turned back to face him, "if you're wondering why you would do any such thing, I shall show you why you have no choice, through the lens of this telescope."
"You'll have to wait until dark to show me a missing moon, and by then my team will have found us, and you and your team will be nothing more than a bad memory for me to digest," Carter scoffed.
"Wrong again," Ebbe smiled, eyes sparkling.
A bright white flash blinded the men, all turning their heads with a shout of surprise. When they turned back to the telescope, Ebbe was absent.
"What the?" Jake rasped incredulously.
Anthony just watched the area she had been standing only seconds later intently. He was certain she would be back shortly. She had simply returned to the control room.
"Dear lord," Carter gasped, shifting uncomfortably in the chair.
Every member of the team slowly followed his line of vision, and all allowed their guns to drop to their sides. Through the wide opening in the roof, the formerly light blue sky had began shimmer, wave and within seconds vanished. In it's place was the night sky. In the time it takes to blink, the mid-morning had jumped to the dead of night.
Before Anthony had time to process this switch, a blinding flash announced Ebbe's return.
"Now, Prime Minister," she continued as if nothing had changed, "give me just one minute," she added before taking a seat beneath the telescope and silently adjusting the view-piece. Everyone watched in awed silence, seemingly unwilling to comment on the newest impossibility their minds were having to process.
"There!" Ebbe declared with satisfaction. "You first Hunter," she said, giving a nod to Anthony that his legs could be released.
Anthony slowly unsheathed his blade and leaned in towards Carter. He held the sharp blade close to the prime minister's nose and let the man catch his own reflection in the weapon, before lowering it to cut the binds.
"No funny business," Anthony hissed after the cut released Carter's feet.
Carter opted not to respond, and instead stepped up obediently to the viewing chair, his hands still bound behind his back.
"This is a little awkward," he suggested, shaking his tied arms before he sat.
"Deal with it," Ebbe replied harshly, "now look," she commanded.
Carter exhaled, and shuffled awkwardly into position, grumbling a little as he did.
"What? What the?" he muttered incredulously. He pulled his eye away from the lens with a heavy brow, his eyes fixing upon Ebbe. "What, what does it mean?"
"I'm not entirely sure we are on planet Earth," Ebbe responded point blank.
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