Title & Chapter Number: Border Crosser 14/?
Author(s): - Author's Index
Website: Moviecostumes.com
Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of J R R Tolkien, the Tolkien Estate and Tolkien Enterprises. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Warnings: Graphic het sex, violence, angst, character death. I am not responsible for any injuries that might occur while jumping from various old trees.
Betas: Zee, Lenara, SoErl.
Cast: OCF, Haldir, Galadriel, Celeborn... well, and almost anyone else you could imagine when thinking about `Lord of the Rings'.
Timeline: AU
Spoilers: None
Summary: If there was a passage to Middle Earth from our world, what would you expect to find? or: Tolkien invented Middle Earth - didn't he?
Notes: My OFC(s) are mine; the Elves that Tolkien invented (he did, didn't he?) are not mine (what a pity!). A special "thank you" to the Kronos Quartet / Clint Mansell / Fatboy Robert s for the "Requiem Overture", giving me (and brought me through) several dar k nights when writing this. Thanks to Xavier Naidoo and Rufus Wainwright for their music that inspired me. Thanks to the Goddess for letting me find peace and inspiration. And thanks to my ever-curious and inspiring beta readers, pushing me forward on each chapter.
Dedication: This one is for the two only real Elves on earth; To the Silver One: You will always have a special place in my heart and memories; to the Golden One: You are a legend, a saint and the only true heir of Gil-Galad I know. Let's burn them down! :-)
* SPECIAL WARNING: There are real people avatars innocently depicted in this fic. They belong solely to themselves, no harm became of them and no offence is intended. It is just my way to pay the tribute to these real people, for without them, we would not have words and images of the wonderful Elves in our heads. This is posted with the List Mum's approval.
Chapter 14 - The Chemistry of Middle Earth
I woke up by the light of the sun shining through my window. For a moment, I thought that I had dreamt all of it, but then I opened my tightly clutched hands, and there it was; Haldir's clasp. I smiled. It was true, still true.
Still true was also that I felt terrible pain in my body and soul. The etching ache in my muscles were obviously from running through the forest; the burning discomfort in my brain was caused by Haldir's absence.
A knock on my door got me on my feet; Chris was standing there. "You still want to go to London today?"
"Yes, sure."
She sighed. "Well, then we should go soon."
We had a quick breakfast, took only the most needed things in small bags with us, left the backpacks in the hotel and headed for the train station.
On our arrival in London, we took a taxi to get to the laboratory. When we got there, I tried to talk to the person at the reception desk as quietly as possible, so that Chris would not hear every single word of the conversation that I had. "Would you like to call Dr. Myers for me?"
The man raised his brows. "I don't know if he is avail..."
"Please," I whispered, "this is very important, for me and for him. Peter Jackson is sending me, tell this to him... I have something for him to analyze."
I saw him grabbing his phone; but as he had locked the glass window between me and him, I could just barely hear some words he was saying each time no car passed behind me on the street. "...woman here... important... analyze... -ackson..." He waited, obviously receiving an answer, and his eyes widened. "Yes, Sir - I will ... myself, sure, Sir."
He threw the phone to the desk, jumped up and came out of the house. "Ladies... if you would follow me, Dr. Myers is pleased that you came and waits for you in his laboratory."
Chris looked at me with a confused face.
"What did you tell him, Dana? " she whispered, as we walked behind him; quickly, to be able to follow his steps.
"I just said," I smiled, "that someone he knows sent me to have him analyze something. And as he knows that this person always sends strange and interesting things to examine, he is eager to see us, and what we have brought to him."
"Well," she replied, looking at me with big, asking eyes. "and who may that be that you have told him to have sent us?"
"Oh... well... you will find out when I talk to him, and be ready for a big surprise."
We entered the laboratory. Wondering I stared around over bottles, apparatures, beeping machines, microscopes and other interesting items.
A typical world of a scientist, and that was never my world.
A small, slender man came through the back door. "Hello, I am Colin Myers," he introduced himself, "and you are...?"
"Michaels, Dana Michaels," I replied, "and this is my friend Chris Cameron."
"The receptionist told me that Mr. Jackson sent you?"
"Yes, Peter would like you to analyze the air, water and earth in this sealed phial that I have brought."
When I had spoken about half of my sentence, I heard Chris inhale sharply and handled the vessel over to him. He looked at it from every side.
"That is beautiful... I wonder where he always finds such things..." He turned around, without taking further notice of us, and walked over to one of the examination tables.
I turned around to look at Chris. She was still holding her breath and staring at me with eyes wide opened. I made a swiveling movement with my hand.
"Calm down," I whispered, "I told you that it would be a surprise, right?"
The sound of Chris' breath coming out in a long `whoa' was the only response I received.
Myers voice caught my attention. "Are we searching for anything particular? Poison, pollution, or what?"
"No," I replied, "we are searching for the exact opposite. We would like to know the difference between the air, water and earth in this phial, compared with the usual air, water and earth that you find here."
"Where here?" he asked. I was confused. "What do you mean by saying `Where here'?"
"Well, where here? Here in London, here in England, or where?"
"Uhm... no... it was more a global question, meaning here on this earth..."
p He raised his brows. "When will you see Peter the next time?"
"As soon as you are finished with your tests."
"Well, then tell him that if he wants me to analyze anything more than this in the future, he will have to explain the next time where he *got* that stuff from. He pays well, but when one of my assistants found that velvet leaf the last time, I had to explain and pay too much for his silence; and besides that, I am also curious about it... You do not have any idea where he got that from, right?"
"No, of course not," I answered as innocently as I could, "he is always making such a fuss of this."
"Will you want to wait for this to be analyzed? It will take some hours; you could also go for a walk or do some shopping..."
"No," I answered quickly, "we will prefer to wait here until you have the results. It is fine with us." I wondered about the words I had just said. If anyone had asked me the day before - in this world - if I would prefer sitting around in a sterile laboratory with a scientist to wait for some chemical examination results instead of going shopping to London for some hours, I would have been seriously concerned about that someone's mental health.
Chris sat down on some chairs in the corner, watching the scientist do his work.
"You mentioned Peter Jackson," she whispered quietly.
"Yes." I admitted.
"Is it *the* Peter Jackson I am thinking of?"
"Yes." I repeated.
She stared straight ahead for some minutes. "There are some things that you did not yet tell me last night, right?"
"Yes," I said, once more, slowly but surely feeling a bit dumb for always repeating my answer, and added "you will have to wait for the explanation of this... not here, not now..."
And we just kept staring quietly at the man who was analyzing water, air and earth from a world beyond our space and time without knowing it. Chris was, as always, writing down notes into her little black book that she always had with her. I shook my head and grinned, wondering how much she would be able to write when we were in Middle Earth.
The hours passed, I slowly got quite sleepy, and when I was just about to fall asleep, the scientist stood right in front of us. "I have the results, would you like to see them?"
Both of us jumped up, awake as never before. He led us to his table, and pointed at the monitor of his computer.
"Normal air - meaning the chemical clean air, which should just consist of Nitrogen and Oxygen - is often polluted with other ingredients. I will show you some different graphs of different air first."
A blue graph found its way over the screen, high on top of the grid.
"This, ladies," he said, "is a sample of the air in New York, on a usual summer day, with high traffic in the streets." A green graph went over the screen, about half as high as the first. "This is air from the countryside," he said, "and now..."
A yellow graph went over the screen, showing just some small and one big peak at the end, but otherwise stayed on the bottom of the grid.
"...this is the air you have brought with you. The peaks indicate some ingredients, like biological aerosols which I cannot even specify as our database does not know them; but apart from that, this air is absolutely clean; but the most interesting thing is that", pointing at the screen with his finger on the big peak at the end of the graph.
"I cannot verify what that is, but it seems to be a biological aerosol; something that some kind of unknown plant is passing to the air there. It is yet interesting," - he pressed some buttons on the keyboard, and two different graphs appeared - "that this red graph, indicating that what I suspect to be a biological aerosol, is quite equal to what you see in this green graph."
He was right, the green and the red graph almost matched perfectly.
"So what is `that green graph'?" I asked.
"This, ladies, is another interesting thing. When the velvet leaf that Peter sent in last time died and started rotting, we found spores of a fungus that seems to live on that leaf. This fungus seem to produce some kind of gas, and this" - he pointed at both graphs -"is it. My conclusion would be: Wherever the plant with these big, velvet leaves grows must be the same place that this air comes from, right?"
I tried to look as if I was not knowing, and had a question. "That... biological aerosol, from that fungus - is it poisonous, or dangerous, or something?"
"No," he replied, "it just has an interesting effect; it works like some extracts from the Cocaine leaves - it leaves an addiction to the one who consumes it; but unlike the cocaine leaves, which have to be eaten or chemically treated to become cocaine, this stuff will very slowly make you addicted by just breathing it in."
"Would someone who inhales this stuff for some years die from it?" I dared to ask, seriously concerned about my health.
"No," he said, " this drug is not poisonous, its affects, in fact, is the opposite. It keeps you alive. If you got addicted to it, which might take some years. But after that, if you took it away from the air, the one who had been addicted would die, as the body would not be able to stand to be without this drug."
The people in Middle Earth are constantly drugged by mallorn trees, I thought. What an idea.
"By the way, the velvet leaf," he said, walking over to a huge, locked cabinet, opening it and searching for something, which he found and brought over in a box, "I have made an interesting find in one of our archives. When I reported to Peter the last time, I did not know this yet, so maybe you could tell him when you see him?"
He opened the box and inside of it was a big stone. He picked it out and we could see that it was broken in half. He carefully picked up the top half, and before my eyes I could see the imprint of something that I would never have expected there.
The stone showed a clear picture of a mallorn leaf.
"You mean - these plants with these leaves were here, on this earth, in ancient times?"
"Yes," he nodded. "As far as I have found out, they existed here from about 200,000 years ago, but about five or six thousand years ago, they disappeared; it seems, surprisingly within a timeframe of no more than two hundred years."
Five or six thousand years. `Some time before I was born', I remembered Haldir's words on the disappearing of the big passage in the lake. Both seemed to have something to do with each other.
"Do you have any idea why these plants disappeared?"
"No," he answered sadly, "but from the concentration of the fungus which can still be found in the fossils, I would guess that the fungus died of an unknown reason, and that the plants needs this fungus to live, as well as the fungus needs the plant - it seems to be a perfect symbiosis between them."
There it was, the solution, I thought. The fungus could not exist without the contact to Middle Earth, and when it died, the mallorn trees also died. Without the mallorn trees, the fungus could not spread the biological aerosol to the air of our world. This explained why the Border Crosser from Middle Earth became sick and died; they literally died of withdrawal!
He stared at us, folding his arms over his chest. "I would almost suspect," he said with a serious voice, "that Peter has discovered something like a Jurassic park or so. You don't happen to know if he also owns some strange, big eggs...?"
No, I thought, but if you wish, I could bring an Orc or two for examination... Instead of answering his question, I asked "Is there anything else about the water and the earth that I have brought?"
"No, just the fact that both also had spores of the fungus."
Which gave me another idea. "So, if plants grow in this earth, and animals live in that world... do they also have the spores in them?"
"Obviously. The horse blood that Peter sent in last time also had some of these spores in it; and this was what made it different from the blood of our horses. This is, by the way, an issue that I also have not yet told to Peter, as we have found out about the fungus after his departure, as I have already said."
"Alright," I picked up that subject, "but let's just assume that we would have an... animal that lived in a world like that, and it was also addicted to the spores. How could we keep it alive in this world? Would there be a possibility of injection with these spores?"
The man thought for a while. "Yes," he finally said, "this should be possible. But it would also be dangerous, as we would not know the dosage of the injection."
"Couldn't one find out the dosage if he knew about the usual concentration in air and water?"
"You're right, I did not think of this possibility. Yes, this should work."
I didn't know if I should laugh or cry at that moment. That's it, Haldir, I thought. I can show the Grand Canyon to you.
"And... uhm... what would you need to produce such injections?" I was surprised to hear Chris pick up the subject; not believing she was actually following our discussion!
"Leaves - *lots* of these leaves, better a complete tree, but I guess this would not survive too long, as one tree alone would not produce enough spores to keep itself alive."
This was the answer I had waited for, had longed for.
"Thank you," I said quickly, "I think we need to go now. Uhm... can I get the phial back?" I remembered my promise to Lord Celeborn.
He grumbled, taking and holding the phial in his hand, obviously thinking about if he should give it back to me. "You are sure you need this? I would like to analyze the glass so much..."
He did not even think about the beauty of the phial, I thought. He just wanted to smash and analyze it.
I grabbed one of the sharp scalpels on the table, scratching inside the neck of the phial, breaking little glass splinters out on the table.
"There you are - something to analyze, that has to be enough," I said, hoping that he would agree.
He was struggling for words. "But... wait a minute... when will Peter come back? I still need to discuss..."
"Don't worry, you will get paid by him!" I shouted back, almost running down the hallway. Chris was following me, also hurrying.
She did not talk to me in the taxi, and also remained quiet on the train back to Birmingham, still writing to her book.
"What do you think?" I asked, "What is on your mind?"
"I still wonder," she almost cried, "if you are still making fun of me or if this really could be true... can you finally explain to me about that strange `velvet leaf' you were talking about, or what fossils from this world have to do with a phial that you claimed to be a gift from Elrond to Celeborn?"
Another passenger entered our department, sitting down; and as much as I wanted to explain - I could not. I nodded at the passenger and spoke slowly.
"Later, Chris... later... I cannot explain now... I really cannot." Nodding at the passenger again, showing Chris why I could not talk. She nodded as well, with a sad face, and started staring out of the window.
As we arrived in Birmingham, it was already early evening. We returned to the hotel, silently, as there were enough people around who could hear our conversation. When we arrived there, I told Chris to go to sleep for a few hours, as I thought and knew that both I and her could need this; from my experience that it would be middle of the day when we would arrive in Middle Earth.
"You really want this, right?" she asked when she stood by the door.
"Want what?"
"You really want me to follow you again, break into the Golf Club, and jump off that tree, right?"
"Yes, I would like to have you with me there."
"You are crazy beyond my understanding," she smiled, "but you made me curious. Go to bed, Dana; we will meet at midnight."
Excerpt from Chris' Diary:
Back in London.
Not that there is time to visit the next bookstore, I find myself sitting at a laboratory, waiting for the air, water and earth of Middle Earth - yeah sure - to get analyzed.
Dana whispered to the receptionist ...did I hear the name Jackson? Peter Jackson, that Peter Jackson...? Oh please.
And Dana avoided giving me an reasonable answer. Am I surprised? NO!
We will end at a psycho ward, I'm sure. Wonder if they still use electroshock treatment today?
I wonder why Dr. Myers plays along? Maybe he already called for help.....or we end up on TV - what was the name of that show? Hidden Camera?
I can't sit any more, why didn't I bring something to read with me....oh forget that, I only have books from Tolkien with me, and I did read them too often. Middle-Earth exists, yeah sure, and I'm an Elf. *snort*
Oh, Dr. Myers seems to have the results, lets hear what he has to say.
Nice, we just fled from the laboratory without paying! Great!
Now we are at the train back to Birmingham, I can't speak to Dana, there are to many people around us.
So after waiting for hours and hours to get the results - if you want to call them that - well if you want to put it blunt, everyone in `M.E.' is a junkie, the Mallorn trees produce some kind of bacteria (hey, I knew why I hated biology at school) which seem to ensure a long life and makes everyone happy.
Yeah. That's why the Elves are always so nice and smile all the time -They're stoned. *snort* So maybe the term `tokin' is a derivative of Tolkien? Hmmmmm?
Okay, reality check here, the Mallorn leaves could be used to make injections so that someone from M.E. could take the pollution in our world without getting killed. Hmmm, I'm sure I've saw a Science Fiction movie with exactly that story some years ago. Oh, well, I wonder how British sanatoriums for the mentally disturbed are like?
I still wonder why Dana is doing this to me? What have I done to her to deserve this? What?
If she didn't wanted to come on this trip, she just could have say no, and I would have traveled alone. No need to put this whole 'Middle Earth exists' farce up.
If I hear that: "Later Chris, later Chris" one more time, I swear only ONE of us will reach Birmingham in one piece. I'm losing my patience, but I'm too curious to see what else has been done to make me believe M.E. exists.
Next stop Birmingham, well lets go back to the hotel, I can't wait for Dana's explanations.
Oh, she really must have read Tolkien, sound all sooooo believable. Hmmm, wonder what else she prepared to make fun of me.
I have lost my mind, I'm sure. I promised Dana to meet her at midnight to break into that Golf-Club again to jump from that oak tree to M.E.
And now I should sleep, but as usual, sleep won't come, the only things on TV are re-runs of some American TV-Shows....hey, I could use some dose of the X-Files - this day was weird enough, but no luck. Yuck.
It's half past eleven, time to take a cold shower, get dressed, pack all my stuff, and meet Dana. Let's go, straight to the sanatorium...
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