"So," I said, "you think this might be a portal that aliens built?"

He blinked at me and pointed to the door. "We're on bloody Machu Picchu mountain. By the push of a button. Sounds like an alien portal to me."

"Fair point," I conceded.

"Dr. Graham?" Jody asked. "What happens when we push one of the blinking buttons that looks like the one you pushed?"

"How would I know that?" I asked.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Wait, I'm sorry," I apologized. "That wasn't really fair. I think the only way to find out is to push the button. Go ahead."

She beamed and turned to her wall. She took a deep breath and pushed the blinking button.

Nothing happened.

"Huh. That was unexpected," I observed, "and rather anticlimactic."

Before I could say anything, Matt reached out on the next wall around and pushed his button. Still nothing.

"Hey, some of the buttons over here changed colors when you all did that." Haseem said from the fourth wall.

"Oh?" I said, moving closer, but not too close. "Do it again."

A sudden breeze blew in and some leaves rustled into the room. Cally reached out and shut the door.

"Cally, push this place's button again on your wall."

She did as she was told. The buttons of the fourth wall changed colors to match Cally's wall. We went around in succession and each time the colors changed.

"I... haven't the faintest idea what that means," I had to admit.

"Well, let's push the next button and see if we get some of the same results."

I moved back to the door wall to stand beside Cally. I was even closer than two Graham Strides and it was okay. I smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Are you going to push the next button? Or stare at me?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, okay." I reached over to hit the third button.

The scene changed to one of a green plain. On Jody's wall, we were looking down a white gravel road and at the end was...

"Stonehenge!" we all said together.

Cally immediately punched open the door and moved to go outside. I grabbed her before she could. "Wait! What if we go out there and someone sees? How do we explain all this? I don't think we're ready for people to know just yet."

She looked crestfallen, but nodded. "I guess so. It's just that I've always wanted to visit. I keep putting it off."

I grinned, "So, what are you doing next week?"

Her jaw dropped. "Wait. Did you just ask me out?"

I shifted on my feet. "Yeah, I mean, if you want to go."

"I do, but, honestly, I think we'll still be pushing buttons," she said with a nod to the panel.

I chuckled. "Well, there is that."

"Hey! Love Birds!" Jeff said. "You want to shut the door before there's trouble?" He hefted a thumb in the direction of Jody. Behind her, a vehicle was coming up the lane.

"Time to go!" I said and Cally closed the door. I hit the third button and the scene changed yet again. This time, we were completely submerged.

"Dr. Zenowich?" Haseem called as we all looked around, watching the fish go by and seeing the ruined temple nearby.

"Yeah?" Cally asked, distracted by the colors.

"Don't open the door this time."

Everyone laughed a nervous laugh.

"So, where do you think we are?" I asked no one in particular.

No one said anything until I heard Jeff. "Okay, I'll say it. We're in Atlantis."

"Like, 'Poseidon, King of the Sea,' Atlantis?" Matt asked.

Jeff leveled his gaze at the young man. I got the impression there was some friction between the two of them. "Do you know of any other Atlantis?"

I saw Jody roll her eyes, but decided to ignore the conflict. We really didn't need to go into it right now. The others must have thought the same things because everyone busied themselves taking pictures.

"Damn,'' Jody said, "We forgot to take pictures of Stonehenge. Do you think it would be ok to go back?"

I thought about it for a moment before finally saying, "Well, I guess there's really only one way to find out. But, let's set things up, everyone get ready to take a picture of their wall. I'll pop us there and then we'll go to the next place."

Jody, Matt, and Haseem, along with Cally, readied themselves to take their picture.

"Ready!" Cally said and I hit the button.

We flashed there. The vehicle we had seen was nowhere to be found. In fact, the area was oddly empty; there were no tourists anywhere.

"Okay!" Jody said and each of the four taking pictures followed suit. I hit the next button.

Before us loomed Mount Rushmore.

"What? Mount Rushmore? Why here?" Haseem asked.

"I don't think it's supposed to be Mount Rushmore, but The Six Grandfathers," Jeff explained. "That's what the Lakota Sioux called the mountain peaks there before the faces were carved in it."

I heard everyone's camera snap.

"So, is anyone seeing any kind of pattern to these places yet?" Matt asked.

"All tourist attractions?" Haseem said.

Jody rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid, Haseem. What are you thinking, Matt?"

"Okay, bear with me, but these all seem to be sacred sites to the people around them. Sure, with the exception of Atlantis, of course, they are popular, but why?"

"Hmm. I guess I could buy that," Cally said.

"I don't think anyone else has any ideas," Matt said.

"True that," I agreed.

"If it were true, what else would we expect to find?" Jeff asked. We were all quiet until Jody spoke up.

"I think Chichen Itza in Mexico would be there."

"Yeah, and probably Mount Fiji." Matt added.

"And the Ganges River," Haseem included.

"So, let's look for those places," I said. "We'll push buttons and see if they're there. If they are, we have a hypothesis."

We found them all within the next five buttons, plus two other sites we didn't recognize. The very last button I had to push, thankfully, took us home.

"Well, end of the line!" I said, pushing the button for the door. I wasn't sure about everyone else, but I needed a break. I walked out into the softly lit chamber and stretched.

Cally came behind, Jeff not too far past her. We put the two tables together and placed the chairs around so that we could each and talk.

"I still want to know what that fourth wall is for," Haseem said. "I watched it change colors, but that's it. At least you all got some kind of results from today."

"We've pushed all the other panel's buttons, so I guess that one is next," Matt said.

"It looks like some kind of input station, you know, with a keypad and whatnot," I conjectured. "But, I don't know what for. I mean, we have a panel of locations. If it were a portal system, that seems to be enough."

"Yeah, but it's an alien portal system," Matt said. "There's no reason to believe that our planet is the only planet that exists and has portals. So, what if that fourth wall is about other places?"

"You mean other places on other planets like, what, Mars or something?" Jeff asked.

Jody rolled her eyes again. She was good at that. "There's no higher life on Mars, unless they're underground, which is highly unlikely," she said. "So, we're looking at planets outside our solar system."

I was contemplating to myself as I ate my snack, sitting a little away from the others. "If you wanted to be able to specify a location, what would you need?"

"We'd need a map and a mapping system. Like, GPS," Haseem said, getting up to pace.

"Right," I agreed. "But GPS is only good for a planet. If we're really talking aliens, we'd need a solar system map, too. Then, what, a galaxy map?"

"I think that there'd be finer maps than that. Going from solar to galaxy is a huge step. What about something like a sector map. Like... how we know our solar system in the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy," Matt said.

"We do?" Jeff asked. "I... don't even know that that means."

"We've mapped our galaxy, which is called the Milky Way, and have an artist's rendition of what it looks like. It's a spiral galaxy with different spiral arms. Those arms have names and we're in the Orion arm."

"Huh. Okay, so we have a location that specifies planet, solar system, galactic location, then, what? Galaxy?"

"That sounds reasonable. There are four symbols on the column for that wall. It makes sense then that the coordinate system be for designations."

"Okay, cool," I said, but how do we access said system?"

"Push buttons?" Jody threw out.

We lapsed into silence, each person finishing their snack and drink. I was ready to go back and start pushing buttons again; I was itching for something to happen, to make some breakthrough. Anxious, I stood. "Okay, I'm ready if you all are, too."

It actually didn't matter much to me if they were or not. Now, I was focused and nothing else really mattered except the project. So, I headed back to the panel room, assuming those interested would follow.

"Hey, Tony?" Jeff called.

I turned to him, "Yeah?"

"You wanna hang out and let everyone have one more moment?"

No. Not really, I thought to myself. But, Jeff was saying it for a reason. Then, I realized that Cally was missing and it was a split second later that I realized that everyone needed to pee. Or whatever. She'd disappeared into the tent with the camping toilet.

"Oh. Yeah. Sure."

I sat back down and began to work in my sketchbook to pass the time, trying to draw the eyes again. I hadn't thought about them in a while.

Cally came to take a look. "Getting any closer to what you saw?"

"Not really."

"So, how do you think the eyes play into all this?"

"I'm beginning to wonder if they're a warning system of some kind," I told her. My pencil scratched along the paper, defining more detail, but it felt like the more I tried to define the eyes, the less they resembled what I'd actually seen. It was frustrating.

"Meaning...? Like a, 'stay away,' warning system or a system that alerts someone, or something, else?"

"Hmm. Well, the former was what I was thinking, but couldn't it be both kinds? I mean, that makes sense, right?"

"I think so."

I put my pencil down and became aware of how close she was standing. I looked up at her and she smiled at me. I smiled in return, in part because I like the way she looked when she smiled and in part smiling about the fact I didn't care that she was standing so close.

"I guess the question is, 'Who did we alert?'"

"I've been wondering that, too," she said as she gazed into the panel room. "You know, the 'greys' are very prevalent in alien subculture. I wonder if there's a reason for that?"

"You mean the fact that everyone automatically thinks of that kind of alien when they think of them isn't a mistake? That maybe they do exist, so the image has been planted in society to help get us used to the idea?"

"Yeah, exactly that, actually," she said. "Is that weird?" She looked at me expectantly.

"I don't think it's weird, just not sure it's valid. I mean, lots of cultures have vampires and, well, look at the zombie craze. Neither of those exist, at least I don't think so, and that's pervasive."

She sighed and her shoulders sagged. "True."

"But, still, it's somewhere to start, right?"

"Also true!" she laughed and nodded.

Since everyone else was done, I took care of myself, too. Then, it was time to head back into the panel room.