The Door into Bedlam (short story)

The Door into Bedlam was the eighth story in the Bernice Summerfield anthology Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Men Diaries. It was written by Dave Stone.

Plot
Benny is sent by Braxiatel to the Respository of the Improbable to deliver a message to associate curator R.F. Wilburton. He claims that he is the victim of a Markov chain of events, resulting in her being constantly distracted and unable to look at him directly, which she is sceptical of until she forces herself to look at him and ceiling tiles fall on him. She reads out Braxiatel's message asking him to oversee the unloading of artefacts from the Magellan Cluster and has a look around the Repository, touching a joining stone from Goron IV.

In a universe which inspired Hell, Jason is drinking at the Slathered Talon when an imp-like creature approaches him and, after checking that he is human, gives him a touching cloth and a business card for Winsap, Flatchlock & Sneed. There, Agraxar Flatchlock explains that the cloth made a brief connection to Jason's universe when he touched it in order to confirm that he is indeed fully human. He asks Jason to help with the Project by being sent to his own universe in the hopes of creating a stable passage way between the two universes. Jason agrees and signs a contract in blood.

Having sensed Jason after touching the joining stone, Benny borrows one of Braxiatel's deeprange transport ships and flies to Goron IV with Joseph, where the two of them are captured by Earth Federation forces. They take them to Dr Grobe, the leader of their operation and a physicist, when she namedrops the Braxiatel Collection. He explains that EarthFed are here because the Goronians are able to use fragments of joining stones to open a conduit to other universes and they wish to harness this power. One of the Goronians is transported to Flatchlock's universe, where he finds its remains and keeps it from Jason.

Benny is appalled by EarthFed's treatment of the Goronians and frees them, but they kick her into unconsciousness and send her into another universe with the stone fragment, the effect being intensified by the joining stone that she is wearing. Jason enters enters the conduit from the other end and they collide, sending them back to their respective universes. The joining stone is shattered, most of the Goronians are killed and EarthFed head back to New Terra. Benny returns to the Collection where she tells Braxiatel of her experiences, omitting the fact that she knows that she collided, and briefly merged, with Jason.

Jason is miserable at having missed out on his chance to return home as the dimensional rift has now closed. Everybody on the Project blames him, despite him only being the test subject, but Flatchlock shrugs off Jason's apology and says that they will simply have to continue relying on Station Control for movement between the two universes. Jason can only respond with, "What?"

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * Joseph
 * Jason Kane
 * R.F. Wilburton
 * Agraxar Flatchlock
 * Dr Grobe

Continuity

 * Jason Kane was engulfed into the multiverse in PROSE: Twilight of the Gods. He returns to Benny's universe in PROSE: The Infernal Nexus.