CHAPTER 20
2001, New York
Maddy and Sal stared at the shimmering window in the middle of the archway. Through a curtain of undulating, rippling air they could see the dim outlines of the storeroom they’d sent Liam and the support unit to.
‘Something’s de nitely wrong,’ whispered Sal. Maddy nodded. ‘That’s the third back-up window they’ve missed.’
Five minutes ago they’d been cheerful y prepping the scheduled return window, assuming that the simple scouting mission had been a success and Liam and the support unit would be ready and waiting to come back and tel them what exactly had happened to Chan. Now, for the third time, both girls were staring at a dark storeroom with no sign of either of them.
‘Oh boy,’ ut ered Maddy. ‘I don’t know what we do now. That’s it – we’ve tried al the back-up windows.’
> Maddy?
She stepped towards the desk and leaned over the deck mic. ‘Yes?’
> You should try the six-month window.
‘Yes … yes, you’re right.’
Bob was right, it was worth a try. She clicked the PURGE
Bob was right, it was worth a try. She clicked the PURGE
but on on the screen and the shimmering window in the middle of the archway vanished with a soft pop and a gentle pu of displaced air. She entered a new set of time coordinates: exactly ve months, thirty days, twenty-three hours and fty-ve minutes after the time they’d been sent into the future; exactly ve minutes before the support unit’s mission time span was up and it was scheduled to self-destruct. It made sense. It would be the last possible chance to rendezvous with a return window. With the support unit dead, Liam would not be able to receive a tachyon signal to instruct him on a new rendezvous timestamp. If they weren’t there, in that storeroom six months after arriving and impatient to get back home, then Maddy had no idea what she could do next.
She clicked on the screen to con rm the new time coordinates and then activated the displacement machinery. Once again a twelve-foot-wide sphere of air began to shift and undulate, revealing the storeroom again. Both girls squinted for a while at the dark space beyond. Same store cupboard … a few things had been shifted around; clearly someone had had a spring-clean in there. But no sign of either Liam or the support unit.
‘Oh,’ said Sal. ‘We’ve real y lost them.’
Maddy pinched her chin. ‘No … let me think.’ There was a way to communicate with the support unit. A tachyon signal beam. That’s what they’d done last time: aimed a broad beam of particles in the direction in which they’d guessed Liam and Bob were and transmit ed an they’d guessed Liam and Bob were and transmit ed an encoded signal back through history. It had worked. Bob had picked it up.
‘Bob,’ she spoke into the mic, ‘can we send a tachyon signal beam forward?’
> A rmative. We have enough power.
‘Right … what if we send it to, say … ve minutes before whatever happened to Chan, happened.’
‘What message?’ asked Sal.
‘I dunno. Something like – abort the mission, something is going to go wrong.’
Sal nodded. ‘Yes, we should do that.’
Maddy sat down in one of the o ce chairs and purged the open window. It pu ed out of existence. She then opened the message interface and quickly tapped in a message.
Return to the store cupboard immediately. We’l pick you up there. Something is about to go wrong with your mission. Something is about to happen to you. A return window wil be waiting for you.
Bob’s dialogue box popped up.
> You wish to send this message?
‘Yes, immediately.’
> Recommendation: a narrow beam transmission. A narrow beam meant she needed to know quite precisely where to aim it. But she had no idea where the two of them might be. They might have been somewhere else in the facility. Something may have caused a detour, a re alarm perhaps? Or some malfunction in the lab may re alarm perhaps? Or some malfunction in the lab may have resulted in everyone being evacuated.
‘Bob, let’s make the beam broad enough to sweep the whole area. Make sure the support unit gets the message.’
> Caution: there wil be technology in the vicinity that may be unpredictably a ected by tachyon particles.
‘I real y don’t care if we mess up somebody’s experiments, or damage their precious gizmos … I want Liam to get that damned message!’ she snapped angrily.
‘Al right?’
> A rmative. Wide beam sweep to cover vicinity. Sal looked at her. ‘Are you sure about this?’ She nodded towards the computers. ‘Bob just sort of cautioned us, didn’t he?’
Maddy spun the chair to face her. ‘You got any other suggestions?’
Sal shook her head.
‘Right, then,’ she replied, her voice brit le. ‘We have to make contact.’
Stay calm, Maddy. You’re the leader, so stay calm. Her face softened as she reached for her inhaler on the desk. ‘Sorry, Sal … I’m just a bit stressed and –’
‘No, it’s OK.’
‘I don’t know what else to do.’
> Con rm transmission?
‘Bob, you cautioned me … because what? Is there some sort of danger to Liam if we throw a whole load of tachyon beams forward?’
> Information: tachyon particles might interfere with
> Information: tachyon particles might interfere with zero-point energy experiments that are being conducted at the institute at this time.
‘But does that endanger Liam in some way?’
> Unknown. Records show zero-point energy research was abandoned as being potential y hazardous. There is very lit le public domain data on the Texas Advanced Energy Research Institute’s work in this eld.
‘So? What do I do?’
> Recommendation: do nothing.
‘Nothing?’
> Correct. Wait for possible contact from them. Sending a tachyon signal forward may endanger Liam and the support unit and might also present a security risk for the agency.
Maddy stared at the screen in silence. ‘You want me to do absolutely nothing? When they might be in trouble and need our help? You’re asking me to do nothing but sit on my hands?’
> A rmative. A tachyon signal might be detected by sensitive instrumentation at the institute and the message intercepted. This would clearly alert them to the existence of time travel and the agency.
‘They could know time travel is possible fourteen years before Edward Chan does his maths paper,’ added Sal.
‘Our message to Liam might alter history just as much as someone kil ing Chan.’
> Sal is correct.
‘So you’re saying we wait for them to get themselves out
‘So you’re saying we wait for them to get themselves out of whatever’s happened?’
> That is my recommendation. They are very capable. Maddy chewed her lip in thought for a moment. ‘And this is my cal ?’
> You are team leader. I can only o er data and tactical advice.
‘Right, wel then I say forget potential contamination, forget any of their zero-point experiments we might be messing up and stu any security risks for the agency. They’ve pret y much left us al alone to fend for ourselves so far … I’m damned if I’m going to sacri ce Liam just to keep them happy. We warn Liam and the support unit to abort the scouting trip. We get them back home and then
… then … we can deal with any time changes we may have caused! Al right?’
Sal nodded. ‘I suppose it’s a plan.’
Maddy turned to the computer screen. ‘Al right?’
The ‘>’ cursor blinked thoughtful y on and o in the dialogue box and they heard the computer’s hard drives whirring softly. Final y, after a few moments the cursor ickered forward.
> A rmative.
‘Cool,’ said Maddy. ‘So, Bob, send that message to ve minutes before Chan’s recorded time of death.’
> A rmative.
As Bob proceeded with beaming the message, Maddy prepared to open a window yet again in the storeroom for the same moment in time and resolved to keep it open for the same moment in time and resolved to keep it open for at least ten minutes. That would give them enough time, she hoped, to receive the message, wherever they were in the institute, and make their way back to the storeroom. She was about to activate the time window when Bob’s dialogue box appeared centre screen.
> Information: there is an intense energy feedback loop interfering with the tachyon signal beam.
‘Meaning?’
> 87% probability that this is an explosion. Her breath caught in her throat. ‘An explosion?’
> Correct.
‘Oh my God.’ Maddy felt the blood drain from her face.
‘How big?’
> Unable to specify. It is a large signature reading. She looked at Sal. ‘Oh my God, you don’t think …?’
Sal swal owed nervously and didn’t say anything – her wide eyes said it al .
‘Bob, tel me it wasn’t us that just caused that to happen
– our tachyon signal?’
Bob’s cursor blinked silently for a few seconds.
> The tachyon signal is the most likely cause of the explosion. The precursor particles may have caused a reaction.
‘Oh God, what have I done?’