putting that thing together. Since you clued me in on this possibility earlier, I’ve already taken him off the project.”
Kevin continued, “I’ve requested the computer to look at all of his work particularly on the project and maybe we can see if and how he sabotaged it.
David interrupted, “Roger, did he know the magnitude of the project?”
Not entirely, although he probably has his suspicions. Very few know exactly what we are working on.”
“All right, Kevin, take a sufficient force of trustworthy guards and pick up all of them. Then I want you to expand the computer search to include any conversations about Roger’s project outside the lab. Warren, go ahead and freeze them for the duration.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the intercom priority alarm signal. David pressed the button and Larry Cole, a technician from the lab excitedly blurted out, “Roger, you better get down here quick. The device is back.”
“I’ll be right there!”
The entire council made their way down to the lab and found the device they thought had exploded, in the middle of the lab, a bit battered and scarred but mostly in one piece. Larry Cole could not explain except to say, “It wasn’t there when I came in. I turned my back for a minute and when I turned around, there it was.
Roger was excited as he examined it, “It worked! It actually worked! I wondered why we couldn’t find any pieces of this one after the explosion, but this explains it. You know we didn’t actually see the explosion, because we were diving for cover, but it must have left as programmed except it went farther ahead in time than we thought.”
David acted quickly, “Kevin, get cracking on those arrests. I don’t want any more leaks in this project.” He turned to Larry, “Did you speak to anyone else about this?”
“No sir!”
“Good, keep it under your hat. Roger, is it possible the intercom has been monitored by anyone other than us?”
“Of course! Anything is possible, David. It’s not likely, but we have to assume they heard.”
David turned back to Kevin, but he had already left.
CHAPTER 12
Roger easily found the cause of the explosion when examining the device. He explained, “I found minute traces of high explosive plastic all the way inside the core. I suspect there was enough explosive to have destroyed the entire ship killing us all. I am kicking myself for allowing the entire council, including Laura, to be present for the test.”
David responded, “Don’t worry, you’re only human, and you had no reason to suspect anything like that. But why weren’t we killed?”
“That’s the beauty of it. The damn thing worked! The timing for the detonation must have been slightly off. I think it blew at the same instant the device departed our time. Any explosion is not as instantaneous as we think, even though it occurs over a very small fragment of time. We felt only the beginning of the blast. The device must have been traveling faster than light through time so the remainder of the blast was dissipated in an apparent elongation of its exposure; hence the device was not harmed substantially.”
Warren remarked, “Pure luck, and I thought you were in the genius category. Now can you explain how it works?”
Kevin laughed, “If he could, none of us would understand it anyway.”
“True!”
“All right,” David continued, “now that it works, what are you going to do for the remainder of the voyage?”
“In theory and concept, it works. But we have to find out how to control it and make it work on its own without this ship already moving at warp speed plus. We have our work cut out for us!”
David added, “By the way, we got an urgent message from Pathfinder. They had a near miss with an uncharted asteroid. The data has been plugged in and if necessary, the computer can make course corrections. They were small enough to narrowly miss it, but we probably wouldn’t have been so lucky. If we could
Kevin continued, “I’ve requested the computer to look at all of his work particularly on the project and maybe we can see if and how he sabotaged it.
David interrupted, “Roger, did he know the magnitude of the project?”
Not entirely, although he probably has his suspicions. Very few know exactly what we are working on.”
“All right, Kevin, take a sufficient force of trustworthy guards and pick up all of them. Then I want you to expand the computer search to include any conversations about Roger’s project outside the lab. Warren, go ahead and freeze them for the duration.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the intercom priority alarm signal. David pressed the button and Larry Cole, a technician from the lab excitedly blurted out, “Roger, you better get down here quick. The device is back.”
“I’ll be right there!”
The entire council made their way down to the lab and found the device they thought had exploded, in the middle of the lab, a bit battered and scarred but mostly in one piece. Larry Cole could not explain except to say, “It wasn’t there when I came in. I turned my back for a minute and when I turned around, there it was.
Roger was excited as he examined it, “It worked! It actually worked! I wondered why we couldn’t find any pieces of this one after the explosion, but this explains it. You know we didn’t actually see the explosion, because we were diving for cover, but it must have left as programmed except it went farther ahead in time than we thought.”
David acted quickly, “Kevin, get cracking on those arrests. I don’t want any more leaks in this project.” He turned to Larry, “Did you speak to anyone else about this?”
“No sir!”
“Good, keep it under your hat. Roger, is it possible the intercom has been monitored by anyone other than us?”
“Of course! Anything is possible, David. It’s not likely, but we have to assume they heard.”
David turned back to Kevin, but he had already left.
CHAPTER 12
Roger easily found the cause of the explosion when examining the device. He explained, “I found minute traces of high explosive plastic all the way inside the core. I suspect there was enough explosive to have destroyed the entire ship killing us all. I am kicking myself for allowing the entire council, including Laura, to be present for the test.”
David responded, “Don’t worry, you’re only human, and you had no reason to suspect anything like that. But why weren’t we killed?”
“That’s the beauty of it. The damn thing worked! The timing for the detonation must have been slightly off. I think it blew at the same instant the device departed our time. Any explosion is not as instantaneous as we think, even though it occurs over a very small fragment of time. We felt only the beginning of the blast. The device must have been traveling faster than light through time so the remainder of the blast was dissipated in an apparent elongation of its exposure; hence the device was not harmed substantially.”
Warren remarked, “Pure luck, and I thought you were in the genius category. Now can you explain how it works?”
Kevin laughed, “If he could, none of us would understand it anyway.”
“True!”
“All right,” David continued, “now that it works, what are you going to do for the remainder of the voyage?”
“In theory and concept, it works. But we have to find out how to control it and make it work on its own without this ship already moving at warp speed plus. We have our work cut out for us!”
David added, “By the way, we got an urgent message from Pathfinder. They had a near miss with an uncharted asteroid. The data has been plugged in and if necessary, the computer can make course corrections. They were small enough to narrowly miss it, but we probably wouldn’t have been so lucky. If we could
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